Real-life Social Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder defined by atypical social behaviour, of which atypical social attention behaviours are among the earliest clinical markers (Volkmar et al., 1997). Eye tracking studies using still images and movie clips have provided a method for the precise quantification of atypical social attention in ASD. This is generally characterised by diminished viewing of the most socially pertinent regions (eyes), and increased viewing of less socially informative regions (body, background, objects) (Klin et al., 2002; Riby & Hancock, 2008, 2009). Ecological validity within eye tracking studies has become an increasingly important issue. As of yet, however, little is known about the precise nature of the atypicalities of social attention in ASD in real-life. Objectives: To capture and quantify gaze patterns for children with an ASD within a real life setting, compared to two Typically Developing (TD) comparison groups. Methods: Nine children with an ASD were compared to two age matched TD groups – a verbal (N=9) and a non-verbal (N=9) comparison group. A real-life scenario was created involving an experimenter posing as a magician, and consisted of 3 segments: a conversation segment; a magic trick segment; and a puppet segment. The first segment explored children’s attentional preferences during a real-life conversation; the magic trick segment explored children’s use of the eyes as a communicative cue, and the puppet segment explored attention capture. Finally, part of the puppet section explored children’s use of facial information in response to an unexpected event. Results: The most striking difference between the groups was the diminished viewing of the eyes by the ASD group in comparison to both control groups. This was found particularly during the conversation segment, but also during the magic trick segment, and during the puppet segment. When in conversation, participants with ASD were found to spend a greater proportion time looking off-screen, in comparison to TD participants. There was also a tendency for the ASD group to spend a greater proportion of time looking to the mouth of the experimenter. During the magic trick segment, despite the fact that the eyes were not predictive of a correct location, both TD comparison groups continued to use the eyes as a communicative cue, whereas the ASD group did not. In the puppet segment, all three groups spent a similar amount of time looking between the puppet and regions of the experimenter’s face. However, in response to an unexpected event, the ASD group were significantly slower to fixate back on the experimenter’s face. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the reduced salience of socially pertinent information for children with ASD in real life, and they provide support for the findings from previous eye tracking studies involving scene viewing. However, the results also highlight a pattern looking off-screen for both the TD and ASD groups. This eye movement behaviour is likely to be associated specifically with real-life interaction, as it has functional relevance (Doherty-Sneddon et al., 2002). However, the fact that it is significantly increased in the ASD group has implications for their understanding of real life social interactions.

A design model: the Autism Spectrum Disorder Classroom Design Kit

Architects and designers have a responsibility to provide an inclusive built environment. However for those with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the built environment can be a frightening and confusing place, difficult to negotiate and tolerate. The challenge of integrating more fully into society is denied by an alienating built environment. For ASD pupils in a poorly designed school, their environment can distance them from learning. Instead, if more at ease in their surroundings, in an ASD-friendly environment, the ASD pupil stands a greater chance of doing better.

However a difficulty exists in that most architects are not knowledgeable in designing for those with ASD. Any available design guidelines for architects tend, because of the inherent difficulties associated with a spectrum, to be general in their information. Therefore, if wanting to provide an ASD-friendly learning environment, there is a need to ensure that teachers, as the experts, can most clearly and effectively impart their knowledge and requirements to architects.

This paper sets out the challenges and difficulties inherent in the design process when designing for ASD. It then sets out an alternative strategy to the usual method of drawing-centric dialogue between teacher and architect by using models instead as a basis for a more common language. An ASD Classroom Design Kit was designed and developed by Queen’s University of Belfast Architecture students. It was then used by ASD teaching staff from the Southern Education and Library Board in Northern Ireland as a case study to trial its effectiveness. The paper outlines how the study was carried out before concluding with reflections by both teaching staff and architect on using the ASD Classroom Design Kit.

It is hoped that this paper will firstly highlight the need for better dialogue between expert and architect when considering ASD and the Built Environment and secondly, that it may encourage others to consider using models to convey their ideas and knowledge when designing, not just for ASD, but for other Special Educational Needs and disabilities.

Clinico-epidemiological features of infections caused by CTX-M type extended spectrum beta lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in hospitalised patients

A review of medical records of 45 of 53 hospitalised patients with positive cultures for CTX-M type ESBL-producing Escherichia coli between 01 January and 31 May 2004 was conducted. The mean age of the population studied was 73.1 (+/-14.6) years and the majority (55.6%) had been under the care of the internal medicine or elderly care service. In the majority (77.8%) of instances the isolate was attributed to a clinical infection rather than colonisation and the commonest clinical specimen to yield the organism was urine, which was positive in 57.8% of patients. Acquisition of the organism was categorised as nosocomial in 68.9% of patients; in this subgroup, the median duration of inpatient stay prior to recovery of the organism was 24 (range 3-240) days. Haemodialysis-dependence was the most common of the comorbidities evaluated. The mean number of antibiotics prescribed per patient in the 30 days prior to first isolation of the organism was 1.7 (range 0-4). Furthermore, the mean number of antibiotic-days exposure per patient during this period was 13.9 (range 0-48). The most frequently received class of antibiotic was beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations. Of 35 infections, 26 (74.2%) were successfully treated. Overall 12 patients with infection died (34.3%); attributable mortality was presumed in seven (20%).

Evaluation of the VITEK 2 AST N-054 test card for the detection of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production in Escherichia coli with CTX-M phenotypes

A new VITEK 2 antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) card, AST N-054, was introduced for aerobic gram-negative bacilli in 2007 and has been widely adopted for routine use in the UK. We evaluated its performance for detecting extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production in Escherichia coli.

Automatic decomposition and efficient semi-structured meshing of complex solids

In this paper, a novel approach to automatically sub-divide a complex geometry and apply an efficient mesh is presented. Following the identification and removal of thin-sheet regions from an arbitrary solid using the thick/thin decomposition approach developed by Robinson et al. [1], the technique here employs shape metrics generated using local sizing measures to identify long-slender regions within the thick body. A series of algorithms automatically partition the thick region into a non-manifold assembly of long-slender and complex sub-regions. A structured anisotropic mesh is applied to the thin-sheet and long-slender bodies, and the remaining complex bodies are filled with unstructured isotropic tetrahedra. The resulting semi-structured mesh possesses significantly fewer degrees of freedom than the equivalent unstructured mesh, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach. The accuracy of the efficient meshes generated for a complex geometry is verified via a study that compares the results of a modal analysis with the results of an equivalent analysis on a dense tetrahedral mesh.

The impact of antibiotic use on the incidence and resistance pattern of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing bacteria in primary and secondary healthcare settings

Aims: The objective of the present study was to study the relationship between hospital antibiotic use, community antibiotic use and the incidence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria in hospitals, while assessing the impact of a fluoroquinolone restriction policy on ESBL-producing bacteria incidence rates. METHODS: The study was retrospective and ecological in design. A multivariate autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was built to relate antibiotic use to ESB-producing bacteria incidence rates and resistance patterns over a 5 year period (January 2005-December 2009). Results: Analysis showed that the hospital incidence of ESBLs had a positive relationship with the use of fluoroquinolones in the hospital (coefficient = 0.174, P= 0.02), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid in the community (coefficient = 1.03, P= 0.03) and mean co-morbidity scores for hospitalized patients (coefficient = 2.15, P= 0.03) with various time lags. The fluoroquinolone restriction policy was implemented successfully with the mean use of fluoroquinolones (mainly ciprofloxacin) being reduced from 133 to 17 defined daily doses (DDDs)/1000 bed days (P <0.001) and from 0.65 to 0.54 DDDs/1000 inhabitants/day (P= 0.0007), in both the hospital and its surrounding community, respectively. This was associated with an improved ciprofloxacin susceptibility in both settings [ciprofloxacin susceptibility being improved from 16% to 28% in the community (P <0.001)] and with a statistically significant reduction in ESBL-producing bacteria incidence rates. Discussion: This study supports the value of restricting the use of certain antimicrobial classes to control ESBL, and demonstrates the feasibility of reversing resistance patterns post successful antibiotic restriction. The study also highlights the potential value of the time-series analysis in designing efficient antibiotic stewardship. © 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2011 The British Pharmacological Society.

Entanglement Spectrum, Critical Exponents and Order Parameters in Quantum Spin Chains

We investigate the entanglement spectrum near criticality in finite quantum spin chains. Using finite size scaling we show that when approaching a quantum phase transition, the Schmidt gap, i.e., the difference between the two largest eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix ?1, ?2, signals the critical point and scales with universal critical exponents related to the relevant operators of the corresponding perturbed conformal field theory describing the critical point. Such scaling behavior allows us to identify explicitly the Schmidt gap as a local order parameter.

Aldo goes to Primary School: Experiencing school through the lens of the autistic spectrum.

The document draws largely on the results of research carried out by Hugh McNally and Dominic Morris of McNally Morris Architects and Keith McAllister of Queen’s University Belfast between 2012 and 2013. The objective of the study was to obtain a greater understanding of the impact that architecture and the built environment can have on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The investigation into the subject centred on parents of young children with ASD in the belief that they are most likely to have an intimate knowledge of the issues that affect their children and are relatively well positioned to communicate those issues.

The study comprised a number of components.

- Focus Group Discussions with parents of children with ASD
- A Postal Questionnaire completed by parents of children with ASD
- A Comprehensive Desktop study of contemporary research into the relationship between ASD and aspects of the built environment.

Social stories are then used to help illustrate the world of a child with ASD to the reader and identify a series of potential difficulties for the pupil with ASD in a primary school setting. Design considerations and mitigating measures are then proposed for each difficulty.

The intention is that the document will raise awareness of some of the issues affecting primary school children with ASD and generate discourse among those whose task it is to provide an appropriate learning environment for all children. This includes teachers, health professionals, architects, parents, carers, school boards, government bodies and those with ASD themselves.

While this document uses the primary school as a lens through which to view some of the issues associated with ASD, it is the authors’ contention that the school can be seen as a “microcosm” for the wider world and that lessons taken from the learning environment can be applied elsewhere. The authors therefore hope that the document will help raise awareness of the myriad of issues for those with ASD that are embedded in the vast landscape of urban configurations and building types making up the spatial framework of our society.

Detection of magnetic dipole lines of Fe XII in the ultraviolet spectrum of the dwarf star ε Eri

We report observations of the dwarf star e Eri (K2V) made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. The high sensitivity of the STIS instrument has allowed us to detect the magnetic dipole transitions of Fe XII at 1242.00 and 1349 38 Å for the first time in a star other than the Sun. The width of the stronger line at 1242.00 Å has also been measured; such measurements are not possible for the permitted lines of Fe XII in the extreme-ultraviolet. To within the accuracy of the measurements the N v and the Fe XII lines occur at their rest wavelengths. Electron densities and linewidths have been measured from other transition region lines. Together, these can be used to investigate the non-thermal energy flux in the lower and upper transition regions, which is useful in constraining possible heating processes. The Fe XII lines are also present in archival STIS spectra of other G/K-type dwarfs.

Evidence for relativistic features in the X-ray spectrum of Mrk 335

We present an analysis of hard X-ray features in the spectrum of the bright Sy 1 galaxy Mrk 335 observed by the XMM-Newton satellite. Our analysis confirms the presence of a broad, ionized Fe Ka emission line in the spectrum, first found by Gondoin et al. The broad line can be modelled successfully by relativistic accretion disc reflection models. This interpretation is unusually robust in the case of Mrk 335 because of the lack of any ionized ('warm') absorber and the absence a clear narrow core to the line. Partial covering by neutral gas cannot, however, be ruled out statistically as the origin of the broad residuals. Regardless of the underlying continuum we report, for the first time in this source, the detection of a narrow absorption feature at the rest frame energy of ~5.9 keV. If the feature is identified with a resonance absorption line of iron in a highly ionized medium, the redshift of the line corresponds to an inflow velocity of ~0.11-0.15c. We present a simple model for the inflow, accounting approximately for relativistic and radiation pressure effects, and use Monte Carlo methods to compute synthetic spectra for qualitative comparison with the data. This modelling shows that the absorption feature can plausibly be reproduced by infalling gas providing that the feature is identified with Fe xxvi. We require the inflowing gas to extend over a limited range of radii at a few tens of r to match the observed feature. The mass accretion rate in the flow corresponds to 60 per cent of the Eddington limit, in remarkable agreement with the observed rate. The narrowness of the absorption line tends to argue against a purely gravitational origin for the redshift of the line, but given the current data quality we stress that such an interpretation cannot be ruled out. © 2006 The Authors.

Time-dependent three-dimensional spectrum synthesis for Type Ia supernovae

A Monte Carlo code (artis) for modelling time-dependent three-dimensional spectral synthesis in chemically inhomogeneous models of Type Ia supernova ejecta is presented. Following the propagation of ?-ray photons, emitted by the radioactive decay of the nucleosynthesis products, energy is deposited in the supernova ejecta and the radiative transfer problem is solved self-consistently, enforcing the constraint of energy conservation in the comoving frame. Assuming a photoionization-dominated plasma, the equations of ionization equilibrium are solved together with the thermal balance equation adopting an approximate treatment of excitation. Since we implement a fully general treatment of line formation, there are no free parameters to adjust. Thus, a direct comparison between synthetic spectra and light curves, calculated from hydrodynamic explosion models, and observations is feasible. The code is applied to the well-known W7 explosion model and the results tested against other studies. Finally, the effect of asymmetric ejecta on broad-band light curves and spectra is illustrated using an elliptical toy model. © 2009 RAS.

Epitaxial Magnetic Oxide Nanocrystals Via Phase Decomposition of Bismuth Perovskite Precursors

The phase instability of bismuth perovskite (BiMO₃), where M is a ferromagnetic cation, is exploited to create self-assembled magnetic oxide nanocrystal arrays on oxide supports. Conditions during pulsed laser deposition are tuned so as to induce complete breakdown of the perovskite precursor into bismuth oxide (Bi₂ O₃ ) and metal oxide (M-O_x ) pockets. Subsequent cooling in vacuum volatizes the Bi₂ O₃ leaving behind an array of monodisperse nanocrystals. In situ reflective high energy electron diffraction beam is exploited to monitor the synthesis in real-time. Analysis of the patterns confi rms the phase separation and volatization process. Successful synthesis of M-O_x, where M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Cr, is shown using this template-free facile approach. Detailed magnetic characterization of nanocrystals is carried out to reveal the functionalities such as magnetic anisotropy as well as larger than bulk moments, as expected in these oxide nanostructures.

Interceptive skills in children aged 9-11 years, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Growing evidence suggests that significant motor problems are associated with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), particularly in catching tasks. Catching is a complex, dynamic skill that involves the ability to synchronise one's own movement to that of a moving target. To successfully complete the task, the participant must pick up and use perceptual information about the moving target to arrive at the catching place at the right time. This study looks at catching ability in children diagnosed with ASD (mean age 10.16 ± 0.9 years) and age-matched non-verbal (9.72 ± 0.79 years) and receptive language (9.51 ± 0.46) control groups. Participants were asked to "catch" a ball as it rolled down a fixed ramp. Two ramp heights provided two levels of task difficulty, whilst the sensory information (audio and visual) specifying ball arrival time was varied. Results showed children with ASD performed significantly worse than both the receptive language (p =.02) and non-verbal (p =.02) control groups in terms of total number of balls caught. A detailed analysis of the movement kinematics showed that difficulties with picking up and using the sensory information to guide the action may be the source of the problem. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.