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Background: Data regarding the association of antibody levels elicited after immunization with the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with epidemiological and clinical parameters are limited. Methods: We prospectively measured the total (TAbs-RBD) and the neutralizing antibodies (NAbs-RBD) against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in a cohort of 268 Healthcare workers before immunization, 20 days after the 1st dose and 30 days after the 2nd dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine. A statistical analysis for possible association of antibodies’ levels with epidemiological and clinical parameters was performed. Results: The mean age (±SD) of the participants was 45.45 years (±11.93) (range: 24–70 years) and 211 (79.9%) were females. Statistically significant differences were detected regarding both TAbs-RBD and NAbs-RBD between the first and second doses of the vaccine (P < 0.001). The median (IQR) percentage (%) of NAbs-RBD after the 1st dose was 51.07% (31.60%) and after the 2nd dose 95.31% (3.70%) (P < 0.001). The correlation between the TAbs-RBD and NAbs-RBD was after the 1st dose, Spearman's, rho: 0.861 (P < 0.001) and after the 2nd dose rho: 0.989 (P < 0.001). Twenty days after the 1st dose, 56/264 (21.2%) of the participants had low levels of NAbs-RBD, while one month after the 2nd dose all of them had protective levels of NAbs-RBD. After the 2nd vaccine dose, a statistically significant negative association of TAbs-RBD was detected for age (P < 0.001), smoking (P = 0.011), and immunosuppressive medications (P < 0.001), while a positive association was detected for BMI (P = 0.004) and systemic adverse events after immunization (P = 0.001). Conclusion: A significant correlation of TAbs-RBD and NAbs-RBD was detected after both vaccine doses. Older age, smoking, and immunosuppressive medications negatively affected the final antibody level after SARS-CoV-2 immunization. Our findings emphasize the significance of the 2nd vaccine dose especially in the older age groups. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Epidemiological studies have yielded conflicting results regarding climate and incident SARS-CoV-2 infection, and seasonality of infection rates is debated. Moreover, few studies have focused on COVD-19 deaths. We studied the association of average ambient temperature with subsequent COVID-19 mortality in the OECD countries and the individual United States (US), while accounting for other important meteorological and non-meteorological co-variates. The exposure of interest was average temperature and other weather conditions, measured at 25 days prior and 25 days after the first reported COVID-19 death was collected in the OECD countries and US states. The outcome of interest was cumulative COVID-19 mortality, assessed for each region at 25, 30, 35, and 40 days after the first reported death. Analyses were performed with negative binomial regression and adjusted for other weather conditions, particulate matter, sociodemographic factors, smoking, obesity, ICU beds, and social distancing. A 1 °C increase in ambient temperature was associated with 6% lower COVID-19 mortality at 30 days following the first reported death (multivariate-adjusted mortality rate ratio: 0.94, 95% CI 0.90, 0.99, p = 0.016). The results were robust for COVID-19 mortality at 25, 35 and 40 days after the first death, as well as other sensitivity analyses. The results provide consistent evidence across various models of an inverse association between higher average temperatures and subsequent COVID-19 mortality rates after accounting for other meteorological variables and predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection or death. This suggests potentially decreased viral transmission in warmer regions and during the summer season. © 2021, The Author(s).

Pediatric cancer and its treatment may have an impact on the neurocognitive functions of childhood cancer survivors (CCS). The aim of the present meta-analysis was to compare the intelligence quotient (IQ) scores between CCS of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and controls. A compre- hensive electronic search identified original research articles that reported scores of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC; WISC-III, WISC-IV and WISC-R) for children and adoles- cents, aged 6-16 years at evaluation, survivors of ALL and healthy controls. The included CCS had completed anticancer treatment and were in remission at the time of assessment. A total of 16 studies were included in the meta-analysis, out of 128 extracted studies, and involved a total of 1,676 children and adolescents: 991 CCS (ALL) and 685 healthy controls. Among the studies, a random effects model revealed a moderate estimate of effect size [standardized mean differ- ence (SMD), -0.78; 95% CI, -1.05 to -0.50], indicating that the WISC scores for total IQ were significantly lower in the CCS than in the controls. The mean total IQ range was 85.2-107.2 in the CCS and 88.4-114.1 in the controls. The difference in the mean total IQ between controls and CCS ranged from -13.8 to 20.6. As regards the WISC scores for verbal IQ, 11 studies were included. A random effects model revealed a moderate estimate of effect size (SMD, -0.71; 95% CI, -1.05 to -0.38), indicating that the WISC scores for verbal IQ were signifi- cantly lower in the CCS than in the controls. Among the 9 studies that had available data for performance IQ scores, a fixed effect model revealed a moderate estimate of effect size (SMD, -0.80; 95% CI, -1.09 to -0.52), indicating that the WISC scores for performance IQ were significantly lower in the CCS than in the controls. As the survival rates of children and adolescents with ALL are steadily increasing, regular, lifelong follow-up for neurocognitive late effects is imperative in order to improve their education and employment prospects and overall, their quality of life. © 2021 Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved.

One of the most critical tasks for improving data quality and increasing the reliability of data analytics is Entity Resolution (ER), which aims to identify different descriptions that refer to the same real-world entity. Despite several decades of research, ER remains a challenging problem. In this survey, we highlight the novel aspects of resolving Big Data entities when we should satisfy more than one of the Big Data characteristics simultaneously (i.e., Volume and Velocity with Variety). We present the basic concepts, processing steps, and execution strategies that have been proposed by database, semantic Web, and machine learning communities in order to cope with the loose structuredness, extreme diversity, high speed, and large scale of entity descriptions used by real-world applications. We provide an end-to-end view of ER workflows for Big Data, critically review the pros and cons of existing methods, and conclude with the main open research directions. © 2020 ACM.

Introduction: Dietary habits and physical exercise have independently been recognized as important contributors to weight loss. However, the relative effect of diet and exercise on body weight is still unclear and warrants further investigation. We investigated the causes related to changes in body mass index (BMI) in a sample of young adult Greek Navy recruits over 10 years. Materials and Methods: We conducted a single-center prospective observational study, including consecutive healthy young adult officers and sailors (>18 years) at the Salamis Naval Base, Salamis, Attiki, Greece. BMI was calculated at the baseline visit. A questionnaire was selected to gather data regarding daily food consumption and daily physical exercise. The participants were followed up for 10 years (2005-2014). Results: Two hundred eighty-four young adults [mean age 31.1 ± 3.1 years; 25 (8.8%) females and 259 (91.2%) males] were included. Baseline median BMI was 24.1 kg/m2, while 10 years later, median BMI was 24.8 kg/m2 (P < 0.001). Physical activity was not significantly related to BMI change (P = 0.153). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a significant correlation between BMI increase and frequent fast food consumption (P = 0.044). Conclusions: Frequent fast food consumption is linked with a significant BMI increase, irrespective of physical activity. This has obvious dietary implications and needs to be examined in the general population. © Copyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Obesity and thus, lipotoxicity, is a major health risk factor. Modern exposure to environmental chemicals has contributed significantly to the obesity epidemic. The purpose of this study was to assess, via telemedicine and using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in schools, the levels of adiposity and other body composition parameters of Greek adolescents in relation with their metabolic syndrome (MetS) characteristics. A representative sample (1575 adolescents, 14.4 ± 1.7 years-old) of the Attica region population, underwent body composition assessment of fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), and total body water (TBW) and was evaluated for anthropometric and MetS characteristics. Males demonstrated higher FFM% and TBW% but lower FM% than females. Adolescents with abdominal obesity/MetS (n = 149/n = 40) demonstrated significantly (P < 0.001) higher body mass index (BMI 27.8 ± 3.8 kg/m2/30.2 ± 4.2 kg/m2) and FM (33.6 ± 9.7%/35.0 ± 10.5%) but significantly (P < 0.001) lower FFM (34.2 ± 5.7%/33.8 ± 6.2%) and TBW (45.6 ± 6.7%/44.6 ± 7.2%) than adolescents without abdominal obesity/MetS (BMI 20.9 ± 2.8 kg/m2/21.3 ± 3.2 kg/m2; FM 19.2 ± 6.9%/20.2 ± 8.0%; FFM 41.3 ± 4.4%/40.8 ± 4.8%; TBW 55.5 ± 4.8%/54.8 ± 5.5%). Findings suggest that early “osteosarcopenic” elements of abdominal obesity/MetS may exist even in adolescence. The application of BIA, incorporated in the new approach methodology of telemedicine in schools, identified adolescents at risk for obesity complications. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose which leads over time to serious complications and significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Self-management tasks in diabetes may be quite challenging because of lack of training, difficulties in sustaining lifestyle modifications, and limited access to specialized healthcare. Nowadays, the evolution of mobile technology provides a large number of health-related smartphone applications (apps), aiming to increase the self-management skills of the patient in chronic diseases, to facilitate the communication between the patient and healthcare providers, and to increase also the patient’s compliance with the treatment. In the field of diabetes there are also many diabetes-related mobile apps mainly focusing on self-management of diabetes, lifestyle modification, and medication adherence motivation. The aim of this paper is to review the most important diabetes-related mobile smartphone applications, including only those supported by prospective randomized controlled trials. © 2020, The Author(s).

Currently in the EU, there are limited examples of operationally integrated solutions capable of achieving optimal interaction of energy networks, combining both electricity and heat-cooling energy supply and storage. There is thus, a need for the efficient use of renewable energy resources through hybrid systems utilising generation and storage of energy. The present study proposes a novel concept for the development of an innovative compact hybrid electrical-thermal storage system for stand-alone and district connected buildings. The proposed hybrid storages will be used to upgrade existing building configurations and will be monitored in real-life operation in a historic building in Cyprus. The building has been selected to be part of a hands-on technology exhibition area of renewable energy systems complimented with visual means to enhance the experience of visitors. The RES systems will be enhanced with enabling technologies offering the benefits of smart digitalised home solutions that can seamlessly be integrated in the neighbouring communities / districts to form energy communities. The municipality is to use the systems as a hands-on experience for informing society about the use of new technologies in their homes capable of offering a transition to the lowcarbon economy achieving high levels of energy savings. Moreover, the integration of such systems in this specific application is to be used as an exploration of the sensitive issue of the architectural integration of technologically advanced systems into the listed buildings of historical centers. The concept presented herein is part of the ongoing research programme HYBUILD, which is funded by the European Union through HORIZON 2020.

Battery Energy Storage (BES) technology has a major role to play in the upcoming energy transition, especially when it is coupled with variable Renewable Energy Sources (RES) facilities such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. On the other hand, financial compensation and legislative barriers currently rendering storage technology, prevent it to become a profitable and reliable solution for energy system integration. This paper outlines the primary targets of StoRES project towards developing a technical solution for PV systems in conjunction with BES. For this purpose, coupled PV-BES residential storage systems were developed in six countries, aiming at optimizing the utilization of storage towards achieving higher PV penetration. Another focus of this paper is the implementation of a community storage system which was installed in Cyprus. This is connected to the same distribution feeder supplying the local residential pilot systems in order to make a credible comparison between the centralized and distributed storage. 1 6

This study details a comprehensive storage-sizing methodology to allow a concentrating solar power plant to reliably integrate in the Cyprus power system which is classified as small and isolated. The need for providing a storage solution arises from the fact that large quantities of renewable energy sources may impose certain challenges on how isolated systems operate. Developing solutions to these challenges will enable higher penetrations of renewable generation sources on such systems and the future growth of renewable energy. To this extent, the methodology described in this study pertains to clear and explicit steps required to provide sufficient evidence toward the reliable integration of a large-scale solar-dependent plant through an appropriately sized battery energy storage system.

This paper investigates the potential for provision of frequency regulation services in combination with other financially rewarding services, such as peak demand reduction and Photovoltaic (PV) export support by distributed Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Initially, the financial potential from the individual services were estimated and the possible combination of services were evaluated. Historical data for consumption and PV generation were used from residential sites from various locations in Cyprus, as well as frequency measurements from the local electricity grid. Modelling and simulation of those services was performed, based on the historical data and subsequently the operational and financial performance of the services was examined. Different combinations of services were tested, and the operational and technical conflicts were indicated. The most valuable and viable combinations are presented and analyzed further. A high-level control strategy has been developed aiming at the maximization of the economic value streams while avoiding the operational and technical conflicts. 1 6

Background: Using telemedicine in the school setting in Greece, we screened a representative adolescent sample for MetS (International Diabetes Federation criteria) and explored its associations with anthropometric, sociodemographic and behavioural parameters. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional data were obtained from 12- to 17-year-old high school students. Results: The prevalence of MetS in 1578 adolescents (mean age ± SD 14.4 ± 1.7 years) was 2.6% (3.4% among males; 2.0% among females), highest (4.3%) at age 13 years and lowest (1.3%) at 16 years. Adolescents with MetS had significantly higher mean body mass index (BMI) ± SD than those without MetS (30.2 ± 4.2 vs 21.3 ± 3.2 kg/m 2 , respectively; P 60 years) were risk factors for MetS. Although counterintuitive, body image distortion, body dissatisfaction and bullying about weight were more prevalent in normal weight girls. Conclusions: The overall prevalence of MetS was low but 12-fold higher when obesity was taken into account. Impaired FBG and elevated BP were the most prevailing features. Telemedicine services were used effectively in Greek schools for screening youth MetS. © 2019 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation

The Spexin gene is considered the most dysregulated in obese human fat. Limited data suggest that the novel peptide spexin may potentially impact food intake, weight regulation and body adiposity. The aim of this case-control study was to compare fasting serum spexin concentrations between normal weight (NW) and overweight/obese (OB/OW) adolescent females and explore the relationship between circulating spexin and anthropometric, bone and fat mass, metabolic and hormonal parameters. Eighty post-menarcheal females (mean age ± SD 16.23 ± 2.26 years); 55 NW (mean BMI ± SD 19.72 ± 2.52 kg/m2) and 25 OB/OW (mean BMI ± SD 29.35 ± 3.89 kg/m2) participated in the study. Circulating spexin levels did not differ significantly (p = 0.378) between NW (median (interquartile range), 0.26 (0.17) ng/mL) and OB/OW (median (interquartile range), 0.28 (0.06) ng/mL) adolescents and did not correlate with BMI (rs = −0.090, p = 0.438), % body fat (rs = −0.173, p = 0.409), glucose or insulin resistance indices derived from fasting and oral glucose tolerance states. In the total study sample, spexin concentrations correlated positively with lipoprotein(a) (rs = 0.402, p = 0.046). In the OB/OW adolescents spexin levels correlated positively with testosterone (rs = 0.727, p = 0.011) and free androgen index (rs = 0.755, p = 0.007). In the NW adolescents, spexin concentrations correlated negatively with dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (rs = −0.445, p = 0.038). Results may suggest potential involvement of spexin in the regulation of lipoprotein(a) and of the reproductive/adrenal axis in post-menarcheal adolescent females. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

36th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2043-2045, Smart grids have the potential to significantly increase the share of clean energy on the market. However, to unleash the full potential of this new and constantly evolving technology, well-skilled experts must be trained. The Erasmus+ Project MOST (www.smartgridsmaster.eu/) addresses the need for academia and industry cooperation by designing a master’s degree program on Smart Grid Technologies, solutions and systems. It offers the students the education required to fill the gap between the growing industry demand for specialized smart grid expertise and the skills currently offered by available professionals. The Master’s course will cover not only the smart grid operation fundamentals but also all aspects of smart grid integration. To enable the students testing their knowledge in a real-life environment, living labs and virtual smart grid labs will be developed and integrated into the Smart Grids Master’s degree program. The new master’s program will be available at three leading universities around Europe - the University of Cagliari in Italy, the University of Cyprus, and the University of Western Macedonia in Greece. Moreover, the virtual lab will be accessible by all partnering organizations and the living labs will be installed at the participating universities in Italy, Cyprus and Greece.

Objective: To explore differences in irisin concentrations between lean adolescents with PCOS and age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched controls and examine the associations of irisin with core features of the syndrome. Design: Cross-sectional study. Patients: Lean females with PCOS, aged 13-21 years. Measurements: Physical, hormonal and sonographic assessment. Irisin concentrations were measured with ELISA. Results: Participants included in total 39 sedentary females (mean ± SD; age 17.3 ± 2.1 years, BMI 20.7 ± 1.3 Kg/m2), 23 adolescents with PCOS and 16 controls. Adolescents with PCOS compared to controls had significantly elevated concentrations of fasting serum irisin (mean ± SD; PCOS, 1.7 ± 1.0 μg/mL vs controls, 1.0 ± 0.4 μg/mL; P =.007), luteinizing hormone (LH), oestradiol, testosterone, Δ4-androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, glucose, as well as free androgen index, Ferriman-Gallwey score and mean ovarian volume (MOV). For the total sample, circulating irisin was positively correlated with MOV (r =.332, P =.041), glucose (r =.428, P =.007), insulin (rs =.369, P =.021) and HOMA-IR (rs =.422, P =.007) and negatively correlated with QUICKI (r = −.329, P =.041). Follicle-stimulating hormone (B = 0.295, Beta =.342, P =.042) and MOV (B = 0.182, Beta = 0.821, P =.001) were positive predictors, and LH (B = −0.108, Beta = −0.523, P =.010) and testosterone (B = −0.431, Beta = −0.457, P =.032) were negative predictors of irisin concentrations, whereas irisin positively predicted fasting glucose (B = 0.262, Beta = 0.428, P =.007). In the PCOS group, irisin concentrations were positively correlated with HOMA-IR (rs =.416, P =.048) but negatively correlated with LH (rs = −.499, P =.015), testosterone (r = −.585, P =.003), free androgen index (r = −.426, P =.048) and Ferriman-Gallwey score (r = −.533, P =.015). Conclusions: Irisin was associated with the adolescents' metabolic and reproductive characteristics and the hyperandrogenic phenotype of the syndrome. Much research is needed to ascertain mechanisms of elevated serum irisin in adolescent PCOS. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Background: To explore the effects of a multicomponent–multilevel school-based educational intervention on the nutritional habits and abdominal obesity indices of a representative adolescent sample. Materials and methods: A representative sample of 1610 adolescents aged 12–17 years in 23 public high schools of three municipalities in the Attica region in Greece participated in a programme funded by the European Union (August 2013–August 2014). Participants underwent dietary assessment with the use of the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index in children and adolescents (KIDMED), blood pressure (BP) assessment and screening for general and abdominal obesity by measuring body mass index, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), at baseline and following a 6-month school-based intervention. The intervention involved nutritional education, physical activity and body image awareness using a multilevel approach to the adolescent participants, their parents, school teachers and health staff. Results: Analysis included 1032 adolescents (mean age ± SD 14·1 ± 1·6 years). Following intervention, mean KIDMED score ± SD increased significantly from 5·6 ± 2·4 to 5·8 ± 2·4 (P = 0·004). Higher percentage of boys (P = 0·028) and younger adolescents (P < 0·001) had optimal KIDMED scores ≥ 8. Significant decreases were observed in overweight and obesity (P = 0·033), mean systolic (P = 0·049) and diastolic (P < 0·001) BP, WC (P < 0·001) and WHtR (P < 0·001). WC decreased as the KIDMED score increased (P = 0·020). Living with both parents (P = 0·036), higher maternal (P = 0·039) and paternal (P = 0·004) education and having a younger father (P = 0·034) were associated with better adherence to Mediterranean diet, post-intervention. Conclusions: Increased adherence to MD was associated with decreased WC, indicating a potential of multicomponent–multilevel school-based interventions to combat adolescent abdominal obesity. © 2017 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation

Entity resolution constitutes a crucial task for many applications, but has an inherently quadratic complexity. In order to enable entity resolution to scale to large volumes of data, blocking is typically employed: it clusters similar entities into (overlapping) blocks so that it suffices to perform comparisons only within each block. To further increase efficiency, Meta-blocking is being used to clean the overlapping blocks from unnecessary comparisons, increasing precision by orders of magnitude at a small cost in recall. Despite its high time efficiency though, using Meta-blocking in practice to solve entity resolution problem on very large datasets is still challenging: applying it to 7.4 million entities takes (almost) 8 full days on a modern high-end server. In this paper, we introduce scalable algorithms for Meta-blocking, exploiting the MapReduce framework. Specifically, we describe a strategy for parallel execution that explicitly targets the core concept of Meta-blocking, the blocking graph. Furthermore, we propose two more advanced strategies, aiming to reduce the overhead of data exchange. The comparison-based strategy creates the blocking graph implicitly, while the entity-based strategy is independent of the blocking graph, employing fewer MapReduce jobs with a more elaborate processing. We also introduce a load balancing algorithm that distributes the computationally intensive workload evenly among the available compute nodes. Our experimental analysis verifies the feasibility and superiority of our advanced strategies, and demonstrates their scalability to very large datasets. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd