Also, we were able to demonstrate the applicability of a targeted, mass spectrometry based platform to a clinical sample of modest size.
There were few significant associations between individual risk alleles and diabetes in the Framingham Offspring Study cohort, but this finding was expected, given that alleles of small effect were tested in a community-based sample of modest size, and the aggregate set of 18 SNPs was predictive of new cases of diabetes.
These variance measurements have been made with samples of quite modest size, which should be a source of concern because higher-order statistics, such as variance, are poorly estimated from small sample sizes.
First, although our sample was of modest size (32 older subjects, 16 younger subjects), it was comparable in number to or greater than previous studies.
Firstly, our sample cohort was of modest size and we were not able to compare differences in miRNA expression between genders.
For example, the ENCODE RNA-seq standards [ 20] suggest that transcriptome profiling of polyadenylated positive samples require modest depths of sequencing, such as 30 million PE reads of length >30 bp, while for novel transcript discovery and strong quantification of known transcript isoforms deeper sequencing is required.
Using the extensively validated APOE locus, we previously demonstrated that intermediate traits enhance statistical power to detect associations, even in studies of modest sample size.
The hormonal profile of BBD has generally been investigated in case control or cross-sectional studies, frequently of modest sample size, and the results are not consistent.
However, multivariate genetic analyses of data from natural populations are challenging because of modest sample sizes, incomplete pedigrees, and missing data.
