What's On at UWA

Dr Piper graduated from The University of Tasmania, and received his PhD in Developmental Biology from The University of Queensland in 2003. His PhD, performed at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience with Prof Melissa Little, centered on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying embryonic kidney development. His first postdoc was performed with Prof Christine Holt at The University of Cambridge, UK, where he studied the mechanisms by which axonal growth cones navigate to their targets in the optic tectum of the brain. In his second postdoctoral position, with Prof Linda Richards at the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland, his work focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of neural progenitor cell specification in the developing cerebral cortex. In late 2010, Dr Piper took up a joint position with the Queensland Brain Institute and The School of Biomedical Sciences to continue his research into the mechanisms underlying neural stem cell differentiation during development and disease. Dr Piper holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2013-2017).

Gold Standard GAMSAT will be running a GAMSAT course for 6 consecutive days from January 28 to February 2, 2017. Focus on the most frequently tested topics in the GAMSAT. Learn GAMSAT strategies from a medical doctor with 6 years of GAMSAT teaching experience and author of the Gold Standard GAMSAT Textbook (available in your local uni bookshops). Small group sessions during breaks allow individual preparation concerns to be addressed.

A full day, proctored GAMSAT mock exam is also scheduled on March 11 to assess and strengthen your mental endurance, as well as test-taking skills, days before the real exam.

This is our 7th year in a row to hold live GAMSAT preparation courses on UWA campus. Ace the GAMSAT by learning from an experienced GAMSAT expert!

Dr Hon is currently one of the key members of the international FANTOM consortium. FANTOM, which was established in RIKEN over a decade ago, aims to functionally annotate mammalian genomes in large scale, with a focus on transcriptomics. Prior to joining RIKEN, Dr Hon was trained at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the University of Hong Kong, specializing in transcriptomics of eukaryotic pathogens and phylogenetics of viruses. Since joining RIKEN in 2014, he has been focusing on large-scale integration of high-throughput sequencing datasets for building a comprehensive transcriptomic atlas of the human genome. His research advances the understanding of the origins of non-coding RNAs in mammalian genomes and provides compelling evidences for their potential functions. Currently, Dr Hon is focusing on the up-coming edition of the FANTOM consortium, which aims to experimentally characterize the functions of non-coding RNAs in the human genome.

Have a chat with LEI's Managing Director Professor David Mackey. Meet the staff and clinicians at the new $5M Hi-tech clinic. Take a tour of our state-of-the-art Outback Vision Van. Try the simulator glasses that mimic eye diseases. Everyone welcome to learn about the special gift of sight.

The 2017 AMSI-ANZIAM Lecturer Maria Vlasiou will give a public lecture at UWA as part of the Mathematics and Statistics Colloquia Series. All are very welcome to attend.

Title: Queues on Interacting Networks

Abstract: We have all had the unpleasant experience of waiting for too long at some queue. We seem to lose a significant amount of time waiting for some operator to reply to our call or for the doctor to be able to see us. Queues are the object of study of queuing theory, i.e., the branch of applied mathematics that studies models involving a number of servers providing service to at least one queue of customers. Queues are an example of a stochastic process and a group of connected queues is an example of a network.

In this talk, we will give a brief overview of the area of stochastic processes, ranging from classroom examples to their impact on industry and technology. We then introduce networks with interacting architectures and look at different architectures through examples. The aim is to give an idea of the mathematical challenges that these interactions create and the importance of incorporating this level of detail in mathematical analysis.

Psychology Colloquium Tuesday 21st February 4:00-5:00pm in Bayliss MCS G.33, followed by post-talk drinks in the Psychology Courtyard (or, in bad weather, the Psychology Common Room, 2nd floor of main psychology building)

Presenter: Prof Martin Eimer (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Title: Face perception and face recognition in developmental prosopagnosia.

Abstract:

People with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) show severe face recognition deficits that typically emerge in early childhood, without any apparent neurological damage. It is still unclear which aspects of face processing are impaired in DPs, and in particular whether their face recognition deficits reflect problems in face perception or impairments at later post-perceptual processing stages. In this talk, I will present and discuss recent findings from studies where behavioural measures of face perception and recognition were combined with event-related brain potential (ERP) measures. These studies provide strong evidence that early visual-perceptual stages of face processing operate differently in individuals with DP as compared to age-matched control participants. On the one hand, the generic face-sensitivity of the face-selective N170 component to upright faces is preserved in most DPs, suggesting intact neural discrimination between faces and non-face objects. On the other hand, individuals with DP show atypical modulations of the N170 component in response to non-canonical faces (faces presented upside-down, faces with scrambled internal features, and contrast-inverted faces). These atypical N170 modulations are very systematic, and also appear to be linked to individual differences in face recognition abilities. Their presence suggests that face perception in DP is poorly tuned to the canonical features of prototypical upright faces. This may be the major visual-perceptual cause for the face recognition deficits in DP. I will also discuss the impact of this early perceptual deficit on subsequent face recognition processes in DP, based on studies that employed electrophysiological markers of detecting face identity repetitions or changes, and ERP measures of explicit face recognition.

Speaker Bio:

Martin Eimer is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Lab at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. His main research areas are visual attention and working memory, and face processing and its impairments in prosopagnosia. He has published more than 200 research articles, has held numerous research grants, and is a Fellow of the British Academy and the German National Academy of Sciences.

The Seminar: The goal of this presentation is to make the scientific and medical communities aware of the pressures to merge their efforts into developing business opportunities and intellectual properties. If one considers that scientists and physicians likely represent the top five percent of intelligencia in society, it does seem reasonable to call on this community to focus energies on technology development to support job creation and tax revenues for governments. This presentation will address some of these issues and concerns with merging academia and the business world.

The Speaker: Dr. Bloebaum was a pararescueman in the USAF and served in Vietnam. Upon leaving the service, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Lindenwood University. He was awarded the Rotary International Scholarship in 1976 and chose the University of Western Australia where he completed his PhD in Human Biology and Anatomy. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA in the Department of Orthopaedics. His first academic appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California (1980-1983). He became a Research Assistant Professor at Arizona State and Director of Basic Research at the Harrington Arthritis Research Center from 1984-1987. In 1987 Dr. Bloebaum moved to the University of Utah where he became Co-Director of the Bone and Joint Research Lab and eventual Research Professor of Orthopaedics, Bioengineering and Biology. He was awarded the Margret and Albert Hofmann Chair in Orthopaedic Research in 1996. His research interests have been in skeletal attachment of implants to bone, bone adaptation, biomaterials, scanning electron microscopy, tissue-implant interfaces, total joint replacement, implant forensics, osteolysis, and articular cartilage. He has directed a research team at the University of Utah to develop an osseointegrated implant system for warfighters and veteran amputees since 2005. He has served in numerous review panels (NIH, DOD, VA). His military decorations and awards include: Distinguished Fly Cross, Air medals (three oak leaf clusters), Vietnam Service Medal. Academic: Sirot Prize, Paul B. Magnuson Award, Clemson Award in Applied Research.

Futures Enthusiasts are people who are keen to be a part of the next wave of developments in higher education using technology and concepts to innovate learning and teaching practices.

This year we would like to extend an invitation to our gamut of enthusiasts to a monthly catered networking event at the Futures Observatory.

Every last Wednesday of the month across 2017 between 4-5pm, meet and share ideas with other education futures enthusiasts from the UWA community, Perth start-ups, industry or technology specialists.

Attending this monthly social event gives you the opportunity to:

*discuss an idea or concept with a specialist that could be part of an Education Futures Scholarship project,

*team up with other enthusiasts on projects to streamline costs, services and resources to enhance learning and teaching at UWA,

*find out about innovative developments in technologies to integrate and support your teaching practices, and

*enjoy conversations with like-minded people.

Given the broad range of specialist skills and knowledge at UWA, we hope these casual interactions can facilitate strategies to improve student learning and engagement as well as raise the profile of the Education Futures Scholarship program.

A public lecture by Hans van Ditmarsch, Senior Researcher, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France.

Consider this riddle: "A group of 100 prisoners, all together in the prison dining area, are told that they will be all put in isolation cells and then will be interrogated one by one in a room containing a light with an on/off switch. The prisoners may communicate with one another by toggling the light-switch (and that is the only way in which they can communicate). The light is initially switched off. There is no fixed order of interrogation, or interval between interrogations, and the same prisoner will be interrogated again at any stage. When interrogated, a prisoner can either do nothing, or toggle the light-switch, or announce that all prisoners have been interrogated. If that announcement is true, the prisoners will (all) be set free, but if it is false, they will all be executed. While still in the dining room, and before the prisoners go to their isolation cells (forever), can the prisoners agree on a protocol that will set them free?"

Dr van Ditmarsch's talk will present a solution, however his talk will mainly address such puzzles of knowledge in general. There are many others, such as the ‘Muddy Children Puzzle’ (also known as the ‘Wisemen Puzzle’), ‘Surprise Examination’, ‘Monty Hall’, etc. They often involve a (seemingly) paradoxical aspect making agents knowledgeable by announcements of their ignorance. There is a relation with the area in logic known as ‘dynamic epistemic logic’.

Hans van Ditmarsch is a senior researcher at CNRS (the French National Research Organization), and based at LORIA in Nancy, where he is heading the research team CELLO (Computational Epistemic Logic in Lorraine). He is currently an Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow at The University of Western Australia, working with Dr Tim French, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

10x Genomics meets the critical need for long range, structural and cellular information with an innovative system that transforms short-read sequencing technologies. The Chromium System supports comprehensive genomics and high-throughput single cell transcriptomics with its innovative reagent delivery system, set of algorithms and turn-key software analysis tools enabling the discovery of previously inaccessible genetic informstion at massive rate and scale (including phased structural variants, phased single nucleotide variants, and dynamic gene expression of individual cells).

The Seminar: Biologically active steroids are transported in the blood by albumin, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG). These plasma proteins also regulate the non-protein-bound or "free" fractions of circulating steroid hormones that are considered to be biologically active; as such, they can be viewed as the “primary gatekeepers of steroid action”. Albumin binds steroids with limited specificity and low affinity but its high concentration in blood buffers major fluctuations in steroid concentrations and their free fractions. By contrast, SHBG and CBG play much more dynamic roles in controlling steroid access to target tissues and cells. They bind steroids with high (~nM) affinity and specificity, with SHBG binding androgens and estrogens and CBG binding glucocorticoids and progesterone. Both are glycoproteins but are structurally unrelated, and they function in different ways that extend beyond their transportation or buffering functions in the blood. Plasma SHBG and CBG production by the liver varies during development and different physiological or pathophysiological conditions, and abnormalities in the plasma levels of SHBG and CBG or their abilities to bind steroids are associated with a variety of pathologies. Understanding how the unique structures of SHBG and CBG determine their specialized functions, how changes in their plasma levels are controlled, and how they function outside the blood circulation provides insight into how they control the freedom of steroids to act in health and disease.

The Speaker: Geoffrey Hammond obtained an MSc in Steroid Endocrinology from the University of Leeds, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Oulu, Finland. After postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco, he joined the University of Manchester to establish his research program with a grant from the MRC (UK). Dr. Hammond moved to Canada in 1984, where he held appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pharmacology & Toxicology, and Oncology at the University of Western Ontario. In 2002, he was recruited by The University of British Columbia and served as the Scientific Director of the Child & Family Research Institute until 2012, when he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences. Professor Hammond has had a longstanding interest in endocrinology in general and the ways that steroid hormones function in particular. Steroid hormones control normal biological processes, but are implicated in many diseases, including reproductive disorders, inflammation, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hormone-dependent cancers of male and female reproductive tissues. The way steroids gain access to their target tissues is poorly understood, but this process is influenced primarily by two high affinity steroid-binding proteins in the blood: corticosteroid binding globulin and sex hormone-binding globulin. These two plasma proteins bind the glucocorticoids and the sex steroids (androgens and estrogens), respectively. Through a combination of molecular biological, biochemical, and physiological approaches, Professor Hammond and his trainees have defined how these steroid-binding proteins are produced and function with respect to normal development and aging, as well as in disease processes. In recognition of his contributions to our understanding of extracellular steroid-binding proteins, Professor Hammond received the Society for Endocrinology International Medal in 2105. He has published more than 200 scientific articles; held several patents and has collaborated extensively with the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries.

Starting out with assessment can be terrifying. People often ask themselves questions like: How do I know how good this work is? There are such diverse responses how do I know which ones are the highest quality? How do I know if my marks match up to those of my fellow assessors? How much damage will I do to a student if I get their mark wrong? How much feedback should I give to students? What kinds of tone should I adopt? Is it more important to concentrate on telling the student about the things they have done wrong, or to give them advice on how to improve on the next assignment, or both? How am I going to cope with the workload? How do I set about designing a decent assignment for my module? How will I know if it is too easy or too hard? What kind of assessment methods should I use? Should I just stick to exams and MCQs or maybe try something a bit different? How risky would that be and what will happen to me if I stuff things up?

These are the kinds of questions we will address in this webinar, for those new to assessing in higher education, which will concentrate on matters including: Matching marks to criteria; Assuring standards; Ensuring inter-assessor and intra-assessor reliability; Effective Assessment design; and Giving effective feedback.

The session won't provide cast-iron solutions to all these questions but will provide support and practical advice to those new in role as HE assessors.

- - - -

Further information: The Transforming Assessment webinars are part of a series of free events covering a range of assessment and e-assessment topics. Sessions are hosted by Professor Geoffrey Crisp, PVC Education, University of New South Wales and Dr Mathew Hillier, Monash University Office of Learning and Teaching, Monash University, Australia. Further information on this and future events, recordings of past sessions, links to resources and participation/technical help on using the virtual seminar system can be found on our website at transformingassessment.com

Death and grieving are essential aspects of human experience and imagining. And yet, discussion of both remains heavily circumscribed.

In this public forum we will lift the veil and peer into the unknown with special guests Dr Brooke Davis, Dr Fiona Jenkins and Dr Jennifer Rodger. We will consider the nature of death and grief from three critical perspectives: literature, philosophy and neuroscience. We will consider the manner in which stories may be used to translate grief, the nature of death itself, the ways in which death shapes the lives of the living, and the impact grief has on our brains. Our goal is to spark a conversation about mortality and our relationship to it, one that we hope will encourage greater critical reflection on cultural taboos that constrain the lived experience of loss.

Speakers:

Dr Brooke Davis - Brooke Davis holds an honours degree from the University of Canberra and a PhD from Curtin University, both in creative writing. 'Lost and Found', her first novel, received the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Emerging Writers in 2016.

Dr Fiona Jenkins - Fiona Jenkins is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy, RSSS, Australian National University. She is the author of five books, including 'Love, Death and Freedom', a treatise on French existential philosophy.

Dr Jennifer Rodger - Jennifer Rodger is an Associate Professor and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at Experimental and Regenerative Neurosciences within the School of Animal Biology, at The University of Western Australia. She currently leads a research team investigating issues of brain plasticity relevant to brain disorders.

David Gresham is a Professor at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (CGSB) at New York University. Prior to starting his lab at NYU in 2009, David was a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University working with David Botstein on genome-scale analysis of copy number and nucleotide variation and the regulation of cell growth and quiescence. David completed a PhD in 2001 at Edith Cowan University with Luba Kalaydjieva in human genetics. His thesis research entailed identifying NDRG1 as the underlying cause of a recessive peripheral neuropathy and population genetic studies of European Romani populations. From 2001 to 2004, David worked as an Editor at Nature Genetics. The Gresham lab at NYU aims to understand how cells respond to the environment over the short term, through regulation of mRNA stability, and over the long term, through adaptive evolution. David serves as Director of Bioinformatics at NYU CGSB.

Developed in direct response to researcher enquiries about practical ways to involve consumers and community members in their research this workshop was designed to help researchers: • Increase awareness of the value of involvement • Develop understanding and skills on the ‘how and why’ of implementing involvement • Identify and address the barriers to consumer and community involvement You will learn from researchers and community members with first-hand experience of consumer and community involvement in research.

Be transported from the everyday in our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the finest musical talent locally, nationally and within the School.

This week, in our first Lunchtime Concert of 2017, student-led ensemble Reedefined Clarinet Quartet and special guests Voix Quintet will present a program of works for wind trios, quartets and quintets.

Free entry - all welcome!

Speaker: Gabriel Verret (University of Auckland)

Time and place: 16:00 Friday 03/03/2017 in Weatherburn LT

Title: Colour-preserving automorphisms of Cayley graphs

Abstract: A Cayley digraph Cay(G,S) comes equipped with a natural colouring of its arcs: the arc (g,sg) has colour s. It is an easy exercise to show that the group of colour-preserving automorphisms of the graph is exactly G. If the digraph is actually a graph, one can forget about the orientation of the arcs and colour the edges instead: the edge {g,sg} has colour {s,s^(-1)}. Determining the group of colour-preserving automorphisms in this case is much harder. This is the subject of this talk, with a specific focus on the case when the colour-preserving group does not normalise G.

Speaker: Rebecca Waldecker (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

Time and place: 16:00 Friday 10/03/2017 in Weatherburn LT

Title: Orbital graphs

Abstract: In joint work with Markus Pfeiffer and Chris Jefferson (both in St Andrews) I got interested in algorithms for permutation groups, in particular search algorithms that use partition backtracking. Typical examples would be algorithms that calculate the intersection of two permutation groups, a set stabiliser in a given group or the normaliser of a subgroup. We noticed that some algorithms could be improved by exploiting some group action, and this is where graphs enter the scene. In my talk I will introduce orbital graphs in this specific context and explain how they improve our algorithms. Moreover I will discuss in detail why, sometimes, these graphs do not help at all!

6, 7, 8 & 9 March 2017; 12:00pm - 12:30pm; Limit of 10 people per session

As part of our mission to engage all communities around the University, provide opportunities for learning and discovery and advance the capability of our NAO robot we engaged our own UWA Computer Science School to work with Ruby over the summer period.

Our four computer science students have worked hard to enable some of Ruby’s more advanced functionality, culminating these individual tasks the students were challenged to write and conduct a program for Ruby to host a Futures Observatory tour, engage with the audience (by answering questions) and narrate the tour between different exhibits within the Futures Observatory.

In 30 minutes hear about how different technologies are being used for teaching and learning, how the Centre for Education Futures is supporting innovative projects and engage with our exhibits during the tour itself.

Register for the tour via the Eventbrite link listed below.

The Seminar: Environmental challenges in utero perturb fetal growth and alter subsequent adult health outcomes. The role of the placenta and in particular, placental vasculature, in modulating these processes is uncertain. This imbalance in knowledge needs to be addressed in order to develop much needed diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for compromised pregnancies. Rodent models of decreased placental vascularity exhibit fetal growth restriction and retarded fetal heart development. Recently, we have shown that restoration of placental vascularity reverses the retarded fetal growth and cardiovascular development. We are currently working on understanding the development of placental vascular structure and how this alters in vivo placental blood flow and function. Ultimately, this work highlights the importance of placental vasculature in determining not just pregnancy outcome but long term health and disease outcomes.

The Speaker: After completion of her PhD at UWA, Caitlin Wyrwoll carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, UK with Profs Megan Holmes and Jonathan Seckl. During her 6 years at Edinburgh, she developed research interests in the significance of placental vascular development for future health outcomes. In 2011, she was awarded a British Heart Foundation Transition Fellowship at The University of Edinburgh. However, she was also offered a Lecturer position at The University of Western Australia, and returned to Australia. Caitlin Wyrwoll is currently a Lecturer in the School of Human Sciences at UWA and leads an enthusiastic research group focused on placental development and its influence on the fetus and future health outcomes.