Research Projects
Concurrent Validity & Client Acceptability of a Portable Mat for Clinical Assessment of Balance in Older Adults.
Carol Flavell
01 Sep 2024 - 01 Aug 2026
This is an observational study in a sample of 100 community dwelling older adults with varying falls risk.
We will report convergent validity of a portable, low-cost Balance assessment tool in reference to a force plate and two clinical balance assessment methods, and will include a study of client acceptability of the Balance assessment tool assessed using a mixed methods questionnaire.
Reliability and validity of salivary cortisol levels of healthy adults measured using a point of collection analysis method (POCSS)
Carol Flavell
01 Apr 2024 - 01 Aug 2025
This research will test out the reliability and validity of IPRO©, a collection and analysis method for human saliva. This method calculates how much of the hormone known as cortisol is present in saliva, and this is one of several indicators of how much stress a person is experiencing. IPRO© is a ‘point of collection’ method, meaning that collection and analysis can be conducted in places where this sort of testing has not traditionally been possible. By comparing the IPRO© method to a traditional laboratory-based saliva analysis method we hope to find out if this ‘point of collection’ method is valuable for future research and clinical use.
The presence and severity of episodic disability, and frailty, in people living with HIV in regional Australia: a cross-sectional study with a nested reliability and validity study of the HIV Disability Questionnaire.
Carol Flavell
01 Apr 2020 - 01 Jan 2025
This is a cross sectional study of people living with HIV. The study will report how much difficulty people living with HIV in a regional area such as Townsville have doing everyday tasks, hobbies, sports, their jobs, memory, emotion, or participating in social events. Together, these difficulties are known as disability and frailty. This research project will also test if the way these difficulties are measured in other parts of the world, such as north America and Africa, are suitable for regional northern Australia. Finding out the
difficulties that people living with HIV have, will tell us if changes are needed in health and community services to improve the lives of people living with HIV in the Townsville area or other regional areas of Australia.
Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the short form Episodic Disability Questionnaire (EDQ) among women living with HIV in the United Kingdom: A self-reported repeated measure study
Carol Flavell
01 Sep 2023 - 01 Dec 2024
This study is funded by a British HIV Association research grant and it will assess the measurement properties, specifically internal consistency reliability, precision of measurement, construct validity, and test-retest reliability, of the EDQ for its ability to measure disability experienced by women living with HIV in the UK. We will also aim to measure disability prevalence amongst the sample and report foundational disability data among women living with HIV in the UK.
Mind your own business, you are a pest! A study on workplace nosiness and its impact on employees
Kim Lim Tan
01 Aug 2024 - 31 Jul 2025
Workplace nosiness has been increasingly recognized as a detrimental factor affecting employee mental health and productivity. Studies have shown that intrusive behaviors lead to higher stress levels, decreased job satisfaction, and lower productivity. Despite this recognition, there is a lack of comprehensive research that systematically examines the antecedents, types, and impacts of workplace nosiness across different organizational contexts. This study aims to fill this gap by providing a detailed analysis of workplace nosiness and its effects. The research will contribute to the existing body of knowledge by identifying specific behaviors and practices that constitute workplace nosiness, demonstrating the direct and indirect impacts of nosiness on key employee outcomes, and offering practical recommendations for managers and organizations to address and reduce nosiness.
An integrated multi-omics approach to expedite diagnosis and management of inborn errors of immunity
Matt Field
01 Jan 2024 - 01 Jan 2028
Australia wide grant to develop national program to identify and manage nborn errors of immunity using multi-omic techologies
Transforming clinical pathways for abdominal aortic aneurysm through use of blood and imaging biomarkers
Matt Field
01 Jan 2023 - 01 Jan 2026
Transforming clinical pathways for abdominal aortic aneurysm through use of blood and imaging biomarkers
Colonial Commemorative Landscapes in Australia
Claire Brennan
11 Aug 2024 - 03 Dec 2024
This project contributes to the team’s research program relating to historical memory and digital mapping. Stevenson and Brennan have complementary strengths and seek to build their collaborative capacity towards a future ARC DP application. Stevenson is a feminist historian of social movements with prior experience in the digital humanities through The Suffrage Postcard Project, a digital archive of transatlantic suffrage postcards from the 1910s. As a PI on a current ARC Discovery Project about the history of archiving social movements, she is working on historical memory and digital archiving. Brennan is an environmental historian, specialising in European exploration and digital history. Brennan’s work on the Coral Discovery Project involves digitally mapping all the European scientific voyages to the Pacific between 1768 and 1834. This new research project builds on their co-authored journal article (Minor Revisions) under consideration with a Radical History Review Special Edition: “Memory Over Forgetting: Monuments, Memorials and Intangible Heritage.”
The team’s new project aligns directly with the Centre for Heritage and Culture theme of “storied landscapes.” Digitally mapping colonial commemorative sites strengthens the CHC’s strategic research about storied landscapes. The team’s previous map of Cook monuments revealed that Captain Cook has become an indelible figure in Australia’s commemorative landscape with little connection between sites of historical significance and commemorative infrastructure. This method of digital historical inquiry enables the team to uncover, interpret, and translate the past to create new stories about the history and legacy of colonial figures. Digital mapping will allow the team to clearly tease out the tensions between historical knowledge and historical memory across these storied landscapes.
Fusion of wearable and environmental sensors for remote monitoring of health and wellbeing in elderly populations
This project is funded by the Northern Australia Regional Digital Health Collaborative (NARDHC). This project aims to develop a smart home health monitoring prototype that improves upon existing technology by fusing information from multiple sensors. The proposed system will use non-invasive wearable sensors, non-contact mmWave technology, and artificial intelligence to monitor key vital signs, physical activity, stress, fatigue, and environmental conditions. The goal of this project is to prototype a comprehensive system for monitoring health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia, with particular focus on elderly persons
Machine Learning Method for Measuring Blood Pressure and Monitoring Renal Perfusion Non-Invasively in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
This project firstly aims to develop machine learning algorithms capable of continuously monitoring blood pressure in babies born very preterm, using heart activity waveforms obtained from low-cost and non-invasive photoplethysmogram and electrocardiogram sensors. The second aim is the development of machine learning algorithms for early identification of acute kidney injury risk and early diagnosis when it does occur. It is expected that this work will provide non-invasive alternatives for measuring key neonatal health parameters, in turn leading to improved patient outcomes. This This work also has significant potential to support critical care in low-resource and remote areas.