Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sex-offenders in Australia: Assessing risk for practice and policy. A key priority of Australian governments is to improve community safety through reducing the risk of sex offenders re-offending after release from prison. This project will assess the validity of tools used to predict the risk of sexual offender recidivism and identify alternate risk assessment tools for Indigenous and non-Indigenous sex offenders.
Strengthening Australia's national integrity system. Strengthening Australia's national integrity system. This project aims to equip governments and civil society stakeholders with evidence-based options to improve the structure and operations of integrity institutions, by undertaking a second National Integrity System Assessment. Public integrity is vital to social and economic prosperity and the quality of democracy. This project intends to identify new, more effective strategies to prevent co ....Strengthening Australia's national integrity system. Strengthening Australia's national integrity system. This project aims to equip governments and civil society stakeholders with evidence-based options to improve the structure and operations of integrity institutions, by undertaking a second National Integrity System Assessment. Public integrity is vital to social and economic prosperity and the quality of democracy. This project intends to identify new, more effective strategies to prevent corruption and other integrity violations; coordinate the work of integrity institutions; ensure their accountability; and measure the effectiveness of integrity and anti-corruption policy settings. This research is expected to contribute to better evaluation of integrity policies worldwide.Read moreRead less
Development and Assessment of Chimaeric Feline Caliciviruses as Vaccines. Feline caliciviruses are major pathogens of cats worldwide, but current vaccines offer only incomplete protection. This project aims to develop novel recombinant vaccine strains that will generate more cross protective immunity and thus provide greater protection for vaccinated cats.
Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. This project aims to develop and test a series of interventions to disrupt identify theft activities, and design an operational risk framework that will aid law enforcement agencies and organisations to timely and appropriately intervene in cyber space. The buying and selling of identity credentials via dark net forums is a significant and growing problem. This research— based on systems ....Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. This project aims to develop and test a series of interventions to disrupt identify theft activities, and design an operational risk framework that will aid law enforcement agencies and organisations to timely and appropriately intervene in cyber space. The buying and selling of identity credentials via dark net forums is a significant and growing problem. This research— based on systems analyses of dark net forums, and bringing together researchers, practitioners, theories and methods from human factors, sociotechnical systems, criminology, and cyber security—is expected to increase understanding of the dark net and improve ways of disrupting identity theft and trading.Read moreRead less
Development of an Attenuated Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus Vaccine. This project will develop novel methods for identification of genes involved in virulence of the important avian pathogen Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus and produce an attenuated, antigenically marked infectious laryngotracheitis virus vaccine strain by specific disruption and deletion of two or more genes in the virusÕs genome.
Infectious laryngotracheitis is a major disease of chickens throughout the world, but curre ....Development of an Attenuated Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus Vaccine. This project will develop novel methods for identification of genes involved in virulence of the important avian pathogen Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus and produce an attenuated, antigenically marked infectious laryngotracheitis virus vaccine strain by specific disruption and deletion of two or more genes in the virusÕs genome.
Infectious laryngotracheitis is a major disease of chickens throughout the world, but current vaccines retain some capacity to cause disease. The development of novel attenuated vaccines will thus enhance control of this important disease of poultry.Read moreRead less
The effective treatment of drug using offenders: the impact of treatment modality, coercion and treatment readiness on criminal recidivism. Drug use is associated with significant health, social, and economic costs. Given the established drug-crime connection and the high rate of relapse among drug-using offenders, the outcomes of this research will assist policymakers in identifying clinically and cost effective approaches to service delivery. Moreover, in view of the debate that surrounds the ....The effective treatment of drug using offenders: the impact of treatment modality, coercion and treatment readiness on criminal recidivism. Drug use is associated with significant health, social, and economic costs. Given the established drug-crime connection and the high rate of relapse among drug-using offenders, the outcomes of this research will assist policymakers in identifying clinically and cost effective approaches to service delivery. Moreover, in view of the debate that surrounds the efficacy of coerced treatment, and the extent to which Australia should follow the United States of America’s lead of mandating treatment for all substance using offenders, the project will test the proposition that compulsory treatment has positive outcomes in terms of reductions in recidivism.Read moreRead less
The molecular pathogenesis of Equine rhinitis A virus, a major respiratory pathogen of horses. The equine industry in Australia is worth $15 billion a year. Equine respiratory disease costs Victoria, alone, $5-10 million per year. Equine rhinitis A virus is a major cause of acute febrile respiratory disease in horses. This project aims to develop an infectious clone to study the pathogenesis of the disease, and subunit antigens for use as vaccines. These reagents will increase our understand ....The molecular pathogenesis of Equine rhinitis A virus, a major respiratory pathogen of horses. The equine industry in Australia is worth $15 billion a year. Equine respiratory disease costs Victoria, alone, $5-10 million per year. Equine rhinitis A virus is a major cause of acute febrile respiratory disease in horses. This project aims to develop an infectious clone to study the pathogenesis of the disease, and subunit antigens for use as vaccines. These reagents will increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of ERAV and will lead to experimental vaccines which will be tested in horses.Read moreRead less
Targeted crime: policing and social inclusion. This project will undertake a criminological study of the policing of targeted incidents and crime, that is, incidents and crimes motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred towards members of particular groups, communities and individuals. It will develop a best practice policing framework for targeted crimes and incidents.
Vaccine against leptospirosis. This project will utilise the information from the determination of the complete genome sequence of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjobovis at Monash University. Bioinformatics analysis will be used to allow a global approach to identify all putative vaccine antigens which will be cloned, expressed and purified and their protective capacity investigated.
Characterisation and Stability of ISCOM Vaccines. ISCOMS® are particles comprising saponin, cholesterol and phospholipids which when mixed with proteins form potent vaccines. When proteins are associated with ISCOMs® a variety of different sized particles with various surface chemistries can be formed. This project aims to understand the physico-chemical mechanisms governing ISCOM® formation. This understanding will allow development of methods for controlling the size, characteristics and long- ....Characterisation and Stability of ISCOM Vaccines. ISCOMS® are particles comprising saponin, cholesterol and phospholipids which when mixed with proteins form potent vaccines. When proteins are associated with ISCOMs® a variety of different sized particles with various surface chemistries can be formed. This project aims to understand the physico-chemical mechanisms governing ISCOM® formation. This understanding will allow development of methods for controlling the size, characteristics and long-term stability of these particles. In addition the size and surface chemistry of the particles will be correlated with their effectiveness as vaccines. Both these outcomes will support the ongoing commercial development of ISCOM®-based vaccines at CSL.Read moreRead less