Download - STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
1/16
UWS RESEARCH
C: Glig i the Dark
Puttig the Preure
Preeclapia
Tacklig ur HealthChallege
EucFACE at Hakebury
InsIde:
ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
2/16
The University o Western Sydney
has taken a strategic approach to
the development o its research
capabilities in recent years, and
it is paying dividends in terms o
research output and perormance,
as well as in attracting a new
generation o research stars.
Proessor Andrew Cheetham,
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research),
says, As a relatively young and
growing university, we are able to
be more dynamic in selectivelyconcentrating on our research
strengths.
The Universitys strategic
approach to research
concentration has resulted in the
development o a number o highly
regarded research institutes:
Institute for Culture andSociety (ICS)
Hawkesbury Institute forthe Environment (HIE)
The MARCS Institute Institute for Infrastructure
Engineering (IIE)
We have been recruiting highquality proessorial sta, as well as
talented, enthusiastic early career
and postdoctoral researchers, into
these four Institutes and in ourdeveloping research areas says
Proessor Cheetham.
In January 2011 the outcomeso the inaugural Excellence in
Research or Australia (ERA)
illustrated that in its key areas
o research specialisation, UWS
received the highest ranking or
research quality in the national
assessment. The University
received a ranking o 5 in Cultural
Studies, related to the work o the
ICS, and in Plant Biology relatedto the work of the HIE, indicatingperormance well above world
standard. In addition, UWSearned a ranking o 4 or Civil
Engineering, above worldstandard, or research aligned
with the IIE. Rankings of 4 werealso received or Perorming
Arts and Creative Writing, and
Literary Studies, related to the
work o the Writing and Society
Research Centre.
Of the 21 broad researchdisciplines in which UWS is
research active, the majority
o our ratings indicated UWS
research was perorming at or
above world standard. This was a
pleasing result that demonstrates
the strength o the UWS researchconcentrations, and we believe
that in this years ERA, we will
see urther improvements, says
Proessor Cheetham.
To add to the high perorming
Research Institutes, UWS isalso building a strategic ocus in
health research.
In the future, Greater WesternSydney will have signicant health
issues, and we want to be able
to make a major contribution to
managing these, so we are growing
our research capabilities in this
area, says Proessor Cheetham.
The Universitys ocus on
investing in areas o research
strength is exemplied by the
intensive recruitment program
that has seen over 200 newacademic sta join UWS in thelast two years a program which
will continue into the years ahead.
Proessor Cheetham says that
having strong proessorial sta in
its research institutes naturally acts
as a magnet or ambitious early
career researchers. The University
also oers a range o positions
to early career researchers that
encourage and help them build
and establish their research prole.
We are attracting the most
remarkably capable early career
researchers rom all over the
world, including the US, the UK,Spain, Italy, and Germany. We arerecruiting the best and brightest
there is. It is a very exciting timeor the University in many areas,
and particularly so in research.
For more inormation on UWS
Research visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
UWs
Photo: Professor Andrew Cheetham
Front page cover: Scolymia
tentacles, Lord Howe Island coral.
Full story page 13.
BUIldIng on researCh strengths
2 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
3/16
Preeclampsia is the most commoncomplication o pregnancyaecting one in 10 pregnantwomen, with over one millionwomen aected worldwide everyyear. Preeclampsia is the leadingcause o premature birth and canresult in both inant and maternal
mortality, causing the deaths oapproximately 780 babies everyday in the world.
Proessor Annemarie Hennessy,Dean o the UWS School oMedicine, is leading the cross-disciplinary Preeclampsia ResearchTeam, which is investigating thelinks between high blood pressureand cardiovascular disease inwomen especially around the timeo pregnancy.
The team brings togetherscientists, doctors, midwies,pharmacologists, and even
veterinarians to gain new insightsinto a range o research areas rom how the placenta unctionsto outcomes or women whohave had high blood pressure orpreeclampsia in their pregnancy.
Preeclampsia is essentiallya placental disease, and in2011 the UWS team publisheda breakthrough nding on theway a placenta reacts in a toxicenvironment.
What our lab has been ableto demonstrate is that the toxic
compounds that aect the way theplacenta grows and develops arenow easily identied, and that hasbeen due to a real breakthrough inpreeclampsia work in the last ewyears, says Proessor Hennessy.
Preeclampsia is not onlydangerous or mothers and babiesduring pregnancy the associatedhigh blood pressure can alsocause vascular damage, leading tohealth problems later in lie.
By examining the health owomen who have been involvedin large epidemiological studies
conducted over the last 20years, Proessor Hennessy andher team are seeking to nd outwhether women who have sueredrom high blood pressure andpreeclampsia during pregnancy
are more likely to have moreaggressive blood pressure issueslater in lie, and the eect dierenttreatments have on their long-termhealth outcomes.
It is hoped this inormation willhelp to identiy women at higherrisk o heart attack or stroke.
The UWS team is alsocollaborating with Canadianresearchers to study the eectso dierent levels o bloodpressure control or women whoare currently pregnant and havepreeclampsia.
While being able to identiywhich pregnancies are high-riskor preeclampsia is a helpul rststep, being able to recommendtreatment options or managementstrategies is the ultimate goal.
I we know the mechanismso the disease, which is what
were nding out by identiying thetoxins, then hopeully it will give usa much better chance o ndinga treatment, says ProessorHennessy.
The natural progression
is that i you can get the
pregnancy to be as healthy
as it can be, then it would
diminish the impact o that
pregnancy on any long-term health outcomes, in
terms o increasing the
risk o stroke or heart
attack.
For more inormation on research
at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
PUttIng thePressUre on
PreeClamPsIa
Photo: Professor Annemarie Hennessy
ADVERTISING FEATURE 3
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
4/16
Experimental psychologists,linguists, psycholinguists,
musicians, engineers, computerscientists, and neuroscientistscollaborate at the MARCS Instituteto answer some o the mostcrucial questions about brain,behaviour and computation, andto provide a better understandingo human communication.
MARCS Institute, led byProessor Denis Burnham, has vekey research programs Speechand Language; Music Cognitionand Action; Bioelectronicsand Sensory Neuroscience;Multisensory Processing; and
Human-Machine Interaction.MARCS researchers usehigh-tech acilities includingElectroencephalography(EEG), Transcranial MagneticStimulation (TMS), motion capture,Electromagnetic Articulography(EMA), a perormance studio, ahuman-machine interaction labwith virtual reality, conversationalagents and robots, and thespecialised Baby Lab.
Among the projects underwayat MARCS is the Seeds oLiteracy longitudinal study,investigating precursors todyslexia that might be seen invery early speech perception andlanguage acquisition.
In the Music Cognition andAction program, researchers areinvestigating how elements omusic assist in the memory o adance routine.
Were very interested in
what music and dancetell us about things such
as learning and human
memory, says Proessor
Kate Stevens.
Researchers in the MultisensoryProcessing program areinvestigating how the speechperception o people with onesensory modality loss suchas hearing impairment mightbe augmented through another
modality such as vision, while inthe Human-Machine Interactionarea, the Thinking Head projectprovides a research platorm ordierent experiments designedto create more realistic avatars.These avatars can be used ininormation kiosks, as companionsor the elderly, and as virtuallanguage tutors. Finally, theBioelectronics and SensoryNeuroscience program aims toreverse engineer the brain, andis setting about doing so usingthe combined skills o electrical
engineers, and computational andsensory neuroscientists.
For more inormation on the
MARCS Institute visit:http://marcs.uws.edu.au
the Way We CommUnICate
Udertadig baby
talkResearch underway in the MARCSBaby Lab demonstrates theimportance o inant-directedspeech or baby talk.
Proessor Kate Stevens saysthat ar rom being detrimental tochildrens language acquisition,inant-directed speech is highlyunctional and used by caregiversin almost all cultures.
It has very distinct eatures it has a higher pitch, positiveemotion, and hyperarticulation o
vowels. It attracts and maintainsthe attention o inants, it allowsthe inant to start to model turn-taking and social interaction, andit scaolds language learning.So theres almost a teachingprocess that we all do withouteven realising were doing it, saysProessor Stevens.
Other projects build on thisresearch to examine, or example,how caregivers speak to inantswith hearing impairment.
There are some subtledierences that caregivers might
not be aware o, but whichperhaps provide an impoverishedinput to an inant with hearingimpairment who already has animpoverished signal. There arereally important things we canlearn rom looking at clinicalpopulations and comparing themwith the way parents talk to theirhearing siblings.
Recrdig Autralia
EglihNever beore has there been alarge-scale collection o audio andvisual speech data in Australia but that is about to change, as theAusTalk project nears completion.
A collaborative project between11 universities, AusTalk is headedby researchers rom MARCS andinvolves 30 o the top speechscience and technology expertsrom around Australia.
Three hours o speech byeach o 1000 Australian English
speakers in various contexts romall around the country are beingcollected in a database which willrepresent the regional and socialdiversity and linguistic variationso Australian English, includingAustralian Aboriginal English.
AusTalk will act as a catalogueor Australian researchers anddevelopers to improve ourinteraction with devices suchas telephone-based speechrecognition systems, hearing aidsand computer technologies orlearning-impaired children.
Photos L-R: Professor Kate Stevens and Professor Denis Burnham,
Steve Fazio and Lei Jing programming software for the
AusTalk black box at MARCS Auditory Laboratories,
Mother and baby at MARCS Baby Lab
4 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
5/16
UWS is a partner in a pioneering
research centre that will help
to interpret health research
evidence to assist agencies in
developing policy on some o
our greatest health challenges,
such as Indigenous health andobesity prevention.
The Centre for InformingPolicy in Health with Evidencefrom Research (CIPHER) was
established with $2.5 milliono unding rom the National
Health and Medical ResearchCouncil (NHMRC), as one of 11Centres o Research Excellence
around Australia. Proessors
Louisa Jorm and Sally Redman,rom the UWS School o
Medicine and the Sax Institute,are CIPHERs lead investigators.
CIPHER is all aboutdeveloping and testing ways
to increase the use o research
in policy, Professor Jormsays. This is really the rst
large-scale trial o methods toincrease the use o research
evidence in policy, so it will
actually provide inormation
that currently isnt available
about what the best strategies
are for doing this. It has a greatdeal o potential to improve the
planning and delivery o health
services.
The rst stage of CIPHERslie has seen the recruitment o
sta, the development o new
measurement methods and the
design o a web portal. A trial o
strategies or increasing the use
o research in policy, Supporting
Policy In Health with Research:an Intervention Trial (SPIRIT) isnow underway.
Because were involvingquite a number o agencies in
the trial, it wont just develop
methods, it will also hopeully
have both short- and long-termimpacts in terms o better health
policy through those agencies,
Professor Jorm says.One o the great strengths o
CIPHER is the collaborations itenjoys with institutions across
Australia and around the world,
enabling its researchers to
draw on diverse knowledge
and expertise, and utilise their
geographical reach.
Having an interstatepartner in Melbourne gives usopportunities to pilot some o
our methods in Victorian policyagencies to make sure that
they work across the country,
Professor Jorm says. Similarlyhaving a Scottish connection
means that the methods we
develop will potentially be
applicable in the international
context as well.
For more inormation on
research at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
taCklIng oUr toUgh
health Challenges
Photo: Professor Louisa Jorm
Associate Proessor Hilary Bambrickis an environmental epidemiologist
rom the UWS School o Medicine,and was named the 2011 YoungTall Poppy.
The annual Young Tall PoppyScience Awards, run by theAustralian Institute o Policy andScience (AIPS), aim to recognise thecontributions o young Australianresearchers and communicators.
Whats valuable about thisaward is the public recognition othe value o knowledge gainedthrough scientic endeavour,Associate Proessor Bambrick says.
For me personally, its broader
recognition o my small contributionto an important eld o research thatis becoming increasingly relevant.While the health impacts o climatechange have only really come to theattention o mainstream media inthe last ve years, this research areahas been developing or more thantwo decades.
Associate Proessor Bambrickis the Universitys ourth Young TallPoppy, joining previous winners:Proessor Ian Anderson rom theUWS Hawkesbury Institute orthe Environment; and Dr LeighSheppard and Dr Maria Nowotny,both rom the UWS School oScience and Health.
She is currently working ontwo major projects. The rst is onunderstanding climate changeimpacts and adaptation in majorcities, especially as these relate toheat waves, as part o the CSIROClimate Adaptation Flagship
Collaboration on Human Health.The second is on investigating
the health impacts specic toIndigenous communities, whichhas received National Healthand Medical Research Council(NHMRC) unding.
Associate Proessor Bambrickexplains the advantage o sciencedispelling myths about climatechange.
In Australia, misperceptionsabout scientic uncertainty havebeen exploited by certain groupsto misrepresent the science oclimate change, giving a alseimpression that there is a debate
about its existence or whetherit is caused by human activity,Associate Proessor Bambricksays. Under these circumstancesit is especially important to be ableto describe how science works totest hypotheses, and to presentresearch clearly, and describe whatit means in reality.
Proessor Ian Anderson, nowDirector o Research at the UWSHawkesbury Institute or theEnvironment, says winning a TallPoppy Award undoubtedly helpedspringboard him into his currentrole.
Winning a Tall Poppy Awardhas opened numerous doors orme and has resulted in rapid careeradvancement since winning theaward, he says.
For more inormation on research
at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
researCh tall
PoPPIes floUrIsh
at UWs
Photo: Associate Professor Hilary Bambrick
ADVERTISING FEATURE 5
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
6/16
Associate Proessor Zhong
Tao from the UWS Institute forInfrastructure Engineering hasbeen awarded several Australian
Research Council grants,
including a Future Fellowship, to
investigate how steel-concrete
composite structures can be
made more cost-eective, aster
to construct and with higher
structural perormance compared
with traditional reinorced
concrete and steel structures.Associate Proessor Tao
is researching whether the
conventional carbon steel can
be replaced with stainless steel,
which oers corrosion resistance
and ease o maintenance.
In structures, stainless steeloers benets in terms o strength
and stability under loading rom
wind or seismic actions, says
Associate Proessor Tao. The
major benet o this research is that
the maintenance capacity o key
inrastructure could be increased.
Though stainless steel isrelatively expensive, costing
around three to our times the
price o carbon steel, stainless
steel tubular columns can be
combined with concrete to lower
construction costs while still
getting the benets o this material.
Because these columns willbehave dierently to standard
composite columns, the study
will assess the behaviour o
the columns under a variety o
conditions and loads, with the
results used to develop a new
composite construction material.
Associate Proessor Tao says
his research is greatly assisted
by having access to one o
the best equipped laboratories
in the country at UWS. A new
1000-tonne test rig, the largest in
Australia, is being installed at theInstitutes facilities on the Penrithcampus to be used in the studies.
Also underway at the
Institute is a project investigatingenvironmentally riendly
alternatives to Portland cement,
which is currently used in
concrete-lled steel and stainless
columns and generates large
amounts o greenhouse gases
during manuacture.
Researchers are testing low-
emission alternatives, such as fy
ash, slag and geo-polymers, to
nd the optimum concrete mix toreduce Portland cement content
while maintaining the strength o
the columns.
For more information on the
Institute for Infrastructure
Engineering visit
www.uws.edu.au/iie
UsIng neW materIals
for greater strength
Photo: Associate Professor Zhong Tao and PhD student Kamrul Hassan
6 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
7/16
reUsaBle
BUIldIngs a
steP Closer
With a series o literary
events, the UWS Writing
and Society Research
Centre is working with
other countries to
oster high-level cultural
exchange, says Director,Proessor Anthony
Uhlmann.
The China Australia
Literary Forum hosted by
the Centre in August 2011brought together ten major
Australian writers and ten
major Chinese writers to
discuss the translation and
reception o their works.
The forum led to the translation of Alexis Wrights MilesFranklin award-winning novel Carpentaria, which was launched
by Australian Ambassador to China, Francis Adamson, as partof the 2012 Australian Writers Week in Beijing.
Proessor Uhlmann says the success o the orum has
prompted discussion about urther collaboration with China,
including a second orum next year with a dedicated session
for literary criticism at the Australian Embassy in Beijing.
The Centre has also initiated the forthcoming India-AustraliaLiterary Forum, which will be held at the State Library o
NSW in September.
Literature opens doors between cultures.
Proessor Uhlmann says the high level o diplomatic
interest highlights the importance o such interaction.
Literature opens doors in ways that arent otherwise
possible between cultures, and allows you to think about
and discuss dicult issues.
The idea o linking critical thinking and creative work is a central
tenet o the Writing and Society Research Centre, and the
Sydney Consortium exemplies this concept. It offers a newway of thinking about postgraduate work, by linking a Mastero Arts in Cultural and Creative Practice with industry partners
such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, the State Libraryof New South Wales, the Australian Museum and the SydneyWriters Festival. Students can work with some o Australias
leading writers, editors and critics to develop creative works.
Several o the Centres sta have been honoured with
awards this year, with poet and translator Dr Chris Andrews
awarded the 2011 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize for hiscollection Lime Green Chair, while Fiona Wrights collection
Knuckledhas been shortlisted for the Dame Mary GilmoreAward, to be announced in July.
For more information on the Writing and Society Centre
visit www.uws.edu.au/writing_and_society
WrItIng
WIthoUt
BoUndarIes
Imagine being able to assembleand disassemble major structuresin the same way a child might puttogether a Meccano creation.
By investigating the wayconcrete is connected using steel,researchers at the UWS Instituteor Inrastructure Engineering aremoving a step closer to this inreality.
Proessor Brian Uy, FoundationDirector o the Institute or
Inrastructure Engineering, andDr Olivia Mirza, are undertakinga three-year Australian ResearchCouncil-unded project to developconnections which would allowthe creation o truly demountablestructures.
Proessor Uy says currentAustralian Standards dictate thatstructures must have a 50-yeardesign lie.
At the end o that time, i thebuilding needs to be demolished,its usually a airly intricate process.Even a controlled implosion can be
quite dangerous, he says.By using a blind boltingtechnique, the elements in thestructures the steel beams,columns, and concrete slabs could be unbolted, removedand potentially used again. Thisnot only removes the need ordemolition, but it could also seesteel being reused rather than
recycled, which is energy-intensiveand generates greenhouse gasemissions.
This technique could also beused to rehabilitate structures.
For example, i you have abridge that now has insucientload-carrying capability, we couldgo out to a site, drill through theconcrete slab, and bolt it to a steelbeam, and you may be able toget another 25 years o lie rom
that particular structure, saysProessor Uy.
Another key research programwithin the Institute or InrastructureEngineering is inrastructurehealth monitoring, and ProessorUy says that in the uture, thesemonitoring techniques could alsobe incorporated into demountablestructures. Part o the projectspreliminary phase saw theresearchers collaborate with theDepartment o Main Roads inWA, to use sensors to assess thecondition o a bridge or example,
and potential damage to dierentparts.When youve identied where
that damage is, you can use theblind bolting technique to repair it.
For more inormation on the
Institute for InfrastructureEngineering visit
www.uws.edu.au/iie
Photo: Professor Brian Uy
ADVERTISING FEATURE 7
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
8/16
The nal piece o the multi-milliondollar climate change research
facility at the UWS HawkesburyInstitute for the Environment (HIE)has been completed.
The Eucalypt Free Air Carbon
Dioxide Enrichment (EucFACE)
acility enables scientists to track
and study the impact o elevated
atmospheric CO2 concentrationsunder totally natural climatic
conditions on terrestrial
ecosystems, including plants,
insects and soil microbes.
Similar previous experiments
internationally have been
conducted in plantations or
planted woodlands, but this is
the rst ree air experiment in the
world on native woodland. It isalso unique in terms o the height
o the trees being studied.
Proessor David Ellsworth,
who is senior scientic advisor
on the EucFACE experiment, says
it expands the research already
underway in the tree chambers
of the Hawkesbury ForestExperiment a hundred-old, to
examine an extensive ecosystem
at the atmospheric carbon
dioxide concentrations expectedin about 35 years.
It allows us to get a look at auture we might want to avoid,
says Proessor Ellsworth. One
thing we expect to learn is how
native woodlands actually deal
with carbon dioxide will they
take up the excess carbon dioxide
that we emit or not? Thats a really
critical question nationally and
internationally.
This research will improve our
understanding about the potential
o native trees to absorb and store
CO2, and the amount of waterrequired to maintain high growthrates. The results generated will
provide data to enable accurate
accounting o carbon storage in
orests under climate change and
rising CO2 essential informationor participation in a national
emissions trading scheme.
At the HIE, the EucFACEacility joins the whole treechambers and FACE acility,
designed to simulate uture
CO2 levels and climate, rainoutshelters that simulate seasonal
drought, an Eddy fux tower that
measures water and CO2 uxesat the orest ecosystem level,
and an insectary or investigating
the interaction between plants
and insects under environmental
change, to orm the worlds most
comprehensive climate change
research acility.
EucFACE will also orm part o
the terrestrial ecosystem research
network (TERN) that includes a
site in every state in the country
that will be conducting long-term
monitoring o plants and animals
as a bellweather site to assess
the impacts o climate change.
Proessor Ellsworth says its a
very exciting time for the HIE.
Certainly many o us eel verylucky to have not only such
innovative acilities, but also
the scientifc expertise to dothese experiments. UWS is
really open to collaborations
both nationally and
internationally, so people fnd
an open door here.
For more information on the
Hawkesbury Institute for the
Environment (HIE) visit
www.uws.edu.au/hie
exCItIng
neW faCe of
haWkesBUry
Photo: EucFACE site at the Hawkesbury Institue for the Environment
8 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
9/16
For Proessor Peter Reich,
Foundation Director o the UWS
Hawkesbury Institute for theEnvironment (HIE), the ofciallaunch of HIE in April 2012signalled the start o a new
collaborative research culture or
UWS.
HIE is a new institute withimportant, ambitious goals to
help progress Australian and
global science by becoming one
o the worlds most advanced
research sites or studying how
terrestrial ecosystems respond toenvironmental change, he says.
Proessor Reich has been a
research scientist and proessor
for more than 25 years,ocusing on impacts o global
environmental change on orests,
grasslands and agricultural
systems, and will remain a
proessor at the University
of Minnesota through a jointafliation with the HIE.
Bringing extensive experiencein developing and running
large, long-term collaborative
experiments, Proessor Reichwas attracted to the role primarily
by the work being undertaken at
HIE to enhance understandingo terrestrial ecosystems and
global geophysical and climate
sciences.
Such experiments are rareelsewhere on the planet, so
or me, personally, becoming
involved at HIE was anopportunity to engage in
important world-class science,
says Proessor Reich.
I hope that my focus on bothbroad, holistic system-scale
processes as well as on the
underlying mechanistic details
will help guide the evolution o a
similarly broad yet rich approach
to ecosystem science at HIE.The planned research
direction for HIE, ProfessorReich explains, is grounded in
three main aims: to improve
understanding o how terrestrial
ecosystems respond to climate
change and other environmental
drivers; to better understand the
implications o those responses
or Australian natural and
agricultural ecosystems, and help
develop eective strategies or
managing such ecosystems; and
to collaborate with others who will
be able to utilise HIEs ndings forpractical purposes.
The importance o climate
change in this Australian contextlies in protecting an already
sensitive continent.
As climate change will make
droughts, res and foods even
more common in Australia, it will
place an ever greater burden on
people and nature to sustainably
cope with such challenges, in an
already oten harsh landscape
and climate.
Professor
sIgnals neW era
for researCh
Photo: Professor Peter Reich
ADVERTISING FEATURE 9
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
10/16
Author and Doctor of Creative Arts candidate JesseBlackadder travelled to Antarctica last year, followingin the footsteps of Ingrid Christensen, who in 1931
became one o the rst women ever to lay eyes on theicy continent.
Chosen as the 2011/2012 Australian Antarctic ArtsFellow, Ms Blackadder made the trip on boardicebreaker Aurora Australis, as research or the novel
she is writing on Christensens voyages.
Ms Blackadder is undertaking her Doctorate at the UWSWriting and Society Research Centre.
The journeys o the earliest emale visitors have been
largely orgotten in Antarctic exploration history, tending
to be overshadowed by the great heroic era explorers:
Mawson, Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen.
Integrating history and ction, Ms Blackadders novelChasing the Light (due out in February 2013) aims tooer insights into the lie o a woman on board a male-
dominated Antarctic whaling ship in the 1930s.
Theres a long history o women being prevented rom
going to Antarctica, and their stories not being recorded
or considered worthwhile, Ms Blackadder says. Themythology o the heroic Antarctic explorer is so powerul
that it drowns out every other story. But these womensstories are ascinating in their own right.
While Ms Blackadder had previously travelled toAntarctica as a tourist, the Fellowship enabled her to
be part o a working ship and station lie, providing a
dierent perspective. She was also able to visit the parto Antarctica that Christensen actually travelled to.
Simply landing on Antarctica was another highlight or
Ms Blackadder, particularly as it is not always possible.
We came so early in the season that a lot o thesea ice was still rozen. Its this incredible duckegg blue colour and you can hear it cracking andmoving underneath you. Its a beautiul thing,she says.
In addition to the Fellowship, Ms Blackadder was also
recently awarded the 2012 Guy Morrison Prize forLiterary Journalism for her piece, The rst woman andthe last dog in Antarctica describing her research into
Ingrid Christensen.
For more information on the Writing and Society
Research Centre visit
www.uws.edu.au/writing_and_society
a PIoneerIngWoman
Photo: Jesse Blackadder in Antarctica
10 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
11/16
VoICe
sIgnatUres
DR JAson
sHAwEver wonder why voicerecognition sotware otenstruggles to capture speechaccurately? Its because individualtalkers each have their own
speech characteristics like avoice signature.
Phonologist Dr JasonShaw, rom the UWS School oHumanities and CommunicationArts and the MARCS Institute,is investigating some o thecommonalities and dierences inindividual voices, to understandhow humans recognise bothwords and talkers.
Using his DECRA unding,Dr Shaw is building a model ohow, or a speaker o AustralianEnglish, the movement o the
speech articulators such as thetongue and lower lip are timedrelative to one another. This willprovide insight into how peopleare able to perceive dierencesbetween individual talkers.
When you listen to peopletalking, you know the meaning othe words that they are saying,
but you can also sometimesrecognise the identity o thetalker, Dr Shaw says.
This project recognises thatthe same physical dimensionscarry inormation about bothwords and talker identity.
A key insight o the projectis that dierent phonologicalstructures (which allow usto recognise words) can bedistinguished in the speechsignal because they structurevariability in dierent ways.Because phonological structure
is contained in the pattern ovariability, the absolute values ophysical dimensions can carryinormation about talker identity.
Dr Shaw says the model willenable him to simulate temporalpatterns in words producedby dierent talkers and makepredictions about which talkercan be distinguished by humanears on the basis o temporalpatterns, and which talkers cannot.
This could have majorimplications or evaluating ear-
witness testimony in court cases,or example, and or the uturedevelopment o voice recognitionsotware.
For more inormation on the
MARCS Institute visit:http://marcs.uws.edu.au
early Career researChers make theIr mark at UWsUWS researchers Dr Jason Shaw and Dr Emma Waterton are among the frst recipients o the Australian Research Council (ARC)
Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA). Launched in 2011, the prestigious program supports promising early career
researchers in Australian universities, providing recipients with unding to kick-start their research careers.
herItage
on sIte
DR EmmA
wATERTonWhen Dr Emma Waterton visitedAuschwitz, she elt an intensesadness resonating rom thesite. It started her on a path othinking about aect and the way
we behave at heritage sites astourists, which is one o the keystrands o her DECRA project.
Dr Waterton, rom theSchool o Social Sciences andPsychology and the Instituteor Culture and Society (ICS) atUWS, has received unding o$375,000 over three years toexplore the way visitors constructand express identity at a range otourism sites in Australia.
The project will examinehow the heritage eld is used toshape present social and cultural
debates, the ways that Australianhistory is remembered andorgotten, and communicated atheritage tourism sites.
Dr Waterton hopes toinclude sites in her research thatrepresent Indigenous narratives,such as Uluru-Kata Tjuta NationalPark and Kakadu National Park,
and others which present asettler historic narrative. Shealso plans to use innovative datacollection methods or the projectsuch as auto-photography andperormative ethnography, askingtourists to take photographs atthe sites and later recall theirimpressions and memories.
Though her eld o researchis heritage studies, Dr Watertonsprevious contributions to researchon the 2007 Bicentenary o theAboli tion o the TransatlanticSlave Trade in the UK showed
that the investigation o issuessuch as the inclusion orexclusion o dierent groups inthe management and decision-making processes or heritagesites contains broader insightsinto areas such as racism andmulticulturalism.
It allows me to think abouthow and what we choose toremember rom the past, andwhat that can tell us aboutcontemporary debates and theway we think about ourselves.
For more inormation on theInstitute for Culture and Society(ICS) visit: www.uws.edu.au/ics
Photo: Dr Jason Shaw Photo: Dr Emma Waterton
ADVERTISING FEATURE 11
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
12/16
Research shows that o the
approximately 140,000 peoplewho die in Australia each year,
around 80 per cent wish to dieat home, but only between 16and 20 per cent do so.
Associate Proessor
Debbie Horsfall is leadingan interdisciplinary team o
researchers rom the UWS
School o Social Sciences and
Psychology, Calvary Centre or
Palliative Care Research, CSIROand Cancer Council NSW to
understand what happens to
individuals and communities
when people come together to
care or each other as someone
is dying at home.
The preliminary phase o
the Caring at end o lie study
showed that people can and
do die well at home, but caring
is an immense task which
requires a complex networko community and service-
based support riends, amily,
neighbours, work colleagues
and community members
willingly pitching in to help.
Some people sat with the
dying person to give the carer a
break. We heard about bedside
happy hours or helping to
continue amily rituals and
celebrations, says Associate
Professor Horsfall. What wasmost important was that people
provided what was actually
needed by the carer and thedying person not what they
assumed, or thought was
needed.
Contrary to perceptions
that supporting people to care
or a dying person is always
draining or isolating, the people
involved in inormal caring
networks ound the experience
transormational and it built
social connections.
Caring can contribute to
social capital with carers and
the cared or being part o a
vibrant and growing network o
relationships, she says. When
caring generates social capital,
it no longer just addresses a
private need but potentially
contributes to a public good.
The study is progressing
into its second phase in
2012. Service providers andvolunteers have already been
recruited or a series o ocus
groups that explore the ways
that they provide assistance
to the community. Now we
want to talk to carers, says
Associate Professor Horsfall.Associate Professor Horsfall
hopes that the research will
inorm palliative and publichealth policy, with the aim o
positively impacting carers and
caring practices, giving dying
Australians a supportive, loving
and more meaningul death in
the place that they chose.
The issue here is that
these things are not spoken
about: we dont speak about
where we want to die; we dont
speak about the joy and love
and laughter associated with
supporting each other; we dont
speak about death and dying
much at all. Yet its going tohappen to all o us.
Carers who are interested in
being involved with the study
can contact Niki Read on
02 4736 0368 or 0437 877 232, or
by email at [email protected]
Digital technologies are, bit by bit,changing many aspects o the waywe live and work, but what are theimplications o this change? Whatdoes it mean or the way we relateto one another? And how mightsociety be aected in the uture?
Questions such as this are atthe heart o the work o the UWSInstitute or Culture and Society(ICS).
Bringing together researchersrom a range o disciplines todevelop a big picture researchprogram, the ICS is alsoinvestigating changes such asthe shit o geopolitical power toAsia, population expansion, andthe impact o urbanisation onthe natural environment. It bringstogether academic scholarshipand grounded, engaged researchin partnership with communitiesand other organisations.
Proessor Brett Neilson says,While we are very interested intraditional academic outcomes,we also want to do things that areuseul to society.
One o the key elementso the ICSs mission is theAustralian Cultural Fieldsresearch, which examinestransormations in the socialorganisation o cultural activities incontemporary Australia in the lighto its changing place in globalprocesses and relations.
We are looking at a wide array
o cultural institutions in Australiarom the 1970s rom museums,to the Australia Council, to theAustralian Institute o Sport andhow they took on a specic kindo national ethos in moulding adistinctively Australian culture.We are also interested in whatthat means in terms o a more
globalised Australia, and what isthe role o social distinctions in theway that people consume variouscultural products, ProessorNeilson says.
Other research is beingconducted in collaboration withthe recently established Youngand Well Cooperative ResearchCentre. Dr Philippa Collin romthe ICS is studying the role oonline and networked media orsupporting young peoples mentalhealth and wellbeing, while DrAmanda Third is investigat inghow technology can be leveragedto reach, connect and engageyoung people who are vulnerableto the development o mentalhealth diculties.
Meanwhile, the Cool livingheritage in Southeast Asia:sustainable alternatives to air-conditioned cities research, led
by Dr Tim Winter and ProessorDonald McNeill, is turning to thepast or potential solutions todependence on air-conditioning.
These researchers arecoming rom a cultural heritageperspective to think about ways inwhich people in tropical climateskept cool or centuries, what kindo technologies they used, andwhat kind o architecture wasinvolved. Theyre looking at howthose past practices might berevived or updated in ways thatcould save energy through their
reintroduction, says ProessorNeilson.
For more inormation on the
Institute for Culture and Societyvisit www.uws.edu.au/ics
ImPaCtIng on
the Way We lIVe
BrIngIng the
dyIng home
Photo: Professor Brett Neilson Photo taken by Ossie Emery
12 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
13/16
In Australia, Islamic law or Shariais not ormally recognised by ourlegal system, but Muslims whowish to abide by this law otenturn to the internet to seek rulingsor atwas rom scholars, imamsand mullahs on issues relating toproperty, divorce and custody.
Partly because o itsunderground nature, Sharia isnot well understood in Australiaand is oten portrayed in asimplistic way in the media.
Proessor Bryan Turner andAssociate Proessor AdamPossamai rom the UWS Religionand Society Research Centre arenow seeking to understand moreabout how Sharia is lived byMuslim communities in Australiaand the United States, through athree-year project unded by theAustralian Research Council.
Sharia can be very culturally
based, and given there are morethan 70 ethnic Muslim groupsin Sydney, there can be variousunderstandings o what Shariameans, Associate ProessorPossamai says.
By exploring Muslimexperiences o Western andSharia courts, and how Shariais treated within Western courts,the study will make innovativeconceptual and empiricalcontributions to the debate aboutpost-secular societies throughthe study o legal pluralism in the
West.
The US was chosen orcomparative study as it has somesimilarities to Australia in termso being English-speaking anda relatively new country largelypopulated by migrants, as well assome dierences relating to thelaw and the treatment o religiousdierences.
With research to beconducted in Sydney and NewYork, the project will incorporateethnographic eldwork onlineto understand the discussionsconcerning Sharia, interviewswith Muslim lawyers and imams,and observations and analysiso cases in both secular andinormal Sharia courts.
There is hardly any socialscientic research on how Shariais understood and applied inthe everyday lie o Muslims inAustralia. So wi th th is research
we want to make data availableabout whats really happening,which will inorm the media,government and other research,says Associate ProessorPossamai.
For more inormation on the
Religion and Society Research
Centre visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
UnderstandIng
sharIa laW
Fluorescence in coral doesntjust look pretty it may act as adeense mechanism against theimpact o warming oceans andclimate change. Dr Anya Salihrom the UWS School o Scienceand Health, is exploring thephenomenon.
When high light interactswith temperature, the impacto photosynthesising algae oncoral tissues can kill the coral.The coral expels the symbiontsand turns white as a result.Thats cal led coral bleaching,Dr Salih says. Im looking at howfuorescent proteins reduce thesestressul eects o this process.
Collaborating with otherscientists rom around the world,Dr Salih is also investigating anumber o other aspects o howcorals utilise light energy and thebiological unction o these unique
fuorescent proteins in coral reeorganisms.
The investigation o theseprocesses, however, has awider benet. The geneticallyexpressible properties o theproteins enable scientists to beable to attach them to othermolecules to be studied.
I, or instance, you havea cancer cell and you want tostudy the activation o a particularcancer-related protein or how adrug might aect its activation,we can colour that protein with a
coral fuorescent glow, Dr Salihsays.
The UWS Conocal Bio-Imaging Facility, equipped withhigh-end microscopes and lasers,enables scientists to look insideliving cells and tissues.
We can grow tissues andcells in culture dishes, expresscoral fuorescent proteins anduse them to the molecules thatwe want to study, and theninvestigate their activity in livingcells. Using laser microscopes,we can even track moleculesand uncover cellular processesin whole corals or other livingorganisms, which is a verypowerul technology, Dr Salihsays. We get a three dimensionalunderstanding o where and howthese molecules move insidecells.
While already thousandso laboratories use fuorescentproteins rom jellysh and coralsin biomedicine and cell biology,their potential is only beginning tobe understood.
Even in organic computingand solar energy generation, we
may be able to create advancedbio-photonic devices based onfuorescent protein rom corals,says Dr Salih.
In June, Dr Salih was aninvited presenter at the premiereo the Coral ReKindling Venus lmat the World Science Festival inNew York, which eatured someo her coral fuorescence imagery.
For more inormation on this
research visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
gloWIng In the
dark
Photo: Professor Bryan Turner, Associate Professor Adam Possamai and
Dr Selda Dagistanli
Photo: Flourescent corals
ADVERTISING FEATURE 13
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
14/16
The Biomedical Magnetic
Resonance acility with very high-resolution magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) is enabling UWSscientists to understand better adiverse range o problems includingpreeclampsia in pregnant women,breast and prostate cancer,development o animal brains, grapedevelopment and how to build betterbatteries.
Led by Proessor Bill Price romthe UWS School o Science andHealth, the Nanoscale ResearchGroup uses equipment similar to ahospital MRI, except it can produceimages with more than 10,000 times
better resolution.MRI is such an enormously rich
source o inormation. In the clinicalworld, its one o the major toolsused by clinicians when investigatinga patient, Proessor Price says.Importantly, it is non-invasiveand does not involve high energyradiation or radioactivity.
MRI is just one branch o the verylarge eld called nuclear magneticresonance (NMR), and its potentialapplications spread ar beyond themedical eld and medical physics.
For example, the UWS team
is using an NMR spectrometer tounderstand more about how lithiumpolymer batteries can be made moreecient, how anticancer drugs bindto DNA and to probe the associationo proteins.
In a lithium polymer battery,or example, there has to beionic conductivity or the batteryto work, says Proessor Price.This results rom the motionso the various ions and NMR issupremely able or probing how eacho the dierent types o ions andmolecules move around and interactwith each other.
Proessor Price says whilethe types o problems they areinvestigating may seem poles apart,the techniques and rules they applyhave much in common.
Whilst our applications toa layman might appear to beunrelated, or us, the thinking andexperimentation at the molecularor the nano level is very similar.
For more inormation on research
at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
seeIng the fUtUre Clearly
Researchers rom industry
and universities around
Australia are focking to UWS
to use its Secondary Ion MassSpectrometer (SIMS), the mostsophisticated tool o its kind in
Australia.
The SIMS provides analysiso the surace and near-surace
composition in materials.
Dr David Nelson, SIMSoperator at UWS, says, The
instrument has an extremely high
sensitivity, so we can analyse
almost every element in the
periodic table to the parts per
billion level.
The SIMS is specicallydesigned as a tool or
developing new and improved
semiconductors a critical
component or many types
o modern electronics and
understanding the processes
behind them.
Its being used for a hugerange o dierent applications inthe nanotechnology and materials
science areas, such as looking at
corrosion rates or new types o
metals, developing new light-
emitting diodes, and creating
micro-switches, Dr Nelson says.
The UWS Solar Energy
Technologies Group isinvestigating methods or
producing clean solar-hydrogen
energy, and the SIMS is a vitalpiece o equipment or this work.
Most current solar cellshave an eciency o 4 per
cent. But the latest technologyis approaching 50 per cent
eciency, says Dr Nelson. Sothey are ar more ecient at
converting sunlight into electricity,
and the SIMS instrument isthe tool that is required or
understanding how we can make
materials like that.
With many specialised
semiconductor companies
located in Sydney, the SIMSis certainly attracting plenty o
interest.
Were at the cutting edge
o innovation with this piece o
equipment.
For more information on
research at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/researchCreatIng a neWgeneratIon of
semICondUCtorsPhoto: Dr David Nelson
Photo: Professor Bill Price and PhD researchers
Photo: Dr Tim Stait-Gardner with MRI
14 ADVERTISING FEATURE
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
15/16
Complementary medicine mayprovide some relie. AssociateProessor Caroline Smith, rom theUWS Centre or ComplementaryMedicine Research, is evaluatingthe use o acupuncture as apotential treatment methodor women undergoing cancertreatments and suering romatigue.
Previous research in this areahas only involved small numberso women, with mixed results as towhether acupuncture was benecialin relieving atigue.
Associate Proessor Smithsstudy, unded by the CancerInstitute or New South Wales,involved 30 women who wererandomly allocated to groupsreceiving acupuncture, a placebotreatment and a control group.
Over six weeks, the women in theacupuncture and placebo groupsreceived nine treatment sessions.
We ound that women werevery interested to participate inthis study, and on entering thestudy, reported signicant levels oatigue, Associate Proessor Smithsays.
The results showed that womenwho received acupuncture reporteda reduction in their levels o atigueater two weeks compared with thecontrol group. Ater six weeks, theirwellbeing improved urther.
The study also includedinterviews with some o the women,which allowed the researchers toexplore their experience in greaterdepth.
For those women experiencinga benet, they were better able toengage in other sel-care activitiesand to start to undertake moreday-to-day activities, AssociateProessor Smith says.
While the study was not largeenough to show statisticallysignicant results, it does provide aplatorm or urther research.
The ndings are encouraging
and indicate we should plan a uturestudy involving a larger number owomen, and seek unding to enableus to do this.
For more inormation on the
UWS Centre or Complementary
Medical Research visit:www.uws.edu.au/complemed
With 62 patent properties and17 projects in the processo commercialisation, UWS
is building a reputation or
delivering pioneering research
which results in practical,
commercially accessible
innovations.
UWS Innovation, led byDr Fiona Cameron, aims to
ensure that UWS research
ultimately reaches and benets
the public. It works withresearchers to protect their
intellectual property, and match
them with suitable commercialpartners.
One o the biggest
success stories rom UWS
Innovation is Relok, aunique steel technology
which is incorporated into
steel ormwork proles and
used in structures such as
oce high-rises, residential
apartments and airports to
improve their perormance.
Since being introduced to the
market in 2005 in conjunction
with Fielders Australia, it hassecured a 60 per cent marketshare. Fielders and its partner
M-Metal have signed a dealwith UWS to introduce the
technology into Singapore,
Malaysia and Hong Kong,accelerating the products
already impressive market
penetration. The deal will allow
the University and the Institutefor Infrastructure Engineeringto urther invest in research,
education and innovation.
Another commercialisation
success is Qcide, a newenvironmentally riendly
treatment or household and
agricultural pests, which
was developed as part o a
collaboration between UWS,
Southern Cross University
and Bioprospect Ltd. Thetreatment ormula is based
on tasmanone, a natural
insecticide derived rom
the leaves o a rare type o
Eucalyptus cloeziana, a foresttree species naturally ound in
limited areas o Queensland.The intellectual property has
been assigned exclusively
to Bio-Gene Technology.As a greener alternative to
established products such as
synthetic insecticides, Qcide
has the potential to make
signicant inroads in the global
market.
UWS has also developed
Ion Exchange Lactose (IEL)purication technology with
Dairy Australia and CSIRO-Food Science Australia, which
allows or the purication olactose rom whey permeate
in dairy processing plants.
This lactose is then used in
ood and pharmaceutical
production. The IEL technologyhas been licensed non-
exclusively to biotechnology
company Novasep.
For more information on
innovation at UWS visit
www.uws.edu.au/research
Can aCUPUnCtUre helP fatIgUe?
BrIngIng knoWledge to lIfe
Advances in medical knowledge, screening programs and sel-detection have markedly improved the survival rate or suerers o
breast cancer. But treatments such as chemotherapy can have debilitating side eects such as nausea and atigue.
Photo: Dr Rosalie Durham,
Dr Robert Sleigh
(CSIRO) and Associate
Professor Jim Hourigan
ADVERTISING FEATURE 15
-
7/31/2019 STR3324 SMH Research Supplement 2012_11
16/16
Eucalypts in the endangeredremnant Cumberland PlainWoodlands (CPW) in westernSydney are currently under threatrom a massive inestation opsyllids commonly known asjumping plant-lice.
Psyllids are plant-sap eedinginsects, with the current inestationcaused by a species o Australiannative lace lerp.
Dr Markus Riegler, senior
researcher rom the HawkesburyInstitute or the Environment (HIE),is working with local councilsto investigate the cause o thelace lerp outbreaks. He saysthe species o lace lerp inestingthe CPW is specic to GreyBox Eucalypts (or Eucalyptusmoluccana), and in large numbers,cause oliage and canopies toappear burnt or dead.
Its currently unknown howmany o the thousands o aectedtrees will die.
Psyllid inestations causing area-wide tree deoliation have previouslybeen reported or South Australia,Victoria, and New South Wales,with a similar outbreak in WesternSydney being reported about 15years ago. However the exactcauses or these inestations are stillunknown.
It has previously beenspeculated that rapid changes owater availability or example,extensive rainall ater long periodso drought may lead to increasedconcentrations o amino acidsin eucalypt plant-sap that canthen be rapidly exploited by thepsyllids and result in their extensiveprolieration, Dr Riegler says. Thisis a question that we are interestedto nd answers or.
Though most eucalypts canrecover rom a single deoliationevent, repeated complete deoliationover several years will stress trees,resulting in dieback. Because othese devastating eects, localcouncils and communities are keento understand the causes, how tomanage inested trees, and possiblepreventative measures to guardagainst uture outbreaks.
Given that the Grey Box is adominant tree in the endangeredCumberland Plain Woodlands, any
dieback is seen as a concern orecological and also saety reasons,in particular i deoliated andstressed trees are in recreationalareas, close to houses and streets,says Dr Riegler.
The research is supported bythe UWS-Blacktown City CouncilPartnership Program.
For more inormation on the
Hawkesbury Institute for theEnvironment visit:
www.uws.edu.au/hie
Why are so many
trees dyIng In
Western sydney?
Lace lerps produce waxy secretions that act as aprotective shield under which the psyllids can eed on plant-sap by puncturing leaves with their mouthparts. This plant-
sap eeding activity results into the injection o toxins thatcauses necrosis in lea tissue, says Dr Riegler.
For more inormation contact
www.uws.edu.au/research
UWS Research Services
Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751+61 2 9852 5222
Photo: Dr Markus Riegler
16 ADVERTISING FEATURE