Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefi ....Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefits of complex community-based initiatives will help policymakers identify the set of initiatives that provide the best outcomes for the community they serve, as well as informing the optimal specification of the individual initiatives.Read moreRead less
Real-time scheduling of trains to control peak electricity demand. This project aims to develop new scheduling and control methods that will enable railways to reduce their demand for electricity during peak demand periods, without undue disruption to the timetable.
These new methods and systems will integrate with—and expand the capabilities of—an Australian train control system that is used by railways around the world. This will enable better management of electricity within a region and be ....Real-time scheduling of trains to control peak electricity demand. This project aims to develop new scheduling and control methods that will enable railways to reduce their demand for electricity during peak demand periods, without undue disruption to the timetable.
These new methods and systems will integrate with—and expand the capabilities of—an Australian train control system that is used by railways around the world. This will enable better management of electricity within a region and better use of renewable energy sources, with significant cost savings for railways and the wider community.Read moreRead less
Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources ....Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources including narratives of BPD, creative outputs and practitioner perspectives. The anticipated goal of this project is to inform policy and community responses addressing stigma and marginalisation, and the improvement of social support for those affected by BPD.Read moreRead less
Childhood obesity, physical activity and wellbeing: Discovering the influence of children's understandings and experiences of places, spaces and communities. The study aims to discover 3-13 yr old children's understandings, perceptions & experiences of physical activity & associated places & spaces. Childhood obesity is a modern 'epidemic' & governments agree that low physical activity levels contribute significantly. Epidemiological & clinical research has been undertaken, but we lack Australia ....Childhood obesity, physical activity and wellbeing: Discovering the influence of children's understandings and experiences of places, spaces and communities. The study aims to discover 3-13 yr old children's understandings, perceptions & experiences of physical activity & associated places & spaces. Childhood obesity is a modern 'epidemic' & governments agree that low physical activity levels contribute significantly. Epidemiological & clinical research has been undertaken, but we lack Australian studies that systematically listen to & understand the pivotal voices of children themselves. Failure to develop such theoretically sound, practice-based understandings may mean ineffective interventions that misunderstand children's worlds. This collaborative study unites highly experienced researchers, practitioners & policy makers who will actively involve children in creating & using new knowledge.Read moreRead less
Managing uncertainty in RFID traceability networks. Australia suffers 5.4 million cases of food-borne illness every year, which leads to 2.1 million days of lost work, 1.2 million people visiting a doctor, and 120 deaths annually. This has revealed the urgent need for improved ways of locating and recalling problematic products that have been released into the community. The project will develop novel techniques driven by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for improving the effici ....Managing uncertainty in RFID traceability networks. Australia suffers 5.4 million cases of food-borne illness every year, which leads to 2.1 million days of lost work, 1.2 million people visiting a doctor, and 120 deaths annually. This has revealed the urgent need for improved ways of locating and recalling problematic products that have been released into the community. The project will develop novel techniques driven by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for improving the efficiency and accuracy of product tracking in distribution networks. This project will place Australia at the forefront of RFID research. It will also be an excellent vehicle for educating young researchers and engineers in Australia.Read moreRead less
From data to action: a new process for developing injury countermeasures. This project aims to understand how reporting systems can improve workplace safety. Workplace injury affects over 600 000 Australian workers per year at a cost of approximately $60 billion. Although the introduction of incident reporting systems has enabled organisations to better understand the causes of injuries, how to translate this knowledge into effective countermeasures remains ambiguous. Moreover, it is not clear w ....From data to action: a new process for developing injury countermeasures. This project aims to understand how reporting systems can improve workplace safety. Workplace injury affects over 600 000 Australian workers per year at a cost of approximately $60 billion. Although the introduction of incident reporting systems has enabled organisations to better understand the causes of injuries, how to translate this knowledge into effective countermeasures remains ambiguous. Moreover, it is not clear whether adopting incident reporting systems actually leads to a safety benefit. This research intends to tackle these critical knowledge gaps by developing, implementing, and testing a process for translating incident reporting system outputs into appropriate and effective injury countermeasures, and then evaluating the safety effects of adopting the new incident reporting and learning cycle.Read moreRead less
Can and should we link data at a national level? Vaccine safety surveillance: A case study. This project provides many benefits for the community, exploring the legal and ethical issues around consent for data linkage, convening Citizens' Juries to weigh the evidence and make recommendations. It addresses National Research Priorities: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health and Safeguarding Australia as well as National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy priorities. It uses vaccine sa ....Can and should we link data at a national level? Vaccine safety surveillance: A case study. This project provides many benefits for the community, exploring the legal and ethical issues around consent for data linkage, convening Citizens' Juries to weigh the evidence and make recommendations. It addresses National Research Priorities: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health and Safeguarding Australia as well as National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy priorities. It uses vaccine safety surveillance as a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of data linkage (through linking Commonwealth immunisation data to state hospital data) and the methodologies and lessons learnt from cross jurisdictional data linkage can be transferred to other areas. Read moreRead less
Access to mobile communications for older people with impairments. This research will determine the potential to use mobile communications to enable older people with impairments to remain active members of the community. it will test the capacity for mobiles to enable:
* older people with impairments to maintain social communication links and summon assistance; and
* caregivers to maintain contact with the older person during the day.
Providing these capabilities has the potential to improve ....Access to mobile communications for older people with impairments. This research will determine the potential to use mobile communications to enable older people with impairments to remain active members of the community. it will test the capacity for mobiles to enable:
* older people with impairments to maintain social communication links and summon assistance; and
* caregivers to maintain contact with the older person during the day.
Providing these capabilities has the potential to improve the wellbeing and confidence of older people with impairments and their caregivers and to reduce negative outcomes due to falls or other medical problems by enabling older people to summon assistance easily.Read moreRead less
Estimating use of tobacco and nicotine products through wastewater analysis. This project aims to equip the Australian public health and security sector with a tool to accurately measure tobacco consumption in the general population. Specific human biomarkers in urine will be identified using non-target approaches and their pharmacokinetics quantified. The new data will address critical gaps in our knowledge on the population-level excretion of biomarkers for the consumption of tobacco and alter ....Estimating use of tobacco and nicotine products through wastewater analysis. This project aims to equip the Australian public health and security sector with a tool to accurately measure tobacco consumption in the general population. Specific human biomarkers in urine will be identified using non-target approaches and their pharmacokinetics quantified. The new data will address critical gaps in our knowledge on the population-level excretion of biomarkers for the consumption of tobacco and alternative nicotine products. The outcomes of this project will provide reliable, cost-effective estimates of tobacco consumption for use with wastewater-based epidemiology assessments. This will enable changes in tobacco use to be accurately evaluated for the first time and improve the efficacy of tobacco control measures.Read moreRead less
Addressing Indigenous complex health, housing and social inclusion issues through critical systems approaches to build workforce capacity. The multidisciplinary research comprises the researchers, Department of Human Services and Neporendi Aboriginal Forum Inc who address complex Indigenous social problems in partnership. The participatory design provides effective solutions, both in treatment and community settings through the development of a computer-modeling technique that articulates and in ....Addressing Indigenous complex health, housing and social inclusion issues through critical systems approaches to build workforce capacity. The multidisciplinary research comprises the researchers, Department of Human Services and Neporendi Aboriginal Forum Inc who address complex Indigenous social problems in partnership. The participatory design provides effective solutions, both in treatment and community settings through the development of a computer-modeling technique that articulates and informs partnership arrangements. The research offers a practical approach to address the communication and policy issues relating to Indigenous family violence, social inclusion, homelessness and drug misuse. It develops and pilots an integrated systems management tool that builds the capacity of the human services workforce to manage referrals across services to maximize user outcomes.Read moreRead less