Personality traits, behavioral and psychological symptoms and cognitive decline in patients at an early stage of Alzheimer's disease

The aim of this doctoral thesis was to study personality characteristics of patients at an early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and more specifically to describe personality and its changes over time, and to explore its possible links with psychological and symptoms (BPS) and cognitive level. The results were compared to those of a group of participants without cognitive disorder through three empirical studies. In the first study, the findings showed significant personality changes that follow a specific trend in the clinical group. The profil of personality changes showed an increase in Neuroticism and a decrease in Extraversion, Openess to experiences, and Conscientiousness over time. The second study highlighted that personality and BPS occur early in the cours of AD. Recognizing them as possible precoce signs of neurodegeneration may prove to be a key factor for early detection and intervention. In the third study, a significant association between personality changes and cognitive status was observed in the patients with incipient AD. Thus, changes in Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were linked with cognitive deterioration, whereas decreased Openness to experiences and Conscientiousness over time predicted loss of independence in daily functioning. Other well-known factors such as age, education level or civil status were taken into account to predict cognitive decline. The three studies suggested five important implications: (1) cost-effective screening should take into account premorbid and specific personality changes; (2) psycho-educative interventions should provide information on the possible personality changes and BPS that may occur at the beginning of the disease; (3) using personality traits alongside other variables in the future studies on prevention might help to better understand AD's etiology; (4) individual treatment plans (psychotherapeutic, social, and pharmacological) might be adapted to the specific changes in personality profiles; (5) more researches are needed to study the impact of social-cultural and lifestyle variables on the development of AD.

Cómo definir tu estrategia de marca personal en los medios sociales

Definir una estratègia per a la nostra marca personal com a forma d’aproximació dels nostres valors, atributs i objectius cap al nostre públic objectiu és el plantejament d’aquest projecte. Amb aquesta finalitat es desenvoluparà una estratègia de comunicació digital, per l’actor català Albert Carbó, que comprengui les seves necessitats per arribar a complir amb els seus objectius.

Serveis per a I'autonomia personal. Un dret molt esperat

Els serve is de protecció a les persones en situació de dependencia configuraran I'any 2007, segons s'ha anunciat, un nou sistema d'atenció que comporta esperances pero també reptes tant a escala prestacional com de qualitat deIs serveis. Aquest article exposa els trets generals del projecte de llei estatal de "Promoció de I'autonomia personal i atenció a les persones en situació de dependencia", el contingut de I'actual sistema de serveis socials en re lació amb la tematica i les exigencies d'una veritable promoció i atenció de qualitat.

La documentació personal com a eina docent: ensenyar i aprendre amb els fons personals

L"objectiu de la contribució que presentem és força senzill d"entendre: hem volgut donar forma a una activitat viscuda per recordar-la i per aprofitar-la quan l"haguem de menester. Com ho hem fet?, doncs materialitzant uns fets, uns pensaments i unes idees en forma de document, el qual a hores d"ara ja forma part del nostre fons personal. La finalitat del document, però, va més enllà: volem donar a conèixer la vàlua dels fons personals com a recurs estratègic per a l"aprenentatge de l"Arxivística. Hem volgut compartir la nostra experiència en aquest canal de comunicació professional perquè pensem, modestament, que treballs com aquest poden ser noves formes d"avançar en el progrés teòric de l"Arxivística.

Grammaire des grammaires ou Analyse raisonnée des meilleurs traités sur la langue française... ([Reprod.]) / par Ch.-Pre Girault-Duvivier...

Collection : Archives de la linguistique française ; 184

The psychometric properties of the WAI in a career counseling setting: Comparison with a personal counseling sample

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Working Alliance Inventory-Client version (WAI-C) and Working Alliance Inventory-Short and revised (WAI-SR) in a career counseling setting. Moreover, it compared the impact of career versus personal counseling settings based on results obtained using the WAI-SR. Subjects were 188 French-speaking career counseling clients and 95 French-speaking personal counseling clients, mainly students. For the career counseling sample, total reliability was .87 for the WAI-C and .76 for the WAI-SR. The shape of the distribution was normal but the variance was significantly lower for the career counseling sample. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) confirmed the presence of an overall working alliance factor but indicated a clearer hierarchical structure for the WAI- SR than for the WAI-C. The psychometric properties seemed only slightly affected by the counseling setting, suggesting that this inventory is also relevant for career counseling, especially the WAI-SR, which has a more robust factorial structure.

Etude des Liens entre Activité Physique et Traits de la Personnalité

Le mode de vie toujours plus sédentaire des individus dans notre société pousse les professionnels de la santé à chercher de nouvelles stratégies en matière de promotion de l'activité physique. Cette étude, réalisée à l'aide de la distribution d'un questionnaire dans une population âgée entre 25 et 50 ans, vise à mesurer les liens entre l'attirance envers l'activité physique, les caractéristiques individuelles (lieu d'habitation, âge, genre, etc.) et les traits de personnalité (anxiété, névrosisme, extraversion, etc.). L'attirance envers l'activité sportive est évaluée sous forme d'attributs liés au sport, tels que « équipe », « endurance », « loisirs », « sthétisme », etc. Les résultats montrent que 1) le névrotisme et le psychoticisme ne sont positivement liés à aucun de ces attributs. Conformément à la littérature, l'extraversion, la susceptibilité à l'ennui et la recherche de sensations sont liés au plus grand nombre d'attributs; 2) l'estime de soi et les croyances sur la santé favorisant l'anxiété sont deux traits nouveaux issus de nos résultats. En effet, l'estime de soi est liée aux attributs « loisirs » et « santé », et les croyances sur la santé sont liées aux attributs « individuel », « esthétisme », « prestige » et « santé »; 3) le BMI, l'âge et le genre sont également des facteurs discriminants concernant les raisons de pratiquer une activité sportive. En conclusion, bien que des recherches complémentaires soient nécessaires, le succès de l'adhésion à une pratique régulière et à long terme dépend d'un conseil adapté à chaque individu selon ses caractéristiques individuelles et ses traits de personnalité.

Muscle transcriptomic profiles in pigs with divergent phenotypes for fatness traits

BACKGROUND: Selection for increasing intramuscular fat content would definitively improve the palatability and juiciness of pig meat as well as the sensorial and organoleptic properties of cured products. However, evidences obtained in human and model organisms suggest that high levels of intramuscular fat might alter muscle lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. We have analysed this issue by determining the transcriptomic profiles of Duroc pigs with divergent phenotypes for 13 fatness traits. The strong aptitude of Duroc pigs to have high levels of intramuscular fat makes them a valuable model to analyse the mechanisms that regulate muscle lipid metabolism, an issue with evident implications in the elucidation of the genetic basis of human metabolic diseases such as obesity and insulin resistance. RESULTS: Muscle gene expression profiles of 68 Duroc pigs belonging to two groups (HIGH and LOW) with extreme phenotypes for lipid deposition and composition traits have been analysed. Microarray and quantitative PCR analysis showed that genes related to fatty acid uptake, lipogenesis and triacylglycerol synthesis were upregulated in the muscle tissue of HIGH pigs, which are fatter and have higher amounts of intramuscular fat than their LOW counterparts. Paradoxically, lipolytic genes also showed increased mRNA levels in the HIGH group suggesting the existence of a cycle where triacylglycerols are continuously synthesized and degraded. Several genes related to the insulin-signalling pathway, that is usually impaired in obese humans, were also upregulated. Finally, genes related to antigen-processing and presentation were downregulated in the HIGH group. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that selection for increasing intramuscular fat content in pigs would lead to a shift but not a disruption of the metabolic homeostasis of muscle cells. Future studies on the post-translational changes affecting protein activity or expression as well as information about protein location within the cell would be needed to to elucidate the effects of lipid deposition on muscle metabolism in pigs.