Visual preference for social stimuli in individuals with autism or neurodevelopmental disorders : an eye-tracking study

Background Recent research has identified differences in relative attention to competing social versus non-social video stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Whether attentional allocation is influenced by the potential threat of stimuli has yet to be investigated. This is manipulated in the current study by the extent to which the stimuli are moving towards or moving past the viewer. Furthermore, little is known about whether such differences exist across other neurodevelopmental disorders. This study aims to determine if adolescents with ASD demonstrate differences in attentional allocation to competing pairs of social and non-social video stimuli, where the actor or object either moves towards or moves past the viewer, in comparison to individuals without ASD, and to determine if individuals with three genetic syndromes associated with differing social phenotypes demonstrate differences in attentional allocation to the same stimuli. Methods In study 1, adolescents with ASD and control participants were presented with social and non-social video stimuli in two formats (moving towards or moving past the viewer) whilst their eye movements were recorded. This paradigm was then employed with groups of individuals with fragile X, Cornelia de Lange, and Rubinstein-Taybi syndromes who were matched with one another on chronological age, global adaptive behaviour, and verbal adaptive behaviour (study 2). Results Adolescents with ASD demonstrated reduced looking-time to social versus non-social videos only when stimuli were moving towards them. Individuals in the three genetic syndrome groups showed similar looking-time but differences in fixation latency for social stimuli moving towards them. Across both studies, we observed within- and between-group differences in attention to social stimuli that were moving towards versus moving past the viewer. Conclusions Taken together, these results provide strong evidence to suggest differential visual attention to competing social versus non-social video stimuli in populations with clinically relevant, genetically mediated differences in socio-behavioural phenotypes

Matte Robinson, The Astral H.D.: Occult and Religious Sources and Contexts for H.D.’s Poetry and Prose

Matte Robinson, The Astral H.D.: Occult and Religious Sources and Contexts for H.D.’s Poetry and Prose New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Pp. 193. ISBN: 9781628924176 Natasha Anderson The occult is a mysterious, mystical, and all too often misunderstood topic for modern readers. The occult also forms a central part of H.D.’s poetry and prose. Yet it can be difficult to reach the esoteric roots of H.D.’s ideas owing to the complexity of her writing. H.D.’s inclusion of Bar-Isis and Venus who..

Matte Robinson, The Astral H.D.: Occult and Religious Sources and Contexts for H.D.’s Poetry and Prose

Matte Robinson, The Astral H.D.: Occult and Religious Sources and Contexts for H.D.’s Poetry and Prose New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Pp. 193. ISBN: 9781628924176 Natasha Anderson The occult is a mysterious, mystical, and all too often misunderstood topic for modern readers. The occult also forms a central part of H.D.’s poetry and prose. Yet it can be difficult to reach the esoteric roots of H.D.’s ideas owing to the complexity of her writing. H.D.’s inclusion of Bar-Isis and Venus who..

Ann Taylor Allen, The Transatlantic Kindergarten: Education and Women’s Movements in Germany and the United States

Ann Taylor Allen, The Transatlantic Kindergarten: Education and Women’s Movements in Germany and the United States New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. 292. ISBN: 9780190274436 Natasha Anderson If it takes a village to raise a child, then it required a transnational village to create the kindergarten. In The Transatlantic Kindergarten, Ann Taylor Allen traces the development and dissemination of the kindergarten as an institution shaped by transnationality. In a book both enlightening..

Rachel Trousdale, ed. Humor in Modern American Poetry

Rachel Trousdale, ed. Humor in Modern American Poetry New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. Pp. 240. ISBN: 9781501334733. Natasha Anderson Laughter is the best medicine, yet laughter’s central role in modernist poetry is far from common knowledge. The eleven essays collected in Humor in Modern American Poetry therefore offer a timely look at the numerous manifestations of lyrical humor. The ten authors featured in this book explore a wide spectrum of comedic elements employed by such diverse writers as..

Bellocq\u27s Ophelia

Based on the book of poetry by Natasha Trethewey, and performed on the Hollins University Theatre Main Stage from Feb. 15-19, 2012.https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/performances/1004/thumbnail.jp

Access to Justice Online: Are Canadian Court Websites Accessible for Users with Visual Impairments?

Steps taken to make legal information available online have resulted in access to justice benefits for many. However, these benefits may not extend to everyone equally. As scholars have cautioned, the adoption of new technologies that purport to improve access to justice may perpetuate the exclusion of vulnerable and marginalized individuals and groups from the justice system. This article applies this insight to legal information made available online by Canadian court websites and CanLII. It does so through a two-part study. First, we used an automated testing tool to determine whether the websites noted above comply with accessibility standards. Second, after having secured research ethics approval, we worked with Access & Diversity at the University of British Columbia to recruit persons with visual impairments; these participants evaluated the same websites and provided feedback. Our results showed that while largely accessible, the tested websites fall short of best practices, presenting challenges to users with visual impairments. We recommend that Canadian courts correct the deficiencies identified by our study, that other online legal resources be tested for accessibility issues, and that future research focus on the extent to which online legal resources are accessible to other vulnerable or marginalized individuals or groups. Implementing these recommendations will ensure that the access to justice benefits of online legal information are extended to everyone

Does engagement with exposure yield better outcomes?: Components of presence as a predictor of treatment response for virtual reality exposure therapy for social phobia

Virtual reality exposure (VRE) has been shown to be effective for treating a variety of anxiety disorders, including social phobia. Presence, or the level of connection an individual feels with the virtual environment, is widely discussed as a critical construct both for the experience of anxiety within a virtual environment and for a successful response to VRE. Two published studies show that whereas generalized presence relates to fear ratings during VRE, it does not relate to treatment response. However, presence has been conceptualized as multidimensional, with three primary factors (spatial presence, involvement, and realness). These factors can be linked to other research on the facilitation of fear during exposure, inhibitors of treatment response (e.g., distraction), and more recent theoretical discussions of the mechanisms of exposure therapy, such as Bouton’s (2004) description of expectancy violation. As such, one or more of these components of presence may be more strongly associated with the experience of fear during VRE and treatment response than the overarching construct. The current study (N=41) evaluated relations between three theorized components of presence, fear ratings during VRE, and treatment response for VRE for social phobia. Results suggest that total presence and realness subscale scores were related to in-session peak fear ratings. However, only scores on the involvement subscale significantly predicted treatment response. Implications of these findings are discussed

Análise da influência do uso de cunhas na derrubada semimecanizada de árvores

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Renato Cesar Gonçalves RobertMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Curso de Graduação em Engenharia FlorestalInclui referências p. 27-30Resumo : Devido à escassez de estudos que promovam melhorias técnicas e na segurança do trabalho na operação de derrubada semimecanizada de árvores. Este estudo objetivou analisar o uso das cunhas no corte e direcionamento de queda de árvores. Os dados foram coletados por meio de experimentos realizados em plantios de uma empresa localizada no sul do estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com base na comparação dos tratamentos utilizados para o corte com motosserra dos talhões, sendo estes com e sem uso de cunha. Os resultados mostraram-se interessantes do ponto de vista de segurança e desempenho do trabalho, constatando-se que as cunhas proporcionam 40,5% de ganho quanto à direção de queda das árvores. Também se concluiu que para a variável?? "vento",?? a?? qual?? muito?? influencia?? na derrubada de árvores, a cunha mostrou-se uma ferramenta eficaz na redução desta influência, obtendo-se 12,4% a menos de indivíduos tombados na direção errada à estabelecida. Constata-se que o uso da cunha de uma maneira geral otimiza a colheita de madeira. Recomenda-se que o uso desta ferramenta seja adotado na operação de corte das árvores, devido aos seus benefícios para a segurança dos trabalhadores e ao serviço na colheita florestal em geral

Impact of recipient functional status on 1-year liver transplant outcomes

BACKGROUND: The Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scale has been widely validated for clinical practice for over 60 years.AIM: To examine the extent to which poor pre-transplant functional status, assessed using the KPS scale, is associated with increased risk of mortality and/or graft failure at 1-year post-transplantation.METHODS: This study included 38278 United States adults who underwent first, non-urgent, liver-only transplantation from 2005 to 2014 (Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients). Functional impairment/disability was categorized as severe, moderate, or none/normal. Analyses were conducted using multivariable-adjusted Cox survival regression models.RESULTS: The median age was 56 years, 31% were women, median pre-transplant Model for End-Stage for Liver Disease score was 18. Functional impairment was present in 70%; one-quarter of the sample was severely disabled. After controlling for key recipient and donor factors, moderately and severely disabled patients had a 1-year mortality rate of 1.32 [confidence interval (CI): 1.21-1.44] and 1.73 (95%CI: 1.56-1.91) compared to patients with no impairment, respectively. Subjects with moderate and severe disability also had a multivariable-adjusted 1-year graft failure rate of 1.13 (CI: 1.02-1.24) and 1.16 (CI: 1.02-1.31), respectively.CONCLUSION: Pre-transplant functional status is a useful prognostic indicator for 1-year post-transplant patient and graft survival.</p