Planning and operational models for food rescue and delivery to the poor. This project aims to develop an innovative holistic mathematical model of the vehicle routing problem for a charity-based food rescue and distribution system. Such a model would aim to maximise societal benefits while constraining costs, and would need to take into account the demand profile for donors and receivers, and the equitable distribution of food. The model developed is designed to mathematically represent the sys ....Planning and operational models for food rescue and delivery to the poor. This project aims to develop an innovative holistic mathematical model of the vehicle routing problem for a charity-based food rescue and distribution system. Such a model would aim to maximise societal benefits while constraining costs, and would need to take into account the demand profile for donors and receivers, and the equitable distribution of food. The model developed is designed to mathematically represent the system in a consistent framework so as to develop optimisation models and techniques. The project also seeks to understand the factors that influence the demand to donate to food rescue by organisations and individuals and the demand to request food by welfare agencies.Read moreRead less
Addressing the food and health needs of ageing Baby boomers. This project will facilitate the future provision of food and health promotion services for the "baby boomers" (aged 55 to 70 years). Three consecutive surveys will be administered to a random sample of 1500 middle -aged people which will examine their food consumption and health habits; the psycho social determinants of these behaviours, and, their retirement preparedness. The creation of the project data base will facilitate the moni ....Addressing the food and health needs of ageing Baby boomers. This project will facilitate the future provision of food and health promotion services for the "baby boomers" (aged 55 to 70 years). Three consecutive surveys will be administered to a random sample of 1500 middle -aged people which will examine their food consumption and health habits; the psycho social determinants of these behaviours, and, their retirement preparedness. The creation of the project data base will facilitate the monitoring of future changes and trends in this representative sample of late middle aged people.Read moreRead less
Harnessing Business Insights from Unstructured Customer Data. Resulting from customers’ widespread uptake of online channels to buy and communicate has been a surge in online reviews and social media posts. This textual information offers a viable alternative to surveys that Australian businesses currently conduct to obtain customer insights. However, these reviews are unstructured and require substantial pre-processing to extract underlying customer perceptions. Therefore, this project aims to ....Harnessing Business Insights from Unstructured Customer Data. Resulting from customers’ widespread uptake of online channels to buy and communicate has been a surge in online reviews and social media posts. This textual information offers a viable alternative to surveys that Australian businesses currently conduct to obtain customer insights. However, these reviews are unstructured and require substantial pre-processing to extract underlying customer perceptions. Therefore, this project aims to develop a novel machine learning approach to quantify the business-relevant information contained in textual information shared by customers online. This alternative approach will provide significant cost-saving benefits for a range of Australian companies, such as retailers, hotels, airlines and restaurants.Read moreRead less
Understanding and working with anger in male Indigenous people in prison settings. Anger has links to many important outcomes in the prison environment, including violent behaviour, institutional conflict and self-harm. The nature and consequences of anger have rarely been investigated for imprisoned offenders and little is known about anger in male Indigenous Australians in prison, despite evidence that anger levels in this group are particularly high. This research will explore constitutive, ....Understanding and working with anger in male Indigenous people in prison settings. Anger has links to many important outcomes in the prison environment, including violent behaviour, institutional conflict and self-harm. The nature and consequences of anger have rarely been investigated for imprisoned offenders and little is known about anger in male Indigenous Australians in prison, despite evidence that anger levels in this group are particularly high. This research will explore constitutive, regulatory, procedural and other aspects of anger with male Indigenous prisoners, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, leading to the development of an intervention that will improve both the wellbeing and adjustment of Indigenous men in prison and rehabilitation outcomes.Read moreRead less
Strategic Service Innovation: The Role of Heterogeneity in Substantive and Dynamic Capabilities. This project will provide Australian companies with the tools to conduct a services capabilities audit. This tool will allow them to identify substantive and dynamic service capabilities that they must strengthen or acquire, in order to remain competitive in domestic and global markets, where consumers increasingly differentiate between organisations by value-adding services that they offer. Austral ....Strategic Service Innovation: The Role of Heterogeneity in Substantive and Dynamic Capabilities. This project will provide Australian companies with the tools to conduct a services capabilities audit. This tool will allow them to identify substantive and dynamic service capabilities that they must strengthen or acquire, in order to remain competitive in domestic and global markets, where consumers increasingly differentiate between organisations by value-adding services that they offer. Australia imports over $40Bn worth of services each year. This project has the potential to increase the domestic and international competitiveness of Australian manufacturers and service industries and contribute to the economy by reducing dependence on service imports, and assuring ongoing employment for Australian workers. Read moreRead less
Enhancing outcomes for young people in out-of-home care who self-place. This project aims to enhance the safety and well-being of young people in out-of-home care who leave formal placements to stay in unapproved locations. The significance lies in the development of new knowledge with this group of young people about their needs and of factors shaping effective responses to them. Expected outcomes include the generation of policies and practices to reduce the drivers of young people leaving a ....Enhancing outcomes for young people in out-of-home care who self-place. This project aims to enhance the safety and well-being of young people in out-of-home care who leave formal placements to stay in unapproved locations. The significance lies in the development of new knowledge with this group of young people about their needs and of factors shaping effective responses to them. Expected outcomes include the generation of policies and practices to reduce the drivers of young people leaving approved placements and to address the support and protective needs of young people when staying in unapproved locations. The benefits include improved social and economic inclusion of young people in out-of-home care and reduced socio-economic burdens on health and justice systems associated with placement breakdown. Read moreRead less
Modelling the Internet as a Geographical System. This project aims to model Internet transactions as a time-dependent random walk relative to the 24-hour rotation of the Earth. The dynamics of global distance-time interactions will be tested from Internet experiments and data bases. Case studies of retail transactions of connected households in Sydney and Brisbane will explore its socio-economic underpinnings. The project is significant in that it specifically defines the character of global In ....Modelling the Internet as a Geographical System. This project aims to model Internet transactions as a time-dependent random walk relative to the 24-hour rotation of the Earth. The dynamics of global distance-time interactions will be tested from Internet experiments and data bases. Case studies of retail transactions of connected households in Sydney and Brisbane will explore its socio-economic underpinnings. The project is significant in that it specifically defines the character of global Internet flows with a possibility of commercial advantage to Australia in understanding how the geography of time zones affects its dynamics.Read moreRead less
Separation anxiety in pregnancy: associations with oxytocin release, attachment styles and mother-infant interactions. This world's first longitudinal study will investigate the role of the hormone oxytocin in maternal anxiety and mother-infant interactions. This project aims to better understand and address the transmission of anxiety and bonding difficulties across generations.
Improving contact between children in out-of-home care and their birth parents: developing and trialling a contact intervention. There is little evidence on how to best manage contact between the 37,648 children in care nationally and their birth parents. The aim of this project is to develop and trial a new model of contact which will reduce distress, improve children's relationships with their birth parents and increase successful reunifications in the long term.
Post retirement support solutions for people with intellectual disabilities and their parents/carers. The current generation is the first to contain a substantial number of people with intellectual disabilities who have survived to old age. Policy makers have yet to focus on their wellbeing following retirement from supported employment. Evidence cited by agencies such as Centacare, the Industry Partner, indicates that these older people and their ageing parents experience severe disadvantage an ....Post retirement support solutions for people with intellectual disabilities and their parents/carers. The current generation is the first to contain a substantial number of people with intellectual disabilities who have survived to old age. Policy makers have yet to focus on their wellbeing following retirement from supported employment. Evidence cited by agencies such as Centacare, the Industry Partner, indicates that these older people and their ageing parents experience severe disadvantage and worry about retirement. The project aims to redress this situation by investigating ways of preparing people for retirement and mechanisms for enabling supported employment agencies to provide services and supports that optimise post retirement wellbeing.Read moreRead less