Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning (RISE): Scalable online replications of key findings in infant cognitive development.

The current article describes the Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning, a battery intended to provide robust looking time measures of cognitive development that can be administered remotely to inform our understanding of individual developmental trajectories in typical and atypical populations, particularly infant siblings of autistic children. This battery was developed to inform our understanding of early cognitive and language development in infants who will later receive a diagnosis of autism. Using tasks that have been successfully implemented in lab-based paradigms, we included assessments of attention, memory, prediction, word recognition, numeracy, multimodal processing, and social evaluation.

Spatially resolved detection of small molecules from press-dried plant tissue using MALDI imaging.

Premise: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) is a chemical imaging method that can visualize spatial distributions of particular molecules. Plant tissue imaging has so far mostly used cryosectioning, which can be impractical for the preparation of large-area imaging samples, such as full flower petals. Imaging unsectioned plant tissue presents its own difficulties in extracting metabolites to the surface due to the waxy cuticle.

From Augmented to Virtual Reality in Plastic Surgery: Blazing the Trail to a New Frontier.

Background:  Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)-termed mixed reality-have shown promise in the care of operative patients. Currently, AR and VR have well-known applications for craniofacial surgery, specifically in preoperative planning. However, the application of AR/VR technology to other reconstructive challenges has not been widely adopted.

Dementia, Sex, and Consent: Beyond the Uncomplicated Cases.

This commentary responds to Samuel Director's article "Dementia and Concurrent Consent to Sexual Relations," in the May-June 2023 issue of the Hastings Center Report. In the article, Director sets out a set of conditions for sexual consent after one partner in a committed, long-term relationship develops dementia. While we share Director's view that dementia patients should not be categorically cut off from sexual intimacy, we caution against the use of his approach as a rigid test for allowing sexual activity.

Exploring communicative competence in autistic children who are minimally verbal: The Low Verbal Investigatory Survey for Autism (LVIS).

Approximately one in three autistic children is unable to communicate with language; this state is often described as minimally verbal. Despite the tremendous clinical implications, we cannot predict whether a minimally verbal child is simply delayed (but will eventually develop spoken language) or will continue to struggle with verbal language, and might therefore benefit from learning an alternative form of communication. This is important for clinicians to know, to be able to choose the most helpful interventions, such as alternative forms of communication.

Shorter average look durations to dynamic social stimuli are associated with higher levels of autism symptoms in young autistic children.

Many studies of autism look at the differences in how autistic research participants look at certain types of images. These studies often focus on where research participants are looking within the image, but that does not tell us everything about how much they are paying attention. It could be useful to know more about how well autistic research participants can focus on an image with people in it, because those who can look at images of people for longer duration without stopping may be able to easily learn other skills that help them to interact with people.

Distance from Typical Scan Path When Viewing Complex Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Association with Behavior.

Eye-tracking is often used to study attention in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous research has identified multiple atypical patterns of attention in children with ASD based on areas-of-interest analysis. Fewer studies have investigated gaze path, a measure which is dependent on the dynamic content of the stimulus presented.

A Six-Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet-based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguished between toddlers with ASD and non-ASD toddlers. Using vocal data collected during this study, we investigated whether vocalizations uttered during administration of this app can distinguish among toddlers aged 16-31 months with typical development (TD), language or developmental delay (DLD), and ASD.

Autism Heterogeneity in a Densely Sampled U.S. Population: Results From the First 1,000 Participants in the RI-CART Study.

The objective of this study was to establish a large, densely sampled, U.S. population-based cohort of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The advantages of peer review over arbitration for resolving authorship disputes.

A recent commentary argued for arbitration to resolve authorship disputes within academic research settings explaining that current mechanisms to resolve conflicts result in unclear outcomes and institutional power vested in senior investigators could compromise fairness. We argue here that arbitration is not a suitable means to resolve disputes among researchers in academia because it remains unclear who will assume the costs of arbitration, the rules of evidence do not apply to arbitration, and decisions are binding and very difficult to appeal. Instead of arbitration, we advocate for peer-based approaches involving a peer review committee and research ethics consultation to help resolve authorship disagreements.

Empowering Patients with Alzheimer's Disease To Avoid Unwanted Medical Care: A Look At The Dementia Care Triad.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia with acute medical problems, who have lost capacity and are without advance directives, are at risk of being over treated inhospitals. To deal with this growing demographic and ethical crisis, patients with dementia need to plan for their future medical care while they have capacity to do so. This article will examine the role of each member of the dementia care triad and how to empower the patient to participate in planning future medical care.

Perception of Cry Characteristics in 1-Month-Old Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study investigates parental perceptions of cries of 1-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-ASD controls. Parents of children with and without ASD listened to cry recordings of infants later diagnosed with ASD and comparison infants and rated them on cry perception scales. Parents completed the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) to assess the potential relations between traits associated with autism and cry perception.

Swaps and Chains and Vouchers, Oh My!: Evaluating How Saving More Lives Impacts the Equitable Allocation of Live Donor Kidneys.

Live kidney donation involves a delicate balance between saving the most lives possible and maintaining a transplant system that is fair to the many thousands of patients on the transplant waiting list. Federal law and regulations require that kidney allocation be equitable, but the pressure to save patients subject to ever-lengthening waiting times for a transplant has been swinging the balance toward optimizing utility at the expense of justice. This article traces the progression of innovations created to make optimum use of a patient's own live donors.

Can civil lawsuits stem the tide of direct-to-consumer marketing of unproven stem cell interventions.

The sale of unproven stem cell interventions (SCIs) by commercial entities has proliferated in highly developed countries, most notably in the USA. Yet, there have been few criminal prosecutions and regulatory enforcement actions against providers who have violated laws and best practice standards due to the lack of resources and legal ambiguity. While the stem cell research community has invested much in protecting patients and preventing the growth of this industry, some patients are seeking remedies under civil law to hold stem cell clinics responsible for fraudulent practices.

Sensitivity to audio-visual synchrony and its relation to language abilities in children with and without ASD.

Unlabelled: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often accompanied by deficits in speech and language processing. Speech processing relies heavily on the integration of auditory and visual information, and it has been suggested that the ability to detect correspondence between auditory and visual signals helps to lay the foundation for successful language development. The goal of the present study was to examine whether young children with ASD show reduced sensitivity to temporal asynchronies in a speech processing task when compared to typically developing controls, and to examine how this sensitivity might relate to language proficiency.

Attempting to "Increase Intake from the Input": Attention and Word Learning in Children with Autism.

Previous work has demonstrated that social attention is related to early language abilities. We explored whether we can facilitate word learning among children with autism by directing attention to areas of the scene that have been demonstrated as relevant for successful word learning. We tracked eye movements to faces and objects while children watched videos of a woman teaching them new words.

Infants' early visual attention and social engagement as developmental precursors to joint attention.

This study examined infants' early visual attention (at 1 month of age) and social engagement (4 months) as predictors of their later joint attention (12 and 18 months). The sample (n = 325), drawn from the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a longitudinal multicenter project conducted at 4 centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, included high-risk (cocaine-exposed) and matched noncocaine-exposed infants. Hierarchical regressions revealed that infants' attention orienting at 1 month significantly predicted more frequent initiating joint attention at 12 (but not 18) months of age.

Maternal and infant affect at 4 months predicts performance and verbal IQ at 4 and 7 years in a diverse population.

Using existing longitudinal data from 570 infants in the Maternal Lifestyle Study, we explored the predictive value of maternal and infant affect and maternal vocalizations during 2 minutes of face-to-face interactions at 4 months on IQ scores at 4.5 and 7 years. After controlling for demographic factors, maternal depression, and prenatal drug exposure, maternal positive affect and maternal positive vocalizations emerged as predictors of both verbal and performance IQ at 4.

BARTERING FOR A COMPATIBLE KIDNEY USING YOUR INCOMPATIBLE, LIVE KIDNEY DONOR: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES RELATED TO KIDNEY CHAINS.

Kidney chains are a recent and novel method of increasing the number of available kidneys for transplantation and have the potential to save thousands of lives. However, because they are novel, kidney chains do not fit neatly within existing legal and ethicalframeworks, raising potential barriers to their full implementation. Kidney chains are an extension of paired kidney donation, which began in the United States in 2000.

Optical biosensors for bacteria detection by a peptidomimetic antimicrobial compound.

In this work we present a label-free optical biosensor for rapid bacteria detection using a novel peptide-mimetic compound, as the recognition element. The biosensor design is based on an oxidized porous silicon (PSiO2) nanostructure used as the optical transducer, functionalized with the sequence K-[C12K]7 (referred to as K-7α12), which is a synthetic antimicrobial peptide. This compound is a member of a family of oligomers of acylated lysines (OAKs), mimicking the hydrophobicity and charge of natural antimicrobial peptides.

Tethered Lipid Bilayers within Porous Si Nanostructures: A Platform for (Optical) Real-Time Monitoring of Membrane-Associated Processes.

The importance of cell membranes in biological systems has prompted the development of artificial lipid bilayers, which can mimic the cellular membrane structure. Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) have emerged as a promising avenue for studying basic membrane processes and for possible biotechnological applications. Conventional methods for SLB formation involve the spreading of lipid vesicles on hydrophilic solid supports.

Attention to the mouth and gaze following in infancy predict language development.

We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the speaker's attentional shift to the object she was describing.