Rising Intonation in Australian English. The project will model the intonation of Australian English through an analysis of spoken dialogues from over 200 speakers. The study of the different types of rising intonation across different population groups will advance our knowledge of how Australian English is different from other accents, how it has changed in the last 40 years, and how accent is related to social class in Australia. The outcomes include publications on the theory of intonation, ....Rising Intonation in Australian English. The project will model the intonation of Australian English through an analysis of spoken dialogues from over 200 speakers. The study of the different types of rising intonation across different population groups will advance our knowledge of how Australian English is different from other accents, how it has changed in the last 40 years, and how accent is related to social class in Australia. The outcomes include publications on the theory of intonation, accent change, and its relationship to social class as well as a working model of intonation that can be implemented in a system for synthesising Australian English speech.Read moreRead less
A Mathematical Model of the Roles of Contraction and Oxygen in Human Wound Healing. Slow or impaired wound healing and excessive scarring associated with burns are both painful and costly. Moreover, the debilitating effect of chronic wounds can be expected to increase with the continuing aging of the population and the current rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to develop a mathematical model of human wound healing and to drive the modelli ....A Mathematical Model of the Roles of Contraction and Oxygen in Human Wound Healing. Slow or impaired wound healing and excessive scarring associated with burns are both painful and costly. Moreover, the debilitating effect of chronic wounds can be expected to increase with the continuing aging of the population and the current rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to develop a mathematical model of human wound healing and to drive the modelling to generate important breakthroughs at the level of basic science with implications for both experimentalists and clinicians.Read moreRead less
Innovation in police gender equity management: Looking back, moving forward. This project aims to investigate gender equity recruitment and career support policies in all nine Australian and New Zealand policing agencies. A wide range of equity initiatives that have been implemented across police agencies will be examined, along with affirmative action measures including recent 50/50 male/female recruitment targets. The project expects to generate an advanced best practice model that can be used ....Innovation in police gender equity management: Looking back, moving forward. This project aims to investigate gender equity recruitment and career support policies in all nine Australian and New Zealand policing agencies. A wide range of equity initiatives that have been implemented across police agencies will be examined, along with affirmative action measures including recent 50/50 male/female recruitment targets. The project expects to generate an advanced best practice model that can be used by domestic and international police agencies. This will allow police organisations to better manage equity issues and support a more inclusive and representative workforce. The benefits of this project are significant, they range from stronger police-community relations through to better service delivery by police.Read moreRead less
The new voice of Multicultural Australian English. This project aims to generate an integrated and inclusive model of Australian-English, through phonetic analysis of the spoken language used by adolescents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world yet the complex relationship between speech production and cultural diversity is largely unknown in 21st century multicultural Australia. This project aims to establish how adolescents f ....The new voice of Multicultural Australian English. This project aims to generate an integrated and inclusive model of Australian-English, through phonetic analysis of the spoken language used by adolescents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world yet the complex relationship between speech production and cultural diversity is largely unknown in 21st century multicultural Australia. This project aims to establish how adolescents from different ethnicities use speech patterns to symbolically express their diverse sociocultural identities. The project expects to inform sociophonetic theories of variation, ethnicity, and identity, providing a framework for supporting sociocultural cohesion in Australia. Read moreRead less
The effect of sound change on children's speech in community diversity. This project aims to explain how children's speech processing adapts to cultural and linguistic diversity and how such adaptation may seed sound change in language. Using acoustic and articulatory (ultrasound) methods, the project intends to explain how children rapidly and authentically acquire the intricately nuanced accents of their communities. The project aims to advance theories of language variation and change by prov ....The effect of sound change on children's speech in community diversity. This project aims to explain how children's speech processing adapts to cultural and linguistic diversity and how such adaptation may seed sound change in language. Using acoustic and articulatory (ultrasound) methods, the project intends to explain how children rapidly and authentically acquire the intricately nuanced accents of their communities. The project aims to advance theories of language variation and change by providing new insights into the forces that shape the sounds of language. An understanding of how children's speech patterns develop and ultimately converge to local norms has implications for the social integration of second language learning children and refugee/asylum seekers, and for clinical and speech technology applications for children.Read moreRead less
Uptalk in Australian English Intonation. Australian English speakers often use rising instead of falling intonation at the end of sentences which are not questions. This phenomenon of uptalk is one of the unique traits of the Australian English accent. The project will model uptalk by analyzing spoken dialogues from 150 speakers from three major populations, Sydney, Melbourne, and regional Victoria. The intonation patterns of regional and non-Sydney populations have been poorly investigated ....Uptalk in Australian English Intonation. Australian English speakers often use rising instead of falling intonation at the end of sentences which are not questions. This phenomenon of uptalk is one of the unique traits of the Australian English accent. The project will model uptalk by analyzing spoken dialogues from 150 speakers from three major populations, Sydney, Melbourne, and regional Victoria. The intonation patterns of regional and non-Sydney populations have been poorly investigated, so this kind of study is needed to get a more complete understanding of Australian English intonation and the Australian accent. Outcomes will include publications on intonation and laboratory phonology, sociophonetics, and a working model of intonation that can be implemented in speech output systems for Australian English.Read moreRead less
Policing the border: security, human rights and gender. Women are the fastest growing group undertaking extra-legal border crossing, yet we know little about the gendered character of border enforcement. This project will develop a regulatory framework for border policing that is adaptable to the gender determinants of mobility, human rights and the future challenges of border management.
English as a spoken lingua franca in ASEAN: a study of its linguistic and socio-cultural features. The project will collect the first corpus of Lingua Franca English in Asia. It will thus complement the two European LFE projects currently underway and will put Australia at the forefront of this new research. Given that the findings of the research have the potential to revolutionise the ways English is taught and learned throughout the ASEAN region, as it takes the focus away from the impositio ....English as a spoken lingua franca in ASEAN: a study of its linguistic and socio-cultural features. The project will collect the first corpus of Lingua Franca English in Asia. It will thus complement the two European LFE projects currently underway and will put Australia at the forefront of this new research. Given that the findings of the research have the potential to revolutionise the ways English is taught and learned throughout the ASEAN region, as it takes the focus away from the imposition of an external native speaker norm of English. The research thus places Australia in the forefront of culturally and contextually sensitive work into English language teaching and research. The project will also benefit all communities within Australia where English plays a role as a lingua franca.Read moreRead less
Making demonstrably reliable forensic voice comparison a practical everyday reality in Australia. To assist Australian law-enforcement agencies and courts in the process of the conviction of the guilty and the exoneration of the innocent, this project will develop and test a practical and demonstrably reliable forensic voice comparison system for use with Australian voices. This will allow forensic scientists to produce reliable strength of evidence statements for presentation in court using the ....Making demonstrably reliable forensic voice comparison a practical everyday reality in Australia. To assist Australian law-enforcement agencies and courts in the process of the conviction of the guilty and the exoneration of the innocent, this project will develop and test a practical and demonstrably reliable forensic voice comparison system for use with Australian voices. This will allow forensic scientists to produce reliable strength of evidence statements for presentation in court using the same evaluative framework as used with DNA. In addition, application of the system during criminal investigations may lead to the refocussing of investigations on other suspects, or may help leverage guilty pleas, thus saving substantial time and money.Read moreRead less