An investigation of a new social networks contact suggestion based on face recognition algorithm

Automated comparison of faces in the photographs is a well established discipline. The main aim of this paper is to describe an approach whereby face recognition can be used in suggestion of a new contacts. The new contact suggestion is a common technique used across all main social networks. Our approach uses a freely available face comparison called "Betaface" together with our automated processig of the user´s Facebook profile. The research´s main point of interest is the comparison of friend´s facial images in a social network itself, how to process such a great amount of photos and what additional sources of data should be used. In this approach we used our automated processing algorithm Betaface in the social network Facebook and for the additional data, the Flickr social network was used. The results and their quality are discussed at the end

Contributions to the Modelling of Auditory Hallucinations, Social robotics, and Multiagent Systems

165 p.The Thesis covers three diverse lines of work that have been tackled with the central endeavor of modeling and understanding the phenomena under consideration. Firstly, the Thesis works on the problem of finding brain connectivity biomarkers of auditory hallucinations, a rather frequent phenomena that can be related some pathologies, but which is also present in healthy population. We apply machine learning techniques to assess the significance of effective brain connections extracted by either dynamical causal modeling or Granger causality. Secondly, the Thesis deals with the usefulness of social robotics strorytelling as a therapeutic tools for children at risk of exclussion. The Thesis reports on the observations gathered in several therapeutic sessions carried out in Spain and Bulgaria, under the supervision of tutors and caregivers. Thirdly, the Thesis deals with the spatio-temporal dynamic modeling of social agents trying to explain the phenomena of opinion survival of the social minorities. The Thesis proposes a eco-social model endowed with spatial mobility of the agents. Such mobility and the spatial perception of the agents are found to be strong mechanisms explaining opinion propagation and survival

Contributions to the Modelling of Auditory Hallucinations, Social robotics, and Multiagent Systems

165 p.The Thesis covers three diverse lines of work that have been tackled with the central endeavor of modeling and understanding the phenomena under consideration. Firstly, the Thesis works on the problem of finding brain connectivity biomarkers of auditory hallucinations, a rather frequent phenomena that can be related some pathologies, but which is also present in healthy population. We apply machine learning techniques to assess the significance of effective brain connections extracted by either dynamical causal modeling or Granger causality. Secondly, the Thesis deals with the usefulness of social robotics strorytelling as a therapeutic tools for children at risk of exclussion. The Thesis reports on the observations gathered in several therapeutic sessions carried out in Spain and Bulgaria, under the supervision of tutors and caregivers. Thirdly, the Thesis deals with the spatio-temporal dynamic modeling of social agents trying to explain the phenomena of opinion survival of the social minorities. The Thesis proposes a eco-social model endowed with spatial mobility of the agents. Such mobility and the spatial perception of the agents are found to be strong mechanisms explaining opinion propagation and survival

The Social Sharing of Hallucinations

Abstract In this dissertation, I explore the social sharing of hallucinations and address the primary question of the lived-experience of this phenomenon from multiple perspectives. What is it like to speak about and hear about hallucinated experience outside of professional contexts? I interviewed 23 individuals regarding their experience sharing hallucinations with others (Experiencers) or hearing about hallucinations from individuals who experienced them (Listeners). Data were gathered from community as well as clinical samples. A wide variety of hallucination contexts were present, ranging from sleep paralysis, post-partum psychosis, drug-ingestion, mental illnesses, medically-related conditions (stroke, fever), healing, religious visions, as well as encounters with ghosts, archetypes, and deities. I analyzed these data using a hermeneutic-phenomenological perspective and process, following Max van Manen’s style of using this methodology. Through analysis, four Facets were recognized: Care, Sense-Making, Dual-Processing, and Ontological Cross-Bleed. Care Facet represents the explicit and hidden experiences and expressions of care that Listeners and Experiences share or withhold. For Experiencers, the Sense-Making Facet represents experiences of sense-making related to determinations of whether hallucinations are real, why they occur, and what they mean. Listener experiences of sense-making include shock, confusion, and processes of curiosity and determination regarding the hallucination. Dual-Processing Facet explores the dual experiential response many Listeners described when hearing about a hallucination. This response often involves interior thoughts and reactions that are masked from exterior representation. Finally, the Ontological Cross-Bleed Facet explores the transition that occurs during social sharing in which the hallucination transfers from being an object of consciousness only for the individual having the hallucination, to an object of consciousness for a Listener as well. Results of this study can help clinical psychologists tailor treatments and recommendations to individuals who are involved in related conversations and can also provide useful knowledge to community members who themselves are involved in the sharing, either from Experiencer or Listener standpoints

Madness, Resistance, and Representation in Contemporary British and Irish Theatre

This thesis questions how theatre can act as a site of resistance against the political structures of madness. It analyzes a variety of plays from the past 25 years of British and Irish theatre in order to discern what modes of resistance are possible, and the conceptual lines upon which they follow. It questions how these modes of resistance are imbibed in the representation of madness. It discerns what way these modes relate specifically to the theatrical, and what it is the theatrical specifically has to offer these conceptualizations. It achieves this through a close textual and performative analysis of the selected plays, interrogating these plays from various theoretical perspectives. It follows and explores different conceptualizations across both political and ethical lay lines, looking at what composes the theatrical practical critique, how theatre can alter and play with space, how theatre capacitate the act of witnessing, and the possibility of re-invigorating the ethical encounter through theatrical means. It achieves this through a critical engagement with thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas. Engaging with the heterogeneity of madness, it covers a variety of madness’s different attributes and logics, including: the constitution and institutional structures of the contemporary asylum; the cultural idioms behind hallucination; the means by which suicide is apprehended and approached; how testimony of the mad person is interpreted and encountered.AHR

The performance of pain: the consequences for the performing body and its portrayal of mental health

In 2001 the performance artist Kira O’Reilly wrote an article for A-N magazine1 that reflected on the institutional anxieties provoked by ‘Wet Cup’ a performance that includes the cutting and suctioning of her flesh through ‘cupping’ to draw blood. The art institution, despite inviting O’Reilly to perform the work, demonstrated their fears at showing ‘risky’ work through a process which aimed to sanction the ‘health’ of the artwork and subsequently its reflections on the artist herself. They asked O’Reilly to respond to various health and safety demands to account for her mental state and bodily health to prove that she was ‘safe’ to perform2. In asking her to conform to their demands they were making both internal and public assurances that the work was art and not the product of catharsis or breakdown. The institutional unease that O’Reilly could be acting out a psychiatric or psychological disorder through ‘Wet Cup’ demonstrated the sense of mistrust the performing body can instill. Kira O’Reilly’s experience follows a tradition within performance art that inflicts physical pain or suffering. In situating the physical or psychological transgressive within easy and ‘live’ grasp this type of practice presents the performing body as a confrontation to be negotiated. Indeed, when an artist chooses to cut or open their body or remove it from social interaction, their motives are scrutinized for deviance, distress and sanity. Are they mad, eccentric or just responding to questions that ask what it is to be observed and physical creative objects? This paper will analyse the consequences of making performance from physical acts of pain and how this can be understood as sane regarding institutional and public risk. It will reflect on the trauma, stigma and perceptive danger involved with making performance work that includes cutting, or isolating the body from more regular, everyday activity. The paper will reflect on the consequences for the artist, and perceptions of their health both in, and beyond the gallery. The year long works by Tehching Hsieh and the exploration of physical and mental limits through performance by Marina Abramović with be examined along with O’Reilly

A first step toward cognitive remediation of voices: a case study.

Several studies have shown that source-monitoring errors are related to verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. An exploratory pilot study has been carried out to investigate the possibility of training patients in how to avoid errors in source-monitoring. One patient with paranoid schizophrenia and persistent thought insertions was trained for 6 hours to use mnemonic techniques to compensate specific deficits in source-monitoring. Results show that the patient was able to improve his performance and maintain the acquired progress at a 1-month follow-up assessment. These preliminary results are interesting for developing a larger controlled study of cognitive remediation of source-monitoring deficits