Classification of Arabic Autograph as Genuine ‎And Forged through a Combination of New ‎Attribute Extraction Techniques

تقترح هذه الدراسة إطارا جديدا لتقنية التحقق من التوقيع العربي. وهو يستخلص بعض السمات الديناميكية للتمييز بين التوقيعات المزورة والحقيقية. لهذا الغرض، يستخدم هذا الإطار التكيف وضعية النافذة لاستخراج تفرد من الموقعين في التوقيع بخط اليد والخصائص المحددة من الموقعين. وبناء على هذا الإطار، تقسم التوقيعات العربية أولا إلى نوافذ 14 × 14؛ كل جزء واسع بما فيه الكفاية لإدخال معلومات وافية عن أنماط الموقعين وصغيرة بما فيه الكفاية للسماح بالمعالجة السريعة. ثم، تم اقتراح نوعين من الميزات على أساس تحويل جيب التمام المنفصل، تحويل المويجة المنفصلة لاستخلاص الميزات من المنطقة ذات الاهتمام. وأخيرا، يتم اختيار شجرة القرار لتصنيف التوقيعات باستخدام الميزات المذكورة كمدخلات لها. وتجرى التقييمات على التوقيعات العربية. وكانت النتائج مشجعة جدا مع معدل تحقق 99.75٪ لاختيار سلسلة من للتوقيعات المزورة والحقيقية للتوقيعات العربية التي تفوقت بشكل ملحوظ على أحدث الأعمال في هذا المجالThis study proposes a new framework for an Arabic autograph verification technique. It extracts certain dynamic attributes to distinguish between forged and genuine signatures. For this aim, this framework uses Adaptive Window Positioning to extract the uniqueness of signers in handwritten signatures and the specific characteristics of signers. Based on this framework, Arabic autograph are first divided into 14X14 windows; each fragment is wide enough to include sufficient information about signers’ styles and small enough to allow fast processing. Then, two types of fused attributes based on Discrete Cosine Transform and Discrete Wavelet Transform of region of interest have been proposed for attributes extraction. Finally, the Decision Tree is chosen to classify the autographs using the previous attributes as its input. The evaluations are carried out on the Arabic autograph. The results are very encouraging with verification rate 99.75% for sequential selection of forged and genuine autographs for Arabic autograph that significantly outperformed the most recent work in this fiel

Buddhism in Central Asia I

Buddhism in Central Asia (Part I): Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage, 6-14th Centuries deals with the various strategies of legitimation and the establishment of sacred space and pilgrimage among both trans-regional (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and local (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut, Kitan) Buddhist traditions. Readership: All interested in dynamics of inter-cultural encounter and Buddhist transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia

The Racial State and Race Formation: A Comparative Case Study of the Use of Racial Narratives and Government Coercion for Racial Nation-State Building in Chile, China, and Myanmar

This is a study about what David Theo Goldberg (2002) describes as “the racial state”: a modern nation-state where rule and constructions of race are deeply intertwined (2002: 7). Racial difference, he posits, is one of the easiest and most potent ways a governing body in modern times can establish power, social order, and dominance (130). Racial projects are a robust form of establishing state formation and legitimacy as they create two intertwined identities: a national, racial state identity and personal identities who depend on the very racial narratives governing bodies create. Yet, such narratives do not gain support without arduous application. This study is also about coercion, symbolic and literal, and how governing bodies deploy violence as to enforce racial narratives and further establish legitimate governance. As Goldberg (2002) states, “Power is to the state and the state to power as blood is to the human body” (9). Guided by Goldberg’s (2002) theory, I set out to explore how the racial nation-state materializes across three distinct countries: China, Chile, and Myanmar. While highly distinct in many aspects, governing bodies in all are persecuting an indigenous, religious, or ethnic minority group and then are implementing racial narratives and government coercion to justify such suppression. Executing a secondary source, comparative analysis, I have focused on four themes I’ve made chapters—racial narratives, symbolic and real peripheries, rhetoric of terrorism, and methods of oppression—to argue that governing bodies in each of these three countries are coercively enforcing racial narratives as to achieve government legitimacy. I argue that type of government affects how racial narratives and government coercion manifest as well as threat of minority group separatism, but that ultimately, racial narratives are how governing bodies retain authority across all three countries. I conclude by predicting that a globally racist society is emerging in which methods of oppression and racial narratives are converging globally

Out Of Place: Stone Architecture And Pastoral Nomadism In Prehistoric Inner Asia

How architecture reflects the configuration of physical and social spaces among prehistoric pastoral nomads is a topic scarcely explored in the archaeology of Inner Asia, not least because the common preconception is that structural remains are not in keeping with the mobile lifestyle. Yet, the juxtaposition of these two seemingly contrasting strategies of human subsistence forms an interesting paradox that underlies precisely the nature of nomadism. Accordingly, this study questions how pastoral nomads relate to stationary structures and the idea of a locale. To do so, it draws on the archaeological record of stone architecture in the Bortala River Valley of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, an area where pastoral nomadism developed in the second and first millennia BCE. With data collected from survey and excavation, this study employs GIS, statistics, and 3D photogrammetry to examine the environment and building patterns of these stone structures on three spatial scales. Built in simple geometric forms recurring in space and time, they correspond typologically to different epochs of human habitation, funerary and ritual activities. Instead of approaching the material typologically, however, this study questions the connection between site selection and architectural design and how the prehistoric landscape of Western Tian Shan was shaped. Three characteristics of place-making and space use are identified. First, the significance of these sites is reinforced through recurring access of specific locations and the adherence to certain building codes. Second, the aggregation of building components over time, like the symbolisms they carry, is cumulative and continuously reconfigured. Third, spatial knowledge is communal. It is anchored to a cartographic palimpsest comprising diverse forms of architecture and art. These preliminary observations form the basis for further modeling, in future research, the logistics of building and cultures of space use among early pastoral societies in Inner Asia on more explicit timescales and in more defined spatial forms

Out Of Place: Stone Architecture And Pastoral Nomadism In Prehistoric Inner Asia

How architecture reflects the configuration of physical and social spaces among prehistoric pastoral nomads is a topic scarcely explored in the archaeology of Inner Asia, not least because the common preconception is that structural remains are not in keeping with the mobile lifestyle. Yet, the juxtaposition of these two seemingly contrasting strategies of human subsistence forms an interesting paradox that underlies precisely the nature of nomadism. Accordingly, this study questions how pastoral nomads relate to stationary structures and the idea of a locale. To do so, it draws on the archaeological record of stone architecture in the Bortala River Valley of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, an area where pastoral nomadism developed in the second and first millennia BCE. With data collected from survey and excavation, this study employs GIS, statistics, and 3D photogrammetry to examine the environment and building patterns of these stone structures on three spatial scales. Built in simple geometric forms recurring in space and time, they correspond typologically to different epochs of human habitation, funerary and ritual activities. Instead of approaching the material typologically, however, this study questions the connection between site selection and architectural design and how the prehistoric landscape of Western Tian Shan was shaped. Three characteristics of place-making and space use are identified. First, the significance of these sites is reinforced through recurring access of specific locations and the adherence to certain building codes. Second, the aggregation of building components over time, like the symbolisms they carry, is cumulative and continuously reconfigured. Third, spatial knowledge is communal. It is anchored to a cartographic palimpsest comprising diverse forms of architecture and art. These preliminary observations form the basis for further modeling, in future research, the logistics of building and cultures of space use among early pastoral societies in Inner Asia on more explicit timescales and in more defined spatial forms

Prosperity

A ‘moderately prosperous society’ with no Chinese individual left behind—that’s the vision for China set out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in a number of important speeches in 2017. ‘Moderate’ prosperity may seem like a modest goal for a country with more billionaires (609 at last count) than the US. But the ‘China Story’ is a complex one. The China Story Yearbook 2017: Prosperity surveys the important events, pronouncements, and personalitites that defined 2017. It also presents a range of perspectives, from the global to the individual, the official to the unofficial, from mainland China to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Together, the stories present a richly textured portrait of a nation that in just forty years has lifted itself from universal poverty to (unequally distributed) wealth, changing itself and the world in the process

2023 IMSAloquium

Welcome to IMSAloquium 2023. This is IMSA’s 36 th year of leading in educationalinnovation, and the 35th year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program.https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/archives_sir/1033/thumbnail.jp