@article {808, title = {Ironing out the statistical wrinkles in "ten ironic rules".}, journal = {Neuroimage}, volume = {81}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Nov 1}, pages = {499-502}, abstract = {

The article "Ten ironic rules for non-statistical reviewers" (Friston, 2012) shares some commonly heard frustrations about the peer-review process that all researchers can identify with. Though we found the article amusing, we have some concerns about its description of a number of statistical issues. In this commentary we address these issues, as well as the premise of the article.

}, keywords = {Neuroimaging, Peer Review, Research, Research Design, Statistics as Topic}, issn = {1095-9572}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.02.056}, author = {Lindquist, Martin A and Caffo, Brian and Crainiceanu, Ciprian} } @article {805, title = {Practical recommendations for population PK studies with sampling time errors.}, journal = {Eur J Clin Pharmacol}, volume = {69}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {2055-64}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Population pharmacokinetic (PK) data collected from routine clinical practice offers a rich source of valuable information. However, in observational population PK data, accurate time information for blood samples is often missing, resulting in measurement errors (ME) in the sampling time variable. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects on model parameters when a scheduled time is used instead of the actual blood sampling time, and to propose ME correction methods.

METHODS: Simulation studies were conducted based on two major factors: the curvature in PK profiles and the size of ME. As ME correction methods, transform both sides (TBS) models were developed with application of Box-Cox power transformation and Taylor expansion. The TBS models were compared to a conventional population PK model using simulations.

RESULTS: The most important determinant of bias due to time ME was the degree of curvature (nonlinearity) in PK profiles; the smaller the curvature around sampling times, the smaller the associated bias. The second important determinant was the magnitude of ME; the larger the ME, the larger the bias. The proposed TBS models performed better than a conventional population PK modeling when curvature and ME were substantial.

CONCLUSIONS: Time ME in sampling time can lead to bias on the parameter estimators. The following practical recommendations are provided: 1) when the curvature of PK profiles is small, conventional population PK modeling is robust to even large ME; and 2) when the curvature is moderate or large, the proposed methodology reduces bias in parameter estimates.

}, keywords = {Humans, Models, Biological, Pharmacokinetics, Research Design, Time Factors}, issn = {1432-1041}, doi = {10.1007/s00228-013-1576-7}, author = {Choi, Leena and Crainiceanu, Ciprian M and Caffo, Brian S} } @article {847, title = {Everything you never wanted to know about circular analysis, but were afraid to ask.}, journal = {J Cereb Blood Flow Metab}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Sep}, pages = {1551-7}, abstract = {

Over the past year, a heated discussion about {\textquoteright}circular{\textquoteright} or {\textquoteright}nonindependent{\textquoteright} analysis in brain imaging has emerged in the literature. An analysis is circular (or nonindependent) if it is based on data that were selected for showing the effect of interest or a related effect. The authors of this paper are researchers who have contributed to the discussion and span a range of viewpoints. To clarify points of agreement and disagreement in the community, we collaboratively assembled a series of questions on circularity herein, to which we provide our individual current answers in }, keywords = {Brain, brain mapping, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Guidelines as Topic, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Neurosciences, Publications, Research Design, Selection Bias}, issn = {1559-7016}, doi = {10.1038/jcbfm.2010.86}, author = {Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus and Lindquist, Martin A and Nichols, Thomas E and Poldrack, Russell A and Vul, Edward} }