Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101025
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$456,106.00
Summary
Food for thought: identifying dietary influences on decision making. Cues that signal food are abundant in the surrounding environment, yet their ability to stimulate food consumption remains poorly understood. This project seeks to identify how food cues influence decision-making processes in the presence of food cues. It will also test how dietary habits alter responding to food cues, and explore the underlying neural mechanisms of these effects. Sophisticated behavioural neuroscience techniqu ....Food for thought: identifying dietary influences on decision making. Cues that signal food are abundant in the surrounding environment, yet their ability to stimulate food consumption remains poorly understood. This project seeks to identify how food cues influence decision-making processes in the presence of food cues. It will also test how dietary habits alter responding to food cues, and explore the underlying neural mechanisms of these effects. Sophisticated behavioural neuroscience techniques will be employed in a validated rodent model of the modern diet. Expected outcomes include new interdisciplinary knowledge identifying how nutritional choices influence cognition and the brain. The project should inform how the modern environment shapes dietary habits.Read moreRead less
A network perspective for ecosystem responses to plant invasion. Invasive species are key drivers of global change, yet, our understanding of their negative impacts on ecosystems is limited within many contexts. This project will provide the first large-scale test for interactions between plants and microbes, via network analyses, as yardsticks for invasive species impacts on ecosystems. Using innovative approaches that link interactions network properties with ecosystem functioning, the fundame ....A network perspective for ecosystem responses to plant invasion. Invasive species are key drivers of global change, yet, our understanding of their negative impacts on ecosystems is limited within many contexts. This project will provide the first large-scale test for interactions between plants and microbes, via network analyses, as yardsticks for invasive species impacts on ecosystems. Using innovative approaches that link interactions network properties with ecosystem functioning, the fundamental data generated in this study will answer unsolved theoretical questions, providing evidence for the use of networks to predict and mitigate invader impacts. These benefits are not only crucial for biodiversity managers but also for those responsible for sustainable crop development under future climates.Read moreRead less
Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropria ....Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropriate beliefs about unpredictability. This bias is not anticipated by formal theories of learning. The project will investigate how this bias is brought about by first formalising a novel theory of fundamental learning and then systematically testing its assumptions.Read moreRead less
Optimising the spring in your step to enhance footwear design. This project aims to examine how the nervous system adjusts the mechanical function of our feet across a spectrum of speeds, from slow running through to maximal effort sprinting. The proposed research will explore how the nervous system controls the function of the foot to meet the ever-varying demands of locomotion in the real-world. Expected outcomes of this project are to determine if running shoes help or hinder the natural spri ....Optimising the spring in your step to enhance footwear design. This project aims to examine how the nervous system adjusts the mechanical function of our feet across a spectrum of speeds, from slow running through to maximal effort sprinting. The proposed research will explore how the nervous system controls the function of the foot to meet the ever-varying demands of locomotion in the real-world. Expected outcomes of this project are to determine if running shoes help or hinder the natural spring-like function of the foot. It will explain a conceptually novel design allowing shoes to support our feet, whilst harnessing the energetic benefits of the foot's spring-like function. This research has the potential to revolutionise athletic footwear design and has direct implications for enhanced performance in running athletes.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100292
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,868.00
Summary
From known to unknown: Individual differences in associative generalisation. This project aims to investigate how and why individuals differ in the way that they generalise from past experiences to novel situations. The goal of the project is to develop an innovative and formal model capable of predicting how a given individual will generalise based on their beliefs and personal traits, and to better understand how people behave when there are multiple conflicting ways to generalise. The expecte ....From known to unknown: Individual differences in associative generalisation. This project aims to investigate how and why individuals differ in the way that they generalise from past experiences to novel situations. The goal of the project is to develop an innovative and formal model capable of predicting how a given individual will generalise based on their beliefs and personal traits, and to better understand how people behave when there are multiple conflicting ways to generalise. The expected outcomes of the project are a better understanding and measurement of generalisation, a fundamental psychological process. The outcomes of this project can be used to benefit the development of clinical treatment for anxiety disorders, of which overgeneralisation of fear responses is a defining feature. Read moreRead less
Carbon in - carbon out: can carbon inputs keep up with losses in peatland? This project aims to quantify the current and predict the future carbon balance of a high altitude, carbon-dense ecosystem, namely sub-alpine grassy peatland, by measuring how environmental variables including experimental warming control the fluxes of carbon and water into and out of the system. In this way, this project will produce new knowledge on the susceptibility of high-altitude peaty soils to climate change. Expe ....Carbon in - carbon out: can carbon inputs keep up with losses in peatland? This project aims to quantify the current and predict the future carbon balance of a high altitude, carbon-dense ecosystem, namely sub-alpine grassy peatland, by measuring how environmental variables including experimental warming control the fluxes of carbon and water into and out of the system. In this way, this project will produce new knowledge on the susceptibility of high-altitude peaty soils to climate change. Expected outcomes include an enhanced ability to predict future carbon accumulation rates and the resilience of the vital water-storage and filtration services provided by these systems. This project will enhance outputs from new infrastructure and assist planning for future flood and drought management across SE Australia.Read moreRead less
Finding equivalence between natural and artificial intelligences. This project aims to investigate the ways in which artificial intelligence is equivalent to human intelligence. Computers outperform humans in many domains, yet it is clear that computers often don’t perform tasks the way humans do. Developing innovative methods for evaluating claims of equivalence by drawing on simpler, well-understood model systems like the honeybee brain, the project expects to fill this existing knowledge gap. ....Finding equivalence between natural and artificial intelligences. This project aims to investigate the ways in which artificial intelligence is equivalent to human intelligence. Computers outperform humans in many domains, yet it is clear that computers often don’t perform tasks the way humans do. Developing innovative methods for evaluating claims of equivalence by drawing on simpler, well-understood model systems like the honeybee brain, the project expects to fill this existing knowledge gap. Expected outcomes include a framework that provides powerful, nuanced criteria for comparison of natural and artificial intelligences. Benefits are expected to include enhanced guidance for the development of AI systems both in everyday contexts and as exploratory tools in comparative and cognitive neuroscience.Read moreRead less
Micro-electrofluidic platforms for monitoring 3D human biological models. The ability to study living cells and human biological models (cell cultures) delivers greater understanding of basic biological function and response to applied (bio)chemical stimuli. Creating the physical environments to sustain biological models, and mimic natural conditions and fluidic pathways, is immensely challenging, yet essential to deliver meaningful observational data. This project will deliver this capability t ....Micro-electrofluidic platforms for monitoring 3D human biological models. The ability to study living cells and human biological models (cell cultures) delivers greater understanding of basic biological function and response to applied (bio)chemical stimuli. Creating the physical environments to sustain biological models, and mimic natural conditions and fluidic pathways, is immensely challenging, yet essential to deliver meaningful observational data. This project will deliver this capability through the convergence of expertise and innovation in analytical chemistry, materials science and cellular biology, ultilising the latest technology and understanding of 3D micro/electrofluidics, to enable the study and stimulation of advanced biological models, sustained within precisely controlled 3D micro-environments.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101384
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$440,244.00
Summary
Investigating complex mortuary practices in the Neolithic Near East. The main aim of this project is to investigate complex multi-stage mortuary practices through the integration of archaeo-anthropology, forensic science and ethnology. The methodological principles of funerary archaeology will be expanded by experiments at the only Australian and Canadian body farms, and integrated into the study of Neolithic Near Eastern burials. Combined with ethno-archaeological research in Indonesia, anticip ....Investigating complex mortuary practices in the Neolithic Near East. The main aim of this project is to investigate complex multi-stage mortuary practices through the integration of archaeo-anthropology, forensic science and ethnology. The methodological principles of funerary archaeology will be expanded by experiments at the only Australian and Canadian body farms, and integrated into the study of Neolithic Near Eastern burials. Combined with ethno-archaeological research in Indonesia, anticipated outcomes include new methods for the study of multi-stage mortuary processes, together with refined knowledge about social differentiation and ideology in the world’s first proto-urban settlements. This study will emphasise Australia’s pioneering role in combining archaeo-anthropology with forensic science.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100303
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$441,200.00
Summary
Inheritance and the Emergence of Individuals: From concepts to practice . This project aims to solve a fundamental problem in biology, namely, how entities at one level biological organisation (e.g. single cells) transition or evolve into entities at a higher level (e.g. multicellular organisms). Although several attempts to solve this problem have been made, they are unsatisfactory because they neglect the role of inheritance during the transitions. The project will employ philosophical analysi ....Inheritance and the Emergence of Individuals: From concepts to practice . This project aims to solve a fundamental problem in biology, namely, how entities at one level biological organisation (e.g. single cells) transition or evolve into entities at a higher level (e.g. multicellular organisms). Although several attempts to solve this problem have been made, they are unsatisfactory because they neglect the role of inheritance during the transitions. The project will employ philosophical analysis, formal models, and ultimately experiments with bacteria to understand the role of inheritance during these evolutionary transitions. In doing so, the project will demonstrate that conceptual research by philosophers of biology can make an impactful contribution in biology and answer fundamental questions in this field.Read moreRead less