The effect of ambient sounds on decision-making and heart rate variability in autism

Autistic people report difficulties with the demands of a neurotypical world, but little research has assessed the impact of the environment on such difficulties. We investigated the effect of ambient sounds on decision-making and heart rate variability. Adults without intellectual disability were allocated to autistic ( n = 38) or neurotypical ( n = 37) groups matched on age, intellectual functioning and self-reported gender. Participants completed a shopping decision-making task in three randomly ordered sound conditions: no sound, non-social shopping sound (e.g. fridges humming) and social shopping sound (e.g. people talking). Decision-making latency, decision-making consistency, and heart rate variability were measured. Participants also provided qualitative reports of their experiences. Qualitative analyses indicated that autistic participants experienced (1) the non-social and social sound conditions more negatively than the no sound condition and (2) the social sound condition more negatively than neurotypical participants. However, there were no statistically significant differences in decision-making latency, decision-making consistency, or heart rate variability across sound conditions and participant groups. Further research should consider alternative quantitative measures to explore subjective experience to help understand further which aspects of the environment autistic people are sensitive to, in turn, enabling more evidence-based autism-friendly changes to be made. Lay abstract Many autistic people report difficulties making decisions during everyday tasks, such as shopping. To examine the effect of sounds on decision-making, we developed a supermarket task where people watched a film shown from the shopper’s perspective and were asked to make decisions between different products. The task was divided into three sections and participants completed each section in a different auditory environment: (1) no sounds, (2) non-social sounds (e.g. fridges humming) and (3) social sounds (e.g. people talking). Thirty-eight autistic and 37 neurotypical adults took part. We measured decision-making by examining how long it took to make a decision and how consistent people were with their decisions. We also measured heart rate variability because this biological response provides a measure of anxiety. After the supermarket shopping task, participants told us in their own words about their experiences. Autistic participants said that they found the non-social and social sound conditions more difficult than the no sound condition, and autistic participants found the social sound condition more negative than neurotypical participants. However, decision-making and heart rate variability were similar for autistic and neurotypical participants across the sound conditions, suggesting that these measures may not have been sensitive enough to reflect the experiences the autistic participants reported. Further research should consider alternative measures to explore the experiences reported by autistic people to help us understand which specific aspects of the environment autistic people are sensitive to. This, in turn, may enable more specific and evidence-based autism-friendly changes to be made.

Measuring Gamblers’ Behaviour to Show That Negative Sounds Can Reveal the True Nature of Losses Disguised as Wins in Multiline Slot Machines

Losses disguised as wins (LDWs) are slot machine outcomes where players gain fewer credits than they wager. Despite being losses, slot machines celebrate LDWs with positive sounds and animations, leading gamblers to respond to them as wins. It is unknown how manipulating the sound following LDWs may influence gamblers’ behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants played two conditions on a realistic slot machine simulator: a (standard) positive sound condition (LDWs paired with positive sound, losses paired with silence), and a negative sound condition (LDWs and losses paired with negative sound). We measured participants’ behavioural responses [post-reinforcement pauses (PRPs)], win estimates, and subjective experience. In the negative sound condition, participants behaviourally responded to LDWs in a more loss-like and less win-like fashion, as measured by PRPs. Win estimates were reduced, and subjective experience was significantly impacted, but only when the negative sound condition was played second. In Experiment 2, we employed a much more subtle manipulation, pairing only LDWs with negative sound, and observed similar effects. Through these two experiments, we show that pairing LDWs with negative sound is an effective way to modify players’ responses to LDWs, causing them to respond to them more like the losses they are, rather than the wins they seem.

Technical, Regulatory and Economic Measures to Abate Vehicular Emissions in Urban Areas in Indian Context

Air quality emergency in urban communities is mostly because of vehicular emanations. Transportation frameworks are expanding all over the place and the enhancements in innovation are deficient to neutralize development. Transport sections contribute a large offer to natural emissions (around 70 percent). One of these CO pollutants is the considerable emission from the part of the vehicle that contributes 90 percent of the total discharge. Next to CO are hydrocarbons. It is certainly surprising to see that the transport segment's contribution to particulate pollution is as small as 3.5 percent; most of the SPM is created as a result of residual re-suspension from which PM10 is the most visible air poison. NOx is another significant indicator of air quality. Each of these circumstances shows that air contamination is becoming a major issue in the Indian setting and that there is a fundamental need to develop sound condition and increase the level of research around the world. This investigation is a survey of an evaluation model of produced poisons and powerful techniques to reduce air contamination due to street transportation.

Balance and Sound Conditions in Adults with Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Purpose: To determine if (1) balance is impaired in patients with bilateral cochlear implants compared to healthy controls and (2) the presence of sound, non-speech, or speech affects standing balance. Materials and Methods: Four patients with bilateral cochlear implants were tested on three balance conditions on Romberg tests on medium-density compliant foam with eyes closed, with head stationary or moving in yaw or pitch, under 5 sound conditions: no sound, ambient background noise, pink noise, foreign language, English language. Results: Dependent measures were duration of standing and kinematics. Three of four subjects performed well with head still and no sound, background noise, or pink noise. All subjects performed poorly during the head movement conditions when hearing either foreign-language or English words. Subjects could not perform enough head movements during yaw and pitch conditions for accurate kinematic measurements. Conclusion: The no-sound condition did not influence standing balance skills. The addition of ambient or pink noise also did not affect their balance. However, when subjects were distracted by paying attention to words, regardless whether or not they understood the words, standing balance skills deteriorated. Thus, distracted attention in these patients leads to impaired balance, which may impair functional motor skills.

MANAJEMEN LABA DAN KINERJA KEUANGAN PERUSAHAAN PENGAKUISISI SEBELUM DAN SETELAH AKUISISI

The purpose of this study is to obtain empirical evidence of whether the acquirers perform earnings management prior to implementation of the acquisition. This type of research is a comparative study which compares the financial performance before and after the company making acquisitions. Analysis of financial performance is using financial ratios, including profitability, and activity. The results of data analysis shows that there was no indication of earnings management before the acquisitions con -ducted by the acquirer with Increasing income accruals. Furthermore, the company’s financial perfor-mance as measured by the ratio of total asset turnover, net profit margin, returns on assets after the acquisition has a difference in the negative direction. The conclusion is that the acquirers before the acquisition are not convicted of earnings management with increasing income accrual. Acquirer’s fi-nancial performance before and after the acquisitions have a difference, but the condition of the company is in sound condition.

Effects of Focus of Attention on Performance by Second-Year Band Students

This study tested the effect of the motor learning paradigm of internal and external focus of attention (FOA) with middle school band students. A total of 56 second-year band students (woodwinds n = 28; valved brass n = 18; trombones n = 10) practiced isochronous, alternating pitch patterns (e.g., eighth notes C–A–C–A–C–A–C) in three conditions: control (no FOA), internal (“think about your fingers”), and external (“think about your sound”). At retention testing approximately 24 hr later, students played each stimulus three times with no directed FOA. Performance trials were scored for the average duration of each pitch per trial, or evenness. No significant differences were found between conditions (control, internal, external) on Day 1 or Day 2 ( p > .05). Likewise, no significant differences were found within instrument groups from Day 1 to Day 2 ( p > .05). When evenness scores were examined at the level of the individual student, more woodwind and valved brass players benefited from the internal (fingers) FOA than from control or external conditions. Individual differences among trombone players were less pronounced, slightly favoring the external (sound) condition. Music teachers should consider implementing both internal and external FOAs with their beginning wind students.

MANAJEMEN LABA DAN KINERJA KEUANGAN PERUSAHAAN PENGAKUISISI SEBELUM DAN SETELAH AKUISISI

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to obtain empirical evidence of whether the acquirers perform earnings management prior to implementation of the acquisition. This type of research is a comparative study which compares the financial performance before and after the company making acquisitions. Analysis of financial performance is using financial ratios, including profitability, and activity. The results of data analysis shows that there was no indication of earnings management before the acquisitions con-ducted by the acquirer with Increasing income accruals. Furthermore, the company’s financial perfor-mance as measured by the ratio of total asset turnover, net profit margin, returns on assets after the acquisition has a difference in the negative direction. The conclusion is that the acquirers before the acquisition are not convicted of earnings management with increasing income accrual. Acquirer’s fi-nancial performance before and after the acquisitions have a difference, but the condition of the company is in sound condition.

MANAJEMEN LABA DAN KINERJA KEUANGAN PERUSAHAAN PENGAKUISISI SEBELUM DAN SETELAH AKUISISI

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to obtain empirical evidence of whether the acquirers perform earnings management prior to implementation of the acquisition. This type of research is a comparative study which compares the financial performance before and after the company making acquisitions. Analysis of financial performance is using financial ratios, including profitability, and activity. The results of data analysis shows that there was no indication of earnings management before the acquisitions con-ducted by the acquirer with Increasing income accruals. Furthermore, the company’s financial perfor-mance as measured by the ratio of total asset turnover, net profit margin, returns on assets after the acquisition has a difference in the negative direction. The conclusion is that the acquirers before the acquisition are not convicted of earnings management with increasing income accrual. Acquirer’s fi-nancial performance before and after the acquisitions have a difference, but the condition of the company is in sound condition.

Analysing the Impact of Music on the Perception of Red Wine via Temporal Dominance of Sensations

Several studies have examined how music may affect the evaluation of food and drink, but the vast majority have not observed how this interaction unfolds in time. This seems to be quite relevant, since both music and the consumer experience of food/drink are time-varying in nature. In the present study we sought to fix this gap, using Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS), a method developed to record the dominant sensory attribute at any given moment in time, to examine the impact of music on the wine taster’s perception. More specifically, we assessed how the same red wine might be experienced differently when tasters were exposed to various sonic environments (two pieces of music plus a silent control condition). The results revealed diverse patterns of dominant flavours for each sound condition, with significant differences in flavour dominance in each music condition as compared to the silent control condition. Moreover, musical correspondence analysis revealed that differences in perceived dominance of acidity and bitterness in the wine were correlated in the temporality of the experience, with changes in basic auditory attributes. Potential implications for the role of attention in auditory flavour modification and opportunities for future studies are discussed.

Repairing and Recovering Structural Performance of Earthen Walls Used in Japanese Dozo-Style Structures After Seismic Damage

Several traditional building group districts exist in Japan as a system for preserving the remaining historical villages and townscapes of the country, along with their surrounding environment. In the northern Kanto region of Japan, there remain examples of many dozo-style structures called “Dozo-dukuri,” forming a distinctive historical townscape. In the 2011 Tohoku Region Pacific Offshore Earthquake, the traditional townscapes and dozo-style structures of the Kanto region were seriously damaged. When restoring the walls of damaged dozo-style structures to a sound condition, demolishing and reconstructing all the mud requires considerable labor; moreover, few modern artisans can construct mud walls. However, if there was a method that could recover the structural performance of the walls immediately via partial repair, the restoration of the walls could again become economical. Therefore, in this study, we first surveyed the specifications of mud walls in the northern Kanto region. Then, we performed horizontal loading tests on full-scale walls produced according to the survey results to determine the structural performance of walls under a horizontal force, e.g., an earthquake. Further, a test specimen damaged by a horizontal force was repaired, and a horizontal loading test was performed again. The results elucidated the structural performance recoverability obtained by the proposed repair method.