Synthesizing and restructuring the conversation around the use of robots in the education and therapy of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

A conversation about the use of robots as tools in public schools’ special needs classrooms necessarily implicates a variety of disciplines. As such, this paper will draw upon: (1) academic literature from the fields of robotics, education, and psychology specifically devoted to the development of robots for use in the education of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, (2) academic literature from the fields of robotics, education, and psychology specifically devoted to testing the effectiveness of these robots, (3) legal writings concerning the education of differently abled individuals, specifically, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, (4) broad discussion of education technology, drawing from academic publications in the field of education as well as newspaper articles and blog posts, and (5) original interviews with clinicians, educators, and robotics industry professionals. This paper is organized into four parts. The first will trace the development of robots in the education of individuals with ASD within the academic sphere. The second will do the same within the realm of industry. Together, these sections will demonstrate the fact that disparate strands of research largely distinct from the clinical or educational fields have dictated the development of this robotic technology. A third section will briefly but necessarily explain that robots are viable in the public education system from a legal perspective. Finally, a fourth section will bring together expert voices from the clinical, educational, and industrial fields to explain how and why educational and clinical experts should lead the conversation about the use of educational robots in ASD therapy and education

Powerful tools for motor-based treatment approaches

Since the phonological revolution in the 1970s, SLTs have embraced phonological intervention when dealing with speech sound disorders (SSDs) and largely turned their backs on articulatory approaches. Joffe and Pring (2008) surveyed 98 clinicians working with children with speech difficulties and found the most common approaches used with this client group were auditory discrimination, minimal pairs and phonological awareness, with articulatory approaches used only ‘sometimes’ by around half of respondents. While there is good evidence that phonological impairments can be remediated with these types of phonological therapies (Law, Garrett and Nye, 2003), there remains a proportion of children with persistent SSDs for whom traditional phonological approaches do not provide the whole solution. For these children, the likely root of the impairment is motoric (Gibbon et al, 1999 )

The Effects of Host Plant Species and Plant Quality on Growth and Development in the Meadow Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius) on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy

Philaenus spumarius (Meadow Spittlebug, Homoptera: Cercopoidea) is a cosmopolitan generalist insect that feeds on a wide repertoire of host plants in the field. We studied density and growth of Meadow Spittlebugs on a range of host plants on Kent Island, a boreal island in the Bay of Fundy, NB, Canada. The highest spittlebug densities were on Cirsium arvense (Canadian Thistle), although spittlebugs had larger body sizes on Solidago rugosa (Rough-stemmed Goldenrod) and Anaphalis margaritacea (Pearly Everlasting). We fertilized plots of Rough-stemmed Goldenrod in the field over 3 weeks to examine the effects of plant quality on development of Meadow Spittlebugs. Following fertilization, there were fewer nymphs present in fertilized plots than in unfertilized plots, indicating faster nymph maturation to adulthood on fertilized plants. This study offers an initial report of the host plants used by Meadow Spittlebugs in northeastern boreal habitat, variation in density and performance of the species on a range of host plants, and the effects of plant fertilization on spittlebug life history

Effects of duty cycles on passive acoustic monitoring of southern resident killer whale (Orcinus orca) occurrence and behavior

Funding from the ECHO Program of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.Long-term passive acoustic monitoring of cetaceans is frequently limited by the data storage capacity and battery life of the recording system. Duty cycles are a mechanism for subsampling during the recording process that facilitates long-term passive acoustic studies. While duty cycles are often used, there has been little investigation on the impact that this approach has on the ability to answer questions about a species' behavior and occurrence. In this study, the effects of duty cycling on the acoustic detection of southern resident killer whales (SRKW) (Orcinus orca) were investigated. Continuous acoustic data were subsampled to create 288 subsampled datasets with cycle lengths from 5 to 180 min and listening proportions from 1% to 67%. Duty cycles had little effect on the detection of the daily presence of SRKW, especially when using cycle lengths of less than an hour. However, cycle lengths of 15–30 min and listening proportions of at least 33% were required to accurately calculate durations of acoustic bouts and identify those bouts to ecotype. These results show that the optimal duty cycle depends on the scale of the research question and provide a framework for quantitative analysis of duty cycles for other marine species.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

UBXN7 docks on neddylated cullin complexes using its UIM motif and causes HIF1α accumulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The proteins from the UBA-UBX family interact with ubiquitylated proteins via their UBA domain and with p97 via their UBX domain, thereby acting as substrate-binding adaptors for the p97 ATPase. In particular, human UBXN7 (also known as UBXD7) mediates p97 interaction with the transcription factor HIF1α that is actively ubiquitylated in normoxic cells by a CUL2-based E3 ligase, CRL2. Mass spectrometry analysis of UBA-UBX protein immunoprecipitates showed that they interact with a multitude of E3 ubiquitin-ligases. Conspicuously, UBXN7 was most proficient in interacting with cullin-RING ligase subunits. We therefore set out to determine whether UBXN7 interaction with cullins was direct or mediated by its ubiquitylated targets bound to the UBA domain.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that UBXN7 interaction with cullins is independent of ubiquitin- and substrate-binding. Instead, it relies on the UIM motif in UBXN7 that directly engages the NEDD8 modification on cullins. To understand the functional consequences of UBXN7 interaction with neddylated cullins, we focused on HIF1α, a CUL2 substrate that uses UBXD7/p97 as a ubiquitin-receptor on its way to proteasome-mediated degradation. We find that UBXN7 over-expression converts CUL2 to its neddylated form and causes the accumulation of non-ubiquitylated HIF1α. Both of these effects are strictly UIM-dependent and occur only when UBXN7 contains an intact UIM motif. We also show that HIF1α carrying long ubiquitin-chains can recruit alternative ubiquitin-receptors, lacking p97's ATP-dependent segregase activity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study shows that independently of its function as a ubiquitin-binding adaptor for p97, UBXN7 directly interacts with neddylated cullins and causes the accumulation of the CUL2 substrate HIF1α. We propose that by sequestering CUL2 in its neddylated form, UBXN7 negatively regulates the ubiquitin-ligase activity of CRL2 and this might prevent recruitment of ubiquitin-receptors other than p97 to nuclear HIF1α.</p

Improving the Speech and Communication Abilities of Children with Down's Syndrome: A New Model of Service Delivery using Electropalatography

Down's syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of mild to moderate learning difficulties (LD), affecting 1 in every 1000 live births in the UK (Down's Syndrome Association, 2015). The speech skills of individuals with DS are poorer than would be anticipated in relation to both their general cognitive ability and their skills in expressive language (Roberts et al., 2007). These specific difficulties in speech production can lead to significantly reduced intelligibility (Kumin, 2006) which in turn affects the ability to communicate effectively. This often places considerable constraints on educational progress, affects friendship formation and impedes integration into the wider community. The specific speech production difficulties encountered by individuals with DS are often considered to be intractable as they have proved to be resistant to conventional methods of intervention delivered by speech and language therapists (Kumin, 2006). These difficulties persist into adulthood which can negatively impact life outcomes, affect employability and contribute to social exclusion (Shriberg & Widder, 1990). Our previous research funded by the Medical Research Council investigated the speech difficulties experienced by 27 children and young people, aged 9 to 18 years, with DS. As well as increasing our understanding of the types of speech errors made by this population, it experimented with the use of an intervention technique called electropalatography (EPG), not currently routinely available within the NHS, as a method of correcting speech errors in children with DS with a view to improving their intelligibility. The results from this previous research led to the grant funded by the Nuffield Foundation.caslpub4279pu

Art, Artifact, Archive: African American Experiences in the Nineteenth Century

Angelo Scarlato’s extraordinary and vast collection of art and artifacts related to the Civil War, and specifically to the Battle of Gettysburg, the United States Colored Troops, slavery and the African American struggle for emancipation, citizenship and freedom has proved to be an extraordinary resource for Gettysburg College students. The 2012-14 exhibition in Musselman Library’s Special Collections, curated by Lauren Roedner ’13, entitled Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts of the Civil War Era and its corresponding catalogue provided a powerful and comprehensive historical narrative of the period. This fall, students in my course at Gettysburg College “Art and Public Policy”—Diane Brennan, Maura Conley, Abigail Conner, Nicole Conte, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Savannah Rose, Kaylyn Sawyer, Caroline Wood and Zoe Yeoh—selected additional objects of material and print culture from Angelo’s private collection and drew from Lauren’s expertise for the exhibition Art, Artifact, Archive: African American Experiences in the Nineteenth Century to investigate public representations of a newly freed population as well as their more personal perspectives. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1015/thumbnail.jp

Quantifying changes in ultrasound tongue-shape pre- and post-intervention in speakers with submucous cleft palate: An illustrative case study

James M. Scobbie - ORCID: 0000-0003-4509-6782 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4509-6782Ultrasound Tongue Imaging is increasingly used during assessment and treatment of speech sound disorders. Recent literature has shown that ultrasound is also useful for the quantitative analysis of a wide range of speech errors. So far, the compensatory articulations of speakers with cleft palate have only been analysed qualitatively. This study provides a pilot quantitative ultrasound analysis, drawing on longitudinal intervention data from a child with submucous cleft palate. Two key ultrasound metrics were used: 1. articulatory t-tests were used to compare tongue-shapes for perceptually collapsed phonemes on a radial measurement grid and 2. the Mean Radial Difference was reported to quantify the extent to which the two tongue shapes differ, overall. This articulatory analysis supplemented impressionistic phonetic transcriptions and identified covert contrasts. Articulatory errors identified in this study using ultrasound were in line with errors identified in the speech of children with cleft palate in previous literature. While compensatory error patterns commonly found in speakers with cleft palate have been argued to facilitate functional phonological development, the nature of our findings suggest that the compensatory articulations uncovered are articulatory in nature.This work was supported by a QMU PhD Bursary.https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2021.197356636pubpub2-

Testing the construct validity of a soccer-specific virtual reality simulator using novice, academy and professional soccer players

Virtual Reality (VR) provides the potential for immersive and engaging training solutions for improving sport performance. However, if VR training is to be adopted and used in an effective and evidence-based fashion, a more rigorous assessment of the validity of the simulation is required. Construct validity is the degree to which the simulation provides an accurate representation of core features of the task. In the context of sport, if the training drills in the VR environment are a true representation of the skills needed in the real world, then those that excel at the sport in the real world should also excel in the virtual one. In this experiment, we examined the construct validity of a soccer-specific VR simulator by recruiting professional, academy, and novice players. Seventeen participants in each group completed four VR soccer drills and the VR software provided scores relating to performance and process (e.g., passing accuracy, composure, reaction time, and adaptability). Based on these scores, an algorithm gave a diagnostic score relating to the predicted ability of the player. Results showed that this VR platform successfully differentiated between participants of differing skill levels. These results provide some support for the construct validity of this VR simulator and suggest at least partial overlap between the perceptual-cognitive and motor skills needed to perform well across ‘real’ and virtual environments. Further work is needed to explore the validity and fidelity of the simulation before its adoption as a training device can be fully endorsed