Human Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes in the Oil and Gas Industry. A new theoretical framework, including a new Decision Taxonomy and the development of a new measure of decision quality, will be used to underpin a study of decision processes and outcomes in the oil & gas industry, and to explore the relationship between them. Processes and outcomes will be evaluated in both a controlled laboratory setting that replicates the characteristics of real decision environments, and by analysing ....Human Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes in the Oil and Gas Industry. A new theoretical framework, including a new Decision Taxonomy and the development of a new measure of decision quality, will be used to underpin a study of decision processes and outcomes in the oil & gas industry, and to explore the relationship between them. Processes and outcomes will be evaluated in both a controlled laboratory setting that replicates the characteristics of real decision environments, and by analysing actual historical decisions made in oil & gas and other industrial settings. If successful the results will ultimately lead to the safe, responsible and optimal performance of the oil & gas industry in particular, and for other industries with similar characteristics.
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Investigation of the component distributions of pause duration in spontaneous speech: Constraints for models of language production. We have discovered that the distribution of pause durations in spontaneous speech of individual speakers can be decomposed into at least two log-normal distributions. Our project will investigate this finding and provide a foundation for new research relevant to language production models. This will be achieved by determining the semantic, lexical, psycholinguistic ....Investigation of the component distributions of pause duration in spontaneous speech: Constraints for models of language production. We have discovered that the distribution of pause durations in spontaneous speech of individual speakers can be decomposed into at least two log-normal distributions. Our project will investigate this finding and provide a foundation for new research relevant to language production models. This will be achieved by determining the semantic, lexical, psycholinguistic, physiological, and acoustic concomitants of each component distribution and by investigating the impact of selected variables on the shape and location of each. The project has important implications for models of language production and applied problems involving automatic speech recognition, forensic speaker identification, and human communication disorders.Read moreRead less
Heterodensity neuroimaging techniques for spatiotemporal identification and localization. Australia is at the forefront of research that is taking brain imaging and interfacing out of the lab and into the field. The technology being developed is spawning applications in areas as diverse as health, education, defense and national security, and will lead to resolution of longstanding theoretical debates as well as enabling new breakthroughs in understanding the biological concomitants of psycholo ....Heterodensity neuroimaging techniques for spatiotemporal identification and localization. Australia is at the forefront of research that is taking brain imaging and interfacing out of the lab and into the field. The technology being developed is spawning applications in areas as diverse as health, education, defense and national security, and will lead to resolution of longstanding theoretical debates as well as enabling new breakthroughs in understanding the biological concomitants of psychological function. This is significant given the push to develop biometrics of psychological function with enhanced sensitivity and specificity in clinical diagnosis, along with defense applications in evaluation of critical personnel and training. It also opens up a range of applications for mental control of remote or prosthetic devices.Read moreRead less
Conservation genetics and socio-ecology of marsupials in fragmented populations of south-eastern South Australia: towards a regional biodiversity management plan. Habitat destruction and fragmentation is causing the decline of many species in native forests of eastern and southern Australia. Our project will investigate the interplay between the human activities of agriculture and forestry and their effects on native forest ecosystems. It will provide new data on the consequences of fragmentati ....Conservation genetics and socio-ecology of marsupials in fragmented populations of south-eastern South Australia: towards a regional biodiversity management plan. Habitat destruction and fragmentation is causing the decline of many species in native forests of eastern and southern Australia. Our project will investigate the interplay between the human activities of agriculture and forestry and their effects on native forest ecosystems. It will provide new data on the consequences of fragmentation to native mammal species in the rural and regional communities of south-east South Australia and western Victoria. It will establish a strong collaborative partnership between two forestry companies, conservation agencies and university conservation biologists to develop strategies to sustainably manage biodiversity in native forests and conserve populations of rare and threatened native mammals species. Read moreRead less
The prediction of sleep/wake behaviour based on physiological and social factors. The prevalence of shiftwork has increased in Australia over the last few decades. Shiftworkers obtain less sleep, have greater difficulty maintaining good relationships, have poorer health, and are more likely to be injured at work than others. Using the largest dataset of its kind, we will substantially contribute to understanding the relationships between work hours, sleep, performance and safety. Ultimately, the ....The prediction of sleep/wake behaviour based on physiological and social factors. The prevalence of shiftwork has increased in Australia over the last few decades. Shiftworkers obtain less sleep, have greater difficulty maintaining good relationships, have poorer health, and are more likely to be injured at work than others. Using the largest dataset of its kind, we will substantially contribute to understanding the relationships between work hours, sleep, performance and safety. Ultimately, the project will answer a question critical to workplace safety - how much time off between shifts is needed to be alert and safe at work? The project will also produce tools to help industry design fatigue-friendly rosters, improving the safety, productivity and general well-being of shiftworkers in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0453073
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$129,485.00
Summary
Establishment of a South Australian rTMS Facility. It is proposed to establish a South Australian Facility for rapid rate transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which will be the only one in Australia. This Facility will provide enormous opportunities for collaborative cutting edge investigations into the role of the human cortical areas in a diverse range of tasks. For example, projects have been identified projects employing rTMS to study sensorimotor cortical plasticity, facilitate functiona ....Establishment of a South Australian rTMS Facility. It is proposed to establish a South Australian Facility for rapid rate transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which will be the only one in Australia. This Facility will provide enormous opportunities for collaborative cutting edge investigations into the role of the human cortical areas in a diverse range of tasks. For example, projects have been identified projects employing rTMS to study sensorimotor cortical plasticity, facilitate functional recovery following stroke and investigate the mechanisms of savant behaviour. Provision of this Facility will provide further support for this productive and internationally renowned group of scientists to develop their research programs.Read moreRead less
Uncovering the processes underlying human category learning. There is a pervasive belief that complex tasks can somehow be learned via a 'smart' implicit or procedural learning mechanism, which operates independently of memory and attention. This idea has important implications for our understanding of cognition. If true, there seems little point in providing explicit instruction in such tasks, and efforts to do so are, at best, wasted time and, at worst, detrimental to the learning process. Th ....Uncovering the processes underlying human category learning. There is a pervasive belief that complex tasks can somehow be learned via a 'smart' implicit or procedural learning mechanism, which operates independently of memory and attention. This idea has important implications for our understanding of cognition. If true, there seems little point in providing explicit instruction in such tasks, and efforts to do so are, at best, wasted time and, at worst, detrimental to the learning process. This project will provide much-needed scrutiny of this idea and will help not only to re-orient our understanding of how we deal with complex information, but will also highlight issues about data interpretation that are fundamental for the research and wider communities.Read moreRead less
The effect of temperature biofeedback on sleep and cardiac autonomic tone in young and aged adults. Peripheral heat loss is reported to promote sleep onset. To date, however, most studies examining the thermoregulatory model of sleep onset have used sedative-hypnotics with both thermoregulatory and soporific effects. We propose that a better test of a causal relationship between peripheral heat loss and sleep can be achieved by using temperature biofeedback; a promising non-invasive and non-dr ....The effect of temperature biofeedback on sleep and cardiac autonomic tone in young and aged adults. Peripheral heat loss is reported to promote sleep onset. To date, however, most studies examining the thermoregulatory model of sleep onset have used sedative-hypnotics with both thermoregulatory and soporific effects. We propose that a better test of a causal relationship between peripheral heat loss and sleep can be achieved by using temperature biofeedback; a promising non-invasive and non-drug treatment that does not have a direct effect on sleep structures. We aim to test whether increased peripheral heat loss promotes sleep onset, whether the effects are mediated by changes in autonomic tone, and whether this relationship changes with age.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and developmen ....The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and development using Australian English and facilitate the development of Australian speech technology applications from automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis used in taxi and other ordering services, to hearing prostheses and talking head aids for learning-impaired children, and a range of security and forensic applications.Read moreRead less
Behavioural syndromes and social networks in sleepy lizards. Fauna in Australian ecosystems are threatened by habitat fragmentation, changing environments and the spread of exotic pathogens. To manage these threats we need to understand the behavioural flexibility of wildlife populations. This project focuses on how individual behavioural differences can influence social networks and consequently pathogen transmission. It will help to protect our fauna from invasive diseases and contribute to su ....Behavioural syndromes and social networks in sleepy lizards. Fauna in Australian ecosystems are threatened by habitat fragmentation, changing environments and the spread of exotic pathogens. To manage these threats we need to understand the behavioural flexibility of wildlife populations. This project focuses on how individual behavioural differences can influence social networks and consequently pathogen transmission. It will help to protect our fauna from invasive diseases and contribute to sustaining biodiversity. With better knowledge of how diseases spread we can develop more effective controls of those diseases, thereby protecting wildlife species, animal populations and Australian ecosystems. Read moreRead less