Rising Prevalence of Mild Chronic Gastritis in Children: A Single Center Experience

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: We analyzed upper endoscopic and histological findings in 3 cohorts of children undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy over a 10-year period. Five hundred seventy-nine patients were identified, with 244 (42%), 199 (35%), and 136 (23%) in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 cohorts, respectively. The most common symptoms and signs were abdominal pain, vomiting, failure to thrive, and diarrhea. RESULTS: The number of patients who had histological evidence of chronic gastritis increased from 2011 (n = 70, 29%) to 2015 (n = 106, 53%) and 2019 (n = 92, 68%; CONCLUSIONS: There has been a significant rise in the prevalence of mild chronic gastritis or non-specific gastritis over the last decade in our population

The contribution of the IAG Intercommission Project WEGENER to TOPO-Europe

WEGENER is the acronym for Working group of European Geoscientists for the Establishment of Networks for Earth-science Research. At present it is established as the Inter-commission Project 3.2, between Commission 1 and Commission 3, of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). The WEGENER Project, has promoted the development of scientific space-geodetic activities in the Mediterranean and European area for the last twenty years and has contributed to the establishment of geodetic networks designed particularly for Earth science research. The mission of WEGENER is the development of interdisciplinary work for the integration of space and terrestrial techniques in the study of the Eurasian/African plate boundary deformation zone and adjacent areas, including the establishment of an European velocity field, by promoting international cooperation and by being a Forum for European and other Earth-Scientists interested in the Eurasian/African plate boundary zone. WEGENER activities cover substantial parts of the scientific objectives of TOPO-Europe and WEGENER can contribute particularly in the anticipated monitoring of the 4-D evolution of the topography of the European continent and adjacent parts of North Africa, Asia and the Middle East by space geodetic and remote sensing techniques, in particular, by supporting the acquisition, processing and interpretation of satellite gravity and geodetic data, including exploitation of airborne multi-sensor data. TOPO-Europe involves very many geophysicists and geologists and it promotes modeling activities. These may perfectly be supported by the observational expertise of the geo-scientists of WEGENER. The amount and heterogeneity of the data to be expected from the TOPO-Europe program asks for dedicated data and product centers. One useful product that WEGENER, through its members, is already producing and which will be made available is a reliable and accurate vector velocity field map and a strain-map. Via the involvement of the GEODAC, the WEGENER GEOdynamic Data and Analysis Center, WEGENER will take care of a homogeneous and state-of-the-art GPS analysis. WEGENER will also address the important issue of the realization of an integrated multi-purpose network for the acquisition and availability of long-term, continuous, high-quality spatial and in situ measurements

LINE- and Alu-containing genomic instability hotspot at 16q24.1 associated with recurrent and nonrecurrent CNV deletions causative for ACDMPV

Transposable elements modify human genome by inserting into new loci or by mediating homology-, microhomology-, or homeology-driven DNA recombination or repair, resulting in genomic structural variation. Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is a rare lethal neonatal developmental lung disorder caused by point mutations or copy-number variant (CNV) deletions of FOXF1 or its distant tissue-specific enhancer. Eighty-five percent of 45 ACDMPV-causative CNV deletions, of which junctions have been sequenced, had at least one of their two breakpoints located in a retrotransposon, with more than half of them being Alu elements. We describe a novel similar to 35 kb-large genomic instability hotspot at 16q24.1, involving two evolutionarily young LINE-1 (L1) elements, L1PA2 and L1PA3, flanking AluY, two AluSx, AluSx1, and AluJr elements. The occurrence of L1s at this location coincided with the branching out of the Homo-Pan-Gorilla clade, and was preceded by the insertion of AluSx, AluSx1, and AluJr. Our data show that, in addition to mediating recurrent CNVs, L1 and Alu retrotransposons can predispose the human genome to formation of variably sized CNVs, both of clinical and evolutionary relevance. Nonetheless, epigenetic or other genomic features of this locus might also contribute to its increased instability