To be eligible, you need to be over 18, have ongoing low back pain, and be able to swim freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.

If you would like to get involved or find out more, please email Deborah.wareham@mq.edu.au

Ethics Approval Number: 520231544152335

This project is one of the first to connect this aspect of children’s speech to their understanding. Come for two fun-filled one-hour visits and receive $60 in gift vouchers and two small gifts as a thank you.

Children aged between two and five with normal hearing who speak mainly English at home are invited to the Activity Lab in the Australian Hearing Hub.

These visits can take place on weekdays or Saturdays, and the researchers are also taking bookings in the September school holidays if you’re looking for a fun activity.

The Activity Lab is pram and wheelchair accessible and has a comfortable playroom if you need some extra space.

Each visit involves watching stories and videos and describing what funny characters are doing in pictures.

If you would like to be involved or find out more, please fill out an expression of interest form or get in touch for more information at margaret.ryan@mq.edu.au

Ethics Approval No: 52023946452980

The Centre for Emotional Health (CEH) is recruiting for an exciting project to discover the best ways to reduce fear of public speaking in children and teenagers.

CEH is looking for children aged 8-12 who are afraid, anxious or nervous about making public speeches, and their caregivers.

Your child will receive a free two-hour treatment session for their fear of public speaking, and your family will be reimbursed $50 for your time.

The study involves:

• Initial assessment: one of CEH’s researchers will contact you by phone to ask you some questions about how your child has been feeling lately.
• Treatment session: your child will be asked some questions about their fears and then they will participate in a free two-hour treatment session at the CEH.
• Post-treatment session: a one-hour session at the CEH one day after treatment to assess how your child’s fear of public speaking has changed.
• Follow-up session: One month after the treatment session, your clinician will contact you by phone to ask how your child has been feeling since the session. Your child will also attend a one-hour follow-up session at the CEH.

For more information, please visit this webpage.

To participate, please contact publicspeakingfears@mq.edu.au or +61 (2) 9850 8596.

Ethics approval number: 52022514737414

The study requires participants to attend a 2.5-hour lab session at 2 First Walk, Macquarie University. Participants will also be asked to wear a flash glucose monitoring device, which they can keep, and will receive a $40 gift voucher on completion of the study.

During the lab session, participants will wear the FreeStyle Libre 2, a continuous glucose monitoring device that involves attaching a small sensor to the arm. Participants will continue wearing the device for the next two days, without the need to return it to the lab. 

To participate in the study, you must meet the following criteria: 

• English is your dominant language 
• body mass index (BMI) between 18 and 25 
• aged between 18 and 65 
• smartphone with an operating system compatible with FreeStyle Libre 2 – specifically, Android operating system 5.0 or higher, iPhone 7 or higher, or iOS 11 or higher 
• no history of neurological, psychiatric, metabolic (eg diabetes) and/or cardiovascular disorders 
• not hospitalised in the last six months 
• not currently taking psychotropic medication 
• no history of head injury 
• not pregnant.

Before participating, all potential participants must complete this online screener and informed consent form. At the end of the screener, eligible participants will receive a password that needs to be emailed to researcher Zen Juen Lau to schedule a session.

If you or someone you know meets the eligibility criteria and would like to know more, email Zen at zenjuen.lau@students.mq.edu.au. 

Ethics approval number: 520231234046141

This study uses a technique called magnetoencephalography or “MEG” to investigate brain activity while you do a task. MEG is a purely passive and non-invasive brain measurement technique. We aim to find out what is happening to brain activity when people see motion. You will be invited to complete a behavioural session (one hour), and then, if you are eligible based on this session, we will invite you to participate in the MEG session (three hours).

You are under no obligation to participate and can withdraw your participation at any point. If you withdraw, you will receive reimbursement for the session you completed.

In the behavioural session, you will sit in front of a computer monitor, resting your chin on a chin rest and responding to visual shapes using buttons. In the MEG session, you will lie down in a magnetically shielded room and respond to visual shapes using buttons. We will also use a non-invasive eye tracker to track your eye movements throughout the tasks during the behavioural and MEG sessions. This procedure is not harmful and allows us to know where you were looking on the monitor throughout the tasks.

The behavioural session will take up to one hour to complete and the MEG session will take up to three hours to complete, for a total of four hours study participation.

The behavioural and MEG sessions can occur on separate days.

To be eligible for this study, you must:

• Be 17+ years of age
• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and if corrected, able to wear contact lenses for MEG session
• Not have any non-removable metal implants (including non-removable metal dental implants, cardiac pacemaker, pacing wires of artificial heart valves, hearing aids, cochlear/ear implant, ocular/eye implant, other surgical implants above waist level (eg screws, plates, rods, shunts, artificial joint), non-removable jewellery (eg rings, body piercings)
• Not have claustrophobia or other anxiety disorders
• Not have a diagnosis of epilepsy
• Experience no other factors that would prevent you from being able to lie in the MEG for an hour (eg back pain when you lie down, difficulty staying still).

If you are interested in participating in this study, email Tabea-Maria Haase: tabeamaria.haase@hdr.mq.edu.au

_{Ethics approval number: 520231193150094}

1. Something people usually ask you when they find out what you do for a living
I’m a practicing chiropractor and sessional academic. I am fated to a life of people asking me about their back pain, no matter the social setting.

2. Favourite piece of equipment you use in your work
I am extremely low tech but I enjoy adapting to whatever equipment or tools my students are using. A few weeks ago, I did go crazy and got my classes to blow up balloons to assess their lung function, to replicate spirometry testing. It felt a bit like a small child’s birthday party. 10/10 – will do again.

3. The first person you go to for advice
Dr Hazel Jenkins, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chiropractic. That woman is incredible. She sometimes answers my questions before I even get to ask them – it’s like she is the keeper of all university-related knowledge. For over a decade, I have turned to Hazel first as she is prompt in her replies, will almost always answer my question directly, or will happily point me in the right direction.

PS – Sorry (not sorry) Hazel if you now get swamped with requests for advice, but it’s your fault for being so good at your job!

4. A personal quality you value in others
Curiosity.

5. Something you’re trying to do differently in 2023
I am taking more time to expand on the ‘why’ of diversity and inclusion. Macquarie University has excellent resources and training available via the Ally Network and Walanga Muru.

I’m working towards better contextualising the importance of being an LGBTIQA+ advocate and developing my students’ awareness of Aboriginal cultures. I am pleased to report that I think it is working. Pronouns are being added to email signatures, and students are including an intentional Acknowledgement of Country in their presentations.

6. A favourite photo from your camera roll

My family are some of my best friends. These are just some of my siblings, including their partners and children. We were celebrating the holiday season at my sister’s beautiful home.

7. When are you at your happiest?
When I’m with my loved ones – my partner Jack, my family and my close friends. What we are doing rarely matters – the relationships are everything.

8. What did it mean to you to win a Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Award?
I put my heart and soul into teaching, so it gave me quite the warm fuzzy feeling to know that my efforts were appreciated.

9. How has the award impacted your career?
Since winning, I have been invited to attend multiple learning and teaching events and groups, such as the 2023 FMHSS L&T Symposium and ‘Indigenising your Practice as an Educator.’ It has been quite humbling to appreciate all the incredible work that my peers are doing. Don’t tell them, but I absolutely plan on ‘borrowing’ their innovations and incorporating them into my own teaching!

10. Why should staff consider applying for the Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards?
For personal and professional growth. The application process forced me to deeply engage in reflective practice regarding my own teaching. At that time, I don’t think I was aware of how beneficial this was, but it significantly helped empower my teaching and enabled me to better meet my students’ needs. I am also very grateful that the application process put me in contact with some of the wonderful humans within the L&T community at Macquarie.

Applications for the Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards 2023 close on Friday 14 July. Guidelines, tips and FAQs can be found on the Awards webpage.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards – encompassing the Learning and Teaching Awards and Research Excellence Awards – will be held on 22 November.

Macquarie research has shown doing five types of actions regularly can improve mental health. This trial tests whether our mental health changes when we restrict and then resume those five types of actions. The trial will occur over eight weeks, with weekly instructions and contact with a psychologist.

To be eligible, you must:

• be aged 18 or older
• be living in Australia
• have good mental health (nil to mild symptoms of depression or anxiety).

To register, please visit this site and click ‘Apply now’. You will be contacted to discuss the trial in more detail.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Nick Titov at nick.titov@mq.edu.au, or the eCentreClinic at ecentreclinic.org

This study has been approved by the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: 520231263246933)

This study examines people’s perceptions and experiences of direct-to-consumer healthcare technologies to manage any health condition or symptom they experience, whether chronic or acute. These healthcare technologies range from health information websites and interactive digital tools to health phone lines and digital health services.

All participants have the option to go into a draw to win one of 15 $30 gift cards. The findings of this research may be used to inform healthcare staff, health service users and policymakers on the implications of digital healthcare technology for the Australian health system.

Who can take part?

Australian adults are welcome to take part. The Australian Institute of Health Innovation is interested in the perspectives of both those who are and are not using these healthcare technologies, for what reasons, and whether use of these technologies has any impact on health and experiences in primary care.

What does the study involve?

If you decide to participate, you will be asked to complete a 15-minute online survey. The survey asks questions about whether you access digital healthcare technologies and why, and how these services may have impacted your behaviours, experiences, and outcomes in primary care. The survey is anonymous. Any information you provide that might be used to identify you will remain confidential.

Participants filling in the survey will also be given the opportunity to take part in a 30-minute online interview. If you are interested in being contacted about participating in an interview you can register at the end of the survey.

Find out more here.

The Macquarie Widening Participation Unit (WPU) runs initiatives to improve access for students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, including those from regional and remote areas. 

The WPU has been facilitating outreach programs in the Broken Hill community since 2017. This year’s two-day Roads to Discovery visit was delivered in conjunction with Country Universities Centre Far West. 

Eighteen Macquarie academic and professional staff members spanning the four faculties joined the trip, collaborating with a range of local industry and education providers to facilitate hands-on interactive workshops showcasing their field of study or work. 

Staff stopped at Silverton outside Broken Hill. 

WPU Unit Manager Jacinta Carruthers says the program targets Year 10 students as they are planning their senior subject selections and considering post–school options.  

“It’s designed to connect regional high school students and teachers with academics and industry professionals to take part in ‘taster’ sessions that expose students to the diversity of post-school study and career pathways available to them,” she says. 

“It was a very successful trip, with more than 200 students participating in the Roads to Discovery event and the planetarium sessions that were delivered to primary schools in the region.”  

Pictured: Dr Peter Burke, a Senior Lecturer in Macquarie Medical School engaging with students

Dr Peter Burke, a Senior Lecturer in Macquarie Medical School and respiratory medicine researcher, took part in the outreach event for the first time. 

For his workshop, he brought physiology equipment to measure heat rate, breathing, neuromuscular activity and grip force.  

“I grew up in Parkes, which, like Broken Hill, is a mining and farming town,” he says. 

“My family always encouraged me to go to university, but I understand the extra challenges kids from the country face in reaching higher education. 

“The students were all interested in different aspects of what we were doing, and I hope this will not only encourage them to think about what they would like to do next, but also show them they have options. 

“The WPU is such a good initiative. What impressed me was the team’s commitment and willingness to give the students a broad career perspective.” 

The study will occur over four weeks and involve education, support, and monitoring of exercise snacks. Participants will attend a short workshop where the exercise snack program will be introduced and individualised for each participant. 

The program will also include videos of exercise snack ideas, online support from a personal trainer, and a Fitbit to monitor daily activity. 

To be eligible, you must:  

• Have a desk-based role. 
• Be employed full-time or part-time (minimum three days per week, 0.6 FTE) at Macquarie
• Work from home on at least one day per week 
• Currently, spend less than five days per week being physically active for at least 30 minutes each day.   
• Own a smartphone using IOS or Android systems.  

Participants will go into the draw to win a Fitbit Sense 2 smartwatch.  

To apply, please fill in the following expression of interest form, and a researcher will contact you. 

For more information, please contact: 

Nicholas Allen at nicholas.allen1@hdr.mq.edu.au, or  

Dr Josephine Chau at josephine.chau@mq.edu.au   

This study has been approved by the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: 10950)