Leading Disability Research and Workforce Development: A Western Sydney Collaboration

In this White Paper we draw attention to the potential of excellence in research and workforce development as a means, in part, to foster greater inclusion and participation for people with disability. We present a critique of the current limitations in research and workforce development and highlight the urgency to address such shortcomings to realise inclusion within our communities. We demonstrate that Western Sydney University is well positioned as a leading institution to address many of these concerns. This White paper showcases the innovative work of our team, and calls for seven key actions, to advance inclusion and participation for people and communities in Greater Western Sydney, Australia, and beyond

Gauging policy-driven large-scale vegetation restoration programmes under a changing environment: Their effectiveness and socio-economic relationships

Large-scale ecological restoration has been widely accepted globally as an effective strategy for combating environmental crises and to facilitate sustainability. Assessing the effectiveness of ecological restoration is vital for researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. However, few practical tools are available to perform such tasks, particularly for large-scale restoration programmes in complex socio-ecological systems. By taking a “before and after” design, this paper formulates a composite index (Ej) based on comparing the trends of vegetation cover and vegetation productivity to assess ecological restoration effectiveness. The index reveals the dynamic and spatially heterogenic process of vegetation restoration across different time periods, which can be informative for ecological restoration management at regional scales. Effectiveness together with its relationship to socio-economic factors is explored via structural equation modeling for three time periods. The results indicate that the temporal scale is a crucial factor in representing restoration effectiveness, and that the effects of socio-economic factors can also vary with time providing insight for improving restoration effectiveness. A dual-track strategy, which promotes the development of tertiary industry in absorbing the rural labor force together with improvements in agricultural practices, is proposed as a promising strategy for enhancing restoration effectiveness. In this process, timely and long-term ecological restoration monitoring is advocated, so that the success and sustainability of such programmes is ensured, together with more informative decision making where socio-ecological interactions at differing temporal scales are key concerns

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 3: Dual-Phase Module

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 3 describes the dual-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 3: Dual-Phase Module

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 3 describes the dual-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 2: Single-Phase Module

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 2 describes the single-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report Volume 1: Physics, Technology and Strategies

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE Far Detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 1 contains an executive summary that describes the general aims of this document. The remainder of this first volume provides a more detailed description of the DUNE physics program that drives the choice of detector technologies. It also includes concise outlines of two overarching systems that have not yet evolved to consortium structures: computing and calibration. Volumes 2 and 3 of this IDR describe, for the single-phase and dual-phase technologies, respectively, each detector module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), Far Detector Technical Design Report, Volume III: DUNE Far Detector Technical Coordination

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay -- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. Volume III of this TDR describes how the activities required to design, construct, fabricate, install, and commission the DUNE far detector modules are organized and managed. This volume details the organizational structures that will carry out and/or oversee the planned far detector activities safely, successfully, on time, and on budget. It presents overviews of the facilities, supporting infrastructure, and detectors for context, and it outlines the project-related functions and methodologies used by the DUNE technical coordination organization, focusing on the areas of integration engineering, technical reviews, quality assurance and control, and safety oversight. Because of its more advanced stage of development, functional examples presented in this volume focus primarily on the single-phase (SP) detector module

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report Volume 1: Physics, Technology and Strategies

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE Far Detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 1 contains an executive summary that describes the general aims of this document. The remainder of this first volume provides a more detailed description of the DUNE physics program that drives the choice of detector technologies. It also includes concise outlines of two overarching systems that have not yet evolved to consortium structures: computing and calibration. Volumes 2 and 3 of this IDR describe, for the single-phase and dual-phase technologies, respectively, each detector module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

Medicine in context : a model for community-engaged medical education

Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is Australia’s 3rd largest economy and one of the most diverse regions in the country with significant socioeconomic disadvantages and health disparities. Western Sydney University held extensive consultations during the inception of its School of Medicine (WSUSoM) to acknowledge the needs of local communities

It takes a village to raise socially accountable doctors

When one looks at the statistics of Greater Western Sydney (GWS), Australia’s 3rd largest economy and one of the most diverse regions in the country, it is easy to focus on the socio-economic disadvantages and health disparities. However, neither the GWS communities nor the Western Sydney University School of Medicine (WSUSOM, est. 2007) is a fan of such a ‘deficit lens’. Partnership between WSUSOM and GWS community groups and services has always been based on a strengths approach, focusing on how both parties could co-produce socially accountable doctors who will practice excellent clinical skills with a firm understanding of where their patients come from. The partnership began in 2005 prior to WSUSOM’s first student intake with a series of community consultations. It was mutually agreed from the start that WSUSOM would adopt a community-engaged learning philosophy which is embodied throughout the 5-year curriculum, led by a flagship program called Medicine in Context (MiC)