Fake News and Post-Truth Impacts: Responses to Conflictive Uncertainty. Attributions of fake news and post-truth are symptoms of uncertainty arising from conflicting information. Little is known about human responses to conflictive uncertainty other than that people find it aversive. This project aims to identify the determinants of human attitudes towards conflictive uncertainty. The aims will be achieved via the development of measures of attitudes toward conflictive uncertainty, and studies i ....Fake News and Post-Truth Impacts: Responses to Conflictive Uncertainty. Attributions of fake news and post-truth are symptoms of uncertainty arising from conflicting information. Little is known about human responses to conflictive uncertainty other than that people find it aversive. This project aims to identify the determinants of human attitudes towards conflictive uncertainty. The aims will be achieved via the development of measures of attitudes toward conflictive uncertainty, and studies identifying the major influences thereof. Expected outcomes include advances in knowledge of how conflictive uncertainty attitudes relate to risk orientations, personality, and situational factors. Anticipated benefits include improved strategies for decision makers and communicators faced with conflictive uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in c ....Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in complex dynamic systems. The expected outcomes include an improved capacity for researchers, managers, and policy makers to understand complex organisational, economic, and health systems. This will provide immediate societal benefits by informing the development and deployment of targeted interventions in such systems.Read moreRead less
Judgements and Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict. Little is known about how people make decisions when faced with uncertainties arising from information that is both ambiguous and conflicting, despite the fact that ambiguity and conflict frequently arise in real decision-making situations. In fact, virtually nothing is known about the joint impact of conflict and ambiguity on judgements of risk and uncertainty or on decisional preferences. This project will investigate how perceptions of un ....Judgements and Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict. Little is known about how people make decisions when faced with uncertainties arising from information that is both ambiguous and conflicting, despite the fact that ambiguity and conflict frequently arise in real decision-making situations. In fact, virtually nothing is known about the joint impact of conflict and ambiguity on judgements of risk and uncertainty or on decisional preferences. This project will investigate how perceptions of uncertainty are jointly affected by conflict and ambiguity in information, develop and test formal models of judgement and decision making under conflict and ambiguity, and examine the joint effects of ambiguity and conflict aversion on decision making.Read moreRead less
Zero-sum thinking: psychological predictors and causes. This project investigates the causes and psychological triggers of zero-sum thinking, the tendency to think that others' gains leave less for oneself. The results will enable negotiators and managers to defuse dysfunctional zero-sum thinking, thereby increasing the chances for cooperation and 'win-win' outcomes.
Development, Disease and Desire: AIDS and women's understandings of maternity and health among the Gogodala of PNG. This project explores articulations and experiences of health and illness among women in rural PNG, in light of the spread of HIV/AIDS in these communities. It examines the incorporation of new diseases, like HIV/AIDS, into Gogodala women's conceptualisations of sickness and health, arguing that in-depth analyses of cross-cultural notions of disease are vital for the provision of e ....Development, Disease and Desire: AIDS and women's understandings of maternity and health among the Gogodala of PNG. This project explores articulations and experiences of health and illness among women in rural PNG, in light of the spread of HIV/AIDS in these communities. It examines the incorporation of new diseases, like HIV/AIDS, into Gogodala women's conceptualisations of sickness and health, arguing that in-depth analyses of cross-cultural notions of disease are vital for the provision of effective health care. Given HIV's rapid spread into rural communities, and its devastating effects on women and children in PNG, the project seeks to provide ethnographically-informed material that contributes to the development of regional health care policies and programs.Read moreRead less
New mathematical and statistical methods that inform the control of infectious disease outbreaks. Emerging infectious diseases are an ever-present threat to our community, as highlighted by the recent SARS epidemic and current fears concerning avian influenza. The research proposed by this project will help policy makers implement effective border control and outbreak control against a variety of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including SARS, influenza and the deliberate release o ....New mathematical and statistical methods that inform the control of infectious disease outbreaks. Emerging infectious diseases are an ever-present threat to our community, as highlighted by the recent SARS epidemic and current fears concerning avian influenza. The research proposed by this project will help policy makers implement effective border control and outbreak control against a variety of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including SARS, influenza and the deliberate release of an infectious disease such as smallpox. The project will enhance preparedness through a better understanding of the relative merits of different control strategies, and provide new methodology that can dynamically guide border and outbreak control in the midst of an outbreak by making effective use of data. Read moreRead less
The ecological dynamics of secreted bacteriocins and the evolution of multiple bacteriocin production in Escherichia coli. Bacteria produce compounds known as bacteriocins that are toxic to other microorganisms. The success of bacteria as bio-control agents and in probiotic formulations for the control microbial pathogens is, in part, due to bacteriocins. Bacteriocins may also have a role as replacements for traditional antibiotics and as natural food preservatives. The potential usefulness of b ....The ecological dynamics of secreted bacteriocins and the evolution of multiple bacteriocin production in Escherichia coli. Bacteria produce compounds known as bacteriocins that are toxic to other microorganisms. The success of bacteria as bio-control agents and in probiotic formulations for the control microbial pathogens is, in part, due to bacteriocins. Bacteriocins may also have a role as replacements for traditional antibiotics and as natural food preservatives. The potential usefulness of bacteriocins as the active agent in bio-control agents, as antibiotic replacements, as food preservatives, and as part of the repertoire of traits in probiotic formulations requires a sound understanding of the eco-evolutionary dynamics of bacteriocins. Understanding the ecology and evolution of bacteriocins is the goal of the proposed research.Read moreRead less
The biology of arbovirus virulence and fitness in arthropod and vertebrate hosts in vivo. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) represents significant concern to human health. Between 1992-2005 more than 50,000 notifications of RRV infection have been reported. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for morbidity in the community/individual that can have both social and economic costs. The project has several national benefits. It will help elucidate whether there is any association between ....The biology of arbovirus virulence and fitness in arthropod and vertebrate hosts in vivo. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) represents significant concern to human health. Between 1992-2005 more than 50,000 notifications of RRV infection have been reported. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for morbidity in the community/individual that can have both social and economic costs. The project has several national benefits. It will help elucidate whether there is any association between RRV strain and increased risk of RRV transmission and/or occurrence of more severe cases of human disease. It will help develop technologies that can lead towards the identification of viral markers, which could provide new avenues in the design of novel antiviral strategies.
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Variation in the arginine vasopressin 1a receptor (AVPR1a) gene, the social environment, general health and wellbeing. The project aims to investigate how the arginine vasopressin 1a gene affects gene expression and influences social behaviour and ultimately health and wellbeing. This research will contribute to understanding the importance of individual differences in social policy and interventions aimed at improving health and wellbeing.
DNA methylation in insect social evolution. This project will investigate the evolutionary relationship between DNA methylation and the advanced sociality displayed by bees, ants and wasps. The project will map DNA methylation across the social insects and test whether it has coevolved with sociality. It will also determine how a vital social cue, the queen pheromone, influences the worker methylome. Finally, it will apply quantitative genetic and methylomic methods to wild insects, revealing pa ....DNA methylation in insect social evolution. This project will investigate the evolutionary relationship between DNA methylation and the advanced sociality displayed by bees, ants and wasps. The project will map DNA methylation across the social insects and test whether it has coevolved with sociality. It will also determine how a vital social cue, the queen pheromone, influences the worker methylome. Finally, it will apply quantitative genetic and methylomic methods to wild insects, revealing patterns of selection and inheritance in epigenetic and phenotypic traits. By combining genomic and evolutionary methods, the project will advance the ongoing debate about the importance of methylation to sociality and extreme phenotypic plasticity. It will contribute to a quantum leap in our understanding of DNA methylation and sociobiology and mark the first application of quantitative genetics to wild insects.Read moreRead less