Popular culture getting in touch with autism

As the rate of autism diagnosis increases, so does the appearance of characters with autistic traits in mainstream movies and books, such as 9-year-old Oskar Schell in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” The latest example is “Touch,” a Fox TV series featuring Jake, a non-verbal 10-year-old boy who doesn’t like to be touched. Jake’s father, played by Kiefer Sutherland, struggles to somehow connect with his son, and discovers that his son has special gifts.

Although it’s a dramatized version of life with autism, the series demonstrates the value of embracing a child’s interests, even if they do not involve an extraordinary talent, says Joseph Cubells, director of medical and adult services at the Emory Autism Center.

“The very act of standing back and allowing a child to develop something they enjoy doing, and to simply and quietly take joy in what a child enjoys, can be a profound expression of love and affection,” Cubells says.

Parents of a child who does not even want to make eye contact must be extremely patient and creative to find a way to express their bond, he says.

“Don’t lose faith in your connection to that child because it’s there and it’s real,” Cubells says. “I don’t want this to sound syrupy and sugar coat it, because the fact is, raising a child with autism can be just terribly difficult.”

When a family becomes too focused on trying to force a child to be a certain way, it’s a recipe for disaster, he says, urging parents to try to make it clear that they want to be a part of their child’s world and to find ways to make that world a better place.

“That sense of never giving up hope is a very important thing,” he adds.

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Biology teacher stirs up class with cook-off

Emory biology teacher Jennifer Kovacs wanted to give her beginning students more than just a taste of plant physiology. So she created a Top Chef-style cooking competition. Teams of students had to create a dish from one of two categories: Roots, fruits and shoots or angiosperms and gymnosperms.

“Science is everywhere,” Kovacs says, explaining that she wants her students to think about biology outside of the classroom, and how it applies to their every day lives.

The six judges of the competition, including scientists and Emory’s executive chef, evaluated the entries based on creativity, science explanation, taste and presentation. The prize: 30 bonus points on the final exam.

“I’ve never been presented with an incentive that big to cook,” says student Vijay Balakrishnan, who didn’t win, but learned how to make a fruit flan.

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New institute taps the power of 'big data'

By Kimber Williams, Emory Report

Quantitative research hasn't traditionally been considered a major facet of a liberal arts education, but times have changed. In a quiet corner of the Emory campus, a bit of scholarly revolution is taking shape.

The new Institute for Quantitative Theory and Methods (QuanTM) is unfolding plans to offer new statistics courses, undergraduate fellowships, workshops, a statistics help desk, a speakers series and, by next summer, a major conference, all focused on the theme of "big data."

There is growing interest in the role of computational, quantitative techniques within the humanities "to explore ideas and understand the dynamics that are shaping the culture," says Robin Forman, dean of Emory College.

QuanTM (pronounced "quantum") is directed by Clifford Carrubba, a political science professor who also directs Emory's Center for the Study of Law, Politics and Economics.

Carrubba cites advances in the digital humanities movement and computational linguistics, which allow scholars to identify literary characteristics — such as sentiment or mood — and write computer programs to study that aspect in hundreds of thousands of books.

"I can imagine having undergraduate humanities majors, social and natural scientists in the same class using the same skill set for very different purposes — an English major may be using the same skills that a biologist uses," Carrubba observes.

Read the full story in Emory Report.

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Census data center: 'A nerd's trip to Nirvana'

Census data center: 'A nerd's trip to Nirvana'

By Kimber Williams, Emory Report

Erik Nesson, an Emory doctoral candidate in health economics, was seeking detailed data for his dissertation into how both heavy and light smokers respond to tobacco control policies.

Turns out, his timing couldn't have been better.

The Atlanta Census Research Data Center (ACRDC) opened last fall within a secure computer room at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta to provide restricted data for social, economic and health research.

Now, Nesson joins the first wave of Emory researchers to be granted a rare opportunity — the chance to study a virtual smorgasbord of government microdata not readily available to the general public.

From economic, business, trade and labor data to household and crime surveys, health statistics and manufacturing reports, the available material "goes far beyond what you would immediately associate with census data," says Nesson, who describes working at the center as "a nerd's trip to Nirvana."

Sifting through national health data, Nesson found that light smokers weren't really changing their behaviors, but heavy smokers were — reducing the number of cigarettes they smoked, but also inhaling more intensely and switching brands, so the level of nicotine in their systems never really changed.

Access to restricted data, he says, made all the difference.

"It's a huge competitive advantage," Nesson explains. "It's hard enough to think of ideas for dissertations, things no one has done before or ways to improve on what people have done before. The ridiculous amount of data they have [at the ACRDC] will be a great recruiting tool for people interested in really any field."

Research trips to the next closest centers — in North Carolina or Maryland — would cost both time away from the classroom and travel funds, says David Frisvold, assistant professor of economics at Emory, who is working with the ACRDC for research into soft drink taxes and childhood obesity.

Although the data Frisvold needs are available elsewhere, he has had to pay steep fees to access what he can now examine at the ACRDC at no cost. "It makes a big difference," he says.

Data at the center are restricted primarily due to privacy concerns. Researchers must submit to a rigorous background check, receive data security training, and submit a formal application to win approval for their projects in order to work in the highly secure computer lab.

When the ACRDC opened, Frisvold was already studying how sales taxes on soft drinks —a strategy to reduce childhood obesity and raise revenue for budget-strapped states — affect childhood obesity. He not only needed regional tax information, but a complete portrait of consumers: where people lived, their height, weight and soft drink consumption patterns.

With access to restricted data, "we have a very precise estimate on the impact of soft drink taxes on body mass index," says Frisvold, whose project also involves colleagues at Yale University and Bates College.

Read the whole article at Emory Report.

Photo credit: iStockphoto.com.

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Mathematicians add logic to the lottery

The $540 million Mega Millions jackpot created a national lottery frenzy, despite the staggering odds of a one-in-175-million chance of winning.

“You are about 100 times more likely to die of a flesh-eating bacteria than you are to win the lottery,” Emory mathematician Aaron Abrams told NPR host Robert Siegel.

Abrams, and Emory mathematician Skip Garibaldi, wrote an article in American Mathematical Monthly called “Finding Good Bets in the Lottery and Why You Shouldn’t Take Them.”

Picking your birthday numbers, picking numbers that have won before or buying your ticket in a small town does not help, the mathematicians say.

“You can’t change the odds of winning a jackpot by the way you pick numbers.” Garibaldi said on ABC’s 20/20 news program. “As a mathematician, I think that’s beautiful.”

Math trumps luck when it comes to the lottery, but Garibaldi admits that he bought five Mega Millions tickets himself.

A waste of money? “Yes, but so is buying a candy bar,” he says. “In fact, buying the candy bar is worse because you’re eating the candy bar, which is bad for you. I’m just losing the money with the lottery tickets.”

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