Autism Speaks

The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about its impact on children with developmental delays and disabilities (DDDs). Early research showed diverse trajectories, with some children experiencing worsening challenges while others demonstrated resilience. In our prior study, conducted 3 months into the pandemic, we identified a resilient group associated with higher parenting self-efficacy and easier access to schooling. As the pandemic persisted, children's functioning may have fluctuated. While adults showed varied trajectories 1 year post-pandemic, little is known about longer-term patterns in children with DDDs. Identifying these patterns nearly 2 years later, along with predictors of resilience, is essential for guiding future interventions. To identify patterns of functioning 20 months post-pandemic onset and examine associations with gender, parenting self-efficacy, and access to schooling. As part of the UNICEF-WHO Global Report initiative, we conducted online caregiver surveys across Canada at T1 (June-July 2020) and T2 (November-December 2021). Latent class analysis identified profiles of functioning at T2, and multinomial logistic regression examined associations with T1 predictors. Among 302 respondents, we identified four profiles: Moderate Stability (n = 107): Moderate probability of stability (53%-65%), low worsening (7%-26%), and some improvement (18%-39%).Worsening (n = 80): No improvement and moderate worsening (23%-78%) in mental health, repetitive behaviors, and sleep.Very Stable (n = 42): 100% probability of stability across domains.Mental Health and Sleep Improving (n = 73): Improvement in sensory issues (48%), mental health (57%), and sleep (81%), but worsening in repetitive behavior (68%), daily living (50%), and troubling behavior (45%).Gender, parenting self-efficacy, and access to schooling at T1 significantly predicted profile membership. Girls were more likely to be in favorable profiles. Higher parenting self-efficacy increased the likelihood of belonging to stable or improving profiles. Easier school access at T1 predicted stability or improvement, while difficult access reduced improvement likelihood. Early-pandemic factors-gender, parenting self-efficacy, and school access-significantly predicted resilience in children with DDDs. These factors may serve as intervention targets to promote long-term stability and recovery.

Abstract We report the discovery of cometary activity in the form of a pronounced tail emanating from Near-Earth Object (523822) 2012 DG61, identified in UT 2024 April 18 Dark Energy Camera images by our AI assistant TailNet. TailNet is an AI designed to filter out images unlikely to show activity for volunteers of our NASA Partner “Active Asteroids” Citizen Science campaign, from which our AI is trained. Subsequently, our archival investigation revealed 2012 DG61 is recurrently active after we found it displaying a pronounced tail in a UT 2018 April 16 Steward Observatory Bart Bok 2.3 m telescope image and UT 2018 May 14 observations by G. Borisov with the 0.3 m telescope at MARGO Observatory. Our dynamical integrations reveal that 2012 DG61, an Apollo dynamical class member, is likely in 2:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. We encourage additional observations to help characterize the activity morphology of this near-Earth comet.

Eritrean and Ethiopian immigrant parents of autistic children in the U.S. encounter burdens to access autism interventions. In response to the need for more culturally responsive and accessible interventions, the World Health Organization designed the Caregiver Skills Training (CST) program. Using guidelines informed by the Ecological Validity Framework, we aimed to culturally and contextually adapt CST for Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in the U.S., as well as to build capacity to deliver and sustain the program. To ensure materials were comprehensible, culturally acceptable, relevant, and responsive to the participants’ socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts, we describe our pre-implementation processes to 1) engage key stakeholders; 2) assess implementation barriers and facilitators; 3) adapt CST materials; and 4) build capacity to deliver and sustain CST. This brief article outlines significant lessons learned as a result of our collective efforts: 1) the value ofco-creating interventions with community members; 2) the recognition of the significance of acculturation levels, socioeconomic status, and other factors that can influence program implementation and uptake; 3) the importance of everyday, non-technical language in program materials; and 4) the potential to support program sustainability through provider capacity-building efforts. We hope this information will increase endeavors towards culturally responsive research.

Planets in a room (PIAR) is a DIY kit to build a small, lowcost spherical planet simulator and planetarium projector. Teachers, science communicators that run a small museum or planetarium, planetary scientists, amateur astronomers and other individuals can easily build it and use it on their own, to show and teach the Earth and other planets and to develop and share material with a growing online community. Having started in 2017 with a first version made using 3d-printed technology, PIAR has lately gone green, with a new wooden, plastic-free version of the kit. (http://www.planetsinaroom.net/)The project has been developed by the italian non-profit association Speak Science, with the collaboration of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Roma Tre University, Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica.It was funded by the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme in 2017 and was presented to the scientific community at EPSC and other scientific Congresses in the following years. Today, it is being distributed to an increasing number of schools, science museum and research institutions. PIAR is also one of the projects selected by the Europlanet Society for education and public outreach of planetary science: in 2020, it is being distributed to the 12 Europlanet Regional Hubs all around Europe, to be used in a number of educational projects.In this talk we will review the state of the art of the project presenting a selection of educational material and projects that have been developed for PIAR by scientists, teachers and communicators and that are focused on planetary science and on planetary habitability. AcknowledgementsWe acknowledge for this project the vast community of amateur and professionals that is actively working on innovative educational systems for astronomy such as planetarium and virtual reality projects (both hardware and software). Planets in a room is based on the work of this vast community of people and their experiences and results. We also acknowledge Europlanet for funding this work: the project Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.” ReferencesGiacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., “Planets in a room”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 11, EPSC2017-280, 2017Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets in a Room: a DIY, low-cost educational kit”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-254, 2018Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets on (low-cost) balloons”, EPSC AbstractsVol. 13, EPSC-DPS2019-1243-1, 2019Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S, “(Green) Planets in a Room”, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22153, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22153, 202

La presente investigacion desarrolla una metodologa para la estimacion de las especies monetarias en circulacion (EMC) para el caso de una economa dolarizada como la ecuatoriana.Este enfoque se basa en el coeficiente de preferencia por la liquidez (CPL), el cual se define como la cantidad de dinero en circulacion (latente) sobre los depositos de ahorro y a la vista (observables). Este indicador latente es informado por: (i) las EMC actualmente calculadas por el Banco Central del Ecuador (BCE) bajo la metodologa de Vera (2007); (ii) la cantidad de dinero demandada de acuerdo con las funciones de dinero estructurales estimadas bajo modelos de cointegracion con quiebres estructurales; y (iii) la razon entre los retiros de efectivo y el saldo en depositos de ahorro en los bancos privados. El mecanismo de estimacion se realiza a traves de un modelo estado-espacio con metodos bayesianos, en donde el CPL es una variable latente que se descompone en ciclo y tendencia. Una vez obtenido el CPL como variable latente, se utilizan los depositos de ahorro y a la vista para obtener las EMC. Los resultados muestran que las EMC reportadas por el BCE son superiores a las obtenidas en esta investigacion. Dentro de los factores que podran explicar este resultado, se encuentran las salidas netas de efectivo por fronteras, cambios en la legislacion tributaria y en el Codigo Organico Monetario y Financiero anterior al ano 2020 que permita las inversiones domesticas por parte del BCE en ttulos de deuda del Gobierno Central.

Significant barriers to training have been introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting in-person professional activities resulting in the development of the novel remote training. We developed and evaluated a remote training approach for master trainers of the Caregiver Skills Training Program. Master trainers support community practitioners, who in turn deliver the Caregiver Skills Training program to caregivers of children with developmental delays or disabilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the remote training of master trainers on Caregiver Skills Training Program. Twelve out of the 19 practitioners who enrolled in the training completed the study. The training consisted of a 5-day in-person session completed prior to the pandemic, followed by supporting participants’ ability to identify Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies through supported coding of seven video recordings over 7 weekly meetings and group discussions and ended with participants independently coding a set of 10 videos for Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies. We found that master trainers’ scoring reliability varied over 7 weeks of supported coding. All but one participant reached moderate or good independent scoring reliability despite a lack of ability to practice the Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies with children due to the pandemic. Taken together, our findings illustrate the feasibility and value of remote training approaches in implementing interventions.Lay The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted in-person professional activities. We developed and evaluated a remote training approach for master trainers of the Caregiver Skills Training Program. Master trainers support community practitioners, who in turn deliver the Caregiver Skills Training Program to caregivers of children with developmental delays or disabilities. The Caregiver Skills Training Program teaches caregivers how to use strategies to enhance learning and interactions during everyday play and home activities and routines with their child. The aim of this study was to evaluate the remote training of master trainers on Caregiver Skills Training Program. Twelve out of the 19 practitioners who enrolled in the training completed the study. The training consisted of a 5-day in-person session completed prior to the pandemic, followed by supporting participants’ ability to identify Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies through coding of video recordings over 7 weekly meetings and group discussions and ended with participants independently coding a set of 10 videos for Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies. We found all but one participant was able to reliably identify Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies from video recordings despite a lack of ability to practice the Caregiver Skills Training Program strategies with children due to the pandemic. Taken together, our findings illustrate the feasibility and value of remote training approaches in implementing interventions.

Patrice and Coco are the creators and performers of the spoken word piece "Willful Defiance," produced in association with the book Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline, authored by Mark Warren. In this interview, Patrice and Coco discuss the role of spoken word and the arts in empowering young people, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and partnering with community-engaged scholarship to engage participants in building a movement for educational justice. this interview that the lines that are often drawn between organizing, artistic Expressions in Urban Educationression and research are false; rather in the hands of organizers like Patrice and Coco, they form an integrated whole, driven by a passion for children and for justice.

En este artículo se pretende justificar un análisis pragmalingüístico de dos cartas importantes en la historia de Sudamérica y de Ecuador: La Carta de Jamaica, escrita en 1815 por Simón Bolívar, y La Carta de Juan Montalvo a Gabriel García Moreno, (GGM, en adelante), escrita en 1860. La pragmalingüística se rige por los factores extralingüísticos que condicionan el uso del lenguaje, esto es, todos aquellos factores a los que no se hace referencia en un estudio puramente formal. Por factores extralingüísticos, entiéndase el contexto histórico y las circunstancias individuales que rodean a los autores de ambos documentos. Asimismo, se intentará ilustrar similitudes discursivas entre ambos documentos. Si bien se puede considerar que son cartas con intenciones distintas, se tratará de encontrar paralelismos tanto en lo ilocutivo como en lo perlocutivo, pues ambas misivas constituyen actos de habla valiosísimos.
 Palabras clave: pragmalingüística, locutivo, perlocutivo, Bolívar, Montalvo.