The ban on blood donation on men who have sex with men: time to rethink and reassess an outdated policy

During the 1980s the HIV/AIDS epidemic outbreak occurred. Due to the high prevalence of the disease on men who had sex with men (MSM) a lifetime ban on blood donations on men who had sex with men (MSM) was implemented. In the recent years, organizations like the European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have established new guidelines introducing the term of "risky sexual behavior" without any reference to the sex orientation of the potential donor, however many countries are hesitant to review the ban on men who had sex with men (MSM). Given the lack of screening methods for HIV back in the '80s the ban on men who had sex with men seemed like the only choice in order to limit the disease. However, nowadays the screening methods have advanced and the possibility of a transfusion related HIV infection is extremely low. Many countries, considering the new data available, have reformed their policies and moved from the lifetime ban to 5-year and 1- year deferrals but only a fraction of countries have adopted the guidelines for the "risky sexual behavior" assessment. The ban that forbid men who have sex with men from donating blood was implemented more than 30 years ago. During the '80s, the epidemiology was different and it seems not only hypocritical but also naïve to rely on guidelines that are far outdated and old-fashioned. The medical community has a duty to secure safe blood for every person who might need it, let us not waste safe potential donors and stigmatize them by focusing on outdated policies.Keywords: HIV, AIDS, donation, blood banks, homosexuality, risk assessmen

Central corneal thickness in subjects with glaucoma and in normal individuals (with or without pseudoexfoliation syndrome)

Georgios Kitsos, Christos Gartzios, Ioannis Asproudis, Eleni BagliOphthalmology Department, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, GreeceObjective: The evaluation of central corneal thickness (CCT) in subjects with pesudoexfoliation glaucoma (PEXG), primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), and in normotensive individuals with or without pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXS). Study design/patients and methods: CCT was evaluated with ultrasound pachymetry in a total of 179 individuals: 32 had bilateral PEXG, 55 had bilateral POAG, 35 had PXS, and 57 were healthy individuals without PXS.Results: CCT in PEXG eyes (526.00 ± 34.30 µm) was significantly thinner compared to POAG eyes (549.36 ± 39.3 µm) (P = 0.027) and normal control eyes with (550.64 ± 39.0 µm) or without PXS (547.36 ± 33.1 µm), (P = 0.039 and 0.048 respectively). No statistically significant difference was found comparing CCT values of POAG eyes to control group eyes.Conclusion: The evaluation of CCT is necessary in all patients with glaucoma and especially in those with PEXG due to the thinner cornea and the risk of underestimation of intraocular pressure.Keywords: CCT, pesudoexfoliation syndrome, glaucom

THE HEREDITY OF CHRONIC SIMPLE GLAUCOMA IN EPIRUS (GREECE)

THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT WORK WAS TO STUDY THE MODE OF INHERITANCE OF CHRONICSIMPLE GLAUCOMA IN THE NORTH WESTERN DISTRICT OF GREECE NAMED EPIRUS. AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL, CLINICAL AND GENETIC STUDY OF THIN DISORDER HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED AMONG 1441 INDIVIDUALS, BELONGING TO ELEVEN PEDIGREES, EXTENDING IN FOUR TO SIX GENERATIONS. THE FAMILIES AND THE INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE EXAMINED COME FROM EPIRUS AND THEY WERE ALL OVER 30 YEARS OLD. THERE WAS NO BLOOD RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANYONE OF THE ELEVEN PEDIGREES. IN THIS STUDY THE CRITERIA FOR DIAGNOSIS WAS BASED ON ELEVATED INTRAOCCULAR PRESSURE (>21 MMHG) AFTER REPEATED TONOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS, FINDINGS OF CUPPING AND ATROPHY OF THE OPTIC DISC, CHARACTERISTIC FIELD LOSS, OPEN ANGLES WITH NO OTHER EVIDENCE OF SECONDARY OR HEREDITARY GLAUCOMAAND A POSSITIVE WATER-DRINKING TEST. 368 OF THE 1441 INDIVIDUALS WERE OFFSPRINGS, AGED 30 YEARS OR MORE, ALIVE OR DEAD, AND THEY HAD DIRECT BLOOD RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROPOSITUS. 316 OF THEM WERE ALIVE AND WERE EXAMINED. THE AFFECTED OFFSPRINGS (ALIVE OR DEAD) WERE 67, BUT ONLY 45 WERE ALIVE AND 44 WERE ABLE TO BE EXAMINED. NONE OF THE UNRELATED SPOUSES MARRYING INTO THE PEDIGREES WERE AFFECTED OF THE DISEASE. THE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS AND THE NUMBER OF THE AFFECTED INDIVIDUALS OF AFFECTED PARENTS IN THE PRESENT WORK OF PEOPLE OF EPIRUS,SUGGESTED THAT THE ENTITY IS INHERRITED IN AN AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT FASHION CAUSED BY A SINGLE AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT GENE AND IS A DISEASE OF LATE ONSET.ΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΡΕΥΝΑΣ ΗΤΑΝ ΝΑ ΔΙΑΣΑΦΗΝΙΣΤΕΙ Ο ΤΡΟΠΟΣ, ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΟΠΟΙΟ ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΕΙΤΑΙ ΤΟ ΧΡΟΝΙΟ ΑΠΛΟ ΓΛΑΥΚΩΜΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΗΠΕΙΡΟ. ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΣΚΟΠΟ ΑΥΤΟ, ΠΡΑΓΜΑΤΟΠΟΙΗΣΑΜΕ ΕΠΙΔΗΜΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ, ΚΛΙΝΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΓΕΝΕΤΙΚΗ ΜΕΛΕΤΗ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΑΘΗΣΗ ΑΥΤΗ ΣΕ ΕΝΔΕΚΑ (11) ΓΕΝΕΑΛΟΓΙΚΑ ΔΕΝΔΡΑ ΜΕ 1441 ΑΤΟΜΑ, ΠΟΥ ΕΚΤΕΙΝΟΝΤΑΙ ΣΕ 4-6 ΓΕΝΕΕΣ ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑΣ ΠΕΡΙΣΣΟΤΕΡΟΑΠΟ ΕΝΑΝ ΑΙΩΝΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΧΘΟΝΕΣ ΗΠΕΙΡΩΤΕΣ. ΣΤΑ 11 ΔΕΝΔΡΑ ΔΕΝ ΠΑΡΑΤΗΡΗΘΗΚΕ ΚΑΜΜΙΑ ΕΞ'ΑΙΜΑΤΟΣ ΣΥΓΓΕΝΕΙΑ ΜΕΤΑΞΥ ΤΟΥΣ. ΕΞΕΤΑΣΑΜΕ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΛΕΤΗΣΑΜΕ ΚΥΡΙΩΣ ΑΤΟΜΑ ΗΛΙΚΙΑΣ 30 ΕΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΩ. ΤΑ ΚΡΙΤΗΡΙΑ ΠΟΥ ΧΡΗΣΙΜΟΠΟΙΗΣΑΜΕ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΠΡΟΣΔΙΟΡΙΣΜΟ ΤΩΝ ΠΑΣΧΟΝΤΩΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΤΑ ΕΞΗΣ: ΟΙ ΤΙΜΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΔΟΦΘΑΛΜΙΑΣ ΠΙΕΣΗΣ ΜΕΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΕΠΑΝΕΙΛΗΜΜΕΝΕΣ ΤΟΝΟΜΕΤΡΗΣΕΙΣ ΑΝΩΤΕΡΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΦΥΣΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΗΣ (>21MMHG), Η ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑ ΚΟΙΛΑΝΣΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟΧΡΩΜΑΤΙΣΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΟΠΤΙΚΗΣ ΘΗΛΗΣ, ΟΙ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΙΣΤΙΚΕΣ ΜΕΤΑΒΟΛΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΟΠΤΙΚΟΥ ΠΕΔΙΟΥ, Η ΔΙΑΠΙΣΤΩΣΗ ΑΝΟΙΚΤΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΓΩΝΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΣΘΙΟΥ ΘΑΛΑΜΟΥ ΜΕ ΑΠΟΥΣΙΑ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΠΑΘΟΥΣ 'Η ΚΑΙ ΣΥΓΓΕΝΟΥΣ ΓΛΑΥΚΩΜΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΘΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΜΑΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΔΟΚΙΜΑΣΙΑ ΥΔΡΟΠΟΣΙΑΣ. ΑΠΟ ΤΑ 1441 ΑΤΟΜΑ, ΤΑ 368 ΕΙΝΑΙ ΤΕΚΝΑ ΗΛΙΚΙΑΣ 30 ΕΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΩ, ΖΩΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΗ, ΚΑΙ ΕΧΟΥΝ ΑΜΕΣΗ ΕΞ'ΑΙΜΑΤΟΣ ΣΥΓΓΕΝΕΙΑ ΜΕ ΤΟΥ PROPOSITUS (ΔΕΙΚΤΕΣ). ΑΠΟ ΤΑ 368 ΑΥΤΑ ΤΕΚΝΑ ΤΑ 316 ΕΙΝΑΙ ΖΩΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΞΕΤΑΣΑΜΕ ΤΑ 315. ΑΠΟ ΤΑ 368 ΤΕΚΝΑ ΖΩΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΗ, ΑΝΕΥΡΕΘΗΚΑΝ ΠΑΣΧΟΝΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΧΡΟΝΙΟ ΑΠΛΟ ΓΛΑΥΚΩΜΑ ΤΑ 67. ΑΠΟ ΤΑ 67 ΠΑΣΧΟΝΤΑ ΤΕΚΝΑ, ΖΟΥΝ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΤΑ 45 ΚΑΙ ΕΞΕΤΑΣΑΜΕ ΤΑ 44. ΣΗΜΕΙΩΝΕΤΑΙΟΤΙ ΠΑΣΧΟΝΤΕΣ ΔΕΝ ΒΡΕΘΗΚΑΝ ΣΤΟΥΣ 'Η ΣΤΙΣ ΣΥΖΗΓΟΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΤΕΚΝΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΑ 11 ΓΕΝΕΑΛΟΓΙΚΑ ΔΕΝΔΡΑ. ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΓΕΝΕΤΙΚΗ ΑΝΑΛΥΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΔΕΔΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΜΑΣ ΔΙΑΠΙΣΤΩΘΗΚΕ ΟΤΙ ΤΟ ΧΡΟΝΙΟ ΑΠΛΟ ΓΛΑΥΚΩΜΑ ΣΤΑ 11 ΓΕΝΕΑΛΟΓΙΚΑ ΔΕΝΔΡΑ, ΠΟΥ ΜΕΛΕΤΗΘΗΚΑΝ, ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΕΙΤΑΙ ΜΕ ΟΨΙΜΗ ΕΚΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΝΟΣΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΣΩΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΕΠΙΚΡΑΤΕΙ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΟΤΙ ΥΠΕΥΘΥΝΟ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΚΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΝΟΣΟΥ ΑΥΤΗΣ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΕΝΑ ΑΥΤΟΣΩΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΕΠΙΚΡΑΤΕΣ (ΜΕΙΖΟΝ)ΓΟΝΙΔΙΟ

A case of enterobiasis presenting as post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD): a curious case of the infection with predominant mental health symptoms, presenting for the first time in the settings of a refugee camp

Enterobiasis (oxyuriasis) is a common infection in human caused by Enterobius vermicularis (E. vermicularis), a human intestinal helminth. Because of the easy way of its transmission among people, it has an extremely high prevalence in overcrowded conditions, such as nurseries and primary schools. Oxyuriasis's symptoms are extremely diverse in children, ranging from nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, irritability, recurrent cellulitis, loss of appetite, nightmares and endometritis. Here we report a curious case of oxyuriasis in the settings of a refugee camp in Greece. The patient was a 10-year old Syrian female, who presented with unusual and vague symptoms like insomnia and irritability. Given the violent background of the Syrian warzone that the patient had escaped, she was firstly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before eventually getting correctly diagnosed with enterobiasis. This infection is the first documented case of enterobiasis in the settings of a refugee camp and can highlight the unsanitary living conditions that refugees have to endure in those camps.Keywords: Enterobiasis, oxyuriasis, enterobius vermicularis, helminth, refugee

Efficient Edge-AI Application Deployment for FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) accelerators have been widely adopted for artificial intelligence (AI) applications on edge devices (Edge-AI) utilizing Deep Neural Networks (DNN) architectures. FPGAs have gained their reputation due to the greater energy efficiency and high parallelism than microcontrollers (MCU) and graphical processing units (GPU), while they are easier to develop and more reconfigurable than the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The development and building of AI applications on resource constraint devices such as FPGAs remains a challenge, however, due to the co-design approach, which requires a valuable expertise in low-level hardware design and in software development. This paper explores the efficacy and the dynamic deployment of hardware accelerated applications on the Kria KV260 development platform based on the Xilinx Kria K26 system-on-module (SoM), which includes a Zynq multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC). The platform supports the Python-based PYNQ framework and maintains a high level of versatility with the support of custom bitstreams (overlays). The demonstration proved the reconfigurabibilty and the overall ease of implementation with low-footprint machine learning (ML) algorithms

A Survey on RISC-V-Based Machine Learning Ecosystem

In recent years, the advancements in specialized hardware architectures have supported the industry and the research community to address the computation power needed for more enhanced and compute intensive artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and applications that have already reached a substantial growth, such as in natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV). The developments of open-source hardware (OSH) and the contribution towards the creation of hardware-based accelerators with implication mainly in machine learning (ML), has also been significant. In particular, the reduced instruction-set computer-five (RISC-V) open standard architecture has been widely adopted by a community of researchers and commercial users, worldwide, in numerous openly available implementations. The selection through a plethora of RISC-V processor cores and the mix of architectures and configurations combined with the proliferation of ML software frameworks for ML workloads, is not trivial. In order to facilitate this process, this paper presents a survey focused on the assessment of the ecosystem that entails RISC-V based hardware for creating a classification of system-on-chip (SoC) and CPU cores, along with an inclusive arrangement of the latest released frameworks that have supported open hardware integration for ML applications. Moreover, part of this work is devoted to the challenges that are concerned, such as power efficiency and reliability, when designing and building application with OSH in the AI/ML domain. This study presents a quantitative taxonomy of RISC-V SoC and reveals the opportunities in future research in machine learning with RISC-V open-source hardware architectures

A Survey on RISC-V-Based Machine Learning Ecosystem

In recent years, the advancements in specialized hardware architectures have supported the industry and the research community to address the computation power needed for more enhanced and compute intensive artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and applications that have already reached a substantial growth, such as in natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV). The developments of open-source hardware (OSH) and the contribution towards the creation of hardware-based accelerators with implication mainly in machine learning (ML), has also been significant. In particular, the reduced instruction-set computer-five (RISC-V) open standard architecture has been widely adopted by a community of researchers and commercial users, worldwide, in numerous openly available implementations. The selection through a plethora of RISC-V processor cores and the mix of architectures and configurations combined with the proliferation of ML software frameworks for ML workloads, is not trivial. In order to facilitate this process, this paper presents a survey focused on the assessment of the ecosystem that entails RISC-V based hardware for creating a classification of system-on-chip (SoC) and CPU cores, along with an inclusive arrangement of the latest released frameworks that have supported open hardware integration for ML applications. Moreover, part of this work is devoted to the challenges that are concerned, such as power efficiency and reliability, when designing and building application with OSH in the AI/ML domain. This study presents a quantitative taxonomy of RISC-V SoC and reveals the opportunities in future research in machine learning with RISC-V open-source hardware architectures

Differences in the Profile of Circulating Immune Cell Subsets in Males with Type 2 Cardiorenal Syndrome versus CKD Patients without Established Cardiovascular Disease

Maladaptive activation of the immune system plays a key role in the pathogenesis of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Our aim was to investigate differences in circulating immune cells between type 2 cardiorenal syndrome (CRS-2) patients and CKD patients without cardiovascular disease (CVD). CRS-2 patients were prospectively followed up, with the primary endpoint being all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Method: A total of 39 stable males with CRS-2 and 24 male CKD patients matched for eGFR (CKD-EPI) were enrolled. A selected panel of immune cell subsets was measured by flow cytometry. Results: Compared to CKD patients, CRS-2 patients displayed higher levels of proinflammatory CD14++CD16+ monocytes (p = 0.04) and T regulatory cells (Tregs) (p = 0.03), lower lymphocytes (p = 0.04), and lower natural killer cells (p = 0.001). Decreased lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes, CD4+ T-cells, CD8+ T-cells, Tregs, and increased CD14++CD16+ monocytes were associated with mortality at a median follow-up of 30 months (p p = 0.004). Conclusion: Patients with CRS-2 exhibit alterations in immune cell profile compared to CKD patients of similar kidney function but without CVD. In the CRS-2 cohort, CD4+ T-lymphocytes independently predicted fatal cardiovascular events