Entrepreneurs have a unique status in Hong Kong, who are seen as world leaders in building and developing its economy. These entrepreneurs constitute a majority of businesses and employ a significant part of the popul...Entrepreneurs have a unique status in Hong Kong, who are seen as world leaders in building and developing its economy. These entrepreneurs constitute a majority of businesses and employ a significant part of the population, thus, they are vital for the economy of Hong Kong. This research looks into and studies this phenomenon to evaluate the various components of the success of these entrepreneurs and to draw conclusions that will benefit the educators, the legislators as well as the new entrants who wish to become entrepreneurs. By interviewing Hong Kong entrepreneurs, it has been found that the main source of entrepreneurial success in Hong Kong is of very complex origin. The Hong Kong＇s entrepreneurs seem to succeed, when they are able to blend the best qualities of the East and the West. Based on the research outcomes, the perceptions, achievements, strategies, and traits （PAST） model has been developed to assist Hong Kong entrepreneurs in the future.展开更多
Background： The overall breeding objective for a nucleus swine selection program is to improve crossbred commercial performance. Most genetic improvement programs are based on an assumed high degree of positive relat...Background： The overall breeding objective for a nucleus swine selection program is to improve crossbred commercial performance. Most genetic improvement programs are based on an assumed high degree of positive relationship between purebred performance in a nucleus herd and their relatives＇ crossbred performance in a commercial herd. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between purebred and crossbred sow longevity performance. Sow longevity was defined as a binary trait with a success occurring if a sow remained in the herd for a certain number of parities and including the cumulative number born alive as a measure of reproductive success. Heritabilities, genetic correlations, and phenotypic correlations were estimated using THRGIBBS1F90.Results： Results indicated little to no genetic correlations between crossbred and purebred reproductive traits.This indicates that selection for longevity or lifetime performance at the nucleus level may not result in improved longevity and lifetime performance at the crossbred level. Early parity performance was highly correlated with lifetime performance indicating that an indicator trait at an early parity could be used to predict lifetime performance. This would allow a sow to have her own record for the selection trait before she has been removed from the herd.Conclusions： Results from this study aid in quantifying the relationship between purebred and crossbred performance and provide information for genetic companies to consider when developing a selection program where the objective is to improve crossbred sow performance. Utilizing crossbred records in a selection program would be the best way to improve crossbred sow productivity.展开更多
Gene expression is a critical process in biological system that is influenced and modulated by many factors including genetic variation. Expression Quantitative Trait Loci（e QTL） analysis provides a powerful way to ...Gene expression is a critical process in biological system that is influenced and modulated by many factors including genetic variation. Expression Quantitative Trait Loci（e QTL） analysis provides a powerful way to understand how genetic variants affect gene expression. For genome wide e QTL analysis, the number of genetic variants and that of genes are large and thus the search space is tremendous. Therefore, e QTL analysis brings about computational and statistical challenges. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of recent advances in methods for e QTL analysis in population-based studies. We first present traditional pairwise association methods, which are widely used in human genetics. To account for expression heterogeneity, we investigate the methods for correcting confounding factors. Next, we discuss newly developed statistical learning methods including Lasso-based models. In the conclusion, we provide an overview of future method development in analyzing e QTL associations. Although we focus on human genetics in this review, the methods are applicable to many other organisms.展开更多
文摘Entrepreneurs have a unique status in Hong Kong, who are seen as world leaders in building and developing its economy. These entrepreneurs constitute a majority of businesses and employ a significant part of the population, thus, they are vital for the economy of Hong Kong. This research looks into and studies this phenomenon to evaluate the various components of the success of these entrepreneurs and to draw conclusions that will benefit the educators, the legislators as well as the new entrants who wish to become entrepreneurs. By interviewing Hong Kong entrepreneurs, it has been found that the main source of entrepreneurial success in Hong Kong is of very complex origin. The Hong Kong＇s entrepreneurs seem to succeed, when they are able to blend the best qualities of the East and the West. Based on the research outcomes, the perceptions, achievements, strategies, and traits （PAST） model has been developed to assist Hong Kong entrepreneurs in the future.
文摘Background： The overall breeding objective for a nucleus swine selection program is to improve crossbred commercial performance. Most genetic improvement programs are based on an assumed high degree of positive relationship between purebred performance in a nucleus herd and their relatives＇ crossbred performance in a commercial herd. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between purebred and crossbred sow longevity performance. Sow longevity was defined as a binary trait with a success occurring if a sow remained in the herd for a certain number of parities and including the cumulative number born alive as a measure of reproductive success. Heritabilities, genetic correlations, and phenotypic correlations were estimated using THRGIBBS1F90.Results： Results indicated little to no genetic correlations between crossbred and purebred reproductive traits.This indicates that selection for longevity or lifetime performance at the nucleus level may not result in improved longevity and lifetime performance at the crossbred level. Early parity performance was highly correlated with lifetime performance indicating that an indicator trait at an early parity could be used to predict lifetime performance. This would allow a sow to have her own record for the selection trait before she has been removed from the herd.Conclusions： Results from this study aid in quantifying the relationship between purebred and crossbred performance and provide information for genetic companies to consider when developing a selection program where the objective is to improve crossbred sow performance. Utilizing crossbred records in a selection program would be the best way to improve crossbred sow productivity.
基金supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
文摘Gene expression is a critical process in biological system that is influenced and modulated by many factors including genetic variation. Expression Quantitative Trait Loci（e QTL） analysis provides a powerful way to understand how genetic variants affect gene expression. For genome wide e QTL analysis, the number of genetic variants and that of genes are large and thus the search space is tremendous. Therefore, e QTL analysis brings about computational and statistical challenges. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of recent advances in methods for e QTL analysis in population-based studies. We first present traditional pairwise association methods, which are widely used in human genetics. To account for expression heterogeneity, we investigate the methods for correcting confounding factors. Next, we discuss newly developed statistical learning methods including Lasso-based models. In the conclusion, we provide an overview of future method development in analyzing e QTL associations. Although we focus on human genetics in this review, the methods are applicable to many other organisms.
