Effects Of Testosterone And Oestrogen On Body Composition
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$348,768.00
Summary
Masculinising and feminising hormones such as testosterone and oestrogen respectively are important hormones controlling the amount of muscle, fat and bone in the body. By studying people with conditions such as prostate cancer where these hormone levels are disrupted, we aim to understand how testosterone and oestrogen affects various body systems, which may lead to new treatments for important public health problems of frailty, obesity and heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Does Early Overnutrition Differentially Alter Hypothalamic Neuropeptides That Regulate Food Intake In The Rat
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$346,250.00
Summary
In Australia the incidence of obesity, in particular childhood obesity, is increasing dramatically, and the possible long term consequences of this are of great concern. The brain regulates appetite through a number of chemical transmitters such as neuropeptide Y (NPY) which is present in the brains of mammals and causes increased food intake. The effects of overeating from a young age on these brain transmitters has been largely ignored although this may impact on subsequent eating behaviour. I ....In Australia the incidence of obesity, in particular childhood obesity, is increasing dramatically, and the possible long term consequences of this are of great concern. The brain regulates appetite through a number of chemical transmitters such as neuropeptide Y (NPY) which is present in the brains of mammals and causes increased food intake. The effects of overeating from a young age on these brain transmitters has been largely ignored although this may impact on subsequent eating behaviour. In addition to NPY we will study other transmitters in the brain that have profound effects on appetite, some increasing, and others decreasing, food intake. These may form useful therapeutic targets for new drugs for obesity. Key targets we will study include melanocortins, glucagon-like peptide 1, urocortin, melanin concentrating hormone, agouti related peptide, and NPY. We will determine whether overnutrition from birth to weaning leads to changes in these appetite regulating neurotransmitters in the brain, and monitor the hormonal signals that impact on their activity. We will also determine whether early overnutrition exacerbates the subsequent responses to a high fat diet by comparison with rats made obese as adults. We will measure brain concentrations of the neurotransmitters, the amount released from the brain, and determine whether the feeding responses to injections of these agents is altered in obese animals. We have evidence that these transmitters interact in a co-ordinated fashion to affect feeding; this project will examine whether these interactions are maintained in the various types of obesity. Rats are commonly used for this type of study as the processes regulating feeding are very similar to those in humans and these agents cause similar effects in rats and humans. It is hoped that this information will provide new insight into the way brain adapts to overnutrition, and provide potential treatments for obesity and other feeding disorders.Read moreRead less
Adaptive Vector Filters for the Restoration of Digital Colour Images. Colour image restoration has very important applications in colour cameras, robotic navigation, video security systems, multimedia communications, and digital TV broadcast. Conventional vector filters have difficulty in simultaneously achieving three major objectives: noise suppression, detail preservation, and chromaticity retention. This project aims at formulating and evaluating novel adaptive filters to accomplish the th ....Adaptive Vector Filters for the Restoration of Digital Colour Images. Colour image restoration has very important applications in colour cameras, robotic navigation, video security systems, multimedia communications, and digital TV broadcast. Conventional vector filters have difficulty in simultaneously achieving three major objectives: noise suppression, detail preservation, and chromaticity retention. This project aims at formulating and evaluating novel adaptive filters to accomplish the three objectives simultaneously. Theoretical basis will be investigated for devising different adaptive filters to restore colour images and video sequences contaminated by various types of noise. The new filters will provide significant improvement over exiting techniques, yielding better tools and packages for colour image processing and restoration applications.Read moreRead less
Robust face detection and recognition for computer-based security surveillance. The research aims at improving the existing and creating new automated face detection and recognition methods by making them invariant, firstly to head pose, orientation, scale and rotation, and then to occlusion, lighting conditions and facial expressions.
A robust face detector will be developed first and then a new face recognition algorithm that continues to learn identity-specific discriminants on-line by co ....Robust face detection and recognition for computer-based security surveillance. The research aims at improving the existing and creating new automated face detection and recognition methods by making them invariant, firstly to head pose, orientation, scale and rotation, and then to occlusion, lighting conditions and facial expressions.
A robust face detector will be developed first and then a new face recognition algorithm that continues to learn identity-specific discriminants on-line by collecting incremental face exemplars. The result of the research will be an algorithm that can improve its performance on-line adapting in a stable learning process each identity model to the correct facial examples.
The research has significant practical implication in visual surveillance increasing the robustness of identification of person identity, state and intent.
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Zero Defect Manufacturing of Complex Assemblies. The aim of this research project is to develop the tools required to design and implement zero defect manufacturing systems. It is intended that generic guidelines will be developed for achieving zero defect manufacturing of complex assemblies in a cost effective manner. Methodologies and techniques derived from these guidelines will be tested and validated on an existing door trim assembly production line. This project with its emphasis on utilis ....Zero Defect Manufacturing of Complex Assemblies. The aim of this research project is to develop the tools required to design and implement zero defect manufacturing systems. It is intended that generic guidelines will be developed for achieving zero defect manufacturing of complex assemblies in a cost effective manner. Methodologies and techniques derived from these guidelines will be tested and validated on an existing door trim assembly production line. This project with its emphasis on utilising manufacturing systems involving a mix of human and robot based operations and in process inspection techniques to achieve defect free manufacturing is particularly relevant to medium size component suppliers.Read moreRead less
Non-Contact In-process Shape Measurement of Windscreens. Optical techniques have been widely used for non-contact measurement of the 3-D shape of diffusely reflecting surfaces. However, there is no evidence for the successful implementation of a real-time shape measurement system for large specular surfaces, despite the many important industrial applications. The aim of this project is to develop optically-based techniques to measure the shape of specular and transparent surfaces in real time in ....Non-Contact In-process Shape Measurement of Windscreens. Optical techniques have been widely used for non-contact measurement of the 3-D shape of diffusely reflecting surfaces. However, there is no evidence for the successful implementation of a real-time shape measurement system for large specular surfaces, despite the many important industrial applications. The aim of this project is to develop optically-based techniques to measure the shape of specular and transparent surfaces in real time in an industrial environment. The main outcome of the research will be a prototype on-line shape measurement system to control the quality of car windscreens.Read moreRead less
Low-complexity Video Coding for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. This project develops frontier technologies to capture and transmit videos by miniaturised sensing devices. It will improve Australia's telemetric surveillance capabilities and benefit defence, law enforcement, traffic control, and wildlife inhabitant monitoring agencies. It will enable the telecommunication industry to support quality video conferencing with mobile phones and the computer games industry to develop rich virtua ....Low-complexity Video Coding for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. This project develops frontier technologies to capture and transmit videos by miniaturised sensing devices. It will improve Australia's telemetric surveillance capabilities and benefit defence, law enforcement, traffic control, and wildlife inhabitant monitoring agencies. It will enable the telecommunication industry to support quality video conferencing with mobile phones and the computer games industry to develop rich virtual reality games. The Australian health industry will be able to provide ubiquitous healthcare services through improved telemedicine and medical imaging with emerging technologies such as edible cameras. The project will also enable Australia to lead the world in setting up video coding standards for sensor networks.Read moreRead less
Pattern-Based Video Coding Techniques for Real-Time Low Bit-Rate and Low Complexity Encoding Applications. This project will benefit the National Research Priority on Frontier Technology with applications in video surveillance, smart home design, and patient monitoring. It will enable Australia to lead the world in setting up coding standards and thus impact directly on the manufacturing initiatives of the multimedia communication and entertainment industries. Telecommunication industries will b ....Pattern-Based Video Coding Techniques for Real-Time Low Bit-Rate and Low Complexity Encoding Applications. This project will benefit the National Research Priority on Frontier Technology with applications in video surveillance, smart home design, and patient monitoring. It will enable Australia to lead the world in setting up coding standards and thus impact directly on the manufacturing initiatives of the multimedia communication and entertainment industries. Telecommunication industries will be the immediate beneficiary by enabling quality live video transmissions at low bit rates in a cost-effective manner. This project will improve the ability of large organisations to operate virtually across huge distances in Australia with the aid of reliable multimedia communications using distributed devices of limited power and processing capacity.Read moreRead less
Adaptation of Vision Model to Perceptual Digital Picture Compression. This project spearheads research in the next generation digital picture compression technology, placing Australia an undisputed leader in this area of frontier technology. It will generate intellectual property and software prototype systems, which can be readily transferred into a vast number of visual communication and service applications, feeding into and rejuvenating national high-tech industries. These applications incl ....Adaptation of Vision Model to Perceptual Digital Picture Compression. This project spearheads research in the next generation digital picture compression technology, placing Australia an undisputed leader in this area of frontier technology. It will generate intellectual property and software prototype systems, which can be readily transferred into a vast number of visual communication and service applications, feeding into and rejuvenating national high-tech industries. These applications include digital photography for fine art, medical imaging, picture archive and communication systems for telemedicine and rural health care systems, high quality digital picture, video and cinematic experience, crime prevention, border control, security and surveillance systems.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561231
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$671,715.00
Summary
MRI GRID Computing Facility: Design, Optimisation and Image Processing. The MRI Grid Computing Facility provides the IT infrastructure to achieve effective e-research in the area of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, a field of neuroscience research that revolutionizes the way brain diseases are identified and treated. The facility consists of a dedicated high performance grid compute engine, distributed visualisation workstations, and distributed data warehouse facilities. Software tools acc ....MRI GRID Computing Facility: Design, Optimisation and Image Processing. The MRI Grid Computing Facility provides the IT infrastructure to achieve effective e-research in the area of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, a field of neuroscience research that revolutionizes the way brain diseases are identified and treated. The facility consists of a dedicated high performance grid compute engine, distributed visualisation workstations, and distributed data warehouse facilities. Software tools accessible through the Internet will enable researchers to archive, retrieve and exchange data and software; access distributed MR image databases and the latest MR image analysis tools; schedule analysis tasks on the grid compute engine, the outcomes of which will be visualized by the visualization workstations.Read moreRead less