Does Change in Timbre Alter Stereotypy Movements Exhibited by Three Persons with Diagnoses of Mental Retardation and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Three Case Studies

The purpose of this study was to observe and collect data while monitoring the responses of three individuals to recorded presentations of four folk songs. The individuals, or participants, were all residents of a state-run facility in the southern region of the United States. The participants were females diagnosed with mental retardation and autism spectrum disorder, and they all exhibited one or more stereotypy behaviors in some form or another. The primary purpose of the study was to see if change in timbre of the songs would alter the stereotypy movements exhibited by these participants as the songs were presented to them. The four songs chosen were Danny Boy, All Through the Night, To the Sky, and Amazing Grace. In an effort to control as many variables as possible within reason, the pieces were chosen for their similarity of style and melodic contour and were all presented in keys of either F major or C major. The timbre presentations of each piece were (1) mezzo-soprano, melody only, a cappella; (2) bassbaritone, melody only, a cappella; (3) piano, melody only; (4) acoustic guitar, melody only; (5) tone chime, melody only. Assisting the researcher in collecting the data for the study was the participants\u27 psychologist. Assessment instruments for data collection were a journal completed by the researcher during the study and a behavior data sheet made for each participant with a separate sheet for the timbral presentation of each song. Also, there was a questionnaire for the psychologist to answer concerning each participant that covered the overall impression of the study for that participant. Once the study was completed, the researcher and the psychologist met and discussed the assessment instruments and found that overall, change in timbre did alter the stereotypy movements of the participants in differing ways. It was agreed that of all the timbres presented, the two timbres which had the most positive effect, that of slowing or stopping the engagement of stereotypy, were the mezzo-soprano and the piano. The timbre that had the least positive effect, that of accelerating or causing the exhibition of stereotypy, was the bass-baritone. Possible reasons for these effects were discussed and reported along with implications of the research to the field of music education

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead