Near-Duplicate Image Retrieval Based on Contextual Descriptor

The state of the art of technology for near-duplicate image retrieval is mostly based on the Bag-of-Visual-Words model. However, visual words are easy to result in mismatches because of quantization errors of the local features the words represent. In order to improve the precision of visual words matching, contextual descriptors are designed to strengthen their discriminative power and measure the contextual similarity of visual words. This paper presents a new contextual descriptor that measures the contextual similarity of visual words to immediately discard the mismatches and reduce the count of candidate images. The new contextual descriptor encodes the relationships of dominant orientation and spatial position between the referential visual words and their context. Experimental results on benchmark Copydays dataset demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness for near-duplicate image retrieval

Contextual Person Identification in Multimedia Data

We propose methods to improve automatic person identification, regardless of the visibility of a face, by integration of multiple cues including multiple modalities and contextual information. We propose a joint learning approach using contextual information from videos to improve learned face models. Further, we integrate additional modalities in a global fusion framework. We evaluate our approaches on a novel TV series data set, consisting of over 100 000 annotated faces

Case studies: US-Japan comparison of attachment transmission

Today, attachment research has become increasingly more quantitative and complex, utilizing extremely sophisticated statistical analyses often based on enormous synthesized datasets across the globe (Verhage et al., 2016). This marks a significant advancement in the attachment field in particular and developmental fields in general. However, this phenomenon arguably restricts the ability to visualize interactions of each parent-child dyad, on which the relationship quality is assessed. Notably, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) are the most validated, widely-used attachment measures world-wide, known to predict attachment transmission. This paper demonstrates the qualitative presentation of attachment transmission data, comparing samples from the US and Japan. We present case studies for each main attachment category through AAI excerpts, SSP behavioral summaries, and the expected transmission process. We also compare case studies cross-culturally to confirm the universality of attachment phenomena as well as to explore any cultural differences that may affect attachment expressions

The Revisiting Problem in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping: A Survey on Visual Loop Closure Detection

Where am I? This is one of the most critical questions that any intelligent system should answer to decide whether it navigates to a previously visited area. This problem has long been acknowledged for its challenging nature in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), wherein the robot needs to correctly associate the incoming sensory data to the database allowing consistent map generation. The significant advances in computer vision achieved over the last 20 years, the increased computational power, and the growing demand for long-term exploration contributed to efficiently performing such a complex task with inexpensive perception sensors. In this article, visual loop closure detection, which formulates a solution based solely on appearance input data, is surveyed. We start by briefly introducing place recognition and SLAM concepts in robotics. Then, we describe a loop closure detection system's structure, covering an extensive collection of topics, including the feature extraction, the environment representation, the decision-making step, and the evaluation process. We conclude by discussing open and new research challenges, particularly concerning the robustness in dynamic environments, the computational complexity, and scalability in long-term operations. The article aims to serve as a tutorial and a position paper for newcomers to visual loop closure detection.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figure

Conceiving “personality”: Psychologist’s challenges and basic fundamentals of the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals

Scientists exploring individuals, as such scientists are individuals themselves and thus not independent from their objects of research, encounter profound challenges; in particular, high risks for anthropo-, ethno- and ego-centric biases and various fallacies in reasoning. The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) aims to tackle these challenges by exploring and making explicit the philosophical presuppositions that are being made and the metatheories and methodologies that are used in the field. This article introduces basic fundamentals of the TPS-Paradigm including the epistemological principle of complementarity and metatheoretical concepts for exploring individuals as living organisms. Centrally, the TPS-Paradigm considers three metatheoretical properties (spatial location in relation to individuals’ bodies, temporal extension, and physicality versus “non-physicality”) that can be conceived in different forms for various kinds of phenomena explored in individuals (morphology, physiology, behaviour, the psyche, semiotic representations, artificially modified outer appearances and contexts). These properties, as they determine the phenomena’s accessibility in everyday life and research, are used to elaborate philosophy-of-science foundations and to derive general methodological implications for the elementary problem of phenomenon-methodology matching and for scientific quantification of the various kinds of phenomena studied. On the basis of these foundations, the article explores the metatheories and methodologies that are used or needed to empirically study each given kind of phenomenon in individuals in general. Building on these general implications, the article derives special implications for exploring individuals’ “personality”, which the TPS-Paradigm conceives of as individual-specificity in all of the various kinds of phenomena studied in individuals

Effective and Ineffective University Teaching from the Students’ and Faculty’s Perspectives: Matched or Mismatched Expectations?

This paper reports on the findings from an investigation conducted in the Arab Gulf region into student and faculty perceptions of effective and ineffective teaching practices at the university level. Samples were drawn from both genders in two dissimilar academic programs: the university preparatory intensive English program (IEP) and the mainstream science program. Specifically, this study focuses on the characteristics of effective and ineffective teaching from the point of view of four population groups: English students, English faculty, science students and science faculty. The method of enquiry made use of both interviews and a questionnaire. Means, ranking, and standard deviation followed by other analyses indicated that there was a high degree of similarity between students and faculty with respect to the perceived attributes of effective and ineffective teaching. It appears that the effective teacher is the mirror image of the ineffective by being imbued with a generous dose of personality traits in addition to skills. Both faculty and students in this research conducted in the Gulf depicted the excellent university professor as someone who: (1) is respectful, (2) makes classes interesting, (3) is fair in evaluating, (4) cares about students’ success, (5) shows a love for their subject, (6) is friendly, (7) encourages questions and discussion, (8) is always well prepared and organized, and (9) makes difficult subjects easy to learn. Findings of students’ and faculty’s perspectives suggest that effective teaching is the blending of both personality and ability factors. The key factor, however, remains the teacher’s personality

Phonotactic probability and phonotactic constraints :processing and lexical segmentation by Arabic learners of English as a foreign language

PhD ThesisA fundamental skill in listening comprehension is the ability to recognize words. The ability to accurately locate word boundaries(i . e. to lexically segment) is an important contributor to this skill. Research has shown that English native speakers use various cues in the signal in lexical segmentation. One such cue is phonotactic constraints; more specifically, the presence of illegal English consonant sequences such as AV and MY signals word boundaries. It has also been shown that phonotactic probability (i. e. the frequency of segments and sequences of segments in words) affects native speakers' processing of English. However, the role that phonotactic probability and phonotactic constraints play in the EFL classroom has hardly been studied, while much attention has been devoted to teaching listening comprehension in EFL. This thesis reports on an intervention study which investigated the effect of teaching English phonotactics upon Arabic speakers' lexical segmentation of running speech in English. The study involved a native English group (N= 12), a non-native speaking control group (N= 20); and a non-native speaking experimental group (N=20). Each of the groups took three tests, namely Non-word Rating, Lexical Decision and Word Spotting. These tests probed how sensitive the subjects were to English phonotactic probability and to the presence of illegal sequences of phonemes in English and investigated whether they used these sequences in the lexical segmentation of English. The non-native groups were post-tested with the -same tasks after only the experimental group had been given a treatment which consisted of explicit teaching of relevant English phonotactic constraints and related activities for 8 weeks. The gains made by the experimental group are discussed, with implications for teaching both pronunciation and listening comprehension in an EFL setting.Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

Gardening and Watering 21st Century Soil: Culturally Responsive and Technology Enhanced Instructional Design in K12 Schools

Decades of research have documented the positive impact of culturally responsive teaching on academic outcomes for African American and LatinX students. However, as the field of education has become increasingly embedded with technology as a powerful tool of instruction, more attention is needed to understand how culturally responsive teachers use technology to close achievement gaps. Although national public policy over the last twenty-years has documented the negative impact of the digital divide on low SES, African American and LatinX students, large-scale efforts to close the divide have focused primarily on access to devices only. More recently, the second digital “use” divide has brought attention to examining teachers’ instructional practices after the physical technology infrastructure is in place. This qualitative case study explored how, why, and in what ways culturally responsive teachers used technology. Data from this study revealed that teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, their personal schooling experiences, training, disposition, mentorship, and expectations from school administrators influenced the ways in which they integrated technology with culturally responsive intentionality. This study provides insights for school leaders [post-COVID] tasked with the imperative to provide both access to technology and support for the uses of technology towards closing persistent achievement gaps. This information can also prove valuable for teachers seeking to improve technology-enhanced instructional practices toward providing equitable school experiences and long-term positive outcomes for an increasingly culturally diverse public-school population across the United States