Understanding migrant information literacy: a qualitative study. This project plans to establish an information literacy framework to inform the design and delivery of information to Australia's migrant communities. Migration is the major component of population growth in Australia. Between 1996 and 2013, Australia’s overseas-born population grew by 51 per cent to 6.4 million people. To participate in and contribute to Australia and its social, economic and cultural life, migrants must be able t ....Understanding migrant information literacy: a qualitative study. This project plans to establish an information literacy framework to inform the design and delivery of information to Australia's migrant communities. Migration is the major component of population growth in Australia. Between 1996 and 2013, Australia’s overseas-born population grew by 51 per cent to 6.4 million people. To participate in and contribute to Australia and its social, economic and cultural life, migrants must be able to make informed choices. Access to information that is timely, accurate, relevant and tailored to their specific needs is essential for all Australian migrants. This project intends to contribute to an empirically-derived evidence base for migrant information literacy in Australia.Read moreRead less
Understanding health information literacy in Australia's ageing population: A qualitative study. Australians need to know how to find and use information to help them age well. This research will establish a national Health Information Literacy Framework that will be an evidence-based guide for community agencies to use in creating resources and services to support the information needs of ageing Australians. Ageing Australians who are healthy and active are able to participate in the workforce, ....Understanding health information literacy in Australia's ageing population: A qualitative study. Australians need to know how to find and use information to help them age well. This research will establish a national Health Information Literacy Framework that will be an evidence-based guide for community agencies to use in creating resources and services to support the information needs of ageing Australians. Ageing Australians who are healthy and active are able to participate in the workforce, engage in the community while easing the burden on the national health care system. The research will place Australia at the forefront of health prevention and information literacy research. The research will be undertaken as a partnership between QUT, Griffith University and the Health Contact Centre. Read moreRead less
Studying 'research' in Australia’s library and information profession. With over 111 million annual visits, libraries are fundamental to Australia's social fabric and increasingly to its success as a national economy. In the current volatile economic climate Australia's libraries are being called upon to do more with less. This project aims to help Australia's libraries to contribute in a more powerful way to national productivity by helping library and information professionals make tough decis ....Studying 'research' in Australia’s library and information profession. With over 111 million annual visits, libraries are fundamental to Australia's social fabric and increasingly to its success as a national economy. In the current volatile economic climate Australia's libraries are being called upon to do more with less. This project aims to help Australia's libraries to contribute in a more powerful way to national productivity by helping library and information professionals make tough decisions in an environment where there is competition for limited resources. This project aims, for the first time, build an evidence base on research in Australia's library and information profession. It will establish a framework that can be used by library and information professionals to build a research culture that enables the adoption of "practitioner-researcher" as an approach to professional practice.Read moreRead less
Accurate Context-Aware Search for Managed Document Collections. Search is a key component of a vast range of computing applications. However, while search on large collections of general-purpose text is well-understood, and the best systems are highly effective, search on smaller or special-purpose collections is much less reliable and has attracted relatively little research. By identifying general ways of using context such as user history or prior page usefulness, the quality of search in s ....Accurate Context-Aware Search for Managed Document Collections. Search is a key component of a vast range of computing applications. However, while search on large collections of general-purpose text is well-understood, and the best systems are highly effective, search on smaller or special-purpose collections is much less reliable and has attracted relatively little research. By identifying general ways of using context such as user history or prior page usefulness, the quality of search in such cases can be greatly improved. Products that make use of these principles will provide greater workplace efficiency and be able to locate information that other search tools cannot identify.Read moreRead less
Modelling and Simulation of Disease Spread Dynamics Using Interacting Automata. Modelling and simulation techniques will be developed to strengthen our understanding of disease spread over the landscape, so allowing timely control strategies to be developed. The economic cost to Australia of introduced pests, animal and plant diseases is considerable. We utilise an interacting automata formalism to capture landscape, population and contagion information as it affects disease spread to provide ....Modelling and Simulation of Disease Spread Dynamics Using Interacting Automata. Modelling and simulation techniques will be developed to strengthen our understanding of disease spread over the landscape, so allowing timely control strategies to be developed. The economic cost to Australia of introduced pests, animal and plant diseases is considerable. We utilise an interacting automata formalism to capture landscape, population and contagion information as it affects disease spread to provide more accurate simulation than is done at present. Generic simulation tools will be constructed, capable of being rapidly personalised by epidemiologists for specific diseases.Read moreRead less
Information Seeking & Research Adoption: Assessing Communication Strategies. This project aims to determine the best ways to communicate wine research and to design tools to support research adoption. Adoption of research relies on effective use of information and technology by employees. Research into employees’ information practices in the workplace has been conducted in health care, education and other areas; however, the wine industry’s use of information and technology for adoption is unexp ....Information Seeking & Research Adoption: Assessing Communication Strategies. This project aims to determine the best ways to communicate wine research and to design tools to support research adoption. Adoption of research relies on effective use of information and technology by employees. Research into employees’ information practices in the workplace has been conducted in health care, education and other areas; however, the wine industry’s use of information and technology for adoption is unexplored. The project plans to assess the strategies used to share research with winemakers and grape growers (e.g. seminars, websites, social media), from information behaviour or web useability perspectives, to ensure industry needs are met appropriately. This research aims to have a direct and immediate impact on the wine industry. In addition to the immediate impact of new research innovations that will be implemented by our partner wine companies, the project will also change industry-wide approaches to extension. The partner organisations use extension strategies to showcase new innovations and our research will assess these organisations’ current practices, providing evidence to shape the design of future activities in Australia.Read moreRead less
Skeletome - A Curated Online Knowledge Base Integrating Clinical and Biological Information on Skeletal Dysplasias and Related Conditions. The skeletal dysplasia knowledge base will:
* establish Australia as a world-leader in skeletal dysplasia research;
* provide researchers with an extensible and comprehensive online knowledge-base related to skeletal dysplasias;
* enhance clinicians' understanding of the diagnosis, treatment and management of skeletal dysplasias;
* facilitate collaborativ ....Skeletome - A Curated Online Knowledge Base Integrating Clinical and Biological Information on Skeletal Dysplasias and Related Conditions. The skeletal dysplasia knowledge base will:
* establish Australia as a world-leader in skeletal dysplasia research;
* provide researchers with an extensible and comprehensive online knowledge-base related to skeletal dysplasias;
* enhance clinicians' understanding of the diagnosis, treatment and management of skeletal dysplasias;
* facilitate collaborative discussions by patients, clinicians and researchers around specific cases to improve training, management and diagnosis; and
* enhance Australia's research expertise in Semantic Web and social networking technologies.Read moreRead less
Intelligent archiving and retrieving of clinic laboratory records in pathology/radiology informatics study. Pathology/radiology Informatics has emerged as an arm for developing next-generation pathology/radiology reporting methods, databases, imagery, and diagnostics. Current report archiving systems are very primitive, restricting any sophisticated use of the reports. This proposal aims to develop an innovative pathology/radiology report archiving system capable of automatically extracting usef ....Intelligent archiving and retrieving of clinic laboratory records in pathology/radiology informatics study. Pathology/radiology Informatics has emerged as an arm for developing next-generation pathology/radiology reporting methods, databases, imagery, and diagnostics. Current report archiving systems are very primitive, restricting any sophisticated use of the reports. This proposal aims to develop an innovative pathology/radiology report archiving system capable of automatically extracting useful information from reports. This system will make a smart use of pathology/radiology data and open a new way to extend current tests and examinations from being disease-focussed to being wellness focussed. It will also significantly reduce the number of tests, i.e., associated cost for healthcare.Read moreRead less
User-Adaptive Search and Evaluation for Complex Information-Seeking Tasks. This project plans to develop a new evaluation framework to understand and characterise web users and their situation within complex, multi-faceted search tasks, exemplified through job-search. While evaluation of web search engine effectiveness is relatively well understood, measuring information retrieval performance in the context of complex tasks with heterogeneous users is a largely neglected problem. This project pl ....User-Adaptive Search and Evaluation for Complex Information-Seeking Tasks. This project plans to develop a new evaluation framework to understand and characterise web users and their situation within complex, multi-faceted search tasks, exemplified through job-search. While evaluation of web search engine effectiveness is relatively well understood, measuring information retrieval performance in the context of complex tasks with heterogeneous users is a largely neglected problem. This project plans to mine user-specific characteristics and situations from complex profiles and interaction logs for online information services run by the industry partner, SEEK. The new techniques are intended to redefine understanding of task-oriented search, and have the potential to reinvent the user experience for complex search tasks. This project will transform how practical search systems are measured within complex task scenarios. This will result in substantial economic impact by enabling businesses providing task-based search services to provide more customized offerings. Within the target domain (job search), this greatly enhances a service highly relevant to Australia's productivity.Read moreRead less
Spoken conversational search: contextual interactive techniques to support effective information search over a speech-only communication channel. This project will develop new techniques for effective information search using speech only, supporting improved information access for visually impaired people or in situations that require focused visual attention (e.g. driving). The techniques are based on a conversational approach to information search and presentation of results.