Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plane-feature based 3D outdoor SLAM with Gaussian filters

In this paper, a novel method extracting 3D planar features from laser range data (LiDAR) and its adaptation to outdoor SLAM using respective Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) is proposed. The paper is mainly divided into two parts such that the feature extraction algorithm and its application to SLAM problem are given. Firstly, the feature extraction from 3D LiDAR data using a probabilistic plane extraction method and merging criteria with a region growing algorithm is explained. Secondly, the extracted 3D planar features are used with the well-known Gaussian local filters such as EKF or UKF to solve SLAM problem. The plane-feature based SLAM method estimate the robot pose in 6D as well as the plane parameters in 4D, which are the normal of plane and its minimum distance to origin represented in the world frame. Although the feature extraction method is proposed for outdoor SLAM, since it is developed from an indoor feature extraction method it can be safely used in indoor, outdoor, and even in the complex environments. The method is evaluated with the real datasets, and the EKF and UKF based SLAM performances are compared. The results show that UKF has better performance than EKF and can be successfully used in SLAM problems.
The funding of credit unions – where has all the money gone?

The aim of this article is to critically assess the impact of government funding upon the growth of credit unions in the United Kingdom (UK) in light of the unprecedented level of financial support provided by the Labour government since 1997. The article begins by defining a credit union and commenting upon their importance towards the reduction of financial exclusion. The article challenges the findings of several studies that have determined that external funding has limited the development of credit unions. This is illustrated by the use of four case studies.
The frequency and severity of operational losses: a cross-country comparison

We examine the proposition that cross-country differences in the factors determining the frequency and severity of operational losses lead to cross-country differences in the distribution and incidence of operational loss events in terms of frequency and severity. For this purpose, we consider 4388 operational loss events covering 11 countries or country groups. The results reveal differences with respect to the type of loss events prevailing in each country or country group as well as differences with respect to the dominance of events of certain type in a particular business line and corporate entity type.
Belittled Peasants at Gqumahashe Village, Alice District

This paper seeks to investigate why female peasants at Gqumahashe are undervalued although farming is currently fundamentally carried out by them. The paper used qualitative research method in order to get at the central experience of informants and chronicle their actions in great detail, regarding their beliefs, history and context. Data was collected by means of participant observation and unstructured interviews. The results of the paper suggest that the fact that female peasants are underestimated, although they are key producers, can be attributed to the fact that they are overlooked in land distribution. Strangely, even though these rural women play an incredible and essential role in farming, they are traditionally undervalued and undercounted. The paper reveals that owing to gender imbalances, women have not been granted prospects to farm more intensively. This study concludes that rural women peasants warrant better glory and greater indebtedness of their palpable contributions towards agriculture, rural development and food security. The overall conclusion of this paper is that if we are to better recognizing women as integral in farming activities, it is critical to ensure gender balance. Once gender imbalances are addressed, a contribution of women in farming will be augmented. On the other hand, agricultural production will advance and the levels of poverty in rural areas will be alleviated. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n10p630
Immigration and Social Benefits in a Mediterranean Welfare State: The Case of Spain

The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of immigration on the Spanish Welfare State nowadays. Using two different household surveys, both the reception of state cash transfers and the use of public health care insurance by nationals and immigrants are analysed. Controlling by observable socio-demographic characteristics, we find that immigrants receive fewer cash transfers than locals and do not exhibit a statistically significant higher use of health care services than nationals. The nature of the Spanish Welfare State compared to its European correlates and the age composition of the immigrant population, concentrated in active age, can help to explain these findings.
Arrhythmias in paediatric valvar disease*

Abstract Valvar heart disease can be complicated by hemodynamic derangements, depending on the degree of the abnormality. Stenosis causes pressure overload of the chamber draining through the valve and regurgitation results in volume overload. Many lesions have a component of both, resulting in both pressure and volume overload. Increased wall stress causes myocardial stretching and fibrosis, resulting in scarring; a nidus for arrhythmia development. Arrhythmias can complicate the clinical picture and increase the morbidity and mortality in patients with both congenital and acquired valvar disease. In adults with congenital heart disease, arrhythmias are the most common cause of sudden death, followed by heart failure. Valvar stenosis and insufficiency certainly contribute to this. This article highlights the need for arrhythmia surveillance for high-risk valvar lesions.
Procedure for isolating the endophyte from tall fescue and screening isolates for ergot alkaloids

A procedure was developed to isolate and determine ergot alkaloid production by Acremonium coenophialum, the endophytic fungus of tall fescue. The procedure established that macerated leaf sheath or pith from inflorescence stem placed either in a liquid medium or on a corn meal-malt extract agar medium produced isolated mycelium and characteristic conidia within a 3- to 3.5-week period. Once isolated, each fungus was placed in another liquid medium, M104T, where competent strains produced total ergot alkaloids ranging from 38 to 797 mg/liter. Several isolates were negative for ergot alkaloid synthesis. The production of ergot alkaloids by individual isolates was unstable; isolates rapidly degenerated in their ability to produce ergot alkaloids during subculture. However, the procedure as presented allows the assessment of an isolate for ergot alkaloid synthesis during its initial isolation.
Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Smoke-free Policy in Philadelphia Public Housing.

OBJECTIVES Multi-unit housing environments remain significant sources of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, especially for vulnerable populations in subsidized housing. In Philadelphia, the largest US housing authority to implement smoke-free policies, we measured baseline resident smoking-related behaviors and attitudes, and longitudinal exposures to airborne nicotine, during policy development and implementation. METHODS In 4 communities, we collected data in 2013, 2014, and 2016, before and after introduction of comprehensive smoke-free policies, interviewing persons in 172 households, and monitoring air-borne nicotine in non-smoking homes and public areas. Average nicotine level differences across years were estimated with multi-level models. RESULTS Fifty-six percent of respondents smoked. Only 37% of households were smoke-free, with another 41% restricting smoking by area or time of day. The number of locations with detectable nicotine did not differ before and after policy implementation, with approximately 20% of non-smoking homes and 70%-80% of public areas having detectable nicotine. However, public area nicotine levels were lower in 2016, after policy implementation, than in 2013 and 2014 (-0.19 μg/m3, p = .03). CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that initial policy implementation was associated with reduced SHS exposure in Philadelphia. As HUD strengthens smoke-free policies, SHS monitoring can be useful to educate stakeholders and build support for policy enforcement.
Anonymous Alone ? Measuring Bitcoin ’ s Second-Generation Anonymization Techniques

This paper contributes a systematic account of transaction anonymization techniques that do not require trust in a single entity and support the existing cryptographic currency Bitcoin. It surveys and compares four known techniques, proposes tailored metrics to identify the use of each technique (but not necessarily its users), and presents longitudinal measurements indicating adoption trends and teething troubles. There is a tradeoff between the choice of users’ preferred protection mechanisms and the risk that pertaining transactions can be singled out, which hurts privacy due to smaller anonymity sets unless a critical mass adopts the mechanism.
Spectra-first feature analysis in clinical proteomics - A case study in renal cancer

In proteomics, useful signal may be unobserved or lost due to the lack of confident peptide-spectral matches. Selection of differential spectra, followed by associative peptide/protein mapping may be a complementary strategy for improving sensitivity and comprehensiveness of analysis (spectra-first paradigm). This approach is complementary to the standard approach where functional analysis is performed only on the finalized protein list assembled from identified peptides from the spectra (protein-first paradigm). Based on a case study of renal cancer, we introduce a simple spectra-binning approach, MZ-bin. We demonstrate that differential spectra feature selection using MZ-bin is class-discriminative and can trace relevant proteins via spectra associative mapping. Moreover, proteins identified in this manner are more biologically coherent than those selected directly from the finalized protein list. Analysis of constituent peptides per protein reveals high expression inconsistency, suggesting that the measured protein expressions are in fact, poor approximations of true protein levels. Moreover, analysis at the level of constituent peptides may provide higher resolution insight into the underlying biology: Via MZ-bin, we identified for the first time differential splice forms for the known renal cancer marker MAPT. We conclude that the spectra-first analysis paradigm is a complementary strategy to the traditional protein-first paradigm and can provide deeper level insight.
Unmasking Collective Corruption: The Dynamics of Corrupt Routines

This paper contributes to the development of conceptual work on collective corruption in the private sector. Based on a routines-as-practice perspective, we conceptualize collective corruption as routines which are established patterns of organizational actions that are made up of rules as their basic building blocks, the interpretation of these rules in the context of an organizational framework and the actual observable performance patterns. Drawing on 24 interviews with representatives of law enforcement authorities, auditing and law firms, non-profit organizations and anti-corruption units in the public sector, we provide a framework that combines theoretical reasoning with qualitative data analysis in order to describe the dynamics of corrupt routines. Our results disclose their main characteristics and highlight how the specificity of rules, lack of control, the power to influence subjective understandings and actions as well as group processes influence the relations between rules, their interpretation and performances and, thus, give rise to corrupt routines.
Estimation of stage‐specific fibrosis progression rates in chronic hepatitis C virus infection: A meta‐analysis and meta‐regression

Published estimates of liver fibrosis progression in individuals with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are heterogeneous. We aimed to estimate stage‐specific fibrosis progression rates and their determinants in these individuals. A systematic review of published prognostic studies was undertaken. Study inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) presence of HCV infection determined by serological assays; (2) available information about age at assessment of liver disease or HCV acquisition; (3) duration of HCV infection; and (4) histological and/or clinical diagnosis of cirrhosis. Annual stage‐specific transition probabilities (F0→F1, … , F3→F4) were derived using the Markov maximum likelihood estimation method and a meta‐analysis was performed. The impact of potential covariates was evaluated using meta‐regression. A total of 111 studies of individuals with chronic HCV infection (n = 33,121) were included. Based on the random effects model, the estimated annual mean (95% confidence interval) stage‐specific transition probabilities were: F0→F1 0.117 (0.104–0.130); F1→F2 0.085 (0.075–0.096); F2→F3 0.120 (0.109–0.133); and F3→F4 0.116 (0.104–0.129). The estimated prevalence of cirrhosis at 20 years after the infection was 16% (14%–19%) for all studies, 18% (15%–21%) for cross‐sectional/retrospective studies, 7% (4%–14%) for retrospective‐prospective studies, 18% (16%–21%) for studies conducted in clinical settings, and 7% (4%–12%) for studies conducted in nonclinical settings. Duration of infection was the most consistent factor significantly associated with progression of fibrosis. Conclusion: Our large systematic review provides increased precision in estimating fibrosis progression in chronic HCV infection and supports nonlinear disease progression. Estimates of progression to cirrhosis from studies conducted in clinical settings were lower than previous estimates. (HEPATOLOGY 2008.)
An in vivo mouse model for human cartilage regeneration

Cartilage regeneration methods have been examined in various animal models. The major limitation of those studies is the biological difference between human and animal cartilage. We propose an in vivo model for human chondrocytes in a human cartilage defect environment. Human full‐thickness (2–4 mm) articular cartilage discs (diameter 10 mm) attached to 3–6 mm subchondral bone, were obtained from human femur heads. Chondral defects (diameter 4 mm) were set within the cartilage disc without violating the subchondral bone. Human chondrocytes were isolated, cultivated for three passages and then suspended at a concentration of 107 cells/ml. The defect was completely filled with the cell suspension (∼30 µl) and then covered with a thin sheet of human periosteum, fixed with fibrin sealant. Discs were implanted subcutaneously in the backs of nude mice for 5 and 8 weeks. Controls were uncovered discs filled with cell suspension and covered discs without cells. Histological evaluation revealed a gradient of differentiation from the cartilage lateral side to the centre of the defect. A proteoglycan‐rich matrix was formed with some chondron‐like structures at the border of native cartilage, whereas fibrous tissue was built in the centre of the defect. After 8 weeks the areas of differentiating cells enlarged compared to 5 weeks, indicating the progress of cartilage repair. The control discs without cells or cover showed no chondrogenesis. Interestingly, uncovered discs filled with cells showed comparable areas of differentiating cells at the defect surface but lack of fibrous tissue in the middle. The histological results were supported by MRI measurement. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analysis of System Identification Using the Neural Extended Kalman Filter

The neural extended Kalman filter (NEKF) is an on-line state estimation technique that can be used to identify differences between the a priori mathematical model and the actual system dynamics. Several applications of this algorithm have been applied to control problems. Two of the approaches seem most promising. The first is to place the NEKF in the feedback loop as an adaptive state estimator. The second is to use the NEKF as a system identification scheme outside the control loop and periodically replacing the model used by the state estimator with that of the NEKF. These two approaches are compared to determine the benefits of each by applying them to an example control system where the system model used in the control law was a mismodeled version of the actual system.
Sovereignty, Accountability, and the Wealth Fund Governance Conundrum

Sovereign wealth funds – state-controlled transnational portfolio investment vehicles – began as an externally imposed category in search of a definition. SWFs from different countries had little in common and no particular desire to collaborate. But SWFs as a group implicated the triple challenge of securing cooperation between deficit and surplus states, designing a legal framework for global capital flows, and integrating state actors in the transnational marketplace. This Article describes how an apparently artificial grouping of investors, made salient by the historical and political circumstances of their host states in the mid-2000s, became a vehicle for addressing some of the hardest policy problems of the past century and a site for innovation in international law-making and institution-building. I suggest that the funds’ hybrid public-private and transnational character makes them hard to define and govern, but also makes them exceptionally apt reflections of contemporary global finance and its multiple constituents. I elaborate this character in a four-part accountability matrix. The task of governing SWFs, just like the task of governing global finance, is about negotiating among public, private, internal and external demands for accountability in the absence of a stable hierarchy among them.
International negotiations with Brazil: An essay about culture factor

With the aim to present some salient aspects of the Brazilian culture and how they may affect the processes of international negotiations, the paper addressed the different approaches that point out the specific qualities and patterns of Brazilian negotiator. Based on the international negotiations principles and the role of culture, the study presents some of the most discussed theoretical frameworks that investigate such issues. On the other hand, considering the results of few and disconnected investigations, it identifies the main cultural characteristics of the Brazilian negotiators according to three models. The results of the literature review show that because of the geographical extension of the country and population’s diversity, it is not possible to set up a unique profile of Brazilian negotiator. The paper concludes with some recommendations for potential trader interested in doing business in Brazil. Key words: International negotiation, Brazilian culture, international trade agreements, international relationships.
Cournot-Nash and Lindahl Equilibria in Pure Public Good Economies

Using a general equilibrium framework, this paper analyzes the equilibrium provision of a pure public bad commodity (for example pollution). Considering a finite economy with one desired private good and one pure public “bad” we explicitly introduce the concept of Lindahl equilibrium and the Lindahl prices into a pure public bad economy. Then, the Lindahl provision is analyzed and compared with the Cournot-Nash provision. The main results for economies with heterogeneous agents state that the asymptotic Lindahl allocation of the pure public bad is the null allocation. In contrast, the asymptotic Cournot-Nash provision of the public bad might approach infinity. Other results were obtained in concert with the broad analysis of the large finite economies with pure public bad commodities.
Provincial government expenditures in Canada: an empirical analysis

Most empirical studies have sought to explain the overall growth of the total government expenditures. Few studies have focused on the growth of spending at the provincial level. This article seeks to fill the gap. It examines the growth of government expenditures in Canadian provinces. Data spanning the past three decades are used to explain the growth of provincial government expenditures in Canada and to test alternative hypotheses. From a basic general theoretical model, three empirical models are developed and tested. It is concluded that the growth of the private sector share of the Provincial Gross Domestic Product (PGDP), capacity utilization and factors such as federal transfer payments to the provincial governments best explain the growth in expenditure at the provincial level. The expenditure policies of provincial governments are found to be independent of the political stance of the political parties in power. Estimated short-run and long-run ‘income’ elasticities of provincial government exp.
What makes a chloroplast? Reconstructing the establishment of photosynthetic symbioses

Earth is populated by an extraordinary diversity of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Many eukaryotic lineages contain chloroplasts, obtained through the endosymbiosis of a wide range of photosynthetic prokaryotes or eukaryotes, and a wide variety of otherwise non-photosynthetic species form transient associations with photosynthetic symbionts. Chloroplast lineages are likely to be derived from pre-existing transient symbioses, but it is as yet poorly understood what steps are required for the establishment of permanent chloroplasts from photosynthetic symbionts. In the past decade, several species that contain relatively recently acquired chloroplasts, such as the rhizarian Paulinella chromatophora, and non-photosynthetic taxa that maintain photosynthetic symbionts, such as the sacoglossan sea slug Elysia, the ciliate Myrionecta rubra and the dinoflagellate Dinophysis, have emerged as potential model organisms in the study of chloroplast establishment. In this Commentary, we compare recent molecular insights into the maintenance of chloroplasts and photosynthetic symbionts from these lineages, and others that might represent the early stages of chloroplast establishment. We emphasise the importance in the establishment of chloroplasts of gene transfer events that minimise oxidative stress acting on the symbiont. We conclude by assessing whether chloroplast establishment is facilitated in some lineages by a mosaic of genes, derived from multiple symbiotic associations, encoded in the host nucleus.
Customers cocreating value with the firm: implications for IHRM

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework for governing an organization's relationships with customers engaged as contributors to the organization's business processes (i.e. customers as quasi-employees). Based on our suggested framework, we explain how appropriate customer-centric HRM practices can support more cost-effective and accommodating adaptations in the organization's governance of its relationships with customers. We complement these propositions with practical examples illustrating how customers who take different cooperative roles will increasingly become valuable organizational assets. The collaborating customers not only provide the information necessary for the successful performance of the service exchange, but also contribute human and social capital in performing tasks that are a complement to or a substitute for employee tasks. In conclusion, we outline implications for international human resource management (IHRM), as well as future research directions for examining the relationships among customer governance, role configurations, and IHRM practices.