Search results for: Visual Consistency.

Authors: Shiva Subhedar, Abhishek Jain, Shivin Mittal

Abstract:

Icons are not merely decorative elements in enterprise applications but very often used because of their many advantages such as compactness, visual appeal, etc. Despite these potential advantages, icons often cause usability problems when they are designed without consideration for their many potential downsides. The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of articulatory distance – the distance between the physical appearance of an interface element and what it actually means. In other words, will the subject find the association of the function and its appearance on the interface natural or is the icon difficult for them to associate with its function. We have calculated response time and quality of identification by varying icon concreteness, the context of usage and subject experience in the enterprise context. The subjects were asked to associate icons (prepared for study purpose) with given function options in context and out of context mode. Response time and their selection were recorded for analysis.

Keywords: Icons, icon concreteness, icon recognition, HCI.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1339

Authors: Walid S. Abd El-hamid, Sherif S. El-Etriby, Mohiy M. Hadhoud

Abstract:

Regression testing is a maintenance activity applied to modified software to provide confidence that the changed parts are correct and that the unchanged parts have not been adversely affected by the modifications. Regression test selection techniques reduce the cost of regression testing, by selecting a subset of an existing test suite to use in retesting modified programs. This paper presents the first general regression-test-selection technique, which based on code and allows selecting test cases for any programs written in any programming language. Then it handles incomplete program. We also describe RTSDiff, a regression-test-selection system that implements the proposed technique. The results of the empirical studied that performed in four programming languages java, C#, Cµ and Visual basic show that the efficiency and effective in reducing the size of test suit.

Keywords: Regression testing, testing, test selection, softwareevolution, software maintenance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1533

Authors: David Ruiz, Carlos Nava, Roberto Carbajal

Abstract:

The psychological profile has become one of the most important sources of information when it comes to individual selection and the hiring process in any organization. Psychological instruments are used to collect data about variables that are considered critically important for performance in work. However, because of conceptual chaos in organizational psychology, most of the information provided by psychological testing is not directly useful for Mexican human resources professionals to take hiring decisions. The aims of this paper are 1) to underline the lack of conceptual precision in theoretical testing foundations in Mexico and 2) presenting a reliability and validity analysis of a frustration tolerance instrument created as an alternative to a heuristically conduct individual assessment in organizations. First, a description of assessment conditions in Mexico is made. Second, an instrument and a theoretical framework is presented as an alternative to the assessment practices in the country. A total of 65 Psychology Iztacala Superior Studies Faculty students were assessed. Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was calculated and an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to prove the scale unidimensionality. Reliability analysis revealed good internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.825). Factor analysis produced 4 factors for the scale. However, factor loadings and explained variation give proof to the scale unidimensionality. It is concluded that the instrument has good psychometric properties that will allow human resources professionals to collect useful data. Different possibilities to conduct psychological assessment are suggested for future development.

Keywords: Psychological assessment, frustration tolerance, human resources, organizational psychology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1919

Authors: Watcharawalee Lertlum, Borworn Papasratorn

Abstract:

Previous researches found that conventional WBL is effective for meaningful learner, because rote learner learn by repeating without thinking or trying to understand. It is impossible to have full benefit from conventional WBL. Understanding of rote learner-s intention and what influences it becomes important. Poorly designed user interface will discourage rote learner-s cultivation and intention to use WBL. Thus, user interface design is an important factor especially when WBL is used as comprehensive replacement of conventional teaching. This research proposes the influencing factors that can enhance learner-s intention to use the system. The enhanced TAM is used for evaluating the proposed factors. The research result points out that factors influencing rote learner-s intention are Perceived Usefulness of Homepage Content Structure, Perceived User Friendly Interface, Perceived Hedonic Component, and Perceived (homepage) Visual Attractiveness.

Keywords: Web-Based learning, Electronic learning, Intentionto use, Rote learner, Influencing

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1585

Authors: Hassnen M. Jafer, W. Atherton, F. Ruddock, E. Loffil

Abstract:

This paper represents the results of experimental work to investigate the suitability of a waste material (WM) for soft soil stabilisation. In addition, the effect of particle size distribution (PSD) of the waste material on its performance as a soil stabiliser was investigated. The WM used in this study is produced from the incineration processes in domestic energy power plant and it is available in two different grades of fineness (coarse waste material (CWM) and fine waste material (FWM)). An intermediate plasticity silty clayey soil with medium organic matter content has been used in this study. The suitability of the CWM and FWM to improve the physical and engineering properties of the selected soil was evaluated dependant on the results obtained from the consistency limits, compaction characteristics (optimum moisture content (OMC) and maximum dry density (MDD)); along with the unconfined compressive strength test (UCS). Different percentages of CWM were added to the soft soil (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15%) to produce various admixtures. Then the UCS test was carried out on specimens under different curing periods (zero, 7, 14, and 28 days) to find the optimum percentage of CWM. The optimum and other two percentages (either side of the optimum content) were used for FWM to evaluate the effect of the fineness of the WM on UCS of the stabilised soil. Results indicated that both types of the WM used in this study improved the physical properties of the soft soil where the index of plasticity (IP) was decreased significantly. IP was decreased from 21 to 13.64 and 13.10 with 12% of CWM and 15% of FWM respectively. The results of the unconfined compressive strength test indicated that 12% of CWM was the optimum and this percentage developed the UCS value from 202kPa to 500kPa for 28 days cured samples, which is equal, approximately 2.5 times the UCS value for untreated soil. Moreover, this percentage provided 1.4 times the value of UCS for stabilized soil-CWA by using FWM which recorded just under 700kPa after 28 days curing. 

Keywords: Soft soil stabilisation, waste materials, fineness, and unconfined compressive strength.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2643

Authors: B. L. Ho, L. Shi, D. F. Wang, V. C. T. Mok

Abstract:

The brain’s functional connectivity while temporally non-stationary does express consistency at a macro spatial level. The study of stable resting state connectivity patterns hence provides opportunities for identification of diseases if such stability is severely perturbed. A mathematical model replicating the brain’s spatial connections will be useful for understanding brain’s representative geometry and complements the empirical model where it falls short. Empirical computations tend to involve large matrices and become infeasible with fine parcellation. However, the proposed analytical model has no such computational problems. To improve replicability, 92 subject data are obtained from two open sources. The proposed methodology, inspired by financial theory, uses multivariate regression to find relationships of every cortical region of interest (ROI) with some pre-identified hubs. These hubs acted as representatives for the entire cortical surface. A variance-covariance framework of all ROIs is then built based on these relationships to link up all the ROIs. The result is a high level of match between model and empirical correlations in the range of 0.59 to 0.66 after adjusting for sample size; an increase of almost forty percent. More significantly, the model framework provides an intuitive way to delineate between systemic drivers and idiosyncratic noise while reducing dimensions by more than 30 folds, hence, providing a way to conduct attribution analysis. Due to its analytical nature and simple structure, the model is useful as a standalone toolkit for network dependency analysis or as a module for other mathematical models.

Keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging, multivariate regression, network hubs, resting state functional connectivity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 807

Authors: Y. Harold Robinson, M. Rajaram

Abstract:

Wireless mesh networking is rapidly gaining in popularity with a variety of users: from municipalities to enterprises, from telecom service providers to public safety and military organizations. This increasing popularity is based on two basic facts: ease of deployment and increase in network capacity expressed in bandwidth per footage; WMNs do not rely on any fixed infrastructure. Many efforts have been used to maximizing throughput of the network in a multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh network. Current approaches are purely based on either static or dynamic channel allocation approaches. In this paper, we use a hybrid multichannel multi radio wireless mesh networking architecture, where static and dynamic interfaces are built in the nodes. Dynamic Adaptive Channel Allocation protocol (DACA), it considers optimization for both throughput and delay in the channel allocation. The assignment of the channel has been allocated to be codependent with the routing problem in the wireless mesh network and that should be based on passage flow on every link. Temporal and spatial relationship rises to re compute the channel assignment every time when the pattern changes in mesh network, channel assignment algorithms assign channels in network. In this paper a computing path which captures the available path bandwidth is the proposed information and the proficient routing protocol based on the new path which provides both static and dynamic links. The consistency property guarantees that each node makes an appropriate packet forwarding decision and balancing the control usage of the network, so that a data packet will traverse through the right path.

Keywords: Wireless mesh network, spatial time division multiple access, hybrid topology, timeslot allocation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1840

Authors: Xiaolei Hu, Enrico Ferrera, Riccardo Tomasi, Claudio Pastrone

Abstract:

Load Forecasting plays a key role in making today's and future's Smart Energy Grids sustainable and reliable. Accurate power consumption prediction allows utilities to organize in advance their resources or to execute Demand Response strategies more effectively, which enables several features such as higher sustainability, better quality of service, and affordable electricity tariffs. It is easy yet effective to apply Load Forecasting at larger geographic scale, i.e. Smart Micro Grids, wherein the lower available grid flexibility makes accurate prediction more critical in Demand Response applications. This paper analyses the application of short-term load forecasting in a concrete scenario, proposed within the EU-funded GreenCom project, which collect load data from single loads and households belonging to a Smart Micro Grid. Three short-term load forecasting techniques, i.e. linear regression, artificial neural networks, and radial basis function network, are considered, compared, and evaluated through absolute forecast errors and training time. The influence of weather conditions in Load Forecasting is also evaluated. A new definition of Gain is introduced in this paper, which innovatively serves as an indicator of short-term prediction capabilities of time spam consistency. Two models, 24- and 1-hour-ahead forecasting, are built to comprehensively compare these three techniques.

Keywords: Short-term load forecasting, smart micro grid, linear regression, artificial neural networks, radial basis function network, Gain.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2602

Authors: Abdelali Joumad, Abdelaziz Nasroallah

Abstract:

In unsupervised segmentation context, we propose a bi-dimensional hidden Markov chain model (X,Y) that we adapt to the image segmentation problem. The bi-dimensional observed process Y = (Y 1, Y 2) is such that Y 1 represents the noisy image and Y 2 represents a noisy supplementary information on the image, for example a noisy proportion of pixels of the same type in a neighborhood of the current pixel. The proposed model can be seen as a competitive alternative to the Hilbert-Peano scan. We propose a bayesian algorithm to estimate parameters of the considered model. The performance of this algorithm is globally favorable, compared to the bi-dimensional EM algorithm through numerical and visual data.

Keywords: Image segmentation, Hidden Markov chain with a bi-dimensional observed process, Peano-Hilbert scan, Bayesian approach, MCMC methods, Bi-dimensional EM algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1612

Authors: Radhika Jain, Sangeeta Goomer

Abstract:

In the present study an attempt has been made to re-engineer traditional wadi into wholesome ready-to-use cereal-pulse-based chunks rich in protein quality and fibre content. Chunks were made using extrusion-dehydration combination. Two formulations i.e., whole green gram dhal with instant oats and washed green gram dhal with whole oats were formulated. These chunks are versatile in nature as they can be easily incorporated in day-to-day home-made preparations such as pulao, potato curry and kadhi. Cereal-pulse ratio was calculated using NDpCal%. Limiting amino acids such as lysine, tryptophan, methionine, cysteine and threonine were calculated for maximum amino acid profile in cereal-pulse combination. Time-temperature combination for extrusion at 130^oC and dehydration at 65^oC for 7 hours and 15 minutes were standardized to obtain maximum protein and fibre content. Proximate analysis such as moisture, fat and ash content were analyzed. Protein content of formulation was 62.10% and 68.50% respectively. Fibre content of formulations was 2.99% and 2.45%, respectively. Using a 5-point hedonic scale, consumer preference trials of 102 consumers were conducted and analyzed. Evaluation of chunks prepared in potato curry, kadi and pulao showed preferences for colour 82%, 87%, 86%, texture and consistency 80%, 81%, 88%, flavour and aroma 74%, 82%, 86%, after taste 70%, 75%, 86% and overall acceptability 77%, 75%, 88% respectively. High temperature inactivates antinutritional compounds such as trypsin inhibitors, lectins, saponins etc. Hence, availability of protein content was increased. Developed products were palatable and easy to prepare.

Keywords: Extrusion, NDpCal%, protein quality, wadi.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 968

Authors: G.P. Nguyen, H.J. Andersen

Abstract:

Building intelligent traffic guide systems has been an interesting subject recently. A good system should be able to observe all important visual information to be able to analyze the context of the scene. To do so, signs in general, and traffic signs in particular, are usually taken into account as they contain rich information to these systems. Therefore, many researchers have put an effort on sign recognition field. Sign localization or sign detection is the most important step in the sign recognition process. This step filters out non informative area in the scene, and locates candidates in later steps. In this paper, we apply a new approach in detecting sign locations using a new color invariant model. Experiments are carried out with different datasets introduced in other works where authors claimed the difficulty in detecting signs under unfavorable imaging conditions. Our method is simple, fast and most importantly it gives a high detection rate in locating signs.

Keywords: Sign localization, color-based segmentation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1294

Authors: Ksheeraj Sai Vepuri, Nada Attar

Abstract:

We as humans use words with accompanying visual and facial cues to communicate effectively. Classifying facial emotion using computer vision methodologies has been an active research area in the computer vision field. In this paper, we propose a simple method for facial expression recognition that enhances accuracy. We tested our method on the FER-2013 dataset that contains static images. Instead of using Histogram equalization to preprocess the dataset, we used Unsharp Mask to emphasize texture and details and sharpened the edges. We also used ImageDataGenerator from Keras library for data augmentation. Then we used Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model to classify the images into 7 different facial expressions, yielding an accuracy of 69.46% on the test set. Our results show that using image preprocessing such as the sharpening technique for a CNN model can improve the performance, even when the CNN model is relatively simple.

Keywords: Facial expression recognition, image pre-processing, deep learning, CNN.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 544

Authors: P. M. Arun Kumar, S. Chandramathi

Abstract:

The proliferation of multimedia technology and services in today’s world provide ample research scope in the frontiers of visual signal processing. Wide spread usage of video based applications in heterogeneous environment needs viable methods of Video Quality Assessment (VQA). The evaluation of video quality not only depends on high QoS requirements but also emphasis the need of novel term ‘QoE’ (Quality of Experience) that perceive video quality as user centric. This paper discusses two vital video quality assessment methods namely, subjective and objective assessment methods. The evolution of various video quality metrics, their classification models and applications are reviewed in this work. The Mean Opinion Score (MOS) based subjective measurements and algorithm based objective metrics are discussed and their challenges are outlined. Further, this paper explores the recent progress of VQA in emerging technologies such as mobile video and 3D video.

Keywords: 3D-Video, no reference metric, quality of experience, video quality assessment, video quality metrics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4053

Authors: Douglas A. Menezes, Isabel D. Nunes, Ulrich Schiel

Abstract:

Most Virtual Learning Environments do not provide support mechanisms for the integrated planning, construction and follow-up of Instructional Design supported by Learning Analytic results. The present work aims to present an authoring tool that will be responsible for constructing the structure of an Instructional Design (ID), without the data being altered during the execution of the course. The visual interface aims to present the critical situations present in this ID, serving as a support tool for the course follow-up and possible improvements, which can be made during its execution or in the planning of a new edition of this course. The model for the ID is based on High-Level Petri Nets and the visualization forms are determined by the specific kind of the data generated by an e-course, a population of students generating sequentially dependent data.

Keywords: Educational data visualization, high-level petri nets, instructional design, learning analytics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 848

Authors: Elizabeth Simão Carvalho, Marcirio Silveira Chaves

Abstract:

The information visualization is still a knowledge field that lacks from a solid theory to support it and there is a myriad of existing methodologies and taxonomies that can be combined and adopted as guidelines. In this context, it is necessary to pre-evaluate as much as possible all the assumptions that are considered for its design and development. We present an exploratory study (n = 123) to detect the graphical preferences of travelers using accommodation portals of Web 2.0 (e.g. tripadvisor.com). We took into account some of the most relevant ground rules applied in the field to map visually data and design end-user interaction. Moreover, the evaluation process was completely data visualization oriented. We found out that people tend to refuse more advanced types of visualization and that a hybrid combination between radial graphs and stacked bars should be explored. In sum, this paper introduces new findings about the visual model and the cognitive response of users of accommodation booking websites.

Keywords: Information visualization, Data visualization, Visualization evaluation, Online reviews, Booking portal, Hotel booking.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1720

Authors: A. K. Bhandari, A. Kumar, P. K. Padhy

Abstract:

In this paper, a novel contrast enhancement technique for contrast enhancement of a low-contrast satellite image has been proposed based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) and discrete cosine transform (DCT). The singular value matrix represents the intensity information of the given image and any change on the singular values change the intensity of the input image. The proposed technique converts the image into the SVD-DCT domain and after normalizing the singular value matrix; the enhanced image is reconstructed by using inverse DCT. The visual and quantitative results suggest that the proposed SVD-DCT method clearly shows the increased efficiency and flexibility of the proposed method over the exiting methods such as Linear Contrast Stretching technique, GHE technique, DWT-SVD technique, DWT technique, Decorrelation Stretching technique, Gamma Correction method based techniques.

Keywords: Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), discretecosine transforms (DCT), image equalization and satellite imagecontrast enhancement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3838

Authors: Santirat Nansaarng, Sittichai Kaewkuekool, Supreeya Siripattanakunkajorn

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study the inspector performance by using computer based training (CBT). Visual inspection task was printed circuit board (PCB) simulated on several types of defects. Subjects were 16 undergraduate randomly selected from King Mongkut-s University of Technology Thonburi and test for 20/20. Then, they were equally divided on performance into two groups (control and treatment groups) and were provided information before running the experiment. Only treatment group was provided feedback information after first experiment. Results revealed that treatment group was showed significantly difference at the level of 0.01. The treatment group showed high percentage on defects detected. Moreover, the attitude of inspectors on using the CBT to inspection was showed on good. These results have been showed that CBT could be used for training to improve inspector performance.

Keywords: Training, Feedback, Computer based Training (CBT)

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422

Authors: Ahmet Denker, Tuğrul Adıgüzel

Abstract:

In this paper, a solution is presented for a robotic manipulation problem in industrial settings. The problem is sensing objects on a conveyor belt, identifying the target, planning and tracking an interception trajectory between end effector and the target. Such a problem could be formulated as combining object recognition, tracking and interception. For this purpose, we integrated a vision system to the manipulation system and employed tracking algorithms. The control approach is implemented on a real industrial manipulation setting, which consists of a conveyor belt, objects moving on it, a robotic manipulator, and a visual sensor above the conveyor. The trjectory for robotic interception at a rendezvous point on the conveyor belt is analytically calculated. Test results show that tracking the raget along this trajectory results in interception and grabbing of the target object.

Keywords: robotics, robot vision, rendezvous planning, self organizingmaps.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1475

Authors: Chua Bee Seok, Getrude Cosmas, Jasmine Adela Mutang, Shazia Iqbal Hashmi

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and convergent validity) of the Employee Trust Scale, a newly created instrument by the researchers. The Employee Trust Scale initially contained 82 items to measure employees’ trust toward their supervisors. A sample of 818 (343 females, 449 males) employees were selected randomly from public and private organization sectors in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 19 to 67 years old with a mean of 34.55 years old. Their average tenure with their current employer was 11.2 years (s.d. = 7.5 years). The respondents were asked to complete the Employee Trust Scale, as well as a managerial trust questionnaire from Mishra. The exploratory factor analysis on employees’ trust toward their supervisor’s extracted three factors, labeled ‘trustworthiness’ (32 items), ‘position status’ (11 items) and ‘relationship’ (6 items) which accounted for 62.49% of the total variance. Trustworthiness factors were re-categorized into three sub factors: competency (11 items), benevolence (8 items) and integrity (13 items). All factors and sub factors of the scales demonstrated clear reliability with internal consistency of Cronbach’s Alpha above .85. The convergent validity of the Scale was supported by an expected pattern of correlations (positive and significant correlation) between the score of all factors and sub factors of the scale and the score on the managerial trust questionnaire, which measured the same construct. The convergent validity of Employee Trust Scale was further supported by the significant and positive inter-correlation between the factors and sub factors of the scale. The results suggest that the Employee Trust Scale is a reliable and valid measure. However, further studies need to be carried out in other groups of sample as to further validate the Scale.

Keywords: Employees trust scale, position status, psychometric properties, relationship, trustworthiness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3302

Authors: Shuo-Li Hsu, Peng-Wei Gau, I-Lin Wu, Jyh-Horng Jeng

Abstract:

For most image fusion algorithms separate relationship by pixels in the image and treat them more or less independently. In addition, they have to be adjusted different parameters in different time or weather. In this paper, we propose a region–based image fusion which combines aspects of feature and pixel-level fusion method to replace only by pixel. The basic idea is to segment far infrared image only and to add information of each region from segmented image to visual image respectively. Then we determine different fused parameters according different region. At last, we adopt artificial neural network to deal with the problems of different time or weather, because the relationship between fused parameters and image features are nonlinear. It render the fused parameters can be produce automatically according different states. The experimental results present the method we proposed indeed have good adaptive capacity with automatic determined fused parameters. And the architecture can be used for lots of applications.

Keywords: Image fusion, Region-based fusion, Segmentation, Neural network, Multi-sensor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2258

Authors: O. Abusaeeda, J. P. O Evans, D. Downes

Abstract:

We demonstrate the synthesis of intermediary views within a sequence of color encoded, materials discriminating, X-ray images that exhibit animated depth in a visual display. During the image acquisition process, the requirement for a linear X-ray detector array is replaced by synthetic image. Scale Invariant Feature Transform, SIFT, in combination with material segmented morphing is employed to produce synthetic imagery. A quantitative analysis of the feature matching performance of the SIFT is presented along with a comparative study of the synthetic imagery. We show that the total number of matches produced by SIFT reduces as the angular separation between the generating views increases. This effect is accompanied by an increase in the total number of synthetic pixel errors. The trends observed are obtained from 15 different luggage items. This programme of research is in collaboration with the UK Home Office and the US Dept. of Homeland Security.

Keywords: X-ray, kinetic depth, view synthesis, KDE

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1662

Authors: Grzegorz Zinkiewicz

Abstract:

The paper explores affective potential implicit in Bergman’s movies. This is done by the use of affect theory and the concept of affect in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, from both diachronic and synchronic perspective. Since its inception in the early 2000s, affect theory has been applied to a number of academic fields. In Film Studies, it offers new avenues for discovering deeper, hidden layers of a given film. The aim is to show that the form and content of the films by Ingmar Bergman are determined by their inner affects that function independently of the viewer and, to an extent, are autonomous entities that can be analysed in separation from the auteur and actual characters. The paper discovers layers in Ingmar Bergman films and focuses on aspects that are often marginalised or studied from other viewpoints such as the connection between the content and visual side. As a result, a revaluation of Bergman films is possible that is more consistent with his original interpretations and comments included in his lectures, interviews and autobiography.

Keywords: Affect theory, experimental cinema, Ingmar Bergman, film as autonomous entity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 811

Authors: Jindřiška Šedová

Abstract:

The Czech Republic is a country whose economy has undergone a transformation since 1989. Since joining the EU it has been striving to reduce the differences in its economic standard and the quality of its institutional environment in comparison with developed countries. According to an assessment carried out by the World Bank, the Czech Republic was long classed as a country whose institutional development was seen as problematic. For many years one of the things it was rated most poorly on was its bankruptcy law. The new Insolvency Act, which is a modern law in terms of its treatment of bankruptcy, was first adopted in the Czech Republic in 2006. This law, together with other regulatory measures, offers debtridden Czech economic subjects legal instruments which are well established and in common practice in developed market economies. Since then, analyses performed by the World Bank and the London EBRD have shown that there have been significant steps forward in the quality of Czech bankruptcy law. The Czech Republic still lacks an analytical apparatus which can offer a structured characterisation of the general and specific conditions of Czech company and household debt which is subject to current changes in the global economy. This area has so far not been given the attention it deserves. The lack of research is particularly clear as regards analysis of household debt and householders- ability to settle their debts in a reasonable manner using legal and other state means of regulation. We assume that Czech households have recourse to a modern insolvency law, yet the effective application of this law is hampered by the inconsistencies in the formal and informal institutions involved in resolving debt. This in turn is based on the assumption that this lack of consistency is more marked in cases of personal bankruptcy. Our aim is to identify the symptoms which indicate that for some time the effective application of bankruptcy law in the Czech Republic will be hindered by factors originating in householders- relative inability to identify the risks of falling into debt.

Keywords: bankruptcy law, household debt, consumer bankruptcy, business bankruptcy

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1724

Authors: Ismail Baniadam, Nafisa Tadayyon, Javid Fereidoni

Abstract:

This study aimed to investigate medical students’ attitudes toward some teachers’ talking features regarding their gender in the Iranian context. To do so, 60 male and 60 female medical students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UMSU) participated in the research. A researcher made Likert-type questionnaire which was initially piloted and was used to gather the data. Comparing the four different factors regarding the features of teacher talk, it was revealed that visual and extra-linguistic information factor, Lexical and syntactic familiarity, Speed of speech, and the use of Persian language had the highest to the lowest mean score, respectively. It was also indicated that female students rather than male students were significantly more in favor of speed of speech and lexical and syntactic familiarity.

Keywords: Attitude, gender, medical student, teacher talk.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 800

Authors: Benjamin Y. M. Kwan, Hon Keung Kwan

Abstract:

Noise contamination in a magnetic resonance (MR) image could occur during acquisition, storage, and transmission in which effective filtering is required to avoid repeating the MR procedure. In this paper, an iterative asymmetrical triangle fuzzy filter with moving average center (ATMAVi filter) is used to reduce different levels of salt and pepper noise in a brain MR image. Besides visual inspection on filtered images, the mean squared error (MSE) is used as an objective measurement. When compared with the median filter, simulation results indicate that the ATMAVi filter is effective especially for filtering a higher level noise (such as noise density = 0.45) using a smaller window size (such as 3x3) when operated iteratively or using a larger window size (such as 5x5) when operated non-iteratively.

Keywords: Brain images, Fuzzy filters, Magnetic resonance imaging, Salt and pepper noise reduction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2213

Authors: Isaac Cassar, Trevor Davis, Yi-Kai Lo, Wentai Liu

Abstract:

Retinal prostheses have been successful in eliciting visual responses in implanted subjects. As these prostheses progress, one of their major limitations is the need for increased resolution. As an alternative to increasing the number of electrodes, virtual electrodes may be used to increase the effective resolution of current electrode arrays. This paper presents a virtual electrode technique based upon time-offsets between stimuli. Two adjacent electrodes are stimulated with identical pulses with too short of pulse widths to activate a neuron, but one has a time offset of one pulse width. A virtual electrode of twice the pulse width was then shown to appear in the center, with a total width capable of activating a neuron. This can be used in retinal implants by stimulating electrodes with pulse widths short enough to not elicit responses in neurons, but with their combined pulse width adequate to activate a neuron in between them.

Keywords: Electrical stimulation, Neuroprosthesis, Retinal implant, Retinal Prosthesis, Virtual electrode.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1790

Authors: Adrià Arbués-Sangüesa, Coloma Ballester, Gloria Haro

Abstract:

Tracking sports players is a widely challenging scenario, specially in single-feed videos recorded in tight courts, where cluttering and occlusions cannot be avoided. This paper presents an analysis of several geometric and semantic visual features to detect and track basketball players. An ablation study is carried out and then used to remark that a robust tracker can be built with Deep Learning features, without the need of extracting contextual ones, such as proximity or color similarity, nor applying camera stabilization techniques. The presented tracker consists of: (1) a detection step, which uses a pretrained deep learning model to estimate the players pose, followed by (2) a tracking step, which leverages pose and semantic information from the output of a convolutional layer in a VGG network. Its performance is analyzed in terms of MOTA over a basketball dataset with more than 10k instances.

Keywords: Basketball, deep learning, feature extraction, single-camera, tracking.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 698

Authors: Biswajit Biswas

Abstract:

Demand of energy is increasing faster than the generation. It leads shortage of power in all sectors of society. At peak hours this shortage is higher. Unless we utilize energy efficient technology, it is very difficult to minimize the shortage of energy. So energy efficiency program and energy conservation has an important role. Energy efficient technologies are cost intensive hence it is always not possible to implement in country like India. In the recent study, an educational building with operating hours from 10:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m. has been selected to quantify the possibility of lighting energy conservation. As the operating hour is in daytime, integration of daylight with artificial lighting system will definitely reduce the lighting energy consumption. Moreover the initial investment has been given priority and hence the existing lighting installation was unaltered. An automatic controller has been designed which will be operated as a function of daylight through windows and the lighting system of the room will function accordingly. The result of the study of integrating daylight gave quite satisfactory for visual comfort as well as energy conservation.

Keywords: Lighting energy, energy efficiency, daylight, illumination, energy conservation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1956

Authors: Soroosh Rezazadeh, Mehran Yazdi

Abstract:

In this paper, a robust digital image watermarking scheme for copyright protection applications using the singular value decomposition (SVD) is proposed. In this scheme, an entropy masking model has been applied on the host image for the texture segmentation. Moreover, the local luminance and textures of the host image are considered for watermark embedding procedure to increase the robustness of the watermarking scheme. In contrast to all existing SVD-based watermarking systems that have been designed to embed visual watermarks, our system uses a pseudo-random sequence as a watermark. We have tested the performance of our method using a wide variety of image processing attacks on different test images. A comparison is made between the results of our proposed algorithm with those of a wavelet-based method to demonstrate the superior performance of our algorithm.

Keywords: Watermarking, copyright protection, singular value decomposition, entropy masking, texture segmentation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1765

Authors: Nikolaos Vassilas, Theocharis Tsenoglou, Djamchid Ghazanfarpour

Abstract:

In this work, we explore the capability of the mean shift algorithm as a powerful preprocessing tool for improving the quality of spatial data, acquired from airborne scanners, from densely built urban areas. On one hand, high resolution image data corrupted by noise caused by lossy compression techniques are appropriately smoothed while at the same time preserving the optical edges and, on the other, low resolution LiDAR data in the form of normalized Digital Surface Map (nDSM) is upsampled through the joint mean shift algorithm. Experiments on both the edge-preserving smoothing and upsampling capabilities using synthetic RGB-z data show that the mean shift algorithm is superior to bilateral filtering as well as to other classical smoothing and upsampling algorithms. Application of the proposed methodology for 3D reconstruction of buildings of a pilot region of Athens, Greece results in a significant visual improvement of the 3D building block model.

Keywords: 3D buildings reconstruction, data fusion, data upsampling, mean shift.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2006