Publications

Exploration of photoplethysmography (PPG), a technique that can be translated to the clinic, has the potential to assess the autonomic nervous system (ANS) through heart rate variable (HRV) in pregnant individuals. This novel study explores the complexity of mental health of individuals in a clinical sample responding to a task in late pregnancy; finding those with several types of past or current anxiety disorders, greater trait anxiety, or greater exposure to childhood traumatic events had significantly different HRV findings from the others in the cohort. Lower high frequency (HF), a measure of parasympathetic activity, was found for women who met the criteria for the history of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (p=0.004) compared with women who did not meet the criteria for OCD, and for women exposed to greater than five childhood traumatic events (p=0.006) compared with those exposed to four or less childhood traumatic events. Conversely higher low frequency (LF), a measure thought to be impacted by sympathetic system effects, and the LF/HF ratio was found for those meeting criteria for a panic disorder (p=0.006), meeting criteria for social phobia (p=0.002), had elevated trait anxiety (p=0.006), or exposure to greater than five childhood traumatic events (p=0.004). This study indicates further research is needed to understand the role of PPG and in assessing ANS functioning in late pregnancy. Study of the impact of lower parasympathetic functioning and higher sympathetic functioning separately and in conjunction at baseline and in relation to tasks during late pregnancy has the potential to identify individuals that require more support and direct intervention.

Introduction: Thalassemia Major (TM) is a hereditary disease caused by defective globin synthesis. Although, it is considered a disease which is well understood both from the clinical as well as the biological aspect, it is a complex phenomenon and still remains under thorough investigation. One of the recent findings, include the fact the due to the significant increase in life expectancy, TM patients suffer from various secondary health conditions, including endocrinopathies and low bone mineral density. Aim: The aim of the present study was to analyze biochemical factors, collected from TM patients, with the application of regression analysis in order to find probable causative relations for TM-induced osteoporosis. Methods: Sixty-four patients with TM (32 men and 32 women) participated in a cross-sectional study design. The patients were recruited from “Aghia Sofia” Children’s Hospital and evaluated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the lumbar spine and femoral neck and with markers of bone remodeling including receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand (RANKL), osteoprotegerin (OPG), C-terminal telopeptide (CTX), and sclerostin. Results: Regression analysis, manifested significant relations in TM patients with respect to calcium, phosphorus, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone and DXA. Conclusions: In TM patients, several factors appeared to be linearly correlated, which indicates that these factors play an important role in TM-induced osteoporosis.

Non-linear dynamic response of SDOF systems enjoys widespread application in earthquake engineering, sometimes as a testing ground for cumbersome analytical procedures, but often as a direct proxy of first-mode-dominated structures, within the family of simplified, pushover-based methods for seismic structural assessment and/or design. This article presents DYANAS, a MATHWORKS-MATLAB®-based graphical user interface that uses the OpenSees finite element platform to perform nonlinear dynamic analysis of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillators. The scope of this open-source, freely distributed software is to serve as a tool for earthquake engineering research. The main advantages offered by the DYANAS interface are ease in the definition of the required analysis parameters and corresponding seismic input, efficient execution of the analyses themselves and availability of a suite of convenient, in-built post-processing tools for the management and organization of the structural responses. The types of dynamic analysis frameworks supported are incremental, multiple-stripe and cloud. Simultaneous consideration of pairs of uncoupled dynamic systems gives the possibility for intensity measures to refer to bidirectional ground motion. In the paper, an outline of the types of dynamic analysis frameworks typically used in performance-based earthquake engineering is provided, followed by a detailed description of the software and its capabilities, that include an array of post-processing tools. In order to properly place this software tool within its natural performance-based earthquake engineering habitat, some example applications are provided at the end of the paper.

Melatonin is the main hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the human brain. It has a strong impact on the sleep-wake cycle and is considered a general modulator of the human circadian rhythm. Apart from these well-established properties, melatonin possesses immunomodulatory, antioxidative and antiinflammatory properties. The potential ability of this hormone to act synergistically with several cytokines by enhancing their antitumoral activity and dramatically decreasing their adverse effects has placed melatonin among the new and promising agents in cancer immunotherapy. The use of the neurohormone alone or in combination with cytokines and traditional chemotherapeutic drugs is currently under vigorous investigation. Experimental and clinical trials have already depicted some of the immunomodulatory and antitumor effects of melatonin, delineating the need for further research in this field.

GLUCOCORTICOIDS are steroid hormones that strongly influence intermediary carbohydrate metabolism by increasing the transcription rate of glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), a key enzyme of gluconeogenesis, and suppress the immune system through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). The liver X receptors (LXRs), on the other hand, bind to cholesterol metabolites, heterodimerize with the retinoid X receptor (RXR), and regulate the cholesterol turnover, the hepatic glucose metabolism by decreasing the expression of G6Pase, and repress a set of inflammatory genes in immune cells. Since the actions of these receptors overlap with each other, we evaluated the crosstalk between the GR- and LXR-mediated signaling systems. Transient transfection-based reporter assays and gene silencing methods using siRNAs for LXRs showed that overexpression/ligand (GW3965) activation of LXRs/RXRs repressed GR-stimulated transactivation of certain glucocorticoid response element (GRE)-driven promoters in a gene-specific fashion. Activation of LXRs by GW3965 attenuated dexamethasone-stimulated elevation of circulating glucose in rats. It also suppressed dexamethasone-induced mRNA expression of hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) in rats, mice and human hepatoma HepG2 cells, whereas endogenous, unliganded LXRs were required for dexamethasone-induced mRNA expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. In microarray transcriptomic analysis of rat liver, GW3965 differentially regulated glucocorticoid-induced transcriptional activity of about 15% of endogenous glucocorticoid-responsive genes. To examine the mechanism through which activated LXRs attenuated GR transcriptional activity, we examined LXRα/RXRα binding to GREs. Endogenous LXRα/RXRα bound GREs and inhibited GR binding to these DNA sequences both in in vitro and in vivo chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, while their recombinant proteins did so on classic or G6Pase GREs in gel mobility shift assays. We propose that administration of LXR agonists may be beneficial in glucocorticoid treatment- or stress-associated dysmetabolic states by directly and gene-specifically attenuating the transcriptional activity of the GR on glucose and/or lipid metabolism.

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) number at least 3.81 billion users worldwide, while in Greece, 74.7% of internet users resort to SNSs. However, there is no instrument adapted to the Greek language that assesses addiction to SNSs. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale is a short 6-item questionnaire that assesses social media addiction. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. The sample consisted of 325 University students (mean age 21.6 years, SD=5.26). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed that supported the one-factor model. The reliability of the tool was tested with various indicators and was found to be satisfactory. The regression analysis identified gender, time of SNSs use, number of SNSs held by an individual and stress as statistically significant predictors of SNSs addiction. Positive correlations were found between SNSs addiction and stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness, while negative correlations were observed between SNSs addiction, self-esteem and age. Stress fully mediated the relationship between depression and SNSs addiction. The findings of the present study indicate that the Greek version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing SNSs addiction. The relationship between SNSs addiction and the biopsychosocial model was confirmed.

The nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily is comprised of transcription factors that are ligand‑activated in their majority and play a pivotal role in biological functions that are essential for life, such as metabolism and homeostasis. Following activation, they undertake the regulation of the transcription of their target genes with the help of co‑regulator proteins, rendering them very promising pharmacological targets. In total, 59 NRs have been discovered in several species of the Animalia kingdom, 20 of which are still orphan receptors. The present study aimed to further enlighten the evolutionary scenario that reveals the association between members of the NR superfamily. An updated evolutionary analysis was performed for the NR protein superfamily with the aim of clustering all the NRs, and discovering conserved regions and motifs that play major roles in their signaling pathway; the mechanisms of action were also investigated. The findings of the present study demonstrate a clear separation of the NR family in three majors monophyletic branches, the steroid hormone‑related, the thyroid hormone‑related and the retinoid X receptor‑related clusters, from which, through evolution, may correspond to three ancestral NRs that were differentiated from a common ancestral NR.

Parents of children with diabetes type 1 (DT1) usually mention high stress levels as they have to cope with multiple demands in everyday life. Simple stress management techniques can be administered in everyday life and thus may hold some benefit for parents with diabetic children. The purpose of this study was to assess to evaluate the effectiveness of a stress management program (relaxation breathing and progressive muscle relaxation/RB-PMR) in reducing symptoms of stress. Self-reported validated measures were used to evaluate perceived stress, health locus of control, daily routine, anxiety and depression. This is a pilot, randomized controlled trial. A total of 54 parents were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 28) and control group (n = 26). In parents in the intervention group perceived stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety were significantly decreased after 8 weeks of the relaxation program (0.017, 0.044 and 0.006). RB-PMR practice was associated with changes in physical and psychological symptoms of parents with children with DT1. Future studies should extend by incorporating more objective clinical and laboratory outcomes.

Screening for cardiovascular disease in athletes is crucial to avoid life-threatening complications. Here, we present the case of a fairly asymptomatic young professional soccer player with several cardiovascular risk factors, who proved to have significant coronary artery disease on coronary computed tomography which was ordered based on clinical suspicion and his family history. Informed consent for publication was obtained from the patient.

A methodology is proposed to enable state‐of‐the‐art record selection using ground motion components in all three principal loading directions. Relying on the well‐established Conditional Spectrum approach, its fundamental concepts are extended to ensure hazard consistency when the vertical ground motion component is considered along with the horizontal ones. To this end, different record selection techniques are employed, spanning sets of ground motion records with and without vertical motions, as well as with and without vertical ground motion hazard consistency. To demonstrate the effect that each record set can potentially have on a structure, an unanchored liquid storage tank is adopted as a case study, because of the vertical uplift motion it can exhibit, even under the application of horizontal loading only. A reduced‐order structural model is employed to generate the numerical output via multi‐stripe analysis, thus enabling the evaluation of the pertinent record selection approaches. Focusing on uplift and compressive meridional stress, response ratios and response hazard curves are extracted. It is shown that although the vertical ground motion component only mildly affects uplift, its effect on compressive meridional stress, on average, amplifies the response by a factor of 1.8 for moderate intensities and 2.8 for higher ones. Accounting for hazard consistency in the vertical component appears to be important for the case at hand, as it reveals notable discrepancies in the mean annual frequency of exceedance for the response parameters examined.

[This corrects the article on p. e60917 in vol. 8.].