Dibbling Machine for ArborGen

ArborGen’s nursery, located in Tokoroa, supplies approximately 6 million seedlings per year to the forestry industry (figure 1). The vast majority of seedlings are Pine Radiata but they also supply Plug Plus and Douglas fir. In peak season, they plant up to 120,000 seedlings per day that each require a straight vertical hole of certain depth and spacing, (depending on seedling type). For example the most common seedling, Radiata pine, requires holes of approximately 10mm diameter x 40mm deep (figure 2). The process of making the holes is called dibbling. Dibbling has become a major problem that has resulted in an estimated 400,000 rejections per year. An investigation of the dibbling process identified the following problems: • Existing human dibbling methods too slow and unreliable • Machine methods produce low quality holes that lead to mis-planted seedlings • Lack of flexibility of existing, methods with regard to hole size and spacing • Current methods compact the soil hindering root growth so hole drilling is preferred • Currently, dibbling must be done on the day of planting due to the deterioration of the bed surfac

LANGUAGE AS A PERFORMANCE PARAMETER: THE MARCEL BITSCH \u3ci\u3eVINGT ETUDES\u3c/i\u3e

The Bitsch Vingt Études are a significant part of the trumpet performers repertoire. They are taught in many university trumpet studios across the United States. David Baldwin, professor of trumpet at the University of Minnesota, has recorded all of them for the International Trumpet Guild. The editor, Raymond Sabarich, is considered the founder of the modern French school of trumpet playing. Articulation is a significant component in performing on a brass instrument. By varying the attacks of the tongue, different timbres can be successfully achieved on the trumpet. Because of the volume the trumpet can generate, any defective articulation will be more noticeable. Articulation is for the brass player what consonants are for the singer—successful execution is imperative or a lack of clarity results. One major problem in teaching the Bitsch etudes is the lack of attention paid to French pronunciation. The musical ideas in these etudes (melodies, articulation, phrasing, etc.) were conceived by a Frenchman. While fluency in French is not a prerequisite for successful performance of these works, understanding the basics of French pronunciation and how they influence French articulation is essential. In order to properly perform the Marcel Bitsch Vingt Études, the trumpeter needs to modify his or her tonguing in accordance with the rules of French pronunciation. The different components of articulation will be discussed, after which the impact of language in recorded performance will be examined. Finally, selected compositions from the Marcel Bitsch Vingt Études will be analyzed, with recommendations for articulation being given for each work

Machine vision system grading of pine tree seedlings

A PC-based machine vision system for grading pine tree seedlings has been tested at a forestry nursery. The machine has been designed to be implemented in the field at the point of harvesting, removing the need for extra handling steps. The machine measures the height, RCD and root quadrants and makes a decision whether to reject or accept the tree. The grading specification for pine tree cuttings and seedlings appears to be black and white, with clear rules defining whether a tree is acceptable or not; however, the organic nature of the product introduces ambiguity into the decision. Three experts were gathered and asked to independently grade a raw lift of 200 trees with no knowledge of the other experts’ decisions. A consensus was not reached on one in every four trees. The same set of trees was graded by placing them in the machine one by one. The machine achieved 97% agreement with the group of experts, ignoring the decisions on trees where they did not all agree. The machine has been proven to be capable of making decisions on pine seedling quality comparable to that of an expert. It performed well in a shed under controlled conditions; however, the effect of an outdoor environment has yet to be determined

Development of mechatronic dibbling machine for improving the quality of forestry seedlings

A forestry nursery in Tokoroa, New Zealand grows approximately 3 million Radiata pine seedlings per annum of which about 65% (2 million) are of suitable quality for forestry plantations. The high rejection rate of 35% was attributed to poorly trained, seasonal workers and unsophisticated equipment. It was estimated that about 22% of seedling rejection (approximately 220,000 per year) was due to poorly dibbled holes that caused bends in the stems. The bends occurred when planters pinched the stems of the seedlings in an attempt to make them vertical. A research and development project was undertaken to develop a mechatronic dibbling machine that could produce vertical holes of specified depth. The machine also had to produce 120,000 holes per day and be flexible with regard to spacing and size. The completed mechatronic dibbling machine was tested at the Tokoroa nursery and produced 98% of the holes at the required angle and 100% of useable depth. Harvesting, the following season, showed that the unwanted stem bends had been eliminated with a subsequent reduction in rejects. Furthermore, it was found that worker productivity increased by approximately 10% as they did not have to spend time setting seedlings vertically

PatientExploreR: an extensible application for dynamic visualization of patient clinical history from electronic health records in the OMOP common data model.

MotivationElectronic health records (EHRs) are quickly becoming omnipresent in healthcare, but interoperability issues and technical demands limit their use for biomedical and clinical research. Interactive and flexible software that interfaces directly with EHR data structured around a common data model (CDM) could accelerate more EHR-based research by making the data more accessible to researchers who lack computational expertise and/or domain knowledge.ResultsWe present PatientExploreR, an extensible application built on the R/Shiny framework that interfaces with a relational database of EHR data in the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership CDM format. PatientExploreR produces patient-level interactive and dynamic reports and facilitates visualization of clinical data without any programming required. It allows researchers to easily construct and export patient cohorts from the EHR for analysis with other software. This application could enable easier exploration of patient-level data for physicians and researchers. PatientExploreR can incorporate EHR data from any institution that employs the CDM for users with approved access. The software code is free and open source under the MIT license, enabling institutions to install and users to expand and modify the application for their own purposes.Availability and implementationPatientExploreR can be freely obtained from GitHub: https://github.com/BenGlicksberg/PatientExploreR. We provide instructions for how researchers with approved access to their institutional EHR can use this package. We also release an open sandbox server of synthesized patient data for users without EHR access to explore: http://patientexplorer.ucsf.edu.Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online