Sample records for kernel olein blends

  1. Effect of high pressure microfluidization on the crystallization behavior of palm stearin - palm olein blends.

    PubMed

    Han, Lijuan; Li, Lin; Li, Bing; Zhao, Lei; Liu, Guoqin; Liu, Xinqi; Wang, Xuede

    2014-04-24

    Moderate and high microfluidization pressures (60 and 120 MPa) and different treatment times (once and twice) were used to investigate the effect of high-pressure microfluidization (HPM) treatment on the crystallization behavior and physical properties of binary mixtures of palm stearin (PS) and palm olein (PO). The polarized light microscopy (PLM), texture analyzer, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were applied to analyze the changes in crystal network structure, hardness, polymorphism and thermal property of the control and treated blends. PLM results showed that HPM caused significant reductions in maximum crystal diameter in all treated blends, and thus led to changes in the crystal network structure, and finally caused higher hardness in than the control blends. The XRD study demonstrated that HPM altered crystalline polymorphism. The HPM-treated blends showed a predominance of the more stable β' form, which is of more interest for food applications, while the control blend had more α- and β-form. This result was further confirmed by DSC observations. These changes in crystallization behavior indicated that HPM treatment was more likely to modify the crystallization processes and nucleation mechanisms.

  2. Thermal profiles, crystallization behaviors and microstructure of diacylglycerol-enriched palm oil blends with diacylglycerol-enriched palm olein.

    PubMed

    Xu, Yayuan; Zhao, Xiaoqing; Wang, Qiang; Peng, Zhen; Dong, Cao

    2016-07-01

    To elucidate the possible interaction mechanisms between DAG-enriched oils, this study investigated how mixtures of DAG-enriched palm-based oils influenced the phase behavior, thermal properties, crystallization behaviors and the microstructure in binary fat blends. DAG-enriched palm oil (PO-DAGE) was blended with DAG-enriched palm olein (POL-DAGE) in various percentages (0%, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, 100%). Based on the observation of iso-solid diagram and phase diagram, the binary mixture of PO-DAGE/POL-DAGE showed a better compatibility in comparison with their corresponding original blends. DSC thermal profiles exhibited that the melting and crystallization properties of PO-DAGE/POL-DAGE were distinctively different from corresponding original blends. Crystallization kinetics revealed that PO-DAGE/POL-DAGE blends displayed a rather high crystallization rate and exhibited no spherulitic crystal growth. From the results of polarized light micrographs, PO-DAGE/POL-DAGE blends showed more dense structure with very small needle-like crystals than PO/POL. X-ray diffraction evaluation revealed when POL-DAGE was added in high contents to PO-DAGE, above 30%, β-polymorph dominated, and the mount of β' forms crystals was decreasing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Use of pilot plant scale continuous fryer to simulate industrial production of potato chips: thermal properties of palm olein blends under continuous frying conditions

    PubMed Central

    Tarmizi, Azmil Haizam Ahmad; Ismail, Razali

    2014-01-01

    Binary blends of palm olein (PO) with sunflower oil (SFO), canola oil (CNO), and cottonseed oil (CSO) were formulated to assess their stability under continuous frying conditions. The results were then compared with those obtained in PO. The oil blends studied were: (1) 60:40 for PO + SFO; (2) 70:30 for PO + CNO; and (3) 50:50 for PO + CSO. The PO and its blends were used to fry potato chips at 180°C for a total of 56 h of operation. The evolution of analytical parameters such as tocols, induction period, color, p-anisidine value, free fatty acid, smoke point, polar compounds, and polymer compounds were evaluated over the frying time. Blending PO with unsaturated oils was generally proved to keep most qualitative parameters comparable to those demonstrated in PO. Indeed, none of the oils surpassed the legislative limits for used frying. Overall, it was noted that oil containing PO and SFO showed higher resistance toward oxidative and hydrolytic behaviors as compared to the other oil blends. PMID:24804062

  4. Reproduction studies in the rat with shea oleine and hardened shea oleine.

    PubMed

    Baldrick, P; Robinson, J A; Hepburn, P A

    2001-09-01

    Shea oleine is an oil fraction derived from the nut of the tree Butyrospermum parkii, which grows in central and western Africa. There are several uses of shea oleine including its use as a frying oil and, after hardening, in margarine and toffee fat. This investigation was performed to examine the toxicity of 7 or 15% hardened shea oleine in comparison with 7 or 15% unhardened shea oleine and various commercially available materials, sheanut and palm oils, cocoa butter and toffee powder following dietary administration to rats during pre-mating, mating, pregnancy and offspring weaning in two separate investigations. Reproduction was assessed using number of litters and pups born plus survival and body weights at birth and at weaning on day 21. Skeletal evaluation using X-ray, clinical pathology and a macroscopic examination were also performed for F1 rats. Study measures for parent animals comprised evaluation of body weight, food consumption, clinical pathology, organ weights and macroscopic examination. Fatty acids and hydrocarbon levels were measured and an evaluation for lipogranulomata was made for various tissues. Results showed that shea oleine, whether unhardened or hardened, produced no evidence of reproduction toxicity and gave a similar profile to the other commercially available materials used in this study in the rat. Minor findings with shea oleine were not related to reproduction performance but comprised slightly reduced body weight gain and reduced cholesterol and raised alkaline phosphatase levels. None of the findings in this study were considered to be of toxicological significance. Thus, no evidence of reproduction toxicity was seen for both unhardened and hardened shea oleine in this investigation in the rat at levels equating to greater than 7.5 g/kg/day.

  5. Blending of palm oil, palm stearin and palm kernel oil in the preparation of table and pastry margarine.

    PubMed

    Norlida, H M; Md Ali, A R; Muhadhir, I

    1996-01-01

    Palm oil (PO ; iodin value = 52), palm stearin (POs1; i.v. = 32 and POs2; i.v. = 40) and palm kernel oil (PKO; i.v. = 17) were blended in ternary systems. The blends were then studied for their physical properties such as melting point (m.p.), solid fat content (SFC), and cooling curve. Results showed that palm stearin increased the blends melting point while palm kernel oil reduced it. To produce table margarine with melting point (m.p.) below 40 degrees C, the POs1 should be added at level of < or = 16%, while POs2 at level of < or = 20%. At 10 degrees C, eutectic interaction occur between PO and PKO which reach their maximum at about 60:40 blending ratio. Within the eutectic region, to maintain the SFC at 10 degrees C to be < or = 50%, POs1 may be added at level of < or = 7%, while POs2 at level of < or = 12%. The addition of palm stearin increased the blends solidification Tmin and Tmax values, while PKO reduced them. Blends which contained high amount of palm stearin showed melting point and cooling curves quite similar to that of pastry margarine.

  6. Synthesis of Transesterified Palm Olein-Based Polyol and Rigid Polyurethanes from this Polyol.

    PubMed

    Arniza, Mohd Zan; Hoong, Seng Soi; Idris, Zainab; Yeong, Shoot Kian; Hassan, Hazimah Abu; Din, Ahmad Kushairi; Choo, Yuen May

    Transesterification of palm olein with glycerol can increase the functionality by introducing additional hydroxyl groups to the triglyceride structure, an advantage compared to using palm olein directly as feedstock for producing palm-based polyol. The objective of this study was to synthesize transesterified palm olein-based polyol via a three-step reaction: (1) transesterification of palm olein, (2) epoxidation and (3) epoxide ring opening. Transesterification of palm olein yielded approximately 78 % monoglyceride and has an hydroxyl value of approximately 164 mg KOH g -1 . The effect of formic acid and hydrogen peroxide concentrations on the epoxidation reaction was studied. The relationships between epoxide ring-opening reaction time and residual oxirane oxygen content and hydroxyl value were monitored. The synthesized transesterified palm olein-based polyol has hydroxyl value between 300 and 330 mg KOH g -1 and average molecular weight between 1,000 and 1,100 Da. On the basis of the hydroxyl value and average molecular weight of the polyol, the transesterified palm olein-based polyol is suitable for producing rigid polyurethane foam, which can be designed to exhibit desirable properties. Rigid polyurethane foams were synthesized by substituting a portion of petroleum-based polyol with the transesterified palm olein-based polyol. It was observed that by increasing the amount of transesterified palm olein-based polyol, the core density and compressive strength were reduced but at the same time the insulation properties of the rigid polyurethane foam were improved.

  7. Synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures using palm olein as biotemplate

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background A green approach to synthesize nanomaterials using biotemplates has been subjected to intense research due to several advantages. Palm olein as a biotemplate offers the benefits of eco-friendliness, low-cost and scale-up for large scale production. Therefore, the effect of palm olein on morphology and surface properties of ZnO nanostructures were investigated. Results The results indicate that palm olein as a biotemplate can be used to modify the shape and size of ZnO particles synthesized by hydrothermal method. Different morphology including flake-, flower- and three dimensional star-like structures were obtained. FTIR study indicated the reaction between carboxyl group of palm olein and zinc species had taken place. Specific surface area enhanced while no considerable change were observed in optical properties. Conclusion Phase-pure ZnO particles were successfully synthesized using palm olein as soft biotemplating agent by hydrothermal method. The physico-chemical properties of the resulting ZnO particles can be tuned using the ratio of palm olein to Zn cation. PMID:23601826

  8. Classification and quantification analysis of peach kernel from different origins with near-infrared diffuse reflection spectroscopy

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Wei; Wang, Zhen-Zhong; Qing, Jian-Ping; Li, Hong-Juan; Xiao, Wei

    2014-01-01

    Background: Peach kernels which contain kinds of fatty acids play an important role in the regulation of a variety of physiological and biological functions. Objective: To establish an innovative and rapid diffuse reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy (DR-NIR) analysis method along with chemometric techniques for the qualitative and quantitative determination of a peach kernel. Materials and Methods: Peach kernel samples from nine different origins were analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a reference method. DR-NIR is in the spectral range 1100-2300 nm. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) algorithm were applied to obtain prediction models, The Savitzky-Golay derivative and first derivative were adopted for the spectral pre-processing, PCA was applied to classify the varieties of those samples. For the quantitative calibration, the models of linoleic and oleinic acids were established with the PLSR algorithm and the optimal principal component (PC) numbers were selected with leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation. The established models were evaluated with the root mean square error of deviation (RMSED) and corresponding correlation coefficients (R2). Results: The PCA results of DR-NIR spectra yield clear classification of the two varieties of peach kernel. PLSR had a better predictive ability. The correlation coefficients of the two calibration models were above 0.99, and the RMSED of linoleic and oleinic acids were 1.266% and 1.412%, respectively. Conclusion: The DR-NIR combined with PCA and PLSR algorithm could be used efficiently to identify and quantify peach kernels and also help to solve variety problem. PMID:25422544

  9. Physicochemical properties and potential food applications of Moringa oleifera seed oil blended with other vegetable oils.

    PubMed

    Dollah, Sarafhana; Abdulkarim, Sabo Muhammad; Ahmad, Siti Hajar; Khoramnia, Anahita; Ghazali, Hasanah Mohd

    2014-01-01

    Blends (30:70, 50:50 and 70:30 w/w) of Moringa oleifera seed oil (MoO) with palm olein (PO), palm stearin (PS), palm kernel oil (PKO) and virgin coconut oil (VCO) were prepared. To determine the physicochemical properties of the blends, the iodine value (IV), saponication value (SV), fatty acid (FA) composition, triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, thermal behaviour (DSC) and solid fat content (SFC) tests were analysed. The incorporation of high oleic acid (81.73%) MoO into the blends resulted in the reduction of palmitic acid content of PO and PS from 36.38% to 17.17% and 54.66% to 14.39% and lauric acid content of PKO and VCO from 50.63% to 17.70% and 51.26% to 26.05% respectively while oleic acid and degree of unsaturation were increased in all blends. Changes in the FA composition and TAG profile have significantly affected the thermal behavior and solid fat content of the oil blends. In MoO/PO blends the melting temperature of MoO decreased while, in MoO/PS, MoO/PKO and MoO/VCO blends, it increased indicating produce of zero-trans harder oil blends without use of partial hydrogenation. The spreadability of PS, PKO and VCO in low temperatures was also increased due to incorporation of MoO. The melting point of PS significantly decreased in MoO/PS blends which proved to be suitable for high oleic bakery shortening and confectionary shortening formulation. The finding appears that blending of MoO with other vegetable oils would enable the initial properties of the oils to be modified or altered and provide functional and nutritional attributes for usage in various food applications, increasing the possibilities for the commercial use of these oils.

  10. Microwave-assisted cationic polymerization of palm olein and their urea inclusion products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soegijono, Bambang; Farid, Muhamad; Alim Mas'ud, Zainal

    2018-01-01

    Cationic polymerization is affected by the relative amount of unsaturated bond (C=C) in the compound. The enrichment of an unsaturated triglyceride fraction from oils may be performed using urea inclusion techniques. In this study, palm olein was enriched-unsaturated fraction using urea-methanol system. The palm olein and its urea-inclusion products were cationic polymerized with ethereal boron trifluoride catalyst and followed by irradiation using a commercial microwave (microwave-assisted). The microwave irradiated products were cured at 110 °C for 24 hours. Fatty acid composition of the palm olein and its urea-inclusion products were analyzed by gas chromatography. Iodine numbers, functional groups, and ultraviolet absorption spectra of all palm olein origin, urea inclusion products and polymerization products were analyzed using titrimetric, ultraviolet spectrophotometric, and Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometric methods. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) was used to observe the thermal characteristics of the polymer. Urea-inclusion process increased the unsaturated fatty acid components as indicated by the increased iodine number, intensity of alkene band absorptions in the infrared spectra, and the absorbance of the ultraviolet spectra. The polymer formation is converting the C=C group to C-C, which is indicated by the opposite of the urea inclusion process. The curing process results in reformation of new C=C bonds that were similar to that of the urea inclusion process. The DSC thermogram curve shows that the enrichment process improves the thermal stability of the polymer formed.

  11. Catalytic Efficiency of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) and Zeolite ZSM-5 Catalysts in the in-situ Epoxidation of Palm Olein

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yunus, M. Z. Mohd; Jamaludin, S. K.; Abd. Karim, S. F.; Gani, A. Abd; Sauki, A.

    2018-05-01

    Titanium dioxide and zeolite ZSM-5 are the commonly used heterogeneous catalysts in many chemical reactions. They have several advantages such as low cost and environmental friendly. In this study, titanium dioxide and zeolite ZSM-5 act as catalyst in the in-situ epoxidation of palm olein. Epoxidation of palm olein was carried out by using in-situ generated performic acid to produce epoxidized palm olein in a semi-batch reactor at different temperatures (45°C and 60°C) and agitation speed of 400 rpm. The effects of both catalysts are studied to compare their efficiency in catalyzing the in-situ epoxidation. Epoxidized palm olein was analyzed by using percent of relative conversion to oxirane (RCO%) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Surface area of the catalysts used were then characterized by using BET. The results indicated that titanium dioxide is a better catalyst in the in-situ epoxidation of palm olein since it provides higher RCO% compared to Zeolite ZSM-5 at 45°C.

  12. Comparison of the Effects of Blending and Juicing on the Phytochemicals Contents and Antioxidant Capacity of Typical Korean Kernel Fruit Juices

    PubMed Central

    Pyo, Young-Hee; Jin, Yoo-Jeong; Hwang, Ji-Young

    2014-01-01

    Four Korean kernel fruit (apple, pear, persimmon, and mandarin orange) juices were obtained by household processing techniques (i.e., blending, juicing). Whole and flesh fractions of each fruit were extracted by a blender or a juicer and then examined for phytochemical content (i.e., organic acids, polyphenol compounds). The antioxidant capacity of each juice was determined by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays. Results revealed that juices that had been prepared by blending whole fruits had stronger antioxidant activities and contained larger amounts of phenolic compounds than juices that had been prepared by juicing the flesh fraction of the fruit. However, the concentration of ascorbic acid in apple, pear, and mandarin orange juices was significantly (P<0.05) higher in juice that had been processed by juicing, rather than blending. The juices with the highest ascorbic acid (233.9 mg/serving), total polyphenols (862.3 mg gallic acid equivalents/serving), and flavonoids (295.1 mg quercetin equivalents/serving) concentrations were blended persimmon juice, blended mandarin orange juice, and juiced apple juice, respectively. These results indicate that juice extraction techniques significantly (P<0.05) influences the phytochemical levels and antioxidant capacity of fruit juices. PMID:25054109

  13. Effects of emulsifier addition on the crystallization and melting behavior of palm olein and coconut oil.

    PubMed

    Maruyama, Jessica Mayumi; Soares, Fabiana Andreia Schafer De Martini; D'Agostinho, Natalia Roque; Gonçalves, Maria Inês Almeida; Gioielli, Luiz Antonio; da Silva, Roberta Claro

    2014-03-12

    Two commercial emulsifiers (EM1 and EM2), containing predominantly monoacylglycerols (MAGs), were added in proportiond of 1.0 and 3.0% (w/w) to coconut oil and palm olein. EM1 consisted of approximately 90% MAGs, whereas EM2 consisted of approximately 50% MAGs. The crystallization behavior of these systems was evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and microscopy under polarized light. On the basis of DSC results, it was clear that the addition of EM2 accelerated the crystallization of coconut oil and delayed the crystallization of palm olein. In both oils EM2 addition led to the formation of smaller spherulites, and these effects improved the possibilities for using these fats as ingredients. In coconut oil the spherulites were maintained even at higher temperatures (20 °C). The addition of EM1 to coconut oil changed the crystallization pattern. In palm olein, the addition of 3.0% (w/w) of this emulsifier altered the pattern of crystallization of this fat.

  14. Spectroscopic and theoretical investigations of alkali metal linoleates and oleinates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Świsłocka, Renata; Regulska, Ewa; Jarońko, Paweł; Lewandowski, Włodzimierz

    2017-11-01

    The influence of lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and cesium on the electronic system of the linoleic (cis-9,cis-12-octadecadienoic) and oleic (cis-9-octadecenoic) acids was investigated. The complementary analytical methods: vibrational (IR, Raman) and electronic (UV) molecular absorption spectroscopy as well as DFT quantum mechanical calculations (charge distribution, angles between bonds, bond lengths, theoretical IR and NMR spectra) were carried out. The regular shifts of bands connected with carboxylate anion in the spectra of studied salts were observed. Some bonds and angles reduced or elongated in the series: acid→Li→Na→K linoleates/oleinates. The highest changes were noted for bond lengths and angles concerning COO- ion. The electronic charge distribution in studied molecules was also discussed. Total atomic charges of carboxylate anion decrease as a result of the replacement of hydrogen atom with alkali metal cation. The increasing values of dipole moment and decreasing values of total energy in the order: linoleic/oleic acid→lithium→sodium→potassium linoleates/oleinates indicate an increase in stability of the compounds.

  15. Feasibility of Continuous Frying System to Improve the Quality Indices of Palm Olein for the Production of Extruded Product.

    PubMed

    Ahmad Tarmizi, Azmil Haizam; Ahmad, Karimah

    2015-01-01

    Comparative frying studies on the processing of extruded product were conducted under intermittent and continuous frying conditions using two separate frying systems, i.e batch and pilot scale continuous fryers, respectively. Thermal resistance of palm olein were assessed for a total of 5 days of frying operation at 155°C - the unconventional frying temperature gave the product moisture content of 3% after intermittent and continuous frying for 2.5 min and 2 min, respectively. The formation of free fatty acid in palm olein in the case of intermittent frying was more than 2-fold higher compared to its counterpart (0.66%). Smoke point inversely evolved with oil acidity: the value dropped progressively from 215 to 177°C and from 219 to 188°C when extruded product was intermittently and continuously fried, respectively. In the light of induction period, repeated frying exhibited a gradual decrease in the value after 5 days of frying (12.2 h). Interestingly, continuous frying gave somewhat similar induction period, as demonstrated by fresh palm olein, across frying time. Frying at lower temperature, to some extent, provides opportunity for palm olein to retain 74% of its initial vitamin E during continuous frying. This benefit, however, is somehow denied when extruded product was processed under intermittent frying conditions--only 27% of vitamin E was remained at the end of frying session. Regardless of frying protocols, transient in polar compounds was minimal and hence comparable. The colour in the case of continuous frying appeared to be darker due to higher degree of oil utilisation for frying. The data obtained will provide useful information for food processors on how palm olein behaves when frying is undertaken under different frying protocols.

  16. Effect of dietary palm olein oil on oxidative stress associated with ischemic-reperfusion injury in isolated rat heart

    PubMed Central

    Narang, Deepak; Sood, Subeena; Thomas, Mathew Kadali; Dinda, Amit Kumar; Maulik, Subir Kumar

    2004-01-01

    Background Palm olein oil (PO), obtained from refining of palm oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acid and antioxidant vitamins and is widely used as oil in diet in many parts of the world including India. Palm oil has been reported to have beneficial effects in oxidative stress associated with hypertension and arterial thrombosis. Oxidative stress plays a major role in the etiopathology of myocardial ischemic-reperfusion injury (IRI) which is a common sequel of ischemic heart disease. Antioxidants have potent therapeutic effects on both ischemic heart disease and ischemic-reperfusion injury. Information on the effect of PO on ischemic-reperfusion injury is, however, lacking. In the present study, the effect of dietary palm olein oil on oxidative stress associated with IRI was investigated in an isolated rat heart model. Wistar rats (150–200 gm) of either sex were divided into three different groups (n = 16). Rats were fed with palm olein oil supplemented commercial rat diet, in two different doses [5% v / w (PO 5) and 10% v / w (PO 10) of diet] for 30 days. Control rats (C) were fed with normal diet. After 30 days, half the rats from each group were subjected to in vitro myocardial IRI (20 min of global ischemia, followed by 40 min of reperfusion). Hearts from all the groups were then processed for biochemical and histopathological studies. One way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni test was applied to test for significance and values are expressed as mean ± SE (p < 0.05). Results There was a significant increase in myocardial catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities with no significant change in myocardial thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) only in group PO 5 as compared to group C. There was no light microscopic evidence of tissue injury. A significant rise in myocardial TBARS and depletion of myocardial endogenous antioxidants (SOD, CAT and GPx) along with significant myocyte injury was observed in

  17. Influence of enzymatic and chemical interesterification on crystallisation properties of refined, bleached and deodourised (RBD) palm oil and RBD palm kernel oil blends.

    PubMed

    Norizzah, Abd Rashid; Nur Azimah, Kamarulzaman; Zaliha, Omar

    2018-04-01

    Interesterification reaction involves rearrangement of the fatty acid radicals on the glycerol backbone, either randomly (chemical interesterification) or regioselectivity (enzymatic interesterification). Refined, bleached and deodourised palm oil (RBDPO) and palm kernel oil (RBDPKO) were blended in ratios from 25:75 to 75:25 (wt/wt). All blends were subjected to enzymatic (EI) and chemical interesterification (CI) using Lipozyme TL IM (4% w/w) and sodium methoxide (0.2% m/m) as the catalysts, respectively. The effect of EI and CI on the triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, thermal behaviour, polymorphism, crystal morphology and crystallisation kinetics were studied. The aim of this research is to characterise the nature of crystals in food product for certain desired structure. The crystallisation behaviour discussed in this study involves microstructure (PLM), polymorphism (XRD), thermal properties and crystallisation kinetics by DSC. The alteration in TAG composition was greater after CI as compared to EI with the reduction of LaLaLa (from 11.00% to 5.15%) and POO (from 14.28% to 4.87%). The DSC complete melting and crystallisation temperature of blend with 75% PO increased after CI, from 39.58 °C to 41.67 °C and from -30.84 °C to -28.33 °C, respectively. EI contributed to finer crystals than CI. However, the β' and β polymorph mixture and crystallisation kinetics (n = 2) of PO-PKO blends did not change after CI and EI. The knowledge on controlling crystallisation of RBDPO and RBDPKO blends is vital for proper processing condition like margarine production. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Omega-3 fatty acids and oxidative stability of ice cream supplemented with olein fraction of chia (Salvia hispanica L.) oil.

    PubMed

    Ullah, Rahman; Nadeem, Muhammad; Imran, Muhammad

    2017-02-07

    Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) has been regarded as good source of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids with cardiac, hepatic, hypotensive, antiallergic and antidiabetic role. Concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in chia oil can be enhanced by fractionation. Olein/low melting fraction of chia oil has higher concentration of omega-3 fatty acids. Therefore, main objective of current investigation was determination of various concentration effect of olein fraction of chia oil on omega-3 fatty acids, oxidative stability and sensory characteristics of ice cream. Ice cream samples were prepared by partially replacing the milk fat with olein fraction of chia oil at 5, 10, 15 and 20% concentrations (T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 ), respectively. Ice cream prepared from 100% milk fat was kept as control. Ice cream samples stored at -18 °C for 60 days were analysed at 0, 30 and 60 days of the storage period. Fatty acid profile, total phenolic contents, total flavonoids, free fatty acids, peroxide value, anisidine value and sensory characteristics of ice cream samples was studied. Concentration of α-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid in T 4 was 13.24, 0.58, 0.42 and 0.31%, respectively. Total phenolic contents of control, T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 were recorded 0.12, 1.65, 3.17, 5.19 and 7.48 mg GAE/mL, respectively. Total flavonoid content of control, T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 were found 0.08, 0.64, 1.87, 3.16 and 4.29 mg Quercetin Equivalent/mL. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity of control, T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 was noted 5.61, 17.43, 36.84, 51.17 and 74.91%, respectively. After 60 days of storage period, the highest peroxide value of 1.84 (MeqO 2 /kg) was observed in T 4 , which was much less than allowable limit of 10 (MeqO 2 /kg). Flavour score was non-significant after 30 days of storage period. Supplementation of ice cream with olein fraction of chia oil enhanced the concentration of

  19. Changes of headspace volatile constituents of palm olein and selected oils after frying French fries.

    PubMed

    Omar, Muhammad Nor Bin; Nor, Nor Nazuha M; Idris, Nor Aini

    2007-04-01

    Changes of aroma constituents of palm olein and selected oils after frying French fries have been studied. The aroma constituents of used oils were collected using a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) headspace technique with an absorbent of a divinylbenzene/carboxen (DVB/CAR) (50/30 microm) on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fibre. The extracted volatiles were desorbed from the fibre in the injection port of the gas chromatograph at 250 degrees C and the aroma constituents were identified by GC-MS. Analytical data showed that volatile constituents of palm olein, soybean oil, corn oil and sunflower oil changed while frying continued from 2 to 40 h, respectively. In palm olein, the 2t,4t-decadienal content decreased from 14.7 to 5.5 microg g(-1) (40 h) whilst hexanal increased from 7.9 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 29.2 microg g(-1) (40 h), respectively. Similar result was also obtained from soybean oil after frying French fries. The 2t,4t-decadienal content decreased from 15.9 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 3.2 microg g(-1) after 40 h frying whilst hexanal increased from 10.2 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 34.2 microg g(-1) (40 h). Meanwhile, in corn oil, it was found that 2t,4t-decadienal decreased from 15.6 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 3.2 microg g(-1) (40 h) whilst hexanal increased from 11.3 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 33.8 microg g(-1) when frying time reached 40 h. In sunflower oil, it was found that 2t,4t-decadienal, decreased from 16.8 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 1.2 microg g(-1) (40 h) while hexanal increased from 9.5 microg g(-1) (2 h) to 32.4 microg g(-1) when frying time reached 40 h. It also showed that used oils exhibited off-odour characteristics due to the increasing amount ofhexanal while their freshness characteristics diminished due to the decreasing amount of 2t, 4t-decadienal.

  20. Comparison of Pure Palm Olein Oil, Hydrogenated Oil-Containing Palm, and Canola on Serum Lipids and Lipid Oxidation Rate in Rats Fed with these Oils.

    PubMed

    Amini, Seyed-Asadollah; Ghatreh-Samani, Keihan; Habibi-Kohi, Arash; Jafari, Laleh

    2017-02-01

    Due to increased consumption of canola oil and hydrogenated oil containing palm and palm olein, and their possible effects on serum lipoproteins, the present study was conducted to determine the effects of these oils on lipids and lipid oxidation level. In this experimental study, 88 Wistar rats were randomly assigned to four groups. Control group (A) was on a normal diet. Groups B, C, and D, in addition to normal diet, were fed with hydrogenated oil-contained palm oil, pure palm olein oil, and canola oil, respectively for 4 weeks. Serum Biochemical factors [total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), LDL, HDL, LDL/HDL ratio, oxLDL, paraoxanase-1 (PON1), and malondialdehyde (MDA)] were measured. The lowest mean serum TC was seen in the control group and the highest in the group B. There were differences in TC, TG, HDL, MDA, and PON1 between the control group and other groups (P<0.001). The lowest and highest LDL/HDL ratios were observed in the group C and the control group, respectively. Significant differences were seen in OxLDL and PON1 between the control group and other three groups (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences in oxLDL and PON1 among the other three groups (P>0.05). MDA was higher in groups C and D. Canola oil, hydrogenated oil-containing palm and palm olein may increase atherosclerosis risk through decreasing PON1 activity and elevating oxLDL. Palm olein oils in rats' diets cause a considerable decrease in LDL and help to increase HDL.

  1. Effect of solid fat content on structure in ice creams containing palm kernel oil and high-oleic sunflower oil.

    PubMed

    Sung, Kristine K; Goff, H Douglas

    2010-04-01

    The development of a structural fat network in ice cream as influenced by the solid:liquid fat ratio at the time of freezing/whipping was investigated. The solid fat content was varied with blends of a hard fraction of palm kernel oil (PKO) and high-oleic sunflower oil ranging from 40% to 100% PKO. Fat globule size and adsorbed protein levels in mix and overrun, fat destabilization, meltdown resistance, and air bubble size in ice cream were measured. It was found that blends comprising 60% to 80% solid fat produced the highest rates of fat destabilization that could be described as partial coalescence (as opposed to coalescence), lowest rates of meltdown, and smallest air bubble sizes. Lower levels of solid fat produced fat destabilization that was better characterized as coalescence, leading to loss of structural integrity, whereas higher levels of solid fat led to lower levels of fat network formation and thus also to reduced structural integrity. Blends of highly saturated palm kernel oil and monounsaturated high-oleic sunflower oil were used to modify the solid:liquid ratio of fat blends used for ice cream manufacture. Blends that contained 60% to 80% solid fat at freezing/whipping temperatures produced optimal structures leading to low rates of meltdown. This provides a useful reference for manufacturers to help in the selection of appropriate fat blends for nondairy-fat ice cream.

  2. Robotic intelligence kernel

    DOEpatents

    Bruemmer, David J [Idaho Falls, ID

    2009-11-17

    A robot platform includes perceptors, locomotors, and a system controller. The system controller executes a robot intelligence kernel (RIK) that includes a multi-level architecture and a dynamic autonomy structure. The multi-level architecture includes a robot behavior level for defining robot behaviors, that incorporate robot attributes and a cognitive level for defining conduct modules that blend an adaptive interaction between predefined decision functions and the robot behaviors. The dynamic autonomy structure is configured for modifying a transaction capacity between an operator intervention and a robot initiative and may include multiple levels with at least a teleoperation mode configured to maximize the operator intervention and minimize the robot initiative and an autonomous mode configured to minimize the operator intervention and maximize the robot initiative. Within the RIK at least the cognitive level includes the dynamic autonomy structure.

  3. Experimental analysis of performance and emission on DI diesel engine fueled with diesel-palm kernel methyl ester-triacetin blends: a Taguchi fuzzy-based optimization.

    PubMed

    Panda, Jibitesh Kumar; Sastry, Gadepalli Ravi Kiran; Rai, Ram Naresh

    2018-05-25

    The energy situation and the concerns about global warming nowadays have ignited research interest in non-conventional and alternative fuel resources to decrease the emission and the continuous dependency on fossil fuels, particularly for various sectors like power generation, transportation, and agriculture. In the present work, the research is focused on evaluating the performance, emission characteristics, and combustion of biodiesel such as palm kernel methyl ester with the addition of diesel additive "triacetin" in it. A timed manifold injection (TMI) system was taken up to examine the influence of durations of several blends induced on the emission and performance characteristics as compared to normal diesel operation. This experimental study shows better performance and releases less emission as compared with mineral diesel and in turn, indicates that high performance and low emission is promising in PKME-triacetin fuel operation. This analysis also attempts to describe the application of the fuzzy logic-based Taguchi analysis to optimize the emission and performance parameters.

  4. Kernel Machine SNP-set Testing under Multiple Candidate Kernels

    PubMed Central

    Wu, Michael C.; Maity, Arnab; Lee, Seunggeun; Simmons, Elizabeth M.; Harmon, Quaker E.; Lin, Xinyi; Engel, Stephanie M.; Molldrem, Jeffrey J.; Armistead, Paul M.

    2013-01-01

    Joint testing for the cumulative effect of multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms grouped on the basis of prior biological knowledge has become a popular and powerful strategy for the analysis of large scale genetic association studies. The kernel machine (KM) testing framework is a useful approach that has been proposed for testing associations between multiple genetic variants and many different types of complex traits by comparing pairwise similarity in phenotype between subjects to pairwise similarity in genotype, with similarity in genotype defined via a kernel function. An advantage of the KM framework is its flexibility: choosing different kernel functions allows for different assumptions concerning the underlying model and can allow for improved power. In practice, it is difficult to know which kernel to use a priori since this depends on the unknown underlying trait architecture and selecting the kernel which gives the lowest p-value can lead to inflated type I error. Therefore, we propose practical strategies for KM testing when multiple candidate kernels are present based on constructing composite kernels and based on efficient perturbation procedures. We demonstrate through simulations and real data applications that the procedures protect the type I error rate and can lead to substantially improved power over poor choices of kernels and only modest differences in power versus using the best candidate kernel. PMID:23471868

  5. Super, Red Palm and Palm Oleins Improve the Blood Pressure, Heart Size, Aortic Media Thickness and Lipid Profile in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

    PubMed Central

    Boon, Chee-Meng; Ng, Mei-Han; Choo, Yuen-May; Mok, Shiueh-Lian

    2013-01-01

    Background Oleic acid has been shown to lower high blood pressure and provide cardiovascular protection. Curiosity arises as to whether super olein (SO), red palm olein (RPO) and palm olein (PO), which have high oleic acid content, are able to prevent the development of hypertension. Methodology/Principal Findings Four-week-old male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were fed 15% SO, RPO or PO supplemented diet for 15 weeks. After 15 weeks of treatment, the systolic blood pressure (SBP) of SHR treated with SO, RPO and PO were 158.4±5.0 mmHg (p<0.001), 178.9±2.7 mmHg (p<0.001) and 167.7±2.1 mmHg (p<0.001), respectively, compared with SHR controls (220.9±1.5 mmHg). Bradycardia was observed with SO and PO. In contrast, the SBP and heart rate of treated WKY rats were not different from those of WKY controls. The SO and PO significantly reduced the increased heart size and thoracic aortic media thickness observed in untreated SHR but RPO reduced only the latter. No such differences, however, were observed between the treated and untreated WKY rats. Oil Red O enface staining of thoracic-abdominal aorta did not show any lipid deposition in all treated rats. The SO and RPO significantly raised serum alkaline phosphatase levels in the SHR while body weight and renal biochemical indices were unaltered in both strains. Serum lipid profiles of treated SHR and WKY rats were unchanged, with the exception of a significant reduction in LDL-C level and total cholesterol/HDL ratio (atherogenic index) in SO and RPO treated SHR compared with untreated SHR. Conclusion The SO, RPO and PO attenuate the rise in blood pressure in SHR, accompanied by bradycardia and heart size reduction with SO and PO, and aortic media thickness reduction with SO, RPO and PO. The SO and RPO are antiatherogenic in nature by improving blood lipid profiles in SHR. PMID:23409085

  6. Learning a peptide-protein binding affinity predictor with kernel ridge regression

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background The cellular function of a vast majority of proteins is performed through physical interactions with other biomolecules, which, most of the time, are other proteins. Peptides represent templates of choice for mimicking a secondary structure in order to modulate protein-protein interaction. They are thus an interesting class of therapeutics since they also display strong activity, high selectivity, low toxicity and few drug-drug interactions. Furthermore, predicting peptides that would bind to a specific MHC alleles would be of tremendous benefit to improve vaccine based therapy and possibly generate antibodies with greater affinity. Modern computational methods have the potential to accelerate and lower the cost of drug and vaccine discovery by selecting potential compounds for testing in silico prior to biological validation. Results We propose a specialized string kernel for small bio-molecules, peptides and pseudo-sequences of binding interfaces. The kernel incorporates physico-chemical properties of amino acids and elegantly generalizes eight kernels, comprised of the Oligo, the Weighted Degree, the Blended Spectrum, and the Radial Basis Function. We provide a low complexity dynamic programming algorithm for the exact computation of the kernel and a linear time algorithm for it’s approximation. Combined with kernel ridge regression and SupCK, a novel binding pocket kernel, the proposed kernel yields biologically relevant and good prediction accuracy on the PepX database. For the first time, a machine learning predictor is capable of predicting the binding affinity of any peptide to any protein with reasonable accuracy. The method was also applied to both single-target and pan-specific Major Histocompatibility Complex class II benchmark datasets and three Quantitative Structure Affinity Model benchmark datasets. Conclusion On all benchmarks, our method significantly (p-value ≤ 0.057) outperforms the current state-of-the-art methods at predicting

  7. Kernel Abortion in Maize 1

    PubMed Central

    Hanft, Jonathan M.; Jones, Robert J.

    1986-01-01

    Kernels cultured in vitro were induced to abort by high temperature (35°C) and by culturing six kernels/cob piece. Aborting kernels failed to enter a linear phase of dry mass accumulation and had a final mass that was less than 6% of nonaborting field-grown kernels. Kernels induced to abort by high temperature failed to synthesize starch in the endosperm and had elevated sucrose concentrations and low fructose and glucose concentrations in the pedicel during early growth compared to nonaborting kernels. Kernels induced to abort by high temperature also had much lower pedicel soluble acid invertase activities than did nonaborting kernels. These results suggest that high temperature during the lag phase of kernel growth may impair the process of sucrose unloading in the pedicel by indirectly inhibiting soluble acid invertase activity and prevent starch synthesis in the endosperm. Kernels induced to abort by culturing six kernels/cob piece had reduced pedicel fructose, glucose, and sucrose concentrations compared to kernels from field-grown ears. These aborting kernels also had a lower pedicel soluble acid invertase activity compared to nonaborting kernels from the same cob piece and from field-grown ears. The low invertase activity in pedicel tissue of the aborting kernels was probably caused by a lack of substrate (sucrose) for the invertase to cleave due to the intense competition for available assimilates. In contrast to kernels cultured at 35°C, aborting kernels from cob pieces containing all six kernels accumulated starch in a linear fashion. These results indicate that kernels cultured six/cob piece abort because of an inadequate supply of sugar and are similar to apical kernels from field-grown ears that often abort prior to the onset of linear growth. PMID:16664846

  8. Approximate kernel competitive learning.

    PubMed

    Wu, Jian-Sheng; Zheng, Wei-Shi; Lai, Jian-Huang

    2015-03-01

    Kernel competitive learning has been successfully used to achieve robust clustering. However, kernel competitive learning (KCL) is not scalable for large scale data processing, because (1) it has to calculate and store the full kernel matrix that is too large to be calculated and kept in the memory and (2) it cannot be computed in parallel. In this paper we develop a framework of approximate kernel competitive learning for processing large scale dataset. The proposed framework consists of two parts. First, it derives an approximate kernel competitive learning (AKCL), which learns kernel competitive learning in a subspace via sampling. We provide solid theoretical analysis on why the proposed approximation modelling would work for kernel competitive learning, and furthermore, we show that the computational complexity of AKCL is largely reduced. Second, we propose a pseudo-parallelled approximate kernel competitive learning (PAKCL) based on a set-based kernel competitive learning strategy, which overcomes the obstacle of using parallel programming in kernel competitive learning and significantly accelerates the approximate kernel competitive learning for large scale clustering. The empirical evaluation on publicly available datasets shows that the proposed AKCL and PAKCL can perform comparably as KCL, with a large reduction on computational cost. Also, the proposed methods achieve more effective clustering performance in terms of clustering precision against related approximate clustering approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Classification With Truncated Distance Kernel.

    PubMed

    Huang, Xiaolin; Suykens, Johan A K; Wang, Shuning; Hornegger, Joachim; Maier, Andreas

    2018-05-01

    This brief proposes a truncated distance (TL1) kernel, which results in a classifier that is nonlinear in the global region but is linear in each subregion. With this kernel, the subregion structure can be trained using all the training data and local linear classifiers can be established simultaneously. The TL1 kernel has good adaptiveness to nonlinearity and is suitable for problems which require different nonlinearities in different areas. Though the TL1 kernel is not positive semidefinite, some classical kernel learning methods are still applicable which means that the TL1 kernel can be directly used in standard toolboxes by replacing the kernel evaluation. In numerical experiments, the TL1 kernel with a pregiven parameter achieves similar or better performance than the radial basis function kernel with the parameter tuned by cross validation, implying the TL1 kernel a promising nonlinear kernel for classification tasks.

  10. Investigation of miscibility of p(3hydroxybutyrate-co-3hydroxyhexanoate) and epoxidized natural rubber blends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akram, Faridah; Chan, Chin Han; Natarajan, Valliyappan David

    2015-08-01

    Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate [P(3HB-co-3HHx)] produced by C. necator PHB-4 harboring phaCcs from crude palm kernel oil with 21 mol% of 3-hydroxyhexanoate and epoxidized natural rubber with 25 mol% of epoxy content (ENR-25) were used to study the miscibility of the blends by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The polymers used were purified and the blends were prepared by solution casting method. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra confirm the purity and molecular structures of P(3HB-co-3HHx) and ENR-25. FTIR spectra for different compositions of P(3HB-co-3HHx) and ENR-25 blends show absorbance change of the absorbance bands but with no significant shifting of the absorbance bands as the P(3HB-co-3HHx) content decreases, which shows that there is no intermolecular interaction between the parent polymer blends. On top of that, there are two Tgs present for the blends and both remain constant for different compositions which corresponds to the Tgs of the parent polymers. This indicates that the blends are immiscible.

  11. Nanodesign of olein vesicles for the topical delivery of the antioxidant resveratrol.

    PubMed

    Pando, Daniel; Caddeo, Carla; Manconi, Maria; Fadda, Anna Maria; Pazos, Carmen

    2013-08-01

    The ex-vivo percutaneous absorption of the natural antioxidant resveratrol in liposomes and niosomes was investigated. The influence of vesicle composition on their physicochemical properties and stability was evaluated. Liposomes containing resveratrol were formulated using soy phosphatidylcholine (Phospholipon90G). Innovative niosomes were formulated using mono- or diglycerides: glycerol monooleate (Peceol) and polyglyceryl-3 dioleate (Plurol OleiqueCC), respectively, two suitable skin-compatible oleins used in pharmaceutical formulations as penetration enhancers. Small, negatively charged vesicles with a mean size of approximately 200 nm were prepared. The accelerated stability of vesicles was evaluated using Turbiscan Lab Expert, and the bilayer deformability was also assessed. Ex-vivo transdermal experiments were carried out in Franz diffusion cells, on newborn pig skin, to study the influence of the different vesicle formulations on resveratrol skin delivery. Results indicated a high cutaneous accumulation and a low transdermal delivery of resveratrol, especially when Peceol niosomes were used. Overall, niosomes formulated with Plurol oleique or Peceol showed a better behaviour than liposomes in the cutaneous delivery of resveratrol. © 2013 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

  12. Comparison of different classification methods for analyzing electronic nose data to characterize sesame oils and blends.

    PubMed

    Shao, Xiaolong; Li, Hui; Wang, Nan; Zhang, Qiang

    2015-10-21

    An electronic nose (e-nose) was used to characterize sesame oils processed by three different methods (hot-pressed, cold-pressed, and refined), as well as blends of the sesame oils and soybean oil. Seven classification and prediction methods, namely PCA, LDA, PLS, KNN, SVM, LASSO and RF, were used to analyze the e-nose data. The classification accuracy and MAUC were employed to evaluate the performance of these methods. The results indicated that sesame oils processed with different methods resulted in different sensor responses, with cold-pressed sesame oil producing the strongest sensor signals, followed by the hot-pressed sesame oil. The blends of pressed sesame oils with refined sesame oil were more difficult to be distinguished than the blends of pressed sesame oils and refined soybean oil. LDA, KNN, and SVM outperformed the other classification methods in distinguishing sesame oil blends. KNN, LASSO, PLS, and SVM (with linear kernel), and RF models could adequately predict the adulteration level (% of added soybean oil) in the sesame oil blends. Among the prediction models, KNN with k = 1 and 2 yielded the best prediction results.

  13. Optimized Kernel Entropy Components.

    PubMed

    Izquierdo-Verdiguier, Emma; Laparra, Valero; Jenssen, Robert; Gomez-Chova, Luis; Camps-Valls, Gustau

    2017-06-01

    This brief addresses two main issues of the standard kernel entropy component analysis (KECA) algorithm: the optimization of the kernel decomposition and the optimization of the Gaussian kernel parameter. KECA roughly reduces to a sorting of the importance of kernel eigenvectors by entropy instead of variance, as in the kernel principal components analysis. In this brief, we propose an extension of the KECA method, named optimized KECA (OKECA), that directly extracts the optimal features retaining most of the data entropy by means of compacting the information in very few features (often in just one or two). The proposed method produces features which have higher expressive power. In particular, it is based on the independent component analysis framework, and introduces an extra rotation to the eigen decomposition, which is optimized via gradient-ascent search. This maximum entropy preservation suggests that OKECA features are more efficient than KECA features for density estimation. In addition, a critical issue in both the methods is the selection of the kernel parameter, since it critically affects the resulting performance. Here, we analyze the most common kernel length-scale selection criteria. The results of both the methods are illustrated in different synthetic and real problems. Results show that OKECA returns projections with more expressive power than KECA, the most successful rule for estimating the kernel parameter is based on maximum likelihood, and OKECA is more robust to the selection of the length-scale parameter in kernel density estimation.

  14. Investigation of miscibility of p(3hydroxybutyrate-co-3hydroxyhexanoate) and epoxidized natural rubber blends

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akram, Faridah; Chan, Chin Han; Natarajan, Valliyappan David

    Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate [P(3HB-co-3HHx)] produced by C. necator PHB{sup −}4 harboring phaC{sub cs} from crude palm kernel oil with 21 mol% of 3-hydroxyhexanoate and epoxidized natural rubber with 25 mol% of epoxy content (ENR-25) were used to study the miscibility of the blends by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The polymers used were purified and the blends were prepared by solution casting method. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra confirm the purity and molecular structures of P(3HB-co-3HHx) and ENR-25. FTIR spectra for different compositions of P(3HB-co-3HHx) and ENR-25 blends show absorbance change of the absorbance bands but with nomore » significant shifting of the absorbance bands as the P(3HB-co-3HHx) content decreases, which shows that there is no intermolecular interaction between the parent polymer blends. On top of that, there are two T{sub g}s present for the blends and both remain constant for different compositions which corresponds to the T{sub g}s of the parent polymers. This indicates that the blends are immiscible.« less

  15. 7 CFR 981.408 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... kernel is modified to mean a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as... purposes of determining inedible kernels, pieces, or particles of almond kernels. [59 FR 39419, Aug. 3...

  16. 7 CFR 981.408 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... kernel is modified to mean a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as... purposes of determining inedible kernels, pieces, or particles of almond kernels. [59 FR 39419, Aug. 3...

  17. 7 CFR 981.408 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... kernel is modified to mean a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as... purposes of determining inedible kernels, pieces, or particles of almond kernels. [59 FR 39419, Aug. 3...

  18. 7 CFR 981.408 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... kernel is modified to mean a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as... purposes of determining inedible kernels, pieces, or particles of almond kernels. [59 FR 39419, Aug. 3...

  19. UNICOS Kernel Internals Application Development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Caredo, Nicholas; Craw, James M. (Technical Monitor)

    1995-01-01

    Having an understanding of UNICOS Kernel Internals is valuable information. However, having the knowledge is only half the value. The second half comes with knowing how to use this information and apply it to the development of tools. The kernel contains vast amounts of useful information that can be utilized. This paper discusses the intricacies of developing utilities that utilize kernel information. In addition, algorithms, logic, and code will be discussed for accessing kernel information. Code segments will be provided that demonstrate how to locate and read kernel structures. Types of applications that can utilize kernel information will also be discussed.

  20. Protein Subcellular Localization with Gaussian Kernel Discriminant Analysis and Its Kernel Parameter Selection.

    PubMed

    Wang, Shunfang; Nie, Bing; Yue, Kun; Fei, Yu; Li, Wenjia; Xu, Dongshu

    2017-12-15

    Kernel discriminant analysis (KDA) is a dimension reduction and classification algorithm based on nonlinear kernel trick, which can be novelly used to treat high-dimensional and complex biological data before undergoing classification processes such as protein subcellular localization. Kernel parameters make a great impact on the performance of the KDA model. Specifically, for KDA with the popular Gaussian kernel, to select the scale parameter is still a challenging problem. Thus, this paper introduces the KDA method and proposes a new method for Gaussian kernel parameter selection depending on the fact that the differences between reconstruction errors of edge normal samples and those of interior normal samples should be maximized for certain suitable kernel parameters. Experiments with various standard data sets of protein subcellular localization show that the overall accuracy of protein classification prediction with KDA is much higher than that without KDA. Meanwhile, the kernel parameter of KDA has a great impact on the efficiency, and the proposed method can produce an optimum parameter, which makes the new algorithm not only perform as effectively as the traditional ones, but also reduce the computational time and thus improve efficiency.

  1. Analysis of the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine fuelled with Jatropha curcas biodiesel-diesel blends using kernel-based extreme learning machine.

    PubMed

    Silitonga, Arridina Susan; Hassan, Masjuki Haji; Ong, Hwai Chyuan; Kusumo, Fitranto

    2017-11-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a four-cylinder common-rail turbocharged diesel engine fuelled with Jatropha curcas biodiesel-diesel blends. A kernel-based extreme learning machine (KELM) model is developed in this study using MATLAB software in order to predict the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the engine. To acquire the data for training and testing the KELM model, the engine speed was selected as the input parameter, whereas the performance, exhaust emissions and combustion characteristics were chosen as the output parameters of the KELM model. The performance, emissions and combustion characteristics predicted by the KELM model were validated by comparing the predicted data with the experimental data. The results show that the coefficient of determination of the parameters is within a range of 0.9805-0.9991 for both the KELM model and the experimental data. The mean absolute percentage error is within a range of 0.1259-2.3838. This study shows that KELM modelling is a useful technique in biodiesel production since it facilitates scientists and researchers to predict the performance, exhaust emissions and combustion characteristics of internal combustion engines with high accuracy.

  2. Comparison of Different Classification Methods for Analyzing Electronic Nose Data to Characterize Sesame Oils and Blends

    PubMed Central

    Shao, Xiaolong; Li, Hui; Wang, Nan; Zhang, Qiang

    2015-01-01

    An electronic nose (e-nose) was used to characterize sesame oils processed by three different methods (hot-pressed, cold-pressed, and refined), as well as blends of the sesame oils and soybean oil. Seven classification and prediction methods, namely PCA, LDA, PLS, KNN, SVM, LASSO and RF, were used to analyze the e-nose data. The classification accuracy and MAUC were employed to evaluate the performance of these methods. The results indicated that sesame oils processed with different methods resulted in different sensor responses, with cold-pressed sesame oil producing the strongest sensor signals, followed by the hot-pressed sesame oil. The blends of pressed sesame oils with refined sesame oil were more difficult to be distinguished than the blends of pressed sesame oils and refined soybean oil. LDA, KNN, and SVM outperformed the other classification methods in distinguishing sesame oil blends. KNN, LASSO, PLS, and SVM (with linear kernel), and RF models could adequately predict the adulteration level (% of added soybean oil) in the sesame oil blends. Among the prediction models, KNN with k = 1 and 2 yielded the best prediction results. PMID:26506350

  3. 7 CFR 981.7 - Edible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Edible kernel. 981.7 Section 981.7 Agriculture... Regulating Handling Definitions § 981.7 Edible kernel. Edible kernel means a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel that is not inedible. [41 FR 26852, June 30, 1976] ...

  4. Effect of microwave heating on the quality characteristics of canola oil in presence of palm olein.

    PubMed

    Ali, M Abbas; Nouruddeen, Zahrau Bamalli; Muhamad, Ida Idayu; Latip, Razam Abd; Othman, Noor Hidayu

    2013-01-01

    Microwave heating is one of the most attractive cooking methods for food preparation, commonly employed in households and especially in restaurants for its high speed and convenience. The chemical constituents of oils that degrade during microwave heating do so at rates that vary with heating temperature and time in a similar manner to other type of processing methods. The rate of quality characteristics of the oil depends on the fatty acid composition and the minor components during heating. Addition of oxidative-stable palm olein (PO) to heat sensitive canola oil (CO), may affect the quality characteristics of CO during microwave heating. The aim of this study was to evaluate how heat treatments by microwave oven affect the quality of CO in presence of PO. The blend was prepared in the volume ratio of 40:60 (PO:CO, PC). Microwave heating test was performed for different periods (2, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 min) at medium power setting for the samples of CO and PC. The changes in quality characteristics of the samples during heating were determined by analytical and instrumental methods. In this study, refractive index, free fatty acid content, peroxide value, p-anisidine value, TOTOX value, specific extinction, viscosity, polymer content, polar compounds and food oil sensor value of the oils all increased, whereas iodine value and C₁₈.₂ /C₁₆:₀ ratio decreased as microwave heating progressed. Based on the most oxidative stability criteria, PO addition led to a slower deterioration of CO at heating temperatures. The effect of microwave heating on the fatty acid composition of the samples was not remarkable. PO addition decelerated the formation of primary and secondary oxidation products in CO. However, effect of adding PO to CO on the formation of free fatty acids and polymers during microwave treatment was not significant (P < 0.05). No significant difference in food oil sensor value was detected between CO and PC throughout the heating periods. Microwave

  5. Combustion characteristics of Malaysian oil palm biomass, sub-bituminous coal and their respective blends via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

    PubMed

    Idris, Siti Shawalliah; Rahman, Norazah Abd; Ismail, Khudzir

    2012-11-01

    The combustion characteristics of Malaysia oil palm biomass (palm kernel shell (PKS), palm mesocarp fibre (PMF) and empty fruit bunches (EFB)), sub-bituminous coal (Mukah Balingian) and coal/biomass blends via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were investigated. Six weight ratios of coal/biomass blends were prepared and oxidised under dynamic conditions from temperature 25 to 1100°C at four heating rates. The thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that the EFB and PKS evolved additional peak besides drying, devolatilisation and char oxidation steps during combustion. Ignition and burn out temperatures of blends were improved in comparison to coal. No interactions were observed between the coal and biomass during combustion. The apparent activation energy during this process was evaluated using iso-conversional model free kinetics which resulted in highest activation energy during combustion of PKS followed by PMF, EFB and MB coal. Blending oil palm biomass with coal reduces the apparent activation energy value. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Investigation on thermochemical behaviour of low rank Malaysian coal, oil palm biomass and their blends during pyrolysis via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

    PubMed

    Idris, Siti Shawalliah; Abd Rahman, Norazah; Ismail, Khudzir; Alias, Azil Bahari; Abd Rashid, Zulkifli; Aris, Mohd Jindra

    2010-06-01

    This study aims to investigate the behaviour of Malaysian sub-bituminous coal (Mukah Balingian), oil palm biomass (empty fruit bunches (EFB), kernel shell (PKS) and mesocarp fibre (PMF)) and their respective blends during pyrolysis using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The coal/palm biomass blends were prepared at six different weight ratios and experiments were carried out under dynamic conditions using nitrogen as inert gas at various heating rates to ramp the temperature from 25 degrees C to 900 degrees C. The derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) results show that thermal decomposition of EFB, PMF and PKS exhibit one, two and three distinct evolution profiles, respectively. Apparently, the thermal profiles of the coal/oil palm biomass blends appear to correlate with the percentage of biomass added in the blends, thus, suggesting lack of interaction between the coal and palm biomass. First-order reaction model were used to determine the kinetics parameters for the pyrolysis of coal, palm biomass and their respective blends. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Unconventional protein sources: apricot seed kernels.

    PubMed

    Gabrial, G N; El-Nahry, F I; Awadalla, M Z; Girgis, S M

    1981-09-01

    Hamawy apricot seed kernels (sweet), Amar apricot seed kernels (bitter) and treated Amar apricot kernels (bitterness removed) were evaluated biochemically. All kernels were found to be high in fat (42.2--50.91%), protein (23.74--25.70%) and fiber (15.08--18.02%). Phosphorus, calcium, and iron were determined in all experimental samples. The three different apricot seed kernels were used for extensive study including the qualitative determination of the amino acid constituents by acid hydrolysis, quantitative determination of some amino acids, and biological evaluation of the kernel proteins in order to use them as new protein sources. Weanling albino rats failed to grow on diets containing the Amar apricot seed kernels due to low food consumption because of its bitterness. There was no loss in weight in that case. The Protein Efficiency Ratio data and blood analysis results showed the Hamawy apricot seed kernels to be higher in biological value than treated apricot seed kernels. The Net Protein Ratio data which accounts for both weight, maintenance and growth showed the treated apricot seed kernels to be higher in biological value than both Hamawy and Amar kernels. The Net Protein Ratio for the last two kernels were nearly equal.

  8. 7 CFR 981.8 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Inedible kernel. 981.8 Section 981.8 Agriculture... Regulating Handling Definitions § 981.8 Inedible kernel. Inedible kernel means a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as serious damage, or damage due to mold, gum, shrivel, or...

  9. 7 CFR 51.1415 - Inedible kernels.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Inedible kernels. 51.1415 Section 51.1415 Agriculture... Standards for Grades of Pecans in the Shell 1 Definitions § 51.1415 Inedible kernels. Inedible kernels means that the kernel or pieces of kernels are rancid, moldy, decayed, injured by insects or otherwise...

  10. 7 CFR 981.408 - Inedible kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Inedible kernel. 981.408 Section 981.408 Agriculture... Administrative Rules and Regulations § 981.408 Inedible kernel. Pursuant to § 981.8, the definition of inedible kernel is modified to mean a kernel, piece, or particle of almond kernel with any defect scored as...

  11. LZW-Kernel: fast kernel utilizing variable length code blocks from LZW compressors for protein sequence classification.

    PubMed

    Filatov, Gleb; Bauwens, Bruno; Kertész-Farkas, Attila

    2018-05-07

    Bioinformatics studies often rely on similarity measures between sequence pairs, which often pose a bottleneck in large-scale sequence analysis. Here, we present a new convolutional kernel function for protein sequences called the LZW-Kernel. It is based on code words identified with the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) universal text compressor. The LZW-Kernel is an alignment-free method, it is always symmetric, is positive, always provides 1.0 for self-similarity and it can directly be used with Support Vector Machines (SVMs) in classification problems, contrary to normalized compression distance (NCD), which often violates the distance metric properties in practice and requires further techniques to be used with SVMs. The LZW-Kernel is a one-pass algorithm, which makes it particularly plausible for big data applications. Our experimental studies on remote protein homology detection and protein classification tasks reveal that the LZW-Kernel closely approaches the performance of the Local Alignment Kernel (LAK) and the SVM-pairwise method combined with Smith-Waterman (SW) scoring at a fraction of the time. Moreover, the LZW-Kernel outperforms the SVM-pairwise method when combined with BLAST scores, which indicates that the LZW code words might be a better basis for similarity measures than local alignment approximations found with BLAST. In addition, the LZW-Kernel outperforms n-gram based mismatch kernels, hidden Markov model based SAM and Fisher kernel, and protein family based PSI-BLAST, among others. Further advantages include the LZW-Kernel's reliance on a simple idea, its ease of implementation, and its high speed, three times faster than BLAST and several magnitudes faster than SW or LAK in our tests. LZW-Kernel is implemented as a standalone C code and is a free open-source program distributed under GPLv3 license and can be downloaded from https://github.com/kfattila/LZW-Kernel. akerteszfarkas@hse.ru. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Online.

  12. Simultaneous Recovery of Carotenes and Tocols from Crude Palm Olein Using Ethyl Lactate and Ethanol

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leng Kua, Yin; Gan, Suyin; Morris, Andrew; Kiat Ng, Hoon

    2018-04-01

    This paper demonstrates the use of ethyl lactate and ethanol as green and safe solvents to extract phytonutrients such as carotenes and tocols from crude palm olein (CPO) before they are lost during oil refining process. The effects of mixing time (10-40 min), temperature (10-30°C) and proportion of CPO (20-60%) were studied in terms of the extraction of individual carotenes (α- and β-carotene) and tocols (α-tocopherol/T, α-, γ- and δ-tocotrienol/T3) in a temperature-controlled mixer-settler system. The optimal extraction conditions were found at 20°C, 10 min of mixing, 50% of CPO using 3:2 v/v ethyl lactate/ethanol as the solvents. After four stages of extraction, 42.2% of carotenes, 86.7% of tocols and 44.4% of oil were recovered into an oil concentrate of 717.5 mg/L of carotenes and 1496.2 mg/L of tocols.

  13. Partial Deconvolution with Inaccurate Blur Kernel.

    PubMed

    Ren, Dongwei; Zuo, Wangmeng; Zhang, David; Xu, Jun; Zhang, Lei

    2017-10-17

    Most non-blind deconvolution methods are developed under the error-free kernel assumption, and are not robust to inaccurate blur kernel. Unfortunately, despite the great progress in blind deconvolution, estimation error remains inevitable during blur kernel estimation. Consequently, severe artifacts such as ringing effects and distortions are likely to be introduced in the non-blind deconvolution stage. In this paper, we tackle this issue by suggesting: (i) a partial map in the Fourier domain for modeling kernel estimation error, and (ii) a partial deconvolution model for robust deblurring with inaccurate blur kernel. The partial map is constructed by detecting the reliable Fourier entries of estimated blur kernel. And partial deconvolution is applied to wavelet-based and learning-based models to suppress the adverse effect of kernel estimation error. Furthermore, an E-M algorithm is developed for estimating the partial map and recovering the latent sharp image alternatively. Experimental results show that our partial deconvolution model is effective in relieving artifacts caused by inaccurate blur kernel, and can achieve favorable deblurring quality on synthetic and real blurry images.Most non-blind deconvolution methods are developed under the error-free kernel assumption, and are not robust to inaccurate blur kernel. Unfortunately, despite the great progress in blind deconvolution, estimation error remains inevitable during blur kernel estimation. Consequently, severe artifacts such as ringing effects and distortions are likely to be introduced in the non-blind deconvolution stage. In this paper, we tackle this issue by suggesting: (i) a partial map in the Fourier domain for modeling kernel estimation error, and (ii) a partial deconvolution model for robust deblurring with inaccurate blur kernel. The partial map is constructed by detecting the reliable Fourier entries of estimated blur kernel. And partial deconvolution is applied to wavelet-based and learning

  14. 7 CFR 981.9 - Kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Kernel weight. 981.9 Section 981.9 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... Regulating Handling Definitions § 981.9 Kernel weight. Kernel weight means the weight of kernels, including...

  15. Utilization of waste crab shell (Scylla serrata) as a catalyst in palm olein transesterification.

    PubMed

    Boey, Peng-Lim; Maniam, Gaanty Pragas; Hamid, Shafida Abd

    2009-01-01

    Aquaculture activity has increased the population of crab, hence increasing the generation of related wastes, particularly the shell. In addition, the number of molting process in crabs compounds further the amount of waste shell generated. As such, in the present work, the application of the waste crab shell as a source of CaO in transesterification of palm olein to biodiesel (methyl ester) was investigated. Preliminary XRD results revealed that thermally activated crab shell contains mainly CaO. Parametric study has been investigated and optimal conditions were found to be methanol/oil mass ratio, 0.5:1; catalyst amount, 4 wt. %; and reaction temperature, 338 K. As compared to laboratory CaO, the catalyst from waste crab shell performs well, thus creating another low-cost catalyst source for producing biodiesel as well as adding value to the waste crab shell. Reusability of crab shell CaO has also been studied and the outcome confirmed that the catalyst is capable to be reutilized up to 11 times, without any major deterioration.

  16. 7 CFR 51.2295 - Half kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Half kernel. 51.2295 Section 51.2295 Agriculture... Standards for Shelled English Walnuts (Juglans Regia) Definitions § 51.2295 Half kernel. Half kernel means the separated half of a kernel with not more than one-eighth broken off. ...

  17. Oecophylla longinoda (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Lead to Increased Cashew Kernel Size and Kernel Quality.

    PubMed

    Anato, F M; Sinzogan, A A C; Offenberg, J; Adandonon, A; Wargui, R B; Deguenon, J M; Ayelo, P M; Vayssières, J-F; Kossou, D K

    2017-06-01

    Weaver ants, Oecophylla spp., are known to positively affect cashew, Anacardium occidentale L., raw nut yield, but their effects on the kernels have not been reported. We compared nut size and the proportion of marketable kernels between raw nuts collected from trees with and without ants. Raw nuts collected from trees with weaver ants were 2.9% larger than nuts from control trees (i.e., without weaver ants), leading to 14% higher proportion of marketable kernels. On trees with ants, the kernel: raw nut ratio from nuts damaged by formic acid was 4.8% lower compared with nondamaged nuts from the same trees. Weaver ants provided three benefits to cashew production by increasing yields, yielding larger nuts, and by producing greater proportions of marketable kernel mass. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. Kernel abortion in maize : I. Carbohydrate concentration patterns and Acid invertase activity of maize kernels induced to abort in vitro.

    PubMed

    Hanft, J M; Jones, R J

    1986-06-01

    Kernels cultured in vitro were induced to abort by high temperature (35 degrees C) and by culturing six kernels/cob piece. Aborting kernels failed to enter a linear phase of dry mass accumulation and had a final mass that was less than 6% of nonaborting field-grown kernels. Kernels induced to abort by high temperature failed to synthesize starch in the endosperm and had elevated sucrose concentrations and low fructose and glucose concentrations in the pedicel during early growth compared to nonaborting kernels. Kernels induced to abort by high temperature also had much lower pedicel soluble acid invertase activities than did nonaborting kernels. These results suggest that high temperature during the lag phase of kernel growth may impair the process of sucrose unloading in the pedicel by indirectly inhibiting soluble acid invertase activity and prevent starch synthesis in the endosperm. Kernels induced to abort by culturing six kernels/cob piece had reduced pedicel fructose, glucose, and sucrose concentrations compared to kernels from field-grown ears. These aborting kernels also had a lower pedicel soluble acid invertase activity compared to nonaborting kernels from the same cob piece and from field-grown ears. The low invertase activity in pedicel tissue of the aborting kernels was probably caused by a lack of substrate (sucrose) for the invertase to cleave due to the intense competition for available assimilates. In contrast to kernels cultured at 35 degrees C, aborting kernels from cob pieces containing all six kernels accumulated starch in a linear fashion. These results indicate that kernels cultured six/cob piece abort because of an inadequate supply of sugar and are similar to apical kernels from field-grown ears that often abort prior to the onset of linear growth.

  19. An Approximate Approach to Automatic Kernel Selection.

    PubMed

    Ding, Lizhong; Liao, Shizhong

    2016-02-02

    Kernel selection is a fundamental problem of kernel-based learning algorithms. In this paper, we propose an approximate approach to automatic kernel selection for regression from the perspective of kernel matrix approximation. We first introduce multilevel circulant matrices into automatic kernel selection, and develop two approximate kernel selection algorithms by exploiting the computational virtues of multilevel circulant matrices. The complexity of the proposed algorithms is quasi-linear in the number of data points. Then, we prove an approximation error bound to measure the effect of the approximation in kernel matrices by multilevel circulant matrices on the hypothesis and further show that the approximate hypothesis produced with multilevel circulant matrices converges to the accurate hypothesis produced with kernel matrices. Experimental evaluations on benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of approximate kernel selection.

  20. Viscozyme L pretreatment on palm kernels improved the aroma of palm kernel oil after kernel roasting.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Wencan; Leong, Siew Mun; Zhao, Feifei; Zhao, Fangju; Yang, Tiankui; Liu, Shaoquan

    2018-05-01

    With an interest to enhance the aroma of palm kernel oil (PKO), Viscozyme L, an enzyme complex containing a wide range of carbohydrases, was applied to alter the carbohydrates in palm kernels (PK) to modulate the formation of volatiles upon kernel roasting. After Viscozyme treatment, the content of simple sugars and free amino acids in PK increased by 4.4-fold and 4.5-fold, respectively. After kernel roasting and oil extraction, significantly more 2,5-dimethylfuran, 2-[(methylthio)methyl]-furan, 1-(2-furanyl)-ethanone, 1-(2-furyl)-2-propanone, 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde and 2-acetyl-5-methylfuran but less 2-furanmethanol and 2-furanmethanol acetate were found in treated PKO; the correlation between their formation and simple sugar profile was estimated by using partial least square regression (PLS1). Obvious differences in pyrroles and Strecker aldehydes were also found between the control and treated PKOs. Principal component analysis (PCA) clearly discriminated the treated PKOs from that of control PKOs on the basis of all volatile compounds. Such changes in volatiles translated into distinct sensory attributes, whereby treated PKO was more caramelic and burnt after aqueous extraction and more nutty, roasty, caramelic and smoky after solvent extraction. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. 7 CFR 51.1441 - Half-kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Half-kernel. 51.1441 Section 51.1441 Agriculture... Standards for Grades of Shelled Pecans Definitions § 51.1441 Half-kernel. Half-kernel means one of the separated halves of an entire pecan kernel with not more than one-eighth of its original volume missing...

  2. An introduction to kernel-based learning algorithms.

    PubMed

    Müller, K R; Mika, S; Rätsch, G; Tsuda, K; Schölkopf, B

    2001-01-01

    This paper provides an introduction to support vector machines, kernel Fisher discriminant analysis, and kernel principal component analysis, as examples for successful kernel-based learning methods. We first give a short background about Vapnik-Chervonenkis theory and kernel feature spaces and then proceed to kernel based learning in supervised and unsupervised scenarios including practical and algorithmic considerations. We illustrate the usefulness of kernel algorithms by discussing applications such as optical character recognition and DNA analysis.

  3. A new discriminative kernel from probabilistic models.

    PubMed

    Tsuda, Koji; Kawanabe, Motoaki; Rätsch, Gunnar; Sonnenburg, Sören; Müller, Klaus-Robert

    2002-10-01

    Recently, Jaakkola and Haussler (1999) proposed a method for constructing kernel functions from probabilistic models. Their so-called Fisher kernel has been combined with discriminative classifiers such as support vector machines and applied successfully in, for example, DNA and protein analysis. Whereas the Fisher kernel is calculated from the marginal log-likelihood, we propose the TOP kernel derived; from tangent vectors of posterior log-odds. Furthermore, we develop a theoretical framework on feature extractors from probabilistic models and use it for analyzing the TOP kernel. In experiments, our new discriminative TOP kernel compares favorably to the Fisher kernel.

  4. Kernel Abortion in Maize 1

    PubMed Central

    Hanft, Jonathan M.; Jones, Robert J.

    1986-01-01

    This study was designed to compare the uptake and distribution of 14C among fructose, glucose, sucrose, and starch in the cob, pedicel, and endosperm tissues of maize (Zea mays L.) kernels induced to abort by high temperature with those that develop normally. Kernels cultured in vitro at 30 and 35°C were transferred to [14C]sucrose media 10 days after pollination. Kernels cultured at 35°C aborted prior to the onset of linear dry matter accumulation. Significant uptake into the cob, pedicel, and endosperm of radioactivity associated with the soluble and starch fractions of the tissues was detected after 24 hours in culture on labeled media. After 8 days in culture on [14C]sucrose media, 48 and 40% of the radioactivity associated with the cob carbohydrates was found in the reducing sugars at 30 and 35°C, respectively. This indicates that some of the sucrose taken up by the cob tissue was cleaved to fructose and glucose in the cob. Of the total carbohydrates, a higher percentage of label was associated with sucrose and a lower percentage with fructose and glucose in pedicel tissue of kernels cultured at 35°C compared to kernels cultured at 30°C. These results indicate that sucrose was not cleaved to fructose and glucose as rapidly during the unloading process in the pedicel of kernels induced to abort by high temperature. Kernels cultured at 35°C had a much lower proportion of label associated with endosperm starch (29%) than did kernels cultured at 30°C (89%). Kernels cultured at 35°C had a correspondingly higher proportion of 14C in endosperm fructose, glucose, and sucrose. These results indicate that starch synthesis in the endosperm is strongly inhibited in kernels induced to abort by high temperature even though there is an adequate supply of sugar. PMID:16664847

  5. Local Observed-Score Kernel Equating

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiberg, Marie; van der Linden, Wim J.; von Davier, Alina A.

    2014-01-01

    Three local observed-score kernel equating methods that integrate methods from the local equating and kernel equating frameworks are proposed. The new methods were compared with their earlier counterparts with respect to such measures as bias--as defined by Lord's criterion of equity--and percent relative error. The local kernel item response…

  6. Credit scoring analysis using kernel discriminant

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Widiharih, T.; Mukid, M. A.; Mustafid

    2018-05-01

    Credit scoring model is an important tool for reducing the risk of wrong decisions when granting credit facilities to applicants. This paper investigate the performance of kernel discriminant model in assessing customer credit risk. Kernel discriminant analysis is a non- parametric method which means that it does not require any assumptions about the probability distribution of the input. The main ingredient is a kernel that allows an efficient computation of Fisher discriminant. We use several kernel such as normal, epanechnikov, biweight, and triweight. The models accuracy was compared each other using data from a financial institution in Indonesia. The results show that kernel discriminant can be an alternative method that can be used to determine who is eligible for a credit loan. In the data we use, it shows that a normal kernel is relevant to be selected for credit scoring using kernel discriminant model. Sensitivity and specificity reach to 0.5556 and 0.5488 respectively.

  7. Modeling adaptive kernels from probabilistic phylogenetic trees.

    PubMed

    Nicotra, Luca; Micheli, Alessio

    2009-01-01

    Modeling phylogenetic interactions is an open issue in many computational biology problems. In the context of gene function prediction we introduce a class of kernels for structured data leveraging on a hierarchical probabilistic modeling of phylogeny among species. We derive three kernels belonging to this setting: a sufficient statistics kernel, a Fisher kernel, and a probability product kernel. The new kernels are used in the context of support vector machine learning. The kernels adaptivity is obtained through the estimation of the parameters of a tree structured model of evolution using as observed data phylogenetic profiles encoding the presence or absence of specific genes in a set of fully sequenced genomes. We report results obtained in the prediction of the functional class of the proteins of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae which favorably compare to a standard vector based kernel and to a non-adaptive tree kernel function. A further comparative analysis is performed in order to assess the impact of the different components of the proposed approach. We show that the key features of the proposed kernels are the adaptivity to the input domain and the ability to deal with structured data interpreted through a graphical model representation.

  8. Nonlinear Deep Kernel Learning for Image Annotation.

    PubMed

    Jiu, Mingyuan; Sahbi, Hichem

    2017-02-08

    Multiple kernel learning (MKL) is a widely used technique for kernel design. Its principle consists in learning, for a given support vector classifier, the most suitable convex (or sparse) linear combination of standard elementary kernels. However, these combinations are shallow and often powerless to capture the actual similarity between highly semantic data, especially for challenging classification tasks such as image annotation. In this paper, we redefine multiple kernels using deep multi-layer networks. In this new contribution, a deep multiple kernel is recursively defined as a multi-layered combination of nonlinear activation functions, each one involves a combination of several elementary or intermediate kernels, and results into a positive semi-definite deep kernel. We propose four different frameworks in order to learn the weights of these networks: supervised, unsupervised, kernel-based semisupervised and Laplacian-based semi-supervised. When plugged into support vector machines (SVMs), the resulting deep kernel networks show clear gain, compared to several shallow kernels for the task of image annotation. Extensive experiments and analysis on the challenging ImageCLEF photo annotation benchmark, the COREL5k database and the Banana dataset validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  9. Cleaner co-combustion of lignite-biomass-waste blends by utilising inhibiting compounds of toxic emissions.

    PubMed

    Skodras, G; Palladas, A; Kaldis, S P; Sakellaropoulos, G P

    2007-04-01

    In this paper, the co-combustion behaviour of coal with wastes and biomass and the related toxic gaseous emissions were investigated. The objective of this work is to add on towards a cleaner co-combustion of lignite-waste-biomass blends by utilizing compounds that could inhibit the formation of toxic pollutants. A series of co-combustion tests was performed in a pilot scale incinerator, and the emissions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) were measured. The co-combustion behaviour of lignite with olive kernels, MDF and sawdust was studied and the ability of additives such as urea, almond shells and municipal sewage sludge to reduce the PCDD/F emissions was examined. All blends were proven good fuels and reproducible combustion conditions were achieved. The addition of inhibitors prior to combustion showed in some cases, relatively high PCDD/F emissions reduction. Among the inhibitors tested, urea seems to achieve a reduction of PCDD/F emissions for all fuel blends, while an unstable behaviour was observed for the others.

  10. Effect of the addition of basil essential oil on the degradation of palm olein during repeated deep frying of French fries.

    PubMed

    Cardoso-Ugarte, Gabriel Abraham; Morlán-Palmas, C Christian; Sosa-Morales, María Elena

    2013-07-01

    The potential antioxidant power of basil essential oil under frying conditions was explored. Two concentrations (200 or 500 ppm) were added to palm olein (PO) to evaluate their effect on fat oxidation/degradation during repeated frying of French fries at 180 °C. A higher oxidative stability index was detected for PO with basil essential oil at 200 ppm. Both concentrations showed lower p-anisidine values than PO without basil essential oil after 5 d of frying. Addition at 500 ppm resulted in the lowest total polar compounds and free fatty acids contents. Thus, the addition of basil essential oil improved the performance of PO during repeated frying of French fries. © 2013 Institute of Food Technologists®

  11. Graph Kernels for Molecular Similarity.

    PubMed

    Rupp, Matthias; Schneider, Gisbert

    2010-04-12

    Molecular similarity measures are important for many cheminformatics applications like ligand-based virtual screening and quantitative structure-property relationships. Graph kernels are formal similarity measures defined directly on graphs, such as the (annotated) molecular structure graph. Graph kernels are positive semi-definite functions, i.e., they correspond to inner products. This property makes them suitable for use with kernel-based machine learning algorithms such as support vector machines and Gaussian processes. We review the major types of kernels between graphs (based on random walks, subgraphs, and optimal assignments, respectively), and discuss their advantages, limitations, and successful applications in cheminformatics. Copyright © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. Comparing Alternative Kernels for the Kernel Method of Test Equating: Gaussian, Logistic, and Uniform Kernels. Research Report. ETS RR-08-12

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Yi-Hsuan; von Davier, Alina A.

    2008-01-01

    The kernel equating method (von Davier, Holland, & Thayer, 2004) is based on a flexible family of equipercentile-like equating functions that use a Gaussian kernel to continuize the discrete score distributions. While the classical equipercentile, or percentile-rank, equating method carries out the continuization step by linear interpolation,…

  13. 7 CFR 981.401 - Adjusted kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... based on the analysis of a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000 pounds with less than 95 percent kernels, and a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000... percent kernels containing the following: Edible kernels, 530 grams; inedible kernels, 120 grams; foreign...

  14. 7 CFR 981.401 - Adjusted kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... based on the analysis of a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000 pounds with less than 95 percent kernels, and a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000... percent kernels containing the following: Edible kernels, 530 grams; inedible kernels, 120 grams; foreign...

  15. 7 CFR 981.401 - Adjusted kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... based on the analysis of a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000 pounds with less than 95 percent kernels, and a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000... percent kernels containing the following: Edible kernels, 530 grams; inedible kernels, 120 grams; foreign...

  16. 7 CFR 981.401 - Adjusted kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... based on the analysis of a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000 pounds with less than 95 percent kernels, and a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000... percent kernels containing the following: Edible kernels, 530 grams; inedible kernels, 120 grams; foreign...

  17. 7 CFR 981.401 - Adjusted kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... based on the analysis of a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000 pounds with less than 95 percent kernels, and a 1,000 gram sample taken from a lot of almonds weighing 10,000... percent kernels containing the following: Edible kernels, 530 grams; inedible kernels, 120 grams; foreign...

  18. 7 CFR 51.1403 - Kernel color classification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Kernel color classification. 51.1403 Section 51.1403... STANDARDS) United States Standards for Grades of Pecans in the Shell 1 Kernel Color Classification § 51.1403 Kernel color classification. (a) The skin color of pecan kernels may be described in terms of the color...

  19. Out-of-Sample Extensions for Non-Parametric Kernel Methods.

    PubMed

    Pan, Binbin; Chen, Wen-Sheng; Chen, Bo; Xu, Chen; Lai, Jianhuang

    2017-02-01

    Choosing suitable kernels plays an important role in the performance of kernel methods. Recently, a number of studies were devoted to developing nonparametric kernels. Without assuming any parametric form of the target kernel, nonparametric kernel learning offers a flexible scheme to utilize the information of the data, which may potentially characterize the data similarity better. The kernel methods using nonparametric kernels are referred to as nonparametric kernel methods. However, many nonparametric kernel methods are restricted to transductive learning, where the prediction function is defined only over the data points given beforehand. They have no straightforward extension for the out-of-sample data points, and thus cannot be applied to inductive learning. In this paper, we show how to make the nonparametric kernel methods applicable to inductive learning. The key problem of out-of-sample extension is how to extend the nonparametric kernel matrix to the corresponding kernel function. A regression approach in the hyper reproducing kernel Hilbert space is proposed to solve this problem. Empirical results indicate that the out-of-sample performance is comparable to the in-sample performance in most cases. Experiments on face recognition demonstrate the superiority of our nonparametric kernel method over the state-of-the-art parametric kernel methods.

  20. Computed tomography coronary stent imaging with iterative reconstruction: a trade-off study between medium kernel and sharp kernel.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Qijing; Jiang, Biao; Dong, Fei; Huang, Peiyu; Liu, Hongtao; Zhang, Minming

    2014-01-01

    To evaluate the improvement of iterative reconstruction in image space (IRIS) technique in computed tomographic (CT) coronary stent imaging with sharp kernel, and to make a trade-off analysis. Fifty-six patients with 105 stents were examined by 128-slice dual-source CT coronary angiography (CTCA). Images were reconstructed using standard filtered back projection (FBP) and IRIS with both medium kernel and sharp kernel applied. Image noise and the stent diameter were investigated. Image noise was measured both in background vessel and in-stent lumen as objective image evaluation. Image noise score and stent score were performed as subjective image evaluation. The CTCA images reconstructed with IRIS were associated with significant noise reduction compared to that of CTCA images reconstructed using FBP technique in both of background vessel and in-stent lumen (the background noise decreased by approximately 25.4% ± 8.2% in medium kernel (P kernel (P kernel (P kernel (P kernel showed better visualization of the stent struts and in-stent lumen than that with medium kernel. Iterative reconstruction in image space reconstruction can effectively reduce the image noise and improve image quality. The sharp kernel images constructed with iterative reconstruction are considered the optimal images to observe coronary stents in this study.

  1. Anisotropic hydrodynamics with a scalar collisional kernel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Almaalol, Dekrayat; Strickland, Michael

    2018-04-01

    Prior studies of nonequilibrium dynamics using anisotropic hydrodynamics have used the relativistic Anderson-Witting scattering kernel or some variant thereof. In this paper, we make the first study of the impact of using a more realistic scattering kernel. For this purpose, we consider a conformal system undergoing transversally homogenous and boost-invariant Bjorken expansion and take the collisional kernel to be given by the leading order 2 ↔2 scattering kernel in scalar λ ϕ4 . We consider both classical and quantum statistics to assess the impact of Bose enhancement on the dynamics. We also determine the anisotropic nonequilibrium attractor of a system subject to this collisional kernel. We find that, when the near-equilibrium relaxation-times in the Anderson-Witting and scalar collisional kernels are matched, the scalar kernel results in a higher degree of momentum-space anisotropy during the system's evolution, given the same initial conditions. Additionally, we find that taking into account Bose enhancement further increases the dynamically generated momentum-space anisotropy.

  2. Ranking Support Vector Machine with Kernel Approximation

    PubMed Central

    Dou, Yong

    2017-01-01

    Learning to rank algorithm has become important in recent years due to its successful application in information retrieval, recommender system, and computational biology, and so forth. Ranking support vector machine (RankSVM) is one of the state-of-art ranking models and has been favorably used. Nonlinear RankSVM (RankSVM with nonlinear kernels) can give higher accuracy than linear RankSVM (RankSVM with a linear kernel) for complex nonlinear ranking problem. However, the learning methods for nonlinear RankSVM are still time-consuming because of the calculation of kernel matrix. In this paper, we propose a fast ranking algorithm based on kernel approximation to avoid computing the kernel matrix. We explore two types of kernel approximation methods, namely, the Nyström method and random Fourier features. Primal truncated Newton method is used to optimize the pairwise L2-loss (squared Hinge-loss) objective function of the ranking model after the nonlinear kernel approximation. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method gets a much faster training speed than kernel RankSVM and achieves comparable or better performance over state-of-the-art ranking algorithms. PMID:28293256

  3. Ranking Support Vector Machine with Kernel Approximation.

    PubMed

    Chen, Kai; Li, Rongchun; Dou, Yong; Liang, Zhengfa; Lv, Qi

    2017-01-01

    Learning to rank algorithm has become important in recent years due to its successful application in information retrieval, recommender system, and computational biology, and so forth. Ranking support vector machine (RankSVM) is one of the state-of-art ranking models and has been favorably used. Nonlinear RankSVM (RankSVM with nonlinear kernels) can give higher accuracy than linear RankSVM (RankSVM with a linear kernel) for complex nonlinear ranking problem. However, the learning methods for nonlinear RankSVM are still time-consuming because of the calculation of kernel matrix. In this paper, we propose a fast ranking algorithm based on kernel approximation to avoid computing the kernel matrix. We explore two types of kernel approximation methods, namely, the Nyström method and random Fourier features. Primal truncated Newton method is used to optimize the pairwise L2-loss (squared Hinge-loss) objective function of the ranking model after the nonlinear kernel approximation. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method gets a much faster training speed than kernel RankSVM and achieves comparable or better performance over state-of-the-art ranking algorithms.

  4. Rare variant testing across methods and thresholds using the multi-kernel sequence kernel association test (MK-SKAT).

    PubMed

    Urrutia, Eugene; Lee, Seunggeun; Maity, Arnab; Zhao, Ni; Shen, Judong; Li, Yun; Wu, Michael C

    Analysis of rare genetic variants has focused on region-based analysis wherein a subset of the variants within a genomic region is tested for association with a complex trait. Two important practical challenges have emerged. First, it is difficult to choose which test to use. Second, it is unclear which group of variants within a region should be tested. Both depend on the unknown true state of nature. Therefore, we develop the Multi-Kernel SKAT (MK-SKAT) which tests across a range of rare variant tests and groupings. Specifically, we demonstrate that several popular rare variant tests are special cases of the sequence kernel association test which compares pair-wise similarity in trait value to similarity in the rare variant genotypes between subjects as measured through a kernel function. Choosing a particular test is equivalent to choosing a kernel. Similarly, choosing which group of variants to test also reduces to choosing a kernel. Thus, MK-SKAT uses perturbation to test across a range of kernels. Simulations and real data analyses show that our framework controls type I error while maintaining high power across settings: MK-SKAT loses power when compared to the kernel for a particular scenario but has much greater power than poor choices.

  5. Wigner functions defined with Laplace transform kernels.

    PubMed

    Oh, Se Baek; Petruccelli, Jonathan C; Tian, Lei; Barbastathis, George

    2011-10-24

    We propose a new Wigner-type phase-space function using Laplace transform kernels--Laplace kernel Wigner function. Whereas momentum variables are real in the traditional Wigner function, the Laplace kernel Wigner function may have complex momentum variables. Due to the property of the Laplace transform, a broader range of signals can be represented in complex phase-space. We show that the Laplace kernel Wigner function exhibits similar properties in the marginals as the traditional Wigner function. As an example, we use the Laplace kernel Wigner function to analyze evanescent waves supported by surface plasmon polariton. © 2011 Optical Society of America

  6. Metabolic network prediction through pairwise rational kernels.

    PubMed

    Roche-Lima, Abiel; Domaratzki, Michael; Fristensky, Brian

    2014-09-26

    Metabolic networks are represented by the set of metabolic pathways. Metabolic pathways are a series of biochemical reactions, in which the product (output) from one reaction serves as the substrate (input) to another reaction. Many pathways remain incompletely characterized. One of the major challenges of computational biology is to obtain better models of metabolic pathways. Existing models are dependent on the annotation of the genes. This propagates error accumulation when the pathways are predicted by incorrectly annotated genes. Pairwise classification methods are supervised learning methods used to classify new pair of entities. Some of these classification methods, e.g., Pairwise Support Vector Machines (SVMs), use pairwise kernels. Pairwise kernels describe similarity measures between two pairs of entities. Using pairwise kernels to handle sequence data requires long processing times and large storage. Rational kernels are kernels based on weighted finite-state transducers that represent similarity measures between sequences or automata. They have been effectively used in problems that handle large amount of sequence information such as protein essentiality, natural language processing and machine translations. We create a new family of pairwise kernels using weighted finite-state transducers (called Pairwise Rational Kernel (PRK)) to predict metabolic pathways from a variety of biological data. PRKs take advantage of the simpler representations and faster algorithms of transducers. Because raw sequence data can be used, the predictor model avoids the errors introduced by incorrect gene annotations. We then developed several experiments with PRKs and Pairwise SVM to validate our methods using the metabolic network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As a result, when PRKs are used, our method executes faster in comparison with other pairwise kernels. Also, when we use PRKs combined with other simple kernels that include evolutionary information, the accuracy

  7. Ideal regularization for learning kernels from labels.

    PubMed

    Pan, Binbin; Lai, Jianhuang; Shen, Lixin

    2014-08-01

    In this paper, we propose a new form of regularization that is able to utilize the label information of a data set for learning kernels. The proposed regularization, referred to as ideal regularization, is a linear function of the kernel matrix to be learned. The ideal regularization allows us to develop efficient algorithms to exploit labels. Three applications of the ideal regularization are considered. Firstly, we use the ideal regularization to incorporate the labels into a standard kernel, making the resulting kernel more appropriate for learning tasks. Next, we employ the ideal regularization to learn a data-dependent kernel matrix from an initial kernel matrix (which contains prior similarity information, geometric structures, and labels of the data). Finally, we incorporate the ideal regularization to some state-of-the-art kernel learning problems. With this regularization, these learning problems can be formulated as simpler ones which permit more efficient solvers. Empirical results show that the ideal regularization exploits the labels effectively and efficiently. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. SEMI-SUPERVISED OBJECT RECOGNITION USING STRUCTURE KERNEL

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Botao; Xiong, Hongkai; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Ling, Fan

    2013-01-01

    Object recognition is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Part-based models offer a sparse, flexible representation of objects, but suffer from difficulties in training and often use standard kernels. In this paper, we propose a positive definite kernel called “structure kernel”, which measures the similarity of two part-based represented objects. The structure kernel has three terms: 1) the global term that measures the global visual similarity of two objects; 2) the part term that measures the visual similarity of corresponding parts; 3) the spatial term that measures the spatial similarity of geometric configuration of parts. The contribution of this paper is to generalize the discriminant capability of local kernels to complex part-based object models. Experimental results show that the proposed kernel exhibit higher accuracy than state-of-art approaches using standard kernels. PMID:23666108

  9. The pre-image problem in kernel methods.

    PubMed

    Kwok, James Tin-yau; Tsang, Ivor Wai-hung

    2004-11-01

    In this paper, we address the problem of finding the pre-image of a feature vector in the feature space induced by a kernel. This is of central importance in some kernel applications, such as on using kernel principal component analysis (PCA) for image denoising. Unlike the traditional method which relies on nonlinear optimization, our proposed method directly finds the location of the pre-image based on distance constraints in the feature space. It is noniterative, involves only linear algebra and does not suffer from numerical instability or local minimum problems. Evaluations on performing kernel PCA and kernel clustering on the USPS data set show much improved performance.

  10. Exploiting graph kernels for high performance biomedical relation extraction.

    PubMed

    Panyam, Nagesh C; Verspoor, Karin; Cohn, Trevor; Ramamohanarao, Kotagiri

    2018-01-30

    Relation extraction from biomedical publications is an important task in the area of semantic mining of text. Kernel methods for supervised relation extraction are often preferred over manual feature engineering methods, when classifying highly ordered structures such as trees and graphs obtained from syntactic parsing of a sentence. Tree kernels such as the Subset Tree Kernel and Partial Tree Kernel have been shown to be effective for classifying constituency parse trees and basic dependency parse graphs of a sentence. Graph kernels such as the All Path Graph kernel (APG) and Approximate Subgraph Matching (ASM) kernel have been shown to be suitable for classifying general graphs with cycles, such as the enhanced dependency parse graph of a sentence. In this work, we present a high performance Chemical-Induced Disease (CID) relation extraction system. We present a comparative study of kernel methods for the CID task and also extend our study to the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) extraction task, an important biomedical relation extraction task. We discuss novel modifications to the ASM kernel to boost its performance and a method to apply graph kernels for extracting relations expressed in multiple sentences. Our system for CID relation extraction attains an F-score of 60%, without using external knowledge sources or task specific heuristic or rules. In comparison, the state of the art Chemical-Disease Relation Extraction system achieves an F-score of 56% using an ensemble of multiple machine learning methods, which is then boosted to 61% with a rule based system employing task specific post processing rules. For the CID task, graph kernels outperform tree kernels substantially, and the best performance is obtained with APG kernel that attains an F-score of 60%, followed by the ASM kernel at 57%. The performance difference between the ASM and APG kernels for CID sentence level relation extraction is not significant. In our evaluation of ASM for the PPI task, ASM

  11. Correlation and classification of single kernel fluorescence hyperspectral data with aflatoxin concentration in corn kernels inoculated with Aspergillus flavus spores.

    PubMed

    Yao, H; Hruska, Z; Kincaid, R; Brown, R; Cleveland, T; Bhatnagar, D

    2010-05-01

    The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between fluorescence emissions of corn kernels inoculated with Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxin contamination levels within the kernels. Aflatoxin contamination in corn has been a long-standing problem plaguing the grain industry with potentially devastating consequences to corn growers. In this study, aflatoxin-contaminated corn kernels were produced through artificial inoculation of corn ears in the field with toxigenic A. flavus spores. The kernel fluorescence emission data were taken with a fluorescence hyperspectral imaging system when corn kernels were excited with ultraviolet light. Raw fluorescence image data were preprocessed and regions of interest in each image were created for all kernels. The regions of interest were used to extract spectral signatures and statistical information. The aflatoxin contamination level of single corn kernels was then chemically measured using affinity column chromatography. A fluorescence peak shift phenomenon was noted among different groups of kernels with different aflatoxin contamination levels. The fluorescence peak shift was found to move more toward the longer wavelength in the blue region for the highly contaminated kernels and toward the shorter wavelengths for the clean kernels. Highly contaminated kernels were also found to have a lower fluorescence peak magnitude compared with the less contaminated kernels. It was also noted that a general negative correlation exists between measured aflatoxin and the fluorescence image bands in the blue and green regions. The correlation coefficients of determination, r(2), was 0.72 for the multiple linear regression model. The multivariate analysis of variance found that the fluorescence means of four aflatoxin groups, <1, 1-20, 20-100, and >or=100 ng g(-1) (parts per billion), were significantly different from each other at the 0.01 level of alpha. Classification accuracy under a two-class schema ranged from 0.84 to

  12. Adaptive kernel function using line transect sampling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albadareen, Baker; Ismail, Noriszura

    2018-04-01

    The estimation of f(0) is crucial in the line transect method which is used for estimating population abundance in wildlife survey's. The classical kernel estimator of f(0) has a high negative bias. Our study proposes an adaptation in the kernel function which is shown to be more efficient than the usual kernel estimator. A simulation study is adopted to compare the performance of the proposed estimators with the classical kernel estimators.

  13. Kernel K-Means Sampling for Nyström Approximation.

    PubMed

    He, Li; Zhang, Hong

    2018-05-01

    A fundamental problem in Nyström-based kernel matrix approximation is the sampling method by which training set is built. In this paper, we suggest to use kernel -means sampling, which is shown in our works to minimize the upper bound of a matrix approximation error. We first propose a unified kernel matrix approximation framework, which is able to describe most existing Nyström approximations under many popular kernels, including Gaussian kernel and polynomial kernel. We then show that, the matrix approximation error upper bound, in terms of the Frobenius norm, is equal to the -means error of data points in kernel space plus a constant. Thus, the -means centers of data in kernel space, or the kernel -means centers, are the optimal representative points with respect to the Frobenius norm error upper bound. Experimental results, with both Gaussian kernel and polynomial kernel, on real-world data sets and image segmentation tasks show the superiority of the proposed method over the state-of-the-art methods.

  14. 7 CFR 51.2125 - Split or broken kernels.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Split or broken kernels. 51.2125 Section 51.2125 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... kernels. Split or broken kernels means seven-eighths or less of complete whole kernels but which will not...

  15. Robotic Intelligence Kernel: Driver

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    The INL Robotic Intelligence Kernel-Driver is built on top of the RIK-A and implements a dynamic autonomy structure. The RIK-D is used to orchestrate hardware for sensing and action as well as software components for perception, communication, behavior and world modeling into a single cognitive behavior kernel that provides intrinsic intelligence for a wide variety of unmanned ground vehicle systems.

  16. Bell nozzle kernel analysis program

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Elliot, J. J.; Stromstra, R. R.

    1969-01-01

    Bell Nozzle Kernel Analysis Program computes and analyzes the supersonic flowfield in the kernel, or initial expansion region, of a bell or conical nozzle. It analyzes both plane and axisymmetric geometrices for specified gas properties, nozzle throat geometry and input line.

  17. 7 CFR 51.2296 - Three-fourths half kernel.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Three-fourths half kernel. 51.2296 Section 51.2296 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards...-fourths half kernel. Three-fourths half kernel means a portion of a half of a kernel which has more than...

  18. Application of kernel method in fluorescence molecular tomography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Yue; Baikejiang, Reheman; Li, Changqing

    2017-02-01

    Reconstruction of fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is an ill-posed inverse problem. Anatomical guidance in the FMT reconstruction can improve FMT reconstruction efficiently. We have developed a kernel method to introduce the anatomical guidance into FMT robustly and easily. The kernel method is from machine learning for pattern analysis and is an efficient way to represent anatomical features. For the finite element method based FMT reconstruction, we calculate a kernel function for each finite element node from an anatomical image, such as a micro-CT image. Then the fluorophore concentration at each node is represented by a kernel coefficient vector and the corresponding kernel function. In the FMT forward model, we have a new system matrix by multiplying the sensitivity matrix with the kernel matrix. Thus, the kernel coefficient vector is the unknown to be reconstructed following a standard iterative reconstruction process. We convert the FMT reconstruction problem into the kernel coefficient reconstruction problem. The desired fluorophore concentration at each node can be calculated accordingly. Numerical simulation studies have demonstrated that the proposed kernel-based algorithm can improve the spatial resolution of the reconstructed FMT images. In the proposed kernel method, the anatomical guidance can be obtained directly from the anatomical image and is included in the forward modeling. One of the advantages is that we do not need to segment the anatomical image for the targets and background.

  19. Examining Potential Boundary Bias Effects in Kernel Smoothing on Equating: An Introduction for the Adaptive and Epanechnikov Kernels.

    PubMed

    Cid, Jaime A; von Davier, Alina A

    2015-05-01

    Test equating is a method of making the test scores from different test forms of the same assessment comparable. In the equating process, an important step involves continuizing the discrete score distributions. In traditional observed-score equating, this step is achieved using linear interpolation (or an unscaled uniform kernel). In the kernel equating (KE) process, this continuization process involves Gaussian kernel smoothing. It has been suggested that the choice of bandwidth in kernel smoothing controls the trade-off between variance and bias. In the literature on estimating density functions using kernels, it has also been suggested that the weight of the kernel depends on the sample size, and therefore, the resulting continuous distribution exhibits bias at the endpoints, where the samples are usually smaller. The purpose of this article is (a) to explore the potential effects of atypical scores (spikes) at the extreme ends (high and low) on the KE method in distributions with different degrees of asymmetry using the randomly equivalent groups equating design (Study I), and (b) to introduce the Epanechnikov and adaptive kernels as potential alternative approaches to reducing boundary bias in smoothing (Study II). The beta-binomial model is used to simulate observed scores reflecting a range of different skewed shapes.

  20. 7 CFR 868.254 - Broken kernels determination.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Broken kernels determination. 868.254 Section 868.254 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARD... Governing Application of Standards § 868.254 Broken kernels determination. Broken kernels shall be...

  1. Evaluating the Gradient of the Thin Wire Kernel

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilton, Donald R.; Champagne, Nathan J.

    2008-01-01

    Recently, a formulation for evaluating the thin wire kernel was developed that employed a change of variable to smooth the kernel integrand, canceling the singularity in the integrand. Hence, the typical expansion of the wire kernel in a series for use in the potential integrals is avoided. The new expression for the kernel is exact and may be used directly to determine the gradient of the wire kernel, which consists of components that are parallel and radial to the wire axis.

  2. KITTEN Lightweight Kernel 0.1 Beta

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pedretti, Kevin; Levenhagen, Michael; Kelly, Suzanne

    2007-12-12

    The Kitten Lightweight Kernel is a simplified OS (operating system) kernel that is intended to manage a compute node's hardware resources. It provides a set of mechanisms to user-level applications for utilizing hardware resources (e.g., allocating memory, creating processes, accessing the network). Kitten is much simpler than general-purpose OS kernels, such as Linux or Windows, but includes all of the esssential functionality needed to support HPC (high-performance computing) MPI, PGAS and OpenMP applications. Kitten provides unique capabilities such as physically contiguous application memory, transparent large page support, and noise-free tick-less operation, which enable HPC applications to obtain greater efficiency andmore » scalability than with general purpose OS kernels.« less

  3. Implementing Kernel Methods Incrementally by Incremental Nonlinear Projection Trick.

    PubMed

    Kwak, Nojun

    2016-05-20

    Recently, the nonlinear projection trick (NPT) was introduced enabling direct computation of coordinates of samples in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. With NPT, any machine learning algorithm can be extended to a kernel version without relying on the so called kernel trick. However, NPT is inherently difficult to be implemented incrementally because an ever increasing kernel matrix should be treated as additional training samples are introduced. In this paper, an incremental version of the NPT (INPT) is proposed based on the observation that the centerization step in NPT is unnecessary. Because the proposed INPT does not change the coordinates of the old data, the coordinates obtained by INPT can directly be used in any incremental methods to implement a kernel version of the incremental methods. The effectiveness of the INPT is shown by applying it to implement incremental versions of kernel methods such as, kernel singular value decomposition, kernel principal component analysis, and kernel discriminant analysis which are utilized for problems of kernel matrix reconstruction, letter classification, and face image retrieval, respectively.

  4. 7 CFR 868.304 - Broken kernels determination.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 7 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Broken kernels determination. 868.304 Section 868.304 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARD... Application of Standards § 868.304 Broken kernels determination. Broken kernels shall be determined by the use...

  5. 7 CFR 868.304 - Broken kernels determination.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Broken kernels determination. 868.304 Section 868.304 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARD... Application of Standards § 868.304 Broken kernels determination. Broken kernels shall be determined by the use...

  6. Kernel learning at the first level of inference.

    PubMed

    Cawley, Gavin C; Talbot, Nicola L C

    2014-05-01

    Kernel learning methods, whether Bayesian or frequentist, typically involve multiple levels of inference, with the coefficients of the kernel expansion being determined at the first level and the kernel and regularisation parameters carefully tuned at the second level, a process known as model selection. Model selection for kernel machines is commonly performed via optimisation of a suitable model selection criterion, often based on cross-validation or theoretical performance bounds. However, if there are a large number of kernel parameters, as for instance in the case of automatic relevance determination (ARD), there is a substantial risk of over-fitting the model selection criterion, resulting in poor generalisation performance. In this paper we investigate the possibility of learning the kernel, for the Least-Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) classifier, at the first level of inference, i.e. parameter optimisation. The kernel parameters and the coefficients of the kernel expansion are jointly optimised at the first level of inference, minimising a training criterion with an additional regularisation term acting on the kernel parameters. The key advantage of this approach is that the values of only two regularisation parameters need be determined in model selection, substantially alleviating the problem of over-fitting the model selection criterion. The benefits of this approach are demonstrated using a suite of synthetic and real-world binary classification benchmark problems, where kernel learning at the first level of inference is shown to be statistically superior to the conventional approach, improves on our previous work (Cawley and Talbot, 2007) and is competitive with Multiple Kernel Learning approaches, but with reduced computational expense. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Multiple kernels learning-based biological entity relationship extraction method.

    PubMed

    Dongliang, Xu; Jingchang, Pan; Bailing, Wang

    2017-09-20

    Automatic extracting protein entity interaction information from biomedical literature can help to build protein relation network and design new drugs. There are more than 20 million literature abstracts included in MEDLINE, which is the most authoritative textual database in the field of biomedicine, and follow an exponential growth over time. This frantic expansion of the biomedical literature can often be difficult to absorb or manually analyze. Thus efficient and automated search engines are necessary to efficiently explore the biomedical literature using text mining techniques. The P, R, and F value of tag graph method in Aimed corpus are 50.82, 69.76, and 58.61%, respectively. The P, R, and F value of tag graph kernel method in other four evaluation corpuses are 2-5% higher than that of all-paths graph kernel. And The P, R and F value of feature kernel and tag graph kernel fuse methods is 53.43, 71.62 and 61.30%, respectively. The P, R and F value of feature kernel and tag graph kernel fuse methods is 55.47, 70.29 and 60.37%, respectively. It indicated that the performance of the two kinds of kernel fusion methods is better than that of simple kernel. In comparison with the all-paths graph kernel method, the tag graph kernel method is superior in terms of overall performance. Experiments show that the performance of the multi-kernels method is better than that of the three separate single-kernel method and the dual-mutually fused kernel method used hereof in five corpus sets.

  8. 7 CFR 51.1403 - Kernel color classification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... generally conforms to the “light” or “light amber” classification, that color classification may be used to... 7 Agriculture 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Kernel color classification. 51.1403 Section 51.1403... Color Classification § 51.1403 Kernel color classification. (a) The skin color of pecan kernels may be...

  9. 7 CFR 51.1403 - Kernel color classification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... generally conforms to the “light” or “light amber” classification, that color classification may be used to... 7 Agriculture 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Kernel color classification. 51.1403 Section 51.1403... Color Classification § 51.1403 Kernel color classification. (a) The skin color of pecan kernels may be...

  10. Evidence-based Kernels: Fundamental Units of Behavioral Influence

    PubMed Central

    Biglan, Anthony

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes evidence-based kernels, fundamental units of behavioral influence that appear to underlie effective prevention and treatment for children, adults, and families. A kernel is a behavior–influence procedure shown through experimental analysis to affect a specific behavior and that is indivisible in the sense that removing any of its components would render it inert. Existing evidence shows that a variety of kernels can influence behavior in context, and some evidence suggests that frequent use or sufficient use of some kernels may produce longer lasting behavioral shifts. The analysis of kernels could contribute to an empirically based theory of behavioral influence, augment existing prevention or treatment efforts, facilitate the dissemination of effective prevention and treatment practices, clarify the active ingredients in existing interventions, and contribute to efficiently developing interventions that are more effective. Kernels involve one or more of the following mechanisms of behavior influence: reinforcement, altering antecedents, changing verbal relational responding, or changing physiological states directly. The paper describes 52 of these kernels, and details practical, theoretical, and research implications, including calling for a national database of kernels that influence human behavior. PMID:18712600

  11. Integrating the Gradient of the Thin Wire Kernel

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Champagne, Nathan J.; Wilton, Donald R.

    2008-01-01

    A formulation for integrating the gradient of the thin wire kernel is presented. This approach employs a new expression for the gradient of the thin wire kernel derived from a recent technique for numerically evaluating the exact thin wire kernel. This approach should provide essentially arbitrary accuracy and may be used with higher-order elements and basis functions using the procedure described in [4].When the source and observation points are close, the potential integrals over wire segments involving the wire kernel are split into parts to handle the singular behavior of the integrand [1]. The singularity characteristics of the gradient of the wire kernel are different than those of the wire kernel, and the axial and radial components have different singularities. The characteristics of the gradient of the wire kernel are discussed in [2]. To evaluate the near electric and magnetic fields of a wire, the integration of the gradient of the wire kernel needs to be calculated over the source wire. Since the vector bases for current have constant direction on linear wire segments, these integrals reduce to integrals of the form

  12. THERMOS. 30-Group ENDF/B Scattered Kernels

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    McCrosson, F.J.; Finch, D.R.

    1973-12-01

    These data are 30-group THERMOS thermal scattering kernels for P0 to P5 Legendre orders for every temperature of every material from s(alpha,beta) data stored in the ENDF/B library. These scattering kernels were generated using the FLANGE2 computer code. To test the kernels, the integral properties of each set of kernels were determined by a precision integration of the diffusion length equation and compared to experimental measurements of these properties. In general, the agreement was very good. Details of the methods used and results obtained are contained in the reference. The scattering kernels are organized into a two volume magnetic tapemore » library from which they may be retrieved easily for use in any 30-group THERMOS library.« less

  13. Physico-chemical properties of Moringa oleifera seed oil enzymatically interesterified with palm stearin and palm kernel oil and its potential application in food.

    PubMed

    Dollah, Sarafhana; Abdulkarim, Sabo Mohammed; Ahmad, Siti Hajar; Khoramnia, Anahita; Mohd Ghazali, Hasanah

    2016-08-01

    High oleic acid Moringa oleifera seed oil (MoO) has been rarely applied in food products due to the low melting point and lack of plasticity. Enzymatic interesterification (EIE) of MoO with palm stearin (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) could yield harder fat stocks that may impart desirable nutritional and physical properties. Blends of MoO and PS or PKO were examined for triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, thermal properties and solid fat content (SFC). EIE caused rearrangement of TAGs, reduction of U3 and increase of U2 S in MoO/PS blends while reduction of U3 and S3 following increase of S2 U and U2 S in MoO/PKO blends (U, unsaturated and S, saturated fatty acids). SFC measurements revealed a wide range of plasticity, enhancements of spreadability, mouthfeel and cooling effect for interesterified MoO/PS, indicating the possible application of these blends in margarines. However, interesterified MoO/PKO was not suitable in margarine application, while ice-cream may be formulated from these blends. A soft margarine formulated from MoO/PS 70:30 revealed high oxidative stability during 8 weeks storage with no significant changes in peroxide and p-anisidine values. EIE of fats with MoO allowed nutritional and oxidative stable plastic fats to be obtained, suitable for possible use in industrial food applications. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

  14. The Classification of Diabetes Mellitus Using Kernel k-means

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alamsyah, M.; Nafisah, Z.; Prayitno, E.; Afida, A. M.; Imah, E. M.

    2018-01-01

    Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder which is characterized by chronicle hypertensive glucose. Automatics detection of diabetes mellitus is still challenging. This study detected diabetes mellitus by using kernel k-Means algorithm. Kernel k-means is an algorithm which was developed from k-means algorithm. Kernel k-means used kernel learning that is able to handle non linear separable data; where it differs with a common k-means. The performance of kernel k-means in detecting diabetes mellitus is also compared with SOM algorithms. The experiment result shows that kernel k-means has good performance and a way much better than SOM.

  15. Brain tumor image segmentation using kernel dictionary learning.

    PubMed

    Jeon Lee; Seung-Jun Kim; Rong Chen; Herskovits, Edward H

    2015-08-01

    Automated brain tumor image segmentation with high accuracy and reproducibility holds a big potential to enhance the current clinical practice. Dictionary learning (DL) techniques have been applied successfully to various image processing tasks recently. In this work, kernel extensions of the DL approach are adopted. Both reconstructive and discriminative versions of the kernel DL technique are considered, which can efficiently incorporate multi-modal nonlinear feature mappings based on the kernel trick. Our novel discriminative kernel DL formulation allows joint learning of a task-driven kernel-based dictionary and a linear classifier using a K-SVD-type algorithm. The proposed approaches were tested using real brain magnetic resonance (MR) images of patients with high-grade glioma. The obtained preliminary performances are competitive with the state of the art. The discriminative kernel DL approach is seen to reduce computational burden without much sacrifice in performance.

  16. Development of a kernel function for clinical data.

    PubMed

    Daemen, Anneleen; De Moor, Bart

    2009-01-01

    For most diseases and examinations, clinical data such as age, gender and medical history guides clinical management, despite the rise of high-throughput technologies. To fully exploit such clinical information, appropriate modeling of relevant parameters is required. As the widely used linear kernel function has several disadvantages when applied to clinical data, we propose a new kernel function specifically developed for this data. This "clinical kernel function" more accurately represents similarities between patients. Evidently, three data sets were studied and significantly better performances were obtained with a Least Squares Support Vector Machine when based on the clinical kernel function compared to the linear kernel function.

  17. Towards the Geometry of Reproducing Kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galé, J. E.

    2010-11-01

    It is shown here how one is naturally led to consider a category whose objects are reproducing kernels of Hilbert spaces, and how in this way a differential geometry for such kernels may be settled down.

  18. Kernel-PCA data integration with enhanced interpretability

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Nowadays, combining the different sources of information to improve the biological knowledge available is a challenge in bioinformatics. One of the most powerful methods for integrating heterogeneous data types are kernel-based methods. Kernel-based data integration approaches consist of two basic steps: firstly the right kernel is chosen for each data set; secondly the kernels from the different data sources are combined to give a complete representation of the available data for a given statistical task. Results We analyze the integration of data from several sources of information using kernel PCA, from the point of view of reducing dimensionality. Moreover, we improve the interpretability of kernel PCA by adding to the plot the representation of the input variables that belong to any dataset. In particular, for each input variable or linear combination of input variables, we can represent the direction of maximum growth locally, which allows us to identify those samples with higher/lower values of the variables analyzed. Conclusions The integration of different datasets and the simultaneous representation of samples and variables together give us a better understanding of biological knowledge. PMID:25032747

  19. Gaussian mass optimization for kernel PCA parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yong; Wang, Zulin

    2011-10-01

    This paper proposes a novel kernel parameter optimization method based on Gaussian mass, which aims to overcome the current brute force parameter optimization method in a heuristic way. Generally speaking, the choice of kernel parameter should be tightly related to the target objects while the variance between the samples, the most commonly used kernel parameter, doesn't possess much features of the target, which gives birth to Gaussian mass. Gaussian mass defined in this paper has the property of the invariance of rotation and translation and is capable of depicting the edge, topology and shape information. Simulation results show that Gaussian mass leads a promising heuristic optimization boost up for kernel method. In MNIST handwriting database, the recognition rate improves by 1.6% compared with common kernel method without Gaussian mass optimization. Several promising other directions which Gaussian mass might help are also proposed at the end of the paper.

  20. Design of CT reconstruction kernel specifically for clinical lung imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cody, Dianna D.; Hsieh, Jiang; Gladish, Gregory W.

    2005-04-01

    In this study we developed a new reconstruction kernel specifically for chest CT imaging. An experimental flat-panel CT scanner was used on large dogs to produce 'ground-truth" reference chest CT images. These dogs were also examined using a clinical 16-slice CT scanner. We concluded from the dog images acquired on the clinical scanner that the loss of subtle lung structures was due mostly to the presence of the background noise texture when using currently available reconstruction kernels. This qualitative evaluation of the dog CT images prompted the design of a new recon kernel. This new kernel consisted of the combination of a low-pass and a high-pass kernel to produce a new reconstruction kernel, called the 'Hybrid" kernel. The performance of this Hybrid kernel fell between the two kernels on which it was based, as expected. This Hybrid kernel was also applied to a set of 50 patient data sets; the analysis of these clinical images is underway. We are hopeful that this Hybrid kernel will produce clinical images with an acceptable tradeoff of lung detail, reliable HU, and image noise.

  1. Quality changes in macadamia kernel between harvest and farm-gate.

    PubMed

    Walton, David A; Wallace, Helen M

    2011-02-01

    Macadamia integrifolia, Macadamia tetraphylla and their hybrids are cultivated for their edible kernels. After harvest, nuts-in-shell are partially dried on-farm and sorted to eliminate poor-quality kernels before consignment to a processor. During these operations, kernel quality may be lost. In this study, macadamia nuts-in-shell were sampled at five points of an on-farm postharvest handling chain from dehusking to the final storage silo to assess quality loss prior to consignment. Shoulder damage, weight of pieces and unsound kernel were assessed for raw kernels, and colour, mottled colour and surface damage for roasted kernels. Shoulder damage, weight of pieces and unsound kernel for raw kernels increased significantly between the dehusker and the final silo. Roasted kernels displayed a significant increase in dark colour, mottled colour and surface damage during on-farm handling. Significant loss of macadamia kernel quality occurred on a commercial farm during sorting and storage of nuts-in-shell before nuts were consigned to a processor. Nuts-in-shell should be dried as quickly as possible and on-farm handling minimised to maintain optimum kernel quality. 2010 Society of Chemical Industry.

  2. Unified heat kernel regression for diffusion, kernel smoothing and wavelets on manifolds and its application to mandible growth modeling in CT images.

    PubMed

    Chung, Moo K; Qiu, Anqi; Seo, Seongho; Vorperian, Houri K

    2015-05-01

    We present a novel kernel regression framework for smoothing scalar surface data using the Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions. Starting with the heat kernel constructed from the eigenfunctions, we formulate a new bivariate kernel regression framework as a weighted eigenfunction expansion with the heat kernel as the weights. The new kernel method is mathematically equivalent to isotropic heat diffusion, kernel smoothing and recently popular diffusion wavelets. The numerical implementation is validated on a unit sphere using spherical harmonics. As an illustration, the method is applied to characterize the localized growth pattern of mandible surfaces obtained in CT images between ages 0 and 20 by regressing the length of displacement vectors with respect to a surface template. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Quantum kernel applications in medicinal chemistry.

    PubMed

    Huang, Lulu; Massa, Lou

    2012-07-01

    Progress in the quantum mechanics of biological molecules is being driven by computational advances. The notion of quantum kernels can be introduced to simplify the formalism of quantum mechanics, making it especially suitable for parallel computation of very large biological molecules. The essential idea is to mathematically break large biological molecules into smaller kernels that are calculationally tractable, and then to represent the full molecule by a summation over the kernels. The accuracy of the kernel energy method (KEM) is shown by systematic application to a great variety of molecular types found in biology. These include peptides, proteins, DNA and RNA. Examples are given that explore the KEM across a variety of chemical models, and to the outer limits of energy accuracy and molecular size. KEM represents an advance in quantum biology applicable to problems in medicine and drug design.

  4. Generalization Performance of Regularized Ranking With Multiscale Kernels.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Yicong; Chen, Hong; Lan, Rushi; Pan, Zhibin

    2016-05-01

    The regularized kernel method for the ranking problem has attracted increasing attentions in machine learning. The previous regularized ranking algorithms are usually based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces with a single kernel. In this paper, we go beyond this framework by investigating the generalization performance of the regularized ranking with multiscale kernels. A novel ranking algorithm with multiscale kernels is proposed and its representer theorem is proved. We establish the upper bound of the generalization error in terms of the complexity of hypothesis spaces. It shows that the multiscale ranking algorithm can achieve satisfactory learning rates under mild conditions. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for drug discovery and recommendation tasks.

  5. Multineuron spike train analysis with R-convolution linear combination kernel.

    PubMed

    Tezuka, Taro

    2018-06-01

    A spike train kernel provides an effective way of decoding information represented by a spike train. Some spike train kernels have been extended to multineuron spike trains, which are simultaneously recorded spike trains obtained from multiple neurons. However, most of these multineuron extensions were carried out in a kernel-specific manner. In this paper, a general framework is proposed for extending any single-neuron spike train kernel to multineuron spike trains, based on the R-convolution kernel. Special subclasses of the proposed R-convolution linear combination kernel are explored. These subclasses have a smaller number of parameters and make optimization tractable when the size of data is limited. The proposed kernel was evaluated using Gaussian process regression for multineuron spike trains recorded from an animal brain. It was compared with the sum kernel and the population Spikernel, which are existing ways of decoding multineuron spike trains using kernels. The results showed that the proposed approach performs better than these kernels and also other commonly used neural decoding methods. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Putting Priors in Mixture Density Mercer Kernels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Srivastava, Ashok N.; Schumann, Johann; Fischer, Bernd

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for automatic knowledge driven data mining based on the theory of Mercer Kernels, which are highly nonlinear symmetric positive definite mappings from the original image space to a very high, possibly infinite dimensional feature space. We describe a new method called Mixture Density Mercer Kernels to learn kernel function directly from data, rather than using predefined kernels. These data adaptive kernels can en- code prior knowledge in the kernel using a Bayesian formulation, thus allowing for physical information to be encoded in the model. We compare the results with existing algorithms on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The code for these experiments has been generated with the AUTOBAYES tool, which automatically generates efficient and documented C/C++ code from abstract statistical model specifications. The core of the system is a schema library which contains template for learning and knowledge discovery algorithms like different versions of EM, or numeric optimization methods like conjugate gradient methods. The template instantiation is supported by symbolic- algebraic computations, which allows AUTOBAYES to find closed-form solutions and, where possible, to integrate them into the code. The results show that the Mixture Density Mercer-Kernel described here outperforms tree-based classification in distinguishing high-redshift galaxies from low- redshift galaxies by approximately 16% on test data, bagged trees by approximately 7%, and bagged trees built on a much larger sample of data by approximately 2%.

  7. Increasing accuracy of dispersal kernels in grid-based population models

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Slone, D.H.

    2011-01-01

    Dispersal kernels in grid-based population models specify the proportion, distance and direction of movements within the model landscape. Spatial errors in dispersal kernels can have large compounding effects on model accuracy. Circular Gaussian and Laplacian dispersal kernels at a range of spatial resolutions were investigated, and methods for minimizing errors caused by the discretizing process were explored. Kernels of progressively smaller sizes relative to the landscape grid size were calculated using cell-integration and cell-center methods. These kernels were convolved repeatedly, and the final distribution was compared with a reference analytical solution. For large Gaussian kernels (σ > 10 cells), the total kernel error was <10 &sup-11; compared to analytical results. Using an invasion model that tracked the time a population took to reach a defined goal, the discrete model results were comparable to the analytical reference. With Gaussian kernels that had σ ≤ 0.12 using the cell integration method, or σ ≤ 0.22 using the cell center method, the kernel error was greater than 10%, which resulted in invasion times that were orders of magnitude different than theoretical results. A goal-seeking routine was developed to adjust the kernels to minimize overall error. With this, corrections for small kernels were found that decreased overall kernel error to <10-11 and invasion time error to <5%.

  8. An SVM model with hybrid kernels for hydrological time series

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, C.; Wang, H.; Zhao, X.; Xie, Q.

    2017-12-01

    Support Vector Machine (SVM) models have been widely applied to the forecast of climate/weather and its impact on other environmental variables such as hydrologic response to climate/weather. When using SVM, the choice of the kernel function plays the key role. Conventional SVM models mostly use one single type of kernel function, e.g., radial basis kernel function. Provided that there are several featured kernel functions available, each having its own advantages and drawbacks, a combination of these kernel functions may give more flexibility and robustness to SVM approach, making it suitable for a wide range of application scenarios. This paper presents such a linear combination of radial basis kernel and polynomial kernel for the forecast of monthly flowrate in two gaging stations using SVM approach. The results indicate significant improvement in the accuracy of predicted series compared to the approach with either individual kernel function, thus demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of such hybrid kernel approach for SVM applications.

  9. Graph wavelet alignment kernels for drug virtual screening.

    PubMed

    Smalter, Aaron; Huan, Jun; Lushington, Gerald

    2009-06-01

    In this paper, we introduce a novel statistical modeling technique for target property prediction, with applications to virtual screening and drug design. In our method, we use graphs to model chemical structures and apply a wavelet analysis of graphs to summarize features capturing graph local topology. We design a novel graph kernel function to utilize the topology features to build predictive models for chemicals via Support Vector Machine classifier. We call the new graph kernel a graph wavelet-alignment kernel. We have evaluated the efficacy of the wavelet-alignment kernel using a set of chemical structure-activity prediction benchmarks. Our results indicate that the use of the kernel function yields performance profiles comparable to, and sometimes exceeding that of the existing state-of-the-art chemical classification approaches. In addition, our results also show that the use of wavelet functions significantly decreases the computational costs for graph kernel computation with more than ten fold speedup.

  10. Small convolution kernels for high-fidelity image restoration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Reichenbach, Stephen E.; Park, Stephen K.

    1991-01-01

    An algorithm is developed for computing the mean-square-optimal values for small, image-restoration kernels. The algorithm is based on a comprehensive, end-to-end imaging system model that accounts for the important components of the imaging process: the statistics of the scene, the point-spread function of the image-gathering device, sampling effects, noise, and display reconstruction. Subject to constraints on the spatial support of the kernel, the algorithm generates the kernel values that restore the image with maximum fidelity, that is, the kernel minimizes the expected mean-square restoration error. The algorithm is consistent with the derivation of the spatially unconstrained Wiener filter, but leads to a small, spatially constrained kernel that, unlike the unconstrained filter, can be efficiently implemented by convolution. Simulation experiments demonstrate that for a wide range of imaging systems these small kernels can restore images with fidelity comparable to images restored with the unconstrained Wiener filter.

  11. Reduced multiple empirical kernel learning machine.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhe; Lu, MingZhe; Gao, Daqi

    2015-02-01

    Multiple kernel learning (MKL) is demonstrated to be flexible and effective in depicting heterogeneous data sources since MKL can introduce multiple kernels rather than a single fixed kernel into applications. However, MKL would get a high time and space complexity in contrast to single kernel learning, which is not expected in real-world applications. Meanwhile, it is known that the kernel mapping ways of MKL generally have two forms including implicit kernel mapping and empirical kernel mapping (EKM), where the latter is less attracted. In this paper, we focus on the MKL with the EKM, and propose a reduced multiple empirical kernel learning machine named RMEKLM for short. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first to reduce both time and space complexity of the MKL with EKM. Different from the existing MKL, the proposed RMEKLM adopts the Gauss Elimination technique to extract a set of feature vectors, which is validated that doing so does not lose much information of the original feature space. Then RMEKLM adopts the extracted feature vectors to span a reduced orthonormal subspace of the feature space, which is visualized in terms of the geometry structure. It can be demonstrated that the spanned subspace is isomorphic to the original feature space, which means that the dot product of two vectors in the original feature space is equal to that of the two corresponding vectors in the generated orthonormal subspace. More importantly, the proposed RMEKLM brings a simpler computation and meanwhile needs a less storage space, especially in the processing of testing. Finally, the experimental results show that RMEKLM owns a much efficient and effective performance in terms of both complexity and classification. The contributions of this paper can be given as follows: (1) by mapping the input space into an orthonormal subspace, the geometry of the generated subspace is visualized; (2) this paper first reduces both the time and space complexity of the EKM-based MKL; (3

  12. 7 CFR 981.61 - Redetermination of kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Redetermination of kernel weight. 981.61 Section 981... GROWN IN CALIFORNIA Order Regulating Handling Volume Regulation § 981.61 Redetermination of kernel weight. The Board, on the basis of reports by handlers, shall redetermine the kernel weight of almonds...

  13. Enhanced gluten properties in soft kernel durum wheat

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Soft kernel durum wheat is a relatively recent development (Morris et al. 2011 Crop Sci. 51:114). The soft kernel trait exerts profound effects on kernel texture, flour milling including break flour yield, milling energy, and starch damage, and dough water absorption (DWA). With the caveat of reduce...

  14. Accelerating the Original Profile Kernel.

    PubMed

    Hamp, Tobias; Goldberg, Tatyana; Rost, Burkhard

    2013-01-01

    One of the most accurate multi-class protein classification systems continues to be the profile-based SVM kernel introduced by the Leslie group. Unfortunately, its CPU requirements render it too slow for practical applications of large-scale classification tasks. Here, we introduce several software improvements that enable significant acceleration. Using various non-redundant data sets, we demonstrate that our new implementation reaches a maximal speed-up as high as 14-fold for calculating the same kernel matrix. Some predictions are over 200 times faster and render the kernel as possibly the top contender in a low ratio of speed/performance. Additionally, we explain how to parallelize various computations and provide an integrative program that reduces creating a production-quality classifier to a single program call. The new implementation is available as a Debian package under a free academic license and does not depend on commercial software. For non-Debian based distributions, the source package ships with a traditional Makefile-based installer. Download and installation instructions can be found at https://rostlab.org/owiki/index.php/Fast_Profile_Kernel. Bugs and other issues may be reported at https://rostlab.org/bugzilla3/enter_bug.cgi?product=fastprofkernel.

  15. 21 CFR 176.350 - Tamarind seed kernel powder.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Tamarind seed kernel powder. 176.350 Section 176... Paperboard § 176.350 Tamarind seed kernel powder. Tamarind seed kernel powder may be safely used as a component of articles intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating...

  16. 7 CFR 981.60 - Determination of kernel weight.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Determination of kernel weight. 981.60 Section 981.60... Regulating Handling Volume Regulation § 981.60 Determination of kernel weight. (a) Almonds for which settlement is made on kernel weight. All lots of almonds, whether shelled or unshelled, for which settlement...

  17. End-use quality of soft kernel durum wheat

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Kernel texture is a major determinant of end-use quality of wheat. Durum wheat has very hard kernels. We developed soft kernel durum wheat via Ph1b-mediated homoeologous recombination. The Hardness locus was transferred from Chinese Spring to Svevo durum wheat via back-crossing. ‘Soft Svevo’ had SKC...

  18. Deep Restricted Kernel Machines Using Conjugate Feature Duality.

    PubMed

    Suykens, Johan A K

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this letter is to propose a theory of deep restricted kernel machines offering new foundations for deep learning with kernel machines. From the viewpoint of deep learning, it is partially related to restricted Boltzmann machines, which are characterized by visible and hidden units in a bipartite graph without hidden-to-hidden connections and deep learning extensions as deep belief networks and deep Boltzmann machines. From the viewpoint of kernel machines, it includes least squares support vector machines for classification and regression, kernel principal component analysis (PCA), matrix singular value decomposition, and Parzen-type models. A key element is to first characterize these kernel machines in terms of so-called conjugate feature duality, yielding a representation with visible and hidden units. It is shown how this is related to the energy form in restricted Boltzmann machines, with continuous variables in a nonprobabilistic setting. In this new framework of so-called restricted kernel machine (RKM) representations, the dual variables correspond to hidden features. Deep RKM are obtained by coupling the RKMs. The method is illustrated for deep RKM, consisting of three levels with a least squares support vector machine regression level and two kernel PCA levels. In its primal form also deep feedforward neural networks can be trained within this framework.

  19. Improved modeling of clinical data with kernel methods.

    PubMed

    Daemen, Anneleen; Timmerman, Dirk; Van den Bosch, Thierry; Bottomley, Cecilia; Kirk, Emma; Van Holsbeke, Caroline; Valentin, Lil; Bourne, Tom; De Moor, Bart

    2012-02-01

    Despite the rise of high-throughput technologies, clinical data such as age, gender and medical history guide clinical management for most diseases and examinations. To improve clinical management, available patient information should be fully exploited. This requires appropriate modeling of relevant parameters. When kernel methods are used, traditional kernel functions such as the linear kernel are often applied to the set of clinical parameters. These kernel functions, however, have their disadvantages due to the specific characteristics of clinical data, being a mix of variable types with each variable its own range. We propose a new kernel function specifically adapted to the characteristics of clinical data. The clinical kernel function provides a better representation of patients' similarity by equalizing the influence of all variables and taking into account the range r of the variables. Moreover, it is robust with respect to changes in r. Incorporated in a least squares support vector machine, the new kernel function results in significantly improved diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of therapy response. This is illustrated on four clinical data sets within gynecology, with an average increase in test area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.023, 0.021, 0.122 and 0.019, respectively. Moreover, when combining clinical parameters and expression data in three case studies on breast cancer, results improved overall with use of the new kernel function and when considering both data types in a weighted fashion, with a larger weight assigned to the clinical parameters. The increase in AUC with respect to a standard kernel function and/or unweighted data combination was maximum 0.127, 0.042 and 0.118 for the three case studies. For clinical data consisting of variables of different types, the proposed kernel function--which takes into account the type and range of each variable--has shown to be a better alternative for linear and non-linear classification problems

  20. Formulation of insecticide profenofos using Surfactant Diethanolamide (DEA) based on palm olein

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dewi, H. S.; Rahayuningsih, M.; Hambali, E.

    2017-05-01

    Soybean is one of the major food commodities in Indonesia that the consumption is increasing each year, but this is not in line with the domestic soybean production capacity. One cause of the low production capacity is the armyworm attact. Generally, the armyworm attack controled by spread insecticide profenofos. Profenofos need to be dissolved, but profenofos couldn’t dissolved in water. So that, it need the right formulation between the solvent and other ingredients which can supprotprofenofos performance. One of that ingredient is surfactant. This research used surfactant diethanolamide (DEA) based on palm olein. DEAfunction in insecticide formulation are as homogenizer, dispersant, sticker and spreader agent.The aims of this research are to obtain the best emultion insecticide product based on profenofos as the active ingredients and DEA as the surfactant, moreover it also to obtain information of the physico-chemical properties. The formulation test performed with compeletely randomized design (CRD) with two factors, first factor is DEA concentrationand the second factor is profenofos concentration. Data of physico-chemical properties test was analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant result tested by Duncant Multiple Range Test (DMRT).The result showed that, surfactant DEA could make good emultion between profenofos and sodium ethoxide as the solvent. The best treatment which obtain from formulation stage is concentrate with DEA 10% and profenofos 40%. Physico-chemical properties test result showed that droplet size is 1,76-2,07 µm, contact angle 11,575-24,218°, density 0,996-0,998 g/cm3, surface tension 16,56-40,72 dyne/cm, viscosity 1,032-1,078 Cp and pH 6,87-8,22.

  1. Triso coating development progress for uranium nitride kernels

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jolly, Brian C.; Lindemer, Terrence; Terrani, Kurt A.

    2015-08-01

    In support of fully ceramic matrix (FCM) fuel development [1-2], coating development work is ongoing at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to produce tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles with UN kernels [3]. The nitride kernels are used to increase fissile density in these SiC-matrix fuel pellets with details described elsewhere [4]. The advanced gas reactor (AGR) program at ORNL used fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition (FBCVD) techniques for TRISO coating of UCO (two phase mixture of UO2 and UCx) kernels [5]. Similar techniques were employed for coating of the UN kernels, however significant changes in processing conditions weremore » required to maintain acceptable coating properties due to physical property and dimensional differences between the UCO and UN kernels (Table 1).« less

  2. 21 CFR 176.350 - Tamarind seed kernel powder.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Tamarind seed kernel powder. 176.350 Section 176... Substances for Use Only as Components of Paper and Paperboard § 176.350 Tamarind seed kernel powder. Tamarind seed kernel powder may be safely used as a component of articles intended for use in producing...

  3. 21 CFR 176.350 - Tamarind seed kernel powder.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Tamarind seed kernel powder. 176.350 Section 176... Substances for Use Only as Components of Paper and Paperboard § 176.350 Tamarind seed kernel powder. Tamarind seed kernel powder may be safely used as a component of articles intended for use in producing...

  4. 21 CFR 176.350 - Tamarind seed kernel powder.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Tamarind seed kernel powder. 176.350 Section 176... Substances for Use Only as Components of Paper and Paperboard § 176.350 Tamarind seed kernel powder. Tamarind seed kernel powder may be safely used as a component of articles intended for use in producing...

  5. 21 CFR 176.350 - Tamarind seed kernel powder.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Tamarind seed kernel powder. 176.350 Section 176... Substances for Use Only as Components of Paper and Paperboard § 176.350 Tamarind seed kernel powder. Tamarind seed kernel powder may be safely used as a component of articles intended for use in producing...

  6. Unified Heat Kernel Regression for Diffusion, Kernel Smoothing and Wavelets on Manifolds and Its Application to Mandible Growth Modeling in CT Images

    PubMed Central

    Chung, Moo K.; Qiu, Anqi; Seo, Seongho; Vorperian, Houri K.

    2014-01-01

    We present a novel kernel regression framework for smoothing scalar surface data using the Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions. Starting with the heat kernel constructed from the eigenfunctions, we formulate a new bivariate kernel regression framework as a weighted eigenfunction expansion with the heat kernel as the weights. The new kernel regression is mathematically equivalent to isotropic heat diffusion, kernel smoothing and recently popular diffusion wavelets. Unlike many previous partial differential equation based approaches involving diffusion, our approach represents the solution of diffusion analytically, reducing numerical inaccuracy and slow convergence. The numerical implementation is validated on a unit sphere using spherical harmonics. As an illustration, we have applied the method in characterizing the localized growth pattern of mandible surfaces obtained in CT images from subjects between ages 0 and 20 years by regressing the length of displacement vectors with respect to the template surface. PMID:25791435

  7. A dynamic kernel modifier for linux

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Minnich, R. G.

    2002-09-03

    Dynamic Kernel Modifier, or DKM, is a kernel module for Linux that allows user-mode programs to modify the execution of functions in the kernel without recompiling or modifying the kernel source in any way. Functions may be traced, either function entry only or function entry and exit; nullified; or replaced with some other function. For the tracing case, function execution results in the activation of a watchpoint. When the watchpoint is activated, the address of the function is logged in a FIFO buffer that is readable by external applications. The watchpoints are time-stamped with the resolution of the processor highmore » resolution timers, which on most modem processors are accurate to a single processor tick. DKM is very similar to earlier systems such as the SunOS trace device or Linux TT. Unlike these two systems, and other similar systems, DKM requires no kernel modifications. DKM allows users to do initial probing of the kernel to look for performance problems, or even to resolve potential problems by turning functions off or replacing them. DKM watchpoints are not without cost: it takes about 200 nanoseconds to make a log entry on an 800 Mhz Pentium-Ill. The overhead numbers are actually competitive with other hardware-based trace systems, although it has less 'Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the United States Department of Energy under contract W-7405-ENG-36. accuracy than an In-Circuit Emulator such as the American Arium. Once the user has zeroed in on a problem, other mechanisms with a higher degree of accuracy can be used.« less

  8. Supporting School Leaders in Blended Learning with Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Acree, Lauren; Gibson, Theresa; Mangum, Nancy; Wolf, Mary Ann; Kellogg, Shaun; Branon, Suzanne

    2017-01-01

    This study provides a mixed-methods case-study design evaluation of the Leadership in Blended Learning (LBL) program. The LBL program uses blended approaches, including face-to-face and online, to prepare school leaders to implement blended learning initiatives in their schools. This evaluation found that the program designers effectively…

  9. Hadamard Kernel SVM with applications for breast cancer outcome predictions.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Hao; Ching, Wai-Ki; Cheung, Wai-Shun; Hou, Wenpin; Yin, Hong

    2017-12-21

    Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths for women. It is of great necessity to develop effective methods for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. Recent studies have focused on gene-based signatures for outcome predictions. Kernel SVM for its discriminative power in dealing with small sample pattern recognition problems has attracted a lot attention. But how to select or construct an appropriate kernel for a specified problem still needs further investigation. Here we propose a novel kernel (Hadamard Kernel) in conjunction with Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to address the problem of breast cancer outcome prediction using gene expression data. Hadamard Kernel outperform the classical kernels and correlation kernel in terms of Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) values where a number of real-world data sets are adopted to test the performance of different methods. Hadamard Kernel SVM is effective for breast cancer predictions, either in terms of prognosis or diagnosis. It may benefit patients by guiding therapeutic options. Apart from that, it would be a valuable addition to the current SVM kernel families. We hope it will contribute to the wider biology and related communities.

  10. Kernel Partial Least Squares for Nonlinear Regression and Discrimination

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosipal, Roman; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    This paper summarizes recent results on applying the method of partial least squares (PLS) in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). A previously proposed kernel PLS regression model was proven to be competitive with other regularized regression methods in RKHS. The family of nonlinear kernel-based PLS models is extended by considering the kernel PLS method for discrimination. Theoretical and experimental results on a two-class discrimination problem indicate usefulness of the method.

  11. Aflatoxin contamination of developing corn kernels.

    PubMed

    Amer, M A

    2005-01-01

    Preharvest of corn and its contamination with aflatoxin is a serious problem. Some environmental and cultural factors responsible for infection and subsequent aflatoxin production were investigated in this study. Stage of growth and location of kernels on corn ears were found to be one of the important factors in the process of kernel infection with A. flavus & A. parasiticus. The results showed positive correlation between the stage of growth and kernel infection. Treatment of corn with aflatoxin reduced germination, protein and total nitrogen contents. Total and reducing soluble sugar was increase in corn kernels as response to infection. Sucrose and protein content were reduced in case of both pathogens. Shoot system length, seeding fresh weigh and seedling dry weigh was also affected. Both pathogens induced reduction of starch content. Healthy corn seedlings treated with aflatoxin solution were badly affected. Their leaves became yellow then, turned brown with further incubation. Moreover, their total chlorophyll and protein contents showed pronounced decrease. On the other hand, total phenolic compounds were increased. Histopathological studies indicated that A. flavus & A. parasiticus could colonize corn silks and invade developing kernels. Germination of A. flavus spores was occurred and hyphae spread rapidly across the silk, producing extensive growth and lateral branching. Conidiophores and conidia had formed in and on the corn silk. Temperature and relative humidity greatly influenced the growth of A. flavus & A. parasiticus and aflatoxin production.

  12. Anthraquinones isolated from the browned Chinese chestnut kernels (Castanea mollissima blume)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Y. L.; Qi, J. H.; Qin, L.; Wang, F.; Pang, M. X.

    2016-08-01

    Anthraquinones (AQS) represent a group of secondary metallic products in plants. AQS are often naturally occurring in plants and microorganisms. In a previous study, we found that AQS were produced by enzymatic browning reaction in Chinese chestnut kernels. To find out whether non-enzymatic browning reaction in the kernels could produce AQS too, AQS were extracted from three groups of chestnut kernels: fresh kernels, non-enzymatic browned kernels, and browned kernels, and the contents of AQS were determined. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods were used to identify two compounds of AQS, rehein(1) and emodin(2). AQS were barely exists in the fresh kernels, while both browned kernel groups sample contained a high amount of AQS. Thus, we comfirmed that AQS could be produced during both enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning process. Rhein and emodin were the main components of AQS in the browned kernels.

  13. Performance Characteristics of a Kernel-Space Packet Capture Module

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-03-01

    Defense, or the United States Government . AFIT/GCO/ENG/10-03 PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A KERNEL-SPACE PACKET CAPTURE MODULE THESIS Presented to the...3.1.2.3 Prototype. The proof of concept for this research is the design, development, and comparative performance analysis of a kernel level N2d capture...changes to kernel code 5. Can be used for both user-space and kernel-space capture applications in order to control comparative performance analysis to

  14. Anatomically-Aided PET Reconstruction Using the Kernel Method

    PubMed Central

    Hutchcroft, Will; Wang, Guobao; Chen, Kevin T.; Catana, Ciprian; Qi, Jinyi

    2016-01-01

    This paper extends the kernel method that was proposed previously for dynamic PET reconstruction, to incorporate anatomical side information into the PET reconstruction model. In contrast to existing methods that incorporate anatomical information using a penalized likelihood framework, the proposed method incorporates this information in the simpler maximum likelihood (ML) formulation and is amenable to ordered subsets. The new method also does not require any segmentation of the anatomical image to obtain edge information. We compare the kernel method with the Bowsher method for anatomically-aided PET image reconstruction through a simulated data set. Computer simulations demonstrate that the kernel method offers advantages over the Bowsher method in region of interest (ROI) quantification. Additionally the kernel method is applied to a 3D patient data set. The kernel method results in reduced noise at a matched contrast level compared with the conventional ML expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. PMID:27541810

  15. Anatomically-aided PET reconstruction using the kernel method.

    PubMed

    Hutchcroft, Will; Wang, Guobao; Chen, Kevin T; Catana, Ciprian; Qi, Jinyi

    2016-09-21

    This paper extends the kernel method that was proposed previously for dynamic PET reconstruction, to incorporate anatomical side information into the PET reconstruction model. In contrast to existing methods that incorporate anatomical information using a penalized likelihood framework, the proposed method incorporates this information in the simpler maximum likelihood (ML) formulation and is amenable to ordered subsets. The new method also does not require any segmentation of the anatomical image to obtain edge information. We compare the kernel method with the Bowsher method for anatomically-aided PET image reconstruction through a simulated data set. Computer simulations demonstrate that the kernel method offers advantages over the Bowsher method in region of interest quantification. Additionally the kernel method is applied to a 3D patient data set. The kernel method results in reduced noise at a matched contrast level compared with the conventional ML expectation maximization algorithm.

  16. Anatomically-aided PET reconstruction using the kernel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hutchcroft, Will; Wang, Guobao; Chen, Kevin T.; Catana, Ciprian; Qi, Jinyi

    2016-09-01

    This paper extends the kernel method that was proposed previously for dynamic PET reconstruction, to incorporate anatomical side information into the PET reconstruction model. In contrast to existing methods that incorporate anatomical information using a penalized likelihood framework, the proposed method incorporates this information in the simpler maximum likelihood (ML) formulation and is amenable to ordered subsets. The new method also does not require any segmentation of the anatomical image to obtain edge information. We compare the kernel method with the Bowsher method for anatomically-aided PET image reconstruction through a simulated data set. Computer simulations demonstrate that the kernel method offers advantages over the Bowsher method in region of interest quantification. Additionally the kernel method is applied to a 3D patient data set. The kernel method results in reduced noise at a matched contrast level compared with the conventional ML expectation maximization algorithm.

  17. Embedded real-time operating system micro kernel design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Xiao-hui; Li, Ming-qiang; Wang, Xin-zheng

    2005-12-01

    Embedded systems usually require a real-time character. Base on an 8051 microcontroller, an embedded real-time operating system micro kernel is proposed consisting of six parts, including a critical section process, task scheduling, interruption handle, semaphore and message mailbox communication, clock managent and memory managent. Distributed CPU and other resources are among tasks rationally according to the importance and urgency. The design proposed here provides the position, definition, function and principle of micro kernel. The kernel runs on the platform of an ATMEL AT89C51 microcontroller. Simulation results prove that the designed micro kernel is stable and reliable and has quick response while operating in an application system.

  18. Kernel Temporal Differences for Neural Decoding

    PubMed Central

    Bae, Jihye; Sanchez Giraldo, Luis G.; Pohlmeyer, Eric A.; Francis, Joseph T.; Sanchez, Justin C.; Príncipe, José C.

    2015-01-01

    We study the feasibility and capability of the kernel temporal difference (KTD)(λ) algorithm for neural decoding. KTD(λ) is an online, kernel-based learning algorithm, which has been introduced to estimate value functions in reinforcement learning. This algorithm combines kernel-based representations with the temporal difference approach to learning. One of our key observations is that by using strictly positive definite kernels, algorithm's convergence can be guaranteed for policy evaluation. The algorithm's nonlinear functional approximation capabilities are shown in both simulations of policy evaluation and neural decoding problems (policy improvement). KTD can handle high-dimensional neural states containing spatial-temporal information at a reasonable computational complexity allowing real-time applications. When the algorithm seeks a proper mapping between a monkey's neural states and desired positions of a computer cursor or a robot arm, in both open-loop and closed-loop experiments, it can effectively learn the neural state to action mapping. Finally, a visualization of the coadaptation process between the decoder and the subject shows the algorithm's capabilities in reinforcement learning brain machine interfaces. PMID:25866504

  19. Online selective kernel-based temporal difference learning.

    PubMed

    Chen, Xingguo; Gao, Yang; Wang, Ruili

    2013-12-01

    In this paper, an online selective kernel-based temporal difference (OSKTD) learning algorithm is proposed to deal with large scale and/or continuous reinforcement learning problems. OSKTD includes two online procedures: online sparsification and parameter updating for the selective kernel-based value function. A new sparsification method (i.e., a kernel distance-based online sparsification method) is proposed based on selective ensemble learning, which is computationally less complex compared with other sparsification methods. With the proposed sparsification method, the sparsified dictionary of samples is constructed online by checking if a sample needs to be added to the sparsified dictionary. In addition, based on local validity, a selective kernel-based value function is proposed to select the best samples from the sample dictionary for the selective kernel-based value function approximator. The parameters of the selective kernel-based value function are iteratively updated by using the temporal difference (TD) learning algorithm combined with the gradient descent technique. The complexity of the online sparsification procedure in the OSKTD algorithm is O(n). In addition, two typical experiments (Maze and Mountain Car) are used to compare with both traditional and up-to-date O(n) algorithms (GTD, GTD2, and TDC using the kernel-based value function), and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. In the Maze problem, OSKTD converges to an optimal policy and converges faster than both traditional and up-to-date algorithms. In the Mountain Car problem, OSKTD converges, requires less computation time compared with other sparsification methods, gets a better local optima than the traditional algorithms, and converges much faster than the up-to-date algorithms. In addition, OSKTD can reach a competitive ultimate optima compared with the up-to-date algorithms.

  20. Influence of wheat kernel physical properties on the pulverizing process.

    PubMed

    Dziki, Dariusz; Cacak-Pietrzak, Grażyna; Miś, Antoni; Jończyk, Krzysztof; Gawlik-Dziki, Urszula

    2014-10-01

    The physical properties of wheat kernel were determined and related to pulverizing performance by correlation analysis. Nineteen samples of wheat cultivars about similar level of protein content (11.2-12.8 % w.b.) and obtained from organic farming system were used for analysis. The kernel (moisture content 10 % w.b.) was pulverized by using the laboratory hammer mill equipped with round holes 1.0 mm screen. The specific grinding energy ranged from 120 kJkg(-1) to 159 kJkg(-1). On the basis of data obtained many of significant correlations (p < 0.05) were found between wheat kernel physical properties and pulverizing process of wheat kernel, especially wheat kernel hardness index (obtained on the basis of Single Kernel Characterization System) and vitreousness significantly and positively correlated with the grinding energy indices and the mass fraction of coarse particles (> 0.5 mm). Among the kernel mechanical properties determined on the basis of uniaxial compression test only the rapture force was correlated with the impact grinding results. The results showed also positive and significant relationships between kernel ash content and grinding energy requirements. On the basis of wheat physical properties the multiple linear regression was proposed for predicting the average particle size of pulverized kernel.

  1. Kernel-based Linux emulation for Plan 9.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Minnich, Ronald G.

    2010-09-01

    CNKemu is a kernel-based system for the 9k variant of the Plan 9 kernel. It is designed to provide transparent binary support for programs compiled for IBM's Compute Node Kernel (CNK) on the Blue Gene series of supercomputers. This support allows users to build applications with the standard Blue Gene toolchain, including C++ and Fortran compilers. While the CNK is not Linux, IBM designed the CNK so that the user interface has much in common with the Linux 2.0 system call interface. The Plan 9 CNK emulator hence provides the foundation of kernel-based Linux system call support on Plan 9.more » In this paper we discuss cnkemu's implementation and some of its more interesting features, such as the ability to easily intermix Plan 9 and Linux system calls.« less

  2. Gradient-based adaptation of general gaussian kernels.

    PubMed

    Glasmachers, Tobias; Igel, Christian

    2005-10-01

    Gradient-based optimizing of gaussian kernel functions is considered. The gradient for the adaptation of scaling and rotation of the input space is computed to achieve invariance against linear transformations. This is done by using the exponential map as a parameterization of the kernel parameter manifold. By restricting the optimization to a constant trace subspace, the kernel size can be controlled. This is, for example, useful to prevent overfitting when minimizing radius-margin generalization performance measures. The concepts are demonstrated by training hard margin support vector machines on toy data.

  3. Gabor-based kernel PCA with fractional power polynomial models for face recognition.

    PubMed

    Liu, Chengjun

    2004-05-01

    This paper presents a novel Gabor-based kernel Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method by integrating the Gabor wavelet representation of face images and the kernel PCA method for face recognition. Gabor wavelets first derive desirable facial features characterized by spatial frequency, spatial locality, and orientation selectivity to cope with the variations due to illumination and facial expression changes. The kernel PCA method is then extended to include fractional power polynomial models for enhanced face recognition performance. A fractional power polynomial, however, does not necessarily define a kernel function, as it might not define a positive semidefinite Gram matrix. Note that the sigmoid kernels, one of the three classes of widely used kernel functions (polynomial kernels, Gaussian kernels, and sigmoid kernels), do not actually define a positive semidefinite Gram matrix either. Nevertheless, the sigmoid kernels have been successfully used in practice, such as in building support vector machines. In order to derive real kernel PCA features, we apply only those kernel PCA eigenvectors that are associated with positive eigenvalues. The feasibility of the Gabor-based kernel PCA method with fractional power polynomial models has been successfully tested on both frontal and pose-angled face recognition, using two data sets from the FERET database and the CMU PIE database, respectively. The FERET data set contains 600 frontal face images of 200 subjects, while the PIE data set consists of 680 images across five poses (left and right profiles, left and right half profiles, and frontal view) with two different facial expressions (neutral and smiling) of 68 subjects. The effectiveness of the Gabor-based kernel PCA method with fractional power polynomial models is shown in terms of both absolute performance indices and comparative performance against the PCA method, the kernel PCA method with polynomial kernels, the kernel PCA method with fractional power

  4. Genetic dissection of the maize kernel development process via conditional QTL mapping for three developing kernel-related traits in an immortalized F2 population.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Zhanhui; Wu, Xiangyuan; Shi, Chaonan; Wang, Rongna; Li, Shengfei; Wang, Zhaohui; Liu, Zonghua; Xue, Yadong; Tang, Guiliang; Tang, Jihua

    2016-02-01

    Kernel development is an important dynamic trait that determines the final grain yield in maize. To dissect the genetic basis of maize kernel development process, a conditional quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was conducted using an immortalized F2 (IF2) population comprising 243 single crosses at two locations over 2 years. Volume (KV) and density (KD) of dried developing kernels, together with kernel weight (KW) at different developmental stages, were used to describe dynamic changes during kernel development. Phenotypic analysis revealed that final KW and KD were determined at DAP22 and KV at DAP29. Unconditional QTL mapping for KW, KV and KD uncovered 97 QTLs at different kernel development stages, of which qKW6b, qKW7a, qKW7b, qKW10b, qKW10c, qKV10a, qKV10b and qKV7 were identified under multiple kernel developmental stages and environments. Among the 26 QTLs detected by conditional QTL mapping, conqKW7a, conqKV7a, conqKV10a, conqKD2, conqKD7 and conqKD8a were conserved between the two mapping methodologies. Furthermore, most of these QTLs were consistent with QTLs and genes for kernel development/grain filling reported in previous studies. These QTLs probably contain major genes associated with the kernel development process, and can be used to improve grain yield and quality through marker-assisted selection.

  5. A trace ratio maximization approach to multiple kernel-based dimensionality reduction.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Wenhao; Chung, Fu-lai

    2014-01-01

    Most dimensionality reduction techniques are based on one metric or one kernel, hence it is necessary to select an appropriate kernel for kernel-based dimensionality reduction. Multiple kernel learning for dimensionality reduction (MKL-DR) has been recently proposed to learn a kernel from a set of base kernels which are seen as different descriptions of data. As MKL-DR does not involve regularization, it might be ill-posed under some conditions and consequently its applications are hindered. This paper proposes a multiple kernel learning framework for dimensionality reduction based on regularized trace ratio, termed as MKL-TR. Our method aims at learning a transformation into a space of lower dimension and a corresponding kernel from the given base kernels among which some may not be suitable for the given data. The solutions for the proposed framework can be found based on trace ratio maximization. The experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness in benchmark datasets, which include text, image and sound datasets, for supervised, unsupervised as well as semi-supervised settings. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. A Kernel-based Lagrangian method for imperfectly-mixed chemical reactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Michael J.; Pankavich, Stephen; Benson, David A.

    2017-05-01

    Current Lagrangian (particle-tracking) algorithms used to simulate diffusion-reaction equations must employ a certain number of particles to properly emulate the system dynamics-particularly for imperfectly-mixed systems. The number of particles is tied to the statistics of the initial concentration fields of the system at hand. Systems with shorter-range correlation and/or smaller concentration variance require more particles, potentially limiting the computational feasibility of the method. For the well-known problem of bimolecular reaction, we show that using kernel-based, rather than Dirac delta, particles can significantly reduce the required number of particles. We derive the fixed width of a Gaussian kernel for a given reduced number of particles that analytically eliminates the error between kernel and Dirac solutions at any specified time. We also show how to solve for the fixed kernel size by minimizing the squared differences between solutions over any given time interval. Numerical results show that the width of the kernel should be kept below about 12% of the domain size, and that the analytic equations used to derive kernel width suffer significantly from the neglect of higher-order moments. The simulations with a kernel width given by least squares minimization perform better than those made to match at one specific time. A heuristic time-variable kernel size, based on the previous results, performs on par with the least squares fixed kernel size.

  7. Detection of maize kernels breakage rate based on K-means clustering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Liang; Wang, Zhuo; Gao, Lei; Bai, Xiaoping

    2017-04-01

    In order to optimize the recognition accuracy of maize kernels breakage detection and improve the detection efficiency of maize kernels breakage, this paper using computer vision technology and detecting of the maize kernels breakage based on K-means clustering algorithm. First, the collected RGB images are converted into Lab images, then the original images clarity evaluation are evaluated by the energy function of Sobel 8 gradient. Finally, the detection of maize kernels breakage using different pixel acquisition equipments and different shooting angles. In this paper, the broken maize kernels are identified by the color difference between integrity kernels and broken kernels. The original images clarity evaluation and different shooting angles are taken to verify that the clarity and shooting angles of the images have a direct influence on the feature extraction. The results show that K-means clustering algorithm can distinguish the broken maize kernels effectively.

  8. Image quality of mixed convolution kernel in thoracic computed tomography.

    PubMed

    Neubauer, Jakob; Spira, Eva Maria; Strube, Juliane; Langer, Mathias; Voss, Christian; Kotter, Elmar

    2016-11-01

    The mixed convolution kernel alters his properties geographically according to the depicted organ structure, especially for the lung. Therefore, we compared the image quality of the mixed convolution kernel to standard soft and hard kernel reconstructions for different organ structures in thoracic computed tomography (CT) images.Our Ethics Committee approved this prospective study. In total, 31 patients who underwent contrast-enhanced thoracic CT studies were included after informed consent. Axial reconstructions were performed with hard, soft, and mixed convolution kernel. Three independent and blinded observers rated the image quality according to the European Guidelines for Quality Criteria of Thoracic CT for 13 organ structures. The observers rated the depiction of the structures in all reconstructions on a 5-point Likert scale. Statistical analysis was performed with the Friedman Test and post hoc analysis with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.Compared to the soft convolution kernel, the mixed convolution kernel was rated with a higher image quality for lung parenchyma, segmental bronchi, and the border between the pleura and the thoracic wall (P < 0.03). Compared to the hard convolution kernel, the mixed convolution kernel was rated with a higher image quality for aorta, anterior mediastinal structures, paratracheal soft tissue, hilar lymph nodes, esophagus, pleuromediastinal border, large and medium sized pulmonary vessels and abdomen (P < 0.004) but a lower image quality for trachea, segmental bronchi, lung parenchyma, and skeleton (P < 0.001).The mixed convolution kernel cannot fully substitute the standard CT reconstructions. Hard and soft convolution kernel reconstructions still seem to be mandatory for thoracic CT.

  9. Coupling individual kernel-filling processes with source-sink interactions into GREENLAB-Maize.

    PubMed

    Ma, Yuntao; Chen, Youjia; Zhu, Jinyu; Meng, Lei; Guo, Yan; Li, Baoguo; Hoogenboom, Gerrit

    2018-02-13

    Failure to account for the variation of kernel growth in a cereal crop simulation model may cause serious deviations in the estimates of crop yield. The goal of this research was to revise the GREENLAB-Maize model to incorporate source- and sink-limited allocation approaches to simulate the dry matter accumulation of individual kernels of an ear (GREENLAB-Maize-Kernel). The model used potential individual kernel growth rates to characterize the individual potential sink demand. The remobilization of non-structural carbohydrates from reserve organs to kernels was also incorporated. Two years of field experiments were conducted to determine the model parameter values and to evaluate the model using two maize hybrids with different plant densities and pollination treatments. Detailed observations were made on the dimensions and dry weights of individual kernels and other above-ground plant organs throughout the seasons. Three basic traits characterizing an individual kernel were compared on simulated and measured individual kernels: (1) final kernel size; (2) kernel growth rate; and (3) duration of kernel filling. Simulations of individual kernel growth closely corresponded to experimental data. The model was able to reproduce the observed dry weight of plant organs well. Then, the source-sink dynamics and the remobilization of carbohydrates for kernel growth were quantified to show that remobilization processes accompanied source-sink dynamics during the kernel-filling process. We conclude that the model may be used to explore options for optimizing plant kernel yield by matching maize management to the environment, taking into account responses at the level of individual kernels. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  10. Stochastic subset selection for learning with kernel machines.

    PubMed

    Rhinelander, Jason; Liu, Xiaoping P

    2012-06-01

    Kernel machines have gained much popularity in applications of machine learning. Support vector machines (SVMs) are a subset of kernel machines and generalize well for classification, regression, and anomaly detection tasks. The training procedure for traditional SVMs involves solving a quadratic programming (QP) problem. The QP problem scales super linearly in computational effort with the number of training samples and is often used for the offline batch processing of data. Kernel machines operate by retaining a subset of observed data during training. The data vectors contained within this subset are referred to as support vectors (SVs). The work presented in this paper introduces a subset selection method for the use of kernel machines in online, changing environments. Our algorithm works by using a stochastic indexing technique when selecting a subset of SVs when computing the kernel expansion. The work described here is novel because it separates the selection of kernel basis functions from the training algorithm used. The subset selection algorithm presented here can be used in conjunction with any online training technique. It is important for online kernel machines to be computationally efficient due to the real-time requirements of online environments. Our algorithm is an important contribution because it scales linearly with the number of training samples and is compatible with current training techniques. Our algorithm outperforms standard techniques in terms of computational efficiency and provides increased recognition accuracy in our experiments. We provide results from experiments using both simulated and real-world data sets to verify our algorithm.

  11. RTOS kernel in portable electrocardiograph

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Centeno, C. A.; Voos, J. A.; Riva, G. G.; Zerbini, C.; Gonzalez, E. A.

    2011-12-01

    This paper presents the use of a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) on a portable electrocardiograph based on a microcontroller platform. All medical device digital functions are performed by the microcontroller. The electrocardiograph CPU is based on the 18F4550 microcontroller, in which an uCOS-II RTOS can be embedded. The decision associated with the kernel use is based on its benefits, the license for educational use and its intrinsic time control and peripherals management. The feasibility of its use on the electrocardiograph is evaluated based on the minimum memory requirements due to the kernel structure. The kernel's own tools were used for time estimation and evaluation of resources used by each process. After this feasibility analysis, the migration from cyclic code to a structure based on separate processes or tasks able to synchronize events is used; resulting in an electrocardiograph running on one Central Processing Unit (CPU) based on RTOS.

  12. A Robustness Testing Campaign for IMA-SP Partitioning Kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grixti, Stephen; Lopez Trecastro, Jorge; Sammut, Nicholas; Zammit-Mangion, David

    2015-09-01

    With time and space partitioned architectures becoming increasingly appealing to the European space sector, the dependability of partitioning kernel technology is a key factor to its applicability in European Space Agency projects. This paper explores the potential of the data type fault model, which injects faults through the Application Program Interface, in partitioning kernel robustness testing. This fault injection methodology has been tailored to investigate its relevance in uncovering vulnerabilities within partitioning kernels and potentially contributing towards fault removal campaigns within this domain. This is demonstrated through a robustness testing case study of the XtratuM partitioning kernel for SPARC LEON3 processors. The robustness campaign exposed a number of vulnerabilities in XtratuM, exhibiting the potential benefits of using such a methodology for the robustness assessment of partitioning kernels.

  13. Biosynthesis and characterization of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3- hydroxyhexanoate) from palm oil products in a Wautersia eutropha mutant.

    PubMed

    Loo, Ching-Yee; Lee, Wing-Hin; Tsuge, Takeharu; Doi, Yoshiharu; Sudesh, Kumar

    2005-09-01

    Palm kernel oil, palm olein, crude palm oil and palm acid oil were used for the synthesis of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) [P(3HB-co-3HHx)] by a mutant strain of Wautersia eutropha (formerly Ralstonia eutropha) harboring the Aeromonas caviae polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase gene. Palm kernel oil was an excellent carbon source for the production of cell biomass and P(3HB-co-3HHx). About 87% (w/w) of the cell dry weight as P(3HB-co-3HHx) was obtained using 5 g palm kernel oil/l. Gravimetric and microscopic analyses further confirmed the high PHA content in the recombinant cells. The molar fraction of 3HHx remained constant at 5 mol % regardless of the type and concentration of palm oil products used. The small amount of 3HHx units was confirmed by 13C NMR analysis. The number average molecular weight (M(n)) of the PHA copolymer produced from the various palm oil products ranged from 27 0000 to 46 0000 Da. The polydispersity was in the range of 2.6-3.9.

  14. Searching for efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo proposal kernels

    PubMed Central

    Yang, Ziheng; Rodríguez, Carlos E.

    2013-01-01

    Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) or the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm is a simulation algorithm that has made modern Bayesian statistical inference possible. Nevertheless, the efficiency of different Metropolis–Hastings proposal kernels has rarely been studied except for the Gaussian proposal. Here we propose a unique class of Bactrian kernels, which avoid proposing values that are very close to the current value, and compare their efficiency with a number of proposals for simulating different target distributions, with efficiency measured by the asymptotic variance of a parameter estimate. The uniform kernel is found to be more efficient than the Gaussian kernel, whereas the Bactrian kernel is even better. When optimal scales are used for both, the Bactrian kernel is at least 50% more efficient than the Gaussian. Implementation in a Bayesian program for molecular clock dating confirms the general applicability of our results to generic MCMC algorithms. Our results refute a previous claim that all proposals had nearly identical performance and will prompt further research into efficient MCMC proposals. PMID:24218600

  15. Defect Analysis Of Quality Palm Kernel Meal Using Statistical Quality Control In Kernels Factory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sembiring, M. T.; Marbun, N. J.

    2018-04-01

    The production quality has an important impact retain the totality of characteristics of a product or service to pay attention to its capabilities to meet the needs that have been established. Quality criteria Palm Kernel Meal (PKM) set Factory kernel is as follows: oil content: max 8.50%, water content: max 12,00% and impurity content: max 4.00% While the average quality of the oil content of 8.94%, the water content of 5.51%, and 8.45% impurity content. To identify the defective product quality PKM produced, then used a method of analysis using Statistical Quality Control (SQC). PKM Plant Quality Kernel shows the oil content was 0.44% excess of a predetermined maximum value, and 4.50% impurity content. With excessive PKM content of oil and dirt cause disability content of production for oil, amounted to 854.6078 kg PKM and 8643.193 kg impurity content of PKM. Analysis of the results of cause and effect diagram and SQC, the factors that lead to poor quality of PKM is Ampere second press oil expeller and hours second press oil expeller.

  16. Aflatoxin and nutrient contents of peanut collected from local market and their processed foods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ginting, E.; Rahmianna, A. A.; Yusnawan, E.

    2018-01-01

    Peanut is succeptable to aflatoxin contamination and the sources of peanut as well as processing methods considerably affect aflatoxin content of the products. Therefore, the study on aflatoxin and nutrient contents of peanut collected from local market and their processed foods were performed. Good kernels of peanut were prepared into fried peanut, pressed-fried peanut, peanut sauce, peanut press cake, fermented peanut press cake (tempe) and fried tempe, while blended kernels (good and poor kernels) were processed into peanut sauce and tempe and poor kernels were only processed into tempe. The results showed that good and blended kernels which had high number of sound/intact kernels (82,46% and 62,09%), contained 9.8-9.9 ppb of aflatoxin B1, while slightly higher level was seen in poor kernels (12.1 ppb). However, the moisture, ash, protein, and fat contents of the kernels were similar as well as the products. Peanut tempe and fried tempe showed the highest increase in protein content, while decreased fat contents were seen in all products. The increase in aflatoxin B1 of peanut tempe prepared from poor kernels > blended kernels > good kernels. However, it averagely decreased by 61.2% after deep-fried. Excluding peanut tempe and fried tempe, aflatoxin B1 levels in all products derived from good kernels were below the permitted level (15 ppb). This suggests that sorting peanut kernels as ingredients and followed by heat processing would decrease the aflatoxin content in the products.

  17. Scuba: scalable kernel-based gene prioritization.

    PubMed

    Zampieri, Guido; Tran, Dinh Van; Donini, Michele; Navarin, Nicolò; Aiolli, Fabio; Sperduti, Alessandro; Valle, Giorgio

    2018-01-25

    The uncovering of genes linked to human diseases is a pressing challenge in molecular biology and precision medicine. This task is often hindered by the large number of candidate genes and by the heterogeneity of the available information. Computational methods for the prioritization of candidate genes can help to cope with these problems. In particular, kernel-based methods are a powerful resource for the integration of heterogeneous biological knowledge, however, their practical implementation is often precluded by their limited scalability. We propose Scuba, a scalable kernel-based method for gene prioritization. It implements a novel multiple kernel learning approach, based on a semi-supervised perspective and on the optimization of the margin distribution. Scuba is optimized to cope with strongly unbalanced settings where known disease genes are few and large scale predictions are required. Importantly, it is able to efficiently deal both with a large amount of candidate genes and with an arbitrary number of data sources. As a direct consequence of scalability, Scuba integrates also a new efficient strategy to select optimal kernel parameters for each data source. We performed cross-validation experiments and simulated a realistic usage setting, showing that Scuba outperforms a wide range of state-of-the-art methods. Scuba achieves state-of-the-art performance and has enhanced scalability compared to existing kernel-based approaches for genomic data. This method can be useful to prioritize candidate genes, particularly when their number is large or when input data is highly heterogeneous. The code is freely available at https://github.com/gzampieri/Scuba .

  18. Genomic Prediction of Genotype × Environment Interaction Kernel Regression Models.

    PubMed

    Cuevas, Jaime; Crossa, José; Soberanis, Víctor; Pérez-Elizalde, Sergio; Pérez-Rodríguez, Paulino; Campos, Gustavo de Los; Montesinos-López, O A; Burgueño, Juan

    2016-11-01

    In genomic selection (GS), genotype × environment interaction (G × E) can be modeled by a marker × environment interaction (M × E). The G × E may be modeled through a linear kernel or a nonlinear (Gaussian) kernel. In this study, we propose using two nonlinear Gaussian kernels: the reproducing kernel Hilbert space with kernel averaging (RKHS KA) and the Gaussian kernel with the bandwidth estimated through an empirical Bayesian method (RKHS EB). We performed single-environment analyses and extended to account for G × E interaction (GBLUP-G × E, RKHS KA-G × E and RKHS EB-G × E) in wheat ( L.) and maize ( L.) data sets. For single-environment analyses of wheat and maize data sets, RKHS EB and RKHS KA had higher prediction accuracy than GBLUP for all environments. For the wheat data, the RKHS KA-G × E and RKHS EB-G × E models did show up to 60 to 68% superiority over the corresponding single environment for pairs of environments with positive correlations. For the wheat data set, the models with Gaussian kernels had accuracies up to 17% higher than that of GBLUP-G × E. For the maize data set, the prediction accuracy of RKHS EB-G × E and RKHS KA-G × E was, on average, 5 to 6% higher than that of GBLUP-G × E. The superiority of the Gaussian kernel models over the linear kernel is due to more flexible kernels that accounts for small, more complex marker main effects and marker-specific interaction effects. Copyright © 2016 Crop Science Society of America.

  19. Sepsis mortality prediction with the Quotient Basis Kernel.

    PubMed

    Ribas Ripoll, Vicent J; Vellido, Alfredo; Romero, Enrique; Ruiz-Rodríguez, Juan Carlos

    2014-05-01

    This paper presents an algorithm to assess the risk of death in patients with sepsis. Sepsis is a common clinical syndrome in the intensive care unit (ICU) that can lead to severe sepsis, a severe state of septic shock or multi-organ failure. The proposed algorithm may be implemented as part of a clinical decision support system that can be used in combination with the scores deployed in the ICU to improve the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of mortality prediction for patients with sepsis. In this paper, we used the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) for ICU patients and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) to build our kernels and algorithms. In the proposed method, we embed the available data in a suitable feature space and use algorithms based on linear algebra, geometry and statistics for inference. We present a simplified version of the Fisher kernel (practical Fisher kernel for multinomial distributions), as well as a novel kernel that we named the Quotient Basis Kernel (QBK). These kernels are used as the basis for mortality prediction using soft-margin support vector machines. The two new kernels presented are compared against other generative kernels based on the Jensen-Shannon metric (centred, exponential and inverse) and other widely used kernels (linear, polynomial and Gaussian). Clinical relevance is also evaluated by comparing these results with logistic regression and the standard clinical prediction method based on the initial SAPS score. As described in this paper, we tested the new methods via cross-validation with a cohort of 400 test patients. The results obtained using our methods compare favourably with those obtained using alternative kernels (80.18% accuracy for the QBK) and the standard clinical prediction method, which are based on the basal SAPS score or logistic regression (71.32% and 71.55%, respectively). The QBK presented a sensitivity and specificity of 79.34% and 83.24%, which outperformed the other kernels

  20. Kernel Methods for Mining Instance Data in Ontologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bloehdorn, Stephan; Sure, York

    The amount of ontologies and meta data available on the Web is constantly growing. The successful application of machine learning techniques for learning of ontologies from textual data, i.e. mining for the Semantic Web, contributes to this trend. However, no principal approaches exist so far for mining from the Semantic Web. We investigate how machine learning algorithms can be made amenable for directly taking advantage of the rich knowledge expressed in ontologies and associated instance data. Kernel methods have been successfully employed in various learning tasks and provide a clean framework for interfacing between non-vectorial data and machine learning algorithms. In this spirit, we express the problem of mining instances in ontologies as the problem of defining valid corresponding kernels. We present a principled framework for designing such kernels by means of decomposing the kernel computation into specialized kernels for selected characteristics of an ontology which can be flexibly assembled and tuned. Initial experiments on real world Semantic Web data enjoy promising results and show the usefulness of our approach.

  1. Biasing anisotropic scattering kernels for deep-penetration Monte Carlo calculations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Carter, L.L.; Hendricks, J.S.

    1983-01-01

    The exponential transform is often used to improve the efficiency of deep-penetration Monte Carlo calculations. This technique is usually implemented by biasing the distance-to-collision kernel of the transport equation, but leaving the scattering kernel unchanged. Dwivedi obtained significant improvements in efficiency by biasing an isotropic scattering kernel as well as the distance-to-collision kernel. This idea is extended to anisotropic scattering, particularly the highly forward Klein-Nishina scattering of gamma rays.

  2. Direct Measurement of Wave Kernels in Time-Distance Helioseismology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Duvall, T. L., Jr.

    2006-01-01

    Solar f-mode waves are surface-gravity waves which propagate horizontally in a thin layer near the photosphere with a dispersion relation approximately that of deep water waves. At the power maximum near 3 mHz, the wavelength of 5 Mm is large enough for various wave scattering properties to be observable. Gizon and Birch (2002,ApJ,571,966)h ave calculated kernels, in the Born approximation, for the sensitivity of wave travel times to local changes in damping rate and source strength. In this work, using isolated small magnetic features as approximate point-sourc'e scatterers, such a kernel has been measured. The observed kernel contains similar features to a theoretical damping kernel but not for a source kernel. A full understanding of the effect of small magnetic features on the waves will require more detailed modeling.

  3. Dropping macadamia nuts-in-shell reduces kernel roasting quality.

    PubMed

    Walton, David A; Wallace, Helen M

    2010-10-01

    Macadamia nuts ('nuts-in-shell') are subjected to many impacts from dropping during postharvest handling, resulting in damage to the raw kernel. The effect of dropping on roasted kernel quality is unknown. Macadamia nuts-in-shell were dropped in various combinations of moisture content, number of drops and receiving surface in three experiments. After dropping, samples from each treatment and undropped controls were dry oven-roasted for 20 min at 130 °C, and kernels were assessed for colour, mottled colour and surface damage. Dropping nuts-in-shell onto a bed of nuts-in-shell at 3% moisture content or 20% moisture content increased the percentage of dark roasted kernels. Kernels from nuts dropped first at 20%, then 10% moisture content, onto a metal plate had increased mottled colour. Dropping nuts-in-shell at 3% moisture content onto nuts-in-shell significantly increased surface damage. Similarly, surface damage increased for kernels dropped onto a metal plate at 20%, then at 10% moisture content. Postharvest dropping of macadamia nuts-in-shell causes concealed cellular damage to kernels, the effects not evident until roasting. This damage provides the reagents needed for non-enzymatic browning reactions. Improvements in handling, such as reducing the number of drops and improving handling equipment, will reduce cellular damage and after-roast darkening. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry.

  4. Compound analysis via graph kernels incorporating chirality.

    PubMed

    Brown, J B; Urata, Takashi; Tamura, Takeyuki; Arai, Midori A; Kawabata, Takeo; Akutsu, Tatsuya

    2010-12-01

    High accuracy is paramount when predicting biochemical characteristics using Quantitative Structural-Property Relationships (QSPRs). Although existing graph-theoretic kernel methods combined with machine learning techniques are efficient for QSPR model construction, they cannot distinguish topologically identical chiral compounds which often exhibit different biological characteristics. In this paper, we propose a new method that extends the recently developed tree pattern graph kernel to accommodate stereoisomers. We show that Support Vector Regression (SVR) with a chiral graph kernel is useful for target property prediction by demonstrating its application to a set of human vitamin D receptor ligands currently under consideration for their potential anti-cancer effects.

  5. Kernel-aligned multi-view canonical correlation analysis for image recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Shuzhi; Ge, Hongwei; Yuan, Yun-Hao

    2016-09-01

    Existing kernel-based correlation analysis methods mainly adopt a single kernel in each view. However, only a single kernel is usually insufficient to characterize nonlinear distribution information of a view. To solve the problem, we transform each original feature vector into a 2-dimensional feature matrix by means of kernel alignment, and then propose a novel kernel-aligned multi-view canonical correlation analysis (KAMCCA) method on the basis of the feature matrices. Our proposed method can simultaneously employ multiple kernels to better capture the nonlinear distribution information of each view, so that correlation features learned by KAMCCA can have well discriminating power in real-world image recognition. Extensive experiments are designed on five real-world image datasets, including NIR face images, thermal face images, visible face images, handwritten digit images, and object images. Promising experimental results on the datasets have manifested the effectiveness of our proposed method.

  6. Polymer blends

    DOEpatents

    Allen, Scott D.; Naik, Sanjeev

    2017-08-22

    The present invention provides, among other things, extruded blends of aliphatic polycarbonates and polyolefins. In one aspect, provided blends comprise aliphatic polycarbonates such as poly(propylene carbonate) and a lesser amount of a crystalline or semicrystalline polymer. In certain embodiments, provided blends are characterized in that they exhibit unexpected improvements in their elongation properties. In another aspect, the invention provides methods of making such materials and applications of the materials in applications such as the manufacture of consumer packaging materials.

  7. A kernel adaptive algorithm for quaternion-valued inputs.

    PubMed

    Paul, Thomas K; Ogunfunmi, Tokunbo

    2015-10-01

    The use of quaternion data can provide benefit in applications like robotics and image recognition, and particularly for performing transforms in 3-D space. Here, we describe a kernel adaptive algorithm for quaternions. A least mean square (LMS)-based method was used, resulting in the derivation of the quaternion kernel LMS (Quat-KLMS) algorithm. Deriving this algorithm required describing the idea of a quaternion reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), as well as kernel functions suitable with quaternions. A modified HR calculus for Hilbert spaces was used to find the gradient of cost functions defined on a quaternion RKHS. In addition, the use of widely linear (or augmented) filtering is proposed to improve performance. The benefit of the Quat-KLMS and widely linear forms in learning nonlinear transformations of quaternion data are illustrated with simulations.

  8. Improving the Bandwidth Selection in Kernel Equating

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andersson, Björn; von Davier, Alina A.

    2014-01-01

    We investigate the current bandwidth selection methods in kernel equating and propose a method based on Silverman's rule of thumb for selecting the bandwidth parameters. In kernel equating, the bandwidth parameters have previously been obtained by minimizing a penalty function. This minimization process has been criticized by practitioners…

  9. Nature and composition of fat bloom from palm kernel stearin and hydrogenated palm kernel stearin compound chocolates.

    PubMed

    Smith, Kevin W; Cain, Fred W; Talbot, Geoff

    2004-08-25

    Palm kernel stearin and hydrogenated palm kernel stearin can be used to prepare compound chocolate bars or coatings. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical composition, polymorphism, and melting behavior of the bloom that develops on bars of compound chocolate prepared using these fats. Bars were stored for 1 year at 15, 20, or 25 degrees C. At 15 and 20 degrees C the bloom was enriched in cocoa butter triacylglycerols, with respect to the main fat phase, whereas at 25 degrees C the enrichment was with palm kernel triacylglycerols. The bloom consisted principally of solid fat and was sharper melting than was the fat in the chocolate. Polymorphic transitions from the initial beta' phase to the beta phase accompanied the formation of bloom at all temperatures.

  10. Online learning control using adaptive critic designs with sparse kernel machines.

    PubMed

    Xu, Xin; Hou, Zhongsheng; Lian, Chuanqiang; He, Haibo

    2013-05-01

    In the past decade, adaptive critic designs (ACDs), including heuristic dynamic programming (HDP), dual heuristic programming (DHP), and their action-dependent ones, have been widely studied to realize online learning control of dynamical systems. However, because neural networks with manually designed features are commonly used to deal with continuous state and action spaces, the generalization capability and learning efficiency of previous ACDs still need to be improved. In this paper, a novel framework of ACDs with sparse kernel machines is presented by integrating kernel methods into the critic of ACDs. To improve the generalization capability as well as the computational efficiency of kernel machines, a sparsification method based on the approximately linear dependence analysis is used. Using the sparse kernel machines, two kernel-based ACD algorithms, that is, kernel HDP (KHDP) and kernel DHP (KDHP), are proposed and their performance is analyzed both theoretically and empirically. Because of the representation learning and generalization capability of sparse kernel machines, KHDP and KDHP can obtain much better performance than previous HDP and DHP with manually designed neural networks. Simulation and experimental results of two nonlinear control problems, that is, a continuous-action inverted pendulum problem and a ball and plate control problem, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed kernel ACD methods.

  11. Kernel analysis of partial least squares (PLS) regression models.

    PubMed

    Shinzawa, Hideyuki; Ritthiruangdej, Pitiporn; Ozaki, Yukihiro

    2011-05-01

    An analytical technique based on kernel matrix representation is demonstrated to provide further chemically meaningful insight into partial least squares (PLS) regression models. The kernel matrix condenses essential information about scores derived from PLS or principal component analysis (PCA). Thus, it becomes possible to establish the proper interpretation of the scores. A PLS model for the total nitrogen (TN) content in multiple Thai fish sauces is built with a set of near-infrared (NIR) transmittance spectra of the fish sauce samples. The kernel analysis of the scores effectively reveals that the variation of the spectral feature induced by the change in protein content is substantially associated with the total water content and the protein hydration. Kernel analysis is also carried out on a set of time-dependent infrared (IR) spectra representing transient evaporation of ethanol from a binary mixture solution of ethanol and oleic acid. A PLS model to predict the elapsed time is built with the IR spectra and the kernel matrix is derived from the scores. The detailed analysis of the kernel matrix provides penetrating insight into the interaction between the ethanol and the oleic acid.

  12. A multi-label learning based kernel automatic recommendation method for support vector machine.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xueying; Song, Qinbao

    2015-01-01

    Choosing an appropriate kernel is very important and critical when classifying a new problem with Support Vector Machine. So far, more attention has been paid on constructing new kernels and choosing suitable parameter values for a specific kernel function, but less on kernel selection. Furthermore, most of current kernel selection methods focus on seeking a best kernel with the highest classification accuracy via cross-validation, they are time consuming and ignore the differences among the number of support vectors and the CPU time of SVM with different kernels. Considering the tradeoff between classification success ratio and CPU time, there may be multiple kernel functions performing equally well on the same classification problem. Aiming to automatically select those appropriate kernel functions for a given data set, we propose a multi-label learning based kernel recommendation method built on the data characteristics. For each data set, the meta-knowledge data base is first created by extracting the feature vector of data characteristics and identifying the corresponding applicable kernel set. Then the kernel recommendation model is constructed on the generated meta-knowledge data base with the multi-label classification method. Finally, the appropriate kernel functions are recommended to a new data set by the recommendation model according to the characteristics of the new data set. Extensive experiments over 132 UCI benchmark data sets, with five different types of data set characteristics, eleven typical kernels (Linear, Polynomial, Radial Basis Function, Sigmoidal function, Laplace, Multiquadric, Rational Quadratic, Spherical, Spline, Wave and Circular), and five multi-label classification methods demonstrate that, compared with the existing kernel selection methods and the most widely used RBF kernel function, SVM with the kernel function recommended by our proposed method achieved the highest classification performance.

  13. A Multi-Label Learning Based Kernel Automatic Recommendation Method for Support Vector Machine

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Xueying; Song, Qinbao

    2015-01-01

    Choosing an appropriate kernel is very important and critical when classifying a new problem with Support Vector Machine. So far, more attention has been paid on constructing new kernels and choosing suitable parameter values for a specific kernel function, but less on kernel selection. Furthermore, most of current kernel selection methods focus on seeking a best kernel with the highest classification accuracy via cross-validation, they are time consuming and ignore the differences among the number of support vectors and the CPU time of SVM with different kernels. Considering the tradeoff between classification success ratio and CPU time, there may be multiple kernel functions performing equally well on the same classification problem. Aiming to automatically select those appropriate kernel functions for a given data set, we propose a multi-label learning based kernel recommendation method built on the data characteristics. For each data set, the meta-knowledge data base is first created by extracting the feature vector of data characteristics and identifying the corresponding applicable kernel set. Then the kernel recommendation model is constructed on the generated meta-knowledge data base with the multi-label classification method. Finally, the appropriate kernel functions are recommended to a new data set by the recommendation model according to the characteristics of the new data set. Extensive experiments over 132 UCI benchmark data sets, with five different types of data set characteristics, eleven typical kernels (Linear, Polynomial, Radial Basis Function, Sigmoidal function, Laplace, Multiquadric, Rational Quadratic, Spherical, Spline, Wave and Circular), and five multi-label classification methods demonstrate that, compared with the existing kernel selection methods and the most widely used RBF kernel function, SVM with the kernel function recommended by our proposed method achieved the highest classification performance. PMID:25893896

  14. Corn kernel oil and corn fiber oil

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Unlike most edible plant oils that are obtained directly from oil-rich seeds by either pressing or solvent extraction, corn seeds (kernels) have low levels of oil (4%) and commercial corn oil is obtained from the corn germ (embryo) which is an oil-rich portion of the kernel. Commercial corn oil cou...

  15. Convolution kernels for multi-wavelength imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boucaud, A.; Bocchio, M.; Abergel, A.; Orieux, F.; Dole, H.; Hadj-Youcef, M. A.

    2016-12-01

    Astrophysical images issued from different instruments and/or spectral bands often require to be processed together, either for fitting or comparison purposes. However each image is affected by an instrumental response, also known as point-spread function (PSF), that depends on the characteristics of the instrument as well as the wavelength and the observing strategy. Given the knowledge of the PSF in each band, a straightforward way of processing images is to homogenise them all to a target PSF using convolution kernels, so that they appear as if they had been acquired by the same instrument. We propose an algorithm that generates such PSF-matching kernels, based on Wiener filtering with a tunable regularisation parameter. This method ensures all anisotropic features in the PSFs to be taken into account. We compare our method to existing procedures using measured Herschel/PACS and SPIRE PSFs and simulated JWST/MIRI PSFs. Significant gains up to two orders of magnitude are obtained with respect to the use of kernels computed assuming Gaussian or circularised PSFs. A software to compute these kernels is available at https://github.com/aboucaud/pypher

  16. Unsupervised multiple kernel learning for heterogeneous data integration.

    PubMed

    Mariette, Jérôme; Villa-Vialaneix, Nathalie

    2018-03-15

    Recent high-throughput sequencing advances have expanded the breadth of available omics datasets and the integrated analysis of multiple datasets obtained on the same samples has allowed to gain important insights in a wide range of applications. However, the integration of various sources of information remains a challenge for systems biology since produced datasets are often of heterogeneous types, with the need of developing generic methods to take their different specificities into account. We propose a multiple kernel framework that allows to integrate multiple datasets of various types into a single exploratory analysis. Several solutions are provided to learn either a consensus meta-kernel or a meta-kernel that preserves the original topology of the datasets. We applied our framework to analyse two public multi-omics datasets. First, the multiple metagenomic datasets, collected during the TARA Oceans expedition, was explored to demonstrate that our method is able to retrieve previous findings in a single kernel PCA as well as to provide a new image of the sample structures when a larger number of datasets are included in the analysis. To perform this analysis, a generic procedure is also proposed to improve the interpretability of the kernel PCA in regards with the original data. Second, the multi-omics breast cancer datasets, provided by The Cancer Genome Atlas, is analysed using a kernel Self-Organizing Maps with both single and multi-omics strategies. The comparison of these two approaches demonstrates the benefit of our integration method to improve the representation of the studied biological system. Proposed methods are available in the R package mixKernel, released on CRAN. It is fully compatible with the mixOmics package and a tutorial describing the approach can be found on mixOmics web site http://mixomics.org/mixkernel/. jerome.mariette@inra.fr or nathalie.villa-vialaneix@inra.fr. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  17. Protein fold recognition using geometric kernel data fusion.

    PubMed

    Zakeri, Pooya; Jeuris, Ben; Vandebril, Raf; Moreau, Yves

    2014-07-01

    Various approaches based on features extracted from protein sequences and often machine learning methods have been used in the prediction of protein folds. Finding an efficient technique for integrating these different protein features has received increasing attention. In particular, kernel methods are an interesting class of techniques for integrating heterogeneous data. Various methods have been proposed to fuse multiple kernels. Most techniques for multiple kernel learning focus on learning a convex linear combination of base kernels. In addition to the limitation of linear combinations, working with such approaches could cause a loss of potentially useful information. We design several techniques to combine kernel matrices by taking more involved, geometry inspired means of these matrices instead of convex linear combinations. We consider various sequence-based protein features including information extracted directly from position-specific scoring matrices and local sequence alignment. We evaluate our methods for classification on the SCOP PDB-40D benchmark dataset for protein fold recognition. The best overall accuracy on the protein fold recognition test set obtained by our methods is ∼ 86.7%. This is an improvement over the results of the best existing approach. Moreover, our computational model has been developed by incorporating the functional domain composition of proteins through a hybridization model. It is observed that by using our proposed hybridization model, the protein fold recognition accuracy is further improved to 89.30%. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of our approach on the protein remote homology detection problem by fusing multiple string kernels. The MATLAB code used for our proposed geometric kernel fusion frameworks are publicly available at http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/∼raf.vandebril/homepage/software/geomean.php?menu=5/. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  18. Proteome analysis of the almond kernel (Prunus dulcis).

    PubMed

    Li, Shugang; Geng, Fang; Wang, Ping; Lu, Jiankang; Ma, Meihu

    2016-08-01

    Almond (Prunus dulcis) is a popular tree nut worldwide and offers many benefits to human health. However, the importance of almond kernel proteins in the nutrition and function in human health requires further evaluation. The present study presents a systematic evaluation of the proteins in the almond kernel using proteomic analysis. The nutrient and amino acid content in almond kernels from Xinjiang is similar to that of American varieties; however, Xinjiang varieties have a higher protein content. Two-dimensional electrophoresis analysis demonstrated a wide distribution of molecular weights and isoelectric points of almond kernel proteins. A total of 434 proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS, and most were proteins that were experimentally confirmed for the first time. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the 434 proteins indicated that proteins involved in primary biological processes including metabolic processes (67.5%), cellular processes (54.1%), and single-organism processes (43.4%), the main molecular function of almond kernel proteins are in catalytic activity (48.0%), binding (45.4%) and structural molecule activity (11.9%), and proteins are primarily distributed in cell (59.9%), organelle (44.9%), and membrane (22.8%). Almond kernel is a source of a wide variety of proteins. This study provides important information contributing to the screening and identification of almond proteins, the understanding of almond protein function, and the development of almond protein products. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

  19. Control Transfer in Operating System Kernels

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-05-13

    microkernel system that runs less code in the kernel address space. To realize the performance benefit of allocating stacks in unmapped kseg0 memory, the...review how I modified the Mach 3.0 kernel to use continuations. Because of Mach’s message-passing microkernel structure, interprocess communication was...critical control transfer paths, deeply- nested call chains are undesirable in any case because of the function call overhead. 4.1.3 Microkernel Operating

  20. Experimental study of turbulent flame kernel propagation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mansour, Mohy; Peters, Norbert; Schrader, Lars-Uve

    2008-07-15

    Flame kernels in spark ignited combustion systems dominate the flame propagation and combustion stability and performance. They are likely controlled by the spark energy, flow field and mixing field. The aim of the present work is to experimentally investigate the structure and propagation of the flame kernel in turbulent premixed methane flow using advanced laser-based techniques. The spark is generated using pulsed Nd:YAG laser with 20 mJ pulse energy in order to avoid the effect of the electrodes on the flame kernel structure and the variation of spark energy from shot-to-shot. Four flames have been investigated at equivalence ratios, {phi}{submore » j}, of 0.8 and 1.0 and jet velocities, U{sub j}, of 6 and 12 m/s. A combined two-dimensional Rayleigh and LIPF-OH technique has been applied. The flame kernel structure has been collected at several time intervals from the laser ignition between 10 {mu}s and 2 ms. The data show that the flame kernel structure starts with spherical shape and changes gradually to peanut-like, then to mushroom-like and finally disturbed by the turbulence. The mushroom-like structure lasts longer in the stoichiometric and slower jet velocity. The growth rate of the average flame kernel radius is divided into two linear relations; the first one during the first 100 {mu}s is almost three times faster than that at the later stage between 100 and 2000 {mu}s. The flame propagation is slightly faster in leaner flames. The trends of the flame propagation, flame radius, flame cross-sectional area and mean flame temperature are related to the jet velocity and equivalence ratio. The relations obtained in the present work allow the prediction of any of these parameters at different conditions. (author)« less

  1. Bivariate discrete beta Kernel graduation of mortality data.

    PubMed

    Mazza, Angelo; Punzo, Antonio

    2015-07-01

    Various parametric/nonparametric techniques have been proposed in literature to graduate mortality data as a function of age. Nonparametric approaches, as for example kernel smoothing regression, are often preferred because they do not assume any particular mortality law. Among the existing kernel smoothing approaches, the recently proposed (univariate) discrete beta kernel smoother has been shown to provide some benefits. Bivariate graduation, over age and calendar years or durations, is common practice in demography and actuarial sciences. In this paper, we generalize the discrete beta kernel smoother to the bivariate case, and we introduce an adaptive bandwidth variant that may provide additional benefits when data on exposures to the risk of death are available; furthermore, we outline a cross-validation procedure for bandwidths selection. Using simulations studies, we compare the bivariate approach proposed here with its corresponding univariate formulation and with two popular nonparametric bivariate graduation techniques, based on Epanechnikov kernels and on P-splines. To make simulations realistic, a bivariate dataset, based on probabilities of dying recorded for the US males, is used. Simulations have confirmed the gain in performance of the new bivariate approach with respect to both the univariate and the bivariate competitors.

  2. A Linear Kernel for Co-Path/Cycle Packing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Zhi-Zhong; Fellows, Michael; Fu, Bin; Jiang, Haitao; Liu, Yang; Wang, Lusheng; Zhu, Binhai

    Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion is a fundamental problem in graph theory that has new applications in computational biology. In this paper, we address a special case of Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion, the Co-Path/Cycle Packing problem, which asks to delete as few vertices as possible such that the graph of the remaining (residual) vertices is composed of disjoint paths and simple cycles. The problem falls into the well-known class of 'node-deletion problems with hereditary properties', is hence NP-complete and unlikely to admit a polynomial time approximation algorithm with approximation factor smaller than 2. In the framework of parameterized complexity, we present a kernelization algorithm that produces a kernel with at most 37k vertices, improving on the super-linear kernel of Fellows et al.'s general theorem for Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion. Using this kernel,and the method of bounded search trees, we devise an FPT algorithm that runs in time O *(3.24 k ). On the negative side, we show that the problem is APX-hard and unlikely to have a kernel smaller than 2k by a reduction from Vertex Cover.

  3. 7 CFR 51.1403 - Kernel color classification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... classifications provided in this section. When the color of kernels in a lot generally conforms to the “light” or “light amber” classification, that color classification may be used to describe the lot in connection with the grade. (1) “Light” means that the outer surface of the kernel is mostly golden color or...

  4. 7 CFR 51.1403 - Kernel color classification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... classifications provided in this section. When the color of kernels in a lot generally conforms to the “light” or “light amber” classification, that color classification may be used to describe the lot in connection with the grade. (1) “Light” means that the outer surface of the kernel is mostly golden color or...

  5. A framework for optimal kernel-based manifold embedding of medical image data.

    PubMed

    Zimmer, Veronika A; Lekadir, Karim; Hoogendoorn, Corné; Frangi, Alejandro F; Piella, Gemma

    2015-04-01

    Kernel-based dimensionality reduction is a widely used technique in medical image analysis. To fully unravel the underlying nonlinear manifold the selection of an adequate kernel function and of its free parameters is critical. In practice, however, the kernel function is generally chosen as Gaussian or polynomial and such standard kernels might not always be optimal for a given image dataset or application. In this paper, we present a study on the effect of the kernel functions in nonlinear manifold embedding of medical image data. To this end, we first carry out a literature review on existing advanced kernels developed in the statistics, machine learning, and signal processing communities. In addition, we implement kernel-based formulations of well-known nonlinear dimensional reduction techniques such as Isomap and Locally Linear Embedding, thus obtaining a unified framework for manifold embedding using kernels. Subsequently, we present a method to automatically choose a kernel function and its associated parameters from a pool of kernel candidates, with the aim to generate the most optimal manifold embeddings. Furthermore, we show how the calculated selection measures can be extended to take into account the spatial relationships in images, or used to combine several kernels to further improve the embedding results. Experiments are then carried out on various synthetic and phantom datasets for numerical assessment of the methods. Furthermore, the workflow is applied to real data that include brain manifolds and multispectral images to demonstrate the importance of the kernel selection in the analysis of high-dimensional medical images. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Relationship of source and sink in determining kernel composition of maize

    PubMed Central

    Seebauer, Juliann R.; Singletary, George W.; Krumpelman, Paulette M.; Ruffo, Matías L.; Below, Frederick E.

    2010-01-01

    The relative role of the maternal source and the filial sink in controlling the composition of maize (Zea mays L.) kernels is unclear and may be influenced by the genotype and the N supply. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of assimilate supply from the vegetative source and utilization of assimilates by the grain sink on the final composition of maize kernels. Intermated B73×Mo17 recombinant inbred lines (IBM RILs) which displayed contrasting concentrations of endosperm starch were grown in the field with deficient or sufficient N, and the source supply altered by ear truncation (45% reduction) at 15 d after pollination (DAP). The assimilate supply into the kernels was determined at 19 DAP using the agar trap technique, and the final kernel composition was measured. The influence of N supply and kernel ear position on final kernel composition was also determined for a commercial hybrid. Concentrations of kernel protein and starch could be altered by genotype or the N supply, but remained fairly constant along the length of the ear. Ear truncation also produced a range of variation in endosperm starch and protein concentrations. The C/N ratio of the assimilate supply at 19 DAP was directly related to the final kernel composition, with an inverse relationship between the concentrations of starch and protein in the mature endosperm. The accumulation of kernel starch and protein in maize is uniform along the ear, yet adaptable within genotypic limits, suggesting that kernel composition is source limited in maize. PMID:19917600

  7. Resummed memory kernels in generalized system-bath master equations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mavros, Michael G.; Van Voorhis, Troy, E-mail: tvan@mit.edu

    2014-08-07

    Generalized master equations provide a concise formalism for studying reduced population dynamics. Usually, these master equations require a perturbative expansion of the memory kernels governing the dynamics; in order to prevent divergences, these expansions must be resummed. Resummation techniques of perturbation series are ubiquitous in physics, but they have not been readily studied for the time-dependent memory kernels used in generalized master equations. In this paper, we present a comparison of different resummation techniques for such memory kernels up to fourth order. We study specifically the spin-boson Hamiltonian as a model system bath Hamiltonian, treating the diabatic coupling between themore » two states as a perturbation. A novel derivation of the fourth-order memory kernel for the spin-boson problem is presented; then, the second- and fourth-order kernels are evaluated numerically for a variety of spin-boson parameter regimes. We find that resumming the kernels through fourth order using a Padé approximant results in divergent populations in the strong electronic coupling regime due to a singularity introduced by the nature of the resummation, and thus recommend a non-divergent exponential resummation (the “Landau-Zener resummation” of previous work). The inclusion of fourth-order effects in a Landau-Zener-resummed kernel is shown to improve both the dephasing rate and the obedience of detailed balance over simpler prescriptions like the non-interacting blip approximation, showing a relatively quick convergence on the exact answer. The results suggest that including higher-order contributions to the memory kernel of a generalized master equation and performing an appropriate resummation can provide a numerically-exact solution to system-bath dynamics for a general spectral density, opening the way to a new class of methods for treating system-bath dynamics.« less

  8. Improving prediction of heterodimeric protein complexes using combination with pairwise kernel.

    PubMed

    Ruan, Peiying; Hayashida, Morihiro; Akutsu, Tatsuya; Vert, Jean-Philippe

    2018-02-19

    Since many proteins become functional only after they interact with their partner proteins and form protein complexes, it is essential to identify the sets of proteins that form complexes. Therefore, several computational methods have been proposed to predict complexes from the topology and structure of experimental protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. These methods work well to predict complexes involving at least three proteins, but generally fail at identifying complexes involving only two different proteins, called heterodimeric complexes or heterodimers. There is however an urgent need for efficient methods to predict heterodimers, since the majority of known protein complexes are precisely heterodimers. In this paper, we use three promising kernel functions, Min kernel and two pairwise kernels, which are Metric Learning Pairwise Kernel (MLPK) and Tensor Product Pairwise Kernel (TPPK). We also consider the normalization forms of Min kernel. Then, we combine Min kernel or its normalization form and one of the pairwise kernels by plugging. We applied kernels based on PPI, domain, phylogenetic profile, and subcellular localization properties to predicting heterodimers. Then, we evaluate our method by employing C-Support Vector Classification (C-SVC), carrying out 10-fold cross-validation, and calculating the average F-measures. The results suggest that the combination of normalized-Min-kernel and MLPK leads to the best F-measure and improved the performance of our previous work, which had been the best existing method so far. We propose new methods to predict heterodimers, using a machine learning-based approach. We train a support vector machine (SVM) to discriminate interacting vs non-interacting protein pairs, based on informations extracted from PPI, domain, phylogenetic profiles and subcellular localization. We evaluate in detail new kernel functions to encode these data, and report prediction performance that outperforms the state-of-the-art.

  9. Density Estimation with Mercer Kernels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Macready, William G.

    2003-01-01

    We present a new method for density estimation based on Mercer kernels. The density estimate can be understood as the density induced on a data manifold by a mixture of Gaussians fit in a feature space. As is usual, the feature space and data manifold are defined with any suitable positive-definite kernel function. We modify the standard EM algorithm for mixtures of Gaussians to infer the parameters of the density. One benefit of the approach is it's conceptual simplicity, and uniform applicability over many different types of data. Preliminary results are presented for a number of simple problems.

  10. Broken rice kernels and the kinetics of rice hydration and texture during cooking.

    PubMed

    Saleh, Mohammed; Meullenet, Jean-Francois

    2013-05-01

    During rice milling and processing, broken kernels are inevitably present, although to date it has been unclear as to how the presence of broken kernels affects rice hydration and cooked rice texture. Therefore, this work intended to study the effect of broken kernels in a rice sample on rice hydration and texture during cooking. Two medium-grain and two long-grain rice cultivars were harvested, dried and milled, and the broken kernels were separated from unbroken kernels. Broken rice kernels were subsequently combined with unbroken rice kernels forming treatments of 0, 40, 150, 350 or 1000 g kg(-1) broken kernels ratio. Rice samples were then cooked and the moisture content of the cooked rice, the moisture uptake rate, and rice hardness and stickiness were measured. As the amount of broken rice kernels increased, rice sample texture became increasingly softer (P < 0.05) but the unbroken kernels became significantly harder. Moisture content and moisture uptake rate were positively correlated, and cooked rice hardness was negatively correlated to the percentage of broken kernels in rice samples. Differences in the proportions of broken rice in a milled rice sample play a major role in determining the texture properties of cooked rice. Variations in the moisture migration kinetics between broken and unbroken kernels caused faster hydration of the cores of broken rice kernels, with greater starch leach-out during cooking affecting the texture of the cooked rice. The texture of cooked rice can be controlled, to some extent, by varying the proportion of broken kernels in milled rice. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.

  11. A new discrete dipole kernel for quantitative susceptibility mapping.

    PubMed

    Milovic, Carlos; Acosta-Cabronero, Julio; Pinto, José Miguel; Mattern, Hendrik; Andia, Marcelo; Uribe, Sergio; Tejos, Cristian

    2018-09-01

    Most approaches for quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) are based on a forward model approximation that employs a continuous Fourier transform operator to solve a differential equation system. Such formulation, however, is prone to high-frequency aliasing. The aim of this study was to reduce such errors using an alternative dipole kernel formulation based on the discrete Fourier transform and discrete operators. The impact of such an approach on forward model calculation and susceptibility inversion was evaluated in contrast to the continuous formulation both with synthetic phantoms and in vivo MRI data. The discrete kernel demonstrated systematically better fits to analytic field solutions, and showed less over-oscillations and aliasing artifacts while preserving low- and medium-frequency responses relative to those obtained with the continuous kernel. In the context of QSM estimation, the use of the proposed discrete kernel resulted in error reduction and increased sharpness. This proof-of-concept study demonstrated that discretizing the dipole kernel is advantageous for QSM. The impact on small or narrow structures such as the venous vasculature might by particularly relevant to high-resolution QSM applications with ultra-high field MRI - a topic for future investigations. The proposed dipole kernel has a straightforward implementation to existing QSM routines. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Genetic Analysis of Kernel Traits in Maize-Teosinte Introgression Populations.

    PubMed

    Liu, Zhengbin; Garcia, Arturo; McMullen, Michael D; Flint-Garcia, Sherry A

    2016-08-09

    Seed traits have been targeted by human selection during the domestication of crop species as a way to increase the caloric and nutritional content of food during the transition from hunter-gather to early farming societies. The primary seed trait under selection was likely seed size/weight as it is most directly related to overall grain yield. Additional seed traits involved in seed shape may have also contributed to larger grain. Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) kernel weight has increased more than 10-fold in the 9000 years since domestication from its wild ancestor, teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis). In order to study how size and shape affect kernel weight, we analyzed kernel morphometric traits in a set of 10 maize-teosinte introgression populations using digital imaging software. We identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for kernel area and length with moderate allelic effects that colocalize with kernel weight QTL. Several genomic regions with strong effects during maize domestication were detected, and a genetic framework for kernel traits was characterized by complex pleiotropic interactions. Our results both confirm prior reports of kernel domestication loci and identify previously uncharacterized QTL with a range of allelic effects, enabling future research into the genetic basis of these traits. Copyright © 2016 Liu et al.

  13. Genetic Analysis of Kernel Traits in Maize-Teosinte Introgression Populations

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Zhengbin; Garcia, Arturo; McMullen, Michael D.; Flint-Garcia, Sherry A.

    2016-01-01

    Seed traits have been targeted by human selection during the domestication of crop species as a way to increase the caloric and nutritional content of food during the transition from hunter-gather to early farming societies. The primary seed trait under selection was likely seed size/weight as it is most directly related to overall grain yield. Additional seed traits involved in seed shape may have also contributed to larger grain. Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) kernel weight has increased more than 10-fold in the 9000 years since domestication from its wild ancestor, teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis). In order to study how size and shape affect kernel weight, we analyzed kernel morphometric traits in a set of 10 maize-teosinte introgression populations using digital imaging software. We identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for kernel area and length with moderate allelic effects that colocalize with kernel weight QTL. Several genomic regions with strong effects during maize domestication were detected, and a genetic framework for kernel traits was characterized by complex pleiotropic interactions. Our results both confirm prior reports of kernel domestication loci and identify previously uncharacterized QTL with a range of allelic effects, enabling future research into the genetic basis of these traits. PMID:27317774

  14. Investigation of various energy deposition kernel refinements for the convolution/superposition method

    PubMed Central

    Huang, Jessie Y.; Eklund, David; Childress, Nathan L.; Howell, Rebecca M.; Mirkovic, Dragan; Followill, David S.; Kry, Stephen F.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Several simplifications used in clinical implementations of the convolution/superposition (C/S) method, specifically, density scaling of water kernels for heterogeneous media and use of a single polyenergetic kernel, lead to dose calculation inaccuracies. Although these weaknesses of the C/S method are known, it is not well known which of these simplifications has the largest effect on dose calculation accuracy in clinical situations. The purpose of this study was to generate and characterize high-resolution, polyenergetic, and material-specific energy deposition kernels (EDKs), as well as to investigate the dosimetric impact of implementing spatially variant polyenergetic and material-specific kernels in a collapsed cone C/S algorithm. Methods: High-resolution, monoenergetic water EDKs and various material-specific EDKs were simulated using the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. Polyenergetic kernels, reflecting the primary spectrum of a clinical 6 MV photon beam at different locations in a water phantom, were calculated for different depths, field sizes, and off-axis distances. To investigate the dosimetric impact of implementing spatially variant polyenergetic kernels, depth dose curves in water were calculated using two different implementations of the collapsed cone C/S method. The first method uses a single polyenergetic kernel, while the second method fully takes into account spectral changes in the convolution calculation. To investigate the dosimetric impact of implementing material-specific kernels, depth dose curves were calculated for a simplified titanium implant geometry using both a traditional C/S implementation that performs density scaling of water kernels and a novel implementation using material-specific kernels. Results: For our high-resolution kernels, we found good agreement with the Mackie et al. kernels, with some differences near the interaction site for low photon energies (<500 keV). For our spatially variant polyenergetic kernels, we

  15. Effects of sample size on KERNEL home range estimates

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Seaman, D.E.; Millspaugh, J.J.; Kernohan, Brian J.; Brundige, Gary C.; Raedeke, Kenneth J.; Gitzen, Robert A.

    1999-01-01

    Kernel methods for estimating home range are being used increasingly in wildlife research, but the effect of sample size on their accuracy is not known. We used computer simulations of 10-200 points/home range and compared accuracy of home range estimates produced by fixed and adaptive kernels with the reference (REF) and least-squares cross-validation (LSCV) methods for determining the amount of smoothing. Simulated home ranges varied from simple to complex shapes created by mixing bivariate normal distributions. We used the size of the 95% home range area and the relative mean squared error of the surface fit to assess the accuracy of the kernel home range estimates. For both measures, the bias and variance approached an asymptote at about 50 observations/home range. The fixed kernel with smoothing selected by LSCV provided the least-biased estimates of the 95% home range area. All kernel methods produced similar surface fit for most simulations, but the fixed kernel with LSCV had the lowest frequency and magnitude of very poor estimates. We reviewed 101 papers published in The Journal of Wildlife Management (JWM) between 1980 and 1997 that estimated animal home ranges. A minority of these papers used nonparametric utilization distribution (UD) estimators, and most did not adequately report sample sizes. We recommend that home range studies using kernel estimates use LSCV to determine the amount of smoothing, obtain a minimum of 30 observations per animal (but preferably a?Y50), and report sample sizes in published results.

  16. Local coding based matching kernel method for image classification.

    PubMed

    Song, Yan; McLoughlin, Ian Vince; Dai, Li-Rong

    2014-01-01

    This paper mainly focuses on how to effectively and efficiently measure visual similarity for local feature based representation. Among existing methods, metrics based on Bag of Visual Word (BoV) techniques are efficient and conceptually simple, at the expense of effectiveness. By contrast, kernel based metrics are more effective, but at the cost of greater computational complexity and increased storage requirements. We show that a unified visual matching framework can be developed to encompass both BoV and kernel based metrics, in which local kernel plays an important role between feature pairs or between features and their reconstruction. Generally, local kernels are defined using Euclidean distance or its derivatives, based either explicitly or implicitly on an assumption of Gaussian noise. However, local features such as SIFT and HoG often follow a heavy-tailed distribution which tends to undermine the motivation behind Euclidean metrics. Motivated by recent advances in feature coding techniques, a novel efficient local coding based matching kernel (LCMK) method is proposed. This exploits the manifold structures in Hilbert space derived from local kernels. The proposed method combines advantages of both BoV and kernel based metrics, and achieves a linear computational complexity. This enables efficient and scalable visual matching to be performed on large scale image sets. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed LCMK method, we conduct extensive experiments with widely used benchmark datasets, including 15-Scenes, Caltech101/256, PASCAL VOC 2007 and 2011 datasets. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the relatively efficient LCMK method.

  17. Hyperspectral Image Classification via Kernel Sparse Representation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-01-01

    classification algorithms. Moreover, the spatial coherency across neighboring pixels is also incorporated through a kernelized joint sparsity model , where...joint sparsity model , where all of the pixels within a small neighborhood are jointly represented in the feature space by selecting a few common training...hyperspectral imagery, joint spar- sity model , kernel methods, sparse representation. I. INTRODUCTION HYPERSPECTRAL imaging sensors capture images

  18. Effects of Amygdaline from Apricot Kernel on Transplanted Tumors in Mice.

    PubMed

    Yamshanov, V A; Kovan'ko, E G; Pustovalov, Yu I

    2016-03-01

    The effects of amygdaline from apricot kernel added to fodder on the growth of transplanted LYO-1 and Ehrlich carcinoma were studied in mice. Apricot kernels inhibited the growth of both tumors. Apricot kernels, raw and after thermal processing, given 2 days before transplantation produced a pronounced antitumor effect. Heat-processed apricot kernels given in 3 days after transplantation modified the tumor growth and prolonged animal lifespan. Thermal treatment did not considerably reduce the antitumor effect of apricot kernels. It was hypothesized that the antitumor effect of amygdaline on Ehrlich carcinoma and LYO-1 lymphosarcoma was associated with the presence of bacterial genome in the tumor.

  19. Using the Intel Math Kernel Library on Peregrine | High-Performance

    Science.gov Websites

    Computing | NREL the Intel Math Kernel Library on Peregrine Using the Intel Math Kernel Library on Peregrine Learn how to use the Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL) with Peregrine system software. MKL architectures. Core math functions in MKL include BLAS, LAPACK, ScaLAPACK, sparse solvers, fast Fourier

  20. Semi-supervised learning for ordinal Kernel Discriminant Analysis.

    PubMed

    Pérez-Ortiz, M; Gutiérrez, P A; Carbonero-Ruz, M; Hervás-Martínez, C

    2016-12-01

    Ordinal classification considers those classification problems where the labels of the variable to predict follow a given order. Naturally, labelled data is scarce or difficult to obtain in this type of problems because, in many cases, ordinal labels are given by a user or expert (e.g. in recommendation systems). Firstly, this paper develops a new strategy for ordinal classification where both labelled and unlabelled data are used in the model construction step (a scheme which is referred to as semi-supervised learning). More specifically, the ordinal version of kernel discriminant learning is extended for this setting considering the neighbourhood information of unlabelled data, which is proposed to be computed in the feature space induced by the kernel function. Secondly, a new method for semi-supervised kernel learning is devised in the context of ordinal classification, which is combined with our developed classification strategy to optimise the kernel parameters. The experiments conducted compare 6 different approaches for semi-supervised learning in the context of ordinal classification in a battery of 30 datasets, showing (1) the good synergy of the ordinal version of discriminant analysis and the use of unlabelled data and (2) the advantage of computing distances in the feature space induced by the kernel function. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Emission Studies in CI Engine using LPG and Palm Kernel Methyl Ester as Fuels and Di-ethyl Ether as an Additive

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dora, Nagaraju; Jothi, T. J. Sarvoththama

    2018-05-01

    The present study investigates the effectiveness of using di-ethyl ether (DEE) as the fuel additive in engine performance and emissions. Experiments are carried out in a single cylinder four stroke diesel engine at constant speed. Two different fuels namely liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and palm kernel methyl ester (PKME) are used as primary fuels with DEE as the fuel additive. LPG flow rates of 0.6 and 0.8 kg/h are considered, and flow rate of DEE is varied to maintain the constant engine speed. In case of PKME fuel, it is blended with diesel in the latter to the former ratio of 80:20, and DEE is varied in the volumetric proportion of 1 and 2%. Results indicate that for the engine operating in LPG-DEE mode at 0.6 kg/h of LPG, the brake thermal efficiency is lowered by 26%; however, NOx is subsequently reduced by around 30% compared to the engine running with only diesel fuel at 70% load. Similarly, results of PKME blended fuel showed a drastic reduction in the NOx and CO emissions. In these two modes of operation, DEE is observed to be significant fuel additive regarding emissions reduction.

  2. High speed sorting of Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Recent studies have found that resistance to Fusarium fungal infection can be inherited in wheat from one generation to another. However, there is not yet available a cost effective method to separate Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels from undamaged kernels so that wheat breeders can take advantage of...

  3. CW-SSIM kernel based random forest for image classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fan, Guangzhe; Wang, Zhou; Wang, Jiheng

    2010-07-01

    Complex wavelet structural similarity (CW-SSIM) index has been proposed as a powerful image similarity metric that is robust to translation, scaling and rotation of images, but how to employ it in image classification applications has not been deeply investigated. In this paper, we incorporate CW-SSIM as a kernel function into a random forest learning algorithm. This leads to a novel image classification approach that does not require a feature extraction or dimension reduction stage at the front end. We use hand-written digit recognition as an example to demonstrate our algorithm. We compare the performance of the proposed approach with random forest learning based on other kernels, including the widely adopted Gaussian and the inner product kernels. Empirical evidences show that the proposed method is superior in its classification power. We also compared our proposed approach with the direct random forest method without kernel and the popular kernel-learning method support vector machine. Our test results based on both simulated and realworld data suggest that the proposed approach works superior to traditional methods without the feature selection procedure.

  4. Insights from Classifying Visual Concepts with Multiple Kernel Learning

    PubMed Central

    Binder, Alexander; Nakajima, Shinichi; Kloft, Marius; Müller, Christina; Samek, Wojciech; Brefeld, Ulf; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Kawanabe, Motoaki

    2012-01-01

    Combining information from various image features has become a standard technique in concept recognition tasks. However, the optimal way of fusing the resulting kernel functions is usually unknown in practical applications. Multiple kernel learning (MKL) techniques allow to determine an optimal linear combination of such similarity matrices. Classical approaches to MKL promote sparse mixtures. Unfortunately, 1-norm regularized MKL variants are often observed to be outperformed by an unweighted sum kernel. The main contributions of this paper are the following: we apply a recently developed non-sparse MKL variant to state-of-the-art concept recognition tasks from the application domain of computer vision. We provide insights on benefits and limits of non-sparse MKL and compare it against its direct competitors, the sum-kernel SVM and sparse MKL. We report empirical results for the PASCAL VOC 2009 Classification and ImageCLEF2010 Photo Annotation challenge data sets. Data sets (kernel matrices) as well as further information are available at http://doc.ml.tu-berlin.de/image_mkl/(Accessed 2012 Jun 25). PMID:22936970

  5. Nonparametric entropy estimation using kernel densities.

    PubMed

    Lake, Douglas E

    2009-01-01

    The entropy of experimental data from the biological and medical sciences provides additional information over summary statistics. Calculating entropy involves estimates of probability density functions, which can be effectively accomplished using kernel density methods. Kernel density estimation has been widely studied and a univariate implementation is readily available in MATLAB. The traditional definition of Shannon entropy is part of a larger family of statistics, called Renyi entropy, which are useful in applications that require a measure of the Gaussianity of data. Of particular note is the quadratic entropy which is related to the Friedman-Tukey (FT) index, a widely used measure in the statistical community. One application where quadratic entropy is very useful is the detection of abnormal cardiac rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation (AF). Asymptotic and exact small-sample results for optimal bandwidth and kernel selection to estimate the FT index are presented and lead to improved methods for entropy estimation.

  6. New Fukui, dual and hyper-dual kernels as bond reactivity descriptors.

    PubMed

    Franco-Pérez, Marco; Polanco-Ramírez, Carlos-A; Ayers, Paul W; Gázquez, José L; Vela, Alberto

    2017-06-21

    We define three new linear response indices with promising applications for bond reactivity using the mathematical framework of τ-CRT (finite temperature chemical reactivity theory). The τ-Fukui kernel is defined as the ratio between the fluctuations of the average electron density at two different points in the space and the fluctuations in the average electron number and is designed to integrate to the finite-temperature definition of the electronic Fukui function. When this kernel is condensed, it can be interpreted as a site-reactivity descriptor of the boundary region between two atoms. The τ-dual kernel corresponds to the first order response of the Fukui kernel and is designed to integrate to the finite temperature definition of the dual descriptor; it indicates the ambiphilic reactivity of a specific bond and enriches the traditional dual descriptor by allowing one to distinguish between the electron-accepting and electron-donating processes. Finally, the τ-hyper dual kernel is defined as the second-order derivative of the Fukui kernel and is proposed as a measure of the strength of ambiphilic bonding interactions. Although these quantities have never been proposed, our results for the τ-Fukui kernel and for τ-dual kernel can be derived in zero-temperature formulation of the chemical reactivity theory with, among other things, the widely-used parabolic interpolation model.

  7. Design Principles for the Blend in Blended Learning: A Collective Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lai, Ming; Lam, Kwok Man; Lim, Cher Ping

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on a collective case study of three blended courses taught by different instructors in a higher education institution, with the purpose of identifying the different types of blend and how the blend supports student learning. Based on the instructors' and students' interviews, and document analysis of course outlines, two major…

  8. Quasi-Dual-Packed-Kerneled Au49 (2,4-DMBT)27 Nanoclusters and the Influence of Kernel Packing on the Electrochemical Gap.

    PubMed

    Liao, Lingwen; Zhuang, Shengli; Wang, Pu; Xu, Yanan; Yan, Nan; Dong, Hongwei; Wang, Chengming; Zhao, Yan; Xia, Nan; Li, Jin; Deng, Haiteng; Pei, Yong; Tian, Shi-Kai; Wu, Zhikun

    2017-10-02

    Although face-centered cubic (fcc), body-centered cubic (bcc), hexagonal close-packed (hcp), and other structured gold nanoclusters have been reported, it was unclear whether gold nanoclusters with mix-packed (fcc and non-fcc) kernels exist, and the correlation between kernel packing and the properties of gold nanoclusters is unknown. A Au 49 (2,4-DMBT) 27 nanocluster with a shell electron count of 22 has now been been synthesized and structurally resolved by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, which revealed that Au 49 (2,4-DMBT) 27 contains a unique Au 34 kernel consisting of one quasi-fcc-structured Au 21 and one non-fcc-structured Au 13 unit (where 2,4-DMBTH=2,4-dimethylbenzenethiol). Further experiments revealed that the kernel packing greatly influences the electrochemical gap (EG) and the fcc structure has a larger EG than the investigated non-fcc structure. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Effect of blend ratio of PP/kapok blend nonwoven fabrics on oil sorption capacity.

    PubMed

    Lee, Young-Hee; Kim, Ji-Soo; Kim, Do-Hyung; Shin, Min-Seung; Jung, Young-Jin; Lee, Dong-Jin; Kim, Han-Do

    2013-01-01

    More research and development on novel oil sorbent materials is needed to protect the environmental pollution. New nonwoven fabrics (pads) of polypropylene (PP)/kapok blends (blend ratio: 100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 10/90) were prepared by needle punching process at a fixed (optimized) condition (punch density: 50 punches/cm2 and depth: 4mm). This study focused on the effect of blend ratio of PP/kapok nonwoven fabrics on oil sorption capacities to find the best blend ratio having the highest synergy effect. The PP/kapok blend (50/50) sample has the lowest bulk density and showed the best oil absorption capacity. The oil sorption capacity of PP/kapok blend (50/50) nonwoven fabric for kerosene/soybean oil [21.09/27.01 (g oil/g sorbent)] was 1.5-2 times higher than those of commercial PP pad oil sorbents. The highest synergy effect of PP/kapok blend (50/50) was ascribed to the lowest bulk density of PP/kapok blend (50/50), which might be due to the highest morphologically incompatibility between PP fibre and kapok. These results suggest that the PP/kapok blend (50/50) having the highest synergy effect has a high potential as a new high-performance oil sorbent material.

  10. Fast generation of sparse random kernel graphs

    DOE PAGES

    Hagberg, Aric; Lemons, Nathan; Du, Wen -Bo

    2015-09-10

    The development of kernel-based inhomogeneous random graphs has provided models that are flexible enough to capture many observed characteristics of real networks, and that are also mathematically tractable. We specify a class of inhomogeneous random graph models, called random kernel graphs, that produces sparse graphs with tunable graph properties, and we develop an efficient generation algorithm to sample random instances from this model. As real-world networks are usually large, it is essential that the run-time of generation algorithms scales better than quadratically in the number of vertices n. We show that for many practical kernels our algorithm runs in timemore » at most ο(n(logn)²). As an example, we show how to generate samples of power-law degree distribution graphs with tunable assortativity.« less

  11. Wavelet SVM in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space for hyperspectral remote sensing image classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Du, Peijun; Tan, Kun; Xing, Xiaoshi

    2010-12-01

    Combining Support Vector Machine (SVM) with wavelet analysis, we constructed wavelet SVM (WSVM) classifier based on wavelet kernel functions in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS). In conventional kernel theory, SVM is faced with the bottleneck of kernel parameter selection which further results in time-consuming and low classification accuracy. The wavelet kernel in RKHS is a kind of multidimensional wavelet function that can approximate arbitrary nonlinear functions. Implications on semiparametric estimation are proposed in this paper. Airborne Operational Modular Imaging Spectrometer II (OMIS II) hyperspectral remote sensing image with 64 bands and Reflective Optics System Imaging Spectrometer (ROSIS) data with 115 bands were used to experiment the performance and accuracy of the proposed WSVM classifier. The experimental results indicate that the WSVM classifier can obtain the highest accuracy when using the Coiflet Kernel function in wavelet transform. In contrast with some traditional classifiers, including Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM) and Minimum Distance Classification (MDC), and SVM classifier using Radial Basis Function kernel, the proposed wavelet SVM classifier using the wavelet kernel function in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space is capable of improving classification accuracy obviously.

  12. Distributed smoothed tree kernel for protein-protein interaction extraction from the biomedical literature

    PubMed Central

    Murugesan, Gurusamy; Abdulkadhar, Sabenabanu; Natarajan, Jeyakumar

    2017-01-01

    Automatic extraction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) pairs from biomedical literature is a widely examined task in biological information extraction. Currently, many kernel based approaches such as linear kernel, tree kernel, graph kernel and combination of multiple kernels has achieved promising results in PPI task. However, most of these kernel methods fail to capture the semantic relation information between two entities. In this paper, we present a special type of tree kernel for PPI extraction which exploits both syntactic (structural) and semantic vectors information known as Distributed Smoothed Tree kernel (DSTK). DSTK comprises of distributed trees with syntactic information along with distributional semantic vectors representing semantic information of the sentences or phrases. To generate robust machine learning model composition of feature based kernel and DSTK were combined using ensemble support vector machine (SVM). Five different corpora (AIMed, BioInfer, HPRD50, IEPA, and LLL) were used for evaluating the performance of our system. Experimental results show that our system achieves better f-score with five different corpora compared to other state-of-the-art systems. PMID:29099838

  13. Distributed smoothed tree kernel for protein-protein interaction extraction from the biomedical literature.

    PubMed

    Murugesan, Gurusamy; Abdulkadhar, Sabenabanu; Natarajan, Jeyakumar

    2017-01-01

    Automatic extraction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) pairs from biomedical literature is a widely examined task in biological information extraction. Currently, many kernel based approaches such as linear kernel, tree kernel, graph kernel and combination of multiple kernels has achieved promising results in PPI task. However, most of these kernel methods fail to capture the semantic relation information between two entities. In this paper, we present a special type of tree kernel for PPI extraction which exploits both syntactic (structural) and semantic vectors information known as Distributed Smoothed Tree kernel (DSTK). DSTK comprises of distributed trees with syntactic information along with distributional semantic vectors representing semantic information of the sentences or phrases. To generate robust machine learning model composition of feature based kernel and DSTK were combined using ensemble support vector machine (SVM). Five different corpora (AIMed, BioInfer, HPRD50, IEPA, and LLL) were used for evaluating the performance of our system. Experimental results show that our system achieves better f-score with five different corpora compared to other state-of-the-art systems.

  14. Blended Isogeometric Shells

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-08-01

    biomechanical modeling (e.g. arteries). It is also possible to go still fur- ther with the concept and blend shell theories with continuum solid theories in the...spirit of transition elements. Again biomechanical modeling opportunities present themselves, such as for heart-artery models . We also note that all...these blended theories can be developed within the IGA format of exact CAD modeling . The blended formulation presented here is valid for a broad class

  15. Genome-wide Association Analysis of Kernel Weight in Hard Winter Wheat

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Wheat kernel weight is an important and heritable component of wheat grain yield and a key predictor of flour extraction. Genome-wide association analysis was conducted to identify genomic regions associated with kernel weight and kernel weight environmental response in 8 trials of 299 hard winter ...

  16. Evidence-Based Kernels: Fundamental Units of Behavioral Influence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Embry, Dennis D.; Biglan, Anthony

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes evidence-based kernels, fundamental units of behavioral influence that appear to underlie effective prevention and treatment for children, adults, and families. A kernel is a behavior-influence procedure shown through experimental analysis to affect a specific behavior and that is indivisible in the sense that removing any of…

  17. Noise kernels of stochastic gravity in conformally-flat spacetimes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cho, H. T.; Hu, B. L.

    2015-03-01

    The central object in the theory of semiclassical stochastic gravity is the noise kernel, which is the symmetric two point correlation function of the stress-energy tensor. Using the corresponding Wightman functions in Minkowski, Einstein and open Einstein spaces, we construct the noise kernels of a conformally coupled scalar field in these spacetimes. From them we show that the noise kernels in conformally-flat spacetimes, including the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes, can be obtained in closed analytic forms by using a combination of conformal and coordinate transformations.

  18. Travel-time sensitivity kernels in long-range propagation.

    PubMed

    Skarsoulis, E K; Cornuelle, B D; Dzieciuch, M A

    2009-11-01

    Wave-theoretic travel-time sensitivity kernels (TSKs) are calculated in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) environments and their behavior with increasing propagation range is studied and compared to that of ray-theoretic TSKs and corresponding Fresnel-volumes. The differences between the 2D and 3D TSKs average out when horizontal or cross-range marginals are considered, which indicates that they are not important in the case of range-independent sound-speed perturbations or perturbations of large scale compared to the lateral TSK extent. With increasing range, the wave-theoretic TSKs expand in the horizontal cross-range direction, their cross-range extent being comparable to that of the corresponding free-space Fresnel zone, whereas they remain bounded in the vertical. Vertical travel-time sensitivity kernels (VTSKs)-one-dimensional kernels describing the effect of horizontally uniform sound-speed changes on travel-times-are calculated analytically using a perturbation approach, and also numerically, as horizontal marginals of the corresponding TSKs. Good agreement between analytical and numerical VTSKs, as well as between 2D and 3D VTSKs, is found. As an alternative method to obtain wave-theoretic sensitivity kernels, the parabolic approximation is used; the resulting TSKs and VTSKs are in good agreement with normal-mode results. With increasing range, the wave-theoretic VTSKs approach the corresponding ray-theoretic sensitivity kernels.

  19. Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tucker, Catlin; Umphrey, Jan

    2013-01-01

    Catlin Tucker, author of "Blended Learning in Grades 4-12," is an English language arts teacher at Windsor High School in Sonoma County, CA. In this conversation with "Principal Leadership," she defines blended learning as a formal education program in which a student is engaged in active learning in part online where they…

  20. Validation of Born Traveltime Kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baig, A. M.; Dahlen, F. A.; Hung, S.

    2001-12-01

    Most inversions for Earth structure using seismic traveltimes rely on linear ray theory to translate observed traveltime anomalies into seismic velocity anomalies distributed throughout the mantle. However, ray theory is not an appropriate tool to use when velocity anomalies have scale lengths less than the width of the Fresnel zone. In the presence of these structures, we need to turn to a scattering theory in order to adequately describe all of the features observed in the waveform. By coupling the Born approximation to ray theory, the first order dependence of heterogeneity on the cross-correlated traveltimes (described by the Fréchet derivative or, more colourfully, the banana-doughnut kernel) may be determined. To determine for what range of parameters these banana-doughnut kernels outperform linear ray theory, we generate several random media specified by their statistical properties, namely the RMS slowness perturbation and the scale length of the heterogeneity. Acoustic waves are numerically generated from a point source using a 3-D pseudo-spectral wave propagation code. These waves are then recorded at a variety of propagation distances from the source introducing a third parameter to the problem: the number of wavelengths traversed by the wave. When all of the heterogeneity has scale lengths larger than the width of the Fresnel zone, ray theory does as good a job at predicting the cross-correlated traveltime as the banana-doughnut kernels do. Below this limit, wavefront healing becomes a significant effect and ray theory ceases to be effective even though the kernels remain relatively accurate provided the heterogeneity is weak. The study of wave propagation in random media is of a more general interest and we will also show our measurements of the velocity shift and the variance of traveltime compare to various theoretical predictions in a given regime.

  1. End-use quality of soft kernel durum wheat

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Kernel texture is a major determinant of end-use quality of wheat. Durum wheat is known for its very hard texture, which influences how it is milled and for what products it is well suited. We developed soft kernel durum wheat lines via Ph1b-mediated homoeologous recombination with Dr. Leonard Joppa...

  2. Kernelized Elastic Net Regularization: Generalization Bounds, and Sparse Recovery.

    PubMed

    Feng, Yunlong; Lv, Shao-Gao; Hang, Hanyuan; Suykens, Johan A K

    2016-03-01

    Kernelized elastic net regularization (KENReg) is a kernelization of the well-known elastic net regularization (Zou & Hastie, 2005). The kernel in KENReg is not required to be a Mercer kernel since it learns from a kernelized dictionary in the coefficient space. Feng, Yang, Zhao, Lv, and Suykens (2014) showed that KENReg has some nice properties including stability, sparseness, and generalization. In this letter, we continue our study on KENReg by conducting a refined learning theory analysis. This letter makes the following three main contributions. First, we present refined error analysis on the generalization performance of KENReg. The main difficulty of analyzing the generalization error of KENReg lies in characterizing the population version of its empirical target function. We overcome this by introducing a weighted Banach space associated with the elastic net regularization. We are then able to conduct elaborated learning theory analysis and obtain fast convergence rates under proper complexity and regularity assumptions. Second, we study the sparse recovery problem in KENReg with fixed design and show that the kernelization may improve the sparse recovery ability compared to the classical elastic net regularization. Finally, we discuss the interplay among different properties of KENReg that include sparseness, stability, and generalization. We show that the stability of KENReg leads to generalization, and its sparseness confidence can be derived from generalization. Moreover, KENReg is stable and can be simultaneously sparse, which makes it attractive theoretically and practically.

  3. Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Halan, Deepak

    2005-01-01

    Blended learning basically refers to using several methods for teaching. It can be thought to be a learning program where more than one delivery mode is being used with the ultimate goal of optimizing the learning result and cost of program delivery. Examples of blended learning could be the combination of technology-based resources and…

  4. Prioritizing individual genetic variants after kernel machine testing using variable selection.

    PubMed

    He, Qianchuan; Cai, Tianxi; Liu, Yang; Zhao, Ni; Harmon, Quaker E; Almli, Lynn M; Binder, Elisabeth B; Engel, Stephanie M; Ressler, Kerry J; Conneely, Karen N; Lin, Xihong; Wu, Michael C

    2016-12-01

    Kernel machine learning methods, such as the SNP-set kernel association test (SKAT), have been widely used to test associations between traits and genetic polymorphisms. In contrast to traditional single-SNP analysis methods, these methods are designed to examine the joint effect of a set of related SNPs (such as a group of SNPs within a gene or a pathway) and are able to identify sets of SNPs that are associated with the trait of interest. However, as with many multi-SNP testing approaches, kernel machine testing can draw conclusion only at the SNP-set level, and does not directly inform on which one(s) of the identified SNP set is actually driving the associations. A recently proposed procedure, KerNel Iterative Feature Extraction (KNIFE), provides a general framework for incorporating variable selection into kernel machine methods. In this article, we focus on quantitative traits and relatively common SNPs, and adapt the KNIFE procedure to genetic association studies and propose an approach to identify driver SNPs after the application of SKAT to gene set analysis. Our approach accommodates several kernels that are widely used in SNP analysis, such as the linear kernel and the Identity by State (IBS) kernel. The proposed approach provides practically useful utilities to prioritize SNPs, and fills the gap between SNP set analysis and biological functional studies. Both simulation studies and real data application are used to demonstrate the proposed approach. © 2016 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.

  5. Multitasking kernel for the C and Fortran programming languages

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brooks, E.D. III

    1984-09-01

    A multitasking kernel for the C and Fortran programming languages which runs on the Unix operating system is presented. The kernel provides a multitasking environment which serves two purposes. The first is to provide an efficient portable environment for the coding, debugging and execution of production multiprocessor programs. The second is to provide a means of evaluating the performance of a multitasking program on model multiprocessors. The performance evaluation features require no changes in the source code of the application and are implemented as a set of compile and run time options in the kernel.

  6. Deep kernel learning method for SAR image target recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Xiuyuan; Peng, Xiyuan; Duan, Ran; Li, Junbao

    2017-10-01

    With the development of deep learning, research on image target recognition has made great progress in recent years. Remote sensing detection urgently requires target recognition for military, geographic, and other scientific research. This paper aims to solve the synthetic aperture radar image target recognition problem by combining deep and kernel learning. The model, which has a multilayer multiple kernel structure, is optimized layer by layer with the parameters of Support Vector Machine and a gradient descent algorithm. This new deep kernel learning method improves accuracy and achieves competitive recognition results compared with other learning methods.

  7. PERI - Auto-tuning Memory Intensive Kernels for Multicore

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bailey, David H; Williams, Samuel; Datta, Kaushik

    2008-06-24

    We present an auto-tuning approach to optimize application performance on emerging multicore architectures. The methodology extends the idea of search-based performance optimizations, popular in linear algebra and FFT libraries, to application-specific computational kernels. Our work applies this strategy to Sparse Matrix Vector Multiplication (SpMV), the explicit heat equation PDE on a regular grid (Stencil), and a lattice Boltzmann application (LBMHD). We explore one of the broadest sets of multicore architectures in the HPC literature, including the Intel Xeon Clovertown, AMD Opteron Barcelona, Sun Victoria Falls, and the Sony-Toshiba-IBM (STI) Cell. Rather than hand-tuning each kernel for each system, we developmore » a code generator for each kernel that allows us to identify a highly optimized version for each platform, while amortizing the human programming effort. Results show that our auto-tuned kernel applications often achieve a better than 4X improvement compared with the original code. Additionally, we analyze a Roofline performance model for each platform to reveal hardware bottlenecks and software challenges for future multicore systems and applications.« less

  8. Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Imbriale, Ryan

    2013-01-01

    Teachers always have been and always will be the essential element in the classroom. They can create magic inside four walls, but they have never been able to create learning environments outside the classroom like they can today, thanks to blended learning. Blended learning allows students and teachers to break free of the isolation of the…

  9. Apparatus for blending small particles

    DOEpatents

    Bradley, R.A.; Reese, C.R.; Sease, J.D.

    1975-08-26

    An apparatus is described for blending small particles and uniformly loading the blended particles in a receptacle. Measured volumes of various particles are simultaneously fed into a funnel to accomplish radial blending and then directed onto the apex of a conical splitter which collects the blended particles in a multiplicity of equal subvolumes. Thereafter the apparatus sequentially discharges the subvolumes for loading in a receptacle. A system for blending nuclear fuel particles and loading them into fuel rod molds is described in a preferred embodiment. (auth)

  10. An Ensemble Approach to Building Mercer Kernels with Prior Information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Srivastava, Ashok N.; Schumann, Johann; Fischer, Bernd

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for automatic knowledge driven data mining based on the theory of Mercer Kernels, which are highly nonlinear symmetric positive definite mappings from the original image space to a very high, possibly dimensional feature space. we describe a new method called Mixture Density Mercer Kernels to learn kernel function directly from data, rather than using pre-defined kernels. These data adaptive kernels can encode prior knowledge in the kernel using a Bayesian formulation, thus allowing for physical information to be encoded in the model. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of the algorithm in situations with extremely small samples of data. We compare the results with existing algorithms on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and demonstrate the method's superior performance against standard methods. The code for these experiments has been generated with the AUTOBAYES tool, which automatically generates efficient and documented C/C++ code from abstract statistical model specifications. The core of the system is a schema library which contains templates for learning and knowledge discovery algorithms like different versions of EM, or numeric optimization methods like conjugate gradient methods. The template instantiation is supported by symbolic-algebraic computations, which allows AUTOBAYES to find closed-form solutions and, where possible, to integrate them into the code.

  11. A survey of kernel-type estimators for copula and their applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sumarjaya, I. W.

    2017-10-01

    Copulas have been widely used to model nonlinear dependence structure. Main applications of copulas include areas such as finance, insurance, hydrology, rainfall to name but a few. The flexibility of copula allows researchers to model dependence structure beyond Gaussian distribution. Basically, a copula is a function that couples multivariate distribution functions to their one-dimensional marginal distribution functions. In general, there are three methods to estimate copula. These are parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric method. In this article we survey kernel-type estimators for copula such as mirror reflection kernel, beta kernel, transformation method and local likelihood transformation method. Then, we apply these kernel methods to three stock indexes in Asia. The results of our analysis suggest that, albeit variation in information criterion values, the local likelihood transformation method performs better than the other kernel methods.

  12. Pathway-Based Kernel Boosting for the Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies

    PubMed Central

    Manitz, Juliane; Burger, Patricia; Amos, Christopher I.; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Wichmann, Heinz-Erich; Kneib, Thomas; Bickeböller, Heike

    2017-01-01

    The analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) benefits from the investigation of biologically meaningful gene sets, such as gene-interaction networks (pathways). We propose an extension to a successful kernel-based pathway analysis approach by integrating kernel functions into a powerful algorithmic framework for variable selection, to enable investigation of multiple pathways simultaneously. We employ genetic similarity kernels from the logistic kernel machine test (LKMT) as base-learners in a boosting algorithm. A model to explain case-control status is created iteratively by selecting pathways that improve its prediction ability. We evaluated our method in simulation studies adopting 50 pathways for different sample sizes and genetic effect strengths. Additionally, we included an exemplary application of kernel boosting to a rheumatoid arthritis and a lung cancer dataset. Simulations indicate that kernel boosting outperforms the LKMT in certain genetic scenarios. Applications to GWAS data on rheumatoid arthritis and lung cancer resulted in sparse models which were based on pathways interpretable in a clinical sense. Kernel boosting is highly flexible in terms of considered variables and overcomes the problem of multiple testing. Additionally, it enables the prediction of clinical outcomes. Thus, kernel boosting constitutes a new, powerful tool in the analysis of GWAS data and towards the understanding of biological processes involved in disease susceptibility. PMID:28785300

  13. Pathway-Based Kernel Boosting for the Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies.

    PubMed

    Friedrichs, Stefanie; Manitz, Juliane; Burger, Patricia; Amos, Christopher I; Risch, Angela; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Wichmann, Heinz-Erich; Kneib, Thomas; Bickeböller, Heike; Hofner, Benjamin

    2017-01-01

    The analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) benefits from the investigation of biologically meaningful gene sets, such as gene-interaction networks (pathways). We propose an extension to a successful kernel-based pathway analysis approach by integrating kernel functions into a powerful algorithmic framework for variable selection, to enable investigation of multiple pathways simultaneously. We employ genetic similarity kernels from the logistic kernel machine test (LKMT) as base-learners in a boosting algorithm. A model to explain case-control status is created iteratively by selecting pathways that improve its prediction ability. We evaluated our method in simulation studies adopting 50 pathways for different sample sizes and genetic effect strengths. Additionally, we included an exemplary application of kernel boosting to a rheumatoid arthritis and a lung cancer dataset. Simulations indicate that kernel boosting outperforms the LKMT in certain genetic scenarios. Applications to GWAS data on rheumatoid arthritis and lung cancer resulted in sparse models which were based on pathways interpretable in a clinical sense. Kernel boosting is highly flexible in terms of considered variables and overcomes the problem of multiple testing. Additionally, it enables the prediction of clinical outcomes. Thus, kernel boosting constitutes a new, powerful tool in the analysis of GWAS data and towards the understanding of biological processes involved in disease susceptibility.

  14. Oil point and mechanical behaviour of oil palm kernels in linear compression

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kabutey, Abraham; Herak, David; Choteborsky, Rostislav; Mizera, Čestmír; Sigalingging, Riswanti; Akangbe, Olaosebikan Layi

    2017-07-01

    The study described the oil point and mechanical properties of roasted and unroasted bulk oil palm kernels under compression loading. The literature information available is very limited. A universal compression testing machine and vessel diameter of 60 mm with a plunger were used by applying maximum force of 100 kN and speed ranging from 5 to 25 mm min-1. The initial pressing height of the bulk kernels was measured at 40 mm. The oil point was determined by a litmus test for each deformation level of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 mm at a minimum speed of 5 mmmin-1. The measured parameters were the deformation, deformation energy, oil yield, oil point strain and oil point pressure. Clearly, the roasted bulk kernels required less deformation energy compared to the unroasted kernels for recovering the kernel oil. However, both kernels were not permanently deformed. The average oil point strain was determined at 0.57. The study is an essential contribution to pursuing innovative methods for processing palm kernel oil in rural areas of developing countries.

  15. Pressure Sensitivity Kernels Applied to Time-reversal Acoustics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-06-29

    experimental data, along with an internal wave model, using various metrics. The linear limitations of the kernels are explored in the context of time...Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 3.A Internal wave modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Bibliography...multipaths corresponding to direct path, single surface/bottom bounce, double bounce off the surface and bot- tom, Bottom: Time-domain sensitivity kernel for

  16. Optimal Bandwidth Selection in Observed-Score Kernel Equating

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Häggström, Jenny; Wiberg, Marie

    2014-01-01

    The selection of bandwidth in kernel equating is important because it has a direct impact on the equated test scores. The aim of this article is to examine the use of double smoothing when selecting bandwidths in kernel equating and to compare double smoothing with the commonly used penalty method. This comparison was made using both an equivalent…

  17. Unconventional Signal Processing Using the Cone Kernel Time-Frequency Representation.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-10-30

    Wigner - Ville distribution ( WVD ), the Choi- Williams distribution , and the cone kernel distribution were compared with the spectrograms. Results were...ambiguity function. Figures A-18(c) and (d) are the Wigner - Ville Distribution ( WVD ) and CK-TFR Doppler maps. In this noiseless case all three exhibit...kernel is the basis for the well known Wigner - Ville distribution . In A-9(2), the cone kernel defined by Zhao, Atlas and Marks [21 is described

  18. Kernel structures for Clouds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Spafford, Eugene H.; Mckendry, Martin S.

    1986-01-01

    An overview of the internal structure of the Clouds kernel was presented. An indication of how these structures will interact in the prototype Clouds implementation is given. Many specific details have yet to be determined and await experimentation with an actual working system.

  19. TICK: Transparent Incremental Checkpointing at Kernel Level

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Petrini, Fabrizio; Gioiosa, Roberto

    2004-10-25

    TICK is a software package implemented in Linux 2.6 that allows the save and restore of user processes, without any change to the user code or binary. With TICK a process can be suspended by the Linux kernel upon receiving an interrupt and saved in a file. This file can be later thawed in another computer running Linux (potentially the same computer). TICK is implemented as a Linux kernel module, in the Linux version 2.6.5

  20. Phenolic constituents of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) kernels.

    PubMed

    Maranz, Steven; Wiesman, Zeev; Garti, Nissim

    2003-10-08

    Analysis of the phenolic constituents of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) kernels by LC-MS revealed eight catechin compounds-gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, gallocatechin, epigallocatechin, gallocatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin gallate-as well as quercetin and trans-cinnamic acid. The mean kernel content of the eight catechin compounds was 4000 ppm (0.4% of kernel dry weight), with a 2100-9500 ppm range. Comparison of the profiles of the six major catechins from 40 Vitellaria provenances from 10 African countries showed that the relative proportions of these compounds varied from region to region. Gallic acid was the major phenolic compound, comprising an average of 27% of the measured total phenols and exceeding 70% in some populations. Colorimetric analysis (101 samples) of total polyphenols extracted from shea butter into hexane gave an average of 97 ppm, with the values for different provenances varying between 62 and 135 ppm of total polyphenols.

  1. Occurrence of 'super soft' wheat kernel texture in hexaploid and tetraploid wheats

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Wheat kernel texture is a key trait that governs milling performance, flour starch damage, flour particle size, flour hydration properties, and baking quality. Kernel texture is commonly measured using the Perten Single Kernel Characterization System (SKCS). The SKCS returns texture values (Hardness...

  2. Finite-frequency sensitivity kernels for head waves

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Zhigang; Shen, Yang; Zhao, Li

    2007-11-01

    Head waves are extremely important in determining the structure of the predominantly layered Earth. While several recent studies have shown the diffractive nature and the 3-D Fréchet kernels of finite-frequency turning waves, analogues of head waves in a continuous velocity structure, the finite-frequency effects and sensitivity kernels of head waves are yet to be carefully examined. We present the results of a numerical study focusing on the finite-frequency effects of head waves. Our model has a low-velocity layer over a high-velocity half-space and a cylindrical-shaped velocity perturbation placed beneath the interface at different locations. A 3-D finite-difference method is used to calculate synthetic waveforms. Traveltime and amplitude anomalies are measured by the cross-correlation of synthetic seismograms from models with and without the velocity perturbation and are compared to the 3-D sensitivity kernels constructed from full waveform simulations. The results show that the head wave arrival-time and amplitude are influenced by the velocity structure surrounding the ray path in a pattern that is consistent with the Fresnel zones. Unlike the `banana-doughnut' traveltime sensitivity kernels of turning waves, the traveltime sensitivity of the head wave along the ray path below the interface is weak, but non-zero. Below the ray path, the traveltime sensitivity reaches the maximum (absolute value) at a depth that depends on the wavelength and propagation distance. The sensitivity kernels vary with the vertical velocity gradient in the lower layer, but the variation is relatively small at short propagation distances when the vertical velocity gradient is within the range of the commonly accepted values. Finally, the depression or shoaling of the interface results in increased or decreased sensitivities, respectively, beneath the interface topography.

  3. DNA sequence+shape kernel enables alignment-free modeling of transcription factor binding.

    PubMed

    Ma, Wenxiu; Yang, Lin; Rohs, Remo; Noble, William Stafford

    2017-10-01

    Transcription factors (TFs) bind to specific DNA sequence motifs. Several lines of evidence suggest that TF-DNA binding is mediated in part by properties of the local DNA shape: the width of the minor groove, the relative orientations of adjacent base pairs, etc. Several methods have been developed to jointly account for DNA sequence and shape properties in predicting TF binding affinity. However, a limitation of these methods is that they typically require a training set of aligned TF binding sites. We describe a sequence + shape kernel that leverages DNA sequence and shape information to better understand protein-DNA binding preference and affinity. This kernel extends an existing class of k-mer based sequence kernels, based on the recently described di-mismatch kernel. Using three in vitro benchmark datasets, derived from universal protein binding microarrays (uPBMs), genomic context PBMs (gcPBMs) and SELEX-seq data, we demonstrate that incorporating DNA shape information improves our ability to predict protein-DNA binding affinity. In particular, we observe that (i) the k-spectrum + shape model performs better than the classical k-spectrum kernel, particularly for small k values; (ii) the di-mismatch kernel performs better than the k-mer kernel, for larger k; and (iii) the di-mismatch + shape kernel performs better than the di-mismatch kernel for intermediate k values. The software is available at https://bitbucket.org/wenxiu/sequence-shape.git. rohs@usc.edu or william-noble@uw.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

  4. Multiple Kernel Sparse Representation based Orthogonal Discriminative Projection and Its Cost-Sensitive Extension.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Guoqing; Sun, Huaijiang; Xia, Guiyu; Sun, Quansen

    2016-07-07

    Sparse representation based classification (SRC) has been developed and shown great potential for real-world application. Based on SRC, Yang et al. [10] devised a SRC steered discriminative projection (SRC-DP) method. However, as a linear algorithm, SRC-DP cannot handle the data with highly nonlinear distribution. Kernel sparse representation-based classifier (KSRC) is a non-linear extension of SRC and can remedy the drawback of SRC. KSRC requires the use of a predetermined kernel function and selection of the kernel function and its parameters is difficult. Recently, multiple kernel learning for SRC (MKL-SRC) [22] has been proposed to learn a kernel from a set of base kernels. However, MKL-SRC only considers the within-class reconstruction residual while ignoring the between-class relationship, when learning the kernel weights. In this paper, we propose a novel multiple kernel sparse representation-based classifier (MKSRC), and then we use it as a criterion to design a multiple kernel sparse representation based orthogonal discriminative projection method (MK-SR-ODP). The proposed algorithm aims at learning a projection matrix and a corresponding kernel from the given base kernels such that in the low dimension subspace the between-class reconstruction residual is maximized and the within-class reconstruction residual is minimized. Furthermore, to achieve a minimum overall loss by performing recognition in the learned low-dimensional subspace, we introduce cost information into the dimensionality reduction method. The solutions for the proposed method can be efficiently found based on trace ratio optimization method [33]. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm when compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

  5. Mixed kernel function support vector regression for global sensitivity analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Kai; Lu, Zhenzhou; Wei, Yuhao; Shi, Yan; Zhou, Yicheng

    2017-11-01

    Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) plays an important role in exploring the respective effects of input variables on an assigned output response. Amongst the wide sensitivity analyses in literature, the Sobol indices have attracted much attention since they can provide accurate information for most models. In this paper, a mixed kernel function (MKF) based support vector regression (SVR) model is employed to evaluate the Sobol indices at low computational cost. By the proposed derivation, the estimation of the Sobol indices can be obtained by post-processing the coefficients of the SVR meta-model. The MKF is constituted by the orthogonal polynomials kernel function and Gaussian radial basis kernel function, thus the MKF possesses both the global characteristic advantage of the polynomials kernel function and the local characteristic advantage of the Gaussian radial basis kernel function. The proposed approach is suitable for high-dimensional and non-linear problems. Performance of the proposed approach is validated by various analytical functions and compared with the popular polynomial chaos expansion (PCE). Results demonstrate that the proposed approach is an efficient method for global sensitivity analysis.

  6. Semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis for face recognition.

    PubMed

    Wang, Ziqiang; Sun, Xia; Sun, Lijun; Huang, Yuchun

    2013-01-01

    Dimensionality reduction is a key problem in face recognition due to the high-dimensionality of face image. To effectively cope with this problem, a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm called semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis (SKMFA) for face recognition is proposed in this paper. SKMFA can make use of both labelled and unlabeled samples to learn the projection matrix for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Meanwhile, it can successfully avoid the singularity problem by not calculating the matrix inverse. In addition, in order to make the nonlinear structure captured by the data-dependent kernel consistent with the intrinsic manifold structure, a manifold adaptive nonparameter kernel is incorporated into the learning process of SKMFA. Experimental results on three face image databases demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

  7. Searching remote homology with spectral clustering with symmetry in neighborhood cluster kernels.

    PubMed

    Maulik, Ujjwal; Sarkar, Anasua

    2013-01-01

    Remote homology detection among proteins utilizing only the unlabelled sequences is a central problem in comparative genomics. The existing cluster kernel methods based on neighborhoods and profiles and the Markov clustering algorithms are currently the most popular methods for protein family recognition. The deviation from random walks with inflation or dependency on hard threshold in similarity measure in those methods requires an enhancement for homology detection among multi-domain proteins. We propose to combine spectral clustering with neighborhood kernels in Markov similarity for enhancing sensitivity in detecting homology independent of "recent" paralogs. The spectral clustering approach with new combined local alignment kernels more effectively exploits the unsupervised protein sequences globally reducing inter-cluster walks. When combined with the corrections based on modified symmetry based proximity norm deemphasizing outliers, the technique proposed in this article outperforms other state-of-the-art cluster kernels among all twelve implemented kernels. The comparison with the state-of-the-art string and mismatch kernels also show the superior performance scores provided by the proposed kernels. Similar performance improvement also is found over an existing large dataset. Therefore the proposed spectral clustering framework over combined local alignment kernels with modified symmetry based correction achieves superior performance for unsupervised remote homolog detection even in multi-domain and promiscuous domain proteins from Genolevures database families with better biological relevance. Source code available upon request. sarkar@labri.fr.

  8. A dry-inoculation method for nut kernels.

    PubMed

    Blessington, Tyann; Theofel, Christopher G; Harris, Linda J

    2013-04-01

    A dry-inoculation method for almonds and walnuts was developed to eliminate the need for the postinoculation drying required for wet-inoculation methods. The survival of Salmonella enterica Enteritidis PT 30 on wet- and dry-inoculated almond and walnut kernels stored under ambient conditions (average: 23 °C; 41 or 47% RH) was then compared over 14 weeks. For wet inoculation, an aqueous Salmonella preparation was added directly to almond or walnut kernels, which were then dried under ambient conditions (3 or 7 days, respectively) to initial nut moisture levels. For the dry inoculation, liquid inoculum was mixed with sterilized sand and dried for 24 h at 40 °C. The dried inoculated sand was mixed with kernels, and the sand was removed by shaking the mixture in a sterile sieve. Mixing procedures to optimize the bacterial transfer from sand to kernel were evaluated; in general, similar levels were achieved on walnuts (4.8-5.2 log CFU/g) and almonds (4.2-5.1 log CFU/g). The decline of Salmonella Enteritidis populations was similar during ambient storage (98 days) for both wet-and dry-inoculation methods for both almonds and walnuts. The dry-inoculation method mimics some of the suspected routes of contamination for tree nuts and may be appropriate for some postharvest challenge studies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Differential evolution algorithm-based kernel parameter selection for Fukunaga-Koontz Transform subspaces construction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Binol, Hamidullah; Bal, Abdullah; Cukur, Huseyin

    2015-10-01

    The performance of the kernel based techniques depends on the selection of kernel parameters. That's why; suitable parameter selection is an important problem for many kernel based techniques. This article presents a novel technique to learn the kernel parameters in kernel Fukunaga-Koontz Transform based (KFKT) classifier. The proposed approach determines the appropriate values of kernel parameters through optimizing an objective function constructed based on discrimination ability of KFKT. For this purpose we have utilized differential evolution algorithm (DEA). The new technique overcomes some disadvantages such as high time consumption existing in the traditional cross-validation method, and it can be utilized in any type of data. The experiments for target detection applications on the hyperspectral images verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  10. Design of a multiple kernel learning algorithm for LS-SVM by convex programming.

    PubMed

    Jian, Ling; Xia, Zhonghang; Liang, Xijun; Gao, Chuanhou

    2011-06-01

    As a kernel based method, the performance of least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) depends on the selection of the kernel as well as the regularization parameter (Duan, Keerthi, & Poo, 2003). Cross-validation is efficient in selecting a single kernel and the regularization parameter; however, it suffers from heavy computational cost and is not flexible to deal with multiple kernels. In this paper, we address the issue of multiple kernel learning for LS-SVM by formulating it as semidefinite programming (SDP). Furthermore, we show that the regularization parameter can be optimized in a unified framework with the kernel, which leads to an automatic process for model selection. Extensive experimental validations are performed and analyzed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Chemical components of cold pressed kernel oils from different Torreya grandis cultivars.

    PubMed

    He, Zhiyong; Zhu, Haidong; Li, Wangling; Zeng, Maomao; Wu, Shengfang; Chen, Shangwei; Qin, Fang; Chen, Jie

    2016-10-15

    The chemical compositions of cold pressed kernel oils of seven Torreya grandis cultivars from China were analyzed in this study. The contents of the chemical components of T. grandis kernels and kernel oils varied to different extents with the cultivar. The T. grandis kernels contained relatively high oil and protein content (45.80-53.16% and 10.34-14.29%, respectively). The kernel oils were rich in unsaturated fatty acids including linoleic (39.39-47.77%), oleic (30.47-37.54%) and eicosatrienoic acid (6.78-8.37%). The kernel oils contained some abundant bioactive substances such as tocopherols (0.64-1.77mg/g) consisting of α-, β-, γ- and δ-isomers; sterols including β-sitosterol (0.90-1.29mg/g), campesterol (0.06-0.32mg/g) and stigmasterol (0.04-0.18mg/g) in addition to polyphenols (9.22-22.16μgGAE/g). The results revealed that the T. grandis kernel oils possessed the potentially important nutrition and health benefits and could be used as oils in the human diet or functional ingredients in the food industry. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Quasi-kernel polynomials and convergence results for quasi-minimal residual iterations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Freund, Roland W.

    1992-01-01

    Recently, Freund and Nachtigal have proposed a novel polynominal-based iteration, the quasi-minimal residual algorithm (QMR), for solving general nonsingular non-Hermitian linear systems. Motivated by the QMR method, we have introduced the general concept of quasi-kernel polynomials, and we have shown that the QMR algorithm is based on a particular instance of quasi-kernel polynomials. In this paper, we continue our study of quasi-kernel polynomials. In particular, we derive bounds for the norms of quasi-kernel polynomials. These results are then applied to obtain convergence theorems both for the QMR method and for a transpose-free variant of QMR, the TFQMR algorithm.

  13. Mapping QTLs controlling kernel dimensions in a wheat inter-varietal RIL mapping population.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Ruiru; Kong, Zhongxin; Zhang, Liwei; Xie, Quan; Jia, Haiyan; Yu, Dong; Huang, Yulong; Ma, Zhengqiang

    2017-07-01

    Seven kernel dimension QTLs were identified in wheat, and kernel thickness was found to be the most important dimension for grain weight improvement. Kernel morphology and weight of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) affect both yield and quality; however, the genetic basis of these traits and their interactions has not been fully understood. In this study, to investigate the genetic factors affecting kernel morphology and the association of kernel morphology traits with kernel weight, kernel length (KL), width (KW) and thickness (KT) were evaluated, together with hundred-grain weight (HGW), in a recombinant inbred line population derived from Nanda2419 × Wangshuibai, with data from five trials (two different locations over 3 years). The results showed that HGW was more closely correlated with KT and KW than with KL. A whole genome scan revealed four QTLs for KL, one for KW and two for KT, distributed on five different chromosomes. Of them, QKl.nau-2D for KL, and QKt.nau-4B and QKt.nau-5A for KT were newly identified major QTLs for the respective traits, explaining up to 32.6 and 41.5% of the phenotypic variations, respectively. Increase of KW and KT and reduction of KL/KT and KW/KT ratios always resulted in significant higher grain weight. Lines combining the Nanda 2419 alleles of the 4B and 5A intervals had wider, thicker, rounder kernels and a 14% higher grain weight in the genotype-based analysis. A strong, negative linear relationship of the KW/KT ratio with grain weight was observed. It thus appears that kernel thickness is the most important kernel dimension factor in wheat improvement for higher yield. Mapping and marker identification of the kernel dimension-related QTLs definitely help realize the breeding goals.

  14. Weighted Feature Gaussian Kernel SVM for Emotion Recognition

    PubMed Central

    Jia, Qingxuan

    2016-01-01

    Emotion recognition with weighted feature based on facial expression is a challenging research topic and has attracted great attention in the past few years. This paper presents a novel method, utilizing subregion recognition rate to weight kernel function. First, we divide the facial expression image into some uniform subregions and calculate corresponding recognition rate and weight. Then, we get a weighted feature Gaussian kernel function and construct a classifier based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). At last, the experimental results suggest that the approach based on weighted feature Gaussian kernel function has good performance on the correct rate in emotion recognition. The experiments on the extended Cohn-Kanade (CK+) dataset show that our method has achieved encouraging recognition results compared to the state-of-the-art methods. PMID:27807443

  15. Searching Remote Homology with Spectral Clustering with Symmetry in Neighborhood Cluster Kernels

    PubMed Central

    Maulik, Ujjwal; Sarkar, Anasua

    2013-01-01

    Remote homology detection among proteins utilizing only the unlabelled sequences is a central problem in comparative genomics. The existing cluster kernel methods based on neighborhoods and profiles and the Markov clustering algorithms are currently the most popular methods for protein family recognition. The deviation from random walks with inflation or dependency on hard threshold in similarity measure in those methods requires an enhancement for homology detection among multi-domain proteins. We propose to combine spectral clustering with neighborhood kernels in Markov similarity for enhancing sensitivity in detecting homology independent of “recent” paralogs. The spectral clustering approach with new combined local alignment kernels more effectively exploits the unsupervised protein sequences globally reducing inter-cluster walks. When combined with the corrections based on modified symmetry based proximity norm deemphasizing outliers, the technique proposed in this article outperforms other state-of-the-art cluster kernels among all twelve implemented kernels. The comparison with the state-of-the-art string and mismatch kernels also show the superior performance scores provided by the proposed kernels. Similar performance improvement also is found over an existing large dataset. Therefore the proposed spectral clustering framework over combined local alignment kernels with modified symmetry based correction achieves superior performance for unsupervised remote homolog detection even in multi-domain and promiscuous domain proteins from Genolevures database families with better biological relevance. Source code available upon request. Contact: sarkar@labri.fr. PMID:23457439

  16. Celluclast 1.5L pretreatment enhanced aroma of palm kernels and oil after kernel roasting.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Wencan; Zhao, Fangju; Yang, Tiankui; Zhao, Feifei; Liu, Shaoquan

    2017-12-01

    The aroma of palm kernel oil (PKO) affects its applications. Little information is available on how enzymatic modification of palm kernels (PK) affects PK and PKO aroma after kernel roasting. Celluclast (cellulase) pretreatment of PK resulted in a 2.4-fold increment in the concentration of soluble sugars, with glucose being increased by 6.0-fold. Higher levels of 1.7-, 1.8- and 1.9-fold of O-heterocyclic volatile compounds were found in the treated PK after roasting at 180 °C for 8, 14 and 20 min respectively relative to the corresponding control, with furfural, 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde, 2-furanmethanol and maltol in particularly higher amounts. Volatile differences between PKOs from control and treated PK were also found, though less obvious owing to the aqueous extraction process. Principal component analysis based on aroma-active compounds revealed that upon the proceeding of roasting, the differentiation between control and treated PK was enlarged while that of corresponding PKOs was less clear-cut. Celluclast pretreatment enabled the medium roasted PK to impart more nutty, roasty and caramelic odor and the corresponding PKO to impart more caramelic but less roasty and burnt notes. Celluclast pretreatment of PK followed by roasting may be a promising new way of improving PKO aroma. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

  17. Multiple kernel learning in protein-protein interaction extraction from biomedical literature.

    PubMed

    Yang, Zhihao; Tang, Nan; Zhang, Xiao; Lin, Hongfei; Li, Yanpeng; Yang, Zhiwei

    2011-03-01

    Knowledge about protein-protein interactions (PPIs) unveils the molecular mechanisms of biological processes. The volume and content of published biomedical literature on protein interactions is expanding rapidly, making it increasingly difficult for interaction database administrators, responsible for content input and maintenance to detect and manually update protein interaction information. The objective of this work is to develop an effective approach to automatic extraction of PPI information from biomedical literature. We present a weighted multiple kernel learning-based approach for automatic PPI extraction from biomedical literature. The approach combines the following kernels: feature-based, tree, graph and part-of-speech (POS) path. In particular, we extend the shortest path-enclosed tree (SPT) and dependency path tree to capture richer contextual information. Our experimental results show that the combination of SPT and dependency path tree extensions contributes to the improvement of performance by almost 0.7 percentage units in F-score and 2 percentage units in area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC). Combining two or more appropriately weighed individual will further improve the performance. Both on the individual corpus and cross-corpus evaluation our combined kernel can achieve state-of-the-art performance with respect to comparable evaluations, with 64.41% F-score and 88.46% AUC on the AImed corpus. As different kernels calculate the similarity between two sentences from different aspects. Our combined kernel can reduce the risk of missing important features. More specifically, we use a weighted linear combination of individual kernels instead of assigning the same weight to each individual kernel, thus allowing the introduction of each kernel to incrementally contribute to the performance improvement. In addition, SPT and dependency path tree extensions can improve the performance by including richer context information

  18. Relationship between processing score and kernel-fraction particle size in whole-plant corn silage.

    PubMed

    Dias Junior, G S; Ferraretto, L F; Salvati, G G S; de Resende, L C; Hoffman, P C; Pereira, M N; Shaver, R D

    2016-04-01

    Kernel processing increases starch digestibility in whole-plant corn silage (WPCS). Corn silage processing score (CSPS), the percentage of starch passing through a 4.75-mm sieve, is widely used to assess degree of kernel breakage in WPCS. However, the geometric mean particle size (GMPS) of the kernel-fraction that passes through the 4.75-mm sieve has not been well described. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate particle size distribution and digestibility of kernels cut in varied particle sizes; (2) to propose a method to measure GMPS in WPCS kernels; and (3) to evaluate the relationship between CSPS and GMPS of the kernel fraction in WPCS. Composite samples of unfermented, dried kernels from 110 corn hybrids commonly used for silage production were kept whole (WH) or manually cut in 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 pieces (2P, 4P, 8P, 16P, 32P, and 64P, respectively). Dry sieving to determine GMPS, surface area, and particle size distribution using 9 sieves with nominal square apertures of 9.50, 6.70, 4.75, 3.35, 2.36, 1.70, 1.18, and 0.59 mm and pan, as well as ruminal in situ dry matter (DM) digestibilities were performed for each kernel particle number treatment. Incubation times were 0, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. The ruminal in situ DM disappearance of unfermented kernels increased with the reduction in particle size of corn kernels. Kernels kept whole had the lowest ruminal DM disappearance for all time points with maximum DM disappearance of 6.9% at 24 h and the greatest disappearance was observed for 64P, followed by 32P and 16P. Samples of WPCS (n=80) from 3 studies representing varied theoretical length of cut settings and processor types and settings were also evaluated. Each WPCS sample was divided in 2 and then dried at 60 °C for 48 h. The CSPS was determined in duplicate on 1 of the split samples, whereas on the other split sample the kernel and stover fractions were separated using a hydrodynamic separation procedure. After separation, the

  19. Boundary conditions for gas flow problems from anisotropic scattering kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    To, Quy-Dong; Vu, Van-Huyen; Lauriat, Guy; Léonard, Céline

    2015-10-01

    The paper presents an interface model for gas flowing through a channel constituted of anisotropic wall surfaces. Using anisotropic scattering kernels and Chapman Enskog phase density, the boundary conditions (BCs) for velocity, temperature, and discontinuities including velocity slip and temperature jump at the wall are obtained. Two scattering kernels, Dadzie and Méolans (DM) kernel, and generalized anisotropic Cercignani-Lampis (ACL) are examined in the present paper, yielding simple BCs at the wall fluid interface. With these two kernels, we rigorously recover the analytical expression for orientation dependent slip shown in our previous works [Pham et al., Phys. Rev. E 86, 051201 (2012) and To et al., J. Heat Transfer 137, 091002 (2015)] which is in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulation results. More important, our models include both thermal transpiration effect and new equations for the temperature jump. While the same expression depending on the two tangential accommodation coefficients is obtained for slip velocity, the DM and ACL temperature equations are significantly different. The derived BC equations associated with these two kernels are of interest for the gas simulations since they are able to capture the direction dependent slip behavior of anisotropic interfaces.

  20. Structured Kernel Dictionary Learning with Correlation Constraint for Object Recognition.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhengjue; Wang, Yinghua; Liu, Hongwei; Zhang, Hao

    2017-06-21

    In this paper, we propose a new discriminative non-linear dictionary learning approach, called correlation constrained structured kernel KSVD, for object recognition. The objective function for dictionary learning contains a reconstructive term and a discriminative term. In the reconstructive term, signals are implicitly non-linearly mapped into a space, where a structured kernel dictionary, each sub-dictionary of which lies in the span of the mapped signals from the corresponding class, is established. In the discriminative term, by analyzing the classification mechanism, the correlation constraint is proposed in kernel form, constraining the correlations between different discriminative codes, and restricting the coefficient vectors to be transformed into a feature space, where the features are highly correlated inner-class and nearly independent between-classes. The objective function is optimized by the proposed structured kernel KSVD. During the classification stage, the specific form of the discriminative feature is needless to be known, while the inner product of the discriminative feature with kernel matrix embedded is available, and is suitable for a linear SVM classifier. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms many state-of-the-art dictionary learning approaches for face, scene and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) vehicle target recognition.

  1. Ambered kernels in stenospermocarpic fruit of eastern black walnut

    Treesearch

    Michele R. Warmund; J.W. Van Sambeek

    2014-01-01

    "Ambers" is a term used to describe poorly filled, shriveled eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) kernels with a dark brown or black-colored pellicle that are unmarketable. Studies were conducted to determine the incidence of ambered black walnut kernels and to ascertain when symptoms were apparent in specific tissues. The occurrence of...

  2. Parasitic wasp females are attracted to blends of host-induced plant volatiles: do qualitative and quantitative differences in the blend matter?

    PubMed Central

    Uefune, Masayoshi; Kugimiya, Soichi; Ozawa, Rika; Takabayashi, Junji

    2013-01-01

    Naïve Cotesia vestalis wasps, parasitoids of diamondback moth (DBM) larvae, are attracted to a synthetic blend (Blend A) of host-induced plant volatiles composed of sabinene, n-heptanal, α-pinene, and ( Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, in a ratio of 1.8:1.3:2.0:3.0. We studied whether qualitative (adding ( R)-limonene: Blend B) or quantitative changes (changing ratios: Blend C) to Blend A affected the olfactory response of C. vestalis in the background of intact komatsuna plant volatiles. Naïve wasps showed equal preference to Blends A and B and Blends A and C in two-choice tests. Wasps with oviposition experience in the presence of Blend B preferred Blend B over Blend A, while wasps that had oviposited without a volatile blend showed no preference between the two. Likewise, wasps that had starvation experience in the presence of Blend B preferred Blend A over Blend B, while wasps that had starved without a volatile blend showed no preference between the two. Wasps that had oviposition experience either with or without Blend A showed equal preferences between Blends C and A. However, wasps that had starvation experience in the presence of Blend A preferred Blend C over Blend A, while those that starved without a volatile blend showed equal preferences between the two. By manipulating quality and quantity of the synthetic attractants, we showed to what extent C. vestalis could discriminate/learn slight differences between blends that were all, in principle, attractive. PMID:24358892

  3. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of bitter and sweet apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) kernels.

    PubMed

    Yiğit, D; Yiğit, N; Mavi, A

    2009-04-01

    The present study describes the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of methanol and water extracts of sweet and bitter apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) kernels. The antioxidant properties of apricot kernels were evaluated by determining radical scavenging power, lipid peroxidation inhibition activity and total phenol content measured with a DPPH test, the thiocyanate method and the Folin method, respectively. In contrast to extracts of the bitter kernels, both the water and methanol extracts of sweet kernels have antioxidant potential. The highest percent inhibition of lipid peroxidation (69%) and total phenolic content (7.9 +/- 0.2 microg/mL) were detected in the methanol extract of sweet kernels (Hasanbey) and in the water extract of the same cultivar, respectively. The antimicrobial activities of the above extracts were also tested against human pathogenic microorganisms using a disc-diffusion method, and the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of each active extract were determined. The most effective antibacterial activity was observed in the methanol and water extracts of bitter kernels and in the methanol extract of sweet kernels against the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, the methanol extracts of the bitter kernels were very potent against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (0.312 mg/mL MIC value). Significant anti-candida activity was also observed with the methanol extract of bitter apricot kernels against Candida albicans, consisting of a 14 mm in diameter of inhibition zone and a 0.625 mg/mL MIC value.

  4. Acute cyanide toxicity caused by apricot kernel ingestion.

    PubMed

    Suchard, J R; Wallace, K L; Gerkin, R D

    1998-12-01

    A 41-year-old woman ingested apricot kernels purchased at a health food store and became weak and dyspneic within 20 minutes. The patient was comatose and hypothermic on presentation but responded promptly to antidotal therapy for cyanide poisoning. She was later treated with a continuous thiosulfate infusion for persistent metabolic acidosis. This is the first reported case of cyanide toxicity from apricot kernel ingestion in the United States since 1979.

  5. Nutrition quality of extraction mannan residue from palm kernel cake on brolier chicken

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tafsin, M.; Hanafi, N. D.; Kejora, E.; Yusraini, E.

    2018-02-01

    This study aims to find out the nutrient residue of palm kernel cake from mannan extraction on broiler chicken by evaluating physical quality (specific gravity, bulk density and compacted bulk density), chemical quality (proximate analysis and Van Soest Test) and biological test (metabolizable energy). Treatment composed of T0 : palm kernel cake extracted aquadest (control), T1 : palm kernel cake extracted acetic acid (CH3COOH) 1%, T2 : palm kernel cake extracted aquadest + mannanase enzyme 100 u/l and T3 : palm kernel cake extracted acetic acid (CH3COOH) 1% + enzyme mannanase 100 u/l. The results showed that mannan extraction had significant effect (P<0.05) in improving the quality of physical and numerically increase the value of crude protein and decrease the value of NDF (Neutral Detergent Fiber). Treatments had highly significant influence (P<0.01) on the metabolizable energy value of palm kernel cake residue in broiler chickens. It can be concluded that extraction with aquadest + enzyme mannanase 100 u/l yields the best nutrient quality of palm kernel cake residue for broiler chicken.

  6. The site, size, spatial stability, and energetics of an X-ray flare kernel

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Petrasso, R.; Gerassimenko, M.; Nolte, J.

    1979-01-01

    The site, size evolution, and energetics of an X-ray kernel that dominated a solar flare during its rise and somewhat during its peak are investigated. The position of the kernel remained stationary to within about 3 arc sec over the 30-min interval of observations, despite pulsations in the kernel X-ray brightness in excess of a factor of 10. This suggests a tightly bound, deeply rooted magnetic structure, more plausibly associated with the near chromosphere or low corona rather than with the high corona. The H-alpha flare onset coincided with the appearance of the kernel, again suggesting a close spatial and temporal coupling between the chromospheric H-alpha event and the X-ray kernel. At the first kernel brightness peak its size was no larger than about 2 arc sec, when it accounted for about 40% of the total flare flux. In the second rise phase of the kernel, a source power input of order 2 times 10 to the 24th ergs/sec is minimally required.

  7. Reduction of Aflatoxins in Apricot Kernels by Electronic and Manual Color Sorting.

    PubMed

    Zivoli, Rosanna; Gambacorta, Lucia; Piemontese, Luca; Solfrizzo, Michele

    2016-01-19

    The efficacy of color sorting on reducing aflatoxin levels in shelled apricot kernels was assessed. Naturally-contaminated kernels were submitted to an electronic optical sorter or blanched, peeled, and manually sorted to visually identify and sort discolored kernels (dark and spotted) from healthy ones. The samples obtained from the two sorting approaches were ground, homogenized, and analysed by HPLC-FLD for their aflatoxin content. A mass balance approach was used to measure the distribution of aflatoxins in the collected fractions. Aflatoxin B₁ and B₂ were identified and quantitated in all collected fractions at levels ranging from 1.7 to 22,451.5 µg/kg of AFB₁ + AFB₂, whereas AFG₁ and AFG₂ were not detected. Excellent results were obtained by manual sorting of peeled kernels since the removal of discolored kernels (2.6%-19.9% of total peeled kernels) removed 97.3%-99.5% of total aflatoxins. The combination of peeling and visual/manual separation of discolored kernels is a feasible strategy to remove 97%-99% of aflatoxins accumulated in naturally-contaminated samples. Electronic optical sorter gave highly variable results since the amount of AFB₁ + AFB₂ measured in rejected fractions (15%-18% of total kernels) ranged from 13% to 59% of total aflatoxins. An improved immunoaffinity-based HPLC-FLD method having low limits of detection for the four aflatoxins (0.01-0.05 µg/kg) was developed and used to monitor the occurrence of aflatoxins in 47 commercial products containing apricot kernels and/or almonds commercialized in Italy. Low aflatoxin levels were found in 38% of the tested samples and ranged from 0.06 to 1.50 μg/kg for AFB₁ and from 0.06 to 1.79 μg/kg for total aflatoxins.

  8. Reduction of Aflatoxins in Apricot Kernels by Electronic and Manual Color Sorting

    PubMed Central

    Zivoli, Rosanna; Gambacorta, Lucia; Piemontese, Luca; Solfrizzo, Michele

    2016-01-01

    The efficacy of color sorting on reducing aflatoxin levels in shelled apricot kernels was assessed. Naturally-contaminated kernels were submitted to an electronic optical sorter or blanched, peeled, and manually sorted to visually identify and sort discolored kernels (dark and spotted) from healthy ones. The samples obtained from the two sorting approaches were ground, homogenized, and analysed by HPLC-FLD for their aflatoxin content. A mass balance approach was used to measure the distribution of aflatoxins in the collected fractions. Aflatoxin B1 and B2 were identified and quantitated in all collected fractions at levels ranging from 1.7 to 22,451.5 µg/kg of AFB1 + AFB2, whereas AFG1 and AFG2 were not detected. Excellent results were obtained by manual sorting of peeled kernels since the removal of discolored kernels (2.6%–19.9% of total peeled kernels) removed 97.3%–99.5% of total aflatoxins. The combination of peeling and visual/manual separation of discolored kernels is a feasible strategy to remove 97%–99% of aflatoxins accumulated in naturally-contaminated samples. Electronic optical sorter gave highly variable results since the amount of AFB1 + AFB2 measured in rejected fractions (15%–18% of total kernels) ranged from 13% to 59% of total aflatoxins. An improved immunoaffinity-based HPLC-FLD method having low limits of detection for the four aflatoxins (0.01–0.05 µg/kg) was developed and used to monitor the occurrence of aflatoxins in 47 commercial products containing apricot kernels and/or almonds commercialized in Italy. Low aflatoxin levels were found in 38% of the tested samples and ranged from 0.06 to 1.50 μg/kg for AFB1 and from 0.06 to 1.79 μg/kg for total aflatoxins. PMID:26797635

  9. Gaussian processes with optimal kernel construction for neuro-degenerative clinical onset prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Canas, Liane S.; Yvernault, Benjamin; Cash, David M.; Molteni, Erika; Veale, Tom; Benzinger, Tammie; Ourselin, Sébastien; Mead, Simon; Modat, Marc

    2018-02-01

    Gaussian Processes (GP) are a powerful tool to capture the complex time-variations of a dataset. In the context of medical imaging analysis, they allow a robust modelling even in case of highly uncertain or incomplete datasets. Predictions from GP are dependent of the covariance kernel function selected to explain the data variance. To overcome this limitation, we propose a framework to identify the optimal covariance kernel function to model the data.The optimal kernel is defined as a composition of base kernel functions used to identify correlation patterns between data points. Our approach includes a modified version of the Compositional Kernel Learning (CKL) algorithm, in which we score the kernel families using a new energy function that depends both the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and the explained variance score. We applied the proposed framework to model the progression of neurodegenerative diseases over time, in particular the progression of autosomal dominantly-inherited Alzheimer's disease, and use it to predict the time to clinical onset of subjects carrying genetic mutation.

  10. A Comparative Study of Pairwise Learning Methods Based on Kernel Ridge Regression.

    PubMed

    Stock, Michiel; Pahikkala, Tapio; Airola, Antti; De Baets, Bernard; Waegeman, Willem

    2018-06-12

    Many machine learning problems can be formulated as predicting labels for a pair of objects. Problems of that kind are often referred to as pairwise learning, dyadic prediction, or network inference problems. During the past decade, kernel methods have played a dominant role in pairwise learning. They still obtain a state-of-the-art predictive performance, but a theoretical analysis of their behavior has been underexplored in the machine learning literature. In this work we review and unify kernel-based algorithms that are commonly used in different pairwise learning settings, ranging from matrix filtering to zero-shot learning. To this end, we focus on closed-form efficient instantiations of Kronecker kernel ridge regression. We show that independent task kernel ridge regression, two-step kernel ridge regression, and a linear matrix filter arise naturally as a special case of Kronecker kernel ridge regression, implying that all these methods implicitly minimize a squared loss. In addition, we analyze universality, consistency, and spectral filtering properties. Our theoretical results provide valuable insights into assessing the advantages and limitations of existing pairwise learning methods.

  11. A Novel Extreme Learning Machine Classification Model for e-Nose Application Based on the Multiple Kernel Approach

    PubMed Central

    Jian, Yulin; Huang, Daoyu; Yan, Jia; Lu, Kun; Huang, Ying; Wen, Tailai; Zeng, Tanyue; Zhong, Shijie; Xie, Qilong

    2017-01-01

    A novel classification model, named the quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO)-based weighted multiple kernel extreme learning machine (QWMK-ELM), is proposed in this paper. Experimental validation is carried out with two different electronic nose (e-nose) datasets. Being different from the existing multiple kernel extreme learning machine (MK-ELM) algorithms, the combination coefficients of base kernels are regarded as external parameters of single-hidden layer feedforward neural networks (SLFNs). The combination coefficients of base kernels, the model parameters of each base kernel, and the regularization parameter are optimized by QPSO simultaneously before implementing the kernel extreme learning machine (KELM) with the composite kernel function. Four types of common single kernel functions (Gaussian kernel, polynomial kernel, sigmoid kernel, and wavelet kernel) are utilized to constitute different composite kernel functions. Moreover, the method is also compared with other existing classification methods: extreme learning machine (ELM), kernel extreme learning machine (KELM), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), radical basis function neural network (RBFNN), and probabilistic neural network (PNN). The results have demonstrated that the proposed QWMK-ELM outperforms the aforementioned methods, not only in precision, but also in efficiency for gas classification. PMID:28629202

  12. A Novel Extreme Learning Machine Classification Model for e-Nose Application Based on the Multiple Kernel Approach.

    PubMed

    Jian, Yulin; Huang, Daoyu; Yan, Jia; Lu, Kun; Huang, Ying; Wen, Tailai; Zeng, Tanyue; Zhong, Shijie; Xie, Qilong

    2017-06-19

    A novel classification model, named the quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO)-based weighted multiple kernel extreme learning machine (QWMK-ELM), is proposed in this paper. Experimental validation is carried out with two different electronic nose (e-nose) datasets. Being different from the existing multiple kernel extreme learning machine (MK-ELM) algorithms, the combination coefficients of base kernels are regarded as external parameters of single-hidden layer feedforward neural networks (SLFNs). The combination coefficients of base kernels, the model parameters of each base kernel, and the regularization parameter are optimized by QPSO simultaneously before implementing the kernel extreme learning machine (KELM) with the composite kernel function. Four types of common single kernel functions (Gaussian kernel, polynomial kernel, sigmoid kernel, and wavelet kernel) are utilized to constitute different composite kernel functions. Moreover, the method is also compared with other existing classification methods: extreme learning machine (ELM), kernel extreme learning machine (KELM), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), radical basis function neural network (RBFNN), and probabilistic neural network (PNN). The results have demonstrated that the proposed QWMK-ELM outperforms the aforementioned methods, not only in precision, but also in efficiency for gas classification.

  13. 7 CFR 989.16 - Blend.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Blend. 989.16 Section 989.16 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and... CALIFORNIA Order Regulating Handling Definitions § 989.16 Blend. Blend means to mix or commingle raisins. ...

  14. 7 CFR 989.16 - Blend.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Blend. 989.16 Section 989.16 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and... CALIFORNIA Order Regulating Handling Definitions § 989.16 Blend. Blend means to mix or commingle raisins. ...

  15. Improved scatter correction using adaptive scatter kernel superposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, M.; Star-Lack, J. M.

    2010-11-01

    Accurate scatter correction is required to produce high-quality reconstructions of x-ray cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. This paper describes new scatter kernel superposition (SKS) algorithms for deconvolving scatter from projection data. The algorithms are designed to improve upon the conventional approach whose accuracy is limited by the use of symmetric kernels that characterize the scatter properties of uniform slabs. To model scatter transport in more realistic objects, nonstationary kernels, whose shapes adapt to local thickness variations in the projection data, are proposed. Two methods are introduced: (1) adaptive scatter kernel superposition (ASKS) requiring spatial domain convolutions and (2) fast adaptive scatter kernel superposition (fASKS) where, through a linearity approximation, convolution is efficiently performed in Fourier space. The conventional SKS algorithm, ASKS, and fASKS, were tested with Monte Carlo simulations and with phantom data acquired on a table-top CBCT system matching the Varian On-Board Imager (OBI). All three models accounted for scatter point-spread broadening due to object thickening, object edge effects, detector scatter properties and an anti-scatter grid. Hounsfield unit (HU) errors in reconstructions of a large pelvis phantom with a measured maximum scatter-to-primary ratio over 200% were reduced from -90 ± 58 HU (mean ± standard deviation) with no scatter correction to 53 ± 82 HU with SKS, to 19 ± 25 HU with fASKS and to 13 ± 21 HU with ASKS. HU accuracies and measured contrast were similarly improved in reconstructions of a body-sized elliptical Catphan phantom. The results show that the adaptive SKS methods offer significant advantages over the conventional scatter deconvolution technique.

  16. Notes on a storage manager for the Clouds kernel

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pitts, David V.; Spafford, Eugene H.

    1986-01-01

    The Clouds project is research directed towards producing a reliable distributed computing system. The initial goal is to produce a kernel which provides a reliable environment with which a distributed operating system can be built. The Clouds kernal consists of a set of replicated subkernels, each of which runs on a machine in the Clouds system. Each subkernel is responsible for the management of resources on its machine; the subkernal components communicate to provide the cooperation necessary to meld the various machines into one kernel. The implementation of a kernel-level storage manager that supports reliability is documented. The storage manager is a part of each subkernel and maintains the secondary storage residing at each machine in the distributed system. In addition to providing the usual data transfer services, the storage manager ensures that data being stored survives machine and system crashes, and that the secondary storage of a failed machine is recovered (made consistent) automatically when the machine is restarted. Since the storage manager is part of the Clouds kernel, efficiency of operation is also a concern.

  17. Metabolite identification through multiple kernel learning on fragmentation trees.

    PubMed

    Shen, Huibin; Dührkop, Kai; Böcker, Sebastian; Rousu, Juho

    2014-06-15

    Metabolite identification from tandem mass spectrometric data is a key task in metabolomics. Various computational methods have been proposed for the identification of metabolites from tandem mass spectra. Fragmentation tree methods explore the space of possible ways in which the metabolite can fragment, and base the metabolite identification on scoring of these fragmentation trees. Machine learning methods have been used to map mass spectra to molecular fingerprints; predicted fingerprints, in turn, can be used to score candidate molecular structures. Here, we combine fragmentation tree computations with kernel-based machine learning to predict molecular fingerprints and identify molecular structures. We introduce a family of kernels capturing the similarity of fragmentation trees, and combine these kernels using recently proposed multiple kernel learning approaches. Experiments on two large reference datasets show that the new methods significantly improve molecular fingerprint prediction accuracy. These improvements result in better metabolite identification, doubling the number of metabolites ranked at the top position of the candidates list. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  18. Efficient Multiple Kernel Learning Algorithms Using Low-Rank Representation.

    PubMed

    Niu, Wenjia; Xia, Kewen; Zu, Baokai; Bai, Jianchuan

    2017-01-01

    Unlike Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL) allows datasets to be free to choose the useful kernels based on their distribution characteristics rather than a precise one. It has been shown in the literature that MKL holds superior recognition accuracy compared with SVM, however, at the expense of time consuming computations. This creates analytical and computational difficulties in solving MKL algorithms. To overcome this issue, we first develop a novel kernel approximation approach for MKL and then propose an efficient Low-Rank MKL (LR-MKL) algorithm by using the Low-Rank Representation (LRR). It is well-acknowledged that LRR can reduce dimension while retaining the data features under a global low-rank constraint. Furthermore, we redesign the binary-class MKL as the multiclass MKL based on pairwise strategy. Finally, the recognition effect and efficiency of LR-MKL are verified on the datasets Yale, ORL, LSVT, and Digit. Experimental results show that the proposed LR-MKL algorithm is an efficient kernel weights allocation method in MKL and boosts the performance of MKL largely.

  19. Classification of corn kernels contaminated with aflatoxins using fluorescence and reflectance hyperspectral images analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Fengle; Yao, Haibo; Hruska, Zuzana; Kincaid, Russell; Brown, Robert; Bhatnagar, Deepak; Cleveland, Thomas

    2015-05-01

    Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by certain fungal species of the Aspergillus genus. Aflatoxin contamination remains a problem in agricultural products due to its toxic and carcinogenic properties. Conventional chemical methods for aflatoxin detection are time-consuming and destructive. This study employed fluorescence and reflectance visible near-infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral images to classify aflatoxin contaminated corn kernels rapidly and non-destructively. Corn ears were artificially inoculated in the field with toxigenic A. flavus spores at the early dough stage of kernel development. After harvest, a total of 300 kernels were collected from the inoculated ears. Fluorescence hyperspectral imagery with UV excitation and reflectance hyperspectral imagery with halogen illumination were acquired on both endosperm and germ sides of kernels. All kernels were then subjected to chemical analysis individually to determine aflatoxin concentrations. A region of interest (ROI) was created for each kernel to extract averaged spectra. Compared with healthy kernels, fluorescence spectral peaks for contaminated kernels shifted to longer wavelengths with lower intensity, and reflectance values for contaminated kernels were lower with a different spectral shape in 700-800 nm region. Principal component analysis was applied for data compression before classifying kernels into contaminated and healthy based on a 20 ppb threshold utilizing the K-nearest neighbors algorithm. The best overall accuracy achieved was 92.67% for germ side in the fluorescence data analysis. The germ side generally performed better than endosperm side. Fluorescence and reflectance image data achieved similar accuracy.

  20. Influence of Kernel Age on Fumonisin B1 Production in Maize by Fusarium moniliforme

    PubMed Central

    Warfield, Colleen Y.; Gilchrist, David G.

    1999-01-01

    Production of fumonisins by Fusarium moniliforme on naturally infected maize ears is an important food safety concern due to the toxic nature of this class of mycotoxins. Assessing the potential risk of fumonisin production in developing maize ears prior to harvest requires an understanding of the regulation of toxin biosynthesis during kernel maturation. We investigated the developmental-stage-dependent relationship between maize kernels and fumonisin B1 production by using kernels collected at the blister (R2), milk (R3), dough (R4), and dent (R5) stages following inoculation in culture at their respective field moisture contents with F. moniliforme. Highly significant differences (P ≤ 0.001) in fumonisin B1 production were found among kernels at the different developmental stages. The highest levels of fumonisin B1 were produced on the dent stage kernels, and the lowest levels were produced on the blister stage kernels. The differences in fumonisin B1 production among kernels at the different developmental stages remained significant (P ≤ 0.001) when the moisture contents of the kernels were adjusted to the same level prior to inoculation. We concluded that toxin production is affected by substrate composition as well as by moisture content. Our study also demonstrated that fumonisin B1 biosynthesis on maize kernels is influenced by factors which vary with the developmental age of the tissue. The risk of fumonisin contamination may begin early in maize ear development and increases as the kernels reach physiological maturity. PMID:10388675

  1. Blended Course Design: Where's the Pedagogy?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGee, Patricia

    2014-01-01

    Blended or hybrid course design is generally considered to involve a combination of online and classroom activities. However defining blended courses solely based on delivery mode suggests there is nothing more to a blended course than where students meet and how they use technology. Ultimately there is a risk that blended courses defined in this…

  2. Differential metabolome analysis of field-grown maize kernels in response to drought stress

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Drought stress constrains maize kernel development and can exacerbate aflatoxin contamination. In order to identify drought responsive metabolites and explore pathways involved in kernel responses, a metabolomics analysis was conducted on kernels from a drought tolerant line, Lo964, and a sensitive ...

  3. Considering causal genes in the genetic dissection of kernel traits in common wheat.

    PubMed

    Mohler, Volker; Albrecht, Theresa; Castell, Adelheid; Diethelm, Manuela; Schweizer, Günther; Hartl, Lorenz

    2016-11-01

    Genetic factors controlling thousand-kernel weight (TKW) were characterized for their association with other seed traits, including kernel width, kernel length, ratio of kernel width to kernel length (KW/KL), kernel area, and spike number per m 2 (SN). For this purpose, a genetic map was established utilizing a doubled haploid population derived from a cross between German winter wheat cultivars Pamier and Format. Association studies in a diversity panel of elite cultivars supplemented genetic analysis of kernel traits. In both populations, genomic signatures of 13 candidate genes for TKW and kernel size were analyzed. Major quantitative trait loci (QTL) for TKW were identified on chromosomes 1B, 2A, 2D, and 4D, and their locations coincided with major QTL for kernel size traits, supporting the common belief that TKW is a function of other kernel traits. The QTL on chromosome 2A was associated with TKW candidate gene TaCwi-A1 and the QTL on chromosome 4D was associated with dwarfing gene Rht-D1. A minor QTL for TKW on chromosome 6B coincided with TaGW2-6B. The QTL for kernel dimensions that did not affect TKW were detected on eight chromosomes. A major QTL for KW/KL located at the distal tip of chromosome arm 5AS is being reported for the first time. TaSus1-7A and TaSAP-A1, closely linked to each other on chromosome 7A, could be related to a minor QTL for KW/KL. Genetic analysis of SN confirmed its negative correlation with TKW in this cross. In the diversity panel, TaSus1-7A was associated with TKW. Compared to the Pamier/Format bi-parental population where TaCwi-A1a was associated with higher TKW, the same allele reduced grain yield in the diversity panel, suggesting opposite effects of TaCwi-A1 on these two traits.

  4. The Optimum Blend: Affordances and Challenges of Blended Learning for Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gedik, Nuray; Kiraz, Ercan; Ozden, M. Yasar

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to elicit students' perceptions regarding the most facilitative and most challenging features (affordances and barriers) in a blended course design. Following the phenomenological approach of qualitative inquiry, data were collected from ten undergraduate students who had experiences in a blended learning environment.…

  5. Kernel machines for epilepsy diagnosis via EEG signal classification: a comparative study.

    PubMed

    Lima, Clodoaldo A M; Coelho, André L V

    2011-10-01

    We carry out a systematic assessment on a suite of kernel-based learning machines while coping with the task of epilepsy diagnosis through automatic electroencephalogram (EEG) signal classification. The kernel machines investigated include the standard support vector machine (SVM), the least squares SVM, the Lagrangian SVM, the smooth SVM, the proximal SVM, and the relevance vector machine. An extensive series of experiments was conducted on publicly available data, whose clinical EEG recordings were obtained from five normal subjects and five epileptic patients. The performance levels delivered by the different kernel machines are contrasted in terms of the criteria of predictive accuracy, sensitivity to the kernel function/parameter value, and sensitivity to the type of features extracted from the signal. For this purpose, 26 values for the kernel parameter (radius) of two well-known kernel functions (namely, Gaussian and exponential radial basis functions) were considered as well as 21 types of features extracted from the EEG signal, including statistical values derived from the discrete wavelet transform, Lyapunov exponents, and combinations thereof. We first quantitatively assess the impact of the choice of the wavelet basis on the quality of the features extracted. Four wavelet basis functions were considered in this study. Then, we provide the average accuracy (i.e., cross-validation error) values delivered by 252 kernel machine configurations; in particular, 40%/35% of the best-calibrated models of the standard and least squares SVMs reached 100% accuracy rate for the two kernel functions considered. Moreover, we show the sensitivity profiles exhibited by a large sample of the configurations whereby one can visually inspect their levels of sensitiveness to the type of feature and to the kernel function/parameter value. Overall, the results evidence that all kernel machines are competitive in terms of accuracy, with the standard and least squares SVMs

  6. Sparse Event Modeling with Hierarchical Bayesian Kernel Methods

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-01-05

    SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: The research objective of this proposal was to develop a predictive Bayesian kernel approach to model count data based on...several predictive variables. Such an approach, which we refer to as the Poisson Bayesian kernel model , is able to model the rate of occurrence of...which adds specificity to the model and can make nonlinear data more manageable. Early results show that the 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE

  7. Omnibus Risk Assessment via Accelerated Failure Time Kernel Machine Modeling

    PubMed Central

    Sinnott, Jennifer A.; Cai, Tianxi

    2013-01-01

    Summary Integrating genomic information with traditional clinical risk factors to improve the prediction of disease outcomes could profoundly change the practice of medicine. However, the large number of potential markers and possible complexity of the relationship between markers and disease make it difficult to construct accurate risk prediction models. Standard approaches for identifying important markers often rely on marginal associations or linearity assumptions and may not capture non-linear or interactive effects. In recent years, much work has been done to group genes into pathways and networks. Integrating such biological knowledge into statistical learning could potentially improve model interpretability and reliability. One effective approach is to employ a kernel machine (KM) framework, which can capture nonlinear effects if nonlinear kernels are used (Scholkopf and Smola, 2002; Liu et al., 2007, 2008). For survival outcomes, KM regression modeling and testing procedures have been derived under a proportional hazards (PH) assumption (Li and Luan, 2003; Cai et al., 2011). In this paper, we derive testing and prediction methods for KM regression under the accelerated failure time model, a useful alternative to the PH model. We approximate the null distribution of our test statistic using resampling procedures. When multiple kernels are of potential interest, it may be unclear in advance which kernel to use for testing and estimation. We propose a robust Omnibus Test that combines information across kernels, and an approach for selecting the best kernel for estimation. The methods are illustrated with an application in breast cancer. PMID:24328713

  8. Omnibus risk assessment via accelerated failure time kernel machine modeling.

    PubMed

    Sinnott, Jennifer A; Cai, Tianxi

    2013-12-01

    Integrating genomic information with traditional clinical risk factors to improve the prediction of disease outcomes could profoundly change the practice of medicine. However, the large number of potential markers and possible complexity of the relationship between markers and disease make it difficult to construct accurate risk prediction models. Standard approaches for identifying important markers often rely on marginal associations or linearity assumptions and may not capture non-linear or interactive effects. In recent years, much work has been done to group genes into pathways and networks. Integrating such biological knowledge into statistical learning could potentially improve model interpretability and reliability. One effective approach is to employ a kernel machine (KM) framework, which can capture nonlinear effects if nonlinear kernels are used (Scholkopf and Smola, 2002; Liu et al., 2007, 2008). For survival outcomes, KM regression modeling and testing procedures have been derived under a proportional hazards (PH) assumption (Li and Luan, 2003; Cai, Tonini, and Lin, 2011). In this article, we derive testing and prediction methods for KM regression under the accelerated failure time (AFT) model, a useful alternative to the PH model. We approximate the null distribution of our test statistic using resampling procedures. When multiple kernels are of potential interest, it may be unclear in advance which kernel to use for testing and estimation. We propose a robust Omnibus Test that combines information across kernels, and an approach for selecting the best kernel for estimation. The methods are illustrated with an application in breast cancer. © 2013, The International Biometric Society.

  9. Kernel Wiener filter and its application to pattern recognition.

    PubMed

    Yoshino, Hirokazu; Dong, Chen; Washizawa, Yoshikazu; Yamashita, Yukihiko

    2010-11-01

    The Wiener filter (WF) is widely used for inverse problems. From an observed signal, it provides the best estimated signal with respect to the squared error averaged over the original and the observed signals among linear operators. The kernel WF (KWF), extended directly from WF, has a problem that an additive noise has to be handled by samples. Since the computational complexity of kernel methods depends on the number of samples, a huge computational cost is necessary for the case. By using the first-order approximation of kernel functions, we realize KWF that can handle such a noise not by samples but as a random variable. We also propose the error estimation method for kernel filters by using the approximations. In order to show the advantages of the proposed methods, we conducted the experiments to denoise images and estimate errors. We also apply KWF to classification since KWF can provide an approximated result of the maximum a posteriori classifier that provides the best recognition accuracy. The noise term in the criterion can be used for the classification in the presence of noise or a new regularization to suppress changes in the input space, whereas the ordinary regularization for the kernel method suppresses changes in the feature space. In order to show the advantages of the proposed methods, we conducted experiments of binary and multiclass classifications and classification in the presence of noise.

  10. Combined multi-kernel head computed tomography images optimized for depicting both brain parenchyma and bone.

    PubMed

    Takagi, Satoshi; Nagase, Hiroyuki; Hayashi, Tatsuya; Kita, Tamotsu; Hayashi, Katsumi; Sanada, Shigeru; Koike, Masayuki

    2014-01-01

    The hybrid convolution kernel technique for computed tomography (CT) is known to enable the depiction of an image set using different window settings. Our purpose was to decrease the number of artifacts in the hybrid convolution kernel technique for head CT and to determine whether our improved combined multi-kernel head CT images enabled diagnosis as a substitute for both brain (low-pass kernel-reconstructed) and bone (high-pass kernel-reconstructed) images. Forty-four patients with nondisplaced skull fractures were included. Our improved multi-kernel images were generated so that pixels of >100 Hounsfield unit in both brain and bone images were composed of CT values of bone images and other pixels were composed of CT values of brain images. Three radiologists compared the improved multi-kernel images with bone images. The improved multi-kernel images and brain images were identically displayed on the brain window settings. All three radiologists agreed that the improved multi-kernel images on the bone window settings were sufficient for diagnosing skull fractures in all patients. This improved multi-kernel technique has a simple algorithm and is practical for clinical use. Thus, simplified head CT examinations and fewer images that need to be stored can be expected.

  11. Kernelization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fomin, Fedor V.

    Preprocessing (data reduction or kernelization) as a strategy of coping with hard problems is universally used in almost every implementation. The history of preprocessing, like applying reduction rules simplifying truth functions, can be traced back to the 1950's [6]. A natural question in this regard is how to measure the quality of preprocessing rules proposed for a specific problem. For a long time the mathematical analysis of polynomial time preprocessing algorithms was neglected. The basic reason for this anomaly was that if we start with an instance I of an NP-hard problem and can show that in polynomial time we can replace this with an equivalent instance I' with |I'| < |I| then that would imply P=NP in classical complexity.

  12. A Better Blend

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demski, Jennifer

    2010-01-01

    In May 2009, the US Department of Education released a meta-analysis of effectiveness studies of online, face-to-face, and blended learning models. The analysis found that online learning produced better student outcomes than face-to-face classes, and that blended learning offered an even "larger advantage" over face-to-face. The hybrid approach…

  13. Introducing etch kernels for efficient pattern sampling and etch bias prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weisbuch, François; Lutich, Andrey; Schatz, Jirka

    2018-01-01

    Successful patterning requires good control of the photolithography and etch processes. While compact litho models, mainly based on rigorous physics, can predict very well the contours printed in photoresist, pure empirical etch models are less accurate and more unstable. Compact etch models are based on geometrical kernels to compute the litho-etch biases that measure the distance between litho and etch contours. The definition of the kernels, as well as the choice of calibration patterns, is critical to get a robust etch model. This work proposes to define a set of independent and anisotropic etch kernels-"internal, external, curvature, Gaussian, z_profile"-designed to represent the finest details of the resist geometry to characterize precisely the etch bias at any point along a resist contour. By evaluating the etch kernels on various structures, it is possible to map their etch signatures in a multidimensional space and analyze them to find an optimal sampling of structures. The etch kernels evaluated on these structures were combined with experimental etch bias derived from scanning electron microscope contours to train artificial neural networks to predict etch bias. The method applied to contact and line/space layers shows an improvement in etch model prediction accuracy over standard etch model. This work emphasizes the importance of the etch kernel definition to characterize and predict complex etch effects.

  14. Three-Dimensional Sensitivity Kernels of Z/H Amplitude Ratios of Surface and Body Waves

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bao, X.; Shen, Y.

    2017-12-01

    The ellipticity of Rayleigh wave particle motion, or Z/H amplitude ratio, has received increasing attention in inversion for shallow Earth structures. Previous studies of the Z/H ratio assumed one-dimensional (1D) velocity structures beneath the receiver, ignoring the effects of three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneities on wave amplitudes. This simplification may introduce bias in the resulting models. Here we present 3D sensitivity kernels of the Z/H ratio to Vs, Vp, and density perturbations, based on finite-difference modeling of wave propagation in 3D structures and the scattering-integral method. Our full-wave approach overcomes two main issues in previous studies of Rayleigh wave ellipticity: (1) the finite-frequency effects of wave propagation in 3D Earth structures, and (2) isolation of the fundamental mode Rayleigh waves from Rayleigh wave overtones and converted Love waves. In contrast to the 1D depth sensitivity kernels in previous studies, our 3D sensitivity kernels exhibit patterns that vary with azimuths and distances to the receiver. The laterally-summed 3D sensitivity kernels and 1D depth sensitivity kernels, based on the same homogeneous reference model, are nearly identical with small differences that are attributable to the single period of the 1D kernels and a finite period range of the 3D kernels. We further verify the 3D sensitivity kernels by comparing the predictions from the kernels with the measurements from numerical simulations of wave propagation for models with various small-scale perturbations. We also calculate and verify the amplitude kernels for P waves. This study shows that both Rayleigh and body wave Z/H ratios provide vertical and lateral constraints on the structure near the receiver. With seismic arrays, the 3D kernels afford a powerful tool to use the Z/H ratios to obtain accurate and high-resolution Earth models.

  15. Multiple kernel learning using single stage function approximation for binary classification problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shiju, S.; Sumitra, S.

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, the multiple kernel learning (MKL) is formulated as a supervised classification problem. We dealt with binary classification data and hence the data modelling problem involves the computation of two decision boundaries of which one related with that of kernel learning and the other with that of input data. In our approach, they are found with the aid of a single cost function by constructing a global reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) as the direct sum of the RKHSs corresponding to the decision boundaries of kernel learning and input data and searching that function from the global RKHS, which can be represented as the direct sum of the decision boundaries under consideration. In our experimental analysis, the proposed model had shown superior performance in comparison with that of existing two stage function approximation formulation of MKL, where the decision functions of kernel learning and input data are found separately using two different cost functions. This is due to the fact that single stage representation helps the knowledge transfer between the computation procedures for finding the decision boundaries of kernel learning and input data, which inturn boosts the generalisation capacity of the model.

  16. On supervised graph Laplacian embedding CA model & kernel construction and its application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zeng, Junwei; Qian, Yongsheng; Wang, Min; Yang, Yongzhong

    2017-01-01

    There are many methods to construct kernel with given data attribute information. Gaussian radial basis function (RBF) kernel is one of the most popular ways to construct a kernel. The key observation is that in real-world data, besides the data attribute information, data label information also exists, which indicates the data class. In order to make use of both data attribute information and data label information, in this work, we propose a supervised kernel construction method. Supervised information from training data is integrated into standard kernel construction process to improve the discriminative property of resulting kernel. A supervised Laplacian embedding cellular automaton model is another key application developed for two-lane heterogeneous traffic flow with the safe distance and large-scale truck. Based on the properties of traffic flow in China, we re-calibrate the cell length, velocity, random slowing mechanism and lane-change conditions and use simulation tests to study the relationships among the speed, density and flux. The numerical results show that the large-scale trucks will have great effects on the traffic flow, which are relevant to the proportion of the large-scale trucks, random slowing rate and the times of the lane space change.

  17. Dynamic PET Image reconstruction for parametric imaging using the HYPR kernel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spencer, Benjamin; Qi, Jinyi; Badawi, Ramsey D.; Wang, Guobao

    2017-03-01

    Dynamic PET image reconstruction is a challenging problem because of the ill-conditioned nature of PET and the lowcounting statistics resulted from short time-frames in dynamic imaging. The kernel method for image reconstruction has been developed to improve image reconstruction of low-count PET data by incorporating prior information derived from high-count composite data. In contrast to most of the existing regularization-based methods, the kernel method embeds image prior information in the forward projection model and does not require an explicit regularization term in the reconstruction formula. Inspired by the existing highly constrained back-projection (HYPR) algorithm for dynamic PET image denoising, we propose in this work a new type of kernel that is simpler to implement and further improves the kernel-based dynamic PET image reconstruction. Our evaluation study using a physical phantom scan with synthetic FDG tracer kinetics has demonstrated that the new HYPR kernel-based reconstruction can achieve a better region-of-interest (ROI) bias versus standard deviation trade-off for dynamic PET parametric imaging than the post-reconstruction HYPR denoising method and the previously used nonlocal-means kernel.

  18. Pollen source effects on growth of kernel structures and embryo chemical compounds in maize.

    PubMed

    Tanaka, W; Mantese, A I; Maddonni, G A

    2009-08-01

    Previous studies have reported effects of pollen source on the oil concentration of maize (Zea mays) kernels through modifications to both the embryo/kernel ratio and embryo oil concentration. The present study expands upon previous analyses by addressing pollen source effects on the growth of kernel structures (i.e. pericarp, endosperm and embryo), allocation of embryo chemical constituents (i.e. oil, protein, starch and soluble sugars), and the anatomy and histology of the embryos. Maize kernels with different oil concentration were obtained from pollinations with two parental genotypes of contrasting oil concentration. The dynamics of the growth of kernel structures and allocation of embryo chemical constituents were analysed during the post-flowering period. Mature kernels were dissected to study the anatomy (embryonic axis and scutellum) and histology [cell number and cell size of the scutellums, presence of sub-cellular structures in scutellum tissue (starch granules, oil and protein bodies)] of the embryos. Plants of all crosses exhibited a similar kernel number and kernel weight. Pollen source modified neither the growth period of kernel structures, nor pericarp growth rate. By contrast, pollen source determined a trade-off between embryo and endosperm growth rates, which impacted on the embryo/kernel ratio of mature kernels. Modifications to the embryo size were mediated by scutellum cell number. Pollen source also affected (P < 0.01) allocation of embryo chemical compounds. Negative correlations among embryo oil concentration and those of starch (r = 0.98, P < 0.01) and soluble sugars (r = 0.95, P < 0.05) were found. Coincidently, embryos with low oil concentration had an increased (P < 0.05-0.10) scutellum cell area occupied by starch granules and fewer oil bodies. The effects of pollen source on both embryo/kernel ratio and allocation of embryo chemicals seems to be related to the early established sink strength (i.e. sink size and sink activity) of the

  19. Reconstruction of noisy and blurred images using blur kernel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ellappan, Vijayan; Chopra, Vishal

    2017-11-01

    Blur is a common in so many digital images. Blur can be caused by motion of the camera and scene object. In this work we proposed a new method for deblurring images. This work uses sparse representation to identify the blur kernel. By analyzing the image coordinates Using coarse and fine, we fetch the kernel based image coordinates and according to that observation we get the motion angle of the shaken or blurred image. Then we calculate the length of the motion kernel using radon transformation and Fourier for the length calculation of the image and we use Lucy Richardson algorithm which is also called NON-Blind(NBID) Algorithm for more clean and less noisy image output. All these operation will be performed in MATLAB IDE.

  20. Novel near-infrared sampling apparatus for single kernel analysis of oil content in maize.

    PubMed

    Janni, James; Weinstock, B André; Hagen, Lisa; Wright, Steve

    2008-04-01

    A method of rapid, nondestructive chemical and physical analysis of individual maize (Zea mays L.) kernels is needed for the development of high value food, feed, and fuel traits. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy offers a robust nondestructive method of trait determination. However, traditional NIR bulk sampling techniques cannot be applied successfully to individual kernels. Obtaining optimized single kernel NIR spectra for applied chemometric predictive analysis requires a novel sampling technique that can account for the heterogeneous forms, morphologies, and opacities exhibited in individual maize kernels. In this study such a novel technique is described and compared to less effective means of single kernel NIR analysis. Results of the application of a partial least squares (PLS) derived model for predictive determination of percent oil content per individual kernel are shown.

  1. Blended Teaching & Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pape, Liz

    2010-01-01

    Blended learning is using online tools to communicate, collaborate and publish, to extend the school day or year and to develop the 21st-century skills students need. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their daily classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are…

  2. Tuning the Blend

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schaffhauser, Dian

    2012-01-01

    "Tuning the blend" is a phrase that educators hear a lot these days. It refers to finding the correct balance of online activities and face-to-face instruction in hybrid--or blended--courses. Finding a mix that meets the needs of both faculty and students requires experimentation, experience, and constant tweaking. And, as with coffee, the same…

  3. Blended Learning over Two Decades

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhonggen, Yu; Yuexiu, Zhejiang

    2015-01-01

    The 21st century has witnessed vast amounts of research into blended learning since the conception of online learning formed the possibility of blended learning in the early 1990s. The theme of this paper is blended learning in mainstream disciplinary communities. In particular, the paper reports on findings from the last two decades which looked…

  4. Evaporation characteristics of ETBE-blended gasoline.

    PubMed

    Okamoto, Katsuhiro; Hiramatsu, Muneyuki; Hino, Tomonori; Otake, Takuma; Okamoto, Takashi; Miyamoto, Hiroki; Honma, Masakatsu; Watanabe, Norimichi

    2015-04-28

    To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming, production of gasoline blended with ethyl tert-buthyl ether (ETBE) is increasing annually. The flash point of ETBE is higher than that of gasoline, and blending ETBE into gasoline will change the flash point and the vapor pressure. Therefore, it is expected that the fire hazard caused by ETBE-blended gasoline would differ from that caused by normal gasoline. The aim of this study was to acquire the knowledge required for estimating the fire hazard of ETBE-blended gasoline. Supposing that ETBE-blended gasoline was a two-component mixture of gasoline and ETBE, we developed a prediction model that describes the vapor pressure and flash point of ETBE-blended gasoline in an arbitrary ETBE blending ratio. We chose 8-component hydrocarbon mixture as a model gasoline, and defined the relation between molar mass of gasoline and mass loss fraction. We measured the changes in the vapor pressure and flash point of gasoline by blending ETBE and evaporation, and compared the predicted values with the measured values in order to verify the prediction model. The calculated values of vapor pressures and flash points corresponded well to the measured values. Thus, we confirmed that the change in the evaporation characteristics of ETBE-blended gasoline by evaporation could be predicted by the proposed model. Furthermore, the vapor pressure constants of ETBE-blended gasoline were obtained by the model, and then the distillation curves were developed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Structured Kernel Subspace Learning for Autonomous Robot Navigation.

    PubMed

    Kim, Eunwoo; Choi, Sungjoon; Oh, Songhwai

    2018-02-14

    This paper considers two important problems for autonomous robot navigation in a dynamic environment, where the goal is to predict pedestrian motion and control a robot with the prediction for safe navigation. While there are several methods for predicting the motion of a pedestrian and controlling a robot to avoid incoming pedestrians, it is still difficult to safely navigate in a dynamic environment due to challenges, such as the varying quality and complexity of training data with unwanted noises. This paper addresses these challenges simultaneously by proposing a robust kernel subspace learning algorithm based on the recent advances in nuclear-norm and l 1 -norm minimization. We model the motion of a pedestrian and the robot controller using Gaussian processes. The proposed method efficiently approximates a kernel matrix used in Gaussian process regression by learning low-rank structured matrix (with symmetric positive semi-definiteness) to find an orthogonal basis, which eliminates the effects of erroneous and inconsistent data. Based on structured kernel subspace learning, we propose a robust motion model and motion controller for safe navigation in dynamic environments. We evaluate the proposed robust kernel learning in various tasks, including regression, motion prediction, and motion control problems, and demonstrate that the proposed learning-based systems are robust against outliers and outperform existing regression and navigation methods.

  6. An Adaptive Genetic Association Test Using Double Kernel Machines

    PubMed Central

    Zhan, Xiang; Epstein, Michael P.; Ghosh, Debashis

    2014-01-01

    Recently, gene set-based approaches have become very popular in gene expression profiling studies for assessing how genetic variants are related to disease outcomes. Since most genes are not differentially expressed, existing pathway tests considering all genes within a pathway suffer from considerable noise and power loss. Moreover, for a differentially expressed pathway, it is of interest to select important genes that drive the effect of the pathway. In this article, we propose an adaptive association test using double kernel machines (DKM), which can both select important genes within the pathway as well as test for the overall genetic pathway effect. This DKM procedure first uses the garrote kernel machines (GKM) test for the purposes of subset selection and then the least squares kernel machine (LSKM) test for testing the effect of the subset of genes. An appealing feature of the kernel machine framework is that it can provide a flexible and unified method for multi-dimensional modeling of the genetic pathway effect allowing for both parametric and nonparametric components. This DKM approach is illustrated with application to simulated data as well as to data from a neuroimaging genetics study. PMID:26640602

  7. An Adaptive Genetic Association Test Using Double Kernel Machines.

    PubMed

    Zhan, Xiang; Epstein, Michael P; Ghosh, Debashis

    2015-10-01

    Recently, gene set-based approaches have become very popular in gene expression profiling studies for assessing how genetic variants are related to disease outcomes. Since most genes are not differentially expressed, existing pathway tests considering all genes within a pathway suffer from considerable noise and power loss. Moreover, for a differentially expressed pathway, it is of interest to select important genes that drive the effect of the pathway. In this article, we propose an adaptive association test using double kernel machines (DKM), which can both select important genes within the pathway as well as test for the overall genetic pathway effect. This DKM procedure first uses the garrote kernel machines (GKM) test for the purposes of subset selection and then the least squares kernel machine (LSKM) test for testing the effect of the subset of genes. An appealing feature of the kernel machine framework is that it can provide a flexible and unified method for multi-dimensional modeling of the genetic pathway effect allowing for both parametric and nonparametric components. This DKM approach is illustrated with application to simulated data as well as to data from a neuroimaging genetics study.

  8. Salt stress reduces kernel number of corn by inhibiting plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity.

    PubMed

    Jung, Stephan; Hütsch, Birgit W; Schubert, Sven

    2017-04-01

    Salt stress affects yield formation of corn (Zea mays L.) at various physiological levels resulting in an overall grain yield decrease. In this study we investigated how salt stress affects kernel development of two corn cultivars (cvs. Pioneer 3906 and Fabregas) at and shortly after pollination. In an earlier study, we found an accumulation of hexoses in the kernel tissue. Therefore, it was hypothesized that hexose uptake into developing endosperm and embryo might be inhibited. Hexoses are transported into the developing endosperm by carriers localized in the plasma membrane (PM). The transport is driven by the pH gradient which is built up by the PM H + -ATPase. It was investigated whether the PM H + -ATPase activity in developing corn kernels was inhibited by salt stress, which would cause a lower pH gradient resulting in impaired hexose import and finally in kernel abortion. Corn grown under control and salt stress conditions was harvested 0 and 2 days after pollination (DAP). Under salt stress sucrose and hexose concentrations in kernel tissue were higher 0 and 2 DAP. Kernel PM H + -ATPase activity was not affected at 0 DAP, but it was reduced at 2 DAP. This is in agreement with the finding, that kernel growth and thus kernel setting was not affected in the salt stress treatment at pollination, but it was reduced 2 days later. It is concluded that inhibition of PM H + -ATPase under salt stress impaired the energization of hexose transporters into the cells, resulting in lower kernel growth and finally in kernel abortion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  9. Adaptive kernel regression for freehand 3D ultrasound reconstruction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alshalalfah, Abdel-Latif; Daoud, Mohammad I.; Al-Najar, Mahasen

    2017-03-01

    Freehand three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging enables low-cost and flexible 3D scanning of arbitrary-shaped organs, where the operator can freely move a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound probe to acquire a sequence of tracked cross-sectional images of the anatomy. Often, the acquired 2D ultrasound images are irregularly and sparsely distributed in the 3D space. Several 3D reconstruction algorithms have been proposed to synthesize 3D ultrasound volumes based on the acquired 2D images. A challenging task during the reconstruction process is to preserve the texture patterns in the synthesized volume and ensure that all gaps in the volume are correctly filled. This paper presents an adaptive kernel regression algorithm that can effectively reconstruct high-quality freehand 3D ultrasound volumes. The algorithm employs a kernel regression model that enables nonparametric interpolation of the voxel gray-level values. The kernel size of the regression model is adaptively adjusted based on the characteristics of the voxel that is being interpolated. In particular, when the algorithm is employed to interpolate a voxel located in a region with dense ultrasound data samples, the size of the kernel is reduced to preserve the texture patterns. On the other hand, the size of the kernel is increased in areas that include large gaps to enable effective gap filling. The performance of the proposed algorithm was compared with seven previous interpolation approaches by synthesizing freehand 3D ultrasound volumes of a benign breast tumor. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other interpolation approaches.

  10. A locally adaptive kernel regression method for facies delineation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fernàndez-Garcia, D.; Barahona-Palomo, M.; Henri, C. V.; Sanchez-Vila, X.

    2015-12-01

    Facies delineation is defined as the separation of geological units with distinct intrinsic characteristics (grain size, hydraulic conductivity, mineralogical composition). A major challenge in this area stems from the fact that only a few scattered pieces of hydrogeological information are available to delineate geological facies. Several methods to delineate facies are available in the literature, ranging from those based only on existing hard data, to those including secondary data or external knowledge about sedimentological patterns. This paper describes a methodology to use kernel regression methods as an effective tool for facies delineation. The method uses both the spatial and the actual sampled values to produce, for each individual hard data point, a locally adaptive steering kernel function, self-adjusting the principal directions of the local anisotropic kernels to the direction of highest local spatial correlation. The method is shown to outperform the nearest neighbor classification method in a number of synthetic aquifers whenever the available number of hard data is small and randomly distributed in space. In the case of exhaustive sampling, the steering kernel regression method converges to the true solution. Simulations ran in a suite of synthetic examples are used to explore the selection of kernel parameters in typical field settings. It is shown that, in practice, a rule of thumb can be used to obtain suboptimal results. The performance of the method is demonstrated to significantly improve when external information regarding facies proportions is incorporated. Remarkably, the method allows for a reasonable reconstruction of the facies connectivity patterns, shown in terms of breakthrough curves performance.

  11. Kernel analysis in TeV gamma-ray selection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moriarty, P.; Samuelson, F. W.

    2000-06-01

    We discuss the use of kernel analysis as a technique for selecting gamma-ray candidates in Atmospheric Cherenkov astronomy. The method is applied to observations of the Crab Nebula and Markarian 501 recorded with the Whipple 10 m Atmospheric Cherenkov imaging system, and the results are compared with the standard Supercuts analysis. Since kernel analysis is computationally intensive, we examine approaches to reducing the computational load. Extension of the technique to estimate the energy of the gamma-ray primary is considered. .

  12. Surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative feedback kernels for CESM-CAM5

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pendergrass, Angeline G.; Conley, Andrew; Vitt, Francis M.

    2018-02-01

    Radiative kernels at the top of the atmosphere are useful for decomposing changes in atmospheric radiative fluxes due to feedbacks from atmosphere and surface temperature, water vapor, and surface albedo. Here we describe and validate radiative kernels calculated with the large-ensemble version of CAM5, CESM1.1.2, at the top of the atmosphere and the surface. Estimates of the radiative forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols in RCP8.5 in the CESM large-ensemble simulations are also diagnosed. As an application, feedbacks are calculated for the CESM large ensemble. The kernels are freely available at https://doi.org/10.5065/D6F47MT6, and accompanying software can be downloaded from kernels" target="_blank">https://github.com/apendergrass/cam5-kernels.

  13. Kernel-Correlated Levy Field Driven Forward Rate and Application to Derivative Pricing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bo Lijun; Wang Yongjin; Yang Xuewei, E-mail: xwyangnk@yahoo.com.cn

    2013-08-01

    We propose a term structure of forward rates driven by a kernel-correlated Levy random field under the HJM framework. The kernel-correlated Levy random field is composed of a kernel-correlated Gaussian random field and a centered Poisson random measure. We shall give a criterion to preclude arbitrage under the risk-neutral pricing measure. As applications, an interest rate derivative with general payoff functional is priced under this pricing measure.

  14. Entanglement in miscible blends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Watanabe, Hiroshi

    2010-03-01

    The entanglement length Le of polymer chains (corresponding to the entanglement molecular weight Me) is not an intrinsic material parameter but changes with the interaction with surrounding chains. For miscible blends of cis-polyisoprene (PI) and poly(tert-butyl styrene) (PtBS), changes of Le on blending was examined. It turned out that the Le averaged over the number fractions of the Kuhn segments of the components (PI and PtBS) satisfactorily describes the viscoelastic behavior of pseudo-monodisperse blends in which the terminal relaxation time is the same for PI and PtBS.

  15. SOME ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SHELLED AND KERNEL TEA (Camellia sinensis) SEEDS.

    PubMed

    Altuntas, Ebubekir; Yildiz, Merve

    2017-01-01

    Camellia sinensis is the source of tea leaves and it is an economic crop now grown around the World. Tea seed oil has been used for cooking in China and other Asian countries for more than a thousand years. Tea is the most widely consumed beverages after water in the world. It is mainly produced in Asia, central Africa, and exported throughout the World. Some engineering properties (size dimensions, sphericity, volume, bulk and true densities, friction coefficient, colour characteristics and mechanical behaviour as rupture force of shelled and kernel tea ( Camellia sinensis ) seeds were determined in this study. This research was carried out for shelled and kernel tea seeds. The shelled tea seeds used in this study were obtained from East-Black Sea Tea Cooperative Institution in Rize city of Turkey. Shelled and kernel tea seeds were characterized as large and small sizes. The average geometric mean diameter and seed mass of the shelled tea seeds were 15.8 mm, 10.7 mm (large size); 1.47 g, 0.49 g (small size); while the average geometric mean diameter and seed mass of the kernel tea seeds were 11.8 mm, 8 mm for large size; 0.97 g, 0.31 g for small size, respectively. The sphericity, surface area and volume values were found to be higher in a larger size than small size for the shelled and kernel tea samples. The shelled tea seed's colour intensity (Chroma) were found between 59.31 and 64.22 for large size, while the kernel tea seed's chroma values were found between 56.04 68.34 for large size, respectively. The rupture force values of kernel tea seeds were higher than shelled tea seeds for the large size along X axis; whereas, the rupture force values of along X axis were higher than Y axis for large size of shelled tea seeds. The static coefficients of friction of shelled and kernel tea seeds for the large and small sizes higher values for rubber than the other friction surfaces. Some engineering properties, such as geometric mean diameter, sphericity, volume, bulk

  16. Effects of Blended-Cement Paste Chemical Composition Changes on Some Strength Gains of Blended-Mortars

    PubMed Central

    Kirgiz, Mehmet Serkan

    2014-01-01

    Effects of chemical compositions changes of blended-cement pastes (BCPCCC) on some strength gains of blended cement mortars (BCMSG) were monitored in order to gain a better understanding for developments of hydration and strength of blended cements. Blended cements (BC) were prepared by blending of 5% gypsum and 6%, 20%, 21%, and 35% marble powder (MP) or 6%, 20%, 21%, and 35% brick powder (BP) for CEMI42.5N cement clinker and grinding these portions in ball mill at 30 (min). Pastes and mortars, containing the MP-BC and the BP-BC and the reference cement (RC) and tap water and standard mortar sand, were also mixed and they were cured within water until testing. Experiments included chemical compositions of pastes and compressive strengths (CS) and flexural strengths (FS) of mortars were determined at 7th-day, 28th-day, and 90th-day according to TS EN 196-2 and TS EN 196-1 present standards. Experimental results indicated that ups and downs of silica oxide (SiO2), sodium oxide (Na2O), and alkali at MP-BCPCC and continuously rising movement of silica oxide (SiO2) at BP-BCPCC positively influenced CS and FS of blended cement mortars (BCM) in comparison with reference mortars (RM) at whole cure days as MP up to 6% or BP up to 35% was blended for cement. PMID:24587737

  17. Sliding Window Generalized Kernel Affine Projection Algorithm Using Projection Mappings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Slavakis, Konstantinos; Theodoridis, Sergios

    2008-12-01

    Very recently, a solution to the kernel-based online classification problem has been given by the adaptive projected subgradient method (APSM). The developed algorithm can be considered as a generalization of a kernel affine projection algorithm (APA) and the kernel normalized least mean squares (NLMS). Furthermore, sparsification of the resulting kernel series expansion was achieved by imposing a closed ball (convex set) constraint on the norm of the classifiers. This paper presents another sparsification method for the APSM approach to the online classification task by generating a sequence of linear subspaces in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). To cope with the inherent memory limitations of online systems and to embed tracking capabilities to the design, an upper bound on the dimension of the linear subspaces is imposed. The underlying principle of the design is the notion of projection mappings. Classification is performed by metric projection mappings, sparsification is achieved by orthogonal projections, while the online system's memory requirements and tracking are attained by oblique projections. The resulting sparsification scheme shows strong similarities with the classical sliding window adaptive schemes. The proposed design is validated by the adaptive equalization problem of a nonlinear communication channel, and is compared with classical and recent stochastic gradient descent techniques, as well as with the APSM's solution where sparsification is performed by a closed ball constraint on the norm of the classifiers.

  18. Detoxification of Jatropha curcas kernel cake by a novel Streptomyces fimicarius strain.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xing-Hong; Ou, Lingcheng; Fu, Liang-Liang; Zheng, Shui; Lou, Ji-Dong; Gomes-Laranjo, José; Li, Jiao; Zhang, Changhe

    2013-09-15

    A huge amount of kernel cake, which contains a variety of toxins including phorbol esters (tumor promoters), is projected to be generated yearly in the near future by the Jatropha biodiesel industry. We showed that the kernel cake strongly inhibited plant seed germination and root growth and was highly toxic to carp fingerlings, even though phorbol esters were undetectable by HPLC. Therefore it must be detoxified before disposal to the environment. A mathematic model was established to estimate the general toxicity of the kernel cake by determining the survival time of carp fingerling. A new strain (Streptomyces fimicarius YUCM 310038) capable of degrading the total toxicity by more than 97% in a 9-day solid state fermentation was screened out from 578 strains including 198 known strains and 380 strains isolated from air and soil. The kernel cake fermented by YUCM 310038 was nontoxic to plants and carp fingerlings and significantly promoted tobacco plant growth, indicating its potential to transform the toxic kernel cake to bio-safe animal feed or organic fertilizer to remove the environmental concern and to reduce the cost of the Jatropha biodiesel industry. Microbial strain profile essential for the kernel cake detoxification was discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Comparison of Kernel Equating and Item Response Theory Equating Methods

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meng, Yu

    2012-01-01

    The kernel method of test equating is a unified approach to test equating with some advantages over traditional equating methods. Therefore, it is important to evaluate in a comprehensive way the usefulness and appropriateness of the Kernel equating (KE) method, as well as its advantages and disadvantages compared with several popular item…

  20. A Fast Reduced Kernel Extreme Learning Machine.

    PubMed

    Deng, Wan-Yu; Ong, Yew-Soon; Zheng, Qing-Hua

    2016-04-01

    In this paper, we present a fast and accurate kernel-based supervised algorithm referred to as the Reduced Kernel Extreme Learning Machine (RKELM). In contrast to the work on Support Vector Machine (SVM) or Least Square SVM (LS-SVM), which identifies the support vectors or weight vectors iteratively, the proposed RKELM randomly selects a subset of the available data samples as support vectors (or mapping samples). By avoiding the iterative steps of SVM, significant cost savings in the training process can be readily attained, especially on Big datasets. RKELM is established based on the rigorous proof of universal learning involving reduced kernel-based SLFN. In particular, we prove that RKELM can approximate any nonlinear functions accurately under the condition of support vectors sufficiency. Experimental results on a wide variety of real world small instance size and large instance size applications in the context of binary classification, multi-class problem and regression are then reported to show that RKELM can perform at competitive level of generalized performance as the SVM/LS-SVM at only a fraction of the computational effort incurred. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Single aflatoxin contaminated corn kernel analysis with fluorescence hyperspectral image

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yao, Haibo; Hruska, Zuzana; Kincaid, Russell; Ononye, Ambrose; Brown, Robert L.; Cleveland, Thomas E.

    2010-04-01

    Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, among others. Aflatoxin contaminated corn is toxic to domestic animals when ingested in feed and is a known carcinogen associated with liver and lung cancer in humans. Consequently, aflatoxin levels in food and feed are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, allowing 20 ppb (parts per billion) limits in food and 100 ppb in feed for interstate commerce. Currently, aflatoxin detection and quantification methods are based on analytical tests including thin-layer chromatography (TCL) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). These analytical tests require the destruction of samples, and are costly and time consuming. Thus, the ability to detect aflatoxin in a rapid, nondestructive way is crucial to the grain industry, particularly to corn industry. Hyperspectral imaging technology offers a non-invasive approach toward screening for food safety inspection and quality control based on its spectral signature. The focus of this paper is to classify aflatoxin contaminated single corn kernels using fluorescence hyperspectral imagery. Field inoculated corn kernels were used in the study. Contaminated and control kernels under long wavelength ultraviolet excitation were imaged using a visible near-infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral camera. The imaged kernels were chemically analyzed to provide reference information for image analysis. This paper describes a procedure to process corn kernels located in different images for statistical training and classification. Two classification algorithms, Maximum Likelihood and Binary Encoding, were used to classify each corn kernel into "control" or "contaminated" through pixel classification. The Binary Encoding approach had a slightly better performance with accuracy equals to 87% or 88% when 20 ppb or 100 ppb was used as classification threshold, respectively.

  2. Multiscale Support Vector Learning With Projection Operator Wavelet Kernel for Nonlinear Dynamical System Identification.

    PubMed

    Lu, Zhao; Sun, Jing; Butts, Kenneth

    2016-02-03

    A giant leap has been made in the past couple of decades with the introduction of kernel-based learning as a mainstay for designing effective nonlinear computational learning algorithms. In view of the geometric interpretation of conditional expectation and the ubiquity of multiscale characteristics in highly complex nonlinear dynamic systems [1]-[3], this paper presents a new orthogonal projection operator wavelet kernel, aiming at developing an efficient computational learning approach for nonlinear dynamical system identification. In the framework of multiresolution analysis, the proposed projection operator wavelet kernel can fulfill the multiscale, multidimensional learning to estimate complex dependencies. The special advantage of the projection operator wavelet kernel developed in this paper lies in the fact that it has a closed-form expression, which greatly facilitates its application in kernel learning. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first closed-form orthogonal projection wavelet kernel reported in the literature. It provides a link between grid-based wavelets and mesh-free kernel-based methods. Simulation studies for identifying the parallel models of two benchmark nonlinear dynamical systems confirm its superiority in model accuracy and sparsity.

  3. Surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative feedback kernels for CESM-CAM5

    DOE PAGES

    Pendergrass, Angeline G.; Conley, Andrew; Vitt, Francis M.

    2018-02-21

    Radiative kernels at the top of the atmosphere are useful for decomposing changes in atmospheric radiative fluxes due to feedbacks from atmosphere and surface temperature, water vapor, and surface albedo. Here we describe and validate radiative kernels calculated with the large-ensemble version of CAM5, CESM1.1.2, at the top of the atmosphere and the surface. Estimates of the radiative forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols in RCP8.5 in the CESM large-ensemble simulations are also diagnosed. As an application, feedbacks are calculated for the CESM large ensemble. The kernels are freely available at https://doi.org/10.5065/D6F47MT6, and accompanying software can be downloaded from https://github.com/apendergrass/cam5-kernels.

  4. Surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative feedback kernels for CESM-CAM5

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pendergrass, Angeline G.; Conley, Andrew; Vitt, Francis M.

    Radiative kernels at the top of the atmosphere are useful for decomposing changes in atmospheric radiative fluxes due to feedbacks from atmosphere and surface temperature, water vapor, and surface albedo. Here we describe and validate radiative kernels calculated with the large-ensemble version of CAM5, CESM1.1.2, at the top of the atmosphere and the surface. Estimates of the radiative forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols in RCP8.5 in the CESM large-ensemble simulations are also diagnosed. As an application, feedbacks are calculated for the CESM large ensemble. The kernels are freely available at https://doi.org/10.5065/D6F47MT6, and accompanying software can be downloaded from https://github.com/apendergrass/cam5-kernels.

  5. Blended Learning: How Teachers Balance the Blend of Online and Classroom Components

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jeffrey, Lynn M.; Milne, John; Suddaby, Gordon

    2014-01-01

    Despite teacher resistance to the use of technology in education, blended learning has increased rapidly, driven by evidence of its advantages over either online or classroom teaching alone. However, blended learning courses still fail to maximize the benefits this format offers. Much research has been conducted on various aspects of this problem,…

  6. Adaptive Shape Kernel-Based Mean Shift Tracker in Robot Vision System

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    This paper proposes an adaptive shape kernel-based mean shift tracker using a single static camera for the robot vision system. The question that we address in this paper is how to construct such a kernel shape that is adaptive to the object shape. We perform nonlinear manifold learning technique to obtain the low-dimensional shape space which is trained by training data with the same view as the tracking video. The proposed kernel searches the shape in the low-dimensional shape space obtained by nonlinear manifold learning technique and constructs the adaptive kernel shape in the high-dimensional shape space. It can improve mean shift tracker performance to track object position and object contour and avoid the background clutter. In the experimental part, we take the walking human as example to validate that our method is accurate and robust to track human position and describe human contour. PMID:27379165

  7. Classification of Microarray Data Using Kernel Fuzzy Inference System

    PubMed Central

    Kumar Rath, Santanu

    2014-01-01

    The DNA microarray classification technique has gained more popularity in both research and practice. In real data analysis, such as microarray data, the dataset contains a huge number of insignificant and irrelevant features that tend to lose useful information. Classes with high relevance and feature sets with high significance are generally referred for the selected features, which determine the samples classification into their respective classes. In this paper, kernel fuzzy inference system (K-FIS) algorithm is applied to classify the microarray data (leukemia) using t-test as a feature selection method. Kernel functions are used to map original data points into a higher-dimensional (possibly infinite-dimensional) feature space defined by a (usually nonlinear) function ϕ through a mathematical process called the kernel trick. This paper also presents a comparative study for classification using K-FIS along with support vector machine (SVM) for different set of features (genes). Performance parameters available in the literature such as precision, recall, specificity, F-measure, ROC curve, and accuracy are considered to analyze the efficiency of the classification model. From the proposed approach, it is apparent that K-FIS model obtains similar results when compared with SVM model. This is an indication that the proposed approach relies on kernel function. PMID:27433543

  8. Kernels, Degrees of Freedom, and Power Properties of Quadratic Distance Goodness-of-Fit Tests

    PubMed Central

    Lindsay, Bruce G.; Markatou, Marianthi; Ray, Surajit

    2014-01-01

    In this article, we study the power properties of quadratic-distance-based goodness-of-fit tests. First, we introduce the concept of a root kernel and discuss the considerations that enter the selection of this kernel. We derive an easy to use normal approximation to the power of quadratic distance goodness-of-fit tests and base the construction of a noncentrality index, an analogue of the traditional noncentrality parameter, on it. This leads to a method akin to the Neyman-Pearson lemma for constructing optimal kernels for specific alternatives. We then introduce a midpower analysis as a device for choosing optimal degrees of freedom for a family of alternatives of interest. Finally, we introduce a new diffusion kernel, called the Pearson-normal kernel, and study the extent to which the normal approximation to the power of tests based on this kernel is valid. Supplementary materials for this article are available online. PMID:24764609

  9. Integrating semantic information into multiple kernels for protein-protein interaction extraction from biomedical literatures.

    PubMed

    Li, Lishuang; Zhang, Panpan; Zheng, Tianfu; Zhang, Hongying; Jiang, Zhenchao; Huang, Degen

    2014-01-01

    Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) extraction is an important task in the biomedical information extraction. Presently, many machine learning methods for PPI extraction have achieved promising results. However, the performance is still not satisfactory. One reason is that the semantic resources were basically ignored. In this paper, we propose a multiple-kernel learning-based approach to extract PPIs, combining the feature-based kernel, tree kernel and semantic kernel. Particularly, we extend the shortest path-enclosed tree kernel (SPT) by a dynamic extended strategy to retrieve the richer syntactic information. Our semantic kernel calculates the protein-protein pair similarity and the context similarity based on two semantic resources: WordNet and Medical Subject Heading (MeSH). We evaluate our method with Support Vector Machine (SVM) and achieve an F-score of 69.40% and an AUC of 92.00%, which show that our method outperforms most of the state-of-the-art systems by integrating semantic information.

  10. Many Molecular Properties from One Kernel in Chemical Space

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ramakrishnan, Raghunathan; von Lilienfeld, O. Anatole

    We introduce property-independent kernels for machine learning modeling of arbitrarily many molecular properties. The kernels encode molecular structures for training sets of varying size, as well as similarity measures sufficiently diffuse in chemical space to sample over all training molecules. Corresponding molecular reference properties provided, they enable the instantaneous generation of ML models which can systematically be improved through the addition of more data. This idea is exemplified for single kernel based modeling of internal energy, enthalpy, free energy, heat capacity, polarizability, electronic spread, zero-point vibrational energy, energies of frontier orbitals, HOMOLUMO gap, and the highest fundamental vibrational wavenumber. Modelsmore » of these properties are trained and tested using 112 kilo organic molecules of similar size. Resulting models are discussed as well as the kernels’ use for generating and using other property models.« less

  11. A method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics using spheroidal kernels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fulbright, Michael S.; Benz, Willy; Davies, Melvyn B.

    1995-01-01

    We present a new method of three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) designed to model systems dominated by deformation along a preferential axis. These systems cause severe problems for SPH codes using spherical kernels, which are best suited for modeling systems which retain rough spherical symmetry. Our method allows the smoothing length in the direction of the deformation to evolve independently of the smoothing length in the perpendicular plane, resulting in a kernel with a spheroidal shape. As a result the spatial resolution in the direction of deformation is significantly improved. As a test case we present the one-dimensional homologous collapse of a zero-temperature, uniform-density cloud, which serves to demonstrate the advantages of spheroidal kernels. We also present new results on the problem of the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole.

  12. Phylodynamic Inference with Kernel ABC and Its Application to HIV Epidemiology.

    PubMed

    Poon, Art F Y

    2015-09-01

    The shapes of phylogenetic trees relating virus populations are determined by the adaptation of viruses within each host, and by the transmission of viruses among hosts. Phylodynamic inference attempts to reverse this flow of information, estimating parameters of these processes from the shape of a virus phylogeny reconstructed from a sample of genetic sequences from the epidemic. A key challenge to phylodynamic inference is quantifying the similarity between two trees in an efficient and comprehensive way. In this study, I demonstrate that a new distance measure, based on a subset tree kernel function from computational linguistics, confers a significant improvement over previous measures of tree shape for classifying trees generated under different epidemiological scenarios. Next, I incorporate this kernel-based distance measure into an approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) framework for phylodynamic inference. ABC bypasses the need for an analytical solution of model likelihood, as it only requires the ability to simulate data from the model. I validate this "kernel-ABC" method for phylodynamic inference by estimating parameters from data simulated under a simple epidemiological model. Results indicate that kernel-ABC attained greater accuracy for parameters associated with virus transmission than leading software on the same data sets. Finally, I apply the kernel-ABC framework to study a recent outbreak of a recombinant HIV subtype in China. Kernel-ABC provides a versatile framework for phylodynamic inference because it can fit a broader range of models than methods that rely on the computation of exact likelihoods. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

  13. Data-Driven Hierarchical Structure Kernel for Multiscale Part-Based Object Recognition

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Botao; Xiong, Hongkai; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Zheng, Yuan F.

    2017-01-01

    Detecting generic object categories in images and videos are a fundamental issue in computer vision. However, it faces the challenges from inter and intraclass diversity, as well as distortions caused by viewpoints, poses, deformations, and so on. To solve object variations, this paper constructs a structure kernel and proposes a multiscale part-based model incorporating the discriminative power of kernels. The structure kernel would measure the resemblance of part-based objects in three aspects: 1) the global similarity term to measure the resemblance of the global visual appearance of relevant objects; 2) the part similarity term to measure the resemblance of the visual appearance of distinctive parts; and 3) the spatial similarity term to measure the resemblance of the spatial layout of parts. In essence, the deformation of parts in the structure kernel is penalized in a multiscale space with respect to horizontal displacement, vertical displacement, and scale difference. Part similarities are combined with different weights, which are optimized efficiently to maximize the intraclass similarities and minimize the interclass similarities by the normalized stochastic gradient ascent algorithm. In addition, the parameters of the structure kernel are learned during the training process with regard to the distribution of the data in a more discriminative way. With flexible part sizes on scale and displacement, it can be more robust to the intraclass variations, poses, and viewpoints. Theoretical analysis and experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed multiscale part-based representation model with structure kernel exhibits accurate and robust performance, and outperforms state-of-the-art object classification approaches. PMID:24808345

  14. Ethanol-diesel fuel blends -- a review.

    PubMed

    Hansen, Alan C; Zhang, Qin; Lyne, Peter W L

    2005-02-01

    Ethanol is an attractive alternative fuel because it is a renewable bio-based resource and it is oxygenated, thereby providing the potential to reduce particulate emissions in compression-ignition engines. In this review the properties and specifications of ethanol blended with diesel fuel are discussed. Special emphasis is placed on the factors critical to the potential commercial use of these blends. These factors include blend properties such as stability, viscosity and lubricity, safety and materials compatibility. The effect of the fuel on engine performance, durability and emissions is also considered. The formulation of additives to correct certain key properties and maintain blend stability is suggested as a critical factor in ensuring fuel compatibility with engines. However, maintaining vehicle safety with these blends may entail fuel tank modifications. Further work is required in specifying acceptable fuel characteristics, confirming the long-term effects on engine durability, and ensuring safety in handling and storing ethanol-diesel blends.

  15. Kernel-based whole-genome prediction of complex traits: a review.

    PubMed

    Morota, Gota; Gianola, Daniel

    2014-01-01

    Prediction of genetic values has been a focus of applied quantitative genetics since the beginning of the 20th century, with renewed interest following the advent of the era of whole genome-enabled prediction. Opportunities offered by the emergence of high-dimensional genomic data fueled by post-Sanger sequencing technologies, especially molecular markers, have driven researchers to extend Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright's models to confront new challenges. In particular, kernel methods are gaining consideration as a regression method of choice for genome-enabled prediction. Complex traits are presumably influenced by many genomic regions working in concert with others (clearly so when considering pathways), thus generating interactions. Motivated by this view, a growing number of statistical approaches based on kernels attempt to capture non-additive effects, either parametrically or non-parametrically. This review centers on whole-genome regression using kernel methods applied to a wide range of quantitative traits of agricultural importance in animals and plants. We discuss various kernel-based approaches tailored to capturing total genetic variation, with the aim of arriving at an enhanced predictive performance in the light of available genome annotation information. Connections between prediction machines born in animal breeding, statistics, and machine learning are revisited, and their empirical prediction performance is discussed. Overall, while some encouraging results have been obtained with non-parametric kernels, recovering non-additive genetic variation in a validation dataset remains a challenge in quantitative genetics.

  16. Volterra series truncation and kernel estimation of nonlinear systems in the frequency domain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, B.; Billings, S. A.

    2017-02-01

    The Volterra series model is a direct generalisation of the linear convolution integral and is capable of displaying the intrinsic features of a nonlinear system in a simple and easy to apply way. Nonlinear system analysis using Volterra series is normally based on the analysis of its frequency-domain kernels and a truncated description. But the estimation of Volterra kernels and the truncation of Volterra series are coupled with each other. In this paper, a novel complex-valued orthogonal least squares algorithm is developed. The new algorithm provides a powerful tool to determine which terms should be included in the Volterra series expansion and to estimate the kernels and thus solves the two problems all together. The estimated results are compared with those determined using the analytical expressions of the kernels to validate the method. To further evaluate the effectiveness of the method, the physical parameters of the system are also extracted from the measured kernels. Simulation studies demonstrates that the new approach not only can truncate the Volterra series expansion and estimate the kernels of a weakly nonlinear system, but also can indicate the applicability of the Volterra series analysis in a severely nonlinear system case.

  17. Coalescence in PLA-PBAT blends under shear flow: Effects of blend preparation and PLA molecular weight

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nofar, M.; Heuzey, M. C.; Carreau, P. J., E-mail: pierre.carreau@polymtl.ca

    Blends containing 75 wt. % of an amorphous polylactide (PLA) with two different molecular weights and 25 wt. % of a poly[(butylene adipate)-co-terephthalate] (PBAT) were prepared using either a Brabender batch mixer or a twin-screw extruder. These compounds were selected because blending PLA with PBAT can overcome various drawbacks of PLA such as its brittleness and processability limitations. In this study, we investigated the effects of varying the molecular weight of the PLA matrix and of two different mixing processes on the blend morphology and, further, on droplet coalescence during shearing. The rheological properties of these blends were investigated and the interfacialmore » properties were analyzed using the Palierne emulsion model. Droplet coalescence was investigated by applying shear flows of 0.05 and 0.20 s{sup −1} at a fixed strain of 60. Subsequently, small amplitude oscillatory shear tests were conducted to investigate changes in the viscoelastic properties. The morphology of the blends was also examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs. It was observed that the PBAT droplets were much smaller when twin-screw extrusion was used for the blend preparation. Shearing at 0.05 s{sup −1} induced significant droplet coalescence in all blends, but coalescence and changes in the viscoelastic properties were much more pronounced for the PLA-PBAT blend based on a lower molecular weight PLA. The viscoelastic responses were also somehow affected by the thermal degradation of the PLA matrix during the experiments.« less

  18. Epileptic Seizure Detection with Log-Euclidean Gaussian Kernel-Based Sparse Representation.

    PubMed

    Yuan, Shasha; Zhou, Weidong; Wu, Qi; Zhang, Yanli

    2016-05-01

    Epileptic seizure detection plays an important role in the diagnosis of epilepsy and reducing the massive workload of reviewing electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. In this work, a novel algorithm is developed to detect seizures employing log-Euclidean Gaussian kernel-based sparse representation (SR) in long-term EEG recordings. Unlike the traditional SR for vector data in Euclidean space, the log-Euclidean Gaussian kernel-based SR framework is proposed for seizure detection in the space of the symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrices, which form a Riemannian manifold. Since the Riemannian manifold is nonlinear, the log-Euclidean Gaussian kernel function is applied to embed it into a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) for performing SR. The EEG signals of all channels are divided into epochs and the SPD matrices representing EEG epochs are generated by covariance descriptors. Then, the testing samples are sparsely coded over the dictionary composed by training samples utilizing log-Euclidean Gaussian kernel-based SR. The classification of testing samples is achieved by computing the minimal reconstructed residuals. The proposed method is evaluated on the Freiburg EEG dataset of 21 patients and shows its notable performance on both epoch-based and event-based assessments. Moreover, this method handles multiple channels of EEG recordings synchronously which is more speedy and efficient than traditional seizure detection methods.

  19. Study of the convergence behavior of the complex kernel least mean square algorithm.

    PubMed

    Paul, Thomas K; Ogunfunmi, Tokunbo

    2013-09-01

    The complex kernel least mean square (CKLMS) algorithm is recently derived and allows for online kernel adaptive learning for complex data. Kernel adaptive methods can be used in finding solutions for neural network and machine learning applications. The derivation of CKLMS involved the development of a modified Wirtinger calculus for Hilbert spaces to obtain the cost function gradient. We analyze the convergence of the CKLMS with different kernel forms for complex data. The expressions obtained enable us to generate theory-predicted mean-square error curves considering the circularity of the complex input signals and their effect on nonlinear learning. Simulations are used for verifying the analysis results.

  20. Development of high-performance blended cements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Zichao

    2000-10-01

    This thesis presents the development of high-performance blended cements from industrial by-products. To overcome the low-early strength of blended cements, several chemicals were studied as the activators for cement hydration. Sodium sulfate was discovered as the best activator. The blending proportions were optimized by Taguchi experimental design. The optimized blended cements containing up to 80% fly ash performed better than Type I cement in strength development and durability. Maintaining a constant cement content, concrete produced from the optimized blended cements had equal or higher strength and higher durability than that produced from Type I cement alone. The key for the activation mechanism was the reaction between added SO4 2- and Ca2+ dissolved from cement hydration products.

  1. Moisture Adsorption Isotherm and Storability of Hazelnut Inshells and Kernels Produced in Oregon, USA.

    PubMed

    Jung, Jooyeoun; Wang, Wenjie; McGorrin, Robert J; Zhao, Yanyun

    2018-02-01

    Moisture adsorption isotherms and storability of dried hazelnut inshells and kernels produced in Oregon were evaluated and compared among cultivars, including Barcelona, Yamhill, and Jefferson. Experimental moisture adsorption data fitted to Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) model, showing less hygroscopic properties in Yamhill than other cultivars of inshells and kernels due to lower content of carbohydrate and protein, but higher content of fat. The safe levels of moisture content (MC, dry basis) of dried inshells and kernels for reaching kernel water activity (a w ) ≤0.65 were estimated using the GAB model as 11.3% and 5.0% for Barcelona, 9.4% and 4.2% for Yamhill, and 10.7% and 4.9% for Jefferson, respectively. Storage conditions (2 °C at 85% to 95% relative humidity [RH], 10 °C at 65% to 75% RH, and 27 °C at 35% to 45% RH), times (0, 4, 8, or 12 mo), and packaging methods (atmosphere vs. vacuum) affected MC, a w , bioactive compounds, lipid oxidation, and enzyme activity of dried hazelnut inshells or kernels. For inshells packaged at woven polypropylene bag, MC and a w of inshells and kernels (inside shells) increased at 2 and 10 °C, but decreased at 27 °C during storage. For kernels, lipid oxidation and polyphenol oxidase activity also increased with extended storage time (P < 0.05), and MC and a w of vacuum packaged samples were more stable during storage than those atmospherically packaged ones. Principal component analysis showed correlation of kernel qualities with storage condition, time, and packaging method. This study demonstrated that the ideal storage condition or packaging method varied among cultivars due to their different moisture adsorption and physicochemical and enzymatic stability during storage. Moisture adsorption isotherm of hazelnut inshells and kernels is useful for predicting the storability of nuts. This study found that water adsorption and storability varied among the different cultivars of nuts, in which Yamhill was

  2. Impact of palm olein in infant formulas on stool consistency and frequency: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

    PubMed Central

    Lasekan, John B.; Hustead, Deborah S.; Masor, Marc; Murray, Robert

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Background: Meta-analysis studies have documented that palm olein (PALM) predominant formulas reduce calcium and fat absorption, and bone mineralization in infants, but none have been documented for stool consistency and frequency. Objective: The study objective was to conduct a meta-analysis of published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on the effect of PALM-based formulas on stool consistency and frequency in infants. Design: A literature search was conducted in BIOSIS Previews®, Embase®, Embase® Alert, MEDLINE® and Cochrane databases. PALM-based RCTs with available stool outcomes were selected and meta-analyzed. Mean rank stool consistency (MRSC, primary outcome) and stool frequency (secondary outcome) were compared between infants fed PALM-based and PALM-free formulas (NoPALM), using random effects model. Results: Nine out of identified16 studies were meta-analyzed. The mean MRSC (scale of 1 = watery to 5 = hard) in the NoPALM-fed infants was lower (softer stools) compared to the PALM-fed infants (mean difference ‒0.355, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] of ‒0.472 to ‒0.239, p < 0.001). Difference for stool frequency was not significant (p = 0.613). Conclusion: Meta-analysis of RCTs indicated that NoPALM-fed infants have significantly softer stools but similar stool frequencies versus PALM-fed infants, despite differences in study types and design. Future meta-analysis could benefit from including comparison with human milk-fed infants. PMID:28659741

  3. The NAS kernel benchmark program

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bailey, D. H.; Barton, J. T.

    1985-01-01

    A collection of benchmark test kernels that measure supercomputer performance has been developed for the use of the NAS (Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation) program at the NASA Ames Research Center. This benchmark program is described in detail and the specific ground rules are given for running the program as a performance test.

  4. Finite-frequency sensitivity kernels for global seismic wave propagation based upon adjoint methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Qinya; Tromp, Jeroen

    2008-07-01

    We determine adjoint equations and Fréchet kernels for global seismic wave propagation based upon a Lagrange multiplier method. We start from the equations of motion for a rotating, self-gravitating earth model initially in hydrostatic equilibrium, and derive the corresponding adjoint equations that involve motions on an earth model that rotates in the opposite direction. Variations in the misfit function χ then may be expressed as , where δlnm = δm/m denotes relative model perturbations in the volume V, δlnd denotes relative topographic variations on solid-solid or fluid-solid boundaries Σ, and ∇Σδlnd denotes surface gradients in relative topographic variations on fluid-solid boundaries ΣFS. The 3-D Fréchet kernel Km determines the sensitivity to model perturbations δlnm, and the 2-D kernels Kd and Kd determine the sensitivity to topographic variations δlnd. We demonstrate also how anelasticity may be incorporated within the framework of adjoint methods. Finite-frequency sensitivity kernels are calculated by simultaneously computing the adjoint wavefield forward in time and reconstructing the regular wavefield backward in time. Both the forward and adjoint simulations are based upon a spectral-element method. We apply the adjoint technique to generate finite-frequency traveltime kernels for global seismic phases (P, Pdiff, PKP, S, SKS, depth phases, surface-reflected phases, surface waves, etc.) in both 1-D and 3-D earth models. For 1-D models these adjoint-generated kernels generally agree well with results obtained from ray-based methods. However, adjoint methods do not have the same theoretical limitations as ray-based methods, and can produce sensitivity kernels for any given phase in any 3-D earth model. The Fréchet kernels presented in this paper illustrate the sensitivity of seismic observations to structural parameters and topography on internal discontinuities. These kernels form the basis of future 3-D tomographic inversions.

  5. Dielectric relaxation measurement and analysis of restricted water structure in rice kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yagihara, Shin; Oyama, Mikio; Inoue, Akio; Asano, Megumi; Sudo, Seiichi; Shinyashiki, Naoki

    2007-04-01

    Dielectric relaxation measurements were performed for rice kernels by time domain reflectometry (TDR) with flat-end coaxial electrodes. Difficulties in good contact between the surfaces of the electrodes and the kernels are eliminated by a TDR set-up with a sample holder for a kernel, and the water content could be evaluated from relaxation curves. Dielectric measurements were performed for rice kernels, rice flour and boiled rice with various water contents, and the water amount and dynamic behaviour of water molecules were explained from restricted dynamics of water molecules and also from the τ-β (relaxation time versus the relaxation-time distribution parameter of the Cole-Cole equation) diagram. In comparison with other aqueous systems, the dynamic structure of water in moist rice is more similar to aqueous dispersion systems than to aqueous solutions.

  6. Fruit position within the canopy affects kernel lipid composition of hazelnuts.

    PubMed

    Pannico, Antonio; Cirillo, Chiara; Giaccone, Matteo; Scognamiglio, Pasquale; Romano, Raffaele; Caporaso, Nicola; Sacchi, Raffaele; Basile, Boris

    2017-11-01

    The aim of this research was to study the variability in kernel composition within the canopy of hazelnut trees. Kernel fresh and dry weight increased linearly with fruit height above the ground. Fat content decreased, while protein and ash content increased, from the bottom to the top layers of the canopy. The level of unsaturation of fatty acids decreased from the bottom to the top of the canopy. Thus, the kernels located in the bottom layers of the canopy appear to be more interesting from a nutritional point of view, but their lipids may be more exposed to oxidation. The content of different phytosterols increased progressively from bottom to top canopy layers. Most of these effects correlated with the pattern in light distribution inside the canopy. The results of this study indicate that fruit position within the canopy is an important factor in determining hazelnut kernel growth and composition. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

  7. Sensitivities Kernels of Seismic Traveltimes and Amplitudes for Quality Factor and Boundary Topography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hsieh, M.; Zhao, L.; Ma, K.

    2010-12-01

    Finite-frequency approach enables seismic tomography to fully utilize the spatial and temporal distributions of the seismic wavefield to improve resolution. In achieving this goal, one of the most important tasks is to compute efficiently and accurately the (Fréchet) sensitivity kernels of finite-frequency seismic observables such as traveltime and amplitude to the perturbations of model parameters. In scattering-integral approach, the Fréchet kernels are expressed in terms of the strain Green tensors (SGTs), and a pre-established SGT database is necessary to achieve practical efficiency for a three-dimensional reference model in which the SGTs must be calculated numerically. Methods for computing Fréchet kernels for seismic velocities have long been established. In this study, we develop algorithms based on the finite-difference method for calculating Fréchet kernels for the quality factor Qμ and seismic boundary topography. Kernels for the quality factor can be obtained in a way similar to those for seismic velocities with the help of the Hilbert transform. The effects of seismic velocities and quality factor on either traveltime or amplitude are coupled. Kernels for boundary topography involve spatial gradient of the SGTs and they also exhibit interesting finite-frequency characteristics. Examples of quality factor and boundary topography kernels will be shown for a realistic model for the Taiwan region with three-dimensional velocity variation as well as surface and Moho discontinuity topography.

  8. Wilson Dslash Kernel From Lattice QCD Optimization

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Joo, Balint; Smelyanskiy, Mikhail; Kalamkar, Dhiraj D.

    2015-07-01

    Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) is a numerical technique used for calculations in Theoretical Nuclear and High Energy Physics. LQCD is traditionally one of the first applications ported to many new high performance computing architectures and indeed LQCD practitioners have been known to design and build custom LQCD computers. Lattice QCD kernels are frequently used as benchmarks (e.g. 168.wupwise in the SPEC suite) and are generally well understood, and as such are ideal to illustrate several optimization techniques. In this chapter we will detail our work in optimizing the Wilson-Dslash kernels for Intel Xeon Phi, however, as we will show themore » technique gives excellent performance on regular Xeon Architecture as well.« less

  9. Anelastic sensitivity kernels with parsimonious storage for adjoint tomography and full waveform inversion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Komatitsch, Dimitri; Xie, Zhinan; Bozdaǧ, Ebru; Sales de Andrade, Elliott; Peter, Daniel; Liu, Qinya; Tromp, Jeroen

    2016-09-01

    We introduce a technique to compute exact anelastic sensitivity kernels in the time domain using parsimonious disk storage. The method is based on a reordering of the time loop of time-domain forward/adjoint wave propagation solvers combined with the use of a memory buffer. It avoids instabilities that occur when time-reversing dissipative wave propagation simulations. The total number of required time steps is unchanged compared to usual acoustic or elastic approaches. The cost is reduced by a factor of 4/3 compared to the case in which anelasticity is partially accounted for by accommodating the effects of physical dispersion. We validate our technique by performing a test in which we compare the Kα sensitivity kernel to the exact kernel obtained by saving the entire forward calculation. This benchmark confirms that our approach is also exact. We illustrate the importance of including full attenuation in the calculation of sensitivity kernels by showing significant differences with physical-dispersion-only kernels.

  10. Kernel-based least squares policy iteration for reinforcement learning.

    PubMed

    Xu, Xin; Hu, Dewen; Lu, Xicheng

    2007-07-01

    In this paper, we present a kernel-based least squares policy iteration (KLSPI) algorithm for reinforcement learning (RL) in large or continuous state spaces, which can be used to realize adaptive feedback control of uncertain dynamic systems. By using KLSPI, near-optimal control policies can be obtained without much a priori knowledge on dynamic models of control plants. In KLSPI, Mercer kernels are used in the policy evaluation of a policy iteration process, where a new kernel-based least squares temporal-difference algorithm called KLSTD-Q is proposed for efficient policy evaluation. To keep the sparsity and improve the generalization ability of KLSTD-Q solutions, a kernel sparsification procedure based on approximate linear dependency (ALD) is performed. Compared to the previous works on approximate RL methods, KLSPI makes two progresses to eliminate the main difficulties of existing results. One is the better convergence and (near) optimality guarantee by using the KLSTD-Q algorithm for policy evaluation with high precision. The other is the automatic feature selection using the ALD-based kernel sparsification. Therefore, the KLSPI algorithm provides a general RL method with generalization performance and convergence guarantee for large-scale Markov decision problems (MDPs). Experimental results on a typical RL task for a stochastic chain problem demonstrate that KLSPI can consistently achieve better learning efficiency and policy quality than the previous least squares policy iteration (LSPI) algorithm. Furthermore, the KLSPI method was also evaluated on two nonlinear feedback control problems, including a ship heading control problem and the swing up control of a double-link underactuated pendulum called acrobot. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed method can optimize controller performance using little a priori information of uncertain dynamic systems. It is also demonstrated that KLSPI can be applied to online learning control by incorporating

  11. The Genetic Basis of Natural Variation in Kernel Size and Related Traits Using a Four-Way Cross Population in Maize.

    PubMed

    Chen, Jiafa; Zhang, Luyan; Liu, Songtao; Li, Zhimin; Huang, Rongrong; Li, Yongming; Cheng, Hongliang; Li, Xiantang; Zhou, Bo; Wu, Suowei; Chen, Wei; Wu, Jianyu; Ding, Junqiang

    2016-01-01

    Kernel size is an important component of grain yield in maize breeding programs. To extend the understanding on the genetic basis of kernel size traits (i.e., kernel length, kernel width and kernel thickness), we developed a set of four-way cross mapping population derived from four maize inbred lines with varied kernel sizes. In the present study, we investigated the genetic basis of natural variation in seed size and other components of maize yield (e.g., hundred kernel weight, number of rows per ear, number of kernels per row). In total, ten QTL affecting kernel size were identified, three of which (two for kernel length and one for kernel width) had stable expression in other components of maize yield. The possible genetic mechanism behind the trade-off of kernel size and yield components was discussed.

  12. The Genetic Basis of Natural Variation in Kernel Size and Related Traits Using a Four-Way Cross Population in Maize

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Songtao; Li, Zhimin; Huang, Rongrong; Li, Yongming; Cheng, Hongliang; Li, Xiantang; Zhou, Bo; Wu, Suowei; Chen, Wei; Wu, Jianyu; Ding, Junqiang

    2016-01-01

    Kernel size is an important component of grain yield in maize breeding programs. To extend the understanding on the genetic basis of kernel size traits (i.e., kernel length, kernel width and kernel thickness), we developed a set of four-way cross mapping population derived from four maize inbred lines with varied kernel sizes. In the present study, we investigated the genetic basis of natural variation in seed size and other components of maize yield (e.g., hundred kernel weight, number of rows per ear, number of kernels per row). In total, ten QTL affecting kernel size were identified, three of which (two for kernel length and one for kernel width) had stable expression in other components of maize yield. The possible genetic mechanism behind the trade-off of kernel size and yield components was discussed. PMID:27070143

  13. Damage initiated self-healing in ionomer blends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahman, Md. Arifur; Penco, Maurizio; Spagnoli, Gloria; Peroni, Isabella; Ramorino, Giorgio; Sartore, Luciana; Bignotti, Fabio; Landro, Luca Di

    2012-07-01

    The development and understanding of self-healing mechanisms have been investigated in blends of ionomers (Poly(ethyelene-co-methacrylic acid), sodium & zinc ions) (EMNa & EMZn) containing both elastomers (Epoxidized natural rubbers (ENR) and cis-1,4-Polyisoprene (PISP)) and crystalline component (Poly(vinly alcohol-co-ethylene) [PVAcE]) as secondary phases. All the blends were prepared by melt-blending and self-healing behavior was studied in ballistic puncture tests. Self-healing behavior of each material was evaluated by observing the impact zones under a stereo-optical microscope and the micrographic results were further supported by the fluid flow test in the punctured zones. Interestingly, ENR50 blends of sodium ion containing ionomers exhibited complete self-repairing behavior while zinc ion containing ionomer showed limited mending but EMNa/ENR25 and EMNa/PISP blends did not show any self-healing behavior following the damage. On the other hand, a composition dependent healing behavior was observed in the EMNa/PVAcE blends where healing was observed up to 30wt% PVAcE containing blends. The chemical structure studied by FTIR analysis showed that both ion content of ionomer and functionality of ENR have significant influence on the self-repairing behavior of blends. TEM analysis revealed that self-healing occurs in the blends when the dispersed phase has a dimension of 100 to 400 nm.

  14. WI Biodiesel Blending Progream Final Report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Redmond, Maria E; Levy, Megan M

    The Wisconsin State Energy Office's (SEO) primary mission is to implement cost effective, reliable, balanced, and environmentally friendly clean energy projects. To support this mission the Wisconsin Biodiesel Blending Program was created to financially support the installation infrastructure necessary to directly sustain biodiesel blending and distribution at petroleum terminal facilities throughout Wisconsin. The SEO secured a federal directed award of $600,000 over 2.25 years. With these funds, the SEO supported the construction of inline biodiesel blending facilities at two petroleum terminals in Wisconsin. The Federal funding provided through the state provided a little less than half of the necessary investmentmore » to construct the terminals, with the balance put forth by the partners. Wisconsin is now home to two new biodiesel blending terminals. Fusion Renewables on Jones Island (in the City of Milwaukee) will offer a B100 blend to both bulk and retail customers. CITGO is currently providing a B5 blend to all customers at their Granville, WI terminal north of the City of Milwaukee.« less

  15. An iterative kernel based method for fourth order nonlinear equation with nonlinear boundary condition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Azarnavid, Babak; Parand, Kourosh; Abbasbandy, Saeid

    2018-06-01

    This article discusses an iterative reproducing kernel method with respect to its effectiveness and capability of solving a fourth-order boundary value problem with nonlinear boundary conditions modeling beams on elastic foundations. Since there is no method of obtaining reproducing kernel which satisfies nonlinear boundary conditions, the standard reproducing kernel methods cannot be used directly to solve boundary value problems with nonlinear boundary conditions as there is no knowledge about the existence and uniqueness of the solution. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to construct an iterative method by the use of a combination of reproducing kernel Hilbert space method and a shooting-like technique to solve the mentioned problems. Error estimation for reproducing kernel Hilbert space methods for nonlinear boundary value problems have yet to be discussed in the literature. In this paper, we present error estimation for the reproducing kernel method to solve nonlinear boundary value problems probably for the first time. Some numerical results are given out to demonstrate the applicability of the method.

  16. CLAss-Specific Subspace Kernel Representations and Adaptive Margin Slack Minimization for Large Scale Classification.

    PubMed

    Yu, Yinan; Diamantaras, Konstantinos I; McKelvey, Tomas; Kung, Sun-Yuan

    2018-02-01

    In kernel-based classification models, given limited computational power and storage capacity, operations over the full kernel matrix becomes prohibitive. In this paper, we propose a new supervised learning framework using kernel models for sequential data processing. The framework is based on two components that both aim at enhancing the classification capability with a subset selection scheme. The first part is a subspace projection technique in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space using a CLAss-specific Subspace Kernel representation for kernel approximation. In the second part, we propose a novel structural risk minimization algorithm called the adaptive margin slack minimization to iteratively improve the classification accuracy by an adaptive data selection. We motivate each part separately, and then integrate them into learning frameworks for large scale data. We propose two such frameworks: the memory efficient sequential processing for sequential data processing and the parallelized sequential processing for distributed computing with sequential data acquisition. We test our methods on several benchmark data sets and compared with the state-of-the-art techniques to verify the validity of the proposed techniques.

  17. Effectiveness of Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rao, A. V. Nageswararao

    2006-01-01

    The introduction of blended learning added new dimension to training, and the possibilities for delivering knowledge and information to learners at an accelerated pace and opened new vistas for knowledge management. Industry pioneers and academicians agree that blended learning will continue to become a driving force in business and in education.…

  18. A Classification of Remote Sensing Image Based on Improved Compound Kernels of Svm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Jianing; Gao, Wanlin; Liu, Zili; Mou, Guifen; Lu, Lin; Yu, Lina

    The accuracy of RS classification based on SVM which is developed from statistical learning theory is high under small number of train samples, which results in satisfaction of classification on RS using SVM methods. The traditional RS classification method combines visual interpretation with computer classification. The accuracy of the RS classification, however, is improved a lot based on SVM method, because it saves much labor and time which is used to interpret images and collect training samples. Kernel functions play an important part in the SVM algorithm. It uses improved compound kernel function and therefore has a higher accuracy of classification on RS images. Moreover, compound kernel improves the generalization and learning ability of the kernel.

  19. Antidiarrhoeal efficacy of Mangifera indica seed kernel on Swiss albino mice.

    PubMed

    Rajan, S; Suganya, H; Thirunalasundari, T; Jeeva, S

    2012-08-01

    To examine the antidiarrhoeal activity of alcoholic and aqueous seed kernel extract of Mangifera indica (M. indica) on castor oil-induced diarrhoeal activity in Swiss albino mice. Mango seed kernels were processed and extracted using alcohol and water. Antidiarrhoeal activity of the extracts were assessed using intestinal motility and faecal score methods. Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of M. indica significantly reduced intestinal motility and faecal score in Swiss albino mice. The present study shows the traditional claim on the use of M. indica seed kernel for treating diarrhoea in Southern parts of India. Copyright © 2012 Hainan Medical College. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Oscillatory supersonic kernel function method for interfering surfaces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cunningham, A. M., Jr.

    1974-01-01

    In the method presented in this paper, a collocation technique is used with the nonplanar supersonic kernel function to solve multiple lifting surface problems with interference in steady or oscillatory flow. The pressure functions used are based on conical flow theory solutions and provide faster solution convergence than is possible with conventional functions. In the application of the nonplanar supersonic kernel function, an improper integral of a 3/2 power singularity along the Mach hyperbola is described and treated. The method is compared with other theories and experiment for two wing-tail configurations in steady and oscillatory flow.

  1. Classification accuracy on the family planning participation status using kernel discriminant analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kurniawan, Dian; Suparti; Sugito

    2018-05-01

    Population growth in Indonesia has increased every year. According to the population census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in 2010, the population of Indonesia has reached 237.6 million people. Therefore, to control the population growth rate, the government hold Family Planning or Keluarga Berencana (KB) program for couples of childbearing age. The purpose of this program is to improve the health of mothers and children in order to manifest prosperous society by controlling births while ensuring control of population growth. The data used in this study is the updated family data of Semarang city in 2016 that conducted by National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN). From these data, classifiers with kernel discriminant analysis will be obtained, and also classification accuracy will be obtained from that method. The result of the analysis showed that normal kernel discriminant analysis gives 71.05 % classification accuracy with 28.95 % classification error. Whereas triweight kernel discriminant analysis gives 73.68 % classification accuracy with 26.32 % classification error. Using triweight kernel discriminant for data preprocessing of family planning participation of childbearing age couples in Semarang City of 2016 can be stated better than with normal kernel discriminant.

  2. Effect of amino acids and frequency of reuse frying oils at different temperature on acrylamide formation in palm olein and soy bean oils via modeling system.

    PubMed

    Daniali, G; Jinap, S; Sanny, M; Tan, C P

    2018-04-15

    This work investigated the underlying formation of acrylamide from amino acids in frying oils during high temperatures and at different times via modeling systems. Eighteen amino acids were used in order to determine which one was more effective on acrylamide production. Significantly the highest amount of acrylamide was produced from asparagine (5987.5µg/kg) and the lowest from phenylalanine (9.25µg/kg). A constant amount of asparagine and glutamine in palm olein and soy bean oils was heated up in modelling system at different temperatures (160, 180 and 200°C) and times (1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5min). The highest amount of acrylamide was found at 200°C for 7.5min (9317 and 8511µg/kg) and lowest at 160°C for 1.5min (156 and 254µg/kg) in both frying oils and both amino acids. Direct correlations have been found between time (R 2 =0.884), temperature (R 2 =0.951) and amount of acrylamide formation, both at p<0.05. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Straight-chain halocarbon forming fluids for TRISO fuel kernel production - Tests with yttria-stabilized zirconia microspheres

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baker, M. P.; King, J. C.; Gorman, B. P.; Braley, J. C.

    2015-03-01

    Current methods of TRISO fuel kernel production in the United States use a sol-gel process with trichloroethylene (TCE) as the forming fluid. After contact with radioactive materials, the spent TCE becomes a mixed hazardous waste, and high costs are associated with its recycling or disposal. Reducing or eliminating this mixed waste stream would not only benefit the environment, but would also enhance the economics of kernel production. Previous research yielded three candidates for testing as alternatives to TCE: 1-bromotetradecane, 1-chlorooctadecane, and 1-iodododecane. This study considers the production of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) kernels in silicone oil and the three chosen alternative formation fluids, with subsequent characterization of the produced kernels and used forming fluid. Kernels formed in silicone oil and bromotetradecane were comparable to those produced by previous kernel production efforts, while those produced in chlorooctadecane and iodododecane experienced gelation issues leading to poor kernel formation and geometry.

  4. Cross-domain question classification in community question answering via kernel mapping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Lei; Hu, Zuoliang; Yang, Bin; Li, Yiyang; Chen, Jun

    2015-10-01

    An increasingly popular method for retrieving information is via the community question answering (CQA) systems such as Yahoo! Answers and Baidu Knows. In CQA, question classification plays an important role to find the answers. However, the labeled training examples for statistical question classifier are fairly expensive to obtain, as they require the experienced human efforts. Meanwhile, unlabeled data are readily available. This paper employs the method of domain adaptation via kernel mapping to solve this problem. In detail, the kernel approach is utilized to map the target-domain data and the source-domain data into a common space, where the question classifiers are trained under the closer conditional probabilities. The kernel mapping function is constructed by domain knowledge. Therefore, domain knowledge could be transferred from the labeled examples in the source domain to the unlabeled ones in the targeted domain. The statistical training model can be improved by using a large number of unlabeled data. Meanwhile, the Hadoop Platform is used to construct the mapping mechanism to reduce the time complexity. Map/Reduce enable kernel mapping for domain adaptation in parallel in the Hadoop Platform. Experimental results show that the accuracy of question classification could be improved by the method of kernel mapping. Furthermore, the parallel method in the Hadoop Platform could effective schedule the computing resources to reduce the running time.

  5. Adaptive wiener image restoration kernel

    DOEpatents

    Yuan, Ding [Henderson, NV

    2007-06-05

    A method and device for restoration of electro-optical image data using an adaptive Wiener filter begins with constructing imaging system Optical Transfer Function, and the Fourier Transformations of the noise and the image. A spatial representation of the imaged object is restored by spatial convolution of the image using a Wiener restoration kernel.

  6. Kernel functions and Baecklund transformations for relativistic Calogero-Moser and Toda systems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hallnaes, Martin; Ruijsenaars, Simon

    We obtain kernel functions associated with the quantum relativistic Toda systems, both for the periodic version and for the nonperiodic version with its dual. This involves taking limits of previously known results concerning kernel functions for the elliptic and hyperbolic relativistic Calogero-Moser systems. We show that the special kernel functions at issue admit a limit that yields generating functions of Baecklund transformations for the classical relativistic Calogero-Moser and Toda systems. We also obtain the nonrelativistic counterparts of our results, which tie in with previous results in the literature.

  7. Fast Gaussian kernel learning for classification tasks based on specially structured global optimization.

    PubMed

    Zhong, Shangping; Chen, Tianshun; He, Fengying; Niu, Yuzhen

    2014-09-01

    For a practical pattern classification task solved by kernel methods, the computing time is mainly spent on kernel learning (or training). However, the current kernel learning approaches are based on local optimization techniques, and hard to have good time performances, especially for large datasets. Thus the existing algorithms cannot be easily extended to large-scale tasks. In this paper, we present a fast Gaussian kernel learning method by solving a specially structured global optimization (SSGO) problem. We optimize the Gaussian kernel function by using the formulated kernel target alignment criterion, which is a difference of increasing (d.i.) functions. Through using a power-transformation based convexification method, the objective criterion can be represented as a difference of convex (d.c.) functions with a fixed power-transformation parameter. And the objective programming problem can then be converted to a SSGO problem: globally minimizing a concave function over a convex set. The SSGO problem is classical and has good solvability. Thus, to find the global optimal solution efficiently, we can adopt the improved Hoffman's outer approximation method, which need not repeat the searching procedure with different starting points to locate the best local minimum. Also, the proposed method can be proven to converge to the global solution for any classification task. We evaluate the proposed method on twenty benchmark datasets, and compare it with four other Gaussian kernel learning methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method stably achieves both good time-efficiency performance and good classification performance. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Preparation of uranium fuel kernels with silicon carbide nanoparticles using the internal gelation process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hunt, R. D.; Silva, G. W. C. M.; Lindemer, T. B.; Anderson, K. K.; Collins, J. L.

    2012-08-01

    The US Department of Energy continues to use the internal gelation process in its preparation of tristructural isotropic coated fuel particles. The focus of this work is to develop uranium fuel kernels with adequately dispersed silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles, high crush strengths, uniform particle diameter, and good sphericity. During irradiation to high burnup, the SiC in the uranium kernels will serve as getters for excess oxygen and help control the oxygen potential in order to minimize the potential for kernel migration. The hardness of SiC required modifications to the gelation system that was used to make uranium kernels. Suitable processing conditions and potential equipment changes were identified so that the SiC could be homogeneously dispersed in gel spheres. Finally, dilute hydrogen rather than argon should be used to sinter the uranium kernels with SiC.

  9. High-throughput method for ear phenotyping and kernel weight estimation in maize using ear digital imaging.

    PubMed

    Makanza, R; Zaman-Allah, M; Cairns, J E; Eyre, J; Burgueño, J; Pacheco, Ángela; Diepenbrock, C; Magorokosho, C; Tarekegne, A; Olsen, M; Prasanna, B M

    2018-01-01

    Grain yield, ear and kernel attributes can assist to understand the performance of maize plant under different environmental conditions and can be used in the variety development process to address farmer's preferences. These parameters are however still laborious and expensive to measure. A low-cost ear digital imaging method was developed that provides estimates of ear and kernel attributes i.e., ear number and size, kernel number and size as well as kernel weight from photos of ears harvested from field trial plots. The image processing method uses a script that runs in a batch mode on ImageJ; an open source software. Kernel weight was estimated using the total kernel number derived from the number of kernels visible on the image and the average kernel size. Data showed a good agreement in terms of accuracy and precision between ground truth measurements and data generated through image processing. Broad-sense heritability of the estimated parameters was in the range or higher than that for measured grain weight. Limitation of the method for kernel weight estimation is discussed. The method developed in this work provides an opportunity to significantly reduce the cost of selection in the breeding process, especially for resource constrained crop improvement programs and can be used to learn more about the genetic bases of grain yield determinants.

  10. Regularized Embedded Multiple Kernel Dimensionality Reduction for Mine Signal Processing.

    PubMed

    Li, Shuang; Liu, Bing; Zhang, Chen

    2016-01-01

    Traditional multiple kernel dimensionality reduction models are generally based on graph embedding and manifold assumption. But such assumption might be invalid for some high-dimensional or sparse data due to the curse of dimensionality, which has a negative influence on the performance of multiple kernel learning. In addition, some models might be ill-posed if the rank of matrices in their objective functions was not high enough. To address these issues, we extend the traditional graph embedding framework and propose a novel regularized embedded multiple kernel dimensionality reduction method. Different from the conventional convex relaxation technique, the proposed algorithm directly takes advantage of a binary search and an alternative optimization scheme to obtain optimal solutions efficiently. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for supervised, unsupervised, and semisupervised scenarios.

  11. Improved Online Support Vector Machines Spam Filtering Using String Kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amayri, Ola; Bouguila, Nizar

    A major bottleneck in electronic communications is the enormous dissemination of spam emails. Developing of suitable filters that can adequately capture those emails and achieve high performance rate become a main concern. Support vector machines (SVMs) have made a large contribution to the development of spam email filtering. Based on SVMs, the crucial problems in email classification are feature mapping of input emails and the choice of the kernels. In this paper, we present thorough investigation of several distance-based kernels and propose the use of string kernels and prove its efficiency in blocking spam emails. We detail a feature mapping variants in text classification (TC) that yield improved performance for the standard SVMs in filtering task. Furthermore, to cope for realtime scenarios we propose an online active framework for spam filtering.

  12. Blended Teaching and Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pape, Liz

    2010-01-01

    "Blended learning" is using online tools to communicate, collaborate, and publish, to extend the school day or year and to develop the 21st-century skills students need. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their daily classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are…

  13. KSOS Computer Program Development Specifications (Type B-5). (Kernelized Secure Operating System). I. Security Kernel (CDRL 0002AF). II. UNIX Emulator (CDRL 0002AG). III. Security-Related Software (CDRL 0002AH).

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-12-01

    Commun- ications Corporation, Palo Alto, CA (March 1978). g. [Walter at al. 74] Walter, K.G. et al., " Primitive Models for Computer .. Security", ESD-TR...discussion is followed by a presenta- tion of the Kernel primitive operations upon these objects. All Kernel objects shall be referenced by a common...set of sizes. All process segments, regardless of domain, shall be manipulated by the same set of Kernel segment primitives . User domain segments

  14. Generalization Analysis of Fredholm Kernel Regularized Classifiers.

    PubMed

    Gong, Tieliang; Xu, Zongben; Chen, Hong

    2017-07-01

    Recently, a new framework, Fredholm learning, was proposed for semisupervised learning problems based on solving a regularized Fredholm integral equation. It allows a natural way to incorporate unlabeled data into learning algorithms to improve their prediction performance. Despite rapid progress on implementable algorithms with theoretical guarantees, the generalization ability of Fredholm kernel learning has not been studied. In this letter, we focus on investigating the generalization performance of a family of classification algorithms, referred to as Fredholm kernel regularized classifiers. We prove that the corresponding learning rate can achieve [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] is the number of labeled samples) in a limiting case. In addition, a representer theorem is provided for the proposed regularized scheme, which underlies its applications.

  15. Fredholm-Volterra Integral Equation with a Generalized Singular Kernel and its Numerical Solutions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    El-Kalla, I. L.; Al-Bugami, A. M.

    2010-11-01

    In this paper, the existence and uniqueness of solution of the Fredholm-Volterra integral equation (F-VIE), with a generalized singular kernel, are discussed and proved in the spaceL2(Ω)×C(0,T). The Fredholm integral term (FIT) is considered in position while the Volterra integral term (VIT) is considered in time. Using a numerical technique we have a system of Fredholm integral equations (SFIEs). This system of integral equations can be reduced to a linear algebraic system (LAS) of equations by using two different methods. These methods are: Toeplitz matrix method and Product Nyström method. A numerical examples are considered when the generalized kernel takes the following forms: Carleman function, logarithmic form, Cauchy kernel, and Hilbert kernel.

  16. Deciphering drought-induced metabolic responses and regulation in developing maize kernels.

    PubMed

    Yang, Liming; Fountain, Jake C; Ji, Pingsheng; Ni, Xinzhi; Chen, Sixue; Lee, Robert D; Kemerait, Robert C; Guo, Baozhu

    2018-02-12

    Drought stress conditions decrease maize growth and yield, and aggravate preharvest aflatoxin contamination. While several studies have been performed on mature kernels responding to drought stress, the metabolic profiles of developing kernels are not as well characterized, particularly in germplasm with contrasting resistance to both drought and mycotoxin contamination. Here, following screening for drought tolerance, a drought-sensitive line, B73, and a drought-tolerant line, Lo964, were selected and stressed beginning at 14 days after pollination. Developing kernels were sampled 7 and 14 days after drought induction (DAI) from both stressed and irrigated plants. Comparative biochemical and metabolomic analyses profiled 409 differentially accumulated metabolites. Multivariate statistics and pathway analyses showed that drought stress induced an accumulation of simple sugars and polyunsaturated fatty acids and a decrease in amines, polyamines and dipeptides in B73. Conversely, sphingolipid, sterol, phenylpropanoid and dipeptide metabolites accumulated in Lo964 under drought stress. Drought stress also resulted in the greater accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and aflatoxin in kernels of B73 in comparison with Lo964 implying a correlation in their production. Overall, field drought treatments disordered a cascade of normal metabolic programming during development of maize kernels and subsequently caused oxidative stress. The glutathione and urea cycles along with the metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids for osmoprotection, membrane maintenance and antioxidant protection were central among the drought stress responses observed in developing kernels. These results also provide novel targets to enhance host drought tolerance and disease resistance through the use of biotechnologies such as transgenics and genome editing. © 2018 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied

  17. Performance Assessment of Kernel Density Clustering for Gene Expression Profile Data

    PubMed Central

    Zeng, Beiyan; Chen, Yiping P.; Smith, Oscar H.

    2003-01-01

    Kernel density smoothing techniques have been used in classification or supervised learning of gene expression profile (GEP) data, but their applications to clustering or unsupervised learning of those data have not been explored and assessed. Here we report a kernel density clustering method for analysing GEP data and compare its performance with the three most widely-used clustering methods: hierarchical clustering, K-means clustering, and multivariate mixture model-based clustering. Using several methods to measure agreement, between-cluster isolation, and withincluster coherence, such as the Adjusted Rand Index, the Pseudo F test, the r2 test, and the profile plot, we have assessed the effectiveness of kernel density clustering for recovering clusters, and its robustness against noise on clustering both simulated and real GEP data. Our results show that the kernel density clustering method has excellent performance in recovering clusters from simulated data and in grouping large real expression profile data sets into compact and well-isolated clusters, and that it is the most robust clustering method for analysing noisy expression profile data compared to the other three methods assessed. PMID:18629292

  18. Viscoelastic properties of PLA/PCL blends compatibilized with different methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Boo Young; Han, Do Hung

    2017-11-01

    The aim of this study was to observe changes in the viscoelastic properties of PLA/PCL (80/20) blends produced using different compatibilization methods. Reactive extrusion and high-energy radiation methods were used for blend compatibilization. Storage and loss moduli, complex viscosity, transient stress relaxation modulus, and tan δ of blends were analyzed and blend morphologies were examined. All compatibilized PLA/PCL blends had smaller dispersed particle sizes than the non-compatibilized blend, and well compatibilized blends had finer morphologies than poorly compatibilized blends. Viscoelastic properties differentiated well compatibilized and poorly compatibilized blends. Well compatibilized blends had higher storage and loss moduli and complex viscosities than those calculated by the log-additive mixing rule due to strong interfacial adhesion, whereas poorly compatibilized blends showed negative deviations due to weak interfacial adhesion. Moreover, well compatibilized blends had much slower stress relaxation than poorly compatibilized blends and didn't show tan δ plateau region caused by slippage at the interface between continuous and dispersed phases.

  19. A self-calibrated angularly continuous 2D GRAPPA kernel for propeller trajectories

    PubMed Central

    Skare, Stefan; Newbould, Rexford D; Nordell, Anders; Holdsworth, Samantha J; Bammer, Roland

    2008-01-01

    The k-space readout of propeller-type sequences may be accelerated by the use of parallel imaging (PI). For PROPELLER, the main benefits are reduced blurring due to T2 decay and SAR reduction, while for EPI-based propeller acquisitions such as Turbo-PROP and SAP-EPI, the faster k-space traversal alleviates geometric distortions. In this work, the feasibility of calculating a 2D GRAPPA kernel on only the undersampled propeller blades themselves is explored, using the matching orthogonal undersampled blade. It is shown that the GRAPPA kernel varies slowly across blades, therefore an angularly continuous 2D GRAPPA kernel is proposed, in which the angular variation of the weights is parameterized. This new angularly continuous kernel formulation greatly increases the numerical stability of the GRAPPA weight estimation, allowing the generation of fully sampled diagnostic quality images using only the undersampled propeller data. PMID:19025911

  20. Fitting Photometry of Blended Microlensing Events

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thomas, Christian L.; Griest, Kim

    2006-03-01

    We reexamine the usefulness of fitting blended light-curve models to microlensing photometric data. We find agreement with previous workers (e.g., Woźniak & Paczyński) that this is a difficult proposition because of the degeneracy of blend fraction with other fit parameters. We show that follow-up observations at specific point along the light curve (peak region and wings) of high-magnification events are the most helpful in removing degeneracies. We also show that very small errors in the baseline magnitude can result in problems in measuring the blend fraction and study the importance of non-Gaussian errors in the fit results. The biases and skewness in the distribution of the recovered blend fraction is discussed. We also find a new approximation formula relating the blend fraction and the unblended fit parameters to the underlying event duration needed to estimate microlensing optical depth.

  1. The Conserved and Unique Genetic Architecture of Kernel Size and Weight in Maize and Rice.

    PubMed

    Liu, Jie; Huang, Juan; Guo, Huan; Lan, Liu; Wang, Hongze; Xu, Yuancheng; Yang, Xiaohong; Li, Wenqiang; Tong, Hao; Xiao, Yingjie; Pan, Qingchun; Qiao, Feng; Raihan, Mohammad Sharif; Liu, Haijun; Zhang, Xuehai; Yang, Ning; Wang, Xiaqing; Deng, Min; Jin, Minliang; Zhao, Lijun; Luo, Xin; Zhou, Yang; Li, Xiang; Zhan, Wei; Liu, Nannan; Wang, Hong; Chen, Gengshen; Li, Qing; Yan, Jianbing

    2017-10-01

    Maize ( Zea mays ) is a major staple crop. Maize kernel size and weight are important contributors to its yield. Here, we measured kernel length, kernel width, kernel thickness, hundred kernel weight, and kernel test weight in 10 recombinant inbred line populations and dissected their genetic architecture using three statistical models. In total, 729 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified, many of which were identified in all three models, including 22 major QTLs that each can explain more than 10% of phenotypic variation. To provide candidate genes for these QTLs, we identified 30 maize genes that are orthologs of 18 rice ( Oryza sativa ) genes reported to affect rice seed size or weight. Interestingly, 24 of these 30 genes are located in the identified QTLs or within 1 Mb of the significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We further confirmed the effects of five genes on maize kernel size/weight in an independent association mapping panel with 540 lines by candidate gene association analysis. Lastly, the function of ZmINCW1 , a homolog of rice GRAIN INCOMPLETE FILLING1 that affects seed size and weight, was characterized in detail. ZmINCW1 is close to QTL peaks for kernel size/weight (less than 1 Mb) and contains significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms affecting kernel size/weight in the association panel. Overexpression of this gene can rescue the reduced weight of the Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) homozygous mutant line in the AtcwINV2 gene (Arabidopsis ortholog of ZmINCW1 ). These results indicate that the molecular mechanisms affecting seed development are conserved in maize, rice, and possibly Arabidopsis. © 2017 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

  2. Blending in: The Extent and Promise of Blended Education in the United States

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, I. Elaine; Seaman, Jeff; Garrett, Richard

    2007-01-01

    "Blending In: The Extent and Promise of Blended Education in the United States" builds on the series of annual reports on the state of online education in U.S. Higher Education. This study, like the previous reports, is aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions about the nature and extent of education in the United States.…

  3. SU-F-SPS-09: Parallel MC Kernel Calculations for VMAT Plan Improvement

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chamberlain, S; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; French, S

    Purpose: Adding kernels (small perturbations in leaf positions) to the existing apertures of VMAT control points may improve plan quality. We investigate the calculation of kernel doses using a parallelized Monte Carlo (MC) method. Methods: A clinical prostate VMAT DICOM plan was exported from Eclipse. An arbitrary control point and leaf were chosen, and a modified MLC file was created, corresponding to the leaf position offset by 0.5cm. The additional dose produced by this 0.5 cm × 0.5 cm kernel was calculated using the DOSXYZnrc component module of BEAMnrc. A range of particle history counts were run (varying from 3more » × 10{sup 6} to 3 × 10{sup 7}); each job was split among 1, 10, or 100 parallel processes. A particle count of 3 × 10{sup 6} was established as the lower range because it provided the minimal accuracy level. Results: As expected, an increase in particle counts linearly increases run time. For the lowest particle count, the time varied from 30 hours for the single-processor run, to 0.30 hours for the 100-processor run. Conclusion: Parallel processing of MC calculations in the EGS framework significantly decreases time necessary for each kernel dose calculation. Particle counts lower than 1 × 10{sup 6} have too large of an error to output accurate dose for a Monte Carlo kernel calculation. Future work will investigate increasing the number of parallel processes and optimizing run times for multiple kernel calculations.« less

  4. KNBD: A Remote Kernel Block Server for Linux

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Becker, Jeff

    1999-01-01

    I am developing a prototype of a Linux remote disk block server whose purpose is to serve as a lower level component of a parallel file system. Parallel file systems are an important component of high performance supercomputers and clusters. Although supercomputer vendors such as SGI and IBM have their own custom solutions, there has been a void and hence a demand for such a system on Beowulf-type PC Clusters. Recently, the Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS) project at Clemson University has begun to address this need (1). Although their system provides much of the functionality of (and indeed was inspired by) the equivalent file systems in the commercial supercomputer market, their system is all in user-space. Migrating their 10 services to the kernel could provide a performance boost, by obviating the need for expensive system calls. Thanks to Pavel Machek, the Linux kernel has provided the network block device (2) with kernels 2.1.101 and later. You can configure this block device to redirect reads and writes to a remote machine's disk. This can be used as a building block for constructing a striped file system across several nodes.

  5. The role of Tre6P and SnRK1 in maize early kernel development and events leading to stress-induced kernel abortion.

    PubMed

    Bledsoe, Samuel W; Henry, Clémence; Griffiths, Cara A; Paul, Matthew J; Feil, Regina; Lunn, John E; Stitt, Mark; Lagrimini, L Mark

    2017-04-12

    Drought stress during flowering is a major contributor to yield loss in maize. Genetic and biotechnological improvement in yield sustainability requires an understanding of the mechanisms underpinning yield loss. Sucrose starvation has been proposed as the cause for kernel abortion; however, potential targets for genetic improvement have not been identified. Field and greenhouse drought studies with maize are expensive and it can be difficult to reproduce results; therefore, an in vitro kernel culture method is presented as a proxy for drought stress occurring at the time of flowering in maize (3 days after pollination). This method is used to focus on the effects of drought on kernel metabolism, and the role of trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre6P) and the sucrose non-fermenting-1-related kinase (SnRK1) as potential regulators of this response. A precipitous drop in Tre6P is observed during the first two hours after removing the kernels from the plant, and the resulting changes in transcript abundance are indicative of an activation of SnRK1, and an immediate shift from anabolism to catabolism. Once Tre6P levels are depleted to below 1 nmol∙g -1 FW in the kernel, SnRK1 remained active throughout the 96 h experiment, regardless of the presence or absence of sucrose in the medium. Recovery on sucrose enriched medium results in the restoration of sucrose synthesis and glycolysis. Biosynthetic processes including the citric acid cycle and protein and starch synthesis are inhibited by excision, and do not recover even after the re-addition of sucrose. It is also observed that excision induces the transcription of the sugar transporters SUT1 and SWEET1, the sucrose hydrolyzing enzymes CELL WALL INVERTASE 2 (INCW2) and SUCROSE SYNTHASE 1 (SUSY1), the class II TREHALOSE PHOSPHATE SYNTHASES (TPS), TREHALASE (TRE), and TREHALOSE PHOSPHATE PHOSPHATASE (ZmTPPA.3), previously shown to enhance drought tolerance (Nuccio et al., Nat Biotechnol (October 2014):1-13, 2015). The impact

  6. Multiscale asymmetric orthogonal wavelet kernel for linear programming support vector learning and nonlinear dynamic systems identification.

    PubMed

    Lu, Zhao; Sun, Jing; Butts, Kenneth

    2014-05-01

    Support vector regression for approximating nonlinear dynamic systems is more delicate than the approximation of indicator functions in support vector classification, particularly for systems that involve multitudes of time scales in their sampled data. The kernel used for support vector learning determines the class of functions from which a support vector machine can draw its solution, and the choice of kernel significantly influences the performance of a support vector machine. In this paper, to bridge the gap between wavelet multiresolution analysis and kernel learning, the closed-form orthogonal wavelet is exploited to construct new multiscale asymmetric orthogonal wavelet kernels for linear programming support vector learning. The closed-form multiscale orthogonal wavelet kernel provides a systematic framework to implement multiscale kernel learning via dyadic dilations and also enables us to represent complex nonlinear dynamics effectively. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed multiscale wavelet kernel in identifying complex nonlinear dynamic systems, two case studies are presented that aim at building parallel models on benchmark datasets. The development of parallel models that address the long-term/mid-term prediction issue is more intricate and challenging than the identification of series-parallel models where only one-step ahead prediction is required. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed multiscale kernel learning.

  7. 27 CFR 24.213 - Heavy bodied blending wine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Heavy bodied blending wine..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS WINE Production of Other Than Standard Wine § 24.213 Heavy bodied blending wine. Heavy bodied blending wine is wine made for blending purposes from grapes or other fruit without...

  8. Anatomical image-guided fluorescence molecular tomography reconstruction using kernel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baikejiang, Reheman; Zhao, Yue; Fite, Brett Z.; Ferrara, Katherine W.; Li, Changqing

    2017-05-01

    Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is an important in vivo imaging modality to visualize physiological and pathological processes in small animals. However, FMT reconstruction is ill-posed and ill-conditioned due to strong optical scattering in deep tissues, which results in poor spatial resolution. It is well known that FMT image quality can be improved substantially by applying the structural guidance in the FMT reconstruction. An approach to introducing anatomical information into the FMT reconstruction is presented using the kernel method. In contrast to conventional methods that incorporate anatomical information with a Laplacian-type regularization matrix, the proposed method introduces the anatomical guidance into the projection model of FMT. The primary advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require segmentation of targets in the anatomical images. Numerical simulations and phantom experiments have been performed to demonstrate the proposed approach's feasibility. Numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed kernel method can separate two FMT targets with an edge-to-edge distance of 1 mm and is robust to false-positive guidance and inhomogeneity in the anatomical image. For the phantom experiments with two FMT targets, the kernel method has reconstructed both targets successfully, which further validates the proposed kernel method.

  9. Anatomical image-guided fluorescence molecular tomography reconstruction using kernel method

    PubMed Central

    Baikejiang, Reheman; Zhao, Yue; Fite, Brett Z.; Ferrara, Katherine W.; Li, Changqing

    2017-01-01

    Abstract. Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is an important in vivo imaging modality to visualize physiological and pathological processes in small animals. However, FMT reconstruction is ill-posed and ill-conditioned due to strong optical scattering in deep tissues, which results in poor spatial resolution. It is well known that FMT image quality can be improved substantially by applying the structural guidance in the FMT reconstruction. An approach to introducing anatomical information into the FMT reconstruction is presented using the kernel method. In contrast to conventional methods that incorporate anatomical information with a Laplacian-type regularization matrix, the proposed method introduces the anatomical guidance into the projection model of FMT. The primary advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require segmentation of targets in the anatomical images. Numerical simulations and phantom experiments have been performed to demonstrate the proposed approach’s feasibility. Numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed kernel method can separate two FMT targets with an edge-to-edge distance of 1 mm and is robust to false-positive guidance and inhomogeneity in the anatomical image. For the phantom experiments with two FMT targets, the kernel method has reconstructed both targets successfully, which further validates the proposed kernel method. PMID:28464120

  10. Improvements to the kernel function method of steady, subsonic lifting surface theory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Medan, R. T.

    1974-01-01

    The application of a kernel function lifting surface method to three dimensional, thin wing theory is discussed. A technique for determining the influence functions is presented. The technique is shown to require fewer quadrature points, while still calculating the influence functions accurately enough to guarantee convergence with an increasing number of spanwise quadrature points. The method also treats control points on the wing leading and trailing edges. The report introduces and employs an aspect of the kernel function method which apparently has never been used before and which significantly enhances the efficiency of the kernel function approach.

  11. Predicting receptor-ligand pairs through kernel learning

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Regulation of cellular events is, often, initiated via extracellular signaling. Extracellular signaling occurs when a circulating ligand interacts with one or more membrane-bound receptors. Identification of receptor-ligand pairs is thus an important and specific form of PPI prediction. Results Given a set of disparate data sources (expression data, domain content, and phylogenetic profile) we seek to predict new receptor-ligand pairs. We create a combined kernel classifier and assess its performance with respect to the Database of Ligand-Receptor Partners (DLRP) 'golden standard' as well as the method proposed by Gertz et al. Among our findings, we discover that our predictions for the tgfβ family accurately reconstruct over 76% of the supported edges (0.76 recall and 0.67 precision) of the receptor-ligand bipartite graph defined by the DLRP "golden standard". In addition, for the tgfβ family, the combined kernel classifier is able to relatively improve upon the Gertz et al. work by a factor of approximately 1.5 when considering that our method has an F-measure of 0.71 while that of Gertz et al. has a value of 0.48. Conclusions The prediction of receptor-ligand pairings is a difficult and complex task. We have demonstrated that using kernel learning on multiple data sources provides a stronger alternative to the existing method in solving this task. PMID:21834994

  12. QTL Analysis of Kernel-Related Traits in Maize Using an Immortalized F2 Population

    PubMed Central

    Hu, Yanmin; Li, Weihua; Fu, Zhiyuan; Ding, Dong; Li, Haochuan; Qiao, Mengmeng; Tang, Jihua

    2014-01-01

    Kernel size and weight are important determinants of grain yield in maize. In this study, multivariate conditional and unconditional quantitative trait loci (QTL), and digenic epistatic analyses were utilized in order to elucidate the genetic basis for these kernel-related traits. Five kernel-related traits, including kernel weight (KW), volume (KV), length (KL), thickness (KT), and width (KWI), were collected from an immortalized F2 (IF2) maize population comprising of 243 crosses performed at two separate locations over a span of two years. A total of 54 unconditional main QTL for these five kernel-related traits were identified, many of which were clustered in chromosomal bins 6.04–6.06, 7.02–7.03, and 10.06–10.07. In addition, qKL3, qKWI6, qKV10a, qKV10b, qKW10a, and qKW7a were detected across multiple environments. Sixteen main QTL were identified for KW conditioned on the other four kernel traits (KL, KWI, KT, and KV). Thirteen main QTL were identified for KV conditioned on three kernel-shape traits. Conditional mapping analysis revealed that KWI and KV had the strongest influence on KW at the individual QTL level, followed by KT, and then KL; KV was mostly strongly influenced by KT, followed by KWI, and was least impacted by KL. Digenic epistatic analysis identified 18 digenic interactions involving 34 loci over the entire genome. However, only a small proportion of them were identical to the main QTL we detected. Additionally, conditional digenic epistatic analysis revealed that the digenic epistasis for KW and KV were entirely determined by their constituent traits. The main QTL identified in this study for determining kernel-related traits with high broad-sense heritability may play important roles during kernel development. Furthermore, digenic interactions were shown to exert relatively large effects on KL (the highest AA and DD effects were 4.6% and 6.7%, respectively) and KT (the highest AA effects were 4.3%). PMID:24586932

  13. [Blending powdered antineoplastic medicine in disposable ointment container].

    PubMed

    Miyazaki, Yasunori; Uchino, Tomonobu; Kagawa, Yoshiyuki

    2014-01-01

    On dispensing powdered antineoplastic medicines, it is important to prevent cross-contamination and environmental exposure. Recently, we developed a method for blending powdered medicine in a disposable ointment container using a planetary centrifugal mixer. The disposable container prevents cross-contamination. In addition, environmental exposure associated with washing the apparatus does not arise because no blending blade is used. In this study, we aimed to confirm the uniformity of the mixture and weight loss of medicine in the blending procedure. We blended colored lactose powder with Leukerin(®) or Mablin(®) powders using the new method and the ordinary pestle and mortar method. Then, the blending state was monitored using image analysis. Blending variables, such as the blending ratio (1:9-9:1), container size (35-125 mL), and charging rate (20-50%) in the container were also investigated under the operational conditions of 500 rpm and 50 s. At a 20% charging rate in a 35 mL container, the blending precision of the mixtures was not influenced by the blending ratio, and was less than 6.08%, indicating homogeneity. With an increase in the charging rate, however, the blending precision decreased. The possible amount of both mixtures rose to about 17 g with a 20% charging rate in a 125 mL container. Furthermore, weight loss of medicines with this method was smaller than that with the pestle and mortar method, suggesting that this method is safer for pharmacists. In conclusion, we have established a precise and safe method for blending powdered medicines in pharmacies.

  14. Scalable Nonparametric Low-Rank Kernel Learning Using Block Coordinate Descent.

    PubMed

    Hu, En-Liang; Kwok, James T

    2015-09-01

    Nonparametric kernel learning (NPKL) is a flexible approach to learn the kernel matrix directly without assuming any parametric form. It can be naturally formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP), which, however, is not very scalable. To address this problem, we propose the combined use of low-rank approximation and block coordinate descent (BCD). Low-rank approximation avoids the expensive positive semidefinite constraint in the SDP by replacing the kernel matrix variable with V(T)V, where V is a low-rank matrix. The resultant nonlinear optimization problem is then solved by BCD, which optimizes each column of V sequentially. It can be shown that the proposed algorithm has nice convergence properties and low computational complexities. Experiments on a number of real-world data sets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art NPKL solvers.

  15. Multiple kernel SVR based on the MRE for remote sensing water depth fusion detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Jinjin; Ma, Yi; Zhang, Jingyu

    2018-03-01

    Remote sensing has an important means of water depth detection in coastal shallow waters and reefs. Support vector regression (SVR) is a machine learning method which is widely used in data regression. In this paper, SVR is used to remote sensing multispectral bathymetry. Aiming at the problem that the single-kernel SVR method has a large error in shallow water depth inversion, the mean relative error (MRE) of different water depth is retrieved as a decision fusion factor with single kernel SVR method, a multi kernel SVR fusion method based on the MRE is put forward. And taking the North Island of the Xisha Islands in China as an experimentation area, the comparison experiments with the single kernel SVR method and the traditional multi-bands bathymetric method are carried out. The results show that: 1) In range of 0 to 25 meters, the mean absolute error(MAE)of the multi kernel SVR fusion method is 1.5m,the MRE is 13.2%; 2) Compared to the 4 single kernel SVR method, the MRE of the fusion method reduced 1.2% (1.9%) 3.4% (1.8%), and compared to traditional multi-bands method, the MRE reduced 1.9%; 3) In 0-5m depth section, compared to the single kernel method and the multi-bands method, the MRE of fusion method reduced 13.5% to 44.4%, and the distribution of points is more concentrated relative to y=x.

  16. A Experimental Study of the Growth of Laser Spark and Electric Spark Ignited Flame Kernels.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ho, Chi Ming

    1995-01-01

    Better ignition sources are constantly in demand for enhancing the spark ignition in practical applications such as automotive and liquid rocket engines. In response to this practical challenge, the present experimental study was conducted with the major objective to obtain a better understanding on how spark formation and hence spark characteristics affect the flame kernel growth. Two laser sparks and one electric spark were studied in air, propane-air, propane -air-nitrogen, methane-air, and methane-oxygen mixtures that were initially at ambient pressure and temperature. The growth of the kernels was monitored by imaging the kernels with shadowgraph systems, and by imaging the planar laser -induced fluorescence of the hydroxyl radicals inside the kernels. Characteristic dimensions and kernel structures were obtained from these images. Since different energy transfer mechanisms are involved in the formation of a laser spark as compared to that of an electric spark; a laser spark is insensitive to changes in mixture ratio and mixture type, while an electric spark is sensitive to changes in both. The detailed structures of the kernels in air and propane-air mixtures primarily depend on the spark characteristics. But the combustion heat released rapidly in methane-oxygen mixtures significantly modifies the kernel structure. Uneven spark energy distribution causes remarkably asymmetric kernel structure. The breakdown energy of a spark creates a blast wave that shows good agreement with the numerical point blast solution, and a succeeding complex spark-induced flow that agrees reasonably well with a simple puff model. The transient growth rates of the propane-air, propane-air -nitrogen, and methane-air flame kernels can be interpreted in terms of spark effects, flame stretch, and preferential diffusion. For a given mixture, a spark with higher breakdown energy produces a greater and longer-lasting enhancing effect on the kernel growth rate. By comparing the growth

  17. 21 CFR 133.167 - Pasteurized blended cheese.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Pasteurized blended cheese. 133.167 Section 133...) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related Products § 133.167 Pasteurized blended cheese. Pasteurized blended cheese conforms to...

  18. 21 CFR 133.167 - Pasteurized blended cheese.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Pasteurized blended cheese. 133.167 Section 133...) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related Products § 133.167 Pasteurized blended cheese. Pasteurized blended cheese conforms to...

  19. On the interpretation of kernels - Computer simulation of responses to impulse pairs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hung, G.; Stark, L.; Eykhoff, P.

    1983-01-01

    A method is presented for the use of a unit impulse response and responses to impulse pairs of variable separation in the calculation of the second-degree kernels of a quadratic system. A quadratic system may be built from simple linear terms of known dynamics and a multiplier. Computer simulation results on quadratic systems with building elements of various time constants indicate reasonably that the larger time constant term before multiplication dominates in the envelope of the off-diagonal kernel curves as these move perpendicular to and away from the main diagonal. The smaller time constant term before multiplication combines with the effect of the time constant after multiplication to dominate in the kernel curves in the direction of the second-degree impulse response, i.e., parallel to the main diagonal. Such types of insight may be helpful in recognizing essential aspects of (second-degree) kernels; they may be used in simplifying the model structure and, perhaps, add to the physical/physiological understanding of the underlying processes.

  20. Blended Working: For Whom It May (Not) Work

    PubMed Central

    Van Yperen, Nico W.; Rietzschel, Eric F.; De Jonge, Kiki M. M.

    2014-01-01

    Similarly to related developments such as blended learning and blended care, blended working is a pervasive and booming trend in modern societies. Blended working combines on-site and off-site working in an optimal way to improve workers’ and organizations’ outcomes. In this paper, we examine the degree to which workers feel that the two defining features of blended working (i.e., time-independent working and location-independent working) enhance their own functioning in their jobs. Blended working, enabled through the continuing advance and improvement of high-tech ICT software, devices, and infrastructure, may be considered beneficial for workers’ perceived effectiveness because it increases their job autonomy. However, because blended working may have downsides as well, it is important to know for whom blended working may (not) work. As hypothesized, in a sample of 348 workers (51.7% women), representing a wide range of occupations and organizations, we found that the perceived personal effectiveness of blended working was contingent upon workers’ psychological need strength. Specifically, the perceived effectiveness of both time-independent working and location-independent working was positively related to individuals’ need for autonomy at work, and negatively related to their need for relatedness and need for structure at work. PMID:25033202

  1. Evaluation and implementation of a soil blending application

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Honerlah, H.; Sendra, D.; Zafran, A.

    2007-07-01

    With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issuing guidance on the 'Use of Intentional Mixing of Contaminated Soil' (SECY-04-0035) dated 1 March 2004, an opportunity to blend higher level radiologically contaminated soils with that of lower activity from the Colonie Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) site became available. Shaw Environmental, under contract with United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to remediate the Colonie site, was tasked to blend soils of higher radioactivity (> 6.29 Bq/g or 170 pCi/g) concentration with soils of lower radioactivity concentration (< 6.29 Bq/g or 170 pCi/g). A mass balance formula approach was usedmore » to determine the proper soil blending ratio. This blending process enabled soils to meet the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) of a specific disposal facility. All blended waste streams were treated to stabilize lead, removing the hazardous waste code D008, and to meet appropriate Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements and land disposal restrictions. The initial blending on-site was conducted with a 2,485 m{sup 3} (3,250 yd{sup 3}) stockpile of higher concentration soils being blended with lower concentration soils. The lower concentration soils were excavated, staged and sampled into 191 m{sup 3} (250 yd{sup 3}) stockpiles. The ratio for this blending was based on the average radiological concentration of the large stockpile being blended and average concentrations of the individual 191 m{sup 3} (250 yd{sup 3}) piles of lower radiological concentration using a mass balance approach. Once a new 191 m{sup 3} (250 yd{sup 3}) stockpile was created with blended soils it was sampled to insure it met the WAC of Facility A. After the large stockpile had been successfully blended and additional in-situ soils of higher concentration were excavated, they were blended using a similar mass balance approach. For the newly excavated soils, each of the individual piles radiological concentrations

  2. A new randomized Kaczmarz based kernel canonical correlation analysis algorithm with applications to information retrieval.

    PubMed

    Cai, Jia; Tang, Yi

    2018-02-01

    Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is a powerful statistical tool for detecting the linear relationship between two sets of multivariate variables. Kernel generalization of it, namely, kernel CCA is proposed to describe nonlinear relationship between two variables. Although kernel CCA can achieve dimensionality reduction results for high-dimensional data feature selection problem, it also yields the so called over-fitting phenomenon. In this paper, we consider a new kernel CCA algorithm via randomized Kaczmarz method. The main contributions of the paper are: (1) A new kernel CCA algorithm is developed, (2) theoretical convergence of the proposed algorithm is addressed by means of scaled condition number, (3) a lower bound which addresses the minimum number of iterations is presented. We test on both synthetic dataset and several real-world datasets in cross-language document retrieval and content-based image retrieval to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Numerical results imply the performance and efficiency of the new algorithm, which is competitive with several state-of-the-art kernel CCA methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Quantized kernel least mean square algorithm.

    PubMed

    Chen, Badong; Zhao, Songlin; Zhu, Pingping; Príncipe, José C

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a quantization approach, as an alternative of sparsification, to curb the growth of the radial basis function structure in kernel adaptive filtering. The basic idea behind this method is to quantize and hence compress the input (or feature) space. Different from sparsification, the new approach uses the "redundant" data to update the coefficient of the closest center. In particular, a quantized kernel least mean square (QKLMS) algorithm is developed, which is based on a simple online vector quantization method. The analytical study of the mean square convergence has been carried out. The energy conservation relation for QKLMS is established, and on this basis we arrive at a sufficient condition for mean square convergence, and a lower and upper bound on the theoretical value of the steady-state excess mean square error. Static function estimation and short-term chaotic time-series prediction examples are presented to demonstrate the excellent performance.

  4. Using Blended Teaching to Teach Blended Learning: Lessons Learned from Pre-Service Teachers in an Instructional Methods Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shand, Kristen; Farrelly, Susan Glassett

    2017-01-01

    In this study, we explore the design and delivery of a blended social studies teaching methods course to examine the elements of the blended design that pre-service teachers found most constructive. In focus groups at the completion of the course, pre-service teachers were asked to reflect on their experience in the blended course, identify the…

  5. Effect of different ripening stages on walnut kernel quality: antioxidant activities, lipid characterization and antibacterial properties.

    PubMed

    Amin, Furheen; Masoodi, F A; Baba, Waqas N; Khan, Asma Ashraf; Ganie, Bashir Ahmad

    2017-11-01

    Packing tissue between and around the kernel halves just turning brown (PTB) is a phenological indicator of kernel ripening at harvest in walnuts. The effect of three ripening stages (Pre-PTB, PTB and Post-PTB) on kernel quality characteristics, mineral composition, lipid characterization, sensory analysis, antioxidant and antibacterial activity were investigated in fresh kernels of indigenous numbered walnut selection of Kashmir valley "SKAU-02". Proximate composition, physical properties and sensory analysis of walnut kernels showed better results for Pre-PTB and PTB while higher mineral content was seen for kernels at Post-PTB stage in comparison to other stages of ripening. Kernels showed significantly higher levels of Omega-3 PUFA (C18:3 n3 ) and low n6/n3 ratio when harvested at Pre-PTB and PTB stages. The highest phenolic content and antioxidant activity was observed at the first stage of ripening and a steady decrease was observed at later stages. TBARS values increased as ripening advanced but did not show any significant difference in malonaldehyde formation during early ripening stages whereas it showed marked increase in walnut kernels at post-PTB stage. Walnut extracts inhibited growth of Gram-positive bacteria ( B. cereus, B. subtilis, and S. aureus ) with respective MICs of 1, 1 and 5 mg/mL and gram negative bacteria ( E. coli, P. and K. pneumonia ) with MIC of 100 mg/mL. Zone of inhibition obtained against all the bacterial strains from walnut kernel extracts increased with increase in the stage of ripening. It is concluded that Pre-PTB harvest stage with higher antioxidant activities, better fatty acid profile and consumer acceptability could be preferred harvesting stage for obtaining functionally superior walnut kernels.

  6. Blended learning within an undergraduate exercise physiology laboratory.

    PubMed

    Elmer, Steven J; Carter, Kathryn R; Armga, Austin J; Carter, Jason R

    2016-03-01

    In physiological education, blended course formats (integration of face-to-face and online instruction) can facilitate increased student learning, performance, and satisfaction in classroom settings. There is limited evidence on the effectiveness of using blending course formats in laboratory settings. We evaluated the impact of blended learning on student performance and perceptions in an undergraduate exercise physiology laboratory. Using a randomized, crossover design, four laboratory topics were delivered in either a blended or traditional format. For blended laboratories, content was offloaded to self-paced video demonstrations (∼15 min). Laboratory section 1 (n = 16) completed blended laboratories for 1) neuromuscular power and 2) blood lactate, whereas section 2 (n = 17) completed blended laboratories for 1) maximal O2 consumption and 2) muscle electromyography. Both sections completed the same assignments (scored in a blinded manner using a standardized rubric) and practicum exams (evaluated by two independent investigators). Pre- and postcourse surveys were used to assess student perceptions. Most students (∼79%) watched videos for both blended laboratories. Assignment scores did not differ between blended and traditional laboratories (P = 0.62) or between sections (P = 0.91). Practicum scores did not differ between sections (both P > 0.05). At the end of the course, students' perceived value of the blended format increased (P < 0.01) and a greater percentage of students agreed that learning key foundational content through video demonstrations before class greatly enhanced their learning of course material compared with a preassigned reading (94% vs. 78%, P < 0.01). Blended exercise physiology laboratories provided an alternative method for delivering content that was favorably perceived by students and did not compromise student performance. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

  7. Reformulation of Possio's kernel with application to unsteady wind tunnel interference

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fromme, J. A.; Golberg, M. A.

    1980-01-01

    An efficient method for computing the Possio kernel has remained elusive up to the present time. In this paper the Possio is reformulated so that it can be computed accurately using existing high precision numerical quadrature techniques. Convergence to the correct values is demonstrated and optimization of the integration procedures is discussed. Since more general kernels such as those associated with unsteady flows in ventilated wind tunnels are analytic perturbations of the Possio free air kernel, a more accurate evaluation of their collocation matrices results with an exponential improvement in convergence. An application to predicting frequency response of an airfoil-trailing edge control system in a wind tunnel compared with that in free air is given showing strong interference effects.

  8. Blended Learning in Education, Training, and Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duhaney, Devon C.

    2004-01-01

    The term "blended learning" has been growing in popularity, particularly in training and development arenas. Blended learning can be described as the use of synchronous or asynchronous technologies and traditional face-to-face instruction, in different forms or combinations, so as to facilitate teaching and learning. This mixture or blending of…

  9. Blended Learning: An Innovative Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lalima; Dangwal, Kiran Lata

    2017-01-01

    Blended learning is an innovative concept that embraces the advantages of both traditional teaching in the classroom and ICT supported learning including both offline learning and online learning. It has scope for collaborative learning; constructive learning and computer assisted learning (CAI). Blended learning needs rigorous efforts, right…

  10. The Flux OSKit: A Substrate for Kernel and Language Research

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1997-10-01

    unclassified Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 tions. Our own microkernel -based OS, Fluke [17], puts almost all of the OSKit to use...kernels distance the language from the hardware; even microkernels and other extensible kernels enforce some default policy which often conflicts with a...be particu- larly useful in these research projects. 6.1.1 The Fluke OS In 1996 we developed an entirely new microkernel - based system called Fluke

  11. Approximate l-fold cross-validation with Least Squares SVM and Kernel Ridge Regression

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Edwards, Richard E; Zhang, Hao; Parker, Lynne Edwards

    2013-01-01

    Kernel methods have difficulties scaling to large modern data sets. The scalability issues are based on computational and memory requirements for working with a large matrix. These requirements have been addressed over the years by using low-rank kernel approximations or by improving the solvers scalability. However, Least Squares Support VectorMachines (LS-SVM), a popular SVM variant, and Kernel Ridge Regression still have several scalability issues. In particular, the O(n^3) computational complexity for solving a single model, and the overall computational complexity associated with tuning hyperparameters are still major problems. We address these problems by introducing an O(n log n) approximate l-foldmore » cross-validation method that uses a multi-level circulant matrix to approximate the kernel. In addition, we prove our algorithm s computational complexity and present empirical runtimes on data sets with approximately 1 million data points. We also validate our approximate method s effectiveness at selecting hyperparameters on real world and standard benchmark data sets. Lastly, we provide experimental results on using a multi-level circulant kernel approximation to solve LS-SVM problems with hyperparameters selected using our method.« less

  12. Effect of Acrocomia aculeata Kernel Oil on Adiposity in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.

    PubMed

    Nunes, Ângela A; Buccini, Danieli F; Jaques, Jeandre A S; Portugal, Luciane C; Guimarães, Rita C A; Favaro, Simone P; Caldas, Ruy A; Carvalho, Cristiano M E

    2018-03-01

    The macauba palm (Acrocomia aculeata) is native of tropical America and is found mostly in the Cerrados and Pantanal biomes. The fruits provide an oily pulp, rich in long chain fatty acids, and a kernel that encompass more than 50% of lipids rich in medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Based on biochemical and nutritional evidences MCFA is readily catabolized and can reduce body fat accumulation. In this study, an animal model was employed to evaluate the effect of Acrocomia aculeata kernel oil (AKO) on the blood glucose level and the fatty acid deposit in the epididymal adipose tissue. The A. aculeata kernel oil obtained by cold pressing presented suitable quality as edible oil. Its fatty acid profile indicates high concentration of MCFA, mainly lauric, capric and caprilic. Type 2 diabetic rats fed with that kernel oil showed reduction of blood glucose level in comparison with the diabetic control group. Acrocomia aculeata kernel oil showed hypoglycemic effect. A small fraction of total dietary medium chain fatty acid was accumulated in the epididymal adipose tissue of rats fed with AKO at both low and high doses and caprilic acid did not deposit at all.

  13. The gravitational potential of axially symmetric bodies from a regularized green kernel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trova, A.; Huré, J.-M.; Hersant, F.

    2011-12-01

    The determination of the gravitational potential inside celestial bodies (rotating stars, discs, planets, asteroids) is a common challenge in numerical Astrophysics. Under axial symmetry, the potential is classically found from a two-dimensional integral over the body's meridional cross-section. Because it involves an improper integral, high accuracy is generally difficult to reach. We have discovered that, for homogeneous bodies, the singular Green kernel can be converted into a regular kernel by direct analytical integration. This new kernel, easily managed with standard techniques, opens interesting horizons, not only for numerical calculus but also to generate approximations, in particular for geometrically thin discs and rings.

  14. Problematic projection to the in-sample subspace for a kernelized anomaly detector

    DOE PAGES

    Theiler, James; Grosklos, Guen

    2016-03-07

    We examine the properties and performance of kernelized anomaly detectors, with an emphasis on the Mahalanobis-distance-based kernel RX (KRX) algorithm. Although the detector generally performs well for high-bandwidth Gaussian kernels, it exhibits problematic (in some cases, catastrophic) performance for distances that are large compared to the bandwidth. By comparing KRX to two other anomaly detectors, we can trace the problem to a projection in feature space, which arises when a pseudoinverse is used on the covariance matrix in that feature space. Here, we show that a regularized variant of KRX overcomes this difficulty and achieves superior performance over a widemore » range of bandwidths.« less

  15. Predicting complex traits using a diffusion kernel on genetic markers with an application to dairy cattle and wheat data

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Arguably, genotypes and phenotypes may be linked in functional forms that are not well addressed by the linear additive models that are standard in quantitative genetics. Therefore, developing statistical learning models for predicting phenotypic values from all available molecular information that are capable of capturing complex genetic network architectures is of great importance. Bayesian kernel ridge regression is a non-parametric prediction model proposed for this purpose. Its essence is to create a spatial distance-based relationship matrix called a kernel. Although the set of all single nucleotide polymorphism genotype configurations on which a model is built is finite, past research has mainly used a Gaussian kernel. Results We sought to investigate the performance of a diffusion kernel, which was specifically developed to model discrete marker inputs, using Holstein cattle and wheat data. This kernel can be viewed as a discretization of the Gaussian kernel. The predictive ability of the diffusion kernel was similar to that of non-spatial distance-based additive genomic relationship kernels in the Holstein data, but outperformed the latter in the wheat data. However, the difference in performance between the diffusion and Gaussian kernels was negligible. Conclusions It is concluded that the ability of a diffusion kernel to capture the total genetic variance is not better than that of a Gaussian kernel, at least for these data. Although the diffusion kernel as a choice of basis function may have potential for use in whole-genome prediction, our results imply that embedding genetic markers into a non-Euclidean metric space has very small impact on prediction. Our results suggest that use of the black box Gaussian kernel is justified, given its connection to the diffusion kernel and its similar predictive performance. PMID:23763755

  16. Text categorization of biomedical data sets using graph kernels and a controlled vocabulary.

    PubMed

    Bleik, Said; Mishra, Meenakshi; Huan, Jun; Song, Min

    2013-01-01

    Recently, graph representations of text have been showing improved performance over conventional bag-of-words representations in text categorization applications. In this paper, we present a graph-based representation for biomedical articles and use graph kernels to classify those articles into high-level categories. In our representation, common biomedical concepts and semantic relationships are identified with the help of an existing ontology and are used to build a rich graph structure that provides a consistent feature set and preserves additional semantic information that could improve a classifier's performance. We attempt to classify the graphs using both a set-based graph kernel that is capable of dealing with the disconnected nature of the graphs and a simple linear kernel. Finally, we report the results comparing the classification performance of the kernel classifiers to common text-based classifiers.

  17. Carbothermic Synthesis of ~820- m UN Kernels. Investigation of Process Variables

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lindemer, Terrence; Silva, Chinthaka M; Henry, Jr, John James

    2015-06-01

    This report details the continued investigation of process variables involved in converting sol-gel-derived, urainia-carbon microspheres to ~820-μm-dia. UN fuel kernels in flow-through, vertical refractory-metal crucibles at temperatures up to 2123 K. Experiments included calcining of air-dried UO 3-H 2O-C microspheres in Ar and H 2-containing gases, conversion of the resulting UO 2-C kernels to dense UO 2:2UC in the same gases and vacuum, and its conversion in N 2 to in UC 1-xN x. The thermodynamics of the relevant reactions were applied extensively to interpret and control the process variables. Producing the precursor UO 2:2UC kernel of ~96% theoretical densitymore » was required, but its subsequent conversion to UC 1-xN x at 2123 K was not accompanied by sintering and resulted in ~83-86% of theoretical density. Decreasing the UC 1-xN x kernel carbide component via HCN evolution was shown to be quantitatively consistent with present and past experiments and the only useful application of H2 in the entire process.« less

  18. 21 CFR 133.167 - Pasteurized blended cheese.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Pasteurized blended cheese. 133.167 Section 133... Cheese and Related Products § 133.167 Pasteurized blended cheese. Pasteurized blended cheese conforms to... ingredients, prescribed for pasteurized process cheese by § 133.169, except that: (a) In mixtures of two or...

  19. The Basics of Blended Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tucker, Catlin R.

    2013-01-01

    Even though many of teachers do not have technology-rich classrooms, the rapidly evolving education landscape increasingly requires them to incorporate technology to customize student learning. Blended learning, with its mix of technology and traditional face-to-face instruction, is a great approach. Blended learning combines classroom learning…

  20. Empowering Learners through Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owston, Ron

    2018-01-01

    Blended learning appears to facilitate learner empowerment more readily than either face-to-face or fully online courses. This contention is supported by a review of literature on the affordances of blended learning that support Thomas and Velthouse's (1990) four conditions of empowerment: choice, meaningfulness, competence, and impact. Blended…

  1. Blended Learning: A Dangerous Idea?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moskal, Patsy; Dziuban, Charles; Hartman, Joel

    2013-01-01

    The authors make the case that implementation of a successful blended learning program requires alignment of institutional, faculty, and student goals. Reliable and robust infrastructure must be in place to support students and faculty. Continuous evaluation can effectively track the impact of blended learning on students, faculty, and the…

  2. Some physical properties of ginkgo nuts and kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ch'ng, P. E.; Abdullah, M. H. R. O.; Mathai, E. J.; Yunus, N. A.

    2013-12-01

    Some data of the physical properties of ginkgo nuts at a moisture content of 45.53% (±2.07) (wet basis) and of their kernels at 60.13% (± 2.00) (wet basis) are presented in this paper. It consists of the estimation of the mean length, width, thickness, the geometric mean diameter, sphericity, aspect ratio, unit mass, surface area, volume, true density, bulk density, and porosity measures. The coefficient of static friction for nuts and kernels was determined by using plywood, glass, rubber, and galvanized steel sheet. The data are essential in the field of food engineering especially dealing with design and development of machines, and equipment for processing and handling agriculture products.

  3. Benchmarking NWP Kernels on Multi- and Many-core Processors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Michalakes, J.; Vachharajani, M.

    2008-12-01

    Increased computing power for weather, climate, and atmospheric science has provided direct benefits for defense, agriculture, the economy, the environment, and public welfare and convenience. Today, very large clusters with many thousands of processors are allowing scientists to move forward with simulations of unprecedented size. But time-critical applications such as real-time forecasting or climate prediction need strong scaling: faster nodes and processors, not more of them. Moreover, the need for good cost- performance has never been greater, both in terms of performance per watt and per dollar. For these reasons, the new generations of multi- and many-core processors being mass produced for commercial IT and "graphical computing" (video games) are being scrutinized for their ability to exploit the abundant fine- grain parallelism in atmospheric models. We present results of our work to date identifying key computational kernels within the dynamics and physics of a large community NWP model, the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. We benchmark and optimize these kernels on several different multi- and many-core processors. The goals are to (1) characterize and model performance of the kernels in terms of computational intensity, data parallelism, memory bandwidth pressure, memory footprint, etc. (2) enumerate and classify effective strategies for coding and optimizing for these new processors, (3) assess difficulties and opportunities for tool or higher-level language support, and (4) establish a continuing set of kernel benchmarks that can be used to measure and compare effectiveness of current and future designs of multi- and many-core processors for weather and climate applications.

  4. The Art of Blending: Benefits and Challenges of a Blended Course for Preservice Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shand, Kristen; Farrelly, Susan Glassett

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we explore the design and delivery of a blended social studies teaching methods course according to principles and core attributes of blended course design. In a survey at the end of the course, pre-service teachers were asked to reflect on their experience in the course, and identify the benefits and challenges of the blended…

  5. Sparse kernel methods for high-dimensional survival data.

    PubMed

    Evers, Ludger; Messow, Claudia-Martina

    2008-07-15

    Sparse kernel methods like support vector machines (SVM) have been applied with great success to classification and (standard) regression settings. Existing support vector classification and regression techniques however are not suitable for partly censored survival data, which are typically analysed using Cox's proportional hazards model. As the partial likelihood of the proportional hazards model only depends on the covariates through inner products, it can be 'kernelized'. The kernelized proportional hazards model however yields a solution that is dense, i.e. the solution depends on all observations. One of the key features of an SVM is that it yields a sparse solution, depending only on a small fraction of the training data. We propose two methods. One is based on a geometric idea, where-akin to support vector classification-the margin between the failed observation and the observations currently at risk is maximised. The other approach is based on obtaining a sparse model by adding observations one after another akin to the Import Vector Machine (IVM). Data examples studied suggest that both methods can outperform competing approaches. Software is available under the GNU Public License as an R package and can be obtained from the first author's website http://www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~maxle/software.html.

  6. 27 CFR 24.213 - Heavy bodied blending wine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY ALCOHOL WINE Production of Other Than Standard Wine § 24.213 Heavy bodied blending wine. Heavy bodied blending wine is wine made for blending purposes from grapes or other fruit without...

  7. 27 CFR 24.213 - Heavy bodied blending wine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS WINE Production of Other Than Standard Wine § 24.213 Heavy bodied blending wine. Heavy bodied blending wine is wine made for blending purposes from grapes or other fruit without...

  8. 27 CFR 24.213 - Heavy bodied blending wine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS WINE Production of Other Than Standard Wine § 24.213 Heavy bodied blending wine. Heavy bodied blending wine is wine made for blending purposes from grapes or other fruit without...

  9. 27 CFR 24.213 - Heavy bodied blending wine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY ALCOHOL WINE Production of Other Than Standard Wine § 24.213 Heavy bodied blending wine. Heavy bodied blending wine is wine made for blending purposes from grapes or other fruit without...

  10. Kernel and divergence techniques in high energy physics separations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bouř, Petr; Kůs, Václav; Franc, Jiří

    2017-10-01

    Binary decision trees under the Bayesian decision technique are used for supervised classification of high-dimensional data. We present a great potential of adaptive kernel density estimation as the nested separation method of the supervised binary divergence decision tree. Also, we provide a proof of alternative computing approach for kernel estimates utilizing Fourier transform. Further, we apply our method to Monte Carlo data set from the particle accelerator Tevatron at DØ experiment in Fermilab and provide final top-antitop signal separation results. We have achieved up to 82 % AUC while using the restricted feature selection entering the signal separation procedure.

  11. Novel bio-based and biodegradable polymer blends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Shengzhe

    Most plastic materials, including high performance thermoplastics and thermosets are produced entirely from petroleum-based products. The volatility of the natural oil markets and the increasing cost of petroleum have led to a push to reduce the dependence on petroleum products. Together with an increase in environmental awareness, this has promoted the use of alternative, biorenewable, environmentally-friendly products, such as biomass. The growing interest in replacing petroleum-based products by inexpensive, renewable, natural materials is important for sustainable development into the future and will have a significant impact on the polymer industry and the environment. This thesis involved characterization and development of two series of novel bio-based polymer blends, namely polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)/polyamide (PA) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/soy protein. Blends with different concentrations and compatible microstructures were prepared using twin-screw extruder. For PHA/PA blends, the poor mechanical properties of PHA improved significantly with an excellent combination of strength, stiffness and toughness by adding PA. Furthermore, the effect of blending on the viscoelastic properties has been investigated using small-amplitude oscillatory shear flow experiments as a function of blend composition and angular frequency. The elastic shear modulus (G‧) and complex viscosity of the blends increased significantly with increasing the concentration of PHA. Blending PLA with soy protein aims at reducing production cost, as well as accelerating the biodegradation rate in soil medium. In this work, the mechanical, thermal and morphological properties of the blends were investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and tensile tests.

  12. Implementation of kernels on the Maestro processor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suh, Jinwoo; Kang, D. I. D.; Crago, S. P.

    Currently, most microprocessors use multiple cores to increase performance while limiting power usage. Some processors use not just a few cores, but tens of cores or even 100 cores. One such many-core microprocessor is the Maestro processor, which is based on Tilera's TILE64 processor. The Maestro chip is a 49-core, general-purpose, radiation-hardened processor designed for space applications. The Maestro processor, unlike the TILE64, has a floating point unit (FPU) in each core for improved floating point performance. The Maestro processor runs at 342 MHz clock frequency. On the Maestro processor, we implemented several widely used kernels: matrix multiplication, vector add, FIR filter, and FFT. We measured and analyzed the performance of these kernels. The achieved performance was up to 5.7 GFLOPS, and the speedup compared to single tile was up to 49 using 49 tiles.

  13. Dynamic Changes in Phenolics and Antioxidant Capacity during Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) Kernel Ripening and Its Phenolics Profiles.

    PubMed

    Jia, Xiaodong; Luo, Huiting; Xu, Mengyang; Zhai, Min; Guo, Zhongren; Qiao, Yushan; Wang, Liangju

    2018-02-16

    Pecan ( Carya illinoinensis ) kernels have a high phenolics content and a high antioxidant capacity compared to other nuts-traits that have attracted great interest of late. Changes in the total phenolic content (TPC), condensed tannins (CT), total flavonoid content (TFC), five individual phenolics, and antioxidant capacity of five pecan cultivars were investigated during the process of kernel ripening. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadruple time-of-flight mass (UPLC-Q/TOF-MS) was also used to analyze the phenolics profiles in mixed pecan kernels. TPC, CT, TFC, individual phenolics, and antioxidant capacity were changed in similar patterns, with values highest at the water or milk stages, lowest at milk or dough stages, and slightly varied at kernel stages. Forty phenolics were tentatively identified in pecan kernels, of which two were first reported in the genus Carya , six were first reported in Carya illinoinensis , and one was first reported in its kernel. The findings on these new phenolic compounds provide proof of the high antioxidant capacity of pecan kernels.

  14. Adequacy of the Measurement Capability of Fatty Acid Compositions and Sterol Profiles to Determine Authenticity of Milk Fat Through Formulation of Adulterated Butter.

    PubMed

    Soha, Sahel; Mortazavian, Amir M; Piravi-Vanak, Zahra; Mohammadifar, Mohammad A; Sahafar, Hamed; Nanvazadeh, Sara

    2015-01-01

    In this research a comparison has been made between the fatty acid and sterol compositions of Iranian pure butter and three samples of adulterated butter. These samples were formulated using edible vegetable fats/oils with similar milk fat structures including palm olein, palm kernel and coconut oil to determine the authenticity of milk fat. The amount of vegetable fats/oils used in the formulation of the adulterated butter was 10%. The adulterated samples were formulated so that their fatty acid profiles were comforted with acceptable levels of pure butter as specified by the Iranian national standard. Based on the type of the vegetable oil/fat, fatty acids such as C4:0, C12:0 and C18:2 were used as indicators for the adulterated formulations. According to the standard method of ISO, the analysis was performed using gas chromatography. The cholesterol contents were 99.71% in pure butter (B1), and 97.61%, 98.48% and 97.98% of the total sterols in the samples adulterated with palm olein, palm kernel and coconut oil (B2, B3 and B4), respectively. Contents of the main phytosterol profiles such as β-sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol were also determined. The β-sitosterol content, as an indicator of phytosterols, was 0% in pure butter, and 1.81%, 1.67% and 2.16%, of the total sterols in the adulterated samples (B2, B3 and B4), respectively. Our findings indicate that fatty acid profiles are not an efficient indicator for butter authentication. Despite the increase in phytosterols and the reduction in cholesterol and with regard to the conformity of the sterol profiles of the edible fats/oils used in the formulations with Codex standards, lower cholesterol and higher phytosterols contents should have been observed. It can therefore be concluded that sterol measurement is insufficient to verify the authenticity of the milk fat in butter. It can therefore be concluded that sterol measurement is insufficient in verifying the authenticity of milk fat.

  15. Research on offense and defense technology for iOS kernel security mechanism

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, Sijun; Wu, Hao

    2018-04-01

    iOS is a strong and widely used mobile device system. It's annual profits make up about 90% of the total profits of all mobile phone brands. Though it is famous for its security, there have been many attacks on the iOS operating system, such as the Trident apt attack in 2016. So it is important to research the iOS security mechanism and understand its weaknesses and put forward targeted protection and security check framework. By studying these attacks and previous jailbreak tools, we can see that an attacker could only run a ROP code and gain kernel read and write permissions based on the ROP after exploiting kernel and user layer vulnerabilities. However, the iOS operating system is still protected by the code signing mechanism, the sandbox mechanism, and the not-writable mechanism of the system's disk area. This is far from the steady, long-lasting control that attackers expect. Before iOS 9, breaking these security mechanisms was usually done by modifying the kernel's important data structures and security mechanism code logic. However, after iOS 9, the kernel integrity protection mechanism was added to the 64-bit operating system and none of the previous methods were adapted to the new versions of iOS [1]. But this does not mean that attackers can not break through. Therefore, based on the analysis of the vulnerability of KPP security mechanism, this paper implements two possible breakthrough methods for kernel security mechanism for iOS9 and iOS10. Meanwhile, we propose a defense method based on kernel integrity detection and sensitive API call detection to defense breakthrough method mentioned above. And we make experiments to prove that this method can prevent and detect attack attempts or invaders effectively and timely.

  16. Regional teleseismic body-wave tomography with component-differential finite-frequency sensitivity kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Y.; Shen, Y.; Chen, Y. J.

    2015-12-01

    By using ray theory in conjunction with the Born approximation, Dahlen et al. [2000] computed 3-D sensitivity kernels for finite-frequency seismic traveltimes. A series of studies have been conducted based on this theory to model the mantle velocity structure [e.g., Hung et al., 2004; Montelli et al., 2004; Ren and Shen, 2008; Yang et al., 2009; Liang et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2014]. One of the simplifications in the calculation of the kernels is the paraxial assumption, which may not be strictly valid near the receiver, the region of interest in regional teleseismic tomography. In this study, we improve the accuracy of traveltime sensitivity kernels of the first P arrival by eliminating the paraxial approximation. For calculation efficiency, the traveltime table built by the Fast Marching Method (FMM) is used to calculate both the wave vector and the geometrical spreading at every grid in the whole volume. The improved kernels maintain the sign, but with different amplitudes at different locations. We also find that when the directivity of the scattered wave is being taken into consideration, the differential sensitivity kernel of traveltimes measured at the vertical and radial component of the same receiver concentrates beneath the receiver, which can be used to invert for the structure inside the Earth. Compared with conventional teleseismic tomography, which uses the differential traveltimes between two stations in an array, this method is not affected by instrument response and timing errors, and reduces the uncertainty caused by the finite dimension of the model in regional tomography. In addition, the cross-dependence of P traveltimes to S-wave velocity anomaly is significant and sensitive to the structure beneath the receiver. So with the component-differential finite-frequency sensitivity kernel, the anomaly of both P-wave and S-wave velocity and Vp/Vs ratio can be achieved at the same time.

  17. The processing of blend words in naming and sentence reading.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Rebecca L; Slate, Sarah Rose; Teevan, Allison R; Juhasz, Barbara J

    2018-04-01

    Research exploring the processing of morphologically complex words, such as compound words, has found that they are decomposed into their constituent parts during processing. Although much is known about the processing of compound words, very little is known about the processing of lexicalised blend words, which are created from parts of two words, often with phoneme overlap (e.g., brunch). In the current study, blends were matched with non-blend words on a variety of lexical characteristics, and blend processing was examined using two tasks: a naming task and an eye-tracking task that recorded eye movements during reading. Results showed that blend words were processed more slowly than non-blend control words in both tasks. Blend words led to longer reaction times in naming and longer processing times on several eye movement measures compared to non-blend words. This was especially true for blends that were long, rated low in word familiarity, but were easily recognisable as blends.

  18. Image registration using stationary velocity fields parameterized by norm-minimizing Wendland kernel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pai, Akshay; Sommer, Stefan; Sørensen, Lauge; Darkner, Sune; Sporring, Jon; Nielsen, Mads

    2015-03-01

    Interpolating kernels are crucial to solving a stationary velocity field (SVF) based image registration problem. This is because, velocity fields need to be computed in non-integer locations during integration. The regularity in the solution to the SVF registration problem is controlled by the regularization term. In a variational formulation, this term is traditionally expressed as a squared norm which is a scalar inner product of the interpolating kernels parameterizing the velocity fields. The minimization of this term using the standard spline interpolation kernels (linear or cubic) is only approximative because of the lack of a compatible norm. In this paper, we propose to replace such interpolants with a norm-minimizing interpolant - the Wendland kernel which has the same computational simplicity like B-Splines. An application on the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative showed that Wendland SVF based measures separate (Alzheimer's disease v/s normal controls) better than both B-Spline SVFs (p<0.05 in amygdala) and B-Spline freeform deformation (p<0.05 in amygdala and cortical gray matter).

  19. LoCoH: Non-parameteric kernel methods for constructing home ranges and utilization distributions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Getz, Wayne M.; Fortmann-Roe, Scott; Cross, Paul C.; Lyons, Andrew J.; Ryan, Sadie J.; Wilmers, Christopher C.

    2007-01-01

    Parametric kernel methods currently dominate the literature regarding the construction of animal home ranges (HRs) and utilization distributions (UDs). These methods frequently fail to capture the kinds of hard boundaries common to many natural systems. Recently a local convex hull (LoCoH) nonparametric kernel method, which generalizes the minimum convex polygon (MCP) method, was shown to be more appropriate than parametric kernel methods for constructing HRs and UDs, because of its ability to identify hard boundaries (e.g., rivers, cliff edges) and convergence to the true distribution as sample size increases. Here we extend the LoCoH in two ways: ‘‘fixed sphere-of-influence,’’ or r -LoCoH (kernels constructed from all points within a fixed radius r of each reference point), and an ‘‘adaptive sphere-of-influence,’’ or a -LoCoH (kernels constructed from all points within a radius a such that the distances of all points within the radius to the reference point sum to a value less than or equal to a ), and compare them to the original ‘‘fixed-number-of-points,’’ or k -LoCoH (all kernels constructed from k -1 nearest neighbors of root points). We also compare these nonparametric LoCoH to parametric kernel methods using manufactured data and data collected from GPS collars on African buffalo in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Our results demonstrate that LoCoH methods are superior to parametric kernel methods in estimating areas used by animals, excluding unused areas (holes) and, generally, in constructing UDs and HRs arising from the movement of animals influenced by hard boundaries and irregular structures (e.g., rocky outcrops). We also demonstrate that a -LoCoH is generally superior to k - and r -LoCoH (with software for all three methods available at http://locoh.cnr.berkeley.edu).

  20. Effect of Local TOF Kernel Miscalibrations on Contrast-Noise in TOF PET

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clementel, Enrico; Mollet, Pieter; Vandenberghe, Stefaan

    2013-06-01

    TOF PET imaging requires specific calibrations: accurate characterization of the system timing resolution and timing offset is required to achieve the full potential image quality. Current system models used in image reconstruction assume a spatially uniform timing resolution kernel. Furthermore, although the timing offset errors are often pre-corrected, this correction becomes less accurate with the time since, especially in older scanners, the timing offsets are often calibrated only during the installation, as the procedure is time-consuming. In this study, we investigate and compare the effects of local mismatch of timing resolution when a uniform kernel is applied to systems with local variations in timing resolution and the effects of uncorrected time offset errors on image quality. A ring-like phantom was acquired on a Philips Gemini TF scanner and timing histograms were obtained from coincidence events to measure timing resolution along all sets of LORs crossing the scanner center. In addition, multiple acquisitions of a cylindrical phantom, 20 cm in diameter with spherical inserts, and a point source were simulated. A location-dependent timing resolution was simulated, with a median value of 500 ps and increasingly large local variations, and timing offset errors ranging from 0 to 350 ps were also simulated. Images were reconstructed with TOF MLEM with a uniform kernel corresponding to the effective timing resolution of the data, as well as with purposefully mismatched kernels. To CRC vs noise curves were measured over the simulated cylinder realizations, while the simulated point source was processed to generate timing histograms of the data. Results show that timing resolution is not uniform over the FOV of the considered scanner. The simulated phantom data indicate that CRC is moderately reduced in data sets with locally varying timing resolution reconstructed with a uniform kernel, while still performing better than non-TOF reconstruction. On the other

  1. Performance analysis and kernel size study of the Lynx real-time operating system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liu, Yuan-Kwei; Gibson, James S.; Fernquist, Alan R.

    1993-01-01

    This paper analyzes the Lynx real-time operating system (LynxOS), which has been selected as the operating system for the Space Station Freedom Data Management System (DMS). The features of LynxOS are compared to other Unix-based operating system (OS). The tools for measuring the performance of LynxOS, which include a high-speed digital timer/counter board, a device driver program, and an application program, are analyzed. The timings for interrupt response, process creation and deletion, threads, semaphores, shared memory, and signals are measured. The memory size of the DMS Embedded Data Processor (EDP) is limited. Besides, virtual memory is not suitable for real-time applications because page swap timing may not be deterministic. Therefore, the DMS software, including LynxOS, has to fit in the main memory of an EDP. To reduce the LynxOS kernel size, the following steps are taken: analyzing the factors that influence the kernel size; identifying the modules of LynxOS that may not be needed in an EDP; adjusting the system parameters of LynxOS; reconfiguring the device drivers used in the LynxOS; and analyzing the symbol table. The reductions in kernel disk size, kernel memory size and total kernel size reduction from each step mentioned above are listed and analyzed.

  2. Classifying K-12 Blended Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Staker, Heather; Horn, Michael B.

    2012-01-01

    The growth of online learning in the K-12 sector is occurring both remotely through virtual schools and on campuses through blended learning. In emerging fields, definitions are important because they create a shared language that enables people to talk about the new phenomena. The blended-learning taxonomy and definitions presented in this paper…

  3. Numerical study of the ignition behavior of a post-discharge kernel injected into a turbulent stratified cross-flow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jaravel, Thomas; Labahn, Jeffrey; Ihme, Matthias

    2017-11-01

    The reliable initiation of flame ignition by high-energy spark kernels is critical for the operability of aviation gas turbines. The evolution of a spark kernel ejected by an igniter into a turbulent stratified environment is investigated using detailed numerical simulations with complex chemistry. At early times post ejection, comparisons of simulation results with high-speed Schlieren data show that the initial trajectory of the kernel is well reproduced, with a significant amount of air entrainment from the surrounding flow that is induced by the kernel ejection. After transiting in a non-flammable mixture, the kernel reaches a second stream of flammable methane-air mixture, where the successful of the kernel ignition was found to depend on the local flow state and operating conditions. By performing parametric studies, the probability of kernel ignition was identified, and compared with experimental observations. The ignition behavior is characterized by analyzing the local chemical structure, and its stochastic variability is also investigated.

  4. Fast Query-Optimized Kernel-Machine Classification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mazzoni, Dominic; DeCoste, Dennis

    2004-01-01

    A recently developed algorithm performs kernel-machine classification via incremental approximate nearest support vectors. The algorithm implements support-vector machines (SVMs) at speeds 10 to 100 times those attainable by use of conventional SVM algorithms. The algorithm offers potential benefits for classification of images, recognition of speech, recognition of handwriting, and diverse other applications in which there are requirements to discern patterns in large sets of data. SVMs constitute a subset of kernel machines (KMs), which have become popular as models for machine learning and, more specifically, for automated classification of input data on the basis of labeled training data. While similar in many ways to k-nearest-neighbors (k-NN) models and artificial neural networks (ANNs), SVMs tend to be more accurate. Using representations that scale only linearly in the numbers of training examples, while exploring nonlinear (kernelized) feature spaces that are exponentially larger than the original input dimensionality, KMs elegantly and practically overcome the classic curse of dimensionality. However, the price that one must pay for the power of KMs is that query-time complexity scales linearly with the number of training examples, making KMs often orders of magnitude more computationally expensive than are ANNs, decision trees, and other popular machine learning alternatives. The present algorithm treats an SVM classifier as a special form of a k-NN. The algorithm is based partly on an empirical observation that one can often achieve the same classification as that of an exact KM by using only small fraction of the nearest support vectors (SVs) of a query. The exact KM output is a weighted sum over the kernel values between the query and the SVs. In this algorithm, the KM output is approximated with a k-NN classifier, the output of which is a weighted sum only over the kernel values involving k selected SVs. Before query time, there are gathered

  5. Radiation processing of thermoplastic starch by blending aromatic additives: Effect of blend composition and radiation parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khandal, Dhriti; Mikus, Pierre-Yves; Dole, Patrice; Coqueret, Xavier

    2013-03-01

    This paper reports on the effects of electron beam (EB) irradiation on poly α-1,4-glucose oligomers (maltodextrins) in the presence of water and of various aromatic additives, as model blends for gaining a better understanding at a molecular level the modifications occurring in amorphous starch-lignin blends submitted to ionizing irradiation for improving the properties of this type of bio-based thermoplastic material. A series of aromatic compounds, namely p-methoxy benzyl alcohol, benzene dimethanol, cinnamyl alcohol and some related carboxylic acids namely cinnamic acid, coumaric acid, and ferulic acid, was thus studied for assessing the ability of each additive to counteract chain scission of the polysaccharide and induce interchain covalent linkages. Gel formation in EB-irradiated blends comprising of maltodextrin was shown to be dependent on three main factors: the type of aromatic additive, presence of glycerol, and irradiation dose. The chain scission versus grafting phenomenon as a function of blend composition and dose were studied using Size Exclusion Chromatography by determining the changes in molecular weight distribution (MWD) from Refractive Index (RI) chromatograms and the presence of aromatic grafts onto the maltodextrin chains from UV chromatograms. The occurrence of crosslinking was quantified by gel fraction measurements allowing for ranking the cross-linking efficiency of the additives. When applying the method to destructurized starch blends, gel formation was also shown to be strongly affected by the moisture content of the sample submitted to irradiation. The results demonstrate the possibility to tune the reactivity of tailored blend for minimizing chain degradation and control the degree of cross-linking.

  6. Dielectric properties of almond kernels associated with radio frequency and microwave pasteurization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Rui; Zhang, Shuang; Kou, Xiaoxi; Ling, Bo; Wang, Shaojin

    2017-02-01

    To develop advanced pasteurization treatments based on radio frequency (RF) or microwave (MW) energy, dielectric properties of almond kernels were measured by using an open-ended coaxial-line probe and impedance analyzer at frequencies between 10 and 3000 MHz, moisture contents between 4.2% to 19.6% w.b. and temperatures between 20 and 90 °C. The results showed that both dielectric constant and loss factor of the almond kernels decreased sharply with increasing frequency over the RF range (10-300 MHz), but gradually over the measured MW range (300-3000 MHz). Both dielectric constant and loss factor of almond kernels increased with increasing temperature and moisture content, and largely enhanced at higher temperature and moisture levels. Quadratic polynomial equations were developed to best fit the relationship between dielectric constant or loss factor at 27, 40, 915 or 2450 MHz and sample temperature/moisture content with R2 greater than 0.967. Penetration depth of electromagnetic wave into samples decreased with increasing frequency (27-2450 MHz), moisture content (4.2-19.6% w.b.) and temperature (20-90 °C). The temperature profiles of RF heated almond kernels under three moisture levels were made using experiment and computer simulation based on measured dielectric properties. Based on the result of this study, RF treatment has potential to be practically used for pasteurization of almond kernels with acceptable heating uniformity.

  7. Dielectric properties of almond kernels associated with radio frequency and microwave pasteurization.

    PubMed

    Li, Rui; Zhang, Shuang; Kou, Xiaoxi; Ling, Bo; Wang, Shaojin

    2017-02-10

    To develop advanced pasteurization treatments based on radio frequency (RF) or microwave (MW) energy, dielectric properties of almond kernels were measured by using an open-ended coaxial-line probe and impedance analyzer at frequencies between 10 and 3000 MHz, moisture contents between 4.2% to 19.6% w.b. and temperatures between 20 and 90 °C. The results showed that both dielectric constant and loss factor of the almond kernels decreased sharply with increasing frequency over the RF range (10-300 MHz), but gradually over the measured MW range (300-3000 MHz). Both dielectric constant and loss factor of almond kernels increased with increasing temperature and moisture content, and largely enhanced at higher temperature and moisture levels. Quadratic polynomial equations were developed to best fit the relationship between dielectric constant or loss factor at 27, 40, 915 or 2450 MHz and sample temperature/moisture content with R 2 greater than 0.967. Penetration depth of electromagnetic wave into samples decreased with increasing frequency (27-2450 MHz), moisture content (4.2-19.6% w.b.) and temperature (20-90 °C). The temperature profiles of RF heated almond kernels under three moisture levels were made using experiment and computer simulation based on measured dielectric properties. Based on the result of this study, RF treatment has potential to be practically used for pasteurization of almond kernels with acceptable heating uniformity.

  8. GPU-accelerated Kernel Regression Reconstruction for Freehand 3D Ultrasound Imaging.

    PubMed

    Wen, Tiexiang; Li, Ling; Zhu, Qingsong; Qin, Wenjian; Gu, Jia; Yang, Feng; Xie, Yaoqin

    2017-07-01

    Volume reconstruction method plays an important role in improving reconstructed volumetric image quality for freehand three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging. By utilizing the capability of programmable graphics processing unit (GPU), we can achieve a real-time incremental volume reconstruction at a speed of 25-50 frames per second (fps). After incremental reconstruction and visualization, hole-filling is performed on GPU to fill remaining empty voxels. However, traditional pixel nearest neighbor-based hole-filling fails to reconstruct volume with high image quality. On the contrary, the kernel regression provides an accurate volume reconstruction method for 3D ultrasound imaging but with the cost of heavy computational complexity. In this paper, a GPU-based fast kernel regression method is proposed for high-quality volume after the incremental reconstruction of freehand ultrasound. The experimental results show that improved image quality for speckle reduction and details preservation can be obtained with the parameter setting of kernel window size of [Formula: see text] and kernel bandwidth of 1.0. The computational performance of the proposed GPU-based method can be over 200 times faster than that on central processing unit (CPU), and the volume with size of 50 million voxels in our experiment can be reconstructed within 10 seconds.

  9. A Precise Drunk Driving Detection Using Weighted Kernel Based on Electrocardiogram.

    PubMed

    Wu, Chung Kit; Tsang, Kim Fung; Chi, Hao Ran; Hung, Faan Hei

    2016-05-09

    Globally, 1.2 million people die and 50 million people are injured annually due to traffic accidents. These traffic accidents cost $500 billion dollars. Drunk drivers are found in 40% of the traffic crashes. Existing drunk driving detection (DDD) systems do not provide accurate detection and pre-warning concurrently. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a proven biosignal that accurately and simultaneously reflects human's biological status. In this letter, a classifier for DDD based on ECG is investigated in an attempt to reduce traffic accidents caused by drunk drivers. At this point, it appears that there is no known research or literature found on ECG classifier for DDD. To identify drunk syndromes, the ECG signals from drunk drivers are studied and analyzed. As such, a precise ECG-based DDD (ECG-DDD) using a weighted kernel is developed. From the measurements, 10 key features of ECG signals were identified. To incorporate the important features, the feature vectors are weighted in the customization of kernel functions. Four commonly adopted kernel functions are studied. Results reveal that weighted feature vectors improve the accuracy by 11% compared to the computation using the prime kernel. Evaluation shows that ECG-DDD improved the accuracy by 8% to 18% compared to prevailing methods.

  10. Symbol recognition with kernel density matching.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Wan; Wenyin, Liu; Zhang, Kun

    2006-12-01

    We propose a novel approach to similarity assessment for graphic symbols. Symbols are represented as 2D kernel densities and their similarity is measured by the Kullback-Leibler divergence. Symbol orientation is found by gradient-based angle searching or independent component analysis. Experimental results show the outstanding performance of this approach in various situations.

  11. Application of the matrix exponential kernel

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rohach, A. F.

    1972-01-01

    A point matrix kernel for radiation transport, developed by the transmission matrix method, has been used to develop buildup factors and energy spectra through slab layers of different materials for a point isotropic source. Combinations of lead-water slabs were chosen for examples because of the extreme differences in shielding properties of these two materials.

  12. Fine-mapping of qGW4.05, a major QTL for kernel weight and size in maize.

    PubMed

    Chen, Lin; Li, Yong-xiang; Li, Chunhui; Wu, Xun; Qin, Weiwei; Li, Xin; Jiao, Fuchao; Zhang, Xiaojing; Zhang, Dengfeng; Shi, Yunsu; Song, Yanchun; Li, Yu; Wang, Tianyu

    2016-04-12

    Kernel weight and size are important components of grain yield in cereals. Although some information is available concerning the map positions of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for kernel weight and size in maize, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of these QTLs. qGW4.05 is a major QTL that is associated with kernel weight and size in maize. We combined linkage analysis and association mapping to fine-map and identify candidate gene(s) at qGW4.05. QTL qGW4.05 was fine-mapped to a 279.6-kb interval in a segregating population derived from a cross of Huangzaosi with LV28. By combining the results of regional association mapping and linkage analysis, we identified GRMZM2G039934 as a candidate gene responsible for qGW4.05. Candidate gene-based association mapping was conducted using a panel of 184 inbred lines with variable kernel weights and kernel sizes. Six polymorphic sites in the gene GRMZM2G039934 were significantly associated with kernel weight and kernel size. The results of linkage analysis and association mapping revealed that GRMZM2G039934 is the most likely candidate gene for qGW4.05. These results will improve our understanding of the genetic architecture and molecular mechanisms underlying kernel development in maize.

  13. Abiotic stress growth conditions induce different responses in kernel iron concentration across genotypically distinct maize inbred varieties

    PubMed Central

    Kandianis, Catherine B.; Michenfelder, Abigail S.; Simmons, Susan J.; Grusak, Michael A.; Stapleton, Ann E.

    2013-01-01

    The improvement of grain nutrient profiles for essential minerals and vitamins through breeding strategies is a target important for agricultural regions where nutrient poor crops like maize contribute a large proportion of the daily caloric intake. Kernel iron concentration in maize exhibits a broad range. However, the magnitude of genotype by environment (GxE) effects on this trait reduces the efficacy and predictability of selection programs, particularly when challenged with abiotic stress such as water and nitrogen limitations. Selection has also been limited by an inverse correlation between kernel iron concentration and the yield component of kernel size in target environments. Using 25 maize inbred lines for which extensive genome sequence data is publicly available, we evaluated the response of kernel iron density and kernel mass to water and nitrogen limitation in a managed field stress experiment using a factorial design. To further understand GxE interactions we used partition analysis to characterize response of kernel iron and weight to abiotic stressors among all genotypes, and observed two patterns: one characterized by higher kernel iron concentrations in control over stress conditions, and another with higher kernel iron concentration under drought and combined stress conditions. Breeding efforts for this nutritional trait could exploit these complementary responses through combinations of favorable allelic variation from these already well-characterized genetic stocks. PMID:24363659

  14. Vis- and NIR-based instruments for detection of black-tip damaged wheat kernels: A comparative study

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Black-tip (BT) present in wheat kernels is a non-mycotoxic fungus that attacks the kernels wherein any of a number of molds forms a dark brown or black sooty mold at the tip of the wheat kernel. Three spectrometers covering the spectral ranges 950-1636nm (Spec1), 600-1045nm (Spec2), and 380-780nm (S...

  15. Feasibility of detecting aflatoxin B1 on inoculated maize kernels surface using Vis/NIR hyperspectral imaging.

    PubMed

    Wang, Wei; Heitschmidt, Gerald W; Windham, William R; Feldner, Peggy; Ni, Xinzhi; Chu, Xuan

    2015-01-01

    The feasibility of using a visible/near-infrared hyperspectral imaging system with a wavelength range between 400 and 1000 nm to detect and differentiate different levels of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1 ) artificially titrated on maize kernel surface was examined. To reduce the color effects of maize kernels, image analysis was limited to a subset of original spectra (600 to 1000 nm). Residual staining from the AFB1 on the kernels surface was selected as regions of interest for analysis. Principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to reduce the dimensionality of hyperspectral image data, and then a stepwise factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) was performed on latent PCA variables. The results indicated that discriminant factors F2 can be used to separate control samples from all of the other groups of kernels with AFB1 inoculated, whereas the discriminant factors F1 can be used to identify maize kernels with levels of AFB1 as low as 10 ppb. An overall classification accuracy of 98% was achieved. Finally, the peaks of β coefficients of the discrimination factors F1 and F2 were analyzed and several key wavelengths identified for differentiating maize kernels with and without AFB1 , as well as those with differing levels of AFB1 inoculation. Results indicated that Vis/NIR hyperspectral imaging technology combined with the PCA-FDA was a practical method to detect and differentiate different levels of AFB1 artificially inoculated on the maize kernels surface. However, indicated the potential to detect and differentiate naturally occurring toxins in maize kernel. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®

  16. Application of SWIR hyperspectral imaging and chemometrics for identification of aflatoxin B1 contaminated maize kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kimuli, Daniel; Wang, Wei; Wang, Wei; Jiang, Hongzhe; Zhao, Xin; Chu, Xuan

    2018-03-01

    A short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging system (1000-2500 nm) combined with chemometric data analysis was used to detect aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on surfaces of 600 kernels of four yellow maize varieties from different States of the USA (Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska). For each variety, four AFB1 solutions (10, 20, 100 and 500 ppb) were artificially deposited on kernels and a control group was generated from kernels treated with methanol solution. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) were applied to explore and classify maize kernels according to AFB1 contamination. PCA results revealed partial separation of control kernels from AFB1 contaminated kernels for each variety while no pattern of separation was observed among pooled samples. A combination of standard normal variate and first derivative pre-treatments produced the best PLSDA classification model with accuracy of 100% and 96% in calibration and validation, respectively, from Illinois variety. The best AFB1 classification results came from FDA on raw spectra with accuracy of 100% in calibration and validation for Illinois and Nebraska varieties. However, for both PLSDA and FDA models, poor AFB1 classification results were obtained for pooled samples relative to individual varieties. SWIR spectra combined with chemometrics and spectra pre-treatments showed the possibility of detecting maize kernels of different varieties coated with AFB1. The study further suggests that increase of maize kernel constituents like water, protein, starch and lipid in a pooled sample may have influence on detection accuracy of AFB1 contamination.

  17. Blended Learning Improves Science Education.

    PubMed

    Stockwell, Brent R; Stockwell, Melissa S; Cennamo, Michael; Jiang, Elise

    2015-08-27

    Blended learning is an emerging paradigm for science education but has not been rigorously assessed. We performed a randomized controlled trial of blended learning. We found that in-class problem solving improved exam performance, and video assignments increased attendance and satisfaction. This validates a new model for science communication and education. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Scatter correction for cone-beam computed tomography using self-adaptive scatter kernel superposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xie, Shi-Peng; Luo, Li-Min

    2012-06-01

    The authors propose a combined scatter reduction and correction method to improve image quality in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The scatter kernel superposition (SKS) method has been used occasionally in previous studies. However, this method differs in that a scatter detecting blocker (SDB) was used between the X-ray source and the tested object to model the self-adaptive scatter kernel. This study first evaluates the scatter kernel parameters using the SDB, and then isolates the scatter distribution based on the SKS. The quality of image can be improved by removing the scatter distribution. The results show that the method can effectively reduce the scatter artifacts, and increase the image quality. Our approach increases the image contrast and reduces the magnitude of cupping. The accuracy of the SKS technique can be significantly improved in our method by using a self-adaptive scatter kernel. This method is computationally efficient, easy to implement, and provides scatter correction using a single scan acquisition.

  19. Synthesis of geopolymer from biomass-coal ash blends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samadhi, Tjokorde Walmiki; Wulandari, Winny; Prasetyo, Muhammad Iqbal; Fernando, Muhammad Rizki; Purbasari, Aprilina

    2017-09-01

    Geopolymer is an environmentally attractive Portland cement substitute, owing to its lower carbon footprint and its ability to consume various aluminosilicate waste materials as its precursors. This work describes the development of geopolymer formulation based on biomass-coal ash blends, which is predicted to be the prevalent type of waste when biomass-based thermal energy production becomes mainstream in Indonesia. The ash blends contain an ASTM Class F coal fly ash (FA), rice husk ash (RHA), and coconut shell ash (CSA). A mixture of Na2SiO3 and concentrated KOH is used as the activator solution. A preliminary experiment identified the appropriate activator/ash mass ratio to be 2.0, while the activator Na2SiO3/KOH ratio varies from 0.8 to 2.0 with increasing ash blend Si/Al ratio. Both non-blended FA and CSA are able to produce geopolymer mortars with 7-day compressive strength exceeding the Indonesian national SNI 15-2049-2004 standard minimum value of 2.0 MPa stipulated for Portland cement mortars. Ash blends have to be formulated with a maximum RHA content of approximately 50 %-mass to yield satisfactory 7-day strength. No optimum ash blend composition is identified within the simplex ternary ash blend compositional region. The strength decreases with Si/Al ratio of the ash blends due to increasing amount of unreacted silicate raw materials at the end of the geopolymer hardening period. Overall, it is confirmed that CSA and blended RHA are feasible raw materials for geopolymer production..

  20. Knowledge Driven Image Mining with Mixture Density Mercer Kernels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Srivastava, Ashok N.; Oza, Nikunj

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for automatic knowledge driven image mining based on the theory of Mercer Kernels; which are highly nonlinear symmetric positive definite mappings from the original image space to a very high, possibly infinite dimensional feature space. In that high dimensional feature space, linear clustering, prediction, and classification algorithms can be applied and the results can be mapped back down to the original image space. Thus, highly nonlinear structure in the image can be recovered through the use of well-known linear mathematics in the feature space. This process has a number of advantages over traditional methods in that it allows for nonlinear interactions to be modelled with only a marginal increase in computational costs. In this paper, we present the theory of Mercer Kernels, describe its use in image mining, discuss a new method to generate Mercer Kernels directly from data, and compare the results with existing algorithms on data from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Spectral Radiometer) instrument taken over the Arctic region. We also discuss the potential application of these methods on the Intelligent Archive, a NASA initiative for developing a tagged image data warehouse for the Earth Sciences.

  1. A shock-capturing SPH scheme based on adaptive kernel estimation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sigalotti, Leonardo Di G.; López, Hender; Donoso, Arnaldo; Sira, Eloy; Klapp, Jaime

    2006-02-01

    Here we report a method that converts standard smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) into a working shock-capturing scheme without relying on solutions to the Riemann problem. Unlike existing adaptive SPH simulations, the present scheme is based on an adaptive kernel estimation of the density, which combines intrinsic features of both the kernel and nearest neighbor approaches in a way that the amount of smoothing required in low-density regions is effectively controlled. Symmetrized SPH representations of the gas dynamic equations along with the usual kernel summation for the density are used to guarantee variational consistency. Implementation of the adaptive kernel estimation involves a very simple procedure and allows for a unique scheme that handles strong shocks and rarefactions the same way. Since it represents a general improvement of the integral interpolation on scattered data, it is also applicable to other fluid-dynamic models. When the method is applied to supersonic compressible flows with sharp discontinuities, as in the classical one-dimensional shock-tube problem and its variants, the accuracy of the results is comparable, and in most cases superior, to that obtained from high quality Godunov-type methods and SPH formulations based on Riemann solutions. The extension of the method to two- and three-space dimensions is straightforward. In particular, for the two-dimensional cylindrical Noh's shock implosion and Sedov point explosion problems the present scheme produces much better results than those obtained with conventional SPH codes.

  2. BioBlend.objects: metacomputing with Galaxy.

    PubMed

    Leo, Simone; Pireddu, Luca; Cuccuru, Gianmauro; Lianas, Luca; Soranzo, Nicola; Afgan, Enis; Zanetti, Gianluigi

    2014-10-01

    BioBlend.objects is a new component of the BioBlend package, adding an object-oriented interface for the Galaxy REST-based application programming interface. It improves support for metacomputing on Galaxy entities by providing higher-level functionality and allowing users to more easily create programs to explore, query and create Galaxy datasets and workflows. BioBlend.objects is available online at https://github.com/afgane/bioblend. The new object-oriented API is implemented by the galaxy/objects subpackage. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  3. Production of silk sericin/silk fibroin blend nanofibers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Xianhua; Tsukada, Masuhiro; Morikawa, Hideaki; Aojima, Kazuki; Zhang, Guangyu; Miura, Mikihiko

    2011-08-01

    Silk sericin (SS)/silk fibroin (SF) blend nanofibers have been produced by electrospinning in a binary SS/SF trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) solution system, which was prepared by mixing 20 wt.% SS TFA solution and 10 wt.% SF TFA solution to give different compositions. The diameters of the SS/SF nanofibers ranged from 33 to 837 nm, and they showed a round cross section. The surface of the SS/SF nanofibers was smooth, and the fibers possessed a bead-free structure. The average diameters of the SS/SF (75/25, 50/50, and 25/75) blend nanofibers were much thicker than that of SS and SF nanofibers. The SS/SF (100/0, 75/25, and 50/50) blend nanofibers were easily dissolved in water, while the SS/SF (25/75 and 0/100) blend nanofibers could not be completely dissolved in water. The SS/SF blend nanofibers could not be completely dissolved in methanol. The SS/SF blend nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and differential thermal analysis. FTIR showed that the SS/SF blend nanofibers possessed a random coil conformation and ß-sheet structure.

  4. Production of silk sericin/silk fibroin blend nanofibers

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Silk sericin (SS)/silk fibroin (SF) blend nanofibers have been produced by electrospinning in a binary SS/SF trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) solution system, which was prepared by mixing 20 wt.% SS TFA solution and 10 wt.% SF TFA solution to give different compositions. The diameters of the SS/SF nanofibers ranged from 33 to 837 nm, and they showed a round cross section. The surface of the SS/SF nanofibers was smooth, and the fibers possessed a bead-free structure. The average diameters of the SS/SF (75/25, 50/50, and 25/75) blend nanofibers were much thicker than that of SS and SF nanofibers. The SS/SF (100/0, 75/25, and 50/50) blend nanofibers were easily dissolved in water, while the SS/SF (25/75 and 0/100) blend nanofibers could not be completely dissolved in water. The SS/SF blend nanofibers could not be completely dissolved in methanol. The SS/SF blend nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and differential thermal analysis. FTIR showed that the SS/SF blend nanofibers possessed a random coil conformation and ß-sheet structure. PMID:21867508

  5. Contrasting performance of donor-acceptor copolymer pairs in ternary blend solar cells and two-acceptor copolymers in binary blend solar cells.

    PubMed

    Khlyabich, Petr P; Rudenko, Andrey E; Burkhart, Beate; Thompson, Barry C

    2015-02-04

    Here two contrasting approaches to polymer-fullerene solar cells are compared. In the first approach, two distinct semi-random donor-acceptor copolymers are blended with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) to form ternary blend solar cells. The two poly(3-hexylthiophene)-based polymers contain either the acceptor thienopyrroledione (TPD) or diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP). In the second approach, semi-random donor-acceptor copolymers containing both TPD and DPP acceptors in the same polymer backbone, termed two-acceptor polymers, are blended with PC61BM to give binary blend solar cells. The two approaches result in bulk heterojunction solar cells that have the same molecular active-layer components but differ in the manner in which these molecular components are mixed, either by physical mixing (ternary blend) or chemical "mixing" in the two-acceptor (binary blend) case. Optical properties and photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies of the binary and ternary blends were found to have similar features and were described as a linear combination of the individual components. At the same time, significant differences were observed in the open-circuit voltage (Voc) behaviors of binary and ternary blend solar cells. While in case of two-acceptor polymers, the Voc was found to be in the range of 0.495-0.552 V, ternary blend solar cells showed behavior inherent to organic alloy formation, displaying an intermediate, composition-dependent and tunable Voc in the range from 0.582 to 0.684 V, significantly exceeding the values achieved in the two-acceptor containing binary blend solar cells. Despite the differences between the physical and chemical mixing approaches, both pathways provided solar cells with similar power conversion efficiencies, highlighting the advantages of both pathways toward highly efficient organic solar cells.

  6. Feasibility of detecting Aflatoxin B1 in single maize kernels using hyperspectral imaging

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The feasibility of detecting Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in single maize kernel inoculated with Aspergillus flavus conidia in the field, as well as its spatial distribution in the kernels, was assessed using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technique. Firstly, an image mask was applied to a pixel-b...

  7. Blended Learning as Transformational Institutional Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    VanDerLinden, Kim

    2014-01-01

    This chapter reviews institutional approaches to blended learning and the ways in which institutions support faculty in the intentional redesign of courses to produce optimal learning. The chapter positions blended learning as a strategic opportunity to engage in organizational learning.

  8. Robust kernel collaborative representation for face recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Wei; Wang, Xiaohui; Ma, Yanbo; Jiang, Yuzheng; Zhu, Yinghui; Jin, Zhong

    2015-05-01

    One of the greatest challenges of representation-based face recognition is that the training samples are usually insufficient. In other words, the training set usually does not include enough samples to show varieties of high-dimensional face images caused by illuminations, facial expressions, and postures. When the test sample is significantly different from the training samples of the same subject, the recognition performance will be sharply reduced. We propose a robust kernel collaborative representation based on virtual samples for face recognition. We think that the virtual training set conveys some reasonable and possible variations of the original training samples. Hence, we design a new object function to more closely match the representation coefficients generated from the original and virtual training sets. In order to further improve the robustness, we implement the corresponding representation-based face recognition in kernel space. It is noteworthy that any kind of virtual training samples can be used in our method. We use noised face images to obtain virtual face samples. The noise can be approximately viewed as a reflection of the varieties of illuminations, facial expressions, and postures. Our work is a simple and feasible way to obtain virtual face samples to impose Gaussian noise (and other types of noise) specifically to the original training samples to obtain possible variations of the original samples. Experimental results on the FERET, Georgia Tech, and ORL face databases show that the proposed method is more robust than two state-of-the-art face recognition methods, such as CRC and Kernel CRC.

  9. An information theoretic approach of designing sparse kernel adaptive filters.

    PubMed

    Liu, Weifeng; Park, Il; Principe, José C

    2009-12-01

    This paper discusses an information theoretic approach of designing sparse kernel adaptive filters. To determine useful data to be learned and remove redundant ones, a subjective information measure called surprise is introduced. Surprise captures the amount of information a datum contains which is transferable to a learning system. Based on this concept, we propose a systematic sparsification scheme, which can drastically reduce the time and space complexity without harming the performance of kernel adaptive filters. Nonlinear regression, short term chaotic time-series prediction, and long term time-series forecasting examples are presented.

  10. Antioxidant capacity and phenolics content of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) kernel as a function of genotype.

    PubMed

    Korekar, Girish; Stobdan, Tsering; Arora, Richa; Yadav, Ashish; Singh, Shashi Bala

    2011-11-01

    Fourteen apricot genotypes grown under similar cultural practices in Trans-Himalayan Ladakh region were studied to find out the influence of genotype on antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content (TPC) of apricot kernel. The kernels were found to be rich in TPC ranging from 92.2 to 162.1 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g. The free radical-scavenging activity in terms of inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) ranged from 43.8 to 123.4 mg/ml and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) from 154.1 to 243.6 FeSO(4).7H(2)O μg/ml. A variation of 1-1.7 fold in total phenolic content, 1-2.8 fold in IC(50) by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and 1-1.6 fold in ferric reducing antioxidant potential among the examined kernels underlines the important role played by genetic background for determining the phenolic content and antioxidant potential of apricot kernel. A positive significant correlation between TPC and FRAP (r=0.671) was found. No significant correlation was found between TPC and IC(50); FRAP and IC(50); TPC and physical properties of kernel. Principal component analysis demonstrated that genotypic effect is more pronounced towards TPC and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) content in apricot kernel while the contribution of seed and kernel physical properties are not highly significant.

  11. Short versus long term effects of cyanide on sugar metabolism and transport in dormant walnut kernels.

    PubMed

    Gerivani, Zahra; Vashaee, Elham; Sadeghipour, Hamid Reza; Aghdasi, Mahnaz; Shobbar, Zahra-Sadat; Azimmohseni, Majid

    2016-11-01

    Tree seed dormancy release by cold stratification accompanies with the embryo increased gluconeogenesis competence. Cyanide also breaks seed dormancy however, integrated information about its effects on carbon metabolism is lacking. Accordingly, the impacts of HCN on germination, lipid gluconeogenesis and sugar transport capacity of walnut (Juglans regia L.) kernels were investigated during 10-days period prior to radicle protrusion. HCN increased walnut kernel germination and within four days of kernel incubation, hastened the decline of starch, reducing and non-reducing sugars and led to greater activities of alkaline invertase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. From four days of kernel incubation onwards, starch and non-reducing sugars accumulated only in the HCN treated axes. Cyanide also increased the activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and glyoxysomal succinate oxidase and led to greater acid invertase activity during the aforementioned period. The expressions of both sucrose transporter (JrSUT1) and H + -ATPase (JrAHA1) genes especially in cotyledons and H + -ATPase activity in kernels were significantly enhanced by exposure to cyanide. Thus in short-term HCN led to prevalence of carbohydrate catabolic events such as oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and possibly glycolysis in dormant walnut kernels. Long-term effects however, are increased gluconeogenesis and enhanced sugar transport capacity of kernels as a prerequisite for germination. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Movement of 14C-Labeled Assimilates into Kernels of Zea mays L

    PubMed Central

    Shannon, Jack C.; Dougherty, C. T.

    1972-01-01

    Invertases of the placento-chalazal and pedicel tissues are much more active than invertase from the pericarp of Zea mays L. kernels 12 to 40 days after pollination. Sucrose synthetase was not detected in the pedicel or placento-chalazal tissues. Sucrose content and percentage increased in the pedicel with advancing kernel age. Hexoses accounted for over half of the sugars extracted from the placento-chalazal tissues. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that sucrose translocated to the pedicel is hydrolyzed by acid invertase(s) prior to entry of sugar into the endosperm tissue. The placentochalazal tissue appears to be the primary site of sucrose inversion with the pedicel invertase contributing more or less to this process depending on kernel age. PMID:16657925

  13. [Research on the methods for multi-class kernel CSP-based feature extraction].

    PubMed

    Wang, Jinjia; Zhang, Lingzhi; Hu, Bei

    2012-04-01

    To relax the presumption of strictly linear patterns in the common spatial patterns (CSP), we studied the kernel CSP (KCSP). A new multi-class KCSP (MKCSP) approach was proposed in this paper, which combines the kernel approach with multi-class CSP technique. In this approach, we used kernel spatial patterns for each class against all others, and extracted signal components specific to one condition from EEG data sets of multiple conditions. Then we performed classification using the Logistic linear classifier. Brain computer interface (BCI) competition III_3a was used in the experiment. Through the experiment, it can be proved that this approach could decompose the raw EEG singles into spatial patterns extracted from multi-class of single trial EEG, and could obtain good classification results.

  14. Blended Learning within an Undergraduate Exercise Physiology Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elmer, Steven J.; Carter, Kathryn R.; Armga, Austin J.; Carter, Jason R.

    2016-01-01

    In physiological education, blended course formats (integration of face-to-face and online instruction) can facilitate increased student learning, performance, and satisfaction in classroom settings. There is limited evidence on the effectiveness of using blending course formats in laboratory settings. We evaluated the impact of blended learning…

  15. Improvement of efficiency of oil extraction from wild apricot kernels by using enzymes.

    PubMed

    Bisht, Tejpal Singh; Sharma, Satish Kumar; Sati, Ramesh Chandra; Rao, Virendra Kumar; Yadav, Vijay Kumar; Dixit, Anil Kumar; Sharma, Ashok Kumar; Chopra, Chandra Shekhar

    2015-03-01

    An experiment was conducted to evaluate and standardize the protocol for enhancing recovery of oil and quality from cold pressed wild apricot kernels by using various enzymes. Wild apricot kernels were ground into powder in a grinder. Different lots of 3 kg powdered kernel were prepared and treated with different concentrations of enzyme solutions viz. Pectazyme (Pectinase), Mashzyme (Cellulase) and Pectazyme + Mashzyme. Kernel powder mixed with enzyme solutions were kept for 2 h at 50(±2) °C temperature for enzymatic treatment before its use for oil extraction through oil expeller. Results indicate that use of enzymes resulted in enhancement of oil recovery by 9.00-14.22 %. Maximum oil recovery was observed at 0.3-0.4 % enzyme concentration for both the enzymes individually, as well as in combination. All the three enzymatic treatments resulted in increasing oil yield. However, with 0.3 % (Pectazyme + Mashzyme) combination, maximum oil recovery of 47.33 % could be observed against were 33.11 % in control. The oil content left (wasted) in the cake and residue were reduced from 11.67 and 11.60 % to 7.31 and 2.72 % respectively, thus showing a high increase in efficiency of oil recovery from wild apricot kernels. Quality characteristics indicate that the oil quality was not adversely affected by enzymatic treatment. It was concluded treatment of powdered wild apricot kernels with 0.3 % (Pectazyme + Mashzyme) combination was highly effective in increasing oil recovery by 14.22 % without adversely affecting the quality and thus may be commercially used by the industry for reducing wastage of highly precious oil in the cake.

  16. Kernel Tuning and Nonuniform Influence on Optical and Electrochemical Gaps of Bimetal Nanoclusters.

    PubMed

    He, Lizhong; Yuan, Jinyun; Xia, Nan; Liao, Lingwen; Liu, Xu; Gan, Zibao; Wang, Chengming; Yang, Jinlong; Wu, Zhikun

    2018-03-14

    Fine tuning nanoparticles with atomic precision is exciting and challenging and is critical for tuning the properties, understanding the structure-property correlation and determining the practical applications of nanoparticles. Some ultrasmall thiolated metal nanoparticles (metal nanoclusters) have been shown to be precisely doped, and even the protecting staple metal atom could be precisely reduced. However, the precise addition or reduction of the kernel atom while the other metal atoms in the nanocluster remain the same has not been successful until now, to the best of our knowledge. Here, by carefully selecting the protecting ligand with adequate steric hindrance, we synthesized a novel nanocluster in which the kernel can be regarded as that formed by the addition of two silver atoms to both ends of the Pt@Ag 12 icosohedral kernel of the Ag 24 Pt(SR) 18 (SR: thiolate) nanocluster, as revealed by single crystal X-ray crystallography. Interestingly, compared with the previously reported Ag 24 Pt(SR) 18 nanocluster, the as-obtained novel bimetal nanocluster exhibits a similar absorption but a different electrochemical gap. One possible explanation for this result is that the kernel tuning does not essentially change the electronic structure, but obviously influences the charge on the Pt@Ag 12 kernel, as demonstrated by natural population analysis, thus possibly resulting in the large electrochemical gap difference between the two nanoclusters. This work not only provides a novel strategy to tune metal nanoclusters but also reveals that the kernel change does not necessarily alter the optical and electrochemical gaps in a uniform manner, which has important implications for the structure-property correlation of nanoparticles.

  17. Genomic similarity and kernel methods I: advancements by building on mathematical and statistical foundations.

    PubMed

    Schaid, Daniel J

    2010-01-01

    Measures of genomic similarity are the basis of many statistical analytic methods. We review the mathematical and statistical basis of similarity methods, particularly based on kernel methods. A kernel function converts information for a pair of subjects to a quantitative value representing either similarity (larger values meaning more similar) or distance (smaller values meaning more similar), with the requirement that it must create a positive semidefinite matrix when applied to all pairs of subjects. This review emphasizes the wide range of statistical methods and software that can be used when similarity is based on kernel methods, such as nonparametric regression, linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models, hierarchical models, score statistics, and support vector machines. The mathematical rigor for these methods is summarized, as is the mathematical framework for making kernels. This review provides a framework to move from intuitive and heuristic approaches to define genomic similarities to more rigorous methods that can take advantage of powerful statistical modeling and existing software. A companion paper reviews novel approaches to creating kernels that might be useful for genomic analyses, providing insights with examples [1]. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  18. Teaching of anatomical sciences: A blended learning approach.

    PubMed

    Khalil, Mohammed K; Abdel Meguid, Eiman M; Elkhider, Ihsan A

    2018-04-01

    Blended learning is the integration of different learning approaches, new technologies, and activities that combine traditional face-to-face teaching methods with authentic online methodologies. Although advances in educational technology have helped to expand the selection of different pedagogies, the teaching of anatomical sciences has been challenged by implementation difficulties and other limitations. These challenges are reported to include lack of time, costs, and lack of qualified teachers. Easy access to online information and advances in technology make it possible to resolve these limitations by adopting blended learning approaches. Blended learning strategies have been shown to improve students' academic performance, motivation, attitude, and satisfaction, and to provide convenient and flexible learning. Implementation of blended learning strategies has also proved cost effective. This article provides a theoretical foundation for blended learning and proposes a validated framework for the design of blended learning activities in the teaching and learning of anatomical sciences. Clin. Anat. 31:323-329, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. P- and S-wave Receiver Function Imaging with Scattering Kernels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hansen, S. M.; Schmandt, B.

    2017-12-01

    Full waveform inversion provides a flexible approach to the seismic parameter estimation problem and can account for the full physics of wave propagation using numeric simulations. However, this approach requires significant computational resources due to the demanding nature of solving the forward and adjoint problems. This issue is particularly acute for temporary passive-source seismic experiments (e.g. PASSCAL) that have traditionally relied on teleseismic earthquakes as sources resulting in a global scale forward problem. Various approximation strategies have been proposed to reduce the computational burden such as hybrid methods that embed a heterogeneous regional scale model in a 1D global model. In this study, we focus specifically on the problem of scattered wave imaging (migration) using both P- and S-wave receiver function data. The proposed method relies on body-wave scattering kernels that are derived from the adjoint data sensitivity kernels which are typically used for full waveform inversion. The forward problem is approximated using ray theory yielding a computationally efficient imaging algorithm that can resolve dipping and discontinuous velocity interfaces in 3D. From the imaging perspective, this approach is closely related to elastic reverse time migration. An energy stable finite-difference method is used to simulate elastic wave propagation in a 2D hypothetical subduction zone model. The resulting synthetic P- and S-wave receiver function datasets are used to validate the imaging method. The kernel images are compared with those generated by the Generalized Radon Transform (GRT) and Common Conversion Point stacking (CCP) methods. These results demonstrate the potential of the kernel imaging approach to constrain lithospheric structure in complex geologic environments with sufficiently dense recordings of teleseismic data. This is demonstrated using a receiver function dataset from the Central California Seismic Experiment which shows several

  20. Study on Energy Productivity Ratio (EPR) at palm kernel oil processing factory: case study on PT-X at Sumatera Utara Plantation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haryanto, B.; Bukit, R. Br; Situmeang, E. M.; Christina, E. P.; Pandiangan, F.

    2018-02-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the performance, productivity and feasibility of the operation of palm kernel processing plant based on Energy Productivity Ratio (EPR). EPR is expressed as the ratio of output to input energy and by-product. Palm Kernel plan is process in palm kernel to become palm kernel oil. The procedure started from collecting data needed as energy input such as: palm kernel prices, energy demand and depreciation of the factory. The energy output and its by-product comprise the whole production price such as: palm kernel oil price and the remaining products such as shells and pulp price. Calculation the equality of energy of palm kernel oil is to analyze the value of Energy Productivity Ratio (EPR) bases on processing capacity per year. The investigation has been done in Kernel Oil Processing Plant PT-X at Sumatera Utara plantation. The value of EPR was 1.54 (EPR > 1), which indicated that the processing of palm kernel into palm kernel oil is feasible to be operated based on the energy productivity.