Comparison of Bacterial Risk in Cryo AHF and Pathogen Reduced Cryoprecipitated Fibrinogen Complex.

Until November 2020, cryoprecipitated antihaemophilic factor (cryo AHF) was the only United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved fibrinogen source to treat acquired bleeding. The post-thaw shelf life of cryo AHF is limited, in part, by infectious disease risk. Concerns over product wastage demand that cryo AHF is thawed as needed, with thawing times delaying the treatment of coagulopathic patients. In November 2020, the FDA approved Pathogen Reduced Cryoprecipitated Fibrinogen Complex for the treatment and control of bleeding, including massive hemorrhage, associated with fibrinogen deficiency. Pathogen Reduced Cryoprecipitated Fibrinogen Complex (also known as INTERCEPT® Fibrinogen Complex, IFC) has a five-day post-thaw room-temperature shelf life. Unlike cryo AHF, manufacturing of IFC includes broad spectrum pathogen reduction (Amotosalen + UVA), enabling this extended post-thaw shelf life. In this study, we investigated the risk of bacterial contamination persisting through the cryoprecipitation manufacturing process of cryo AHF and IFC. Experiments were performed which included spiking plasma with bacteria prior to cryoprecipitation, and bacterial survival was analyzed at each step of the manufacturing process. The results show that while bacteria survive cryo AHF manufacturing, IFC remains sterile through to the end of shelf life and beyond. IFC, with a five-day post-thaw shelf life, allows the product to be sustainably thawed in advance, facilitating immediate access to concentrated fibrinogen and other key clotting factors for the treatment of bleeding patients.

How Teaching Perspective Taking to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders Affects Social Skills: Findings from Research and Suggestions for Practitioners.

Behavior-analytic practitioners working with individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may be approached to incorporate perspective taking into a client's programming. Teaching perspective taking to individuals with ASDs has received attention in both the developmental psychology and, more recently, the behavior-analytic literature. The results of our review of the current evidence suggest that although perspective-taking repertoires believed to be related to social skills can be taught (false belief task performance, deictic frames), only directly teaching the social skills of interest (or applied perspective-taking skills) results in improvements in socially important behavior. The aim of this article is to provide practitioners with the current state of research on how teaching perspective taking affects social skills and to provide suggestions on how these findings might be incorporated into their practice.

Teaching children with autism to respond to conversation partners' interest.

Successful conversation requires that the speaker's behavior is sensitive to nonvocal listener responses. We observed children with autism spectrum disorder during conversation probes in which a listener periodically displayed nonvocal cues that she was uninterested in the conversation. We used behavioral skills training to teach conversation skills. First, we taught participants to tact nonvocal listener behavior (interested or uninterested), but this was insufficient to improve responding aimed at regaining listener interest. Participants were then taught to ask a question (Experiments 1 and 2) or change the topic (Experiment 2) when the listener was uninterested. Responding persisted over time and with changes in the stimulus conditions. The behavior change was also deemed socially valid by blind observers. In Experiment 3, participants learned to shift to the other trained response when exposed to extinction. This study illustrates a set of procedures for bringing speaker behavior under control of nonvocal listener cues.

Some indirect effects of positive practice overcorrection.

We evaluated the effects of positive practice overcorrection (PP OC) on levels of motor stereotypy and appropriate engagement in the activity practiced during treatment with 3 young men with autism. We also measured preference for the practiced activities during preference probes to determine if these activities might acquire aversive properties as a result of the frequent pairing with PP OC. Treatment reduced motor stereotypy for all 3 participants, and engagement increased for 2 of the 3 participants. Relative preference for the activities was not disrupted by the implementation of PP OC, although overall contact with the activities decreased for 1 participant. Results from 1 participant suggest that PP OC may be less effective when stereotypy results in access to a more highly preferred activity.

Resurgence of infant caregiving responses.

Two experiments were conducted to identify the conditions likely to produce resurgence among adult human participants. The preparation was a simulated caregiving context, wherein a recorded infant cry sounded and was terminated contingent upon targeted caregiving responses. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated resurgence with human participants in this negative reinforcement preparation. Results of Experiment 2 showed that responses with a longer history of reinforcement showed a stronger resurgence effect relative to responses with a shorter and more recent history of reinforcement. These results show that the resurgence phenomenon occurs across populations and types of reinforcers. Additionally, results indicate that length of reinforcement history is a variable that may affect the magnitude of resurgence.