Response to comments on "Differential Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs, Wolves, and Human Infants."

The comments by Fiset and Marshall-Pescini et al. raise important methodological issues and propose alternative accounts for our finding of perseverative search errors in dogs. Not denying that attentional processes and local enhancement are involved in such object search tasks, we provide here new evidence and argue that dogs’ behavior is affected by a combination of factors, including specific susceptibility to human communicative signals

In partnership? pedestrian plazas in New York City

Traditional public spaces —such as public parks, streets, and public squares—have long been part of the urban landscape. In today’s congested cities, however, creating such public spaces is difficult because they require capital investment, vacant land, and ongoing maintenance. Possibly in response to these obstacles, new types of urban public spaces have emerged. Pedestrian plazas, one of these new types, is the topic of this research, with a focus on the New York City Plaza Program, which was the first such program in the U.S. For this research, the design, management, and use characteristics of five completed pedestrian plazas were examined, with attention also given to the partnerships behind the creation and maintenance of these plazas. The role the partners played in the plaza program was also investigated to understand its impact on the design, management, maintenance, and use of pedestrian plazas. The five case study plazas are located in neighborhoods without sufficient public space, as determined by the Department of Transportation, which runs the program. The following data collection strategies were used: site observations, user surveys, and interviews with government officials and sponsor partners. This research demonstrates that although pedestrian plazas are relatively small and are located immediately adjacent to roadways, they fulfill an important role in urban neighborhoods that otherwise lack sufficient public space for recreation. The type and diversity of activities vary between the plazas, depending on features of their design, maintenance, and management. The findings suggest that partnerships between the City and community organizations in the New York City Plaza Program play a prominent role in shaping design, maintenance, and management strategies, which affect their use. Neighborhood residents use the case study pedestrian plazas in a variety of ways, including for gathering with friends and family, people-watching, chatting, eating and drinking, and attending programmed events. Some plazas are typically frequented by the same people on a daily basis and become popular gathering places whereas other plazas are more often used for shorter periods of time for eating lunch, meeting someone, and taking a brief rest

Greedy Search for Descriptive Spatial Face Features

Facial expression recognition methods use a combination of geometric and appearance-based features. Spatial features are derived from displacements of facial landmarks, and carry geometric information. These features are either selected based on prior knowledge, or dimension-reduced from a large pool. In this study, we produce a large number of potential spatial features using two combinations of facial landmarks. Among these, we search for a descriptive subset of features using sequential forward selection. The chosen feature subset is used to classify facial expressions in the extended Cohn-Kanade dataset (CK+), and delivered 88.7% recognition accuracy without using any appearance-based features.Comment: International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 201

Risk factors of pneumothorax and chest tube placement after computed tomography-guided core needle biopsy of lung lesions : a single-centre experience with 822 biopsies

Purpose: To determine the risk factors of pneumothorax and chest tube placement after computed tomography-guided core needle lung biopsy (CT-CNB). Material and methods: Variables that could increase the risk of pneumothorax and chest tube placement were retrospectively analysed in 822 CT-CNBs conducted with 18-gauge non-coaxial CT-CNB in 813 patients (646 men and 167 women; range: 18-90 years; mean: 59.8 years). Predictor variables were age, gender, patient position, severity of pulmonary emphysema, lesion size and localisation, contour characteristics, presence of atelectasis, pleural tag and fissure in the needle-tract, length of the aerated lung parenchyma crossed by the needle, needle entry angle, number of pleural punctures, experience of the operator, and procedure duration. All variables were investigated by ×2 test and logistic regression analysis. Results: The overall incidence of pneumothorax was 15.4% (127/822). Chest tube placement was required for 22.8% (29/127) of pneumothoraxes. The significant independent variables for pneumothorax were lesions smaller than 3 cm (p = 0.009), supine and lateral decubitus position during the procedure (p < 0.001), greater lesion depth (p = 0.001), severity of pulmonary emphysema (p < 0.001), needle path crossing the fissure (p < 0.001), and a path that skips the atelectasis (p < 0.001) or pleural tag (p < 0.001); those for chest tube placement were prone position (p < 0.001), less experienced operator (p = 0.001), severity of pulmonary emphysema (p < 0.001), and greater lesion depth (p = 0.008). Conclusions: The supine and lateral decubitus position, a needle path that crosses the fissure, and a path that skips the atelectasis or a pleural tag are novel predictors for the development of pneumothorax. Key words: computed tomography (CT), CT-guided core needle lung biopsy (CT-CNB), pneumothorax, chest tube, pulmonary lesion

Development of a comprehensive decision making framework for power projects in New South Wales (NSW)

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.In the backdrop of emerging concerns about sustainability, the contribution of electricity generation to sustainability, the complexity of power projects, and the narrowness of existing decision approaches for selecting power projects – this research develops a comprehensive decision-making framework that can be applied to select power projects for meeting future electricity needs in NSW. This framework is based on Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis (Analytical Hierarchy Process). This framework will assist with complex decisions regarding projects typified by multiple objectives, multiple decision makers, multiple attributes, conflicts, and socio-economic concerns. The appropriateness of this framework is established in this research in terms of its ability to assist with project choices (from among several alternatives), to meet medium (2035) and long term (2050) electricity needs of NSW, in a sustainable manner. The backdrop for the application of this approach is provided by five scenarios, representing alternative technological pathways, energy & environmental and socio-political settings. Fourteen attributes, reflecting major areas of concern relating to economic, environmental, technical, and socio-political issues are considered, guided by literature review and expert opinion. The overall ranking for each alternative is developed on the basis of, first, assessing the economic, environmental, and social impacts of the alternatives; second, incorporating decision makers’ (expert) preferences for selected attributes, through a pair-wise comparison of various attributes; next, developing a weighted average across all attributes. These individual scenario rankings are then used to compare alternatives represented by various scenarios. The analysis suggest that, overall, the BAU scenario, representing a continuation of existing trends in generation-mix is likely to be the most detrimental scenario for achieving sustainable outcomes in NSW, as it will result in highest levels of levelized cost, GHG emissions, total waste, air pollution, visual impact, water use, resource (fuel) use, severe accidents; and lowest levels of new jobs, and political and social acceptance. The best option in the medium term (2035) for NSW will be the HR-1 scenario (40% share of renewables, with nuclear), as it will result in the highest levels of new jobs, political and social acceptance; and lowest levels of levelized cost, GHG emissions, total waste, air pollution, resource (fuel) use. The best option in the long term (2050) for NSW will be the HR-2 scenario (80% share of renewables, without nuclear), as it will result in the highest levels of new jobs, political and social acceptance; lowest levels of total waste, water use, severe accidents; and moderate levels of levelized cost, air pollution, water and resource use. It is interesting to note the change of preference from HR-1 scenario in the medium term, to HR-2 scenario in the long term, as informed by trade-offs between various attributes. The above insights clearly demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework for making complex decisions about power projects