id: 01116175
dt: j
an: 01116175
au: Hamel, A.M.; Steel, M.A.
ti: The length of a leaf coloration on a random binary tree.
so: SIAM J. Discrete Math. 10, No.3, 359-372 (1997).
py: 1997
pu: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Philadelphia, PA
la: EN
cc: 
ut: binary tree; Fitch’s algorithm; maximum parsimony tree; DNA/RNA
    sequences; probability
ci: 
li: doi:10.1137/S0895480194271591
ab: Summary: An assignment of colors to objects induces a natural integer
    weight on each tree that has these objects as leaves. This weight is
    called “parsimony length” in biostatistics and is the basis of the
    “maximum parsimony” technique for reconstructing evolutionary
    trees. Equations for the average value (over all binary trees) of the
    parsimony length of both fixed and random colorations are derived using
    generating function techniques. This leads to asymptotic results that
    extend earlier results confined to just two colors. A potential
    application to DNA sequence analysis is outlined briefly.
rv: