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Manual for psimpoll and pscomb

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Menu M: data analyses

M Data analyses
a Rate-of-change analysis (off)                  [off]
b Rarefaction analysis (off)                     [off]
c Zonation (off)                                 [off]
d Principal components analysis (off)            [off]
e Correspondence analysis (off)                  [off]
f Fourier analysis (off)                         [off]
g Statistical description of data (off)          [off]
h Independent splitting of taxa (off)            [off]
i Minimum value for inclusion of a taxon         [0.05]
j Recalculation of dataset proportions (on)      [on]
9 Leave this menu
Enables various numerical analyses on the input data, ranging from summary statistics to complex multidimensional analyses. Except for independent splitting, analyses are carried out before the writing of any `plotting' results to the main output file. It is thus possible to run these analyses with the program in interactive mode (menu K), and then quit when the list of taxa appears for `plotting'. Where appropriate, results will be in the data analysis file selected in menu Ec.

For analyses other than rarefaction analysis and independent splitting, the program searches through the dataset for taxa that have a maximum value that exceeds a certain threshold (menu Mg), and (optionally) then asks the user whether to include that taxon or not. Answering `A' at any point in the sequence of taxa causes all remaining taxa with values that exceed the threshold to be included. Answering `M' includes all taxa until a sum value is encountered (identified by a * as the first character): the sum value itself and all following taxa are excluded. If the threshold value is zero, the user is asked about each taxon in the dataset. I cannot think of a less cumbersome way to eliminate taxa from consideration. The resulting reduced dataset may then be recalculated as proportions of the taxa included (the default) or left in the same form as input (menu Mi).

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Copyright © 1995-2007 K.D. Bennett

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