Generalized element load method for first- and second-order element solutions with element load effect

The finite element method in principle adaptively divides the continuous domain with complex geometry into discrete simple subdomain by using an approximate element function, and the continuous element loads are also converted into the nodal load by means of the traditional lumping and consistent load methods, which can standardise a plethora of element loads into a typical numerical procedure, but element load effect is restricted to the nodal solution. It in turn means the accurate continuous element solutions with the element load effects are merely restricted to element nodes discretely, and further limited to either displacement or force field depending on which type of approximate function is derived. On the other hand, the analytical stability functions can give the accurate continuous element solutions due to element loads. Unfortunately, the expressions of stability functions are very diverse and distinct when subjected to different element loads that deter the numerical routine for practical applications. To this end, this paper presents a displacement-based finite element function (generalised element load method) with a plethora of element load effects in the similar fashion that never be achieved by the stability function, as well as it can generate the continuous first- and second-order elastic displacement and force solutions along an element without loss of accuracy considerably as the analytical approach that never be achieved by neither the lumping nor consistent load methods. Hence, the salient and unique features of this paper (generalised element load method) embody its robustness, versatility and accuracy in continuous element solutions when subjected to the great diversity of transverse element loads.

Protecting Australia's children: A cross-jurisdictional review of domestic violence protection order legislation

Increasingly, domestic violence is being treated as a child protection issue, and children affected by domestic violence are recognised as experiencing a form of child abuse. Domestic violence protection order legislation – as a key legal response to domestic violence – may offer an important legal option for the protection of children affected by domestic violence. In this article, we consider the research that establishes domestic violence as a form of child abuse, and review the provisions of State and Territory domestic violence protection order legislation to assess whether they demonstrate an adequate focus on the protection of children.

Deriving word association networks from text corpora

This article presents and evaluates a model to automatically derive word association networks from text corpora. Two aspects were evaluated: To what degree can corpus-based word association networks (CANs) approximate human word association networks with respect to (1) their ability to quantitatively predict word associations and (2) their structural network characteristics. Word association networks are the basis of the human mental lexicon. However, extracting such networks from human subjects is laborious, time consuming and thus necessarily limited in relation to the breadth of human vocabulary. Automatic derivation of word associations from text corpora would address these limitations. In both evaluations corpus-based processing provided vector representations for words. These representations were then employed to derive CANs using two measures: (1) the well known cosine metric, which is a symmetric measure, and (2) a new asymmetric measure computed from orthogonal vector projections. For both evaluations, the full set of 4068 free association networks (FANs) from the University of South Florida word association norms were used as baseline human data. Two corpus based models were benchmarked for comparison: a latent topic model and latent semantic analysis (LSA). We observed that CANs constructed using the asymmetric measure were slightly less effective than the topic model in quantitatively predicting free associates, and slightly better than LSA. The structural networks analysis revealed that CANs do approximate the FANs to an encouraging degree.

Application of higher-order spectra for automated grading of diabetic maculopathy

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is one of the most common causes of visual loss among diabetes mellitus patients. Early detection and successive treatment may improve the visual acuity. DME is mainly graded into non-clinically significant macular edema (NCSME) and clinically significant macular edema according to the location of hard exudates in the macula region. DME can be identified by manual examination of fundus images. It is laborious and resource intensive. Hence, in this work, automated grading of DME is proposed using higher-order spectra (HOS) of Radon transform projections of the fundus images. We have used third-order cumulants and bispectrum magnitude, in this work, as features, and compared their performance. They can capture subtle changes in the fundus image. Spectral regression discriminant analysis (SRDA) reduces feature dimension, and minimum redundancy maximum relevance method is used to rank the significant SRDA components. Ranked features are fed to various supervised classifiers, viz. Naive Bayes, AdaBoost and support vector machine, to discriminate No DME, NCSME and clinically significant macular edema classes. The performance of our system is evaluated using the publicly available MESSIDOR dataset (300 images) and also verified with a local dataset (300 images). Our results show that HOS cumulants and bispectrum magnitude obtained an average accuracy of 95.56 and 94.39 % for MESSIDOR dataset and 95.93 and 93.33 % for local dataset, respectively.

Numerical treatment of a two-dimensional variable-order fractional nonlinear reaction-diffusion model

A two-dimensional variable-order fractional nonlinear reaction-diffusion model is considered. A second-order spatial accurate semi-implicit alternating direction method for a two-dimensional variable-order fractional nonlinear reaction-diffusion model is proposed. Stability and convergence of the semi-implicit alternating direct method are established. Finally, some numerical examples are given to support our theoretical analysis. These numerical techniques can be used to simulate a two-dimensional variable order fractional FitzHugh-Nagumo model in a rectangular domain. This type of model can be used to describe how electrical currents flow through the heart, controlling its contractions, and are used to ascertain the effects of certain drugs designed to treat arrhythmia.

The empire of cancer: Gene patents and cancer voices

In his book, The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee writes a history of cancer — "It is a chronicle of an ancient disease — once a clandestine, 'whispered-about' illness — that has metamorphosed into a lethal shape-shifting entity imbued with such penetrating metaphorical, medical, scientific, and political potency that cancer is often described as the defining plague of our generation." Increasingly, an important theme in the history of cancer is the role of law, particularly in the field of intellectual property law. It is striking that a number of contemporary policy debates over intellectual property and public health have concerned cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. In the area of access to essential medicines, there has been much debate over Novartis’ patent application in respect of Glivec, a treatment for leukaemia. India’s Supreme Court held that the Swiss company’s patent application violated a safeguard provision in India’s patent law designed to stop evergreening. In the field of tobacco control, the Australian Government introduced plain packaging for tobacco products in order to address the health burdens associated with the tobacco epidemic. This regime was successfully defended in the High Court of Australia. In the area of intellectual property and biotechnology, there have been significant disputes over the Utah biotechnology company Myriad Genetics and its patents in respect of genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are related to breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision on the validity of Myriad Genetics’ patent in respect of genetic testing for BRCA1 in February 2013. The Supreme Court of the United States heard a challenge to the validity of Myriad Genetics’ patents in this area in April 2013, and handed down a judgment in July 2013. Such disputes have involved tensions between intellectual property rights, and public health. This article focuses upon one of these important test cases involving intellectual property, public health, and cancer research. In June 2010, Cancer Voices Australia and Yvonne D’Arcy brought an action in the Federal Court of Australia against the validity of a BRCA1 patent — held by Myriad Genetics Inc, the Centre de Recherche du Chul, the Cancer Institute of Japan and Genetic Technologies Limited. Yvonne D’Arcy — a Brisbane woman who has had treatment for breast cancer — maintained: "I believe that what they are doing is morally and ethically corrupt and that big companies should not control any parts of the human body." She observed: "For my daughter, I've had her have [sic] mammograms, etc, because of me but I would still like her to be able to have the test to see if the mutation gene is in there from me." The applicants made the following arguments: "Genes and the information represented by human gene sequences are products of nature universally present in each individual, and the information content of a human gene sequence is fixed. Genetic variations or mutations are products of nature. The isolation of the BRCA1 gene mutation from the human body constitutes no more than a medical or scientific discovery of a naturally occurring phenomenon and does not give rise to a patentable invention." The applicants also argued that "the alleged invention is not a patentable invention in that, so far as claimed in claims 1–3, it is not a manner of manufacture within the meaning of s 6 of the Statute of Monopolies". The applicants suggested that "the alleged invention is a mere discovery". Moreover, the applicants contended that "the alleged invention of each of claims 1-3 is not a patentable invention because they are claims for biological processes for the generation of human beings". The applicants, though, later dropped the argument that the patent claims related to biological processes for the generation of human beings. In February 2013, Nicholas J of the Federal Court of Australia considered the case brought by Cancer Voices Australia and Yvonne D’Arcy against Myriad Genetics. The judge presented the issues in the case, as follows: "The issue that arises in this case is of considerable importance. It relates to the patentability of genes, or gene sequences, and the practice of 'gene patenting'. Briefly stated, the issue to be decided is whether under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) a valid patent may be granted for a claim that covers naturally occurring nucleic acid — either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) — that has been 'isolated'". In this context, the word "isolated" implies that naturally occurring nucleic acid found in the cells of the human body, whether it be DNA or RNA, has been removed from the cellular environment in which it naturally exists and separated from other cellular components also found there. The genes found in the human body are made of nucleic acid. The particular gene with which the patent in suit is concerned (BRCA1) is a human breast and ovarian cancer disposing gene. Various mutations that may be present in this gene have been linked to various forms of cancer including breast cancer and ovarian cancer.' The judge held in this particular case that Myriad Genetics’ patent claims were a "manner of manufacture" under s 6 of the Statute of Monopolies and s 18(1)(a) of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth). The matter is currently under appeal in the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. This article interprets the dispute over Myriad Genetics in light of the scholarly work of Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz on inequality. Such work has significant explanatory power in the context of intellectual property and biotechnology. First, Stiglitz has contended that "societal inequality was a result not just of the laws of economics, but also of how we shape the economy — through politics, including through almost every aspect of our legal system". Stiglitz is concerned that "our intellectual property regime … contributes needlessly to the gravest form of inequality." He maintains: "The right to life should not be contingent on the ability to pay." Second, Stiglitz worries that "some of the most iniquitous aspects of inequality creation within our economic system are a result of 'rent-seeking': profits, and inequality, generated by manipulating social or political conditions to get a larger share of the economic pie, rather than increasing the size of that pie". He observes that "the most iniquitous aspect of this wealth appropriation arises when the wealth that goes to the top comes at the expense of the bottom." Third, Stiglitz comments: "When the legal regime governing intellectual property rights is designed poorly, it facilitates rent-seeking" and "the result is that there is actually less innovation and more inequality." He is concerned that intellectual property regimes "create monopoly rents that impede access to health both create inequality and hamper growth more generally." Finally, Stiglitz has recommended: "Government-financed research, foundations, and the prize system … are alternatives, with major advantages, and without the inequality-increasing disadvantages of the current intellectual property rights system.’" This article provides a critical analysis of the Australian litigation and debate surrounding Myriad Genetics’ patents in respect of genetic testing for BRCA1. First, it considers the ruling of Nicholas J in the Federal Court of Australia that Myriad Genetics’ patent was a manner of manufacture as it related to an artificially created state of affairs, and not mere products of nature. Second, it examines the policy debate over gene patents in Australia, and its relevance to the litigation involving Myriad Genetics. Third, it examines comparative law, and contrasts the ruling by Nicholas J in the Federal Court of Australia with developments in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. Fourth, this piece considers the reaction to the decision of Nicholas at first instance in Australia. Fifth, the article assesses the prospects of an appeal to the Full Federal Court of Australia over the Myriad Genetics’ patents. Finally, this article observes that, whatever happens in respect of litigation against Myriad Genetics, there remains controversy over Genetic Technologies Limited. The Melbourne firm has been aggressively licensing and enforcing its related patents on non-coding DNA and genomic mapping.

Top-down influences on lexical selection during spoken word production: A 4T fMRI investigation of refractory effects in picture naming

Spoken word production is assumed to involve stages of processing in which activation spreads through layers of units comprising lexical-conceptual knowledge and their corresponding phonological word forms. Using high-field (4T) functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI), we assessed whether the relationship between these stages is strictly serial or involves cascaded-interactive processing, and whether central (decision/control) processing mechanisms are involved in lexical selection. Participants performed the competitor priming paradigm in which distractor words, named from a definition and semantically related to a subsequently presented target picture, slow picture-naming latency compared to that with unrelated words. The paradigm intersperses two trials between the definition and the picture to be named, temporally separating activation in the word perception and production networks. Priming semantic competitors of target picture names significantly increased activation in the left posterior temporal cortex, and to a lesser extent the left middle temporal cortex, consistent with the predictions of cascaded-interactive models of lexical access. In addition, extensive activation was detected in the anterior cingulate and pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus. The findings indicate that lexical selection during competitor priming is biased by top-down mechanisms to reverse associations between primed distractor words and target pictures to select words that meet the current goal of speech.

Support for an auto-associative model of spoken cued recall: Evidence from fMRI

Cued recall and item recognition are considered the standard episodic memory retrieval tasks. However, only the neural correlates of the latter have been studied in detail with fMRI. Using an event-related fMRI experimental design that permits spoken responses, we tested hypotheses from an auto-associative model of cued recall and item recognition [Chappell, M., & Humphreys, M. S. (1994). An auto-associative neural network for sparse representations: Analysis and application to models of recognition and cued recall. Psychological Review, 101, 103-128]. In brief, the model assumes that cues elicit a network of phonological short term memory (STM) and semantic long term memory (LTM) representations distributed throughout the neocortex as patterns of sparse activations. This information is transferred to the hippocampus which converges upon the item closest to a stored pattern and outputs a response. Word pairs were learned from a study list, with one member of the pair serving as the cue at test. Unstudied words were also intermingled at test in order to provide an analogue of yes/no recognition tasks. Compared to incorrectly rejected studied items (misses) and correctly rejected (CR) unstudied items, correctly recalled items (hits) elicited increased responses in the left hippocampus and neocortical regions including the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC), left mid lateral temporal cortex and inferior parietal cortex, consistent with predictions from the model. This network was very similar to that observed in yes/no recognition studies, supporting proposals that cued recall and item recognition involve common rather than separate mechanisms.

Perfusion fMRI evidence for priming of shared feature-to-lexical connections during cumulative semantic interference in spoken word production

The speed at which target pictures are named increases monotonically as a function of prior retrieval of other exemplars of the same semantic category and is unaffected by the number of intervening items. This cumulative semantic interference effect is generally attributed to three mechanisms: shared feature activation, priming and lexical-level selection. However, at least two additional mechanisms have been proposed: (1) a 'booster' to amplify lexical-level activation and (2) retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). In a perfusion functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we tested hypotheses concerning the involvement of all five mechanisms. Our results demonstrate that the cumulative interference effect is associated with perfusion signal changes in the left perirhinal and middle temporal cortices that increase monotonically according to the ordinal position of exemplars being named. The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) also showed significant perfusion signal changes across ordinal presentations; however, these responses did not conform to a monotonically increasing function. None of the cerebral regions linked with RIF in prior neuroimaging and modelling studies showed significant effects. This might be due to methodological differences between the RIF paradigm and continuous naming as the latter does not involve practicing particular information. We interpret the results as indicating priming of shared features and lexical-level selection mechanisms contribute to the cumulative interference effect, while adding noise to a booster mechanism could account for the pattern of responses observed in the LIFG.

Mirror neurons, the representation of word meaning, and the foot of the third left frontal convolution

Previous neuroimaging research has attempted to demonstrate a preferential involvement of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) in the comprehension of effector-related action word (verb) meanings. These studies have assumed that Broca's area (or Brodmann's area 44) is the homologue of a monkey premotor area (F5) containing mouth and hand mirror neurons, and that action word meanings are shared with the mirror system due to a proposed link between speech and gestural communication. In an fMRI experiment, we investigated whether Broca's area shows mirror activity solely for effectors implicated in the MNS. Next, we examined the responses of empirically determined mirror areas during a language perception task comprising effector-specific action words, unrelated words and nonwords. We found overlapping activity for observation and execution of actions with all effectors studied, i.e., including the foot, despite there being no evidence of foot mirror neurons in the monkey or human brain. These "mirror" areas showed equivalent responses for action words, unrelated words and nonwords, with all of these stimuli showing increased responses relative to visual character strings. Our results support alternative explanations attributing mirror activity in Broca's area to covert verbalisation or hierarchical linearisation, and provide no evidence that the MNS makes a preferential contribution to comprehending action word meanings.

Differential processing of thematic and categorical conceptual relations in spoken word production

Studies of semantic context effects in spoken word production have typically distinguished between categorical (or taxonomic) and associative relations. However, associates tend to confound semantic features or morphological representations, such as whole-part relations and compounds (e.g., BOAT-anchor, BEE-hive). Using a picture-word interference paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we manipulated categorical (COW-rat) and thematic (COW-pasture) TARGET-distractor relations in a balanced design, finding interference and facilitation effects on naming latencies, respectively, as well as differential patterns of brain activation compared with an unrelated distractor condition. While both types of distractor relation activated the middle portion of the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) consistent with retrieval of conceptual or lexical representations, categorical relations involved additional activation of posterior left MTG, consistent with retrieval of a lexical cohort. Thematic relations involved additional activation of the left angular gyrus. These results converge with recent lesion evidence implicating the left inferior parietal lobe in processing thematic relations and may indicate a potential role for this region during spoken word production.

fMRI evidence of word frequency and strength effects in recognition memory

We used event-related fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of encoding strength and word frequency effects in recognition memory. At test, participants made Old/New decisions to intermixed low (LF) and high frequency (HF) words that had been presented once or twice at study and to new, unstudied words. The Old/New effect for all hits vs. correctly rejected unstudied words was associated with differential activity in multiple cortical regions, including the anterior medial temporal lobe (MTL), hippocampus, left lateral parietal cortex and anterior left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC). Items repeated at study had superior hit rates (HR) compared to items presented once and were associated with reduced activity in the right anterior MTL. By contrast, other regions that had shown conventional Old/New effects did not demonstrate modulation according to memory strength. A mirror effect for word frequency was demonstrated, with the LF word HR advantage associated with increased activity in the left lateral temporal cortex. However, none of the regions that had demonstrated Old/New item retrieval effects showed modulation according to word frequency. These findings are interpreted as supporting single-process memory models proposing a unitary strength-like memory signal and models attributing the LF word HR advantage to the greater lexico-semantic context-noise associated with HF words due to their being experienced in many pre-experimental contexts.

fMRI evidence of word frequency and strength effects during episodic memory encoding

Word frequency (WF) and strength effects are two important phenomena associated with episodic memory. The former refers to the superior hit-rate (HR) for low (LF) compared to high frequency (HF) words in recognition memory, while the latter describes the incremental effect(s) upon HRs associated with repeating an item at study. Using the "subsequent memory" method with event-related fMRI, we tested the attention-at-encoding (AE) [M. Glanzer, J.K. Adams, The mirror effect in recognition memory: data and theory, J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn Mem. Cogn. 16 (1990) 5-16] explanation of the WF effect. In addition to investigating encoding strength, we addressed if study involves accessing prior representations of repeated items via the same mechanism as that at test [J.L. McClelland, M. Chappell, Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory, Psychol. Rev. 105 (1998) 724-760], entailing recollection [K.J. Malmberg, J.E. Holden, R.M. Shiffrin, Modeling the effects of repetitions, similarity, and normative word frequency on judgments of frequency and recognition memory, J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn Mem. Cogn. 30 (2004) 319-331] and whether less processing effort is entailed for encoding each repetition [M. Cary, L.M. Reder, A dual-process account of the list-length and strength-based mirror effects in recognition, J. Mem. Lang. 49 (2003) 231-248]. The increased BOLD responses observed in the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC) for the WF effect provide support for an AE account. Less effort does appear to be required for encoding each repetition of an item, as reduced BOLD responses were observed in the LIPC and left lateral temporal cortex; both regions demonstrated increased responses in the conventional subsequent memory analysis. At test, a left lateral parietal BOLD response was observed for studied versus unstudied items, while only medial parietal activity was observed for repeated items at study, indicating that accessing prior representations at encoding does not necessarily occur via the same mechanism as that at test, and is unlikely to involve a conscious recall-like process such as recollection. This information may prove useful for constraining cognitive theories of episodic memory.

Orthographic/phonological facilitation of naming responses in the picture-word task: An event-related fMRI study using overt vocal responding

In the picture-word interference task, naming responses are facilitated when a distractor word is orthographically and phonologically related to the depicted object as compared to an unrelated word. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the cerebral hemodynamic responses associated with this priming effect. Serial (or independent-stage) and interactive models of word production that explicitly account for picture-word interference effects assume that the locus of the effect is at the level of retrieving phonological codes, a role attributed recently to the left posterior superior temporal cortex (Wernicke's area). This assumption was tested by randomly presenting participants with trials from orthographically related and unrelated distractor conditions and acquiring image volumes coincident with the estimated peak hemodynamic response for each trial. Overt naming responses occurred in the absence of scanner noise, allowing reaction time data to be recorded. Analysis of this data confirmed the priming effect. Analysis of the fMRI data revealed blood oxygen level-dependent signal decreases in Wernicke's area and the right anterior temporal cortex, whereas signal increases were observed in the anterior cingulate, the right orbitomedial prefrontal, somatosensory, and inferior parietal cortices, and the occipital lobe. The results are interpreted as supporting the locus for the facilitation effect as assumed by both classes of theoretical model of word production. In addition, our results raise the possibilities that, counterintuitively, picture-word interference might be increased by the presentation of orthographically related distractors, due to competition introduced by activation of phonologically related word forms, and that this competition requires inhibitory processes to be resolved. The priming effect is therefore viewed as being sufficient to offset the increased interference. We conclude that information from functional imaging studies might be useful for constraining theoretical models of word production.