Interference of manganese removal by biologically-mediated reductive release of manganese from MnO coated filtration media.

Discontinuing application of pre-filter chlorine is a common water treatment plant practice to permit a bioactive filtration process for the removal of soluble Mn. However, soluble Mn desorption has sometimes been observed following cessation of chlorine addition, where filter effluent Mn concentration exceeds the influent Mn concentration. In this paper it is hypothesized that Mn-reducing bacteria present in a biofilm on the filter media may be a factor in this Mn-release phenomenon.

Lafora disease in miniature Wirehaired Dachshunds.

Lafora disease (LD) is an autosomal recessive late onset, progressive myoclonic epilepsy with a high prevalence in the miniature Wirehaired Dachshund. The disease is due to a mutation in the Epm2b gene which results in intracellular accumulation of abnormal glycogen (Lafora bodies). Recent breed-wide testing suggests that the carrier plus affected rate may be as high as 20%.

A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

A new virtual reality task was employed which uses preference for interpersonal distance to social stimuli to examine social motivation and emotion perception in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Nineteen high function children with higher functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD) and 23 age, gender, and IQ matched children with typical development (TD) used a joy stick to position themselves closer or further from virtual avatars while attempting to identify six emotions expressed by the avatars, happiness, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise that were expressed at different levels of intensity. The results indicated that children with HFASD displayed significantly less approach behavior to the positive happy expression than did children with TD, who displayed increases in approach behavior to higher intensities of happy expressions.

Social attention in a virtual public speaking task in higher functioning children with autism.

Impairments in social attention play a major role in autism, but little is known about their role in development after preschool. In this study, a public speaking task was used to study social attention, its moderators, and its association with classroom learning in elementary and secondary students with higher functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Thirty-seven students with HFASD and 54 age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched peers without symptoms of ASD were assessed in a virtual classroom public speaking paradigm.