Evaluation Of Internet-based, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy For The Treatment Of Anxiety Disorders In Adolescents
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$570,750.00
Summary
Anxiety disorders affect around 5-10% of adolescents and are associated with a range of adverse consequences if left untreated. The majority of young people with anxiety disorders do not seek nor receive treatment. This may be due partly to the perceived stigma of attending a mental health clinic and logistic problems of attending therapy. A challenge is to identify ways in which treatment can be made more accessible to adolescents in need, particularly those in rural and remote areas. Contrary ....Anxiety disorders affect around 5-10% of adolescents and are associated with a range of adverse consequences if left untreated. The majority of young people with anxiety disorders do not seek nor receive treatment. This may be due partly to the perceived stigma of attending a mental health clinic and logistic problems of attending therapy. A challenge is to identify ways in which treatment can be made more accessible to adolescents in need, particularly those in rural and remote areas. Contrary to original beliefs, evidence shows that the internet can be used to deliver effective psychological therapies for a range of mental health problems, including anxiety disorders. So far this research has focused on adults, but adolescents may be in a particularly strong position to benefit from these forms of therapy, being experienced users of internet resources. This research investigates the effectiveness of internet-based cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) in the treatment for anxiety disorders in adolescents. Recently we have piloted CBT for anxious children that combines clinic and internet therapy, with half the therapy sessions in the clinic and half over the internet. Pilot data show that clinic + internet therapy produced significant reductions in anxiety and is almost as effective full clinic-based therapy. The proposed research builds on our pilot work by evaluating the effectiveness of a more extensive internet-based therapy in which all sessions are completed using the internet and with an older age group. The research also examines the factors that predict which young people will respond most positively to the intervention so that the treatment can be matched to those most likely to benefit from it in the future. The aim is to develop an effective internet-based treatment for adolescents with anxiety disorders that is easily accessed and suitable for use in rural and remote populations, requiring minimal face-to-face therapist contact.Read moreRead less
Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show h ....Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show how to design context-aware systems that are usable and whose autonomic decisions can be trusted. Additional benefits include increased scientific competitiveness of Australia, strengthened collaboration with international research institutions, and high quality graduates (PhDs, Masters, Honours).Read moreRead less
Diagnosis of Reference Flow Control Alerts for the Identification of Malicious Event Sequences (DiagRF). There are a reported two billion computer attacks worldwide per year. Many of these attacks require a skilled human to decipher them and to develop the "signatures" by which they can be detected. The main outcome of this project will be fundamental knowledge regarding how information flows can be tracked and then forensically analysed in a distributed computer system or network in order to ....Diagnosis of Reference Flow Control Alerts for the Identification of Malicious Event Sequences (DiagRF). There are a reported two billion computer attacks worldwide per year. Many of these attacks require a skilled human to decipher them and to develop the "signatures" by which they can be detected. The main outcome of this project will be fundamental knowledge regarding how information flows can be tracked and then forensically analysed in a distributed computer system or network in order to enable the automatic characterization of certain classes of attacks. This new approach will enable the automatic development of attack signatures and thus the detection of such attacks. The project will lead to the development of a prototype which implements the automatic analysis and characterization of such attacks to provide proof of concept.Read moreRead less
Improving Global Tuberculosis Control With The AuTuMN Platform
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$655,059.00
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s leading infectious killer, with the failure of global control responsible for the vast majority of Australia’s cases. Using our robustly developed software platform, we have performed several country-level studies to predict the future burden of disease and compare the impact of alternative responses to controlling the epidemic. In this project, we will extend our platform to perform simulations at the global level and answer key questions in TB control.
Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems ....Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems and failures. This project builds on results from our current collaboration - a new method for modelling, analysis and defect detection for the requirements of large-scale systems. We will develop and scale-up to industry strength, simpler, more powerful, strategies for analysing, designing and providing the high level of assurance required.Read moreRead less
An Empirically Derived Experimentally Validated Framework for Interactions in Information Environments. This project will investigate and design ways of interacting with the information infrastructure that maintain natural social interactions, take advantage of physical space and utilise our extensive human abilities to recognise and manipulate physical objects.
Expected outcomes include:
? a theoretical framework that describes the range of possible interactions that mediate information b ....An Empirically Derived Experimentally Validated Framework for Interactions in Information Environments. This project will investigate and design ways of interacting with the information infrastructure that maintain natural social interactions, take advantage of physical space and utilise our extensive human abilities to recognise and manipulate physical objects.
Expected outcomes include:
? a theoretical framework that describes the range of possible interactions that mediate information between the physical and virtual worlds.
? a prototype instrumented information environment that demonstrates and validates naturalistic information transactions identified in the framework.
This research is highly innovative in its field. It will use an iterative cycle of video observation, interaction analysis, user-centred device design, deployment and evaluation.
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Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and ....Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and inventing non-removable watermarks on AI models. The outcomes are new tools for securing AI-based FinTech systems before deployment and tools for IP violation forensics post-deployment. Such capabilities are beneficial by improving the security and safety of FinTech systems and other nationally critical AI systems.Read moreRead less
Investigation of a Dynamic Collaborative Framework for Multi-Modal Devices. Modern business and society increasingly call for agility through the rapid formation of groups and collaboration of individuals. Mobile computing devices have the potential to enable this collaboration. However this is currently unrealised; software is not keeping up with hardware. This project aims to investigate techniques and software tools to provide an adaptive framework for multimedia-rich applications, which seam ....Investigation of a Dynamic Collaborative Framework for Multi-Modal Devices. Modern business and society increasingly call for agility through the rapid formation of groups and collaboration of individuals. Mobile computing devices have the potential to enable this collaboration. However this is currently unrealised; software is not keeping up with hardware. This project aims to investigate techniques and software tools to provide an adaptive framework for multimedia-rich applications, which seamlessly support collaboration through multi-modal communications between heterogenous mobile devices. This combination of multimedia, smart devices and advanced communications has the potential to revolutionise many key industries by making information available and manipulable in new and better ways.Read moreRead less
Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and valid ....Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and validation capabilities of local industry, allow them to save software development costs, and improve the quality of the software produced.Read moreRead less
Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means tha ....Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means that testing tools and techniques used for simpler, sequential software are inadequate. The outcomes of this project will consist of practical techniques for the effective testing of concurrent software components in general and tools for the testing of Java components in particular.Read moreRead less