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Weaver syndrome is a rare disorder, characterized by accelerated growth, advanced osseous maturation and distinct craniofacial features. Macroglossia and hypothyroidism are seldom mentioned in the literature as clinical findings associated with the syndrome. This paper describes a patient with Weaver syndrome, referred for consultation and treatment of macroglossia, who also suffered from congenital hypothyroidism. This is the first reported case of Weaver syndrome treated with partial glossectomy (tongue reduction). The paper describes the clinical findings of the syndrome, emphasizing the difficulty in identifying it, the indications for partial glossectomy and the authors' recommended operative technique. © 2008 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

Κτερίσματα

Objective: Osteonectin plays a central role in various processes during the development of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This prospective pilot study was performed to determine the feasibility of serum osteonectin as a screening tool for pancreatic cancer. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 15 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer and 30 matched healthy controls. Serum osteonectin was measured using an osteonectin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The primary outcomes were the diagnostic performance of serum osteonectin and the threshold value for differentiation of patients from controls. Results: The median/quartile range of serum osteonectin in patients and controls were 306.8/288.5 ng/mL and 67.5/39.8 ng/mL, respectively. Osteonectin concentrations significantly differed among the study groups. A plasma osteonectin concentration of >100.18 ng/mL as selected by the receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated an estimated area under the curve of 86% for prediction of pancreatic cancer. Tumour size was a significant predictor of serum osteonectin. A statistically significant difference in serum osteonectin between T1/T2 and T3/T4 tumours was found. Post-hoc comparisons revealed statistically significant differences in the serum osteonectin among the control, T1/T2, and T3/T4 groups. Conclusion: Osteonectin may be used as a screening tool for pancreatic cancer, although this must be validated in prospective studies. © The Author(s) 2018.

This paper studies subjective priorities for the data amounts in the processing of geopolitical data according to Mazis Ioannis Th., theoretical paradigm of Systemic Geopolitical Analysis. After defining geopolitical plans and geopolitical focus sets, they are introduced geopolitical preferences and geopolitical management capacities. The geopolitical rational choice is studied, as well as the geopolitical preference -capacity distributions. Then, they are investigated geopolitical contrasts of subjective priorities by several geopolitical operators, and it is shown that there are cores and equilibrium of geopolitical contrasts, the study of which may provide useful information.

This study aimed to investigate the association of lifetime abuse and mental health among older persons, considering associated factors (e.g., demographics) through a cross-sectional design. We recruited 4,467 women and men ages 60-84 years from 7 European cities. Mental health was measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial, and physical injuries) based on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale and the UK survey of abuse/neglect of older people. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that country of residence, low educational level, and experienced financial strain increased the odds of probable cases of anxiety and depression. Female sex, white-collar profession, and financial support by social/other benefits/or partner income were associated with higher odds of anxiety, while older age and experience of lifetime injury were associated with increased odds of depressive symptoms. The findings of this study indicate that socioeconomic factors, as well as experienced lifetime severe physical abuse leading to injuries, are significant in perceived mental health of adults in later life.

Morbidelli L, Pyriochou A, Filippi S, Vasileiadis I, Roussos C, Zhou Z, Loutrari H, Waltenberger J, Stossel A, Giannis A, Ziche M, Papapetropoulos A. The soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor NS-2028 reduces vascular endothelial growth factor-induced angiogenesis and permeability. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 298: R824-R832, 2010. First published December 23, 2009; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00222.2009.-Nitric oxide (NO) is known to promote vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)stimulated permeability and angiogenesis. However, effector molecules that operate downstream of NO in this pathway remain poorly characterized. Herein, we determined the effect of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibition on VEGF responses in vitro and in vivo. Treatment of endothelial cells (EC) with VEGF stimulated eNOS phosphorylation and cGMP accumulation; pretreatment with the sGC inhibitor 4H-8-bromo-1,2,4-oxadiazolo(3,4-d)benz(b)(1,4)oxazin-1-one (NS-2028) blunted cGMP levels without affecting VEGF-receptor phosphorylation. Incubation of cells with NS-2028 blocked the mitogenic effects of VEGF. In addition, cells in which sGC was inhibited exhibited no migration and sprouting in response to VEGF. To study the mechanisms through which NS-2028 inhibits EC migration, we determined the effects of alterations in cGMP levels on p38 MAPK. Initially, we observed that inhibition of sGC attenuated VEGF-stimulated activation of p38. In contrast, the addition of 8-Br-cGMP to EC stimulated p38 phosphorylation. The addition of cGMP elevating agents (BAY 41-2272, DETA NO and YC-1) enhanced EC migration. To test whether sGC also mediated the angiogenic effects of VEGF in vivo, we used the rabbit cornea assay. Animals receiving NS-2028 orally displayed a reduced angiogenic response to VEGF. As increased vascular permeability occurs prior to new blood vessel formation, we determined the effect of NS-2028 in vascular leakage. Using a modified Miles assay, we observed that NS-2028 attenuated VEGF-induced permeability. Overall, we provide evidence that sGC mediates the angiogenic and permeability-promoting activities of VEGF, indicating the significance of sGC as a downstream effector of VEGF-triggered responses.

Endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidases 1 and 2 (ERAP1 and ERAP2) play important roles in the generation of antigenic peptides presented by Major Histocompatibility Class I (MHCI) molecules and indirectly regulate adaptive immune responses. Although the discrete function of these enzymes has been extensively characterized, recent reports have suggested that they can also form heterodimers with functional consequences. However, lack of structural characterization of a putative ERAP1/ERAP2 dimer has limited our understanding of its biological role and significance. To address this, we employed computational molecular dynamics calculations to explore the topology of interactions between these two, based on experimentally determined homo-dimerization interfaces observed in crystal structures of ERAP2 or homologous enzymes. Our analysis of 8 possible dimerization models, suggested that the most likely ERAP1/ERAP2 heterodimerization topology involves the exon 10 loop, a non-conserved loop previously implicated in interactions between ERAP1 and the disulfide-bond shuffling chaperone ERp44. This dimerization topology allows access to the active site of both enzymes and is consistent with a previously reported construct in which ERAP1 and ERAP2 were linked by Fos/Jun zipper tags. The proposed model constitutes a tentative structural template to help understand the physiological role and significance of ERAP1/ERAP2 molecular interactions. Copyright © 2022 Papakyriakou, Mpakali and Stratikos.

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The eastern Mediterranean is a region of complex tectonic processes and associated horizontal and vertical displacements. A high precision gravity network has been established in the Atalanti area of central Greece to monitor temporal gravity changes on an annual or more frequent basis. A total of 68 sites have been measured in 1981 and 1982 with a maximum single instrument standard deviation of 0.08 gravity units after a least squares network adjustment. Analysis of the gravity differences between the two measuring epochs exhibits no change of gravity over the network with a precision of 0.11 gravity units. It is proposed that the gravity values given form a stable base for continued observations which will enable the authors to resurvey the region in the event of precursory foreshocks. Observation of the Atlantic network will continue on an annual basis preserving the same observation sequence for reasons of symmetry. Copyright © 1984, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved