Breaking the cycle of intergenerational child maltreatment using 'big data'. This project aims to provide the first comprehensive investigation of inter-generational child maltreatment using over 50 years of linked data for a population cohort of children and their parents in New South Wales. The project will generate new knowledge about the prevalence and characteristics of families in which child maltreatment is initiated, maintained across generations, or in which the trauma cycle is broken, ....Breaking the cycle of intergenerational child maltreatment using 'big data'. This project aims to provide the first comprehensive investigation of inter-generational child maltreatment using over 50 years of linked data for a population cohort of children and their parents in New South Wales. The project will generate new knowledge about the prevalence and characteristics of families in which child maltreatment is initiated, maintained across generations, or in which the trauma cycle is broken, using innovative statistical techniques. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of the true prevalence of inter-generational family trauma that can only be known from combining inter-agency data, and enhanced capacity to identify cross-agency levers in an effort to break the cycle of inter-generational disadvantage.Read moreRead less
The impact of payout policy changes on firm value and short selling activities across different taxation regimes. Brealey et al (2011) assert that we don't know enough yet about how payout policy varies across firms. This project examines the information content of dividend changes and repurchase programs and the long-term market impact of these announcements, controlling for the substitution effect of repurchases/dividends in different institutional/tax regimes. This project also examines wheth ....The impact of payout policy changes on firm value and short selling activities across different taxation regimes. Brealey et al (2011) assert that we don't know enough yet about how payout policy varies across firms. This project examines the information content of dividend changes and repurchase programs and the long-term market impact of these announcements, controlling for the substitution effect of repurchases/dividends in different institutional/tax regimes. This project also examines whether short sellers manifest abnormal behaviour around the announcement of dividend changes and repurchase programs, and whether earnings are manipulated upwards to maintain the dividend or downwards prior to the announcement of repurchase programs. The findings will be of major interest to academics, managers, investors and regulators.Read moreRead less
Change Detection in Causal Relationships and Measurement of Systemic Risk. Empirical measures of interconnectedness between financial institutions based on tests of Granger causality are currently used in detecting systemic risk. However, researchers need to define periods of calm and stress exogenously in order to implement these tests appropriately. This project aims to develop a new procedure to identify changes in causal relationships and the timing of these changes. The new approach has the ....Change Detection in Causal Relationships and Measurement of Systemic Risk. Empirical measures of interconnectedness between financial institutions based on tests of Granger causality are currently used in detecting systemic risk. However, researchers need to define periods of calm and stress exogenously in order to implement these tests appropriately. This project aims to develop a new procedure to identify changes in causal relationships and the timing of these changes. The new approach has the potential to be a significant improvement in the real-time identification of emerging turmoil in financial markets and provide an improved method for the detection of systemic risk. The new test procedure will be implemented using data for financial and non-financial institutions across Europe, the US and Australia.Read moreRead less
Legacy2Service: A Novel, Model-Driven Technique for Re-engineering On-Demand, Software Services out of Legacy Applications. The proliferation of software-as-a-service applications from "dotcom" players is raising expectations that other industries will make their critical desktop and mainframe software available as web-enabled software-as-a-service and mobile "apps". However, manually re-engineering legacy software is notoriously costly and frequently unsuccessful. This project will make it easi ....Legacy2Service: A Novel, Model-Driven Technique for Re-engineering On-Demand, Software Services out of Legacy Applications. The proliferation of software-as-a-service applications from "dotcom" players is raising expectations that other industries will make their critical desktop and mainframe software available as web-enabled software-as-a-service and mobile "apps". However, manually re-engineering legacy software is notoriously costly and frequently unsuccessful. This project will make it easier and quicker to turn stand-alone programs into online services by automating much of the process. Specifically, it will develop tools: for analysing program code to identify points to implement service interfaces; for displaying existing and new code dependencies visually; and, to help design and implement new software layers that link legacy services to the web.Read moreRead less
Limiting False Positives in Empirical Asset Pricing Tests. The project aims to address the issue of data mining in asset pricing tests using innovative interdisciplinary approaches that mitigate the occurrence of false positives. The expected outcomes include extended options in finance for alleviating data mining, as well as new guidelines for rigorously evaluating the explanatory power of risk factors on expected returns. The project findings are expected to significantly advance our understan ....Limiting False Positives in Empirical Asset Pricing Tests. The project aims to address the issue of data mining in asset pricing tests using innovative interdisciplinary approaches that mitigate the occurrence of false positives. The expected outcomes include extended options in finance for alleviating data mining, as well as new guidelines for rigorously evaluating the explanatory power of risk factors on expected returns. The project findings are expected to significantly advance our understanding of the pricing of risk. Additionally, the proposed tools are anticipated to have broad applications, such as corporate finance and fraud detection, and offer significant value to finance research and its stakeholders, such as the Australian asset management industry and government regulatory bodies.
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Beyond psychopathology: Pathways to suicide in mentally well young adult males. Increased knowledge of risk factors for suicide among mentally well males can lead to better informed preventive health policies, earlier intervention and community education. The tragic impacts of suicide lead to long-term societal problems which result in disconnection and alienation, particularly for those who are left behind; findings from this study will assist development of initiatives aimed at increasing soci ....Beyond psychopathology: Pathways to suicide in mentally well young adult males. Increased knowledge of risk factors for suicide among mentally well males can lead to better informed preventive health policies, earlier intervention and community education. The tragic impacts of suicide lead to long-term societal problems which result in disconnection and alienation, particularly for those who are left behind; findings from this study will assist development of initiatives aimed at increasing social connectedness and awareness. Also, males compose the predominant workforce in Australia and the costs saved as a result of effective prevention initiatives may be enormous, given that economic costs to suicide are estimated at 900 million dollars annually. Read moreRead less
An Investigation into Suicidal Behaviours by Males during the Process of Marital and De Facto Separation. The project has a likelihood of reducing rates of fatal and non-fatal suicidal behaviour by high-risk groups such as males aged 25 - 44, and growing Australian populations such as the separated/divorced. The anticipated saving of lives, injuries, and mental distress is expected to achieve substantial and sustainable cutback in individual, corporate and public expenditure on mental health, i ....An Investigation into Suicidal Behaviours by Males during the Process of Marital and De Facto Separation. The project has a likelihood of reducing rates of fatal and non-fatal suicidal behaviour by high-risk groups such as males aged 25 - 44, and growing Australian populations such as the separated/divorced. The anticipated saving of lives, injuries, and mental distress is expected to achieve substantial and sustainable cutback in individual, corporate and public expenditure on mental health, injury control and suicide prevention by government, community and corporate agencies. Time and personnel resources utilised by the police, ambulance, coroner, hospital, and insurance departments can be diverted from highly preventable suicides to other areas. Read moreRead less
Making complex interfaces work for the national disability insurance scheme. This project aims to examine how organisations, frontline workers and participants negotiate funded supports across the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and mainstream services and systems interfaces by taking a street-level perspective. The project intends to generate knowledge about self-governing arrangements and adaptive practices that encourage coordinated planning using case study methodology and novel ....Making complex interfaces work for the national disability insurance scheme. This project aims to examine how organisations, frontline workers and participants negotiate funded supports across the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and mainstream services and systems interfaces by taking a street-level perspective. The project intends to generate knowledge about self-governing arrangements and adaptive practices that encourage coordinated planning using case study methodology and novel digital research tools. Expected outcomes include the identification of optimal organisational approaches and models of sector governance that mobilise and embed interface efficiencies. This project should significantly benefit the sustainability of the NDIS and ensure the system works effectively for participants.Read moreRead less
Customer Rage Spectrum Emotions in Service Failure Encounters: Linking Experience, Expression, Behaviour and Organisational Responses. Customer rage has recently received considerable attention in the press. Yet, organisations are ill-equipped to deal with this disturbing phenomenon. This ground-breaking research will help business and government service organisations better understand and respond to customer rage in order to avoid economic, social and emotional losses, and minimise damage to pr ....Customer Rage Spectrum Emotions in Service Failure Encounters: Linking Experience, Expression, Behaviour and Organisational Responses. Customer rage has recently received considerable attention in the press. Yet, organisations are ill-equipped to deal with this disturbing phenomenon. This ground-breaking research will help business and government service organisations better understand and respond to customer rage in order to avoid economic, social and emotional losses, and minimise damage to property and persons. Such practices should result in stress reduction among consumers and front-line employees, thereby lowering society's healthcare costs and improving citizens' overall quality of life. Since the research examines how customer rage varies across East-West cultures, the results will also have significant international impact. Read moreRead less
Efficient Similarity Query Processing in High Dimensional Databases. This project studies a fundamental problem common to a wide range of applications. It contributes to smart use of information, which is vital to the modern knowledge-based economy, by providing an enabling technology to capitalise Australia's huge investment in data collection. Our research is right in the forefront of ICT research, leading the international effort of extending database technologies to support data management a ....Efficient Similarity Query Processing in High Dimensional Databases. This project studies a fundamental problem common to a wide range of applications. It contributes to smart use of information, which is vital to the modern knowledge-based economy, by providing an enabling technology to capitalise Australia's huge investment in data collection. Our research is right in the forefront of ICT research, leading the international effort of extending database technologies to support data management and query processing for very large and highly complex data.Read moreRead less