In 50% of the cases, the emission of a positron is followed by the emission of a gamma of 602 keV, which is likely to create a false coincidence (similar to scattered coincidences).
The expected number of coincidences of false oestrus events with the genuine oestrus of a nulliparous female was close to zero (Table 1).
Coincidence of false oestrus with the oestrus events of nulliparous females was significantly greater than expected from the pattern of coincident oestrus events where both were genuine, whereas the observed frequencies of coincidence with another parous female are consistent with what is expected by chance (chi square test: χ2 = 240.37, df = 2, p<0.001, see Figure 1).
During the chaos of TIFF, these kinds of coincidences create a false sense of order that's vaguely reassuring.
Although the distribution of false oestrus is biased toward coincidence with a young, nulliparous female, based on the current data the answer appears to be no: 47% of the 19 false oestrus events observed did not coincide with an oestrus event of a nulliparous female.
An essential difference between a false QTL caused by random coincidence and a true QTL with weak linkage, is that the latter should be reproducible.
We can estimate probability of false positives from probability of coincidence in three random trials, assuming zero hypothesis, i.e. assuming that the differences are purely random.
In this case, the unselected pool is of little use because it usually does not contain at the same position the same false QTL caused by random coincidence.
Hormonal changes due to pregnancy or associating with genuinely receptive females therefore fail to explain the pattern of occurrence of false oestrus events, particularly the high rate of coincidence with nulliparous female relatives.
(This requires her to overhear chatter in a café: the only forced coincidence in the movie, and a rare false note).
