The influence of circulation weather types on the exposure of the biosphere to atmospheric electric fields.

We present an analysis of the impact of circulation weather types (CT) on a factor that might influence biological systems and the human condition, the electric state of the atmosphere. We present results on the influence of CT to the magnitude, the direction (positive or negative), the fluctuation magnitude, and the short-term peaks of the atmospheric electric field (potential gradient, PG), using data from a station in Greece. CTs with high vorticity centers over Greece are associated with high positive and negative excursions of the PG, higher PG variability, and rain events.

The role of magnetic fields in neurodegenerative diseases.

The term neurodegenerative diseases include a long list of diseases affecting the nervous system that are characterized by the degeneration of different neurological structures. Among them, Alzheimer disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are the most representative ones. The vast majority of cases are sporadic and results from the interaction of genes and environmental factors in genetically predisposed individuals.

Using a systemic approach to address the requirement for Integrated Water Resource Management within the Water Framework Directive.

Sustainable management of water resources calls for integration of ideas and approaches and revolves around assessment of causal-effect relationships as tools towards defining informed mitigation options and planning. The current paper presents a new holistic approach developed within the Globaqua Coordination Project that combines indicator-based well-established and tested concepts towards developing informed Programmes of Measures and River basin management plans: a. The DPSIR framework that has been engaged as central instrument to address the Water Framework Directive requirements and the concepts embedded in the Integrated Water Resource Management; b.

Indirubin Analogues Inhibit Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Short and Growth.

The protozoan parasite is the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). The disease is fatal if it remains untreated, whereas most drug treatments are inadequate due to high toxicity, difficulties in administration, and low central nervous system penetration. glycogen synthase kinase 3 short (GSK3s) is essential for parasite survival and thus represents a potential drug target that could be exploited for HAT treatment.

Down scaling of climate change scenarii to river basin level: A transdisciplinary methodology applied to Evrotas river basin, Greece.

The Mediterranean region is anticipated to be (or, already is) one of the hot spots for climate change, where freshwater ecosystems are under threat from the effects of multiple stressors. Climate change is impacting natural resources and on the functioning of Ecosystem Services. The challenges about modelling climate change impact on water cycle in general and specifically on socio-economic dynamics of the society leads to an exponential amount of results that restrain interpretation and added value of forecasting at local level.

NMR-STAR: comprehensive ontology for representing, archiving and exchanging data from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic experiments.

The growth of the biological nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) field and the development of new experimental technology have mandated the revision and enlargement of the NMR-STAR ontology used to represent experiments, spectral and derived data, and supporting metadata. We present here a brief description of the NMR-STAR ontology and software tools for manipulating NMR-STAR data files, editing the files, extracting selected data, and creating data visualizations. Detailed information on these is accessible from the links provided.

From bench to bedside, via desktop. Recent advances in the application of cutting-edge in silico tools in the research of drugs targeting bromodomain modules.

The discipline of drug discovery has greatly benefited by computational tools and in silico algorithms aiming at rationalization of many related processes, from the stage of early hit identification to the preclinical phases of drug candidate validation. The various methodologies referred to as molecular modeling tools span a broad spectrum of applications, from straightforward approaches such as virtual screening of compound libraries to more advanced techniques involving the precise estimation of free energy upon binding of the candidate drug to its macromolecular target. To this end, we report an overview of specific studies where implementation of such sophisticated modeling algorithms has shown to be indispensable for addressing challenging systems and biological questions otherwise difficult to answer.

Hierarchical bi-directional attention-based RNNs for supporting document classification on protein-protein interactions affected by genetic mutations.

In this paper, we describe a hierarchical bi-directional attention-based Re-current Neural Network (RNN) as a reusable sequence encoder architecture, which is used as sentence and document encoder for document classification. The sequence encoder is composed of two bi-directional RNN equipped with an attention mechanism that identifies and captures the most important elements, words or sentences, in a document followed by a dense layer for the classification task. Our approach utilizes the hierarchical nature of documents which are composed of sequences of sentences and sentences are composed of sequences of words.

In Silico Screening of Compound Libraries Using a Consensus of Orthogonal Methodologies.

A number of diverse approaches for efficient screening of compound collections in silico are nowadays available, each with their own methodological background, successes and limitations. Implementation of such virtual screening methods has enabled an impressive acceleration in the search toward the most biologically relevant regions of chemical space and has greatly facilitated the discovery of novel biologically active molecules. It is noteworthy that the range of principles on which the available virtual screening methodologies are based is wide enough for several of these methods to be considered as orthogonal to a good extent.

On the dilemma of fractal or fractional kinetics in drug release studies: A comparison between Weibull and Mittag-Leffler functions.

We compare two of the most successful models for the description and analysis of drug release data. The fractal kinetics approach leading to release profiles described by a Weibull function and the fractional kinetics approach leading to release profiles described by a Mittag-Leffler function. We used Monte Carlo simulations to generate artificial release data from euclidean and fractal substrates.

A reaction limited in vivo dissolution model for the study of drug absorption: Towards a new paradigm for the biopharmaceutic classification of drugs.

The aim of this work is to develop a gastrointestinal (GI) drug absorption model based on a reaction limited model of dissolution and consider its impact on the biopharmaceutic classification of drugs. Estimates for the fraction of dose absorbed as a function of dose, solubility, reaction/dissolution rate constant and the stoichiometry of drug-GI fluids reaction/dissolution were derived by numerical solution of the model equations. The undissolved drug dose and the reaction/dissolution rate constant drive the dissolution rate and determine the extent of absorption when high-constant drug permeability throughout the gastrointestinal tract is assumed.

DIANA-TarBase v8: a decade-long collection of experimentally supported miRNA-gene interactions.

DIANA-TarBase v8 (http://www.microrna.gr/tarbase) is a reference database devoted to the indexing of experimentally supported microRNA (miRNA) targets.

Combined Virtual and Experimental Screening for CK1 Inhibitors Identifies a Modulator of p53 and Reveals Important Aspects of in Silico Screening Performance.

A compound collection of pronounced structural diversity was comprehensively screened for inhibitors of the DNA damage-related kinase CK1. The collection was evaluated in vitro. A potent and selective CK1 inhibitor was discovered and its capacity to modulate the endogenous levels of the CK1-regulated tumor suppressor p53 was demonstrated in cancer cell lines.

BUFET: boosting the unbiased miRNA functional enrichment analysis using bitsets.

Background: A group of miRNAs can regulate a biological process by targeting genes involved in the process. The unbiased miRNA functional enrichment analysis is the most precise in silico approach to predict the biological processes that may be regulated by a given miRNA group. However, it is computationally intensive and significantly more expensive than its alternatives.

Component resolved bleaching study in natural calcium fluoride using CW-OSL, LM-OSL and residual TL glow curves after bleaching.

Natural calcium fluoride has been commonly used as thermoluminescence (TL) dosimeter due to its high luminescence intensity. The aim of this work includes attempting a correlation between specific TL glow curves after bleaching and components of linearly modulated optically stimulated luminescence (LM-OSL) as well as continuous wave OSL (CW-OSL). A component resolved analysis was applied to both integrated intensity of the RTL glow curves and all OSL decay curves, by using a Computerized Glow-Curve De-convolution (CGCD) procedure.

DIANA-mirExTra v2.0: Uncovering microRNAs and transcription factors with crucial roles in NGS expression data.

Differential expression analysis (DEA) is one of the main instruments utilized for revealing molecular mechanisms in pathological and physiological conditions. DIANA-mirExTra v2.0 (http://www.

DIANA-LncBase v2: indexing microRNA targets on non-coding transcripts.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that act as post-transcriptional regulators of coding gene expression. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been recently reported to interact with miRNAs. The sponge-like function of lncRNAs introduces an extra layer of complexity in the miRNA interactome.

DIANA-miRGen v3.0: accurate characterization of microRNA promoters and their regulators.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that actively fine-tune gene expression. The accurate characterization of the mechanisms underlying miRNA transcription regulation will further expand our knowledge regarding their implication in homeostatic and pathobiological networks. Aim of DIANA-miRGen v3.

Radon and radioactivity at a town overlying Uranium ores in northern Greece.

Extensive measurements of (222)Rn in the town of Xanthi in N Greece show that the part of the town overlying granite deposits and the outcrop of a uranium ore has exceptionally high indoor radon levels, with monthly means up to 1500 Bq m(-3). A large number of houses (40%) in this part of the town exhibit radon levels above 200 Bq m(-3) while 11% of the houses had radon levels above 400 Bq m(-3). Substantial interannual variability as well as the highest in Europe winter/summer ratios (up to 12) were observed in this part of the town, which consist of traditional stone masonry buildings of the late 19th-early 20th century.

DIANA-miRPath v3.0: deciphering microRNA function with experimental support.

The functional characterization of miRNAs is still an open challenge. Here, we present DIANA-miRPath v3.0 (http://www.

DIANA-TarBase v7.0: indexing more than half a million experimentally supported miRNA:mRNA interactions.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA species, which act as potent gene expression regulators. Accurate identification of miRNA targets is crucial to understanding their function. Currently, hundreds of thousands of miRNA:gene interactions have been experimentally identified.

Thermally assisted photo transfer OSL from deep traps in Al2O3:C grains exhibiting different TL peak shapes.

The present work studies the thermally assisted photo transfer OSL (TAPT OSL) signal in the case of Al(2)O(3):C samples showing double-structured main dosimetric TL peaks. The measurement signal provides indirect experimental evidence regarding the presence of deep traps along with one transfer mechanism extremely powerful and efficient. The experimental features of this signal are presented along with those yielded for samples with narrow TL peaks for the sake of comparison.