An alternative to Eq. (12), is to obtain k \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{MT}} - {\mathrm{SBLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^MT-SBLUP effects by combining together k single-trait \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{SBLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^SBLUP estimates of Eq. (11), using an optimal index weighting for each trait. The index weighting to derive \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{MT}} - {\mathrm{SBLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^MT-SBLUP from \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{SBLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^SBLUP estimates is identical to the index weighting to derive \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{MT}} - {\mathrm{BLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^MT-BLUP from \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\widehat {\bf{b}}_{{\mathrm{BLUP}}}$$\end{document}b^BLUP estimates.