Perspective Chapter: Moderate Aortic Stenosis and Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction; Early Replacement or Conservative Treatment?

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valve lesion among the continuously aging population with serious effect on the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). If left untreated, it is associated with serious complications such as heart failure (HF), pulmonary hypertension, thromboembolic events, and even sudden death. Early diagnosis and treatment is of outmost importance to avoid the above complications but also to maintain the patient’s normal heart function. Echocardiography is the key examination that assesses the severity of the stenosis, valve calcification, left ventricular (LV) function, and wall thickness. Also new imaging methods such as cardiac computed tomography (CT) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) help in assessing the severity of aortic valve stenosis when echocardiography has limitations. Based on the categorization of the severity of the stenosis, its treatment is determined. Although things are clear in cases of asymptomatic disease and severe stenosis, this is not the case in moderate disease. Experts and clinical trials do not define clearly which cases can be treated conservatively and which need surgical or transcatheter intervention. The purpose of this article is to gather all the latest data on the treatment of moderate aortic stenosis, especially in patients with heart failure and low ejection fraction

MORCIC: Model Order Reduction Techniques for Electromagnetic Models of Integrated Circuits

Model order reduction (MOR) is crucial for the design process of integrated circuits. Specifically, the vast amount of passive RLCk elements in electromagnetic models extracted from physical layouts exacerbates the extraction time, the storage requirements, and, most critically, the post-layout simulation time of the analyzed circuits. The MORCIC project aims to overcome this problem by proposing new MOR techniques that perform better than commercial tools. Experimental evaluation on several analog and mixed-signal circuits with millions of elements indicates that the proposed methods lead to x5.5 smaller ROMs while maintaining similar accuracy compared to golden ROMs provided by ANSYS RaptorX.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2311.0847

Whole genome scanning of a Mediterranean basin hotspot collection provide new insights into olive tree biodiversity and biology

Olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important species of the Mediterranean region and one of the most ancient species domesticated. The availability of whole genome assemblies and annotations of olive tree cultivars and oleaster (O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) has contributed to a better understanding of genetic and genomic differences between olive tree cultivars. However, compared to other plant species there is still a lack of genomic resources for olive tree popula-tions that span the entire Mediterranean region. In the present study we developed the most complete genomic variation map and the most comprehensive catalog/resource of molecular variation to date for 89 olive tree genotypes originating from the entire Mediterranean basin, revealing the genetic diversity of this commercially significant crop tree and explaining the divergence/similarity among different variants. Addi-tionally, the monumental ancient tree ‘Throuba Naxos’ was studied to characterize the potential origin or routes of olive tree domestication. Several candidate genes known to be associated with key agronomic traits, including olive oil quality and fruit yield, were uncovered by a selective sweep scan to be under selection pressure on all olive tree chromosomes. To further exploit the genomic and phenotypic resources obtained from the current work, genome-wide association analyses were performed for 23 morphological and two agronomic traits. Significant associations were detected for eight traits that provide valuable candidates for fruit tree breeding and for deeper understanding of olive tree biology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Whole genome scanning of a Mediterranean basin hotspot collection provides new insights into olive tree biodiversity and biology

Olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important species of the Mediterranean region and one of the most ancient species domesticated. The availability of whole genome assemblies and annotations of olive tree cultivars and oleaster (O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) has contributed to a better understanding of genetic and genomic differences between olive tree cultivars. However, compared to other plant species there is still a lack of genomic resources for olive tree populations that span the entire Mediterranean region. In the present study we developed the most complete genomic variation map and the most comprehensive catalog/resource of molecular variation to date for 89 olive tree genotypes originating from the entire Mediterranean basin, revealing the genetic diversity of this commercially significant crop tree and explaining the divergence/similarity among different variants. Additionally, the monumental ancient tree ‘Throuba Naxos’ was studied to characterize the potential origin or routes of olive tree domestication. Several candidate genes known to be associated with key agronomic traits, including olive oil quality and fruit yield, were uncovered by a selective sweep scan to be under selection pressure on all olive tree chromosomes. To further exploit the genomic and phenotypic resources obtained from the current work, genome-wide association analyses were performed for 23 morphological and two agronomic traits. Significant associations were detected for eight traits that provide valuable candidates for fruit tree breeding and for deeper understanding of olive tree biology.This research was financed by Greek Public Investments Program (PIP) of General Secretariat for Research & Technology (GSRT), under the Emblematic Action ‘The Olive Road’ (project code:2018ΣE01300000). Sebastián Ramos-Onsins is supported by the grant PID2020-119255GB-I00 (MICINN, Spain) and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya and acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D 2016–2019 and 2020–2023 (SEV-2015-0533, CEX2019-000917) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).The publication of the article in OA mode was financially supported by HEAL-Link.With funding from the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000917).Peer reviewe

Chromatin dynamics during interphase and cell division:similarities and differences between model and crop plants

Genetic information in the cell nucleus controls organismal development, responses to the environment and finally ensures own transmission to the next generations. To achieve so many different tasks, the genetic information is associated with structural and regulatory proteins, which orchestrate nuclear functions in time and space. Furthermore, plant life strategies require chromatin plasticity to allow a rapid adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses. Here, we summarize current knowledge on the organisation of plant chromatin and dynamics of chromosomes during interphase and mitotic and meiotic cell divisions for model and crop plants differing as to the genome size, ploidy and amount of genomic resources available. The existing data indicate that chromatin changes accompany most (if not all) cellular processes and that there are both shared and unique themes in the chromatin structure and global chromosome dynamics among species. Ongoing efforts to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in chromatin organisation and remodeling have, together with the latest genome editing tools, potential to unlock crop genomes for innovative breeding strategies and improvements of various traits

Χαρακτηρισμός γαμετοφυτικών μεταλλαγμάτων που επηρεάζουν τη λειτουργία της γύρης στο φυτό Arabidopsis thaliana

The progamic phase of plant reproductive development involves events from pollen germination to gamete fusion. Physiological studies suggest that complex mechanisms are involved in this pathway. In order to identify gametophytic genes which function in this pathway, an insertional mutagenesis screen based on segregation ratio distortion was performed on a population of 4,094 independent dSpm transposon insertion lines. This screen did not produce any mutants of interest, but two mutants, seth4 and seth7, were identified from a similar screen of Ds transposon insertion lines. seth4 and seth7 showed stably reduced segregation ratios arising from reduced gametophytic transmission and reciprocal crosses showed no (seth4) or severely reduced (seth7) transmission of the antibiotic resistance marker only through pollen. In both mutants, pollen morphology was normal but pollen germination was severely affected. In seth4, the insertion disrupted the coding region of a gene encoding an armadillo (ARM) repeat protein. In seth7, the transposon was inserted within the 3’-UTR of a gene encoding a putative serine/threonine protein kinase. A wild-type copy of SETH4 complemented the seth4 mutation and restored male transmission. SETH4 is the founding member of a discrete Arabidopsis gene family that contains two SETH FOUR-LIKE genes, SFL1 and SFL2. SETH4 was found to be preferentially expressed in the male gametophyte while SFLl and SFL2 were expressed exclusively in the sporophyte. SETH4, SFL1 and SFL2 proteins, when fused to GFP, suggest cytoplasmic localisation in transient expression assays. In this work two mutants identified as essential for the male gametophyte during the progamic phase have been phenotypically characterised. SETH4 was analysed using genetic, molecular and bioinformatic analyses and is proposed to be part of a novel molecular pathway controlling cellular growth in the gametophyte.Η προγαμική φάση της αναπαραγωγικής ανάπτυξης των φυτών περιλαμβάνει γεγονότα από τη βλάστηση της γύρης μέχρι την σύντηξη των γαμετών. Φυσιολογικές μελέτες υποδηλώνουν ότι πολύπλοκοι μηχανισμοί εμπλέκονται σε αυτό το μονοπάτι. Προκειμένου να εντοπιστούν γαμετοφυτικά γονίδια που λειτουργούν σε αυτή την φάση ανάπτυξης,πραγματοποιήθηκαν σε πληθυσμό 4.094 ανεξάρτητων γραμμών εισαγωγής τρανσποζονίου dSpm μια διαλογή με βάση την παραμόρφωση αναλογίας διαχωρισμού. Αυτή η διαλογή δεν παρήγαγε κανένα μετάλλαγμα ενδιαφέροντος, αλλά δύο μεταλλάγματα, ο seth4 και ο seth7, αναγνωρίστηκαν από μια παρόμοια διαλογη ανεξάρτητων γραμμών εισαγωγής τρανσποζονίου Ds. Οι seth4 και seth7 έδειξανσταθερά μειωμένες αναλογίες διαχωρισμού που προκύπτουν από μειωμένη γαμετοφυτική μετάδοση και οι αμοιβαίες διασταυρώσεις δεν έδειξαν (seth4) ή έδειξαν σοβαρά μειωμένη (seth7) μετάδοση του δείκτης αντοχής στα αντιβιοτικά μόνο μέσω της γύρης. Και στα δύο μεταλλαγμένα, η μορφολογία της γύρης ήταν φυσιολογική αλλά η βλάστηση της γύρης επηρεάστηκε σοβαρά. Στο seth4, η εισαγωγή διέκοψε το κωδική περιοχή ενός γονιδίου που κωδικοποιεί μια επαναλαμβανόμενη πρωτεΐνη Armadillo (ARM). Στο seth7, το τρανσποζόνιο εισήχθη εντός του 3'-UTR ενός γονιδίου που κωδικοποιεί μια υποτιθέμενη σερίνη/θρεονίνη πρωτεϊνική κινάση. Ένα αντίγραφο άγριου τύπου του SETH4 συμπλήρωσε τη μετάλλαξη seth4 και αποκαταστάθηκε η αρσενική μετάδοση. Το SETH4 είναι το ιδρυτικό μέλος μιας διακριτής οικογένειας γονιδίων στο Arabidopsisπου περιέχει δύο γονίδια SETH FOUR-LIKE, SFL1 και SFL2. SETH4 βρέθηκε ότι εκφράζεται κατά προτίμηση στο αρσενικό γαμετόφυτο ενώ τα SFL1 και SFL2 εκφράζονται αποκλειστικά στο σπορόφυτο. Οι πρωτεΐνες SETH4, SFLl και SFL2, όταν συντήκονται με GFP σε προσδιορισμούς παροδικής έκφρασης, εχουν κυτταροπλασματικό εντοπισμό. Σε αυτή την εργασία, δύο μεταλλάγματα που αναγνωρίστηκαν ως απαραίτητα για το αρσενικό γαμετόφυτο κατά τη διάρκεια της προγαμικής φάσης έχει χαρακτηριστεί φαινοτυπικά. Το SETH4 αναλύθηκε χρησιμοποιώντας γενετικές, μοριακές και μεθόδους βιοπληροφορικής και προτείνεται να αποτελέσει μέρος μιας νέας μοριακής οδού έλεγχου της κυτταρικής ανάπτυξης στο γαμετόφυτο

The role of PSP in predicting intrabdominal infection-related complications

Στόχοι: Η Pancreatic Stone Protein (PSP) είναι μια πρωτεΐνη οξείας φάσης που εκκρίνεται κυρίως από τα κύτταρα του παγκρέατος σαν απόκριση στο στρες. Η βιβλιογραφία υποστηρίζει τη χρήση της σαν προβλεπτικό παράγοντα της σήψης. Ο προγνωστικός της ρόλος έχει μελετηθεί τα τελευταία χρόνια σαν point-of-care βιοδείκτης, κυρίως σε ασθενείς υψηλού κινδύνου. Πραγματοποιήσαμε μία προοπτική μελέτη παρατήρησης για να αξιολογήσουμε τη χρησιμότητά της στην πρόγνωση ασθενών που προσέρχονται στα επείγοντα με ενδοκοιλιακή λοίμωξη. Μέθοδοι: οι ενήλικοι ασθενείς που προσέρχονταν στο Νοσοκομείο μας με οποιαδήποτε ενδοκοιλιακή λοίμωξη, μπήκαν στη μελέτη. Εργαστηριακές και απεικονιστικές εξετάσεις χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για να θέσουν τη διάγνωση, συμπεριλαμβανομένων υπερήχων και αξονικών κοιλίας. Μετά τη διάγνωση, η PSP μετρούνταν σε ολικό αίμα πρώτου 24ώρου, με μηχάνημα της AbioScope. Στη συνέχεια έγινε στατιστική ανάλυση ώστε να καθοριστεί το cut-off value για την πρόβλεψη της σήψης. Οι ασθενείς παρακολουθήθηκαν για 28 μέρες ώστε να καταγραφούν οι εκβάσεις τους. Αποτελέσματα: στη μελέτη συμπεριελήφθησαν 40 ασθενείς. Οι 22 από αυτούς (55%) ανέπτυξαν σήψη. Παρατηρήθηκε στατιστικά σημαντική διαφορά στα επίπεδα PSP πλάσματος μεταξύ αυτών που ανέπτυξαν σήψη και εκείνων που δεν ανέπτυξαν με AUC=0.694 (CI 95%: 0.525-0.861). Η PSP απεδείχθη ανεξάρτητος προγνωστικός παράγοντας για τη σήψη μετά από στάθμιση με την ηλικία με OR=7.888 (Cl 95%: 1.247-49.890). Στην κοορτή μας κατεγράφη μόνο ένας θάνατος, επομένως δεν κατέστη εφικτό να εξαχθούν συμπεράσματα για αυτή την έκβαση. Η PSP προέβλεψε επίσης την επανεισαγωγή των ασθενών και την ανάγκη για κλιμάκωση της αντιμικροβιακής αγωγής με p value<0.01, και ήταν εξαιρετικός προγνωστικός παράγοντας για αυτές τις εκβάσεις (AUC=0.899, CI95%: 0.794-1.0 and AUC=0.862, CI95%: 0.748-0.976 αντίστοιχα). Ήταν επίσης ανώτερη από τη CRP, τη φερριτίνη και το ινωδογόνο στην πρόβλεψη της σήψης. Συμπεράσματα: η PSP μπορεί να προβλέψει δυσμενείς εκβάσεις σε ασθενείς με ενδοκοιλιακή λοίμωξη, όπως η εμφάνιση σήψης, η επανεισαγωγή και η ανάγκη για κλιμάκωση της αγωγής. Τα αποτελέσματά μας ενισχύουν την δυνατότητα χρήσης της σαν point-of-care βιοδείκτη.Objectives: PSP is an acute phase protein mainly secreted by pancreatic cells as a response to stress. According to current literature it is a useful marker for sepsis prediction. Its prognostic role has recently been evaluated in point-of-care setting, mostly among high risk patients. We conducted a prospective observational cohort study to evaluate its utility in the prognosis of patients coming to the Emergency Department (ED) who were diagnosed with intrabdominal infection (IAI). Methods: In this prospective observational study, adult patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Department of the University Hospital of Patras Greece, with any intrabdominal infection, including cholecysitis, cholangitis, diverticulitis, colitis, appendicitis and contaminated necrotizing pancreatitis, were enrolled. Laboratory and imaging exams were held to set the diagnosis, followed by abdominal ultrasound (US) and computed tomography (CT), if needed. After the diagnosis was established, PSP was measured, within 24 hours since admission, in whole blood, using abioSCOPE device. Statistical analysis was held, and a cut-off value for PSP to predict sepsis was estimated. Patients were tracked for 28 days to document their outcomes. Results: 40 patients were included after the diagnosis of IAI. Twenty two (22) of them (55%) developed sepsis. There was a significant difference in PSP values between septic and non-septic patients with an AUC of 0.694 (CI 95%: 0.525-0.861). PSP was an independent predictive factor for sepsis in our group after adjusted with age with an OR=7.888 (Cl 95%: 1.247-49.890). There was only one death in our cohort so we could not prove PSP prognostic value for this outcome. PSP value also predicted readmission and the need of treatment escalation with a p value<0.01, and was an excellent prognostic factor for those outcomes (AUC=0.899, CI95%: 0.794-1.0 and AUC=0.862, CI95%: 0.748-0.976 respectively). PSP was also proven superior to CRP, ferritin and fibrinogen in sepsis prediction. Conclusion: PSP can predict unfavorable outcomes, such as sepsis, readmission and need of treatment escalation among patients with IAI. Our results can augment its more frequent use as a point-of-care biomarker

Study of the functional activity of granulocytes and monocytes in HIV (+) patients during antiretroviral therapy

In patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, neutrophil and monocyte functions, including phagocytosis, are impaired. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes of phagocytic function and respiratory burst occurring over the course of patients infected by the HIV-1 virus. Treatment-naive patients (group B), patients receiving highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) (group C) and patients in which HAART has failed (group D) were studied and compared with healthy volunteers (group A). Phagocytosis and oxidative burst were evaluated using commercially available kits. Results clearly denote a significant decrease of the phagocytic function of both cell types of groups Β and C compared with group A. Among group C patients, those in the upper quartile of CD4 increase had higher oxidative burst compared with patients of the other quartiles. In addition, comparisons clearly showed a lower degree of phagocytic function and of oxidative burst of both monocytes and neutrophils of group D compared with group B. Finally, it was found that monocyte and neutrophil function was correlated inversely to the change in viral load, i.e. the greater the decrease of viral load, the better the phagocytic and oxidative activity. Innate immunity defects appear to be present in HIV-positive patients, regarding phagocytic activity and oxidative burst of monocytes and neutrophils. These defects are greatly influenced by the level of treatment efficacy, with emphasis on CD4 cell counts and viral load.Στους ασθενείς με HIV λοίμωξη, η λειτουργία των ουδετεροφίλων και των μονοκυττάρων, περιλαμβανομένης της φαγοκυττάρωσης, είναι ελαττωματική. Ο σκοπός της μελέτης αυτής ήταν να διερευνήσει αλλαγές στην φαγοκυτταρική λειτουργία και στην οξειδωτική μικροβιοκτονία κατά την πορεία της HIV λοίμωξης. Μη προθεραπευμένοι ασθενείς (Ομάδα Β), ασθενείς που λαμβάνουν αντιρετροϊκή θεραπεία υψηλής δραστικότητας (HAART) (Ομάδα Γ) και ασθενείς με θεραπευτική αποτυχία στην HAART (Ομάδα Δ) μελετήθηκαν και συγκρίθηκαν με υγιείς εθελοντές (Ομάδα Α). Η φαγοκυττάρωση και η οξειδωτική μικροβιοκτονία εκτιμήθηκαν χρησιμοποιώντας εμπορικά διαθέσιμο εξοπλισμό εργαστηρίου. Τα αποτελέσματα δείχνουν καθαρά, σημαντική ελάττωση της φαγοκυτταρικής λειτουργίας και στα δύο είδη κυττάρων στις ομάδες ασθενών Β και Γ σε σύγκριση με την ομάδα Α. Μεταξύ των ασθενών της ομάδας Γ, αυτοί που βρισκόντουσαν στο άνω τερτατημόριο αύξησης των CD4+ λεμφοκυττάρων παρουσίασαν αυξημένη οξειδωτική μικροβιοκτονία σε σύγκριση με τους ασθενείς των άλλων τεταρτημορίων. Επιπλέον, οι συγκρίσεις έδειξαν σαφώς χαμηλότερο βαθμό φαγοκυτταρικής δραστηριότητας και οξειδωτική μικροβιοκτονίας των ουδετεροφίλων και των μονοκυττάρων στην ομάδα Δ σε σύγκριση με την ομάδα Β. Τέλος, βρέθηκε ότι η λειτουργία των μονοκυττάρων και ουδετεροφίλων συσχετίσθηκε αντίστροφα με την αλλαγή στο ιικό φορτίο, δηλαδή όσο μεγαλύτερη η μείωση του ιικού φορτίου τόσο καλύτερη η φαγοκυτταρική και οξειδωτική δραστηριότητα. Στους ασθενείς με HIV λοίμωξη φαίνεται να παρουσιάζονται ελλείμματα φυσικής ανοσίας, σχετιζόμενα με την φαγοκυττάρωση και την οξειδωτική μικροβιοκτονία των μονοκυττάρων και ουδετεροφίλων. Τα ελλείμματα αυτά επηρεάζονται σε σημαντικό βαθμό από την αποτελεσματικότητα της θεραπείας, με έμφαση στα CD4+ λεμφοκύτταρα και στο ιικό φορτίο

Sunflower: A high value crop?

This work attempts to present a detailed picture of the sunflower cultivation in Greece in comparison with its most competitive crops, in terms of costs, benefits, income, employment and expertise. Thus, the economic effectiveness, of sunflower cultivation at farmers’ level, is thoroughly examined, the indirect benefits (crop rotation, social, environmental, foreign exchange, energy dependence) of sunflower chain assessed and finally both direct and indirect benefits generated for the region are estimated