92 research outputs found
Reading handwritten digits: a ZIP code recognition system
A neural network algorithm-based system that reads handwritten ZIP codes appearing on real US mail is described. The system uses a recognition-based segmenter, that is a hybrid of connected-components analysis (CCA), vertical cuts, and a neural network recognizer. Connected components that are single digits are handled by CCA. CCs that are combined or dissected digits are handled by the vertical-cut segmenter. The four main stages of processing are preprocessing, in which noise is removed and the digits are deslanted, CCA segmentation and recognition, vertical-cut-point estimation and segmentation, and directly lookup. The system was trained and tested on approximately 10000 images, five- and nine-digit ZIP code fields taken from real mail
NORA moving forward: Developing an oyster restoration network in Europe to support the Berlin Oyster Recommendation
1. The Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) supports the protection and ecological restoration of the native European oyster, Ostrea edulis, and its habitat across its current and historical biogeographical range. NORA works to overcome barriers to the conservation, restoration, and recovery of the European oyster by providing a platform for the NORA community to collaborate and participate in knowledge exchange. NORA seeks to support responsible restoration practice, in compliance with biosecurity and sustainability.
2. Against this background, the NORA community formulated a series of specific recommendations, the Berlin Oyster Recommendation, to support native oyster restoration by developing and applying best practice with the aim to recover healthy and resilient marine ecosystems. In combination with the Standards for Ecological Restoration (SER) and the Restoration Guidelines for Shellfish Reefs, the Berlin Oyster Recommendation is a relevant tool for successful and sustainable oyster restoration in Europe.
3. The establishment of NORA working groups will support the implementation and further development of the six corresponding recommendations. Current NORA working groups cover site selection, biosecurity, production, and monitoring. The site selection working group will address the identification of suitable sites for oyster restoration to support policy relevant decision making and the conservation, reinforcement, or reintroduction of native oysters. The biosecurity working group will develop biosecurity guidelines for native oyster restoration in Europe. The production working group will assess the potential of standards for seed oyster production and supply in order to enhance production appropriate for restoration purposes. In close collaboration with the Native Oyster Network â UK & Ireland (NON), the monitoring working group will produce a monitoring guidelines handbook to provide metrics and methods that will be suitable across the range of O. edulis projects in Europe for the documentation of restoration success and ecosystem recovery.
4. The Berlin Oyster Recommendation was examined and interpreted by NORA experts in the context of the further development of joint guidelines for the practice of successful and sustainable native oyster restoration
Adiposity has differing associations with incident coronary heart disease and mortality in the Scottish population: cross-sectional surveys with follow-up
Objective:
Investigation of the association of excess adiposity with three different outcomes: all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and incident CHD.
Design:
Cross-sectional surveys linked to hospital admissions and death records.
Subjects:
19â329 adults (aged 18â86 years) from a representative sample of the Scottish population.
Measurements:
Gender-stratified Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality, CHD mortality and incident CHD. Separate models incorporating the anthropometric measurements body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) or waistâhip ratio (WHR) were created adjusted for age, year of survey, smoking status and alcohol consumption.
Results:
For both genders, BMI-defined obesity (greater than or equal to30âkgâmâ2) was not associated with either an increased risk of all-cause mortality or CHD mortality. However, there was an increased risk of incident CHD among the obese men (hazard ratio (HR)=1.78; 95% confidence interval=1.37â2.31) and obese women (HR=1.93; 95% confidence interval=1.44â2.59). There was a similar pattern for WC with regard to the three outcomes; for incident CHD, the HR=1.70 (1.35â2.14) for men and 1.71 (1.28â2.29) for women in the highest WC category (men greater than or equal to102âcm, women greater than or equal to88âcm), synonymous with abdominal obesity. For men, the highest category of WHR (greater than or equal to1.0) was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality (1.29; 1.04â1.60) and incident CHD (1.55; 1.19â2.01). Among women with a high WHR (greater than or equal to0.85) there was an increased risk of all outcomes: all-cause mortality (1.56; 1.26â1.94), CHD mortality (2.49; 1.36â4.56) and incident CHD (1.76; 1.31â2.38).
Conclusions:
In this study excess adiposity was associated with an increased risk of incident CHD but not necessarily death. One possibility is that modern medical intervention has contributed to improved survival of first CHD events. The future health burden of increased obesity levels may manifest as an increase in the prevalence of individuals living with CHD and its consequences
Friends or foes? migrants and sub-state nationalists in Europe
How do sub-state nationalists respond to the growing presence of cultural diversity in their âhomelandsâ resulting from migration? Sub-state nationalists in Europe, in ânations without statesâ such as Catalonia and Scotland, have been challenging the traditional nation-state model for many decades. While the arguments in favour of autonomy or independence levelled by these movements have become more complex, sub-state nationalist movements remain grounded by their perceived national community that is distinct from the majority nation. Migration to the âhomelandâ of a sub-state nation, then, presents a conundrum for sub-state elites that we label the âlegitimation paradoxâ: too much internal diversity may undermine the claim to cultural distinctiveness. We engage with three common intervening variables thought to influence how sub-state nationalists confront the âlegitimation paradoxâ: civic/ethnic nationalism, degree of political autonomy, and party competition. Our overarching argument is that none of these factors have a unidirectional or determinate effect on the sub-state nationalism-immigration nexus, which is why the nuanced case studies that comprise this Special Issue are worthwhile endeavours
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Association of Genetic Variants With Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Among Individuals With African Ancestry.
Importance:Primary open-angle glaucoma presents with increased prevalence and a higher degree of clinical severity in populations of African ancestry compared with European or Asian ancestry. Despite this, individuals of African ancestry remain understudied in genomic research for blinding disorders. Objectives:To perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of African ancestry populations and evaluate potential mechanisms of pathogenesis for loci associated with primary open-angle glaucoma. Design, Settings, and Participants:A 2-stage GWAS with a discovery data set of 2320 individuals with primary open-angle glaucoma and 2121 control individuals without primary open-angle glaucoma. The validation stage included an additional 6937 affected individuals and 14âŻ917 unaffected individuals using multicenter clinic- and population-based participant recruitment approaches. Study participants were recruited from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, the United States, Tanzania, Britain, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Peru, and Mali from 2003 to 2018. Individuals with primary open-angle glaucoma had open iridocorneal angles and displayed glaucomatous optic neuropathy with visual field defects. Elevated intraocular pressure was not included in the case definition. Control individuals had no elevated intraocular pressure and no signs of glaucoma. Exposures:Genetic variants associated with primary open-angle glaucoma. Main Outcomes and Measures:Presence of primary open-angle glaucoma. Genome-wide significance was defined as Pâ<â5âĂâ10-8 in the discovery stage and in the meta-analysis of combined discovery and validation data. Results:A total of 2320 individuals with primary open-angle glaucoma (mean [interquartile range] age, 64.6 [56-74] years; 1055 [45.5%] women) and 2121 individuals without primary open-angle glaucoma (mean [interquartile range] age, 63.4 [55-71] years; 1025 [48.3%] women) were included in the discovery GWAS. The GWAS discovery meta-analysis demonstrated association of variants at amyloid-ÎČ A4 precursor protein-binding family B member 2 (APBB2; chromosome 4, rs59892895T>C) with primary open-angle glaucoma (odds ratio [OR], 1.32 [95% CI, 1.20-1.46]; Pâ=â2âĂâ10-8). The association was validated in an analysis of an additional 6937 affected individuals and 14âŻ917 unaffected individuals (OR, 1.15 [95% CI, 1.09-1.21]; Pâ<â.001). Each copy of the rs59892895*C risk allele was associated with increased risk of primary open-angle glaucoma when all data were included in a meta-analysis (OR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.14-1.25]; Pâ=â4âĂâ10-13). The rs59892895*C risk allele was present at appreciable frequency only in African ancestry populations. In contrast, the rs59892895*C risk allele had a frequency of less than 0.1% in individuals of European or Asian ancestry. Conclusions and Relevance:In this genome-wide association study, variants at the APBB2 locus demonstrated differential association with primary open-angle glaucoma by ancestry. If validated in additional populations this finding may have implications for risk assessment and therapeutic strategies
Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA
Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton
centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality
Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of
37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D*
transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical
regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative
QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The
measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular
in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study
of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a
direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD
Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a
significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level
calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a
kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure
The early mathematical education of Ada Lovelace
Ada, Countess of Lovelace, is remembered for a paper published in 1843, which translated and considerably extended an article about the unbuilt Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computer designed by the mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. Her substantial appendices, nearly twice the length of the original work, contain an account of the principles of the machine, along with a table often described as âthe first computer programâ. In this paper we look at Lovelace's education before 1840, which encompassed older traditions of practical geometry; newer textbooks influenced by continental approaches; wide reading; and a fascination with machinery. We also challenge judgements by Dorothy Stein and by Doron Swade of Lovelace's mathematical knowledge and skills before 1840, which have impacted later scholarly and popular discourse
Measurement of the Diffractive Cross Section in Deep Inelastic Scattering using ZEUS 1994 Data
The DIS diffractive cross section, , has been measured in the mass range GeV for c.m. energies GeV and photon virtualities to 140 GeV. For fixed and , the diffractive cross section rises rapidly with , with corresponding to a -averaged pomeron trajectory of \bar{\alphapom} = 1.127 \pm 0.009 (stat)^{+0.039}_{-0.012} (syst) which is larger than \bar{\alphapom} observed in hadron-hadron scattering. The dependence of the diffractive cross section is found to be the same as that of the total cross section for scattering of virtual photons on protons. The data are consistent with the assumption that the diffractive structure function factorizes according to \xpom F^{D(3)}_2 (\xpom,\beta,Q^2) = (x_0/ \xpom)^n F^{D(2)}_2(\beta,Q^2). They are also consistent with QCD based models which incorporate factorization breaking. The rise of \xpom F^{D(3)}_2 with decreasing \xpom and the weak dependence of on suggest a substantial contribution from partonic interactions
Exclusive Electroproduction of and Mesons at HERA
Exclusive production of and mesons in e^+ p collisions has
been studied with the ZEUS detector in the kinematic range for the data and for the data. Cross sections for exclusive and
production have been measured as a function of and . The
spin-density matrix elements and have
been determined for exclusive production as well as and
for exclusive production.
The results are discussed in the context of theoretical models invoking soft
and hard phenomena.Comment: 57 pages including 21 figures, minor modifications to Figs. 19-21,
these figures supercede those of Eur. Phys. J. C6 (1999) 603-62
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