Music cognition in infants, children and adults. Music is an important tool for the expression of emotion and transmission of culture. One approach to understanding why music is a human universal is to examine how people process musical structure - the simultaneous and sequential pitch relations among tones of musical pieces. We investigate the way humans acquire implicit and explicit knowledge of such relations and the way exposure to music influences acquisition. Three experiments involving in ....Music cognition in infants, children and adults. Music is an important tool for the expression of emotion and transmission of culture. One approach to understanding why music is a human universal is to examine how people process musical structure - the simultaneous and sequential pitch relations among tones of musical pieces. We investigate the way humans acquire implicit and explicit knowledge of such relations and the way exposure to music influences acquisition. Three experiments involving infants, children and adults will compare formal musical training with incidental learning. Results will increase knowledge of the development of auditory perception and music cognition. Infant perceptual predispositions hold implications for music education.Read moreRead less
Robust Beamforming for Radar Imaging. The impact of radar imaging technologies on security and search and rescue operations is indisputable. They play a vital role in safeguarding a country from terrorism and crime, protecting its borders, and predicting adverse weather patterns. Searching for survivors in disaster areas such as earthquakes and fires can greatly benefit from the proposed research. Law-enforcement officers can employ radar imaging technology to enable accurate determination of t ....Robust Beamforming for Radar Imaging. The impact of radar imaging technologies on security and search and rescue operations is indisputable. They play a vital role in safeguarding a country from terrorism and crime, protecting its borders, and predicting adverse weather patterns. Searching for survivors in disaster areas such as earthquakes and fires can greatly benefit from the proposed research. Law-enforcement officers can employ radar imaging technology to enable accurate determination of targets of interest, obstacles, weapons, victims, outlaws, and hostages inside enclosed structures or buildings. The proposed research and its findings will support the development of cutting edge radar imaging research and technology in Australia.Read moreRead less
Community Based Water Resources Management. In a time of predicted severe water shortage in the Asia Pacific, the University of Western Sydney and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India have developed research into community based water resources management for regional townships and communities. The objective of this proposal is to connect the two water research organisations in a cross cultural comparison of their respective research programs and to develop a generic model o ....Community Based Water Resources Management. In a time of predicted severe water shortage in the Asia Pacific, the University of Western Sydney and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India have developed research into community based water resources management for regional townships and communities. The objective of this proposal is to connect the two water research organisations in a cross cultural comparison of their respective research programs and to develop a generic model of regional community water use management for developed and developing countries, appropriate to the Asia-Pacific.Read moreRead less
A philosophical and empirical approach to the nature of perception and belief. This project offers substantial benefits - intellectual, practical, and ultimately economic - to the nation. On the intellectual side, the project will contribute to research output and will further enhance the national research strength in the study of delusions, rationality, and agency, within both philosophy of mind and inter-disciplinary cognitive science. On the practical side, the project offers the prospect of ....A philosophical and empirical approach to the nature of perception and belief. This project offers substantial benefits - intellectual, practical, and ultimately economic - to the nation. On the intellectual side, the project will contribute to research output and will further enhance the national research strength in the study of delusions, rationality, and agency, within both philosophy of mind and inter-disciplinary cognitive science. On the practical side, the project offers the prospect of considerable benefits for the community as improved theories of the nature and causes of delusions generate strategies for earlier detection or even prevention of the development of delusions, new methods of therapy for patients, and better understanding for families.Read moreRead less
Efficient data manipulation in document classification. Document Classification has an enormous relevance in an era where large amounts of textual information is available. Document Classification is based on statistical and machine learning techniques that model documents represented as points in a multidimensional space. The Computer Engineering Laboratory (CEL) has ongoing projects using neural networks and other techniques for document classification. We are developing a development environm ....Efficient data manipulation in document classification. Document Classification has an enormous relevance in an era where large amounts of textual information is available. Document Classification is based on statistical and machine learning techniques that model documents represented as points in a multidimensional space. The Computer Engineering Laboratory (CEL) has ongoing projects using neural networks and other techniques for document classification. We are developing a development environment for large classification tasks, and Prof. Lee¡¯s work will focus in managing large amounts of data for them. Using his experience in data compression, databases and web applications, he will produce a set of tools for handling Gigabytes of textual data in our classification environment.Read moreRead less
Ensembles of Collaborative Neural Networks. Artificial neural networks have been used successfully for data mining and control. A neural network ensemble(NNE) is a collection of networks that exhibits properties of self-organization, plasticity, and adaptive behaviour. The aim of this research is to develop an efficient and theoretically sound algorithm for NNE learning. The outcomes of the project will include insights into self-organization of complex NNE and automatic problem decomposition an ....Ensembles of Collaborative Neural Networks. Artificial neural networks have been used successfully for data mining and control. A neural network ensemble(NNE) is a collection of networks that exhibits properties of self-organization, plasticity, and adaptive behaviour. The aim of this research is to develop an efficient and theoretically sound algorithm for NNE learning. The outcomes of the project will include insights into self-organization of complex NNE and automatic problem decomposition and an efficient algorithm for constructing and training NNE. Practical outcomes will include research training for early career researchers and new modelling tools for data mining, robotics and multi-agent systems. The project contributes to the national priority area of smart information use.Read moreRead less
How, What and Who in Human Communication: Movement of Face and Voice. The aim of this project is to identify the essential characteristics of tone, affect, and identity from face and voice using a combination of signal processing, biological, and behavioural techniques in order to develop a comprehensive model of auditory-visual speech processing and communication. This research will significantly improve understanding of the basis of auditory-visual perception and production in tonal languages ....How, What and Who in Human Communication: Movement of Face and Voice. The aim of this project is to identify the essential characteristics of tone, affect, and identity from face and voice using a combination of signal processing, biological, and behavioural techniques in order to develop a comprehensive model of auditory-visual speech processing and communication. This research will significantly improve understanding of the basis of auditory-visual perception and production in tonal languages and in affective communication, facilitate links between neurophysiological processes and auditory-visual speech processing; and contribute to applications in automatic person recognition, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech systems, and talking head aids for the hearing impaired.Read moreRead less
Impacts of changing detrital source biodiversity on estuarine ecosystems. Coastal development, invasive pests, and climate change are impacting abundances of estuarine aquatic plants. This in turn is affecting the composition and magnitude of detrital enrichment, threatening biodiversity, fisheries production and endangered birds. Our pioneering research will forecast the impacts of changing detrital-source biodiversity on soft-sediment communities and the food webs they support in Australia and ....Impacts of changing detrital source biodiversity on estuarine ecosystems. Coastal development, invasive pests, and climate change are impacting abundances of estuarine aquatic plants. This in turn is affecting the composition and magnitude of detrital enrichment, threatening biodiversity, fisheries production and endangered birds. Our pioneering research will forecast the impacts of changing detrital-source biodiversity on soft-sediment communities and the food webs they support in Australia and the USA. Ecological generalities obtained can be used to support policy development that ensures sustainable management of estuaries. This work will also facilitate training of early career researchers and focus research efforts of leading US researchers towards issues crucial for Australian estuarine management.Read moreRead less
Internet web page mining. This project aims to study the behaviour of internet search engines designed using a best first search strategy, and to improve on the existing designs. The outcome of the project will be a much better design of internet search engine which can be used to search for specific topics. The benefit to the Australian partner will be the gaining of skills in internet search engine design, originating from the Italian partner's group. The benefit to the Italian partner will be ....Internet web page mining. This project aims to study the behaviour of internet search engines designed using a best first search strategy, and to improve on the existing designs. The outcome of the project will be a much better design of internet search engine which can be used to search for specific topics. The benefit to the Australian partner will be the gaining of skills in internet search engine design, originating from the Italian partner's group. The benefit to the Italian partner will be the gaining of skills in research techniques, e.g., utilising a support vector machine as a classification tool, data mining techniques developed originally by the Australian partner's group, and in further developments of these techniques with specific applications to the internet web page mining problem.Read moreRead less
Extensions to the page scoring algorithm in internet search engine studies. This project proposes to study two extensions to the Page rank equation which is one of the theoretical underpinning of Google's web page scoring engine. In particular, we wish to explore ways to combine page connectivity and page characteristics in the scoring of web pages. This will be the first time a rational way is proposed for combining these two factors. The expected outcome will be a deeper understanding on how t ....Extensions to the page scoring algorithm in internet search engine studies. This project proposes to study two extensions to the Page rank equation which is one of the theoretical underpinning of Google's web page scoring engine. In particular, we wish to explore ways to combine page connectivity and page characteristics in the scoring of web pages. This will be the first time a rational way is proposed for combining these two factors. The expected outcome will be a deeper understanding on how these two factors affect the scores of a web page in a search engine, and hence how they affect the visibility of the page in response to a query.
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