Social vulnerability and the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among 8-year-old children, Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 2020.

Purpose: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network estimates the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) throughout the United States. Reports through 2010 found higher prevalence in areas of higher socioeconomic status. Reports since 2018 indicate a pattern change.

Development of a Pregnancy Cohort in Commercial Insurance Claims Data: Evaluation of Deliveries Identified From Inpatient Versus Outpatient Claims.

Purpose: Studies using insurance claims data to identify pregnancies are rarely able to directly assess the validity of the pregnancy/delivery. Inpatient versus outpatient delivery claims may provide different levels of evidence, but more stringent requirements could result in exclusion of true pregnancies. We identified delivery codes from the inpatient and outpatient settings and examined possible confirmatory evidence suggesting that a delivery truly occurred.

Expanding Research on Contextual Factors in Autism Research: What Took Us So Long?

Although autism is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, its features change across the life course due to a combination of individual and contextual influences. However, the influence of contextual factors on development during childhood and beyond is less frequently studied than individual factors such as genetic variants that increase autism risk, IQ, language, and autistic features. Potentially important contexts include the family environment and socioeconomic status, social networks, school, work, services, neighborhood characteristics, environmental events, and sociocultural factors.

The pro-oncogenic noncanonical activity of a RAS•GTP:RanGAP1 complex facilitates nuclear protein export.

Canonical RAS signaling, including PI3K/AKT- and RAF/MEK-dependent activities, results mainly from RAS•GTP interaction with its effectors at the plasma membrane. Here, we identified a fundamental, oncogenic, noncanonical RAS•GTP activity that increases XPO1-dependent export of nuclear protein cargo into the cytoplasm and is independent of PI3K/AKT and RAF/MEK signaling. This RAS-dependent step acts downstream from XPO1 binding to nuclear protein cargo and is mediated by a perinuclear protein complex between RAS•GTP and RanGAP1 that facilitates hydrolysis of Ran•GTP to Ran•GDP, which promotes release of nuclear protein cargo into the cytoplasm.