Background: Cognitively able autistic adults demonstrate low rates of employment due to social and vocational challenges. The current study aimed to examine changes in various areas among autistic young adults who participated in the 'Roim Rachok' ('Looking Ahead' in Hebrew) Training Course (RRTC). The course prepares young autistic adults for integration into military service as vocational soldiers.
Methods: The study included 49 autistic participants who completed the RRTC in one of three vocational fields: Digital ( = 19), Technical ( = 9), and Visual ( = 21). Evaluations at the beginning and end of the course included adaptive behavior (Adaptive Behavior Assessment Scale 2 Edition [ABAS-II]), autism symptom severity (Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd Edition [SRS-II]), and communication skills (Faux Pas; Empathy Quotient [EQ]; Friendship Quality Scale; Conversation task based on Yale Pragmatic Protocol [YiPP]).
Results: The results revealed a significant Time effect for the self-reported ABAS-II conceptual, social, and practical subdomains, EQ empathy quotient subdomain, Faux Pas, and SRS-II social communication interaction scores. Accordingly, participants reported increasing their adaptive skills, emotional empathy, and the ability to detect and interpret awkward statements, and decreased in their social communication interaction symptoms, following the RRTC. No significant Time x Group interaction was found for any of the examined measures, meaning similar trends were observed in all three vocational groups.
Conclusion: Following the RRTC, participants reported significant improvements in areas essential for their future integration as soldiers in the military and as employees in the vocational world. Implications of the study findings are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1392672 | DOI Listing |
J Environ Manage
January 2025
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA; Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA; Department of Health, Society, and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA; Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
This study investigates the complexities faced by emergency managers in wildfire-prone areas to uncover pressing issues and potential solutions. Four themes are discerned through three focus group discussions with emergency managers from nine counties across California. First, there is unequal access to resources for both risk assessment and response, with counties that have fewer resources facing significant challenges in effectively managing wildfire risks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Phys Eng Express
January 2025
Electronics and Communication Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Doimukh, ITANAGAR, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, 791112, INDIA.
Accurate detection of cardiac arrhythmias is crucial for preventing premature deaths. The current study employs a dual-stage Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and a median filter to eliminate noise from ECG signals. Subsequently, ECG signals are segmented, and QRS regions are extracted for further preprocessing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Internet Res
January 2025
Department of Health and Community Sciences, University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Background: The idea of making science more accessible to nonscientists has prompted health researchers to involve patients and the public more actively in their research. This sometimes involves writing a plain language summary (PLS), a short summary intended to make research findings accessible to nonspecialists. However, whether PLSs satisfy the basic requirements of accessible language is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Rev Biomed Eng
January 2025
2Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; email:
Regulation of the brain's neuroimmune system is central to development, normal function, and disease. Neuronal communication to microglia, the primary immune cells of the brain, is well known to involve purinergic signaling mediated via ATP secretion and the cytokine fractalkine. Recent evidence shows that neurons release multiple cytokines beyond fractalkine, yet these are less studied and poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Speech Lang Hear Res
January 2025
Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, China.
Purpose: Speech sound disorder (SSD) is one of the major speech disorders in school-age children. Given the heterogeneity in terms of subtypes within SSD, there is a need to develop techniques for a quick identification of these subtypes. Furthermore, given the paucity of studies from children with SSD from Cantonese-speaking homes and a noted prevalence of SSDs in Cantonese-speaking children, it becomes even more important to investigate the subtypes of SSDs in Cantonese-speaking children.
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