1,733 research outputs found
Women’s Road to Imprisonment: Reflections on Dehumanization
Women in prisons represent a unique and complex population throughout the world. The authors have provided psychiatric consultation, diagnoses and treatment for hundreds of these women over the past three decades in the United States. We have identified five factors that can precipitate a cascade of consequences that result in women coming to prison. Sometimes it is a one-time experience; other times, women repeat offenses, ending up in prisons for longer periods. These factors include 1) being sexually abused and/or prostituted as a child, 2) alcohol abuse, 3) legal and illegal psychoactive substances use and abuse, 4) conspiracy with an intimate partner, and 5) mental disorders. We provide quotes from some of the many women interviewed in prison who have experienced at least one of these precipitant factors. We hope that our reflections offer insights into the complexity of incarceration and the pressing need to address the mental health concerns of these disenfranchised and vulnerable women in our prison systems.Las mujeres en las cárceles representan una población única y compleja en todo el mundo. Los autores han llevado a cabo consultas psiquiátricas, diagnósticos y tratamiento para cientos de estas mujeres en las últimas tres décadas en los Estados Unidos. Hemos identificado cinco factores que pueden precipitar una cascada de causas que llevan a que las mujeres lleguen a prisión. A veces es una experiencia única; otras veces, las mujeres repiten los delitos y terminan en las cárceles por más tiempo. Estos factores incluyen 1) ser abusado sexualmente y/o prostituido de niño, 2) abuso de alcohol, 3) uso y abuso de sustancias psicoactivas legales e ilegales, 4) conspiración con una pareja íntima y 5) trastornos mentales. Proporcionamos citas de algunas de las muchas mujeres en prisión que han experimentado al menos uno de estos factores precipitantes. Esperamos que nuestras reflexiones ofrezcan información sobre la complejidad del encarcelamiento y la necesidad apremiante de abordar preocupaciones de salud mental de estas mujeres privadas de derechos y vulnerables en nuestros sistemas penitenciarios
Design and evaluation of a no-tillage seeder for small scale vegetable production using a two-wheeled tractor in Coahuila, Mexico
Currently used conventional tillage systems for small-scale vegetable production in the region of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico require a considerable amount of hand labor, energy and materials for all activities. Seedbed preparation can require up to 60% of the total production cost in some systems in Mexico. Further, soil is degraded and eroded due to the system. Conservation tillage may reduce costs and prevent soil degradation, but appropriate tools, such as, no-tillage seeders for small-scale farmers are not available. This papers reports on the design and construction of a prototype of a no-tillage seeder for small-scale conservation tillage using a 2-wheeled tractor. Three main functions received particular attention: opening of the soil, placing seed and/or fertilizer and closing the slot. Because of its vapor conservation and good seedling emergence, tools to create T-shaped slots were chosen, with adapted depth control and closing and covering devices. A systematic design process was applied in order to reach the required decisions. Function diagrams were defined from where morphologic charts guided the selection of the configuration of the seeder. A preliminary evaluation included testing of two furrow opener disc types (notched and fluted), and four crop residue levels, 0, 30, 60 and 100%, with respect to performance of the seeder. An evaluation showed that with low cover amounts a consistent and firm seed cover was obtained, but emergence quality decreased due to insufficient residue cover. The notched disc had a better performance than the fluted disc. The inverted T-shape in the soil was not always sustained due to technical flaws. It was possible to build a prototype under 2000 dollars with basic tools in a local workshop. Further research will focus on the biological performance and improvement of the mechanical components and performance
Modeling Catalytic Destruction of Subsurface Contaminants in Recirculating Wells
Groundwater and soil contamination is a significant problem throughout the nation, with approximately 300,000 to 400,000 sites affected (National Research Council, 1994). Examples of groundwater contaminants of special interest to DoD and AF installations include fuel hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, and nitroaromatic compounds. Traditional remediation technologies, which include pump-and-treat, permeable reactive barriers, and natural attenuation, have numerous drawbacks associated with them. These drawbacks have prompted researchers to look for innovative contamination clean-up methods. The technology investigated in this thesis, reticulating horizontal flow treatment wells (HFTWs) with in-well palladium (Pd) catalyst reactors, offers the potential for destruction of groundwater contaminants commonly found at USAF and DoD installations at less expense, more safely and effectively, and without the need to pump contaminated water to the surface, In this study, a numerical model was used to simulate application of the remediation technology under different site conditions for a number of contaminants of interest. It was found that the HFTW system with in-well Pd catalyst reactors had potential to remediate groundwater contaminants of DoD interest. Based only on this modeling study, however, it was unclear whether the technology could reduce contaminant concentrations enough to meet regulatory standards downgradient of the treatment system. Further experimental study is recommended, both in the laboratory and in the field, to quantify the efficacy of the technology in treating various contaminants of concern
La tribu Insarini (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Phaneropteridae): tercera contribución a la organización supragenérica de los faneropterinos neotropicales
La tribu Insarini se delimita en la presente contribución a solo cuatro géneros: Arethaea, Brachyinsara, Insara y Psilinsara. Asimismo, se proporciona una tabla para separar los géneros actuales, ya que los límites de los mismos no están bien establecidos dentro la tribu. El género Callinsara syn. n. se sinonimiza a Sictuna y se transfiere al grupo Plagiopleurae. Finalmente se discute sobre los límites de las tribus Insarini y Pycnopalpini.The tribe Insarini (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Phaneropteridae): third contribution to the supra–generic organization of neotropical Phaneropterinae
The tribe Insarini is delimited in this contribution to four genera: Arethaea, Brachyinsara, Insara and Psilinsara. A table to separate these genera is provided. The generic boundaries are not well delimited in this tribe. The genus Callinsara n. syn. is synonymized under Sictuna, which in in turn is moved to the group Plagiopleurae. The tribal boundaries of Insarini and Pycnopalpini are discussed.La tribu Insarini se delimita en la presente contribución a solo cuatro géneros: Arethaea, Brachyinsara, Insara y Psilinsara. Asimismo, se proporciona una tabla para separar los géneros actuales, ya que los límites de los mismos no están bien establecidos dentro la tribu. El género Callinsara syn. n. se sinonimiza a Sictuna y se transfiere al grupo Plagiopleurae. Finalmente se discute sobre los límites de las tribus Insarini y Pycnopalpini
Compact-bounded topological groups
We will study two subclasses of the class of feebly compact spaces in the
class of (para)topological groups, the compact-bounded and weakly
compact-bounded spaces, both introduced by J. Angoa, Y. F. Ortiz-Castillo and
A. Tamariz-Mascar\'ua in [4]. Also, we will study the -weakly
compact-bounded subsets of a topological space .Comment: 18 page
RIDI: Robust IMU Double Integration
This paper proposes a novel data-driven approach for inertial navigation,
which learns to estimate trajectories of natural human motions just from an
inertial measurement unit (IMU) in every smartphone. The key observation is
that human motions are repetitive and consist of a few major modes (e.g.,
standing, walking, or turning). Our algorithm regresses a velocity vector from
the history of linear accelerations and angular velocities, then corrects
low-frequency bias in the linear accelerations, which are integrated twice to
estimate positions. We have acquired training data with ground-truth motions
across multiple human subjects and multiple phone placements (e.g., in a bag or
a hand). The qualitatively and quantitatively evaluations have demonstrated
that our algorithm has surprisingly shown comparable results to full Visual
Inertial navigation. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to integrate
sophisticated machine learning techniques with inertial navigation, potentially
opening up a new line of research in the domain of data-driven inertial
navigation. We will publicly share our code and data to facilitate further
research
Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Age
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent
construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the
state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing
progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications,
and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey
the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto
standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad
set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric
and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees,
active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously
serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By
looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open
challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific
investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that
often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and
Is SLAM solved
The stick insects (Insecta: Phasmatodea) from the Cloud Forest of the Chicaque Natural Park, Colombia
A faunal study for the order Phasmatodea of the Chicaque Natural Park is presented, including a list of species found, descriptions, redescriptions, and biological notes. A total of nine species were found and studied; two new genera: Ramandeun new genus, Nubilophasma new genus, and four new species: Atratomorpha jorgei new species, Isagoras franciscoverai new species, Nubilophasma chicaquensis new genus and new species, and Ramandeum coronatum new genus and new species are described. The description of the eggs of the new taxa, of the previously unknown eggs of Paraceroys quadrispinosus (Redtenbacher, 1906), and the redescription of the eggs of Libethra rabdota Stål, 1875, and Libethra inchoata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1907 are provided. Additional comments on the ecology and morphological variation of the reviewed taxa are included. Finally, further studies on the stick insect fauna of the Colombian Andes are discussed and recommended to provide more information to broaden the understanding of the species that inhabit this complex mountain system.
Se presenta un estudio faunístico para el orden Phasmatodea del Parque Natural Chicaque, incluyendo un listado de especies halladas, descripciones, redescripciones, huevos y notas biológicas. Un total de nueve especies fueron halladas y estudiadas, dos géneros nuevos son descritos: Ramandeun nuevo genero y Nubilophasma nuevo genero y cuatro nuevas especies: Atratomorpha jorgei nueva especie, Isagoras franciscoverai nueva especie, Nubilophasma chicaquensis nuevo genero y nueva especie y Ramandeun coronatum nuevo genero y nueva especie. La descripción de los huevos de los nuevos taxones, y los huevos desconocidos de Paraceroys quadrispinosus (Redtenbacher, 1906), y la redescripción de los huevos de Libethra rabdota Stål, 1875, and Libethra inchoata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1907 son proporcionados. Se incluyen comentarios adicionales sobre la ecología y variación morfológica de los taxones revisados. Finalmente, se discute y sugieren más estudios sobre la fauna de insectos palo de los Andes colombianos que proporcionen mayor información para ampliar la comprensión de las especies que habitan este complejo sistema montañoso
Sparse 3D Point-cloud Map Upsampling and Noise Removal as a vSLAM Post-processing Step: Experimental Evaluation
The monocular vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) is
one of the most challenging problem in mobile robotics and computer vision. In
this work we study the post-processing techniques applied to sparse 3D
point-cloud maps, obtained by feature-based vSLAM algorithms. Map
post-processing is split into 2 major steps: 1) noise and outlier removal and
2) upsampling. We evaluate different combinations of known algorithms for
outlier removing and upsampling on datasets of real indoor and outdoor
environments and identify the most promising combination. We further use it to
convert a point-cloud map, obtained by the real UAV performing indoor flight to
3D voxel grid (octo-map) potentially suitable for path planning.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, camera-ready version of paper for "The 3rd
International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Robotics (ICR 2018)
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