Building Scalable Video Understanding Benchmarks through Sports

Existing benchmarks for evaluating long video understanding falls short on two critical aspects, either lacking in scale or quality of annotations. These limitations arise from the difficulty in collecting dense annotations for long videos, which often require manually labeling each frame. In this work, we introduce an automated Annotation and Video Stream Alignment Pipeline (abbreviated ASAP). We demonstrate the generality of ASAP by aligning unlabeled videos of four different sports with corresponding freely available dense web annotations (i.e. commentary). We then leverage ASAP scalability to create LCric, a large-scale long video understanding benchmark, with over 1000 hours of densely annotated long Cricket videos (with an average sample length of ~50 mins) collected at virtually zero annotation cost. We benchmark and analyze state-of-the-art video understanding models on LCric through a large set of compositional multi-choice and regression queries. We establish a human baseline that indicates significant room for new research to explore. Our human studies indicate that ASAP can align videos and annotations with high fidelity, precision, and speed. The dataset along with the code for ASAP and baselines can be accessed here: https://asap-benchmark.github.io/

'From local hero to national star?' : the changing cultural representation of the professional footballer in England, 1945-1984

This thesis investigates continuities and changes in the cultural representation of the professional footballer in England, modifying one of the major existing assumptions that there was a transformation in his public persona from 'local hero' to 'national star'. It does this by establishing the context and significance of the local player in both pre- and post-war football through the analysis of empirical data, as well as proposing a non-linear model for the development of football stardom. Instead of the binary opposition of the local hero/national star trope, it argues that footballers' star images embody different male cultural types. Types are complex constructions, that mutate in relation to changes within football and in society. The first two chapters analyse the results of statistical surveys of the geographical origins and careers of professionals between 1890 and 1985, concluding there was no 'golden age' when the local, 'one club' player dominated. Chapter Three examines the nature of football stardom, contending that players functioned as both stars and heroes from the earliest days of professionalism. It also adapts cross-disciplinary methodologies for using 'problematic' sources of evidence. Chapters Four and Five analyse the three main 'types' through which cultural representations of the professional are formulated and circulated. Four discusses the hegemony of the 'model professional' type which emerged in 1946 as a democratised gentleman and national hero and persisted until 1985. Five considers oppositional types, the 'hard man' and the 'maverick', constructions of less acceptable masculinity that became prominent in the 1960s, suggesting a counter-cultural challenge, that was, however, short-lived. The conclusion argues for a less linear, more reflexive paradigm for understanding cultural representations of post-war professional footballers and identifies possible future agendas for research

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

What makes bad books good? The relationship between ethical and aesthetic value

The debate surrounding the relationship between ethical and aesthetic value is myopic and Procrustean. An alternative perspective is required to account for its richness. In this thesis, I first survey existing strategies for dealing of the relationship. I then show where I part ways with them. In contrast to autonomism, I believe a relationship does exist and, in contrast to moralism, I do not think ethical value covaries neatly with aesthetic value. Moreover, though I am sympathetic to immoralism, I argue that its approach is incomplete in important respects. All these strategies try to answer the ‘thin’ question of how literary and moral value are related. Immoralism provides the best answer – but it leaves the ‘thick’ question of how literary and ethical value might be related untouched. I therefore pursue strategies for dealing of the thicker relationship. To this end, I scrutinise Nussbaum’s work on moral vision and how certain literary works are themselves works of moral philosophy. I then survey Lamarque and Olsen’s conception of literature as a nonoverlapping practice governed by a self-contained set of conventions and concepts. I argue that the focus of some works of literature draws attention to and challenges these conventions and concepts. I make a distinction between the ‘world of the work’ and the ‘work in the world’ to make this point clear. This distinction is crucial and illuminating for my answer to the thicker question. These pieces in place, I closely analyse three works – Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Thomas Mann’s Joseph and his Brothers – in accordance with the newly conceived relationship. The question ‘What makes bad books good?’ invites us to overcome our myopia with regards to how art and ethics interrelate. In truth, myriad, dynamic relationships hold between art and ethics; and truly great works can capture this

An investigation of factors which may contribute to the disproportionately high rate of exclusions of African Caribbean boys from secondary schools

African Caribbean pupils experience disproportionate rates of both fixed term and permanent exclusions from schools across Britain. Boys from Black Caribbean and Black Other ethnic groups are most affected. At the same time, a gap between attainments of African Caribbean pupils and attainments of White pupils widens through all key stages of schooling from an "on a par" start at baseline assessment. This suggests that there are factors which are educationally disadvantageous for African Caribbean pupils operating during both primary and secondary phases of schooling. These factors may derive from a wide range of sources which are not necessarily within the schooling system. Factors leading to the gap in attainments may or may not be linked with those leading to disproportionate exclusions. The overall aim of the research was to gain insight into factors operating within schools in order to indicate relevant areas for early intervention to prevent the later exclusion of African Caribbean boys. Most permanent exclusions occur from years 10 and 11 of secondary school. However these often appear to be the culmination of a longer period of deteriorating relationship between the pupil and school. Additionally adolescent "sub-cultural groupings" at this age may also serve to increase the risk of exclusion. Since the aim was to contribute to prevention, both studies were undertaken with younger groups of pupils. The first study explored the perceptions of a sample of boys at key stage 3 who had experienced fixed term exclusion, and their families. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected on views of school, the exclusion, family and pupil factors through structured face to face interviews. Comparison was made between African Caribbean and White pupil and family perceptions. Wide similarities were found between the responses, however some subtle differences emerged. Parents from the African Caribbean group viewed discipline in secondary school as significantly worse than parents from the White group. They also perceived the exclusions as significantly more "unfair", more often citing singling out of their son for blame, and confrontational styles of classroom management as contributory factors. Previous research has indicated more teacher-pupil confrontation, more teacher criticism and control, and singling out of African Caribbean boys for blame in secondary school. The current findings suggest a direct link with exclusion. Other areas of concern commented on by pupils and parents were lack of parental involvement with secondary schools, lack of genuine valuing of diversity, an excessively "Euro-centric" curriculum, and pupil views not being heard. The second study used direct observation of pupil classroom behaviour and teacher pupil interactions at key stage 2, comparing African Caribbean boys, a representative sample of White boys, and White boys matched for teacher ratings of learning and behaviour. The aim was to investigate whether there were more observed negative teacher-pupil interactions with African Caribbean boys, and if so whether these were related to differences in pupil behaviour. The findings were that the African Caribbean boys spent a significantly higher percentage of time on task, and called out to the teacher more frequently than the matched White group. The African Caribbean pupils also received significantly more negative behaviour comments from the teacher, than the White representative sample or the matched White group. This is unlikely to be entirely explicable in terms of increased calling out to the teacher. Possible reasons are discussed in relation to the research literature. The outcomes from both studies are discussed in the context of current theories of African Caribbean disadvantage within the education system. These are used to identify areas for intervention strategies in primary and secondary schools to prevent disproportionate exclusions of African Caribbean boys

Essays on Individuals’ Information Assessment, Information Disclosure, Participation, and Response Behaviors in Online Health Communities

The emergence of online health communities (OHCs) has enabled the use of information technologies to address some social and health needs including but not limited to emotional, social, and health-related issues. This information age has encouraged user generated (UG) content, which facilitates both peer-to-peer and business-to-peer interconnections. This rich and active information epoch (i.e., OHCs) is distinct in that value is generated when peers or participants—who may be content generators and/or content consumers—interact together by exchanging information and receiving supports aimed at addressing their specific needs; and this is made possible through the online platforms or support groups acting as the intermediary among users. In this dissertation, I explore the dynamics that take place in OHCs by answering varied sets of questions and addressing and stretching different scholarly discourses including individuals’ information assessment, information disclosure, participation, and response behaviors in OHCs from a variety of theoretical perspectives including disclosure decision-making model and social presence theory, using diverse methodologies such as text analytics, two-stage least squares regression technique, decision trees analysis, and vector autoregression models in the OHC context. The overarching research question is: How does assessment of information and receiver influence patients’ disclosure ability and what user information disclosure mechanisms elicit effective support behaviors in online health communities? Patients with different disease types visit OHCs to get support and this support is made possible because patients participate by interacting with peers and providing responses to each other’s discussion. Support behaviors, especially in the OHC context, is a concept that covers facets such as, provision of response; interactivity or participation in discussions; relationship management; and offering helpful, appropriate, and relevant feedback responses to meet specific information, social, or emotional needs (Huang et al., 2019; Nambisan et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2019). By exploring the research question and with the unique features that these OHC platforms exhibit—the sharing of information, participation, and receiving of supports—these essays make the following contributions. Theoretically, the findings reveal that a patient’s disease type, the sensitivity of information being disclosed, and patient’s expectation of a response show unique effects on disclosure efficacy. These factors constitute mechanisms by which patients in OHCs are motivated to disclose health information in granular forms that elicit effective community responses and feedback. This information exchange mechanisms thereby, facilitate active community participation through giving or receiving of support, and thus, fostering a dynamic interplay between individuals’ disclosure and response behaviors in the online context. Practically, online health community managers can design their platforms to provide automated and customizable tools that improve patients’ information density and information breadth skills for effective response generation; and from the results, platform management can better understand users that are motivated to participate through giving, thereby encouraging those that are weak in receiving. Also, platform managers can improve the skills of those who are weak in giving for users that are motivated to participate through receiving. Essay 1: Promoting Participants’ Information Disclosure and Response Behaviors in Online Health Communities: Disclosure Decision-Making Model Perspective In this first essay, I extend the literature on information disclosure and the disclosure decision-making model (DD-MM) by examining the factors that influence information disclosure (disclosure efficacy) and the effects of disclosure efficacy on the response users receive (response efficacy) at the granular level. Until now, both concepts—disclosure efficacy and response efficacy have been conceptualized as single constructs. This current study breaks new grounds and broaden the DD-MM model by postulating that the subconstructs have different antecedents and consequences. By examining the relationships between the subconstructs of information assessment, disclosure efficacy, and response efficacy using the two-stage least squares regression method, the results reveal some insightful dynamics, otherwise not possible with unidimensional constructs. Essay 2: Investigation of non-linear effects of first impression cues on participation in online health communities: A decision tree induction theory development approach One notable phenomenon that prior literature has extensively explored in OHC platforms is user participation, which is a necessary condition for platform sustainment and value generation. Extant research has studied user participation as a form of giving, that is, how much users participate in online platforms by generating content (e.g., posting messages, replying to messages, or posting pictures).However, participation in OHC platforms can also take the form of receiving (the consumption for content that has been generated – e.g., reading other’s posts, gaining knowledge and support), and this has witnessed little attention in prior research. This third study argues that the giving and receiving participation is a reaction to user initial participation. In this second essay, based on social presence theory (SPT), I use decision tree analysis to interrogate the effect of first impression in the initial posts on users’ giving and receiving participation. The findings provide meaningful insights for advancing research and for assisting platform managers on what to focus on to encourage users’ giving or receiving participation on their platforms. Essay 3: User Two-way Communication Efficacy Behaviors in Online Health Communities: A Longitudinal Study In this second essay, I crack into some unsupported relationships between disclosure efficacy and response efficacy shown in the previous study, which could be due to the use of cross-sectional data in the analysis, giving nonsignificant findings. Over time, it is possible that the effectiveness of the response that disclosers receive could determine whether users will further disclose or not. For example, if a discloser does not receive valuable response that addresses his or her needs, he or she may stop posting or disclosing information on the platform, thus, leading to lurking behaviors or less recommendations for others to join the online platform. This current study proposes a two-way relationship between disclosure efficacy and response efficacy of users’ interactions in online health communities instead of looking at only the one-way relationship from disclosure efficacy to response efficacy (which showed some insignificant results). From an econometric perspective, time has been shown to play a dynamic role on variables and their relationships. Thus, this current paper uses dynamic vector autoregression (VAR) modeling technique with a longitudinal data set to investigate the one-way and two-way relationships between disclosure efficacy and response efficacy and their dimensions (information density and information breadth) and (information persuasiveness and response persuasiveness), respectively. The analysis reveals a recursive relationship between disclosure efficacy and response efficacy and some of their dimensions. This is a departure from some prior literature that proposed a static linear order in end-user information consumption. The significance of the nonlinear recursive relationship is marked extension of the DD-MM model by establishing the reenforcing effect of its key variables

Journalism: New Challenges

In seeking to identify and critique a range of the most pressing challenges confronting journalism today, this book examines topics such as: the role of the journalist in a democratic society, including where questions of truth and free speech are concerned; the changing priorities of newspaper, radio, television, magazine, photography, and online news organisations; the political, economic and technological pressures on news and editorial independence; the impact of digital convergence on the forms and practices of newsgathering and storytelling; the dynamics of professionalism, such as the negotiation of impartiality and objectivity in news reports; journalists’ relationships with their sources, not least where the ‘spin’ of public relations shapes what’s covered, how and why; evolving genres of news reporting, including politics, business, sports, celebrity, documentary, war and peace journalism; journalism’s influence on its audiences, from moral panics to the trauma of representing violence and tragedy; the globalisation of news, including the role of international news agencies; new approaches to investigative reporting in a digital era; and the rise of citizen journalism, live-blogging and social media, amongst many others. The chapters are written in a crisp, accessible style, with a sharp eye to the key ideas, concepts, issues and debates warranting critical attention. Each ends with a set of ‘Challenging Questions’ to explore as you develop your own perspective, as well as a list of ‘Recommended Reading’ to help push the conversation onwards. May you discover much here that stimulates your thinking and, with luck, prompts you to participate in lively debate about the future of journalism