Fig. 5.

Determining soft thresholding parameter for scale-free network in BAT expression. These 2 graphics are used to determine the appropriate soft thresholding parameter to use with weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to ensure that the relationships between genes are described using a scale-free network. On the left is the R² value that ranges from 0 to 1 and quantifies how well the data resemble a scale-free network when different parameters (x-axis) are chosen. The red horizontal line represents an R² value of 0.90, the minimum value recommended. The graph on the right depicts the mean gene connectivity for different soft thresholding parameters. In a scale-free network, most genes have few connections. It is recommended that a soft thresholding parameter is chosen when the mean connectivity is small and relatively stable. A soft thresholding parameter of 7 was chosen for this data set.