Invariant multi-scale object categorisation and recognition

Object recognition requires that templates with canonical views are stored in memory. Such templates must somehow be normalised. In this paper we present a novel method for obtaining 2D translation, rotation and size invariance. Cortical simple, complex and end-stopped cells provide multi-scale maps of lines, edges and keypoints. These maps are combined such that objects are characterised. Dynamic routing in neighbouring neural layers allows feature maps of input objects and stored templates to converge. We illustrate the construction of group templates and the invariance method for object categorisation and recognition in the context of a cortical architecture, which can be applied in computer vision.

(Un)settling the Irish emigrant identity: representation and construction of an Irish emigrant/exile identity in the travel narratives of Kathleen Nevin and William Bulfin

Through an examination of the travel works of William Bulfin, Tales of the Pampas (1900) and Kathleen Nevin's You'll Never Go Back this paper considers the representation of the Irish in Argentina and the contribution of these narratives in the construction of identity and the reconstruction of the emigrant identity into an exilic one. Escaping one colonial framework (Britain/Ireland), travelling to and writing from within another postcolonial construct (Argentina and the Spanish Empire), this paper analyses how Bulfin and Nevin use language as a tool to construct, and even invent, an Irish identity. This identity is inextricably linked to home and the desire to return there. Despite this desire, Argentina becomes internalised to some extent, which in Bulfin can be seen in the mix of the Spanish, English and Irish languages in his stories, highlighting that the Irish were doing with language what they had already done with their lives; trying to adapt it to their new situation. In Nevin, the contrast between us and them (Irish and 'Native') demonstrates her attempts to shape an exilic rather than emigrant mentality. Through these texts I analyse how Argentina never quite becomes a new home, but a place where Irish identity is played out and acquires form.

Image, video and 3D data registration: medical, satellite and video processing applications with quality metrics

Data registration refers to a series of techniques for matching or bringing similar objects or datasets together into alignment. These techniques enjoy widespread use in a diverse variety of applications, such as video coding, tracking, object and face detection and recognition, surveillance and satellite imaging, medical image analysis and structure from motion. Registration methods are as numerous as their manifold uses, from pixel level and block or feature based methods to Fourier domain methods. This book is focused on providing algorithms and image and video techniques for registration and quality performance metrics. The authors provide various assessment metrics for measuring registration quality alongside analyses of registration techniques, introducing and explaining both familiar and state–of–the–art registration methodologies used in a variety of targeted applications.

Bacterial peptidoglycan biosynthesis and recognition by the innate immune system

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

American Desi : representation and reproduction in diaspora /

This study explores ~ow South Asian diasporic film represents and reproduces South Asian identity in the diaspora. It commences with a review of the literature in cultural studies and post-colonial theory on identity in the diaspora. A textual analysis of three films: American Desi, Bollywood/Hollywood, and East Is East, helps frame the characteristics of South Asian diasporic film. Theoretical concepts of diaspora and identity are extended to this reading of the films. In-depth, open-ended, semi structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to test the validity of theoretical concepts through participants' own reading of American Desi. Findings indicate that while theoretical concepts of identity can be usefully applied at the level of the text, these perspectives do not always easily explain participants' interpretation of the film in relation to their everyday experiences.

A framework for understanding the factors that influence spectators' recall and recognition of embedded sponsorship stimuli

Now, more than ever, sponsors of athletic events demand to see evidence of a commercial return, such as enhanced brand awareness, for their investment of cash or non-cash resources (Lough et aI., 2000). The most common way to measure the impact of perimeter signage (Le., any billboard or sign that displays a company's brand name and/or logo and which surrounds the playing area) on spectators' awareness of event sponsors has been through the use of brand name recall and recognition tests (Shilbury & Berriman, 1996). Recall testing requires spectators to list all of the sponsors they can remember seeing at, for example, an athletic event, strictly from memory and without any help (Cuneen & Hannan, 1993). With recognition testing, spectators are required to identify sponsors from a prepared list which include "dummy" brand names (i.e., sponsors that are present in the list but which do not actually sponsor the event). In order to determine whether sponsors' brand awareness objectives are being met, it is important for sport and recreation marketers to understand what influences a spectator's ability to remember (Le., recall and/or recognize) the brand names of companies who advertise on perimeter signage. The purpose this study was to examine the factors that influence spectators' recall and recognition of embedded sponsorship stimuli (i.e., company brand names on perimeter signage surrounding the play area) at a Canadian University's men's basketball game and football game. These factors included the number of games spectators attended over the course of the season (i.e., repeated exposure to sponsorship stimuli), spectators' level of involvement with the event, and spectators' level of involvement with the advertisements (i.e., perimeter signage). This study also examined the differences between recall and recognition as a means of measuring spectators' awareness of sponsors, and attempted to determine if there are sport differences in spectators' recall and recognition of perimeter signage. Upon leaving the football stadium or gymnasium, spectators were approached, at random, by trained research assistants located at each exit and asked to complete a brief survey questionnaire. Respondents completed the survey on-site. A total of 358 completed surveys were collected from spectators who attended the football (N = 277) and basketball (N = 81) games. The data suggest that football and basketball respondents recognized more sponsors' brand names than they recalled. In addition, football respondents who were highly involved with the event (i.e., those individuals who viewed attending the events as fun, interesting and exciting) attended more games over the course of the season and had significantly higher brand name recognition of sponsors who advertised on perimeter signage than those individuals with low involvement with the athletic event. Football respondents who were highly involved with the sponsors' advertisements (i.e., those individuals who viewed sponsors' perimeter signage as appealing, valuable and important) had significantly higher brand name recall of event sponsors than those individuals with low involvement with these sponsors' advertisements. Repeated exposure to perimeter signage did not have a significant influence on football or basketball respondents' recall or recognition of sponsors. Finally, the data revealed that football respondents had significantly higher recall of sponsors' brand names than basketball respondents. Conversely, basketball respondents had significantly higher recognition of sponsors' brand names than did football respondents.

Quadtree representation and compression of spatial data

Spatial data representation and compression has become a focus issue in computer graphics and image processing applications. Quadtrees, as one of hierarchical data structures, basing on the principle of recursive decomposition of space, always offer a compact and efficient representation of an image. For a given image, the choice of quadtree root node plays an important role in its quadtree representation and final data compression. The goal of this thesis is to present a heuristic algorithm for finding a root node of a region quadtree, which is able to reduce the number of leaf nodes when compared with the standard quadtree decomposition. The empirical results indicate that, this proposed algorithm has quadtree representation and data compression improvement when in comparison with the traditional method.

Arab Women in Translation : the Dynamics of Representation and the Construction of Alterity

Cette recherche examine la traduction et la réception en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis de la littérature contemporaine d’expression arabe écrite par des femmes, afin de répondre à deux questions principales: comment les écrivaines provenant de pays arabes perdent-elles leur agentivité dans les processus de traduction et de réception? Et comment la traduction et la réception de leurs textes contribuent-elles à la construction d’une altérité arabe? Pour y répondre, l’auteure examine trois romans présentant des traits thématiques et formels très différents, à savoir Fawḍā al-Ḥawāss (1997) par Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Innahā Lundun Yā ‘Azīzī (2001) par Hanan al-Shaykh et Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005) par Rajaa Alsanea. L’analyse, basée sur le modèle à trois dimensions de Norman Fairclough, vise à découvrir comment les écrivaines expriment leur agentivité à travers l’écriture, et quelles images elles projettent d’elles-mêmes et plus généralement des femmes dans leurs sociétés respectives. L’auteure se penche ensuite sur les traductions anglaise et française de chaque roman. Elle examine les déplacements qui s’opèrent principalement sur le plan de la texture et le plan pragma-sémiotique, et interroge en quoi ces déplacements ébranlent l’autorité des écrivaines. Enfin, une étude de la réception de ces traductions en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis vient enrichir l’analyse textuelle. À cette étape, les critiques éditoriales et universitaires ainsi que les choix éditoriaux relatifs au paratexte sont scrutés de façon à mettre en lumière les processus décisionnels, les discours et les tropes sous-tendant la mise en marché et la consommation de ces traductions. L’analyse des originaux révèle tout d’abord qu’à travers leurs textes, les auteures sont des agentes actives de changement social. Elles s’insurgent, chacune à sa manière, contre les discours hégémoniques tant locaux qu’occidentaux, et (ré-)imaginent leurs sociétés et leurs nations. Ce faisant, elles se créent leur propre espace discursif dans la sphère publique. Toutefois, la thèse montre que dans la plupart des traductions, les discours dissidents sont neutralisés, l’agentivité et la subjectivité des écrivaines minées au profit d’un discours dominant orientaliste. Ce même discours semble sous-tendre la réception des romans en traduction. Dans ce discours réifiant, l’expression de la différence culturelle est inextricablement imbriquée dans l’expression de la différence sexuelle: la « femme arabe » est la victime d’une religion islamique et d’une culture arabe essentiellement misogynes et arriérées. L’étude suggère, cependant, que ce sont moins les interventions des traductrices que les décisions des éditeurs, le travail de médiation opéré par les critiques, et l’intérêt (ou le désintérêt) des universitaires qui influencent le plus la manière dont ces romans sont mis en marché et reçus dans les nouveaux contextes. L’auteure conclut par rappeler l’importance d’une éthique de la traduction qui transcende toute approche binaire et se fonde sur une lecture éthique des textes qui fait ressortir le lien entre la poétique et la politique. Enfin, elle propose une lecture basée sur la reconnaissance du caractère situé du texte traduit comme du sujet lisant/traduisant.

Representation and Detection of Shapes in Images

We present a set of techniques that can be used to represent and detect shapes in images. Our methods revolve around a particular shape representation based on the description of objects using triangulated polygons. This representation is similar to the medial axis transform and has important properties from a computational perspective. The first problem we consider is the detection of non-rigid objects in images using deformable models. We present an efficient algorithm to solve this problem in a wide range of situations, and show examples in both natural and medical images. We also consider the problem of learning an accurate non-rigid shape model for a class of objects from examples. We show how to learn good models while constraining them to the form required by the detection algorithm. Finally, we consider the problem of low-level image segmentation and grouping. We describe a stochastic grammar that generates arbitrary triangulated polygons while capturing Gestalt principles of shape regularity. This grammar is used as a prior model over random shapes in a low level algorithm that detects objects in images.

A Note on Object Class Representation and Categorical Perception

We present a novel scheme ("Categorical Basis Functions", CBF) for object class representation in the brain and contrast it to the "Chorus of Prototypes" scheme recently proposed by Edelman. The power and flexibility of CBF is demonstrated in two examples. CBF is then applied to investigate the phenomenon of Categorical Perception, in particular the finding by Bulthoff et al. (1998) of categorization of faces by gender without corresponding Categorical Perception. Here, CBF makes predictions that can be tested in a psychophysical experiment. Finally, experiments are suggested to further test CBF.

Crisis of political representation and democratization in Mexico: the generality and specificity of the case

This article attempts to assess the implications and the own character of the crisis of representation in Mexico. Once the topic framed and the long-term dynamics of Mexican political elites presented, this paper will attempt to understand why, despite the pluralization of the party system, there remain many questions about the truly democratic nature of the Mexican political system.

Explicative factors of face-to-face harassment and cyberbullying in a sample of primary students

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Tourism representation and semiotics : directions for future research

O objectivo desta breve nota de pesquisa é dar a conhecer ao leitor um método de pesquisa científica em turismo relativamente pouco utilizado mas com um grande potencial - a análise semiótoca, ou análise semiótica de conteúdo. Conquanto existam alguns estudos em que a análise semiótica é utilizada como método de pesquisa científica, nomeadamente na área da representação turística, o seu potencial permanece relativamente pouco explorado. Esta nota de pesquisa sumariza a literatura relevante nesta área, sublinha a sua importância, e apresenta uma série de possíveis avenidas de pesquisas futuras. Implicações práticas e académicas desta linha de inquérito são discutidas no final do artigo.