GRASS: A Gradient-Based Random Sampling Scheme for Milano Retinex

Retinex is an early and famous theory attempting to estimate the human color sensation derived from an observed scene. When applied to a digital image, the original implementation of retinex estimates the color sensation by modifying the pixels channel intensities with respect to a local reference white, selected from a set of random paths. The spatial search of the local reference white influences the final estimation. The recent algorithm energy-driven termite retinex (ETR), as well as its predecessor termite retinex, has introduced a new path-based image aware sampling scheme, where the paths depend on local visual properties of the input image. Precisely, the ETR paths transit over pixels with high gradient magnitude that have been proved to be important for the formation of color sensation. Such a sampling method enables the visit of image portions effectively relevant to the estimation of the color sensation, while it reduces the analysis of pixels with less essential and/or redundant data, i.e., the flat image regions. While the ETR sampling scheme is very efficacious in detecting image pixels salient for the color sensation, its computational complexity can be a limit. In this paper, we present a novel Gradient-based RAndom Sampling Scheme that inherits from ETR the image aware sampling principles, but has a lower computational complexity, while similar performance. Moreover, the new sampling scheme can be interpreted both as a path-based scanning and a 2D sampling

Participation, knowledge production, and evaluative research: participation by different actors in a mental health study

This article reflects on the interrelations between participation, knowledge production, and public policy evaluation in light of issues from our own experience with evaluative research on a municipal network of Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in Brazil. The article discusses the coordination of the complex process and the potentials and limits of partnerships for conducting qualitative evaluative studies in mental health with participation by different social actors. The authors conclude that qualitative evaluative research aligned with the perspective of including different points of view representing various segments is the best approach for understanding the numerous spin-offs from the implementation of services linked to the Brazilian psychiatric reform movement, given the inherent specificities of the mental health field.No presente texto apresentamos considerações sobre pesquisa avaliativa qualitativa e participativa com base em investigação desta natureza realizada junto a uma rede municipal de Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS) ligados ao Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). A coordenação do complexo processo, bem como as potencialidades e limites do estabelecimento de parcerias para a realização de trabalhos de investigação avaliativa qualitativa em saúde mental, com a inclusão de diferentes atores sociais, são aqui discutidas. Concluímos que a pesquisa avaliativa qualitativa aliada à perspectiva de inclusão de distintos pontos de vista dos vários segmentos envolvidos é a que melhor se adequa à compreensão dos muitos desdobramentos oriundos da implementação de serviços ligados ao movimento de reforma psiquiátrica brasileira, dado as especificidades inerentes ao campo da saúde mental.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)Universidade Estadual de Campinas FCMUNIFESPSciEL

The rise and change of the competence strategy: reflections on twenty-five years of skills policies in the EU

The principal aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of 25 years of competence policy in the European Union, highlighting connections between past and current initiatives and outlining possible scenarios for the decade to come. The article presents the social investment turn in social policy as the critical political background against which the emergence of a competence strategy in European Union education policy should be analysed and understood. The competence strategy, it is argued, finds its roots in a renewed attention at the European Union level for harmonising educational outputs and labour market demands. While trying to produce a schematic history of the emergence and change of the competence strategy, the article does not seek to offer strict definitions of competence itself; instead, it conveys the nebulous and context-dependent nature of the concept