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SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND TROPICAL MEDICINE

The Australian Institute of Tropical Architecture

The principal research topics are:

House design for the tropics.
Climatic considerations for urban design in warm humid tropical climates.
Indoor passive cooling in warm humid climates.
Stratified partial cooling of naturally ventilated building in warm humid tropical climates.
An index for natural ventilation effectiveness for summer indoor thermal comfort in Queensland houses.
Wind tunnel studies of natural ventilation in tropical buildings.
Architectural guidelines for utilising remote area power supplies.
Energy efficient house design for the tropics.
Thermal performance of roofs in the warm humid tropics.
Control of rogue sunlight reflections into an airport control tower from rooflight glazing.
Effects of summer sunlit roofing surface finishes on lower roofing surface temperatures.
Heat stress in tropical school classrooms.
Infrared thermal imaging studies.
Tropical sky luminance studies.
Ultra violet radiation in shaded settings.
The development of appropriate construction systems in Solomon Islands.
Space Use and Space utilization in native Melanesian Papua New Guinean domicile.
Future housing in the warm humid tropics.
A case study of Aeta post-disaster resettlement in the Philippines.
An analysis of resource needs of the Trobriand village and its people towards their built environment for long-term sustainability.
Post occupancy evaluation of school buildings in the tropics.
Urban design for the tropics.
Medium density housing in the tropics.

Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Research interests are in health and medicine in the tropics with particular interest in public health, especially in tropical Australia and its near neighbours. The present research interests are as follows.

Indigenous Health

Attitudes and knowledge of health problems.
Indigenous health workforce development and education.
Implementation and evaluation of computerised health information systems in indigenous communities.
Inequalities in health between indigenous and Caucasian Australians.
Promoting immunisation among Indigenous Australians.
Effective strategies for the diagnosis, management and control of scabies in indigenous communities.
Control of diabetes.
Breast cancer in indigenous women.
Maternal health.
Men’s health.
Training and workforce roles of primary health care workers.
Indigenous health training for the health professions.
Technology application to health worker roles.

Public health

Screening and surveillance informatics.
Evaluation and quality improvement in ambulatory care.
Nutrition knowledge of adolescents and post-partum women.
Nutritional education of adolescents.
Body image and food and weight related behaviour of adolescents.
Nutritional aspects of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in indigenous communities.
Changes in CVD risk factors of patients following coronary artery bypass graft surgery and angioplasty.
Health effects of solar UV radiation.
Epidemiology of skin cancer and suspected precursor lesions.
Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about sun exposure and skin cancer risk.
Incidence of histologically-confirmed skin cancer in Townsville.
Intervention strategies to reduce sun exposure.
Interventions to improve the ability to monitor benign pigmented lesions.
Disease control.
Neonatal medicine.
Occupational health and safety.
Public health workforce development.
Public health training in the health professions.

Tropical Medicine

Prevention and treatment of filariasis.
Immunological aspects of filariasis and malaria.
Epidemiology of dengue.
Vector control programs for filariasis, dengue and malaria.
Strongyloides in Vietnam veterans.
Risk factors and control strategies for scabies.
Strategies to control head lice.
Pyrethroid resistance in head lice, scabies mites and Aedes aegypti.
Epidemiology of Lyssavirus.
Epidemiology of Salmonellosis.
Zoonotic hookworm infection in the tropics.
Zoonotic diseases in dogs.
Travel medicine.
Melioidosis.
Health in the South Pacific.
Disease profiles of people in Papua New Guinea.

Rural and Remote Health Care

Workforce development.
Public health training for the rural and remote workforce.
Information systems in rural and remote health care.
Management of rural and remote multi-purpose health services.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy workforce issues in North Queensland.
Appropriate therapy service delivery models for indigenous Australian communities.
Paediatrics within indigenous populations.
Therapy and technologies for children with disabilities.
Assessment techniques for technology prescription for people with severe disabilities.
Delivery of effective driver assessment and training to rural and remote communities.

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