Multicentre comparison of a diagnostic assay: Aquaporin-4 antibodies in neuromyelitis optica

Objective Antibodies to cell surface central nervous system proteins help to diagnose conditions which often respond to immunotherapies. The assessment of antibody assays needs to reflect their clinical utility. We report the results of a multicentre study of aquaporin (AQP) 4 antibody (AQP4-Ab) assays in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). Methods Coded samples from patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) or NMOSD (101) and controls (92) were tested at 15 European diagnostic centres using 21 assays including live (n=3) or fixed cell-based assays (n=10), flow cytometry (n=4), immunohistochemistry (n=3) and ELISA (n=1). Results Results of tests on 92 controls identified 12assays as highly specific (0-1 false-positive results). 32 samples from 50 (64%) NMO sera and 34 from 51 (67%) NMOSD sera were positive on at least two of the 12 highly specific assays, leaving 35 patients with seronegative NMO/spectrum disorder (SD). On the basis of a combination of clinical phenotype and the highly specific assays, 66 AQP4-Ab seropositive samples were used to establish the sensitivities (51.5-100%) of all 21 assays. The specificities (85.8-100%) were based on 92 control samples and 35 seronegative NMO/SD patient samples. Conclusions The cell-based assays were most sensitive and specific overall, but immunohistochemistry or flow cytometry could be equally accurate in specialist centres. Since patients with AQP4-Ab negative NMO/SD require different management, the use of both appropriate control samples and defined seronegative NMOSD samples is essential to evaluate these assays in a clinically meaningful way. The process described here can be applied to the evaluation of other antibody assays in the newly evolving field of autoimmune neurology

Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education: experiences and feelings reported by primary school pupils from Greece and Turkey

Covid 19 pandemic had a huge impact upon life and the educational experience of students. One of the groups mostly affected from this pandemic is the school children. The sudden transition to distance education from traditional face-to-face education undoubtedly changed the implementation methods of the teaching programme in schools. The research study reported in this paper was carried out in Greece and Turkey. Responses were collected from primary school pupils who voluntarily and anonymously completed an online questionnaire with multiple choice questions. The latter were carefully worded in an appropriate and understandable way, using language suitable for primary school aged children. Comparisons between the responses from the two countries revealed similarities and differences. Through a comparative approach the research results are particularly scruitinised through the lenses of equal opportunities and social exclusion policies along with a cross cultural perspective, which is expected to have a useful impact during the post pandemic era. By sharing the collective knowledge and experience gained, we aspire to propose educational strategies for well-being and recovery, and overall educational process improvement

Effect of additional water supply during grain filling on protein composition and epitope characteristics of winter oats

Pure oats in gluten-free diets (GFD) represent important nutritional benefits for people suffering from celiac disease (CD). However, oat cultivars do not contain the typical CD-related wheat gliadin analog polypeptides. Emerging evidence suggests that oat cultivars containing gluten-like epitopes in avenin sequences may pose potential health risks for celiac patients in rare cases, depending on the individual’s susceptibility. Consequently, it is necessary to screen oats in terms of protein and epitope composition, to be able to select safe varieties for gluten-free applications. The overall aim of our study is to investigate the variation of oat protein composition directly related to health-related and techno-functional properties and to examine how the protein compositional parameters change due to irrigation during the grain-filling period as compared to the natural rain-fed grown, in a large winter oat population of different geographic origin. Elements of an oat sample population representing 164 winter oat varieties from 8 countries and the protein composition of resulting samples have been characterized. Size distribution of the total protein extracts has been analyzed by SE-HPLC, while the 70% ethanol extracted proteins were analyzed by RP-HPLC. Protein extracts are separated into 3 main groups of fractions on the SE-HPLC column; polymeric, avenin, and non-avenin monomeric protein groups, representing 59.17–80.87%, 12.89–31.03%, and 3.40–9.41% of total protein content, respectively. The ratio of polymeric to monomeric proteins varied between 1.71 and 6.07. 91 RP-HPLC-separated peaks have been differentiated from the ethanol extractable proteins of the entire population. The various parameters identified a lot of variation, confirming the significance of genotypic variation. In addition, it was also established that the additional water supply during grain filling significantly affected the various quantitative parameters of protein content, but not its qualitative structure. This environmental effect, however, was strongly genotype-dependent. Winter oat genotypes with low levels of epitope content were identified and it was proven that these characteristics were independent of the environmental factor of water availability. These genotypes are appropriate for initiating a specific breeding program to yield oat cultivars suitable for CD patients

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning and wellbeing of secondary school students: a survey in Southern Europe

The transition from the traditional model of learning and teaching to full online mode had to be implemented in many countries, in an extremely short time, as the 2020-2021 school year was in mid-stream. Secondary education, which includes students in the age range of 12-18, faced many challenges in this rapid change, as many research studies have shown. Researchers raise questions regarding the readiness of the secondary education community to transition to fully online learning. The pilot study reported in this paper deals with the impact of the transition to online learning on secondary schools in southern European countries. More specifically, this paper presents the results of a literature survey and an empirical survey using an online questionnaire which captured non-traceable responses from secondary schools that, voluntarily and anonymously, completed the questionnaire. The questions were mainly closed, with some open-ended questions for students to fill in. The study also aims to capture data on the socio-economic dimension, accessibility/ availability of the necessary technologies that enable online learning, as well as the families’ employment status and their ability to support students. A total of 90 students participated (62% female, 28% male) from three Mediterranean countries. The students’ perspectives as seen by the students themselves along with the difficulties and the issues they faced are compared and contrasted. This investigation offers a pedagogical and socio-technical analysis and highlights the needs for wellbeing as well as quality learning and teaching in the new social distance reality

How will a drier climate change carbon sequestration in soils of the deciduous forests of Central Europe?

Global warming is accompanied by increasing water stress across much of our planet. We studied soil biological processes and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in 30 Hungarian oak forest sites in the Carpathian Basin along a climatic gradient (mean annual temperature (MAT) 9.6\u201312.1 C, mean annual precipitation (MAP) 545\u2013725 mm) but on similar gently sloped hillsides where the parent materials are loess and weathered dust inputs dating from the end of the ice age. The purpose of this research was to understand how a drying climate, predicted for this region, might regulate long-term SOC sequestration. To examine the effects of decreasing water availability, we compared soil parameters and processes in three categories of forest that represented the moisture extremes along our gradient and that were defined using a broken-stick regression model. Soil biological activity was significantly lower in the driest (\u2018\u2018dry\u2019\u2019) forests, which had more than double the SOC concentration in the upper 30 cm layer (3.28 g C/100 g soil \ub1 0.11 SE) compared to soils of the wettest (\u2018\u2018humid\u2019\u2019) forests (1.32 g C/100 g soil \ub1 0.09 SE), despite the fact that annual surface litter production in humid forests was * 37% higher than in dry forests. A two-pool SOM model constrained to fit radiocarbon data indicates that turnover times for fast and slow pools are about half as long in the humid soil compared to the dry soil, and humid soils transfer C twice as efficiently from fast to slow pools. Enzyme activity and fungal biomass data also imply shorter turnover times associated with faster degradation processes in the soils of humid forests. Thermogravimetry studies suggest that more chemically recalcitrant compounds are accumulating in the soils of dry forests. Taken together, our results suggest that the predicted climate drying in this region might increase SOC storage in Central European mesic deciduous forests even as litter production decreases

Hosszú- és rövidnappalos megvilágítás hatása a kenyérbúza egyedfejlődési dinamikájára

A kenyérbúza esetében a domináns nappalhossz-érzéketlen alléltípusok korai virágzást eredményeznek rövid nappalon, míg a nappalhossz-érzékeny alléltípust hordozó genotípusok kalászolása vontatottá válik, illetve teljes mértékben el is maradhat. A nappalhossz érzékelése hatással van a búza intenzív szárnövekedési fázisának kezdeti idejére és hosszára is, amely alapvető szerepet játszik az adaptációs képesség meghatározásában. A vizsgált nappalhossz-érzéketlen és érzékeny csoportok átlagmagasságuk alapján nem mutattak jelentős különbséget a kezelések hatására (46-50 cm), azonban növekedési dinamikájukat megfigyelve szignifikáns eltérés volt tapasztalható rövid nappalos megvilágítás mellett. Hosszú nappalos körülmények között mind a nappalhossz-érzéketlen, mind a nappalhossz-érzékeny allélt hordozó genotípusok intenzív szárnövekedésük kezdeti szakaszában, illetve az intenzív szárnövekedésük hosszában is hasonló átlagértékeket mutattak (a regressziós egyenes meredekségének értéke: 0,025 és 0,024, illetve 26 nap és 29 nap). Ezzel szemben rövid nappalon a két csoport között ezek az átlagértékek 0,01 és 0,008, illetve 39 nap és 57 nap volt. A nappalhossz-érzéketlen genotípusok rövid nappalon megfigyelt intenzív szárnövekedés alatti átlagos fejlődési dinamikája kétszer akkora volt (a regressziós egyenes meredekségének értéke: 0,04), mint a nappalhossz-érzékeny fajtáknál (0,02). A két eltérő nappalhossz-érzékenységű csoport egyedfejlődési paraméterei között is jelentős eltéréseket mutattunk ki. A nappalhossz-érzéketlen fajták intenzív szárnövekedése átlagosan még az első szárcsomó megjelenése előtt két nappal elkezdődött hosszú nappalos körülmények között, míg rövid nappalon ez az érték 3 nap volt. Ezzel szemben a nappalhossz-érzékeny csoportnál ez az aránypár 2 nap és 11 nap volt

Kenyérbúza környezeti adaptációjának molekuláris-genetikai vizsgálata

Az adaptációs képesség meghatározásában a vernalizációs igényért, a nappalhossz érzékenységért és a cirkadián ritmusért felelős géncsoportok fő szerepet játszanak. Az egyedfejlődési gének aktivitása határozott napi ciklikusságot mutat, azonban ennek mértéke és mintázata jelentősen függ a környezeti hőmérséklet változásától, a genotípustól, illetve e két faktor kölcsönhatásától is. A cirkadián gének napi expressziós ciklusa az általunk alkalmazott hőmérsékleti kezeléstől és genotípustól függetlenül minden esetben határozott volt. Az egyes genotípusokban hőmérsékleti kezelés hatására jelentősen változhat a génaktivitás csúcsértéke. A két kezelés hatására a VRN1 gén expressziós értéke nem változott számottevően, míg a VRN2 és a VRN3 géneké 18°C-os körülmények között jelentős mértékben nőtt. A PPD1 gén aktivitásának napi csúcsértéke 18°C-on mindhárom fajta esetében megemelkedett, ami a kései kalászolású fajták esetében még inkább kifejezőbbé vált. A korai fajta esetében a CCA1 gén csúcsértéke közel kétszeresére emelkedett 18°C-os kezelés hatására, míg a TOC1 gén esetében ez a jelenség üvegházi körülmények között volt megfigyelhető. PRR95 gén aktivitása 18°C-on több mint kétszeresére emelkedett. A LUX gén esetében a késői fajták 18°C-on közel háromszoros génexpressziós maximumértékekkel rendelkeznek