Search

PURPOSE Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of anti-infective drugs is an increasingly complex field, given that in addition to the patient and drug as two usual determinants, its success is driven by the pathogen. Pharmacodynamics is related both to the patient (toxicity) and bacterium (efficacy or antibiotic susceptibility). The specifics of TDM of antimicrobial drugs stress the need for multidisciplinary knowledge and expertise, as in any other field. The role and responsibility of the laboratory in this interplay are both central and multifaceted. This narrative review highlights the role of the clinical laboratory in the TDM process. METHODS A literature search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar, focusing on the last five years (studies published since 2016) to limit redundancy with previously published review articles. Furthermore, the references cited in identified publications of interest were screened for additional relevant studies and articles. RESULTS The authors addressed microbiological methods to determine antibiotic susceptibility, immunochemical and chromatographic methods to measure drug concentrations (primarily in blood samples), and endogenous clinical laboratory biomarkers to monitor treatment efficacy and toxicity. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are critically discussed, along with existing gaps and future perspectives on strategies to provide clinicians with as reliable and useful results as possible.. CONCLUSIONS Although interest in the field has been the driver for certain progress in analytical technology and quality in recent years, laboratory professionals and commercial providers persistently encounter numerous unresolved challenges. The main tasks that need tackling include broadly and continuously available, easily operated, and cost-effective tests that offer short turnaround times, combined with reliable and easy-to-interpret results. Various fields of research are currently addressing these features.

Antioxidant supplementation has become a common practice among athletes to boost sport achievement. Likewise, melatonin (MEL) has been ingested as an ergogenic aid to improve physical performance. To date, no study has checked whether the multiple beneficial effects of MEL have an outcome during a maximum running exercise until exhaustion. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of MEL ingestion on physical performance and biochemical responses (i.e., oxidative stress) during exhaustive exercise. In a double blind randomized study, thirteen professional soccer players [age: 17.5 ± 0.8 years, body mass: 70.3 ± 3.9 kg, body height: 1.80 ± 0.08 m; maximal aerobic speed (MAS): 16.85 ± 0.63 km/h; mean ± standard deviation], members of a first league squad, performed a running exercise until exhaustion at 100% of MAS, after either MEL or placebo ingestion. Physical performance was assessed, and blood samples were obtained at rest and following the exercise. Compared to placebo, MEL intake prevented the increase in oxidative stress markers (i.e., malondialdehyde), alleviated the alteration of antioxidant status (i.e., glutathione peroxidase, uric acid and total bilirubin) and decreased post-exercise biomarkers of muscle damage (i.e., creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase) (p0.05). However, physical performance was not affected by MEL ingestion (p0.05). In conclusion, acute MEL intake before a maximal running exercise protected athletes from oxidative stress and cellular damage but without an effect on physical performance.

Clustering data streams in order to detect trending topic on social networks is a chal- lenging task that interests the researchers in the big data field. In fact, analyzing such data needs several requirements to be addressed due to their large amount and evolving nature. For this purpose, we propose, in this paper, a new evolving clustering method which can take into account the incremental nature of the data and meet with its principal requirements. Our method explores a deep learning technique to learn incrementally from unlabelled examples generated at high speed which need to be clustered instantly. To evaluate the performance of our method, we have conducted several experiments using the Sanders, HCR and Terr-Attacks datasets.

INTRODUCTION: Protein S deficiency and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are rare etiologies of ischemic stroke. We describe a case of an ischemic stroke revealing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in a patient with a history of protein S deficiency and cerebral imaging suggestive of vasculitis. CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old woman, with history of protein S deficiency, was admitted for right hemiparesis and aphasia that happened 6 hours before her consultation. Her National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was 11. She had hypoxia (SpO2 93%). COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction was positive. Cerebral computed tomography scan showed an ischemic stroke in the territory of the superficial left middle cerebral artery. The recommended time period for thrombolysis was exceeded and we did not dispose of sufficient resources to deliver thrombectomy. She was treated with aspirin, statins, antibiotic therapy, and oxygen. Considering the high risk of thromboembolic complications and the history of protein S deficiency, anticoagulation treatment with heparin followed by acenocoumarol was started. Evolution was marked by the appearance of 24 hours regressive, acute symptoms of confusion. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed new ischemic strokes in both anterior cerebral arteries and on magnetic resonance angiography narrowing of the left internal carotid artery and both anterior cerebral arteries suggestive of vasculitis was seen. We maintained anticoagulation and prescribed methylprednisolone 500 mg daily for 3 days. Evolution was marked by improvement of clinical deficit and respiratory status. CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 infection potentializes the prothrombotic effect and vascular inflammation by accentuating protein S deficit. The place of steroids seems justifiable in the presence of symptoms of vasculitis in brain imaging.

(1) Background: Magnesium deficiency is usually associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Individuals living with T2DM with hypomagnesemia show a more rapid disease progression and have an increased risk for diabetes complications. (2) Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study in the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology of Tunis in Tunisia, including all adult outpatients (≥18 years old) with a diagnosis of T2DM from 1 September 2018 to 31 August 2019. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of plasmatic magnesium deficiency in a Tunisian population of T2DM and to study the relationship between magnesium status and intake, glycemic control and long-term diabetes-related complications. (3) Results: Among the 101 T2DM outpatients, 13 (12.9%) presented with a plasmatic magnesium deficiency. The mean age was 56 ± 7.9 years with a female predominance (62%, n = 63). The mean of the plasmatic magnesium level was 0.79 ± 0.11 mmol/L (0.5–1.1), and the mean of 24 h urinary magnesium excretion was 87.8 ± 53.8 mg/24 h [4.8–486.2]. HbA1c was significantly higher in the plasmatic magnesium deficiency group than the normal magnesium status group (10% ± 1.3 vs. 8.3% ± 1.9, p = 0.04), with a significant difference in participants with a poor glycemic control (HbA1c &gt, 7%) (100%, n = 13/13 vs. 53%, n = 47/88, p = 0.001). A weak negative relationship was also found between plasmatic magnesium and HbA1c (r = −0.2, p = 0.03). Peripheral artery disease was more commonly described in individuals with low plasmatic magnesium levels than in individuals with normal levels (39%, n = 5 vs. 0%, n = 0, p &lt, 0.001). The mean plasmatic magnesium level in participants without diabetic nephropathy and also peripheral artery disease was significantly higher compared to individuals with each long-term diabetes-related complication (0.8 mmol/L ± 0.1 vs. 0.71 mmol/L ± 0.07, p = 0.006) and (0.8 mmol/L ± 0.1 vs. 0.6 mmol/L ± 0.08, 0.001), respectively. (4) Conclusions: Hypomagnesemia was identified in individuals with T2DM, causing poor glycemic control and contributing to the development and progression of diabetes-related microvascular and macrovascular complications.

Resume Introduction L’etat nutritionnel des sujets âges hemodialyses conditionne leur pronostic. L’objectif de cette etude etait d’evaluer les apports alimentaires spontanes des personnes âgees hemodialysees. Methodes Cette etude descriptive transversale a concerne 40 sujets âges hemodialyses recrutes au service de nephrologie M8 de l’hopital Charles Nicolle de Tunis. Tous les patients ont beneficie d’un examen clinique permettant de preciser les mesures anthropometriques, et d’une enquete alimentaire par enregistrement de 3 jours successifs permettant d’obtenir un bilan nutritionnel. Resultats L’evaluation des apports energetiques des patients a montre un apport quotidien moyen de 25,3 ± 12,3 kcal/kg de poids ideal/j. L’apport energetique total moyen des patients le jour de dialyse et de non-dialyse etait respectivement de 29,7 ± 17,7 kcal/kg et de 20,9 ± 6,9 kcal/kg, avec une difference statistiquement significative (p = 0,001). La ration protidique moyenne etait de 0,99 ± 0,57 g/kg le jour de non-dialyse. Elle diminuait de facon statistiquement significative (p = 0,005) le jour de non-dialyse a 0,73 ± 0,28 g/kg. La consommation de phosphore etait excessive le jour de dialyse et de non-dialyse respectivement dans 20 et 3 % des cas. La carence d’apport calcique touchait la totalite de la population etudiee le jour de non-dialyse. Seuls 6 % des patients avaient un apport calcique satisfaisant le jour de dialyse. Conclusion De multiples erreurs dietetiques ont ete notees dans notre etude. L’evaluation des apports nutritionnels chez les personnes âgees hemodialysees doit faire partie systematiquement de leur prise en charge.

Clustering high-dimensional data under the curse of dimensionality is an arduous task in many applications domains. The wide dimension yields the complexity-related challenges and the limited number of records leads to the overfitting trap. We propose to tackle this problematic using the graphical and probabilistic power of the Bayesian network. Our contribution is a new loose hierarchical Bayesian network model that encloses latent variables. These hidden variables are introduced for ensuring a multi-view clustering of the records. We propose a new framework for learning our proposed Bayesian network model. It starts by extracting the cliques of highly dependent features and it proceeds to learn representative latent variable for each features’ clique. The experimental results of our comparative analysis prove the efficiency of our model in tackling the distance concentration challenge. They also show the effectiveness of our model learning framework in skipping the overfitting trap, on benchmark high-dimensional datasets.

While the development of chiral molecules displaying circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) has received considerable attention, the corresponding CPL intensity, glum, hardly exceeds 10−2 at the molecular level owing to the difficulty in optimizing the key parameters governing such a luminescence process. To address this challenge, we report here the synthesis and chiroptical properties of a new family of π-helical push–pull systems based on carbo[6]helicene, where the latter acts as either a chiral electron acceptor or a donor unit. This comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation shows that the magnitude and relative orientation of the electric (μe) and magnetic (μm) dipole transition moments can be tuned efficiently with regard to the molecular chiroptical properties, which results in high glum values, i.e. up to 3–4 × 10−2. Our investigations revealed that the optimized mutual orientation of the electric and magnetic dipoles in the excited state is a crucial parameter to achieve intense helicene-mediated exciton coupling, which is a major contributor to the obtained strong CPL. Finally, top-emission CP-OLEDs were fabricated through vapor deposition, which afforded a promising gEl of around 8 × 10−3. These results bring about further molecular design guidelines to reach high CPL intensity and offer new insights into the development of innovative CP-OLED architectures., A CPL intensity of up to 3 × 10−2 is achieved in π-extended 6-helicene derivatives, owing to an intense helicene-mediated exciton coupling. Corresponding top-emission CP-OLEDs afforded a promising gEl of around 8 × 10−3.

Background. Systemic and airway inflammation has recently been linked to obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and is considered to be a probable risk factor for OSAHS-induced cardiovascular damage. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), as an inflammatory mediator, may be useful for the prediction of the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and assessment of nocturnal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) therapy effect in OSAHS patients. Methods. A prospective, controlled, cross-sectional study was conducted on 64 consecutive adult subjects with suspected sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Results. OSAHS was confirmed in 43 patients (24 normotensive and 19 hypertensive patients) and ruled out in 21 normotensive subjects (controls). The median plasma level of hs-CRP did not differ significantly between OSAHS patients and controls. It showed an unmarked rise with the severity of OSAHS ( p = 0.20 ) and was not correlated with AHI ( p = 0.067 ; r = 0.28 ). After adjusting for cervical perimeter (CP), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and blood sugar level, hs-CRP level of 1 mg/dL or greater was significantly more often observed in OSAHS patients compared with controls ( p = 0.032 ; OR = 5.60 ) and was also significantly associated with AHI ( p = 0.021 ). A significant decrease in the median plasma hs-CRP level was observed in CPAP compliant patients ( p = 0.006 ). Of those, only normotensive patients showed a significant decrease in plasma hs-CRP level. In hypertensive ones, however, the hs-CRP level dropped but not significantly. Using a linear regression model, the change in hs-CRP level (Δhs-CRP) following a 6-month-nCPAP therapy was found to positively correlate with the baseline hs-CRP level for both hypertensive ( p = 0.02 ; r = 0.68 ), and even more normotensive OSAHS patients ( p < 0.0001 ; r = 0.89 ). Conclusion. nCPAP therapy may have a cardiovascular protective effect in OSAHS patients. hs-CRP level would be useful as a valuable predictor of success in OSAHS treatment monitoring.

In the recent years, radical communities have become very aware of the enormous impact of social networks around the world. Thus, these latter are being frequently explored by these groups. Therefore, penetrating into these communities by analyzing both their interactions and their shared content is a considerably challenging task that serves to counter the online radicalization. For this purpose, in this paper, we propose a new recursive methodology for radical communities’ detection on social networks based on the analysis and extraction of their violent used vocabulary. Our methodology consists mainly on extracting recursively a set of dangerous profiles from Twitter based on their suspicious interactions. Then, we analyze their textual shared data in order to construct a rich glossary containing their violent used vocabulary. This glossary is exploited and enriched to detect recursively radical communities. Finally, in order to evaluate the performance of our methodology, we resort to an expert who verifies both the list of the dangerous extracted profiles and the violent constructed glossary. The given results show the effectiveness and efficiency of our method.

Background: The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is a dietary pattern effective in terms of prevention of many diseases such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Recently, many studies have paid attention to nutritional factors during pregnancy as a modifiable contributor to GDM risk. Objective: to investigate associations of nutrients intakes and MedDiet pattern of eating with risk of GDM. Subjects/Methods: This study conducted on N = 120; Pregnant women with GDM (n = 60) and without controls (n = 60). The dietary habits were assessed by a dietary history method and a validated food frequency questionnaire. We calculated a MedDiet score which mea- sures the degree of adherence to a Med Diet. Result: A low Med Diet score was found in pregnant women with and without gestational diabetes in 46.7% and 38.8% of cases, respectively, with no significant difference. Our data showed that the higher the adherence score to the MedDiet, the lower the fasting blood glucose level and the plasma glucose 2 h post load. These findings concerned the two groups studied (P < 10−3). We also noted that controls had a significantly higher intake of legumes, vegetables and fish. Monounsaturated fatty acids and saturated fatty acids consumption was significantly higher in the control group (2.3 ± 0.8 vs 1.7 ± 0.7, P < 10−3). GDM subjects consumed significantly more dairy products and cereals (P < 10−3). After adjustment for confounders, no nutrient was associated with the risk of developing gestational diabetes except vitamin D intake (OR 0.29 [0.15−0.54], P < 10−3) which had a protective effect. Conclusion: Our study underlines the importance of adequate vitamin D intake during pregnancy and suggests that the MedDiet may reduce the incidence of gestational diabetes.

Juvenile-onset diabetes may occur in the context of a rare syndromic presentation, suggesting a monogenic etiology rather than a common multifactorial diabetes. In the present study, we report the case of a young diabetic Tunisian patient presenting learning problems, speech deficits, short stature, brachydactyly, and a normal weight. Whole exome sequencing analysis revealed five heterozygous genetic variants in BBS1, BBS4, BBS8, MKS1, and CEP290. These genes are involved in the regulation of cilium biogenesis and function. We analyzed variant combinations pathogenicity using the recently developed ORVAL tool, and we hypothesized that cumulative synergetic effects of these variants could explain the syndromic phenotype observed in our patient. Therefore, our investigation suggested a genetic diagnosis of Bardet–Biedl syndrome with an oligogenic inheritance pattern rather than a monogenic diabetes. Although there is no curative therapy for this ciliopathy at the moment, a genetic diagnosis may offer other supportive care options, including the prevention of other possible clinical manifestations of this syndrome, mainly renal abnormalities, obesity, liver fibrosis, and hypertension, as well as the genetic counseling for family members.

Background The death rate in intensive care units (ICUs) can reach 20%. More than half occurs after a decision of care withholding/withdrawal. We aimed at describing and evaluating the experience of ICU physicians and nurses involved in the end-of-life (EOL) procedure. Primary objective was the evaluation of the experience of EOL assessed by the CAESAR questionnaire. Secondary objectives were to describe factors associated with a low or high score and to examine the association between Numeric Analogic Scale and quality of EOL. Methods Consecutive adult patients deceased in 52 ICUs were included between April and June 2018. Characteristics of patients and caregivers, therapeutics and care involved after withdrawal were recorded. CAESAR score included 15 items, rated from 1 (traumatic experience) to 5 (comforting experience). The sum was rated from 15 to 75 (the highest, the best experience). Numeric Analogic Scale was rated from 0 (worst EOL) to 10 (optimal EOL). Results Five hundred and ten patients were included, 403 underwent decision of care withholding/withdrawal, and among them 362 underwent effective care withdrawal. Among the 510 patients, mean CAESAR score was 55/75 (± 6) for nurses and 62/75 (± 5) for physicians (P P = 0.06). CAESAR score and Numeric Analogic Scale were significantly but weakly correlated. They were significantly higher for both nurses and physicians if the patient died after a decision of withholding/withdrawal. In multivariable analysis, among the 362 patients with effective care withdrawal, disagreement on the intensity of life support between caregivers, non-invasive ventilation and monitoring and blood tests the day of death were associated with lower score for nurses. For physicians, cardiopulmonary resuscitation the day of death was associated with lower score in multivariable analysis. Conclusion Experience of EOL was better in patients with withholding/withdrawal decision as compared to those without. Our results suggest that improvement of nurses’ participation in the end-of-life process, as well as less invasive care, would probably improve the experience of EOL for both nurses and physicians. Registration: ClinicalTrial.gov: NCT03392857.

The integration of the relatively novel aspects of computer-assisted translation (CAT) in translation curricula has been marked by a tug of war between educational and training perspectives. The present study investigates and assesses the integration of CAT within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Oman, a context where the professionalization of the discipline and the establishment of translation curricula in HEIs are relatively recent. Analysis of responses to a survey conducted with academic and professional stakeholders indicates that CAT is still struggling to set itself apart from software-specific training and that adjustments are required to set solid foundations for proper handling of CAT in translation curricula.

Objective: In Tunisia, a total confinement was imposed from March 20 until May 4, 2020. The aim of our work was to assess the impact of this 2-month confinement on the clinical and biological profile of diabetic patients hospitalized in diabetology. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, observational, descriptive study that involved 110 diabetic patients hospitalized in department A of the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology of Tunis (Tunisia) from June 1 until June 30, 2020. Results : The mean age of the patients was 49.72±11.99years with ranges ranging from 16 to 77 years old; 63.6% of patients were female and 73.6% of patients were type 2. The average duration of diabetes was 11.53±8.62years, with extremes ranging from 0to24 years. The mean level of glycated hemoglobin was 12.03±3.97% and the Body-Mass-Index was 29.44kg/m² with extremes ranging from 16.26to40.19kg/m². Weight gain was reported in 73% of patients with an average of 4.77±1.98kg within 2 months of confinement, with extremes ranging from 2to11kg. Two patients (1.8%) were hospitalized for inaugural diabetic ketosis. The others were admitted for an imbalance(81.8%) or an acute decompensation of their diabetes(16.4%). The factors of imbalance or decompensation were: a poor compliance with hygienic-dietetic measures(90.9%); a medication poor compliance(41.8%), more than half of which(54.3%) was due to the inability of the patient to go to the local health center to obtain his medication; lipodystrophies(42.7% of patients on insulin); a stomatological infection(8.2%); an urinary tract infection(4.5%) and an acute coronary syndrome(0.9%). Conclusions : The diabetic patient is at high risk of a severe form of Covid-19. However, the confinement imposed by the pandemic seems to be one of the factors of diabetes imbalance (in particular by weight gain and poor adherence to therapy). It is therefore essential to strengthen the education and treatment of diabetic patients. Disclosure F. Mahjoub: None. N. Ben Amor: None. O. Berriche: None. H. Jamoussi: None.

This article is the continuation of the work that has already been completed in a first study on the perception of engineering students at UniLaSalle Beauvais about education for sustainable development (SD) and innovation. Its purpose is to show the evolution over time of the perception of engineering students regarding SD and innovation after integrating the international program called “Go-LaSalle”. In this training process, students spend the second semester of their third academic year in partner universities of the worldwide Lasallian network. To identify and measure the change of students’ perception, we have designed a survey that was sent to two engineers’ training classes (specialties) Agronomy and Agro-Industries and Food and Health. The results show that although some differences and similarities appear between the two specialties, there are few significant changes on student’s perception before and after the six-month international program (called “Go-LaSalle”). Finally, the study shows, on the one hand, that the students trust the institution, the companies and their teachers more than their own inclinations, on the other hand, it allows the institution to adapt their training to both collective needs and the demands of the environment.

Our study aimed to assess the nutritional status by using body composition among young Tunisian adults through three measurement methods: body mass index (BMI), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and deuterium oxide dilution technique (

Aim Hyperuricemia is defined by the European Rheumatology Society as a uric acid level greater than 6 mg/dl (60 mg/l or 360 μmol/l). Our goal was to evaluate the hypouricemic effect of nettle. For this reason, we have first of all try to create an hyperuricemic animal model which is very suitable because at the level of literature there is not an exact model, there are many models and our objective is to set an adequate model. Materials and methods An attempt has been made to test acute and chronic hyperuricemia by varying the duration and method of induction of potassium oxonate. Similarly, attempts have been made to induce chronic hyperuricemia through an animal and vegetable diet. The reversibility of hyperuricemia was tested with a maintenance protocol. Key findings For the creation of the hyperuricemia model, it has been shown that acute hyperuricemia cannot be induced by short administration of potassium oxonate and persistent chronic hyperuricemia can be induced only after daily administration of oxonate of potassium by intraperitoneal injection for 15 days. Indeed, hyperuricemia was reversible after stopping the administration of potassium oxonate. The high-purine diet is also capable of inducing chronic hyperuricemia but to a less extent. Significance After creating an adequate model of hyperuricemia while setting the dose of potassium oxonate, route of administration and duration. A maintenance protocol was followed which subsequently made it possible to deduce that the daily administration of potassium oxonate must be continued to maintain the hyperuricemia.

Sentiment analysis can be done at different levels of granularity: document, sentence, and aspect. In our case, we are interested in the aspect which presents the finest level of granularity. This level is named Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis. In fact, Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) requires two primordial steps: (i) extract entity aspects and (ii) determine the sentiments from all the aspects. Aspect extraction is an important step for the ABSA. It aims at detecting all the existing aspects in a sentence. The extraction of these aspects is complicated considering the presence of several challenges especially when the Aspect extraction is done in the Arabic language. In this paper, we propose a supervised system ADAL for aspects detection in the Arabic language. The obtained results indicate that our proposed method outperforms previous works to achieve 96% in terms of f-measure when applied to the same dataset provided by The International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation 2016 (SemEval-2016).

Background: COPD represents a major public health problem worldwide because of its high prevalence and socio-economic repercussions. In Tunisia, few studies focused on the burden of this disease. We aimed to estimate the cost of ICU hospitalization due to COPD exacerbation; then to investigate higher cost associated factors. Methods: This retrospective study included all patients admitted in ICU) of Abderrahmen Mami hospital for COPD exacerbation, between, January 1st and December 31, 2016. We estimated of the cost of the hospitalization based on all prescribed laboratory tests, treatments, consumable necessary for their use as well as all complementary examinations and explorations carried out during the ICU-stay. An univariate analysis was performed to determine higher cost associated factors. The estimated cost was expressed in Tunisian dinars(TND) and in Euros(€) according to change course in 2016 (1€=2.43 TND). Results: We included 190 patients aged of 67±11 years and 85% of them was men. All patients had an acute respiratory failure, 40 of them were in coma and 14 were in shock. The mean length of ICU stay was 9.2 ± 9 days. The mean cost of COPD exacerbation hospitalisation in ICU was 2471±2517 TND(1017±1036€). The daily mean cost per patient was 333±210 TND(137±86€). Total expenses in 2016 for COPD exacerbation in ICU was 469735 TND(193307€). Higher mean cost associated factors were: need to invasive mechanical ventilation (3505TND vs 1370TND;p Conclusions: The estimated cost of exacerbations of COPD in intensive care is very high.To reduce these costs, optimization of non-invasive ventilation should be promoted.

Background: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is widely considered during management of acute respiratory failure within obesity-hypoventilation syndrome(OHS) patients in ICU. Nevertheless, other management features remain debated. We aimed to describe ventilatory practices and outcome of SOH patients in intensive care unit. Methods: This was a retrospective study carried within a medical ICU in Abderrahmen Mami Hospital between January 2017 and September 2019. OHS Patients admitted in ICU were included. Ventilatory management and outcomes were collected. Results: We enrolled 55 patients. Mean age was 64±11 years and sex-ratio=1.04. At their basic state, patients had primarily chronic respiratory failure with mMRC dyspnoea stage of 2(47%) and 3(33%). At admission, 53(96%) patients had acute respiratory failure, 40(75%) were hypercapnic. At arterial blood gases, means pH, PaCO2 and PaO2/FiO2 were respectively 7.29±0.12; 63±23 mmHg and 182±95 mmHg. NIV was used as first-line ventilatory support in 43 subjects (78%) and was successful in 30(70%). PEP max setting was 10cmH2O and mean NIV duration was 4.5±3days. Invasive ventilation (n=25) was immediately necessary in 12 patients and secondary in the 13 others. Mechanical ventilation weaning was processed in 21 patients (38,2 %), it was simple (n=5), difficult (n=11) or prolonged (n=5). Extubation was scheduled in 8 cases and accidental in 4 cases. Mean length of stay was 12±11days. Overall mortality was 40%. It was 21 % in NIV success group, 67% within immediately intubated patients, and reached 85% in intubated patients after NIV failure. Conclusion: NIV success within OHS patients was 70%. Invasively ventilated patients had poor outcome.

The management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is essentially based on mechanical ventilation. The choice of NIV as ventilatory assistance during the ARDS remains a controversial issue and no recommendations are made. We aimed to establish independent predictive factors of NIV failure within ARDS. Methods: This was a retrospective study between January 2015 and March 2019, conducted in the respiratory intensive care unit of Abderrahmen Mami Hospital. Patients admitted for ARDS according to the Berlin criteria and receiving 1st line NIV/CPAP were included. Clinical, ventilatory and evolving features were collected. An univariate and then multivariate analysis were conducted to determine predictive factors of NIV failure. Results: During the study period, 102 patients were included. The median age was 55 years and the sex-ratio was 1.48. At admission, the ARDS was severe (n=50;49%), moderate (n=40;39%) and mild (n=12;12%). NIV was the initial ventilatory modality in 79.4% of cases and CPAP in 20.6% of patients. The NIV failure rate was 71.6% with a median delay of 1 day[1-11]. The factors associated with NIV failure were: age (58 vs. 45 years; p=0.008), APACHE II (15.5 vs. 9; p=0.001), respiratory comorbidities (31.5% vs. 10.3% ; p=0.027), severe ARDS (57.5% vs 27.5%; p =0.004), viral etiology (11% vs 38%; p=0.001) and initial PEEP level setting(8 vs 10; p=0.016). The independent predictors of NIV failure identified were severe ARDS (OR=45.4;IC95%[1.6-125.2];p=0.024)and a PEEP level less than 9 cmH2O(OR=23;IC95%[1.2-408];p=0.033). Conclusion: NIV failure rate within ARDS was 71.6%. The independent predictors of NIV failure identified were severe ARDS and a PEEP level less than 9 cmH2O.

International audience; Chiral diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-helicene polymers were synthesized to develop efficient red circularly polarized (CP) light emitters. These original chiral dyes display intense electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and CP luminescence (CPL) in the far-red spectral region owing to the presence of excitonic coupling between achiral DPP within the chiral environment of the polymeric structure. This work affords an interesting example illustrating the potential of pi-conjugated helical polymers for chiral optoelectronic applications.Circularly polarized (CP) light has received renewed attention owing to its superior potential over unpolarized one in a diverse range of domains such as (chir)optoelectronics (stereoscopic displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), optical information processing, etc.) as well as in bio-imaging and chiral sensing

Sentiment analysis, a hot research topic, presents new challenges for understanding users’ opinions and judgments expressed online. They aim to classify the subjective texts by assigning them a polarity label. In this paper, we introduce a novel machine learning framework using auto-encoders network to predict the sentiment polarity label at the word level and the sentence level. Inspired by the dimensionality reduction and the feature extraction capabilities of the auto-encoders, we propose a new model for distributed word vector representation “PMI-SA” using as input pointwise-mutual-information “PMI” word vectors. The resulted continuous word vectors are combined to represent a sentence. An unsupervised sentence embedding method, called Contextual Recursive Auto-Encoders “CoRAE”, is also developed for learning sentence representation. Indeed, CoRAE follows the basic idea of the recursive auto-encoders to deeply compose the vectors of words constituting the sentence, but without relying on any syntactic parse tree. The CoRAE model consists in combining recursively each word with its context words (neighbors’ words: previous and next) by considering the word order. A support vector machine classifier with fine-tuning technique is also used to show that our deep compositional representation model CoRAE improves significantly the accuracy of sentiment analysis task. Experimental results demonstrate that CoRAE remarkably outperforms several competitive baseline methods on two databases, namely, Sanders twitter corpus and Facebook comments corpus. The CoRAE model achieves an efficiency of 83.28% with the Facebook dataset and 97.57% with the Sanders dataset.

Social networks are the most successful Web 2.0 applications, where users share and create over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily. This data can be exploited to retrieve many kinds of information which will be used in several applications. In fact, social networks have attracted considerable attention from researchers in different domains. This paper serves as an introduction to social network data analysis. In this work we present the recent and representative works in social network data analysis in an analytical fashion. We also highlight most important applications and used methods in the context of structural data analysis. Then, we list the major tasks and approaches proposed to analyse added-content in social media.

This chapter reports on the findings of a survey carried out among translation practitioners in Oman to investigate the uptake of computer-assisted translation (CAT) technologies. Findings indicate a low level of CAT tool adoption that is paralleled by a similarly low demand for such technologies in the local translation market. The discussion addresses the implications of these findings for stakeholders, with a focus on higher education institutions (HEIs). The chapter advocates that HEIs, rather than limit their role to enhancing CAT modules in their curricula, should in this context engage with corporate clients to raise their awareness of CAT technologies and of the benefits they can generate for their businesses.

Background:Fatty Acid (FA) composition of serum has been associated with many markers of inflammation. In this study, we tried to examine plasma Saturated Fatty Acid (SFA) and Monounsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) composition in Behçet's Disease (BD) patients. The associations between the circulating FA levels and some markers of inflammation have also been investigated.Methods:This study is a cross-sectional one. In fact, a total of 101 BD patients and healthy controls group of 99 subjects are enrolled. Gas Chromatograph equipped with a Capillary Split/Splitless Injector and flame ionization detector was used to analyze the plasma SFA and MUFA compositions. The high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) and fibrinogen levels were measured using standard techniques.Results:BD patients had significantly higher proportions of Mystiric Acid (MA), Palmitic Acid (PAM), Palmitoleic Acid (POA) and Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase (SCD)-16, compared to controls.The results revealed that patients with severe involvements had high levels of POA and total MUFA associated with higher SCD-16 activity compared to those with minor ones. The receiver operator characteristic curve analysis revealed that POA could well discriminate BD patients with severe clinical manifestations. In the bivariate analysis, hsCRP was found to be positively correlated with total SAFA and POA elongase activity index but negatively correlated with SCD-18 activity index. The STA, POA, elongase and SCD-16 activity index are correlated with fibrinogen. On the other hand, the multivariate analysis showed that POA remained associated with higher levels of hsCRP.Conclusion:Unfavourable plasma SFA and MUFA profile were reported in BD patients. POA, which is associated with higher plasma hsCRP level, may play a role in the pathogenesis of BD.

A fundamental question in modeling opinion dynamics is to know how can opinion be formed and evolved in a social network? This is an thorny subject which has attracted a hulk of attitudes and whetted the curiosity of researchers from various disciplines. One of the major points of view rests on the fact that opinion can be formed and revised through a process called social influence. This latter lies at the heart of the opinion modeling process and it has two types: Informational social influence, where a user forms his opinion according to information he obtained from a certain number of agents in his friendship and neighborhood. normative social influence is the second type of social influence and it lead to conformity. A very few empirical studies indicate that, it is also important to consider the normative influence in the opinion modeling process. In contrary, informational Influence is one of the main underlying premises used by many well-known theoretical models of opinion dynamics In the literature two main approaches have been adopted on how each individual updates her opinion: deterministic and probabilistic. Here, we focus only with deterministic models. We present various forms of modeling opinion dynamics in social networks and we show how opinions change following to social influence. Within the course of analysis, we point out both the strengths and weakness of many approaches. We aim to provide theoretical insight which may serve as guidelines for scientists, practitioners, researchers, consultants and developers who intend to design new methods in this area of interest.

Background and Objectives: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most frequent digestive cancer. Its occurrence is associated with many factors including nutrition and lifestyle. CRC is often associated to malnutrition which worsens its prognosis. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the nutritional status of patients with CRC. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study about fifty patients with CRC recruited in the Department of Gastroenterology and Surgery of “La Rabta” Hospital in Tunis as well as fifty random controls. The groups were matched for age and sex. The nutritional status of patients was assessed by anthropometric measurements, laboratory tests (albumin), and three nutritional scores. Dietary intakes were quantified by a frequency questionnaire and 24-h recall. Results: Significant risk factors were obesity (P = 0.02), menopause (P = 0.006) and the high consumption of red meat (P = 0.002), processed meat (P = 0.002), fried foods (P = 0.0001), and sugar (P = 0.0001). The consumption of green tea (P = 0.003), fruit (P = 0.001), and cereals (P = 0.0001) was higher in controls. Malnutrition was common measured by the body mass index, the percentage of weight loss (42%), albumin (60%), and different nutritional scores. The energy and protein intakes of patients were below the recommended requirements in 94% and 92% of patients, respectively. Deficiencies in minerals, vitamins, and trace elements were found. Conclusions: Malnutrition was very common in patients with CRC with multiple vitamin and mineral deficits.

This study aims to examine the effects of non-hydrolyzed octopus (Octopus vulgaris) muscle proteins (NHOPs) and their hydrolysates (OPHs) on alloxan induced diabetes in Wistar rats (AIDR). Animals were allocated into seven groups of six rats each: control group (C), diabetic group (D) and diabetic rats treated with acarbose (D + Acar), non-hydrolyzed octopus proteins (D + NHOPs) and octopus proteins hydrolysates (D + OPHs) groups. The diabetic rats presented a significant increase in glycemic status such as α-amylase activity (in plasma, pancreas and intestine), hepatic glycogen, blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, as well as a significant decrease in the levels of plasma insulin and total hemoglobin compared to control group. In addition, plasma and liver contents in total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol significantly increased in AIDR compared to control group. However, the daily administration of OPHs for 30 days improved the glucose tolerance test, the glycemic status of diabetic rats and corrected the lipid profiles. Further, a significant increase in the activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase as well as in the level of plasma bilirubin on diabetic status was observed, indicating considerable hepatocellular injury. OPHs treatment was found to attenuate the increased activities of the plasma enzymes produced by diabetes and caused a subsequent recovery towards normalization compared to the control group. By contrast, the NHOPs treatment was found to increase the glucose metabolic disorders in AIDR. These beneficial effects of OPHs were confirmed by histological findings in the hepatic and pancreatic tissues of diabetic treated rats. Indeed, they avoid lipid accumulation in the hepatocytes and protect the pancreatic β-cells from degeneration. Our results thus suggest that OPHs may be helpful in the preventing from diabetic complications by reversing hepatotoxicity., This work was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia. The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to Pr Najiba ZEGHAL, professor in the Sfax Faculty of sciences for her comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

Some events, such as terrorism attacks, earthquakes, and other events that represent tipping points, remain engraved in our memories. Today, through social media, researchers attempt to propose approaches for event detection. However, they are confronted to certain challenges owing to the noise of data propagated throughout social media. In this paper, a new mashup based method for event detection from social media is proposed using hadoop framework. The suggested approach aims at detecting real-world events by exploiting data collected from different social media sites. Indeed, the detected events are characterized by such descriptive dimensions as topic, time and location. Moreover, our approach assures a bilingual event detection. In fact, the proposed approach is able to detect events in English and French languages. In addition, our approach provides a mashup based multidimensional visualization by combining different multimedia components so as to add more details to the detected events. Furthermore, in order to overcome the problems occurring from the processing of big data, we integrated our approach into the hadoop distributed system.

Introduction Le personnel soignant est considere parmi les populations les plus touchees par la pandemie Covid-19. Dans cette optique, nous avons mene une etude dont l’objectif etait d’etudier l’impact de cette pandemie sur le comportement alimentaire des blouses blanches ainsi que sa relation avec leur profil anthropometrique. Materiels et methodes Il s’agit d’une etude transversale incluant 40 residents en medecine exercant dans des centres hospitalo-universitaires a Tunis. Les donnees ont ete collectees via un questionnaire renseignant sur les mesures anthropometriques et les conduites alimentaires des participants. Resultats L’âge moyen etait de 28,5 ± 1,8 ans. Une predominance feminine etait notee dans 77,5 % des cas. 80 % etaient sans antecedents. Une atopie, un diabete de type 2, une hypotension arterielle et des adenofibromes etaient retrouves dans 10 %, 5 %, 2,5 % et 2,5 % des cas respectivement. 22,5 % etaient tabagiques et plus que le quart (27,5 %) etaient consommateurs reguliers d’alcool. L’activite physique etait faible dans la moitie des cas, moderee dans 45 % des cas et intense dans 5 % des cas. Une infection SARS-COV 2 etait retrouvee chez 44 % des participants. La forme legere etait la forme predominante (dans plus de 90 % des cas). Ils etaient tous vaccines. L’IMC moyen etait de 23,4 ± 2,6 Kg/m2 avec une surcharge ponderale objectivee dans 20 % des cas (n = 8). La consommation des complements alimentaires etait notee dans 62,5 % des cas (n = 25). Plus que la moitie des residents (60 %) presentaient des troubles du comportement alimentaire (TCA) a type de grignotage (56 %) (n = 18), boulimie (6 %) (n = 2), binge eating disorder (9 %) (n = 3), night eating syndrome (9 %) (n = 3), hyperphagie (16 %) (n = 5) et compulsion alimentaire (26 %) (n = 8). L’impact des regresseurs (sexe, tabagisme, IMC, consommation d’alcool, activite physique, consommation de complements alimentaires, infection SARS-COV2) sur la presence de troubles des conduites alimentaires a ete etudie par le modele de regression logistique binaire. Seule la consommation d’alcool etait consideree comme facteur de risque de developper un TCA avec p = 0,05 (Odds ratio = 19). Conclusion Notre etude a montre que les TCA sont bel et bien frequents chez le personnel soignant pendant la pandemie du SARS-COV2. Outre la consommation d’alcool qui s’est averee un facteur de risque de survenue des TCA, il faut mentionner que d’autres facteurs sont a rechercher et a evaluer dans d’autres etudes comme le stress qui s’est amplifie durant ces conditions particulieres de l’exercice medical.

Background: Salt is directly related to hypertension and cardiovascular disease associated with it. As obesity facilitates the effect of salt, a quantification of obese salt intake is necessary. Methods: Our patients numbering 56 have been recruited in the consultation of the obesity unit. Patients were given a questionnaire about their knowledge concerning salt. Natriuresis of 24 h was quantified. The average amount of sodium consumed per day from foods was determined (SAL), the average amount of sodium consumed per day from table salt added to cooking and seasoning (SAC) and the average total amount of sodium consumed per day (STOQ). Results: The mean age of our patients was 44.31 ± 12.8 years. The average BMI of our patients was 37.12 ± 5.9 kg/m2. The average systolic blood pressure was 123.8 ± 14 mmHg and mean diastolic blood pressure was 76.45 ± 10.7 mmHg. The average amount of sodium consumed per day from food (SAL) was 1915 ± 1038 mg. The average amount of sodium consumed per day from cooking salt (SAC) was 2487 ± 1663 mg. The total amount of sodium consumed per day (STOQ) was 4402 ± 1831 mg. This addition is equivalent to 11 ± 4.6 g of salt per day. The total sodium intake exceeded 2000 mg/day in 89.2% of patients. More than half (57%) of spontaneous sodium intake comes from salt added. The average natriuresis in our population is 158 ± 68 mmol/24 h, higher than the norm in 18% of cases.The majority (85%) of our patients have claimed that excess salt is bad to very bad for health. Conclusion: Our study showed the importance of salt consumption in obeses and especially table salt and yet the majority of our patients consider it to be harmful to health.It will be necessary to take into account the sodium intake when prescribing the diet. Keywords: Obesity, Salt, Sodium intake, Natriuresis 24 h

Objectif L’objectif de ce travail etait d’etablir la prevalence de la covid-19 chez des patients obeses. Methodes Il s’agit d’une etude transversale ayant inclus 200 patients obeses suivis a l’Unite d’Obesite de l’Institut National de Nutrition de Tunis. Tous les patients ont ete contactes par telephone pour leur demander s’ils ont ete infectes par la Covid-19. Les renseignements clinico-biologiques ont ete releves a partir de leur dossiers. Resultats Notre population etait âgee en moyenne de 45 ± 15,9 ans avec un sex-ratio F/H = 0,3. L’IMC moyen etait de 39,4 ± 5,7 kg/m2 avec un tour de taille de 120,5 ± 13,7 cm et un pourcentage de masse grasse de 44,5 ± 6 %. L’anciennete de l’obesite chez nos patients etait de 15,5 ± 9,9 ans. Une infection par le COVID-19 a ete rapportee dans 15,5 % des cas. Un seul patient avait une forme asymptomatique. La forme pauci-symptomatique etait observee dans 9,5 %, et la forme mineure dans 5 % des cas. Une forme compliquee de deces etait note chez un patient. L’etude analytique n’a pas montre de relation statistiquement significative entre la severite de l’infection et l’âge, la presence de comorbidites, l’IMC et l’anciennete de l’obesite. Toutefois, une relation statistiquement significative a ete retrouvee entre le pourcentage de masse grasse avec l’infection par le COVID-19 d’une part(p = 0,003), et la severite de la maladie(p = 0,006). Conclusion L’obesite est non seulement un facteur de gravite, mais aussi un facteur de risque de la maladie.