Determining Relationships among Executive Functioning, Empathy, and Autism Spectrum Disorder Traits in Neurotypical Adults

Previous research has established that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have impairments in both cognitive empathy and executive functioning (EF), although little attention has been devoted to the relationships among these domains and ASD traits. Furthermore, the presence of an emotional empathy deficit in individuals with ASD has only begun to be explored, and studies have yielded discrepant findings likely attributable to differences in methodology and limited consideration of positive versus negative content. There is some evidence to suggest that EF may be important for emotional empathy and ASD traits. The current study aimed to clarify the relationships among these variables by examining the possibility that EF mediates the relationship between empathy and ASD traits in neurotypical adults. Although hypotheses regarding mediation were not supported, the study revealed a novel finding that positive emotional empathy was negatively associated with ASD traits, whereas cognitive empathy was not associated with ASD traits. Furthermore, planning ability was positively associated with cognitive empathy. Implications for future research based on these findings are discussed

Constitutional Law - Relation of Federal and State Governments Applicability of State Licensing Statute to Federal Contractors

A contractor submitted a bid for construction of facilities at an Arkansas Air Force Base over which the United States had not acquired jurisdiction. After this bid was accepted by the federal government and work on the project had begun, the contractor was tried by the Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, and found guilty of submitting a bid, executing a contract, and commencing work as a contractor without the license required by Arkansas law. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed. In a brief per curiam opinion, the Court stated that to subject a federal contractor to state licensing requirements would interfere with the federal policy of awarding construction contracts to the lowest responsible bidder. Leslie Miller, Inc. v. State of Arkansas, 352 U.S. 187 (1956)

Commutator Leavitt path algebras

For any field K and directed graph E, we completely describe the elements of the Leavitt path algebra L_K(E) which lie in the commutator subspace [L_K(E),L_K(E)]. We then use this result to classify all Leavitt path algebras L_K(E) that satisfy L_K(E)=[L_K(E),L_K(E)]. We also show that these Leavitt path algebras have the additional (unusual) property that all their Lie ideals are (ring-theoretic) ideals, and construct examples of such rings with various ideal structures.Comment: 24 page