Long-overdue update for beta version of Befi-BaTS.

Software: Befi-BaTS

Author: Joe Parker

Version: 0.1.1 beta (download here)

Release notes: Befi-BaTS v0.1 beta drops support for hard polytomies (tree nodes with > 2 daughters), now throwing a HardPolytomyException to the error stack when these are parsed. This is because of potential bugs when dealing with topology + distance measures (NTI/NRI) of polytomies. These bugs will be fixed in a future release. The current version 0.1.1 improves #NEXUS input file parsing.

Befi-BaTS: Befi-BaTS uses two established statistics (the Association Index, AI (Wang et al., 2001), and Fitch parsimony score, PS) as well as a third statistic (maximum exclusive single-state clade size, MC) introduced by us in the BaTS citation, where the merits of each of these are discussed. Befi-BaTS 0.1.1 includes additional statistics that include branch length as well as tree topology. What sets Befi-BaTS aside from previous methods, however, is that we incorporate uncertainty arising from phylogenetic error into the analysis through a Bayesian framework. While other many other methods obtain a null distribution for significance testing through tip character randomization, they rely on a single tree upon which phylogeny-trait association is measured for any observed or expected set of tip characters.