In complex geometry a manifold is Stein if there are, in a certain sense, "many" holomorphic maps from the manifold into C^n. While this has long been well understood, a fruitful definition of the dual notion has until recently been elusive. In Oka theory, a manifold is Oka if it satisfies several equivalent definitions, each stating that the manifold has "many" holomorphic maps into it from C^n. Related to this is the geometric condition of ellipticity due to Gromov, who showed that it implies a complex manifold is Oka. We present recent contributions to three open questions involving elliptic and Oka manifolds. We show that affine quotients of C^n are elliptic, and combine this with an example of Margulis to construct new elliptic manifolds of interesting homotopy types. It follows that every open Riemann surface properly acyclically embeds into an elliptic manifold, extending an existing result for open Riemann surfaces with abelian fundamental group.

Continuum diffusion models are often used to represent the collective motion of cell populations. Most previous studies have simply used linear diffusion to represent collective cell spreading, while others found that degenerate nonlinear diffusion provides a better match to experimental cell density profiles. There is no guidance available in the mathematical biology literature with regard to which approach is more appropriate. Furthermore, there is no knowledge of particular experimental measurements that can be made to distinguish between situations where these two models are appropriate. We provide a link between individual-based and continuum models using a multiscale approach in which we analyse the collective motion of a population of interacting agents in a generalized lattice-based exclusion process. For round agents that occupy a single lattice site, we find that the relevant continuum description is a linear diffusion equation, whereas for elongated rod-shaped agents that occupy L adjacent lattice sites we find that the relevant continuum description is a nonlinear diffusion equation related to the porous media equation. We show that there are several reasonable approaches for dealing with agent size effects, and that these different approaches are related mathematically through the concept of mean action time. We extend our results to consider proliferation and travelling waves where greater care must be taken to ensure that the continuum model replicates the discrete process. This is joint work with Dr Ruth Baker (Oxford) and Dr Scott McCue (QUT).

In this talk, I will present what I did in my honours project, which was to determine if immigrants, categorised as immigrants from English speaking countries and Non-English speaking countries, are discriminated in the Australian labour market. To determine if discrimination exists, a decomposition of the wage function is applied and analysed via regression analysis. Two different methods of estimating the unknown parameters in the wage function will be discussed: 1. the Ordinary Least Square method, 2. the Quantile Regression method. This is your rare chance of hearing me talk about non-nanomathematics related stuff!

Atiyah-Patodi-Singer proved an index theorem for non-local boundary conditions in the 1970's that has been widely used in mathematics and mathematical physics. A key application of their theory gives the index theorem for signature operators on oriented manifolds with boundary. As a consequence, they defined certain secondary invariants that were metric independent. I will discuss some recent work with Benameur where we extend the APS theory to signature operators twisted by an odd degree closed differential form, and study the corresponding secondary invariants.

Although cancers seem to consistently evade current medical treatments, the body's immune defences seem quite effective at controlling incipient tumours. Understanding how our immune systems provide such protection against early-stage tumours and how this protection could be lost will provide insight into designing next-generation immune therapies against cancer. To engage this problem, we formulate a mathematical model of the immune response against small, incipient tumours. The model considers the initial stimulation of the immune response in lymph nodes and the resulting immune attack on the tumour and is formulated as a hybrid agent-based and delay differential equation model.

There have been numerous reports that the rainfall in south Western Australia, particularly around Perth has observed a step change decrease, which is typically attributed to climate change. Four statistical tests are used to assess the empirical evidence for this claim on time series from five meteorological stations, all of which exceed 50 years. The tests used in this study are: the CUSUM; Bayesian Change Point analysis; consecutive t-test and the Hotelling's T^2-statistic. Results from multivariate Hotelling's T^2 analysis are compared with those from the three univariate analyses. The issue of multiple comparisons is discussed. A summary of the empirical evidence for the claimed step change in Perth area is given.

There are many interesting and difficult algorithmic problems in low-dimensional topology. Here we study the problem of finding a taut structure on a 3-manifold triangulation, whose existence has implications for both the geometry and combinatorics of the triangulation. We prove that detecting taut structures is "hard", in the sense that it is NP-complete. We also prove that detecting taut structures is "not too hard", by showing it to be fixed-parameter tractable. This is joint work with Jonathan Spreer.

What do practical topics such as linear programming and greedy heuristics have to do with theoretical problems such as unknot recognition and the Poincare conjecture? In this talk we explore new approaches to old and difficult computational problems from geometry and topology: how to tell whether a loop of string is knotted, or whether a 3-dimensional space has no interesting topological features. Although the best known algorithms for these problems run in exponential time, there is increasing evidence that a polynomial time solution might be possible. We outline several promising approaches in which computational geometry, linear programming and greedy algorithms all play starring roles.

The idea of continuous symmetry is often described in mathematics via Lie groups. These groups can be classified by their root systems: collections of vectors satisfying certain symmetry properties. The root systems are described in a concise way by Dynkin diagrams, and it turns out, roughly speaking, that there are only seven possible shapes for a Dynkin diagram. In this talk I'll describe some simple examples of Lie groups, explain what a root system is, and show how a Dynkin diagram encodes this information. Then I'll give a very brief sketch of the methods used to classify Dynkin diagrams.

Up to early 70's, the main concentration of mathematicians was the design of algorithms. However, the advent of computers changed this focus from not just the design of an algorithm but also to the most efficient algorithm. This created a new field of research, namely the complexity of algorithms, and the associated problem "Is P equal to NP?" was born. The latter question has been unknown for more than four decades and is one of the most famous open problems of the 21st century. Any person who can solve this problem will be awarded US$1,000,000 by the Clay Institute. In this talk, we are going to introduce this problem through simple examples and explain one of the intriguing approaches that may help to solve it.

The holonomy group of a semi-Riemannian manifold is defined as the group of parallel transports along loops based at a point. Its connected component, the `restricted holonomy group', is given by restricting in this definition to contractible loops. The restricted holonomy can essentially be described by its Lie algebra and many classification results are obtained in this way. In contrast, the `full' holonomy group is a more global object and classification results are out of reach. In the talk I will describe recent results with H. Baum and K. Laerz (both HU Berlin) about the full holonomy group of so-called `indecomposable' Lorentzian manifolds. I will explain a construction method that arises from analysing the effects on holonomy when dividing the manifold by the action of a properly discontinuous group of isometries and present several examples of Lorentzian manifolds with disconnected holonomy groups.

Recently, the Australian Government has emphasised the need for monitoring and comparing the performance of Australian hospitals. Evaluating the performance of intensive care units (ICUs) is of particular importance, given that the most severe cases are treated in these units. Indeed, ICU performance can be thought of as a proxy for the overall performance of a hospital. We compare the performance of the ICUs contributing to the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Adult Patient Database, the largest of its kind in the world, and identify those ICUs with unusual performance. It is well-known that there are many statistical issues that must be accounted for in the evaluation of healthcare provider performance. Indicators of performance must be appropriately selected and estimated, investigators must adequately adjust for casemix, statistical variation must be fully accounted for, and adjustment for multiple comparisons must be made. Our basis for dealing with these issues is the estimation of a hierarchical logistic model for the in-hospital death of each patient, with patients clustered within ICUs. Both patient- and ICU-level covariates are adjusted for, with a random intercept and random coefficient for the APACHE III severity score. Given that we expect most ICUs to have similar performance after adjustment for these covariates, we follow Ohlssen et al., JRSS A (2007), and estimate a null model that we expect the majority of ICUs to follow. This methodology allows us to rigorously account for the aforementioned statistical issues, and accurately identify those ICUs contributing to the ANZICS database that have comparatively unusual performance. This is joint work with Prof. Patty Solomon and Assoc. Prof. John Moran.

In financial derivatives pricing theory, it is very common to change the probability measure from historical measure "real world" into a Risk-Neutral measure as a development of the non arbitrage condition. Girsanov theorem is the most known example of this technique and is used when prices randomness is modelled by Brownian motions. Other genuine candidates for modelling market randomness that have proved efficiency in recent literature are jump process, so how can a change of measure be performed for such processes? This talk will address this question by introducing the non arbitrage condition, discussing Girsanov theorem for diffusion and jump processes and presenting a concrete example.