Mixed-Language Arabic- English Information Retrieval

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis attempts to address the problem of mixed querying in CLIR. It proposes mixed-language (language-aware) approaches in which mixed queries are used to retrieve most relevant documents, regardless of their languages. To achieve this goal, however, it is essential firstly to suppress the impact of most problems that are caused by the mixed-language feature in both queries and documents and which result in biasing the final ranked list. Therefore, a cross-lingual re-weighting model was developed. In this cross-lingual model, term frequency, document frequency and document length components in mixed queries are estimated and adjusted, regardless of languages, while at the same time the model considers the unique mixed-language features in queries and documents, such as co-occurring terms in two different languages. Furthermore, in mixed queries, non-technical terms (mostly those in non-English language) would likely overweight and skew the impact of those technical terms (mostly those in English) due to high document frequencies (and thus low weights) of the latter terms in their corresponding collection (mostly the English collection). Such phenomenon is caused by the dominance of the English language in scientific domains. Accordingly, this thesis also proposes reasonable re-weighted Inverse Document Frequency (IDF) so as to moderate the effect of overweighted terms in mixed queries

Effects of different amounts of water and irrigation intervals on growth and grain yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L) under New Hamdab conditions

    حساب الاحتياج المائي يعتبر احد مفاتيح القياسات المهمة لجدولة الري خاصة في المناطق ذات مصادر المياه المحدودة. اجريت هذه الدراسة بالولاية الشمالية ، مشروع الحامداب الجديدة الزراعي في الفترة من 2008/09 الى 2009/10م. هدفت الدراسة الى معرفة تأثير كمية مياه الري والفترة بين الريات على النمو والانتاج ومكونات الانتاج وكفاءة استخدام المياه. تمت زراعة القمح صنف وادى النيل مع كميات ري مختلفة و هي  5 و 6 و7 ملم/ يوم وفترات ري 7    و 10 و 14 يوم. صممت التجربة بنظام القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة (RCBD) و بأربعة مكررات. تم أخذ  طول النبات وعدد الحبوب في السنبلة و وزن الالف حبة وانتاج الحبوب و الناتج الحيوي ومخلفات الانتاج. اوضحت النتائج ان هناك فروق معنوية عالية جدا على كل الصفات المدروسة ماعدا وزن الالف حبة. بصورة عامة الري 7ملم /يوم وكل 7 ايام والري 7 ملم/يوم وكل 10 ايام  اعطيا اعلى قيم لكل الصفات المدروسة . الري كل 14 يوم اعطى اقل قيم لكل الصفات المدروسة خاصة انتاج الحبوب لذلك يجب تجنبه في المناطق الجاف

Dynamic Factor Model and Artificial Neural Network Models: To Combine Forecasts or Combine Models?

In this chapter, we evaluate the forecasting performance of the model combination and forecast combination of the dynamic factor model (DFM) and the artificial neural networks (ANNs). For the model combination, the factors that are extracted from a large dataset are used as additional input to the ANN model that produces the factor-augmented artificial neural network (FAANN). Linear and nonlinear forecasts combining methods are used to combine the DFM and the ANN forecasts. The results of the best combining method are compared to the forecasts result of the FAANN model. The models are applied to forecast three time series variables using large South African monthly data. The out-of-sample root-mean-square error (RMSE) results show that the FAANN model yields substantial improvement over the individual and best combined forecasts from the DFM and ANN forecasting models and the autoregressive AR benchmark model. Further, the Diebold-Mariano test results also confirm the superiority of the FAANN model forecast’s performance over the AR benchmark model and the combined forecasts

Implementation of an Automated Vacuum Elevator System

في السنوات الأخيرة أصبح مَصعَد الفراغ الهوائي هو خِياراً شائعاً في بيوتِنا والبنايات المنخفظة. يمثّل مَصعَد الفراغ الهوائي مَفهوم جَديد مُطوّر عن فِكرة استبدال الهواء المضغوط بالهواء المُفرّغ. إنّ مَصعَد الفراغ الهوائي قادر على نقل الأشخاص بين طوابق بناية بدون إستعمال لأيّ أحبال، أو أوزان، أو بكرات. في البحث الحالي تَمّ تركيب وتنفيذ نموذج لمنظومة مَصعَد فراغي كهرو هوائي بسيط ومُنخفض الكُلفة. نموذج نظام المصعَد يتألف من ثلاثة طوابق ويَرفع حُمولة 6 كيلوغرام. تَمّ تَوظيف المُسيطر المنطِقي القابل للبرمجة (PLC)، من سلسلة (LS\GLOFA-G7M-DR30U) ذو (16) مَدخل و(12) مَخرج ومُبرمج ببرامج المُخطط السُلمّي (Ladder)، للسيطرة المُؤتّمَتة الكامِلة على مَنظُومة المَصعَد. مِن المتوقع أن تَنتَشر فِكرة نِظام المَصعَد المُقترح على نحو واسع في البنايات السَكّنية الواطِئة.Pneumatic vacuum elevator (PVE) has become a popular choice for our homes and low-rise buildings in recent years. The Pneumatic vacuum elevator represents a new concept evolved from the idea of pressed air applied in the pneumatic elevator replaced by a vacuum air idea. The pneumatic vacuum elevator is able to transport people between building floors without using any cables, counterweight, or pulleys. A simple and low cost construction and implementation for an Electro-pneumatic vacuum elevator system prototype is presented in this paper. The elevator system prototype is constructed with three floors to elevate a maximum load of 6kg. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) of (LS\GLOFA-G7M-DR30U) series with (16) inputs and (12) outputs programmed with Ladder diagram software is used for the fully automated the elevator system. The idea of the proposed elevator system may be predicted to be widely spread in the low-rise residential buildings

SURVEY: AUDIO READING SYSTEM FOR BLIND PERSONS

Audio Reading System is used to help blind people to read the text based on camera as input device and speaker as output device. The system used the OCR algorithm to extract the text from input image and Text-to-Speech algorithm to convert text into corresponding voice. In this paper, we review newest research of audio reading system. We discuss the hardware and software, which is used, on system for different types approach. Finally, the result of this paper that is: Raspberry pi, python and tesseract are best tools used in Audio reading system. Also the braille and finger print devices are not efficient and not easy to use

Soil bulk density and some related soil physical properties in relation to soil moisture content under New Hamdab conditions, northern Sudan

    This study was carried out during 2009/10, in New Hamdab Research Station Farm, Northern State, Sudan. Soil bulk density was determined with its corresponding soil moisture contents for depths 0-20 cm, 20-40 cm, 40-60 cm, 60-80 cm and 80-100 cm from a soil profile of 120 cm deep using the core method. Correlation between soil bulk density versus each of soil depths (D) and soil moisture contents were made, nevertheless, the bulk density related soil physical properties values in relation to moisture content were also estimated. The results indicated that soil bulk density had a significant linear positive relationship (P ≤ 0.001) with soil depth (r²=0.89), and negatively related to soil moisture content for all the tested depths(r²= 0.99, 0.98, 0.97, 0.58 and 0.98). The values of all related soil physical properties to soil bulk density increased with increasing gravimetric soil moisture content for all depths except for the air filled porosity which decreased. A calculated amount of irrigation water of 1693 m³/ha is needed to irrigate an air dry soil that contains about 5% moisture. أجريت هذه التجربة في موسم 2009/10 في مزرعة محطة بحوث الحامداب الجديدة، مشروع الحامداب الجديدة الزراعي في شمال السودان. تم تحديد الكثافة الظاهرية للتربة مع محتوي الماء عند أعماق 0- 20 سم ،20-40 سم ، 40-60 سم، 60-80 سم و 80- 100 سم من قطاع أرضى بعمق120سم مستخدمين طريقة Core method)). وقد تم إجراء اختبار لعلاقة الارتباط بين الكثافة الظاهرية للتربة و العمق، وكذلك بين الكثافة الظاهرية للتربة ومحتوي الماء. كما تم اختبار علاقة قيم خصائص التربة الفيزيائية ذات الصلة بالكثافة الظاهرية للتربة والمحتوي المائي. وقد أوضحت النتائج أن للكثافة الظاهرية للتربة علاقة معنوية ايجابية (p ≤ 0.001) مع عمق التربة (r² = 0.99)، وعلاقة معنوية عكسية مع محتوى الماء عند كل الأعماق أعلاه حيث كان معامل التحديد (Coefficient of determination) يساوى  0,99 ، 0,98، 0,97 و 0,57 على التوالي. ولذلك فمعادلات الانحدار كانت مناسبة لمنحنى الكثافة الظاهرية للتربة لكل الأعماق. كذلك ازدادت قيم كل خصائص التربة الفيزيائية ذات الصلة بالكثافة الظاهرية بزيادة محتوى الماء في التربة ماعدا مسامية هواء التربة والتي تناقصت بزيادة محتوى الماء في التربة. كما أبانت الدراسة أن كمية مياه الري المطلوبة لري هذه التربة عند درجة محتوى ماء 5% تساوى 1693 مترا مكعبا لكل هكتار وهذه الكمية التي تحتاجها هذه التربة عند الزراعة.   &nbsp

Online handwriting Arabic recognition system using k-nearest neighbors classifier and DCT features

With advances in machine learning techniques, handwriting recognition systems have gained a great deal of importance. Lately, the increasing popularity of handheld computers, digital notebooks, and smartphones give the field of online handwriting recognition more interest. In this paper, we propose an enhanced method for the recognition of Arabic handwriting words using a directions-based segmentation technique and discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients as structural features. The main contribution of this research was combining a total of 18 structural features which were extracted by DCT coefficients and using the k-nearest neighbors (KNN) classifier to classify the segmented characters based on the extracted features. A dataset is used to validate the proposed method consisting of 2500 words in total. The obtained average 99.10% accuracy in recognition of handwritten characters shows that the proposed approach, through its multiple phases, is efficient in separating, distinguishing, and classifying Arabic handwritten characters using the KNN classifier. The availability of an online dataset of Arabic handwriting words is the main issue in this field. However, the dataset used will be available for research via the website

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B virus and Hepatitis C virus among blood donors in Nyala, South Dar Fur, Sudan

The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and the possible risk factors among blood donors in Nyala, South Dar Fur State of western Sudan, which has never been studied before. A total of 400 male blood donors were tested for the detection of HBsAg and anti-HCV antibodies, (6.25%) were found reactive for HBsAg and (0.65%) were reactive for anti-HCV antibodies. The highest seroprevalence (30.8%) was found in those between 19-24 and 37-42 years for HBsAg, whereas it was (50%) in those between 31-36 years for anti-HCV antibodies. Unprotected sexual activities (20%) was the most apparent predisposing risk factor for both HBV and HCV seroreactors, followed by razor sharing (13.3%), parenteral drug injections (10%), history of migration to Egypt and alcoholism (6.6%) for each, tattooing and surgical procedures (3.3%) for each and (36.6%) were not aware for their condition. Serum alanine aminotansferase (ALT) was elevated in (30.7%) of HBV seroreactors and in (50%) of HCV seroreactors. Serum albumin was reduced in (23.1%) HBV and in (50%) HCV seroreactors. The study concluded that the seroprevalence of HBV and HCV was in an intermediate and low rates respectively and unprotected sexual activities was the major risk factor for infection in the population studied

Kernel estimation of returns of retirement funds of employers based on monetary earnings (subscriptions and compensation) via regression discontinuity in Iraq

Regression Discontinuity (RD) means a study that exposes a definite group to the effect of a treatment. The uniqueness of this design lies in classifying the study population into two groups based on a specific threshold limit or regression point, and this point is determined in advance according to the terms of the study and its requirements. Thus , thinking was focused on finding a solution to the issue of workers retirement and trying to propose a scenario to attract the idea of granting an end-of-service reward to fill the gap ( discontinuity point) if it had not been granted. The regression discontinuity method has been used to study and to estimate the effect of the end -service reward on the cutoff of insured workers as well as the increase in revenues resulting from that. The research has showed that this reward has a clear effect on increasing revenues due to the regularity of workers in their work and their work continuity . It has also found that using Local Linear Smother (LLS) by using three models of bandwidth selection. Its results after the analysis in the Regression program have been as follows: The CCT (Calonico, Cattaneo & Titiunik) beamwidth gives the best performance followed by the local linear regression using the LK (Lembens and kalyanman) beamwidth. The real data has been used in sample size 71 represented in compensation as a variable of effectiveness (illustrative) X and the revenue as a result or an approved variable Y, while the results of the traditional OLS estimation method have not been good enough