Does Faux Pas Detection in Adult Autism Reflect Differences in Social Cognition or Decision-Making Abilities?

43 typically-developed adults and 35 adults with ASD performed a cartoon faux pas test. Adults with ASD apparently over-detected faux pas despite good comprehension abilities, and were generally slower at responding. Signal detection analysis demonstrated that the ASD participants had significantly greater difficulty detecting whether a cartoon depicted a faux pas and showed a liberal response bias. Test item analysis demonstrated that the ASD group were not in agreement with a reference control group (n = 69) about which non-faux pas items were most difficult. These results suggest that the participants with ASD had a primary problem with faux pas detection, but that there is another factor at work, possibly compensatory, that relates to their choice of a liberal response criterion

Revision of the genus Centrophorus (Squaliformes: Centrophoridae): Part 1-Redescription of Centrophorus granulosus (Bloch & Schneider), a senior synonym of C-acus Garman and C-niaukang Teng

The genus Centrophorus is one of the most taxonomically complex and confusing elasmobranch groups. A revision of this group is currently underway and this first paper sets an important foundation in this process by redescribing the type species of the genus-Centrophorus granulosus. This taxon name has been previously applied to two different morphotypes: a large species \u3e 1.5 m TL and a smaller species similar to 1 m TL. Centrophorus acus and C. niaukang are the most commonly used names applied to the larger morphotype. The original description of C. granulosus was based on a large specimen of similar to 1.5 m TL, but subsequent redescriptions were based on either of the large or small morphotypes. Centrophorus granulosus is herein redescribed as a large species and a neotype is designated. Centrophorus acus and C. niaukang are found to be junior synonyms of C. granulosus. Centrophorus granulosus is distinguishable from its congeners by its large size, dermal denticle shape, colouration and a number of morphological and biological characteristics. Ontogenetic changes in morphology, dentition and denticle shape for this species are described in detail

Dimensionality and dynamics in the behavior of C. elegans

A major challenge in analyzing animal behavior is to discover some underlying simplicity in complex motor actions. Here we show that the space of shapes adopted by the nematode C. elegans is surprisingly low dimensional, with just four dimensions accounting for 95% of the shape variance, and we partially reconstruct "equations of motion" for the dynamics in this space. These dynamics have multiple attractors, and we find that the worm visits these in a rapid and almost completely deterministic response to weak thermal stimuli. Stimulus-dependent correlations among the different modes suggest that one can generate more reliable behaviors by synchronizing stimuli to the state of the worm in shape space. We confirm this prediction, effectively "steering" the worm in real time.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, minor correction

The Galaxy Structure-Redshift Relationship

There exists a gradual, but persistent, evolutionary effect in the galaxy population such that galaxy structure and morphology change with redshift. This galaxy structure-redshift relationship is such that an increasingly large fraction of all bright and massive galaxies at redshifts 2 < z < 3 are morphologically peculiar at wavelengths from rest-frame ultraviolet to rest-frame optical. There are however examples of morphologically selected spirals and ellipticals at all redshifts up to z ~ 3. At lower redshift, the bright galaxy population smoothly transforms into normal ellipticals and spirals. The rate of this transformation strongly depends on redshift, with the swiftest evolution occurring between 1 < z < 2. This review characterizes the galaxy structure-redshift relationship, discusses its various physical causes, and how these are revealing the mechanisms responsible for galaxy formation.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. Invited Review to appear in "Penetrating Bars Through Masks of Cosmic Dust: The Hubble Tuning Fork Strikes A New Note", ed. D. Block et a

Mapping the history and current situation of research on John Cunningham virus – a bibliometric analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>John Cunningham virus (JCV) constitutes a family of polyoma viruses, which plays important roles in the progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and tumorigenesis. However, no bibliometric investigation has been reported to guide the researchers and potential readers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Papers were collected from database Sci-expanded and Pubmed until May 22, 2008. The highly-productive authors, institutes and countries, highly-cited authors and journals were ranked. The highly-cited articles were subjected to co-citation and chronological analysis with highly-frequent MeSH words for co-occurrence analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Until now, 1785 articles about JCV were indexed in Sci-expanded and 1506 in Pubmed. The main document type was original article. USA, Japan and Italy were the largest three producers about JCV. Temple University published 128 papers and ranked the top, followed by University of Tokyo. Khalili K and Yogo Y became the core authors due to more than 20 documents produced. Journal of Neurovirology published more than 15 papers and ranked the top. Padgett BL and Berger JR were the first two highly-cited authors. Journal of Virology and Journal of Neurovirology respectively ranked to the first two highly-cited journals. These top highly-cited articles were divided into 5 aspects: (1) The correlation between JC virus and tumors; (2) Causal correlation of JCV with PML; (3) Polyoma virus infection and its related diseases in renal-allograft recipients; (4) Detection of JCV antibody, oncogene and its encoding protein; (5) Genetics and molecular biology of JCV. The MeSH/subheadings were classified into five groups: (1) JCV and virus infectious diseases; (2) JCV pathogenicity and pathological appearance of PML; (3) JCV isolation and detection; (4) Immunology of JCV and PML; (5) JCV genetics and tumors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>JCV investigation mainly focused on its isolation and detection, as well as its correlation with PML and tumors. Establishment of transgenic animal model using JCV T antigen would be a hopeful and useful project in the further study.</p

Identifying Topological Order by Entanglement Entropy

Topological phases are unique states of matter incorporating long-range quantum entanglement, hosting exotic excitations with fractional quantum statistics. We report a practical method to identify topological phases in arbitrary realistic models by accurately calculating the Topological Entanglement Entropy (TEE) using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). We argue that the DMRG algorithm naturally produces a minimally entangled state, from amongst the quasi-degenerate ground states in a topological phase. This proposal both explains the success of this method, and the absence of ground state degeneracy found in prior DMRG sightings of topological phases. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the calculational procedure by obtaining the TEE for several microscopic models, with an accuracy of order $10^{-3}$ when the circumference of the cylinder is around ten times the correlation length. As an example, we definitively show the ground state of the quantum $S=1/2$ antiferromagnet on the kagom\'e lattice is a topological spin liquid, and strongly constrain the full identification of this phase of matter.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Galaxy Harassment and the Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies

Disturbed spiral galaxies with high rates of star formation pervaded clusters of galaxies just a few billion years ago, but nearby clusters exclude spirals in favor of ellipticals. ``Galaxy harassment" (frequent high speed galaxy encounters) drives the morphological transformation of galaxies in clusters, provides fuel for quasars in subluminous hosts and leaves detectable debris arcs. Simulated images of harassed galaxies are strikingly similar to the distorted spirals in clusters at $z \sim 0.4$ observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.Comment: Submitted to Nature. Latex file, 7 pages, 10 photographs in gif and jpeg format included. 10 compressed postscript figures and text available using anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/pub/hpcc/moore/ (mget *) Also available at http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/papers

Agreement between an online dietary assessment tool (myfood24) and an interviewer-administered 24-h dietary recall in British adolescents aged 11–18 years

myfood24 Is an online 24-h dietary assessment tool developed for use among British adolescents and adults. Limited information is available regarding the validity of using new technology in assessing nutritional intake among adolescents. Thus, a relative validation of myfood24 against a face-to-face interviewer-administered 24-h multiple-pass recall (MPR) was conducted among seventy-five British adolescents aged 11–18 years. Participants were asked to complete myfood24 and an interviewer-administered MPR on the same day for 2 non-consecutive days at school. Total energy intake (EI) and nutrients recorded by the two methods were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Bland–Altman plots (using between and within-individual information) and weighted κ to assess the agreement. Energy, macronutrients and other reported nutrients from myfood24 demonstrated strong agreement with the interview MPR data, and ICC ranged from 0·46 for Na to 0·88 for EI. There was no significant bias between the two methods for EI, macronutrients and most reported nutrients. The mean difference between myfood24 and the interviewer-administered MPR for EI was −230 kJ (−55 kcal) (95 % CI −490, 30 kJ (−117, 7 kcal); P=0·4) with limits of agreement ranging between 39 % (3336 kJ (−797 kcal)) lower and 34 % (2874 kJ (687 kcal)) higher than the interviewer-administered MPR. There was good agreement in terms of classifying adolescents into tertiles of EI (κ w =0·64). The agreement between day 1 and day 2 was as good for myfood24 as for the interviewer-administered MPR, reflecting the reliability of myfood24. myfood24 Has the potential to collect dietary data of comparable quality with that of an interviewer-administered MPR

Non-thermal emission processes in massive binaries

In this paper, I present a general discussion of several astrophysical processes likely to play a role in the production of non-thermal emission in massive stars, with emphasis on massive binaries. Even though the discussion will start in the radio domain where the non-thermal emission was first detected, the census of physical processes involved in the non-thermal emission from massive stars shows that many spectral domains are concerned, from the radio to the very high energies. First, the theoretical aspects of the non-thermal emission from early-type stars will be addressed. The main topics that will be discussed are respectively the physics of individual stellar winds and their interaction in binary systems, the acceleration of relativistic electrons, the magnetic field of massive stars, and finally the non-thermal emission processes relevant to the case of massive stars. Second, this general qualitative discussion will be followed by a more quantitative one, devoted to the most probable scenario where non-thermal radio emitters are massive binaries. I will show how several stellar, wind and orbital parameters can be combined in order to make some semi-quantitative predictions on the high-energy counterpart to the non-thermal emission detected in the radio domain. These theoretical considerations will be followed by a census of results obtained so far, and related to this topic... (see paper for full abstract)Comment: 47 pages, 5 postscript figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, in pres