Hi Sergio.

Yesterday you asked if it would be reasonable to use the tree with branch lengths simulated assuming a Yule process if the topology is known in phylogenetic regression. I wondered what would happen if, for a given tree topology, we simulated a set of trees with branches as if the tree arose under a Yule process, and then fit our regression model to each tree. We could then add the variance among fitted regression slopes to the mean variance of each slope to get the total variance, from which we could test a hypothesis that (for instance) the slope is not different from zero.

Well, I tried this (details here: http://blog.phytools.org/2015/04/phylogenetic-regression-when-branch.html), and, assuming I have done so correctly, it seems as though the approach is too conservative - leading to low power and a type I error rate lower than the nominal level. Using arbitrary branch lengths (all branch lengths equal to 1.0, Grafen's branch lengths) results in elevated type I error, but not incredibly badly inflated type I error.

I thought you & other R-sig-phylo readers might be interested in this result (newly obtained), or could correct it if I have done something wrong.

All the best, Liam

Liam J. Revell, Assistant Professor of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
web: http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.revell/
email: [email protected]
blog: http://blog.phytools.org

On 4/13/2015 2:20 PM, Liam J. Revell wrote:
I wouldn't go as far as to call it a suggestion - but this is one thing
that you could do.

All the best, Liam

Liam J. Revell, Assistant Professor of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
web: http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.revell/
email: [email protected]
blog: http://blog.phytools.org

On 4/13/2015 2:04 PM, Sergio Ferreira Cardoso wrote:
Hello,

So what you're suggesting is that I do that and then
fit<-gls(X~Y,corr=corBrownian(1,t.pb),data=df,method="ML", right?

Thanks.

Best regards,
Sérgio.
ᐧ

2015-04-13 18:42 GMT+01:00 Liam J. Revell <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>:

    Hi all.

    I just wanted to add that it should be straightforward to sample
    edge lengths as if they arose under a specific process. For
    instance, here on my blog I show how to sample branching times &
    edge lengths as if they arose under a pure-birth (i.e., 'Yule')
    process, given a particular input topology:

http://blog.phytools.org/2015/__04/sampling-edge-lengths-__under-yule-process.html


<http://blog.phytools.org/2015/04/sampling-edge-lengths-under-yule-process.html>.

    For things like the phylogenetic (contrasts) regression, this may be
    preferable to Grafen's edge lengths, which tend to make recent edge
    lengths very short, giving very high weight to the associated
contrasts.

    All the best, Liam

    Liam J. Revell, Assistant Professor of Biology
    University of Massachusetts Boston
    web: http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.__revell/
    <http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.revell/>
    email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
    blog: http://blog.phytools.org


    On 4/13/2015 1:13 PM, Sergio Ferreira Cardoso wrote:

        Hello,

        Thank you both for the help.
        Emmanuel, so is there a way to see contrasts in R? Reading this
        paper
        - Garland, T., Harvey, P. H., & Ives, A. R. (1992). Procedures
        for the
        analysis of comparative data using phylogenetically independent
        contrasts.
        Systematic Biology, 41(1), 18-32. - I was aware of the
importance of
        standardizing contrasts and of comparing Absolute value of
        standard contrat
        vs Standard deviation of contrast. I've learned to do this in
        Mesquite but
        I don't know if R alows this to be done. When I run the GLS I
        ask R to
        estimate the rho, so, a priori I never know the rho value.

        Maybe I'm really really confused, but here is the reason why I
        tthink
        something isn't right with my analysis: I built a phylogenetic
        tree in
        Mesquite, and based on several works I used million years as
branch
        lengths. It makes sense for me because I'll be using a fossil
on my
        analysis. But I tested the tree before adding the extinct taxa,
        so to make
        sure everything was OK when the tree was ultrametric. I noticed
        that, for
        example, whatever the independent variable (X) was, the alpha
        from OU was
        extremely high (0.999182, for instance). It would always be
0.999. I
        thought maybe I was using the wrong transformation... That's why
        I ended up
        trying to know if I needed to do something prior to
transforming and
        analysing the tree.

        Thank you very much.

        Best regards,
        Sérgio.
        ᐧ

        2015-04-13 17:17 GMT+01:00 Emmanuel Paradis
        <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>:

            Hi Sérgio,

            There is indeed generally a relationship between branch
length
            transformations and correlation structures. You may check
            that with the
            function vcv2phylo, e.g.:

                tr <- rcoal(20)
                co <- corGrafen(1, phy = tr)
                ts <- vcv2phylo(vcv(co))
                all.equal(tr, ts)

            [1] FALSE

                all.equal(compute.brlen(tr), ts)

            [1] TRUE

            compute.brlen() transforms the branch lengths according to
            Grafen's model
            with parameter rho = 1 (by default). Some other
            transformations of branch
            lengths are available in package geiger.

            Best,

            Emmanuel

            Le 12/04/2015 21:47, Sergio Ferreira Cardoso a écrit :

                Hi everyone,

                I'm relatively new in phylogenetic comparative methods.
                I'm a little
                confused about branch length transformations. I'm using
                a tree with
                divergence time (My) as branch lengths. When I use
                corPagel, corGrafen or
                corMartins in R, the branch lengths, are the branch
                lengths automatically
                transformed? e.g.,
gr.mammals<-corGrafen(1,phylo,__fixed=F);

fit<-gls(FCL~logBodymass,__correlation=gr.mammals,data=__df,method="ML").
                My question may sound a bit nonsense but I've seen in
                some papers (e.g.,
                Spoor,
                F., Garland, T., Krovitz, G., Ryan, T. M., Silcox, M.
                T., & Walker, A.
                (2007). The primate semicircular canal system and
                locomotion. *Proceedings
                of the National Academy of Sciences*, *104*(26),
                10808-10812.)  the
                indication that a PGLS was made without branch
                transformation, but no
                reference is made to the model (maybe it's corBrownian).

                Thank you very much.

                Best regards,
                Sérgio.








--
Com os melhores cumprimentos,
Sérgio Ferreira Cardoso.

--------------------

Best regards,
Sérgio Ferreira Cardoso




MSc. Paleontology candidate
Departamento de Ciências da Terra - FCT /Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Geociências - Universidade de Évora

Lisboa, Portugal

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