Search results for: video representation

Authors: Linna Li

Abstract:

The capability to move around places is doubtless very important for individuals to maintain good health and social functions. People’s activities in space and time have long been a research topic in behavioral and socio-economic studies, particularly focusing on the highly dynamic urban environment. By analyzing groups of people who share similar activity patterns, many socio-economic and socio-demographic problems and their relationships with individual behavior preferences can be revealed. Los Angeles, known for its large population, ethnic diversity, cultural mixing, and entertainment industry, faces great transportation challenges such as traffic congestion, parking difficulties, and long commuting. Understanding people’s travel behavior and movement patterns in this metropolis sheds light on potential solutions to complex problems regarding urban mobility. This project visualizes people’s trajectories in Greater Los Angeles (L.A.) Area over a period of two months using Twitter data. A Python script was used to collect georeferenced tweets within the Greater L.A. Area including Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. Information associated with tweets includes text, time, location, and user ID. Information associated with users includes name, the number of followers, etc. Both aggregated and individual activity patterns are demonstrated using various geovisualization techniques. Locations of individual Twitter users were aggregated to create a surface of activity hot spots at different time instants using kernel density estimation, which shows the dynamic flow of people’s movement throughout the metropolis in a twenty-four-hour cycle. In the 3D geovisualization interface, the z-axis indicates time that covers 24 hours, and the x-y plane shows the geographic space of the city. Any two points on the z axis can be selected for displaying activity density surface within a particular time period. In addition, daily trajectories of Twitter users were created using space-time paths that show the continuous movement of individuals throughout the day. When a personal trajectory is overlaid on top of ancillary layers including land use and road networks in 3D visualization, the vivid representation of a realistic view of the urban environment boosts situational awareness of the map reader. A comparison of the same individual’s paths on different days shows some regular patterns on weekdays for some Twitter users, but for some other users, their daily trajectories are more irregular and sporadic. This research makes contributions in two major areas: geovisualization of spatial footprints to understand travel behavior using the big data approach and dynamic representation of activity space in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Unlike traditional travel surveys, social media (e.g., Twitter) provides an inexpensive way of data collection on spatio-temporal footprints. The visualization techniques used in this project are also valuable for analyzing other spatio-temporal data in the exploratory stage, thus leading to informed decisions about generating and testing hypotheses for further investigation. The next step of this research is to separate users into different groups based on gender/ethnic origin and compare their daily trajectory patterns.

Keywords: geovisualization, human mobility pattern, Los Angeles, social media

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Authors: Elyas Akbari, Jafar Hasani, Newsha Dehestani, Mohammad Khaleghi, Alireza Moradi

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The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of emotional experience induction in the mirror neurons systems (MNS) activity with regard to the spectrum of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, at first stage, 449 students of Kharazmi University of Tehran were selected randomly and completed the second version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Then, 36 students with standard Z-score equal or above +1.5 and equal or equal or below -1.5 were selected to construct two groups of high and low spectrum of depressive symptoms. In the next stage, the basic activity of MNS was recorded (mu wave) before presenting the positive and negative emotional video clips by Electroencephalography (EEG) technique. The findings related to emotion induction (neutral, negative and positive emotion) demonstrated that the activity of recorded mirror neuron areas had a significant difference between the depressive and non-depressive groups. These findings suggest that probably processing of negative emotions in depressive individuals is due to the idea that the mirror neurons in motor cortex matched up the activity of cognitive regions with the person’s schema. Considering the results of the present study, it could be said that the MNS provides a substrate where emotional disorders can be studied and evaluated.

Keywords: emotional experiences, mirror neurons, depressive symptoms, negative and positive emotion

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Authors: Lu Yu Jyun

Abstract:

Background: Health education is important nursing work aiming to strengthen patients’ self-caring ability and family members. Our department educates through three methods, including speech education, flyer and demonstration video education. The satisfaction rate of health education tool use is 54.3% in nursing staff. The main reason is there hadn’t been a storage area for flyers, causing extra workload in assessing flyers. The satisfaction rate of health education in patients and families is 70.7%. We aim to improve this situation between 13th April and 6th June 2021. Method: We introduce the ECRS method to erase repetitive and redundant actions. We redesign the health education tool usage workflow to improve nursing staffs’ efficiency and further enhance nursing staffs care quality and working satisfaction. Result: The satisfaction rate of health education tool usage in nursing staff elevated from 54.3% to 92.5%. The satisfaction rate of health education in patients and families elevated from 70.7% to 90.2%. Conclusion: The assessment time of health care tools dropped from 10minutes to 3minutes. This significantly reduced the nursing staffs’ workload. 1213 paper is saved in one month and 14,556 a year in the estimate; we save the environment via this action. Health education map implemented in other nursing departments since October due to its’ high efficiency and makes health care tools more humanize.

Keywords: health, education tools, satisfaction, nursing staff

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Authors: Yusra Abdulsalam Alqamati, Ahmed Alkilany

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The teaching staff is a distinct group whose impact is on the educational process and which plays an important role in enhancing the quality of the academic education process. To improve the management effectiveness of the academy, the Teaching Staff Management System (TSMS) proposes that all teacher processes be digitized. Since the BPMN approach can accurately describe the processes, it lacks a clear picture of the process flow map, something that the process mining approach has, which is extracting information from event logs for discovery, monitoring, and model enhancement. Therefore, these two methodologies were combined to create the most accurate representation of system operations, the ability to extract data records and mining processes, recreate them in the form of a Petri net, and then generate them in a BPMN model for a more in-depth view of process flow. Additionally, the TSMS processes will be orchestrated to handle all requests in a guaranteed small-time manner thanks to the integration of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), the BPM engine, and allowing business owners to take part throughout the entire TSMS project development lifecycle.

Keywords: process mining, BPM, business process model and notation, Petri net, teaching staff, Google Cloud Platform

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Authors: Y. Fekir, K. Mederbal, M. A. Hamadouche, D. Anteur

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The soil erosion by water has become one of the biggest problems of the environment in the world, threatening the majority of countries. There are several models to evaluate erosion. These models are still a simplified representation of reality. They permit the analysis of complex systems, measurements are complementary to allow an extrapolation in time and space and may combine different factors. The empirical model of soil loss proposed by Wischmeier and Smith (Universal Soil Loss Equation), is widely used in many countries. He considers that erosion is a multiplicative function of five factors: rainfall erosivity (the R factor) the soil erodibility factor (K), topography (LS), the erosion control practices (P) and vegetation cover and agricultural practices (C). In this work, we tried to develop a tool based on Web GIS functionality to evaluate soil losses caused by erosion taking into account five factors. This tool allows the user to integrate all the data needed for the evaluation (DEM, Land use, rainfall ...) in the form of digital layers to calculate the five factors taken into account in the USLE equation (R, K, C, P, LS). Accordingly, and after treatment of the integrated data set, a map of the soil losses will be achieved as a result. We tested the proposed tool on a watershed basin located in the weste of Algeria where a dataset was collected and prepared.

Keywords: USLE, erosion, web gis, Algeria

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Authors: Yao-Ying Lai, Maria Pinango, Ashwini Deo

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While grammatical devices are essential to language processing, how comprehension utilizes cognitive mechanisms is less emphasized. This study addresses this issue by probing the complement coercion phenomenon: an entity-denoting complement following verbs like begin and finish receives an eventive interpretation. For example, (1) “The queen began the book” receives an agentive reading like (2) “The queen began [reading/writing/etc.…] the book.” Such sentences engender additional processing cost in real-time comprehension. The traditional account attributes this cost to an operation that coerces the entity-denoting complement to an event, assuming that these verbs require eventive complements. However, in closer examination, examples like “Chapter 1 began the book” undermine this assumption. An alternative, Structured Individual (SI) hypothesis, proposes that the complement following aspectual verbs (AspV; e.g. begin, finish) is conceptualized as a structured individual, construed as an axis along various dimensions (e.g. spatial, eventive, temporal, informational). The composition of an animate subject and an AspV such as (1) engenders an ambiguity between an agentive reading along the eventive dimension like (2), and a constitutive reading along the informational/spatial dimension like (3) “[The story of the queen] began the book,” in which the subject is interpreted as a subpart of the complement denotation. Comprehenders need to resolve the ambiguity by searching contextual information, resulting in additional cost. To evaluate the SI hypothesis, a questionnaire was employed. Method: Target AspV sentences such as “Shakespeare began the volume.” were preceded by one of the following types of context sentence: (A) Agentive-biasing, in which an event was mentioned (…writers often read…), (C) Constitutive-biasing, in which a constitutive meaning was hinted (Larry owns collections of Renaissance literature.), (N) Neutral context, which allowed both interpretations. Thirty-nine native speakers of English were asked to (i) rate each context-target sentence pair from a 1~5 scale (5=fully understandable), and (ii) choose possible interpretations for the target sentence given the context. The SI hypothesis predicts that comprehension is harder for the Neutral condition, as compared to the biasing conditions because no contextual information is provided to resolve an ambiguity. Also, comprehenders should obtain the specific interpretation corresponding to the context type. Results: (A) Agentive-biasing and (C) Constitutive-biasing were rated higher than (N) Neutral conditions (p< .001), while all conditions were within the acceptable range (> 3.5 on the 1~5 scale). This suggests that when lacking relevant contextual information, semantic ambiguity decreases comprehensibility. The interpretation task shows that the participants selected the biased agentive/constitutive reading for condition (A) and (C) respectively. For the Neutral condition, the agentive and constitutive readings were chosen equally often. Conclusion: These findings support the SI hypothesis: the meaning of AspV sentences is conceptualized as a parthood relation involving structured individuals. We argue that semantic representation makes reference to spatial structured-ness (abstracted axis). To obtain an appropriate interpretation, comprehenders utilize contextual information to enrich the conceptual representation of the sentence in question. This study connects semantic structure to human’s conceptual structure, and provides a processing model that incorporates contextual retrieval.

Keywords: ambiguity resolution, contextual retrieval, spatial structured-ness, structured individual

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Authors: Pimploi Tirastittam, Sawanath Treesathon, Amornrath Ongkawat

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Learning Management System (LMS) is the system which uses to manage the learning in order to grouping the content and learning activity between the lecturer and learner including online examination and evaluation. Nowadays, it is the borderless learning era so the learning activities can be accessed from everywhere in the world and also anytime via the information technology and media. The learner can easily access to the knowledge so the different in time and distance is not a constraint for learning anymore. The learning pattern which was used in this research is the integration of the in-class learning and online learning via internet and will be able to monitor the progress by the Learning management system which will create the fast response and accessible learning process via the social media. In order to increase the capability and freedom of the learner, the system can show the current and history of the learning document, video conference and also has the chat room for the learner and lecturer to interact to each other. So the objectives of the “The Design and Applied of Learning Management System via Social Media on Internet: Case Study of Operating System for Business Subject” are to expand the opportunity of learning and to increase the efficiency of learning as well as increase the communication channel between lecturer and student. The data of this research was collect from 30 users of the system which are students who enroll in the subject. And the result of the research is in the “Very Good” which is conformed to the hypothesis.

Keywords: Learning Management System, social media, Operating System, information technology

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Authors: Wajid Hussain

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The paper draws upon the study of socioeconomic reality as associated with discursively manipulative strategies in the representative fictional works from the South Asian Indian and the Afro-American literature. The study determines the context to which power functions behind the discourse of the powerful social groups, investigates how the socially established identities, such as constituted by caste and race, serve the vested interests of these elites, and, finally, ascertains the reaction which this socioeconomic monopoly of the few incurs from the socioeconomically dominated majority of the society. The study examines this notion in the selected fictional works by applying the methodological theory of Dialectical Materialism, which is the philosophical foundation of Marxism, and the concept of Discourse and Manipulation, a perspective form of Critical Discourse Analysis. The study adds a new dimension to the existing literature in that it not only focuses on the tussle between the social classes as based on the socioeconomic disparity but also traces out the emergence of the individuals from the socioeconomically victimized groups. Besides, it studies this endless socioeconomic process, as based on class distinction, from the perspective of discourse as well.

Keywords: dialectical materialism, discourse and manipulation, caste, race

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Authors: Elvin Karaaslan Klose

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In the field of Visual Culture, Art Education students are given the opportunity to discuss topics of interest that are closer to their own social life and media consumption habits. In contrast to the established corpus of literature and sources about Art History, educators are challenged to find topics and examples from Popular Culture and Contemporary Art that provide familiarity, depth and inspiration for students’ future practice, both as educators as well as artists. In order to establish a welcoming and fruitful discussion environment at the beginning of an introductory Visual Culture Education course with fourth year Art Education students, the class watched and subsequently discussed the movie “Vantage Point”. Using the descriptive method and content analysis; video recordings, discussion transcripts and learning diaries were summarized to highlight students’ critical points of view towards commonly experienced but rarely reflected on topics of Popular and Visual Culture. As an introduction into more theory-based forms of discussion, watching and intensely discussing a movie has proven useful by proving a combination of a familiar media type with an unfamiliar educational context. Resulting areas of interest have served as a starting point for later research, discussion and artistic production in the scope of an introductory Visual Culture Education course.

Keywords: visual culture, critical pedagogy, media literacy, art education

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Authors: Aragorn Joaquin Pineda Dela Cruz

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Road traffic congestion is continually deteriorating in Hong Kong. The largest contributing factor is the increase in vehicle fleet size, resulting in higher competition over the utilisation of road space. This study proposes a project that can process closed-circuit television images and videos to provide real-time traffic detection and prediction capabilities. Specifically, a deep-learning model involving computer vision techniques for video and image-based vehicle counting, then a separate model to detect and predict traffic congestion levels based on said data. State-of-the-art object detection models such as You Only Look Once and Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks are tested and compared on closed-circuit television data from various major roads in Hong Kong. It is then used for training in long short-term memory networks to be able to predict traffic conditions in the near future, in an effort to provide more precise and quicker overviews of current and future traffic conditions relative to current solutions such as navigation apps.

Keywords: intelligent transportation system, vehicle detection, traffic analysis, deep learning, machine learning, computer vision, traffic prediction

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Authors: Dawei Li, Cheng Liu, Yiteng Liu

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This paper introduces an embedded digital image system for Chinese space environment vertical exploration sounding rocket. In order to record the flight status of the sounding rocket as well as the payloads, an onboard embedded image processing system based on ADV212, a JPEG2000 compression chip, is designed in this paper. Since the sounding rocket is not designed to be recovered, all image data should be transmitted to the ground station before the re-entry while the downlink band used for the image transmission is only about 600 kbps. Under the same condition of compression ratio compared with other algorithm, JPEG2000 standard algorithm can achieve better image quality. So JPEG2000 image compression is applied under this condition with a limited downlink data band. This embedded image system supports lossless to 200:1 real time compression, with two cameras to monitor nose ejection and motor separation, and two cameras to monitor boom deployment. The encoder, ADV7182, receives PAL signal from the camera, then output the ITU-R BT.656 signal to ADV212. ADV7182 switches between four input video channels as the program sequence. Two SRAMs are used for Ping-pong operation and one 512 Mb SDRAM for buffering high frame-rate images. The whole image system has the characteristics of low power dissipation, low cost, small size and high reliability, which is rather suitable for this sounding rocket application.

Keywords: ADV212, image system, JPEG2000, sounding rocket

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Authors: Jayanth C., Anirudh Sai Yetikuri, Kavitha S. N.

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This paper explores the development and application of computer vision and machine learning techniques for real-time pose detection, facial recognition, and number plate extraction. Utilizing MediaPipe for pose estimation, the research presents methods for detecting hand raises and ducking postures through real-time video analysis. Complementarily, facial recognition is employed to compare and verify individual identities using the face recognition library. Additionally, the paper demonstrates a robust approach for extracting and storing vehicle number plates from images, integrating Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with a database management system. The study highlights the effectiveness and versatility of these technologies in practical scenarios, including security and surveillance applications. The findings underscore the potential of combining computer vision techniques to address diverse challenges and enhance automated systems for both individual and vehicular identification. This research contributes to the fields of computer vision and machine learning by providing scalable solutions and demonstrating their applicability in real-world contexts.

Keywords: computer vision, pose detection, facial recognition, number plate extraction, machine learning, real-time analysis, OCR, database management

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Authors: Yueming Li

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This paper analyzes Lou Ye’s Summer Palace (2006), an autobiographical film of the Sixth Generation of Directors in Mainland China, from the approaches of inter-textual analysis and intellectual history. It highlights the film’s reconstruction of the June 4th Incident as an intermediary device for the revival and haunting of the 1980s’ New Enlightenment Movement. The paper demonstrates how the June 4th Incident unfolds as historical trauma and collective experience of the Generation through Lou’s flickering narrative in both plot organization and visual representation, under an individualized and internal viewpoint. It further proposes that these revenants of the June 4th Incident translate into “realms of memory,” which lend themselves for biographical and historical reconstruction of the June 4th Incident based on a politics of embodiment. Through this, Lou and his contemporaries acquire agency to actively respond to the June 4th Incident as an “intimate revolt.” In this sense, the film revisits the New Enlightenment Movement in that they similarly construct rebellious connotations in a seemingly depoliticized manner. As the paper examines how an autobiographical film reconstructs, revisits, and responds to a historical event and its absence, it answers how individuals’ agency intertwines with and counteracts their historical living contexts.

Keywords: new enlightenment movement, summer palace, the June 4th incident, the sixth generation of directors

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Authors: Ahmed Fawzy, Khaled Ayad, Gh. M. Koura, W. Reda

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The knee joint complex is one of the most commonly injured areas of the body in athletes. Excessive frontal plane knee excursion is considered a risk factor for multiple knee pathologies such as anterior cruciate ligament and patellofemoral joint injuries, however, little is known about the biomechanical factors that contribute to this loading pattern. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a relationship between hip abductors isometric strength and the value of FPPA during single leg landing tasks in normal male subjects. Methods: One hundred (male) subjects free from lower extremity injuries for at least six months ago participated in this study. Their mean age was (23.25 ± 2.88) years, mean weight was (74.76 ± 13.54) (Kg), mean height was (174.23 ± 6.56) (Cm). The knee frontal plane projection angle was measured by digital video camera using single leg landing task. Hip abductors isometric strength were assessed by portable hand-held dynamometer. Muscle strength had been normalized to the body weight to obtain more accurate measurements. Results: The results demonstrated that there was no significant relationship between hip abductors isometric strength and the value of FPPA during single leg landing tasks in normal male subjects. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is no relationship between hip abductors isometric strength and the value of FPPA during functional activities in normal male subjects.

Keywords: 2-dimensional motion analysis, hip strength, kinematics, knee injuries

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Authors: Yun-Tao Zhang, Jong-Yeop Bae, Whoi-Yul Kim

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Background modeling and subtraction in video analysis has been widely proved to be an effective method for moving objects detection in many computer vision applications. Over the past years, a large number of approaches have been developed to tackle different types of challenges in this field. However, the dynamic background and illumination variations are two of the most frequently occurring issues in the practical situation. This paper presents a new two-layer model based on codebook algorithm incorporated with local binary pattern (LBP) texture measure, targeted for handling dynamic background and illumination variation problems. More specifically, the first layer is designed by block-based codebook combining with LBP histogram and mean values of RGB color channels. Because of the invariance of the LBP features with respect to monotonic gray-scale changes, this layer can produce block-wise detection results with considerable tolerance of illumination variations. The pixel-based codebook is employed to reinforce the precision from the outputs of the first layer which is to eliminate false positives further. As a result, the proposed approach can greatly promote the accuracy under the circumstances of dynamic background and illumination changes. Experimental results on several popular background subtraction datasets demonstrate a very competitive performance compared to previous models.

Keywords: background subtraction, codebook model, local binary pattern, dynamic background, illumination change

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Authors: Thusitha Mabotuwana, Christopher S. Hall

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Radiologists routinely make follow-up imaging recommendations, usually based on established clinical practice guidelines, such as the Fleischner Society guidelines for managing lung nodules. In order to ensure optimal care, it is important to make guideline-compliant recommendations, and also for patients to follow-up on these imaging recommendations in a timely manner. However, determining such compliance rates after a specific finding has been observed usually requires many time-consuming manual steps. To address some of these limitations with current approaches, in this paper we discuss a methodology to automatically detect finding-specific follow-up recommendations from radiology reports and create a visualization for relevant subsequent exams showing the modality transitions. Nearly 5% of patients who had a lung related follow-up recommendation continued to have at least eight subsequent outpatient CT exams during a seven year period following the recommendation. Radiologist and section chiefs can use the proposed tool to better understand how a specific patient population is being managed, identify possible deviations from established guideline recommendations and have a patient-specific graphical representation of the imaging pathways for an abstract view of the overall treatment path thus far.

Keywords: follow-up recommendations, follow-up tracking, care pathways, imaging pathway visualization

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Authors: Harish Aryal, Thalia Balderas, Alondra Rodriguez

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Radioactivity present in nature possess a major challenge to public health and occupational concerns. Even at low doses, NORM can cause radiation-induced cancers, heritable diseases, genetic defects, etc. There have not been enough radiological studies and consequently, there is a lack of supportive data. In addition, there is no universal medical surveillance program for low-level doses and there is a need for NORM management guidelines for appropriate control. Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) is present everywhere during oil/gas exploration. Currently, there is limited data available to quantify radioactivity. This research presents the study of radioactivity in different areas in the United States to be encouraged to be used for further study in Texas or similar areas within the oil and gas industry. Many materials that are found in the oil and gas industry are NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials). The NORM is made of various types of materials, including Radium 226, Radium 228, and Radon 222. Efforts to characterize the geographic distribution of NORM have been limited by poor statistical representation in this area of study. In addition, the fate of NORM in the environment has not been fully defined, and few human health risk assessments have been conducted. To further comprehend how to measure radioactivity in oil and gas, it will be essential to understand the amount and type of radioactivity that is wasted on the water and soil of the industry.

Keywords: NORM, radium 226, radon 222, radionuclides, geological formations

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Authors: Arian Hosseini, Mahmudul Hasan

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To address the increasing need for efficient and accurate content moderation, we propose an efficient and lightweight deep classification ensemble structure. Our approach is based on a combination of simple visual features, designed for high-accuracy classification of violent content with low false positives. Our ensemble architecture utilizes a set of lightweight models with narrowed-down color features, and we apply it to both images and videos. We evaluated our approach using a large dataset of explosion and blast contents and compared its performance to popular deep learning models such as ResNet-50. Our evaluation results demonstrate significant improvements in prediction accuracy, while benefiting from 7.64x faster inference and lower computation cost. While our approach is tailored to explosion detection, it can be applied to other similar content moderation and violence detection use cases as well. Based on our experiments, we propose a "think small, think many" philosophy in classification scenarios. We argue that transforming a single, large, monolithic deep model into a verification-based step model ensemble of multiple small, simple, and lightweight models with narrowed-down visual features can possibly lead to predictions with higher accuracy.

Keywords: deep classification, content moderation, ensemble learning, explosion detection, video processing

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Authors: Sebastian Leal-Arenas

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TikTok’s influence on contemporary society is undeniable. The impact of the mobile app transcends entertainment, as shown by the growing presence of specialized accounts dedicated to providing educational content, particularly as it pertains to language learning. However, the prevailing trend on the platform is vocabulary and grammar acquisition, neglecting a critical component: pronunciation. This study examines English pronunciation materials available on TikTok by taking a comprehensive approach that incorporates established assessment tools, such as the Learning Object Review Instrument and the Framework for Language Learning App Evaluation. Furthermore, novel evaluation categories are introduced to provide a more holistic assessment of these educational resources. 60 English pronunciation videos were part of the analysis. The findings reveal that these audio-visual materials present clear audio bolstered by high-quality video content and automatically generated closed captions. These three components enhance the comprehensibility of the input, making these concise videos valuable assets for language learners. Nevertheless, certain deficiencies are observed, such as the lack of emphasis on specific segments and their relationship with articulators. Improvements and refinements are discussed, as well as their potential utility within the language classroom. This study contributes to the ongoing investigation of multimedia materials used for language teaching and emphasizes the need to adapt pronunciation instruction methods to today’s technology.

Keywords: pronunciation, segments, teaching materials, technology

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Authors: Bhavna Negi

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Several studies highlight the significance of media in constructing realities around us. According to Forbes magazine the demand of televisions has increased several times in the developing nations. A recent survey reveals that 112 million Indian households have a television, with 61 percent accessing cable. The space and visibility of television has enormously grown over the last decade in Indian homes. This small box has indeed taken a large place in their daily routines. The multi channel viewing and TRPs puzzle the Indian audience. This medium creates and constructs social images and roles which form internal representation about societal functioing. According to National Council of Applied Economic Research about twenty seven percent Indian literate youth watches TV for recreation. The present study finds about the role of television and its impact on young college going women with reference to family based serials shown on television. It is interesting to see how young women perceive the popular family soaps and define norms, roles and spaces for a woman and a man. The paper further examines the subtle messages given to young women through television serials. It draws insights into the relationship between the contemporary Indian women and the images conceptualized and communicated on television.

Keywords: media, women, gender, social roles

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Authors: Mansoor Mohammed Abdu Al-Gabali

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This paper addresses the growing interest among non-Arab individuals in understanding the realities of Arab peoples and their cultures. The global media, particularly after the September 11 attacks, has contributed to negative and misrepresentative portrayals of Arabs. The paper aims to critically analyze various representations of identity, culture, and politics in the works of three contemporary Arab and Arab-American women writers. By exploring the perspectives and attitudes of these writers, the paper aims to challenge and rectify the misrepresentation created by the media and foster mutual understanding between Arab and American societies. Research Aim: The aim of this research is to examine the writings of Arab and Arab-American women in order to highlight the strengths and awareness of Arab cultures. It seeks to show how these writers create spaces for responding to the misrepresentation perpetuated by the media. The research contributes to bridging the gaps between Arab and American societies and fostering better mutual understanding. Methodology: This paper adopts a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on theoretical concepts from cultural studies. It also utilizes an inductive historical methodology to trace the works under study. The combination of these approaches allows for a comprehensive analysis of the representations of Arab peoples and cultures. Findings: The paper argues that the writings of Arab and Arab-American women demonstrate a multiplicity of perspectives and attitudes toward contemporary issues. It highlights the richness and diversity of their writing, as well as the connections they make between different periods of history and various sites of representation. The paper concludes that these writings transcend personal stories to incorporate broader national and global dialogues, emphasizing the commonalities shared by humanity and the socially contextualized issues that deserve respect. Theoretical Importance: This research holds theoretical importance in the field of cultural studies. It builds upon the works of scholars such as Jack Shaeen and Evelyn Alsultany, that have documented and critiqued the negative media representations of Arabs. By examining the writings of Arab and Arab-American women, this paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of cultural responses to media misrepresentation and the creation of spaces for mutual understanding. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: The data collection for this research involved a thorough examination and analysis of the selected works by Elmaz Abinader, Diana Abu-Jaber, and Rajaa Al-Sanea. These works were scrutinized to identify the unique ways in which they tackled contemporary issues prevalent in Arab and Arab-American societies. Through close textual analysis and the application of cultural theories, the researchers were able to discern the underlying themes and messages conveyed in the writings. Question Addressed: The primary question addressed in this research is, "How do the writings of Arab and Arab-American women respond to the misrepresentation of Arab cultures in the media?" By exploring this question, the paper aims to shed light on the strengths and awareness of Arab cultures and to promote a more comprehensive understanding between Arabs and non-Arabs. Conclusion: This research concludes that the writings of Arab and Arab-American women serve as mediators between Arab and American cultures in response to the misrepresentation created by the media. These writings go beyond personal narratives, addressing broader social and cultural issues and seeking to highlight the commonalities shared by all human beings. The paper emphasizes the need for mutual respect and understanding in order to bridge the gaps between Arab and American societies and rectify the negative images that have been perpetuated in the media.

Keywords: Arabs, films, media, negotiation

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Authors: Teng Zhang, Xuelin Zhang, Shouxiang Lu, Changhai Li

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The existence of animal groups and collective migration are common in nature, and collective behavior is attracting more and more attention of researchers. Previous results have shown that architectural design had an important effect on the process of crowd evacuation. In this paper, collective behavior of mice passing through a middle-exit or corner-exit under panic was investigated. Selfish behavior and herd behavior were easily observed in our video, which caused the congregation with high density near the exit. Triangle structure of congregation formed near the middle-exit while arch structure formed near the corner-exit. It is noteworthy that the exit located at the middle of the wall was more effective for evacuation than at the corner. Meanwhile, the escape sequence of mouse passing through the exit was investigated, and the result showed that the priority depends largely on its location in the congregation. With the level of stimulus increasing, these phenomena still exist. The frequency distributions of time intervals and the burst sizes were also analyzed in this study to explore the secret of collective behavior of mice. These results could provide evidence for the hypothesis or prediction about human behavior in crowd evacuation. However, it is not clear whether the simulated results from different species can correspond to reality or not. Broader comparison among different species about this topic will be eager to be conducted to deepen our understanding of collective behavior in nature.

Keywords: collective behavior, mice, evacuation, exit location

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Authors: Maria Melania Muda, Retno Wibawanti, Retno Asti Werdhani

Abstract:

Background: Flight attendant (FA) is a job that is often exposed to ergonomic stressors; thus, they are very susceptible to symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). One of the ways to overcome musculoskeletal complaints is by stretching. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of MSDs and the effect of a 2-week stretching exercise program using the Indonesian Ministry of Health's stretching video on changes in musculoskeletal pain intensity in FA on commercial aircraft in Indonesia. Methods: A pre-post study was conducted using Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) for MSDs’ identification and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) as pain intensity measurement. Data was collected and then analyzed using SPSS with Wilcoxon test. The change in pain intensity was considered significant if the p value was less than 0.05. Results: The results showed that 92% of the FA (n=75) had MSDs in at least 1 area of the body in the last 12 months. Thirty-four respondents participated as subjects. The complaint level score in 28 body areas before intervention was a median of 34 (29-84), with pain intensity of a median of 6 (2-9) became a median of 32 (28-67) and a median of 3 (0-9) after the intervention, respectively, with p-value <0.001. Conclusion: The stretching exercise program showed significant changes in the complaint level scores in 28 body areas (p < 0.001) and pain intensity before and after the stretching exercise intervention (p < 0.001).

Keywords: flight attendant, MSDs, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, stretching exercise program, visual analog scale

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Authors: Lenshie, Nsemba Edward

Abstract:

This paper examines political sexuality as an identity construct, which imparts on democratic practices globally. The manifestation of political sexuality reflect on the dynamics of social, economic, cultural and political relations among different gender affecting a number of issues, such as the questions of citizenship, poverty alleviation, property rights, ownership and inheritance, rights to sexual consent, polygamous marriage, governance and representation among other issues. This paper is concerned with the aspect of political participation among different genders in Nigeria. This paper posit that political sexuality is an outcome of ‘sexuality differences’, which seeks to glorify and gratify the superiority of a particular sexuality over another. Political sexuality, therefore, motivate and exacerbate socio-cultural, economic, and political struggles among different sexualities. The paper asserts further that majority of women have been discriminated, sexually harassed, and are often denied certain rights and privileges in Nigeria. A few number of women who have found themselves at the corridors of government have used the Beijing protocol on Women to demand for ‘affirmative action’ to expand their political space. It contends that the ‘affirmative action’ in Nigeria is far from achieving it throughout the country. The paper conclude that women require more than just a ‘self-rediscovery’ to assertively demand for a more and proper inclusion in Nigeria’s democratic process.

Keywords: gender democracy, identity, politics, political sexuality

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Authors: Haiyan Wu, Ying Liu, Shaoyun Shi

Abstract:

Authorship attribution is to extract features to identify authors of anonymous documents. Many previous works on authorship attribution focus on statistical style features (e.g., sentence/word length), content features (e.g., frequent words, n-grams). Modeling these features by regression or some transparent machine learning methods gives a portrait of the authors' writing style. But these methods do not capture the syntactic (e.g., dependency relationship) or semantic (e.g., topics) information. In recent years, some researchers model syntactic trees or latent semantic information by neural networks. However, few works take them together. Besides, predictions by neural networks are difficult to explain, which is vital in authorship attribution tasks. In this paper, we not only utilize the statistical style and content features but also take advantage of both syntactic and semantic features. Different from an end-to-end neural model, feature selection and prediction are two steps in our method. An attentive n-gram network is utilized to select useful features, and logistic regression is applied to give prediction and understandable representation of writing style. Experiments show that our extracted features can improve the state-of-the-art methods on three benchmark datasets.

Keywords: authorship attribution, attention mechanism, syntactic feature, feature extraction

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Authors: Ching Louis Liu, Edmund Kazmierczak, Tim Miller

Abstract:

Safety analysis for multi-agent systems is complicated by the, potentially nonlinear, interactions between agents. This paper proposes a method for analyzing the safety of multi-agent systems by explicitly focusing on interactions and the accident data of systems that are similar in structure and function to the system being analyzed. The method creates a Bayesian network using the accident data from similar systems. A feature of our method is that the events in accident data are labeled with HAZOP guide words. Our method uses an Ontology to abstract away from the details of a multi-agent implementation. Using the ontology, our methods then constructs an “Interaction Map,” a graphical representation of the patterns of interactions between agents and other artifacts. Interaction maps combined with statistical data from accidents and the HAZOP classifications of events can be converted into a Bayesian Network. Bayesian networks allow designers to explore “what it” scenarios and make design trade-offs that maintain safety. We show how to use the Bayesian networks, and the interaction maps to improve multi-agent system designs.

Keywords: multi-agent system, safety analysis, safety model, integration map

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Authors: Guadalupe López-Bonilla

Abstract:

Students of all educational levels participate in literacy practices that may involve print or digital media. Scholars from the New Literacy Studies distinguish practices that fulfill institutional purposes such as those established at schools from literate practices aimed at doing other kinds of activities, such as reading instructions in order to play a video game; the first are known as institutional practices while the latter are considered vernacular literacies. When students perform these kinds of activities they engage with print and digital media according to the demands of the task. In this paper, it is aimed to discuss the results of a research project focusing on literacy practices of high school students at 10 urban cybercafés in Mexico. The main objective was to analyze the literacy practices of students performing both school tasks and vernacular literacies. The methodology included a focused ethnography with online and face to face observations of 10 high school students (5 male and 5 female) and interviews after performing each task. In the results, it is presented how students treat texts as open, dynamic and relational artifacts when engaging in vernacular literacies; while texts are conceived as closed, authoritarian and fixed documents when performing school activities. Samples of each type of activity are shown followed by a discussion of the pedagogical implications for improving school literacy.

Keywords: digital literacy, text, school literacy, vernacular practices

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Authors: Irina Khutsishvili

Abstract:

In the present research, a decision support methodology for the multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem is developed, namely for the selection of investment projects. The objective of the investment project selection problem is to choose the best project among the set of projects, seeking investment, or to rank all projects in descending order. The project selection is made considering a set of weighted attributes. To evaluate the attributes in our approach, expert assessments are used. In the proposed methodology, lingual expressions (linguistic terms) given by all experts are used as initial attribute evaluations, since they are the most natural and convenient representation of experts' evaluations. Then lingual evaluations are converted into trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the aggregate trapezoidal hesitant fuzzy decision matrix will be built. The case is considered when information on the attribute weights is completely unknown. The attribute weights are identified based on the De Luca and Termini information entropy concept, determined in the context of hesitant fuzzy sets. The decisions are made using the extended Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method under a hesitant fuzzy environment. Hence, a methodology is based on a trapezoidal valued hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making model with entropy weights. The ranking of alternatives is performed by the proximity of their distances to both the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS). For this purpose, the weighted hesitant Hamming distance is used. An example of investment decision-making is shown that clearly explains the procedure of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: In the present research, a decision support methodology for the multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem is developed, namely for the selection of investment projects. The objective of the investment project selection problem is to choose the best project among the set of projects, seeking investment, or to rank all projects in descending order. The project selection is made considering a set of weighted attributes. To evaluate the attributes in our approach, expert assessments are used. In the proposed methodology, lingual expressions (linguistic terms) given by all experts are used as initial attribute evaluations since they are the most natural and convenient representation of experts' evaluations. Then lingual evaluations are converted into trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the aggregate trapezoidal hesitant fuzzy decision matrix will be built. The case is considered when information on the attribute weights is completely unknown. The attribute weights are identified based on the De Luca and Termini information entropy concept, determined in the context of hesitant fuzzy sets. The decisions are made using the extended Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method under a hesitant fuzzy environment. Hence, a methodology is based on a trapezoidal valued hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making model with entropy weights. The ranking of alternatives is performed by the proximity of their distances to both the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS). For this purpose, the weighted hesitant Hamming distance is used. An example of investment decision-making is shown that clearly explains the procedure of the proposed methodology.

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Authors: Layan Kateb, Jawaher Ragban, Rawia Alamri, Rewaa Alhazmi

Abstract:

This paper evaluates user satisfaction with the AI functionality of Coconote, an innovative app designed to transform raw input -documents, voice recordings, and video recordings- into structured study materials such as flashcards, study guides, and transcripts. Leveraging AI-driven natural language processing and summarization algorithms, Coconote aims to streamline the study process by providing personalized, accessible, and accurate learning tools. To measure user satisfaction, we conducted a survey among 20 participants, including students, educators, and professionals, who tested the app’s core features over a two-week period. The survey assessed criteria such as ease of use, accuracy of generated materials, and perceived value in enhancing productivity. Results indicate high satisfaction levels with the app’s ability to produce coherent and concise outputs, with 83% of respondents reporting improved study efficiency. However, feedback highlighted areas for improvement, including occasional inaccuracies in transcription and customization limitations in flashcard formatting. This study demonstrates the potential of AI to transform learning methods and identifies key areas for refinement in user-centric design. Coconote represents a step forward in leveraging AI to enhance educational technology

Keywords: tools for students, artificial intelligence in education, AI study tool, ethical AI tools

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Authors: Lian Liu

Abstract:

By analyzing the content of the New York Times' China-related energy reports, this study aims to explore the construction of China's national image by the mainstream media in the United States. The study analyzes three aspects of the coverage: topics, reporting tendencies, and countries involved. The results of the study show that economic issues are the main focus of the New York Times’ China-related energy coverage, followed by political issues and environmental issues. Overall, the coverage tendency was mainly negative, but positive coverage was dominated by science and technology issues. In addition, the study found that U.S.-China relations and Sino-Russian relations were important contexts for the construction of China's national image in the NYT's China-related energy coverage. These stories highlight China's interstate interactions with the United States, Japan, and Russia, which serve as important links in the coverage. The findings of this study reveal some characteristics and trends of the U.S. mainstream media's country image of China, which are important for a deeper understanding of the U.S.-China relationship and the media's influence on the construction of the country's image.

Keywords: media coverage, China, content analysis, visualization technology

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