EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY DEVELOPMENT VIA SCHOOL GARDEN

The garden can be viewed as an imitation of nature in an urban setting. In past times, many educators aware of the importance of nature in the education process were avid supporters of the school garden. Many studies that examined the influence of the school garden in the education process have shown that it offers multiple benefits to the students, one of which is that it furthers experiential learning. Students involved in gardening improve their overall academic performance and increases their interest in learning. It also seems to have positive effects on their overall behavior and on their emotional and social health. In the results of studies, we can also see the students who participated in gardening showed remarkable improvement in their overall physical health, and that they often adopted better nutritional habits. Finally, the school garden can serve as a portal for the students and for the school in general, to introduce them to environmental education and to sustainability in both theory and practice.  Article visualizations

Cryogenic Characterization of 180 nm CMOS Technology at 100 mK

Conventional CMOS technology operated at cryogenic conditions has recently attracted interest for its uses in low-noise electronics. We present one of the first characterizations of 180 nm CMOS technology at a temperature of 100 mK, extracting I/V characteristics, threshold voltages, and transconductance values, as well as observing their temperature dependence. We find that CMOS devices remain fully operational down to these temperatures, although we observe hysteresis effects in some devices. The measurements described in this paper can be used to inform the future design of CMOS devices intended to be operated in this deep cryogenic regime

Employment status moderates the relationship between LinkedIn users’ personality and LinkedIn motives

Το LinkedIn είναι μια από τις πλέον δημοφιλείς σελίδες κοινωνικής δικτύωσης που χρησιμοποιούνται για επαγγελματικούς σκοπούς. Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση των λόγων για τους οποίους οι χρήστες του LinkedIn στην Ελλάδα χρησιμοποιούν τη συγκεκριμένη πλατφόρμα. Εξετάζεται επίσης η πιθανή συσχέτιση του χαρακτηριστικού γνωρίσματος προσωπικότητας «Locus of Control» (σημείο ελέγχου) και της χρήσης του LinkedIn, καθώς και ο ρόλος που παίζει η εργασιακή κατάσταση του χρήστη στη σχέση αυτή. Για τον σκοπό αυτό, διεξήχθη ηλεκτρονική έρευνα και συλλέχθηκαν 205 ερωτηματολόγια. Τα αποτελέσματα αποκάλυψαν δύο βασικούς λόγους για τους οποίους οι Έλληνες χρήστες προβαίνουν στην χρήση του συγκεκριμένου μέσου κοινωνικής δικτύωσης με τον πρώτο λόγο να αφορά στην «Αναζήτηση/εύρεση εργασίας» και τον δεύτερο στην «Επαγγελματική Δικτύωση». Επιπροσθέτως, η μέθοδος EFA εφαρμοζόμενη στο χαρακτηριστικό: «Σημείο ελέγχου», αποκάλυψε τους παράγοντες «Εσωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου» και «Εξωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου», με τους δύο αυτούς παράγοντες να έρχονται σε συμφωνία με τη σχετική βιβλιογραφία γύρω από το συγκεκριμένο χαρακτηριστικό γνώρισμα της προσωπικότητας. Περαιτέρω ανάλυση με τη μέθοδο CFA επιβεβαίωσε τόσο τους λόγους χρήσης του LinkedIn όσο και τις δύο διαστάσεις του “Locus of Control” που αναγνωρίστηκαν στο προηγούμενο στάδιο. Στο αμέσως επόμενο στάδιο, η κατασκευή ενός μοντέλο SEM, αποκάλυψε μια ισχυρή συσχέτιση ανάμεσα στο Locus of Control και στους δύο λόγους χρήσης του LinkedIn. Σύμφωνα με τα αποτελέσματα του μοντέλου, άτομα με Εσωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου επιδεικνύουν μια ισχυρή και θετική σχέση ως προς τη χρήση του LinkedIn, ενώ τα άτομα με Εξωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου είναι συσχετισμένα αρνητικά. Τα ευρήματα αυτά εμφανίζουν επίσης διαφορές ανάλογα με την εργασιακή κατάσταση του ατόμου. Ενώ άτομα με Εσωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου και τα οποία εργάζονται φαίνεται να χρησιμοποιούν το LinkedIn περισσότερο για να συνδεθούν και να επικοινωνήσουν με το επαγγελματικό τους δίκτυο, άτομα Εσωτερικό Σημείο Ελέγχου αντίστοιχα, τα οποία όμως δεν εργάζονται, χρησιμοποιούν το LinkedIn περισσότερο για θέματα που σχετίζονται με αναζήτηση και εύρεση εργασίας.LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networking sites that is used for professional purposes. The aim of this study is to explore the motives/uses of LinkedIn across LinkedIn members in Greece. It also examines the potential relationship between Locus of Control and LinkedIn use, as well as whether the employment status of a user plays a role in that dynamic. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted and a total sample of 205 questionnaires was collected. Results revealed that two factors would explain why Greek users would be willing to use LinkedIn for and those were labeled as Job search/Job affairs and Professional Networking. Also, EFA on Locus of Control, extracted the factors Internal Locus of Control and External Locus of Control, both being consistent with relative literature regarding the examined personality trait. Further analysis using CFA method confirmed both LinkedIn uses/motives as well as Locus of Control construct. In later stage, the construction of a SEM model, revealed a strong relationship between Locus of Control and LinkedIn use. Results suggest that people with Internal Locus of Control have a strong positive relationship with LinkedIn use, while those with External Locus of Control are negatively related. These finding also differ by employment status. While Internal working people are more likely to use LinkedIn in order to connect with their professional network, Internal non-working people tend to use LinkedIn more for Job related issues such as Job search

«Η Αφήγηση για τη Δημιουργία του Κόσμου στην Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Συγκριτική παρουσίαση μέσα από το μάθημα της Ιστορίας και των Θρησκευτικών»

Η δημιουργία του κόσμου διδάσκεται στην Γ΄ και την Δ΄ τάξη του ελληνικού Δημοτικού Σχολείου στο μάθημα της ιστορίας και των θρησκευτικών, σύμφωνα με τις επικρατούσες διδακτικές και παιδαγωγικές θεωρίες, στοχεύοντας στη διαμόρφωση της εθνικής συνοχής και ταυτότητας συνάμα με τη διαμόρφωση υγιούς και ηθικού χαρακτήρα στον ενήλικο βίο του μαθητή. Η παιδεία, όμως, και η εκπαίδευση είναι έννοιες σύνθετες, καθώς υποδηλώνουν το πλήθος των θεωρητικών γνώσεων και την αφθονία των πρακτικών ικανοτήτων του ανθρώπου, τη δημιουργία μίας κοινωνίας, ενός κόσμου, ενός πολιτισμού ακόμη καλύτερων, είναι η αρχή και το τέλος της δημιουργίας, η ουσία και το νόημά της.The creation of the world is taught in the third and fourth class of Primary School at Greece in the subjects of history and religion, according to the prevailing didactic and pedagogical theories, aiming at the formation of national cohesion and identity along with the formation of a healthy and moral character in the student's adult life. However, the education and the instruction are complex concepts, as they indicate the abundance of theoretical knowledge and the numerous practical human skills, the creation of a better society, world and culture is the beginning and the end of creation, its the essence and the meanin

Sartorius muscle metastases from urothelial cell carcinoma

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder represents the majority of malignant bladder tumors. Metastases to skeletal muscle from carcinoma of the bladder are extremely rare and are tend to be found in people with advanced-stage carcinoma. In this article we present a man with an unusual metastasis to the left sartorius muscle from an urothelial cell carcinoma, who was submitted in surgery and then in concomitant chemotherapy and external radiation therapy as palliative therap

Methodology of a Natural History Study of a Rare Neurodevelopmental Disorder: Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood as a Prototype Disease

Here, we describe the process of development of the methodology for an international multicenter natural history study of alternating hemiplegia of childhood as a prototype disease for rare neurodevelopmental disorders. We describe a systematic multistep approach in which we first identified the relevant questions about alternating hemiplegia of childhood natural history and expected challenges. Then, based on our experience with alternating hemiplegia of childhood and on pragmatic literature searches, we identified solutions to determine appropriate methods to address these questions. Specifically, these solutions included development and standardization of alternating hemiplegia of childhood-specific spell video-library, spell calendars, adoption of tailored methodologies for prospective measurement of nonparoxysmal and paroxysmal manifestations, unified data collection protocols, centralized data platform, adoption of specialized analysis methods including, among others, Cohen kappa, interclass correlation coefficient, linear mixed effects models, principal component, propensity score, and ambidirectional analyses. Similar approaches can, potentially, benefit in the study of other rare pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders

Impacts on biodiversity from codend and fisher selection in bottom trawl fishing

Fisheries have important impacts on marine biodiversity. In this work, combined information on the abundance, species richness, diversity indices, species composition, trophic level and vulnerability index were examined for the first-time to detect differences in five units related to trawl fishing: the fish assemblage entering the trawl codend, and the escaping, retained, discarded and landed fractions, derived by the gear and fisher selection practices. The work was based on a case study conducted in the Mediterranean Sea, using three different meshes in the trawl codend (40mm-40D and 50mm-50D diamond meshes, and 40 mm-40S square meshes) and a cover of the codends with small mesh size. In general, trawl fishing produces an escaping fraction that was always lower in abundance, richness, and vulnerability index, similar in diversity indices and trophic level, and different in species composition compared to the fish assemblage entering the codend. In almost all cases, fishers selected as landings a fraction that was the lowest in diversity indices, and the highest in trophic level. In contrast, fishers discarded a fraction that was the highest in diversity and vulnerability index, and the lowest in trophic level. Although the three codends did not differ significantly in the fraction of escapees in terms of diversity indices, trophic level, and vulnerability index, the 40S codend showed a significantly higher percentage in the escaping number of species and individuals, and less differences in the species composition; in addition, lower percentage in abundance of discards and higher of landings in the retained catch (0.6:1) than did the other two codends (0.9:1). It was suggested that an urgent modification of the trawl for the elimination of the discarded highly vulnerable species (e.g. Elasmobranchs) is needed, and that trawl species-selectivity should be improved by allowing escape or avoiding catch of the discarded fraction to minimize biodiversity losses.publishedVersio

Activin-A limits Th17 pathogenicity and autoimmune neuroinflammation via CD39 and CD73 ectonucleotidases and Hif1-α–dependent pathways

In multiple sclerosis (MS), Th17 cells are critical drivers of autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and demyelination. Th17 cells exhibit functional heterogeneity fostering both pathogenic and nonpathogenic, tissue-protective functions. Still, the factors that control Th17 pathogenicity remain incompletely defined. Here, using experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an established mouse MS model, we report that therapeutic administration of activin-A ameliorates disease severity and alleviates CNS immunopathology and demyelination, associated with decreased activation of Th17 cells. In fact, activin-A signaling through activin-like kinase-4 receptor represses pathogenic transcriptional programs in Th17-polarized cells, while it enhances antiinflammatory gene modules. Whole-genome profiling and in vivo functional studies revealed that activation of the ATP-depleting CD39 and CD73 ectonucleotidases is essential for activin-A–induced suppression of the pathogenic signature and the encephalitogenic functions of Th17 cells. Mechanistically, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, along with STAT3 and c-Maf, are recruited to promoter elements on Entpd1 and Nt5e (encoding CD39 and CD73, respectively) and other antiinflammatory genes, and control their expression in Th17 cells in response to activin-A. Notably, we show that activin-A negatively regulates the metabolic sensor, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, and key inflammatory proteins linked to pathogenic Th17 cell states. Of translational relevance, we demonstrate that activin-A is induced in the CNS of individuals with MS and restrains human Th17 cell responses. These findings uncover activin-A as a critical controller of Th17 cell pathogenicity that can be targeted for the suppression of autoimmune CNS inflammation