Ecological momentary assessment using patient smartphones: a pilot study in depression (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a promising tool in the management of psychiatric disorders and particularly depression; it allows for a real-time evaluation of symptoms and an earlier detection of relapse or efficiency of the treatment associated. The generalization of the smartphone in modern societies also offers a new large-scale support for EMA. Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility in terms of compliance as well as graphic rendering and user experience of an EMA with patients suffering from unipolar depression. Method: Eleven patients at La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital were followed during 28 days with the help of a smartphone application installed on the patient’s personal smartphones. The results of the real-time collected data were reviewed during three follow-up consultations, by a psychiatrist interacting with the patient, on a “dashboard” aggregating all the patient’s data in a user-friendly manner. Results: Seven patients out of eleven have followed the protocol for its total length of time. Two patients continue to fill in the questionnaires without showing for the consultation which suggests that EMA is easy to use with a good compliance. The global response rate to the questionnaires was 58% with an average follow-up duration of 21 days out of 28 days in total. In light of the results in terms of graphic rendering and patient’s satisfaction, we strongly believe that EMA should be the focus on follow-up and early intervention studies.

Writing systems and linguistic identity of the Vlach community of Eastern Serbia

In this article we examine, from a predominantly sociolinguistic perspective, the writing systems created throughout time for the graphic rendering of the variety of Romanian spoken by the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia. We especially investigate what influences the choice of a script (Latin or Cyrillic), of orthographic conventions and of a writing system, and how this choice correlates with the ideological attitude (reintegrationist or independentist) of the proponents. To this end, we analyse the writing systems used for rendering the vernacular in “Vorba noastră”, the first publication in the local variety (1945–1948), and the systems put forward in the last 20 years by the members of the community engaged in political and linguistic debates (Paun Es Durlić, Dragomir Dragić, Slavoljub Gacović, Ljubiša lu Boža Kići, the “Gergina” Association). The analysis and the comparison of the systems attest to the importance of the ideological, social and political factors in creating and imposing an orthography for an unwritten idiom.

Transfer of dynamic motor skills acquired during isometric training to free motion

Recent studies have explored the prospects of learning to move without moving, by displaying virtual arm movement related to exerted force. However, it has yet to be tested whether learning the dynamics of moving can transfer to the corresponding movement. Here we present a series of experiments that investigate this isometric training paradigm. Subjects were asked to hold a handle and generate forces as their arms were constrained to a static position. A precise simulation of reaching was used to make a graphic rendering of an arm moving realistically in response to the measured interaction forces and simulated environmental forces. Such graphic rendering was displayed on a horizontal display that blocked their view to their actual (statically constrained) arm and encouraged them to believe they were moving. We studied adaptation of horizontal, planar, goal-directed arm movements in a velocity-dependent force field. Our results show that individuals can learn to compensate for such a force field in a virtual environment and transfer their new skills to the actual free motion condition, with performance comparable to practice while moving. Such nonmoving techniques should impact various training conditions when moving may not be possible. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study provided early evidence supporting that training movement skills without moving is possible. In contrast to previous studies, our study involves 1) exploiting cross-modal sensory interactions between vision and proprioception in a motionless setting to teach motor skills that could be transferable to a corresponding physical task, and 2) evaluates the movement skill of controlling muscle-generated forces to execute arm movements in the presence of external forces that were only virtually present during training.