Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3D simultaneous localization and mapping using IMU and its observability analysis

SUMMARY This paper investigates 3-dimensional (3D) Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and the corresponding observability analysis by fusing data from landmark sensors and a strap-down Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in an adaptive Kalman filter (KF). In addition to the vehicle's states and landmark positions, the self-tuning filter estimates the IMU calibration parameters as well as the covariance of the measurement noise. The discrete-time covariance matrix of the process noise, the state transition matrix and the observation sensitivity matrix are derived in closed form, making it suitable for real-time implementation. Examination of the observability of the 3D SLAM system leads to the the conclusion that the system remains observable, provided that at least three known landmarks, which are not placed in a straight line, are observed.
Contribution of understorey vegetation and soil processes to boreal forest isoprenoid exchange

Abstract. Boreal forest floor emits biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) from the understorey vegetation and the heterogeneous soil matrix, where the interactions of soil organisms and soil chemistry are complex. Earlier studies have focused on determining the net exchange of VOCs from the forest floor. This study goes one step further, with the aim of separately determining whether the photosynthesized carbon allocation to soil affects the isoprenoid production by different soil organisms, i.e., decomposers, mycorrhizal fungi, and roots. In each treatment, photosynthesized carbon allocation through roots for decomposers and mycorrhizal fungi was controlled by either preventing root ingrowth (50 µm mesh size) or the ingrowth of roots and fungi (1 µm mesh) into the soil volume, which is called the trenching approach. Isoprenoid fluxes were measured using dynamic (steady-state flow-through) chambers from the different treatments. This study aimed to analyze how important the understorey vegetation is as a VOC sink. Finally, a statistical model was constructed based on prevailing temperature, seasonality, trenching treatments, understory vegetation cover, above canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil water content, and soil temperature to estimate isoprenoid fluxes. The final model included parameters with a statistically significant effect on the isoprenoid fluxes. The results show that the boreal forest floor emits monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and isoprene. Monoterpenes were the most common group of emitted isoprenoids, and the average flux from the non-trenched forest floor was 23 µg m−2 h−1. The results also show that different biological factors, including litterfall, carbon availability, biological activity in the soil, and physico-chemical processes, such as volatilization and absorption to the surfaces, are important at various times of the year. This study also discovered that understorey vegetation is a strong sink of monoterpenes. The statistical model, based on prevailing temperature, seasonality, vegetation effect, and the interaction of these parameters, explained 43 % of the monoterpene fluxes, and 34–46 % of individual α-pinene, camphene, β-pinene, and Δ3-carene fluxes.
Window on the world. From modest rights to commodification in Canada's welfare state

This paper examines the rise and decline of Canada's welfare state from 1945 to the end of the century. The years to the mid-1960s were marked by the introduction of an array of social programmes that produced a system inferior to that of the major western European countries, but distinctly superior to that of the United States. These developments gave 'modest social rights' to Canada's residents, whilst not fundamentally challenging the market base of the society. The years since 1971 have been marked by retreat, influenced by three considerations: the world oil crisis of 1973, which imported significant inflation to Canada and resulted in large government deficits; the threat of separatism in Quebec, which resulted in a massive devolution of authority from the central government to the provinces; and the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (reflecting a more general rise in neo-conservatism), which further integrated the economies and societies of the two countries. The impact of these changes has been to increasingly commodify social benefits within a market context, so that Esping-Andersen's 1989 classification of Canada as a 'liberal' welfare state has undoubtedly proved accurate, though a decade later than he identified. The paper explores benefits for children and the right to food as case illustrations of these fundamental changes.
Is it necessary to obtain serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone and prolactin in asymptomatic women with infertility?

BACKGROUND Most obstetricians and gynecologists order serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolactin (PRL) in every female patient undergoing an infertility evaluation (regardless of their menstrual rhythm). METHODS Patients were recruited from the clinical practice of the named authors in a prospective manner. Serum TSH and PRL were ordered at the time of the couple's initial consult. RESULTS 2.48% of patients (21 out of 846 patients) had abnormal levels of TSH, and 1.77% (15 of 844 patients) had elevated levels of PRL. CONCLUSIONS The practice of routinely ordering serum levels of TSH and PRL in infertility patients having normal periods is questioned.
Practical pose normalizaiton for pose-invariant face recognition

Identifying subjects with variations caused by poses is one of the most challenging problems in face recognition, essentially, a misalignment problem. In this paper, we propose a simple, practical but effective continuous pose normalization method to handle pose variations. First, 2D-3D correspondence is constructed based on five facial landmarks of query image. A single reference 3D mesh is projected onto query image and appearance of query face is assigned to the reference mesh. Frontal view of query face is obtained by rendering the appearance-assigned 3D mesh at frontal pose. Large scale recognition experiments conducted on MultiPIE and FERET databases show that our method achieves competitive, high recognition accuracy, with advantage of database independent and running fast, which is very suitable for practical applications.
Contagion channels of the USA subprime financial crisis: Evidence from USA, EMU, China and Japan equity markets

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically contagion channels of the 2007 US subprime financial crisis by employing a multivariate GARCH model for four major, international equity markets, namely the USA, EMU, China and Japan. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, contagion channels of the 2007 US subprime financial crisis are investigated empirically by employing a multivariate GARCH model for four major, international equity markets, namely the USA, EMU, China and Japan. Findings - There is empirical evidence of contagion in all markets with the US market through various channels, which have not been discussed in other related studies. Specifically, the empirical results suggest that Japanese and EMU markets have been directly affected from the crisis. However, while China's equity market has been mainly unaffected by the US subprime crisis, has been affected indirectly through Japan. Moreover, the Japanese equity market exhibits positive and significant spillovers effects with China and EMU, revealing an indirect volatility transmission channel of US subprime crisis. Research limitations/implications - Further research could consider the asymmetric effects on conditional covariance through, for example, asymmetric generalized dynamic conditional correlation models. All under examination markets show evidence of contagion through different channels. Practical implications - Despite the financial advices for diversification, since the increasing globalization and stock market interdependence throughout the last 15 years, through the US subprime crisis equity investors had fewer opportunities for diversification. From policy makers' perspective, they should carefully examine and uncover possible decoupling strategies to insulate these economies from contagion in future crises. Social implications - This study provides useful information to international organizations, such as World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to protect markets from contagion during future crises. Originality/value - A novel finding of this paper is the indirect channel of contagion (i.e. Japanese market) for Chinese market. This indirect channel may help explain why China's equity market performed badly in 2008 after the subprime crisis in the USA emerged.
The Family and the Child: A Vision of Mexican Migration

Families living the male migratory phenomenon present changes in traditional structure and dynamics due to the physical absence and frequent mobility of the men of these migrant source communities. The objective of this study was to identify the representation of “the family” where children have fathers who are migrants in the United States. The study was carried out in communities in the states of Veracruz and Michoacán in Mexico. The sample comprised 29 Mexican children between the ages of 6 and 13 under nonclinical conditions. Through the Family Drawing technique and analyses of the stories from these drawings, we found that migration can present psychosocial repercussions in the families who experience it, affecting the emotional and social development of their members.
Increasing the Sensitivity of Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism Analysis of the LDLR Gene Mutations in Brazilian Patients with Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Abstract Mutations in the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene cause familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), one of the most common single gene disorders. It is thought that FH affects approximately 1 of 500 individuals in most populations. Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis is widely used to detect mutations in the LDLR gene. However, several factors such as temperature, pH, running time, gel composition and size of the DNA fragments can influence its sensitivity. We have optimized the electrophoretic conditions to screen mutations in the promoter region and exons 1–18 of the LDLR gene by varying temperature (5 °C, 8 °C, 12 °C and 15 °C), voltage (300 to 600 V), and running time (1 to 4 hours) in the semi-automated GenePhor™ system (Amersham Biosciences). The efficiency of the method was evaluated by using 30 positive controls (DNA samples with mutations and polymorphisms in the LDLR gene, previously characterized) and DNA samples from 90 Brazilian patients with FH. Our results show that the use of two temperatures (5 °C and 15 °C) in combination with other optimized conditions resulted in high mutation detection rate (97%), which was considered appropriate for routine screening. Therefore, this strategy could be useful for the diagnosis of genetic disorders, cancer, and for pharmacogenetic studies.
Channeling Remittances to Education: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador

We implement a randomized experiment offering Salvadoran migrants matching funds for educational remittances, which are channeled directly to a beneficiary student in El Salvador chosen by the migrant. The matches lead to increased educational expenditures, higher private school attendance, and lower labor supply of youths in El Salvador households connected to migrant study participants. We find substantial "crowd-in" of educational investments: for each $1 received by beneficiaries, educational expenditures increase by $3.72. We find no shifting of expenditures away from other students, and no effect on remittances.
Public Service Motivation and Job Performance

Perry and Wise (1990) argued that people with high public service motivation (PSM) are more likely than others to choose government jobs, to perform better on the job, and to respond more to nonutilitarian incentives once in government. Using multiple regression and logit analyses on responses by 35,000 federal, white-collar employees to the 1991 Survey of Federal Employees and the 1996 Merit Principles Survey, this article tests the link between PSM and job performance in the federal service. There is mixed evidence on whether PSM positively affected grades and performance ratings, clearer evidence that employees who expected to receive a material reward for exceptional performance attained higher grades and performance ratings, and no evidence that the link between material rewards and performance mattered any less to those with high PSM.
The contractual and value relevance of reported earnings in a dividend-focused environment

This study investigates the relevance of reported earnings in the context of an institutional environment, i.e., Switzerland, in which investors focus on dividends. In conjunction with a dividend focus, the financial reporting environment faced by Swiss firms provides their managers with more accounting discretion than managers of Anglo-Saxon firms typically have. From a contractual perspective, dividendbased earnings management is expected since Swiss corporate law explicitly states that dividends, which must be voted on by stockholders, are to be based upon a firm's reported earnings. From a value perspective, thin trading conditions and a long-term investment horizon are expected to increase the importance of dividend payments and to influence the informativeness of reported earnings. Results indicate that Swiss managers do engage in dividend-based earnings management, that earnings quality signals are used by managers to voluntarily constrain their accounting choices and that the value relevance of earnings is conditional upon dividend payments.
Acupuncture for pain relief during induced labour in nulliparae: a randomised controlled study

Please cite this paper as: MacKenzie I, Xu J, Cusick C, Midwinter‐Morten H, Meacher H, Mollison J, Brock M. Acupuncture for pain relief during induced labour in nulliparae: a randomised controlled study. BJOG 2011;118:440–447.
Two Related Occupational Cases of Legionella longbeachae Infection, Quebec, Canada

Two patients with no exposure to gardening compost had related Legionella longbeachae infections in Quebec, Canada. Epidemiologic investigation and laboratory results from patient and soil samples identified the patients’ workplace, a metal recycling plant, as the likely source of infection, indicating a need to suspect occupational exposure for L. longbeachae infections.
System support for micro-harvester powered mobile sensing

Micro-harvesting from sources such as indoor light can enable a plethora of self-sustainable sensing systems for mobile healthcare applications. However, given the minuscule and variable amount of energy harvested from these renewable sources, practical sensing systems powered by micro-harvesting is today limited to light driven motion sensing. In this paper, we design, implement, and evaluate an indoor light driven wearable glove device that uses flex sensors and accelerometers for hand gesture recognition. Through the design, we make a two-fold contribution to micro-harvester driven mobile sensing systems. First, motivated by extensive profiling of panels for indoor light scavenging, we design a harvester that multiplexes panels of different compositions to maximally scavenge energy as a function of lighting conditions. Second, we present a tiered architecture composed of application specific hardware logic, wakeup controllers, a general purpose micro-controller, and a bluetooth device that can adapt to variable and ultra-low energy constraints, and at the same time provide high responsiveness and compute capability for gesture recognition. We evaluate the glove device in the context of a hand gesture driven home automation system for the elderly.
Deficient Notch signaling associated with neurogenic pecanex is compensated for by the unfolded protein response in Drosophila

The Notch (N) signaling machinery is evolutionarily conserved and regulates a broad spectrum of cell-specification events, through local cell-cell communication. pecanex (pcx) encodes a multi-pass transmembrane protein of unknown function, widely found from Drosophila to humans. The zygotic and maternal loss of pcx in Drosophila causes a neurogenic phenotype (hyperplasia of the embryonic nervous system), suggesting that pcx might be involved in N signaling. Here, we established that Pcx is a component of the N-signaling pathway. Pcx was required upstream of the membrane-tethered and the nuclear forms of activated N, probably in N signal-receiving cells, suggesting that pcx is required prior to or during the activation of N. pcx overexpression revealed that Pcx resides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Disruption of pcx function resulted in enlargement of the ER that was not attributable to the reduced N signaling activity. In addition, hyper-induction of the unfolded protein response (UPR) by the expression of activated Xbp1 or dominant-negative Heat shock protein cognate 3 suppressed the neurogenic phenotype and ER enlargement caused by the absence of pcx. A similar suppression of these phenotypes was induced by overexpression of O-fucosyltransferase 1, an N-specific chaperone. Taking these results together, we speculate that the reduction in N signaling in embryos lacking pcx function might be attributable to defective ER functions, which are compensated for by upregulation of the UPR and possibly by enhancement of N folding. Our results indicate that the ER plays a previously unrecognized role in N signaling and that this ER function depends on pcx activity.
Current Canadian Forces Education and Training for Moral and Ethical Decision Making in Operations

Abstract : The Canadian Forces' (CF) role on the international stage has substantially changed over the past decade. For most of the latter part of the twentieth century, the CF primarily participated in peacekeeping missions (e.g., the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, etc.). Though these operations were typically restricted to non-coercive, diplomatic efforts to uphold a volatile peace agreement between two domestic warring factions, many CF members confronted tough moral and ethical dilemmas while in operations. With its most recent deployment to southern Afghanistan (Kandahar province), there is also a high probability that CF members will face moral and ethical dilemmas. The CF is involved in counterinsurgent operations on a regular basis, and unlike conventional state-to-state wars, these wars are fought among the people that both insurgent and counterinsurgent forces are trying to win over. Insurgents wage political war through military means, making it extremely difficult for opposing forces to win the hearts and minds of the people they are meant to protect. They also employ strategies and tactics that violate widely held international conventions for waging war. It is important, therefore, to gain a better understanding of the CF's perspective on moral and ethical decision making in order to enhance operational effectiveness in such situations. As part of a long term research program by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Toronto investigating moral and ethical decision making, the following report summarizes the current CF efforts for educating and training its members of all ranks to make moral and ethical decisions in complex operational environments. We examined CF institutional programmes and courses as well as met with 5 CF subject matter experts (SMEs) to gain greater insight into those efforts meant to promote CF members' capacity for making moral and ethical decision in an operational context. Recommendations for future work conclude the report.
Public Capital and Growth

This paper estimates the impact of public capital on economic growth for forty-eight OECD and non-OECD countries during 1960 - 2001. Using the production function and its extensions, it finds a positive - but concave - elasticity of output with respect to public capital, which is robust to changes in time intervals and varying depreciation rates. Furthermore, in non-OECD countries the growth impact of public capital is higher once longer time intervals are considered.
Matching Extension Service with Farmers' Needs: Towards Combining Social and Agro-Ecological Approaches in Ethiopian Extension

An extension service grounded in the social, economic and ecological realities of the farming family and the farm can better target its programs to meet farmers' needs. In this study 305 farm households, from two districts of north-central Ethiopia are used as a case study, to examine key socio-economic and ecological indicators that affect effective use of extension services. Data was collected using the household questionnaire method and analysed using univariate statistical methods to see factors that impact effective use of extension inputs. Of the seven variables selected for analysis, plot topography (TOPGRAPH, p < 0.000), holding size (HOLDSIZE, p < 0.006) and number of oxen owned (OXOWN, p < 0.006) were significantly correlated with the amount of fertilizer use. In other words, those fertilizer-using respondents with flat topography, manageable size of land and a pair of oxen were able to use more fertilizers. For an effective extension service, three approaches are necessary: agro-ecology sensitive extension, need-driven extension service and effective use of indigenous farming knowledge. The three are complementary and provide an integrated extension approach at the local level.
INCUMBENCY AND THE DISRUPTIVE REGULATOR: THE CASE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN CALIFORNIA

For much of the past century, the automobile sector has been dominated by a handful of oligopolistic firms, protected through path dependencies and the build up of complementary assets. But that very dominance built upon years of experience and translated into the periodic release of incrementally innovative new car designs, may now be threatened by the actions of regulators in California and elsewhere, in mandating emission friendly cars. The biggest challenge in this area has been the demand for zero emission vehicles resulting from Californian regulations. Zero emission legislation mandates the use of technologies radically different from those used in the development of internal combustion engines. Such technology acts in a disruptive manner on the existing skills base of the automobile firms, negating some of the benefits of incumbency. With little or no experience of the systems needed to develop a viable electric vehicle — batteries, electric motors and controllers — the established automobile manufacturers have struggled with a strategic question: how to incorporate disruptive elements into a mature organisation. This paper explores the nature of the regulatory threat and the strategic responses generated by the automobile firms.
Yield-Curve Based Probability Forecasts of U.S. Recessions: Stability and Dynamics

Various papers indicate that the yield-curve has superior predictive power for U.S. recessions. However, there is controversial evidence on the stability of the predictive relationship and it has remained unclear how the persistence of the underlying binary recession indicator should be taken into account. We show that a yield-curve based probit model treating the binary recession series as a nonhomogeneous first-order Markov chain sufficiently captures the persistence of the U.S. business cycles and produces recession probability forecasts that outperform those based on a conventional static model. We obtain evidence for instability in the predictive content of the yield-curve that centers on a structural change in the early 1980s. We conclude that the simple dynamic model with parameters estimated using data after the breakpoint is likely to provide useful probability forecasts of U.S. recessions in the future.