Parental skills, assortative mating, and the incidence of autism spectrum disorder

We assess theories that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is heritable and transmitted through parental skills using data from Denmark. We construct parental skill measures by mapping Danish occupations to the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) survey of U.S. occupations and principal factor analysis. We find that fathers’ skills are linked to ASD in children. A one standard deviation increase in a systems and ordering skills factor correlates with a modest but statistically significant 0.041 percentagepoint (2.4%) increase in ASD incidence. There is a negative and slightly larger relationship with communication skills. ASD also is similarly correlated with Deming’s (2017) routineness and social skills measures, and fathers again play larger roles. We also find evidence consistent with Baron-Cohen (2002) whereby extreme personality traits in parents affect ASD incidence; having two parents with high systems and ordering relative to communication skills leads to a 35% higher diagnosis rate than having parents with “balanced” skills. While all of these estimates are meaningful given the costs of ASD, they only explain a small fraction of variation in ASD diagnoses. Finally, although assortative mating on skills exists, we cannot detect a role for it in recent dramatic increases in ASD

Are Older Workers Harmful for Firm Productivity?

Firm performance, workforce age structure, demographic changes, J21, J31, L25,

Ablation of TRIP-Br2, a regulator of fat lipolysis, thermogenesis and oxidative metabolism, prevents diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance

10.1038/nm.3056Nature Medicine192217-226NAME

BioSimulators: a central registry of simulation engines and services for recommending specific tools

Computational models have great potential to accelerate bioscience, bioengineering, and medicine. However, it remains challenging to reproduce and reuse simulations, in part, because the numerous formats and methods for simulating various subsystems and scales remain siloed by different software tools. For example, each tool must be executed through a distinct interface. To help investigators find and use simulation tools, we developed BioSimulators (https://biosimulators.org), a central registry of the capabilities of simulation tools and consistent Python, command-line and containerized interfaces to each version of each tool. The foundation of BioSimulators is standards, such as CellML, SBML, SED-ML and the COMBINE archive format, and validation tools for simulation projects and simulation tools that ensure these standards are used consistently. To help modelers find tools for particular projects, we have also used the registry to develop recommendation services. We anticipate that BioSimulators will help modelers exchange, reproduce, and combine simulations.[GRAPHICS]

BioSimulators: A central registry of simulation engines and services for recommending specific tools.

Computational models have great potential to accelerate bioscience, bioengineering, and medicine. However, it remains challenging to reproduce and reuse simulations, in part, because the numerous formats and methods for simulating various subsystems and scales remain siloed by different software tools. For example, each tool must be executed through a distinct interface. To help investigators find and use simulation tools, we developed BioSimulators (https://biosimulators.org), a central registry of the capabilities of simulation tools and consistent Python, command-line and containerized interfaces to each version of each tool. The foundation of BioSimulators is standards, such as CellML, SBML, SED-ML and the COMBINE archive format, and validation tools for simulation projects and simulation tools that ensure these standards are used consistently. To help modelers find tools for particular projects, we have also used the registry to develop recommendation services. We anticipate that BioSimulators will help modelers exchange, reproduce, and combine simulations

Dispensing Rates of Four Common Hearing Aid Product Features: Associations With Variations in Practice Among Audiologists

The purpose of the study was to develop and examine a list of potential variables that may account for variability in the dispensing rates of four common hearing aid features. A total of 29 potential variables were identified and placed into the following categories: (1) characteristics of the audiologist, (2) characteristics of the hearing aids dispensed by the audiologist, (3) characteristics of the audiologist?s patient population, and (4) evidence-based practice grades of recommendation for each feature. The potentially associative variables then were examined using regression analyses from the responses of 257 audiologists to a dispensing practice survey. There was a direct relation between price and level of hearing aid technology with the frequency of dispensing product features. There was also a direct relation between the belief by the audiologist that a feature might benefit patients and the frequency of dispensing that feature. In general, the results suggested that personal differences among audiologists and the hearing aids audiologists choose to dispense are related more strongly to dispensing rates of product features than to differences in characteristics of the patient population served by audiologists. An additional finding indicated that evidence-based practice recommendations were inversely related to dispensing rates of product features. This finding, however, may not be the result of dispensing trends as much as hearing aid manufacturing trends