Yoga, a mindfulness therapy to prevent PTSD as to encompass athletes' performance.

Introduction: Yoga is one of the physical and mental activities used in elite sports training for risk prevention and medical rehabilitation in case of injuries caused by overtraining or accidents. This study examined the opinions of Romanian elite athletes and coaches on the feasibility of incorporating yoga practice into training regimens for purposes of injury prevention and medical recovery. Methods: This study surveyed a group of 500 athletes, coaches, and medical personnel from three universities in Romania, all of which are part of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport (PES). An online survey was administered which evaluates athletes' experience of yoga integration in pre/post training and its positive effects on reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The data were then analyzed with a structural equation model utilizing SmartPLS software. Results: According to the survey, Romanian athletes use yoga both before and after competitions to improve their focus, balance, muscle, and joint elasticity, foster a winning mindset, control their emotions and PTSD, visualize their competition performance, and see themselves as winners. The survey also found that yoga is seen as useful for cardiac rehabilitation, neuropathic pain, pulmonary disease, orthopedic illness, muscle strain, and managing symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Conclusion: This study contributes to enhancing athletes' mindfulness and health, offering valuable insights to trainers and athletes interested in incorporating yoga into professional sports activity. The results support the notion that yoga integration in training activity promises to positively influence athletes' performance and reduce collateral side effects of competitions. The results are also in line with the objectives of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 (GAPPPA) - with the theme of "being more efficient to prevent than to treat" - which places special emphasis on the demands for certain programs and services, sports coverage, and healthy workplace initiatives. The study further indicates that Romanian elite athletes and coaches support the use of yoga is an effective method for enhancing athletic training and medical therapy for post-traumatic illnesses and stress disorders.

Nudging Consumer Behavior with Social Marketing in Portugal: Can Perception Have an Influence over Trying Insect-Based Food?

Social marketing campaigns are widely used to inform, educate, communicate, and promote healthy behaviors that add benefits to the individual, but also to society and the environment. Considering the low cost and high quality of insect-based food, this research aims to identify the main factors which can be used by social marketing campaigns to help people to try new foods, such as insect-based food. Although it is considered an important alternative to protein, there are a few countries that have not experienced it. In many Western countries, insect-based food is perceived as being disgusting. Neophobia is also a barrier to trying these foods. The main goal is to analyze if social marketing campaigns might influence perception (familiarity, preparation, visual, and information). Our model proves this assumption because we obtained high path coefficients, indicating that perception influences social beliefs, individual beliefs, and consumption intention. Thus, they will increase the consumption intention.

Towards an Ecosystem-Based Marine Spatial Planning in the deep Mediterranean Sea.

The deep sea covers about 79% of the Mediterranean basin, including habitats potentially able to deliver multiple ecosystem services and numerous resources of high economic value. Thus, the deep Mediterranean Sea represents an important frontier for marine resources exploitation, which is embedded within the European Blue Growth Strategy goals and agendas. The deep sea is crucial for the ecological functioning of the entire basin. For this reason, the deep Mediterranean deserves protection from the potential cumulative impacts derived from existent and developing human activities. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has been identified as key instrument for spatially allocating maritime uses in the sea space avoiding spatial conflicts between activities, and between activities and the environment. Indeed, MSP incorporates the ecosystem-based approach (EB-MSP) to balance both socio-economic and environmental objectives, in line with the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Despite MSP is under implementation in Europe, the Directive is not applied yet for the managing and monitoring of the environmental status of the deep sea. In the Mediterranean, deep areas fall both in internal and territorial waters, and in High Seas, and its management framework turns out to be complicated. Moreover, a certain level of cumulative impacts in the deep Mediterranean has been already identified and likely underestimated because of paucity of knowledge related with deep-sea ecosystems. Thus, the implementation of scientific knowledge and the establishment of a sustainable management regime of deep-sea resources and space are urgent. This study aims at reflecting on the best available ecological knowledge on the deep Mediterranean to incorporate conservation objectives in EB-MSP. We propose a framework to include key ecological principles in the relevant phases of any EB-MSP processes taking in consideration existing socio-economic and conservation scenarios in the region. We add the uncertainty principle to reflect on the still unexplored and missing knowledge related to the deep Mediterranean. Here, we resume some guidelines to overcome limits and bottlenecks while ensuring protection of deep-sea ecosystems and resources in the Mediterranean Sea.

Safety assessment in Child A cirrhotic patients treated with Ombitasvir/Paritaprevir/Ritonavir and Dasabuvir with Ribavirin.

BACKGROUND: In our country, the national program for hepatitis C virus treatment with ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir and dasabuvir was approved for patients with stage four of liver fibrosis and stage three associated with specific comorbidities. Our aim was to analyze the characteristics associated with the presence of adverse events in patients receiving this antiviral regimen, with ribavirin in cirrhotic patients. METHODS: We prospectively studied a cohort of adults with hepatitis C virus infection with Child A cirrhosis, treated for 12 weeks with ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir/dasabuvir and ribavirin, which have been followed in an infectious diseases tertiary-care hospital. RESULTS: We included 137 adult patients diagnosed with compensated cirrhosis, hepatitis C virus genotype 1b infected, 82 (60%) previously treated. We recorded 201 adverse events in 98 (71.5%) patients, with a median number of events per patient of one. The intensity of adverse events was classified as mild, moderate and severe in 50%, 36% and 14% of cases, respectively. Forty-five (22%) episodes required medical intervention. The most frequently reported adverse events were pruritus 34(35%), asthenia 22(22%) and insomnia 15(15%). The presence of severe adverse events was associated with the presence of comorbidities (p = 0.01, OR : 9.5, 95% CI : 1.2-74.3) and with the presence of associated medication (p = 0.02, OR : 3.9, 95% CI : 1.08-14.2). At the end of current treatment, 136 (99.2%) patients had undetectable viral load. CONCLUSION: We found a high number of adverse events, but most of them were mild or moderate and only one quarter of them required medical intervention. Only severe adverse events were associated with comorbidities and associated medication.

Extracellular DNA as a genetic recorder of microbial diversity in benthic deep-sea ecosystems.

Extracellular DNA in deep-sea sediments represents a major repository of genes, which previously belonged to living organisms. However, the extent to which these extracellular genes influence current estimates of prokaryotic biodiversity is unknown. We investigated the abundance and diversity of 16S rDNA sequences contained within extracellular DNA from continental margins of different biogeographic regions. We also compared the taxonomic composition of microbial assemblages through the analysis of extracellular DNA and DNA associated with living cells. 16S rDNA contained in the extracellular DNA pool contributed up to 50% of the total 16S rDNA copy number determined in the sediments. Ca. 4% of extracellular Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were shared among the different biogeographic regions revealing the presence of a core of preserved OTUs. A higher fraction of OTUs was exclusive of each region potentially due to its geographic and thermohaline characteristics. Ca. one third of the OTUs identified in the extracellular DNA were absent from living prokaryotic assemblages, possibly representing the signatures of past assemblages. Our findings expand the knowledge of the contribution of extracellular microbial sequences to current estimates of prokaryotic diversity obtained through the analyses of "environmental DNA", and open new perspectives for understanding microbial successions in benthic ecosystems.

The role of tigecycline in the management of Clostridium difficile infection: a retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the outcomes of patients with C.difficile infection (CDI) treated either with tigecycline associated with vancomycin, or with vancomycin alone. METHODS: This single-centre retrospective cohort study included all adults hospitalized from September 2014 through August 2015 for symptomatic, incident CDI confirmed by polymerase chain reaction for C. difficile toxin in stools. The primary outcome was the rate of favourable outcome, defined as a composite of clinical response (resolution of symptoms without need for additional CDI therapy) and achieving discharge without CDI-related surgery or intensive care; a secondary outcome was CDI recurrence. We constructed a non-parsimonious logistic regression model to calculate a propensity score (PS) for those receiving tigecycline. RESULTS: In all, 266 patients were included: 62 patients received both vancomycin and tigecycline, and 204 patients received vancomycin alone. The patients from the two groups were similar regarding demographics and comorbidities but patients in the tigecycline group had a more severe CDI. A favourable outcome in the tigecycline group versus the vancomycin group was found in 50/62 (81%) versus 193/204 (95%). We matched patients receiving tigecycline or not according to the PS and 86 patients (43 pairs) could be matched. The OR for favourable outcome with tigecycline in the matched analysis was 0.92 (95% CI 0.60-1.44; p 0.74). The rate of CDI recurrences was 8/62 (13%) in the tigecycline group versus 39/204 (19%) in the vancomycin group (p 0.2). CONCLUSION: Adding tigecycline to CDI standard therapy did not increase the clinical cure nor reduce the rate of CDI recurrences.

Factors predictive of leg-ulcer healing in sickle cell disease: a multicentre, prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Leg ulcers (LUs) are a chronic and severe complication of sickle cell disease (SCD). A prospective study in patients with SCD to identify factors associated with complete healing and recurrence of LUs is lacking. OBJECTIVES: To determine clinical and biological factors associated with SCD-LU complete healing and recurrence. METHODS: This prospective, observational cohort study was conducted at two adult SCD referral-centre sites (2009-2015) and included 98 consecutive patients with at least one LU lasting ≥ 2 weeks. The primary end points compared patients with healed vs. nonhealed LUs at week 24, and patients with vs. without recurrence during follow-up. RESULTS: The median (interquartile range) LU area, duration and follow-up were, respectively, 6·2 cm2 (3-12·8), 9 weeks (4-26) and 65·8 weeks (23·8-122·1). At week 24, LUs were healed in 47% of patients, while 49% of LUs recurred. Univariate analyses identified inclusion LU area < 8 cm2 (82% vs. 35%; P < 0·001), inclusion LU duration < 9 weeks (65% vs. 35%; P = 0·0013) and high median fetal haemoglobin level (P = 0·008) as being significantly associated with complete healing at week 24, and low lactate dehydrogenase level (P = 0·038) as being associated with recurrence. Multivariate analyses retained LU area < 8 cm2 (odds ratio 6·73, 95% confidence interval 2·35-19. 31; P < 0·001) and < 9 weeks' duration (OR 3·19, 95% confidence interval 1·16-8·76; P = 0·024) as being independently associated with healing at week 24. Factors independently associated with recurrence could not be identified. CONCLUSIONS: SCD-LU complete healing is independently associated with the clinical characteristics of LUs rather than the clinical or biological characteristics of SCD.

Natrium, potassium, cholesterol and total free 11-hydroxycorticosteroids variations in thymectomized and thymic extract treated rats.

The authors investigated the effect of thymectomy and TP2 thymic polypeptide extract administration on total, esterified and free cholesterol in the plasma and the adrenals, as well as on plasma Na and K and plasma free total 11-hydroxycorticosteroids. The results showed that total, esterified and free cholesterol decrease in the adrenals by 23.20%, 28.57% and 17.70% maximum respectively, in the thymectomized rat and that under the influence of the TP2 extract the values increase by 14.81%, 15.38% and 12.67%, respectively. Plasma cholesterol did not change. Thymectomy caused an increase in the plasma 11-hydroxycorticosteroids value by 13.4% and administration of the TP2 extract lowered their value by 58.11%. The plasma Na and K values did not change.

The in vitro effect of a thymic polypeptidic extract on the function of T-cells and macrophages.

A thymic polypeptidic extract with a molecular weight of under 10,000 daltons was used in in vitro experiments to test its effect on the E-rosetting reaction of the T-total and T-helper lymphocytes from the peripheral blood of patients with thyroid cancer, Cushing's syndrome and others, as well as from healthy persons. The effect of the extract on peritoneal macrophages phagocytosis from both irradiated and normal rats was also tested in vitro. It was found that in healthy persons the E-total rosettes count did not change under the influence of the thymic extract, whereas the E-helper rosettes count increased up to 21% in 4 of the 10 subjects. In thyroid cancer, Cushing's disease, and operated Graves' disease, the thymic extract induced a up to 23% increase in E-total rosettes count in 8 of 11 cases and an increase of up to 90% in the E-helper rosettes count in 9 of 12 cases. The thymic extract had no effect on the rat peritoneal macrophages phagocytosis in vitro.

The phagocytosis function and the antibody reactivity in the thymectomized and thymectomized-irradiated adult rats.

The authors have investigated the influence of the thymus on peritoneal macrophages phagocytosis and antiflagellar agglutinin serum antibodies to "H" Salmonella typhi in the adult rat with diminished immunologic potential. The results show that the immune reactions diminish in intensity in the thymectomized animal. The immune reactions are also diminished in the thymectomized animal exposed to radiation as compared to control irradiated but non-thymectomized.