The expression and assessment of emotions and internal states in individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities

The expression of emotions and internal states by individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities is a comparatively under-researched area. Comprehensive or standardised methods of assessing or understanding the emotions and internal states within this population, whose ability to communicate is significantly compromised, do not exist. The literature base will be discussed and compared to that within the general population. Methods of assessing broader internal states, notably depression, anxiety, and pain within severe or profound intellectual disabilities are also addressed. Finally, this review will examine methods of assessing internal states within genetic syndromes, including hunger, social anxiety and happiness within Prader-Willi, Fragile-X and Angelman syndrome. This will then allow for the identification of robust methodologies used in assessing the expression of these internal states, some of which may be useful when considering how to assess emotions within individuals with intellectual disabilities

Charged Schrodinger Black Holes

We construct charged and rotating asymptotically Schrodinger black hole solutions of IIB supergravity. We begin by obtaining a closed-form expression for the null Melvin twist of a broad class of type IIB backgrounds, including solutions of minimal five-dimensional gauged supergravity, and identify the resulting five-dimensional effective action. We use these results to demonstrate that the near-horizon physics and thermodynamics of asymptotically Schrodinger black holes obtained in this way are essentially inherited from their AdS progenitors, and verify that they admit zero-temperature extremal limits with AdS_2 near-horizon geometries. Notably, the AdS_2 radius is parametrically larger than that of the asymptotic Schrodinger space.Comment: 22 pages, LaTe

String universality in ten dimensions

We show that the ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity theories in ten dimensions with gauge groups $U(1)^{496}$ and $E_8 \times U(1)^{248}$ are not consistent quantum theories. Cancellation of anomalies cannot be made compatible with supersymmetry and abelian gauge invariance. Thus, in ten dimensions all supersymmetric theories of gravity without known inconsistencies are realized in string theory.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX. v2: typos corrected on version appearing in PR

Ecosystem size predicts eco-morphological variability in a postglacial diversification

Identifying the processes by which new phenotypes and species emerge has been a long-standing effort in evolutionary biology. Young adaptive radiations provide a model to study patterns of morphological and ecological diversification in environmental context. Here, we use the recent radiation (ca. 12k years old) of the freshwater fish Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) to identify abiotic and biotic environmental factors associated with adaptive morphological variation. Arctic charr are exceptionally diverse, and in postglacial lakes there is strong evidence of repeated parallel evolution of similar morphologies associated with foraging. We measured head depth (a trait reflecting general eco-morphology and foraging ecology) of 1,091 individuals across 30 lake populations to test whether fish morphological variation was associated with lake bathymetry and/or ecological parameters. Across populations, we found a significant relationship between the variation in head depth of the charr and abiotic environmental characteristics: positively with ecosystem size (i.e., lake volume, surface area, depth) and negatively with the amount of littoral zone. In addition, extremely robust-headed phenotypes tended to be associated with larger and deeper lakes. We identified no influence of co-existing biotic community on Arctic charr trophic morphology. This study evidences the role of the extrinsic environment as a facilitator of rapid eco-morphological diversification

Cybersecurity Maturity in the Pacific Islands – Informing a Regional CERT Framework

Cybersecurity acts as a strong influence on national governments’ security, economic, physical and social interests. A common policy goal of governments is to protect their respective interests by supporting cybersecurity threat and attack response capabilities. Contemporary research addresses the use of multi-national CERT frameworks to improve national cybersecurity capability maturity and resilience, however little research has been conducted into the efficacy of such frameworks with Pacific Island nations. This research employs a qualitative interview technique to develop an inductive model for a regional Pacific Islands CERT framework. The research proposes a Pacific Islands regional model based on a network of affiliated national CERTs that operate independently and reflect their respective national interests, while collaborating on matters of shared interest, supported by regional partners providing targeted assistance to build national and regional cybersecurity capability maturity and resilience

The Groebner basis of the ideal of vanishing polynomials

We construct an explicit minimal strong Groebner basis of the ideal of vanishing polynomials in the polynomial ring over Z/m for m>=2. The proof is done in a purely combinatorial way. It is a remarkable fact that the constructed Groebner basis is independent of the monomial order and that the set of leading terms of the constructed Groebner basis is unique, up to multiplication by units. We also present a fast algorithm to compute reduced normal forms, and furthermore, we give a recursive algorithm for building a Groebner basis in Z/m[x_1,x_2,...,x_n] along the prime factorization of m. The obtained results are not only of mathematical interest but have immediate applications in formal verification of data paths for microelectronic systems-on-chip.Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 2 algorithms (corrected version with new Prop. 3.8 and proof); Journal of Symbolic Computation 46 (2011

Molecular evidence for ten species and Oligo-Miocene vicariance within a nominal Australian gecko species (Crenadactylus ocellatus, Diplodactylidae)

Extent: 11p.BACKGROUND: Molecular studies have revealed that many putative ‘species’ are actually complexes of multiple morphologically conservative, but genetically divergent ‘cryptic species’. In extreme cases processes such as nonadaptive diversification (speciation without divergent selection) could mask the existence of ancient lineages as divergent as ecologically and morphologically diverse radiations recognised as genera or even families in related groups. The identification of such ancient, but cryptic, lineages has important ramifications for conservation, biogeography and evolutionary biology. Herein, we use an integrated multilocus genetic dataset (allozymes, mtDNA and nuclear DNA) to test whether disjunct populations of the widespread nominal Australian gecko species Crenadactylus ocellatus include distinct evolutionary lineages (species), and to examine the timing of diversification among these populations. RESULTS: We identify at least 10 deeply divergent lineages within the single recognised species Crenadactylus ocellatus, including a radiation of five endemic to the Kimberley region of north-west Australia, and at least four known from areas of less than 100 km2. Lineages restricted to geographically isolated ranges and semi-arid areas across central and western Australia are estimated to have began to diversify in the late Oligocene/early Miocence (~20-30 mya), concurrent with, or even pre-dating, radiations of many iconic, broadly sympatric and much more species-rich Australian vertebrate families (e.g. venomous snakes, dragon lizards and kangaroos). CONCLUSIONS: Instead of a single species, Crenadactylus is a surprisingly speciose and ancient vertebrate radiation. Based on their deep divergence and no evidence of recent gene flow, we recognise each of the 10 main lineages as candidate species. Molecular dating indicates that the genus includes some of the oldest vertebrate lineages confounded within a single species yet identified by molecular assessments of diversity. Highly divergent allopatric lineages are restricted to putative refugia across arid and semi-arid Australia, and provide important evidence towards understanding the history and spread of the Australian arid zone, suggesting at a minimum that semi-arid conditions were present by the early Miocene, and that severe aridity was widespread by the mid to late Miocene. In addition to documenting a remarkable instance of underestimation of vertebrate species diversity in a developed country, these results suggest that increasing integration of molecular dating techniques into cryptic species delimitation will reveal further instances where taxonomic conservatism has led to profound underestimation of not only species numbers, but also highly significant phylogenetic diversity and evolutionary history.Paul M. Oliver, Mark Adams and Paul Dought

Why Are Some Population Interventions for Diet and Obesity More Equitable and Effective Than Others? The Role of Individual Agency.

Jean Adams and colleagues argue that population interventions that require individuals to use a low level of agency to benefit are likely to be most effective and most equitable.his work was undertaken by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding for CEDAR from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The CEDAR grant is managed by the Medical Research Council (grant code MR/K023187/1) and the principal applicant is Prof NJ Wareham (who is not an author on this paper). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001990