The impacts of climate change on UK energy demand

The impacts of climate change on the energy system are diverse; this article focuses on the potential effects on UK energy demand and the ramifications for national infrastructure building on the findings of the UK’s 2012 Climate Change Risk Assessment. It reviews the available literature, where it exists, on the relationships among current energy demand, weather and climate change, and the implications for these relationships due to mitigation plans and potential adaptation responses. The review highlights the mechanisms by which future climate change, in particular changes in mean and extreme temperature, could affect the annual amount of UK energy demand and the seasonal, daily and spatial variation of the impacts. Published literature quantifying the effects of climate change on UK energy demand is limited; thus, where evidence is not available, information on the current relationship between weather and demand is combined with expert judgement to highlight potential demand responses to a changing climate without quantification. The impacts identified could have significant implications for the long-term planning of energy infrastructure and system operation and building design, depending on their magnitude, highlighting the need for further research in this area

Standardized Cognitive Assessments in Children with Autism

Research suggests that test design can interact with symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) such that different standardized cognitive tests may be more or less likely to evoke behaviors that interfere with assessment of functioning. This study compares the results of two recommended and commonly used cognitive assessments (Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children — Fourth Edition and Differential Ability Scales — Second Edition) in a sample of children diagnosed with ASD and considers the influence of autistic symptomatology, adaptive behavior, and behavior during test administration on cognitive scores. Convergent validity was established for these instruments. However, participants achieved significantly higher overall scores on the DAS-II. Nearly half of the sample received different classification labels on the two assessments. All of these children had higher DAS-II scores. More than a quarter of the sample achieved scores with non-overlapping 95% confidence bands. Behavior during test administration did not systematically vary between tests and was not related to cognitive scores, with the exception of a negative association between off-topic behavior and overall cognitive scores. Autistic symptomatology was not associated with cognitive scores, while adaptive behavior was positively associated with scores. Neither was associated with the magnitude of difference between overall scores on the two assessments. The difference between overall scores was found to be attributable to a relative weakness in processing speed, which is assessed on the WISC-IV but not the DAS-II. Clinically, this study suggests that cognitive assessment is a valuable part of a comprehensive assessment for children with ASD as these tests appear to be minimally impacted by construct-irrelevant variance. However, choice of assessment should be considered carefully given the systematic differences in overall scores produced in this population. Similarly, results suggest that patterns of responding in children with ASD on select subtests deviate from the standardization sample, possibly due to symptoms of ASD. Examiners should be familiar with these issues and interpret tests accordingly. Future research should investigate the effects of examiner experience and role of non-standardized aspects of the assessments protocols

Does an Autism Spectrum Disorder Care Pathway Improve Care for Children and Adolescents with ASD in Inpatient Psychiatric Units?

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are psychiatrically hospitalized at high rates. Though specialized psychiatric units are effective, few specialized units exist. The ASD Care Pathway (ASD-CP) was developed as a scalable approach to improving care in general psychiatric units through staff training and a package of autism-specific intervention strategies. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the ASD-CP in a public hospital child psychiatric service compared 18 months (n = 17) versus 18 months (n = 20) post implementation. Average length of hospital stay decreased 40% (22.4-13.4 days) and use of crisis interventions decreased 77% (holds/restraints; 0.65/day to 0.15/day), though each result only approached statistical significance (p = 0.07; 0.057). This study provides preliminary evidence for improved outcomes after implementation of an ASD-CP

Data Mining Techniques to Study Therapy Success

Abstract — Autism spectrum disorder has become one of the most prevalent developmental disorders, characterized by a wide variety of symptoms. Many children need extensive therapy for years to improve their behavior and facilitate integration in society. However, few systematic evaluations are done on a large scale that can provide insights into when, where, and how therapy has an impact. We describe how data mining techniques can be used to provide insights into behavioral therapy as well as its effect on participants. To this end, we are developing a digital library of coded video segments that contains data on appropriate and inappropriate behavior of autistic children in different social settings during different stages of therapy. In general, we found that therapy increased appropriate behavior and decreased inappropriate behavior. Decision trees and association rules provided more detailed insights for high and low levels of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In particular, we found that a child’s interaction with a parent or therapist led to especially high levels of appropriate behavior and behavior is most predictable while therapy is in progress