title: Improving Digital Library Support for Historic Newspaper Collections

authors: Lin, Leo

subjects: OCR

abstract: National and international initiatives are underway around the globe to digitise the vast treasure troves of historical artefacts they contain and make them available as digital libraries (DLs). The developed DLs are often constructed from facsimile pages with pre-existing metadata, such as historic newspapers stored on microfiche or generated from the non-destructive scanning of precious manuscripts. Access to the source documents is therefore limited to methods constructed from the metadata. Other projects look to introduce full-text indexing through the application of off-the-shelf commercial Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. While this has greater potential for the end user experience over the metadata-only versions, the approach currently taken is best effort in the time available rather than a process informed by detailed analysis of the issues. In this thesis, we investigate if a richer level of support and service can be achieved by more closely integrating image processing techniques with DL software.

The thesis presents a variety of experiments, implemented within the recently published open-source OCR System (Ocropus). In particular, existing segmentation algorithms are compared against our own based on Hough Transform, using our own created corpus gathered from different major online digital historic newspaper archives.

text: Improving Digital Library Support for Historic Newspaper Collections National and international initiatives are underway around the globe to digitise the vast treasure troves of historical artefacts they contain and make them available as digital libraries (DLs). The developed DLs are often constructed from facsimile pages with pre-existing metadata, such as historic newspapers stored on microfiche or generated from the non-destructive scanning of precious manuscripts. Access to the source documents is therefore limited to methods constructed from the metadata. Other projects look to introduce full-text indexing through the application of off-the-shelf commercial Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. While this has greater potential for the end user experience over the metadata-only versions, the approach currently taken is best effort in the time available rather than a process informed by detailed analysis of the issues. In this thesis, we investigate if a richer level of support and service can be achieved by more closely integrating image processing techniques with DL software.

The thesis presents a variety of experiments, implemented within the recently published open-source OCR System (Ocropus). In particular, existing segmentation algorithms are compared against our own based on Hough Transform, using our own created corpus gathered from different major online digital historic newspaper archives.

year: 2009

title: Does the pre-sentence report carry weight in the sentencing process and does it uphold the principles of the rule of law?

authors: Gould, Helen

subjects: Pre-sentence report

abstract: Applying the rule of law at every stage of the criminal justice process is fundamental to our criminal justice system and to our social contract. There are indications that the rule of law may be being forgotten, ignored or breached within the criminal justice system, producing what appear to be unfair outcomes which further marginalise particular sectors of society. An examination of Pre-Sentence Reports, as one small but important part of the criminal justice process, and the sentencing process in particular, will assist in testing and establishing whether assumptions about inequality in the sentencing process are justified.

text: Does the pre-sentence report carry weight in the sentencing process and does it uphold the principles of the rule of law? Applying the rule of law at every stage of the criminal justice process is fundamental to our criminal justice system and to our social contract. There are indications that the rule of law may be being forgotten, ignored or breached within the criminal justice system, producing what appear to be unfair outcomes which further marginalise particular sectors of society. An examination of Pre-Sentence Reports, as one small but important part of the criminal justice process, and the sentencing process in particular, will assist in testing and establishing whether assumptions about inequality in the sentencing process are justified.

year: 2021

title: Estimated catchment loads of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes

authors: McBride, Chris G.

abstract: The Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes are central to the identity of their region, of immense historical and cultural importance, and provide ecosystem services that underpin biodiversity, conservation and socioeconomic aspirations of the community. The diversity of water quality in the lakes reflects their catchments, which are diverse in topography, hydrogeology and intensity of land use, ranging from the largely undeveloped land around lakes Tikitapu and Okataina, to highly developed forestry and pastoral land around lakes Rerewhakaaitu, Rotorua and Okaro. Lake water quality is strongly linked to nutrients received by each lake from surface flows and groundwater springs. It therefore follows that management of lake water quality requires a good understanding of nutrient loads derived from the landscape, as does the assessment or prediction of the in-lake effects of catchment-based management initiatives aimed at improving lake water quality.

text: Estimated catchment loads of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes The Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes are central to the identity of their region, of immense historical and cultural importance, and provide ecosystem services that underpin biodiversity, conservation and socioeconomic aspirations of the community. The diversity of water quality in the lakes reflects their catchments, which are diverse in topography, hydrogeology and intensity of land use, ranging from the largely undeveloped land around lakes Tikitapu and Okataina, to highly developed forestry and pastoral land around lakes Rerewhakaaitu, Rotorua and Okaro. Lake water quality is strongly linked to nutrients received by each lake from surface flows and groundwater springs. It therefore follows that management of lake water quality requires a good understanding of nutrient loads derived from the landscape, as does the assessment or prediction of the in-lake effects of catchment-based management initiatives aimed at improving lake water quality.

year: 2021