What are standard types? Are they common treatments to connect locations?
When conducting early generation trials there can be a large number, potentially thousands, of test candidates that haven’t been evaluated to any great degree. To assess the potential of the candidates it can be useful to measure them against standard varieties, e.g. those commonly in use. Therefore, it is important to include standards in trials. And yes, for multi-location p-rep designs, the standards can also help to link the locations.
If there a sort of connectivity between treatments (such as genetic similarity) how can an optimal design with partial replicates be created in CycDesigN?
There is varied opinion about the possible gain by trying to include details about the genetic structure of treatments at the design stage. Of course it’s an entirely different story when doing the analysis. Bueno Filho and Gilmour (2003) conclude that for design generation there is usually little to be gained in introducing information about the treatment genetic structure. The primary importance in the design is to cater as best as possible for extraneous variation in the experimental site.
How does CycDesigN deal with MET (Multi Environment Trials)?
CycDesigN’s p-rep multi-location designs work extremely well. You can generate a p-rep design across multiple locations and maximize the average efficiency factor for the design, usually in conjunction with spatial improvement.
Could you comment on the option of repeated randomization during the experiment (plants on conveyor belts)?
It is usually better to design the experiment with appropriate blocking at the start rather than conduct repeated randomizations, presumably in an attempt to adjust for extraneous variation. Then an analysis can provide information on the sources of variation that can be used to
Can we superimpose a spatial design on the p-rep for example, to obtain more repetitions of the checks?
Yes. In CycDesigN spatial improvement is available for p-rep designs. Options are given for the number of checks to be included in the design.
Is CycDesigN compatible with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server?
Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is not supported for any VSNi product. We recommend you create a virtual machine with an Ubuntu 18.04 distribution.