Refugee education and justice issues of representation, redistribution and recognition

This paper examines justice issues of representation, redistribution and recognition within a specialised secondary school for immigrant and refugee students in Queensland, Australia. Fraser’s three-dimensional model of justice – towards the ideal of ‘participatory parity’ – is drawn on to analyse interview data gathered from a study that sought to identify productive approaches to addressing cultural diversity. Through these lenses, injustices created by mainstream/dominant discourses within and beyond the school are highlighted. The paper details the school’s efforts to support greater equity for these students through educator advocacy, critically reflective practice and a centring of students’ perspectives. The significance of educators identifying and challenging the limits and exclusions of these discourses to support these efforts is highlighted. Fraser’s theorising is presented as useful in capturing, understanding and addressing justice and marginality in schools amid the broader social context where matters of justice are characterised by uncertainty, complexity and contention.

Symbolic representation and distributed matching strategies for schematics

This paper describes object-centered symbolic representation and distributed matching strategies of 3D objects in a schematic form which occur in engineering drawings and maps. The object-centered representation has a hierarchical structure and is constructed from symbolic representations of schematics. With this representation, two independent schematics representing the same object can be matched. We also consider matching strategies using distributed algorithms. The object recognition is carried out with two matching methods: (1) matching between an object model and observed data at the lowest level of the hierarchy, and (2) constraints propagation. The first is carried out with symbolic Hopfield-type neural networks and the second is achieved via hierarchical winner-takes-all algorithms

Intelligent facial emotion recognition using a layered encoding cascade optimization model

In this research, we propose a facial expression recognition system with a layered encoding cascade optimization model. Since generating an effective facial representation is a vital step to the success of facial emotion recognition, a modified Local Gabor Binary Pattern operator is first employed to derive a refined initial face representation and we then propose two evolutionary algorithms for feature optimization including (i) direct similarity and (ii) Pareto-based feature selection, under the layered cascade model. The direct similarity feature selection considers characteristics within the same emotion category that give the minimum within-class variation while the Pareto-based feature optimization focuses on features that best represent each expression category and at the same time provide the most distinctions to other expressions. Both a neural network and an ensemble classifier with weighted majority vote are implemented for the recognition of seven expressions based on the selected optimized features. The ensemble model also automatically updates itself with the most recent concepts in the data. Evaluated with the Cohn-Kanade database, our system achieves the best accuracies when the ensemble classifier is applied, and outperforms other research reported in the literature with 96.8% for direct similarity based optimization and 97.4% for the Pareto-based feature selection. Cross-database evaluation with frontal images from the MMI database has also been conducted to further prove system efficiency where it achieves 97.5% for Pareto-based approach and 90.7% for direct similarity-based feature selection and outperforms related research for MMI. When evaluated with 90° side-view images extracted from the videos of the MMI database, the system achieves superior performances with >80% accuracies for both optimization algorithms. Experiments with other weighting and meta-learning combination methods for the construction of ensembles are also explored with our proposed ensemble showing great adpativity to new test data stream for cross-database evaluation. In future work, we aim to incorporate other filtering techniques and evolutionary algorithms into the optimization models to further enhance the recognition performance.

Indigenous representation and alternative schooling: prioritising an epistemology of relationality

This paper draws on a case study of a small alternative Indigenous school in Queensland, Australia. From the perspective of several of the school’s Indigenous Elders, the paper foregrounds the significance of group differentiation at the school on the basis of Indigenous representation. However, it also considers how such differentiation/representation can be problematic in perpetuating cultural reductionism. Beyond such reductionism, the paper examines the possibilities of the Indigenous epistemology of relationality. The school’s vision and governance around this epistemology – where community, kinship and family networks are at the centre of all relations – enabled both the articulation of a stable identity but also recognition of the complexity and diversity of Indigenous disadvantage. This paper argues that a prioritising of relationality within alternative Indigenous-led schooling contexts offers significant potential for addressing the complex educational needs of Indigenous students.

Research on seismic signals for vehicle targets and recognition by data fusion

This paper researches seismic signals of typical vehicle targets in order to extract features and to recognize vehicle targets. As a data fusion method, the technique of artificial neural networks combined with genetic algorithm(ANNCGA) is applied for recognition of seismic signals that belong to different kinds of vehicle targets. The technique of ANNCGA and its architecture have been presented. The algorithm had been used for classification and recognition of seismic signals of vehicle targets in the outdoor environment. Through experiments, it can be proven that seismic properties of target acquired are correct, ANNCGA data fusion method is effective to solve the problem of target recognition.

Representation and learning about evaporation

While there has been considerable research on children's understanding of evaporation, the representational issues entailed in this understanding have not been investigated in depth. This study explored students' engagement with evaporation phenomena through various representational modes. Primary school classroom sequences and structured interviews shortly after, and a year later, indicated significant advances in learning flowing from negotiation of meaning around particle representations. A case study of one child's learning is used to demonstrate how a molecular distribution representation can offer the possibility of significant advances in children's thinking about evaporation. The findings suggest that teacher-mediated negotiation of representational issues can support enriched student learning

The prevalence and recognition of major depression among low-level aged care residents with and without cognitive impairment

Previous research has demonstrated a high level of depression in nursing homes. The current study was designed to determine the prevalence of depression, using a structured diagnostic interview, among older people with and without mild-moderate cognitive impairment residing in low-level care facilities. The results demonstrated that, consistent with previous research in nursing homes, 16.9% of older people were diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Less than half of these cases had been detected or treated. Individuals with moderate cognitive impairment were more likely to be depressed, but cognitive impairment did not appear to act as a strong impediment to the detection of depression by general practitioners. A low awareness of their use of antidepressant medications was demonstrated among older people prescribed this treatment, including those with normal cognitive function. Reasons for the poor recognition of depression among older people are discussed.

Cosmopolitanism, identity and recognition

An application of the social theory of Axel Honneth to global justice, arguing that development goals must include provision for the intersubjective recognition required for identity formation. In the disciplines of Political Philosophy and International Relations cosmopolitanism is often defined as the view that all people, no matter their national, ethnic or religious backgrounds and no matter what their gender, have an equal moral status. The most telling enunciation of this view is the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the focus that is given to rights and a global form of legal equality by this document and by such theorists as John Rawls is not rich enough to capture all of the ethical demands that global society places upon well-to-do Westerners and developed nations. This paper makes use of a thesis by Axel Honneth to the effect that political thinking needs “a basic conceptual shift to the normative premises of a theory of recognition that locates the core of all experiences of injustice in the withdrawal of social recognition, in the phenomena of humiliation and disrespect.” Honneth identifies three spheres of recognition in modern societies: love, law, and achievement. I offer some exposition of his theory and then argue that global justice must be understood to embrace the substantive ethical values that arise in these three spheres as well as the procedural standards of moral rightness that belongs to the second of them. Such an expanded conception of global justice will yield an enriched conception of cosmopolitanism.

Art embodied and disembodied : expression, representation, and reflection

In this chapter a group of writers from very diverse academic backgrounds deal with the embodied and disembodied arts - from an exploration of dance with preschool children to the use of the webblog for eleven and twelve year olds to reflect on the creation of a group performance about how to change the world. The Deans & Young case study takes the reader into the world of the preschooler and the delicate craft of the dance and drama teachers who guide their small dancers through myriad choreographic and conceptual tasks in their pursuit of kinaesthetic learning. Jo Raphael allow the young bloggers to speak from themselves in her case study. How to Change the World. Through the voices of the Year 6 students, Jo raises the critical question of how to build meaningful reflection into the arts-making process, and suggests that for the current generation of 'cyber-natives', the digital world offers many great possibilities. Theory concerning forms of expression and representation in the embodies and digital world is also discussed.

On representation and construction in a tectonic design studio

The study compares the roles of representation and construction in enhancing students' learning in a tectonic design studio by investigating issues of representational media use in the conception, development and communication of design processes and relating these to real-scale construction as a means of understanding tectonic design.