Australian Academy Of Science Research Articles

Advancing the decadal plan for the science of nutrition: Progressing a framework for implementation.

In 2019, the Australian Academy of Science in collaboration with the nutrition community published the decadal plan for the science of nutrition. This article aims to review progress towards each of its pillar goals (societal determinants, nutrition mechanisms, precision and personalised nutrition, and education and training) and two enabling platforms (a national data capability and a trusted voice for nutrition science), prioritise actions, and conceptualise program logic implementation models. This process also brought together public health nutrition researchers to reflect on societal determinants of health, and advise how the next 5 years of the decadal plan could reflect contemporary issues. Two engagement events, in 2023, brought together experienced and mid- and early-career nutrition professionals for co-creation of implementation logic models. One hundred and nine early and mid-career professionals were involved. A revised model for the decadal plan pillars emerged from synthesis of all logic models. This new model integrated the precision and personalised nutrition pillar with nutrition mechanisms pillar. These combined pillars build towards the national data capability enabling platform and created new cross-cutting themes for education and training. The need arose for greater focus on respectful engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and sustained effort to build cross-disciplinary collaboration to realise the plan's societal determinants goals. A new alliance for nutrition science is proposed to become a unified advocacy voice and build trust in nutrition professionals. A programmatic approach provides a road map for implementing the decadal plan for the final 5 years.

Scientific eminence and scientific hierarchy: bibliometric prediction of fellowship in the Australian Academy of Science

Research metrics are known to predict many markers of scientific eminence, but fellowship in learned academies has not been examined in this context. The present research used Scopus-based citation indices, including a composite index developed by Ioannidis et al., (PLoS Biol 14:e1002501, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002501) that improves cross-field comparison, to predict fellowship in the Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS). Based on ideas of a hierarchy of the sciences, the study also examined whether researchers from natural science fields were advantaged in achieving AAS fellowship relative to researchers from fields toward the social science end of the hierarchy. In a comprehensive sample of top global researchers, the composite index and its components all strongly differentiated Australian researchers who were elected as AAS fellows from those who were not. As predicted, when composite index scores were statistically controlled, researchers in physical and mathematical sciences were more likely to achieve fellow status than biological scientists, who were much more likely to achieve it than psychological, cognitive, and social scientists. Researchers in basic science fields also had an election advantage over those in more applied and technological fields. These findings suggest that recognition by learned academies may be predicted by citation indices, but may also be influenced by the perceived hardness, prestige, and purity of research fields.

Periodic Graphics: Cosmetic chemical concerns

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning explains describes why some chemicals in cosmetics raise concerns To download a pdf of this article, visit http://cenm.ag/cosmetic-chem. References used to create this graphic: Erickson, Britt E. “ European Union Further Restricts Four Phthalates .” Chemical & Engineering News , June 26, 2017. Hogue, Cheryl. “ EU Proposes to Restrict Some Siloxanes, Formaldehyde, and Microplastics .” Chemical & Engineering News , Jan. 19, 2019. Jones, Oliver, and Ben Selinger. “ The Chemistry of Cosmetics .” Australian Academy of Science, Sept. 19, 2019. Reisch, Marc S. “ Restrictions Ramp Up on Cosmetic Preservatives .” Chemical & Engineering News , Nov. 28, 2016. US Food and Drug Administration. “ Cosmetic Ingredients .” May 19, 2022. Valsler, Ben. “ Parabens .” Chemistry World , June 9, 2015. A collaboration between C&EN and Andy Brunning, author of the popular graphics blog Compound Interest To see more

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Aspirational or obtainable?

The <scp>United Nations</scp> Sustainable Development Goals: Aspirational or obtainable?

Systematic review of the effect of additional doses of oral rotavirus vaccine on immunogenicity and reduction in diarrhoeal disease among young children.

SummaryBackgroundOral rotavirus vaccines have lower effectiveness in high child mortality settings. We evaluated the impact of additional dose(s) schedules of rotavirus vaccine on vaccine immunogenicity and reduction in episodes of gastroenteritis.MethodsWe searched Medline (via PubMed), Cochrane databases and ClinicalTrials.gov for randomised controlled trials from 1973 to February 2022, evaluating the immunological and clinical impact of additional dose vs standard dose oral rotavirus vaccine schedules. We extracted immunogenicity – proportion of children with evidence of anti-rotavirus IgA seroresponse, and clinical – proportion of children with at least one episode of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis, outcome data and used random effects meta-analysis where appropriate. We assessed the methodological quality of the studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The study protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021261058).FindingsWe screened 536 items and included 7 clinical trials. Our results suggest moderate to high level evidence that an additional dose rotavirus vaccine schedule improves IgA vaccine immune response, including additional doses administered as a booster dose schedule >6 months old; IgA vaccine seroresponse 74·3% additional dose schedule vs 56·1% standard dose schedule RR 1·3 (95%CI, 1·15 – 1·48), and when administered to children who were seronegative at baseline; IgA vaccine seroresponse 48.2% additional dose schedule vs 29.6% standard dose schedule RR 1.86 (95%CI 1.27 to 2.72). Only one study evaluated reduction in gastroenteritis episodes and found little benefit in first year of life, 1·8% vs 2·0% RR 0·88 (95% CI, 0·52 to 1·48), or second year of life, 1·7% vs 2·9% RR 0·62 (95%CI, 0·31 – 1·23).InterpretationAdministering an additional dose of oral rotavirus vaccines is likely to result in an improved vaccine immune response, including when administered as a booster dose to older children. Evidence of an impact on diarrhoeal disease is needed before additional dose rotavirus vaccine schedules can be recommended as vaccine policy.FundingBM was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatrics and Child Health Division, and the Australian Academy of Science.

Australian academy of science 'fenner conference on the environment' 'exceptional times, exceptional plants'

Australian academy of science 'fenner conference on the environment' 'exceptional times, exceptional plants'

Editorial: Biographical Memoirs, Volume 69

Editorial: Biographical Memoirs, Volume 69

168-LB: Prediction for Risk-Stratified Care for Women with Gestational Diabetes: The PeRSonal GDM Study

Objective: To develop and validate a prediction model for adverse pregnancy outcomes at the time of gestational diabetes (GDM) diagnosis to stratify care. Research Design and Methods: A prediction model development and validation study was conducted on data from a retrospective population-based study. The outcome to be predicted was a composite for adverse pregnancy outcome: hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, large-for-gestational (LGA) age neonate, neonatal hypoglycaemia requiring intravenous therapy, shoulder dystocia, perinatal death, neonatal bone fracture and nerve palsy. Results: Predictors of the composite adverse pregnancy outcome were: fasting and 1 hour glucose from the diagnostic OGTT, gestational age of GDM diagnosis, previous macrosomia, previous pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, previous LGA, ethnicity, weight at GDM diagnosis and parity. The apparent performance of the model was reasonable: c-statistic was 0.691 (95% CI, 0.662 - 0.720) and the calibration plot showed near perfect agreement between predicted and observed risks (Figure 1). Conclusions: A promising prediction model for adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with GDM was developed. Model estimation using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator method is currently underway to correct for over-optimism. External validation and decision curve analysis will determine suitability for clinical application. Disclosure S. Cooray: None. J. Boyle: None. G. Soldatos: None. J. Zamora: None. B.M. Fernandez-Felix: None. J. Allotey: None. S. Thangaratinam: None. H. Teede: Other Relationship; Self; Roche Diagnostics France. Funding National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1151242); Australian Academy of Science; Diabetes Australia Research Program; Medical Research Future Fund of Australia; Australian Government Department of Education and Training (7167_2019)

What constitutes discovery? An analysis of published interviews with fiction writers and biomedical scientists

ABSTRACT Literary texts reveal aspects of lived experience, historical reality and subjectivity. In Uses of Literature, Rita Felski (2008) argues that they therefore take part in practices of knowing. In the following paper, writers’ recognition of moments of discovery as described in The Paris Review Interviews is contrasted with biomedical scientists’ discussions of their salient discoveries in interviews from the Australian Academy of Science’s website. While writing in the biomedical sciences has long been assumed to consist of ‘writing up’ results established in a laboratory, some research into scientific writing suggests that the process of writing itself clarifies scientists’ thinking. The following paper compares interviews with writers and interviews with scientists using an online text analysis tool, Voyant. It asks how the conceptualisation of discoveries made by biomedical scientists differs from or aligns with notions of discovery among fiction writers, and what role the interview process plays in revealing how writers and scientists write. Long-held assumptions about writers’ and scientists’ practices affect approaches by interviewers to their subjects, yet analysis of existing interviews demonstrates how discoveries emerge in the fiction writing process; in contrast, interview questions asked of scientists likely obscure the role of writing in their work.

An exploration of perceptions of gender equity among SAGE Athena SWAN self-assessment team members in a regional Australian university

ABSTRACT Gender inequality in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) is well documented internationally. The Athena SWAN (AS) Charter was launched in the UK in 2005 to provide an impetus for positive cultural and structural changes to advance gender equality in UK universities. The Australian pilot of the AS Charter began in 2015 and is overseen by the Australian Academy of Sciences. Despite extensive engagement with AS over the last 15 years in the UK and more recently in Australia, qualitative research on the awards application process and its impact on AS Self-Assessment Team (SAT) members is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, we undertook a qualitative interview study examining how gender and gender equity are operationalised and understood by SAT members in the first year of an AS pilot at a regional Australian university. Findings indicate key gender differences in SAT members’ motivations for AS participation which, we argue, potentially translates into unequal gendered workload distributions on the SAT. Although AS is positioned as a key mechanism for addressing inequality in STEMM broadly, this study suggests that the initiative’s impacts in Australia risk being undermined by its unintentional reproduction of gender inequality in the academic workforce.

David Roderick Curtis 1927–2017

David Curtis was a pioneer in the identification of excitatory and inhibitory transmitters released at synapses in the central nervous system. He made major contributions to the identification of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) and glycine as inhibitory transmitters released at inhibitory synapses. His work laid the foundation for the subsequent acceptance that L-glutamate was the major excitatory transmitter. David’s scientific work led to him receiving many accolades and honours, including Fellowships of the Australian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and a Companion of the Order of Australia.

An introduction to the CSIRO Oral History Collection

This paper describes a project to record specialised oral histories of key individuals involved with Australia’s principal scientific research organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The oral histories are intended to complement official governance documents in a larger project to write a history of CSIRO. Oral histories typically include perspectives on family backgrounds and childhood, professional training and career histories. Of particular interest in these interviews is the involvement of interviewees in the management of CSIRO and their reflections on the place of CSIRO in the Australian and international scientific environments. The interviews were conducted mainly by two of the authors (Spurling and Healy), both of whom were well known to the interviewees because they were themselves senior managers in CSIRO and familiar with the topics discussed. These histories are intended to illuminate important personal factors that have influenced decision-making in CSIRO. Also covered are plans to use other collections of interview materials in the CSIRO History Project (CHP), including those conducted by CSIRO historian Boris Schedvin, the Australian Academy of Science and the National Library of Australia. Details are provided of preparations for interviews, recording and transcription and preparation of materials for public access through CSIROpedia.

Feral horse impacts: The Kosciuszko Science Conference, Thursday 8 November 2018, Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra

Feral horse impacts: The Kosciuszko Science Conference, Thursday 8 November 2018, Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra

Corrigendum to: An introduction to the CSIRO Oral History Collection

This paper describes a project to record specialised oral histories of key individuals involved with Australia's principal scientific research organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The oral histories are intended to complement official governance documents in a larger project to write a history of CSIRO. Oral histories typically include perspectives on family backgrounds and childhood, professional training and career histories. Of particular interest in these interviews is the involvement of interviewees in the management of CSIRO and their reflections on the place of CSIRO in the Australian and international scientific environments. The interviews were conducted mainly by two of the authors (Spurling and Healy), both of whom were well known to the interviewees because they were themselves senior managers in CSIRO and familiar with the topics discussed. These histories are intended to illuminate important personal factors that have influenced decision-making in CSIRO. Also covered are plans to use other collections of interview materials in the CSIRO History Project (CHP), including those conducted by CSIRO historian Boris Schedvin, the Australian Academy of Science and the National Library of Australia. Details are provided of preparations for interviews, recording and transcription and preparation of materials for public access through CSIROpedia.

Science and evolving community knowledge and opinion on feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park

Science and evolving community knowledge and opinion on feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park

Public-Private Partnership as Timely Innovation Factor of the USA

PPP (public-private partnership) is traditionally considered as a supplementary tool of spurring economic activity in specific areas. But in innovations such a union proves to become especially vital in modern situation of NBIC-revolution (Industrial Revolution 4.0). The article examines why and how a Network of Radical Innovation PPPs in USA (Manufacturing USATM) became the major zest of Obama’s economic policy and what can be done for their more active development under President D. Trump, should such a will become real under his rule. As shown below, the Manufacturing USA Network creates basis for Greenfield birth and/or sprouting of new NBIC-technologies through traditional industrial clusters, reviving their most perspective segments and elements and thus giving chances for new sustainable competitive growth of USA economy within global market. Notwithstanding general assumption of US national innovation system as decentralized and based on private innovation entrepreneurship (corporations), contemporary economic reality gives little chance for US firms to be competitive in cutting- edge technologies of the future without pre-competitive cooperation with each-others, with the State and with academic sector (research universities) using smart PPP models. Radical innovation PPPs (RIPPPs), thus, are turning into indispensable new element of US innovation mechanism. Perspectives of US innovation and industrial system without RIPPPs look gloomy as without joint federal and academic support US-based corporations (both transnational corporations and nationally-oriented firms) cannot timely obtain substantial sustainable competitive technological advantage over their foreign counterparts. Usage of PPP tool is not uncommon for America as back in 1987 USA established world’s first Innovation PPP called SEMATECH aimed at fostering semiconductor industry in face of Japan growing global leadership in semiconductors. But today such cooperation is needed throughout a bunch of mutually-dependent and interconnected NBIC- technologies among which IT is only a separate one. The article shows that RIPPP system has both theoretical, pragmatic and political aspects and US leading parties do not coincide on this important subject. Author proves that RIPPP is in the interest of all sectors of economy as RIPPPs develop mainly radical general- purpose technologies (as, for example, was ICT-technology for USA in 1980-1990). Notwithstanding that no progress yet made in Innovation PPPs by administration of D. Trump, Manufacturing USA net grows and new international innovation partnerships with US participation demonstrate growing internation al importance of such cooperation: BRAIN Initiative declared at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra in December 2017 by representatives of the United States, Australia, Europe, Japan and Korea is declared to unite USA with major countries of former Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement, TPP (Including USA, Australia, Japan, Korea) notwithstanding the fact that D. Trump forced USA to leave TPP in 2017. This International RIPPP is the first example of precompetitive cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) field. International RIPPPs tend to form an important new node in global innovation system.

Microhabitat selectivity shapes the seascape ecology of a carnivorous macroalgae-associated tropical fish

L.N.W. was supported by an Honours Scholarship from the Australian National University (ANU). Funding was provided by the Australian Academy of Science (Thomas Davies Research Award to C.J.F.), the Research School of Biology at ANU and a Julian E. Tenison Woods Award to L.N.W. from the Linnean Society of NSW.

George William Kenneth 'Ken' Cavill 1922–2017

Ken Cavill knew from his high school years that his career lay in science. Whilst completing his Bachelor of Science at the University of Sydney he chose to focus on organic chemistry and made his academic career in that field. Ken gained his PhD at Liverpool University in England in 1949 and was awarded a DSc from that university in 1957. He was employed during World War 2 at W. Hermon Slade &amp; Co., and then as a lecturer in chemistry at Sydney Technical College, becoming a senior lecturer at the newly formed University of New South Wales (UNSW), where he had a distinguished career in research and teaching until his retirement in 1982. He received the first personal chair awarded by the university in 1964 and was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1969. He was made an emeritus professor by UNSW in 1983. He actively pursued collaboration between chemistry and biology, and pioneered studies in Australia on the chemistry of insect venoms, attractants and repellents, leaving a legacy of a well-respected body of work in this field. Ken was awarded a Centenary of Federation Medal in 2001 for his service to Australian society and science in the field of organic biological chemistry. Pursuing his love of Australiana, he devoted his retirement to researching and writing about Australian silverware and jewellery manufacturers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

David Parker Craig 1919–2015

David Craig was an outstanding Australian theoretical chemist whose academic life oscillated between Australia (University of Sydney and Australian National University (ANU)) and the UK (University College London). The Craig Building of the Research School of Chemistry of the ANU was named in his honour in 1995. He was President of the Australian Academy of Science from 1990 to 1994, and the Academy's David Craig Medal, which recognizes outstanding contributions to chemistry research, was inaugurated in his honour. His best-known research is in the fields of quantum theory and spectroscopy of aromatic molecules, molecular crystals, quantum electrodynamics and chirality.

The 2016 Gilruth Prize.

The 2016 Gilruth Prize.