Error models for mode-mismatch in linear optics quantum computing

One of the most significant challenges facing the development of linear optics quantum computing (LOQC) is mode-mismatch, whereby photon distinguishability is introduced within circuits, undermining quantum interference effects. We examine the effects of mode-mismatch on the parity (or fusion) gate, the fundamental building block in several recent LOQC schemes. We derive simple error models for the effects of mode-mismatch on its operation, and relate these error models to current fault tolerant threshold estimates.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Multisensory Perceptual Discrimination in Evolved Networks and Agents

The fact that humans and animals have several sensory modalities and use them together to make sense of the world imbues their behaviour with an immense richness and robustness. In this study, recurrent neural networks and minimal agents with active vision are evolved for a perceptual discrimination task (unimodal and bimodal). The purpose of this study is mainly exploratory: to test which of the characteristics of human perceptual discrimination evolve easily (with a focus on statistically optimal integration), how they are realised and what active perception does in this process. Whilst some of the systems evolved to perform perceptual discrimination well, they did not conform to the predictions from statistical optimality. Analyses of the systems point towards a number of relevant issues, noticeably towards the lack of a good account of ‘unimodality’ in existing models of multisensory perception

Efficient Coordination in Weakest-Link Games

Existing experimental research on behavior in weakest-link games shows overwhelmingly the inability of people to coordinate on the efficient equilibrium, especially in larger groups. We hypothesize that people will be able to coordinate on efficient outcomes, provided they have sufficient freedom to choose their interaction neighborhood. We conduct experiments with medium sized and large groups and show that neighborhood choice indeed leads to coordination on the fully efficient equilibrium, irrespective of group size. This leads to substantial welfare effects. Achieved welfare is between 40 and 60 percent higher in games with neighborhood choice than without neighborhood choice. We identify exclusion as the simple but very effective mechanism underlying this result. In early rounds, high performers exclude low performers who in consequence ‘learn’ to become high performers.efficient coordination, weakest-link, minimum effort, neighborhood choice, experiment

Fly Not Hence

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Buddhism in Progress: Ecstasy, Eternity, and Zen Sickness in the English Romantics

This dissertation addresses the philosophical similarity between English Romanticism and Buddhism from a Zen Buddhist perspective. In contrast to scholars such as Mark Lussier and John G. Rudy, who have focused on the similarity between Romantic and Buddhist philosophy, I explore their differences. I argue that Romanticism represents a “Buddhism in progress”: both philosophies seek to overcome “the self,” but do so through different means. Lacking direct access to Buddhist teachings, the authors considered in this study (Beckford, Coleridge, De Quincey, Shelley, and Keats) developed their own practice of self-transcendence through writing, often prompted by experiences of ecstatic intoxication that call into question the existence of “the self.” For these authors, “self” is an illusory concept that is narrated into existence to account for one’s “being” over time and is recognized as a source of suffering. Ecstatic intoxication offers self-palliation, but exposes an ontological groundlessness with which these authors struggle to come to terms. In Chapter 1, I give a historical overview of Romanticism’s relationship to Buddhism, suggesting that Romanticism’s self-difficulty is symptomatic of “Zen sickness” (i.e., attachment to self-lessness). Chapter 2 explores William Beckford’s Vathek (1786) as an ur-text of Romantic religion that appeals to the Orient in order to escape time and selfhood. My third chapter argues that Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s and Thomas De Quincey’s opium addictions model a kind of Zen sickness that is apparent in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” (1816) and De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). In Chapter 4, I argue that Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (1820) vacillates between Christian and Buddhist philosophy, showing commitments to ontologies of both self and self-lessness. My fifth chapter addresses John Keats’s Hyperion poems (1818; 1819). I posit that due to his relationship to suffering, Keats, more intensely than any other author in this study, grapples with Buddhist themes, but is ultimately unable to cope with his self-lessness. Finally, I conclude by considering the status of the self in post-Romantic Western philosophy, which also understands the self as illusory, but unlike Buddhism, does not find liberation in this fact

Remote sensing of changes in morphology and physiology of trees under stress

Measurements on foliage samples collected from several drought and salt treated plants revealed that leaf thickness decreased with increasing severity of the drought treatment and increased with increasing severity of treatment with NaCl, but remained essentially unaffected by treatment with CaCl2. Airborne data collected by multispectral scanner indicated that false color images provide selective enhancement of a diseased area. Comparison of simulated and actual aerial color and color IR photography revealed that the color renditions of the MSS simulations agreed closely with those of the actual photography

Remote sensing applications in forestry - Remote sensing of changes in morphology and physiology of trees under stress Annual progress report

Remote sensing of changes in morphology and physiology of trees under stres

Applying Machine Learning to Catalogue Matching in Astrophysics

We present the results of applying automated machine learning techniques to the problem of matching different object catalogues in astrophysics. In this study we take two partially matched catalogues where one of the two catalogues has a large positional uncertainty. The two catalogues we used here were taken from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS), and SuperCOSMOS optical survey. Previous work had matched 44% (1887 objects) of HIPASS to the SuperCOSMOS catalogue. A supervised learning algorithm was then applied to construct a model of the matched portion of our catalogue. Validation of the model shows that we achieved a good classification performance (99.12% correct). Applying this model, to the unmatched portion of the catalogue found 1209 new matches. This increases the catalogue size from 1887 matched objects to 3096. The combination of these procedures yields a catalogue that is 72% matched.Comment: 8 Pages, 5 Figure

Studienmethodische Unterstützung für Erstsemester im Mathematikservice

In den Erstsemesterveranstaltungen zur "Mathematik für Wirtschaftswissenschaftler" an der Universität Paderborn wird seit 2010 unter dem Logo "CAT" ein neuartiges Konzept verfolgt, um die Entwicklung einer angemessenen Studien- und Arbeitsmethodik der Studierenden zu fördern. Parallel dazu wird die Wirksamkeit dieses Konzeptes in dem hochschuldidaktischen Forschungsprojekt "ECOStud" analysiert. Unser Beitrag gibt einen Einblick in erste Erkenntnisse aus den laufenden Arbeiten