57 research outputs found
Autism spectrum disorder and food neophobia: clinical and subclinical links
Background:
Autism spectrum disorder
(ASD)
has been linked with eating and feeding
related atypicalities
, including food neophobia
(refusal to try unfamiliar foods)
,
since its
earliest description. Nevertheless, whether
associations between
ASD
traits and food
neophobia extend
subclinical
ly
into t
he broader population
of children
and their potential
additive health impacts
remain unexplored
.
Objective:
We
examine
d
ASD
-
control group
differences in food neophobia and ASD trait
-
food neophobia trait associations
as well as
the ability of food neophobia and autistic traits to predict one index of later health
-
related
outcomes (body mass index)
.
D
es
ign
:
Participants in the
present study
were
a
large
commun
ity
-
based sample of
8
-
11 year old
s
(n=4,564
)
, including
a relatively
small group
o
f children diagnosed with ASD (n
=37)
.
Parents of these
8
-
11
-
year
-
old
children
completed assessments of food neophobia and autistic traits, as well as providing height
and weight metrics
at 12 years of age
.
Results:
C
hildren with ASD
were rated
as more
food neophobic than their same
-
age non
-
ASD peers
(
2.67+/
-
0.83 vs. 2.22 +/
-
0.73;
p
<.001)
and there were
subclinical
associations between food neophobia
and
ASD traits
(all three of social, communication, and restricted/repetitive behavior) in th
is
community
-
based sample
of children
(
p
s<.05)
. Moreover,
while
food neophobia
alone
predicted
lower body mass index,
the interaction of
food neophobia
and
ASD
traits
predicted
higher
body mass index
(
p
s
<
.01)
, suggesting that elevated
ASD
traits in combination
with food neophobia exert opposing influences on weight to food neophobia alone
.
Conclusions:
These findings implicate
clinical and subclinical
connections between ASD
traits and feeding behaviors that could impact health outcomes and therefore should be
further explored in future studies of shared etiology and intervention
strategy
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Reliability evaluation of the Savannah River reactor leak detection system
The Savannah River Reactors have been in operation since the mid-1950's. The primary degradation mode for the primary coolant loop piping is intergranular stress corrosion cracking. The leak-before-break (LBB) capability of the primary system piping has been demonstrated as part of an overall structural integrity evaluation. One element of the LBB analyses is a reliability evaluation of the leak detection system. The most sensitive element of the leak detection system is the airborne tritium monitors. The presence of small amounts of tritium in the heavy water coolant provide the basis for a very sensitive system of leak detection. The reliability of the tritium monitors to properly identify a crack leaking at a rate of either 50 or 300 lb/day (0.004 or 0.023 gpm, respectively) has been characterized. These leak rates correspond to action points for which specific operator actions are required. High reliability has been demonstrated using standard fault tree techniques. The probability of not detecting a leak within an assumed mission time of 24 hours is estimated to be approximately 5 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} per demand. This result is obtained for both leak rates considered. The methodology and assumptions used to obtain this result are described in this paper. 3 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab
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