An exploration of the self-disclosure process for young people with autism

The aim of the first phase of the research was to explore the self-disclosure process for children on the autistic spectrum. Self-disclosure refers to the process of an individual with autism telling others about their diagnosis. I wanted to find out what self-disclosure involved in schools and what support had been in place to create an environment where self-disclosure was considered appropriate. I thought it would be important to explore what sort of impact self-disclosure had on those involved. Case studies were carried out in order to explore the self-disclosure process in depth. Four participants (aged 13-16) from two mainstream secondary schools who had self-disclosed their autism to their peers participated in semi-structured interviews. These interviews were set up to gain an in-depth understanding of self-disclosure. I interviewed parents and staff from the schools in order to gain different perspectives of the impact of the self-disclosure process. The interviews were analysed thematically. Emerging themes from these interviews showed that self-disclosure had occurred as a result of young people feeling different and wanting to explain their differences. The self-disclosure in all cases was considered to increase understanding of autism through education both for the individual with autism and the peers they self-disclosed to. Increased understanding of autism led to an improved sense of self for the individual with autism and a positive change in behaviour and attitude of the individual’s peers. The interviews also provided some understanding of the factors that supported self-disclosure. The factors were incorporated into a model which was then used in the second phase of the research to support children with autism in the process of self-disclosure. Overall, this process supported children in gaining a more positive sense of self and educated those around them about their personal strengths

Endogenicity and awareness in voluntary action

The idea that we can trigger and control our actions at will is central to our experience as agents. Here, we investigated different cognitive mechanisms involved in voluntary action control. In the first part of the thesis, we investigated the relationship between motor preparation and awareness of intention. To do so, we used spontaneous action paradigms and combined them with novel random and real-time EEG probing techniques. We investigated two main questions. First, do people know that they are about to do something before they do it? Second, to what extent are delayed intention judgements informed by prospective motor preparation rather than retrospective reconstruction? Our findings suggest that people have some feeling of motor intention before acting and can use it to voluntarily control action initiation in real-time. However, their recall-based intention judgements are strongly influenced by overt events happening after the time of probing. Because most daily-life voluntary actions occur in interaction with the environment, in the second part of the thesis we embedded self-paced actions in a decision-making context. We investigated two ways in which endogenous factors can contribute to action selection. First, as a symmetry-breaking mechanism in contexts of external ambiguity. Second, by top-down modulating decision-making processes. We identified the neural correlates of an internal decision-variable that tracks perceptual decisions and also indexes dynamic changes in endogenous goals. Further, we show that the readiness potential can be found not only preceding spontaneous actions, but also in contexts where actions are informed by evidence but preserve a self-paced nature. In sum, this thesis provides new insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying conscious experience of intention and provides new tools to investigate voluntary control over action initiation and selection processes

Creating Open Works

Workshop materials for a course on Creative Commons Licensing of scholarly and creative works. The set contains 2 slide decks and handouts

MOULDS RECIPE SECRETS Searching for transparency

One of the main challenges on the creation of glass pieces in casting, is to obtain a surface of the glass as clean as possible, without adhering residues, or devitrification. In glass Sculptures where the surface is not flat, the polishing process becomes very complicated, and without having easy access to other polishing methods such as fire polish or acid polishing, it is difficult achieving pieces with a good level of transparency, making the process more complex and long. Several variables determine the final appearance of the piece. In this work, one of the many variables is explored, which is the mold that will contain the molten glass. Normally the pieces made with this technique require subsequent treatments as they present a matte finish as a result of contact with the mold. The objective of this work is to investigate how to obtain greater transparency in the pieces by modifying the basic Investment, reducing time, effort, and costs in the realization of the glass pieces. Different additives in different proportions were added to the base mixture of silica and plaster, additives such as kaolin, graphite, ludo (recycled mold material), alumina, and talc. Three different glass compositions were used at a temperature of 850 ºC, for the casting. After the samples been cast the transparency were analyzed by visual comparison, and by measuring the transmittance of light, using as a comparison the base formula of 50% plaster and 50% silica. Three mold formulations resulted with the greatest effect on the improvement of the transparency of glass, using kaolin, graphite and ludo. The thermal properties of the mold using these 3 additives were analyzed using dilatometry and differential scanning calorimetry, showing that the 3 in different proportions may improve the thermal resistance of the moulds. Next, the effect on the transparency of the casting pieces by pre-drying the mold as well as the use of Shellac was analyzed, As a result, it could be determined that the presence of kaolin or graphite considerably improves the transparency in the pieces, as well as the previous drying of the mold at 94 ºC. The Ludo improves the appearance of the pieces in a lower proportion than graphite and kaolin but reduces the costs in the moulds materials, and the increasing of the strength and thermal resistance of the moulds. The results obtained have allowed me to generate pieces with sufficient transparency without the need for additional polishing processes.Um dos principais desafios na criação de peças de vidro em fundição, é obter uma superfície do vidro o mais limpa possível, sem resíduos aderentes, ou desvitrificação. Nas esculturas de vidro onde a superfície não é plana, o processo de polimento torna-se mais complicado, e sem ter fácil acesso a outros métodos como polimento a fogo ou polimento ácido, é difícil conseguir peças com um bom nível de transparência, tornando o processo mais complexo e longo. São várias variáveis que determinam o aspecto final da peça. Neste trabalho, uma das variáveis foi tratada, que é o molde que vai conter o vidro fundido. Normalmente as peças confeccionadas com esta técnica requerem tratamentos posteriores, pois apresentam acabamento fosco em contato com o molde. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar como obter maior transparência nas peças alterando o Investimento básico, reduzindo tempo, esforço e custos na realização das peças de vidro. Após a moldagem das amostras, a transparência foi analisada por comparação visual e pela medição dos espectros de transmitância, utilizando como comparação a fórmula base de 50% de gesso e 50% de sílica, selecionando como resultado três dos aditivos, caulino, grafite e ludo, que na parte experimental apresentaram melhores resultados relativamente à transparência do vidro,. As propriedades térmicas dos moldes com estes três aditivos foi analisada por dilatometria e calorimetria diferencial de varrimento, constatando-se que todos em diferentes proporções melhoram a resistência térmica dos moldes. Em seguida, foi analisado o efeito na transparência das peças fundidas pela pré-secagem do molde bem como pelo uso de goma-laca, como resultado, pôde-se constatar que a presença de caulino ou grafite melhora consideravelmente a transparência nas peças, bem como a secagem prévia do molde a 94 ºC. O Ludo melhora o aspecto das peças em menor proporção que o grafite e o caulino mas reduz os custos nos materiais, e no aumento da resistência e resistência térmica dos moldes. Os resultados obtidos me permitiram gerar peças com transparência suficiente sem a necessidade de processos de polimento adicionais

Preliminary design of the full-Stokes UV and visible spectropolarimeter for UVMag/Arago

The UVMag consortium proposed the space mission project Arago to ESA at its M4 call. It is dedicated to the study of the dynamic 3D environment of stars and planets. This space mission will be equipped with a high-resolution spectropolarimeter working from 119 to 888 nm. A preliminary optical design of the whole instrument has been prepared and is presented here. The design consists of the telescope, the instrument itself, and the focusing optics. Considering not only the scientific requirements, but also the cost and size constraints to fit a M-size mission, the telescope has a 1.3 m diameter primary mirror and is a classical Cassegrain-type telescope that allows a polarization-free focus. The polarimeter is placed at this Cassegrain focus. This is the key element of the mission and the most challenging to be designed. The main challenge lies in the huge spectral range offered by the instrument; the polarimeter has to deliver the full Stokes vector with a high precision from the FUV (119 nm) to the NIR (888 nm). The polarimeter module is then followed by a high-resolution echelle-spectrometer achieving a resolution of 35000 in the visible range and 25000 in the UV. The two channels are separated after the echelle grating, allowing a specific cross-dispersion and focusing optics for the UV and visible ranges. Considering the large field of view and the high numerical aperture, the focusing optic for both the UV and visible channels is a Three-Mirror-Anastigmat (TMA) telescope, in order to focus the various wavelengths and many orders onto the detectors.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, IAUS 30

UVMag: Space UV and visible spectropolarimetry

UVMag is a project of a space mission equipped with a high-resolution spectropolarimeter working in the UV and visible range. This M-size mission will be proposed to ESA at its M4 call. The main goal of UVMag is to measure the magnetic fields, winds and environment of all types of stars to reach a better understanding of stellar formation and evolution and of the impact of stellar environment on the surrounding planets. The groundbreaking combination of UV and visible spectropolarimetric observations will allow the scientists to study the stellar surface and its environment simultaneously. The instrumental challenge for this mission is to design a high-resolution space spectropolarimeter measuring the full-Stokes vector of the observed star in a huge spectral domain from 117 nm to 870 nm. This spectral range is the main difficulty because of the dispersion of the optical elements and of birefringence issues in the FUV. As the instrument will be launched into space, the polarimetric module has to be robust and therefore use if possible only static elements. This article presents the different design possibilities for the polarimeter at this point of the project.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, SPIE Conference Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation Montreal June 201