“Avatar to Person” (ATP) Virtual Human Social Ability Enhanced System for Disabled People

How to make communication more effective has been underlined unprecedentedly in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Nowadays, with the improvement of affective computing and big data, people have generally adapted to construct social networks relying on social robots and smartphones. Although the technologies above have been widely discussed and used, researches on disabled people in the social field are still very limited. In particular, facial disabled people, deaf-mutes, and autistic patients are still meeting great difficulty when interacting with strangers using online video technology. This project creates a virtual human social system called “Avatar to Person” (ATP) based on artificial intelligence and three-dimensional (3D) simulation technology, with which disabled people can complete tasks such as “virtual face repair” and “simulated voice generation,” in order to conduct face-to-face video communication freely and confidently. The system has been proven effective in the enhancement of the sense of online social participation for people with disabilities through user tests. ATP is certain to be a unique area of inquiry and design for disabled people that is categorically different from other types of human-robot interaction.

An Agent-Based Model-Driven Decision Support System for Assessment of Agricultural Vulnerability of Sugarcane Facing Climatic Change

In recent years, there have been significant changes in weather patterns, mainly caused by sharp increases in temperature, increases in carbon dioxide, and fluctuations in precipitation levels, negatively impacting agricultural production. Agricultural systems are characterized by being vulnerable to the variation of biophysical and socioeconomic factors involved in the development of agricultural activities. Agent-based models (ABMs) enable the study, analysis, and management of ecosystems through their ability to represent networks and their spatial nature. In this research, an ABM is developed to evaluate the behavior and determine the vulnerability in the sugarcane agricultural system; allowing the capitalization of knowledge through characteristics such as social ability and autonomy of the modeled agents through fuzzy logic and system dynamics. The methodology used includes information networks for a dynamic assessment of agricultural risk modeled by time series, system dynamics, uncertain parameters, and experience; which are developed in three stages: vulnerability indicators, crop vulnerability, and total system vulnerability. The development of ABM, a greater impact on the environmental contingency is noted due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and the exponential increase in extreme meteorological phenomena threatening the cultivation of sugarcane, making the agricultural sector more vulnerable and reducing the yield of the harvest.

Deceptive behaviour in autism: A scoping review

The ability to deceive is a key milestone in social cognitive development for typically developing individuals. In this scoping review, we systematically searched the literature to summarise research on deceptive behaviour in autism and identify gaps in knowledge. Across the 28 studies identified, three main themes were synthesised, with seven subthemes: (1) Deception ability and prevalence (1a) gameplay deception; (1b) naturalistic deception; (2) Psychological correlates of deception (2a) verbal, intellectual and social ability; (2b) theory of mind (ToM) behaviours; (2c) executive function; and (3) Social learning (3a) training; (3b) social contexts. The findings challenge common stereotypes, showing that autistic individuals can and do engage in deception. However, many do so less frequently and less adeptly than typically developing individuals. Emerging evidence also suggests that autistic individuals (without co-occurring intellectual disability) may use compensatory strategies when engaging in deception, and that more skilled deceptive behaviour may arise later in life. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Lay abstract The ability to deceive others is an important skill that usually develops in early childhood. In this review, we give an overview of studies that have examined deceptive behaviour in autistic children, adolescents and adults. We separated the study findings into three main categories and seven sub-categories: (1) Deception ability and prevalence (1a) gameplay deception; (1b) naturalistic deception; (2) Psychological processes in deception (2a) verbal, intellectual and social ability; (2b) ability to understand others’ thoughts and beliefs; (2c) cognitive ability; and (3) Social learning (3a) training; (3b) social contexts. Contrary to some stereotypes, we found that autistic people can and do deceive but often find this more difficult than non-autistic people. We also found that autistic people may use different psychological processes than non-autistic people when deceiving and may get better at deception in adulthood.

Research on the Strategy of Effectively Carrying out Hotel Management Vocational Education from the Perspective of School-enterprise Combination

Over the past years, the educational pattern of vocational colleges and the top priority in education are undergoing substantial and qualitative transformations with incremental deepening of reform of China's vocational education. The new educational concept of vocational colleges is to upgrade and transform into the educational pattern of "Teachers with the Teaching Capability both in Teaching and Theory" based on the combination of school and enterprise, so the educational pattern of the combination of colleges and enterprises has become a significant feature of the transformation of vocational education. At present, enterprises have been deeply involved in the daily teaching planning of vocational colleges, which not only pay attention to the subject status of students, but also render practical teaching as the teaching focus, so as to give constructive suggestions for improving students' professional skills and social ability. The purpose of this paper is to expound the strategies of effective development of hotel management vocational education from the perspective of school-enterprise integration.

Learning Civil Courage: A Citizens’ Perspective

Civil courage refers to the behavior where people actively intervene to protect a victim in a concrete situation of injustice despite the risk of becoming a victim themselves. To act with civil courage, one requires competencies that relate to prosocial values as well as the physical and social ability to act. In this context, this brief reports the opinions of 2,046 respondents—representatives of Germany with respect to age, gender, and region—on what, according to them, are the best contexts for learning civil courage. “At home and/or from family” as well as “through volunteering” are considered the most suitable contexts to learn civil courage. In contrast, television, social media, and the internet are considered the least supportive contexts.

Social-like responses are inducible in asocial Mexican cavefish despite the exhibition of strong repetitive behavior

Social behavior is a hallmark of complex animal systems; however, some species appear to have secondarily lost this social ability. In these non-social species, whether social abilities are permanently lost or suppressed is unclear. The blind cavefish Astyanax mexicanus is known to be asocial. Here, we reveal that cavefish exhibited social-like interactions in familiar environments but suppressed these interactions in stress-associated unfamiliar environments. Furthermore, the level of suppression in sociality was positively correlated with that of stereotypic repetitive behavior, as seen in mammals. Treatment with a human antipsychotic drug targeting the dopaminergic system induced social-like interactions in cavefish, even in unfamiliar environments, while reducing repetitive behavior. Overall, these results suggest that the antagonistic association between repetitive and social-like behaviors is deeply shared from teleosts through mammals.

The Ventrolateral Anterior Temporal Lobe is Commonly Engaged by Both Mental State Inference and Semantic Association Tasks

A key challenge for neurobiological models of social cognition is to elucidate whether brain regions are specialised for that domain. In recent years, discussion surrounding the role of the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) epitomises such debates; some argue it is part of a domain-specific network for social processing, while others claim it is a domain-general hub for semantic representation. In the present study, we used ATL-optimised fMRI to map the contribution of different ATL structures to a variety of paradigms frequently used to probe a crucial social ability, namely ‘theory of mind’ (ToM). Using multiple tasks enables a clearer attribution of activation to ToM as opposed to idiosyncratic features of stimuli. Further, we directly explored whether these same structures are also activated by a non-social task probing semantic representations. We revealed that common to all of the tasks was activation of a key ventrolateral ATL region that is typically invisible to standard fMRI. This constitutes novel evidence in support of the view that the ventrolateral ATL contributes to social cognition via a domain-general role in the retrieval of conceptual knowledge, and against claims of a specialised social function.

Supplemental bifid triple viable capsule treatment improves inflammatory response and T cell frequency in ulcerative colitis patients

Background Ulcerative colitis is a common non-specific chronic disease. Supplementing probiotics has become an important method for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. This study aimed to explore the effect of supplementing bifid triple viable capsules on background mesalazine plus somatostatin on plasma inflammatory factors and T cell frequency in ulcerative colitis patients. Methods A total of 130 ulcerative colitis patients admitted to our hospital from August 2018 to March 2020 were included and divided into the experimental group (65 patients with mesalazine plus somatostatin and bifid triple viable capsules for treatment) and the control group (65 patients treated with mesalazine plus somatostatin) using the random number table method. Bifid triple viable bacteria capsules were given orally, 420 mg each time, with 3 times a day for 2 months. Results Before treatment, the plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, hs-CRP, TNF-α, D-lactic acid, and endotoxin (ET), CD4+, CD8+, CD4/CD8 ratio, diamine oxidase (DA0), emotional ability, social ability, intestinal and systemic symptoms were not significantly different between the two groups (all P > 0.05). After treatment, the plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, hs-CRP, and TNF-α decreased in both groups, and were lower in the experimental group than those in the control group (all P < 0.05). The levels of CD4+ and CD4/CD8 ratio increased, and were higher in the experimental group than those in the control group (P < 0.05); the CD8+ levels were reduced, and were lower in the experimental group than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The plasma D-lactic acid, ET, and DA0 levels were decreased, and were lower in the experimental group than those in the control group; emotional ability, social ability, intestinal and systemic symptoms were improved, and were higher in the experimental group than those in the control group (all P < 0.05). During the course of treatment, 2 cases of abdominal discomfort and 1 case of rash occurred in the experimental group, with an adverse event rate of 4.62% (3/65); 3 cases of abdominal discomfort and 2 cases of rash occurred in the control group, with an adverse event rate of 7.69% (5/65). Conclusion The supplementary treatment of bifid triple viable capsules can effectively enhance the curative effect in ulcerative colitis patients, reduce plasma inflammatory factors, and regulate T cell frequency, which is worthy of clinical application.

Making Sense of Resilience

While resilience is a major concept in development, climate adaptation, and related domains, many doubts remain about how to interpret this term, its relationship with closely overlapping terms, or its normativity. One major view is that, while resilience originally was a descriptive concept denoting some adaptive property of ecosystems, subsequent applications to social contexts distorted its meaning and purpose by framing it as a transformative and normative quality. This article advances an alternative philosophical account based on the scrutiny of C.S. Holling’s original work on resilience. We show that resilience had a central role among Holling’s proposals for reforming environmental science and management, and that Holling framed resilience as an ecosystem’s capacity of absorbing change and exploiting it for adapting or evolving, but also as the social ability of maintaining and opportunistically exploiting that natural capacity. Resilience therefore appears as a transformative social-ecological property that is normative in three ways: as an intrinsic ecological value, as a virtue of organizations or management styles, and as a virtuous understanding of human–nature relations. This interpretation accounts for the practical relevance of resilience, clarifies the relations between resilience and related terms, and is a firm ground for further normative work on resilience.

Genetic Findings as the Potential Basis of Personalized Pharmacotherapy in Phelan-McDermid Syndrome

Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a genetic disorder often characterized by autism or autistic-like behavior. Most cases are associated with haploinsufficiency of the SHANK3 gene resulting from deletion of the gene at 22q13.3 or from a pathogenic variant in the gene. Treatment of PMS often targets SHANK3, yet deletion size varies from < 50kb to > 9Mb, potentially encompassing dozens of genes and disrupting regulatory elements altering gene expression, inferring the potential for multiple therapeutic targets. Repurposed drugs have been used in clinical trials investigating therapies for PMS: insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) for its effect on social and aberrant behaviors, intranasal insulin for improvements in cognitive and social ability, and lithium for reversing regression and stabilizing behavior. The pharmacogenomics of PMS is complicated by the CYP2D6 enzyme which metabolizes antidepressants and antipsychotics often used for treatment. The gene coding for CYP2D6 maps to 22q13.2 and is lost in individuals with deletions larger than 8Mb. Because PMS has diverse neurological and medical symptoms, many concurrent medications may be prescribed, increasing the risk for adverse drug reactions. At present, there is no single best treatment for PMS. Approaches to therapy are necessarily complex and must target variable behavioral and physical symptoms of PMS.