Critical windows: understanding changes in eating and physical activity over the transition from secondary school to young adulthood. This project will explain changes in eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviour during the critical period of transition from secondary school to young adulthood. It will provide important information on how we can assist adolescents to maintain a healthy lifestyle over a time characterised by several major life changes.
Lost at sea? Understanding adaptation and dispersal in spiny lobsters. Continual recruitment of young is fundamental to the replenishment of populations, especially when a stock is fished. Existing theory suggests that species with very long planktonic larval stages disperse widely, ensuring their genes are well mixed. However, recently identified genetic differences between populations of rock lobster challenge this paradigm and demonstrate that despite larvae mixing in the ocean for years, loc ....Lost at sea? Understanding adaptation and dispersal in spiny lobsters. Continual recruitment of young is fundamental to the replenishment of populations, especially when a stock is fished. Existing theory suggests that species with very long planktonic larval stages disperse widely, ensuring their genes are well mixed. However, recently identified genetic differences between populations of rock lobster challenge this paradigm and demonstrate that despite larvae mixing in the ocean for years, local recruitment and/or adaptation are at play. Recent developments in genomics and bioinformatics should allow this project to understand the ecological processes underpinning these genetic signatures and determine their evolutionary implications. Such findings could direct targeted rebuilding of depleted fisheries stocks.Read moreRead less
Multi-Country Study on Health Effects of Bushfire Air Pollution. Catastrophic bushfires are a major natural disaster, causing serious air pollution. However, aligning bushfire air pollution and public health policies becomes a significant challenge, because limited studies are available on relationships between bushfire air pollution and human health, particularly for the prolonged exposure. We will characterize the nature of the relationships between bushfire air pollution and mortality/morbidi ....Multi-Country Study on Health Effects of Bushfire Air Pollution. Catastrophic bushfires are a major natural disaster, causing serious air pollution. However, aligning bushfire air pollution and public health policies becomes a significant challenge, because limited studies are available on relationships between bushfire air pollution and human health, particularly for the prolonged exposure. We will characterize the nature of the relationships between bushfire air pollution and mortality/morbidity by developing a multi-country study; and estimate the burden of diseases attributed to bushfire air pollution. This project will provide essential scientific evidence to policy-makers and stakeholders in the development, prioritization and implementation of health protection strategies and policies.
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Engaging residents and families in aged care facilities. This project aims to investigate resident and family engagement in communicating about medicines that affect the mind, emotions and behaviour, by developing and testing creative strategies in aged care facilities. This project expects to generate new knowledge about resident and family communication within a dynamic context of sociocultural, environmental and interpersonal challenges and opportunities. Expected outcomes of this project inc ....Engaging residents and families in aged care facilities. This project aims to investigate resident and family engagement in communicating about medicines that affect the mind, emotions and behaviour, by developing and testing creative strategies in aged care facilities. This project expects to generate new knowledge about resident and family communication within a dynamic context of sociocultural, environmental and interpersonal challenges and opportunities. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity to enable resident and family participation in bridging communication gaps. This should provide significant benefits, in terms of increased understandings about how and under what circumstances, medicines decision making can occur with residents and families in diverse situations.Read moreRead less
Detecting and deciphering extinction dynamics under environmental change. This project aims to improve knowledge of extinction processes and impacts. It will use high-performance computing and museum collections to disentangle the ecological mechanisms that were integral in the initial decline and later extinction of Australia's unique mammals. Its significance is that it will establish the historical ranges and past population trajectories of Australian threatened mammals, pinpointing the combi ....Detecting and deciphering extinction dynamics under environmental change. This project aims to improve knowledge of extinction processes and impacts. It will use high-performance computing and museum collections to disentangle the ecological mechanisms that were integral in the initial decline and later extinction of Australia's unique mammals. Its significance is that it will establish the historical ranges and past population trajectories of Australian threatened mammals, pinpointing the combinations of ecological characteristics and threats that most affect risk of extinction from environmental change. Expected outcomes and benefits are new data and verified models to enrich conservation research and inform evidence-based solutions to better protect and recover some of Australia’s most threatened species.Read moreRead less
Program evaluation of the osteoarthritis awareness hub. Persons with osteoarthritis generally have poor knowledge about their disease and its appropriate management. The aim of this project is to evaluate whether improved knowledge, and management decisions of persons with osteoarthritis, can ultimately lead to improved health outcomes.
Gender Affirmation in Childhood: Protective Factors and Strategies . This interdisciplinary study aims to explore Australian Trans and Gender Diverse (TGD) children’s experiences of affirming their gender. It is innovative methodologically for inclusion of arts-based methods with children, and multiple perspectives from TGD children (5-16), peer allies, parents, healthcare professionals and educators. TGD young people are a rapidly growing population, disproportionately affected by intentional s ....Gender Affirmation in Childhood: Protective Factors and Strategies . This interdisciplinary study aims to explore Australian Trans and Gender Diverse (TGD) children’s experiences of affirming their gender. It is innovative methodologically for inclusion of arts-based methods with children, and multiple perspectives from TGD children (5-16), peer allies, parents, healthcare professionals and educators. TGD young people are a rapidly growing population, disproportionately affected by intentional self-harm and suicidality. The project expects to generate new understandings of gender, the lived experiences of TGD children and families, and protective factors in their lives. Significant benefits should be informing theory, policy, and early interventions and co-development of resources for key stakeholders. Read moreRead less
Selectivity enhancement in separation science using responsive materials. Increasing public demand for quality products from the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and food industries requires access to innovative methods of chemical analysis. This project will establish a new class of separation materials of enhanced selectivity and resolving power for the fast, sensitive and reliable analysis of these products.
Founders and survivors: Australian lifecourses in historical context. This project will create one of the world's outstanding longitudinal studies of human health and resilience. It will contribute to the historical understanding of European migration, settler colonialism, forced labour and human health under stress, long-run family formation and falling fertility, household economy, and the social determinants of health. It will contribute to debate both nationally and internationally on the lo ....Founders and survivors: Australian lifecourses in historical context. This project will create one of the world's outstanding longitudinal studies of human health and resilience. It will contribute to the historical understanding of European migration, settler colonialism, forced labour and human health under stress, long-run family formation and falling fertility, household economy, and the social determinants of health. It will contribute to debate both nationally and internationally on the long-run effects of social and biomedical interventions and of investment in human capital. It will tell the grassroots history of the Australian penal and colonial experiments and it will form a scholarly coalition with the great community of family historians. Read moreRead less
Convicts and Diggers: a demography of life courses, families and generations. Based on convict records, birth, death and marriage registrations, World War One service records, and other historical data, this project explores long-term demographic outcomes of individuals, families and lineages. The project draws on the expertise of family historians to trace individuals and their descendants for 'Australia's biggest family history'.