TexT - Text Extractor Tool for Handwritten Document Transcription and Annotation

This paper presents a framework for semi-automatic transcription of large-scale historical handwritten documents and proposes a simple user-friendly text extractor tool, TexT for transcription. The proposed approach provides a quick and easy transcription of text using computer assisted interactive technique. The algorithm finds multiple occurrences of the marked text on-the-fly using a word spotting system. TexT is also capable of performing on-the-fly annotation of handwritten text with automatic generation of ground truth labels, and dynamic adjustment and correction of user generated bounding box annotations with the word being perfectly encapsulated. The user can view the document and the found words in the original form or with background noise removed for easier visualization of transcription results. The effectiveness of TexT is demonstrated on an archival manuscript collection from well-known publicly available dataset

Student reflections on collaborative technology in a globally distributed student project.

Collaborative Technology (CT) plays an important role in overcoming the challenges of globally distributed projects. It enables collaboration, but the specific choice of technology also imposes constraints on how projects are conducted. Over the past decade, we have engaged in an action research programme to develop an Open-Ended Group Project situated in an educational framework in which international collaboration, including interaction with a real world client, is an essential component. This paper investigates the manner in which students reflected on their patterns of CT use within the collaborative setting. In general, these reflections were found to be superficial and descriptive, exhibiting a reductive view of CT as a set of technological features, which acted as a neutral medium for communication and participation. One consequence of this was a lack of awareness of the ways in which the technology influenced the behaviour of individual students or the collaborative nature of the group. We explore some potential causes for this and reflect on some difficulties faced by the students. These have important pedagogical implications for courses in which the learning objectives include the development of suitable competencies for working in a global collaborative environment

Internationalisation in learning and teaching : Thematic Peer Group report

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Electrical cardioversion during pregnancy: safe or not?

Two pregnant patients with a sustained symptomatic maternal supraventricular arrhythmia are presented. Both patients were treated with direct-current cardioversion. Electrical cardioversion during pregnancy is a rarely applied but highly effective procedure in the treatment of maternal cardiac arrhythmias and is assumed safe for both mother and child. However, once foetal viability is reached, monitoring of the foetal heart rate is advised and facilities for immediate caesarean section should be available

Antihypertensive withdrawal for the prevention of cognitive decline

Item does not contain fulltextClinical trials and observational data have variously shown a protective, harmful or neutral effect of antihypertensives on cognitive function. In theory, withdrawal of antihypertensives could improve cerebral perfusion and reduce or delay cognitive decline. However, it is also plausible that withdrawal of antihypertensives may have a detrimental effect on cognition through increased incidence of stroke or other vascular events. To assess the effects of complete withdrawal of at least one antihypertensive medication on incidence of dementia, cognitive function, blood pressure and other safety outcomes in cognitively intact and cognitive impaired adults. We searched ALOIS, the specialised register of the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group, with additional searches conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, LILACS, Web of Science Core Collection, ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization Portal/ICTRP on 12 December 2015. There were no language or date restrictions applied to the electronic searches, and no methodological filters were used to restrict the search. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) provided they compared withdrawal of antihypertensive medications with continuation of the medications and included an outcome measure assessing cognitive function or a clinical diagnosis of dementia. We included studies with healthy participants, but we also included studies with participants with all grades of severity of existing dementia or cognitive impairment. Two review authors examined titles and abstracts of citations identified by the search for eligibility, retrieving full texts where needed to identify studies for inclusion, with any disagreement resolved by involvement of a third author. Data were extracted independently on primary and secondary outcomes. We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane.The primary outcome measures of interest were changes in global and specific cognitive function and incidence of dementia; secondary outcomes included change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mortality, adverse events (including cardiovascular events, hospitalisation and falls) and adherence to withdrawal. The quality of the evidence was evaluated using the GRADE approach. We included two RCTs investigating withdrawal of antihypertensives in 2490 participants. There was substantial clinical heterogeneity between the included studies, therefore we did not combine data for our primary outcome. Overall, the quality of included studies was high and the risk of bias was low. Neither study investigated incident dementia.One study assessed withholding previously prescribed antihypertensive drugs for seven days following acute stroke. Cognition was assessed using telephone Mini-Mental State Examination (t-MMSE) and Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-M) at 90 days as a secondary outcome. The t-MMSE score was a mean of 1.0 point higher in participants who withdrew antihypertensive medications compared to participants who continued them (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.35 to 1.65; 1784 participants) and the TICS-M was a mean of 2.10 points higher (95% CI 0.69 to 3.51; 1784 participants). However, in both cases the evidence was of very low quality downgraded due to risk of bias, indirectness and evidence from a single study. The other study was community based and included participants with mild cognitive impairment. Drug withdrawal was for 16 weeks. Cognitive performance was assessed using a composite of at least five out of six cognitive tests. There was no evidence of a difference comparing participants who withdrew antihypertensive medications and participants who continued (mean difference 0.02 points, 95% CI -0.19 to 0.21; 351 participants). This evidence was of low quality and was downgraded due to risk of bias and evidence from single study.In one study, the systolic blood pressure after seven days of withdrawal was 9.5 mmHg higher in the intervention compared to the control group (95% CI 7.43 to 11.57; 2095 participants) and diastolic blood pressure was 5.1 mmHg higher (95% CI 3.86 to 6.34; 2095 participants). This evidence was low quality, downgraded due to indirectness, because the data must be interpreted in the context of the wider study looking at glyceryl trinitrate administration or not, and evidence from a single study. In the other study, systolic blood pressure increased by 7.4 mmHg in the withdrawal group compared to the control group (95% CI 7.08 to 7.72; 356 participants) and diastolic blood pressure increased by 2.6 mmHg (95% CI 2.42 to 2.78; 356 participants). This was moderate quality evidence, downgraded as evidence was from a single study. We combined data for mortality an

Påverkar kost och motion skolprestation? En enkätundersökning om gymnasieungdomars uppfattning om sambandet mellan regelbunden fysisk aktivitet, kostvanor och skolresultat

Titel Påverkar kost och motion skolprestation? En enkätundersökning om gymnasieungdomars uppfattning om sambandet mellan regelbunden fysisk aktivitet, kostvanor och skolresultat. Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på gymnasieungdomars uppfattning om sambandet mellan fysisk aktivitet, kost och skolresultat. Vi vill ta reda på i vilken utsträckning ungdomar upplever att deras skolresultat påverkas av regelbunden fysisk aktivitet och regelbundna kostvanor. Med undersökningen vill vi även ta reda på hur gymnasieungdomar uppfattar att skolan bidragit till kunskap om regelbunden fysisk aktivitet och kost. Metod Data i denna studie fick vi genom att genomföra en semikvantitativ enkätstudie bland 100 gymnasieungdomar i årskurs tre på samhällsvetenskapliga programmet i två olika skolor i Västra Götaland. Materialet sammanställdes, kodades och bearbetades statistiskt i statistikprogrammet SPSS. Resultat Majoriteten uppfattar att regelbunden fysisk aktivitet och regelbundna kostvanor påverkar dem på så sätt att de; mår bättre, orkar mer, sover bättre och koncentrerar sig bättre. Däremot så visar studien på att knappt fyra av tio av gymnasieungdomarna uppfattar att det finns ett samband mellan regelbunden fysisk aktivitet, regelbundna kostvanor och deras skolresultat. Studien beskriver vidare att eleverna tycker att hemmet, familjen i större utsträckning än skolan har gett dem kunskap om betydelsen av regelbunden fysisk aktivitet och regelbundna kostvanor. I undersökningsgruppen visade det sig att de som upplevde att det fanns ett samband mellan kost, motion och skolresultat var mer nöjda med sina kostvanor och var mer fysiskt aktiva jämfört med de som inte uppfattade att det fanns ett samband mellan regelbunden fysisk aktivitet, regelbundna kostvanor och skolresultat

Proba the Prophet. Studies in the Christian Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba

The present study aims to deepen the critical understanding of the fourth century poet Faltonia Betita Proba’s Cento and its reception, a text of considerable historical and cultural importance. Not only is it one of few extant Latin texts from antiquity by a woman writer, but it is also one of our oldest Christian Latin poems; it is an early example of cultural amalgamation of the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman exegetical and literary traditions in that it is almost exclusively composed with verses from Virgil’s Aeneid, Georgics, and Eclogues, but narrates key episodes from the Old and New Testament. The first part of the dissertation examines the various constructions of the author ‘Proba’ and their relationships to the reception of the poem. It was not really until the twentieth century that the medieval and early modern representations of the centonist as a learned poet or even as a divinely inspired Sibyl were replaced by a general notion of her as a failed and scorned poet. This metamorphosis corresponds to changing attitudes to her poem in general. The large number of textual testimonies from the eighth to the seventeenth century, and the predominantly positive responses to the Cento during this period, were followed by harsh condemnations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the poem ceased to be regarded as proper literature. A pessimistic narrative emerged, based on speculation rather than historical evidence, saying that ‘the early readers’ rejected the Cento. Strategies to ‘save’ Proba were devised, and she was not seldom presented as a mother, wife and pious Christian. Despite the pervasive polyphonic and ambivalent qualities of her text, it was used as a source to reconstruct the feelings and intentions of the historical person Proba. Readings of this kind are further problematized in the second part of the dissertation, where a series of new interpretations of the Cento are offered. The first chapter of this part explores the configurations of the fictive narrator, whose authorial voice is fashioned as that of a prophet and a confessing believer in the preface, interludes and epilogue. In these ‘extradiegetic’ sections of the narrative, the Virgilian verses and voices are recycled as to form a new Christian confessional and poetic language. The last two chapters explore the hermeneutics that characterize her use of the Virgilian and biblical texts, focusing above all on the typological connections that are established. At one level, the Cento features reenactments of biblical typologies with Old Testament ‘types’ prefiguring New Testament ‘antitypes.’ But it also displays semi-biblical typologies, where characters and events from the Virgilian ‘hypotext’ prefigure the biblical ones represented in the Cento, and these connections are heavily exploited to produce foreshadowing within the narrative