The Link between Food Traceability and Food Labels in the Perception of Young Consumers in Italy

The research analyzed the perception of food traceability among consumers in Italy and the role of food labels in supporting consumer information about food traceability. The components (health, quality, product origin and many others) that are involved in the concept of food traceability were examined and the most important ones were identified. An online survey (n=511 consumers) was carried out in Milan in the north of Italy. Students and employees from the Bocconi University were selected in order to investigate the relevance of food traceability in consumer purchasing decisions. An ordered logit regression was applied.The findings confirm that consumers are interested in various components of food traceability and look for labels that provide information on the product supply chain. The research confirms that traceability is important in the food market and some types of labels on product features (as product sustainability or origin) are associated with it

Music therapy microanalysis of parent-infant interaction in a three-month-old infant later diagnosed with autism

Background Infant research literature has described for a long time the main aspects of parentese (motherese and fatherese) referring to musicality and specifically to musical language. It is believed that there is a deep analogy between the vital affects experienced by the child during interaction with the parent and the type of parentese that is a direct representation of them. Disruption of parentese has been described in early autism. The aim of this paper was to achieve a better understanding of this disruptive process. Participants and procedure Sequences of parent-infant interaction extracted from one home movie of a child later diagnosed with autism were analyzed in a micro-musical way in order to create a musical score that allows the description of parent-infant interaction in a new way (considering form, pulse, rhythm, melody, timbre and silence). Results Musical microanalysis is able to highlight features not brought out by other kinds of analysis. The first fragment is dominated by the anxiety of the mother, who attempts to stimulate the unresponsive infant. In the second fragment there is a change in musicality parallel to changes in the relationship: the mother participates in and coordinates the infant’s experience through rhythm, prosody and musical dynamics. This change persists in the third fragment. Conclusions Musical transcription of parent-infant interactions has allowed us to highlight changes occurring in a short time during early interactions and to get a closer view of the disruptive process created by autism. This kind of research represents a potential shift in autism research, by focusing on dynamic parent-infant interactions instead of single behaviors of the child or of the parent. The usefulness of Stern’s concept of intersubjective communion is discussed.Background Infant research literature has described for a long time the main aspects of parentese (motherese and fatherese) referring to musicality and specifically to musical language. It is believed that there is a deep analogy between the vital affects experienced by the child during interaction with the parent and the type of parentese that is a direct representation of them. Disruption of parentese has been described in early autism. The aim of this paper was to achieve a better understanding of this disruptive process. Participants and procedure Sequences of parent-infant interaction extracted from one home movie of a child later diagnosed with autism were analyzed in a micro-musical way in order to create a musical score that allows the description of parent-infant interaction in a new way (considering form, pulse, rhythm, melody, timbre and silence). Results Musical microanalysis is able to highlight features not brought out by other kinds of analysis. The first fragment is dominated by the anxiety of the mother, who attempts to stimulate the unresponsive infant. In the second fragment there is a change in musicality parallel to changes in the relationship: the mother participates in and coordinates the infant’s experience through rhythm, prosody and musical dynamics. This change persists in the third fragment. Conclusions Musical transcription of parent-infant interactions has allowed us to highlight changes occurring in a short time during early interactions and to get a closer view of the disruptive process created by autism. This kind of research represents a potential shift in autism research, by focusing on dynamic parent-infant interactions instead of single behaviors of the child or of the parent. The usefulness of Stern’s concept of intersubjective communion is discussed

Rapporto 2007. Quadro degli interventi di prevenzione, cura e riabilitazione sul consumo di droghe nella provincia di Rimini.

Report on the state of legal and illegal substances use in the territory of Rimini province.La relazione ? articolata in 3 parti. Nella prima - diffusione delle sostanze - vengono riportati gli ultimi dati relativi alla stima dei consumatori di sostanze psicotrope nella provincia di Rimini attraverso la sintesi di due indagini sulla popolazione generale (indagine Ipsad?) e sulla popolazione studentesca di et? 15-19 anni (indagine Espad-Italia?). Una seconda parte - attivit? dei servizi - in cui vengo descritte non solo le caratteristiche delle persone che accedono ai servizi per le dipendenze pubblici e privati, compresa il Carcere di Rimini, ma anche le risposte fornite in termini di cura e riabilitazione. Una terza parte - interventi sul territorio - in cui vengono descritte le attivit? sia di prevenzione sia di contrasto all\u27uso. Risulta particolarmente interessante una prima valutazione delle attivit? realizzata all\u27interno dei piani di zona dei comuni di Rimini e Riccione

The impact of internalizing symptoms on autistic traits in adolescents with restrictive anorexia nervosa

Background: Although previous studies indicated a positive association between restrictive anorexia-nervosa (AN-R) and autistic traits, the potential interference of psychiatric internalizing comorbidity on this association is not yet fully investigated. Materials and methods: The aim of this study was to explore autistic traits and internalizing psychopathology in adolescents (age range: 11.7–17.2 years) with AN-R. Twenty-five patients referred to two tertiary-care hospitals were compared to a large control group (N=170) with no differences in age and sex. AN-R patients and controls filled out instruments assessing autistic traits (autism spectrum quotient [AQ]), psychopathology (youth self-report [YSR] 11–18), and eating patterns (eating attitude test [EAT]). In order to disentangle the possible mediating role of internalizing symptoms on autistic traits, two separate control groups (called True and False healthy control, both composed of 25 eating-problem-free participants) were derived from the whole control group on the basis of the presence or absence of internalizing problems in the YSR. Results: AN-R patients scored significantly higher on AQ compared to the whole control group and to controls without internalizing problems (True HC), but these differences disappeared when only controls with internalizing problems (False HC) were considered. Conclusion: Autistic traits in AN-R individuals may have been overestimated and may partly be due to comorbid internalizing symptoms in investigated patients

Moving Toward Telehealth Surveillance Services for Toddlers at Risk for Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since 2016, the project "Early Bird Diagnostic Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)" funded by the Italian Ministry of Health has been operative at IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris (FSM), Pisa (IT), with the main aim of developing early age-specific diagnostic protocols by longitudinally enrolling two different populations at risk for ASD: (i) toddlers with older siblings with ASD (FR) and (ii) toddlers referred by a child psychiatrist or pediatrician for suspected ASD (CR). On January 30, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), 136 patients (85 FR; 51 CR; 93 males; 43 females) had been enrolled in the project with 324 completed time points and 64 still missing. Considering both the huge psychological burden on families with toddlers at risk for ASD during the lockdown and the longitudinal studies reporting the positive "surveillance effect" in terms of a better outcome in at-risk toddlers, our priority has been to maintain regular contact and support to enrolled families. To do this, the research team, being authorized for smart-working research activities, has set up a detailed remote surveillance protocol (RSP). The RSP includes three online interviews and one online video registration of parent-child play. In the current community case study, the authors report the telehealth procedure and discuss possible future directions in developing remote assessment and new evaluation modalities for ecological parent-child play video recordings in at-risk populations. Hopefully, the surveillance protocol will further improve our ability to detect risk and activate early tailored intervention

Gut to brain interaction in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A randomized controlled trial on the role of probiotics on clinical, biochemical and neurophysiological parameters

Background: A high prevalence of a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms is frequently reported in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The GI disturbances in ASD might be linked to gut dysbiosis representing the observable phenotype of a "gut-brain axis" disruption. The exploitation of strategies which can restore normal gut microbiota and reduce the gut production and absorption of toxins, such as probiotics addition/supplementation in a diet, may represent a non-pharmacological option in the treatment of GI disturbances in ASD. The aim of this randomized controlled trial is to determine the effects of supplementation with a probiotic mixture (Vivomixx®) in ASD children not only on specific GI symptoms, but also on the core deficits of the disorder, on cognitive and language development, and on brain function and connectivity. An ancillary aim is to evaluate possible effects of probiotic supplementation on urinary concentrations of phthalates (chemical pollutants) which have been previously linked to ASD. Methods: A group of 100 preschoolers with ASD will be classified as belonging to a GI group or to a Non-GI (NGI) group on the basis of a symptom severity index specific to GI disorders. In order to obtain four arms, subjects belonging to the two groups (GI and NGI) will be blind randomized 1:1 to regular diet with probiotics or with placebo for 6 months. All participants will be assessed at baseline, after three months and after six months from baseline in order to evaluate the possible changes in: (1) GI symptoms; (2) autism symptoms severity; (3) affective and behavioral comorbid symptoms; (4) plasmatic, urinary and fecal biomarkers related to abnormal intestinal function; (5) neurophysiological patterns. Discussion: The effects of treatments with probiotics on children with ASD need to be evaluated through rigorous controlled trials. Examining the impact of probiotics not only on clinical but also on neurophysiological patterns, the current trial sets out to provide new insights into the gut-brain connection in ASD patients. Moreover, results could add information to the relationship between phthalates levels, clinical features and neurophysiological patterns in ASD. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02708901. Retrospectively registered: March 4, 2016

Parental perspectives on psychiatric comorbidity in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders receiving publicly funded mental health services

An increased prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity (PC) in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is consistently reported. While several studies have examined PC in school-aged children, adolescents and adults with ASD, investigations on PC in preschoolers are less common. In this study, we explore the prevalence and the type of PC in a sample of 989 preschoolers with ASD through the DSM-Oriented Scales (DOS) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1½-5) and their possible links with the core features of ASD and cognitive functioning. Results indicated that 37.8% of the sample had at least one PC in addition to ASD; these subjects displayed significantly higher Total score (p = 0.02) and Social Affect score (p = 0.003) on the ADOS-based calibrated severity scores (CSS), as well as lower (p ≤ 0.0001) performance IQ (pIQ) compared to ASD individuals without PC. As far as the specific DOS, Affective Problems (AP) were detected in 23.4% of the whole sample, ADHD Problems (ADHD) in 17.3%, Anxiety Problems (AXP) in 16.7%, and Oppositional Problems (OP) in 7.9%. These different comorbidities were isolated in 195 subjects (Mono-comorbid group: 19.7% of the whole sample), while 179 subjects (18.1% of the whole sample) had two or more types of PC (Multi-comorbid group). One-way ANOVA revealed that subjects with multi-comorbidity have statistically significant lower pIQ and higher Total score and Social Affect score on CSS-ADOS. Specific differences for each type of comorbidity and gender differences were also discussed. Taken together, results indicate a considerable presence of PC in preschoolers with ASD that should be accurately considered during the assessment and diagnosis process in order to plan a tailored intervention based not only on core symptoms of ASD, but also on comorbid psychiatric condition since preschool age

High-Risk Siblings without Autism: Insights from a Clinical and Eye-Tracking Study

Joint attention (JA)—the human ability to coordinate our attention with that of other people—is impaired in the early stage of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, little is known about the JA skills in the younger siblings of children with ASD who do not develop ASD at 36 months of age [high-risk (HR)-noASD]. In order to advance our understanding of this topic, a prospective multicenter observational study was conducted with three groups of toddlers (age range: 18–33 months): 17 with ASD, 19 with HR-noASD and 16 with typical development (TD). All subjects underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment and an eye-tracking experiment with pre-recorded stimuli in which the visual patterns during two tasks eliciting initiating joint attention (IJA) were measured. Specifically, fixations, transitions and alternating gaze were analyzed. Clinical evaluation revealed that HR-noASD subjects had lower non-verbal cognitive skills than TD children, while similar levels of restricted and repetitive behaviors and better social communication skills were detected in comparison with ASD children. Eye-tracking paradigms indicated that HR-noASD toddlers had visual patterns resembling TD in terms of target-object-to-face gaze alternations, while their looking behaviors were similar to ASD toddlers regarding not-target-object-to-face gaze alternations. This study indicated that high-risk, unaffected siblings displayed a shared profile of IJA-eye-tracking measures with both ASD patients and TD controls, providing new insights into the characterization of social attention in this group of toddlers

Impact of sleep disorders on behavioral issues in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundSleep disorders are one of the most common problems in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, they often tend to be underdiagnosed and incorrectly treated in clinical practice. This study aims to identify sleep disorders in preschool children with ASD and to explore their relationship with the core symptoms of autism, the child's developmental and cognitive level as well as the psychiatric comorbidities. MethodsWe recruited 163 preschool children with a diagnosis of ASD. The Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) assessed sleep conditions. Multiple standardized tests were used to evaluate intellectual abilities, the presence of repetitive behaviors (through the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised), as well as the emotional-behavioral problems and the psychiatric comorbidities (through the Child Behavior Checklist -CBCL 1(1/2)-5). ResultsThe results showed that poor disorders had consistently higher scores in all areas assessed by the CSHQ and on the CBCL across all domains. The correlational analysis showed that severe sleep disorders were associated with higher scores in internalizing, externalizing, and total problems at the CBCL syndromic scales, and in all DSM-oriented CBCL subscales. Moreover, we found that the association between sleep disorders and restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) is explained by the anxiety-related symptoms. ConclusionBased on these findings, the study recommends that screening for sleep problems followed by early intervention should constitute a routine part of clinical practice for children with ASD