PETS 2014: dataset and challenge

This paper describes the dataset and vision challenges that form part of the PETS 2014 workshop. The datasets are multisensor sequences containing different activities around a parked vehicle in a parking lot. The dataset scenarios were filmed from multiple cameras mounted on the vehicle itself and involve multiple actors. In PETS2014 workshop, 22 acted scenarios are provided of abnormal behaviour around the parked vehicle. The aim in PETS 2014 is to provide a standard benchmark that indicates how detection, tracking, abnormality and behaviour analysis systems perform against a common database. The dataset specifically addresses several vision challenges corresponding to different steps in a video understanding system: Low-Level Video Analysis (object detection and tracking), Mid-Level Video Analysis (‘simple’ event detection: the behaviour recognition of a single actor) and High-Level Video Analysis (‘complex’ event detection: the behaviour and interaction recognition of several actors).

From a traditional academic library to a modern learning environment : Dalarna University Library - expectations and results

This report describes the ideas and vision behind Dalarna University's award-winning library in Falun. A description of the planning and construction processes and an evaluation of the final outcome are presented together with experiences and observations drawn from the project.

Desestatização da Rede Ferroviária Federal S/A: impactos sobre os recursos humanos da administração geral

o presente trabalho buscou descrever a solução adotada pela Rede Ferroviária Federal SI A-RFFSA, para redução de seu quadro de pessoal, com vistas à desestatização, escolhida esta corno via para sua sobrevivência em meio à grave crise econômico-financeira que vinha atravessando nos seus últimos anos como empresa controlada pelo governo federaL Procurou-se apresentar os impactos do Programa de Incentivo ao DesligamentoPID sobre o quadro de pessoal da Administração Geral-AG da RFFSA, fazendo-se as necessárias ligações para mostrar que o Programa de Desligamentos Incentivados da Rede Ferroviária Federal insere-se num quadro maior, seguindo as linhas de uma política pública determinada pelo governo federal para seus recursos humanos. Tanto no passado quanto no seu presente de transição, a RFFSA carece de definições consistentes sobre sua Missão e sua Filosofia Empresarial. A incongruência manifestada em sua cultura organizacional encontra nesta falta de bússola segura uma de suas causas. Como reflexo, as medidas desestatizantes na Rede Ferroviária Federal atingiram diretamente seu patrimônio humano. conforme busca-se descrever no presente trabalho. Por outro lado, a Rede Ferroviária Federal, mesmo concedendo à iniciativa privada o direito às operações da ferrovia, não perde seu caráter de empresa pública. Seu papel estratégico, por tratar-se de empresa do ramo de transporte, diretamente responsável pela circulação da produção nacional, amplia o compromisso social que deve caracterizar as empresas estatais. Diante da alteração de seu papeL o órgão da Rede Ferroviária Federal objeto deste estudo, a Administração Geral, será colocado frente à necessidade de também alterar sua estrutura organizacional. As novas relações com o poder público e com as concessionárias exigirão novas posturas a serem adotadas proativamente pela AG. Por isso, buscou-se fornecer melhor entendimento do quadro atual da RFFSA, a partir de seu passado, realçando as relações governo/ferrovia/empresários. Estas relações mostram a prevalecência dos interesses políticos sobre os aspectos técnicos, em muitas decisões da vida da ferrovia brasileira, com conseqüências prejudiciais ao desfecho da história ferroviária. Para se chegar ao entendimento dos caminhos tornados pela RFFSA na formulação de suas políticas, foi necessário levantar a política do governo federal para as empresas estatais, uma vez que estas foram perdendo gradativamente sua autonomia, ficando cada vez mais dependentes das restrições colocadas a nível federal.. Neste cenário maior, inserese o Programa de Desligamentos Incentivados implantado na AG da RFFSA Finalmente, buscou o presente trabalho levantar os desafios para a AG-RFFSA neste novo papel da Rede Ferroviária no cenário do transporte ferroviário concedido à iniciativa privada.

Uma aquisição, uma nova cultura e um velho clima

The purpose of this study was evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of being strategic tool, applied to Castrol Brazil, to make possible to conduct the company towards the needed changes facing the scenery that it was going through of being acquired by British Petroleum. Besides contributing to the administration of this changing process, providing a favorable atmosphere to motivation, synergy and mobilization of all employees facing the results maintenance, also contributed to the implementation of its sustainable development policy, via a solid culture of corporative social responsibility. Also, it doesn¿t present itself as a directive and exclusive tool, only applicable to the described reality, but adaptable and that could be used in several merger and acquisition processes, enabling the companies to be acquired the cleaned understanding of the mission and the corporative vision, the faster incorporation of the new values and the acquisition of the best results in short and medium terms. The methodology used was descriptive, explanatory and applied, making use of documental, bibliographical means, study of cases and mainly participative, by total interaction of the researcher in the context of this study

Uma aquisição, uma nova cultura e um velho clima

The purpose of this study was evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of being strategic tool, applied to Castrol Brazil, to make possible to conduct the company towards the needed changes facing the scenery that it vvas going through of being acquired by British Petroleum. Besides contributing to the administration of this changing process, providing favorable atmosphere to motivation, synergy and mobilization of ali employees facing the results maintenance, also contributed to the implementation of its sustainable development policy. via a solid culture of corporative social responsibility. Also, it doesn't present itself as directive and exclusive tool, only applicable to the described reality. but adaptable and that could be used in several merger and acquisition processes, enabling the companies to be acquired the cleaned understanding of the mission and the corporative vision. the faster incorporation of the new values and the acquisition of the best results in short and médium terms. The methodology used was descriptive, explanatory and applied. making use of documental, bibliographical means, study of cases and mainly participative. by total interaction of the researcher in the context of this study

Transformações sócio-econômicas e os seus impactos no modelo de capacitação de pessoas da Internacional Serviços Aduaneiros LTDA

o presente trabalho propõe uma reflexão que gira em torno de três variáveis: a cultura, as pessoas e a capacitação. A adoção de novas práticas de aprendizagem tem como principal obstáculo à cultura não somente na organização, mas também no seu entorno onde está inserido. Diante da realidade de um mundo globalizado e multicultural, a investigação demonstra que a missão da capacitação é de promover aos indivíduos um comportamento proativo, gerando mais autonomia e responsabilidade pelos resultados que exigem criatividade e visão em longo prazo. Esse estudo pretende verificar a eficácia dos métodos aplicados na empresa em questão quanto à política de capacitação de pessoas, desenvolvendo profissionais proativos, criativos, flexíveis em atendimento ao mercado atual. A pesquisa será do tipo exploratória, descritiva e explicativa e realizada por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, pesquisa de campo e estudo de caso, sendo neste último, abrangendo todos os funcionários da Internacional Serviços Aduaneiros Ltda.

Postural control in Down syndrome: the use of somatosensory and visual information to attenuate body sway

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of visual and somatosensory information on body sway in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Nine adults with DS (19-29 years old) and nine control subjects (CS) (19-29 years old) stood in the upright stance in four experimental conditions: no vision and no touch; vision and no touch; no vision and touch; and vision and touch. In the vision condition, participants looked at a target placed in front of them; in the no vision condition, participants wore a black cotton mask. In the touch condition, participants touched a stationary surface with their right index finger; in the no touch condition, participants kept their arms hanging alongside their bodies. A force plate was used to estimate center of pressure excursion for both anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions. MANOVA revealed that both the individuals with DS and the control subjects used vision and touch to reduce overall body sway, although individuals with DS still oscillated more than did the CS. These results indicate that adults with DS are able to use sensory information to reduce body sway, and they demonstrate that there is no difference in sensory integration between the individuals with DS and the CS.

Superficial keratectomy and 360º conjunctival flap for bullous keratopathy in a dog: a case report

Relata-se o caso ocorrido em um cão, da raça Pinscher, com dois anos de idade e histórico de desconforto no olho direito. O olho esquerdo havia sido enucleado por outro profissional, por apresentar os mesmos sinais, cujo tratamento clínico instituído não lograra êxito. O valor do teste da lágrima de Schirmer encontrava-se aumentado e identificou-se diminuição da pressão intraocular à tonometria de aplanação. Observaram-se, à biomicroscopia, edema corneal profuso e ceratocone, e o teste da fluoresceína foi negativo. Gonioscopia e oftalmoscopia não lograram fornecer dados relevantes dadas as condições da córnea. Diagnosticou-se ceratite bolhosa. Optou-se pelo tratamento cirúrgico, que fora realizado em duas etapas: 1- ceratectomia superficial e flap conjuntival de 360º; 2- ceratectomia superficial para devolver transparência à córnea. Transcorridos 30 dias da segunda ceratectomia superficial, o flap de terceira pálpebra foi desfeito. Observou-se conjuntivalização do quadrante nasal superior da córnea, córnea clara no eixo visual e retorno da visão.

Visual timing and adaptive behavior in a road-crossing simulation study

In this road-crossing simulation study, we assessed both participant's ability to visually judge whether or not they could cross a road, and their adaptive walking behavior. To this end, participants were presented with a road inside the laboratory on which a bike approached with different velocities from different distances. Eight children aged 5-7, ten children aged 10-12, and ten adults were asked both to verbally judge whether they could cross the road, and to actually walk across the road if possible. The results indicated that the verbal judgments were not similar to judgments to actually cross the road. With respect to safety and accuracy of judgments, groups did not differ from each other, although the youngest group tended to be more cautious. All groups appeared to use a strategy to cross the road based both on the distance and the velocity of the approaching bike. Young children waited longer on the curb before crossing the road than older children and adults. All groups adjusted their crossing time to the time-to-arrival of the bike. These findings are discussed in relation to the ecological psychological approach and the putative dissociation between vision for perception (i.e. verbal judgment) and vision for action (i.e. actual crossing). (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An analytical and numerical study of plane change maneuvers using aerodynamic force

The goal of the present work is to analyze space missions that use the terrestrial atmosphere to accomplish orbital maneuvers that involve a plane change. A set of analytical solutions is presented for the variation of the orbital elements due to a single passage through the atmosphere, assuming that the interval the spacecraft travels through the atmosphere is not too large. The study considers both the lift influence on the spacecraft orbit as well as drag. The final equations are tested with numerical integration and can be considered in accordance with the numerical results whenever the perigee height is larger than a critical value. Next, a numerical study of the ratio between the velocity increment required to correct the semimajor axis decay due to the atmospheric passage and the velocity variation required to obtain the change in the inclination is also presented. This analysis can be used to decide if a maneuver passing through the atmosphere can decrease the fuel consumption of the mission and, in the cases where this technique can be used, if a multiple passage is more efficient than a single passage.

ASTER: A Brazilian mission to an asteroid

The first Brazilian mission to an asteroid is being planned. The target is the asteroid 2001 SN263, which has a NEA orbit of class AMOR. Spectral analysis indicated that this is a C-type asteroid. This type of asteroids are dark and difficult to be studied from Earth. They hold clues of the initial stages of planetary formation and also the origin of water and life on Earth. In fact, radar data showed that 2001 SN263 is composed of three bodies with diameters of about 2.8 km, 1.1 km and 0.4 km. Therefore, the spacecraft will have the opportunity to explore three bodies on the same trip. The mission is scheduled to be launched in 2015, reaching the asteroid in 2018. It will be used a small spacecraft (150 kg) with 30 kg for the payload. The set of scientific instruments being considered to explore the target of this mission include an Imaging Camera, a Laser Rangefinder, an Infrared Spectrometer, a Synthetic Aperture Radar and a Mass Spectrometer. The main measurements to be made include the bulk properties (size, shape, mass, density, dynamics, spin state), the internal properties (structure, gravity field) and surface properties (mineralogy, morphology, elemental composition). The mission also opens an opportunity for some relevant experiments, not directly related to the target. Two such experiments will take benefit from being on board of the spacecraft along the journey to the asteroid system, which will take about three years. The first is an astrobiology experiment. The main goal of this experiment is to determine the viability of the microorganisms survival in extraterrestrial environments simulated in laboratory (chemical atmosphere, temperature, desiccation, vacuum, microgravity and radiation). The second experiment is a plasma package. The main objectives of this experiment are to study the structure and electrodynamics of plasma along the trajectory, the plasma instability processes and the density and temperature of plasma of solar wind origin along the trajectory and near the asteroids. This mission represents a great challenge for the Brazilian space program. It is being structured to allow the full engagement of the Brazilian universities and technological companies in all the necessary developments to be carried out. In this paper, we present some aspects of this mission and details of the payload that will be used and the scientific expectations. Copyright ©2010 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.

Unsupervised manifold learning using Reciprocal kNN Graphs in image re-ranking and rank aggregation tasks

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Relações e empreendedorismo: o desafio da construção do plano de negócios

The Project presents as main subject the relationship between entrepreneurship and the Public Relations professional. In the entrepreneurship, business plan is stood up, a document able to assist the entrepreneur to plan the activities related to implementation or creation of a new business. Assuming the business plan is an essential instrument of the entrepreneurial process, this study aims to describe the important use of the business plan for the creation or maintenance of a company and verify the Public Relations acting possibilities in the construction of this plan. For this, the project presents a study on a business plan for a small company with family structure, located in Sao Paulo countryside, in operation for over 30 years. Through the process of the business plan elaboration, it can be seen that the Public Relations professional has important skills that can be assist in the preparation of this plan, such as Marketing tools and communication knowledge and ability to establish a mission, the vision and the company values. Besides, this professional presents entrepreneurial characteristics that can help him in his activities, actions and planning

Fuzzy Connectedness Image Segmentation in Graph Cut Formulation: A Linear-Time Algorithm and a Comparative Analysis

A deep theoretical analysis of the graph cut image segmentation framework presented in this paper simultaneously translates into important contributions in several directions. The most important practical contribution of this work is a full theoretical description, and implementation, of a novel powerful segmentation algorithm, GC(max). The output of GC(max) coincides with a version of a segmentation algorithm known as Iterative Relative Fuzzy Connectedness, IRFC. However, GC(max) is considerably faster than the classic IRFC algorithm, which we prove theoretically and show experimentally. Specifically, we prove that, in the worst case scenario, the GC(max) algorithm runs in linear time with respect to the variable M=|C|+|Z|, where |C| is the image scene size and |Z| is the size of the allowable range, Z, of the associated weight/affinity function. For most implementations, Z is identical to the set of allowable image intensity values, and its size can be treated as small with respect to |C|, meaning that O(M)=O(|C|). In such a situation, GC(max) runs in linear time with respect to the image size |C|. We show that the output of GC(max) constitutes a solution of a graph cut energy minimization problem, in which the energy is defined as the a"" (a) norm ayenF (P) ayen(a) of the map F (P) that associates, with every element e from the boundary of an object P, its weight w(e). This formulation brings IRFC algorithms to the realm of the graph cut energy minimizers, with energy functions ayenF (P) ayen (q) for qa[1,a]. Of these, the best known minimization problem is for the energy ayenF (P) ayen(1), which is solved by the classic min-cut/max-flow algorithm, referred to often as the Graph Cut algorithm. We notice that a minimization problem for ayenF (P) ayen (q) , qa[1,a), is identical to that for ayenF (P) ayen(1), when the original weight function w is replaced by w (q) . Thus, any algorithm GC(sum) solving the ayenF (P) ayen(1) minimization problem, solves also one for ayenF (P) ayen (q) with qa[1,a), so just two algorithms, GC(sum) and GC(max), are enough to solve all ayenF (P) ayen (q) -minimization problems. We also show that, for any fixed weight assignment, the solutions of the ayenF (P) ayen (q) -minimization problems converge to a solution of the ayenF (P) ayen(a)-minimization problem (ayenF (P) ayen(a)=lim (q -> a)ayenF (P) ayen (q) is not enough to deduce that). An experimental comparison of the performance of GC(max) and GC(sum) algorithms is included. This concentrates on comparing the actual (as opposed to provable worst scenario) algorithms' running time, as well as the influence of the choice of the seeds on the output.

Procedures of quality control and data analysis of multi-site ground-based observations for the absolute flux calibration of Gaia

The Gaia space mission is a major project for the European astronomical community. As challenging as it is, the processing and analysis of the huge data-flow incoming from Gaia is the subject of thorough study and preparatory work by the DPAC (Data Processing and Analysis Consortium), in charge of all aspects of the Gaia data reduction. This PhD Thesis was carried out in the framework of the DPAC, within the team based in Bologna. The task of the Bologna team is to define the calibration model and to build a grid of spectro-photometric standard stars (SPSS) suitable for the absolute flux calibration of the Gaia G-band photometry and the BP/RP spectrophotometry. Such a flux calibration can be performed by repeatedly observing each SPSS during the life-time of the Gaia mission and by comparing the observed Gaia spectra to the spectra obtained by our ground-based observations. Due to both the different observing sites involved and the huge amount of frames expected (≃100000), it is essential to maintain the maximum homogeneity in data quality, acquisition and treatment, and a particular care has to be used to test the capabilities of each telescope/instrument combination (through the “instrument familiarization plan”), to devise methods to keep under control, and eventually to correct for, the typical instrumental effects that can affect the high precision required for the Gaia SPSS grid (a few % with respect to Vega). I contributed to the ground-based survey of Gaia SPSS in many respects: with the observations, the instrument familiarization plan, the data reduction and analysis activities (both photometry and spectroscopy), and to the maintenance of the data archives. However, the field I was personally responsible for was photometry and in particular relative photometry for the production of short-term light curves. In this context I defined and tested a semi-automated pipeline which allows for the pre-reduction of imaging SPSS data and the production of aperture photometry catalogues ready to be used for further analysis. A series of semi-automated quality control criteria are included in the pipeline at various levels, from pre-reduction, to aperture photometry, to light curves production and analysis.