The Impact of the Economic Blockade on Trade in Qatar

Qatar imports in June were valued at 5.9 billion QAR, which shows a 40% decline from the same month in 2016. The drop in imports continued in July with 35% from their year to year level. Imports rebounded in the month of August with only 7.8% difference from last year, it is considered a major recovery from the past two months

Novel geometric features for off-line writer identification

Writer identification is an important field in forensic document examination. Typically, a writer identification system consists of two main steps: feature extraction and matching and the performance depends significantly on the feature extraction step. In this paper, we propose a set of novel geometrical features that are able to characterize different writers. These features include direction, curvature, and tortuosity. We also propose an improvement of the edge-based directional and chain code-based features. The proposed methods are applicable to Arabic and English handwriting. We have also studied several methods for computing the distance between feature vectors when comparing two writers. Evaluation of the methods is performed using both the IAM handwriting database and the QUWI database for each individual feature reaching Top1 identification rates of 82 and 87 % in those two datasets, respectively. The accuracies achieved by Kernel Discriminant Analysis (KDA) are significantly higher than those observed before feature-level writer identification was implemented. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the improved versions of both chain-code features and edge-based directional features

Self-repairing composites for corrosion protection: A review on recent strategies and evaluation methods

The use of self-healing coatings to protect metal substrates, such as aluminum alloys, stainless steel, carbon steel, and Mg alloys from corrosion is an important aspect for protecting metals and for the economy. During the past decade, extensive transformations on self-healing strategies were introduced in protective coatings, including the use of green components. Scientists used extracts of henna leaves, aloe vera, tobacco, etc. as corrosion inhibitors, and cellulose nanofibers, hallyosite nanotubes, etc. as healing agent containers. This review gives a concise description on the need for self-healing protective coatings for metal parts, the latest extrinsic self-healing strategies, and the techniques used to follow-up the self-healing process to control the corrosion of metal substrates. Common techniques, such as accelerated salt immersion test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), for evaluating the self-healing process in protective coatings are explained. We also show recent advancements procedures, such as scanning vibrating electrode technique (SVET) and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), as successful techniques in evaluating the self-healing process in protective coatings.Qatar UniversityScopu

Challenges for Higher Education in Crisis Stricken Times – The Effects of Covid-19 in Preparing Universities for Future

تحلل وجهة النظر هاته وضعيةَ وتحولات مؤسسات التعليم العالي خلال الأزمات غير المتوقعة من قبيل جائحة كوفيد-19 الحالية، التي أدت إلى اضطراب غالبية اقتصادات العالم. إن التغيرات التي تواجه التعليم العالي ليست جديدة؛ إذ إنها حصلت في كل المجالات، لكن المتوقع أن النقلات ستكون أعمق، وأسرع بعد الجائحة. يُظهِر البحث كيف يمكن لمؤسسات التعليم العالي أن تتكيف وتتحول خلال الجائحة، كما تناقش كيف لتلك المؤسسات أن تخرج من الأزمة أقوى وتصبح قادرة على تحقيق الاستدامة طويلة الأمد، التي يمكن من خلالها، الإسهام في المجتمع بنظام أكثر رشاقة وفاعلية، تحركه سياسات مرنة ومهام محددة تسدي خدمة للمجتمع، مدفوعة برسالتها في الوقت نفسه. يجب على الجامعات أن تتسم ببعد نظر، ولا تفوت فرصة إعادة تقييم فائدتها للمجتمع، وإعادة تركيز المعنى في الحاجة إليها. نرى أن مؤسسات التعليم العالي تلعب دورًا بارزًا في تحقيق جدول أعمال 2030 للتنمية المستدامة، وتسهم بشكل فاعل في أهداف التنمية المستدامة (SDGs)، كما نعتقد أن الاتجاه الاستراتيجي للجامعات يجب أن يرتكز على مبادئ مسؤوليات شركاء المصلحة، المعروفة بالحوكمة البيئية والاجتماعية وحوكمة الشركات (ESG). أخيرًا، نجادل في أن بُعد الحوكمة - تحديدًا - أساسيٌ لمؤسسات التعليم العالي؛ لتحقيق الكفاءة والاستدامة والأهداف طويلة الأمد.This viewpoint analyses the status and transformation of Higher Education institutions during unpredicted great challenges such as the current Covid-19, which disrupted most of the economies on the planet. The changes facing Higher Education are not new, transformation has been seen in different areas, but shifts are expected to be deeper and faster after the pandemic. We show how the Higher Education institutions can resist and transform during the pandemic and we also discuss how these institutions can come out of the recession stronger and become capable of achieving long-term sustainability. For that aim, a leaner and more effective institution system with modified flexible policies that contribute to society and, at the same time, are mission-driven, is expected to be achieved. Universities in their recovery efforts must look far ahead and should not miss the opportunity to reassess their usefulness to society, nor to refocus their sense of purpose. We suggest that institutions of Higher Education play a more important role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and contribute decisively to the several SDGs. In addition, we argue that the strategic direction of universities must be focused on stakeholder responsibility principles known as Environmental, Social, and Governance – ESG. Finally, we argue that the governance dimension is particularly critical for Higher Education institutions if they want to achieve long-term efficiency, sustainability and purpose

The Economic Impact of Immigration on Host Countries: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Over the past 40 years, the impact of immigration on employment, wages and other economic indicators has been robust and continually increasing. The relationship between migration and unemployment is determined by the characteristics of immigrants. This paper assesses the impact immigration has on economic development and unemployment in Saudi Arabia by explaining the shape of the causal relationship between immigration and economic performance on a macroeconomic scale. The data used for Saudi Arabia contains annual observation in the period between 1990 and 2010. With an econometric analysis based on the Jarque-Bera test for normal distribution, Dickey-Fuller for unit root test, Johansen cointegration tests and a vector error correction model test, we reveal that there is no cointegration among the variables. The Granger causality test explains that when the level of immigration raises, GDP per capita also increases. It has also been shown that immigration has no substantial influence on unemployment levels and vice vers

Multi-Order Statistical Descriptors for Real-Time Face Recognition and Object Classification

We propose novel multi-order statistical descriptors which can be used for high speed object classification or face recognition from videos or image sets. We represent each gallery set with a global second-order statistic which captures correlated global variations in all feature directions as well as the common set structure. A lightweight descriptor is then constructed by efficiently compacting the second-order statistic using Cholesky decomposition. We then enrich the descriptor with the first-order statistic of the gallery set to further enhance the representation power. By projecting the descriptor into a low-dimensional discriminant subspace, we obtain further dimensionality reduction, while the discrimination power of the proposed representation is still preserved. Therefore, our method represents a complex image set by a single descriptor having significantly reduced dimensionality. We apply the proposed algorithm on image set and video-based face and periocular biometric identification, object category recognition, and hand gesture recognition. Experiments on six benchmark data sets validate that the proposed method achieves significantly better classification accuracy with lower computational complexity than the existing techniques. The proposed compact representations can be used for real-time object classification and face recognition in videos. 2013 IEEE.This work was supported by NPRP through the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) under Grant 7-1711-1-312.Scopu

Comparative analysis of computer-vision and BLE technology based indoor navigation systems for people with visual impairments

Background: Considerable number of indoor navigation systems has been proposed to augment people with visual impairments (VI) about their surroundings. These systems leverage several technologies, such as computer-vision, Bluetooth low energy (BLE), and other techniques to estimate the position of a user in indoor areas. Computer-vision based systems use several techniques including matching pictures, classifying captured images, recognizing visual objects or visual markers. BLE based system utilizes BLE beacons attached in the indoor areas as the source of the radio frequency signal to localize the position of the user. Methods: In this paper, we examine the performance and usability of two computer-vision based systems and BLE-based system. The first system is computer-vision based system, called CamNav that uses a trained deep learning model to recognize locations, and the second system, called QRNav, that utilizes visual markers (QR codes) to determine locations. A field test with 10 blindfolded users has been conducted while using the three navigation systems. Results: The obtained results from navigation experiment and feedback from blindfolded users show that QRNav and CamNav system is more efficient than BLE based system in terms of accuracy and usability. The error occurred in BLE based application is more than 30% compared to computer vision based systems including CamNav and QRNav. Conclusions: The developed navigation systems are able to provide reliable assistance for the participants during real time experiments. Some of the participants took minimal external assistance while moving through the junctions in the corridor areas. Computer vision technology demonstrated its superiority over BLE technology in assistive systems for people with visual impairments. - 2019 The Author(s).Scopu

Using spectral imaging for the analysis of abnormalities for colorectal cancer: When is it helpful?

© 2018 Awan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The spectral imaging technique has been shown to provide more discriminative information than the RGB images and has been proposed for a range of problems. There are many studies demonstrating its potential for the analysis of histopathology images for abnormality detection but there have been discrepancies among previous studies as well. Many multispectral based methods have been proposed for histopathology images but the significance of the use of whole multispectral cube versus a subset of bands or a single band is still arguable. We performed comprehensive analysis using individual bands and different subsets of bands to determine the effectiveness of spectral information for determining the anomaly in colorectal images. Our multispectral colorectal dataset consists of four classes, each represented by infra-red spectrum bands in addition to the visual spectrum bands. We performed our analysis of spectral imaging by stratifying the abnormalities using both spatial and spectral information. For our experiments, we used a combination of texture descriptors with an ensemble classification approach that performed best on our dataset. We applied our method to another dataset and got comparable results with those obtained using the state-of-the-art method and convolutional neural network based method. Moreover, we explored the relationship of the number of bands with the problem complexity and found that higher number of bands is required for a complex task to achieve improved performance. Our results demonstrate a synergy between infra-red and visual spectrum by improving the classification accuracy (by 6%) on incorporating the infra-red representation. We also highlight the importance of how the dataset should be divided into training and testing set for evaluating the histopathology image-based approaches, which has not been considered in previous studies on multispectral histopathology images.This publication was made possible using a grant from the Qatar National Research Fund through National Priority Research Program (NPRP) No. 6-249-1-053. The content of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Qatar National Research Fund or Qatar University

Impact of Innovative Learning Environment Based on Research Activities on Secondary School Student's Attitude Towards Research and Their Self-Efficacy.

Advanced and free learning environment coupled with the creative learning activities is assumed to be a motivational variable. In the present study, we applied an innovative learning strategy involving students in order to achieve positive impact on their attitude towards science, desire to learn science and future career choices. The study experiment was focused on enhancing the research skills of the students; apply knowledge for solving real world problems, positively changing the students’ attitude towards science, raising students’ self-efficacy and enhance positivism toward science related subjects. This research assumes that if the attitude and perception of post-secondary students is changed and made positive about science, then they might choose to study related science subjects forexample, mathematics, engineering and science at university level studies. Therefore, it will also impact students’ career choices after university studies and they might enter scientific careers. Our study focused on evaluating various changes in the attitude, desire and self-efficacy of participating students when traditional instruction is replaced through the innovative learning environment. A total of 120 students participated in our experiment where researchers assisted students to experience hands on different research activities. Pre and posttest were used to evaluate the change in students’ attitude and desire towards science, knowledge and self-efficacy. The study results have shown that significant changes in the performance of students’ for-example, student noticed positive attitude towards their own research abilities, desire to learn science, self-efficacy, learning and career choices. However, results did not show any differences based on gender as such.Qatar Universit