Socioeconomic Crisis and Incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Messinia, Greece

In the last 5 years Greece is facing the worst socioeconomic crisis since the end of the Second World War. The purpose of the current study was to gather all the incident cases of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) that were hospitalized in the General Hospital of Kalamata during the last 10 years. Our results suggest that the prolonged financial crisis may have led to a higher incidence of AMI in the population of Messinia, Greece

Case Report Myasthenia Gravis and Stroke in the Setting of Giant Cell Arteritis

This case report concerns the diagnosis of two independent chronic diseases in a patient hospitalized for stroke, myasthenia gravis (MG) and giant cell arteritis (GCA). MG has been found to be associated with several diseases, but there are very few cases documenting its coexistence with GCA. We report the case of a 79-year-old woman initially hospitalized for stroke. Patient's concurrent symptoms of blepharoptosis, dysphagia, and proximal muscle weakness were strongly suggestive of myasthenia gravis. The persistent low-grade fever and elevated inflammatory markers in combination with the visual deterioration that developed also raised the suspicion of GCA. Histological examination confirmed GCA, while muscle acetylcholine receptor antibodies were also present. Even though in medicine one strives to interpret a patient's symptoms with one diagnosis, when one entity cannot fully interpret the clinical and laboratory findings, clinicians must consider the possibility of a second coexisting illness

The holistic perspective of the INCISIVE project : artificial intelligence in screening mammography

Finding new ways to cost-effectively facilitate population screening and improve cancer diagnoses at an early stage supported by data-driven AI models provides unprecedented opportunities to reduce cancer related mortality. This work presents the INCISIVE project initiative towards enhancing AI solutions for health imaging by unifying, harmonizing, and securely sharing scattered cancer-related data to ensure large datasets which are critically needed to develop and evaluate trustworthy AI models. The adopted solutions of the INCISIVE project have been outlined in terms of data collection, harmonization, data sharing, and federated data storage in compliance with legal, ethical, and FAIR principles. Experiences and examples feature breast cancer data integration and mammography collection, indicating the current progress, challenges, and future directions

Transhumant sheep and goat farming sector in the region of Sterea Ellada-Greece

Transhumance connects highlands and lowlands creating that way a farming system with important social, cultural, economic, landscape and environmental effects. Despite the continuous reduction of the number of transhumant herds in Greece the later years, this farming system still preserves a considerable position in country’s animal husbandry. Aim of this paper is the study of management practices and the nomination of productivity indicators of the transhumant reared animals in the region of Sterea Ellada. The necessary data were collected through a specially conducted questionnaire from totally 140 transhumant herders. The results reveal average herd size of 364.40, with herd sizes that excides one thousand, especially for goat herds, and residence on mountainous, semi-mountainous areas for at least 5 months. The main source of income is the trade of milk, but it should be noted that a small proportion of the herders process milk and trade only feta and/or other traditional kinds of cheese complementary of meat trade. In addition average traded milk production and prolificacy reveal the influence of more intense farming practices, such as crossbreeding and/or rational feed and the continuous effort of the producers and correspond to consecutive increase of the needs of the market

White Clover (Trifolium repens L.) Growth in multi-metal contaminated soils and Fate of Modern Pesticides

Introduction: Heavy metal binding to soil organic matter (1) is leading to soil contamination and plant bioaccumulation (2). Reducing the bioavailability of soil metals by adding amendments to the soil could be suitable for mitigating heavy metal uptake by plants (3-4). For example the addition of Zeolite at 1% dose in metal polluted soil was the most efficient way for reducing the average Cd concentration in tobacco plants, as reported by Keller et al. (5). Methods: In that same spirit, we investigated the effects of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Zn) on White clover (Trifolium repens L. ) growth in an above-referenced multi-metal contaminated site in the absence and presence of zeolite as an agent empowering the rehabilitation of pollution and immobilization of heavy metals. Results: We demonstrated that White clover in soils with high heavy metal concentrations of Pb: 291, Cd: 4.3 and Zn: 1458 mg/kg soil acts as a “moderate” accumulator of Zn, Cd and “weak” accumulator of Pb (Fig. 1). The addition of 1% zeolite to the contaminated soils significantly contributed to plant growth by limiting the availability of Cd, Pb and Zn (Fig. 2), whilst the dry biomass of plants grown in the presence of zeolite was evaluated and found to be unsuitable as a raw material (feed) in livestock production. Conclusions: This study showed that contaminated soils must be evaluated for the necessary actions required for agricultural production. References: 1. Giannakopoulos, E. et al. (2005) J. Phys. Chem. A 109, 2223-2232. 2. Zhuang, P. et al. (2007) Water Air Soil Poll. 184, 235-242. 3. Prasad, R. et al. (2014) Afr. J. Biotechnol. 13, 705–713. 4. Ahmed, O.H. et al. (2010) Int. J. Phys. Sci. 5, 2393-2401. 5. Keller, C. et al. (2005) Plant Soil, 276, 69–84

A Review of the Current Practices of Bioeconomy Education and Training in the EU

This study conducts a review of the current practices of bioeconomy education and training in the EU; as well as the associated methodologies; techniques and approaches. In recent years; considerable efforts have been made towards developing appropriate bioeconomy education and training programs in order to support a transition towards a circular bioeconomy. This review separates bioeconomy education approaches along: higher education and academic approaches, vocational education and training (VET) and practical approaches, short-term training and education approaches, and other approaches. A range of training methodologies and techniques and pedagogical approaches are identified. The main commonalities found amongst these approaches are that they are generally problem based and interdisciplinary, and combine academic and experiential. Higher education approaches are generally based on traditional lecture/campus-based formats with some experiential approaches integrated. In contrast, VET approaches often combine academic and practical learning methods while focusing on developing practical skills. A range of short-term courses and other approaches to bioeconomy education are also reviewed

The use of J-coupling as a sole criterion to assign the total absolute stereochemistry of new pyrrolidinone class synthetic analogs, derived from S-pyroglutamic acid

During the synthesis of new pyrrolidinone analogs possessing biological activity it is intriguing to assign their absolute stereochemistry as it is well known that drug potency is influenced by the stereochemistry. The combination of J-coupling information with theoretical results was used in order to establish their total stereochemistry when the chiral center of the starting material has known absolute stereochemistry. The J-coupling can be used as a sole criterion for novel synthetic analogs to identify the right stereochemistry. This approach is extremely useful especially in the case of analogs whose 2D NOESY spectra cannot provide this information. Few synthetic examples are given to prove the significance of this approach

The Validity of Wagner's Law in Greece during the Last Two Centuries

In this paper we investigate the long-run relationship between national income and government spending by using Greek data from 1833 until 2010. We use five different formulations of Wagner's law (the long run tendency for government expenditure to expand relative to economic growth) and find that empirical results are supportive for Wagner's law. The data set span covers a period of almost two centuries; the long data set thus ensures the reliability of our results in terms of statistical and economic conclusions. Furthermore, the data set covers the early periods of development of the Greek economy, a period of growth, industrialisation and modernisation of the economy, conditions which should be conducive to Wagner's law. Our analysis provides evidence of long run relationship between government spending and national income, while the Granger causality tests indicate that causality runs from the national income to spending. Moreover we include tests for structural changes to take into account regime changes that occur over time. JEL Classification: A10, E6, H3, H4, I3, N