Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of th ....Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of the instruments in order to test the sensitivity of results to assumptions made about social values, and will produce Australian estimates of the person trade-off weights used in the Australian and Victorian Burden of Disease studies (which presently use Dutch PTO weights). Read moreRead less
Structure and states of operator-algebraic dynamical systems. This project is in the general area of functional analysis, and more specifically operator theory, an area in which the University of Wollongong has an active research group and a strong international reputation. The investigators will study dynamical systems arising in combinatorial and number-theoretic situations, where the analogue of the "dynamics'' is provided by an action of the real line on an operator algebra. Thus the project ....Structure and states of operator-algebraic dynamical systems. This project is in the general area of functional analysis, and more specifically operator theory, an area in which the University of Wollongong has an active research group and a strong international reputation. The investigators will study dynamical systems arising in combinatorial and number-theoretic situations, where the analogue of the "dynamics'' is provided by an action of the real line on an operator algebra. Thus the project will involve ideas and techniques from a wide range of mathematical disciplines, and will help to broaden Australia's expertise across these disciplines.Read moreRead less
Endomorphisms, transfer operators and Hilbert modules. This project is in the general area of functional analysis, an area where both Newcastle University and the University of New South Wales have strong international reputations. The aim of the project is to study irreversible dynamics in the presence of transfer operators, as recently introduced by Professor Exel. The motivation comes from a variety of examples arising in different areas of mathematics, including number theory and graph theor ....Endomorphisms, transfer operators and Hilbert modules. This project is in the general area of functional analysis, an area where both Newcastle University and the University of New South Wales have strong international reputations. The aim of the project is to study irreversible dynamics in the presence of transfer operators, as recently introduced by Professor Exel. The motivation comes from a variety of examples arising in different areas of mathematics, including number theory and graph theory. It is hoped that the results will give new understanding of the algebraic and analytic structure underlying the multi-resolution analyses used in approximation theory and Fourier analysis. This project will help ensure that Australia has a strong foundation in mathematics which will foster innovation.Read moreRead less
Operator algebras associated to semigroups and graphs. This project aims to unify ideas from two highly topical areas of mathematics in which one studies discrete objects by representing them as families of linear transformations. In the first area, one represents the semigroups which model irreversible dynamics as isometries (that is, distance-preserving transformations); in the second, one represents networks by families of partially defined isometries in a way which reflects the behaviour of ....Operator algebras associated to semigroups and graphs. This project aims to unify ideas from two highly topical areas of mathematics in which one studies discrete objects by representing them as families of linear transformations. In the first area, one represents the semigroups which model irreversible dynamics as isometries (that is, distance-preserving transformations); in the second, one represents networks by families of partially defined isometries in a way which reflects the behaviour of paths in the network. The link will be achieved by viewing the operator algebras they generate as semidirect products which have been twisted by a noncommutative cocycle.Read moreRead less
Operator algebras associated to groupoids. Australian researchers have a strong reputation for excellence and innovation in the field of operator algebras. Operator algebras associated to groupoids have been immensely influential in recent decades, both within mathematics and via applications to theoretical physics. This project will develop an innovative approach to groupoid algebras, and will help to maintain the high standing of Australian researchers in this important field.
Co-universal operator algebras. Australian researchers have established themselves at the very forefront of research into operator algebras associated to graphs. The proposed research will make an important impact, at a fundamental level, on the way that researchers around the world view these operator algebras. This will help to further strengthen Australia's reputation in this field. The proposed program will also train two PhD students in a very active area of mathematics and put them in cont ....Co-universal operator algebras. Australian researchers have established themselves at the very forefront of research into operator algebras associated to graphs. The proposed research will make an important impact, at a fundamental level, on the way that researchers around the world view these operator algebras. This will help to further strengthen Australia's reputation in this field. The proposed program will also train two PhD students in a very active area of mathematics and put them in contact with a vibrant research community. This will help contribute to the strong future of pure mathematics in Australia.Read moreRead less
Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners an ....Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners and is expected to generate new and important evidence using unique longitudinal data.Read moreRead less
New Directions in Noncommutative Geometry. A. Connes' noncommutative geometry has recently become important in topology, geometry and physics. The central geometric objects in noncommutative geometry are called spectral triples. Spectral triples also provide the framework for studying some important classes of equations. This project will extend the definitions of spectral triples to cover additional important examples. This extension will provide the tools to study a broad class of boundary val ....New Directions in Noncommutative Geometry. A. Connes' noncommutative geometry has recently become important in topology, geometry and physics. The central geometric objects in noncommutative geometry are called spectral triples. Spectral triples also provide the framework for studying some important classes of equations. This project will extend the definitions of spectral triples to cover additional important examples. This extension will provide the tools to study a broad class of boundary value problems in the theory of equations. Such problems occur in several areas of modern physics. In addition, results obtained will be useful for studying the structure of the most important spectral triples, called noncommutative manifolds.Read moreRead less
The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health servic ....The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health services and the question of access to services); (iii) provide health service researchers with numerical scores to indicate where there are higher priority services or recipients: for example, the young or those with long term disabilities.Read moreRead less
The effect of competition and doctor heterogeneity on prices charged by doctors. Prices charged by doctors can have important effects on health care costs, access to health care and health status. This research will examine the determinants of prices charged by doctors. The results will be important in understanding the pricing practices of doctors and their impact on health care costs.