Mathematical measurement and modelling of neuronal degeneration. Currently about 150,000 Australian's suffer from cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease or dementia and this number is expected to double over the next few decades. By combining newly developed mathematical methods in complex systems with sophisticated neural imaging we will develop new techniques to advance the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive decline in normal ageing and neurodegenerative disease.
This project will ....Mathematical measurement and modelling of neuronal degeneration. Currently about 150,000 Australian's suffer from cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease or dementia and this number is expected to double over the next few decades. By combining newly developed mathematical methods in complex systems with sophisticated neural imaging we will develop new techniques to advance the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive decline in normal ageing and neurodegenerative disease.
This project will also maintain the collaborative link between researchers in Biomathematics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York and researchers in Applied Mathematics at UNSW that enables training of Australian scientists in the vital area of mathematical bio-complexity.Read moreRead less
Synchrotrons, wavelet analysis and novel imaging techniques - applying physics tools to the war against breast cancer. Breast cancer leads to the second highest number of person-years of life lost due to cancer in Australia, with little known about its transport around the body. Current screening methods for breast cancer are neither 100% sensitive or specific and are heavily dependent upon expert training. This project will contribute by yielding valuable information on the transport of breast ....Synchrotrons, wavelet analysis and novel imaging techniques - applying physics tools to the war against breast cancer. Breast cancer leads to the second highest number of person-years of life lost due to cancer in Australia, with little known about its transport around the body. Current screening methods for breast cancer are neither 100% sensitive or specific and are heavily dependent upon expert training. This project will contribute by yielding valuable information on the transport of breast cancer and contribute to the development of an automated diagnostic method, with the possibility of its application to other diseases. The project will also involve members of the regional community, train regional scientists and provide synchrotron experience for Australian scientists in time for Australia's first synchrotron.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Choices of Individuals. Individuals make decisions daily and some of these decisions have wide-reaching and long-term consequences, such as choices among housing, public transport, electoral candidates and health care options. The principal aim of this project is to develop reliable and valid ways to model individual level choice processes. Once completed, this will provide insights into ways to aggregate sampled observations when population-level applications are required, and all ....Modelling the Choices of Individuals. Individuals make decisions daily and some of these decisions have wide-reaching and long-term consequences, such as choices among housing, public transport, electoral candidates and health care options. The principal aim of this project is to develop reliable and valid ways to model individual level choice processes. Once completed, this will provide insights into ways to aggregate sampled observations when population-level applications are required, and allow us to compare and test several competing theories of choice behaviour. This will enable us to make contributions to understanding and modelling human decision making in many fields ranging from marketing to medicine.Read moreRead less
Bayesian choice modelling. Discrete choice models are important as they provide tools to help understand choice processes of decision makers. It remains a challenge to specify models with covariance structures flexible enough to capture complex patterns of cross-substitution between choices while being able to capture heterogeneity present in individual behaviour. We will develop a Bayesian approach to choice modelling that uses covariance selection to overcome these problems. This will train re ....Bayesian choice modelling. Discrete choice models are important as they provide tools to help understand choice processes of decision makers. It remains a challenge to specify models with covariance structures flexible enough to capture complex patterns of cross-substitution between choices while being able to capture heterogeneity present in individual behaviour. We will develop a Bayesian approach to choice modelling that uses covariance selection to overcome these problems. This will train researchers and raise the profile of Australia in an active research area that is important in the social sciences; substantive applications will be in health economics, but developments will also be relevant to cognate areas of biostatistics, epidemiology, and ecology.Read moreRead less
Building flexible multivariate models and their application in Finance. The project will develop methods for analyzing the properties of dependent measurements that may evolve through time. The new methods will significantly improve on current best statistical practice and will be applied to important problems in the financial sector such as asset allocation and risk management. The financial sector is a vital part of the Australian economy and it is important to understand the joint behavior of ....Building flexible multivariate models and their application in Finance. The project will develop methods for analyzing the properties of dependent measurements that may evolve through time. The new methods will significantly improve on current best statistical practice and will be applied to important problems in the financial sector such as asset allocation and risk management. The financial sector is a vital part of the Australian economy and it is important to understand the joint behavior of financial assets in order to understand and allow for risk. The methods will have immediate application in other disciplines such as medicine, engineering and the environmental sciences. The project will train a postdoctoral student and three PhD students in cutting edge financial econometrics. Read moreRead less
Integrated Photonics for Secure Communication and Related Applications in Financial Transaction Data Analysis. The project includes excellent basic science, semiconductor device fabrication and applied mathematics with explicitly identified consequences for innovation. There is strong potential for national economic benefits through the manufacture of new integrated photonic devices, the application of these devices in secure communication systems, the research of advanced non-linear analysis pr ....Integrated Photonics for Secure Communication and Related Applications in Financial Transaction Data Analysis. The project includes excellent basic science, semiconductor device fabrication and applied mathematics with explicitly identified consequences for innovation. There is strong potential for national economic benefits through the manufacture of new integrated photonic devices, the application of these devices in secure communication systems, the research of advanced non-linear analysis protocols, and the implementation of these in financial transaction analysis. Professional development and research education of postgraduate students and early career researchers will be carried out in a multi-disciplinary research environment with ongoing uptake of the research in industry and commercial sectors.Read moreRead less
Material boundaries in ultrasonics: New methods and in vitro studies in biomedical phantoms. Ultrasound is an indispensable part of healthcare worldwide. The next wave of applications will see ultrasound pulses used to closely probe suspected disease sites and to directly manipulate bioactive agents. For safe and effective use of such techniques it is essential to know the ultrasound field at the disease site. This project will develop simulation methods to achieve the fast, accurate and case-sp ....Material boundaries in ultrasonics: New methods and in vitro studies in biomedical phantoms. Ultrasound is an indispensable part of healthcare worldwide. The next wave of applications will see ultrasound pulses used to closely probe suspected disease sites and to directly manipulate bioactive agents. For safe and effective use of such techniques it is essential to know the ultrasound field at the disease site. This project will develop simulation methods to achieve the fast, accurate and case-specific results required. Community healthcare will benefit, through better diagnostic capabilities and customized treatment. Australia is well placed to profit further from this research, in view of the growing worldwide demand for more sophisticated, knowledge-based techniques in medicine.Read moreRead less
The effect of vessel wall structures on ultrasonic flow velocity measurements. The flow velocity within a nearly cylindrical vessel is often measured using an external ultrasound transducer via the Doppler principle. Thick vessel walls may present acoustically mismatched structures. This project aims to determine how such walls redistribute the energy in an interrogating ultrasound beam, and how this in turn affects the measurement of flow velocities. This is a fundamental issue, especially imp ....The effect of vessel wall structures on ultrasonic flow velocity measurements. The flow velocity within a nearly cylindrical vessel is often measured using an external ultrasound transducer via the Doppler principle. Thick vessel walls may present acoustically mismatched structures. This project aims to determine how such walls redistribute the energy in an interrogating ultrasound beam, and how this in turn affects the measurement of flow velocities. This is a fundamental issue, especially important in vascular disease where blood flow and blood vessels are affected by wall irregularities and lesions. The new knowledge generated by this project will have practical importance and, by identifying achievable outcomes, potentially major cost savings, in medical ultrasound.Read moreRead less