HANA: A HAndwritten NAme Database for Offline Handwritten Text Recognition

Methods for linking individuals across historical data sets, typically in combination with AI based transcription models, are developing rapidly. Probably the single most important identifier for linking is personal names. However, personal names are prone to enumeration and transcription errors and although modern linking methods are designed to handle such challenges these sources of errors are critical and should be minimized. For this purpose, improved transcription methods and large-scale databases are crucial components. This paper describes and provides documentation for HANA, a newly constructed large-scale database which consists of more than 1.1 million images of handwritten word-groups. The database is a collection of personal names, containing more than 105 thousand unique names with a total of more than 3.3 million examples. In addition, we present benchmark results for deep learning models that automatically can transcribe the personal names from the scanned documents. Focusing mainly on personal names, due to its vital role in linking, we hope to foster more sophisticated, accurate, and robust models for handwritten text recognition through making more challenging large-scale databases publicly available. This paper describes the data source, the collection process, and the image-processing procedures and methods that are involved in extracting the handwritten personal names and handwritten text in general from the forms

Reduction in level of Salmonella on swine carcasses after slaughter without splitting the head.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect on the prevalence of Salmonella bacteria on the carcass when leaving the tongue in the intact head and thereby reducing the risk of transferring Salmonella bacteria from the oral cavity, pharynz etc. to the carcass, compared to removing the tongue together with the pluck set. Samples were collected from healthy pigs with an expected high risk of Salmonella bacteria in the intestines. When leaving the tongue in the intact head we found a reduction in Salmonella positive carcasses at 30 %, even though the reduction was not statistically significant because of high variation in the day to day number of Salmonella positive carcasses