jimnoneill/paper-to-field-training huggingface dataset:
The Estimation Theoretic Sensor Bias Correction Problem in Map Aided Localization

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

Simultaneous Localization and Map Building (SLAM) and Map Aided Localization (MAL) are very effective techniques employed extensively in robot navigation tasks. However, biases and drifts in both exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensors adversely impair correct localization (in MAL) and also impair map building (in SLAM). More specifically, accumulated errors as a result of biases in the sensors cause the algorithms to diverge and produce inconsistent and inaccurate results. Although offline calibration of these sensors can reduce the effects to some extent, the process results in longer setup and processing times. Moreover, during operation, the sensors’ calibration may often be subject to changes or drifts requiring regular resetting and initialization. A convenient, appropriate and effective approach to overcome problems associated with biases in sensors has been to explicitly model and estimate the bias parameters concurrently with the vehicle state online using an augmented state space approach. This paper investigates the properties of the concurrent bias estimation in MAL using an augmented, estimation theoretic state space approach for the localization of a large class of mobile robots, consisting of autonomous ground vehicles. This involves a rigorous theoretical study of the issues of observability and convergence, their interrelations and effects on the algorithm’s performance. This paper shows analytically that if sensor biases are estimated jointly with the vehicle pose in a MAL framework: 1) The uncertainties of the estimated errors in the bias parameters of both proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensors diminish in each update. 2) A derived lower bound is reached in each of these estimates. 3) The rate of convergence to this lower bound is also derived. 4) Although often neglected in the literature, observability is a major issue. From the analysis it is derived that in order to guarantee observability in MAL with bias estimation, it is necessary to observe simultaneously at least two distinct landmarks, which are not on a straight line with the vehicle position. Extensive simulations are provided to illustrate the theoretical results established for the general case of nonlinear dynamics and slowly varying sensor biases. The results are further exemplified and verified experimentally using a sophisticated MAL algorithm, utilizing a low cost inertial navigation sensor suite.
Variational Bayes with Intractable Likelihood

Field: Mathematics (Physical Sciences)

Variational Bayes (VB) is rapidly becoming a popular tool for Bayesian inference in statistical modeling. However, the existing VB algorithms are restricted to cases where the likelihood is tractable, which precludes their use in many interesting situations such as in state space models and in approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), where application of VB methods was previously impossible. This paper extends the scope of application of VB to cases where the likelihood is intractable, but can be estimated unbiasedly. The proposed VB method therefore makes it possible to carry out Bayesian inference in many statistical applications, including state space models and ABC. The method is generic in the sense that it can be applied to almost all statistical models without requiring too much model-based derivation, which is a drawback of many existing VB algorithms. We also show how the proposed method can be used to obtain highly accurate VB approximations of marginal posterior distributions.
Volarization of Banana Peel Waste into Advance Adsorbent Beads for the Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater

Field: Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)

This study addresses environmental concerns by utilizing banana peel waste to develop innovative adsorbent materials for wastewater treatment, aligning with circular economy principles. Spherical beads were synthesized from sodium alginate mixed with various banana peel-based materials, including pure powder (PBP), activated carbon (AC), and magnetic activated carbon (MAC). These beads were evaluated for their efficiency in removing tetracycline (TC) and hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) as model pollutants representing antibiotics and heavy metals, respectively. Characterization of the beads revealed functional groups and thermal stability conducive to effective adsorption. Adsorption trials demonstrated that MAC beads achieved the highest removal efficiencies, up to 92% for TC and 79% for Cr(VI). The adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherms. Remarkably, the beads retained significant adsorption capacity across reuse cycles, indicating their regenerative potential. Comparisons with other adsorbents highlight the competitive performance of these banana peel-based materials. The results emphasize the potential of banana peel-derived adsorbents as cost-effective, sustainable solutions for mitigating emerging pollutants in water systems, promoting waste valorization and environmental protection.
The Sign of the Joker

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Abstract The Joker both fascinates and repels us. From his origin in Detective Comics in 1940, the Joker has committed obscene crimes, some of the worst the Batman universe has ever known. Conversely fans have made him the topic of erotic and pornographic “fan fiction.” Speculation about the Joker abounds; some fans have even claimed that the Joker is “queer coded.” This work explores various popular claims about the Joker, and delves into the history of comic books and of other popular media from a semiotic viewpoint to understand “The Clown Prince of Crime” in the contexts in which he existed to understand his evolution. From his roots as a “typical hoodlum,” The Joker even starred in his own eponymous comic book series and he was recently featured in a non-canonical movie. This work examines what it is about the Joker which fascinates us.
Genealogies of spirituality: An historical analysis of a travelling term

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

In the current discussion of spirituality in healthcare, the historical and cultural backgrounds of spiritual terminology and practices are often neglected. Avoiding the standard narratives, which tend to be based on a single concept of spirituality, the present paper provides an overview of the genealogies of the term ‘spirituality’, paying particular attention to the concept’s heterogeneity and history of bifurcation. The historical reconstruction outlines the complex travels of spirituality in delineating the etymological legacies of early and mediaeval Christianity, late-mediaeval and early modern mysticism, romanticism and, finally, of the amalgamations of all these things in the twentieth century. Tracing the development of the terminology in this way will elucidate the historical roots of the current ambiguities of spirituality. Over time, spirituality has crossed different cultural spaces and has been invested with new meanings. The final sections concern the presence of the various pasts of spirituality and the ongoing travelling of this term in the world of healthcare. It will be argued that ‘spirituality’ shares its ambiguous character with the concept of ‘health’. As health-related spirituality is inevitably imbued with value and connected with healthcare politics and law, the task of clarifying this ‘travelling concept’ will remain as important as it is interminable. Research in the field of health-related spirituality must free itself from the illusion of universally valid concepts with stable meanings. An improved understanding of the many pasts of spirituality can make a valuable contribution to the perception and understanding of the fluid, emergent and sometimes contradictory phenomena associated with the concept.
Testing the Neocon Agenda: Democracy in Resource-Ricj Societies

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance (Social Sciences)

Resource-rich countries have tended to be autocratic and also have tended to use their resource wealth badly. The neoconservative agenda of promoting democratization in resource-rich countries thus offers the hopeful prospect of a better use of their economic opportunities. This paper examines whether the effect of democracy on economic performance is distinctive in resource-rich societies. We show that a priori the sign of the effect is ambiguous: resource rents could either enhance or undermine the economic consequences of democracy. We therefore investigate the issue empirically. We first build a new data set on country-specific resource rents, annually for the period 1970-2001. Using a global panel data set we find that in developing countries the combination of high natural resource rents and open democratic systems has been growth-reducing. Checks and balances offset this adverse effect. Thus, resource-rich economies need a distinctive form of democracy with particularly strong checks and balances. Unfortunately this is rare: checks and balances are public goods and so are liable to be undersupplied in new democracies. Over time they are eroded by resource rents.
State Violence and the Un-American West

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Abstract This chapter addresses four episodes in the past century and a half that occurred in the American West, in which federal and state authorities had used rhetorical, legislative, and physical violence against religious groups it considered “un-American.” These events presupposed that a particular style of religion (namely, Protestant Christianity in secular trappings) was necessary to “good” Americanism. Collectively, these episodes pointed to an ongoing struggle between a government suspicious of “religious fanaticism” and those within its borders who pursue a different religion deemed threatening to secular society. In addition, these events suggested that the West had been fraught with ambivalence, simultaneously bearing the hopes for America's future while also corroding or, at least, threatening the institutions of civilization.
Reconfiguring Policy and Clinical Practice

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

This article’s aim is to understand if and how the efforts to accumulate and organize clinical data transformed the regulation of pharmaceutical care. The authors analyze how the employment of databases by collectives of physicians and researchers shape both clinical and policy practice—and thereby reshape the relation between clinical work and policy. Since the late 1990s, Dutch government has supported the development of clinical databases for specific expensive medicines to gain oversight about actual medicine use. To be able to produce evidence for appropriate medicine use, the collectives set regulations in clinical practice. These internal regulations provide a framework for establishing “appropriate medicine use”, steering reimbursement decisions. However, internal regulation and policy rules differ in how quickly they can change. While the employment of databases in clinical practices results in a constant adjustment of the protocols, policy makers require the databases to provide for static moments of “proven appropriate medicine use” in order to account for and define a fixed and closed formulary. Subsequently, the employment of the databases did not deliver on the promise of oversight and control due to different clinical and policy requirements. Nevertheless, the databases did stimulate appropriate medicine use and reimbursement in clinical practice.
Novel mutation G324C in WNT1 mapped in a large Pakistani family with severe recessively inherited Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disease with skeletal fragility and variable extra-skeletal manifestations. To date several point mutations in 18 different genes causing different types of OI have been identified. Mutations in WNT1 compromise activity of the osteoblasts leading to disturbed bone mass accrual, fragility fractures and progressive skeletal abnormalities. The present study was conducted to determine the underlying genetic cause of an autosomal recessive skeletal dysplasia in a large consanguineous family from Chinute, Pakistan.Blood was collected from 24 individuals of affected family along with clinical data. Homozygosity mapping was performed to confirm consanguinity. SNPs were identified, followed by whole exome and Sanger sequencing. In silico characterization of WNT1 mutation was performed using multiple platforms.Nine affected family members exhibited severe bone deformities, recurrent fractures, short stature and low bone mineral density. SNP array data revealed homozygous segments > 1 Mb in length accounting for 2.1-12.7% of the genome in affected individuals and their siblings and a single 6,344,821 bp homozygous region in all affected individuals on chromosome 12q12-q13. This region includes two potential OI candidate genes WNT1 and VDR. We did whole-exome sequencing for both genes in two patients and identified a novel damaging missense mutation in exon 4 of WNT1: c.1168G > T (NM_005430) resulting in p.G324C. Sanger sequencing confirmed segregation of mutation with the disease in family.We report a novel mutation responsible for OI and our investigation expands the spectrum of disease-causing WNT1 mutations and the resulting OI phenotypes.
Additional file 2: Table S1. of Temperature-dependent sRNA transcriptome of the Lyme disease spirochete

Field: Immunology and Microbiology (Life Sciences)

Annotated list of sRNAs found in this study. The table contains information about the genomic locations of all manually curated sRNAs and data from temperature differential expression analysis (log-fold change and adjusted P-values for edgeR and DEseq). Previously annotated RNAs contain the respective name and/or function in the Notes column. Please note that SsrA, ffs and RNaseP were annotated based on their respective entries in the BSRD database where they were previously predicted by sequence similarity. (XLSX 234 kb)
Returns, productivity and constraints analyses of cassava/maize/melon mixed cropping enterprise in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)

This study focused on the economics of Irvingia species marketing in Njaba Local Government Area, Imo State. A Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 80 respondents comprising 40 wholesalers and 40 retailers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. Marketing margins, and efficiency of the respondents were estimated. Results indicate that trade in Irvingia species is dominated by females who are married with small house holdings. The trade was found to be profitable. The significant factors affecting net returns on the marketing of Irvingia spp directly for the retailers include level of education, marketing experience and age while cost of purchase had an indirect effect on the net returns of Irvingia spp. The wholesalers were affected positively by gender, marital status and household size while age and marketing experience had negative effect on the net returns of Irvingia spp in the study area. The marketers also faced some problems that constrained their performance. They include factors such as lack of transport, bad road, high transport cost, lack of storage facilities, and seasonal fluctuation in supply and financial difficulties. The study calls for policies aimed at provision of free education to enable them access and process marketing information; appropriate preservation facilities should be provided for the marketers to curb the current rate of post harvest losses during production season Construction of rural road network is essential to reduce cost and difficulties associated with transportation of products; adequate credit facility should be provided for Irvingia species marketers. Provision of bulking centers to improve marketing network, bargaining power, information flow and micro enterprise development .
Coarctation in Taussig-Bing malformation of the heart. Surgical significance.

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

In a review of 126 heart specimens of simple complete transposition of the great arteries with ventricular septal defect (VSD), coarctation was noted in eight (6%). In 105 Taussig-Bing heart specimens, coarctation and/or aortic outflow tract obstruction was noted in 56 (53%) (p less than 10(-10). This was similar to our surgical experience in 26 patients with transposition and VSD or Taussig-Bing heart. Six of nine patients with Taussig-Bing heart also had coarctation of the aorta, whereas all 17 patients with transposition and VSD had a normal aorta. Four patients with Taussig-Bing heart underwent coarctation repair and pulmonary artery banding at 2 to 7 days of age. The remaining two patients with Taussig-Bing heart did not have a hemodynamically significant coarctation. Five of the six patients with Taussig-Bing heart and coarctation underwent a Senning procedure between the ages of 7 weeks and 3 1/2 years. In four (all less than 4 months of age) the VSD could not be closed through the tricuspid valve. A right ventriculotomy was done in two and contributed to their deaths. In the other two patients the VSD was left alone and the pulmonary artery banded. Both remain well. The fifth child, aged 3 1/2 years, had the VSD closed through the tricuspid valve but died in the postoperative period of renal failure. The sixth patient is awaiting further operation following coarctation repair and pulmonary artery banding. We conclude that the presence of coarctation strongly suggests that Taussig-Bing heart malformation exists rather than transposition and VSD. Pulmonary artery banding and coarctation repair are the initial procedures of choice in the management of these critically ill newborn infants. Increasing cyanosis and failure to thrive will necessitate further operation. Closure of the VSD through the tricuspid valve in these infants is difficult. Pulmonary artery banding in association with a Senning procedure is preferable to a right ventriculotomy. Closure of the VSD is then planned at a later stage.
Effect of Circuit Training on Physical Fitness of the School Softball Players

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of circuit training on the physical fitness of the school's softball players. Twenty (20) subjects were selected for the study; their ages were 18–19. They attended St. Joseph convent school in Namli Ratlam, M.P. Further, it is subdivided into two groups. Three variables were selected for this study to measure the physical fitness of schoolgirls’ softball fitness, i.e., standing broad jump, sit and reach, and 50-metre sprint. The data was examined by applying the analysis of paired t-tests. The level of significance to test the hypothesis was set at 0.05. Results of this study revealed that there was a significant effect of circuit training on the physical fitness of the school softball players and that it increased their performance at the school level.
Combined selection of progeny in crop breeding using best linear unbiased prediction

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)

Viana, J. M. S., Faria, V. R., Fonseca e Silva, F. and Vilela de Resende, M. D. 2012. Combined selection of progeny in crop breeding using best linear unbiased prediction. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 553–562. Combined selection is an important strategy in crop breeding. As the classical index does not consider pedigree information, the objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) methodology for combined selection of progeny. We analyzed expansion volume (EV) and grain yield of parents and inbred and non-inbred progeny from the popcorn population Viçosa. The BLUP analyses, single-trait and of the same character measured in parents and progeny (combined parent-family) were performed using the ASReml software. Because the experiments were balanced, the estimates of the additive variance from the BLUP and least squares analyses were generally equivalent. The accuracies of the BLUP analyses do not clearly establish the superior technique. The accuracy of the classical index tended to be higher than that obtained from BLUP analyses. There was equivalence between BLUP and least squares analyses relative to half-sib and inbred progeny selection, and superiority of the combined parent-family BLUP index for full-sib selection. The BLUP analyses also differed from the least squares analysis on the coincidence of selected parents. The populations obtained by selection based on BLUP of breeding values presented a lower effective size.
Efficacy and safety of expanded hemodialysis in hemodialysis patients: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

Expanded hemodialysis (HDx) is a new dialysis modality, but a systematic review of the clinical effects of using HDx is lacking. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of HDx for hemodialysis (HD) patients. PubMed, the Cochrane library, and EMBASE databases were systematically searched for prospective interventional studies comparing the efficacy and safety of HDx with those of high flux HD or HDF in HD patients. Eighteen trials including a total of 853 HD patients were enrolled. HDx increased the reduction ratio (RR) of β2-microglobulin (SMD 6.28%, 95% CI 0.83, 1.73, p = .02), κFLC (SMD 15.86%, 95% CI 6.96, 24.76, p = .0005), and λFLC (SMD 22.42%, 95% CI, 17.95, 26.88, p p p = .001) and λFLC (SMD 7.28%, 95% CI 1.08, 13.48, p = .02) compared to HDF. There was no significant difference in albumin loss into the dialysate between the HDx and HDF groups (SMD 0.35 g/session, 95% CI −2.38, 3.09, p = .8). This meta-analysis indicated that compared with high-flux HD and HDF, HDx can increase the clearance of medium and large-molecular-weight uremic toxins. And it does not increase the loss of albumin compared with HDF.
Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions in Primary Care To Reduce Alcohol Misuse: Recommendation Statement

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

This statement summarizes the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on behavioral counseling interventions to reduce alcohol misuse in primary care patients and updates the 1996 recommendations on this topic. The complete information on which this statement is based, including evidence tables and references, is available in the accompanying article in this issue and in the systematic evidence review on this topic. The complete USPSTF recommendation statement (which includes a brief review of the supporting evidence), the accompanying journal article, and the complete systematic evidence review are available through the USPSTF Web site (http://www.preventiveservices.ahrq.gov). The journal article and the USPSTF recommendation statement are available in print through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Publications Clearinghouse (telephone, 800-358-9295; e-mail, ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov).