Taste and Place: the transglobal production and consumption of food and drink. This project will explore the challenges and potentials that the transformations in production and consumption of food and drink pose to Australia. We have an enviable reputation for our wine and the quality of our food produce. But we have stiff competition from around the world. This is exacerbated by economic and cultural trends, which are changing the face of how and what we eat and drink. The homogenisation of ma ....Taste and Place: the transglobal production and consumption of food and drink. This project will explore the challenges and potentials that the transformations in production and consumption of food and drink pose to Australia. We have an enviable reputation for our wine and the quality of our food produce. But we have stiff competition from around the world. This is exacerbated by economic and cultural trends, which are changing the face of how and what we eat and drink. The homogenisation of mass-market consumption is producing a widespread dissatisfaction with our diet, and obesity. This cross-cultural project will result in important information about how we can best respond to these challenges.Read moreRead less
Non-intrusive human activity sensing with radio signals. This project aims to develop a theoretical framework for sensing and detecting human activities based on wireless radio signals. The framework advances the state-of-the-art by discovering the fundamental theory, and defining a set of principles to guide practical system design. The framework will be validated and its scientific merit demonstrated through building several applications such as contactless human activity detection and vital s ....Non-intrusive human activity sensing with radio signals. This project aims to develop a theoretical framework for sensing and detecting human activities based on wireless radio signals. The framework advances the state-of-the-art by discovering the fundamental theory, and defining a set of principles to guide practical system design. The framework will be validated and its scientific merit demonstrated through building several applications such as contactless human activity detection and vital signs monitoring. This should benefit existing hospital and clinical patient services and promote home-care and self-care services at nationwide.Read moreRead less
Towards a model of emotional control: Assessment of patients with focal cortical injuries. This project will produce vital information about a potential mechanism that may underlie the observed association between frontal brain damage and deficits in emotional control. The proposed research will therefore have significant clinical and theoretical implications; it will enable better prediction of emotional dysregulation following brain injury, generation of more accurate models of emotional regul ....Towards a model of emotional control: Assessment of patients with focal cortical injuries. This project will produce vital information about a potential mechanism that may underlie the observed association between frontal brain damage and deficits in emotional control. The proposed research will therefore have significant clinical and theoretical implications; it will enable better prediction of emotional dysregulation following brain injury, generation of more accurate models of emotional regulation, as well as informing the provision and delivery of evidence-based treatments for emotional dysregulation. It will also contribute to our understanding of emotional functioning in other disorders characterized by frontal dysfunction, such as schizophrenia, depression and traumatic brain injury.
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A likelihood-based approach to combined surveys inference. This project focuses on the development of statistical theory for efficient integration of information across multiple complex sample surveys. It will develop theory and methodology that will answer complex questions about relationships between important social, economic and health related variables that are presently measured in separate surveys.
HEIGHT, WEIGHT and LENGTH: Biometric explorations of Australia's socio-economic fabric in the long run, 1860-1970. HEIGHT, WEIGHT and LENGTH is a biometric analysis of Australian living standards. This project is significant because it illuminates the very fabric of Australian social and economic organisation. It traces what happened to living standards over the long run 1860-1970, covering booms, busts and wars. It examines the functioning of the family as an economic unit at the core of dis ....HEIGHT, WEIGHT and LENGTH: Biometric explorations of Australia's socio-economic fabric in the long run, 1860-1970. HEIGHT, WEIGHT and LENGTH is a biometric analysis of Australian living standards. This project is significant because it illuminates the very fabric of Australian social and economic organisation. It traces what happened to living standards over the long run 1860-1970, covering booms, busts and wars. It examines the functioning of the family as an economic unit at the core of distributing welfare-enhancing resources. It identifies who were the winners and the losers. It teaches lessons about vulnerability and strength during economic change that should inform future policy makers. Finally, it pushes the methodology in new directions with implications for its use around the world.Read moreRead less
UNDERSTANDING COLONIAL AUSTRALIA / BUILDING A NATIONAL RESOURCE. Understanding colonial Australia uses new methods with old data to penetrate the workings of the convict labour markets, the levels of wellbeing they supported, and the ways in which families distributed those resources among their members. Australia's position in the league-table of living standards is established against the four countries which contributed people to European Australia: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The o ....UNDERSTANDING COLONIAL AUSTRALIA / BUILDING A NATIONAL RESOURCE. Understanding colonial Australia uses new methods with old data to penetrate the workings of the convict labour markets, the levels of wellbeing they supported, and the ways in which families distributed those resources among their members. Australia's position in the league-table of living standards is established against the four countries which contributed people to European Australia: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The outcome is a history of wellbeing and inequality in colonial Australia. A spin-off from this research is the creation of a unique national resource: a computerised longitudinal data base on Australia's first white citizens, the convicts.Read moreRead less
Quest for trace biomarkers in complex media through innovative nanoscale science of fluids, molecules, particles and light. This project will break new ground in the detection of rare molecules in biological samples by exploiting the interactions of fluids, molecules and particles confined in nanoscale channels. By revealing yet unknown biomarkers the project will bring a radical change in medical diagnostics and in the science and technology used to map the Human Proteome.
Do microbial and plant diversity interact to regulate multifunctionality? This project aims to quantify the relative contribution of plant and microbial communities and their interactions on the rate, stability and resilience of ecosystem functions. Plant and soil microbial communities contribute to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, driving key processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling. This project will adapt established theories which indicate that greater plant diversity improves ....Do microbial and plant diversity interact to regulate multifunctionality? This project aims to quantify the relative contribution of plant and microbial communities and their interactions on the rate, stability and resilience of ecosystem functions. Plant and soil microbial communities contribute to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, driving key processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling. This project will adapt established theories which indicate that greater plant diversity improves ecosystem functions, stability and recovery. The expected outcome is a unifying framework for determining variation in functions across different ecosystem types and environmental disturbance such as rapid climate change.The insight gained into vulnerable ecosystems will help stakeholders (government, conservation, land management) to prioritise the focus on conservation and reduce risks to ecosystem services.Read moreRead less
Online and offline social networks and the development of sexual agency. This project will explore whether there exists a relationship between adolescents' social networks (both online and offline) and one important aspect of healthy sexual development - the development of sexual agency - and if so, it will investigate the nature of that relationship. The longitudinal mixed methods study proposed here aims to capture the development of sexual behaviours and the online and offline interactions ad ....Online and offline social networks and the development of sexual agency. This project will explore whether there exists a relationship between adolescents' social networks (both online and offline) and one important aspect of healthy sexual development - the development of sexual agency - and if so, it will investigate the nature of that relationship. The longitudinal mixed methods study proposed here aims to capture the development of sexual behaviours and the online and offline interactions adolescents engage in. This project aims to determine: whether there is a relationship between adolescents' online and offline social networks and the development of sexual agency; if such a relationship exists, what is its nature? And, if the relationship exists, to what extent is the relationship moderated by online social media use?Read moreRead less
The Millennium Child: New Frontiers in Understanding the Adaptability of Children and Young People. Australian children and young people experience changes and challenges at micro (eg. educational, psychological, social) and macro (eg. climate change, globalisation) levels. Successfully resolving these relies to a large degree on their ability to adapt. At a broader level, for Australia to compete and innovate on a global scale and to most profitably fulfil its educational, social, economic, and ....The Millennium Child: New Frontiers in Understanding the Adaptability of Children and Young People. Australian children and young people experience changes and challenges at micro (eg. educational, psychological, social) and macro (eg. climate change, globalisation) levels. Successfully resolving these relies to a large degree on their ability to adapt. At a broader level, for Australia to compete and innovate on a global scale and to most profitably fulfil its educational, social, economic, and cultural potential, it is essential that it nurtures children and young people who can adapt to and for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century. The Millennium Child Project scopes and progresses the concept of adaptability and answers important and complex questions relevant to a nation's capacity to adapt and thrive.Read moreRead less