We review state-of-the-art computational methods for constructing, from image data, generative statistical models of cellular and nuclear shapes and the arrangement of subcellular structures and proteins within them. These automated approaches allow consistent analysis of images of cells for the purposes of learning the range of possible phenotypes, discriminating between them, and informing fu...

Statistical features of a base-specific Salmonella mutagenicity assay are considered in detail, following up on a previous report comparing responses of base-specific Salmonella (Ames II) strains with those of traditional tester strains. In addition to using different Salmonella strains, the new procedure also differs in that it is performed as a microwell fluctuation test, as opposed to the st...

ion-based probabilistic models for sequence classification

This commentary suggests that the most commonly studied aspect intensity (dose frequency) on overall rate of response to treatment may often be weak or conditional. To improve statistical power of tests of weak effects additive statistical models have typically been used. However, multiplicative models may be a more productive route to understanding dose frequency effects on children's speech a...

BACKGROUND All cultural groups in the world place paramount value on interpersonal trust. Existing research suggests that although accurate judgments of another's trustworthiness require extensive interactions with the person, we often make trustworthiness judgments based on facial cues on the first encounter. However, little is known about what facial cues are used for such judgments and what ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the relationship between severity of prenatal cocaine exposure and expressive and receptive language skills in full-term, African American children at age 3 years. METHODS Language was assessed at age 3 using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool (CELF-P). The sample included 424 children (226 cocaine exposed, 198 non-cocaine exposed) who received pr...

A new approach for data-based stochastic parametrization of unresolved scales and processes in numerical weather and climate prediction models is introduced. The subgrid-scale model is conditional on the state of the resolved scales, consisting of a collection of local models. A clustering algorithm in the space of the resolved variables is combined with statistical modelling of the impact of t...

A good understanding of the dynamics of psychological contract violation requires theories, research methods and statistical models that explicitly recognize that violation feelings follow from an event that violates one's acceptance limits, after which interpretative processes are set into motion, determining the intensity of these violation feelings. Whereas theories-in the form of the dynami...

Lillard et al. (2013) concluded that pretend play is not causally related to child outcomes and charged that the field is subject to a play ethos, whereby research is tainted by a bias to find positive effects of play on child development. In this commentary, we embrace their call for a more solidly scientific approach to questions in this important area of study while offering 2 critiques of t...

OBJECTIVES Data on job histories is commonly available from study subjects and worksites, therefore jobs are often used for assigning exposures in historical epidemiological studies. Exposure estimates are often derived by offering jobs as fixed effects in statistical models. An alternative approach would be to offer job as a random effect to obtain empirical Bayes estimates of exposure. This a...