Automated image processing for quantification of blue-stain discolouration of Norway spruce wood

Bioincising is a promising method for enhancing liquid uptake (e.g. preservatives or wood-modification agents) in refractory wood. Incubation with the white-rot fungus, Physisporinus vitreus, which selectively degrades pit membranes, results in deeper and more homogeneous penetration of liquids. Conventional methods of assessing the degree of fungal discolouration of wood after treatment with preservatives (e.g. European standard EN 152) are partly based on a subjective rating scale, which gives a rough value of the surface colonisation by blue-stain fungi. Hence, an automated image processing (AIP) procedure was developed for standardised quantification of the segmentation thresholds of discolouration and tested against manual segmentation analysis. Using the red filter in the AIP method revealed high correlation (R 2 0.95) and allowed for more user friendly and objective determination of blue staining of woo

Supporting Counselors-in-Training: A Toolbox for Doctoral Student Supervisors

Counselor education doctoral students are often required to supervise master-level counselors-in-training as part of their supervision internship. While practical, this arrangement places doctoral students and their supervisees in potentially compromised situations, given their lack of experience in these respective roles. This article offers a toolbox of strategies doctoral student supervisors can use to facilitate their work with counselors-in-training. These strategies address focus areas identified through prior research. Doctoral student supervisors are encouraged to use this toolbox in conjunction with the support and guidance of their faculty supervisor as they navigate clinical supervision

Interferometry and higher-dimensional phase measurements using directionally unbiased linear optics

Grover multiports are higher-dimensional generalizations of beam splitters, in which input to any one of the four ports has equal probability of exiting at any of the same four ports, including the input port. In this paper, we demonstrate that interferometers built from such multiports have novel features. For example, when combined with two-photon input and coincidence measurements, it is shown that such interferometers have capabilities beyond those of standard beam-splitter-based interferometers, such as easily controlled interpolation between Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) and anti-HOM behavior. Further, it is shown that the Grover-based analog of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer can make three separate phase measurements simultaneously. By arranging the transmission lines between the two multiports to lie in different planes, the same interferometer acts as a higher-dimensional Sagnac interferometer, allowing rotation rates about three different axes to be measured with a single device

Enhanced-sensitivity interferometry with phase-sensitive unbiased multiports

Here we introduce interferometric devices by combining optical feedback (cavities) with unbiased multiports, which unlike traditional beam dividers, allow light to reflect back out of the port from which it originated. By replacing the traditional, directionally-biased beam-splitter in a Michelson interferometer with an unbiased multiport, the functional dependence of the scattering amplitudes changes. As a result, the derivative of transmittance with respect to an external phase perturbation can be made substantially large. This significantly enhances the resolution of phase measurement, and allows the phase response curves to be altered in real time by tuning an externally-controllable phase shift

One-particle inclusive CP asymmetries

One-particle inclusive CP asymmetries in the decays of the type B -> D(*) X are considered in the framework of a QCD based method to calculate the rates for one-particle inclusive decays.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, 6 figures (eps). Analytical and numerical results unchanged, extended discussion of model assumptions and systematic uncertainties. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. D 62, 0960xx. Additional transparencies are available via the WWW at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Slides

Learning from Minimum Entropy Queries in a Large Committee Machine

In supervised learning, the redundancy contained in random examples can be avoided by learning from queries. Using statistical mechanics, we study learning from minimum entropy queries in a large tree-committee machine. The generalization error decreases exponentially with the number of training examples, providing a significant improvement over the algebraic decay for random examples. The connection between entropy and generalization error in multi-layer networks is discussed, and a computationally cheap algorithm for constructing queries is suggested and analysed.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, multicol, epsf, two postscript figures. To appear in Physical Review E (Rapid Communications

Towards a FPGA-controlled deep phase modulation interferometer

Deep phase modulation interferometry was proposed as a method to enhance homodyne interferometers to work over many fringes. In this scheme, a sinusoidal phase modulation is applied in one arm while the demodulation takes place as a post-processing step. In this contribution we report on the development to implement this scheme in a fiber coupled interferometer controlled by means of a FPGA, which includes a LEON3 soft-core processor. The latter acts as a CPU and executes a custom made application to communicate with a host PC. In contrast to usual FPGA-based designs, this implementation allows a real-time fine tuning of the parameters involved in the setup, from the control to the post-processing parameters.Comment: Proceedings of the X LISA Symposium, Gainesville, May 18-23, 201

Social networks and the adoption of agricultural innovations: The case of improved cereal cultivars in Central Tanzania, Socioeconomics Discussion Paper Series Number 18

Literature on the adoption of agricultural innovations highlights the importance exposure to these technologies for the adoption decision of small scale farmers. This study assesses the relevance of exposure and other constraints in the adoption of improved sorghum and maize cultivars in Central Tanzania. Specifically, we analyze the determinants of exposure to improved varieties; and of adoption itself, focusing more on the role of social networks. We use survey data collected from 345 farmers between September and November 2012. We apply Poisson models to assess exposure, and average treatment effect procedures to analyze adoption. Our results show that about 79% and 74% of the respondents are exposed to at least one improved variety of sorghum and maize respectively. The average intensity of exposure (number of improved cultivars a farmer is exposed to) was 1.7 for sorghum and 1.8 for maize. Farmer networks are found to be a key source of variety information, and exchange of this information among farmers is triggered when a farmer sights a variety grown in a network member’s field. Most farmers consider improved varieties of both crops generally better than traditional ones. However, while 83% of farmers think improved varieties of maize are better than traditional ones, only 54% of farmers think so for sorghum. The size of a farmer’s network is found to positively influence their intensity of exposure to improved sorghum and open-pollinated maize varieties, but not to maize hybrids. This demonstrates that farmer networks facilitate higher exposure to seed technologies with mostly missing or malfunctioning markets. We find that farmers have substantial information networks outside their own villages, and it is these often understudied networks that determine the intensity of exposure. The strength of network connections with village administrators positively affects intensity of exposure to sorghum varieties, while network connections with agricultural extension officers influence intensity of exposure positively for sorghum varieties and maize hybrids. Other determinants of exposure are age and education of household head, and household ownership of information and communication assets. Female farmers have less exposure to maize hybrids than their male counterparts. On adoption, we find that adoption rates are pretty low – just about 42% in the case of sorghum and 60% for maize. After accounting for non-exposure and selection biases, the estimated population adoption rate is 52% for sorghum and 71% for maize, implying adoption gaps of 9.3 and 10.9 percentage points, respectively. Sorghum networks positively influence adoption even after accounting for their role in exposure. However, it is the intra-village and not inter-village networks that produce this effect. Intensity of exposure influences adoption positively for both crops. Households with more female adults are more likely to adopt improved sorghum, while those with more male adults are more likely to adopt improved maize. Poor soil fertility negatively affects adoption of improved sorghum, while non-farm income activities and size of maize farm positively influence adoption of maize varieties. Farmers mentioned seed availability followed by perceived susceptibility to pests as the most limiting factors to adoption. The importance of these reasons changes if we compare farmers without past adoption experience to those who have ever adopted. These results raise a number of implications for policy design and further research, which are discussed in the last chapter of this paper. Keywords: social networks, exposure, adoptio