Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 55915602

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Expert Systems with Applications

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Neural network prediction of ascorbic acid degradation in green asparagus during thermal treatments
Hong Zheng, Shuangshuang Fang, Heqiang Lou, Yong Chen, Lingling Jiang, Hongfei Lu
College of Chemistry and Life Science, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
An articial neural network was developed to predict the kinetics of ascorbic acid loss in green asparagus during thermal treatments and the model was trained using a back-propagation algorithm. The results indicate that the optimal ANN models consisted one hidden layer and the optimal number of neurons in the hidden layer was 24, 26, 26 and 18 for bud, upper, middle and butt segments of asparagus, respectively. The ANNs could predict the kinetic parameters of ascorbic acid degradation in asparagus with an MSE of 1.3925 and MAE 0.5283 for bud segment, MSE 2.4618 and MAE 0.6436 for upper segment, MSE 0.8985 and 0.4258 for middle segment and MSE 0.2707 and MAE 0.1883 for butt segment. In addition, the correlation coefcients between experimental k, t1/2 or D-value and predicted values were greater than 0.99 in all cases. Therefore, ANN offers a simple, quick and convenient means of the kinetic parameters prediction in chemical kinetics. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Articial neural network Ascorbic acid Kinetic Asparagus offcinalis L. Thermal treatments

1. Introduction Asparagus (Asparagus offcinalis L., family Liliaceae) is a healthy and nutritious vegetable, containing antioxidants, such as rutin, ascorbic acid, tocopherol, ferulic acid and glutathione (Shao et al., 1997). Ascorbic acid (AA) is an important component of our nutrition and used as additive in many foods because of its antioxidant capacity, however, it is known to be thermolabile and is easily destroyed during processing, especially thermal treatments (Garrote, Silva, & Bertone, 1986). Blanching is one of the many processes that take place during the preparation of raw vegetables before preservation processes like canning and freezing. Quantitative representation of kinetic data has also been extensively reported in an attempt to predict and optimize ascorbic acid retention during blanching and storage. To date, several authors have studied the kinetics of AA degradation in foods during blanching and storage and stated that it follows a rst-order kinetic model (Al-Zubaidy & Khalil, 2007; Arroqui, Rumsey, Lopez, & Virseda, 2002; Burdurlu, Koca, & Karadeniz, 2006; Huelin, 1953; Johnson, Braddock, & Chen, 1995; Lee & Coates, 1999; Vieira, Teixeira, & Silva, 2000). Articial neural network (ANN) is a set of mathematical methods, often encompassed with articial intelligence, which in some way attempt to mimic the functioning of the human brain (Bila et al., 1999). Recently, interest in using ANN as a modeling tool in food technology is increasing. ANN has been successfully used in several food applications like sensory analysis, classications,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0579 8228 2284.
E-mail address: luhongfei63@yahoo.com.cn (H. Lu). 0957-4174/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.10.076

microbial predictions or thermal control among others (Afaghi, Ramaswamy, & Prasher, 2001; Geeraerd, Herremans, Cenens, & Van Impe, 1998; Guyer & Yang, 2000; Ni & Gunasekaran, 1998; Ruan, Almaer, & Zhang, 1995). Unlike other modeling techniques such as simultaneous heat and mass transfer, kinetic models, and regression analysis, an ANN can accommodate more than two variables to predict two or more parameters. In this study, we have developed an articial neural network useful to predict kinetics of ascorbic acid degradation in asparagus during blanching at different temperatures. Many authors have proposed mathematical models and computer simulations representing ascorbic acid concentration as a function of moisture content, temperature and time (Haralampu & Karel, 1983; Mishkin, Saguy, & Karel, 1984; Villota & Karel, 1980). However, to our knowledge no previous study has been reported on using ANNs to predict the kinetics of ascorbic acid degradation. The present work was undertaken to: (1) evaluating the kinetics of ascorbic acid degradation during blanching in different parts of asparagus and (2) develop the kinetics of ascorbic acid loss prediction models based on articial neural networks. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Thermal treatments Fresh asparagus (Asparagus offcinalis L. var. Grande) was harvested from a local farm in Jinhua (Zhejiang, PR China) and transported by refrigeration at 8 C for 30 min to the laboratory. Spears of the same diameter (0.81.0 cm) at the base and length (20 cm)

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Table 1 Blanching time and temperature for fresh asparagus. Temperature (C) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Blanching time (min) 30 25 20 15 10 7 5 3 2 60 50 40 30 20 14 10 6 4 90 75 60 45 30 21 15 9 6 120 100 80 60 40 28 20 12 8

In addition, temperature quotients (Q10) were calculated from the following equations:

Q 10

kT 10 ; kT

where k(T+10), the rate constant at (T + 10); k(T), the rate constant at T. 2.4. Calculation of the half destruction time (t1/2) and D-value The half destruction time t1/2 and D-value (the time required for the degradation of 90% ascorbic acid) of AA loss was calculated as Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively (Zhang et al., 2008):

were used in our experiment. The spears, after being sorted for size and length, were washed with tap water and drained. Eighty asparagus spears were placed in distilled water baths set at 65, 70, 75, 80, 90, 95 and 100 C. Ten spears were removed at the time intervals listed in Table 1 and immediately cooled in running water at 15 C. 2.2. Determination of ascorbic acid (AA) Prior to AA measurements, asparagus spears at room temperature were cut into four segments as shown in Fig. 1. AA content in different parts of asparagus was determined based upon the quantitative discolouration of 2, 6-dichlorophenol indophenol (Merck KgaA, Darmstadt, Germany) titrimetric method as described in AOAC methodology No. 967.21 (AOAC, 2000). Results of AA content were expressed as milligram ascorbic acid per 100 ml juice. AA was measured in triplicate samples. The loss of AA in different parts of asparagus was calculated by using the standard equation for a rst-order reaction given below:

t1=2 ln 2=k; D 1=k;

where k, the rst-order rate constant. 2.5. Neural network

4 5

ln C ln C 0 kt;

An ANN is a mathematical algorithm which has the capability of relating the input and output parameters, learning from examples through iteration, without requiring a prior knowledge on the relationships between the process variables (Palancar, Aragn, & Torrecilla, 1998). One of the most signicant advantages of the ANN models over other classes of non-linear models is that ANNs are universal approximators that can approximate a large class of functions with a high degree of accuracy (Chen, Leung, & Hazem, 2003; Zhang & Qi, 2005). The primary element of a neural network is the neurons. These neurons are arranged in input and output layers of one or more hidden processing layers. The relationship between the output and the inputs has the following mathematical representation:

where C, the vitamin C content at time t; C0, the vitamin C content at time zero; k, the rst-order rate constant; t, the blanching time (min). 2.3. Arrhenius equation The Arrhenius equation is the most acceptable expression to account for the effect of temperature on the rate of ascorbic acid destruction in food systems. The Arrhenius relationship for the temperature dependence for the rate constant (k) is as follows:

ut

m X j 1

wtj xj ;

6 7

yt uut bt ;

k k0 expEa =RT ;

where Ea, activation energy of the reaction; R, gas constant; T, absolute temperature; k0, pre-exponential constant (Davies, Austin, & Partridge, 1991).

where x1, . . . , xm are the input signals; wt1, . . . , wtm are the weights of neuron t; ut is the linear combiner output due to the input signals; bt is the bias; /() is the activation function; and yt is the output signal of the neuron. Neurons can be thought of as weighted transfer functions. The most widely used activation function for the output layer is the linear function, and generally input layer neurons do not have an activation function, as their role is to transfer the inputs to the hidden layer. The logistic, hyperbolic and hyperbolic tangent sigmoid functions are often used as the hidden layer transfer function that are shown in Eqs. (7)(9), respectively. Other activation functions

Fig. 1. Specimens for measuring ascorbic acid contents.

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Fig. 2. Typical structure and basic principles of articial neural networks.

layer structures are shown in Fig. 3. A BP algorithm was used to implement supervised training of the network. A hyperbolic tangent sigmoid was used as the transfer function in hidden layer, and a linear transfer function was used in the output layer. Minimization of error was accomplished using the LevenbergMarquardt (LM) algorithm (Levenberg, 1944; Marquardt, 1963). Before the training of the network both input and output variables were normalized within the range 01 as follows:

X n 1 X max X min X min ; 2

12

where Xmin, Xmax and Xn denote the minimum, maximum and scaled value of the X data sample, respectively. Training was nished when the mean square error (MSE) converged and was less than 0.001. If the MSE did not go below 0.001, training was completed after 1000 epochs, where an epoch represents one complete sweep through all the data in the training set.
Fig. 3. Articial neural network architecture for k, t1/2 and D-value prediction.

can also be used such as linear and quadratic, each with a variety of modeling applications

Sig x

1 ; 1 expx 1 exp2x Tanhx ; 1 exp2x 2 1: Tansig x 1 e2x

8 9 10

2.5.2. Selection of optimal ANN conguration The mean relative error (MRE), standard deviation in relative errors (STDR), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and standard deviation in absolute error (STDA) were used to compare the performances of various ANN models, and were calculated as:

MAE

STDA MRE

n 1 X DkA ; n i1 v uP  2 u n t i 1 Dk A Dk A

13

Therefore, the ANN model, in fact, performs a non-linear functional mapping from past observations to the future value (yt) as

n1
n 1 X DkR ; n i1 v uP  2 u n t i 1 Dk R Dk R

14 15

yt f xj ; wtj bt ;

11 STDR

where xj j 0; 1; 2; . . . ; m is the input signals; wtj j 0; 1; 2; . . . ; m is the weights of neuron t; bt is the bias; f() is the activation function. The most common neural network is Feed-Forward Back Propagation (FFBP). For FFBP, the network includes an input layer, hidden layers, and an output layer. The FFBP can have more than one hidden layer, however, theoretical works have shown that a single hidden layer is sufcient for FFBP to approximate any complex non-linear function (Cybenco, 1989; Dogan, Demirpence, & Cobaner, 2008; Hagan & Menhaj, 1994; Haykin, 1998; Hornik, Stinchcombe, & White, 1989). Hence, an one-hidden-layer FFBP is used in this study. The FFBP network structure is shown in Fig. 2. 2.5.1. Articial neural network training Articial neural networks were developed using Matlab 7 software (The Mathworks, Inc., Natick, MA, USA). In our study, an onehidden-layer FFBP is used. The input layer, hidden layers, and output

MSE

n1 v uP  2 u n t i1 DkA DkA n

16

17

where DkA = jkP kDj, DkR = j(kP kD)/(kD)j. The parameter kP represents the predicted output from the neural network model for a given inputs while kD is the desired output. 3. Results 3.1. Ascorbic acid degradation At harvest, the average AA contents in the bud, upper, middle and butt segments of asparagus were 0.91 0.04, 0.72 0.06, 0.58 0.06 and 0.48 0.04 mg/100 ml juice, respectively. AA

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Fig. 4. Ascorbic acid loss in different segments of asparagus during thermal treatments: (a) bud segment; (b) upper segment; (c) middle segment and (d) butt segment.

Table 2 Kinetic parameters for the thermal degradation of ascorbic acid in bud segment of asparagus during blanching at different temperatures. Temperature (C) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Variation kinetics y 462:40 exp0:0057x y 430:73 exp0:0086x y 432:59 exp0:0112x y 422:01 exp0:0139x y 423:62 exp0:0267x y 432:16 exp0:0459x y 427:85 exp0:0734x y 433:54 exp0:1592x y 433:30 exp0:3040x k (min1) 0.0057 0.0086 0.0112 0.0139 0.0267 0.0459 0.0734 0.1592 0.3040 t1/2 (min) 121.60 80.60 61.89 49.87 25.96 15.10 9.44 4.35 2.28 D-value (min) 175.44 116.28 89.29 71.94 37.45 21.79 13.62 6.28 3.29 R2 0.9931 0.9324 0.9450 0.8623 0.8952 0.9440 0.9223 0.9464 0.9283

Table 3 Kinetic parameters for the thermal degradation of ascorbic acid in upper segment of asparagus during blanching at different temperatures. Temperature (C) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Variation kinetics y 437:90 exp0:0046x y 371:60 exp0:0081x y 362:33 exp0:0109x y 359:81 exp0:0163x y 350:27 exp0:0281x y 343:77 exp0:0468x y 335:50 exp0:0763x y 335:12 exp0:1510x y 340:35 exp0:2750x k (min1) 0.0046 0.0081 0.0109 0.0163 0.0281 0.0468 0.0763 0.1510 0.2750 t1/2 (min) 150.68 85.57 63.59 42.52 24.67 14.81 9.08 4.59 2.52 D-value (min) 217.39 123.46 91.74 61.35 35.59 21.37 13.11 6.62 3.64 R2 0.9324 0.9694 0.9834 0.9895 0.9801 0.9506 0.8952 0.8951 0.9207

H. Zheng et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 55915602 Table 4 Kinetic parameters for the thermal degradation of ascorbic acid in middle segment of asparagus during blanching at different temperatures. Temperature (C) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Variation kinetics y 285:91 exp0:0025x y 281:65 exp0:0039x y 274:60 exp0:0074x y 271:79 exp0:0102x y 271:60 exp0:0216x y 265:50 exp0:0362x y 260:20 exp0:0609x y 270:72 exp0:1496x y 274:91 exp0:2579x k (min1) 0.0025 0.0039 0.0074 0.0102 0.0216 0.0362 0.0609 0.1496 0.2579 t1/2 (min) 277.26 177.73 93.67 67.96 32.09 19.15 11.38 4.63 2.69 D-value (min) 400.00 256.41 135.14 98.04 46.30 27.62 16.42 6.68 3.88 R2

5595

0.9292 0.9310 0.8947 0.8540 0.8888 0.8312 0.8774 0.8846 0.9147

Fig. 5. Arrhenius plots of ascorbic acid degradation in bud segment (a), upper segment (b), middle segment (c) and butt segment (d).

Table 5 Kinetic parameters for the thermal degradation of ascorbic acid in butt segment of asparagus during blanching at different temperatures. Temperature (C) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Variation kinetics y 234:86 exp0:0029x y 229:87 exp0:0042x y 222:26 exp0:0061x y 218:05 exp0:0106x y 226:55 exp0:0217x y 222:73 exp0:0345x y 215:93 exp0:0546x y 218:30 exp0:1298x y 223:10 exp0:2445x k (min1) 0.0029 0.0042 0.0061 0.0106 0.0217 0.0345 0.0546 0.1298 0.2445 t1/2 (min) 239.02 165.04 113.63 65.39 31.94 20.09 12.70 5.34 2.83 D-value (min) 344.83 238.10 163.93 94.34 46.08 28.99 18.32 7.70 4.09 R2 0.9627 0.8975 0.8106 0.8067 0.9293 0.8848 0.8071 0.8403 0.8812

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Table 6 Activation energies Ea and temperature quotient (Q10) values for ascorbic acid degradation in different segments of asparagus. Ea (kcal mol1) Q10 6070 C Bud segment Upper segment Middle segment Butt segment 24.24 24.68 28.70 27.56 1.96 2.37 2.96 2.10 7080 C 2.38 2.58 2.91 3.56 8090 C 2.75 2.72 2.82 2.52 90100 C 4.14 3.60 4.23 4.48

Fig. 6. Errors in the prediction of kinetic parameters with different number of neurons in the hidden layer for bud (a), upper (b), middle (c) and butt segments of asparagus during blanching.

contents of different segments of asparagus were plotted as a function of blanching time at various temperatures (Fig. 4). The AA content in asparagus decreased with an increase in blanching time and temperature. Therefore, there was a difference in AA content due to different parts of asparagus, blanching temperature and time. The tted exponential curves (R2 = 0.8067 0.9931) showed good results for dependence of AA concentration during blanching. Therefore, the loss of AA in asparagus at all temperatures is described as a rst-order reaction. The kinetic parameters of AA degradation during thermal treatments at different temperatures are shown in Tables 25. The t1/2 and D-value decreased with increase in blanching temperature. However, the reduction in the rate constant (k) corresponded to a decrease in temperature. 3.2. Temperature dependence Fig. 5 shows Arrhenius plots of AA degradation in different segments of asparagus. Activation energies (Ea) and Q10 values of AA

loss were calculated in asparagus and given in Table 6. The Ea values for AA degradation were 24.24 kcal mol1 for bud segment, 24.68 kcal mol1 for upper segment, 28.70 kcal mol1 for middle segment and 27.56 kcal mol1 for butt segment. The Q10 values at 60100 C ranged from 1.96 to 4.14, from 2.37 to 3.60, from 2.96 to 4.23 and from 2.10 to 4.48 in bud, upper, middle and butt segments, respectively. Table 6 showed that the highest Q10 values were observed at 90100 C, and the lowest Ea values were located in bud segment of asparagus. 3.3. ANN for kinetic parameters prediction An articial neural network based on back propagation was used to predict kinetic parameters of AA degradation in asparagus during thermal treatments. In our study, an one-hidden-layer FFBP was used and the number of neurons in the hidden layer varied from one to thirty. Fig. 6 illustrated the MSE, MRE, STDR, MAE and STDA, which were used to compare the performances of

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various ANN models. The optimum number of hidden layer neurons was 24, 26, 26 and 18 for bud, upper, middle and butt segments of asparagus, respectively (Fig. 6). Plots of experimentally determined k, t1/2 or D-value versus ANN predicted values are shown in Figs. 710. The correlation coefcients were greater than 0.99 in all cases. For bud segment, R2 = 1 for predicted k, 0.9947 for t1/2 and 0.9995 for D-value. For upper segment, R2 = 0.9998, 0.9995 and 1 for k, t1/2 and D-value, respectively. The correlation coefcients ranged from 0.9992 to 0.9999 and from 0.9996 to 1 for middle and butt segments, respectively. Errors in the prediction of

k, t1/2 and D-value of AA degradation in asparagus with the optimal ANN were presented in Table 7. 4. Discussion Vegetables are a major source of ascorbic acid, a nutrient that besides its vitamin action is valuable for its antioxidant effect. Asparagus is a green vegetable with high antioxidant activity among the commonly consumed vegetables (Vinson, Hao, Su, & Zubik, 1998). Our data showed that the content of AA was highest

Fig. 7. Correlation of experimental and predicted kinetic parameters with testing and training data sets (a, c, e), as well as validation data set (b, d, f) for bud segment of asparagus during thermal treatments using the optimal ANN.

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Fig. 8. Correlation of experimental and predicted kinetic parameters with testing and training data sets (a, c, e), as well as validation data set (b, d, f) for upper segment of asparagus during thermal treatments using the optimal ANN.

in bud segment of asparagus (0.91 0.04 mg/100 ml juice), followed by upper segment (0.72 0.06 mg/100 ml juice), middle segment (0.58 0.06 mg/100 ml juice) and was least in butt segment (0.48 0.04 mg/100 ml juice). However, Nindo, Sun, Wang, Tang, and Powers (2003) reported that the middle and basal parts contained more ascorbic acid than the tip portion of asparagus. Although AA is an important component of our nutrition, it is the least stable of all vitamins and is easily destroyed during processing, especially thermal treatments, because of its thermolability. Garrote

et al. (1986) observed that the main mechanisms of AA loss during the blanching operation are thermal induced degradation or by leaching. Our results demonstrated that the AA content in asparagus decreased depending on the blanching time and temperature (Fig. 4). Moreover, AA degradation in asparagus during blanching has been described by a rst-order reaction model in our experiment. In fact, the rst-order kinetic model has been applied by many researchers (Frias & Oliveira, 2001; Frias, Oliveira, Cunha, & Oliveira, 1998; Giannakourou & Taoukis, 2003; Johnson et al., 1995; Uddin,

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Fig. 9. Correlation of experimental and predicted kinetic parameters with testing and training data sets (a, c, e), as well as validation data set (b, d, f) for middle segment of asparagus during thermal treatments using the optimal ANN.

Hawlader, Ding, & Mujumdar, 2002) for evaluating AA degradation in biological materials of food system. According to Table 6, high activation energies and Q10 values in middle and butt segments indicated that AA degradation was more temperature dependent than the other segments. The lowest Ea value for AA degradation was obtained in bud segment of asparagus. The lowest activation energies for AA degradation are also remarkable since this reaction is favoured at low temperatures. In addition, the t1/2 and D-value of AA loss in bud segment were lower than the other segments at the same blanching temperature (Tables 25). Therefore, bud segment is more liable to lose AA than the other segments.

From a nutritional point of view, the extent of AA retention is a widely adopted quality criterion. Therefore, many authors have proposed mathematical models and computer simulations predicting ascorbic acid loss during processing and storage (Haralampu & Karel, 1983; Mishkin et al., 1984; Vieira et al., 2000; Villota & Karel, 1980). Recently, articial neural network (ANN) has generated increasing acceptance and is an interesting method in several food processing applications like sensory analysis and quality control ski, Zielin ski, & Kozowska, 2004; Cabrera & Prieto, 2010; (Bucin Lewis et al., 2008; OFarrell, Lewis, Flanagan, Lyons, & Jackman, 2005; Panigrahi, Balasubramanian, Gu, Logue, & Marchello, 2006), classications (Gestal et al., 2004; Nadal, Espinosa, Schuhmacher,

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Fig. 10. Correlation of experimental and predicted kinetic parameters with testing and training data sets (a, c, e), as well as validation data set (b, d, f) for butt segment of asparagus during thermal treatments using the optimal ANN.

Table 7 Errors in the prediction of k, t1/2 and D-value with the optimal ANN for different segments of asparagus during thermal treatments. MSE MAE MRE (%) k Bud segment Upper segment Middle segment Butt segment 1.3925 2.4618 0.8985 0.2707 0.5283 0.6436 0.4258 0.1883 0.1309 0.0419 0.0394 0.0032 t1/2 0.0846 0.0519 0.0631 0.0165 D-value 0.1307 0.0099 0.0163 0.0041 STDA k (min1) 0.0271 0.0033 0.0042 0.0004 t1/2 (min) 0.8301 2.6212 1.4624 0.8965 D-value (min) 1.8623 0.5899 0.7461 0.0670 STDR (%) k 0.2224 0.0657 0.0682 0.0051 t1/2 0.1456 0.0706 0.1093 0.0269 D-value 0.2255 0.0094 0.0282 0.0051

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& Domingo, 2004), shelf life (Siripatrawan & Jantawat, 2008), a-Gimeno, Hervs-Martnez, & de Siniz, microbiology (Garc ski & Tomczak, 2000; Kerdpiboon, 2002), drying applications (Kamin Kerr, & Devahastin, 2006; Tripathy & Kumar, 2009), thermal process (Chen & Ramaswamy, 2003; Gonalves, Minim, Coimbra, & Minim, 2005), food freezing (Goi, Oddone, Segura, Mascheroni, & Salvadori, 2008; Mittal & Zhang, 2000). ANN is a powerful mathematical tool that is capable of approximating any underlying relationship between the dependent and independent variables, learning from examples through iteration, without requiring a prior knowledge of the relationships of the process parameters. Moreover, its structure is relatively simple, with connections in parallel and sequence between neurons, which means a short computing time and a high potential of robustness and adaptive performance (Palancar et al., 1998). In this study, we tried to develop a mathematical model based on articial neural network to predict kinetics of AA degradation in asparagus during thermal process. Our results showed that an one-hidden-layer FFBP has been built able to predict the kinetic parameters (k, t1/2 and D-value) of AA loss, and the optimal number of nodes in the hidden layer was 24, 26, 26 and 18 for bud, upper, middle and butt segments of asparagus, respectively (Fig. 6). The optimal ANN could predict the kinetic parameters of AA degradation in asparagus with an MSE of 1.3925 and MAE 0.5283 for bud segment, MSE 2.4618 and MAE 0.6436 for upper segment, MSE 0.8985 and 0.4258 for middle segment and MSE 0.2707 and MAE 0.1883 for butt segment, as shown by Table 7. In addition, the correlation coefcients between experimental k, t1/2 or D-value and ANN predicted values were greater than 0.99 in all cases (Figs. 710). Therefore, ANN algorithm provided dramatically low prediction error and gave high determination coefcient indicating a very good t between actual and predicted kinetic parameters. ANN offers several advantages over traditional digital computations, including faster speed of information processing, learning ability, fault tolerance, and multi-output ability. Success of this research will provide chemical kinetics with an alternative method for kinetic parameters determination. References
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