MAID IN CHINAThe branding of a migrant population

DATA MININGHistory records its digital revolution

METALWORKERS UNITEDHydrometallurgy connects microbes and minerals

winter 2008

The Magazine of the Office of Research & Development

Radio Astronomy and the SKA

BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS

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R&D Now is published by Curtin University of Technology.

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Design: m3 design co.

R+D NOW WINTER 08

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2 Resources The Resources and

Chemistry Precinct

3 Global links for geoscience

3 Microbes in the mix

4 Radio Astronomy Curtin signals new era

5 Oil and Gas There must be a better way

6 Researcher Profile Dr Kathryn Linge

6 Sustainability Research rallies for sustainability

8 Researcher Profile Professor Linda Briskman

8 Cultural Studies The mobile maid

8 Science Education Hearts and minds

10 History The digital past, present

and future

10 Biosecurity Tracking the enemy

10 Health Wound care gets the treatment

12 Researcher Q+A Professor John Mackenzie

IN THIS ISSUE

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2008 has been a busy year thus far, with the announcement of a number of major initiatives and strategic partnerships with industry and government. Curtin continues to produce high-quality, internationally recognised research outcomes across a broad range of disciplines, and our reputation is apparent in the recent partnerships forged.

Curtin’s research reputation has also been reinforced by Professor Peter Teunissen’s success in winning a 2007 ARC Federation Fellowship, to

commence in 2008. It is the first Federation Fellowship awarded to Curtin and a significant milestone for the University. Professor Teunissen’s application was in the spatial sciences area and entitled ‘Theoretical and Model Strengthening of Future GNSS to Yield Improved Geospatial Information for Tomorrow’s Society’.

This edition of R&D Now features articles on a number of our major initiatives. I invite you to read about the Resources and Chemistry Precinct due to commence operations in 2009, with Mark Woffenden at the helm. This $110 million Precinct clearly establishes Curtin as the leading WA provider of education and research in the resources, science and engineering fields.

Also featured is the recently announced Centre of Excellence for Radio Astronomy and Engineering to be led by Curtin and joint partner The University of Western Australia. The commitment is part of a significant effort by the State to help Australia secure the world’s largest radio astronomy project – the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The new Centre will help establish Western Australia as a major science and engineering hub for the development and deployment of the SKA. Curtin’s leadership in radio astronomy has been further enhanced by the appointment of Professors Steven Tingay and Peter Hall.

In addition to these exciting developments, Curtin has recently entered into a $10.5 million partnership with Rio Tinto to develop a world-class innovation centre for strategic research and development in materials and sensing in mining. The Centre for Materials and Sensing in Mining will provide unique opportunities for Curtin’s researchers and research students to enhance

the most advanced mining systems in the world. Dr Vladimir Golovanevskiy will lead the Centre to being a global leader in the field of sensing and materials applications, to achieve a step change in surface mining.

Curtin has also recently signed an MOU with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) Collaboration in Tertiary Education and Research for the Benefit of the Resources Industry. Projects to be conducted under the MOU will build the capacity of the minerals and energy sector to respond to the current skills shortage. It will also facilitate the development of sustainable strategies for all minerals and energy-related programs.

We are also excited to have the renowned sustainability expert Professor Peter Newman and his team join Curtin. A major challenge for all sectors of business, industry and government alike, sustainability will be high on the agenda for years to come, and Curtin will be in a strong position to lead the way in high-level research into sustainable best practice across a diverse range of fields.

In the background of these developments, the Federal Government has instigated a number of interconnected reviews and initiatives impacting on the research environment – from measuring research quality, to ensuring access to research infrastructure and reviewing the National Innovation System. Curtin is positioning itself strongly to take advantage of the opportunities presenting themselves and to ensure that future policies support our further development of the types of partnerships outlined in this publication.

Professor Linda Kristjanson

Deputy Vice-ChancellorResearch and Development

Research and Development Overview

C

Resources

A new era for minerals and resources research and technology in Western Australia will begin in 2009, with the completion of the Resources and Chemistry Precinct development

at Curtin’s Bentley campus. The Precinct will consolidate Curtin’s role as Western Australia’s leading provider of education and research in the resources, science and engineering fields.

Highly respected minerals resource expert Mark Woffenden was recently appointed executive director of the Resources and Chemistry Precinct, relinquishing his role as director and CEO of the internationally renowned Parker Centre (the national Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions). With more than 30 years experience in the minerals industry, his knowledge of its operation and research needs will be integral to facilitating both fundamental and applied research for the minerals and resources sector.

The $110 million project is being funded by Curtin, BHP Billiton, the Chemistry Centre (WA) and the Federal and State governments. The Chemistry Centre, the Government’s flagship chemical science facility, will relocate to the Precinct in 2009 (from the Perth CBD where it has been based since 1950).

The main building will also house research groups from Curtin’s Department of Applied Chemistry – including the Nanochemistry Research Institute, the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre and the WA Corrosion Research Group. It will create a hub of expertise that will facilitate collaborative outcomes-based research in areas such as water chemistry and forensic chemistry. By 2010, the Resources and Chemistry Precinct will be a community of more than 300 professional scientists, engineers and staff in state-of-the-art facilities for chemistry and energy-related research.

The local research capacity for minerals resources is being further enhanced with the establishment of the Australian Minerals Research Centre (AMRC) next to the Resources and Chemistry Precinct. The AMRC is providing facilities for a number of groups involved in minerals R&D, including the hydrometallurgy group from CSIRO Minerals and research staff from Nalco Chemicals, as well as the headquarters of the Parker Centre and the Perth office of AMIRA International. Overall, the new arrangement will serve to strengthen the professional working relationships between Curtin, CSIRO and industry groups with interests in R&D for the minerals industry.

The Resources & Chemistry PrecinctU P D AT E

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The blessing and the curse of the connection between microbes and minerals has the attention of a Curtin research team, whose research aims to provide two major benefits for Australia’s mining sector: improved minerals processing and reduced acid mine drainage.

One of the most potentially efficient workforces operating for the minerals processing industry is the group of bacteria

that naturally oxidises insoluble metal sulphides to soluble metal sulphates. This process can be utilised to extract metals such as copper, nickel and gold from their ores. However, little is known about the contribution of the various microbial populations at work in mining heaps. At the national Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions, an uncommon research partnering of microbiologists and hydrometallurgists could achieve novel biomining technologies that improve the extraction of metal from sulfide ores and metal concentrates. The Centre’s ‘biohydrometallurgy’ team – which comprises researchers from CSIRO Minerals and Curtin’s School of Biomedical

Sciences – is working to improve bioleaching practices. The main benefit will be for marginal ore deposits that are not economically viable when using more traditional mineral processing techniques.To begin, an understanding of how the various micro-organism groups function within bioleaching systems must be gained by monitoring the diversity and population dynamics of the bacteria. At Curtin, the Molecular Microbial Ecology group, led by Dr Elizabeth Watkin and Dr Lesley Mutch, has developed a suite of molecular techniques that enables the tracking of micro-organisms in bioleaching systems. “It’s estimated that as much as 90 per cent of bacteria in the environment can’t be cultured, and micro-organisms from these extreme environments – highly acidic, high temperatures and heavy metal concentrations – are especially difficult,” Dr Watkin explained.“Optimised techniques will allow us to extract the total DNA from the environment and obtain a picture of the complete bacterial population. If we were to rely on the more traditional culture-dependent techniques we’d have a very biased idea of what was there.”The work serves as part of the group’s longer-term investigation of bioleaching proteomics – the study of proteins within an organism’s cell structure. Together with gene sequencing undertaken at Curtin’s proteomics laboratory, the aim is to develop biomarkers that specifically monitor functional microbial activity in bioleaching systems.

“Micro-organisms regulate their cellular structure and function according to environmental conditions through the expression of proteins; proteins can therefore provide useful information about a bioleaching micro-organism, such as its current metabolic processes,” Dr Watkin said.“When we understand the behaviours of the various micro-organisms, we’ll know which are the most effective at bioleaching so that we can manipulate the system to ensure these have the best opportunity to operate.”While the end-goal is to create mining heaps as optimised ‘bioreactors’ that deliver better rates of mineral extraction, Dr Watkin also intends for the work to help address the major environmental issues of acid mine drainage and acid sulphate soils. “Unfortunately, it is those same microbial actions that can lead to the acidification of water sources in the environment,” she said. “Once we know about the underlying microbial mechanisms in bioleaching, we can develop more countermeasures to the negative consequences, and remediation of acid-prone environments.”In late 2007 the biohydrometallurgy team won a Parker Centre award for its work. The project is also being supported as a CSIRO Flagship Project within the ‘Minerals Down Under’ category.“Dr Helen Watling and the team at CSIRO Minerals brought together our complementary skills in leaching mechanisms and complex molecular biology,” Dr Watkin said. “The addition last year of researchers from CSIRO Land and Water created a particularly strong group to focus on these specific issues for the mining sector.”

Earlier this year Professor Yigang Xu, deputy director of Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese

Academy of Sciences (CAS), visited Curtin to sign an MOU for collaborative geoscience research and training. Initiated by Curtin’s Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), the visit formalised and strengthened the long-term research ties between Curtin and the Chinese Academy.

TIGeR is one of Curtin’s strategic, high-impact centres that combines geology, geodesy and geochemistry research teams in a multidisciplinary approach to studying the Earth’s dynamic evolution as recorded in the geotectonic, geochronologic, geodetic and geochemical records. The ever-enhancing research relationship between Curtin and Chinese research organisations is indicative of Curtin’s strength in geoscience, and of the University’s capabilities for international research collaborations.

Professors Zheng-Xiang Li and Simon Wilde are part of the geology team at TIGeR that has strong ongoing collaborations with leading Chinese research groups.

“We’re visiting China in September this year to meet with our counterparts at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and three leading universities – Peking, Nanjing and Zhejiang Universities,” Professor Li said.

“It’s an opportunity to showcase our research strengths in geosciences and to expand our research collaborations with leading researchers.”

GLOBAL LINKS FOR GEO-SCIENCE Au

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microbes in the mix

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Professor Zheng-Xiang Li

The newly established Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) is bringing together world-class radio

astronomers, engineers and high-end computing experts to help Australia secure the highly coveted $2 billion international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

The formation of CIRA follows the April announcement by the Western Australian Government that Curtin and joint partner The University of Western Australia will lead the State’s new $2.3 million Centre of Excellence for RadioAstronomy and Engineering. A principal focus for CIRA and the new Centre of Excellence will be the development of pathfinder science and technology for the SKA – a much-anticipated innovation that will enable radio astronomers to study structures in the Universe in unprecedented detail.

CIRA researchers are already an integral part of a capabilities forerunner to the SKA: the construction of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a powerful, low-frequency telescope designed to study the early stages of

the evolution of the Universe. If Australia’s bid for the SKA is successful (a site in WA’s Mid West is one of two shortlisted by an international committee) the project will build an array of telescopes spanning Australia and New Zealand and connected by high-speed optical fibres. This new technology will offer unprecedented insights into the formation of the early Universe – including the emergence of the first stars, galaxies and other structures – and answer fundamental questions in physics and cosmology.

The experience of Curtin’s Professor of Radio Astronomy Steven Tingay is an important part of Australia’s SKA capabilities. Professor Tingay has world-renowned expertise in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) techniques that involve an array of telescopes linked to detect exceptionally weak radio signals from space in order to produce high-resolution images. Since arriving at Curtin in 2007, Professor Tingay has focused on advancing the University’s capabilities in radio astronomy. Former CSIRO scientist Peter Hall – who has been

strongly involved in the evolution of the SKA instrument’s design and optimisation – recently joined as Professor of Radio Astronomy Engineering. Five postdoctoral researchers have also been appointed and will join CIRA during 2008.

“Australia has always been close to the forefront of international radio astronomy, and it’s significant that both the Federal and State governments are recognising our capabilities and are resourcing our advancement in this area of science and technology,” Professor Tingay said.

As part of the national effort to secure the SKA project, Professors Tingay and Hall recently hosted meetings for a number of the world’s radio astronomy experts during the International SKA conference held in Perth. Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Kim Carr met with the SKA scientists at Curtin. Shortly afterwards he announced that the Government will strengthen Australia’s research base in radio astronomy by supporting (via the Australia–India Strategic

Research Fund) a collaboration between Professor Tingay, colleagues at Swinburne University of Technology and staff of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India.

Professors Tingay and Hall are now in the process of establishing the Curtin Radio Astronomy Innovation Laboratory (RAIL), an engineering facility for research, prototyping and fabrication of antenna and digital-signal processing instrumentation for radio astronomy.

“CIRA researchers will also focus on acquiring knowledge about the transient Universe through the discovery of short-duration bursts of radio emission from distant objects,” Professor Tingay said.

“This is one of the emerging areas of science for the SKA and pathfinder instruments such as the $100 million Australian SKA Pathfinder that is currently being built in WA by CSIRO. Establishing a new, leading-edge laboratory will be essential for the development of the novel instrumentation and software required.”

Radio astronomy

CURTIN SIGNALS NEW ERA FOR

RADIO ASTRONOMY IN AUSTRALIATHE CURTIN INSTITUTE OF RADIO ASTRONOMY HAS WASTED NO TIME ACQUIRING CAPABILITIES AND ESTABLISHING ITSELF AS A HUB FOR INTERNATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY RESEARCH IN WA

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Australia’s North West Shelf is a world-class gas province, although ‘sweet spots’ of liquid petroleum exist in small accumulations that would be

viable if they could be confidently identified.

The gas-to-oil ratio (GOR) at any drilling site may determine its economic viability. Determining GOR is therefore an important factor in the production and development plans of companies such as Woodside Energy. However, current GOR prediction methods for the North West Shelf are imprecise, mainly due to the inability to describe the intrinsic gas-versus-oil potential of source rocks.

In another example of their long-standing commitment to outcomes-based research partnerships, Woodside Energy and Curtin are working to develop a novel geochemical method that may determine whether particular source rocks are gas-prone or oil-prone.

Dr Daniel Dawson is a Woodside geochemist and a postdoctoral research fellow at Curtin, where he is focusing on fundamental research to understand the critical steps involved in oil and gas formation – a topic of ongoing international debate.

“Current basin modelling can’t estimate GOR ahead of the drill because it is not entirely clear what parameters will accurately predict the gas versus oil potential,” Dr Dawson explained.

“This is in part due to the current and somewhat vague chemical theory behind the generation of oil and gas over geological timescales.

“If we can prove the underlying chemistry of petroleum formation, we should be able to develop a better technique that determines if source rocks are oil or gas-prone simply by looking at existing subsidiary liquids recovered from drilling sites or even bitumen extracted directly from source rocks.”

At Curtin’s Department of Applied Chemistry, Dr Dawson is extending the work of Professor Bob Alexander, who has developed a new theory of petroleum formation that resolves some anomalies in the current theory.

“Based on the current theory, methane (the principal component of natural gas) should notbe as abundant as it is,” he said.

“We’re using well-established chemical principles never before applied to oil and gas generation, to establish the fundamental mechanisms of subsurface reactions that determine the composition of petroleum.”

The research team is undertaking a detailed examination of the hydrocarbon nature of reservoired petroleum sourced from the North West Shelf. To understand the underlying chemistry, pyrolysis experiments are being performed using hydrocarbons and various catalysts, in an attempt to reproduce, over laboratory timescales, reactions that occur in the subsurface over hundreds of millions of years.

The project was established as part of an R&D joint venture between Woodside and the WA Energy Research Alliance (WAERA). The endeavour is also supported by the Australian Research Council as a Linkage Project, demonstrating the importance of university–industry, outcomes-based research partnerships.

Woodside’s Principal Petroleum Systems Analyst, Dr Andrew Murray, is confident the project will help the company locate new oil deposits and minimise gas-only discoveries.

“The ability to identify liquid petroleum sources, as opposed to gas sources, is a key issue in petroleum exploration,” Dr Murray said.

“This is a specialist petroleum geochemistry discipline, and Curtin is one of only two Australian universities that provide postgraduate opportunities in the area to service industry.”

Oil and gas

there must bea better way

Curtin researchers and Woodside geochemists are working to develop an alternative to the current methods of predicting gas-to-oil ratios in petroleum source rocks. The end-goals are to reduce petroleum exploration risk, and help arrest Australia’s increasing dependence on imported petroleum liquid.

IMPROVING PREDICTIONS FOR OIL AND GAS

Sustainability

RESEARCH RALLIES FOR SUSTAINABILITYSustainable development is the major challenge of the 21st century, and universities must act decisively and help society through relevant teaching, research, consulting and community engagement activities.

Dr Kathryn Linge’s experience in ground and surface water chemistry has further enhanced the world-renowned capabilities of the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre (CWQRC). With a background in environmental water chemistry, Dr Linge has joined the CWQRC’s recycled wastewater project, investigating trace chemical contaminants in treated wastewater.

Funded under the Premier’s Collaborative Research Program, the project is addressing the lack of knowledge about ‘chemicals of concern’ (COCs) that may exist in treated wastewater, and their removal by advanced treatment processes such as micro-filtration and reverse osmosis (RO). The outcomes will be critical to progressing the Water Corporation’s water conservation strategy for Western Australia, which aims to reinject recycled wastewater into the Gnangara Mound aquifer (Perth’s largest source of groundwater) for re-extracting as a future drinking water source.

Dr Linge is working with research colleagues at the CWQRC, and together they will be characterising the chemical constituents of secondary-treated wastewaters from Perth’s three major treatment plants, tertiary-treated effluent from the Kwinana Water Reclamation Plant, and a pilot RO plant, purpose-built by the State’s Water Corporation and installed at the Beenyup wastewater treatment plant.

Using novel analytical methods developed at the CWQRC, the research team is examining treated wastewater for more than 200 compounds that exist in very low concentrations (for example, those from pharmaceuticals and disinfection by-products). The research is identifying which COCs are removed by RO and those that survive the process and will require continual monitoring and management in any large water-reuse scheme.

An important aspect of Dr Linge’s work is the implementation of a rigorous analytical quality control system for the novel analytical methods developed by the CWQRC for testing secondary and tertiary treated wastewater, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Dr Linge completed her PhD in 2002 in Environmental Chemistry at The University of Western Australia’s Centre for Water Research. In 2007 she left a postdoctoral position at Kingston University in London to join the CWQRC, which is recognised globally for research associated with its ability to identify and solve potable water issues.

Dr Kathryn LingeDepartment of Applied ChemistryFaculty of Science and Engineering

Researcher profile

wind

The importance of sustainability in confronting climate change demands a multidisciplinary approach from research institutions. Accordingly, Curtin is establishing the Australian Sustainable Development Institute which will operate within all academic disciplines and professions across the University’s four faculties:

Science and Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, and Business.

Director of the Institute Satis Arnold, who has 20 years experience in research policy and funding, will coordinate the integration of expertise within the University’s 50 research groups and oversee the development of multidisciplinary approaches relevant to sustainability. While his particular interests are in energy policy, efficiency and technology, the research priorities for the Institute are comprehensive.

“Curtin’s research capabilities provide an ideal foundation for a sustainability epicentre,” Mr Arnold said.

“The Australian Sustainable Development Institute will coordinate and grow the diverse activities across the faculties, and provide policy advice and leadership to meet the needs of government, industry and the community.

“Our initial priorities include water technology and policy, climate change adaptation, sustainable resources and sustainable food. Our attention will also be on Indigenous development, security, sustainable cities and regions, and sustainability in our part of the world.”

A key aim for the Institute is to link with government, industry and other research institutions, as part of national and global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“The local resources boom offers ideal conditions to collaborate with community and other stakeholders,” Mr Arnold said. “It’s serving to focus attention on issues such as energy and water usage, and the demand for skills, housing, transport and infrastructure and their associated environmental impacts.”

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SUSTAINABILITY POLICY is a multidisciplinary research field in its own right, and one of the pivotal research areas for Curtin is the Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, headed by world-renowned sustainability researcher Professor Peter Newman, together with Professor Dora Marinova.

Established in January, CUSP research activities focus on societal learning, policy development, and implementation of sustainable practice. The research team is taking a proactive approach to implementing CUSP research through demonstrations and partnerships with business, government and the community.

“The idea of ‘sustainability’ is now a key issue in public policy theory and practice,” Professor Newman said.

“CUSP research spans a number of areas, but the team has particular expertise in city policy, transport, coastal areas, new technology and community engagement.

“We’ll continue to facilitate social movements to achieve sustainability, and will be strongly involved in developing carbon-neutral businesses, households and university campuses.

“CUSP will be pursuing ongoing research on how carbon management can be applied in the planning and transport systems, which are rapidly developing as areas of research.”

In line with CUSP’s objectives, Professor Newman was a guest speaker at a recent public forum on carbon management, hosted by Curtin and moderated by Professor Linda Kristjanson, Curtin’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Development.

Also speaking at the forum were Mr Rob Hogarth, KPMG’s Melbourne-based National Partner in Charge of Climate Change and Sustainability, and consultant on carbon management strategies; Curtin’s Professor of Energy Economics Tony Owen; and Mr Doug Aberle, managing director of Western Power.

The four speakers promoted discussion on carbon pricing; the shape of future cities if energy use is reduced in both transport and building; the role of power generators in reducing emissions; and how business is adapting to a new reality.

Professor Kristjanson said: “Curtin convened this forum to discuss the big issues about carbon management and the changes that lie just ahead.”

“A nationwide emissions trading system may be in place by 2010, and swift but informed decisions on how to cut emissions will need to be made at all levels of government, by business and industry, and by individuals.

“Decision-makers will therefore need as much empirical research as possible. Both the science and the policy management of climate change are highly dynamic, and research will be central to the science and to policy.”

Professor Linda Briskman joined Curtin in 2006 as the Dr Haruhisa Handa Chair of Human Rights Education. With her strong background in policy, practice, research, advocacy and publishing in human rights – particularly the rights of Indigenous peoples, asylum seekers and refugees – she is positioning the Centre of Human Rights Education to be a national and international leader in human rights research, education and debate.

She is currently chief investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, ‘Caring for asylum seekers in Australia: bioethics and human rights’. Administered by Monash University, the project analyses ethical issues of health practitioners working in immigration detention centres, and explores questions of dual loyalties, duty of care, human rights violations, complicity and advocacy.

Professor Briskman has also been collaborating with Associate Professor Fran Crawford, from Curtin’s Department of Social Work and Social Policy, on a project supported by the Western Australian Ministerial Advisory Council on Child Protection. The research recently gave rise to a major report, Developing Therapeutic Communities for Abused Aboriginal Children and their Families.

A project of national significance is the ‘People’s Inquiry into Detention’, which Professor Briskman convenes on behalf of the Australian Council of Heads of Schools of Social Work. Primarily through oral testimony, the experiences of people held in immigration detention in Australia are recorded. The final report of the inquiry, Human Rights Overboard, will be published this year.

Professor Briskman completed her PhD in 2001, with an oral history of Aboriginal activists involved in the quest to stem the policies and practices of child removal. The research was published in 2003 by The Federation Press as The Black Grapevine: Aboriginal Activism and the Stolen Generations.

She adds to her extensive publishing record two newly released books, Social Work with Indigenous Communities and Asylum Seekers: International Perspectives on Interdiction and Deterrence, co-edited with Alperhan Babacan, from the Department of Law at RMIT University.

In 2007 the University of Hyogo awarded Professor Briskman a research fellowship to conduct a collaborative human-rights inquiry with Japanese scholars, NGOs and advocates. Her work has also been recently recognised with the prestigious Eileen Younghusband award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

Professor Linda BriskmanDr Haruhisa Handa Chair of Human Rights Education

Researcher profile

Science education

Cultural studies

the mobile maid

At Curtin’s Department of Education, Dr Elisabeth Settelmaier has been developing a ‘dilemma-based’ science and values learning program that aims to instill in secondary-school students

the capability to engage in and respond to scientific practice and sustainability issues. She first became interested in the development of values education as a science teacher in the 1990s.

“I was concerned about the emphasis that curricula placed on scientific content, and about the increasing need for discussion about ethical implications of scientific research and its uses,” she said.

“Science education clearly needed some reform; it needed to acknowledge controversial and ethical issues about scientific practice, and engage more with issues of sustainability.”

Dr Settelmaier’s doctoral research – completed in 2003 at the national Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC) based at Curtin – demonstrated that ‘dilemma’ stories are a useful pedagogical tool for initiating individual reflection and classroom discourse on ethical issues, as part of ‘values-learning’ for science education. The research also showed that the best outcomes were achieved in learning environments that enabled collaborative decision-making and empathic communication (as an expression of emotional intelligence) in small-group and whole-class discussion.

“The dilemma stories teaching approach presents students with realistic scenarios in the form of stories portraying ethical dilemmas associated with current scientific practices, and has them reflect and draw conclusions,” Dr Settelmaier said.

“The end-goal is to imbue students with socially responsible scientific literacy, enhancing their ethical awareness of the impact of science and technology on society and the environment.”

A program of professional development was subsequently implemented with 22 Western Australian secondary science teachers in 2007, with support from the Science Teachers Association of WA. Dr Settelmaier (Department of Education), Associate Professor Peter Taylor and Professor Darrell Fisher (both from SMEC) are now developing a three-year research program to trial and validate – in collaboration with the WA Department of Education and Training – dilemma-stories teaching based on Dr Settelmaier’s pedagogical model, with a special focus on sustainability.

“Given the pervading influence of science on our daily lives, science education has a responsibility to prepare current secondary students for their role as future decision-makers. To do this, it must include values education in addition to its traditional content-based approach,” Dr Settelmaier said.

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Associate Professor Wanning Sun has been investigating aspects of a major migration underway in China since the late 1980s. In particular, her research documents the wider

cultural and social behaviours instigated by the large-scale relocation of women from the central China provinces such as Anhui, to cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

The project was initiated by the Research Centre for Provincial China, a global cohort of scholars studying China provinces, who invited Associate Professor Sun – the director of the Media in Asia Research Group in Curtin’s Faculty of Humanities – to contribute research on the changes occurring within the Anhui region where she was born. The work began with a pilot study in China to determine what issues should be explored.

“Domestic workers and urban migration clearly were significant issues. Rural migrants are a continuing source of unrest in China’s cities, where they are viewed by the incumbents, and the media, as a population of itinerants that must be ‘managed’,” Associate Professor Sun said.

“I mentioned to someone that I was doing some research about the economic development of Anhui and they retorted, ‘Oh, Anhui produces

nothing but maids’. While the comment has some legitimacy, there is sustained negative branding being imposed on this population, which I thought should be investigated.”

In the late 1980s, when China’s economic surge began, the first batch of rural migrants to leave for the booming cities were women from Anhui. With reputations for servility and clever handiwork, they easily gained domestic work. However, Associate Professor Sun noted that these women remain branded as undesirables.

“Internal migrants are a population surrounded by fear and tension. There’s an assumption they are seductresses and are drawn to crime, and these negative representations are reinforced in urban and media discourses,” she said.

“Not only are they subjected to entrenched prejudices, they are also open to exploitation because they often work without the protection of labour relations laws. This is unlikely to change soon because in China these realms are separated from the public sphere, and the domestic space is particularly well hidden. Domestic labour is far more visible in countries such as Singapore and the Philippines.”

International awareness of Associate Professor Sun’s research is occurring through publication in

various interdisciplinary journals. China’s principal English-language newspaper, China Daily, has also printed articles based on her research. Most notably, the prestigious journal China Information will soon publish Associate Professor Sun’s findings, and her book, Maid in China: Media, Morality and the Cultural Politics of Boundaries, will be released in late 2008.

The three-year project was funded by the Australian Research Council. Associate Professor Sun is hoping the findings will lead to research with a stronger focus on the media experience of mobile populations, and an investigation of the connection between translocalism and transnationalism.

“Looking at the gender, class and power relations within this particular migration phenomenon will help identify congruences between two separate ‘migrant’ groups: labour migrants whose relocations reflect changing work opportunities within China and mainlanders who have left China,” she said.

“In an era of increasing global interconnectedness, I think it is critical we rethink our notions of labour migration, place and the media, and the relationships among them.”

hearts and mindsSocially responsible science education will provide Australia’s future leaders and citizens with the skills to evaluate the impact of science and technology on society and the environment as part of their decision-making process.

Contemporary China is a zone of rapid and sometimes problematic socio-cultural changes – not unusual for countries experiencing high-speed economic development. According to Associate Professor Wanning Sun, one of the most significant but under-explored phenomena in China is internal migration and its consequences.

Health

As an academic discipline, history sometimes bears a reputation as being antiquated and dull.

According to Dr Paul Arthur, a great deal of experimentation is occurring within that stalwart of the humanities, via digital approaches to recording history.

Dr Arthur has published widely on Australian cultural history and on digital humanities topics, and is pleased by the emergence of new processes and products in historical research – enabled by network media and database formats, increased accessibility to information, and constant innovations in methods of finding, presenting and sharing information.

“People tend to think that history stands back from the world of technology. That’s no longer the case,” he said.

“Some of the most useful, creative and enduring projects are large-scale digital database works by historians and involving IT experts, multimedia producers and information designers, to provide access to information about the past in completely new ways.”

Dr Arthur is based at the Australia Research Institute (ARI) at Curtin, where he has been researching how new technologies are transforming the way history is recorded and studied. Later this year he will take up a one-year research fellowship at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Each academic year the Center selects a new research theme; the theme for 2008–2009 is New

Media Literacies: From Gutenberg to Google which will examine the history, norms, and consequences of the adoption of communication technologies since the printing press.

Part of the focus will be to explore how academic disciplines have been shaped by new media. Dr Arthur’s project – ‘History in Motion: Digital Approaches to the Past’ – will examine the impact of digital technologies on historical studies.

“Digital history is diverse and covers many disciplines not previously associated with history – GIS (geographic information systems), for example, media arts and even interactive cinema,” he said.

“Some of the most interesting, experimental approaches use computational analysis. Historians are data mining to reveal more detail about times in history and uncover previously unknown patterns in history.”

To illustrate, Dr Arthur cites the recently launched Texas Slavery Project at the Virginia Center for Digital History. The project graphically shows patterns in slave distribution and slaveholders over time and across Texas, and is aiming to provide a searchable database of documentation for about 250,000 black slaves. It is the largest project of its kind to date in the US.

Dr Arthur is anticipating ‘the new humanities’ will soon reach a level of research sophistication whereby historians commonly work with IT professionals to present historical research. He is also encouraged by the wider public’s increasing involvement in digital history creation.

Acknowledging there will be concerns about the trustworthiness of user-generated content, he sees the shift from the static, final printed document to more flexible recording of history as a very empowering one for most people.

“People are becoming more interested in history now they can contribute to knowledge bases online. The interactivity now possible encourages people to connect with history – it’s a more democratic approach to recording history,” he said.

“The digital revolution is transforming the role that history is playing in society. It’s an amazing journey from the Gutenberg printing press of the 15th century to our digital, non-paper-based world.”

History

The digital past, present and future“The image of history as a discipline is being shaken up, and the value of understanding the past is becoming much clearer in the process. The historical dimension of research is permeating everywhere because the technology is allowing it to.” Dr Paul Arthur

A Curtin team of spatial scientists is working to ensure the capabilities of spatial science technologies are applied to communicable disease control in Australia.

Biosecurity

Wound complications frequently arise from a lack of continuity of wound

management, variation in clinical practice, and poor access to wound management services and supplies.

In 2007 a research team from Curtin’s School of Nursing and Midwifery began a collaborative, statewide wound-prevalence survey to establish the extent of wound epidemiology in WA. The survey of nearly 3000 in-patients across 85 hospitals showed that about 50 per cent of patients had a wound, and a significant percentage of those wounds occurred while they were a hospital in-patient (for example, pressure ulcers and wound tears).

“There are many variables with wounds – age and comorbidities, for example – but complications can be much more than a nuisance; they can have devastating outcomes,” Professor of Acute and Ambulatory Care Nick Santamaria said.

“In WA’s more remote northern regions, for example, diabetic lower-limb wounds can often lead to amputation.”

The Western Australian Department of Health recently granted $2.3 million to establish an IT-based system for the prediction, prevention and management of all wound types in WA. Known as WoundsWest, the project’s outcomes will enable the current state of wound epidemiology to be reported and monitored on a statewide basis. They will also include much-needed standardised assessment, treatment, documentation and clinical guidelines for health professionals.

The new system will enable general health professionals to log on to the WoundsWest server from any State health facility, to record and monitor the progress of a wound using digital imaging and an electronic patient record. The file will be accessible by all clinicians treating that patient, avoiding the need to re-document and re-investigate the wound when the patient moves from an acute facility into the community.

Professor Santamaria has recently finished overseeing the development of the new imaging system and documentation system.

“It’s the first time that a statewide wound telemedicine system has been deployed in Australia, and we want to determine the clinical efficacy and the cost effectiveness of the system,” he said.

“Importantly, the remote monitoring component of the WoundsWest system could enable clinicians to detect early signs of deterioration in a patient’s wound and intervene earlier.”

The project, which also involves Silver Chain Nursing Association and the WA Health Department, has resulted in an MOU for research links between Curtin and Cardiff University – the largest wound research organisation in the Northern Hemisphere.

“WoundsWest will achieve new models of wound care and, being the first of its kind in clinical-based research, it is being keenly watched internationally,” Professor Santamaria said.

A repeat of the wound prevalence survey is due to begin and will be repeated once more in 2009.

In Western Australia, new models of wound management are being developed to address a chronic issue in health care.

WOUND CARE GETS THE TREATMENT

Since 1917, several major outbreaks of Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVE) in Australia have caused

numerous fatalities and instances of permanent neurological damage. MVE is a mosquito-borne virus hosted by various water birds, and is endemic in northern Australia where small outbreaks occur every few years – usually after periods of heavy rain – and spread by migrating birds.After MVE was isolated in the 1950s, during an epidemic in Victoria’s Murray Valley, warning systems were established in Australia, primarily in the north, using sentinel chickens that are tested monthly for the presence of MVE antibodies – a process called seroconversion. Because MVE virus activity is known to be linked to environmental conditions, disease epidemiologists are now collaborating with spatial scientists to develop predictive tools for MVE virus outbreaks.At Curtin’s Department of Spatial Science, a research team led by Dr Robert Corner has begun collating land information, mosquito abundance, meteorological and

virus activity data to determine the correlation between MVE and environmental variables. Any correlation can be used to help model the disease and will hopefully lead to real-time predictive models for disease agents, vectors and hosts.“We can integrate spatial information with epidemiological models to develop more efficient approaches to estimate and map the distribution and abundance of potential host and vector populations,” Dr Corner said.“Remote sensing instruments, such as the MODIS satellite sensor, provide spatio-temporal coverage of various climatological and environmental variables. We can use environmental data such as day/night temperature, vegetation coverage, rainfall and flooding, and determine whether such datasets correlate with mosquito abundance and MVE seroconversion data.”Bluetongue virus (BTV), a disease that has the potential to inflict major consequences on Australia’s animal export trade, is also within the scope of the project. Targeting both diseases will involve a significant amount of fieldwork in

Australia’s north to complete terrain assessments and observe the insect-trapping process and the testing of sentinel birds and cattle.Funded by the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease (AB-CRC), the entire project is a good example of spatial science and disease epidemiology collaborating to understand disease ecology and the interactions between hosts, vectors and the environment.The work will continue until mid-2010 as part of the CRC’s ‘Advanced Surveillance Systems’ program, and also involves the Department of Agriculture and Food (Western Australia), the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines (Northern Territory), and The University of Western Australia’s Arbovirus Surveillance & Research Laboratory.“We need to understand the dynamics of host and target populations, as well as the epidemiology of potential disease threats, to be able to respond to emerging infectious diseases,” Dr Corner said.

TRACKING the enemy

NOW 11R&

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Professor John Mackenzie is recognised worldwide for his investigations into the movement of various zoonotic and vector-borne viral diseases. During his 40-year career he has edited three books and 275 internationally peer-reviewed papers and review chapters, and contributed to six major international textbooks. Although retiring from academic life, he will remain a viral diseases consultant with the World Health Organization (WHO), a role he has filled since 1984.

How did you come to specialise in the emerging infectious disease field of microbiology? Not a lot was known about human and animal virus genetics in the mid-60s, when I completed my degree in animal genetics. I wanted to work in a novel area, and one of the newest at that time was animal virus genetics. The best place in the world for this was the Australian National University, so I went to Canberra to work towards my PhD, which I completed in the area of influenza genetics, in 1968. I came to Perth in 1973 and continued researching aspects of influenza, including influenza vaccines and avian influenza. In 1982 I joined Professor Neville Stanley at The University of Western Australia in studying mosquito-borne viruses. In 1994, the year before I joined the University of Queensland as Professor of Microbiology, a totally new virus had appeared, the Hendra virus, from which a Brisbane horsetrainer and 14 racehorses died, and I became involved with the search for Hendra virus in wildlife. Then, suddenly, in 1995 we had Japanese Encephalitis in the Torres Strait, and then Australian Bat Lyssa virus appeared in 1996. So I began questioning, where do these things come from and what factors precipitate their emergence?

Is this what led you to establish the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease (AB-CRC)?I was having discussions with Dr Aileen Plant when we met at the World Health Organization in 1999 about the risks of emerging infectious diseases, and we realised there was a lack of research in terms of risks to Australia. With support from Curtin’s Office of R&D and the University of Queensland, we compiled an application for a CRC, which was established in late-2003, and I then planned the move from Queensland to work with Aileen at Curtin.

What were the outcomes of the SARS outbreak of 2003?Our global response network has certainly improved as a result. SARS was the first multi-country outbreak we’d had to deal with, and we did well mainly because people were put in the field quickly. Years ago when there was an outbreak somewhere – Ebola in Zaire, for example – you had many different agencies converging to investigate and help, and getting in each other’s way. In 2000 the WHO established the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) system, to deploy people in the right specialities for any given situation. It has about 160 partners, of which Curtin is one, and is a critical part of the global response to disease.

What are your other career successes?Expanding the statewide surveillance for mosquito-borne viruses, including Murray Valley and Ross River viruses. We developed a better early warning system for MVE and showed that these viruses remained viable after outbreaks in desiccation-resistant mosquito eggs, and that under the right conditions – such as flooding – they could hatch and outbreaks could occur. We also showed that genetic variation of arbo viruses depends very much on their vertebrate hosts.Working to control Japanese encephalitis was interesting; we realised the problem with JE in the Torres Strait could be reduced by moving pigs – which are the main vertebrate hosts – from villagers’ backyards to a designated piggery away from the village. We also found that the virus probably emerged in the Torres Strait after it had become established in Papua New Guinea.

What areas of biosecurity should Australia be focusing on?We should be more proactive in understanding the risks to both human and animal health in Australia that could arise from wildlife both here and overseas. Of the major novel diseases in the past 20 years, more than 80 per cent have come from wildlife. We should be linking in with health departments and laboratories in our neighbouring countries so we can help them build their capacity, and also for our own knowledge and information about outbreak response.

How do you feel about your career in the area of microbiology?It’s been fun. Really interesting. The problems you address are intriguing. For example, putting together the complex aspects of mosquito-borne diseases involves studying vertebrate vectors, so there’s wildlife work and there’s entomology, as well as molecular aspects to discover how viruses vary, and developing technologies for new diagnostic tests and so on. Science as a career is wonderful. Fieldwork allows you to travel, and you develop friendships with colleagues all over the world.

Researcher Q+AJohn Mackenzie

R+DQ+A

Centres + Institutes

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INSTITUTES

Australia Research InstituteCentre for Advanced Studies in Australia, Asia and the PacificDigital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence InstituteInstitute for Multi-sensor Processing and Content AnalysisInstitute for Theoretical Mathematics & PhysicsJohn Curtin Institute for Public PolicyNanochemistry Research InstituteNational Drug Research InstituteScience & Mathematics Education CentreThe Institute for Geoscience ResearchWestern Australian Biomedical Research Institute

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTRES

Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer ControlCentre for Developmental HealthCentre for Ecosystem Diversity and DynamicsCentre for Fuels and EnergyCentre for International HealthCentre for Labour Market ResearchCentre for Marine Science & TechnologyCentre for Materials ResearchCentre for Research in Applied EconomicsCentre for Research into Disability and SocietyCentre for Research on AgeingCentre for Rock CharacterisationCommunication Economics & Electronic Markets Research CentreCurtin Indigenous Research CentreCurtin Industrial Modelling & OptimisationIsotope Science Research LaboratoriesPsychological Wellbeing Across the LifespanResearch Centre for Applied PsychologyWestern Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research

GOVERNMENT-FUNDED INSTITUTES AND CENTRES

Centre for High Definition GeophysicsJohn De Laeter Centre of Mass SpectrometryWestern Australian Nanochemistry Research InstituteWestern Australian Telecommunications Research Institute

INDUSTRY RESEARCH CENTRES

ALCOA Research Centre for Stronger CommunitiesCurtin Water Quality Research CentreEnvironmental Health Impact Assessment WHO Collaborating CentreHousing and Urban Research Institute of Western AustraliaWoodside Research Facility

MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH CENTRES

Australian Housing & Urban Research InstituteAustralian Centre for GeomechanicsCentre for Exploration TargetingInstitute for Coal StrategiesiVEC – The Hub of Advanced Computing in Western AustraliaNanoscale Characterisation CentrePlanning and Transport Research CentreWA Energy Research AllianceWestern Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative CareWestern Australian Centre for Urban DesignWestern Australian Marine Science InstituteWestern Australian Satellite Technology and Applications Consortium

COOPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRESCORE PARTICIPANT

Australian Biosecurity CRCCRC for Coal in Sustainable DevelopmentAustralian Seafood CRCCRC for Construction InnovationCRC for Greenhouse Gas TechnologiesCRC for Landscape Environments and Mineral ExplorationCRC for Sustainable Resource ProcessingCRC for Water Quality & TreatmentCRC MiningCRC for Sustainable TourismDesert Knowledge CRCParker CRC for Integrated Hydrometallurgy SolutionsSpatial Information CRC

SUPPORTING PARTICIPANT

CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the EnvironmentCRC for Innovative Grain Food ProductsCRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management

Cite. To put forward thought-provoking arguments; to offer insightful discussion and new perspectives on topics of social, political, economic or environmental relevance; to report on new thinking.

The magazine of Curtin University of TechnologyIssue 11 Summer 2007/08: Sustainable tourism, Web 2.0, Resources boom.Distribution enquiries: 9266 2200

NOWR&D Office of Research and Development

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