83 research outputs found
Building Adolescentsâ Resilience:Evaluating the Impact of a 20-Week Inner-City Program
Adolescence is a critical phase in any individualâs life, marked by rapid growth and profound psychological changes. Adolescents living in inner-city environments face unique challenges, including sedentary lifestyles, academic dysfunction, and socio-emotional disorders due to adverse ecological factors, such as a lack of resources or exposure to violence. In an effort to support them, the current study implemented a 20-week after-school program aimed to enhance their resilience. A total of 134 adolescents from inner-city schools in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, participated in our program (58% male; Mage = 11.20, SD = 1.04). To assess the effectiveness of the program, two MANCOVA analyses were performed: one including all participants and a second specifically targeting those with lower resilience scores at baseline. Using the Resiliency Scales for Children & Adolescents (RSCA), our results revealed a significant improvement in participantsâ Sense of Relatedness (p <.001), particularly among adolescents with lower resilience scores at baseline. In sum, these findings provide evidence of the programâs effectiveness in enhancing resilience among inner-city adolescents, particularly among those with initial lower levels of resilience.</p
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part VI: Ice Properties, Reconstruction and Future Developments
Papers on ice properties, reconstruction and future developments submitted to
the 33nd International Cosmic Ray Conference (Rio de Janeiro 2013) by the
IceCube Collaboration.Comment: 28 pages, 38 figures; Papers submitted to the 33nd International
Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 2013; version 2 corrects errors in the
author lis
Drawing firmer conclusions: autistic children show no evidence of a local processing bias in a controlled copying task
Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in neuropsychological patients. Autistic and typical children copied corner elements, arranged in a square configuration. Grouping cues were manipulated to test whether global properties affected the accuracy of reproduction. All children were similarly affected by these manipulations. There was no group difference in the reproduction of local elements, although global accuracy was negatively related to better local processing for autistic children. These data speak against influential theories of visuospatial differences in autism
Susceptibility to Ebbinghaus and Muller-Lyer illusions in autistic children: a comparison of three different methods
Background
Studies reporting altered susceptibility to visual illusions in autistic individuals compared to that typically developing individuals have been taken to reflect differences in perception (e.g. reduced global processing), but could instead reflect differences in higher-level decision-making strategies.
Methods
We measured susceptibility to two contextual illusions (Ebbinghaus, MĂŒller-Lyer) in autistic children aged 6â14 years and typically developing children matched in age and non-verbal ability using three methods. In experiment 1, we used a new two-alternative-forced-choice method with a roving pedestal designed to minimise cognitive biases. Here, children judged which of two comparison stimuli was most similar in size to a reference stimulus. In experiments 2 and 3, we used methods previously used with autistic populations. In experiment 2, children judged whether stimuli were the âsameâ or âdifferentâ, and in experiment 3, we used a method-of-adjustment task.
Results
Across all tasks, autistic children were equally susceptible to the Ebbinghaus illusion as typically developing children. Autistic children showed a heightened susceptibility to the MĂŒller-Lyer illusion, but only in the method-of-adjustment task. This result may reflect differences in decisional criteria.
Conclusions
Our results are inconsistent with theories proposing reduced contextual integration in autism and suggest that previous reports of altered susceptibility to illusions may arise from differences in decision-making, rather than differences in perception per se. Our findings help to elucidate the underlying reasons for atypical responses to perceptual illusions in autism and call for the use of methods that reduce cognitive bias when measuring illusion susceptibility
Observation of the cosmic-ray shadow of the Moon with IceCube
We report on the observation of a significant deficit of cosmic rays from the direction of the Moon with the IceCube detector. The study of this âMoon shadowâ is used to characterize the angular resolution and absolute pointing capabilities of the detector. The detection is based on data taken in two periods before the completion of the detector: between April 2008 and May 2009, when IceCube operated in a partial configuration with 40 detector strings deployed in the South Pole ice, and between May 2009 and May 2010 when the detector operated with 59 strings. Using two independent analysis methods, the Moon shadow has been observed to high significance (>6Ï) in both detector configurations. The observed location of the shadow center is within 0.2° of its expected position when geomagnetic deflection effects are taken into account. This measurement validates the directional reconstruction capabilities of IceCube
Multimessenger Search for Sources of Gravitational Waves and High-Energy Neutrinos: Results for Initial LIGO-Virgo and IceCube
We report the results of a multimessenger search for coincident signals from
the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories and the partially completed
IceCube high-energy neutrino detector, including periods of joint operation
between 2007-2010. These include parts of the 2005-2007 run and the 2009-2010
run for LIGO-Virgo, and IceCube's observation periods with 22, 59 and 79
strings. We find no significant coincident events, and use the search results
to derive upper limits on the rate of joint sources for a range of source
emission parameters. For the optimistic assumption of gravitational-wave
emission energy of \,Mc at \,Hz with \,ms duration, and high-energy neutrino emission of \,erg
comparable to the isotropic gamma-ray energy of gamma-ray bursts, we limit the
source rate below \,Mpcyr. We also examine
how combining information from gravitational waves and neutrinos will aid
discovery in the advanced gravitational-wave detector era
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