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Our 2024 annual research report highlights the achievements of our school's researchers over the past year.

Burning coal to produce electricity is one of the main contributors of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. This study aims to find out if it is practical and cost-effective to reduce those emissions in NSW by burning waste materials along with the coal, separating the carbon dioxide from the rest of the combustion gases and storing the carbon dioxide deep underground Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), or rubbish, is a combination of many different materials, many of which cannot be burned (such as glass and metal), but also many that can burn. The materials this study is interested in are dry materials that were derived from plants, such as wood and paper waste, as they are easier to burn in a power plant and can be separated more easily than other wastes. When wood and paper are burned, the carbon in them just returns to the atmosphere because it was absorbed from the air when the plants were growing, but if that carbon is separated and stored deep underground, then the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reduced. This technology is known as “Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage”, or BECCS. For this study, BECCS involves burning coal along with wood and paper waste to generate electricity, while separating the carbon dioxide, transporting it via pipeline, compressing and storing it deep underground in western NSW, at a well site in the Darling Basin: Mena Murtee-1 in the Pondie Range Trough. We consider implementing this type of BECCS at the three younger coal power plants in NSW where wood and paper could be easily burned: Mt Piper, Eraring and Bayswater. We also consider burning different amounts of waste at each power plant, but even if all available wood and paper waste in NSW was used, it would only amount to about 5% of the fuel burned in those three plants. According to this study, burning paper and wood waste alongside coal reduces the amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere, but produces more ash than burning coal alone. This means it will be necessary to add extra equipment to catch the extra dust before it is released to the atmosphere. If one-tenth of the fuel is wood and paper, carbon emissions are only slightly reduced (less than 3%), but if carbon capture and storage is also implemented (thereby implementing BECCS) then the power plant will only emit about one-fifth of the emissions of a normal coal plant over its whole life, which is similar to the overall emissions of electricity produced by solar panels. BECCS can also completely offset the carbon emissions from coal if more than a third of the fuel burned is wood and paper waste, thereby achieving negative emissions. Although the cost of getting rid of the carbon dioxide becomes lower as more waste is burned, the cost of the electricity is increased, because less electricity is produced. This study concludes that BECCS can help significantly reduce carbon emissions in NSW. Still, it is important to consider other waste sources (for example textiles, garden waste, agricultural waste), as availability of waste is a strong limitation for further use of this technology.

This collection contains data on some estimated and mapped soil physical properties such as: clay, sand, pH, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), and organic carbon (OC) generated through predictive models using a developed framework that quantitatively assess the accuracy of data collected with proximal soil sensors and spectroscopic techniques such as visible near-infrared visNIR and portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy. First, tools were provided to assist in the collation of freely available data such as elevation and satellite derived data as well as on-farm data produced with electromagnetic induction (EM) and gama radiometricts. Second, an automated site selection software was developed to collate and process covariate data to identify 25 samples sites across L'lara, a mixed-farming property located ~11 km Narrabri in NSW in 2020. Fieldwork and example mapping soil properties were conducted at L'lara using visNIR spectrocopy and pXRF spectrometers. A conditioned Latin hypercube sampling design was chosen to sample the distribution of the covariate space under both cropping and pasture on the 1,850 ha property. Covariate data supplied to the software included on-site EM, gamma radiometrics, yield, soil legacy data, plus elevation and satellite derived data. A soil inference system (SPEC-SINFERS) was developed, using other spectrally active properties through pedotransfer functions (PTFs) to predic further properties such as available water capacity (AWC) from sensor predicted properties. A large spectral library was construted with > 8,000 pre-existing soil samples predominantly from grain-growing regions of NSW and additional accession from Qld., Victoria and Tasmania and fieldwork data. Multi-depth mapping of soil properties and attributes (Depth-to pH constraint) was also investigated to provide agronomic interpretations to the produced soil maps and correlations with available yield data. The accuracy of mapped soil properties was tested under data-rich and data-poor scenarios. Calibration and validations of each scenario were made with laboratory data, available covariate data (elevation, satellite image) and with/without on-farm colleted EM and gamma data. RMSE was used in percentage change as reference to other studies. Mapped yield products revealed significant correlations for canola, chickpea and wheat in two paddocks over two growing seasons. Datasets generated for this project are stored in the RDS - GRDC_US00087 (\\shared.sydney.edu.au\research-data\PRJ-GRDC_US00087). Please contact Prof. Alex McBratney to request access to them.

This national evaluation report provides an assessment of the Australian Sports Commission's (ASC) Round 2 Participation grant program. The evaluation assessed the program’s impact on the capacity of organisations in the sport and physical activity sector and the effects of funded projects on participants. The Sport Recreation Intervention and Epidemiology Research (SPRINTER) Group at the University of Sydney conducted this national evaluation, covering the period from 1st December 2021 to 28th February 2023. The findings from Round 1 and Round 2 of the ASC’s Participation grant program can inform decisions made by government policymakers, strategic thinkers, sport and recreation sector organisations, practitioners, researchers, and evaluators to ensure progress towards the Global and National target to reduce population physical inactivity by 15% by 2030. The report provides several recommendations for funding applicants, the ASC, and for the evaluation of similar programs.

Evolutionary models such as Drosophila have proved powerful for the interrogation of many peripheral nervous disorders including in motor neuron disease and pain. Given the evolutionary conservation of the peripheral nervous system, model organisms provide a powerful tool for the investigation of pain. Here we demonstrate several vignettes that show firstly, how relatively simple organisms can provide rapid models to assess and understand Mendelian disorders. We then show how simple models can be interrogated to identify central druggable pathways to develop a new stem cell therapy. Finally, we utilise the evolutionary conservation between mammalian species to validate developmental pathways and apply these to a therapeutic context. We apply this approach to a significant problem, pain. Throughout this thesis we apply new technologies to identify potentially druggable pathways and utilise simple organisms to test and validate them. Through our literature review, we firstly provide an overview of the central knowledge of pain perception, chronic pain, approaches to its treatment, the genetic basis of rare pain disorders and finally approaches to modelling pain. Secondly, we approach epigenetics, and assess the central mechanisms of epigenetics followed by an assessment of its role in pain perception.

The legal profession is undergoing profound transformation, driven by new technologies and forms of legal service delivery that are upending the traditional organisation of legal work. These changes are disrupting career pathways and requiring lawyers to rethink the skills that will be required for future success. These changes are also occurring against a backdrop of existing gendered inequality, characterised by the persistent underrepresentation of women in senior leadership roles and, among other things, women’s disproportionate experience of harassment and workplace disrespect. The legal profession thus faces a challenge: how to harness and incorporate new innovations without further embedding gendered inequalities at work.

This white paper outlines critical issues associated with the use of Automated Essay Scoring (AES) technology in the Australian education system. The key insights presented in this paper emerged from a collaborative, multi-stakeholder workshop held in July 2022 that explored an automated essay-scoring trial and generated future possibilities aligned with participant interests and expertise. Drawing on the workshop and our expert understanding of the wider landscape, we propose recommendations that can be adopted by various stakeholders, schools, and educational systems.

This study was the first to systematically map local government (LG) action on creating a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system in Australia, focusing on NSW and Victoria. We searched the websites of all LGs in NSW and Victoria for policy documents with actions related to a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system. We then analysed these documents against a framework of recommendations for LG action on addressing food system challenges. This infographic provides a visual representation of the study's findings.

This research paper examines the potential for establishing an international war crimes unit in Australia by analyzing the creation and operation of similar units in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Despite Australia's existing legal framework, the government has not yet implemented such a unit. To address this gap, the paper investigates the social and political factors that have shaped the successful formation of war crimes units in other jurisdictions. Primary sources, such as public policy papers, government reports, and grey literature, were used to assess the effectiveness of these specialized units. The research identifies common challenges faced by other countries, including the need for legislative reform, improved collaboration with international mechanisms, and depoliticization of actions. It highlights Germany’s process of reckoning with its war crimes history as a model for Australia. The paper concludes that for Australia to successfully tackle war crimes, it must first address allegations against its own soldiers and take a clear stance against war crimes, thereby building trust, transparency, and accountability. This approach would ensure adequate funding and support for the prosecution of international crimes.