scholarly journals GrainAutLine: an Environment for Semi-Automatic Processing of Marble Thin Section Images

Author(s):  
Kristóf Csorba ◽  
Ádám Budai ◽  
Judit Zöldföldi ◽  
Balázs Székely

GrainAutLine is an interdisciplinary microscopy image analysis tool with domain specific smart functions to partially automate the processing of marble thin section images. It allows the user to create a clean grain boundary image which is a starting point of several archaeometric and geologic analyses. The semi-automatic tools minimize the need for carefully drawing the grain boundaries manually, even in cases where twin crystals prohibit the use of classic edge detection based boundary detection. Due to the semi-automatic approach, the user has full control over the process and can modify the automatic results before finalizing a specific step. This approach guarantees high quality results both in cases where the process is easy to automate, and also if it needs more help from the user. This paper presents the basic operation of the system and details about the provided tools as a case study for an interdisciplinary, semi-automatic image processing application.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
Andreas Schmidt

AbstractThe chapter argues for a more nuanced and empirically based understanding of the discourse on law and socio-cultural norms in Old Icelandic literature on the grounds of a narratological reading of ‘Færeyinga saga’ as a case study. It has often been claimed that Icelandic sources express an ideal of freedom based on communality as guaranteed by the law. By contrast, ‘Færeyinga saga’ represents a cynical discourse on power politics that renders law as an invariable concept obsolete and works solely on the principle that ‘might is right’. This cynicism, however, is presented in a form that leaves the narrative open to interpretation, showing that regardless of its possible dating, narrative literature can serve as a starting point for social discussion. Consequently, the discourse on law in medieval Iceland must be perceived as more polyphonic than has been allowed for by previous unifying readings in scholarship.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. eabc9800
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Gallagher ◽  
Jean-Gabriel Young ◽  
Brooke Foucault Welles

Core-periphery structure, the arrangement of a network into a dense core and sparse periphery, is a versatile descriptor of various social, biological, and technological networks. In practice, different core-periphery algorithms are often applied interchangeably despite the fact that they can yield inconsistent descriptions of core-periphery structure. For example, two of the most widely used algorithms, the k-cores decomposition and the classic two-block model of Borgatti and Everett, extract fundamentally different structures: The latter partitions a network into a binary hub-and-spoke layout, while the former divides it into a layered hierarchy. We introduce a core-periphery typology to clarify these differences, along with Bayesian stochastic block modeling techniques to classify networks in accordance with this typology. Empirically, we find a rich diversity of core-periphery structure among networks. Through a detailed case study, we demonstrate the importance of acknowledging this diversity and situating networks within the core-periphery typology when conducting domain-specific analyses.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110267
Author(s):  
Karen Attar

This article addresses the challenge to make printed hidden collections known quickly without sacrificing ultimate quality. It takes as its starting point the archival mantra ‘More product, less process’ and explores its application to printed books, mindful of projects in the United States to catalogue 19th- and 20th-century printed books quickly and cheaply with the help of OCLC. A problem is lack of time or managerial inclination ever to return to ‘quick and dirty’ imports. This article is a case study concerning a collection of 18th-century English imprints, the Graveley Parish Library, at Senate House Library, University of London. Faced with the need to provide metadata as quickly as possible for digitisation purposes, Senate House Library decided, in contrast to its normal treatment of early printed books, to download records from the English Short Title Catalogue and amend them only very minimally before releasing them for public view, and to do this work from catalogue cards rather than the books themselves. The article describes the Graveley Parish collection, the project method’s rationale, and the advantages and disadvantages of sourcing the English Short Title Catalogue for metadata. It discusses the drawbacks of retrospective conversion (cataloguing from cards, not books): insufficient detail in some cases to identify the relevant book, and ignorance of the copy-specific elements of books which can constitute the main research interest. The method is compared against cataloguing similar books from photocopies of title pages, and retrospective conversion using English Short Title Catalogue is compared against retrospective conversion of early printed Continental books from cards using Library Hub Discover or OCLC. The control groups show our method’s effectiveness. The project succeeded by producing records fast that fulfilled their immediate purpose and simultaneously would obviously require revisiting. The uniform nature of the collection enabled the saving of time through global changes.


Geriatrics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Kristina Marie Kokorelias ◽  
Einat Danieli ◽  
Sheila Dunn ◽  
Sid Feldman ◽  
David Patrick Ryan ◽  
...  

The number of family caregivers to individuals with dementia is increasing. Family physicians are often the first point of access to the health care system for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Caregivers are at an increased risk of developing negative physical, cognitive and affective health problems themselves. Caregivers also describe having unmet needs to help them sustain care in the community. Family physicians are in a unique position to help support caregivers and individuals with dementia, but often struggle with keeping up with best practice dementia service knowledge. The Dementia Wellness Questionnaire was designed to serve as a starting point for discussions between caregivers and family physicians by empowering caregivers to communicate their needs and concerns and to enhance family physicians’ access to specific dementia support information. The DWQ aims to alert physicians of caregiver and patient needs. This pilot study aimed to explore the experiences of physicians and caregivers of people using the Questionnaire in two family medicine clinics in Ontario, Canada. Interviews with physicians and caregivers collected data on their experiences using the DWQ following a 10-month data gathering period. Data was analyzed using content analysis. Results indicated that family physicians may have an improved efficacy in managing dementia by having dementia care case specific guidelines integrated within electronic medical records. By having time-efficient access to tailored supports, family physicians can better address the needs of the caregiver–patient dyad and help support family caregivers in their caregiving role. Caregivers expressed that the Questionnaire helped them remember concerns to bring up with physicians, in order to receive help in a more efficient manner.


Author(s):  
Lisa Bode

On July 14, 2019, a 3-minute 36-second video titled “Keanu Reeves Stops A ROBBERY!” was released on YouTube visual effects (VFX) channel, Corridor. The video’s click-bait title ensured it was quickly shared by users across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Comments on the video suggest that the vast majority of viewers categorised it as fiction. What seemed less universally recognised, though, was that the performer in the clip was not Keanu Reeves himself. It was voice actor and stuntman Reuben Langdon, and his face was digitally replaced with that of Reeves, through the use of an AI generated deepfake, an open access application, Faceswap, and compositing in Adobe After Effects. This article uses Corridor’s deepfake Keanu video (hereafter shorted to CDFK) as a case study which allows the fleshing out of an, as yet, under-researched area of deepfakes: the role of framing contexts in shaping how viewers evaluate, categorise, make sense of and discuss these images. This research draws on visual effects scholarship, celebrity studies, cognitive film studies, social media theory, digital rhetoric, and discourse analysis. It is intended to serve as a starting point of a larger study that will eventually map types of online manipulated media creation on a continuum from the professional to the vernacular, across different platforms, and attending to their aesthetic, ethical, cultural and reception dimensions. The focus on context (platform, creator channel, and comments) also reveals the emergence of an industrial and aesthetic category of visual effects, which I call here “platform VFX,” a key term that provides us with more nuanced frames for illuminating and analysing a range of manipulated media practices as VFX software becomes ever more accessible and lends itself to more vernacular uses, such as we see with various face swap apps


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110237
Author(s):  
İlknur Bayram ◽  
Fatma Bıkmaz

This qualitative case study carried out at a Turkish university with four English language teachers aims to explore what teachers experience in the planning, implementation, analysis, and reporting phases of the lessons study process and what the implications of lesson study for teacher professional development can be. Data in this four-month study were gathered through observations, interviews, whole group discussions, and reflective reports. Findings revealed that lesson study had potential challenges and benefits for the professional development of teachers. The model poses challenges in finding a topic and research question, determining the lesson design and teaching style, making student thinking observable and analyzing qualitative data. On the other hand, it benefited teachers in terms of increasing their pedagogical content knowledge, reflectivity, research skills, collaboration, and collegiality. This study suggests that lesson study might be a good starting point for institutions wishing to adopt a more teacher-led, inquiry-driven and collaborative perspective for professional development.


Author(s):  
Janice E. Cuny ◽  
Robert A. Dunn ◽  
Steven T. Hackstadt ◽  
Christopher W. Harrop ◽  
Harold H. Hersey ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Mieczysław Szlachta ◽  
Andrzej Ciupiński

The paper presents the scope and scale of transformation of the defense industries of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) countries after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR. The starting point is the role and position of the armaments economy sector (armaments economy environment), embedded in the realities of the centrally planned economy, and its submission to the politics of the USSR. The turn of the centuries was a period of political and economic transformation conducted during the conditions of a deep economic recession. The defense industry was one of the economic sectors most affected by the crisis. The economic and defense policy of CEE countries was aimed at preserving the capabilities of the armaments sector. Restructuring activities initiated and forced by the change of the political and economic environment have already brought noticeable effects, even though the process has not yet been completed. Defense industry enterprises have become entities operating on the same terms and conditions as other companies on the competitive market. The method of comparative analysis and a case study supplemented with elements of descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the course of the processes. The study has been focused on the analysis of the course of the changes and examination of effects of the analyzed phenomena for the economy and defense of the CEE countries, taking into account primarily their scale and scope.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Amel Boumaza ◽  
Ramdane Maamri

The conversion of web services to semantic web comes the opportunity to automate various tasks. OWL-S plays a key role in describing web services behaviour. While ontology-based semantics given to OWL-S is structural rather than behaviourally oriented, we cannot automate an essential task in this field, verification. In this article, the mapping of OWL-S process model to Timed automata is investigated, which is a suitable formalism for real time systems modeling and automatic verification. Hence, this has led to not only enabling automatic verification but also covering problems related to automated verification of temporal quantitative properties as bounded liveness property. As a starting point, the OWL-S and sub entry of time ontologies for describing the timed behaviour of services has been chosen. A defined set of mapping rules is used to automatically encode control constructs defined in OWL-S and temporal information into timed automata. Also, it is shown how a Uppaal checker is used to check required properties formulated in TCTL. Finally, an EClinic case study is used to illustrate the technique.


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