Computational experiments involving population size for FPGA-based implementation of a GA for the TSP

The feasibility of using an in-hardware implementation of a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the computationally expensive travelling salesman problem (TSP) is explored, especially in regard to hardware resource requirements for problem and population sizes. We investigate via numerical experiments whether a small population size might prove sufficient to obtain reasonable quality solutions for the TSP, thereby permitting relatively resource efficient hardware implementation on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Software experiments on two TSP benchmarks involving 48 and 532 cities were used to explore the extent to which population size can be reduced without compromising solution quality, and results show that a GA allowed to run for a large number of generations with a smaller population size can yield solutions of comparable quality to those obtained using a larger population. This finding is then used to investigate feasible problem sizes on a targeted Virtex-7 vx485T-2 FPGA platform via exploration of hardware resource requirements for memory and data flow operations.

Re: Human papillomavirus infection and incidence of squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas of the skin

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) cause cervical cancer and some other types of epithelial cancers. HPV types from the phylogenic beta genus (beta-PVs), formerly known as epidermodysplasia verruciformis–associated HPV types, are frequently detected in nonmelanoma skin cancers, especially in squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). An etiologic relationship with beta-PV infection is suspected...

Why we need a population-based approach to clinical indicators for cancer: a case study using microscopic confirmation of lung cancer in Queensland

An important function of clinical cancer registries is to provide feedback to clinicians on various performance measures. To date, most clinical cancer registries in Australia are located in tertiary academic hospitals, where adherence to guidelines is probably already high. Microscopic confirmation is an important process measure for lung cancer care. We found that the proportion of patients with lung cancer without microscopic confirmation was much higher in regional public hospitals (27.1%) than in tertiary hospitals (7.5%), and this disparity remained after adjusting for age, sex and comorbidities. The percentage was also higher in the private than in the public sector. This case study shows that we need a population-based approach to measuring clinical indicators that includes regional public hospitals as a matter of priority and should ideally include the private sector.

Referral patterns and proximity to palliative care inpatient services by level of socio-economic disadvantage : a national study using spatial analysis

Background: A range of health outcomes at a population level are related to differences in levels of social disadvantage. Understanding the impact of any such differences in palliative care is important. The aim of this study was to assess, by level of socio-economic disadvantage, referral patterns to specialist palliative care and proximity to inpatient services. Methods: All inpatient and community palliative care services nationally were geocoded (using postcode) to one nationally standardised measure of socio-economic deprivation – Socio-Economic Index for Areas (SEIFA; 2006 census data). Referral to palliative care services and characteristics of referrals were described through data collected routinely at clinical encounters. Inpatient location was measured from each person’s home postcode, and stratified by socio-economic disadvantage. Results: This study covered July – December 2009 with data from 10,064 patients. People from the highest SEIFA group (least disadvantaged) were significantly less likely to be referred to a specialist palliative care service, likely to be referred closer to death and to have more episodes of inpatient care for longer time. Physical proximity of a person’s home to inpatient care showed a gradient with increasing distance by decreasing levels of socio-economic advantage. Conclusion: These data suggest that a simple relationship of low socioeconomic status and poor access to a referral-based specialty such as palliative care does not exist. Different patterns of referral and hence different patterns of care emerge.

Re-targeting choreographic enquiry through motion capture

This creative work is the outcome of preliminary experiments through practice aiming to explore the collaboration of a Dancer/choreographer with an Animator, along with enquiry into the intergeneration of motion capture technologies within the work-flow. The animated visuals derived from the motion capture data is not aimed at just re-targeting of movement from one source to another but looks at describing the thought and emotions of the choreographed dance through visual aesthetics.

Can we deliver both population-based and personalized approaches to cancer care?

Responding to the individual needs of the person affected by cancer is a fundamental tenet of nursing care. The evidence base to enable highly personalized approaches to the way we provide care has grown enormously in recent years. Today, we have a much better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning health needs of people with cancer, as well as the wide range of environmental, sociocultural, psychological, and biological influences on these needs. This growing evidence base enables us to better target and tailor interventions in increasingly sophisticated ways.

Recruitment and results of a pilot trial of vitamin D supplementation in the general population of Australia

Context: The benefits of high serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] are unclear. Trials are needed to establish an appropriate evidence base. Objective: We plan to conduct a large-scale trial of vitamin D supplementation for the reduction of cancer incidence and overall mortality and report here the methods and results of a pilot trial established to inform its design. Design: Pilot D-Health was a randomized trial carried out in a general community setting with 12 months intervention and follow-up. Participants: Participants were 60- to 84-yr-old residents of one of the four eastern Australian states who did not have any vitamin D-related disorders and who were not taking more than 400 IU supplementary vitamin D per day. A total of 644 participants were randomized, and 615 completed the study (two persons withdrew because of nonserious adverse events). Interventions: The interventions were monthly doses of placebo or 30,000 or 60,000 IU vitamin D3. Main Outcomes: The main outcomes were the recruitment rate and changes in serum 25(OH)D. Results: Ten percent of those approached were recruited. At baseline, the mean 25(OH)D was 42 nmol/liter in all three study arms. The mean change in 25(OH)D in the placebo group was 0.12 nmol/liter, compared with changes of 22 and 36 nmol/liter in the 30,000- and 60,000-IU groups, respectively. Conclusions: The D-Health pilot has shown that a large trial is feasible in Australia and that a dose of 2000 IU/d will be needed to ensure that a large proportion of the population reaches the target serum 25(OH)D level. Copyright © 2012 by The Endocrine Society.

Re-melting of Bi-2212/Ag laminated tapes by partial melting process

Bi-2212 tapes are prepared by a combination of dip-coating and partial melt processing. We investigate the effect of re-melting of those tapes by partial melting followed by slow cooling on the structure and superconducting properties. Microstructural studies of re-melted samples show that they have the same overall composition as partially melted tapes. However, the fractional volumes of the secondary phases differ and the amounts and distribution of the secondary phases have a significant effect on the critical current. Critical current of Bi-2212/Ag tapes strongly depends on the maximum processing temperature. Initial J(c)'s of the tapes, which are partially melted, then slowly solidified at optimum conditions and finally post-annealed in an inert atmosphere, are up to 10.4 x 10(3) A/cm(2). It is found that the maximum processing temperature at initial partial melting has an influence on the optimum re-heat treatment conditions for the tapes. Re-melted tapes processed at optimum conditions recover superconducting properties after post-annealing in an inert atmosphere: the J(c) values of the tapes are about 80-110% of initial J(c)'s of those tapes.

One night stand : only you

Technical: This looped video work is made up from a number of still images animated in a sequence, not intended to be a smooth action, but syncopated. The gaps in real time suggest blinking, lapses in technology, warps in time and distance. The still images have been manipulated in photoshop and imported into an animation software program, showing subtle emphasis on various aspects of the features of the face and location from the screen shots. Content: Obsession is one of the most constant expressions of love, whether it is a negative attribute, such as stalking, or the need to see or stroke the beloved, or telling and re-telling the story of first meeting. “like the beat, beat, beat of the tom tom when the jungle shadows fall like the tick, tick, tock of the stately clock as it stands against the wall like the drip, drip drip of the rain drops when the summer shower’s through a voice within me keeps repeating you, you, you… only you...” (Cole Porter, Night and Day) My desire to immerse myself in my newly-met adult daughter as a reality is as obsessive as any new parent. The primary means of contact is video cam, which has become a kind of surveillance for me. I stare at her mouth as it moves, her ear as she moves her head, her smile, her grimaces, her high cheekbones, her eyes that are like mine, the shape of her head, her teeth that are like her father’s… hundreds of candid pictures screen shot over a year and a half were the source of the video images.

(Re)visioning the centre : education reform and the “ideal” citizen of the future

Discourses of public education reform, like that exemplified within the Queensland Government’s future vision document, Queensland State Education-2010 (QSE-2010), position schooling as a panacea to pervasive social instability and a means to achieve a new consensus. However, in unravelling the many conflicting statements that conjoin to form education policy and inform related literature (Ball, 1993), it becomes clear that education reform discourse is polyvalent (Foucault, 1977). Alongside visionary statements that speak of public education as a vehicle for social justice are the (re)visionary or those reflecting neoliberal individualism and a conservative politics. In this paper, it is argued that the latter coagulate to form strategic discursive practices which work to (re)secure dominant relations of power. Further, discussion of the characteristics needed by the “ideal” future citizen of Queensland reflect efforts to ‘tame change through the making of the child’ (Popkewitz, 2004, p.201). The casualties of this (re)vision and the refusal to investigate the pathologies of “traditional” schooling are the children who, for whatever reason, do not conform to the norm of the desired school child as an “ideal” citizen-in-the-making and who become relegated to alternative educational settings.

The sixth 48 hour game making challenge (2012)

Game jams provide design researchers with extraordinary opportunity to watch creative teams in action and recent years have seen a number of projects which seek to illuminate the design process as seen in these events. For example, Gaydos, Harris and Martinez discuss the opportunity of the jam to expose students to principles of design process and design spaces (2011). Rouse muses on the game jam ‘as radical practice’ and a ‘corrective to game creation as it is normally practiced’. His observations about his own experience in a jam emphasise the same artistic endeavour forefronted earlier, where the experience is about creation that is divorced from the instrumental motivations of commercial game design (Rouse 2011) and where the focus is on process over product. Other participants remark on the social milieu of the event as a critical factor and the collaborative opportunity as a rich site to engage participants in design processes (Shin et al, 2012). Shin et al are particularly interested in the notion of the site of the process and the ramifications of participants being in the same location. They applaud the more localized event where there is an emphasis on local participation and collaboration. For other commentators, it is specifically the social experience in the place of the jam is the most important aspect (See Keogh 2011), not the material site but rather the physical embodied experience of ‘being there’ and being part of the event. Participants talk about game jams they have attended in a similar manner to those observations made by Dourish where the experience is layered on top of the physical space of the event (Dourish 2006). It is as if the event has taken on qualities of place where we find echoes of Tuan’s description of a particular site having an aura of history that makes it a very different place, redolent and evocative (Tuan 1977). Re-presenting the experience in place has become the goal of the data visualisation project that has become the focus of our own curated 48hr game jam. Taking our cue from the work of Tim Ingold on embodied practice, we have now established the 48hr game making challenge as a site for data visualisation research in place.

Re-use of domain knowledge to provide confidence for adoption of off-site manufacturing for construction in Australia

Many construction industry decision-makers believe there is a lack of off-site manufacture (OSM) adoption for non-residential construction in Australia. Identification of construction business process was considered imperative in order to assist decision-makers to increase OSM utilisation. The premise that domain knowledge can be re-used to provide an intervention point in the construction process led a team of researchers to construct simple base-line process models for the complete construction process, segmented into six phases. Sixteen domain knowledge industry experts were asked to review the construction phase base-line models to answer the question “Where in the process illustrated by this base-line model phase is an OSM task?”. Through an iterative and generative process a number of off-site manufacture intervention points were identified and integrated into the process models. The re-use of industry expert domain knowledge provided suggestions for new ways to do basic tasks thus facilitating changes to current practice. It is expected that implementation of the new processes will lead to systemic industry change and thus a growth in productivity due to increased adoption of OSM.

Estimation of reference values for dioxin, furan, and PCB congener concentrations for the Australian population

Population-representative data for dioxin and PCB congener concentrations are available for the Australian population based on measurements in age- and gender-specific serum pools.1 Such data provide a basis for characterizing the mean concentrations of these compounds in the population, but do not provide information on the inter-individual variation in serum concentrations that may exist in the population within an age- and gender-specific group. Such variation may occur due to inter-individual differences in long-term exposure levels or elimination rates. Reference values are estimates of upper percentiles (often the 95th percentile) of measured values in a defined population that can be used to evaluate data from individuals in the population in order to identify concentrations that are elevated, for example, from occupational exposures.2 The objective of this analysis is to estimate reference values corresponding to the 95th percentile (RV95s) for Australia on an age-specific basis for individual dioxin-like congeners based on measurements in serum pools from Toms and Mueller (2010).

Effect of family relatedness on characteristics of estimated IBD probabilities in relation to precision of QTL estimates

Background: A random QTL effects model uses a function of probabilities that two alleles in the same or in different animals at a particular genomic position are identical by descent (IBD). Estimates of such IBD probabilities and therefore, modeling and estimating QTL variances, depend on marker polymorphism, strength of linkage and linkage disequilibrium of markers and QTL, and the relatedness of animals in the pedigree. The effect of relatedness of animals in a pedigree on IBD probabilities and their characteristics was examined in a simulation study. Results: The study based on nine multi-generational family structures, similar to a pedigree structure of a real dairy population, distinguished by an increased level of inbreeding from zero to 28 % across the studied population. Highest inbreeding level in the pedigree, connected with highest relatedness, was accompanied by highest IBD probabilities of two alleles at the same locus, and by lower relative variation coefficients. Profiles of correlation coefficients of IBD probabilities along the marked chromosomal segment with those at the true QTL position were steepest when the inbreeding coefficient in the pedigree was highest. Precision of estimated QTL location increased with increasing inbreeding and pedigree relatedness. A method to assess the optimum level of inbreeding for QTL detection is proposed, depending on population parameters. Conclusions: An increased overall relationship in a QTL mapping design has positive effects on precision of QTL position estimates. But the relationship of inbreeding level and the capacity for QTL detection depending on the recombination rate of QTL and adjacent informative marker is not linear. © 2010 Freyer et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

A strong quantitative trait locus for wing length on chromosome 2 in a wild population of great reed warblers

Wing length is a key character for essential behaviours related to bird flight such as migration and foraging. In the present study, we initiate the search for the genes underlying wing length in birds by studying a long-distance migrant, the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus). In this species wing length is an evolutionary interesting trait with pronounced latitudinal gradient and sex-specific selection regimes in local populations. We performed a quantitative trait locus (QTL) scan for wing length in great reed warblers using phenotypic, genotypic, pedigree and linkage map data from our long-term study population in Sweden. We applied the linkage analysis mapping method implemented in GRIDQTL (a new web-based software) and detected a genome-wide significant QTL for wing length on chromosome 2, to our knowledge, the first detected QTL in wild birds. The QTL extended over 25 cM and accounted for a substantial part (37%) of the phenotypic variance of the trait. A genome scan for tarsus length (a bodysize-related trait) did not show any signal, implying that the wing-length QTL on chromosome 2 was not associated with body size. Our results provide a first important step into understanding the genetic architecture of avian wing length, and give opportunities to study the evolutionary dynamics of wing length at the locus level. This journal is© 2010 The Royal Society.