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Objective: Although the impact of high-intensity aerobic training on weight loss, fat oxidation, and cardiovascular disease has been explored to a great extent, long run consequences of the exercise training on bone tissue require more investigations. Design: Case-control study. Methods: To investigate the effect of high-intensity interval aerobic training (HIIT) on Osteocalcin and Adiponectin levels fourteen overweight and inactive young females, aged 23 ± 2.5 yrs., and BMI = 29 ± 2 kg/m2 were selected. The participants were randomly divided into 2 groups (7 participants each) i.e. HIIT and Control group/no training. HIIT performed 3-day per week training with intensity of 80-90 % V02ra„ continued for 8 weeks. Blood samples were taken 3 times, before training, in 4"' week and in 8"' week. Results: The Repeated-Measurements ANOVA showed that neither groups demonstrated a significant alteration in body mass (-1 vs. +0.43% p > 0.05) nor fat percentage (-1.44 vs. +0.5% p > 0.05). After 8 weeks training, Adiponectin level in training group increased (P = 0.039) and showed a rather further significant variation comparing to control group (+14.1 vs. +0.1% p = 0.027). Whereas, during this period, Osteocalcin level decreases (-27.8% p = 0.047). Besides Osteocalcin alterations were reducing to a significant level from 411 week to 8'h week (p = 0.003). Conclusions: HIIT was associated with a considerable increase in adiponectin after 8 weeks training without reducing body and fat masses. However carboxylated osteocalcin level decreased during this period. Apparently high-intensity aerobic training may improve bone formation via carboxylated osteocalcin decrease and adiponectin increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The previous studies show that physical exercise reduces the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases via improving peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). The purpose of this study has accordingly been to compare and contrast the effect of High Intensity Interval Training (HUT) with Moderate Intensity Continual Training (MICT) carrying the same total training load of VO2peak on aerobic power and body composition among the patients who have had Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). Design: In this regard, 12 CABG patients have randomly been divided into two similar groups receiving high intensity training or moderate intensity training. Method: HIIT (85-95 % HR peak) and MICT (50-70% HR peak) were performed 33 and 41 minutes respectively three times a week for an 8- week period. Result: The results illustrated that the VO2peak amount increased by 20.20% and 9.62% in HIIT and MICT respectively. In comparison there was a significant difference to the advantage of HIIT group in VO2peak (p = 0/004), body mass (p = 0/005), body mass index {p = 0/03), body fat mass (p = 0/002) and body fat percentage (p = 0/006). However, the interval training (p = 0/33) and the continual training (p = 0/12) had no significant effect on the lean body mass. Conclusion: Therefore, HIIT was more effective than MICT to increase VO2peakl and to improve body composition among CABG patients. Then it is suggested to apply HIIT instead of MICT for the purpose of CABG patient rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Substance use is usually associated with poorer psychiatric medication adherence among schizophrenic patients. Previous findings remain unclear about the relationship between cannabis use and poor medication adherence. Identifying predictor factors of medication adherence among these patients is very important because it's associated with relapse and re-hospitalization. Objective Determining whether cannabis use is a risk factor for compliance to medication in a population of schizophrenic patients. Method Schizophrenic inpatients were assessed by Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS). Socio-demographic, clinical data, and urine drug screens were collected just after their admission. Results A sample of 403 inpatients with schizophrenia diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria (mean age = 33, 35 ± 9, 16), predominantly man (90%), paranoid (62%) and 89% of them received classical antipsychotics. A total of ( n = 25; 6, 2%) inpatients were adherent, among this group, 19 patients (76%) were tested negative for cannabis use, and the rest of them ( n = 6; 24%) were tested positive. These results show a high significant correlation between cannabis use and medication adherence ( P = 0.009). Besides, medication adherence is strongly associated with a high socioeconomic status ( P = 0.005). Conclusion Cannabis use has a major effect on the non-adherence to medication treatment for schizophrenia. These results could be more effective if it addresses issues of cannabis use with patients throughout the early years of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Cannabis use is frequently observed in schizophrenia. Several medical and organic factors can lead to this comorbidity. These include depressive symptoms. Objective Assessing the prevalence of depressive symptoms within a population of schizophrenic inpatients and the association with cannabis use. Method A group of 403 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV), were assessed by The Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) scale measure depressive symptom in schizophrenia. Socio-demographic, clinic, and urine toxicology screens testing data were collected. Results The Schizophrenic patients included in this study have an average age of 33 years. The majority of them are males (90%), single (76%) and unemployed (72%). A total of 38 patients (9,4%) have depressive symptoms (scored 6 or more on the CDSS). Among this group, 16 patients (42,1%) were tested positive for cannabis used. Although there is a high proportion of cannabis use among patients with depression symptoms, there was no significant correlation between the CDSS total score and cannabis use among schizophrenic patients. Conclusion Depression is well known to occur during the course of schizophrenia in many patients and contributes substantially to the morbidity. Studies are needed that include correlation analyses between depression and cannabis use in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the era of "precision medicine," the availability of high-quality tumor biomarker tests is critical and tumor proliferation evaluated by Ki-67 antibody is one of the most important prognostic factors in breast cancer. But the evaluation of Ki-67 index has been shown to suffer from some interobserver variability. The goal of the study is to develop an easy, automated, and reliable Ki-67 assessment approach for invasive breast carcinoma in routine practice., Patients and Methods: A total of 151 biopsies of invasive breast carcinoma were analyzed. The Ki-67 index was evaluated by 2 pathologists with MIB-1 antibody as a global tumor index and also in a hotspot. These 2 areas were also analyzed by digital image analysis (DIA)., Results: For Ki-67 index assessment, in the global and hotspot tumor area, the concordances were very good between DIA and pathologists when DIA focused on the annotations made by pathologist (0.73 and 0.83, respectively). However, this was definitely not the case when DIA was not constrained within the pathologist's annotations and automatically established its global or hotspot area in the whole tissue sample (concordance correlation coefficients between 0.28 and 0.58)., Conclusions: The DIA technique demonstrated a meaningful concordance with the indices evaluated by pathologists when the tumor area is previously identified by a pathologist. In contrast, basing Ki-67 assessment on automatic tissue detection was not satisfactory and provided bad concordance results. A representative tumoral zone must therefore be manually selected prior to the measurement made by the DIA.

Vedolizumab was introduced in 2014 as a therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Although recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence were based on a maintenance dose of 300 mg administered intravenously every 8 weeks, the Summary of Product Characteristics includes an option of increasing the frequency of dosing for patients who initially respond but later experience a decrease in response. In this literature review of the evidence for a shorter duration between doses we identified seven studies which report that dose interval shortening recaptures response in around 50% of cases with remission rates of 11% to 34% between 4 and 52 weeks. A sustained response was seen in the majority of patients for up to 1 year, however, patients continued to receive escalated dosing for up to 100 weeks, which does not reflect clinical practice where short-term escalation is usually prescribed. There is a lack of randomised controlled trials and a lack of trials reporting endoscopic remission, which is the goal of care in IBD. The use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to guide dose escalation is uncertain and further studies are required to help clarify the role of TDM., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared. Refer to the online supplementary files to view the ICMJE form(s)., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Short-chain carboxylic acids (SCCAs) produced by gut microbial fermentation may reflect gastrointestinal health. Their concentrations in serum and urine are indicative of specific metabolic pathway activity; therefore, accurate quantitation of SCCAs in different biofluids is desirable. However, it is often challenging to quantitate SCCAs since matrix effects, induced by the presence of a vast variety of other compounds other than SCCAs in complex biofluids, can suppress or enhance signals. Materials used for sample preparation may introduce further analytical challenges. This study reports for the first time a LC-MS/MS-based method to quantitate ten SCCAs (lactate, acetate, 2-hydroxybutyrate, propionate, isobutyrate, butyrate, 2-methylbutyrate, isovalerate, valerate and hexanoate) and evaluates the matrix effects in five human biofluids: serum, urine, stool, and contents from the duodenum and intestinal stoma bags. The optimized method, using 3-Nitrophenylhydrazone as a derivatization agent and a Charge Surface Hybrid reverse phase column, showed clear separation for all SCCAs at a concentration range of 0.1-100 µM, in a 10.5 min run without carry-over effects. The validation of the method showed a good linearity (R2 > 0.99), repeatability (CV ≤ 15%) assessed by intra- and inter-day monitoring. The lowest limit of detection (LLOD) was 25 nM and lowest limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 50 nM for nine SCCA except acetate at 0.5 and 1 µM, respectively. Quantitative accuracy in all biofluids for most compounds was < ±15%. In summary, this methodology has the advantages over other techniques for its simple and fast sample preparation and a high level of selectivity, repeatability and robustness for SCCA quantification. It also reduced interferences from the matrix or sample containers, making it ideal for use in high-throughput analyses of biofluid samples from large-scale studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Significant research has been conducted on the effects of soil salinity issue on agricultural productivity. However, limited consideration has been given to its critical effects on soil biogeochemistry (e.g., soil microorganisms, soil organic carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions), land desertification, and biodiversity loss. This article is based on synthesis of information in 238 articles published between 1989 and 2022 on these effects of soil salinity. Principal findings are as follows: (1) salinity affects microbial community composition and soil enzyme activities due to changes in osmotic pressure and ion effects; (2) soil salinity reduces soil organic carbon (SOC) content and alters GHG emissions, which is a serious issue under intensifying agriculture and global warming scenarios; (3) soil salinity can reduce crop yield up to 58 %; (4) soil salinity, even at low levels, can cause profound alteration in soil biodiversity; (5) due to severe soil salinity, some soils are reaching critical desertification status; (6) innovate mitigation strategies of soil salinity need to be approached in a way that should support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). Knowledge gaps still exist mainly in the effects of salinity especially, responses of GHG emissions and biodiversity. Previous experiences quantifying soil salinity effects remained small-scale, and inappropriate research methods were sometimes applied for investigating soil salinity effects. Therefore, further studies are urgently required to improve our understanding on the effects of salinity, address salinity effects in larger-scale, and develop innovative research methods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Groundwater is a vital natural resource required to satisfy the domestic and agricultural needs. In general, human health is linked to the quality of the consumed water. For instance, long-term exposure to high nitrate levels in groundwater may cause problems. Hence, the present study was conducted to assess the nitrate contamination of groundwater as well as its related health risks for the inhabitants of the Sfax region, Sahel Tunisia. Irrigation groundwater suitability has been evaluated with sodium content (%Na), electrical conductivity (EC), magnesium hazard (MH), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), permeability index (PI), Kelly's ratio (KR) and soluble sodium percent (SSP). The results indicate that the selected groundwater is characterized by low to moderate quality for irrigation. Furthermore, the drinking water quality index (DWQI) was assessed using potential of hydrogen (pH), total dissolved solids (TDS), magnesium (Mg 2+ ), calcium (Ca 2+ ), sodium (Na + ), chloride (Cl - ), sulfate (SO 4 2- ), potassium (K + ), bicarbonate (HCO 3 - ) and nitrate (NO 3 - ). The results indicate that 3.63% of samples have good quality of water, while 41.82% have poor to very poor water quality and the rest (54.55%) are unfit for drinking. The nitrate pollution index (NPI) model revealed that about 42% of the samples present significant to very significant type of pollution. Based on human health risk assessment, the children are at higher risks compared to the other affected groups. The obtained results could be used as a basic document for realistic management of groundwater quality and to provide an overview for decision-making authorities to take necessary actions., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Purpose: We compared the diagnostic yield of fetal clinical exome sequencing (fCES) in prospective and retrospective cohorts of pregnancies presenting with anomalies detected using ultrasound. We evaluated factors that led to a higher diagnostic efficiency, such as phenotypic category, clinical characterization, and variant analysis strategy., Methods: fCES was performed for 303 fetuses (183 ongoing and 120 ended pregnancies, in which chromosomal abnormalities had been excluded) using a trio/duo-based approach and a multistep variant analysis strategy., Results: fCES identified the underlying genetic cause in 13% (24/183) of prospective and 29% (35/120) of retrospective cases. In both cohorts, recessive heterozygous compound genotypes were not rare, and trio and simplex variant analysis strategies were complementary to achieve the highest possible diagnostic rate. Limited prenatal phenotypic information led to interpretation challenges. In 2 prospective cases, in-depth analysis allowed expansion of the spectrum of prenatal presentations for genetic syndromes associated with the SLC17A5 and CHAMP1 genes., Conclusion: fCES is diagnostically efficient in fetuses presenting with cerebral, skeletal, urinary, or multiple anomalies. The comparison between the 2 cohorts highlights the importance of providing detailed phenotypic information for better interpretation and prenatal reporting of genetic variants., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Most studies of the prevalence of cannabis use among patients with schizophrenia used a self-report as declared by the patient himself. We hypothesize that patients with schizophrenia did not tell the truth and might underreport their use for many reasons to be discussed later. Indeed, the under-report of cannabis use among these patients can affect the effectiveness of their treatment., Aims: To assess the degree of agreement between the prevalence values obtained from patients' reports and the results of the toxicological tests., Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 403 patients with schizophrenia. A sociodemographic, psychiatric history and illicit drug use profile was performed for each patient. We assessed the patients with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Calgary Depression score (CDSS), Barratt Impulsiveness Score (BIS-10) and Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS). The consumption of cannabis used was confirmed with MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-DSM IV) and using toxicological analysis., Results: Among the 403 patients who consented to give their urine samples, 49.1% (198/403) tested positive for cannabis, and 41.41% (82/198) underreported their use. The sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire were 0.58 and 0.74. Based on the comparison between sociodemographic and psychiatric history data of patients who self-report and underreport their cannabis use, no significant difference was observed except for the duration of cannabis use and the score on the medication adherence scale. Moreover, it was found that impulsivity, PANSS score, CDSS score, and the type of schizophrenia are not involved in predicting the underreporting of cannabis use., Conclusion: The rate of patients who under-report cannabis use is important. Therefore, toxicological analysis is becoming relevant for identifying drug use among schizophrenic patients and in the addictive comorbidity research field., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Groundwater (GW) studies have been conducted worldwide with regard to several pressures, including climate change, seawater intrusion, and water overexploitation. GW quality is a very important sector for several countries in the world, in particular for Tunisia. The shallow coastal aquifer of Sfax (located in Tunisia) was found to be under the combined conditions of continuous drop in GW and further deterioration of the groundwater quality (GWQ). This study was conducted to identify the processes that control GWQ mainly in relation to mineralization sources in the shallow Sfax coastal aquifer. To perform this task, 37 wells are considered. Data include 10 physico-chemical properties of groundwater analyzed in water samples: pH, EC, calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO 4 ), bicarbonate (HCO 3 ), and nitrate (NO 3 ), i.e., investigation was based on a database of 370 observations. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hydrochemical facies evolution (HFE) were conducted to extract the main factors affecting GW chemistry. The results obtained using the PCA model show that GWQ is mainly controlled by either natural factors (rock-water interactions) or anthropogenic ones (agricultural and domestic activities). Indeed, the GW overexploitation generated not only the GWQ degradation but also the SWI. The inverse distance weighted (IDW) method, integrated in a geographic information system (GIS), is employed to achieve spatial mapping of seawater intrusion locations. Hydrochemical facies evolution (HFE) results corroborate the seawater intrusion and its spatial distribution. Furthermore, the mixing ratio showed that Jebeniana and Chaffar-Mahares localities are characterized by high SWI hazard. This research should be done to better manage GW resources and help to develop a suitable plan for the exploitation and protection of water resources.