Western Mediterranean precipitation over the last 300 years from instrumental observations

The paper reports the results of the analysis of the 14 longest precipitation instrumental series, covering the last 300 years, that have been recovered in six subareas of the Western Mediterranean basin, i.e., Portugal, Northern and Southern Spain, Southern France, Northern and Southern Italy. This study extends back by one century our knowledge about the instrumental precipitation over theWestern Mediterranean, and by two centuries in some specific subareas. All the time series show repeated swings. No specific trends have been found over the whole period, except in a few cases, but with modest time changes and sometimes having opposite tendency. The same can be said for the most recent decades although with some more marked departures from the average. The correlation between the various Mediterranean subareas is generally not significant, or almost uncorrelated. The Wavelet Spectral Analysis applied to the precipitation identifies only a minor 56-year cycle in autumn, i.e., the same return period that has been found in literature for the Sea Surface Temperature over North Atlantic. A comparison with a gridded dataset reconstruction based on mixed multiproxy and instrumental observations, shows that the grid reconstruction is in good agreement with the observed data for the period after 1900, less for the previous period

The mitochondrial aminoacyl tRNA synthetases : Genes and syndromes

Mitochondrial respiratory chain (RC) disorders are a group of genetically and clinically heterogeneous diseases. This is because protein components of the RC are encoded by both mitochondrial and nuclear genomes and are essential in all cells. In addition, the biogenesis and maintenance of mitochondria, including mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication, transcription, and translation, require nuclear-encoded genes. In the past decade, a growing number of syndromes associated with dysfunction of mtDNA translation have been reported. This paper reviews the current knowledge of mutations affecting mitochondrial aminoacyl tRNAs synthetases and their role in the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the different clinical presentations

Reprint of The new paradigm of economic complexity

Economic complexity offers a potentially powerful paradigm to understand key societal issues and challenges of our time. The underlying idea is that growth, development, technological change, income inequality, spatial disparities, and resilience are the visible outcomes of hidden systemic interactions. The study of economic complexity seeks to understand the structure of these interactions and how they shape various socioeconomic processes. This emerging field relies heavily on big data and machine learning techniques. This brief introduction to economic complexity has three aims. The first is to summarize key theoretical foundations and principles of economic complexity. The second is to briefly review the tools and metrics developed in the economic complexity literature that exploit information encoded in the structure of the economy to find new empirical patterns. The final aim is to highlight the insights from economic complexity to improve prediction and political decision-making. Institutions including the World Bank, the European Commission, the World Economic Forum, the OECD, and a range of national and regional organizations have begun to embrace the principles of economic complexity and its analytical framework. We discuss policy implications of this field, in particular the usefulness of building recommendation systems for major public investment decisions in a complex world

The Magnitude and Distance Decay of Trade in Goods and Services

__Abstract__ Using a newly assembled, consistent and disaggregated dataset (12 goods and 7 services) on internal and bilateral trade for 25 European countries, we analyse the difference between trade in goods and services. The measurement of both trade in goods and trade in services is improved over earlier research, allowing us to compare trade in goods and services in a coherent and systematic way. First, our dataset is made consistent with the domestic demand and production and the total exports and imports at the sector and product level. Second, we explicitly control for re-exports. We find that, although goods are more often bilaterally traded than services, the volume of bilateral trade in services does not attenuate less with distance than the volume of bilateral trade in good

Mitochondrial Complex III Deficiency Caused by TTC19 Defects : Report of a Novel Mutation and Review of Literature

We report about a patient with infantile-onset neurodegenerative disease associated with isolated mitochondrial respiratory chain complex III (cIII) deficiency. The boy, now 13 years old, presented with language regression and ataxia at 4 years of age and then showed a progressive course resulting in the loss of autonomous gait and speaking during the following 2 years. Brain MRI disclosed bilateral striatal necrosis. Sequencing of a panel containing nuclear genes associated with cIII deficiency revealed a previously undescribed homozygous rearrangement (c.782_786delinsGAAAAG) in TTC19 gene, which results in a frameshift with premature termination (p.Glu261Glyfs(*)8). TTC19 protein was absent in patient's fibroblasts. TTC19 encodes tetratricopeptide 19, a putative assembly factor for cIII. To date TTC19 mutations have been reported only in few cases, invariably associated with cIII deficiency, but presenting heterogeneous clinical phenotypes. We reviewed the genetic, biochemical, clinical and neuroradiological features of TTC19 mutant patients described to date

The hyperornithinemia-hyperammonemia-homocitrullinuria syndrome

Hyperornithinemia-hyperammonemia-homocitrullinuria (HHH) syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of the urea cycle. HHH has a panethnic distribution, with a major prevalence in Canada, Italy and Japan. Acute clinical signs include intermittent episodes of vomiting, confusion or coma and hepatitis-like attacks. Alternatively, patients show a chronic course with aversion for protein rich foods, developmental delay/intellectual disability, myoclonic seizures, ataxia and pyramidal dysfunction. HHH syndrome is caused by impaired ornithine transport across the inner mitochondrial membrane due to mutations in SLC25A15 gene, which encodes for the mitochondrial ornithine carrier ORC1. The diagnosis relies on clinical signs and the peculiar metabolic triad of hyperammonemia, hyperornithinemia, and urinary excretion of homocitrulline. HHH syndrome enters in the differential diagnosis with other inherited or acquired conditions presenting with hyperammonemia

A 27-year review of mergers and acquisitions research in 27 leading management journals

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by providing a systematic review of over 500 academic articles across 27 management journals over a 27-year time frame. There appears to be a mixture of empirical and conceptual articles, with a larger proportion being empirical but an increasing number leaning towards a conceptual nature. Our findings show that most studies follow a quantitative approach and use large samples, mostly originating from existing databases. There is an emergence of thematic areas related to the strategic factors influencing M&As, but with the human dimension, gaining increasing attention over time.authorsversionpublishe

Clinical-genetic features and peculiar muscle histopathology in infantile DNM1L-related mitochondrial epileptic encephalopathy

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles, undergoing continuous fission and fusion. The DNM1L gene encodes for the DRP1 protein, an evolutionary conserved member of the dynamin family, responsible for fission of mitochondria, and having a role in the division of peroxisomes, as well. DRP1 impairment is implicated in several neurological disorders and associated with either de novo dominant or compound heterozygous mutations. In five patients presenting with severe epileptic encephalopathy we identified 5 de novo dominant DNM1L variants, the pathogenicity of which was validated in a yeast model. Fluorescence microscopy revealed abnormally elongated mitochondria and aberrant peroxisomes in mutant fibroblasts, indicating impaired fission of these organelles. Moreover, a very peculiar finding in our cohort of patients was the presence, in muscle biopsy, of core like areas with oxidative enzyme alterations, suggesting an abnormal distribution of mitochondria in the muscle tissue

Not only dominant, not only optic atrophy: expanding the clinical spectrum associated with OPA1 mutations

Background: Heterozygous mutations in OPA1 are a common cause of autosomal dominant optic atrophy, sometimes associated with extra-ocular manifestations. Few cases harboring compound heterozygous OPA1 mutations have been described manifesting complex neurodegenerative disorders in addition to optic atrophy. Results: We report here three patients: one boy showing an early-onset mitochondrial disorder with hypotonia, ataxia and neuropathy that was severely progressive, leading to early death because of multiorgan failure; two unrelated sporadic girls manifesting a spastic ataxic syndrome associated with peripheral neuropathy and, only in one, optic atrophy. Using a targeted resequencing of 132 genes associated with mitochondrial disorders, in two probands we found compound heterozygous mutations in OPA1: in the first a 5 nucleotide deletion, causing a frameshift and insertion of a premature stop codon (p.Ser64Asnfs*7), and a missense change (p.Ile437Met), which has recently been reported to have clinical impact; in the second, a novel missense change (p.Val988Phe) co-occurred with the p.Ile437Met substitution. In the third patient a homozygous mutation, c.1180G > A (p.Ala394Thr) in OPA1 was detected by a trio-based whole exome sequencing approach. One of the patients presented also variants in mitochondrial DNA that may have contributed to the peculiar phenotype. The deleterious effect of the identified missense changes was experimentally validated in yeast model. OPA1 level was reduced in available patients\u2019 biological samples, and a clearly fragmented mitochondrial network was observed in patients\u2019 fibroblasts. Conclusions: This report provides evidence that bi-allelic OPA1 mutations may lead to complex and severe multi-system recessive mitochondrial disorders, where optic atrophy might not represent the main feature