Perceived Impact of Quarantine on Loneliness, Death Obsession, and Preoccupation With God: Predictors of Increased Fear of COVID-19

Most countries are facing the societal challenging need for a new quarantine period due to the increasing number of COVID-19 infections, indicating a second or even third wave of disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the surface existential issues that are typically less present in people’s focal attention. The first aim of this study was to identify some of these existential struggles such as increased feelings of loneliness, death obsession, and preoccupation with God. Secondly, we explored the association of these factors with the increased fear of coronavirus during the quarantine. Data was collected from 1,340 Romanian adults using a cross-sectional web-based survey design in the midst of the national lockdown period of COVID-19. Participants completed measures of COVID-19 related loneliness, death obsession, and preoccupation with God twice; first, thinking about the period before the pandemic, and second, for the current situation during the quarantine. Then, they completed a fear of COVID-19 measure. Participants perceived an increase in the feelings of loneliness, death obsession, and preoccupation with God during the confinement. Furthermore, gender, knowing someone diagnosed with COVID-19, loneliness, death obsession, and preoccupation with God predicted fear of COVID-19. Interestingly, days in isolation did not predict fear of COVID-19 nor were associated with feelings of loneliness. In line with existential positive psychology, these results highlight the importance of policies and interventions targeting the experience of loneliness, spiritual beliefs, and particularly those aimed to promote death acceptance, in order to alleviate intense fear of COVID-19

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GORJ COUNTY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTIES IN CRISIS

Purpose of the paper is to highlight how the economy evolved in the Florida county comparison with neighboring counties in economic crisis that society through the difficult years. also study and make acomparison in terms of demographic characteristics, respectively, compared between young and old, labor migration, etc. form., indices that are decisive for evaluating the economic situation of the county above mentioned. Economically, the county is in the connection between the economy and sub-mountainous and mountainous plains. The specificity of its resources, Gorj is a leading energy suppliers of the country, both as primary energy (coal, oil) and processed (heat and electricity)1. Results and statistical sources that Gorj currently produces more than 20% of the thermoelectric power of2. In terms of population below national averages Gorj is the fourth in the region after Olt and Valcea. Is medium in size, being the third after Dolj and Valcea. In terms of urbanization, Gorj is below the national average and third in the region after Dolj and Mehedinti. After the general level of development, the county is in a less favorable position, because the permanent part is characterized by a lower level of development

Influence du cycle menstruel, de la contraception orale et de l'entraînement sur les réponses androgéniques induites par l'exercice physique exhaustif chez la femme jeune

Dans le contexte de la biochimie clinique, et en particulier dans celui de la lutte anti-dopage, les moyens financiers et humains mis en place pour améliorer la spécificité et la sensibilité des techniques analytiques sont colossaux, alors que très peu d attention est portée aux facteurs pré-analytiques et biologiques susceptibles d influer largement les résultats d analyses. L objectif de ce travail a été d étudier de façon rigoureuse l influence du cycle menstruel, de la prise de contraceptifs oraux et du niveau d entraînement, sur les réponses androgéniques plasmatiques et/ou urinaires lors d exercices exhaustifs de courte et de longue durée chez le sujet féminin. Les résultats de notre première étude mettent en évidence une augmentation des concentrations sanguines en androgènes (DHEA-s et testostérone) à l exercice exhaustif (temps- limite et test de wingate) chez des sujets euménorrhéiques sédentaires ou sportives, et ce indépendamment du cycle menstruel. En revanche, la prise de contraceptifs oraux semble inhiber les réponses hormonales en androgènes chez la femme non sportive. D autre part, notre seconde étude montre que les facteurs biologiques étudiés (cycle menstruel, prise de contraceptifs oraux, exercices aigus et chroniques) n influent pas sur l excrétion urinaire des métabolites de la nandrolone, un norstéroïde produit lors de l aromatisation des androgènes en oestrogènes. Cette étude est la première expérimentation standardisée mettant en évidence que le seuil de positivité de 2 ng.ml-1 établit par le CIO est approprié pour le dépistage d un dopage à la nandrolone chez le sujet fémininIn the context of clinical chemistry enormous financial and human resources are invested in order to lower the analytical variations of laboratory analyses whereas very little attention is paid to the biological factors that influence the outcome of the tests. This is unfortunate as the biological factors may have a stronger influence that the analytical factors on the result of the analyses. However, with the development of analytical techniques, compounds that were not accessible some years ago are nowadays measurable. This is the case of androgens in females. Those analyses in females have been developed for clinical purposes and are also used in the context of doping control. The aim of this work was therefore to investigate the influence of biological factors such as the menstrual cycle, the use of oral contraceptives and the training on exercise-induced changes in androgens in young women. Firstly, we showed a significant increase in circulating androgens (testosterone and DHEA-s) after exercise (aerobic and anaerobic) in sedentary eumenorrheic women and female athletes, regardless of the menstrual cycle. However, the use of oral contraceptives lowered the androgen response in sedentary women. Secondly, we showed that the biological factors studied (menstrual cycle, use of oral contraceptives, acute and chronic exercises) do not influence the nandrolone metabolites excretion (norsteroïd produced during the aromatisation of estrogens from androgens). The maximal urinary concentration observed was 1.14 ng.ml-1 of 19-Norandrosterone (19-NA). This information has a practical issue in doping tests and indicates that the concentration of 2 ng.ml-1 of 19-NA set by the IOC is appropriated as an upper acceptable limit in nandrolone test in women athletesPOITIERS-BU Sciences (861942102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Beneficial Effects of Maternal Physical Activity during Pregnancy on Fetal, Newborn, and Child Health: Guidelines for Interventions during the Perinatal Period from the French National College of Midwives

International audienceThe objective of this work is to synthesize current knowledge about the effects of maternal physical activity during pregnancy on children's health. During the prenatal and postnatal periods, maternal physical activity has protective effects against the risks of macrosomia, obesity, and other associated cardiometabolic disorders. Even though longitudinal studies in humans are still necessary to validate them, these effects have been consistently observed in animal studies. A remarkable effect of maternal physical activity is its positive role on neurogenesis, language development, memory, and other cognitive functions related to learning

Recommandations pour la pratique clinique : « Interventions pendant la période périnatale ». Chapitre 1 Partie 2 : Effets bénéfiques de l’activité physique maternelle durant la grossesse sur la santé du fœtus, du nouveau-né et de l’enfant

L’objectif de ce travail est de faire un état des lieux des effets de l’activité physique maternelle pendant la grossesse sur la santé de son enfant. Pendant les périodes gravidiques et postnatales, l’activité physique maternelle a montré des effets favorables dans le contrôle du risque de macrosomie, d’obésité et autres troubles cardio-métaboliques associés. Même si des études longitudinales chez l’humain sont encore nécessaires pour valider leur terme, ces effets ont été observés de façon cohérente dans les études animales. Un effet remarquable de l’activité physique maternelle est son rôle positif sur la neurogenèse, le développement du langage, la mémoire et autres fonctions cognitives liées à l’apprentissage

Metabolic and respiratory adaptations during intense exercise following long-sprint training of short duration

International audienceThis study aimed to determine metabolic and respiratory adaptations during intense exercise and improvement of long-sprint performance following six sessions of long-sprint training. Nine subjects performed before and after training (1) a 300-m test, (2) an incremental exercise up to exhaustion to determine the velocity associated with maximal oxygen uptake (v-VO 2max), (3) a 70-s constant exercise at intensity halfway between the v-VO 2max and the velocity performed during the 300-m test, followed by a 60-min passive recovery to determine an individual blood lactate recovery curve fitted to the bi-exponential time function: La t ð Þ ¼ La 0 ð Þ þ A 1 ð1 À e Àc 1 t Þ þ A 2 ð1 À e Àc 2 t Þ, and blood metabolic and gas exchange responses. The training program consisted of 3–6 repetitions of 150–250 m interspersed with rest periods with a duration ratio superior or equal to 1:10, 3 days a week, for 2 weeks. After sprint training, reduced metabolic disturbances, characterized by a lower peak expired ventilation and carbon dioxide output, in addition to a reduced peak lactate (P \ 0.05), was observed. Training also induced significant decrease in the net amount of lactate released at the beginning of recovery (P \ 0.05), and significant decrease in the net lactate release rate (NLRR) (P \ 0.05). Lastly, a significant improvement of the 300-m performance was observed after training. These results suggest that long-sprint training of short durations was effective to rapidly prevent metabolic disturbances, with alterations in lactate accumulation and gas exchange, and improvement of the NLRR. Furthermore, only six long-sprint training sessions allow long-sprint performance improvement in active subjects

Evaluation du stress oxydant chez des patients atteints de bronchopneumopathie chronique obstructive après un entraînement de type aérobie

Effets d'un programme de réentraînement d'une durée de 3 mois sur la performance au test de marche de 6 minutes et sur le stress oxydant via un marqueur de la peroxydation lipidique, chez des patients BPCO

Evaluation du stress oxydant chez des patients atteints de bronchopneumopathie chronique obstructive après un entraînement de type aérobie

Effets d'un programme de réentraînement d'une durée de 3 mois sur la performance au test de marche de 6 minutes et sur le stress oxydant via un marqueur de la peroxydation lipidique, chez des patients BPCO

A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Arterial Stiffness and Cognitive Performances in Physically Active Late Pre- and Early Post-Menopausal Females

Menopause accelerates increases in arterial stiffness and decreases cognitive performances. The objective of this study was to compare cognitive performances in physically active pre- and post-menopausal females and their relationship with arterial stiffness. We performed a cross-sectional comparison of blood pressure, carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) and cognitive performances between physically active late pre- and early post-menopausal females. Systolic (post-menopause—pre-menopause: +6 mmHg [95% CI −1; +13], p = 0.27; ŋ2 = 0.04) and diastolic (+6 mmHg [95% CI +2; +11], p = 0.06; ŋ2 = 0.12) blood pressures, and cf-PWV (+0.29 m/s [95% CI −1.03; 1.62], p = 0.48; ŋ2 = 0.02) did not differ between groups. Post-menopausal females performed as well as pre-menopausal females on tests evaluating executive functions, episodic memory and processing speed. Group differences were observed on the computerized working memory task. Post-menopausal females had lower accuracy (p = 0.02; ŋ2 = 0.25) but similar reaction time (p = 0.70; ŋ2 < 0.01). Moreover, this performance was inversely associated with the severity of menopausal symptoms (r = −0.38; p = 0.05). These results suggest that arterial stiffness and performance on tests assessing episodic memory and processing speed and executive functions assessing inhibition and switching abilities did not differ between physically active pre- and post-menopausal females. However, post-menopausal females had lower performance on a challenging condition of a working memory task, and this difference in working memory between groups cannot be explained by increased arterial stiffness