MODEL ASSISTED VARIABLE CLUSTERING: MINIMAX-OPTIMAL RECOVERY AND ALGORITHMS.

The problem of variable clustering is that of estimating groups of similar components of a -dimensional vector = ( , … , ) from independent copies of . There exists a large number of algorithms that return data-dependent groups of variables, but their interpretation is limited to the algorithm that produced them. An alternative is model-based clustering, in which one begins by defining population level clusters relative to a model that embeds notions of similarity.

Analysis of lactating cows on commercial Austrian dairy farms: the influence of genotype and body weight on efficiency parameters.

The aim of this study was twofold: first, to evaluate the influence of body weight on the efficiency of dairy cows, and second, to analyze the current state of dairy cattle populations as part of the Austrian Cattle Breeding Association's Efficient Cow project. Data of Fleckvieh (FV, dual-purpose Simmental), Fleckvieh Red Holstein (FV RH), Holstein (HF) and Brown Swiss (BS) dairy cows (161 farms, 6098 cows) were collected at each performance recording during the year 2014. In addition to routinely recorded data (e.

Latent Model-Based Clustering for Biological Discovery.

LOVE, a robust, scalable latent model-based clustering method for biological discovery, can be used across a range of datasets to generate both overlapping and non-overlapping clusters. In our formulation, a cluster comprises variables associated with the same latent factor and is determined from an allocation matrix that indexes our latent model. We prove that the allocation matrix and corresponding clusters are uniquely defined.

Body weight prediction using body size measurements in Fleckvieh, Holstein, and Brown Swiss dairy cows in lactation and dry periods.

The objective of this study was to predict cows' body weight from body size measurements and other animal data in the lactation and dry periods. During the whole year 2014, 6306 cows (on 167 commercial Austrian dairy farms) were weighed at each routine performance recording and body size measurements like heart girth (HG), belly girth (BG), and body condition score (BCS) were recorded. Data on linear traits like hip width (HW), stature, and body depth were collected three times a year.