Off-line Arabic Character-Based Writer Identification – a Survey

Off-line writer identification requires transferring the text under consideration into an image file. This represents the only available solution to bring the printed materials to the electronic media. However, the transferring process causes the system to lose the temporal information of that text, which it can be gathered in  on-line writer identification. Various techniques have been implemented to achieve high identification rates. These techniques have tackled different aspects of the identification system. Importance of writer identification system is to help mainly in forensic fields, historical document analysis and  handwriting recognition system enhancement. Unfortunately, the Arabic writer identification system not achieves a satisfaction rate yet whereas certain process of features and classification still not recognized

New Device for Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strength Measurement: An Alternative to Strain Gauge Handheld Dynamometer

© The Author(s) 2017. An accurate measurement of intrinsic hand muscle strength (IHMS) is required by clinicians for effective clinical decision-making, diagnosis of certain diseases, and evaluation of the outcome of treatment. In practice, the clinicians use Intrins-o-meter and Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer for IHMS measurement. These are quite bulky, expensive, and possess poor interobserver reliability (37–52%) and sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative lightweight, accurate, cost-effective force measurement device with a simple electronic circuit and test its suitability for IHMS measurement. The device was constructed with ketjenblack/deproteinized natural rubber sensor, 1-MΩ potential divider, and Arduino Uno through the custom-written software. Then, the device was calibrated and tested for accuracy and repeatability within the force range of finger muscles (100 N). The 95% limit of agreement in accuracy from −1.95 N to 2.06 N for 10 to 100 N applied load and repeatability coefficient of ±1.91 N or 6.2% was achieved. Furthermore, the expenditure for the device construction was around US$ 53. For a practical demonstration, the device was tested among 16 participants for isometric strength measurement of the ulnar abductor and dorsal interossei. The results revealed that the performance of the device was suitable for IHMS measurement

Classification of Brainwave Asymmetry Influenced by Mobile Phone Radiofrequency Emission

AbstractA discriminant classification of human brainwave signals influenced by mobile phone radiofrequency (RF) emission is proposed in this paper. Brainwave signals were recorded using electroencephalograph (EEG) focusing on the alpha sub-band with frequency range from 8 to 12Hz. The EEG test was divided into 3 sessions; Before, During and After with 5minutes duration for each session. Analysis involved 95 participants from engineering students. The students were grouped into 3 groups according to the side of exposure; Left Exposure (LE), Right Exposure (RE) and Sham Exposure (SE). This work suggested that RF emit by the mobile phone give several effects to brainwave signals and there are significant different between the session of exposure. As result, the highest classification rate as high as 94.7% is achieved in session During

Neonatal health monitoring system with IOT application

The body temperature and heart rate are important parameters to monitor the neonatal situation. Neonatal need to be monitored closely in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to allow quick actions by physicians when any problems occur. The lack of systems that able to alert and indicates any warning condition of neonatal in NICU is one of the problems faced by most of the hospital. To reduce the complexity of the system at the NICU for monitoring the Neonatal condition from time to time, the health monitoring system using the Android app has been introduced. This system was introduced to improve the existing system to give alert and warning sign so that early precautions can be done. The project involves the LM35 temperature sensor and pulse sensor which is controlled by the Arduino Uno microcontroller with the help of instructions C / C ++, and Bluetooth networking system. This allows the user to monitor the baby's condition through applications that use Bluetooth networking system. Users must have the application that can be downloaded on Google Play. Furthermore, this system is not only applicable for the physicians but also for others to monitor the condition of Neonatal even though they are outside of the NICU. The neonatal condition can be checked by the LCD display

Step and Step-Nc as a Tool for Big Data in Cloud Manufacturing

The terms big data, cloud manufacturing, predictive and additive manufacturing, and Internet of Things (IoT) are being most commonly used in the manufacturing industry nowadays. These terms are related to the fourth industrial revolution that emphasizes automation and data exchange between manufacturing tools/elements. Communication occurs between machines, products and even technicians or operators through various technologies while creating records of each interaction resulting in rapid growth of amount of data to be stored. Data acquisition is not a major issue since a structure or framework can properly connect these data in improving manufacturing efficiency. However, lack of effort in collecting and storing manufacturing data in the whole product life cycle process has made integration to be almost difficult to achieve. In this study, the adoption of STEP-NC method/technique was demonstrated in suiting the current explosion of big data in the industrial and manufacturing sector. The proposed methodology was developed through a study of an entity file structure and hierarchical concept in STEP and STEP-NC in gathering manufacturing data in a unified database. The challenge would be in making sense of the data, revealing the patterns in it and using them for operational improvements. The outcome of this study will be useful to support strategic decision making in product manufacturing

The correlation between Aflatoxin B1 and Placental Apoptosis in Pregnant women with Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Objective:To explore the effect of Aflatoxin B1 toxicity as a risk factor of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and to determine the role of placental apoptotic indices in the pathogenesis of IUGR and their association with maternal risk factors including residency, working and exposure to smoking. Materials and Methods:A case-control study was done at Women Health Hospital; Assiut University, Egypt. Sixty pregnant women with asymmetrical IUGR and a control group of 40 normal pregnancies were selected. Maternal urine samples were obtained for Aflatoxin B1 level measurement by layer chromatography. Quantitative determination of human placental Bcl-2 and caspase-3 using a monoclonal antibody-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits were performed. Results:The results showed that aflatoxin B1 positive cases in the IUGR group had significantly higher placental caspase-3 and lower placental Bcl-2 concentrations than those which were aflatoxin B1 negative (p<0.01). The levels of placental apoptotic indices were higher in working women who lived in urban areas and those exposed to cigarette smoke than non-working women who lived in rural areas and non-smokers. Conclusions: Aflatoxin B1 may affect the fetal growth by increasing the placental apoptosis. These results may highlight the importance of aflatoxin B1 which may contribute to the complex etiology of IUGR. Placental apoptotic indices levels were significantly affected by maternal residence, working and exposure to smoking in pregnancies complicated with IUGR

Lymphomas in sub-Saharan Africa - what can we learn and how can we help in improving diagnosis, managing patients and fostering translational research?

Approximately 30 000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) occur in the equatorial belt of Africa each year. Apart from the fact that Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is very common among children and adolescents in Africa and that an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is currently ongoing in this part of the world, very little is known about lymphomas in Africa. This review provides information regarding the current infrastructure for diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa. The results on the diagnostic accuracy and on the distribution of different lymphoma subsets in sub-Saharan Africa were based on a review undertaken by a team of lymphoma experts on 159 fine needle aspirate samples and 467 histological samples during their visit to selected sub- Saharan African centres is presented. Among children (age), BL accounted for 82% of all NHL, and among adults, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma accounted for 55% of all NHLs. Among adults, various lymphomas other than BL, including T-cell lymphomas, were encountered. The review also discusses the current strategies of the International Network of Cancer Treatment and Research on improving the diagnostic standards and management of lymphoma patients and in acquiring reliable clinical and pathology data in sub- Saharan Africa for fostering high-quality translational research

Orbital Observations of Dust Lofted by Daytime Convective Turbulence

Over the past several decades, orbital observations of lofted dust have revealed the importance of mineral aerosols as a climate forcing mechanism on both Earth and Mars. Increasingly detailed and diverse data sets have provided an ever-improving understanding of dust sources, transport pathways, and sinks on both planets, but the role of dust in modulating atmospheric processes is complex and not always well understood. We present a review of orbital observations of entrained dust on Earth and Mars, particularly that produced by the dust-laden structures produced by daytime convective turbulence called “dust devils”. On Earth, dust devils are thought to contribute only a small fraction of the atmospheric dust budget; accordingly, there are not yet any published accounts of their occurrence from orbit. In contrast, dust devils on Mars are thought to account for several tens of percent of the planet’s atmospheric dust budget; the literature regarding martian dust devils is quite rich. Because terrestrial dust devils may temporarily contribute significantly to local dust loading and lowered air quality, we suggest that martian dust devil studies may inform future studies of convectively-lofted dust on Earth