On-line handwritten segmentation in linear drawings

This paper addresses the problem of tracking line segments corresponding to on-line handwritten obtained through a digitizer tablet. The approach is based on Kalman filtering to model linear portions of on-line handwritten, particularly, handwritten numerals, and to detect abrupt changes in handwritten direction underlying a model change. This approach uses a Kalman filter framework constrained by a normalized line equation, where quadratic terms are linearized through a first-order Taylor expansion. The modeling is then carried out under the assumption that the state is deterministic and time-invariant, while the detection relies on double thresholding mechanism which tests for a violation of this assumption. The first threshold is based on an approach of layout kinetics. The second one takes into account the jump in angle between the past observed direction of layout and its current direction. The method proposed enables real-time processing. To illustrate the methodology proposed, some results obtained from handwritten numerals are presented.

Out of the ivory tower: the impact of wider social contact on the values, religious beliefs and identities of Chinese postgraduate students in the UK

This article explores the impact of wider social contact on the experience of Chinese postgraduate students of adaptation to life in the UK. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with a group of 11 Chinese students on an MA programme at a university in southern England and individual interviews with three representatives of a local volunteer group (LVG) offering support to the Chinese students. Although it was perceived that the students’ support needs were not adequately met by the University, the additional support offered outside the University was unanimously valued and considered as enriching their cultural and linguistic experiences and meeting their expectations. However, frequent social contact with the LVG, whose members were mostly Christians, also had an impact on their values, religious beliefs and identities. In a discussion framed within the sociological perspective of proselytization or religious conversion and the broad framework of international education and globalization, the different responses to this contact are described in terms of believers, doubters, empathisers and commentators. Implications are considered for universities, people involved in providing social support for international students, and sponsors of international students.

Simultaneous observations of reconnection pulses at Cluster and their effects on the cusp aurora observed at the Chinese Yellow River station

While the Cluster spacecraft were located near the high-latitude magnetopause, between 1010 and 1040 UT on 16 January 2004, three typical flux transfer event (FTE) signatures were observed. During this interval, simultaneous and conjugated all‐sky camera measurements, recorded at Yellow River Station, Svalbard, are available at 630.0 and 557.7 nm that show poleward‐moving auroral forms (PMAFs), consistent with magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. Simultaneous FTEs seen at the magnetopause mainly move northward, but having duskward (eastward) and tailward velocity components, roughly consistent with the observed direction of motion of the PMAFs in all‐sky images. Between the PMAFs meridional keograms, extracted from the all‐sky images, show intervals of lower intensity aurora which migrate equatorward just before the PMAFs intensify. This is strong evidence for an equatorward eroding and poleward moving open‐closed boundary associated with a variable magnetopause reconnection rate under variable IMF conditions. From the durations of the PMAFs, we infer that the evolution time of FTEs is 5–11 minutes from its origin on the magnetopause to its addition to the polar cap.

Once upon a time, there was a pulchritudinous princess…: the role of word definitions and multiple story contexts in children’s learning of difficult vocabulary

The close relationship between children’s vocabulary size and their later academic success has led researchers to explore how vocabulary development might be promoted during the early school years. We describe a study that explored the effectiveness of naturalistic classroom storytelling as an instrument for teaching new vocabulary to six- to nine-year-old children. We examined whether learning was facilitated by encountering new words in single versus multiple story contexts, or by the provision of age-appropriate definitions of words as they were encountered. Results showed that encountering words in stories on three occasions led to significant gains in word knowledge in children of all ages and abilities, and that learning was further enhanced across the board when teachers elaborated on the new words’ meanings by providing dictionary definitions. Our findings clarify how classroom storytelling activities can be a highly effective means of promoting vocabulary development.