Overdispersion in allelic counts and θ-correction in forensic genetics

Torben Tvedebrink

Theoretical Population Biology, 2010, vol. 78, issue 3, 200-210

Abstract: We present a statistical model for incorporating the extra variability in allelic counts due to subpopulation structures. In forensic genetics, this effect is modelled by the identical-by-descent parameter θ, which measures the relationship between pairs of alleles within a population relative to the relationship of alleles between populations (Weir, 2007). In our statistical approach, we demonstrate that θ may be defined as an overdispersion parameter capturing the subpopulation effects. This formulation allows derivation of maximum likelihood estimates of the allele probabilities and θ together with computation of the profile log-likelihood, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing.

Keywords: θ-correction; Forensic genetics; Subpopulation; Dirichlet-multinomial distribution; Maximum likelihood estimate; Confidence interval (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:78:y:2010:i:3:p:200-210

DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2010.07.002

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