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

Detecting The Regime Shift Via Wavelet Transform.

Recently, regime shifts or structure breaks had acquired very high attention in analyzing financial time series data

Evaluation of Wheat Triticum aestivum L. Genotypes with High Productivity in Al-Muthanna and Thi-Qar Provinces

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate  the performance of different genotypes of soft wheat crop at two locations, the first location in the agricultural research station and trials of the College of Agriculture / Muthanna province and the second location in Al-Garraf district / province of Thi- Qar. Ten genotypes (IR885, IR899, IR1123 , IR981, IR1131, IR969, IR1069) are used and Abu Ghraib, Furat and IBA 99 as comparison cultivars) , Three replicates of each treatment were randomized using a randomized complete block design factorial experiments. The effect of genotypes, locations and the interactions between them has been studied in some growth and yield traits and its components. IR98 genotype record higher rate of seed yield kg / donum for both Al-Muthanna and Thi- Qar locations in which reached (1847.667 and 1889.000 kg / donum), respectively while the results showed that the superiority of Furat cultivar giving the highest rate of height plant, spike length and number of spikes / m 2 which reached ( 105.333 cm and 17,000 cm and 805.333 spike / m 2 ), respectively. As well as my agriculture disagreed with each other in most of the studied traits where the second location (Thi- Qar) gave the highest averages for plant height and spike length and number of the forest and the number of spikes / m 2 and weight of 100 tablets and dry weight / m 2 and holds the grain reached (96.400 cm and 14,800 cm and 8.600 and 615.000 spike / m 2 and 3.725 g and 245.700 g / m 2 1889.000 kg / sq.m), respectively. With regard to the interactions between the genotypes and locations, Furat cultivar had superiority in Thi- Qar location, in which gave the highest rate of plant height and spike length which reached (113.333 cm and 20.000 cm), respectively, while the cultivar surpassed EBA 99 in Thi- Qar location, giving the highest rate of Leaf area reached (76.633 cm 2) while the interactions between genotype IR1069 in Thi- Qar location, the highest average of 100 seed weight reached (5.020 g). Keywords: Performance evaluation , genotypes , fine wheat, agricultural locations

Studi Eksperimental Efek Peletakkan Sudu Advancing pada Bangunan pada Jarak G/D=1,335 Terhadap Kinerja Turbin Angin

Petumbuhan jumlah penduduk di daerah perkotaan serta ketersedian sumber daya alam yang terbatas mengharuskan manusia untuk beralih ke penggunaaan energi terbarukan untuk menghasilkan listrik. Turbin angin Savonius merupakan pilihan terbaik untuk memanen energi angin di daerah perkotaan. Turbin tersebut dapat di instalasi pada bangunan perkotaan untuk memanfaatkan angin yang bebas hambatan. Prinsip kerja dari turbin Savonius adalah adanya selisih torsi pada sudu advancing dan sudu returning akibat perbedaan nilai gaya drag. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan turbin angin Savonius berdiamter 303,4 mm dengan aspect ratio (H/L) = 1, jarak sudu advancing ke dinding bangunan terhadap diameter sudu turbin (G/D) sebesar 1,335, dan variasi kecepatan angin bernilai 4 sampai dengan 9 (m/s). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dengan meletakkan sudu advancing di dekat dinding bangunan efektif meningkatkan performa turbin pada kecepatan angin 4, 5 dan 6 m/s. Nilai Coefficient of Power (CoP) tertinggi diperoleh pada kecepatan angin 5 m/s sebesar 0,0897 pada tip speed ratio (λ) sebesar 0,714. Sedangkan peningkatan nilai coefficient of power maximum tertinggi pada kecepatan angin (U) 4 m/s yaitu sebesar 53,44% dengan nilai 0,0692 pada tip speed ratio (λ) 0,710 dan diperoleh peningkatan nilai coefficient of Moment (CM) maksimum pada kecepatan 4 m/s sebesar 34,11%. Peletakkan sudu advancing pada jarak G/D=1,335 mampu meningkatkan nilai Coefficient of Static Torque (CTS) negatif pada sudut 1000-1700 saat kecepatan angin 4, 5, 6, 8 dan 9 m/s

Effects of Organizational Cultural Changes in Organizational Development, Case Study on Od Practitioners/Consultants

This qualitative study examine organizational development (OD) consultants point of view regarding Organizational culture change and organizational performance. Investigation based on this main question: How organizational cultural changes can affect the performance of organizations? The main objective of this study is to critically evaluate the strategies of organizational development regarding cultural change. Study reveals that organizational performance is related with organizational culture change. The study finds that people behaviors in organizations, environment of organization and process of change can play a vital role in culture change process. Keywords: Organizational development; Organizational Culture; Performance; Consultants.

Factors associated with adherence to medication among depressed patients from Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Background: Several studies have investigated the factors associated with adherence to antidepressants, with inconsistent conclusions. However, no similar study has investigated this issue among patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study is to explore patients’ adherence to antidepressant medications, and the factors associated with adherence. Methods: A non-experimental cross-sectional design was used to measure adherence to antidepressants among major depressive disorder patients, and the factors associated with adherence. The patients were recruited from the outpatient clinic at the Al-Amal Complex for Mental Health in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between August 2013 and January 2014. Eligible participants met with one of the research coordinators for assessment of their adherence. Adherence was investigated indirectly by use of the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, and patients’ beliefs were assessed through the Beliefs about Medicine Questionnaire. Information about the severity of their depression, demographics, and other study variables were collected. Results: A total of 403 patients met the inclusion criteria and participated in the study. Of those, 203 (50.37%) were females, while the remaining 200 (49.6%) were males. There was an average age of 39 years (standard deviation, ±11 years). Half of the patients (52.9%) reported low adherence to their antidepressant medication, with statistically significant differences between the low adherence and high adherence scores relating to sex, age, and duration of illness. Conclusion: Low medication adherence is a common problem among major depressive disorder patients in Saudi Arabia. Medication-taking behavior among depressed patients is influenced by several factors, mainly patients’ beliefs regarding antidepressants. This study has improved the understanding of the factors associated with adherence to antidepressants

A corpus-based analysis of the discursive construction of gender identities via abusive language

This thesis investigates the discursive construction of gender identities through the use of abusive language in YouTube comments sections. The study attempts to answer the following overarching research question: How is abusive language used in the construction of gendered identities by Arabic-speaking posters on YouTube? A corpus of more than 2 million words of YouTube comments is constructed to study discourses involving terms of abuse and abusive swearing targeted at males and females. These discourses are analysed by utilising a combination of tools. Target descriptors and activation/passivation are used to examine the roles constructed for men and for women. Differential usage of abusive language is investigated by looking at the (non)existence of corresponding masculine and feminine terms of abuse, the behaviour of gendered terms of abuse in different domains, and contrastive collocation of masculine/feminine-marked words. The pragmatic functions of abusive language are studied by examining cultural scripts of abusive language against men and women. The main method used in this thesis is a qualitative analysis of concordance lines where the terms of abuse occur. However, frequency analysis is also employed, to produce a wordlist of masculine- and feminine-marked terms of abuse and to compare the frequencies of terms of abuse in my corpus. The results show that men and women are represented as having different identities. Men are mainly constructed as the social actors who have and abuse power (especially in relation to politics and religion). On the other hand, sexual morality is discursively constructed as the most integral component of female gender identity

A Study Of Structure Breaks In Amman Stocks Market By Using Wavelet Transform.

Regime shifts or structure breaks acquire very high attention in analyzing financial time series data

Determination and characterization of metronidazole–kaolin interaction

AbstractThe needs for safe, therapeutically effective antidiarrheal combination continuously lead to effective treatment. When administered simultaneously, metronidazole–kaolin interactions have been reported by FDA but not studied. This paper is the first to study metronidazole–kaolin interactions. Adsorption isotherms of a metronidazole–kaolin antidiarrheal combination from aqueous solutions at an in vivo simulated pH conditions were obtained at 37±0.5°C. Langmuir constants for the adsorption are 10.8225, 41.3223mgg−1 and 11.60, 2.56lg−1 aimed at the monolayer capacity, and the equilibrium constant at pH 1.2 and 6.8, respectively. pH effect on adsorption of known concentration of metronidazole by kaolin was also studied over the range 1.2–8. A gradual increase in the adsorbed amount was noted with increasing the pH. Elution studies by different eluents showed that drug recovery from adsorbent surface was pH-dependent via competitive mechanism. The elution followed the sequence: 0.1M HCl>0.1M NaCl>H2O. Adsorption–desorption studies revealed physical adsorption. The equilibrium concentration of metronidazole decreased as the adsorbent concentration was increased in the systems.The dissolution profiles (USP) of commercially available tablets (Riazole® 500mg) were obtained alone and in the presence of either (ORS®) rehydration salts and 9 or 18g of kaolin powder. The percentage drug released versus time: 95.01% in 25min, 101.02% in 30min, 67.63% in 60min, 60.59% in 60min, respectively.The percentage drug released versus time was increased with ORS® due to common ion effect [Cl−], while, it was decreased with kaolin due to adsorption. The mechanism of reaction of Riazole® (500mg) tablets in the different dissolution media, confirms with Korsmeyer–Peppas model.The interaction between metronidazole and kaolin was characterized by melting point determinations, differential scanning calorimetry analysis and infrared spectroscopy. The results obtained were suggestive of physical interaction between metronidazole and kaolin

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.Qatar National Research Fund through the National Priority Research Program (NPRP) No. 09-864-1-128Scopu