Understanding the mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated antiviral protection. Insects are involved in the transmission of many viral diseases of both plants and animals. A considerable number of these diseases have adverse effects for public health or cause large economic losses in agriculture. We were the first to discover that a common bacteria protects insects from virus infection. Knowledge of the mechanisms used by the bacteria to interfere with virus accumulation will facilitate novel strategies ....Understanding the mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated antiviral protection. Insects are involved in the transmission of many viral diseases of both plants and animals. A considerable number of these diseases have adverse effects for public health or cause large economic losses in agriculture. We were the first to discover that a common bacteria protects insects from virus infection. Knowledge of the mechanisms used by the bacteria to interfere with virus accumulation will facilitate novel strategies for control of virus disease. The findings of this project will enable Australian researchers and industry to design innovative approaches to control diseases that are transmitted by insects.Read moreRead less
Income insecurity in Australia: who is feeling the pinch and why? This project aims to measure and investigate the drivers of income insecurity in Australia. It will provide an evaluation of whether income growth is sufficient to compensate for any welfare loss due to higher income risk and the effectiveness of government taxes and transfers in alleviating income risks for different population sub-groups.
Rapidly Locating Items in Distribution Networks with Process-Driven Nodes. Safety-critical product recalls are a major public health issue in Australia. Recent extortion attempts involving poisoning of chocolate bars, paracetamol tablets and biscuits have demonstrated the urgent need for improved ways of locating commercial products that have been released into the community. Existing product recall tools are effective only within regulated manufacturing and warehousing facilities. This project ....Rapidly Locating Items in Distribution Networks with Process-Driven Nodes. Safety-critical product recalls are a major public health issue in Australia. Recent extortion attempts involving poisoning of chocolate bars, paracetamol tablets and biscuits have demonstrated the urgent need for improved ways of locating commercial products that have been released into the community. Existing product recall tools are effective only within regulated manufacturing and warehousing facilities. This project will develop novel techniques for locating items in large-scale distribution networks driven by complex logistic processes. The outcomes of the project will make it easier to rapidly and accurately pinpoint product locations outside controlled facilities, thus contributing to both cost savings and public safety.Read moreRead less
Control of Wolbachia replication: maintaining a stable symbiosis. This project will use a comparative genomics approach to better understand how Wolbachia infections of insects are able to maintain themselves in insects without causing pathology. The results will allow us to better understand a distinguishing characteristic of an intracellular symbiont, namely replication control. The results also have the potential to lead to new approaches to insect pest control through a better understanding ....Control of Wolbachia replication: maintaining a stable symbiosis. This project will use a comparative genomics approach to better understand how Wolbachia infections of insects are able to maintain themselves in insects without causing pathology. The results will allow us to better understand a distinguishing characteristic of an intracellular symbiont, namely replication control. The results also have the potential to lead to new approaches to insect pest control through a better understanding of how Wolbachia might be used to skew insect population age structure.Read moreRead less
Do insect-specific flaviviruses regulate the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases in Australia? Mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue occur in Australia. The research team recently discovered related viruses in mosquitoes from Darwin that do not infect humans, but may inhibit the spread of viral diseases by mosquitoes. This project will investigate the life cycles of these new viruses to understand how they affect the spread of viral diseases by mosquitoes.
Practical Hydrogen Storage for Fuel Cells Electrical Vehicles by Confined Ammonia Borane System. Practical hydrogen storage is critical to make the hydrogen economy a reality, in particular for fuel cells electrical vehicles (FCVE). However, currently there is no approach to satisfy the requirements of hydrogen storage for FCVE, e.g. fulfill the US Department of Energy target for practical hydrogen storage. This project is proposed to develop a new strategy to achieve the goal of practical hyd ....Practical Hydrogen Storage for Fuel Cells Electrical Vehicles by Confined Ammonia Borane System. Practical hydrogen storage is critical to make the hydrogen economy a reality, in particular for fuel cells electrical vehicles (FCVE). However, currently there is no approach to satisfy the requirements of hydrogen storage for FCVE, e.g. fulfill the US Department of Energy target for practical hydrogen storage. This project is proposed to develop a new strategy to achieve the goal of practical hydrogen storage which, if successful, will make FCVE possible in Australia in the near future. It will also be beneficial for reducing the dependence on exported oil and possibly solving critical environmental issues, and thus benefits the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
The effects of home-based couple relationship education on couple relationships, mental health and work performance. Marital distress and separations cause great suffering and cost the Australian community at least $5 billion annually. This research evaluates an innovative relationship education program that couples can complete at home. The research tests whether the education enhances couples' relationship satisfaction, which couples benefit, how the program achieves its effects, and whether i ....The effects of home-based couple relationship education on couple relationships, mental health and work performance. Marital distress and separations cause great suffering and cost the Australian community at least $5 billion annually. This research evaluates an innovative relationship education program that couples can complete at home. The research tests whether the education enhances couples' relationship satisfaction, which couples benefit, how the program achieves its effects, and whether improved couple relationships enhances partners' mental health and work performance. The program might provide national benefit in reducing the enormous personal and social costs of marital problems, as well as providing a potentially important new product with significant export potential.Read moreRead less
Talent Mismatch: Evidence from Australian Administrative Tax Records. The project aims to study the skill composition of the Australian workforce. Changes in the macroeconomic and technology environments make it hard to predict skill shortage. The project expects to develop macroeconomic models quantifying skill-mismatch of university graduates, identify sources of mismatch, highlight gender and generational differences, and estimate associated costs to Australia. The expected outcomes are to he ....Talent Mismatch: Evidence from Australian Administrative Tax Records. The project aims to study the skill composition of the Australian workforce. Changes in the macroeconomic and technology environments make it hard to predict skill shortage. The project expects to develop macroeconomic models quantifying skill-mismatch of university graduates, identify sources of mismatch, highlight gender and generational differences, and estimate associated costs to Australia. The expected outcomes are to help shape policy recommendations on the funding of tertiary education in a changing economic climate. This should provide significant benefits to Australians, as policies shaping the tertiary education system affect individual income and the aggregate economy by determining labour supply and taxpayers' financial burden.Read moreRead less
Fundamental study on hydrogen desorption from nanoscale Magnesium (Mg) hydrides. Hydrogen storage is the most challenge in realizing the hydrogen economy, especially for on-board application in hydrogen-driving vehicles. Magnesium is among the few promising candidates of effective, safe, high density and cheap hydrogen storage, which has attracted tremendous interests of research. This project creates an innovative science and technology to solve the critical problem of hydrogen storage that wil ....Fundamental study on hydrogen desorption from nanoscale Magnesium (Mg) hydrides. Hydrogen storage is the most challenge in realizing the hydrogen economy, especially for on-board application in hydrogen-driving vehicles. Magnesium is among the few promising candidates of effective, safe, high density and cheap hydrogen storage, which has attracted tremendous interests of research. This project creates an innovative science and technology to solve the critical problem of hydrogen storage that will enhance the international reputation and impact of Australian research in nanoscience and nanothechnology. Realizing the practical hydrogen storage will also enable hydrogen vehicles soon in Australia that adds Australia great potential to reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse emissions.Read moreRead less
New Mg-based hydrogen storage material with destabilised hydrides. This project will develop a new magnesium-based hydrogen storage material for applications such as hydrogen-powered automobiles. Clean energy is a global challenge to reduce greenhouse emissions. Safe storage of hydrogen is a key barrier to the widespread implementation of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier. Magnesium is amongst the few materials able to meet the requirements for effective, safe, light-weight and cheap hydrogen s ....New Mg-based hydrogen storage material with destabilised hydrides. This project will develop a new magnesium-based hydrogen storage material for applications such as hydrogen-powered automobiles. Clean energy is a global challenge to reduce greenhouse emissions. Safe storage of hydrogen is a key barrier to the widespread implementation of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier. Magnesium is amongst the few materials able to meet the requirements for effective, safe, light-weight and cheap hydrogen storage. Light metals is a priority area for Australia with our large resources of aluminium and magnesium. Magnesium-based hydrogen storage could create a huge market for Australian magnesium and hydrogen storage systems. Read moreRead less