Archimedes Interdisciplinary Research Programme Forges a Broad Spectrum of Academic Innovations

The basic goal of Archimedes III is to support research teams in Greek Technological Educational Institutes (TEI) and enhance their research capabilities by funding interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research. The programme aims also at attracting talented researchers and developing high quality research personnel. The TEIs, prior to their advancement to the tertiary sector in 2000, focused only on educational activities. Since then, development of research became part of their mission. In order for the Ministry of Education to support TEIsto develop their research capabilities, it designed research programmes targeting exclusively these organisations. Archimedes I and II were designed and ran in the previous programming period (2000-2006) while Archimedes III has been designed in the framework of the Operational Programme "Education and lifelong learning” of the current programming period, 2007-2013. The programme supports research projects in all research fields. However, particular emphasis is given to the fields of engineering and ICT where the main strengths of Greek Technological Educational Institutes are concentrated. The specific project of the TEI of Central Greece, described herewith, comprises 8 research subprojects in fields such as health, environment, energy and ICT with one additional subproject dedicated to management and dissemination. This paper is a comprehensive account of the research objectives and accomplishments of the research project as a whole. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Corrigendum: Quality of life and quality of education among physiotherapy students in Europe (Frontiers in Medicine, (2024), 11, (1344028), 10.3389/fmed.2024.1344028)

In the published article, an author name was incorrectly written as [Sara Laura Cortés-Amaro]. The correct spelling is [Sara Cortés-Amaro]. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated

AATF/Che-1 RNA polymerase II binding protein overexpression reduces the anti-tumor NK-cell cytotoxicity through activating receptors modulation

IntroductionAATF/Che-1 over-expression in different tumors is well known and its effect on tumorigenicity is mainly due to its central role demonstrated in the oncogenic pathways of solid tumors, where it controls proliferation and viability. The effect exerted by tumors overexpressing Che-1 on the immune response has not yet been investigated.MethodsStarting from ChIP-sequencing data we confirmed Che-1 enrichment on Nectin-1 promoter. Several co-cultures experiments between NK-cells and tumor cells transduced by lentiviral vectors carrying Che-1-interfering sequence, analyzed by flow-cytometry have allowed a detailed characterization of NK receptors and tumor ligands expression.ResultsHere, we show that Che-1 is able to modulate the expression of Nectin-1 ligand at the transcriptional level, leading to the impairment of killing activity of NK-cells. Nectin-1 down-modulation induces a modification in NK-cell ligands expression able to interact with activating receptors and to stimulate NK-cell function. In addition, NK-cells from Che-1 transgenic mice, confirming a reduced expression of activating receptors, exhibit impaired activation and a preferential immature status.DiscussionThe critical equilibrium between NK-cell ligand expression on tumor cells and the interaction with NK cell receptors is affected by Che-1 over-expression and partially restored by Che-1 interference. The evidence of a new role for Che-1 as regulator of anti-tumor immunity supports the necessity to develop approaches able to target this molecule which shows a dual tumorigenic function as cancer promoter and immune response modulator

Quality of life and quality of education among physiotherapy students in Europe

Background: The study of physiotherapy is challenging and can affect the students’ well-being and quality of life. The aim of this study was to describe and compare factors that could affect well-being among students across Europe. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire survey, students of bachelor’s physiotherapy programs from 23 European faculties, from 8 countries, were interviewed on mental health and stress burden, sleep quality, dietary habits, and physical activity. Results: Although 75% of students rated their quality of life positively and 47% were satisfied with their mental health, 65% showed higher levels of stress and 51% described impaired sleep quality. The minimum physical activity of 150 min weekly was described by 79% of students, within which 67% engaged in strengthening twice a week. Students with a higher stress load/worse psychological health also showed worse sleep quality and lower amount of physical activity, women were significantly worse off. In terms of physical activity and sleep quality, students from Finland and Kosovo achieved the best results, while students from Italy, Greece, and Portugal achieved the worst. Students from Italy indicated the greatest dissatisfaction with the organisation of the study system and communication with teachers, while in Kosovo students rated the communication and study organisation the highest. All students had a problem with adhering to nutritional habits. Students from Italy and Spain, with the lowest body mass indexes and weight averages, were closest to the nutrition recommendations. Conclusion: We demonstrated that physiotherapy students are burdened with stress, suffer from sleep disorders, and do not follow the recommendations regarding nutrition nor physical activity. There are significant differences between universities and countries in some aspects

The eEF1γ Subunit Contacts RNA Polymerase II and Binds Vimentin Promoter Region

Here, we show that the eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 gamma (eEF1γ) physically interacts with the RNA polymerase II (pol II) core subunit 3 (RPB3), both in isolation and in the context of the holo-enzyme. Importantly, eEF1γ has been recently shown to bind Vimentin mRNA. By chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments, we demonstrate, for the first time, that eEF1γ is also physically present on the genomic locus corresponding to the promoter region of human Vimentin gene. The eEF1γ depletion causes the Vimentin protein to be incorrectly compartmentalised and to severely compromise cellular shape and mitochondria localisation. We demonstrate that eEF1γ partially colocalises with the mitochondrial marker Tom20 and that eEF1γ depletion increases mitochondrial superoxide generation as well as the total levels of carbonylated proteins. Finally, we hypothesise that eEF1γ, in addition to its role in translation elongation complex, is involved in regulating Vimentin gene by contacting both pol II and the Vimentin promoter region and then shuttling/nursing the Vimentin mRNA from its gene locus to its appropriate cellular compartment for translation

Utrophin Up-Regulation by an Artificial Transcription Factor in Transgenic Mice

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a severe muscle degenerative disease, due to absence of dystrophin. There is currently no effective treatment for DMD. Our aim is to up-regulate the expression level of the dystrophin related gene utrophin in DMD, complementing in this way the lack of dystrophin functions. To this end we designed and engineered several synthetic zinc finger based transcription factors. In particular, we have previously shown that the artificial three zinc finger protein named Jazz, fused with the appropriate effector domain, is able to drive the transcription of a test gene from the utrophin promoter “A”. Here we report on the characterization of Vp16-Jazz-transgenic mice that specifically over-express the utrophin gene at the muscular level. A Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP) demonstrated the effective access/binding of the Jazz protein to active chromatin in mouse muscle and Vp16-Jazz was shown to be able to up-regulate endogenous utrophin gene expression by immunohistochemistry, western blot analyses and real-time PCR. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a transgenic mouse expressing an artificial gene coding for a zinc finger based transcription factor. The achievement of Vp16-Jazz transgenic mice validates the strategy of transcriptional targeting of endogenous genes and could represent an exclusive animal model for use in drug discovery and therapeutics

Issues in relation to the repeatability of and correlation between EMG and Borg scale assessments of neck muscle fatigue

Introduction: The repeatability of subjective and objective assessments of neck muscle fatigue is very important with regard to the clinical applicability of these methods. Method: To establish between-days reliability, 33 healthy volunteers performed a 60% maximum voluntary isometric contraction test from a standing position in all neck movements. Cervical muscle fatigue was assessed on three separate occasions from the spectral (median frequency, MF) and amplitude (root mean square, RMS) analysis of the electromyogram (EMG) signal recorded from the cervical paraspinal group, splenius capitis, levator scapulae and sternocleidomastoid. Subjective assessment of fatigue was rated by employing the Borg scale. Intraclass correlation coefficient ICC (1,1), standard error of measurement (SEM), smallest detectable difference (SDD) indices and Pearson&apos;s correlation co-efficient were calculated for the analysis of the results. Results: Normalised median frequency (MF) slope had low repeatability and large between-day error (ICC (1,1) = 0.28-0.61; SEM = 0.33-0.60%/s; SDD = 132.7-703.2%) for the protagonist muscles of each movement. Initial median frequency (IMF) had moderate to good reliability and small error (ICC (1,1) = 0.64-0.81; SEM = 2.8-8.8 Hz; SDD = 19.9-38.5%). The RMS slope yielded also poor repeatability. The Borg assessment was more reliable than the EMG estimate though variability between sessions was still quite high (SDD = 29.2-136.5%). No correlation was found between the EMG and Borg assessment of neck muscle fatigue (r = -0.01-0.39). Conclusion: The protocol used for assessing neck muscle fatigue proved to be reliable only for the IMF but the clinical usefulness of this measure remains questionable. The lack of correlation between objective and subjective estimation of neck muscle fatigue was possibly a consequence of the poor measurement repeatability. Further research is needed to identify the factors responsible for these results on neck area. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved