My Life as an Autistic

As an individual with Autism, the purpose of my presentation will be to share with the audience insight into my life dealing with autism, how I managed to find ways to overcome the obstacles in my life in spite of the autism, the cherished moments in my life that were made all the sweeter thanks to autism, and what I could have done in the past to better overcome the obstacles using the methods that I learned later in life

Constructing and validating the large inventory of frequent experience : personality based on everyday behaviors

textWhat is the best way to account for the variety of human experience? The range of ways to understand individuals has been debated across myriad domains of study without consensus. Rarely have the solutions involved the role of the observable behaviors of daily life; instead inferences are made from traits, opinions, beliefs, or needs. The current dissertation proposes assessing personality through the lens of time, focusing on individual differences in the objective, real world transactions of everyday behaviors. To accomplish this goal an inventory was created to closely approximate the totality of everyday behavioral life and explore its relation to traditional measures of personality. Study 1 analyzed the structure of behaviors in the American Time Use data as an aid in item generation within a narrowed, but comprehensive scope of the behavioral landscape. A thorough set of criteria were then applied to tailor the inventory towards measuring objective, high incidence, quotidian behaviors of psychological interest. In Study 2, the assembled 78-item behavioral inventory was administered to a large, diverse sample to explore the structure of everyday behaviors; the stability of behaviors over time; individual differences in everyday behaviors; the relationship of everyday behaviors to various measures of personality; and, the covariance of the behaviors with the language of everyday life. Six major dimensions of everyday behaviors were identified and found to be internally consistent and reliable over time. The dimensions demonstrated unique variance as a function of age, sex, and personality. The self-report format of this method of assessing everyday behaviors was shown to be construct valid in that analyses of open-ended linguistic descriptions of routine weekend behaviors paralleled the patterns of activity reported. The broader implications of assessing personality by way of everyday behaviors are discussed in that behaviors can be thought of as an enduring signature that implicitly incorporate our values, attitudes, beliefs, and overall means of expression.Psycholog

The Road to Self-Improvement; A Mother and Son story

Eren Denburg Niederhoffer and his Mother Dorian Denburg will discuss: -Eren\u27s story of his pursuit of self-improvement as a man on the Autism Spectrum-The lessons he learned along the way while struggling with autism-What he has accomplished as a man with autism-What families of children and young adults with and without autism in their family can stand to benefit through Eren and Dorian\u27s story and advice

Influence of Extracellular Matrix-Mimicking Gel Electrolyte on Electrode Charge Injection

Damage mechanisms and electrode behavior during electrical stimulation must be better understood to address the demands of new electrode technologies. Here, we studied the influence of gel electrolytes on electrode polarization and charge injection. We show that agar gels do not change electrode behavior significantly

Speciation and Mobilization of Toxic Heavy Metal Ions by Methanogenic Bacteria

HWRIC Project HWR 92-09

Effect of pH and gel electrolyte on safe charge injection and electrode degradation of platinum electrodes

Platinum (Pt) is a widespread electrode material choice for neural interfaces and electrochemical biosensors, due to its supposed electrochemical inertness. However, faradaic reactions can take place at Pt electrodes, including Pt oxide formation and reduction. Repeated redox cycles of Pt can lead to Pt dissolution, which may harm the tissue and significantly reduce electrode lifetime. In this study, we investigated how the electrolyte may influence Pt dissolution mechanisms during current pulsing. Two electrolyte characteristics were considered: pH and gelation. We confirmed that empirically reported tissue damage thresholds correlate with Pt oxide formation and reduction. Varying electrolyte pH occasioned a shift in recorded potentials, however, damage thresholds correlated with the same mechanisms for all pH values. The similar behaviour observed for pH values in the central range (4 ≤ pH ≤ 10) can be explained by variations of local pH at the electrode surface. Gel electrolytes behaved comparably to solutions, which was confirmed by statistical similarity tests. This study extends the knowledge about platinum electrochemistry and shows the necessity to carefully choose the stimulation protocol and the electrolyte to avoid platinum dissolution and tissue damage

Unsafe Stimulation Correlates with Oxide Reduction Onset in Unbuffered Saline

Damage mechanisms in electrical stimulation must be better understood to address the demands of new electrode technologies. In this work, we studied the effect of pH on the charge injection mechanisms in a repeated pulsing experiment. We show that damage occurs when the electrode potential enters the oxide reduction region

Influence of Aspect Ratio on the Current Density Profile of Recessed Stimulation Electrodes

Introduction: Electrical stimulation is a therapeutic technique aiming at restoring impaired biological functions by injecting a controlled amount of charge in the body. Commonly used planar stimulation electrodes exhibit a non-uniform current density distribution (j) that can lead to locally exceeding the safe stimulation threshold [1]. An electrode can be recessed into an insulating part, which results in a different j [2], thus a different injection of charge, which can induce damage or insufficient stimulation. However, few studies [3] have focused on the influence of the recess parameters on j and how it could be used in electrode design. / Material & Methods: A finite element model was used to calculate j at recessed and non-recessed planar disc platinum electrodes in saline in response to an applied potential (COMSOL 54 Electrochemistry module). Recess shape (tubular and conical) and aspect ratio (AR), defined as recess depth divided by electrode diameter, were varied. Fig. 1 (c) shows a transverse view of a conical (left) and tubular (right) recess with the electrode covering the entire base of the recess. / Results: The tubular recess presents a uniform j at the electrode surface and at most depths throughout the recess, except at the open end of the recess, where the apparent j is more similar to the one of a non-recessed electrode, fig. 1(a, c). The conical recess presents a distribution more similar to a non-recessed electrode at the electrode surface, which becomes more uniform towards the recess end, fig. 1 (b, c). Increasing the AR makes j more uniform, both at the electrode surface and at the end of the recess, fig. 1 (a, b, d). At a given AR, varying the dimensions of the recess does not affect j, with relative standard deviations typically smaller than 0.5% (7 ARs tested, 3 pairs of dimensions per AR). / Discussion: The non-uniformity of j depended only on the recess shape and AR. Understanding this relationship will allow finetuning the current density profile at the electrode surface and at the recess end. For instance, a tubular recess with an AR larger than 2 will yield a uniform distribution at the electrode surface. Similarly, a conical recess of AR = 1/3 will reproduce the current density profile of a non-recessed electrode with less than 6% error, while being straightforward to manufacture. This study used a purely resistive model under steady-state conditions, which is a simple model for charge injection at an electrode-electrolyte interface. Further studies will consider a more realistic charge-transfer model and conditions closer to real dynamic electrical stimulation experiments