User participatory methods for inclusive design and research in autism: A case study in teaching UX design

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. User participatory design is considered to be one of the best methods for understanding the needs of a target audience and creating high quality, well designed solutions to meet their needs. For many design students, the principles of participatory design in the creation of new user experiences are part of their curriculum. However, the involvement of disabled persons into the user experience design (UXD) process can be difficult in an educational setting. Often persons with autism and cognitive disabilities are excluded from user experience data collection due to their lack of sufficient cognitive ability and language skills to participate in these research methods in meaningful ways. Further, educators may shy away from involving this group due to institutional regulations and ethical concerns. This paper presents a case study introducing design students to inclusive UXD strategies and observing autistic children, using an approach called the “Connectivity Model”. The model avoids the requirement for complex ethical clearance by facilitating observations via recorded videos. We present outcomes and evaluate the model against the most pertinent needs of these children

New constrained generalized Killing spinor field classes in warped flux compactifications

The generalized Fierz identities are addressed in the K\"ahler-Atiyah bundle framework from the perspective of the equations governing constrained generalized Killing spinor fields. We explore the spin geometry in a Riemannian 8-manifold composing a warped flux compactification AdS$_3\times M_8$, whose metric and fluxes preserve one supersymmetry in AdS$_3$. Supersymmetry conditions can be efficiently translated into spinor bilinear covariants, whose algebraic and differential constraints yield identifying new spinor field classes. Intriguing implications and potential applications are discussed.Comment: 25 page

Seasonlity of Kawasaki Disease: A global perspective

The authors are for the Kawasaki Disease Global Climate ConsortiumBACKGROUND: Understanding global seasonal patterns of Kawasaki disease (KD) may provide insight into the etiology of this vasculitis that is now the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries worldwide. METHODS: Data from 1970-2012 from 25 countries distributed over the globe were analyzed for seasonality. The number of KD cases from each location was normalized to minimize the influence of greater numbers from certain locations. The presence of seasonal variation of KD at the individual locations was evaluated using three different tests: time series modeling, spectral analysis, and a Monte Carlo technique. RESULTS: A defined seasonal structure emerged demonstrating broad coherence in fluctuations in KD cases across the Northern Hemisphere extra-tropical latitudes. In the extra-tropical latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, KD case numbers were highest in January through March and approximately 40% higher than in the months of lowest case numbers from August through October. Datasets were much sparser in the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics and statistical significance of the seasonality tests was weak, but suggested a maximum in May through June, with approximately 30% higher number of cases than in the least active months of February, March and October. The seasonal pattern in the Northern Hemisphere extra-tropics was consistent across the first and second halves of the sample period. CONCLUSION: Using the first global KD time series, analysis of sites located in the Northern Hemisphere extra-tropics revealed statistically significant and consistent seasonal fluctuations in KD case numbers with high numbers in winter and low numbers in late summer and fall. Neither the tropics nor the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics registered a statistically significant aggregate seasonal cycle. These data suggest a seasonal exposure to a KD agent that operates over large geographic regions and is concentrated during winter months in the Northern Hemisphere extra-tropics.published_or_final_versio

Breaking Of Conformal Invariance And Electromagnetic Field Generation In The Universe

It is shown that the breaking of the conformal invariance in quantum electrodynamics due to the trace anomaly results in the generation of long wave electromagnetic fields during inflationary stage of the universe evolution. If the coefficient of the logarithmic charge renormalization is large (due to a large number of charged particles species), these primordial electromagnetic fields can be strong enough to create the observed galactic magnetic fields.Comment: 6 pages, UM - TH - 93 - 0

Social deprivation and prognostic benefits of cardiac surgery: observational study of 44 902 patients from five hospitals over 10 years

Objective To assess the effects of social deprivation on survival after cardiac surgery and to examine the influence of potentially modifiable risk factors

Tuberculosis incidence correlates with sunshine : an ecological 28-year time series study

Birmingham is the largest UK city after London, and central Birmingham has an annual tuberculosis incidence of 80 per 100,000. We examined seasonality and sunlight as drivers of tuberculosis incidence. Hours of sunshine are seasonal, sunshine exposure is necessary for the production of vitamin D by the body and vitamin D plays a role in the host response to tuberculosis. Methods: We performed an ecological study that examined tuberculosis incidence in Birmingham from Dec 1981 to Nov 2009, using publicly-available data from statutory tuberculosis notifications, and related this to the seasons and hours of sunshine (UK Meteorological Office data) using unmeasured component models. Results: There were 9,739 tuberculosis cases over the study period. There was strong evidence for seasonality, with notifications being 24.1% higher in summer than winter (p<0.001). Winter dips in sunshine correlated with peaks in tuberculosis incidence six months later (4.7% increase in incidence for each 100 hours decrease in sunshine, p<0.001). Discussion and Conclusion: A potential mechanism for these associations includes decreased vitamin D levels with consequent impaired host defence arising from reduced sunshine exposure in winter. This is the longest time series of any published study and our use of statutory notifications means this data is essentially complete. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility that another factor closely correlated with the seasons, other than sunshine, is responsible. Furthermore, exposure to sunlight depends not only on total hours of sunshine but also on multiple individual factors. Our results should therefore be considered hypothesis-generating. Confirmation of a potential causal relationship between winter vitamin D deficiency and summer peaks in tuberculosis incidence would require a randomized-controlled trial of the effect of vitamin D supplementation on future tuberculosis incidence

A decision support framework for the discrimination of children with controlled epilepsy based on EEG analysis

This work was supported in part by the EC-IST project Biopattern, contract no: 508803, by the EC ICT project TUMOR, contract no: 247754, by the University of Malta grant LBA-73-695, by an internal grant from the Technical University of Crete, ELKE# 80037 and by the Academy of Finland, project nos: 113572, 118355, 134767 and 213462.Background: In this work we consider hidden signs (biomarkers) in ongoing EEG activity expressing epileptic tendency, for otherwise normal brain operation. More specifically, this study considers children with controlled epilepsy where only a few seizures without complications were noted before starting medication and who showed no clinical or electrophysiological signs of brain dysfunction. We compare EEG recordings from controlled epileptic children with age-matched control children under two different operations, an eyes closed rest condition and a mathematical task. The aim of this study is to develop reliable techniques for the extraction of biomarkers from EEG that indicate the presence of minor neurophysiological signs in cases where no clinical or significant EEG abnormalities are observed. Methods: We compare two different approaches for localizing activity differences and retrieving relevant information for classifying the two groups. The first approach focuses on power spectrum analysis whereas the second approach analyzes the functional coupling of cortical assemblies using linear synchronization techniques. Results: Differences could be detected during the control (rest) task, but not on the more demanding mathematical task. The spectral markers provide better diagnostic ability than their synchronization counterparts, even though a combination (or fusion) of both is needed for efficient classification of subjects. Conclusions: Based on these differences, the study proposes concrete biomarkers that can be used in a decision support system for clinical validation. Fusion of selected biomarkers in the Theta and Alpha bands resulted in an increase of the classification score up to 80% during the rest condition. No significant discrimination was achieved during the performance of a mathematical subtraction task.peer-reviewe