Learning of Skilled Movements via Imitation in ASD

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) consists of altered performance of a range of skills, including social/communicative and motor skills. It is unclear whether this altered performance results from atypical acquisition or learning of the skills or from atypical “online” performance of the skills. Atypicalities of skilled actions that require both motor and cognitive resources, such as abnormal gesturing, are highly prevalent in ASD and are easier to study in a laboratory context than are social/communicative skills. Imitation has long been known to be impaired in ASD; because learning via imitation is a prime method by which humans acquire skills, we tested the hypothesis that children with ASD show alterations in learning novel gestures via imitation. Eighteen participants with ASD and IQ > 80, ages 8–12.9 years, and 19 typically developing peers performed a task in which they watched a video of a model performing a novel, meaningless arm/hand gesture and copied the gesture. Each gesture video/copy sequence was repeated 4–6 times. Eight gestures were analyzed. Examination of learning trajectories revealed that while children with ASD made nearly as much progress in learning from repetition 1 to repetition 4, the shape of the learning curves differed. Causal modeling demonstrated the shape of the learning curve influenced both the performance of overlearned gestures and autism severity, suggesting that it is in the index of learning mechanisms relevant both to motor skills and to autism core features

Trošarine (akcize)

Cilj ovog završnog rada je prikazati najznačajnije činjenice vezane uz početak primjenjivanja i razvoj poreza kroz povijest, prikazati vrste poreza i podobnije obraditi temu vezanu uz posebne poreze na promet, akcize odnosno trošarine. Radom je obuhvaćen povijesni razvoj trošarina, osnovna obiljeţja posebnih poreza, vrste te razlozi njihovog uvoĎenja u porezni sustav Republike Hrvatske paralelno s njihovom primjenom u Europskoj Uniji. U radu je prikazana i struktura javnih prihoda te prihodi i rashodi drţavnog proračuna Republike Hrvatske te je izdvojeno značenje trošarina (akciza) u ukupnim prihodima drţavnog proračua. U radu su prikazane i smjernice ekonomske i fiskalne politike za razdoblje od 2013.- 2017. godine. Naziv akciza (excise tax) potječe iz 16. stoljeća kada su se u Nizozemskoj počeli oporezivati pivo, šećer, sol i alkoholna pića posebnim porezom koji se nazivao excisijen. Trošarinama se oporezuju tri osnovne skupine proizvoda, a to su alkohol, energenti i duhanski proizvodi koji se mogu proširiti i drugim proizvodima te se na taj način razlikuju u svakoj pojedinoj drţavi.The goal of this work is to represent the most important facts that are related with the overview of the historical development of taxes, show the types of taxes and further processed topic related to excise taxes, excise or excise duty. The paper includes the historical development of the excise tax, the basic features of special taxes, types and reasons for their introductions in the tax system of the Republic Croatia in parallel with their application to the European Union. The paper describes the structure of public revenues, income and expenses of the state budget of the Republic Croatia, separate meaning of the excise tax (excise) in the total income of the state budget. The thesis also includes the guidelines for economic and fiscal policy for the period from year 2013.-2017. Name of excise tax (excise tax) dates from the 16th century, when the Netherlands began to taxed beer, sugar, salt and alcohol excise duties, which are called „excisijen“. Excise is taxed in three main groups of products, which can be extended to other products and they can be different in each country

Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera

Here we report the genome sequence of the honeybee Apis mellifera, a key model for social behaviour and essential to global ecology through pollination. Compared with other sequenced insect genomes, the A. mellifera genome has high A+T and CpG contents, lacks major transposon families, evolves more slowly, and is more similar to vertebrates for circadian rhythm, RNA interference and DNA methylation genes, among others. Furthermore, A. mellifera has fewer genes for innate immunity, detoxification enzymes, cuticle-forming proteins and gustatory receptors, more genes for odorant receptors, and novel genes for nectar and pollen utilization, consistent with its ecology and social organization. Compared to Drosophila, genes in early developmental pathways differ in Apis, whereas similarities exist for functions that differ markedly, such as sex determination, brain function and behaviour. Population genetics suggests a novel African origin for the species A. mellifera and insights into whether Africanized bees spread throughout the New World via hybridization or displacement