33396 Nonuremic calciphylaxis precipitated by COVID 19 infection

A 40-year-old female with a medical history of hypertension, anxiety, and COVID-19 pneumonia in May 2021 that was complicated by cardiac arrest, presented in July 2021 with bilateral lower extremity wounds. Wounds initially were described as ‘sunburns’ that progressed to form multiple large retiform purpura with black necrotic eschars and surrounding induration on bilateral thighs and lower legs. A telescoping punch biopsy was performed showing calciphylaxis with intravascular thrombosis. Labs were significant for a mildly elevated phosphorus, PT/PTT, lupus anticoagulant antibody, and positive ANA. Creatinine, BUN, calcium, PTH, and GFR were within normal limits. Patient had no prior personal or family history of coagulopathies or renal dysfunction. The patient was diagnosed with nonuremic calciphylaxis (NUC) precipitated by a COVID-19 induced coagulopathy. Intravenous sodium thiosulfate and sevelamer was started for treatment. NUC is a rare disease characterized by arterial calcification leading to ischemia and skin necrosis that occurs in the setting of normal renal function. Other conditions associated with NUC include prothrombotic states like Protein C and S deficiency, antithrombin III deficiency, antiphospholipid antibody, cryofibrogenemia, and malignancy. COVID-19 has been demonstrated to generate a prothrombotic state leading to hypercoagulability. The patient’s recent COVID-19 infection and positive lupus anticoagulant antibody together promoted a hypercoagulable state that was the nidus for cutaneous calciphylaxis and making this case of NUC induced by COVID-19 hypercoagulability a novel presentation of an uncommon disease

Variation in carbon and nitrogen concentrations among peatland categories at the global scale

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.Peatlands account for 15 to 30% of the world's soil carbon (C) stock and are important controls over global nitrogen (N) cycles. However, C and N concentrations are known to vary among peatlands contributing to the uncertainty of global C inventories, but there are few global studies that relate peatland classification to peat chemistry. We analyzed 436 peat cores sampled in 24 countries across six continents and measured C, N, and organic matter (OM) content at three depths down to 70 cm. Sites were distinguished between northern (387) and tropical (49) peatlands and assigned to one of six distinct broadly recognized peatland categories that vary primarily along a pH gradient. Peat C and N concentrations, OM content, and C:N ratios differed significantly among peatland categories, but few differences in chemistry with depth were found within each category. Across all peatlands C and N concentrations in the 10-20 cm layer, were 440 ± 85.1 g kg-1 and 13.9 ± 7.4 g kg-1, with an average C:N ratio of 30.1 ± 20.8. Among peatland categories, median C concentrations were highest in bogs, poor fens and tropical swamps (446-532 g kg-1) and lowest in intermediate and extremely rich fens (375-414 g kg-1). The C:OM ratio in peat was similar across most peatland categories, except in deeper samples from ombrotrophic tropical peat swamps that were higher than other peatlands categories. Peat N concentrations and C:N ratios varied approximately two-fold among peatland categories and N concentrations tended to be higher (and C:N lower) in intermediate fens compared with other peatland types. This study reports on a unique data set and demonstrates that differences in peat C and OM concentrations among broadly classified peatland categories are predictable, which can aid future studies that use land cover assessments to refine global peatland C and N stocks.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements