Bank Form Classification using Document Layout Analysis and Image Processing Techniques

Every day thousands of forms are filled out and submitted across the world, in banks, post offices, government organizations, educational institutions etc. These include electronic forms as well as physical forms. All of these forms irrespective of their origin are at some stage made digital and stored electronically to address issues of physical storage, form degradation and data accessibility. Document layout analysis is a basic step in converting document images into electronic form. This conversion is laborious and can be made more efficient (in terms of throughput and human resource) by automating most of the conversion process using document layout analysis techniques. Document classification is an important step in Office Automation, Digital Libraries, and other document image analysis applications. Physical forms require human supervision for any operations done on the form. Digitization of these forms reduces human resources, also reduces any human redundancy involved with the operation on the physical forms. This paper addresses the initial stage of this automation, namely, bank form classification and decipherment of fields. The former recognizes the type of the bank form and the latter extracts regions of useful data from the classified bank form. The proposed work aims to provide accurate bank form classification along with noise removal, skew detection and correction, finally layout analysis is carried out to extract fields like name, address, signature from the classified forms

The Influence of Organizational Culture on HRM Practices at Academic Institutions in Oman

Organizational culture is one of the factors which affect employee's behavior. Culture is the most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations and it is even more important today than it was in the past because of increased competition and changes. Studies in the organizational psychology literature have shown that organizational culture and HRM practice are major factors to the Organizational Success. Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. Organizational culture also represents the collective values, beliefs and principles of organizational members. Culture and HRM are connected to each other from many ways and as pointed out by Jackson and Schuler organizational culture and HRM cannot be separated in an organization and culture has influential effect on the administration of HR. This paper shows the results of the influence of organizational culture on human resource practices in some selected departments in the institution where the authors are working. The statistical analysis was based on one hundred respondents from different departments and it shows that there is a close relationship between organizational culture and recruitment process, training programs, job performance management, performance of employees, pay structure, and compensation administration

A Study of Customer Satisfaction in the Dubai's Restaurant Industry

Customer Satisfaction is one of the key roles in bringing success to any business organization that has a product or service to offer or sell. Each and every organization makes sure to not only keep the preexisting customers but also garner new potential customers significantly and may only be possible when the current target customers are completely satisfied of the company. The objective of this study is to understand the basics of what the definition of customer satisfaction is and how important it is to an organization in a fast paced industry. Moreover, the advantages of customer satisfaction to a restaurant business will be explained. In the last part of this research paper, a survey was conducted to find out whether customer satisfaction matters to the market as well

Why should a Laboratory be required for Linear Circuits I ?

When in the fall semester of 2017 at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, a Laboratory was added to Linear Circuits I , it provided an absolute amazing insight into the absence of practical knowledge of students. They could not identify resistors, or capacitors. They had in most cases no idea what a DMM was and how to use it. Setting up fairly simple circuits on a proto-board and making voltage and current measurements had to be shown to each Lab group. A Lab experiment with an Op-Amp meant, that several of the Op-Amps were sacrificed to the smoke god. Students were amazed by what an Oscilloscope could do and how one could see the charge and discharge of a capacitor. At the end of each experiment, MatLab was used to verify the practical results obtained. What was gratifying at the end of the semester that each student group had high praise for the inclusion of a Laboratory into the curriculum. All the frustration and the extra work involved was worth it if one looked at the final result and that a practical component had been added to the students background, which would serve them well in a summer internship or in the Co-op program

Preparation and Characterization of Nano Titania modified PVA-Pectin polymer electrolyte membranes for DMFC

In this study, poly vinyl alcohol and pectin are in situ cross-linked using dual cross-linker comprising a mixture of sulfosuccinic acid and glutaraldehyde followed by solvent casting.Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are incorporated into polymer solutions that controls alignment and disentanglement of polymer chains at molecular level. It is shown that rational design of membrane microstructure with proper arrangement of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains has been formulated by blending PVA with PC. Water sorption through nanocomposite membrane enhanced when optimum quantity of titanium dioxide particles are present. In addition, titanium dioxide nanoparticles help to provide more inter-connected proton conducting pathways and acts as reinforcing units. Through the hydrogen bonds formed between surface functional groups of titanium oxide nanoparticles and polymer chains, protons are transferred through the membrane both by hopping and vehicular mechanisms. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles also act as fillers and effectively prevent the methanol permeation. Polymer voids are occupied by the presence of Titanium dioxide nanoparticles that selectively allow protons to pass through form anode to cathode side. Both improved proton conductance and lower methanol permeability, electrochemical selectivity of nano Titanium dioxide modified PVA-Pectin polymer electrolyte membrane is enhanced. With further enriched proton conductivity by the presence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, fabricated pectin polyvinyl alcohol hybrid nanocomposite membrane exhibit higher electrochemical selective factor

Design of a Steam Condensate Pumping System

The project work considers design of a pumping system for steam condensate operating at a pressure of 4 bar. The pumping system is designed to transfer steam condensate (saturated liquid) operating at 143.6 Degree celsius between two storage tanks. Developing pumping systems for critical process systems require special attention. Critical process system is one wherein failure of the system due to incorrect equipment selection or incorrect operation can have a huge impact on safety and/or have a huge environmental impact. Developing such process critical systems require the use of engineering standards and application of process safety management systems. In this project, steam condensate is operating at high temperature and therefore failure of the either material or equipment could pose a serious threat to the environment and/or mankind. In this project, emphasis is given to system development and the various steps in determining the pump specifications. The importance of net positive suction head (NPSH) calculations are considered in the analysis. DuPont process safety management (PSM) engineering standards are employed in selecting the appropriate materials. An excel model is developed to simulate the required head for various flow rates, pipe dimensions and tank pressures. The model can be used to develop system curve and pump curve can be superimposed on the system curve to choose the right pump for the given application

Co-Movement and Volatility Analysis of Sugar: Spot and Future

Co-movement and volatility analysis between variables are an important considerations in investment related decisions. The relationships of spot and two future priced sugar contracts are examined against the currency and main index of Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. Sugar which is produced in many countries around the world is the world's largest crop by production in metric tons. Co-movement and volatility analysis includes correlation, vector autoregression, Johansen cointegration test, impulse responses, pairwise Granger causality test and three GARCH models. The three GARCH models are the GARCH, GJR-GARCH and EGARCH models. A long run relationships exists between the three sugar variables, the three sugar variables and the Shanghai SE A Share Index; as well as between the tree sugar variables and the Thai Bhat. Co-movement results indicate that unidirectional and bidirectional relationships exist among the variables. A bi-directional relationship exists between sugar spot and CSCE sugar 11 future as well as between sugar spot and Liffe sugar future. Sugar spot and sugar future have a uni-directional relationship with the indices of Bangkok, Indonesia, Philippines, China, and India. Sugar spot and sugar futures Granger causes the currencies of Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India. The volatility analysis done shows that the AIC and SIC results of the GARCH models which indicates that the original GARCH model fits the data the best for sugar spot and the CSCE sugar 11 future. The EGARCH model fits the data the best for Liffe sugar future

Study on Emotional Improvement and Health Promotion of Senior Citizens Participating in Virtual Reality Games

In addition to medical care and health promotion, happiness, care and thoughtfulness associated with medical assistance are among the expectations and demands of the elderly society. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of health promotion and emotional improvement on elderly people by understanding the behavioral intentions of elderly people with various personality traits in participating in virtual reality games. In this study, we used a questionnaire on five personality traits, including extraversion (Extraversion), friendliness (Agreeableness), diligence and integrity (Conscientiousness), and psychosomatic (Neurotic), which was designed by the scholar Martinez and John (1998) in 1998 as a tool to improve the mental health of the elderly. This study validates that sensorial perception is an important influencing factor in the theoretical model of the behavioral intention of the elderly using virtual reality (VR) wearable devices. That is, the stronger the behavioral intention of the elderly when using VR high-tech products, the more frequent the use will be, and the more significant the improvement of the emotional effect. It is suggested that future research could develop a game plan suitable for the elderly with different characteristics

Information Quality Characteristics for M-Learning Applications

This research study investigates the potential to apply a quality analysis process for mobile learning (M-learning) software applications in accordance to a defined set of information quality characteristics in attempt to increase the level of quality in the mobile learning systems. This empirical study is conducted on widely accepted and used M-learning application form both close source and open source systems comprising a known reasonable amount of MLOC, medium-scale. Four M-learning applications were selected for conducting this study including Moodle, Blackboard, Edmodo and Schoology. The systems are statically analyzed and examined to determine if it meets the proposed quality characteristics or not. For each system the features and techniques used with respect to the defined characteristics are determined and tabulated. This study focuses mainly on particular information quality characteristics include maintainability, reusability, testability, and security. The data shows that the approach is applicable and effective but needs further formalization and improvement to be effectively implemented. New ideas are additionally proposed for future work to include other dimensions of the M-learning application quality characteristics such as availability, reliability, performance, usability, and functionality. This empirical study is part of funded research project investigating the development, adoption and dissemination of M-learning in Oman

The Power of Private Label in Retail Market

Globally, own store brands or private labels are rapidly gaining share at the cost of manufacture brands. In India, where the share of organised retail is minuscule, manufacture brands still dominate. With the retail sector poised for growth, national brand manufacturers will have to contend with competition within distribution channel, which calls for revised marketing strategy locally, to thwart the threat of the private label in a store. The phenomenon also offers national brand manufacturers the opportunity to service the production needs of the private labels efficiently. The problem is India's internet-savvy consumers aren't as convinced about Private labels as their global counterparts. Consumers may be happy with the quality of private label when it comes to kitchen towels and staples like wheat flour but are wary when it comes to buying a store version of, say, baby food or shampoo. The paper has also discussed the different types branding strategies used by retailers in the developing countries. The manufacturer brands have an advantage relative to own brand where symbolic association and/or product innovation are important to customers. Conversely, where symbolic associations and product innovations are less important there is an opportunity for retailers to compete successfully with manufacturer brands if they can demonstrate comparable product quality and provide value or money. This paper deals with the power of private label in modern retail market