Unsupervised Graph-based Rank Aggregation for Improved Retrieval

This paper presents a robust and comprehensive graph-based rank aggregation approach, used to combine results of isolated ranker models in retrieval tasks. The method follows an unsupervised scheme, which is independent of how the isolated ranks are formulated. Our approach is able to combine arbitrary models, defined in terms of different ranking criteria, such as those based on textual, image or hybrid content representations. We reformulate the ad-hoc retrieval problem as a document retrieval based on fusion graphs, which we propose as a new unified representation model capable of merging multiple ranks and expressing inter-relationships of retrieval results automatically. By doing so, we claim that the retrieval system can benefit from learning the manifold structure of datasets, thus leading to more effective results. Another contribution is that our graph-based aggregation formulation, unlike existing approaches, allows for encapsulating contextual information encoded from multiple ranks, which can be directly used for ranking, without further computations and post-processing steps over the graphs. Based on the graphs, a novel similarity retrieval score is formulated using an efficient computation of minimum common subgraphs. Finally, another benefit over existing approaches is the absence of hyperparameters. A comprehensive experimental evaluation was conducted considering diverse well-known public datasets, composed of textual, image, and multimodal documents. Performed experiments demonstrate that our method reaches top performance, yielding better effectiveness scores than state-of-the-art baseline methods and promoting large gains over the rankers being fused, thus demonstrating the successful capability of the proposal in representing queries based on a unified graph-based model of rank fusions

Vehicle-Rear: A New Dataset to Explore Feature Fusion for Vehicle Identification Using Convolutional Neural Networks

This work addresses the problem of vehicle identification through non-overlapping cameras. As our main contribution, we introduce a novel dataset for vehicle identification, called Vehicle-Rear, that contains more than three hours of high-resolution videos, with accurate information about the make, model, color and year of nearly 3,000 vehicles, in addition to the position and identification of their license plates. To explore our dataset we design a two-stream CNN that simultaneously uses two of the most distinctive and persistent features available: the vehicle's appearance and its license plate. This is an attempt to tackle a major problem: false alarms caused by vehicles with similar designs or by very close license plate identifiers. In the first network stream, shape similarities are identified by a Siamese CNN that uses a pair of low-resolution vehicle patches recorded by two different cameras. In the second stream, we use a CNN for OCR to extract textual information, confidence scores, and string similarities from a pair of high-resolution license plate patches. Then, features from both streams are merged by a sequence of fully connected layers for decision. In our experiments, we compared the two-stream network against several well-known CNN architectures using single or multiple vehicle features. The architectures, trained models, and dataset are publicly available at https://github.com/icarofua/vehicle-rear

Diversidade Sexual e de Gênero na Prática Clínica em Psicologia

Psicólogos(as) clínicos(as) devem oportunizar promoção de saúde para pessoas atingidas por preconceito e discriminação. Este estudo teve por objetivo investigar como questões de diversidade sexual e de gênero aparecem e são vivenciadas por profissionais da prática clínica em Psicologia. Participaram deste estudo qualitativo e exploratório 14 psicólogas (24 a 60 anos) residentes em cinco cidades do Rio Grande do Sul. Três grupos focais foram realizados e os diálogos transcritos foram submetidos à análise temática. Observou-se que práticas clínicas despatologizantes são motivadas por: crença em uma natureza psicossocial sobre a diversidade, preocupação com estereótipos e linguagem inadequada, formação clínica via conhecimentos despatologizantes e contato interpessoal com pessoas LGBT. Por outro lado, práticas patologizantes são motivadas por: crença em uma natureza biológica, psicológica, religiosa ou ético-moral sobre a diversidade, inobservância da reprodução de estereótipos e linguagem inadequada, formação clínica via conhecimentos patologizantes (explícitos e implícitos), silenciamentos e nenhum ou pouco contato interpessoal com pessoas LGBT.Los psicólogos(as) clínicos(as) deben fomentar la promoción de la salud para las personas afectadas por prejuicio y discriminación. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo el estudio de cómo las cuestiones de diversidad sexual y de género aparecen y son experimentadas por profesionales de la práctica clínica en Psicología. Participaron de este estudio cualitativo y exploratorio 14 psicólogas (de 24 a 60 años) residentes en cinco ciudades del estado de Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Tres grupos focales se realizaron y los diálogos transcritos se sometieron al análisis temático. Se observó que las prácticas clínicas despatologizantes están motivadas por: creencia en una naturaleza psicosocial sobre la diversidad, preocupación por estereotipos y lenguaje inadecuado, formación clínica vía conocimientos despatologizantes y contacto interpersonal con personas LGBT. Por otro lado, las prácticas patologizantes son motivadas por: creencia en una naturaleza biológica, psicológica, religiosa o ético-moral sobre la diversidad, inobservancia de la reproducción de estereotipos y lenguaje inadecuado, formación clínica vía conocimientos patologizantes (explícitos e implícitos), silenciamientos y ninguno o poco contacto interpersonal con personas LGBT.Clinical psychologists should foster the health promotion for people affected by prejudice and discrimination. This study aimed to investigate how issues of sexual and gender diversity appear and are experienced by professionals of clinical practice in Psychology. Participants in this qualitative and exploratory study were 14 female psychologists (aged between 24 and 60 years old) living in five cities of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. Three focus groups were performed and the dialogues were submitted to thematic analysis. It was noted that clinical practices of depathologization were motivated by: belief in a psychosocial nature about diversity, concern with stereotypes and inadequate language, clinical training via knowledge based on depathologization and interpersonal contact with LGBT people. On the other hand, pathological practices are motivated by: belief in a biological, psychological, religious or ethical-moral nature about diversity, non-observance of stereotypes and inappropriate language reproduction, clinical training via pathological knowledge (explicit and implicit), silencing, and none or little interpersonal contact with LGBT people

Influence of light conditions (colour temperature and illuminance) on the evaluation of root translucency for the application of Lamendin’s age‑at‑death estimation technique

Estimation of age-at-death represents a central focus in forensic human identification, as it is a key parameter used in the identification of unidentified bodies. In 1992, Lamendin et al. published a simple technique for estimating the age-at-death of adult skeletal remains based on two dental criteria: the gingival regression and the extent of dentine translucency. Although Lamendin’s technique is widely used in forensic contexts and the evaluation of root translucency is a key element in the technique, the light conditions for measuring this parameter have not been adequately established. The aim of the present study is to analyse the influence of colour temperature and illuminance level of a LED light source when root translucency is evaluated to optimize the use of Lamendin’s technique for age-at-death estimation. The results describe how light settings may affect the visual perception of root translucency by different examiners and, therefore, affect the accuracy of the ageat- death estimation methods and techniques based on this parameter.Universita degli Studi G. D'Annunzio Chieti Pescara within the CRUI-CARE Agreemen

O PAPEL DAS INSTITUIÇÕES EDUCACIONAIS NA GESTÃO ESTRATÉGICA DO MARKETING DE CIDADES: UM ESTUDO DE CASO

Este artigo apresenta como as ações de uma instituição educacional se integram de forma colaborativa com o desenvolvimento da localidade, segundo a visão da gestão estratégica do marketing cidades. No contexto de uma cidade com vocação turística e uma relativa carência nas qualificações voltadas ao atendimento ao turista e aos clientes, observa-se que a instituição educacional, em evidência neste estudo de caso, oferta mais que cursos. Suas ações de ensino, pesquisa e extensão atuam de forma colaborativa com o município na busca de um caminho que visa a melhoria dos diferentes segmentos: artesãos, empresários, pessoas que valorizam a cultura, visitantes do museu, professores da rede municipal, entre outros. Em fim, não apenas na formação de alunos, mas na construção de uma cidade melhor para moradores e visitantes