further work on discussion

thesis/sections/introduction.tex

@@ -8,17 +8,15 @@ While textbooks often describe a menstrual cycle as lasting 28 to 30 days with o
 such regularity is the exception rather than the rule~\cite{munster_length_1992, bull_real-world_2019}.
 For individuals with consistent cycle patterns, simple calendar-based predictions may suffice.
 However, for the majority, especially with increasing age and associated irregularity, more sophisticated methods are necessary.
-This, combined with an ever higher age of pregnancy in industrialized and industrializing countries,
-underscores the growing need for accurate understanding of the menstrual cycle~\cite{sauer_reproduction_2015}.
+This, combined with the rising maternal age in industrialized and industrializing countries,
+underscores the growing demand for accurate, individualized menstrual cycle prediction methods~\cite{sauer_reproduction_2015}.
 
-For many women, the practical use cases of menstrual cycle monitoring are \emph{Natural Family Planning} (NFP) and contraception~\cite{earle_use_2021}.
+For many individuals, the practical use cases of menstrual cycle monitoring are \emph{Natural Family Planning} (NFP) and contraception~\cite{earle_use_2021}.
 For these use cases, it is essential to identify the ovulation and its corresponding fertile and infertile days in a cycle,
 to either avoid or achieve pregnancy more effectively.
 
-Ovulation is the process in which an egg cell is released from the ovaries, making fertilization possible.
-This process is regulated by hormonal changes, including fluctuations in luteinizing hormone (LH) and
-follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and is accompanied by other physiological changes such as an increase in electrical resistance
-and viscosity of the cervical mucus or an increase in body temperature~\cite{wallach_prediction_1980}.
+Ovulation, the release of an egg cell from the ovaries, is triggered by hormonal changes and accompanied
+by physiological shifts such as changes in cervical mucus and a rise in body temperature~\cite{wallach_prediction_1980}.
 These processes remain incompletely understood and are influenced by lifestyle factors such as stress, diet, exercise,
 or health-related conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), making ovulation difficult to predict.
 
@@ -49,10 +47,17 @@ NFP and contraception.
 Finally, we demonstrate that high predictive accuracy on highly regular, curated datasets, as commonly reported in prior work,
 may overestimate real-world applicability, since such datasets tend to favor even simple, rule-based approaches.
 
+The main research objective is to evaluate the fundamental feasibility of predicting fertility and
+ovulation from body temperature data using machine learning,
+with a focus on how prediction performance varies across menstrual cycle types and real-world use cases.
 
-The research objectives are:
+These objectives support the broader question of whether temperature-based models can provide robust predictions
+across real-world variability in cycle patterns and user needs:
 \begin{itemize}
-    \item To evaluate the predictive value of body temperature for ovulation and fertility across diverse menstrual cycle types.
-    \item To assess the performance of different model architectures on the use cases of natural family planning and contraception, across both regular and irregular cycles.
-    \item To compare sophisticated machine learning models with simple rule-based baseline approaches.
+    \item To train and evaluate a set of machine learning models for ovulation and fertility prediction,
+    using standard performance metrics such as MAE and MSE\@.
+    \item To identify influential factors and patterns that affect the prediction.
+    \item To compare prediction performance across regular and irregular cycles to assess how cycle variability affects feasibility.
+    \item To evaluate model outputs in the context of practical use cases,
+    such as contraception and natural family planning, using task-specific evaluation criteria.
 \end{itemize}