ASTRONOMY WITHOUT BORDERS: PLANETARIO ACCESIBLE

Introduction Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) comprise a complex and diffuse set of behaviors which are essential for diagnosis, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical manual (DSM IV). Before the age of three years, the child will show delayed, or abnormal, functioning in social interaction, in language used in social communication, and in imaginative or symbolic play. The current article focuses mainly on the second of these deficits, that is an impairment in communication, although, of necessity, such an impairment will also involve the first of these problems (i.e. abnormal social interaction), as it is difficult to conceive of a problem in one of these areas that does not impact on the other. Moreover, the two processes, language and social interaction are intimately related to one another. In terms of impaired communication in those with ASC, this is indicated by one or more of the following behaviors (see DSM IV): (a) delayed or absent development of spoken language for which the patient doesn't try to compensate with gestures; (b) in person's who can speak, inadequate attempts to begin or sustain a conversation; (c) language that is repetitive, stereotyped or idiosyncratic; and (d) appropriate to developmental stage, absence of social imitative play or spontaneous, make believe play. A few children with ASC do not acquire speech at all. By the age of one year, most children can use simple one-syllable words, but about 50% of children with ASC cannot (Seligman et al., 2001). Those children with ASC who do acquire spoken language, often use language in unusual ways, for example, they may not combine words into meaningful sentences (Yapko, 2003), they may make high pitched sounds, or display echolalia, which is repeating a certain sentence, or word, over a period of time, is common in children with ASC (Yule & Rutter, 1987). For children with ASC who do acquire verbal skills, notably those who may display Asperger's syndrome, language can be 'overly' grammatical, and lacking in colloquialisms. For example, children with ASC tend to reverse the pronouns I and You, and tend to refer to themselves by their name (Lee, Hobson, & Chiat, 1994). While most normal children often misuse the 'ing' rule at an early stage in their language development, children with ASC continue to make this error, even when they are much older (Wing, 1976). Some children with ASC who are only mildly affected may exhibit slight delays in language, but still have great difficulty sustaining a conversation. The 'give and take' of normal conversations is hard for them, although they often carry out a monologue on a favorite subject, giving no one else the opportunity to comment, to a greater extent than do typically developing children (National Institute of Mental Health, 2004). There have been many notable advances in the development in language using Applied Behavior Analytic (ABA) techniques. These have been documented in many places previously (see Greer & Ross, 2007), and now form the basis of many ABA approaches to the treatment of ASC (e.g., Greer & Ross 2007). Such approaches have shown tremendous improvements in the ability of children with ASC to use words, to tact and mand, and to understand those words that are employed by adults and their peers. In recent review of the literature Makrygianni and Reed (2008) found an average effect size of approaching 1.0 in studies that have examined the impact of ABA programs on the receptive and expressive verbal ability of children with ASC. This suggests an average improvement of around 15 points on a standardized measure of linguistic ability, often over a period of around one to two years. Given the previous pessimistic prognosis for language use in such children, this improvement is highly impressive, and cause for optimism. However, while these studies may often show an improvement in the use of functional language, they do not necessarily show an improvement in the ability of the children with ASC to use language in a 'typical' manner - that is to say grammatically. …

Actively involving the network during treatment, as recommended in Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) guidelines, can be facilitated with the Network in Action-Questionnaire (NiA-Q), which identifies the current and potential sources of social support. The aims of this study were to (1) examine the factor structure of the NiA-Q and (2) to explore the self- and proxy-report on the social network. Before the start of treatment in a mental health institution, 193 adults with an ASC diagnosis and 84 proxies completed the NiA-Q. Factor analysis showed two factors: positive social support and interpersonal distress. Self- and proxy-report on the NiA-Q did not differ for most variables, except for social network wishes. The NiA-Q provides a basis for network involvement and strengthening.

The social motivation hypothesis states that people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) have a diminished social motivation, that is (1) less priority in attention for objects of social importance, (2) diminished social reward, and (3) less desire to maintain and strengthen relationships. Little is known about the perception of autistic people on their social motivation. This study used semi-structured interviews to explore how eleven autistic men perceived their social motivation, behaviour, and interactions. In the interpretative phenomenological analysis, five themes were identified: (1) social network, (2) importance of social contact, (3) challenges regarding social contact, (4) conditionality of social contact, and (5) the struggle between importance, challenges and conditionality of social contact. Social motivation appeared to be a dynamic concept that varied between individuals and contexts. Most participants struggled between valuing social contact as important and the challenges they faced on a social level over the different contexts in which they participated. Even though elements of the social motivation hypothesis were recognized, the main finding was that this struggle seemed to be the source of the diminished social motivation that was observed in some of these men. Although more research is needed, the findings of this study could imply that social motivation might not be as straightforward for autistic men as described in the social motivation hypothesis.

Identifying what matters: Science education, science communication, and democracy

This study aims to emphasize the importance of developing the scientific communication system in line with the successive technological developments. Thus, this theoretical study deals with the concept of scientific communication in regard to various related points. These points are: the elements of communication, the types and forms of scientific communication, the concept of social networks, the emergence and development of social networks, the types of social networks. It also considers the most popular social networking sites, the use of social networks in scientific communication, knowledge of the advantages of using social networks in scientific communication, the obstacles to scientific communication within social networks, ways to overcome these obstacles, the role of free access in developing the process of scientific communication in the digital environment, the role of social networks and the free access usag in supporting scientific communication during the pandemic of Covid-19. Finally, this study found a variety of social networking services that support the process of scientific communication, which must be used, and to overcome any obstacles that may result from the use of these networks.

On her blog, From the Lab Bench, you can find a lot of tips, information, and examples of good science communication.Jarreau also provides consultation services for associations and individuals who want to improve their science communication.I spoke with Jarreau to get her unique insight into why ASLO members should engage in science communication and how to make their science communication more effective.Below is a summary of that conversation, you can find the full transcript in the online Supporting Information.One reason I, and likely many other scientists, value Paige Jarreau's insights into science communication is because of her academic training in both science and communication.While working on a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, she quickly realized her love of seeing the "big picture" of science and writing as a means of communication.This passion led Jarreau to transition from a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering to one in mass communication.This degree brought Jarreau an understanding of the theory behind science communication, or the "science of science communication," which identifies why and how science information is understood, perceived, and used by society.Scientists may be hesitant to engage in science communication.Some may feel they lack the formal background and expertise needed to be effective communicators, others may worry they will not be able to reach audiences beyond

Community partition is of great importance in social networks because of the rapid increasing network scale, data and applications. We consider the community partition problem under LT model in social networks, which is a combinatorial optimization problem that divides the social network to disjoint $m$ communities. Our goal is to maximize the sum of influence propagation through maximizing it within each community. As the influence propagation function of community partition problem is supermodular under LT model, we use the method of Lov{$\acute{a}$}sz Extension to relax the target influence function and transfer our goal to maximize the relaxed function over a matroid polytope. Next, we propose a continuous greedy algorithm using the properties of the relaxed function to solve our problem, which needs to be discretized in concrete implementation. Then, random rounding technique is used to convert the fractional solution to integer solution. We present a theoretical analysis with $1-1/e$ approximation ratio for the proposed algorithms. Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed continuous greedy algorithms on real-world online social networks datasets and the results demonstrate that continuous community partition method can improve influence spread and accuracy of the community partition effectively.

O artigo aborda o papel da divulgação científica na interação entre ciência e sociedade. Argumenta a relevância da Astronomia como desencadeadora do processo de divulgação científica. À luz da Teoria das Representações Sociais fundamentada por Moscovici, estudam-se as representações sociais sobre divulgação científica de pesquisadores brasileiros que atuam no campo da Astronomia. Sujeitos de diferentes trajetórias formativas participaram de entrevistas semiestruturadas analisadas conforme sugerido por Spink. Os resultados apontam duas representações: uma para a sociedade em geral, movida pela paixão, ancorada em valores e crenças, na satisfação de ver os resultados que suas ações trazem à vida das pessoas; e outra para os seus pares. Na primeira, emergem lacunas que obstaculizam a prática da divulgação científica, como a falta de formação e a dificuldade de utilizar linguagem acessível; a burocracia exigida na execução de projetos e a representação negativa sobre a mídia somam-se à lista dos obstáculos. Outras considerações são que a Astronomia não faz parte de forma sistemática do ensino, tampouco da mídia em geral, e, não raro, apresenta-se com erros conceituais. Essas representações encontram eco no referencial teórico, revelando que, apesar dos avanços, a divulgação científica e a Educação em Astronomia encontram-se num contexto de fragilidade social.

OBJECTIVE: A significant number of people with mental illness do not use mental health services to receive treatment for their symptoms. This study examined the hypothesis that social network and social support affect mental health service use. METHODS: Data were from the Baltimore cohort of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, a prospective cohort study that gathered data over four time points. This study examined data gathered in 1993–1996 (N=1,920) and 2004–2005 (N=1,071). The study examined indicators of social network and social support in relation to four types of service use (general medical, mental health within general medical, specialty psychiatric, and other human services) with multivariate logistic regression. Examples of other human services include a self-help group or crisis center for help with any psychological problem. Weighted generalized estimating equations were used for the analyses. RESULTS: Among persons with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or alcohol use disorder in the past year or psychological distress in the past few weeks, general medical service use was reduced when the frequency of contact with relatives or friends occurred less than daily, but it was increased by about 40% when there was a higher than median level of spousal support. In contrast, receiving general medical services for mental health problems was reduced by about 50% when there was a higher than median level of social support from relatives. Specialty psychiatric service use was reduced when there was regular contact with six or more relatives and there was a higher than median level of social support from friends and relatives. None of the social network or social support measures were significantly (p≤.01) associated with use of other human services. CONCLUSIONS: Increased contact with the social network and higher levels of social support were associated with greater use of general medical services. However, more social support was associated with use of fewer services within the specialty psychiatric sector.

Most research studies on Life Satisfaction/Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) have focused on one main determinant and a variety of social demographic variables to delineate the determinants of life satisfaction. However, very few research studies examine life satisfaction from a holistic approach. The aim of this study was to utilize a holistic approach to construct a causal model and identify major determinants of life satisfaction. This study utilized data from the General Social Survey, with a sample size of 19,597. Several multiple regression models were run sequentially to estimate standardized path coefficients for the causal model. Overall, above average satisfaction with life was reported by Canadian respondents. Respondents who were female, younger, married, from high socioeconomic status background, born in Canada, very religious, and demonstrated high level of neighborhood interaction had greater satisfaction with life. Similarly, respondents had greater life satisfaction if they had better health, social contact, leisure activities, more time with family and friends, more enjoyment with volunteer activities, and a greater sense of belonging to the community. Our results suggest that a holistic approach is necessary for understanding the causal process of life satisfaction. A significant number of causal connections contradict some of the findings in literature today. We have provided some possible explanations for these anomalies and policy implications.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of satisfaction and interest that researchers from Spanish universities present through social networks like Twitter.To do so, we examined the data obtained through an online survey from over 600 researchers proactive in science dissemination from 20 Spanish universities (2016).In regard to the data analysis, Kruskal-Wallis independence test was used.According to the results, two out of three researchers (65.4%) perceived benefits after the science communication campaign and a large majority (84.7%) did not perceive any damage.In relation to social networks, three out of four researchers (74.6%) think that it is an important instrument to improve scientific communication, although less than half (41.4%) have an active open profile in social networks such as Twitter.In addition, female researchers perceive social networks to be more important than male researchers consider them to be, and those who have an active profile in social media networks value them even greater.

<p><strong>1. Science communication is relevant when it comes to getting a project approved.</strong> This applies not only to nationally funded research projects, but also to science within the Horizon Europe framework. A solid communication concept is not only a great advantage when it comes to project approval. Science communication can also increase the impact within the research community.</p><p><strong>2. Science communication increases the impact of a project.</strong> The impact of a project is primarily assessed on the basis of publications in scientific journals. Scientists also read newspapers and watch television - and surf the Internet. Without the appealing presentation of research results, they would not necessarily become aware of studies outside their own specialist area. More and more researchers are on social networks such as Twitter and find out about new articles via their timeline. So thanks to social media, it's becoming easier to share publications online. </p><p><strong>3. Science communication improves collaboration within a project.</strong> A positive side effect: especially in large collaborative projects in which researchers are involved in very different disciplines, the project partners can communicate better if the different research approaches and goals are flanked by professional science communication. In their interview study “What do scientists gain from science communication?”, science communication scientists from the University of Münster asked 75 scientists from two interdisciplinary research networks and found that science communication stimulates the exchange between colleagues, imparts knowledge about research in other disciplines, provides an overview of research in the network and promotes the establishment of personal contacts among colleagues.</p><p><strong>4</strong>. Thanks to science communication, <strong>research reaches people outside of the science community</strong>. The more clearly presented, the more interest is aroused. But we hardly need to explain that to you as the guests of this session. The communication of scientific results on the effects of plastic in the ocean caused the largely invisible phenomenon of plastic littering has now received enormous public attention and is currently perceived as one of the greatest threats to the marine environment. Many research projects that want to initiate societal change can only achieve their goals with public relations.</p><p><strong>5</strong>. Often the decisive factor: <strong>there is funding for science communication</strong>. In everyday science, this is a crucial prerequisite for science communication to take place. Research projects can acquire additional resources and hire professional science communicators to support outreach. Therefore, the scientists can concentrate on their research. The talk will include a brief overview of the funding opportunities that are available for science communication in the EU.</p>

Objective: To identify the social support networks for families for the promotion of child development from the perspective of the Family Health Strategy team. Methods: Qualitative, descriptive research. The subjects were twelve health professionals, three from each of the professional categories working in the health centers studied (nurse, doctor, auxiliary nurse, and community health worker). The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and analyzed through thematic categorical analysis. Results: The results evidenced three empirical categories: Elements of the social support network; Functions of support for the families; Difficulties and gaps in the social support network for the families. Conclusion: It is considered that the social networks have an important role in the linking of the families, strengthening their potential for healthy child development. It is recommended that health professionals should articulate actions capable of influencing these elements, soas to promote appropriate child development.

Cultures of the Central Highlands, New Guinea

This article highlights the importance of scientific and technological dissemination in contemporary society, especially facilitated by technological advances. During the COVID-19 pandemic, technology enabled and boosted the transition from in-person events to an online format. The “Coffee With Science BIO UVA online” project exemplifies this transition. This university extension project aimed to promote scientific dissemination online, attracting and engaging a diverse audience through social media. The applied methods included virtual lectures (Lives) and workshops on various scientific and educational topics, using social networks (YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) as the main platforms for transmission and outreach. During the analyzed period, 82 LIVES were conducted (24 in 2020, 33 in 2021, and 25 in 2022) with speakers from national and international institutions. The project received 2,320 responses via Google Forms. Analysis showed a decrease in responses: 963 in 2020, 713 in 2021, and 644 in 2022. We conclude that online scientific dissemination via virtual lectures, supported by social networks, is a powerful tool for promoting scientific education, as demonstrated by the positive impact of the Coffee With Science BIO UVA online project, thereby contributing to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and the building of a more integrated connection between the scientific and non-scientific communities.