Education and war: the case of the educational problem in the town of Ioannina during the years 1940-49

 Η πόλη των Ιωαννίνων βρίσκεται στο βόρειο-δυτικό τμήμα της Ελλάδας, όπου τα χρόνια 1940-44, βρισκόταν υπό την κατοχή των δυνάμεων του Άξονα και διαδοχικά επηρεάστηκε από τον Εμφύλιο Πόλεμο (1946-49). Το άρθρο εξετάζει τις επιδράσεις του Δευτέρου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου και του Εμφυλίου πολέμου στην εκπαίδευση στα Ιωάννινα. Εντός αυτού του πλαισίου, η έρευνα εστιάζει στη γενική λειτουργία των σχολείων, κυρίως στη φοίτηση των μαθητών και στην επίδραση της καθημερινότητας του πολέμου στη ζωή των μαθητών. Η μέθοδος της ιστορικής έρευνας που χρησιμοποιείται είναι η ποιοτική ανάλυση εντός του πλαισίου της μικρο-ιστορίας όπου τα δεδομένα προσφέρουν την ιστορία του ευρύτερου κοινωνικού πλαισίου, ενώ προσδίδουν την αίσθηση του προσωπικού χαρακτήρα στη μελέτη του παρελθόντος.  Η έρευνα αποκαλύπτει τις διαστάσεις ενός άδικου πολέμου στην κοινωνία και την εκπαίδευση και τα μακροχρόνια αποτελέσματά του.The town of Ioannina lies in the North-western part of Greece; it was under the Axis occupation between 1940 and 1944 and successively joined the effects of the Civil War (1946-49). This paper examines the effects of World War II and the Civil War on education in Ioannina. Under this cadre the inquiry is focused on the general function of the schools, especially the students’ attendance and the affection of the day-to-day life during the war on students’ lives. The method of historical search that is used is qualitative analysis within the framework of the micro-history of education where the data bring the history of a broader social framework while providing the sense of the personalized to the study of the past. The study unveiled the dimensions of an unjust war in society and in education and its long term effects

Education and war: the case of the educational problem in the town of Ioannina during the years 1940-49

 Η πόλη των Ιωαννίνων βρίσκεται στο βόρειο-δυτικό τμήμα της Ελλάδας, όπου τα χρόνια 1940-44, βρισκόταν υπό την κατοχή των δυνάμεων του Άξονα και διαδοχικά επηρεάστηκε από τον Εμφύλιο Πόλεμο (1946-49). Το άρθρο εξετάζει τις επιδράσεις του Δευτέρου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου και του Εμφυλίου πολέμου στην εκπαίδευση στα Ιωάννινα. Εντός αυτού του πλαισίου, η έρευνα εστιάζει στη γενική λειτουργία των σχολείων, κυρίως στη φοίτηση των μαθητών και στην επίδραση της καθημερινότητας του πολέμου στη ζωή των μαθητών. Η μέθοδος της ιστορικής έρευνας που χρησιμοποιείται είναι η ποιοτική ανάλυση εντός του πλαισίου της μικρο-ιστορίας όπου τα δεδομένα προσφέρουν την ιστορία του ευρύτερου κοινωνικού πλαισίου, ενώ προσδίδουν την αίσθηση του προσωπικού χαρακτήρα στη μελέτη του παρελθόντος.  Η έρευνα αποκαλύπτει τις διαστάσεις ενός άδικου πολέμου στην κοινωνία και την εκπαίδευση και τα μακροχρόνια αποτελέσματά του.The town of Ioannina lies in the North-western part of Greece; it was under the Axis occupation between 1940 and 1944 and successively joined the effects of the Civil War (1946-49). This paper examines the effects of World War II and the Civil War on education in Ioannina. Under this cadre the inquiry is focused on the general function of the schools, especially the students’ attendance and the affection of the day-to-day life during the war on students’ lives. The method of historical search that is used is qualitative analysis within the framework of the micro-history of education where the data bring the history of a broader social framework while providing the sense of the personalized to the study of the past. The study unveiled the dimensions of an unjust war in society and in education and its long term effects

Management of a young female patient with Fournier’s gangrene and Lemierre’s syndrome

Fournier's gangrene is an acute, rapidly progressive, and potentially fatal, infective necrotizing fasciitis affecting the external genitalia, perineal or perianal regions. Lemierre's syndrome is a condition characterized by thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein and bacteremia caused by primarily anaerobic organisms, following a recent oropharyngeal infection. Although the literature about either of them is rich, there is no report about co-appearance of the two syndromes. We present the case of a young healthy female patient who suffered concomitantly from Fournier's gangrene and Lemierre's syndrome after minor surgery.Key words: Fournier’s gangrene, Lemierre’s syndrom

ICU handover procedure: the Greek perspective

Background: Passing the right information poses a challenge in clinical practice. This is the first study in Greece that tries to describe the handover procedure in an intensive care unit to a tertiary hospital.Methods: A two phase study was conducted during a 155 days period. It included a blind and open observational study which examined the quality and content of clinical handover by night shift doctor to the medical team and a survey about the process. Retrospective cross-checking of the information handed over with one written down in the actual patient record was also conducted.Results: A total of 800 set of patients’ daily records were examined. A structure of system-based approach of the handover was recorded, with system coverage varying from 21% (nutrition) to 86% (respiratory system) and good relation with the actual record in most areas of interest. Other areas, such as comorbidities, and relatives’ issue were poorly covered. Education meeting that was held between the two phases did ameliorate the content and the quality of information passed over, and in some areas, proved to have a positive effect on certain aspect of handover like e.g. frequency of interruptions, infection status, relatives’ issues and proposed management plan coverage.Conclusions:Handoverprocess is vital for maintaining stability and quality of care in intensive care unit. Its continual efficiency reevaluation is at least as important as the handover itself for preserving it as a valuable tool in everyday practice.

Protein aggregation and therapeutic strategies in SOD1- and TDP-43- linked ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with severe socio-economic impact. A hallmark of ALS pathology is the presence of aberrant cytoplasmic inclusions composed of misfolded and aggregated proteins, including both wild-type and mutant forms. This review highlights the critical role of misfolded protein species in ALS pathogenesis, particularly focusing on Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) and TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and emphasizes the urgent need for innovative therapeutic strategies targeting these misfolded proteins directly. Despite significant advancements in understanding ALS mechanisms, the disease remains incurable, with current treatments offering limited clinical benefits. Through a comprehensive analysis, the review focuses on the direct modulation of the misfolded proteins and presents recent discoveries in small molecules and peptides that inhibit SOD1 and TDP-43 aggregation, underscoring their potential as effective treatments to modify disease progression and improve clinical outcomes

Effect of synthetic and natural media on lipid production from Fusarium oxysporum

Background: Dependence on fossil resources, for the production of fuels and energy, has resulted in environmental and financial problems, which require our immediate action in order to reverse the situation. Use of renewable sources for the production of fuels and energy is an important alternative with biodiesel remains as one of the promising options. Aim of this work is to evaluate the fungus Fusarium oxysporum for its potentials to accumulate microbial lipids when grown on synthetic media and saccharified sweet sorghum stalks. Results: The effect of different carbon sources, nitrogen sources and C/N ratio on the lipid production was initially examined, which resulted in a lipid concentration of 4.4 g/L, with lipid content of 42.6% w/w. Sweet sorghum stalks were able to support growth and lipid production of the fungus, both as carbon source and as nitrogen source. It was also shown that saccharification of the dried stalks is an important step to increase lipid production. Removal of the remaining stalk solids enabled the lipid production during cultivation in increased initial solids of up to 16 w/w. This resulted in a lipid production of 3.81 g/L. Conclusions: It was demonstrated that F. oxysporum can be used as an efficient oleaginous microorganism, with sweet sorghum serving as an excellent raw material for the cultivation of the fungus. The lipids obtained during this work were also found to have a fatty acid profile with good potentials to be used for biodiesel production

The effect of obesity and dietary habits on oxidative stress in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Objective: Increased oxidative stress has been described in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether high oxidative stress is further influenced by obesity and dietary habits in euthyroid women with HT. Methods: Two hundred eighteen consecutive euthyroid women with HT were studied and separated in two groups; 102 with thyroxine replacement and 114 without. For the evaluation of oxidative stress, total lipid peroxide levels in serum (TOS) were measured and recoded as ‘high TOS’ vs ‘medium/low TOS’. The type of food and consumption frequency were recorded. Two binary variables were considered; normal vs low fruit consumption and daily vs sporadic vegetable consumption. Results: ‘High TOS’ was more frequent in women under thyroxine replacement (31.4% vs 14.7%, OR = 2.7, 95% CI: 1.4–5.2). The prevalence of ‘high TOS’ was higher among overweight/obese women compared to women with normal BMI (30.4% vs 12.5%, OR = 3.1, 95% CI: 1.5–6.4). Low fruit consumption was associated with increased ‘high TOS’ prevalence (30.6% vs 12.9%, OR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.4–6.2). Sporadic vegetable consumption was associated with increased ‘high TOS’ prevalence compared to daily consumption (29.9% vs 13.5%, OR = 2.7, 95% CI: 1.3–5.7). The examined risk factors were independent and additive in their effect on TOS. At least three risk factors had to be concomitantly present for the likelihood of ‘high TOS’ to be significantly elevated. Conclusions: Oxidative stress is increased in women with HT under thyroxine replacement. Nevertheless, normal BMI, daily fruit and vegetable consumption, all contribute in maintaining oxidative stress at low levels

Gait analysis comparison between manual marking, 2D pose estimation algorithms, and 3D marker-based system

IntroductionRecent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision (CV) have led to automated pose estimation algorithms using simple 2D videos. This has created the potential to perform kinematic measurements without the need for specialized, and often expensive, equipment. Even though there's a growing body of literature on the development and validation of such algorithms for practical use, they haven't been adopted by health professionals. As a result, manual video annotation tools remain pretty common. Part of the reason is that the pose estimation modules can be erratic, producing errors that are difficult to rectify. Because of that, health professionals prefer the use of tried and true methods despite the time and cost savings pose estimation can offer.MethodsIn this work, the gait cycle of a sample of the elderly population on a split-belt treadmill is examined. The Openpose (OP) and Mediapipe (MP) AI pose estimation algorithms are compared to joint kinematics from a marker-based 3D motion capture system (Vicon), as well as from a video annotation tool designed for biomechanics (Kinovea). Bland-Altman (B-A) graphs and Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) are used to identify regions of statistically significant difference.ResultsResults showed that pose estimation can achieve motion tracking comparable to marker-based systems but struggle to identify joints that exhibit small, but crucial motion.DiscussionJoints such as the ankle, can suffer from misidentification of their anatomical landmarks. Manual tools don't have that problem, but the user will introduce a static offset across the measurements. It is proposed that an AI-powered video annotation tool that allows the user to correct errors would bring the benefits of pose estimation to professionals at a low cost