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Estimation of the level of durum wheat germplasm genetic diversity is important for its classification and efficient use in breeding programmes. The aim of this study was to assess genetic diversity of durum wheat genotypes developed at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad, Serbia, with 26 morphological characteristics based on the International Union for Protection of New Varieties of Plants guidelines. The Shannon diversity index was used as an indicator of morphological diversity and it ranged from 0.283 for glaucosity of lower side of the flag leaf blade and density of hairiness of uppermost node of the culm, to 0.950 for the ear colour, with the mean value of 0.616, indicating a medium to high level of morphological diversity. On average, the diversity was higher for traits relating to generative organs than for those associated with vegetative plant organs. The 21 morphological characteristics were sufficient to distinguish unique profiles of all durum wheat genotypes. The estimation of varietal diversity and identification of morphological characteristics with the highest discriminative power were done by multiple correspondence analysis. The traits that contributed the most to the distinction of genotypes were the ear colouration, length of beak of the lower glume, lower glume shape, ear length of awns at tip relative to ear length and colour of awns. Morphological characterization using the traits with the highest discriminative power could be a useful complementary method for durum wheat germplasm classification and diversity analysis.

Abstract Background Neuroinflammation has gained increasing attention as a potential contributing factor in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. A clinical cerebrospinal fluid biomarker capable of monitoring this process during the course of the disease has yet to emerge, chiefly owing to contradictory research findings. In this study, we sought to clarify the utility of inflammatory biomarkers in diagnostic procedures of AD in three steps: (1) to screen for proteins that are robustly detectable in cerebrospinal fluid; (2) based on this analysis, to explore any associations between the analytically robust markers and salient pathological features of AD; and (3) to determine the discriminative power of these markers in the clinical diagnosis of AD. Methods From a total of 46 proteins, 15 that were robustly detectable in cerebrospinal fluid were identified. A subsequent analysis of these markers in a cohort of 399 patients (nondemented subjects, patients with mild cognitive impairment [MCI], and patients with AD, supplemented by smaller cohorts of other diseases) was conducted. Fluid biomarker data were related to AD pathology and neuropsychological markers and adjusted for confounders such as age, sex, apolipoprotein E genotype, and biobank storage time. Results Cerebrospinal fluid levels of C-reactive protein and soluble TREM2 differed between nondemented subjects, patients with MCI, or patients with AD and were associated with amyloid and tau pathology. Several markers were associated with tau pathology only or with other neurodegenerative diseases. Correlations between neuropsychological performance and inflammatory markers were weak, but they were most prominent in AD and for the most challenging cognitive tests. All investigated covariates had significant influence, with varying effects across the markers. Still, none of the markers achieved discriminative power of more than 70% to distinguish between patient groups defined by clinical or neuropathological categories. Conclusions Basic analytical considerations proved indispensable for this type of study because only one-third of the tested markers were robustly detectable in cerebrospinal fluid. Detectable inflammatory protein markers were associated in multiple ways with AD pathology. Yet, even significantly associated markers were not powerful enough in terms of effect strength, sensitivity, and specificity, and hence they were not suited for direct use in clinical diagnostic practice. Targets other than those most commonly considered in this field of research might provide results with better clinical applicability.

This paper presents a novel technique called correspondence selection for rigid transformations in order to effectively refine keypoint matches in rigid image registration. The proposed technique mainly lies in the following two components. First, keypoint matches are ranked and selected by the distance ratio between the best match and the second best match. Second, keypoint matches are further selected by ranking the geometric similarity between corresponding keypoint triplets. These two components enhance the discriminative power of potential keypoint matches in a progressive way. The proposed technique is generally applicable to affine rigid image registration. Experiments have been conducted using a set of benchmark datasets in the field of image registration, indicating that the proposed technique is very effective and achieves the state-of-the-art performance in refining keypoint matches for affine rigid image registration.

The concept of biodiesel viewed by pundits as a renewable alternative fuel to diesel engines that could partially or fully replace or reduce the use of petroleum diesel fuel has been gaining great importance worldwide for its good quality exhaust, sustainability and biodegradability. The irregularity in production output, low quality, wastes, and downtimes appears to be a serious production problem being faced by manufacturers of biodiesel products which this study seeks to address. This study seeks to analyze some factors affecting the production process of rubber seed oil based biodiesel using opinion discrimination analysis. The research entails the application of survey method to gather relevant information required to build appropriate data matrix of 31 factors that were used to craft questionnaire administered to 100 respondents for their expert evaluation. Rensis Likert’s 5-point attitudinal scale was used in dimensioning the respondent’s responses, which were recorded in descending order of rating and were captured in a 100 × 31 data matrix and subsequently analyzed with the use of opinion discriminative analytical tool to obtain the discriminative powers (DP). The result of the DP-values obtained enabled us to appreciate the main factors that significantly influence the rubber seed oil based biodiesel production. In particular their relative influence is indicative of the magnitude of the DP-values. This study has revealed that the opinion discrimination analytical approach employed is effective in dealing with the problem of process variability and degraded output. Keywords: Discriminative Power, Rubber Seed Oil, Opinion Discrimination Analysis, Rensis Likert

Probing food experience or liking through verbal ratings has its shortcomings. We compare explicit ratings to a range of (neuro)physiological and behavioral measures with respect to their performance in distinguishing drinks associated with different emotional experience. Seventy participants tasted and rated the valence and arousal of eight regular drinks and a “ground truth” high-arousal, low-valence vinegar solution. The discriminative power for distinguishing between the vinegar solution and the regular drinks was highest for sip size, followed by valence ratings, arousal ratings, heart rate, skin conductance level, facial expression of “disgust,” pupil diameter, and Electroencephalogram (EEG) frontal alpha asymmetry. Within the regular drinks, a positive correlation was found between rated arousal and heart rate, and a negative correlation between rated arousal and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Most physiological measures showed consistent temporal patterns over time following the announcement of the drink and taking a sip. This was consistent over all nine drinks, but the peaks were substantially higher for the vinegar solution than for the regular drinks, likely caused by emotion. Our results indicate that implicit variables have the potential to differentiate between drinks associated with different emotional experiences. In addition, this study gives us insight into the physiological temporal response patterns associated with taking a sip.