Review of Public Trustee Files - Families and generational asset transfers: Making and challenging wills in contemporary Australia

The Public Trustee file review was designed to address research questions relating to will disputes and socio-cultural and family norms, expectations and obligations that underpin challenges to wills. Findings from this review will augment the earlier review of all adjudicated succession law cases in Australia between January and December 2011. The research team obtained 139 cases for the review. Within the reviewed cases, parties generally needed some kind of formalised assistance to resolve disputes and almost a third ended up going to court. Most claims launched to contest wills were successful i.e. led to a change in distribution. The existence of poor and/or complex personal relationships between beneficiaries, disputants and/or the deceased were a feature of most cases involving will disputes, particularly where disputes were escalated to court. There are significant costs of will contestation both for the estate and the individuals involved in disputes. Previous research has identified that in addition to the direct costs is the indirect cost of extending the time for probate of the will. This review highlights that one of the most significant costs of will contestation is the damage to familial relationships that appears to both drive and be worsened by contestation. Findings of this review highlight the role of Public Trustees in providing financial management and advocacy services to protect and support vulnerable people in the community such as those with impaired capacity, as well as offering services such as will drafting and deceased estate administration.

Do-Rank: DCG optimization for learning-to-rank in tag-based item recommendation systems

Discounted Cumulative Gain (DCG) is a well-known ranking evaluation measure for models built with multiple relevance graded data. By handling tagging data used in recommendation systems as an ordinal relevance set of {negative,null,positive}, we propose to build a DCG based recommendation model. We present an efficient and novel learning-to-rank method by optimizing DCG for a recommendation model using the tagging data interpretation scheme. Evaluating the proposed method on real-world datasets, we demonstrate that the method is scalable and outperforms the benchmarking methods by generating a quality top-N item recommendation list.

Transparent, balanced and vigorous: The exercise of the Australian Privacy Commissioner's powers in relation to National Privacy Principle 4

This thesis considers whether the Australian Privacy Commissioner's use of its powers supports compliance with the requirement to 'take reasonable steps' to protect personal information in National Privacy Principle 4 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Two unique lenses were used. First, the Commissioner's use of powers was assessed against the principles of transparency, balance and vigorousness and secondly against alignment with an industry practice approach to securing information. Following a comprehensive review of publicly available materials, interviews and investigation file records, this thesis found that the Commissioner's use of his powers has not been transparent, balanced or vigorous, nor has it been supportive of an industry practice approach to securing data. Accordingly, it concludes that the Privacy Commissioner's use of its regulatory powers is unlikely to result in any significant improvement to the security of personal information held by organisations in Australia.

Refining prognosis and identifying targetable pathways for high-risk endometrial cancer; a TransPORTEC initiative

This study aimed to investigate whether molecular analysis can be used to refine risk assessment, direct adjuvant therapy, and identify actionable alterations in high-risk endometrial cancer. TransPORTEC, an international consortium related to the PORTEC3 trial, was established for translational research in high-risk endometrial cancer. In this explorative study, routine molecular analyses were used to detect prognostic subgroups: p53 immunohistochemistry, microsatellite instability and POLE proofreading mutation. Furthermore, DNA was analyzed for hotspot mutations in 13 additional genes (BRAF, CDKNA2, CTNNB1, FBXW7, FGFR2, FGFR3, FOXL2, HRAS, KRAS, NRAS, PIK3CA, PPP2R1A, and PTEN) and protein expression of ER, PR, PTEN, and ARID1a was analyzed. Rates of distant metastasis, recurrence-free, and overall survival were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. In total, samples of 116 high-risk endometrial cancer patients were included: 86 endometrioid; 12 serous; and 18 clear cell. For endometrioid, serous, and clear cell cancers, 5-year recurrence-free survival rates were 68%, 27%, and 50% (P=0.014) and distant metastasis rates 23%, 64%, and 50% (P=0.001), respectively. Four prognostic subgroups were identified: (1) a group of p53-mutant tumors; (2) microsatellite instable tumors; (3) POLE proofreading-mutant tumors; and (4) a group with no specific molecular profile (NSMP). In group 3 (POLE-mutant; n=14) and group 2 (microsatellite instable; n=19) patients, no distant metastasis occurred, compared with 50% distant metastasis rate in group 1 (p53-mutant; n=36) and 39% in group 4 (NSMP; P<0.001). Five-year recurrence-free survival was 93% and 95% for group 3 (POLE-mutant) and group 2 (microsatellite instable) vs 42% (group 1, p53-mutant) and 52% (group 4, NSMP; P<0.001). Targetable FBXW7 and FGFR2 mutations (6%), alterations in the PI3K-AKT pathway (60%) and hormone receptor positivity (45%) were frequently found. In conclusion, molecular analysis of high-risk endometrial cancer identifies four distinct prognostic subgroups, with potential therapeutic implications. High frequencies of targetable alterations were identified and may serve as targets for individualized treatment

A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

BACKGROUND Quantification of the disease burden caused by different risks informs prevention by providing an account of health loss different to that provided by a disease-by-disease analysis. No complete revision of global disease burden caused by risk factors has been done since a comparative risk assessment in 2000, and no previous analysis has assessed changes in burden attributable to risk factors over time. METHODS We estimated deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs; sum of years lived with disability [YLD] and years of life lost [YLL]) attributable to the independent effects of 67 risk factors and clusters of risk factors for 21 regions in 1990 and 2010. We estimated exposure distributions for each year, region, sex, and age group, and relative risks per unit of exposure by systematically reviewing and synthesising published and unpublished data. We used these estimates, together with estimates of cause-specific deaths and DALYs from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, to calculate the burden attributable to each risk factor exposure compared with the theoretical-minimum-risk exposure. We incorporated uncertainty in disease burden, relative risks, and exposures into our estimates of attributable burden. FINDINGS In 2010, the three leading risk factors for global disease burden were high blood pressure (7·0% [95% uncertainty interval 6·2-7·7] of global DALYs), tobacco smoking including second-hand smoke (6·3% [5·5-7·0]), and alcohol use (5·5% [5·0-5·9]). In 1990, the leading risks were childhood underweight (7·9% [6·8-9·4]), household air pollution from solid fuels (HAP; 7·0% [5·6-8·3]), and tobacco smoking including second-hand smoke (6·1% [5·4-6·8]). Dietary risk factors and physical inactivity collectively accounted for 10·0% (95% UI 9·2-10·8) of global DALYs in 2010, with the most prominent dietary risks being diets low in fruits and those high in sodium. Several risks that primarily affect childhood communicable diseases, including unimproved water and sanitation and childhood micronutrient deficiencies, fell in rank between 1990 and 2010, with unimproved water and sanitation accounting for 0·9% (0·4-1·6) of global DALYs in 2010. However, in most of sub-Saharan Africa childhood underweight, HAP, and non-exclusive and discontinued breastfeeding were the leading risks in 2010, while HAP was the leading risk in south Asia. The leading risk factor in Eastern Europe, most of Latin America, and southern sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 was alcohol use; in most of Asia, North Africa and Middle East, and central Europe it was high blood pressure. Despite declines, tobacco smoking including second-hand smoke remained the leading risk in high-income north America and western Europe. High body-mass index has increased globally and it is the leading risk in Australasia and southern Latin America, and also ranks high in other high-income regions, North Africa and Middle East, and Oceania. INTERPRETATION Worldwide, the contribution of different risk factors to disease burden has changed substantially, with a shift away from risks for communicable diseases in children towards those for non-communicable diseases in adults. These changes are related to the ageing population, decreased mortality among children younger than 5 years, changes in cause-of-death composition, and changes in risk factor exposures. New evidence has led to changes in the magnitude of key risks including unimproved water and sanitation, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies, and ambient particulate matter pollution. The extent to which the epidemiological shift has occurred and what the leading risks currently are varies greatly across regions. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the leading risks are still those associated with poverty and those that affect children.

Ageing Australian unions and the ‘youth problem’

Trade union membership, both in aggregate numbers and in density, has declined in the majority of advanced economies globally over recent decades (Blanchflower, 2007). In Australia, the decline in the 1990s was somewhat more precipitate than in most countries (Peetz, 1998). As discussed in Chapter 1, reasons for the decline are multifactorial, including a more hostile environment to unionism created by employers and the state, difficulties ·with workplace union organisation, and structural change in the economy (Bryson and Gomez, 2005; Bryson et a!., 2011; Ebbinghaus et al., 2011; Payne, 1989; Waddington and Kerr, 2002; Waddington and Whitson, 1997). Our purpose in this chapter is to look beyond aggregate Australian union density data, to examine how age relates to membership decline, and how different age groups, particularly younger workers, are located in the story of union decline. The practical implications of this research are that understanding how unions relate to workers of different age groups, and to workers of different genders amongst those age groups, may lead to improved recruitment and better union organisation.

Engaging a multiple-track approach to building capacity for 21st Century engineering, opportunities and challenges for rapid curriculum renewal

‘Complexity’ is a term that is increasingly prevalent in conversations about building capacity for 21st Century professional engineers. Society is grappling with the urgent and challenging reality of accommodating seven billion people, meeting needs and innovating lifestyle improvements in ways that do not destroy atmospheric, biological and oceanic systems critical to life. Over the last two decades in particular, engineering educators have been active in attempting to build capacity amongst professionals to deliver ‘sustainable development’ in this rapidly changing global context. However curriculum literature clearly points to a lack of significant progress, with efforts best described as ad hoc and highly varied. Given the limited timeframes for action to curb environmental degradation proposed by scientists and intergovernmental agencies, the authors of this paper propose it is imperative that curriculum renewal towards education for sustainable development proceeds rapidly, systemically, and in a transformational manner. Within this context, the paper discusses the need to consider a multiple track approach to building capacity for 21st Century engineering, including priorities and timeframes for undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum renewal. The paper begins with a contextual discussion of the term complexity and how it relates to life in the 21st Century. The authors then present a whole of system approach for planning and implementing rapid curriculum renewal that addresses the critical roles of several generations of engineering professionals over the next three decades. The paper concludes with observations regarding engaging with this approach in the context of emerging accreditation requirements and existing curriculum renewal frameworks.

Comparison of fractional and geodesic anisotropy in diffusion tensor images of 90 monozygotic and dizygotic twins

We used diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) to reveal the extent of genetic effects on brain fiber microstructure, based on tensor-derived measures, in 22 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) twins and 23 pairs of dizygotic (DZ) twins (90 scans). After Log-Euclidean denoising to remove rank-deficient tensors, DTI volumes were fluidly registered by high-dimensional mapping of co-registered MP-RAGE scans to a geometrically-centered mean neuroanatomical template. After tensor reorientation using the strain of the 3D fluid transformation, we computed two widely used scalar measures of fiber integrity: fractional anisotropy (FA), and geodesic anisotropy (GA), which measures the geodesic distance between tensors in the symmetric positive-definite tensor manifold. Spatial maps of intraclass correlations (r) between MZ and DZ twins were compared to compute maps of Falconer's heritability statistics, i.e. the proportion of population variance explainable by genetic differences among individuals. Cumulative distribution plots (CDF) of effect sizes showed that the manifold measure, GA, comparably the Euclidean measure, FA, in detecting genetic correlations. While maps were relatively noisy, the CDFs showed promise for detecting genetic influences on brain fiber integrity as the current sample expands.

Multiple stages classification of Alzheimer’s disease based on structural brain networks using generalized low rank approximations (GLRAM)

To classify each stage for a progressing disease such as Alzheimer’s disease is a key issue for the disease prevention and treatment. In this study, we derived structural brain networks from diffusion-weighted MRI using whole-brain tractography since there is growing interest in relating connectivity measures to clinical, cognitive, and genetic data. Relatively little work has usedmachine learning to make inferences about variations in brain networks in the progression of the Alzheimer’s disease. Here we developed a framework to utilize generalized low rank approximations of matrices (GLRAM) and modified linear discrimination analysis for unsupervised feature learning and classification of connectivity matrices. We apply the methods to brain networks derived from DWI scans of 41 people with Alzheimer’s disease, 73 people with EMCI, 38 people with LMCI, 47 elderly healthy controls and 221 young healthy controls. Our results show that this new framework can significantly improve classification accuracy when combining multiple datasets; this suggests the value of using data beyond the classification task at hand to model variations in brain connectivity.

LaTeX Template for Writing QUT Thesis (Research Masters and PhD)

A LATEX style file, named qutthesis.sty, is developed, for writing PhD or Research Masters thesis. Developed by Professor Glen Yu-Chu Tian, it tries to fulfill QUT’s Thesis requirements but it is unofficial.

RNASeqBrowser: A genome browser for simultaneous visualization of raw strand specific RNAseq reads and UCSC genome browser custom tracks

Background Strand specific RNAseq data is now more common in RNAseq projects. Visualizing RNAseq data has become an important matter in Analysis of sequencing data. The most widely used visualization tool is the UCSC genome browser that introduced the custom track concept that enabled researchers to simultaneously visualize gene expression at a particular locus from multiple experiments. Our objective of the software tool is to provide friendly interface for visualization of RNAseq datasets. Results This paper introduces a visualization tool (RNASeqBrowser) that incorporates and extends the functionality of the UCSC genome browser. For example, RNASeqBrowser simultaneously displays read coverage, SNPs, InDels and raw read tracks with other BED and wiggle tracks -- all being dynamically built from the BAM file. Paired reads are also connected in the browser to enable easier identification of novel exon/intron borders and chimaeric transcripts. Strand specific RNAseq data is also supported by RNASeqBrowser that displays reads above (positive strand transcript) or below (negative strand transcripts) a central line. Finally, RNASeqBrowser was designed for ease of use for users with few bioinformatic skills, and incorporates the features of many genome browsers into one platform. Conclusions The features of RNASeqBrowser: (1) RNASeqBrowser integrates UCSC genome browser and NGS visualization tools such as IGV. It extends the functionality of the UCSC genome browser by adding several new types of tracks to show NGS data such as individual raw reads, SNPs and InDels. (2) RNASeqBrowser can dynamically generate RNA secondary structure. It is useful for identifying non-coding RNA such as miRNA. (3) Overlaying NGS wiggle data is helpful in displaying differential expression and is simple to implement in RNASeqBrowser. (4) NGS data accumulates a lot of raw reads. Thus, RNASeqBrowser collapses exact duplicate reads to reduce visualization space. Normal PC’s can show many windows of NGS individual raw reads without much delay. (5) Multiple popup windows of individual raw reads provide users with more viewing space. This avoids existing approaches (such as IGV) which squeeze all raw reads into one window. This will be helpful for visualizing multiple datasets simultaneously. RNASeqBrowser and its manual are freely available at http://www.australianprostatecentre.org/research/software/rnaseqbrowser webcite or http://sourceforge.net/projects/rnaseqbrowser/ webcite

Association study of genes related to bone formation and resorption and the extent of radiographic change in ankylosing spondylitis

Objective: To identify genetic associations with severity of radiographic damage in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Method: We studied 1537 AS cases of European descent; all fulfilled the modified New York Criteria. Radiographic severity was assessed from digitised lateral radiographs of the cervical and lumbar spine using the modified Stoke Ankylosing Spondylitis Spinal Score (mSASSS). A two-phase genotyping design was used. In phase 1, 498 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 688 cases; these were selected to capture >90% of the common haplotypic variation in the exons, exon-intron boundaries, and 5 kb flanking DNA in the 5' and 3' UTR of 74 genes involved in anabolic or catabolic bone pathways. In phase 2, 15 SNPs exhibiting p<0.05 were genotyped in a further cohort of 830 AS cases; results were analysed both separately and in combination with the discovery phase data. Association was tested by contingency tables after separating the samples into 'mild' and 'severe' groups, defined as the bottom and top 40% by mSASSS, adjusted for gender and disease duration. Results: Experiment-wise association was observed with the SNP rs8092336 (combined OR 0.32, p=1.2×10-5), which lies within RANK (receptor activator of NF?B), a gene involved in osteoclastogenesis, and in the interaction between T cells and dendritic cells. Association was also found with the SNP rs1236913 in PTGS1 (prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 1, cyclooxygenase 1), giving an OR of 0.53 (p=2.6×10-3). There was no observed association between radiographic severity and HLA-B*27. Conclusions: These findings support roles for bone resorption and prostaglandins pathways in the osteoproliferative changes in AS.

The role of emotion in product, service and business model design

Designers have become aware of the importance of creating strong emotional experiences intertwined with new tangible products for the past decade, however an increased interest from firms has emerged in developing new service and business models as complimentary forms of emotion-driven innovation. This interdisciplinary study draws from the psychological sciences – theory of emotion – and the management sciences – business model literature to introduce this new innovation agenda. The term visceral hedonic rhetoric (VHR) is defined as the properties of a product, (and in this paper service and business model extensions) that persuasively induce the pursuit of pleasure at an instinctual level of cognition. This research paper lays the foundation for VHR beyond a product setting, presenting the results from an empirical study where organizations explored the possibilities for VHR in the context of their business. The results found that firms currently believe VHR is perceived in either their product and/or services they provide. Implications suggest shifting perspective surrounding the use of VHR across a firm’s business model design in order to influence the outcomes of their product and/or service design, resulting in an overall stronger emotional connection with the customer.

Expectation and variation with a virtual die

By the time students reach the middle years they have experienced many chance activities based on dice. Common among these are rolling one die to explore the relationship of frequency and theoretical probability, and rolling two dice and summing the outcomes to consider their probabilities. Although dice may be considered overused by some, the advantage they offer is a familiar context within which to explore much more complex concepts. If the basic chance mechanism of the device is understood, it is possible to enter quickly into an arena of more complex concepts. This is what happened with a two hour activity engaged in by four classes of Grade 6 students in the same school. The activity targeted the concepts of variation and expectation. The teachers held extended discussions with their classes on variation and expectation at the beginning of the activity, with students contributing examples of the two concepts from their own experience. These notions are quite sophisticated for Grade 6, but the underlying concepts describe phenomena that students encounter every day. For example, time varies continuously; sporting results vary from game to game; the maximum temperature varies from day to day. However, there is an expectation about tomorrow’s maximum temperature based on the expert advice from the weather bureau. There may also be an expectation about a sporting result based on the participants’ previous results. It is this juxtaposition that makes life interesting. Variation hence describes the differences we see in phenomena around us. In a scenario displaying variation, expectation describes the effort to characterise or summarise the variation and perhaps make a prediction about the message arising from the scenario. The explicit purpose of the activity described here was to use the familiar scenario of rolling a die to expose these two concepts. Because the students had previously experienced rolling physical dice they knew instinctively about the variation that occurs across many rolls and about the theoretical expectation that each side should “come up” one-sixth of the time. They had observed the instances of the concepts in action, but had not consolidated the underlying terminology to describe it. As the two concepts are so fundamental to understanding statistics, we felt it would be useful to begin building in the familiar environment of rolling a die. Because hand-held dice limit the explorations students can undertake, the classes used the soft-ware TinkerPlots (Konold & Miller, 2011) to simulate rolling a die multiple times.

Topological properties and fractal analysis of a recurrence network constructed from fractional Brownian motions

Many studies have shown that we can gain additional information on time series by investigating their accompanying complex networks. In this work, we investigate the fundamental topological and fractal properties of recurrence networks constructed from fractional Brownian motions (FBMs). First, our results indicate that the constructed recurrence networks have exponential degree distributions; the average degree exponent 〈λ〉 increases first and then decreases with the increase of Hurst index H of the associated FBMs; the relationship between H and 〈λ〉 can be represented by a cubic polynomial function. We next focus on the motif rank distribution of recurrence networks, so that we can better understand networks at the local structure level. We find the interesting superfamily phenomenon, i.e., the recurrence networks with the same motif rank pattern being grouped into two superfamilies. Last, we numerically analyze the fractal and multifractal properties of recurrence networks. We find that the average fractal dimension 〈dB〉 of recurrence networks decreases with the Hurst index H of the associated FBMs, and their dependence approximately satisfies the linear formula 〈dB〉≈2-H, which means that the fractal dimension of the associated recurrence network is close to that of the graph of the FBM. Moreover, our numerical results of multifractal analysis show that the multifractality exists in these recurrence networks, and the multifractality of these networks becomes stronger at first and then weaker when the Hurst index of the associated time series becomes larger from 0.4 to 0.95. In particular, the recurrence network with the Hurst index H=0.5 possesses the strongest multifractality. In addition, the dependence relationships of the average information dimension 〈D(1)〉 and the average correlation dimension 〈D(2)〉 on the Hurst index H can also be fitted well with linear functions. Our results strongly suggest that the recurrence network inherits the basic characteristic and the fractal nature of the associated FBM series.