Biochemical composition of three Tunisian silverside (fish) populations caught in open sea, lagoon and island coasts

Fatty acid and amino acid profiles were determined in three silverside populations caught in Tunisian waters Atherina boyeri (open sea), Atherina lagunae (lagoon) and Atherina sp. (island coasts). Saturated fatty acids reached in total lipids 43.54%, 36.96% in marine and 33.64% in insular silverside and A. lagunae, in which eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and linoleic acid were the prominent fatty acids. The n-3/n-6 index showed a significant level indicating a tendency to accumulate n-3 fatty acids in A. boyeri and A. lagunae and n-6 fatty acids in Atherina sp. Total amino acid content ranged from 528 to 588 mg/g crude protein, in which, glutamic acid was the most abundant. Methionine had the lowest essential amino acid score in A. boyeri and Atherina sp. (0.73 and 0.71, respectively)while tryptophan had the lowest in A. lagunae (0.07)

Innovative Developments in the field of Difluoromethylation Chemistry

In modern chemistry, the introduction of fluorine atoms is an important field of research and as it permits to tune the biological activity of a molecule. Extensive works has been achieved in the introduction of fluorine, trifluoromethyl and polyfluorinated groups. On the contrary, the difluoromethyl group which show interesting physicochemical properties has been a less investigated in the fluorine chemistry topic. One of the reasons for this limitation is the scope of difluoromethyl reagent available for the incorporation of such functional group. Since the last two decades, due to the design of new difluoromethyl reagent that have different chemical structure, reactivity and are more stable and safer to use. All these factors have given a new lease of life to the difluoromethylation field. Previously, methods for the incorporation of difluoromethyl motif have been mainly focused on difluorocarbene pathways. However, the recent development of transition metal catalysis and radical photoredox catalysis appeared as promising strategy for difluoromethylation reaction. Various method though free radical has shown their efficiency to produce difluoromethylated compounds. Despite all this progress, there are limitations in the scope of differrentfunctional group in difluoromethylation compared to other fluorination method. At that time I started my thesis, there was no method reported for the direct introduction of a difluoromethyl group in alpha position of carbonyl compound. Therefore, as a first project, we decided to investigate the functionalisation in alpha position of a range of ketones through a photocatalytic process. The goal of our project was to introduce a difluoromethyl motif on alpha position on various ketones such as secondary, tertiary and quaternary carbon. Following this project, we have become intrigued in the field of flow photochemistry and its applicability for difluoromethylation reactions which has been less investigated in comparison to batch process. For this second project, our ambition was to develop a simple method by flow photoredox catalysis to produce a library of difluoromethylated heterocycles which could potentially have biological activity and medicinal chemistry application

Ability to fatten Tunisian lambs in Sheepfold

L’aptitude à l’engraissement des agneaux de races tunisienne en fonction des régimes alimentaires disponibles est une demande importante voire obligatoire pour nos éleveurs à nos jours afin de trouver une synergie entre le coût de production d’un kg de viande et le prix de vente. Pour cela, on a procédé à réaliser un essai de performances des agneaux de races différentes conduits en bergerie et recevant une ration alimentaire classique à base de foin d’avoine et d’aliment concentré dans la ferme pédagogique de l'École Supérieure d’Agriculture de Mateur. Les résultats obtenus étaient dans les normes en tenant compte de la ration et l’âge des agneaux. L’ingestion moyenne de la matière sèche de foin d’avoine était de 551 g /j/agneau, l’indice de consommation moyen a été de 6,34 Kg MS/Kg de gain de poids, le poids vifs des agneaux évolue d’un semaine à l’autre pour atteindre un poids final de 18,2 kg. Mots clés: Engraissement, race ovine, Tunisie, Indice de consommationThe ability to fatten lambs of Tunisian breeds according to the diets available is an important or even a compulsory demand of our breeders today in order to find a synergy between the cost of production of one kg of meat and the price of sale. For this, we carried out a performance test of lambs of different breeds in sheepfolds and receiving a classic food ration based on oat hay and feed concentrate in the educational farm of the Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur. The obtained results were within the standards taking into account the ration and the age of the lambs. The average dry matter intake of oat hay was 551 g / day / lamb, the average consumption index was 6.34 Kg DM / Kg of weight gain, the live weight of lambs increased weekly to reach a final weight of 18.2 kg. Keywords: Fattening, sheep breed, Tunisia, Consumption inde

Monitoring mood state to improve performance in soccer players: A brief review

Introduction: Psychological aspects of sport are key in maintaining athlete motivation and make a difference in competitive outcomes. Adjustments to training may be necessary according to athletes’ emotional state. Therefore, it is important to assess and quantify mood states throughout the season in team sports, including among soccer players. The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is a widely used questionnaire that assesses emotional states characterized by positive or negative feelings and can be administered repeatedly to assess changes in mood state. This review aims to assess and summarize the current literature on mood state variation in soccer players with a specific focus on training loads, training modalities, and competitive performance. Methods: A literature search was systematically conducted and resulted in 156 records. After removing duplicates, items with irrelevant titles and abstracts were screened out, and full texts were then screened for relevance and compared with inclusion and exclusion criteria. The remaining 37 articles were included in the final qualitative synthesis. Results: POMS scores were related to variability in training load, intensity of the training period, modality of training exercises, competitive performance and time of day in soccer players. Common recommendations include monitoring the mood state of soccer players during training sessions, matches, and throughout training periods to detect early signs of psychological disturbance and aid in optimizing high-level training performance. Conclusion: The POMS allows for monitoring of players’ psychological state, providing coaches with data to aid in adjusting acute program variables according to players’ psychological states and improve performance. Results offer practical support for the use of a simple POMS measurement as part of an overall program to monitor the players’ psychological states. Results also highlight how training choices (i.e., load and exercise modality) and competitive performance are related to mood states (i.e., tension, anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, and vigor)

Rheumatic Manifestations in Autoimmune Liver Disease

Autoimmune liver diseases coexist with rheumatic disorders in approximately 30% of cases and may also share pathogenic mechanisms. Autoimmune liver diseases result from an immune-mediated injury of different tissues, with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) targeting hepatocytes, and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis targeting cholangiocytes. Sjogren syndrome is diagnosed in 7% of AIH cases and serologic autoimmunity profiles are a common laboratory abnormality, particularly in the case of serum antimitochondrial (PBC) or anti\ue2\u80\u93liver kidney microsomal antibodies (AIH). Therapeutic strategies may overlap between rheumatic and autoimmune liver diseases and practitioners should be vigilant in managing bone loss

Effect of Intensified Training Camp on Psychometric Status, Mood State, and Hematological Markers in Youth Soccer Players

During training camps, training load is purposefully intensified. Intensified training loads (TL) are associated with psychological variations, increased fatigue, insufficient recovery, decreased muscular performance, and biological changes in adult athletes, but whether these changes occur during training camps in youth athletes has not been established. The aim of this study was to assess changes in psychometric status, vertical jump performance (i.e., height), and hematological markers before and after an intensive training camp in youth soccer players. In this case, 15male youth soccer players (mean ± SD: age: 14.8 ± 0.4 years; height: 172.0 ± 6.9 cm, body mass: 60.8 ± 7.9 kg; training experience: 5.2 ± 0.7 years) completed a 2-week training program consisting of 1 week of moderate TL (MT) and 1 week of intensive training camp (TC). Rate of perceived exertion (RPE), TL, monotony, strain, and psychometric status (total quality of recovery (TQR) and well-being indices (sleep, stress, fatigue, and muscle soreness) were monitored before each first daily training session across two weeks. The profile of mood states (POMS), countermovement jump (CMJ) height, and blood markers (complete blood count, urea, and creatinine) were assessed before and after TC. TL (d = 5.39, large), monotony (d = 3.03, large), strain (d = 4.38, large), and well-being index (d = 7.5, large) scores increased and TQR (d = 4.6, large) decreased during TC. The TC increased tension, fatigue, and total mood disturbance and decreased vigor (all p <0.01). CMJ performance p < 0.01, d = 0.52, moderate), creatinine (p < 0.01, d = 1.29, large), and leukocyte concentration (p < 0.01, d = 1.4, large) and granulocyte concentration (p < 0.01, d = 1.93, large) increased after TC. Percentage of lymphocytes (p < 0.05, d = 1.17, large) and monocytes (p < 0.01, d = 1.05, large) decreased while the percentage of granulocytes (p < 0.05, d = 0.86, large) increased significantly. Well-being, quality of recovery, mood, granulocyte concentration, and creatinine were all altered during the week-long intensified training camp. These results may provide coaches with valuable information about psychometric status and physiological fatigue and recovery of youth soccer players to better prescribe and adjust training loads during intensive training periods

The X chromosome and the sex ratio of autoimmunity

The number of human conditions that are currently considered to be autoimmune diseases (AID) has been steadily growing over the past decades and it is now estimated that over 10million people are affected in the United States. One of the major shared features among AID is the predominance in the female sex which in some cases changes with the age at disease diagnosis. Numerous hypotheses have been formulated based on intuitive scientific backgrounds to justify this sex imbalance, i.e. sex hormones and reproductive factors, fetal microchimerism, other sex-related environmental factors, a skewing of the X-chromosome inactivation patterns, and major defects in sex chromosomes. Nevertheless, none of these hypotheses has thus far gathered enough convincing evidence and in most cases data are conflicting, as well illustrated by the reports on fetal microchimerism in systemic sclerosis or primary biliary cirrhosis. The present article will critically discuss the main hypotheses (loss of mosaicism, reactivation, and haploinsufficiency) that have been proposed based on findings in female patients with specific AID along with two additional mechanisms (X-chromosome vulnerability and X-linked polyamine genes) that have been observed in AID models. Further, recent data have significantly shifted the paradigm of X chromosome inactivation by demonstrating that a large number of genes can variably escape silencing on one or both chromosomes. As a result we may hypothesize that more than one mechanism may contribute to the female susceptibility to tolerance breakdown while the possibility that unknown factors may indeed protect men from AID should not be overlooked

The role of Wnt pathway in the pathogenesis of OA and its potential therapeutic implications in the field of regenerative medicine

Introduction. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by articular cartilage degradation, subchondral damage, and bone remodelling, affecting most commonly weight-bearing joints, such as the knee and hip. The loss of cartilage leads to joint space narrowing, pain, and loss of function which could ultimately require total joint replacement. The Wnt/beta catenin pathway is involved in the pathophysiology of OA and has been proposed as a therapeutic target. Endogenous and pharmacological inhibitors of this pathway were recently investigatedwithin innovative therapies including the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Methods. A review of the literature was performed on the PubMed database based on the following inclusion criteria: article written in English language in the last 20 years and dealing with (1) the role of Wnt-beta catenin pathway in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and (2) pharmacologic or biologic strategies modulating the Wnt-beta catenin pathway in the OA setting. Results. Evidences support that Wnt signalling pathway is likely linked to OA progression and severity. Its inhibition through natural antagonists and new synthetic or biological drugs shares the potential to improve the clinical condition of the patients by affecting the pathological activity of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling. Conclusions. While further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms regulating the molecular interaction between OA regenerative therapies and Wnt, it seems that biologic therapies for OA exert modulation on Wnt/beta catenin pathway that might be relevant in achieving the beneficial clinical effect of those therapeutic strategies

Primary biliary cirrhosis and Sj\uf6gren's syndrome : autoimmune epithelitis

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) has been often coined a model autoimmune disease based on the homogeneity amongst patients, the frequency and similarity of antimitochondrial antibodies, including the highly directed immune response to pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDC-E2). A significant number of patients with PBC suffer from sicca and amongst these, there are patients who also have classic Sj\uf6gren's syndrome. Indeed, both PBC and Sj\uf6gren's syndrome are characterized by inflammation of target epithelial elements. Both diseases can be considered on the basis of a number of other related clinical aspects, including proposed unique apoptotic features of the target tissue, the role of secretory IgA, and the frequency with which both diseases overlap with each other. Indeed, PBC may be considered a Sj\uf6gren's syndrome of the liver, whereas Sj\uf6gren's syndrome can be equally discussed as PBC of the salivary glands. Dissection of the genetic predispositions for both diseases and especially the molecular basis of effector mechanisms, will become critical elements in developing new therapie