Biological motion perception in autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analysis

Background: Biological motion, namely the movement of others, conveys information that allows the identification of affective states and intentions. This makes it an important avenue of research in autism spectrum disorder where social functioning is one of the main areas of difficulty. We aimed to create a quantitative summary of previous findings and investigate potential factors, which could explain the variable results found in the literature investigating biological motion perception in autism. Methods: A search from five electronic databases yielded 52 papers eligible for a quantitative summarisation, including behavioural, eye-tracking, electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Results: Using a three-level random effects meta-analytic approach, we found that individuals with autism generally showed decreased performance in perception and interpretation of biological motion. Results additionally suggest decreased performance when higher order information, such as emotion, is required. Moreover, with the increase of age, the difference between autistic and neurotypical individuals decreases, with children showing the largest effect size overall. Conclusion: We highlight the need for methodological standards and clear distinctions between the age groups and paradigms utilised when trying to interpret differences between the two populations

Biological motion perception in autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analysis

Background: Biological motion, namely the movement of others, conveys information that allows the identification of affective states and intentions. This makes it an important avenue of research in autism spectrum disorder where social functioning is one of the main areas of difficulty. We aimed to create a quantitative summary of previous findings and investigate potential factors, which could explain the variable results found in the literature investigating biological motion perception in autism. Methods: A search from five electronic databases yielded 52 papers eligible for a quantitative summarisation, including behavioural, eye-tracking, electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Results: Using a three-level random effects meta-analytic approach, we found that individuals with autism generally showed decreased performance in perception and interpretation of biological motion. Results additionally suggest decreased performance when higher order information, such as emotion, is required. Moreover, with the increase of age, the difference between autistic and neurotypical individuals decreases, with children showing the largest effect size overall. Conclusion: We highlight the need for methodological standards and clear distinctions between the age groups and paradigms utilised when trying to interpret differences between the two populations

A New Class of Photoresponsive Surfactants

Recently, surface tension has been shown to be important in emerging high technologies, such as in pumping and control of flow in microfluidic devices, in microchemical analysis of complex fluids, and in rapid DNA screening, etc. Advances in these new technologies will depend strongly on the availability of flexible methods for controlling surface tension. Photo-control using a photoresponsive surfactant is a potentially attractive route to accomplishing many of the tasks required in these processes. Photoresponsive surfactants typically incorporate an azobenzene group as the functional unit which experiences reversible trans-to-cis photoisomerization under different irradiation conditions. The photoisomerization usually causes a change in surface tension. Obviously, a large change in surface tension under different illumination conditions will be highly desirable in practical applications. However, the largest change in surface tension as reported in the literature is only 3 mN/m which is too small to generate any significant effect. In this presentation, we report a new class of photoresponsive surfactants which exhibit excellent performance in surface tension control. Under different illumination conditions, the change in surface tension can be as large as 11.0 mN/m. Experimental results are presented for two new photoresponsive surfactants. A discussion of experimental results follows.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Cortical thinning in young psychosis and bipolar patients correlate with common neurocognitive deficits

Background: People in midlife with established psychosis or bipolar disorder exhibit patterns of cortical thinning across several brain regions. It is unclear whether these patterns are indicative of a continuously active pathological process, residual effects of an earlier illness phase or pre-illness onset developmental risk factors. Here, we investigated whether cortical thinning is evident in younger patients in the early phase of psychosis or bipolar disorder and the relationship between cortical thinning and neurocognitive performance in young people. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was obtained from a sample of young patients with psychosis (n = 40; mean age 23.5 years), bipolar disorder (n = 73; mean age 21.9 years) or controls (n = 49; mean age 24.2 years). Group differences in cortical thickness were assessed using statistical difference maps, and regions of cortical thinning were correlated with medication dosage and performance on neurocognitive tasks. As initial comparisons using multiple corrections found no differences between the groups, follow-up analysis with a significance threshold of p < 0.001 was performed. Results and discussion: As distinct from reported findings in older subjects, young patients with psychosis have less extensive thinning in parietal-temporal areas and do not demonstrate significant thinning in the insula or dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. Young patients with bipolar disorder exhibit cortical thinning in regions more consistent with those previously reported in paediatric bipolar patients. Although there were some differences in the regions of cortical thinning between the two groups, the shared regions of cortical thinning were correlated with neurocognitive deficits in visual sustained attention, semantic verbal fluency and verbal learning and memory that are commonly reported in young people with either psychosis or bipolar disorder

Indigenous Australians and Universities: A Study of Postgraduate Students' Experiences in Learning Research

This thesis is concerned with conceptualizing the Social World of Learning of Australian Indigenous postgraduates to determine the quality of research training provided for them. The learning experiences of a group of twenty Indigenous postgraduates in eight Australian universities across ten campuses co-operatively contributed to the information base of this Study. Indigenous entry into the Australian postgraduate sector of education is a recent event, consequently little is known about the area inasmuch as only one Study exists. I used a Democratic Evaluation process to find the answer to the research focus question which guided this Study: How do Australian Indigenous postgraduates experience learning research

The world is nuanced but pixelated: autistic individuals’ perspective on HIPPEA

Little attention has been given to the voice of autistic individuals during the development of theories that are trying to explain the condition. This can often make individuals feel that they have to fit into the theory’s definition, rather than it fitting into their experience. We aimed to understand to what extent the HIPPEA (High, Inflexible Precision of Prediction Errors in Autism) theory resonates with the lived experiences of autistic individuals. We conducted 21 questionnaires and 8 follow-up interviews and used a hybrid (deductive and inductive) approach to analyse the data. Based on the participants’ views, HIPPEA provides an explanation for many of the lived experiences of autistic individuals. However, refinement is needed with respect to interpersonal interactions, emotional processing and individuals’ motivation to engage with their environment despite challenges with the way the world is organised. Furthermore, more details are needed for the theory to accurately allow us to understand autism. Lay Abstract: Autism is a condition comprised of difficulties in social and communication contexts, sensory sensitivities as well as restrictive and repetitive behaviours. Many theories have tried to explain all the symptoms and behaviours associated with autism. We focus on one recent theory – High, Inflexible Precision of Prediction Errors in Autism (HIPPEA). We aim to understand how much this theory fits the experiences of autistic individuals. We collected data through 21 online questionnaires and 8 follow-up interviews. One of our participants was a parent of an autistic child, and the remaining were adults who reported a diagnosis of autism. We analysed the data by thinking about how it fitted with what we already knew and by looking for new insights which came up. Our results suggest that autistic individuals can make generalisations but that this happens more slowly across both social and non-social areas. These generalisations are very reliant on detail – in computer terms, they are ‘pixelated’. This is in line with what HIPPEA suggests. We also showed that autistic individuals can be motivated to explore and engage socially, something that needs more consideration within HIPPEA. Overall, this study shows that HIPPEA can explain many autistic experiences, but that further refinement is needed

Bioinspired self-repairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity

Creating a robust synthetic surface that repels various liquids would have broad technological implications for areas ranging from biomedical devices and fuel transport to architecture but has proved extremely challenging. Inspirations from natural nonwetting structures particularly the leaves of the lotus, have led to the development of liquid-repellent microtextured surfaces that rely on the formation of a stable air–liquid interface. Despite over a decade of intense research, these surfaces are, however, still plagued with problems that restrict their practical applications: limited oleophobicity with high contact angle hysteresis, failure under pressure and upon physical damage inability to self-heal and high production cost. To address these challenges, here we report a strategy to create self-healing, slippery liquid-infused porous surface(s) (SLIPS) with exceptional liquid- and ice-repellency, pressure stability and enhanced optical transparency. Our approach—inspired by Nepenthes pitcher plants—is conceptually different from the lotus effect, because we use nano/microstructured substrates to lock in place the infused lubricating fluid. We define the requirements for which the lubricant forms a stable, defect-free and inert ‘slippery’ interface. This surface outperforms its natural counterparts and state-of-the-art synthetic liquid-repellent surfaces in its capability to repel various simple and complex liquids (water, hydrocarbons, crude oil and blood), maintain low contact angle hysteresis (<2.5°), quickly restore liquid-repellency after physical damage (within 0.1–1 s), resist ice adhesion, and function at high pressures (up to about 680 atm). We show that these properties are insensitive to the precise geometry of the underlying substrate, making our approach applicable to various inexpensive, low-surface-energy structured materials (such as porous Teflon membrane). We envision that these slippery surfaces will be useful in fluid handling and transportation, optical sensing, medicine, and as self-cleaning and anti-fouling materials operating in extreme environments.Engineering and Applied Science

High concentrations and turnover rates of DMS, DMSP and DMSO in Antarctic sea ice

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 38 (2011): L23609, doi:10.1029/2011GL049712.The vast Antarctic sea-ice zone (SIZ) is a potentially significant source of the climate-active gas dimethylsulfide (DMS), yet few data are available on the concentrations and turnover rates of DMS and the related compounds dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in sea ice environments. Here we present new measurements characterizing the spatial variability of DMS, DMSP, and DMSO concentrations across the Antarctic SIZ, and results from tracer experiments quantifying the production rates of DMS from various sources. We observed extremely high concentrations (>200 nM) and turnover rates (>100 nM d−1) of DMS in sea-ice brines, indicating intense cycling of DMS/P/O. Our results demonstrate a previously unrecognized role for DMSO reduction as a major pathway of DMS production in Antarctic sea ice.This work was supported in part by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Ocean Life Institute and by NSF grant ANT-0838872 to KRA.2012-06-1

Prion-like α-synuclein pathology in the brain of infants with Krabbe disease

Krabbe disease is an infantile neurodegenerative disorder resulting from pathogenic variants in the GALC gene that causes accumulation of the toxic sphingolipid psychosine. GALC variants are also associated with Lewy body diseases, an umbrella term for age-associated neurodegenerative diseases in which the protein α-synuclein aggregates into Lewy bodies. To explore whether α-synuclein in Krabbe disease has pathological similarities to that in Lewy body disease, we performed an observational post-mortem study of Krabbe disease brain tissue (n = 4) compared to infant controls (n = 4) and identified widespread accumulations of α-synuclein. To determine whether α-synuclein in Krabbe disease brain displayed disease-associated pathogenic properties we evaluated its seeding capacity using the real-time quaking-induced conversion assay in two cases for which frozen tissue was available and strikingly identified aggregation into fibrils similar to those observed in Lewy body disease, confirming the prion-like capacity of Krabbe disease-derived α-synuclein. These observations constitute the first report of prion-like α-synuclein in the brain tissue of infants and challenge the putative view that α-synuclein pathology is merely an age-associated phenomenon, instead suggesting it results from alterations to biological pathways, such as sphingolipid metabolism. Our findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying Lewy body formation in Lewy body disease