Peripherality and Integration: Industrial Growth and Decline in the Greek Regions

An empirical model has been deployed to account for regional industrial growth and performance in Greece’s post EU-accession period. The results obtained suggest that the effect of European integration on manufacturing has been rather adverse across Greek regions. Regions that are more industrialised, whose structure was more similar to the European average and which have been more exposed to European competition are those that have been more adversely affected. In contrast, higher diversity, higher presence of capital intensive sectors and higher tertiarisation of the regional economies were found to be beneficial to regional industrial growth and performance.

Towards Explainable and Trustworthy AI for Decision Support in Medicine: An Overview of Methods and Good Practices

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as intelligence exhibited by machines, such as electronic computers. It can involve reasoning, problem solving, learning and knowledge representation, which are mostly in focus in the medical domain. Other forms of intelligence, including autonomous behavior, are also parts of AI. Data driven methods for decision support have been employed in the medical domain for some time. Machine learning (ML) is used for a wide range of complex tasks across many sectors of the industry. However, a broader spectrum of AI, including deep learning (DL) as well as autonomous agents, have been recently gaining more focus and have risen expectation for solving numerous problems in the medical domain. A barrier towards AI adoption, or rather a concern, is trust in AI, which is often hindered by issues like lack of understanding of a black-box model function, or lack of credibility related to reporting of results. Explainability and interpretability are prerequisites for the development of AI-based systems that are lawful, ethical and robust. In this respect, this paper presents an overview of concepts, best practices, and success stories, and opens the discussion for multidisciplinary work towards establishing trustworthy AI

Primary plasmacytoma of the cranial vault: a case report

We report one case of a 78-year-old woman who referred to our hospital because of a progressive right hemiparesis. On clinical examination a painless large soft mass in the left parietal region was observed. CT and MRI revealed an extra-axial mass in the in the left fronto-temporo-parietal region. The lesion was totally excised despite the bleeding tendency. Histology disclosed the presence of a plasmacytoma. Postoperative, the patient developed an epidural hematoma that required immediate evacuation. On further investigation active tuberculosis was detected. On follow up examination 1 year later no tumor recurrence or evidence of multiple myeloma was detected

Gender specific association of decreased bone mineral density in patients with epilepsy

Objective To evaluate whether epilepsy or certain antiepileptic drugs render patients prone to develop low bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis risk. Methods Thirty-eight (27 males, 11 females) consecutive adult epileptic patients receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and 71 control individuals matched for race, gender, age and body mass index (BMI) were subjected to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Results The mean lumbar spine and total hip BMD values were lower in the patients compared to control group (0.90±0.24g/cm2 vs 1.04±0.14g/cm2, p<0.001 and 0.92±0.14g/cm2 vs 0.99±0.13g/cm2, p=0.02, respectively). At the same skeletal sites, male patients had significantly reduced BMD compared to control males (0.90±0.21g/cm2 vs 1.03±0.15g/cm2, p=0.004 and 0.93±0.14g/cm2 vs 1.02±0.13g/cm2, p=0.009, respectively) while there was a trend but no significant differences in females. This BMD reduction was independent of AED type. Conclusion Adult epileptic, predominantly male patients have lower BMD and could be screened with densitometry for early diagnosis and prevention of osteoporosis

Myocardial ischemia in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis assessed with single photon emission tomography-myocardial perfusion imaging

BACKGROUND: Non-specific cardiac symptoms in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) could indicate early cardiovascular disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), with 99mTc tetrofosmin stress–rest single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT), in 13 RA female patients with atypical cardiac symptoms, was compared to 44 weight- and age-matched females with similar cardiac complaints (control group). Smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, obesity and cardiac heredity were recorded and compared between the study and control group. MPI was assessed using 17 segment polar map and with a scale of 0 to 5 scoring. RESULTS: Patients with RA demonstrated higher cardiovascular risk (46%) compared to control individuals (17%). In addition, patients with RA had more irreversible myocardial ischemic abnormalities in their MPI than the control group. Dyslipidemia and obesity was found more frequent in RA patients with MPI SSS ≥ 4. CONCLUSION: RA patients with atypical cardiac complaints are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease; early detection and monitoring of this patient group could potentially reverse or successfully manage the consequences of the upcoming cardiovascular disease

Lung cancer during pregnancy: A narrative review

Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in males for decades, has recently become one of commonest causes for women too. As women delay the start of their family, the co-existence of cancer and pregnancy is increasingly observed. Nevertheless, lung cancer during pregnancy remains a rather uncommon condition with less than 70 cases published in recent years. Non-small cell lung carcinoma is the commonest type accounting for about 85% of all cases. Overall survival rates are low. Chemotherapy and/or targeted treatment have been used with poor outcomes. The disease has been also found to affect the products of conception with no short- or long-term consequences for the neonate. This article is referring to a narrative review of lung cancers diagnosed in pregnant women around the world