Determinants of Workplace Productivity Decline in the Tunisian Onshore Oil and Gas Industry.

Background: This study explored the impact of occupational stress, personal factors, and physical conditions on work productivity decline (WPD) among workers in the Tunisian onshore oil and gas industry. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 246 onshore oil installation workers of a Tunisian private oil company. 94 employees (48%) participated in this study. We used the Job Content Questionnaire to evaluate occupational stress and the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire to assess the WPD. Results: Data were analysed using R software. This study exclusively included male workers, with an average age of 41.1 ± 9.5 years. Binary logistic regression analysis identified low social support and job-strain situation as the most associated risk factors (OR >3). The random forest model suggested that professional category, job-strain situation, low social support, and iso-strain situation were the most important variables in predicting WPD. Conclusion: These data provided evidence that petroleum workers faced a monotonous lifestyle in the workplace, leading to high levels of occupational stress that affected their work productivity. This study is the first in Tunisia in the oil sector.

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance.

Investment in Africa over the past year with regards to SARS-CoV-2 genotyping has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, exceeding 100,000 genomes generated to track the pandemic on the continent. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries able to sequence within their own borders, coupled with a decrease in sequencing turnaround time. Findings from this genomic surveillance underscores the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic but we observe repeated dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 variants within the continent. Sustained investment for genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve, particularly in the low vaccination landscape. These investments are very crucial for preparedness and response for future pathogen outbreaks. One-Sentence SummaryExpanding Africa SARS-CoV-2 sequencing capacity in a fast evolving pandemic.

Application of data fusion modeling for the prediction of auxin response elements in Zea mays for food securitypurposes

Food security will be affected by climate change worldwide, particularly in the developingworld, where the most important food products originate from plants. Plants are often exposed to environmental stresses that may affect their growth, development, yield, and foodquality. Auxin is a hormone that plays a critical role in improving plants’ tolerance of environmental conditions. Auxin controls the expression of many stress-responsive genes inplants by interacting with specific cis-regulatory elements called auxin-responsive elements (AuxREs). In this work, we performed an in silico prediction of AuxREs in promotersof five auxin-responsive genes in Zea mays. We applied a data fusion approach based onthe combined use of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory and fuzzy sets. Auxin has a directimpact on cell membrane proteins. The short-term auxin response may be represented bythe regulation of transmembrane gene expression. The detection of an AuxRE in the promoter of prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) in Z. mays and the 3-fold overexpression of this geneunder auxin treatment for 30 min indicated the role of POP in maize auxin response. POP isregulated by auxin to perform stress adaptation. In addition, the detection of two AuxRETGTCTC motifs in the upstream sequence of the bx1 gene suggests that bx1 can be regulated by auxin. Auxin may also be involved in the regulation of dehydration-responsive element-binding and some members of the protein kinase superfamily.

A year of genomic surveillance reveals how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic unfolded in Africa

The progression of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Africa has so far been heterogeneous and the full impact is not yet well understood. Here, we describe the genomic epidemiology using a dataset of 8746 genomes from 33 African countries and two overseas territories. We show that the epidemics in most countries were initiated by importations, predominantly from Europe, which diminished following the early introduction of international travel restrictions. As the pandemic progressed, ongoing transmission in many countries and increasing mobility led to the emergence and spread within the continent of many variants of concern and interest, such as B.1.351, B.1.525, A.23.1 and C.1.1. Although distorted by low sampling numbers and blind-spots, the findings highlight that Africa must not be left behind in the global pandemic response, otherwise it could become a breeding ground for new variants.

Risk of laryngeal and nasopharyngeal cancer associated with arsenic and cadmium in the Tunisian population.

Chronic exposure to heavy metals has long been recognized as being capable of increasing head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence, such as laryngeal (LC) and nasopharyngeal (NPC), among exposed human populations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the concentrations of arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) in the blood of 145 patients (LC and NPC) and 351 controls in order to establish a potential relationship between these factors and the occurrence of LC and NPC. Mean blood levels of As and Cd in patients (5.67 and 3.51 µg/L, respectively) were significantly higher than those of controls (1.57 and 0.74 µg/L, respectively). The blood levels of As and Cd were mostly significantly higher than those of controls (p<0.05) after controlling the other risk factors of HNC including tobacco smoking and chewing, and alcohol drinking. Cd levels in blood increase significantly with the number of occupational exposure years for patients (p<0.05). However, seafood was not found to be contributing as an exposure source. Among these risk factors, smoking (>30 pack years) and occupational exposure (>20 years) presented the most significant association with HNC (OR=10.22 and 10.38, respectively, p<0.001). Cd level in blood sample of cases that are occupationally exposed/tobacco users (smokers and chewers) were higher than that of non-occupationally exposed/nontobacco users (p<0.001). The logistic regression model illustrated that HNC (LC+NPC) was significantly associated with blood levels of As (OR=2.41, p<0.001) and Cd (OR=4.95, p<0.001).