Current practice in academic workload allocation processes in Australia

Embarking on a large-scale research project to investigate aspects of academic workload management, it was first necessary to gain some understanding of current practice in that context within Australia. With that aim a pilot survey was conducted in 2013 that targeted Deans of Science on the one hand, and workload managers on the other. Survey questions covered three key areas related to workload management: models and rules; process and policy; and systems and software. Comparisons between different types of university, different allocation models for teaching, research and service components of academic workload, and different sizes of academic unit were explored. While the number of responses in absolute terms was relatively limited, and hence the outcomes were not always statistically testable or generalisable, broad trends were readily identifiable.  This paper reports on the method and outcomes of the survey, and describes how the information that was obtained has informed the development of an in-depth research project

Optimised Motion Tracking for Positron Emission Tomography Studies of Brain Function in Awake Rats

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a non-invasive molecular imaging technique using positron-emitting radioisotopes to study functional processes within the body. High resolution PET scanners designed for imaging rodents and non-human primates are now commonplace in preclinical research. Brain imaging in this context, with motion compensation, can potentially enhance the usefulness of PET by avoiding confounds due to anaesthetic drugs and enabling freely moving animals to be imaged during normal and evoked behaviours. Due to the frequent and rapid motion exhibited by alert, awake animals, optimal motion correction requires frequently sampled pose information and precise synchronisation of these data with events in the PET coincidence data stream. Motion measurements should also be as accurate as possible to avoid degrading the excellent spatial resolution provided by state-of-the-art scanners. Here we describe and validate methods for optimised motion tracking suited to the correction of motion in awake rats. A hardware based synchronisation approach is used to achieve temporal alignment of tracker and scanner data to within 10 ms. We explored the impact of motion tracker synchronisation error, pose sampling rate, rate of motion, and marker size on motion correction accuracy. With accurate synchronisation (<100 ms error), a sampling rate of >20 Hz, and a small head marker suitable for awake animal studies, excellent motion correction results were obtained in phantom studies with a variety of continuous motion patterns, including realistic rat motion (<5% bias in mean concentration). Feasibility of the approach was also demonstrated in an awake rat study. We conclude that motion tracking parameters needed for effective motion correction in preclinical brain imaging of awake rats are achievable in the laboratory setting. This could broaden the scope of animal experiments currently possible with PET

3-D reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian mummy using X-ray computer tomography

Computer tomography has been used to image and reconstruct in 3-D an Egyptian mummy from the collection of the British Museum. This study of Tjentmutengebtiu, a priestess from the 22nd dynasty (945-715 BC) revealed invaluable information of a scientific, Egyptological and palaeopathological nature without mutilation and destruction of the painted cartonnage case or linen wrappings. Precise details on the removal of the brain through the nasal cavity and the viscera from the abdominal cavity were obtained. The nature and composition of the false eyes were investigated. The detailed analysis of the teeth provided a much closer approximation of age at death. The identification of materials used for the various amulets including that of the figures placed in the viscera was graphically demonstrated using this technique

Trends in gel dosimetry : preliminary bibliometric overview of active growth areas, research trends and hot topics from Gore's 1984 paper onwards

John Gore’s seminal 1984 paper on gel dosimetry spawned a vibrant research field ranging from fundamental science through to clinical applications. A preliminary bibliometric study was undertaken of the gel dosimetry family of publications inspired by, and resulting from, Gore’s original 1984 paper to determine active growth areas, research trends and hot topics from Gore’s paper up to and including 2016. Themes and trends of the gel dosimetry research field were bibliometrically explored by way of co-occurrence term maps using the titles and abstracts text corpora from the Web of Science database for all relevant papers from 1984 to 2016. Visualisation of similarities was used by way of the VOSviewer visualisation tool to generate cluster maps of gel dosimetry knowledge domains and the associated citation impact of topics within the domains. Heat maps were then generated to assist in the understanding of active growth areas, research trends, and emerging and hot topics in gel dosimetry

Trends in radiation dosimetry : preliminary overview of active growth areas, research trends and hot topics from 2011-2015

The themes and trends of the radiation dosimetry research field were bibliometrically explored by way of co-occurrence term maps using the titles and abstracts text corpora from the Web of Science database for the period from 2011 to 2015. Visualisation of similarities was used by way of the VOSviewer visualization tool to generate cluster maps of radiation dosimetry knowledge domains and the associated citation impact of topics within the domains. Heat maps were then generated to assist in the understanding of active growth areas, research trends, and emerging and hot topics

University rankings and medical physics

4 page(s

Historical overview of the development of gel dosimetry : a personal perspective

This paper presents an historical overview of the development of gel dosimetry from the 1950s to the present day.9 page(s

The h-index, a publication citation measurement

2 page(s

Historical overview of the development of gel dosimetry : another personal perspective

8 page(s