Search

It is commonly assumed that images, whether in the world or in the head, do not have a privileged analysis into constituent parts. They are thought to lack the sort of syntactic structure necessary for representing complex contents and entering into sophisticated patterns of inference. I reject this assumption. "Image grammars" are models in computer vision that articulate systematic principles governing the form and content of images. These models are empirically credible and can be construed as literal grammars for images. Images can have rich syntactic structure, though of a markedly different form than sentences in language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In approximation theory, classical discrete operators, like generalized sampling, Szász‐Mirak'jan, Baskakov, and Bernstein operators, have been extensively studied for scalar functions. In this paper, we look at the approximation of curves by a class of discrete operators, and we exhibit graphical examples concerning several cases. The topic has useful implications about the computer graphics and the image processing: We discuss applications on the approximation and the reconstruction of curves in images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses critical discourse analysis to investigate artificial intelligence (AI) generated images of aged care nurses and considers how perspectives and perceptions impact upon the recruitment and retention of nurses. The article demonstrates a recontextualization of aged care nursing, giving rise to hidden ideologies including harmful stereotypes which allow for discrimination and exploitation. It is argued that this may imply that nurses require fewer clinical skills in aged care, diminishing the value of working in this area. AI relies on existing data sets, and thus represent existing stereotypes and biases. The discourse analysis has highlighted key issues which may further impact upon nursing recruitment and retention, and advocates for stronger ethical consideration, including the use of experts in data validation, for the way that aged care services and nurses are depicted and thus valued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we get into trouble in philosophy, and what do pictures have to do with it? This article addresses Frank Ebersole's thoughts on (Wittgenstein's remarks on) pictures in philosophy. It identifies the puzzlement generated for Ebersole by what Wittgenstein says and also considers some puzzling aspects of Ebersole's own renderings of pictures. It distinguishes between the philosophical picture and the pictorial form in which it may be crystalized and shows how philosophy's reliance on situationally disembedded grammatical stories (pictorial or not) leads us into trouble. Accordingly, responding to such trouble consists not in recovering the picture, in the sense of a single "object" or image we had before our mind's eye, but in—what is better described as Ebersole's strategy of—supplying a grammatical example (pictorial or otherwise) to go with our thinking, an example that makes what we think and say clear to ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) is a non‐thermal auroral emission with peak emission occurring at 100–400 kHz. Its properties have been extensively studied since Cassini's arrival at Saturn until mission end with its Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) experiment. Low Frequency Extensions (LFEs) of SKR which consist of global intensifications of SKR accompanied by extensions of the main SKR band down to lower frequencies have been studied in particular. Low Frequency Extensions result from internally driven tail reconnection and from solar wind compressions of the magnetosphere, which also trigger tail reconnection. They have been cataloged through visual inspection with two approaches, using an intensity threshold for LFEs in 2006 (Reed et al., 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ja024499) and more recently O'Dwyer et al. (2023a, https://doi.org/10.25546/103103) produced a sample of LFEs detected by Cassini/RPWS by fitting their exact frequency‐time coordinates with polygons. In this study we use the latter catalog of LFEs as a training set for an image based machine learning algorithm to classify all LFEs detected by Cassini/RPWS. The inputs to the model are multi‐channel images consisting of spectrogram images in flux density and degree of circular polarization. The outputs of the model are binary masks showing the exact location of the LFE in frequency‐time space. The median Intersection Over Union across the testing and training set were calculated to be 0.97 and 0.98, respectively. The output of this study is a list of all 4,874 LFEs detected using this method. The list of LFE frequency‐time coordinates is available for use amongst the scientific community. Plain Language Summary: We are using radio observations from the Cassini spacecraft that was in orbit around the planet Saturn for 13 years. We want to search for characteristic features of Saturn's auroral radio emissions (called Saturn Kilometric Radiation or SKR) in the data stream from the radio instrument—specifically events called Low Frequency Extensions (LFEs). The edges of these events can be tracked in time‐frequency spectrograms of Cassini radio observations. We find several hundred examples of the LFEs that we're looking for, and feed these into a computer algorithm which learns what they look like. The algorithm can then be applied to new/unseen data and we allow it to search for similar events. The end result is an extensive catalog of all the LFEs observed throughout the 13‐year near‐Saturn mission by the radio instrument of Cassini. This catalog can be used by the scientific community as a basis for statistical studies of Saturn's radio emissions. The machine learning aspect of this work can be adapted through something known as transfer learning to other planets where we look for similar features in data. Key Points: Supervised learning applied to database of labeled polygons marked on radio spectrogramsFocus on Low Frequency Extensions of Saturn Kilometric Radiation to return a full catalog from the Cassini missionA modified U‐Net architecture achieved median Intersection over Union values of 0.98 and 0.97 across the training and testing set [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective integration of RGB and depth map features to improve the performance of RGB‐D salient object detection (SOD) has garnered significant research interest. The existing dual‐stream models can be used for high‐level feature fusion or unidirectionally transferring depth features to RGB features; however, they are unable to fully exploit the differences in modality. Furthermore, owing to the influence of image background information, the generated salient object is affected by background swallow. Herein, a three‐stream RGB‐D SOD method based on cross‐layer and cross‐modal dual‐attention (CMDA) fusion is proposed. In the encoding stage, the CMDA fusion module is used to fuse RGB and depth features layer by layer. Through this module, merged interactive features may be used to extract the richer features of salient objects, realize the commonality and complementarity of fusion features, and achieve effective cross‐modal fusion. In addition, for the decoding stage, a cross‐level feature fusion module that introduces global context features into the up‐sampling process, reduces the impact of salient objects being swallowed by the background, and helps to accurately detect salient areas is proposed. Three different branch features are used for simultaneous end‐to‐end training. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other methods in terms of multiple evaluation metrics on four datasets. Furthermore, the authors visualize the precision–recall curve, F‐measure curve, and saliency map, which indicate that the detection effect of the proposed method is superior to those of other methods. During the testing stage, our model ran at 14 frames per second (FPS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the United States Congress passed the Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, biologists played an increasingly significant role in scientific studies of water pollution. Biologists interacted with other experts, notably engineers, who managed the public agencies devoted to water pollution control. Although biologists were at first marginalized within these agencies, the situation began to change by the early 1960s. Biological data became an integral part of water pollution control. While changing societal values, stimulated by an emerging ecological awareness, may explain broader shifts in expert opinion during the 1960s, this article explores how graphs changed experts' perceptions of water pollution. Experts communicated with each other via reports, journal articles, and conference speeches. Those sources reveal that biologists began experimenting with new graphical methods to simplify the complex ecological data they collected from the field. Biologists, I argue, followed the engineers' lead by developing graphical methods that were concise and quantitative. Their need to collaborate with engineers forced them to communicate, negotiate, and overcome conflicts and misunderstandings. By meeting engineers' expectations and promoting the value of their data through images as much as words, biologists asserted their authority within water pollution control by the early 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way in which one understands information and concepts, and the way a student works to develop this, is an individual aspect of learning that cannot be universally defined as (at least manifested) the same for everyone. 'Understanding' is a broad term, and the way one achieves understanding is dependent on the way that material is presented. In this article, we argue that the philosophy of science can be important to nursing education—in particular, by showing that the way we imbue understanding might depend on the meaning of 'understanding'. Diagrams and concept maps are meant to guide newly formed knowledge and connections to develop proper thinking (e.g., the order in which nursing students must prioritize data) that a student requires in the field. We argue that whether or not an image/diagram/concept map confers understanding will depend on both what the object is and what we mean by 'understanding'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a performative piece of writing in the presence of and inspired by Richard Shusterman's Philosophy and the Art of Writing. It tries to show that the relationship between the act of writing and the formation of our human consciousness (philosophical and, more deeply, poietic) is a developing and growing process through history, and before it. The dominance of an image consciousness was slowly challenged and then replaced by a linguistic consciousness with the advent of writing, and accelerated by the invention of printing and mass literacy. Shusterman teaches us an embodied kind of philosophizing that uses the word but isn't limited by it. This paper suggests that a return to image consciousness has already occurred and that the old book consciousness is disappearing. Lessons from the book consciousness are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both dermatopathology and dermatology are highly visual medical specialties. We performed a bibliometric literature survey of the visual arts in reference to either discipline to better understand how medical literature approaches art within the context of the two specialties. Materials and Methods: We performed a bibliometric analysis of publications found via multiple medical search engines and selected keywords meant to capture art‐related publications in dermatopathology and dermatology. Keywords (art, portrait, painting, dermatology, dermatopathology) and keyword combinations were entered into the search engines PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Pubs Hub, and Scopus. Topics of articles, years of publication, countries of origin, and contributing journals were compiled and analyzed. Results: Eighty publications were retrieved between January 1903 and August 2021. The highest number of articles were found in both PubMed and Google Scholar (n = 55), and the top publication year was 2020 (n = 11). Geographically, the United States of America (n = 38) had the greatest number of articles. The dermatology and art keyword combination yielded the most journal articles (n = 36), and the maximum number of publications were retrieved from JAMA Dermatology (n = 14) followed by the American Journal of Dermatopathology (n = 10). Conclusion: Our survey showed an increasing number of publications related to the visual arts and dermatopathology/dermatology during the examined period, and a transition from observational case studies (often relating to art history) to articles examining the incorporation of the visual arts into medical training programs or professional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a method to compute spatial scales for images acquired by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover (Mars Science Laboratory, MSL). The method is based on the assumption that the rover stands on an infinite plane that may have any orientation with respect to the local gravity vector. While not new, it is the first time that this method is systematically applied to Martian images acquired by a lander. A continuously run software pipeline processes the images acquired by the rover within a 20 m radius, adds approximate scalebars to the raw images, and generates, whenever possible, rectified (warped) versions of those images. The products of this software pipeline and the chemical compositions of relevant rover science targets from NASA's Planetary Data System archive, are made available to the public via the Approximate Scale for Images and Chemistry website, which has been developed in collaboration with the Planetary Data System Analyst's Notebook for the MSL mission. Hyperlinks connect the two resources. Plain Language Summary: We developed a software pipeline that calculates the spatial scale of images acquired by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover. The software pipeline is linked to a new website: the Approximate Scale for Images and Chemistry, in which the scalebar products are paired with information about the shape, size, color, and chemical composition of the imaged site, obtained by the rover suite of instruments. The images mimic the vantage point of human eyes and are therefore well‐suited to inspire field geologists (including those mainly working on Earth) to interpret Martian geologic features. Key Points: A systematic method to generate approximate scalebars for obliquely acquired Martian landscape images was developedA newly created Approximate Scale for Images and Chemistry (ASIC) website links images, color, spatial scale, and chemistry, as returned by NASA's Curiosity rover in Gale craterThe ASIC website is complementary and strongly linked to the Analyst's Notebook, the data resource for Martian/lunar landed missions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In lay and academic discourse, bureaucracy almost seems coterminous with the production and circulation of paper, writing, and type. Indeed, the flows of bureaucratic paperwork and documentation weigh heavy, but how are other media and material forms implicated in bureaucratic relationships and encounters? This Special Section considers the photographic portrait as an enduring bureaucratic technology across different histories and geographies. How are people's likenesses key media of social recognition and aspirational performances of citizenship? Given that making and circulating images is now widely accessible across the globe, how has photography become a significant means through which subjects struggle for recognition in the contemporary moment? Focusing on state borders and categories, we argue that bureaucracy's demand for identification documents has not only sustained photographic practices but also shaped the ways people in liminal positions advance claims of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Mental health problems are increasing at an alarming rate, calling for the need for more cost‐effective and easily accessible interventions. Visual images and sounds depicting nature have been found to have positive effects on individuals' mood and well‐being; however, the combined effects of images and sounds have been scarcely investigated. This study therefore aimed to compare the mood effects of viewing nature‐related soothing images versus listening to soothing sounds versus a combination of both. Methods: In this study, 149 participants aged 18–83 years old (M = 35.88, SD = 15.63; 72.5% female, male 26.8%,.7% transgender) were randomised into three intervention conditions: images only, sounds only or combined (images and sounds). Baseline depressive and anxiety symptoms were indexed, and four outcome variables (positive affect, negative affect, serenity affect and depressive mood states) were measured pre‐ and post‐intervention. Results: Findings showed that all participants, regardless of group, reported a decrease in negative affect, positive affect and depressive mood as well as an increase in serenity affect (including feelings of soothe). However, there were no group differences. Exploratory analyses found that individuals with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline experienced greater reduction in negative affect and depressive mood state, as well as a larger increase in serenity affect. Conclusions: These findings therefore provide preliminary evidence that, upon further research and development, images and sounds depicting nature can potentially be developed for use as an effective tool to improve mood and well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The popularity of the cloud storage space mainly attracted organizations to store their data in them. Therefore, the avoidance of duplicate data contents is unavoidable and several users share the cloud storage space for data storage, and sometimes this makes higher storage space utilization. Because of the extremely high duplicate copy, memory wastage arises in the case of multimedia data. Identifying the final duplicate copies in the cloud takes more time. To overcome this problem, we employ a significant storage optimization model for deduplication. The digital data hash value is stored by requiring an additional memory space. This study proposed an enhanced prefix hash tree (EPHT) method to optimize the image and text deduplication system to reduce the overhead caused by this procedure. The efficiency of the proposed approach is compared with the interpolation search technique using different levels of tree height (2, 4, 2, 8, 16) in terms of space and time complexity. The proposed EPHT technique shows improvements in terms of speed and space complexity when the number of levels in the EPHT increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Seeing alcohol in media has been demonstrated to increase alcohol craving, impulsive decision‐making, and hazardous drinking. Due to the exponential growth of (social) media use it is important to develop algorithms to quantify alcohol exposure efficiently in electronic images. In this article, we describe the development of an improved version of the Alcoholic Beverage Identification Deep Learning Algorithm (ABIDLA), called ABIDLA2. Methods: ABIDLA2 was trained on 191,286 images downloaded from Google Image Search results (based on search terms) and Bing Image Search results. In Task‐1, ABIDLA2 identified images as containing one of eight beverage categories (beer/cider cup, beer/cider bottle, beer/cider can, wine, champagne, cocktails, whiskey/cognac/brandy, other images). In Task‐2, ABIDLA2 made a binary classification between images containing an "alcoholic beverage" or "other". An ablation study was performed to determine which techniques improved algorithm performance. Results: ABIDLA2 was most accurate in identifying Whiskey/Cognac/Brandy (88.1%) followed by Beer/Cider Can (80.5%), Beer/Cider Bottle (78.3%), and Wine (77.8%). Its overall accuracy was 77.0% (Task‐1) and 87.7% (Task‐2). Even the identification of the least accurate beverage category (Champagne, 64.5%) was more than five times higher than random chance (12.5% = 1/8 categories). The implementation of balanced data sampler to address class skewness and the use of self‐training to make use of a large, secondary, weakly labeled dataset particularly improved overall algorithm performance. Conclusion: With extended capabilities and a higher accuracy, ABIDLA2 outperforms its predecessor and enables the screening of any kind of electronic media rapidly to estimate the quantity of alcohol exposure. Quantifying alcohol exposure automatically through algorithms like ABIDLA2 is important because viewing images of alcoholic beverages in media tends to increase alcohol consumption and related harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by challenges in social communication and the presence of repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. Notably, males are four times as likely as females to be diagnosed with autism. Despite efforts to increase representation and characterization of autistic females, research studies consistently enroll small samples of females, or exclude females altogether. Importantly, researchers often rely on standardized measures to confirm diagnosis prior to enrollment in research studies. We retrospectively analyzed the effects of one such measure (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ADOS) on research inclusion/exclusion rates by sex in autistic adults, all of whom had a preexisting community diagnosis of autism (n = 145, 95 male, 50 female). Using the ADOS as a confirmatory diagnostic measure resulted in the exclusion of autistic females at a rate over 2.5 times higher than that of autistic males. We compared sex ratios in our sample to those in other large, publically available datasets that rely either on community diagnosis (6 datasets, total n = 42,209) or standardized assessments (2 datasets, total n = 214) to determine eligibility of participants for research. Reliance on community diagnosis rather than confirmatory diagnostic assessments resulted in significantly more equal sex ratios. These results provide evidence for a "leaky" recruitment‐to‐research pipeline for females in autism research. Lay Summary: Despite efforts to increase the representation of autistic females in research, studies consistently enroll small samples of females or exclude females altogether. We find that despite making up almost 50% of the initially recruited sample based upon self‐report of community diagnosis, autistic females are disproportonately excluded from research participation as a result of commonly used autism diagnostic measures. In our sample, and several other publically available datasets, reliance on community diagnosis resulted in significantly more equal sex ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media representations can have significant influence in shaping opinions and influence public response to certain communities or gender and ethnic representations around the world. Investigating semiotic representation in linguistic discourse as vehicles for meaning in culture has been a fruitful area of research over the past decades. This study explores how stereotypes of women feed into the representations of Saudi women in contemporary press in Britain and Saudi Arabia. The focus is on the newspaper genre. Data for this study have been gleaned from a particular set of British and Saudi newspapers. Using the Color Image Scale (CIS) as a research tool, this study yielded a number of findings, the main one of which is the discrepancy in Saudi women's representation in the journalistic discourse under study. In addition, variances in color choice and usage between the newspapers in the present study were apparent. The study provides an important opportunity to advance our understanding of Saudi women's representation in British versus Saudi newspapers. The present study also makes a major contribution to research on critical discourse analysis by demonstrating how power as well as orientalism impact Saudi women's representation. The findings of this study are important for scholars of gender, religion, media, and cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of images in intercultural training in youth mental health care. Drawing on ethnographic work conducted with practitioners taking part in transcultural seminars, this article discusses how the attention paid to images during these meetings can enable practitioners to adopt a different way of looking at the families they work with. To do so, I draw from the writings of theorists who have reflected on how images work and the power they can have over us. I first turn to the Barthian notion of punctum, and then to Kaja Silverman's argument on the role of the aesthetic object in "educating our look." Through an ethnographic vignette, I describe how images flow during a meeting and impact the people present. I argue that working with images in intercultural training is more productive in transforming the colonial gaze than making theoretical statements that trainees may interpret as judgmental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present more than 250,000 wind vectors derived from the visible (513 nm) images captured by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard ESA's Venus Express orbiter in the Southern hemisphere from 01 July 2007 to 29 January 2013. From comparison to the wind velocity derived from tracking of the descent probes, these measurements correspond to 60 ± 3 km altitude, being between two levels 70 ± 2 km and 55 ± 2 km, probed by VMC in ultraviolet (UV) (365 nm) and NIR (965 nm) channels, respectively. The mean zonal wind suggests retrograde circulation with mean zonal wind speed decreasing from 76.5 to 61.5 m/s at 30°–65°S. In low latitudes, 10–20°S, it increased to 82 m/s over the course of the mission. The mean zonal flow depends on local solar time and latitude and is affected by the large‐scale topography. The meridional winds indicated equatorward flow of up to 7 m/s in the middle and low cloud opposite to that derived from simultaneous UV observations at the cloud top. Plain Language Summary: Dynamics of the Venus atmosphere is dominated by a strong zonal retrograde circulation called "superrotation." The physical mechanisms maintaining this unique regime are poorly understood due to insufficient observational data. For about eight years, the Venus Monitoring Camera onboard ESA's Venus Express orbiter monitored motions of the cloud features in three spectral ranges: ultraviolet (UV) (365 nm), visible (513 nm), and near‐infrared (915 nm). These wavelengths probed different altitudes: 70 ± 2 km, 60 ± 3 km, and 55 ± 2 km correspondingly, thus providing wind field tomography. In this paper, we present more than 250,000 wind vectors derived from the visible images. The results suggest decrease of the retrograde mean zonal wind speed from 76.5 to 61.5 m/s at 30°–65°S, and its increase up to 82 m/s at 10–20°S and show pronounced variations with local solar time, latitude, and surface topography. Interestingly, the meridional winds indicate equatorward flow of up to 7 m/s in the deep cloud opposite to that previously derived from UV images at the cloud top. Key Points: More than 250,000 wind vectors at 57–63 km altitude were derived from the images taken by the Venus Monitoring Camera /Venus Express visible (513 nm) channelMean zonal wind speed accelerated by ∼18.5 m/s at 30 ± 5°S over 8 Venusian yearsZonal wind speed decreased from 85 m/s at the equator to 35 m/s at 80°S, meridional wind of up to 7 m/s velocity is directed equatorward [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This methodological paper investigates how visual methods contribute to the understanding of consumers' values. The study adopts a digital ethnography approach in which participant generated photographs and videos unearth complex and intangible consumer values associated with food consumption. The findings indicate that visual methods are powerful in moving beyond the representational and offer a transformative capability for participants in making abstract constructs more concrete. The research illustrates that embedded visual methods are compelling in giving "voice" to participants and as such they are more engaged with the research process. In addition, the study suggests that visual methods provide valuable and more complete insights into consumer research when text, sound, and image interplay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to advance our understanding of the role of visual discourse in day‐to‐day European Union (EU) politics. The article presents an analytical framework allowing for a fourfold view on the roles of images in politics; namely, images as: (1) emblems underpinning actors' interests, (2) representations of collective meaning‐making, (3) means of domination and (4) ordering devices for including/excluding actors and ideas in politics. The article zooms in on the EU Commission visual discourse and analyses images from three Directorate‐General flagship magazines. The article argues that, the Commission adheres – and increasingly so – to a visual discourse allowing the Commission to set policy agendas and frame policy options, while avoiding creating adversaries among other key actors in EU politics. It also allows for identity‐building, while eschewing further estranging publics sceptical of EU supranationalism and keeping political actors in favour of common EU policies on board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In‐situ, high‐frequency and long‐term monitoring of forest canopy development is vital for improved understanding in many fields of ecology. Although there are well‐established commercial instruments measuring light interception and digital hemispherical photography methods, the equipment cost (thousands of pounds) and lack of field robustness make these instruments not suitable for long‐term unattended measurements and can only give the high‐resolution spatial sampling usually required in forests when used manually, with substantial effort.Here we present a low‐cost Raspberry Pi camera system that is robust and suitable for the acquisition of long‐term, high‐frequency forest canopy images. The low cost of each camera means multiple systems could be used to provide the required spatial sampling. We also present an open‐source R script for post‐processing these images to provide a semi‐automated processing chain, easily adaptable for use at other forest sites.Four individual camera systems were tested at a deciduous oak forest in SE England over three growing seasons. These ground‐based camera systems were used to take upward‐facing images of a forest canopy every 30 min. The timing of canopy seasonal development, derived from the novel Raspberry Pi method, compared well with an established technique based on canopy light interception measurements.With a cost of approximately £80, these systems have the potential to enable unattended widespread forest canopy monitoring at a very low cost, providing high spatial and temporal resolution that has previously been unattainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although there exist videos and images created by Obesity Canada and similar organizations (e.g., the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity), it is not known if the materials have the desired effect of reducing stigma against people with obesity and might have the opposite effect of increasing stigma. Therefore, two studies used implicit and explicit evaluations to examine the effectiveness of images and videos intended to reduce weight stigma. Methods: Study 1 participants (N = 284; Mage = 31.47 years [SD = 11.26]; 177 self‐identified as women; 83 self‐identified as living with obesity) completed two implicit measures (one with images of people living with obesity and the other with control images) followed by a weight stigma questionnaire. Study 2 participants (N = 308; Mage = 31.54 years [SD = 11.35]; 153 self‐identified as women; 59 self‐identified as living with obesity) were randomly assigned to view an obesity and exercise video and images of persons with obesity, control video and images of persons with obesity, obesity and exercise video and control images, or control video and control images, followed by the implicit measures and explicit evaluation questionnaire. Results: Implicit evaluations of the control images were more positive than the images of persons with obesity. Participants with no history of obesity who saw the control video and control images had lower weight stigma compared to participants in the other conditions. Conclusions: Materials created to reduce weight stigma might not be effective among people with no history of obesity themselves or via a family member or friend. Intervention and health promotion researchers may wish to investigate effects of the images in combination with other messages because simply using the nonstigmatizing images is likely not enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather phenomenon recognition notably affects many aspects of our daily lives, for example, weather forecast, road condition monitoring, transportation, agriculture, forestry management, and the detection of the natural environment. In contrast, few studies aim to classify actual weather phenomenon images, usually relying on visual observations from humans. To the best of our knowledge, the traditional artificial visual distinction between weather phenomena takes a lot of time and is prone to errors. Although some studies improved the recognition accuracy and efficiency of weather phenomenon by using machine learning, they identified fewer types of weather phenomena. In this paper, a novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN) named MeteCNN is proposed for weather phenomena classification. Meanwhile, we establish a data set called the weather phenomenon database (WEAPD) containing 6,877 images with 11 weather phenomena, which has more categories than the previous data set. The classification accuracy of MeteCNN on the WEAPD testing set is around 92%, and the experimental result demonstrates the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed MeteCNN model. Realizing the automatic and high‐quality classification of weather phenomena images can provide a reference for future research on weather image classification and weather forecasting. Key Points: A novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN) named MeteCNN was proposed for weather phenomena classificationWe established a data set called the weather phenomenon database (WEAPD) containing 6,877 images with 11 weather phenomena, which has more categories than the previous dataset [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some longtime locals in Shanghai, China, street propaganda's periodic renovations muddle the distinction between still and moving images. When the cyclic changing of propaganda pieces began to acquire filmic qualities for those who bore witness, they made recourse to these narrative and episodic properties to critique their experiences of political instability. Their discourses implicate media forms as genres of experiencing political transformation. Moreover, their refusal of still images in favor of fungible, overlapping filmic sequences lends ethnographic texture to ongoing scholarly debates about how to historicize the nonlinear development of contemporary Chinese politics, especially under the analytic of "postsocialism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The image of dietitians presented on the Internet shapes public perception of the profession, which in turn may influence engagement with professionals. The aim was to describe the portrayal of the dietetic profession on the Internet and how this aligns with international professional demographics. Methods: In this cross‐sectional observational study, images appearing in two Google image searches using the word 'dietitian' were analysed for content by two independent researchers. A coding framework was used to identify personal characteristics of professionals and others presented in the image, as well as the work setting. These were compared to demographic data of members of professional associations in Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Results: The dietitian portrayed in the images (n = 339) was most often female (88%), Caucasian (72%), aged between 26–39 years (63%), pictured alone (78%), pictured with food (78%) and in a setting that could not be determined (76%). The age and gender profile presented matches the characteristics of the international workforce; however, there was an absence of images illustrating dietitians in authentic work roles. Conclusions: The images resulting from an online search for 'dietitian' do not fully illustrate the profession. There are opportunities to create and share authentic images online that show the breadth of work roles and diversity of professionals' age, gender, cultural background and size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes two of Hans Sachs's Meisterlieder which treat ancient tales of a statue and its destruction. Both unpublished, these songs have not received scholarly attention, and yet their subject matter gains a particular resonance against the background of the early modern debate in German regions on images and their proper function. Drawing on a distinction made in ancient Greek between an eikōn and an eidōlon, the essay explores how the songs depict different attitudes towards statuary: what a statue is, what it claims to represent, and how its representational strategies can fail or be foiled. Through comparison with Sachs's purported source, the German mythographer Johannes Herold's work, this essay posits that both songs suggest that iconoclasm can be an appropriate response to statues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research synthesis, such as comparative and meta‐analyses, requires the extraction of effect sizes from primary literature, which are commonly calculated from descriptive statistics. However, the exact values of such statistics are commonly hidden in figures.Extracting descriptive statistics from figures can be a slow process that is not easily reproducible. Additionally, current software lacks an ability to incorporate important metadata (e.g. sample sizes, treatment/variable names) about experiments and is not integrated with other software to streamline analysis pipelines. Here we present the r package metaDigitise which extracts descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations and correlations from four plot types: (a) mean/error plots (e.g. bar graphs with standard errors), (b) box plots, (c) scatter plots and (d) histograms. metaDigitise is user‐friendly and easy to learn as it interactively guides the user through the data extraction process. Notably, it enables large‐scale extraction by automatically loading image files, letting the user stop processing, edit and add to the resulting data‐frame at any point. Digitised data can be easily re‐plotted and checked, facilitating reproducible data extraction from plots with little inter‐observer bias. We hope that by making the process of figure extraction more flexible and easy to conduct, it will improve the transparency and quality of meta‐analyses in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate species identification is the basis for all aspects of taxonomic research and is an essential component of workflows in biological research. Biologists are asking for more efficient methods to meet the identification demand. Smart mobile devices, digital cameras as well as the mass digitisation of natural history collections led to an explosion of openly available image data depicting living organisms. This rapid increase in biological image data in combination with modern machine learning methods, such as deep learning, offers tremendous opportunities for automated species identification.In this paper, we focus on deep learning neural networks as a technology that enabled breakthroughs in automated species identification in the last 2 years. In order to stimulate more work in this direction, we provide a brief overview of machine learning frameworks applicable to the species identification problem. We review selected deep learning approaches for image based species identification and introduce publicly available applications.Eventually, this article aims to provide insights into the current state‐of‐the‐art in automated identification and to serve as a starting point for researchers willing to apply novel machine learning techniques in their biological studies.While modern machine learning approaches only slowly pave their way into the field of species identification, we argue that we are going to see a proliferation of these techniques being applied to the problem in the future. Artificial intelligence systems will provide alternative tools for taxonomic identification in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Careful collection and organization of biological specimens and their associated data are at the core of field research (e.g., ecology, genetics). Fieldwork data are often collected by handwriting or unsystematically via an electronic device (e.g., laptop), a process that is time‐intensive, disorganized, and may lead to transcription errors, as data are copied to a more permanent repository. SamplEase is an iOS and Android application that is designed to ease the process of collecting biological specimen data in the field (data associated with biological samples, such as location, age, and sex). In addition to biological specimen data, SamplEase allows for the assignment of photographs to each collected sample, which provides visual records of each specimen in its environment. SamplEase outputs biological specimen data in a tabular format, facilitating subsequent analyses and dissemination. Despite the simplicity of SamplEase, no similar data management application is readily available for researchers. SamplEase is an iOS and Android application that is designed to ease the process of collecting biological specimen data in the field. SamplEase also outputs biological specimen data in a tabular format, facilitating subsequent analyses and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L0 gradient minimisation model, one of edge‐aware image smoothing method, also suffers from the stair‐casing effect and images with strong textures cannot be smoothed effectively and weak edges or structures will be smoothed overly. The authors propose a method to overcome these drawbacks above. To begin with, the image is subjected to non‐subsampled shearlet transform to obtain high‐frequency component, and combine all high‐frequency component by maximum local energy rules to obtain the high‐frequency decomposition image, afterwards, introducing the data term associated with high‐frequency decomposition image to keep the similarity of edge and structure between the input and smoothed image. Secondly, the patched L0 gradient minimisation model is presented for improving the description of local information, since different size of the patches has the different texture, exploiting the coefficient of variation to define the size of patch. Finally, defining the adaptive smoothing coefficient based on the gradient to make sure that the smoothing effect of the patch is optimal. The proposed model is applied to image smoothing with desirable results successfully, and the comparisons with other state‐of‐the‐art edge‐preserving image smoothing algorithms demonstrate the great performances of edge‐preserving and texture smoothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of producing suitable crystals for X‐ray diffraction analysis most often involves the setting up of hundreds (or thousands) of individual crystallization trials, each of which must be repeatedly examined for crystals or hints of crystallinity. Currently, the only real way to address this bottleneck is to use an automated imager to capture images of the trials. However, the images still need to be assessed for crystals or other outcomes. Ideally, there would exist some rapid and reliable machine‐analysis tool to translate the images into a quantitative result. However, as yet no such tool exists in wide usage, despite this being a well recognized problem. One of the issues in creating robust automatic image‐analysis software is the lack of reliable data for training machine‐learning algorithms. Here, a mobile application, Cinder, has been developed which allows crystallization images to be scored quickly on a smartphone or tablet. The Cinder scores are inserted into the appropriate table in a crystallization database and are immediately available to the user through a more sophisticated web interface, allowing more detailed analyses. A sharp increase in the number of scored images was observed after Cinder was released, which in turn provides more data for training machine‐learning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A central goal of animal ecology is to observe species in the natural world. The cost and challenge of data collection often limit the breadth and scope of ecological study. Ecologists often use image capture to bolster data collection in time and space. However, the ability to process these images remains a bottleneck. Computer vision can greatly increase the efficiency, repeatability and accuracy of image review. Computer vision uses image features, such as colour, shape and texture to infer image content. I provide a brief primer on ecological computer vision to outline its goals, tools and applications to animal ecology. I reviewed 187 existing applications of computer vision and divided articles into ecological description, counting and identity tasks. I discuss recommendations for enhancing the collaboration between ecologists and computer scientists and highlight areas for future growth of automated image analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the imbrications between vital processes and technical processes in Oceania, from the angle of technical activities. Grounded in the ethnography of yam cultivation among the Abulës‐Speakers (‘Abelam’) of Papua New Guinea, it builds on previous critiques of the modernist bias sustaining concepts of ‘technology’ and ‘production’ to revaluate the analytical potential of the study of material activities and their ontogenetic properties as suggested by Gilbert Simondon. By paying attention to the temporality and the scale of practices, it suggests that the ethnography of techniques allows the unveiling of both emic dimensions of practices (or indigenous underlying theories of actions), and emic properties of entities in the world, be they living beings or artefacts. These dimensions and properties, to be tapped into and controlled, are thus made visible or elicited both within and through technical practices, via the work of imagination. Thus, processes, vital, and/or technical, made visible through their performance or through their results, can take the shape of images, be they living beings or artefacts, presenting to society the possibility of reproduction and stability, without excluding their ontogenetic capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of post-earthquake images inserted in a vigilance task, in terms of performance, self-reports of task-focus, and cerebral activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy ( fNIRS). Vigilance tasks present a sequence of stimuli in which only a few are pre-designated critical or target stimuli requiring an overt response from the participant. Seventy-one residents participated (51 women, 20 men) by taking part in a vigilance task with task-irrelevant images inserted in the sequence. There were three conditions consisting positive (emotive inducing), negative (emotive inducing), and control (devoid of meaning) images embedded in the vigilance task to assess possible impacts on vigilance performance. The images were obtained through crowdsourcing and represented parts of the city 3-4 years post-earthquake. Task performance was assessed with signal detection theory metrics of sensitivity A' and bias β''. This enables the separation of an individual's ability to accurately discriminate critical signals from non-critical stimuli (sensitivity) and shifts in their willingness to respond to any stimuli whether critical or not (bias). Individuals viewing the positive images, relating to progress, rebuild, or aesthetic aspects within the city, had a more conservative response bias (they responded less to both rare critical and distractor stimuli) than those in the other conditions. These individuals also reported lower task-focus, as would be expected. However, contrary to expectations, indicators of cerebral activity ( fNIRS) did not differ significantly between the experimental groups. These results, when combined, suggest that mind wandering events may be being generated when exposed to positive post-earthquake images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerial surveys are conducted for various fauna to assess abundance, distribution, and habitat use over large spatial scales. They are traditionally conducted using light aircraft with observers recording sightings in real time. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ( UAVs) offer an alternative with many potential advantages, including eliminating human risk. To be effective, this emerging platform needs to provide detection rates of animals comparable to traditional methods. UAVs can also acquire new types of information, and this new data requires a reevaluation of traditional analyses used in aerial surveys; including estimating the probability of detecting animals. We conducted 17 replicate UAV surveys of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae) while simultaneously obtaining a 'census' of the population from land-based observations, to assess UAV detection probability. The ScanEagle UAV, carrying a digital SLR camera, continuously captured images (with 75% overlap) along transects covering the visual range of land-based observers. We also used ScanEagle to conduct focal follows of whale pods ( n = 12, mean duration = 40 min), to assess a new method of estimating availability. A comparison of the whale detections from the UAV to the land-based census provided an estimated UAV detection probability of 0.33 ( CV = 0.25; incorporating both availability and perception biases), which was not affected by environmental covariates (Beaufort sea state, glare, and cloud cover). According to our focal follows, the mean availability was 0.63 ( CV = 0.37), with pods including mother/calf pairs having a higher availability (0.86, CV = 0.20) than those without (0.59, CV = 0.38). The follows also revealed (and provided a potential correction for) a downward bias in group size estimates from the UAV surveys, which resulted from asynchronous diving within whale pods, and a relatively short observation window of 9 s. We have shown that UAVs are an effective alternative to traditional methods, providing a detection probability that is within the range of previous studies for our target species. We also describe a method of assessing availability bias that represents spatial and temporal characteristics of a survey, from the same perspective as the survey platform, is benign, and provides additional data on animal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work was destined for 2D crystal growth studies of L-ascorbic acid using the composite image analysis technique. Growth experiments on the L-ascorbic acid crystals were carried out by standard (optical) microscopy, laser diffraction analysis, and composite image analysis. For image analysis, the growth of L-ascorbic acid crystals was captured as digital 2D RGB images, which were then processed to composite images. After processing, the crystal boundaries emerged as white lines against the black (cancelled) background. The crystal boundaries were well differentiated by peaks in the intensity graphs generated for the composite images. The lengths of crystal boundaries measured from the intensity graphs of composite images were in good agreement (correlation coefficient ' r' = 0.99) with the lengths measured by standard microscopy. On the contrary, the lengths measured by laser diffraction were poorly correlated with both techniques. Therefore, the composite image analysis can replace the standard microscopy technique for the crystal growth studies of L-ascorbic acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although multiple choice examinations are often used to test anatomical knowledge, these often forgo the use of images in favor of text-based questions and answers. Because anatomy is reliant on visual resources, examinations using images should be used when appropriate. This study was a retrospective analysis of examination items that were text based compared to the same questions when a reference image was included with the question stem. Item difficulty and discrimination were analyzed for 15 multiple choice items given across two different examinations in two sections of an undergraduate anatomy course. Results showed that there were some differences item difficulty but these were not consistent to either text items or items with reference images. Differences in difficulty were mainly attributable to one group of students performing better overall on the examinations. There were no significant differences for item discrimination for any of the analyzed items. This implies that reference images do not significantly alter the item statistics, however this does not indicate if these images were helpful to the students when answering the questions. Care should be taken by question writers to analyze item statistics when making changes to multiple choice questions, including ones that are included for the perceived benefit of the students. Anat Sci Educ 10: 68-78. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an analysis of Christian Petzold's films, this essay argues that there is an ethical dimension to images. The cinema of Christian Petzold is an important instance of the ethical function of images because it constantly negotiates and renegotiates the ethical intelligibility of the image and the ethical claims that images make on us. The essay's argument is developed in three stages: first, it outlines the theoretical concept of an image-ethics of dilemma, centering on the essential ambiguity of images; second, it briefly considers the function of particular multistable images in Petzold's cinema and their role in ordering representation in his films; and, finally, it offers a close analysis of Petzold's recent film Barbara (). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pictures speak a thousand words. The traditional romantic image of an Australian aeromedical service is a male doctor and male pilot, out to rescue the male stockman from the red dust of the Australian outback. However, the reality is considerably different, particularly in the current context of the Australian healthcare system. This paper examines the images of flight nursing using a critical lens. The images are derived from popular literature sources from the early 1940s through to the present. A textual analysis of the images of flight nursing using the methodology of institutional ethnography reveals a number of themes including the glamorous, the romantic, and the heroic nurse. This study illustrates that the way these nurses are portrayed within popular literature mirrors the Australian cultural ethic of heroic bush pioneer, yet at the same time the work these nurses do is undervalued by various omissions and misrepresentations. The results from this study have the potential to significantly improve recognition of the work performed by flight nurses and to challenge incorrect cultural myths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Hospital capacity in the UK is currently significantly challenged due to new treatments, targets and resource limitations. There have been significant improvements in training, equipment and shared care services in community primary care optometry services. Despite this the challenges to ophthalmic service delivery are considerable. One area of potential benefit is the effect on outcome when a clinical image is attached to a referral. We aimed to quantify the effect of attaching digital images to ophthalmic referrals. Methods Retrospective analysis of 358 consecutive optometry referrals to the Hospital Eye Service in Dunfermline, Scotland using electronic referral with digital images. All images were screened by consultant ophthalmologists. Results The patients were aged between 9 and 100 years (mean age 63.6 years). Sixty four (18%) referrals were deemed urgent (requiring appointment within 24-60 h), with the majority, 28 (8%) being wet macular degeneration. One hundred and seventy (48%) were deemed routine (appointment within 2-6 weeks), with categories including macular disease, glaucoma, cataract, optic disc and retinal abnormalities. Twenty seven (8%) patients were already attending the hospital eye service, or had been referred previously for the same condition. Categories were mainly glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataract. Ninety-five (25%) were 'e-diagnosed' based on image and referral information (i.e. with no secondary eye care appointment). Diagnosis included glaucoma suspect (22, 6%), macular pathology (12, 3%), abnormal looking discs (9, 2.5%) and cataract (9, 2.5%). The overall 'did not attend' rate for those patients seen in the hospital eye service (254) was <1% (two patients). Conclusions The attachment of digital images improved the quality of referral triaging from optometry to secondary eye care in the hospital eye service. It allowed detection of sight threatening disease early and more appropriate allocation of patients to specific specialist clinics at first visit. They allowed safe and speedy 'e-diagnosis' of a subgroup, saving hospital capacity and minimising patient inconvenience. Indirectly the service also reduced the 'did not attend' rate. With recent improvements in camera and internet technology digital images will have an ever increasing role in secondary eye care as it continues to adapt to meet modern demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts by arguing that visual data enriches gender research in management and organizations. Through an analysis of drawings by factory shop-floor workers, we show that organizational climate is interwoven with gender dynamics, that shop-floor masculinity is not necessarily heterosexual, and that masculinity in the shop-floor context includes oppression as an element of man's symbolic violence against man. We discuss the usefulness of this type of data in gender research in organizational analysis and explore the ways in which gender violence is expressed in organizations. Moreover, the drawings gathered at a newspaper printing site located in the North of England provide a means of showing the relationship between gender violence and the exercise of masculinities, sexuality and oppression. We conclude that the exercise of hegemonic masculinity is associated not only with sexuality but also with the oppression of subaltern enactments of masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital environment provides an abundance of images and multimedia and offers a new potential for using resources in multiple modes of representation for teaching and learning. This article reports the findings of a case study that investigated the use of image and multimedia resources in an undergraduate classroom. The study assumed a contextual approach and focused on different class contexts and students' literacy practices. The class, which took place in a resource-rich, multimodal environment, was perceived by students as a positive learning experience. The distribution of resources and their role in teaching and learning varied and depended on the context of use. The findings indicate that images fulfilled important descriptive and mnemonic functions when students were introduced to new concepts, but their role was limited in practices that required students to analyze and synthesize knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated the difference in color performance between displays for various maximum luminances of white and various NTSC gamut area ratios. Our results and analyses indicated that either the colorfulness index or the product of the power functions of the maximum luminance of white and the NTSC gamut area ratios or metric chroma could predict the colorfulness of images on displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for social inclusion, informed choice and the facilitation of independent living for people with learning disabilities (LD) is being emphasised ever more by government, professionals, academics and, indeed, by people with LD themselves, particularly in self-advocacy groups. Achieving goals around inclusion and autonomy requires access to relevant and accessible information. Hence, the project reported here, which revolves around the creation and development of a web site containing information about 'transition'. This is the move from education or sheltered living to supported employment. The development of the web site included an examination of whether people with very low literacy skills were able to navigate the site and to access information. To this end, usability tests were undertaken consisting of simple tasks, broken down into 'one-action' elements and requiring the accessing and understanding of pictorial or audio information. Results elicited various issues including the size and understanding of images; activating hyperlinks, page length and invisible content, and accessing audio. Two accessibility issues were also found - poor mouse control and involuntary activation of the context menu. Solutions are offered regarding the issues documented, and the paper concludes by suggesting that it is possible both for people with minimal levels of literacy to obtain information on the web site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This article examines the political and public culture of Coptic Christian miracles through the circulation and reproduction of images and the mimetic entanglements of artifacts and objects. To understand the threat posed by one case of a woman's oil-exuding hand, this study points to how semiotic orders of security and sacramentality intersect in the regulation of bodily miracles. It explores Coptic Orthodox Church and Egyptian state efforts to contain the activity of images and transform the public nature of truthful witness and divine testimony. In doing so, it suggests how the material structure of saintly imagination introduces bodily and visual challenges to an authoritarian politics of public order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT With the aim of addressing environmental concerns from an applied social psychological perspective, this study explores how regulations aimed at reducing industrial pollution contribute to short-term and long-term changes in social representations. The local river in a Valley characterised by strong interactions between industries and communities was the focus of concern. Three features of the representations were examined: images, emotional experiences and practices. The research followed a multi-method approach, using reports completed by 11-to 14-year-old school pupils and collected in three periods: 1974-1977; 1978-1980; 2007-2009. In the third time period, interviews and surveys were also collected. Textual data underwent lexicometric analyses and qualitative content analyses; quantitative data underwent descriptive and inferential analyses. Results show that effective regulations contributed to positive change in social representations of the river. After 30 years, however, tensions between elements of the representation are present. Images and emotional experiences of the river considerably improved, so much so that the river almost disappears from the focus of attention. Practices however are consistent with old representations of the water as noxious, indicating persistent concerns about potential pollution. Results suggest the desirability of continuing participatory engagement between citizens and local/environmental authorities, not only as new regulations are introduced but also after they have been enacted. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]