Hierarchical cluster analysis of yearling body weight and linear body measurementsof sheep of Northern Nigeria and their crosses

This study was conducted at the Sheep Project Unit of Small Ruminant Research Programme (SRRP) of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Ahmadu Bello University, Shika, Zaria. Balami, Uda and Yankasa breeds (sheep of Northern Nigeria) were crossed . A total of 65 Yankasa, 23 Uda and 16 Balami ewes were served by 4 Yankasa, 3 Uda and 3 Balami rams. The diallel breeding pattern produced 192 lambs. However, only the 65 yearling that survived up to 12 months of age (yearling) were used for this study. The yearling body weight and linear body measurement data were analysed using General Linear Model (GLM) procedures of SAS with model that incorporated lamb genotype as fixed effects. Pairwise difference was used to separate the mean (SAS, 2003). Distances were used to construct dendrogram using the Unweighted Pairs Group Method Analysis implemented in R 2.13.0 package. TREE procedure that prints the dendrogram based on the distances between the clusters was introduced in PROC CLUSTER procedure. Yearling genotype affected body weight and all the linear body measurements considered in this study (P<0.05). The pure Balami yearling (BL X BL) had the highest birth weight at 12 months of age (29.10±4.02kg). Clumping structure of yearling body weight among sheep of Northern Nigeria and their crosses were grouped into two clusters at distance 2.656. Pure Balami (BL X BL) formed the first cluster while the rest of the genotypes belong to the second cluster. The second cluster was further divided into two sub-groups at 0.796. The first sub-group had yearlings from pure Uda (UD X UD), Uda ram and Yankasa ewe (UD X YK), Uda ram and Balami ewe (UD X BL), Balami ram and Uda ewe (BL X UD) and Yankasa ram and Uda ewe (YK X UD) at 0.514. Similar clumping structures with two clusters share among the nine genotypes at varied distances were recorded for all the linear body measurements studied. Patterns of similarities were established for yearling body weight and linear body measurements among sheep of Northern Nigeria and their crosses. Improvement plans for yearling growth traits of sheep in Nigeria should consider the genotypes with divergent genetic distances as sires and dams. This will ensure the best exploration of positive heterosis.

Beyond the U-Shape: Mapping the Functional Form Between Age and Life Satisfaction for 81 Countries Utilizing a Cluster Procedure

Classifying and explaining the causal and functional relationship between age and life satisfaction, especially in an international context, is still a major open question in demographics and happiness-research. Especially the debate whether to include sociodemographic control variables in these models has received much attention and deserves more discussion. The current contribution takes a cross-country perspective and attempts to sort countries into larger clusters, depending on their specific functional form. Using cross-sectional data from 81 countries with more than 170,000 respondents, the analyses demonstrate that there exist three larger clusters which display distinct functional relations (linear decline, U-shape, decline with a stable old-age period). Sociodemographic controls are not introduced since the total causal effect is to be estimated. Furthermore, the contribution explains cluster membership exploratively using macro indicators. While it becomes clear that countries with a linear decline are usually less developed countries, differences between the other two clusters are much less obvious.

Estimasi jarak genetik, daya gabung gen dan heterosis bobot tubuh persilangan empat populasi ikan gurami, Osphronemus goramy, Lacepede 1801

The superior giant gourami can be obtained through hybridization. The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic distance, combined ability, and crossbreeding heterosis at the age of eleven months from the four gourami populations: Kalimantan, Jambi, Majalengka, and Tasikmalaya. The study was conducted at the Research Institute for Fish Breeding Sukamandi. Genetic distance calculations were done by truss morphometric characterization with a sample of each of crossbred many as 30 individuals with the standard length range 3.5 - 12.2 cm. The data was analyzed using discrimi-nant analysis and continued with "cluster procedure" to get a dendrogram using SAS program 6:03. Heterosis was cal-culated based on the performance of the hybrid compared to the average performance parent each pair consisting of one male and two females. The results of this study showed that the four populations of giant gourami have different genetic distances. Giant gourami population from Borneo have the farthest genetic distance compared with the three other populations, whereas giant gourami from Jambi and from Majalengka has a close genetic distance. Jambi population shows the highest general combining ability with a positive value 21.82 g. The highest value of specific combining ability is obtained from a cross between the Majalengka female with the Jambi male with a positive value 75.30 g. The crosses also has the highest heterosis value that was equal to 41.78%, follows by a cross between the Tasikmalaya fe-male with the Jambi males (30.1%) and a cross between the Borneo females with the Jambi males (22.35%). The three crosses prospectively to produce superior hybrid of giant gourami. AbstrakHibridisasi merupakan salah satu cara untuk mendapatkan ikan gurami unggul. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengesti-masi jarak genetik empat populasi ikan gurami, yakni : Kalimantan, Jambi, Majalengka, dan Tasikmalaya, serta meng-hitung daya gabung gen serta heterosis persilangannya pada umur 11 bulan. Penelitian dilakukan di Balai Penelitian Pemuliaan Ikan Sukamandi. Perhitungan jarak genetik dilakukan berdasarkan karakterisasi truss morfometrik dengan jumlah sampel masing-masing hasil persilangan sebanyak 30 ekor dengan kisaran panjang baku 3,5 – 12,2 cm. Data dianalisis dengan analisis diskriminan dan dilanjutkan dengan “cluster procedure” untuk mendapatkan dendrogram menggunakan program SAS 6.03. Heterosis dihitung berdasarkan performa hibrida dibandingkan performa rata-rata induk tetuanya masing-masing pasangan induk terdiri atas 1 jantan dan 2 betina. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa keempat populasi ikan gurami mempunyai jarak genetik yang berbeda. Populasi gurami asal Kalimantan mem-punyai jarak genetik terjauh dibandingkan dengan ketiga populasi lainnya, sedangkan ikan gurami asal Jambi dan asal Majalengka memiliki jarak genetik yang dekat. Populasi Jambi menunjukkan daya gabung umum tertinggi dengan nilai positif 21,82 g. Nilai daya gabung spesifik tertinggi didapatkan dari persilangan antara betina Majalengka dengan jantan Jambi dengan nilai positif 75,30 g. Persilangan tersebut juga memiliki nilai heterosis tertinggi yaitu sebesar 41,78%, selanjutnya diikuti persilangan betina Tasikmalaya dengan jantan Jambi sebesar 30,1% dan persilangan betina Kaliman-tan dengan jantan Jambi sebesar 22,35%. Ketiga persilangan tersebut prospektif untuk dijadikan ikan gurami hibrida unggulan.

Elderly patients attended in emergency health services in Brazil: a study for victims of falls and traffic accidents

The article aims to describe the profile of elderly victims of falls and traffic accidents from the data of the Surveillance Survey of Violence and Accidents (VIVA). The VIVA Survey was conducted in the emergency health-services of the Unified Health System in the capitals of Brazil in 2011. The sample of elderly by type of accident was subjected to the two-step cluster procedure. Of the 2463 elderly persons in question, 79.8% suffered falls and 20.2% were the victims of traffic accidents. The 1812 elderly who fell were grouped together into 4 clusters: Cluster 1, in which all had disabilities; Cluster 2, all were non-white and falls took place in the home; Cluster 3, younger and active seniors; and Cluster 4, with a higher proportion of seniors 80 years old or above who were white. Among cases of traffic accidents, 446 seniors were grouped into two clusters: Cluster 1 of younger elderly, drivers or passengers; Cluster 2, with higher age seniors, mostly pedestrians. The main victims of falls were women with low schooling and unemployed; traffic accident victims were mostly younger and male. Complications were similar in victims of falls and traffic accidents. Clusters allow adoption of targeted measures of care, prevention and health promotion.

Australian radiation therapists rank technology-related research as most important to radiation therapy

Background and purpose: Research is increasingly important in radiation therapy, but radiation therapists (or therapy radiographers) (RTs) are relatively new to research and may have difficulty defining research topics. Our aim was to identify the group interests and focus research priorities of Australian RTs. Although not measured, an additional aim was to make RTs more aware of the relevance of RT research.Materials and methods: An Australia-wide Delphi process was used, examining the problems related to patient care, working with colleagues, and radiotherapy in general, that RTs experienced in their daily work. In an initial study, 374 problems were identified. These were translated into 53 research areas which were prioritised in the second stage of the study. Agreement between groups was analysed using a hierarchical cluster procedure and post hoc Scheffe multiple comparisons.Results: There were three groups of responders with varying degrees of research interest. There was agreed high importance (p > 0.01) for the technical aspects of radiation therapy, such as image guidance, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and patient positioning. There was significant disagreement (p < 0.001 to p = 0.023) between groups on the importance of patient care research.Conclusions: The strong interest in technical research is consistent with the rapid influx of technology, particularly in imaging. The disagreement on patient-related research may be of concern. The list of potential research areas specific to radiation therapy will be useful for new RT researchers to consider.

The Distance and Cluster Procedure

This chapter describes the distance and cluster procedure of the SAS system. SAS version 9 introduced the proc distance procedure. All previous versions of SAS used two programs (xmacro.sas and distnew.sas) to process a transposed cocitation matrix (input) to produce a distance matrix (output). Cluster analysis is a data reduction technique for grouping various entities (individuals, variables, objects) into clusters so that the entities in the same cluster have more similarity to each other with respect to some predetermined selection criteria. The first section of this chapter explains the creation of a distance matrix, which is the input to the cluster procedure. The second part of this chapter focuses on the PROC CLUSTER statement which sets out the CLUSTER procedure steps. This chapter also includes the discussions of interpreting results of cluster analysis.

Cluster Analysis and Rankings of Canadian Universities: Misadventures with Rank-based Data and Implications for the Welfare of Students

We present a data-based perspective concerning the Maclean’s magazine (November 17, 2003) rankings of Canadian universities, including two cluster analyses and other nonparametric analyses. These data are similar to those in recent university ranking exercises conducted by other magazines, such as U.S. News. In many cases, the cluster procedure showed that universities actually resemble and relate to each other in a manner different from their formal classification and final rank ordering by Maclean’s. Several pitfalls in ranking procedures, related to unreliable relationships among specific indices underlying the final ranks, are outlined. Comparisons are made also with the most recent student satisfaction rankings for 47 Canadian universities, published in November, 2003, by the Toronto Globe and Mail. The latter rankings do not reliably reflect the general results of the Maclean’s data. In their present format, and although they have become increasingly publicized and promoted, it remains difficult for the Maclean’s data to be consistently or empirically useful to students. Ranking exercises have unintended, though increasingly predictable, consequences, which likely bear heavily upon the intellectual and personal well being of students.