An ERP study of visual search showing early detection of feature conjunctions

An ERP study of visual search showing early detection of feature conjunction

Supporting pupils with cancer on their return to school: a case study report of a reintegration program

AbstractOpting for a qualitative approach in order to get a better insight in related processes at individual level, our study draws upon a single case research analysis. The case of an 11 year old boy who was diagnosed with leukaemia will be presented. The first part of the program deals with the semi-structured interviews involving parents, child and the school personnel aiming at exploring and identifying eventual difficulties related to the implementation of the intervention. Whereas, the second part deals with school staff workshops, peer education and counselling targeting at promoting family, school and hospital collaboration. The reintegration program increased teachers, peers and parents’ knowledge concerning the medical and psychosocial aspects of cancer. An improvement of teachers and peers’ attitude towards the suffering child was also observed. The creative collaboration of school, family and hospital definitely facilitated the progressive transition of the ill child back into the educational system

Using CRISPR/Cas9 to study SPOCK1 in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the most aggressive tumours, with a devastating 5-year survival rate of less than 9%. This is in part the result of the development of an abundant desmoplastic stroma which surrounds, protects, and actively promotes a tumour conducive environment. The stroma is largely composed of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, cells such as fibroblasts and stellate cells that are activated in response to the tumour and soluble proteins. Among these is a group of non-structural proteins that play a central role in the mediating interactions between cells and the ECM. SPOCK1 is a member of the Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC) family of matricellular proteins. In various tumours, several oncogenic roles have been described for SPOCK1 such as promoting invasiveness and metastasis. Clinical samples correlate SPOCK1 expression with advanced PDAC tumours and poor prognosis. However, very little is currently known on the mechanisms of action in PDAC but interactions with matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) and growth factors, and activation of the Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway are suspected. This research project aimed to understand the role of SPOCK1 in stromal and pancreatic cancer cell growth and adhesion. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) gene editing technique was used to attempt to knockdown (KD) SPOCK1. However, while a preliminary T7 endonuclease 1 (T7E1) assay indicated the presence of a mutation, Clustal omega analysis of sequencing of the CRISPR/Cas9 transfected cell lines failed to show a mutation in the SPOCK1 region. Despite the lack of mutation in the SPOCK1 target region, functional assays showed effects on both cell growth and adhesion suggesting off-target binding of Cas9 to the single guide RNA (sgRNA). Several off-target gene were identified with sgRNA sequence similarity to SPOCK1. Further experiments searching for interactions between SPOCK1 protein and ECM components revealed fibronectin, fibroblast growth factor, collagen, and membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase as direct binding partners of SPOCK1, suggesting that the SPOCK1 protein has diverse roles in the PDAC ECM

Periostin splice variants in pancreatic cancer

Introduction: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest solid tumours, with 5-year survival of less than 5%. The aggressive nature of the tumour, the tumour-supportive environment (stroma), delayed diagnosis and poor chemotherapy response lead to poor patient prognosis. The tumour-stroma is a dynamic network of immune, mesenchymal, and endothelial stromal cells surrounded by an extracellular matrix rich in matricellular and architectural proteins. Periostin (POSTN), a matricellular protein primarily secreted by stromal cells, is often associated with cell proliferation and migration. POSTN overexpression has been observed in many tumour types, however downregulation in bladder carcinoma rises some questions. POSTN is an alternatively sliced gene, that encodes multiple different isoforms, whose function in PDAC is still unknown. The aim of this study is to isolate and clone these isoforms in order to produce recombinant proteins for further investigation. Methods: The transcript variants were extracted from PS1 cells (a pancreatic stromal cell line), converted to cDNA and amplified by RT-PCR. The synthesised DNA was ligated with plasmid vectors and cloned by traditional cloning into E.coli cells. Single colonies were sequenced and analyses, determining the transcript variant being cloned. The plasmids ligated with the variants of interest were isolated and transfected into PS1 cells. The recombinant proteins synthesised by the PS1 cells were then purified. Results: Multiple isoforms of POSTN were cloned in E.coli. Sequencing analysis revealed the exons present in each sample of the cloned colonies and the isoforms were identified. The plasmids of interest were successfully extracted from the colonies by using purification technique appropriate for subsequent mammalian cell transfection. Substantial progress was made in producing recombinant POSTN proteins. Conclusion: In this study the isolation of three cloned POSTN transcript variants were achieved. These variants are POSTN-202, 209 and 201-b

Mapping the diverse functions of dietary fatty acids via target gene regulation

Dietary fat is a strong predictor of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome. A great number of epidemiological and observational studies clearly show that in addition to the amount of fat consumed in a diet, fat composition is an equally important factor in the development of chronic diseases. Evidence abounds indicating that adherence to a diet with high content of polyunsaturated (PUFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) such as the Mediterranean diet has substantial health benefits, while diets with high content of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) such as the Western type diet increase the risk for the development of several chronic diseases. Nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics investigates the interaction between nutrients and genes at the molecular level, by using genomic tools. Within the field of nutrigenomics, dietary fatty acids and their metabolites are seen as signaling molecules that target specific cellular response systems. Dietary fatty acids have been reported to bind physically to PPARs, a family of ligand activated transcription factors, that play a major role in metabolic homeostasis. Three PPAR isotypes have been identified, PPARα, PPARβ/δ and PPARγ. Their expression and target genes vary among different tissues and cell types. After a meal triglycerides are packed into chylomicrons in the small intestine and via the lymph system, they reach the blood and the peripheral tissues. Triglyceride chylomicrons deliver free fatty acids to the organs after being lipolylised by lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which is anchored to the capillary endothelium. Among different organs, heart and liver show the highest uptake of dietary triglycerides, postprandialy. However, opposite to the liver, heart is a constant working muscle, which covers its demands on energy mainly by fatty acids, delivered to the heart via hydrolysis of circulating triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. Unbalanced fatty acid uptake and fatty acid oxidation is common in cardiac diseases, such as cardiac failure, myocardial ischemia and diabetes. Heart is characterized by decreased lipid storage capacity, therefore chronic elevated levels of lipids uptake and intracellular storage is considered harmful and may lead to lipotoxic cardiomyopathy. Our first aim was to explore the whole genome effects of individual dietary fatty acids in the intact heart via transcriptional profiling. By conducting these experiments in wild-type and PPARα−/− mice, we aimed to determine the specific contribution of PPARα, which has been previously described as a master regulator of lipid homeostasis in the heart. We took advantage of a unique experimental model, where mice were given a single oral bolus of synthetic triglycerides composed of a single fatty acid. We sacrificed the mice 6hours after the oral gavage and we compared the effects of different fatty acids on gene expression by microarray analysis in the total heart. Many genes were regulated by one particular treatment only and among those most of them showed large functional divergence. Although, the majority of genes responding to fatty acid treatment were regulated in a PPARα-dependent manner, emphasizing the importance of PPARα in mediating transcriptional regulation by fatty acids in the heart, we observed a substantial number of genes regulated in a PPARα- independent manner. Finally, we observed that deletion and activation of PPARα had a major effect on expression of numerous genes involved in metabolism and immunity. We identified response to oxidative stress as the top upregulated process activated by all administered fatty acids in the heart. High rates of mitochondria oxidation, due to increased supply of substrate after the oral gavage are coupled with enzymatic and non- enzymatic mechanisms aiming to counterbalance the production of highly reactive secondary products of the respiratory chain, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the heart. Under conditions such as chronic high fat diet or insulin resistance, increased lipid influx in combination with uncontrolled production of ROS and lipid intermediates may result in mitochondrial malfunctioning and lipid accumulation. Myocardial lipotoxicity refers to the accumulation of intramyocardial lipids and is associated with contractile dysfunction and even myocytes death. We found Angptl4 to be the top upregulated gene, in all groups that received the fatty acids oral gavage. Angptl4 has been described as a target gene of PPARs and an endogenous inhibitor of the triglyceride hydrolyzing enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which catalyzes uptake of circulating lipids into tissues. We were able to show that the strong upregulation of Angptl4 by dietary fatty acids is mediated by PPARβ/δ and is part of a feedback mechanism aimed at protecting the heart against lipid overload and consequently fatty acid–induced oxidative stress, one of the hallmarks of lipotoxic cardiomyopathy. Angptl4 has been shown to have a potent inhibitory effect in LPL activity and subsequent reduction in uptake of lipids by several tissues and cell types, including macrophages. Furthermore, Angptl4 was shown to prevent the formation of foam cells in mesenteric lymph nodes upon high fat feeding. Accordingly, we hypothesized that Angptl4 may affect atherosclerosis development by reducing foam cell formation. Thus, our second aim was to investigate the role of Angptl4 on atherosclerosis development. We studied Angptl4 expression in atherosclerotic lesions and macrophages and determined the effect of Angptl4 transgenic overexpression in atherosclerosis prone ApoE3Leiden (E3L) mice fed a Western diet containing 0.4% cholesterol. We observed a decrease in atherosclerosis in Angptl4 overexpressing mice on an ApoE3L background. This effect was independent of the plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Importantly, Angptl4Tg.E3L exhibited a less pro- inflammatory phenotype with decreased accumulation of monocytes/macrophages in the atherosclerotic plaque, suggesting an anti-inflammatory role of Angptl4 in atherosclerosis development. Finally, we set out to identify transcriptional targets of fatty acids in macrophages, as part of a general goal to elucidate mechanisms through which fatty acids exhibit a direct role in modulating inflammatory processes in macrophages. We identified Hig-2 to be strongly upregulated by all treatments. We found expression of Hig-2 to be the highest in peritoneal macrophages and white adipose tissue. Chronic high fat feeding increased Hig-2 expression levels in adipose tissue but not in liver. Immunohistochemistry indicated colocalization of Hig-2 with Cd68 in infiltrating macrophages as part of crown-like structures. Based on these findings we propose that Hig-2 has a specific role in macrophages and may function as an interesting target in the study of obese adipose tissue. In conclusion, this thesis contributes new information on gene regulation by dietary PUFA in the mammalian heart and provides mechanistic insight on their previous reported beneficial effects. Furthermore, we reveal a novel protective role of Angptl4 in atherosclerosis development. We propose that this effect is mediated by a mechanism, which is independent of inhibition of LPL-mediated systemic lipid clearance and it is probably related to the effect of Angptl4 on macrophage oxLDL uptake and chemotaxis. Finally, in the present thesis we start up an effort to identify fatty acid target genes in macrophages, which open new future research paths.</p

How Adolescent Students with Disabilities and /or Complex Needs Perceive the Notion of Resilience:A Study in Greece and England

Adolescents with behavioral and learning difficulties are at increased risk in relation to psychological and social well-being. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of adolescent students, diagnosed with a variety of complex needs such as behavioral, emotional and learning difficulties, to explore potential risk and protective factors that they perceive can enable or constrain resilience. Participants in the study were adolescents both from the UK (n=12) and Greece (n=14), all of whom were receiving additional learning and psychological support in their school settings. A qualitative research design employed the ‘draw and write’ technique in addition to face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Data analysis identified the protective and risk factors that adolescents associated with resilience. Two distinct categories of protective factors emerged from the data: a) personal (positive thoughts, nutrition and achievements) and b) socio-ecological factors (significant others, activities, pets, places). Risk factors were also divided into two categories: a) personal (negative thoughts and feelings and health problems) and b) socio-ecological factors (relational problems). Findings highlight the complex interplay between personal and socio-ecological factors in building resilience in adolescents who are at increased risk in relation to psychological and social well-being

Specters of Antigone: Counterwriting Sophocles in the Twenty-First Century

Η παρούσα εργασία μελετά τους τρόπους μέσα από τους οποίους δυο σύγχρονα μυθιστορήματα, το Home Fire της Kamila Shamsie (2017) και το The Watch του Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (2012), επιστρέφουν στην Αντιγόνη του Σοφοκλή σε μία προσπάθεια να μεταφράσουν ορισμένα από τα ηθικά διλήμματα και τις εσωτερικές αντιφάσεις της τραγωδίας στην ιδιωματική διάλεκτο ενός ανεπίστρεπτα παγκοσμιοποιημένου και αλληλεξαρτώμενου κόσμου. Θέτοντας τα δυο μυθιστορήματα μέσα σε ένα συγκριτικό πλαίσιο το οποίο περιστρέφεται γύρω από μια θεματικά αναπτυγμένη ανάγνωση των δυο σύγχρονων αφηγημάτων σε σχέση με το κλασσικό κείμενο, και βασιζόμενη σε παραπάνω από μια θεωρίες, αυτή η εργασία είναι χωρισμένη σε τρία μέρη. Κάθε μέρος είναι δομημένο γύρω από μια θεματική η οποία συνδέει τα δυο μυθιστορήματα τόσο με το κείμενο του Σοφοκλή όσο και μεταξύ τους. Το πρώτο μέρος, διαρθρωμένο γύρω από τη θεματική του φωτός, μελετά τη σύνδεση ανάμεσα στην ενσώματη διαφορά, την πολιτική και την όραση όπως αυτή εδραιώνεται στα τρία κείμενα που εξετάζονται εδώ, και προτείνει μια ανάγνωση της «τερατώδους» απόκλισης της Αντιγόνης από τις κοινωνικές και πολιτισμικές νόρμες της Θηβαϊκής πολιτείας σε σχέση με το Ισλαμικό πέπλο που φορούν οι σύγχρονες πρωταγωνίστριες και στο Home Fire και στο The Watch. Το δεύτερο μέρος, που καθιστά το θεματικό πέρασμα από το φως στο σκοτάδι, επικεντρώνεται όχι τόσο στη διαφορά και αντιγνωμία της Αντιγόνης, αλλά στην αντίδραση του βασιλιά Κρέοντα και στον τρόπο που εκείνος διαχειρίζεται την παράβαση του νόμου από την ανιψιά του. Προτείνοντας μια ανάγνωση της φυλάκισης της Αντιγόνης ως μιας πράξης «ενωτικής βίας» η οποία και θέτει αλλά και προστατεύει τα θεμέλια της κυρίαρχης εξουσίας, ανάγοντας την τελευταία σε παράδειγμα προς μίμηση, το δεύτερο μέρος μελετά πως οι δυο σύγχρονοι συγγραφείς θίγουν, μέσα από το αρχαίο κείμενο, το ζήτημα της επικράτησης της Δύσης ως το κατεξοχήν «παράδειγμα» το οποίο κάθε άλλη εθνική, πολιτισμική, γλωσσική, ή θρησκευτική μειονότητα οφείλει να ακολουθήσει. Τέλος, το τρίτο και τελευταίο μέρος, δομημένο γύρω από τη θεματική της φιλίας, επικεντρώνεται κυρίως στο ζήτημα της ταφής, το οποίο και συσχετίζει με τα ερωτήματα της αγάπης, της μνήμης, του θανάτου, της πολιτικής, της συγχώρεσης και της φιλοξενίας, ερωτήματα που, αν και μείζονος σημασίας στο κλασσικό κείμενο, αποκτούν νέες διαστάσεις στις δύο σύγχρονες μετεγγραφές της Αντιγόνης.My thesis aims to explore the ways in which two contemporary (re)turnings to Sophocles’s Antigone, Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire (2017) and Joydeep Roy- Bhattacharya’s The Watch (2012), attempt to translate and recontextualize some of the tragedy’s most pertinent ethical dilemmas and internal contradictions into the idiomatic dialect of an irretrievably globalized and increasingly interdependent world. Situating both novels within a comparative framework that consists in nothing more and nothing less than a close, thematically developed reading of both contemporary narratives in syntactical relation to the classical text to which they both return, and drawing on more than one theoretical texts, this project is divided into three sections, each one structured around a main thematic trope that effectively weaves the thread that binds—at times in unity and at times in separation—the two novels both to the classical text and to each other. The first section, which is structured around the trope of light, explores the relay between embodied difference, politics, and vision as it is meticulously carved out across all three texts in question, and reads Antigone’s “monstrous” deviation from the social and cultural norm of the Theban polity in relation to the Islamic veil worn by the female protagonists in both Home Fire and The Watch. The second section, which marks the shift from the trope of light to that of darkness, concentrates not so much on Antigone’s difference and dissent, but rather on the sovereign response to her transgression. It reads the girl’s consignation to the cave as an act of “binding violence” that both lays and preserves the foundation of sovereign might and exemplarity, an act which both Shamsie and Roy-Bhattacharya reframe within the context of Western exemplarity and its prolonged, ever-augmenting, and proliferating states of exception. Finally, the third and last section of this project, which is structured around the trope of friendships, discusses quite extensively Antigone’s burial act as a response to the deceased one, to the rogue citizen or human, the traitor or the terrorist who is deemed unworthy of this rite, and relates it to the questions of death, love, memory and mourning, of politics, hospitality and forgiveness, all of which are pertinent to the classical text and even more so to the two contemporary adaptations of Antigone in which the right to burial rites resurfaces in the most timely of manners

ЧАТ-БОТЫ КАК КОМПОНЕНТЫ ИНФОРМАЦИОННО-АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИХ СИСТЕМ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО СОПРОВОЖДЕНИЯ СПОРТСМЕНОВ (ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫЙ ОБЗОР)

The article deals with topical issues of digitalization of psychological support in sports. The authors substantiate the demand for modern solutions based on digital technologies using artificial intelligence in the athletes’ preparation. The results of the literature review showed that for the development of information and analytical systems for psychological support of athletes, as one of the promising solutions for the systematization of scientific and practical knowledge, in accordance with the state policy of the Russian Federation on the development of physical culture and sports using digital technologies, it is advisable to use chatbots. The presented review of existing developments allows us to state that despite their rapid development in our daily life, they are less represented in the field of sports. The existing solutions at this stage of development are far from perfect and need serious refinement both from a technical point of view and synthesis of interdisciplinary scientific knowledge.В статье рассматриваются актуальные вопросы цифровизации психологического сопровождения в спорте. Приводится обоснование востребованности современных решений, основанных на цифровых технологиях с использованием искусственного интеллекта, в подготовке спортсменов. Результаты проведенного литературного обзора показали, что для разработки информационно-аналитических систем психологического сопровождения спортсменов, как одного из перспективных решений систематизации научно-практического знания, в соответствии с государственной политикой РФ по развитию физической культуры и спорта с использованием цифровых технологий, целесообразно использование чат-ботов. Представленный обзор существующих разработок позволяет констатировать, что несмотря на их стремительное развитие в нашей повседневной жизни, в сфере спорта они представлены в меньшей степени. Существующие решения на данном этапе развития далеки от совершенства и нуждаются в серьезной доработке как с технической точки зрения, так и синтеза междисциплинарного научного знания