research at macquarie university issue 2, 2011
TRANSCRIPT
ReseaRch at macquaRie univeRsity issue 2, 2011
Let there be light
Breathing life into medical research
For the love of oil
Death of Osama: is the world safer?
Egypt’s cyber revolution
a key eLement of Macquarie’s strategy for the future is to strengthen the global engagement of the University, both in research and teaching.
The world of universities is becoming increasingly international with students from all parts of the world becoming ever more mobile, seeking to choose the best institution to pursue their studies and launch their careers, wherever that institution is. Research is highly internationalised, with users of research results looking to find them wherever they are generated.
In recent visits to the USA, China, Northern Europe and Scandinavia I have experienced strong interest
from leading universities in partnering with Macquarie to expand collaborative research via joint PhD and master degrees, workshops and other mechanisms. The very high ratings Macquarie achieved in the recent Excellence in Research for Australia assessment of research quality have been a significant element in the interest expressed.
Australian universities, and Macquarie in particular, have levels of international research collaboration which are high by world standards. For example, around 42 per cent of all research publications from Macquarie staff have international co-authors, placing us in the top three Australian universities in this measure. Significantly, papers which include international authors attract higher citations (that is, recognition by the international community) than papers with Australian authors only. Our international collaboration is a critical factor behind the outstanding results Macquarie achieved in Thomson Reuters 2011 ranking of citations. Macquarie topped the rankings of citations in the areas of environmental sciences and ecology among institutions in Australia and New Zealand, and ranked 14th in the world – making us one of only two Australian universities in the world top 100.
As well as strongly supporting international research collaboration through direct support mechanisms, Macquarie has established its international joint PhD program as a central part of our strategy for global engagement. In this program research students are co-enrolled at Macquarie and leading overseas universities as they undertake a project which is supervised by staff at each institution. Students spend substantial periods of time at each university and their thesis is examined by both institutions with the successful student being awarded a PhD by Macquarie and the partner university, or in some cases a PhD awarded jointly by the two. We are currently expanding this program to make up 10 per cent of our total research student enrolments and at present we have close to 100 students undertaking joint PhDs with over 30 universities in the UK, Europe, USA and China. Not only is this a great experience for the students, but the process builds collaboration between Macquarie and our partners and of course, further increases joint publication to everyone’s benefit.
Professor Jim PiperDeputy Vice-Chancellor – Research
Quest is the research magazine of Macquarie University. Quest is published quarterly by the Macquarie University Marketing Unit.
contact:Marketing UnitMacquarie UniversityNSW 2109 Australia
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Publications manager: Jayne Denshireeditor: Fiona CrawfordDesigner: Anne Marleen Hissinkcontributors: Lyn Danninger, Joanna Fellows, Caroline Jenkins, Golda Mitchell, Christine Paul, Rachel Sullivan, Josh Wakerman, Clive Williamsimaging consultant: Diana Panayi
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Quest
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Balaclava Road, North Ryde, Sydney, AustraliaTelephone (02) 9850 7111, Facsimile (02) 9850 7433Macquarie University CRICOS Provider Number 00002Jwww.mq.edu.au
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Contents
06_eGyPt’s cyBeR RevOLutiOn
Taking disaffection offline and into
the streets.
08_Let theRe Be LiGht
Unveiling the secrets of deep space.
12_BReathinG LiFe intO meDicaL ReseaRch
New hope for SIDS and Parkinson’s.
17_FOR the LOve OF OiL
The dynamics of energy prices.
18_Death OF Osama: is thewORLD saFeR?
A huge blow to terrorism or just
a hiccup?
19_FunDinG ReseaRch
Diversifying revenue schemes.
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m a c q u a R i e RANkeD numBeR One FOR eNVIRONMeNTAl SCIeNCeS A N D e C O lO g y R e S e A R C h
A listing of the top-ranked institutions in Australia and New Zealand, published in May by the UK’s Times Higher Education, placed Macquarie in the top spot
for environmental sciences and ecology research.The list, which was put together using the Essential
Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters, ranked institutions based on the citation impact of journal articles published over the last decade. Macquarie appeared on the list in the number one spot locally and ranked as number 14 in the world.
According to the article Macquarie appears to be leading a trend in environmental sciences and ecology research that has emerged as a ‘strongly improving area for Australia and New Zealand’. The article pointed to Australia’s overall citation impact increasing to 23 per cent above the world average in the past decade as evidence of this trend. According to the article Australian universities hold a larger world share of papers in this field and influence of such papers has risen significantly over this period.
Executive Dean of Macquarie’s Faculty of Science Professor Stephen Thurgate says of the results: “The future of the environment has long been a priority for the talented researchers in the Faculty of Science. We are delighted to see their contribution reflected in the rankings. This achievement further illustrates the quality of research and teaching we are developing at Macquarie”.PH
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eight collaborative research projects led by macquarie university have received $2.06
million in Linkage Project grants from the australian Research council.
the grants will boost macquarie’s research in the areas of autism support in schools, marine and wildlife conservation, employee participation, biophotonics, iron ore processing, lasers and surgical innovation.
Linkage Projects must be collaborative efforts involving
universities, industry and government. the partnerships in macquarie’s eight projects are with organisations such as autism spectrum australia, the Royal australasian college of surgeons and the australian museum. collaboration ensures macquarie’s research is relevant to industry and government demands, with practical solutions for community issues.
Overall, 219 projects across australia benefitted from grants worth more than $67 million. macquarie’s
proposal success rate of 66.7 per cent is far above the national average of 40.9 per cent, and the highest of the 37 research institutions that applied for funding.
Of the results Professor Jim Piper says: “macquarie’s outstanding success rate in this latest round is an excellent return on the investment our researchers and research support staff in the faculties and Research Office made to ensure the very high quality of the applications submitted”.ARCARC Linkage success
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executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and economics Professor Mark gabbott was recently awarded
Distinguished Membership of ANZMAC, the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy, in
recognition of his service to the profession.
gabbott’s research interests are in services marketing, knowledge management, customer
relationship management, consumer behaviour and customer value. he has published four books and
has published research in a variety of academic journals including the Journal of Business Research,
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management
and Journal of Healthcare Marketing.
gabbott also actively consults on projects for both private and public sector international clients,
including consumer and market research agencies in europe, The european Commission, The Scottish Office, The Uk National
health Service, IBM, honda, Mazda, AMP, The Consumers Association, and the Uk government’s National Consumer Council.
gabbott is a graduate of the University of essex, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in economics, and a graduate
of the Imperial College, University of london, where he completed a Master of Science in Technology Management. After working
in government for six years in consumer policy and protection, he joined the University of Stirling as a Research Fellow and
completed a PhD in Marketing. he was appointed executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and economics at Macquarie in 2008.
ANZMAC was founded in 1998 and for over ten years has been a vibrant leading source of marketing information, knowledge
sharing and research development among marketing academics and practitioners from Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
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Surgeons from Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) are the first in Sydney to perform an operation using an innovative robotic leg implant for patients with above-knee amputations.
Professor Munjed Al Muderis, orthopaedic surgeon at MUH and clinical lecturer at the Australian School of Advanced Medicine, has performed the first operation using the new Endo-Exo Prosthesis.
The robotic leg innovation lies in the way in which the prosthesis is attached to the upper limb. Previously, a vacuum prosthetic leg was used. This fit over the skin of the remaining part of the upper limb, but presented a myriad of problems including friction with the skin, pain and the risk of infection.
“The new technology uses a stem that goes through the distal femur bone, rather than over the skin,” says Muderis. “The stem is then attached to the robotic leg. The biomechanics of the prosthesis are so advanced that patients experience much greater mobility and a return to near-normal gait. We are seeing patients return to pre-injury levels of activity.”
Award for eminent marketing researcher
New RobotiC LEg ChANgINg lIVeS
ARCAnother important outcome is that the robotic
leg reduces the load on the body. Conventional prostheses take an additional 30 percent of energy from a patient, which can add stress to the heart and other organs.
“With the Endo-Exo Prosthesis, because the patient’s body load is carried by the prosthesis, rather than the ilium [pelvic bone], it enables a better range of movement and so easier walking,” says Muderis.”
Receiving this life-changing prosthesis at MUH was Paralympian Brendan Burkett (pictured right) who lost his leg in a hit and run accident 25 years ago.
Though he is realistic about the recovery process ahead, Burkett says he hopeful about what this procedure could mean for the future of prosthesis and has already begun to see major improvements in his mobility.
“I’ve had this for 25 years and to be able to sit down and reach my shoe lace for the first time [since the accident] is amazing,” he says. “It’s little things like that which make a big thing in your life.”
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years of brewing dissention in egypt, oft dismissed by the government as ‘cyber politics’ and therefore of little concern, suddenly became very ‘real politics’ when the masses took their disaffection offline and into the streets in a show of force against their government earlier this year.
eGyPt is mORe than Just a PassiOn for Dr Gennaro Gervasio. It has become a place he thinks of often, a place he analyses and a place where he has lived, worked and loved.
“Today, when I’m nostalgic, it’s for Egypt, and I think this confuses people,” says Gervasio, a wry smile on his face.
Gervasio’s research within the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations is exploring civic activism and political change in North Africa with a focus on Egypt, and the recent developments have made it especially relevant. What has occurred in Egypt over the past few months has been of great interest to Gervasio and his thoughts jump passionately from one to another as he expounds on his theory of how it all came to be.
There has been a mainstream view that the people-powered revolution in Egypt sprung up from nowhere, that suddenly dissenting voices arose and took people to the streets. Gervasio explains that this is far from the truth and to know the whole story one had to embed themselves in Egyptian society; speak the language, read the newspapers.
Gervasio refutes the notion that until recently there were no dissenting voices in the Egyptian media.
“I think its theoretically very difficult for the state to occupy all the public space,” he says. “Maybe that was done in history, in Nazi Germany for example, but that’s not the case for the middle eastern countries. If you go there and know who to talk to then you can find these dissenting voices. If you can talk to people in Arabic, and if you can actually read the Arabic newspapers you start noticing different discourses within the state-run media. So, you can indeed find dissenting voices within a totalitarian regime in the media. Even on the same page of the paper you’ll have alternative views.”
Having lived in Cairo himself for almost four years, Gervasio witnessed first-hand the slow-growing discontent. He found that the main grievances were both political and economical, and it was in fact the educated middle class that was the main proponent of the demonstrations.
“These are young people who have an education, speak one or two languages, they graduate and there are no chances to be had for employment,” he says. “Either you are a part of the elite where you have the connections, or you’re not. In the past many of these people
cyber revolution
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migrated to Europe, but now with harsher immigration laws, they cannot go. This leaves them frustrated and a little desperate.
“It was this same educated middle class who vented their views on social media etc and then went onto the streets. They felt they finally had nothing to lose.”
The mention of social media and the online sphere seems to spark a new debate in Gervasio’s mind.
The role that cyber activism played in the Egyptian revolution has become a topic of conversation amongst analysts and social commentators. Grand statements labelling cyberspace as the cause of the demonstrations arose and when this topic is broached with Gervasio he seems to have heard it all before.
“It’s a question of space and chance,” he says. “As we know, there are a few mainstream publications and then independent publications arise. Dissenting voices could be heard in both. Then in the last three or four years when there has been a lot of press restrictions you get a lot more people, including the dissenting voices, jumping onto the cyber.
“For example, there was a popular workers paper that was printed for two years and then went online and had a huge impact on calling for the demonstration. So it’s not like the printed and online are separate – there are not only pro-governmental voices but also dissenting voices in the printed media and these voices eventually went online.”
“My point is that the e-media was a means, it was not what caused the revolution. These groups that started organising themselves in the last few years, they were forced to use social media and cyberspace from which to launch their messages.”
So although it was not the cause, cyber-activism had a role nonetheless to play in leading people to the street.
Acknowledging the power of cyberspace, the government, on a few occasions, blocked internet access to quieten the voices stirring up emotion throughout the capital. But this had an effect that the government didn’t predict.
‘The government, at one stage, blocked the internet for eight or nine days and people at home waiting for online updates were
suddenly in the dark,” says Gervasio. “So what did they do? The moment they couldn’t get internet they took to the streets! For so long the government dismissed the online commentators. ‘They’re only cyber’ they would say. Now, this proved to them, to everyone, that the politics were not just cyber, but that they were very real.”
Born in Naples, Italy, Gervasio was always fascinated by the politics of the Middle East. So he began to study political science at the Oriental University where he could focus on middle eastern countries, particularly the Israel and Palestine question.
Then, he travelled to Egypt for the first time and immersed himself in its culture for six months, studying Arabic so he could talk to locals and read the papers. After spending time teaching and studying in Egypt, the US and the UK, he returned to Italy hoping to continue his academic life and participate in a lively post 9/11 debate. But he found that the academic possibilities and freedoms he had been afforded elsewhere were not available to him. So, looking for that freedom, he decided on a new adventure and arrived at Macquarie in April of 2008.
Although his academic life has thrived at Macquarie, Gervasio only has one issue it seems –
the distance he now finds himself from his adopted home. Lucky for him then that he took leave last semester to return to Egypt and almost found himself caught up in the dramatic demonstrations that changed Egypt’s course forever.
“I left Cairo the day before the demonstrations started, to come back here,” he explains. “But the demonstrations had already been called. But what’s important for me is that the myth that the people in the Middle East have this inertia is shattered. That they do in fact want change and will act out to achieve it can now be seen.”
However, when asked what he thinks will happen next in his beloved Egypt, Gervasio furrows his brow and leans forward in his chair.
“Now, one might say it’s easy to unite against a tyrant, but the challenge now is to find a common way forward,” he says. “That’s the hard part.”
To contact Dr Gennaro Gervasio email [email protected]
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The centre’s launch reflects the massive growth of interest and investment in astronomy across Australia in general and more locally at Macquarie University. This is an interest enthusiastically encouraged by Parker. Originally from england, and after 14 years of shuttling between Australia and the Royal Observatory edinburgh in Scotland on various projects, he joined Macquarie in April 2002 as the joint Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO)/Macquarie lecturer in astronomy.
“when I joined Macquarie University the astronomy group was very small, but thanks to the rapid growth in both the quality and quantity of staff and students, and collaborative, international research programs, it is now one of the largest and most productive astronomical research groups in the country,” he comments, adding that there is a great synergy between the work of Macquarie staff, postdoctoral research fellows and students, and those of the nearby AAO, which continues to co-fund some of the work at Macquarie.
“One of the big problems all universities face is attracting students into science generally but particularly into physics-related fields. Fortuitously, the close proximity of the AAO, and the associated access and excellent opportunities for collaboration that our close relationship provides to both senior and early career researchers, also gives hDR students the opportunity to really immerse themselves in the life of our national observatory and be co-supervised by some of the best astronomers in Australia.”
he says this unprecedented level of access is part of the reason that the astronomy group has been so successful, reflected in the Department of Physics being renamed the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 2010 – a first for Australia. The astronomy group alone now has 40+ faculty, postdoctoral fellows and hDR students, producing around 70 papers a year and attracting millions in grant money. with its planned growth in research, the centre is expected to soon be among the top four astronomy cohorts in Australia.
however, observing enigmatic celestial objects and distant galaxies is expensive, and while Australia has its own major optical observing sites at Siding Spring and Mt Stromlo, different telescopes are suited to different types of research. The new centre has ties to more than 100 national and international universities, observatories, research institutions and commercial companies in 23 countries, providing a basis for effective multi-national
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let there be lightDeep space is giving up its secrets thanks to the work of Professor quentin Parker and colleagues at the recently launched macquarie astronomy, astrophysics and astrophotonics Research centre.
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collaborative research programs and partnerships with some of the world’s leading research groups.
“we have a very active observing program,” says Parker, “and in the past few years have logged over 300 observing nights at telescopes all over the world.”
One night of observing on a four-metre telescope, such as the Anglo Australian Telescope at Siding Spring in northern New South wales can cost around $30,000, while a single night on an 8-metre telescope such as the gemini optical-infrared telescope at the summit of Mauna kea, hawaii, can be $100,000.
“we also have six people working in the emerging field of astrophotonics, one of the largest groups of its kind in Australia,” he says.
Astrophotonics, which employs optical fibres and other smart technologies to bend light in different ways in telescopes, has grown out of research into optimising terrestrial telecommunications, and makes it easier and cheaper to observe distant sources of light, identify objects in deep space, and compensate for light pollution from earth.
As well as astrophotonics research, the new centre will host many mainstream astrophysics research programs, in addition to other projects such as the Macquarie University-led $2.4 million dollar Australian Research Council-supported project ‘Space to grow’, which connects astronomers with educational, ICT and science teaching experts to engage high school students in science using the hook of astronomy.
The centre will also have a strong focus on building links with Indigenous communities by engaging the Aboriginal Astronomy Research group, a team dedicated to researching the astronomical knowledge and traditions of Indigenous Australians, which stretch back over 50,000 years.
“These and other projects being run by the new centre will help improve the visibility of science and create interest in the field,” says Parker. “Prospective students will be able to see research in action.”
Prior to taking up his position at Macquarie, Parker worked on the Uk Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring, where he was responsible for helping to develop and manage the revolutionary FlAIR-II fibre-spectroscopy system and the 6dF robotic fibre system that replaced FlAIR-II. he also conceived and led the last major wide-field survey at the telescope in the light of h-alpha, which used the world’s largest astronomical narrow-band filter to create a map of ionised gas in our galaxy of unprecedented depth, coverage and resolution.
he remains a member of the 6dF Science Advisory group, and is currently chair of the International Astronomical Union working group on sky-surveys, and is head of the RAVe (Radial Velocity experiment) survey data management group, which tracks the speed at which stars move and provides an insight into the formation of the Milky way galaxy through a process dubbed galactic archaeology. he also heads both the h-alpha international survey consortium and the associated M*A*S*h (Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg h-alpha) and IPhAS (INT Photometric h-Alpha Survey of the Northern galactic Plane) Planetary nebulae teams.
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Planetary nebulae, which are Parker’s primary research interest, are luminous, glowing clouds of dust and gas that form when a dying star reaches the end of its life and ejects the gas and dust particles that form its outer envelope.
“Studies of planetary nebulae are essential for improving understanding of the later evolution of low mass stars like our own Sun and of stellar evolution in the critical phase prior to the creation of small, dead stars known as white dwarfs,” he explains. “They provide vital probes for studying processes of nucleosynthesis inside stars, abundances of chemical compounds and chemical enrichment of interstellar space, and act as powerful indicators of our galaxy’s star formation history.”
The brightness distribution exhibited by the planetary nebulae family also provides an extremely important tool for measuring distances to external galaxies, while their spatial distribution within such galaxies can also be used to map the presence of dark matter.
“The planetary nebulae luminosity function [PNlF] is the ensemble brightness distribution of the population of PN in any galaxy,” he explains. “Its well behaved form allows us to obtain more accurate measurement of the vast cosmological distances that galaxies inhabit in space, rather than just recording an angle in the sky relative to another point.”
In ten years, Parker’s M*A*S*h project has effectively doubled the known galactic population of these fascinating sources acrued over the previous century, providing powerful new insights into this phenomenon and late stage stellar evolution.
And just recently, Parker and colleagues made a unique discovery of a planetary nebula (PN) in an old open cluster of stars, that is, a group of a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and are approximately the same age (in this case ~700 million years).
“Any proven association between a PN and an open star cluster is an extremely valuable astrophysical tool,” he says.
Out of the discovery, new techniques for establishing planetary nebula distance measures have been developed as have new approaches for identifying contaminants
that can affect the accuracy of these distance measures. The finding had other, more earthbound consequences too: the growth in the Department of Physics and Astronomy associated with the find led to its emergence as one of Macquarie’s CORes (Concentrations of Research excellence), and played a significant role in the departmental rename in 2010.
The M*A*S*h project also earned Parker and colleagues the 2010 Macquarie University Research excellence Award in the Science and engineering category. The Awards recognise and reward staff and postgraduate students for outstanding performance and excellence in research and innovation.
“Planetary nebulae provide us with a very useful and powerful astrophysical tool,” says Parker. “This work will continue to form the basis of lots of our research as Macquarie’s astronomy capabilities continue to grow in size and importance, both in Australia and internationally.”
To contact Quentin Parker email [email protected]
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breathing life into medical researchfeature
we may DO it suBcOnsciOusLy, but the ‘simple acts’ of swallowing and coughing are actually the result of a complex interaction between important areas of the brain which control the upper airways and breathing rhythm.
When we accidentally inhale particles of water or food, we experience a breathing arrest –apnoea – and our vocal cords close off the pathway to the lungs as a protective measure during coughing and swallowing.
Until last year, it was unknown what parts of the brain were responsible for coordinating these protective responses.
The discovery, made by a team of cardio-respiratory experts at Macquarie’s Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM), could eventually lead to a better understanding of, and ultimately a cure for, many pathological diseases, including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, in which difficulties with swallowing may have dire outcomes.
Together with ASAM’s Dr Qi-Jian Sun and clinical collaborator Dr Robert Berkowitz, head of the Department of Otolaryngology and Paediatrics at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and under the supervision of ASAM’s Professor Paul Pilowsky, PhD candidate Tara Bautista (pictured above) is focused on why and how we stop breathing when an irritant enters our airways.
“We found that there is a timing relationship between the closure of the vocal cords and the timing of the next breath,” she explains. “We found that if the following breath is expected within a certain time following vocal cord closure, but it doesn’t
actually occur, the next breath will be missed. In response to a strong irritant, rhythmic vocal cord closure occurs. This can result in many missed breaths, and that’s how a breathing arrest is generated.”
As fully developed adults we cough, swallow and recover. However, every year
more than 4300 babies and children die suddenly and unexpectedly. More than 50 per cent of these deaths have no known cause.
“One theory is that these complicated responses [coughing and recovering] are not well-developed in babies so it is mostly just the breathing arrest which occurs,” she says. “However,
the breathing arrest may go on for such a long time that heart rate may fall to dangerously low levels, depriving their vital organs of oxygen. By understanding how these breathing and swallowing systems work at a very basic level, we can understand how they can go wrong.”
This finding is the first step in understanding how breathing arrest occurs.
“From here we hope to find new targets for therapeutic strategies to prevent inability to coordinate breathing with upper airway protective behaviour such as swallowing, and ultimately SIDS and other diseases,” she says.
But there is some way to go as no one yet knows how the brain decides for how long our breathing should stop.
“Our research has found the areas which are important in making this decision, but how the brain actually decides at a cellular level is still unknown,” she continues.
Within our brain, one site is responsible for computing environment-related information.
Says Bautista: “It tells you about the state of your blood pressure, the state of important respiratory gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide.”
The other site is part of the central respiratory system – our breathing ‘rhythm generator’. Bautista says although these sites have been known for some time, it wasn’t known that the protective responses are controlled together.
“It’s all about the coordination of the protective role of the vocal cords plus the breathing arrest,” she explains. “you can’t have one without the other when you get to such complex behaviours such as coughing and swallowing.”
To understand how the central nervous system controls breathing and swallowing, the team recreated the brain and body’s response to a throat irritant using electrical
An important discovery in cardio-respiratory research may lead to prevention and cure for many diseases, including SIDS.
“By understanding the mechanisms which regulate the cardio-respiratory diseases, we can hopefully understand the causes of a huge range of diseases like siDs.”
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stimulation of the nerve that normally carries the information from the larynx to the brain. Normal activation of these nerves tells the brain to initiate the reflex response.
Bautista, who is nearing the end of her Macquarie Univeristy Research Excellence Scholarship, has had three papers published, presented the team’s research at prestigious international conferences including the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last year, and conducted a short research project with world-leading respiratory neuroscientist Dr Hiroshi Onimaru in Japan.
She says the ASAM facilities are among the best in the world.
“This is a world-class facility. I’ve been to other labs which do similar research, and the quality of our equipment – and thus our potential to do research – is very good compared to other labs.”
Bautista has come full circle in her own bid to advance medical research. As a high-school student, she was inspired by a family history of neurodegenerative disorders to use her abilities to help people.
“From year 10, I knew I wanted to do medical research – it is so important to many people, especially with such an ageing population in Australia,” she says.
But it was when she attended Pilowsky’s seminar series during her medical science undergraduate degree, that she changed her focus from neurodegenerative diseases to cardio-respiratory research.
“The cardio-respiratory research we conduct at ASAM has great potential to help so many people,” she explains. “Its dysfunction has implications for several diseases.
“I realised I had a greater potential to help a whole range of people because the
cardiovascular and the respiratory systems subserve the most basic life functions – the control of breathing and blood pressure. These systems are so important – everyone at some stage in their life will know someone who gets high blood pressure.
“By understanding the mechanisms which regulate the cardio-respiratory diseases, we can hopefully understand the causes of a huge range of diseases such as hypertension and SIDS.”
As it turns out, the type of control mechanisms they are focusing on also go awry in a range of other diseases that don’t receive so much attention.
And that brings Bautista back to her original focus: neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s – from a cardio-respiratory point of view.
“In addition to their motor control dysfunction, Alzheimer’s patients have problems with swallowing and may also have hypertension,” she says. “They can’t coordinate their swallowing and breathing so they accidentally breathe in inhaled irritants and get ‘aspiration pneumonia’. This is a common cause of death in Alzheimer’s patients, but most people overlook this because it is secondary to their more obvious motor deficits.”
While Bautista is completing her thesis and aims to take a postdoctoral position further investigating respiratory control at the Florey Institute in Melbourne next year, Sun will continue with the ‘how’ side of the research – how the cells in our brain interact with each other to decide how dangerous an irritant is, and whether to initiate that breathing arrest and protective closure.
“We can have such a direct influence on so many diseases which are pervasive in our lives: hypertension, SIDS, sleep apnoea, neurodegenerative disorders, and a growing population of obese people in Australia,” says Bautista. “The ability to help these people with our research is amazing.”
To contact Tara Bautista email [email protected]
breathing life into medical research
14 Quest
with thousands of new users joining Facebook,
Linkedin and twitter everyday, social media
looks to be here to stay. all too often, however,
it is a source of trouble because some users
are untrustworthy, which can lead to extreme
personal, professional and financial consequences.
in response, PhD candidate Guanfeng Liu from
the Department of computing is developing an
innovative model that helps establish a higher
level of trust between participants and aids their
subsequent decision-making processes.
“two participants in a transaction – which
may involve an exchange of personal or financial
information – may have no direct contact with
one another, but trust is a very important part
of making a decision to proceed,” says Liu, who
studied cloud and grid computing at qingdao
university in china for his masters.
“Based on past interactions, there are already a
number of social trust paths between participants
in social networks, such as recommendations
from other users, but these can be open to abuse,
particularly in a commercial setting.”
using psycho-social research Liu has created a
mathematical model of a complex social network
structure that contains a range of social relationships
such as the relationship between an employer and
an employee, and recommendation roles such as the
social position of influential participants.
“these factors have a significant influence on
trust evaluation but have not been considered in
existing social network structures,” comments Liu,
whose quality of trust (qot) model also includes
an algorithm that has been demonstrated to
outperform existing trust assurance systems.
he says there are a number of applications
for this new model, including a next generation
recommendation system that maintains the
complex social information between buyers and
sellers in a network, and helping cRm (customer
Relation management) systems to identify
trustworthy new customers and the products they
may be interested in buying.
To contact Guanfeng Liu email [email protected]
researchhighlights
Undertaking a PhD within the Department of Psychology, Simon
Byrne is investigating an exciting new treatment for childhood
anxiety which could drastically change how psychologists treat
anxious children.
Anxiety disorders are among the most common problems
experienced by children, with up to five per cent of young people
experiencing an anxiety disorder at any one time.
“Very often the anxiety or fear is related to an animal, and two
of the most common animal phobias in kids are a fear of dogs and
a fear of spiders,” he says. “These phobias can cause considerable
distress to a child as they grow up. Phobias can also cause
problems for parents who may have to constantly reassure their
child when they are anxious or upset.”
Current treatment for phobias generally involve helping a
child gradually face what they are frightened of in a process called
graded exposure therapy or desensitisation.
however, says Byrne, who is researching under the supervision
of Professor Ron Rapee, some children do not improve with
exposure therapy alone, so new and more effective treatments
need to be developed.
One such treatment, being trialed by Byrne and his colleagues
at Macquarie’s Centre for emotional health, is a combination of
exposure therapy and a new medication called D-Cycloserine.
“ D-Cycloserine has shown to improve the chances of a faster
and complete recovery when given just before an exposure
session,” explains Byrne. “The medication is very safe, just like
taking a dose of antibiotic.
“During the exposure, the child is learning that they no longer
need to be frightened of what they once feared. DCS is believed
to improve this process by more effectively storing this new ‘non-
fearful’ learning in memory. Because of this, the child is less likely
to become frightened the next time they see a dog or spider.”
To contact Simon Byrne email [email protected] or call 0403 839 625
A Matter of trust
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Quest 15
Undertaking a PhD within the Department of Sociology, gaynor Nichols is exploring the world of the highly successful reality TV series MasterChef in an attempt to reveal the nature of its impact on societal values.
Prior to beginning this research, Nichols analysed the role that digitally empowered audiences play in shaping the production of reality television, focusing on production house FremantleMedia Australia’s (FMA) The Biggest Loser, for her honours research.
“My findings suggested that the role of the audience in shaping content has been overemphasised in much media sociology, due to a deep-seated tension between the aims of audience research, marketing and publicity on the one hand, and participatory and fan cultures on the other,” she says.
Continuing in a similar vein, Nichols’ PhD is exploring the production process of MasterChef from both an industry and contestant point of view.
“By following the processes of preproduction, storyline development, auditions, production, and post-production inside FMA over a nine-month period, I am hoping the study will provide a critical perspective on the interplay between contestant and producer and the role played by television producers in shaping popular culture,” she says.
“I‘ve been extremely lucky to have been given unprecedented access by FMA to both staff and data on MasterChef.”
Nichols began fieldwork in 2010 with the audition process for MasterChef. The research phase will be completed in August this year when the current series ends.
To contact Gaynor Nichols email [email protected]
In spite of the daily gridlock on Australian roads, it’s hard for many of us to imagine a time when cars won’t be so heavily relied on. But not for PhD candidate Michael Askew, who genuinely sees a future beyond the car – but only if governments change their one-size-fits-all approach to transportation.
“My thesis focuses on Workplace Travel Management [WTM] – also known as Green Transport Planning or Workplace Travel Planning,” explains Askew, who is researching within the Graduate School of the Environment. “WTM involves management and employees of an organisation working together to increase the efficiency of car use for trips to, from and at work. The broad motivations for WTM include environmental, economic, social and human health gains that accrue from minimising private vehicle use. Organisations may also experience direct benefits related to staff well-being, recruitment and retention, reductions in capital costs, image and organisational culture change.”
Essentially, WTM embraces a number of key principles such
as shifting away from the car towards train, bus, cycling and walking; more efficient use of vehicles, through carpooling and more fuel efficient vehicles; trip scheduling changes, to avoid peak hour trips; and increases in ‘non-transportation trips’, such as telecommuting and teleconferencing.
“For me, the key problem facing Sydney is the failure by governments to better understand the domains into which their policies are implemented and to consider the needs of the actors within those domains,” he says. “The environment into which a travel behaviour change policy is implemented is complex, so there is a need for a more holistic, systematic understanding of the domains.”
Askew argues that his research demonstrates that organisations are willing to consider adopting a WTM initiative, that employees are generally open to change, but that substantial work must be undertaken by governments to assist organisations with implementation and maintenance.To contact Michael Askew email [email protected]
hEy CAR! get back to the garage
shaping popular culture
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16 Quest
within the Department of economics PhD candidate Tzameret Rubin is exploring the factors that influence businesses to undertake technological innovation.
Rubin was first drawn to this research area after working for many years in engineering and marketing positions in the Israeli hi-tech industry, one that boasts many world records.
“when I came to Australia, I saw how different technological innovation is in these two countries,” she says. “For example, the number of technological business incubator firms is tiny compared with the hundreds in Israel. Also there is low knowledge commercialisation from Australian government-funded research organisations, in comparison to other OeCD countries, and very low research
and development investment in the Australian private sector.
“My personal interest in, and knowledge of technology and innovation, led me to think, ‘why not in Australia too?’ I was interested to identify and measure the factors that might influence Australian businesses to innovate.”
Unlike most studies of innovation that focus on the manufacturing industry, and in particular, knowledge intensive industries, Rubin’s study provides not only a prism over a range of industries and different methods of acquiring knowledge, but also an in-depth look at R&D intensive firms and their engagement with public research organisations and a study of technological business incubators – a
growing source for knowledge-intensive new firms.
“Across industries, innovation-related expenditure – acquiring technological equipment, innovation training for employees, and acquiring knowledge from external sources – all contribute to a firm’s probability to innovate, even if not conducting internal R&D,” she says.
“By using the innovation-related expenditure rather than the more familiar R&D measurement to proxy innovation effort, we improve our ability to predict a firm’s probability to innovate, in particular in the service sector, which is a growing sector in the Australian economy, yet to be properly analysed.”
To contact Tzameret Rubin email [email protected]
while the vast majority of parenting research focuses on mothers, clinical psychologist and PhD candidate within the Department of Psychology Jeanette Lightfoot, is
focusing on fathers’ adaptation to parenthood for her research.Her study looks at how attachment style affects the
development of a fathers’ relationship with his new baby (before and after childbirth), his psychological wellbeing, his relationship with his partner, and his experiences of parenting stress. It is being undertaken in parallel with a larger project being conducted by Macquarie University in partnership with IvF Australia and IvF Melbourne, which is examining how age and mode of conception affect the transition to motherhood.
“Starting a family is a time when men have to adapt as an individual, adjust to changes in their partner relationships, and create a new relationship with their child,” says Lightfoot, adding that in the past men have often been looked at in counterpoint, ie, how they perform relative to mums.
The study asked 159 first-time fathers aged between 28 and 61, and from culturally diverse backgrounds, to respond to questions about their mood state, relationships, parenting stress and coping strategies during their partner’s pregnancy and following childbirth, as well as their thoughts and feelings about their baby.
“In the past it has been shown that individuals secure in their attachments have better psychosocial outcomes, have more satisfying relationships, and cope better with stress, while those
more insecure in their attachment tend to be more anxious, more depressed, and have less positive relationships,” she explains.
Lightfoot’s research showed that while the more insecure dads certainly reported feeling more depression and anxiety symptoms, a more controlling and less caring partner relationship, and weaker attachment to their developing baby during pregnancy, following the birth their mood state had improved. However they reported experiencing more parenting stress than fathers who were more secure. Age seemed to have little impact on these outcomes.
To contact Jeanette Lightfoot email [email protected]
researchhighlights
thE busiNEss of tEChNoLogiCAL iNNovAtioN
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father’s day
studentprofile
Quest 17
studentprofile
he may Be PuttinG the finishing touches on his PhD, the research for which has earned him multiple awards and recognition, but Lurion De Mello says there is some way to go in analysing the dynamic interaction of energy prices.
He should know. In four years, De Mello has achieved international publication of seven research papers – some received A rankings – and two more are in the pipeline; written two book chapters; and attended 15 conferences. He was awarded Best Paper at the 2011 International Association for Energy Economics conference and received a Research Excellence Award from Macquarie.
De Mello’s project, Upstream and downstream hydrocarbon prices: crude oil to plastics, looks at the impact of the price of crude oil on the price of commodities such as petrol, diesel, heating oil and naphtha, and how this, in turn, affects products manufactured down the chain.
“Crude oil is broken down into many products through the refinement process so, naturally, the price of crude oil becomes a key factor in driving the prices of these refined products,” he explains.
Think petrochemicals – they are processed into polymers (plastic bags, containers, cling film) and aromatics (polystyrene, rubber, detergent); as well as the fuel used to transport the goods on our supermarket shelves.
“Most Australians see the impact of crude oil prices through transportation, which affects food prices,” he says. “Crude oil prices
can have a significant effect on low oil-producing countries such as Australia.”
De Mello, a Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship holder, has been employed as a lecturer in the Department of Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies, but plans to continue with his research.
“The dynamic interaction of energy prices requires further analysis using
more sophisticated modelling techniques popularised in the field of finance,” he explains.
His specialisation in petrochemicals stems from his time at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, but it was the minerals boom in Perth, where he grew up, that initially sparked an interest in the field.
Following an internship at BHP Billiton, he “moved on to the biggest of them all – crude oil and its impact on various economies”.
De Mello’s reputation in – and passion for – the field is growing, thanks to his Research Excellence Award, the application for which was submitted amid storms and broken phone lines from an internet cafe in his native India. He’d been planning his wedding with his fiancé, who had been living in Germany at the time, and who recently joined him in Australia.
“The award process made me aware of the high-calibre research being done at Macquarie,” he says. “I was very humbled when I was announced the winner. I would like to thank Macquarie University for having this great initiative as the recognition has encouraged me to pursue my research aspirations to another level.
“Macquarie is forward-thinking in its research, and the support in terms of funding for training and development was the best I could find in any university program in Australia.”
To contact Lurion De Mello email [email protected]
Already internationally respected for his research into energy economics, lurion De Mello was inspired by his Macquarie University Research excellence Award to take his research to another level.
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“Most Australians see the impact of crude oil prices through
transportation, which affects food prices.”
Deputy vice-chancellor – Research Professor Jim Piper and Lurion De mello
For the love of
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18 Quest
opinion
as we aLL knOw, the trail finally led to a compound at Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. The raid on the compound occurred at around 0130 on 1 May (Pakistan time) and was made more complicated by the crash-landing of one of the two stealth Blackhawk helicopters. Although the SEALs tried to destroy the helicopter before departure, there will undoubtedly be some loss of helicopter stealth technology to China.
Osama bin Laden, three other men, and a woman were killed during the operation. The deceased were said to be one of bin Laden’s adult sons (likely Hamza, some sources call him Khalid), a courier pseudonymed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier’s relative, and the courier’s wife.
There was, as expected, a strongly adverse public reaction in Pakistan, followed by a spate of revenge attacks.
The Pakistan Government had always denied the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, but there are suspicions that some senior members of the Pakistan military must have known about Osama bin Laden’s location. Either way, Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence was either complicit or incompetent – either is worrying.
From al-Qaeda’s perspective it was better for Osama to be a dead martyr than held and humiliated in American custody.
The Obama Administration may also have seen Osama dying at the compound as the preferred outcome. Osama alive at Guantanamo and acting as a rallying point or inspiration for Muslim extremists would have been an unattractive scenario.
The downside of executing the unarmed Osama was that it was clearly not the ‘justice’ claimed by President Obama. After the Second World War, the victorious allies went to great lengths to conduct war crimes trials. Due process was also later extended to Adolf Eichmann, Saddam Hussein and other politically-motivated mass murderers.
Claims by some experts that we should now be expecting terrorist revenge attacks in the West are not convincing, at least in the short term. Earlier counter-terrorism successes were seen as more a cause for celebration of martyrdom than a reason for mounting revenge attacks.
In most Western countries, including Australia, revenge attacks would probably take months to organise. The West’s security intelligence is much better than it was at the time of 9/11, and most terrorist plots are now being thwarted. There have been no terrorist attacks in Australia since 9/11 – with 38 persons arrested and 23 convicted.
Osama bin Laden was clearly living on borrowed time, and his execution at a time when the United States is doing it tough economically is a great morale boost for President Obama and the American people. It is being said that the Republicans are so impressed with President Obama’s counter-terrorism success that they are thinking of granting him full American citizenship!
The successful raid underlines that no terrorist leader is unreachable – even if it does take time. What it also demonstrates is that there is always someone ready to step up and take the place of a fallen leader.
Long-term resolution to terrorism campaigns is more likely to be achieved by political outcomes, than targeted assassinations.
Clive Williams is an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie’s Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.
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death of osama:Is the world safer?
“Osama alive at guantanamo and acting
as a rallying point for Muslim exremists would
have been an unattractive scenario.”
Osama bi laden may be dead, but is the world a safer place? Terrorism expert Adjunct Professor Clive williams believes political outcomes, rather than further assassinations, is the key to ending terrorism.
Quest 19
lastwords
macquaRie Receives miLLiOns OF DOLLaRs in funding each year from the Australian Government and other funding bodies to support its high-quality research.
And such is the quality, 80 per cent of Macquarie’s research activity was rated as being world standard of higher in the recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative.
Funding is vital to research at every university, says Louise Fleck, Director of the Macquarie University Research Office. Without it, research projects critical to our social and economic progress simply wouldn’t occur.
Projects such as the advancement of Wireless LAN technology, now a multi-billion dollar industry used by millions around the world, which was developed and commercialised by Macquarie researchers.
Or the research conducted at the $21 million Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, which aims to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, autism, dementia and schizophrenia.
And a project investigating the decline of the global honey bee population and its impact on the pollination of food crops, which is being funded by a grant from the Hermon Slade Foundation.
Funding researchMacquarie is one of the most respected universities in Australia in terms of its research output – think wireless technology and potentially life-saving discoveries in medicine. None of this research would be possible, however, without the significant funding the University receives every year.PH
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However, acquiring funding is extremely competitive, and Fleck is charged with increasing and diversifying the University’s funding streams to support its distinct and important research objectives.
She says the University’s competitive internal grant funding scheme boosts its research capacity, encouraging researchers to commence a project and then apply for external funding.
And together with the Enterprise Partnerships and Commercialisation team and the University’s faculty research managers, she is focusing on increasing additional support from local and state governments; industry, through contract research; international funding; and grants from professional organisations and foundations.
“Generally funders want to support high-quality research,” she says. “And Macquarie produces very high-quality research, which is demonstrated by our ERA results.
“By increasing our research funding, the University will be able to conduct even more high-quality research – and this benefits the community and the world.”
With the opening of the Macquarie University Hospital and associated research facilities, Fleck expects funding for medical research to increase in the coming years.
“It has extremely good facilities and we have extremely able staff, so we have a perfect environment for high-quality medical research.
“Right now we are awaiting word on an application to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation for a significant grant that would help support equipment to be used by the hospital and the medical school, as well as the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility which is based on campus.”
To contact Louise Fleck email [email protected]
“generally funders want to support
high-quality research.”
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• is interactive
• takes you beyond the printed story
• is the first step towards a new research community
ReseaRch at macquaRie univeRsity issue 2, 2011
Let there be light
Breathing life into medical research
For the love of oil
Death of Osama: is the world safer?
Egypt’s cyber revolutionARCHIVEof 18 6INDEX
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