Improved recognition of aged Kannada documents by effective segmentation of merged characters

In optical character recognition of very old books, the recognition accuracy drops mainly due to the merging or breaking of characters. In this paper, we propose the first algorithm to segment merged Kannada characters by using a hypothesis to select the positions to be cut. This method searches for the best possible positions to segment, by taking into account the support vector machine classifier's recognition score and the validity of the aspect ratio (width to height ratio) of the segments between every pair of cut positions. The hypothesis to select the cut position is based on the fact that a concave surface exists above and below the touching portion. These concave surfaces are noted down by tracing the valleys in the top contour of the image and similarly doing it for the image rotated upside-down. The cut positions are then derived as closely matching valleys of the original and the rotated images. Our proposed segmentation algorithm works well for different font styles, shapes and sizes better than the existing vertical projection profile based segmentation. The proposed algorithm has been tested on 1125 different word images, each containing multiple merged characters, from an old Kannada book and 89.6% correct segmentation is achieved and the character recognition accuracy of merged words is 91.2%. A few points of merge are still missed due to the absence of a matched valley due to the specific shapes of the particular characters meeting at the merges.

Las Prophetiae Merlini de Geoffrey de Monmouth en los Baladros castellanos: estado de la cuestión

Resumen: La Historia regum Britanniae (circa 1139) del obispo galés Geoffrey de Monmouth, texto destacado en el corpus latino medieval a causa de sus proyecciones tanto historiográficas como ficcionales, tiene como objeto referir los actos de todos los monarcas célticos de la Gran Bretaña anteriores a la conquista germánica. En este propósito, sus capítulos 112 a 117 obran como una mise en abîme puesto que las Prophetiae Merlini que allí se leen, atribuidas al famoso mago pero inspiradas en la literatura apocalíptica vétero y neotestamentaria, reproducen proféticamente las grandes líneas de contenido de la propia crónica, e incluso anticipan la restauración definitiva de los celtas derrotados. Aunque Wace, Chrétien de Troyes y la tradición romancística francesa posterior, deudora de la Historia en muchos puntos, desecharon el texto a causa de su agudo hermetismo, el mismo sí se difundió por el continente y reapareció asombrosamente interpolado, en versión castellana, dentro de dos tardíos ejemplares del género caballeresco hispánico, el Baladro del sabio Merlín con sus profecías (Burgos, 1498) y la primera parte de la Demanda del santo Grial (Sevilla, 1535). La presente comunicación tiene como objetivos reseñar los actuales conocimientos de la crítica acerca de esta versión castellana de las Prophetiae y señalar los problemas aún pendientes de resolución; serán consideradas las contribuciones fundamentales relativas al original latino y, también, a las versiones francesas conservadas, dada la posibilidad de que nuestra traducción tenga una fuente gala

The Derivation of Dative Alternations

Maia Duguine, Susana Huidobro and Nerea Madariaga (eds.)

Voyages and travels into Brasil and east-Indies : containing an exact description of the dutch Brasil and divers parts of the east-Indies, their provinces, cities, living creatures, and products, the manners, customs, habits and religion the inhabitants : with a particular account of all the remarkable passages that happened during the author's stay of nine years in Brasil, especially in relation to the revolt of the portugueses, and the intestine war carried on there from 1640 to 1649 : as also a most ample description of the most famous city of batavia in the east-Indies

Joan Nieuhoff, viajante alemão, nasceu em Usen, Vesfália, em 1618, e morreu em Madagascar, em 1672. Trabalhou na Companhia das Índias Orientais, foi nomeado agente em Batávia, em 1654. Em 1655, foi à China tratar da abertura dos portos daquele país ao comércio holandês. Governou o Ceilão de 1662 a 1667. Em 1672, desembarcando em Madagascar, foi morto pelos nativos.

An enactive and dynamical systems theory account of dyadic relationships

Many social relationships are a locus of struggle and suffering, either at the individual or interactional level. In this paper we explore why this is the case and suggest a modeling approach for dyadic interactions and the well-being of the participants. To this end we bring together an enactive approach to self with dynamical systems theory. Our basic assumption is that the quality of any social interaction or relationship fundamentally depends on the nature and constitution of the individuals engaged in these interactions. From an enactive perspective the self is conceived as an embodied and socially enacted autonomous system striving to maintain an identity. This striving involves a basic two-fold goal: the ability to exist as an individual in one's own right, while also being open to and affected by others. In terms of dynamical systems theory one can thus consider the individual self as a self-other organized system represented by a phase space spanned by the dimensions of distinction and participation, where attractors can be defined. Based on two everyday examples of dyadic relationship we propose a simple model of relationship dynamics, in which struggle or well-being in the dyad is analyzed in terms of movements of dyadic states that are in tension or in harmony with individually developed attractors. Our model predicts that relationships can be sustained when the dyad develops a new joint attractor toward which dyadic states tend to move, and well-being when this attractor is in balance with the individuals' attractors. We outline how this can inspire research on psychotherapy. The psychotherapy process itself provides a setting that supports clients to become aware how they fare with regards to the two-fold norm of distinction and participation and develop, through active engagement between client (or couple) and therapist, strategies to co-negotiate their self-organization.

An analysis of migratory salmonid catch effort data, derived from anglers' log books, 1991

1000 log books were issued to anglers of which 236 were returned, those from the rivers Derwent, Kent, Lune and Ribble accounted for the vast majority. The Derwent had the highest catch rate of these rivers: one salmon every 13.89 hours followed by the Lune, Kent and Ribble at 16.39, 18.87 and 35.71 hours, respectively. For sea trout the Lune, Derwent and Ribble had a catch rate of approximately one fish every 10.0 hours (9.8, 10.0 and 10.64 hours),and for the Kent one fish per 16.1 hours fished. Salmon angling visits were, in general,longer than those for sea trout being between 2 and 6 hours as opposed to 2 to 4 hours. On the majority of visits (>80%) no fish were caught and was the same for salmon and sea trout. For salmon the majority of fish were caught on fly, spinner or worm, and the least on prawn. For sea trout fly predominated. The majority of salmon caught were less than 91b in weight and were presumed to be grilse (1 sea winter). The majority of the sea trout caught weighed between 1 and 31b. The pattern of catch, effort, CPUE, abundance and catchability for salmon and sea trout were modelled using the data from the rivers Derwent, Kent and Lune. Flow significantly influenced catch, effort and catchability of salmon which had entered in a particular month. For sea trout flow was not significantly correlated with any of the dependent variables. The catchability coefficient for salmon, determined from the total number of fish, remained relatively constant over the period June to October indicating that CPUE was a reasonable measure of within season abundance. This was not found to be the case for sea trout.

Three new Galapagos books

Contents for three books: Galapagos: Volume 2 edited by Roger Perry. Evolution in the Galapagos edited by R.J. Berry. Patterns of Evolution in Galapagos Organisms edited by Robert I. Bowman, Margaret Berson and Alan E. Leviton.