Eye-safe UV stand-off Raman spectroscopy for explosive detection in the field

This project focused on maximising the detection range of an eye-safe stand-off Raman system for use in detecting explosives. Investigation of the effect on detection range through differing laser parameters in this thesis provided optimal laser settings to achieve the largest possible detection range of explosives, while still remaining under the eye-safe limit.

Exploring the recall of Bioscience knowledge amongst nursing students

Basic Bioscience knowledge recall is important for nursing students completing developmental and advanced level clinical units. We have commenced a study to investigate the knowledge recall of nursing students studying Bioscience and found a loss of knowledge. This study will be ongoing to explore the recall of Bioscience knowledge across the student’s three year degree program, and to determine whether we can improve the recall.

Automated sensory data alignment for environmental and epidermal change monitoring

In this paper we present research adapting a state of the art condition-invariant robotic place recognition algorithm to the role of automated inter- and intra-image alignment of sensor observations of environmental and skin change over time. The approach involves inverting the typical criteria placed upon navigation algorithms in robotics; we exploit rather than attempt to fix the limited camera viewpoint invariance of such algorithms, showing that approximate viewpoint repetition is realistic in a wide range of environments and medical applications. We demonstrate the algorithms automatically aligning challenging visual data from a range of real-world applications: ecological monitoring of environmental change, aerial observation of natural disasters including flooding, tsunamis and bushfires and tracking wound recovery and sun damage over time and present a prototype active guidance system for enforcing viewpoint repetition. We hope to provide an interesting case study for how traditional research criteria in robotics can be inverted to provide useful outcomes in applied situations.

Design thinking frameworks as transformative cross-disciplinary pedagogy

Final report for the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. "This seed project ‘Design thinking frameworks as transformative cross-disciplinary pedagogy’ aimed to examine the way design thinking strategies are used across disciplines to scaffold the development of student attributes in the domain of problem solving and creativity in order to enhance the nation’s capacity for innovation. Generic graduate attributes associated with innovation, creativity and problem solving are considered to be amongst the most important of all targeted attributes (Bradley Review of Higher Education, 2009). The project also aimed to gather data on how academics across disciplines conceptualised design thinking methodologies and strategies. Insights into how design thinking strategies could be embedded at the subject level to improve student outcomes were of particular interest in this regard. A related aim was the investigation of how design thinking strategies could be used by academics when designing new and innovative subjects and courses." Case Study 3: QUT Community Engaged Learning Lab Design Thinking/Design Led Innovation Workshop by Natalie Wright Context "The author, from the discipline area of Interior Design in the QUT School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, is a contributing academic and tutor for The Community Engaged Learning Lab, which was initiated at Queensland University of Technology in 2012. The Lab facilitates university-wide service-learning experiences and engages students, academics, and key community organisations in interdisciplinary action research projects to support student learning and to explore complex and ongoing problems nominated by the community partners. In Week 3, Semester One 2013, with the assistance of co-lead Dr Cara Wrigley, Senior Lecturer in Design led Innovation, a Masters of Architecture research student and nine participating industry-embedded Masters of Research (Design led Innovation) facilitators, a Design Thinking/Design led Innovation workshop was conducted for the Community Engaged Learning Lab students, and action research outcomes published at 2013 Tsinghua International Design Management Symposium, December 2013 in Shenzhen, China (Morehen, Wright, & Wrigley, 2013)."

Liquid metal/metal oxide frameworks with incorporated Ga2O3 for photocatalysis

Solvothermally synthesized Ga2O3 nanoparticles are incorporated into liquid metal/metal oxide (LM/MO) frameworks in order to form enhanced photocatalytic systems. The LM/MO frameworks, both with and without incorporated Ga2O3 nanoparticles, show photocatalytic activitydue to a plasmonic effect where performance is related to the loading of Ga2O3 nanoparticles. Optimum photocatalytic efficiency is obtained with 1 wt% incorporation of Ga2O3 nanoparticles. This can be attributed to the sub-bandgap states of LM/MO frameworks, contributing to pseudo-ohmic contacts which reduce the free carrier injection barrier to Ga2O3.

Oncology service initiatives and research in regional Australia

Objective: This paper reflects on the recent growth of cancer research being conducted through some of Australia’s rural centres. It encompasses work being done across the fields of clinical, translational and health services research. Design: This is a collaborative piece with contributions from rural health researchers, clinical and cancer services staff from several different regions. Conclusion: The past decade has seen an expansion in cancer research in rural and regional Australia driven in part by the recognition that cancer patients in remote areas experience poorer outcomes than their metropolitan counterparts. This work has led to the development of more effective cancer networks and new models of care designed to meet the particular needs of the rural cancer patient. It is hoped that the growth of cancer research in regional centres will, in time, reduce the disparity between rural and urban communities and improve outcomes for cancer patients across both populations.

Road operation phase sustainability indicator as a response to the climate change phenomena

Road infrastructure is a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) around the world. Once constructed, a road becomes a part of a road network and is subjected to recurrent maintenance/rehabilitation activities. Studies to date are mostly aimed at the development of sustainability indicators that deal with the material and construction phases of a road when it is constructed. The operation phase is infrequently studied and there is a need for sustainability indicators to be developed relating to this phase to better understand the GHG emissions as a proper response to the climate change phenomena. During the operation phase, maintenance/rehabilitation activities are undertaken based on certain agreed intervention criteria that do not include environmental implications relating to the climate change aspect properly. Availability of appropriate indicators may, therefore, assist in sustainable road asset maintenance management. This paper presents the findings of a literature based study and has proposed a way forward to develop a key “road operation phase” environmental indicator, which can contribute to road operation phase carbon footprint management based on a comprehensive road life cycle system boundary model. The proposed indicator can address multiple aspects of high impact road operation life environmental components such as: pavement rolling resistance, albedo, material, traffic congestion and lighting, based on availability of relevant scientific knowledge. Development of the indicator to appropriate level would offset the impacts of these components significantly and contribute to sustainable road operation management.

MRI reveals individual level deformities in the growing scoliotic spine that clinically are masked by the Cobb angle

Clinically, the Cobb angle method measures the overall scoliotic curve in the coronal plane but does not measure individual vertebra and disc wedging. The contributions of the vertebrae and discs in the growing scoliotic spine were measured using sequential MRI scans to investigate coronal plane deformity progression with growth. Sequential MRI data showed complex patterns of deformity progression. Changes to the wedging of individual vertebrae and discs may occur in patients who have no increase in overall Cobb angle measure; the Cobb method alone may be insufficient to capture the complex mechanisms of deformity progression.

A meta-analysis of 87,040 individuals identifies 23 new susceptibility loci for prostate cancer

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 76 variants associated with prostate cancer risk predominantly in populations of European ancestry. To identify additional susceptibility loci for this common cancer, we conducted a meta-analysis of > 10 million SNPs in 43,303 prostate cancer cases and 43,737 controls from studies in populations of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry. Twenty-three new susceptibility loci were identified at association P < 5 × 10(-8); 15 variants were identified among men of European ancestry, 7 were identified in multi-ancestry analyses and 1 was associated with early-onset prostate cancer. These 23 variants, in combination with known prostate cancer risk variants, explain 33% of the familial risk for this disease in European-ancestry populations. These findings provide new regions for investigation into the pathogenesis of prostate cancer and demonstrate the usefulness of combining ancestrally diverse populations to discover risk loci for disease.

Place recognition with ConvNet landmarks: Viewpoint-robust, condition-robust, training-free

Place recognition has long been an incompletely solved problem in that all approaches involve significant compromises. Current methods address many but never all of the critical challenges of place recognition – viewpoint-invariance, condition-invariance and minimizing training requirements. Here we present an approach that adapts state-of-the-art object proposal techniques to identify potential landmarks within an image for place recognition. We use the astonishing power of convolutional neural network features to identify matching landmark proposals between images to perform place recognition over extreme appearance and viewpoint variations. Our system does not require any form of training, all components are generic enough to be used off-the-shelf. We present a range of challenging experiments in varied viewpoint and environmental conditions. We demonstrate superior performance to current state-of-the- art techniques. Furthermore, by building on existing and widely used recognition frameworks, this approach provides a highly compatible place recognition system with the potential for easy integration of other techniques such as object detection and semantic scene interpretation.

On the benefits of equicorrelation for portfolio allocation

The importance of modelling correlation has long been recognised in the field of portfolio management, with largedimensional multivariate problems increasingly becoming the focus of research. This paper provides a straightforward and commonsense approach toward investigating a number of models used to generate forecasts of the correlation matrix for large-dimensional problems.We find evidence in favour of assuming equicorrelation across various portfolio sizes, particularly during times of crisis. During periods of market calm, however, the suitability of the constant conditional correlation model cannot be discounted, especially for large portfolios. A portfolio allocation problem is used to compare forecasting methods. The global minimum variance portfolio and Model Confidence Set are used to compare methods, while portfolio weight stability and relative economic value are also considered.

Increased intra-cortical porosity reduces bone stiffness and strength in pediatric patients with osteogenesis imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable disease occurring in one out of every 20,000 births. Although it is known that Type I collagen mutation in OI leads to increased bone fragility, the mechanism of this increased susceptibility to fracture is not clear. The aim of this study was to assess the microstructure of cortical bone fragments from patients with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) using polarized light microscopy, and to correlate microstructural observations with the results of previously performed mechanical compression tests on bone from the same source. Specimens of cortical bone were harvested from the lower limbs of three (3) OI patients at the time of surgery, and were divided into two groups. Group 1 had been subjected to previous micro-mechanical compression testing, while Group 2 had not been subjected to any prior testing. Polarized light microscopy revealed disorganized bone collagen architecture as has been previously observed, as well as a large increase in the areal porosity of the bone compared to typical values for healthy cortical bone, with large (several hundred micron sized), asymmetrical pores. Importantly, the areal porosity of the OI bone samples in Group 1 appears to correlate strongly with their previously measured apparent Young's modulus and compressive strength. Taken together with prior nanoindentation studies on OI bone tissue, the results of this study suggest that increased intra-cortical porosity is responsible for the reduction in macroscopic mechanical properties of OI cortical bone, and therefore that in vivo imaging modalities with resolutions of ~ 100 μm or less could potentially be used to non-invasively assess bone strength in OI patients. Although the number of subjects in this study is small, these results highlight the importance of further studies in OI bone by groups with access to human OI tissue in order to clarify the relationship between increased porosity and reduced macroscopic mechanical integrity.

Evaluation of a patient-specific finite-element model to simulate conservative treatment in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Study design Retrospective validation study. Objectives To propose a method to evaluate, from a clinical standpoint, the ability of a finite-element model (FEM) of the trunk to simulate orthotic correction of spinal deformity and to apply it to validate a previously described FEM. Summary of background data Several FEMs of the scoliotic spine have been described in the literature. These models can prove useful in understanding the mechanisms of scoliosis progression and in optimizing its treatment, but their validation has often been lacking or incomplete. Methods Three-dimensional (3D) geometries of 10 patients before and during conservative treatment were reconstructed from biplanar radiographs. The effect of bracing was simulated by modeling displacements induced by the brace pads. Simulated clinical indices (Cobb angle, T1–T12 and T4–T12 kyphosis, L1–L5 lordosis, apical vertebral rotation, torsion, rib hump) and vertebral orientations and positions were compared to those measured in the patients' 3D geometries. Results Errors in clinical indices were of the same order of magnitude as the uncertainties due to 3D reconstruction; for instance, Cobb angle was simulated with a root mean square error of 5.7°, and rib hump error was 5.6°. Vertebral orientation was simulated with a root mean square error of 4.8° and vertebral position with an error of 2.5 mm. Conclusions The methodology proposed here allowed in-depth evaluation of subject-specific simulations, confirming that FEMs of the trunk have the potential to accurately simulate brace action. These promising results provide a basis for ongoing 3D model development, toward the design of more efficient orthoses.

Plant species’ origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands

Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species’ biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.