The impact of the economic crisis on the implementation of the EU Nature Directives in Greece: An expert-based view

Established under the European Union (EU), the thirty-year trans-national network, Natura 2000, is considered one of the largest biodiversity conservation frameworks worldwide. The global financial crisis has afflicted European economies since 2008 and has not only caused radical changes to the economic development but has also resulted in major implications on nature conservation activities in one of the weakest EU member states, however a biodiversity hotspot, Greece. The present research constitutes a broad-based assessment of the effects of the current economic crisis on the application of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives by the Greek state for the first time. By applying an expert elicitation method, Policy Delphi, we attempt to address the impact of the crisis on the administrative levels, competent authorities and procedural frames of the national protected area system, as perceived by 38 Greek key stakeholders and experts on the topic. An evaluation of the practices and obligations of 4 Management Bodies of the Greek protected area system was conducted to get an insight of the financial consequences on their operation. The structured and participatory approach followed in this study, allowed a systematic collection of experts’ transdisciplinary judgments on the state of the Greek Natura 2000 network in terms of implementation, management, administration, monitoring and legislation. With a strong tradition in managing its high nature value in a centralized way, in the face of the economic crisis, implementation challenges of the Greek state concerning Natura 2000 have been enlarged. According to a substantial part of the Greek conservation community that participated in the survey, many enforcement obstacles are considered, either direct or indirect consequences of the economic crisis, while some are inherent to the lack of a national comprehensive conservation strategy and not necessarily attributed to the austerity. However, the lack of national structural strength, as illustrated by the respondents, rather than the funding size proved to be an important cause of vulnerability for the Greek network. Based on the findings of this study we propose recommendations for improvements that align economic with conservation interests and measures that can substantially counteract the negative impacts of the economic austerity on the enforcement of nature conservation.     

VNTR polymorphism of the DRD4 locus in different Pakistani ethnic groups

The present study was designed to investigate the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) locus variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) allelic distribution in different Pakistani ethnic groups. DNA samples from nine different ethnic groups of Pakistan were analyzed. Greek and Somali samples were included as representatives of the European and African populations, respectively. Pakistani, Greek, and Somali populations were also compared to the published data on different world populations. The allelic distribution revealed that the four-repeat allele was the most common allele in all the Pakistani ethnic groups as is in different other world populations, followed by the seven- and two-repeat alleles. To study the evolutionary relationship of the Pakistani ethnic groups among themselves and with a few other world populations, multidimensional scaling based on the allelic frequencies of the DRD4 VNTR was obtained. This analysis grouped most of the Pakistani ethnic groups together and closer to the European and Middle Eastern populations, except for the Mohanna from Sindh, who grouped with the African populations. In addition, the Somali and the Greek samples analyzed in this study grouped closer to the previous data obtained on the African and European populations, respectively.     

The decline of Greek fir (Abies cephalonica Loudon): Relationships with root condition

Abstract

The decline of Greek fir (Abies cephalonica Loudon) has been reported throughout Greece during the last three decades. The symptoms include crown dieback, needle discoloration and loss, death of twigs, branches or whole tree death. A number of causes for the fir decline have been proposed such as drought, climatic change, air pollution and pathogens or insects. Our studies have focused on the relationship between fir decline symptoms and root growth and condition. The crown and root condition of fir trees, at different stages of decline, were assessed and the results showed that root condition was related to needle loss and crown discoloration. Declining trees were characterized by a decreased portion of fine root biomass. No significant differences in total root length and number of roots for each root order were found. In conclusion, our studies showed that the crown condition of Greek firs is reflected on root condition.     

The effect of a traditional dance training program on dynamic balance of individuals with mental retardation

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of a Greek traditional dance training program on the dynamic balance of individuals with mental retardation (MR). A total of 17 individuals participated in this study. Ten individuals with mild or moderate MR and 7 individuals with mild or moderate MR who studied in special schools were assigned to intervention (MR-I) and control (MR-C) groups, respectively. Pretraining and posttraining exercise tests were performed to determine the dynamic balance ability. Dynamic balance ability was measured by means of a balance deck (Lafayette, Lafayette, IN, USA) in 30-, 45-, and 60-second intervals. The MR-I group underwent a 16-week Greek traditional dance training program at a frequency of 3 times per week and for a duration of 45 minutes per season. Posttraining results showed that the individuals with MR in the MR-I group improved during treatment, from their baseline scores on dynamic balance measurements (30 seconds: p < 0.01, 45 seconds: p < 0.05, 60 seconds: p < 0.05). The MR-C group did not show any improvement between the 2 measurements. In conclusion, individuals with MR may be able to improve their dynamic balance when performing a systematic and well-designed Greek traditional dance training program.     

Violence against migrants in Greece: beyond the Golden Dawn

Violence perpetrated against migrants by Golden Dawn was rarely investigated or prosecuted by Greek authorities and was discursively constructed as exceptional, contrary to the norms of Greek democracy and committed by marginalized individuals and groups. The article argues that state responses have been shaped by racialized discourses and policies on migration and racism. Anti-migrant violence has been legitimated through three interlinked discursive strategies: a narrative of ‘isolated events’; the denial of its racialized nature; and the rationalization of both state and non-state anti-migrant violence as a regrettable yet understandable defensive reaction to the threats posed by migration.     

From research to implementation: Nature conservation in the Eastern Rhodopes mountains (Greece and Bulgaria), European Green Belt

Nature conservation should ideally build on the scientific recommendations that are concluded from applied conservation research, as well as on monitoring schemes that evaluate the effectiveness of recommendations. We considered as a case study a system of six protected areas located in the Eastern Rhodopes mountains in the southern part of the European Green Belt (EGB). To investigate nature conservation effectiveness, we reviewed 196 articles from scientific journals and books, eight doctoral and master theses, and 39 scientific reports regarding the Greek (one protected area, 428 km²) and the Bulgarian (five protected areas, 904 km²) part of the study area. We extracted 743 conservation recommendations, and through questionnaires completed by 10 local experts, we found that 74% of the recommendations were familiar for the experts. In the Greek (GR) and the Bulgarian part (BG) only 52% and 16%, respectively, of the recommendations were implemented, and only 15% (GR) and 3.1% (BG) were implemented and evaluated regarding their effectiveness. According to the experts, the main reasons for non-implementation and non-evaluation were absence or incompetence of the responsible authorities. Some recommendations obtained a remarkable low rate of implementation, such as those regarding agriculture and livestock rearing practices (GR: 29%, BG: 16%) or mammal conservation (GR: 0%, BG: 16%). Some other recommendations obtained rather high rates at least for Greece, such as tourism and environmental education (GR: 57%, BG: 42%) and bird conservation (GR: 57%, BG: 11%). We found that researchers and conservation managers at both sides of the Greek-Bulgarian border face similar implementation problems, related often to the lack of political will for nature conservation and establishment of competent authorities. The role of the EGB is crucial in enhancing the established cross-border collaborations between stakeholders involved in nature conservation.     

USE OF THE ROCKING BED TO AUGMENT VENTILATION IN PATIENTS WITH POLIOMYELITIS

As the first step in an attempt to clarify criteria for use of the rocking bed rather than the respirator as an aid to breathing for patients with weakness of respiratory muscle function caused by poliomyelitis, ventilation studies were done on seven patients with pronounced weakness or paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Average tidal air volume was considerably less when the patient was on the rocking bed than when he was in the respirator. Since the tidal air volume with the patient on the rocking bed represents the maximum that can be produced with the apparatus, whereas the volume in the respirator represents the patient''s usual tidal air and the respirator is capable of a greater volume if necessary, it is apparent that in cases of complete paralysis of the respiratory muscles the respirator has a large margin of safety, the rocking bed none.From clinical observations made on 51 patients who were put upon the rocking bed—23 of them early in the course of the disease and 28 after they had been ill three months or more—it was concluded that the rocking bed is contraindicated for patients who are febrile and in whom the disease is progressing rapidly, and for those with atelectasis or urinary or pulmonary infection. It must be used with extreme care in the case of patients early in the course of the disease who are not tracheotomized, because of a tendency toward increased accumulation of mucus and the danger of atelectasis.General guides were developed with regard to use of the rocking bed for patients with post-acute poliomyelitis, and somewhat different rules were drawn for use of the apparatus in cases in which there is a chronic respiratory problem.The rocking bed will give artificial respiration in cases of respiratory weakness, but will not provide enough tidal air for the patient with paralysis of the muscles of respiration.     

S1 satellite DNA as a taxonomic marker in brown frogs: molecular evidence that Rana graeca graeca and Rana graeca italica are different species.

The brown frog Rana graeca was believed to be present in two areas, the Balkan Peninsula and the Italian Apennines. We have characterised the S1 satellite DNA family from Rana graeca graeca and compared it with that of Rana graeca italica. On Southern blots, the patterns of S1 satellite DNA bands are very different between Italian and Greek specimens, but homogeneous among various populations of the same taxon. The satellite DNA from the Greek taxon contains two repetitive units (S1a (494 bp) and S1b (363 bp)) that could be sequenced after amplification from genomic DNA to directly yield their consensus sequences in each genome. These consensus sequences were very similar among the Greek populations, but differed either in sequence (in S1a) or in both size and sequence (in S1b) from the corresponding repeats of the Italian taxon. A mechanism of concerted evolution is likely responsible for the high homogeneity of S1a and S1b repeat sequences within each genome and species. The genomic content of S1 satellite DNA was lower in the Greek than in the Italian populations (0.5 vs. 1.9%) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis showed the S1 satellite on only 4 chromosome pairs in the Greek taxon and on all 13 chromosome pairs in the Italian taxon. The completely different structure and genomic organization of the S1 satellite DNA indicate that the Greek and Italian taxa are distinct species: R. graeca and R. italica.     

The Inability of Primary School to Introduce Children to the Theory of Biological Evolution

A great number of research papers in the English literature of science education present difficulties pupils have in understanding natural selection. Studies show that children have essentialist and teleological intuitive ideas when dealing with organisms and that these biases hinder their ability to understand the theory of evolution by natural selection. Consequently, it is interesting to ascertain if and how the school education offered today deals with the problem, i.e., helps the children confront these biases. To that purpose, this study answered the two following research questions: (a) How is biological evolution presented—from the past to the present day—in the official documentation of primary school education, namely the science curricula and the textbooks of Greece? and (b) what are the conceptions held by Greek primary school teachers of the concepts of evolutionary theory and relevant issues that they have to teach? Our research found that not only are the intuitive ideas not “confronted” but they are also “affirmed” in Greek primary education. This phenomenon, as some other international studies have shown, must not be only a Greek one. A drastic change in the content and structure of primary school curricula and the training of educators is necessary in order to improve and facilitate the teaching of biological evolution.     

Determinants of ethnic identification in the USSR: The soviet Jewish case

This article critically examines the generation of discourses on Greek identity following an episode that took place in northern Greece (2000/2003) when an Albanian student was elected flag-carrier in a commemorative parade. Three versions of Greek identity emerged in this context: the first was based on civic understandings of identity, promoting the current Europeanist project of citizenship as belonging. The second version drew upon the notion of “culture” as an all-encompassing concept to promote ideas of Greek cultural “purity” that have roots in Greek ethnogenesis. The third version adopted an understanding of the “nation” in terms of racial affiliation, transforming it thus into a natural category. The argument put forward is that in the context of the 2000/2003 episode (a) Greek self-perceptions are affected by the problematic economic and cultural position of Greece within Europe and (b) Greek discourses of identity are a form of resistance to processes of Europeanization that threaten traditional “imagined communities” embedded in history.     

Food choices and eating difficulty among elderly edentate patients in Greece

Aims: To evaluate food choice and eating difficulty experienced by older Greek edentate patients. Subjects: Three samples of patients seeking provision of replacement dentures were studied. A primary study of urban mainland U1 (n=54) and island rural R1 samples (n=84) was followed by a mainland urban U2 sample (n=119) in the Secondary study. Setting: Greek dental clinics. Intervention: Semi‐structured interviews (SSI) were employed, using both open and closed questions. Design: The primary study used SSI to identify eating difficulty experienced by two culturally different Greek groups. The secondary study established patterns of difficulty for comparisons between an urban Greek population and northern European urban studies. Main Outcome Measures: The prevalence of eating difficulty, the degree of difficulty eating specified foods and the exclusion of foods because difficult. Results: Most patients expressed difficulty eating at least one type of food, a high percentage of these patients were willing to eat foods found difficult, while others use particular methods of food preparation that make food easier to eat. Chicken illustrated the importance of specifying the method of cooking when questioning eating difficulties. Roast meats provided insight into the more difficult end of the food range. Raw vegetables were rated difficult. Apples and oranges were also food of particular interest. Conclusions: The semi‐structured interview method provides a succesful method to identify eating difficulty and food choices by older Greek complete denture wearers. Differences, probably largely cultural, were identified between Greek island rural and mainland urban communities. Greek food choices differed favourably from an English sample, strikingly in that Greek patients report continuing to eat difficult foods despite difficulty eating them. This may be relevant to health data on Greek populations that show better mortality statistics despite adverse factors such as high prevalence of smoking.     

Eukaryotic DNA replication

Several factors are contributing to an increased air of excitement about the eukaryotic DNA replication problem: new insights into the nature of origins of replication, a better appreciation of the factors that control initiation, and studies of a DNA polymerase α-primase enzyme complex. In this review, recent research on the initiation, elongation and termination phases of DNA replication is critically examined and a coherent picture is formulated. In the not-far-distant future we expect to reproduce these processes in biochemically defined systems.     

Air and the origin of the experimental plant physiology.

It is well known that oxygen and carbon dioxide are two chemicals which enter the plant metabolism as nutrients. The bases of this nowadays obvious statement were placed in the 18th century by means of the works of ingenious naturalists such as Robert Boyle, Stephen Hales, Joseph Priestley, Jam Ingenhousz, Lazzaro Spallanzani and Theodore De Saussure. Till the end of the 17th century, the atmospheric air was considered as an ineffable spirit, the function of which was of physical nature. Boyle was the first naturalist to admit the possibility that respiration were an exchange of vapours occurring in the blood. Stephen Hales realised that air could be fixed by plants under the influence of solar light. Priestley showed that plants could regenerate the bad air making it breathable. Ingenhousz demonstrated that the green parts of plants performed the complete purification of air only under the influence of the light. Spallanzani discovered that plants respire and guessed that the good air (oxygen) originated from the fixed air (carbon dioxide). Finally, Theodore De Saussure showed that plants were able to adsorb carbon dioxide and to release oxygen in a proportional air. All these discoveries benefited of the results coming from investigations of scholars of the so-called "pneumatic chemistry" (Boyle himself, George Ernst Stahl, Joseph Black, Priestley himself, and many more others. But among all the eminent scientists above mentioned stands out the genius of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, who revolutionised the chemistry of the 18th century ferrying it towards the modern chemistry.     

Phylogenetic relationships of Greek cyprinidae: molecular evidence for at least two origins of the Greek cyprinid fauna.

A phylogeny of the main cyprinid species that live in Greece was based on the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1140 bp). The great diversity of the Greek cyprinid fauna, with at least 4 different lineages of barbins, 1 of gobionins, and 10 of leuciscinids, was confirmed. The validity and composition of the genera Tropidophoxinellus and Pachychilon were demonstrated. Likewise, the close phylogenetic relationships of genera Vimba, Blicca, and Abramis, as well as Telestes, Chondrostoma, and Phoxinellus, were established. Moreover, Pseudophoxinus beoticus was found to be closely related to Phoxinellus rather than to other Pseudophoxinus species. The most interesting outcome of our analyses was the existence of at least two different origins of the Greek cyprinid fauna. Most of the Greek cyprinids were directly related to the Danubian (i.e., central European) ichthyofauna. However, we found at least four cases of a close phylogenetic relationship between Greek and Iberian endemic species.     

The spawning behaviour of the endangered freshwater fish Ladigesocypris ghigii (Gianferrari, 1927)

Ladigesocypris ghigii (Gianferrari, 1927), commonly called gizani, is an endangered freshwater fish endemic to the Greek island of Rhodes. The spawning behaviour of gizani was studied in aquaria, to develop an artificial breeding technique for this endangered species. Spawning in captivity was recorded over 41 spawning days between 15 February and 14 July 2001, under constant temperature (18 or 21°C) and photoperiod 14L/10D. The number of spawning acts in a day was 82 ± 28. No aggressiveness and no territoriality were developed. The mating system of the fish was polygamous, with females spawning more than once. In captivity, eggs are laid either on aquatic plants or on gravel, while in nature fish spawn mainly on algae and plants. The latter suggests that, as far as breeding substrate is concerned, gizani is an opportunistic species using different substrates when necessary.     

Proposed pathophysiologic framework to explain some excess cardiovascular death associated with ambient air particle pollution: Insights for public health translation

The paper proposes a pathophysiologic framework to explain the well-established epidemiological association between exposure to ambient air particle pollution and premature cardiovascular mortality, and offers insights into public health solutions that extend beyond regulatory environmental protections to actions that can be taken by individuals, public health officials, healthcare professionals, city and regional planners, local and state governmental officials and all those who possess the capacity to improve cardiovascular health within the population. The foundation of the framework rests on the contribution of traditional cardiovascular risk factors acting alone and in concert with long-term exposures to air pollutants to create a conditional susceptibility for clinical vascular events, such as myocardial ischemia and infarction; stroke and lethal ventricular arrhythmias. The conceptual framework focuses on the fact that short-term exposures to ambient air particulate matter (PM) are associated with vascular thrombosis (acute coronary syndrome, stroke, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism) and electrical dysfunction (ventricular arrhythmia); and that individuals having prevalent heart disease are at greatest risk. Moreover, exposure is concomitant with changes in autonomic nervous system balance, systemic inflammation, and prothrombotic/anti-thrombotic and profibrinolytic-antifibrinolytic balance. Thus, a comprehensive solution to the problem of premature mortality triggered by air pollutant exposure will require compliance with regulations to control ambient air particle pollution levels, minimize exposures to air pollutants, as well as a concerted effort to decrease the number of people at-risk for serious clinical cardiovascular events triggered by air pollutant exposure by improving the overall state of cardiovascular health in the population. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Air Pollution, edited by Wenjun Ding, Andrew J. Ghio and Weidong Wu.     

Plato's Republic as an Early Study of Media Bias and a Charter for Prosaic Education

Plato's Republic is a document of considerable interest for the student of enculturation processes. From Plato's proposals for educational change and for a new curriculum, and from his reactions against the arts and poetry of traditional Greek culture, we gain perspectives on the nature, strains, and implications of a transition from dominantly oral poetic to literate prose forms of symbolic transmission and education.     

Evaluation of a modified version of the index of Oral Impacts On Daily Performances (OIDP) in elderly populations in two European countries

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of a modified version of the index of Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) in elderly populations in two European countries, namely Great Britain and Greece. The psychometric properties examined in this study refer to internal consistency and face, content, criterion and construct validity. Design and Setting: Cross‐sectional epidemiologic surveys of independently living people aged 65 years or older. Data were collected by interviewers through structured questionnaires. The British sample consisted of the randomly selected independently living persons that participated in the dental component of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) of adults aged 65 years or over. The Greek sample is an opportunity sample drawn from eligible people living in two municipalities of the Athens region. Subjects: 753 people participated in the British and 681 in the Greek sample. Results: Through pilot work in both countries, the OIDP index was modified and both Greek and British modified versions demonstrated satisfactory face and content validity. In the main studies, Cronbach's alpha of the modified OIDP was 0.77 for the Greek and 0.69 for the British sample. In both samples, the index showed very significant associations with perceived dental treatment need (p<0.001), perceived general health (p<0.001 in Greek, p=0.002 in British) and intermediate oral impacts (p<0.001), as well as with satisfaction with oral health in the Greek sample (p<0.001). Conclusions: Overall, this study has demonstrated that the modified OIDP is a valid and reliable measure of oral health related quality of life in elderly people in Great Britain and Greece.     

Sandhoff disease in Cyprus: population screening by biochemical and DNA analysis indicates a high frequency of carriers in the Maronite community

In the last 15 years, four patients with the infantile form of Sandhoff disease were diagnosed in four different families in Cyprus (population 703,000, birth rate 1.7%). Three of these cases came from the Christian Maronite community (less than 1% of the population) and one from the Greek community (84% of the population). This relatively large number of patients prompted us to initiate an epidemiological study in order to establish the frequency of the mutant allele in Cyprus. Carrier detection was initially based on the measurement of beta-hexosaminidase A and B in both leucocytes and serum. Using the enzyme test, 35 carriers were identified among 244 random Maronite samples and 15 among 28 Maronites with a family history of Sandhoff disease, but only one carrier was found out of 115 random samples from the Greek community. In parallel to the biochemical screening, DNA studies were undertaken in one of the three Maronite patients and in a Greek carrier related to the Greek patient. These studies resulted in the identification of two novel mutations, a deletion of A at nt76 and a G to C transversion at position 5 of the 5'-splice site of intron 8, which have been published. We subsequently screened the carriers detected in the biochemical study for these two mutations using PCR-based tests. Of 50 Maronite carriers examined, 42 were found to have the nt76 deletion. Eight Maronite samples, designated carriers from the biochemical results, were negative for both mutations. It is possible that these individuals were incorrectly classified as carriers since their enzyme values are equivocal, although the presence of another mutation has not been excluded. Two Greek Cypriot carriers and two obligate Lebanese carriers were negative for both mutations. We conclude that there is a high frequency of Sandhoff disease carriers in the Maronite community of Cyprus, approximately 1 in 7, and that a single mutation predominates in this population.