120 research outputs found
Autistic empathy toward autistic others.
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±æ. äșŹéœć€§ćŠăăŹăčăȘăȘăŒăș. 2014-11-06.Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are thought to lack self-awareness and to experience difficulty empathising with others. Although these deficits have been demonstrated in previous studies, most of the target stimuli were constructed for typically developing (TD) individuals. We employed judgment tasks capable of indexing self-relevant processing in individuals with and without ASD. Fourteen Japanese males and one Japanese female with high-functioning ASD (17-41 years of age) and 13 Japanese males and two TD Japanese females ( 22-40 years of age), all of whom were matched for age and full and verbal intelligence quotient scores with the ASD participants, were enrolled in this study. The results demonstrated that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was significantly activated in individuals with ASD in response to autistic characters and in TD individuals in response to non-autistic characters. Whereas the frontal-posterior network between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus participated in the processing of non-autistic characters in TD individuals, an alternative network was involved when individuals with ASD processed autistic characters. This suggests an atypical form of empathy in individuals with ASD toward others with ASD
Nucleus-Electron Model for States Changing from a Liquid Metal to a Plasma and the Saha Equation
We extend the quantal hypernetted-chain (QHNC) method, which has been proved
to yield accurate results for liquid metals, to treat a partially ionized
plasma. In a plasma, the electrons change from a quantum to a classical fluid
gradually with increasing temperature; the QHNC method applied to the electron
gas is in fact able to provide the electron-electron correlation at arbitrary
temperature. As an illustrating example of this approach, we investigate how
liquid rubidium becomes a plasma by increasing the temperature from 0 to 30 eV
at a fixed normal ion-density . The electron-ion
radial distribution function (RDF) in liquid Rb has distinct inner-core and
outer-core parts. Even at a temperature of 1 eV, this clear distinction remains
as a characteristic of a liquid metal. At a temperature of 3 eV, this
distinction disappears, and rubidium becomes a plasma with the ionization 1.21.
The temperature variations of bound levels in each ion and the average
ionization are calculated in Rb plasmas at the same time. Using the
density-functional theory, we also derive the Saha equation applicable even to
a high-density plasma at low temperatures. The QHNC method provides a procedure
to solve this Saha equation with ease by using a recursive formula; the charge
population of differently ionized species are obtained in Rb plasmas at several
temperatures. In this way, it is shown that, with the atomic number as the only
input, the QHNC method produces the average ionization, the electron-ion and
ion-ion RDF's, and the charge population which are consistent with the atomic
structure of each ion for a partially ionized plasma.Comment: 28 pages(TeX) and 11 figures (PS
High-resolution mapping and time-series measurements of 222Rn concentrations and biogeochemical properties related to submarine groundwater discharge along the coast of Obama Bay, a semi-enclosed sea in Japan
Light-induced spiral mass transport in azo-polymer films under vortex-beam illumination
When an azobenzene-containing polymer film is exposed to a non-uniform
illumination, a light-induced mass migration process may be induced, leading to
the formation of relief patterns on the polymer free surface. Despite a
research effort of many years and several proposed models many aspects of this
phenomenon remain not well understood. Here we report the appearance of
spiral-shaped relief patterns on the polymer under the illumination of focused
Laguerre-Gauss beams, having helical wavefront and an optical vortex at their
axis. The induced spiral reliefs are sensitive to the vortex topological charge
and to the wavefront handedness. These findings are unexpected, because the
"doughnut"-shaped intensity profile of Laguerre- Gauss beams contains no
information about the wavefront handedness. We propose a model that explains
the main features of this phenomenon from the surface-mediated interference of
the longitudinal and the transverse components of the optical field. These
results may find applications in optical micro- and nanolithography and
optical-field.Comment: Open Access at Journal Reference homepag
Two-photon-induced birefringence in azo-dye bearing polyimide; the birefringence changes versus the writing power
Isotopic, geophysical and biogeochemical investigation of submarine groundwater discharge : IAEA-UNESCO intercomparison exercise at Mauritius Island
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 104 (2012): 24-45, doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.09.009.Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) into a shallow lagoon on the west coast of Mauritius Island (Flic-en-Flac) was
investigated using radioactive (3H, 222Rn, 223Ra, 224Ra, 226Ra, 228Ra) and stable (2H, 18O) isotopes and nutrients. SGD
intercomparison exercises were carried out to validate the various approaches used to measure SGD including radium and radon
measurements, seepage-rate measurements using manual and automated meters, sediment bulk conductivity and salinity surveys.
SGD measurements using benthic chambers placed on the floor of the Flic-en-Flac Lagoon showed discharge rates up to 500
cm/day. Large variability in SGD was observed over distances of a few meters, which were attributed to different
geomorphological features. Deployments of automated seepage meters captured the spatial and temporal variability of SGD with
a mean seepage rate of 10 cm/day. The stable isotopic composition of submarine waters was characterized by significant
variability and heavy isotope enrichment and was used to predict the contribution of fresh terrestrially derived groundwater to
SGD (range from a few % to almost 100 %). The integrated SGD flux, estimated from seepage meters placed parallel to the
shoreline, was 35 m3/m day, which was in a reasonable agreement with results obtained from hydrologic water balance
calculation (26 m3/m day). SGD calculated from the radon inventory method using in situ radon measurements were between 5
and 56 m3/m per day. Low concentrations of radium isotopes observed in the lagoon water reflected the low abundance of U and
Th in the basalt that makes up the island. High SGD rates contribute to high nutrients loading to the lagoon, potentially leading to
eutrophication. Each of the applied methods yielded unique information about the character and magnitude of SGD. The results
of the intercomparison studies have resulted a better understanding of groundwater-seawater interactions in coastal regions. Such
information is an important pre-requisite for the protection management of coastal freshwater resources.The
financial support provided by the IOC and IHP of UNESCO for travel arrangements, and by the IAEAâs Marine
Environment Laboratories for logistics is highly acknowledged. MAC and MEG were supported in part by the US
National Science Foundation (OCE-0425061 and OCE-0751525). PPP acknowledges a support provided by the EU
Research & Development Operational Program funded by the ERDF (project No. 26240220004), and the Slovak
Scientific Agency VEGA (grant No. 1/108/08). The International Atomic Energy Agency is grateful to the
Government of the Principality of Monaco for support provided to its Marine Environment Laboratories
Aberrations of TACC1 and TACC3 are associated with ovarian cancer
BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of the human Transforming Acidic Coiled Coil (TACC) genes is thought to be important in the development and progression of multiple myeloma, breast and gastric cancer. Recent, large-scale genomic analysis and Serial Analysis of Gene Expression data suggest that TACC1 and TACC3 may also be involved in the etiology of ovarian tumors from both familial and sporadic cases. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of alterations of these TACCs in ovarian cancer. METHODS: Detection and scoring of TACC1 and TACC3 expression was performed by immunohistochemical analysis of the T-BO-1 tissue/tumor microarray slide from the Cooperative Human Tissue Network, Tissue Array Research Program (TARP) of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. Tumors were categorized as either positive (greater than 10% of cells staining) or negative. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's exact test and p < 0.05 (single comparisons), and p < 0.02 (multiple comparisons) were considered to be significant. Transgenomics WAVE high performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC) was used to pre-screen the TACC3 gene in constitutional DNA from ovarian cancer patients and their unaffected relatives from 76 families from the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry. All variant patterns were then sequenced. RESULTS: This study demonstrated absence of at least one or both TACC proteins in 78.5% (51/65) of ovarian tumors tested, with TACC3 loss observed in 67.7% of tumors. The distribution pattern of expression of the two TACC proteins was different, with TACC3 loss being more common in serous papillary carcinoma compared with clear cell carcinomas, while TACC1 staining was less frequent in endometroid than in serous papillary tumor cores. In addition, we identified two constitutional mutations in the TACC3 gene in patients with ovarian cancer from the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry. These patients had previously tested negative for mutations in known ovarian cancer predisposing genes. CONCLUSION: When combined, our data suggest that aberrations of TACC genes, and TACC3 in particular, underlie a significant proportion of ovarian cancers. Thus, TACC3 could be a hitherto unknown endogenous factor that contributes to ovarian tumorigenesis
DEGRO-Leitlinien fĂŒr die Strahlentherapie des Mammakarzinoms VI: Therapie lokoregionaler Mammakarzinomrezidive
Brief Report: Best Discriminators for Identifying Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder at an 18-Month Health Check-Up in Japan
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