Modèle de dégradation d’images de documents anciens pour la génération de données semi-synthétiques

In the last two decades, the increase in document image digitization projects results in scientific effervescence for conceiving document image processing and analysis algorithms (handwritten recognition, structure document analysis, spotting and indexing / retrieval graphical elements, etc.). A number of successful algorithms are based on learning (supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised). In order to train such algorithms and to compare their performances, the scientific community on document image analysis needs many publicly available annotated document image databases. Their contents must be exhaustive enough to be representative of the possible variations in the documents to process / analyze. To create real document image databases, one needs an automatic or a manual annotation process. The performance of an automatic annotation process is proportional to the quality and completeness of these databases, and therefore annotation remains largely manual. Regarding the manual process, it is complicated, subjective, and tedious. To overcome such difficulties, several crowd-sourcing initiatives have been proposed, and some of them being modelled as a game to be more attractive. Such processes reduce significantly the price andsubjectivity of annotation, but difficulties still exist. For example, transcription and textline alignment have to be carried out manually. Since the 1990s, alternative document image generation approaches have been proposed including in generating semi-synthetic document images mimicking real ones. Semi-synthetic document image generation allows creating rapidly and cheaply benchmarking databases for evaluating the performances and trainingdocument processing and analysis algorithms. In the context of the project DIGIDOC (Document Image diGitisation with Interactive DescriptiOn Capability) funded by ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), we focus on semi-synthetic document image generation adapted to ancient documents. First, we investigate new degradation models or adapt existing degradation models to ancient documents such as bleed-through model, distortion model, character degradation model, etc. Second, we apply such degradation models to generate semi-synthetic document image databases for performance evaluation (e.g the competition ICDAR2013, GREC2013) or for performance improvement (by re-training a handwritten recognition system, a segmentation system, and a binarisation system). This research work raises many collaboration opportunities with other researchers to share our experimental results with our scientific community. This collaborative work also helps us to validate our degradation models and to prove the efficiency of semi-synthetic document images for performance evaluation and re-training.Le nombre important de campagnes de numérisation mises en place ces deux dernières décennies a entraîné une effervescence scientifique ayant mené à la création de nombreuses méthodes pour traiter et/ou analyser ces images de documents (reconnaissance d’écriture, analyse de la structure de documents, détection/indexation et recherche d’éléments graphiques, etc.). Un bon nombre de ces approches est basé sur un apprentissage (supervisé, semi supervisé ou non supervisé). Afin de pouvoir entraîner les algorithmes correspondants et en comparer les performances, la communauté scientifique a un fort besoin de bases publiques d’images de documents avec la vérité-terrain correspondante, et suffisamment exhaustive pour contenir des exemples représentatifs du contenu des documents à traiter ou analyser. La constitution de bases d’images de documents réels nécessite d’annoter les données (constituer la vérité terrain). Les performances des approches récentes d’annotation automatique étant très liées à la qualité et à l’exhaustivité des données d’apprentissage, ce processus d’annotation reste très largement manuel. Ce processus peut s’avérer complexe, subjectif et fastidieux. Afin de tenter de pallier à ces difficultés, plusieurs initiatives de crowdsourcing ont vu le jour ces dernières années, certaines sous la forme de jeux pour les rendre plus attractives. Si ce type d’initiatives permet effectivement de réduire le coût et la subjectivité des annotations, reste un certain nombre de difficultés techniques difficiles à résoudre de manière complètement automatique, par exemple l’alignement de la transcription et des lignes de texte automatiquement extraites des images. Une alternative à la création systématique de bases d’images de documents étiquetées manuellement a été imaginée dès le début des années 90. Cette alternative consiste à générer des images semi-synthétiques imitant les images réelles. La génération d’images de documents semi-synthétiques permet de constituer rapidement un volume de données important et varié, répondant ainsi aux besoins de la communauté pour l’apprentissage et l’évaluation de performances de leurs algorithmes. Dans la cadre du projet DIGIDOC (Document Image diGitisation with Interactive DescriptiOn Capability) financé par l’ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), nous avons mené des travaux de recherche relatifs à la génération d’images de documents anciens semi-synthétiques. Le premier apport majeur de nos travaux réside dans la création de plusieurs modèles de dégradation permettant de reproduire de manière synthétique des déformations couramment rencontrées dans les images de documents anciens (dégradation de l’encre, déformation du papier, apparition de la transparence, etc.). Le second apport majeur de ces travaux de recherche est la mise en place de plusieurs bases d’images semi-synthétiques utilisées dans des campagnes de test (compétition ICDAR2013, GREC2013) ou pour améliorer par ré-apprentissage les résultats de méthodes de reconnaissance de caractères, de segmentation ou de binarisation. Ces travaux ont abouti sur plusieurs collaborations nationales et internationales, qui se sont soldées en particulier par plusieurs publications communes. Notre but est de valider de manière la plus objective possible, et en collaboration avec la communauté scientifique concernée, l’intérêt des images de documents anciens semi-synthétiques générées pour l’évaluation de performances et le ré-apprentissage

Magnitude and patterns of severe Plasmodium vivax monoinfection in Vietnam: a 4-year single-center retrospective study

IntroductionInfection with Plasmodium vivax is a recognized cause of severe malaria including deaths. The exact burden and patterns of severe P. vivax monoinfections is however still not well quantified, especially in P. vivax endemic regions. We examined the magnitude and patterns of severe malaria caused by monoinfections of P. vivax and associated predictors among patients admitted to a tertiary care center for malaria in Vietnam.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted based on the patients’ medical records at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases from January 2015 to December 2018. Extracted information included demographic, epidemiologic, clinical, laboratory and treatment characteristics.ResultsMonoinfections with P. vivax were found in 153 (34.5, 95% CI 30.3–39.1%) patients of whom, uncomplicated and severe malaria were documented in 89.5% (137/153, 95% CI 83.7–93.5%) and 10.5% (16/153, 95% CI 6.5–16.3%), respectively. Patterns of severe malaria included jaundice (8 cases), hypoglycemia (3 cases), shock (2 cases), anemia (2 cases), and cerebral malaria (1 case). Among 153 patients, 73 (47.7%) had classic malaria paroxysm, 57 (37.3%) had >7 days of illness at the time of admission, and 40 (26.1%) were referred from other hospitals. A misdiagnosis as having other diseases from malaria cases coming from other hospitals was up to 32.5% (13/40). Being admitted to hospital after day 7th of illness (AOR = 6.33, 95% CI 1.14–35.30, p = 0.035) was a predictor of severe malaria. Severe malaria was statistically associated with longer hospital length of stay (p = 0.035). Early and late treatment failures and recrudescence were not recorded. All patients recovered completely.DiscussionThis study confirms the emergence of severe vivax malaria in Vietnam which is associated with delayed hospital admission and increased hospital length of stay. Clinical manifestations of P. vivax infection can be misdiagnosed which results in delayed treatment. To meet the goal of malaria elimination by 2030, it is crucial that the non-tertiary hospitals have the capacity to quickly and correctly diagnose malaria and then provide treatment for malaria including P. vivax infections. More robust studies need to be conducted to fully elucidate the magnitude of severe P. vivax in Vietnam

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke

Semi-synthetic ancient document image generation by using document degradation models

Le nombre important de campagnes de numérisation mises en place ces deux dernières décennies a entraîné une effervescence scientifique ayant mené à la création de nombreuses méthodes pour traiter et/ou analyser ces images de documents (reconnaissance d’écriture, analyse de la structure de documents, détection/indexation et recherche d’éléments graphiques, etc.). Un bon nombre de ces approches est basé sur un apprentissage (supervisé, semi supervisé ou non supervisé). Afin de pouvoir entraîner les algorithmes correspondants et en comparer les performances, la communauté scientifique a un fort besoin de bases publiques d’images de documents avec la vérité-terrain correspondante, et suffisamment exhaustive pour contenir des exemples représentatifs du contenu des documents à traiter ou analyser. La constitution de bases d’images de documents réels nécessite d’annoter les données (constituer la vérité terrain). Les performances des approches récentes d’annotation automatique étant très liées à la qualité et à l’exhaustivité des données d’apprentissage, ce processus d’annotation reste très largement manuel. Ce processus peut s’avérer complexe, subjectif et fastidieux. Afin de tenter de pallier à ces difficultés, plusieurs initiatives de crowdsourcing ont vu le jour ces dernières années, certaines sous la forme de jeux pour les rendre plus attractives. Si ce type d’initiatives permet effectivement de réduire le coût et la subjectivité des annotations, reste un certain nombre de difficultés techniques difficiles à résoudre de manière complètement automatique, par exemple l’alignement de la transcription et des lignes de texte automatiquement extraites des images. Une alternative à la création systématique de bases d’images de documents étiquetées manuellement a été imaginée dès le début des années 90. Cette alternative consiste à générer des images semi-synthétiques imitant les images réelles. La génération d’images de documents semi-synthétiques permet de constituer rapidement un volume de données important et varié, répondant ainsi aux besoins de la communauté pour l’apprentissage et l’évaluation de performances de leurs algorithmes. Dans la cadre du projet DIGIDOC (Document Image diGitisation with Interactive DescriptiOn Capability) financé par l’ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), nous avons mené des travaux de recherche relatifs à la génération d’images de documents anciens semi-synthétiques. Le premier apport majeur de nos travaux réside dans la création de plusieurs modèles de dégradation permettant de reproduire de manière synthétique des déformations couramment rencontrées dans les images de documents anciens (dégradation de l’encre, déformation du papier, apparition de la transparence, etc.). Le second apport majeur de ces travaux de recherche est la mise en place de plusieurs bases d’images semi-synthétiques utilisées dans des campagnes de test (compétition ICDAR2013, GREC2013) ou pour améliorer par ré-apprentissage les résultats de méthodes de reconnaissance de caractères, de segmentation ou de binarisation. Ces travaux ont abouti sur plusieurs collaborations nationales et internationales, qui se sont soldées en particulier par plusieurs publications communes. Notre but est de valider de manière la plus objective possible, et en collaboration avec la communauté scientifique concernée, l’intérêt des images de documents anciens semi-synthétiques générées pour l’évaluation de performances et le ré-apprentissage.In the last two decades, the increase in document image digitization projects results in scientific effervescence for conceiving document image processing and analysis algorithms (handwritten recognition, structure document analysis, spotting and indexing / retrieval graphical elements, etc.). A number of successful algorithms are based on learning (supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised). In order to train such algorithms and to compare their performances, the scientific community on document image analysis needs many publicly available annotated document image databases. Their contents must be exhaustive enough to be representative of the possible variations in the documents to process / analyze. To create real document image databases, one needs an automatic or a manual annotation process. The performance of an automatic annotation process is proportional to the quality and completeness of these databases, and therefore annotation remains largely manual. Regarding the manual process, it is complicated, subjective, and tedious. To overcome such difficulties, several crowd-sourcing initiatives have been proposed, and some of them being modelled as a game to be more attractive. Such processes reduce significantly the price andsubjectivity of annotation, but difficulties still exist. For example, transcription and textline alignment have to be carried out manually. Since the 1990s, alternative document image generation approaches have been proposed including in generating semi-synthetic document images mimicking real ones. Semi-synthetic document image generation allows creating rapidly and cheaply benchmarking databases for evaluating the performances and trainingdocument processing and analysis algorithms. In the context of the project DIGIDOC (Document Image diGitisation with Interactive DescriptiOn Capability) funded by ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), we focus on semi-synthetic document image generation adapted to ancient documents. First, we investigate new degradation models or adapt existing degradation models to ancient documents such as bleed-through model, distortion model, character degradation model, etc. Second, we apply such degradation models to generate semi-synthetic document image databases for performance evaluation (e.g the competition ICDAR2013, GREC2013) or for performance improvement (by re-training a handwritten recognition system, a segmentation system, and a binarisation system). This research work raises many collaboration opportunities with other researchers to share our experimental results with our scientific community. This collaborative work also helps us to validate our degradation models and to prove the efficiency of semi-synthetic document images for performance evaluation and re-training

Vacuity Measure for Handwritten Character Analysis

International audienc

A Metaheuristics-Based Hyperparameter Optimization Approach to Beamforming Design

The paradigm shift from &#x201C;connected things&#x201D; to &#x201C;connected intelligence&#x201D; is anticipated to be made possible by the sixth-generation wireless systems, which typically use millimeter wave beamforming to mitigate the significant propagation loss. However, beamforming design in millimeter wave communications poses many different challenges owing to the large antenna arrays with the limitation of radio frequency chains and analog beamforming architectures. To circumvent this problem, deep learning models have recently been utilized as a disruptive method for solving difficult optimization problems in sixth-generation mobile systems, such as maximizing spectral efficiency. However, it is still unclear how to produce high-performance deep learning models which require considering appropriate hyperparameters. This study proposes a metaheuristics-based approach for optimizing hyperparameters that are used to build optimized deep learning models to maximize spectral efficiency. The research results demonstrate that the proposed approach-based models establish higher spectral efficiency than the state-of-the-art approach-based models and the reference model whose hyperparameters are based on empirical trials

Génération d'images semi-synthétiques de documents anciens à des fins d'évaluation de performances et d'apprentissage

International audienceDans cet article, nous étudions comment des données semi-synthétiques permettent d'évaluer finement les performances d'algorithmes ou de fournir des données d'apprentissage à un système de traitement ou d'analyse d'images de documents. Les images semi-synthétiques que nous générons reproduisent fidèlement les défauts des documents anciens liés aux moyens d'impression anciens ou à la dégradation de l'encre des caractères. La première expérimentation réalisée dans cet article vise à comparer les performances de différents descripteurs texture dans l'optique d'une segmentation d'images. La seconde expérience met en évidence le fait que l'utilisation d'images semi-synthétiques permet d'enrichir quantitativement et qualitativement une base d'apprentissage utilisée par une méthode de prédiction de résultats de binarisation d'images de documents et d'améliorer les résultats de 15%

DocCreator: A New Software for Creating Synthetic Ground-Truthed Document Images

Most digital libraries that provide user-friendly interfaces, enabling quick and intuitive access to their resources, are based on Document Image Analysis and Recognition (DIAR) methods. Such DIAR methods need ground-truthed document images to be evaluated/compared and, in some cases, trained. Especially with the advent of deep learning-based approaches, the required size of annotated document datasets seems to be ever-growing. Manually annotating real documents has many drawbacks, which often leads to small reliably annotated datasets. In order to circumvent those drawbacks and enable the generation of massive ground-truthed data with high variability, we present DocCreator, a multi-platform and open-source software able to create many synthetic image documents with controlled ground truth. DocCreator has been used in various experiments, showing the interest of using such synthetic images to enrich the training stage of DIAR tools

ICFHR2016 Competition on the Classification of Medieval Handwritings in Latin Script

International audienceThis paper presents the results of the ICFHR2016 Competition on the Classification of Medieval Handwritings in Latin Script (CLaMM), jointly organized by Computer Scientists and Humanists (paleographers). This work aims at providing a rich database of European medieval manuscripts to the community on Handwriting Analysis and Recognition. At this competition, we proposed two independent classification tasks which attracted five participants with seven submitted classifiers. Those classifiers are trained on a set 2000 images with their ground truths. In the first task – Script classification – the classifiers have been evaluated by a test set of 1000 single-type manuscripts. In the second task, a ―Fuzzy Classification‖ has been carried out on a set of 2000 multi-script-type manuscripts. The results of the participants provide the first baseline evaluation up to the accuracy score of 83.9% for the task 1 and to the fuzzy weighted score of 2.96/4 for the task 2. An analysis based on the intra-class distance and matrix of confusion of each classifier is also given