Link to the University of Pittsburgh Homepage
Link to the University Library System Homepage Link to the Contact Us Form

Weakest-link methods and applications for detecting joint effects in biology

Luong, The Minh (2011) Weakest-link methods and applications for detecting joint effects in biology. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

[img]
Preview
PDF
Primary Text

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

The joint effect of several variables is a prevailing statistical concept in biology. The public health importance of developing methods to better assess joint effects is evident when studying gene combinations that function together to produce a disease phenotype, or biomarker pairs that jointly affect prognosis or treatment response. The "weakest-link" paradigm, introduced earlier by Richards and Day, constructs derived covariates accounting for the joint effect of multiple variables. The weakest-link method posits a one-dimensional locus in covariate space, called the curve of optimal use (COU). For a data set with two predictors and an associated outcome, the COU separates the two-dimensional covariate space into two subsets. The subset of an observation determines its weakest-link covariate, which alone locally affects the corresponding outcome. With a modest generalization, one can extend weakest-link methods to assess interactions between more than two variables.Current methods for detecting interesting variable combinations have shortcomings. Some methods, such as logic regression, require dichotomization, and lose information. Other methods such as support vector machines, are too computationally intensive, especially with large data sets. With these issues in mind, the primary objectives in expanding the practical applications of weakest-link methodology are: (1) to develop a semi-parametric method to screen hundreds or thousands of variables for combinations associated with an outcome, (2) to adapt the method for a more complicated data structure found in a multi-parameter cell-based cytometry study, where data sets typically consist of thousands of cell observations per outcome. In a high-throughput microarray data set of breast cancer patients, conventional additive linear models and weakest-link models identified multiple combinations of biomarkers associated with lymph node positivity. Simulations of high-throughput data sets found that weakest-link models had better success than additive models in detecting covariate pairs used to generate outcomes; weakest-link models were preferable even in some situations when the additive model was the true outcome-generating model.The weakest-link approach showed promising results in modeling recurrence-free survival in a cytometry data set of lung cancer samples. Weakest-link models, compared to logic regression and linear regression, provided the best results according to cross-validation assessments.


Share

Citation/Export:
Social Networking:
Share |

Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Luong, The Minhluongtm@yahoo.com
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairDay, Rogerday01@pitt.eduDAY01
Committee MemberFeingold, Eleanorfeingold@pitt.eduFEINGOLD
Committee MemberTseng, Georgectseng@pitt.eduCTSENG
Committee MemberAnderson, Stewartandersons@nsabp.pitt.eduSJA
Date: 31 January 2011
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 1 October 2010
Approval Date: 31 January 2011
Submission Date: 23 November 2010
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: School of Public Health > Biostatistics
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: classification; cytometry; epistatis; interaction; survival; proteomics; variable screening; genomics; microarray; cancer
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11232010-121857/, etd-11232010-121857
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 20:06
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:52
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9777

Metrics

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics


Actions (login required)

View Item View Item