The incidence of myelodysplastic syndromes in Western Greece is increasing.

Descriptive epidemiology of the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is always interesting and may reveal time-dependent and geographical variations, as well as occupational exposure. Epidemiological data in Greece are not available by now. We have collected and analyzed medical records of all patients with a documented diagnosis of MDS, performed by an expert hematologist and/or hematopathologist, in the geographical area of Western Greece, during the 20-year period, defined between 1990 and 2009. We have then calculated and described demographic and clinical features of the diagnosed MDS patient population, and assessed the incidence and prevalence rates of MDS in Western Greece, during the above-mentioned period. A total of 855 patients with newly diagnosed MDS have been identified. Refractory anemia was the most common subtype in both FAB and WHO classification systems and in both genders. Del-5q and RARS were more commonly encountered among females, and the dysplastic subtype of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia among males. Trisomy 8 was the most common single cytogenetic abnormality. The crude mean annual incidence rate of MDS was 6.0 per 100,000 inhabitants aged ≥15 years old (all subtypes according to FAB), and it was 4.8 per 100,000 when CMML and RAEB-T were excluded. Crude incidence rate was higher in rural than in urban areas, but this finding was not confirmed after age standardization. Age-standardized mean annual incidence rate in men was 7.9/100,000 and in women 3.4/100,000. A continuously increasing incidence rate of MDS has been observed throughout the study period

Contributing to the European Language Grid as a provider

The ELG platform enables producers of language resources and language technology tools and services to upload, describe, share, and distribute their services and products as well as to describe their companies, academic organisations and projects. This chapter presents the functionalities offered through web-based user interfaces for describing LT resources or related entities with metadata and for managing their publication. It gives a detailed description of the options that providers of LT tools can exploit to integrate them into ELG as ready-to-deploy services and the tools that ELG offers in their support during the preparation, upload and integration phases. The tools and packaging recommendations for resources to be uploaded in ELG are also presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of functionalities offered to providers by ELG and other related platforms

Versican but not decorin accumulation is related to malignancy in mammographically detected high density and malignant-appearing microcalcifications in non-palpable breast carcinomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mammographic density (MD) and malignant-appearing microcalcifications (MAMCs) represent the earliest mammographic findings of non-palpable breast carcinomas. Matrix proteoglycans versican and decorin are frequently over-expressed in various malignancies and are differently involved in the progression of cancer. In the present study, we have evaluated the expression of versican and decorin in non-palpable breast carcinomas and their association with high risk mammographic findings and tumor characteristics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three hundred and ten patients with non-palpable suspicious breast lesions, detected during screening mammography, were studied. Histological examination was carried out and the expression of decorin, versican, estrogen receptor α (ERα), progesterone receptor (PR) and c-erbB2 (HER-2/neu) was assessed by immunohistochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Histological examination showed 83 out of 310 (26.8%) carcinomas of various subtypes. Immunohistochemistry was carried out in 62/83 carcinomas. Decorin was accumulated in breast tissues with MD and MAMCs independently of the presence of malignancy. In contrast, versican was significantly increased only in carcinomas with MAMCs (median ± SE: 42.0 ± 9.1) and MD (22.5 ± 10.1) as compared to normal breast tissue with MAMCs (14.0 ± 5.8), MD (11.0 ± 4.4) and normal breast tissue without mammographic findings (10.0 ± 2.0). Elevated levels of versican were correlated with higher tumor grade and invasiveness in carcinomas with MD and MAMCs, whereas increased amounts of decorin were associated with <it>in situ </it>carcinomas in MAMCs. Stromal deposition of both proteoglycans was related to higher expression of ERα and PR in tumor cells only in MAMCs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The specific accumulation of versican in breast tissue with high MD and MAMCs only in the presence of malignant transformation and its association with the aggressiveness of the tumor suggests its possible use as molecular marker in non-palpable breast carcinomas.</p

Trophic relationships among fish assemblages on a mudflat within a Brazilian Marine protected area

Abstract The present study deals with the temporal variations in diet and the trophic guilds of dominant fish species on a tidal mudflat during the dry and rainy seasons. We sought to classify the diet composition of 17 species in the Mamanguape river estuary, northeastern Brazil, identifying the dominant food components and evaluating the effects of seasonality on the guild organization. Diets varied little between species and seasons, though they seemed to be more heterogeneous during the rainy season. Five primary feeding guilds were identified, in accordance with the importance of prey in the diets: (1) Detritivore, (2) Zooplanktivore, (3) Zoobenthivore-epifaune, (4) Zoobenthivore-infaune, and (5) Piscivore. Most fishes fed on a diverse range of food items but relied heavily on zooplankton prey. Several fish species showed a tendency to a specialised diet, with almost all species showing some degree of opportunistic feeding. A high degree of diet overlap was found among some species; however, the presence of exploitative competition could not be determined

Search for Limiting Factors in the RNAi Pathway in Silkmoth Tissues and the Bm5 Cell Line: The RNA-Binding Proteins R2D2 and Translin

RNA interference (RNAi), an RNA-dependent gene silencing process that is initiated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules, has been applied with variable success in lepidopteran insects, in contrast to the high efficiency achieved in the coleopteran Tribolium castaneum. To gain insight into the factors that determine the efficiency of RNAi, a survey was carried out to check the expression of factors that constitute the machinery of the small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) pathways in different tissues and stages of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori. It was found that the dsRNA-binding protein R2D2, an essential component in the siRNA pathway in Drosophila, was expressed at minimal levels in silkmoth tissues. The silkmoth-derived Bm5 cell line was also deficient in expression of mRNA encoding full-length BmTranslin, an RNA-binding factor that has been shown to stimulate the efficiency of RNAi. However, despite the lack of expression of the RNA-binding proteins, silencing of a luciferase reporter gene was observed by co-transfection of luc dsRNA using a lipophilic reagent. In contrast, gene silencing was not detected when the cells were soaked in culture medium supplemented with dsRNA. The introduction of an expression construct for Tribolium R2D2 (TcR2D2) did not influence the potency of luc dsRNA to silence the luciferase reporter. Immunostaining experiments further showed that both TcR2D2 and BmTranslin accumulated at defined locations within the cytoplasm of transfected cells. Our results offer a first evaluation of the expression of the RNAi machinery in silkmoth tissues and Bm5 cells and provide evidence for a functional RNAi response to intracellular dsRNA in the absence of R2D2 and Translin. The failure of TcR2D2 to stimulate the intracellular RNAi pathway in Bombyx cells is discussed

Expression and Membrane Topology of Anopheles gambiae Odorant Receptors in Lepidopteran Insect Cells

A lepidopteran insect cell-based expression system has been employed to express three Anopheles gambiae odorant receptors (ORs), OR1 and OR2, which respond to components of human sweat, and OR7, the ortholog of Drosophila's OR83b, the heteromerization partner of all functional ORs in that system. With the aid of epitope tagging and specific antibodies, efficient expression of all ORs was demonstrated and intrinsic properties of the proteins were revealed. Moreover, analysis of the orientation of OR1 and OR2 on the cellular plasma membrane through the use of a novel ‘topology screen’ assay and FACS analysis demonstrates that, as was recently reported for the ORs in Drosophila melanogaster, mosquito ORs also have a topology different than their mammalian counterparts with their N-terminal ends located in the cytoplasm and their C-terminal ends facing outside the cell. These results set the stage for the production of mosquito ORs in quantities that should permit their detailed biochemical and structural characterization and the exploration of their functional properties

Prevalence of HPV infection among Greek women attending a gynecological outpatient clinic

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a causative factor for cervical cancer. Early detection of high risk HPV types might help to identify women at high risk of cervical cancer. The aim of the present study was to examine the HPV prevalence and distribution in cervical smears in a sample of Greek women attending a gynecological outpatient clinic and to explore the determinants of the infection.Methods: A total of 225 women were studied. All women underwent a regular gynecological control. 35 HPV types were studied; 6, 11, 16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 and 89. Also, basic demographic information, sociodemographic characteristics and sexual behavior were recorded.Results: HPV was detected in 22.7% of the study population. The percentage of the newly diagnosed women with HPV infection was 17.3%. HPV-16 was the most common type detected (5.3%) followed by HPV-53 (4.9%). 66.2% of the study participants had a Pap test during the last year without any abnormalities. HPV infection was related positively with alcohol consumption (OR: 2.19, 95% CI: 1.04-4.63, P = 0.04) and number of sexual partners (OR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.44-3.25, P < 0.001), and negatively with age (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87-0.99, P = 0.03), and monthly income (OR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.44-0.89, P = 0.01).Conclusion: The prevalence of HPV in women attending an outpatient clinic is high. Number of sexual partners and alcohol consumption were the most significant risk factors for HPV infection, followed by young age and lower income

Towards an interoperable ecosystem of AI and LT platforms : a roadmap for the implementation of different levels of interoperability

With regard to the wider area of AI/LT platform interoperability, we concentrate on two core aspects: (1) cross-platform search and discovery of resources and services; (2) composition of cross-platform service workflows. We devise five different levels (of increasing complexity) of platform interoperability that we suggest to implement in a wider federation of AI/LT platforms. We illustrate the approach using the five emerging AI/LT platforms AI4EU, ELG, Lynx, QURATOR and SPEAKER

Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three available genomic nomenclature systems for SARS-CoV-2 to all sequence data from the WHO European Region available during the COVID-19 pandemic until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation. We provide a comparison of the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.Peer reviewe