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Generalised rational approximation and its application to improve deep learning classifiers

- Peiris, V, Sharon, Nir, Sukhorukova, Nadezda, Ugon, Julien

  • Authors: Peiris, V , Sharon, Nir , Sukhorukova, Nadezda , Ugon, Julien
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Applied Mathematics and Computation Vol. 389, no. (2021), p.
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100602
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  • Description: A rational approximation (that is, approximation by a ratio of two polynomials) is a flexible alternative to polynomial approximation. In particular, rational functions exhibit accurate estimations to nonsmooth and non-Lipschitz functions, where polynomial approximations are not efficient. We prove that the optimisation problems appearing in the best uniform rational approximation and its generalisation to a ratio of linear combinations of basis functions are quasiconvex even when the basis functions are not restricted to monomials. Then we show how this fact can be used in the development of computational methods. This paper presents a theoretical study of the arising optimisation problems and provides results of several numerical experiments. We apply our approximation as a preprocessing step to deep learning classifiers and demonstrate that the classification accuracy is significantly improved compared to the classification of the raw signals. © 2020
  • Description: This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Solving hard Chebyshev approximation problems through nonsmooth analysis (Discovery Project DP180100602 ).  This research was partially sponsored by Tel Aviv-Swinburne Research Collaboration Grant (2019).

2020 International Society of Hypertension global hypertension practice guidelines

- Unger, Thomas, Borghi, Claudio, Charchar, Fadi, Khan, Nadia, Poulter, Neil, Prabhakaran, Dorairaj, Ramirez, Agustin, Schlaich, Markus, Stergiou, George, Tomaszewski, Maciej, Wainford, Richard, Williams, Bryan, Schutte, Aletta

A combined virtual element method and the scaled boundary finite element method for linear elastic fracture mechanics

- Adak, Dibyendu, Pramod, ALN, Ooi, Ean Tat, Natarajan, Sundararajan

  • Authors: Adak, Dibyendu , Pramod, ALN , Ooi, Ean Tat , Natarajan, Sundararajan
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements Vol. 113, no. (2020), p. 9-16
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  • Description: In this paper, we propose a framework that combines the recently introduced virtual element method (VEM) and the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) to evaluate the fracture parameters. The domain is discretized with arbitrary polygons and the element that contains the crack tip is treated within the framework of the SBFEM. This facilitates a semi-analytical treatment of the crack tip singularity allowing the fracture parameters are estimated directly from the definition. The VEM is employed for the rest of the domain. The salient feature of the VEM is that the terms in the stiffness matrix are computed without requiring higher order quadrature schemes. As both the methods satisfy partition of unity and the compatibility condition, the matrices are assembled as in the conventional FEM. The accuracy of the proposed formulation is demonstrated with two standard benchmark examples. The proposed VEM-SBFEM framework yields accurate results. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

A cross-sectional survey of nursing students' patient safety knowledge

- Levett-Jones, Tracy, Andersen, Patrea, Bogossian, Fiona, Cooper, Simon, Guinea, Stephen, Hopmans, Ruben, McKenna, Lisa, Pich, Jacqui, Reid-Searl, Kerry, Seaton, Philippa

  • Authors: Levett-Jones, Tracy , Andersen, Patrea , Bogossian, Fiona , Cooper, Simon , Guinea, Stephen , Hopmans, Ruben , McKenna, Lisa , Pich, Jacqui , Reid-Searl, Kerry , Seaton, Philippa
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Nurse Education Today Vol. 88, no. (2020), p.
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  • Description: Background: Knowledge provides a foundation for safe and effective nursing practice. However, most previous studies have focused on exploring nursing students' self-reported perceptions of, or confidence in, their level of patient safety knowledge, rather than examining their actual levels of knowledge. Objective: The overarching objective of this study was to examine final year nursing students' levels of knowledge about key patient safety concepts. Design: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. Data collection was undertaken during 2018 using a web-based patient safety quiz with 45 multiple choice questions informed by the Patient Safety Competency Framework for Nursing Students. A Modified Angoff approach was used to establish a pass mark or ‘cut score’ for the quiz. Setting and participants: Nursing students enrolled in the final year of a pre-registration nursing program in Australia or New Zealand were invited to participate in the study. Results: In total, 2011 final year nursing students from 23 educational institutions completed the quiz. Mean quiz scores were 29.35/45 or 65.23% (SD 5.63). Participants achieved highest scores in the domains of person-centred care and therapeutic communication, and lowest scores for infection prevention and control and medication safety. Based on the pass mark of 67.3% determined by the Modified Angoff procedure, 44.7% of students (n = 899) demonstrated passing performance on the quiz. For eight of the institutions, less than half of their students achieved a passing mark. Conclusions: Given the pivotal role that nurses play in maintaining patient safety, the results from this quiz raise important questions about the preparation of nursing students for safe and effective clinical practice. The institutional results also suggest the need for increased curricula attention to patient safety. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

A distributed and anonymous data collection framework based on multilevel edge computing architecture

- Usman, Muhammad, Jan, Mian, Jolfaei, Alireza, Xu, Min, He, Xiangjian, Chen, Jinjun

  • Authors: Usman, Muhammad , Jan, Mian , Jolfaei, Alireza , Xu, Min , He, Xiangjian , Chen, Jinjun
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 16, no. 9 (2020), p. 6114-6123
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  • Description: Industrial Internet of Things applications demand trustworthiness in terms of quality of service (QoS), security, and privacy, to support the smooth transmission of data. To address these challenges, in this article, we propose a distributed and anonymous data collection (DaaC) framework based on a multilevel edge computing architecture. This framework distributes captured data among multiple level-one edge devices (LOEDs) to improve the QoS and minimize packet drop and end-to-end delay. Mobile sinks are used to collect data from LOEDs and upload to cloud servers. Before data collection, the mobile sinks are registered with a level-two edge-device to protect the underlying network. The privacy of mobile sinks is preserved through group-based signed data collection requests. Experimental results show that our proposed framework improves QoS through distributed data transmission. It also helps in protecting the underlying network through a registration scheme and preserves the privacy of mobile sinks through group-based data collection requests. © 2005-2012 IEEE.

A dual scaled boundary finite element formulation over arbitrary faceted star convex polyhedra

- Ooi, Ean Tat, Saputra, Albert, Natarajan, Sundararajan, Ooi, Ean Hin, Song, Chongmin

  • Authors: Ooi, Ean Tat , Saputra, Albert , Natarajan, Sundararajan , Ooi, Ean Hin , Song, Chongmin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Computational Mechanics Vol. 66, no. 1 (2020), p. 27-47
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  • Description: A novel technique to formulate arbritrary faceted polyhedral elements in three-dimensions is presented. The formulation is applicable for arbitrary faceted polyhedra, provided that a scaling requirement is satisfied and the polyhedron facets are planar. A triangulation process can be applied to non-planar facets to generate an admissible geometry. The formulation adopts two separate scaled boundary coordinate systems with respect to: (i) a scaling centre located within a polyhedron and; (ii) a scaling centre on a polyhedron’s facets. The polyhedron geometry is scaled with respect to both the scaling centres. Polygonal shape functions are derived using the scaled boundary finite element method on the polyhedron facets. The stiffness matrix of a polyhedron is obtained semi-analytically. Numerical integration is required only for the line elements that discretise the polyhedron boundaries. The new formulation passes the patch test. Application of the new formulation in computational solid mechanics is demonstrated using a few numerical benchmarks. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

A machine learning approach for prediction of pregnancy outcome following IVF treatment

- Hassan, Md Rafiul, Al-Insaif, Sadiq, Hossain, Muhammad, Kamruzzaman, Joarder

  • Authors: Hassan, Md Rafiul , Al-Insaif, Sadiq , Hossain, Muhammad , Kamruzzaman, Joarder
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 32, no. 7 (2020), p. 2283-2297
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  • Description: Infertility affects one out of seven couples around the world. Therefore, the best possible management of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and patient advice is crucial for both patients and medical practitioners. The ultimate concern of the patients is the success of an IVF procedure, which depends on a number of influencing attributes. Without any automated tool, it is hard for the practitioners to assess any influencing trend of the attributes and factors that might lead to a successful IVF pregnancy. This paper proposes a hill climbing feature (attribute) selection algorithm coupled with automated classification using machine learning techniques with the aim to analyze and predict IVF pregnancy in greater accuracy. Using 25 attributes, we assessed the prediction ability of IVF pregnancy success for five different machine learning models, namely multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machines (SVM), C4.5, classification and regression trees (CART) and random forest (RF). The prediction ability was measured in terms of widely used performance metrics, namely accuracy rate, F-measure and AUC. Feature selection algorithm reduced the number of most influential attributes to nineteen for MLP, sixteen for RF, seventeen for SVM, twelve for C4.5 and eight for CART. Overall, the most influential attributes identified are: ‘age’, ‘indication’ of fertility factor, ‘Antral Follicle Counts (AFC)’, ‘NbreM2’, ‘method of sperm collection’, ‘Chamotte’, ‘Fertilization rate in vitro’, ‘Follicles on day 14’ and ‘Embryo transfer day.’ The machine learning models trained with the selected set of features significantly improved the prediction accuracy of IVF pregnancy success to a level considerably higher than those reported in the current literature. © 2018, The Natural Computing Applications Forum.

A narrative review of pharmacotherapy treatment for opioid addiction and application in a community-based model in Victoria, Australia

- Vishwanath, Tejaswini, Cash, Penelope, Penney, Wendy, Cant, Robyn

  • Authors: Vishwanath, Tejaswini , Cash, Penelope , Penney, Wendy , Cant, Robyn
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Vol. 18, no. 1 (2020), p. 66-76
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  • Description: To review the literature regarding the value and consumer focus of research on opioid replacement therapy (ORT) programs, relevant to the Australian rural context and community pharmacy. We conducted a narrative review of literature published between 1995 and 2015, searching EBSCOhost, PubMed and Google Scholar. Three authors collaborated to screen and synthesise studies. Effectiveness, cost affordability, diversion and retention benefits were reported from pharmacological or prescribers’ or dispensers’ standpoint. Research was fragmented and evaluated contributions of these individual types of stakeholders with less discussion of consumers, or consumers’ everyday experiences of ORT. No studies took into account consumers’ psychosocial aspects or power discourses. We found ORT as a beneficial treatment for opioid dependence is well researched, although overall Australian program evaluation was lacking. A gap within ORT literature should be addressed by making consumer experiences central in designs for future research and for program evaluation. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

A new coupling structure and position detection method for segmented control dynamic wireless power transfer systems

- Li, Xiaofei, Hu, Jiefeng, Wang, Heshou, Dai, Xin, Sun, Yue

  • Authors: Li, Xiaofei , Hu, Jiefeng , Wang, Heshou , Dai, Xin , Sun, Yue
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Vol. 35, no. 7 (2020), p. 6741-6745
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  • Description: In this letter, a new coupling structure for dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) systems is proposed. Bipolar coils are symmetrically placed on the transmitter unipolar coils, resulting in natural decoupling between the bipolar coils and the unipolar coils. This special structure can mitigate the self-couplings between the adjacent unipolar transmitter coils and hence facilitate the design of the compensation circuit. Another remarkable advantage of this design is that it can lead to a stable mutual coupling between the transmitter array and the receiver when the receiver moves along the transmitter, making it a natural fit for DWPT applications. Furthermore, to reduce the electromagnetic interference and power loss, an automatic segmented control scheme is implemented, and a position detection method by monitoring the primary current is developed. The feasibility of the proposed coupling structure and the position detection method are verified on a laboratory prototype with 72-V output voltage. The experimental results show that the power fluctuation is within ±2.5%, and system efficiency is around 90%. (This letter is accompanied by a video demonstrating the experimental test). © 2020 IEEE.

A perspective on the discovery of selected compounds with anthelmintic activity against the barber's pole worm—Where to from here?

- Jiao, Yaqing, Preston, Sarah, Hofmann, Andreas, Taki, Aya, Baell, Jonathan, Chang, Bill, Jabbar, Abdul, Gasser, Robin

  • Authors: Jiao, Yaqing , Preston, Sarah , Hofmann, Andreas , Taki, Aya , Baell, Jonathan , Chang, Bill , Jabbar, Abdul , Gasser, Robin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Parasitology p. 1-45
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  • Description: Parasitic roundworms (nematodes) cause substantial morbidity and mortality in animals worldwide. Anthelmintic treatment is central to controlling these worms, but widespread resistance to most of the commercially available anthelmintics for veterinary and agricultural use is compromising control, such that there is an urgency to discover new and effective drugs. The purpose of this article is to review information on parasitic nematodes, the treatment and control of parasitic nematode infections and aspects of discovering new anthelmintics in the context of anthelmintic resistance problems, and then to discuss some progress that our group has made in identifying selected compounds with activity against nematodes. The focus of our recent work has been on discovering new chemical entities and known drugs with anthelmintic activities against Haemonchus contortus as well as other socioeconomically important parasitic nematodes for subsequent development. Using whole worm-based phenotypic assays, we have been screening compound collections obtained via product-development-partnerships and/or collaborators, and active compounds have been assessed for their potential as anthelmintic candidates. Following the screening of 15,333 chemicals from five distinct compound collections against H. contortus, we have discovered one new chemical entity (designated SN00797439), two human kinase inhibitors (SNS-032 and AG-1295), 14 tetrahydroquinoxaline analogues, one insecticide (tolfenpyrad) and two tolfenpyrad (pyrazole-5-carboxamide) derivatives (a-15 and a-17) with anthelmintic activity in vitro. Some of these 20 ‘hit’ compounds have selectivity against H. contortus in vitro when compared to particular human cell lines. In our opinion, some of these compounds could represent starting points for ‘lead’ development. Accordingly, the next research steps to be pursued include: (i) chemical optimisation of representative chemicals via structure-activity relationship (SAR) evaluations; (ii) assessment of the breadth of spectrum of anthelmintic activity on a range of other parasitic nematodes, such as strongyloids, ascaridoids, enoplids and filarioids; (iii) detailed investigations of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) of optimised chemicals with broad nematocidal or nematostatic activity; and (iv) establishment of the modes of action of lead candidates. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

A review of code blue activations in a single regional Australian healthcare service : a retrospective descriptive study of RISKMAN data

- Porter, Joanne, Peck, Blake, McNabb, Tiffinee, Missen, Karen

  • Authors: Porter, Joanne , Peck, Blake , McNabb, Tiffinee , Missen, Karen
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Clinical Nursing Vol. 29, no. 1-2 (2020), p. 221-227
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  • Description: Background: In the case of life-threatening conditions such as respiratory or cardiac arrest, or the clinical deterioration of the patient, a Code Blue activation may be instigated. A Code Blue activation involves a team of advanced trained clinicians attending the emergency needs of the patient. Aims and objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the number of cases of Code Blue activations, looking at the timing, clinical ward, diagnosis and activation criteria while noting cases where escalation from a Medical Emergency Team (MET) call occurs in one Regional Healthcare Service in Victoria, Australia, over a six-year period. Methods: A quantitative retrospective descriptive study of Code Blue emergencies over a six-year period from June 2010 to June 2016 was conducted. Data collected from the RISKMAN program operating at a single site was imported into SPSS (V 22) for descriptive statistical analysis. A STROBE EQUATOR checklist was used for this study (see File S1). Findings: The majority of Code Blue activations were male (59%, n = 127) and aged between 70 and 89 years of age (43%, n = 93). A Code Blue activation was more likely to occur at 08:00 hr, 14:00 hr or 22:00 hr, corresponding to the nurses’ change in shift, with the majority of Code Blues (27.8%, n = 60) occurring in the emergency department. Cardiac arrest was the main activation criterion with 54.6% (n = 118) cases followed by respiratory arrest (14%, n = 32). Interestingly, 20% (n = 45) of the Code Blue activations were upgraded from a Medical Emergency Team (MET) call. Conclusion: This project has produced several interesting findings surrounding Code Blue activations at one regional healthcare service which are not present in existing literature and is worthwhile for further investigation. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding Code Blue activation criteria, common timings (month, time of day) and patient demographics ensures clinicians can remain vigilant in watching for the signs of patient deterioration and improve staff preparedness Code Blue events. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

A review of south pacific tropical cyclones : impacts of natural climate variability and climate change

- Chand, Savin, Dowdy, Andrew, Bell, Samuel, Tory, Kevin

  • Authors: Chand, Savin , Dowdy, Andrew , Bell, Samuel , Tory, Kevin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Springer Climate p. 251-273
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  • Description: Impacts of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific Island countries are of great significance. Now with the growing threats from human-induced climate change, the need for effective disaster risk management and adaptation strategies for these island countries is more important than before. In order to implement appropriate strategies, a comprehensive understanding of South Pacific tropical cyclone activity—and how it is likely to change as a result of human-induced climate change—is essential. While a number of past studies have examined various aspects of tropical cyclone activity in the South Pacific basin, a review that consolidates those studies with new information is essential. In this chapter, we first examine tropical cyclone data quality for the South Pacific basin and then review the robustness of the relationship between South Pacific tropical cyclones and drivers of natural climate variability. Note that an understanding of the limitations of the data quality is important to determine the extent of natural climate variability and signatures—if any—of human-induced climate change on tropical cyclones. We then examine the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones using up-to-date historical observations and climate model projections. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

A survey on context awareness in big data analytics for business applications

- Dinh, Loan, Karmakar, Gour, Kamruzzaman, Joarder

  • Authors: Dinh, Loan , Karmakar, Gour , Kamruzzaman, Joarder
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Knowledge and Information Systems Vol. 62, no. 9 (2020), p. 3387-3415
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  • Description: The concept of context awareness has been in existence since the 1990s. Though initially applied exclusively in computer science, over time it has increasingly been adopted by many different application domains such as business, health and military. Contexts change continuously because of objective reasons, such as economic situation, political matter and social issues. The adoption of big data analytics by businesses is facilitating such change at an even faster rate in much complicated ways. The potential benefits of embedding contextual information into an application are already evidenced by the improved outcomes of the existing context-aware methods in those applications. Since big data is growing very rapidly, context awareness in big data analytics has become more important and timely because of its proven efficiency in big data understanding and preparation, contributing to extracting the more and accurate value of big data. Many surveys have been published on context-based methods such as context modelling and reasoning, workflow adaptations, computational intelligence techniques and mobile ubiquitous systems. However, to our knowledge, no survey of context-aware methods on big data analytics for business applications supported by enterprise level software has been published to date. To bridge this research gap, in this paper first, we present a definition of context, its modelling and evaluation techniques, and highlight the importance of contextual information for big data analytics. Second, the works in three key business application areas that are context-aware and/or exploit big data analytics have been thoroughly reviewed. Finally, the paper concludes by highlighting a number of contemporary research challenges, including issues concerning modelling, managing and applying business contexts to big data analytics. © 2020, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

A uniform approach to hölder calmness of subdifferentials

- Beer, Gerald, Cánovas, Maria, López, Marco, Parra, Juan

  • Authors: Beer, Gerald , Cánovas, Maria , López, Marco , Parra, Juan
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Convex Analysis Vol. 27, no. 1 (2020), p.
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160100854
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  • Description: For finite-valued convex functions f defined on the n-dimensional Euclidean space, we are interested in the set-valued mapping assigning to each pair (f, x) the subdifferential of f at x. Our approach is uniform with respect to f in the sense that it involves pairs of functions close enough to each other, but not necessarily around a nominal function. More precisely, we provide lower and upper estimates, in terms of Hausdorff excesses, of the subdifferential of one of such functions at a nominal point in terms of the subdifferential of nearby functions in a ball centered in such a point. In particular, we obtain the (1/2) - Hölder calmness of our mapping at a nominal pair (f, x) under the assumption that the subdifferential mapping viewed as a set-valued mapping from Rn to Rn with f fixed is calm at each point of {x} × ∂f(x). © Heldermann Verlag
  • Description: Funding details: Australian Research Council, ARC, DP160100854 Funding details: European Commission, EU Funding details: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, MINECO Funding details: Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras, FEDER Funding text 1: 

Academic and clinical performance among nursing students : what's grit go to do with it?

- Terry, Daniel, Peck, Blake

  • Authors: Terry, Daniel , Peck, Blake
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Nurse Education Today Vol. 88, no. (2020), p.
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  • Description: Background: Nursing is both a science and an art and requires students to develop sound scientific foundations for artful application. The at times binary nature of how the way in which the knowledge and skills of nursing are delivered in higher education can be difficult for students to comprehend initially and synchronise for practice and can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, withdrawal or failure. Understanding what influences student performance in bachelor level nursing studies is imperative so educators can develop programs that straddle the art and science conundrum and lead to graduate success. Grit is a non-cognitive trait, a drive that keeps an individual on task through difficult circumstances for sustained periods of time. Grit might well represent a key factor in our understanding of why one student succeeds while another withdraws. Objectives: To examine measures of grit in the context of demographic characteristics of nursing students and their impact on student self-perceived academic and clinical performance. Design: A cross-sectional design. Setting: A single School of Nursing at a multi-campus, regional, peri-urban Australian University. Participants: All nursing students (n = 2349) studying a three-year bachelor of nursing degree were invited to participate. Methods: Data were collected using a questionnaire that included several demographic items, questions relating to the student's perceived level of academic and clinical performance, and the eight-item Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) used to measure trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Results: Students, regardless of their year of study or any other demographic factor, showed grit was the only significant predictor of clinical and academic performance. Conclusions: The strength between grit and perceived performance both academically and clinically, makes grit a valuable factor for development in students as a vehicle for success in nursing programs of study. This paper culminates in suggestions for creative approaches to grit development. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Accounting for cryptic population substructure enhances detection of inbreeding depression with genomic inbreeding coefficients: an example from a critically endangered marsupial

- Zilko, Joseph, Harley, Dan, Hansen, Birgita, Pavlova, Alexandra, Sunnucks, Paul

  • Authors: Zilko, Joseph , Harley, Dan , Hansen, Birgita , Pavlova, Alexandra , Sunnucks, Paul
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Molecular Ecology Vol. 29, no. 16 (2020), p. 2978-2993
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  • Description: Characterizing inbreeding depression in wildlife populations can be critical to their conservation. Coefficients of individual inbreeding can be estimated from genome-wide marker data. The degree to which sensitivity of inbreeding coefficients to population genetic substructure alters estimates of inbreeding depression in wild populations is not well understood. Using generalized linear models, we tested the power of two frequently used inbreeding coefficients that are calculated from genome-wide SNP markers, FH and F^III, to predict four fitness traits estimated over two decades in an isolated population of the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum. FH estimates inbreeding as excess observed homozygotes relative to equilibrium expectations, whereas F^III quantifies allelic similarity between the gametes that formed an individual, and upweights rare homozygotes. We estimated FH and F^III from 1,575 genome-wide SNP loci in individuals with fitness trait data (N = 179–237 per trait), and computed revised coefficients, FHby group and F^IIIby group, adjusted for population genetic substructure by calculating them separately within two different genetic groups of individuals identified in the population. Using FH or F^III in the models, inbreeding depression was detected for survival to sexual maturity, longevity and whether individuals bred during their lifetime. F^IIIby group (but not FHby group) additionally revealed significant inbreeding depression for lifetime reproductive output (total offspring assigned to each individual). Estimates of numbers of lethal equivalents indicated substantial inbreeding load, but differing between inbreeding estimators. Inbreeding depression, declining population size, and low and declining genetic diversity suggest that genetic rescue may assist in preventing extinction of this unique Leadbeater's possum population. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Active model selection for positive unlabeled time series classification

- Liang, Shen, Zhang, Yanchun, Ma, Jiangang

  • Authors: Liang, Shen , Zhang, Yanchun , Ma, Jiangang
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference Paper
  • Relation: 36th IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2020 Vol. 2020-April, p. 361-372
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  • Description: Positive unlabeled time series classification (PUTSC) refers to classifying time series with a set PL of positive labeled examples and a set U of unlabeled ones. Model selection for PUTSC is a largely untouched topic. In this paper, we look into PUTSC model selection, which as far as we know is the first systematic study in this topic. Focusing on the widely adopted self-training one-nearest-neighbor (ST-1NN) paradigm, we propose a model selection framework based on active learning (AL). We present the novel concepts of self-training label propagation, pseudo label calibration principles and ultimately influence to fully exploit the mechanism of ST-1NN. Based on them, we develop an effective model performance evaluation strategy and three AL sampling strategies. Experiments on over 120 datasets and a case study in arrhythmia detection show that our methods can yield top performance in interactive environments, and can achieve near optimal results by querying very limited numbers of labels from the AL oracle. © 2020 IEEE.
  • Description: E1

Adaptive analysis using scaled boundary finite element method in 3D

- Zhang, Junqi, Natarajan, Sundararajan, Ooi, Ean Tat, Song, Chongmin

  • Authors: Zhang, Junqi , Natarajan, Sundararajan , Ooi, Ean Tat , Song, Chongmin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering Vol. 372, no. (2020), p.
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  • Description: In this paper, an adaptive refinement technique using the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) is proposed. The salient feature of this technique is that it is not required to regenerate the mesh for the whole model during the iterations. To this end, a local mesh refinement strategy is implemented based on a polytree algorithm in three dimensions, which can be applied to polyhedral elements with arbitrary number of nodes, edges and faces. These elements constructed by the SBFEM can be used in analysis with their boundaries discretized only, which reduce the difficulty to connect elements with different sizes. An explicit residual based error indicator is developed using the discontinuity of the stress field to guide the adaptive mesh refinement. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated using five numerical examples, including complex geometry and stress singularity. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
  • Description: The work presented in this paper is partially supported by the Australian Research Council through Grant Number DP180101538 .

Adoption of blockchain technology in the Australian grains trade : an assessment of potential economic effects

- Gunasekera, Don, Valenzuela, Ernesto

  • Authors: Gunasekera, Don , Valenzuela, Ernesto
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Economic Papers Vol. 39, no. 2 (2020), p. 152-161
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  • Description: Recent analysis of Blockchain use has highlighted considerable potential productivity gains arising from lower transaction costs between buyers and sellers of goods. This has been shown by recent examples of Blockchain use in the Australian grains sector. In this paper, we have further developed and quantified this concept of productivity gain by undertaking several illustrative scenarios using a general equilibrium model of the global economy. Our analysis indicates that an assumed modest growth (five per cent) in productivity due to Blockchain use in the grains sector could raise output by eight per cent over the medium term. If this is accompanied by Blockchain use in the Australian finance sector, grains output could reach ten per cent. This reflects the effect of reduction in transaction costs due to the use of Blockchain technology as a “distributed ledger technology” in grain trading. Further, it is anticipated that the wider effects of Blockchain-driven productivity enhancement of the Australian finance sector could contribute to approximately 2.5 per cent increase in GDP in the medium term, relative to what would otherwise be. © 2020 The Economic Society of Australia

Afterword : a fresh look at workplace learning for VET teachers

- Smith, Erica

  • Authors: Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 18, no. 1 (2020), p. 84-92
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  • Description: The expertise and professionalism of teachers is vital in vocational education and training (VET), as it is in any other education sector. As ‘dual professionals’, VET teachers need to keep abreast of their industry or discipline area as well as maintaining and improving their pedagogical skills and knowledge. VET workplaces (colleges and vocational schools) are important sites of learning for these matters. This paper draws together and analyses the findings from the other papers in this special issue, finding that VET workplaces contribute to teachers’ learning both as a part of pedagogical qualifications (in ‘teaching practice’ components) and as part of continuing professional learning. The paper draws on a previous theoretical model and the findings in the papers to propose a number of categories of workplace learning: learning that is taught, sought, wrought, caught, brought, and thought. These could be applied to any occupation. Finally, the contribution of teachers’ personal attributes to the extent and nature of their site-based learning is examined, using the data in the papers to develop further a previous model of VET teacher professionalism. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.