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Scientific collaboration between Romania and France regarding the field of Geography has a long history to fall back on. It is based primarily on theses cross-examining the two countries. This study aims to analyze the corpus of 48 theses submitted to French universities since the early 1990s, which relate to Romania through the use of the site www.theses.fr. This corpus is compared to a larger corpus of theses on Central Europe during the same time frame. The article analyzes the places where the works are registered, the evolution of their numbers over the past 25 years showing that the themes of theses on Romania differ slightly from those on Central Europe. We may also observe a good integration rate of doctors into professional life after elaborating their thesis, especially when the latter was done under joint supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the use of neuroenhancers, the motivations and factors associated with their use in French and Romanian university students. Students from two universities in France (Rouen and Opal Coast University) and one in Romania (Cluj-Napoca) were asked to complete a self-administered anonymous questionnaire, either online or on paper, about the use of three different categories of substance: Prescription drugs (methylphenidate, modafinil, and beta-blockers), drugs of abuse (alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines), and soft enhancers (coffee, vitamins, caffeine tablets, and energy drinks). In total, 1110 students were included: The users were 2.2% for prescription drugs, 4.3% for drugs of abuse, and 55.0% for soft enhancers. Students used neuroenhancement to stay awake for study (69.3%), to improve concentration (55.5%), to decrease stress (40.9%), and to improve memory (39.6%). Neuroenhancement was considered to meet expectations by 74.4% of users. The factors associated with the use of drugs of abuse were frequent binge drinking (Adjusted Odds Ratio-AOR: 6.49 [95% CI: 2.53-16.6]), smoking (AOR: 5.50 [95% CI: 2.98-10.14]), having a student job (AOR: 2.42 [95% CI 1.13-5.17]), and being male (AOR: 2.23 [95% CI:1.21-4.11]). No significant associations with eating disorders were detected for any of the three categories of substances. University students reported neuroenhancement with prescription drugs, drugs of abuse, and mainly soft enhancers. These substances were used mainly to increase the waking hours. Educational programs in universities seem to be required in order to increase student awareness of the problems caused by neuroenhancements, and to decrease the associated risks by changing students' attitudes and beliefs.

Unlabelled: Childhood asthma presents with specific clinical and functional characteristics. The aim of our study was the description of a large cohort of asthmatic children. It was also to assess their outcome with maintenance therapy according to guidelines, and to analyze the relationship with baseline's characteristics. We focused particularly on clinical and functional pediatric specificities., Methods: Prospective study driven on asthmatic children, without treatment, recruited during a hospitalization for exacerbation or a visit for uncontrolled asthma, treated according to GINA guidelines and followed for one year., Results: 412 children (mean age: 11.6 years +/- 2.7), were included. The level of severity was: intermittent asthma for 30% and persistent asthma for 70% (40.5% mild, 28% moderate, 1.5% severe). Mean prebeta2-FEV1 was 88.5% +/- 10.5 (PV) with mean beta2-reversibility of 10.8% +/- 7.8 (> 12% for 42% patients). 374 patients ended the study. After one year, we observed an improvement of clinical symptoms (p < 0.0001), rate of hospitalization (p < 0.0001), and lung function (mean prebeta2-FEV1: 91.2% +/- 7.9, p < 0.001). Asthma control was obtained for only 24.6%. Multivariate analysis show that decrease of symptoms was significantly related to younger age, higher level of initial severity and number of days of hospitalization., Conclusion: This study confirms pediatric specificities of asthma, as a normal FEV1 level and a limited beta2-reversibility of FEV1, and the large part of uncontrolled asthma after one year of treatment. It emphasizes the risk of undertreatment in a strategy based on severity. It argues for the regular assessment of control as now recommended, taking into account the pediatric asthma specificities.