Estimating grain yield losses caused by septoria leaf blotch on durum wheat in Tunisia

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Samia Berraies

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Septoria leaf blotch (SLB, caused by Zymoseptoria tritici (Desm. Quaedvlieg & Crous, 2011 (teleomorph: Mycosphaerella graminicola (Fuckel J. Schrot., is an important wheat disease in the Mediterranean region. In Tunisia, SLB has become a major disease of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum [Desf.] Husn. particularly during favorable growing seasons where significant yield losses and increase of fungicides use were recorded over the last three decades. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of SLB severity on grain yield of new elite durum wheat breeding lines and to measure the relative effect of fungicide control on grain yield. Experiments were conducted during 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 cropping seasons. A set of 800 breeding lines were screened for reaction to SLB under natural infection at Beja research station. To estimate the disease effect, correlation between disease severity at early grain filling stage and grain yield was performed. Results showed that susceptible varieties yield was significantly reduced by SLB. Average yield reduction was as high as 384 and 325 kg ha-1 for every increment in disease severity on a 0-9 scale in both seasons, respectively. A negative correlation coefficient varied between -0.61 and -0.66 in both seasons. Treated and untreated trials conducted during 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 showed that yield of treated plots increased by 50% on the commonly cultivated susceptible varieties. The results of this investigation suggested that septoria incidence is related to large grain yield losses particularly on susceptible high yielding cultivars. However, appropriate fungicide application at booting growth stage could be beneficial for farmers. The development and use of more effective fungicide could be sought to alleviate the disease effects and therefore could be considered as a part of the integrated pest management and responsible use strategy on septoria leaf blotch in Tunisia.

An economic assessment of the health effects and crop yield losses caused by air pollution in mainland China.

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Miao, Weijie; Huang, Xin; Song, Yu

2017-06-01

Air pollution is severe in China, and pollutants such as PM 2.5 and surface O 3 may cause major damage to human health and crops, respectively. Few studies have considered the health effects of PM 2.5 or the loss of crop yields due to surface O 3 using model-simulated air pollution data in China. We used gridded outputs from the WRF-Chem model, high resolution population data, and crop yield data to evaluate the effects on human health and crop yield in mainland China. Our results showed that outdoor PM 2.5 pollution was responsible for 1.70-1.99 million cases of all-cause mortality in 2006. The economic costs of these health effects were estimated to be 151.1-176.9 billion USD, of which 90% were attributed to mortality. The estimated crop yield losses for wheat, rice, maize, and soybean were approximately 9, 4.6, 0.44, and 0.34 million tons, respectively, resulting in economic losses of 3.4 billion USD. The total economic losses due to ambient air pollution were estimated to be 154.5-180.3 billion USD, accounting for approximately 5.7%-6.6% of the total GDP of China in 2006. Our results show that both population health and staple crop yields in China have been significantly affected by exposure to air pollution. Measures should be taken to reduce emissions, improve air quality, and mitigate the economic loss. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Assessment of crop yield losses in Punjab and Haryana using 2 years of continuous in situ ozone measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Sinha, B.; Singh Sangwan, K.; Maurya, Y.; Kumar, V.; Sarkar, C.; Chandra, B. P.; Sinha, V.

2015-08-01

In this study we use a high-quality data set of in situ ozone measurements at a suburban site called Mohali in the state of Punjab to estimate ozone-related crop yield losses for wheat, rice, cotton and maize for Punjab and the neighbouring state Haryana for the years 2011-2013. We intercompare crop yield loss estimates according to different exposure metrics, such as AOT40 (accumulated ozone exposure over a threshold of 40) and M7 (mean 7-hour ozone mixing ratio from 09:00 to 15:59), for the two major crop growing seasons of kharif (June-October) and rabi (November-April) and establish a new crop-yield-exposure relationship for southern Asian wheat, maize and rice cultivars. These are a factor of 2 more sensitive to ozone-induced crop yield losses compared to their European and American counterparts. Relative yield losses based on the AOT40 metrics ranged from 27 to 41 % for wheat, 21 to 26 % for rice, 3 to 5 % for maize and 47 to 58 % for cotton. Crop production losses for wheat amounted to 20.8 ± 10.4 million t in the fiscal year of 2012-2013 and 10.3 ± 4.7 million t in the fiscal year of 2013-2014 for Punjab and Haryana taken together. Crop production losses for rice totalled 5.4 ± 1.2 million t in the fiscal year of 2012-2013 and 3.2 ± 0.8 million t in the year 2013-2014 for Punjab and Haryana taken together. The Indian National Food Security Ordinance entitles ~ 820 million of India's poor to purchase about 60 kg of rice or wheat per person annually at subsidized rates. The scheme requires 27.6 Mt of wheat and 33.6 Mt of rice per year. The mitigation of ozone-related crop production losses in Punjab and Haryana alone could provide > 50 % of the wheat and ~ 10 % of the rice required for the scheme. The total economic cost losses in Punjab and Haryana amounted to USD 6.5 ± 2.2 billion in the fiscal year of 2012-2013 and USD 3.7 ± 1.2 billion in the fiscal year of 2013-2014. This economic loss estimate represents a very conservative lower limit based on

Coordinating a Supply Chain with a Loss-Averse Retailer under Yield and Demand Uncertainties

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Weiwei Luo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the channel coordination of a supply chain (SC consisting of a loss-averse retailer and a risk-neutral supplier under yield and demand uncertainties. Three existing contracts are analyzed. Our results demonstrate that the buyback (BB and quantity flexibility (QF contracts can not only coordinate the supply chain but also lead to Pareto improvement for each player, while the wholesale price (WP contract fails to coordinate the chain due to the effects of double marginalization and risk preference. For comparison, a chain with a risk-neutral retailer is also analyzed. Furthermore, numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the coordination contracts, and the impacts of loss aversion and random yield on the decision-making behaviors and system performance are then discussed.

Simulation of water management for fodder beet to reduce yield losses under late season drought

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T. Noreldin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this study were to calibrate CropSyst model for fodder beet grown under full and late season drought and to use the simulation results to analyze the relationship between irrigation amount and yield, as well as in water management to reduce yield losses under full and late season drought. For this reason, two field experiments were implemented at El-Serw Agricultural Research Station in Demiatte governorate, during 2011/12 and 2012/13 growing seasons. Two irrigation treatments were studied: full irrigation and late season drought. The model was calibrated using the data obtained from the two seasons. Results indicated that the reduction in fodder beet yield under late season drought was 11 and 12% in 2011/12 and 2012/13 growing seasons, respectively. Calibration of CropSyst revealed that the percentage of difference between measured and predicted values were low in both growing seasons. The results also indicated that changing irrigation schedule after examining water stress index under full and late season drought led to increase in fodder beet yield, as well as water and land productivity. Thus, CropSyst model can give insight into when to apply irrigation water to minimize yield losses under late season drought.

Grain yield losses in yellow-rusted durum wheat estimated using digital and conventional parameters under field conditions

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Omar Vergara-Diaz

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The biotrophic fungus Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici is the causal agent of the yellow rust in wheat. Between the years 2010–2013 a new strain of this pathogen (Warrior/Ambition, against which the present cultivated wheat varieties have no resistance, appeared and spread rapidly. It threatens cereal production in most of Europe. The search for sources of resistance to this strain is proposed as the most efficient and safe solution to ensure high grain production. This will be helped by the development of high performance and low cost techniques for field phenotyping. In this study we analyzed vegetation indices in the Red, Green, Blue (RGB images of crop canopies under field conditions. We evaluated their accuracy in predicting grain yield and assessing disease severity in comparison to other field measurements including the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI, leaf chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, and canopy temperature. We also discuss yield components and agronomic parameters in relation to grain yield and disease severity. RGB-based indices proved to be accurate predictors of grain yield and grain yield losses associated with yellow rust (R2 = 0.581 and R2 = 0.536, respectively, far surpassing the predictive ability of NDVI (R2 = 0.118 and R2 = 0.128, respectively. In comparison to potential yield, we found the presence of disease to be correlated with reductions in the number of grains per spike, grains per square meter, kernel weight and harvest index. Grain yield losses in the presence of yellow rust were also greater in later heading varieties. The combination of RGB-based indices and days to heading together explained 70.9% of the variability in grain yield and 62.7% of the yield losses.

Managing tile drainage, subirrigation, and nitrogen fertilization to enhance crop yields and reduce nitrate loss.

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Drury, C F; Tan, C S; Reynolds, W D; Welacky, T W; Oloya, T O; Gaynor, J D

2009-01-01

Improving field-crop use of fertilizer nitrogen is essential for protecting water quality and increasing crop yields. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of controlled tile drainage (CD) and controlled tile drainage with subsurface irrigation (CDS) for mitigating off-field nitrate losses and enhancing crop yields. The CD and CDS systems were compared on a clay loam soil to traditional unrestricted tile drainage (UTD) under a corn (Zea Mays L.)-soybean (Glycine Max. (L.) Merr.) rotation at two nitrogen (N) fertilization rates (N1: 150 kg N ha(-1) applied to corn, no N applied to soybean; N2: 200 kg N ha(-1) applied to corn, 50 kg N ha(-1) applied to soybean). The N concentrations in tile flow events with the UTD treatment exceeded the provisional long-term aquatic life limit (LT-ALL) for freshwater (4.7 mg N L(-1)) 72% of the time at the N1 rate and 78% at the N2 rate, whereas only 24% of tile flow events at N1 and 40% at N2 exceeded the LT-ALL for the CDS treatment. Exceedances in N concentration for surface runoff and tile drainage were greater during the growing season than the non-growing season. At the N1 rate, CD and CDS reduced average annual N losses via tile drainage by 44 and 66%, respectively, relative to UTD. At the N2 rate, the average annual decreases in N loss were 31 and 68%, respectively. Crop yields from CDS were increased by an average of 2.8% relative to UTD at the N2 rate but were reduced by an average of 6.5% at the N1 rate. Hence, CD and CDS were effective for reducing average nitrate losses in tile drainage, but CDS increased average crop yields only when additional N fertilizer was applied.

Experimental formulas and curves for estimating reactivity loss and radio-isotope yields on HWRR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Xi Zhi; Zhu HuanNan

1999-01-01

Based on the elemental conception of reactor physics and experiments on HWRR for years. A set of experimental formulas and curves has been got, which can be used to estimate reactivity loss and radio isotopes yield. (author)

A Preliminary Study on Rainfall Interception Loss and Water Yield Analysis on Arabica Coffee Plants in Central Aceh Regency, Indonesia

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Reza Benara

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Rainfall interception loss from plants or trees can reduce a net rainfall as source of water yield. The amount of rainfall interception loss depends on kinds of plants and hydro-meteorological characteristics. Therefore, it is important to study rainfall interception loss such as from Arabica Coffee plantation which is as main agricultural commodity for Central Aceh Regency. In this study, rainfall interception loss from Arabica Coffee plants was studied in Kebet Village of Central Aceh Regency, Indonesia from January 20 to March 9, 2011. Arabica coffee plants used in this study was 15 years old, height of 1.5 m and canopy of 4.567 m2. Rainfall interception loss was determined based on water balance approach of daily rainfall, throughfall, and stemflow data. Empirical regression equation between rainfall interception loss and rainfall were adopted as a model to estimate rainfall interception loss from Arabica Coffee plantation, which the coefficient of correlation, r is 0.98. In water yield analysis, this formula was applied and founded that Arabica Coffee plants intercept 76% of annual rainfall or it leaved over annual net rainfall 24% of annual rainfall. Using this net rainfall, water yield produced from Paya Bener River which is the catchment area covered by Arabica Coffee plantation was analyzed in a planning of water supply project for water needs domestic of 3 sub-districts in Central Aceh Regency. Based on increasing population until year of 2025, the results showed that the water yield will be not enough from year of 2015. However, if the catchment area is covered by forest, the water yield is still enough until year of 2025

Impacts of Soil and Water Conservation Practices on Crop Yield, Run-off, Soil Loss and Nutrient Loss in Ethiopia: Review and Synthesis.

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Adimassu, Zenebe; Langan, Simon; Johnston, Robyn; Mekuria, Wolde; Amede, Tilahun

2017-01-01

Research results published regarding the impact of soil and water conservation practices in the highland areas of Ethiopia have been inconsistent and scattered. In this paper, a detailed review and synthesis is reported that was conducted to identify the impacts of soil and water conservation practices on crop yield, surface run-off, soil loss, nutrient loss, and the economic viability, as well as to discuss the implications for an integrated approach and ecosystem services. The review and synthesis showed that most physical soil and water conservation practices such as soil bunds and stone bunds were very effective in reducing run-off, soil erosion and nutrient depletion. Despite these positive impacts on these services, the impact of physical soil and water conservation practices on crop yield was negative mainly due to the reduction of effective cultivable area by soil/stone bunds. In contrast, most agronomic soil and water conservation practices increase crop yield and reduce run-off and soil losses. This implies that integrating physical soil and water conservation practices with agronomic soil and water conservation practices are essential to increase both provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. Additionally, effective use of unutilized land (the area occupied by bunds) by planting multipurpose grasses and trees on the bunds may offset the yield lost due to a reduction in planting area. If high value grasses and trees can be grown on this land, farmers can harvest fodder for animals or fuel wood, both in scarce supply in Ethiopia. Growing of these grasses and trees can also help the stability of the bunds and reduce maintenance cost. Economic feasibility analysis also showed that, soil and water conservation practices became economically more viable if physical and agronomic soil and water conservation practices are integrated.

Maintaining yields and reducing nitrogen loss in rice–wheat rotation system in Taihu Lake region with proper fertilizer management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xue, Lihong; Yu, Yingliang; Yang, Linzhang

2014-01-01

In the Tailake region of China, heavy nitrogen (N) loss of rice–wheat rotation systems, due to high fertilizer-N input with low N use efficiency (NUE), was widely reported. To alleviate the detrimental impacts caused by N loss, it is necessary to improve the fertilizer management practices. Therefore, a 3 yr field experiments with different N managements including organic combined chemical N treatment (OCN, 390 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , 20% organic fertilizer), control–released urea treatment (CRU, 390 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , 70% resin-coated urea), reduced chemical N treatment (RCN, 390 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , all common chemical fertilizer), and site-specific N management (SSNM, 333 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , all common chemical fertilizer) were conducted in the Taihu Lake region with the ‘farmer’s N’ treatment (FN, 510 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , all common chemical fertilizer) as a control. Grain yield, plant N uptake (PNU), NUE, and N losses via runoff, leaching, and ammonia volatilization were assessed. In the rice season, the FN treatment had the highest N loss and lowest NUE, which can be attributed to an excessive rate of N application. Treatments of OCN and RCN with a 22% reduced N rate from FN had no significant effect on PNU nor the yield of rice in the 3 yr; however, the NUE was improved and N loss was reduced 20–32%. OCN treatment achieved the highest yield, while SSNM has the lowest N loss and highest NUE due to the lowest N rate. In wheat season, N loss decreased about 28–48% with the continuous reduction of N input, but the yield also declined, with the exception of OCN treatment. N loss through runoff, leaching and ammonia volatilization was positively correlated with the N input rate. When compared with the pure chemical fertilizer treatment of RCN under the same N input, OCN treatment has better NUE, better yield, and lower N loss. 70% of the urea replaced with resin-coated urea had no significant effect on yield and NUE improvement, but

Use of Drought Index and Crop Modelling for Drought Impacts Analysis on Maize (Zea mays L.) Yield Loss in Bandung District

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Kurniasih, E.; Impron; Perdinan

2017-03-01

Drought impacts on crop yield loss depend on drought magnitude and duration and on plant genotype at every plant growth stages when droughts occur. This research aims to assess the difference calculation results of 2 drought index methods and to study the maize yield loss variability impacted by drought magnitude and duration during maize growth stages in Bandung district, province of West Java, Indonesia. Droughts were quantified by the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at 1- to 3-month lags for the January1986-December 2015 period data. Maize yield responses to droughts were simulated by AquaCrop for the January 1986-May 2016 period of growing season. The analysis showed that the SPI and SPEI methods provided similar results in quantifying drought event. Droughts during maize reproductive stages caused the highest maize yield loss.

Solution path for manifold regularized semisupervised classification.

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Wang, Gang; Wang, Fei; Chen, Tao; Yeung, Dit-Yan; Lochovsky, Frederick H

2012-04-01

Traditional learning algorithms use only labeled data for training. However, labeled examples are often difficult or time consuming to obtain since they require substantial human labeling efforts. On the other hand, unlabeled data are often relatively easy to collect. Semisupervised learning addresses this problem by using large quantities of unlabeled data with labeled data to build better learning algorithms. In this paper, we use the manifold regularization approach to formulate the semisupervised learning problem where a regularization framework which balances a tradeoff between loss and penalty is established. We investigate different implementations of the loss function and identify the methods which have the least computational expense. The regularization hyperparameter, which determines the balance between loss and penalty, is crucial to model selection. Accordingly, we derive an algorithm that can fit the entire path of solutions for every value of the hyperparameter. Its computational complexity after preprocessing is quadratic only in the number of labeled examples rather than the total number of labeled and unlabeled examples.

Neglecting rice milling yield and quality underestimates economic losses from high-temperature stress.

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Nathaniel B Lyman

Full Text Available Future increases in global surface temperature threaten those worldwide who depend on rice production for their livelihoods and food security. Past analyses of high-temperature stress on rice production have focused on paddy yield and have failed to account for the detrimental impact of high temperatures on milling quality outcomes, which ultimately determine edible (marketable rice yield and market value. Using genotype specific rice yield and milling quality data on six common rice varieties from Arkansas, USA, combined with on-site, half-hourly and daily temperature observations, we show a nonlinear effect of high-temperature stress exposure on yield and milling quality. A 1 °C increase in average growing season temperature reduces paddy yield by 6.2%, total milled rice yield by 7.1% to 8.0%, head rice yield by 9.0% to 13.8%, and total milling revenue by 8.1% to 11.0%, across genotypes. Our results indicate that failure to account for changes in milling quality leads to understatement of the impacts of high temperatures on rice production outcomes. These dramatic losses result from reduced paddy yield and increased percentages of chalky and broken kernels, which together decrease the quantity and market value of milled rice. Recently published estimates show paddy yield reductions of up to 10% across the major rice-producing regions of South and Southeast Asia due to rising temperatures. The results of our study suggest that the often-cited 10% figure underestimates the economic implications of climate change for rice producers, thus potentially threatening future food security for global rice producers and consumers.

Prediction of yield losses in wheat (triticum aestivum l.) caused by yellow rust in relation to epidemiological factors in Faisalabad

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, S.; Afzal, M.; Noorka, I.R.; Iqbal, Z.; Akhtar, N.; Iiftikhar, Y.; Kamran, M.

2010-01-01

Thirty six genotypes were screened against yellow rust to check their level of susceptibility or resistance. Among 36 genotypes screened against yellow rust, 18 were susceptible, 6 were moderately susceptible to susceptible, 7 were moderately resistant to moderately susceptible and 5 genotypes remained resistant. Yield losses were predicted in wheat on the basis of varying level of yellow rust severities. It was observed that susceptible genotypes showed higher yield losses as compared to resistant genotypes. Maximum severity of 90% of yellow rust resulted in 54% to 55% calculated and predicted losses, respectively. While 40, 50, 60 and 70% disease severity of yellow rust caused 35-34%, 38-37%, 42-40% and 46-47% calculated and predicted losses, respectively. However, the decline in losses was observed as the genotypes changed their reaction from susceptible to moderate susceptible. Similarly, losses were diminished as the varieties/lines showed moderate resistant reaction from moderate susceptible. Minimum temperature and relative humidity remained positively correlated while the maximum temperature showed negative correlation with stripe rust severity. With the increase of minimum temperature and relative humidity a rise up in stripe rust infection was seen while as the maximum temperature increased stripe rust infection decreased on different genotypes. It may be concluded from the study that environmental factors played major role in the spread of the disease which result in yield losses. (author)

Exploring the effects of nitrogen fertilization management alternatives on nitrate loss and crop yields in tile-drained fields in Illinois.

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Jeong, Hanseok; Bhattarai, Rabin

2018-05-01

It is vital to manage the excessive use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer in corn production, the single largest consumer of N fertilizer in the United States, in order to achieve more sustainable agroecosystems. This study comprehensively explored the effects of N fertilization alternatives on nitrate loss and crop yields using the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) in tile-drained fields in central Illinois. The RZWQM was tested for the prediction of tile flow, nitrate loss, and crop yields using eight years (1993-2000) of observed data and showed satisfactory model performances from statistical and graphical evaluations. Our model simulations demonstrated the maximum return to nitrogen (MRTN) rate (193 kgha -1 ), a newly advised N recommendation by the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (INLRS), can be further reduced. Nitrate loss was reduced by 10.3% and 29.8%, but corn yields decreased by 0.3% and 1.9% at 156 and 150 kgha -1 of N fertilizer rate in the study sites A and E, respectively. Although adjustment of N fertilization timing presented a further reduction in nitrate loss, there was no optimal timing to ensure nitrate loss reduction and corn productivity. For site A, 100% spring application was the most productive and 40% fall, 10% pre-plant, and 50% side dress application generated the lowest nitrate loss. For site E, the conventional N application timing was verified as the best practice in both corn production and nitrate loss reduction. Compared to surface broadcast placement, injected N fertilizer in spring increased corn yield, but may also escalate nitrate loss. This study presented the need of an adaptive N fertilizer management due to the heterogeneity in agricultural systems, and raised the importance of timing and placement of N fertilizer, as well as further reduction in fertilizer rate to devise a better in-field N management practice. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the regularized fermionic projector of the vacuum

Science.gov (United States)

Finster, Felix

2008-03-01

We construct families of fermionic projectors with spherically symmetric regularization, which satisfy the condition of a distributional MP-product. The method is to analyze regularization tails with a power law or logarithmic scaling in composite expressions in the fermionic projector. The resulting regularizations break the Lorentz symmetry and give rise to a multilayer structure of the fermionic projector near the light cone. Furthermore, we construct regularizations which go beyond the distributional MP-product in that they yield additional distributional contributions supported at the origin. The remaining freedom for the regularization parameters and the consequences for the normalization of the fermionic states are discussed.

On the regularized fermionic projector of the vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finster, Felix

2008-01-01

We construct families of fermionic projectors with spherically symmetric regularization, which satisfy the condition of a distributional MP-product. The method is to analyze regularization tails with a power law or logarithmic scaling in composite expressions in the fermionic projector. The resulting regularizations break the Lorentz symmetry and give rise to a multilayer structure of the fermionic projector near the light cone. Furthermore, we construct regularizations which go beyond the distributional MP-product in that they yield additional distributional contributions supported at the origin. The remaining freedom for the regularization parameters and the consequences for the normalization of the fermionic states are discussed

Assessment of rice yield loss due to exposure to ozone pollution in Southern Vietnam

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Danh, Ngo Thanh; Huy, Lai Nguyen; Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim, E-mail: kimoanh@ait.ac.th

2016-10-01

The study domain covered the Eastern region of Southern of Vietnam that includes Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and five other provinces. Rice production in the domain accounted for 13% of the national total with three crop cycles per year. We assessed ozone (O{sub 3}) induced rice production loss in the domain for 2010 using simulated hourly surface O{sub 3} concentrations (WRF/CAMx; 4 km resolution). Simulated O{sub 3} was higher in January–February (largely overlaps the first crop) and September–December (third crop), and lower in March–June (second crop). Spatially, O{sub 3} was higher in downwind locations of HCMC and were comparable with observed data. Relative yield loss (RYL) was assessed for each crop over the respective growing period (105 days) using three metrics: AOT40, M7 and flux-based O{sub 3} dose of POD{sub 10}. Higher RYL was estimated for the downwind of HCMC. Overall, the rice production loss due to O{sub 3} exposure in the study domain in 2010 was the highest for the first crop (up to 25,800 metric tons), the second highest for the third crop (up to 21,500 tons) and the least for the second crop (up to 6800 tons). The low RYL obtained for the second crop by POD{sub 10} may be due to the use of a high threshold value (Y = 10 nmol m{sup −2} s{sup −1}). Linear regression between non-null radiation POD{sub 0} and POD{sub 10} had similar slopes for the first and third crop when POD{sub 0} was higher and very low slope for the second crop when POD{sub 0} was low. The results of this study can be used for the rice crop planning to avoid the period of potential high RYL due to O{sub 3} exposure. - Highlights: • Simulated O{sub 3} was used to assess rice yield loss in a domain of Southern Vietnam. • Exposure metrics of AOT40, M7, POD{sub 0} and POD{sub 10} were considered. • POD{sub 10} gave the highest rice production loss. • Higher production loss was found downwind of Ho Chi Minh City.

Assessment of rice yield loss due to exposure to ozone pollution in Southern Vietnam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Danh, Ngo Thanh; Huy, Lai Nguyen; Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim

2016-01-01

The study domain covered the Eastern region of Southern of Vietnam that includes Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and five other provinces. Rice production in the domain accounted for 13% of the national total with three crop cycles per year. We assessed ozone (O 3 ) induced rice production loss in the domain for 2010 using simulated hourly surface O 3 concentrations (WRF/CAMx; 4 km resolution). Simulated O 3 was higher in January–February (largely overlaps the first crop) and September–December (third crop), and lower in March–June (second crop). Spatially, O 3 was higher in downwind locations of HCMC and were comparable with observed data. Relative yield loss (RYL) was assessed for each crop over the respective growing period (105 days) using three metrics: AOT40, M7 and flux-based O 3 dose of POD 10 . Higher RYL was estimated for the downwind of HCMC. Overall, the rice production loss due to O 3 exposure in the study domain in 2010 was the highest for the first crop (up to 25,800 metric tons), the second highest for the third crop (up to 21,500 tons) and the least for the second crop (up to 6800 tons). The low RYL obtained for the second crop by POD 10 may be due to the use of a high threshold value (Y = 10 nmol m −2 s −1 ). Linear regression between non-null radiation POD 0 and POD 10 had similar slopes for the first and third crop when POD 0 was higher and very low slope for the second crop when POD 0 was low. The results of this study can be used for the rice crop planning to avoid the period of potential high RYL due to O 3 exposure. - Highlights: • Simulated O 3 was used to assess rice yield loss in a domain of Southern Vietnam. • Exposure metrics of AOT40, M7, POD 0 and POD 10 were considered. • POD 10 gave the highest rice production loss. • Higher production loss was found downwind of Ho Chi Minh City.

Condition Number Regularized Covariance Estimation.

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Joong-Ho; Lim, Johan; Kim, Seung-Jean; Rajaratnam, Bala

2013-06-01

Estimation of high-dimensional covariance matrices is known to be a difficult problem, has many applications, and is of current interest to the larger statistics community. In many applications including so-called the "large p small n " setting, the estimate of the covariance matrix is required to be not only invertible, but also well-conditioned. Although many regularization schemes attempt to do this, none of them address the ill-conditioning problem directly. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood approach, with the direct goal of obtaining a well-conditioned estimator. No sparsity assumption on either the covariance matrix or its inverse are are imposed, thus making our procedure more widely applicable. We demonstrate that the proposed regularization scheme is computationally efficient, yields a type of Steinian shrinkage estimator, and has a natural Bayesian interpretation. We investigate the theoretical properties of the regularized covariance estimator comprehensively, including its regularization path, and proceed to develop an approach that adaptively determines the level of regularization that is required. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the regularized estimator in decision-theoretic comparisons and in the financial portfolio optimization setting. The proposed approach has desirable properties, and can serve as a competitive procedure, especially when the sample size is small and when a well-conditioned estimator is required.

Small Scale Yielding Correction of Constraint Loss in Small Sized Fracture Toughness Test Specimens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Maan Won; Kim, Min Chul; Lee, Bong Sang; Hong, Jun Hwa

2005-01-01

Fracture toughness data in the ductile-brittle transition region of ferritic steels show scatter produced by local sampling effects and specimen geometry dependence which results from relaxation in crack tip constraint. The ASTM E1921 provides a standard test method to define the median toughness temperature curve, so called Master Curve, for the material corresponding to a 1T crack front length and also defines a reference temperature, T 0 , at which median toughness value is 100 MPam for a 1T size specimen. The ASTM E1921 procedures assume that high constraint, small scaling yielding (SSY) conditions prevail at fracture along the crack front. Violation of the SSY assumption occurs most often during tests of smaller specimens. Constraint loss in such cases leads to higher toughness values and thus lower T 0 values. When applied to a structure with low constraint geometry, the standard fracture toughness estimates may lead to strongly over-conservative estimates. A lot of efforts have been made to adjust the constraint effect. In this work, we applied a small-scale yielding correction (SSYC) to adjust the constraint loss of 1/3PCVN and PCVN specimens which are relatively smaller than 1T size specimen at the fracture toughness Master Curve test

Condition Number Regularized Covariance Estimation*

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Joong-Ho; Lim, Johan; Kim, Seung-Jean; Rajaratnam, Bala

2012-01-01

Estimation of high-dimensional covariance matrices is known to be a difficult problem, has many applications, and is of current interest to the larger statistics community. In many applications including so-called the “large p small n” setting, the estimate of the covariance matrix is required to be not only invertible, but also well-conditioned. Although many regularization schemes attempt to do this, none of them address the ill-conditioning problem directly. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood approach, with the direct goal of obtaining a well-conditioned estimator. No sparsity assumption on either the covariance matrix or its inverse are are imposed, thus making our procedure more widely applicable. We demonstrate that the proposed regularization scheme is computationally efficient, yields a type of Steinian shrinkage estimator, and has a natural Bayesian interpretation. We investigate the theoretical properties of the regularized covariance estimator comprehensively, including its regularization path, and proceed to develop an approach that adaptively determines the level of regularization that is required. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the regularized estimator in decision-theoretic comparisons and in the financial portfolio optimization setting. The proposed approach has desirable properties, and can serve as a competitive procedure, especially when the sample size is small and when a well-conditioned estimator is required. PMID:23730197

NITROGEN MANAGEMENT IN SUGARCANE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON YIELD, PROFITABILITY AND LEACHING LOSSES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Carlos Moreno-Seceña

2011-11-01

Full Text Available The excessive use of nitrogen (N in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L. is a source of contamination for aquifers. The objective was to evaluate sugarcane yield, as well as profitability and amount of N leached resulting from the application of different split N doses. Three N doses (250, 200 and 150 kg ha-1 and three different application numbers (2, 3 and 4 were evaluated using a factorial design in randomized blocks. When the N dose was divided in three and four applications yields higher than 125 ton ha-1 were obtained. The greatest benefit-cost-ratio (1.8 resulted from using 150 kg ha-1 of N divided in three applications. The lowest N losses due to leaching were obtained using 150 kg ha-1 of N divided in three (16.8 kg ha-1 and four (15.4 kg ha-1 applications. Low N doses divided in three or four applications did not reduce sugarcane production; furthermore, it was more profitable and had a lower environmental impact by reducing N leaching.

REGULAR PATTERN MINING (WITH JITTER ON WEIGHTED-DIRECTED DYNAMIC GRAPHS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. GUPTA

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Real world graphs are mostly dynamic in nature, exhibiting time-varying behaviour in structure of the graph, weight on the edges and direction of the edges. Mining regular patterns in the occurrence of edge parameters gives an insight into the consumer trends over time in ecommerce co-purchasing networks. But such patterns need not necessarily be precise as in the case when some product goes out of stock or a group of customers becomes unavailable for a short period of time. Ignoring them may lead to loss of useful information and thus taking jitter into account becomes vital. To the best of our knowledge, no work has been yet reported to extract regular patterns considering a jitter of length greater than unity. In this article, we propose a novel method to find quasi regular patterns on weight and direction sequences of such graphs. The method involves analysing the dynamic network considering the inconsistencies in the occurrence of edges. It utilizes the relation between the occurrence sequence and the corresponding weight and direction sequences to speed up this process. Further, these patterns are used to determine the most central nodes (such as the most profit yielding products. To accomplish this we introduce the concept of dynamic closeness centrality and dynamic betweenness centrality. Experiments on Enron e-mail dataset and a synthetic dynamic network show that the presented approach is efficient, so it can be used to find patterns in large scale networks consisting of many timestamps.

UNFOLDED REGULAR AND SEMI-REGULAR POLYHEDRA

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IONIŢĂ Elena

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a presentation unfolding regular and semi-regular polyhedra. Regular polyhedra are convex polyhedra whose faces are regular and equal polygons, with the same number of sides, and whose polyhedral angles are also regular and equal. Semi-regular polyhedra are convex polyhedra with regular polygon faces, several types and equal solid angles of the same type. A net of a polyhedron is a collection of edges in the plane which are the unfolded edges of the solid. Modeling and unfolding Platonic and Arhimediene polyhedra will be using 3dsMAX program. This paper is intended as an example of descriptive geometry applications.

Regularized Regression and Density Estimation based on Optimal Transport

KAUST Repository

Burger, M.

2012-03-11

The aim of this paper is to investigate a novel nonparametric approach for estimating and smoothing density functions as well as probability densities from discrete samples based on a variational regularization method with the Wasserstein metric as a data fidelity. The approach allows a unified treatment of discrete and continuous probability measures and is hence attractive for various tasks. In particular, the variational model for special regularization functionals yields a natural method for estimating densities and for preserving edges in the case of total variation regularization. In order to compute solutions of the variational problems, a regularized optimal transport problem needs to be solved, for which we discuss several formulations and provide a detailed analysis. Moreover, we compute special self-similar solutions for standard regularization functionals and we discuss several computational approaches and results. © 2012 The Author(s).

Heat waves imposed during early pod development in soybean (Glycine max) cause significant yield loss despite a rapid recovery from oxidative stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Siebers, Matthew H; Yendrek, Craig R; Drag, David; Locke, Anna M; Rios Acosta, Lorena; Leakey, Andrew D B; Ainsworth, Elizabeth A; Bernacchi, Carl J; Ort, Donald R

2015-08-01

Heat waves already have a large impact on crops and are predicted to become more intense and more frequent in the future. In this study, heat waves were imposed on soybean using infrared heating technology in a fully open-air field experiment. Five separate heat waves were applied to field-grown soybean (Glycine max) in central Illinois, three in 2010 and two in 2011. Thirty years of historical weather data from Illinois were analyzed to determine the length and intensity of a regionally realistic heat wave resulting in experimental heat wave treatments during which day and night canopy temperatures were elevated 6 °C above ambient for 3 days. Heat waves were applied during early or late reproductive stages to determine whether and when heat waves had an impact on carbon metabolism and seed yield. By the third day of each heat wave, net photosynthesis (A), specific leaf weight (SLW), and leaf total nonstructural carbohydrate concentration (TNC) were decreased, while leaf oxidative stress was increased. However, A, SLW, TNC, and measures of oxidative stress were no different than the control ca. 12 h after the heat waves ended, indicating rapid physiological recovery from the high-temperature stress. That end of season seed yield was reduced (~10%) only when heat waves were applied during early pod developmental stages indicates the yield loss had more to do with direct impacts of the heat waves on reproductive process than on photosynthesis. Soybean was unable to mitigate yield loss after heat waves given during late reproductive stages. This study shows that short high-temperature stress events that reduce photosynthesis and increase oxidative stress resulted in significant losses to soybean production in the Midwest, U.S. The study also suggests that to mitigate heat wave-induced yield loss, soybean needs improved reproductive and photosynthetic tolerance to high but increasingly common temperatures. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is

Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling via Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Sunho; Park, JaeHong

2018-01-01

Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling is a component-based structural equation modeling that has been adopted in social and psychological research due to its data-analytic capability and flexibility. A recent methodological advance is consistent PLS (PLSc), designed to produce consistent estimates of path coefficients in structural models involving common factors. In practice, however, PLSc may frequently encounter multicollinearity in part because it takes a strategy of estimating path coefficients based on consistent correlations among independent latent variables. PLSc has yet no remedy for this multicollinearity problem, which can cause loss of statistical power and accuracy in parameter estimation. Thus, a ridge type of regularization is incorporated into PLSc, creating a new technique called regularized PLSc. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of regularized PLSc as compared to its non-regularized counterpart in terms of power and accuracy. The results show that our regularized PLSc is recommended for use when serious multicollinearity is present.

Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling via Regularization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunho Jung

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Partial least squares (PLS path modeling is a component-based structural equation modeling that has been adopted in social and psychological research due to its data-analytic capability and flexibility. A recent methodological advance is consistent PLS (PLSc, designed to produce consistent estimates of path coefficients in structural models involving common factors. In practice, however, PLSc may frequently encounter multicollinearity in part because it takes a strategy of estimating path coefficients based on consistent correlations among independent latent variables. PLSc has yet no remedy for this multicollinearity problem, which can cause loss of statistical power and accuracy in parameter estimation. Thus, a ridge type of regularization is incorporated into PLSc, creating a new technique called regularized PLSc. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of regularized PLSc as compared to its non-regularized counterpart in terms of power and accuracy. The results show that our regularized PLSc is recommended for use when serious multicollinearity is present.

High diagnostic yield and accuracy of history, physical examination, and ECG in patients with transient loss of consciousness in FAST: The fainting assessment study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijk, Nynke; Boer, Kimberly R.; Colman, Nancy; Bakker, Annemieke; Stam, Jan; van Grieken, Johannes J. M.; Wilde, Arthur A. M.; Linzer, Mark; Reitsma, Johannes B.; Wieling, Wouter

2008-01-01

Yield and Accuracy of Diagnosing TLOC. Background: Transient loss of consciousness (TLOC) is a common clinical problem. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the yield and accuracy of the initial evaluation, consisting of standardized history, physical examination, and ECG performed by

Effects of soil bunds on runoff, soil and nutrient losses, and crop yield in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adimassu Teferi, Z.; Mekonnen, K.; Yirga, C.; Kessler, A.

2014-01-01

The effects of soil bunds on runoff, losses of soil and nutrients, and crop yield are rarely documented in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia. A field experiment was set up consisting of three treatments: (i) barley-cultivated land protected with graded soil bunds (Sb); (ii) fallow land (F); and

The effect of loss of immunity on noise-induced sustained oscillations in epidemics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaffee, J; Kuske, R

2011-11-01

The effect of loss of immunity on sustained population oscillations about an endemic equilibrium is studied via a multiple scales analysis of a SIRS model. The analysis captures the key elements supporting the nearly regular oscillations of the infected and susceptible populations, namely, the interaction of the deterministic and stochastic dynamics together with the separation of time scales of the damping and the period of these oscillations. The derivation of a nonlinear stochastic amplitude equation describing the envelope of the oscillations yields two criteria providing explicit parameter ranges where they can be observed. These conditions are similar to those found for other applications in the context of coherence resonance, in which noise drives nearly regular oscillations in a system that is quiescent without noise. In this context the criteria indicate how loss of immunity and other factors can lead to a significant increase in the parameter range for prevalence of the sustained oscillations, without any external driving forces. Comparison of the power spectral densities of the full model and the approximation confirms that the multiple scales analysis captures nonlinear features of the oscillations.

Sensitivity of crop yield and N losses in winter wheat to changes in mean and variability of temperature and precipitation in Denmark using the FASSET model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Patil, Raveendra Hanumantagoud; Lægdsmand, Mette; Olesen, Jørgen Eivind

2012-01-01

Sensitivity of wheat yield and soil nitrogen (N) losses to stepwise changes in means and variances of climatic variables were determined using the FASSET model. The LARS-WG was used to generate climate scenarios using observed climate data (1961–90) from two sites in Denmark, which differed...... loam. This study illustrates the importance of considering effects of changes to mean climatic factors, climatic variability and soil types on both crop yield and soil N losses....

Manufacture of Regularly Shaped Sol-Gel Pellets

Science.gov (United States)

Leventis, Nicholas; Johnston, James C.; Kinder, James D.

2006-01-01

An extrusion batch process for manufacturing regularly shaped sol-gel pellets has been devised as an improved alternative to a spray process that yields irregularly shaped pellets. The aspect ratio of regularly shaped pellets can be controlled more easily, while regularly shaped pellets pack more efficiently. In the extrusion process, a wet gel is pushed out of a mold and chopped repetitively into short, cylindrical pieces as it emerges from the mold. The pieces are collected and can be either (1) dried at ambient pressure to xerogel, (2) solvent exchanged and dried under ambient pressure to ambigels, or (3) supercritically dried to aerogel. Advantageously, the extruded pellets can be dropped directly in a cross-linking bath, where they develop a conformal polymer coating around the skeletal framework of the wet gel via reaction with the cross linker. These pellets can be dried to mechanically robust X-Aerogel.

Yield loss and economic thresholds of yellow nutsedge in irrigated rice as a function of the onset of flood irrigation

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Nixon da Rosa Westendorff

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus is adapted to flooding and reduces yield in irrigated rice. Information on the competitive ability of this weed with the crop and the size of the economic damage caused is lacking. Mathematical models quantify the damage to crops and support control decision-making. This study aimed to determine yield losses and economic thresholds (ET of this weed in the culture according to weed population and time of onset of irrigation of the crop. The field study was conducted in the agricultural year of 2010/2011 in Pelotas/RS to evaluate the competitive ability of BRS Querência in competition with different population levels of yellow nutsedge and two periods of onset of flood irrigation (14 and 21 days after emergence. The hyperbolic model satisfactorily estimated yield losses caused by yellow nutsedge. Population of yellow nutsedge was the variable most fitted to the model. The delay of seven days for the beginning of rice irrigation causes decrease in competitive ability of BRS Querência, and based on the ET calculated to the price paid for rice, it is necessary between two and thirteen plants m-2 weed to justify the control in the first and second period of irrigation, respectively. Increases in yield, price paid for rice and control efficiency of the herbicide, besides reduction of costs of controlling promote reduction of ET of yellow nutsedge in rice crops, justifying the adoption of control measures even at smaller weed population.

Postpartum body condition score and results from the first test day milk as predictors of disease, fertility, yield, and culling in commercial dairy herds.

Science.gov (United States)

Heuer, C; Schukken, Y H; Dobbelaar, P

1999-02-01

The study used field data from a regular herd health service to investigate the relationships between body condition scores or first test day milk data and disease incidence, milk yield, fertility, and culling. Path model analysis with adjustment for time at risk was applied to delineate the time sequence of events. Milk fever occurred more often in fat cows, and endometritis occurred between calving and 20 d of lactation more often in thin cows. Fat cows were less likely to conceive at first service than were cows in normal condition. Fat body condition postpartum, higher first test day milk yield, and a fat to protein ratio of > 1.5 increased body condition loss. Fat or thin condition or condition loss was not related to other lactation diseases, fertility parameters, milk yield, or culling. First test day milk yield was 1.3 kg higher after milk fever and was 7.1 kg lower after displaced abomasum. Higher first test day milk yield directly increased the risk of ovarian cyst and lameness, increased 100-d milk yield, and reduced the risk of culling and indirectly decreased reproductive performance. Cows with a fat to protein ratio of > 1.5 had higher risks for ketosis, displaced abomasum, ovarian cyst, lameness, and mastitis. Those cows produced more milk but showed poor reproductive performance. Given this type of herd health data, we concluded that the first test day milk yield and the fat to protein ratio were more reliable indicators of disease, fertility, and milk yield than was body condition score or loss of body condition score.

A novel approach of ensuring layout regularity correct by construction in advanced technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Shafquat Jahan; Vaderiya, Yagnesh; Gupta, Radhika; Parthasarathy, Chittoor; Marin, Jean-Claude; Robert, Frederic

2017-03-01

In advanced technology nodes, layout regularity has become a mandatory prerequisite to create robust designs less sensitive to variations in manufacturing process in order to improve yield and minimizing electrical variability. In this paper we describe a method for designing regular full custom layouts based on design and process co-optimization. The method includes various design rule checks that can be used on-the-fly during leaf-cell layout development. We extract a Layout Regularity Index (LRI) from the layouts based on the jogs, alignments and pitches used in the design for any given metal layer. Regularity Index of a layout is the direct indicator of manufacturing yield and is used to compare the relative health of different layout blocks in terms of process friendliness. The method has been deployed for 28nm and 40nm technology nodes for Memory IP and is being extended to other IPs (IO, standard-cell). We have quantified the gain of layout regularity with the deployed method on printability and electrical characteristics by process-variation (PV) band simulation analysis and have achieved up-to 5nm reduction in PV band.

Factors affecting the population density of weeds and yield loss of them in wheat: a case study in Golestan province – Bandargaz

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Zaman Nekahi

2016-05-01

Full Text Available To investigate the factors affecting the population density of weeds and yield loss of them in wheat, a non systematic survey experiment was conducted in 45 fields in the township of Bandar-gaz (Sarmahaleh village in 2012. Sampling of wheat and weeds were taken in two stages (Heading and Harvest maturity by randomized to the five points of each field using quadrate size 1m*1m. In this study all information about crop management including Land area , farmers experience , the seed bed preparation, sowing date , cultivar and site preparation of them, sowing ways , seed rate , weeds control ways , kind , amount and time of herbicide , fungicide use and wheat harvest time were collected during a growing season by preparing questionnaire and complete them with farmers. At the end of the growing season, the actual yield harvested by farmers’ ‬ recorded. Among the various parameters, Wheat plant and raceme density, farmer experience, Kind of variety and use of Tapic+Geranestar herbicide had significant effects on weed population. With increased wheat plant density, weed density decreased. Also there was less weed density in field of high experience farmer. Weed density was lesser in N8118 variety than N8019 variety and not use Tapic+granestar herbicide due to increased of weeds density. Among weed different species, Avena sp, Phalaris minor and Sinapis arvense had highest negative effect on wheat yield. Model study showed if wheat plant density was optimum and there were weeds, yield will be 2713kg/ha and if weeds remove yield will increase to 2877kg/ha (yield gap equal164kg/ha. Amaong weed, Phalaris minor (12 plant per m-2, Sinapis arvensis (3plant per m-2 and Avena sp (2 plant per m-2 with 65, 18 and 17% yield loss respectively, were the strongest competitor with wheat.

Diverse Regular Employees and Non-regular Employment (Japanese)

OpenAIRE

MORISHIMA Motohiro

2011-01-01

Currently there are high expectations for the introduction of policies related to diverse regular employees. These policies are a response to the problem of disparities between regular and non-regular employees (part-time, temporary, contract and other non-regular employees) and will make it more likely that workers can balance work and their private lives while companies benefit from the advantages of regular employment. In this paper, I look at two issues that underlie this discussion. The ...

Contour Propagation With Riemannian Elasticity Regularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjerre, Troels; Hansen, Mads Fogtmann; Sapru, W.

2011-01-01

Purpose/Objective(s): Adaptive techniques allow for correction of spatial changes during the time course of the fractionated radiotherapy. Spatial changes include tumor shrinkage and weight loss, causing tissue deformation and residual positional errors even after translational and rotational image...... the planning CT onto the rescans and correcting to reflect actual anatomical changes. For deformable registration, a free-form, multi-level, B-spline deformation model with Riemannian elasticity, penalizing non-rigid local deformations, and volumetric changes, was used. Regularization parameters was defined...... on the original delineation and tissue deformation in the time course between scans form a better starting point than rigid propagation. There was no significant difference of locally and globally defined regularization. The method used in the present study suggests that deformed contours need to be reviewed...

Modelling the impact of forest loss on shallow landslide sediment yield, Ijuez river catchment, Spanish Pyrenees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The SHETRAN model for simulating the sediment yield arising from shallow landslides at the scale of a river catchment was applied to the 45-km2 Ijuez catchment in the central Spanish Pyrenees, to investigate the effect of loss of forest cover on landslide and debris flow incidence and on catchment sediment yield. The application demonstrated how such a model, with a large number of parameters to be evaluated, can be used even when directly measured data are not available: rainfall and discharge time series were generated by reference to other local records and data providing the basis for a soil map were obtained by a short field campaign. Uncertainty bounds for the outputs were determined as a function of the uncertainty in the values of key model parameters. For a four-year period and for the existing forested state of the catchment, a good ability to simulate the observed long term spatial distribution of debris flows (represented by a 45-year inventory and to determine catchment sediment yield within the range of regional observations was demonstrated. The lower uncertainty bound on simulated landslide occurrence approximated the observed annual rate of landsliding and suggests that landslides provide a relatively minor proportion of the total sediment yield, at least in drier years. A scenario simulation in which the forest cover was replaced by grassland indicated an increase in landsliding but a decrease in the number of landslides which evolve into debris flows and, at least for drier years, a reduction in sediment delivery to the channel network.

Single atom spectroscopy: Decreased scattering delocalization at high energy losses, effects of atomic movement and X-ray fluorescence yield

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tizei, Luiz H.G.; Iizumi, Yoko; Okazaki, Toshiya; Nakanishi, Ryo; Kitaura, Ryo; Shinohara, Hisanori; Suenaga, Kazu

2016-01-01

Single atom localization and identification is crucial in understanding effects which depend on the specific local environment of atoms. In advanced nanometer scale materials, the characteristics of individual atoms may play an important role. Here, we describe spectroscopic experiments (electron energy loss spectroscopy, EELS, and Energy Dispersed X-ray spectroscopy, EDX) using a low voltage transmission electron microscope designed towards single atom analysis. For EELS, we discuss the advantages of using lower primary electron energy (30 keV and 60 keV) and higher energy losses (above 800 eV). The effect of atomic movement is considered. Finally, we discuss the possibility of using atomically resolved EELS and EDX data to measure the fluorescence yield for X-ray emission.

Impact of vetch cover crop on runoff, soil loss, soil chemical properties and yield of chickpea in North Gondar, Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Demelash, Nigus; Klik, Andreas; Holzmann, Hubert; Ziadat, Feras; Strohmeier, Stefan; Bayu, Wondimu; Zucca, Claudio; Abera, Atikilt

2016-04-01

Cover crops improve the sustainability and quality of both natural system and agro ecosystem. In Gumara-Maksegnit watershed which is located in Lake Tana basin, farmers usually use fallow during the rainy season for the preceding chickpea production system. The fallowing period can lead to soil erosion and nutrient losses. A field experiment was conducted during growing seasons 2014 and 2015 to evaluate the effect of cover crops on runoff, soil loss, soil chemical properties and yield of chickpea in North Gondar, Ethiopia. The plot experiment contained four treatments arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications: 1) Control plot (Farmers' practice: fallowing- without cover crop), 2) Chickpea planted with Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer with 46 k ha-1 P2O5 and 23 k ha-1 nitrogen after harvesting vetch cover crop, 3) Chick pea planted with vetch cover crop incorporated with the soil as green manure without fertilizer, 4) Chick pea planted with vetch cover crop and incorporated with the soil as green manure and with 23 k ha-1 P2O5 and 12.5 k ha-1 nitrogen. Each plot with an area of 36 m² was equipped with a runoff monitoring system. Vetch (Vicia sativa L.) was planted as cover crop at the onset of the rain in June and used as green manure. The results of the experiment showed statistically significant (P plant, above ground biomass and grain yield of chick pea. However, there was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) on average plant height, average number of branches and hundred seed weight. Similarly, the results indicated that cover crop has a clear impact on runoff volume and sediment loss. Plots with vetch cover crop reduce the average runoff by 65% and the average soil loss decreased from 15.7 in the bare land plot to 8.6 t ha-1 with plots covered by vetch. In general, this result reveales that the cover crops, especially vetch, can be used to improve chickpea grain yield in addition to reduce soil erosion in the

On the analysis of glycomics mass spectrometry data via the regularized area under the ROC curve

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lebrilla Carlito B

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Novel molecular and statistical methods are in rising demand for disease diagnosis and prognosis with the help of recent advanced biotechnology. High-resolution mass spectrometry (MS is one of those biotechnologies that are highly promising to improve health outcome. Previous literatures have identified some proteomics biomarkers that can distinguish healthy patients from cancer patients using MS data. In this paper, an MS study is demonstrated which uses glycomics to identify ovarian cancer. Glycomics is the study of glycans and glycoproteins. The glycans on the proteins may deviate between a cancer cell and a normal cell and may be visible in the blood. High-resolution MS has been applied to measure relative abundances of potential glycan biomarkers in human serum. Multiple potential glycan biomarkers are measured in MS spectra. With the objection of maximizing the empirical area under the ROC curve (AUC, an analysis method was considered which combines potential glycan biomarkers for the diagnosis of cancer. Results Maximizing the empirical AUC of glycomics MS data is a large-dimensional optimization problem. The technical difficulty is that the empirical AUC function is not continuous. Instead, it is in fact an empirical 0–1 loss function with a large number of linear predictors. An approach was investigated that regularizes the area under the ROC curve while replacing the 0–1 loss function with a smooth surrogate function. The constrained threshold gradient descent regularization algorithm was applied, where the regularization parameters were chosen by the cross-validation method, and the confidence intervals of the regression parameters were estimated by the bootstrap method. The method is called TGDR-AUC algorithm. The properties of the approach were studied through a numerical simulation study, which incorporates the positive values of mass spectrometry data with the correlations between measurements within person

Tile Drainage Nitrate Losses and Corn Yield Response to Fall and Spring Nitrogen Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Pittelkow, Cameron M; Clover, Matthew W; Hoeft, Robert G; Nafziger, Emerson D; Warren, Jeffery J; Gonzini, Lisa C; Greer, Kristin D

2017-09-01

Nitrogen (N) management strategies that maintain high crop productivity with reduced water quality impacts are needed for tile-drained landscapes of the US Midwest. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of N application rate, timing, and fall nitrapyrin addition on tile drainage nitrate losses, corn ( L.) yield, N recovery efficiency, and postharvest soil nitrate content over 3 yr in a corn-soybean [ (L.) Merr.] rotation. In addition to an unfertilized control, the following eight N treatments were applied as anhydrous ammonia in a replicated, field-scale experiment with both corn and soybean phases present each year in Illinois: fall and spring applications of 78, 156, and 234 kg N ha, fall application of 156 kg N ha + nitrapyrin, and sidedress (V5-V6) application of 156 kg N ha. Across the 3-yr study period, increases in flow-weighted NO concentrations were found with increasing N rate for fall and spring N applications, whereas N load results were variable. At the same N rate, spring vs. fall N applications reduced flow-weighted NO concentrations only in the corn-soybean-corn rotation. Fall nitrapyrin and sidedress N treatments did not decrease flo8w-weighted NO concentrations in either rotation compared with fall and spring N applications, respectively, or increase corn yield, crop N uptake, or N recovery efficiency in any year. This study indicates that compared with fall N application, spring and sidedress N applications (for corn-soybean-corn) and sidedress N applications (for soybean-corn-soybean) reduced 3-yr mean flow-weighted NO concentrations while maintaining yields. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Evaluation of seed yield and oil contents in four materials of Ricinus communis L.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Plaza T. Guido Armando

2011-04-01

Full Text Available

Regular";,";serif";; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Four castor materials were evaluated in 2009 in the middle region of Valle del Sinu, Colombia. The variables were phonological development, plant height, seed production and oil yield, in order to determine the best material for commercial purposes. All materials reported high yields of oil seeds and highlighting the commercial genotype Nordestina BRS149, 2.2 t haRegular";,";serif";; font-size: 5.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">-1 Regular";,";serif";; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">seed and 47% oil content. Planting distances were 1.5 x 1.5 m and 2.0 x 2.0 m, with densities of 6,666 and 3,906 plants haRegular";,";serif";; font-size: 5.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">-1Regular";,";serif";; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">, respectively. The plant height, seed productivity and oil yield showed significant differences for the interaction density × material; while comparing each material density, seed production only showed differences. These variables were significantly different between population densities, which shows that the higher the plant height, lower productivity. The planting distance of 2.0 x 2.0 m, provides higher productivity per plant values but seed oil yields were not different between densities. The oil quality parameters were assessed using free fatty acid value

Clinically significant and sustained weight loss is achievable in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome followed in a regular medical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelletier, Lysanne; Baillargeon, Jean-Patrice

2010-12-01

To determine the proportion of obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) losing clinically significant amounts of weight during a standard follow-up by an endocrinologist. Retrospective cohort study. Reproductive Endocrinology Clinic of an academic center. Obese patients with PCOS assessed between May 2002 and September 2008. General nonstandardized advice on weight loss and exercise. Proportion of women losing ≥5% or ≥10% of their initial weight at each of the following time interval: 2-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-18 months, 18-24 months, 24-36 months, and beyond 36 months. One hundred seventeen patients with PCOS and with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 38.7 kg/m(2) and mean age of 28.5 years were followed-up for a median duration of 21.9 months (range, 2.0-61.8 months), with a median of two visits per year. More than 40% of these women lost ≥5% of their initial weight after >6 months of follow-up, and ≥20% lost ≥10% after 1 year of follow-up. More important, these proportions were maintained up to ≥3 years. It is possible for obese women with PCOS to achieve clinically significant and sustained weight loss by following simple advices given in a regular clinical care setting. Therefore, practitioners should not underestimate their impact to facilitate weight loss in women with PCOS. Copyright © 2010 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regularized Discriminant Analysis: A Large Dimensional Study

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xiaoke

2018-04-28

In this thesis, we focus on studying the performance of general regularized discriminant analysis (RDA) classifiers. The data used for analysis is assumed to follow Gaussian mixture model with different means and covariances. RDA offers a rich class of regularization options, covering as special cases the regularized linear discriminant analysis (RLDA) and the regularized quadratic discriminant analysis (RQDA) classi ers. We analyze RDA under the double asymptotic regime where the data dimension and the training size both increase in a proportional way. This double asymptotic regime allows for application of fundamental results from random matrix theory. Under the double asymptotic regime and some mild assumptions, we show that the asymptotic classification error converges to a deterministic quantity that only depends on the data statistical parameters and dimensions. This result not only implicates some mathematical relations between the misclassification error and the class statistics, but also can be leveraged to select the optimal parameters that minimize the classification error, thus yielding the optimal classifier. Validation results on the synthetic data show a good accuracy of our theoretical findings. We also construct a general consistent estimator to approximate the true classification error in consideration of the unknown previous statistics. We benchmark the performance of our proposed consistent estimator against classical estimator on synthetic data. The observations demonstrate that the general estimator outperforms others in terms of mean squared error (MSE).

Coordinate-invariant regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1987-01-01

A general phase-space framework for coordinate-invariant regularization is given. The development is geometric, with all regularization contained in regularized DeWitt Superstructures on field deformations. Parallel development of invariant coordinate-space regularization is obtained by regularized functional integration of the momenta. As representative examples of the general formulation, the regularized general non-linear sigma model and regularized quantum gravity are discussed. copyright 1987 Academic Press, Inc

The evaluation for reference fission yield of 238U fission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Qichang; Liu Tingjin

1998-01-01

In the fission yield data evaluation and measurement, the reference yield is very important, good or poor recommended or measurement values depend upon the reference data to a great extent. According to the CRP's requirement, the evaluation of reference fission yields have been and will be carried out in CNDC, as a part of the whole work (contract No.9504/R 0 /Regular Budget Fund), the evaluation for 29 reference fission yields of 15 product nuclides from 238 U fission have been completed

Cacao Cultivation under Diverse Shade Tree Cover Allows High Carbon Storage and Sequestration without Yield Losses.

Science.gov (United States)

Abou Rajab, Yasmin; Leuschner, Christoph; Barus, Henry; Tjoa, Aiyen; Hertel, Dietrich

2016-01-01

One of the main drivers of tropical forest loss is their conversion to oil palm, soy or cacao plantations with low biodiversity and greatly reduced carbon storage. Southeast Asian cacao plantations are often established under shade tree cover, but are later converted to non-shaded monocultures to avoid resource competition. We compared three co-occurring cacao cultivation systems (3 replicate stands each) with different shade intensity (non-shaded monoculture, cacao with the legume Gliricidia sepium shade trees, and cacao with several shade tree species) in Sulawesi (Indonesia) with respect to above- and belowground biomass and productivity, and cacao bean yield. Total biomass C stocks (above- and belowground) increased fivefold from the monoculture to the multi-shade tree system (from 11 to 57 Mg ha-1), total net primary production rose twofold (from 9 to 18 Mg C ha-1 yr-1). This increase was associated with a 6fold increase in aboveground biomass, but only a 3.5fold increase in root biomass, indicating a clear shift in C allocation to aboveground tree organs with increasing shade for both cacao and shade trees. Despite a canopy cover increase from 50 to 93%, cacao bean yield remained invariant across the systems (variation: 1.1-1.2 Mg C ha-1 yr-1). The monocultures had a twice as rapid leaf turnover suggesting that shading reduces the exposure of cacao to atmospheric drought, probably resulting in greater leaf longevity. Thus, contrary to general belief, cacao bean yield does not necessarily decrease under shading which seems to reduce physical stress. If planned properly, cacao plantations under a shade tree cover allow combining high yield with benefits for carbon sequestration and storage, production system stability under stress, and higher levels of animal and plant diversity.

Global climate change increases risk of crop yield losses and food insecurity in the tropical Andes.

Science.gov (United States)

Tito, Richard; Vasconcelos, Heraldo L; Feeley, Kenneth J

2018-02-01

One of the greatest current challenges to human society is ensuring adequate food production and security for a rapidly growing population under changing climatic conditions. Climate change, and specifically rising temperatures, will alter the suitability of areas for specific crops and cultivation systems. In order to maintain yields, farmers may be forced to change cultivation practices, the timing of cultivation, or even the type of crops grown. Alternatively, farmers can change the location where crops are cultivated (e.g., to higher elevations) to track suitable climates (in which case the plants will have to grow in different soils), as cultivated plants will otherwise have to tolerate warmer temperatures and possibly face novel enemies. We simulated these two last possible scenarios (for temperature increases of 1.3°C and 2.6°C) in the Peruvian Andes through a field experiment in which several traditionally grown varieties of potato and maize were planted at different elevations (and thus temperatures) using either the local soil or soil translocated from higher elevations. Maize production declined by 21%-29% in response to new soil conditions. The production of maize and potatoes declined by >87% when plants were grown under warmer temperatures, mainly as a result of the greater incidence of novel pests. Crop quality and value also declined under simulated migration and warming scenarios. We estimated that local farmers may experience severe economic losses of up to 2,300 US$ ha -1  yr -1 . These findings reveal that climate change is a real and imminent threat to agriculture and that there is a pressing need to develop effective management strategies to reduce yield losses and prevent food insecurity. Importantly, such strategies should take into account the influences of non-climatic and/or biotic factors (e.g., novel pests) on plant development. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Make Log Yield Analysis Part of Your Daily Routine

Science.gov (United States)

Jan Wiedenbeck; Jeff Palmer; Robert Mayer

2006-01-01

You haven't been conducting regular log yield studies because you don't have extra people to assign to the task. Besides, you've been around sawmills your whole life and have an innate sense of how your logs are yielding relative to the price you paid for them. Right? At the USDA Forest Service's hardwood marketing and utilization research lab in...

Single atom spectroscopy: Decreased scattering delocalization at high energy losses, effects of atomic movement and X-ray fluorescence yield.

Science.gov (United States)

Tizei, Luiz H G; Iizumi, Yoko; Okazaki, Toshiya; Nakanishi, Ryo; Kitaura, Ryo; Shinohara, Hisanori; Suenaga, Kazu

2016-01-01

Single atom localization and identification is crucial in understanding effects which depend on the specific local environment of atoms. In advanced nanometer scale materials, the characteristics of individual atoms may play an important role. Here, we describe spectroscopic experiments (electron energy loss spectroscopy, EELS, and Energy Dispersed X-ray spectroscopy, EDX) using a low voltage transmission electron microscope designed towards single atom analysis. For EELS, we discuss the advantages of using lower primary electron energy (30 keV and 60 keV) and higher energy losses (above 800 eV). The effect of atomic movement is considered. Finally, we discuss the possibility of using atomically resolved EELS and EDX data to measure the fluorescence yield for X-ray emission. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation of transient dynamics of capillary assisted particle assembly yield

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Virganavičius, D. [Institute of Materials Science, Kaunas University of Technology, K. Baršausko St. 59, Kaunas LT-51423 (Lithuania); Laboratory of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Juodėnas, M. [Institute of Materials Science, Kaunas University of Technology, K. Baršausko St. 59, Kaunas LT-51423 (Lithuania); Tamulevičius, T., E-mail: tomas.tamulevicius@ktu.lt [Institute of Materials Science, Kaunas University of Technology, K. Baršausko St. 59, Kaunas LT-51423 (Lithuania); Department of Physics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentų St. 50, Kaunas LT-51368 (Lithuania); Schift, H. [Laboratory of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Tamulevičius, S. [Institute of Materials Science, Kaunas University of Technology, K. Baršausko St. 59, Kaunas LT-51423 (Lithuania); Department of Physics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentų St. 50, Kaunas LT-51368 (Lithuania)

2017-06-01

Highlights: • Regular particles arrays were assembled by capillary force assisted deposition. • Deposition yield dynamics was investigated at different thermal velocity regimes. • Yield transient behavior was approximated with logistic function. • Pattern density influence for switching behavior was assessed. - Abstract: In this paper, the transient behavior of the particle assembly yield dynamics when switching from low yield to high yield deposition at different velocity and thermal regimes is investigated. Capillary force assisted particle assembly (CAPA) using colloidal suspension of green fluorescent 270 nm diameter polystyrene beads was performed on patterned poly (dimethyl siloxane) substrates using a custom-built deposition setup. Two types of patterns with different trapping site densities were used to assess CAPA process dynamics and the influence of pattern density and geometry on the deposition yield transitions. Closely packed 300 nm diameter circular pits ordered in hexagonal arrangement with 300 nm pitch, and 2 × 2 mm{sup 2} square pits with 2 μm spacing were used. 2-D regular structures of the deposited particles were investigated by means of optical fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. The fluorescence micrographs were analyzed using a custom algorithm enabling to identify particles and calculate efficiency of the deposition performed at different regimes. Relationship between the spatial distribution of particles in transition zone and ambient conditions was evaluated and quantified by approximation of the yield profile with a logistic function.

Asymptotic performance of regularized quadratic discriminant analysis based classifiers

KAUST Repository

Elkhalil, Khalil

2017-12-13

This paper carries out a large dimensional analysis of the standard regularized quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) classifier designed on the assumption that data arise from a Gaussian mixture model. The analysis relies on fundamental results from random matrix theory (RMT) when both the number of features and the cardinality of the training data within each class grow large at the same pace. Under some mild assumptions, we show that the asymptotic classification error converges to a deterministic quantity that depends only on the covariances and means associated with each class as well as the problem dimensions. Such a result permits a better understanding of the performance of regularized QDA and can be used to determine the optimal regularization parameter that minimizes the misclassification error probability. Despite being valid only for Gaussian data, our theoretical findings are shown to yield a high accuracy in predicting the performances achieved with real data sets drawn from popular real data bases, thereby making an interesting connection between theory and practice.

Selection of regularization parameter for l1-regularized damage detection

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Rongrong; Xia, Yong; Bao, Yuequan; Zhou, Xiaoqing

2018-06-01

The l1 regularization technique has been developed for structural health monitoring and damage detection through employing the sparsity condition of structural damage. The regularization parameter, which controls the trade-off between data fidelity and solution size of the regularization problem, exerts a crucial effect on the solution. However, the l1 regularization problem has no closed-form solution, and the regularization parameter is usually selected by experience. This study proposes two strategies of selecting the regularization parameter for the l1-regularized damage detection problem. The first method utilizes the residual and solution norms of the optimization problem and ensures that they are both small. The other method is based on the discrepancy principle, which requires that the variance of the discrepancy between the calculated and measured responses is close to the variance of the measurement noise. The two methods are applied to a cantilever beam and a three-story frame. A range of the regularization parameter, rather than one single value, can be determined. When the regularization parameter in this range is selected, the damage can be accurately identified even for multiple damage scenarios. This range also indicates the sensitivity degree of the damage identification problem to the regularization parameter.

Novel Harmonic Regularization Approach for Variable Selection in Cox’s Proportional Hazards Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ge-Jin Chu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Variable selection is an important issue in regression and a number of variable selection methods have been proposed involving nonconvex penalty functions. In this paper, we investigate a novel harmonic regularization method, which can approximate nonconvex Lq  (1/2regularizations, to select key risk factors in the Cox’s proportional hazards model using microarray gene expression data. The harmonic regularization method can be efficiently solved using our proposed direct path seeking approach, which can produce solutions that closely approximate those for the convex loss function and the nonconvex regularization. Simulation results based on the artificial datasets and four real microarray gene expression datasets, such as real diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DCBCL, the lung cancer, and the AML datasets, show that the harmonic regularization method can be more accurate for variable selection than existing Lasso series methods.

Total variation regularization for fMRI-based prediction of behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Michel, Vincent; Gramfort, Alexandre; Varoquaux, Gaël; Eger, Evelyn; Thirion, Bertrand

2011-01-01

While medical imaging typically provides massive amounts of data, the extraction of relevant information for predictive diagnosis remains a difficult challenge. Functional MRI (fMRI) data, that provide an indirect measure of task-related or spontaneous neuronal activity, are classically analyzed in a mass-univariate procedure yielding statistical parametric maps. This analysis framework disregards some important principles of brain organization: population coding, distributed and overlapping representations. Multivariate pattern analysis, i.e., the prediction of behavioural variables from brain activation patterns better captures this structure. To cope with the high dimensionality of the data, the learning method has to be regularized. However, the spatial structure of the image is not taken into account in standard regularization methods, so that the extracted features are often hard to interpret. More informative and interpretable results can be obtained with the ℓ1 norm of the image gradient, a.k.a. its Total Variation (TV), as regularization. We apply for the first time this method to fMRI data, and show that TV regularization is well suited to the purpose of brain mapping while being a powerful tool for brain decoding. Moreover, this article presents the first use of TV regularization for classification. PMID:21317080

Rain-induced spring wheat harvest losses

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, A.; Black, A. L. (Principal Investigator)

1983-01-01

When rain or a combination of rain and high humidity delay wheat harvest, losses can occur in grain yield and/or grain quality. Yield losses can result from shattering, from reduction in test weight, and in the case of windrowed grain, from rooting of sprouting grain at the soil: windrow contact. Losses in grain quality can result from reduction in test weight and from sprouting. Sprouting causes a degradation of grain proteins and starches, hence flour quality is reduced, and the grain price deteriorates to the value of feed grain. Although losses in grain yield and quality are rain-induced, these losses do not necessarily occur because a standing or windrowed crop is wetted by rain. Spike water concentration in hard red spring wheat must be increased to about 45-49% before sprouting is initiated in grain that has overcome dormancy. The time required to overcome this dormancy after the cultivar has dried to 12 to 14% water concentration differs with hard red spring cultivars. The effect of rain on threshing-ready standing and windrowed hard red spring wheat grain yeild and quality was evaluated. A goal was to develop the capability to forecast the extent of expected loss of grain yield and quality from specific climatic events that delay threshing.

Interactive effects of pests increase seed yield.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagic, Vesna; Riggi, Laura Ga; Ekbom, Barbara; Malsher, Gerard; Rusch, Adrien; Bommarco, Riccardo

2016-04-01

Loss in seed yield and therefore decrease in plant fitness due to simultaneous attacks by multiple herbivores is not necessarily additive, as demonstrated in evolutionary studies on wild plants. However, it is not clear how this transfers to crop plants that grow in very different conditions compared to wild plants. Nevertheless, loss in crop seed yield caused by any single pest is most often studied in isolation although crop plants are attacked by many pests that can cause substantial yield losses. This is especially important for crops able to compensate and even overcompensate for the damage. We investigated the interactive impacts on crop yield of four insect pests attacking different plant parts at different times during the cropping season. In 15 oilseed rape fields in Sweden, we estimated the damage caused by seed and stem weevils, pollen beetles, and pod midges. Pest pressure varied drastically among fields with very low correlation among pests, allowing us to explore interactive impacts on yield from attacks by multiple species. The plant damage caused by each pest species individually had, as expected, either no, or a negative impact on seed yield and the strongest negative effect was caused by pollen beetles. However, seed yield increased when plant damage caused by both seed and stem weevils was high, presumably due to the joint plant compensatory reaction to insect attack leading to overcompensation. Hence, attacks by several pests can change the impact on yield of individual pest species. Economic thresholds based on single species, on which pest management decisions currently rely, may therefore result in economically suboptimal choices being made and unnecessary excessive use of insecticides.

Distance Dependence of Path Loss for Millimeter Wave Inter-Vehicle Communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Fujise

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Millimeter-wave path loss between two cars was measured to obtainthe general applicable distance for inter-vehicle communication systemsin real environments. An abrupt and substantial increase in path lossdue to interruption, curves, and different-lane traveling has been amajor concern in inter-vehicle communications. The path lossmeasurements were carried out using 60-GHz CW radiowaves and standardhorn antennas on metropolitan highways and regular roads. Because thepropagation loss is traffic-dependent, the highways were classifiedinto uncrowded and crowded highways, and the regular roads wereclassified into uncrowded and crowded roads. The path loss for thehighways exhibited 2nd-power-law attenuation and that for the regularroads exhibited 1st-power-law attenuation with an increase ininter-vehicle distance. Additional losses of 15 dB for the highways and5 dB for the regular roads were observed when the inter-vehicledistance was more than approximately 30 m. Thus, we were able todemonstrate millimeter-wave inter-vehicle communications at aninter-vehicle distance of more than 100 m.

A Large Dimensional Analysis of Regularized Discriminant Analysis Classifiers

KAUST Repository

Elkhalil, Khalil

2017-11-01

This article carries out a large dimensional analysis of standard regularized discriminant analysis classifiers designed on the assumption that data arise from a Gaussian mixture model with different means and covariances. The analysis relies on fundamental results from random matrix theory (RMT) when both the number of features and the cardinality of the training data within each class grow large at the same pace. Under mild assumptions, we show that the asymptotic classification error approaches a deterministic quantity that depends only on the means and covariances associated with each class as well as the problem dimensions. Such a result permits a better understanding of the performance of regularized discriminant analsysis, in practical large but finite dimensions, and can be used to determine and pre-estimate the optimal regularization parameter that minimizes the misclassification error probability. Despite being theoretically valid only for Gaussian data, our findings are shown to yield a high accuracy in predicting the performances achieved with real data sets drawn from the popular USPS data base, thereby making an interesting connection between theory and practice.

Total variation regularization for a backward time-fractional diffusion problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Liyan; Liu, Jijun

2013-01-01

Consider a two-dimensional backward problem for a time-fractional diffusion process, which can be considered as image de-blurring where the blurring process is assumed to be slow diffusion. In order to avoid the over-smoothing effect for object image with edges and to construct a fast reconstruction scheme, the total variation regularizing term and the data residual error in the frequency domain are coupled to construct the cost functional. The well posedness of this optimization problem is studied. The minimizer is sought approximately using the iteration process for a series of optimization problems with Bregman distance as a penalty term. This iteration reconstruction scheme is essentially a new regularizing scheme with coupling parameter in the cost functional and the iteration stopping times as two regularizing parameters. We give the choice strategy for the regularizing parameters in terms of the noise level of measurement data, which yields the optimal error estimate on the iterative solution. The series optimization problems are solved by alternative iteration with explicit exact solution and therefore the amount of computation is much weakened. Numerical implementations are given to support our theoretical analysis on the convergence rate and to show the significant reconstruction improvements. (paper)

Robust regularized singular value decomposition with application to mortality data

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Lingsong

2013-09-01

We develop a robust regularized singular value decomposition (RobRSVD) method for analyzing two-way functional data. The research is motivated by the application of modeling human mortality as a smooth two-way function of age group and year. The RobRSVD is formulated as a penalized loss minimization problem where a robust loss function is used to measure the reconstruction error of a low-rank matrix approximation of the data, and an appropriately defined two-way roughness penalty function is used to ensure smoothness along each of the two functional domains. By viewing the minimization problem as two conditional regularized robust regressions, we develop a fast iterative reweighted least squares algorithm to implement the method. Our implementation naturally incorporates missing values. Furthermore, our formulation allows rigorous derivation of leaveone- row/column-out cross-validation and generalized cross-validation criteria, which enable computationally efficient data-driven penalty parameter selection. The advantages of the new robust method over nonrobust ones are shown via extensive simulation studies and the mortality rate application. © Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2013.

Assessing the impacts of current and future concentrations of surface ozone on crop yield with meta-analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Zhaozhong; Kobayashi, Kazuhiko

Meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively assess the effects of rising ozone concentrations ([O 3]) on yield and yield components of major food crops: potato, barley, wheat, rice, bean and soybean in 406 experimental observations. Yield loss of the crops under current and future [O 3] was expressed relative to the yield under base [O 3] (≤26 ppb). With potato, current [O 3] (31-50 ppb) reduced the yield by 5.3%, and it reduced the yield of barley, wheat and rice by 8.9%, 9.7% and 17.5%, respectively. In bean and soybean, the yield losses were 19.0% and 7.7%, respectively. Compared with yield loss at current [O 3], future [O 3] (51-75 ppb) drove a further 10% loss in yield of soybean, wheat and rice, and 20% loss in bean. Mass of individual grain, seed, or tuber was often the major cause of the yield loss at current and future [O 3], whereas other yield components also contributed to the yield loss in some cases. No significant difference was found between the responses in crops grown in pots and those in the ground for any yield parameters. The ameliorating effect of elevated [CO 2] was significant in the yields of wheat and potato, and the individual grain weight in wheat exposed to future [O 3]. These findings confirm the rising [O 3] as a threat to food security for the growing global population in this century.

Economic impact of clinical mastitis in a dairy herd assessed by stochastic simulation using different methods to model yield losses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hagnestam-Nielsen, Christel; Østergaard, Søren

2009-01-01

The main aim of the present study was to examine the economic consequences of a reduction in the incidence of clinical mastitis (CM) at herd level under current Swedish farming conditions. A second objective was to ask whether the estimated cost of CM alters depending upon whether the model...... with 150 cows (9000 kg of energy-corrected milk per cow-year). Four herd types, defined by production level and reproductive performance, were modelled to investigate possible interactions between herd type and response to a reduction in the risk of CM. Technical and economic results, given the initial...... incidence of CM (25.6 per 100 cow-years), were studied together with the consequences of reducing the initial risk of CM by 50% and 90% throughout lactation and the consequences of reducing the initial risk by 50% and 90% before peak yield. A conventional way of modelling yield losses - i.e. one employing...

Utilization of the cropgro-soybean model to estimate yield loss caused by Asian rust in cultivars with different cycle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael de Ávila Rodrigues

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, crop models have increasingly been used to simulate agricultural features. The DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer is an important tool in modeling growth; however, one of its limitations is related to the unaccounted-for effect of diseases. Therefore, the goals of this study were to calibrate and validate the CSM CROPGRO-Soybean for the soybean cultivars M-SOY 6101 and MG/BR 46 (Conquista, analyze the performance and the effect of Asian soybean rust on these cultivars under the environmental conditions of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The experimental data for the evaluation, testing, and adjustment of the genetic coefficients for the cultivars, M-SOY 6101 and MG/BR 46 (Conquista, were obtained during the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2009/2010 growing seasons. GLUE (Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation was used for the estimation of the genetic coefficients, and pedotransfer functions have been utilized to estimate the physical characteristics of the soil. For all of the sowing dates, the early season cultivar, M-SOY 6101, exhibited a lower variance in yield, which represents more stability with regard to the interannual climate variability, i.e., the farmers who use this cultivar will have in 50% of the crop years analyzed, a higher yield than a late-season cultivar. The MG/BR 46 (Conquista cultivar demonstrated a greater probability of obtaining higher yield in years with favorable weather conditions. However, in the presence of the Asian soybean rust, yield is heavily affected. The early cultivar, M-SOY 6101, showed a lower risk of being affected by the rust and consequently exhibited less yield loss considering the scenario D90 (condensation on the leaf surface occurs when the relative humidity is greater than or equal to 90%, for a sowing date of November 14.

The unbearable lightness of "light" cigarettes: a comparison of smoke yields in six varieties of Canadian "light" cigarettes.

Science.gov (United States)

Gendreau, Paul L; Vitaro, Frank

2005-01-01

Labelling cigarettes as "light" or "mild" is claimed to be one of the biggest marketing scams in Canadian history. Arguably, such labelling implies that these varieties of cigarettes are less harmful than "regular" cigarettes. In Canada, a food product can be labelled "light" if there is a 25% reduction from the "reference food" and if the constituent being reduced is clearly identified (e.g., light in fat). Cigarette labelling does not comply with these regulations, however. To examine whether or not some tobacco constituents meet the 25% reduction criterion, we compared yields of 41 toxic and/or carcinogenic smoke constituents in six varieties of "light" cigarettes to the yields of "regular" cigarettes. We selected cigarettes from the two most popular Canadian brands, Du Maurier and Players. Using a set of data provided by Imperial Tobacco Canada and made available to the public by the Government of British Columbia, we compared yields measured under a laboratory protocol (modified ISO) that was designed to provide a more rigorous evaluation of the differences between varieties of cigarettes and a more accurate assessment of smokers' potential smoke intake than the traditional protocol (standard ISO). For all six varieties of "light" cigarettes, the yields of nicotine were higher by an average of 5% (range: 1% to 13%). The 25% reduction criterion was not met for any variety of "light" cigarettes concerning yields of tar. For all cigarettes tested, yields of tar were reduced on average by only 16% (range: 5% to 22%). For carbon monoxide (CO), only Player's Smooth Light had an over 25% reduction (30%) compared with Player's Regular. Conversely, yield of CO was 24% higher for Du Maurier Lights compared with Du Maurier Regular. As for the other smoke constituents, the majority (75%) were not reduced by 25% or more in "light" cigarettes, and a sizeable proportion of yields (e.g., acrylonitrile, benzene, chromium, m+p cresol, mercury, nickel, toluene) were larger in

Will energy crop yields meet expectations?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Searle, Stephanie Y.; Malins, Christopher J.

2014-01-01

Expectations are high for energy crops. Government policies in the United States and Europe are increasingly supporting biofuel and heat and power from cellulose, and biomass is touted as a partial solution to energy security and greenhouse gas mitigation. Here, we review the literature for yields of 5 major potential energy crops: Miscanthus spp., Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), Populus spp. (poplar), Salix spp. (willow), and Eucalyptus spp. Very high yields have been achieved for each of these types of energy crops, up to 40 t ha −1  y −1 in small, intensively managed trials. But yields are significantly lower in semi-commercial scale trials, due to biomass losses with drying, harvesting inefficiency under real world conditions, and edge effects in small plots. To avoid competition with food, energy crops should be grown on non-agricultural land, which also lowers yields. While there is potential for yield improvement for each of these crops through further research and breeding programs, for several reasons the rate of yield increase is likely to be slower than historically has been achieved for cereals; these include relatively low investment, long breeding periods, low yield response of perennial grasses to fertilizer, and inapplicability of manipulating the harvest index. Miscanthus × giganteus faces particular challenges as it is a sterile hybrid. Moderate and realistic expectations for the current and future performance of energy crops are vital to understanding the likely cost and the potential of large-scale production. - Highlights: • This review covers Miscanthus, switchgrass, poplar, willow, and Eucalyptus. • High yields of energy crops are typically from small experimental plots. • Field scale yields are lower due to real world harvesting losses and edge effects. • The potential for yield improvement of energy crops is relatively limited. • Expectations must be realistic for successful policies and commercial production

Effect of Limited Drip Irrigation Regime on Yield and Yield Components of Sesame under Mediterranean Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Panayiota PAPASTYLIANOU

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Sesame is one of the most important oilseed crops in the world. Irrigation is of great importance to sesame production due to its positive effect on growth parameters. Although sesame has good drought tolerance compared with many other crops, it is particularly susceptible to drought damage during the seedling, flowering and seed filling stages and this can lead to yield loss. The aim of this study was to determine the response of sesame landraces to different irrigation applications during the 2015 growing season. The experiment was set up as a split plot design with three replicates, four main plots (irrigation treatments, designated as 100%, 75% 50% and 0 of the daily crop evapotranspiration and two sub-plots (sesame landraces, Limnos and Evros. Different characteristics such as plant height, number of seeds per capsule, and number of capsules per plant, seed yield, 1000-seed weight and % capsules without seeds, were recorded. The results indicated that all traits except 1000-seed weight were significantly affected by irrigation regimes. Plant height, shattering losses and number of capsules per plant decreased with increasing water shortage. Seed yield and number of seeds per capsule were less affected by irrigation level and showed higher values in the 50% of the daily crop evapotranspiration treatment. Limnos produced higher seed yield and number of seeds per capsule under all irrigation regimes. Evros showed higher plant height and shattering losses than Limnos. The results of this study suggest that sesame landraces can use water efficiently, are locally adapted and associated with traditional farming systems.

[Effects of different nitrogen application rates on 15N-urea absorption, utilization, loss and fruit yield and quality of dwarf apple].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Qian; Ding, Ning; Peng, Ling; Ge, Shun Feng; Jiang, Yuan Mao

2017-07-18

Seven-year-old 'Yanfu3'/M 26 /M. hupehensis Rehd. seedlings and 15 N trace technique were used to explore the characteristics of 15 N-urea absorption, utilization, loss and fruit yield and quality under different nitrogen application rates (N 100 , N 200 and N 300 ). The main results were as follows: the plant growth, 15 N absorption, utilization and loss differed significantly under different treatments. The plant leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD value), photosynthetic rate (P n ), total N content of leaves and the biomass, as well as the root-shoot ratio of N 200 treatment were obviously higher than the N 100 and N 300 treatments. Significant differences were observed in the 15 N derived from fertilizer (Ndff value) of different organs under different nitrogen application rates. The Ndff of fruits (flowers), leaves, one-year-old branch, and perennial branches in each measurement period was N 100 >N 200 ＞N 300 , while that of the roots at full-bloom and spring shoot growing slowly stage was N 100 >N 200 ＞N 300 , and in a trend of N 200 >N 100 ＞N 300 at autumn shoot growing stage, fruit rapid-swel-ling stage and fruit maturity stage. At fruit maturity stage, plant 15 N nitrogen utilization ratio of N 200 treatment was 23.6%, which was obviously higher than the N 100 (16.3%) and N 300 (14.4%) treatments, with the 15 N loss rate of 56.4%, obviously lower than the N 100 (60.6%) and N 300 (66.1%) treatments. There were significant differences among the treatments in fruit mass, yield per plant, soluble solid, fruit firmness, soluble sugar, titratable acids and sugar-acid ratio of different nitrogen rates, and the N 200 treatment showed the best performance, followed by the N 300 treatment, and then the N 100 treatment.

Distance-regular graphs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dam, Edwin R.; Koolen, Jack H.; Tanaka, Hajime

2016-01-01

This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN'[Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier,

Regular expressions cookbook

CERN Document Server

Goyvaerts, Jan

2009-01-01

This cookbook provides more than 100 recipes to help you crunch data and manipulate text with regular expressions. Every programmer can find uses for regular expressions, but their power doesn't come worry-free. Even seasoned users often suffer from poor performance, false positives, false negatives, or perplexing bugs. Regular Expressions Cookbook offers step-by-step instructions for some of the most common tasks involving this tool, with recipes for C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and VB.NET. With this book, you will: Understand the basics of regular expressions through a

One-loop regularization of the Polyakov string functional

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, E.; Kluberg-Stern, H.; Peschanski, R.

1989-01-01

The divergences of the vacuum amplitude for the bosonic Polyakov string are studied at the one-loop level in a modular invariant regularization scheme, characterized by a dimensional cutoff analogous to proper time. As a result, the singular behaviour in the cutoff is not uniform in the range of the modulus variable and this yields a control on the singularities induced by the tachyon and the dilaton. The divergences are those of a sigma model, but the coefficients of the sigma-model counter-terms are different for the sphere and the flat torus. (orig.)

Major earthquakes occur regularly on an isolated plate boundary fault.

Science.gov (United States)

Berryman, Kelvin R; Cochran, Ursula A; Clark, Kate J; Biasi, Glenn P; Langridge, Robert M; Villamor, Pilar

2012-06-29

The scarcity of long geological records of major earthquakes, on different types of faults, makes testing hypotheses of regular versus random or clustered earthquake recurrence behavior difficult. We provide a fault-proximal major earthquake record spanning 8000 years on the strike-slip Alpine Fault in New Zealand. Cyclic stratigraphy at Hokuri Creek suggests that the fault ruptured to the surface 24 times, and event ages yield a 0.33 coefficient of variation in recurrence interval. We associate this near-regular earthquake recurrence with a geometrically simple strike-slip fault, with high slip rate, accommodating a high proportion of plate boundary motion that works in isolation from other faults. We propose that it is valid to apply time-dependent earthquake recurrence models for seismic hazard estimation to similar faults worldwide.

LL-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

1980-01-01

Culik II and Cogen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this paper we consider an analogous extension of the LL(k) grammars called the LL-regular grammars. The relation of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars will be shown. Any LL-regular

Preoperative Regular Diet of 900 kcal/day vs Balanced Energy High-Protein Formula vs Immunonutrition Formula: Effect on Preoperative Weight Loss and Postoperative Pain, Complications and Analytical Acute Phase Reactants After Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz-Tovar, Jaime; Zubiaga, Lorea; Diez, Maria; Murcia, Ana; Boix, Evangelina; Muñoz, José Luis; Llavero, Carolina

2016-06-01

Between 2 and 8 weeks before surgery, most bariatric surgery groups establish strict dietary treatments with a total caloric intake of less than 1,000 kcal/day in order to maximize weight loss during this period of time. A prospective randomized clinical trial of all the patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) was performed. Patients were randomly assigned into 3 groups: those patients receiving a preoperative regular diet of 900 kcal/day (group 1), those receiving a preoperative balanced energy high-protein formula (group 2) and those receiving preoperative Immunonutrition (group 3). Preoperative weight loss, postoperative pain, complications and analytical acute phase reactants were investigated. Sixty patients were included in the study, 20 in each group. Preoperative excess weight loss was 7.7 % in group 1, 12.3 % in group 2 and 15.3 % in group 3 (p = 0.014). Median postoperative pain was 3.5 in group 1, 3 in group 2 and 2 in group 3 (p = 0.048). C-reactive protein determined 24 h after surgery was significantly lower in group 3 than in the other groups. AST and ALT values were significantly lower in group 3 than in the other groups, without significant differences between groups 1 and 2. Preoperative diet with Immunonutrition formulas during 2 weeks achieves a greater preoperative weight loss, lower postoperative pain and lower values of CRP and liver enzymes than high-protein formulas or regular diet, all of them with similar caloric intake.

Field grain losses and insect pest management practices in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology ... Statistical analyses revealed that the level of crop yield losses was ... There was, however, a negative correlation between crop yield loss due to insect pests and the efficacy of PCM applied.

A Variance Minimization Criterion to Feature Selection Using Laplacian Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xiaofei; Ji, Ming; Zhang, Chiyuan; Bao, Hujun

2011-10-01

In many information processing tasks, one is often confronted with very high-dimensional data. Feature selection techniques are designed to find the meaningful feature subset of the original features which can facilitate clustering, classification, and retrieval. In this paper, we consider the feature selection problem in unsupervised learning scenarios, which is particularly difficult due to the absence of class labels that would guide the search for relevant information. Based on Laplacian regularized least squares, which finds a smooth function on the data manifold and minimizes the empirical loss, we propose two novel feature selection algorithms which aim to minimize the expected prediction error of the regularized regression model. Specifically, we select those features such that the size of the parameter covariance matrix of the regularized regression model is minimized. Motivated from experimental design, we use trace and determinant operators to measure the size of the covariance matrix. Efficient computational schemes are also introduced to solve the corresponding optimization problems. Extensive experimental results over various real-life data sets have demonstrated the superiority of the proposed algorithms.

Optimal Design of the Adaptive Normalized Matched Filter Detector using Regularized Tyler Estimators

KAUST Repository

Kammoun, Abla; Couillet, Romain; Pascal, Frederic; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2017-01-01

This article addresses improvements on the design of the adaptive normalized matched filter (ANMF) for radar detection. It is well-acknowledged that the estimation of the noise-clutter covariance matrix is a fundamental step in adaptive radar detection. In this paper, we consider regularized estimation methods which force by construction the eigenvalues of the covariance estimates to be greater than a positive regularization parameter ρ. This makes them more suitable for high dimensional problems with a limited number of secondary data samples than traditional sample covariance estimates. The motivation behind this work is to understand the effect and properly set the value of ρthat improves estimate conditioning while maintaining a low estimation bias. More specifically, we consider the design of the ANMF detector for two kinds of regularized estimators, namely the regularized sample covariance matrix (RSCM), the regularized Tyler estimator (RTE). The rationale behind this choice is that the RTE is efficient in mitigating the degradation caused by the presence of impulsive noises while inducing little loss when the noise is Gaussian. Based on asymptotic results brought by recent tools from random matrix theory, we propose a design for the regularization parameter that maximizes the asymptotic detection probability under constant asymptotic false alarm rates. Provided Simulations support the efficiency of the proposed method, illustrating its gain over conventional settings of the regularization parameter.

Optimal Design of the Adaptive Normalized Matched Filter Detector using Regularized Tyler Estimators

KAUST Repository

Kammoun, Abla

2017-10-25

This article addresses improvements on the design of the adaptive normalized matched filter (ANMF) for radar detection. It is well-acknowledged that the estimation of the noise-clutter covariance matrix is a fundamental step in adaptive radar detection. In this paper, we consider regularized estimation methods which force by construction the eigenvalues of the covariance estimates to be greater than a positive regularization parameter ρ. This makes them more suitable for high dimensional problems with a limited number of secondary data samples than traditional sample covariance estimates. The motivation behind this work is to understand the effect and properly set the value of ρthat improves estimate conditioning while maintaining a low estimation bias. More specifically, we consider the design of the ANMF detector for two kinds of regularized estimators, namely the regularized sample covariance matrix (RSCM), the regularized Tyler estimator (RTE). The rationale behind this choice is that the RTE is efficient in mitigating the degradation caused by the presence of impulsive noises while inducing little loss when the noise is Gaussian. Based on asymptotic results brought by recent tools from random matrix theory, we propose a design for the regularization parameter that maximizes the asymptotic detection probability under constant asymptotic false alarm rates. Provided Simulations support the efficiency of the proposed method, illustrating its gain over conventional settings of the regularization parameter.

Task-Driven Optimization of Fluence Field and Regularization for Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction in Computed Tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Gang, Grace J; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Stayman, J Webster

2017-12-01

This paper presents a joint optimization of dynamic fluence field modulation (FFM) and regularization in quadratic penalized-likelihood reconstruction that maximizes a task-based imaging performance metric. We adopted a task-driven imaging framework for prospective designs of the imaging parameters. A maxi-min objective function was adopted to maximize the minimum detectability index ( ) throughout the image. The optimization algorithm alternates between FFM (represented by low-dimensional basis functions) and local regularization (including the regularization strength and directional penalty weights). The task-driven approach was compared with three FFM strategies commonly proposed for FBP reconstruction (as well as a task-driven TCM strategy) for a discrimination task in an abdomen phantom. The task-driven FFM assigned more fluence to less attenuating anteroposterior views and yielded approximately constant fluence behind the object. The optimal regularization was almost uniform throughout image. Furthermore, the task-driven FFM strategy redistribute fluence across detector elements in order to prescribe more fluence to the more attenuating central region of the phantom. Compared with all strategies, the task-driven FFM strategy not only improved minimum by at least 17.8%, but yielded higher over a large area inside the object. The optimal FFM was highly dependent on the amount of regularization, indicating the importance of a joint optimization. Sample reconstructions of simulated data generally support the performance estimates based on computed . The improvements in detectability show the potential of the task-driven imaging framework to improve imaging performance at a fixed dose, or, equivalently, to provide a similar level of performance at reduced dose.

Effect of NS-nitragin application on soybean yield and yield components

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marinković Jelena

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Agricultural soils of Serbia are low in soybean symbiotic bacteria and application of bacteriological preparations has been introduced as a regular cultivation practice when growing soybean. A trial was set up on experimental field of Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops from Novi Sad on chernozem soil using a randomized block design with four replicates. Mineral nitrogen fertilizers were used in rates of 0, 30, 60, and 90 kg ha-1 in the experiment. Each of the nitrogen treatments had two variations, with and without inoculation. The effects of inoculation and different nitrogen fertilizer rates on yield and yield components were determined based on the pod number, seed number, 1000 seed mass and protein and oil content in seeds. Significantly higher pod number was observed in inoculated plants with the application of 30 kg N ha-1. Inoculation with NS-Nitragin increased seed number per plant. In treatment with no mineral nitrogen applied and with application of 30 kg N ha-1 and 60 kg N ha-1, 1000 seed mass was statistically higher in inoculated plants than in uninoculated ones. Inoculation produced statistically significant difference in soybean yield only in the treatment with no mineral nitrogen applied. Inoculation and applied mineral nitrogen rates had no significant effect on protein content in soybean grain.

An iterative method for Tikhonov regularization with a general linear regularization operator

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hochstenbach, M.E.; Reichel, L.

2010-01-01

Tikhonov regularization is one of the most popular approaches to solve discrete ill-posed problems with error-contaminated data. A regularization operator and a suitable value of a regularization parameter have to be chosen. This paper describes an iterative method, based on Golub-Kahan

Regularized Label Relaxation Linear Regression.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Xiaozhao; Xu, Yong; Li, Xuelong; Lai, Zhihui; Wong, Wai Keung; Fang, Bingwu

2018-04-01

Linear regression (LR) and some of its variants have been widely used for classification problems. Most of these methods assume that during the learning phase, the training samples can be exactly transformed into a strict binary label matrix, which has too little freedom to fit the labels adequately. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a novel regularized label relaxation LR method, which has the following notable characteristics. First, the proposed method relaxes the strict binary label matrix into a slack variable matrix by introducing a nonnegative label relaxation matrix into LR, which provides more freedom to fit the labels and simultaneously enlarges the margins between different classes as much as possible. Second, the proposed method constructs the class compactness graph based on manifold learning and uses it as the regularization item to avoid the problem of overfitting. The class compactness graph is used to ensure that the samples sharing the same labels can be kept close after they are transformed. Two different algorithms, which are, respectively, based on -norm and -norm loss functions are devised. These two algorithms have compact closed-form solutions in each iteration so that they are easily implemented. Extensive experiments show that these two algorithms outperform the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of the classification accuracy and running time.

Sparsity regularization for parameter identification problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, Bangti; Maass, Peter

2012-01-01

The investigation of regularization schemes with sparsity promoting penalty terms has been one of the dominant topics in the field of inverse problems over the last years, and Tikhonov functionals with ℓ p -penalty terms for 1 ⩽ p ⩽ 2 have been studied extensively. The first investigations focused on regularization properties of the minimizers of such functionals with linear operators and on iteration schemes for approximating the minimizers. These results were quickly transferred to nonlinear operator equations, including nonsmooth operators and more general function space settings. The latest results on regularization properties additionally assume a sparse representation of the true solution as well as generalized source conditions, which yield some surprising and optimal convergence rates. The regularization theory with ℓ p sparsity constraints is relatively complete in this setting; see the first part of this review. In contrast, the development of efficient numerical schemes for approximating minimizers of Tikhonov functionals with sparsity constraints for nonlinear operators is still ongoing. The basic iterated soft shrinkage approach has been extended in several directions and semi-smooth Newton methods are becoming applicable in this field. In particular, the extension to more general non-convex, non-differentiable functionals by variational principles leads to a variety of generalized iteration schemes. We focus on such iteration schemes in the second part of this review. A major part of this survey is devoted to applying sparsity constrained regularization techniques to parameter identification problems for partial differential equations, which we regard as the prototypical setting for nonlinear inverse problems. Parameter identification problems exhibit different levels of complexity and we aim at characterizing a hierarchy of such problems. The operator defining these inverse problems is the parameter-to-state mapping. We first summarize some

Nitrogen rate strategies for reducing yield-scaled nitrous oxide emissions in maize

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Xu; Nafziger, Emerson D.; Pittelkow, Cameron M.

2017-12-01

Mitigating nitrogen (N) losses from agriculture without negatively impacting crop productivity is a pressing environmental and economic challenge. Reductions in N fertilizer rate are often highlighted as a solution, yet the degree to which crop yields and economic returns may be impacted at the field-level remains unclear, in part due to limited data availability. Farmers are risk averse and potential yield losses may limit the success of voluntary N loss mitigation protocols, thus understanding field-level yield tradeoffs is critical to inform policy development. Using a case study of soil N2O mitigation in the US Midwest, we conducted an ex-post assessment of two economic and two environmental N rate reduction strategies to identify promising practices for maintaining maize yields and economic returns while reducing N2O emissions per unit yield (i.e. yield-scaled emissions) compared to an assumed baseline N input level. Maize yield response data from 201 on-farm N rate experiments were combined with an empirical equation predicting N2O emissions as a function of N rate. Results indicate that the economic strategy aimed at maximizing returns to N (MRTN) led to moderate but consistent reductions in yield-scaled N2O emissions with small negative impacts on yield and slight increases in median returns. The economic optimum N rate strategy reduced yield-scaled N2O emissions in 75% of cases but increased them otherwise, challenging the assumption that this strategy will automatically reduce environmental impacts per unit production. Both environmental strategies, one designed to increase N recovery efficiency and one to balance N inputs with grain N removal, further reduced yield-scaled N2O emissions but were also associated with negative yield penalties and decreased returns. These results highlight the inherent tension between achieving agronomic and economic goals while reducing environmental impacts which is often overlooked in policy discussions. To enable the

From inactive to regular jogger

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund-Cramer, Pernille; Brinkmann Løite, Vibeke; Bredahl, Thomas Viskum Gjelstrup

study was conducted using individual semi-structured interviews on how a successful long-term behavior change had been achieved. Ten informants were purposely selected from participants in the DANO-RUN research project (7 men, 3 women, average age 41.5). Interviews were performed on the basis of Theory...... of Planned Behavior (TPB) and The Transtheoretical Model (TTM). Coding and analysis of interviews were performed using NVivo 10 software. Results TPB: During the behavior change process, the intention to jogging shifted from a focus on weight loss and improved fitness to both physical health, psychological......Title From inactive to regular jogger - a qualitative study of achieved behavioral change among recreational joggers Authors Pernille Lund-Cramer & Vibeke Brinkmann Løite Purpose Despite extensive knowledge of barriers to physical activity, most interventions promoting physical activity have proven...

Regular Expression Pocket Reference

CERN Document Server

Stubblebine, Tony

2007-01-01

This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries. This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular exp

Weight loss methods and changes in eating habits among successful weight losers.

Science.gov (United States)

Soini, Sirpa; Mustajoki, Pertti; Eriksson, Johan G

2016-01-01

Changes in several lifestyle related factors are required for successful long-term weight loss. Identification of these factors is of major importance from a public health point of view. This study was based upon findings from the Finnish Weight Control Registry (FWCR), a web-based registry. In total, 316 people were recruited and 184 met the study inclusion criteria. The aims of this study were to assess means and typical changes in eating habits associated with successful long-term weight loss. Half of the participants (48%) reported that they lost weight slowly primarily with dietary changes. Self-weighing frequency was high, 92% was weighing themselves at least once a week during the weight loss phase, and 75% during the maintenance phase. Dietary aspects associated with successful weight loss and weight maintenance included an increase in intake of vegetables, a reduction in frequency of eating candies and fast food, regular meal frequency and application of the Plate model. Both slow and fast weight loss may lead to successful long-term results and weight maintenance. A decrease in energy intake was achieved by reducing intake of energy-dense food, applying the Plate model and by regular meal frequency. Key messages Successful long-term weight loss is associated with a reduction in intake of energy-dense food. A more regular meal frequency and a high frequency of self-weighing seem to be helpful.

Effects Of Spring Herbicide Treatments On Winter Wheat Growth And Grain Yield*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamouz P.

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Herbicides provide a low-cost solution for protecting crops from significant yield losses. If weed infestations are below damage thresholds, however, then herbicide application is unnecessary and can even lead to yield loss. A small-plot field trial was conducted to examine the effect of herbicides on winter wheat yields. Weeds were removed manually from the trial area before herbicide application. Twenty-four treatments were tested in four replications. Treatment 1 consisted of an untreated weed-free control, whereas the other treatments comprised applications of the following herbicides and their combinations: metsulfuron-methyl + tribenuron-methyl (4.95 + 9.99 g ha−1, pinoxaden (30 g ha−1, fluroxypyr (175 g ha−1, and clopyralid (120 g ha−1. Water (250 l ha−1 or a urea-ammonium nitrate fertilizer solution (UAN, 120.5 l ha−1 was used as the herbicide carrier. Crop injury 30 days after treatment and yield loss were recorded. Results showed minor crop injury by herbicides and their combinations when applied without UAN and moderate injury caused by UAN in combination with herbicides. Yield losses reached 5.3% and 4.3% in those treatments where all of the tested herbicides were applied with and without UAN, respectively. The effect of all treatments on crop yield was, however, statistically insignificant (P = 0.934.

Higher covariant derivative Pauli-Villars regularization does not lead to a consistent QCD

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martin, C P [Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain). Dept. de Fisica Teorica; Ruiz Ruiz, F [Nationaal Inst. voor Kernfysica en Hoge-Energiefysica (NIKHEF), Amsterdam (Netherlands). Sectie H

1994-12-31

We compute the beta function at one loop for Yang-Mills theory using as regulator the combination of higher covariant derivatives and Pauli-Villars determinants proposed by Faddeev and Slavnov. This regularization prescription has the appealing feature that it is manifestly gauge invariant and essentially four-dimensional. It happens however that the one-loop coefficient in the beta function that it yields is not -11/3, as it should be, but -23/6. The difference is due to unphysical logarithmic radiative corrections generated by the Pauli-Villars determinants on which the regularization method is based. This no-go result discards the prescription as a viable gauge invariant regularization, thus solving a long-standing open question in the literature. We also observe that the precsription can be modified so as to not generate unphysical logarithmic corrections, but at the expense of losing manifest gauge invariance. (orig.).

Higher covariant derivative Pauli-Villars regularization does not lead to a consistent QCD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, C.P.; Ruiz Ruiz, F.

1994-01-01

We compute the beta function at one loop for Yang-Mills theory using as regulator the combination of higher covariant derivatives and Pauli-Villars determinants proposed by Faddeev and Slavnov. This regularization prescription has the appealing feature that it is manifestly gauge invariant and essentially four-dimensional. It happens however that the one-loop coefficient in the beta function that it yields is not -11/3, as it should be, but -23/6. The difference is due to unphysical logarithmic radiative corrections generated by the Pauli-Villars determinants on which the regularization method is based. This no-go result discards the prescription as a viable gauge invariant regularization, thus solving a long-standing open question in the literature. We also observe that the precsription can be modified so as to not generate unphysical logarithmic corrections, but at the expense of losing manifest gauge invariance. (orig.)

Motion-aware temporal regularization for improved 4D cone-beam computed tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Mory, Cyril; Janssens, Guillaume; Rit, Simon

2016-09-01

Four-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (4D-CBCT) of the free-breathing thorax is a valuable tool in image-guided radiation therapy of the thorax and the upper abdomen. It allows the determination of the position of a tumor throughout the breathing cycle, while only its mean position can be extracted from three-dimensional CBCT. The classical approaches are not fully satisfactory: respiration-correlated methods allow one to accurately locate high-contrast structures in any frame, but contain strong streak artifacts unless the acquisition is significantly slowed down. Motion-compensated methods can yield streak-free, but static, reconstructions. This work proposes a 4D-CBCT method that can be seen as a trade-off between respiration-correlated and motion-compensated reconstruction. It builds upon the existing reconstruction using spatial and temporal regularization (ROOSTER) and is called motion-aware ROOSTER (MA-ROOSTER). It performs temporal regularization along curved trajectories, following the motion estimated on a prior 4D CT scan. MA-ROOSTER does not involve motion-compensated forward and back projections: the input motion is used only during temporal regularization. MA-ROOSTER is compared to ROOSTER, motion-compensated Feldkamp-Davis-Kress (MC-FDK), and two respiration-correlated methods, on CBCT acquisitions of one physical phantom and two patients. It yields streak-free reconstructions, visually similar to MC-FDK, and robust information on tumor location throughout the breathing cycle. MA-ROOSTER also allows a variation of the lung tissue density during the breathing cycle, similar to that of planning CT, which is required for quantitative post-processing.

Does regular practice of physical activity reduce the risk of dysphonia?

Science.gov (United States)

Assunção, Ada Avila; de Medeiros, Adriane Mesquita; Barreto, Sandhi Maria; Gama, Ana Cristina Cortes

2009-12-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between regular physical activity and the prevalence of dysphonia. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 3142 teachers from 129 municipal public schools in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The dependent variable, dysphonia, was classified (absent or present) according to reported symptoms (fatigue when speaking and loss of voice quality), their frequency (occasionally and daily), and duration (past 15 days). The independent variable was regular physical activity. The degree of association was estimated based on the prevalence ratio and a 95% confidence interval obtained by the Poisson regression adapted for cross-sectional studies. In the study sample, the prevalence of dysphonia in teachers was 15.63%. Nearly half (47.52%) of the teachers reported no regular practice of physical exercises. The remaining teachers (52.48%) walked and did physical exercises, sports, and other activities; 31.25% undertook these activities once or twice a week, and 21.23% exercised three or more times a week. Teachers who did not practice physical activity were more likely to present dysphonia compared to those that exercised three or more times a week. Regular physical activity was associated positively with the prevalence of dysphonia.

The geometry of continuum regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1987-03-01

This lecture is primarily an introduction to coordinate-invariant regularization, a recent advance in the continuum regularization program. In this context, the program is seen as fundamentally geometric, with all regularization contained in regularized DeWitt superstructures on field deformations

Regular expression containment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henglein, Fritz; Nielsen, Lasse

2011-01-01

We present a new sound and complete axiomatization of regular expression containment. It consists of the conventional axiomatiza- tion of concatenation, alternation, empty set and (the singleton set containing) the empty string as an idempotent semiring, the fixed- point rule E* = 1 + E × E......* for Kleene-star, and a general coin- duction rule as the only additional rule. Our axiomatization gives rise to a natural computational inter- pretation of regular expressions as simple types that represent parse trees, and of containment proofs as coercions. This gives the axiom- atization a Curry......-Howard-style constructive interpretation: Con- tainment proofs do not only certify a language-theoretic contain- ment, but, under our computational interpretation, constructively transform a membership proof of a string in one regular expres- sion into a membership proof of the same string in another regular expression. We...

Supersymmetric dimensional regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siegel, W.; Townsend, P.K.; van Nieuwenhuizen, P.

1980-01-01

There is a simple modification of dimension regularization which preserves supersymmetry: dimensional reduction to real D < 4, followed by analytic continuation to complex D. In terms of component fields, this means fixing the ranges of all indices on the fields (and therefore the numbers of Fermi and Bose components). For superfields, it means continuing in the dimensionality of x-space while fixing the dimensionality of theta-space. This regularization procedure allows the simple manipulation of spinor derivatives in supergraph calculations. The resulting rules are: (1) First do all algebra exactly as in D = 4; (2) Then do the momentum integrals as in ordinary dimensional regularization. This regularization procedure needs extra rules before one can say that it is consistent. Such extra rules needed for superconformal anomalies are discussed. Problems associated with renormalizability and higher order loops are also discussed

7 CFR 1437.9 - Causes of loss.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Causes of loss. 1437.9 Section 1437.9 Agriculture... Provisions § 1437.9 Causes of loss. (a) To be eligible for benefits under this part, an eligible cause of loss must result in: (1) A loss of production greater than 50 percent of the approved yield in...

Detecting regular sound changes in linguistics as events of concerted evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Hruschka, Daniel J; Branford, Simon; Smith, Eric D; Wilkins, Jon; Meade, Andrew; Pagel, Mark; Bhattacharya, Tanmoy

2015-01-05

Concerted evolution is normally used to describe parallel changes at different sites in a genome, but it is also observed in languages where a specific phoneme changes to the same other phoneme in many words in the lexicon—a phenomenon known as regular sound change. We develop a general statistical model that can detect concerted changes in aligned sequence data and apply it to study regular sound changes in the Turkic language family. Linguistic evolution, unlike the genetic substitutional process, is dominated by events of concerted evolutionary change. Our model identified more than 70 historical events of regular sound change that occurred throughout the evolution of the Turkic language family, while simultaneously inferring a dated phylogenetic tree. Including regular sound changes yielded an approximately 4-fold improvement in the characterization of linguistic change over a simpler model of sporadic change, improved phylogenetic inference, and returned more reliable and plausible dates for events on the phylogenies. The historical timings of the concerted changes closely follow a Poisson process model, and the sound transition networks derived from our model mirror linguistic expectations. We demonstrate that a model with no prior knowledge of complex concerted or regular changes can nevertheless infer the historical timings and genealogical placements of events of concerted change from the signals left in contemporary data. Our model can be applied wherever discrete elements—such as genes, words, cultural trends, technologies, or morphological traits—can change in parallel within an organism or other evolving group. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regularization by External Variables

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossolini, Elena; Edwards, R.; Glendinning, P. A.

2016-01-01

Regularization was a big topic at the 2016 CRM Intensive Research Program on Advances in Nonsmooth Dynamics. There are many open questions concerning well known kinds of regularization (e.g., by smoothing or hysteresis). Here, we propose a framework for an alternative and important kind of regula......Regularization was a big topic at the 2016 CRM Intensive Research Program on Advances in Nonsmooth Dynamics. There are many open questions concerning well known kinds of regularization (e.g., by smoothing or hysteresis). Here, we propose a framework for an alternative and important kind...

Yield constraint analysis of rainfed lowland rice in Souteast Asia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boling, A.A.

2007-01-01

Keywords: Fertilizer application, field hydrology, plant nutrient uptake, toposequence, weed control, yield loss. Rainfed lowland rice yields are low and unstable due to uncertain water supply, low soil fertility, and pest infestation. To design management interventions aimed at increasing

Regular Single Valued Neutrosophic Hypergraphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Aslam Malik

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we define the regular and totally regular single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs, and discuss the order and size along with properties of regular and totally regular single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs. We also extend work on completeness of single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs.

FURFURAL YIELD AND DECOMPOSITION IN SODIUM 2,4DIMETHYLBENZENESULFONATE--SULFURIC ACID--WATER SOLUTIONS.

Science.gov (United States)

Batch-type microreactors (about 1/40 milliliter of reactants) were used to measure furfural yields from acidified xylose solutions containing sodium...It was found that presence of the salt did not affect the quantity of furfural produced, but greatly increased the rate of formation. The regular...increase in rate of furfural formation was directly related to the increase in the rate xylose decomposition, and furfural yields for all salt and acid

Changes in weight loss, body composition and cardiovascular disease risk after altering macronutrient distributions during a regular exercise program in obese women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberts Mike D

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study's purpose investigated the impact of different macronutrient distributions and varying caloric intakes along with regular exercise for metabolic and physiological changes related to weight loss. Methods One hundred forty-one sedentary, obese women (38.7 ± 8.0 yrs, 163.3 ± 6.9 cm, 93.2 ± 16.5 kg, 35.0 ± 6.2 kg•m-2, 44.8 ± 4.2% fat were randomized to either no diet + no exercise control group (CON a no diet + exercise control (ND, or one of four diet + exercise groups (high-energy diet [HED], very low carbohydrate, high protein diet [VLCHP], low carbohydrate, moderate protein diet [LCMP] and high carbohydrate, low protein [HCLP] in addition to beginning a 3x•week-1 supervised resistance training program. After 0, 1, 10 and 14 weeks, all participants completed testing sessions which included anthropometric, body composition, energy expenditure, fasting blood samples, aerobic and muscular fitness assessments. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA with an alpha of 0.05 with LSD post-hoc analysis when appropriate. Results All dieting groups exhibited adequate compliance to their prescribed diet regimen as energy and macronutrient amounts and distributions were close to prescribed amounts. Those groups that followed a diet and exercise program reported significantly greater anthropometric (waist circumference and body mass and body composition via DXA (fat mass and % fat changes. Caloric restriction initially reduced energy expenditure, but successfully returned to baseline values after 10 weeks of dieting and exercising. Significant fitness improvements (aerobic capacity and maximal strength occurred in all exercising groups. No significant changes occurred in lipid panel constituents, but serum insulin and HOMA-IR values decreased in the VLCHP group. Significant reductions in serum leptin occurred in all caloric restriction + exercise groups after 14 weeks, which were unchanged in other non

High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen H. Boutcher

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The effect of regular aerobic exercise on body fat is negligible; however, other forms of exercise may have a greater impact on body composition. For example, emerging research examining high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE indicates that it may be more effective at reducing subcutaneous and abdominal body fat than other types of exercise. The mechanisms underlying the fat reduction induced by HIIE, however, are undetermined. Regular HIIE has been shown to significantly increase both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. HIIE also significantly lowers insulin resistance and results in a number of skeletal muscle adaptations that result in enhanced skeletal muscle fat oxidation and improved glucose tolerance. This review summarizes the results of HIIE studies on fat loss, fitness, insulin resistance, and skeletal muscle. Possible mechanisms underlying HIIE-induced fat loss and implications for the use of HIIE in the treatment and prevention of obesity are also discussed.

On a correspondence between regular and non-regular operator monotone functions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gibilisco, P.; Hansen, Frank; Isola, T.

2009-01-01

We prove the existence of a bijection between the regular and the non-regular operator monotone functions satisfying a certain functional equation. As an application we give a new proof of the operator monotonicity of certain functions related to the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information....

Daily pattern of energy distribution and weight loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Raynor, Hollie A; Li, Fan; Cardoso, Chelsi

2018-08-01

Timing of energy intake, a temporal dietary pattern, may enhance health. Eating a greater amount of energy earlier and a smaller amount of energy later in the day, a behavioral circadian rhythm, may assist with chronoenhancement. Chronoenhancement seeks to enhance entrainment (synchronization) of biological and behavioral circadian rhythms. In humans, research reports that eating a greater amount of energy early and a smaller amount of energy later in the day increases dietary induced thermogenesis, improves cardiometabolic outcomes, and enhances weight loss. However, little human research has examined if this eating pattern enhances regularity of biological circadian rhythm. In a randomized controlled 8-week pilot study, the influence of energy distribution timing on weight loss and regularity of sleep onset and wake times (marker for biological circadian rhythm) was examined. Within an hypocaloric, three-meal prescription, participants (n = 8) were assigned to either: 1) Morning: 50%, 30%, and 20% of kcal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, respectively; or 2) Evening: 20%, 30%, and 50% of kcal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, respectively. Percent weight loss and regularity of sleep onset and wake times were significantly (p energy distribution timing on health, longer studies conducted in free-living participants, with dietary intake assessed using time-stamped methods, that include measures of the circadian timing system are needed. This small review is based upon a symposium presentation at the Society of the Study of Ingestive Behavior in 2017. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stochastic analytic regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alfaro, J.

1984-07-01

Stochastic regularization is reexamined, pointing out a restriction on its use due to a new type of divergence which is not present in the unregulated theory. Furthermore, we introduce a new form of stochastic regularization which permits the use of a minimal subtraction scheme to define the renormalized Green functions. (author)

Rooting traits of peanut genotypes with different yield responses to terminal drought

Science.gov (United States)

Drought at pod filling can severely reduce yield of peanut. Better root systems can reduce yield loss from drought. However, the relationship of root characters with yield under terminal drought is not well understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the responses of peanut genotyp...

Convergence rates in constrained Tikhonov regularization: equivalence of projected source conditions and variational inequalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flemming, Jens; Hofmann, Bernd

2011-01-01

In this paper, we enlighten the role of variational inequalities for obtaining convergence rates in Tikhonov regularization of nonlinear ill-posed problems with convex penalty functionals under convexity constraints in Banach spaces. Variational inequalities are able to cover solution smoothness and the structure of nonlinearity in a uniform manner, not only for unconstrained but, as we indicate, also for constrained Tikhonov regularization. In this context, we extend the concept of projected source conditions already known in Hilbert spaces to Banach spaces, and we show in the main theorem that such projected source conditions are to some extent equivalent to certain variational inequalities. The derived variational inequalities immediately yield convergence rates measured by Bregman distances

ZNJPrice/Earnings Ratio Model through Dividend Yield and Required Yield Above Expected Inflation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emil Mihalina

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Price/earnings ratio is the most popular and most widespread evaluation model used to assess relative capital asset value on financial markets. In functional terms, company earnings in the very long term can be described with high significance. Empirically, it is visible from long-term statistics that the demanded (required yield on capital markets has certain regularity. Thus, investors first require a yield above the stable inflation rate and then a dividend yield and a capital increase caused by the growth of earnings that influence the price, with the assumption that the P/E ratio is stable. By combining the Gordon model for current dividend value, the model of market capitalization of earnings (price/earnings ratio and bearing in mind the influence of the general price levels on company earnings, it is possible to adjust the price/earnings ratio by deriving a function of the required yield on capital markets measured by a market index through dividend yield and inflation rate above the stable inflation rate increased by profit growth. The S&P 500 index for example, has in the last 100 years grown by exactly the inflation rate above the stable inflation rate increased by profit growth. The comparison of two series of price/earnings ratios, a modelled one and an average 7-year ratio, shows a notable correlation in the movement of two series of variables, with a three year deviation. Therefore, it could be hypothesized that three years of the expected inflation level, dividend yield and profit growth rate of the market index are discounted in the current market prices. The conclusion is that, at the present time, the relationship between the adjusted average price/earnings ratio and its effect on the market index on one hand and the modelled price/earnings ratio on the other can clearly show the expected dynamics and course in the following period.

Influence of Inter-Intra Row Spacing on Yield Losses of Tomato ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

losses of tomato growing under open field production with fresh market (Bishola) and processing ..... AVRDC. 2003. Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre, Shanhua, Tainan, progress ... Australia national universities. 20: 1.

Manufacturing of par-fried french-fries. Part 2: Modelling yield efficiency of peeling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Somsen, D.J.; Capelle, A.; Tramper, J.

2004-01-01

The paper outlines the yield efficiency of steam peeling. It was proven that peeling potatoes manually with sandpaper results in the lowest possible peel losses. These losses were desired or wanted losses. However, in practice steam peeling results not only in wanted losses but also in substantial

The Impact of Regular and Periodic Irrigation on the Fertility and Productivity of an Ordinary Chernozem of the Azov Irrigation System

Science.gov (United States)

Shchedrin, V. N.

2016-02-01

The effect of regular and periodic irrigation on the fertility and productivity of an ordinary chernozem cultivated under different conditions within the same cereal-fodder crop rotation is discussed. The investigation object is located in the area of the Azov irrigation system on the second terrace of the Don River in Rostov oblast. Irrigation water for the system is taken from the Veselovsk water reservoir. Its salinity is 1.7-2.1 g/dm3, and the salt composition is sulfate-sodium. The field experiments were performed in 2006-2013 on three experimental plots. Two of them were regularly irrigated; the third plot was periodically irrigated with alternation of 2-year-long periods with and without irrigation. Our study proved that periodic irrigation could be applied in the chernozemic zone. This new irrigation mode contributes to the preservation of the natural soil-forming process and stops the development of unfavorable processes typical of the lands irrigated with water of inadequate quality. In eight years of cultivation of the ordinary chernozem with periodic irrigation, the soil humus content increased by 10% (from 3.80 to 4.15%), and the yield reached 66.0 t/ha of fodder units. This was 9% higher than the yield obtained upon regular irrigation without agroameliorative measures and 12% lower than the yield upon regular irrigation in combination with soil-protective measures. Our data suggest that periodic irrigation is promising for the chernozemic zone, because it ensures lower water loads and preservation of the irrigated chernozems.

Ground-level ozone in China: Distribution and effects on crop yields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Xiaoke; Manning, William; Feng Zongwei; Zhu Yongguan

2007-01-01

Rapid economic development and an increasing demand for food in China have drawn attention to the role of ozone at pollution levels on crop yields. Some assessments of ozone effects on crop yields have been carried out in China. Determination of ozone distribution by geographical location and resulting crop loss estimations have been made by Chinese investigators and others from abroad. It is evident that surface level ozone levels in China exceed critical levels for occurrence of crop losses. Current levels of information from ozone dose/response studies are limited. Given the size of China, existing ozone monitoring sites are too few to provide enough data to scale ozone distribution to a national level. There are large uncertainties in the database for ozone effects on crop loss and for ozone distribution. Considerable research needs to be done to allow accurate estimation of crop losses caused by ozone in China. - More research is needed to reliably estimate ozone caused crop losses in China

Analyses of moisture deficit grain yield loss in drought tolerant maize ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Development of drought tolerant maize cultivars is prerequisite to achieving stable grain yield in drought–prone ecologies of Nigeria's Guinea savanna. However, success has been limited mainly due to lack of maize genotypes that show clear differences in response to well defined moisture deficit condition. Two sets of ...

Regularization strategies for hyperplane classifiers: application to cancer classification with gene expression data.

Science.gov (United States)

Andries, Erik; Hagstrom, Thomas; Atlas, Susan R; Willman, Cheryl

2007-02-01

Linear discrimination, from the point of view of numerical linear algebra, can be treated as solving an ill-posed system of linear equations. In order to generate a solution that is robust in the presence of noise, these problems require regularization. Here, we examine the ill-posedness involved in the linear discrimination of cancer gene expression data with respect to outcome and tumor subclasses. We show that a filter factor representation, based upon Singular Value Decomposition, yields insight into the numerical ill-posedness of the hyperplane-based separation when applied to gene expression data. We also show that this representation yields useful diagnostic tools for guiding the selection of classifier parameters, thus leading to improved performance.

Effective field theory dimensional regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lehmann, Dirk; Prezeau, Gary

2002-01-01

A Lorentz-covariant regularization scheme for effective field theories with an arbitrary number of propagating heavy and light particles is given. This regularization scheme leaves the low-energy analytic structure of Greens functions intact and preserves all the symmetries of the underlying Lagrangian. The power divergences of regularized loop integrals are controlled by the low-energy kinematic variables. Simple diagrammatic rules are derived for the regularization of arbitrary one-loop graphs and the generalization to higher loops is discussed

Effective field theory dimensional regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, Dirk; Prézeau, Gary

2002-01-01

A Lorentz-covariant regularization scheme for effective field theories with an arbitrary number of propagating heavy and light particles is given. This regularization scheme leaves the low-energy analytic structure of Greens functions intact and preserves all the symmetries of the underlying Lagrangian. The power divergences of regularized loop integrals are controlled by the low-energy kinematic variables. Simple diagrammatic rules are derived for the regularization of arbitrary one-loop graphs and the generalization to higher loops is discussed.

26Al yields from rotating Wolf--Rayet star models

OpenAIRE

Vuissoz, C.; Meynet, G.; Knoedlseder, J.; Cervino, M.; Schaerer, D.; Palacios, A.; Mowlavi, N.

2003-01-01

We present new $^{26}$Al stellar yields from rotating Wolf--Rayet stellar models which, at solar metallicity, well reproduce the observed properties of the Wolf-Rayet populations. These new yields are enhanced with respect to non--rotating models, even with respect to non--rotating models computed with enhanced mass loss rates. We briefly discuss some implications of the use of these new yields for estimating the global contribution of Wolf-Rayet stars to the quantity of $^{26}$Al now present...

Hierarchical regular small-world networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boettcher, Stefan; Goncalves, Bruno; Guclu, Hasan

2008-01-01

Two new networks are introduced that resemble small-world properties. These networks are recursively constructed but retain a fixed, regular degree. They possess a unique one-dimensional lattice backbone overlaid by a hierarchical sequence of long-distance links, mixing real-space and small-world features. Both networks, one 3-regular and the other 4-regular, lead to distinct behaviors, as revealed by renormalization group studies. The 3-regular network is planar, has a diameter growing as √N with system size N, and leads to super-diffusion with an exact, anomalous exponent d w = 1.306..., but possesses only a trivial fixed point T c = 0 for the Ising ferromagnet. In turn, the 4-regular network is non-planar, has a diameter growing as ∼2 √(log 2 N 2 ) , exhibits 'ballistic' diffusion (d w = 1), and a non-trivial ferromagnetic transition, T c > 0. It suggests that the 3-regular network is still quite 'geometric', while the 4-regular network qualifies as a true small world with mean-field properties. As an engineering application we discuss synchronization of processors on these networks. (fast track communication)

Global evaluation of a semiempirical model for yield anomalies and application to within-season yield forecasting.

Science.gov (United States)

Schauberger, Bernhard; Gornott, Christoph; Wechsung, Frank

2017-11-01

Quantifying the influence of weather on yield variability is decisive for agricultural management under current and future climate anomalies. We extended an existing semiempirical modeling scheme that allows for such quantification. Yield anomalies, measured as interannual differences, were modeled for maize, soybeans, and wheat in the United States and 32 other main producer countries. We used two yield data sets, one derived from reported yields and the other from a global yield data set deduced from remote sensing. We assessed the capacity of the model to forecast yields within the growing season. In the United States, our model can explain at least two-thirds (63%-81%) of observed yield anomalies. Its out-of-sample performance (34%-55%) suggests a robust yield projection capacity when applied to unknown weather. Out-of-sample performance is lower when using remote sensing-derived yield data. The share of weather-driven yield fluctuation varies spatially, and estimated coefficients agree with expectations. Globally, the explained variance in yield anomalies based on the remote sensing data set is similar to the United States (71%-84%). But the out-of-sample performance is lower (15%-42%). The performance discrepancy is likely due to shortcomings of the remote sensing yield data as it diminishes when using reported yield anomalies instead. Our model allows for robust forecasting of yields up to 2 months before harvest for several main producer countries. An additional experiment suggests moderate yield losses under mean warming, assuming no major changes in temperature extremes. We conclude that our model can detect weather influences on yield anomalies and project yields with unknown weather. It requires only monthly input data and has a low computational demand. Its within-season yield forecasting capacity provides a basis for practical applications like local adaptation planning. Our study underlines high-quality yield monitoring and statistics as critical

75 FR 76006 - Regular Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-07

... FARM CREDIT SYSTEM INSURANCE CORPORATION Regular Meeting AGENCY: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board. ACTION: Regular meeting. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). Date and Time: The meeting of the Board will be held...

General inverse problems for regular variation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damek, Ewa; Mikosch, Thomas Valentin; Rosinski, Jan

2014-01-01

Regular variation of distributional tails is known to be preserved by various linear transformations of some random structures. An inverse problem for regular variation aims at understanding whether the regular variation of a transformed random object is caused by regular variation of components ...

Yield analysis at a poultry processing plant in Harare, Zimbabwe ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This investigation was conducted to establish the yield of parts or organs of chickens brought for slaughter at a poultry processing plant in Harare. Results of the study will furnish management and other poultry farmers with information that will enable them to identify yield losses and sustainable ways of minimizing resultant ...

Accelerated yield learning in agressive lithography

Science.gov (United States)

Monahan, Kevin M.; Ashkenaz, Scott M.; Chen, Xing; Lord, Patrick J.; Merrill, Mark A.; Quattrini, Rich; Wiley, James N.

2000-06-01

As exposure wavelengths decrease from 248 nm to 193, 157, and even 13 nm (EUV), small process defects can cause collapse of the lithographic process window near the limits of resolution, particularly for the gate and contact structures in high- performance devices. Such sensitivity poses a challenge for lithography process module control. In this work, we show that yield loss can be caused by a combination of macro, micro, CD, and overlay defects. A defect is defined as any yield- affecting process variation. Each defect, regardless of cause, is assumed to have a specific 'kill potential.' The accuracy of the lithographic yield model can be improved by identifying those defects with the highest kill potential or, more importantly, those that pose the highest economic risk. Such economic considerations have led us to develop a simple heuristic model for understanding sampling strategies in defect metrology and for linking metrology capability to yield and profitability.

Continuum-regularized quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan Huesum; Halpern, M.B.

1987-01-01

The recent continuum regularization of d-dimensional Euclidean gravity is generalized to arbitrary power-law measure and studied in some detail as a representative example of coordinate-invariant regularization. The weak-coupling expansion of the theory illustrates a generic geometrization of regularized Schwinger-Dyson rules, generalizing previous rules in flat space and flat superspace. The rules are applied in a non-trivial explicit check of Einstein invariance at one loop: the cosmological counterterm is computed and its contribution is included in a verification that the graviton mass is zero. (orig.)

On the regularities of gamma-ray initiated emission of really-secondary electrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grudskij, M.Ya.; Roldugin, N.N.; Smirnov, V.V.

1982-01-01

Emission regularities of the really-secondary electrons from metals are discussed on the basis of experimental data on electron emission characteristics under gamma radiation of incident quanta produced for a wide energy range (Esub(γ)=0.03+-2 MeV) and atomic numbers of target materials (Z=13+-79). Comparison with published experimental and calculated data is performed. It is shown that yield of the really-secondary electrons into vacuum from the target surface bombarded with a normally incident collimated beam of gamma radiation calculating on energy unit absorbed in the yield zone of the really-secondary electrons is determined only with the target material emittivity and can be calculated if spatial-energy distributions and the number of secondary fast electrons emitted out of the target are known

Online co-regularized algorithms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijter, T. de; Tsivtsivadze, E.; Heskes, T.

2012-01-01

We propose an online co-regularized learning algorithm for classification and regression tasks. We demonstrate that by sequentially co-regularizing prediction functions on unlabeled data points, our algorithm provides improved performance in comparison to supervised methods on several UCI benchmarks

Simulating crop yield losses in Switzerland for historical and present Tambora climate scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Flückiger, Simon; Brönnimann, Stefan; Holzkämper, Annelie; Fuhrer, Jürg; Krämer, Daniel; Pfister, Christian; Rohr, Christian

2017-07-01

Severe climatic anomalies in summer 1816, partly due to the eruption of Tambora in April 1815, contributed to delayed growth and poor harvests of important crops in Central Europe. Coinciding with adverse socio-economic conditions, this event triggered the last subsistence crisis in the western World. Here, we model reductions in potential crop yields for 1816 and 1817 and address the question, what impact a similar climatic anomaly would have today. We reconstructed daily weather for Switzerland for 1816/17 on a 2 km grid using historical observations and an analogue resampling method. These data were used to simulate potential crop yields for potato, grain maize, and winter barley using the CropSyst model calibrated for current crop cultivars. We also simulated yields for the same weather anomalies, but referenced to a present-day baseline temperature. Results show that reduced temperature delayed growth and harvest considerably, and in combination with reduced solar irradiance led to a substantial reduction (20%-50%) in the potential yield of potato in 1816. Effects on winter barley were smaller. Significant reductions were also modelled for 1817 and were mainly due to a cold late spring. Relative reductions for the present-day scenario for the two crops were almost indistinguishable from the historical ones. An even stronger response was found for maize, which was not yet common in 1816/17. Waterlogging, which we assessed using a stress-day approach, likely added to the simulated reductions. The documented, strong east-west gradient in malnutrition across Switzerland in 1817/18 could not be explained by biophysical yield limitations (though excess-water limitation might have contributed), but rather by economic, political and social factors. This highlights the importance of these factors for a societies’ ability to cope with extreme climate events. While the adaptive capacity of today’s society in Switzerland is much greater than in the early 19th century

Geometric continuum regularization of quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1989-01-01

An overview of the continuum regularization program is given. The program is traced from its roots in stochastic quantization, with emphasis on the examples of regularized gauge theory, the regularized general nonlinear sigma model and regularized quantum gravity. In its coordinate-invariant form, the regularization is seen as entirely geometric: only the supermetric on field deformations is regularized, and the prescription provides universal nonperturbative invariant continuum regularization across all quantum field theory. 54 refs

Loss of CIB2 Causes Profound Hearing Loss and Abolishes Mechanoelectrical Transduction in Mice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanfei Wang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Calcium and integrin-binding protein 2 (CIB2 belongs to a protein family with four known members, CIB1 through CIB4, which are characterized by multiple calcium-binding EF-hand domains. Among the family members, the Cib1 and Cib2 genes are expressed in mouse cochlear hair cells, and mutations in the human CIB2 gene have been associated with nonsyndromic deafness DFNB48 and syndromic deafness USH1J. To further explore the function of CIB1 and CIB2 in hearing, we established Cib1 and Cib2 knockout mice using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR-associated Cas9 nuclease (CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technique. We found that loss of CIB1 protein does not affect auditory function, whereas loss of CIB2 protein causes profound hearing loss in mice. Further investigation revealed that hair cell stereocilia development is affected in Cib2 knockout mice. Noticeably, loss of CIB2 abolishes mechanoelectrical transduction (MET currents in auditory hair cells. In conclusion, we show here that although both CIB1 and CIB2 are readily detected in the cochlea, only loss of CIB2 results in profound hearing loss, and that CIB2 is essential for auditory hair cell MET.

Bypassing the Limits of Ll Regularization: Convex Sparse Signal Processing Using Non-Convex Regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Parekh, Ankit

Sparsity has become the basis of some important signal processing methods over the last ten years. Many signal processing problems (e.g., denoising, deconvolution, non-linear component analysis) can be expressed as inverse problems. Sparsity is invoked through the formulation of an inverse problem with suitably designed regularization terms. The regularization terms alone encode sparsity into the problem formulation. Often, the ℓ1 norm is used to induce sparsity, so much so that ℓ1 regularization is considered to be `modern least-squares'. The use of ℓ1 norm, as a sparsity-inducing regularizer, leads to a convex optimization problem, which has several benefits: the absence of extraneous local minima, well developed theory of globally convergent algorithms, even for large-scale problems. Convex regularization via the ℓ1 norm, however, tends to under-estimate the non-zero values of sparse signals. In order to estimate the non-zero values more accurately, non-convex regularization is often favored over convex regularization. However, non-convex regularization generally leads to non-convex optimization, which suffers from numerous issues: convergence may be guaranteed to only a stationary point, problem specific parameters may be difficult to set, and the solution is sensitive to the initialization of the algorithm. The first part of this thesis is aimed toward combining the benefits of non-convex regularization and convex optimization to estimate sparse signals more effectively. To this end, we propose to use parameterized non-convex regularizers with designated non-convexity and provide a range for the non-convex parameter so as to ensure that the objective function is strictly convex. By ensuring convexity of the objective function (sum of data-fidelity and non-convex regularizer), we can make use of a wide variety of convex optimization algorithms to obtain the unique global minimum reliably. The second part of this thesis proposes a non-linear signal

Obesity Prevention and Weight Maintenance After Loss.

Science.gov (United States)

German, Alexander James

2016-09-01

Obesity is one of the most prevalent medical diseases in pets. Outcomes are often disappointing; many animals either fail to reach target weight or regain weight. This article discusses managing obesity, focusing on prevention. It gives guidance on establishing monitoring programs that use regular body weight and condition assessments to identify animals at risk of inappropriate weight gain, enabling early intervention. Weight management in obese animals is a lifelong process. Regular weight and body condition monitoring are key to identifying animals that rebound early, while continuing to feed a therapeutic weight loss diet can help prevent it from happening. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using Tikhonov Regularization for Spatial Projections from CSR Regularized Spherical Harmonic GRACE Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S. V.

2013-12-01

It has been demonstrated before that using Tikhonov regularization produces spherical harmonic solutions from GRACE that have very little residual stripes while capturing all the signal observed by GRACE within the noise level. This paper demonstrates a two-step process and uses Tikhonov regularization to remove the residual stripes in the CSR regularized spherical harmonic coefficients when computing the spatial projections. We discuss methods to produce mass anomaly grids that have no stripe features while satisfying the necessary condition of capturing all observed signal within the GRACE noise level.

a metabolic wastage model for the rate-yield trade off

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

A METABOLIC WASTAGE MODEL FOR THE RATE-YIELD TRADE OFF. There is a growth limiting step in which an intermediate metabolite (m) has to hit a target molecule (t). ... D= rate of diffusing out. S= the rate of formation of the metabolite. The equilibrium loss decides the yield. The no. of activated targets decide the rate ...

The Impact of Regular Self-weighing on Weight Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Welsh Ericka M

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Regular self-weighing has been a focus of attention recently in the obesity literature. It has received conflicting endorsement in that some researchers and practitioners recommend it as a key behavioral strategy for weight management, while others caution against its use due to its potential to cause negative psychological consequences associated with weight management failure. The evidence on frequent self-weighing, however, has not yet been synthesized. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the evidence regarding the use of regular self-weighing for both weight loss and weight maintenance. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted using the MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO online databases. Reviewed studies were broken down by sample characteristics, predictors/conditions, dependent measures, findings, and evidence grade. Results Twelve studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, but nearly half received low evidence grades in terms of methodological quality. Findings from 11 of the 12 reviewed studies indicated that more frequent self-weighing was associated with greater weight loss or weight gain prevention. Specifically, individuals who reported self-weighing weekly or daily, typically over a period of several months, held a 1 to 3 kg/m2 (current advantage over individuals who did not self-weigh frequently. The effects of self-weighing in experimental studies, especially those where self-weighing behaviors could be isolated, were less clear. Conclusion Based on the consistency of the evidence reviewed, frequent self-weighing, at the very least, seems to be a good predictor of moderate weight loss, less weight regain, or the avoidance of initial weight gain in adults. More targeted research is needed in this area to determine the causal role of frequent self-weighing in weight loss/weight gain prevention programs. Other open questions to be pursued include the optimal dose of self-weighing, as well as the

[Effects of nitrogen application level on soil nitrate accumulation and ammonia volatilization in high-yielding wheat field].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Dong; Yu, Zhenwen; Yu, Wenming; Shi, Yu; Zhou, Zhongxin

2006-09-01

The study showed that during the period from sowing to pre-wintering, the soil nitrate in high-yielding wheat field moved down to deeper layers, and accumulated in the layers below 140 cm. An application rate of 96-168 kg N x hm(-2) increased the nitrate content in 0-60 cm soil layer and the wheat grain yield and its protein content, and decreased the proportion of apparent N loss to applied N and the ammonia volatilization loss from basal nitrogen. Applying 240 kg N x hm(-2) promoted the downward movement of soil nitrate and its accumulation in deeper layers, increased the proportion of apparent N loss to applied N and the ammonia volatilization loss from basal nitrogen, had no significant effect on the protein content of wheat grain, but decreased the grain yield. The appropriate application rate of nitrogen on high-yielding wheat field was 132-204 kg N x hm(-2).

Foliar diagnosis, nutrition and yield stability of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) in Sarawak

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waard, de P.W.F.

1969-01-01

Until 1942 cultivation of pepper P. nigrum L. in Sarawak produced relatively small but regular yields. High demands after 1945 and restricted use of "burnt earth" compelled farmers to abandon the application of this traditional fertilizer. Instead, "fool proof" manufactured fertilizers

Evaluation of Growth Indices and Estimation Seed Yield Loss Threshold of Canola in Response to Various Densities of Crop and Wild Mustard

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z Anafjeh

2012-02-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT In order to study the effect of various densities of wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis L. on growth indices of Canola (Brassica napus L. in climate of Molathani, Ahvaz, an experiment was conducted in the experimental field of Ramin Agricultural and Natural Resources University, in 2006-2007. The split-plot set of treatments was arranged within randomized complete block design with four replications. Treatments included of wild mustard at five levels (0, 7, 14, 21 and 35 plants m2 and Canola at three densities (60, 80 and 100 plants m2. The results showed that the increase in mustard density rates lead to decreasing total dry matter, leaf area index, crop growth rate, relative growth rate and mean pod dry matter in three canola densities (60, 80 and 100 plants m2. Somewhat the lowest growth indices was obtained in 35 plants mustard (that is the highest mustard density. In addition damage rate of mustard decreased canola seed yield for 7, 14, 21 and 35 plants mustard up to 61, 71, 76 and 91%, respectively. Keywords: Plant density, Competition, Yield loss threshold, Growth indices, Canola, Mustard

Modelling and prediction of crop losses from NOAA polar-orbiting operational satellites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix Kogan

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Weather-related crop losses have always been a concern for farmers, governments, traders, and policy-makers for the purpose of balanced food supply/demands, trade, and distribution of aid to the nations in need. Among weather disasters, drought plays a major role in large-scale crop losses. This paper discusses utility of operational satellite-based vegetation health (VH indices for modelling cereal yield and for early warning of drought-related crop losses. The indices were tested in Saratov oblast (SO, one of the principal grain growing regions of Russia. Correlation and regression analysis were applied to model cereal yield from VH indices during 1982–2001. A strong correlation between mean SO's cereal yield and VH indices were found during the critical period of cereals, which starts two–three weeks before and ends two–three weeks after the heading stage. Several models were constructed where VH indices served as independent variables (predictors. The models were validated independently based on SO cereal yield during 1982–2012. Drought-related cereal yield losses can be predicted three months in advance of harvest and six–eight months in advance of official grain production statistic is released. The error of production losses prediction is 7%–10%. The error of prediction drops to 3%–5% in the years of intensive droughts.

Yields of Selected Catch Crops in Dry Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina Handlířová

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Catch crops mainly reduce soil erosion and leaching of nutrients as well as enrich the soil organic matter. The aim of this research is to evaluate the yields of catch crops of Sinapis alba, Phacelia tanacetifolia, Fagopyrum esculentum, Carthamus tinctorius and Secale cereale v. multicaule, and thus determine the possible applicability of catch crops in areas with high average annual temperature and low precipitation totals. The small-plot field experiment was performed on clay-loam gleyic fluvisol at the Field Experimental Station in Žabčice, Southern Moravia, Czech Republic, within the period of 2006-2014. The catch crops were set up after winter wheat in mid-August. The results have shown a statistically significant difference among different catch crops in yield of dry matter and even among years. The yield of catch crops is mainly dependent on a sufficient supply of water in the soil and the appropriate amount and distribution of rainfall over the growing season. Sinapis alba and Phacelia tanacetifolia regularly reached the highest yields. High yields were also achieved with Fagopyrum esculentum. Due to the method of crop rotation in the Czech Republic, with a predominance of Brassica napus var. napus, it is inappropriate to include Sinapis alba. It is the best to grow Phacelia tanacetifolia and even Fagopyrum esculentum, or a mixture thereof, depending on the use of catch crops.

Regularities of Multifractal Measures

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First, we prove the decomposition theorem for the regularities of multifractal Hausdorff measure and packing measure in R R d . This decomposition theorem enables us to split a set into regular and irregular parts, so that we can analyze each separately, and recombine them without affecting density properties. Next, we ...

Effect of fusarium wilt disease on seed yield of advance lentil genotypes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sarwar, G.; Asghar, M.J.; Abbas, G.; Akhtar, K.P.

2014-01-01

Wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum is considered as the most damaging soil disease of lentil. Current study was carried out to see the effect of Fusarium wilt disease on seed yield of advance lentil genotypes in wilt sick plot. Fourteen entries were tested in national yield uniform trial (NUYT), 11 in adaptation yield trial (AYT), 15 in advance line yield trial-I (ALYT-I), 12 in advance line yield trial-II (ALYT-II) and 25 in preliminary yield trial (PYT) along with standard check. Mean seed yields of 891.04, 1281.78, 1153.81, 1080.04 and 789.45 kg ha/sup -1/were observed in NUYT, AYT, ALYT-I, ALYT-II and PYT, respectively. The average disease intensity in various trials was more than 30%. Disease severity was less than 10% in nine genotypes. This was also confirmed by high negative values of their losses over check. Out of these, the genotypes, 03501, NL 96625, NL 66184, NL 66106 and NL 31742/03 produced highest seed yield of 2945 kg ha/sup -1/, 2667 kg ha/sup -1/, 2490 kg ha/sup -1/,2390 kg ha/sup -1/and 2691 kg ha/sup -1/ respectively. The higher yield may be attributed to inbuilt resistance against such a drastic disease. Overall, seed yield and disease incidence were negatively correlated in all yield trials. The genotypes under severe wilt attack produced no seed yield. It is clear from this study that resistance/tolerance is available in lentil that can be selected based on high yield potential along with minimum yield losses for further breeding. (author)

Modelling crop yield in Iberia under drought conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Andreia; Páscoa, Patrícia; Russo, Ana; Gouveia, Célia

2017-04-01

The improved assessment of the cereal yield and crop loss under drought conditions are essential to meet the increasing economy demands. The growing frequency and severity of the extreme drought conditions in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) has been likely responsible for negative impacts on agriculture, namely on crop yield losses. Therefore, a continuous monitoring of vegetation activity and a reliable estimation of drought impacts is crucial to contribute for the agricultural drought management and development of suitable information tools. This works aims to assess the influence of drought conditions in agricultural yields over the IP, considering cereal yields from mainly rainfed agriculture for the provinces with higher productivity. The main target is to develop a strategy to model drought risk on agriculture for wheat yield at a province level. In order to achieve this goal a combined assessment was made using a drought indicator (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, SPEI) to evaluate drought conditions together with a widely used vegetation index (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI) to monitor vegetation activity. A correlation analysis between detrended wheat yield and SPEI was performed in order to assess the vegetation response to each time scale of drought occurrence and also identify the moment of the vegetative cycle when the crop yields are more vulnerable to drought conditions. The time scales and months of SPEI, together with the months of NDVI, better related with wheat yield were chosen to perform a multivariate regression analysis to simulate crop yield. Model results are satisfactory and highlighted the usefulness of such analysis in the framework of developing a drought risk model for crop yields. In terms of an operational point of view, the results aim to contribute to an improved understanding of crop yield management under dry conditions, particularly adding substantial information on the advantages of combining

Adaptive Regularization of Neural Classifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lars Nonboe; Larsen, Jan; Hansen, Lars Kai

1997-01-01

We present a regularization scheme which iteratively adapts the regularization parameters by minimizing the validation error. It is suggested to use the adaptive regularization scheme in conjunction with optimal brain damage pruning to optimize the architecture and to avoid overfitting. Furthermo......, we propose an improved neural classification architecture eliminating an inherent redundancy in the widely used SoftMax classification network. Numerical results demonstrate the viability of the method...

Comparative role of neem seed extract, moringa leaf extract and imidacloprid in the management of wheat aphids in relation to yield losses in Pakistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Farhan Mahmood; Razaq, Muhammad; Ali, Abid; Han, Peng; Chen, Julian

2017-01-01

Wheat being staple food of Pakistan is constantly attacked by major wheat aphid species, Schizaphis graminum (R.), Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) and Sitobion avenae (F.). Due to concern on synthetic chemical use in wheat, it is imperative to search for alternative environment- and human- friendly control measures such as botanical pesticides. In the present study, we evaluated the comparative role of neem seed extract (NSE), moringa leaf extract (MLE) and imidacloprid (I) in the management of the aphid as well as the yield losses parameters in late planted wheat fields. Imidacloprid reduced significantly aphids infestation compared to the other treatments, hence resulting in higher yield, particularly when applied with MLE. The percentages of yield increase in I+MLE treated plots over the control were 19.15-81.89% for grains per spike, 5.33-37.62% for thousand grain weight and 27.59-61.12% for yield kg/ha. NSE was the second most effective control measure in suppressing aphid population, but the yield protected by NSE treatment over the control was comparable to that by imidacloprid. Population densities of coccinellids and syrphids in the plots treated with NSE-2 were higher than those treated with imidacloprid in two out of three experiments during 2013-14. Low predator density in imidacloprid-treated plots was attributed to the lower availability of prey aphids. The efficacy of NSE against aphids varied depending on degree of synchronization among the application timing, the activity of aphids, crop variety and environmental conditions. Despite that, we suggested NSE to be a promising alternative botanical insecticide compared to the most commonly recommended imidiacloprid. Further studies should consider the side effects of biopesticides on non-target organisms in order to provide better management practices in the field.

ROI on yield data analysis systems through a business process management strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Rehani, Manu; Strader, Nathan; Hanson, Jeff

2005-05-01

The overriding motivation for yield engineering is profitability. This is achieved through application of yield management. The first application is to continually reduce waste in the form of yield loss. New products, new technologies and the dynamic state of the process and equipment keep introducing new ways to cause yield loss. In response, the yield management efforts have to continually come up with new solutions to minimize it. The second application of yield engineering is to aid in accurate product pricing. This is achieved through predicting future results of the yield engineering effort. The more accurate the yield prediction, the more accurate the wafer start volume, the more accurate the wafer pricing. Another aspect of yield prediction pertains to gauging the impact of a yield problem and predicting how long that will last. The ability to predict such impacts again feeds into wafer start calculations and wafer pricing. The question then is that if the stakes on yield management are so high why is it that most yield management efforts are run like science and engineering projects and less like manufacturing? In the eighties manufacturing put the theory of constraints1 into practice and put a premium on stability and predictability in manufacturing activities, why can't the same be done for yield management activities? This line of introspection led us to define and implement a business process to manage the yield engineering activities. We analyzed the best known methods (BKM) and deployed a workflow tool to make them the standard operating procedure (SOP) for yield managment. We present a case study in deploying a Business Process Management solution for Semiconductor Yield Engineering in a high-mix ASIC environment. We will present a description of the situation prior to deployment, a window into the development process and a valuation of the benefits.

The effect of subclinical mastitis on milk yield in dairy goats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koop, G.; Werven, van T.; Schuiling, H.J.; Nielen, van M.

2010-01-01

The aims of this study were to estimate milk yield (MY) losses associated with subclinical intramammary infection (IMI) in dairy goats and to assess if somatic cell count (SCC) can be used to estimate such MY losses. We used 2 data sets to study these questions. The first data set consisted of 5

Supporting Crop Loss Insurance Policy of Indonesia through Rice Yield Modelling and Forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

van Verseveld, Willem; Weerts, Albrecht; Trambauer, Patricia; de Vries, Sander; Conijn, Sjaak; van Valkengoed, Eric; Hoekman, Dirk; Grondard, Nicolas; Hengsdijk, Huib; Schrevel, Aart; Vlasbloem, Pieter; Klauser, Dominik

2017-04-01

The Government of Indonesia has decided on a crop insurance policy to assist Indonesia's farmers and to boost food security. To support the Indonesian government, the G4INDO project (www.g4indo.org) is developing/constructing an integrated platform implemented in the Delft-FEWS forecasting system (Werner et al., 2013). The integrated platform brings together remote sensed data (both visible and radar) and hydrologic, crop and reservoir modelling and forecasting to improve the modelling and forecasting of rice yield. The hydrological model (wflow_sbm), crop model (wflow_lintul) and reservoir models (RTC-Tools) are coupled on time stepping basis in the OpenStreams framework (see https://github.com/openstreams/wflow) and deployed in the integrated platform to support seasonal forecasting of water availability and crop yield. First we will show the general idea about the G4INDO project, the integrated platform (including Sentinel 1 & 2 data) followed by first (reforecast) results of the coupled models for predicting water availability and crop yield in the Brantas catchment in Java, Indonesia. Werner, M., Schellekens, J., Gijsbers, P., Van Dijk, M., Van den Akker, O. and Heynert K, 2013. The Delft-FEWS flow forecasting system, Environmental Modelling & Software; 40:65-77. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.07.010.

Regularities of radiorace formation in yeasts. Comm.8. The role played by heterozygosis of diploid yeasts in radiorace formation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korogodin, V.I.; Bliznik, K.M.; Kapul'tsevich, Yu.G.; Kondrat'eva, V.I.

1976-01-01

Tow strains of diploid yeasts, namely, high-homozygous 5x3B Saccharomyces cerevisiae and natural heterozygous Mergi 139-B Saccharomyces ellipsoideus, have been used to study the regularities of formation of new races under the action of ionizing radiation. It has been shown that the degree of heterozygosis of both strains does not substantially affect either the quantitative regularities of radiorace formation or the qualitative variations in the new-formed races. The differences between the strains in yielding new races after γ-irradiation with doses similar in biological effectiveness may be explained by different extrapolation numbers of their survival curves

A prospective study of concussions among National Hockey League players during regular season games: the NHL-NHLPA Concussion Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Benson, Brian W; Meeuwisse, Willem H; Rizos, John; Kang, Jian; Burke, Charles J

2011-05-17

In 1997, the National Hockey League (NHL) and NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) launched a concussion program to improve the understanding of this injury. We explored initial postconcussion signs, symptoms, physical examination findings and time loss (i.e., time between the injury and medical clearance by the physician to return to competitive play), experienced by male professional ice-hockey players, and assessed the utility of initial postconcussion clinical manifestations in predicting time loss among hockey players. We conducted a prospective case series of concussions over seven NHL regular seasons (1997-2004) using an inclusive cohort of players. The primary outcome was concussion and the secondary outcome was time loss. NHL team physicians documented post-concussion clinical manifestations and recorded the date when a player was medically cleared to return to play. Team physicians reported 559 concussions during regular season games. The estimated incidence was 1.8 concussions per 1000 player-hours. The most common postconcussion symptom was headache (71%). On average, time loss (in days) increased 2.25 times (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.41-3.62) for every subsequent (i.e., recurrent) concussion sustained during the study period. Controlling for age and position, significant predictors of time loss were postconcussion headache (p < 0.001), low energy or fatigue (p = 0.01), amnesia (p = 0.02) and abnormal neurologic examination (p = 0.01). Using a previously suggested time loss cut-point of 10 days, headache (odds ratio [OR] 2.17, 95% CI 1.33-3.54) and low energy or fatigue (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.04-2.85) were significant predictors of time loss of more than 10 days. Postconcussion headache, low energy or fatigue, amnesia and abnormal neurologic examination were significant predictors of time loss among professional hockey players.

Laplacian embedded regression for scalable manifold regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lin; Tsang, Ivor W; Xu, Dong

2012-06-01

Semi-supervised learning (SSL), as a powerful tool to learn from a limited number of labeled data and a large number of unlabeled data, has been attracting increasing attention in the machine learning community. In particular, the manifold regularization framework has laid solid theoretical foundations for a large family of SSL algorithms, such as Laplacian support vector machine (LapSVM) and Laplacian regularized least squares (LapRLS). However, most of these algorithms are limited to small scale problems due to the high computational cost of the matrix inversion operation involved in the optimization problem. In this paper, we propose a novel framework called Laplacian embedded regression by introducing an intermediate decision variable into the manifold regularization framework. By using ∈-insensitive loss, we obtain the Laplacian embedded support vector regression (LapESVR) algorithm, which inherits the sparse solution from SVR. Also, we derive Laplacian embedded RLS (LapERLS) corresponding to RLS under the proposed framework. Both LapESVR and LapERLS possess a simpler form of a transformed kernel, which is the summation of the original kernel and a graph kernel that captures the manifold structure. The benefits of the transformed kernel are two-fold: (1) we can deal with the original kernel matrix and the graph Laplacian matrix in the graph kernel separately and (2) if the graph Laplacian matrix is sparse, we only need to perform the inverse operation for a sparse matrix, which is much more efficient when compared with that for a dense one. Inspired by kernel principal component analysis, we further propose to project the introduced decision variable into a subspace spanned by a few eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian matrix in order to better reflect the data manifold, as well as accelerate the calculation of the graph kernel, allowing our methods to efficiently and effectively cope with large scale SSL problems. Extensive experiments on both toy and real

Rooting traits of peanut genotypes with different yield response to terminal drought

Science.gov (United States)

Drought at pod filling and maturity stages can severely reduce yield of peanut. Better root systems can reduce yield loss from drought. The goal of this study was to investigate the responses to terminal drought of peanut genotypes for root dry weight and root length density. A field experiment was ...

Regularized Laplace-Fourier-Domain Full Waveform Inversion Using a Weighted l 2 Objective Function

Science.gov (United States)

Jun, Hyunggu; Kwon, Jungmin; Shin, Changsoo; Zhou, Hongbo; Cogan, Mike

2017-03-01

Full waveform inversion (FWI) can be applied to obtain an accurate velocity model that contains important geophysical and geological information. FWI suffers from the local minimum problem when the starting model is not sufficiently close to the true model. Therefore, an accurate macroscale velocity model is essential for successful FWI, and Laplace-Fourier-domain FWI is appropriate for obtaining such a velocity model. However, conventional Laplace-Fourier-domain FWI remains an ill-posed and ill-conditioned problem, meaning that small errors in the data can result in large differences in the inverted model. This approach also suffers from certain limitations related to the logarithmic objective function. To overcome the limitations of conventional Laplace-Fourier-domain FWI, we introduce a weighted l 2 objective function, instead of the logarithmic objective function, as the data-domain objective function, and we also introduce two different model-domain regularizations: first-order Tikhonov regularization and prior model regularization. The weighting matrix for the data-domain objective function is constructed to suitably enhance the far-offset information. Tikhonov regularization smoothes the gradient, and prior model regularization allows reliable prior information to be taken into account. Two hyperparameters are obtained through trial and error and used to control the trade-off and achieve an appropriate balance between the data-domain and model-domain gradients. The application of the proposed regularizations facilitates finding a unique solution via FWI, and the weighted l 2 objective function ensures a more reasonable residual, thereby improving the stability of the gradient calculation. Numerical tests performed using the Marmousi synthetic dataset show that the use of the weighted l 2 objective function and the model-domain regularizations significantly improves the Laplace-Fourier-domain FWI. Because the Laplace-Fourier-domain FWI is improved, the

Regular-, irregular-, and pseudo-character processing in Chinese: The regularity effect in normal adult readers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dustin Kai Yan Lau

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background Unlike alphabetic languages, Chinese uses a logographic script. However, the pronunciation of many character’s phonetic radical has the same pronunciation as the character as a whole. These are considered regular characters and can be read through a lexical non-semantic route (Weekes & Chen, 1999. Pseudocharacters are another way to study this non-semantic route. A pseudocharacter is the combination of existing semantic and phonetic radicals in their legal positions resulting in a non-existing character (Ho, Chan, Chung, Lee, & Tsang, 2007. Pseudocharacters can be pronounced by direct derivation from the sound of its phonetic radical. Conversely, if the pronunciation of a character does not follow that of the phonetic radical, it is considered as irregular and can only be correctly read through the lexical-semantic route. The aim of the current investigation was to examine reading aloud in normal adults. We hypothesized that the regularity effect, previously described for alphabetical scripts and acquired dyslexic patients of Chinese (Weekes & Chen, 1999; Wu, Liu, Sun, Chromik, & Zhang, 2014, would also be present in normal adult Chinese readers. Method Participants. Thirty (50% female native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers with a mean age of 19.6 years and a mean education of 12.9 years. Stimuli. Sixty regular-, 60 irregular-, and 60 pseudo-characters (with at least 75% of name agreement in Chinese were matched by initial phoneme, number of strokes and family size. Additionally, regular- and irregular-characters were matched by frequency (low and consistency. Procedure. Each participant was asked to read aloud the stimuli presented on a laptop using the DMDX software. The order of stimuli presentation was randomized. Data analysis. ANOVAs were carried out by participants and items with RTs and errors as dependent variables and type of stimuli (regular-, irregular- and pseudo-character as repeated measures (F1 or between subject�

Spatial-temporal variability of leaf chlorophyll and its relationship with cocoa yield

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caique C. Medauar

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial-temporal variability of leaf chlorophyll index and its relationship with cocoa yield. The experiment was carried out in an experimental area of cocoa production located in Ilhéus, Bahia State, Brazil. Leaf chlorophyll content was measured in September, October, January, February, March and April in the 2014/2015 season, at each sampling point of a regular grid by using a portable chlorophyll meter. Under the same conditions, yield was evaluated and the data were submitted to descriptive statistics and a linear correlation study. Geostatistical analysis was used to determine and quantify the spatial and temporal variability of leaf chlorophyll index and yield. Leaf chlorophyll index varied over the period evaluated, but the months of February, March and April showed no spatial dependence in the study area, indicating absence of temporal stability. Cocoa monthly yield, except in January, presented high spatial variability. Under the conditions of this study, it was not possible to establish a relationship between leaf chlorophyll index and cocoa yield.

Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geoffrey Blondelle

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Regularity effect can affect performance in prospective memory (PM, but little is known on the cognitive processes linked to this effect. Moreover, its impacts with regard to aging remain unknown. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine regularity effect in PM in a lifespan perspective, with a sample of young, intermediate, and older adults. Objective and design: Our study examined the regularity effect in PM in three groups of participants: 28 young adults (18–30, 16 intermediate adults (40–55, and 25 older adults (65–80. The task, adapted from the Virtual Week, was designed to manipulate the regularity of the various activities of daily life that were to be recalled (regular repeated activities vs. irregular non-repeated activities. We examine the role of several cognitive functions including certain dimensions of executive functions (planning, inhibition, shifting, and binding, short-term memory, and retrospective episodic memory to identify those involved in PM, according to regularity and age. Results: A mixed-design ANOVA showed a main effect of task regularity and an interaction between age and regularity: an age-related difference in PM performances was found for irregular activities (older < young, but not for regular activities. All participants recalled more regular activities than irregular ones with no age effect. It appeared that recalling of regular activities only involved planning for both intermediate and older adults, while recalling of irregular ones were linked to planning, inhibition, short-term memory, binding, and retrospective episodic memory. Conclusion: Taken together, our data suggest that planning capacities seem to play a major role in remembering to perform intended actions with advancing age. Furthermore, the age-PM-paradox may be attenuated when the experimental design is adapted by implementing a familiar context through the use of activities of daily living. The clinical

J-regular rings with injectivities

OpenAIRE

Shen, Liang

2010-01-01

A ring $R$ is called a J-regular ring if R/J(R) is von Neumann regular, where J(R) is the Jacobson radical of R. It is proved that if R is J-regular, then (i) R is right n-injective if and only if every homomorphism from an $n$-generated small right ideal of $R$ to $R_{R}$ can be extended to one from $R_{R}$ to $R_{R}$; (ii) R is right FP-injective if and only if R is right (J, R)-FP-injective. Some known results are improved.

Regular scattering patterns from near-cloaking devices and their implications for invisibility cloaking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocyigit, Ilker; Liu, Hongyu; Sun, Hongpeng

2013-01-01

In this paper, we consider invisibility cloaking via the transformation optics approach through a ‘blow-up’ construction. An ideal cloak makes use of singular cloaking material. ‘Blow-up-a-small-region’ construction and ‘truncation-of-singularity’ construction are introduced to avoid the singular structure, however, giving only near-cloaks. The study in the literature is to develop various mechanisms in order to achieve high-accuracy approximate near-cloaking devices, and also from a practical viewpoint to nearly cloak an arbitrary content. We study the problem from a different viewpoint. It is shown that for those regularized cloaking devices, the corresponding scattering wave fields due to an incident plane wave have regular patterns. The regular patterns are both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, the regular wave pattern betrays the location of a cloaking device which is an intrinsic defect due to the ‘blow-up’ construction, and this is particularly the case for the construction by employing a high-loss layer lining. Indeed, our numerical experiments show robust reconstructions of the location, even by implementing the phaseless cross-section data. The construction by employing a high-density layer lining shows a certain promising feature. On the other hand, it is shown that one can introduce an internal point source to produce the canceling scattering pattern to achieve a near-cloak of an arbitrary order of accuracy. (paper)

Reductions in India's crop yield due to ozone

Science.gov (United States)

Ghude, Sachin D.; Jena, Chinmay; Chate, D. M.; Beig, G.; Pfister, G. G.; Kumar, Rajesh; Ramanathan, V.

2014-08-01

This bottom-up modeling study, supported by emission inventories and crop production, simulates ozone on local to regional scales. It quantifies, for the first time, potential impact of ozone on district-wise cotton, soybeans, rice, and wheat crops in India for the first decade of the 21st century. Wheat is the most impacted crop with losses of 3.5 ± 0.8 million tons (Mt), followed by rice at 2.1 ± 0.8 Mt, with the losses concentrated in central and north India. On the national scale, this loss is about 9.2% of the cereals required every year (61.2 Mt) under the provision of the recently implemented National Food Security Bill (in 2013) by the Government of India. The nationally aggregated yield loss is sufficient to feed about 94 million people living below poverty line in India.

Integrated remote sensing imagery and two-dimensional hydraulic modeling approach for impact evaluation of flood on crop yields

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Huili; Liang, Zhongyao; Liu, Yong; Liang, Qiuhua; Xie, Shuguang

2017-10-01

The projected frequent occurrences of extreme flood events will cause significant losses to crops and will threaten food security. To reduce the potential risk and provide support for agricultural flood management, prevention, and mitigation, it is important to account for flood damage to crop production and to understand the relationship between flood characteristics and crop losses. A quantitative and effective evaluation tool is therefore essential to explore what and how flood characteristics will affect the associated crop loss, based on accurately understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of flood evolution and crop growth. Current evaluation methods are generally integrally or qualitatively based on statistic data or ex-post survey with less diagnosis into the process and dynamics of historical flood events. Therefore, a quantitative and spatial evaluation framework is presented in this study that integrates remote sensing imagery and hydraulic model simulation to facilitate the identification of historical flood characteristics that influence crop losses. Remote sensing imagery can capture the spatial variation of crop yields and yield losses from floods on a grid scale over large areas; however, it is incapable of providing spatial information regarding flood progress. Two-dimensional hydraulic model can simulate the dynamics of surface runoff and accomplish spatial and temporal quantification of flood characteristics on a grid scale over watersheds, i.e., flow velocity and flood duration. The methodological framework developed herein includes the following: (a) Vegetation indices for the critical period of crop growth from mid-high temporal and spatial remote sensing imagery in association with agricultural statistics data were used to develop empirical models to monitor the crop yield and evaluate yield losses from flood; (b) The two-dimensional hydraulic model coupled with the SCS-CN hydrologic model was employed to simulate the flood evolution process

Impacts of different rice-fish-prawn culture systems on yield of rice, fish and prawn and limnological conditions

OpenAIRE

Nahar, Ashfaqun

2010-01-01

An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of fish and prawn culture on some physicochemical parameters of water, weeds, benthos, and rice yield under simultaneous method for a period of 5 months from July to November 2007. The experiment was comprised of five individual treatments having three replicates for each. The treatments were: rice combined with fish and regular urea fertilization (treatment І, T1), rice combined with prawn and regular urea fertilization (treatment ІI, T2), ...

Iterative Regularization with Minimum-Residual Methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Toke Koldborg; Hansen, Per Christian

2007-01-01

subspaces. We provide a combination of theory and numerical examples, and our analysis confirms the experience that MINRES and MR-II can work as general regularization methods. We also demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the same is not true, in general, for GMRES and RRGMRES their success......We study the regularization properties of iterative minimum-residual methods applied to discrete ill-posed problems. In these methods, the projection onto the underlying Krylov subspace acts as a regularizer, and the emphasis of this work is on the role played by the basis vectors of these Krylov...... as regularization methods is highly problem dependent....

Iterative regularization with minimum-residual methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Toke Koldborg; Hansen, Per Christian

2006-01-01

subspaces. We provide a combination of theory and numerical examples, and our analysis confirms the experience that MINRES and MR-II can work as general regularization methods. We also demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the same is not true, in general, for GMRES and RRGMRES - their success......We study the regularization properties of iterative minimum-residual methods applied to discrete ill-posed problems. In these methods, the projection onto the underlying Krylov subspace acts as a regularizer, and the emphasis of this work is on the role played by the basis vectors of these Krylov...... as regularization methods is highly problem dependent....

Thresholds, injury, and loss relationships for thrips in Phleum pratense (Poales: Poaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Reisig, Dominic D; Godfrey, Larry D; Marcum, Daniel B

2009-12-01

Timothy (Phleum pratense L.) is an important forage crop in many Western U.S. states. Marketing of timothy hay is primarily based on esthetics, and green color is an important attribute. The objective of these studies was to determine a relationship between arthropod populations, yield, and esthetic injury in timothy. Economic injury levels (EILs) and economic thresholds were calculated based on these relationships. Thrips (Thripidae) numbers were manipulated with insecticides in small plot studies in 2006, 2007, and 2008, although tetranychid mite levels were incidentally flared by cyfluthrin in some experiments. Arthropod population densities were determined weekly, and yield and esthetic injury were measured at each harvest. Effects of arthropods on timothy were assessed using multilinear regression. Producers were also surveyed to relate economic loss from leaf color to the injury ratings for use in establishing EILs. Thrips population levels were significantly related to yield loss in only one of nine experiments. Thrips population levels were significantly related to injury once before the first annual harvest and twice before the second. Thrips were the most important pest in these experiments, and they were more often related to esthetic injury rather than yield loss. EILs and economic thresholds for thrips population levels were established using esthetic injury data. These results document the first example of a significant relationship between arthropod pest population levels and economic yield and quality losses in timothy.

On the relationships between generative encodings, regularity, and learning abilities when evolving plastic artificial neural networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Tonelli

Full Text Available A major goal of bio-inspired artificial intelligence is to design artificial neural networks with abilities that resemble those of animal nervous systems. It is commonly believed that two keys for evolving nature-like artificial neural networks are (1 the developmental process that links genes to nervous systems, which enables the evolution of large, regular neural networks, and (2 synaptic plasticity, which allows neural networks to change during their lifetime. So far, these two topics have been mainly studied separately. The present paper shows that they are actually deeply connected. Using a simple operant conditioning task and a classic evolutionary algorithm, we compare three ways to encode plastic neural networks: a direct encoding, a developmental encoding inspired by computational neuroscience models, and a developmental encoding inspired by morphogen gradients (similar to HyperNEAT. Our results suggest that using a developmental encoding could improve the learning abilities of evolved, plastic neural networks. Complementary experiments reveal that this result is likely the consequence of the bias of developmental encodings towards regular structures: (1 in our experimental setup, encodings that tend to produce more regular networks yield networks with better general learning abilities; (2 whatever the encoding is, networks that are the more regular are statistically those that have the best learning abilities.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-11-19

Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Beam Loss Monitoring for LHC Machine Protection

Science.gov (United States)

Holzer, Eva Barbara; Dehning, Bernd; Effnger, Ewald; Emery, Jonathan; Grishin, Viatcheslav; Hajdu, Csaba; Jackson, Stephen; Kurfuerst, Christoph; Marsili, Aurelien; Misiowiec, Marek; Nagel, Markus; Busto, Eduardo Nebot Del; Nordt, Annika; Roderick, Chris; Sapinski, Mariusz; Zamantzas, Christos

The energy stored in the nominal LHC beams is two times 362 MJ, 100 times the energy of the Tevatron. As little as 1 mJ/cm3 deposited energy quenches a magnet at 7 TeV and 1 J/cm3 causes magnet damage. The beam dumps are the only places to safely dispose of this beam. One of the key systems for machine protection is the beam loss monitoring (BLM) system. About 3600 ionization chambers are installed at likely or critical loss locations around the LHC ring. The losses are integrated in 12 time intervals ranging from 40 μs to 84 s and compared to threshold values defined in 32 energy ranges. A beam abort is requested when potentially dangerous losses are detected or when any of the numerous internal system validation tests fails. In addition, loss data are used for machine set-up and operational verifications. The collimation system for example uses the loss data for set-up and regular performance verification. Commissioning and operational experience of the BLM are presented: The machine protection functionality of the BLM system has been fully reliable; the LHC availability has not been compromised by false beam aborts.

Higher derivative regularization and chiral anomaly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagahama, Yoshinori.

1985-02-01

A higher derivative regularization which automatically leads to the consistent chiral anomaly is analyzed in detail. It explicitly breaks all the local gauge symmetry but preserves global chiral symmetry and leads to the chirally symmetric consistent anomaly. This regularization thus clarifies the physics content contained in the consistent anomaly. We also briefly comment on the application of this higher derivative regularization to massless QED. (author)

Production yield analysis in food processing. Applications in the French-fries and the poultry-processing industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Somsen, D.J.

2004-01-01

Food processors face increasing demands to improve their raw material yield efficiency. To really understand the raw material yield efficiency of food processing, mass losses need to be divided in wanted (desired) and unwanted ones. The basic approach to increase the raw material yield efficiency is

Aerial imaging for FABs: productivity and yield aspects

Science.gov (United States)

Englard, Ilan; Cohen, Yaron; Elblinger, Yair; Attal, Shay; Berns, Neil; Shoval, Lior; Ben-Yishai, Michael; Mangan, Shmoolik

2009-03-01

The economy of wafer fabs is changing faster for 3x geometry requirements and below. Mask set and exposure tool costs are almost certain to increase the overall cost per die requiring manufacturers to develop productivity and yield improvements to defray the lithography cell economic burden. Lithography cell cost effectiveness can be significantly improved by increasing mask availability while reducing the amount of mask sets needed during a product life cycle. Further efficiency can be gained from reducing send-ahead wafers and qualification cycle time, and elimination of inefficient metrology. Yield is the overriding die cost modulator and is significantly more sensitive to lithography as a result of masking steps required to fabricate the integrated circuit. Thus, for productivity to increase with minimal yield risk, the sample space of reticle induced source of variations should be large, with shortest measurement acquisition time possible. This paper presents the latest introduction of mask aerial imaging technology for the fab, Aera2TM for Lithography with IntenCTM, as an enabler for efficient lithography manufacturing. IntenCD is a high throughput, high density mask-based critical dimension (CD) mapping technology, with the potential for increasing productivity and yield in a wafer production environment. Connecting IntenCD to a feed forward advance process control (APC) reduces significantly the amount of traditional CD metrology required for robust wafer CD uniformity (CDU) correction and increases wafer CD uniformity. This in turn improves the lithography process window and yield and contributes to cost reduction and cycle time reduction of new reticles qualification. Advanced mask technology has introduced a new challenge. Exposure to 193nm wavelength stimulates haze growth on the mask and imposes a regular cleaning schedule. Cleaning eventually causes mask degradation. Haze growth impacts mask CD uniformity and induce global transmission fingerprint

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2012-11-19

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-01-01

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Jim

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. Results To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. Conclusion The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Avaliação das perdas causadas por vírus na produção da batata I: Vírus do enrolamento da fôlha Evaluation of yield losses induced by potato leaf roll

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. P. Cupertino

1970-01-01

Full Text Available A comparação entre as produções de 50 pares de plantas sadias e afetadas, de nove variedades de batata, mostra que a redução na produção causada pela infecção secundária do vírus do enrolamento da fôlha foi, em média, de 60,8% no pêso total dos tubérculos produzidos e de 75,5% no pêso dos tubérculos do tipo graúdo ("especial" mais "primeira". As perdas na produção total variaram de 44,6% (variedade Patrones a 73,4% (variedade Aquila, e na de tubérculos graúdos, de 49,8% (Delta A a 86,0% (Gunda.A comparison of 50 pairs of field healthy and leaf roll infected potato plants of nine varieties indicated that the total yield reduction was on the average 60.7 per cent. Yield reduction of the two largest and most marketable potato sizes ("especial" and "primeira" reached 75.6 per cent. Aquila and Gunda had the highest yield losses (73.4 and 72.0 per cent; Delta A and Patrones had the lowest (47.6 and 44.6 per cent. Reduction in the yield of the larger tuber sizes was generally greater than total losses.

Electroconvulsive therapy and memory loss: a personal journey.

Science.gov (United States)

Donahue, A B

2000-06-01

The cause for the significant gap between research and anecdotal evidence regarding the extent of some memory loss after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has never been adequately explained. A patient's development of awareness and self-education about her severe side effects from ECT raises questions regarding many current assumptions about memory loss. ECT-specific studies, which conclude that side effects are short term and narrow in scope, have serious limitations, including the fact that they do not take into account broader scientific knowledge about memory function. Because of the potential for devastating and permanent memory loss with ECT, informed consent needs significant enhancement until advancing research on both improved techniques and on better predictive knowledge regarding memory loss progresses to making a greater impact on clinical applications. Follow-up care and education in coping skills need to be a regular part of ECT practice when patients do experience severe effects.

75 FR 53966 - Regular Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-02

... FARM CREDIT SYSTEM INSURANCE CORPORATION Regular Meeting AGENCY: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). DATE AND TIME: The meeting of the Board will be held at the offices of the Farm...

Fusion Yield Enhancement in Magnetized Laser-Driven Implosions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, P. Y.; Fiksel, G.; Hohenberger, M.; Knauer, J. P.; Marshall, F. J.; Betti, R.; Meyerhofer, D. D.; Seguin, F. H.; Petrasso, R. D.

2011-01-01

Enhancement of the ion temperature and fusion yield has been observed in magnetized laser-driven inertial confinement fusion implosions on the OMEGA Laser Facility. A spherical CH target with a 10 atm D 2 gas fill was imploded in a polar-drive configuration. A magnetic field of 80 kG was embedded in the target and was subsequently trapped and compressed by the imploding conductive plasma. As a result of the hot-spot magnetization, the electron radial heat losses were suppressed and the observed ion temperature and neutron yield were enhanced by 15% and 30%, respectively.

Work and family life of childrearing women workers in Japan: comparison of non-regular employees with short working hours, non-regular employees with long working hours, and regular employees.

Science.gov (United States)

Seto, Masako; Morimoto, Kanehisa; Maruyama, Soichiro

2006-05-01

This study assessed the working and family life characteristics, and the degree of domestic and work strain of female workers with different employment statuses and weekly working hours who are rearing children. Participants were the mothers of preschoolers in a large Japanese city. We classified the women into three groups according to the hours they worked and their employment conditions. The three groups were: non-regular employees working less than 30 h a week (n=136); non-regular employees working 30 h or more per week (n=141); and regular employees working 30 h or more a week (n=184). We compared among the groups the subjective values of work, financial difficulties, childcare and housework burdens, psychological effects, and strains such as work and family strain, work-family conflict, and work dissatisfaction. Regular employees were more likely to report job pressures and inflexible work schedules and to experience more strain related to work and family than non-regular employees. Non-regular employees were more likely to be facing financial difficulties. In particular, non-regular employees working longer hours tended to encounter socioeconomic difficulties and often lacked support from family and friends. Female workers with children may have different social backgrounds and different stressors according to their working hours and work status.

Incremental projection approach of regularization for inverse problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souopgui, Innocent, E-mail: innocent.souopgui@usm.edu [The University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Marine Science (United States); Ngodock, Hans E., E-mail: hans.ngodock@nrlssc.navy.mil [Naval Research Laboratory (United States); Vidard, Arthur, E-mail: arthur.vidard@imag.fr; Le Dimet, François-Xavier, E-mail: ledimet@imag.fr [Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (France)

2016-10-15

This paper presents an alternative approach to the regularized least squares solution of ill-posed inverse problems. Instead of solving a minimization problem with an objective function composed of a data term and a regularization term, the regularization information is used to define a projection onto a convex subspace of regularized candidate solutions. The objective function is modified to include the projection of each iterate in the place of the regularization. Numerical experiments based on the problem of motion estimation for geophysical fluid images, show the improvement of the proposed method compared with regularization methods. For the presented test case, the incremental projection method uses 7 times less computation time than the regularization method, to reach the same error target. Moreover, at convergence, the incremental projection is two order of magnitude more accurate than the regularization method.

Geometric regularizations and dual conifold transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landsteiner, Karl; Lazaroiu, Calin I.

2003-01-01

We consider a geometric regularization for the class of conifold transitions relating D-brane systems on noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces to certain flux backgrounds. This regularization respects the SL(2,Z) invariance of the flux superpotential, and allows for computation of the relevant periods through the method of Picard-Fuchs equations. The regularized geometry is a noncompact Calabi-Yau which can be viewed as a monodromic fibration, with the nontrivial monodromy being induced by the regulator. It reduces to the original, non-monodromic background when the regulator is removed. Using this regularization, we discuss the simple case of the local conifold, and show how the relevant field-theoretic information can be extracted in this approach. (author)

Systemic causes of hair loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Richard L; Garibyan, Lilit; Kimball, Alexandra B; Drake, Lynn A

2016-09-01

Hair loss is both a common chief complaint by patients and a clinical challenge for physicians, especially general practitioners, yet few dermatological problems yield as much patient satisfaction when resolved as hair loss. The diagnosis is often attributed to androgen-related hair loss, while other causes, some of which are life-threatening but treatable, are overlooked. We searched for relevant literature on hair loss and supported these findings with our clinical experience to identify seven major systemic etiologies of hair loss, ranging from infectious agents to consumption of unsafe supplements. Many causes are only described in the literature through case studies, though some original articles and meta-analyses are available. Careful history taking, proper examination techniques, and judicious use of laboratory tests are essential to reach at the correct diagnosis in a cost-effective manner when performing patient work-up. Such methodical evaluation of hair loss can result in the appropriate treatment plan and provide significant patient satisfaction. Key messages Hair loss is a common chief complaint and a difficult challenge for both general practitioners and dermatology consultants. We identified seven major categories of systemic hair loss etiology and present a framework for their clinical evaluation. A methodical approach to hair loss can result in the appropriate treatment plan and provide significant patient satisfaction.

Maize growth and yield in Peshawar under changing climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, A.; Akmal, M.; Asim, M.

2012-01-01

Global climate change is consequence of accumulating greenhouse gases (Carbon) at lower atmosphere which might affects crops growth and yield. Maize is an important summer cereals, grown on considerable area in Pakistan every year. We, therefore, study the delay sowing response with changing climate on maize. Field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Research Farm, Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan in a randomized complete block design. Sowing was done from June 8 to July 24, 2010 with ten days intervals. Mazie (cv. Azam) was planted in rows at 0.75 m distance in NS orientations. Crop was raised under the uniform recommended cultural practices. Data regarding days to emergence, tasseling and maturity showed a consecutive decrease when so wing was delayed form June 08 onwards. However, the crop life cycle (i.e. vegetative and reproductive durations) initially remained uniform but expanded for late sowing dates (July). Delay sowing showed an increase in the leaf area index with an abrupt decline for the late sown crop. Nonetheless, plant stand at harvest remained static during the growth for all sowing dates. A stable to moderate reduction was noticed in ear length (cm) when sowings was delayed from Jun 08 onwards. Grain rows cob/-1 did not influence by the delay sowing in the season. Moreover, delay sowing did not show any significant (P<0.05) change for the grain number. However, thousand grains weight was initially remained stable but declined (P<0.05) by delay in sowing. Biological yield, dry matter and grains yield (g m/sup -2/) revealed almost a similar decreasing trend when sowing was delayed. Dry matter to grain yield relationship was linear (r/sup 2/ = 0.95) and revealed a mean loss of 1.65 g m/sup 2/ when sowing delayed from June 08 to July 24 in the season. Radiation use efficiency (RUE), the growth function, was also declined by the delay in sowing. We inferred that losses in leaf area indices, ear length and grain weights were basis of the

[FEDERAL CLINICAL RECOMMENDATIONS IN DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF HEARING LOSS DUE TO NOISE].

Science.gov (United States)

Adeninskaya, E E; Bukhtiarov, I V; Bushmanov, A Iu; Dayhes, N A; Denisov, E I; Izmerov, N F; Mazitova, N N; Pankova, V B; Preobrazhenskaya, E A; Prokopenko, L V; Simonova, N I; Tavartkiladze, G A; Fedina, I N

2016-01-01

Noise induced hearing loss is a slowly developing hearing impairment, caused by occupational exposure to excessive noise levels, constitutes a lesion of the auditory analyzer and clinically manifested as chronic bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Currently, there is not a treatment that provide a cure of sensorineural hearing loss. Regular, individually tailored treatment should be directed to the pathogenic mechanisms and specific clinical symptoms of hearing loss, as well as the prevention of complications. We recommend using non-drug therapies that can improve blood flow in labyrinth, tissue and cellular metabolism.

Adaptive regularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars Kai; Rasmussen, Carl Edward; Svarer, C.

1994-01-01

Regularization, e.g., in the form of weight decay, is important for training and optimization of neural network architectures. In this work the authors provide a tool based on asymptotic sampling theory, for iterative estimation of weight decay parameters. The basic idea is to do a gradient desce...

The impact of tropospheric ozone pollution on trial plot winter wheat yields in Great Britain - An econometric approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaliakatsou, Evridiki; Bell, J. Nigel B.; Thirtle, Colin; Rose, Daniel; Power, Sally A.

2010-01-01

Numerous experiments have demonstrated reductions in the yields of cereal crops due to tropospheric O 3 , with losses of up to 25%. However, the only British econometric study on O 3 impacts on winter wheat yields, found that a 10% increase in AOT40 would decrease yields by only 0.23%. An attempt is made here to reconcile these observations by developing AOT40 maps for Great Britain and matching levels with a large number of standardised trial plot wheat yields from many sites over a 13-year period. Panel estimates (repeated measures on the same plots with time) show a 0.54% decrease in yields and it is hypothesised that plant breeders may have inadvertently selected for O 3 tolerance in wheat. Some support for this is provided by fumigations of cultivars of differing introduction dates. A case is made for the use of econometric as well as experimental studies in prediction of air pollution induced crop loss. - Econometric study of British winter wheat trial plot data suggests lower economic loss than predicted from experiments.

Regularizing portfolio optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Still, Susanne; Kondor, Imre

2010-01-01

The optimization of large portfolios displays an inherent instability due to estimation error. This poses a fundamental problem, because solutions that are not stable under sample fluctuations may look optimal for a given sample, but are, in effect, very far from optimal with respect to the average risk. In this paper, we approach the problem from the point of view of statistical learning theory. The occurrence of the instability is intimately related to over-fitting, which can be avoided using known regularization methods. We show how regularized portfolio optimization with the expected shortfall as a risk measure is related to support vector regression. The budget constraint dictates a modification. We present the resulting optimization problem and discuss the solution. The L2 norm of the weight vector is used as a regularizer, which corresponds to a diversification 'pressure'. This means that diversification, besides counteracting downward fluctuations in some assets by upward fluctuations in others, is also crucial because it improves the stability of the solution. The approach we provide here allows for the simultaneous treatment of optimization and diversification in one framework that enables the investor to trade off between the two, depending on the size of the available dataset.

Regularizing portfolio optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Still, Susanne; Kondor, Imre

2010-07-01

The optimization of large portfolios displays an inherent instability due to estimation error. This poses a fundamental problem, because solutions that are not stable under sample fluctuations may look optimal for a given sample, but are, in effect, very far from optimal with respect to the average risk. In this paper, we approach the problem from the point of view of statistical learning theory. The occurrence of the instability is intimately related to over-fitting, which can be avoided using known regularization methods. We show how regularized portfolio optimization with the expected shortfall as a risk measure is related to support vector regression. The budget constraint dictates a modification. We present the resulting optimization problem and discuss the solution. The L2 norm of the weight vector is used as a regularizer, which corresponds to a diversification 'pressure'. This means that diversification, besides counteracting downward fluctuations in some assets by upward fluctuations in others, is also crucial because it improves the stability of the solution. The approach we provide here allows for the simultaneous treatment of optimization and diversification in one framework that enables the investor to trade off between the two, depending on the size of the available dataset.

Mass loss controlled thermal pretreatment system to assess the effects of pretreatment temperature on organic matter solubilization and methane yield from food waste.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martha Minale Yeshanew

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The effects of thermal pretreatment (TP on the main characteristics of food waste (FW and its biochemical methane potential (BMP and distribution of volatile fatty acids (VFAs under mesophilic condition (35 ⁰C were investigated. The TP experiments were carried out at 80 °C, 100 °C, 120 °C for 2 hour and 140 °C for 1 hour. The designed TP set-up was able to minimize the organic matter loss during the course of the pretreatments. Soluble organic fractions evaluated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD and soluble protein increased linearly with pretreatment temperature. In contrast, the carbohydrate solubilization was more enhanced (30 % higher solubilization by the TP at lower temperature (80 °C. A slight increment of soluble phenols was found, particularly for temperatures exceeding 100 °C. Thermally pretreated FW under all conditions exhibited an improved methane yield than the untreated FW, due to the increased organic matter solubilization. The highest cumulative methane yield of 442 (± 8.6 mL/gVSadded, corresponding to a 28.1 % enhancement compared to the untreated FW, was obtained with a TP at 80 °C. No significant variation in the VFAs trends were observed during the BMP tests under all investigated conditions.

Head losses in small hydropower plant trash racks (SHP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Walczak

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Small hydropower plants (SHP are technical facilities that are part of alternative energy sources [Paish 2002]. They are primarily characterised by low unit power (in Poland below 5 MW and are often constructed on existing barrages. Electrical current produced by these plants is used to meet local demand. Considering the exploitation of SHPs, it is important to ensure a stable flow through turbines. Aggidis et al. [2010] analysed SHP equipment costs depending on the turbine set. The turbines are protected against damage with trash racks applied for capturing water-borne detritus, such as plant debris carried by water. However, trash racks as solid equipment of SHPs cause head losses, and as a consequence reduce the efficiency of the system. These losses result not only from the spacing of bars, their shape and the technical condition of the inlet chamber, but also from plant debris, its nature, and the quantity of accumulated material that effectively limits the flow. The plant debris captured on trash racks is characterised by diversity in terms of species composition related to the vegetation period and the area where hydraulic facilities are located. Therefore, it is important to maintain trash racks clean by regular removal of the accumulated material. In this context, modernised and newly built power plants are fitted with mechanical cleaners. In older facilities, manual intervention for regular cleaning is required. The present study analyses how the bar shape and the orientation angle of trash racks as well as the accumulated plant debris affect head losses. The results were obtained from laboratory tests. The research examined the impact the inclination angle of trash racks (30°, 60° and 80° has on head loss values for three different shapes of bars (cylindrical, angled and flat rectangular and various weight portions of plant debris (0.25, 0.375 and 0.5 kg. The summarised losses were determined by measuring the difference in water

Tessellating the Sphere with Regular Polygons

Science.gov (United States)

Soto-Johnson, Hortensia; Bechthold, Dawn

2004-01-01

Tessellations in the Euclidean plane and regular polygons that tessellate the sphere are reviewed. The regular polygons that can possibly tesellate the sphere are spherical triangles, squares and pentagons.

Coupling loss characteristics of runoff-sediment-adsorbed and dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus on bare loess slope.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Lei; Qiao, Shanshan; Peng, Mengling; Ma, Xiaoyi

2018-05-01

Soil and nutrient loss is a common natural phenomenon but it exhibits unclear understanding especially on bare loess soil with variable rainfall intensity and slope gradient, which makes it difficult to design control measures for agricultural diffuse pollution. We employ 30 artificial simulated rainfalls (six rainfall intensities and five slope gradients) to quantify the coupling loss correlation of runoff-sediment-adsorbed and dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus on bare loess slope. Here, we show that effects of rainfall intensity on runoff yield was stronger than slope gradient with prolongation of rainfall duration, and the effect of slope gradient on runoff yield reduced gradually with increased rainfall intensity. But the magnitude of initial sediment yield increased significantly from an average value of 6.98 g at 5° to 36.08 g at 25° with increased slope gradient. The main factor of sediment yield would be changed alternately with the dual increase of slope gradient and rainfall intensity. Dissolved total nitrogen (TN) and dissolved total phosphorus (TP) concentrations both showed significant fluctuations with rainfall intensity and slope gradient, and dissolved TP concentration was far less than dissolved TN. Under the double influences of rainfall intensity and slope gradient, adsorbed TN concentration accounted for 7-82% of TN loss concentration with an average of 58.6% which was the main loss form of soil nitrogen, adsorbed TP concentration accounted for 91.8-98.7% of TP loss concentration with an average of 96.6% which was also the predominant loss pathway of soil phosphorus. Nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 - -N) accounted for 14.59-73.92% of dissolved TN loss, and ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 + -N) accounted for 1.48-18.03%. NO 3 - -N was the main loss pattern of TN in runoff. Correlation between dissolved TN, runoff yield, and rainfall intensity was obvious, and a significant correlation was also found between adsorbed TP, sediment yield, and slope gradient. Our

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M.U.

2016-01-01

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes. (orig.)

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M.U. [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan)

2016-03-15

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes. (orig.)

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

Science.gov (United States)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M. Umair

2016-03-01

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes.

Soil erosion planning using sediment yield index method in the Nun Nadi watershed, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Raja Naqvi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The study identifies the extent of soil loss and proposes a method for prioritization of micro-watershed in the Nun Nadi watershed. The study used the Sediment Yield Index (SYI method, based on weighted overlays of soil, topography, rainfall erosivity and land use parameters in 24 micro watersheds. Accordingly the values and thematic layers were integrated as per the SYI model, and minimum and maximum sediment yield values were calculated. The priority ranks as per the sediment yield values were assigned to all micro-watersheds. Then the values were classified into four priority zones according to their composite scores. Almost 14 percent area of three micro-watersheds (SW5b, SW6a and SW7b showed very high priority; approximately 30.57 percent of the study area fell under the high priority zones. These areas require immediate attention. Conservation methods are suggested, and the locations of check dams are proposed after considering drainage, slope and soil loss. Keywords: Check dam, Prioritization, Nun Nadi watershed, Soil loss, SYI

Diagrammatic methods in phase-space regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bern, Z.; Halpern, M.B.; California Univ., Berkeley

1987-11-01

Using the scalar prototype and gauge theory as the simplest possible examples, diagrammatic methods are developed for the recently proposed phase-space form of continuum regularization. A number of one-loop and all-order applications are given, including general diagrammatic discussions of the nogrowth theorem and the uniqueness of the phase-space stochastic calculus. The approach also generates an alternate derivation of the equivalence of the large-β phase-space regularization to the more conventional coordinate-space regularization. (orig.)

Effects of Drought Stress on Canola (Brassica napus L. Genotypes Yield and Yield Components

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R Khani

2018-02-01

in SAS ver. 9.2 and Minitab ver. 17 to test for normality. Means were separated using Fishers Least Significant Difference (LSD set at a 0.05 significance level. Results and Discussion As expected, canola genotypes showed different responses to availability of water at flowering and pod setting growth stages. Results indicated that drought stress at flowering and pod setting growth stages had severe influence on canola genotypes yield and its components. L72, L146, L183, L210 and Karaj 2 genotypes tend to produce higher yields compared to other genotypes in no-stress conditions. Hence, these genotypes are suitable for planting in irrigated lands or place that enough precipitation downfall especially in their phenological growth stages. In contrast, these genotypes are not suitable for planting in arid or semi-arid regions like Iran, because the yields reduced severely in drought stress conditions. However, KR18, HW101, SW101 and Karaj3 genotypes could not produce as same yield as L72, L146, L183, L210 and Karaj2 genotypes in no-stress condition, they had minimum yield loss in susceptible phenological growth stages especially flowering growth stage compared to other genotypes. L183 genotype could produce yield similar to tolerant genotypes, but its yield loss was high in comparison with no stress condition. Conclusions Based on our findings in this study, KR18, HW101, SW101 and Karaj3 can be considered the best among other 18 genotypes in the selection of genotypes tolerant to drought stress occurring in flowering and pod setting stages. However, this study must be repeated in other climates and different drought stress conditions to acknowledge what we achieved in this research. After that, decision can be made about planting these genotypes tolerant in arid and semi-arid regions. In this regard, we can also do more comprehensive works can be done on breeding of these genotypes, because water crisis will be the future challenge in Iran.

Metric regularity and subdifferential calculus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ioffe, A D

2000-01-01

The theory of metric regularity is an extension of two classical results: the Lyusternik tangent space theorem and the Graves surjection theorem. Developments in non-smooth analysis in the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for a number of far-reaching extensions of these results. It was also well understood that the phenomena behind the results are of metric origin, not connected with any linear structure. At the same time it became clear that some basic hypotheses of the subdifferential calculus are closely connected with the metric regularity of certain set-valued maps. The survey is devoted to the metric theory of metric regularity and its connection with subdifferential calculus in Banach spaces

A Study of Moisture Induced Material Loss of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA)

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-31

Maine Department of Transportation has noticed the partial or complete loss of material within 2-3 years of construction in the traffic wheel path in the presence of moisture in few of their mixes. Regularly used moisture susceptibility tests are una...

Combined Effects of Glucocorticoid and Noradrenergic Activity on Loss Aversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Margittai, Zsofia; Nave, Gideon; Van Wingerden, Marijn; Schnitzler, Alfons; Schwabe, Lars; Kalenscher, Tobias

2018-01-01

Loss aversion is a well-known behavioral regularity in financial decision making, describing humans' tendency to overweigh losses compared to gains of the same amount. Recent research indicates that stress and associated hormonal changes affect loss aversion, yet the underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here, we investigated the causal influence of two major stress neuromodulators, cortisol and noradrenaline, on loss aversion during financial decision making. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subject design, we orally administered either the α2-adrenergic antagonist yohimbine (increasing noradrenergic stimulation), hydrocortisone, both substances, or a placebo to healthy young men. We tested the treatments' influence on a financial decision-making task measuring loss aversion and risk attitude. We found that both drugs combined, relative to either drug by itself, reduced loss aversion in the absence of an effect on risk attitude or choice consistency. Our data suggest that concurrent glucocorticoid and noradrenergic activity prompts an alignment of reward- with loss-sensitivity, and thus diminishes loss aversion. Our results have implications for the understanding of the susceptibility to biases in decision making.

Temporal regularity of the environment drives time perception

OpenAIRE

van Rijn, H; Rhodes, D; Di Luca, M

2016-01-01

It’s reasonable to assume that a regularly paced sequence should be perceived as regular, but here we show that perceived regularity depends on the context in which the sequence is embedded. We presented one group of participants with perceptually regularly paced sequences, and another group of participants with mostly irregularly paced sequences (75% irregular, 25% regular). The timing of the final stimulus in each sequence could be var- ied. In one experiment, we asked whether the last stim...

The sub-bandgap energy loss satellites in the RIXS spectra of beryllium compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuusik, I., E-mail: ivar@fi.tartu.ee [Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, 51014 Tartu (Estonia); Kaeaembre, T. [Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, 51014 Tartu (Estonia); Kooser, K. [Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, 51014 Tartu (Estonia); Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Turku (Finland); Pustovarov, V.; Ivanov, V. [Ural State Technical University-UPI, Yekaterinburg (Russian Federation); Kukk, E. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Turku (Finland); Kikas, A. [Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, 51014 Tartu (Estonia)

2011-07-15

Research highlights: {yields} Be 1s RIXS spectra have been measured in Be containing crystals phenakite and chrysoberyl. {yields} A strong energy loss sideband to the elastic scattering peak similar to BeO is found in both minerals. {yields} Additionally the Si 2p RIXS spectra of phenakite also show a strong energy loss sideband to the elastic scattering peak. {yields} The energy loss shoulder appears to result from lattice relaxation in the absorption site. - Abstract: Resonant X-ray inelastic scattering spectra have been measured in BeO, phenakite (Be{sub 2}SiO{sub 4}) and chrysoberyl (BeAl{sub 2}O{sub 4}) with the excitation energy near the beryllium K edge. The RIXS spectra excited in the vicinity of the Be 1s core resonance show two principal features: the scattering on a valence excitation (which at higher excitation energies verges into the characteristic K{sub {alpha}} emission), and a remarkably strong energy loss sideband to the elastic scattering peak. The energy loss shoulder appears to result from lattice relaxation in the absorption site. The comparison of the RIXS spectra of phenakite, chrysoberyl and BeO shows that the strength of the low energy sideband differs greatly; it is strongest in BeO and weakest in phenakite. The Si 2p RIXS spectra of phenakite also display a similar strong sub-bandgap energy loss tail. To gain further insight to this process, transitions in a system with a single vibrational mode have been modelled. The phonon relaxation has been simulated empirically by 'smearing' the photoabsortion-populated vibrational levels with lower levels. This simple model is able to qualitatively explain this wide energy loss shoulder.

Crop production and economic loss due to wind erosion in hot arid ecosystem of India

Science.gov (United States)

Santra, Priyabrata; Moharana, P. C.; Kumar, Mahesh; Soni, M. L.; Pandey, C. B.; Chaudhari, S. K.; Sikka, A. K.

2017-10-01

Wind erosion is a severe land degradation process in hot arid western India and affects the agricultural production system. It affects crop yield directly by damaging the crops through abrasion, burial, dust deposition etc. and indirectly by reducing soil fertility. In this study, an attempt was made to quantify the indirect impact of wind erosion process on crop production loss and associated economic loss in hot arid ecosystem of India. It has been observed that soil loss due to wind erosion varies from minimum 1.3 t ha-1 to maximum 83.3 t ha-1 as per the severity. Yield loss due to wind erosion was found maximum for groundnut (Arachis hypogea) (5-331 kg ha-1 yr-1), whereas minimum for moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) (1-93 kg ha-1 yr-1). For pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), which covers a major portion of arable lands in western Rajasthan, the yield loss was found 3-195 kg ha-1 yr-1. Economic loss was found higher for groundnut and clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) than rest crops, which are about

Mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of nitrided or oxinitrided, and powder painted regular and interstitial free (IF) drawing steel sheet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogalski, Z.; Latas, Z. [Instytut Mechaniki Precyzyjnej, ul. Duchnicka 3, 01-796 Warszawa (Poland)

2004-06-01

Specimens of 0.8 mm thick regular and interstitial free (IF) drawing steel sheet have been nitrided in fluidised bed for 2 hours at 620 C and 560 C with and without a post-oxidation, and slow and accelerated cooling. As a result, surface hardness, yield and tensile strength of the sheets increased considerably without a critical loss of ductility. Resistance welds between the sheets did not lose their original strength after nitriding-oxinitriding. Nitrided-oxinitrided at 620 C and then powder painted sheets, as compared with powder painted raw sheets, were more corrosion resistant in neutral salt spray and climatic tests. Some mechanical and anticorrosion properties of the IF steel sheet that had undergone the nitriding-oxinitriding processes were definitely better than those of equally processed regular steel sheet. (Abstract Copyright [2004], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.) [German] Proben aus 0,8 mm dickem Blech aus Ziehmassenstahl sowie aus Ziehstahl ohne interstitiel geloeste Legierungsanteile (IF), werden im Wirbelbett in 2 Stunden bei 620 und 560 {sup o}C nitriert mit nachfolgenden Oxidierung sowie alternativ ohne Oxidierung und mit langsamer und beschleunigter Abkuehlung. Infolge dessen nehmen die Haerte, die Dehngrenze und die Zugfestigkeit der Bleche zu, ohne kritischen Zaehigkeitsverlust. Die Widerstandsschweisswulste zwischen den Blechen nach dem Nitrieren-Oxinitrieren haben nicht an Festigkeit verloren. Die bei 620 {sup o}C nitrierten-oxinitrierten und nachfolgend mit Pulverlack beschichteten Bleche sind bei den Versuchen in Salznebel und bei klimatischen Versuchen korrosionbestaendiger im Vergleich mit den mit nur Pulverlack beschichteten Rohblechen. Manche der mechanischen und korrosionsverhalten betreffenden Eigenschaften der Bleche aus IF-Staehle sind entscheidend besser als fuer das ebenso behandelte Blech aus Ziehmassenstahl. (Abstract Copyright [2004], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Heat transfer and fluid flow in regular rod arrays with opposing flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, J.W.

1979-01-01

The heat transfer and fluid flow problem of opposing flow in the fully developed laminar region has been solved analytically for regular rod arrays. The problem is governed by two parameters: the pitch-to-diameter ratio and the Grashof-to-Reynolds number ratio. The critical Gr/Re ratios for flow separation caused by the upward buoyancy force on the downward flow were evaluated for a large range of P/D ratios of the triangular array. Numerical results reveal that both the heat transfer and pressure loss are reduced by the buoyancy force. Applications to nuclear reactors are discussed

Harmonic R-matrices for scattering amplitudes and spectral regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ferro, Livia; Plefka, Jan [Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; Lukowski, Tomasz [Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Mathematik; Humboldt-Univ. Berlin (Germany). IRIS Adlershof; Meneghelli, Carlo [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). Fachbereich 11 - Mathematik; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany). Theory Group; Staudacher, Matthias [Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Mathematik; Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Potsdam (Germany)

2012-12-15

Planar N=4 super Yang-Mills appears to be integrable. While this allows to find this theory's exact spectrum, integrability has hitherto been of no direct use for scattering amplitudes. To remedy this, we deform all scattering amplitudes by a spectral parameter. The deformed tree-level four-point function turns out to be essentially the one-loop R-matrix of the integrable N=4 spin chain satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation. Deformed on-shell three-point functions yield novel three-leg R-matrices satisfying bootstrap equations. Finally, we supply initial evidence that the spectral parameter might find its use as a novel symmetry-respecting regulator replacing dimensional regularization. Its physical meaning is a local deformation of particle helicity, a fact which might be useful for a much larger class of non-integrable four-dimensional field theories.

Effect of National-Scale Afforestation on Forest Water Supply and Soil Loss in South Korea, 1971–2010

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gang Sun Kim

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Afforestation of forests in South Korea may provide an example of the benefit of afforestation on precipitation storage and erosion control. In this study, we presented the effects of afforestation on water supply and soil loss prevention. A spatio-temporal simulation of forest water yield and soil loss was performed from 1971–2010 using InVEST water yield and SWAT models. A forest stock change map was produced by combining land cover data and National Forest Inventory data. The forest water yield increased about twice with changes in forest stock and climate from 1971–2010 and showed a spatially homogeneous water supply capacity. In the same period, the soil loss decreased more than three times, and the volatility of soil loss, in the 2010s, was smaller than before. The analysis of the change in forest stock without considering climate change showed an increase of 43% in forest water yield and a decrease of 87% in soil loss. An increase in precipitation increased the water yield, but also increased the soil loss volume. A change in forest stock led to positive changes in both. This study presents functional positive effects of the afforestation program in South Korea that can be useful in various afforestation programs in other countries.

The uniqueness of the regularization procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzezowski, S.

1981-01-01

On the grounds of the BPHZ procedure, the criteria of correct regularization in perturbation calculations of QFT are given, together with the prescription for dividing the regularized formulas into the finite and infinite parts. (author)

Coupling regularizes individual units in noisy populations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ly Cheng; Ermentrout, G. Bard

2010-01-01

The regularity of a noisy system can modulate in various ways. It is well known that coupling in a population can lower the variability of the entire network; the collective activity is more regular. Here, we show that diffusive (reciprocal) coupling of two simple Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (O-U) processes can regularize the individual, even when it is coupled to a noisier process. In cellular networks, the regularity of individual cells is important when a select few play a significant role. The regularizing effect of coupling surprisingly applies also to general nonlinear noisy oscillators. However, unlike with the O-U process, coupling-induced regularity is robust to different kinds of coupling. With two coupled noisy oscillators, we derive an asymptotic formula assuming weak noise and coupling for the variance of the period (i.e., spike times) that accurately captures this effect. Moreover, we find that reciprocal coupling can regularize the individual period of higher dimensional oscillators such as the Morris-Lecar and Brusselator models, even when coupled to noisier oscillators. Coupling can have a counterintuitive and beneficial effect on noisy systems. These results have implications for the role of connectivity with noisy oscillators and the modulation of variability of individual oscillators.

Learning regularization parameters for general-form Tikhonov

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Julianne; Español, Malena I

2017-01-01

Computing regularization parameters for general-form Tikhonov regularization can be an expensive and difficult task, especially if multiple parameters or many solutions need to be computed in real time. In this work, we assume training data is available and describe an efficient learning approach for computing regularization parameters that can be used for a large set of problems. We consider an empirical Bayes risk minimization framework for finding regularization parameters that minimize average errors for the training data. We first extend methods from Chung et al (2011 SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 33 3132–52) to the general-form Tikhonov problem. Then we develop a learning approach for multi-parameter Tikhonov problems, for the case where all involved matrices are simultaneously diagonalizable. For problems where this is not the case, we describe an approach to compute near-optimal regularization parameters by using operator approximations for the original problem. Finally, we propose a new class of regularizing filters, where solutions correspond to multi-parameter Tikhonov solutions, that requires less data than previously proposed optimal error filters, avoids the generalized SVD, and allows flexibility and novelty in the choice of regularization matrices. Numerical results for 1D and 2D examples using different norms on the errors show the effectiveness of our methods. (paper)

5 CFR 551.421 - Regular working hours.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Regular working hours. 551.421 Section... Activities § 551.421 Regular working hours. (a) Under the Act there is no requirement that a Federal employee... distinction based on whether the activity is performed by an employee during regular working hours or outside...

Regular extensions of some classes of grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

Culik and Cohen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this report we consider the analogous extension of the LL(k) grammers, called the LL-regular grammars. The relations of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars are shown. Every LL-regular

Regular non-twisting S-branes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obregon, Octavio; Quevedo, Hernando; Ryan, Michael P.

2004-01-01

We construct a family of time and angular dependent, regular S-brane solutions which corresponds to a simple analytical continuation of the Zipoy-Voorhees 4-dimensional vacuum spacetime. The solutions are asymptotically flat and turn out to be free of singularities without requiring a twist in space. They can be considered as the simplest non-singular generalization of the singular S0-brane solution. We analyze the properties of a representative of this family of solutions and show that it resembles to some extent the asymptotic properties of the regular Kerr S-brane. The R-symmetry corresponds, however, to the general lorentzian symmetry. Several generalizations of this regular solution are derived which include a charged S-brane and an additional dilatonic field. (author)

Differential regularization and renormalization: a new method of calculation in quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freedman, D.Z.; Johnson, K.; Latorre, J.I.

1992-01-01

Most primitively divergent Feynman diagrams are well defined in x-space but too singular at short distances for transformation to p-space. A new method of regularization is developed in which singular functions are written as derivatives of less singular functions which contain a logarithmic mass scale. The Fourier transform is then defined by formal integration by parts. The procedure is extended to graphs with divergent subgraphs. No explicit cutoff or counterterms are required, and the method automatically delivers renormalized amplitudes which satisfy Callan-Symanzik equations. These features are thoroughly explored in massless φ 4 theory through 3-loop order, and the method yields explicit functional forms for all amplitudes with less difficulty than conventional methods which use dimensional regularization in p-space. The procedure also appears to be compatible with gauge invariance and the chiral structure of the standard model. This aspect is tested in extensive 1-loop calculations which include the Ward identity in quantum electrodynamics, the chiral anomaly, and the background field algorithm in non-abelian gauge theories. (orig.)

Management of non-organic hearing loss in children - A case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Skarzynski, Piotr Henryk; Raj-Koziak, Danuta; Rajchel, Joanna Jadwiga; Skarzynski, Henryk

2017-06-01

A 10 year-old girl was admitted due to the claim of progressively developing hearing loss. The impedance audiometry showed no abnormalities but it was impossible to obtain reliable outcomes during pure tone audiometry assessment. The girl was additionally sent for speech audiometry, indicating a bilateral hearing loss and objective evaluations such as distortion product otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses, which results indicated a normal hearing. On the second day, repeated subjective audiometric tests showed also normal hearing, despite constantly reported hearing loss. After the psychological consultation and exclusion of neurologic pathology, the diagnosis of non-organic hearing loss was stated and the girl was scheduled for regular appointments with psychologist. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Technique for detecting a small magnitude loss of special nuclear material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pike, D.H.; Chernick, M.R.; Downing, D.J.

The detection of losses of special nuclear materials has been the subject of much research in recent years. The standard industry practice using ID/LEID will detect large magnitude losses. Time series techniques such as the Kalman Filter or CUSUM methods will detect small magnitude losses if they occur regularly over a sustained period of time. To date no technique has been proposed which adequately addresses the problem of detecting a small magnitude loss occurring in a single period. This paper proposes a method for detecting a small magnitude loss. The approach makes use of the influence function of Hempel. The influence function measures the effect of a single inventory difference on a group of statistics. An inventory difference for a period in which a loss occurs can be expected to produce an abnormality in the calculated statistics. This abnormality is measurable by the influence function. It is shown that a one period loss smaller in magnitude than the LEID can be detected using this approach

Near-Regular Structure Discovery Using Linear Programming

KAUST Repository

Huang, Qixing

2014-06-02

Near-regular structures are common in manmade and natural objects. Algorithmic detection of such regularity greatly facilitates our understanding of shape structures, leads to compact encoding of input geometries, and enables efficient generation and manipulation of complex patterns on both acquired and synthesized objects. Such regularity manifests itself both in the repetition of certain geometric elements, as well as in the structured arrangement of the elements. We cast the regularity detection problem as an optimization and efficiently solve it using linear programming techniques. Our optimization has a discrete aspect, that is, the connectivity relationships among the elements, as well as a continuous aspect, namely the locations of the elements of interest. Both these aspects are captured by our near-regular structure extraction framework, which alternates between discrete and continuous optimizations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework on a variety of problems including near-regular structure extraction, structure-preserving pattern manipulation, and markerless correspondence detection. Robustness results with respect to geometric and topological noise are presented on synthesized, real-world, and also benchmark datasets. © 2014 ACM.

Regular character of chromatin degradation in lymphoid tissues after treatment with biological alkylating agents in vivo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matyasova, J.; Skalka, M.; Cejkova, M.

1979-01-01

The chromatin changes are reevaluated occurring in lymphoid tissues of mice treated with alkylating agents of the nitrogen-mustard type in relation to recent evidence on the nucleosomal organization of chromatin and to our new data on the regular character of chromatin degradation in lymphoid tissues of irradiated mice. DNA was isolated from nuclei at various intervals (1 to 18 h) after treatment of mice and subjected to gel electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels. Thymus chromatin from treated mice has been shown to degrade in a regular fashion and to yield discrete DNA fragments, resembling those that originate in lymphoid tissues of irradiated mice or in thymus nuclei digested with micrococcal nuclease in vitro. With increasing interval after treatment higher amounts of smaller DNA fragments appear. Chromatin in spleen cells responds to treatment in a similar way, whilst no degradation in vivo takes place in liver chromatin. Chromatin of LS/BL lymphosarcoma cells in mice treated with alkylating agents or with irradiation suffers from a similar regular degradation. The results stress the significance of the action of liberated or activated endogenous nuclease(s) in the development of chromatin damage in lymphoid cells after treatment with alkylating agents. (author)

Regularization of fields for self-force problems in curved spacetime: Foundations and a time-domain application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega, Ian; Detweiler, Steven

2008-01-01

We propose an approach for the calculation of self-forces, energy fluxes and waveforms arising from moving point charges in curved spacetimes. As opposed to mode-sum schemes that regularize the self-force derived from the singular retarded field, this approach regularizes the retarded field itself. The singular part of the retarded field is first analytically identified and removed, yielding a finite, differentiable remainder from which the self-force is easily calculated. This regular remainder solves a wave equation which enjoys the benefit of having a nonsingular source. Solving this wave equation for the remainder completely avoids the calculation of the singular retarded field along with the attendant difficulties associated with numerically modeling a delta-function source. From this differentiable remainder one may compute the self-force, the energy flux, and also a waveform which reflects the effects of the self-force. As a test of principle, we implement this method using a 4th-order (1+1) code, and calculate the self-force for the simple case of a scalar charge moving in a circular orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole. We achieve agreement with frequency-domain results to ∼0.1% or better.

Quartz crystal microbalance-based system for high-sensitivity differential sputter yield measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rubin, B.; Topper, J. L.; Farnell, C. C.; Yalin, A. P.

2009-01-01

We present a quartz crystal microbalance-based system for high sensitivity differential sputter yield measurements of different target materials due to ion bombardment. The differential sputter yields can be integrated to find total yields. Possible ion beam conditions include ion energies in the range of 30-350 eV and incidence angles of 0 deg. - 70 deg. from normal. A four-grid ion optics system is used to achieve a collimated ion beam at low energy (<100 eV) and a two-grid ion optics is used for higher energies (up to 750 eV). A complementary weight loss approach is also used to measure total sputter yields. Validation experiments are presented that confirm high sensitivity and accuracy of sputter yield measurements.

Estimation of rice yield affected by drought and relation between rice yield and TVDI

Science.gov (United States)

Hongo, C.; Tamura, E.; Sigit, G.

2016-12-01

Impact of climate change is not only seen on food production but also on food security and sustainable development of society. Adaptation to climate change is a pressing issue throughout the world to reduce the risks along with the plans and strategies for food security and sustainable development. As a key adaptation to the climate change, agricultural insurance is expected to play an important role in stabilizing agricultural production through compensating the losses caused by the climate change. As the adaptation, the Government of Indonesia has launched agricultural insurance program for damage of rice by drought, flood and pest and disease. The Government started a pilot project in 2013 and this year the pilot project has been extended to 22 provinces. Having the above as background, we conducted research on development of new damage assessment method for rice using remote sensing data which could be used for evaluation of damage ratio caused by drought in West Java, Indonesia. For assessment of the damage ratio, estimation of rice yield is a key. As the result of our study, rice yield affected by drought in dry season could be estimated at level of 1 % significance using SPOT 7 data taken in 2015, and the validation result was 0.8t/ha. Then, the decrease ratio in rice yield about each individual paddy field was calculated using data of the estimated result and the average yield of the past 10 years. In addition, TVDI (Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index) which was calculated from Landsat8 data in heading season indicated the dryness in low yield area. The result suggests that rice yield was affected by irrigation water shortage around heading season as a result of the decreased precipitation by El Nino. Through our study, it becomes clear that the utilization of remote sensing data can be promising for assessment of the damage ratio of rice production precisely, quickly and quantitatively, and also it can be incorporated into the insurance procedures.

African crop yield reductions due to increasingly unbalanced Nitrogen and Phosphorus consumption

Science.gov (United States)

van der Velde, Marijn; Folberth, Christian; Balkovič, Juraj; Ciais, Philippe; Fritz, Steffen; Janssens, Ivan A.; Obersteiner, Michael; See, Linda; Skalský, Rastislav; Xiong, Wei; Peñuealas, Josep

2014-05-01

The impact of soil nutrient depletion on crop production has been known for decades, but robust assessments of the impact of increasingly unbalanced nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) application rates on crop production are lacking. Here, we use crop response functions based on 741 FAO maize crop trials and EPIC crop modeling across Africa to examine maize yield deficits resulting from unbalanced N:P applications under low, medium, and high input scenarios, for past (1975), current, and future N:P mass ratios of respectively, 1:0.29, 1:0.15, and 1:0.05. At low N inputs (10 kg/ha), current yield deficits amount to 10% but will increase up to 27% under the assumed future N:P ratio, while at medium N inputs (50 kg N/ha), future yield losses could amount to over 40%. The EPIC crop model was then used to simulate maize yields across Africa. The model results showed relative median future yield reductions at low N inputs of 40%, and 50% at medium and high inputs, albeit with large spatial variability. Dominant low-quality soils such as Ferralsols, which are strongly adsorbing P, and Arenosols with a low nutrient retention capacity, are associated with a strong yield decline, although Arenosols show very variable crop yield losses at low inputs. Optimal N:P ratios, i.e. those where the lowest amount of applied P produces the highest yield (given N input) where calculated with EPIC to be as low as 1:0.5. Finally, we estimated the additional P required given current N inputs, and given N inputs that would allow Africa to close yield gaps (ca. 70%). At current N inputs, P consumption would have to increase 2.3-fold to be optimal, and to increase 11.7-fold to close yield gaps. The P demand to overcome these yield deficits would provide a significant additional pressure on current global extraction of P resources.

Regular Expression Matching and Operational Semantics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asiri Rathnayake

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Many programming languages and tools, ranging from grep to the Java String library, contain regular expression matchers. Rather than first translating a regular expression into a deterministic finite automaton, such implementations typically match the regular expression on the fly. Thus they can be seen as virtual machines interpreting the regular expression much as if it were a program with some non-deterministic constructs such as the Kleene star. We formalize this implementation technique for regular expression matching using operational semantics. Specifically, we derive a series of abstract machines, moving from the abstract definition of matching to increasingly realistic machines. First a continuation is added to the operational semantics to describe what remains to be matched after the current expression. Next, we represent the expression as a data structure using pointers, which enables redundant searches to be eliminated via testing for pointer equality. From there, we arrive both at Thompson's lockstep construction and a machine that performs some operations in parallel, suitable for implementation on a large number of cores, such as a GPU. We formalize the parallel machine using process algebra and report some preliminary experiments with an implementation on a graphics processor using CUDA.

Tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feng, Yan-Quan; Kutnar, Klavdija; Marusic, Dragan

2014-01-01

A graph is one-regular if its automorphism group acts regularly on the set of its arcs. In this paper tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2, where p is a prime, are classified.......A graph is one-regular if its automorphism group acts regularly on the set of its arcs. In this paper tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2, where p is a prime, are classified....

Corn Yield and Soil Nitrous Oxide Emission under Different Fertilizer and Soil Management: A Three-Year Field Experiment in Middle Tennessee.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Qi; Hui, Dafeng; Wang, Junming; Iwuozo, Stephen; Yu, Chih-Li; Jima, Tigist; Smart, David; Reddy, Chandra; Dennis, Sam

2015-01-01

A three-year field experiment was conducted to examine the responses of corn yield and soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission to various management practices in middle Tennessee. The management practices include no-tillage + regular applications of urea ammonium nitrate (NT-URAN); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + denitrification inhibitor (NT-inhibitor); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + biochar (NT-biochar); no-tillage + 20% applications of URAN + chicken litter (NT-litter), no-tillage + split applications of URAN (NT-split); and conventional tillage + regular applications of URAN as a control (CT-URAN). Fertilizer equivalent to 217 kg N ha(-1) was applied to each of the experimental plots. Results showed that no-tillage (NT-URAN) significantly increased corn yield by 28% over the conventional tillage (CT-URAN) due to soil water conservation. The management practices significantly altered soil N2O emission, with the highest in the CT-URAN (0.48 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and the lowest in the NT-inhibitor (0.20 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and NT-biochar (0.16 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) treatments. Significant exponential relationships between soil N2O emission and water filled pore space were revealed in all treatments. However, variations in soil N2O emission among the treatments were positively correlated with the moisture sensitivity of soil N2O emission that likely reflects an interactive effect between soil properties and WFPS. Our results indicated that improved fertilizer and soil management have the potential to maintain highly productive corn yield while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The small world yields the most effective information spreading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lü Linyuan; Chen Duanbing; Zhou Tao

2011-01-01

The spreading dynamics of information and diseases are usually analyzed by using a unified framework and analogous models. In this paper, we propose a model to emphasize the essential difference between information spreading and epidemic spreading, where the memory effects, the social reinforcement and the non-redundancy of contacts are taken into account. Under certain conditions, the information spreads faster and broader in regular networks than in random networks, which to some extent supports the recent experimental observation of spreading in online society (Centola D 2010 Science 329 1194). At the same time, the simulation result indicates that the random networks tend to be favorable for effective spreading when the network size increases. This challenges the validity of the above-mentioned experiment for large-scale systems. More importantly, we show that the spreading effectiveness can be sharply enhanced by introducing a little randomness into the regular structure, namely the small-world networks yield the most effective information spreading. This work provides insights into the role of local clustering in information spreading. (paper)

Regularization and error assignment to unfolded distributions

CERN Document Server

Zech, Gunter

2011-01-01

The commonly used approach to present unfolded data only in graphical formwith the diagonal error depending on the regularization strength is unsatisfac-tory. It does not permit the adjustment of parameters of theories, the exclusionof theories that are admitted by the observed data and does not allow the com-bination of data from different experiments. We propose fixing the regulariza-tion strength by a p-value criterion, indicating the experimental uncertaintiesindependent of the regularization and publishing the unfolded data in additionwithout regularization. These considerations are illustrated with three differentunfolding and smoothing approaches applied to a toy example.

Backtracking-Based Iterative Regularization Method for Image Compressive Sensing Recovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lingjun Liu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a variant of the iterative shrinkage-thresholding (IST algorithm, called backtracking-based adaptive IST (BAIST, for image compressive sensing (CS reconstruction. For increasing iterations, IST usually yields a smoothing of the solution and runs into prematurity. To add back more details, the BAIST method backtracks to the previous noisy image using L2 norm minimization, i.e., minimizing the Euclidean distance between the current solution and the previous ones. Through this modification, the BAIST method achieves superior performance while maintaining the low complexity of IST-type methods. Also, BAIST takes a nonlocal regularization with an adaptive regularizor to automatically detect the sparsity level of an image. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms the original IST method and several excellent CS techniques.

Search for an anomalous near-surface yield deficit in Rutherford backscattering spectra from implanted germanium and silicon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawson, E.M.; Appleton, B.R.

1983-09-01

Rutherford backscattering and channelling analysis of high-dose, room-temperature, ion-implanted germanium has revealed an anomalous near-surface yield deficit. Implant dose and species dependencies and the effect of annealing have been examined. A marked loss of implanted impurity was also noted. The yield deficit is attributed to the absorption of oxygen and other light mass contaminants into a highly porous implanted layer upon exposure to air. Loss of implant species is attributed to enhanced sputtering effects

Higher order total variation regularization for EIT reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Bo; Schullcke, Benjamin; Krueger-Ziolek, Sabine; Zhang, Fan; Mueller-Lisse, Ullrich; Moeller, Knut

2018-01-08

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) attempts to reveal the conductivity distribution of a domain based on the electrical boundary condition. This is an ill-posed inverse problem; its solution is very unstable. Total variation (TV) regularization is one of the techniques commonly employed to stabilize reconstructions. However, it is well known that TV regularization induces staircase effects, which are not realistic in clinical applications. To reduce such artifacts, modified TV regularization terms considering a higher order differential operator were developed in several previous studies. One of them is called total generalized variation (TGV) regularization. TGV regularization has been successively applied in image processing in a regular grid context. In this study, we adapted TGV regularization to the finite element model (FEM) framework for EIT reconstruction. Reconstructions using simulation and clinical data were performed. First results indicate that, in comparison to TV regularization, TGV regularization promotes more realistic images. Graphical abstract Reconstructed conductivity changes located on selected vertical lines. For each of the reconstructed images as well as the ground truth image, conductivity changes located along the selected left and right vertical lines are plotted. In these plots, the notation GT in the legend stands for ground truth, TV stands for total variation method, and TGV stands for total generalized variation method. Reconstructed conductivity distributions from the GREIT algorithm are also demonstrated.

Application of Turchin's method of statistical regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Zelenyi, Mikhail; Poliakova, Mariia; Nozik, Alexander; Khudyakov, Alexey

2018-04-01

During analysis of experimental data, one usually needs to restore a signal after it has been convoluted with some kind of apparatus function. According to Hadamard's definition this problem is ill-posed and requires regularization to provide sensible results. In this article we describe an implementation of the Turchin's method of statistical regularization based on the Bayesian approach to the regularization strategy.

Traits in Spring Wheat Cultivars Associated with Yield Loss Caused by a Heat Stress Episode after Anthesis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vignjevic, Marija; Wang, Xiao; Olesen, Jørgen E

2015-01-01

with heat tolerance. Fifteen spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars were grown in pots under semifield conditions, and heat stress (35/26 °C) and control treatments (20/12 °C) were applied in growth chambers for 5 days starting 14 days after flowering. The heat stress treatment reduced final yield...... in the grain-filling period was negatively correlated with grain nitrogen yield (r = −0.60). A positive correlation (r = 0.73) was found between the treatment effect on green leaf area (GLA) and the reduction in yield resulting from heat stress. The amount of stem water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC...

Reduction in clover-grass yield caused by different traffic intensities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Green, Ole; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm; Kristensen, Kristian

Different traffic intensities have been shown to have a negative influence on the yield of grass and clover. A full scale grass-clover field trial was established to estimate the effect on clover-grass yields as a function of different wheel loads and tire pressures. The trial comprised 16...... close to the north, south and east border of the field. No significant interactions were found between the timing of crop and soil damage as affected by wheel load and tire pressure. However, at specific times, there was a significant effect of wheel load and secondary by the tire pressure. At all...... measurement times, the yield was lower using a wheel load of 4745 kg than for a wheel load of 2865 kg.     Key words (for Electronic Reference Library) Traffic intensities, tire load/pressure, clover/grass, yield loss, ...

Seasonal temperatures have more influence than nitrogen fertilizer rates on cucumber yield and nitrogen uptake in a double cropping system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo Ruiying; Li Xiaolin [College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing 100094 (China); Christie, Peter [College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing 100094 (China); Agricultural and Environmental Science Department, Queen' s University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5PX (United Kingdom); Chen Qing [College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing 100094 (China)], E-mail: qchen@cau.edu.cn; Zhang Fusuo [College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing 100094 (China)

2008-02-15

Two-year greenhouse cucumber experiments were conducted to investigate seasonal effects on fruit yield, dry matter allocation, and N uptake in a double-cropping system with different fertilizer management. Seasonal effects were much greater than fertilizer effects, and winter-spring (WS) cucumber attained higher fruit yields and N uptake than autumn-winter (AW) cucumber due to lower cumulative air temperatures during fruit maturation in the AW season. Fertilizer N application and apparent N loss under recommended N management (Nmr) decreased by 40-78% and 33-48% without yield loss compared to conventional N management (Nmt) over four growing seasons. However, there were no seasonal differences in N recommendations, taking into consideration seasonal differences in crop N demand, critical nutrient supply in the root zone and N mineralization rate. - Nitrogen inputs can be reduced to minimize N losses to the environment while maintaining yields but N recommendations must reflect seasonal temperature effects.

Seasonal temperatures have more influence than nitrogen fertilizer rates on cucumber yield and nitrogen uptake in a double cropping system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Ruiying; Li Xiaolin; Christie, Peter; Chen Qing; Zhang Fusuo

2008-01-01

Two-year greenhouse cucumber experiments were conducted to investigate seasonal effects on fruit yield, dry matter allocation, and N uptake in a double-cropping system with different fertilizer management. Seasonal effects were much greater than fertilizer effects, and winter-spring (WS) cucumber attained higher fruit yields and N uptake than autumn-winter (AW) cucumber due to lower cumulative air temperatures during fruit maturation in the AW season. Fertilizer N application and apparent N loss under recommended N management (Nmr) decreased by 40-78% and 33-48% without yield loss compared to conventional N management (Nmt) over four growing seasons. However, there were no seasonal differences in N recommendations, taking into consideration seasonal differences in crop N demand, critical nutrient supply in the root zone and N mineralization rate. - Nitrogen inputs can be reduced to minimize N losses to the environment while maintaining yields but N recommendations must reflect seasonal temperature effects

Regularization modeling for large-eddy simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geurts, Bernardus J.; Holm, D.D.

2003-01-01

A new modeling approach for large-eddy simulation (LES) is obtained by combining a "regularization principle" with an explicit filter and its inversion. This regularization approach allows a systematic derivation of the implied subgrid model, which resolves the closure problem. The central role of

Spatially-Variant Tikhonov Regularization for Double-Difference Waveform Inversion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, Youzuo [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Huang, Lianjie [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Zhang, Zhigang [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2011-01-01

Double-difference waveform inversion is a potential tool for quantitative monitoring for geologic carbon storage. It jointly inverts time-lapse seismic data for changes in reservoir geophysical properties. Due to the ill-posedness of waveform inversion, it is a great challenge to obtain reservoir changes accurately and efficiently, particularly when using time-lapse seismic reflection data. Regularization techniques can be utilized to address the issue of ill-posedness. The regularization parameter controls the smoothness of inversion results. A constant regularization parameter is normally used in waveform inversion, and an optimal regularization parameter has to be selected. The resulting inversion results are a trade off among regions with different smoothness or noise levels; therefore the images are either over regularized in some regions while under regularized in the others. In this paper, we employ a spatially-variant parameter in the Tikhonov regularization scheme used in double-difference waveform tomography to improve the inversion accuracy and robustness. We compare the results obtained using a spatially-variant parameter with those obtained using a constant regularization parameter and those produced without any regularization. We observe that, utilizing a spatially-variant regularization scheme, the target regions are well reconstructed while the noise is reduced in the other regions. We show that the spatially-variant regularization scheme provides the flexibility to regularize local regions based on the a priori information without increasing computational costs and the computer memory requirement.

Separating heat stress from moisture stress: analyzing yield response to high temperature in irrigated maize

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Elizabeth K.; Melkonian, Jeff; Riha, Susan J.; Shaw, Stephen B.

2016-09-01

Several recent studies have indicated that high air temperatures are limiting maize (Zea mays L.) yields in the US Corn Belt and project significant yield losses with expected increases in growing season temperatures. Further work has suggested that high air temperatures are indicative of high evaporative demand, and that decreases in maize yields which correlate to high temperatures and vapor pressure deficits (VPD) likely reflect underlying soil moisture limitations. It remains unclear whether direct high temperature impacts on yields, independent of moisture stress, can be observed under current temperature regimes. Given that projected high temperature and moisture may not co-vary the same way as they have historically, quantitative analyzes of direct temperature impacts are critical for accurate yield projections and targeted mitigation strategies under shifting temperature regimes. To evaluate yield response to above optimum temperatures independent of soil moisture stress, we analyzed climate impacts on irrigated maize yields obtained from the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) corn yield contests for Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. In irrigated maize, we found no evidence of a direct negative impact on yield by daytime air temperature, calculated canopy temperature, or VPD when analyzed seasonally. Solar radiation was the primary yield-limiting climate variable. Our analyses suggested that elevated night temperature impacted yield by increasing rates of phenological development. High temperatures during grain-fill significantly interacted with yields, but this effect was often beneficial and included evidence of acquired thermo-tolerance. Furthermore, genetics and management—information uniquely available in the NCGA contest data—explained more yield variability than climate, and significantly modified crop response to climate. Thermo-acclimation, improved genetics and changes to management practices have the potential to partially or completely

Efficient regularization with wavelet sparsity constraints in photoacoustic tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Frikel, Jürgen; Haltmeier, Markus

2018-02-01

In this paper, we consider the reconstruction problem of photoacoustic tomography (PAT) with a flat observation surface. We develop a direct reconstruction method that employs regularization with wavelet sparsity constraints. To that end, we derive a wavelet-vaguelette decomposition (WVD) for the PAT forward operator and a corresponding explicit reconstruction formula in the case of exact data. In the case of noisy data, we combine the WVD reconstruction formula with soft-thresholding, which yields a spatially adaptive estimation method. We demonstrate that our method is statistically optimal for white random noise if the unknown function is assumed to lie in any Besov-ball. We present generalizations of this approach and, in particular, we discuss the combination of PAT-vaguelette soft-thresholding with a total variation (TV) prior. We also provide an efficient implementation of the PAT-vaguelette transform that leads to fast image reconstruction algorithms supported by numerical results.

Manifold Regularized Correlation Object Tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Hongwei; Ma, Bo; Shen, Jianbing; Shao, Ling

2018-05-01

In this paper, we propose a manifold regularized correlation tracking method with augmented samples. To make better use of the unlabeled data and the manifold structure of the sample space, a manifold regularization-based correlation filter is introduced, which aims to assign similar labels to neighbor samples. Meanwhile, the regression model is learned by exploiting the block-circulant structure of matrices resulting from the augmented translated samples over multiple base samples cropped from both target and nontarget regions. Thus, the final classifier in our method is trained with positive, negative, and unlabeled base samples, which is a semisupervised learning framework. A block optimization strategy is further introduced to learn a manifold regularization-based correlation filter for efficient online tracking. Experiments on two public tracking data sets demonstrate the superior performance of our tracker compared with the state-of-the-art tracking approaches.

From recreational to regular drug use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Järvinen, Margaretha; Ravn, Signe

2011-01-01

This article analyses the process of going from recreational use to regular and problematic use of illegal drugs. We present a model containing six career contingencies relevant for young people’s progress from recreational to regular drug use: the closing of social networks, changes in forms...

Regular variation on measure chains

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Řehák, Pavel; Vitovec, J.

2010-01-01

Roč. 72, č. 1 (2010), s. 439-448 ISSN 0362-546X R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KJB100190701 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : regularly varying function * regularly varying sequence * measure chain * time scale * embedding theorem * representation theorem * second order dynamic equation * asymptotic properties Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.279, year: 2010 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362546X09008475

New regular black hole solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lemos, Jose P. S.; Zanchin, Vilson T.

2011-01-01

In the present work we consider general relativity coupled to Maxwell's electromagnetism and charged matter. Under the assumption of spherical symmetry, there is a particular class of solutions that correspond to regular charged black holes whose interior region is de Sitter, the exterior region is Reissner-Nordstroem and there is a charged thin-layer in-between the two. The main physical and geometrical properties of such charged regular black holes are analyzed.

Manifold Regularized Correlation Object Tracking

OpenAIRE

Hu, Hongwei; Ma, Bo; Shen, Jianbing; Shao, Ling

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose a manifold regularized correlation tracking method with augmented samples. To make better use of the unlabeled data and the manifold structure of the sample space, a manifold regularization-based correlation filter is introduced, which aims to assign similar labels to neighbor samples. Meanwhile, the regression model is learned by exploiting the block-circulant structure of matrices resulting from the augmented translated samples over multiple base samples cropped fr...

On geodesics in low regularity

Science.gov (United States)

Sämann, Clemens; Steinbauer, Roland

2018-02-01

We consider geodesics in both Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds with metrics of low regularity. We discuss existence of extremal curves for continuous metrics and present several old and new examples that highlight their subtle interrelation with solutions of the geodesic equations. Then we turn to the initial value problem for geodesics for locally Lipschitz continuous metrics and generalize recent results on existence, regularity and uniqueness of solutions in the sense of Filippov.

Technologies for Decreasing Mining Losses

Science.gov (United States)

Valgma, Ingo; Väizene, Vivika; Kolats, Margit; Saarnak, Martin

2013-12-01

In case of stratified deposits like oil shale deposit in Estonia, mining losses depend on mining technologies. Current research focuses on extraction and separation possibilities of mineral resources. Selective mining, selective crushing and separation tests have been performed, showing possibilities of decreasing mining losses. Rock crushing and screening process simulations were used for optimizing rock fractions. In addition mine backfilling, fine separation, and optimized drilling and blasting have been analyzed. All tested methods show potential and depend on mineral usage. Usage in addition depends on the utilization technology. The questions like stability of the material flow and influences of the quality fluctuations to the final yield are raised.

Exercise and food compensation: exploring diet-related beliefs and behaviors of regular exercisers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dohle, Simone; Wansink, Brian; Zehnder, Lorena

2015-03-01

The goal of this qualitative study is to identify common beliefs and behaviors related to exercise and diet. Data were collected in focus group discussions with regular exercisers who were physically active between 1 and 5 h per week. Exercise objectives, beliefs and behaviors regarding food intake before, during, and after exercise, consumption of sport supplements, and dietary patterns on sedentary days were explored. All focus groups were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Participants reported that they reward themselves for being active by consuming food. Other exercisers had specific beliefs about dietary needs and how to compensate for exercise-induced losses along with exercise-related food likes and dislikes. The participants' food intake also depended on their personal exercise objectives, such as the goal of performing well in competitions. External and physiological factors also played a role in determining participants' dietary patterns. Results of this study show that exercising and dietary patterns are closely intertwined. In addition, we articulate new hypotheses and outline a research agenda that can help improve how regular exercisers eat.

Parameter identification in ODE models with oscillatory dynamics: a Fourier regularization approach

Science.gov (United States)

Chiara D'Autilia, Maria; Sgura, Ivonne; Bozzini, Benedetto

2017-12-01

In this paper we consider a parameter identification problem (PIP) for data oscillating in time, that can be described in terms of the dynamics of some ordinary differential equation (ODE) model, resulting in an optimization problem constrained by the ODEs. In problems with this type of data structure, simple application of the direct method of control theory (discretize-then-optimize) yields a least-squares cost function exhibiting multiple ‘low’ minima. Since in this situation any optimization algorithm is liable to fail in the approximation of a good solution, here we propose a Fourier regularization approach that is able to identify an iso-frequency manifold {{ S}} of codimension-one in the parameter space \

Morning glory species interference on the development and yield of soybeans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fortunato De Bortoli Pagnoncelli

2017-08-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Plants from the genus ipomoea are among the most important weeds in Brazil. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of different densities of 2 species of Ipomoea (I. grandifolia and I. purpurea under different environments (counties of Pato Branco and Renascença, Paraná state, Brazil on soybean biometric variables, yield components and crop yield loss. Field experiments in 2 distinct places were conducted in a randomized block design, where 1 factor consisted of 8 plant densities (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 20 plants∙m−2, whereas the other factor consisted of the 2 Ipomoea species. Joint analysis of the data was performed considering the factors environment, Ipomoea densities and species. The impact of one Ipomoea plant∙m−2 was very high, reaching 26%, on average, of species and environments. The maximum soybean yield loss experienced with the Ipomoea density of 20 plants∙m−2 was close to 80%. The impact of Ipomoea density was more important than the species and environment. This result highlights the importance of correct management of plants of these weed species in soybean crop.

Manifold Regularized Reinforcement Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Hongliang; Liu, Derong; Wang, Ding

2018-04-01

This paper introduces a novel manifold regularized reinforcement learning scheme for continuous Markov decision processes. Smooth feature representations for value function approximation can be automatically learned using the unsupervised manifold regularization method. The learned features are data-driven, and can be adapted to the geometry of the state space. Furthermore, the scheme provides a direct basis representation extension for novel samples during policy learning and control. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated on two benchmark control tasks, i.e., the inverted pendulum and the energy storage problem. Simulation results illustrate the concepts of the proposed scheme and show that it can obtain excellent performance.

Laplacian manifold regularization method for fluorescence molecular tomography

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xuelei; Wang, Xiaodong; Yi, Huangjian; Chen, Yanrong; Zhang, Xu; Yu, Jingjing; He, Xiaowei

2017-04-01

Sparse regularization methods have been widely used in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) for stable three-dimensional reconstruction. Generally, ℓ1-regularization-based methods allow for utilizing the sparsity nature of the target distribution. However, in addition to sparsity, the spatial structure information should be exploited as well. A joint ℓ1 and Laplacian manifold regularization model is proposed to improve the reconstruction performance, and two algorithms (with and without Barzilai-Borwein strategy) are presented to solve the regularization model. Numerical studies and in vivo experiment demonstrate that the proposed Gradient projection-resolved Laplacian manifold regularization method for the joint model performed better than the comparative algorithm for ℓ1 minimization method in both spatial aggregation and location accuracy.

Learning Sparse Visual Representations with Leaky Capped Norm Regularizers

OpenAIRE

Wangni, Jianqiao; Lin, Dahua

2017-01-01

Sparsity inducing regularization is an important part for learning over-complete visual representations. Despite the popularity of $\\ell_1$ regularization, in this paper, we investigate the usage of non-convex regularizations in this problem. Our contribution consists of three parts. First, we propose the leaky capped norm regularization (LCNR), which allows model weights below a certain threshold to be regularized more strongly as opposed to those above, therefore imposes strong sparsity and...

Applications of Kalman Filtering to nuclear material control. [Kalman filtering and linear smoothing for detecting nuclear material losses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pike, D.H.; Morrison, G.W.; Westley, G.W.

1977-10-01

The feasibility of using modern state estimation techniques (specifically Kalman Filtering and Linear Smoothing) to detect losses of material from material balance areas is evaluated. It is shown that state estimation techniques are not only feasible but in most situations are superior to existing methods of analysis. The various techniques compared include Kalman Filtering, linear smoothing, standard control charts, and average cumulative summation (CUSUM) charts. Analysis results indicated that the standard control chart is the least effective method for detecting regularly occurring losses. An improvement in the detection capability over the standard control chart can be realized by use of the CUSUM chart. Even more sensitivity in the ability to detect losses can be realized by use of the Kalman Filter and the linear smoother. It was found that the error-covariance matrix can be used to establish limits of error for state estimates. It is shown that state estimation techniques represent a feasible and desirable method of theft detection. The technique is usually more sensitive than the CUSUM chart in detecting losses. One kind of loss which is difficult to detect using state estimation techniques is a single isolated loss. State estimation procedures are predicated on dynamic models and are well-suited for detecting losses which occur regularly over several accounting periods. A single isolated loss does not conform to this basic assumption and is more difficult to detect.

Wheat-yield response to irrigation and nitrogen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirda, C.; Derici, R.; Kanber, R.; Yazar, A.; Koc, M.; Barutcular, C.

2000-01-01

Wheat-yield responses to the application of different rates of N fertilizer, under irrigated and rainfed conditions, were evaluated over four growing seasons. Nitrogen applied at tillering was utilized more effectively with proportionately less residual in the soil compared to that applied at planting. Subsequent crops of maize or cotton were positively affected by residual fertilizer N. Volatilization and leaching losses of applied N were small. Crop-water consumption showed strong positive associations with N rate. No wheat-grain-yield benefits accrued from irrigation, although straw yields were increased. Tiller production increased with N-fertilizer usage, however, tiller survival decreased at high N and was highest at 160 kg N ha -1 . Higher N rates produced higher stomatal conductance, increased rates of CO 2 assimilation and higher water-use efficiency. The CERES-Wheat growth-simulation model predicted rather closely the progress of dry-matter production, leaf area index, seasonal evapotranspiration, phenological development and of many other plant-growth attributes. The data indicated that the rate of 160 kg N ha -1 , which is commonly used by the farmers of the region, is acceptable, not only for optimum grain yields but also to minimize the risks of leaching NO 3 - to groundwater. (author)

Adaptive regularization of noisy linear inverse problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars Kai; Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard; Lehn-Schiøler, Tue

2006-01-01

In the Bayesian modeling framework there is a close relation between regularization and the prior distribution over parameters. For prior distributions in the exponential family, we show that the optimal hyper-parameter, i.e., the optimal strength of regularization, satisfies a simple relation: T......: The expectation of the regularization function, i.e., takes the same value in the posterior and prior distribution. We present three examples: two simulations, and application in fMRI neuroimaging....

WE-FG-207B-03: Multi-Energy CT Reconstruction with Spatial Spectral Nonlocal Means Regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, B [University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States); Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China); Shen, C; Ouyang, L; Yang, M; Jiang, S; Jia, X [University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States); Zhou, L [Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Multi-energy computed tomography (MECT) is an emerging application in medical imaging due to its ability of material differentiation and potential for molecular imaging. In MECT, image correlations at different spatial and channels exist. It is desirable to incorporate these correlations in reconstruction to improve image quality. For this purpose, this study proposes a MECT reconstruction technique that employes spatial spectral non-local means (ssNLM) regularization. Methods: We consider a kVp-switching scanning method in which source energy is rapidly switched during data acquisition. For each energy channel, this yields projection data acquired at a number of angles, whereas projection angles among channels are different. We formulate the reconstruction task as an optimziation problem. A least square term enfores data fidelity. A ssNLM term is used as regularization to encourage similarities among image patches at different spatial locations and channels. When comparing image patches at different channels, intensity difference were corrected by a transformation estimated via histogram equalization during the reconstruction process. Results: We tested our method in a simulation study with a NCAT phantom and an experimental study with a Gammex phantom. For comparison purpose, we also performed reconstructions using conjugate-gradient least square (CGLS) method and conventional NLM method that only considers spatial correlation in an image. ssNLM is able to better suppress streak artifacts. The streaks are along different projection directions in images at different channels. ssNLM discourages this dissimilarity and hence removes them. True image structures are preserved in this process. Measurements in regions of interests yield 1.1 to 3.2 and 1.5 to 1.8 times higher contrast to noise ratio than the NLM approach. Improvements over CGLS is even more profound due to lack of regularization in the CGLS method and hence amplified noise. Conclusion: The

Comparison of thick-target (alpha,n yield calculation codes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernandes Ana C.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Neutron production yields and energy distributions from (α,n reactions in light elements were calculated using three different codes (SOURCES, NEDIS and USD and compared with the existing experimental data in the 3.5-10 MeV alpha energy range. SOURCES and NEDIS display an agreement between calculated and measured yields in the decay series of 235U, 238U and 232Th within ±10% for most materials. The discrepancy increases with alpha energy but still an agreement of ±20% applies to all materials with reliable elemental production yields (the few exceptions are identified. The calculated neutron energy distributions describe the experimental data, with NEDIS retrieving very well the detailed features. USD generally underestimates the measured yields, in particular for compounds with heavy elements and/or at high alpha energies. The energy distributions exhibit sharp peaks that do not match the observations. These findings may be caused by a poor accounting of the alpha particle energy loss by the code. A big variability was found among the calculated neutron production yields for alphas from Sm decay; the lack of yield measurements for low (~2 MeV alphas does not allow to conclude on the codes’ accuracy in this energy region.

Evaluation of milk yield losses associated with Salmonella antibodies in bulk tank milk in bovine dairy herds.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, T D; Green, L E; Kudahl, A B; Østergaard, S; Nielsen, L R

2012-09-01

The effect of Salmonella on milk production is not well established in cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate whether introduction of Salmonella into dairy cattle herds was associated with reduced milk yield and determine the duration of any such effect. Longitudinal data from 2005 through 2009 were used, with data from 12 mo before until 18 mo after the estimated date of infection. Twenty-eight case herds were selected based on an increase in the level of Salmonella-specific antibodies in bulk-tank milk from levels consistently energy-corrected milk (ECM)/cow were used to investigate daily milk yield before and after the estimated herd infection date for cows in parities 1, 2, and 3+. Control herds were used to evaluate whether the effects in the case herds could be reproduced in herds without Salmonella infection. Herd size, days in milk, somatic cell count, season, and year were included in the models. Yield in first-parity cows was reduced by a mean of 1.4 kg (95% confidence interval: 0.5 to 2.3) of ECM/cow per day from 7 to 15 mo after the estimated herd infection date, compared with that of first-parity cows in the same herds in the 12 mo before the estimated herd infection date. Yield for parity 3+ cows was reduced by a mean of 3.0 kg (95% confidence interval: 1.3 to 4.8) of ECM/cow per day from 7 to 15 mo after herd infection compared with that of parity 3+ cows in the 12 mo before the estimated herd infection. We observed minor differences in yield in second-parity cows before and after herd infection and observed no difference between cows in control herds before and after the simulated infection date. Milk yield decreased significantly in affected herds and the reduction was detectable several months after the increase in bulk tank milk Salmonella antibodies. It took more than 1 yr for milk yield to return to preinfection levels. Copyright © 2012 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of Foliar Application of Phosphorus and Water Deficit on Yield and Yield Components of Winter Wheat (Cultivar Alvand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Vafapour

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In order to study the effects of foliar application of phosphorus (P and water deficit on yield and yield components of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cv. Alvand, a split-plot experiment, with completely randomized blocks design and three replications, was carried out at the Research Farm of Boyer Ahmad Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station, 13 km west of Yasouj, in 2008-2009. The main plots were irrigation at three levels (1- full irrigation (control, 2- deficit irrigation from the stem elongation to booting stage, and 3- deficit irrigation from booting stage to the end of growth period and the subplots were five levels of foliar application of P fertilizer (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 kg/ha KH2PO4. The results showed that the effects of different irrigation regimes and foliar application of P were significant on all traits, and their interaction was significant on plant height, number of grain per spike, grain yield and biological yield. Full irrigation and foliar application of 6 kg/ha P produced the highest grain and biological yield (6000 and 14170 kg/ha, respectively and deficit irrigation from the stem elongation to booting stage without foliar application of P produced the lowest grain and biological yield (2920 and 8219 kg/ha, respectively. Foliar application of P affects significantly the evaluated traits only in drought-stress treatments and its effect was not significant in full irrigation treatment. In general, foliar application of 9 kg/ha P compensated the losses in wheat due to drought stress.

Measurements of sputtering yields for low-energy plasma ions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishi, M.; Yamada, M.; Suckewer, S.; Rosengaus, E.

1979-04-01

Sputtering yields of various wall/limiter materials of fusion devices have been extensively measured in the relevant plasma environment for low-energy light ions (E 14 cm -3 and electron temperature up to 10eV. Target materials used were C (graphite), Ti, Mo, Ta, W, and Fe (stainless steel). In order to study the dependence of the sputtering yields on the incident energy of ions, the target samples were held at negative bias voltage up to 300V. The sputtering yields were determined by a weight-loss method and by spectral line intensity measurements. The data obtained in the present experiment agree well with those previously obtained at the higher energies (E greater than or equal to 200eV) by other authors using different schemes; the present data also extend to substantially lower energies (E approx. > 30eV) than hitherto

Exclusion of children with intellectual disabilities from regular ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Study investigated why teachers exclude children with intellectual disability from the regular classrooms in Nigeria. Participants were, 169 regular teachers randomly selected from Oyo and Ogun states. Questionnaire was used to collect data result revealed that 57.4% regular teachers could not cope with children with ID ...

On infinite regular and chiral maps

OpenAIRE

Arredondo, John A.; Valdez, Camilo Ramírez y Ferrán

2015-01-01

We prove that infinite regular and chiral maps take place on surfaces with at most one end. Moreover, we prove that an infinite regular or chiral map on an orientable surface with genus can only be realized on the Loch Ness monster, that is, the topological surface of infinite genus with one end.

29 CFR 779.18 - Regular rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... employee under subsection (a) or in excess of the employee's normal working hours or regular working hours... Relating to Labor (Continued) WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR STATEMENTS OF GENERAL POLICY OR... not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. Section 7(e) of the Act defines...

Cover Crops and Fertilization Alter Nitrogen Loss in Organic and Conventional Conservation Agriculture Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Shelton, Rebecca E.; Jacobsen, Krista L.; McCulley, Rebecca L.

2018-01-01

Agroecosystem nitrogen (N) loss produces greenhouse gases, induces eutrophication, and is costly for farmers; therefore, conservation agricultural management practices aimed at reducing N loss are increasingly adopted. However, the ecosystem consequences of these practices have not been well-studied. We quantified N loss via leaching, NH3 volatilization, N2O emissions, and N retention in plant and soil pools of corn conservation agroecosystems in Kentucky, USA. Three systems were evaluated: (1) an unfertilized, organic system with cover crops hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), or a mix of the two (bi-culture); (2) an organic system with a hairy vetch cover crop employing three fertilization schemes (0 N, organic N, or a fertilizer N-credit approach); and (3) a conventional system with a winter wheat cover crop and three fertilization schemes (0 N, urea N, or organic N). In the unfertilized organic system, cover crop species affected NO3-N leaching (vetch > bi-culture > wheat) and N2O-N emissions and yield during corn growth (vetch, bi-culture > wheat). Fertilization increased soil inorganic N, gaseous N loss, N leaching, and yield in the organic vetch and conventional wheat systems. Fertilizer scheme affected the magnitude of growing season N2O-N loss in the organic vetch system (organic N > fertilizer N-credit) and the timing of loss (organic N delayed N2O-N loss vs. urea) and NO3-N leaching (urea >> organic N) in the conventional wheat system, but had no effect on yield. Cover crop selection and N fertilization techniques can reduce N leaching and greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing yield, thereby enhancing N conservation in both organic and conventional conservation agriculture systems. PMID:29403512

Cover Crops and Fertilization Alter Nitrogen Loss in Organic and Conventional Conservation Agriculture Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca E. Shelton

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Agroecosystem nitrogen (N loss produces greenhouse gases, induces eutrophication, and is costly for farmers; therefore, conservation agricultural management practices aimed at reducing N loss are increasingly adopted. However, the ecosystem consequences of these practices have not been well-studied. We quantified N loss via leaching, NH3 volatilization, N2O emissions, and N retention in plant and soil pools of corn conservation agroecosystems in Kentucky, USA. Three systems were evaluated: (1 an unfertilized, organic system with cover crops hairy vetch (Vicia villosa, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum, or a mix of the two (bi-culture; (2 an organic system with a hairy vetch cover crop employing three fertilization schemes (0 N, organic N, or a fertilizer N-credit approach; and (3 a conventional system with a winter wheat cover crop and three fertilization schemes (0 N, urea N, or organic N. In the unfertilized organic system, cover crop species affected NO3-N leaching (vetch > bi-culture > wheat and N2O-N emissions and yield during corn growth (vetch, bi-culture > wheat. Fertilization increased soil inorganic N, gaseous N loss, N leaching, and yield in the organic vetch and conventional wheat systems. Fertilizer scheme affected the magnitude of growing season N2O-N loss in the organic vetch system (organic N > fertilizer N-credit and the timing of loss (organic N delayed N2O-N loss vs. urea and NO3-N leaching (urea >> organic N in the conventional wheat system, but had no effect on yield. Cover crop selection and N fertilization techniques can reduce N leaching and greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing yield, thereby enhancing N conservation in both organic and conventional conservation agriculture systems.

Continuum regularized Yang-Mills theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadun, L.A.

1987-01-01

Using the machinery of stochastic quantization, Z. Bern, M. B. Halpern, C. Taubes and I recently proposed a continuum regularization technique for quantum field theory. This regularization may be implemented by applying a regulator to either the (d + 1)-dimensional Parisi-Wu Langevin equation or, equivalently, to the d-dimensional second order Schwinger-Dyson (SD) equations. This technique is non-perturbative, respects all gauge and Lorentz symmetries, and is consistent with a ghost-free gauge fixing (Zwanziger's). This thesis is a detailed study of this regulator, and of regularized Yang-Mills theory, using both perturbative and non-perturbative techniques. The perturbative analysis comes first. The mechanism of stochastic quantization is reviewed, and a perturbative expansion based on second-order SD equations is developed. A diagrammatic method (SD diagrams) for evaluating terms of this expansion is developed. We apply the continuum regulator to a scalar field theory. Using SD diagrams, we show that all Green functions can be rendered finite to all orders in perturbation theory. Even non-renormalizable theories can be regularized. The continuum regulator is then applied to Yang-Mills theory, in conjunction with Zwanziger's gauge fixing. A perturbative expansion of the regulator is incorporated into the diagrammatic method. It is hoped that the techniques discussed in this thesis will contribute to the construction of a renormalized Yang-Mills theory is 3 and 4 dimensions

Benefits of regular walking exercise in advanced pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Kosmadakis, George C; John, Stephen G; Clapp, Emma L; Viana, Joao L; Smith, Alice C; Bishop, Nicolette C; Bevington, Alan; Owen, Paul J; McIntyre, Christopher W; Feehally, John

2012-03-01

There is increasing evidence of the benefit of regular physical exercise in a number of long-term conditions including chronic kidney disease (CKD). In CKD, this evidence has mostly come from studies in end stage patients receiving regular dialysis. There is little evidence in pre-dialysis patients with CKD Stages 4 and 5. A prospective study compared the benefits of 6 months regular walking in 40 pre-dialysis patients with CKD Stages 4 and 5. Twenty of them were the exercising group and were compared to 20 patients who were continuing with usual physical activity. In addition, the 40 patients were randomized to receive additional oral sodium bicarbonate (target venous bicarbonate 29 mmol/L) or continue with previous sodium bicarbonate treatment (target 24 mmol/L). Improvements noted after 1 month were sustained to 6 months in the 18 of 20 who completed the exercise study. These included improvements in exercise tolerance (reduced exertion to achieve the same activity), weight loss, improved cardiovascular reactivity, avoiding an increase in blood pressure medication and improvements in quality of health and life and uraemic symptom scores assessed by questionnaire. Sodium bicarbonate supplementation did not produce any significant alterations. This study provides further support for the broad benefits of aerobic physical exercise in CKD. More studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of these benefits, to study whether resistance exercise will add to the benefit and to evaluate strategies to promote sustained lifestyle changes, that could ensure continued increase in habitual daily physical activity levels.

Behavioural factors related with successful weight loss 15 months post-enrolment in a commercial web-based weight-loss programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Neve, Melinda J; Morgan, Philip J; Collins, Clare E

2012-07-01

As further understanding is required of what behavioural factors are associated with long-term weight-loss success, the aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of successful weight loss 15 months post-enrolment in a commercial web-based weight-loss programme and which behavioural factors were associated with success. An online survey was completed 15 months post-enrolment in a commercial web-based weight-loss programme to assess weight-related behaviours and current weight. Participants were classified as successful if they had lost ≥5 % of their starting weight after 15 months. Commercial users of a web-based weight-loss programme. Participants enrolled in the commercial programme between August 2007 and May 2008. Six hundred and seventy-seven participants completed the survey. The median (interquartile range) weight change was -2·7 (-8·2, 1·6) % of enrolment weight, with 37 % achieving ≥5 % weight loss. Multivariate logistic regression analysis found success was associated with frequency of weight self-monitoring, higher dietary restraint score, lower emotional eating score, not skipping meals, not keeping snack foods in the house and eating takeaway foods less frequently. The findings suggest that individuals trying to achieve or maintain ≥5 % weight loss should be advised to regularly weigh themselves, avoid skipping meals or keeping snack foods in the house, limit the frequency of takeaway food consumption, manage emotional eating and strengthen dietary restraint. Strategies to assist individuals make these changes to behaviour should be incorporated within obesity treatments to improve the likelihood of successful weight loss in the long term.

Cerebral perfusion computed tomography deconvolution via structure tensor total variation regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zeng, Dong; Zhang, Xinyu; Bian, Zhaoying, E-mail: zybian@smu.edu.cn, E-mail: jhma@smu.edu.cn; Huang, Jing; Zhang, Hua; Lu, Lijun; Lyu, Wenbing; Feng, Qianjin; Chen, Wufan; Ma, Jianhua, E-mail: zybian@smu.edu.cn, E-mail: jhma@smu.edu.cn [Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515 (China); Zhang, Jing [Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China)

2016-05-15

Purpose: Cerebral perfusion computed tomography (PCT) imaging as an accurate and fast acute ischemic stroke examination has been widely used in clinic. Meanwhile, a major drawback of PCT imaging is the high radiation dose due to its dynamic scan protocol. The purpose of this work is to develop a robust perfusion deconvolution approach via structure tensor total variation (STV) regularization (PD-STV) for estimating an accurate residue function in PCT imaging with the low-milliampere-seconds (low-mAs) data acquisition. Methods: Besides modeling the spatio-temporal structure information of PCT data, the STV regularization of the present PD-STV approach can utilize the higher order derivatives of the residue function to enhance denoising performance. To minimize the objective function, the authors propose an effective iterative algorithm with a shrinkage/thresholding scheme. A simulation study on a digital brain perfusion phantom and a clinical study on an old infarction patient were conducted to validate and evaluate the performance of the present PD-STV approach. Results: In the digital phantom study, visual inspection and quantitative metrics (i.e., the normalized mean square error, the peak signal-to-noise ratio, and the universal quality index) assessments demonstrated that the PD-STV approach outperformed other existing approaches in terms of the performance of noise-induced artifacts reduction and accurate perfusion hemodynamic maps (PHM) estimation. In the patient data study, the present PD-STV approach could yield accurate PHM estimation with several noticeable gains over other existing approaches in terms of visual inspection and correlation analysis. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of the present PD-STV approach in utilizing STV regularization to improve the accuracy of residue function estimation of cerebral PCT imaging in the case of low-mAs.

Predicting successful long-term weight loss from short-term weight-loss outcomes: new insights from a dynamic energy balance model (the POUNDS Lost study).

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Diana M; Ivanescu, Andrada E; Martin, Corby K; Heymsfield, Steven B; Marshall, Kaitlyn; Bodrato, Victoria E; Williamson, Donald A; Anton, Stephen D; Sacks, Frank M; Ryan, Donna; Bray, George A

2015-03-01

Currently, early weight-loss predictions of long-term weight-loss success rely on fixed percent-weight-loss thresholds. The objective was to develop thresholds during the first 3 mo of intervention that include the influence of age, sex, baseline weight, percent weight loss, and deviations from expected weight to predict whether a participant is likely to lose 5% or more body weight by year 1. Data consisting of month 1, 2, 3, and 12 treatment weights were obtained from the 2-y Preventing Obesity Using Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS Lost) intervention. Logistic regression models that included covariates of age, height, sex, baseline weight, target energy intake, percent weight loss, and deviation of actual weight from expected were developed for months 1, 2, and 3 that predicted the probability of losing model. The AUC statistic quantified the ROC curve's capacity to classify participants likely to lose models yielding the highest AUC were retained as optimal. For comparison with current practice, ROC curves relying solely on percent weight loss were also calculated. Optimal models for months 1, 2, and 3 yielded ROC curves with AUCs of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.74), 0.75 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.81), and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.84), respectively. Percent weight loss alone was not better at identifying true positives than random chance (AUC ≤0.50). The newly derived models provide a personalized prediction of long-term success from early weight-loss variables. The predictions improve on existing fixed percent-weight-loss thresholds. Future research is needed to explore model application for informing treatment approaches during early intervention. © 2015 American Society for Nutrition.

Black pod: diverse pathogens with a global impact on cocoa yield.

Science.gov (United States)

Guest, David

2007-12-01

ABSTRACT Pathogens of the Straminipile genus Phytophthora cause significant disease losses to global cocoa production. P. megakarya causes significant pod rot and losses due to canker in West Africa, whereas P. capsici and P. citrophthora cause pod rots in Central and South America. The global and highly damaging P. palmivora attacks all parts of the cocoa tree at all stages of the growing cycle. This pathogen causes 20 to 30% pod losses through black pod rot, and kills up to 10% of trees annually through stem cankers. P. palmivora has a complex disease cycle involving several sources of primary inoculum and several modes of dissemination of secondary inoculum. This results in explosive epidemics during favorable environmental conditions. The spread of regional pathogens must be prevented by effective quarantine barriers. Resistance to all these Phytophthora species is typically low in commercial cocoa genotypes. Disease losses can be reduced through integrated management practices that include pruning and shade management, leaf mulching, regular and complete harvesting, sanitation and pod case disposal, appropriate fertilizer application and targeted fungicide use. Packaging these options to improve uptake by smallholders presents a major challenge for the industry.

Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging

OpenAIRE

Blondelle, Geoffrey; Hainselin, Mathieu; Gounden, Yannick; Heurley, Laurent; Voisin, Hélène; Megalakaki, Olga; Bressous, Estelle; Quaglino, Véronique

2016-01-01

Background: Regularity effect can affect performance in prospective memory (PM), but little is known on the cognitive processes linked to this effect. Moreover, its impacts with regard to aging remain unknown. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine regularity effect in PM in a lifespan perspective, with a sample of young, intermediate, and older adults.Objective and design: Our study examined the regularity effect in PM in three groups of participants: 28 young adults (18–30), 1...

No-tillage and fertilization management on crop yields and nitrate leaching in North China Plain

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Manxiang; Liang, Tao; Wang, Lingqing; Zhou, Chenghu

2015-01-01

A field experiment was performed from 2003 to 2008 to evaluate the effects of tillage system and nitrogen management regimes on crop yields and nitrate leaching from the fluvo-aquic soil with a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–maize (Zea mays L.) double-cropping system. The tillage systems consisted of conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT). Three nitrogen management regimes were included: 270 kg N ha−1 of urea for wheat and 225 kg N ha−1 of urea for maize (U), 180 kg N ha−1 of urea and 90 kg N ha−1 of straw for wheat and 180 kg N of urea and 45 kg N ha−1 of straw for maize (S), 180 kg N ha−1 of urea and 90 kg N ha−1 of manure for wheat and 180 kg N ha−1 of urea and 45 kg N ha−1 of manure for maize (M). An array of tension-free pan lysimeters (50 cm × 75 cm) were installed (1.2 m deep) to measure water flow and -N movement. No significant effect of the N management regime on yields of winter wheat and maize grain was found in the 5-year rotation. Tillage systems had significant influences on -N leaching from the second year and thereafter interacted with N management regimes on -N loads during all maize seasons. The average yield-scaled -N leaching losses were in order of CTS leaching losses while sustaining crop grain yields. Considering the lower costs, NTS could be a potential alternative to decrease yield-scaled -N leaching losses and improve soil fertility while maintaining crop yield for the winter wheat–maize double-cropping systems in the North China Plain. PMID:25859321

The impact of tropospheric ozone pollution on trial plot winter wheat yields in Great Britain - an econometric approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaliakatsou, Evridiki; Bell, J Nigel B; Thirtle, Colin; Rose, Daniel; Power, Sally A

2010-05-01

Numerous experiments have demonstrated reductions in the yields of cereal crops due to tropospheric O(3), with losses of up to 25%. However, the only British econometric study on O(3) impacts on winter wheat yields, found that a 10% increase in AOT40 would decrease yields by only 0.23%. An attempt is made here to reconcile these observations by developing AOT40 maps for Great Britain and matching levels with a large number of standardised trial plot wheat yields from many sites over a 13-year period. Panel estimates (repeated measures on the same plots with time) show a 0.54% decrease in yields and it is hypothesised that plant breeders may have inadvertently selected for O(3) tolerance in wheat. Some support for this is provided by fumigations of cultivars of differing introduction dates. A case is made for the use of econometric as well as experimental studies in prediction of air pollution induced crop loss. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

20 CFR 226.14 - Employee regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Employee regular annuity rate. 226.14 Section... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing an Employee Annuity § 226.14 Employee regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate payable to the employee is the total of the employee tier I...

Electrical energy prices and losses respect to Turkish social-economic situations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berktay, Ali; Demirbas, Ayhan; Kocak, Saim; Nas, Bilgehan

2004-01-01

Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of the most widely used forms of energy. Electricity, which is a secondary energy source, can be generated from the conversion of other sources of energy, such as coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power and renewable resources. Electricity prices have a deep impact on the competitiveness of a country's industry. Some electricity losses may occur during the process of transmission and distribution from generators to consumers. Generally there are two types of losses, one is technical losses which cover transmission losses and the other is non-technical losses including distribution losses and the incidence of illegal usage. The aim of this paper is to present the electricity usage and prices and is also to focus on the electricity losses occur both technical and non-technical means. An 'electricity losses map' was produced to illustrate the electricity losses. For this purpose, a vector based Geographic Information System (GIS) software package Arc GIS 8.3 was employed to map the data. The rate of losses within the electricity provided to the national network was about 19% in Turkey. The incidence of illegal usage and hence the rate of non-technical losses could be reduced dramatically through establishing regular action. (Author)

Simulating the effects of climate and agricultural management practices on global crop yield

Science.gov (United States)

Deryng, D.; Sacks, W. J.; Barford, C. C.; Ramankutty, N.

2011-06-01

Climate change is expected to significantly impact global food production, and it is important to understand the potential geographic distribution of yield losses and the means to alleviate them. This study presents a new global crop model, PEGASUS 1.0 (Predicting Ecosystem Goods And Services Using Scenarios) that integrates, in addition to climate, the effect of planting dates and cultivar choices, irrigation, and fertilizer application on crop yield for maize, soybean, and spring wheat. PEGASUS combines carbon dynamics for crops with a surface energy and soil water balance model. It also benefits from the recent development of a suite of global data sets and analyses that serve as model inputs or as calibration data. These include data on crop planting and harvesting dates, crop-specific irrigated areas, a global analysis of yield gaps, and harvested area and yield of major crops. Model results for present-day climate and farm management compare reasonably well with global data. Simulated planting and harvesting dates are within the range of crop calendar observations in more than 75% of the total crop-harvested areas. Correlation of simulated and observed crop yields indicates a weighted coefficient of determination, with the weighting based on crop-harvested area, of 0.81 for maize, 0.66 for soybean, and 0.45 for spring wheat. We found that changes in temperature and precipitation as predicted by global climate models for the 2050s lead to a global yield reduction if planting and harvesting dates remain unchanged. However, adapting planting dates and cultivar choices increases yield in temperate regions and avoids 7-18% of global losses.

Regular algebra and finite machines

CERN Document Server

Conway, John Horton

2012-01-01

World-famous mathematician John H. Conway based this classic text on a 1966 course he taught at Cambridge University. Geared toward graduate students of mathematics, it will also prove a valuable guide to researchers and professional mathematicians.His topics cover Moore's theory of experiments, Kleene's theory of regular events and expressions, Kleene algebras, the differential calculus of events, factors and the factor matrix, and the theory of operators. Additional subjects include event classes and operator classes, some regulator algebras, context-free languages, communicative regular alg

39 CFR 6.1 - Regular meetings, annual meeting.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Regular meetings, annual meeting. 6.1 Section 6.1 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE MEETINGS (ARTICLE VI) § 6.1 Regular meetings, annual meeting. The Board shall meet regularly on a schedule...

Regularities of the extraction of rare earth elements with triisoamyl phosphate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Danilov, N.A.; Korpusov, G.V.; Utkina, O.V.; Pogorel'skaya, S.A.

1988-01-01

A study was made on practically important regularities of rare earth element (REE) extraction by triisoamyl phosphate (TiAP): isotherms of REE extraction, effect of REE and salting-out agents concentrations in aqueous phase on REE distribution and separation coefficients, effect of HNO 3 concentration and others. The data obtained show, that TiAP is the typical representative of neutral organophosphoric compounds, and its extraction properties are close to those of TBP. The third phase doesn't form during REE nitrate extraction by TiAP solutions in saturated hydrocarbons of any concentration. High selectivity is not observed during separation of cerium subgroup REE by TiAP. TiAP losses are lower than those of TBP due to lower TiAP solubility in water

Meta-analysis of yield response of hybrid field corn to foliar fungicides in the U.S. Corn Belt.

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, P A; Madden, L V; Bradley, C A; Robertson, A E; Munkvold, G P; Shaner, G; Wise, K A; Malvick, D K; Allen, T W; Grybauskas, A; Vincelli, P; Esker, P

2011-09-01

The use of foliar fungicides on field corn has increased greatly over the past 5 years in the United States in an attempt to increase yields, despite limited evidence that use of the fungicides is consistently profitable. To assess the value of using fungicides in grain corn production, random-effects meta-analyses were performed on results from foliar fungicide experiments conducted during 2002 to 2009 in 14 states across the United States to determine the mean yield response to the fungicides azoxystrobin, pyraclostrobin, propiconazole + trifloxystrobin, and propiconazole + azoxystrobin. For all fungicides, the yield difference between treated and nontreated plots was highly variable among studies. All four fungicides resulted in a significant mean yield increase relative to the nontreated plots (P pyraclostrobin (256 kg/ha), and lowest for azoxystrobin (230 kg/ha). Baseline yield (mean yield in the nontreated plots) had a significant effect on yield for propiconazole + azoxystrobin (P pyraclostrobin, propiconazole + trifloxystrobin, and propiconazole + azoxystrobin but not to azoxystrobin. Mean yield difference was generally higher in the lowest yield and higher disease severity categories than in the highest yield and lower disease categories. The probability of failing to recover the fungicide application cost (p(loss)) also was estimated for a range of grain corn prices and application costs. At the 10-year average corn grain price of $0.12/kg ($2.97/bushel) and application costs of $40 to 95/ha, p(loss) for disease severity pyraclostrobin, 0.62 to 0.93 for propiconazole + trifloxystrobin, 0.58 to 0.89 for propiconazole + azoxystrobin, and 0.91 to 0.99 for azoxystrobin. When disease severity was >5%, the corresponding probabilities were 0.36 to 95, 0.25 to 0.69, 0.25 to 0.64, and 0.37 to 0.98 for the four fungicides. In conclusion, the high p(loss) values found in most scenarios suggest that the use of these foliar fungicides is unlikely to be profitable when

Traction cytometry: regularization in the Fourier approach and comparisons with finite element method.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulkarni, Ankur H; Ghosh, Prasenjit; Seetharaman, Ashwin; Kondaiah, Paturu; Gundiah, Namrata

2018-05-09

Traction forces exerted by adherent cells are quantified using displacements of embedded markers on polyacrylamide substrates due to cell contractility. Fourier Transform Traction Cytometry (FTTC) is widely used to calculate tractions but has inherent limitations due to errors in the displacement fields; these are mitigated through a regularization parameter (γ) in the Reg-FTTC method. An alternate finite element (FE) approach computes tractions on a domain using known boundary conditions. Robust verification and recovery studies are lacking but essential in assessing the accuracy and noise sensitivity of the traction solutions from the different methods. We implemented the L2 regularization method and defined a maximum curvature point in the traction with γ plot as the optimal regularization parameter (γ*) in the Reg-FTTC approach. Traction reconstructions using γ* yield accurate values of low and maximum tractions (Tmax) in the presence of up to 5% noise. Reg-FTTC is hence a clear improvement over the FTTC method but is inadequate to reconstruct low stresses such as those at nascent focal adhesions. FE, implemented using a node-by-node comparison, showed an intermediate reconstruction compared to Reg-FTTC. We performed experiments using mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) and compared results between these approaches. Tractions from FTTC and FE showed differences of ∼92% and 22% as compared to Reg-FTTC. Selection of an optimum value of γ for each cell reduced variability in the computed tractions as compared to using a single value of γ for all the MEF cells in this study.

Prediction of the competitive effects of weeds on crop yields based on the relative leaf area of weeds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lotz, L. A. P.; Christensen, Svend; Cloutier, D.

1996-01-01

. alba whereas the density model did not. A parameter that allows the maximum yield loss to be smaller than 100% was mostly not needed to describe the effects of weed competition. The parameter that denotes the competitiveness of the weed species with respect to the crop decreased the later the relative......For implementation of simple yield loss models into threshold-based weed management systems, a thorough validation is needed over a great diversity of sites. Yield losses by competition wsth Sinapis alba L. (white mustard) as a model weed, were studied in 12 experiments in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris...... L.) and in 11 experiments in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Most data sets were heller described by a model based on the relative leaf area of the weed than by a hyperbolic model based on weed density. This leaf area model accounted for (part of) the effect of different emerging times of the S...

Biosecurity and yield improvement technologies are strategic complements in the fight against food insecurity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David C Cook

Full Text Available The delivery of food security via continued crop yield improvement alone is not an effective food security strategy, and must be supported by pre- and post-border biosecurity policies to guard against perverse outcomes. In the wake of the green revolution, yield gains have been in steady decline, while post-harvest crop losses have increased as a result of insufficiently resourced and uncoordinated efforts to control spoilage throughout global transport and storage networks. This paper focuses on the role that biosecurity is set to play in future food security by preventing both pre- and post-harvest losses, thereby protecting crop yield. We model biosecurity as a food security technology that may complement conventional yield improvement policies if the gains in global farm profits are sufficient to offset the costs of implementation and maintenance. Using phytosanitary measures that slow global spread of the Ug99 strain of wheat stem rust as an example of pre-border biosecurity risk mitigation and combining it with post-border surveillance and invasive alien species control efforts, we estimate global farm profitability may be improved by over US$4.5 billion per annum.

Is Reduction in Yield Potential of Some Brassicaceous Species Due to Aphid Infestation Associated with the Changes in Stomatal Factors of Photosynthesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Razaq, M.; Farooq, M.; Abbas, G.; Rehman, H. M.; Iqbal, M.

2016-01-01

Aphids cause heavy yield losses to Brassicaceous species by affecting various physiological and biochemical processes including photosynthesis. In the present study, seasonal activity of aphid population and its impact on some brassicaceous species was assessed. Three brassicaceous species (Brassica campestris, Brassica carinata, Eruca sativa) were grown in field following standard agricultural practices. Plants of control plots retained aphid free by insecticide spray, whereas treatment plots were freely allowed for aphid infestation. There was also intermediate treatment of partial aphid infestation where insecticidal spray was applied two times. Peak populations of both aphid species were observed in the 2nd week of March during which plant photosynthetic attributes were recorded. At the time of maturity, yield attributes were also recorded. From the results, it is obvious that application of insecticide significantly reduced the aphid populations on the three brassicaceous species and enhanced the crop yield. Yield losses due to aphid infestation were maximal in Brassica campestris followed by B. carinata whereas it was minimal in Eruca sativa. Yield losses in Brassica campestris and B. carinata were due to reduction in number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and size of seeds, whereas yield losses due to aphid infestation in Eruca sativa was mainly attributed to reduction in number of pods per plant. Although insecticidal spray reduced the aphid population and increased growth and productivity of all brassicaceous species, it did not change photosynthetic capacity of all plants except in Eruca sativa. Moreover, growth and yield reduction was not associated with stomatal factors of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll contents measured as SPAD values were reduced due to aphid infestation which is positively associated with yield reduction. Insecticidal spray increased chlorophyll contents in these three brassicaceous species by reducing aphid population

Sediment Yields of Basins in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey

OpenAIRE

CAMBAZOĞLU, Mustafa Kemal; GÖĞÜŞ, Mustafa

2014-01-01

Soil loss and sediment yield are estimated for the basins of the Western Black Sea region of Turkey with different prediction models. The universal soil loss equation (USLE) is the first model applied in this study. Due to the lack of reliable measurement data, the results determined by the application of the USLE using weighted average factors are compared with the results from geographical information system supported USLE predictions undertaken in the TEFER studies performed in th...

A regularized stationary mean-field game

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xianjin

2016-01-01

In the thesis, we discuss the existence and numerical approximations of solutions of a regularized mean-field game with a low-order regularization. In the first part, we prove a priori estimates and use the continuation method to obtain the existence of a solution with a positive density. Finally, we introduce the monotone flow method and solve the system numerically.

A regularized stationary mean-field game

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xianjin

2016-04-19

In the thesis, we discuss the existence and numerical approximations of solutions of a regularized mean-field game with a low-order regularization. In the first part, we prove a priori estimates and use the continuation method to obtain the existence of a solution with a positive density. Finally, we introduce the monotone flow method and solve the system numerically.

Automating InDesign with Regular Expressions

CERN Document Server

Kahrel, Peter

2006-01-01

If you need to make automated changes to InDesign documents beyond what basic search and replace can handle, you need regular expressions, and a bit of scripting to make them work. This Short Cut explains both how to write regular expressions, so you can find and replace the right things, and how to use them in InDesign specifically.

Interrelationships of somatic cell count, mastitis, and milk yield in a low somatic cell count herd.

Science.gov (United States)

Deluyker, H A; Gay, J M; Weaver, L D

1993-11-01

In a high yielding low SCC herd, changes in milk yield associated with SCC and occurrence of clinical mastitis and differences in SCC with parity, clinical mastitis, and DIM were investigated. Milk yield data were obtained at every milking, and SCC was measured once every 48 h in 117 cows during the first 119 d postpartum. Effects of SCC and clinical mastitis on cumulative milk yield in the first 119 d postpartum were evaluated with least squares linear regression. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to detect changes in SCC. The SCC was highest at lactation onset, and cows with clinical mastitis had significantly higher SCC. During the 10 d prior to onset of clinical mastitis, SCC was higher in affected cows than in matched unaffected controls and surged just prior to diagnosis. During the 10-d period following a mastitis treatment, SCC differences between treated and control cows remained significant but became smaller with time and returned to the premastitis differences. Occurrence of clinical mastitis was associated with 5% milk yield loss. Cows with mean SCC > 245,000 cells/ml over the 119 d showed 6.2% yield loss compared with cows with SCC 245,000 cells/ml) because a greater percentage of cows (26%) had clinical mastitis than elevated SCC (12.5%).

Atomic Oxygen Erosion Yield Prediction for Spacecraft Polymers in Low Earth Orbit

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Bruce A.; Backus, Jane A.; Manno, Michael V.; Waters, Deborah L.; Cameron, Kevin C.; deGroh, Kim K.

2009-01-01

The ability to predict the atomic oxygen erosion yield of polymers based on their chemistry and physical properties has been only partially successful because of a lack of reliable low Earth orbit (LEO) erosion yield data. Unfortunately, many of the early experiments did not utilize dehydrated mass loss measurements for erosion yield determination, and the resulting mass loss due to atomic oxygen exposure may have been compromised because samples were often not in consistent states of dehydration during the pre-flight and post-flight mass measurements. This is a particular problem for short duration mission exposures or low erosion yield materials. However, as a result of the retrieval of the Polymer Erosion and Contamination Experiment (PEACE) flown as part of the Materials International Space Station Experiment 2 (MISSE 2), the erosion yields of 38 polymers and pyrolytic graphite were accurately measured. The experiment was exposed to the LEO environment for 3.95 years from August 16, 2001 to July 30, 2005 and was successfully retrieved during a space walk on July 30, 2005 during Discovery s STS-114 Return to Flight mission. The 40 different materials tested (including Kapton H fluence witness samples) were selected specifically to represent a variety of polymers used in space as well as a wide variety of polymer chemical structures. The MISSE 2 PEACE Polymers experiment used carefully dehydrated mass measurements, as well as accurate density measurements to obtain accurate erosion yield data for high-fluence (8.43 1021 atoms/sq cm). The resulting data was used to develop an erosion yield predictive tool with a correlation coefficient of 0.895 and uncertainty of +/-6.3 10(exp -25)cu cm/atom. The predictive tool utilizes the chemical structures and physical properties of polymers to predict in-space atomic oxygen erosion yields. A predictive tool concept (September 2009 version) is presented which represents an improvement over an earlier (December 2008) version.

Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity.

Science.gov (United States)

Trimmer, Pete C

2013-07-22

Understanding decisions is a fundamental aim of behavioural ecology, psychology and economics. The regularity axiom of utility theory holds that a preference between options should be maintained when other options are made available. Empirical studies have shown that animals violate regularity but this has not been understood from a theoretical perspective, such decisions have therefore been labelled as irrational. Here, I use models of state-dependent behaviour to demonstrate that choices can violate regularity even when behavioural strategies are optimal. I also show that the range of conditions over which regularity should be violated can be larger when options do not always persist into the future. Consequently, utility theory--based on axioms, including transitivity, regularity and the independence of irrelevant alternatives--is undermined, because even alternatives that are never chosen by an animal (in its current state) can be relevant to a decision.

Dimensional regularization in configuration space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bollini, C.G.; Giambiagi, J.J.

1995-09-01

Dimensional regularization is introduced in configuration space by Fourier transforming in D-dimensions the perturbative momentum space Green functions. For this transformation, Bochner theorem is used, no extra parameters, such as those of Feynman or Bogoliubov-Shirkov are needed for convolutions. The regularized causal functions in x-space have ν-dependent moderated singularities at the origin. They can be multiplied together and Fourier transformed (Bochner) without divergence problems. The usual ultraviolet divergences appear as poles of the resultant functions of ν. Several example are discussed. (author). 9 refs

Matrix regularization of 4-manifolds

OpenAIRE

Trzetrzelewski, M.

2012-01-01

We consider products of two 2-manifolds such as S^2 x S^2, embedded in Euclidean space and show that the corresponding 4-volume preserving diffeomorphism algebra can be approximated by a tensor product SU(N)xSU(N) i.e. functions on a manifold are approximated by the Kronecker product of two SU(N) matrices. A regularization of the 4-sphere is also performed by constructing N^2 x N^2 matrix representations of the 4-algebra (and as a byproduct of the 3-algebra which makes the regularization of S...

Regular Breakfast and Blood Lead Levels among Preschool Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Needleman Herbert

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous studies have shown that fasting increases lead absorption in the gastrointestinal tract of adults. Regular meals/snacks are recommended as a nutritional intervention for lead poisoning in children, but epidemiological evidence of links between fasting and blood lead levels (B-Pb is rare. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between eating a regular breakfast and B-Pb among children using data from the China Jintan Child Cohort Study. Methods Parents completed a questionnaire regarding children's breakfast-eating habit (regular or not, demographics, and food frequency. Whole blood samples were collected from 1,344 children for the measurements of B-Pb and micronutrients (iron, copper, zinc, calcium, and magnesium. B-Pb and other measures were compared between children with and without regular breakfast. Linear regression modeling was used to evaluate the association between regular breakfast and log-transformed B-Pb. The association between regular breakfast and risk of lead poisoning (B-Pb≥10 μg/dL was examined using logistic regression modeling. Results Median B-Pb among children who ate breakfast regularly and those who did not eat breakfast regularly were 6.1 μg/dL and 7.2 μg/dL, respectively. Eating breakfast was also associated with greater zinc blood levels. Adjusting for other relevant factors, the linear regression model revealed that eating breakfast regularly was significantly associated with lower B-Pb (beta = -0.10 units of log-transformed B-Pb compared with children who did not eat breakfast regularly, p = 0.02. Conclusion The present study provides some initial human data supporting the notion that eating a regular breakfast might reduce B-Pb in young children. To our knowledge, this is the first human study exploring the association between breakfast frequency and B-Pb in young children.

Aging women with polycystic ovary syndrome who achieve regular menstrual cycles have a smaller follicle cohort than those who continue to have irregular cycles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elting, Mariet W.; Kwee, Janet; Korsen, Ted J.M.; Rekers-Mombarg, L.T.M.; Schoemaker, Joop

2003-01-01

To examine whether follicle loss due to ovarian aging is responsible for the occurrence of regular menstrual cycles in aging women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the size of the FSH-sensitive follicle cohort was estimated by the exogenous follicle-stimulating hormone ovarian reserve test

On the equivalence of different regularization methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzezowski, S.

1985-01-01

The R-circunflex-operation preceded by the regularization procedure is discussed. Some arguments are given, according to which the results may depend on the method of regularization, introduced in order to avoid divergences in perturbation calculations. 10 refs. (author)

Accreting fluids onto regular black holes via Hamiltonian approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jawad, Abdul [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan); Shahzad, M.U. [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan); University of Central Punjab, CAMS, UCP Business School, Lahore (Pakistan)

2017-08-15

We investigate the accretion of test fluids onto regular black holes such as Kehagias-Sfetsos black holes and regular black holes with Dagum distribution function. We analyze the accretion process when different test fluids are falling onto these regular black holes. The accreting fluid is being classified through the equation of state according to the features of regular black holes. The behavior of fluid flow and the existence of sonic points is being checked for these regular black holes. It is noted that the three-velocity depends on critical points and the equation of state parameter on phase space. (orig.)

Jet suppression and the flavor dependence of partonic energy loss with ATLAS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kosek, Tomas

2016-12-15

In relativistic heavy ion collisions, a hot medium with a high density of unscreened color charges is produced. One manifestation of the energy loss of jets propagating through the medium is a lower yield of jets and hadrons emerging from this medium than expected in the absence of medium effects. Therefore modifications of the jet yield are directly sensitive to the energy loss mechanism. Furthermore, jets with different flavor content are expected to be affected by the medium in different ways. In this publication, the latest ATLAS results on single hadron suppression along with the complementary measurements of single jet suppression are presented. Rapidity dependence, which is sensitive to the relative energy loss between quark and gluon jets, is discussed. Finally, a new measurement of jet fragmentation functions is presented.

Understanding the weather signal in national crop-yield variability

Science.gov (United States)

Frieler, Katja; Schauberger, Bernhard; Arneth, Almut; Balkovič, Juraj; Chryssanthacopoulos, James; Deryng, Delphine; Elliott, Joshua; Folberth, Christian; Khabarov, Nikolay; Müller, Christoph; Olin, Stefan; Pugh, Thomas A. M.; Schaphoff, Sibyll; Schewe, Jacob; Schmid, Erwin; Warszawski, Lila; Levermann, Anders

2017-06-01

Year-to-year variations in crop yields can have major impacts on the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and may trigger significant global price fluctuations, with severe consequences for people in developing countries. Fluctuations can be induced by weather conditions, management decisions, weeds, diseases, and pests. Although an explicit quantification and deeper understanding of weather-induced crop-yield variability is essential for adaptation strategies, so far it has only been addressed by empirical models. Here, we provide conservative estimates of the fraction of reported national yield variabilities that can be attributed to weather by state-of-the-art, process-based crop model simulations. We find that observed weather variations can explain more than 50% of the variability in wheat yields in Australia, Canada, Spain, Hungary, and Romania. For maize, weather sensitivities exceed 50% in seven countries, including the United States. The explained variance exceeds 50% for rice in Japan and South Korea and for soy in Argentina. Avoiding water stress by simulating yields assuming full irrigation shows that water limitation is a major driver of the observed variations in most of these countries. Identifying the mechanisms leading to crop-yield fluctuations is not only fundamental for dampening fluctuations, but is also important in the context of the debate on the attribution of loss and damage to climate change. Since process-based crop models not only account for weather influences on crop yields, but also provide options to represent human-management measures, they could become essential tools for differentiating these drivers, and for exploring options to reduce future yield fluctuations.

Evaluation of milk yield losses associated with Salmonella antibodies in bulk tank milk in bovine dairy herds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, T D; Green, L E; Kudahl, Anne Margrethe Braad

2012-01-01

The effect of Salmonella on milk production is not well established in cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate whether introduction of Salmonella into dairy cattle herds was associated with reduced milk yield and determine the duration of any such effect. Longitudinal data from 2005...... through 2009 were used, with data from 12 mo before until 18 mo after the estimated date of infection. Twenty-eight case herds were selected based on an increase in the level of Salmonella-specific antibodies in bulk-tank milk from ... was randomly allocated to the control herds. Hierarchical mixed effect models with the outcome test-day yield of energy-corrected milk (ECM)/cow were used to investigate daily milk yield before and after the estimated herd infection date for cows in parities 1, 2, and 3+. Control herds were used to evaluate...

Low hybrid onion seed yields relate to honey bee visits and insecticide use

OpenAIRE

Long, Rachael Freeman; Morandin, Lora

2011-01-01

Onion thrips, previously considered of minor importance to hybrid onion seed production in California, vector the newly introduced iris yellow spot virus, a serious pathogen of onions that can cause significant yield losses. Insecticide use to control onion thrips has increased in onion seed fields, coincident with a steep decrease in yields, especially in Colusa County. We examined a number of possible contributing factors and found a strong positive correlation between honey bee activity an...

Effects of surface soil loss in South Eastern Nigeria: I. crop ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The widespread incidence of soil erosion in the tropics has been identified, though few studies have dealt with specific problems of decline in crop productivity associated with soil loss. An understanding of the influence of surface soil loss on crop yield is necessary in order to find out their effects on performance of crops.

The global impact of ozone on agricultural crop yields under current and future air quality legislation

Science.gov (United States)

Van Dingenen, Rita; Dentener, Frank J.; Raes, Frank; Krol, Maarten C.; Emberson, Lisa; Cofala, Janusz

In this paper we evaluate the global impact of surface ozone on four types of agricultural crop. The study is based on modelled global hourly ozone fields for the year 2000 and 2030, using the global 1°×1° 2-way nested atmospheric chemical transport model (TM5). Projections for the year 2030 are based on the relatively optimistic "current legislation (CLE) scenario", i.e. assuming that currently approved air quality legislation will be fully implemented by the year 2030, without a further development of new abatement policies. For both runs, the relative yield loss due to ozone damage is evaluated based on two different indices (accumulated concentration above a 40 ppbV threshold and seasonal mean daytime ozone concentration respectively) on a global, regional and national scale. The cumulative metric appears to be far less robust than the seasonal mean, while the seasonal mean shows satisfactory agreement with measurements in Europe, the US, China and Southern India and South-East Asia. Present day global relative yield losses are estimated to range between 7% and 12% for wheat, between 6% and 16% for soybean, between 3% and 4% for rice, and between 3% and 5% for maize (range resulting from different metrics used). Taking into account possible biases in our assessment, introduced through the global application of "western" crop exposure-response functions, and through model performance in reproducing ozone-exposure metrics, our estimates may be considered as being conservative. Under the 2030 CLE scenario, the global situation is expected to deteriorate mainly for wheat (additional 2-6% loss globally) and rice (additional 1-2% loss globally). India, for which no mitigation measures have been assumed by 2030, accounts for 50% of these global increase in crop yield loss. On a regional-scale, significant reductions in crop losses by CLE-2030 are only predicted in Europe (soybean) and China (wheat). Translating these assumed yield losses into total global economic

Experimental signatures of a nonequilibrium phase transition governing the yielding of a soft glass.

Science.gov (United States)

Hima Nagamanasa, K; Gokhale, Shreyas; Sood, A K; Ganapathy, Rajesh

2014-06-01

We present direct experimental signatures of a nonequilibrium phase transition associated with the yield point of a prototypical soft solid-a binary colloidal glass. By simultaneously quantifying single-particle dynamics and bulk mechanical response, we identified the threshold for the onset of irreversibility with the yield strain. We extracted the relaxation time from the transient behavior of the loss modulus and found that it diverges in the vicinity of the yield strain. This critical slowing down is accompanied by a growing correlation length associated with the size of regions of high Debye-Waller factor, which are precursors to yield events in glasses. Our results affirm that the paradigm of nonequilibrium critical phenomena is instrumental in achieving a holistic understanding of yielding in soft solids.

Bounded Perturbation Regularization for Linear Least Squares Estimation

KAUST Repository

Ballal, Tarig

2017-10-18

This paper addresses the problem of selecting the regularization parameter for linear least-squares estimation. We propose a new technique called bounded perturbation regularization (BPR). In the proposed BPR method, a perturbation with a bounded norm is allowed into the linear transformation matrix to improve the singular-value structure. Following this, the problem is formulated as a min-max optimization problem. Next, the min-max problem is converted to an equivalent minimization problem to estimate the unknown vector quantity. The solution of the minimization problem is shown to converge to that of the ℓ2 -regularized least squares problem, with the unknown regularizer related to the norm bound of the introduced perturbation through a nonlinear constraint. A procedure is proposed that combines the constraint equation with the mean squared error (MSE) criterion to develop an approximately optimal regularization parameter selection algorithm. Both direct and indirect applications of the proposed method are considered. Comparisons with different Tikhonov regularization parameter selection methods, as well as with other relevant methods, are carried out. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method provides significant improvement over state-of-the-art methods.

Localization of plastic yield and fracture mechanism in high-strength niobium alloy with ultra-fine particles of non-metallic phase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tyumentsev, A.N.; Gonchikov, V.Ch.; Korotaev, A.D.; Pinzhin, Yu.P.; Tyumentseva, S.F.

1989-01-01

The regularities of localization of plastic flow in high-strength dispersion-strengthened niobium alloy are studied. On the basis of investigations of the microstructure of strain localization zones the mechanism of stability losses of plastic flow including, the processes of diffusion of nonequilibrium vacancies in fields of nonuniform stresses, is proposed. The role of diffuse strain mechanisms during reorientation of the crystalline lattice is discussed. The regularities of fracture of high-strength alloy under conditions of rotational-shift instability of plastic flow are investigated

Effect of reflection losses on stationary dielectric-filled nonimaging concentrators

Science.gov (United States)

Madala, Srikanth; Boehm, Robert F.

2016-10-01

The effect of Fresnel reflection and total internal reflection (TIR) losses on the performance parameters in refractive solar concentrators has often been downplayed because most refractive solar concentrators are traditionally the imaging type, yielding a line or point image on the absorber surface when solely interacted with paraxial etendue ensured by solar tracking. Whereas, with refractive-type nonimaging solar concentrators that achieve two-dimensional (rectangular strip) focus or three-dimensional (circular or elliptical) focus through interaction with both paraxial and nonparaxial etendue within the acceptance angle, the Fresnel reflection and TIR losses are significant as they will affect the performance parameters and, thereby, energy collection. A raytracing analysis has been carried out to illustrate the effects of Fresnel reflection and TIR losses on four different types of stationary dielectric-filled nonimaging concentrators, namely V-trough, compound parabolic concentrator, compound elliptical concentrator, and compound hyperbolic concentrator. The refractive index (RI) of a dielectric fill material determines the acceptance angle of a solid nonimaging collector. Larger refractive indices yield larger acceptance angles and, thereby, larger energy collection. However, they also increase the Fresnel reflection losses. This paper also assesses the relative benefit of increasing RI from an energy collection standpoint.

The benefits of Square dancing as a means of physical activity for Czech dancers with hearing loss

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Kurková

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Hearing, a strong line of communication that enables individuals to learn about the world around them, is a major factor contributing to the psychomotor development of every individual. Hearing loss can also affect the conception and perception of sounds and rhythm. Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse the benefits of Square and Round dancing for persons with hearing loss. Methods: The present study is an analytic-descriptive qualitative research. The sample was constituted non-probabilistically based on the following features: a a participant had to have hearing problems (hearing loss and b had to have participated regularly in Square dance for at least two years. Each participant was asked to name possible people to be interviewed (snowball technique. We analysed the data of 7 individuals (6 males and 1 female with hearing loss. The mean age of the dancers with hearing loss was 51.3 years. The participants had no cochlear implants or any other physical or vision related impairments. Results: The present findings constitute the first published survey regarding Czech Square dancers' status, their family's hearing status, hearing aid use, communication preference, education in integrated or segregated settings, the influence of family background on dance initiation, coach preference (hearing or deaf, and the environment for participation in Square dance as a mode of physical activity with regular dancers and with dancers with hearing loss as well. In the present sample of dancers with hearing loss, most were from hearing families and had hearing siblings. The degree to which individuals with hearing loss feel comfortable with the hearing world appears to influence their later preference for participating in regular, as opposed to segregated, physical activities. More than half of the dancers with hearing loss who participated in this research study would like to meet with the deaf minority. One of the

Effects of elevated O3 concentration on winter wheat and rice yields in the Yangtze River Delta, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Xiaoke; Zhang Qianqian; Zheng Feixiang; Zheng Qiwei; Yao Fangfang; Chen Zhan; Zhang Weiwei; Hou Peiqiang; Feng Zhaozhong; Song Wenzhi; Feng Zongwei; Lu Fei

2012-01-01

The effects of a continuing rise of ambient ozone on crop yield will seriously threaten food security in China. In the Yangtze River Delta, a rapidly developing and seriously air polluted region in China, innovative open-top chambers have been established to fumigate winter wheat and rice in situ with elevated O 3 . Five years of study have shown that the yields of wheat and rice decreased with increasing O 3 concentration. There were significant relationships between the relative yield and AOT40 (accumulated hourly O 3 concentration over 40 ppb) for both winter wheat and rice. Winter wheat was more sensitive to O 3 than rice. O 3 -induced yield declines were attributed primarily to 1000-grain weight and harvest index for winter wheat, and attributed primarily to grain number per panicle and harvest index for rice. Control of ambient O 3 pollution and breeding of O 3 tolerant crops are urgent to guarantee food security in China. - Highlights: ► The wheat and rice response to ozone had been investigated for five years in China. ► There were significant relationships between relative crop yields and AOT40 dose. ► O 3 -induced wheat yield loss was primarily due to 1000-grain weight and harvest index. ► O 3 -induced rice yield loss was primarily due to grains per panicle and harvest index. ► Wheat and rice in this study are more sensitive to O 3 than previous investigations. - The dose–response relationships derived from field fumigation experiments over 5 years can be used to accurately estimate crop losses in China.

MRI reconstruction with joint global regularization and transform learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanc, A Korhan; Eksioglu, Ender M

2016-10-01

Sparsity based regularization has been a popular approach to remedy the measurement scarcity in image reconstruction. Recently, sparsifying transforms learned from image patches have been utilized as an effective regularizer for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction. Here, we infuse additional global regularization terms to the patch-based transform learning. We develop an algorithm to solve the resulting novel cost function, which includes both patchwise and global regularization terms. Extensive simulation results indicate that the introduced mixed approach has improved MRI reconstruction performance, when compared to the algorithms which use either of the patchwise transform learning or global regularization terms alone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Strictly-regular number system and data structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmasry, Amr Ahmed Abd Elmoneim; Jensen, Claus; Katajainen, Jyrki

2010-01-01

We introduce a new number system that we call the strictly-regular system, which efficiently supports the operations: digit-increment, digit-decrement, cut, concatenate, and add. Compared to other number systems, the strictly-regular system has distinguishable properties. It is superior to the re...

Analysis of regularized Navier-Stokes equations, 2

Science.gov (United States)

Ou, Yuh-Roung; Sritharan, S. S.

1989-01-01

A practically important regularization of the Navier-Stokes equations was analyzed. As a continuation of the previous work, the structure of the attractors characterizing the solutins was studied. Local as well as global invariant manifolds were found. Regularity properties of these manifolds are analyzed.

Investigation and Determination of Corn Combine Harvester Losses to Introduce Appropriate Methods to Reduce Losses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.R Mostofi Sarkari

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Corn harvesting involves some losses. These losses result in decreased benefits. It is almost impossible to lower losses to zero percent but it can be controlled in an acceptable level. As a result of this research, appropriate methods are introduced to decrease losses and reduce waste. In this project, losses in different part of combine were measured and evaluated according to the available standard method (ASAE S396.2 & S343.3. Harvesting losses include preharvest and during harvest losses comprising ear loss and kernal loss in the header, cylinder and cleaning losses. This project was conducted on farmers’ lands in Gazvin province. Some assessments related to yield factors were evaluated in different parts of farm with specified area, e.g. Plant height, ear number, stem diameter, ear diameter, cob diameter, row/ear and seed/row. All losses evaluated in three treatments which they were: seed moisture content (w.b. in three levels of 19%, 23% and 27%, ground speed in three levels of 0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 ms-1 and cylinder speed of 400, 600 and 800 rpm. The split plot experimental design based on the randomised complete block design (RCBD was used to evaluate treatments. Measured losses compared with standard values to introduce the proper methods to decrease losses and proper adjustments. The results show that appropriate seed moisture content, cylinder and ground speed were 23%, 400 rpm and 1.2 ms-1, respectively. They had minimum total loss which WAS 1.55%, 2.65% and 2.34%, respectivily. The results also show that there was an ear loss in preharvest loss (because of bad weather condition that was 0.95-5.42%, also kernal loss on the header and cylinder loss which all related to improper adjustment of combine but total loss was in an acceptable level and standard. It was variable from 1.55% to 4.02%. Other parameters such as using inexperienced driver, improper combine adjustment, and also nonuniformity of field and ear moisture content in

Regularities, Natural Patterns and Laws of Nature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stathis Psillos

2014-02-01

Full Text Available  The goal of this paper is to sketch an empiricist metaphysics of laws of nature. The key idea is that there are regularities without regularity-enforcers. Differently put, there are natural laws without law-makers of a distinct metaphysical kind. This sketch will rely on the concept of a natural pattern and more significantly on the existence of a network of natural patterns in nature. The relation between a regularity and a pattern will be analysed in terms of mereology.  Here is the road map. In section 2, I will briefly discuss the relation between empiricism and metaphysics, aiming to show that an empiricist metaphysics is possible. In section 3, I will offer arguments against stronger metaphysical views of laws. Then, in section 4 I will motivate nomic objectivism. In section 5, I will address the question ‘what is a regularity?’ and will develop a novel answer to it, based on the notion of a natural pattern. In section 6, I will raise the question: ‘what is a law of nature?’, the answer to which will be: a law of nature is a regularity that is characterised by the unity of a natural pattern.

Sputtering yield calculation for binary target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jimenez-Rodriguez, J.J.; Rodriguez-Vidal, M.; Valles-Abarca, J.A.

1979-01-01

The generalization for binary targets, of the ideas proposed by Sigmund for monoatomic targets, leads to a set of coupled intergrodifferential equations for the sputtering functions. After moment decomposition, the final formulae are obtained by the standard method based on the Laplace Transform, where the inverse transform is made with the aid of asymptotic expansions in the limit of very high projectile energy as compared to the surface binding energy. The possible loss of stoichiometry for binary targets is analyzed. Comparison of computed values of sputtering yield for normal incidence, with experimental results shows good agreement. (author)

High-resolution refinement of a storm loss model and estimation of return periods of loss-intensive storms over Germany

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. G. Donat

2011-10-01

Full Text Available A refined model for the calculation of storm losses is presented, making use of high-resolution insurance loss records for Germany and allowing loss estimates on a spatial level of administrative districts and for single storm events. Storm losses are calculated on the basis of wind speeds from both ERA-Interim and NCEP reanalyses. The loss model reproduces the spatial distribution of observed losses well by taking specific regional loss characteristics into account. This also permits high-accuracy estimates of total cumulated losses, though slightly underestimating the country-wide loss sums for storm "Kyrill", the most severe event in the insurance loss records from 1997 to 2007. A larger deviation, which is assigned to the relatively coarse resolution of the NCEP reanalysis, is only found for one specific rather small-scale event, not adequately captured by this dataset.

The loss model is subsequently applied to the complete reanalysis period to extend the storm event catalogue to cover years when no systematic insurance records are available. This allows the consideration of loss-intensive storm events back to 1948, enlarging the event catalogue to cover the recent 60+ years, and to investigate the statistical characteristics of severe storm loss events in Germany based on a larger sample than provided by the insurance records only. Extreme value analysis is applied to the loss data to estimate the return periods of loss-intensive storms, yielding a return period for storm "Kyrill", for example, of approximately 15 to 21 years.

Regularization of the Boundary-Saddle-Node Bifurcation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we treat a particular class of planar Filippov systems which consist of two smooth systems that are separated by a discontinuity boundary. In such systems one vector field undergoes a saddle-node bifurcation while the other vector field is transversal to the boundary. The boundary-saddle-node (BSN bifurcation occurs at a critical value when the saddle-node point is located on the discontinuity boundary. We derive a local topological normal form for the BSN bifurcation and study its local dynamics by applying the classical Filippov’s convex method and a novel regularization approach. In fact, by the regularization approach a given Filippov system is approximated by a piecewise-smooth continuous system. Moreover, the regularization process produces a singular perturbation problem where the original discontinuous set becomes a center manifold. Thus, the regularization enables us to make use of the established theories for continuous systems and slow-fast systems to study the local behavior around the BSN bifurcation.

Brazilian Soybean Yields and Yield Gaps Vary with Farm Size

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffries, G. R.; Cohn, A.; Griffin, T. S.; Bragança, A.

2017-12-01

Understanding the farm size-specific characteristics of crop yields and yield gaps may help to improve yields by enabling better targeting of technical assistance and agricultural development programs. Linking remote sensing-based yield estimates with property boundaries provides a novel view of the relationship between farm size and yield structure (yield magnitude, gaps, and stability over time). A growing literature documents variations in yield gaps, but largely ignores the role of farm size as a factor shaping yield structure. Research on the inverse farm size-productivity relationship (IR) theory - that small farms are more productive than large ones all else equal - has documented that yield magnitude may vary by farm size, but has not considered other yield structure characteristics. We examined farm size - yield structure relationships for soybeans in Brazil for years 2001-2015. Using out-of-sample soybean yield predictions from a statistical model, we documented 1) gaps between the 95th percentile of attained yields and mean yields within counties and individual fields, and 2) yield stability defined as the standard deviation of time-detrended yields at given locations. We found a direct relationship between soy yields and farm size at the national level, while the strength and the sign of the relationship varied by region. Soybean yield gaps were found to be inversely related to farm size metrics, even when yields were only compared to farms of similar size. The relationship between farm size and yield stability was nonlinear, with mid-sized farms having the most stable yields. The work suggests that farm size is an important factor in understanding yield structure and that opportunities for improving soy yields in Brazil are greatest among smaller farms.

Low-Complexity Regularization Algorithms for Image Deblurring

KAUST Repository

Alanazi, Abdulrahman

2016-11-01

Image restoration problems deal with images in which information has been degraded by blur or noise. In practice, the blur is usually caused by atmospheric turbulence, motion, camera shake, and several other mechanical or physical processes. In this study, we present two regularization algorithms for the image deblurring problem. We first present a new method based on solving a regularized least-squares (RLS) problem. This method is proposed to find a near-optimal value of the regularization parameter in the RLS problems. Experimental results on the non-blind image deblurring problem are presented. In all experiments, comparisons are made with three benchmark methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed method clearly outperforms the other methods in terms of both the output PSNR and structural similarity, as well as the visual quality of the deblurred images. To reduce the complexity of the proposed algorithm, we propose a technique based on the bootstrap method to estimate the regularization parameter in low and high-resolution images. Numerical results show that the proposed technique can effectively reduce the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms. In addition, for some cases where the point spread function (PSF) is separable, we propose using a Kronecker product so as to reduce the computations. Furthermore, in the case where the image is smooth, it is always desirable to replace the regularization term in the RLS problems by a total variation term. Therefore, we propose a novel method for adaptively selecting the regularization parameter in a so-called square root regularized total variation (SRTV). Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms the other benchmark methods when applied to smooth images in terms of PSNR, SSIM and the restored image quality. In this thesis, we focus on the non-blind image deblurring problem, where the blur kernel is assumed to be known. However, we developed algorithms that also work

Improvements in GRACE Gravity Fields Using Regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S.; Tapley, B. D.

2008-12-01

The unconstrained global gravity field models derived from GRACE are susceptible to systematic errors that show up as broad "stripes" aligned in a North-South direction on the global maps of mass flux. These errors are believed to be a consequence of both systematic and random errors in the data that are amplified by the nature of the gravity field inverse problem. These errors impede scientific exploitation of the GRACE data products, and limit the realizable spatial resolution of the GRACE global gravity fields in certain regions. We use regularization techniques to reduce these "stripe" errors in the gravity field products. The regularization criteria are designed such that there is no attenuation of the signal and that the solutions fit the observations as well as an unconstrained solution. We have used a computationally inexpensive method, normally referred to as "L-ribbon", to find the regularization parameter. This paper discusses the characteristics and statistics of a 5-year time-series of regularized gravity field solutions. The solutions show markedly reduced stripes, are of uniformly good quality over time, and leave little or no systematic observation residuals, which is a frequent consequence of signal suppression from regularization. Up to degree 14, the signal in regularized solution shows correlation greater than 0.8 with the un-regularized CSR Release-04 solutions. Signals from large-amplitude and small-spatial extent events - such as the Great Sumatra Andaman Earthquake of 2004 - are visible in the global solutions without using special post-facto error reduction techniques employed previously in the literature. Hydrological signals as small as 5 cm water-layer equivalent in the small river basins, like Indus and Nile for example, are clearly evident, in contrast to noisy estimates from RL04. The residual variability over the oceans relative to a seasonal fit is small except at higher latitudes, and is evident without the need for de-striping or

Internet-based remote counseling to support stress management: preventing interruptions to regular exercise in elderly people

Science.gov (United States)

Hashimoto, Sayuri; Munakata, Tsunestugu; Hashimoto, Nobuyuki; Okunaka, Jyunzo; Koga, Tatsuzo

2006-01-01

Our research showed that a high degree of life-stress has a negative mental health effect that may interrupt regular exercise. We used an internet based, remotely conducted, face to face, preventive counseling program using video monitors to reduce the source of life-stresses that interrupts regular exercise and evaluated the preventative effects of the program in elderly people. NTSC Video signals were converted to the IP protocol and facial images were transmitted to a PC display using the exclusive optical network lines of JGN2. Participants were 22 elderly people in Hokkaido, Japan, who regularly played table tennis. A survey was conducted before the intervention in August 2003. IT remote counseling was conducted on two occasions for one hour on each occasion. A post intervention survey was conducted in February 2004 and a follow-up survey was conducted in March 2005. Network quality was satisfactory with little data loss and high display quality. Results indicated that self-esteem increased significantly, trait anxiety decreased significantly, cognition of emotional support by people other than family members had a tendency to increase, and source of stress had a tendency to decrease after the intervention. Follow-up results indicated that cognition of emotional support by family increased significantly, and interpersonal dependency decreased significantly compared to before the intervention. These results suggest that face to face IT remote counseling using video monitors is useful to keep elderly people from feeling anxious and to make them confident to continue exercising regularly. Moreover, it has a stress management effect.

Quality of white cabbage yield and potential risk of ground water nitrogen pollution, as affected by nitrogen fertilisation and irrigation practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Maršić, Nina Kacjan; Sturm, Martina; Zupanc, Vesna; Lojen, Sonja; Pintar, Marina

2012-01-15

The effect of different fertilisation (broadcast solid NPK application and fertigation with water-soluble fertiliser) and irrigation practices (sprinkler and drip irrigation) on yield, the nitrate content in cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) and the cabbage N uptake was detected, in order to assess the potential risk for N losses, by cultivation on sandy-loam soil. The N rate applied on the plots was 200 kg N ha(-1). The highest yield (93 t ha(-1)) and nitrate content (1256 mg kg(-1) DW) were found with treatments using broadcast fertilisation and sprinkler irrigation. On those plots the negative N balance (-30 kg N ha(-1)) was recorded, which comes mainly from the highest crop N uptake (234 kg N ha(-1)) indicating the lowest potential for N losses. In terms of yield quality and the potential risk for N losses, broadcast fertilisation combined with sprinkler irrigation proved to be the most effective combination among the tested practices under the given experimental conditions. The importance of adequate irrigation is also evident, namely in plots on which 50% drip irrigation was applied, the lowest yield was detected and according to the positive N balance, a higher potential for N losses is expected. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

Reading comprehension of deaf students in regular education.

Science.gov (United States)

Luccas, Marcia Regina Zemella; Chiari, Brasília Maria; Goulart, Bárbara Niegia Garcia de

2012-01-01

To evaluate and compare the reading comprehension of deaf students included in regular classrooms of public schools with and without specialized educational support. Observational analytic study with 35 students with sensorineural hearing loss, with and without educational support. All subjects were assessed with the Word Reading Competence Test (WRCT), the Picture-Print Matching Test by Choice (PPMT-C), and the Sentence Reading Comprehension Test (SRCT). In the tests regarding comprehension of words (WRCT and PPMT-C), the results showed no difference in the performance of deaf students who attend and do not attend educational support. Regarding reading comprehension of sentences, the application of the SRCT also did not show differences between the groups of deaf students. A significant correlation was found between age and grade, indicating that the older the students and the higher their educational level, the better their performance in reading sentences. The results indicate that deaf students, regardless of attending educational support, read words better than sentences. There is no difference in reading comprehension between deaf students who receive and do not receive specialized pedagogical monitoring.

Carbon dioxide fixation by Calvin-Cycle enzymes improves ethanol yield in yeast

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guadalupe-Medina, V.; Wisselink, H.W.; Luttik, M.A.H.; De Hulster, E.; Daran, J.M.; Pronk, J.T.; Van Maris, A.J.A.

2013-01-01

Background Redox-cofactor balancing constrains product yields in anaerobic fermentation processes. This challenge is exemplified by the formation of glycerol as major by-product in yeast-based bioethanol production, which is a direct consequence of the need to reoxidize excess NADH and causes a loss

Yielding the yield-stress analysis: a study focused on the effects of elasticity on the settling of a single spherical particle in simple yield-stress fluids.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraggedakis, D; Dimakopoulos, Y; Tsamopoulos, J

2016-06-28

The sedimentation of a single particle in materials that exhibit simultaneously elastic, viscous and plastic behavior is examined in an effort to explain phenomena that contradict the nature of purely yield-stress materials. Such phenomena include the loss of the fore-and-aft symmetry with respect to an isolated settling particle under creeping flow conditions and the appearance of the "negative wake" behind it. Despite the fact that similar observations have been reported in studies involving viscoelastic fluids, researchers conjectured that thixotropy is responsible for these phenomena, as the aging of yield-stress materials is another common feature. By means of transient calculations, we study the effect of elasticity on both the fluidized and the solid phase. The latter is considered to behave as an ideal Hookean solid. The material properties of the model are determined under the isotropic kinematic hardening framework via Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear (LAOS) measurements. In this way, we are able to predict accurately the unusual phenomena observed in experiments with simple yield-stress materials, irrespective of the appearance of slip on the particle surface. Viscoelasticity favors the formation of intense shear and extensional stresses downstream of the particle, significantly changing the entrapment mechanism in comparison to that observed in viscoplastic fluids. Therefore, the critical conditions under which the entrapment of the particle occurs deviate from the well-known criterion established theoretically by Beris et al. (1985) and verified experimentally by Tabuteau et al. (2007) for similar materials under conditions that elastic effects are negligible. Our predictions are in quantitative agreement with published experimental results by Holenberg et al. (2012) on the loss of the fore-aft symmetry and the formation of the negative wake in Carbopol with well-characterized rheology. Additionally, we propose simple expressions for the Stokes drag

Combining Costs and Benefits of Animal Activities to Assess Net Yield Outcomes in Apple Orchards.

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, Manu E; Luck, Gary W

2016-01-01

Diverse animal communities influence ecosystem function in agroecosystems through positive and negative plant-animal interactions. Yet, past research has largely failed to examine multiple interactions that can have opposing impacts on agricultural production in a given context. We collected data on arthropod communities and yield quality and quantity parameters (fruit set, yield loss and net outcomes) in three major apple-growing regions in south-eastern Australia. We quantified the net yield outcome (accounting for positive and negative interactions) of multiple animal activities (pollination, fruit damage, biological control) across the entire growing season on netted branches, which excluded vertebrate predators of arthropods, and open branches. Net outcome was calculated as the number of undamaged fruit at harvest as a proportion of the number of blossoms (i.e., potential fruit yield). Vertebrate exclusion resulted in lower levels of fruit set and higher levels of arthropod damage to apples, but did not affect net outcomes. Yield quality and quantity parameters (fruit set, yield loss, net outcomes) were not directly associated with arthropod functional groups. Model variance and significant differences between the ratio of pest to beneficial arthropods between regions indicated that complex relationships between environmental factors and multiple animal interactions have a combined effect on yield. Our results show that focusing on a single crop stage, species group or ecosystem function/service can overlook important complexity in ecological processes within the system. Accounting for this complexity and quantifying the net outcome of ecological interactions within the system, is more informative for research and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.

Wheat yield loss attributable to heat waves, drought and water excess at the global, national and subnational scales

Science.gov (United States)

Zampieri, M.; Ceglar, A.; Dentener, F.; Toreti, A.

2017-06-01

Heat waves and drought are often considered the most damaging climatic stressors for wheat. In this study, we characterize and attribute the effects of these climate extremes on wheat yield anomalies (at global and national scales) from 1980 to 2010. Using a combination of up-to-date heat wave and drought indexes (the latter capturing both excessively dry and wet conditions), we have developed a composite indicator that is able to capture the spatio-temporal characteristics of the underlying physical processes in the different agro-climatic regions of the world. At the global level, our diagnostic explains a significant portion (more than 40%) of the inter-annual production variability. By quantifying the contribution of national yield anomalies to global fluctuations, we have found that just two concurrent yield anomalies affecting the larger producers of the world could be responsible for more than half of the global annual fluctuations. The relative importance of heat stress and drought in determining the yield anomalies depends on the region. Moreover, in contrast to common perception, water excess affects wheat production more than drought in several countries. We have also performed the same analysis at the subnational level for France, which is the largest wheat producer of the European Union, and home to a range of climatic zones. Large subnational variability of inter-annual wheat yield is mostly captured by the heat and water stress indicators, consistently with the country-level result.

Risk factors for islet loss during culture prior to transplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kin, Tatsuya; Senior, Peter; O'Gorman, Doug; Richer, Brad; Salam, Abdul; Shapiro, Andrew Mark James

2008-11-01

Culturing islets can add great flexibility to a clinical islet transplant program. However, a reduction in the islet mass has been frequently observed during culture and its degree varies. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with a significant islet loss during culture. One-hundred and four islet preparations cultured in an attempt to use for transplantation constituted this study. After culture for 20 h (median), islet yield significantly decreased from 363 309 +/- 12 647 to 313 035 +/- 10 862 islet equivalent yield (IE) (mean +/- SE), accompanied by a reduction in packed tissue volume from 3.9 +/- 0.1 to 3.0 +/- 0.1 ml and islet index (IE/islet particle count) from 1.20 +/- 0.04 to 1.05 +/- 0.04. Culture did not markedly alter islet purity or percent of trapped islet. Morphology score and viability were significantly improved after culture. Of 104 islet preparations, 37 suffered a substantial islet loss (> 20%) over culture. Factors significantly associated with risk of islet loss identified by univariate analysis were longer cold ischemia time, two-layer method (TLM) preservation, lower islet purity, and higher islet index. Multivariate analysis revealed that independent predictors of islet loss were higher islet index and the use of TLM. This study provides novel information on the link between donor- isolation factors and islet loss during culture.

Deterministic automata for extended regular expressions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syzdykov Mirzakhmet

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this work we present the algorithms to produce deterministic finite automaton (DFA for extended operators in regular expressions like intersection, subtraction and complement. The method like “overriding” of the source NFA(NFA not defined with subset construction rules is used. The past work described only the algorithm for AND-operator (or intersection of regular languages; in this paper the construction for the MINUS-operator (and complement is shown.

Regularities of intermediate adsorption complex relaxation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manukova, L.A.

1982-01-01

The experimental data, characterizing the regularities of intermediate adsorption complex relaxation in the polycrystalline Mo-N 2 system at 77 K are given. The method of molecular beam has been used in the investigation. The analytical expressions of change regularity in the relaxation process of full and specific rates - of transition from intermediate state into ''non-reversible'', of desorption into the gas phase and accumUlation of the particles in the intermediate state are obtained

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Sun, Yijun; Gao, Xin

2014-01-01

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2014-04-17

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse structure, we assume that each multimedia object could be represented as a sparse linear combination of all other objects, and combination coefficients are regarded as a similarity measure between objects and used to regularize their ranking scores. Moreover, we propose to learn the sparse combination coefficients and the ranking scores simultaneously. A unified objective function is constructed with regard to both the combination coefficients and the ranking scores, and is optimized by an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two multimedia database retrieval data sets demonstrate the significant improvements of the propose algorithm over state-of-the-art ranking score learning algorithms.

20 CFR 226.35 - Deductions from regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Deductions from regular annuity rate. 226.35... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.35 Deductions from regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate of the spouse and divorced...

Frost trends and their estimated impact on yield in the Australian wheatbelt.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Bangyou; Chapman, Scott C; Christopher, Jack T; Frederiks, Troy M; Chenu, Karine

2015-06-01

Radiant spring frosts occurring during reproductive developmental stages can result in catastrophic yield loss for wheat producers. To better understand the spatial and temporal variability of frost, the occurrence and impact of frost events on rain-fed wheat production was estimated across the Australian wheatbelt for 1957-2013 using a 0.05 ° gridded weather data set. Simulated yield outcomes at 60 key locations were compared with those for virtual genotypes with different levels of frost tolerance. Over the last six decades, more frost events, later last frost day, and a significant increase in frost impact on yield were found in certain regions of the Australian wheatbelt, in particular in the South-East and West. Increasing trends in frost-related yield losses were simulated in regions where no significant trend of frost occurrence was observed, due to higher mean temperatures accelerating crop development and causing sensitive post-heading stages to occur earlier, during the frost risk period. Simulations indicated that with frost-tolerant lines the mean national yield could be improved by up to 20% through (i) reduced frost damage (~10% improvement) and (ii) the ability to use earlier sowing dates (adding a further 10% improvement). In the simulations, genotypes with an improved frost tolerance to temperatures 1 °C lower than the current 0 °C reference provided substantial benefit in most cropping regions, while greater tolerance (to 3 °C lower temperatures) brought further benefits in the East. The results indicate that breeding for improved reproductive frost tolerance should remain a priority for the Australian wheat industry, despite warming climates. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

Effect of different transplanting leaf age on rice yield, nitrogen utilization efficiency and fate of 15N-fertilizer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fan Hongzhu; Lu Shihua; Zeng Xiangzhong

2010-01-01

Field experiments were conducted to study rice yield, N uptake and fate by using 15 N-urea at transplanting leaf age of 2-, 4-and 6-leaf, respectively. The results showed that rice yield significantly decreased with delay of transplanting leaf age, and 15 N-fertilizer uptake by grain and straw of rice, nitrogen utilization and residue also decreased, but loss of 15 N-fertilizer increased. Under different transplanting leaf age, N absorption by rice mainly came from the soil. Almost 1/3 of total N was supplied by fertilizer, and 2/3 came from soil. The efficiency of fertilizer was 20.8% ∼ 25.7%, 15 N-fertilizer residue ratio was 17.9% ∼ 32.2%, and 15 N-fertilizer loss was 42.1% ∼ 61.3%. 15 N-fertilizer residue mainly distributed in 0 ∼ 20 cm top soil under different treatments. The results indicated that transplanting young leaf age could increase rice yield and nitrogen utilization efficiency, and decrease loss of nitrogen fertilizer and pollution level on environment. (authors)

The effect of subclinical mastitis on milk yield in dairy goats.

Science.gov (United States)

Koop, G; van Werven, T; Schuiling, H J; Nielen, M

2010-12-01

The aims of this study were to estimate milk yield (MY) losses associated with subclinical intramammary infection (IMI) in dairy goats and to assess if somatic cell count (SCC) can be used to estimate such MY losses. We used 2 data sets to study these questions. The first data set consisted of 5 herds. Milk production and SCC were recorded during 1 lactation. From approximately 100 does in each herd, milk samples were collected on 3 occasions during lactation for bacteriological culture. Linear mixed regression was used to estimate the effect of IMI on MY. The second data set consisted of 6 large herds, in which some of the goats had an extended lactation (≥2 yr). Milk yield and SCC data were recorded without bacteriological culture. The data showed that bacterial infection was related to an increase in SCC. Infections with major pathogens were rare and associated with a decreased MY; infection with coagulase-negative staphylococci did not affect MY, whereas infection with Corynebacterium bovis was associated with increased MY. A negative correlation was observed between SCC and MY, but the data suggested that this negative correlation was attenuated rather than caused by IMI. Furthermore, SCC seemed to be affected by MY via a dilution effect. Hypotheses about biological mechanisms behind these observations are discussed. This paper shows that MY losses caused by subclinical udder infections are limited in goats, and that SCC cannot be used to estimate the magnitude of these losses. Copyright © 2010 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transient Hearing Loss in Adults Associated With Zika Virus Infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinhaes, Eriko S; Santos, Luciane A; Dias, Lislane; Andrade, Nilvano A; Bezerra, Victor H; de Carvalho, Anderson T; de Moraes, Laise; Henriques, Daniele F; Azar, Sasha R; Vasilakis, Nikos; Ko, Albert I; Andrade, Bruno B; Siqueira, Isadora C; Khouri, Ricardo; Boaventura, Viviane S

2017-03-01

In 2015, during the outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Brazil, we identified 3 cases of acute hearing loss after exanthematous illness. Serology yielded finding compatible with ZIKV as the cause of a confirmed (n = 1) and a probable (n = 2) flavivirus infection, indicating an association between ZIKV infection and transient hearing loss. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Regularization theory for ill-posed problems selected topics

CERN Document Server

Lu, Shuai

2013-01-01

Thismonograph is a valuable contribution to thehighly topical and extremly productive field ofregularisationmethods for inverse and ill-posed problems. The author is an internationally outstanding and acceptedmathematicianin this field. In his book he offers a well-balanced mixtureof basic and innovative aspects.He demonstrates new,differentiatedviewpoints, and important examples for applications. The bookdemontrates thecurrent developments inthe field of regularization theory,such as multiparameter regularization and regularization in learning theory. The book is written for graduate and PhDs

Java project on periodontal diseases: periodontal bone loss in relation to environmental and systemic conditions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Amaliya, A.; Laine, M.L.; Delanghe, J.R.; Loos, B.G.; van Wijk, A.J.; van der Velden, U.

2015-01-01

Objective To assess in a population deprived from regular dental care the relationship between alveolar bone loss (ABL) and environmental/systemic conditions. Material & Methods The study population consisted of subjects from the Purbasari tea estate on West Java, Indonesia. A full set of dental

20 CFR 226.34 - Divorced spouse regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Divorced spouse regular annuity rate. 226.34... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.34 Divorced spouse regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate of a divorced spouse is equal to...

Chimeric mitochondrial peptides from contiguous regular and swinger RNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Seligmann, Hervé

2016-01-01

Previous mass spectrometry analyses described human mitochondrial peptides entirely translated from swinger RNAs, RNAs where polymerization systematically exchanged nucleotides. Exchanges follow one among 23 bijective transformation rules, nine symmetric exchanges (X ↔ Y, e.g. A ↔ C) and fourteen asymmetric exchanges (X → Y → Z → X, e.g. A → C → G → A), multiplying by 24 DNA's protein coding potential. Abrupt switches from regular to swinger polymerization produce chimeric RNAs. Here, human mitochondrial proteomic analyses assuming abrupt switches between regular and swinger transcriptions, detect chimeric peptides, encoded by part regular, part swinger RNA. Contiguous regular- and swinger-encoded residues within single peptides are stronger evidence for translation of swinger RNA than previously detected, entirely swinger-encoded peptides: regular parts are positive controls matched with contiguous swinger parts, increasing confidence in results. Chimeric peptides are 200 × rarer than swinger peptides (3/100,000 versus 6/1000). Among 186 peptides with > 8 residues for each regular and swinger parts, regular parts of eleven chimeric peptides correspond to six among the thirteen recognized, mitochondrial protein-coding genes. Chimeric peptides matching partly regular proteins are rarer and less expressed than chimeric peptides matching non-coding sequences, suggesting targeted degradation of misfolded proteins. Present results strengthen hypotheses that the short mitogenome encodes far more proteins than hitherto assumed. Entirely swinger-encoded proteins could exist.

Impacts of 1.5 versus 2.0 °C on cereal yields in the West African Sudan Savanna

Science.gov (United States)

Faye, Babacar; Webber, Heidi; Naab, Jesse B.; MacCarthy, Dilys S.; Adam, Myriam; Ewert, Frank; Lamers, John P. A.; Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich; Ruane, Alex; Gessner, Ursula; Hoogenboom, Gerrit; Boote, Ken; Shelia, Vakhtang; Saeed, Fahad; Wisser, Dominik; Hadir, Sofia; Laux, Patrick; Gaiser, Thomas

2018-03-01

To reduce the risks of climate change, governments agreed in the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to less than 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels, with the ambition to keep warming to 1.5 °C. Charting appropriate mitigation responses requires information on the costs of mitigating versus associated damages for the two levels of warming. In this assessment, a critical consideration is the impact on crop yields and yield variability in regions currently challenged by food insecurity. The current study assessed impacts of 1.5 °C versus 2.0 °C on yields of maize, pearl millet and sorghum in the West African Sudan Savanna using two crop models that were calibrated with common varieties from experiments in the region with management reflecting a range of typical sowing windows. As sustainable intensification is promoted in the region for improving food security, simulations were conducted for both current fertilizer use and for an intensification case (fertility not limiting). With current fertilizer use, results indicated 2% units higher losses for maize and sorghum with 2.0 °C compared to 1.5 °C warming, with no change in millet yields for either scenario. In the intensification case, yield losses due to climate change were larger than with current fertilizer levels. However, despite the larger losses, yields were always two to three times higher with intensification, irrespective of the warming scenario. Though yield variability increased with intensification, there was no interaction with warming scenario. Risk and market analysis are needed to extend these results to understand implications for food security.

Fast and compact regular expression matching

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Farach-Colton, Martin

2008-01-01

We study 4 problems in string matching, namely, regular expression matching, approximate regular expression matching, string edit distance, and subsequence indexing, on a standard word RAM model of computation that allows logarithmic-sized words to be manipulated in constant time. We show how...... to improve the space and/or remove a dependency on the alphabet size for each problem using either an improved tabulation technique of an existing algorithm or by combining known algorithms in a new way....

Dimensional regularization and analytical continuation at finite temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Xiangjun; Liu Lianshou

1998-01-01

The relationship between dimensional regularization and analytical continuation of infrared divergent integrals at finite temperature is discussed and a method of regularization of infrared divergent integrals and infrared divergent sums is given

Enhanced Furfural Yields from Xylose Dehydration in the gamma-Valerolactone/Water Solvent System at Elevated Temperatures.

Science.gov (United States)

Sener, Canan; Motagamwala, Ali Hussain; Alonso, David Martin; Dumesic, James

2018-05-18

High yields of furfural (>90%) were achieved from xylose dehydration in a sustainable solvent system composed of -valerolactone (GVL), a biomass derived solvent, and water. It is identified that high reaction temperatures (e.g., 498 K) are required to achieve high furfural yield. Additionally, it is shown that the furfural yield at these temperatures is independent of the initial xylose concentration, and high furfural yield is obtained for industrially relevant xylose concentrations (10 wt%). A reaction kinetics model is developed to describe the experimental data obtained with solvent system composed of 80 wt% GVL and 20 wt% water across the range of reaction conditions studied (473 - 523 K, 1-10 mM acid catalyst, 66 - 660 mM xylose concentration). The kinetic model demonstrates that furfural loss due to bimolecular condensation of xylose and furfural is minimized at elevated temperature, whereas carbon loss due to xylose degradation increases with increasing temperature. Accordingly, the optimal temperature range for xylose dehydration to furfural in the GVL/H2O solvent system is identified to be from 480 to 500 K. Under these reaction conditions, furfural yield of 93% is achieved at 97% xylan conversion from lignocellulosic biomass (maple wood). © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Identifying dielectric and resistive electrode losses in high-density capacitors at radio frequencies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tiggelman, M.P.J.; Reimann, K.; Liu, J.; Klee, M.; Keur, W.; Mauczock, R.; Schmitz, Jurriaan; Hueting, Raymond Josephus Engelbart

2008-01-01

A regression-based technique is presented which distinguishes the dielectric loss from the resistive loss of high density planar capacitors in a very wide bandwidth of 0.1–8 GHz. Moreover, the procedure yields useful results if the capacitor deviates from a lumped element model and indicates when

Simulation of biomass yield of regular and chilling tolerant Miscanthus cultivars and reed canary grass in different climates of Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kandel, Tanka Prasad; Hastings, Astley; Jørgensen, Uffe

2016-01-01

Miscanthus and reed canary grass (RCG) are C4 and C3 perennial grasses which are popular in Europe as energy crops. Although Miscanthus is relatively chilling tolerant compared to other C4 species, its production in northern Europe is still constrained by cold temperature. A more chilling tolerant...... Miscanthus cultivar which can emerge early in the spring would utilize more solar radiation and produce higher biomass yields. In this study, using MiscanFor model, we estimated potential biomass yield of Miscanthus in current and future climates with the assumption that breeding would provide a chilling...

Regular and conformal regular cores for static and rotating solutions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Azreg-Aïnou, Mustapha

2014-03-07

Using a new metric for generating rotating solutions, we derive in a general fashion the solution of an imperfect fluid and that of its conformal homolog. We discuss the conditions that the stress–energy tensors and invariant scalars be regular. On classical physical grounds, it is stressed that conformal fluids used as cores for static or rotating solutions are exempt from any malicious behavior in that they are finite and defined everywhere.

Regular and conformal regular cores for static and rotating solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azreg-Aïnou, Mustapha

2014-01-01

Using a new metric for generating rotating solutions, we derive in a general fashion the solution of an imperfect fluid and that of its conformal homolog. We discuss the conditions that the stress–energy tensors and invariant scalars be regular. On classical physical grounds, it is stressed that conformal fluids used as cores for static or rotating solutions are exempt from any malicious behavior in that they are finite and defined everywhere.

Mellin-Barnes regularization, Borel summation and the Bender-Wu asymptotics for the anharmonic oscillator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kowalenko, V.; Rawlinson, A.A.

1998-01-01

We introduce the numerical technique of Mellin-Barnes regularization, which can be used to evaluate both convergent and divergent series. The technique is shown to be numerically equivalent to the corresponding results obtained by Borel summation. Both techniques are then applied to the Bender-Wu formula, which represents an asymptotic expansion for the energy levels of the anharmonic oscillator. We find that this formula is unable to give accurate values for the ground state energy, particularly when the coupling is greater than 0.1. As a consequence, the inability of the Bender-Wu formula to yield exact values for the energy level of the anharmonic oscillator cannot be attributed to its asymptotic nature. (authors)

Low-rank matrix approximation with manifold regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhenyue; Zhao, Keke

2013-07-01

This paper proposes a new model of low-rank matrix factorization that incorporates manifold regularization to the matrix factorization. Superior to the graph-regularized nonnegative matrix factorization, this new regularization model has globally optimal and closed-form solutions. A direct algorithm (for data with small number of points) and an alternate iterative algorithm with inexact inner iteration (for large scale data) are proposed to solve the new model. A convergence analysis establishes the global convergence of the iterative algorithm. The efficiency and precision of the algorithm are demonstrated numerically through applications to six real-world datasets on clustering and classification. Performance comparison with existing algorithms shows the effectiveness of the proposed method for low-rank factorization in general.

Regularity criteria for incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations in three dimensions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Hongxia; Du, Lili

2013-01-01

In this paper, we give some new global regularity criteria for three-dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. More precisely, we provide some sufficient conditions in terms of the derivatives of the velocity or pressure, for the global regularity of strong solutions to 3D incompressible MHD equations in the whole space, as well as for periodic boundary conditions. Moreover, the regularity criterion involving three of the nine components of the velocity gradient tensor is also obtained. The main results generalize the recent work by Cao and Wu (2010 Two regularity criteria for the 3D MHD equations J. Diff. Eqns 248 2263–74) and the analysis in part is based on the works by Cao C and Titi E (2008 Regularity criteria for the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations Indiana Univ. Math. J. 57 2643–61; 2011 Gobal regularity criterion for the 3D Navier–Stokes equations involving one entry of the velocity gradient tensor Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 202 919–32) for 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. (paper)

Regular-fat dairy and human health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Astrup, Arne; Bradley, Beth H Rice; Brenna, J Thomas

2016-01-01

In recent history, some dietary recommendations have treated dairy fat as an unnecessary source of calories and saturated fat in the human diet. These assumptions, however, have recently been brought into question by current research on regular fat dairy products and human health. In an effort to......, cheese and yogurt, can be important components of an overall healthy dietary pattern. Systematic examination of the effects of dietary patterns that include regular-fat milk, cheese and yogurt on human health is warranted....

Bounded Perturbation Regularization for Linear Least Squares Estimation

KAUST Repository

Ballal, Tarig; Suliman, Mohamed Abdalla Elhag; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.

2017-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of selecting the regularization parameter for linear least-squares estimation. We propose a new technique called bounded perturbation regularization (BPR). In the proposed BPR method, a perturbation with a bounded

Optomechanical Control of Quantum Yield in Trans-Cis Ultrafast Photoisomerization of a Retinal Chromophore Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Valentini, Alessio; Rivero, Daniel; Zapata, Felipe; García-Iriepa, Cristina; Marazzi, Marco; Palmeiro, Raúl; Fdez Galván, Ignacio; Sampedro, Diego; Olivucci, Massimo; Frutos, Luis Manuel

2017-03-27

The quantum yield of a photochemical reaction is one of the most fundamental quantities in photochemistry, as it measures the efficiency of the transduction of light energy into chemical energy. Nature has evolved photoreceptors in which the reactivity of a chromophore is enhanced by its molecular environment to achieve high quantum yields. The retinal chromophore sterically constrained inside rhodopsin proteins represents an outstanding example of such a control. In a more general framework, mechanical forces acting on a molecular system can strongly modify its reactivity. Herein, we show that the exertion of tensile forces on a simplified retinal chromophore model provokes a substantial and regular increase in the trans-to-cis photoisomerization quantum yield in a counterintuitive way, as these extension forces facilitate the formation of the more compressed cis photoisomer. A rationale for the mechanochemical effect on this photoisomerization mechanism is also proposed. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Recognition Memory for Novel Stimuli: The Structural Regularity Hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

Cleary, Anne M.; Morris, Alison L.; Langley, Moses M.

2007-01-01

Early studies of human memory suggest that adherence to a known structural regularity (e.g., orthographic regularity) benefits memory for an otherwise novel stimulus (e.g., G. A. Miller, 1958). However, a more recent study suggests that structural regularity can lead to an increase in false-positive responses on recognition memory tests (B. W. A.…

Propagation losses in photonic crystal waveguides: Effects of band tail absorption and waveguide dispersion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rigal, F.; Joanesarson, Kristoffer Bitsch; Lyasota, A.

2017-01-01

Propagation losses in GaAs-based photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides are evaluated near the semiconductor band-edge by measuring the finesse of corresponding Ln cavities. This approach yields simultaneously the propagation losses and the mode reflectivity at the terminations of the cavities. We dem...

One-Year Weight Loss with a Telephone-Based Lifestyle Program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Holzapfel

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Objective: Telephone-based weight loss programs are offered as an alternative to face-to-face obesity treatments, but data on the effectiveness regarding weight loss are limited. Therefore, we evaluated a telephone-based lifestyle program in a real-world setting. Methods: The telephone-based intervention consists of regular phone calls providing individualized lifestyle recommendations, and delivery of printed materials. Anthropometric and metabolic data are collected by general practitioners or are self-reported. Results: Baseline data were available from 398 participants (61% men; weight 103.12 ± 14.21 kg; BMI 33.38 ± 2.83 kg/m2 and 1-year data from 258 (65% participants. In the completers, mean weight change was -4.25 ± 5.18 kg (p Conclusions: The telephone-based lifestyle program results in a moderate weight loss after 12 months, which may be comparable to face-to-face interventions. Telephone-based weight loss support is independent of time and location and represents a tool which is also accepted by men.

Warming and nitrogen fertilization effects on winter wheat yields in northern China varied between four years

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Liting; Hu, Chunsheng; Olesen, Jørgen E

2013-01-01

per m2. This suggests that the wheat yield loss may be related to reduction of spike number, which was affected by decreased soil water content under warming. Warming tended to give larger yield reductions at higher nitrogen fertilizer rates, and this may be related to larger water consumption...... with both higher nitrogen and temperature leading to water shortages. These effects indicate that wheat yield loss from warming was primarily associated with more severe water shortage from greater evapotranspiration under warming. The large crop canopy in the fertilized plot may further have enhanced......). The volumetric water content decreased significantly before heading by 9.3, 3.9, 2.4 and 1.2 vol% in the soil depth of 0.10, 0.20, 0.40, 0.60 m in N2 and by 5.9, 1.4, 1.3 and 1.2 vol% in N1 from heating compared with no heating. The duration of the entire growth period was shortened by on average 7 days...

Regularization Techniques for Linear Least-Squares Problems

KAUST Repository

Suliman, Mohamed

2016-04-01

Linear estimation is a fundamental branch of signal processing that deals with estimating the values of parameters from a corrupted measured data. Throughout the years, several optimization criteria have been used to achieve this task. The most astonishing attempt among theses is the linear least-squares. Although this criterion enjoyed a wide popularity in many areas due to its attractive properties, it appeared to suffer from some shortcomings. Alternative optimization criteria, as a result, have been proposed. These new criteria allowed, in one way or another, the incorporation of further prior information to the desired problem. Among theses alternative criteria is the regularized least-squares (RLS). In this thesis, we propose two new algorithms to find the regularization parameter for linear least-squares problems. In the constrained perturbation regularization algorithm (COPRA) for random matrices and COPRA for linear discrete ill-posed problems, an artificial perturbation matrix with a bounded norm is forced into the model matrix. This perturbation is introduced to enhance the singular value structure of the matrix. As a result, the new modified model is expected to provide a better stabilize substantial solution when used to estimate the original signal through minimizing the worst-case residual error function. Unlike many other regularization algorithms that go in search of minimizing the estimated data error, the two new proposed algorithms are developed mainly to select the artifcial perturbation bound and the regularization parameter in a way that approximately minimizes the mean-squared error (MSE) between the original signal and its estimate under various conditions. The first proposed COPRA method is developed mainly to estimate the regularization parameter when the measurement matrix is complex Gaussian, with centered unit variance (standard), and independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) entries. Furthermore, the second proposed COPRA

Energy functions for regularization algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Delingette, H.; Hebert, M.; Ikeuchi, K.

1991-01-01

Regularization techniques are widely used for inverse problem solving in computer vision such as surface reconstruction, edge detection, or optical flow estimation. Energy functions used for regularization algorithms measure how smooth a curve or surface is, and to render acceptable solutions these energies must verify certain properties such as invariance with Euclidean transformations or invariance with parameterization. The notion of smoothness energy is extended here to the notion of a differential stabilizer, and it is shown that to void the systematic underestimation of undercurvature for planar curve fitting, it is necessary that circles be the curves of maximum smoothness. A set of stabilizers is proposed that meet this condition as well as invariance with rotation and parameterization.

Evaluation of the outcome of CT and MR imaging in pediatric patients with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

van Beeck Calkoen, E A; Merkus, P; Goverts, S T; van de Kamp, J M; Mulder, M F; Sanchez Aliaga, E; Hensen, E F

2018-05-01

To evaluate the clinically relevant abnormalities as visualized on CT and MR imaging in children with symmetric and asymmetric bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), in relation to age and the severity of hearing loss. Retrospective cohort study. Tertiary referral otology and audiology center. From January 2006 until January 2016, a total of 207 children diagnosed with symmetric and asymmetric bilateral SNHL were included. They underwent CT and/or MR imaging for the evaluation of the etiology of their hearing loss. Radiologic abnormalities associated with SNHL. 302 scans were performed in 207 children (median age of 0.8 years old) with bilateral SNHL. The most frequently identified cause of bilateral SNHL was a malformation of the labyrinth. The combined diagnostic yield of CT and MR imaging was 32%. The diagnostic yield of MR (34%) was considerably higher than that of CT (20%). We found a higher rate of abnormalities in children with profound hearing loss (41%) compared to milder hearing loss (8-29%), and in asymmetric SNHL (52%) compared to symmetric SNHL (30%). Imaging is essential in the etiologic evaluation of children with bilateral SNHL. The highest diagnostic yield is found in children with bilateral asymmetric SNHL or profound SNHL. Based on our findings, MR is the primary imaging modality of choice in the etiological evaluation of children with bilateral SNHL because of its high diagnostic yield. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Three regularities of recognition memory: the role of bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Hilford, Andrew; Maloney, Laurence T; Glanzer, Murray; Kim, Kisok

2015-12-01

A basic assumption of Signal Detection Theory is that decisions are made on the basis of likelihood ratios. In a preceding paper, Glanzer, Hilford, and Maloney (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 431-455, 2009) showed that the likelihood ratio assumption implies that three regularities will occur in recognition memory: (1) the Mirror Effect, (2) the Variance Effect, (3) the normalized Receiver Operating Characteristic (z-ROC) Length Effect. The paper offered formal proofs and computational demonstrations that decisions based on likelihood ratios produce the three regularities. A survey of data based on group ROCs from 36 studies validated the likelihood ratio assumption by showing that its three implied regularities are ubiquitous. The study noted, however, that bias, another basic factor in Signal Detection Theory, can obscure the Mirror Effect. In this paper we examine how bias affects the regularities at the theoretical level. The theoretical analysis shows: (1) how bias obscures the Mirror Effect, not the other two regularities, and (2) four ways to counter that obscuring. We then report the results of five experiments that support the theoretical analysis. The analyses and the experimental results also demonstrate: (1) that the three regularities govern individual, as well as group, performance, (2) alternative explanations of the regularities are ruled out, and (3) that Signal Detection Theory, correctly applied, gives a simple and unified explanation of recognition memory data.

Time course and determinants of leptin decline during weight loss in obese boys and girls

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Jens-Christian; Gamborg, Michael; Kaas-Ibsen, Karsten

2007-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether changes in leptin concentrations during weight loss can be explained by gender, puberty, baseline adiposity and changes in adiposity, body composition, rate of weight loss, physical activity and insulin concentrations. DESIGN: A longitudinal study with 9 repeated......, puberty, baseline adiposity or concomitant changes in BMI SDS, fat mass percentage, rate of weight loss, physical activity scores or insulin concentrations. CONCLUSION: The biphasic leptin decline, which exceeded the level expected, was independent of puberty, baseline adiposity and changes in adiposity...... size, physical activity scores, blood leptin (ng/ml) and insulin concentrations (pmol/l) were measured at baseline, and except for Tanner stage and testicular size, repeated regularly during the programme. RESULTS: The weight loss was accompanied by a steep decline in leptin concentrations during...

Method of transferring regular shaped vessel into cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murai, Tsunehiko.

1997-01-01

The present invention concerns a method of transferring regular shaped vessels from a non-contaminated area to a contaminated cell. A passage hole for allowing the regular shaped vessels to pass in the longitudinal direction is formed to a partitioning wall at the bottom of the contaminated cell. A plurality of regular shaped vessel are stacked in multiple stages in a vertical direction from the non-contaminated area present below the passage hole, allowed to pass while being urged and transferred successively into the contaminated cell. As a result, since they are transferred while substantially closing the passage hole by the regular shaped vessels, radiation rays or contaminated materials are prevented from discharging from the contaminated cell to the non-contaminated area. Since there is no requirement to open/close an isolation door frequently, the workability upon transfer can be improved remarkably. In addition, the sealing member for sealing the gap between the regular shaped vessel passing through the passage hole and the partitioning wall of the bottom is disposed to the passage hole, the contaminated materials in the contaminated cells can be prevented from discharging from the gap to the non-contaminated area. (N.H.)

Automatic Constraint Detection for 2D Layout Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Haiyong; Nan, Liangliang; Yan, Dong-Ming; Dong, Weiming; Zhang, Xiaopeng; Wonka, Peter

2016-08-01

In this paper, we address the problem of constraint detection for layout regularization. The layout we consider is a set of two-dimensional elements where each element is represented by its bounding box. Layout regularization is important in digitizing plans or images, such as floor plans and facade images, and in the improvement of user-created contents, such as architectural drawings and slide layouts. To regularize a layout, we aim to improve the input by detecting and subsequently enforcing alignment, size, and distance constraints between layout elements. Similar to previous work, we formulate layout regularization as a quadratic programming problem. In addition, we propose a novel optimization algorithm that automatically detects constraints. We evaluate the proposed framework using a variety of input layouts from different applications. Our results demonstrate that our method has superior performance to the state of the art.

Automatic Constraint Detection for 2D Layout Regularization

KAUST Repository

Jiang, Haiyong

2015-09-18

In this paper, we address the problem of constraint detection for layout regularization. As layout we consider a set of two-dimensional elements where each element is represented by its bounding box. Layout regularization is important for digitizing plans or images, such as floor plans and facade images, and for the improvement of user created contents, such as architectural drawings and slide layouts. To regularize a layout, we aim to improve the input by detecting and subsequently enforcing alignment, size, and distance constraints between layout elements. Similar to previous work, we formulate the layout regularization as a quadratic programming problem. In addition, we propose a novel optimization algorithm to automatically detect constraints. In our results, we evaluate the proposed framework on a variety of input layouts from different applications, which demonstrates our method has superior performance to the state of the art.

Lavrentiev regularization method for nonlinear ill-posed problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinh, Nguyen Van

2002-10-01

In this paper we shall be concerned with Lavientiev regularization method to reconstruct solutions x 0 of non ill-posed problems F(x)=y o , where instead of y 0 noisy data y δ is an element of X with absolut(y δ -y 0 ) ≤ δ are given and F:X→X is an accretive nonlinear operator from a real reflexive Banach space X into itself. In this regularization method solutions x α δ are obtained by solving the singularly perturbed nonlinear operator equation F(x)+α(x-x*)=y δ with some initial guess x*. Assuming certain conditions concerning the operator F and the smoothness of the element x*-x 0 we derive stability estimates which show that the accuracy of the regularized solutions is order optimal provided that the regularization parameter α has been chosen properly. (author)

Cancer treatment-induced bone loss in premenopausal women: a need for therapeutic intervention?

Science.gov (United States)

Hadji, P; Gnant, M; Body, J J; Bundred, N J; Brufsky, A; Coleman, R E; Guise, T A; Lipton, A; Aapro, M S

2012-10-01

Current clinical treatment guidelines recommend cytotoxic chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, or both (with targeted therapy if indicated) for premenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer, depending on the biologic characteristics of the primary tumor. Some of these therapies can induce premature menopause or are specifically designed to suppress ovarian function and reduce circulating estrogen levels. In addition to bone loss associated with low estrogen levels, cytotoxic chemotherapy may have a direct negative effect on bone metabolism. As a result, cancer treatment-induced bone loss poses a significant threat to bone health in premenopausal women with breast cancer. Clinical trials of antiresorptive therapies, such as bisphosphonates, have demonstrated the ability to slow or prevent bone loss in this setting. Current fracture risk assessment tools are based on data from healthy postmenopausal women and do not adequately address the risks associated with breast cancer therapy, especially in younger premenopausal women. We therefore recommend that all premenopausal women with breast cancer be informed about the potential risk of bone loss prior to beginning anticancer therapy. Women who experience amenorrhea should have bone mineral density assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and receive regular follow-up to monitor bone health. Regular exercise and daily calcium and vitamin D supplementation are recommended. Women with a Z-score <-2.0 or Z-score ≤-1.0 and/or a 5-10% annual decrease in bone mineral density should be considered for bisphosphonate therapy in addition to calcium and vitamin D supplements. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Comparison of potential yield and resource utilization efficiency of main food crops in three provinces of Northeast China under climate change].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiao-yu; Yang, Xiao-guang; Sun, Shuang; Xie, Wen-juan

2015-10-01

Based on the daily data of 65 meteorological stations from 1961 to 2010 and the crop phenology data in the potential cultivation zones of thermophilic and chimonophilous crops in Northeast China, the crop potential yields were calculated through step-by-step correction method. The spatio-temporal distribution of the crop potential yields at different levels was analyzed. And then we quantified the limitations of temperature and precipitation on the crop potential yields and compared the differences in the climatic resource utilization efficiency. The results showed that the thermal potential yields of six crops (including maize, rice, spring wheat, sorghum, millet and soybean) during the period 1961-2010 deceased from west to east. The climatic potential yields of the five crops (spring wheat not included) were higher in the south than in the north. The potential yield loss rate due to temperature limitations of the six crops presented a spatial distribution pattern and was higher in the east than in the west. Among the six main crops, the yield potential loss rate due to temperature limitation of the soybean was the highest (51%), and those of the other crops fluctuated within the range of 33%-41%. The potential yield loss rate due to water limitation had an obvious regional difference, and was high in Songnen Plain and Changbai Mountains. The potential yield loss rate of spring wheat was the highest (50%), and those of the other four rainfed crops fluctuated within the range of 8%-10%. The solar energy utilization efficiency of the six main crops ranged from 0.9% to 2.7%, in the order of maize> sorghum>rice>millet>spring wheat>soybean. The precipitation utilization efficiency of the maize, sorghum, spring wheat, millet and soybean under rainfed conditions ranged from 8 to 35 kg . hm-2 . mm-1, in the order of maize>sorghum>spring wheat>millet>soybean. In those areas with lower efficiency of solar energy utilization and precipitation utilization, such as Changbai

Online Manifold Regularization by Dual Ascending Procedure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boliang Sun

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel online manifold regularization framework based on the notion of duality in constrained optimization. The Fenchel conjugate of hinge functions is a key to transfer manifold regularization from offline to online in this paper. Our algorithms are derived by gradient ascent in the dual function. For practical purpose, we propose two buffering strategies and two sparse approximations to reduce the computational complexity. Detailed experiments verify the utility of our approaches. An important conclusion is that our online MR algorithms can handle the settings where the target hypothesis is not fixed but drifts with the sequence of examples. We also recap and draw connections to earlier works. This paper paves a way to the design and analysis of online manifold regularization algorithms.

Self-governance, control and loss of control amongst drink-drivers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Järvinen, Margaretha; Fynbo, Lars

2011-01-01

This paper analyses driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs (DUI) from a governmentality perspective. The paper is based on qualitative interviews with 25 persons, convicted of drink-driving and at the time of the interviews participating in Alcohol/Traffic courses in Denmark (mandatory...... feelings of control loss; and occasional drinkers or drug users with limited experience of drink-driving. The paper analyses drink-driving as a form of “failed self-governance” and shows how some of the convicted drink-drivers negotiate quilt and blame by either justifying their DUI (they were “in full...... courses for DUI-convicted people). Four drink-driver profiles are identified: regular heavy drinkers who regard themselves as addicted; regular drinkers who claim they are in control of both their alcohol use and their drink-driving; occasional multi-substance users who associate their DUI with strong...

The Effects of Degree and Type of Hearing Loss on Children's Performance in Class

Science.gov (United States)

Most, Tova

2004-01-01

This study evaluated school functioning of a sample of children with hearing impairments who were mainstreamed in regular educational settings. Participants comprised 47 children aged 7;2 to 9;3 years with various degrees and types of hearing loss. Teachers evaluated the children using the Hebrew version of the Screening Instrument For Targeting…

Effect of Black and Clear Polyethylene Mulch on Yield and Yield Components of Melon in Salinity Stress Condition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peyman Jafari

2017-02-01

researchers believe that increase in crop yield by using plastic mulch than plant debris mulch is due to the simultaneous increase in moisture and soil temperature. Effect of plastic mulch on soil temperature and crop yield depends on the color and usually transparent plastic are more effective in this regard than black polyethylene mulch. In terms of rising temperatures in the microclimate around the plant roots, transparent mulches are more effective than dark mulches. Unlike dark mulch, clear mulch have minimal absorption of light, approximately 85 to 95 percent .The inner surface of clear mulch is covered with water that the short wave passes and outgoing long wave radiation is absorbed from the soil and thus prevent heat loss. Water use efficiency with use of clear and dark mulches in compared to control treatment was increased by 17.3 and 13.4 %, respectively. Under salinity conditions, plastic mulches can reduce the harmful effects of salinity. Water use efficiency in salinity 2, 5 and 8 dS m-1, respectively, were 12.6, 7.6 and 3.1 kg m-3.Research results indicated that when water use efficiency based on the economic performance expression (e.g. present study reduced water use efficiency but when water use efficiency expressed based on the total dry weight, water use efficiency is independent of salt concentration and the amount of water use efficiency is the function of plant and plant yield. Conclusion For using salty water, which may be unavoidable for many agricultural areas, use of mulch (especially transparent mulch can have a significant role in increasing yield and more efficient utilization of water. From a practical perspective, in areas where irrigation water quality has declined due to reducing the level of the underground water table, the indiscriminate use of water resources and similar cases and use of these resources will lead to a gradual increase in soil salinity, application of mulch with the impact on the soil water content prevent of crop yield

Relationship of Soil Properties and Sugarcane Yields to Red Stripe in Louisiana.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Richard M; Grisham, Michael P; Warnke, Kathryn Z; Maggio, Jeri R

2016-07-01

Symptoms of red stripe disease caused by Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae in Louisiana between 1985 and 2010 were limited to the leaf stripe form, which caused no apparent yield loss. During 2010, the more severe top rot form was observed, and a study was initiated to investigate the distribution of red stripe in the field and determine its effects on cane and sugar yields. Soil properties data, red stripe incidence, and sugarcane yields were all highly variable and were not randomly distributed in the field. Combined harvest data showed a negative correlation between yield components and red stripe incidence, with the strongest relationship between sucrose per metric ton and disease incidence. Red stripe incidence was positively correlated with several soil properties, including phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and calcium. Red stripe incidence also was found to increase with increasing nitrogen rate, with the greatest effects in heavy soils. Results also indicated that using red-stripe-infected cane as a seed source can significantly decrease shoot emergence, stalk population, and subsequent cane and sugar yields. These combined data suggest that red stripe disease can exhibit a highly variable rate of infection in commercial sugarcane fields and may also significantly decrease sugar yields.

Global scale climate-crop yield relationships and the impacts of recent warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lobell, David B; Field, Christopher B

2007-01-01

Changes in the global production of major crops are important drivers of food prices, food security and land use decisions. Average global yields for these commodities are determined by the performance of crops in millions of fields distributed across a range of management, soil and climate regimes. Despite the complexity of global food supply, here we show that simple measures of growing season temperatures and precipitation-spatial averages based on the locations of each crop-explain ∼30% or more of year-to-year variations in global average yields for the world's six most widely grown crops. For wheat, maize and barley, there is a clearly negative response of global yields to increased temperatures. Based on these sensitivities and observed climate trends, we estimate that warming since 1981 has resulted in annual combined losses of these three crops representing roughly 40 Mt or $5 billion per year, as of 2002. While these impacts are small relative to the technological yield gains over the same period, the results demonstrate already occurring negative impacts of climate trends on crop yields at the global scale

Java project on periodontal diseases: causes of tooth loss in a cohort of untreated individuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Velden, U.; Amaliya, A.; Loos, B.G.; Timmerman, M.F.; van der Weijden, F.A.; Winkel, E.G.; Abbas, F.

2015-01-01

Objective To assess the relative contribution of caries and periodontal disease to tooth loss over 24 years in a cohort deprived of regular dental care. Material & Methods The study population consisted of 98 subjects from a tea estate on West Java, Indonesia, that had been part of a prospective

Java project on periodontal diseases : causes of tooth loss in a cohort of untreated individuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Velden, Ubele; Amaliya, Amaliya; Loos, Bruno G.; Timmerman, Mark F.; van der Weijden, Fridus A.; Winkel, Edwin G.; Abbas, Frank

ObjectiveTo assess the relative contribution of caries and periodontal disease to tooth loss over 24years in a cohort deprived of regular dental care. Material & MethodsThe study population consisted of 98 subjects from a tea estate on West Java, Indonesia, that had been part of a prospective

Deterministic models for energy-loss straggling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prinja, A.K.; Gleicher, F.; Dunham, G.; Morel, J.E.

1999-01-01

Inelastic ion interactions with target electrons are dominated by extremely small energy transfers that are difficult to resolve numerically. The continuous-slowing-down (CSD) approximation is then commonly employed, which, however, only preserves the mean energy loss per collision through the stopping power, S(E) = ∫ 0 ∞ dEprime (E minus Eprime) σ s (E → Eprime). To accommodate energy loss straggling, a Gaussian distribution with the correct mean-squared energy loss (akin to a Fokker-Planck approximation in energy) is commonly used in continuous-energy Monte Carlo codes. Although this model has the unphysical feature that ions can be upscattered, it nevertheless yields accurate results. A multigroup model for energy loss straggling was recently presented for use in multigroup Monte Carlo codes or in deterministic codes that use multigroup data. The method has the advantage that the mean and mean-squared energy loss are preserved without unphysical upscatter and hence is computationally efficient. Results for energy spectra compared extremely well with Gaussian distributions under the idealized conditions for which the Gaussian may be considered to be exact. Here, the authors present more consistent comparisons by extending the method to accommodate upscatter and, further, compare both methods with exact solutions obtained from an analog Monte Carlo simulation, for a straight-ahead transport problem

Regular graph construction for semi-supervised learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega-Oliveros, Didier A; Berton, Lilian; Eberle, Andre Mantini; Lopes, Alneu de Andrade; Zhao, Liang

2014-01-01

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) stands out for using a small amount of labeled points for data clustering and classification. In this scenario graph-based methods allow the analysis of local and global characteristics of the available data by identifying classes or groups regardless data distribution and representing submanifold in Euclidean space. Most of methods used in literature for SSL classification do not worry about graph construction. However, regular graphs can obtain better classification accuracy compared to traditional methods such as k-nearest neighbor (kNN), since kNN benefits the generation of hubs and it is not appropriate for high-dimensionality data. Nevertheless, methods commonly used for generating regular graphs have high computational cost. We tackle this problem introducing an alternative method for generation of regular graphs with better runtime performance compared to methods usually find in the area. Our technique is based on the preferential selection of vertices according some topological measures, like closeness, generating at the end of the process a regular graph. Experiments using the global and local consistency method for label propagation show that our method provides better or equal classification rate in comparison with kNN

Contribution of insect pollinators to crop yield and quality varies with agricultural intensification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ignasi Bartomeus

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background. Up to 75% of crop species benefit at least to some degree from animal pollination for fruit or seed set and yield. However, basic information on the level of pollinator dependence and pollinator contribution to yield is lacking for many crops. Even less is known about how insect pollination affects crop quality. Given that habitat loss and agricultural intensification are known to decrease pollinator richness and abundance, there is a need to assess the consequences for different components of crop production.Methods. We used pollination exclusion on flowers or inflorescences on a whole plant basis to assess the contribution of insect pollination to crop yield and quality in four flowering crops (spring oilseed rape, field bean, strawberry, and buckwheat located in four regions of Europe. For each crop, we recorded abundance and species richness of flower visiting insects in ten fields located along a gradient from simple to heterogeneous landscapes.Results. Insect pollination enhanced average crop yield between 18 and 71% depending on the crop. Yield quality was also enhanced in most crops. For instance, oilseed rape had higher oil and lower chlorophyll contents when adequately pollinated, the proportion of empty seeds decreased in buckwheat, and strawberries’ commercial grade improved; however, we did not find higher nitrogen content in open pollinated field beans. Complex landscapes had a higher overall species richness of wild pollinators across crops, but visitation rates were only higher in complex landscapes for some crops. On the contrary, the overall yield was consistently enhanced by higher visitation rates, but not by higher pollinator richness.Discussion. For the four crops in this study, there is clear benefit delivered by pollinators on yield quantity and/or quality, but it is not maximized under current agricultural intensification. Honeybees, the most abundant pollinator, might partially compensate the loss of wild

Contribution of insect pollinators to crop yield and quality varies with agricultural intensification.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartomeus, Ignasi; Potts, Simon G; Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf; Vaissière, Bernard E; Woyciechowski, Michal; Krewenka, Kristin M; Tscheulin, Thomas; Roberts, Stuart P M; Szentgyörgyi, Hajnalka; Westphal, Catrin; Bommarco, Riccardo

2014-01-01

Background. Up to 75% of crop species benefit at least to some degree from animal pollination for fruit or seed set and yield. However, basic information on the level of pollinator dependence and pollinator contribution to yield is lacking for many crops. Even less is known about how insect pollination affects crop quality. Given that habitat loss and agricultural intensification are known to decrease pollinator richness and abundance, there is a need to assess the consequences for different components of crop production. Methods. We used pollination exclusion on flowers or inflorescences on a whole plant basis to assess the contribution of insect pollination to crop yield and quality in four flowering crops (spring oilseed rape, field bean, strawberry, and buckwheat) located in four regions of Europe. For each crop, we recorded abundance and species richness of flower visiting insects in ten fields located along a gradient from simple to heterogeneous landscapes. Results. Insect pollination enhanced average crop yield between 18 and 71% depending on the crop. Yield quality was also enhanced in most crops. For instance, oilseed rape had higher oil and lower chlorophyll contents when adequately pollinated, the proportion of empty seeds decreased in buckwheat, and strawberries' commercial grade improved; however, we did not find higher nitrogen content in open pollinated field beans. Complex landscapes had a higher overall species richness of wild pollinators across crops, but visitation rates were only higher in complex landscapes for some crops. On the contrary, the overall yield was consistently enhanced by higher visitation rates, but not by higher pollinator richness. Discussion. For the four crops in this study, there is clear benefit delivered by pollinators on yield quantity and/or quality, but it is not maximized under current agricultural intensification. Honeybees, the most abundant pollinator, might partially compensate the loss of wild pollinators in

Global crop yield response to extreme heat stress under multiple climate change futures

Science.gov (United States)

Deryng, D.; Conway, D.; Ramankutty, N.; Price, J.; Warren, R.

2014-12-01

Extreme heat stress during the crop reproductive period can be critical for crop productivity. Projected changes in the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events are expected to negatively impact crop yields and global food production. This study applies the global crop model PEGASUS to quantify, for the first time at the global scale, impacts of extreme heat stress on maize, spring wheat and soybean yields resulting from 72 climate change scenarios for the 21st century. Our results project maize to face progressively worse impacts under a range of RCPs but spring wheat and soybean to improve globally through to the 2080s due to CO2 fertilization effects, even though parts of the tropic and sub-tropic regions could face substantial yield declines. We find extreme heat stress at anthesis (HSA) by the 2080s (relative to the 1980s) under RCP 8.5, taking into account CO2 fertilization effects, could double global losses of maize yield (dY = -12.8 ± 6.7% versus -7.0 ± 5.3% without HSA), reduce projected gains in spring wheat yield by half (dY = 34.3 ± 13.5% versus 72.0 ± 10.9% without HSA) and in soybean yield by a quarter (dY = 15.3 ± 26.5% versus 20.4 ± 22.1% without HSA). The range reflects uncertainty due to differences between climate model scenarios; soybean exhibits both positive and negative impacts, maize is generally negative and spring wheat generally positive. Furthermore, when assuming CO2 fertilization effects to be negligible, we observe drastic climate mitigation policy as in RCP 2.6 could avoid more than 80% of the global average yield losses otherwise expected by the 2080s under RCP 8.5. We show large disparities in climate impacts across regions and find extreme heat stress adversely affects major producing regions and lower income countries.

Global crop yield response to extreme heat stress under multiple climate change futures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deryng, Delphine; Warren, Rachel; Conway, Declan; Ramankutty, Navin; Price, Jeff

2014-01-01

Extreme heat stress during the crop reproductive period can be critical for crop productivity. Projected changes in the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events are expected to negatively impact crop yields and global food production. This study applies the global crop model PEGASUS to quantify, for the first time at the global scale, impacts of extreme heat stress on maize, spring wheat and soybean yields resulting from 72 climate change scenarios for the 21st century. Our results project maize to face progressively worse impacts under a range of RCPs but spring wheat and soybean to improve globally through to the 2080s due to CO 2 fertilization effects, even though parts of the tropic and sub-tropic regions could face substantial yield declines. We find extreme heat stress at anthesis (HSA) by the 2080s (relative to the 1980s) under RCP 8.5, taking into account CO 2 fertilization effects, could double global losses of maize yield (ΔY = −12.8 ± 6.7% versus − 7.0 ± 5.3% without HSA), reduce projected gains in spring wheat yield by half (ΔY = 34.3 ± 13.5% versus 72.0 ± 10.9% without HSA) and in soybean yield by a quarter (ΔY = 15.3 ± 26.5% versus 20.4 ± 22.1% without HSA). The range reflects uncertainty due to differences between climate model scenarios; soybean exhibits both positive and negative impacts, maize is generally negative and spring wheat generally positive. Furthermore, when assuming CO 2 fertilization effects to be negligible, we observe drastic climate mitigation policy as in RCP 2.6 could avoid more than 80% of the global average yield losses otherwise expected by the 2080s under RCP 8.5. We show large disparities in climate impacts across regions and find extreme heat stress adversely affects major producing regions and lower income countries. (paper)

Physical model of dimensional regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schonfeld, Jonathan F.

2016-12-15

We explicitly construct fractals of dimension 4-ε on which dimensional regularization approximates scalar-field-only quantum-field theory amplitudes. The construction does not require fractals to be Lorentz-invariant in any sense, and we argue that there probably is no Lorentz-invariant fractal of dimension greater than 2. We derive dimensional regularization's power-law screening first for fractals obtained by removing voids from 3-dimensional Euclidean space. The derivation applies techniques from elementary dielectric theory. Surprisingly, fractal geometry by itself does not guarantee the appropriate power-law behavior; boundary conditions at fractal voids also play an important role. We then extend the derivation to 4-dimensional Minkowski space. We comment on generalization to non-scalar fields, and speculate about implications for quantum gravity. (orig.)

Reduced voltage losses yield 10% efficient fullerene free organic solar cells with >1 V open circuit voltages

KAUST Repository

Baran, D.

2016-11-09

Optimization of the energy levels at the donor-acceptor interface of organic solar cells has driven their efficiencies to above 10%. However, further improvements towards efficiencies comparable with inorganic solar cells remain challenging because of high recombination losses, which empirically limit the open-circuit voltage (Voc) to typically less than 1 V. Here we show that this empirical limit can be overcome using non-fullerene acceptors blended with the low band gap polymer PffBT4T-2DT leading to efficiencies approaching 10% (9.95%). We achieve Voc up to 1.12 V, which corresponds to a loss of only Eg/q - Voc = 0.5 ± 0.01 V between the optical bandgap Eg of the polymer and Voc. This high Voc is shown to be associated with the achievement of remarkably low non-geminate and non-radiative recombination losses in these devices. Suppression of non-radiative recombination implies high external electroluminescence quantum efficiencies which are orders of magnitude higher than those of equivalent devices employing fullerene acceptors. Using the balance between reduced recombination losses and good photocurrent generation efficiencies achieved experimentally as a baseline for simulations of the efficiency potential of organic solar cells, we estimate that efficiencies of up to 20% are achievable if band gaps and fill factors are further optimized. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016.

Information-theoretic semi-supervised metric learning via entropy regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Gang; Dai, Bo; Yamada, Makoto; Sugiyama, Masashi

2014-08-01

We propose a general information-theoretic approach to semi-supervised metric learning called SERAPH (SEmi-supervised metRic leArning Paradigm with Hypersparsity) that does not rely on the manifold assumption. Given the probability parameterized by a Mahalanobis distance, we maximize its entropy on labeled data and minimize its entropy on unlabeled data following entropy regularization. For metric learning, entropy regularization improves manifold regularization by considering the dissimilarity information of unlabeled data in the unsupervised part, and hence it allows the supervised and unsupervised parts to be integrated in a natural and meaningful way. Moreover, we regularize SERAPH by trace-norm regularization to encourage low-dimensional projections associated with the distance metric. The nonconvex optimization problem of SERAPH could be solved efficiently and stably by either a gradient projection algorithm or an EM-like iterative algorithm whose M-step is convex. Experiments demonstrate that SERAPH compares favorably with many well-known metric learning methods, and the learned Mahalanobis distance possesses high discriminability even under noisy environments.

Effect of harvest time on storage loss and sprouting in onion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. SUOJALA

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Storability of onion is affected by timing of harvest. However, the optimal time for maximum yield and maximum storability do not necessarily coincide. This study aimed to determine the most suitable harvest time for obtaining a high bulb yield with high quality and storability. Storage experiments were conducted on onions produced in field experiments at a research field and on farms in four years. Results indicate that harvesting could be delayed to 100% maturity, or even longer, without a marked increase in storage loss. In rainy years, late harvest is likely to impair the quality. The incidence of sprouting in shelf life tests varied considerably between years. An early harvest before 50% maturity and a delayed harvest increased the risk of sprouting. It may be concluded that the harvesting of onions for long-term storage can be timed to take place between 50% maturity and even some weeks after complete maturity without a loss in storage quality. Therefore, it is possible to combine high yield and good storage quality.

Tungsten self-sputtering yield with different incidence angles and target temperatures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bandourko, V.; Nakamura, K.; Akiba, M.; Jimbou, R.

1998-01-01

The self-sputtering of different types of tungsten due to 1 keV W + bombardment at temperatures of 25 C and 600 C and incident angles in the range of 30-60 was studied by means of the weight loss method. The experimental data at room temperature agreed reasonably with the results of TRIM calculations. Enhanced self-sputtering yields due to beam-induced desorption of WO 2 were found at a temperature of 600 C. The weight loss of W-Cu composite is larger than that of the CVD-W and ps-W under the same irradiation conditions due to the selective removal of copper. (orig.)

Yield Loss Assessment and Determination of Control Thresholds for Anthracnose on Red Pepper

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ju-Hee Kim

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This study was carried out to develop control thresholds for anthracnose on red pepper. To investigate relationship between anthracnose incidence and diseased fruits, experimental plots with six treatments were established. There existed close correlation between rate of diseased fruits and yields in field (Y = -16.83X + 327.57, R² = 0.83, in rain shelter (Y = -4.92X + 361.02, R² = 0.84, and in rain shelter with rain (Y = -5.91X + 359.71, R² = 0.76. Control thresholds for anthracnose of pepper were 0.9% diseased fruits per plant in field and from 1.7 to 2.3% diseased fruits rate per plant in rain shelter.

Narrow rows reduce biomass and seed production of weeds and increase maize yield

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mashingaidze, A.B.; Werf, van der W.; Lotz, L.A.P.; Chipomho, J.; Kropff, M.J.

2009-01-01

Smallholder farmers in southern African countries rely primarily on cultural control and hoe weeding to combat weeds, but often times, they are unable to keep up with the weeding requirements of the crop because of its laboriousness, causing them to incur major yield losses. Optimisation of crop

Fluctuations of quantum fields via zeta function regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cognola, Guido; Zerbini, Sergio; Elizalde, Emilio

2002-01-01

Explicit expressions for the expectation values and the variances of some observables, which are bilinear quantities in the quantum fields on a D-dimensional manifold, are derived making use of zeta function regularization. It is found that the variance, related to the second functional variation of the effective action, requires a further regularization and that the relative regularized variance turns out to be 2/N, where N is the number of the fields, thus being independent of the dimension D. Some illustrating examples are worked through. The issue of the stress tensor is also briefly addressed

Milk losses due to bovine tropical theileriosis (Theileria annulata infection in Algeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ouarda Ayadi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The authors studied the impact of tropical theileriosis onset on milk yield decrease in 10 local bred cows in Skikda (Northern Algeria during 2015 summer season. The milk yield decrease estimated weekly during two months was 2.76 L/day/cow corresponding to 31.92% of the total milk yield. This decrease corresponds to 110.5 Algerian Dinars (1.02 US$/day/diseased cow. The relative variation of milk yield showed a dramatic decrease from 82.72% to 0.76% at Day 21 then became constant. Further studies are needed to improve these estimations of financial losses due to bovine tropical theileriosis in Algeria.

X-ray computed tomography using curvelet sparse regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Wieczorek, Matthias; Frikel, Jürgen; Vogel, Jakob; Eggl, Elena; Kopp, Felix; Noël, Peter B; Pfeiffer, Franz; Demaret, Laurent; Lasser, Tobias

2015-04-01

Reconstruction of x-ray computed tomography (CT) data remains a mathematically challenging problem in medical imaging. Complementing the standard analytical reconstruction methods, sparse regularization is growing in importance, as it allows inclusion of prior knowledge. The paper presents a method for sparse regularization based on the curvelet frame for the application to iterative reconstruction in x-ray computed tomography. In this work, the authors present an iterative reconstruction approach based on the alternating direction method of multipliers using curvelet sparse regularization. Evaluation of the method is performed on a specifically crafted numerical phantom dataset to highlight the method's strengths. Additional evaluation is performed on two real datasets from commercial scanners with different noise characteristics, a clinical bone sample acquired in a micro-CT and a human abdomen scanned in a diagnostic CT. The results clearly illustrate that curvelet sparse regularization has characteristic strengths. In particular, it improves the restoration and resolution of highly directional, high contrast features with smooth contrast variations. The authors also compare this approach to the popular technique of total variation and to traditional filtered backprojection. The authors conclude that curvelet sparse regularization is able to improve reconstruction quality by reducing noise while preserving highly directional features.

Predicting successful long-term weight loss from short-term weight-loss outcomes: new insights from a dynamic energy balance model (the POUNDS Lost study)123

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanescu, Andrada E; Martin, Corby K; Heymsfield, Steven B; Marshall, Kaitlyn; Bodrato, Victoria E; Williamson, Donald A; Anton, Stephen D; Sacks, Frank M; Ryan, Donna; Bray, George A

2015-01-01

Background: Currently, early weight-loss predictions of long-term weight-loss success rely on fixed percent-weight-loss thresholds. Objective: The objective was to develop thresholds during the first 3 mo of intervention that include the influence of age, sex, baseline weight, percent weight loss, and deviations from expected weight to predict whether a participant is likely to lose 5% or more body weight by year 1. Design: Data consisting of month 1, 2, 3, and 12 treatment weights were obtained from the 2-y Preventing Obesity Using Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS Lost) intervention. Logistic regression models that included covariates of age, height, sex, baseline weight, target energy intake, percent weight loss, and deviation of actual weight from expected were developed for months 1, 2, and 3 that predicted the probability of losing <5% of body weight in 1 y. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, area under the curve (AUC), and thresholds were calculated for each model. The AUC statistic quantified the ROC curve’s capacity to classify participants likely to lose <5% of their body weight at the end of 1 y. The models yielding the highest AUC were retained as optimal. For comparison with current practice, ROC curves relying solely on percent weight loss were also calculated. Results: Optimal models for months 1, 2, and 3 yielded ROC curves with AUCs of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.74), 0.75 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.81), and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.84), respectively. Percent weight loss alone was not better at identifying true positives than random chance (AUC ≤0.50). Conclusions: The newly derived models provide a personalized prediction of long-term success from early weight-loss variables. The predictions improve on existing fixed percent-weight-loss thresholds. Future research is needed to explore model application for informing treatment approaches during early intervention. The POUNDS Lost study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00072995. PMID:25733628

Semisupervised Support Vector Machines With Tangent Space Intrinsic Manifold Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Shiliang; Xie, Xijiong

2016-09-01

Semisupervised learning has been an active research topic in machine learning and data mining. One main reason is that labeling examples is expensive and time-consuming, while there are large numbers of unlabeled examples available in many practical problems. So far, Laplacian regularization has been widely used in semisupervised learning. In this paper, we propose a new regularization method called tangent space intrinsic manifold regularization. It is intrinsic to data manifold and favors linear functions on the manifold. Fundamental elements involved in the formulation of the regularization are local tangent space representations, which are estimated by local principal component analysis, and the connections that relate adjacent tangent spaces. Simultaneously, we explore its application to semisupervised classification and propose two new learning algorithms called tangent space intrinsic manifold regularized support vector machines (TiSVMs) and tangent space intrinsic manifold regularized twin SVMs (TiTSVMs). They effectively integrate the tangent space intrinsic manifold regularization consideration. The optimization of TiSVMs can be solved by a standard quadratic programming, while the optimization of TiTSVMs can be solved by a pair of standard quadratic programmings. The experimental results of semisupervised classification problems show the effectiveness of the proposed semisupervised learning algorithms.

Regularity and chaos in cavity QED

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bastarrachea-Magnani, Miguel Angel; López-del-Carpio, Baldemar; Chávez-Carlos, Jorge; Lerma-Hernández, Sergio; Hirsch, Jorge G

2017-01-01

The interaction of a quantized electromagnetic field in a cavity with a set of two-level atoms inside it can be described with algebraic Hamiltonians of increasing complexity, from the Rabi to the Dicke models. Their algebraic character allows, through the use of coherent states, a semiclassical description in phase space, where the non-integrable Dicke model has regions associated with regular and chaotic motion. The appearance of classical chaos can be quantified calculating the largest Lyapunov exponent over the whole available phase space for a given energy. In the quantum regime, employing efficient diagonalization techniques, we are able to perform a detailed quantitative study of the regular and chaotic regions, where the quantum participation ratio (P R ) of coherent states on the eigenenergy basis plays a role equivalent to the Lyapunov exponent. It is noted that, in the thermodynamic limit, dividing the participation ratio by the number of atoms leads to a positive value in chaotic regions, while it tends to zero in the regular ones. (paper)

Optimizing rice yields while minimizing yield-scaled global warming potential.

Science.gov (United States)

Pittelkow, Cameron M; Adviento-Borbe, Maria A; van Kessel, Chris; Hill, James E; Linquist, Bruce A

2014-05-01

To meet growing global food demand with limited land and reduced environmental impact, agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are increasingly evaluated with respect to crop productivity, i.e., on a yield-scaled as opposed to area basis. Here, we compiled available field data on CH4 and N2 O emissions from rice production systems to test the hypothesis that in response to fertilizer nitrogen (N) addition, yield-scaled global warming potential (GWP) will be minimized at N rates that maximize yields. Within each study, yield N surplus was calculated to estimate deficit or excess N application rates with respect to the optimal N rate (defined as the N rate at which maximum yield was achieved). Relationships between yield N surplus and GHG emissions were assessed using linear and nonlinear mixed-effects models. Results indicate that yields increased in response to increasing N surplus when moving from deficit to optimal N rates. At N rates contributing to a yield N surplus, N2 O and yield-scaled N2 O emissions increased exponentially. In contrast, CH4 emissions were not impacted by N inputs. Accordingly, yield-scaled CH4 emissions decreased with N addition. Overall, yield-scaled GWP was minimized at optimal N rates, decreasing by 21% compared to treatments without N addition. These results are unique compared to aerobic cropping systems in which N2 O emissions are the primary contributor to GWP, meaning yield-scaled GWP may not necessarily decrease for aerobic crops when yields are optimized by N fertilizer addition. Balancing gains in agricultural productivity with climate change concerns, this work supports the concept that high rice yields can be achieved with minimal yield-scaled GWP through optimal N application rates. Moreover, additional improvements in N use efficiency may further reduce yield-scaled GWP, thereby strengthening the economic and environmental sustainability of rice systems. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The effect of loss functions on empirical Bayes reliability analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camara Vincent A. R.

1998-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present study is to investigate the sensitivity of empirical Bayes estimates of the reliability function with respect to changing of the loss function. In addition to applying some of the basic analytical results on empirical Bayes reliability obtained with the use of the “popular” squared error loss function, we shall derive some expressions corresponding to empirical Bayes reliability estimates obtained with the Higgins–Tsokos, the Harris and our proposed logarithmic loss functions. The concept of efficiency, along with the notion of integrated mean square error, will be used as a criterion to numerically compare our results. It is shown that empirical Bayes reliability functions are in general sensitive to the choice of the loss function, and that the squared error loss does not always yield the best empirical Bayes reliability estimate.

Cognitive Aspects of Regularity Exhibit When Neighborhood Disappears

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Sau-Chin; Hu, Jon-Fan

2015-01-01

Although regularity refers to the compatibility between pronunciation of character and sound of phonetic component, it has been suggested as being part of consistency, which is defined by neighborhood characteristics. Two experiments demonstrate how regularity effect is amplified or reduced by neighborhood characteristics and reveals the…

Weeds Cause Losses in Field Crops through Allelopathy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali ZOHAIB

2016-03-01

Full Text Available A large number of weeds are known to be associated with crops and causing economic losses. Weeds interfere with crops through competition and allelopathy. They produce secondary metabolites known as allelochemicals, which belong to numerous chemical classes such as phenolics, alkaloids, fatty acids, indoles, terpens etc. However, phenolics are the predominant class of allelochemicals. The allelochemicals release from weed plants takes place through leaf leachates, decomposition of plant residues, volatilization and root exudates. Weeds leave huge quantities of their residues in field and affect the associated, as well as succeeding crops, in various cropping systems. Liberation of allelochemicals from weeds affects the germination, stand establishment, growth, yield and physiology of crop plants. They cause substantial reduction in germination and growth of the crop plants by altering various physiological processes such as enzyme activity, protein synthesis, photosynthesis, respiration, cell division and enlargement, which ultimately leads to a significant reduction in crop yield. In crux, allelopathic weeds represent a potential threat for crop plants and cause economic losses.

An adaptive regularization parameter choice strategy for multispectral bioluminescence tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feng Jinchao; Qin Chenghu; Jia Kebin; Han Dong; Liu Kai; Zhu Shouping; Yang Xin; Tian Jie [Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China); College of Electronic Information and Control Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124 (China); Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China); Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China) and School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi' an 710071 (China)

2011-11-15

Purpose: Bioluminescence tomography (BLT) provides an effective tool for monitoring physiological and pathological activities in vivo. However, the measured data in bioluminescence imaging are corrupted by noise. Therefore, regularization methods are commonly used to find a regularized solution. Nevertheless, for the quality of the reconstructed bioluminescent source obtained by regularization methods, the choice of the regularization parameters is crucial. To date, the selection of regularization parameters remains challenging. With regards to the above problems, the authors proposed a BLT reconstruction algorithm with an adaptive parameter choice rule. Methods: The proposed reconstruction algorithm uses a diffusion equation for modeling the bioluminescent photon transport. The diffusion equation is solved with a finite element method. Computed tomography (CT) images provide anatomical information regarding the geometry of the small animal and its internal organs. To reduce the ill-posedness of BLT, spectral information and the optimal permissible source region are employed. Then, the relationship between the unknown source distribution and multiview and multispectral boundary measurements is established based on the finite element method and the optimal permissible source region. Since the measured data are noisy, the BLT reconstruction is formulated as l{sub 2} data fidelity and a general regularization term. When choosing the regularization parameters for BLT, an efficient model function approach is proposed, which does not require knowledge of the noise level. This approach only requests the computation of the residual and regularized solution norm. With this knowledge, we construct the model function to approximate the objective function, and the regularization parameter is updated iteratively. Results: First, the micro-CT based mouse phantom was used for simulation verification. Simulation experiments were used to illustrate why multispectral data were used

Preoperative weight loss program targeting women with overweight and hypertrophy of the breast - a pilot study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geiker, Nina Rica Wium; Horn, J; Astrup, Arne

2017-01-01

with overweight for breast reduction surgery. Six women, all overweight [BMI 30.9 {28.5; 35.8} kg m (-2) ] with symptomatic hypertrophy of the breast, were included a 12-week weight loss program. All women desired reduction mammaplasty and were motivated for preoperational weight loss. The first 8 weeks consisted...... of a formula-based diet supplying 800 kcal daily, in the subsequent 4 weeks regular foods were reintroduced increasing the intake to 1200 kcal daily. Five women completed the trial, and achieved a median (range) weight loss of 10.2 (6.5; 19) kg. Initial breast volume was 1100-2500 mL per breast...

Controls and forecasts of nitrate yields in forested watersheds: A view over mainland Portugal.

Science.gov (United States)

Pacheco, F A L; Santos, R M B; Sanches Fernandes, L F; Pereira, M G; Cortes, R M V

2015-12-15

A study on nitrate yields was conducted in forested watersheds of mainland Portugal. The prime goal was to rank parameters in descending order of their contribution to the export of nitrate towards streams and lakes. To attain the goal, variables like soil loss, rainfall intensity, topography, soil type, forest composition and environmental disturbances such as hardwood harvesting or wildfires were organized in a conceptual yield model. Because some parameters were potentially collinear, a robust multivariate statistical technique was selected to execute the conceptual model and perform the aforementioned ranking, namely Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression. This technique was tested with a sample of 60 forested watersheds (>70% of forest occupation), being subject to a double-validation process to ensure prediction capability. According to final regression coefficients, soil erosion seems to regulate nitrate distribution across the basins, because soil loss and type, rainfall intensity and topography explained around 60% of nitrate yield variance. The major importance of erosion is followed by a moderate role of biochemical processes such as nitrification or nutrient uptake, which accounted for approximately 15% of nitrate yield variance. In this case, deciduous forests and scrubland seem to behave as net sinks of nitrate while coniferous and mixed forests seem to act dually, as net sources or sinks. The least important parameters are the environmental disturbances, explaining no more than 5% of nitrate yield variance. The results of PLS regression were coupled in a scenario analysis with measures designed to protect soil from erosion and surface water from eutrophication. These interventions are to be implemented until 2045, according to regional plans of forest management. Considering the key role of erosion in explaining nitrate dynamics across the catchments, it was not surprising to verify that soil protection measures may reduce nitrate yields by some 35

Matrix regularization of embedded 4-manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trzetrzelewski, Maciej

2012-01-01

We consider products of two 2-manifolds such as S 2 ×S 2 , embedded in Euclidean space and show that the corresponding 4-volume preserving diffeomorphism algebra can be approximated by a tensor product SU(N)⊗SU(N) i.e. functions on a manifold are approximated by the Kronecker product of two SU(N) matrices. A regularization of the 4-sphere is also performed by constructing N 2 ×N 2 matrix representations of the 4-algebra (and as a byproduct of the 3-algebra which makes the regularization of S 3 also possible).

Mate loss affects survival but not breeding in black brant geese

Science.gov (United States)

Nicolai, Christopher A.; Sedinger, James S.; Ward, David H.; Boyd, W. Sean

2012-01-01

For birds maintaining long-term monogamous relationships, mate loss might be expected to reduce fitness, either through reduced survival or reduced future reproductive investment. We used harvest of male brant during regular sport hunting seasons as an experimental removal to examine effects of mate loss on fitness of female black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans; hereafter brant). We used the Barker model in program MARK to examine effects of mate loss on annual survival, reporting rate, and permanent emigration. Survival rates decreased from 0.847 ± 0.004 for females who did not lose their mates to 0.690 ± 0.072 for birds who lost mates. Seber ring reporting rate for females that lost their mates were 2 times higher than those that did not lose mates, 0.12 ± 0.086 and 0.06 ± 0.006, respectively, indicating that mate loss increased vulnerability to harvest and possibly other forms of predation. We found little support for effects of mate loss on fidelity to breeding site and consequently on breeding. Our results indicate substantial fitness costs to females associated with mate loss, but that females who survived and were able to form new pair bonds may have been higher quality than the average female in the population.

Drought impacts on cereal yields in Iberia

Science.gov (United States)

Gouveia, Célia; Liberato, Margarida L. R.; Russo, Ana; Montero, Irene

2014-05-01

In the present context of climate change, land degradation and desertification it becomes crucial to assess the impact of droughts to determine the environmental consequences of a potential change of climate. Large drought episodes in Iberian Peninsula have widespread ecological and environmental impacts, namely in vegetation dynamics, resulting in significant crop yield losses. During the hydrological years of 2004/2005 and 2011/2012 Iberia was affected by two extreme drought episodes (Garcia-Herrera et al., 2007; Trigo et al., 2013). This work aims to analyze the spatial and temporal behavior of climatic droughts at different time scales using spatially distributed time series of drought indicators, such as the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) (Vicente-Serrano et al., 2010). This climatic drought index is based on the simultaneous use of precipitation and temperature. We have used CRU TS3 dataset to compute SPEI and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Results will be analyzed in terms of the mechanisms that are responsible by these drought events and will also be used to assess the impact of droughts in crops. Accordingly an analysis is performed to evaluate the large-scale conditions required for a particular extreme anomaly of long-range transport of water vapor from the subtropics. We have used the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA Interim reanalyses, namely, the geopotential height fields, temperature, wind, divergence data and the specific humidity at all pressure levels and mean sea level pressure (MSLP) and total column water vapor (TCWV) for the Euro-Atlantic sector (100°W to 50°E, 0°N-70°N) at full temporal (six hourly) and spatial (T255; interpolated to 0.75° regular horizontal grid) resolutions available to analyse the large-scale conditions associated with the drought onset. Our analysis revealed severe impacts on cereals crop productions and yield (namely wheat) for Portugal and

Calcium carbide (CaC2): Effect on fruit set and yield of mango ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Application of slow release calcium carbide (CaC2) to the soil are thought to improve plant growth and yield through the generation of acetylene, which inhibits nitrification, thereby reducing nitrogen losses which may be converted to physiologically significant concentrations of the plant growth regulator ethylene. The effects ...

Optimal Tikhonov Regularization in Finite-Frequency Tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Y.; Yao, Z.; Zhou, Y.

2017-12-01

The last decade has witnessed a progressive transition in seismic tomography from ray theory to finite-frequency theory which overcomes the resolution limit of the high-frequency approximation in ray theory. In addition to approximations in wave propagation physics, a main difference between ray-theoretical tomography and finite-frequency tomography is the sparseness of the associated sensitivity matrix. It is well known that seismic tomographic problems are ill-posed and regularizations such as damping and smoothing are often applied to analyze the tradeoff between data misfit and model uncertainty. The regularizations depend on the structure of the matrix as well as noise level of the data. Cross-validation has been used to constrain data uncertainties in body-wave finite-frequency inversions when measurements at multiple frequencies are available to invert for a common structure. In this study, we explore an optimal Tikhonov regularization in surface-wave phase-velocity tomography based on minimization of an empirical Bayes risk function using theoretical training datasets. We exploit the structure of the sensitivity matrix in the framework of singular value decomposition (SVD) which also allows for the calculation of complete resolution matrix. We compare the optimal Tikhonov regularization in finite-frequency tomography with traditional tradeo-off analysis using surface wave dispersion measurements from global as well as regional studies.

Sputtering yields of carbon based materials under high particle flux with low energy

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, K.; Nagase, A.; Dairaku, M.; Akiba, M.; Araki, M.; Okumura, Y.

1995-04-01

A new ion source which can produce high particle flux beams at low energies has been developed. This paper presents preliminary results on the sputtering yield of the carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFCs) measured with the new ion source. The sputtering yields of 1D and 2D CFCs, which are candidate materials for the divertor armour tiles, have been measured by the weight loss method under the hydrogen and deuterium particle fluxes of 2 ˜ 7 × 10 20/m 2 s at 50 ˜ 150 eV. Preferential sputtering of the matrix was observed on CFCs which included the matrix of 40 ˜ 60 w%. The energy dependence of the sputtering yields was weak. The sputtering yields of CFCs normally irradiated with deuterium beam were from 0.073 to 0.095, and were around three times larger than those with hydrogen beam.

Sputtering yields of carbon based materials under high particle flux with low energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, K.; Nagase, A.; Dairaku, M.; Akiba, M.; Araki, M.; Okumura, Y.

1995-01-01

A new ion source which can produce high particle flux beams at low energies has been developed. This paper presents preliminary results on the sputtering yield of the carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFCs) measured with the new ion source. The sputtering yields of 1D and 2D CFCs, which are candidate materials for the divertor armour tiles, have been measured by the weight loss method under the hydrogen and deuterium particle fluxes of 2 similar 7x10 20 /m 2 s at 50 similar 150 eV. Preferential sputtering of the matrix was observed on CFCs which included the matrix of 40 similar 60 w%. The energy dependence of the sputtering yields was weak. The sputtering yields of CFCs normally irradiated with deuterium beam were from 0.073 to 0.095, and were around three times larger than those with hydrogen beam. ((orig.))

Low hybrid onion seed yields relate to honey bee visits and insecticide use

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachael Long

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Onion thrips, previously considered of minor importance to hybrid onion seed production in California, vector the newly introduced iris yellow spot virus, a serious pathogen of onions that can cause significant yield losses. Insecticide use to control onion thrips has increased in onion seed fields, coincident with a steep decrease in yields, especially in Colusa County. We examined a number of possible contributing factors and found a strong positive correlation between honey bee activity and onion seed set, indicating that a lack of pollination may be contributing to the reduced yields. In addition, honey bee visits to onion flowers were negatively correlated with the number of insecticides applied per field and field size. Reduced onion seed yields in recent years could be associated with the increase in insecticide use, which may be repelling or killing honey bees, important pollinators of this crop.

Fractional Regularization Term for Variational Image Registration

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Rafael Verdú-Monedero

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Image registration is a widely used task of image analysis with applications in many fields. Its classical formulation and current improvements are given in the spatial domain. In this paper a regularization term based on fractional order derivatives is formulated. This term is defined and implemented in the frequency domain by translating the energy functional into the frequency domain and obtaining the Euler-Lagrange equations which minimize it. The new regularization term leads to a simple formulation and design, being applicable to higher dimensions by using the corresponding multidimensional Fourier transform. The proposed regularization term allows for a real gradual transition from a diffusion registration to a curvature registration which is best suited to some applications and it is not possible in the spatial domain. Results with 3D actual images show the validity of this approach.

Reducing errors in the GRACE gravity solutions using regularization

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Save, Himanshu; Bettadpur, Srinivas; Tapley, Byron D.

2012-09-01

The nature of the gravity field inverse problem amplifies the noise in the GRACE data, which creeps into the mid and high degree and order harmonic coefficients of the Earth's monthly gravity fields provided by GRACE. Due to the use of imperfect background models and data noise, these errors are manifested as north-south striping in the monthly global maps of equivalent water heights. In order to reduce these errors, this study investigates the use of the L-curve method with Tikhonov regularization. L-curve is a popular aid for determining a suitable value of the regularization parameter when solving linear discrete ill-posed problems using Tikhonov regularization. However, the computational effort required to determine the L-curve is prohibitively high for a large-scale problem like GRACE. This study implements a parameter-choice method, using Lanczos bidiagonalization which is a computationally inexpensive approximation to L-curve. Lanczos bidiagonalization is implemented with orthogonal transformation in a parallel computing environment and projects a large estimation problem on a problem of the size of about 2 orders of magnitude smaller for computing the regularization parameter. Errors in the GRACE solution time series have certain characteristics that vary depending on the ground track coverage of the solutions. These errors increase with increasing degree and order. In addition, certain resonant and near-resonant harmonic coefficients have higher errors as compared with the other coefficients. Using the knowledge of these characteristics, this study designs a regularization matrix that provides a constraint on the geopotential coefficients as a function of its degree and order. This regularization matrix is then used to compute the appropriate regularization parameter for each monthly solution. A 7-year time-series of the candidate regularized solutions (Mar 2003-Feb 2010) show markedly reduced error stripes compared with the unconstrained GRACE release 4

Likelihood ratio decisions in memory: three implied regularities.

Science.gov (United States)

Glanzer, Murray; Hilford, Andrew; Maloney, Laurence T

2009-06-01

We analyze four general signal detection models for recognition memory that differ in their distributional assumptions. Our analyses show that a basic assumption of signal detection theory, the likelihood ratio decision axis, implies three regularities in recognition memory: (1) the mirror effect, (2) the variance effect, and (3) the z-ROC length effect. For each model, we present the equations that produce the three regularities and show, in computed examples, how they do so. We then show that the regularities appear in data from a range of recognition studies. The analyses and data in our study support the following generalization: Individuals make efficient recognition decisions on the basis of likelihood ratios.

Low-Rank Matrix Factorization With Adaptive Graph Regularizer.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Gui-Fu; Wang, Yong; Zou, Jian

2016-05-01

In this paper, we present a novel low-rank matrix factorization algorithm with adaptive graph regularizer (LMFAGR). We extend the recently proposed low-rank matrix with manifold regularization (MMF) method with an adaptive regularizer. Different from MMF, which constructs an affinity graph in advance, LMFAGR can simultaneously seek graph weight matrix and low-dimensional representations of data. That is, graph construction and low-rank matrix factorization are incorporated into a unified framework, which results in an automatically updated graph rather than a predefined one. The experimental results on some data sets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art low-rank matrix factorization methods.

Online Manifold Regularization by Dual Ascending Procedure

OpenAIRE

Sun, Boliang; Li, Guohui; Jia, Li; Zhang, Hui

2013-01-01

We propose a novel online manifold regularization framework based on the notion of duality in constrained optimization. The Fenchel conjugate of hinge functions is a key to transfer manifold regularization from offline to online in this paper. Our algorithms are derived by gradient ascent in the dual function. For practical purpose, we propose two buffering strategies and two sparse approximations to reduce the computational complexity. Detailed experiments verify the utility of our approache...

Degree-regular triangulations of torus and Klein bottle

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 115; Issue 3 ... A triangulation of a connected closed surface is called degree-regular if each of its vertices have the same degree. ... In [5], Datta and Nilakantan have classified all the degree-regular triangulations of closed surfaces on at most 11 vertices.

Cacao Crop Management Zones Determination Based on Soil Properties and Crop Yield

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Perla Silva Matos de Carvalho

Full Text Available ABSTRACT: The use of management zones has ensured yield success for numerous agricultural crops. In spite of this potential, studies applying precision agricultural techniques to cacao plantations are scarce or almost nonexistent. The aim of the present study was to delineate management zones for cacao crop, create maps combining soil physical properties and cacao tree yield, and identify what combinations best fit within the soil chemical properties. The study was conducted in 2014 on a cacao plantation in a Nitossolo Háplico Eutrófico (Rhodic Paleudult in Bahia, Brazil. Soil samples were collected in a regular sampling grid with 120 sampling points in the 0.00-0.20 m soil layer, and pH(H2O, P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, H+Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, SB, V, TOC, effective CEC, CEC at pH 7.0, coarse sand, fine sand, clay, and silt were determined. Yield was measured in all the 120 points every month and stratified into annual, harvest, and early-harvest cacao yields. Data were subjected to geostatistical analysis, followed by ordinary kriging interpolation. The management zones were defined through a Fuzzy K-Means algorithm for combinations between soil physical properties and cacao tree yield. Concordance analysis was carried out between the delineated zones and soil chemical properties using Kappa coefficients. The zones that best classified the soil chemical properties were defined from the early-harvest cacao yield map associated with the clay or sand fractions. Silt content proved to be an inadequate variable for defining management zones for cacao production. The delineated management zones described the spatial variability of the soil chemical properties, and are therefore important for site-specific management in the cacao crop.

Clinical experience in treatment of complex intrahepatic bile duct stones by regular hepatectomy

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WU Xiao

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Objective To investigate the clinical effect of regular hepatectomy in patients with complex intrahepatic bile duct stones. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 98 patients with complex intrahepatic bile duct stones who were treated in our hospital from January to December, 2013. The distribution characteristics of intrahepatic bile duct stones, clinical manifestations, extent of operation, time of operation, complications, and surgical outcome were analyzed. Results All the 98 patients completed regular hepatectomy. Of all patients, 37 underwent choledocholithotomy with T-tube drainage and segmental hepatectomy, 6 underwent resection of the left lateral lobe of the liver, 1 underwent left hemihepatectomy, 7 underwent resection of a single hepatic segment in the right lobe of the liver combined with segmental hepatectomy, 45 underwent combined segmental hepatectomy of the left and right lobes of the liver, and 2 underwent biliary-enteric basin anastomosis after hilar bile duct reconstruction. No patients died during the perioperative period. The mean time of operation was 65.0±5.0 min, and the mean intraoperative blood loss was 83.0±6.2 ml. No patients experienced residual stones after surgery. Of all patients, 5 (5.1% experienced complications, among whom 3 experienced bile leakage and 2 experienced blood exudation on the surface of the wound in the liver; 3 patients were diagnosed with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma by postoperative pathological examination. All the patients for followed up for 5 years, and 11 (11.2% experienced recurrence of stones after surgery. Conclusion Regular hepatectomy is safe and effective in the treatment of complex intrahepatic bile duct stones, with few complications and a low recurrence rate of stones. Therefore, it holds promise for wide clinical application.

Effects of Controlled-Release Urea on Grain Yield of Spring Maize, Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Nitrogen Balance

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JI Jing-hong

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The effects of mixing controlled-released urea (CRU (release period of resin coated urea is 90 days and urea (U on maize yield, nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen balance were studied by 4 plot experiments (site:Shuangcheng, Binxian, Harbin and Zhaoyuan in two years (from year 2011 to 2012 to clarify the effect of controlled release urea on spring maize and soil nitrogen balance. Results were as follow:Spring maize yield and nitrogen absorption were increased with the increasing nitrogen fertilizer. Compared with applying urea treatment, applying CRU could increase yield, nitrogen absorption, nitrogen use efficiency, agriculture efficiency of nitrogen and nitrogen contribution rate. Under the same amount of nitrogen (100%, 75%, 50%, compared with 100% U as basic fertilizer treatment, maize yield of 100% CRU treatment increased 391, 427, 291 kg·hm-2, nitrogen use efficiency increased by 5.9%,4.9% and 5.1%, agriculture efficiency of nitrogen increased 2.0, 2.6, 2.6 kg·kg-1, and nitrogen contribution rate increased 2.7%, 3.1% and 2.4%, respectively. The value of maize yield, nitrogen absorption, nitrogen use efficiency and agriculture efficiency of nitrogen between the treatment four (40% urea as basic fertilizer+60% urea as topdressing and treatment five (40% urea plus 60% controlled release urea as basic fertilizer were similar. Apparent profit and loss of nitrogen decreased with the increase of nitrogen nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen apparent loss by applying 100% controlled release urea was reduced of 15.0 kg·hm-2 than applying 100% U treatment;Nitrogen apparent loss amount was decreased of 23.9 kg·hm-2 under treatment five. The method of mixing 40% urea and 60% controlled release urea should be applied in maize production in Heilongjiang Province.

The relationship between lifestyle regularity and subjective sleep quality

Science.gov (United States)

Monk, Timothy H.; Reynolds, Charles F 3rd; Buysse, Daniel J.; DeGrazia, Jean M.; Kupfer, David J.

2003-01-01

In previous work we have developed a diary instrument-the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM), which allows the assessment of lifestyle regularity-and a questionnaire instrument--the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which allows the assessment of subjective sleep quality. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between lifestyle regularity and subjective sleep quality. Lifestyle regularity was assessed by both standard (SRM-17) and shortened (SRM-5) metrics; subjective sleep quality was assessed by the PSQI. We hypothesized that high lifestyle regularity would be conducive to better sleep. Both instruments were given to a sample of 100 healthy subjects who were studied as part of a variety of different experiments spanning a 9-yr time frame. Ages ranged from 19 to 49 yr (mean age: 31.2 yr, s.d.: 7.8 yr); there were 48 women and 52 men. SRM scores were derived from a two-week diary. The hypothesis was confirmed. There was a significant (rho = -0.4, p subjects with higher levels of lifestyle regularity reported fewer sleep problems. This relationship was also supported by a categorical analysis, where the proportion of "poor sleepers" was doubled in the "irregular types" group as compared with the "non-irregular types" group. Thus, there appears to be an association between lifestyle regularity and good sleep, though the direction of causality remains to be tested.