Increasing Autism Awareness in Inner-City Churches: A Brief Report

Autism diagnosis rates trail significantly in the African American community. This pre-test post-test pilot study evaluated an African American inner-city church health ambassadors (HAs) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness training session. The participants included 12 HAs who attended the 1 hour training session organized by the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Results of surveys showed higher mean scores post training for (1) HA attitudes about the potential for children to improve with applied behavior analysis therapy; (2) HA self-efficacy for having information about ASD screening materials; (3) strategies HAs could use to help parents/caregivers of children with developmental delays and challenging behaviors; (4) HA confidence in referrals for children with signs of ASD; (5) HA knowledge of measures to take to maximize a child\u27s chance of receiving an ASD evaluation; and (6) HA comfort for talking to parents about children with challenging behaviors. Several of these effects were maintained 3 months later. Findings underscore the usefulness of the intervention for increasing the dissemination of knowledge about ASD and the opportunity to positively affect ASD screening, early intervention, and policy standards applicable to this vulnerable population

Force Dynamics in Weakly Vibrated Granular Packings

The oscillatory force F_b^ac on the bottom of a rigid, vertically vibrated, grain filled column, reveals rich granular dynamics, even when the peak acceleration of the vibrations is signicantly less than the gravitational acceleration at the earth's surface. For loose packings or high frequencies, F_b^ac 's dynamics are dominated by grain motion. For moderate driving conditions in more compact samples, grain motion is virtually absent, but F_b^ac nevertheless exhibits strongly nonlinear and hysteretic behavior, evidencing a granular regime dominated by nontrivial force-network dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

The use of equine chondrogenic‐induced mesenchymal stem cells as a treatment for osteoarthritis : a randomised, double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled proof‐of‐concept study

Background: There is a need to improve therapies for osteoarthritis in horses. Objectives To assess the efficacy of equine allogeneic chondrogenic-induced mesenchymal stem cells combined with equine allogeneic plasma as a novel therapy for osteoarthritis in horses. Study design: Randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled experiment. Methods: In 12 healthy horses, osteoarthritis was induced in the metacarpophalangeal joint using an osteochondral fragment-groove model. Five weeks after surgery, horses were randomly assigned to either an intra-articular injection with chondrogenic-induced mesenchymal stem cells + equine allogeneic plasma (= intervention) or with 0.9% saline solution (= control). From surgery until the study end, horses underwent a weekly joint and lameness assessment. Synovial fluid was collected for cytology and biomarker analysis before surgery and at Weeks 5, 5 + 1d, 7, 9 and 11. At Week 11, horses were subjected to euthanasia, and the metacarpophalangeal joints were evaluated macroscopically and histologically. Results: No serious adverse events or suspected adverse drug reactions occurred during the study. A significant improvement in visual and objective lameness was seen with the intervention compared with the control. Synovial fluid displayed a significantly higher viscosity and a significantly lower glycosaminoglycan concentration in the intervention group. Other biomarkers or cytology parameters were not significantly different between the treatment groups. Significantly less wear lines and synovial hyperaemia were present in the intervention group. The amount of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, collagen type II and glycosaminoglycans were significantly higher in the articular cartilage of the intervention group. Main limitations: This study assessed the short-term effect of the intervention on a limited number of horses, using an osteoarthritis model. This study also included multiple statistical tests, increasing the risk of type 1 error. Conclusions: Equine allogeneic chondrogenic-induced mesenchymal stem cells combined with equine allogeneic plasma may be a promising treatment for osteoarthritis in horses

COMBINED GEOMETRIC AND THERMAL ANALYSIS FROM UAV PLATFORMS FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION

The aim of this work is to study the value and potential of UAV technology as an instrument for documenting and analyzing a heritage site on both the detailed scale and the wider territorial scale. In particular, this paper will focus on the application of an UAV platform on the archeological site of Isola Comacina (Comacina Island), in the Lago di Como (Lake Como, Lombardy, Northern Italy). The work considers the advantages of different metric scales and the use of both RGB and thermal imagery, along with other terrestrial data (total station measurements and laser scans), in order to arrive at a working heritage information model. In particular, the archaeological remains on Isola Comacina have been intensively studied before by standard techniques but unfortunately no wider context is provided. A part of the research is the investigation of new methodologies offered by accurate geometric reconstructions combined with thermal imagery acquired by means of UAV platforms, e.g. the support of this type of imagery to discover rock formations partially buried

Spatiotemporal Chaos, Localized Structures and Synchronization in the Vector Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics, in one and two spatial dimensions, of two complex fields which are the two components of a vector field satisfying a vector form of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. We find synchronization and generalized synchronization of the spatiotemporally chaotic dynamics. The two kinds of synchronization can coexist simultaneously in different regions of the space, and they are mediated by localized structures. A quantitative characterization of the degree of synchronization is given in terms of mutual information measures.Comment: 6 pages, using bifchaos.sty (included). 7 figures. Related material, including higher quality figures, could be found at http://www.imedea.uib.es/PhysDept/publicationsDB/date.html . To appear in International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (1999

Critical jamming of frictional grains in the generalized isostaticity picture

While frictionless spheres at jamming are isostatic, frictional spheres at jamming are not. As a result, frictional spheres near jamming do not necessarily exhibit an excess of soft modes. However, a generalized form of isostaticity can be introduced if fully mobilized contacts at the Coulomb friction threshold are considered as slipping contacts. We show here that, in this framework, the vibrational density of states (DOS) of frictional discs exhibits a plateau when the generalized isostaticity line is approached. The crossover frequency to elastic behavior scales linearly with the distance from this line. Moreover, we show that the frictionless limit, which appears singular when fully mobilized contacts are treated elastically, becomes smooth when fully mobilized contacts are allowed to slip.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Gauss Sums and Quantum Mechanics

By adapting Feynman's sum over paths method to a quantum mechanical system whose phase space is a torus, a new proof of the Landsberg-Schaar identity for quadratic Gauss sums is given. In contrast to existing non-elementary proofs, which use infinite sums and a limiting process or contour integration, only finite sums are involved. The toroidal nature of the classical phase space leads to discrete position and momentum, and hence discrete time. The corresponding `path integrals' are finite sums whose normalisations are derived and which are shown to intertwine cyclicity and discreteness to give a finite version of Kelvin's method of images.Comment: 14 pages, LaTe

Can the jamming transition be described using equilibrium statistical mechanics?

When materials such as foams or emulsions are compressed, they display solid behaviour above the so-called `jamming' transition. Because compression is done out-of-equilibrium in the absence of thermal fluctuations, jamming appears as a new kind of a nonequilibrium phase transition. In this proceeding paper, we suggest that tools from equilibrium statistical mechanics can in fact be used to describe many specific features of the jamming transition. Our strategy is to introduce thermal fluctuations and use statistical mechanics to describe the complex phase behaviour of systems of soft repulsive particles, before sending temperature to zero at the end of the calculation. We show that currently available implementations of standard tools such as integral equations, mode-coupling theory, or replica calculations all break down at low temperature and large density, but we suggest that new analytical schemes can be developed to provide a fully microscopic, quantitative description of the jamming transition.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figs. Talk presented at Statphys24 (July 2010, Cairns, Australia

Dynamics of localized structures in vector waves

Dynamical properties of topological defects in a twodimensional complex vector field are considered. These objects naturally arise in the study of polarized transverse light waves. Dynamics is modeled by a Vector Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation with parameter values appropriate for linearly polarized laser emission. Creation and annihilation processes, and selforganization of defects in lattice structures, are described. We find "glassy" configurations dominated by vectorial defects and a melting process associated to topological-charge unbinding.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures included in the text. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2000). Related material at http://www.imedea.uib.es/Nonlinear and http://www.imedea.uib.es/Photonics . In this new version, Fig. 3 has been replaced by a better on

On elliptic solutions of the cubic complex one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau equation

The cubic complex one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau equation is considered. Using the Hone's method, based on the use of the Laurent-series solutions and the residue theorem, we have proved that this equation has neither elliptic standing wave nor elliptic travelling wave solutions. This result amplifies the Hone's result, that this equation has no elliptic travelling wave solutions.Comment: LaTeX, 12 page