Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25811842›Full record

ReviewPLoS computational biology2015

Speeding up ecological and evolutionary computations in R; essentials of high performance computing for biologists.

Marco D Visser, Sean M McMahon, Cory Merow, Philip M Dixon, Sydne Record, Eelke Jongejans

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in PLoS computational biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Marco D VisserDepartments of Experimental Plant Ecology and Animal Ecology & Ecophysiology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Program for Applied Ecology, Centre for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Panamá, Republic of Panamá
Sean M McMahonSmithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, United States of America.
Cory MerowSmithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, United States of America; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America.
Philip M DixonDepartment of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America.
Sydne RecordHarvard University, Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts, United States of America; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Eelke JongejansDepartments of Experimental Plant Ecology and Animal Ecology & Ecophysiology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Computation has become a critical component of research in biology. A risk has emerged that computational and programming challenges may limit research scope, depth, and quality. We review various solutions to common computational efficiency problems in ecological and evolutionary research. Our review pulls together material that is currently scattered across many sources and emphasizes those techniques that are especially effective for typical ecological and environmental problems. We demonstrate how straightforward it can be to write efficient code and implement techniques such as profiling or parallel computing. We supply a newly developed R package (aprof) that helps to identify computational bottlenecks in R code and determine whether optimization can be effective. Our review is complemented by a practical set of examples and detailed Supporting Information material (S1-S3 Texts) that demonstrate large improvements in computational speed (ranging from 10.5 times to 14,000 times faster). By improving computational efficiency, biologists can feasibly solve more complex tasks, ask more ambitious questions, and include more sophisticated analyses in their research.

Indexed as

Computing MethodologiesCluster AnalysisComputational BiologyEcologyGenetics, PopulationHumans

Identifiers

PMID25811842
PMCPMC4374948

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC0
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.