Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100988
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,333.00
Summary
From cells to whales: A mathematical framework to understand navigation. This project aims to understand what drives the navigation of small and large organisms. To achieve this, the project seeks to develop a mathematical framework that unifies models of navigation, communication and uncertainty, for the first time. This is significant as navigation underpins fundamental behaviour such as migration. Expected outcomes of this project include novel insights into the mechanisms underlying navigati ....From cells to whales: A mathematical framework to understand navigation. This project aims to understand what drives the navigation of small and large organisms. To achieve this, the project seeks to develop a mathematical framework that unifies models of navigation, communication and uncertainty, for the first time. This is significant as navigation underpins fundamental behaviour such as migration. Expected outcomes of this project include novel insights into the mechanisms underlying navigation, and new mathematical techniques required to construct the framework. The mathematical framework will be employed to explore and explain critical biological phenomena such as the impact of noise pollution on whale migration, and the conditions required for successful cellular navigation.Read moreRead less
Rogue waves in realistic situations. Rapid progress in rogue wave research internationally requires the further development of an accurate theory of extreme waves in deep water and in optical fibers. Such progress is a necessity for our ability to predict their appearance in the ocean or their use in optics. This project will enhance the modelling of extreme waves by taking into account higher order effects such as third order dispersion, self-steepening and time delayed response, as well as dis ....Rogue waves in realistic situations. Rapid progress in rogue wave research internationally requires the further development of an accurate theory of extreme waves in deep water and in optical fibers. Such progress is a necessity for our ability to predict their appearance in the ocean or their use in optics. This project will enhance the modelling of extreme waves by taking into account higher order effects such as third order dispersion, self-steepening and time delayed response, as well as dissipative and higher order nonlinear terms. These are essential for a precise description of both giant waves in the ocean and strong pulses in optics. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101416
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$329,538.00
Summary
The value of model complexity for fisheries management. This project aims to quantify the benefits of using dynamic multi-species models for harvest decisions in the fishing industry. More than 99.8 per cent of fisheries are assessed using single-species models. Since fishers harvest multiple interacting species, not considering these interactions can lead to negative outcomes that reduce food security, eliminate human livelihoods, decrease economic production, and harm the environment. The proj ....The value of model complexity for fisheries management. This project aims to quantify the benefits of using dynamic multi-species models for harvest decisions in the fishing industry. More than 99.8 per cent of fisheries are assessed using single-species models. Since fishers harvest multiple interacting species, not considering these interactions can lead to negative outcomes that reduce food security, eliminate human livelihoods, decrease economic production, and harm the environment. The project is expected to provide guidance for fisheries scientists on when to use multi-species models for management, improved decision making capacity to reduce the risk of fishery collapse, a new method for dynamic model validation in the face of limited data, and enhanced collaboration between modellers and applied agencies. By reducing the risk of ecosystem collapse through better use of complex and simple models. The project will provide major benefits for the environment, humans, and the economy, at national and global scales.Read moreRead less
Paving the way: an experimental approach to the mathematical modelling and design of permeable pavements. The intelligent use of permeable pavements will enable restoration of degraded land corridors. Collection and treatment of stormwater via filtration through porous media will improve water quality in urban environments and will also control flooding. The integration of ecology and urban living will present a revolutionary way to revitalize cities.
How can cultural innovations trigger the emergence of new diseases? This project aims to develop new mathematical and computational models to examine whether cultural innovations creates conditions for the emergence of new diseases. It will combine elements of microbial evolution and cultural evolution to advance a new modelling framework to consider their joint dynamics. The expected outcome is an enhanced understanding of how human behaviour influences the emergence of infections. This will br ....How can cultural innovations trigger the emergence of new diseases? This project aims to develop new mathematical and computational models to examine whether cultural innovations creates conditions for the emergence of new diseases. It will combine elements of microbial evolution and cultural evolution to advance a new modelling framework to consider their joint dynamics. The expected outcome is an enhanced understanding of how human behaviour influences the emergence of infections. This will bring benefits of computational models for broad use in understanding complex population processes, and training to maintain mathematical and computational skills in the Australian workforce.
Read moreRead less
How microbes build their environments through evolutionary feedback. The fitness landscape, a key evolutionary concept, relates genes or traits to reproductive fitness. However, this has been challenged by organisms that distort the landscape by changing their environments. This project aims to develop a new mathematical model that restores the landscape concept by extending it to accommodate niche construction. This framework will be applied to microorganisms that alter their environments, for ....How microbes build their environments through evolutionary feedback. The fitness landscape, a key evolutionary concept, relates genes or traits to reproductive fitness. However, this has been challenged by organisms that distort the landscape by changing their environments. This project aims to develop a new mathematical model that restores the landscape concept by extending it to accommodate niche construction. This framework will be applied to microorganisms that alter their environments, for example, by provoking and subverting the host immune system, and by inducing behavioural change in hosts. These processes alter how natural selection operates on microbes and thus lead to important evolutionary feedback. The model will be used to examine antibiotic resistance, pathogen virulence and how microbiomes develop.Read moreRead less
Neural spike variability: unifying conflicting views of neural dynamics. The project aims to improve our understanding of neural dynamics. The brain represents and processes information by means of neural voltage spikes, which show great variability in their timing. Understanding the origin of such variable neural dynamics is a long-standing problem in neuroscience. The aim of this project is to develop a novel account of variable neural dynamics, unravelling their computational principles in th ....Neural spike variability: unifying conflicting views of neural dynamics. The project aims to improve our understanding of neural dynamics. The brain represents and processes information by means of neural voltage spikes, which show great variability in their timing. Understanding the origin of such variable neural dynamics is a long-standing problem in neuroscience. The aim of this project is to develop a novel account of variable neural dynamics, unravelling their computational principles in the brain, and unifying current leading but conflicting theories. The model developed in this project would be used to explain a range of empirical observations, and the principles unravelled would be applied to understand spike-timing based neural coding. The new knowledge gained in this project may have profound implications for designing brain-like computing devices.Read moreRead less
Novel techniques for statistical and mathematical analyses of sequence data. Algorithms will be developed for analysing and comparing the sequences of DNA letters and amino acids constantly being generated in massive quantities by biological research. The novel approach taken is based on the statistical frequency of occurrence of short words and is designed specifically for situations where current methods fail.
System identification of microstructure in the brain using magnetic resonance. Magnetic Resonance Imaging technologies will be exploited to probe the microstructure of the brain, using powerful Bayesian optimisation techniques and innovative uses of magnetic resonance. The project will in particular develop non-invasive imaging methods to quantify iron content in the brain, important for research on dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Mathematical modelling of the dynamics of multi-layered biological tissues. The project intends to develop a mathematical model of the basic mechanisms that determine the self-organisation of cells into complex tissues during the development of the embryo. Tissue function requires a non-trivial tissue architecture often composed of multiple cell layers which exhibit a remarkable capacity for renewal and defect correction. A cardinal part of embryonic development involves robust shaping of multi- ....Mathematical modelling of the dynamics of multi-layered biological tissues. The project intends to develop a mathematical model of the basic mechanisms that determine the self-organisation of cells into complex tissues during the development of the embryo. Tissue function requires a non-trivial tissue architecture often composed of multiple cell layers which exhibit a remarkable capacity for renewal and defect correction. A cardinal part of embryonic development involves robust shaping of multi-layered tissue morphologies. The project plans to use mathematical models to determine how complex, three-dimensional structures arise from adaptive multicellular biomechanical interactions. It plans to develop a novel computational modelling framework to represent and analyse such systems, which may be applicable to a wide range of problems where tissue mechanics is a key factor such as bone remodelling and wound healing.Read moreRead less