827 research outputs found
A Tri-Band Printed Antenna based on a Sierpinski Gasket
No full textA true self-similar printed Sierpinski gasket has quite poor radiation characteristics. An improved configuration for a printed gasket-like antenna is proposed here. This configuration is able to radiate at three different frequencies, with a close radiation pattern and a remarkably low cross-polar level
The Shell Game: Investigating Spontaneous Response to Gaze Cueing of Attention in Children with High Functioning Autism
No full textBackground:
Deficits in joint attention development characterize autism and are thought to hinder social development and early language acquisition (Mundy & Burnette, 2005), therefore response to gaze cueing -the ability to shift visual attention in response to the observed eye gaze direction of another person- has been investigated in autism using different paradigms: Posner-style gaze-cueing tests demonstrated that purely reflexive perceptual aspects are intact even in very young children with autism (Chawarska et al., 2003; Swettenham et al. 2003) while performance in explicit gaze direction detection judgment tasks is impaired in older ones (Riby & Doherty 2009). However the use of verbally demanding tasks and explicit judgments about gaze-direction can be problematic when testing young children with autism.
Objectives:
We aimed to evaluate spontaneous response to gaze cueing of attention in young children with autism by means of an experimental stimulus in which an implicit goal elicits spontaneous response to gaze-cueing, while free visual explorations of the stimuli are recorded with an eye tracker.
Methods:
18 children with high-functioning autism (mean age 6.4 years, SD 2.1) and 18 age-matched controls (mean age 6.3 years, SD 1.10) participated. Participants were simply instructed to look at the videos presented with a Tobii-T60 eye-tracker. Each child saw 2 demonstrations and 2 test videos depicting an actor hiding an object under one of two identical opaque glasses, rotating them and then looking laterally for three times (without head turn) towards the glass that covered the object, before lifting it up. The hiding process was either visible (2 demonstrations) or hidden behind a screen (2 tests) thus in the demonstrations the observer could ignore the gaze-cue in order to find the object, while in the experimental conditions the gaze cue was the only visible feature leading to it. Statistical analysis compared fixations to key areas of the stimuli, namely Eyes, Gaze-Target and Non-Gaze-Target, qualitative analysis on gaze patterns evaluated response to gaze cueing.
Results:
The group comparison found statistically significant differences in attention towards the Gaze Target: Children with autism showed shorter fixations on the Gaze Target (p= 0.035) and spent lower time exploring it (p= 0.054). The qualitative analysis of the visual fixation patterns confirmed that children with autism as a group had a reduced tendency to follow the gaze cue (37% accuracy ), compared to typical controls (82% accuracy). Finally, paired samples t-tests within groups showed that control children made a significantly higher number of fixations to the Target Vs the Non Target (p=0.007), spent a significantly higher time on the Target rather than on the Non Target (p= 0.002) and made longer fixations to it (p<0.001) while no statistically significant differences were found for children with autism suggesting an inefficient differentiation between Target and Non target.
Conclusions:
Our data suggest that even though children with autism were less efficient than controls in perceiving and flexibly following the eye gaze cue they showed considerable residual gaze following abilities. Implications for treatment and further research will be discussed
Esperienze di generalizzazione cartografica automatica in Italia: tecniche e risultati del progetto CARGEN
No full text
“State, Capital and Trade Unions: How Governments deal with Social Conflicts in Europe and China”
No full textThe CARGEN project: cartographic generalization as an example of cooperation between National and Regional mapping agencies
No full textAutomated cartographic generalization has been a challenging research field for over 30 years; nowadays thanks to the continuous research is becoming a concrete opportunity to increase the speed of map sets production and maintenance. As some National mapping agencies are working in this direction, in Italy automated cartographic generalization is still a research field, although recent researches show its applicability to the Italian data models for the production of maps. This paper illustrates how the production of cartography in Italy is organized and the situation of the research on generalization in the country. The paper reports the most interesting results of the research, especially those brought by the on-going CARGEN project, that testify how automated cartographic generalization could play a key role also in the Italian cartographic processe
Life cycle of Cyathocephalus truncatus (Cestoda: Spathebothridea) parasite of fish by use of molecular techniques
No full textMorphological identification of tapeworm species at larval stages (procercoids and cysticercoids) is often difficult because few diagnostic characters are available. In the present study, a molecular approach (sequencing of partial I SS rDNA gene) was used to evaluate the genetic similarity between adult specimens of Cyathocephalus truncatus (Pallas, 1871) (Cestoda: Spathebothriidea) found in fish. its definitive host, and procercoids of the same species recovered from amphipod, Echinogammarus stammeri (Karaman. 1931). Furthermore, cestode cysticercoids of uncertain species were found in the amphipod's hemocoel. The sequences obtained from adults and procercoids were identical. and even very similar to those of C. truncatus available in GenBank, whereas the sequences obtained from cysticercoids differed significantly from those of adults and procercoids, indicating that these larvae belong to another species; later it was demonstrated that they were cysticercoids of Microsomacanthus pachycephala (Linstow, 1972), a cestode of the Hymenolepididae (Cyclophyllidea). The results of this investigation show that the comparison of nucleotide sequence data may avoid misclassification of developmental stages of parasites, which use the same intermediate host
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