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Most classification rules can be expressed in terms of a distance (or dissimilarity) from the point to be classified to each of the candidate classes. For example, linear discriminant analysis classifies points into the class for which the (sample) Mahalanobis distance is smallest. However, dependence among these point-to-group distance measures is generally ignored. The primary goal of this project is to investigate the properties of a general non-parametric classification rule which takes this dependence structure into account. A review of classification procedures and applications is presented. The distance profile nearest-neighbor classification rule is defined. Properties of the rule are then explored via application to both real and simulated data and comparisons to other classification rules are discussed.

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a highly nutritious, drought tolerant crop with several agronomic advantages over other legumes. This study demonstrated the association of different cowpea phenotypes with specific phenolic profiles, antioxidants activity, anti-inflammatory properties on non-malignant colonic (CCD18co) cells challenged with a lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the effect of boiling on their individual and total flavonoid content. Only the black and green phenotypes had detectable anthocyanins; and their levels were highest in the black IT95K-1105-5 variety. The red cowpea phenotypes had the highest level of flavonols (858 - 941 micrograms/g cowpea flour) and white Early Acre variety had the least. Quercetin derivatives were the major flavonols detected, followed by myricetin derivatives. Monomeric, dimeric and polymeric procyanidins also made up a large proportion of cowpea phenolics. The light brown 09FCV-CC27M cowpea variety had the highest average flavan-3-ol content (13,464 micrograms/g cowpea flour); whereas white and green varieties did not contain detectable levels of flavan-3-ols. Thus, seed-coat color was a good indicator of the accumulation of specific flavonoids in cowpeas. The black, red and light-brown cowpeas had the highest antioxidant activity measured by ORAC and ABTS methods, correlating with their higher total phenol content (TPC) and condensed tannin content (CTC); whereas the white and green varieties had the least. Boiling significantly affected the phenolic profiles, TPC and CTC of all cowpea varieties studied, as well as the antioxidant activity associated with these compounds. The net reduction in antioxidant activity after boiling was less than the net TPC reduction, indicating that the heat-induced phenolic products may still have radical scavenging capacity. Overall, proinflammatory genes regulation, intracellular ROS inhibition, and modulation of miR-126 and its target gene VCAM-1 by cowpea were found to be dependent on cowpea variety, phenolic composition and concentrations. The underlying mechanism by which cowpea induced miR-126 may be associated with inhibition of ROS and down-regulation of transcription factor NF-These results emphasize the importance of the cancer inhibitory potential of phenolic compounds from cowpea and their possible role in preventing anti-inflammatory disorders. Further in vivo studies with cowpea diets are required to validate their clinical relevance to human health.

For open-ended information tasks, users must sift through many potentially relevant documents assessing and prioritizing them based on relevance to current information need, a practice we refer to as document triage. Users often perform triage through their interaction with multiple applications, and to efficiently support them in this process an extensible multi-application architecture Interest Profile Manager(IPM) was developed in the prior research at Texas A & M University. IPM infers user interests from their interactions with documents, especially the interests expressed by the user through an interpretive action like assigning a visual characteristic color, coupled with the document’s content characteristics. IPM equates each specific color and application as an interest class and the main challenge for the user is to consistently maintain interest class-color scheme across applications forever which is not practical. This thesis presents a system that can help reduce potential problems caused by these inconsistencies, by indicating when such inconsistencies have occurred in the past or are happening in the user’s current triage activity. It includes (1)a clustering algorithm to group similar triage interest instances by choosing the factors that could define the similarity of interest instances, and (2)an approach to identify sequences of user actions that provide strong evidence of user’s intent which can be used as constraints during clustering. Constrained and unconstrained versions of three Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering algorithms: (1)Single-Link, (2)Complete-Link, (3) UPGMA(Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean) have been studied. The contribution of each of the three factors: (1)Content Similarity, (2)Temporal Similarity, and (3)Visual Similarity to the overall similarity between interest instances has also been examined. Our results indicate that the Single-Link algorithm performs better than the other two clustering algorithms while the combination of all three similarity factors defines the similarity between two instances better than considering any single factor. The use of constraints as strong evidence about user’s intent improved the clustering efficiency of algorithms.

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The coastal planning has been developed in purpose of the ¡§safely¡¨, ¡§landscaping¡¨, ¡§ecology¡¨ and ¡§water affinity¡¨ in Taiwan nowadays. Moreover, the hendland bay beachs and beach nourishment have been hailed for the protection of shoreline. One of the main affection of erosion is a storm, which retreads shoreline and reduces nearshore by storm surge. This essay reports an application of 2-D SBEACH software to simulate the beach profile changes. The data of large wave tank (LWT), which tests by the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC), US Army Corps of Engineers, is used to calibrate the parameters by SBEACH. Then, using the results of experimentation to indicate the accuracy of model from Grosser Wellen Kanal (GWK), which tests by the University of Hannor. Finally, simulating beach profile, with a berm (height of 2.5m and width of 100m) and a slope of 1:25, is used to simulate the profile changes and analyze the results by different storm conditions from CECI. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the suitable distance of shoreline and location of bar for a beach buffer zone by SBEACH during different storm conditions. The present study confirms that the simulated results of shoreline erosion rate and the position of bar crest by SBEACH comform to the LWT and GWK experiments. The major parameters of SBEACH, the transport rate coefficient, K influences the sediment transport, coefficient for slope-dependent term, £` controls the slope of beach profile and shape of bar, the transport rate decay coefficient multiplier, Kb affects the shoreline erosion, and the landward surf zone depth, db influences the shape of berm. The result of analysis by SBEACH indicates that a constant slope beach profile changes by different storm conditions and the extent of non-dimensional shoreline retreat Xt/Lo is found in good linear relationship with deepwater wave steepness Ho/Lo. Therefore, the linear regress function is used to compute the less beach buffer zone in different storm conditions.

The proposed work provides a concept for predicting well performance behavior in a gas condensate reservoir using an empirical model for gas mobility. The proposed model predicts the behavior of the gas permeability (or mobility) function in the reservoir as condensate evolves and the gas permeability is reduced in the near-well region due to the "condensate bank". The proposed model is based on observations of simulated reservoir performance and predicts the behavior of the gas permeability over time and radial distance. This model is given by: The proposed concept has potential applications in the development of a pressure-time-radius solution for gas condensate reservoirs experiencing this type of mobility behavior. We recognize that the proposed concept (i.e., a radially-varying gas permeability) is oversimplified, in particular, it ignores the diffusive effects of the condensate (i.e., the viscosity-compressibility behavior). However, we have effectively validated the proposed model using literature results derived from numerical simulation. This new solution is presented graphically in the form of "type curves." We propose that the "time" form of this solution be used for applications in well test analysis. Previous developments used for the analysis of well test data from gas condensate reservoirs consider the radial composite reservoir model, which utilizes a "step change" in permeability at some radial distance away from the wellbore. Using our proposed solution we can visualize the effect of the varying gas permeability in time and radius (a suite of (dimensionless) radius and time format plots are provided). In short, we can visualize the evolution of the condensate zone as it evolves in time and radial distance. A limitation is the simplified form of the kg profile as a function of radius and time - as well as the dependence/appropriateness of the α-parameter. While we suspect that the α-parameter represents the influence of both fluid and rock properties, we do not examine how such properties can be used to calculate the α-parameter.

Asmenybės vertinimo galimybės: ryšys tarp Penkių faktorių modelio ir „Profile XT“ Santrauka Asmenybės klausimynai asmenybę vertina nomotetiniu būdu: asmeninės savybės yra lyginamos tarp žmonių ir ieškoma jų bendrumų, bet tyrinėtojas nesigilina į to paties žmogaus savybių dinamiką. Tarp asmenybės bruožų teorijų šiuo metu populiariausias ir daug dėmesio sulaukiantis Penkių faktorių modelis teigia, kad asmenybę išsamiai apibūdina šie faktoriai: Neurotiškumas, Ekstraversija, Atvirumas patyrimui, Sutariamumas, ir Sąmoningumas. Šias savybes empiriškai vertina klausimynas NEO PI-R, kurio lietuviškosios versijos psichometriniai rodikliai rodo, kad jis yra patikimas ir validus. Kitas asmenybę vertinantis klausimynas Profile XT šiuo metu adaptuojamas Lietuvos populiacijai. Profile XT asmenybės bruožai skirstomi į šias dimensijas: Paklusnumas, Savarankiškumas, Objektyvumas, Draugingumas, Prisitaikymas, Pozityvumas, Energingumas, Įtakojimas ir Ryžtingumas. Taip pat vertinami profesiniai interesai, kurie skiriami į šias dimensijas: Verslumo, Finansų, Technikos, Mechanikos, Kūrybos ir Paslaugų. Šio tyrimo tikslas – ištirti dviejų klausimynų sąsajas aptariant asmenybės vertinimo galimybes. Keliami uždaviniai: įvertinti Profile XT patikimumą ir konstrukto validumą: nustatyti atitinkamų asmenybės bruožų, vertinamų Profile XT ir NEO PI-R, sąsajas bei nustatyti sąsajas tarp atitinkamų profesinių interesų, vertinamų Profile XT ir Savarankiško profesijos pasirinkimo klausimynu; nustatyti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Perspectives of Personality Assessment: Relations between Five-Factor Model and „Profile XT“ Summary Among different instruments of personality assessment, questionnaires evaluate personality in a nomothetic way—that is, personality traits are compared among people and commonalities are identified. Most simple questionnaires, however, appraise surface qualities and do not explore a subject’s deeper personality dynamics or traits. A more popular personality assessment test is the Five-Factor Model, which uses Personality Trait theory to assess personality according to five fundamental traits: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Consciousness. These personality traits are measured by NEO PI-R questionnaire, which psychometric properties of reliability and validity show it can be used for scientific purposes in Lithuania. Another assessment tool, the Profile XT, evaluates vocational interests (Enterprising, Finances, Technical, Mechanical, Creativity, and People Service) and personality traits, which are divided into the following dimensions: Manageability, Independence, Objectivity, Sociability, Accomodating, Attitude, Energy Level, Assertiveness, and Decisiveness. There were 200 participants in the study. In order to analyze the personality evaluation process, we decided to use both the NEO PI-R questionnaire and the Profile XT. As the Profile XT is a new instrument in Lithuania, it is compulsory to measure its psychometric characteristics... [to full text]

Vindkraft i skog

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Department of Computing Science. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on June 13, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.