Evidence of altered epidermal nerve fiber morphology in adults with self-injurious behavior and neurodevelopmental disorders

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the morphology and neuropeptide density of epidermal nerve fibers quantified through skin biopsy samples from three adults with neurodevelopmental disorders and chronic self-injurious behavior (SIB) secondary to mental retardation compared with non-SIB normal IQ controls. A cross-sectional design was used with 3 mm punch skin biopsies collected from each participant from non-self-injurious body sites and compared with site-matched existing normal control skin samples. The study was conducted at an outpatient clinic. The primary dependent measure for the morphology analyses was the coefficient of variation (CV) to quantify the mean gap length between epidermal nerve fibers for each subject. Visual microscopic examination and quantitative analysis of the microscopy images suggested there were morphological abnormalities (increased CV) in the epidermal nerve fibers among the chronic SIB cases. Substance P (SP) fiber density was increased with 2 to 3 times as many fibers in SIB subjects as control subjects. Additional empirical work is needed to clarify the relation between sensory innervation of the skin and self-injury to improve assessment and treatment outcomes

CALCULATING CONTINGENCIES IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS: ISSUES IN THE APPLICATION OF SEQUENTIAL ANALYSIS

Analysis and interpretation of behavior–environment relations are increasingly being conducted with data that have been derived descriptively. This paper provides an overview of the logic that underlies a sequential analytic approach to the analysis of descriptive data. Several methods for quantifying sequential relations are reviewed along with their strengths and weaknesses. Data from descriptive analyses are used to illustrate key points. Issues germane to contingency analysis in natural environments are discussed briefly. It is concluded that the conceptual distinctions among contiguity, contingency, and dependency are critical if the logic of sequential analysis is to be extended successfully to a behavior-analytic account of reinforcement in natural environments

Erratum: Searches for continuous gravitational waves from nine young supernova remnants (2015, ApJ, 813, 39)

We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves in data from the sixth LIGO science data run. The targets were nine young supernova remnants not associated with pulsars; eight of the remnants are associated with non-pulsing suspected neutron stars. One target's parameters are uncertain enough to warrant two searches, for a total of ten. Each search covered a broad band of frequencies and first and second frequency derivatives for a fixed sky direction. The searches coherently integrated data from the two LIGO interferometers over time spans from 5.3-25.3 days using the matched-filtering F-statistic. We found no credible gravitational-wave signals. We set 95% confidence upper limits as strong (low) as $4\times10^{-25}$ on intrinsic strain, $2\times10^{-7}$ on fiducial ellipticity, and $4\times10^{-5}$ on r-mode amplitude. These beat the indirect limits from energy conservation and are within the range of theoretical predictions for neutron-star ellipticities and r-mode amplitudes