Transforming scholarship in the archives through handwritten text recognition:Transkribus as a case study

Purpose: An overview of the current use of handwritten text recognition (HTR) on archival manuscript material, as provided by the EU H2020 funded Transkribus platform. It explains HTR, demonstrates Transkribus, gives examples of use cases, highlights the affect HTR may have on scholarship, and evidences this turning point of the advanced use of digitised heritage content. The paper aims to discuss these issues. - Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a case study approach, using the development and delivery of the one openly available HTR platform for manuscript material. - Findings: Transkribus has demonstrated that HTR is now a useable technology that can be employed in conjunction with mass digitisation to generate accurate transcripts of archival material. Use cases are demonstrated, and a cooperative model is suggested as a way to ensure sustainability and scaling of the platform. However, funding and resourcing issues are identified. - Research limitations/implications: The paper presents results from projects: further user studies could be undertaken involving interviews, surveys, etc. - Practical implications: Only HTR provided via Transkribus is covered: however, this is the only publicly available platform for HTR on individual collections of historical documents at time of writing and it represents the current state-of-the-art in this field. - Social implications: The increased access to information contained within historical texts has the potential to be transformational for both institutions and individuals. - Originality/value: This is the first published overview of how HTR is used by a wide archival studies community, reporting and showcasing current application of handwriting technology in the cultural heritage sector

Mathematical models for vaccination programs and statistical analysis of infectious diseases of humans

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN055917 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Quantifying unrecognised replication present in reports of HIV diagnoses

New diagnoses of HIV infection were reported confidentially to the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) AIDS Centre under a national voluntary surveillance scheme. Two sets of data drawn from the national datasets were made available to us for analysis, the first in 1991, the second in 1994, by which time the replication of reports had been reduced. The data used in the analyses consisted of the numbers of replications of the reported full date of birth in the individual records (one, two, three and so on), for each year of birth. This paper uses a non-parametric maximum likelihood estimation method for quantifying the amount of replication in the data. The estimated amount of replication was 3.37% (95% confidence interval (0.98%,11.83%)) in the 1991 and 0.58% (95% confidence interval (0%,2.64%)) in the 1994 dataset

Sporadic Pituitary Stalk Hemangioblastoma: A Rare Case Report and Review of the Literature

Supratentorial hemangioblastomas have rarely been described in the literature. Pituitary stalk hemangioblastomas are extremely rare and almost always are associated with von Hippel Lindau disease. Herein, we report a sporadic case of pituitary stalk hemangioblastoma in a 36-year-old male and review the current literature regarding this pathology. In our case, complete resection of the lesion was achieved using the transglabellar approach

Development in Unity Engine of a 3D application / videogame to relate different fog, brightness and contrast settings to the feeling of uncertainty and connection to the experience

Περίληψη: Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία παρουσιάζει την ανάπτυξη ενός ολοκληρωμένου τρισδιάστατου βιντεοπαιχνιδιού για την πλατφόρμα των Windows, με το όνομα “Drainage”. Πρόκειται για παιχνίδι είδους πρώτου προσώπου/περιπέτειας/γρίφων σε περιβάλλον υπονόμου και υλοποιήθηκε με χρήση της μηχανής γραφικών Unity Engine. Το συγκεκριμένο ολοκληρωμένο παιχνίδι αποτελεί τμήμα ενός μεγαλύτερου project του TUC TIE LAB που ερευνά τη σύνδεση διαφορετικών χώρων με διαφορετικά ανθρώπινα συναισθήματα, ο υπόνομος στην συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση με το συναίσθημα της αβεβαιότητας. Για την ολοκλήρωση του συγκεκριμένου παιχνιδιού το περιβάλλον των πέντε διαφορετικών επιπέδων (χώροι και αρκετά από τα τρισδιάστατα μοντέλα) δημιουργήθηκε στο πρόγραμμα σχεδίασης τρισδιάστατων γραφικών Blender, τα textures στα εργαλεία Awesome Bump και Materialize, ενώ για επεξεργασία εικόνας χρησιμοποιήθηκε η εφαρμογή ανοιχτού λογισμικού GIMP και ο απαραίτητος κώδικας αναπτύχθηκε στην γλώσσα προγραμματισμού C# και CG/HLSL. Ο παίκτης εξερευνώντας το περιβάλλον του παιχνιδιού και διαδρώντας με αντικείμενα θα πρέπει να ανακαλύψει τα απαραίτητα στοιχεία, έτσι ώστε να φτάσει στην επίλυση των γρίφων και να προχωρήσει στη συνέχεια στον τερματισμό. Με την ειδική επιλογή “Play Experiment” οι δεκαπέντε συμμετέχοντες χωρίστηκαν σε τρεις ομάδες και συμμετείχαν στο πείραμα που διεξήχθη με σκοπό να απαντήσουν σε ειδικό ερωτηματολόγιο, έτσι ώστε να αντληθούν πληροφορίες σχετικά με το πώς διαφορετικές ρυθμίσεις φωτεινότητας, contrast και ομίχλης επηρεάζουν ή/και εντείνουν το συναίσθημα αβεβαιότητας του χρήστη και την εμβύθισή του στην εμπειρία.Summarization: This thesis presents the development of a complete 3D video game for the Windows platform, called “Drainage”. It is a first person / adventure / puzzle game in a sewer environment and was created using the Unity graphics engine. This novel video game is part of a larger project of TUC TIE LAB that explores the connection of different places with different human emotions, sewer in this case, with the feeling of uncertainty. To complete this game, the environment of five different levels, game spaces and several of the 3D models, were created in Blender 3D graphic design program, the textures in Awesome Bump and Materialize tools, while GIMP open source application was used for image processing and the necessary code was developed in the C# and CG/HLSL languages. The player by exploring the game environment and interacting with objects, will have to discover the necessary elements, so as to reach the solution of the puzzles and then proceed to the finish. With the special option “Play Experiment”, fifteen participants were divided into three groups and participated in the experiment conducted, with the purpose of answering a special questionnaire, in order to obtain information on how different brightness, contrast and fog settings in the game, affect and/or intensify the user’s sense of uncertainty and immersion in the experience

Thoracic Aortic Injury: Embolization of the Tenth Intercostal Artery and Endovascular Treatment in a Young Woman after Posterior Spinal Instrumentation

Iatrogenic aortic injuries are rare and well-recognized complications of a variety of procedures, including spinal surgery. The placement of pedicle screws is sometimes associated with devastating consequences. Aortic perforation with rapid hematoma formation and delayed aortic trauma leading to pseudoaneurysm formation have been described in the literature. A case describing a significant time interval between iatrogenic aortic injury and diagnosis in the absence of pseudoaneurysm formation is described in this paper and, according to our knowledge, is unique in the literature. The aortic injury was successfully treated, selecting the appropriate graft and, as a consequence, normal spinal cord blood flow was achieved

Sotrastaurin and cyclosporine drug interaction study in healthy subjects.

Sotrastaurin is an immunosuppressant that inhibits protein kinase C and blocks T-lymphocyte activation. The authors determined the effect of combining sotrastaurin with the calcineurin inhibitor cyclosporine on the pharmacokinetics and biomarker responses to both drugs. Methods. This was a randomized, 4-period, crossover study in 20 healthy subjects who received single oral doses of (1) sotrastaurin 100 mg, (2) cyclosporine 400 mg, (3) 100 mg sotrastaurin with 100 mg cyclosporine and (4) 100 mg sotrastaurin with 400 mg cyclosporine. Blood samples were collected to measure drug levels and biomarkers of T-lymphocyte activation (interleukin-2 and tumor necrosis factor producing T-cells and interleukin-2 messenger RNA levels) and of T-lymphocyte proliferation (thymidine uptake). Results. Sotrastaurin did not alter cyclosporine AUC; however, low-dose and high-dose cyclosporine increased sotrastaurin AUC by 1.2-fold [90% confidence interval, 1.1–1.4] and 1.8-fold [1.6–2.1], respectively. Adding high-dose cyclosporine to a low-therapeutic dose of sotrastaurin significantly enhanced the inhibition of cytokine production by 31% [95% confidence interval, 25–36%], of interleukin-2 messenger RNA levels by 13% [7–19%], and of thymidine uptake by 37% [32–42%] compared with sotrastaurin alone. Addition of low-dose cyclosporine elicited slightly lower enhancements in inhibition by 21% [14–28%], 6% [−4–16%], and 26% [21–30%], respectively, compared with sotrastaurin alone. Conclusions. Sotrastaurin did not alter the pharmacokinetics of cyclosporine, but cyclosporine increased sotrastaurin AUC up to 1.8-fold. The combined drugs elicited a significantly greater inhibition of T-cell activation and proliferation than sotrastaurin alone