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Auditory steady-state response (ASSR) has been studied as a potential biomarker for abnormal auditory sensory processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with mixed results. Motivated by prior somatosensory findings of group differences in inter-trial coherence (ITC) between ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals at twice the steady-state stimulation frequency, we examined ASSR at 25 and 50 as well as 43 and 86 Hz in response to 25-Hz and 43-Hz auditory stimuli, respectively, using magnetoencephalography. Data were recorded from 22 ASD and 31 TD children, ages 6-17 years. ITC measures showed prominent ASSRs at the stimulation and double frequencies, without significant group differences. These results do not support ASSR as a robust ASD biomarker of abnormal auditory processing in ASD. Furthermore, the previously observed atypical double-frequency somatosensory response in ASD did not generalize to the auditory modality. Thus, the hypothesis about modality-independent abnormal local connectivity in ASD was not supported.

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is characterized by gigantic linear dunes and an active dust cycle. Much like on Earth, these aeolian processes are caused by the wind-driven saltation of surface grains. It is still unclear, however, how saltation on Titan can occur despite the typically weak surface winds and the potentially cohesive surface grains. Here, we explore the hypothesis that saltation on Titan may be sustained at lower wind speeds than previously thought, primarily through granular splash rather than aerodynamic lifting of surface grains. We propose a saltation mass flux parameterization for Titan and use it to quantify sediment transport with a general circulation model. The results suggest that Titan's prevailing circulation can generate highly intermittent yet significant saltation, with mass fluxes of the order of 10^4 kg m^-1 year^-1, and that Titan dunes may be formed primarily by fine grains, approximately 0.1 mm in size.

Abstract Atmospheric photochemistry on Titan continuously transforms methane and nitrogen gases into various organic compounds. This study explores the fate of these molecules when they land on Titan's surface. Our analytical exploration reveals that most simple organics found in Titan's atmosphere, including all nitriles, triple‐bonded hydrocarbons, and benzene, land as solids. Only a few compounds are in the liquid phase, while only ethylene remains gaseous. For the simple organics that land as solids, we further examine their interactions with Titan's lake liquids. Utilizing principles of buoyancy, we found that flotation can be achieved via porosity‐induced (25%–60% porosity) or capillary force‐induced buoyancy for hydrogen cyanide ices on ethane‐rich lakes. Otherwise, these ices would sink and become lakebed sediments. By evaluating the timescale of flotation, our findings suggest that porosity‐induced flotation of millimeter‐sized and larger sediments is the only plausible mechanism for floating solids to explain the transient “magic islands” phenomena on Titan's lakes.

Despite literature supporting the need for educational psychologists (EPs) to work with families as central to good practice, there is limited evidence of the ways in which EPs involve families within their practice. This paper discusses a small-scale study which explored EP practice in relation to work with families. Nine EPs from four English Local Authorities (LAs) were interviewed. Interviews were then analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings highlight both the range of practice, and the variance between participants' perceptions of the EP role with families. The impact of a traded model of service delivery was identified as reinforcing a perception of the EP role being primary school focused rather than child and family-focused. Implications for EP practice are discussed and the findings should provoke discussion for the EP community, in considering the profession's role in the area of work with families.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly display speech processing abnormalities. Binding of acoustic features of speech distributed across different frequencies into coherent speech objects is fundamental in speech perception. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the cortical processing of bottom-up acoustic cues for speech binding may be anomalous in ASD. We recorded magnetoencephalography while ASD children (ages 7–17) and typically developing peers heard sentences of sine-wave speech (SWS) and modulated SWS (MSS) where binding cues were restored through increased temporal coherence of the acoustic components and the introduction of harmonicity. The ASD group showed increased long-range feedforward functional connectivity from left auditory to parietal cortex with concurrent decreased local functional connectivity within the parietal region during MSS relative to SWS. As the parietal region has been implicated in auditory object binding, our findings support our hypothesis of atypical bottom-up speech binding in ASD. Furthermore, the long-range functional connectivity correlated with behaviorally measured auditory processing abnormalities, confirming the relevance of these atypical cortical signatures to the ASD phenotype. Lastly, the group difference in the local functional connectivity was driven by the youngest participants, suggesting that impaired speech binding in ASD might be ameliorated upon entering adolescence.

Autism Spectrum (AS) is defined primarily by differences in social interactions, with impairments in sensory processing also characterizing the condition. In the search for neurophysiological biomarkers associated with traits relevant to the condition, focusing on sensory processing offers a path that is likely to be translatable across populations with different degrees of ability, as well as into animal models and across imaging modalities. In a prior study, a somatosensory neurophysiological signature of AS was identified using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Specifically, source estimation results showed differences between AS and neurotypically developing (NTD) subjects in the brain response to 25-Hz vibrotactile stimulation of the right fingertips, with lower inter-trial coherence (ITC) observed in the AS group. Here, we examined whether these group differences can be detected without source estimation using scalp electroencephalography (EEG), which is more commonly available in clinical settings than MEG, and therefore offers a greater potential for clinical translation. To that end, we recorded simultaneous whole-head MEG and EEG in 14 AS and 10 NTD subjects (age 15–28 years) using the same vibrotactile paradigm. Based on the scalp topographies, small sets of left hemisphere MEG and EEG sensors showing the maximum overall ITC were selected for group comparisons. Significant differences between the AS and NTD groups in ITC at 25 Hz as well as at 50 Hz were recorded in both MEG and EEG sensor data. For each measure, the mean ITC was lower in the AS than in the NTD group. EEG ITC values correlated with behaviorally assessed somatosensory sensation avoiding scores. The results show that information about ITC from MEG and EEG signals have substantial overlap, and thus EEG sensor-based ITC measures of the AS somatosensory processing biomarker previously identified using source localized MEG data have a potential to be developed into clinical use in AS, thanks to the higher accessibility to EEG in clinical settings.

Organizing sensory information into coherent perceptual objects is fundamental to everyday perception and communication. In the visual domain, indirect evidence from cortical responses suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have anomalous figure-ground segregation. While auditory processing abnormalities are common in ASD, especially in environments with multiple sound sources, to date, the question of scene segregation in ASD has not been directly investigated in audition. Using magnetoencephalography, we measured cortical responses to unattended (passively experienced) auditory stimuli while parametrically manipulating the degree of temporal coherence that facilitates auditory figure-ground segregation. Results from 21 children with ASD (aged 7-17 years) and 26 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children provide evidence that children with ASD show anomalous growth of cortical neural responses with increasing temporal coherence of the auditory figure. The documented neurophysiological abnormalities did not depend on age, and were reflected both in the response evoked by changes in temporal coherence of the auditory scene and in the associated induced gamma rhythms. Furthermore, the individual neural measures were predictive of diagnosis (83% accuracy) and also correlated with behavioral measures of ASD severity and auditory processing abnormalities. These findings offer new insight into the neural mechanisms underlying auditory perceptual deficits and sensory overload in ASD, and suggest that temporal-coherence-based auditory scene analysis and suprathreshold processing of coherent auditory objects may be atypical in ASD.

The neurophysiology of face processing has been studied extensively in the context of social impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the existing studies have concentrated mainly on univariate analyses of responses to upright faces, and, less frequently, inverted faces. The small number of existing studies on neurophysiological responses to inverted face in ASD have used univariate approaches, with divergent results. Here, we used a data-driven, classification-based, multivariate machine learning decoding approach to investigate the temporal and spatial properties of the neurophysiological evoked response for upright and inverted faces, relative to the neurophysiological evoked response for houses, a neutral stimulus. 21 (2 females) ASD and 29 (4 females) TD participants ages 7 to 19 took part in this study. Group level classification accuracies were obtained for each condition, using first the temporal domain of the evoked responses, and then the spatial distribution of the evoked responses on the cortical surface, each separately. We found that classification of responses to inverted neutral faces vs. houses was less accurate in ASD compared to TD, in both the temporal and spatial domains. In contrast, there were no group differences in the classification of evoked responses to upright neutral faces relative to houses. Using the classification in the temporal domain, lower decoding accuracies in ASD were found around 120 ms and 170 ms, corresponding the known components of the evoked responses to faces. Using the classification in the spatial domain, lower decoding accuracies in ASD were found in the right superior marginal gyrus (SMG), intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), but not in core face processing areas. Importantly, individual classification accuracies from both the temporal and spatial classifiers correlated with ASD severity, confirming the relevance of the results to the ASD phenotype.

Smart materials usually are either mounted on surfaces or embedded inside; in this work, we study magnetic properties of smart materials that are integrated into the structure. Magnetostrictive particles of TbxDy1−xFe2 (x ∼ 0.3), commonly known as Terfenol-D, incorporated into carbon fiber reinforced polymers showed a 3000% enhancement in the coercive field compared to the reference pristine bulk Terfenol-D. Torque magnetometer measurements revealed a magnetic anisotropy with twofold symmetry. The lowest applied field at which a reversible torque without hysteresis occurred was ∼5.0 kOe, which yields 5 Oe anisotropic field for a carbon fiber reinforced polymer magnet. This value of the anisotropic field is confirmed using the Miyajima method. Angle dependent coercive field and saturation/remanent magnetization also confirmed the twofold symmetry of magnetization in this system. The high magnetostrictive coefficient, together with the enhanced coercive field, makes Terfenol-D integrated into carbon fiber reinforced polymers serve as an excellent candidate for in situ sensing of damage in various polymer composites under several mechanical loading conditions.

The permeability of biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate, PET, to vapors from 5%, 30%, and 100% formic acid solutions as well as the vapor from a 30% acetic acid solution was measured by gravimetric analysis in order to determine the transmission rate of the vapors through PET folders and enclosures made from Mylar™ and similar materials, and ultimately understand the microenvironment that is created inside an encapsulate. The data shows that the permeation of formic acid vapor is at least two orders of magnitude slower than the permeation of water vapor. Measurements of the permeation of 30% acetic acid vapor through PET seemed to be due to the permeation of the water only, and the permeation of the acetic acid, if it occurred, occurred too slowly to be measured. The size of the diffusing molecule determines the permeation. Since the permeability decreases as the size of the diffusing vapor molecule increases, a plot of permeability versus vapor size allows the permeability of various other vapors through PET to be predicted. Colorimetry showed that porous PET allowed ambient vapors to diffuse into the encapsulate, and the entire paper within the encapsulate was affected, not only the paper near the holes in the PET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement is growing across higher education. Cooperative education and other internships are well established in the literature as pedagogies with links to experiential and connected learning. Cooperative programs combine business, industry, educational providers and students paid on-the-job. Most studies of work-based learning focus on individual or small group-based models. This paper reports on a large and complex work-integrated project involving 35 students from seven disciplines in an Australian higher education context. The students took 10 weeks to research, design and implement an online financial skills training program for small business owners. Students worked in teams to create an online content management system, design the website, develop and edit content and produce audio visual material. Feedback from industry partners and students identified that greater attention to planning, student selection and overall project management could have increased the overall benefits. Findings suggest specific ways to improve large group work-based programs. (Contains 1 table.)

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Copyright of Annals of Tourism Research is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the years a number of tourist choice models have been advanced by researchers but, in the study of tourist choice, two areas in particular appear to be lacking: the possible role of the individual difference variable, personality, in that choice, and the importance of constraints during the choice process. This article presents a model of vacation choice based on the constraints model of leisure participation proposed by Crawford, Jackson, and Godbey in 1991 and modified by Jackson, Crawford, and Godbey in 1993, but incorporating the individual difference variable, personality. In building on Jackson et al.'s model, it is proposed that personality will influence vacation preference through the development of motives, and that personality will influence the perception of both intrapersonal constraints and assessment of the ability to negotiate them. It is further proposed that an individual's weighted motives will give rise to weighted vacation attribute preferences and that successful negotiation of interpersonal constraints will lead to jointly agreed weighted vacation attribute preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]