Teaching Delayed Gratification: Reducing Temper Tantrums of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders after Functional Communication Training

This study examined the extent to which using functional communication training (FCT) in a delayed gratification context reduced temper tantrums in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Three children with ASD whose mean age was 3 and a half year old participated in the study. In the first phase, a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) was conducted to identify the functions of the participants' temper tantrums. Then, a stimulus preference assessment was utilized to determine the appropriate reinforcers to be used in each treatment session. Next, a multiple baseline across participants design was used to reduce temper tantrums and increase the use of appropriate communication behaviors, i.e., FCT. Once FCT was taught, delayed gratification interventions were implemented by manipulating three conditions: (a) a fixed time delay (FD), (b) a progressive time delay with verbal praises (PDVP), and (c) a progressive time delay with visual cues (PDVC). A multiple baseline, multi-element design across participants was used to compare the three conditions and determine which was the most effective in teaching delayed gratification. The behavioral changes in participants' temper tantrums, use of alternative communicative behaviors taught by FCT, and the ability to wait were measured through direct observations by two independent observers. The results showed that the progressive time delay with visual cues (PDVC) was the most effective intervention that promoted the participants' ability to wait and decreased their temper tantrums. Based on the evaluation of the findings, implications and future research directions are discussed

Educating Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) to Delay Gratification in the Contet of Temper Tantrums

Temper tantrums among young children are common, especially those with autism spectrum disorders. Delay of gratification is an essential component of temper tantrums. Teachers and parents seek management strategies for temper tantrums that are efficient, effective and ethical. The purpose of this applied behavioral analysis research was to compare various types of functional communication training with three children in the three and a half year old age range. In Phase One, to determine the misguided goal or function of each child’s temper tantrum, functional behavioral assessment was undertaken. In Phase Two, a reward menu was used to determine preferred rewards for the treatments. In Phase Three, a multiple baseline across participants design was used to reduce temper tantrums and increase appropriate communication that was identified through functional communication training (FCT). In Phase Four, fixed time delay (FD), progressive time delay with verbal praises (PDVP) and progressive time delay with visual cues (PDVC) were employed to represent three intervention conditions to teach delay of gratification. In Phase Five, parents were surveyed to determine the social validity or acceptability of the interventions with parents. Two independent observers counted frequency of temper tantrums, frequency of alternative communication behaviors, and length of wait time in each of these three children. Results showed that progressive time delay with visual cues (PDVC) increased wait time and reduced temper tantrums the most. Implications for teachers and parents working with young children prone to temper tantrums are discussed

Art as social spaces to be: Exploring therapeutic benefits of art therapy with newly immigrated children facing social isolation and loneliness

Immigrant children tend to be at higher risk for dissatisfactory peer relationships, often experiencing loneliness and isolation emanating from the frustrations related to struggles with negative socialization. Art Therapy counseling sessions were designed to address these children’s peer interactions and build a reciprocal therapeutic relationship for deep artistic engagements. The brief art therapy interventions with three Korean children from immigrant families outlined in this article, explored issues related to their acculturative social challenges and meaningful interpersonal interactions. The therapeutic value of their deep artistic engagements sustained through reciprocal therapeutic interactions, helped these young people to cope with social isolation and loneliness, and ultimately to form healthy peer relationships for the future. Keywords: Immigrant children, social isolation, loneliness, art therapy, reciprocal therapeutic interaction

How disability severity is associated with changes in physical activity and inactivity from adolescence to young adulthood

Background Disabilities may play a different role in determining peoples physical activity (PA) and physical inactivity (PI) levels when they go through multiple lifetime transitions (e.g., graduation, marriage) between adolescence and young adulthood. This study investigates how disability severity is associated with changes in PA and PI engagement levels, focusing on adolescence and young adulthood, when the patterns of PA and PI are usually formed. Methods The study employed data from Waves 1 (adolescence) and 4 (young adulthood) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which covers a total of 15,701 subjects. We first categorized subjects into 4 disability groups: no, minimal, mild, or moderate/severe disability and/or limitation. We then calculated the differences in PA and PI engagement levels between Waves 1 and 4 at the individual level to measure how much the PA and PI levels of individuals changed between adolescence and young adulthood. Finally, we used two separate multinomial logistic regression models for PA and PI to investigate the relationships between disability severity and the changes in PA and PI engagement levels between the two periods after controlling for multiple demographic (age, race, sex) and socioeconomic (household income level, education level) variables. Results We showed that individuals with minimal disabilities were more likely to decrease their PA levels during transitions from adolescence to young adulthood than those without disabilities. Our findings also revealed that individuals with moderate to severe disabilities tended to have higher PI levels than individuals without disabilities when they were young adults. Furthermore, we found that people above the poverty level were more likely to increase their PA levels to a certain degree compared to people in the group below or near the poverty level. Conclusions Our study partially indicates that individuals with disabilities are more vulnerable to unhealthy lifestyles due to a lack of PA engagement and increased PI time compared to people without disabilities. We recommend that health agencies at the state and federal levels allocate more resources for individuals with disabilities to mitigate health disparities between those with and without disabilities

The structure and priorities of researchers’ scholarly profile maintenance activities: A case of institutional research information management system

Research information management systems (RIMS) have become critical components of information technology infrastructure on university campuses. They are used not just for sharing and promoting faculty research, but also for conducting faculty evaluation and development, facilitating research collaborations, identifying mentors for student projects, and expert consultants for local businesses. This study is one of the first empirical investigations of the structure of researchers' scholarly profile maintenance activities in a nonmandatory institutional RIMS. By analyzing the RIMS's log data, we identified 11 tasks researchers performed when updating their profiles. These tasks were further grouped into three activities: (a) adding publication, (b) enhancing researcher identity, and (c) improving research discoverability. In addition, we found that junior researchers and female researchers were more engaged in maintaining their RIMS profiles than senior researchers and male researchers. The results provide insights for designing profile maintenance action templates for institutional RIMS that are tailored to researchers' characteristics and help enhance researchers' engagement in the curation of their research information. This also suggests that female and junior researchers can serve as early adopters of institutional RIMS

Wheel Impact Test by Deep Learning: Prediction of Location and Magnitude of Maximum Stress

The impact performance of the wheel during wheel development must be ensured through a wheel impact test for vehicle safety. However, manufacturing and testing a real wheel take a significant amount of time and money because developing an optimal wheel design requires numerous iterative processes of modifying the wheel design and verifying the safety performance. Accordingly, the actual wheel impact test has been replaced by computer simulations, such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA), but it still requires high computational costs for modeling and analysis. Moreover, FEA experts are needed. This study presents an aluminum road wheel impact performance prediction model based on deep learning that replaces the computationally expensive and time-consuming 3D FEA. For this purpose, 2D disk-view wheel image data, 3D wheel voxel data, and barrier mass value used for wheel impact test are utilized as the inputs to predict the magnitude of maximum von Mises stress, corresponding location, and the stress distribution of 2D disk-view. The wheel impact performance prediction model can replace the impact test in the early wheel development stage by predicting the impact performance in real time and can be used without domain knowledge. The time required for the wheel development process can be shortened through this mechanism

Temporal Changes in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Activation of Heterosexual Couples for Visual Stimuli of Loved Partners

ObjectiveaaPrevious neuroimaging studies on romantic love have focused on determining how the visual stimuli that serve as a representation of loved ones induce the neural activation patterns of romantic love. The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal changes in romantic love over a period of 6 months and their correlated neurophysiological changes. MethodsaaFive heterosexual couples (n=10, mean age 21.1±1.97) who started dating not less than 100 days previously were recruited to measure their blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while showing them pictures of their loved ones and their previously identified, opposite-sex friends. Subsequently, the subjects were scanned under the same experimental conditions to assess possible changes in their brain activities after 180 days. ResultsaaWe found that their Passionate Love Score (PLS) values (M: 118.6±9.1, F: 120.2 ±7.0) were significantly reduced after 6 months (M: 110.8±4.0, F: 106.2±3.0). Furthermore, significantly increased activations were found in the cingulate gyri, inferior frontal gyri, supramarginal gyri, etc., after 6 months, whereas the head and tail of the right caudate nucleus were deactivated, which is indicative of the inhibition of expression and sensory neglect. ConclusionaaThese findings suggest that dynamic neural processes in the cortical-subcortical regions are involved in temporal changes in romantic love

Temporal Changes in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Activation of Heterosexual Couples for Visual Stimuli of Loved Partners

ObjectiveaaPrevious neuroimaging studies on romantic love have focused on determining how the visual stimuli that serve as a representation of loved ones induce the neural activation patterns of romantic love. The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal changes in romantic love over a period of 6 months and their correlated neurophysiological changes. MethodsaaFive heterosexual couples (n=10, mean age 21.1±1.97) who started dating not less than 100 days previously were recruited to measure their blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while showing them pictures of their loved ones and their previously identified, opposite-sex friends. Subsequently, the subjects were scanned under the same experimental conditions to assess possible changes in their brain activities after 180 days. ResultsaaWe found that their Passionate Love Score (PLS) values (M: 118.6±9.1, F: 120.2 ±7.0) were significantly reduced after 6 months (M: 110.8±4.0, F: 106.2±3.0). Furthermore, significantly increased activations were found in the cingulate gyri, inferior frontal gyri, supramarginal gyri, etc., after 6 months, whereas the head and tail of the right caudate nucleus were deactivated, which is indicative of the inhibition of expression and sensory neglect. ConclusionaaThese findings suggest that dynamic neural processes in the cortical-subcortical regions are involved in temporal changes in romantic love

Survival Analysis on United Network for Organ Sharing(UNOS) Kidney Transplant Program

This paper conducts survival analysis on the kidney transplant-related data collected by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) since 1987. We investigate which kidney transplant-related variables from UNOS have significant effect on recipients' survival time and the extent of the effects. Standard Cox Proportional-Hazards model, Cox-Proportional Hazards model with ridge, LASSO and elastic net penalty and lastly random survival forest model are used to compute the survival function after kidney transplantations, which we use to estimate patients' survival probability at time t of a given transplant. Length of stay(LOS) at the hospital after transplant comes out to be the most significant variable in determining patient's survival probability. The longer the patient stayed post transplant, the higher the survival probability. Following the modeling, we compare these models based on two different scores: concordance index and the brier score. Concordance index checks whether the models generate reliable ranking of survival times(i.e. discrimination), while the brier score calculates the average squared distances(i.e. calibration). Random Survival Forest model provides the best result based on the brier score, while Kaplan-Meier model produces the best outcome based on the concordance index