In my dissertation, I will present my research which contributes to solve the following three open problems from biomedical informatics: (1) Multi-task approaches for microarray classification; (2) Multi-label classification of gene and protein prediction from multi-source biological data; (3) Spatial scan for movement data. In microarray…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not decreased articulation of speech played a role in the ability of an individual with Down syndrome or Fragile X syndrome to signal noncomprehension and whether the two groups differed in their levels of articulation of speech and noncomprehension signaling ability. The research was conducted…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder characterized in part by anxiety and behavioral difficulties. We examine the effectiveness and adverse effects of antidepressant, anxiolytic, and antipsychotic medications in individuals with WS. A total of 513 parents/caregivers completed a survey of psychotropic medication usage…

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common developmental disorder often associated with other developmental disorders including speech, language, and reading disorders. Here, we review the principal features of ADHD and current diagnostic standards for the disorder. We outline the ADHD subtypes, which are based upon the dimensions…

Autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are heterogeneous complex neuro-developmental disorders characterized by dysfunctions in social interaction and communication skills. Their pathogenesis has been linked to interactions between genes and environmental factors. Consistent with the evidence of certain similarities between immune cells and…

An essential understanding about brain-based education is that most neuroscientists don't teach and most teachers don't do research. It's unrealistic to expect neuroscientists to reveal which classroom strategies will work best. That's not appropriate for neuroscientists, and most don't do that. Many critics could cite this as a weakness, but it's…

Typically developing (TD) 6-year-olds and 9-year-olds, and older children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) navigated through brick-wall mazes in a virtual environment. Participants were shown a route through three mazes, each with 6 turns. In each maze the floor of each path section was a different colour such that colour acted as an…

Purpose: Recently, Simberg et al. (2009) found genetic effects on a composite variable consisting of 6 vocal symptom items measuring dysphonia. The purpose of the present study was to determine genetic and environmental effects on the individual vocal symptoms in a population-based sample of Finnish twins. Method: The sample comprised 1,728 twins…

A recent meta-analysis of 103 studies Burt ("Clinical Psychology Review," 29:163-178, 2009a) highlighted the presence of etiological distinctions between aggressive (AGG) and non-aggressive rule-breaking (RB) dimensions of antisocial behavior, such that AGG was more heritable than was RB, whereas RB was more influenced by the shared…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined the impact of sampling context on multiple aspects of expressive language in male participants with fragile X syndrome in comparison to male participants with Down syndrome or typical development. Method: Participants with fragile X syndrome (n = 27), ages 10-17 years, were matched groupwise on…

We studied the gestures used by children with classic Rett syndrome (RTT) to provide evidence as to how this essential aspect of communicative functions develops. Seven participants with RTT were longitudinally observed between 9 and 18 months of life. The gestures used by these participants were transcribed and coded from a retrospective analysis…

The autism phenotype is associated with an excess of brain volume due in part to decreased pruning during development. Here we aimed at assessing brain volume early in development to further elucidate previous findings in autism and determine whether this pattern is restricted to idiopathic autism or shared within the autistic phenotype (fragile X…

Sensation seeking is associated with an increased propensity for delinquency, and emerging research on personality change suggests that mean levels of sensation seeking increase substantially from childhood to adolescence. The current study tested whether individual differences in the rate of change of sensation seeking predicted within-person…

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have impairments in visuospatial tasks and in manual visuomotor control, consistent with parietal and cerebellar abnormalities. Here we examined whether individuals with WS also have difficulties in visually controlling whole-body movements. We investigated visual control of stepping down at a change of…

Molecular similarity is one of the strongest lines of evidence for evolution--and one of the most difficult for students to grasp. That is because the underlying observations--that identical mutations are found in closely related species and the degree of similarity decreases with evolutionary distance--are not visible to the human eye. And it's…