Influence of a specific aquatic program on social and gross motor skills in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Three case reports

Swimming pool activities revealed to be efficacious to train psychomotor skills and increase adaptive behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a specific multi-systemic aquatic therapy (CI-MAT) on gross motor and social skills in three adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Methods: three adolescents with ASD of which two boys (M1 with a chronological age of 10.3 years and a mental age of 4.7 years; M2 with a chronological age of 14.6 and a mental age inferior to 4 years) and one girl (chronological age of 14.0 and a mental age inferior to 4 years). The study was divided into three phases: baseline, 12-week CI-MAT program and Post-Test. Participants were administered a battery of tests incorporating anthropometric measurements, gross motor development test and a social skills questionnaire before and after a 12-week MAT-CI program. Results: Subjects improved locomotors and object control skills following the CI-MAT program in a different way. Concerning social behaviors, the higher proportion of gains was observed in the sensitivity of other's presence and eye contact, for the contact domain, and in the comply turn for the relationship domain. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the CI-MAT program was effective for the development of gross-motor skills and social behaviors in subjects with ASD. Moreover there is an urge to carry out a whole psychological assessment targeting both motor and adaptive development suitable to provide educational and vocational plans of exercises for people with ASD

All Static Circularly Symmetric Perfect Fluid Solutions of 2+1 Gravity

Via a straightforward integration of the Einstein equations with cosmological constant, all static circularly symmetric perfect fluid 2+1 solutions are derived. The structural functions of the metric depend on the energy density, which remains in general arbitrary. Spacetimes for fluids fulfilling linear and polytropic state equations are explicitly derived; they describe, among others, stiff matter, monatomic and diatomic ideal gases, nonrelativistic degenerate fermions, incoherent and pure radiation. As a by--product, we demonstrate the uniqueness of the constant energy density perfect fluid within the studied class of metrics. A full similarity of the perfect fluid solutions with constant energy density of the 2+1 and 3+1 gravities is established.Comment: revtex4, 8 page

Regular (2+1)-dimensional black holes within non-linear Electrodynamics

(2+1)-regular static black hole solutions with a nonlinear electric field are derived. The source to the Einstein equations is an energy momentum tensor of nonlinear electrodynamics, which satisfies the weak energy conditions and in the weak field limit becomes the (2+1)-Maxwell field tensor. The derived class of solutions is regular; the metric, curvature invariants and electric field are regular everywhere. The metric becomes, for a vanishing parameter, the (2+1)-static charged BTZ solution. A general procedure to derive solutions for the static BTZ (2+1)-spacetime, for any nonlinear Lagrangian depending on the electric field is formulated; for relevant electric fields one requires the fulfillment of the weak energy conditions.Comment: 5 pages, Latex, 2 figure

Stability of a hard-sphere binary quasicrystal

The stability of a quasicrystalline structure, recently obtained in a molecular-dynamics simulation of rapid cooling of a binary melt, is analyzed for binary hard-sphere mixtures within a density-functional approach. It is found that this quasicrystal is metastable relative to crystalline and fluid phases for diameter ratios above 0.83. Such trend is partially reversed for lower diameter ratios, since the quasicrystal becomes stable with respect to the crystal but does not reach a coexistence with the fluid.Comment: 14 pages, 6 eps figures included. Revised version to appear in Phil. Mag.

The Hodge numbers of O'Grady 10 via Ngô strings

We determine the Hodge numbers of the hyper-Kähler manifold known as O'Grady 10 by studying some related modular Lagrangian fibrations by means of Nĝo strings, which we introduce via a refinement of the Ngô Support Theorem

A support theorem for\break the Hitchin fibration: The case of GLnand KC

We compute the supports of the perverse cohomology sheaves of the Hitchin fibration for GLn{\mathrm{GL}_{n}} over the locus of reduced spectral curves. In contrast to the case of meromorphic Higgs fields we find additional supports at the loci of reducible spectral curves. Their contribution to the global cohomology is governed by a finite twist of Hitchin fibrations for Levi subgroups. The corresponding summands give non-trivial contributions to the cohomology of the moduli spaces for every n≥2{n\geq{2}}. A key ingredient is a restriction result for intersection cohomology sheaves that allows us to compare the fibration to the one defined over versal deformations of spectral curves

Energy and Momentum Distributions of the Magnetic Solution to (2+1) Einstein-Maxwell Gravity

We use Moeller's energy-momentum complex in order to explicitly evaluate the energy and momentum density distributions associated with the three-dimensional magnetic solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations. The magnetic spacetime under consideration is a one-parametric solution describing the distribution of a radial magnetic field in a three-dimensional AdS background, and representing the superposition of the magnetic field with a 2+1 Einstein static gravitational field.Comment: LaTex, 13 pages; v2 clarifying comments and references added, Conclusions improved, to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

How ‘Smart’ Are Smart Specialization Strategies?

The introduction of smart specialization (S3) as a fundamental pillar of the 2014 reform of the EU cohesion policy is a significant strategic shift in European development intervention. S3 strategies aimed at mobilizing the economic potential of each country and region of the EU by allowing a more place-based and bottom-up approach to development. However, despite the salience that S3 has acquired in a short period of time, there has been no European-wide evaluation of the extent to which S3 strategies truly reflect the economic characteristics and potential of the territories where they are being implemented. This article examines the characteristics of S3 strategies across Europe – by focusing on their development axes, economic or scientific domains and policy priorities – to assess whether this is the case. The results show that S3 strategies display a proliferation of objectives, a problem that particularly affects areas with weaker quality of government. Moreover, strategies are generally loosely connected with the intrinsic conditions of each region and mostly mimic what neighbouring areas are doing. The lack of more concise and focused S3 strategies is likely to undermine the effectiveness of what is, otherwise, a very interesting and worthwhile policy experiment