382 research outputs found
Effectiveness of the ADEC as a level 2 screening test for young children with suspected autism spectrum disorders in a clinical setting
Background The Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) is a clinician-administered, Level 2 screening tool. A retrospective file audit was used to investigate its clinical effectiveness.
Method Toddlers referred to an Australian child development service between 2008 and 2010 (N?=?53, M age?=?32.2 months) were screened with the ADEC. Their medical records were reviewed in 2013 when their mean age was 74.5 months, and the original ADEC screening results were compared with later diagnostic outcomes.
Results The ADEC had good sensitivity (87.5%) and moderate specificity (62%). Three behaviours predicted autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): response to name, gaze switching, and gaze monitoring (p???.001).
Conclusions The ADEC shows promise as a screening tool that can discriminate between young children with ASDs and those who have specific communication disorders or developmental delays that persist into middle childhood but who do not meet the criteria for ASDs
Reducing green tape or rolling back IA in Australia: What are found jurisdictions up to?
EIA has been practiced in Australia and the rest of the world for over 40 years, but despite its successes, EIA may now be facing its biggest challenge since it came into being in 1970 with the US National Environmental Policy Act. As Morgan (2012, 11) notes:
“As governments look to stimulate economic growth and create employment in response to the current financial crisis, many are promoting a major expansion of physical infrastructure, encouraging resource development projects, and generally seeking to speed decision-making about development projects. Both EIA and SEA should be even more important in such circumstances, yet the moves taken in some countries to speed up decision-making may weaken the provisions for environmental protection, including impact assessment.”
In this political and economic environment, EIA is under scrutiny. Proposed changes to the EU directive on EIA released in October 2012 contain ten changes to the Articles of the Directive, with six of these referring to either ‘streamlining’ EIA or introducing specific timeframes for parts of the EIA process (European Commission 2012). This scrutiny has not been restricted to economies in recession, but includes those that have avoided recession because of strong resources sectors.
The same appears to be happening in Australia, and this paper reports on these and other possible ‘efficiency’ changes to EIA in Australia at both national and sub-national levels. We attempt to critically examine the nature of such changes and the risks that may be associated with their implementation. Changes to three of the sub-national EIA processes are reviewed in detail, as well as the proposed changes to the national EIA process.
There is always room for more timely assessments, but a critical examination of the potential consequences of these “reforms” on the conduct of EIAs is needed, including whether these efficiency changes will deliver sound environmental management and sustainability-oriented decision-making
Microwave saturation of the Rydberg states of electrons on helium
We present measurements of the resonant microwave excitation of the Rydberg
energy levels of surface state electrons on superfluid helium. The temperature
dependent linewidth agrees well with theoretical predictions and is very small
below 300 mK. Absorption saturation and power broadening were observed as the
fraction of electrons in the first excited state was increased to 0.49, close
to the thermal excitation limit of 0.5. The Rabi frequency was determined as a
function of microwave power. The high values of the ratio of the Rabi frequency
to linewidth confirm this system as an excellent candidate for creating qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Counting Individual Electrons on Liquid Helium
We show that small numbers of electrons, including a single electron, can be
held in a novel electrostatic trap above the surface of superfluid helium. A
potential well is created using microfabricated electrodes in a 5 micron
diameter pool of helium. Electrons are injected into the trap from an electron
reservoir on a helium microchannel. They are individually detected using a
superconducting single-electron transistor (SET) as an electrometer. A Coulomb
staircase is observed as electrons leave the trap one-by-one until the trap is
empty. A design for a scalable quantum information processor using arrays of
electron traps is presentedComment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Generic properties of a quasi-one dimensional classical Wigner crystal
We studied the structural, dynamical properties and melting of a
quasi-one-dimensional system of charged particles, interacting through a
screened Coulomb potential. The ground state energy was calculated and,
depending on the density and the screening length, the system crystallizes in a
number of chains. As a function of the density (or the confining potential),
the ground state configurations and the structural transitions between them
were analyzed both by analytical and Monte Carlo calculations. The system
exhibits a rich phase diagram at zero temperature with continuous and
discontinuous structural transitions. We calculated the normal modes of the
Wigner crystal and the magneto-phonons when an external constant magnetic field
is applied. At finite temperature the melting of the system was studied via
Monte Carlo simulations using the (MLC). The
melting temperature as a function of the density was obtained for different
screening parameters. Reentrant melting as a function of the density was found
as well as evidence of directional dependent melting. The single chain regime
exhibits anomalous melting temperatures according to the MLC and as a check we
study the pair correlation function at different densities and different
temperatures, formulating a different criterion. Possible connection with
recent theoretical and experimental results are discussed and experiments are
proposed.Comment: 13 pages text, 21 picture
The TARGET_TIA: A complete, flexible and sound territorial impact assessment tool
This chapter presents TARGET_TIA as a relevant and flexible Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) methodology. TARGET_TIA was created in a context where existing ESPON TIA tools were mainly designed for assessing ex ante territorial impacts of EU directives. Hence, in view of the need to properly assess the main ex post territorial impacts of EU Cohesion Policy in several countries in a relevant and sound way, the author decided to design, test and apply his own TIA methodology, named TARGET_TIA. When compared with other existing TIA methodologies, TARGET_TIA can be used both at ex ante and ex post policy evaluation phases. In addition, it brings to the table the possibility to use counterfactual evaluation elements to allow the production of credible and sound TIA evaluation scores. Following on from its implementation in assessing the main territorial impacts of EU policies and programmes, mostly at the ex post evaluation phase, it is possible to conclude that it is a credible, flexible, easy-to-operate, cost-effective and robust TIA methodology, which can be applied to projects, programmes and policies, at all territorial levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
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