759 research outputs found
A general statistical framework for dissecting parent-of-origin effects underlying endosperm traits in flowering plants
Genomic imprinting has been thought to play an important role in seed
development in flowering plants. Seed in a flowering plant normally contains
diploid embryo and triploid endosperm. Empirical studies have shown that some
economically important endosperm traits are genetically controlled by imprinted
genes. However, the exact number and location of the imprinted genes are
largely unknown due to the lack of efficient statistical mapping methods. Here
we propose a general statistical variance components framework by utilizing the
natural information of sex-specific allelic sharing among sibpairs in line
crosses, to map imprinted quantitative trait loci (iQTL) underlying endosperm
traits. We propose a new variance components partition method considering the
unique characteristic of the triploid endosperm genome, and develop a
restricted maximum likelihood estimation method in an interval scan for
estimating and testing genome-wide iQTL effects. Cytoplasmic maternal effect
which is thought to have primary influences on yield and grain quality is also
considered when testing for genomic imprinting. Extension to multiple iQTL
analysis is proposed. Asymptotic distribution of the likelihood ratio test for
testing the variance components under irregular conditions are studied. Both
simulation study and real data analysis indicate good performance and
powerfulness of the developed approach.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS323 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The infrared spectra of ABC-stacking tri- and tetra-layer graphenes studied by first-principles calculations
The infrared absorption spectra of ABC-stacking tri- and tetra-layer
graphenes are studied using the density functional theory. It is found that
they exhibit very different characteristic peaks compared with those of
AB-stacking ones, caused by the different stacking sequence and interlayer
coupling. The anisotropy of the spectra with respect to the direction of the
light electric field is significant. The spectra are more sensitive to the
stacking number when the electric field is perpendicular to the graphene plane
due to the interlayer polarization. The high sensitivities make it possible to
identify the stacking sequence and stacking number of samples by comparing
theory and experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Equitable list coloring of planar graphs without 4-Â and 6-cycles
AbstractA graph G is equitably k-choosable if for any k-uniform list assignment L, there exists an L-colorable of G such that each color appears on at most ⌈|V(G)|k⌉ vertices. Kostochka, Pelsmajer and West introduced this notion and conjectured that G is equitably k-choosable for k>Δ(G). We prove this for planar graphs with Δ(G)≥6 and no 4- or 6-cycles
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