Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100095
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,920.00
Summary
Using systems science to secure the health workforce against climate change. The widespread maldistribution of the Australian health workforce is creating significant health human resource shortages in non-urban areas of need. Climate-related extreme weather events (i.e., heat, droughts, fires, floods) are projected to exacerbate workforce deficiencies in rural regions. This project aims to explore how climate change will impact the future of the rural health workforce through a novel integratio ....Using systems science to secure the health workforce against climate change. The widespread maldistribution of the Australian health workforce is creating significant health human resource shortages in non-urban areas of need. Climate-related extreme weather events (i.e., heat, droughts, fires, floods) are projected to exacerbate workforce deficiencies in rural regions. This project aims to explore how climate change will impact the future of the rural health workforce through a novel integration of computational systems science methods. The project expects to discover new policies to correct the maldistribution and strengthen the resilience of the rural health workforce against climate change impacts. Benefits include a sustained and more adaptable workforce leading to improved health for vulnerable communities.Read moreRead less
Microeconomic effects of Australian natural disasters. This project aims to describe and identify the effects of Australian natural disasters – such as the Black Saturday bushfires and the Brisbane floods – on important microeconomic outcomes, including health, education and employment. Natural disasters have profound economic and social effects on individuals and communities. This project intends to bring evidence on how disasters affect individuals and how the effects can be lessened. The proj ....Microeconomic effects of Australian natural disasters. This project aims to describe and identify the effects of Australian natural disasters – such as the Black Saturday bushfires and the Brisbane floods – on important microeconomic outcomes, including health, education and employment. Natural disasters have profound economic and social effects on individuals and communities. This project intends to bring evidence on how disasters affect individuals and how the effects can be lessened. The project expects to inform policy-makers on these critical issues by analysing field, survey and administrative data on individuals before and after past disasters.Read moreRead less
Adult Consequences Of Childhood Exposure To Psychological Trauma
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$292,530.00
Summary
The importance of childhood experience to adult adjustment (DOES THIS MAKE SENSE) is an issue of general public health interest. In particular, in the area of personality development, there are a number of theories concerning the importance of childhood experience and developmental stresses on later personality, development, psychological functioning and physical health. More recently there has been debate on the accuracy with which adults areable to remember traumatic experiences in childhood. ....The importance of childhood experience to adult adjustment (DOES THIS MAKE SENSE) is an issue of general public health interest. In particular, in the area of personality development, there are a number of theories concerning the importance of childhood experience and developmental stresses on later personality, development, psychological functioning and physical health. More recently there has been debate on the accuracy with which adults areable to remember traumatic experiences in childhood. This study will follow a group of 808 primary school children who were exposed to the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires in SOuth Australia. They were involved in a study which examined them two months, eight months and twenty six months after the disaster. This rich descriptive set of information about these children and their families forms an objective data base against which their adult recall of the experience can be judged. The symptoms of these children were also documented at the time as was their disaster exposure. The impact of this one event, in the context of the other developmental influences will be examined as determinants of their adjustment in adult life. Finally, there has been an increasing interest in the way that previous traumatic exposure influences the nature of the hormonal response to stress. Using a test of functioning of the cortisol system, the stress response of this population will be compared with a control population who were also studied at the time of the original disaster.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100158
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$405,751.00
Summary
Addressing vaccine rejection: drivers and impact of mandatory vaccination. This project aims to investigate and analyse the introduction, design and implementation of mandatory child vaccination programs in Italy, France, Australia and California, using a comparative case study approach. Parental rejection of childhood vaccines can cause illness and death. However, governments limiting personal liberty can erode public acceptance. The project’s goal is to provide the tools, framework and concept ....Addressing vaccine rejection: drivers and impact of mandatory vaccination. This project aims to investigate and analyse the introduction, design and implementation of mandatory child vaccination programs in Italy, France, Australia and California, using a comparative case study approach. Parental rejection of childhood vaccines can cause illness and death. However, governments limiting personal liberty can erode public acceptance. The project’s goal is to provide the tools, framework and conceptual clarity to help researchers and policymakers consider the merits and limitations of strategies which mandate childhood vaccination.Read moreRead less
Engineering approaches towards atomic imaging of bacterial cells. This project aims to develop novel approaches for analysis of single biological cells at atomic scale. The project will first develop an approach by utilising nanoscale ion beam to interact with the frozen cells in a controllable manner, followed by performing nanoscale dissection and analyses. By introducing engineered two-dimensional materials, namely graphene, atomic resolution three-dimensional imaging of the cellular chemistr ....Engineering approaches towards atomic imaging of bacterial cells. This project aims to develop novel approaches for analysis of single biological cells at atomic scale. The project will first develop an approach by utilising nanoscale ion beam to interact with the frozen cells in a controllable manner, followed by performing nanoscale dissection and analyses. By introducing engineered two-dimensional materials, namely graphene, atomic resolution three-dimensional imaging of the cellular chemistry will become feasible, which will shed light on various fundamental mechanisms inside the cells. This will provide significant benefits upon success, and will impact a wide spectrum of fields from understanding cellular functions to developing effective drugs.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100440
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,693.00
Summary
A novel approach in crowd evacuation planning: Behavioural intervention. The ability to rapidly and safely evacuate crowds can mean the difference between death and survival in mass emergencies. While the immediate reaction of the public to an emergency is paramount for their survival, their role in crisis management is often not fully harnessed. This project establishes an innovative and pragmatic approach in urban emergency planning: optimising evacuations through behavioural training. Pioneer ....A novel approach in crowd evacuation planning: Behavioural intervention. The ability to rapidly and safely evacuate crowds can mean the difference between death and survival in mass emergencies. While the immediate reaction of the public to an emergency is paramount for their survival, their role in crisis management is often not fully harnessed. This project establishes an innovative and pragmatic approach in urban emergency planning: optimising evacuations through behavioural training. Pioneering empirical steps will be taken to discover optimum strategies that individual crowd members should adopt, and to establish the extent to which modifying crowd response can be effective. The outcomes will result in educational guides that will increase public awareness and community preparedness for public emergencies.Read moreRead less
Nanosilver antimicrobial resistance in target pathogens. This project aims to elucidate the important phenomena of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial nanosilver, currently one of the most developed and commercialised products of nanotechnology. The integrated research approach comprises of concurrent identification of the origins and routes of nanosilver toxicity in bacteria and the arising emergence and mechanisms of bacterial defence to the toxicity. The generated knowledge is to form a bas ....Nanosilver antimicrobial resistance in target pathogens. This project aims to elucidate the important phenomena of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial nanosilver, currently one of the most developed and commercialised products of nanotechnology. The integrated research approach comprises of concurrent identification of the origins and routes of nanosilver toxicity in bacteria and the arising emergence and mechanisms of bacterial defence to the toxicity. The generated knowledge is to form a base template for novel nanosilver engineering with less tendency for resistance development and to facilitate tracking of resistance and its spread amongst microorganisms. The knowledge has far-reaching implications on the better governance of nanosilver use, including its disposal.Read moreRead less
The Molecular Basis of Nanoparticle Resistance in Mixed-Species Biofilm. The project aims to understand how the globally significant mixed-species growth of pathogens develop resistance to silver nanoparticle, currently one of the most important alternative antimicrobials to antibiotics. The integrated research is to elucidate, for the first time, the nanoparticle multi-targeting toxicity on mixed-species bacterial community and how, in turn, the bacteria activate their cell-to-cell signalling f ....The Molecular Basis of Nanoparticle Resistance in Mixed-Species Biofilm. The project aims to understand how the globally significant mixed-species growth of pathogens develop resistance to silver nanoparticle, currently one of the most important alternative antimicrobials to antibiotics. The integrated research is to elucidate, for the first time, the nanoparticle multi-targeting toxicity on mixed-species bacterial community and how, in turn, the bacteria activate their cell-to-cell signalling for a synergistic defence to adapt to the nanoparticle toxicity. The pioneering knowledge is the foundation for technologies targeting the interspecies metabolite cross-talking to overcome the resistance phenomena, ensuring a long-term efficacy of the alternative antimicrobial on the difficult-to-control pathogenic growth.Read moreRead less
How we remember and misremember traumatic experiences. The project addresses a significant and important problem: the role of memory distortion in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a global disorder with significant personal, societal and economic costs. The aim of this project is to empirically investigate the extent, causes and triggering conditions of errors in memory for traumatic experiences; particularly exaggeration of these memories, which has been linked to poor psychological adjus ....How we remember and misremember traumatic experiences. The project addresses a significant and important problem: the role of memory distortion in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a global disorder with significant personal, societal and economic costs. The aim of this project is to empirically investigate the extent, causes and triggering conditions of errors in memory for traumatic experiences; particularly exaggeration of these memories, which has been linked to poor psychological adjustment. Understanding how people exposed to trauma remember, and misremember, aspects of their experiences in ways that influence their recovery is both theoretically and practically important. Indeed, it will help us refine theory and identify possible points of intervention for PTSD sufferers.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120103152
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Development of next generation drugs against Helicobacter pylori. Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the world and infection by Helicobacter pylori bacteria is the main cause of this disease. The aim of this project is to develop new approaches to treat Helicobacter pylori infection that will give superior results and lower side effects than available therapies.