Autistic Traits Predict Social-Contact Uncertainty in University Students

Social anxiety (alternatively: social-contact uncertainty) in the university context can lead to reduced health, well-being, and performance, and can even cause premature leaving of education. With the present study, we intended to supplement cross-sectional studies on students’ autistic traits and social anxiety with longitudinal findings. We measured autistic traits and social-contact uncertainty of 118 university students on two occasions, roughly 1 year apart. Correlation, multiple regression, and cross-lagged analyses showed that more pronounced autistic traits predicted higher future social-contact uncertainty. Social-contact uncertainty did not predict autistic traits. We conclude that university students who are high in autistic traits tend not only to be more socially anxious at the moment but have a heightened risk of still being so in the future

Enhanced Water Splitting on Thin-film Hematite Photoanodes Functionalized with Lithographically Fabricated Au Nanoparticles

Iron oxide in its crystalline form (hematite, alpha-Fe2O3) is an interesting candidate as a photoanode material for photoelectrochemical cells, in spite of its non-optimal optoelectronic properties. We report here on the beneficial effect of Au nanodisks on the photocurrent of alpha-Fe2O3. Photoanodes consisting of ultra-thin alpha-Fe2O3 films lithographically functionalized with Au nanodisks of varying size were characterized and tested. We found a significant increase in photocurrent for the functionalized samples. The highest increase in incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency is roughly one order of magnitude compared with a reference sample without Au nanodisks and was found for incident light of 420 nm in wavelength. A detailed understanding of the phenomena underlying such an increase in efficiency is crucial to fully exploit the beneficial effect of the metallic nanostructures. This would contribute to make Fe2O3 more competitive in the race for the development of a commercially viable device for water splitting

Test Anxiety in Autistic University Students—Preliminary Results from a German-Speaking Sample

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with increased levels of anxiety. However, whether autism is related to heightened test anxiety as one situation-specific type of anxiety has not yet been examined. This question may be relevant for the achievement and well-being of autistic people in educational settings (e.g., at universities). In this study, we took a first step to investigate whether autistic university students have increased test anxiety. A sample of 16 German-speaking university students completed an established diagnostic instrument to measure test anxiety and its components of worry, emotionality, cognitive interference, and lack of confidence. The scores of the autistic students were compared with the test anxiety means and percentile ranks of the standardization sample for the applied test anxiety measure (n = 1350). For an additional comparison, the test anxiety means and percentile ranks of non-autistic university students (n = 101) were assessed during the last third of the semester; that is, close to the examinations. Overall, the results suggest that autistic university students have remarkably increased test anxiety. Although the present findings must be considered preliminary, they suggest that text anxiety in educational settings may be a neglected significant problem for autistic people that requires further attention in research and practice

Oscillatory Optical Response of an Amorphous Two-Dimensional Array of Gold Nanoparticles

The optical response of metallic nanoparticle arrays is dominated by localized surface plasmon excitations and is the sum of individual particle contributions modified by interparticle coupling that depends on specific array geometry. We demonstrate a so far unexplored distinct oscillatory behavior of the plasmon peak position, full width at half maximum, and extinction efficiency in large area amorphous arrays of Au nanodisks, which depend on the minimum particle center-to-center distance in the array. Amorphous arrays exhibit short-range order and are completely random at long distances. In our theoretical analysis we introduce a film of dipoles approach, within the framework of the coupled dipole approximation, which describes the array as an average particle surrounded by a continuum of dipoles with surface densities determined by the pair correlation function of the array

Calorimetric measurement methodology for comprehensive soft and hard switching loss characterisation

Accurate measurement of soft and hard switching losses is challenging. Electrical methods are prone to errors and calorimetric measurements most often cannot separate turn-on and turn-off energies. We present a calorimetric test setup capable of measuring and separating turn-on and turn-off energies in soft and hard switching regimes. The resulting loss map can be used to accurately predict power semiconductor losses, even when the converter is not fully in the soft-switching regime

A Learning-based Method for Online Adjustment of C-arm Cone-Beam CT Source Trajectories for Artifact Avoidance

During spinal fusion surgery, screws are placed close to critical nerves suggesting the need for highly accurate screw placement. Verifying screw placement on high-quality tomographic imaging is essential. C-arm Cone-beam CT (CBCT) provides intraoperative 3D tomographic imaging which would allow for immediate verification and, if needed, revision. However, the reconstruction quality attainable with commercial CBCT devices is insufficient, predominantly due to severe metal artifacts in the presence of pedicle screws. These artifacts arise from a mismatch between the true physics of image formation and an idealized model thereof assumed during reconstruction. Prospectively acquiring views onto anatomy that are least affected by this mismatch can, therefore, improve reconstruction quality. We propose to adjust the C-arm CBCT source trajectory during the scan to optimize reconstruction quality with respect to a certain task, i.e. verification of screw placement. Adjustments are performed on-the-fly using a convolutional neural network that regresses a quality index for possible next views given the current x-ray image. Adjusting the CBCT trajectory to acquire the recommended views results in non-circular source orbits that avoid poor images, and thus, data inconsistencies. We demonstrate that convolutional neural networks trained on realistically simulated data are capable of predicting quality metrics that enable scene-specific adjustments of the CBCT source trajectory. Using both realistically simulated data and real CBCT acquisitions of a semi-anthropomorphic phantom, we show that tomographic reconstructions of the resulting scene-specific CBCT acquisitions exhibit improved image quality particularly in terms of metal artifacts. Since the optimization objective is implicitly encoded in a neural network, the proposed approach overcomes the need for 3D information at run-time.Comment: 12 page

Long-term changes in bone metabolism, bone mineral density, quantitative ultrasound parameters, and fracture incidence after spinal cord injury: a cross-sectional observational study in 100 paraplegic men

To study the time course of demineralization and fracture incidence after spinal cord injury (SCI), 100 paraplegic men with complete motor loss were investigated in a cross-sectional study 3months to 30years after their traumatic SCI. Fracture history was assessed and verified using patients' files and X-rays. BMD of the lumbar spine (LS), femoral neck (FN), distal forearm (ultradistal part=UDR, 1/3 distal part=1/3R), distal tibial diaphysis (TDIA), and distal tibial epiphysis (TEPI) was measured using DXA. Stiffness of the calcaneus (QUI.CALC), speed of sound of the tibia (SOS.TIB), and amplitude-dependent SOS across the proximal phalanges (adSOS.PHAL) were measured using QUS. Z-Scores of BMD and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) were plotted against time-since-injury and compared among four groups of paraplegics stratified according to time-since-injury (20years (p10years. In paraplegic men early (trabecular) and persistent (cortical) bone loss occurs at the lower limbs and leads to an increasing fracture incidence with time-after-SC

Approaching stimuli bias attention in numerical space

Increasing evidence suggests that common mechanisms underlie the direction of attention in physical space and numerical space, along the mental number line. The small leftward bias (pseudoneglect) found on paper-and-pencil line bisection is also observed when participants ‘bisect’ number pairs, estimating (without calculating) the number midway between two others. Here we investigated the effect of stimulus motion on attention in numerical space. A two-frame apparent motion paradigm manipulating stimulus size was used to produce the impression that pairs of numbers were approaching (size increase from first to second frame), receding (size decrease), or not moving (no size change). The magnitude of pseudoneglect increased for approaching numbers, even when the final stimulus size was held constant. This result is consistent with previous findings that pseudoneglect in numerical space (as in physical space) increases as stimuli are brought closer to the participant. It also suggests that the perception of stimulus motion modulates attention over the mental number line and provides further support for a connection between the neural representations of physical space and number