Psychometric Development of the Autism Trait Survey

There are limited tools for professionals who work with individuals with autism to ascertain individuals’ strengths and challenges within the various facets of symptomology after diagnosis. Professionals can currently use personal interviews and psychological reports to determine individuals’ strengths and challenges to determine the types of services that would benefit them following initial diagnosis. The limitations of this practice are that the levels of understanding, accuracy, and use of these measures vary in the field. Furthermore, the norms of diagnostic measures are the entire population rather than solely individuals on the autistic spectrum/autistics (IOS/A). A new measure is necessary: one that encompasses everyone on the autism spectrum and highlights the variances in strengths and challenges within this population. This dissertation encompasses the creation of such a measure. The output of this measure is data that can showcase individuals’ challenges and strengths. These data can provide professionals who work with individuals with autism a better idea of where individuals’ needs may lie and help to create individualized treatment goals. This study consists of two data-collection phases: an in-depth measure analysis and one-on-one interviews of professionals in the field. In this study, the researcher assessed for content validity. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.ed

Blinded by magic: eye-movements reveal the misdirection of attention

Recent studies (e.g., Kuhn & Tatler, 2005) have suggested that magic tricks can provide a powerful and compelling domain for the study of attention and perception. In particular, many stage illusions involve attentional misdirection, guiding the observer’s gaze to a salient object or event, while another critical action, such as sleight of hand, is taking place. Even if the critical action takes place in full view, people typically fail to see it due to inattentional blindness. In an eye-tracking experiment, participants watched videos of a new magic trick, wherein a coin placed beneath a napkin disappears, reappearing under a different napkin. Appropriately deployed attention would allow participants to detect the secret event that underlies the illusion (a moving coin), as it happens in full view and is visible for approximately 550 ms. Nevertheless, we observed high rates of inattentional blindness. Unlike prior research, eye-movements during the critical event showed different patterns for participants, depending upon whether they saw the moving coin. The results also showed that when participants watched several practice videos without any moving coin, they became far more likely to detect the coin in the critical trial. Taken together, the findings are consistent with perceptual load theory (Lavie & Tsal, 1994)

Fish Hosts and Culture of Mussel Species of Special Concern: Annual Report for 1999

This report describes results of the second year of a 3-year investigation of reproductive biology of freshwater mussels (unionoids). At least 21 North American unionoids are already extinct and 69 species are federally classified as endangered. The purpose of this project is to provide information that will facilitate conservation and management of these unique organisms. Parasitism of larval unionoids on fish is a central feature of their biology. Knowledge of the host fish and the requirements of the juvenile life stages are prerequisite for propagation and restoration of endangered species. Therefore, we are attempting to identify fish hosts and key reproductive behaviors and to investigate the biology of cultured juveniles

The Effect of Changing Sea Ice on the Vulnerability of Arctic Coasts

Shorefast sea ice prevents the interaction of the land and the ocean in the Arctic winter and influences this interaction in the summer by governing the fetch. In many parts of the Arctic the sea-ice-free season is increasing in duration, and the summertime sea ice extents are decreasing. Sea ice provides a first order control on the vulnerability of Arctic coasts to erosion, inundation, and damage to settlements and infrastructure. We ask how the changing sea ice cover has influenced coastal erosion over the satellite record. First, we present a pan-Arctic analysis of satellite-based sea ice concentration specifically along the Arctic coasts. The median length of the 2012 open water season in comparison to 1979 expanded by between 1.5 and 3-fold by Arctic sea sector which allows for open water during the stormy Arctic fall. Second, we present a case study of Drew Point, Alaska, a site on the Beaufort Sea characterized by ice-rich permafrost and rapid coastal erosion rates where both the duration of the sea ice free season and distance to the sea ice edge, particularly towards the northwest, has increased. At Drew Point, winds from the northwest result in increased water levels at the coast and control the process of submarine notch incision, the rate-limiting step of coastal retreat. When open water conditions exist, the distance to the sea ice edge exerts control on the water level and wave field through its control on fetch. We find that the extreme values of water level set-up have increased, consistent with increasing fetch

Analysis of the Effects of Inhaled Diesel Exhaust on the Alveolar Intravascular and Interstitial Cellular Components of Rodent Lungs

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to determine the effect of diesel engine exhaust (DEE) on the intravascular and interstitial cellular population of the lungs of exposed rats and guinea pigs. Animals with matched controls were subjected to environments of either 250, 750, 1500 or 6000 μg/m3 for either 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 10 weeks or 18 months. These animals were sacrificed immediately following the exposure periods and their lungs perfused with fixative. Following dissection, random stratified biopsies from the lungs of these animals were made. Ultrathin sections from the alveolar lung were prepared and conventionally processed for TEM and randomly photographed to compose a micrograph database. These micrographs were analyzed by point counting using a Zeiss MOP 3 Digital Image Analyzer. The results indicated no significant intravascular cellular response but a significant increase in the mononuclear population in the interstitium

Fall versus Spring Nitrogen Fertilization on Pasture

Iowa livestock producers managing drought-stressed pastures wanted to know if grass-based pastures would recover more quickly or produce more forage by applying nitrogen to pastures in the fall versus their traditional spring application management. A pasture fertilization study was conducted on cool-season grassbased pastures at the Iowa State University Armstrong, Neely-Kinyon, and McNay Research and Demonstration Farms. Urea was hand applied at rates of 0, 22.5, 45, 66.7, and 90 lbs/acre to small plots at each site in October 2000. Some plots received 22.5 and 45 lbs/acre of N at the fall application date as the first half of a split application to total 45 and 90 lb/acre of N. The same N rates were applied to different plots and the remainder of the split application treatments was applied in March 2001. Dry matter yield was determined in mid-May 2001. Yields at the Neely-Kinyon and McNay farms were similar, and slightly higher than those at the Armstrong farm. Yield response to nitrogen application rates was positive and linear for each additional unit of nitrogen applied. The average total increase was about 38% for the first 45 lbsN/acre and about 81% for the 90 lbN/acre rates. There was no statistically significant or consistent relation between pasture yield increase and timing of nitrogen application across the three sites, but there were minor differences among sites. The trend, however, indicated that greater yields frequently were obtained from the early spring application treatments. Data was not collected to assess forage nutritive quality or stand density, however, both could be of value and importance to the long-term sustainability of a foragelivestock enterprise. These results indicate that for the period studied, there was no consistent advantage in applying nitrogen fertilizer to grass-based pastures in late fall or splitting the total application between fall and spring as compared to making traditional spring nitrogen applications

Cost-effectiveness of community-based screening and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Mali.

IntroductionModerate acute malnutrition (MAM) causes substantial child morbidity and mortality, accounting for 4.4% of deaths and 6.0% of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost among children under 5 each year. There is growing consensus on the need to provide appropriate treatment of MAM, both to reduce associated morbidity and mortality and to halt its progression to severe acute malnutrition. We estimated health outcomes, costs and cost-effectiveness of four dietary supplements for MAM treatment in children 6-35 months of age in Mali.MethodsWe conducted a cluster-randomised MAM treatment trial to describe nutritional outcomes of four dietary supplements for the management of MAM: ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF; PlumpySup); a specially formulated corn-soy blend (CSB) containing dehulled soybean flour, maize flour, dried skimmed milk, soy oil and a micronutrient pre-mix (CSB++; Super Cereal Plus); Misola, a locally produced, micronutrient-fortified, cereal-legume blend (MI); and locally milled flour (LMF), a mixture of millet, beans, oil and sugar, with a separate micronutrient powder. We used a decision tree model to estimate long-term outcomes and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) comparing the health and economic outcomes of each strategy.ResultsCompared to no MAM treatment, MAM treatment with RUSF, CSB++, MI and LMF reduced the risk of death by 15.4%, 12.7%, 11.9% and 10.3%, respectively. The ICER was US$9821 per death averted (2015 USD) and US$347 per DALY averted for RUSF compared with no MAM treatment.ConclusionMAM treatment with RUSF is cost-effective across a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds.Trial registrationNCT01015950

Solving airline operations problems using specialized agents in a distributed multi-agent system

An airline schedule very rarely operates as planned. Problems related with aircrafts, crew members and passengers are common and the actions towards the solution of these problems are usually known as operations recovery. The Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC) tries to solve these problems with the minimum cost and satisfying all the required rules. In this paper we present the implementation of a Distributed Multi-Agent System (MAS) representing the existing roles in an AOCC, This MAS deals with several operational bases and for each type of operation problems it has several specialized software agents that implement different algorithms (heuristic, AI, OR, etc.), competing to find the best solution for each problem. We present a real case study taken from an AOCC where a crew recovery problem is solved. Computational results using a real airline schedule are presented, including a comparison with a solution for the same problem found by the human operators in the AOCC. We show that, even in simple problems and when comparing with solutions found by human operators, it is possible to find valid solutions, in less time and with a smaller cost