The phrase "ascertainment sample" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used in research or statistical contexts to refer to a sample that is used to determine or ascertain certain characteristics or parameters of a population.
Example: "The ascertainment sample was carefully selected to ensure that it accurately represented the demographics of the larger population."
Alternatives: "determination sample" or "evaluation sample".
Individuals for the initial screen (ascertainment sample) were chosen in order to cover the major part of the distributional area of Atlantic cod (CAN, NEAC, CNS and BAS).
Eighty-six SNPs were selected from previously published EST derived SNPs from cDNA libraries of Norwegian coastal cod (ascertainment sample) [ 24].
The candidate loci identified from a wide geographical ascertainment sample in this study (see Methods section) did not show any general trend of decreased or inflated levels of genetic differentiation compared to the loci identified in a single population ascertainment sample by Moen et al [ 24].
This phenomenon of shared polymorphisms could be caused by the fact that Norwegian coastal cod is closely related to the ancestral population of cod [ 35] and therefore serve as a superior ascertainment sample (see [ 36] for an example for Drosophila).
Ascertainment bias [ 33] could potentially have affected the geographical distribution of outliers, since the majority of loci were ascertained from EST libraries consisting of only Norwegian coastal cod [ 24] and the candidate loci originate from a different and wider ascertainment sample.
Some examples are presented, focusing on data from ascertainment sampling schemes.
None of the samples in the testing panel overlapped with the ascertainment samples.
The basic scientific community has also noted the increasing presence of ascertainment (sampling) and publication biases in scientific reports, with data being dismissed or even omitted to promote the findings that are perceived as the most impressive (Ioannidis, 2005).
In following the requirements for human subject research, subject ascertainment and sample and data collection prior to repository submission requires informed consent and oversight by an Institutional Review Board IRBB).
The open user group may be subject to ascertainment or sample selection bias.
Other possible reasons for the deviations from HWE (particularly in controls but also in cases) may include residual technical issues with SNP assays and SNP calling, ascertainment bias, sample subdivision (stratification or admixture), and other unknown or unrecognized sequence variation confounding SNP assays.
