Safety and Feasibility of an Immersive Virtual Reality Intervention Program for Teaching Police Interaction Skills to Adolescents and Adults with Autism.

Low-cost, wireless immersive virtual reality (VR) holds significant promise as a flexible and scalable intervention tool to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) learn and develop critical practical life skills, including interacting safely and effectively with police officers. Previous research suggests that VR is a motivating intervention platform, but many individuals with ASD also exhibit anxiety and sensory sensitivities which might make it difficult to tolerate VR experiences. Here, we describe the results of a relatively large-scale, National Institutes of Health-funded systematic examination of the safety, feasibility, and usability of an immersive VR training program in adolescents and adults with ASD, aged 12 and older. Sixty verbally fluent individuals with no personal or immediate family history of seizures or migraines participated in either one (n = 30) or three 45-min (n = 30) VR sessions using a lightweight wireless headset, and were monitored for side effects. Participants also reported on system usability, enjoyment, and willingness to engage in further VR sessions. Results confirm that immersive VR is safe, feasible, and highly usable for verbally fluent adolescents and adults with ASD. LAY SUMMARY: Immersive virtual reality (VR) holds promise as a means to provide social skills interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but it is unclear whether associated anxiety and sensory symptoms might limit feasibility. Here, we report data that indicate that immersive VR is both safe and feasible for use in verbally fluent adolescents and adults with ASD, for up to three 45-min sessions. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1418-1424. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Virtual Reality Support for Joint Attention Using the Floreo Joint Attention Module: Usability and Feasibility Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Advances in virtual reality (VR) technology offer new opportunities to design supports for the core behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that promote progress toward optimal outcomes. Floreo has developed a novel mobile VR platform that pairs a user receiving instruction on target skills with an adult monitor. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this pilot study was to explore the feasibility of using Floreo's Joint Attention Module in school-aged children with autism in a special education setting. A secondary objective was to explore a novel joint attention measure designed for use with school-aged children and to observe whether there was a suggestion of change in joint attention skills from preintervention to postintervention. METHODS: A total of 12 participants (age range: 9 to 16 years) received training with the Joint Attention Module for 14 sessions over 5 weeks. RESULTS: No serious side effects were reported, and no participants dropped out of the study because of undesirable side effects. On the basis of monitor data, 95.4% (126/132) of the time participants tolerated the headset, 95.4% (126/132) of the time participants seemed to enjoy using Floreo's platform, and 95.5% (128/134) of the time the VR experience was reported as valuable. In addition, scoring of the joint attention measure suggested a positive change in participant skills related to the total number of interactions, use of eye contact, and initiation of interactions. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest that Floreo's Joint Attention Module is safe and well tolerated by students with ASD, and preliminary data also suggest that its use is related to improvements in fundamental joint attention skills.

A hormone-responsive C1-domain-containing protein At5g17960 mediates stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Phytohormones play a critical role in mediating plant stress response. They employ a variety of proteins for coordinating such processes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, some members of a Cys-rich protein family known as C1-clan proteins were involved in stress response, but the actual function of the protein family is largely unknown. We studied At5g17960, a C1-clan protein member that possesses three unique C1 signature domains viz. C1_2, C1_3 and ZZ/PHD type. Additionally, we identified 72 other proteins in A. thaliana that contain all three unique signature domains. Subsequently, the 73 proteins were phylogenetically classified into IX subgroups. Promoter motif analysis of the 73 genes identified the presence of hormone-responsive and stress-responsive putative cis-regulatory elements. Furthermore, we observed that transcript levels of At5g17960 were induced in response to different hormones and stress treatments. At1g35610 and At3g13760, two other members of subgroup IV, also showed upregulation upon GA3, biotic and abiotic stress treatments. Moreover, seedlings of independent transgenic A. thaliana lines ectopically expressing or suppressing At5g17960 also showed differential regulation of several abiotic stress-responsive marker genes. Thus, our data suggest that C1-domain-containing proteins have a role to play in plant hormone-mediated stress responses, thereby assigning a putative function for the C1-clan protein family.

Efficient production of fermentable sugars from oil palm empty fruit bunch by combined use of acid and whole cell culture-catalyzed hydrolyses.

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) of oil palm trees was converted to fermentable sugars by the combined use of dilute acids and whole fungal cell culture-catalyzed hydrolyses. EFB (5%, w/v) was hydrolyzed in the presence of 0.5% H2 SO4 and 0.2% H3 PO4 at 160 °C for 10 Min. The solid fraction was separated from the acid hydrolysate by filtration and subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis at 50 °C using the whole cell culture of Trichoderma reesei RUT-C30 (2%, w/v), which was prepared by cultivation at 30 °C for 7 days to reach its maximal cellulase activity. The combined hydrolyses of EFB gave a total sugar yield of 82.0%. When used as carbon sources for cultivating Escherichia coli in M9 medium at 37 °C, the combined EFB hydrolysates were shown to be more favorable or at least as good as pure glucose for cell growth in terms of the higher (1.1 times) optical density of E. coli cells. The by-products generated during the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis did not seem to obviously affect cell growth. The combined use of acid and whole cell culture hydrolyses might be a commercially promising method for pretreatment of lignocellulose to get fermentable sugars.