The mental and physical health of older adults with a genetic predisposition for autism

Autism commonly aggregates in families, with twin studies stimating heritability to be around 80%. Subclinical autism-like characteristics have also been found at elevated rates in relatives of autistic probands. Physical and psychiatric conditions have been reported at elevated rates in autistic children and adults, and also in their relatives. However, to date there has been no exploration of how ageing may affect this pattern. This study examined cross-sectional data from the ongoing online PROTECT study. A total of 20,220 adults aged 50 years and older reported whether they have an autistic first-degree relative. In total, 739 older adults reported having an autistic first-degree relative (AFDR group) and 11,666 were identified as having no family history of any neurodevelopmental disorder (NFD group). The AFDR group demonstrated significantly higher frequencies of self-reported psychiatric diagnoses and a greater total number of co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses than the NFD group. Furthermore, the AFDR group reported elevated current self-report symptoms of depression, anxiety, traumatic experience, and post-traumatic stress than the NFD group. By contrast, few differences between AFDR and NFD groups were observed in physical health conditions, and no differences were observed in the total number of co-occurring physical health diagnoses. These findings suggest that adults who have an autistic first-degree relative may be at greater risk of poor mental, but not physical, health in later life. Older adults with autistic relatives may benefit from close monitoring to mitigate this susceptibility and to provide timely intervention

The mental and physical health profiles of older adults who endorse elevated autistic traits

Objective The mental and physical health profile of autistic people has been studied in adolescence and adulthood, with elevated rates of most conditions being reported. However, this has been little studied taking a dimensional approach to autistic traits, and in older age. Methods A total of 20,220 adults aged 50-81 years from the PROTECT study reported whether they experienced persistent socio-communicative traits characteristic of autism. Approximately 1%, 276 individuals, were identified as endorsing elevated autistic traits in childhood and currently, henceforth the ‘Autism Spectrum Trait’ (AST) group. An age and gender matched comparison group was formed of 10,495 individuals who did not endorse any autistic behavioral traits, henceforth the ‘Control Older Adults’ (COA) group. Differences between AST and COA groups were explored in self-reported psychiatric diagnoses, self-reported symptoms of current depression and anxiety, and self-reported physical health diagnoses. Associations were also examined between autistic traits and health across the whole sample. Results The AST group reported significantly elevated rates of psychiatric diagnoses compared to COAs. Additionally, the AST group showed significantly higher self-reported symptoms of current depression and anxiety than COAs. However, few differences were observed in individual physical health conditions, and no differences in total co-occurring physical diagnoses between groups. Similar associations between autistic traits and health were also found taking a dimensional approach across the whole sample. Discussion These findings suggest that older adults with elevated autistic traits may be at greater risk of poorer mental, but not physical, health in later life. Future studies should incorporate polygenic scores to elucidate the possible genetic links between propensity to autism/high autistic traits and to psychiatric conditions, and to explore whether those with elevated autistic traits experience particular barriers to mental health care

Traumatic life experiences and post-traumatic stress symptoms in middle-aged and older adults with and without autistic traits

Objectives Research with younger adults has begun to explore associations between autism/autistic traits and vulnerability to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Large scale studies and/or examination of age-effects have not been conducted. Methods Adults aged 50 years+ from the PROTECT study (n = 20,220) completed items about current and childhood socio-communicative difficulties characteristic of autism. Approximately 1% (n = 251) endorsed high autistic traits, henceforth the Autism Spectrum Traits (AST) group. Differences between the AST and an age—and sex-matched “Comparison Older Adults” (COA; n = 9179) group were explored for lifetime traumatic experiences and current symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Results Almost 30% of the AST group, compared to less than 8% of the COA, reported severe trauma in childhood/adulthood, including emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Elevated current PTSD symptoms were reported by AST compared to COA. An interaction was observed between autistic traits and trauma severity; the effect of level of trauma on PTSD symptoms was significantly greater for AST versus COA participants. This interaction remained significant when controlling for current depression and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions The findings suggest that high autistic traits may increase the likelihood of experiencing trauma across the lifespan, and the impact of severe trauma on PTSD symptoms. Older adults with high (vs. low) autistic traits may be at greater risk of experiencing PTSD symptoms in latter life. Future research should test whether the pattern of results is similar for diagnosed autistic adults

Logopenic and nonfluent variants of primary progressive aphasia are differentiated by acoustic measures of speech production

Differentiation of logopenic (lvPPA) and nonfluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA) variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia is important yet remains challenging since it hinges on expert based evaluation of speech and language production. In this study acoustic measures of speech in conjunction with voxel-based morphometry were used to determine the success of the measures as an adjunct to diagnosis and to explore the neural basis of apraxia of speech in nfvPPA. Forty-one patients (21 lvPPA, 20 nfvPPA) were recruited from a consecutive sample with suspected frontotemporal dementia. Patients were diagnosed using the current gold-standard of expert perceptual judgment, based on presence/absence of particular speech features during speaking tasks. Seventeen healthy age-matched adults served as controls. MRI scans were available for 11 control and 37 PPA cases; 23 of the PPA cases underwent amyloid ligand PET imaging. Measures, corresponding to perceptual features of apraxia of speech, were periods of silence during reading and relative vowel duration and intensity in polysyllable word repetition. Discriminant function analyses revealed that a measure of relative vowel duration differentiated nfvPPA cases from both control and lvPPA cases (r2 = 0.47) with 88% agreement with expert judgment of presence of apraxia of speech in nfvPPA cases. VBM analysis showed that relative vowel duration covaried with grey matter intensity in areas critical for speech motor planning and programming: precentral gyrus, supplementary motor area and inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally, only affected in the nfvPPA group. This bilateral involvement of frontal speech networks in nfvPPA potentially affects access to compensatory mechanisms involving right hemisphere homologues. Measures of silences during reading also discriminated the PPA and control groups, but did not increase predictive accuracy. Findings suggest that a measure of relative vowel duration from of a polysyllable word repetition task may be sufficient for detecting most cases of apraxia of speech and distinguishing between nfvPPA and lvPPA

Rethinking a rare-species conservation strategy in an urban landscape: the case of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle

Reflecting the lack of critical information for most protected species, recovery plans for organisms listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act tend to oversimplify habitat descriptions. Here we present our approach for improving the definition of habitat for rare and patchily distributed listed species. The valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Desmocerus californicus dimorphus) occurs in riparian and scrub communities in California's Central Valley. Habitat quality for the species currently is defined essentially exclusively in terms of presence and abundance of its larval host plant, elderberry (Sambucus spp.). Using detailed measures of physical and biological attributes at diverse sites occupied by the beetle, we characterized and defined habitat quality on the basis of not only host plants, but on an array of biotic and abiotic environmental characteristics. We identified four geomorphically distinct habitat associations: alluvial plain, narrow riparian corridor, upper riparian plain, and non-riparian scrub. Depending on habitat type, the environmental characteristics most strongly associated with beetle presence were host plant availability, topography and proximity to habitat edge. Increased local population size of beetles was associated with higher elderberry density and the presence of larger, more mature plants. Stochasticity in site occupancy over space and time confounds our ability to identify sites that are most able to contribute to long-term beetle survival, while underscoring the importance of unoccupied habitat to the beetle. Adopting a multivariate definition of habitat may facilitate more effective identification of locations critical to the recovery of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, and prioritization of those management actions that can contribute effectively to meeting conservation goals for the species

Facilitating the Transition to Model-Based Acquisition

Presented March 11, 2020 at IEEE Aerospace Conference 2020.© IEEEOne major benefit offered by MBSE is the ability to formalize interactions between subsystems in the design process. This formalization eases the transfer of information between parties. The process of government acquisition is likewise characterized by information transfer: diverse requirements must be altered and tracked between the requesting, responding, and evaluating parties. Thus, it is a natural extension of MBSE is to apply it to the acquisition process. This paper demonstrates a set of tools and patterns developed during a surrogate simulation of an MBSE-enabled Request for Proposal between NAVAIR and a responding contractor. In particular, the tools presented were developed from the NAVAIR Systems Model viewpoint. This paper covers four tools developed in this surrogate pilot. The first analyzes the problem of requirement generation. While standards such as the OMG SysML are being adopted by MBSE practitioners, the model literacy of all stakeholders is unlikely and may never be fully guaranteed. Document generation tools, such as OpenMBEE have been developed for SysML software, which enable presentation of descriptive information about the model. This paper demonstrates modeling patterns and a tool that translates information from native-model form into a text-based format. The second and third tools presented assist in the acquirer’s source selection process. Making use of the patterns which generate the text requirements above, Evaluation and Estimation Models are presented, which can act directly on contractors’ responses. The Evaluation Model assists the verification process by ensuring numerical requirements are satisfied. The Estimation Model compares the contractors’ claimed values with historically expected values, to assist directing the source selection experts’ focus of examination. The fourth tool presented offers a method of extracting historical traceability for model elements. This aids the acquisition process by enabling digital signoff at any stage of the acquisition process. These four tools were applied in the surrogate acquisition process for a notional UAV, and a description of this case study is presented.NAVAIR/SERC RT170/RT195, Contract HQ0034-13-D-00