Narrow Results

This paper makes an attempt to segment the handwritten Hindi words. The problem of segmentation is compounded by the possible presence of modifiers known as matras on all sides of the basic characters and due to the uncertainty introduced in the character shapes by way of different writing styles. We have devised a structural approach to capture the similarities and differences between structure classes. The segmentation is performed in hierarchical order: 1) Separating the upper modifiers and header line from the character, 2) Detecting and then segmenting lower modifiers from the characters, 3) Identifying whether a character is conjunct or not, 4) Categorization of top modifiers based on Check_point, Mid_point and Touching_points. The segmentation accuracy has been found to be around 78%. Some general conditions are applied for separating modifiers from the characters. But certain words cannot be segmented because they violate the general conditions. However, specifics are not dealt with in this paper because such an attempt requires an exhaustive study on a large database that is not available presently.

The Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) is Australia’s prime agricultural region, where drought and hotter weather pose a significant threat to rural residents’ mental health – hence increasing their potential suicide risk. We investigate the impact of drought and hotter temperatures on monthly suicide within local areas in the MDB, from 2006–2016. Using Poisson fixed-effects regression modeling, we found that extreme drought and hotter temperatures were associated with increased total suicide rates. The effects of extreme drought and temperature on suicide were heterogeneous across gender and age groups, with younger men more vulnerable. Areas with higher percentages of Indigenous and farmer populations were identified as hot spots, and were vulnerable to increased temperatures and extreme drought. Green space coverage (and to some extent higher incomes) moderated the drought and suicide relationship. Providing targeted interventions in vulnerable groups and hot spot areas is warranted to reduce the suicide effect of climate change.