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Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that can affect autonomy and independence. Our research explores the integration of Cross-Reality and Conversational Agents for Autistic persons to improve ability and confidence in everyday life situations. We combine two technologies of the Virtual-Real continuum. User experiences unfold from the simulation of tasks in VR to the execution of similar tasks supported by AR in the real world. A speech-based Conversational Agent is integrated with both VR and AR. It provides contextualized help, promotes generalization, and stimulates users to apply what they learned in the virtual space. The paper presents the approach and describes an empirical study involving 17 young Autistic persons.

The present study adds to the literature on routinization and employment by capturing within-occupation task changes over the period 1980-2010. The main contributions are the measurement of such changes and the combination of two data sources on occupational task content for the United States: the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). We show that within-occupation reorientation away from routine tasks: i) accounts for 1/3 of the decline in routine-task use; ii) accelerated in the 1990s, decelerated in the 2000s but with significant convergence across occupations; and iii) allowed workers to escape the employment and wage decline, conditional on the initial level of routine-task intensity. The latter finding suggests that task reorientation is a key channel through which labour markets adapt to various forms of labour-saving technological change., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Authors.)

As nations struggle to restart their economy after COVID-19 lockdowns, calls to include green investments in a pandemic-related stimulus are growing. Yet little research provides evidence of the effectiveness of a green stimulus. We begin by summarizing recent research on the effectiveness of the green portion of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on employment growth. Green investments are most effective in communities whose workers have the appropriate "green" skills. We then provide new evidence on the skills requirements of both green and brown occupations, as well as from occupations at risk of job losses due to COVID-19, to illustrate which workers are most likely to benefit from a pandemic-related green stimulus. We find similarities between some energy sector workers and green jobs, but a poor match between green jobs and occupations at risk due to COVID-19. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence on the potential for job training programs to help ease the transition to a green economy., (© Springer Nature B.V. 2020.)

Many people who have suffered a stroke will experience sensorimotor impairments that disrupt their performance of motor skills, including balance and gait. Furthermore, stroke-induced brain damage can Result in visual disorders that may significantly impact performance of normal daily activities. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects, on balance, of visual-spatial training as an add-on intervention to conventional neurorehabilitation in patients with subacute stroke without neglect; secondarily, it aimed to assess the effects of this training on activities of daily living. Thirty inpatients (17 M, age: 57.3±12.9 years) with a diagnosis of subacute stroke (< 180 days) were enrolled in this study and randomized into two groups: the visual-spatial training group and a control group. All patients were evaluated, using the Tinetti Balance and Gait Scale (TBG), the Berg Balance Scale, computerized posturography, and the Barthel Index (BI), both before (T0) and after (T1) four weeks of training sessions. In addition to conventional neurorehabilitation, each group performed a total of twelve 20-minute rehabilitation sessions (3 times/week for 4 weeks). Significant TIME x GROUP interactions were recorded in the experimental group with respect to the control group for the TBG score [F (1,18) =15.59; p = 0.0004] and BI score [F (1,28) =6.35; p = 0.01]. Both groups recorded non-significant improvements on the instrumental postural assessment. These data suggest that visualspatial training as an add-on intervention to conventional neurorehabilitation could be an effective complementary strategy to improve balance and activities of daily living.