Anxiety During the Pandemic

This chapter intends to analyse the moderate effect of individual anxiety and gender derived by the pandemic crisis regarding health importance, health knowledge, and health consciousness of the individuals. A quantitative methodology was adopted with data collected from a questionnaire survey. The conceptual models and associated hypotheses were tested with a sample of 243 respondents. Data were analysed through a mediate-moderate model using a Hayes PROCESS macro. Findings show that health consciousness and knowledge affect health importance, health knowledge mediates the relation between health consciousness and health importance, for women health is more important than for men, and anxiety moderates and increases the relation between health consciousness, health knowledge, and health importance.

Fluvoxamine for Outpatient COVID-19 to Prevent Hospitalization: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Importance: Widely available and affordable options for the outpatient management of COVID-19 are needed, particularly therapies that prevent hospitalization. Objective: Perform a meta-analysis of the available randomized clinical trial evidence for fluvoxamine in the outpatient management of COVID-19. Data Sources: World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and ClinicalTrials.gov. Study Selection: Completed outpatient trials with available results which compared fluvoxamine to placebo. Data Extraction and Synthesis: We followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. We extracted study details in terms of inclusion criteria, trial demographics and the pre-specified outcome of all-cause hospitalization. Risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool. We conducted a frequentist random effects meta-analysis, as well as two sensitivity analyses using a Bayesian random effects meta-analysis with different estimates of prior probability: a weakly neutral prior (50% chance of efficacy with 95% confidence interval for Risk Ratio [RR] between 0.5 and 2) and a moderately optimistic prior (85% chance of efficacy). We contextualized the results by estimating the probability of any effect (RR ≤1) and moderate effect (RR ≤0.9) on reducing hospitalization. Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): All cause hospitalization. Results: 2196 participants were included from 3 identified trials. The risk ratios for hospitalization were 0.75 (95%CI, 0.57-0.97) for the frequentist analysis, 0.78 (95%CI 0.58-1.08) for the Bayesian weakly neutral prior, and 0.73 (95%CI, 0.53-1.01) for the Bayesian moderately optimistic prior. Depending on the scenario, the probability of any effect on hospitalization ranged from 94.1% to 98.3% and a moderate effect from 81.6% to 91.1%. Conclusions and Relevance: Under a variety of assumptions, fluvoxamine shows a high probability of preventing hospitalization in outpatients with COVID-19. While ongoing randomized trials are important to evaluate alternative doses, explore the effectiveness in vaccinated patients, and provide further refinement to these estimates, fluvoxamine could be recommended as a treatment option, particularly in resource-limited settings or persons without access to SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody therapy or direct antivirals.

O efeito do método Pilates na fadiga em pacientes com câncer de mama / The effect of Pilates Method on fatigue in breast cancer patients

PURPOSE: Cancer-related fatigue is a persistent and subjective physical or emotional feeling that interferes with the life quality in breast cancer survivors. Thus, it can lead to a vicious circle of inactivity, which leads to deconditioning, emotional stress and sleep disorders, which interferes with the daily activities and self-esteem. Pilates method is a good exercise program for the breast cancer survivor because includes resistance and stretching exercises synchronized with breathing. The main purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of Pilates exercises on muscle fatigue in patients with breast cancer in the behavioral, affective and sensory domains. METHODS: A longitudinal study was carried out, in which 34 women with fatigue were recruited in the late postoperative of breast cancer. The evaluations were executed using the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale. Statistical analysis was performed using SigmaPlot 14.0 Program. Statistical significance was set as P0.05 and the responsiveness was calculated using effect size by Cohen. Parameters for 3 time points (admission, 30 days and 90 days) were compared using the Friedman test. RESULTS: In general there was a statistically significant difference between the admission group and 30 days with a moderate effect size. After 90 days of exercise only the comportamental and affective domains presented statistically significant difference with a moderate effect size. CONCLUSION: Thus, it was possible to demonstrate that Pilates exercises significantly improve muscle fatigue in women in the late postoperative period of breast cancer after 30 days of exercises and the behavioral and affective domain after 90 days.

Differences of Motor Proficiency in Preschool Girls Related to Organized Physical Activity

This study purpose was to determine the level of motor competence and differences in motor skills of preschool girls aged 5 to 7 from Serbia according to participation in organized physical activities. Materials and methods. Ninety-one girls aged 5-7 years (mean ± 6.4) were divided into three subsamples: control group, rhythmic gymnastics and sports school. Girls were assessed with the MABC-2 test. Descriptive statistics analyzed the basic characteristics of participants according to the level of motor competence. Furthermore, Pearson’s χ2 test for contingency tables, MANOVA and discriminant analysis were employed to find differences in motor proficiency among groups. Results. Significant differences have been found in girls attending rhythmic gymnastics in aiming & catching on the upper bound of moderate effect size (p < 0.001, η2 = 139), and total test score moderate effect size (p = 0.006, η2 = 0.105) compared to girls who did not participate in organized physical activity. The discrimination coefficient explained the differences in girls in aiming and catching, with a contribution of 41.4%, balance skills with 24%, and a total test score of 22.9%. According to the level of motor competence, 61% from the control group and 40% from the sports school group scored below average in aiming & catching. The total test score of ≥ 50 percentile was achieved by 68.3% of girls in the control group, 84% in the sports school group, and 96% in rhythmic gymnastics. Conclusion. This study confirms that sports practice contributes to the development of motor capabilities and influences individual differences in children’s scores. Our findings can contribute to understanding how important it is to promote object control skills games for girls and older preschoolers generally.

Surface Activity and Efficiency of Cat-Anionic Surfactant Mixtures

The surface activity of surfactant mixtures is critically analyzed. Cat-anionic systems, in which two ionic species are mixed in non-stoichiometric ratios, are considered. With respect to the solution behavior, where a substantial decrease of cmc is met compared to the pure components, a moderate effect on surface tension, γ, occurs. Compared to the pure species, the decrease of surface tension for such mixtures is not significant, and no clear dependence on the mole fraction anionic/cationic is met. The surface tension is grossly constant in the whole concentration range. Conversely, the interaction parameter for surfaces, βsurf (calculated by the regular solution theory), is more negative than that for micelle formation, βmic. This fact suggests that the desolvation of polar heads of the two species at interfaces is largely different. Very presumably, the underlying rationale finds origin in the sizes and solvation of both polar head groups.

ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION OF TWO SPECIES OF SCUTELLARIA AERIAL PARTS

The chemical composition of essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation method from two plants of the genus Scutellaria, grown in Uzbekistan and used in folk medicine were comparatively investigated by GC/MS and FID. Overall individually thirty three constituents were identified in both of aerial parts of S. adenostegia and S. comosa essential oils, representing 94.4 and 97.0% of the total, respectively. The main components were determined as acetophenone (24.2%), eugenol (12.3%), caryophyllene oxide (8.9%), and β-caryophyllene (7.0%) in the oil of S. adenostegia. β-Caryophyllene (12.5%), phytol (11.4%), linalool (11.1%), acetophenone (10.4%), caryophyllene oxide (6.6%),1-hexanol (5.3%), and (E)-2-hexenal (5.1%) were found as major components in the S. comosa oil. The composition of the oils of S. adenostegia and S. comosa was being reported for the first time. The essential oils of S. adenostegia and S. comosa showed significant antimicrobial properties against Bacillus subtilis, moderate effect against Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli.

Emotionally intelligent people show more flexible regulation of emotions in daily life

Emotion regulation strategies have been characterized as adaptive or maladaptive; however, the ability to switch strategies to best suit the situation (regulatory flexibility and adaptability) underlies effective emotion regulation. Emotional intelligence may be a key capacity that enables flexible emotion regulation. We use experience sampling data from 165 participants to test whether emotional intelligence abilities (emotion understanding and management) predict variability in four emotion regulation strategies. Results show that both the emotion understanding and emotion management branches of emotional intelligence significantly relate to between-strategy variability (with moderate effect sizes), but only emotion understanding significantly predicts within-strategy variability. These findings support the hypothesis that emotional intelligence is an important predictor of the ability to flexibly vary emotion regulation depending on the situation.

Influence of Congested Match Schedules, Pre-Match Well-Being and Level of Opponents on Match Loads during World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series

This study aimed at assessing (1) the effect of congested match schedules on match loads and well-being as well as (2) pre-match well-being and level of opponents on match loads in elite women’s rugby sevens. Eleven players of the Brazilian women’s rugby sevens national team were investigated across three 2019-20 HSVC World Rugby Women’s Seven Series tournaments to assess: (1) within-tournament match-to-match changes in various external and internal match load measures; (2) daily changes in players’ well-being collected before the commencement of a tournament (day one) and during or post-tournament (day two to day four); and (3) the effect of pre-match well-being and level of opponents (high vs. low level) on match loads. Results revealed no between-match significant differences (p > 0.05) in most of the investigated match load measures. A congested match schedule negatively affected perceived fatigue (p < 0.001), muscle soreness (p = 0.004) and overall wellness (p < 0.001), with post hoc analyses showing decreased values on day four compared to previous days (small-to-moderate effect sizes). Finally, pre-match well-being and level of opponents did not affect match loads (p > 0.05). These results highlighted the necessity to embrace a multidimensional approach when adopting monitoring systems in elite women’s rugby sevens during tournaments and to consider various contextual factors possibly affecting match loads, besides those investigated.