ΔΙΕΡΕΥΝΗΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΥΔΡΟΜΟΡΦΟΛΟΓΙΚΩΝ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΣΕ ΕΠΙΠΕΔΟ ΛΕΚΑΝΗΣ ΑΠΟΡΡΟΗΣ, Η ΠΕΡΙΠΤΩΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΙΠΟΤΑΜΟΥ ΗΜΑΘΙΑΣ

Στην παρούσα εργασία διερευνήθηκαν τα υδρομορφολογικά χαρακτηριστικά του χειμάρρου Τριπόταμου, όπως ορίζονται από την Οδηγία 2000/60/Ε.Κ. Ειδικότερα η εργασία στηρίχθηκε στο άρθρου 1.1.1 του παραρτήματος V, της οδηγίας 2000/60/Ε.Κ, στο οποίο προτείνονται συγκεκριμένοι υδρομορφολογικοί παράγοντες που υποστηρίζουν τα βιολογικά στοιχεία. Επιπλέον έγινε προσπάθεια αποτύπωσης των προβλημάτων που παρουσιάζονται κατά μήκος της κοίτης του Τριπόταμου από τις τροποποιήσεις που έχει υποστεί και προτάθηκαν μέτρα αποκατάστασης. Τέλος, από την σύγκριση των αποτελεσμάτων με αυτά που αναφέρονται στο Σχέδιο Διαχείρισης Λεκανών Απορροής  προκύπτει η αναγκαιότητα ύπαρξης περισσοτέρων του ενός σταθμού δειγματοληψιών

Artificial pancreas treatment for outpatients with type 1 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of artificial pancreas treatment in non-pregnant outpatients with type 1 diabetes. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, and grey literature up to 2 February 2018. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Randomised controlled trials in non-pregnant outpatients with type 1 diabetes that compared the use of any artificial pancreas system with any type of insulin based treatment. Primary outcome was proportion (%) of time that sensor glucose level was within the near normoglycaemic range (3.9-10 mmol/L). Secondary outcomes included proportion (%) of time that sensor glucose level was above 10 mmol/L or below 3.9 mmol/L, low blood glucose index overnight, mean sensor glucose level, total daily insulin needs, and glycated haemoglobin. The Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool was used to assess study quality. RESULTS: 40 studies (1027 participants with data for 44 comparisons) were included in the meta-analysis. 35 comparisons assessed a single hormone artificial pancreas system, whereas nine comparisons assessed a dual hormone system. Only nine studies were at low risk of bias. Proportion of time in the near normoglycaemic range (3.9-10.0 mmol/L) was significantly higher with artificial pancreas use, both overnight (weighted mean difference 15.15%, 95% confidence interval 12.21% to 18.09%) and over a 24 hour period (9.62%, 7.54% to 11.7%). Artificial pancreas systems had a favourable effect on the proportion of time with sensor glucose level above 10 mmol/L (-8.52%, -11.14% to -5.9%) or below 3.9 mmol/L (-1.49%, -1.86% to -1.11%) over 24 hours, compared with control treatment. Robustness of findings for the primary outcome was verified in sensitivity analyses, by including only trials at low risk of bias (11.64%, 9.1% to 14.18%) or trials under unsupervised, normal living conditions (10.42%, 8.63% to 12.2%). Results were consistent in a subgroup analysis both for single hormone and dual hormone artificial pancreas systems. CONCLUSIONS: Artificial pancreas systems are an efficacious and safe approach for treating outpatients with type 1 diabetes. The main limitations of current research evidence on artificial pancreas systems are related to inconsistency in outcome reporting, small sample size, and short follow-up duration of individual trials

Historic Gardens and Parks Worldwide and in Greece: Principles of Acknowledgement, Conservation, Restoration and Management

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Florence Charter 1981 on Historic Gardens sets the first guidelines for the definition of a historic garden, in which sites such as large parks, whether formal or landscape, are included. Since then, there is a continuous effort worldwide on issues of historic garden acknowledgement, conservation, restoration and management. Countries with garden and park tradition, such as the U.K., USA, France and others, have several sites registered and protected. Furthermore, historic garden and park associations exist in Italy, Spain and Portugal, among other nations. In Greece, there is no specific official policy or association regarding historic parks, gardens or landscapes. Greek law includes historic gardens and parks within the spectrum of works of art, places of outstanding natural beauty and historic places/lands for partial or absolute protection, and, thus, attempts in identifying historic landscapes fall generally in other categories, but law specified for historic gardens. However, in both the Greek ratification of the European Landscape Convention and the European Biodiversity directives, there are aspects one could interpret as very useful for the acknowledgement and policy-making on historic gardens and parks. In this paper, an overview on historic gardens and parks abroad and in Greece is attempted, along with aspects of acknowledgement, protection, conservation, restoration and management. Finally, a first attempt on methodological outlines for the acknowledgement and conservation of historic gardens and parks in Greece is presented

The Value and Services of Urban Stream Polygnotou, Thessaloniki

Grey, blue and green infrastructure supports socio-ecological processes the city undergoes. Yet, procedures of constructing anthropogenic habitats often undermine the value of natural landscape elements such as urban streams. Thessaloniki’s backbone comprises of urban streams that run from the suburban forest of ‘Seih-Sou’ to the Thermaikos Gulf acting as corridors of the natural urban matrix. Policies of the past have dealt with urban streams through extensive engineering drainage methods, eliminating the risk of flooding, yet resulting in rapid stormwater runoff, water quality problems, disturbed riparian ecosystems, leading to the urban stream syndrome. Furthermore, they have failed to address urban streams as an inseparable part of the landscape and thus to incorporate them in people’s mental map and everyday activities. The paper discusses the case of ‘Polygnotou stream’ which forms the beginning of the large scale engineered peripheral moat of Thessaloniki, constructed in the 60’s, and playing the role of the water recipient for six urban streams in total. It falls unknown to the majority of people living in the area, yet its services as an ecosystem ought to be acknowledged, helping inform decision makers of its socio-ecologic, perceptual and economic value. In addition, Polygnotou stream, adjacent streams and the peripheral moat overall, could be considered as a touristic product of great importance

Camera recognition with deep learning

In this paper, camera recognition with the use of deep learning technique is introduced. To identify the various cameras, their characteristic photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU) noise pattern was extracted. In forensic science, it is important, especially for child pornography cases, to link a photo or a set of photos to a specific camera. Deep learning is a sub-field of machine learning which trains the computer as a human brain to recognize similarities and differences by scanning it, in order to identify an object. The innovation of this research is the use of PRNU noise patterns and a deep learning technique in order to achieve camera identification. In this paper, AlexNet was modified producing an improved training procedure with high maximum accuracy of 80%–90%. DIGITS showed to have identified correctly six cameras out of 10 with a success rate higher than 75% in the database. However, many of the cameras were falsely identified indicating a fault occurring during the procedure. A possible explanation for this is that the PRNU signal is based on the quality of the sensor and the artefacts introduced during the production process of the camera. Some manufacturers may use the same or similar imaging sensors, which could result in similar PRNU noise patterns. In an attempt to form a database which contained different cameras of the same model as different categories, the accuracy rate was low. This provided further proof of the limitations of this technique, since PRNU is stochastic in nature and should be able to distinguish between different cameras from the same brand. Therefore, this study showed that current convolutional neural networks (CNNs) cannot achieve individualization with PRNU patterns. Nevertheless, the paper provided material for further research

Once-weekly dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors for type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<p><b>Objective</b>: To assess the efficacy and safety of omarigliptin and trelagliptin, novel dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors administered once-weekly (DPP-4i QW).</p> <p><b>Methods</b>: We systematically searched for placebo- and active-controlled randomized trials in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.</p> <p><b>Results</b>: Fifteen primary studies with 5709 participants were included. DPP-4i QW were more effective than placebo in reducing hemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) (Weighted Mean Difference (WMD) −0.63%; 95% CI −0.80, −0.46; I² = 84%) and had a similar glucose-lowering effect with daily DPP-4i (WMD 0.01%; −0.08, 0.11%; I² = 34%). Omarigliptin was less effective compared with oral antidiabetic agents, other than daily DPP-4i, (WMD 0.24%; 0.10, 0.38; I² = 12%). Omarigliptin did not affect body weight (WMD versus placebo 0.60 kg; 0.25, 0.96; I² = 0%). Risk for any hypoglycemia was similar between DPP-4i QW and placebo (Odds Ratio 1.32; 0.78, 2.22; I² = 0%). Incidence of other adverse events did not differ between DPP-4i QW and control.</p> <p><b>Conclusions</b>: DPP-4i QW were superior to placebo and similar to daily DPP-4i in terms of glycemic control, and were not associated with any specific adverse events. There is limited comparative effectiveness evidence against other agents, while their effect on hard clinical safety outcomes is unknown.</p

Development and Validation of a Mediterranean Oriented Culture-Specific Semi-Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire

The objectives were to develop a Mediterranean oriented semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and evaluate its validity in measuring energy and nutrient intakes. For FFQ development, the main challenge was to merge food items and practices reflecting cultural Mediterranean preferences with other food choices ensuing from diet transition to more westernized dietary patterns. FFQ validity was evaluated by comparing nutrient intakes against the average of two 24-h dietary recalls for 179 pregnant women. Although the mean intake values for most nutrients and energy tended to be higher when determined by the FFQ, the Cohen’s d was below 0.3. Bland-Altman plots confirmed the agreement between the two methods. Positive significant correlations ranged from 0.35 to 0.77. The proportion of women classified correctly was between 73.2% and 92.2%, whereas gross misclassification was low. Weighted kappa values were between 0.31 and 0.78, while intraclass correlation coefficients were between 0.49 and 0.89. Our methodological approach for the development and validation of this FFQ provides reliable measurements of energy, macro- and micronutrient intakes. Overall, our culture-specific FFQ could serve as a useful assessment tool in studies aiming at monitoring dietary intakes, especially in the Mediterranean region, where countries share common cultural dietary habits

Allergy and risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia among children: A nationwide case control study in Greece

Background: Several reports point to inverse associations between allergies and ALL; yet, no study has explored this link using both self-reported-data on allergic history and biomarkers of atopic sensitization. Methods: Clinical information for the variables of interest was available for 252 out of 292 cases of childhood (0-14 years) ALL, newly diagnosed across Greece over a 4.5 year period as well as for 294 hospital controls. Allergen-specific-IgEs, as markers of allergic predisposition, against 24 most prevalent respiratory and food allergens, were determined, using an enzyme immunoassay procedure for 199 children with ALL and 113 controls. Cases were compared with controls through frequency distributions and unconditional multiple logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence-intervals (CIs) regarding associations of allergy with childhood ALL. Results: Self-reported-allergic history overall (OR: 0.49, 95%CI: 0.34-0.72) and practically each one of its main components (respiratory, food, any other clinical allergy) were strongly and inversely associated with ALL. Likewise, the serum IgE inverse association was of the same magnitude (OR: 0.43, 95%CI: 0.22-0.84) mainly contributed by food IgE (OR: 0.39, 95%CI: 0.18-0.83). Conclusion: Beyond the already established inverse association of allergic history with childhood ALL, a same magnitude association is evident when serologic markers of allergic predisposition are used as an alternative measure of allergy. Further research with more appropriate study designs is needed to better understand possible associations between prior allergy and childhood ALL risk. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved