The aim of the study was to investigate how four pupils in sixth grade use language when writing narrative texts, examined in relation to the typical structure and linguistic features of a narrative text. Another aim was to explore the similarities and differences between texts which received an A or B grade and texts with a D or E grade. The pupils’ texts are analysed from a systemic-functional perspective on language and on the basis of the typical structure and language of a narrative text, with the focus on expressions of time, processes, descriptions and nominal groups (cf. Johansson & Sandell Ring 2012). The main finding is that the four pupils in their texts master the normal structure of a narrative text and that their texts have expressions of time, processes, descriptions and nominal groups, but they differ in extent and scope. The greatest differences between the narratives in the different grading categories are found in the introductions to the texts, the way of marking dialogue in the structure, and how the pupils use processes, circumstances and nominal groups to achieve descriptions. The text that received an E grade differs from the other texts that were graded as A, B and D, in that the writer has the shortest introduction to the text; the introductions to the other texts are relatively long. The E-graded text also differs from the other texts in the way it marks dialogue. That pupil uses quotation marks to indicate where dialogues occur, whereas the texts with A, B and D grades use a quotation dash to mark speech. All the pupils’ texts contain expressions of time. The texts also include several kinds of processes, except for the text that received a B grade, where there were no mental processes. The texts graded as A, B and D use expanded nominal groups and also various processes and circumstances to create descriptions. The text that received an E grade is the one that uses most expanded nominal groups for descriptive purposes.

In this thesis project techniques for training a rapid image classifier that can recognize an object of a predefined type has been studied. Classifiers have been trained with the AdaBoost algorithm, with and without the use of Viola-Jones cascades. The use of Weight trimming in the classifier training has been evaluated and resulted in a significant speed up of the training, as well as improving the performance of the trained classifier. Different preprocessings of the images have also been tested, but resulted for the most part in worse performance for the classifiers when used individually. Several rectangle shaped Haar-like features including novel versions have been evaluated and the magnitude versions proved to be best at separating the image classes.

Cette thèse présente un framework pour le logo spotting appliqué à repérer les logos à partir de l’image des documents en se concentrant sur la catégorisation de documents et les problèmes de récupération de documents. Nous présentons également trois méthodes de matching par point clé : le point clé simple avec le plus proche voisin, le matching par règle des deux voisins les plus proches et le matching par deux descripteurs locaux à différents étapes de matching. Les deux derniers procédés sont des améliorations de la première méthode. En outre, utiliser la méthode de classification basée sur la densité pour regrouper les correspondances dans le framework proposé peut aider non seulement à segmenter la région candidate du logo mais également à rejeter les correspondances incorrectes comme des valeurs aberrantes. En outre, afin de maximiser la performance et de localiser les logos, un algorithme à deux étages a été proposé pour la vérification géométrique basée sur l’homographie avec RANSAC. Comme les approches fondées sur le point clé supposent des approches coûteuses, nous avons également investi dans l’optimisation de notre framework. Les problèmes de séparation de texte/graphique sont étudiés. Nous proposons une méthode de segmentation de texte et non-texte dans les images de documents basée sur un ensemble de fonctionnalités puissantes de composants connectés. Nous avons appliqué les techniques de réduction de dimensionnalité pour réduire le vecteur de descripteurs locaux de grande dimension et rapprocher les algorithmes de recherche du voisin le plus proche pour optimiser le framework. En outre, nous avons également mené des expériences pour un système de récupération de documents sur les documents texte et non-texte segmentés et l'algorithme ANN. Les résultats montrent que le temps de calcul du système diminue brusquement de 56% tandis que la précision diminue légèrement de près de 2,5%. Dans l'ensemble, nous avons proposé une approche efficace et efficiente pour résoudre le problème de spotting des logos dans les images de documents. Nous avons conçu notre approche pour être flexible pour des futures améliorations. Nous croyons que notre travail peut être considéré comme une étape sur la voie pour résoudre le problème de l’analyse complète et la compréhension des images de documents. / This thesis presents a logo spotting framework applied to spotting logo images on document images and focused on document categorization and document retrieval problems. We also present three key-point matching methods: simple key-point matching with nearest neighbor, matching by 2-nearest neighbor matching rule method and matching by two local descriptors at different matching stages. The last two matching methods are improvements of the first method. In addition, using a density-based clustering method to group the matches in our proposed spotting framework can help not only segment the candidate logo region but also reject the incorrect matches as outliers. Moreover, to maximize the performance and to locate logos, an algorithm with two stages is proposed for geometric verification based on homography with RANSAC. Since key-point-based approaches assume costly approaches, we have also invested to optimize our proposed framework. The problems of text/graphics separation are studied. We propose a method for segmenting text and non-text in document images based on a set of powerful connected component features. We applied dimensionality reduction techniques to reduce the high dimensional vector of local descriptors and approximate nearest neighbor search algorithms to optimize our proposed framework. In addition, we have also conducted experiments for a document retrieval system on the text and non-text segmented documents and ANN algorithm. The results show that the computation time of the system decreases sharply by 56% while its accuracy decreases slightly by nearly 2.5%. Overall, we have proposed an effective and efficient approach for solving the problem of logo spotting in document images. We have designed our approach to be flexible for future improvements by us and by other researchers. We believe that our work could be considered as a step in the direction of solving the problem of complete analysis and understanding of document images.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / College students can be characterized as a group deserving special attention, given its evolutionary moment, usually the transition from adolescence to adulthood and experiencing a phase of adaptation to new demands and challenges of higher education context (POLYDORO, 2000). This study aims to investigate quality of life, psychological well-being and relational characteristics of college students. The sample consisted of 367 college students. We conducted a study that was crosssectional, descriptive, of correlational character, quantitative and qualitative in approach. The instruments were a demographic data sheet, the OMS World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-bref), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and the Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI-O). Results were obtained through descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using the statistical package SPSS 13.0. The sample comprised 217 women (59.1%) and 150 men (40.9%) with mean age of 22.8 years. Among the main results, we underline the high rate of psychological distress presented by sample where 48.8% of participants presents: psychic suffering worthy of attention; average indices of quality of life, with a particular harm in the field of environment and an average of 15.9% in relational pathology. The instruments showed significant correlations between rates of psychological distress, quality of life and relational features, emphasizing the importance of knowing such information to a global understanding of the college student. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of programs designed to provide health care to students for purposes of prevention and health promotion in the university context. / Os estudantes universitários podem ser caracterizados como um grupo merecedor de especial atenção, dado seu momento evolutivo, geralmente de transição da adolescência para a vida adulta e vivenciando uma etapa de adaptação a novas exigências e desafios do contexto do ensino superior (POLYDORO, 2000). A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar qualidade de vida, bem-estar psicológico e características relacionais de estudantes universitários. A amostra foi composta por 367 estudantes universitários. Foi realizado um estudo transversal, descritivo de caráter correlacional e de abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa. Os instrumentos utilizados foram uma ficha de dados sociodemográficos, o Questionário de Qualidade de Vida da Organização Mundial da Saúde (WHOQOL-bref), o Questionário de Saúde Geral (QSG-12), e o Inventário de Relações Objetais (BORRTI-O). Os resultados foram obtidos por meio de análise estatística descritiva e inferencial através do pacote estatístico SPSS 13.0. A amostra foi composta por 217 mulheres (59,1%) e 150 homens (40,9%), com média de idade de 22,8 anos. Entre os principais resultados, sublinhamos o alto índice de sofrimento psíquico apresentado pela amostra em que 48,8% dos participantes apresenta sofrimento psíquico merecedor de atenção; índices de qualidade de vida medianos, com especial prejuízo no domínio meio ambiente e uma média de 15,9% de patologia nas relações. Os instrumentos apresentaram correlações significativas entre os índices de sofrimento psíquico, qualidade de vida e características relacionais, frisando a importância de conhecermos tais dados a fim de um entendimento global do estudante universitário. Além disso, destacamos a relevância de programas destinados a dar atenção à saúde dos estudantes para fins de prevenção e promoção de saúde no contexto universitário.

Recent advances in technology have increased awareness of the necessity for automated systems in people’s everyday lives. Artificial systems are more frequently being introduced into environments previously thought to be too perilous for humans to operate in. Some robots can be used to extract potentially hazardous materials from sites inaccessible to humans, while others are being developed to aid humans with laborious tasks. A crucial aspect of all artificial systems is the manner in which they interact with their immediate surroundings. Developing such a deceivingly simply aspect has proven to be significantly challenging, as it not only entails the methods through which the system perceives its environment, but also its ability to perform critical tasks. These undertakings often involve the coordination of numerous subsystems, each performing its own complex duty. To complicate matters further, it is nowadays becoming increasingly important for these artificial systems to be able to perform their tasks in real-time. The task of object recognition is typically described as the process of retrieving the object in a database that is most similar to an unknown, or query, object. Pose estimation, on the other hand, involves estimating the position and orientation of an object in three-dimensional space, as seen from an observer’s viewpoint. These two tasks are regarded as vital to many computer vision techniques and and regularly serve as input to more complex perception algorithms. An approach is presented which regards the object recognition and pose estimation procedures as mutually dependent. The core idea is that dissimilar objects might appear similar when observed from certain viewpoints. A feature-based conceptualisation, which makes use of a database, is implemented and used to perform simultaneous object recognition and pose estimation. The design incorporates data compression techniques, originally suggested by the image-processing community, to facilitate fast processing of large databases. System performance is quantified primarily on object recognition, pose estimation and execution time characteristics. These aspects are investigated under ideal conditions by exploiting three-dimensional models of relevant objects. The performance of the system is also analysed for practical scenarios by acquiring input data from a structured light implementation, which resembles that obtained from many commercial range scanners. Practical experiments indicate that the system was capable of performing simultaneous object recognition and pose estimation in approximately 230 ms once a novel object has been sensed. An average object recognition accuracy of approximately 73% was achieved. The pose estimation results were reasonable but prompted further research. The results are comparable to what has been achieved using other suggested approaches such as Viewpoint Feature Histograms and Spin Images. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Face recognition that is invariant to pose and illumination is a problem solved effortlessly by the human brain, but the computational details that underlie such efficient recognition are still far from clear. This thesis draws on research from psychology and neuroscience about face and object recognition and the visual system in order to develop a novel computational method for face detection, feature selection and representation, and memory structure for recall. A biologically plausible framework for developing a face recognition system will be presented. This framework can be divided into four parts: 1) A face detection system. This is an improved version of a biologically inspired feedforward neural network that has modifiable connections and reflects the hierarchical and elastic structure of the visual system. The face detection system can detect if a face is present in an input image, and determine the region which contains that face. The system is also capable of detecting the pose of the face. 2) A face region selection mechanism. This mechanism is used to determine the Gabor-style features corresponding to the detected face, i.e., the features from the region of interest. This region of interest is selected using a feedback mechanism that connects the higher level layer of the feedforward neural network where ultimately the face is detected to an intermediate level where the Gabor style features are detected. 3) A face recognition system which is based on the binary encoding of the Gabor style features selected to represent a face. Two alternative coding schemes are presented, using 2 and 4 bits to represent a winning orientation at each location. The effectiveness of the Gabor-style features and the different coding schemes in discriminating faces from different classes is evaluated using the Yale B Face Database. The results from this evaluation show that this representation is close to other results on the same database. 4) A theoretical approach for a memory system capable of memorising sequences of poses. A basic network for memorisation and recall of sequences of labels have been implemented, and from this it is extrapolated a memory model that could use the ability of this model to memorise and recall sequences, to assist in the recognition of faces by memorising sequences of poses. Finally, the capabilities of the detection and recognition parts of the system are demonstrated using a demo application that can learn and recognise faces from a webcam.

Cette thèse en ergonomie s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet de conception industrielle d’un système innovant d’e-santé (HADAGIO), développé par l’entreprise SESIN et permettant le maintien à domicile de personnes âgées fragiles. Son objectif appliqué a été de produire des recommandations ergonomiques permettant d’améliorer les interfaces du système proposé sous la forme d’un portail d’applications web afin de les rendre faciles à utiliser par des personnes âgées et, ainsi, favoriser l’acceptation finale du dispositif HADAGIO. Ce travail s’est intéressé à la tâche de localisation d’informations sur un écran et, plus particulièrement, au rôle des éléments de surface (couleur et niveau de détails) des icônes et libellés lexicaux sur les performances de réalisation de cette tâche par des personnes âgées. Cette tâche est en effet particulièrement difficile pour ces dernières qui obtiennent des performances de localisation moindres que celles des jeunes (temps de réaction et nombre d’erreurs plus importants). Des recommandations graphiques pour la conception d’interfaces du portail HADAGIO ont émergées de ce travail, et permettent de faciliter la tâche de localisation des informations pour des personnes âgées. / This thesis in ergonomics is part of an industrial design project of an innovative e-health system (HADAGIO), developed by the company SESIN and allowing home support frail elderly. Its goal was applied to produce ergonomic recommendations for improving the interfaces of the system proposed in the form of a web portal software to make them easier to use and thus promote the final acceptance HADAGIO the device.This work has focused on the task of locating information on a screen and, in particular, the role of perceptual features (color and detail) lexical icons and labels on achieving performance of this task by elders. This task is indeed particularly difficult for this people who get lower localization performances than young people (reaction times and a larger number of errors). The models proposed for the target location task assumes that the knowledge possessed by individuals on the appearance of the target to locate allow improved performance. Given that advancing age does not affect the process involving knowledge stored in memory (Top Down type) implemented in this task it was to determine what could be the color of the role and Details of the target level in the implementation of these processes at a location task information.Graphics recommendations for HADAGIO portal interface design have emerged from this work, and provide information to facilitate the localization task for the elderly.

International companies face many challenges when operating in foreign country markets, as a new environment could be absolutely opposite to the one of the home market, which the companies are used to. One of the biggest issues for a company in the foreign market is to understand how to market its product and make it more appealing to the audience. This research is aimed at studying content marketing strategy as a new trend and a part of marketing strategy of an organization. Particularly, the main focus of this research is to investigate the process of building content marketing strategy of Western firms in the Russian environment. During the study, a few questions are illuminated, such as what steps are undertaken in order to manage a sound content marketing strategy and how the characteristics of Russian consumers influence the decision making and to what extent. The paper studies all these issues by the qualitative approach, presenting data and insights acquired through interviews with four Western companies, operating in Russia: Burger King, Johnson & Johnson, The Coca-Cola Company and Visa Inc. The analysis of the findings is done, comparing the experience of the companies with each other, which enables the authors to extract general patterns for content marketing strategy in Russia in terms of strategy building and consumer orientation and comparing empirical data with theoretical knowledge gained after the examination of the theory. The paper concludes giving answers to the research question and generalizing the analysis, as well as presenting the revised conceptual model. Later on, the main limitations of this study are mentioned and the suggestions for future research are stated to develop the understanding of content marketing strategy.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The SASL project is in the process of developing a machine translation system that can translate fully-fledged phrases between SASL and English in real-time. To-date, several systems have been developed by the project focusing on facial expression, hand shape, hand motion, hand orientation and hand location recognition and estimation. Achmed developed a highly accurate upper body pose recognition and estimation system. The system is capable of recognizing and estimating the location of the arms from a twodimensional video captured from a monocular view at an accuracy of 88%. The system operates at well below real-time speeds. This research aims to investigate the use of optimizations and parallel processing techniques using the CUDA framework on Achmed’s algorithm to achieve real-time upper body pose recognition and estimation. A detailed analysis of Achmed’s algorithm identified potential improvements to the algorithm. Are- implementation of Achmed’s algorithm on the CUDA framework, coupled with these improvements culminated in an enhanced upper body pose recognition and estimation system that operates in real-time with an increased accuracy.

Problématique : Le trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA) affecte plus de 1 % des enfants. Les caractéristiques communes associées au TSA sont des difficultés de communication et d’interaction sociale, ainsi qu’une rigidité ou une répétitivité dans les intérêts et comportements. Certains intérêts et comportements restreints ou répétitifs peuvent être liés à des difficultés de traitement de l’information sensorielle (TIS). De fait, entre 45 et 95 % des enfants ayant un TSA présentent des difficultés sur le plan sensoriel, affectant leur fonctionnement dans la vie quotidienne. Cependant, les données disponibles dans la littérature scientifique nous apportent peu de connaissances quant à l’évolution des habiletés sensorielles chez les enfants ayant un TSA. Objectif : L’objectif principal est de documenter l’évolution des habiletés sensorielles chez les enfants ayant un TSA entre l’âge de 3-4 ans (T1) et deux ans après (T2), au moment de l’entrée à l’école. Méthodologie : Il s’agit d’une analyse secondaire de données non traitées d’une étude prospective antérieure (de 2008 à 2010). Dans le présent projet, un devis corrélationnel rétrospectif a été utilisé pour étudier 34 enfants ayant un TSA. Les données provenant d’outils d’évaluation normalisés permettant de documenter les habiletés sensorielles des enfants dans le temps, soit le Sensory Profile (SP) et le Short Sensory Profile (SSP), ont été analysées. Résultats: Les analyses démontrent une stabilité des difficultés sensorielles chez les enfants atteints de TSA de l'âge de trois à six ans. La stabilité des scores sensoriels est indépendante de la correction par des variables contrôlées, telles que l'âge mental et la gravité du TSA. Conclusions : La persistance des difficultés sensorielles chez les enfants ayant un TSA souligne la nécessité de bien évaluer cet aspect et de le considérer lors de la planification des interventions et du suivi de ces enfants. En effet, si l’on souhaite améliorer leur fonctionnement dans la vie quotidienne et accroître leur intégration sociale, il importe de tenir compte de leurs difficultés persistantes. / Abstract : Introduction: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects more than 1% of children. Common characteristics associated with ASD are difficulties in communication and social interaction, as well as repetitive interests and behaviors. Some restricted or repetitive interests and behaviors may be linked to difficulties in sensory processing. Indeed, between 45% and 95% of children with ASD have sensory featuresaffecting their functioning in everyday life. However, the data available in the scientific literature give us little knowledge about the evolution of sensory abilities in children with ASD. Objective:The main objective of this project was to evaluatethe evolution of sensory features in children with ASD between the age of 3-4 years (T1) and two years after (T2), when they entered school. Methods:This project is a secondary analysisof untreated data from a previous prospective study (from 2008 to 2010).In the presentproject, a retrospective correlation design was usedto study 34 children with ASD. The data from standardized assessment tools were used to evaluate children's sensory features over time, the Sensory Profile (SP) and the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), were analyzed. Results:Our analyses demonstratea stability of sensory features in children with ASD from the age of three to six years old. The stability of sensory scores is independent of correction by covariates such as mental age and autism severity. Conclusions: The persistence of sensory features in children with ASD highlights the need to adequately assess this aspect and to consider it when planning and monitoring interventions. Indeed, in order to improve their functioning in everyday life and increase their social integration, it is important to take into account their persistent sensory features.