Celebrating 40 Years of Research Impact

40 YEARS OF RESEARCH IMPACT

WELCOME

It gives me great pleasure to present this volume of 40 research impacts from the University of Wollongong to coincide with the celebrations to mark our university’s 40th year as an independent institution. Throughout the last century Wollongong was Australia’s heavy industry heartland, best known as home of Australia’s largest steel mill. In the 21st century Wollongong has transformed into a university city increasingly focused on technology and the knowledge economy. Over the past 40 years, the University of Wollongong (UOW) has become a benchmark for Australia’s next generation of universities – dynamic, agile, innovative and prominent in national and international rankings for the quality of its research and training. UOW is one of a small number of universities around the world that is specifically addressing global issues by harnessing its research strengths. Our vision is to be a leader in ideas and solutions, a community of campuses and partners where discovery, learning, and technology connect to transform people and the world we live in. Originally established to train engineers, metallurgists and industrial chemists for the heavy industrial plants in the region, UOW is now at the forefront of innovative developments such as the BioPen, which will allow surgeons to directly implant biomedical material into damaged bones. UOW materials scientists were the first in Australia – and one of only a handful of research teams in the world – to fabricate the new wonder material, silicene. The University is

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now home to Australia’s first National Centre for Archaeological Science, and the nation’s most sophisticated early childhood teaching, research and community engagement initiative, Early Start. In the past 15 years our research program has attracted almost $1 billion in competitive funding. That’s one billion dollars making an impact on our region, our country and our world every day – from new drugs to treat antibiotic resistance, to manufacturing improvements that allow steel to be made more cheaply, to informing debates about internet censorship for children. My sincere thanks to the many funding agencies who have supported our research endeavours, in particular the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council, enabling our research achievements and discoveries, as well as our business, community and government partners who have provided significant funding and in-kind support. This publication highlights the truly remarkable research results that underscore our commitment to be leaders in ideas and solutions.

Professor Judy Raper Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation August 2015

CONTENTS

Revealing The Hobbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01

Everyday Artificial Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Stellar Energy To Radiation Therapy . . . . . . 03

Extracellular Proteostasis . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Under The Magnifying Glass . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Mapping Global Co2: A Spatial Statistical Approach . . . . . . . . . . 30

Game Of Antarctic Mosses . . . . . . . . . . . . 05 Targeting The Super Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07 Approaching AD/HD Drug-Free . . . . . . . . . . 08 Leading Materials Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09 Ephemeral Festivals Transform Rural Places . 11 Building Better Rail Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Wearable Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Robotic Endoscope Breakthrough . . . . . . . . 15 Completing The Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Innovative Radiation Detectors . . . . . . . . . . 17 Extracting Phosphorus From Wastewater . . . 19 Eating For Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Responding To Climate Extremes . . . . . . . . 21 Soft Options For Hard Climate Change Decisions . . . . . . . . . 23

Innovative Energy Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Analytically Pricing American Options . . . . . 33 The Recovery Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Controlling Internet Content . . . . . . . . . . . 35 New Chemotherapy Drug . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Continental Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Membrane Pacemaker Theory . . . . . . . . . . 39 Geldom: Closest To Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Great At Graphene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Petajakarta.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Analysing Atmospheric Composition . . . . . . 43 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Seeing Through Wallsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Technology . . . . . . . 44 Materials For Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Balance Of The Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration . . . . 24

Transnational Career Of The TV Crime Drama 48

Cheaper Stainless Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Family Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Creating A Slowmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Exploring The Big Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

REVEALING THE HOBBIT DISCOVERY OF A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN SPECIES OF HUMAN, HOMO FLORESIENSIS

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The unexpected news that another species of human had walked among us until relatively recently stunned the world.

enough to encounter early members of our species as they spread through Southeast Asia to Australia.

In October 2004, the leading international journal of science, Nature, published two controversial papers announcing the discovery in 2003 of the remains of a previously unknown human species, Homo floresiensis, in Liang Bua cave on Flores – an island in eastern Indonesia. The fossil find was dubbed the ‘Hobbit’ due to its tiny stature.

The discovery continues to stir scientific debate, but the evidence accumulated over the past 11 years supports the original claim of Homo floresiensis being a new species of archaic human.

The discovery – a result of a partnership between the Centre for Archaeological Science at UOW and the National Centre for Archaeology in Indonesia – radically challenged the prevailing theories of human evolution and dispersal across the globe. The team used the latest scientific dating techniques to determine that the last-surviving population of Hobbits may have persisted long

The discovery is an intriguing piece of the larger puzzle of global human evolution and ancient extinctions. Past human activities in Liang Bua need to be explored with subsequent excavations, and other potential sites throughout Flores and on other islands in Indonesia represent the next step of archaeological research. Research team: Professor Mike Morwood (University of New England and UOW), Mr Thomas Sutikna (pictured, left), Dr Gerrit van den Bergh, Professor Chris Turney, Dr Kira Westaway, Professor Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UOW, past and present) (pictured, right)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

STELLAR ENERGY TO RADIATION THERAPY FROM STELLAR ENERGY, PLANETARY VOLCANICS AND ASTEROID MINING TO MEDICAL DOSIMETRY

Over a 25 year research career at UOW, Honorary Professor Bill Zealey made groundbreaking discoveries in astronomical imaging and wide field astronomy. His study of star forming regions provided the launch pad for later contributions in medical imaging and radiation dosimetry. The early phases of star formation produce strong supersonic winds from the stars’ poles. Much later, massive stars go supernova and eject a large part of their atmospheres into space. The huge energies involved and the massive outflow of material significantly affect the star’s surroundings and can trigger new star formation. These massive outflows of matter and energy churn up the surrounding interstellar gas and dust and trigger new rounds of star formation. Professor Zealey’s research focused on the discovery and energetics of these Bipolar Outflows and Supernova Remnants using survey films from the UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Springs, and later, digital surveys. Using images from online databases to access imagery, Professor Zealey also studied volcanic features on Venus and Mars. These

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studies included some of the first work on the characteristics of lava tubes on Venus using Magellan side looking radar and the discovery of volcanic eruptions from below a glacier on the Echus Plateau on Mars. Professor Zealey also worked with Mark Sonter and Raghu Singh on a landmark feasibility study of asteroid mining. Together they undertook the simulation and testing of cometary materials, the study of possible mining techniques, and the identification of key areas of development, including economic and financial considerations. With his expertise and knowledge of space radiation, Professor Zealey later focused on the development of quality assurance protocols for the measurement and monitoring of radiotherapy doses. Working with John van Voorst and GE Medical, he was also instrumental in installing the first CT scanner and Gamma cameras at UOW. Research team: Honorary Professor Bill Zealey, Mark Sonter, Raghu Singh, many honours and PhD students (UOW), Yang Wang (St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney), John van Voorst (GE Medical)

UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH INTO DNA REPLICATION FOR UNDERSTANDING DISEASE

The organisation and housekeeping of cells in a living organism is controlled by proteins, little machines that coordinate thousands of specialised tasks at the microscopic level.

Since the DNA-replication proteins play a role in several diseases and antibacterial resistance, a better picture of how they work will contribute to the development of therapies and antibiotics.

Researchers at UOW, including Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen, are using powerful microscopes with lasers and ultrasensitive cameras to develop so-called ‘single-molecule’ techniques to see a process controlled by proteins that is fundamental to life: the copying of DNA.

Using single-molecule techniques, the UOW team studying these proteins were the first in the world to visualise the process of DNA replication at the level of single molecules. They created molecular movies of how individual DNA molecules are copied, providing an unprecedented opportunity to see how the various proteins involved in replication work together.

In the human body, cells are continuously dividing to maintain health, for example to renew tissue and produce blood cells. During these cell divisions, the DNA needs to be accurately copied and passed on to the next generation of cells. The DNA - replication machinery - the set of proteins responsible for fast and accurate copying of DNA, is a highly dynamic collection of molecularscale motors whose function is not completely understood.

These efforts are only the beginning. Working with world leading DNA biochemistry expert, UOW’s Professor Nick Dixon, the team is set to take the next steps to their ultimate goal: a complete description of the molecular machines that copy DNA. Research team: Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen (pictured), Professor Nick Dixon (School of Chemistry, UOW)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

GAME OF ANTARCTIC MOSSES STUDYING ANTARCTIC VEGETATION TO UNDERSTAND PAST CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND INFORM FUTURE CONSERVATION STRATEGIES

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To live in Antarctica, plants and animals must be capable of surviving long cold, dark winters and take full advantage of the short summers. Some parts of Antarctica are among the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. However, the Antarctic continent is so remote that there are few long-term studies able to establish what impacts these global changes are having on the biodiversity of the region. Antarctica is completely devoid of trees and shrubs, with terrestrial vegetation consisting mostly of mosses and lichens. These occupy the less than two per cent of the continent that is free of snow and ice in summer. Professor Sharon Robinson and her team of postdoctoral researchers and PhD and Honours students have been visiting this frozen wilderness for 19 years to study these remote communities of plants. The group, in collaboration with other universities and science-organisations, is developing modern techniques to determine how Antarctic plants are adapted to survive extreme conditions, and how they are coping with climate change and the impacts of accidental fuel spills.

This research has already influenced management plans for Antarctica Specially Protected Areas, helped establish the only State of the Environment Indicator for vegetation in Antarctica, and is contributing to the development of a continent-wide Antarctic NearShore and Terrestrial Observing System. It has also fostered some important technological advances in monitoring Antarctic ecosystems. In order to detect changes in very slow growth rates of mosses and lichens - about one millimetre per year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a partnership has been established with the Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation to radiocarbon date moss shoots. The team are also working with chemistry researchers to identify chemical signatures within the moss shoots, which should indicate how the environment has changed over the last century and allow the tracking of changes in ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation and water availability. New technologies are being employed to improve the monitoring of remote areas, including the use of drones that can take fine-resolution imagery of moss beds at centimetre-level resolution. From these images, moss health can be detected without damaging these fragile ecosystems.

Research team: Professor Sharon Robinson, Dr Zbynek Malenovsky, Dr Mick Ashcroft, Professor Paul Keller, Associate Professor Di Jolley, Professor Mark Dowton, Melinda Waterman, Jessica Bramley-Alves, Diana King, Johanna Turnbull, Ari Nugraha, Rudi Hendra, Rhys Wyber (Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, UOW), Dr Arko Lucieer (University of Tasmania), Dr Quan Hua (Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation), Dr Dominic Hodgson (British Antarctic Survey, UK), Professor Howard Griffiths (University of Cambridge, UK), Dr Wolfgang Wanek (University of Vienna, Austria), Professor Kerrie Mengerson (Queensland University of Technology), Dr Ben Raymond, John McKinlay, Dr Jane Wasley (Australian Antarctic Division)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

TARGETING THE SUPER BUGS INDUSTRY COLLABORATION DEVELOPING NEW DRUGS TO TREAT ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

The evolution of antibiotic treatment resistant pathogenic bacteria is arguably the most pressing issue facing health care today. Medicinal chemists at UOW have been working with industry collaborators over many years to develop more effective antibacterial treatments for pathogenic bacteria of clinical significance, including Golden Staph (Staphylococcus aureus), Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecium (VRE), and Clostridium difficle. The project began in 1998, when UOW initiated a research collaboration with Melbourne-based Avexa Ltd to develop new drugs to fight against vancomycin resistant pathogenic bacteria. Vancomycin is considered the gold standard for a number of pathogenic bacterial infections, but is being used less and less against susceptible strains for fear of generating additional strains of resistant bacteria.

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Based on the peptide-like structure of vancomycin, the UOW / Avexa team designed and chemically synthesised simpler, but related peptide molecules, which could theoretically bind more strongly to the developing cell-wall of vancomycin resistant bacteria. This work led to the discovery of a novel series of active peptidebased compounds which showed antibacterial activity generally close to, or better than, that of vancomycin against Golden Staph and Staphylococcus epidermidis, and superior against VRE. Two of these new compounds were licensed by Avexa to European pharmaceutical company, Valevia, for development into Phase 1 clinical trials for topical applications. Research team: Professor John Bremner, Professor Paul Keller, Professor Stephen Pyne, Dr Steven Wales, Mr Andrew Tague, several post-doctoral researchers and 3 PhD students (School of Chemistry, UOW), Professor Thomas Riley, Dr Katherine Hammer (University of Western Australia), Associate Professor Dena Lyras, Dr Amy King (Monash University), Avexa Ltd., Melbourne

APPROACHING AD/HD DRUG-FREE EVIDENCE-BASED, ‘COMPUTER GAME’ TRAINING SYSTEM IMPROVES BEHAVIOURAL CONTROL IN CHILDREN WITH AD/HD

The world’s first evidence-based, drug-free treatment for improving behavioural control in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) was developed by UOW researchers. The training program, based on many years of research by Associate Professor Stuart Johnstone, provides an alternative approach to medication for parents grappling with AD/HD symptoms that include inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity in their children. It brings together memory and inhibitory-control training, and incorporates attention training using objective attention levels obtained via a wireless brain electrical activity recording device. Studies

and trials of the program have shown highly favourable results, and have been reported in international scientific journals including ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders. An industry licensee has been secured to the UOW IP for the training program and continued research into the efficacy of the approach. It is now embodied as two software products sold internationally in Australia, Canada, the US, Germany, the UK, and China. Many thousands of children have completed the training program, presented in a game format to promote engagement and compliance. The post-training parental reporting system built into the software shows that the vast majority benefit from substantial behavioural improvements.

Research team: A/Professor Stuart Johnstone, A/Professor Steven Roodenrys, Mr Dawei Zhang, Ms Melinda Hickey (School of Psychology, UOW), Professor Sue Bennett (School of Education, UOW) A/Professor Sun Li (Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, China), Dr Qin Ling (Centre for Cognition and Sleeping, People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

LEADING MATERIALS SCIENCE EMERGING SUPERCONDUCTING TECHNOLOGIES PROVIDING GREATER EFFICIENCY, AND COST SAVINGS, IN ENERGY GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION

SUPERCONDUCTING MGB2 WIRES FOR NEXT-GENERATION MRI A breakthrough made by UOW researchers in the fabrication of wires from the superconductor magnesium diobride (MgB2) using silicon carbide nanoparticle doping has the potential to impact a number of fields, including medicine. The landmark research by Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou from the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), achieved a world record high critical current carrying capacity in superconducting MgB2 wires. It is one of the most important advances in the field since superconductivity was discovered in MgB2, and has great potential for practical applications, including fault current limiters, wind turbine generators, power cables, motors, energy storage, magnetic separators, and transformers.

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Distinguished Professor Dou’s breakthrough has potential to impact on the next generation of MRI machines. Using nanoparticle doped MgB2 superconductors would make MRI machines more powerful and smaller than current machines as they would not require liquid helium cooling, as is currently the case. This would reduce running costs and therefore lower costs for patients. The ongoing quality of research at ISEM in this area is underscored by the team’s ongoing collaborative partnerships, including with HyperTech Research, a world leader in the application of MgB2 superconductive materials. Research team: Distinguished Professor S.X. Dou, Dr S.H. Zhou, Dr M.S. Hossain, Dr. X. Xu, A/Professor J.H. Kim, Professor X.L. Wang, Professor A.V. Pan, A/Professor J. Horvat and Professor H.K. Liu (Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, UOW), Mr Mike Tomsic (Hyper Tech Research Inc., US)

THE FABRICATION OF SILICENE IN AUSTRALIA Materials science researchers at UOW were the first in Australia, and amongst only a handful in the world, to fabricate a landmark new material called silicene. Silicene is a two-dimensional, single atom-thick form of silicon that has a honeycomb structure â&#x20AC;&#x201C; making it very strong. Its great promise is related to how electrons can streak across it at incredible speed, close to the speed of light. Propelling the electrons in silicene requires minimal energy input, which means reducing power and cooling requirements for electronic devices. Led by Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou, the team at the Institute for Superconducting Energy Materials (ISEM) made silicene using a three-chamber low-temperature scanning

tunnelling microscope, which allows researchers to examine and manipulate materials at the nano scale. More recently the team have identified more of siliceneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structural information, its stability when exposed to air, and developed methods to precisely manipulate its reactivity. This groundbreaking work paves the way for identifying and modifying silicene so it can be integrated it into ultra-small renewable energy devices, such as solar cells, data storage hardware and advancing quantum computing. Research team: Dr Yi Du (pictured), Dr Xun Xu, Dr Stefan Eilers, Dr Germanas Peleckis, Professor Xiao Lin Wang, Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou (Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, UOW)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

EPHEMERAL FESTIVALS TRANSFORM RURAL PLACES IMPLEMENTING FESTIVALS AND EVENTS IN COMMUNITIES TO ENCOURAGE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

By the early 2000s, anecdotal stories had emerged of a few select rural places where festivals and events had played an important role in changing economic fortunes. However, no systematic research had examined how widespread the transformative phenomenon was, with what kinds of social, economic and cultural significance for the rural and regional places involved. UOW’s Professor Chris Gibson and Professor Gordon Waitt set out to find out. Using teams of student interns, honours students, and PhD candidates, the researchers built a database of 2856 festivals in non-metropolitan parts of three Australian states, and surveyed 480 festival organisers about their aims, history, and social and economic impact.

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Seemingly inconsequential, the sheer number and eclectic mix of festivals acted as a kind of ‘glue’ for regional economies and cumulatively they are more significant than big, commercial ticketed events that come to town only once a year. The social and economic benefits from a yearlong ‘ecology’ of small, varied community events is far more meaningful, and sustainable, than one-off ‘blockbusters’ the research team found. These findings were tabled in NSW Parliament and formed the basis of two motions supporting rural festivals, passed by the NSW State Government in 2009. Research team: Professor Chris Gibson, Professor Gordon Waitt, Dr Chris Brennan-Horley, Elyse Stanes (Department of Geography and Sustainable Communities, UOW)

BUILDING BETTER RAIL TRACKS USING GEOSYNTHETICS TO IMPROVE THE RESILIANCE OF AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS

Rail transport is an inherent component underpinning the Australian economy, in particular through the movement of natural resources such as coal and iron ore to port.

using a unique large-scale, track process simulation apparatus, in conjunction with novel computational approach based on Discrete Element Modelling and Finite Element Modelling.

Yet some ballasted rail tracks in many parts of the country lack the capacity to support the increasingly heavier and faster trains associated with industry. The ballast underpinning tracks is subject to degradation and the infiltration of fine particles, such as coal dust, and soft subgrade soils contaminating the overlying ballast decrease its porosity, impeding drainage.

A considerable portion of the R&D work in this area is captured by UOW-developed computer software, SMART (Systematic Methods of Analysis of Rail Track), which is capable of accommodating a variety of problematic ground conditions in Australia in user-friendly modules. It has shown that the cost of geosynthetics will only be a small fraction of the actual savings gained by extending the track maintenance cycle and reusing the discarded aggregates improved by geosynthetics.

UOWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Professor Buddhima Indraratna and his team are investigating solutions to mitigate these problems by utilising geosynthetics such as polymer geogrids, geocomposite, geocells and rubber mats, through the ARC Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical Science and Engineering. This project examines the fundamental mechanisms of geosynthetics-reinforced ballast

Research team: Professor Buddhima Indraratna (pictured, left), Associate Professor Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Dr Sanjay Nimbalkar, Dr Ngoc Trung Ngo, Dr Nayoma Tennakoon, Dr Vinod Jayan Sylaja, Dr Qideng Sun, Dr Md. Mahdi Biabani, Sinniah Navaratnarajah, Yifei Sun, Chamindi Jayasuriya (Centre for Geomechanics and Railway Engineering, UOW), David Christie, Sandy Pfeiffer, Jatinder Singh, Jee Choudhury, Dr Sarath Fernando (Sydney Trains), Michael Martin (Aurizon Ltd), Tim Neville (Australian Rail Track Corporation)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES ‘CLOTHING’ THAT SENSES MOVEMENT TO PREVENT KNEE INJURIES, IMPROVES THE COMFORT OF WOMEN EXERCISING, AND DELIVERS AT HOME THERAPY FOR CANCER PATIENTS

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Responsive clothing is the new frontier of sports and health technology, with UOW researchers leading the way in solutions that prevent injury and improve comfort. The Intelligent Knee Sleeve, the Bionic Bra and the Lymph Sleeve are three standout examples of cutting-edge ‘wearable technologies’ developed via collaborations among biomechanics researchers, material scientists, chemists, mechatronic engineers, clinicians, patients and industry. The Intelligent Knee Sleeve is an innovative device that provides immediate, individualised feedback to athletes or patients, alerting them as to whether or not they are using appropriate knee joint motion when training and playing sports, or undertaking rehabilitation exercises. The device is based on an electronic fabric strip that is capable of providing quantitative information and direct instantaneous feedback to the wearer without impeding their natural movement. The Bionic Bra is the world’s first responsive bra that senses changes in a woman’s breast motion and automatically tightens to provide her with vital breast support, when it is needed. It seeks to provide a smart, individualised solution for women who refrain from physical exercise due to the pain or discomfort breast motion

causes during exercise. Currently in prototype development, the enormous potential of the Bionic Bra for social and health outcomes has attracted substantial funding, partnerships and media coverage. The Lymph Sleeve has the potential to transform the lives of women who suffer from breast cancer-related lymphoedema – a chronic, painful and progressive pathological condition that arises from damage sustained during treatment for breast cancer. Current treatment options involve extensive allied health visits that are expensive and require the patient to remain motionless during treatment. The Lymph Sleeve incorporates ‘artificial muscle’ technology into a wearable compression garment that gently massages the affected areas, mimicking normal lymphatic massage techniques and relieving lymphatic flow. It is the first wearable device that will allow women to receive treatment for breast cancerrelated lymphoedema while they continue to perform their daily activities. These ‘wearable technologies’ are set to make a huge difference in the lives of people susceptible to injury or suffering from illness, and they have the ability to boost the knowledge economy by sparking niche, high-value, manufacturing industries.

Research team: Professor Julie Steele (pictured, left), Professor Geoff Spinks, Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace (pictured, centre), Dr Sheridan Gho (pictured, right), Dr Michael Weaver, Dr Sina Naficy, Professor Gursel Alici, A/Professor Peter Innis, Dr Toni Campbell, Christopher Richards, Dr Stephen Beirne, Dr Javad Foroughi, Ali Jeirani (UOW), Professor Don Iverson (Swinburne University), Professor Philip Clingan (ISLHD)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

ROBOTIC ENDOSCOPE BREAKTHROUGH MORE PRECISE TECHNOLOGY FOR LOCALISING WIRELESS CAPSULE ENDOSCOPES IN THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT

The wireless capsule endoscope (WCE) is a first-line medical tool for the diagnosis of many gastrointestinal tract diseases such as obscure GI bleeding, Crohn’s disease, small bowel tumours, and Celiac disease. Currently a diagnostic-only tool, significant efforts are now focused on upgrading the WCE to an active medical ‘robot’ that has both diagnostic capabilities and therapeutic functionalities such as biopsy, microsurgery, and targeted drug delivery. However, a major limitation preventing the development of such a robotictype endoscope is the lack of a highly accurate localisation system – until now. A team led by Professor Gursel Alici, from the School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, and Leader of Soft Robotics for Prosthetic Devices Theme at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), has conceptualised and experimentally verified a new, real-time localisation method for wireless capsule endoscopes.

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With simulation and experimental results showing the best localisation data reported in the literature so far, the system is based on tracking three positron emission markers embedded in the cover of an endoscopic capsule being moved automatically inside a water phantom, which mimics the photon attenuation of a human body. Coincidence gamma rays emitted from the markers are sensed by surrounding gamma ray detectors. The position and orientation information of the capsule can then be extracted by an effective tracking algorithm. Experiments undertaken by the team showed the proposed localisation method could provide less than 0.5mm position error and 2.4˚orientation error, in a localisation time interval of 50 milliseconds with an average computational time of six milliseconds per time interval. Zero power consumption and zero space occupation inside the capsule are additional advantages of this localisation method. Research team: Professor Gursel Alici, Trung Duc Than (School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, UOW), Dr Steven Harvey (Wollongong Hospital)

COMPLETING THE PUZZLE REVEALING THE IMPORTANCE AND SOPHISTICATION OF SHELL TOOLS IN OUR REGION

The enduringly simple nature of stone tool technologies through time in the Australian and East/Southeast Asian regions has led to negative assessments of the innovativeness of ancient peoples in our region. However, research by Associate Professor Katherine Szabó in 2007 gave the first hints that, in coastal zones of Southeast Asia and the Australia-New Guinea region, stone tools were accompanied by tool production using marine shell as a raw material. These artefacts had not been recognised before, and further study and comparison with stone tools revealed that the shell tools were both more complex in their production, and diverse in their forms. The sticking point was that there was no research detailing how different types of shell fracture, and how people could manipulate this to make shell tools. This lack of information meant shell tools were hard to distinguish from ordinary bits of trampled, discarded shells from meals. Drawing on techniques used in engineering to assess fracture patterns in different types of shell, and conducting experiments to see

how different types of shell wear and degrade through use as tools, and over time buried in archaeological sites, A/Professor Szabó and a team of honours and PhD students, known as Team Shell, began to build a picture of the production and use of shell tools in our region. They used this information to analyse archaeological shell assemblages from sites in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia dating back to the last Ice Age, finding that shell tools are much more common and varied than previously thought, and sometimes outnumber stone tools at the same sites. Most importantly, though, the new analytical methods to identify and interpret shell artefacts that Team Shell developed are being picked up around the world. Research into archaeological shell artefacts is exploding, and UOW’s Team Shell took the first fundamental steps that prompted much of this activity. Research team: Associate Professor Katherine Szabó, PhD students Brent Koppel, Claire Perrette, Annette Oertle (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UOW), Katherine Woo (University of Sydney, PhD co-supervised by A/Professor Szabó), Erica Weston (BArch Hons La Trobe, co-supervised by A/Professor Szabó)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

INNOVATIVE RADIATION DETECTORS MORE EFFICIENT TREATMENT AND BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR CANCER PATIENTS

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UOW researchers at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP) are at the forefront of the development of a suite of innovative radiation detectors for quality assurance in radiation therapy which are already benefitting cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment. Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld with his CMRP team is also leading the development of instruments for ionizing radiation hazard monitoring that provide protection for those professionally associated with radiation exposure, such as pilots, radiologists, frequent flyers and scientists. Invented and implemented in clinical and research practice over the past 20 years, the radiation detectors and medical devices for measurement of the radiation dose received by the human body (dosimetry) developed at CMRP include MOSkin, Dose Magnifying Glass, Magic Plate, BrachyView, Single Strip Detectors, Dual Scintillator and Detector, PET imaging detection modules, and the landmark solid state Microdosimeter, which measures radiation effects at a cellular level.

Six patents have been granted for the detector system over the last five years in the USA, Canada, China, and Europe. They are clinically implemented at radiation oncology departments in Australia, USA, Europe, and Asia. As a testament to the quality of R&D undertaken at the CMRP, the team continues to secure national and international funding to advance their research and develop and commercialise their medical devices. They also maintain strong partnerships and collaborations with leading international radiation oncology and space institutions. The social and economic impacts of the technologies are far-reaching.They give unrivalled confidence in accuracy of dose delivery in radiation therapy, increasing the number of patients that can be treated and therefore reducing waiting lists. They have also improved clinical outcomes of radiation therapy through accurate radiation dose delivery to cancer patients, which reduces side effects and improves patient longevity and quality of life.

Research team: Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld, Associate Professor Michael Lerch, Professor Peter Metcalfe, Dr Marco Petasecca, Dr Susanna Guatelli, Dr Dean Cutajar, Dr Mitra Safavi-Naeini, Dr Yujin Qi, Dr Enbang Li, Dr Moeava Tehei, Dr Linh Tran, Dr Elise Pogson, Dr Michael Weaver, Dr George Takacs (Centre for Medical Radiation Physics, UOW) collaborating with the radiation oncology departments at Illawarra Cancer Care Centre, St George Cancer Care Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Liverpool Hospital and the Ingham Institute

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

EXTRACTING PHOSPHORUS FROM WASTEWATER REDUCING THE COST AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CAPTURING PHOSPHOROUS FROM WASTEWATER

Mineral phosphorus is an increasingly scarce natural commodity valued in agriculture as a fertiliser. A UOW team is meeting the challenge posed by the shortage of phosphorus by developing an efficient method for extracting phosphorus from wastewater, with the additional benefit of delivering clean water.

side to the ‘draw’ solution, increasing the concentration of phosphorus and ammonium in the wastewater. To enhance struvite recovery, the usual sodium chloride (NaCl) draw solution is replaced with one of magnesium chloride (MgCl2), creating a more favourable environment for struvite precipitation.

Traditional methods for capturing phosphorus from wastewater involve using chemicals to precipitate a mineral called struvite from the water. Currently however, extracting it is a costly process.

In the second part of the membrane system, where freshwater is recovered, the draw solution is heated and introduced into a cell with a microporous, hydrophobic membrane. Water vapor passes through to the cooler side of the membrane and condenses. This distillation process removes freshwater from the MgCl2 solution, effectively renewing the draw solution for continuous operation of the two-part system.

A team from the UOW School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, led by Professor Long Nghiem, are working to solve the cost of this process by reducing the amount of chemicals required to remove struvite from wastewater using an osmosis-distillation method. Their prototype system involves a two-sided cell divided by a semipermeable membrane, with concentrated wastewater on one side, and a highly concentrated salt ‘draw’ solution on the other. Osmosis drives water across the membrane from the more dilute wastewater

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The forward osmosis and distillation process requires less than one-sixtieth of the MgCl2 and one-fifteenth of the NaOH compared with the current conventional method. Research team: Professor Long Nghiem (pictured), PhD student Ming Xie (Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, UOW), Professor Will Price (Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, UOW), Professor Menachem Elimelech (Yale University, USA)

EATING FOR HEALTH EVIDENCE FOR WHOLE FOODS PREVENTING DISEASE

Our diet – the variety of foods we eat and the chemical units, or nutrients, that those foods contain – provide the building blocks for our bones and muscle, the mechanics of oxygen delivery to our cells, and the energy needed to think and move. Not getting the right dietary balance leads to substantial burdens on morbidity, premature mortality, and medical cost to the community. While much of nutrition research has been conducted on nutrients in isolation, research undertaken by UOW’s Professor Linda Tapsell AM, with academic and clinical collaborators, has helped lead a new global research effort to systematically demonstrate that whole foods and dietary patterns themselves are linked to health and disease prevention. In doing so, Professor Tapsell aims to provide evidence that informs the development of dietary recommendations. Her research raises questions on the safety and efficacy of taking vitamin and

mineral supplements without strong supporting evidence. For the last 20 years, Professor Tapsell has led clinical trials studying effects of single nutrients such as omega 3 fatty acids, through to whole foods such as fish, oats and nuts, and then to whole dietary patterns, such as those that emerge from following dietary guidelines. The research demonstrates that although Randomised Controlled Trials enable the highest level of evidence for translation to practice, these studies must consider the nutrient-food-diet interface. Her many studies have led to well cited reviews on this topic with collaborators across the globe, and led to Professor Tapsell providing expert advice to working groups on the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Department of Health and Ageing’s Advisory Committee of the review of Nutrient Reference Values.

Research team: Professor Linda Tapsell, Dr Allison Humphries, Dr Yasmine Probst, Dr Elizabeth Neale, Dr Anne McMahon, A/Prof Eleanor Beck, Dr Gregory Peoples, Professor Dennis Taaffe, Ms Kate Battocchio, Ms Rebecca Thorne, Ms Rhoda Ndanuko, Ms Cinthya Wibisono, Ms Stacey Fuller, Associate Professor Karen Charlton, Professor Alison Jones (Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, UOW), A/Professor Marjika Batterham, Professor David Steel, Dr Walt Davis (Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, UOW), Professor Maureen Lonergan, Professor Jan Potter, Dr Marianna Milosalvjevic (Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District), Professor Frank Deane, Dr Joanna Russell, Dr Xiaoqi Feng (Faculty of Social Sciences, UOW), Professor Joseph Ciarrocchi (UWS)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

RESPONDING TO CLIMATE EXTREMES UNDERSTANDING PAST WET AND DRY WEATHER CYCLES FACILITATES BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE AND POPULATION PLANNING FOR FUTURE CLIMATE CHALLENGES

Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern climate oscillates between extremes, with periods of prolonged drought followed by devastating floods. These extremes are a fundamental component of the current Australian biophysical landscape and appear to be critical in global-scale processes such as carbon cycling. But how long has the Australian landscape been characterised by such extremes? What drives the wet and dry boom and bust cycles, when and how often do they occur and what will the future hold?

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THE BIG WET

THE BIG DRY

Using a range of geochronological techniques such as dating individual grains of quartz and experimental uranium-series techniques, Dr Tim Cohen and colleagues from UOW and ANSTO, as well as other international universities, are investigating Australia’s past wet cycles.

Understanding drought, which is marked by an absence of physical and biological activity and therefore leaves little evidence in the landscape, is the focus of research by UOW’s colleagues from the University of Queensland and Trinity College, Dublin.

By applying the techniques to environmental proxies that unequivocally tell us when it was wet, this research is contributing to our understanding of what drives Australia’s climate by providing a clear picture as to how Australia’s landscape has responded to such variability in the past.

There is one activity likely to increase during dry periods: dust storms. These still leave little sign over most of the landscape because even very large events result in extremely thin deposits, albeit over large areas, and these are quickly remobilised by water transport. However, some environments, such as ice fields and rainfall fed peat swamps, do provide records of dust transport throughout time. From these sites, records of past dust activity can be reconstructed, providing insight into past drought events.

Dr Cohen’s research recently identified a major hydrological transformation at the time humans arrived in Australia and some of the last megafauna became extinct. The research is also providing a reliable means of determining how often in the last two millennia continental-scale wet phases occurred, thus providing information about the frequency of intervening dry periods. By capturing data on environmental change from key locations on the Australian continent over the last glacial cycle and integrating this with emerging geochemical techniques, this work is providing an unprecedented picture of how rapidly the Australian landscape has responded to climate variability and is informing us about potential future pathways for adaptation. Research team: Dr Tim Cohen, Professor Gerald Nanson, Associate Professor Brian Jones, Dr Sam Marx, Dr Tony Dosseto (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UOW), Dr David Fink, Dr Toshi Fujioka (ANSTO), Dr John Jansen (University of Potsdam, Germany), Dr Steve Wells (Desert Research Institute), Dr Mike Meyer, Dr Luke Gliganic (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

As well as uncovering information about past dust storms, the research team have been establishing geochemical ‘fingerprints’ of different dust source areas, allowing the region from where dust was sourced to be identified. This provides the ability to ‘track’ past changes in aridity across Australia in response to changing climate patterns. This research is providing insights into the frequency and drivers of drought events in Australia, and is contributing information towards water management decisions in the MurrayDarling Basin. Research team: Dr Sam Marx (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UOW), Professor Hamish McGowan (University of Queensland), Professor Balz Kamber (Trinity College, Dublin)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

SOFT OPTIONS FOR HARD CLIMATE CHANGE DECISIONS CHEAPER, MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON COASTAL COMMUNITIES

Climate change will invoke a new set of challenges for coastal living in the 21st Century, the most significant of which are the effects of sea-level rise and altered storm frequency. There are solutions available for limiting the effects of climate change on coastal dwelling; seawalls can buffer the erosive effects of waves, levees can restrain floodwaters, and barriers can control tidal incursion. These approaches are collectively termed ‘hard engineering’ as they largely use hard surfaces to buffer any impacts. Engineering actions that harness the inherent capacity of coastal ecosystems to adapt to environmental change are collectively termed ‘soft engineering’, and harness the inherent adaptive capacity that coastal ecosystems provide. The capacity of coastal ecosystems to adapt to sea-level rise and buffer the effects of storms on coastlines is the focus of research by Dr Kerrylee

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Rogers. Unlike hard adaptation options, coastal ecosystems provide ongoing additional benefits to society, such as carbon sequestration and fish habitat, which have a real and measurable economic value. By understanding the intrinsic relationship between sea level and the benefits provided by coastal ecosystems, Dr Rogers and her research team are finding that in some situations where coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, are allowed to adapt naturally to sea-level rise by increasing extent across coastal floodplains, the additional benefits provided by these ecosystems will be compounded. Research team: Dr Kerrylee Rogers, Professor Colin Woodroffe, Dr Junjie Deng, Professor Clive Schofield, Professor Robin Warner, Associate Professor Mary Kaidonis, Dr Olivia Dunn and three PhD candidates Kirti Lal, Chris Owers, Carolyn Ewers and three Honours students (UOW), ANTSO, Macquarie University, University of Canberra, University of Queensland, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Local Lands Service, NSW Fisheries

PALLIATIVE CARE OUTCOMES COLLABORATION PROVIDING EVIDENCE FOR SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS FOR BETTER PALLIATIVE CARE

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is a world-leading quality improvement initiative that shows services what they are doing well - and what they could do better. PCOC is based at UOW’s Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI), and is funded by the Australian Government.

tested, ideally within three days. By 2013, 80 per cent of participating services were able to resolve crisis situations quickly for patients in hospital, compared with 62 per cent in 2011, and 70 per cent achieved this benchmark for patients living in the community, compared to 53 per cent in 2011.

Around 115 services voluntarily measure patient outcomes using the PCOC standardised tools. AHSRI researchers compile and analyse the data. Every six months, PCOC staff visit each service and report their outcomes, comparing them with other similar services and highlighting areas for improvement. Representatives from the services gather at workshops to share this information and discuss ideas for changing practices to improve specific outcomes.

PCOC has also helped guide services in their efforts to reduce patients’ physical symptoms and psychological distress. Data from 30 services that took part in PCOC continuously between January 2009 and December 2011 demonstrate statistically significant reductions in all patientand clinician-reported symptoms (except pain) during this period.

Real improvements to service provision have resulted from the work of PCOC. One measure of quality is how quickly services respond when patients’ symptoms change or worsen. When this happens, a new plan of care is created and

Research team: Professor Kathy Eagar, Linda Foskett (Australian Health Services Research Institute, UOW), Professor David Currow (Flinders University), Professor Patsy Yates, Clare Christiansen, Lynda Carnew (Queensland University of Technology), A/Professor Claire Johnson, Karen Quinsey, Sabina Clapham, Sam Allingham, Alanna Holloway, Sonia Bird, Jane Connolly, Gaye Bishop, Felicity Burns, Tanya Pidgeon (University of Western Australia), Janet Taylor (Flinders University)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

CHEAPER STAINLESS STEEL IMPROVING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF FERRITIC STAINLESS STEELS

Used widely in everyday applications such as mufflers, exhaust systems and kitchen counters and sinks, ferritic stainless steels (FSSs) are valued for their excellent resistance to corrosion and low cost compared to other stainless steel products. However, problems remain in the production of FSSs, in particular, the ‘sticking’ that occurs in the hot rolling process due to the lack of oxide scale protection. Severe sticking results in fragments of rolled materials getting stuck to the work roll surface and deteriorates the surface quality of the steel strips produced Those with serious defects cannot then be used directly in the manufacturing of the final FSSs product. To rectify damaged strips, manual polishing and finishing must be carried out to smooth the strip surface, which increases production costs and can cause environmental and health problems. In a collaboration with China’s largest steel company Baosteel, researchers from the UOW Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, including Professor Zhengyi Jiang, are working

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to solve the impact of ‘sticking’ in the hot rolling process. Research has included investigating the kinetics of oxide scale growth on FSSs in humid environments, oxide scale formation in the reheating furnace and during hot rolling passes and roles of extreme pressure (EP) agent additive in lubricant in hot rolling of stainless steels. It has led to the development of control strategies to optimise reheating temperature before rolling, as well as the application of a specially developed, novel EP agent additive lubricant in the hot rolling process. These innovations have been applied on Baosteel’s stainless steel production line, and defect-free FSS products have been successfully produced. This has had economic benefits for FSSs manufacturers, as well as reducing the impact of remediating damaged strips on the environment and on workers’ health. Research team: Professor Zhengyi Jiang, Dr Jingwei Zhao, Dr Dongbin Wei, Xiawei Cheng, Liang Hao, Bob de Jong (School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, UOW), Vice President Dr Laizhu Jiang and research engineers Dr Suzhen Luo, Jianguo Peng, Ming Luo, Li Ma (Baosteel Research Institute)

CREATING A SLOWMATION ENGAGEMENT IN SCIENCE LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION TO ENCOURAGE THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

A new way to learn and communicate science developed at UOW is encouraging university and school students to create digital media to explain science knowledge. Called Slowmation (abbreviated from “Slow Animation”), the process is a simplified way for students to make a stop-motion animation accompanied by a narration to represent the content. UOW’s Professor Garry Hoban developed Slowmation as a novel way for students to learn science to complement the usual tasks of writing exams, lab reports, and providing presentations. Slowmation fosters creativity with students making models out of everyday materials such as cardboard, paper, plastic models and plasticine, which are laid down flat on a table or the floor,

and moved manually. Students take still images using their own personal technology to capture the movements. They then use free movie making software setting the animation speed at two frames per second providing slow moving images so that the science concepts can be narrated. A significant output of this research is the development of a new theory for learning that underpins the process of making a Slowmation. Hoban and colleague Dr Wendy Nielsen call it a ‘cumulative semiotic progression’ whereby students create a sequence of representations, culminating in the narrated animation, and build knowledge at the same time. Research team: Professor Garry Hoban, Dr Wendy Nielsen (School of Education, UOW), University of British Columbia, Monash University

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

EVERYDAY ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES CREATING INEXPENSIVE ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES FOR PROSTHETIC LIMBS, HEART ASSISTED DEVICES AND POST-CANCER TREATMENT THERAPIES

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In 2014, the announcement in the prestigious journal Science that UOW researchers had used ordinary, inexpensive polymer fibres, like fishing line and sewing thread, to make artificial muscles, generated great interest around the world. The discovery, made by the team at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) and their collaborators, is a major breakthrough in artificial muscle technology. The everyday polymer fibres they used to create their artificial muscles out-performed all others, and are 1000 times cheaper than the closest commerciallyavailable alternative. The discovery of the fishing line artificial muscles can be linked directly to the 2008 PhD research of Dr Javad Foroughi at IPRI. Dr Foroughi’s observation of ‘torsional actuation’ in carbon nanotube yarns was published in Science in 2011 and this work led directly to two subsequent Science papers, including the announcement of the artificial muscles made from everyday fibres.

The breakthrough has inspired a huge following of artificial muscle ‘hobbyists’. Because these artificial muscles can be made by almost anyone, there are dozens of YouTube videos showing ordinary people making and using these muscles. Commercial applications of these artificial muscles are being pursued, including in a prototype Lymph Sleeve - a wearable garment for relieving the swelling of arms due to breast cancer related lymphoedema - developed in conjunction with UOW’s Biomechanics Research Laboratory. This work is being financially supported by a major multinational company, and two early career researchers Dr Sheridan Gho and Michael Weaver were the winners of the inaugural NSW-QB3 Rosenman Institute Fellowship to explore medical technology commercialisation.

Research team: Professor Geoffrey Spinks (pictured, centre), Dr Javad Foroughi (pictured, right), Dr Sina Naficy (pictured, left), Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace (Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, UOW), Professor Julie Steele (Biomechanics Research Laboratory, UOW), Professor Ray Baughman (University of Texas, USA), Professor Seon Jeong Kim (Hanyang University, South Korea), Professor John Madden (University of British Columbia, Canada)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

EXTRACELLULAR PROTEOSTASIS A NEW FIELD OF RESEARCH OPENING UP AVENUES FOR UNDERSTANDING, AND TREATING AGE-RELATED DISEASES

Understanding the biological process of ageing, and age-related diseases, is critical to the development of therapies which may treat – or even cure – conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

A loss of the ability to control these sticky proteins has been strongly implicated in underlying a variety of serious human diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Type II diabetes, and the ageing process itself.

Professor Mark Wilson’s research group, with help from colleagues at the UOW Proteostasis and Disease Research Centre, are opening up a new field of research – extracellular proteostasis – that is providing crucial new information about our knowledge of ageing and disease.

The quality of extracellular proteostasis research at UOW received global recognition via an invited review by Professor Wilson in the prestigious Annual Review of Biochemistry journal in 2013.

Extracellular proteostasis is the study of the biological processes that sense and regulate damaged proteins in body fluids like blood plasma and the cerebrospinal fluid. Proteins are important biological molecules that must keep a normal (native) shape in order to function correctly, but everyday ‘wear and tear’ can cause them to lose their shape over time. When this happens they become ‘sticky’ and can form toxic aggregates, or lumps, that can kill brain cells and damage the body in a variety of ways.

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Previous work by Professor Wilson’s group led to the world-first discovery of special molecules, called extracellular chaperones, in body fluids that act to shield us from the toxicity of damaged proteins and help clear them from the body. This finding is the basis of a UOW project to ‘drug’ a chaperone in blood to combat diseases. Research team: Professor Mark Wilson and research students (School of Biological Sciences and Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, UOW), Members of the Proteostasis & Disease Research Centre, UOW and Professor Chris Dobson (University of Cambridge)

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MAPPING GLOBAL CO2: A SPATIAL STATISTICAL APPROACH DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MODEL FOR BETTER ESTIMATES OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2

Knowing where CO2 is emitted (sources) and where it is absorbed (sinks) is a challenge facing scientists and policymakers across the globe. Mapping these CO2 sources and sinks, or fluxes, in a statistically optimal manner and at a high geographical resolution, will improve our understanding of the extent of CO2 emissions caused by humans and its effect on our climate. Currently, our knowledge is limited by the lack of reliable globally distributed CO2 measurements that would allow estimation of near-surface CO2 sources and sinks. These estimates need to be sufficiently localised to allow carbon-cycle scientists to infer where the cycling of CO2 occurs over different seasons. Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie is working on a spatial statistical model to estimate CO2 in atmospheric columns at any location on the globe, followed by an estimate of nearsurface fluxes and a statistical analysis of the uncertainties associated with these estimates.

The uncertainties are fundamental to making probabilistic scientific inference on the nearsurface CO2 sources and sinks. This work is closely tied to the launch in July 2014 of NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite, which is yielding unprecedented atmospheric-column CO2 measurements in terms of both high geographic resolution and data volume. Providing a solution for the mapping of nearsurface CO2 fluxes within a global measurement and transport model will lead to a better grasp of the impact carbon dioxide emissions have on our climate and environment. It also has significance for controlling atmospheric CO2 through international carbon treaties and markets for carbon trading. Research team: Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie, Dr Andrew Zammit Mangion, Dr Sandy Burden, Mr Clint Shumack (National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia, UOW), Dr Amy Braverman, Dr Hai Nguyen (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

INNOVATIVE ENERGY STORAGE

HIGH PERFORMANCE LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES Demand for powerful, long-life and low-cost energy sources for new technology is driving research in the field of energy storage to innovative heights. At UOW, the Energy Storage Materials Research Group is developing materials and technologies for a new generation of energy storage devices that have high energy density, long life cycle, and are low in cost. The team, led by Distinguished Professor Hua Kun Liu, has developed numerous advanced materials and novel technologies for use in lithium batteries, supercapacitators, fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and in hybrid electric vehicles and portable technology devices.

The teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major contributions include research that has developed a number of strategies to enhance the electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are used across portable electronics such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets, and are increasingly used in transport applications such as hybrid cars. The contribution of the energy storage group to lithium-ion battery research is demonstrated by their track record of publishing in high-impact, refereed international journals with substantial citation rate. They also collaborate with a number of national and international industrial organisations. Research team: Distinguished Professor Hua Kun Liuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Energy Storage Materials Research Group, UOW

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SMART BATTERY MANAGEMENT FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES The race for alternative fuel and green technologies is speeding up worldwide, with the electric drive system for cars, trucks and other transport, a main focus. At the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, the Institute of Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) has been undertaking electric vehicle research since 2013. Led by Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou and Dr Khay Wai See, the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core research focus is on the development of a system for complete, in-vehicle energy monitoring and management. This system encompasses the latest sensing

technology, offering superb accuracy and sensitivity for effectively and appropriately monitoring large battery packs. A major development for the team was the retrofitting of a standard passenger vehicle to be fully battery-powered. This prototype provides an ongoing research platform for further development and refining of state-of-the-art battery monitoring technology for future electric vehicles. Research team: Dr Khay Wai See (pictured, left), Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou (Institute of Superconducting and Electronic Materials, UOW), Valley Longwall International (Australia), Redarc Electronics (Australia), Beijing Institute of Technology (China)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

ANALYTICALLY PRICING AMERICAN OPTIONS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR SOLVING A LONG-STANDING PROBLEM IN FINANCIAL MATHEMATICS

Finding an analytical solution to a long-standing problem in financial mathematics – the pricing of American options under the Black-Scholes model – was for many years thought to be almost impossible. Yet the problem was solved, and announced in 2006 in the international journal Quantitative Finance by UOW mathematician Professor Song-Ping Zhu, after a long and rigorous review process. The landmark discovery of a solution in infinite series form with each term of the solution being ‘constructed’ recursively for this notoriously difficult problem brought attention to the quality of mathematical research underway at UOW, which endures today. Black and Scholes’ celebrated 1973 paper established a pricing framework for financial derivatives, and presented an explicit formula for European options. A much more difficult problem, however, was to find an analytical solution for the price of American options. The fundamental difficulty in pricing American options mathematically lies in the fact that it is a highly nonlinear moving boundary problem, while pricing any Europeanstyle options remains a linear problem.

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Prior to Professor Zhu’s breakthrough, researchers believed that analytical solutions in any form do not exit; market practitioners always resorted to numerical solutions. Many researchers even openly claimed that finding an analytical answer was an impossible task. The publication of Professor Zhu’s solution had at least two major impacts in financial mathematics research. Firstly, it demonstrated that it was possible to find an analytic explicit solution for the price of American options, and opened up the possibility of other forms of solution as well. Secondly, the solution can be used as a benchmark for other numerical solutions to validate numerical accuracy before their adoption by market practitioners. More significantly, Professor Zhu has continued his high quality research in the field of financial mathematics, resulting in a number of publications in high quality journals, with one of his recent papers published by Mathematical Finance, the top international journal for financial mathematics. Research team: Professor Song-Ping Zhu (Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, UOW)

THE RECOVERY CAMP AN EMPOWERING THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE WITH A LIVED EXPERIENCE OF SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS.

The Recovery Camp is an Australian-first therapeutic recreation program for people with a lived experience of severe mental illness. For future health professionals, including nursing, psychology, dietetics, and exercise physiology students who also participate in Recovery Camp, it is an immersive, experiential, clinical learning experience that focuses on strengths, not illness. The Recovery Camp provides a means for participants to challenge themselves in a safe environment, connect with others, and discover their self-worth. Occurring over five days, all participants are involved in a structured program that includes both challenging and rejuvenating experiences, such as an 18-metre giant swing, flying fox, archery, tai chi, and art. The Recovery Camp is significant and innovative as it is far removed from existing approaches surrounding mental health education and intervention in Australia. It places the consumer in the driving seat to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;teachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; students from a lived

experience perspective. Students also get to see people with a mental illness when they are functioning well within the community. Further, Recovery Camp provides this innovative and invaluable clinical placement opportunity for students, where there is otherwise a paucity of mental health clinical placements. Research to date suggests Recovery Camp increases self-efficacy and self-determination, whilst decreasing social isolation among participants with a mental illness. Future health professionals are empowered to learn translational clinical skills, bolstering their ability to provide quality health care. Subsequently, stigmatising attitudes are decreased and mental health clinical confidence is boosted. Research team: Professor Lorna Moxham, Dr Susan Sumskis, Renee Brighton, Chris Patterson (School of Nursing, UOW), Dr Dana Perlman (School of Education, UOW), Ellie Taylor (Global Challenges, UOW), Dr Shane Pegg (University of Queensland)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

CONTROLLING INTERNET CONTENT INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF FICTIONAL CHILD CHARACTERS ON YOUNG PEOPLE

Between 2010 and 2012, the Australian government entertained the idea of installing an ISP-level filter to stop Australians from accessing inappropriate material over the internet, particularly sexualised representations of minors. The proposal failed for several reasons.

last decade, with a range of arguments being put forward by artists, academics, feminist groups, citizens’ rights organisations and legal professionals, cautioning against the imposition of government controls on the content of popular culture.

Research, however, suggests that blocking is not the most effective way to deal with contentious online content. Rather, those who produce and consume cultural representations on the internet have the capacity to form their own ethical communities and regulate content among their specific ‘communities of use’, and this includes young people themselves who can be active and engaged ‘digital citizens’.

However, due to Australian legislation that prohibits the positioning even of fictional child characters in a violent or sexual context, some of this material is illegal to view here.

How this communal-regulation plays out among young fans who produce and consume cultural material deriving from or inspired by Japan, in particular manga (comic books) and anime (animation) involving potentially problematic representations of fictional child characters, is the focus of research by Professor Mark McLelland and a team of postgraduate researchers at UOW. In Japan, the depiction of imaginary ‘nonexistent youth’ (hijitsuzai seishonen) has been a topic of intense media scrutiny for at least the

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Drawing on arguments from the Japanese public sphere, and engaging with the voices of young fans themselves, Professor McLelland and his team are asking what it is, exactly, we are trying to protect young people from through prohibiting their engagement with online fictional worlds that deal with the kinds of real-life problems many young people encounter in the process of growing up. Findings from the project are already raising questions about the growing disconnect between the manner in which many adults imagine childhood and the lived realities of young people’s lives in today’s hyper-mediated world. Research team: Professor Mark McLelland (Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, UOW)

NEW CHEMOTHERAPY DRUG NEW FORMULATION CHEMOTHERAPY DRUG FOR BOWEL CANCER PATIENTS THAT IMPROVES TREATMENT OUTCOMES

While chemotherapy options have grown over the last few decades, 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) and Leucovorin (LV) are cornerstone drugs still used at the core of many treatment regimens for patients diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer. However, these treatments can cause numerous adverse events, including vein irritation, catheter blockage and sepsis. These side effects lead to poor patient outcomes via unacceptable levels of treatment interruption and discontinuation. A new chemotherapy drug developed at UOW, Deflexifol, overcomes these problems. Deflexifol is a reformulation of 5FU and LV designed to reduce side effects and patient discomfort, and simplify administration while maintaining efficacy.

It allows for an effective chemotherapeutic regimen that patients can tolerate over repeated treatment cycles, as well as avoiding the need for further interventions to treat these side effects. A phase 1 clinical trial of Deflexifol is currently being conducted in cancer patients in the Illawarra and south-west Sydney, providing front line access to local residents to this locally developed new treatment. Developed by UOW researchers with expertise in medicinal chemistry and cancer biology, partnered with a local oncologist, the team also engaged experts in clinical trials, drug regulation, and commercialisation to realise the dream of taking a cancer drug formulation developed in the laboratory to one that treats patients.

Research team: Professor Marie Ranson (pictured, right), Emeritus Professor John Bremner (School of Chemistry, UOW), Professor Phil Clingan (pictured, left), Dr Tamantha Stutchbury, Dr Gavin Dixon, Dr Allan Gamble, Dr Julie Locke (UOW), FivePhusion Pty Ltd, Professor Paul DeSouza (University of Western Sydney), Dr Jeremy Chrisp

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

CONTINENTAL SHIFT PARADIGM SHIFTS IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF CONTINENTS HAVE CONTEMPORARY IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF CLIMATE RECORDS, AND THE FUTURE OF THE RESOURCE SECTOR

WANDERING CONTINENTS BACK TO THE DAWN OF TIME Research led by UOW’s Professor Allen Nutman pushes the first recognised extensive continent back to the very start of the geological record – with evidence of a single continent ‘Itsaqia‘ (named by the research team) that formed 3600 million years ago. This finding, published in 2015 in the American Journal of Science, is a stunning example of the geological principle ‘uniformitarianism’: natural processes that we see operating on Earth today resemble those operating in Earth’s Deep Time. The evidence and concept of this earliest continent grew out of decades of research by Professor Nutman and colleagues at ANU and the United Kingdom. The history of all the oldest fragments of Earth’s crust had to be appraised and compared – meaning large amounts of time spent on field work in localities scattered around the globe, including Greenland, Canada and China, coupled with substantial laboratory

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studies ascertaining the absolute ages of Earth’s most ancient rocks by uranium-lead isotopic dating of zircons, extracted from these rocks. This work pieced together evidence that the Itsaqia had formed by 3600 million years ago, but soon after started to split apart. The research team are now setting their sights on what implications Itsaqia has for the most ancient climate. Major climate events can be related to the formation and destruction of ancient supercontinents: Earth’s most severe ice ages were triggered by global cooling when the atmosphere-warming gas CO2 reduced in concentration when reacting with the large exposed land surfaces of supercontinents. The question to be addressed then, is this: Did Itsaqia trigger Earth’s first ice age? Research team: Professor Allen Nutman (School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, UOW) (pictured), Dr Vickie Bennett (ANU), Dr Clark Friend (United Kingdom)

REVEALING THE MECHANISMS OF CONTINENTAL GROWTH Convergent margins are the engine room of planet Earth; rejuvenating Earth’s surface via continued uplift and erosion creating dynamic landscapes that are the cornerstone of diversity of life. Understanding the geological past of convergent margins has implications for both the resources sector – they are responsible for the formation of most of the world’s mineral and energy resources – and for our understanding of Earth’s climate. Continental growth patterns at convergent margins are characterised by distinct ‘quantum collision’ events interspersed with more classical steady-state accretion, according to research by UOW’s Dr Sol Buckman, who uses traditional geological mapping combined with sophisticated radiometric dating techniques from mountains in Australia and across the globe to study continental growth. The information Dr Buckman has revealed is incompatible with current tectonic models,

which have largely remained unchanged and unchallenged since the advent of the plate tectonic revolution in the 1970s. Further research by Dr Buckman and Professor Allen Nutman has also revealed a completely new observation of particular mineral inclusions in zircons, which may be utilised in mineral exploration. The ‘quantum tectonic’ model co-authored by Dr Buckman in 2012 also has important implications for the exploration of copper and gold deposits. It is paradigm shifts in geological thinking and new exploration methods like these that ‘see’ deeper into the Earth, which are crucial to the future of resource exploration and exploitation in years to come. Research team: Dr Solomon Buckman, A/Professor Allen Nutman, many PhD and honours students (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UOW), Jonathan Aitchison (University of Queensland), Professor Yan Zhen (Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Science, Beijing)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

MEMBRANE PACEMAKER THEORY NEW THEORY EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT, BUT DISTINCTIVE, MAXIMUM LIFE SPANS OF DIFFERENT SPECIES

A research collaboration centred on investigating the reason for differences in the process of ageing between species that began over 30 years ago continues to build understanding of health and longevity and inspire researchers today. In 1979, Tony Hulbert and his Honours student, Paul Else, wanted to discover processes responsible for very different rates of energy use by animals and later, their different rates of ageing. Their research compared reptiles, from lizards to crocodiles, and mammals, from mice to cows, as examples of low and high energy systems. Later, it examined the body-size related variation in the pace of metabolism and duration of life of different species. It involved detailed study of the powerhouses of the cell (mitochondria) as well as events occurring across the membranes of cells. A key finding was that high-energy animals, such as mammals, had ‘leakier’ cells and ‘faster’

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membrane pumps. These differences were associated with more polyunsaturated fats in the membranes of ‘high-energy’ animals. In a key publication in 1999, their findings were synthesised into a theory named the ‘membrane pacemaker theory’. This theory, the researchers believed, could also explain the vastly different but distinctive maximum lifespans of different species, and became a major focus of their research. These long-term studies have produced work now cited in key international textbooks, garnered around 3000 scientific citations, and featured across popular science media. They also have significant implications for the contemporary study of several diet-related modern diseases. Research team: Professor Paul Else, Professorial Fellow Tony Hulbert, plus several PhD and Honours students (Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, UOW)

GELDOM: CLOSEST TO SKIN USING TOUGH HYDROGELS TO CREATE A CONDOM THAT FEELS BETTER, ENCOURAGING USE TO PREVENT STDS AND ASSIST FAMILY PLANNING

With the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, rising in many places around the world, a team at UOW has taken up the challenge of creating a new condom designed to excite and motivate use.

Aside from the benefits a better feeling condom has for the general population, at its core the GELdom project aims to grow condom use to stem the rate of STDs transmission and provide an effective solution for family planning.

Dr Robert Gorkin and his team at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) are developing the new condom using a class of materials known as hydrogels. Often described as soft, squishy and wet, they consist mainly of water held together by molecular chains called polymers and can be designed to feel like skin.

This challenge is being tackled by utilising design innovation methods to translate the needs and desires of the public into product solutions that can be realistically produced. It is a collaborative process that brings together design strategy, human-centered research and social innovation principles.

Recently, new tough hydrogels that have mechanical properties similar to rubber â&#x20AC;&#x201D; able to stretch over 1000 times their initial size â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have been developed. Hydrogels can also be engineered to be effective biological barriers. It is these specially developed materials that are being used to create the hydrogel condom.

Research team: Dr Robert Gorkin (pictured, left), Dr Sina Naficy (pictured, right), Professor Geoff Spinks, Dr Hai Xin (Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, UOW), Dr Jason McArthur, Dr Simon Cook, Alysa Carter (Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, UOW), Dr Christopher Magee (Centre for Health Initiatives, UOW), Dr Gianni Genda, Bridgette Engeler Newbury (Centre for Design Innovation, Swinburne University), Professor Simon Moulton (Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University), Professor Scott ThompsonWhiteside, Professor Don Iverson (Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

GREAT AT GRAPHENE ADVANCING FABRICATION METHODS FOR THE NEXT SUPER MATERIAL: GRAPHENE

Graphene is a remarkable material: it is extremely light and strong, it can confer that strength to other materials and has outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity. It offers new and exciting developments in industries as diverse as energy storage, data storage, solar technology and transportation, and research and investment in developing graphene is booming. A team at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, ACES led by Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace, is focused on improving the simplicity and precision of graphene processing methods. The teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watershed moment was the global recognition generated by a 2008 paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, outlining a novel graphene processing technique, which was subsequently patented.

Another breakthrough occurred with the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discovery of the liquid crystalline behaviour of graphene oxide, a precursor to graphene. Liquid crystalline graphene oxide allows the fabrication of new graphene-based architectures using industrially scalable techniques such as fibre spinning (wet-spinning and electrospinning), printing (ink-jet, extrusion and 3D) and coating (roll-to-roll). Understanding graphene chemistries has enabled processing and fabrication techniques developed by the ACES team to fast-track research into its application in a number of fields, including energy generation and storage, and medical bionics. The team has already generated 56 publications, which have attracted over 5364 citations.

Research team: Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace, Professor David Officer, Dr Sanjeev Gambhir, Dr Rouhollah Ali Jalili, Sepidar Sayyar, Associate Professor Joselito Razal (ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science), Professor Dan Li (Monash University), Professor Richard Kaner (UCLA, USA), Professor Ray Baughman (University of Texas at Dallas, USA), Professor Seon Jeong Kim (Hanyang University, Korea)

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PETAJAKARTA.ORG SOCIAL DATA MAPPED IN REAL TIME HELPING TO SAVE LIVES AND INFORM EMERGENCY SERVICES DURING EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

A UOW crowd-sourcing urban data collection project – PetaJakarta.org – that uses social media to promote the resilience of cities to extreme weather events and to long-term infrastructure transformation as a process of climate adaptation is having a huge impact on how Jakarta’s citizens and government agencies prepare for and respond to severe monsoonal flooding. Innovative open source software CogniCity, developed by the SMART Infrastructure Facility at UOW, allows for information on Jakarta’s flooding to be collected and disseminated by community members through their locationenabled mobile devices. This crowd-sourced

information is then displayed on a real-time web-based map at PetaJakarta.org, enabling the citizens of Jakarta to see for the first time a citywide situational overview of seasonal flooding. PetaJakarta.org is also used by the Government of Jakarta and the Emergency Management Agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta) as a real-time indicator of flood activity, improving knowledge about, and response to, extreme flood events. The PetaJakarta.org project is a world-first collaboration, led by the SMART Infrastructure Facility, in partnership with BPBD DKI and Twitter, Inc. The project marks Twitter’s first official academic research collaboration using live data.

Research team: Dr Tomas Holderness (pictured, right), Dr Etienne Turpin, Dr Matthew Berryman, Dr Rohan Wickramasuriya (SMART Infrastructure Facility), Dr Rodney Clarke (Faculty of Business, UOW), Dr Olivia Dun (Department of Geography and Sustainable Communities, UOW)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

ANALYSING ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION TECHNOLOGY FOR ANALYSING AND MEASURING ATMOSPHERIC GASES DEVELOPED AT UOW NOW USED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

An analyser developed at UOW that simultaneously measures the main trace gases in the atmosphere with high precision and accuracy is now operating across Australia and in many countries around the world. The high accuracy greenhouse gas analyser can measure the main greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - at the same time, in a single air sample. More than 10 such analysers were built at UOW for national and international research laboratories before the technology was licensed to an Australian company, Ecotech Pty Ltd, which has exported it to countries including Germany, France, USA, Finland, South Korea, China and New Zealand. Using related infrared spectroscopy techniques, UOW plays a leading role in two international networks - the Total Carbon Column Observing Network and the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change - for atmospheric measurements by remote sensing from Wollongong (since 1995) and Darwin (since 2005).

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In this form of remote sensing, infrared radiation direct from the sun is collected by the groundbased spectrometers at Wollongong and Darwin, and spectrally analysed to determine the amounts and vertical distributions of over 40 trace gases in the atmosphere. These measurements are used to monitor long term changes in the atmosphere and to understand shorter-term variability. Initially, measurements focused on the chemical species relevant to ozone depletion in the stratosphere, especially after the discovery of the polar ozone hole over Antarctica. In recent years, research and measurements have concentrated more on the lower atmosphere and greenhouse gases as these have become of greater environmental concern. The measurements are used to validate and calibrate several current and future satellitebased instruments by making simultaneous measurements of trace gases as the satellites fly overhead. Research team: Professor David Griffith, Dr Clare Murphy, A/Professor Stephen Wilson, Dr Nicholas Jones, Dr Nicholas Deutscher, Dr Voltaire Velazco, Dr Glenn Bryant, Dr Michael Esler, Graham Kettlewell, Martin Riggenbach, Chris Caldow (Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, UOW)

‘SEEING THROUGH WALLS’ TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS IN THROUGH-THE-WALL RADAR IMAGING THAT WILL BENEFIT THE MILITARY, SECURITY, AND SEARCH AND RESCUE SECTORS

The power to ‘see through walls’ remains the domain of superheroes, their movies and special effects. But the realisation of this technology may not be that far into the future, and it has the potential to revolutionise the military, security, search-and-rescue and technology sectors. UOW’s Professor Salim Bouzerdoum, winner of the 2011 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Support of Defence or National Security, is leading development of through-the-wall radar imaging: imaging that can ‘see’ objects through walls, doors, and other opaque materials. There are many situations where it is essential to detect people hidden inside a closed building and to know their precise locations and movements. Soldiers, fire fighters, law enforcement officers and security personnel would all benefit from a portable, high-resolution through-the-wall sensing system that can differentiate targets of interest from clutter.

Professor Bouzerdoum’s research is transforming the technology required to provide reliable seethrough-wall imaging, particularly through his work to reduce interference from wall reflections. His work on ‘compressed sensing’ requires fewer measurements to reconstruct a scene and has led to improved image quality and faster data acquisition. By focusing on developing advanced signal processing techniques to extend operational range and sensitivity, Professor Bouzerdoum is aiming to develop a low cost, portable throughthe-walls system that could enhance the capabilities of security and emergency services. Research team: Professor Salim Bouzerdoum, Dr Son Lam Phung, Dr Steve Tivive (SFaculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, UOW), Professor Moeness Amin (Villanova University, USA)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

MATERIALS FOR HEALTH THE NEW FRONTIER OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES WHERE MEDICAL DEVICES COMPLEMENT THE BODY’S OWN SYSTEMS TO TREAT AND REPAIR DISEASE AND MAJOR INJURIES

ORGANIC BIONICS Electronic medical devices, such as pacemakers, Cochlear implants and deep brain stimulators have revolutionised health treatment and outcomes for millions of people. The new frontier of research into bionic devices is being driven by the emergence of new materials known as ‘inherently conducting polymers’ (ICPs). ICPs provide versatility in composition, and applied in the medical field, have the potential to substantially enhance the electrode-tissue interaction through their ability to contain drugs and other substances – a feature missing from traditional devices which use metal electrodes. The use of ICPs to electrically stimulate living cells and tissue structures in ways that are more tailored towards the needs of tissue systems that need to be repaired, modified or replaced is the focus of research led by Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) and the

Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI). The application of ICPs to bionic devices has the potential to significantly impact health treatments for conditions including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and the repair of damaged nerves and muscles. Fundamental to this research are the strong collaborations the ACES/IPRI team have with hospitals and medically focused corporations including Boston Scientific Inc and Cochlear Ltd, leading in particular to the establishment of Australia’s first in-hospital 3D printing facility, at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. In parallel with their collaborations centred on translating ICPs science into clinical application, the team continue to develop and refine methods of assessing the performance of these materials and devices, which has led to significant advancements in instrumentation and materials analysis.

Research team: Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace (pictured), Professor Simon Moulton, Associate Professor Michael Higgins, Professor Robert Kapsa (ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science / Intelligent Polymer Research Institute), Professor Stephen O’Leary (University of Melbourne), Professor Mark Cook (St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne), Emeritus Professor Graeme Clark (The University of Melbourne), Cochlear Ltd and Boston Scientific Ltd.

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3D BIOPRINTING Imagine a world where doctors could replace a patient’s damaged tissue or diseased organ with a new one grown in a laboratory. By developing specialised 3D printers to build replacement body parts using living cells, researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) and the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), are collaborating with clinicians and researchers around the world to make this concept a reality. Over the past five years, the ACES/IPRI team has extended its printing capabilities to bioinks - opening up a new ability to include precisely

placed living cells as organised components of 3D bioprint structures. An example of technology the team is developing is the ‘Biopen’ device. Designed to put bioprinting into surgeons’ hands, it will directly print into a defect during surgery. Other fundamental breakthroughs include the ability to print cells one-by-one via inkjet printing, and developing a new form of bioprinting, including a co-axial design, which allows the printing of cells ‘inside’ a tubular shaped scaffold material.

Research team: Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace (pictured), Professor Marc in het Panhuis, Dr Stephen Beirne, Dr Cameron Ferris, Rhys Cornock, Dr Cathal O’Connell, Dr Zhilian Yue, Dr Xiao Liu (ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science / Intelligent Polymer Research Institute), Professor Sue Dodds, Dr Frederic Gilbert (University of Tasmania), Professor Peter Choong (St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne), Dr Michael Coote (University of Melbourne), Professor Mario Romero Ortega (University of Texas, Dallas, USA).

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

BALANCE OF THE BRAIN IMPROVING SYMPTOM CONTROL FOR PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA AND INFORMING UNDERSTANDING OF METABOLIC DISEASES

Normal brain function is the balance between the positive and negative or yin-yang hypothesis. Our brains include sophisticated excitatory and inhibitory systems which control our emotions, drive our working memory and control very basic physiological functions, such as eating behaviour. When there is an aversive environmental factor or risk gene, or their combination, our brain balance can be altered, leading to either brain disease or the dysregulation of the whole body metabolism. Focusing on severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, Professor Xu - (e.g. Xu-Feng) Feng Huang and a team of neuroscientists at UOWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre of Translational Neuroscience (CTN), are examining what happens in the brains of experimental animals and patients when the balance is lost. About half of the patients on the antipsychotic drugs used to mitigate the symptoms of

schizophrenia develop obesity and metabolic syndrome. Through their studies of the metabolic side effect of antipsychotic medications, Professor Huang and his team have contributed to a greater understanding of the brain pathology of schizophrenia, and key genes that contribute to this disease. Critically, the CTN has identified a way to prevent antipsychotic-induced obesity, which has been recommended to hospital clinicians for further clinical trials. In parallel, the team is also investigating how the brain controls body metabolism related to obesity and diabetes, how food molecules influence the brain to regulate body metabolism, and how herbal extracts can have beneficial effects on brain cells and can be used for preventative and therapeutic medicine.

Research team: Professor Xu-Feng Huang (pictured, front); research fellows Dr Yinghua Yu, Dr Mei Han, Dr Qingsheng Zhang and Dr Dorna Esrafilzadeh; visiting research fellows A/Professor Shaoxiao, A/Professor Peng Zhang; research assistants Hongqin Wang and Dr Zhixiaong Wu; and 13 current PhD students (Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, UOW), Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace, Associate Professor Jeremy Crook, Professor Robert Kapsa (Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, UOW), Professor Stephen Pyne, Dr Haibo Yu (School of Chemistry, UOW), Dr Craig Patch (Clover Corporation), Dr Mikhail Vyssotski (NZ CSIRO), Associate Professor Xiangyang Zhang (Beijing Psychiatric Research Unit, Huilongguan Hospital, China)

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TRANSNATIONAL CAREER OF THE TV CRIME DRAMA STUDYING THE ECONOMIC SOCIAL AND ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE TV CRIME DRAMA SERIES

An Australian television audience sweltering through a summer heat wave is transfixed by the vision of arctic ice floes and a man being eaten by a polar bear (Fortitude). An acclaimed British crime drama featuring the Jurassic cliffs of West Dorset (Broadchurch) is a hit in France and is remade in Northern California where the cliffs are computer generated (Gracepoint). Always concerned with law and order issues, and in particular, social settings, the crime drama series is one of the most enduring and popular genres of television. What kind of value are generated by the creative industries, and the crime drama series in particular, as it crosses national borders?

Building on the themes presented in her recent book, which explores the history, themes and variations in the crime drama series genre over time, UOWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Professor Sue Turnbull is using a case study approach to investigate this question. As well as the kinds of monetary value that accrue through the financing, production, licensing rights and distribution deals of the crime drama series, Professor Turnbull is examining the perceived value of the enterprise to the creative team from writers to producers, actors and crew. The significance to the various audiences across the globe is also being explored. This includes the criteria of aesthetic value used to judge these series, as well as the forms of armchair and cultural tourism they may inspire.

Research team: Professor Sue Turnbull (Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, UOW), Associate Professor Anne Marit Waade and Dr Pia Majbritt Jensen (Aarhus University, Denmark)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

FAMILY LEARNING EVIDENCE-BASED FRAMEWORKS FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY

THE IMPORTANCE OF FATHERS TO DEVELOPMENT When fathers read regularly to their young children, it impacts their language, literacy and cognitive skills more than mothers bookreading, even several years later. This breakthrough finding in the emerging field of father research was made by UOWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dr Elisabeth Duursma, a pioneer in examining the influence of paternal bookreading. In particular, Dr Duursma examined the impact fathers of low-socioeconomic families can have on their childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language and literacy skills when they frequently read to them. Her study also showed that it is not just the reading of the book that makes paternal

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contributions to child development so valuable, but the quality of engagement between father and child that bookreading brings. Her findings could have a significant impact on the way educators are trained to include fathers in early education settings and inspire more men to enter early childhood professions. By contributing more evidence about the role of fathers in childhood development, Dr Duursma also hopes in the future to influence workplace flexibility arrangements that provide greater opportunity for fathers, and mothers, to combine work and family responsibilities. Research team: Dr Elisabeth Duursma (School of Education, UOW)

EQUITY FOR FIRST IN FAMILY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Five groups within Australia are currently recognised as disadvantaged when it comes to educational opportunities, and are targeted to receive institutional support to achieve equity. However, there is one cohort not included in this target, and yet is reported as having higher rates of attrition and as facing a higher degree of academic challenge: students who are the first in their family to attend university. In Australia, 51 per cent of the student population is estimated to be first in their immediate family to attend university, and a significant proportion of these consider departure once enrolled. Over the past decade, Dr Sarah O’Shea has undertaken research with this student cohort and has found that the term ‘first-in-family’ should be regarded as a ‘supra equity category’ that cuts

across other equity categorisations. First-infamily as an umbrella or supra category not only provides a more consolidated basis for equity funding, enabling greater impact, but also moves beyond deficit perspectives of students. This research seeks to effect policy and funding change by working closely with government and educational institutions to embed recognition of this cohort into policy and materials. A forum bringing together researchers, policymakers, and equity organisations led to the development of the first set of Draft National Principles for Engaging with First in Family Students and their Families. Research team: Dr Sarah O’Shea, Dr Janine Delahunty (School of Education, UOW), Associate Professor Josephine May, Dr Cathy Stone (University of Newcastle)

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF RESEARCH

EXPLORING THE BIG BLUE NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY, NOVEL MEDICINAL CHEMICAL PRODUCTS, IMPROVED DEEP SEA EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY, MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS, INDUSTRY-RESEARCH COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION

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A partnership between university researchers and the oil and gas industry is radically expanding our knowledge of life on the floor of the deep sea. With a UOW team leading the chemistry section, the collaboration is influencing how we understand, explore, exploit and manage the deep sea floor in areas including habitat mapping, biodiversity, medicinal chemistry, natural resources and governance. Vast oceans cover 70 per cent of the world’s surface, and 95 per cent of this ocean is over 100 metres deep. Yet less than five per cent of the deep-sea floor has been explored. The logistical difficulty and prohibitive expense of conducting deep-sea research has hindered academic research in this area. However, there are a number of industries operating in the deepsea utilising specialist robotics called remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), controlled at the surface to operate under water to depths of 3500 metres. UOW’s Dr Danielle Skropeta and a crossdisciplinary, collaborative team have established partnerships with the Australian oil and gas industry to utilise their ROVs in periods of stand-by time, providing the researchers with unprecedented access to the deep-sea floor.

The collaboration has yielded results, including seminal reviews of natural chemicals produced by deep-sea organisms for chemical defence and communication, published in leading journals. This original research has contributed to an emerging trend in medicinal chemistry, showing deep-sea natural products to have an incredibly high ‘hit’ rate, in particular against cancer. This means that the percentage of natural chemicals exhibiting anticancer activity discovered in deepsea samples, in some cases as high as 50-75 per cent of samples assessed, far exceeds that typically seen in natural product-based drug discovery. The partnership has also seen new species and genus of marine life uncovered, the development of more sensitive and higher resolution 3D underwater cameras, and the design of museum exhibits on the deep-sea. The project’s emphasis on partnership has strengthened academic and industry relations, and is also providing students with valuable experience working in an offshore environment. Research team: Dr Danielle Skropeta, Professor Andy Davis, Allison Broad, Dr Ana Zivanovic, Dr Liangqian Wei (UOW), Professor David Booth, Dr Ash Fowler, Dr Peter McCreadie, Vanessa ValenzuelaDavie, Nico Pradella (University of Technology, Sydney), Professor Chari Pattiaratchi (University of Western Australia), Professor Stefan Williams, Dr Will Figueira (University of Sydney), Australian Museum, WA Museums, National Oceanographic Centre Southampton, Woodside, Santos, Chevron, ENI, Apache, Inpex, Oceaneering, Subsea 7

The basket star Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae at 920 m depth, Midnattsol, Norway. Image courtesy of SERPENT Project, National Oceanography Centre, UK

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The University of Wollongong attempts to ensure the information contained in this publication is correct at the time of production (Aug 2015); however, sections may be amended without notice by the University in response to changing circumstances or for any other reason. Check with the University at the time of application/enrolment for any updated information. UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG CRICOS: 00102E 1. QS Top 50 Under 50 Rankings 2014 2. QS World University Rankings 2014/2015 3. Leiden Rankings 2014