Personal Photo Research Articles

Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley: History and Modernity. Part II

The second part of the paper (see Part I [Челышева, 2023]) reveals the role of legendary Rewalsar lake in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, underlines the role of mahasiddha’s ancient spiritual tradition in the formation of its teachings. Detailed description of monasteries, located on its banks are also provided. Apart from this the author dwells upon the history and present life of the most significant contemporary Buddhist monasteries in Kangra Valley. The description of their religious life and practice, based on personal impressions, are provided. Parallel to this the author traces the process of these religious centers’ incorporation into new cultural, social and confessional background. Article is based on the personal impressions of the author’s several trips to this region in the late 1990s — beginning of 2000s and supplemented by personal photos.

Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley: History and Modernity. Part I

The first part of the article dwells upon the history of Dalai Lama’s, spiritual leader of Tibet, forcible migration to India, which served as a powerful impetus providing to the wide spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley starting from 60th of the last century. The author maintains that the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra marked a new phase in the history of Buddhism in Himalayan region. The article also contains a brief review of rich and multifaceted palette of the Valley’s ancient and medieval religious life. Basing on competent research of Indian scholars, the author analyses the influence of Tantra prehistoric ritual cult practices on the formation of Vajrayana Buddhism. Interesting parallels between the essence of this teaching and its development in Kangra and bordering districts are also drawn. The narration is based on personal experience of the author, gained during several trips to this region in the late 90s — beginning of 2000 and supplemented by personal photos.

КОМПЕТЕНТНІСТЬ ДІТЕЙ З БЕЗПЕКИ В ІНТЕРНЕТІ ЯК ЧИННИК ПРОТИДІЇ РИЗИКАМ СЕКСУАЛЬНОГО НАСИЛЬСТВА

Background. The article presents the results of the second stage of research on the effectiveness of the educational campaign #stop_sexting concerning child safety in the digital environment. The research aims to explore the activities of 5th to 8th-grade pupils in the digital environment, their basic knowledge of security, including awareness of online communication risks, as well as their attitudes toward internet safety and behavior in risky situations. The primary research method used was a questionnaire, with results analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Methods. The research findings highlight the inconsistencies in children's perceptions of the internet and safety within the online sphere, along with their self assessed competency in this domain. The trend of increasing online engagement with age has been confirmed, and the primary activities of children on the internet elevate the potential for encountering risks, which they tend to underestimate. Only 11 % of the surveyed children do not have profiles on social media. Despite the fact that the majority of children express an understanding that anyone can become a victim on the internet, they generally perceive the internet as a safe environment. Results. The risk of encountering inappropriate content online or receiving proposals for intimate communication is of least concern to them. More than half of the respondents assess their own behavior as safe and assert that they possess knowledge on how to protect themselves on the internet. Simultaneously, an equal proportion of 7th to 8th-grade pupils are unfamiliar with concepts describing various forms of sexual violence on the internet. Children also underestimate the risks associated with age-based registration limits on social media, open access to personal profiles, sharing personal information, or posting personal photos, tending to perceive danger primarily in events related to establishing contacts with strangers on the internet. Сonclusions. The research has demonstrated the limited knowledge of protective measures in risky internet situations and the lack of experience in utilizing a broader range of protective actions, aside from blocking dangerous users. Key sources of information regarding safe internet behavior include parents or family members and thematic lessons within educational institutions. Parents and law enforcement agencies (police and cyber police) serve as sources of assistance in case of hazardous online situations. However, less than 40 % of the respondents perceive educators or the school's social-psychological service as entities capable of providing assistance in internet-related dangerous situations. The research finding can be valuable in developing preventive programs focused on online safety for school-age children.

The Effect of Facial Resemblance on Cooperative Behavior in the Sharing Economy

In online sharing economy platforms, users often need to cooperate with strangers with minimal information. When personal photos are available on these platforms, how do users form social perceptions and consequently cooperative intention? According to the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and the kin selection theory, the authors propose that facial resemblance between two partners affects their perceptions of the cognitive trustworthiness, affective trustworthiness, attractiveness, and sociability of the partner, and that these social perceptions affect their cooperative intention. In the experiment, subjects evaluate the face of five potential partners of various levels of facial resemblance. The results support that the effect of facial resemblance on cooperative intention is mediated by social perceptions. Moreover, the transactional values and social values of the task partially moderate the effect of facial resemblance on social perceptions for female subjects. Sharing economy platforms may leverage the facial resemblance to facilitate cooperation among strangers.

Teaching Using a Face Protection Mask: How Students of 6-15 Years Old Perceive Their Teachers’ Expressing Emotions during the Teaching Procedure

One of the basic measures to prevent the Covid-19 infection is the use of a face protection mask by students and teachers in school premises and, mainly, in teaching. A question, however, is whether the covered part of the face is a barrier to the recognition of the expressed emotions of the wearer, a fact that may affect communication and interaction in teaching. On this basis, this article attempts to investigate how 6-15 year olds perceive the emotions of persons wearing a face protection mask. The research was conducted using the Case Study method and an “Emotion Recognition Sheet” in 1st, 3rd & 5th grade of Greek Primary School and in the first three Grades of secondary school (Gymnasium). The participant students were asked to observe photos of adult persons wearing a face mask and then to recognize the emotions of the presented adults. The research findings revealed a 62% failure of the students in recognizing emotions. This fact highlights the need to develop a teaching proposal to deal with this situation, in order to strengthen students’ communication ability, which is a key factor in achieving effective learning.

Automatic social distance estimation for photographic studies: Performance evaluation, test benchmark, and algorithm

The social distancing regulations introduced to slow down the spread of COVID-19 virus directly affect a basic form of non-verbal communication, and there may be longer term impacts on human behavior and culture that remain to be analyzed in proxemics studies. To obtain quantitative results for such studies, large media and/or personal photo collections must be analyzed. Several social distance monitoring methods have been proposed for safety purposes, but they are not directly applicable to general photo collections with large variations in the imaging setup. In such studies, the interest shifts from safety to analyzing subtle differences in social distances. Currently, there is no suitable benchmark for developing such algorithms. Collecting images with measured ground-truth pair-wise distances using different camera settings is cumbersome. Moreover, performance evaluation for these algorithms is not straightforward, and there is no widely accepted evaluation protocol. In this paper, we provide an image dataset with measured pair-wise social distances under different camera positions and settings. We suggest a performance evaluation protocol and provide a benchmark to easily evaluate such algorithms. We also propose an automatic social distance estimation method that can be applied on general photo collections. Our method is a hybrid method that combines deep learning-based object detection and human pose estimation with projective geometry. The method can be applied on uncalibrated single images with known focal length and sensor size. The results on our benchmark are encouraging with 91% human detection rate and only 38.24% average relative distance estimation error among the detected people.

Remembering And Honouring David Loye

The following article is a personal tribute dedicated to evolutionary systems scientist, psychologist, and poet, David Loye. The article contains a collection of personal photographs of David Loye and partner, Riane Eisler alongside a poem written by Loye and the published obituary following his passing.

THE STORYTELLING TECHNIQUE ASSISTED WITH THE PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPH IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

This research is Classroom Action Research about Improving The Qualiy Of The Teaching And Learning Of Speaking Skill through The Implementation of Storytelling Technique assisted with The Personal Photograph. The main objectives of the research were: (1) to improve the students’ speaking skill in English lesson which was integrated with the other skills, such as listening, reading and writing. (2) to improve the students’ ability in using the language aspects, such as vocabulary, grammar and pronounciation having a direct correspondence to speaking skill. Making used of the classroom action based research procedure, the result of the study conveyed that the implementation of Storytelling assisted with the personal photograph could improve the students’ speaking skill. At the same time it could also improve their ability in using the aspects of the language, such as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Blind football and sporting capital: managing and sustaining participation among youth blind football players in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Research question The relationship between sporting capital and participation experiences in lower-middle income countries, such as Zimbabwe, especially amongst people with visual impairments, is hitherto unknown. This paper examines the participation experiences of Zimbabwean youth blind football players and asks how does the accumulation of sporting capital help in managing and sustaining participation in blind football? Methods The paper employs a mixed method approach and draws upon data from semi-structured interviews, participant observation, personal photographs, and the Sporting Capital Index questionnaire to analyse the sporting capital development of 14 youth blind football players from nine of Zimbabwe’s ten provinces. Results and Findings The players’ sporting capital domains were established early through a diversified range of formal participation in various sports, including goalball, athletics, and volleyball during primary school. Increased sporting capital highlighted transferability to different teams and environments to help manage and sustain participation in blind football. Sporting capital is increased by a varied sport offer, empathetic and skilled teachers and coaches, opportunities to develop independence and a strong peer network, for example, through having access to specialist equipment. Taken together, accumulated capital empowered players to surmount a range of barriers, helping them to sustain participation. Implications Findings will help stakeholders, including national blind sport federations, National Governing Bodies, National Paralympic Committees, educational institutions and blind football teams, among others, to develop management structures and educational programmes to help increase youth blind football players’ sporting capital and identify and manage negative incidents that might affect lifelong participation in blind football.

BRINGING BACK OLD PHOTOS INTO LIFE USING DEEP LEARNING TECHNIQUES

Machine learning is a type of computer algorithm that learns from examples rather than being explicitly programmed to do a task. Artificial intelligence is based on machine learning. Depending on the structure and complexity of the algorithm, it can be further separated into shallow and deep learning. Image processing has permeated every area of today's technologically advanced culture in the last two decades. Medical imaging, machine vision, remote sensing, and astronomy are just a few of the specialized disciplines where it can be used. A range of specialist image processing algorithms can quickly edit personal photographs acquired by various digital cameras. Image restoration can be thought of as a crucial aspect of image processing. The main goal is to improve the quality of an image by removing flaws and making it more appealing.

A New Method of Disabling Face Detection by Drawing Lines between Eyes and Mouth

Face swapping technology is approaching maturity, and it is difficult to distinguish between real images and fake images. In order to prevent malicious face swapping and ensure the privacy and security of personal photos, we propose a new way to disable the face detector in the face detection stage, which is to add a black line structure to the face part. Using neural network visualization, we found that the black line structure can interrupt the continuity of facial features extracted by the face detector, thus making the three face detectors MTCNN, S3FD, and SSD fail simultaneously. By widening the width of the black line, MTCNN, S3FD, and SSD are able to reach probability of failure levels up to 95.7%. To reduce the amount of perturbation added and determine the effective range of perturbation addition, we firstly experimentally prove that adding perturbation to the background cannot interfere with the detector’s detection of faces.

CNN-BASED CONTINUOUS AUTHENTICATION OF SMARTPHONES USING MOBILE SENSORS

With the advancement of technology, the smartphone has become a reliable source to store private details, personal photos, credentials, and confidential information. However, smartphones are easily stolen and it has become a suitable target for attackers. Usually, smartphones require only initial explicit authentication, once the initial login is passed all the information can be accessed easily. Hence, this paper proposes an efficient implicit, continuous authentication of the smartphone based on the user’s behavioral characteristics. We propose architecture to differentiate legitimate smartphone owners from intruders. Our model relies on the smartphone’s built-in sensors like an accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS. The sensors respond according to the user’s behavior which is recorded by the smartphone. We have used the rest filter model to separate motion data from rest since the rest data does not contain much information about the user’s behavior. We have used Xgboost and Convolutional Neural Network as our rest filter and legitimate-intruder classifier respectively. Our system can predict legitimate and intruders in a few seconds. Our proposed CNN model has an achieved average accuracy of 95.79% in our custom dataset, which has further improved after integrating GPS data.

Анализ потребительского поведения и предложения на рынке мобильных приложений

According to a sociological study in December 2021, an analysis was made of the consumer behavior of smartphone owners, an analysis of the supply and main business models of digital companies. It was found that young people spent about 8 hours a day in front of smartphone screens, of which 52% were on social networks and instant messaging and voice communication services and 12% on video hosting services, 7% on games, 4% on browsers, 5% on productivity apps, 1% on shopping, 1% on personal photos and videos, 18% on other applications. The main screen time is used by young people for unproductive purposes. It is necessary to regulate screen time, control the quality of information resources, conduct educational and explanatory work. The most popular and attention-consuming applications were social networks and video hosting, which collectively accounted for more than 58% of all screen time, an average of 5.8 hours per day. The business model of screen time companies is to advertise, collect and commercialize user data. The companies owning the majority of the main screen time applications were social networks. Digital platforms may own and operate infrastructure or provide a specific service on which merchants and developers depend. In the specific markets of digital goods, the efforts of business to monopolize are great. To protect competition, it is necessary to make adjustments to the antimonopoly legislation. The criteria for assessing the level of monopolization of the company’s market position, along with price and market share, are proposed to be expanded, such as network effects, switching costs, access to crucial data for competition, competitive pressure by innovation.

PHOcus

Our ability to collect data is rapidly outstripping our ability to effectively store and use it. Organizations are therefore facing tough decisions of what data to archive (or dispose of) to effectively meet their business goals. PHOcus addresses this problem in the context of image data (photos) by proposing which photos to archive to meet an online storage budget. The decision is based on factors such as usage patterns and their relative importance, the quality and size of a photo, the relevance of a photo for a usage pattern, the similarity between different photos, as well as policy requirements of what photos must be retained. We formalize the photo archival problem and give an efficient algorithm with an optimal approximation guarantee. We then demonstrate our system, PHOcus, on an e-commerce application as well as with personal photos on a smartphone, and discuss how many of the inputs to the problem can be automatically obtained.

Effects of the use of autobiographical photographs on emotional induction in older adults: a systematic review.

There is evidence to support the positive contribution of autobiographical recall based techniques on individuals' quality of life, mood and cognitive functioning. In this review, we analyzed the effects of the use of personal photographs in interventions based on autobiographical memory in older people with and without cognitive impairment. The PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews were followed. The search was carried out in the electronic databases Web of Sciences (WOS), Medline (PubMed), SCIELO and PsycInfo (American Psychological Association). The articles based on clinical trials selected were evaluated using the PEDRo scale, which is specific to this type of article. Of the 1098 articles initially found, 6 met the inclusion criteria. The final articles focused their intervention on the use of autobiographical photographs as a means of stimulation. The results show that the use of photographs in different autobiographical recall stimulation techniques is associated with higher scores on well-being and quality of life, as well as with improvements in personal identity and cognitive functioning. This suggests that using personal photographs shows promise in enhancing the effect of these types of interventions in healthy or cognitively impaired older adults.

Three Poems

Momina A. Khan presents Three Poems" with personal photographs concerning memory, self and place as a Muslim Pakistani Canadian woman.

Privacy-Preserving Media Sharing with Scalable Access Control and Secure Deduplication in Cloud

In this study, role re-encryption is employed in a secure role re-encryption system to minimise data leakage and deduplication (SRRS). It also looks for evidence of ownership to see whether the user is an authorised one. This is for the sake of effectiveness. The role re encryption approach involves sharing the access key for the associated authorised user in order to access a specific file without exposing personal information. We use both the avoid use of text and digital visuals in our endeavour. Personal photographs, for example, are stored on our mobile phones, portable devices, computers, and other gadgets. As these photographs must be kept confidential, we are encrypting them. Nowadays, the text file is equally significant for users. It must be kept safe on a cloud server. Digital photographs must be safeguarded during transmission, but personal identity information such as copies of a pancard, passport, ATM card, and so on, should be stored on a single wnpc. To minimise duplication in our proposed system, we are securing the text file and picture data.

On Social Networks, Anonymous Testimonies, and Other Tools of Feminist Activism against Sexual Violence in Egypt

On Social Networks, Anonymous Testimonies, and Other Tools of Feminist Activism against Sexual Violence in Egypt

EKPHRASIS AS A NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE IN THE NOVEL SABO JE STAO BY OTO HORVAT

This paper analyses ekphrasis as a rhetorical tool and a narrative technique in Oto Horvat’s novel Sabo je stao (2014). The understanding of ekphrasis is not limited to verbal descriptions of works of art, but it is hypothesised that Horvat treats memories, i.e. images from the past, in the same way. The novel’s structure is reminiscent of a film strip that unwinds memories from the personal and shared past. By elaborating the trauma caused by the loss of his spouse and trying to recover her life, at least in literature, the writer revives memories of their shared life and a collective past in a country that no longer exists. In the comparisons between the ekphrastic descriptions of the artistic photographs and those of the imaginary, personal photographs, particular emphasis has been placed on the choice of vocabulary and intertextuality.

Secure Attendance System using Raspberry Pi Face Recognition

This study aims to develop a machine-learning-based attendance management system using face recognition and Raspberry Pi. The proposed system is composed of two main subsystems. The first is a Raspberry Pi, to be installed in each class, and the second is a web application fed by data from the Raspberry Pi. To take attendance, an instructor commands a Raspberry Pi camera through a web-based subsystem. Then, the camera takes a picture of the whole class and detects faces using trained Haar Cascades. It sends back a file with the class picture and Cartesian coordinates of the detected faces. The web application parses the file, looking for the coordinates of faces. For each Region of Interest, it uses the Support Vector Machine algorithm to recognize faces based on their HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients) features. The recognizer uses a pre-built dataset of that particular class containing the students’ personal photos, names and ID numbers. Features of each face were extracted using HOG and trained to construct the model over a given class of students. Once every detected face is recognized, the application generates a report for the instructor showing the list of students’ names and attendance status.