The causes and effects of mortality in tropical Australian trees. Drought can cause the widespread death of tropical trees resulting in large emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but predictions of tree death during drought remain rudimentary. This project will combine new data and modelling on how Australian tropical trees respond to drought to improve estimates of tree mortality risk and its impacts.
Dynamics of the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is critically important to future global climate: it controls the natural global carbon cycle and the distribution of heat and nutrients around the ocean. This project will investigate key uncertainties in the Southern Ocean's response to climate change, and thereby improve our capacity to predict future climate.
Spanning ten billion scales from millimetre turbulence to global circulation. This project aims to explain the role of convection in the ocean. Convection is a key climate process yet it remains one of the most poorly understood mechanisms in the ocean and is crudely represented in climate models, leading to uncertainties in predictions of heat transport, climate change, polar ice loss and sea level rise. Using a unique turbulence-resolving approach and high-performance computing, the project wi ....Spanning ten billion scales from millimetre turbulence to global circulation. This project aims to explain the role of convection in the ocean. Convection is a key climate process yet it remains one of the most poorly understood mechanisms in the ocean and is crudely represented in climate models, leading to uncertainties in predictions of heat transport, climate change, polar ice loss and sea level rise. Using a unique turbulence-resolving approach and high-performance computing, the project will determine both the global role of buoyancy-driven convection in the broad ocean circulation and the local turbulence controls on melting rates of Antarctic ice-shelves. This will contribute to the formulation of better climate models and keep Australia at the forefront of oceanography and environmental fluid dynamics.Read moreRead less
Changing your mind by changing your brain: An interventionist perspective on cognitive neuroscience. Functional neuroimaging provides a tremendous amount of information about the brain, but what it shows about the mind is less clear. Addressing this fundamental philosophical question requires developing a detailed account of theory-testing in cognitive neuroscience. This project aims to connect neuroimaging to theories of explanation that focus on the way one variable can make a difference to an ....Changing your mind by changing your brain: An interventionist perspective on cognitive neuroscience. Functional neuroimaging provides a tremendous amount of information about the brain, but what it shows about the mind is less clear. Addressing this fundamental philosophical question requires developing a detailed account of theory-testing in cognitive neuroscience. This project aims to connect neuroimaging to theories of explanation that focus on the way one variable can make a difference to another. By linking neuroimaging to facts about manipulable relationships between the brain and the mind, it will also provide a bridge between neuroimaging and complementary technologies for directly intervening on the brain. This, in turn, will provide a platform from which to explore the theoretical and ethical consequences of direct brain manipulation.Read moreRead less
The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environ ....The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environmentally Sustainable Australia, Promoting and Managing Good Health, and Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, insofar as all of these areas of National Research Priority are concerned with the acquisition and transfer of knowledge.Read moreRead less
Epidemics, mortality and longevity in Tasmania, 1838-1930. This project will investigate areas of contemporary importance that can only be explored using historic-demographic data. National benefits include (1) gaining a better understanding of how epidemics spread through families and communities, and possible mortality and case-fatality rates, to assist in preparation for future epidemics; (2) improved accuracy in projecting older-age mortality and population ageing in Australia and other coun ....Epidemics, mortality and longevity in Tasmania, 1838-1930. This project will investigate areas of contemporary importance that can only be explored using historic-demographic data. National benefits include (1) gaining a better understanding of how epidemics spread through families and communities, and possible mortality and case-fatality rates, to assist in preparation for future epidemics; (2) improved accuracy in projecting older-age mortality and population ageing in Australia and other countries; and (3) more precise estimates of women's capacity to naturally conceive and carry to term by characteristics such as her age, her partner's age, and her number of previous births. The project will also result in augmentation of a unique publicly available dataset.Read moreRead less
Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the developme ....Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the development of analytical and conceptual tools to understand democracy across different socio-historical contexts. The project aims to produce policy and practice relevant knowledge to increase the meaningful participation of women in politics in India and Indonesia, with comparative lessons for other countries Read moreRead less
Mosquito-borne viruses - how they cause disease and novel approaches to prevention. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) is the most common insect borne virus that affects human health. There were more than 60,000 confirmed cases of RRV between 1993 and 2008. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for significant morbidity that has both social and economic costs for the individual, their family and the community. This project has several national benefits. It will elucidate whether there is ....Mosquito-borne viruses - how they cause disease and novel approaches to prevention. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) is the most common insect borne virus that affects human health. There were more than 60,000 confirmed cases of RRV between 1993 and 2008. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for significant morbidity that has both social and economic costs for the individual, their family and the community. This project has several national benefits. It will elucidate whether there is an association between RRV strain and the severity of disease and if there are human factors that affect the seriousness of symptoms. Knowledge of both of these could provide new avenues for the design of prevention and treatment strategies.Read moreRead less
Local responses to missing persons and post-conflict peacebuilding . This project aims to fundamentally reshape dominant thinking on the problem of missing persons in post-conflict peacebuilding. Through the first large-scale comparative ethnography of Timor-Leste and Sri Lanka, the research will bring local community approaches, needs and practices around the missing in from the margins to the centre of scholarly analysis and practice. Outcomes include new knowledge about local agency and commu ....Local responses to missing persons and post-conflict peacebuilding . This project aims to fundamentally reshape dominant thinking on the problem of missing persons in post-conflict peacebuilding. Through the first large-scale comparative ethnography of Timor-Leste and Sri Lanka, the research will bring local community approaches, needs and practices around the missing in from the margins to the centre of scholarly analysis and practice. Outcomes include new knowledge about local agency and community understandings of the missing that are relevant to peacebuilding, and enhanced collaborations with scholars and policymakers. Expected benefits include improved international, state and NGO responses to missing persons to meet the needs of families and communities and facilitate sustainable peace after conflict.Read moreRead less
Transforming charity to reduce persistent poverty. This project aims to produce empirical knowledge to assist charities to reduce persistent poverty in Australia. In Australia people in poverty use charity to subsidise limited incomes and survive on a day-to-day basis. Recently charities are expected to assist in disrupting poverty in addition to poverty relief. However there is limited knowledge about how charities work with people who are poor and how they can change to work better. This proje ....Transforming charity to reduce persistent poverty. This project aims to produce empirical knowledge to assist charities to reduce persistent poverty in Australia. In Australia people in poverty use charity to subsidise limited incomes and survive on a day-to-day basis. Recently charities are expected to assist in disrupting poverty in addition to poverty relief. However there is limited knowledge about how charities work with people who are poor and how they can change to work better. This project expects to provide knowledge that governments, social service providers, and charities can use to transform their work with people in poverty. Read moreRead less