Performance: Matlab vs Python

I recently switched from Matlab to Python. While converting one of my lengthy codes, I was surprised to find Python being very slow. I profiled and traced the problem with one function hogging up time. This function is being called from various places in my code (being part of other functions which are recursively called). Profiler suggests that 300 calls are made to this function in both Matlab and Python.

In short, following codes summarizes the issue at hand:

MATLAB

The class containing the function:

classdef ExampleKernel1 < handle  
methods (Static)
    function [kernel] = kernel_2D(M,x,N,y) 
        kernel  = zeros(M,N);
        for i= 1 : M
            for j= 1 : N
                % Define the custom kernel function here
                kernel(i , j) = sqrt((x(i , 1) - y(j , 1)) .^ 2 + ...
                                (x(i , 2) - y(j , 2)) .^2 );             
            end
        end
    end
end
end

and the script to call test.m:

xVec=[   
49.7030   78.9590
42.6730   11.1390
23.2790   89.6720
75.6050   25.5890
81.5820   53.2920
44.9680    2.7770
38.7890   78.9050
39.1570   33.6790
33.2640   54.7200
4.8060   44.3660
49.7030   78.9590
42.6730   11.1390
23.2790   89.6720
75.6050   25.5890
81.5820   53.2920
44.9680    2.7770
38.7890   78.9050
39.1570   33.6790
33.2640   54.7200
4.8060   44.3660
];
N=size(xVec,1);
kex1=ExampleKernel1;
tic
for i=1:300
    K=kex1.kernel_2D(N,xVec,N,xVec);
end
toc

Gives the output

clear all
>> test
Elapsed time is 0.022426 seconds.
>> test
Elapsed time is 0.009852 seconds.

PYTHON 3.4

Class containing the function CustomKernels.py:

from numpy import zeros
from math import sqrt
class CustomKernels:
"""Class for defining the custom kernel functions"""
    @staticmethod
    def exampleKernelA(M, x, N, y):
        """Example kernel function A"""
        kernel = zeros([M, N])
        for i in range(0, M):
            for j in range(0, N):
                # Define the custom kernel function here
                kernel[i, j] = sqrt((x[i, 0] - y[j, 0]) ** 2 + (x[i, 1] - y[j, 1]) ** 2)
        return kernel

and the script to call test.py:

import numpy as np
from CustomKernels import CustomKernels
from time import perf_counter

xVec = np.array([
    [49.7030,  78.9590],
    [42.6730,  11.1390],
    [23.2790,  89.6720],
    [75.6050,  25.5890],
    [81.5820,  53.2920],
    [44.9680,   2.7770],
    [38.7890,  78.9050],
    [39.1570,  33.6790],
    [33.2640,  54.7200],
    [4.8060 ,  44.3660],
    [49.7030,  78.9590],
    [42.6730,  11.1390],
    [23.2790,  89.6720],
    [75.6050,  25.5890],
    [81.5820,  53.2920],
    [44.9680,   2.7770],
    [38.7890,  78.9050],
    [39.1570,  33.6790],
    [33.2640,  54.7200],
    [4.8060 ,  44.3660]
    ])
N = xVec.shape[0]
kex1 = CustomKernels.exampleKernelA
start=perf_counter()
for i in range(0,300):
    K = kex1(N, xVec, N, xVec)
print(' %f secs' %(perf_counter()-start))

Gives the output

%run test.py
 0.940515 secs
%run test.py
 0.884418 secs
%run test.py
 0.940239 secs

RESULTS

Comparing the results it seems Matlab is about 42 times faster after a "clear all" is called and then 100 times faster if script is run multiple times without calling "clear all". That is at least and order of magnitude if not two orders of magnitudes faster. This is a very surprising result for me. I was expecting the result to be the other way around.

Can someone please shed some light on this?

Can someone suggest a faster way to perform this?

SIDE NOTE

I have also tried to use numpy.sqrt which makes the performance worse, therefore I am using math.sqrt in Python.

EDIT

The for loops for calling the functions are purely fictitious. They are there just to "simulate" 300 calls to the function. As I described earlier, the kernel functions (kernel_2D in Matlab and kex1 in Python) are called from various different places in the program. To make the problem shorter, I "simulate" the 300 calls using the for loop. The for loops inside the kernel functions are essential and unavoidable because of the structure of the kernel matrix.

EDIT 2

Here is the larger problem: https://github.com/drfahdsiddiqui/bbfmm2d-python