Reflective journal writing: Exploring in-service EFL teachers' perceptions

, Article System ; Volume 41, Issue 3 , September , 2013 , Pages 503-514 ; 0346251X (ISSN) Abednia, A ; Hovassapian, A ; Teimournezhad, S ; Ghanbari, N ; Sharif University of Technology

2013

Abstract

Numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of reflective journal writing in (second language) teacher education. However, only a few studies have explored pre-service and in-service teachers' own perceptions in this regard, especially in the context of ELT (English Language Teaching). To address this gap, a focus group discussion was conducted among six in-service teachers on the advantages and challenges of the journal writing task in a BA Second Language Teaching Methodology course they had attended. Thematic analysis of the discussion showed that the participants believed writing journals had contributed to their self-awareness, understanding of issues related to ELT,...

Publishing in predatory open access journals: Authors' perspectives

, Article Learned Publishing ; Volume 33, Issue 2 , 2020 , Pages 89-95 Salehi, M ; Soltani, M ; Tamleh, H ; Teimournezhad, S ; Sharif University of Technology

Wiley-Blackwell 2020

Abstract

The proliferation of predatory or bogus journals has been recognized as a threat to academic research, and this study was conducted to discover the experiences of authors published in these journals. Eighty authors who had published in journals identified as predatory were surveyed. We asked how the authors learnt about these journals, what they thought about the reputation of the journals, their experiences of peer review and the quality of feedback provided, and whether publication was driven by PhD or job requirements. Our results showed that a third of authors discovered the journals by web searches or responding to email invitations. Over half said the reputation and name of the journal...

Investigating the Intercultural and Professional Identities of Iranian EFL Teachers

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Teimournezhad, Shohreh (Author) ; Tajeddin, Ziaeddin (Supervisor) ; Alemi, Minoo (Co-Advisor)

Abstract

Understanding teachers’ conceptualization of different aspects of their professional life is of great importance in the field of teacher education. Besides, given the significance of intercultural dimension of language education, characterization of teachers’ lay theories and self-perceptions in this regard could be of much help to teachers and teacher educators as one of the elements affecting professional development. Therefore, the present study was aimed at scrutinizing various facets of Iranian EFL teachers’ intercultural and professional identities in order to provide a clear image of (1) teachers’ evaluation of their cultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes, (2) the role of teachers’...

Body Skin Detection in Colour Image

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Fotouhi, Mehran (Author) ; Kasaie, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing research interest in segmenting skin regions in color images. Skin segmentation aims at locating skin regions in an unconstrained input image. Skin detection is considered as an important preprocess in many applications such as face detection, face tracking, and filtering of objectionable web images. The most attractive properties of skin detection include low computational cost, increase of the total processing speed, and being invariance against rotation, scale, partial occlusion, and pose change. Because of the diversity of various image processing tasks, there exists no optimum method that can perform properly for all applications. Most of the...

Logo Detection and Removal from Video

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Hosseini, Reyhaneh (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Most broadcast stations insert their logos to claim video content ownership and/or for business purposes.This process reduces picture quality in the logo region and also causes visual discomfort to viewers. Logo detection has a variety of applications; such as automatic TV commercial removal, broadcast surveillance, and video content understanding. Video logos can be considered as a form of visible watermark. Stations may also overlay their logos over the original logo when rebroadcasting a program produced by another station. Also, most comapnies keep a giant archive of their broadcasted programs which are going to be used in their future programs. Here, we have presented an efficient...

3D Reconstruction of Deformable Surfaces

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Dejkam, Arsalan (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

In this thesis we will first review the problem of deformable modeling. Due to their corss-disciplinary nature, deformable modeling techniques have been the subject of the vigorous research over the past three decades and have found numerous applications in the field of machine vision. Thus the focus will be on general deformable models for computer-based modeling which can be used for computer graphics, visualization, and various image processing applications. So the state of the art of deformable modeling is discussed. Then the focus of the thesis will be on different approaches for the problem of deformable surface reconstruction in 3D space. Amongs these methods there are two main...

Background Modeling for Object Tracking

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Rahimi, Qolamreza (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Co-Advisor)

Abstract

Nowadays, with high performance computers and progress in video recorder devices and their related technologies, price of these devices is being balanced and recording the videos is conventional now. Processing of these videos has been a challenge in industry and science. Control and surveillance of places such as airports and roads and reducing their sizes in memory are some of their research area. Usually one of the initial preprocesses of such applications specially the object tracking is background modeling and background subtraction. This preprocess has an essential effect on the other algorithms that process based on these processes’ results. If this section conducted with fewer...

3D Mosaicing Using Multiview Videos

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Taghaddosi, Mohsen (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

In many applications of multi view 3D reconstruction, image mosaicing is one of the most important processes. Image mosaicing is the action of stitching some pictures of a scene so that a complete picture of the scene is constructed. The proposed method is such that for PTZ cameras by extracting features from frame, the homography matrix between frames will be computed. Then by converting plane coordinate into spherical coordinate, a complete picture of the scene will be constructed and forground will be removed. For fixed cameras sufficient corresponding points will be selected for computing the homography matrix between cameras. Using the homography, the frames without forground will be...

Intra-Operative Registration of Non-Rigid Tissue for Image-Guided Surgery

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Amiri, Hakimeh (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Image Registration is a fundamental task in numerous applications in medical image processing and is defined as the process of determining the correspondence of between images collected at different times or using different imaging modalities. This correspondence can be used for aligning images so that the pair can be directly compared, combined or analyzed. Image-guided surgery systems use registration for establishing an accurate relation between preoperative and intraoperative image space. There have been several methods for rigid registration which are not easily applicable for soft tissues. Indeed, nonrigid deformation of soft tissues will endanger the accuracy of rigid methods, so it...

Human Action Recognition Using Expandable Graphical Models

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Moradi, Reza (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

In recent years, ability of computers to recognize human actions, because of numerousapplications, has attracted scientists. Surveillancesystems in house, work and public places, human computer interaction, study of human movement problems, remote supervision of ill or old people and sport training are only some of the applications. In this thesis 10 actions are considered. These actions are Walking, Running, Galloping side, Bending, Jump jacking, Jumping, Jumping in place, Skipping, Waving one hand and Waving two hands. All actions exist in Weisemann dataset so this dataset is used as training and testing dataset. Here important objectives are recognising human action so that it is...

Video Classification Usinig Semi-supervised Learning Methods

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Karimian, Mahmood (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

In large databases, availability of labeled training data is mostly prohibitive in classification. Semi-supervised algorithms are employed to tackle the lack of labeled training data problem. Video databases are the epitome for such a scenario; that is why semi-supervised learning has found its niche in it. Graph-based methods are a promising platform for semi-supervised video classification. Based on the multiview characteristic of video data, different features have been proposed (such as SIFT, STIP and MFCC) which can be utilized to build a graph. In this project, we have proposed a new classification method which fuses the results of manifold regularization over different graphs. Our...

Human Action Recognition Using 3D Analysis

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Ghadakchi, Vahid (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

The goal of human action recognition systems is to label the sensory observation data, using one of the predefined action verbs in the system. During recent years, human action recognition has received a growing interest due to its application in automatic scene interpretation. For instance, automatic surveillance systems in public places should be able to discriminate normal and suspicious actions. Human-computer-interface (HCI) systems (which have became popular in recent years) mostly need a similar system to recognize the gesture of their users without using any keyboard (or similar input devices). Human action recognition technologies can also boost the video retrieval systems.
An...

3D Reconstruction of Football Player Using Multi-view Videos

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Karami, Mansoureh (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

One major problem in sport match analysis and interpretation is that there are restricted viewpoints of the game. 3D reconstruction allows us to have virtual replay from any viewpoint so that the events such as penalties can be detected easily. For achieving this purpose, we use many cameras with overlapped views that cover almost all parts of the field. After some preprocessing, 3D reconstruction and texture mapping, we can enhance the viewer experience by having arbitrary viewpoint of the match. In this research, we use two different visual hull methods for 3D reconstruction. In the first method, the visual hull of an object is computed efficiently and robustly from image contours. This...

Vision-based 3d Object Recognition

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Forghani, Hossein (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Object recognition is a field of image processing with the purpose of object detection and determining its pose. There was a wide research of object recognition using 2d information. These methods are less efficient due to their sensitivity to view and scale. Today with development of 3d technology, 3d reconstruction of objects has been eased, thus there is a new trend of 3d methods. 3d object recognition uses 3d data and model to recognize objects more efficiently in different views and in occlusion and clutter. The related works are classified in three category of view-based, feature matching, and classification. In this research we attempted to improve one of the best feature matching...

Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects Using Multiview Cameras

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Elyasi, Fateme (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Today, advances in technology caused the emergence of a need for intelligent systems which can operate without human supervision, and have variety of applications in security, industry, transportation and sport events. Most of these systems require faster and more accurate object tracking. Lots of surveillance and computer vision applications need a process to detect and track objects. For example, the exact location of objects or people is part of the input for applications like movement analysis, counting the number of items, and recognition of people’s behavior. Occlusion is one of the major obstacles in performance of auto-tracking systems. There are several methods to address this...

3D Human Pose Estimation

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Ekhtiyari, Zahra (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

During past decade, human pose estimation has become a very important topic in computer vision with many applications; such as robotic, human computer interaction, and analyzing sport videos. Pose estimation is the process of estimating the configuration of the body joints from one or more images. Pose estimation in 2D space has been performed by processing of the images of a single camera. Recently, the multi-view methods have been emerged to estimate 3D human pose.The purpose of this thesis is 3D human pose estimation from multi-view images, captured in football matches. Pictorial structure is an efficient method in 2D human pose estimation. The 3D extension of this method is studied in...

Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping using an RGB-D Camera

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Rashidi, Hossein (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the action of detecting robot pose in an unknown environment and building the environment map by use of input data that captured from robot sensors. In visual SLAM, the input data for the robot, is limited to camera sensors. Nowadays, SLAM is one of the main challenges in robotic research.For autonomous action, we need robot pose in the map of the environment. The map production in the indoor environment, there is no GPS data, is one of the research issue in robotic community, in last decade. In this thesis, a new and efficient method is proposed for SLAM at the level of objects. The maps produced by state of the art methods don’t have a...

Free-Viewpoint Soccer Match Video from Overlapping Cameras

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Zarean, Ali (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Nowadays TV broadcasting of soccer matches has attracted a lot of viewers. With advancement of technology, the broadcasting is also going under changes. One of these changes is using free-viewpoint video. In free-viewpoint video users can interactively choose any view to watch the match from. Generally free-viewpoint problem is defined as follows. We have sequential frames of a soccer match video from different views as input. We want to create sequential frames of the same video from a different view as output. There are several methods for solving this problem. We can classify these methods into to general approaches. Image-based and geometry-based. We will examine these approaches in...

Calibration of PTZ Cameras from Multiview Soccer Match Videos

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Hadian, Mostafa (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Camera calibration in sport videos has applications such as sport video analysis, insertion of virtual graphical elements, and 3D reconstruction. Our goal in this research is to fully calibrate cameras in soccer match videos. By calibration parameters, we mean the internal and the external camera parameters. We can have a mapping from world coordinates to image coordinates if we have all the calibration parameters. The cameras used in this research are stationary pan-tilt-zoom cameras. The main challenges in camera calibration are noise, blur, bad lighting conditions, lack of useful information image,fast movement of camera and radial distortion. In addition, as another challenge, we assume...

Fine-grained Image Classification

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Souri, Yaser (Author) ; Kasaei, Shohreh (Supervisor)

Abstract

Fine-grained image classification is image classification where the considered classes are all sub-classes of a certain, more general class. In this setting of the problem, the classes are visually very similar to each other, such that an unskilled human cannot discriminate between them. In this case, proposed methods for the ordinary image classification problem do not obtain good classification accuracy. So proposing new methods for solving this problem is necessary. In this thesis two new methods, based on recent advances in deep learning are proposed for solving the fine-grained image classification problem. First by improving several parts of one of the recent proposed methods for this...