Internet-of-Things Devices in Support of the Development of Echoic Skills Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A significant therapeutic challenge for people with disabilities is the development of verbal and echoic skills. Digital voice assistants (DVAs), such as Amazon’s Alexa, provide networked intelligence to billions of Internet-of-Things devices and have the potential to offer opportunities to people, such as those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), to advance these necessary skills. Voice interfaces can enable children with ASD to practice such skills at home; however, it remains unclear whether DVAs can be as proficient as therapists in recognizing utterances by a developing speaker. We developed an Alexa-based skill called ASPECT to measure how well the DVA identified verbalization by autistic children. The participants, nine children diagnosed with ASD, each participated in 30 sessions focused on increasing vocalizations and echoic responses. Children interacted with ASPECT prompted by instructions from an Echo device. ASPECT was trained to recognize utterances and evaluate them as a therapist would—simultaneously, a therapist scored the child’s responses. The study identified no significant difference between how ASPECT and the therapists scored participants; this conclusion held even when subsetting participants by a pre-treatment echoic skill assessment score. This indicates considerable potential for providing a continuum of therapeutic opportunities and reinforcement outside of clinical settings

A general theorem on angular-momentum changes due to potential vorticity mixing and on potential-energy changes due to buoyancy mixing

An initial zonally symmetric quasigeostrophic potential-vorticity (PV) distribution q_i(y) is subjected to complete or partial mixing within some finite zone |y| < L, where y is latitude. The change in M, the total absolute angular momentum, between the initial and any later time is considered. For standard quasigeostrophic shallow-water beta-channel dynamics it is proved that, for any q_i(y) such that dq_i/dy > 0 throughout |y| < L, the change in M is always negative. This theorem holds even when "mixing" is understood in the most general possible sense. Arbitrary stirring or advective rearrangement is included, combined to an arbitrary extent with spatially inhomogeneous diffusion. The theorem holds whether or not the PV distribution is zonally symmetric at the later time. The same theorem governs Boussinesq potential-energy changes due to buoyancy mixing in the vertical. For the standard quasigeostrophic beta-channel dynamics to be valid the Rossby deformation length L_D >> \epsilon L where \epsilon is the Rossby number; when L_D = \infty the theorem applies not only to the beta-channel, but also to a single barotropic layer on the full sphere, as considered in the recent work of Dunkerton and Scott on "PV staircases". It follows that the M-conserving PV reconfigurations studied by those authors must involve processes describable as PV unmixing, or anti-diffusion, in the sense of time-reversed diffusion. Ordinary jet self-sharpening and jet-core acceleration do not, by contrast, require unmixing, as is shown here by detailed analysis. Mixing in the jet flanks suffices. The theorem extends to multiple layers and continuous stratification. A corollary is a new nonlinear stability theorem for shear flows.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; Final version, accepted by J. Atmos. Sci, in pres

Stochastic analysis of surface roughness

For the characterization of surface height profiles we present a new stochastic approach which is based on the theory of Markov processes. With this analysis we achieve a characterization of the complexity of the surface roughness by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation, providing the complete stochastic information of multiscale joint probabilities. The method was applied to different road surface profiles which were measured with high resolution. Evidence of Markov properties is shown. Estimations for the parameters of the Fokker-Planck equation are based on pure, parameter free data analysis

The Effect of the Environment on alpha-Al_2O_3 (0001) Surface Structures

We report that calculating the Gibbs free energy of the alpha-Al_2O_3 (0001) surfaces in equilibrium with a realistic environment containing both oxygen and hydrogen species is essential for obtaining theoretical predictions consistent with experimental observations. Using density-functional theory we find that even under conditions of high oxygen partial pressure, the metal terminated surface is surprisingly stable. An oxygen terminated alpha-Al_2O_3 (0001) surface becomes stable only if hydrogen is present on the surface. In addition, including hydrogen on the surface resolves discrepancies between previous theoretical work and experimental results with respect to the magnitude and direction of surface relaxations.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Development and Reliability of a Measure of Clinician Competence in Providing Illness Management and Recovery

Objective: Illness management and recovery (IMR) is an evidence-based, manualized illness self-management program for people with severe mental illness. This study sought to develop a measure of IMR clinician competence and test its reliability and validity. Methods: Two groups of subject matter experts each independently created a clinician-level IMR competence scale based on the IMR Fidelity Scale and on two unpublished instruments used to evaluate provider competence. The two versions were merged, and investigators used the initial version to independently rate recordings of IMR sessions. Ratings were compared and discussed, discrepancies were resolved, and the scale was revised through 14 iterations. The resulting IMR Treatment Integrity Scale (IT-IS) includes 13 required items and three optional items rated only when the particular skill is attempted. Four independent raters then used the IT-IS to score tapes of 60 IMR sessions and 20 control group sessions. Results: The IT-IS showed excellent interrater reliability (.92). A factor analysis supported a one-factor model that showed good internal consistency. The scale successfully differentiated between IMR and control groups. Reliability and validity of individual items varied widely. Conclusions: The IT-IS is a promising measure of clinician competence in providing IMR. The scale could be used for research and quality assurance and as a supervisory feedback tool. Future research is needed to examine item-level changes, predictive validity of the IT-IS, discriminant validity compared with other more structured interventions, and the reliability and validity of the scale for nongroup IMR

The phosphoinositide-binding protein p40phox activates the NADPH oxidase during FcγIIA receptor–induced phagocytosis

Superoxide produced by the phagocyte reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase is essential for host defense. Enzyme activation requires translocation of p67phox, p47phox, and Rac-GTP to flavocytochrome b558 in phagocyte membranes. To examine the regulation of phagocytosis-induced superoxide production, flavocytochrome b558, p47phox, p67phox, and the FcγIIA receptor were expressed from stable transgenes in COS7 cells. The resulting COSphoxFcγR cells produce high levels of superoxide when stimulated with phorbol ester and efficiently ingest immunoglobulin (Ig)G-coated erythrocytes, but phagocytosis did not activate the NADPH oxidase. COS7 cells lack p40phox, whose role in the NADPH oxidase is poorly understood. p40phox contains SH3 and phagocyte oxidase and Bem1p (PB1) domains that can mediate binding to p47phox and p67phox, respectively, along with a PX domain that binds to phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI(3)P), which is generated in phagosomal membranes. Expression of p40phox was sufficient to activate superoxide production in COSphoxFcγR phagosomes. FcγIIA-stimulated NADPH oxidase activity was abrogated by point mutations in p40phox that disrupt PI(3)P binding, or by simultaneous mutations in the SH3 and PB1 domains. Consistent with an essential role for PI(3)P in regulating the oxidase complex, phagosome NADPH oxidase activation in primary macrophages ingesting IgG-coated beads was inhibited by phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase inhibitors to a much greater extent than phagocytosis itself. Hence, this study identifies a role for p40phox and PI(3)P in coupling FcγR-mediated phagocytosis to activation of the NADPH oxidase

Turbulent Convection in Stellar Interiors. I. Hydrodynamic Simulation

(Abridged) We describe the results of three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations designed to study turbulent convection in the stellar interiors, and compare them to stellar mixing-length theory (MLT). Simulations in 2D are significantly different from 3D, both in terms of flow morphology and velocity amplitude. Convective mixing regions are better predicted using a [dynamic boundary condition] based on the bulk Richardson number than by purely local, static criteria like Schwarzschild or Ledoux. MLT gives a good description of the velocity scale and temperature gradient for a mixing length of $\sim 1.1 H_p$ for shell convection, however there are other important effects that it does not capture near boundaries. Convective "overshooting" is best described as an elastic response by the convective boundary, rather than ballistic penetration of the stable layers by turbulent eddies. We find that the rate at which material entrainment proceeds at the boundaries is consistent with analogous laboratory experiments as well as simulation and observation of terrestrial atmospheric mixing. In particular, the normalized entrainment rate E=$u_E/\sigma_H$, is well described by a power law dependence on the bulk Richardson number $Ri_B = \Delta b L/\sigma_H^2$ for the conditions studied, $20\lesssim Ri_B \lesssim 420$. We find $E = A Ri_B^{-n}$, with best fit values, $\log A = 0.027 \pm 0.38$, and $n = 1.05 \pm 0.21$. We discuss the applicability of these results to stellar evolution calculations

Turbulent flow at 190 m height above London during 2006-2008: A climatology and the applicability of similarity theory

Flow and turbulence above urban terrain is more complex than above rural terrain, due to the different momentum and heat transfer characteristics that are affected by the presence of buildings (e.g. pressure variations around buildings). The applicability of similarity theory (as developed over rural terrain) is tested using observations of flow from a sonic anemometer located at 190.3 m height in London, U.K. using about 6500 h of data. Turbulence statistics—dimensionless wind speed and temperature, standard deviations and correlation coefficients for momentum and heat transfer—were analysed in three ways. First, turbulence statistics were plotted as a function only of a local stability parameter z/Λ (where Λ is the local Obukhov length and z is the height above ground); the σ_i/u_* values (i = u, v, w) for neutral conditions are 2.3, 1.85 and 1.35 respectively, similar to canonical values. Second, analysis of urban mixed-layer formulations during daytime convective conditions over London was undertaken, showing that atmospheric turbulence at high altitude over large cities might not behave dissimilarly from that over rural terrain. Third, correlation coefficients for heat and momentum were analyzed with respect to local stability. The results give confidence in using the framework of local similarity for turbulence measured over London, and perhaps other cities. However, the following caveats for our data are worth noting: (i) the terrain is reasonably flat, (ii) building heights vary little over a large area, and (iii) the sensor height is above the mean roughness sublayer depth