Rationale and protocol for using a smartphone application to study autism spectrum disorders: SMARTAUTISM

INTRODUCTION: Longitudinal studies on the evolution of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms are limited and have primarily used repeated measurements performed several months apart. However, measurements of changes in everyday life should more closely reflect the \u27real life\u27 of the patient and his or her family. We propose to study the child\u27s ASD symptoms and their effect on the quality of life, psychological status and anxiety of the child\u27s parents over a 6-month period using SMARTAUTISM, a smartphone application. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: This is a prospective, longitudinal, exploratory, open study with a 6-month follow-up period. Data will be recorded longitudinally over multiple weeks under natural conditions. The factors affecting the quality of life and anxiety of parents of children with ASD and the children\u27s functional symptoms will be examined, and the feasibility of using a smartphone application designed for parents of ASD patients will be assessed. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Explore the evolution of a child\u27s behaviour over 6 months and the (psychological and social) effects of these changes on the family. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: Assess the feasibility of our application by examining the filling rate and application usage by parents for 6 months. 100 families containing 1 child diagnosed with ASD will be included. At baseline, sociodemographic, psychiatric and medical data will be recorded. The correlations of the general epidemiological variables (primary outcome measure) will be evaluated via multivariate analysis. The application filling rate (relative to the ideal filling rate) will be used to assess the feasibility of the application (secondary outcome measure). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The SMARTAUTISM study has the approval of the local ethics committee, and data security will be ensured via the use of encryption and a secure medical server. The use of this application will be proposed at autism resource centres across France

Meeting report: a hard look at the state of enamel research.

The Encouraging Novel Amelogenesis Models and Ex vivo cell Lines (ENAMEL) Development workshop was held on 23 June 2017 at the Bethesda headquarters of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Discussion topics included model organisms, stem cells/cell lines, and tissues/3D cell culture/organoids. Scientists from a number of disciplines, representing institutions from across the United States, gathered to discuss advances in our understanding of enamel, as well as future directions for the field

The workings of the single member plurality electoral system in India and the need for reform

India uses single member plurality system (SMPS) to elect the members of the lower house of its national parliament and the state assemblies. Under SMPS, elections are conducted for separate geographical areas, known as constituencies or districts, and the electors cast one vote each for a candidate with the winner being the candidate who gets the plurality of votes. SMPS is traditionally defended primarily on the grounds of simplicity and its tendency to produce winning candidates, which promotes a link between constituents and their representatives. It tends to provide a clear-cut choice for voters between two main parties, and is expected to gives rise to single-party rather than coalition governments. It also has the benefit of excluding extremist parties from gaining representation, unless their support is geographically concentrated

Party-group relations in new southern European democracies in the crisis era

UID/CPO/04627/2013 PTDC/IVC-CPO/1864/2014publishersversionpublishe