A finely resolved phylogeny of Y chromosome Hg J illuminates the processes of Phoenician and Greek colonizations in the Mediterranean.

In order to improve the phylogeography of the male-specific genetic traces of Greek and Phoenician colonizations on the Northern coasts of the Mediterranean, we performed a geographically structured sampling of seven subclades of haplogroup J in Turkey, Greece and Italy. We resequenced 4.4 Mb of Y-chromosome in 58 subjects, obtaining 1079 high quality variants.

Enlarging the gene-geography of Europe and the Mediterranean area to STR loci of common forensic use: longitudinal and latitudinal frequency gradients.

Background: Tetranucleotide Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) for human identification and common use in forensic cases have recently been used to address the population genetics of the North-Eastern Mediterranean area. However, to gain confidence in the inferences made using STRs, this kind of analysis should be challenged with changes in three main aspects of the data, i.e.

Origin and spread of human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U7.

Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U is among the initial maternal founders in Southwest Asia and Europe and one that best indicates matrilineal genetic continuity between late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer groups and present-day populations of Europe. While most haplogroup U subclades are older than 30 thousand years, the comparatively recent coalescence time of the extant variation of haplogroup U7 (~16-19 thousand years ago) suggests that its current distribution is the consequence of more recent dispersal events, despite its wide geographical range across Europe, the Near East and South Asia. Here we report 267 new U7 mitogenomes that - analysed alongside 100 published ones - enable us to discern at least two distinct temporal phases of dispersal, both of which most likely emanated from the Near East.

Spatially Explicit Models to Investigate Geographic Patterns in the Distribution of Forensic STRs: Application to the North-Eastern Mediterranean.

Human forensic STRs used for individual identification have been reported to have little power for inter-population analyses. Several methods have been developed which incorporate information on the spatial distribution of individuals to arrive at a description of the arrangement of diversity. We genotyped at 16 forensic STRs a large population sample obtained from many locations in Italy, Greece and Turkey, i.

Do men have rights in abortion? The Greek view.

Aim: We have examined from a legal perspective the father's role in the decision to abort a pregnancy in western society. Furthermore, we have taken a closer look into the inadequacies the Greek legal framework on this issue, from a legal and social point of view.

Methods: Literature in the Greek and English language.

The impact of the Daubert case on modern litigation.

Numerous product liability and toxic tort verdicts were arguably unjustly made on the basis of "junk science" threatening not only justice but the workings of the American economy. This problem was expected to be solved with the application of Daubert criteria, which require the courts to determine whether an expert's testimony reflects scientific knowledge, whether his/her findings are derived by the scientific method, and whether the work product is based on good science. Moreover, the Daubert criteria were expected to have an extraordinary impact on criminal litigation because there is rarely a criminal trial that does not rely on some form of expert testimony.

Multiple advantageous amino acid variants in the NAT2 gene in human populations.

Background: Genetic variation at NAT2 has been long recognized as the cause of differential ability to metabolize a wide variety of drugs of therapeutic use. Here, we explore the pattern of genetic variation in 12 human populations that significantly extend the geographic range and resolution of previous surveys, to test the hypothesis that different dietary regimens and lifestyles may explain inter-population differences in NAT2 variation.

Methodology/principal Findings: The entire coding region was resequenced in 98 subjects and six polymorphic positions were genotyped in 150 additional subjects.

Consent for organ and tissue retention in British law in the light of the Human Tissue Act 2004.

The experience from the scandals in hospitals at Liverpool and Bristol in the UK where retention of tissue and organs was undertaken without the consent of the parents and relatives raised serious concerns regarding the efficacy of the existing Human Tissue Act 1961, in England and the operation of the law by medical practitioners. In the aftermath of these damaging scandals a combination of public distrust and government overreaction has led to the enactment of new legislation, the Human Tissue Act 2004, which is aiming to prevent any further instances of the retention of organs and tissue from dead children or adults without their next of kin's consent or knowledge. However, scientists have expressed concerns that such changes might seriously endanger several medical research programmes, and also tissue and organ donation for transplantation.

Associations between coronary heart disease, obesity and histological prostate cancer.

Objective: The present study investigates the possible associations between coronary heart disease and histological prostate carcinoma in autopsy material.

Material And Method: The material of our study, were 116 men between 55 years and 98 years of age, who died in the period of August 2002-January 2005. The initial segment of the aorta and the prostate glands of all cadavers were removed while the initial 30 mm of the left and right coronary arteries and the peripheral zone of the prostate gland underwent pathologic examination.

Screening mammography, public perceptions, and medical liability.

Purpose: To outline the most common sources of raising malpractice claims in screening mammography and to discuss the related medical litigation issues in the light of the evidence-based medicine.

Methods And Material: Electronic and manual search of the relevant literature.

Results: The most common cause of malpractice is the delayed diagnosis of breast cancer.

Moral arguments on the use of ovarian tissue from aborted foetuses in infertility treatment.

The possibility of using eggs from an aborted foetus in IVF treatment has recently arisen after researchers presented work in which they managed to keep alive in the laboratory ovarian tissue taken from second and third trimester aborted foetuses for several weeks. Several ethical concerns and arguments have been raised. Some of them are general anti-abortion arguments while others relate to the use of eggs or ovarian tissue of aborted female foetuses in infertility treatment.

Physicians' liability in obstetric and gynecology practice.

Purpose: Litigation in obstetric and gynecologic practice has arisen as an important issue. This article aims to highlight issues related to malpractice in obstetrics and gynecology in order to point out several important aspects of medical practice, which may offer adequate professional protection.

Methods And Material: Search of the current relevant literature.

The abuse of children in Greece.

Children are being abused in Greece at an alarming rate. This article aims to clarify the magnitude of the child abuse issue in Greece and to highlight medical and legal aspects that may play a contributory role in the existing defects in the revelation, prevention, and punishment of this type of crime.

Confidentiality governing surgical research practice.

Healthy subjects or patients volunteering to participate in trials expect that their privacy and autonomy will be protected. The aim of this article is to highlight issues related to confidentiality governing surgical research practice. A search of the current relevant literature was undertaken.

Adolescence and abortion in Greece: women's profile and perceptions.

Purpose: To investigate the individual and social profile of the adolescents seeking abortion in Greece.

Procedures: Questionnaires were distributed from the obstetricians practicing in the capital and two major cities in Greece to adolescent pregnant women who were seeking for abortion and collected anonymously.

Main Findings: From 150 consecutive pregnant adolescents, 38 refused to participate and from 112 who accepted to participate only 74 (66%) replied.

Bioethics as a scientific enterprise.

The authors of this article attempt to look at the manner in which the field of bioethics has emerged to represent an entirely new science. The article does this by first looking at various developments in the field of medicine and science. Specifically, the authors point to the developments in pharmacology, biology, and in genetics, as the stimuli for the field of bioethics.

Medical litigation in cosmetic plastic surgery.

Aim: This article aims to highlight issues related to malpractice in plastic surgery and to point out the importance of good understanding of the law and the value of a patient's written informed consent as measures of professional protection.

Methods And Material: Search of relevant literature from PubMed.

Results: The demand for cosmetic plastic surgery increases despite the increasing cost, in contrast to other traditional goods for which demand typically declines as price increases.

Bioethics and the determination of personhood.

In today's technological world, humanity continuously surpasses the limits set by previous achievements. Although evidence of such progress exists in several fields of study, one clearly sees this in the medical and biotechnological fields. Despite the countless opportunities for longer, more productive lives, medicine and science have regressed in their conception of the human person.

Disuniting uniformity: a pied cladistic canvas of mtDNA haplogroup H in Eurasia.

It has been often stated that the overall pattern of human maternal lineages in Europe is largely uniform. Yet this uniformity may also result from an insufficient depth and width of the phylogenetic analysis, in particular of the predominant western Eurasian haplogroup (Hg) H that comprises nearly a half of the European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) pool. Making use of the coding sequence information from 267 mtDNA Hg H sequences, we have analyzed 830 mtDNA genomes, from 11 European, Near and Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and Altaian populations.

The western and eastern roots of the Saami--the story of genetic "outliers" told by mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes.

The Saami are regarded as extreme genetic outliers among European populations. In this study, a high-resolution phylogenetic analysis of Saami genetic heritage was undertaken in a comprehensive context, through use of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and paternally inherited Y-chromosomal variation. DNA variants present in the Saami were compared with those found in Europe and Siberia, through use of both new and previously published data from 445 Saami and 17,096 western Eurasian and Siberian mtDNA samples, as well as 127 Saami and 2,840 western Eurasian and Siberian Y-chromosome samples.

Origin and diffusion of mtDNA haplogroup X.

A maximum parsimony tree of 21 complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences belonging to haplogroup X and the survey of the haplogroup-associated polymorphisms in 13,589 mtDNAs from Eurasia and Africa revealed that haplogroup X is subdivided into two major branches, here defined as "X1" and "X2." The first is restricted to the populations of North and East Africa and the Near East, whereas X2 encompasses all X mtDNAs from Europe, western and Central Asia, Siberia, and the great majority of the Near East, as well as some North African samples. Subhaplogroup X1 diversity indicates an early coalescence time, whereas X2 has apparently undergone a more recent population expansion in Eurasia, most likely around or after the last glacial maximum.

Abortion under Greek law: parental consent for a minor's abortion.

As medical abortion becomes more widely used and available in Greece, several issues are emerging and require clarification. Health care providers often face a dilemma when dealing with an adolescent requesting abortion. Parents' consent is mandatory before delivering any kind of treatment to minors.

Physicians' liability in ophthalmology practice.

Purpose: The aims of this paper are to point out the importance of coherence in established guidelines in daily practice, highlight the value of signed patient informed consent forms and stress the value of a good understanding of the law, while focusing on issues related to malpractice in ophthalmology.

Methods: Search of the current relevant literature.

Results: The most common causes of medical litigation in ophthalmology are related to LASIK surgery, cataract surgery, glaucoma care, radial keratotomy for myopia reduction and failure to diagnose binocular vision anomalies in children and adults in a timely fashion.

A review of Greek law on human cloning.

The creation of Dolly, a cloned lamb from adult cells was a major scientific breakthrough, which opened new avenues for many research fields such as reproductive medicine, transplantation and biotechnology. However this achievement brought to public attention the theoretical possibility of human reproductive cloning. Inevitably heated debate occurred on several ethical and legal consequences of the prospect of human cloning.