KHATT: An open Arabic offline handwritten text database

A comprehensive Arabic handwritten text database is an essential resource for Arabic handwritten text recognition research. This is especially true due to the lack of such database for Arabic handwritten text. In this paper, we report our comprehensive Arabic offline Handwritten Text database (KHATT) consisting of 1000 handwritten forms written by 1000 distinct writers from different countries. The forms were scanned at 200, 300, and 600 dpi resolutions. The database contains 2000 randomly selected paragraphs from 46 sources, 2000 minimal text paragraph covering all the shapes of Arabic characters, and optionally written paragraphs on open subjects. The 2000 random text paragraphs consist of 9327 lines. The database forms were randomly divided into 70%, 15%, and 15% sets for training, testing, and verification, respectively. This enables researchers to use the database and compare their results. A formal verification procedure is implemented to align the handwritten text with its ground truth at the form, paragraph and line levels. The verified ground truth database contains meta-data describing the written text at the page, paragraph, and line levels in text and XML formats. Tools to extract paragraphs from pages and segment paragraphs into lines are developed. In addition we are presenting our experimental results on the database using two classifiers, viz. Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and our novel syntactic classifier.     

Thermodynamics of ionic-association in aqueous solutions of Ca and Mg organic salts using ion-selective electrode technique—II. benzoate, o-toloate, o-chlorobenzoate and salycylate

The stoichiometric association constants, K, the thermodynamic association constant, K_A, and the other thermodynamic parameters such as ΔS°, ΔH° and ΔG° for the association between each of the Ca and Mg ions with benzoate, o-toloate, o-chlorobenzoate and salycylate have been determined at 25°C, 35°C and 45°C in aqueous media. Ion-selective electrode technique has been used in the measurements of Ca and Mg ion activitiesThe trend of association behavior of both Ca and Mg aromatic salts could not be explained on the basis of pK_a of the mother organic acids but could be explained based on the trend of Hammet function σ of these salts themselves relative to the corresponding benzoate salt.     

Coupled common fixed point theorems for a pair of commuting mappings in partially ordered complete metric spaces

The purpose of this paper is to establish a coupled coincidence point for a pair of commuting mappings in partially ordered complete metric spaces. We also present a result on the existence and uniqueness of coupled common fixed points. An example is given to support the usability of our results.     

Recognition of Arabic (Indian) bank check digits using log-gabor filters

In this paper we present a technique for the automatic recognition of Arabic (Indian) bank check digits based on features extracted by using the Log Gabor filters. The digits are classified by using the K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN), Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifiers. An extensive experimentation is conducted on the CENPARMI data, a database consisting of 7390 samples of Arabic (Indian) digits for training and 3035 samples for testing extracted from real bank checks. The data is normalized to a height of 64 pixels, maintaining the aspect ratio. Log Gabor filters with several scales and orientations are used. In addition, the filtered images are segmented into different region sizes for feature extraction. Recognition rates of 98.95%, 98.75%, 98.62%, 97.21% and 94.43% are achieved with SVM, 1-NN, 3-NN, HMM and NM classifiers, respectively. These results significantly outperform published work using the same database. The misclassified digits are evaluated subjectively and results indicate that human subjects misclassified 1/3 of these digits. The experimental results, including the subjective evaluation of misclassified digits, indicate the effectiveness of the selected Log Gabor filters parameters, the implemented image segmentation technique, and extracted features for practical recognition of Arabic (Indian) digits.     

Comparative lyophilized platelet-rich plasma wafer and powder for wound-healing enhancement: formulation,in vitro and in vivo studies

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) accelerates wound healing, as it is an excellent source of growth factors. PRP was separated from whole human blood by centrifugation. PRP powder and wafers were prepared by lyophilization, with the wafers prepared using sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na CMC). The PRP wafers showed porous structures, as indicated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, and the ability of the wafer to absorb exudates and thus promote wound healing was tested with the hydration capacity test. The platelet count was tested and indicated that the presence of PRP in the wafers had no effect on the platelet count. An antimicrobial activity test was carried out, showing that PRP had antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Compared with lyophilized PRP powder and PRP-free wafers, PRP wafers showed the highest percent of wound size reduction on induced wounds in rats. Histopathological examination of rat skin showed that the PRP wafers achieved the shortest healing time, followed by the lyophilized PRP powder and finally the PRP-free wafers. The present study revealed that PRP can be formulated as a wafer, which is a promising pharmaceutical delivery system that can be used for enhanced wound-healing activity and improved the ease of application compared to lyophilized PRP powder.     

Ordering Cost Depletion in Inventory Policy with Imperfect Products and Backorder Rebate

This study presents an inventory model for imperfect products with depletion in ordering costs and constant lead time where the price discount in the backorder is permitted. The imperfect products are refused or modified or if they reached to the customer, returned and thus some extra costs are experienced. Lately some of the researchers explicitly present on the significant association between size of lot and quality imperfection. In practical situations, the unsatisfied demands increase the period of lead time and decrease the backorders. To control customers' problems and losses, the supplier provides a price discount in backorders during shortages. Also, an order’s policies may result in including some imperfect products in arrival lots. A discount on price may be offered by the supplier on the out-of-stock products to manage the backorder problems. The study aims to develop a model with imperfect products by permitting the price discount in backorders, and the cost of ordering is considered a decision variable. First, it is assumed that the demand for lead time is followed by a normal distribution and then stops it and assumed that the first two moments of demand for lead time are known. Further, the minimax distribution method is used to solve this model, and a separate algorithm is designed. In this study, two models are discussed with and without a normally distributed rate of demand. The current study verified with the help of some numerical examples over various model parameters.     

Energy-efficient and delay-aware mobile cloud offloading over cellular networks

Telecommunication Systems - The latest mobile applications, such as GPS, games, virus scanning, and face detection and recognition, are compute-intensive applications consuming a lot of energy when...     

Loss of alpha-v integrin expression and recurrence in node-negative lung carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Despite "curative" resection, metastases develop in many patients with node-negative (N0) non-small cell lung carcinoma. Alternative biologic markers for this tumor would be useful. Integrins are cell adhesion molecules that are thought to be important in tumor progression, and expression of these molecules previously has been shown to be altered in non-small cell lung carcinoma. We evaluated alterations in integrin expression and clinical outcome. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of tumor specimens was performed, and clinical data were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Data were complete for 42 patients. Half of all patients (21/42) and 9 of 26 patients with negative nodes experienced tumor recurrence during follow-up. Neither histologic type nor tumor differentiation status correlated with recurrence. However, loss of the alpha v integrin subunit was associated significantly with recurrence in the N0 group. Seventy-five percent of patients with negative nodes who exhibited recurrence lost alpha v expression, compared with only 10% of patients with negative nodes who did not exhibit recurrence (p = 0.012). Alterations of other integrin subunits did not correlate significantly with prognostic follow-up variables. CONCLUSIONS: Loss of alpha v expression may serve as a marker for patients with node-negative non-small cell lung carcinoma who are at high risk for recurrence, potentially directing additional therapies.