Unsupervised navigation using an economy principle

We describe robot navigation learning based on self-selection of privileged vectors through the environment in accordance with an in built economy metric. This provides the opportunity both for progressive behavioural adaptation, and adaptive derivations, leading, through situated activity, to “representations" of the environment which are both economically attained and inherently meaningful to the agent

Restricted Access and Delays to HCV Treatment Among Medicaid Patients in Louisiana

Background: Many people living with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) have seen delays in accessing treatment or been denied entirely due to Medicaid restrictions requiring patients to meet certain criteria prior to receiving approval for medication pre-authorization. Methods: This study identified a cohort of Medicaid-insured patients with chronic HCV infection within New Orleans, LA. Patient medical records were reviewed and information regarding HCV care was gathered. This study sought to determine the degree to which HCV care was delayed for this population and describe common reasons for prior-authorization denials for direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications. Results: For this population of Medicaid-insured patients with HCV RNA assay-confirmed chronic infection, the average number of days it took to reach a specialist was three-times greater than the number of days it took to reach a primary care physician. After attending an appointment with a specialist to seek HCV care, patients experienced wait periods of an average of 150 days before being deemed eligible for treatment per Medicaid requirements. After being deemed eligible for treatment, patients experienced an average wait period of 194.4 days to initiation of treatment, with low fibrosis status being cited as the most common reason for treatment delay. Conclusion: This population of Medicaid-insured patients in New Orleans, LA with chronic HCV infection experienced delays in treatment related to reduced accessibility of a specialist who was eligible to request DAA prior-authorization. Prior-authorization was most frequently denied based on low fibrosis status or recent alcohol/drug use

Comparison of Low Cost Miniature Spectrometers for Volcanic SO2 Emission Measurements

Miniature ultraviolet USB coupled spectrometers have become ubiquitously applied over the last decade for making volcanic SO2 emission rate measurements. The dominantly applied unit has recently been discontinued however, raising the question of which currently available devices should now be implemented. In this paper, we consider, and make recommendations on this matter, by studying a number of inexpensive compact spectrometers in respect of measurement performance and thermal behaviour. Of the studied units, the Avaspec demonstrated the best prospects for the highest time resolution applications, but in the majority of cases, we anticipate users likely preferring the less bulky USB2000+s

Next Generation User Skills

The world is awash with statistics on the impact of the web on 21st century living, learning and working. They are accompanied by the pronouncements and predictions of experts from every camp, from those heralding a new brave new world of co-creation and choice, to warnings from the dark side in terms of ethics and educational standards, tempered by increasing recognition that ‘we’ may no longer be in control of such matters. Meanwhile, surveys report that around 80% of businesses have invested in IT and 60% have websites. Whilst the extent and value of adoption differs significantly across businesses and sectors, the foundations for new ways of working and doing business are broadly in place, with older and static businesses typifying the laggards. It would not be unsafe to project that, by 2013, even more people will be required to use ICT in the workplace and in their everyday lives, increasingly involving online communication and web-based applications. This represents a scenario to which those responsible for developing curricula and awards must respond – in the primary and secondary phases, vocational and applied learning, work based and adult community provision and higher education. To ensure the relevance of and to influence the ongoing enhancement of user ICT provision and the associated awards, Digital 2020 and the Scottish Qualifications Authority jointly commissioned Sero Consulting to develop a vision for ICT user skills in 2013 – ‘Next Generation User Skills’ – taking account of: • Skills that all employers will need, which they may not currently recognise. • Skills that people (especially young people) will already have, but which may not be accredited. • Essential skills for living and learning in a digital age. This paper is drawn from the resulting public report, ‘Next Generation User Skills – Working, Learning & Living Online in 2013’ (September 2008), which provides: • An overview of the current ICT user skills landscape. • A model representing digital activities and competencies that might constitute the ‘Next Generation User Skillscape’. • A mapping of that activity space onto tools and awards, with a gap analysis identifying weaknesses in provision. • An overview of the recommendations to the report sponsors

Automatic Construction of Acoustic Themes for Benthic Habitat Mapping at Stanton Banks, UK

In recent years, many attempts have been made to develop automatic methods for segmentation of hydroacoustic remote sensing data acquired by multibeam echosounders (MBES) in order to generate quantitative estimates of the spatial distribution of seafloor relief, bottom type and composition. The majority of the segmentation methods presented so far have been based on image processing techniques, which assume implicitly the existence of an image. This limits their ability to unambiguously discriminate seafloor properties, as the primary observation of an MBES is not backscatter imagery or mosaics, but rather backscatter angular response. Mosaics are only projections of the original observations, with resulting loss of information. The method we are developing is fully automatic and attempts to segment the acoustic remote sensing data simultaneously in the image-textural space and in the angular-response space. The output of this automatic procedure is a thematic map, where the individual themes have boundaries defined at the mosaic image resolution, but still have sufficient angular coverage to allow for seafloor characterization. Angular Range Analysis (ARA) inversion is then applied to the average angular response of individual themes, generating estimates of the acoustic impedance, acoustic roughness and mean grain size of the seafloor within the theme. The technique described above is applied to a Simrad EM1002 95kHz MBES dataset acquired from a study area covering an offshore reef at Stanton Banks, UK. The results are compared to still-images, grab samples and previous habitat maps existent in the area, to asses the ability of the acoustic theme segmentation to discriminate benthic habitats

Student Loan Debt Impacts on Choosing a Field of Study

Student Loan Debt Impacts on Choosing a Field of Study Abstract Lance McGonigle – Email: [email protected] Student loan debt has been steadily rising over the last handful of decades, and many students who take these loans have little to no knowledge about the financial challenges that these loans can bring. This research is aimed to understand how student loan debt impacts a students’ field of study choice during their time as a college student, or if this has any affect at all. In doing a qualitative, humanistic study; exploratory research was conducted using inductive reasoning along with the use of semi-structured interviews and online surveys to obtain data. These data collection techniques have been used in order to form a generalized result of the wide-ranging population of students at Kennesaw State University. All students of Kennesaw State University as well as the financial aid department make up the population of this study. The data suggests that many students rely solely on student loans to pay for all of their college expenses which encompass rent, books, tuition, university fees, and food, while a portion of other students have all of these expenses covered by a parent or other third party. Many of the students who do receive a student loan are left to their own devices to figure out how to accept these loans and access this money due to a lack of involvement with the financial aid office. Although materials are available to help this process, many students do not realize all of the resources that are available to them. Consequently, student loan debt can provide an important perspective to understanding why some students change their field of study due to financial reasoning. KEYWORDS: Students, student loans, financial hardship, financial aid, benefits, awards, benefits to students, hardships among students, economic outcomes, taxonomy, student loan debt

Genomic Citizenship

An anthropological study based on ethnographic work in Israel and Qatar explores the relationship between science, particularly genetics, and national identity. Based on ethnographic work in Israel and Qatar, two small Middle Eastern ethnonations with significant biomedical resources, Genomic Citizenship explores the relationship between science and identity. Ian McGonigle, originally trained as a biochemist, draws on anthropological theory, STS, intellectual history, critical theory, Middle Eastern studies, cultural studies, and critical legal studies. He connects biomedical research on ethnic populations to the political, economic, legal, and historical context of the state; to global trends in genetic medicine; and to the politics of identity in the context of global biomedical research. Genomic Citizenship is more an anthropology of scientific objects than an anthropology of scientists or an ethnography of the laboratory. McGonigle bases his untraditional project on traditional anthropological methods, including participant observation. Some of the most persuasive data in the book are from public records, legal and historical sources, published scientific papers, institutional reports, websites, and brochures. McGonigle discusses biological understandings of Jewishness, especially in relation to the intellectual history of Zionism and Jewish political thought, and considers the possibility of a novel application of genetics in assigning Israeli citizenship. He also describes developments in genetic medicine in Qatar and analyzes the Qatari Biobank in the context of Qatari nationalism and state-building projects. Considering possible consequences of findings on the diverse origins of the Qatari population for tribal identities, he argues that the nation cannot be defined as either a purely natural or biological entity. Rather, it is reified, reinscribed, and refracted through genomic research and discourse

Examining Perceptions of Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterized by a restriction of energy intake, an intense fear of gaining weight, and often distorted body image. AN has the second highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders, due to high suicide rates and medical complications associated with malnutrition. An estimated 10% of those who have AN die because of the disorder (Insel, 2012). Interacting factors—genetic, biological, environmental, and psychosocial—contribute to the etiology and maintenance of AN. However, outside of research settings, AN is misunderstood as having primarily environmental roots (Salafia, et. al). Blame is placed on societal expectations and the disorder is stereotyped as predominantly affecting white, affluent women. Early intervention is crucial because a longer course of illness worsens AN recovery outcome. Individuals with AN do not often self-initiate treatment, so peers play an instrumental role in seeking help on behalf of those with AN (Becker et al., 2003; Price, et. al., 1990; Sala et. al., 2013; Walsh et. al., 2000). The proposed study examines whether stereotypes impact the ability of female undergraduates to detect AN in others. The study will be conducted through the administration of vignette paragraphs describing a high school student. Each vignette contains AN cues embedded among one of three types of contextual cues. Contextual cues indicate socioeconomic (SES), environmental, or biological factors. A questionnaire will assess the ability of subjects to identify AN. It is expected that subjects will be more likely to identify AN in vignettes containing environmental and high SES cues because these align with stereotypes surrounding AN