Evolutionary history and impact of adeno-associated viruses in Australia. Recently accrued evidence identifies Australia as an ideal closed-model system in which to elucidate the evolutionary history of a group of non-pathogenic viruses, known as adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). This project aims to trace back the evolutionary history of AAVs for tens of millions of years via molecular fossil imprints left behind by ancient viral invasions of Australian marsupial genomes. Concurrently, the poten ....Evolutionary history and impact of adeno-associated viruses in Australia. Recently accrued evidence identifies Australia as an ideal closed-model system in which to elucidate the evolutionary history of a group of non-pathogenic viruses, known as adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). This project aims to trace back the evolutionary history of AAVs for tens of millions of years via molecular fossil imprints left behind by ancient viral invasions of Australian marsupial genomes. Concurrently, the potential impact that these viral invasions had on the evolutionary development of their ancestral hosts will be investigated. This could facilitate previously unattainable insights into both AAV and marsupial evolution, with broader implications relevant to the advancement of the fields of virology and mammalian evolution.Read moreRead less
Automated internet warnings to prevent viewing of minor-adult sex images. Since the advent of the internet and digital cameras, the market for child exploitation material (CEM) has boomed. This project aims to explore how the visual appearance of warning messages influences internet users. It plans to conduct a randomised controlled experiment with naïve participants on a real-life website to test the effectiveness of messages designed to discourage viewers of legal ‘barely legal’ pornography. I ....Automated internet warnings to prevent viewing of minor-adult sex images. Since the advent of the internet and digital cameras, the market for child exploitation material (CEM) has boomed. This project aims to explore how the visual appearance of warning messages influences internet users. It plans to conduct a randomised controlled experiment with naïve participants on a real-life website to test the effectiveness of messages designed to discourage viewers of legal ‘barely legal’ pornography. It is anticipated that results will assist policing efforts by indicating whether warnings can be used to dissuade first-time CEM viewers and whether differences exist between harm or deterrent-focused messages.Read moreRead less
An empirically-derived conceptual framework for designing usable and useful wireless mobile applications. The technological challenges posed by mobile computing devices have taken priority over the issues of appropriate use and usability that will ultimately determine their success in real work environments.
This project investigates these issues, particularly the role played by the context of use in the usability and usefulness of mobile applications.
The project's aims will be realised ....An empirically-derived conceptual framework for designing usable and useful wireless mobile applications. The technological challenges posed by mobile computing devices have taken priority over the issues of appropriate use and usability that will ultimately determine their success in real work environments.
This project investigates these issues, particularly the role played by the context of use in the usability and usefulness of mobile applications.
The project's aims will be realised through ethnographic studies of mobile work practice, representative use scenarios and the development of an empirically grounded conceptual framework that can guide the design of usable mobile applications.
The results will increase the successful utilisation of mobile technology by Australian industries.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100265
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$417,000.00
Summary
A closed-loop human–agent learning framework to enhance decision making. This project aims to design a foundational human–agent learning framework to augment the decision making process, using reinforcement and closed-loop mechanisms to enable symbiosis between a human and an artificial-intelligence agent. It envisages significant new technologies to promote controllability and efficient and safe exploration of an environment for decision actions – drastically boosting learning effectiveness and ....A closed-loop human–agent learning framework to enhance decision making. This project aims to design a foundational human–agent learning framework to augment the decision making process, using reinforcement and closed-loop mechanisms to enable symbiosis between a human and an artificial-intelligence agent. It envisages significant new technologies to promote controllability and efficient and safe exploration of an environment for decision actions – drastically boosting learning effectiveness and interpretability in decision making. Expected outcomes will benefit national cybersecurity by improving our understanding of vulnerabilities and threats involving decision actions, and by ensuring that human feedback and evaluations can help prevent catastrophic events in explorations of dynamic and complex environments.Read moreRead less
Contact Networks, Immunity, and Evolution in Competing Cancer Epidemics. The project aims to evaluate evolutionary interactions between two transmissible cancer epidemics affecting Tasmanian devils and quantify their feedback on infection risk and epidemic behaviour. Using contact tracing and a phylogenetic framework we aim to quantify how tumour lineages evolve with each generation of infection and their effects on susceptibility to infection and disease progression. We expect to reveal the hos ....Contact Networks, Immunity, and Evolution in Competing Cancer Epidemics. The project aims to evaluate evolutionary interactions between two transmissible cancer epidemics affecting Tasmanian devils and quantify their feedback on infection risk and epidemic behaviour. Using contact tracing and a phylogenetic framework we aim to quantify how tumour lineages evolve with each generation of infection and their effects on susceptibility to infection and disease progression. We expect to reveal the host immuno-genetic basis underpinning cancer suppression and the adaptive capacity of populations in response to infectious diseases. This should significantly improve our ability to understand and manage this and other epidemic outbreaks in wildlife, as well as advancing our knowledge in cancer ecology and evolution.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH120100021
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,500,000.00
Summary
Pathways to market: transforming food industry futures through improved sensing, provenance and choice. Pathways to market: transforming food industry futures through improved sensing, provenance and choice. This Research Hub aims to transform the Australian food industry by demonstrating how new knowledge on food production and consumption generated through novel sensing technologies and advanced modelling techniques can be implemented in smart applications to power competitiveness, sustainabil ....Pathways to market: transforming food industry futures through improved sensing, provenance and choice. Pathways to market: transforming food industry futures through improved sensing, provenance and choice. This Research Hub aims to transform the Australian food industry by demonstrating how new knowledge on food production and consumption generated through novel sensing technologies and advanced modelling techniques can be implemented in smart applications to power competitiveness, sustainability and innovation in food value chains.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101116
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,159.00
Summary
Adaptations in Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. This project aims to understand how defence mechanisms against infectious diseases arise and evolve in nature. Infectious diseases exert strong evolutionary pressures on populations, forcing the development of adaptive strategies to fight the costs of infection. The project aims to determine individual differences in response to infection and how these affect population-scale transmission and evolutionary dynamics under natural and managed sc ....Adaptations in Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. This project aims to understand how defence mechanisms against infectious diseases arise and evolve in nature. Infectious diseases exert strong evolutionary pressures on populations, forcing the development of adaptive strategies to fight the costs of infection. The project aims to determine individual differences in response to infection and how these affect population-scale transmission and evolutionary dynamics under natural and managed scenarios. This is expected to reveal populations’ adaptive capability and resilience against diseases and the effects of management interventions in controlling disease outbreaks and preventing population declines or extinctions.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and developmen ....The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and development using Australian English and facilitate the development of Australian speech technology applications from automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis used in taxi and other ordering services, to hearing prostheses and talking head aids for learning-impaired children, and a range of security and forensic applications.Read moreRead less
Remote presence for guidance on physical tasks. This project aims to transform remote collaboration on physical tasks. Current systems for remote collaboration on physical tasks are not as effective as working face-to-face. This could be overcome by sharing non-verbal cues, designing systems to account for cultural issues, and using a new model of communication. This project will develop theories and interaction methods for remote guidance based on natural non-verbal communication cues and cultu ....Remote presence for guidance on physical tasks. This project aims to transform remote collaboration on physical tasks. Current systems for remote collaboration on physical tasks are not as effective as working face-to-face. This could be overcome by sharing non-verbal cues, designing systems to account for cultural issues, and using a new model of communication. This project will develop theories and interaction methods for remote guidance based on natural non-verbal communication cues and cultural issues. This project is expected to benefit industries with widely distributed multi-cultural workforces such as mining, defence and medicine.Read moreRead less
Visual analytics for massive multivariate networks. Visual analytics for massive multivariate networks. This project aims to create methods to visually analyse massive multivariate networks. The amount of network data available has exploded in recent years: software systems, social networks and biological systems have millions of nodes and billions of edges with multivariate attributes. Their size and complexity makes these data sets hard to exploit. More efficient ways to understand the data ar ....Visual analytics for massive multivariate networks. Visual analytics for massive multivariate networks. This project aims to create methods to visually analyse massive multivariate networks. The amount of network data available has exploded in recent years: software systems, social networks and biological systems have millions of nodes and billions of edges with multivariate attributes. Their size and complexity makes these data sets hard to exploit. More efficient ways to understand the data are needed. This project will design, implement and evaluate visualisation methods for massive multivariate network data sets. This research is expected to be used by Australian software development, biotechnology and security companies to exploit their data.Read moreRead less