Transforming paper documents into XML format with WISDOM++

The transformation of scanned paper documents to a form suitable for an Internet browser is a complex process that requires solutions to several problems. The application of an OCR to some parts of the document image is only one of the problems. In fact, the generation of documents in HTML format is easier when the layout structure of a page has been extracted by means of a document analysis process. The adoption of an XML format is even better, since it can facilitate the retrieval of documents in the Web. Nevertheless, an effective transformation of paper documents into this format requires further processing steps, namely document image classification and understanding. WISDOM++ is a document processing system that operates in five steps: document analysis, document classification, document understanding, text recognition with an OCR, and transformation into HTML/XML format. The innovative aspects described in the paper are: the preprocessing algorithm, the adaptive page segmentation, the acquisition of block classification rules using techniques from machine learning, the layout analysis based on general layout principles, and a method that uses document layout information for conversion to HTML/XML formats. A benchmarking of the system components implementing these innovative aspects is reported. Received June 15, 2000 / Revised November 7, 2000     

How a new realistic mobility model can affect the relative performance of a mobile networking scheme

The validity of the mobility model used to evaluate a cellular network determines the validity of the evaluation. In the literature, unrealistic assumptions on mobility are exercised for the sake of simplicity. In this paper, we present a novel mobility model which is realistic in the sense that it captures the moving‐in‐groups, conscious traveling and inertial behaviours of the subscribers while respecting the non‐pass‐through feature of structures like households and preserving the autonomy of the subscribers. The mobility and call patterns of the subscribers are determined according to the locus of the subscriber over a real map. Thus, our model allows the subscribers to leave home or arrive home, walk or drive in the streets, get on the highways at specific entry points together with numerous hot and blind spots in the terrain, like city centers and lakes. The call pattern of a subscriber is affected by the type of structure he is in. The model can work on real maps to simulate the mobility patterns in real life. We have evaluated the proposed model against the well‐known way point mobility model. We also analyzed the effect of the mobility model on systems with and without guard channels. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aeration Performance of Triangular-Notch Weirs

Hydraulic structures have an impact on the concentration of dissolved oxygen in a river system, even though the water is in contact with the structure for only a short period of time. The same oxygen transfer that would normally occur over several kilometres in a river can occur at a single hydraulic structure, because the flow over a structure is typically highly turbulent, resulting in increased interfacial renewal. Plunging overfall jets from weirs are a good example of this fact, and the aeration properties of such structures have been studied widely in the laboratory and field over a number of years. This technical note (a) describes triangular-notch weirs having a different weir angle α and how they affect aeration performance, and (b) demonstrates that aeration efficiency decreases with increasing weir angle.     

LC-MS/MS methods for absolute quantification and identification of proteins associated with chimeric plant oil bodies

Oil bodies (OBs) are plant cell organelles that consist of a lipid core surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer embedded with specialized proteins such as oleosins. Recombinant proteins expressed in plants can be targeted to OBs as fusions with oleosin. This expression strategy is attractive because OBs are easily enriched and purified from other cellular components, based on their unique physicochemical properties. For recombinant OBs to be a potential therapeutic agent in biomedical applications, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze and quantify both endogenous and heterologously expressed OB proteins. In this study, a mass spectrometry (MS)-based method was developed to accurately quantify an OB-targeted heterologously expressed fusion protein that has potential as a therapeutic agent. The effect of the chimeric oleosin expression upon the OB proteome in transgenic plants was also investigated, and the identification of new potential OB residents was pursued through a variety of liquid chromatography (LC)-MS/MS approaches. The results showed that the accumulation of the fusion protein on OBs was low. Moreover, no significant differences in the accumulation of OB proteins were revealed between transgenic and wild-type seeds. The identification of five new putative components of OB proteome was also reported.