302 research outputs found
A Descent Method for Equality and Inequality Constrained Multiobjective Optimization Problems
In this article we propose a descent method for equality and inequality
constrained multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs) which generalizes the
steepest descent method for unconstrained MOPs by Fliege and Svaiter to
constrained problems by using two active set strategies. Under some regularity
assumptions on the problem, we show that accumulation points of our descent
method satisfy a necessary condition for local Pareto optimality. Finally, we
show the typical behavior of our method in a numerical example
Guest Editorial: Special Issue On Multirate Systems, Filter Banks, Wavelets, And Applications
The last decade has seen a tremendous amount of
activity and emergence of applications in the areas of
filter banks and wavelets. These topics are of such wide
interest that there have been papers in many different journals, conferences, and workshops in diverse disciplines. However, many aspects of the theory, design, and application of filter banks and wavelets are of great interest to the circuits and systems community as well. Our editorial team felt that this was a perfect time to put together a special issue with state-of-the-art papers on these popular topics. All of the papers have been peer-reviewed according to the usual practice of
this TRANSACTIONS. Almost in parallel, there is also a similar
special issue (April 1998) by the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL
PROCESSING, with a slightly greater emphasis on applications.
Many well-known authors have contributed articles to these
special issues and we expect these to serve as valuable
references for a long time to come
Conversion of the Mycotoxin Patulin to the Less Toxic Desoxypatulinic Acid by the Biocontrol Yeast Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae Strain LS11
Se describe en este artículo el descubrimiento de la degradación de la micotoxina patulina por una levaduraThe infection of stored apples by the fungus Penicillium expansum causes the contamination of fruits and fruit-derived
products with the mycotoxin patulin, which is a major issue in food safety. Fungal attack can be prevented by beneficial
microorganisms, so-called biocontrol agents. Previous time-course thin layer chromatography analyses showed that the aerobic
incubation of patulin with the biocontrol yeast Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae strain LS11 leads to the disappearance of the
mycotoxin spot and the parallel emergence of two new spots, one of which disappears over time. In this work, we analyzed the
biodegradation of patulin effected by LS11 through HPLC. The more stable of the two compounds was purified and characterized by
nuclear magnetic resonance as desoxypatulinic acid, whose formation was also quantitated in patulin degradation experiments. After
R. kratochvilovae LS11 had been incubated in the presence of 13C-labeled patulin, label was traced to desoxypatulinic acid, thus
proving that this compound derives from the metabolization of patulin by the yeast. Desoxypatulinic acid was much less toxic than
patulin to human lymphocytes and, in contrast to patulin, did not react in vitro with the thiol-bearing tripeptide glutathione. The
lower toxicity of desoxypatulinic acid is proposed to be a consequence of the hydrolysis of the lactone ring and the loss of functional
groups that react with thiol groups. The formation of desoxypatulinic acid from patulin represents a novel biodegradation pathway
that is also a detoxification process
A pilot study of hair and cytokine balance alteration in healthy young women under major exam stress
Mouse models show that experimental stress mimicking prolonged life-stress
exposure enhances neurogenic inflammation, induces adaptive immunity cytokine-
imbalance characterized by a shift to Type 1 T-helper cell cytokines and
increases apoptosis of epithelial cells. This affects hair growth in otherwise
healthy animals. In this study, we investigate whether a prolonged
naturalistic life-stress exposure affects cytokine balance and hair parameters
in healthy humans. 33 (18 exam, 15 comparison) female medical students with
comparable sociobiological status were analyzed during a stressful final
examination period, at three points in time (T) 12 weeks apart. T1 was before
start of the learning period, T2 between the three-day written exam and an
oral examination, and T3 after a 12 week rest and recovery from the stress of
the examination period. Assessments included: self-reported distress and
coping strategies (Perceived Stress Questionnaire [PSQ], Trier Inventory for
the Assessment of Chronic Stress [TICS]), COPE), cytokines in supernatants of
stimulated peripheral blood mononucleocytes (PBMCs), and trichogram (hair
cycle and pigmentation analysis). Comparison between students participating in
the final medical exam at T2 and non-exam students, revealed significantly
higher stress perception in exam students. Time-wise comparison revealed that
stress level, TH1/TH2 cytokine balance and hair parameters changed
significantly from T1 to T2 in the exam group, but not the control. However,
no group differences were found for cytokine balance or hair parameters at T2.
The study concludes that in humans, naturalistic stress, as perceived during
participation in a major medical exam, has the potential to shift the immune
response to TH1 and transiently hamper hair growth, but these changes stay
within a physiological range. Findings are instructive for patients suffering
from hair loss in times of high stress. Replication in larger and more diverse
sample populations is required, to assess suitability of trichogram analysis
as biological outcome for stress studies
Two rapid assays for screening of patulin biodegradation
Artículo sobre distintos ensayos para comprobar la biodegradación de la patulinaThe mycotoxin patulin is produced by the blue
mould pathogen Penicillium expansum in rotting apples
during postharvest storage. Patulin is toxic to a wide range
of organisms, including humans, animals, fungi and bacteria.
Wash water from apple packing and processing
houses often harbours patulin and fungal spores, which can
contaminate the environment. Ubiquitous epiphytic yeasts,
such as Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae strain LS11 which
is a biocontrol agent of P. expansum in apples, have the
capacity to resist the toxicity of patulin and to biodegrade
it. Two non-toxic products are formed. One is desoxypatulinic
acid. The aim of the work was to develop rapid,
high-throughput bioassays for monitoring patulin degradation
in multiple samples. Escherichia coli was highly
sensitive to patulin, but insensitive to desoxypatulinic acid.
This was utilized to develop a detection test for patulin,
replacing time-consuming thin layer chromatography or
high-performance liquid chromatography. Two assays for patulin degradation were developed, one in liquid medium
and the other in semi-solid medium. Both assays allow the
contemporary screening of a large number of samples. The
liquid medium assay utilizes 96-well microtiter plates and
was optimized for using a minimum of patulin. The semisolid
medium assay has the added advantage of slowing
down the biodegradation, which allows the study and isolation
of transient degradation products. The two assays are
complementary and have several areas of utilization, from
screening a bank of microorganisms for biodegradation
ability to the study of biodegradation pathways
A semidefinite programming approach for solving multiobjective linear programming
Several algorithms are available in the literature for finding the entire set of Pareto-optimal solutions in MultiObjective Linear Programming (MOLP). However, it has not been proposed so far an interior point algorithm that finds all Pareto-optimal solutions of MOLP. We present an explicit construction, based on a transformation of any MOLP into a finite sequence
of SemiDefinite Programs (SDP), the solutions of which give the entire set
of Pareto-optimal extreme points solutions of MOLP. These SDP problems
are solved by interior point methods; thus our approach provides a pseudopolynomial interior point methodology to find the set of Pareto-optimal solutions of MOLP.Junta de AndalucíaFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovació
Solving ill-posed bilevel programs
This paper deals with ill-posed bilevel programs, i.e., problems admitting multiple lower-level solutions for some upper-level parameters. Many publications have been devoted to the standard optimistic case of this problem, where the difficulty is essentially moved from the objective function to the feasible set. This new problem is simpler but there is no guaranty to obtain local optimal solutions for the original optimistic problem by this process. Considering the intrinsic non-convexity of bilevel programs, computing local optimal solutions is the best one can hope to get in most cases. To achieve this goal, we start by establishing an equivalence between the original optimistic problem an a certain set-valued optimization problem. Next, we develop optimality conditions for the latter problem and show that they generalize all the results currently known in the literature on optimistic bilevel optimization. Our approach is then extended to multiobjective bilevel optimization, and completely new results are derived for problems with vector-valued upper- and lower-level objective functions. Numerical implementations of the results of this paper are provided on some examples, in order to demonstrate how the original optimistic problem can be solved in practice, by means of a special set-valued optimization problem
Selection of Wavelet Subbands Using Genetic Algorithm for Face Recognition
Abstract. In this paper, a novel representation called the subband face is proposed for face recognition. The subband face is generated from selected subbands obtained using wavelet decomposition of the original face image. It is surmised that certain subbands contain information that is more significant for discriminating faces than other subbands. The problem of subband selection is cast as a combinatorial optimization problem and genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find the optimum subband combination by maximizing Fisher ratio of the training features. The performance of the GA selected subband face is evaluated using three face databases and compared with other wavelet-based representations.
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