Musashino Gakuin University

Recently, a series of studies demonstrated false belief understanding in young children through completely nonverbal measures. These studies have revealed that children younger than 3 years of age, who consistently fail the standard verbal false belief test, can anticipate others' actions based on their attributed false beliefs. The current study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who are known to have difficulties in the verbal false belief test, may also show such action anticipation in a nonverbal false belief test. We presented video stimuli of an actor watching an object being hidden in a box. The object was then displaced while the actor was looking away. We recorded children's eye movements and coded whether they spontaneously anticipated the actor's subsequent behavior, which could only have been predicted if they had attributed a false belief to her. Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASD failed to show such action anticipation. The results suggest that children with ASD have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability.

Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas children with ASD (n = 16) were equally fast in detecting changes in faces and objects. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 (n = 16 in children with ASD and 22 in typically developing children), which does not require face recognition skill. Results suggest that children with ASD lack an attentional bias toward others' faces, which could contribute to their atypical social orienting.

Two experiments investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) integrate relevant communicative signals, such as gaze direction, when decoding a facial expression. In Experiment 1, typically developing children (9-14 years old; n = 14) were faster at detecting a facial expression accompanying a gaze direction with a congruent motivational tendency (i.e., an avoidant facial expression with averted eye gaze) than those with an incongruent motivational tendency. Children with ASD (9-14 years old; n = 14) were not affected by the gaze direction of facial stimuli. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, which presented only the eye region of the face to typically developing children (n = 10) and children with ASD (n = 10). These results demonstrated that children with ASD do not encode and/or integrate multiple communicative signals based on their affective or motivational tendency.

We present the results of a seismic refraction experiment that constrains crustal structure and thickness along 225 km of the Kolbeinsey Ridge and Tjörnes Fracture Zone and thus quantifies the influence of the Iceland hot spot on melt flux at the spreading center north of Iceland. North of the Iceland shelf, crustal thickness is relatively constant over 75 km, 9.4 ± 0.2 km. Along the southern portion of the Kolbeinsey Ridge, on the Iceland shelf, crustal thickness increases from 9.5 ± 0.1 km to 12.1 ± 0.4 km over 90 km. Gravity inversion indicates a residual crustal gravity anomaly that decreases by about 30–40 mGal toward Iceland. We infer that the variations in crustal thickness and gravity are accompanied by mantle temperature changes of 40° to 50°C. At similar distances from the Iceland hot spot, crustal thickness along the Kolbeinsey Ridge is 2–2.5 km less than at the Reykjanes Ridge, consistent with the asymmetry in plume‐ridge interaction that has been inferred from the axial depth and geochemistry of these ridges. Average lower crustal velocities are also higher along the Kolbeinsey Ridge, consistent with a lower degree of active upwelling than along the Reykjanes Ridge. Topography and crustal thickness patterns at the spreading centers around Iceland are consistent with isostatic support for normal crustal and mantle densities. However, we infer that the lower crust beneath central Iceland is considerably denser than that beneath the adjacent ridges. Crustal thickness and geochemical patterns suggest that deep melting is spatially limited and asymmetric about Iceland while shallow melting is enhanced over a broad region. This asymmetry may be due to a mantle plume that is tilted from south to north in the upper mantle and preferentially melts deeper enriched material beneath the Reykjanes Ridge.

Eye contact plays an essential role in social interaction. Atypical eye contact is a diagnostic and widely reported feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we determined whether altered unconscious visual processing of eye contact might underlie atypical eye contact in ASD. Using continuous flash suppression (CFS), we found that typically developing (TD) adolescents detected faces with a direct gaze faster than faces with an averted gaze, indicating enhanced unconscious processing of eye contact. Critically, adolescents with ASD did not show different durations of perceptual suppression for faces with direct and averted gaze, suggesting that preferential unconscious processing of eye contact is absent in this group. In contrast, in a non-CFS control experiment, both adolescents with ASD and TD adolescents detected faces with a direct gaze faster than those with an averted gaze. Another CFS experiment confirmed that unconscious processing of non-social stimuli is intact for adolescents with ASD. These results suggest that atypical processing of eye contact in individuals with ASD could be related to a weaker initial, unconscious registration of eye contact.

Social difficulties of autistic individuals have been suggested to be caused by mind blindness, the absence of a theory of mind. Numerous studies have investigated theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder or how autistic individuals represent the mental states of others. Here, we have examined, as an alternative, mind perception, namely how individuals perceive the minds of various animate and inanimate entities. Autistic and non-autistic participants demonstrated evidence of a similar two-dimensional mind perception; agency, capacity for doing (i.e., self-control, memory, plan), and experience, capacity for feeling (i.e., fear, hunger, pain). Some targets (e.g., human infant and dog) were perceived to have low agency but high experience, while others (e.g., robot and God) were perceived to have the reverse pattern. Moreover, in both autistic and non-autistic groups, the attribution of moral blame positively correlated with agency, whereas moral consideration positively correlated with experience. These results offer new evidence of social cognition, particularly conception of mind and morality, in autism. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1239-1244. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: We found that autistic and non-autistic individuals have similar thoughts regarding the minds of various living and nonliving entities. In addition, both groups gave moral consideration or blamed entities for wrongdoing according to their conception of the minds of those entities. Autistic individuals have this mind-based moral sense, which is a pivotal element with a key role in human society.

OBJECTIVES: Although nivolumab plus ipilimumab has become a standard treatment regimen for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), its efficacy in non-clear cell carcinoma (nccRCC) has not been fully examined. In the current study, we evaluated the clinical outcomes of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in nccRCC compared with ccRCC. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 22 patients with metastatic and/or locally advanced unresectable nccRCC who received nivolumab plus ipilimumab as a first-line therapy and compared them with 107 patients with ccRCC. Objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicity were compared between the nccRCC and ccRCC groups. RESULTS: The histology of nccRCC included eight papillary, six unclassified, three chromophobe, two collecting duct carcinoma, and three other subtypes. Best objective response in nccRCC patients included three complete responses and five partial responses, resulting in an ORR of 36%, while that in ccRCC patients was 50% (p = 0.22). With a median follow-up of 11.9 months, OS was significantly shorter in patients with nccRCC than in those with ccRCC (median 20.8 months vs. not reached, p = 0.04), while there was no significant difference in PFS (median 6.3 vs. 10.8 months, p = 0.21). Treatment-related adverse events occurred in 14 (64%) nccRCC patients and 81 (76%) ccRCC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Combination treatment with nivolumab and ipilimumab demonstrated modest clinical efficacy in patients with nccRCC compared with patients with ccRCC, suggesting it could be a therapeutic option for metastatic nccRCC patients.

In an information-oriented society, the security of information related assets in organizations is one of chief concerns and the importance of security evaluation system to grasp their security level is increasing. We also consider that the magnitude of risk to information assets is highly dependent on the scales, forms, treat etc. of the organization, and should be evaluated by reflecting these characteristics. Standing on this concept, we adopted OCTAVESM as the basic information system and already proposed two fuzzy-based methods integrated in it. One is to determine the set of critical assets using fuzzy decision making methodology by multi-participants. The other is to calculate the degree of risks along with the given threat path as a crisp value using fuzzy inference mechanism and so on. In this paper, we propose a system for selecting some mitigation controls considered to be more effective than others as an application of fuzzy outranking.

The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for measuring coping with job stressors. Stress process and coping function provide the theoretical framework. Coping is conceptualized as situation-specific behavior. We measure episodic coping, that is, the strategies that individuals actually use in coping with a particular situation. First, a preliminary scale, was prepared. It contained 39 coping behaviors with job stressor which were based on an open-ended pilot study. Next, factor analysis was conducted in order to identify the structure of the scale. Subjects of this study were 649 male employees and 91 female employees of a in manufacturing firm and research and development institute. By occupation they were comprised of 383 professionals, 99 technicians, 96 clerks, 104 miscellaneous workers and 58 of unknown occupation. Seven items in the preliminary scale were omitted because of their psychometrical properties. Finally, factor analysis showed three factors in the scale: positive action and cognition (11 items), avoidant action and cognition (10 items), and symptom management (11 items). The coping scale showed high conceptual validity and reliability.

AIMS: The aim of the present study was to verify the comorbidity of conduct disorder (CD) and behavioral/developmental disorders in children and adolescents, and to examine the traits of CD comorbid with them. METHODS: Subjects were 64 children (60 boys, four girls) who were resident at three institutions for delinquent children or who were conduct-disordered outpatients of a university hospital aged under 18 years. A diagnostic interview was carried out by experienced child psychiatrists and the intelligence score and the Adverse Childhood Experiences score were measured by a licensed psychologist. RESULTS: A total of 57 children were diagnosed as having CD, of whom 26 (45.6%) were diagnosed with comorbid attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 12 were diagnosed with comorbid pervasive developmental disorder (PDD, 21,1%), and 19 (33.3%) had no comorbidity of either disorder. Six children (18.8% of CD comorbid with ADHD) met the criteria for both ADHD and PDD. The group with comorbid PDD was significantly younger at onset (F = 6.51, P = 0.003) and included unsocialized type more frequently (chi(2) = 6.66, P = 0.036) compared with the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should be aware that not only ADHD but also PDD may be comorbid with CD. Establishment of the correct diagnosis is important because recognizing the presence of PDD will enable us to provide appropriate treatment and guidance, which may improve prognosis.

It has been implied that primates have an ability to categorize social behaviors between other individuals for the execution of adequate social-interactions. Since the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is involved in both the categorization and the processing of social information, the primate LPFC may be involved in the categorization of social behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we examined neuronal activity in the LPFC of monkeys during presentations of two types of movies of social behaviors (grooming, mounting) and movies of plural monkeys without any eye- or body-contacts between them (no-contacts movies). Although the monkeys were not required to categorize and discriminate the movies in this task, a subset of neurons sampled from the LPFC showed a significantly different activity during the presentation of a specific type of social behaviors in comparison with the others. These neurons categorized social behaviors at the population level and, at the individual neuron level, the majority of the neurons discriminated each movie within the same category of social behaviors. Our findings suggest that a fraction of LPFC neurons process categorical and discriminative information of social behaviors, thereby contributing to the adaptation to social environments.

The size and regulation of personal space are reportedly atypical in autistic individuals. As personal space regulates social interaction, its developmental change is essential for understanding the nature of social difficulties that autistic individuals face. Adolescence is an important developmental period in which social relationships become complex. We conducted a three-year longitudinal study of interpersonal distances in autistic and typically developing (TD) individuals aged 12-18 years at Time 1 and 15-21 years at Time 2. Their preferred interpersonal distances were measured when an experimenter approached the participants with and without eye contact. The interpersonal distances of autistic individuals were shorter than those of TD individuals at both Time 1 and Time 2. Furthermore, the interpersonal distances of autistic individuals at Time 1 and Time 2 were highly correlated, but no such correlation was found in TD individuals. The results suggest that the interpersonal distances of autistic individuals are stable and that the shorter preferred interpersonal distances in autistic individuals compared to those of TD individuals are maintained during adolescence.

Organic solvent inhalation is a serious problem among youths in Japan. It induces physical and mental disorders, and is related closely to crime and delinquency. The relationship between solvent inhalation and antisocial behavior was investigated in 75 youths. The subjects were divided into three groups according to the level of violent behavior and the time of appearance: a non-violent group, a late-onset group (violence occurred after the start of inhalation) and an early-onset group (violence had occurred before the start of inhalation). Various parameters were compared among the groups. The late-onset group showed the following characteristics; (i) the frequency of inhalation was high, and many subjects experienced hallucinations and mood changes caused by inhalation; (ii) the family environment was characterized by conflict; and (iii) the subjects had strong psychological conflicts and showed dissociative coping with frustration. The violence, psychological conflict and dissociation in this group were found to be related to the inhalation, with familial conflict as a background. The violence in the early-onset group was considered to be the manifestation of a violent personality as the frequency of inhalation and the incidence of mental symptoms were both low. The subjects in this group showed weak psychological conflict and tended to be demanding of others when attempting to cope with frustration. Two types of violent behaviors in the teenagers who inhaled solvents were identified. The violence of solvent inhalers should be managed according to the type.

A number of studies have reported diminished attention to the eyes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These studies predominantly used static images of faces as stimuli. Recent studies, however, have shown enhanced response to eye contact in typically developing (TD) individuals when they observe a person in a live interaction. We investigated physiological orienting to perceived eye contact in adolescents with ASD and TD adolescents when they observed a person in live interaction or viewed a photograph of the same person's face. We measured heart rate (HR) deceleration as an index of attentional orienting. Adolescents with ASD, as well as TD adolescents, showed significant HR deceleration for the direct gaze compared to an averted gaze in the live condition, but not in the photographic condition. The results suggest an intact response to perceived eye contact in individuals with ASD during a live face-to-face interaction. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a different eye gaze pattern when observing photographic faces. However, little is known about how individuals with ASD process a real person's face. We measured heart rate (HR) and found that adolescents with ASD showed the typical decline in HR when they made eye contact with a real person, which suggests that both groups of individuals directed their attention to eye contact in a live face-to-face interaction.

In Japanese higher educational institutions as in universities, many studies and practices on e-learning have been reported, but the state of trial and errors are still continuing. Thus, we propose the construction of an e-learning system incorporating not only with learner's consciousness but also with their learning style. Our proposing system is consistent of three individual parts and one integration phase. The first part is composed of tools, methods, and facilities used to provide the e-learning environment. The second part is composed of theoretical or practical works on learning styles. The third part is composed of learner’s consciousness factors on information security which we have studied so far. In the integration phase, the components of e-learning discussed in the first part are evaluated from learning style related psychological aspects. In the paper, we propose a trial version of e-learning system which includes several types of content with proper links to information security factors and to learning styles.

The current study investigated speech perception in children with ASD by directly comparing discrimination accuracy of phonemic contrasts in the native and non-native languages. The effect of speaker variability on phoneme perception was also examined. We also explored the relation between language impairment and accuracy in phoneme discrimination in children with ASD. Significant differences in performance were found between the ASD and TD groups on discrimination of the native phonemic contrasts. By contrast, no difference was found between the two groups on discrimination of the non-native phonemic contrasts. Further subgroup analysis revealed that the ALN group (ASD without language delay or impairment) showed significantly higher discrimination accuracy for the native syllable contrasts than the non-native counterpart. No significant difference was found in the discrimination accuracy between the native and non-native phonemic contrasts in the ALD group (ASD with language delay or impairment). The effect of speaker viability on phoneme discrimination was observed in the TD group but not in the ASD subgroups. Nonverbal reasoning ability was highly related to discrimination accuracy of both the native and non-native phonemic contrasts in children with ASD. The results of the present study suggest that speech perception in children with ASD is not as attuned to their native language as in their TD peers. Our findings also indicate that language delay or impairment is related to difficulty in perception of native phonemes in children with ASD.

The e-learning system become one of main important tool in current educations, and several types of systems are proposed or developed on commercial or non-commercial base. Some of them are still remained at the level of only displaying materials and giving tests on them. There are off course some user oriented systems proposed by researchers where learners' skill or educational experiences are considered then personalized curriculum is proposed. In this paper, we consider user's consciousness and characteristic base e-learning system outline of which we have already proposed from motivation and skill perspectives by referring some learning or studying system theories.

[English] This working paper presents the cosmological extension of WDN (Weighted Distributed Network) theory, proposing that the universe emerges from life rather than preceding it. Building on over 20 years of observations on the symmetry-breaking dynamics of life, this document records the construction of a life-centric cosmology in which the primordial WDN field gives rise to life, which in turn generates spacetime through the act of differentiation (cutting out). Key concepts include: the primordial WDN field as the pre-cosmic relational ground, life as the decoherence engine that utilizes noise as a driving force, the rendering ontology in which life implements spacetime as an interface, and the emergence hierarchy from LUCA to human consciousness. This paper is positioned as a cosmological counterpart to the WDN Theory of Language (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19539778), forming part of a broader series of papers developing this theoretical framework. This is a draft record; the completed version will be published in this record after further development. [日本語] 本稿は、WDN(重み付き分散ネットワーク)理論を宇宙論的に拡張し、「宇宙が生命に先行するのではなく、生命から宇宙が生成される」という命題を提示するワーキングペーパーである。 20年以上にわたる生命の対称性運動の観察を基盤に、原初WDN場から生命が生じ、生命が切り出しの運動を通じて時空を生成する、生命起源の宇宙論を構想として記録する。 主要概念:原初WDN場(宇宙以前の関係的基底)、デコヒーレンス・エンジンとしての生命(ノイズを駆動力として利用する機構)、レンダリング・オンソロジー(生命が時空をインターフェースとして実装する)、LUCAから人間意識までの創発階層。 本稿は、WDN言語論(DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19539778)と対をなす宇宙論的拡張であり、本理論的枠組みを展開する論文系列の一部として位置づけられる。 本稿はドラフト記録であり、完成版は今後の発展を経て本レコードに更新される予定である。

新型コロナウイルス感染症が中国の武漢で突然爆発的に蔓延した現象は世界の人々へ大きな驚きと衝撃を与えた．医療現場では，確実な治療法や治療薬も無い局面にどう対応すべきか混乱し，確かな効果を求める切迫した願いも強くなった．そのような状況下，漢方薬の出番があり，自然植物由来の「三薬三方」（3 つの薬と3 つの方剤の意）すなわち，金花清感顆粒，連花清瘟カプセル，血必浄注射液と宣肺敗毒湯，清肺排毒湯，化湿敗毒方の作用と効果がCOVID-19 感染症の現場から報告されたので紹介する．「三薬三方」は，植物由来成分の潜在力を総合的に利用し，人体自身の自己治癒力と免疫系の賦活，障害要因に対する抵抗力強化を可能にするものである．新型コロナウイルス感染症の現場から報告されている「三薬三方」の様々な効果は単一成分によって発揮されているのではないことは明白である．作用機序，原料，処方，加工法，効果，安全性の向上など更なる研究が必要である．

Abstract Reproduction Number (RN-)EXCEL Model has been developed on an EXCEL sheet to provide important characteristics of COVID-19 infectious disease for practical use. The model is developed based only on observed data to predict future infection toward herd immunity threshold and until the end stage of the infection. Basic equations are simple and constructed in analogy with neutron multiplication reactions in nuclear reactor. To know the next day infection, we calculate an exponential increase in one day step with a rate obtained from nearby PCR positive infectious numbers, which are daily input in the EXCEL sheet. In a closed community, main players are non-immune holders and immune holders, where total number of immune holders derived from infection and vaccination plays an essential role. In traditional SIR model, infection behavior is characterized by the reproduction rate in differential equation where social actions such as governmental regulations or vaccinations are included as constant breaking term for infection spread. However, in actual situation these terms are time dependent and is difficult to solve by a set of differential equations. In contrast, RN-EXCEL model deals with infection by defining successive reproduction number for each time interval as inchworm that represents a clear physical picture of the virus infectivity. Using this model, a lot of predictions were made for semi-closed communities domestically and world-wide, timely for practical use.