Reducing Alcohol Related Health Harms In Perth Through The Development Of An Agent Based Model On The Internet
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$28,599.00
Summary
The project will explore ways to reduce alcohol-related health and social harms in Perth by fostering collaboration between the Drug and Alcohol Office, the WA Police, the Dept of Racing, Gaming and Liquor and the Drug Policy Modelling Program. An Internet based model, to aid decisions by policy makers, is being created to simulate the influence of prevention, policing and regulation on the spatial distribution of alcohol outlets and on the behavioural patterns of patrons.
Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Rational Design Of Malaria Therapy And Vaccines
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Malaria is a global health concern with almost half a million deaths annually. There is an urgent need for a highly effective malaria vaccine and new antimalarials. However, despite decades of research into this pathogen, our understanding of what causes illness in a person and how immunity operates is limited. This project will use a mathematical modelling approach to provide a new way to understand infection, as a rapidly changing and intricate process.
Low Cost High Precision Radiotherapy: A Synergistic Framework For Tumour Tracking During Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Advances in technology have enabled radiotherapy to become more sophisticated and more efficient at treating cancer. Yet, despite its sophistication, today radiotherapy suffers from a major problem: whilst we routinely image patients prior to treatment, no anatomical information is available during treatment. This project aims to solve this problem by making use of a number of sensors that are already available in a radiotherapy to track the tumours positions during treatment, when it counts.
Commercial Testing Of A Physiologically Based Theory Of Oscillatory Brain Electrical Activity In Anaesthesia Monitoring
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$191,165.00
Summary
While the mechanisms of local anaesthesia are comparatively well known, the mechanisms whereby anaesthetics impair consciousness remain unresolved. This lack of understanding has implications in our ability to monitor the level of anaesthesia while anaesthetic consumption and side effects are minimized. Despite this a number of devices have been developed that attempt to monitor the depth of anaesthesia by quantifying the brains electrical activity. All monitors analyse the activity using a set ....While the mechanisms of local anaesthesia are comparatively well known, the mechanisms whereby anaesthetics impair consciousness remain unresolved. This lack of understanding has implications in our ability to monitor the level of anaesthesia while anaesthetic consumption and side effects are minimized. Despite this a number of devices have been developed that attempt to monitor the depth of anaesthesia by quantifying the brains electrical activity. All monitors analyse the activity using a set of criteria that have been developed by trial and error. The research of Dr David Liley and his team, at Swinburne University of Technology, has resulted in a detailed understanding of the physiological mechanisms that generate brain electrical activity. The outcome is a practical means to carry out a System Based Analysis of Brain Electrical Response (SABER). In 2004, Dr Liley began working with Cortical Dynamics, a company involved in the commercialisation of medical devices. This collaboration incorporated the SABER system into a new prototype device called the Brain Anaesthesia Response (BAR) monitor. In 2004 Dr Liley and Associate Professor Kate Leslie collaborated in a trial, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital to test the sensitivity of the SABER system in quantifying the effect that various levels of nitrous oxide have on measures of anaesthetic depth. The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists supported this study. Initial results obtained with sevoflurane and 3 levels of nitrous oxide showed the ability to differentiate between conscious and unconscious states of patients based on two physiological characterizations of higher brain dynamic state. The next step requires commercial product validation (ie scale up) and further clinical efficacy in testing beta stage depth of anaesthesia BAR units. Completion of this will help the technology move away from a low volume prototype system into a commercially applicable device.Read moreRead less
Bridging The Gap Between Cartilage Biology And Osteoarthritis Risk Prediction
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$512,256.00
Summary
Osteoarthritis is a painful and debilitating cartilage disease affecting just under 1 in 10 Australians and costs the Australian economy roughly $12 billion per year. This project will develop computational models of cartilage with the ability to incorporate genetic and environmental risk factors into a predictive model of cartilage disease.
Stochastic modelling of spatiotemporal nonlinear diffusion processes with multifractal characteristics. This research is relevant to solute transport and plume evolution in heterogeneous media. Detailed modelling of these processes is computer-intensive, while the diffusion models of this project offer a more economical alternative. Our study will also benefit the research on the salinity problem. Excessive demand for irrigation water to support agricultural production has stretched freshwater a ....Stochastic modelling of spatiotemporal nonlinear diffusion processes with multifractal characteristics. This research is relevant to solute transport and plume evolution in heterogeneous media. Detailed modelling of these processes is computer-intensive, while the diffusion models of this project offer a more economical alternative. Our study will also benefit the research on the salinity problem. Excessive demand for irrigation water to support agricultural production has stretched freshwater aquifers beyond their long-term yield. Large areas of land have been lost to saltwater intrusion. This proposal will provide suitable tools to predict the level and movement of saltwater in the aquifers. Application to the development of management strategies would bring direct benefit to coastal areas where salinity is a sustainability issue.Read moreRead less
Mechanisms Of Propagation And Containment Of Gene Silencing
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$272,223.00
Summary
Long-term and heritable repression of genes by epigenetic mechanisms is essential for health but can also be dangerous if it goes wrong. Mathematical modelling and biochemical experiments will be used to understand how this gene silencing propagates and spreads along the DNA, and how it can be stopped from spreading too far.
Uncovering The Neural Mechanisms Of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder Using Brain Modelling
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$581,628.00
Summary
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an incurable mental illness and current therapies only mitigate its symptoms for a portion of individuals. Thus, there is a need to identify the neural causes of OCD to develop personalised therapies. We will combine mathematical modelling, computer simulations, and clinical and neuroimaging data to develop the first model of OCD. Outcomes from this study will enable targeted OCD research and the discovery of brain mechanisms supporting treatment response.
Malaria infection affects many millions around the world each year. This project brings together scientists working on mouse models of malaria and on clinical studies of malaria in Africa and Asia, with mathematicians and physicists who will analyse and model their experimental data. The project involves 'data mining' to apply novel statistical and mathematical modelling approaches to understand how the immune system controls malaria infection.