Using time perception to explore implicit sensitivity to emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Establishing whether implicit responses to emotional cues are intact in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is fundamental to ascertaining why their emotional understanding is compromised. We used a temporal bisection task to assess for responsiveness to face and wildlife images that varied in emotional salience. There were no significant differences between an adult ASD and comparison group, with both showing implicit overestimation of emotional stimuli. Further, there was no correlation between overestimation of emotional stimuli and autistic traits in undergraduate students. These data do not suggest a fundamental insensitivity to the arousing content of emotional images in ASD, or in individuals with a high degree of autistic traits. The findings have implications for understanding how emotional stimuli are processed in ASD

Judgment of Learning Accuracy in High-functioning Adolescents and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study explored whether adults and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulties making metacognitive judgments, specifically judgments of learning. Across two experiments, the study examined whether individuals with ASD could accurately judge whether they had learnt a piece of information (in this case word pairs). In Experiment 1, adults with ASD demonstrated typical accuracy on a standard ‘cue-alone’ judgment of learning (JOL) task, compared to age- and IQmatched neurotypical adults. Additionally, in Experiment 2, adolescents with ASD demonstrated typical accuracy on both a standard ‘cue-alone’ JOL task, and a ‘cue-target’ JOL task. These results suggest that JOL accuracy is unimpaired in ASD. These results have important implications for both theories of metacognition in ASD and educational practise

Modeling of copper(II) biosorption by marine alga Sargassum sp in fixed-bed column

The biosorption of copper(II) by the marine alga Sargassum sp. was investigated in a batch reactor and in a fixed-bed column (temperature = 30 degreesC; pH 3.5). Langmuir and Freundlich sorption models were used to represent the equilibrium data. Experimental breakthrough curves in a fixed-bed column were obtained with a flow rate of 6 ml/min and feed concentration of 1, 2, 3 and 6 meq/l. A model that describes the dynamics of copper(II) ion sorption in the column was obtained from the mass balance in the fluid phase and the biosorbent. According to mass transfer three equations are available to represent the rate of adsorption. The model parameters: mass transfer coefficients, axial dispersion coefficients and constants of the kinetic equation, had their values adjusted from the experimental breakthrough curves. The model in which the mass transfer is controlled by diffusion in the biosorbent best represented the fixed-bed column dynamics. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.38579179

Spectrophotometric Determination of Rubisco Activity and Activation State in Leaf Extracts

Rubisco plays a central role in photosynthesis and, due to its catalytic inefficiencies,frequently limits CO2 assimilation in fully illuminated leaves at the top of unstressed crop canopies.The CO2-fixing enzyme is heavily regulated and not all the enzyme present in the leaf is active at any given moment. In this chapter,a spectrophotometric assay is described for measuring Rubisco activity and activation state in leaf extracts.Most of the assay components are available commercially and others can be produced by established protocols, making adoption of the assay achievable by most plant biochemistry laboratories.Its relative high-throughput capacity enables large-scale experiments aimed at screening germplasm for improved Rubisco function

BIOSORPTION STUDY OF Ni2+ AND Cr3+ BY Sargassum filipendula: KINETICS AND EQUILIBRIUM

In this work, the biosorption of Cr3+ and Ni2+ by Sargassum filipendula pre-treated with CaCl2 was studied. Kinetic and equilibrium experiments were carried out for mono- and multi-component solutions in a batch reactor at pH 3.0 and 30 degrees C. The results from the kinetic experiments showed that Cr3+ adsorbs slower than Ni2+. This behavior was explained by means of a mechanistic analysis, which showed that Cr3+ uptake presented three adsorption stages, whereas Ni2+ adsorption presents only two. The mono- component equilibrium data, along with binary kinetic data obtained from mono- component experiments, showed that, although the kinetics for Cr3+ removal are slower, the biomass had a stronger affinity for this ion. Almost all Ni2+ is desorbed from the biomass as Cr3+ adsorbs. The binary equilibrium data also presented this behavior. The binary data was also modeled by using modified forms of the Langmuir, Jain and Snoeyink, and Langmuir-Freundlich isotherms. However, the prediction obtained presented low accuracy. An alternative modeling with artificial neural networks was presented and the results showed that this technique could be a promising tool to represent binary equilibrium data. The main contribution of this work was to obtain experimental data for Cr3+/Ni2+ adsorption, which is a system rarely found in the literature and that provides information that could be used in process modeling and simulation.31121122