A paradigm shift for predictions of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. This project aims to advance model predictions to generate novel insights into the triggers of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Current models are poorly adapted for this purpose because they fail to account for antecedent environmental forcing. The project is expected to create new knowledge of cyanobacteria dynamics from simulating the adaptive responses of individual cyanobacteria cells, colonies or filaments ....A paradigm shift for predictions of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. This project aims to advance model predictions to generate novel insights into the triggers of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Current models are poorly adapted for this purpose because they fail to account for antecedent environmental forcing. The project is expected to create new knowledge of cyanobacteria dynamics from simulating the adaptive responses of individual cyanobacteria cells, colonies or filaments to temperature, light and nutrient history. Three field studies will be used to validate a new individual based model. The outcomes of this project will be valuable for managing freshwater ecosystems that are increasingly subject to blooms in a warming climate, and for testing suitable mitigation and control strategies.Read moreRead less
Comparing internal migration in countries around the world: measures, theories and policy dimensions. Internal migration shapes settlement patterns, adjusts labour markets and enables people to pursue opportunities, but little is known about how and why mobility varies so widely between countries around the world. This project will make rigorous cross-national comparisons, explain the differences and help refine policies that affect mobility.
Rod-cone interaction under mesopic illumination. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency and traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian traffic fatalities occur under dim light. The research program uses a frontier technology to determine how vision is degraded under dim lighting and provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and perform ....Rod-cone interaction under mesopic illumination. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency and traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian traffic fatalities occur under dim light. The research program uses a frontier technology to determine how vision is degraded under dim lighting and provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This work will help to evaluate new energy-efficient lighting systems and optimise traffic lighting for early recognition of obstacles and dangerous situations. Read moreRead less
Psychophysical Assessment of Receptoral and Post-Receptoral Visual Function. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency lighting and road traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian road traffic fatalities occur under dim lighting conditions. My data will be unique, as it will provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This ....Psychophysical Assessment of Receptoral and Post-Receptoral Visual Function. Visual function and performance can be degraded under dim light levels. This occurs in many indoor settings, emergency lighting and road traffic lighting conditions. Approximately 45% of all Australian road traffic fatalities occur under dim lighting conditions. My data will be unique, as it will provide accurate parameters to better design mesopic lighting environments to maximize visual function and performance. This work will help to optimise road traffic lighting for the early recognition of obstacles and dangerous situations. The research program will make important scientific contributions to understanding human visual function and performance at dim light levels.Read moreRead less
Econometric modelling of housing prices and their relationship to climate adaptation issues. The path to climate adaptation in urban communities is directly related to housing infrastructure. The project develops improved and new econometric methods for the prediction of property prices and their components, land and structure, and it will provide estimates of the interplay between flooding risk and property values.
Modelling Multidimensional Multiparty Decisions to Improve Outcomes. The project plans to explore a new multiparty model of decision-making, focusing on medical care. Every day, consumers make many decisions. While many are relatively trivial, some are critical to individual wellbeing including adherence to medical treatment plans. Moreover, many of these critical decisions involve complex and multidimensional trade-offs. This project intends to break from tradition by conceptualising complex de ....Modelling Multidimensional Multiparty Decisions to Improve Outcomes. The project plans to explore a new multiparty model of decision-making, focusing on medical care. Every day, consumers make many decisions. While many are relatively trivial, some are critical to individual wellbeing including adherence to medical treatment plans. Moreover, many of these critical decisions involve complex and multidimensional trade-offs. This project intends to break from tradition by conceptualising complex decision-making as multiparty (primarily the focal consumer, parents/carers and medical experts) rather than being confined to an expert–customer dyad. The project plans to investigate how complex multiparty decisions are made, measuring the relative influence of each of the parties on the formation of collective preferences. The project expects to test new theory, develop new measurement tools for studying choice, and to provide practical recommendations.Read moreRead less
NOVEL MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGIES AND DESIGN TECHNIQUES FOR MULTILAYER CIRCUITS FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS. Miniaturization of mobile handsets and other wireless equipment is limited by the slow progress in integrating passive elements. Two novel technologies Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) offer the capacity to significantly miniaturise RF and microwave circuits and increase their efficiency and capabilities. The proposal deals with development o ....NOVEL MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGIES AND DESIGN TECHNIQUES FOR MULTILAYER CIRCUITS FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS. Miniaturization of mobile handsets and other wireless equipment is limited by the slow progress in integrating passive elements. Two novel technologies Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) offer the capacity to significantly miniaturise RF and microwave circuits and increase their efficiency and capabilities. The proposal deals with development of novel microwave technologies and techniques for optimization, characterization, simulation, design and fabrication of advanced LTCC materials and LTCC and MEMS based miniaturized circuits for 3G and beyond of Wireless Communication. The outcomes of the project will be of significant benefit to the Australian Telecommunications industry.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
Robust Productivity Measurement: An Econometric Distance Function Approach. Accurate measures of productivity are required in a range of economic analyses. For example, in the assessment of the success of microeconomic reforms, or in price-cap regulation of utility and transport infrastructure firms. In this project we investigate the use of econometric distance functions as a means of obtaining improved productivity measures. This new approach addresses the main criticisms of alternative ap ....Robust Productivity Measurement: An Econometric Distance Function Approach. Accurate measures of productivity are required in a range of economic analyses. For example, in the assessment of the success of microeconomic reforms, or in price-cap regulation of utility and transport infrastructure firms. In this project we investigate the use of econometric distance functions as a means of obtaining improved productivity measures. This new approach addresses the main criticisms of alternative approaches, such as the single output restriction in the production function approach, the optimisation assumptions embedded in both the value dual approach and the Törnqvist index approach, and the statistical noise criticism of the data envelopment analysis approach.Read moreRead less
Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cr ....Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cross-country productivity comparisons. However, no estimates of ICP PPPs’ reliability are available. Results from this project are likely to improve the quality of widely used data sets including the Penn World Tables and the University of Queensland International Comparison Database relevant to banking.Read moreRead less