Segmentation and tracking of video objects for a content-based video indexing context

This paper examines the problem of segmentation and tracking of video objects for content-based information retrieval. Segmentation and tracking of video objects plays an important role in index creation and user request definition steps. The object is initially selected using a semi-automatic approach. For this purpose, a user-based selection is required to define roughly the object to be tracked. In this paper, we propose two different methods to allow an accurate contour definition from the user selection. The first one is based on an active contour model which progressively refines the selection by fitting the natural edges of the object while the second used a binary partition tree with aPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Retrieve volunteered geographic information for forest fire

The proposed contribution describes a methodology we are testing in the framework of an exploratory research project on the contribution of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in the case-study of forest fires. The purpose of the research is to assess the value of VGI at different stages of a fire event. The first step of the methodology focuses on the retrieval of geographical information related to forest fire from social networks. VGI is intrinsically heterogeneous as it is provided by different people, using different media such as photographs, text, and video. Moreover, geographical information can be explicit and expressed as coordinates or implicit as expressed in the text as location names. In this stage of the project we are extracting text data from Twitter and photographs from Flickr

Relações de gênero em um debate sobre Mecânica Quântica e visões de Ciência entre graduandos de Física

Um dos efeitos das diferenças entre gêneros nas aulas de ciências é o estímulo às lideranças masculinas e a predominância dos pontos de vista dos garotos. A presente pesquisa investigou as relações de gênero entre graduandos em Física quanto ao exercício do papel de parceiro mais capaz em um debate mediado por um questionário sobre conceitos da Mecânica Quântica (MQ) e visões de ciência (VC). Os resultados da análise do discurso dos estudantes sinalizam para a maior propensão de que os garotos assumam a posição de parceiros mais capazes por meio de um discurso de autoridade e que algumas estudantes tenham habilidades alternativas para exercê-la, adotando um discurso jocoso e crítico

Impact of Robotic Dispensing Machines in German Pharmacies on Business Performance Indicators

Aims and objectives: To assess the impact of robotic dispensing machines in community pharmacies on staff efficiency and sales of over-the-counter drugs. Setting: The study was done on 253 community pharmacies in Germany that use a robotic dispensing machine manufactured by ROWA during 2008. Method: Data concerning the financial and economic impact of using a robotic dispensing machine in community pharmacies was gathered using a structured questionnaire and analysed in terms of its financial implications. Key findings: The response rate was 29%. In most pharmacies (79%) the robotic dispensing machine was retrofitted. In 59% of the pharmacies additional space was gained for self-service and behind-the-counter display. As a result of using a robotic dispensing machine, personnel costs were reduced by an average of 4.6% during the first 12 months after start-up. Over-the-counter sales increased in the same period by an average of 6.8%. Despite average initial costs of 118,000 euros, total costs within the first 12 months fell in 50% of cases and at least remained the same in 44%. Conclusions: On average, robotic dispensing machines lead to modest savings in personnel costs and slight increases in sales of over-the-counter drugs. Substantial savings can be achieved only if the staffing level is adapted to the changed personnel requirements

Driven-Dissipative Supersolid in a Ring Cavity

Supersolids are characterized by the counterintuitive coexistence of superfluid and crystalline order. Here we study a supersolid phase emerging in the steady state of a driven-dissipative system. We consider a transversely pumped Bose-Einstein condensate trapped along the axis of a ring cavity and coherently coupled to a pair of degenerate counterpropagating cavity modes. Above a threshold pump strength the interference of photons scattered into the two cavity modes results in an emergent superradiant lattice, which spontaneously breaks the continuous translational symmetry towards a periodic atomic pattern. The crystalline steady state inherits the superfluidity of the Bose-Einstein condensate, thus exhibiting genuine properties of a supersolid. A gapless collective Goldstone mode correspondingly appears in the superradiant phase, which can be nondestructively monitored via the relative phase of the two cavity modes on the cavity output. Despite cavity-photon losses the Goldstone mode remains undamped, indicating the robustness of the supersolid phase