The impact of an upper tropospheric teleconnection pattern on precipitation extremes over Cyprus

International audienceThe objective of this study is to estimate the duration, frequency and intensity of precipitation extreme episodes in Cyprus, in relation with the two phases of the Eastern Mediterranean teleconnection Pattern (EMP), during winter for the period 1958?2005. A standardised teleconnection index was employed to determine the phases (positive and negative) and the strength of the EMP. The identification of the precipitation extremes was performed with the aid of four climatic indices. It was found that during the positive phase of the pattern, the length of dry periods reduces while that of wet periods increases, being followed by increase of frequency of extreme wet days and precipitation intensity. On the contrary, during the negative phase, the dry spells become longer in accordance with shortening of the wet spells, decrease of the number of extreme wet days and precipitation intensity

Spatio-temporal patterns of recent and future climate extremes in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region

Recent and future changes in temperature and precipitation climate extremes are estimated using the Hadley Centre PRECIS ("Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies") climate model for the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region. The area of interest is considered vulnerable to extreme climate events as there is evidence for a temperature rise while precipitation tends to decline, suggesting likely effects on vital socioeconomic sectors in the region. Observations have been obtained for the recent period (1961–1990) and used to evaluate the model output. The spatial distribution of recent temporal trends in temperature indicates strong increasing in minimum temperature over the eastern Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. The rate of warming reaches 0.4–0.5 °C decade⁻¹ in a large part of the domain, while warming is expected to be strongest in summer (0.6–0.7 °C decade⁻¹) in the eastern Balkans and western Turkey. The trends in annual and summer maximum temperature are estimated at approximately 0.5 and 0.6 °C decade⁻¹ respectively. Recent estimates do not indicate statistically significant trends in precipitation except for individual sub-regions. Results indicate a future warming trend for the study area over the last 30 years of the 21st century. Trends are estimated to be positive and statistically significant in nearly the entire region. The annual trend patterns for both minimum and maximum temperature show warming rates of approximately 0.4–0.6 °C decade⁻¹, with pronounced warming over the Middle Eastern countries. Summer temperatures reveal a gradual warming (0.5–0.9 °C decade⁻¹) over much of the region. The model projects drying trends by 5–30% in annual precipitation towards the end of the 21st century, with the number of wet days decreasing at the rate of 10–30 days year⁻¹, while heavy precipitation is likely to decrease in the high-elevation areas by 15 days year⁻¹

Coexistence of K-ras mutations and HPV infection in colon cancer

BACKGROUND: Activation of the ras genes or association with human papillomavirus infection have been extensively studied in colorectal cancer. However, the correlation between K-ras mutations and HPV in colorectal cancer has not been investigated yet. In this study we aimed to investigate the presence of K-ras mutations and their correlation with HPV infection in colon cancer. METHODS: K-ras mutations were analyzed by a mutagenic PCR assay and digestion with specific restriction enzymes to distinguish the wild-type and mutant codons. HPV infection was analyzed by PCR amplification and hybridization with specific probes by Southern blotting. Stattistical analyses were performed by the chi-square and Fisher's exact tests RESULTS: HPV gene fragments were detected in 43 tumors and 17 normal tissue samples. HPV 18 was the prevalent type in the tumor tissue. A mutation at codon 12 of the K-ras gene was present in 31 patients. 56% of the HPV-positive tumors also harbored a K-ras mutation. Codon 13 mutations were not observed. These data indicate that infection with high risk HPV types and mutational activation of the K-ras gene are frequent events in colorectal carcinogenesis. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that mutational activation of the K-ras gene is a common event in colon carcinogenesis and that HPV infection may represent an important factor in the development of the premalignant lesions leading to the neoplastic phenotype

Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene are linked to smoking-independent, lung adenocarcinoma

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are a potential predictor of the effectiveness of EGFR inhibitors for the treatment of lung cancer. Although EGFR mutations were reported to occur with high frequency in nonsmoking Japanese adenocarcinoma patients, the exact nature has not been fully elucidated. We examined EGFR gene mutations within exons 18–21 and their correlations to clinico-pathological factors and other genetic alterations in tumour specimens from 154 patients who underwent resection for lung cancer at Kyoto University Hospital. Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations were observed in 60 tumours (39.0%), all of which were adenocarcinoma. Among the patients with adenocarcinoma (n=108), EGFR mutations were more frequently observed in nonsmokers than former smokers or current smokers (83.0, 50.0, 15.2%, respectively), in women than men (76.3 vs 34.0%), in tumours with bronchio-alveolar component than those without bronchio-alveolar component (78.9 vs 42.9%), and in well or moderately differentiated tumours than poorly differentiated tumours (72.0, 64.4, 34.2%). No tumours with EGFR mutations had any K-ras codon 12 mutations, which were well-known smoking-related gene mutations. In conclusion, adenocarcinomas with EGFR mutation had a distinctive clinico-pathological feature unrelated to smoking. Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations may play a key role in the development of smoking-independent adenocarcinoma

Downscaling Climate Change Impacts, Socio-Economic Implications and Alternative Adaptation Pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the future scenarios of climate change and management concerns associated with climate change impacts on the blue economy of European islands and outermost regions. The publication collects major findings of the SOCLIMPACT project’s research outcomes, aiming to raise social awareness among policy-makers and industry about climate change consequences at local level, and provide knowledge-based information to support policy design, from local to national level. This comprehensive book will also assist students, scholars and practitioners to understand, conceptualize and effectively and responsibly manage climate change information and applied research. This book provides invaluable material for Blue Growth Management, theory and application, at all levels. This first edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material and figures of the 12 islands case studies. ¨Downscaling climate change impacts, socio-economic implications and alternative adaptation pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions¨ is a must-read book, given the accessible style and breadth and depth with which the topic is dealt. The book is an up-to-date synthesis of key knowledge on this area, written by a multidisciplinary group of experts on climate and economic modelling, and policy design

Comprehensive DNA Methylation Analysis Reveals a Common Ten-Gene Methylation Signature in Colorectal Adenomas and Carcinomas

Microarray analysis of promoter hypermethylation provides insight into the role and extent of DNA methylation in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) and may be co-monitored with the appearance of driver mutations. Colonic biopsy samples were obtained endoscopically from 10 normal, 23 adenoma (17 low-grade (LGD) and 6 high-grade dysplasia (HGD)), and 8 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients (4 active and 4 inactive). CRC samples were obtained from 24 patients (17 primary, 7 metastatic (MCRC)), 7 of them with synchronous LGD. Field effects were analyzed in tissues 1 cm (n = 5) and 10 cm (n = 5) from the margin of CRC. Tissue materials were studied for DNA methylation status using a 96 gene panel and for KRAS and BRAF mutations. Expression levels were assayed using whole genomic mRNA arrays. SFRP1 was further examined by immunohistochemistry. HT29 cells were treated with 5-aza-2' deoxycytidine to analyze the reversal possibility of DNA methylation. More than 85% of tumor samples showed hypermethylation in 10 genes (SFRP1, SST, BNC1, MAL, SLIT2, SFRP2, SLIT3, ALDH1A3, TMEFF2, WIF1), whereas the frequency of examined mutations were below 25%. These genes distinguished precancerous and cancerous lesions from inflamed and healthy tissue. The mRNA alterations that might be caused by systematic methylation could be partly reversed by demethylation treatment. Systematic changes in methylation patterns were observed early in CRC carcinogenesis, occuring in precursor lesions and CRC. Thus we conclude that DNA hypermethylation is an early and systematic event in colorectal carcinogenesis, and it could be potentially reversed by systematic demethylation therapy, but it would need more in vitro and in vivo experiments to support this theory

The south-eastern Europe winter precipitation variability in relation to the North Atlantic SST

The relationship between the North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) and the winter precipitation of south-eastern Europe is investigated and possible changes of this relationship in the past are explored, as such changes may be of significant importance for understanding the impacts of global warming on regional climate. The data used involve observational winter precipitation of 54 stations for the period 1959-2000 and the University of Delaware (UDel) gridded global precipitation, together with the NOAA Extended Reconstruction SST with 2.0°. ×. 2.0° resolution and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses. The study focuses on interannual variations and a harmonic analysis is applied to the time series to exclude possible contamination of interannual relationship by interdecadal changes. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis on winter precipitation data shows that the first EOF, explaining about 44% of interannual variability, indicates a uniform behavior over the whole examined area and is highly correlated with the tropical North Atlantic SST anomalies with a time lead reaching up to two seasons. The observed relationship between tropical North Atlantic SST and south-eastern Europe winter precipitation can be attributed to a Rossby wave type response to tropical SST anomalies featuring a wave pattern from western tropical Atlantic to Europe. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Is crowdsourcing a reliable method for mass data acquisition? The case of COVID-19 spread in greece during spring 2020

We present a GIS-based crowdsourcing application that was launched soon after the first COVID-19 cases had been recorded in Greece, motivated by the need for fast, location-wise data acquisition regarding COVID-19 disease spread during spring 2020, due to limited testing. A single question was posted through a web App, to which the anonymous participants subjectively answered whether or not they had experienced any COVID-19 disease symptoms. Our main goal was to locate geographical areas with increased number of people feeling the symptoms and to determine any temporal changes in the statistics of the survey entries. It was found that the application was rapidly disseminated to the entire Greek territory via social media, having, thus, a great public reception. The higher percentages of participants experiencing symptoms coincided geographically with the highly populated urban areas, having also increased numbers of confirmed cases, while temporal variations were detected that accorded with the restrictions of activities. This application demonstrates that health systems can use crowdsourcing applications that assure anonymity, as an alternative to tracing apps, to identify possible hot spots and to reach and warn the public within a short time interval, increasing at the same time their situational awareness. However, a continuous reminder for participation should be scheduled. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Identification of an alleged offender of murder by VNTR analysis - Case report

DNA typing was used to demonstrate that three human body pieces found disposed of in the countryside around Athens and the suspicions about the perpetrator’s identity were connected. Reverse paternity testing was attempted by comparative typing of three variable number tandem repeats loci in the remains, as well as in the presumptive parents and sister of the decedent, demonstrating Mendelian inheritance of the alleles of the loci analyzed. Confronting the results of the abovementioned analysis, the suspect accepted the accusation

A statistical investigation of the impact of the indian monsoon on the eastern mediterranean circulation

The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is a prominent feature of the summer circulation in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and has been found to modulate the weather and climate conditions in many remote regions. This study investigates the most recurrent patterns of summertime midlatitude circulation, over the eastern Mediterranean (EM) and also globally, that are most associated with the ISM. Monthly data of 44 summers from the ERA40 dataset are used and two multidimensional statistical methods, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), are implemented. The ISM is found to be related to subsidence anomalies in the middle and more extendedly in the upper troposphere over the central and eastern Mediterranean and with an Etesian-like pattern regarding the field of the lower troposphere winds. An equatorial Rossby wave pattern, extending westward from an ISM heat source up to EM and N. Africa, was identified to be associated with the variability of ISM. The observed relationship between the ISM and the EM circulation features can be attributed to this equatorial Rossby wave response to the monsoon forcing. CCA implementation revealed the interconnection of the aforementioned PCA results with an ISM action center over the northern Arabian Sea and the monsoon trough region. © 2018 by the authors