The consent process for research studies can be burdensome for potential participants due to complex information and lengthy consent forms. This pragmatic study aimed to improve the consent experience and evaluate its impact on participant decision making, study knowledge, and satisfaction with the In Our DNA SC program, a population-based genomic screening initiative. We compared two consent procedures: standard consent (SC) involving a PDF document and enhanced consent (EC) incorporating a pictograph and true or false questions. Decision-making control, study knowledge, satisfaction, and time to consent were assessed. We analyzed data for 109 individuals who completed the SC and 96 who completed the EC. Results indicated strong decision-making control and high levels of knowledge and satisfaction in both groups. While no significant differences were found between the two groups, the EC experience took longer for participants to complete. Future modifications include incorporating video modules and launching a Spanish version of the consent experience. Overall, this study contributes to the growing literature on consent improvements and highlights the need to assess salient components and explore participant preferences for receiving consent information.

Impairment in reciprocal social behavior (RSB), an essential component of early social competence, clinically defines autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the behavioral and genetic architecture of RSB in toddlerhood, when ASD first emerges, has not been fully characterized. We analyzed data from a quantitative video-referenced rating of RSB (vrRSB) in two toddler samples: a community-based volunteer research registry (n = 1,563) and an ethnically diverse, longitudinal twin sample ascertained from two state birth registries (n = 714). Variation in RSB was continuously distributed, temporally stable, significantly associated with ASD risk at age 18 months, and only modestly explained by sociodemographic and medical factors (r2 = 9.4%). Five latent RSB factors were identified and corresponded to aspects of social communication or restricted repetitive behaviors, the two core ASD symptom domains. Quantitative genetic analyses indicated substantial heritability for all factors at age 24 months (h2 ≥ .61). Genetic influences strongly overlapped across all factors, with a social motivation factor showing evidence of newly-emerging genetic influences between the ages of 18 and 24 months. RSB constitutes a heritable, trait-like competency whose factorial and genetic structure is generalized across diverse populations, demonstrating its role as an early, enduring dimension of inherited variation in human social behavior. Substantially overlapping RSB domains, measurable when core ASD features arise and consolidate, may serve as markers of specific pathways to autism and anchors to inform determinants of autism's heterogeneity.

Targets have been developed to measure supersonic radiation transport in aerogel foams using absorption spectroscopy. The target consists of an aerogel foam uniformly doped with either titanium or scandium inserted into an undoped aerogel foam package. This creates a localized doped foam region to provide spatial resolution for the measurement. Development and characterization of the foams is a key challenge in addition to machining and assembling the two foams so they mate without gaps. The foam package is inserted into a beryllium sleeve and mounted on a gold hohlraum. The target is mounted to a holder created using additive manufacturing and mounted on a stalk. The manufacturing of the components, along with assembly and metrology of the target are described here.

Recurring glacial outburst floods from the Yukon-Tanana Upland are inferred from sediments exposed along the Yukon River near the mouth of Charley River in east-central Alaska. Deposits range from imbricate gravel and granules indicating flow locally extending up the Yukon valley, to more distal sediments consisting of at least 10 couplets of planar sands, granules, and climbing ripples with up-valley paleocurrent indicators overlain by massive silt. An interglacial organic silt, occurring within the sequence, indicates at least two flood events are associated with an earlier glaciation, and at least three flood events are associated with a later glaciation which postdates the organic silt. A minimum age for the floods is provided by a glass fission track age of 560,000 ± 80,000 yr on the GI tephra, which occurs 8 m above the flood beds. A maximum age of 780,000 yr for the floods is based on normal magnetic polarity of the sediments. These age constraints allow us to correlate the flood events to the early-middle Pleistocene. And further, the outburst floods indicate extensive glaciation of the Yukon-Tanana Upland during the early-middle Pleistocene, likely representing the most extensive Pleistocene glaciation of the area.

Repeated outburst flooding from glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, affected large areas of Washington during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 2 (29–14 ka). We present the first high-resolution rock magnetic results from two sites that are critical to interpreting these outburst floods and that provide evidence of sediment provenance: glacial Lake Missoula, the source of the floods; and glacial Lake Columbia, where floodwaters interrupted sedimentation. Magnetic carriers in glacial Lake Missoula varves are dominated by hematite, whereas those in outburst flood sediments and glacial Lake Columbia sediments are mainly magnetite and titano-magnetite. Stratigraphic variation of magnetic parameters is consistent with changes in lithology. Importantly, magnetic properties highlight depositional processes in the flood sediments that are not evident in the field. In glacial Lake Columbia, hematite is present in fine silt and clay deposited near the end of each flood as fine sediment settled out of the water column. This signal is only present at the end of the floods because the hematite is concentrated in the finer-grained sediment transported from the floor of glacial Lake Missoula, the only possible source of hematite, ~ 240 km away.

Executive function impairments in Parkinson’s disease (PD) are well documented. However, uncertainties remain regarding the impact of these deficits on other areas of cognitive functioning. The goal of this study was to provide a comprehensive assessment of cognitive characteristics in patients with PD without dementia and to assess how any such deficits affected other areas of cognitive functioning. Forty PD patients without dementia were compared to healthy controls using measures of attention and speed of processing and a comprehensive set of executive function tests including working memory, planning, and problem solving. Measures of memory/learning and visuospatial skills were also included to examine the relationship between aspects of executive function and other areas of cognition. Patients with PD showed deficits on measures of executive function, problem solving, and visuospatial skills. However, they were unimpaired on measures of planning, attention, and memory/learning. Deficits in problem solving were only evident for tasks with a high visuospatial content and were no longer significant when visuospatial skills were controlled for. While deficits in executive function and visuospatial skills were apparent for PD patients compared to controls, many aspects of cognition remained intact. These can provide a focus for cognitive intervention strategies that can be effective in delaying decline for PD patients. (JINS, 2010, 16, 268–277.)