Preface
=====

.. _history:

History
------------

.. code-block:: History

   The DMU package has been developed over a period of several years, mostly in response to the needs in
   various research projects. 
   
   The name DMU stems from a working name used for initial procedures in the package.
   These procedures were used for MUltivariate analysis by restricted maximum likelihood based on a
   Derivative-free approach.
   
   This release of DMU does not include a module for DF-REML, but we still name the packaged DMU.

   The development of DMU started in the cattle genetic group at the National Institute of Animal Science,
   after several reorganization and merging this group is now part of:
    Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG), Faculty of Technical Science, Aarhus University. 
 
   Funding for the development of the DMU package has been provided
   by several sources, including:
     National Science Foundation (U.S.A.)
     The Danish Research Council of Veterinary and Agricultural Science
     The Danish Institute of Agricultural sciences 
     (former the National Institute of Animal Science)
     The National Committee on Danish Cattle Husbandry

   All financial support has been greatly appreciated.

   Great care has been put into the development of the DMU package to ensure correct computations and
   optimum numerical efficiency. If, however, errors are found in results produced by the DMU package
   they will be attended to as quickly as possible.  Correct use of the package is entirely the
   responsibility of the end user and neither QGG nor the authors will in any way be financially
   responsible for the results of use or misuse of results from DMU.

   DMU has previously been distributed as 5 executables:
   DMU1, DMUAI, DMU4, DMU5 and RJMC.

   This release has only 1 executable (DMU), where the previous executables are included as modules.
   The type of analysis is controlled by the ITASK on the $ANALYSE
   key word line (sse $ANALYSE keyword line).

   The DMU package is constantly being updated and the latest releases can be found at:
    https://dmu.ghpc.au.dk . 

   DMU is free of charge for research purposes but has a limit on number of solutions to random effects
   that are stored in the “SOL” file. If access to all solutions for random effects are needed in ongoing
   research, contact QGG for a time limited license with access to the full solution vector.
   
   Use of DMU should be acknowledged in publications/presentations by reference to this manual:
   (https://dmu.ghpc.au.dk/DMU/Doc/Current/dmuv6_guide.6.0.pdf). 
   
   For commercial use (i.e. routine genetic evaluation) contact QGG for terms of conditions.