Theoretically-motivated Long-term Internet Network Adoption Based on Short Time-series: Understanding the Diffusion of an Enabling Network Technology. A recent Government policy concerns innovation as a driver of long-term industry growth and a major determinant of global competitiveness. In particular, the Internet is a ?backbone? infrastructure for the conduct e-commerce, and enables efficiency benefits and product innovations to be realized in other sectors, e.g., banking, finance, health and ....Theoretically-motivated Long-term Internet Network Adoption Based on Short Time-series: Understanding the Diffusion of an Enabling Network Technology. A recent Government policy concerns innovation as a driver of long-term industry growth and a major determinant of global competitiveness. In particular, the Internet is a ?backbone? infrastructure for the conduct e-commerce, and enables efficiency benefits and product innovations to be realized in other sectors, e.g., banking, finance, health and tourism. This study estimates the network effect critical to forecasting Internet growth. Moreover, a structural model enhances understanding of underlying Internet dynamics and impacts on general economic conditions. Importantly, methods developed here apply to any network industry, and many non-network industries characterised by strong complementarity relations.Read moreRead less
Economic Growth and Real Exchange Rates. Exchange rate movements are important elements of Australia's economic environment. Protectionist interests in the US and Europe, constrained by WTO trade rules, accuse East Asian economies of deliberate undervaluation. While exchange rate movements are not readily predictable in the short run, long run changes in underlying real exchange rates are amenable to economic analysis using structural models. The clearer understanding of these forces, toward ....Economic Growth and Real Exchange Rates. Exchange rate movements are important elements of Australia's economic environment. Protectionist interests in the US and Europe, constrained by WTO trade rules, accuse East Asian economies of deliberate undervaluation. While exchange rate movements are not readily predictable in the short run, long run changes in underlying real exchange rates are amenable to economic analysis using structural models. The clearer understanding of these forces, toward which this project is directed, will better guide investment in the region, including in Australia, and more importantly, it will better inform future policy debates surrounding currency movements.Read moreRead less
The Social Production of Science in Antarctica: A Study of Davis Station. Antarctica is a unique scientific laboratory. It is the only continent historically uninhabited by humans; access to its vast land and ice-scapes, and its surrounding oceans, is today almost exclusively reserved for scientists. Although these 'Antarcticans' represent multiple disciplines, and pursue a wide variety of research agendas, their shared experiences of working on the continent, and their shared professional netwo ....The Social Production of Science in Antarctica: A Study of Davis Station. Antarctica is a unique scientific laboratory. It is the only continent historically uninhabited by humans; access to its vast land and ice-scapes, and its surrounding oceans, is today almost exclusively reserved for scientists. Although these 'Antarcticans' represent multiple disciplines, and pursue a wide variety of research agendas, their shared experiences of working on the continent, and their shared professional networks, mean that they constitute a distinct community of practice. However, this community has yet to be subjected to detailed ethnographic enquiry. This project aims to examine Antarctic scientists' research practices, and their cultures of knowledge production, through an ethnographic study of Australia's Davis Station.Read moreRead less
Analysing global consumption patterns with a large number of commodities. This project provides estimates of the income and price sensitivities of consumption, for a large number of finely distinguished goods, across most countries. These, together with new ways of enhancing economic data (by recognising quality improvements of goods and uncertainty), will be of value to researchers, government and business.
Quantifying and parameterising ocean mixing. This project aims to advance our ability to describe the efficiency and intensity of ocean mixing. The project will develop and apply innovative techniques to estimate ocean mixing from both traditional ship-based, vertical-profiling turbulence measurements and from autonomous moorings. The project will undertake a re-analysis of historic measurements and obtain new measurements using autonomous systems. The results will be used to develop both a uni ....Quantifying and parameterising ocean mixing. This project aims to advance our ability to describe the efficiency and intensity of ocean mixing. The project will develop and apply innovative techniques to estimate ocean mixing from both traditional ship-based, vertical-profiling turbulence measurements and from autonomous moorings. The project will undertake a re-analysis of historic measurements and obtain new measurements using autonomous systems. The results will be used to develop both a universal relationship describing the efficiency of ocean mixing, and to quantify the underlying length scale controlling mixing intensity. This will enable the development of the next generation of turbulence closure models needed to describe ocean circulation and stirring.Read moreRead less
Modelling non-linear price dynamics of primary commodities that are affected by seasonality, significant storage costs, and slow adjustment. Australia's economy relies substantially on exports of commodities. However, recent volatility of commodity prices has created tremendous uncertainties for traders, producers and consumers of those commodities. This adversely affects our national economy through the disruption of agricultural and mining production, and also more broadly impacts on investmen ....Modelling non-linear price dynamics of primary commodities that are affected by seasonality, significant storage costs, and slow adjustment. Australia's economy relies substantially on exports of commodities. However, recent volatility of commodity prices has created tremendous uncertainties for traders, producers and consumers of those commodities. This adversely affects our national economy through the disruption of agricultural and mining production, and also more broadly impacts on investment, employment and gross domestic income. This research will model more accurately the complex dynamics of primary commodity prices and their inter-market linkages, which will allow traders, producers and consumers to better forecast commodity price movements and protect themselves through inventory management, hedging and long-run production planning.Read moreRead less
Building Central Asia: Linking the Growth of Asia to its Exhumation. The consumption of the Tethys Ocean and the associated collision of Gondwana-derived terranes with Eurasia resulted in the uplift of the highest mountain belt on Earth: the Himalayas. However, stresses from this collision zone propagated far into the Eurasian interior by reactivating faults and creating mountain belts along these fault zones. This project aims to map and model how and when fault (re)activation occurred by integ ....Building Central Asia: Linking the Growth of Asia to its Exhumation. The consumption of the Tethys Ocean and the associated collision of Gondwana-derived terranes with Eurasia resulted in the uplift of the highest mountain belt on Earth: the Himalayas. However, stresses from this collision zone propagated far into the Eurasian interior by reactivating faults and creating mountain belts along these fault zones. This project aims to map and model how and when fault (re)activation occurred by integrating multi-method thermochronological and structural data on major Meso-Cenozoic Central Asian fault systems. The resulting time-integrated tectonic model will aid in the understanding of the India-Eurasia collision, the building of the mountainous Central Asian landscape and its influence on the Asian climate.Read moreRead less
Deep ocean thermodynamics and climate change. This project aims to obtain new insights into the thermodynamic and transport properties of mixtures containing water, particularly at high pressures, that impact directly on our understanding of climate change processes. The project will involve the use of a polarisable potential for water which has recently been demonstrated to yield predictions of high accuracy. It will be used to model saline water mixtures containing carbon dioxide, resulting in ....Deep ocean thermodynamics and climate change. This project aims to obtain new insights into the thermodynamic and transport properties of mixtures containing water, particularly at high pressures, that impact directly on our understanding of climate change processes. The project will involve the use of a polarisable potential for water which has recently been demonstrated to yield predictions of high accuracy. It will be used to model saline water mixtures containing carbon dioxide, resulting in valuable data for thermodynamic properties of the world's oceans. These data are of crucial importance for accurate climate change predictions and as such the project will have an important impact on understanding our changing environment.Read moreRead less
Wave dynamics in topographically-complex coastal reef systems. Both tropical coral and temperate rocky reefs are abundant features of Australia's coastline, yet their hydrodynamics (waves, currents and water levels) are poorly understood relative to other coastal environments such as beaches. This project will elucidate the complex hydrodynamic processes when waves interact with the steep-slopes and large bottom roughness of reefs, by establishing an international research program combining labo ....Wave dynamics in topographically-complex coastal reef systems. Both tropical coral and temperate rocky reefs are abundant features of Australia's coastline, yet their hydrodynamics (waves, currents and water levels) are poorly understood relative to other coastal environments such as beaches. This project will elucidate the complex hydrodynamic processes when waves interact with the steep-slopes and large bottom roughness of reefs, by establishing an international research program combining laboratory and field measurements with numerical modelling. The improved process-understanding of reef hydrodynamics developed through this project will lead to significant advances in our ability to predict the impacts of extreme events (for example, storms and tsunamis) and climate change on coasts, both here and abroad.Read moreRead less
Revealing the impacts of super-charged photosynthesis on leaf respiration. This project aims to use state-of-the-art technologies to develop a novel framework that links a super-charged version of photosynthesis (known as C4 photosynthesis) to changes in nocturnal leaf respiration. A quarter of global land photosynthesis occurs in C4 plants that include several important cereal crops. Although advances have been made in modelling C4 photosynthesis, these advances are unable to model variations i ....Revealing the impacts of super-charged photosynthesis on leaf respiration. This project aims to use state-of-the-art technologies to develop a novel framework that links a super-charged version of photosynthesis (known as C4 photosynthesis) to changes in nocturnal leaf respiration. A quarter of global land photosynthesis occurs in C4 plants that include several important cereal crops. Although advances have been made in modelling C4 photosynthesis, these advances are unable to model variations in nocturnal respiration. Expected outcomes include equations that predict respiration in C4 plants growing in current/future climates. Benefits to include knowledge needed to engineer faster-growing crops and providing climate modelers the ability to more accurately predict carbon exchange in C4-dominated ecosystems. Read moreRead less