classifyTestsF {limma} | R Documentation

## Genewise Nested F-Tests

### Description

For each gene, classify a series of related t-statistics as significantly up or down using nested F-tests.

### Usage

    classifyTestsF(object, cor.matrix = NULL, df = Inf, p.value = 0.01, fstat.only = FALSE)

### Arguments

`object` | numeric matrix of t-statistics or an `MArrayLM` object from which the t-statistics may be extracted.
`cor.matrix` | covariance matrix of each row of t-statistics. Will be extracted automatically from an `MArrayLM` object but otherwise defaults to the identity matrix.
`df` | numeric vector giving the degrees of freedom for the t-statistics. May have length 1 or length equal to the number of rows of `tstat`. Will be extracted automatically from an `MArrayLM` object but otherwise default to `Inf`.
`p.value` | numeric value between 0 and 1 giving the desired size of the test.
`fstat.only` | logical, if `TRUE` then return the overall F-statistic as for `FStat` instead of classifying the test results.

### Details

`classifyTestsF` implements the `"nestedF"` multiple testing option offered by `decideTests`. Users should generally use `decideTests` rather than calling `classifyTestsF` directly because, by itself, `classifyTestsF` does not incorporate any multiple testing adjustment across genes. Instead it simply tests across contrasts for each gene individually.

`classifyTestsF` uses a nested F-test approach giving particular attention to correctly classifying genes that have two or more significant t-statistics, i.e., which are differentially expressed in two or more conditions. For each row of `tstat`, the overall F-statistics is constructed from the t-statistics as for `FStat`. At least one constrast will be classified as significant if and only if the overall F-statistic is significant. If the overall F-statistic is significant, then the function makes a best choice as to which t-statistics contributed to this result. The methodology is based on the principle that any t-statistic should be called significant if the F-test is still significant for that row when all the larger t-statistics are set to the same absolute size as the t-statistic in question.

Compared to conventional multiple testing methods, the nested F-test approach achieves better consistency between related contrasts. (For example, if B is judged to be different from C, then at least one of B or C should be different to A.) The approach was first used by Michaud et al (2008). The nested F-test approach provides weak control of the family-wise error rate, i.e., it correctly controls the type I error rate of calling any contrast as significant if all the null hypotheses are true. In other words, it provides error rate control at the overall F-test level but does not provide strict error rate control at the individual contrast level.

Usually `object` is a limma linear model fitted object, from which a matrix of t-statistics can be extracted, but it can also be a numeric matrix of t-statistics. In either case, rows correspond to genes and columns to coefficients or contrasts. If `object` is a matrix, then it may be necessary to supply values for `cor.matrix` and `df`. The `cor.matrix` is the same as the correlation matrix of the coefficients from which the t-statistics were calculated and `df` is the degrees of freedom of the t-statistics. All statistics for the same gene must have the same degrees of freedom.

If `fstat.only=TRUE`, the `classifyTestsF` just returns the vector of overall F-statistics for each gene.

### Value

If `fstat.only=FALSE`, then an object of class `TestResults` is returned. This is essentially a numeric matrix with elements `-1`, `0` or `1` depending on whether each t-statistic is classified as significantly negative, not significant or significantly positive respectively.

If `fstat.only=TRUE`, then a numeric vector of F-statistics is returned with attributes `df1` and `df2` giving the corresponding degrees of freedom.

### Author(s)

Gordon Smyth

### References

Michaud, J, Simpson, KM, Escher, R, Buchet-Poyau, K, Beissbarth, T, Carmichael, C, Ritchie, ME, Schutz, F, Cannon, P, Liu, M, Shen, X, Ito, Y, Raskind, WH, Horwitz, MS, Osato, M, Turner, DR, Speed, TP, Kavallaris, M, Smyth, GK, and Scott, HS (2008). Integrative analysis of RUNX1 downstream pathways and target genes. BMC Genomics 9, 363.

### See Also

An overview of multiple testing functions is given in 08.Tests.

### Examples

    TStat <- matrix(c(0,10,0, 0,5,0, -4,-4,4, 2,2,2), 4, 3, byrow=TRUE)
    colnames(TStat) <- paste0("Contrast",1:3)
    rownames(TStat) <- paste0("Gene",1:4)
    classifyTestsF(TStat, df=20)
    FStat <- classifyTestsF(TStat, df=20, fstat.only=TRUE)
    P <- pf(FStat, df1=attr(FStat,"df1"), df2=attr(FStat,"df2"), lower.tail=FALSE)
    data.frame(F.Statistic=FStat,P.Value=P)

[Package limma version 3.44.3 Index]