The effect of different degrees of lockdown and self-identified gender on anxiety, depression and suicidality during the COVID-19 pandemic : Data from the international COMET-G study

Publisher Copyright: © 2022Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic various degrees of lockdown were applied by countries around the world. It is considered that such measures have an adverse effect on mental health but the relationship of measure intensity with the mental health effect has not been thoroughly studied. Here we report data from the larger COMET-G study pertaining to this question. Material and Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, data were gathered with an online questionnaire from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Anxiety was measured with the STAI, depression with the CES-D and suicidality with the RASS. Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively. Statistical Analysis: It included the calculation of Relative Risk (RR), Factorial ANOVA and Multiple backwards stepwise linear regression analysis Results: Approximately two-thirds were currently living under significant restrictions due to lockdown. For both males and females the risk to develop clinical depression correlated significantly with each and every level of increasing lockdown degree (RR 1.72 and 1.90 respectively). The combined lockdown and psychiatric history increased RR to 6.88 The overall relationship of lockdown with severity of depression, though significant was small. Conclusions: The current study is the first which reports an almost linear relationship between lockdown degree and effect in mental health.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Interventions to promote or maintain physical activity during and after the transition to retirement: an evidence synthesis

Background: It has been argued that transition points in life, such as the approach towards and early years of retirement, present key opportunities for interventions to improve the health of the population. Interventions that may change or preserve activity levels around the time of retirement have the potential to provide benefits in terms of increased health and well-being for people in later life. Research has highlighted health inequalities in health statuses in the retired population and in response to interventions. Objective: We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-synthesis of the types and effectiveness of interventions to increase physical activity among people around the time of retirement. We also aimed to identify factors that may underpin the effectiveness or acceptability of interventions, and how issues of health inequalities may be addressed. Data sources: The following electronic databases were searched: (1) MEDLINE; (2) Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts; (3) The Cochrane Library (including The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Health Technology Assessment Database); (4) Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; (5) Science Citation Index; (6) Social Science Citation Index; (7) PsycINFO; (8) Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre; (9) SPORTDiscus; (10) Social Policy and Practice; (11) Health Management Information Consortium; and (12) Sociological Abstracts. We also searched for grey literature, checked reference lists of included papers and screened other reviews. Review methods: A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative literature was carried out between February 2014 and April 2015. The searches aimed to identify, first, evidence of effectiveness of interventions for older adults at the point of transition to retirement and, second, data relating to perceptions of barriers and facilitators to intervention effectiveness. A meta-synthesis of the two types of evidence was also carried out to provide further interpretation of the review findings. Results: A systematic search of the literature identified a large number of potentially relevant studies. Of these, 103 studies examining the effectiveness of interventions and 55 qualitative papers met the criteria for inclusion. A review of the effectiveness literature indicated a dearth of studies that investigate interventions that specifically examine the transition to retirement. More general studies in older adults indicated that a range of interventions might be effective for people around retirement age. The qualitative literature indicated the importance of considering the appeal and enjoyment, and social aspects, of interventions. Although there were a range of different measures in use, many were self-reported and few studies included an evaluation of sedentary time. A meta-synthesis across the data types indicated that elements reported as significant by participants did not always feature in the interventions. Limitations: Owing to the lack of evidence relating to the retirement transition, we examined the literature relating to older adults. The applicability of these data to people around retirement age may need consideration. Conclusions: Although the retirement transition is considered a significant point of life change, only a small volume of literature has reported interventions specifically in this period. The included literature suggests that interventions should take account of views and preferences of the target population and evaluate effectiveness by measuring meaningful outcomes and using a control group design. Study registration: This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42014007446. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme

The CoMET multiperspective event tracker for wide field-of-view gamma-ray astronomy

International audienceThe CoMET R&D project focuses on the development of a new technique for the observation of very high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-rays from the ground at energies above ~200 GeV, thus covering emission from soft-spectrum sources. The CoMET array under study combines 1242 particle detector units, distributed over a circular area of ~160 m in diameter and placed at a very high altitude (5.1 km), with atmospheric Cherenkov light detectors.The atmospheric Cherenkov light detectors, inspired by the "HiSCORE" design and improved for the energy range of interest, can be operated together with the particle detectors during clear nights. As such, the instrument becomes a Cosmic Multiperspective Event Tracker (CoMET). CoMET is expected to improve the reconstruction of arrival direction, energy and shower maximum determination for $\gamma$-ray-induced showers during darkness, which is crucial for the reduction of background contamination from cosmic rays. Prototypes of both particle and atmospheric Cherenkov light detectors are already installed at Linnaeus University in Sweden, while in parallel we simulate the full detector response and estimate the reconstruction improvement for $\gamma$-ray events.In this contribution, we present Monte-Carlo simulations of the detector array, consisting of CORSIKA shower simulations and custom detector response simulations, together with the coupling of particle and atmospheric Cherenkov light information, the reconstruction strategy of the complete array and the detection performance on point-like VHE $\gamma$-ray sources

On Water Ice in Cometary Outbursts

Cometary outbursts are brief, but potentially strong, mass-loss events, likely caused by a wide range of phenomena [1]. Using near-infrared (near-IR) spectroscopy, water ice grains have been observed in the ejecta of some cometary outbursts. These detections present us with opportunities to study the properties of a cometary ice, and potentially infer the properties of the nucleus at the site of the event. We present a detailed analysis of a large outburst (∆m~3 mag) of comet 243P/NEAT that occurred in December 2018, at 2.55 au from the Sun. Our study combines photometry, imaging, and spectroscopy with dynamical and thermophysical models of dust and ice grains. Overall, the outburst ejected ~10[SUP]8[/SUP] kg of dust. We find no photometric or spectroscopic evidence for water ice in our data, which includes near-IR spectroscopy (1─2.5 μm) taken 4 days after the outburst. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily imply that water ice was not ejected by the outburst. Specifically, we consider the possibility that the ejecta from 243P had ice with the same properties as comet C/2013 US[SUB]10[/SUB] (Catalina): micrometer-sized grains mixed with a small fraction of low-albedo dust, ~0.5% by volume [2]. These physical properties can account for our 243P/NEAT observations on thermophysical and dynamical grounds, i.e., the icy grains are depleted in our spectroscopic slit due to ice sublimation and their expansion speed. The lack of water ice absorption features in our near-IR spectrum is in stark contrast to the outbursts of comets 17P/Holmes and P/2010 H2 (Vales), which had the signatures of water ice 7 and 6 days post-outburst, respectively [3,4], despite occurring at similar heliocentric distances and spanning a wide range of ejected masses (10[SUP]8[/SUP] kg for Vales, 10[SUP]11[/SUP] kg for Holmes) [5]. We consider the dynamical and thermophysical properties of water ice grains in each event, and discuss three possibilities for the differences: (1) that the site of the 243P outburst has a low abundance of water ice caused by surface processing or natal heritage; (2) that ice observed at Holmes and/or Vales was not from the original outburst, but instead produced after the event; and/or, (3) that a diversity of water ice properties exists in the comet population. We conclude that further studies of cometary outbursts that combine dynamical, spectroscopic, and thermophysical considerations will help advance our general understanding of water ice in comets. 1: Hughes 1990, QJRAS, 31, 69 ; 2: Protopapa et al. 2018, ApJL, 862, 16 ; 3: Yang et al. 2009, AJ 137, 4538 ; 4: Yang and Sarid 2010, DPS 42, 5.09 ; 5: Ishiguro et al. 2016, AJ 152, 16

COMET Phase-I Technical Design Report

International audienceThe Technical Design for the COMET Phase-I experiment is presented in this paper. COMET is an experiment at J-PARC, Japan, which will search for neutrinoless conversion of muons into electrons in the field of an aluminum nucleus (⁠|$\mu$|–|$e$| conversion, |$\mu^{-}N \rightarrow e^{-}N$|⁠); a lepton flavor-violating process. The experimental sensitivity goal for this process in the Phase-I experiment is |$3.1\times10^{-15}$|⁠, or 90% upper limit of a branching ratio of |$7\times 10^{-15}$|⁠, which is a factor of 100 improvement over the existing limit. The expected number of background events is 0.032. To achieve the target sensitivity and background level, the 3.2 kW 8 GeV proton beam from J-PARC will be used. Two types of detectors, CyDet and StrECAL, will be used for detecting the |$\mu$|–|$e$| conversion events, and for measuring the beam-related background events in view of the Phase-II experiment, respectively. Results from simulation on signal and background estimations are also described