Fast Genome-Wide QTL Analysis Using Mendel

Pedigree GWAS (Option 29) in the current version of the Mendel software is an optimized subroutine for performing large scale genome-wide QTL analysis. This analysis (a) works for random sample data, pedigree data, or a mix of both, (b) is highly efficient in both run time and memory requirement, (c) accommodates both univariate and multivariate traits, (d) works for autosomal and x-linked loci, (e) correctly deals with missing data in traits, covariates, and genotypes, (f) allows for covariate adjustment and constraints among parameters, (g) uses either theoretical or SNP-based empirical kinship matrix for additive polygenic effects, (h) allows extra variance components such as dominant polygenic effects and household effects, (i) detects and reports outlier individuals and pedigrees, and (j) allows for robust estimation via the $t$-distribution. The current paper assesses these capabilities on the genetics analysis workshop 19 (GAW19) sequencing data. We analyzed simulated and real phenotypes for both family and random sample data sets. For instance, when jointly testing the 8 longitudinally measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) traits, it takes Mendel 78 minutes on a standard laptop computer to read, quality check, and analyze a data set with 849 individuals and 8.3 million SNPs. Genome-wide eQTL analysis of 20,643 expression traits on 641 individuals with 8.3 million SNPs takes 30 hours using 20 parallel runs on a cluster. Mendel is freely available at \url{http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/software}

A quantum model for the magnetic multi-valued recording

We have proposed a quantum model for the magnetic multi-valued recording in this paper. The hysteresis loops of the two-dimensional systems with randomly distributed magnetic atoms have been studied by the quantum theory developed previously. The method has been proved to be exact in this case. We find that the single-ion anisotropies and the densities of the magnetic atoms are mainly responsible for the hysterisis loops. Only if the magnetic atoms contained by the systems are of different (not uniform) anistropies and their density is low, there may be more sharp steps in the hysteresis loops. Such materials can be used as the recording media for the so-called magnetic multi-valued recording. Our result explained the experimental results qualitativly.Comment: 10 pages containing one Table. Latex formatted. 5 figures: those who are interested please contact the authors requiring the figures. Submitted to J. Magn. Magn. Mater. . Email address: [email protected]

Regional economic status inference from information flow and talent mobility

Novel data has been leveraged to estimate socioeconomic status in a timely manner, however, direct comparison on the use of social relations and talent movements remains rare. In this letter, we estimate the regional economic status based on the structural features of the two networks. One is the online information flow network built on the following relations on social media, and the other is the offline talent mobility network built on the anonymized resume data of job seekers with higher education. We find that while the structural features of both networks are relevant to economic status, the talent mobility network in a relatively smaller size exhibits a stronger predictive power for the gross domestic product (GDP). In particular, a composite index of structural features can explain up to about 84% of the variance in GDP. The result suggests future socioeconomic studies to pay more attention to the cost-effective talent mobility data.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Lacing topological orders in two dimensions: exactly solvable models for Kitaev's sixteen-fold way

A family of two-dimensional (2D) spin-1/2 models have been constructed to realize Kitaev's sixteen-fold way of anyon theories. Defining a one-dimensional (1D) path through all the lattice sites, and performing the Jordan-Wigner transformation with the help of the 1D path, we find that such a spin-1/2 model is equivalent to a model with $\nu$ species of Majorana fermions coupled to a static $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field. Here each specie of Majorana fermions gives rise to an energy band that carries a Chern number $\mathcal{C}=1$, yielding a total Chern number $\mathcal{C}=\nu$. It has been shown that the ground states are three (four)-fold topologically degenerate on a torus, when $\nu$ is an odd (even) number. These exactly solvable models can be achieved by quantum simulations.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure