Model-based Persian calligraphy synthesis via learning to transfer templates to personal styles

International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR) - Current software tools for computer generation of Persian calligraphy can be mostly described as conventional fonts and...     

Simvastatin Therapy Reduces Prooxidant-Antioxidant Balance: Results of a Placebo-Controlled Cross-Over Trial

Oxidative stress is thought to play an important role in atherogenesis. The statin group of cholesterol-lowering drugs have been shown to reduce cardiovascular events and possess antioxidant properties. We aimed to assess the effects of simvastatin on a novel measure of prooxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) in dyslipidemic patients. The PAB assay can measure the prooxidant burden and the antioxidant capacity simultaneously in one assay, thereby giving a redox index. We treated 102 dyslipidemic individuals with simvastatin, or a placebo in a double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial. PAB values were measured before and after each treatment period. Seventy-seven subjects completed the study. We found that statin therapy was associated with a significant reduction in PAB values (P < 0.001). This effect appeared to be independent of the cholesterol-lowering effects of statins. We conclude that serum PAB values are decreased by simvastatin therapy. Regarding previous reports on the elevation of PAB in conditions associated with oxidative stress, the PAB assay, along with other markers of oxidative stress, may be applied to estimate the extent of oxidative stress in patients, assessment of the antioxidative efficacy of medication such as statins and perhaps also for the identification of those individuals who need antioxidant therapy.     

Using orthogonal pairs of rollers on concave beds (OPRCB) as a base isolation system—part II: application to multi‐story and tall buildings

Application of orthogonal pairs of rollers on concave beds (OPRCB) isolating system to short‐ and mid‐rise buildings is presented in this paper. At first, the analytical formulation of the set of equations, governing the motion of Multi Degree of Freedom (MDOF) systems, isolated by OPRCB isolators, has been developed. Then, some multi‐story regular buildings of shear type have been considered, once on fixed bases and once installed on the OPRCB isolators. Next, some horizontal and vertical accelerograms of both far‐ and near‐fault earthquakes with low‐ to high‐frequency content, particularly those with remarkable peak ground displacement values, have been selected and normalized to three peak ground acceleration levels of 0.15 g, 0.35 g and 0.7 g, and their stronger horizontal component simultaneous with their vertical component have been used for response analysis of the considered buildings. Story drifts and absolute acceleration response histories of isolated buildings have been calculated by using a program, developed in MATLAB environment by using the fourth‐order Runge–Kutta method, considering the geometrically nonlinear behavior of isolators. Maximum relative displacement and story drifts as well as absolute acceleration responses of considered isolated buildings for various earthquakes have been compared with those of corresponding fixed‐base buildings to show the high efficiency of using OPRCB isolators in multi‐story and tall regular buildings. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simple linear profiles monitoring in the presence of within profile autocorrelation

Quality of some processes or products can be characterized effectively by a function referred to as profile. Many studies have been done by researchers on the monitoring of simple linear profiles when the observations within each profile are uncorrelated. However, due to spatial autocorrelation or time collapse, this assumption is violated and leads to poor performance of the proposed control charts. In this paper, we consider a simple linear profile and assume that there is a first order autoregressive model between observations in each profile. Here, we specifically focus on phase II monitoring of simple linear regression. The effect of autocorrelation within the profiles is investigated on the estimate of regression parameters as well as the performance of control charts when the autocorrelation is overlooked. In addition, as a remedial measure, transformation of Y-values is used to eliminate the effect of autocorrelation. Four methods are discussed to monitor simple linear profiles and their performances are evaluated using average run length criterion. Finally, a case study in agriculture field is investigated.