Autism Crises: Music Therapeutic Practice & Research at the Social Care Centre Tloskov,Czech Republic. A Short Report

CSS Tloskov is a social pediatric care center and a leading institution in the Czech Republic. Sixty-five percent of its clients are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and receive usually music therapy as a main constituent of individually designed pedagogical and therapeutic programs. In contrast to numerous music therapeutic concepts that are based on musical improvisation, the Tloskov model advocates a complex approach involving favorite songs, instrumental improvisation, and body-oriented modalities such as muscle relaxation and breathing techniques.

Clinical analyses allow us to distinguish typical psychiatric exacerbations in our ASD-clients. These “autistic crises” comprise an “onset phase,” a “gradation phase,” a “culmination phase,” and a “subsiding phase,” which can be partly controlled by music therapeutic interventions. On the basis of Grounded Theory we used qualitative methods to examine system compatibility between clinical data and the 4-phase autism crisis theory and to generate hypotheses about mechanisms of successful music therapy.

Outcomes involve five main principles: identification and avoidance of specific stimuli and cues that trigger autism crises; direct musical “sedation”; acquisition of music-behavioral skills to “auto-regulate” pathological developments; and a sort of music therapeutic emotional re-balancing and consolidation of an inner equilibrium. The “right moment” of intervention and adjustment of musical experiences within a narrow range of the client’s aesthetic-emotional intensity tolerance are critical to therapeutic outcomes. Possible music therapeutic contra-indications have to be taken into consideration.     

The positive aspects of correct negative reinforcement

Abstract

In the scheme of contemporary animal training, horse training is virtually unique because it relies on negative reinforcement (NR) rather than positive reinforcement (PR). Furthermore, horse trainers are largely unaware that they are using NR in training. Instead, they believe in the benevolent nature of the horse and see their task in training as one of improving the balance and gymnastic ability of the horse—outcomes that emerge when the rider is similarly properly balanced. Under these conditions, it is claimed the willing horse will perform its required maneuvers. These beliefs may be associated with several welfare issues and indicate areas requiring future research: 1. The absence of release of pressure, the release of pressure at the wrong times, the use of opposing pressures simultaneously and the absence of shaping procedures are central to the development of acute and chronic stress responses in horses.

2. Resultant conflict behaviors contribute to equine wastage statistics and include behaviors that are dangerous to horses and humans.

3. There is a need for research into the mechanics of NR because it is poorly researched compared to PR.

4. When NR responses are installed correctly, only mild pressures need to be used, and results are obtained in few trials.

5. Many qualified animal trainers misunderstand NR and confuse it with punishment. They believe that PR has positive welfare implications and thus NR being “negative,” has negative welfare implications. So there is a need for horse trainers to understand learning theory and the principles that surround NR.

6. Horse trainers are isolated from advances in animal training. Therefore they increasingly seek knowledge and solutions from the growing number of “horse whisperers” and unqualified “horse psychologists.” This is potentially detrimental for the welfare of the horse and the need is urgent for universities throughout the world to become the knowledge bases for equitation science.

     

Intelligent Tinkering in Ecological Restoration

Restoration practitioners adopt a multiplicity of approaches that range from basic trial and error, and site‐specific efforts, to complex experimental designs that test cutting edge theoretical hypotheses. We classify these different strategies to understand how restoration is planned and executed, and to contribute to the discussion on certification and evaluation. We use Aldo Leopold's notion of “intelligent tinkering” as a basis for a typology of four different approaches to restoration based on four parameters: motivation, general strategy, method of inquiry, and temporal and spatial scales of the expected outcomes. We argue that efforts to restore a damaged ecosystem in a skilled and experimental manner should be called “professional intelligent tinkering” versus “amateur intelligent tinkering,” and “careless tinkering.” We compare these three types of tinkering, and a more formal “scientific approach.” In professional intelligent tinkering, interventions and adjustments are done in a logical and careful manner, and with a methodical, experimental mindset. In contrast to the scientific approach, intelligent tinkering does not necessarily follow a formal experimental procedure, with replications and controls that allow extrapolation, nor is it driven by the motivation to publish in peer‐reviewed journals. Rather, it is primarily driven by a desire to solve site‐specific problems even in the absence of sufficient ecological knowledge to apply previously tested knowledge and techniques. We illustrate three approaches with three on‐going restoration projects in southeastern Brazil, two of which are small scale, and one of which is very large scale.     

An integrated environment and cost assessment method based on LCA and LCC for mechanical product manufacturing

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to provide an integrated method to identify the resource consumption, environmental emission, and economic cost for mechanical product manufacturing from economic and ecological dimensions and ultimately to provide theoretical and data support of energy conservation and emission reduction for mechanical product manufacturing.

Methods

The applied research methods include environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC). In life cycle environmental assessment, the inventory data are referred from Chinese Life Cycle Database and midpoint approach and EDIP2003 and CML2001 models of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are selected. In life cycle cost assessment, three cost categories are considered. The proposed environment and cost assessment method is based on the theory of social willingness to pay for potential environmental impacts. With the WD615 Steyr engine as a case, life cycle environment and cost are analyzed and evaluated.

Results and discussion

The case study indicates that, in different life cycle phases, the trend of cost result is generally similar to the environmental impacts; the largest proportion of cost and environmental impact happened in the two phases of “material production” and “component manufacturing” and the smallest proportion in “material transport” and “product assembly.” The environmental impact category of Chinese resource depletion potential (CRDP) accounted for the largest proportion, followed by global warming potential (GWP) and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP), whereas the impacts of eutrophication potential (EP) and acidification potential (AP) are the smallest. The life cycle “conventional cost” accounted for almost all the highest percentage in each phase (except “material transport” phase), which is more than 80% of the total cost. The “environmental cost” and “possible cost” in each phase are relatively close, and the proportion of which is far below the “conventional cost.”

Conclusions

The proposed method enhanced the conventional LCA. The case results indicate that, in a life cycle framework, the environment and cost analysis results could support each other, and focusing on the environment and cost analysis for mechanical product manufacturing will contribute to a more comprehensive eco-efficiency assessment. Further research on the life cycle can be extended to phases of “early design,” “product use,” and “final disposal.” Other LCIA models and endpoint indicators are advocated for this environmental assessment. Environmental cost can also be further investigated, and the relevant social willingness to pay for more environmental emissions is advocated to be increased.

     

Outgroup sampling in phylogenetics: Severity of test and successive outgroup expansion

Outgroup sampling is a fundamental step in the design of phylogenetic analyses, independent of optimality criterion, taxonomic group, or source of evidence. Studies have demonstrated the efficient analysis of many thousands of terminals, all of which could be included in any empirical investigation, yet outgroup samples typically include only a small number of terminals. Most discussion of outgroup sampling centers on employing “correct” or “appropriate” outgroup terminals to increase “accuracy” or “reliability” by preventing “errors” such as long branch attraction and “incorrect” ingroup rooting. As an alternative, I develop a theory of outgroup sampling grounded in the logic of scientific discovery, whereby the objective is to test nested hypotheses of ingroup topology and character‐state transformation as severely as possible by incorporating outgroup terminals in unconstrained, simultaneous analysis, using background knowledge to select the terminals that have the greatest chance of refuting those hypotheses. This framework provides a logical basis for selecting outgroup taxa but does not provide grounds for limiting the outgroup sample, given that, ceteris paribus, testability and explanatory power increase with the inclusion of additional terminals. Therefore, I propose the ancillary procedure of successively expanding the outgroup sample until ingroup hypotheses become stable (insensitive) to increased sampling, with each expansion guided by the scientific objectives of outgroup sampling. This is a heuristic procedure that does not prevent more outgroup terminals from being sampled or guarantee that ingroup hypotheses will remain insensitive to further outgroup expansion, and it has no bearing on the objective support of a given hypothesis. Nevertheless, it provides an objective, empirical basis for limiting outgroup sampling in a given research cycle. I illustrate this procedure by examining the effect of successive outgroup expansion on the relationships among the poison frog genera Adelphobates, Dendrobates, and Oophaga.     

The Lens of Science: Anthropometric Photography and the Chippewa, 1890–1920

ABSTRACT

Nineteenth-century anthropologists struggled to establish themselves as scientists in a cultural milieu of enthusiasm for “curiosities.” Because commercial photographers appropriated the “authenticity” of photographic realism, the need increased for ethnographic photographers to distinguish between such realism and the “scientific authority” of their own visual productions. Through a case study of anthropometric photography of the Chippewa, this article examines the tension between, on the one hand, ethnographers' exploitation of the technological and symbolic attributes of photography to promote the scientific and political goals of the discipline, and on the other hand, the influence and function of visual genres and visual allegories in conditioning and framing what viewers accepted as “real” and “true.”     

Sviluppo Vegetativo E Riproduttivo Di Alcune Longidiurne in Rapporto All'Azione Dell'Acido Gibberellico

Summary

Continuing the experiments on the action of Gibberellic acid on growth and development of herbaceous plants, the Authors have examined once more several species which require “long day” for espletion of some phases of their reproductive development.

The principal aim was to bring into evidence whether Gibberellic acid can really substitute for some manifestations of the reproductive development itself, or whether some apparent manifestations of reproductive development provoked by this substance are due primarily to modifications of vegetative processes determinated by it.

The experiments were carried out on Papaver somniferum L., Centaurea calcitrapa L., Oenothera acaulis L., Aethusa Cynapium L. and Myosurus minimus L.

Results obtained on Papaver somniferum demonstrate that Gibberellic acid accelerates the macroscopic flowering manifestations under short day conditions of plants already induced to flowering, substituting in this for the effect of “long day” factor in so far as concerns the lengthening of the floral axis. No experiments which can establish whether Gibberellic acid may have an action on specific processes involved in the transition to the reproductive stage, have so far been conducted on Papaver.

Experiments on Centaurea calcitrapa have revealed that Gibberellic acid, treatment though promoting in plants manteined in short-day conditions a “bolting” effect simulating that obtained usually only at long-day, does not succeed in flowering this is true in our experimental conditions (experiments limit: 10 weeks; (photo-phase at light intensity inferior to 2000 lux). Experiments on Centaurea were also supplemented with histological observation of esperimental material.

In the experiments on Oenothera acaulis, a long-day plant only for the macroscopic development phase of floral apparatus, and indeterminate for the formation of floral primordia, has been noted that Gibb. acid can, in the long run, partly substitute for the long-day effect. However, development of floral structures at shortday, is more easily obtained if the plants are supplied, besides with Gibberellic acid, also with other stimulating and trophic substances. This and others observations may indicate that Gibberellic acid represent only one of the substances involved in the metabolism of plants under long-day conditions.

Aethusa Cynapium has furnished results similar to those obtained with Centaurea, even if within very long experimental limits some apparently indirect action of Gibberellic acid towards flowering may occurs.

Preliminary experimental data on logday Myosurus minimus L. show that Gibberellic acid can substitute sooner or later for longday requirements in flowering. In fact, two months old plants flower when Gibberellic acid is supplied under 9 hr. shortday conditions while the controls in shorday remain vegetative. We must note that Myosurus flowers better when light extension is prevalently constituted by far red radiation the effect of which is apparently substituted more easily by Gibberellic acid even if its action appears less afficient and rapid than that of supplementary illumination.     

A need to provide explanations for observed biological effects of radiofrequency exposure

Abstract

Although there is scientific consensus that radiofrequency (RF) exposure at high intensity can cause thermal effects, including well-established adverse health effects, there is still considerable controversy on whether low-intensity RF exposure can cause biological effects, especially adverse health effects. The objective of this paper is to describe several reported “non-thermal” effects that were later shown to be due to a weak thermal effect or an experimental artifact by properly conducted and thorough follow-on scientific research. First, the multiple factors that can cause different RF energy absorption in biological tissues are reviewed and second, several examples of experimental artifacts in published papers are described to demonstrate the importance of paying attention to dosimetry and temperature control. For example, isolated nerve response studies show that when temperature of the RF-exposed tissues is controlled, effects disappeared. During RF exposure, conductive electrodes routinely used in physiological studies have been shown to cause field intensification at the tips or contacts of the electrodes with biological tissue; thus, the RF exposure at the site of measurement could be much higher than the incident field. In some in vitro studies, a lack of temperature uniformity in RF-exposed cell cultures and rate of heating explain changes originally reported to be due to low-level RF exposure. In other studies, detailed dosimetry studies have identified artifacts that explain the reasons why so-called “non-thermal” effects were mistakenly reported. Researchers should look for explanations for their own findings, and not expect others to figure out what was the reason for their observed effects.     

Social evaluation of municipal solid waste management systems from a life cycle perspective: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The social aspects of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems are underpinning their sustainability and effectiveness. The assessment of these systems from a life cycle perspective is widespread throughout environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), but few studies have used social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). The present study is an innovative review with the objective to analyse and describe the current level of development of S-LCA applications in MSWM, and to identify the main methodological challenges and best practices, aiming at recommending approaches to harmonise future S-LCA applications in MSWM.

Materials and methods

A systematic review of the literature found 36 relevant scientific articles. These were submitted to bibliometric and content analysis, which includes an analysis of how methodological aspects of the four phases of S-LCA were applied in comparison with best practice and existing guidelines.

Results and discussion

There was a predominance of case studies in developing countries (59%) and evaluation of the stages of collection/transportation, pre-processing (sorting) and landfilling (55%). There were more studies focusing on stakeholders, “workers” and “local communities” and in the impact subcategories “employment”, “working hours”, “health and safety/working conditions”, “community involvement/participation” and “health and safety/living conditions of community”. There was great variability in the application of the method (47% of the studies included methodological developments). However, the 39% based on UNEP guidelines were closer to a methodological consensus.

Conclusion

In general, studies need more detail and clarity in describing the methodological decisions used. Improvements are needed for issues that limit the S-LCA method, including the difficulties of covering the entire life cycle, relating impacts to the functional unit, standardizing impact assessment methods, addressing allocation and data quality issues and interpretation of results and their limitations. Improvements can be achieved by using participatory methods in the selection of categories, subcategories and impact indicators, as well as by clarifying the definition of a product system and detailing “cut-off criteria” of processes/organizations and the impact of these decisions on results.

     

Equestrian Coaches' Understanding and Application of Learning Theory in Horse Training

ABSTRACT

To assess the knowledge of learning theory among accredited equestrian coaches in Australia, a 20-item questionnaire was distributed to all coaches registered with the National Coaches Accreditation Scheme in Australia (n = 830). Of the 206 respondents, 79.5% considered positive reinforcement to be “very useful,” yet only 2.8% correctly explained its use in horse training. When asked about the usefulness of negative reinforcement, 19.3% of coaches considered it “very useful,” with 11.9% correctly explaining its use. Punishment was rated “very useful” by 5.2% of respondents, although only eight coaches (5.4%) explained punishment correctly. Release of pressure was considered the most effective reward for horses among respondents (78.2%). These results indicate that many equestrian coaches lack a correct understanding of positive and negative reinforcement as they apply to horse training. Given that qualified coaches play a significant role in the dissemination of information on training practices, this highlights the need for improved education of equestrian coaches. Education to remedy this situation has the potential to enhance the welfare of horses through reduced behavioral conflict and improve training outcomes.     

Similarity of behaviour of granule cells in hippocampus to that predicted by informon theory

In a “population” experiment on potentiation in hippocampus a large electrode in the perforant path (pp) stimulates granule cells which in turn excite basket cells; basket cells inhibit granule cells. A large electrode in the molecular layer among synapses from pp to granule cells records a “population EPSP”; if the electrode is placed in the granule cell body layer it records a “population spike” which is related to the discharge rate of granule cells. In the simulation of a granule/basket cell pair previously described the corresponding theoretical quantities are “postsynaptic state” and “internal state of the neurone” which determines its discharge rate.Experimental and theoretical waveforms in response to pp stimulation are compared; they agree reasonably well over a wide range of stimulus frequency and duration. The theory offers an explanation of some of the experimental waveforms.A prediction is made; some drugs increase and some drugs decrease the effectiveness of inhibitory synapses. A drug which increases the inhibitory effect of basket cells should, as a long term effect, increase the potentiation of the variable synapses from pp to granule cells and conversely, drugs which decrease inhibition should decrease potentiation.     

Homology in Trivaline Complex Formation with dsDNA and ssRNA

Abstract

It has been shown by the equilibrium dialysis that at a polyU concentration above the “critical” one, the complete polymer saturation with trivaline reaches approximately 0.7 trivaline molecules per one phosphate group. i.e. at these conditions peptide dimer occupies on polyU a site of three bases (phosphates) in length. The trivaline complex with polyU at a concentration lower than the “critical” one does not reveal any noticeable fluorescence, but has rather significant positive linear dichroism at 265 and 330 nm. The trivaline-nucleic acids complex has a significant fluorescence at any dsDNA concentration while with polyU it is only so at a concentration above the “critical” one. Electron microscopy has shown that at a rather high concentration of dsDNA molecules in solution a “biduplex” structure undergoes an additional stage of compaction, during which the extended particles more than 30 nm in diameter are formed.

Schematic models for the trivaline complexes and compact structures with dsDNA and ssRNA are propose     

‘To bring out the best that is in their blood’: Race,reform, and civilization in the journal of race development (1910–1919)

The Journal of Race Development [JRD], published out of Clark University in the United States between 1910 and 1919, aimed, in its founder's words, “to present … the important facts which bear upon race progress, and the different theories as to the methods by which developed peoples may most effectively aid the progress of the undeveloped”. Its basic premise was that scientific knowledge could harness racial or civilizational “evolution” and turn it into “development”. This article examines that project, the conceptual apparatus that the JRD's writers and editors brought to bear on it, and how racial ideas informed their conceptions of development and progressive social change through elite scientific and political intervention. Central to this project was an organic notion of “civilization” in which “nature” and “culture” did not so much overlap as flow seamlessly one into the other.     

The Identity of La Salle’S Pana Slave

Abstract

In June 1682 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was presented with a “Pana” boy by the Illinois Michigamea Indians. The boy told La Salle of his history as a captive in four Indian tribes. He described Indian village locations and listed the tribes which had “many” horses. The significance of the information for which he was the source depends on the tribal identity of the captive. It has been suggested in anthropological literature that “Pana” indicated “Pawnee,” Ponca, Arikara, Wichita, even Apache. After examination of evidence-linguistic, cultural, historical - it seems most likely he was a Southern Pawnee, a Wichita. If this was so, then his information substantiates the theory of Kroeber, Brant and others that some Kiowa Apaches were still living in the southern Plains in the late 17th century.     

MAGNETIC FIELDS AND CONNECTIVE TISSUE REGULATION

Most clinically used magnetotherapies are supported by “black box” experimental and clinical data. On May 19, 2000, a meeting of the Working Group ‘Electrophysiology of Bone’ of the German Society of Osteology was held in Berlin to discuss the basic mechanisms of pathophysiological regulation to explain the therapeutic significance of various modes of clinical magnetotherapies.

This short paper outlines the discussion held at that meeting, which searched for a rational scientific understanding or basis for the use of various clinical magnetotherapies.     

Clustered sparsity and Poisson-gap sampling

Non-uniform sampling (NUS) is a popular way of reducing the amount of time taken by multidimensional NMR experiments. Among the various non-uniform sampling schemes that exist, the Poisson-gap (PG) schedules are particularly popular, especially when combined with compressed-sensing (CS) reconstruction of missing data points. However, the use of PG is based mainly on practical experience and has not, as yet, been explained in terms of CS theory. Moreover, an apparent contradiction exists between the reported effectiveness of PG and CS theory, which states that a “flat” pseudo-random generator is the best way to generate sampling schedules in order to reconstruct sparse spectra. In this paper we explain how, and in what situations, PG reveals its superior features in NMR spectroscopy. We support our theoretical considerations with simulations and analyses of experimental data from the Biological Magnetic Resonance Bank (BMRB). Our analyses reveal a previously unnoticed feature of many NMR spectra that explains the success of ”blue-noise” schedules, such as PG. We call this feature “clustered sparsity”. This refers to the fact that the peaks in NMR spectra are not just sparse but often form clusters in the indirect dimension, and PG is particularly suited to deal with such situations. Additionally, we discuss why denser sampling in the initial and final parts of the clustered signal may be useful.

     

The effect of osteoporosis on self-report sleep quality in postmenopausal women

We aimed to show the effect of osteoporosis on sleep quality in 59 postmenopausal women. The participants’ bone-mineral density levels were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). According to their DEXA results, participants were divided into two groups as osteoporotics and controls. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate sleep quality. Fourteen osteoporotic women (43.8%) and four controls (14.8%) were “poor” sleepers (p < 0.05). Postmeno-pausal women with osteoporosis scored greater on the “sleep latency” and “sleep duration” components of PSQI than controls. According to the findings of our study, osteoporosis is a risk factor for poor sleep quality in postmenopausal women.

     

A Component of Wheat Flour Globulin Polymerized at Alkaline Sides and Depolymerized by Reduction Reversibly

1. The SDS-disc electrophoretical analysis of wheat flour globulin revealed that upon incubation with “Kansui,” a mixture of alkali carbonates, one (No. 9) of the components disappeared and another component (No. 11) increased significantly whose molecular weight was estimated to be more than one million. Incubation of flour globulin with “Kansui” resulted in decrease of SH groups of the globulin.

2. However, a mild reduction of the globulin incubated with “Kansui” caused reappearance of component No. 9 and a decrease of component No. 11.

3. Previous treatment of flour globulin with PCMB or AN completely inhibited such effects of “Kansui” as described above.

4. A fraction containing component No. 9 of flour globulin which was the main component responsible to polymerization by “Kansui,” was isolated from “Kansui”-treated globulin by chromatography on columns of Sephadex G200 and Sepharose 4B.

5. The component protein thus isolated showed a typical phenomenon of reversibility in depolymerization to the original component corresponding to No. 9 component by chemical reduction and polymerization to a component corresponding to No. 9 at alkaline sides.

     

Time-Lapse Photography in Archaeological Data Recording

Abstract

Archaeologists have made little use of motion picture techniques for basic data records, relying on still photography, notebooks and drawings. Since excavation is a continuous process, and the basic scientific experiment of digging destroys site evidence, it is proposed that simple but non-static techniques of time-lapse photography be used to document the excavation as process and to aid in laboratory “reconstruction” of site evidence.