A Phenomenologically Sensitized Analysis of Images Depicting Stressed Embodiment in an Adolescent Male with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Each person with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) comes with unique characteristics (idiosyncratic) that give clues to the world they know (Connolly, 2008). It is through their body that they (a) know the world they are experiencing, (b) make meaning, and (c) express certain behaviours. I used Laban’s Movement Analysis (LMA) to practice an attuned and appreciative approach to describing and understanding the body movement in one severe manifestation of autism in an adolescent male. LMA observes human movement across many disciplines and can be applied in many contexts providing a body honoring discourse for description (Connolly, 2008). The framework examines movement in body, space, quality, and relation. Each theme provides a detailed description of the individual’s movement, thus, giving us a richer understanding of patterns and possible triggers to self-injurious behaviours (SIB). During the summer of August 2013, I participated in Brock University’s annual Autism Camp and worked with a 15 year old male named “Aaron” who manifests with low functioning autism. The purpose of my research project was to code and analyze a series of photos taken to help gain insight into movement patterns associated with stressed embodiment and self-injury in “Aaron”. As I understood more about these embodied expressions, I uncovered valuable information on how to read patterns and discover what triggers these events, thus providing strategies on how to help people do more refined observations and make meaning of the behaviour. Laban’s movement analysis provided a sensitized discourse appropriate to the embodied expressions depicted in the photos

Monte Carlo modeling of YBCO vapor deposition

A three dimensional electron beam physical vapor deposition process of super-conducting films of YBa2Cu3O7−δYBa2Cu3O7−δ in a vacuum chamber is investigated both computationally and experimentally. The numerical analysis employs the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Some important modeling issues such as atomic collision cross-sections for metal vapors and hyperfine electronic structure of the atomic absorption spectra are addressed. Film deposition thickness profiles and atomic absorption spectra given by the DSMC method and experiment for pure yttrium evaporation are in excellent agreement. Interaction between the vapor jets is found to have a significant effect on the film growth rate and species molar ratio that are key factors of the film technology. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87371/2/214_1.pd

Salem numbers and Pisot numbers via interlacing

We present a general construction of Salem numbers via rational functions whose zeros and poles mostly lie on the unit circle and satisfy an interlacing condition. This extends and unifies earlier work. We then consider the "obvious" limit points of the set of Salem numbers produced by our theorems, and show that these are all Pisot numbers, in support of a conjecture of Boyd. We then show that all Pisot numbers arise in this way. Combining this with a theorem of Boyd, we show that all Salem numbers are produced via an interlacing construction.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, updated in response to reviewer comment

Community-Based Trials of Mobile Solutions for the Detection and Management of Cognitive Decline

This study focused on the development and usability evaluation of EnCare diagnostics (ECD) and the brain fit plan (BFP) in healthy older adults, cognitively impaired and physically impaired individuals. ECD is proposed as a novel solution to cognitive assessment based on colour selection. BFP is a novel solution to personalised cognitive stimulation. The study consisted of two trials designed to evaluate the usability of the apps. Trial 1 involved 11 healthy older adults and four older adults with physical impairments who undertook ECD and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) once per month for 4 months with only those with physical impairments also completing the BFP daily. Trial 2 involved eight older adults diagnosed with early stage dementia who completed MMSE and ECD once per month for 6 months. In Trial 1, 10 out of 11 participants enjoyed the trial and managed the usability of the app easily. A 75% drop out was observed in response to the BFP with issues of dexterity and lack of understanding on how to use the technology being the main reasons for lack of compliance. Four out of eight participants completed Trial 2 with most of the participants having no usability issues. This usability study demonstrated that ECD is highly acceptable in both healthy older adults and those with early stage dementia when given the shorter versions to accommodate their diagnosis. The BFP was not suited to this population of participants

Observation of simultaneous fast and slow light

We present a microresonator-based system capable of simultaneously producing time-advanced and time-delayed pulses. The effect is based on the combination of a sharp spectral feature with two orthogonally-polarized propagating waveguide modes. We include an experimental proof-of-concept implementation using a silica microsphere coupled to a tapered optical fiber and use a time-domain picture to interpret the observed delays. We also discuss potential applications for future all-optical networks.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Evaluating SOAP for High Performance Business Applications: Real-Time Trading Systems

Web services, with an emphasis on open standards and flexibility, may provide benefits over existing capital markets integration practices. However, web services must first meet certain technical requirements including performance, security and fault--tolerance. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of SOAP performance using realistic business application message content. To get some indication of whether SOAP is appropriate for high performance capital markets systems, the results are compared with a widely used existing protocol. The study finds that, although SOAP performs relatively poorly, the difference is less than in scientific computing environments. Furthermore, we find that in realistic business applications it is possible for text--based wire formats to have comparable performance to binary, and that the text--based nature of XML is not sufficient to explain SOAP's inefficiency. This suggests that further work may enable SOAP to become a viable wire format for high performance business applications

The Earned Income Tax Credit, Mental Health, and Happiness

We study the impact of the earned income tax credit (EITC) on various measures of subjective well-being (SWB) using the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to estimate intent-to-treat effects of the EITC expansion embedded in the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. We use a difference-in-differences framework that compares the pre-and post-expansion SWB-changes of women likely eligible for the EITC (low-skilled mothers of working age) to the SWB-changes of a comparison group that is likely ineligible (low-skilled, childless women of working age). Our results suggest that the EITC expansion generated sizeable SWB-improvements in the three major categories of SWB identified in the literature. The NSFH is one of few datasets containing all three major categories of SWB. Subgroup analyses by marital status suggest that improvements accrued more to married than unmarried mothers. Relative to their childless counterparts, married mothers experienced a 15.7% decrease in depression symptomatology (experiential SWB), a 4.4% increase in happiness (evaluative SWB), and a 10.1% increase in self-esteem (eudemonic SWB). We also present specification checks that increase confidence that the observed SWB-effects are explained by the OBRA90 EITC expansion. Lastly, we explore mechanisms that may explain the differential impact of the EITC expansion by marital status