title: Analysis of tomato root initiation using a normal mixture distribution.
abstract: We attempt to identify the number of underlying physical phenomena behind tomato lateral root initiation by using a normal mixture distribution coupled with the Box-Cox power transformation. An initial analysis of the data suggested the possibility of two (possibly more) subpopulations, but upon taking reciprocals, the data appear to be very nearly Gaussian. A simulation study explores the possibility of erroneously detecting a second subpopulation by fitting data which are improperly scaled. A power calculation suggests that only unrealistically large sample sizes can detect the unbalanced mixtures one might expect with data of this type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843, USA.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods*; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D063245:Plant Development