Color enhancement of Fetească neagră wines by using pectolytic enzymes during maceration

Red wine is the result of red grape must fermentation and the parallel extraction of various polyphenolic compounds from the grape berry skin. The aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of pectolytic enzymes addition during maceration fermentation on the chromatic characteristics of the Fetească neagră wine.An increase in concentrations of anthocyanins was observed when pectolytic enzymes were used during maceration fermentation process

Coordinating Interdependencies in an Open Source Software Project: A Replication of Lindberg, et al.

The current study is a full replication (conceptual and empirical) of “Coordinating Interdependencies in Online Communities: A Study of an Open Source Software Project” Lindberg et al (2016), which addresses the question of how OSS communities address unresolved interdependencies. Following the original study, we analyze project development data, archived in the GitHub repository, for the OSS project Rubinius. The analysis explores relationships among development and developer interdependencies as well as activity and order variation. Further, we extend the original study by examining the core relationships in the original study and investigating the external generalizability of the results by replicating the analysis on three analogous OSS projects: JRuby, mruby, and RubyMotion. These offer an opportunity to evaluate the generalizability of the original study to projects of different sizes and amount of activity, yet similar otherwise to the project in the original study. Another extension is the use of an additional control variable, length of activity sequence, which proves to have substantial implications of the study’s focal relationships. We find that three out of the four projects we analyze support the findings of the original study as it pertains to four relationships in the original study: order variation and developer interdependencies, activity variation and developer interdependencies, order variation and development interdependencies, and development and developer interdependencies. We also discuss the implications of our findings, especially in cases where the replication results differ from those in the original study and offer suggestions for future research that can help advance this stream of research

Long-term consequences of traumatic experiences: an assessment of former political detainees in romania

BACKGROUND: Research has suggested that organized violence and torture have long-term psychological effects that persist throughout the lifespan. The present survey aimed at examining the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other disorders and symptoms, all present in old age, as long-term consequences of politically motivated violence in a comparison design. METHODS: A group of former political detainees (N = 59, mean age 73.5 years) who had been arrested by the Romanian communist regime were compared to an age- and gender-matched control group (N = 39). PTSD was assessed using a structured clinical interview (CIDI). The investigation of the clinical profile was further accomplished by self-rating measures for anxiety, depression, and health-related functioning, as well as by clinician-administrated interviews for substance abuse, dissociation, and somatization symptoms. RESULTS: Lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 54%. In the case of participants left untreated, PTSD persisted, often over four decades, such that current PTSD was diagnosed still in a third of the survivors. Other clinical conditions such as somatization, substance abuse, dissociative disorders, and major depression were also common among the former political detainees and often associated with current PTSD. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that political detention may have long-term psychological consequences that outlast the changes in the political system

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SPORT ORGANIZATIONS IN CARAȘ-SEVERIN COUNTY

Background: The beginning of 2020, more precisely the month of March, when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, represents the beginning of one of the darkest pages in the history of world sport. The reason is a well-known one, namely the fact that the implementation of measures to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have led to the cessation of competitions and the training process, for certain periods of time, in almost all sports. The aim of this study was to see how these measures have influenced the sports activity in Romania, especially that of the sports organizations from Caraş-Severin County (C-S). Thus, a number of 43 sports organizations from CS County were targeted, of which 39.3% being clubs/associations that work only at the level of children and juniors, 12.5% are clubs/associations that have only senior team, and 48.2% are clubs/associations that have both senior team and children/junior teams. All participants agreed that information could be processed and used for scientific purpose, and the study has obtained Research Ethics Approval from The Scientific Council of the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. Methods: An online questionnaire survey was conducted, with 31 items, which aimed to outline an accurate picture of the existing situation among sports organizations, which was the situation of sports competitions in 2020, respectively the 2019-2020 season, which was the situation of the training process in the 10 pandemic months of 2020, but more importantly, what are the current situation of the training process and that of the competitive system. Results: Compared to the sports activity carried out at the level of CS county, a number of 8 team sports and a number of 12 individual sports were taken into account, the answers offered being in proportion of 73% from the coaches from team sports, and 27% from individual sports coaches. It was observed that in team sports 78% of the respondents showed that the 2020-2021 competitive season had not yet started until January 2021, while 14.6% it started and was interrupted. Only 7.3% of the teams are in full competition season, the 2020-2021 championship not being embodied due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also found that after the resumption of stopped training, as a result of the application of measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic, the number of children decreased both in individual sports and team games. Conclusion: Based on the results, we can see the negative impact of sports organizations that are in the lower leagues, as well as those that are at the level of children and juniors. The fact that training has not been resumed, the measures imposed by the pandemic, the fear induced by a possible infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus can cause the disappearance of a significant number of sports organizations, which will have a negative effect not only on the performance sport, but also on the level of public health. REZUMAT. Impactul covid-19 asupra antrenamentului în organizațiilor sportive din județul Caraș-Severin. Introducere: Începutul anului 2020, mai exact luna martie, atunci când a fost declarată pandemia de Covid-19, repre¬zintă debutul uneia dintre cele mai negre pagini din istoria sportului mondial. Motivul este unul arhicunoscut şi anume, implementarea unor măsuri de preve¬nire a răspândirii virusului SARS-CoV-2 au determinat sistarea competiţiilor şi a procesului de antrenament, pentru anumite perioade de timp, în aproape toate ramurile sportive. Tocmai pentru a vedea modul în care aceste măsuri au influenţat activitatea sportivă din România, în special cea a organizaţiilor sportive din judeţul Caraş-Severin (C-S), a fost iniţiat acest studio. Astfel, au fost vizate un număr de 43 de organizații sportive care își desfășoară activitatea în județul C-S, dintre acestea 39,3% fiind cluburi/asociații care activează doar la nivel de copii și juniori, 12,5% sunt cluburi/asociații care au doar echipă seniori, iar 48,2% sunt cluburi/asociații care au atât echipă seniori, cât și echipe de copii și juniori. Metode: A fost realizat o anchetă pe bază de chestionar online, cu 31 de itemi, care a urmărit conturarea unei imagini cât mai exacte a situaţiei existente în rândul organizaţiilor sportive, care a fost situaţia competiţiilor sportive în anul 2020, respective sezonul 2019-2020, care a fost situaţia pro¬cesului de antrenament în cele 10 luni pandemice din anul 2020, dar şi mai important, care sunt situaţia actuală a procesului de antrenament și cea a sistemului competițional. Rezultate: Raportat la activitatea sportivă desfăşurată la nivelul județului C-S au fost avute în vedere un număr de 8 sporturi de echipă și un număr de 12 sporturi individuale, răspunsurile oferite fiind în proporție de 73% de la antrenorii de la sporturile de echipă, iar 27% de la antrenorii de la sporturi individuale. S-a putut observa că la sporturile de echipă 78% dintre respondenți au arătat că sezonul competițional 2020-2021 încă nu începuse până în luna ianuarie a anului 2021, iar pentru 14,6% a început și a fost întrerupt. Doar 7,3% dintre echipe sunt în plin sezon competițional, campionatul 2020-2021 neîntrupându-se din cauza pandemiei de Covid-19. De asemenea, s-a putut constata că după reluarea antrenamentelor sistate, ca urmare a aplicării măsurilor de prevenție a răspândirii pandemiei, numărul de copii a înregistrat o scădere atât la nivelul sporturilor individuale, cât şi la jocurile de echipă. Concluzii: Ca urmare a rezultatelor se poate constata pericolul în care se află organizaţiile sportive care îşi desfăşoară activitatea în ligile inferioare, precum şi cele care activează la nivel de copii şi juniori. Faptul că nu au mai fost reluate antrenamentele, măsurile de prevenire a răspândirii pandemiei, teama indusă de o posibilă infectare cu virusul SARS-CoV-2 poate cauza dispariţia unui număr important de organizaţii sportive, ceea ce va avea un efect negativ nu doar asupra sportului de performanţă, ci şi asupra nivelului de sănătate publică. Cuvinte-cheie: cluburi sportive, pandemie Covid-19, antrenament, competiție, lockdown

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Gambling

Introduction. Gambling is a well-known social issue, which seems to address immediate needs of a large portion of population in the entire world. Throughout various periods of curfews enacted by the medical authorities, the society experiences various challenges, a fact that puts a great amount of psychological pressure on gamblers and their families, that is rather difficult to be asssessed.Aim. The presentation seeks to assess the effects of anti-pandemic social measures, especially those imposed after March 2020, on mental wellfare and behaviour of bettors. By assessing the intentions and measures related to sport competitions in the near future, we tried to identify the overall impact on spending routines and lifestyle from any available data.Materials and method. The paper found sources in the psychological and medical literature in order to identify spending routines of bettors and pathological behaviours, as expressed in DSM-5. The paper also discusses the factors introduced into society by coronavirus and the restrictions that accompanied the phenomenon of gambling. Sources from the international media are used to assess the intended measures upon gambling industry and the possible general impact on the mental health of the Romanian population.Results. The changes of some social routines, imposed upon population in the context of coronavirus, are simply supposed to be accompanied by increases in depression and anxiety. The new economic and societal challenges bring with them the risk of increasing mental health disturbances among the gamblers.Conclusion. Worldwide gambling spending has decreased during the pandemic. Various attempts of assessing whether this is a bad phenomenon or not should take into consideration the amount of money left in the economy by these measures, the unpaid taxes from a reduced activity in gambling, the psychiatric impact upon diagnosed gamblers. New lockdowns imposed on the population are possible in the near future, so better ways to deal with the impact upon gamblers are necessary.</p

Psychological, social and welfare interventions for psychological health and well-being of torture survivors

Background: Torture is widespread, with potentially broad and long-lasting impact across physical, psychological, social and other areas of life. Its complex and diverse effects interact with ethnicity, gender, and refugee experience. Health and welfare agencies offer varied rehabilitation services, from conventional mental health treatment to eclectic or needs-based interventions. This review is needed because relatively little outcome research has been done in this field, and no previous systematic review has been conducted. Resources are scarce, and the challenges of providing services can be considerable. Objectives: To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological, social and welfare interventions for torture survivors, and to comp are these effects with those reported by active and inactive controls. Search methods: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were identified through a search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINA HL), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTR AL) and the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Specialise d Register (CCDANCTR), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Information Database (LILACS), the Open System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (OpenSIGLE), the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) and Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) all years to 11 April 2013; searches of Cochrane resources, international trial registries and the main biomedical databases were updated on 20 June 2014. We also searched the On line Library of Dignity (Danish Institute against Torture), reference lists of reviews and included studies and the most frequently cited journals, up to April 2013 but not repeated for 2014. Investigators were contacted to provide updates or details as necessary. Selection criteria: Full publications of RCTs or quasi-RCTs of psychological, social or welfare interventions for survivors of torture against any active or inactive comparison condition. Data collection and analysis: We included all major sources of grey literature in our search and used standard methodological procedures as expected by The Cochrane Collaboration for collecting data, evaluating risk of bias and using GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methods to assess the quality of evidence. Main results: Nine RCTs were included in this review. All were of psychological interventions; none provided social or welfare interventions. The nine trials provided data for 507 adults; none involved children or adolescents. Eight of the nine studies described individual treatment, and one discussed group treatment. Six trials were conducted in Europe, and three in different African countries. Most people were refugees in their thirties and forties; most met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the outset. Four trials used narrative exposure therapy (NET), one cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT ) and the other four used mixed methods for trauma symptoms, one of which included reconciliation methods. Five interventions were compared with active controls, such as psychoeducation; four used treatment as usual or waiting list/no treatment; we analysed all control conditions together. Duration of therapy varied from one hour to longer than 20 hours with a median of around 12 to 15 hours. All trials reported effects on distress and on PTSD, and two reported on quality of life. Five studies followed up participants for at least six months. No immediate benefits of psychological therapy were noted in comparison with controls in terms of our primary outcome of distress (usually depression), nor for PTSD symptoms, PTSD caseness, or quality of life. At six-month follow-up, three NET and one CBT study (86 participants) showed moderate effect sizes for intervention over control in reduction of distress (standardised me an difference (SMD) -0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.07 to -0.19) and of PTSD symptoms (SMD -0.52, 95% CI -0.97 to -0.07). However, the quality of evidence was very low, and risk of bias resulted from researcher/therapist allegiance to treatment methods, effects of uncertain asylum status of some people and real-time non-standardised translation of assessment measures. No measures of adverse events were described, nor of participation, social functioning, quantity of social or family relationships, proxy measures by third parties or satisfaction with treatment. Too few studies were identified for review authors to attempt sensitivity analyses. Authors’ conclusions: Very low-quality evidence suggests no differences between psychological therapies and controls in terms of immediate effects on post- traumatic symptoms, distress or quality of life; however, NET and CBT were found to confer moderate benefits in reducing dis tress and PTSD symptoms over the medium term (six months after treatment). Evidence was of very low quality, mainly because non- standardised assessment methods using interpreters were applied, and sample sizes were very small. Most eligible trials also revealed medium to high risk of bias. Further, attention to the cultural appropriateness of interventions or to their psychometric qualities was inadequate, and assessment measures used were unsuitable. As such, these findings should be interpreted with caution. No data were available on whether symptom reduction enabled improvements in quality of life, participation in community life, or in social and family relationships in the medium term. Details of adverse events and treatment satisfaction were not available immediately after treatment nor in the medium term. Future research should aim to address these gaps in the evidence and should include larger sample sizes when possible. Problems of torture survivors need to be defined far more broadly than by PTSD symptoms, and re cognition given to the contextual influences of being a torture survivor, including as an asylum seeker or refugee, on psychological and social health

Internet-based Self-Assessment after the Tsunami: lessons learned

BACKGROUND: In the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster in 2004, an online psychological self-assessment (ONSET) was developed and made available by the University of Zurich in order to provide an online screening instrument for Tsunami victims to test if they were traumatized and in need of mental health care. The objective of the study was to report the lessons learnt that were made using an Internet-based, self-screening instrument after a large-scale disaster and to discuss its outreach and usefulness. METHODS: Users of the online self-assessment decided after finishing the procedure whether their dataset could be used for quality control and scientific evaluation Their answers were stored anonymously only if they consented (which was the case in 88% of the sample), stratified analyses according to level of exposure were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 2,914 adult users gave their consent for analysis of the screenings. Almost three quarter of the sample filled out the ONSET questionnaire within the first four weeks. Forty-one percent of the users reported direct exposure to the Tsunami disaster. Users who were injured by the Tsunami and users who reported dead or injured family members showed the highest degree of PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSION: ONSET was used by a large number of subjects who thought to be affected by the catastrophe in order to help them decide if they needed to see a mental health professional. Furthermore, men more frequently accessed the instrument than women, indicating that Internet-based testing facilitates reaching out to a different group of people than "ordinary" public mental health strategies

Treating children traumatized by war and Tsunami: A comparison between exposure therapy and meditation-relaxation in North-East Sri Lanka

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The North-Eastern part of Sri Lanka had already been affected by civil war when the 2004 Tsunami wave hit the region, leading to high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. In the acute aftermath of the Tsunami we tested the efficacy of two pragmatic short-term interventions when applied by trained local counselors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A randomized treatment comparison was implemented in a refugee camp in a severely affected community. 31 children who presented with a preliminary diagnosis of PTSD were randomly assigned either to six sessions Narrative Exposure Therapy for children (KIDNET) or six sessions of meditation-relaxation (MED-RELAX). Outcome measures included severity of PTSD symptoms, level of functioning and physical health.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In both treatment conditions, PTSD symptoms and impairment in functioning were significantly reduced at one month post-test and remained stable over time. At 6 months follow-up, recovery rates were 81% for the children in the KIDNET group and 71% for those in the MED-RELAX group. There was no significant difference between the two therapy groups in any outcome measure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>As recovery rates in the treatment groups exceeded the expected rates of natural recovery, the study provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of NET as well as meditation-relaxation techniques when carried out by trained local counselors for the treatment of PTSD in children in the direct aftermath of mass disasters.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT00820391</p

Negative and positive childhood experiences across developmental periods in psychiatric patients with different diagnoses – an explorative study

BACKGROUND: A high frequency of childhood abuse has often been reported in adult psychiatric patients. The present survey explores the relationship between psychiatric diagnoses and positive and negative life events during childhood and adulthood in psychiatric samples. METHODS: A total of 192 patients with diagnoses of alcohol-related disorders (n = 45), schizophrenic disorders (n = 52), affective disorders (n = 54), and personality disorders (n = 41) completed a 42-item self-rating scale (Traumatic Antecedents Questionnaire, TAQ). The TAQ assesses personal positive experiences (competence and safety) and negative experiences (neglect, separation, secrets, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, trauma witnessing, other traumas, and alcohol and drugs abuse) during four developmental periods, beginning from early childhood to adulthood. Patients were recruited from four Psychiatric hospitals in Germany, Switzerland, and Romania; 63 subjects without any history of mental illness served as controls. RESULTS: The amount of positive experiences did not differ significantly among groups, except for safety scores that were lower in patients with personality disorders as compared to the other groups. On the other side, negative experiences appeared more frequently in patients than in controls. Emotional neglect and abuse were reported in patients more frequently than physical and sexual abuse, with negative experiences encountered more often in late childhood and adolescence than in early childhood. The patients with alcohol-related and personality disorders reported more negative events than the ones with schizophrenic and affective disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings add evidence to the relationship between retrospectively reported childhood experiences and psychiatric diagnoses, and emphasize the fact that a) emotional neglect and abuse are the most prominent negative experiences, b) adolescence is a more 'sensitive' period for negative experiences as compared to early childhood, and c) a high amount of reported emotional and physical abuse occurs in patients with alcohol-related and personality disorders respectively