Improving image annotation via useful representative feature selection

This paper describes the automatic assignment of images into classes described by individual keywords provided with the Corel data set. Automatic image annotation technology aims to provide an efficient and effective searching environment for users to query their images more easily, but current image retrieval systems are still not very accurate when assigning images into a large number of keyword classes. Noisy features are the main problem, causing some keywords never to be assigned to their correct images. This paper focuses on improving image classification, first by selection of features to characterise each image, and then the selection of the most suitable feature vectors as training data. A Pixel Density filter (PDfilter) and Information Gain (IG) are proposed to perform these respective tasks. We filter out the noisy features so that groups of images can be represented by their most important values. The experiments use hue, saturation and value (HSV) colour feature space to categorise images according to one of 190 concrete keywords or subsets of these. The study shows that feature selection through the PDfilter and IG can improve the problem of spurious similarity.

Mood—Creativity Relationship in Groups: The Role of Equality in Idea Contribution in Temporal Mood Effects

As people working in groups might fare better in solving complex problems than those working alone (e.g., Laughlin, Hatch, Silver, & Boh, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90 , 2006 and 644), organizations have increasingly assigned creative projects to groups. Group members contribute their collective efforts over time until the creative project has come to fruition. Although mood is identified as an important antecedent to creativity, little is known about the temporal pattern of how group mood enhances or inhibits group creativity, as well as the underpinning group process that explains the mood—creativity link in groups. We set out to address these questions by taking a within-group approach to study the temporal trends of how group mood precedes group creativity and to examine idea contribution equality (ICE) as a mediating group process. We conducted a three-wave longitudinal study among student workgroups tasked to complete a creativity project over a 1-month span. Evidence showed that positive mood is positively associated with concurrent ICE and negative mood is negatively associated with lagged ICE. Furthermore, a mediation model showed that negative mood eventually hampered expert-rated group creative performance by reducing ICE over time. These findings add new knowledge to the temporal mood—creativity relation within the group context.     

The Effects of a Television Drama-Based Media Literacy Initiative on Taiwanese Adolescents’ Gender Role Attitudes

Sex Roles - For the present study, we developed a television (TV) drama-based media literacy program for Taiwanese adolescents. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effects of the...     

Remarks on the identifiability of thurstonian ranking models: Case V, case III, or neither?

It is well-known that the representations of the Thurstonian Case III and Case V models for paired comparison data are not unique. Similarly, when analyzing ranking data, other equivalent covariance structures can substitute for those given by Thurstone in these cases. That is, we may more broadly define the family of covariance structures satisfying Case III and Case V conditions. This paper introduces the notion of equivalence classes which defines a more meaningful partition of the covariance structures of the Thurstonian ranking models. In addition, the equivalence classes of Case V and Case III are completely characterized.     

Does Image Matter to Different Job Applicants? The influences of corporate image and applicant individual differences on organizational attractiveness

This research examined both the effects of various corporate image dimensions on organizational attractiveness and the moderating effects of applicant individual difference variables on the aforementioned relationships. Two studies were conducted for this research, which involved 40 bank samples and 360 student participants ( Study 1 ) and 538 employee–student mixed samples ( Study 2 ). By implementing different research designs, samples, and industry targets in the two studies, we found that corporate product image, corporate citizenship image, and corporate credibility image were important antecedents to organizational attractiveness. One of the proposed applicant individual difference variables, environmental sensitivity, was found to moderate the relationship between corporate citizenship image and organizational attractiveness.     

A multi-site comparison of supported housing for chronically homeless adults: "Housing first" versus "residential treatment first"

Both direct placement in supported community housing and pre-treatment with time-limited residential treatment are used as approaches to helping chronically homeless adults exit from homelessness but relative effectiveness and cost remains untested. The current observational study utilized data from a national, multi-site housing project to determine whether clients who receive residential treatment or transitional housing before being placed into independent housing achieve superior outcomes than clients who are immediately placed into independent housing, and whether they incur greater healthcare costs. A total of 709 participants (131 and 578 participants in the respective groups) were assessed every 3 months for 2 years on housing outcomes, community adjustment, work and income, mental and physical health, and health service costs. Clients who received immediate, independent housing had more days in their own place, less days incarcerated, and reported having more choice over treatment; but no differences on other clinical or community adjustment outcomes. In this observational study, there were no clinical advantages for clients who had residential treatment or transitional housing prior to entry into community housing, but they incurred higher substance abuse service costs. Studies using randomized controlled trials of these conditions are needed to establish causation.     

A multichannel PC tachistoscope with high resolution and fast display change capability

The number of channels that PC tachistoscopes can have has increased recently (Bokhorst, 1995; Myors, 1998); however, neither the quality of display nor speed of image switching has been improved. This article shows the capability of VESA’s VBE 3.0 standard (1998) for increasing the number of channels of high-quality images. And the refresh rate can be set to the fastest cathode ray tube (CRT) scanning rate the monitor can tolerate in order to reduce the timing delay of changing display. A PCTSCOPE library was written in C to provide these capabilities, which is compatible with conventional DOS real mode. The PC tachistoscope can have numbers of channels with various resolutions and colors and different refresh rates. For example, 25 images with the resolution of 640 × 480 pixels and 256 colors can be loaded to video memory, and vertical refresh rate can be set to 180 Hz. It takes less than 6 msec to change the display among 25 channels in synchronizing with the start of the video scanning frame. In this library, the number of channels, the resolution of the images, and the speed of changing display all are improved. The multichannel PC tachistoscope with this technique is especially suitable for research requiring high-quality images and rapid successive presentation of stimuli.