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Abstract
The Newcomb-Benford law - also known as the "law of anomalous numbers" or, more commonly, Benford's law - predicts that the distribution of the first significant digit of random numbers obtained from mixed probability distributions follows a predictable pattern and reveals some universal behavior. Specifically, given a dataset of empirical measures, the likelihood of the first digit of any number being 1 is ∼30 %, ∼18 % for 2, 12.5 % for 3 and so on, with a decreasing probability all the way to number 9. If the digits were distributed uniformly, all the numbers 1 through 9 would have the same probability to appear as the first digit in any given empirical random measurement. However, this is not the case, as this law defies common sense and seems to apply seamlessly to large data. The use of omics technologies and, in particular, metabolomics has generated a wealth of big data in the field of transfusion medicine. In the present meta-analysis, we focused on previous big data from metabolomics studies of relevance to transfusion medicine: one on the quality of stored red blood cells, one on the phenotypes of transfusion recipients, i.e. trauma patients suffering from trauma and hemorrhage, and one of relevance to the 2020 SARS-COV-2 global pandemic. We show that metabolomics data follow a Benford's law distribution, an observation that could be relevant for future application of the "law of anomalous numbers" in the field of quality control processes in transfusion medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo D'Alessandro
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, 80045 USA.
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Bruggeman M, Collins SM, Done L, Đurašević M, Duch MA, Gudelis A, Hyža M, Jevremović A, Kandić A, Korun M, Ilie S, Lee JM, Lee KB, Luca A, Margineanu RM, Pantelica A, Serrano I, Šešlak B, Tugulan LC, Verheyen L, Vodenik B, Vukanac I, Zeng Z, Zorko B. Systematic influences on the areas of peaks in gamma-ray spectra that have a large statistical uncertainty. Appl Radiat Isot 2017; 134:51-55. [PMID: 28673731 DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2017] [Revised: 05/23/2017] [Accepted: 06/13/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
A method is presented for calculating the expected number of counts in peaks that have a large relative peak-area uncertainty and appear in measured gamma-ray spectra. The method was applied to calculations of the correction factors for peaks occurring in the spectra of radon daughters. It was shown that the factors used for correcting the calculated peak areas to their expected values decrease with an increasing relative peak-area uncertainty. The accuracy of taking the systematic influence inducing the correction factors into account is given by the dispersion of the correction factors corresponding to specific peaks. It was shown that the highest accuracy is obtained in the peak analyses with the GammaVision and Gamma-W software.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Bruggeman
- Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie, Kernenergie, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium
| | - S M Collins
- National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 0LW, UK
| | - L Done
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - M Đurašević
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča", Laboratory for Nuclear and Plasma Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - M A Duch
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Institut de Tècniques Energetiques, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - A Gudelis
- Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu Ave. 231, Vilnus, Lithuania
| | - M Hyža
- National Radiation Protection Institute, Bartoškova 1450/28, 140 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
| | - A Jevremović
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča", Laboratory for Nuclear and Plasma Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - A Kandić
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča", Laboratory for Nuclear and Plasma Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - M Korun
- "Jožef Stefan" Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
| | - S Ilie
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - J M Lee
- Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon 305-340, Republic of Korea
| | - K B Lee
- Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon 305-340, Republic of Korea
| | - A Luca
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - R M Margineanu
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - A Pantelica
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - I Serrano
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Institut de Tècniques Energetiques, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - B Šešlak
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča", Laboratory for Nuclear and Plasma Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - L C Tugulan
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN_HH), 30 Reactorului Street, POB MG-6, RO-077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
| | - L Verheyen
- Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie, Kernenergie, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium
| | - B Vodenik
- "Jožef Stefan" Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - I Vukanac
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča", Laboratory for Nuclear and Plasma Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Z Zeng
- Tsinghua University, Department of Engineering Physics, Beijing, PR China
| | - B Zorko
- "Jožef Stefan" Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
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