Improving neuronal cell function with cell permeable copper complexes. Metal-based drugs offer an exciting new approach to treatment of neurodegeneration. However, little is known about how cells metabolise these drugs and this information is critical for further drug development. This project will determine how metal-based drugs are metabolised by neuronal cells and how this may result in therapeutic benefit.
Autonomous Functions for Smart Cars. The aim of this project is to develop autonomous functions for smart cars, such as lane departure warning, driver fatigue warning, and automatic lane following. Every year 70,000 people are killed in road accidents, 95% of which can be attributed to driver error. The potential outcomes of this project therefore significant. Many of the theoretical methods required for this project have been developed by our group. However, further theoretical refinements fo ....Autonomous Functions for Smart Cars. The aim of this project is to develop autonomous functions for smart cars, such as lane departure warning, driver fatigue warning, and automatic lane following. Every year 70,000 people are killed in road accidents, 95% of which can be attributed to driver error. The potential outcomes of this project therefore significant. Many of the theoretical methods required for this project have been developed by our group. However, further theoretical refinements followed by experimental verification is necessary. For smart cars to be accepted, the systems must be demonstrated to be reliable and to operate in a wide range of conditions.Read moreRead less
Affective sensing technology for the detection and monitoring of depression and melancholia. This project will develop reliable and affective sensing technology and evaluate it as an objective measure of depressive disorders; a leading cause of disability worldwide. Outcomes will significantly support and aid clinicians in their diagnosis and treatment, thus providing a major breakthrough with significant research, healthcare and commercial possibilities.
Location-Based Personalisation in Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce). M-commerce, though playing an important role in future competitiveness of Australia, suffers a low user demand. While location-based services have taken off in Europe, they are still at their infancy in Australia. In terms of IT access, Australia is ranked lower than many Asian countries. Our work gains an understanding of users' concerns and expectations of location-based services, which leads to better application designs and thus ....Location-Based Personalisation in Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce). M-commerce, though playing an important role in future competitiveness of Australia, suffers a low user demand. While location-based services have taken off in Europe, they are still at their infancy in Australia. In terms of IT access, Australia is ranked lower than many Asian countries. Our work gains an understanding of users' concerns and expectations of location-based services, which leads to better application designs and thus a wider adoption. An examination of users' attitude towards personalised content and concerns about data privacy provides insights to Australian legislation in relation to telemarketing and data-driven marketing. National benefits will stem from a balance between telemarketing efficiency and users' benefits.Read moreRead less
Automated internet warnings to prevent viewing of minor-adult sex images. Since the advent of the internet and digital cameras, the market for child exploitation material (CEM) has boomed. This project aims to explore how the visual appearance of warning messages influences internet users. It plans to conduct a randomised controlled experiment with naïve participants on a real-life website to test the effectiveness of messages designed to discourage viewers of legal ‘barely legal’ pornography. I ....Automated internet warnings to prevent viewing of minor-adult sex images. Since the advent of the internet and digital cameras, the market for child exploitation material (CEM) has boomed. This project aims to explore how the visual appearance of warning messages influences internet users. It plans to conduct a randomised controlled experiment with naïve participants on a real-life website to test the effectiveness of messages designed to discourage viewers of legal ‘barely legal’ pornography. It is anticipated that results will assist policing efforts by indicating whether warnings can be used to dissuade first-time CEM viewers and whether differences exist between harm or deterrent-focused messages.Read moreRead less
Probing the four photosynthetic membrane protein complexes at work in situ in leaves. This proposal aims at sustainable improvements in plant productivity and photosynthetic adaptation in drastic Australian climates. In photosynthesis, membranes with the four multiprotein complexes use sunlight to make compounds that drive carbon assimilation. Instead of the usual dissection of photosynthetic membranes, this project will develop and refine the applicant's rapid, reliable, non-intrusive technique ....Probing the four photosynthetic membrane protein complexes at work in situ in leaves. This proposal aims at sustainable improvements in plant productivity and photosynthetic adaptation in drastic Australian climates. In photosynthesis, membranes with the four multiprotein complexes use sunlight to make compounds that drive carbon assimilation. Instead of the usual dissection of photosynthetic membranes, this project will develop and refine the applicant's rapid, reliable, non-intrusive techniques to probe the four membrane complexes at work in their native state in leaves. Two portable commercial instruments will potentially emerge from the techniques. This novel non-reductionist approach will identify key limitations to photosynthetic performance under stress, and insights into improvements for primary plant productivity.Read moreRead less
The cellulose synthase complex of the Arabidopsis primary cell wall. The polysaccharide cellulose is the basis for the wood and cotton fibre industries of Australia and much of our research on the mechanism of synthesis has been supported by those industries over the past decade. The present project focuses on the proteins making cellulose and how they organised into functional complexes that are able to make cellulose. The knowledge it provides, together with that from other projects, will move ....The cellulose synthase complex of the Arabidopsis primary cell wall. The polysaccharide cellulose is the basis for the wood and cotton fibre industries of Australia and much of our research on the mechanism of synthesis has been supported by those industries over the past decade. The present project focuses on the proteins making cellulose and how they organised into functional complexes that are able to make cellulose. The knowledge it provides, together with that from other projects, will move us towards the situation where we can manipulate the rate at which cellulose is produced and change its detailed properties. This opens the way to industry producing fibres with more desirable properties and producing novel cellulose-based materials tailored to specific applications.Read moreRead less
Functional Genomic Analysis of Exported DNAJ Molecules in the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria is not only a global health problem, but also affects countries surrounding Australia like PNG and Indonesia, reducing the region's stability and prosperity. Environmental changes and increased mobility of people (eg. aid and security personnel) make Australia itself more prone to malaria. The project will translate recent genomic data into functional insights using frontier technology t ....Functional Genomic Analysis of Exported DNAJ Molecules in the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria is not only a global health problem, but also affects countries surrounding Australia like PNG and Indonesia, reducing the region's stability and prosperity. Environmental changes and increased mobility of people (eg. aid and security personnel) make Australia itself more prone to malaria. The project will translate recent genomic data into functional insights using frontier technology to identify new intervention targets for P. falciparum infection. Developing novel targets is mandated by humanity, and also to safeguard Australia's region against the social and economical implication of this disease. An Australian developed intervention would increase the global visibility of its science, leading to increased investments.Read moreRead less
Probabilistic modeling of human responses in complex interaction. The project aims to develop computational ability to reliably detect and hence act on implicit user preferences. It aims to develop techniques combining advanced non-intrusive sensor measures of conscious and non-conscious behaviour during interaction tasks to enable very high-level computerised support for human goal-seeking in complex data and design environments. It plans to use a user’s physiology and preference evaluation to ....Probabilistic modeling of human responses in complex interaction. The project aims to develop computational ability to reliably detect and hence act on implicit user preferences. It aims to develop techniques combining advanced non-intrusive sensor measures of conscious and non-conscious behaviour during interaction tasks to enable very high-level computerised support for human goal-seeking in complex data and design environments. It plans to use a user’s physiology and preference evaluation to capture their complex interaction with the data they view, probability models to accumulate information to identify their underlying preferences and extract relationships to find possible ‘hidden variables’ which may help explain and leverage the user's choices.Read moreRead less
Finding and exploiting interesting paths in multidimensional information spaces. This project will invent a new approach for searching within a large complex information space, finding interesting paths between points within the space, visualising the results, and supporting rich, human-centric user interaction with queries and results. This project will embody these techniques in a novel, internet-scale framework to support rapid development of large path search and visualisation applications. ....Finding and exploiting interesting paths in multidimensional information spaces. This project will invent a new approach for searching within a large complex information space, finding interesting paths between points within the space, visualising the results, and supporting rich, human-centric user interaction with queries and results. This project will embody these techniques in a novel, internet-scale framework to support rapid development of large path search and visualisation applications. Evaluation will be via development of several exemplar applications. The techniques and framework will be applicable to a broad range of economically important problems in areas as diverse as health, travel, scientific publication search, product marketing and software engineering.Read moreRead less