Offline handwritten signature verification using radial basis function neural network

This study investigates the effectiveness of Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNNs) for Of- fline Handwritten Signature Verification (OHSV). A signature database is collected using intrapersonal variations for evaluation. Global, grid and texture features are used as feature sets. A number of exper- iments were carried out to compare the effectiveness of each separate set and their combination. The system is extensively tested with random signature forgeries and the high recognition rates obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the architecture. The best results are obtained when global and grid features are combined producing a feature vector of 592 elements. In this case a Mean Error Rate (MER) of 2.04% with a False Rejection Rate (FRR) of 1.58% and a False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of 2.5% are achieved, which are generally better than those reported in the literature.peer-reviewe

Developing European conservation and mitigation tools for pollination services: approaches of the STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) project

Pollinating insects form a key component of European biodiversity, and provide a vital ecosystem service to crops and wild plants. There is growing evidence of declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in plants relying upon them. The STEP project (Status and Trends of European Pollinators, 2010-2015, www.stepproject.net) is documenting critical elements in the nature and extent of these declines, examining key functional traits associated with pollination deficits, and developing a Red List for some European pollinator groups. Together these activities are laying the groundwork for future pollinator monitoring programmes. STEP is also assessing the relative importance of potential drivers of pollinator declines, including climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, light pollution, and their interactions. We are measuring the ecological and economic impacts of declining pollinator services and floral resources, including effects on wild plant populations, crop production and human nutrition. STEP is reviewing existing and potential mitigation options, and providing novel tests of their effectiveness across Europe. Our work is building upon existing and newly developed datasets and models, complemented by spatially-replicated campaigns of field research to fill gaps in current knowledge. Findings are being integrated into a policy-relevant framework to create evidence-based decision support tools. STEP is establishing communication links to a wide range of stakeholders across Europe and beyond, including policy makers, beekeepers, farmers, academics and the general public. Taken together, the STEP research programme aims to improve our understanding of the nature, causes, consequences and potential mitigation of declines in pollination services at local, national, continental and global scales

Simplicial quantum dynamics

Present-day quantum field theory can be regularized by a decomposition into quantum simplices. This replaces the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space by a high-dimensional spinor space and singular canonical Lie groups by regular spin groups. It radically changes the uncertainty principle for small distances. Gaugeons, including the gravitational, are represented as bound fermion-pairs, and space-time curvature as a singular organized limit of quantum non-commutativity. Keywords: Quantum logic, quantum set theory, quantum gravity, quantum topology, simplicial quantization.Comment: 25 pages. 1 table. Conference of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics, Taiwan, 201

The future of enterprise groupware applications

This paper provides a review of groupware technology and products. The purpose of this review is to investigate the appropriateness of current groupware technology as the basis for future enterprise systems and evaluate its role in realising, the currently emerging, Virtual Enterprise model for business organisation. It also identifies in which way current technological phenomena will transform groupware technology and will drive the development of the enterprise systems of the future

A participatory physical and psychosocial intervention for balancing the demands and resources among industrial workers (PIPPI): study protocol of a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Background: Need for recovery and work ability are strongly associated with high employee turnover, well-being and sickness absence. However, scientific knowledge on effective interventions to improve work ability and decrease need for recovery is scarce. Thus, the present study aims to describe the background, design and protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce need for recovery and improve work ability among industrial workers. Methods/Design: A two-year cluster randomized controlled design will be utilized, in which controls will also receive the intervention in year two. More than 400 workers from three companies in Denmark will be aimed to be cluster randomized into intervention and control groups with at least 200 workers (at least 9 work teams) in each group. An organizational resources audit and subsequent action planning workshop will be carried out to map the existing resources and act upon initiatives not functioning as intended. Workshops will be conducted to train leaders and health and safety representatives in supporting and facilitating the intervention activities. Group and individual level participatory visual mapping sessions will be carried out allowing team members to discuss current physical and psychosocial work demands and resources, and develop action plans to minimize strain and if possible, optimize the resources. At all levels, the intervention will be integrated into the existing organization of work schedules. An extensive process and effect evaluation on need for recovery and work ability will be carried out via questionnaires, observations, interviews and organizational data assessed at several time points throughout the intervention period. Discussion: This study primarily aims to develop, implement and evaluate an intervention based on the abovementioned features which may improve the work environment, available resources and health of industrial workers, and hence their need for recovery and work ability

Securing recruitment and obtaining informed consent in minority ethnic groups in the UK

Background: Previous health research has often explicitly excluded individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds due to perceived cultural and communication difficulties, including studies where there might be language/literacy problems in obtaining informed consent. This study addressed these difficulties by developing audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent and recording data. This report outlines 1) our experiences with securing recruitment to a qualitative study investigating alternative methods of data collection, and 2) the development of a standardised process for obtaining informed consent from individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds whose main language does not have an agreed written form. Methods: Two researchers from South Asian backgrounds recruited adults with Type 2 diabetes whose main language was spoken and not written, to attend a series of focus groups. A screening tool was used at recruitment in order to assess literacy skills in potential participants. Informed consent was obtained using audio-recordings of the patient information and recording patients' verbal consent. Participants' perceptions of this method of obtaining consent were recorded. Results: Recruitment rates were improved by using telephone compared to face-to-face methods. The screening tool was found to be acceptable by all potential participants. Audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent were easy to implement and accepted by all participants. Attrition rates differed according to ethnic group. Snowballing techniques only partly improved participation rates. Conclusion: Audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent are an acceptable alternative to written consent in study populations where literacy skills are variable. Further exploration of issues relating to attrition is required, and a range of methods may be necessary in order to maximise response and participation

Identidad étnica y redes personales entre jóvenes de Sarajevo

After fieldwork conducted among young people in Sarajevo, we found a relation between the discourses sustained by them and the ethnic categories they use to classify people and to identify themselves. Also we have found that people self-affiliated as "Bosnians" play an important role in the network of multiethnic relationships, in which strong ties, surprisingly, are still very important. Finally we found a relationship between the composition of personal networks and the ethnic discourses that are maintained.Después de un trabajo de campo realizado con un grupo de jóvenes en Sarajevo, hemos constatado la existencia de una relación entre los discursos que sostienen y las categorías étnicas que utilizan tanto para clasificar a los demás como para auto-identificarse. Asimismo hemos encontrado que los jóvenes que se autodenominan "Bosnios" juegan un rol importante en la red de relaciones multiétnicas, en la que los lazos fuertes, sorprendentemente, son muy importantes. Finalmente hemos hallado una relación entre la composición de las redes personales y los discursos étnicos que se sostienen. Vivimos, o creemos vivir, en múltiples "comunidades", imaginadas o no. Al mismo tiempo, el individuo y no el lugar, la familia o el grupo, se sitúa en el centro de la vida social y de las comunicaciones (Cf. Wellman, 2001). En este contexto, inducido por el avance del capitalismo flexible (Castells, 1996), pensamos que para entender adecuadamente la identidad o identidades postuladas por los individuos es necesario estudiar las redes personales y su dinámica. Desde esta perspectiva no podemos hablar de "etnias" o "multietnicidad" sin más precisiones, pues son conceptos basados en una concepción esencialista y estática de la identidad individual. El concepto de "sociedad multiétnica" es utilizado de una manera engañosamente progresista y objetiva, pues lo que en realidad legitima es la existencia de diferencias esenciales entre personas, alejando en lugar de acercar. Sin embargo, somos plenamente conscientes que los discursos esencialistas de la identidad étnica son omnipresentes, con enormes efectos políticos e individuales. Que planteemos que la concepción esencialista de la identidad sea inapropiada desde un punto de vista académico, no significa que ésta no se utilice políticamente y por lo tanto tenga consecuencias formidables en las relaciones sociales. Precisamente el estudio de las redes personales nos permite situarnos en una perspectiva que no utiliza con pretensiones analíticas conceptos "folk", como son los de "etnia", "pueblo" o "nación", sino que los sitúa en el terreno de los discursos sustentados por los actores (y los estados y medios de comunicación) y nos permite contextualizarlos mediante conceptos etic, es decir, impuestos por los investigadores. Sólo así podemos superar las tautologías que abundan en los discursos étnicos

Women, literacy and health: comparing health and education sectoral approaches in Nepal

Functional adult literacy interventions have been regarded for many decades by policy makers as an effective way of imparting health knowledge. Supported by research on the statistical relationships between women’s literacy rates and health indicators, this dominant policy discourse is based on assumptions that non-literate women lack understanding and confidence, and that formal programmes and institutions constitute the main sites of learning. Proposing a broader conceptualisation of literacy as a social practice and of health as connected with social justice, this article draws on policy analysis and the authors’ earlier research in Nepal to re-examine the relationship between gender, literacy and health. By comparing health and literacy approaches used within the education and health sectors and taking account of new and indigenous informal learning practices, the article points to ways of investigating the complex interaction of factors that influence inequalities in gender and health at community level

Preventing Violence in Seven Countries: Global Convergence in Policies

Do governments take the measures that are supported by the best scientific evidence available? We present a brief review of the situation in: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our findings show surprisingly similar developments across countries. While all seven countries are moving towards evidence-based decision making regarding policies and programs to prevent violence, there remain a number of difficulties before this end can be achieved. For example, there continue to be few randomized controlled trials or rigorous quasi-experimental studies on aggression and violence. Results from experimental research are essential to both policy makers and researchers to determine the effectiveness of programs as well as increase our knowledge of the problem. Additionally, all noted that media attention for violence is high in their country, often leading to management by crisis with the result that policies are not based on evidence, but instead seek to appease public outrage. And perhaps because of attendant organizational problems (i.e., in many countries violence prevention was not under the guise of one particular agency or ministry), most have not developed a coordinated policy focusing on the prevention of violence and physical aggression. It is hypothesized that leaders in democratic countries, who must run for election every 4 to 6 years, may feel a need to focus on short-term planning rather than long-term preventive policies since the costs, but not the benefits for the latter would be incurred while they still served in office. We also noted a general absence of expertise beyond those within scientific circles. The need for these ideas to be more widely accepted will be an essential ingredient to real and sustaining change. This means that there must be better communication and increased understanding between researchers and policy makers. Toward those ends, the recent establishment of the Campbell Collaboration, formed to provide international systematic reviews of program effectiveness, will make these results more available and accessible to politicians, administrators and those charged with making key policy decision