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- Creators: Braden, Brittany B
Description
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental neuropsychiatric condition with early childhood onset, thus most research has focused on characterizing brain function in young individuals. Little is understood about brain function differences in middle age and older adults with ASD, despite evidence of persistent and worsening cognitive symptoms. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in younger persons with ASD demonstrate that large-scale brain networks containing the prefrontal cortex are affected. A novel, threshold-selection-free graph theory metric is proposed as a more robust and sensitive method for tracking brain aging in ASD and is compared against five well-accepted graph theoretical analysis methods in older men with ASD and matched neurotypical (NT) participants. Participants were 27 men with ASD (52 +/- 8.4 years) and 21 NT men (49.7 +/- 6.5 years). Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans were collected for six minutes (repetition time=3s) with eyes closed. Data was preprocessed in SPM12, and Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF) was used to extract 116 regions-of-interest defined by the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas. AAL regions were separated into six large-scale brain networks. This proposed metric is the slope of a monotonically decreasing convergence function (Integrated Persistent Feature, IPF; Slope of the IPF, SIP). Results were analyzed in SPSS using ANCOVA, with IQ as a covariate. A reduced SIP was in older men with ASD, compared to NT men, in the Default Mode Network [F(1,47)=6.48; p=0.02; 2=0.13] and Executive Network [F(1,47)=4.40; p=0.04; 2=0.09], a trend in the Fronto-Parietal Network [F(1,47)=3.36; p=0.07; 2=0.07]. There were no differences in the non-prefrontal networks (Sensory motor network, auditory network, and medial visual network). The only other graph theory metric to reach significance was network diameter in the Default Mode Network [F(1,47)=4.31; p=0.04; 2=0.09]; however, the effect size for the SIP was stronger. Modularity, Betti number, characteristic path length, and eigenvalue centrality were all non-significant. These results provide empirical evidence of decreased functional network integration in pre-frontal networks of older adults with ASD and propose a useful biomarker for tracking prognosis of aging adults with ASD to enable more informed treatment, support, and care methods for this growing population.
ContributorsCatchings, Michael Thomas (Author) / Braden, Brittany B (Thesis advisor) / Greger, Bradley (Thesis advisor) / Schaefer, Sydney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The chromatic number $\chi(G)$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is the minimum
number of colors needed to color $V(G)$ such that no adjacent vertices
receive the same color. The coloring number $\col(G)$ of a graph
$G$ is the minimum number $k$ such that there exists a linear ordering
of $V(G)$ for which each vertex has at most $k-1$ backward neighbors.
It is well known that the coloring number is an upper bound for the
chromatic number. The weak $r$-coloring number $\wcol_{r}(G)$ is
a generalization of the coloring number, and it was first introduced
by Kierstead and Yang \cite{77}. The weak $r$-coloring number $\wcol_{r}(G)$
is the minimum integer $k$ such that for some linear ordering $L$
of $V(G)$ each vertex $v$ can reach at most $k-1$ other smaller
vertices $u$ (with respect to $L$) with a path of length at most
$r$ and $u$ is the smallest vertex in the path. This dissertation proves that $\wcol_{2}(G)\le23$ for every planar graph $G$.
The exact distance-$3$ graph $G^{[\natural3]}$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$
is a graph with $V$ as its set of vertices, and $xy\in E(G^{[\natural3]})$
if and only if the distance between $x$ and $y$ in $G$ is $3$.
This dissertation improves the best known upper bound of the
chromatic number of the exact distance-$3$ graphs $G^{[\natural3]}$
of planar graphs $G$, which is $105$, to $95$. It also improves
the best known lower bound, which is $7$, to $9$.
A class of graphs is nowhere dense if for every $r\ge 1$ there exists $t\ge 1$ such that no graph in the class contains a topological minor of the complete graph $K_t$ where every edge is subdivided at most $r$ times. This dissertation gives a new characterization of nowhere dense classes using generalized notions of the domination number.
number of colors needed to color $V(G)$ such that no adjacent vertices
receive the same color. The coloring number $\col(G)$ of a graph
$G$ is the minimum number $k$ such that there exists a linear ordering
of $V(G)$ for which each vertex has at most $k-1$ backward neighbors.
It is well known that the coloring number is an upper bound for the
chromatic number. The weak $r$-coloring number $\wcol_{r}(G)$ is
a generalization of the coloring number, and it was first introduced
by Kierstead and Yang \cite{77}. The weak $r$-coloring number $\wcol_{r}(G)$
is the minimum integer $k$ such that for some linear ordering $L$
of $V(G)$ each vertex $v$ can reach at most $k-1$ other smaller
vertices $u$ (with respect to $L$) with a path of length at most
$r$ and $u$ is the smallest vertex in the path. This dissertation proves that $\wcol_{2}(G)\le23$ for every planar graph $G$.
The exact distance-$3$ graph $G^{[\natural3]}$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$
is a graph with $V$ as its set of vertices, and $xy\in E(G^{[\natural3]})$
if and only if the distance between $x$ and $y$ in $G$ is $3$.
This dissertation improves the best known upper bound of the
chromatic number of the exact distance-$3$ graphs $G^{[\natural3]}$
of planar graphs $G$, which is $105$, to $95$. It also improves
the best known lower bound, which is $7$, to $9$.
A class of graphs is nowhere dense if for every $r\ge 1$ there exists $t\ge 1$ such that no graph in the class contains a topological minor of the complete graph $K_t$ where every edge is subdivided at most $r$ times. This dissertation gives a new characterization of nowhere dense classes using generalized notions of the domination number.
ContributorsAlmulhim, Ahlam (Author) / Kierstead, Henry (Thesis advisor) / Sen, Arunabha (Committee member) / Richa, Andrea (Committee member) / Czygrinow, Andrzej (Committee member) / Fishel, Susanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020