Displacement-based assessment of the seismic resistance of unreinforced masonry buildings. Earthquakes have caused over $1,000 billion of damage and more than 100,000 deaths in the last decade. This devastation occurred mainly in unreinforced brick masonry (URM) buildings which constitute the bulk of the domestic building stock in low seismicity regions, including Australia. These buildings were designed to resist forces, not the displacements, caused by earthquake ground shaking. This projec ....Displacement-based assessment of the seismic resistance of unreinforced masonry buildings. Earthquakes have caused over $1,000 billion of damage and more than 100,000 deaths in the last decade. This devastation occurred mainly in unreinforced brick masonry (URM) buildings which constitute the bulk of the domestic building stock in low seismicity regions, including Australia. These buildings were designed to resist forces, not the displacements, caused by earthquake ground shaking. This project will develop a new displacement-based method for assessing the earthquake resistance of URM buildings. Research outcomes will be in the form of improved analytical methods for the design of new buildings and the seismic assessment and retrofit of existing buildings.Read moreRead less
Womens access to welfare after prison - an international comparison. The aim of the proposed research is to undertake an comparative analysis of the services accessed by female prisoners following their return to the community and the potential of these services to reduce re-offending. This analysis will build upon the current ARC project in Victoria and a similar project in Scotland. Scotland and Victoria provide an interesting focus for comparative research, having similar populations, similar ....Womens access to welfare after prison - an international comparison. The aim of the proposed research is to undertake an comparative analysis of the services accessed by female prisoners following their return to the community and the potential of these services to reduce re-offending. This analysis will build upon the current ARC project in Victoria and a similar project in Scotland. Scotland and Victoria provide an interesting focus for comparative research, having similar populations, similar numbers of women imprisoned and similar increases during the last decade in the daily female prison population. Moreover in both jurisdictions initiatives are being introduced to enhance women's access to services when they leave prison.
The purpose of the proposed research will be to develop and implement a framework for the comparative analysis of data on women's experiences after prison that will be generated by two funded studies in Scotland and Victoria.Read moreRead less
University of Queensland/Arizona State University partnership to design industrially suitable zeolite membranes for desalination. For desalination, the highest costs are organic-based membrane replacement (lasting ~1 year) and energy requirement. Functionalised zeolitic membranes are low-cost, high performing, chemically tolerant and thermally stable. New zeolite membranes in principle could perform the separation outlasting their organic counterparts, while at the same time offering major energ ....University of Queensland/Arizona State University partnership to design industrially suitable zeolite membranes for desalination. For desalination, the highest costs are organic-based membrane replacement (lasting ~1 year) and energy requirement. Functionalised zeolitic membranes are low-cost, high performing, chemically tolerant and thermally stable. New zeolite membranes in principle could perform the separation outlasting their organic counterparts, while at the same time offering major energy reductions from higher fluxes. Current zeolite membrane research for desalination however is lacking. The proposed team offers experience in bringing highly significant lab scale technologies to industrial scales. The outcomes will address mutual priorities between Australia and USA for reliable low cost supply of fresh water.Read moreRead less
Efficient data manipulation in document classification. Document Classification has an enormous relevance in an era where large amounts of textual information is available. Document Classification is based on statistical and machine learning techniques that model documents represented as points in a multidimensional space. The Computer Engineering Laboratory (CEL) has ongoing projects using neural networks and other techniques for document classification. We are developing a development environm ....Efficient data manipulation in document classification. Document Classification has an enormous relevance in an era where large amounts of textual information is available. Document Classification is based on statistical and machine learning techniques that model documents represented as points in a multidimensional space. The Computer Engineering Laboratory (CEL) has ongoing projects using neural networks and other techniques for document classification. We are developing a development environment for large classification tasks, and Prof. Lee¡¯s work will focus in managing large amounts of data for them. Using his experience in data compression, databases and web applications, he will produce a set of tools for handling Gigabytes of textual data in our classification environment.Read moreRead less
Extensions to the page scoring algorithm in internet search engine studies. This project proposes to study two extensions to the Page rank equation which is one of the theoretical underpinning of Google's web page scoring engine. In particular, we wish to explore ways to combine page connectivity and page characteristics in the scoring of web pages. This will be the first time a rational way is proposed for combining these two factors. The expected outcome will be a deeper understanding on how t ....Extensions to the page scoring algorithm in internet search engine studies. This project proposes to study two extensions to the Page rank equation which is one of the theoretical underpinning of Google's web page scoring engine. In particular, we wish to explore ways to combine page connectivity and page characteristics in the scoring of web pages. This will be the first time a rational way is proposed for combining these two factors. The expected outcome will be a deeper understanding on how these two factors affect the scores of a web page in a search engine, and hence how they affect the visibility of the page in response to a query.
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User-Driven Composition of Web Services. Web service composition technology promises to revolutionise the way in which organisations interact over the Web. However existing environments for the composition of Web services are too complex to use and are usually intended for experienced application developers as they rely either on scripting languages, or on a process-modelling notations intended to be used by IT experts. However, the need for customised composition of Web services is likely to em ....User-Driven Composition of Web Services. Web service composition technology promises to revolutionise the way in which organisations interact over the Web. However existing environments for the composition of Web services are too complex to use and are usually intended for experienced application developers as they rely either on scripting languages, or on a process-modelling notations intended to be used by IT experts. However, the need for customised composition of Web services is likely to emanate from non IT-experts.
The project aims at designing, implementing, and evaluating an environment for the specification and execution of composite Web services by non-expert.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving Web Services Composition. Web services composition is emerging as a promising technology for the
effective automation of business-to-business collaborations. It allows
organizations to form alliances by connecting their applications and systems, in order to offer ``one-stops shops'' for their customers. However, several important issues (e.g., security and privacy) need to be properly addressed before Web services technology meets the requirements of critical applications s ....Privacy-preserving Web Services Composition. Web services composition is emerging as a promising technology for the
effective automation of business-to-business collaborations. It allows
organizations to form alliances by connecting their applications and systems, in order to offer ``one-stops shops'' for their customers. However, several important issues (e.g., security and privacy) need to be properly addressed before Web services technology meets the requirements of critical applications such as e-goverment. This project aims at providing privacy preserving Web services composition techniques. The anticipated outcome of this project is a service composition framework that provides seamless interoperability between different Web services without violiating citizens and organisations privacy.Read moreRead less
Environmental quality and health in the elderly; The Australian situation and international comparison. The elderly are a vulnerable population group that should receive particular attention in health policy. They are a group of considerable and growing size that contributes disproportionately to total health burden. Although residential environment is likely to influence health and well-being among the elderly, the evidence-base for appropriate policy and practice is lacking. Improved understa ....Environmental quality and health in the elderly; The Australian situation and international comparison. The elderly are a vulnerable population group that should receive particular attention in health policy. They are a group of considerable and growing size that contributes disproportionately to total health burden. Although residential environment is likely to influence health and well-being among the elderly, the evidence-base for appropriate policy and practice is lacking. Improved understanding of the role of relevant environmental factors could lead to substantially reduced morbidity and mortality (and associated costs) for the key outcomes: falls, and cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Results will contribute to the international evidence-base in this increasingly critical area of research, policy, and practice. Read moreRead less
The fundamental structure of combinatorial configurations. Combinatorial configurations are fundamental mathematical tools used to model physical problems in the information sciences. Combinatorial trades arise from the differences between combinatorial configurations. They uniquely determine the underlying structure of the configuration and are central to the determination of defining sets. With this proposal we shall study the existence, properties and applications of combinatorial trades and ....The fundamental structure of combinatorial configurations. Combinatorial configurations are fundamental mathematical tools used to model physical problems in the information sciences. Combinatorial trades arise from the differences between combinatorial configurations. They uniquely determine the underlying structure of the configuration and are central to the determination of defining sets. With this proposal we shall study the existence, properties and applications of combinatorial trades and the associated defining sets. Our results will have applications in the areas of biotechnology, information systems, information security and experimental design.Read moreRead less
Integration of Metamorphic Testing and Model Checking. This project proposes an innovative approach of integrating metamorphic testing and model checking. Its main outcome will be to deliver a comprehensive testing method that will help to reduce errors and costs in software development and consequently to improve the quality of software systems. Since software is pervasive and ubiquitous, our results will improve the nation's software productivity and quality. Thus, our results will help in ra ....Integration of Metamorphic Testing and Model Checking. This project proposes an innovative approach of integrating metamorphic testing and model checking. Its main outcome will be to deliver a comprehensive testing method that will help to reduce errors and costs in software development and consequently to improve the quality of software systems. Since software is pervasive and ubiquitous, our results will improve the nation's software productivity and quality. Thus, our results will help in raising our nation's competitive advantage towards the goal of becoming a leading nation in the software industry among Asia-Pacific countries. Furthermore, this collaboration will help young Australian researchers to link to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading-edge international research institute.Read moreRead less