“…There has been much recent interest in a Bayesian approach to inferences about linear combinations of the fixed and random effects in mixed-effects models (e.g., Gianola, Im, and Macedo, 1990;Gelfand, Hills, Racine-Poon, and Smith, 1990;Hulting and Harville, 1991;Harville and Carriquiry, 1992;Carriquiry and Kliemann, 1992). When taking a Bayesian approach, it is convenient to reparameterize model (1.1) in terms of the precision components z, = l/a; and z, = l/a; or in terms of z, and the ratio p = zs/ze = a:/ai.…”