title: Hierarchical, informed and robust machine learning for surgical tool management

authors: Rodrigues, Mark William

subjects: Machine learning

abstract: This thesis focuses on the development of a computer vision and deep learning based system for the intelligent management of surgical tools. The work accomplished included the development of a new dataset, creation of state of the art techniques to cope with volume, variety and vision problems, and designing or adapting algorithms to address specific surgical tool recognition issues. The system was trained to cope with a wide variety of tools, with very subtle differences in shapes, and was designed to work with high volumes, as well as varying illuminations and backgrounds. Methodology that was adopted in this thesis included the creation of a surgical tool image dataset and development of a surgical tool attribute matrix or knowledge-base. This was significant because there are no large scale publicly available surgical tool datasets, nor are there established annotations or datasets of textual descriptions of surgical tools that can be used for machine learning. The work resulted in the development of a new hierarchical architecture for multi-level predictions at surgical speciality, pack, set and tool level. Additional work evaluated the use of synthetic data to improve robustness of the CNN, and the infusion of knowledge to improve predictive performance.

text: Hierarchical, informed and robust machine learning for surgical tool management This thesis focuses on the development of a computer vision and deep learning based system for the intelligent management of surgical tools. The work accomplished included the development of a new dataset, creation of state of the art techniques to cope with volume, variety and vision problems, and designing or adapting algorithms to address specific surgical tool recognition issues. The system was trained to cope with a wide variety of tools, with very subtle differences in shapes, and was designed to work with high volumes, as well as varying illuminations and backgrounds. Methodology that was adopted in this thesis included the creation of a surgical tool image dataset and development of a surgical tool attribute matrix or knowledge-base. This was significant because there are no large scale publicly available surgical tool datasets, nor are there established annotations or datasets of textual descriptions of surgical tools that can be used for machine learning. The work resulted in the development of a new hierarchical architecture for multi-level predictions at surgical speciality, pack, set and tool level. Additional work evaluated the use of synthetic data to improve robustness of the CNN, and the infusion of knowledge to improve predictive performance.

year: 2023

title: Bakhtinian Dialogic and Vygotskian Dialectic: Compatabilities and contradictions in the classroom?

authors: White, Elizabeth Jayne

subjects: Bakhtin

abstract: This article explores two central notions of ‘dialectics’ and ‘dialogics’ based on the work of Vygotsky (drawing on philosophers such as Hegel, Spinoza, Engels and Marx) and Bakhtin (drawing on members of the Bakhtin Circle and writers such as Dostoevsky and Rabelais) respectively, as well their varying interanimations within Stalin-Marxist Russian society. It is proposed that these two positions are incommensurably located alongside one another in contemporary education. I argue that Bakhtin offers diametrically oppositional educational provocations to those of Vygotsky. The implications of these interpretations will be explored with consideration of their underlying philosophical incompatibilities and contradictions, as well as the opportunities such a consideration pose for educational practice today.

text: Bakhtinian Dialogic and Vygotskian Dialectic: Compatabilities and contradictions in the classroom? This article explores two central notions of ‘dialectics’ and ‘dialogics’ based on the work of Vygotsky (drawing on philosophers such as Hegel, Spinoza, Engels and Marx) and Bakhtin (drawing on members of the Bakhtin Circle and writers such as Dostoevsky and Rabelais) respectively, as well their varying interanimations within Stalin-Marxist Russian society. It is proposed that these two positions are incommensurably located alongside one another in contemporary education. I argue that Bakhtin offers diametrically oppositional educational provocations to those of Vygotsky. The implications of these interpretations will be explored with consideration of their underlying philosophical incompatibilities and contradictions, as well as the opportunities such a consideration pose for educational practice today.

year: 2011

title: Imaging and Imagining the Waikato: A Spatial History c.1800-c.1914

authors: Dench, Simon Jeffery

subjects: colonisation

abstract: This thesis reframes the history of the Waikato from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries through a spatial history approach using a visual archive. I argue that Pākehā images of the Waikato were both contemporary records and instruments of colonisation in the region, and that the discursive power of these images is undiminished. In this thesis I focus on spatial occasions represented by maps and photographs in order to reframe the history of colonisation in the Waikato.
First, I move visual sources of historical evidence, specifically maps and photographs, from the periphery to the centre of the frame. An exploration of
the historical context of the selected maps and photographs serves as the narrative framework for the thesis in a strategy that replaces the more usual method of choosing images to illustrate a text that has already been written. This theoretical and methodological framework for what I consider to be a richer and more satisfying use of visual evidence in history is a key feature of this thesis. Second, I employ a colonisation lens to emphasise the negative consequences of colonisation for the indigenous people and landscapes, as well as the diverse and far from unproblematic experiences of the colonists themselves. This thesis positions three phases of Pākehā colonisation: Reconnaissance, Invasion and Occupation. These overtly militaristic labels apply to real military actions as well as to less obvious but longer-lasting and wider-spread discursive strategies of incursion and control.
While this thesis emphasises the negative impacts of colonisation, this is a history from the colonisers’ point of view. The images that form the focus of the thesis were created by Pākehā in the service of Pākehā intentions, actions and identities. But, rather than serving to justify or excuse colonisation as an end that justified the means, I undermine the inevitability inherent in the traditional settlement narrative. I do this by highlighting the ambiguities and contradictions of the colonisers’ intentions and experiences through a close and contextualised reading of the images they made to record and represent themselves. In the process, I refute the legitimacy and validity of Pākehā claims to control Waikato spaces.

text: Imaging and Imagining the Waikato: A Spatial History c.1800-c.1914 This thesis reframes the history of the Waikato from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries through a spatial history approach using a visual archive. I argue that Pākehā images of the Waikato were both contemporary records and instruments of colonisation in the region, and that the discursive power of these images is undiminished. In this thesis I focus on spatial occasions represented by maps and photographs in order to reframe the history of colonisation in the Waikato.
First, I move visual sources of historical evidence, specifically maps and photographs, from the periphery to the centre of the frame. An exploration of
the historical context of the selected maps and photographs serves as the narrative framework for the thesis in a strategy that replaces the more usual method of choosing images to illustrate a text that has already been written. This theoretical and methodological framework for what I consider to be a richer and more satisfying use of visual evidence in history is a key feature of this thesis. Second, I employ a colonisation lens to emphasise the negative consequences of colonisation for the indigenous people and landscapes, as well as the diverse and far from unproblematic experiences of the colonists themselves. This thesis positions three phases of Pākehā colonisation: Reconnaissance, Invasion and Occupation. These overtly militaristic labels apply to real military actions as well as to less obvious but longer-lasting and wider-spread discursive strategies of incursion and control.
While this thesis emphasises the negative impacts of colonisation, this is a history from the colonisers’ point of view. The images that form the focus of the thesis were created by Pākehā in the service of Pākehā intentions, actions and identities. But, rather than serving to justify or excuse colonisation as an end that justified the means, I undermine the inevitability inherent in the traditional settlement narrative. I do this by highlighting the ambiguities and contradictions of the colonisers’ intentions and experiences through a close and contextualised reading of the images they made to record and represent themselves. In the process, I refute the legitimacy and validity of Pākehā claims to control Waikato spaces.

year: 2018