Counting Methods (EM algorithm) in Human Pedigree Analysis: Linkage
and Segregation Analysis.
J. Ott
Annals of Human Genetics , 40(4), 443--454 (1977 May)
Abstract
The likelihood of human pedigree data can be written in such a form
as to allow the computation of derivatives. This is done for various
parameters in linkage and segregation analysis. The equations for
the maximum likelihood estimates are represented in a particularly
appealing form which allows iterative solutions. This process is an
extension to pedigress of Smith's (1957) counting methods. All these
procedures belong to a general class of MLE methods for incomplete
data called EM algorithms (Dempster et al. 1976).
