Birth Weight, Adult Weight And Podocyte Depletion.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$796,252.00
Summary
A major role of our kidneys is to filter our blood. A key cell type in our kidney filters is an octopus-shaped cell known as the podocyte. If we are not born with enough podocytes, or if the filters grow too large after birth due for example to excessive weight gain, the podocytes cannot adequately filter the blood, and this can lead to kidney disease. We will measure podocyte endowment at birth, and assess the effects of weight gain and loss after birth on podocyte features and kidney health.
A Unified Grid Programming Methodology for Global e-Science. This project will contribute to the national benefit in three important ways. First, we will build a set of novel e-Science applications as demonstrator projects in areas of national priority. These will have enormous economic impact in areas ranging from environmental management to health. Second, we will build software infrastructure that will have both commercial and strategic value in its own right. Third, we shall build a critical ....A Unified Grid Programming Methodology for Global e-Science. This project will contribute to the national benefit in three important ways. First, we will build a set of novel e-Science applications as demonstrator projects in areas of national priority. These will have enormous economic impact in areas ranging from environmental management to health. Second, we will build software infrastructure that will have both commercial and strategic value in its own right. Third, we shall build a critical mass of expertise that bridges the physical sciences and computer science. The support provided to this proposal will allow multi-disciplinary teams to address scientific problems of significant scale.Read moreRead less
Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and ....Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and techniques. The expected outcomes include novel software, verified by industry partners in real world case studies, ranging from life sciences to hypersonic transport. This should provide significant benefits, including the capacity for Australian industries to access world-class supercomputing technology.Read moreRead less
Adaptive and Integrated Resource Allocation. By leveraging progress in communication technologies, adaptive and integrated optimization systems will open innovative application areas critical to Australia, yet outside the scope of existing optimization technology. For instance, they will dispatch and reallocate ambulances in real time, help contain pandemics, allocate resources dynamically to extinguish bushfires, and assist in failure recovery of energy infrastrutures. These systems will also s ....Adaptive and Integrated Resource Allocation. By leveraging progress in communication technologies, adaptive and integrated optimization systems will open innovative application areas critical to Australia, yet outside the scope of existing optimization technology. For instance, they will dispatch and reallocate ambulances in real time, help contain pandemics, allocate resources dynamically to extinguish bushfires, and assist in failure recovery of energy infrastrutures. These systems will also solve existing logistics and manufacturing applications better, making these industries more effective and reactive. The project also aims at establishing a center of excellence in optimization in Melbourne with an international reputation in research, teaching, and industrial collaboration.Read moreRead less
A scalable debugging framework for petascale computers. Supercomputing underpins a wide range of areas of importance to the Australian economy; mining, agriculture, engineering, medical research and pharmaceutical development to name a few. It is of critical importance that software solutions in these areas behave correctly and do not generate erroneous results. This project will develop software tools and techniques that make it possible to detect and locate errors as software is converted to r ....A scalable debugging framework for petascale computers. Supercomputing underpins a wide range of areas of importance to the Australian economy; mining, agriculture, engineering, medical research and pharmaceutical development to name a few. It is of critical importance that software solutions in these areas behave correctly and do not generate erroneous results. This project will develop software tools and techniques that make it possible to detect and locate errors as software is converted to run on the next generation of 'petascale' supercomputers. We will deploy the tools both commercially through our industry partner, and also on national high performance computing facilities.Read moreRead less
Environmental Influences In The Establishment Of The Epigenetic Landscape In Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$695,097.00
Summary
The DNA in each of our cells does not exist alone, it is packaged into complex structures called chromosomes, through association with many different proteins. The distribution of these proteins varies along the length of a chromosome depending on the type of cell and this phenomenon is called 'epigenetics', literally meaning 'above the DNA'. Epigenetic analysis is the study of how proteins and other molecules can change the activity of a gene without changing the DNA sequence. All of our cells ....The DNA in each of our cells does not exist alone, it is packaged into complex structures called chromosomes, through association with many different proteins. The distribution of these proteins varies along the length of a chromosome depending on the type of cell and this phenomenon is called 'epigenetics', literally meaning 'above the DNA'. Epigenetic analysis is the study of how proteins and other molecules can change the activity of a gene without changing the DNA sequence. All of our cells use epigenetic changes to help control how they grow and develop. Evidence suggests a direct link between diet and environmental influences on our epigenetic profile. Recent research has traced the origins of many of the health problems of adult life back to the earliest periods of development _ to the time spent in the womb and the first few years of life. If we are born with a low birth weight, we are more likely to get sick later in life. Overwhelming evidence exists that the environment in the womb is critical for a healthy birth weight (and health in later life) and it is thought that epigenetics may be the missing link between this environment, low birth weight, and therefore health in later life. In addition, mounting evidence supports a general link between epigenetic de-regulation and predisposition to disease. However, the timing and the overall contribution of environmental- genetic influences to the establishment of faulty epigenetic markings remain largely unknown. Twins are the best model to study this link as they share similar (but not identical environments) and some share identical genetic makeup. Using twins, Dr Jeffrey Craig and his team will investigate the factors in the prenatal environment that modify specific cells, leading to low birth weight and increase disease risk later in life. They predict that this occurs via specific changes in gene activity caused by epigenetic disruption.Read moreRead less
Combining mathematical programming and constraint programming to solve large-scale integrated scheduling problems. This project will target major savings in the airline industry, with resulting benefits for others such as tourism. The efficient use of airline fuel, which will be directly addressed in the project, is very important for the environment. The algorithms developed can improve cost and quality of service for Australian transportation, manufacturing and other industries.
The solut ....Combining mathematical programming and constraint programming to solve large-scale integrated scheduling problems. This project will target major savings in the airline industry, with resulting benefits for others such as tourism. The efficient use of airline fuel, which will be directly addressed in the project, is very important for the environment. The algorithms developed can improve cost and quality of service for Australian transportation, manufacturing and other industries.
The solutions developed within the project will be sold by the industrial partner, CTI, into major companies worldwide, and the technology will be used to develop further products.
Finally the project will extend Australia's lead in constraint programming and expertise in optimisation. This creates a major opportunity for the Australian software industry.
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From Tactical Planning to Operational Control - Bridging the Chasm. All organisations plan, and all organisations suffer from the disruptions that occur when plans are put into practice. Few organisations manage to balance operational control with planning to as to maintain both efficiency and flexibility to deal with the unexpected. This project addresses this requirement for the transportation and logistics industries.
The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial ....From Tactical Planning to Operational Control - Bridging the Chasm. All organisations plan, and all organisations suffer from the disruptions that occur when plans are put into practice. Few organisations manage to balance operational control with planning to as to maintain both efficiency and flexibility to deal with the unexpected. This project addresses this requirement for the transportation and logistics industries.
The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial partner, CTI, to develop solutions for major companies worldwide. The technology will be used to build further optimisation products.
Moreover the project will extend Australia's lead in constraint programming and expertise in optimisation. This creates a major opportunity for Australia's software industry.
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Understanding concurrent programs using rely-guarantee thinking. Multi-core processors are standard in computers and devices (e.g. smart phones) but much of the software available for these machines is either unreliable or does not exploit the available hardware parallelism. This project will devise techniques for designing concurrent software that exploits these platforms while delivering dependable operation.
Improving the integrity of complex software systems. Software systems are among the most complex artifacts created today. The problems of reliability and maintenance of complex software systems are well-known. Improving reliability and lowering production cost continues to be an important challenge. The aim of this project is to create software development tools that allow programmers to express more of their intentions about program behaviour, in a way which can be automatically checked, in ord ....Improving the integrity of complex software systems. Software systems are among the most complex artifacts created today. The problems of reliability and maintenance of complex software systems are well-known. Improving reliability and lowering production cost continues to be an important challenge. The aim of this project is to create software development tools that allow programmers to express more of their intentions about program behaviour, in a way which can be automatically checked, in order to find discrepancies between intended and actual behaviour. This will facilitate the construction of software that is more secure, reliable, maintainable and reusable, that is, improve the integrity of complex software systems.
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