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Feral Pig Impact on Wetlands in Archer River Catchment (Old ID 22226)
This project will assess and evaluate the health of wetlands and in channel waterholes within the Archer River catchment. This baseline assessment will provide data to compare future surveys following installation of feral pig exclusion fencing, and also proposed agricultural development in this region. The survey wiolo include assessment of fish, wetland plants, macroinvertebrates, water quality, and terrestrial vertebrate communities that occupy wetlands. The project will also include Traditional Owner education and training during this survey.
Grouper nutrition review (Old ID 26828)
A new ACIAR Concept Note is in preparation for the continuation of ACIAR investment in hybrid grouper aquaculture in Vietnam (FIS/2020/106). In parallel with the development of the Concept Note that will include a high level approach to nutrition research, a desk-top review of existing research is needed to prepare a targeted and practical research focus for the grow-out nutrition component of the project. The frequency of publication of peer-reviewed articles in grouper nutrition is ever increasing and understanding the current status of research is critical in order to maximise ACIAR investment in this area. The review will inform the detail of the experimental approach in the next ACIAR project, which needs to be planned in advance of the project start to maximise outcomes (possible start in July 2021). In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented further scoping travel to Vietnam in the short-term which will necessitate careful remote planning with proposed research partners to identify the most appropriate research systems and resource requirements in Vietnam and Australia for this research component (to be considered in time for resource requirements to be included in the Concept Note submitted in June 2019).
Improving Australia’s health and biosecurity through a greater marriage of infectious diseases modelling and genomic surveillance (Old ID 26942)
Emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance are among the greatest threats to the Australian health system, and current surveillance tools may fail to detect and mitigate infectious disease outbreaks in real time. This project will develop advanced phylodynamic methods (i.e. mathematical models of infectious disease transmission and pathogen evolution) to enable real-time surveillance of infectious disease outbreaks as they emerge and monitor levels of drug resistance.
Developing Bioinformatics Capability to Diagnose Infectious Diseases using Clinical Metagenomics (Old ID 27176)
Current pathogen identification techniques are limited in terms of their speed, accuracy and inability to detect exotic pathogens. Using an unbiased metagenomic sequencing approach offers an improvement over current practice however supporting bioinformatics workflows are needed to support clinical implementation. This work can have enormous global reach with half the world’s population living in the tropics by 2050, many with limited healthcare options.
Tilapia Biocontrol Project. (Old ID 27262)
Determine the susceptibility of two tilapias species present in Australian waterways (O. mossambicus and T. mariae) to TiLV and demonstrate the efficacy of TiLV as a potential biocontrol agent for tilapia in Australia.
Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership Seagrass Report Card Proposal: Project ISP011 (Old ID 29016)
This project will produce annual scores and report on the condition of seagrass in the Gladstone Harbour as part of the Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership. The project is a collaboration between Gladstone Ports Corporation, TropWater and GHHP.
Women's Action for Mums and Bubs (WOMB): A pragmatic trial of participatory women's groups to improve Indigenous maternal and child health (Old ID 23276)
There is strong evidence elsewhere that involving community women in decision-making about strategies to improve the health of mothers and babies is a cheap and effective way of improving health. The WOMB study tests whether community women's groups improve the quality of maternal and child health care and outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the cost-effectiveness and mechanism of action.
Sequestering carbon and improving sugarcane productivity by enhanced weathering of basalt (Old ID 23432)
Arresting the build-up of atmospheric CO2 is one of humanity's biggest challenges. In geological time, the weathering of rocks consumes CO2, which is then sequestered as limestone in the ocean, but the natural rate of this process is very slow. In this project we will determine the feasibility of accelerating weathering by introducing crushed basalt (a common and easily weathered rock) into the place on earth with highest CO2 production and potential weathering rates - topsoil in the humid tropics. We will also examine the effects on soil condition and crop growth, which are likely to be beneficial.
Plasmodium vivax transmission blocking studies in the South Pacific (Old ID 23455)
This project is aimed at better understanding transmission of P. vivax, the world's most widely spread malaria parasite. Using a newly established experimental platform that enables us to feed P. vivax infected blood to Anopheles farauti mosquitoes, we can start researching factors in human blood that determine P. vivax infection success, test new vaccine and drug candidates for their ability to block transmission and thus significantly advance science surrounding this neglected parasite.
Kimberley - Wet Tropics Wildlife on Virtual Reality (Old ID 23592)
This project will further develop 'Kimberley' the 3D virtual reality tree-kangaroo to the stage where the 'experience' can go live to the public at the Malanda Falls Visitor Centre. This project further extends 3D tree-Kangaroo with Virtual Reality and artificial intelligence.