The autism spectrum as a source of cognitive and cultural diversity

Individual differences in perception and in social cognition are products of both biology and cultural experience. Many of the same differences that typify autism when they occur in extremes also underlie normal human cognitive variation when they occur to more subtle degrees. In particular, autism spectrum conditions are characterised by low degrees of two linked capacities: level of construal, meaning the tendency to represent percepts as individual details rather than as whole contexts; and psychological distance, meaning the tendencies to perceive objects and events in distant rather than peri-personal space, to recall or to anticipate past or future time rather than the here-and-now, to approach social interactions in the allocentric frame of other people rather than one's own egocentric frame, and to represent hypothetical, counterfactual, or fictional beliefs that are at odds with actual facts. Significantly, culture also exerts linked effects on level of construal and psychological distance, which are relatively increased in more contextual, socially focussed cultures and decreased in more individualistic, self-focussed cultures

TV Viewing versus Play - Trends and Impact on Obesity

A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted involving 10000 students from randomly selected government and private schools of Amritsar district to identify the trends of TV viewing and playing in school children aged 5 years and above, to compare TV viewing in both sexes, different age groups and urban versus rural children and to study the impact of TV viewing and playing on obesity in children. The results showed that TV viewing has replaced outdoor playing in most children, irrespective of age, sex and residence. A positive relation between TV viewing and obesity was also documented

Combining computer game-based behavioural experiments with high-density EEG and infrared gaze tracking

Rigorous, quantitative examination of therapeutic techniques anecdotally reported to have been successful in people with autism who lack communicative speech will help guide basic science toward a more complete characterisation of the cognitive profile in this underserved subpopulation, and show the extent to which theories and results developed with the high-functioning subpopulation may apply. This study examines a novel therapy, the "Rapid Prompting Method" (RPM). RPM is a parent-developed communicative and educational therapy for persons with autism who do not speak or who have difficulty using speech communicatively.The technique aims to develop a means of interactive learning by pointing amongst multiple-choice options presented at different locations in space, with the aid of sensory "prompts" which evoke a response without cueing any specific response option. The prompts are meant to draw and to maintain attention to the communicative task–making the communicative and educational content coincident with the most physically salient, attention-capturing stimulus – and to extinguish the sensory–motor preoccupations with which the prompts compete.ideo-recorded RPM sessions with nine autistic children ages 8–14years who lacked functional communicative speech were coded for behaviours of interest

Impact of hybrid renewable energy systems on short circuit levels in distribution networks

The effects of the distributed generation can be classified as environmental, technical and economical effects. It is playing a very vital role for improving the voltage profiles in electrical power systems. However, it could have some negative impacts such as operating conflicts for fault clearing and interference with relaying. Distribution system is the link between the utility system and the consumer. It is divided into three categories radial, Loop, and network. Distribution networks are the most commonly used to cover huge number of loads. The power system reliability mainly depends on the smooth operation and continuity of supply of the distribution network. However, this may not always be guaranteed especially with the introduction of distributed generation to the distribution network. This paper will examine the impact of hybrid renewable energy systems (using photovoltaic and doubly fed induction generators) on short circuit level of IEEE 13-bus distribution test system using ETAP software

A maximum power point tracking for a photovoltaic system based on optimum sinusoidal modulated control pulses

Photovoltaic systems have grown rapidly in the last few decades. This growth has enhanced research about this technology, focusing on reducing cost and improving efficiency. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which increases the overall efficiency of a PV system, is a main part of a PV system. In this paper, some MPPT methods have been critically reviewed. Fractional open-circuit voltage has been investigated. The approach of a separate PV array to obtain the open circuit voltage (Voc) is adopted. The proposed idea in this paper is based on optimising the control pulses for the DC-DC converter. The generation of control pulses is based on sinusoidal modulated pulse width modulation (SPWM). The output from the DC-DC converter is then fed into a low frequency square wave voltage-fed inverter circuit. The output is a fine sinusoidal waveform, although the inverter operates at a low frequency. The block diagrams and the results are presented