Neuronal Substrate Of Choice In The Rat Whisker System
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$405,851.00
Summary
Humans and other animals can optimise their goal-directed behaviour by linking stimuli or actions to consequent positive and negative rewards. How does an animal generate such associations, and make decisions in the natural environment where the associations are often uncertain, at times contradictory, and continuously changing? This project uses rat whisker system as an animal model to identify the neuronal basis of perceptual decision making and the role of context.
Resilient Democracy for the 21st Century. This project will establish novel foundational theoretical frameworks for the design of democratic institutions that can withstand internal and external pressure towards autocratisation. It will develop state of the art dynamic models of information manipulation and political dynamics, and analyse large-scale online survey experiments, as well as contemporary and historical data. This combination will deliver new insights into the management of sensitive ....Resilient Democracy for the 21st Century. This project will establish novel foundational theoretical frameworks for the design of democratic institutions that can withstand internal and external pressure towards autocratisation. It will develop state of the art dynamic models of information manipulation and political dynamics, and analyse large-scale online survey experiments, as well as contemporary and historical data. This combination will deliver new insights into the management of sensitive information and how to protect democracy from information manipulation. Ultimately, the project will generate a body of theoretical and empirical evidence for the design of more effective and resilient democratic institutions for a more inclusive economic development. Read moreRead less
Hypergraph models for complex discrete systems. This project aims to better understand the structure and properties of very large hypergraphs of various kinds. Hypergraphs are very general mathematical objects which can be used to model complex discrete systems. They arise naturally in many areas such as ecology, chemistry and computer science. Despite this, our theoretical understanding of very large, or random, hypergraphs lags far behind the intensely-studied special case of graphs. This proj ....Hypergraph models for complex discrete systems. This project aims to better understand the structure and properties of very large hypergraphs of various kinds. Hypergraphs are very general mathematical objects which can be used to model complex discrete systems. They arise naturally in many areas such as ecology, chemistry and computer science. Despite this, our theoretical understanding of very large, or random, hypergraphs lags far behind the intensely-studied special case of graphs. This project will answer many fundamental questions about large, random hypergraphs. The expected outcomes of the project also include new tools for working with hypergraphs, such as efficient algorithms for sampling hypergraphs. These outcomes will benefit researchers who use hypergraphs in their work and will enhance Australia's reputation for research in this area.Read moreRead less
A new model for random discrete structures: distributions, counting and sampling. Random discrete structures are used in countless applications across science for modelling complex systems. This project will study a new, very general model of random discrete structures which encapsulates both random networks and random matrices. This project will develop general tools for working with this model, thereby unlocking the model for use by practitioners in areas such as physics, biology, statistics a ....A new model for random discrete structures: distributions, counting and sampling. Random discrete structures are used in countless applications across science for modelling complex systems. This project will study a new, very general model of random discrete structures which encapsulates both random networks and random matrices. This project will develop general tools for working with this model, thereby unlocking the model for use by practitioners in areas such as physics, biology, statistics and cryptography. The questions that will be tackled are fundamental problems in probability, and include as special cases the analysis of subgraph distribution in models of random networks, and the joint distribution of entries of contingency tables, which are important in statistics.Read moreRead less
The economics of cooperative behaviour. Free-riding and rent-seeking, such as tax avoidance and nepotism, are group-undermining activities that societies including Australia continuously struggle with. The aim of this project is to develop a fuller understanding of how to protect human groups from these socially damaging group-related behaviours. Drawing on a conceptual grounding that combines ideas from across social science, the project aims to implement a suite of economic experiments to deve ....The economics of cooperative behaviour. Free-riding and rent-seeking, such as tax avoidance and nepotism, are group-undermining activities that societies including Australia continuously struggle with. The aim of this project is to develop a fuller understanding of how to protect human groups from these socially damaging group-related behaviours. Drawing on a conceptual grounding that combines ideas from across social science, the project aims to implement a suite of economic experiments to develop a view of humans' cooperative behaviour that unites several strands of economics literature and offers new insights about how institutions that counter free-riding and rent-seeking arise and are maintained.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100708
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$297,003.00
Summary
Morphing graph drawings. A morphing is a continuous transformation between two drawings of the same topological graph such that at every time instant the drawing has the same topology. Morphings of graph drawings find applications in several areas of computer science, including computer graphics, animation, and modelling. This project will design algorithms for constructing morphings between graph drawings. Unlike any existing method to morph graph drawings, the algorithms designed for this proj ....Morphing graph drawings. A morphing is a continuous transformation between two drawings of the same topological graph such that at every time instant the drawing has the same topology. Morphings of graph drawings find applications in several areas of computer science, including computer graphics, animation, and modelling. This project will design algorithms for constructing morphings between graph drawings. Unlike any existing method to morph graph drawings, the algorithms designed for this project will guarantee bounds on the complexity of the vertex trajectories, guarantee bounds on the resolution of the drawing at every time instant, and deal with topological graphs that are not necessarily planar.Read moreRead less
Extremal problems in hypergraph matchings. Matchings in hypergraphs are a way of understanding complex relationships between objects in any set. This project will develop a mathematical theory that covers both extreme and typical cases. This theory will have applications wherever hypergraphs are used as models, for example in machine learning, game theory, databases, data mining and optimisation.
Enumeration and properties of large discrete structures. This project aims to study a fundamental property of random graphs, by further developing a recently introduced approach to the problem of enumerating graphs with given degrees. Using this new method, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the number of connections that each node has with other nodes in a random graph, and to develop new strategies for counting the graphs or networks with a given property. The project expects to ....Enumeration and properties of large discrete structures. This project aims to study a fundamental property of random graphs, by further developing a recently introduced approach to the problem of enumerating graphs with given degrees. Using this new method, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the number of connections that each node has with other nodes in a random graph, and to develop new strategies for counting the graphs or networks with a given property. The project expects to produce new theoretical results as well as enhanced capabilities of mathematical research. Potential benefits arise through the uses of these theoretical combinatorial objects to study naturally occurring networks such as social networks, the network of the world wide web, and chemical compounds.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100789
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$324,499.00
Summary
Advances in graph Ramsey theory. This project aims to solve significant questions at the forefront of graph Ramsey theory, which provides the theoretical background for understanding networks that are omnipresent in the modern world. Major progress is anticipated on the recently introduced concept of Ramsey equivalence, including the development of deep new tools that combine probabilistic methods, extremal graph theory and graph decomposition techniques. The project will use these new tools to ....Advances in graph Ramsey theory. This project aims to solve significant questions at the forefront of graph Ramsey theory, which provides the theoretical background for understanding networks that are omnipresent in the modern world. Major progress is anticipated on the recently introduced concept of Ramsey equivalence, including the development of deep new tools that combine probabilistic methods, extremal graph theory and graph decomposition techniques. The project will use these new tools to solve old questions on the structure of minimal Ramsey graphs, thus fostering the international competitiveness of Australian research and enhancing Australia's reputation as a knowledge nation.Read moreRead less
Enumeration and random generation of contingency tables with given margins. This project aims to find algorithms to construct random tables of numbers having given totals across the rows and down the columns. The aim is also to study properties of such tables. A significant aspect of the project is that it is expected to cover scenarios where all existing methods fail, by deploying recently developed powerful techniques used for random networks in combinatorics. Expected outcomes of this project ....Enumeration and random generation of contingency tables with given margins. This project aims to find algorithms to construct random tables of numbers having given totals across the rows and down the columns. The aim is also to study properties of such tables. A significant aspect of the project is that it is expected to cover scenarios where all existing methods fail, by deploying recently developed powerful techniques used for random networks in combinatorics. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of efficient algorithms that can be used in statistics for identifying relationships between variables in large data sets. This would help bring Australia to the forefront of research in an area that is significant both in data analysis and in discrete mathematics.
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