A pilot study of the depression, anxiety and stress in Greek military personnel during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a global health crisis which poses many psychological research challenges. The objective of this study was to evaluate the responsiveness and validity of depression, anxiety and stress in a representative cohort of Hellenic military personnel using the short version of the Greek military version of the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire. METHODS: A total of 158 participants were voluntarily surveyed using an electronically developed structured questionnaire. The anonymous e-questionnaire included a social demographic section and the DASS-21 scale section. It was distributed in September 2020 to the military personnel of the Hellenic Tactical Air Force Units using an intranet network during government restrictive measures due to the COVID-19 crisis. RESULTS: Our DASS-21 survey indicated a positive outcome at the psychometric level of our military sample population. Age, sex and systemic medications were statistically correlated with anxiety. Inter-correlations between the DASS-21 statements showed that individuals with low-level depression also experienced some degree of stress. Factor analysis indicated the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: The low levels of depression and stress among our military sample population demonstrate the importance of periodic monitoring of the psychometric items of the DASS-21 subscales to design and implement psychological prevention strategies, especially during the ongoing and future healthcare crises.

Systems Approaches in the Common Metabolomics in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells: A Computational Approach.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common childhood malignancy. Rhabdomyosarcoma, on the other hand, is a rare type of malignancy which belongs to the primitive neuroectodermal family of tumors. The aim of the present study was to use computational methods in order to examine the similarities and differences of the two different tumors using two cell lines as a model, the T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia CCRF-CEM and rhabdomyosarcoma TE-671, and, in particular, similarities of the metabolic pathways utilized by two different cell types in vitro. Both cell lines were studied using microarray technology. Differential expression profile has revealed genes with similar expression, suggesting that there are common mechanisms between the two cell types, where some of these mechanisms are preserved from their ancestor embryonic cells. Expression of identified species was modeled using known functions, in order to find common patterns in metabolism-related mechanisms. Species expression manifested very interesting dynamics, and we were able to model the system with elliptical/helical functions. We discuss the results of our analysis in the context of the commonly occurring genes between the two cell lines and the respective participating pathways as far as extracellular signaling and cell cycle regulation/proliferation are concerned. In the present study, we have developed a methodology, which was able to unravel some of the underlying dynamics of the metabolism-related species of two different cell types. Such approaches could prove useful in understanding the mechanisms of tumor ontogenesis, progression, and proliferation.

Adiponectin and Its Effects on Acute Leukemia Cells: An Experimental and Bioinformatics Approach.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric malignancy. It is known that deregulation of adipokine pathways is probably implicated in the ontogenesis of ALL. The present work aims at investigating the role of adiponectin and its effects on an ALL cell line. The CCRF-CEM cells were used as a model. Cells have been treated with adiponectin, with different concentrations up to 72 h. Cytotoxicity and cell cycle distribution were investigated for all concentrations using flow cytometry. Selected concentrations were also used for additional microarray analysis, using a small gene set of cancer-related genes. Lower and higher adiponectin concentrations did not produce an inhibition of proliferation, as well as an increase in cell death. It was found that adiponectin regulated differentially genes, such as CD22, CDH1, IFNG, LCK, MSH2, SPINT2, and others. At the same time, it appeared that adiponectin-related gene expression was more active on chromosomes 18 and 1. Machine learning classification algorithms showed that several genes were grouped together indicating common regulatory mechanisms. The present study showed that adiponectin is able to induce gene differential expression in leukemic cells in vitro, suggesting a possible role in the progression of leukemia. It is also an indication that more studies are required in order to further understand the role of adiponectin and adipokines in general in the role of human neoplasms.

Design and virtual implementation of a biomedical registry framework for the enhancement of clinical trials: colorectal cancer example.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical trials generate a large volume of literature and a vast amount of data. Following the 'open science' model, data sharing has enormous potential to strengthen scientific research. Currently, to the best of our knowledge, there is no existing web based Hellenic biomedical registry that displays available patients for clinical trials, providing direct access to registered physicians to all data, assisting them in finding eligible patients in the initial clinical trial recruitment process. METHODS: This paper describes the design and virtual implementation of a web based prototype biomedical registry in Greece. The system represents an eGovernment framework proposal for the central storage of patients' biomedical information and the operations associated with this process. The increasing tendency to include molecular data as prerequisite elements in clinical trials is adopted in the registry philosophy. The designed system is based on free, open source software and it is implemented virtually on a local host environment. RESULTS: Using colorectal cancer as an example, valid data from patients increases the reliability index, demonstrating the functionality of the web application. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the combination of biomedical data and information technology in order to display potential participants per health unit, facilitates recruitment for clinical trials.

Short-term adoption rates for a web-based portal within the intranet of a hospital information system.

OBJECTIVE: An intranet portal that combines cost-free, open-source software technology with easy set-up features can be beneficial for daily hospital processes. We describe the short-term adoption rates of a costless content management system (CMS) in the intranet of a tertiary Greek hospital. DESIGN: Dashboard statistics of our CMS platform were the implementation assessment of our system. RESULTS: In a period of 10 months of running the software, the results indicate the employees overcame 'Resistance to Change' status. The average growth rate of end users who exploit the portal services is calculated as 2.73 every 3.3 months. CONCLUSION: We found our intranet web-based portal to be acceptable and helpful so far. Exploitation of an open-source CMS within the hospital intranet can influence healthcare management and the employees' way of working as well.