The impact of genotyping strategies and statistical models on accuracy of genomic prediction for survival in pigs

Background:Survival from birth to slaughter is an important economic trait in commercial pig productions.Increasing survival can improve both economic efficiency and animal welfare.The aim of this study is to explore the impact of genotyping strategies and statistical models on the accuracy of genomic prediction for survival in pigs during the total growing period from birth to slaughter.Results:We simulated pig populations with different direct and maternal heritabilities and used a linear mixed model,a logit model,and a probit model to predict genomic breeding values of pig survival based on data of individual survival records with binary outcomes(0,1).The results show that in the case of only alive animals having genotype data,unbiased genomic predictions can be achieved when using variances estimated from pedigreebased model.Models using genomic information achieved up to 59.2%higher accuracy of estimated breeding value compared to pedigree-based model,dependent on genotyping scenarios.The scenario of genotyping all individuals,both dead and alive individuals,obtained the highest accuracy.When an equal number of individuals(80%)were genotyped,random sample of individuals with genotypes achieved higher accuracy than only alive individuals with genotypes.The linear model,logit model and probit model achieved similar accuracy.Conclusions:Our conclusion is that genomic prediction of pig survival is feasible in the situation that only alive pigs have genotypes,but genomic information of dead individuals can increase accuracy of genomic prediction by 2.06%to 6.04%.

Using statistical models and GIS to delimit the groundwater recharge potential areas and to estimate the infiltration rate: A case study of Nadhour-Sisseb-El Alem Basin, Tunisia

The water resources of the Nadhour-Sisseb-El Alem Basin in Tunisia exhibit semi-arid and arid climatic conditions.This induces an excessive pumping of groundwater,which creates drops in water level ranging about 1-2 m/a.Indeed,these unfavorable conditions require interventions to rationalize integrated management in decision making.The aim of this study is to determine a water recharge index(WRI),delineate the potential groundwater recharge area and estimate the potential groundwater recharge rate based on the integration of statistical models resulted from remote sensing imagery,GIS digital data(e.g.,lithology,soil,runoff),measured artificial recharge data,fuzzy set theory and multi-criteria decision making(MCDM)using the analytical hierarchy process(AHP).Eight factors affecting potential groundwater recharge were determined,namely lithology,soil,slope,topography,land cover/use,runoff,drainage and lineaments.The WRI is between 1.2 and 3.1,which is classified into five classes as poor,weak,moderate,good and very good sites of potential groundwater recharge area.The very good and good classes occupied respectively 27%and 44%of the study area.The potential groundwater recharge rate was 43%of total precipitation.According to the results of the study,river beds are favorable sites for groundwater recharge.

Sensitivity of Statistical Models for Extremes Rainfall Adjustment Regarding Data Size: Case of Ivory Coast

The objective of this study is to analyze the sensitivity of the statistical models regarding the size of samples. The study carried out in Ivory Coast is based on annual maximum daily rainfall data collected from 26 stations. The methodological approach is based on the statistical modeling of maximum daily rainfall. Adjustments were made on several sample sizes and several return periods (2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 years). The main results have shown that the 30 years series (1931-1960;1961-1990;1991-2020) are better adjusted by the Gumbel (26.92% - 53.85%) and Inverse Gamma (26.92% - 46.15%). Concerning the 60-years series (1931-1990;1961-2020), they are better adjusted by the Inverse Gamma (30.77%), Gamma (15.38% - 46.15%) and Gumbel (15.38% - 42.31%). The full chronicle 1931-2020 (90 years) presents a notable supremacy of 50% of Gumbel model over the Gamma (34.62%) and Gamma Inverse (15.38%) model. It is noted that the Gumbel is the most dominant model overall and more particularly in wet periods. The data for periods with normal and dry trends were better fitted by Gamma and Inverse Gamma.

Statistical Models for Web Pages Usability

The usability of an interface is a fundamental issue to elucidate. Many researchers argued that many usability results and recommendations lack empirical and experimental data. In this research, the usability of the web pages is evaluated using several carefully selected statistical models. Universities web pages are chosen as subjects for this work for ease of comparison and ease of collecting data. A series of experiments has been conducted to investigate into the usability and design of the universities web pages. Prototype web pages have been developed according to the structured methodologies of web pages design and usability. Universities web pages were evaluated together with the prototype web pages using a questionnaire which was designed according to the Human Computer Interactions (HCI) heuristics. Nine (users) respondents’ variables and 14 web pages variables (items) were studied. Stringent statistical analysis was adopted to extract the required information to form the data acquired, and augmented interpretation of the statistical results was followed. The results showed that the analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure showed there were significant differences among the universities web pages regarding most of the 23 items studied. Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) showed that the prototype usability performed significantly better regarding most of the items. The correlation analysis showed significant positive and negative correlations between many items. The regression analysis revealed that the most significant factors (items) that contributed to the best model of the universities web pages design and usability were: multimedia in the web pages, the web pages icons (alone) organisation and design, and graphics attractiveness. The results showed some of the limitations of some heuristics used in conventional interface systems design and proposed some additional heuristics in web pages design and usability.

Comparison of Statistical Models for Regional Crop Trial Analysis

Based on the review and comparison of main statistical analysis models for estimating variety-environment cell means in regional crop trials, a new statistical model, LR-PCA composite model was proposed, and the predictive precision of these models were compared by cross validation of an example data. Results showed that the order of model precision was LR-PCA model > AMMI model > PCA model > Treatment Means (TM) model > Linear Regression (LR) model > Additive Main Effects ANOVA model. The precision gain factor of LR-PCA model was 1.55, increasing by 8.4% compared with AMMI.

QTL Analysis for Seven Quality Traits of RIL Population in Japonica Rice Based on Three Genetic Statistical Models

QTL mapping for seven quality traits was conducted by using 254 recombinant inbred lines （RIL） derived from a japonica-japonica rice cross of Xiushui 79/C Bao. The seven traits investigated were grain length （GL）, grain length to width ratio （LWR）, chalk grain rate （CGR）, chalkiness degree （CD）, gelatinization temperature （GT）, amylose content （AC） and gel consistency （GC） of head rice. Three mapping methods employed were composite interval mapping in QTLMapper 2.0 software based on mixed linear model （MCIM）, inclusive composite interval mapping in QTL IciMapping 3.0 software based on stepwise regression linear model （ICIM） and multiple interval mapping with regression forward selection in Windows QTL Cartographer 2.5 based on multiple regression analysis （MIMR）. Results showed that five QTLs with additive effect （A-QTLs） were detected by all the three methods simultaneously, two by two methods simultaneously, and 23 by only one method. Five A-QTLs were detected by MCIM, nine by ICIM and 28 by MIMR. The contribution rates of single A-QTL ranged from 0.89% to 38.07%. All the QTLs with epistatic effect （E-QTLs） detected by MIMR were not detected by the other two methods. Fourteen pairs of E-QTLs were detected by both MCIM and ICIM, and 142 pairs of E-QTLs were detected by only one method. Twenty-five pairs of E-QTLs were detected by MCIM, 141 pairs by ICIM and four pairs by MIMR. The contribution rates of single pair of E-QTL were from 2.60% to 23.78%. In the Xiu-Bao RIL population, epistatic effect played a major role in the variation of GL and CD, and additive effect was the dominant in the variation of LWR, while both epistatic effect and additive effect had equal importance in the variation of CGR, AC, GT and GC. QTLs detected by two or more methods simultaneously were highly reliable, and could be applied to improve the quality traits in japonica hybrid rice.

STATISTICAL MODELS FOR SEMI-RIGID NEMATIC POLYMERS

Semi-rigid liquid crystal polymer is a class of liquid crystal polymers different from long rigid rod liquid crystal polymer to which the well-known Onsager and Flory theories are applied. In this paper, three statistical models for the semi-rigid nematic polymer were addressed. They are the elastically jointed rod model, worm-like chain model, and non-homogeneous chain model. The nematic-isotropic transition temperature was examined. The pseudo-second transition temperature is expressed analytically. Comparisons with the experiments were made and the agreements were found.

Some Concepts on Statistical Models of Relating Mechanical Properties to Chemical Composition

Following the basic principle of modem multivariate statistical analysis theory, the description model, prediction model and control model to relate chemical compositions and mechanical properties of steels are introduced. As an example, the total flowchart of components and structure/properties description, prediction and control model for chemical composition and mechanical properties of 20 and A_2 steel are presented.

Comparative Analysis of Statistical Thickness Models for the Determination of the External Specific Surface and the Surface of the Micropores of Materials: The Case of a Clay Concrete Stabilized Using Sugar Cane Molasses

In this work, four empirical models of statistical thickness, namely the models of Harkins and Jura, Hasley, Carbon Black and Jaroniec, were compared in order to determine the textural properties (external surface and surface of micropores) of a clay concrete without molasses and clay concretes stabilized with 8%, 12% and 16% molasses. The results obtained show that Hasley’s model can be used to obtain the external surfaces. However, it does not allow the surface of the micropores to be obtained, and is not suitable for the case of simple clay concrete (without molasses) and for clay concretes stabilized with molasses. The Carbon Black, Jaroniec and Harkins and Jura models can be used for clay concrete and stabilized clay concrete. However, the Carbon Black model is the most relevant for clay concrete and the Harkins and Jura model is for molasses-stabilized clay concrete. These last two models augur well for future research.

Soil erosion susceptibility mapping of Hangu Region,Kohat Plateau of Pakistan using GIS and RS-based models

Soil erosion is a crucial geo-environmental hazard worldwide that affects water quality and agriculture,decreases reservoir storage capacity due to sedimentation,and increases the danger of flooding and landslides.Thus,this study uses geospatial modeling to produce soil erosion susceptibility maps(SESM)for the Hangu region,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK),Pakistan.The Hangu region,located in the Kohat Plateau of KPK,Pakistan,is particularly susceptible to soil erosion due to its unique geomorphological and climatic characteristics.Moreover,the Hangu region is characterized by a combination of steep slopes,variable rainfall patterns,diverse land use,and distinct soil types,all of which contribute to the complexity and severity of soil erosion processes.These factors necessitate a detailed and region-specific study to develop effective soil conservation strategies.In this research,we detected and mapped 1013 soil erosion points and prepared 12 predisposing factors(elevation,aspect,slope,Normalized Differentiate Vegetation Index(NDVI),drainage network,curvature,Land Use Land Cover(LULC),rainfall,lithology,contour,soil texture,and road network)of soil erosion using GIS platform.Additionally,GIS-based statistical models like the weight of evidence(WOE)and frequency ratio(FR)were applied to produce the SESM for the study area.The SESM was reclassified into four classes,i.e.,low,medium,high,and very high zone.The results of WOE for SESM show that 16.39%,33.02%,29.27%,and 21.30%of areas are covered by low,medium,high,and very high zones,respectively.In contrast,the FR results revealed that 16.50%,24.33%,35.55%,and 23.59%of the areas are occupied by low,medium,high,and very high classes.Furthermore,the reliability of applied models was evaluated using the Area Under Curve(AUC)technique.The validation results utilizing the area under curve showed that the success rate curve(SRC)and predicted rate curve(PRC)for WOE are 82%and 86%,respectively,while SRC and PRC for FR are 85%and 96%,respectively.The validation results revealed that the FR model performance is better and more reliable than the WOE.

Evaluation of Serum Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) Values for 28,016 Bulgarian Women: Prognostic Statistical Model of Age Specific AMH Declining

The present study aims to establish a relationship between serum AMH levels and age in a large group of women living in Bulgaria, as well as to establish reference age-specific AMH levels in women that would serve as an initial estimate of ovarian age. A total of 28,016 women on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria were tested for serum AMH levels with a median age of 37.0 years (interquartile range 32.0 to 41.0). For women aged 20 - 29 years, the Bulgarian population has relatively high median levels of AMH, similar to women of Asian origin. For women aged 30 - 34 years, our results are comparable to those of women living in Western Europe. For women aged 35 - 39 years, our results are comparable to those of women living in the territory of India and Kenya. For women aged 40 - 44 years, our results were lower than those for women from the Western European and Chinese populations, close to the Indian and higher than Korean and Kenya populations, respectively. Our results for women of Bulgarian origin are also comparable to US Latina women at age 30, 35 and 40 ages. On the base on constructed a statistical model to predicting the decline in AMH levels at different ages, we found non-linear structure of AMH decline for the low AMH 3.5) the dependence of the decline of AMH on age was confirmed as linear. In conclusion, we evaluated the serum level of AMH in Bulgarian women and established age-specific AMH percentile reference values based on a large representative sample. We have developed a prognostic statistical model that can facilitate the application of AMH in clinical practice and the prediction of reproductive capacity and population health.

Women Entrepreneurship Index Prediction Model with Automated Statistical Analysis

Recently,gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship have gained considerable attention in global economic development.Prior to the design of any policy interventions to increase women’s entrepreneurship,it is significant to comprehend the factors motivating women to become entrepreneurs.The non-understanding of the factors can result in the endurance of low living stan-dards and the design of expensive and ineffectual policies.But female involve-ment in entrepreneurship becomes higher in developing economies compared to developed economies.Women Entrepreneurship Index(WEI)plays a vital role in determining the factors that enable theflourishment of high potential female entrepreneurs which enhances economic welfare and contributes to the economic and social fabric of society.Therefore,it is needed to design an automated and accurate WEI prediction model to improve women’s entrepreneurship.In this view,this article develops an automated statistical analysis enabled WEI predic-tive(ASA-WEIP)model.The proposed ASA-WEIP technique aims to effectually determine the WEI.The proposed ASA-WEIP technique encompasses a series of sub-processes such as pre-processing,WEI prediction,and parameter optimiza-tion.For the prediction of WEI,the ASA-WEIP technique makes use of the Deep Belief Network(DBN)model,and the parameter optimization process takes place using Squirrel Search Algorithm(SSA).The performance validation of the ASA-WEIP technique was executed using the benchmark dataset from the Kaggle repo-sitory.The experimental outcomes stated the better outcomes of the ASA-WEIP technique over the other existing techniques.

A review on statistical models for identifying climate contributions to crop yields

Statistical models using historical data on crop yields and weather to calibrate rela- tively simple regression equations have been widely and extensively applied in previous studies, and have provided a common alternative to process-based models, which require extensive input data on cultivar, management, and soil conditions. However, very few studies had been conducted to review systematically the previous statistical models for indentifying climate contributions to crop yields. This paper introduces three main statistical methods, i.e., time-series model, cross-section model and panel model, which have been used to identify such issues in the field of agrometeorology. Generally, research spatial scale could be categorized into two types using statistical models, including site scale and regional scale （e.g. global scale, national scale, provincial scale and county scale）. Four issues exist in identifying response sensitivity of crop yields to climate change by statistical models. The issues include the extent of spatial and temporal scale, non-climatic trend removal, colinearity existing in climate variables and non-consideration of adaptations. Respective resolutions for the above four issues have been put forward in the section of perspective on the future of statistical models finally.

Forecasting S&P 500 Stock Index Using Statistical Learning Models

Forecasting the movement of stock market is a long-time attractive topic. This paper implements different statistical learning models to predict the movement of S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 index is influenced by other important financial indexes across the world such as commodity price and financial technical indicators. This paper systematically investigated four supervised learning models, including Logistic Regression, Gaussian Discriminant Analysis (GDA), Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM) in the forecast of S&P 500 index. After several experiments of optimization in features and models, especially the SVM kernel selection and feature selection for different models, this paper concludes that a SVM model with a Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel can achieve an accuracy rate of 62.51% for the future market trend of the S&P 500 index.

Progress on statistical models of evaluating inclusions in clean steels

Non-metallic inclusions are critical for the fatigue failure of clean steels in service;especially,the large and hard inclusions are detrimental.Since it is not possible to measure all the inclusions in the large-volume clean steels,statistical models have been developed to evaluate inclusions,aiming at predicting the maximum inclusion size in the large volume from the data of inclusions,which are derived from the limited observations on small-volume specimens.Different statistical models were reviewed together with their supporting theories.In particular,the block maxima and the threshold types of models were discussed through a thorough comparison as they are both widely used and based on the extreme value theory.The predicted results not only are used to distinguish the different cleanliness levels of steels,but also help to estimate fatigue strength.Finally,future research is proposed to focus on tackling the present difficulties encountered by statistical models,including the sufficient credibility of obtained results and the robustness of models for applications.

Early termination strategy of HEVC based on statistical models

High efficiency video coding(HEVC)uses half of the bitrate compared to H.264/advanced video coding(AVC)for encoding the same sequence with similar quality.Because of the advanced hierarchical structures of coding units(CUs),predicting units(PUs),and transform units(TUs),HEVC can better adapt when encoding full high definition(HD)and ultra high definition(UHD)videos.At the expense of encoding efficiency,the complexity of HEVC sharply increases compared to H.264/AVC,mainly due to its quad-tree structure that splits pictures.In this study,the probability distribution,which is generated by a rate distortion optimizing(RDO)cost,is analyzed.Then,an early terminating method is proposed to decrease the complexity of the HEVC based on probability distributions.The experiment shows that the coding time is reduced by 44.9%for HEVC intra coding,at the cost of a 0.61%increase in the Bj?ntegaard delta rate(BD-rate),on average.

On differences between deterministic and statistical models of the interphase region

This paper reviews differences between the deterministic(sharp and diffuse)and statistical models of the interphase region between the two-phases.In the literature this region is usually referred to as the(macroscopic)interface.Therein,the mesoscopic interface that is defined at the molecular level and agitated by the thermal fluctuations is found with nonzero probability.For this reason,in this work,the interphase region is called the mesoscopic intermittency/transition region.To this purpose,the first part of the present work gives the rationale for introduction of the mesoscopic intermittency region statistical model.It is argued that classical(deterministic)sharp and diffuse models do not explain the experimental and numerical results presented in the literature.Afterwards,it is elucidated that a statistical model of the mesoscopic intermittency region(SMIR)combines existing sharp and diffuse models into a single coherent framework and explains published experimental and numerical results.In the second part of the present paper,the SMIR is used for the first time to predict equilibrium and nonequilibrium two-phase flow in the numerical simulation.To this goal,a two-dimensional rising gas bubble is studied;obtained numerical results are used as a basis to discuss differences between the deterministic and statistical models showing the statistical description has a potential to account for the physical phenomena not previously considered in the computer simulations.

Review of Statistical Water Temperature Models for a Peruvian Andean River

The rapid increase in Water Temperature Rivers (WTR) observed globally in recent decades and projections for the coming decades under climate change scenarios make water temperature prediction essential to assess changes in aquatic biota. Statistical models for stream temperature prediction have been widely used because they are computationally simple, involve few parameters, and because of their relatively good accuracy. However, these models have not been evaluated in Peruvian Andean rivers. This work evaluates the main water temperature statistical models from the literature and fits them with data recorded in the Ichu River experimental watershed, Huancavelica-Peru. Three well-known models were reviewed: the Stefan & Preud’homme linear regression model and the Mohseni & Stefan 3- and 4-parameter logistic regression models. Ichu river water temperatures were simulated using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrometeorological model, which defaults to the Stefan & Preud’homme model. Modifications and adjustment of coefficients of the evaluated models were configured in the SWAT code using the “Latin Hypercube Sampling” technique. The evaluated models showed poor performance in predicting the water temperature in the Ichu River with NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency) values ranging from -2.6 to 0.49, while the modified models showed NSE values of 0.72 in all three cases. Findings suggest that the statistical models shown in the literature should be validated for Andean rivers.

Graph-based Lexicalized Reordering Models for Statistical Machine Translation

Lexicalized reordering models are very important components of phrasebased translation systems.By examining the reordering relationships between adjacent phrases,conventional methods learn these models from the word aligned bilingual corpus,while ignoring the effect of the number of adjacent bilingual phrases.In this paper,we propose a method to take the number of adjacent phrases into account for better estimation of reordering models.Instead of just checking whether there is one phrase adjacent to a given phrase,our method firstly uses a compact structure named reordering graph to represent all phrase segmentations of a parallel sentence,then the effect of the adjacent phrase number can be quantified in a forward-backward fashion,and finally incorporated into the estimation of reordering models.Experimental results on the NIST Chinese-English and WMT French-Spanish data sets show that our approach significantly outperforms the baseline method.

Statistical Model of Path Loss for Railway 5G Marshalling Yard Scenario

The railway mobile communication system is undergoing a smooth transition from the Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway(GSM-R)to the Railway 5G.In this paper,an empirical path loss model based on a large amount of measured data is established to predict the path loss in the Railway 5G marshalling yard scenario.According to the different characteristics of base station directional antennas,the antenna gain is verified.Then we propose the position of the breakpoint in the antenna propagation area,and based on the breakpoint segmentation,a large-scale statistical model for marshalling yards is established.