Setting Geographic Priorities for Integrated Landscape Restoration in a Fragmented Agricultural Region. This research project aims to develop the theory and application of integrated landscape restoration in a fragmented agricultural region - the Mt. Lofty Ranges of South Australia. Spatially explicit priorities will be set for the type and location of habitat to be restored for the benefit of the natural biodiversity within a physical environmental, economic and social context. Heuristic and op ....Setting Geographic Priorities for Integrated Landscape Restoration in a Fragmented Agricultural Region. This research project aims to develop the theory and application of integrated landscape restoration in a fragmented agricultural region - the Mt. Lofty Ranges of South Australia. Spatially explicit priorities will be set for the type and location of habitat to be restored for the benefit of the natural biodiversity within a physical environmental, economic and social context. Heuristic and optimisation models will be created within a Geographic Information System (GIS) and assessed for their ability to set such priorities in integrated landscape restoration. The techniques will help sustain ecological, physical and human systems in many other over-cleared regions.Read moreRead less
Carbon conundrum: Functional characterisation of organic matter-clay mineral interactions in relation to carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration in soil has been recognised as one of the possible measures through which greenhouse gas emissions can be mitigated. The major processes involved in carbon sequestration in soil include chemical immobilisation of carbon with soil particles and physical protection in the pores of soil microaggregates. These two processes are mediated through the funct ....Carbon conundrum: Functional characterisation of organic matter-clay mineral interactions in relation to carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration in soil has been recognised as one of the possible measures through which greenhouse gas emissions can be mitigated. The major processes involved in carbon sequestration in soil include chemical immobilisation of carbon with soil particles and physical protection in the pores of soil microaggregates. These two processes are mediated through the functional relationships of soil organic matter and clay mineral interactions in soils. This project investigates nanoscale organomineral association underlying microaggregate formation and stability, as well as the distribution and microbial decomposition of carbon within microaggregates using a suite of advanced spectroscopic, molecular and isotopic techniques.Read moreRead less
Normalizing XML Documents. Our work will be of great benefit, both to the research community and to the ICT industry. The project addresses one of the most important problems in XML usage and we expect our results to be published in important international forums, as has our preliminary research on the topic. This will significantly improve Australia's reputation in research in the ICT area. In the longer term, we intend to build commercial software tools based on the results of our research ....Normalizing XML Documents. Our work will be of great benefit, both to the research community and to the ICT industry. The project addresses one of the most important problems in XML usage and we expect our results to be published in important international forums, as has our preliminary research on the topic. This will significantly improve Australia's reputation in research in the ICT area. In the longer term, we intend to build commercial software tools based on the results of our research and this will be of direct benefit to the Australian economy and the Australian ICT industry.Read moreRead less
Towards Scalable, Internet-Based RFID Traceability Networks. Food and drug safety is a major public health issue in Australia. Recent events involving poisoning of chocolate bars and paracetamol tablets in Australia have demonstrated the urgent need for improved ways of locating and recalling commercial products that have been released into the community. This project will develop novel techniques for locating items in large-scale distribution networks driven by RFID (Radio Frequency Identificat ....Towards Scalable, Internet-Based RFID Traceability Networks. Food and drug safety is a major public health issue in Australia. Recent events involving poisoning of chocolate bars and paracetamol tablets in Australia have demonstrated the urgent need for improved ways of locating and recalling commercial products that have been released into the community. This project will develop novel techniques for locating items in large-scale distribution networks driven by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology. The outcomes of the project will make it easier to rapidly and accurately pinpoint product locations in the event of problems such as an illness outbreak due to contaminated food or counterfeited drugs. Read moreRead less
Drivers of the live pet trade in Australian reptiles. This project aims to understand the complex trade in live Australian reptiles. The global pet trade is a major threat to biodiversity. This project expects to generate critical new knowledge for combatting the current and future illegal trade in Australian wildlife. Using surveillance of domestic and overseas online markets, and innovative statistical and simulation-based approaches to inform conservation decision-making, the expected outcome ....Drivers of the live pet trade in Australian reptiles. This project aims to understand the complex trade in live Australian reptiles. The global pet trade is a major threat to biodiversity. This project expects to generate critical new knowledge for combatting the current and future illegal trade in Australian wildlife. Using surveillance of domestic and overseas online markets, and innovative statistical and simulation-based approaches to inform conservation decision-making, the expected outcomes of this project include an enhanced capacity to conserve native species and to monitor and disrupt the complex illegal wildlife trade. This should provide significant benefits in terms of biodiversity conservation and safeguarding Australia’s unique and ecologically important native reptile species.Read moreRead less
Improving Extensible Markup Language (XML) data quality using XML integrity constraints. The first benefit of the project will be the of development a new technology that will improve the data quality in Australian organizations using the rapidly growing Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. It will also be of benefit to the Australian software industry, since the outcome of the project is a software tool for cleaning XML data that is aimed at eventual commercialisation in a quickly gro ....Improving Extensible Markup Language (XML) data quality using XML integrity constraints. The first benefit of the project will be the of development a new technology that will improve the data quality in Australian organizations using the rapidly growing Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. It will also be of benefit to the Australian software industry, since the outcome of the project is a software tool for cleaning XML data that is aimed at eventual commercialisation in a quickly growing area of the software market. The project will also boost international research collaboration through the involvement of an overseas partner investigator, and expand Australia's expertise in the new area of XML technology through the training of a Ph.D. student.Read moreRead less
Integration of Object Behavior in Federated Information Systems. Integration of autonomous object-oriented systems requires the integration
of object structure and object behaviour. Research in federated information
systems has so far mainly addressed integration of object structure. This
project will investigate the integration of object behaviour, especially object
life cycles. A major application area is the integration of business processes,
which is typically required when companies me ....Integration of Object Behavior in Federated Information Systems. Integration of autonomous object-oriented systems requires the integration
of object structure and object behaviour. Research in federated information
systems has so far mainly addressed integration of object structure. This
project will investigate the integration of object behaviour, especially object
life cycles. A major application area is the integration of business processes,
which is typically required when companies merge or enter into
consumer-producer relationships and constitutes a key capability for B2B e-commerce
systems. Consistency criteria for behaviour integration
will be defined and applied in a graphical integration tool that guides the
definition of global behavioural views upon autonomous object-oriented systems.
Read moreRead less
The impact of strategic alignment on IT outsourcing success in a complex service setting. Improved conceptual and methodological understanding of strategic alignment is essential for better IT outsourcing decisions. This research will improve the performance of Australian industry by investigating how strategically well aligned ITO investments can lead to improved performance and greater competitive advantage.
Learning human activities through low cost, unobtrusive RFID technology. A rapidly growing aged population presents many challenges to Australia's health and aged care services. The outcomes of this project will help aging Australians live in their own homes longer, with greater independence and safety by providing an automated, unobtrusive means for health professionals to monitor activity and intervene as required.
Cost-effective integrated engineering and "community partnerships" solution to a latent water policy issue: private dam management and flood safety. Project aims to further develop an engineering model for cost-effective innovative flood safety design/review for private dams in Southeastern Australia and integrate this with community impact assessment. Together, this is a "community partnerships" solution to a significant water policy vacuum on private dam safety and flood policy. Expected outco ....Cost-effective integrated engineering and "community partnerships" solution to a latent water policy issue: private dam management and flood safety. Project aims to further develop an engineering model for cost-effective innovative flood safety design/review for private dams in Southeastern Australia and integrate this with community impact assessment. Together, this is a "community partnerships" solution to a significant water policy vacuum on private dam safety and flood policy. Expected outcomes: improved risk transparency for dam owners and State Government, minimising costs of failures, ie. loss of life, damage to public and private infrastructure and environment; giving owners an affordable and effective design/review procedure to better manage their dams, providing data on community responses and water law reform proposals consonant with international best-practice.Read moreRead less