Individualized cochlear implant sound coding: Optimized algorithms for better hearing. One in six Australians is affected by hearing loss. Hearing loss impacts on a person's educational and employment opportunities, resulting in a significant economic impact upon Australia. Over 10% of people with hearing impairment have a severe or profound hearing loss and may be candidates for a cochlear implant. Current cochlear implant sound processing only offers limited benefit to users. This project repr ....Individualized cochlear implant sound coding: Optimized algorithms for better hearing. One in six Australians is affected by hearing loss. Hearing loss impacts on a person's educational and employment opportunities, resulting in a significant economic impact upon Australia. Over 10% of people with hearing impairment have a severe or profound hearing loss and may be candidates for a cochlear implant. Current cochlear implant sound processing only offers limited benefit to users. This project represents a truly innovative pathway forward in the development of cochlear implant sound coding that could substantially increase the speech perception of users, enabling these people to become and remain active and productive members of our community.Read moreRead less
Tonal language development in Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking children with cochlear implants. Cochlear implantation in children is expanding in countries where tonal languages are spoken, despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of implant use in these settings. This project will examine the impact of implant use on children's perception of tone, their production of speech and assesses how this affects functional communication.
Innovations in Clinical Education for Physiotherapy Students. Australia has workforce shortages and an ageing population. Physiotherapists are key players in promoting and maintaining good health through their leadership in physical activity and rehabilitation to retain Australians in the workforce and to ensure quality of life for our ageing population. There is a national shortage of physiotherapists. Increasing numbers of physiotherapists are being trained, requiring new models of clinical tr ....Innovations in Clinical Education for Physiotherapy Students. Australia has workforce shortages and an ageing population. Physiotherapists are key players in promoting and maintaining good health through their leadership in physical activity and rehabilitation to retain Australians in the workforce and to ensure quality of life for our ageing population. There is a national shortage of physiotherapists. Increasing numbers of physiotherapists are being trained, requiring new models of clinical training as there is no capacity in conventional training to cope with student numbers. This research will develop and evaluate new models of training incorporating standardised patients (actors) and simulators (mannequins) which increase education capacity. Models are transferable to other health professions.Read moreRead less
The effect of cochlear implants on cognitive decline in ageing Australians. This project aims to investigate the impact of cochlear implants on cognitive function in elderly people with deafness. Deafness has been found to be independently associated with a 30–40 per cent accelerated rate of cognitive decline in elderly adults. There is currently no effective treatment for cognitive decline. The intended outcomes of this observational study will help us to understand the biological process of co ....The effect of cochlear implants on cognitive decline in ageing Australians. This project aims to investigate the impact of cochlear implants on cognitive function in elderly people with deafness. Deafness has been found to be independently associated with a 30–40 per cent accelerated rate of cognitive decline in elderly adults. There is currently no effective treatment for cognitive decline. The intended outcomes of this observational study will help us to understand the biological process of cognitive decline, whether hearing loss is causal, and whether the process can be altered. These findings should be applicable to all individuals with hearing loss. If cochlear implants delay cognitive decline, this would significantly affect policy, quality of life for the elderly, and the cost to society.Read moreRead less
Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in her ....Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in heritage languages. Benefits include a pivotal contribution to early childhood education with the creation of a tailor-made, principle-based program, which will enhance children’s academic achievement, familial social and mental wellbeing, and cultural and economic opportunities for all Australians. Read moreRead less
Vision Model Based Perceptual Digital Video Coding. Digital video coding and compression is an enabling technology and has diversified applications in audiovisual communications, multimedia computing, digital television broadcast and electronic entertainment industries. The project aims at spearheading research in theory, techniques and implementation of perceptual video coding in order to achieve constant and guaranteed quality in visual communications and services. It will explore a new appr ....Vision Model Based Perceptual Digital Video Coding. Digital video coding and compression is an enabling technology and has diversified applications in audiovisual communications, multimedia computing, digital television broadcast and electronic entertainment industries. The project aims at spearheading research in theory, techniques and implementation of perceptual video coding in order to achieve constant and guaranteed quality in visual communications and services. It will explore a new approach to digital video coding other than the constant bit rate coding techniques which have dominated digital video research for the past four decades. It will form a part of the theoretical foundation and principles for the next generation video coding and compression techniques, and may lead to new standards and practice.Read moreRead less
Data Management Technologies for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging e-Research Grid. Howard Florey Institute researchers will collaborate with SGI's file-systems engineering team. Substantial benefits are expected from the development of techniques to support centralized and distributed processing medical image datasets. Issues requiring research include file space allocation algorithms and caching strategies. The proposed rapid database access technologies aim at solving these problems in the medic ....Data Management Technologies for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging e-Research Grid. Howard Florey Institute researchers will collaborate with SGI's file-systems engineering team. Substantial benefits are expected from the development of techniques to support centralized and distributed processing medical image datasets. Issues requiring research include file space allocation algorithms and caching strategies. The proposed rapid database access technologies aim at solving these problems in the medical imaging research context. The project attempts to 'improve data management for existing and new business applications'. This enhanced sharing of information will improve critical mass therefore fostering national and international collaboration. Read moreRead less
The ABC’s of listening and learning: a study in the Northern Territory. Indigenous Australian children experience middle ear disorders earlier in life and for longer periods than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The resulting listening challenges can have implications for academic achievement and future health and well-being, despite normal hearing thresholds. The current project aims to determine the effects of pervasive otitis media and related hearing loss on Indigenous children’s listening ....The ABC’s of listening and learning: a study in the Northern Territory. Indigenous Australian children experience middle ear disorders earlier in life and for longer periods than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The resulting listening challenges can have implications for academic achievement and future health and well-being, despite normal hearing thresholds. The current project aims to determine the effects of pervasive otitis media and related hearing loss on Indigenous children’s listening and pre-literacy skills in the Northern Territory, and how to better identify those at most risk for poor educational outcomes. The findings will lead to policy recommendations to help improve these children’s learning potential.Read moreRead less
Interaction Mining for Cyberbullying Detection on Social Networks. This project plans to build an interactive mining system to detect cyberbullying on social networks that have a large number of participants and a variety of inputs, including conversation texts, time-variant changes and user profiles. The project is designed to change the existing cyberbullying prevention services from reactive keyword filtering to proactive social interaction pattern mining. The intended outcome will enable the ....Interaction Mining for Cyberbullying Detection on Social Networks. This project plans to build an interactive mining system to detect cyberbullying on social networks that have a large number of participants and a variety of inputs, including conversation texts, time-variant changes and user profiles. The project is designed to change the existing cyberbullying prevention services from reactive keyword filtering to proactive social interaction pattern mining. The intended outcome will enable the early detection and warning of cyberbullying and approach open a new way to discover interaction patterns with a large number of participants over evolving and complex social networks.Read moreRead less
Improved effectiveness of cochlear implants through new simultaneous stimulation techniques. Cochlear implants have brought the gift of hearing to 250,000 people worldwide and are an excellent example of Australian innovation. This project will examine an improved "high fidelity" stimulation strategy with the objective of defining a safe stimulus range for clinical use and providing a commercial advantage for Cochlear Ltd.