5,574 research outputs found

    Image mining: issues, frameworks and techniques

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    [Abstract]: Advances in image acquisition and storage technology have led to tremendous growth in significantly large and detailed image databases. These images, if analyzed, can reveal useful information to the human users. Image mining deals with the extraction of implicit knowledge, image data relationship, or other patterns not explicitly stored in the images. Image mining is more than just an extension of data mining to image domain. It is an interdisciplinary endeavor that draws upon expertise in computer vision, image processing, image retrieval, data mining, machine learning, database, and artificial intelligence. Despite the development of many applications and algorithms in the individual research fields cited above, research in image mining is still in its infancy. In this paper, we will examine the research issues in image mining, current developments in image mining, particularly, image mining frameworks, state-of-the-art techniques and systems. We will also identify some future research directions for image mining at the end of this paper

    Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report (Second edition; fully revised and updated)

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    No sooner was the Internet upon us than anxiety arose over the ease of accessing pornography and other controversial content. In response, entrepreneurs soon developed filtering products. By the end of the decade, a new industry had emerged to create and market Internet filters....Yet filters were highly imprecise from the beginning. The sheer size of the Internet meant that identifying potentially offensive content had to be done mechanically, by matching "key" words and phrases; hence, the blocking of Web sites for "Middlesex County," or words such as "magna cum laude". Internet filters are crude and error-prone because they categorize expression without regard to its context, meaning, and value. Yet these sweeping censorship tools are now widely used in companies, homes, schools, and libraries. Internet filters remain a pressing public policy issue to all those concerned about free expression, education, culture, and democracy. This fully revised and updated report surveys tests and studies of Internet filtering products from the mid-1990s through 2006. It provides an essential resource for the ongoing debate

    Cyber-Democracy or Cyber-Hegemony? Exploring the Political and Economic Structures of the Internet as an Alternative Source of Information

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    Although government regulation of the Internet has been decried as undercutting free speech, the control of Internet content through capitalist gateways???namely, profit-driven software companies???has gone largely uncriticized. The author argues that this discursive trend manufactures consent through a hegemonic force neglecting to confront the invasion of online advertising or marketing strategies directed at children. This study suggests that ???inappropriate content??? (that is, nudity, pornography, obscenities) constitutes a cultural currency through which concerns and responses to the Internet have been articulated within the mainstream. By examining the rhetorical and financial investments of the telecommunications business sector, the author contends that the rhetorical elements creating ???cyber-safety??? concerns within the mainstream attempt to reach the consent of parents and educators by asking them to see some Internet content as value laden (sexuality, trigger words, or adult content), while disguising the interests and authority of profitable computer software and hardware industries (advertising and marketing). Although most online ???safety measures??? neglect to confront the emerging invasion of advertising/marketing directed at children and youth, the author argues that media literacy in cyberspace demands such scrutiny. Unlike measures to block or filter online information, students need an empowerment approach that will enable them to analyze, evaluate, and judge the information they receive.published or submitted for publicatio

    Image mining: trends and developments

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    [Abstract]: Advances in image acquisition and storage technology have led to tremendous growth in very large and detailed image databases. These images, if analyzed, can reveal useful information to the human users. Image mining deals with the extraction of implicit knowledge, image data relationship, or other patterns not explicitly stored in the images. Image mining is more than just an extension of data mining to image domain. It is an interdisciplinary endeavor that draws upon expertise in computer vision, image processing, image retrieval, data mining, machine learning, database, and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we will examine the research issues in image mining, current developments in image mining, particularly, image mining frameworks, state-of-the-art techniques and systems. We will also identify some future research directions for image mining

    Internet Filter Use In ACL Libraries

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    Will Internet filters deliver us from evil or are they a necessary evil? Are Christian colleges using Internet filters? If so, which filters? What roles are Christian librarians assuming in this decision-making process

    Genetic Selective Abortion: Still a Matter of Choice

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    Jeremy Williams has argued that if we are committed to a liberal pro-choice stance with regard to selective abortion for disability, we will be unable to justify the prohibition of sex selective abortion. Here, I apply his reasoning to selective abortion based on other traits pregnant women may decide are undesirable. These include susceptibility to disease, level of intelligence, physical appearance, sexual orientation, religious belief and criminality—in fact any traits attributable to some degree to a genetic component. Firstly, I review Williams’ argument, which claims that if a woman is granted the right to abort based on fetal impairment, then by parity of reasoning she should also be granted the right to choose sex selective abortion. I show that these same considerations that entail the permissibility of sex selective abortion are also applicable to genetic selection abortion. I then examine the objections to sex selective abortion that Williams considers and rejects, and show that they also lack force against genetic selection abortion. Finally, I consider some additional objections that might be raised, and conclude that a liberal pro-choice stance on selective abortion for disability entails the permissibility of selective abortion for most genetic traits

    A Comparison of high-end color system halftones and postscript-generated halftones

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    The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of PostScriptgenerated four-color halftones to halftones produced by traditional high-end color systems. The quality issue is one that must be addressed before a decision can be made to move magazine production onto a complete desktop publishing platform. In moving layout and design functions onto a desktop publishing platform, publishers can take advantage of PostScript as a page-description language to electronically create complete pages. Electronic assembly would eliminate the mechanical stripping step, allowing great reductions in prepress manufacturing costs. There are two routes that can be taken to output these electronic pages. First, the pages can be output via the traditional high-end color systems, like those marketed by companies such as Dupont Imaging Systems and Scitex. These systems, though expensive to purchase and maintain, are proven in terms of quality for four-color output. The alternative to the high-end method is to output pages through device-independent PostScript-driven imagesetters, like those marketed by companies such as Agfa and Linotype. These devices are low-cost in comparison to the high-end systems. The quality, however, is the subject of debate. To highlight the differences in quality, the same continuous-tone data generated from a high resolution scanner was sent for halftone film output through both a high-end imagesetter and a PostScript-driven imagesetter. The images were shown to two groups of viewers: professionals (from the printing and publishing industry) and non-professionals. The viewers were then asked questions pertaining to the sharpness, detail, contrast, tonal range, and overall pleasing color of the two sets of images. For each group, the responses were analyzed statistically to determine if there was a perceived difference between four-color images generated from a high-end color system and those generated from PostScript-driven output devices. In addition, the responses of the two groups were compared statisticaUy to determine if there was a difference between the way the professionals viewed the two images and the way non-professionals viewed them. It was determined that within the group of professionals, there was no statistically meaningful difference perceived between the high-end color and the PostScript color. The same was found to be true for the non-professionals. However, when comparing the responses of professionals to non professionals, it was found that there was a statistically meaningful difference in the pattern of their responses, or in the way they viewed the imagesthough within each of these two groups, there was no statisticaUy apparent agreement on the preferences

    A tutorial in frequency modulation screening technology for lithography

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    An impressive diversity of opinions concerning many important aspects of the Frequency Modulation process are heard from users and vendors. It has not been difficult to catch a single vendor contradicting themselves within their own publications. Many of the claims vendors make are not supported by users\u27 experiences. Other users, on the other hand, have found many of the vendors\u27 brightest claims to be realistic. The information sought for this project was aimed to answer the question What can I expect if I implement Frequency Modulation screening technology in my shop today? In order to answer that question effectively, a clear and comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of the FM process is required. The results and experiences of those that have had the opportunity to test the process are integral to a complete survey of the technology as it exists today. These requirements became the focus of this research effort. With limited access to any of the hardware and software necessary to implement an FM screen, research must necessarily be conducted by means of interviews, seminar attendance and surveys of recent publications. A list of questions was developed primarily out of the discussions at the GATF Technology Alert in Pittsburgh this past January and the Seybold Conference in Boston this spring. Both covered Frequency Modulated VI screening extensively. The GATF seminar was particularly helpful in developing a set of relevant questions that were shared by many of the users later contacted. Even among knowledgeable users and lithographic crafts people, the range of opinions on nearly every relevant topic covers the gamut of possibilities. A consensus among all of the sources included within this project on any major topic relevant to FM screening has proved difficult. The framework used here must therefore be flexible enough to accommodate contradictory opinions within its findings. Interviews were only conducted with experts recognized in the field and with users having first-hand experience in their own FM experiments. Testing and validation of the opinions and experiences reported here has not been part of this project, rather, the anecdotal experiences of many qualified users together are presented as a valid indication of what new users may expect when implementing the FM process. As it appeared that the range of possible answers to each question had been uncovered, the answers were formatted into short, self-contained bits of information. It is intended that a curious user be able to access complete chunks of knowledge contained within the document quickly without need for any supporting information (besides the requirement of familiarity with basic lithographic principles.) Most topics are less than a page. Some are more and a few are only short paragraphs. No first-hand verification of the information presented here has been attempted. By collecting the opinions and experiences of qualified users and researchers in the field familiar with the process, a body of knowledge is created which accurately reflects the state of the FM process as it currently exists and provides an answer to the question What can I expect if I implement Frequency Modulation screening technology in my shop today? Many early reports of FM screening implied that FM screening would soon sweep all of lithographic printing. As the realities and the difficulties involved in the process have become known and reported, it becomes apparent that a less enthusiastic and better balanced opinion indicates that FM screening can create a much improved print product though production difficulties make FM screening unlikely to gain wide use before dramatic improvements in the tools used to maintain process controls
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