My Life as an Epic Win: Self-Determination in Individuals with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

The transition into adulthood can be a difficult time for any young person. For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder who have challenges in communication, social interactions and executive functioning (DSM 5, 2013), this transition could be extremely difficult. Research has shown that higher rates of self-determination in teens with and without disabilities are associated with many positive outcomes in adulthood (Cobb et al., 2009; Shogren, Wehmeyer, Palmer, Rifenbark, & Little, 2015; Wehmeyer et al., 2010). For young adults with HFASD, there is little evidence for the effectiveness of teaching self-determination on their adult outcomes (Wehmeyer et al., 2010; Shogren et al., 2015). To address this concern, in the winter of 2014, a ten-week course called My Life as an Epic Win, designed to teach self-determined behaviours, was delivered was delivered to eight older teens and young adults with HFASD and their parents. This MA thesis used a comparative case study design involving descriptive, interpretive analysis to describe the engagement of three of these participants with protocols relating to self-determination. Specifically, qualitative within and across participant analyses of pre- and post-course measures of self-determination were used to explore the impact of the course on self-determination for three of the eight young adults. Two measures of self-determination were used (a) the Arc’s Self-Determination Scale (SDS; Wehmeyer & Kelchner, 1995), and (b) Visioning and Action Questionnaire (VAQ). Analyses of these three case studies were useful in three ways. First, analyses showed how these individuals with high functioning ASD already demonstrated certain aspects of self-determination prior to the course. Secondly, the analyses provided insight into how self-determined behaviours were enhanced through training for these participants. Finally, the positive trends that were seen encourage us to continue developing and evaluating future iterations of the Epic Win course. Separate from the case study analysis, procedural analysis provided guidance as to how the course could be improved to enhance future participants’ acquisition of self-determined behaviours and to effectively evaluate this skill acquisition

2022 Lesson Plan | The Play Is the Thing

The most important part of studying Shakespeare is infusing meaning into the text. These activities will help you get Shakespeare on its feet and remove Shakes fear from your students.https://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/shakespeare_proj/1016/thumbnail.jp

Immunomodulatory responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from multiple sclerosis patients upon in vitro incubation with the flavonoid luteolin: additive effects of IFN-β

The study is aimed to determine the role of luteolin (3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone), alone and in combination with human interferon-beta (IFN-β), in modulating the immune response(s) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. PBMC proliferation in the presence or absence of these drugs was determined and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α), and the ratio of cell migration mediator MMP-9, and its inhibitor, TIMP-1 was assessed in the culture supernatants. Luteolin reduced, in a dose-dependent manner, the proliferation of PBMCs, and modulated the levels of IL-1β and TNF-α released by PBMCs in the culture supernatants. Luteolin reduced the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio via lowering MMP-9 production. In the majority of cases, luteolin, when combined with IFN-β, had additive effects in modulating cell proliferation, IL-1β, TNF-α, MMP-9 and TIMP-1

Insomnia disorder

Insomnia disorder affects a large proportion of the population on a situational, recurrent or chronic basis and is among the most common complaints in medical practice. The disorder is predominantly characterized by dissatisfaction with sleep duration or quality and difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep, along with substantial distress and impairments of daytime functioning. It can present as the chief complaint or, more often, co-occurs with other medical or psychiatric disorders, such as pain and depression. Persistent insomnia has been linked with adverse long-term health outcomes, including diminished quality of life and physical and psychological morbidity. Despite its high prevalence and burden, the aetiology and pathophysiology of insomnia is poorly understood. In the past decade, important changes in classification and diagnostic paradigms have instigated a move from a purely symptom-based conceptualization to the recognition of insomnia as a disorder in its own right. These changes have been paralleled by key advances in therapy, with generic pharmacological and psychological interventions being increasingly replaced by approaches that have sleep-specific and insomnia-specific therapeutic targets. Psychological and pharmacological therapies effectively reduce the time it takes to fall asleep and the time spent awake after sleep onset, and produce a modest increase in total sleep time; these are outcomes that correlate with improvements in daytime functioning. Despite this progress, several challenges remain, including the need to improve our knowledge of the mechanisms that underlie insomnia and to develop more cost-effective, efficient and accessible therapies

A comparison of period finding algorithms

This paper presents a comparison of popular period finding algorithms applied to the light curves of variable stars from the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey, MACHO and ASAS data sets. We analyse the accuracy of the methods against magnitude, sampling rates, quoted period, quality measures (signal-to-noise and number of observations), variability and object classes. We find that measure of dispersion-based techniques – analysis of variance with harmonics and conditional entropy – consistently give the best results but there are clear dependences on object class and light-curve quality. Period aliasing and identifying a period harmonic also remain significant issues. We consider the performance of the algorithms and show that a new conditional entropy-based algorithm is the most optimal in terms of completeness and speed. We also consider a simple ensemble approach and find that it performs no better than individual algorithms

Representations of sport in the revolutionary socialist press in Britain, 1988–2012

This paper considers how sport presents a dualism to those on the far left of the political spectrum. A long-standing, passionate debate has existed on the contradictory role played by sport, polarised between those who reject it as a bourgeois capitalist plague and those who argue for its reclamation and reformation. A case study is offered of a political party that has consistently used revolutionary Marxism as the basis for its activity and how this party, the largest in Britain, addresses sport in its publications. The study draws on empirical data to illustrate this debate by reporting findings from three socialist publications. When sport did feature it was often in relation to high profile sporting events with a critical tone adopted and typically focused on issues of commodification, exploitation and alienation of athletes and supporters. However, readers’ letters, printed in the same publications, revealed how this interpretation was not universally accepted, thus illustrating the contradictory nature of sport for those on the far left

Testing Lyα emission-line reconstruction routines at multiple velocities in one system

The 1215.67 Å H i Lyα emission line dominates the ultraviolet flux of low-mass stars, including the majority of known exoplanet hosts. Unfortunately, strong attenuation by the interstellar medium (ISM) obscures the line core in most stars, requiring the intrinsic Lyα flux to be reconstructed based on fits to the line wings. We present a test of the widely used Lyα emission-line reconstruction code lyapy using phase-resolved, medium-resolution STIS G140M observations of the close white dwarf–M dwarf binary EG UMa. The Doppler shifts induced by the binary orbital motion move the Lyα emission line in and out of the region of strong ISM attenuation. Reconstructions of each spectrum should produce the same Lyα profile regardless of phase, under the well-justified assumption that there is no intrinsic line variability between observations. Instead, we find that the reconstructions underestimate the Lyα flux by almost a factor of 2 for the lowest velocity, most attenuated spectrum, due to a degeneracy between the intrinsic Lyα and ISM profiles. Our results imply that many stellar Lyα fluxes derived from G140M spectra reported in the literature may be underestimated, with potential consequences for, for example, estimates of extreme-ultraviolet stellar spectra and ultraviolet inputs into simulations of exoplanet atmospheres

Financial burden of men with localized prostate cancer: a process paper

BackgroundMany individuals undergoing cancer treatment experience substantial financial hardship, often referred to as financial toxicity (FT). Those undergoing prostate cancer treatment may experience FT and its impact can exacerbate disparate health outcomes. Localized prostate cancer treatment options include: radiation, surgery, and/or active surveillance. Quality of life tradeoffs and costs differ between treatment options. In this project, our aim was to quantify direct healthcare costs to support patients and clinicians as they discuss prostate cancer treatment options. We provide the transparent steps to estimate healthcare costs associated with treatment for localized prostate cancer among the privately insured population using a large claims dataset.MethodsTo quantify the costs associated with their prostate cancer treatment, we used data from the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters, including MarketScan Medicaid, and peer reviewed literature. Strategies to estimate costs included: (1) identifying the problem, (2) engaging a multidisciplinary team, (3) reviewing the literature and identifying the database, (4) identifying outcomes, (5) defining the cohort, and (6) designing the analytic plan. The costs consist of patient, clinician, and system/facility costs, at 1-year, 3-years, and 5-years following diagnosis.ResultsWe outline our specific strategies to estimate costs, including: defining complex research questions, defining the study population, defining initial prostate cancer treatment, linking facility and provider level related costs, and developing a shared understanding of definitions on our research team.Discussion and next stepsAnalyses are underway. We plan to include these costs in a prostate cancer patient decision aid alongside other clinical tradeoffs