The Kalahari San or Bushmen are one of the most researched ethnic groups. As such, multiple images, produced by research, popular literature and films exist of them. Tsumkwe, the administrative centre of what used to be known as 'Bushmanland' during Apartheid, occupies a special place in the context of San image production as it is the site of most visual material produced about San, a popular destination for tourists who want to see San and a successful indigenous governed conservancy that attracts many NGOs and other projects aimed at San. The people living in Tsumkwe are the Ju|'hoansi, a group considered to be part of the 'San' category. This thesis considers ethnographic questions about the Ju|'hoansi and those who visit them, through a framework based on the theory of images. How do the Ju|'hoansi inhabit the multiple images of San-ness which non-San bring to Tsumkwe and how do they navigate the pressures of both San sociality and expectations from outsiders within and outside the structures of knowledge which shape our perception of these images? In addition to general participant observation in Tsumkwe and the surrounding Nyae Nyae conservancy, I make use of ethnographic data from filmmaking workshops I conducted with Ju|'hoan participants. These workshops created important primary data. Further, by inverting the hitherto passive relationship to film into an active one, the engagement with the medium and its production enabled usually invisible concepts and understanding of self and others to become articulated. Additionally, I conducted interviews with tourists, researchers and NGO workers. As Gordon discusses in The Bushman Myth, the label of San or Bushmen is an externally invented and constructed category. Over the course of the 20th century, a multitude of images of the San have emerged, ranging from 'underdeveloped primitives', to no 'noble savages' to 'disempowered minorities'. However outdated, once articulated, remnants of these images have remained and contribute to the body of preconceived ideas outsiders approach the San with. | Inhabiting Images: Ju|'hoansi, vi San, and Others In Tsumkwe, different images exist simultaneously. In interactions with outsiders, Ju|'hoansi informants confirmed and enacted sometimes opposing images, depending on the context, without considering one more 'true' than another. Some Ju|'hoansi were able to switch between different images particularly well. Despite of the Ju|'hoansi community in Tsumkwe being accepting of the various images of San-ness brought in by outsiders, Tsumkwe was overall governed by Ju|'hoan values and sociality which stopped any of the NGOs that tried to establish themselves and their world views in Tsumkwe from becoming too dominant. Egalitarian pressures, however, also affect not only outsiders seeking to establish themselves but also Ju|'hoansi. Additionally, many Ju|'hoansi, experience the multitude of images brought in as a pressure. This double pressure can be somewhat relieved through carefully negotiated play in which caricatures of identities are acted out playfully. Despite possible overlap between San images and Ju|'hoan sociality, it is useful to understand San images as being a reflection on those who construct them. For the Ju|'hoansi, these images are part of the world they inhabit creatively.

Luo, Yiwen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-41). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Image Search by Multi-Class Query --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Related Work --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Our Method --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2 --- Image and Video Quality Assessment --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Related Work --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Our Method --- p.6 / Chapter 2 --- Multi-Class Query Image Search System --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- System Description --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Multi-Query Search --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Image Annotation --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Image Re-ranking --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Algorithm Description --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3 --- Evaluation and Results --- p.12 / Chapter 3 --- Image and Video Quality Assessment --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- Criteria for Assessing Photo Quality --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Composition --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Lighting --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Focus Controlling --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Color --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2 --- Features for Photo Quality Assessment --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Subject Region Extraction --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Clarity Contrast Feature --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Lighting Feature --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Simplicity Feature --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Composition Geometry Feature --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.6 --- Color Harmony Feature --- p.23 / Chapter 3.3 --- Features for Video Quality Assessment --- p.24 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Length of Subject Region Motion --- p.24 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Motion Stability --- p.26 / Chapter 3.4 --- Classification --- p.26 / Chapter 3.5 --- Experiments --- p.27 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Photo Assessment --- p.27 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Video Assessment --- p.28 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Web Image Ranking --- p.31 / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.36 / Bibliography --- p.38 / Chapter A --- Supplementary Materials of Photo Quality Assessment --- p.42 / Chapter A.l --- Photo Database --- p.42 / Chapter A.2 --- Web Image Ranking

Liu, Renting. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-46). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Related Work and System Overview --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Previous Work in Blur Analysis --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Blur detection and estimation --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Image deblurring --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Low DoF image auto-segmentation --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- System Overview --- p.15 / Chapter 3 --- Blur Features and Classification --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- Blur Features --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Local Power Spectrum Slope --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Gradient Histogram Span --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Maximum Saturation --- p.24 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Local Autocorrelation Congruency --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2 --- Classification --- p.28 / Chapter 4 --- Experiments and Results --- p.29 / Chapter 4.1 --- Blur Patch Detection --- p.29 / Chapter 4.2 --- Blur degree --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3 --- Blur Region Segmentation --- p.34 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.38 / Bibliography --- p.40 / Chapter A --- Blurred Edge Analysis --- p.47

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Digital Animation at the University of the Witwatersrand (School of Digital Arts) Johannesburg, South Africa / In recent years, the quest for capturing authentic emotion convincingly in computer generated (CG) characters to assist exceedingly complex narrative expressions in modern cinema has intensified. Conveying human emotion in a digital human-like character is widely accepted to be the most challenging and elusive task for even the most skilled animators. Contemporary filmmakers have increasingly looked to complex digital tools that essentially manipulate the visual design of cinema through innovative techniques to reach levels of undetectable integration of CG characters. In trying to assess how modern cinema is pursuing the realistic integration of CG human-like characters in digital film with frenetic interest despite the risk of box office failure associated with the uncanny valley, this report focuses on the progress of the advances in the technique of facial motion capture. The uncanny valley hypothesis, based on a theory by Sigmund Freud, was coined in 1970 by Japanese robotics professor, Masahiro Mori. Mori suggested that people are increasingly comfortable with robots the more human-like they appear, but only up to a point. At that turning point, when the robot becomes too human-like, it arouses feelings of repulsion. When movement is added to this equation, viewers’ sense of the uncanny is heightened when the movement is deemed to be unreal. Motion capture is the technique of mimicking and capturing realistic movement by utilising technology that enables the process of translating a live actor’s performance into a digital performance. By capturing and transferring the data collected from sensors placed on a body suit or tracked from a high definition video, computer artists are able to drive the movement of a corresponding CG character in a 3-Dimensional (3D) programme. The attention of this study is narrowed to the progress of the techniques developed during a prolific decade for facial motion capture in particular. Regardless of the conflicting discourse surrounding the use of motion capture technology, these phenomenal improvements have allowed filmmakers to overcome that aspect of the uncanny valley associated with detecting realistic movement and facial expression. The progress of facial motion capture is investigated through the lens of selected films released during the period of 2001 to 2012. The two case studies, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Avatar (2009) were chosen for their individual achievement and innovative techniques that introduced new methods of facial capture. Digital images are said to undermine the reality status of cinematic images by challenging the foundation of long held theories of cinematic realist theory. These theories rooted in the indexical basis of photography, have proved to be the origin of contemporary viewers' notion of cinematic realism. However, the relationship between advanced digital effects and modern cinematic realism has created a perceptual complexity that warrants closer scrutiny. In addressing the paradoxical effect that photo-real cinematic realism is having on the basic comprehension of realism in film, the history of the seminal claims made by recognized realist film theorists is briefly examined.

abstract: This study examines the representation of Asian online brides by studying the images and profiles that are advertised on Asianonlinebrides.com. To do so, I combined the history and growth of the Human Trafficking industry, the idea of the Asian “exotic OTHER,” the power and structured/constrained agency, and social construction of gender theories. In particular, I utilized a mixed methods approach for data collection. The content and visual analysis in this study provided the two sides of the analytic coin: the written and the visual. I am particularly interested in the narrative comments offered by the prospective brides, e.g., what they state to be their preferences in their dream man/husband, and the personality traits, and characteristics that they write about themselves. The following were examined: the gender displays, picture frames, feminine touch, and the ritualization of subordination. For example, body language, clothing, skin, hair color, and texture, bone structure, posture, etc. I argue that this data alerts us to the whole host of ideas, assumptions, social, cultural, and gender constructions. The power relations that exceeds the text and inform us of these online brides. The findings have indicated that these women are vulnerable and caught within oppressive social structures. They have nevertheless utilized those structures to their advantage. By doing so, the brides have acted as assertive agents in that they have looked out for the interests of both themselves and their families. Moreover, a significant body of data was provided first hand through the written and visual narratives of the online brides. These brides have offered valuable insight into the field of Asian online brides. Their stories have presented a unique perspective to the online brides’ process that can only be captured through the narratives provided in this research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Justice Studies 2019

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My dissertation investigates American images of Japan in the aftermath of World War Two. My premise: Japan represents America’s last clear victory, militarily and culturally. In the decades since the cessation of active hostilities, Japan has served in the American regard as an Other that reinforces and perpetuates an American mythos that is rooted in masculine narratives that depict righteous, regenerative violence. I emphasize images that legitimate American excesses during World War Two, reflecting earlier “Yellow Peril” periods of anti-Japanese immigration scares. American excess is sanitized during the SCAP Occupation period, after which American—and ancillary—images posit Japan as an exoticized site for Western self-affirmation. Japan remains thus marginalized until the late eighties, at which point Japan’s burgeoning economic power engenders American images that regress to the demonization of wartime propaganda. My hope for the dissertation is to assert American images of Japan as a negative paradigm. The example of how Japan has been manipulated for American purposes should be considered cautionary. America must be concerned about the ramifications of its continued reliance on a mythos narrative of redemptive masculine violence. The relocation of Japanese culture may prove prescient if America does not learn how to deal more appropriately with other Others that do not conform to America’s mythos-based Self-sustaining narrative.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a growing health concern, is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. While people habituated to smoking constitute the highest COPD susceptible population, people exposed to air pollution or other lung irritants also form a major group of potential COPD patients. COPD is a progressive disease that is characterized by the combination of chronic bronchitis, small airway obstruction, and emphysema that causes an overall decrease in the lung elasticity affecting the lung tissue. The current gold standard method to diagnose COPD is by pulmonary function tests (PFT) which measures the extent of COPD based on the lung volumes and is further classified into five severity stages. PFT measurements are insensitive to early stages of COPD and also its lack of reproducibility makes it hard to rely on, in assessing the disease progression. Alternatively, Pulmonary CT scans are considered as a major diagnostic tool in analyzing the COPD and CT measures are also closely related to the pathological extent of the disease. Quantification of COPD using features derived from CT images has been proven effective. The most common features are density based and texture based. We propose a new set of features called lung biomechanical features which capture the regional lung tissue deformation patterns during the respiratory cycle. We have tested these features on 75 COPD subjects and 15 normal subjects. We have done classification of COPD/Non COPD on the dataset using the three feature sets and also performed the classification all these subjects to their corresponding severity stage. It is shown that the lung biomechanical features were also able to classify COPD subjects with a good AUC. It is also shown that, by combining the best features from each feature set, there is an improvement in the classifier performance. Multiple regression analysis is performed to find the correlation between the CT derived features and PFT measurements.

The main objective of this project is to find the original symmetric presentations of some very important finite groups and to give our constructions of some of these groups. We have found the Mathieu sporadic group M11, HS × D5, where HS is the sporadic group Higman-Sim group, the projective special unitary group U(3; 5) and the projective special linear group L2(149) as homomorphic images of the monomial progenitors 11*4 :m (5 :4), 5*6 :m S5 and 149*2 :m D37. We have also discovered 24 : S3 × C2, 24 : A5, (25 : S4), 25 : S3 × S3, 33 : S4 × C2, S6, 29: PGL(2,7), 22 • (S6 : S6), PGL(2,19), ((A5 : A5 × A5) : D6), 6 • (U4(3): 2), 2 • PGL(2,13), S7, PGL (2,8), PSL(2,19), 2 × PGL(2,81), 25 : (S6 × A5), 26 : S4 × D3, U(4,3), 34 : S4, 32 :D6, 2 • (PGL(2,7) :PSL(2,7), 22 : (S5 : S5) and 23 : (PSL3(4) : 2) as homomorphic images of the permutation progenitors 2*8 : (2 × 4 : 2), 2*16: (2 × 4 :C2 × C2), 2*9: (S3 × S3), 2*9: (S3 × A3), 2*9: (32 × 23) and 2*9: (33 × A3). We have also constructed 24: S3 × C2, 24 : A5, (25: S4), 25 : S3 × S3,: 33: S4 × C2, S6, M11 and U (3,5) by using the technique of double coset enumeration. We have determined the isomorphism types of the most of the images mentioned in this thesis. We demonstrate our work for the following examples: 34 : (32 * 23) × 2, 29 : PGL(2,7), 2•S6, (54 : (D4 × S3)), and 3: •PSL(2,19) ×2.

Academic sociology identifies a dominant form of masculinity said to be the measure by which all men are judged. Called hegemonic or patriachal masculinity, it is seen as a form of masculinity with personal and social dimensions. In similar fashion, popular writings identify the traditional male heroic image as the cultural model of masculinity. This study explores the impact of such a dominant model of masculinity as factors in how boys and young males learn to be a man. The research looks at the lives of 13 males aged in their early 20s and around 40 years of age, utilising life-course theory and a social-psychological perspective. It compares and contrasts the experiences and perceptions of these young and mid-life males, with regard to the dominant social model of masculinity. The study seeks to assess the significance of the dominant cultural model of masculinity, as a model for what it means to be a man, for males at different stages of their life course. The dominant model of masculinity appears as a rather one dimensional model, a mainly tough, brave and physical image. During adolescence popular culture was the major influence upon their ideas and perceptions of masculinity. This influence came via their interest and participation in sport, the masculine cultural ideal enforced by their peers, and popular media images. the traditional model of masculinity can be seen to be a heroic form of masculinity with emphasis upon power, competition, success and glory. Traditional or patriarchal masculinity, called more simply heroic masculinity, emerges as a potent influence for both the young and mid-life males in terms of values, behaviours and practice. Traditional masculinity emerges as an influence they barely recognise; and possibly a factor in the limited emotional repertoire and guardedness that mid-life males exhibit. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)