Designing AI Interfaces for Children with Special Needs in Educational Contexts

The IDC research community has a growing interest in designing AI interfaces for children with special educational needs. Nonetheless, little research has explored the research and design issues, rationale, challenges, and opportunities in this field. Therefore, we propose to host a half-day workshop to bring together researchers and practitioners from the Learning & Education, Accessibility, and Intelligent User Interfaces sub-fields to discuss and identify existing design issues, challenges, and collaboration barriers, to establish consensus on the design of a pragmatic framework, as well as explore future innovation and research opportunities. We aim to foster mutual unders

Turbulent Binary Fluids: A Shell Model Study

We introduce a shell (``GOY'') model for turbulent binary fluids. The variation in the concentration between the two fluids acts as an active scalar leading to a redefined conservation law for the energy, which is incorporated into the model together with a conservation law for the scalar. The model is studied numerically at very high values of the Prandtl and Reynolds numbers and we investigate the properties close to the critical point of the miscibility gap where the diffusivity vanishes. A peak develops in the spectrum of the scalar, showing that a strongly turbulent flow leads to an increase in the mixing time. The peak is, however, not very pronounced. The mixing time diverges with the Prandtl number as a power law with an exponent of approximately 0.9. The continuum limit of the shell equations leads to a set of equations which can be solved by a scaling ansatz, consistent with an exact scaling of the Navier-Stokes equations in the inertial range. In this case a weak peak also persists for a certain time in the spectrum of the scalar. Exact analytic solutions of the continuous shell equations are derived in the inertial range. Starting with fluids at rest, from an initial variation of the concentration difference, one can provoke a ``spontaneous'' generation of a velocity field, analogous to MHD in the early universe.Comment: 25 pages including 9 figures in epsf. Some figures have been revised, and a few comments have been inserted in the text. To be published in Physic

Low-energy peak structure in strong-field ionization by mid-infrared laser-pulses: two-dimensional focusing by the atomic potential

We analyze the formation of the low-energy structure (LES) in above-threshold ionization spectra first observed by Quan et al.\ \cite{quan09} and Blaga et al.\ \cite{blaga09} using both quasi-classical and quantum approaches. We show this structure to be largely classical in origin resulting from a two-dimensional focusing in the energy-angular momentum plane of the strong-field dynamics in the presence of the atomic potential. The peak at low energy is strongly correlated with high angular momenta of the photoelectrons. Quantum simulations confirm this scenario. Resulting parameter dependences agree with experimental findings \cite{quan09,blaga09} and, in part, with other simulations \cite{liu10,yan10,kast11}.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Roles of KChIP1 in the regulation of GABA-mediated transmission and behavioral anxiety

K+ channel interacting protein 1 (KChIP1) is a neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) protein that interacts with multiple intracellular molecules. Its physiological function, however, remains largely unknown. We report that KChIP1 is predominantly expressed at GABAergic synapses of a subset of parvalbumin-positive neurons in the brain. Forced expression of KChIP1 in cultured hippocampal neurons increased the frequency of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs), reduced paired pulse facilitation of autaptic IPSCs, and decreases potassium current density. Furthermore, genetic ablation of KChIP1 potentiated potassium current density in neurons and caused a robust enhancement of anxiety-like behavior in mice. Our study suggests that KChIP1 is a synaptic protein that regulates behavioral anxiety by modulating inhibitory synaptic transmission, and drugs that act on KChIP1 may help to treat patients with mood disorders including anxiety

Simvastatin Restores Down-Regulated GATA-6 Expression in Pulmonary Hypertensive Rats

Vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation has been known to be predominant in vascular remodeling of pulmonary hypertensive. The GATA family proteins, a group of zinc finger transcription factors, play an important role during cell proliferation. The aim of present study was to investigate the expression of GATA-6 gene in experimental pulmonary hypertensive rats and explore the effect of regulation of GATA-6 expression by simvastatin on pulmonary vascular remodeling. The male Sprague-Dawley rats model was established with receiving pneumonectomy and monocrotaline (MCT) administration. Right pulmonary artery remodeling in these animals was compared with untreated rats or rats receiving simvastatin. The level of GATA-6 mRNA and protein expression was detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. Pneumonectomized, MCT-treated rats had significantly increased mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), RV/(LV + S) ratio (ratio of the right ventricular to left ventricular and septum weights), vascular occlusion scores (VOSs), and percent media wall thickness on day 35, all the indices were significantly decreased after simvastatin administration in these rats. The level of GATA-6 mRNA and protein were markedly decreased in these pneumonectomy and MCT-treated rats, and they were significantly up-regulated in these rats after receiving simvastatin. These results indicate that the development and progression of pulmonary hypertension is prevented by simvastatin by up-regulating GATA-6 expression in the lung tissue

Development of Shanghai satellite laser ranging station

The topics covered include the following: improvement of the system hardware; upgrading of the software; the observation status; preliminary daylight tracking capability; testing the new type of laser; and future plans