What's On at UWA

UWA Enviro Fest aims to empower UWA students and staff to reduce their environmental impact, and increase their appreciation of the natural environment.

Each year Enviro Fest provides opportunities to indulge your interest in the natural environment and learn more about sustainable initiatives on campus. From gardening workshops, to live animal demonstrations to public discussions of important environmental issues, there’s something for all staff, students and their children. If you'd like to get involved with the Enviro Fest event, by holding an sustainability-related information stall or educational activity contact UWA Sustainable Development or the Guild's Event Manager.

With the added benefit of being held in common lunch hour, Enviro Fest '13 promises to be one of the year's biggest, most diverse, exciting, and unique events.

Image contrast arises in conventional X-ray radiography due the differential absorption of X-rays throughout the sample. Many objects of interest, for example, soft biological tissue, possess weak absorption contrast. Furthermore, by definition, absorption contrast is directly correlated with the radiation dose received by the sample. X-ray phase imaging was developed, initially using synchrotron radiation, in order to overcome the limitation of weak absorption contrast. This technique develops contrast based upon the difference in X-ray propagation times through a sample, which, in general, results in greater contrast than absorption based imaging. In this seminar I will discuss how X-ray phase imaging can be performed using conventional X-ray sources such as those used in clinics and give examples from a variety of fields including mammography, non-destructive testing, security screening and small animal imaging.

The Seminar: The femur of armadillos and their fossil relatives, the glyptodonts is characterised by a large third trochanter projecting from the lateral side of the shaft. The role of this prominent structure and the muscles that attach there is unknown. This presentation looks at the variation in the shape the xenarthran femur and explores the hypothesis that the third trochanter plays a role in regulating coronal plane bending strains in these strange animals.

The Speaker: Nick Milne began his research career in the 1980s looking at the uncinate processes of cervical vertebrae. He was interested in what role they played in the human neck and turned to comparative anatomy and function to try to understand these structures in a broader context. His interest in the comparative structure and function of bones has continued and collaborations with South American palaeontologists led to a fascination with armadillos and their strange glyptodont and ground sloth relatives. Collaborations with Paul O’Higgins in the UK have led to the application geometric morphometric and finite elements analysis techniques to try to understand aspects of xenarthran structure and function.

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled.

Due to unforeseen circumstances the presenter is no longer available to deliver this course.

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This course aims to provide you with an introduction to the facilities available in MS Excel from a statistical point of view. As well as an introduction to Excel, spreadsheet functions and graphics, it concentrates on performing basic statistical methods, producing charts and tables, and discusses the limitations of Excel when it comes to more complex statistical analysis.

Discount fees are available to UWA Postgraduate Research Students.

Book your financial advice appointment on campus at the University of Western Australia with a Unisuper Financial Advisor.Whichever type of advice you choose, your first appointment with UniSuper Advice is complimentary. If you wish to proceed, a fixed quote will be provided at the conclusion of the meeting.Contact Unisuper to make an Appointment

Building on the theme of the UWA Future Farm 2050 Project

The biggest issue facing humanity: how to feed 9 billion people in 2050 without destroying the planet. What science and technology is needed to meet this challenge?

Time: 1:00pm – 5:15pm followed by refreshments

Cost $40 + GST - RSVP for catering purposes by 2 April 2013 purchase tickets online at http://www.ioa.uwa.edu.au/industry-forum/

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1.00pm Welcome: W/Professor Kadambot Siddique, AM FTSE, Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair, Director,The UWA Institute of Agriculture (IOA), UWA

1.10pm Why are we here?: Mr Graham Laitt, Managing Director, Milne Agrigroup Pty Ltd

1.28pm Future Food and Health: W/Professor Peter Leedman, Deputy Director, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR)

1:40pm Food Security or Food Quality for Australia?: Professor William Erskine, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), UWA

1.53pm CGE animal food production: W/Professor Graeme Martin, Head, School of Animal Biology, Deputy Director,Chair of Animal Science, The UWA Institute of Agriculture

2.05pm Farming and Biodiversity: Mr Chris Curnow, Program Manager – Southwest Australia Land Manager Engagement WWF-Australia

2.17pm Energy Independence: W/Professor Dongke Zhang, Director, UWA Centre for Energy

2.30pm Valuing Water: Asst/Professor Nik Callow, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

2.43pm Soils alive and productive: W/Professor Andrew Whiteley, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

2.55pm Afternoon Tea

3:22pm Food provenance: W/Professor John Watling, Centre for Forensic Science, UWA

3:35pm Instant monitoring of food quality: W/Professor Laurie Faraone, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, UWA 3.48pm People/Rural Communities: Professor Matthew Tonts, Head, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

4:00pm Farmhouse Design for the Regions: Asst/Professor Patrick Beale, Chair of Architecture, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA

4.12pm Rural Enterprises: W/Professor Tim Mazzarol, UWA Business School

4.25pm Financial World View

4.38pm The Oxford Example and US Examples: Dr Annie Kerr, 3E Farming; Catherine Marriott, Influential Women,2012 WA RIRDC Rural Women’s Award recipient and the National Runner-up

4.50pm Summing Up and Discussion: W/Professor Peter Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)

5:10pm Refreshments

This presentation combines the Retirement Planning seminar with an additional presentation from a Centrelink representative. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from both UniSuper and Centrelink experts on key retirement planning and Centrelink issues. Members wishing to attend the seminar must register with UniSuper refer web site link.

This event is open to both new and more seasoned staff who would like to gain a wider perspective on the joys and challenges of supervision from an Education perspective.

Topics include: Supervising at a distance/Supervising international students; and Balancing the fine line between supervision and intervention.

BYO lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.

The Graduate Education Officers will outline the UWA rules on formatting your thesis as a series of papers. The advantages and disadvantages of this format will also be discussed.

The Seminar: Cyril will present data of the first field study looking at how energy balance and foraging efficiency vary as a function of various socio-ecological factors (dominance rank, group size, reproductive state, habitat etc.) in a folivorous/herbivorous primate. Energy balance of individual females in a wild population of mountain gorillas in Rwanda was measured using observational data of food intake and travel distances as well as measurements of urinary C-peptide concentrations. He also tentatively explores how gorillas respond to and cope with toxins in their diet.

The Speaker: Cyril completed his PhD degree in biological anthropology in 2009 at the University of Zurich/Switzerland, supervised by Prof. Carel van Schaik. His research was aimed at understanding the evolutionary determinants of multilevel societies in primates and included 20 months of observations of wild snub-nosed monkeys in China, complemented with comparative cross-species analyses. Subsequently he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig/Germany and conducted a field study on the feeding ecology of mountain gorillas in Rwanda between 2009 and 2010 in collaboration with the Karisoke Research Center. In April 2011, he took up a position as an Assistant Professor in the School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology, UWA.

His primary research interests include the evolution of primate sociality and the mechanisms that maintain social cohesion. His particular interests revolve around the evolution of “super-” or “ultra-sociality” which describes cases in which individuals of different social units interact and collaborate to varying degrees and in some cases form higher-level groupings such as multilevel societies. He is currently involved in ongoing projects on snub-nosed monkeys in China.

Special talk during Honey Week 2013

The Seminar: Advances in scanning geometries, detectors and computer vision are providing increasing detail in medical imaging, including dynamic 3-dimensional (3D) rendering allowing the user to view 3D structures of interest on a monitor. However, the interface between computer vision and pattern recognition by the brain has limitations. For example, when examining tactile objects rapid changes in orientation in respect to a light source provides multiple images for the visual cortex to ‘render’ for pattern recognition. The capacity to handle an object also provides tactile information. These limitations to computer vision are well known and considerable effort is being directed at developing virtual reality systems where the operator is immersed in the computer image in attempt to provide enhanced perception. These systems are cumbersome, slow and expensive. An alternative is to construct an accurate tactile model of the structures of interest. This is now possible with the development of rapid protypying systems where volumes rendered from 3D medical images can be processed into tactile models. Models are portable, can be sterilised, and mechanically altered. These attributes make them most useful as surgical aides providing detailed diagnostic anatomical information, as a means to assist with surgical navigation and trialling surgical procedures. For these reasons the Cranio-Maxillo-Facial unit at Princess Margaret Hospital obtained a rapid prototyping technology since 2002. This technology coupled with 3D surface scanners, reverse engineering software and haptic virtual clay tools provides a comprehensive surgical planning facility. This facility is now providing planning support for complex craniofacial reconstructive procedures for both paediatric and adult patients. This presentation will outline some of the in-house developments and workflows employed from diagnostic imaging, virtual surgical planning through to intra-operative navigation illustrated by case studies.

The Speaker: Mark is a graduate of the School of Anatomy and Human Biology obtaining BSc (Hons) and MSc by research. His primary research focus is bone biology with particular emphasis on craniofacial dental-skeletal dynamics. For the past decade he has been establishing computer assisted surgical planning facility in the Cranio-Maxillo-Facial and Cleft Lip &Palate Units at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. This facility is equipped with a range of 3-dimensional scanners; laser and optical stereophotogrammetry systems; haptic devices; 3D printer and polygon editing facilities. In consultation with oral-maxillo-facial and plastic & reconstructive surgeons Mark has developed workflows utilising these technologies to provide a comprehensive surgical planning facility that can render and fuse 3D medical images of different modalities to reverse engineer a 3D virtual patient, produce anatomical models, plan surgeries, design and manufacture patient specific surgical navigational aids. Most recently this facility has been developing spatially dense geometric morphometric synthesis of 3D faces that now can provide a statistical 3D rendering of normalisation of patient faces to be incorporated into the virtual patient environment to assist surgical planning.

The Seminar: The Vice Chancellor has called for “a full review of pedagogic purpose and practice in 2013, with the aim of introducing new pedagogies from the beginning of 2015” this aim was subsequently approved by the Academic Board. Unfortunately the primary driver for such change is often how we can do more with less. To plan for the future we need to investigate as many possible new ways of teaching as we can, in an attempt to maintain “pedagogical excellence” in a time of shrinking budgets. In some cases it is to explore new and exciting teaching methods, in others to “know the enemy” and understand the real costs and deficits of alternative teaching methods.

I will be describing the advantages and disadvantages of the strange 3D world that is “Second Life”; its transition from a den of iniquity where fortunes were made and lost on gambling, prostitution and dodgy banking deals (just like real life really) to a mature Web 2.0 environment used for educational and social purposes. I will cover the pros and cons of the environment for teaching, the implications of “virtual IP” and a “virtual economy” our plans for the “Virtual School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology” being built by Jay Jay Jegathesan and his team, and our links with the online medical school run by the University of Kentucky.

Participants are encouraged to attend in real life or, if they cannot attend through geographical or time constraints, to attend as their avatars in Second Life at Slurl.com/secondlife/UWA/13/9/28

The Speaker: Stuart Bunt is one of the last Professorial Fellows, Teaching and Learning left on campus. With Neville Bruce he introduced digitisation to histology, (taken so much further by Geoff Meyer) founded (with Miranda Grounds and Sarah Dunlop) the Image Analysis lab in APHB and (with Oron Catts and Miranda Grounds), SymbioticA, where he was scientific director for nearly a decade, he is CEO of the spin-off company Paradigm Diagnostics. A believer in universities as a catalyst for social justice and independent thought, Stuart is WA Division President of the NTEU, Vice president of UWAASA and was a senate member for 12 years. His research revolves around medical imaging, bioengineering and neuroscience with occasional forays into the theory and practice of bioart, pioneering, with the SymbioticA research group, the integration of “wetware” (fish neurons) with “hardware” (circuitry) to produce a prototype drawing cyborg known as “Fish and Chips”.

Through the UWA Health & Rehabiliation Clinic a variety of Clinical Pilates options are now available to staff and general public!

Clinical Pilates is a form of physical exercise that focuses on posture, balance, control, strength, flexibility, and breathing. It incorporates mat and equipment based exercises to optimise function, improve fitness and aid the management or rehabilitation following pain or injury. Using the experitse of Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology trained staff to tailor exercises, Clinical Pilates is able to ensure optimal gains whilst minimising risk of injury or aggravation.

Initial assessment may be required prior to starting classes. Sessions are available Mon-Fri at various times between 6am-6pm. Private Health Rebates May Apply.

Statistical meta-analysis deals with a variety of sophisticated statistical methods to efficiently combine the results of several studies that have a common target. In this course, we will describe the basic concepts of effect size for continuous measurements as well as qualitative attributes, combination of tests and estimates of effect size, tests for homogeneity of effect sizes, fixed versus random effects model of meta-analysis, combination of Gallup polls, meta-analysis of binary data, meta-regression, and publication bias.

MRI is an incredibly versatile imaging modality stemming from the wide range of approaches that can be applied to generate image contrast. While qualitative imaging is common in clinical MRI, increasingly quantitative methods capable of measuring molecular tissue properties are being exploited. In this seminar I will present an overview of my research focussing on the application of quantitative MRI approaches to measure and map the distribution of; 1) iron, fat and fibrosis in the body and 2) magnetic nanoparticles to enable cell tracking and biodistribution studies of therapeutic agents.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based techniques have revolutionized chemical characterization of materials and non-invasive in-vivo diagnostics, with pioneers garnering Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for NMR spectroscopy, and in Medicine for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This seminar will begin with an overview of my experience in MR. Examples will be included from solid-state NMR spectroscopy, micro-MRI (hydrogen fuel cells, rheo-NMR), small animal MRI, and human MRI. In the latter portion of the seminar I will present some recent and interesting developments from the literature that aim to achieve novel MRI contrast linked to underlying micro-structure or biochemistry.

Dr Daniel Procissi, visiting from Chicago's Northwestern University, will be presenting a series of preclinical MRI experiments which he has conducted in different areas ranging from neurology and oncology to hybrid modality imaging (PET-MRI). This overview of imaging research will be discussed within a conceptual framework aimed at identifying the practical, technical and scientific issues that one needs to address when attempting to establish MR imaging as a reliable, reproducible and quantitative tool for biomedical and biological research.

Each year The UWA Institute of Agriculture hosts an annual Postgraduate Showcase where selected postgraduate students in Agriculture and related areas present their research.

The Postgraduate Showcase brings together some of UWA’s best PhD students at an advanced stage of their research. It highlights relevant research and progress being made in the area of Agriculture and Natural Resource Management at UWA.

This afternoon event will be opened by Hon Ken Baston MLC, Minister for Agriculture and Food WA, and promote interaction and networking between industry representatives, prospective employers, funding bodies, UWA staff and postgraduate students undertakling research in agriculture and related areas.

RSVP (for catering purposes) by 27 May.

The aim of this course is to introduce you to basic statistics. It will cover descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations); data exploration; basic categorical data analysis; simple linear regression and basic analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The course is subsidised for UWA postgraduate research students.