Data Reduction Program Research Articles

An Automatic Method for Detecting Transients and Variable Sources in AST3 Survey Based on Image Subtraction and Random Forest

AST3-2 (the second Antarctic Survey Telescope) is located in Antarctic Dome A, the loftiest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau. It produces a huge amount of observational data which require a more efficient data reduction program to be developed. Also the data transmission in Antarctica is much difficult, thus it is necessary to perform data reduction and detect variable and transient sources remotely and automatically in Antarctica, but this attempt is restricted by the unsatisfactory performance of the low power consumption computer in Antarctica. For realizing this purpose, to develop a new method based on the existing image subtraction method and random forest algorithm, taking the AST3-2 2016 dataset as the test sample, becomes an alternative choice. This method performs image subtraction on the dataset, then applies the principle component analysis to extract the features of residual images. Random forest is used as a machine learning classifier, and in the test a recall rate of 97% is resulted for the positive sample. Our work has verified the feasibility and accuracy of this method, and finally found out a batch of candidates for variable stars in the AST3-2 2016 dataset.

Blade bowing effects on radial equilibrium of inlet flow in axial compressor cascades

The circumferentially averaged equation of the inlet flow radial equilibrium in axial compressor was deduced. It indicates that the blade inlet radial pressure gradient is closely related to the radial component of the circumferential fluctuation (CF) source item. Several simplified cascades with/without aerodynamic loading were numerically studied to investigate the effects of blade bowing on the inlet flow radial equilibrium. A data reduction program was conducted to obtain the CF source from three-dimensional (3D) simulation results. Flow parameters at the passage inlet were focused on and each term in the radial equilibrium equation was discussed quantitatively. Results indicate that the inviscid blade force is the inducement of the inlet CF due to geometrical asymmetry. Blade bowing induces variation of the inlet CF, thus changes the radial pressure gradient and leads to flow migration before leading edge (LE) in the cascades. Positive bowing drives the inlet flow to migrate from end walls to mid-span and negative bowing turns it to the reverse direction to build a new equilibrium. In addition, comparative studies indicate that the inlet Mach number and blade loading can efficiently impact the effectiveness of blade bowing on radial equilibrium in compressor design.

FIT2D: a multi-purpose data reduction, analysis and visualization program

FIT2D is one of the principal area detector data reduction, analysis and visualization programs used at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and is also used by more than 400 research groups worldwide, including many other synchrotron radiation facilities. It has been developed for X-ray science, but is applicable to other structural techniques and is used in analysing electron diffraction data and microscopy, and neutron diffraction and scattering data.FIT2D works for both interactive and `batch'-style data processing. Calibration and correction of detector distortions, integration of two-dimensional data to a variety of one-dimensional scans, and one- and two-dimensional model fitting are the main uses. Many other general-purpose image processing and image visualization operations are available. Commands are available through a `graphical user interface' and operations common to certain types of analysis are grouped within `interfaces'. Executable versions for most workstation and personal computer systems, and web page documentation, are available at http://www.esrf.eu/computing/scientific/FIT2D.

Extended Calibration Technique of a Four-Hole Probe for Three-Dimensional Flow Measurements

The present paper reports the development and nonnulling calibration technique to calibrate a cantilever type cylindrical four-hole probe of 2.54 mm diameter to measure three-dimensional flows. The probe is calibrated at a probe Reynolds number of 9525. The probe operative angular range is extended using a zonal method by dividing into three zones, namely, center, left, and right zone. Different calibration coefficients are defined for each zone. The attainable angular range achieved using the zonal method is ±60 degrees in the yaw plane and −50 to +30 degrees in the pitch plane. Sensitivity analysis of all the four calibration coefficients shows that probe pitch sensitivity is lower than the yaw sensitivity in the center zone, and extended left and right zones have lower sensitivity than the center zone. In addition, errors due to the data reduction program for the probe are presented. The errors are found to be reasonably small in all the three zones. However, the errors in the extended left and right zones have slightly larger magnitudes compared to those in the center zone.

Labview-based Neutron Reflectivity Data Reduction Program at HANARO

Labview-based Neutron Reflectivity Data Reduction Program at HANARO

Extended precision data types for the development of the original computer aided engineering applications

Computer aided engineering is based on models of the phenomena which are expressed as algorithms. The implementations of the algorithms are usually software applications which are processing a large volume of numerical data, regardless the size of the input data. In this way, the finite element method applications used to have an input data generator which was creating the entire volume of geometrical data, starting from the initial geometrical information and the parameters stored in the input data file. Moreover, there were several data processing stages, such as: renumbering of the nodes meant to minimize the size of the band length of the system of equations to be solved, computation of the equivalent nodal forces, computation of the element stiffness matrix, assemblation of system of equations, solving the system of equations, computation of the secondary variables. The modern software application use pre-processing and post-processing programs to easily handle the information. Beside this example, CAE applications use various stages of complex computation, being very interesting the accuracy of the final results. Along time, the development of CAE applications was a constant concern of the authors and the accuracy of the results was a very important target. The paper presents the various computing techniques which were imagined and implemented in the resulting applications: finite element method programs, finite difference element method programs, applied general numerical methods applications, data generators, graphical applications, experimental data reduction programs. In this context, the use of the extended precision data types was one of the solutions, the limitations being imposed by the size of the memory which may be allocated. To avoid the memory-related problems the data was stored in files. To minimize the execution time, part of the file was accessed using the dynamic memory allocation facilities. One of the most important consequences of the paper is the design of a library which includes the optimized solutions previously tested, that may be used for the easily development of original CAE cross-platform applications. Last but not least, beside the generality of the data type solutions, there is targeted the development of a software library which may be used for the easily development of node-based CAE applications, each node having several known or unknown parameters, the system of equations being automatically generated and solved.

The Stability of Sleep Patterns in Children 3 to 7 Years of Age

To determine the reliability and stability of sleep (duration and quality) over time in young children using repeated accelerometer estimates of sleep. One hundred ninety-four children wore Actical accelerometers for 5-day periods (24-hour monitoring) at 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6.5, and 7 years of age. Sleep variables of interest (duration, onset, offset, latency, efficiency, and wake after sleep onset) were estimated using the Sadeh algorithm within a commercial data reduction program (ActiLife). Children were divided into various groups according to sleep stability, and demographic and behavioral differences were compared across groups by ANOVA. All measures of sleep quantity and quality required 4-7 days of accelerometry to obtain acceptable reliability estimates, except morning wake time (2-4 days), and sleep latency (11-21 days). Average year-to-year correlations were only moderate for most measures (r = 0.41-0.51), but considerably higher than those observed for sleep latency, efficiency, and wake after onset (r = 0.15-0.24). Only 29 children were classified as sleep-stable over the 4 years. These children were less likely to be from ethnic minority groups (P = .017) and had higher levels of day-time physical activity (P = .032). Sleep patterns in children are not particularly stable, showing considerable variation both within a week and across the years. Few children exhibit stable sleep patterns over time, yet characterization of these children might provide further information regarding how sleep benefits health.

Towards a robust ad hoc data correction approach that yields reliable atomic pair distribution functions from powder diffraction data

We examine the equations to obtain atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs) from x-ray, neutron and electron powder diffraction data with a view to obtaining reliable and accurate PDFs from the raw data using a largely ad hoc correction process. We find that this should be possible under certain circumstances that hold, to a reasonably good approximation, in many modern experiments. We describe a variational approach that could be applied to find data correction parameters that is highly automatable and should require little in the way of user inputs yet results in quantitatively reliable PDFs, modulo unknown scale factors that are often not of scientific interest when profile fitting models are applied to the data with scale factor as a parameter. We have worked on a particular implementation of these ideas and demonstrate that it yields PDFs that are of comparable quality to those obtained with the existing x-ray data reduction program PDFgetX2. This opens the door to rapid and highly automated processing of raw data to obtain PDFs.

Recent Development of a 36 meter Small-Angle Neutron Scattering BATAN Spectrometer (SMARTer) in Serpong Indonesia

The 36 meter small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) spectrometer BATAN (SMARTer) in Serpong, Indonesia has been revitalised for several years. The work on replacing, upgrading and improving the control system and the experimental method were conducted in order to setup the spectrometer back in operation. Two main personal computers, one for handling and controlling the mechanical system and another one for acquiring neutron data were employed at the spectrometer. The standard and established SANS data reduction and analysis programs, such as GRASP and NIST Igor have been implemented to subtract the raw scattered neutron data with the backgrounds and then analyse the corrected data. The scattering data of ferrofluids samples, Fe3O4 and MnZnFe2O4 have been obtained using SANS spectrometers in BATAN Serpong, Indonesia and HANARO-KAERI, Republic of Korea for inter-laboratory comparison and investigation of proposed research interest. The results were comparable from both scattering data analysis.

Assessing Physical Activity In Girls Using Accelerometry - 60s Versus 10s Sampling Intervals

Children exhibit physical activity patterns mainly comprised of sporadic and intermittent bouts, each lasting under 15s in duration. Despite this fact, most studies utilize a 60s accelerometry sampling interval to objectively quantify physical activity in youths. This relatively long sampling interval may underestimate children's true physical activity behaviour. PURPOSE: To assess the difference in intensity, duration and number of continuous bouts of physical activity in children and adolescents when using accelerometry intervals of 60s vs. 10s. METHODS: A total of 106 girls and adolescents (mean = 13.0 ± 2.6 yrs old) wore ActiGraph GT1M accelerometers for all waking hours (except while bathing, swimming, etc.) over seven days. Accelerometers were set at 10s epochs and the raw data was subsequently re-integrated into 60s epochs. From data of both epoch lengths, daily bouts of moderate (MPA; 3-5.9 METs), vigorous (VPA; 6-8.9 METs) and very vigorous (VVPA; ≥9 METs) activities were quantified using a Visual Basic data reduction program. The number of continuous 5 min, 10 min and 20 min bouts at each intensity was also calculated. RESULTS: There was no difference in total MPA minutes between the 10s and 60s analysis. Total VPA, and VVPA were 80.4%, and 61.5% greater in the 10s sampling than in the 60s integrated sampling, respectively (p<0.01). When examining continuous bouts of activity, the 10s analysis generally resulted in more continuous bouts compared with the 60s analysis, especially when examining 5 min bouts of MPA (19.1%), 20 min bouts of VPA (14.6%), and of VVPA (0.9%)(p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The commonly used 60s accelerometry sampling interval underestimates the amount of physical activity that children and adolescents engage in, especially at the higher intensity levels. Thus, a sampling interval of 10s or less is warranted to better assess physical activity levels of different intensities in children and adolescents.

Covalently Bound Substrate at the Regulatory Site of Yeast Pyruvate Decarboxylases Triggers Allosteric Enzyme Activation

The mechanism by which the enzyme pyruvate decarboxylase from two yeast species is activated allosterically has been elucidated. A total of seven three-dimensional structures of the enzyme, of enzyme variants, or of enzyme complexes from two yeast species, three of them reported here for the first time, provide detailed atomic resolution snapshots along the activation coordinate. The prime event is the covalent binding of the substrate pyruvate to the side chain of cysteine 221, thus forming a thiohemiketal. This reaction causes the shift of a neighboring amino acid, which eventually leads to the rigidification of two otherwise flexible loops, one of which provides two histidine residues necessary to complete the enzymatically competent active site architecture. The structural data are complemented and supported by kinetic investigations and binding studies, providing a consistent picture of the structural changes occurring upon enzyme activation.

Solving the observer metric

The analysis of modern cosmological data is becoming an increasingly important task as the amount of data multiplies. An important goal is to extract geometric information, i.e. the metric of the cosmos, from observational data. The observer metric is adapted to the reality of observations: information received along the past null cone, and matter flowing along timelike lines. It provides a potentially very good candidate for developing a general numerical data reduction program. As a basis for this, we elucidate the spherically symmetric solution, for which there is to date no single presentation that is complete and correct. With future numerical implementation in mind, we give a clear presentation of the mathematical solution in terms of 4 arbitrary functions, the solution algorithm given observational data on the past null cone, and we argue that the evolution from one null cone to the next necessarily involves integrating down each null cone.

Physical Activity Levels among Children Attending After-School Programs

To describe the physical activity (PA) levels of children attending after-school programs, 2) examine PA levels in specific after-school sessions and activity contexts, and 3) evaluate after-school PA differences in groups defined by sex and weight status. One hundred forty-seven students in grades 3-6 (mean age: 10.1 +/- 0.7, 54.4% male, 16.5 % overweight (OW), 22.8% at-risk for OW) from seven after-school programs in the midwestern United States wore Actigraph GT1M accelerometers for the duration of their attendance to the program. PA was objectively assessed on six occasions during an academic year (three fall and three spring). Stored activity counts were uploaded to a customized data-reduction program to determine minutes of sedentary (SED), light (LPA), moderate (MPA), vigorous (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) physical activity. Time spent in each intensity category was calculated for the duration of program attendance, as well as specific after-school sessions (e.g., free play, snack time). On average, participants exhibited 42.6 min of SED, 40.8 min of LPA, 13.4 min of MPA, and 5.3 min of VPA. The average accumulation of MVPA was 20.3 min. Boys exhibited higher levels of MPA, VPA, and MVPA, and lower levels of SED and LPA, than girls. OW and at-risk-for-OW students exhibited significantly less VPA than nonoverweight students, but similar levels of LPA, MPA, and MVPA. MVPA levels were significantly higher during free-play activity sessions than during organized or structured activity sessions. After-school programs seem to be an important contributor to the PA of attending children. Nevertheless, ample room for improvement exists by making better use of existing time devoted to physical activity.

A modulated crystal structure in Rb2ZnX4 (X = Cl, Br)—a neutron time-of-flight single-crystal study

Data on the two prototype modulated structures of Rb2ZnX4 (X = Cl, Br) have been collected at 300 K for X = Br and 210 K for X = Cl on the time-of-flight (TOF) single-crystal Laue diffractometer SXD installed at ISIS. Both compounds show a modulated structure with a propagation vector very close to (0, 0, 0.3). Lists of Bragg reflection intensities were successfully extracted and corrected for absorption with the locally available SXD2001 data reduction program. In parallel, JANA2006 has been adapted to handle TOF data, including specific extinction models. Good refinements have been obtained for both compounds demonstrating the viability of the TOF Laue method to efficiently collect several thousands of fundamental and satellite reflections on modulated crystals with only a few crystal orientations, and quantitatively analyse them using JANA2006.

Five retracted structure reports: Inverted or incorrect?

Recently, Chang et al. (2006) withdrew five articles that included reports of the structure of the ABC transporter MsbA (Chang and Roth 2001) and the EmrE multidrug transporter in complex with a substrate (Pornillos et al. 2005). The stated reason for the retractions was as follows: “An in-house data reduction program, which was not part of a conventional data processing package, converted the anomalous pairs (I+ and I−) to (F− and F+), thereby introducing a sign change. As the diffraction data collected for each set of MsbA crystals and for the EmrE crystals were processed with the same program the structures reported…had the wrong hand.”

BOES 관측데이터의 자동처리 프로그램 개발 II

We developed a new program for automatic continuum normalization of Echelle spectrographic data. Using this algorithm, we have determined spectral continuum of almost BOES data. The first advantage of this algorithm is that we can save much time for continuum determination and normalization. The second advantage is that the result of this algorithm is very reliable for almost spectral type of spectrum. But this algorithm cannot be applied directly to the spectrum which has very strong and broad emission lines, for example Wolf-Rayet type spectrum. We implanted this algorithm to the program which was developed in the previous study. And we introduced more upgraded BOES data reduction program. This program has more convenient graphical user interface environment, so users can easily reduce BOES data. Lastly, we presented the result of study on line profile variation of magnetic Ap/Bp stars analyzed using this program.

ALGORITHM OF REVISED-OTFTOOL

We revised the OTFTOOL which was developed in Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) for the On-The-Fly (OTF) observation. Besides the improvement of data resampling function of conventional OTFTOOL, we added a new SELF referencing mode and data pre-reduction function. Since OTF observation data have a large redundancy, we can choose and use only good quality samples excluding bad samples. Sorting out the bad samples is based on the floating level, rms level, antenna trajectory, elevation, , and number of samples. And, spikes are also removed. Referencing method can be chosen between CLASSICAL mode in which the references are taken from the OFFs observation and ELLIPSOIDAL mode in which the references are taken from the inner source free region (this is named as SELF reference). Baseline is subtracted with the source free channel windows and the baseline order chosen by the user. Passing through these procedures, the raw OTF data will be an FITS datacube. The revised-OTFTOOL maximizes the advantages of OTF observation by sorting out the bad samples in the earliest stage. And the new self-referencing method, the ELLIPSOIDAL mode, is very powerful to reduce the data. Moreover since it is possible to see the datacube at once without moving them into other data reduction programs, it is very useful and convenient to check whether the data resampling works well or not. We expect that the revised-OTFTOOL can be applied to the facilities of the OTF observation like SRAO, NRAO, and FCRAO.

An Analysis Paradigm for Investigating Multi‐locus Effects in Complex Disease: Examination of Three GABAA Receptor Subunit Genes on 15q11‐q13 as Risk Factors for Autistic Disorder.

Gene-gene interactions are likely involved in many complex genetic disorders and new statistical approaches for detecting such interactions are needed. We propose a multi-analytic paradigm, relying on convergence of evidence across multiple analysis tools. Our paradigm tests for main and interactive effects, through allele, genotype and haplotype association. We applied our paradigm to genotype data from three GABAA receptor subunit genes (GABRB3, GABRA5, and GABRG3) on chromosome 15 in 470 Caucasian autism families. Previously implicated in autism, we hypothesized these genes interact to contribute to risk. We detected no evidence of main effects by allelic (PDT, FBAT) or genotypic (genotype-PDT) association at individual markers. However, three two-marker haplotypes in GABRG3 were significant (HBAT). We detected no significant multi-locus associations using genotype-PDT analysis or the EMDR data reduction program. However, consistent with the haplotype findings, the best single locus EMDR model selected a GABRG3 marker. Further, the best pairwise genotype-PDT result involved GABRB3 and GABRG3, and all multi-locus EMDR models also selected GABRB3 and GABRG3 markers. GABA receptor subunit genes do not significantly interact to contribute to autism risk in our overall data set. However, the consistency of results across analyses suggests that we have defined a useful framework for evaluating gene-gene interactions.

BOES 관측데이터의 자동처리 프로그램 개발

We developed a data reduction program (RX) to process BOES data automatically. It processes a whole set of data taken during one night automatically - preprocessing, extraction to one-dimensional spectra and wavelength calibration. The execution is very fast and the performance looks pretty good. We described the performance of this program, comparing its procedure with that of IRAF. RX does not have functions for continuum normalization yet. We will develop those functions in the next works.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity Behavior In Children Attending A Half Day Preschool Program

Obesity rates are increasing in children of all ages, and reduced physical activity (PA) is a likely contributor to this trend. Little is known about the physical activity behavior of preschool-age children, or about the influence of preschool attendance on physical activity. Purpose The purpose of this study was to quantify the physical activity levels of children attending a center-based half-day preschool program. Methods Forty-two 3-to-5-year old children (Mean age = 4.0 ± 0.7, 54.8% Male, Mean BMI = 16.5 ± 5.5, Mean BMI %tile = 52.1 ± 33.5) from four class groups (two morning and two afternoon), wore an Actigraph 7164 accelerometer for the entire halfday program (including classroom learning experiences, snack and recess time) 2 times per week, for 10 weeks (20 activity monitoring records in total). Activity counts for each 5-sec interval were uploaded to a customized data reduction program to determine total counts, minutes of moderate PA (MPA) (3–5.9 METs), and minutes of vigorous PA (VPA) (> = 6 METs) per session. Counts were categorized as either MPA or VPA using the cutpoints developed by Sirard and colleagues (2001). Results Across the four 2.5 hour programs, the average MPA, VPA and total counts (× 103) were 12.4 ± 3.1 minutes, 18.3 ± 4.6 minutes, and 171.1 ± 29.7 counts, respectively. Thus, on average, children accumulated just over 12 minutes of moderateto-vigorous PA per hour of program attendance. The PA variables did not differ significantly by gender, weight status, or time of day. There were, however, significant age differences, with 3-year-olds exhibiting significantly less PA than their 4- and 5-year-old counterparts. Conclusions These results suggest that young children are relatively lowactive while attending preschool. Accordingly, interventions to increase movement opportunities during the preschool day are warranted.