The University of Melbourne

An Instance Space Analysis of Neural Network Training as a Black-Box Optimisation Problem

Training a neural network is an optimisation task that is commonly solved using gradient-based techniques, such as stochastic gradient descent or Adam. There are, however, scenarios in which black-box optimisation approaches, such as evolutionary algorithms, may be appropriate fo...

Factors associated with health service utilisation in rural Victoria: a multilevel analysis informed by Andersen’s behavioral model

Abstract Background Access to health services in rural areas can be hampered by a variety of factors contributing to reduced utilisation and poorer health outcomes. Andersen’s behavioral model was developed to understand how people utilise health services by assessing association...

Sterility testing in the era of decentralised cell therapy: Challenges, innovations, and future directions

Introduction Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies have transformed the treatment of haematological malignancies, yet patients with aggressive, time-sensitive disease remain vulnerable to manufacturing-related treatment delays. Current gold-standard sterility testing u...

Evidence for longevity medicine: a retrospective cohort study of multi-domain health improvement in a structured preventive health programme

Background Longevity clinics represent an emerging model of proactive, precision preventive care, yet no published study has evaluated longitudinal changes in physical performance, cardiometabolic biomarkers, or body composition within this setting. This study assessed within-per...

Yarning over time and poetic lines: two new Indigenous research methodologies developed in using Longitudinal Study of Indigenous children (LSIC) data

Abstract This methods and methodologies paper outlines how three Aboriginal scholars developed and applied Indigenous research approaches to analyse the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), also known as Footprints in Time . Through commitment to Indigenous leadershi...

hpci improves reproducibility of computational biology research by integrating Continuous Integration with High Performance Computing clusters

Abstract Motivation The reproducibility crisis in bioinformatics and computational biology can be mitigated by using Continuous Integration (CI), a proven software engineering practice, to automate the testing of analysis pipelines and models. However, the adoption of CI in bioin...

CTPA-detected coronary artery calcification as a prognostic marker in acute pulmonary embolism: a narrative review

Abstract Background Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is often visible on routine contrast-enhanced, non-ECG-gated CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA), offering potential refinement of risk as...

Revealing tax evasion: Experimental evidence from a representative survey of Indonesian firms

Measuring tax evasion by firms is notoriously difficult: direct questions yield biased responses while administrative data captures only detected violations. This paper examines the prevalence of reported tax non-compliance in Indonesia through a randomized, double-list experimen...

‘Prehabilitation Should Adapt to the Person, not the Other Way Around’: A Qualitative Study Exploring Stakeholder Perceptions of Prehabilitation for Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

ABSTRACT Background Prehabilitation aims to increase functional capacity and physiological reserve prior to surgery, to improve post‐operative outcomes. Despite growing research on prehabilitation for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), its acceptabili...

Brief internet intervention for grieving children and adolescents: co-design and trial protocol

ISRCTN.org identifier: ISRCTN21132251.

Perception of Special Needs Dentistry Amongst Allied Dental Professionals in Australia

OBJECTIVE: In Australia, Dental Therapists (DTs), Dental Hygienists (DHs) and Oral Health Therapists (OHTs) encounter Special Needs (SN) patients in their clinical practice. This study investigates their perception, training, working experience and referral patterns within Specia...

Geoeconomic embeddedness and transnational migrant entrepreneurship: Chinese–Australian wine exporters in a decade of volatility

This article critically examines the entrepreneurial trajectories of Chinese–Australian wine exporters between 2015 and 2025, a decade marked by volatility in Australia–China relations. Drawing on four in-depth qualitative case studies, it explores how transnational migrant entre...

Auditory- and Visual-Speech Evoked Activation of the Superior Temporal Gyrus Contralateral to the Cochlear Implant Predicts Speech Recognition Outcomes

Objectives: Speech recognition outcomes vary widely in cochlear implant recipients, but the reasons for this variability are not well explained by patient history factors alone. Neuroplastic reorganization after both deafness and cochlear implant switch-on can affect how new reci...

Balanced Animal Nutrition for Better Feeds, Healthy Animals, Safe Food, and a Healthy Planet: A One Health Perspective—An Invited Review

Livestock production is increasingly expected to deliver not only higher output, but also better animal health and welfare, safer and more nutritious food, viable livelihoods, and lower environmental pressure. This invited review examines balanced animal nutrition within a One He...

Adaptive operator selection via deep reinforcement learning for decomposition-based multi-objective multi-task optimization

Abstract Multi-objective multi-task optimization (MO-MTO), which aims to simultaneously solve multiple related multi-objective problems by leveraging knowledge transfer across tasks to enhance optimization performance on each task, has emerged as a new research focus in the field...

Australia’s current wildfire crisis linked to colonial land-use change

The global wildfire crisis1 is often attributed to climate change, a framing that overlooks crucial historical drivers. Biomes at the forefront of this crisis, such as the temperate eucalypt forests of Australia, have seen alarming increases in large, intense wildfires in recent...

Balancing training load, rest and musculoskeletal injury risk: a mathematical modelling study in Thoroughbred racehorses

Abstract Musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) in Thoroughbred racehorses are a leading cause of death and premature retirement, and are heavily influenced by training practices. Greater distances of high-speed galloping accumulated during racing campaigns are associated with MSI. Bone...

Technical Review: Performance, Design, and Deployment of Steel Helical Pile Groups for Transmission Infrastructure

Worldwide transmission-grid expansion requires extensive construction of new tower foundations across diverse geological, environmental, and logistical conditions, while conventional bored piling faces increasing cost, schedule, constructability, and adaptability constraints. Ste...

Introduction of a digital care companion to facilitate patient reported outcome measures and breast care nurse-led survivorship

As part of the Breast Cancer Survivorship program in the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), a new electronic platform, Care Companion was designed to facilitate resource access, appointments and monitoring of breast cancer patients using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Th...

Implementing reproductive carrier screening to include diverse Asian populations: insights from Singapore

Abstract Background As part of Singapore’s effort towards precision medicine tailored to Asian diversity, we describe the implementation of a nationwide reproductive carrier screening program. Using a customised 112-gene panel, targeting population-specific recessive genetic dise...