Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely ....Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely collected in Australia's catchments and thereby better predict water quality behaviour. Proposed field studies aim to support this development. The outcomes sought are improved planning and management of water quality in our rivers, lakes and estuaries, improved health of these water bodies and improved water supplies.Read moreRead less
Protecting Australia’s brand assets and stakeholder interests. International accounting standards have recently been harmonised to allow firms to recognise the value of purchased brands on their balance sheets, subject to an annual test to verify that value has not been impaired. There are no widely accepted methodologies with which to undertake such tests, despite the requirement for the balance sheet to provide a true and fair view of financial position. This research will develop three approa ....Protecting Australia’s brand assets and stakeholder interests. International accounting standards have recently been harmonised to allow firms to recognise the value of purchased brands on their balance sheets, subject to an annual test to verify that value has not been impaired. There are no widely accepted methodologies with which to undertake such tests, despite the requirement for the balance sheet to provide a true and fair view of financial position. This research will develop three approaches to calibrate brand impairment and draw lessons from applying them over a three year period. The outputs are twofold: first, a suite of detailed methods for accountants, auditors and financial analysts to measure and diagnose brand value; second, several key indicators that can be used to monitor signs of brand impairment.Read moreRead less
Impact of redox condition on emerging contaminants fate. This project aims to improve our ability to predict the environmental drivers that control the fate of contaminants of emerging concern in the subsurface. Emerging contaminants are a concern due to their potential negative ecosystem and health outcomes. Prediction of their environmental fate will be of benefit as it will help ensure the safety of our drinking water sources and ensure that water sources are fit for purpose. With increasing ....Impact of redox condition on emerging contaminants fate. This project aims to improve our ability to predict the environmental drivers that control the fate of contaminants of emerging concern in the subsurface. Emerging contaminants are a concern due to their potential negative ecosystem and health outcomes. Prediction of their environmental fate will be of benefit as it will help ensure the safety of our drinking water sources and ensure that water sources are fit for purpose. With increasing pressure on our precious water resources prediction of the risks to this resource is essential. Expected outcomes are of significance as they will include a much improved ability to predict and control the ultimate fate of emerging contaminants in our water sources.Read moreRead less
Understanding multi-scale dynamics of eddies in the East Australian Current. This project aims to provide the first rigorous quantification of the complex dynamics of rotating eddies (the weather systems of the ocean) and fronts on scales ranging from metres to 100s of kilometres and hours to weeks in the East Australian Current System. This project is at the frontier of oceanographic research and will provide significant new understanding of the physical and biogeochemical dynamics of eddies an ....Understanding multi-scale dynamics of eddies in the East Australian Current. This project aims to provide the first rigorous quantification of the complex dynamics of rotating eddies (the weather systems of the ocean) and fronts on scales ranging from metres to 100s of kilometres and hours to weeks in the East Australian Current System. This project is at the frontier of oceanographic research and will provide significant new understanding of the physical and biogeochemical dynamics of eddies and their interactions across multiple spatio-temporal scales, revealing their impacts on productivity along Australia’s most populous coastline. This will provide significant benefits such as improved ocean forecasting and sustainable management of Australian marine industries and seafood sector, supporting economic growth. Read moreRead less
Is brand image instability a measurement artifact? If brand images are indeed unstable, then not only are private companies wasting their money on image campaigns but also government organisations are wasting public money on brand image campaigns such as the many conducted by the Australian Tourism Commission overseas, and by local governments, such as "Wollongong - city of innovation." Wouldn't you like to know whether your money is being well spent? A reasonably definitive assessment of the wo ....Is brand image instability a measurement artifact? If brand images are indeed unstable, then not only are private companies wasting their money on image campaigns but also government organisations are wasting public money on brand image campaigns such as the many conducted by the Australian Tourism Commission overseas, and by local governments, such as "Wollongong - city of innovation." Wouldn't you like to know whether your money is being well spent? A reasonably definitive assessment of the worthwhileness of public-funded brand image campaigns will be the main national and community benefit of this research. Read moreRead less
Quantum limits in measurement and communication. By manipulating atoms and single particles of light, quantum technologies promise a revolution in communications systems and high-precision measurements for scientific and engineering applications. The benefits of this revolution may be comparable with those of modern semiconductors. This project will bring these benefits closer by achieving the fundamental limits to measurement allowed by quantum physics, and harnessing the power of these measure ....Quantum limits in measurement and communication. By manipulating atoms and single particles of light, quantum technologies promise a revolution in communications systems and high-precision measurements for scientific and engineering applications. The benefits of this revolution may be comparable with those of modern semiconductors. This project will bring these benefits closer by achieving the fundamental limits to measurement allowed by quantum physics, and harnessing the power of these measurements for communication. It will also identify ways to simplify potential quantum technologies, hastening their adoption. This research will place Australian theoretical and experimental researchers at the forefront of 21st century technology.Read moreRead less
Extending the theory and measurement of personal values and testing relations of values to attitudes and behaviour. Personal values indicate what is important to us, guide our behaviour and reflect real differences between cultures, social classes, occupations, and religions. This project seeks to refine the theory and measurement of personal values across cultures to better understand the motivations that lie behind attitudes and behaviours.
Maximum entropy methods for Bayesian analysis in chemistry. This new approach for analysing chemical data will solve problems in deciding the weight of an atom in a chemical compound, whether an athlete took illegal steroids, if a horse has been fed an illegal 'milkshake' of bicarbonate, and if a methamphetamine tablet seized in a nightclub was made from powder found in a clandestine lab.
Toward the use of metal stable isotopes in geosciences. Metal stable isotopes (MSI: Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ga) have enormous potential applications (basic and applied) in Geosciences and beyond. However the use of these elements as geochemical tracers and petrogenetic tools requires: (1) the definition of their isotopic composition in Earth key reservoirs and in reference materials such as the chondritic meteorites; (2) Understanding and quantification of the causes of MSI fractionations during geolog ....Toward the use of metal stable isotopes in geosciences. Metal stable isotopes (MSI: Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ga) have enormous potential applications (basic and applied) in Geosciences and beyond. However the use of these elements as geochemical tracers and petrogenetic tools requires: (1) the definition of their isotopic composition in Earth key reservoirs and in reference materials such as the chondritic meteorites; (2) Understanding and quantification of the causes of MSI fractionations during geological processes. By a unique combination of in-situ and solution geochemical analytical techniques avaliable now through frontier technology and method development we aim to establish a conceptual and theoretical framework for the use of MSI in Geosciences.Read moreRead less
Frequency standards with breakthrough performance: engineering immunity to local oscillator instabilities using dynamical error suppression. This project aims to dramatically advance state-of-the-art performance of one of the most important technological systems in modern electronics - precision frequency standards. Our work will provide orders of magnitude gains in performance by translating new knowledge from quantum information to the precision metrology research community.