False positives are statistically inevitable

False positives in cancer epidemiology.

BACKGROUND A recent attempt to estimate the false-positive rate for cancer epidemiology studies is based on agents in International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) category 3 (agent not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans) in the IARC Monographs Program. METHODS The estimation method is critiqued regarding biases caused by its reliance on the IARC classification criteria for...

Improbability Filtering for Rejecting False Positives

In this paper we describe a novel approach, called improbability filtering, to rejecting false-positive observations from degrading the tracking performance of an Extended Kalman-Bucy fdter. False-positives, incorrect observations reported with a high confidence, are a form of non-Gaussian white noise and therefore degrade the tracking performance of an Extended Kalman-Bucy Filter. Improbabilit...

Minimizing false positives in differential display.

CORP: Minimizing the chances of false positives and false negatives.

Statistics is essential to the process of scientific discovery. An inescapable tenet of statistics, however, is the notion of uncertainty which has reared its head within the arena of reproducibility of research. The Journal of Applied Physiology's recent initiative, "Cores of Reproducibility in Physiology," is designed to improve the reproducibility of research: each article is designed to elu...

False positives and false negatives: is the answer relatively simple?

As we await the release of the forthcoming DSM-5 and the development of the ICD-11, issues pertaining to the classification and diagnosis of mental disorders have become more prominent. With criticism and anticipation abounding, pertaining to the modification, or lack of, of the diagnostic criteria of mental disorders, have we become overly focused upon the diagnostic criteria to the detriment ...