Downs and Acrosses: Textual Markup on a Stroke Based Level

Textual encoding is one of the main focuses of Humanities Computing. However, existing encoding schemes and initiatives focus on 'text' from the character level upwards, and are of little use to scholars, such as papyrologists and palaeographers, who study the constituent strokes of individual characters. This paper discusses the development of a markup system used to annotate a corpus of images of Roman texts, resulting in an XML representation of each character on a stroke by stroke basis. The XML data generated allows further interrogation of the palaeographic data, increasing the knowledge available regarding the palaeography of the documentation produced by the Roman Army. Additionally, the corpus was used to train an Artificial Intelligence system to effectively 'read' in stroke data of unknown text and output possible, reliable, interpretations of that text: the next step in aiding historians in the reading of ancient texts. The development and implementation of the markup scheme is introduced, the results of our initial encoding effort are presented, and it is demonstrated that textual markup on a stroke level can extend the remit of marked-up digital texts in the humanities

Image and interpretation using artificial intelligence to read ancient Roman texts

The ink and stylus tablets discovered at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda are a unique resource for scholars of ancient history. However, the stylus tablets have proved particularly difficult to read. This paper describes a system that assists expert papyrologists in the interpretation of the Vindolanda writing tablets. A model-based approach is taken that relies on models of the written form of characters, and statistical modelling of language, to produce plausible interpretations of the documents. Fusion of the contributions from the language, character, and image feature models is achieved by utilizing the GRAVA agent architecture that uses Minimum Description Length as the basis for information fusion across semantic levels. A system is developed that reads in image data and outputs plausible interpretations of the Vindolanda tablets

Synchronizing Sequencing Software to a Live Drummer

Copyright 2013 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT allows authors to archive published versions of their articles after an embargo period. The article is available at

Higher cyclic operads

We introduce a convenient definition for weak cyclic operads, which is based on unrooted trees and Segal conditions. More specifically, we introduce a category $\Xi$ of trees, which carries a tight relationship to the Moerdijk-Weiss category of rooted trees $\Omega$. We prove a nerve theorem exhibiting colored cyclic operads as presheaves on $\Xi$ which satisfy a Segal condition. Finally, we produce a Quillen model category whose fibrant objects satisfy a weak Segal condition, and we consider these objects as an up-to-homotopy generalization of the concept of cyclic operad

A Target Restricted Assembly Method (TRAM) for Phylogenomics

While next generation sequencing technology can produce sequences covering the entire genome, assembly and annotation are still prohibitive steps for many phylogenomics applications. Here we describe a method of Target Restricted Assembly (TRAM) of a single lane of Illumina sequences for genes of relevance to phylogeny reconstruction, i.e. single copy protein-coding genes. This method has the potential to produce a data set of hundreds of genes using only one Illumina lane per taxon

Are there any good digraph width measures?

Several different measures for digraph width have appeared in the last few years. However, none of them shares all the "nice" properties of treewidth: First, being \emph{algorithmically useful} i.e. admitting polynomial-time algorithms for all \MS1-definable problems on digraphs of bounded width. And, second, having nice \emph{structural properties} i.e. being monotone under taking subdigraphs and some form of arc contractions. As for the former, (undirected) \MS1 seems to be the least common denominator of all reasonably expressive logical languages on digraphs that can speak about the edge/arc relation on the vertex set.The latter property is a necessary condition for a width measure to be characterizable by some version of the cops-and-robber game characterizing the ordinary treewidth. Our main result is that \emph{any reasonable} algorithmically useful and structurally nice digraph measure cannot be substantially different from the treewidth of the underlying undirected graph. Moreover, we introduce \emph{directed topological minors} and argue that they are the weakest useful notion of minors for digraphs

Making automation pay - cost & throughput trade-offs in the manufacture of large composite components

The automation of complex manufacturing operations can provide significant savings over manual processes, and there remains much scope for increasing automation in the production of large scale structural composites. However the relationships between driving variables are complex, and the achievable throughput rate and corresponding cost for a given design are often not apparent. The deposition rate, number of machines required and unit production rates needed are interrelated and consequently the optimum unit cost is difficult to predict. A detailed study of the costs involved for a series of composite wing cover panels with different manufacturing requirements was undertaken. Panels were sized to account for manufacturing requirements and structural load requirements allowing both manual and automated lay-up procedures to influence design. It was discovered that the introduction of automated tape lay-up can significantly reduce material unit cost, and improve material utilisation, however higher production rates are needed to see this benefit

Fast tuneable InGaAsP DBR laser using quantum-confined stark-effect-induced refractive index change

We report a monolithically integrated InGaAsP DBR ridge waveguide laser that uses the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) to achieve fast tuning response. The laser incorporates three sections: a forward-biased gain section, a reverse-biased phase section, and a reverse-biased DBR tuning section. The laser behavior is modeled using transmission matrix equations and tuning over similar to 8 nm is predicted. Devices were fabricated using post-growth shallow ion implantation to reduce the loss in the phase and DBR sections by quantum well intermixing. The lasing wavelength was measured while varying the reverse bias of the phase and DBR sections in the range 0 V to < - 2.5 V. Timing was noncontinuous over a similar to 7-nm-wavelength range, with a side-mode suppression ratio of similar to 20 dB. Coupled cavity effects due to the fabrication method used introduced discontinuities in tuning. The frequency modulation (FM) response was measured to be uniform within 2 dB over the frequency range 10 MHz to 10 GHz, indicating that tuning times of 100 ps are possible

Coherent and generalized intelligent states for infinite square well potential and nonlinear oscillators

This article is an illustration of the construction of coherent and generalized intelligent states which has been recently proposed by us for an arbitrary quantum system $[ 1]$. We treat the quantum system submitted to the infinite square well potential and the nonlinear oscillators. By means of the analytical representation of the coherent states \`{a} la Gazeau-Klauder and those \`{a} la Klauder-Perelomov, we derive the generalized intelligent states in analytical ways