Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety in Westmount : A brief to the City of

Th is paper presents the results of the Westmount Road Safety Study, which took place from June-September 2010. It fi rst outlines the goals and methodology of the project and provides background information on the road safety concepts employed. It then discusses the level and sources of perceived road safety risk among pedestrians and cyclists. Using survey responses and observed accident data, it compares areas within Westmount that are perceived to be risky with those observed to have high accident rates, and discusses why these diff erences arise. Finally, it identifi es several major factors that were found to contribute to perceived and observed risk over the course of the study; these include factors Westmount can infl uence, but also several broader issues that are beyond its control. Particular attention is paid to the de Maisonneuve bicycle path, given its importance as an active transportation route through Westmount. Th e report fi nds that although Westmount’s roads are generally safe for pedestrians and cyclists, there are risks associated with excessive traffi c speed and volume, non-compliance with traffi c laws, and inappropriate traffi c signals and signage. Th e report makes several recommendations to address these concerns. Cite as Larsen, J., Sangster, E. , Bornstein, L. , El-Geneidy, A. (2011). “Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety in Westmount”. Briefi ng Note BN11-01E. Montréal: CURA Making Megaprojects Work for Communities Mégaprojets au service des communautés. More reports and working papers at www.mcgill. ca/urbanplanning/mpc/research/ Larsen, Sangster, Bornstein and El-Geneidy iii Table of contents Introduction . 1 Methods . 1 Key Findings . 2 Observed and Perceived Safety in Westmount . 2 Traffic conflicts . 3 Perceived Safety . 4 risk at Particular Locations . 7 Key Factors contributing to risk . 9 Traffic speed and volume . 9 Non-compliance with traffic laws . 9 Traffic signal and infrastructure design . 9 The “scramble” intersections along Sherbrooke Street . 10 Excessively narrow lanes . 10 The de Maisonneuve Bicycle Path . 11 Broader Issues . 12 road user inattention . 12 Seasonal hazards . 12 Topography . 12 conclusion and Policy Implications . 13 references . 15 Endnotes.15 appendices . 16 Larsen, Sangster, Bornstein and El-Geneidy 1
Denoising and Raw-waveform Networks for Weakly-Supervised Gender Identification on Noisy Speech

This paper presents a raw-waveform neural network and uses it along with a denoising network for clustering in weakly-supervised learning scenarios under extreme noise conditions. Speciﬁcally, we consider language independent Automatic Gender Recognition (AGR) on a set of varied noise conditions and Signal to Noise Ratios (SNRs). We formulate the denoising problem as a source separation task and train the system using a discriminative criterion in order to enhance output SNRs. A denoising Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) is ﬁrst trained on a small subset (roughly one-ﬁfth) of the data for learning a speech-speciﬁc mask. The denoised speech signal is then directly fed as input to a raw-waveform convolutional neural network (CNN) trained with denoised speech. We evaluate the standalone performance of denoiser in terms of various signal-to-noise measures and discuss its contribution towards robust AGR. An absolute improvement of 11.06% and 13.33% is achieved by the combined pipeline over the i-vector SVM baseline system for 0 dB and -5 dB SNR conditions, respectively. We further analyse the information captured by the ﬁrst CNN layer in both noisy and denoised speech.
Q-DWSO: hybrid approach for QoS-aware dynamic web services orchestration

Many complex business-applications require the composition of tasks invoking multiple web services. The complexity of a composition process increases when a composition needs dynamic functionalities. Web services (WSs) of different service providers can be functionally identical, but have varying Quality of Service (QoS) attributes. A QoS optimisation is thus required at every stage in a composite web service (CWS). Maximising the overall utility functions are the need at both, component and composition levels. Local (task level) or global (composition using tasks in CWS) optimisation is currently used approach during the composition from the tasks. The present paper proposes a hybrid approach using the local as well as global optimisations. While local optimisation ensures the composition from the WSs in the trustworthy environment, the global optimisation satisfies the QoS constraints at the global level. The approach uses a hybrid orchestration structure. It maximises overall utility functions and reduces computational time related complexity.
Flagellates from stromatolites and surrounding sediments in Shark Bay, Western Australia

Hamelin Pool in Western Australia is home to distinctive shallow-water marine benthic communities dominated by stromatolitesstructures formed by bacterial assemblages. We have sought to establish if the principal consumers of bacteria, the flagellates, form a distinctive community. We present observations of 87 species of flagellates, of which three are new (Notosolenus hamelini, Ploeotia laminae, Ancyromonas sinistra), and 15 (12 of which are dinoflagellates) have not been previously reported in Australia. The communities have been compared with other communities from marine sediments using cluster analysis. The community of flagellates in Hamelin Pool was found not to be significantly different from communities from other marine benthic habitats, and abundances (about 1 x 10 cells/cm) are also comparable to those in other sediments. We find no evidence that the formation of stromatolites is made possible by a reduced predation pressure from heterotrophic flagellates.
D mmW Wireless Channel Model and Its Performance Analysis for 5 G

To implement the three dimensional millimeter wave (3D mmW) statistical channel models, some channel parameters are required to be estimated such as temporal multipath delays, multipath power delay profiles (PDP), and multipath angle of arrival (AOA) and angle of departure (AOD). In accordance, this paper presents a 3D mmW channel model and its impulse response (IR) for LOS and NLOS link between UE and BS in urban scenario. This proposed model developed using time cluster–spatial lobe (TCSL) approach is based on 3GPP-like stochastic IR channel model. TCSL supplements the existing 3GPP-like stochastic IR channel model. This modified statistical model provides the additional channel parameters of directional RMS lobe angular spreads and RMS delay spreads for time clusters and spatial lobes (TCSLs). This proposed 3D mmW channel model can generate 3D mmW temporal and spatial channel parameters for arbitrary mmW carrier frequency, antenna beamwidth, and signal bandwidth for directional antennas. This channel model is suitable for 5G wireless communication systems.
Cladistic analysis of the alderflies of America north of Mexico (Megaloptera: Sialidae)

Abstract. A cladistic analysis of thirty‐five morphological characters is used to produce a cladogram for the twenty‐four American species of Sialis found north of Mexico, two European species, and three species of Protosialis. Three species groups (americana, califomica and infumata) proposed by Ross 1937 are shown to be monophyletic. Sialis, Protosialis, and the aequalis species group as currently constituted, are paraphyletic; S.nevadensis is nested within Protosialis and Protosialis is nested within Sialis. Character evolution is evaluated in the light of a phylogenetic hypothesis, and structural modifications are found to correlate with presumed functional constraints.
A Simplified Model for Characterizing the Effects of Scattering Objects and Human Body Blocking Indoor Links at 28 GHz

This paper presents a simple approach to characterize the effects of scattering objects around indoor links at 28 GHz while the link is fully blocked by a human body. The effects of scattering objects nearby the link were studied by conducting measurements with a metallic reflector and the human body. Here, the basic mechanisms of wave propagation, such as reflection and diffraction, were accounted for each scattering object. To predict the attenuation caused by the metallic reflector, a specular reflection model was employed in reflection modeling. In diffraction modeling, on the other hand, the double knife-edge diffraction (DKED) model was exploited to predict the attenuation by the human body. Simulations were then compared with measurements to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the models. Results indicate that the presented simple models work well for indoor links. Therefore, the results of this paper could be extended to model multiple human bodies near the indoor links of fifth generation (5G) systems.
A median centred difference gradient operator and its application in watershed segmentation

A new gradient operator for greyscale images is proposed whose output is based on the median centred difference of the intensities within a local mask. The operator is a simplified form of the Robust Colour Morphological Gradient and, as such, is robust to impulsive noise and provides well localised gradient estimates. A quantitative evaluation using simulated images shows that the new operator is particularly suitable for the watershed transform, producing significantly better watershed segmentation results than conventional edge operators such the morphological gradient and the Sobel.
Traditions of research in community mental health care planning and care coordination: A systematic meta-narrative review of the literature

Context In response to political and social factors over the last sixty years mental health systems internationally have endeavoured to transfer the delivery of care from hospitals into community settings. As a result, there has been increased emphasis on the need for better quality care planning and care coordination between hospital services, community services and patients and their informal carers. The aim of this systematic review of international research is to explore which interventions have proved more or less effective in promoting personalized, recovery oriented care planning and coordination for community mental health service users. Methods A systematic meta-narrative review of research from 1990 to the present was undertaken. From an initial return of 3940 papers a total of 50 research articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria, including research from the UK, Australia and the USA. Findings Three research traditions are identified consisting of (a) research that evaluates the effects of government policies on the organization, management and delivery of services; (b) evaluations of attempts to improve organizational and service delivery efficiency; (c) service-users and carers experiences of community mental health care coordination and planning and their involvement in research. The review found no seminal papers in terms of high citation rates, or papers that were consistently cited over time. The traditions of research in this topic area have formed reactively in response to frequent and often unpredictable policy changes, rather than proactively as a result of intrinsic academic or intellectual activity. This may explain the absence of seminal literature within the subject field. As a result, the research tradition within this specific area of mental health service delivery has a relatively short history, with no one dominant researcher or researchers, tradition or seminal studies amongst or across the three traditions identified. Conclusions The research findings reviewed suggests a gap has existed internationally over several decades between policy aspirations and service level interventions aimed at improving personalised care planning and coordination and the realities of everyday practices and experiences of service users and carers. Substantial barriers to involvement are created through poor information exchange and insufficient opportunities for care negotiation.
Association Between Intraoperative Oliguria and Acute Kidney Injury After Major Noncardiac Surgery

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in 6.1%–22.4% of patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery. Previous studies have shown no association between intraoperative urine output and postoperative acute renal failure. However, these studies used various definitions of acute renal failure. We therefore investigated the association between intraoperative oliguria and postoperative AKI defined by the serum creatinine criteria of the Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, and End-stage kidney disease (RIFLE) classification. METHODS: In this single-center, retrospective, observational study, we screened 26,984 patients undergoing elective or emergency surgery during the period September 1, 2008 to October 31, 2011 at a university hospital. Exclusion criteria were age <18 years; duration of anesthesia <120 minutes; hospital stay <2 nights; local anesthesia only; urologic or cardiac surgery; coexisting end-stage kidney disease; and absence of serum creatinine measurement, intraoperative urine output data, or information regarding intraoperative drug use. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used as the primary analytic method. RESULTS: A total of 5894 patients were analyzed. The incidence of postoperative AKI was 7.3%. By multivariable analysis, ≥120 minutes of oliguria (odds ratio = 2.104, 95% CI, 1.593–2.778; P < .001) was independently associated with the development of postoperative AKI. After propensity-score matching of patients with ≥120 and <120 minutes of oliguria on baseline characteristics, the incidence of AKI in patients with ≥120 minutes of oliguria (n = 827; 10%) was significantly greater than that in those with <120 minutes of oliguria (n = 827; 4.8%; odds ratio = 2.195, 95% CI, 1.806–2.668; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to previous studies, we found that intraoperative oliguria is associated with the incidence of AKI after major noncardiac surgery.
Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein Serum Concentrations and Cardiovascular Morbidity in End Stage of Renal Disease †

Introduction: Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is considered a main biomarker of oxidative stress, a common characteristic in end stage renal disease. We examined the relationship between ox-LDL serum concentrations and cardiovascular disease in permanent hemodiafiltration therapy patients. Methods: Ox-LDL values were measured by ELISA and were corrected for LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) in 96 participants and in 45 healthy control subjects. We performed chi-square tests and adjusted models for the role of ox-LDL on cardiovascular morbidity including coronary artery disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, systolic, diastolic dysfunction and peripheral arterial disease. Results: ox-LDL/LDL-C values were significantly higher in patients than in control group (p = 0.02), due to increased ox-LDL serum levels rather than to low LDL-C. The unadjusted relationship between high ox-LDL/LDL-C and low ejection fraction was found significant (x2 = 9.04, p = 0.003), although the association with the other cardiovascular manifestations was found non-significant. In the adjusted model for the prediction of systolic cardiac dysfunction, high ox-LDL/LDL-C, old age and non-administration of vitamin D supplementation during dialysis session were found to be significant predictors after adjustment to the confounder. Moreover, the association between systolic cardiac dysfunction and non-administration of vitamin D derivatives during dialysis sessions was found significant (x2 = 6.9, p = 0.008). Conclusions: This study showed a significant association between high ox-LDL and systolic cardiac dysfunction in permanent hemodiafiltration therapy patients. This relationship seems to be influenced by aging and pharmaceutical therapy during dialysis sessions, including vitamin D derivatives.
Efficacy of Testosterone plus NASA Exercise Countermeasures during Head-Down Bed Rest

Introduction Prolonged confinement to head-down bed rest (HDBR) results in musculoskeletal losses similar to those observed during long-duration space flight. Exercise countermeasures by themselves have not completely prevented the deleterious losses in muscle mass or function in HDBR or space flight. Purpose The objective was to investigate the safety and efficacy of intermittent, low-dose testosterone treatment in conjunction with NASA exercise (SPRINT) countermeasures during 70 d of 6° HDBR. Methods Healthy men (35 ± 8 yr) were randomized into one of three groups that remained inactive (CON) or performed exercise 6 d·wk−1 in addition to receiving either placebo (PEX) or testosterone treatment (TEX, 100 mg·wk−1). Testosterone/placebo injections were administered once a week for 2 wk, followed by 2 wk off and so on, during HDBR. Results Total, leg, and trunk lean body mass (LBM) consistently decreased in CON, increased in TEX, and had little or no changes in PEX. Total, leg, and trunk fat mass consistently increased in CON and PEX and decreased in TEX. Leg strength decreased in CON, whereas PEX and TEX were protected against loss in strength. Changes in leg LBM correlated positively with changes in leg muscle strength. Conclusions Addition of a testosterone countermeasure enhanced the preventative actions of exercise against body composition changes during long-term HDBR in healthy eugonadal men. This is the first report to demonstrate that cycled, low-dose testosterone treatment increases LBM under conditions of strict exercise control. These results are clinically relevant to the development of safe and effective therapies against muscle atrophy during long-term bed rest, aging, and disease where loss of muscle mass and strength is a risk. The potential space flight applications of such countermeasure combinations deserve further investigations.
IL-1ɑ C376A Transversion Variant and Risk of Idiopathic Male Infertility in Iranian Men: A Genetic Association Study

Background IL-1α produced by Sertoli cells is considered to act as a growth factor for spermatogonia. In this study, we investigated the association of the C376A polymorphism in IL-1α with male infertility in men referring to the Kashan IVF Center. Materials and Methods In this case-control study, 2 ml of blood was collected from 230 fertile and 230 infertile men. After DNA extraction, the C376A variant was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). In addition, the molecular effects of the C376A transversion were analysed using bioinformatics tools. Results A significant association was observed between the homozygous genotype CC with male infertility [odds ratio (OR)=1.97, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.14-3.41, P=0.016)]. Carriers of C (AC+CC) showed a similar risk for male infertility (OR=1.78, 95% CI=1.06-2.99, P=0.030). Also, allelic analysis showed that the C allele is associated with male infertility (OR=1.43, 95% CI=1.09-1.88, P=0.011). In sub-group analysis, we found that the AC genotype is associated with asthenozoospermia (OR=2.38, 95% CI=1.03-5.53, P=0.043). In addition, carriers of C were at high risk for asthenozoospermia (OR=2.25, 95% CI=1.01-4.10, P=0.047). Also, C allele was significantly associated with oligozoospermia (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.01-2.06, P=0.049) and non-obstructive azoospermia (OR=1.67, 95% CI =1.04-2.68, P=0.034). Finally, in silico analysis showed that the C376A polymorphism could alter splicing especially in the acceptor site. Conclusion This is the preliminary report on the association of IL-1α C376A polymorphism with male infertility in the Kashan population. This association shows that the IL-1α gene may be a biomarker for male infertility, and therefore needs additional investigations in future studies to validate this.
FSCOAL—Parallel simultaneous fuzzy co‐clustering and learning

A model‐based co‐clustering divides the data based on two main axes and simultaneously trains a supervised model for each co‐cluster using all other input features. For example, in the rating prediction task of recommender system, the main two axes are items and users. In each co‐cluster, we train a regression model for predicting the rating based on other features such as user's characteristics (e.g., gender), item's characteristics (e.g., genre), contextual features (e.g., location), and so on. In reality, users and items do not necessarily belong to a single co‐cluster, but rather can be associated with several co‐clusters. We extend the model‐based co‐clustering to support fuzzy co‐clustering. In this setting, each item–user pair is associated to every co‐cluster with some membership grade. This grade indicates the level of relevance of the item–user pair to the co‐cluster. Furthermore, we propose a distributed algorithm, based on a map‐reduce approach, to handle big datasets. Evaluating the fuzzy co‐clustering algorithm on three datasets shows a significant improvement comparing with a regular co‐clustering algorithm. In addition, a map‐reduce version of the fuzzy co‐clustering algorithm significantly reduces the runtime.
Infant cortisol stress–response is associated with thymic function and vaccine response

Abstract Stress can impair T cell-mediated immunity. To determine if infants with high stress responses had deficits in T-cell mediated immunity, we examined the association of pain-induced cortisol responsiveness with thymic function and vaccine responses in infants. This study was performed among 306 (male = 153 and female = 153) participants of a randomized, controlled trial examining the effect of neonatal vitamin A supplementation on immune function in Bangladesh (NCT01583972). Salivary cortisol was measured before and 20 min after a needle stick (vaccination) at 6 weeks of age. The thymic index (TI) was determined by ultrasonography at 1, 6, 10 and 15 weeks. T-cell receptor excision circle and blood T-cell concentrations were measured at 6 and 15 weeks. Responses to Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), tetanus toxoid, hepatitis B virus and oral poliovirus vaccination were assayed at 6 and 15 weeks. Cortisol responsiveness was negatively associated with TI at all ages (p < .01) in boys only, was negatively associated with naïve helper T-cell concentrations in both sexes at both 6 (p = .0035) and 15 weeks (p = .0083), and was negatively associated with the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) skin test response to BCG vaccination at 15 weeks (p = .034) in both sexes. Infants with a higher cortisol response to pain have differences in the T-cell compartment and a lower DTH response to vaccination. Sex differences in the immune system were seen as early as 6 weeks of age in these healthy infants.