The shrinkage estimate of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) effect is the posterior mean of the QTL effect when a normal prior distribution is assigned to the QTL. This note gives the derivation of the shrinkage estimate under the multivariate linear model. An important lemma regarding the posterior mean of a normal likelihood combined with a normal prior is introduced. The lemma is then used to...

Phenotypic plasticity and canalization are important topics in quantitative genetics and evolution. Both concepts are related to environmental sensitivity. The latter can be modeled using a model with genetically structured environmental variance. This work reports the results of a genetic analysis of adult weight in the snail Helix aspersa. Several models of heterogeneous variance are fitted u...

QSPR correlation equations were developed for the prediction of the solubilities of organic gases and vapors in water. A two-parameter correlation with the squared correlation coefficient R2 ) 0.977 gives excellent predictions for 95 alkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, alkylarenes, and alkynes. A satisfactory description (R2 ) 0.941) of the gas solubilities of 406 organic compounds with a large str...

Grain shape is a key factor that influences both the appearance quality and grain yield of rice. To clarify the genetic basis of grain shape, an advanced backcross population was developed from the cross of a slender indica variety Jin23B and a round japonica variety QingGuAi, and a total of 10 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain shape were detected over 2 years. Three QTLs, qGW1, qGS3 and...

In silico models have prompted considerable interest and debate because of their potential value in predicting the properties of chemical substances for regulatory purposes. The European REACH legislation promotes innovation and encourages the use of alternative methods, but in practice the use of in silico models is still very limited. There are many stakeholders influencing the regulatory tra...

Effect of flanking quantitative trait loci (QTL)-marker bracket size on genetic response to marker assisted selection in an outbred population was studied by simulation of a nucleus breeding scheme. In addition, genetic response with marker assisted selection (MAS) from two quantitative trait loci on the same and different chromosome(s) was investigated. QTL that explained either 5% or 10% of p...

Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion (RSA) is a frequent pathology affecting 1 to 5% of couples. In approximately 50 % of cases, the aetiology is unknown suggesting a subtle interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Previous attempts to describe genetic factors using the candidate gene approach have been relatively unsuccessful due to the physiological, cellular and genetic complexity of...

Healthy or pathological states of nociceptive subsystems determine different stimulus-response relations measured from quantitative sensory testing. In turn, stimulus-response measurements may be used to assess these states. In a recently developed computational model, six model parameters characterize activation of nerve endings and spinal neurons. However, both model nonlinearity and limited ...