scholarly journals P-value evaluation, variability index and biomarker categorization for adaptively weighted Fisher’s meta-analysis method in omics applications

Author(s):  
Zhiguang Huo ◽  
Shaowu Tang ◽  
Yongseok Park ◽  
George Tseng

Abstract Motivation Meta-analysis methods have been widely used to combine results from multiple clinical or genomic studies to increase statistical powers and ensure robust and accurate conclusions. The adaptively weighted Fisher’s method (AW-Fisher), initially developed for omics applications but applicable for general meta-analysis, is an effective approach to combine P-values from K independent studies and to provide better biological interpretability by characterizing which studies contribute to the meta-analysis. Currently, AW-Fisher suffers from the lack of fast P-value computation and variability estimate of AW weights. When the number of studies K is large, the 3K − 1 possible differential expression pattern categories generated by AW-Fisher can become intractable. In this paper, we develop an importance sampling scheme with spline interpolation to increase the accuracy and speed of the P-value calculation. We also apply bootstrapping to construct a variability index for the AW-Fisher weight estimator and a co-membership matrix to categorize (cluster) differentially expressed genes based on their meta-patterns for intuitive biological investigations. Results The superior performance of the proposed methods is shown in simulations as well as two real omics meta-analysis applications to demonstrate its insightful biological findings. Availability and implementation An R package AWFisher (calling C++) is available at Bioconductor and GitHub (https://github.com/Caleb-Huo/AWFisher), and all datasets and programing codes for this paper are available in the Supplementary Material. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (24) ◽  
pp. 5146-5154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Zyla ◽  
Michal Marczyk ◽  
Teresa Domaszewska ◽  
Stefan H E Kaufmann ◽  
Joanna Polanska ◽  
...  

Abstract Motivation Analysis of gene set (GS) enrichment is an essential part of functional omics studies. Here, we complement the established evaluation metrics of GS enrichment algorithms with a novel approach to assess the practical reproducibility of scientific results obtained from GS enrichment tests when applied to related data from different studies. Results We evaluated eight established and one novel algorithm for reproducibility, sensitivity, prioritization, false positive rate and computational time. In addition to eight established algorithms, we also included Coincident Extreme Ranks in Numerical Observations (CERNO), a flexible and fast algorithm based on modified Fisher P-value integration. Using real-world datasets, we demonstrate that CERNO is robust to ranking metrics, as well as sample and GS size. CERNO had the highest reproducibility while remaining sensitive, specific and fast. In the overall ranking Pathway Analysis with Down-weighting of Overlapping Genes, CERNO and over-representation analysis performed best, while CERNO and GeneSetTest scored high in terms of reproducibility. Availability and implementation tmod package implementing the CERNO algorithm is available from CRAN (cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tmod/index.html) and an online implementation can be found at http://tmod.online/. The datasets analyzed in this study are widely available in the KEGGdzPathwaysGEO, KEGGandMetacoreDzPathwaysGEO R package and GEO repository. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Author(s):  
Alan E Murphy ◽  
Brian M Schilder ◽  
Nathan G Skene

Abstract Motivation Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics have popularised and accelerated genetic research. However, a lack of standardisation of the file formats used has proven problematic when running secondary analysis tools or performing meta-analysis studies. Results To address this issue, we have developed MungeSumstats, a Bioconductor R package for the standardisation and quality control of GWAS summary statistics. MungeSumstats can handle the most common summary statistic formats, including variant call format (VCF) producing a reformatted, standardised, tabular summary statistic file, VCF or R native data object. Availability MungeSumstats is available on Bioconductor (v 3.13) and can also be found on Github at: https://neurogenomics.github.io/MungeSumstats Supplementary information The analysis deriving the most common summary statistic formats is available at: https://al-murphy.github.io/SumstatFormats


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (16) ◽  
pp. 4521-4522
Author(s):  
Ilja M Nolte

Abstract Summary Summary statistics from a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (meta-GWAS) can be used for many follow-up analyses. One valuable application is the creation of polygenic scores. However, if polygenic scores are calculated in a validation cohort that was part of the meta-GWAS consortium, this cohort is not independent and analyses will therefore yield inflated results. The R package ‘MetaSubtract’ was developed to subtract the results of the validation cohort from meta-GWAS summary statistics analytically. The statistical formulas for a meta-analysis were inverted to compute corrected summary statistics of a meta-GWAS leaving one (or more) cohort(s) out. These formulas have been implemented in MetaSubtract for different meta-analyses methods (fixed effects inverse variance or square root sample size weighted z-score) accounting for no, single or double genomic control correction. Results obtained by MetaSubtract correlate very well to those calculated using the traditional way, i.e. by performing a meta-analysis leaving out the validation cohort. In conclusion, MetaSubtract allows researchers to compute meta-GWAS summary statistics that are independent of the GWAS results of the validation cohort without requiring access to the cohort level GWAS results of the corresponding meta-GWAS consortium. Availability and implementation https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MetaSubtract. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
John Ferguson ◽  
Joseph Chang

Abstract Motivation In bioinformatics, genome-wide experiments look for important biological differences between two groups at a large number of locations in the genome. Often, the final analysis focuses on a P-value-based ranking of locations which might then be investigated further in follow-up experiments. However, this strategy may result in small effect sizes, with low P-values, being ranked more favorably than larger more scientifically important effects. Bayesian ranking techniques may offer a solution to this problem provided a good prior distribution for the collective distribution of effect sizes is available. Results We develop an Empirical Bayes ranking algorithm, using the marginal distribution of the data over all locations to estimate an appropriate prior. In simulations and analysis using real datasets, we demonstrate favorable performance compared to ordering P-values and a number of other competing ranking methods. The algorithm is computationally efficient and can be used to rank the entirety of genomic locations or to rank a subset of locations, pre-selected via traditional FWER/FDR methods in a 2-stage analysis. Availability and implementation An R-package, EBrank, implementing the ranking algorithm is available on CRAN. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sora Yoon ◽  
Bukyung Baik ◽  
Taesung Park ◽  
Dougu Nam

AbstractMeta-analyses increase statistical power by combining statistics from multiple studies. Meta-analysis methods have mostly been evaluated under the condition that all the data in each study have an association with the given phenotype. However, specific experimental conditions in each study or genetic heterogeneity can result in “unassociated statistics” that are derived from the null distribution. Here, we show that power of conventional meta-analysis methods rapidly decreases as an increasing number of unassociated statistics are included, whereas the classical Fisher’s method and its weighted variant (wFisher) exhibit relatively high power that is robust to addition of unassociated statistics. We also propose another robust method based on joint distribution of ordered p-values (ordmeta). Simulation analyses for t-test, RNA-seq, and microarray data demonstrated that wFisher and ordmeta, when only a small number of studies have an association, outperformed existing meta-analysis methods. We performed meta-analyses of nine microarray datasets (prostate cancer) and four association summary datasets (body mass index), where our methods exhibited high biological relevance and were able to detect genes that the-state-of-the-art methods missed. The metapro R package that implements the proposed methods is available from both CRAN and GitHub (http://github.com/unistbig/metapro).


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Malgorzata Lagisz ◽  
Rose E O'Dea ◽  
Joanna Rutkowska ◽  
Yefeng Yang ◽  
...  

‘Classic’ forest plots show the effect sizes from individual studies and the aggregate effect from a meta-analysis. However, in ecology and evolution meta-analyses routinely contain over 100 effect sizes, making the classic forest plot of limited use. We surveyed 102 meta-analyses in ecology and evolution, finding that only 11% use the classic forest plot. Instead, most used a ‘forest-like plot’, showing point estimates (with 95% confidence intervals; CIs) from a series of subgroups or categories in a meta-regression. We propose a modification of the forest-like plot, which we name the ‘orchard plot’. Orchard plots, in addition to showing overall mean effects and CIs from meta-analyses/regressions, also includes 95% prediction intervals (PIs), and the individual effect sizes scaled by their precision. The PI allows the user and reader to see the range in which an effect size from a future study may be expected to fall. The PI, therefore, provides an intuitive interpretation of any heterogeneity in the data. Supplementing the PI, the inclusion of underlying effect sizes also allows the user to see any influential or outlying effect sizes. We showcase the orchard plot with example datasets from ecology and evolution, using the R package, orchard, including several functions for visualizing meta-analytic data using forest-plot derivatives. We consider the orchard plot as a variant on the classic forest plot, cultivated to the needs of meta-analysts in ecology and evolution. Hopefully, the orchard plot will prove fruitful for visualizing large collections of heterogeneous effect sizes regardless of the field of study.


Author(s):  
Irzam Sarfraz ◽  
Muhammad Asif ◽  
Joshua D Campbell

Abstract Motivation R Experiment objects such as the SummarizedExperiment or SingleCellExperiment are data containers for storing one or more matrix-like assays along with associated row and column data. These objects have been used to facilitate the storage and analysis of high-throughput genomic data generated from technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing. One common computational task in many genomics analysis workflows is to perform subsetting of the data matrix before applying down-stream analytical methods. For example, one may need to subset the columns of the assay matrix to exclude poor-quality samples or subset the rows of the matrix to select the most variable features. Traditionally, a second object is created that contains the desired subset of assay from the original object. However, this approach is inefficient as it requires the creation of an additional object containing a copy of the original assay and leads to challenges with data provenance. Results To overcome these challenges, we developed an R package called ExperimentSubset, which is a data container that implements classes for efficient storage and streamlined retrieval of assays that have been subsetted by rows and/or columns. These classes are able to inherently provide data provenance by maintaining the relationship between the subsetted and parent assays. We demonstrate the utility of this package on a single-cell RNA-seq dataset by storing and retrieving subsets at different stages of the analysis while maintaining a lower memory footprint. Overall, the ExperimentSubset is a flexible container for the efficient management of subsets. Availability and implementation ExperimentSubset package is available at Bioconductor: https://bioconductor.org/packages/ExperimentSubset/ and Github: https://github.com/campbio/ExperimentSubset. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Author(s):  
Manuel Chavarrias ◽  
Santos Villafaina ◽  
Ana Myriam Lavín-Pérez ◽  
Jorge Carlos-Vivas ◽  
Eugenio Merellano-Navarro ◽  
...  

Background and objectives: Obesity or overweight is associated with many health risk factors and preventable mortality. Even people with normal weight and without history of obesity or overweight should avoid weight gain to reduce health risks factors. In this regard Latin aerobic dances involved in Zumba® practice make this modality motivating for people. Apart from weight loss and VO2peak benefits, Zumba practice is also interesting by the increase in adherence which can also avoid weight regain. The aim was to systematically review the scientific literature about the effects of any randomized intervention of Zumba® practice on total fat mass (%) and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2peak), besides establishing directions for the clinical practice. Evidence acquisition: Two systematic searches were conducted in two electronic databases following the PRISMA guidelines. The eligibility criteria were (a) outcomes: body mass or VO2peak data including mean and standard deviation (SD) before and after Zumba® intervention, (b) study design: randomized controlled trial (RCT) and (c) language: English. GRADE guidelines were used to assess the quality of evidence. A meta-analysis was performed to determine mean differences. Nine and four studies were selected for fat mass percentage and VO2peak in the systematic review, respectively. However, only eight studies for fat mass percentage and three for VO2peak could be included in the meta-analysis. Evidence synthesis: The overall standardized mean difference for fat mass was −0.25 with a 95% CI from −0.67 to 0.16 with a p-value of 0.69, with large heterogeneity. On the other hand, the overall effect size for VO2peak was 0.53 (95% CI from 0.04 to 1.02 with a p-value of 0.03) with large heterogeneity. Conclusions: Based on the evidence, we cannot conclude that Zumba® is effective at reducing body mass but it may improve VO2peak. However, the limited number of studies that met the inclusion criteria makes it too early to reach a definite conclusion, so more research is needed.


Author(s):  
Darawan Rinchai ◽  
Jessica Roelands ◽  
Mohammed Toufiq ◽  
Wouter Hendrickx ◽  
Matthew C Altman ◽  
...  

Abstract Motivation We previously described the construction and characterization of generic and reusable blood transcriptional module repertoires. More recently we released a third iteration (“BloodGen3” module repertoire) that comprises 382 functionally annotated gene sets (modules) and encompasses 14,168 transcripts. Custom bioinformatic tools are needed to support downstream analysis, visualization and interpretation relying on such fixed module repertoires. Results We have developed and describe here a R package, BloodGen3Module. The functions of our package permit group comparison analyses to be performed at the module-level, and to display the results as annotated fingerprint grid plots. A parallel workflow for computing module repertoire changes for individual samples rather than groups of samples is also available; these results are displayed as fingerprint heatmaps. An illustrative case is used to demonstrate the steps involved in generating blood transcriptome repertoire fingerprints of septic patients. Taken together, this resource could facilitate the analysis and interpretation of changes in blood transcript abundance observed across a wide range of pathological and physiological states. Availability The BloodGen3Module package and documentation are freely available from Github: https://github.com/Drinchai/BloodGen3Module Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixin Kong ◽  
Ariangela Kozik ◽  
Cindy H. Nakatsu ◽  
Yava L. Jones-Hall ◽  
Hyonho Chun

Abstract A latent factor model for count data is popularly applied in deconvoluting mixed signals in biological data as exemplified by sequencing data for transcriptome or microbiome studies. Due to the availability of pure samples such as single-cell transcriptome data, the accuracy of the estimates could be much improved. However, the advantage quickly disappears in the presence of excessive zeros. To correctly account for this phenomenon in both mixed and pure samples, we propose a zero-inflated non-negative matrix factorization and derive an effective multiplicative parameter updating rule. In simulation studies, our method yielded the smallest bias. We applied our approach to brain gene expression as well as fecal microbiome datasets, illustrating the superior performance of the approach. Our method is implemented as a publicly available R-package, iNMF.


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