Relative Age Effects on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Educational Achievement: A Longitudinal UK Cohort Study.

Objective: Being among the youngest in a school class increases the risk for worse educational outcomes and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, but questions remain about the nature and persistence of such effects. We investigated this "relative age effect" on educational achievement at age 15 to 16 years and on ADHD symptoms from age 7 to age 21 years. Furthermore, we examined whether being young-in-class is linked to a greater reduction in ADHD symptoms from childhood to adulthood and a lower genetic propensity to ADHD.

Parent-child interaction at age 5 months: genetic and environmental contributions and associations with later socio-communicative development.

Background: Characteristics of parent-child interaction (PCI) early in life have been associated with later development in the child. Twin studies can help to disentangle child contributions to parent-child interaction, for example, by assessing the influence of the child's genetics on his/her social environment, which includes parental behaviour.

Methods: Infant twins from a community sample [354 monozygotic (MZ), 268 same-sex dizygotic (DZ)] were assessed in terms of PCI at age 5 months.

Evocative effects on the early caregiving environment of genetic factors underlying the development of intellectual and academic ability.

This study examined gene-environment correlation (rGE) in intellectual and academic development in 561 U.S.-based adoptees (57% male; 56% non-Latinx White, 19% multiracial, 13% Black or African American, 11% Latinx) and their birth and adoptive parents between 2003 and 2017.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations between motor milestone timing and motor development in neurodevelopmental conditions.

Early motor skills may be important early markers of neurodevelopmental conditions or predictors of their later onset. To explore this, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of infant motor skill assessments in those who go on to gain a clinical diagnosis of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, language conditions, tic disorders, or developmental coordination disorder (DCD). In total, 63 articles met inclusion criteria.

Perinatal risk factors and subclinical hypomania: A prospective community study.

Background: Perinatal risk factors are implicated in the development of psychopathology, but their role in bipolar disorder (BD) and hypomania is unclear. Using data from a prospective community cohort, this is the first study to investigate the association between a range of perinatal risk factors, hypomanic symptoms, and 'high-risk' for BD in the general population.

Methods: Parent report of perinatal events were available for 26,040 eighteen-month-olds from the Twins Early Development Study.

The potential and translational application of infant genetic research.

In the current genomic revolution, the infancy life stage is the most neglected. Although clinical genetics recognizes the value of early identification in infancy of rare genetic causes of disorders and delay, common genetic variation is almost completely ignored in research on infant behavioral and neurodevelopmental traits. In this Perspective, we argue for a much-needed surge in research on common genetic variation influencing infant neurodevelopment and behavior, findings that would be relevant for all children.

Genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity in early neurodevelopmental traits in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.

Background: Autism and different neurodevelopmental conditions frequently co-occur, as do their symptoms at sub-diagnostic threshold levels. Overlapping traits and shared genetic liability are potential explanations.

Methods: In the population-based Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort study (MoBa), we leverage item-level data to explore the phenotypic factor structure and genetic architecture underlying neurodevelopmental traits at age 3 years (N = 41,708-58,630) using maternal reports on 76 items assessing children's motor and language development, social functioning, communication, attention, activity regulation, and flexibility of behaviors and interests.

Correlates of intention to screen for cervical cancer among adult women in Kyotera District, Central Uganda: a community based cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Cervical cancer continues to pose a major public health challenge in low-income countries. Cervical cancer screening programs enable early detection and effectively reduce the incidence of cervical cancer as well as late-stage diagnosis and mortality. However, screening uptake remains suboptimal in Uganda.

Editorial: Are government early years learning and development frameworks evidence-based? A scientist's perspective.

Not all young children attend nurseries, childminders or other group settings before they start school, but many do. It is common for countries to set out a framework to guide practice for early years providers (such as nurseries) to follow. The conundrum regarding these frameworks for young children is that proving evidence of a causal link between early environments and later outcomes is very challenging scientifically.

Genetics of environmental sensitivity and its association with variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing.

Greater environmental sensitivity has been associated with increased risk of mental health problems, especially in response to stressors, and lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, sensitivity also correlates with lower risk of emotional problems in the absence of adversity, and in response to positive environmental influences. Additionally, sensitivity has been found to correlate positively with autistic traits.

OMI-based emission source classification in East China and its spatial redistribution in view of pollution control measures.

This study aims to generate a satellite-based qualitative emission source characterization for the heavily polluted eastern part of China in the 2010-2016 time period. The applied source identification technique relies on satellite-based NO and SO emission estimates by OMI, their SO:NO ratio, and the MIX anthropogenic emission inventory to distinguish emissions from different emission categories (urban, industrial, natural) and characterize the dominant source per 0.25° × 0.

Sustained looking at faces at 5 months of age is associated with socio-communicative skills in the second year of life.

Efficiently processing information from faces in infancy is foundational for nonverbal communication. We studied individual differences in 5-month-old infants' (N = 517) sustained attention to faces and preference for emotional faces. We assessed the contribution of genetic and environmental influences to individual differences in these gaze behaviors, and the association between these traits and other concurrent and later phenotypes.

Indication as a predictor for outcomes in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: The impact of myelopathy on disposition.

Background: While the indication for Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) may influence the expected postoperative course, there is limited data comparing how length of stay (LOS) and disposition for patients with myelopathy differ from those with radiculopathy. This study aimed to compare LOS and discharge disposition, in patients undergoing ACDF for cervical radiculopathy versus those for myelopathy.

Methods: A retrospective review of all adult ACDF cases between 2013 and 2019 was conducted analyzing sex, age, race, comorbidities, level of surgery, myelopathy measures when applicable, complications, dysphagia, hospital LOS, and discharge disposition.

Phenotypic and Genetic Associations Between Preschool Fine Motor Skills and Later Neurodevelopment, Psychopathology, and Educational Achievement.

Background: Fine motor skills are heritable and comprise important milestones in development, and some evidence suggests that impairments in fine motor skills are associated with neurodevelopmental conditions, psychiatric disorders, and poor educational outcomes.

Methods: In a preregistered study of 9625 preschool children from TEDS (Twins Early Development Study), fine motor assessments (drawing, block building, folding, and questionnaires) were conducted at 2, 3, and 4 years of age. A cross-age fine motor score was derived using principal component analysis.

Infants' looking preferences for social versus non-social objects reflect genetic variation.

To what extent do individual differences in infants' early preference for faces versus non-facial objects reflect genetic and environmental factors? Here in a sample of 536 5-month-old same-sex twins, we assessed attention to faces using eye tracking in two ways: initial orienting to faces at the start of the trial (thought to reflect subcortical processing) and sustained face preference throughout the trial (thought to reflect emerging attention control). Twin model fitting suggested an influence of genetic and unique environmental effects, but there was no evidence for an effect of shared environment. The heritability of face orienting and preference were 0.

Sub-types of insomnia in adolescents: Insights from a quantitative/molecular twin study.

Background: Insomnia with short sleep duration has been postulated as more severe than that accompanied by normal/long sleep length. While the short duration subtype is considered to have greater genetic influence than the other subtype, no studies have addressed this question. This study aimed to compare these subtypes in terms of: (1) the heritability of insomnia symptoms; (2) polygenic scores (PGS) for insomnia symptoms and sleep duration; (3) the associations between insomnia symptoms and a wide variety of traits/disorders.

Satellite reveals a steep decline in China's CO emissions in early 2022.

Response actions to the coronavirus disease 2019 perturbed economies and carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. The Omicron variant that emerged in 2022 caused more substantial infections than in 2020 and 2021 but it has not yet been ascertained whether Omicron interrupted the temporary post-2021 rebound of CO emissions. Here, using satellite nitrogen dioxide observations combined with atmospheric inversion, we show a larger decline in China's CO emissions between January and April 2022 than in those months during the first wave of 2020.

Developmental milestones in early childhood and genetic liability to neurodevelopmental disorders.

Background: Timing of developmental milestones, such as age at first walking, is associated with later diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, its relationship to for neurodevelopmental disorders in the general population is unknown. Here, we investigate associations between attainment of early-life language and motor development milestones and genetic liability to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and schizophrenia.

Editorial: What's in a name? Drawing on the examples of autism and schizophrenia, some reflections on diagnostic labels and their future role in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Ten years have passed since the release of DSM-5, which brought with it some notable changes in diagnostic labels. In this editorial, the impact of labels, and the changes in labels used in child and adolescent psychiatry, are discussed, with examples drawn from autism and schizophrenia. The diagnostic labels that children and adolescents receive feed into their treatment access and future potential but also to their self-identities.