Student topics

Complications of pregnancy, including preterm birth represent the major causes of fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality and potentially affect childhood and adult susceptibility to both cardiac and metabolic diseases. Early detection of these disorders is, therefore, essential to improve health outcomes for mother and baby.Exosomes are small (40-120 nm), stable, lipid bilayer nanovesicles identified in biological fluids (e.g. in milk, blood, urine and saliva). They contain a diverse array of signalling molecules, including mRNA, microRNA (miR), proteins, lipids and …

Study level

Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Measuring visual acuity is in preschool children is challenging. In particular, young children will be prone to making mistakes in identifying symbols on eye charts, even when they can see what those symbols are, so called “false negative responses”.This project uses an established vision assessment protocol, EVA testing, and assesses the extent of false negative responses in this task. The protocol assesses the effects of an intervention, pointing to the target on a card, which may decrease false negative responses. …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Clinical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Vision and Eye Research

Outliers are anomalous observations in a data set that are "outside the norm" of what would be expected. Identifying outliers is an important part of exploratory data analysis and data analysis in general. It is often a challenging problem and calls for advanced methods and approaches, including machine learning-based tools. As methods become more and more complex, their explainability becomes more difficult and more important. This research project will look at all aspects of explainability and explore new approaches and …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Data Science

Chronic wet cough is among the commonest symptoms of chronic lung disease. In Australia, the most common cause of childhood chronic wet cough is protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB), a clinical entity we first described. It has now been shown to be a precursor to bronchiectasis, which causes substantial morbidity and mortality, especially from acute respiratory exacerbations. Lung inflammation in children with persistent chronic wet cough is an important driver of ongoing and progressive tissue damage, leading to bronchiectasis, highlighting the …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Public Health and Social Work

Research centre(s)

Centre for Healthcare Transformation
Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation

Machine learning cluster methods are common classification methods, but methods for assessing performance are limited as are methods for explaining how they work.  Exploring methods for both assessing and explaining performance are the subject of this research with application to real-world contexts with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Data Science

The challenge to keep global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2023). One major challenge is the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy to reduce emissions (Gholami et al., 2016). The share of renewable energy in electricity generation has increased to 28.3%, however, an acceleration of the pace of the transition is required to limit global temperature rise (REN21, 2022).New energy policies are needed to …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours, Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Information Systems

The ageing of the population in Australia, in line with other developed countries, is well documented, with the trend giving rise to an increase in incidence and prevalence of health conditions and complex health states for which age is a significant risk factor. As the skin ages, reduced moisture and loss of elasticity places the older person at increased risk of a variety of wounds such as skin tears and pressure injuries. In addition, the presence of multiple comorbid conditions …

Study level

Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Nursing

Research centre(s)

Centre for Healthcare Transformation

Digital and social media platforms provide new opportunities for public communication, and the formation of distinct publics and communities around shared interests and identities. Such publics may engage in political debate, popular media fandom, science communication, vernacular creativity, and other activities; but they may also be affected by, or actively engage in promoting, mis- and disinformation and other problematic content. Their activities are also shaped by the features and affordances of the platforms they use, from Facebook and Twitter to …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Communication

Research centre(s)

Digital Media Research Centre

Encompassed by the disputed term ‘fake news’, overtly or covertly biased, skewed, or falsified reports claiming to present factual information present a critical challenge to the effective dissemination of news and information across society.This ARC Discovery project in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre conducts a systematic, large-scale, mixed-methods analysis of empirical evidence on the dissemination of, engagement with, and impact of ‘fake news’ and other malinformation in public debate, in Australia and beyond. It takes a triangulated approach, combining …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Communication

Research centre(s)

Digital Media Research Centre

Barriers to health care for regional/rural residents often relate to the limited availability of local health services and resources and the distance needed to seek suitable specialised services. Wounds experienced in rural and regional areas are often dependent upon the types of employment available, recreational pursuits and risk-taking behaviours.The prevalence of non-communicable lifestyle related risk factors (such as obesity and poor nutrition) and the propensity for an ageing population in rural and regional areas, positions this population group as one …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Nursing

Venous leg ulcers (VLUs) make up 70% of all chronic leg ulcers. Unfortunately, around 30% of VLUs fail to heal in a 24-week period often despite evidence-based practice. Chronic VLUs impose a significant burden on people with these ulcers. Disease related distress has been explored in diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease but has not been explored in chronic wounds.Research has completed phase one of this study (secondary analysis of existing data), phase two (focus group to explore the findings), phase …

Study level

Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Nursing

The incidence of both dementia and chronic wounds increases with age, thus, given the ageing population, the overlap is strong.Clinicians report managing wounds in adults with dementia is a frequent and challenging problem, yet people with dementia are generally excluded from research into evidence-based wound care despite impaired cognition, high incidence of falls, immobility and incontinence, all of which are recognised risk factors for skin tears and chronic wounds.This project aims to investigate the evidence in regard to dementia and …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Nursing