Whats New in Release 4

Introduction

These notes relating to ASReml 4 are intended to users familar with ASReml 3.

Functional specification of Variance Models

The primary change is a functional method of associating variance structures with model terms. Use !SIGMAP to force simple jobs to use the variance scale (Sigma parameterization) rather than the gamma scale (Gamma parameteriztion).

New methods for starting values

ASReml will generate initial values for variance parameters. If these prove inadequate, they are written to TSV file which the user may edit and then have ASReml read the changed values. The !CONTINUE qualifier may specify the particular .rsv file to be read.

More sophisticated coding

The !ASSIGN statement has been extended with a !FOR ... !DO look and !IF statements.

!MBF has been extended to allow binary files.

Input and output

ASReml now routinely reports the Akaike and Bayesian Incormation Criteria.

The !OUTFOLDER qualifier causes the output from different runs to be placed in separate folders.

Qualifiers !SECTION !ROWFAC !COLFAC now generate extra data records to 'fill out the grid' for spatial analysis.

The !DESIGN qualifier writes the design matrix out to a .des file. This may faciltate creating design matrices for modelling variances.

The key results from the .asr file are also written in XML format to facilitate parsing by database systems if the X command line option is set.

VPREDICT has been extended to allow processing of XFA and CORUV structures, and use of names rather than just numbers to define the functions calculated,

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