The Effect of Ramadan and COVID-19 on the Relationship between Physical Activity and Burnout among Teachers

The objective of this study was to explore the effect of COVID-19 and Ramadan on physical activity (PA) and burnout in teachers and the relationship between them. A total of 57 secondary school teachers from public education centers participated in the present study. They were aged between 29 and 52 years. To determine the effect of Ramadan and COVID-19 on PA and burnout, participants completed the online questionnaires before COVID-19, one week before Ramadan and during the second week of Ramadan. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-BREF and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey were used to assess PA intensities and burnout, respectively. The data revealed that total PA (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively) vigorous metabolic equivalent of task (MET) (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively), moderate MET (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively) were higher before COVID-19 and before Ramadan than during Ramadan. Regarding burnout subscales, emotional exhaustion (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively) was higher before Ramadan than before COVID-19 and during Ramadan. A lower personal accomplishment was reported before Ramadan than before COVID-19 and during Ramadan (both p < 0.05). In addition, low to high correlations were observed between PA intensities and burnout subscales, except for the correlation between depersonalization and all PA intensities. In conclusion, Ramadan intermittent fasting along with PA was highly recommended for teachers and the general population to improve positive emotions and general health.     

Testicular Synovial Sarcoma:A Case Report

This paper reports a case of testicular synovial sarcoma with molecular genetic analysis.A 24-year-old male presented with painless scrotal mass.Ultrasonography showed a heterogeneous mass of 66 mm×34 mm in size involving the inguinal region.Histological examination of a surgical biopsy showed a gradeⅢmonophasic growth pattern of spindle cell proliferation.Immunohistochemical analyses indicated positive staining for pancytokeratine and epithelial membrane antigen.Cytogenetic analysis showed the presence of CYT-SSX1 mutation,and CT scan showed non-specific pleural micro-nodules with a size of 7.5 mm.The patient had an extended left orchidectomy but was lost to follow-up for 1 year.A local recurrent scrotal mass of 32 mm×25 mm,multiple inguinal lymph nodes,and increased pleural nodules,which were confirmed by histological examination,were treated with three cycles of adriamycine and ifosfamide chemotherapy,surgical resection,and radiotherapy with complete response.After 3 months,the patient developed local recurrence and pulmonary metastases that did not respond to second-line chemotherapy based on gemcitabine and paclitaxel.The patient had dyspnea at the time of this writing and chest pain,and is under third-line chemotherapy based on Deticene after 30 months of following up.This patient died on November 16,2012 after a resperatory failure and malignant plural effusion. Synovial sarcoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue tumor and it should be aggressively treated to improve prognosis.Although our patient has shown numerous factors of bad prognosis,he has had a relatively long survival time.     

Association of serum levels of aggrecan ARGS,NITEGE fragments and radiologic knee osteoarthritis in Tunisian patients

ObjectivesProteolytic degradation of aggrecan is a hallmark of the pathology of osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to develop enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantify the serum levels of specific aggrecan fragments generated by aggrecanases-mediated cleavage. We investigated the relationships between these two aggrecan degradations fragments and urinary CTX-II levels.MethodsThe competitive ELISAs employ a polyclonal antibody raised against the aggrecan fragments containing two neoepitopes NITEGE³⁷³ and ³⁷⁴ARGSVI. We measured serum levels of ARGSV and NITEGE in 125 women with knee osteoarthritis (mean ± SD age of 53.6 ± 7.6 years, mean ± SD disease duration of 3.6 ± 3.8 years), and 57 women age-matched controls.ResultsAggrecan neoepitopes assays showed an intra- and inter-assay imprecision (CV) lower than 20% for both tests and good linearity. Median serum ARGSVI (by 18%; P = 0.002), and NITEGE (36.4%; P < 0.001) levels were significantly decreased in patients with knee osteoarthritis compared with controls. Minimal joint space width was negatively correlated with ARGSVI (r = –0.368, P = 0.04) and NITEGE (r = –0.274, P = 0.038) in knee osteoarthritis patients. Median urinary CTX-II levels were significantly increased by 39.5% (P = 0.001) in knee OA patients compared with controls.ConclusionMarkers of degradation aggrecan were analyzed for the first time in an African osteoarthritis population. These markers can be used to monitor aggrecanase activity in human joint disease. Their combination with CTX-II can improve clinical investigation of patients with osteoarthritis patients.     

Soft‐tissue tumor of the perineum: an exceptional case of bilateral perineal myoma

Perineal myomas in female are exceptional. We report the second case in literature of perineal myomas. It is a case of bilateral perineal myomas lifting the skin occurring in a female patient of 49 years old. She was operated by perineal incisions. Histopathology confirmed the fibromatous nature without signs of malignancy.     

Skeletal phenotype/genotype in progressive pseudorheumatoid chondrodysplasia

Clinical Rheumatology - Axial and extra-axial deceleration in function and progressive joint pain with subsequent development of antalgic gait associated with swellings, and stiffness of the joints...     

Novel RAB3GAP1 Mutation in the First Tunisian Family With Warburg Micro Syndrome

Background and PurposeWarburg Micro syndrome (WARBM) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disease characterized by ocular, neurologic, and endocrine anomalies. WARBM is a phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous syndrome caused by mutations in RAB3GAP1, RAB3GAP2, RAB18, and TBC1D20. Here we present the clinical and genetic characterization of a consanguineous Tunisian family with a WARBM phenotype presenting two pathogenic variations, one of which is on RAB3GAP1.MethodsWe applied whole-exome sequencing (WES) to two affected young males presenting a WARBM-compatible phenotype.ResultsWe reveal a new variation in RAB3GAP1 ({"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"NM_012233.3","term_id":"1677500243"}}NM_012233.3: c.297del, p.Gln99fs) and another variation in ABCD1 ({"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"NM_000033","term_id":"1519313321"}}NM_000033: c.896A>G, p.His299Arg). Each of these mutations, which in silico predictions concluded as being pathogenic variations, affects a critical protein region. Both affected males presented a WARBM-compatible phenotype, with severe intellectual disability, severe developmental delay, postnatal growth delay, postnatal microcephaly, congenital bilateral cataracts, general hypotonia, and a thin corpus callosum without a splenium. However, intrafamilial clinical heterogeneity was present, since only the oldest child had large ears, microphthalmia, foot deformities, and a genital anomaly, and only the youngest child had microcornea. Despite the mutation identified in ABCD1, our patients did not have any X-linked symptoms of adrenoleukodystrophy disorder that are usually caused by ABCD1 mutations, which prompted our interest in clinical monitoring.ConclusionsWES analysis of a consanguineous Tunisian family with WARBM revealed a novel variation in RAB3GAP1 ({"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"NM_012233.3","term_id":"1677500243"}}NM_012233.3: c.297del, p.Gln99fs) that is most likely pathogenic and allowed us to confirm the diagnosis of WARBM.     

Design of robust nonfragile H∞ controller for uncertain nonlinear polynomial systems

This paper is concerned with the robust H_∞ nonfragile controller design for a particular class of nonlinear systems, namely, the perturbed polynomial systems, which are subject to unstructured bounded uncertainties in both the system model and the control law. Combining the Lyapunov stability theory, properties of linear matrix inequality, and Kronecker product properties, a sufficient condition of robust H_∞ nonfragile control design is proposed. More specifically, we propose a robust H_∞ controller of nonlinear polynomial systems with additive unstructured uncertainties and variation in the control law itself that guarantee the stability and the attenuation of external perturbations. Two examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

GJB2: the spectrum of deafness-causing allele variants and their phenotype

Genetic testing was completed on 1,294 persons with deafness referred to the Molecular Otolaryngology Research Laboratories to establish a diagnosis of DFNB1. Exon 2 of GJB2 was screened for coding sequence allele variants by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) complemented by bidirectional sequencing. If two deafness-causing mutations of GJB2 (encoding Connexin 26) were identified, further screening was not performed. If only a single deafness-causing mutation was identified, we screened for the g.1777179_2085947del (hereafter called del(GJB6-D13S1830); GenBank NT_024524.13) and mutations in the noncoding region of GJB2. Phenotype-genotype correlations were evaluated by categorizing mutations as either protein truncating or nontruncating. A total of 205 persons carried two GJB2 exon 2 mutations and were diagnosed as having DFNB1; 100 persons carried only a single deafness-causing allele variant of exon 2. A total of 37 of these persons were c.35delG carriers, and 51 carried other allele variants of GJB2. Persons diagnosed with DFNB1 segregating two truncating/nonsense mutations had a more severe phenotype than persons carrying two missense mutations, with mean hearing impairments being 88 and 37%, respectively (P < 0.05). The number of deaf c.35delG carriers was greater than expected when compared to the c.35delG carrier frequency in normal-hearing controls (P < 0.05), suggesting the existence of at least one other mutation outside the GJB2 coding region that does not complement GJB2 deafness-causing allele variants.