People with autism are typically diagnosed by clinical observation and assessment. To deconstruct the clinical decision process, which is often subjective and difficult to describe, researchers used a large language model (LLM) to synthesize the behaviors and observations that are most indicative of an autism diagnosis. Their results, publishing in the Cell Press journal Cell, show that repetitive behaviors, special interests, and perception-based behaviors are most associated with an autism diagnosis. These findings have potential to improve diagnostic guidelines for autism by decreasing the focus on social factors—which the established guidelines in the DSM-5 focus on but the model did not classify among the most relevant in diagnosing autism. 

A new type of ‘vaccine scepticism’ has been uncovered by researchers at Lancaster University, who examined a nine-million-word corpus of tweets looking at vaccine comparisons and evaluations.

A new history of women stockbrokers, authored by a Lancaster University professor, captures the stories of the businesswomen who fought against the odds to establish successful brokerages across the country and, in the process, challenged society's beliefs about women and money.

Jorge Mira Pérez of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and José María Martín Olalla of the Universidad de Sevilla have analysed the responses to the public consultation organised by the European Commission in 2018 on changing the clocks.

Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement