534 research outputs found
Differences in discrimination of eye and mouth displacement in autism spectrum disorders
AbstractIndividuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been found to have impairments in some face recognition tasks [e.g., Boucher, J., & Lewis, V. (1992). Unfamiliar face recognition in relatively able autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 843â859.], and it has been suggested that this impairment occurs because these individuals do not spontaneously attend to the eyes [e.g., Pelphrey, K. A., Sasson, N. J., Reznick, J. S., Paul, G., Goldman, B. D., & Piven, J. (2002). Visual scanning of faces in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 249â261.], or attend selectively to the mouth [e.g., Langdell, T. (1978). Recognition of facesâapproach to study of autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 19, 255â268; Joseph, R. M., & Tanaka J. (2003). Holistic and part-based face recognition in children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 529â542.]. Here, we test whether the eyes or the mouth are attended to preferentially by 16 males with ASD and 19 matched controls. Participants discriminated small spatial displacements of the eyes and the mouth. If the mouth region were attended to preferentially by individuals with ASD, we would expect ASD observers to be better at detecting subtle changes in mouth than eye displacements, relative to controls. Further, following Barton [Barton, J. J. S., Keenan, J. P., & Bass, T. (2001). Discrimination of spatial relations and features in faces: Effects of inversion and viewing duration. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 527â549.], we would expect to see differences in inversion effects as a function of feature manipulation between ASD and control groups. We found that individuals with ASD performed significantly differently than controls for the eye, but not the mouth, trials. However, we found no difference in inversion effects between the two groups of observers. Furthermore, we found evidence of distinct subclasses of individuals with ASD: those who performed normally, and those who were impaired. These results suggests that typical individuals are better able to make use of information in the eyes than some individuals with ASD, but that there is no clear autism âadvantageâ in the use of information in the mouth region
The Lancet Oral Health Series â implications for oral and dental research
No abstract available
Inmate Recidivism as a Measure of Private Prison Performance
The growth of the private corrections industry has elicited interest in the comparative performance of state and private prisons. One way to measure the service quality of private prisons is to examine inmates' postrelease performance. Current empirical evidence is limited to four studies, all conducted in Florida. This analysis replicates and adds to the Florida measures in a different state and enhances previous methods. It uses data for a large cohort of Oklahoma state prison inmates released between 1997 and 2001. Controlling for known covariates, multivariate survival analysis revealed comparative rates of reincarceration for inmates in multiple exposure and comparison groups. These results are unique among prior studies on this topic; private prison inmates had a greater hazard of recidivism in all eight models tested, six of which were statistically significant. Finding no empirical support for claims of superior service from private corrections, the authors discuss policy implications and prospects for future research.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
Adsorption of mono- and multivalent cat- and anions on DNA molecules
Adsorption of monovalent and multivalent cat- and anions on a deoxyribose
nucleic acid (DNA) molecule from a salt solution is investigated by computer
simulation. The ions are modelled as charged hard spheres, the DNA molecule as
a point charge pattern following the double-helical phosphate strands. The
geometrical shape of the DNA molecules is modelled on different levels ranging
from a simple cylindrical shape to structured models which include the major
and minor grooves between the phosphate strands. The densities of the ions
adsorbed on the phosphate strands, in the major and in the minor grooves are
calculated. First, we find that the adsorption pattern on the DNA surface
depends strongly on its geometrical shape: counterions adsorb preferentially
along the phosphate strands for a cylindrical model shape, but in the minor
groove for a geometrically structured model. Second, we find that an addition
of monovalent salt ions results in an increase of the charge density in the
minor groove while the total charge density of ions adsorbed in the major
groove stays unchanged. The adsorbed ion densities are highly structured along
the minor groove while they are almost smeared along the major groove.
Furthermore, for a fixed amount of added salt, the major groove cationic charge
is independent on the counterion valency. For increasing salt concentration the
major groove is neutralized while the total charge adsorbed in the minor groove
is constant. DNA overcharging is detected for multivalent salt. Simulations for
a larger ion radii, which mimic the effect of the ion hydration, indicate an
increased adsorbtion of cations in the major groove.Comment: 34 pages with 14 figure
Tidal resource extraction in the Pentland Firth, UK : Potential impacts on flow regime and sediment transport in the Inner Sound of Stroma
Large-scale extraction of power from tidal streams within the Pentland Firth is expected to be underway in the near future. The Inner Sound of Stroma in particular has attracted significant commercial interest. To understand potential environmental impacts of the installation of a tidal turbine array a case study based upon the Inner Sound is considered. A numerical computational fluid dynamics model, Fluidity, is used to conduct a series of depth-averaged simulations to investigate velocity and bed shear stress changes due to the presence of idealised tidal turbine arrays. The number of turbines is increased from zero to 400. It is found that arrays in excess of 85 turbines have the potential to affect bed shear stress distributions in such a way that the most favourable sites for sediment accumulation migrate from the edges of the Inner Sound towards its centre. Deposits of fine gravel and coarse sand are indicated to occur within arrays of greater than 240 turbines with removal of existing deposits in the shallower channel margins also possible. The effects of the turbine array may be seen several kilometres from the site which has implications not only on sediment accumulation, but also on the benthic fauna
Jupiter's temperature structure: a reassessment of the voyager radio occultation results
Stars and planetary system
A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons
We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV
using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of
the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference
is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.
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