Effects of immigration on population growth and structures in Greece - A spatial approach

From the early 1990s, Greece has been experiencing a strong immigration flow consisting of various nationality groups with different demographic profiles and structures. The immigrant population is not uniformly distributed spatially and consists of various nationality groups with different demographic behaviours. Therefore, the examination of the implications of immigration on the population size and structure at a low geographical level, according to the nationality composition of the foreign population, is useful in finding population structures which are impossible to observe otherwise. This paper examines the impact of immigration on the population size, age and sex structure of the population in Greek municipalities. In order to do this, statistical clustering techniques have been utilised to define homogeneous groups of municipalities with respect to the nationality composition of their foreign population as well as the impact of immigration on their size and demographic characteristics.

Fecundidad de nacionales y extranjeros en España, Italia y Grecia durante y después de la recesión económica y la crisis de los refugiados

This article provides an overview of trends in fertility of foreign and national women in Greece, Spain, and Italy during the last decade and before the Covid pandemic. It focuses on the fertility of foreigners and compares this with that of ‘nationals’. The main analysis focuses on a period marked, firstly, by the economic recession and stagnation, and then by the recent wave of the ‘refugee crisis’. Foreigner fertility in the three south Mediterranean countries differs significantly from that of nationals, with the former having higher fertility rates and lower mean age at childbearing. However, although foreigners make a large contribution to births, their impact on period fertility (total fertility rate or TFR) is limited. At the same time, although the fertility of both groups decreased during the first years of the recession, foreigner TFRs fell faster in both absolute and relative terms in Italy and Greece. However, after 2014, the foreigner period fertility among the three countries differs as a relative stabilisation is observed in Spain and Italy, while indicators rise in Greece. This divergence is due to the various composition changes in the settled after-2014 foreigners in the three countries and the strong recovery of foreigner births in Greece (as fertility in Greece was much more affected by the recession).Este artículo ofrece una visión general de las tendencias de la fecundidad de las mujeres extranjeras y nacionales en Grecia, España e Italia durante la última década y antes de la pandemia del Covid. Se centra especialmente en la fecundidad de las extranjeras y la compara con la de las “nacionales”. El análisis principal se centra en un periodo marcado, primero, por la recesión y el estancamiento económico, y luego, por la reciente ola de la “crisis de refugiados”. La fecundidad de los extranjeros en los tres países del sur del Mediterráneo difiere significativamente de la de los nacionales, ya que los primeros tienen tasas de fecundidad más altas y una edad media de maternidad más baja. Sin embargo, aunque los extranjeros contribuyen en gran medida a los nacimientos, su impacto en la fecundidad periódica (TFR) es limitado. Al mismo tiempo, aunque la fecundidad de ambos grupos disminuyó durante los primeros años de la recesión, la TFR de los extranjeros cayó más rápidamente en términos absolutos y relativos en Italia y Grecia. Sin embargo, a partir de 2014, la fecundidad del periodo de los extranjeros difiere entre los tres países, ya que en España e Italia se observa una estabilización relativa, mientras que los indicadores aumentan en Grecia. Esta divergencia se debe a los diferentes cambios de composición de los extranjeros asentados después de 2014 en los tres países estudiados y a la fuerte recuperación de los nacimientos de extranjeros en Grecia, ya que su fecundidad se vio mucho más afectada por la recesión.This article’s writing was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (Research Project ‘Demographic Imperatives in Research and Practices in Greece’)

Recombining overlapping BACs into a single larger BAC

BACKGROUND: BAC clones containing entire mammalian genes including all the transcribed region and long range controlling elements are very useful for functional analysis. Sequenced BACs are available for most of the human and mouse genomes and in many cases these contain intact genes. However, large genes often span more than one BAC, and single BACs covering the entire region of interest are not available. Here we describe a system for linking two or more overlapping BACs into a single clone by homologous recombination. RESULTS: The method was used to link a 61-kb insert carrying the final 5 exons of the human CFTR gene onto a 160-kb BAC carrying the first 22 exons. Two rounds of homologous recombination were carried out in the EL350 strain of bacteria which can be induced for the Red genes. In the first round, the inserts of the two overlapping BACs were subcloned into modified BAC vectors using homologous recombination. In the second round, the BAC to be added was linearised with the very rare-cutting enzyme I-PpoI and electroporated into recombination efficient EL350 bacteria carrying the other BAC. Recombined BACs were identified by antibiotic selection and PCR screening and 10% of clones contained the correctly recombined 220-kb BAC. CONCLUSION: The system can be used to link the inserts from any overlapping BAC or PAC clones. The original orientation of the inserts is not important and desired regions of the inserts can be selected. The size limit for the fragments recombined may be larger than the 61 kb used here and multiple BACs in a contig could be combined by alternating use of the two pBACLink vectors. This system should be of use to many investigators wishing to carry out functional analysis on large mammalian genes which are not available in single BAC clones

Haematological and immunological responses of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) to a short-term exposure to increased water levels of nitrate

Fish reared under intensive culture conditions very often face stressful adverse conditions which either do not exist in nature, for example living in extremely high stocking densities, or they are quite unlikely, for example increased water ammonia levels (Huntingford et al. 2006).Nitrate (NO3 −) which is the ionized form of nitric acid (Cheng and Chen, 2002) and salts, like sodium nitrate, are readily soluble in water and completely dissociated. It is produced by a two-step process called ‘nitrification’ (Hargreaves and Tucker, 2004). During this process, ammonia, which is either excreted from fish or produced by the decomposition of the organic matter in the water, is first oxidized to nitrite (NO2 –) and subsequently to nitrate (NO3–). The nitrification rate can be affected by many factors such as water temperature and available diluted oxygen (Hargreaves and Tucker, 2004)

Metabolic programming in murine cytomegalovirus infected macrophages

Immunity and metabolism have been viewed as separate fields, however recent evidence show that these two systems are intimately integrated, share resources and cross-regulate each other. Activated immune cells have to alter their metabolism in order to support effector functions. On the other hand, viruses are obligatory parasites that counter and exploit host pathways, including metabolism, to effectively propagate. Like immune cells, viruses have to alter the metabolic profile of infected cells in order to propagate. The regulation of metabolism in immune cells or virally infected cells has been well studied. However, the precise metabolic regulation that ensues when both immune system and viral infection in immune cells interact and compete for the limited resources and metabolic pathways available is not clear. In this thesis, I have sought to investigate the integrative process by studying the metabolic programming of macrophages infected with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) The central hypothesis of this thesis is that productive infection of macrophages by MCMV takes advantage of the early inflammatory metabolomic reprogramming of activated macrophages to establish infection, and modulates metabolism at late stages of infection towards fatty acid (FA) production to promote viral progeny. To study this interaction, I have analysed the temporal profile of the transcriptome and metabolome of bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) infected with productive (WT) and non-productive (attenuated) (MCMV) strains. This aimed to unravel the host-directed versus virus-driven metabolic alterations. I show evidence indicating that during early times of productive and non-productive MCMV infection glycolysis is, in infected BMDM, markedly increased. Furthermore, pharmacological and siRNA mediated inhibition of glycolysis resulted in attenuation of viral growth demonstrating the dependency of MCMV on this pathway. Additionally, using interferon receptor A (IFNAR) and interferon receptor A (IFNB) deficient BMDM showed that type-I interferon (IFN) signalling is essential for the early upregulation of glycolysis that was observed. In addition to the changes in glycolysis, MCMV infection alters the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle in infected BMDM. Metabolomic and transcriptomic data revealed a shift from catabolic to anabolic function for the TCA to promote production of TCA intermediates. Finally, the urea cycle is also altered both on transcriptional and metabolomic level, consistent with the support of Nitric oxide (NO) production which is a hallmark metabolite in classically activated macrophages. These changes observed in the TCA cycle and glycolysis are consistent with supporting the FA elongation pathway during late time points of productive infection. Only productive MCMV infection upregulates this pathway. Αt the same time, pharmacological and siRNA mediated inhibition of FA elongation pathway greatly attenuates viral growth. This indicates that MCMV growth is dependenton FA elongation. The effect was very specific for the elongation and not the de novo synthesis pathway indicating that MCMV remodels FA that already in the cells. It is argued, that in agreement to known literature, MCMV uses these FA for the formation of its lipid membrane. To further investigate the dependency of MCMV on FA elongation pathways I studied additional lipids pathway associated with the former. I found that MCMV infection also upregulates the triacylglycerol formation and membrane remodelling pathways, which are dependent on FA biosynthesis and elongation. The inhibition of triacylglycerol formation and membrane remodelling pathway also attenuated MCMV growth. This indicates that apart from the formation of its lipid membrane MCMV requires FA to remodel the cellular environment. I have also explored the effects of infection on regulating lipid mediators, in particular eicosanoids. Eicosanoids are lipid signalling molecules that can act as potent inflammation modulators. Here I demonstrated that productive MCMV infection specifically increases PGE2 production in infected BMDM. Moreover, addition of PGE2 increased viral replication in infected fibroblasts in comparison to non-treated cells, while pharmacological blocking of EP4 (PGE2 receptor) rescued the phenotype. These studies reveal how MCMV advantageously use inflammatory lipid pathways to promote growth In conclusion, the data presented in this thesis support my hypothesis and provide an insight in the role of metabolism during viral infection. Evidence is provided to show that MCMV co-ops the early alterations that metabolic pathways undergo in activated macrophage, including but not limited to glycolysis, TCA cycle and urea cycle. These early changes in metabolism appear to be coupled with upregulation of FA elongation pathways and remodeling of lipids in infected cells. Finally, MCMV co-ops the function of regulatory lipids, in particular PGE2, to promote viral growth. It is further argued that MCMV productive infection dictates these fatty acid metabolism alterations in order to remodel the host cell’s environment, regulate the immune system response and provide resources for its lipid membrane

Understanding the Interaction Effects between Dietary Lipid Content and Rearing Temperature on Growth Performance, Feed Utilization, and Fat Deposition of Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

This study was conducted to elucidate the interaction effects of temperature and dietary lipid levels (2 × 2 factorial experiment) on the growth performance, muscle, and liver composition in adult farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Two groups of fish (190 g; 60 fish per group) were distributed in 12 tanks in triplicates and kept at two different temperature regimes; one starting at 23 °C and then changed to 17 °C for 61 days, and the other starting at 17 °C and then changed to 23 °C for 39 days. Two commercial diets containing both ~44% crude protein but incorporating different dietary lipid levels, 16.5% (D16) and 20.0% (D20) (dry matter (DM)), were fed to the fish to apparent satiation; the type of diet fed to each fish group remained constant throughout the experiment. Final body weight, weight gain, and specific growth rate were significantly higher for the fish group held at 23 °C compared to the fish group at 17 °C (before the temperature changes), while the dietary fat content did not have any profound effect in both groups. Furthermore, the different temperature regimes did not affect muscle or liver composition, but, on the contrary, dietary lipids affected hepatosomatic, perivisceral fat, and visceral indexes. Feed conversion ratio and specific growth rate were not affected by the dietary lipid level. An interaction of temperature and dietary lipid content was observed in daily feed consumption (DFC) and final body weight (FBW).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio