SOCIAL FUNCTIONING IN ADULTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: THE ROLE OF BIOLOGICAL STRESS RESPONSE AND PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESS

This study aimed to improve our understanding of social functioning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by: (1) identifying differences in stress among adults with ASD and healthy volunteers; and (2) examining the relationship between stress and social functioning in adults with ASD. This study hypothesized that adults with ASD would experience greater stress than healthy volunteers and that there would be a significant, negative relationship between stress and social functioning in adults with ASD. Data were collected from 40 adults with ASD and 25 healthy volunteers during a single session in the laboratory. Repeated measures of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR) were taken during a social stress challenge task, while salivary cortisol was collected before and after the task. Measures also assessed psychosocial stress (perceived stress and stressful life events), global functioning, social disability, daily living skills, and social impairment. Analyses examined group differences between adults with ASD and healthy volunteers on biological stress response and psychosocial stress using analysis of variance procedures. The relationship between stress and social functioning was analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression procedures separately for biological stress response and psychosocial stress. This research found that adults with ASD and healthy volunteers exhibit remarkably similar patterns of biological stress response, yet the ASD group reported more psychosocial stress than healthy volunteers. In addition, findings indicated that psychosocial stress was a pertinent predictor of social disability in adults with ASD, but that biological stress response did not predict social functioning in this group. These results suggest that, while adults with ASD experience greater psychosocial stress than healthy volunteers, they do not differ significantly from healthy volunteers in their biological stress response. In addition, the lived experience of stress may have a greater influence on social disability than biological stress response in this population, although a lack of biological stress response difference between adults with ASD and healthy volunteers may be explained by burnout. Future research should examine interventions that might improve social functioning by helping adults with ASD perceive and cope with stress differently

Prediction of residual stresses in girth welded pipes using an artificial neural network approach

Management of operating nuclear power plants greatly relies on structural integrity assessments for safety critical pressure vessels and piping components. In the present work, residual stress profiles of girth welded austenitic stainless steel pipes are characterised using an artificial neural network approach. The network has been trained using residual stress data acquired from experimental measurements found in literature. The neural network predictions are validated using experimental measurements undertaken using neutron diffraction and the contour method. The approach can be used to predict through-wall distribution of residual stresses over a wide range of pipe geometries and welding parameters thereby finding potential applications in structural integrity assessment of austenitic stainless steel girth welds

Russian Philanthrocapitalism

This article investigates philanthropic practices among Russia’s super-rich. Based on interviews with multimillionaires and billionaires, it ponders whether and to what extent philanthrocapitalist concepts are compatible with traditional Russian approaches to elite philanthropy, which have been shaped and controlled by country’s strong state. Overall, consciously and unconsciously, Russian philanthropists have selectively adopted a number of philanthrocapitalist principles, while some of them merge them with beliefs molded by their Soviet past and their self-perception as belonging to the intelligentsia. Based on diverse and eclectic models, they have constructed distinct ideas about their lives and their role in Russian society. This acts as a lever to build up trust in the new social hierarchy and fashion a new generation of supposedly deserving upper-class youth

Acoustic Cues for Sound Source Distance and Azimuth in Rabbits, a Racquetball and a Rigid Spherical Model

There are numerous studies measuring the transfer functions representing signal transformation between a source and each ear canal, i.e., the head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), for various species. However, only a handful of these address the effects of sound source distance on HRTFs. This is the first study of HRTFs in the rabbit where the emphasis is on the effects of sound source distance and azimuth on HRTFs. With the rabbit placed in an anechoic chamber, we made acoustic measurements with miniature microphones placed deep in each ear canal to a sound source at different positions (10–160 cm distance, ±150° azimuth). The sound was a logarithmically swept broadband chirp. For comparisons, we also obtained the HRTFs from a racquetball and a computational model for a rigid sphere. We found that (1) the spectral shape of the HRTF in each ear changed with sound source location; (2) interaural level difference (ILD) increased with decreasing distance and with increasing frequency. Furthermore, ILDs can be substantial even at low frequencies when distance is close; and (3) interaural time difference (ITD) decreased with decreasing distance and generally increased with decreasing frequency. The observations in the rabbit were reproduced, in general, by those in the racquetball, albeit greater in magnitude in the rabbit. In the sphere model, the results were partly similar and partly different than those in the racquetball and the rabbit. These findings refute the common notions that ILD is negligible at low frequencies and that ITD is constant across frequency. These misconceptions became evident when distance-dependent changes were examined

Contrasting Alloreactive CD4 + and CD8 + T Cells: There's More to It Than MHC Restriction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73698/1/j.1600-6143.2003.00036.x.pd

Through-Thickness Residual Stress Profiles in Austenitic Stainless Steel Welds: A Combined Experimental and Prediction Study

Economic and safe management of nuclear plant components relies on accurate prediction of welding-induced residual stresses. In this study, the distribution of residual stress through the thickness of austenitic stainless steel welds has been measured using neutron diffraction and the contour method. The measured data are used to validate residual stress profiles predicted by an artificial neural network approach (ANN) as a function of welding heat input and geometry. Maximum tensile stresses with magnitude close to the yield strength of the material were observed near the weld cap in both axial and hoop direction of the welds. Significant scatter of more than 200 MPa was found within the residual stress measurements at the weld center line and are associated with the geometry and welding conditions of individual weld passes. The ANN prediction is developed in an attempt to effectively quantify this phenomenon of ‘innate scatter’ and to learn the non-linear patterns in the weld residual stress profiles. Furthermore, the efficacy of the ANN method for defining through-thickness residual stress profiles in welds for application in structural integrity assessments is evaluated

A global database of ant species abundances

What forces structure ecological assemblages? A key limitation to general insights about assemblage structure is the availability of data that are collected at a small spatial grain (local assemblages) and a large spatial extent (global coverage). Here, we present published and unpublished data from 51, 388 ant abundance and occurrence records of more than 2,693 species and 7,953 morphospecies from local assemblages collected at 4,212 locations around the world. Ants were selected because they are diverse and abundant globally, comprise a large fraction of animal biomass in most terrestrial communities, and are key contributors to a range of ecosystem functions. Data were collected between 1949 and 2014, and include, for each geo-referenced sampling site, both the identity of the ants collected and details of sampling design, habitat type, and degree of disturbance. The aim of compiling this data set was to provide comprehensive species abundance data in order to test relationships between assemblage structure and environmental and biogeographic factors. Data were collected using a variety of standardized methods, such as pitfall and Winkler traps, and will be valuable for studies investigating large-scale forces structuring local assemblages. Understanding such relationships is particularly critical under current rates of global change. We encourage authors holding additional data on systematically collected ant assemblages, especially those in dry and cold, and remote areas, to contact us and contribute their data to this growing data set