The ribbed drapery of the Puerto Princesa Underground River (Palawan, Philippines): morphology and genesis

During the 2011 speleological expedition to the Puerto Princesa Underground River (Palawan, Philippines) a drapery characterized by several close-to-horizontal ribs has been noticed. Even without sampling and analyzing its internal growth layers, a detailed morphological study allowed to present a possible genetic model. The presented model helps to explain its evolution, which is mainly controlled by variation in water flow as a consequence of the Palawan climate. When validated by further analyses, the same genetic mechanism could define also the evolution of the very common but still unexplained complex flowstones, which exhibit several close-to-horizontal steps, widenings and narrowings along their growth axis

Prognostic role of nutritional status in elderly patients hospitalized for COVID-19: a monocentric study

BackgroundSymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection incidence is higher in the elderly patients. Pre-existing geriatric conditions such as comorbidity and frailty seem related to worse hospital outcomes.AimsTo assess the role of nutritional status as an independent prognostic factor for in-hospital death in elderly patients.MethodsConsecutive elderly patients (age > 65 years) hospitalized for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were enrolled. Demographics, laboratory and comorbidity data were collected. Nutritional status was evaluated using the Geriatric Nutri-tional Risk Index (GNRI). Uni- and multivariate Cox regression analyses to evaluate predictors for in-hospital death were performed.ResultsOne hundred and nine hospitalized elderly patients (54 male) were consecutively enrolled. At univariate analysis, age (HR 1.045 [CI 1.008\u20131.082]), cognitive impairment (HR 1.949 [CI 1.045\u20133.364]), C-reactive protein (HR 1.004 [CI 1.011\u20131.078]), lactate dehydrogenases (HR 1.003 [CI 1.001\u20131.004]) and GNRI moderate\u2013severe risk category (HR 8.571 [CI 1.096\u201367.031]) were risk factors for in-hospital death, while albumin (HR 0.809 [CI 0.822\u20130.964]), PaO2/FiO2 ratio (HR 0.996 [CI 0.993\u20130.999]) and body mass index (HR 0.875 [CI 0.782\u20130.979]) were protective factors. Kaplan\u2013Meier survival curves showed a significative higher survival in patients without GNRI moderate or severe risk category (p = 0.0013).At multivariate analysis, PaO2/FiO2 ratio (HR 0.993 [CI 0.987\u20130.999], p = 0.046) and GNRI moderate\u2013severe risk category (HR 9.285 [1.183\u201372.879], p = 0.034) were independently associated with in-hospital death.ConclusionNutritional status assessed by GNRI is a significative predictor of survival in elderly patients hospitalized for COVID-19. The association between GNRI and PaO2/FiO2 ratio is a good prognostic model these patients

Photoinhibition of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in State 1 and State 2: damages to the photosynthetic apparatus under linear and cyclic electron flow.

The relationship between state transitions and photoinhibition has been studied in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells. In State 2, photosystem II activity was more inhibited by light than in State 1. In State 2, however, the D1 subunit was not degraded, whereas a substantial degradation was observed in State 1. These results suggest that photoinhibition occurs via the generation of an intermediate state in which photosystem II is inactive but the D1 protein is still intact. The accumulation of this state is enhanced in State 2, because in this State only cyclic photosynthetic electron transport is active, whereas there is no electron flow between photosystem II and the cytochrome b(6)f complex (Finazzi, G., Furia, A., Barbagallo, R. P., and Forti, G. (1999) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1413, 117-129). The activity of photosystem I and of cytochrome b(6)f as well as the coupling of thylakoid membranes was not affected by illumination under the same conditions. This allows repairing the damages to photosystem II thanks to cell capacity to maintain a high rate of ATP synthesis (via photosystem I-driven cyclic electron flow). This capacity might represent an important physiological tool in protecting the photosynthetic apparatus from excess of light as well as from other a-biotic stress conditions

A defective ABC transporter of the MRP family, responsible for the bean lpa1 mutation, affects the regulation of the phytic acid pathway, reduces seed myo-inositol and alters ABA sensitivity

We previously identified the lpa1 (low phytic acid) 280-10 line that carries a mutation conferring a 90% reduction in phytic acid (InsP6) content. In contrast to other lpa mutants, lpa1(280-10) does not display negative pleiotropic effects. In the present paper, we have identified the mutated gene and analysed its impact on the phytic acid pathway. Here, we mapped the lpa1(280-10) mutation by bulk analysis on a segregating F2 population, an then, by comparison with the soybean genome, we identified and sequenced a candidate gene. The InsP6 pathway was analysed by gene expression and quantification of metabolites. The mutated Pvmrp1(280-10) cosegregates with the lpa1(280-10) mutation, and the expression level of several genes of the InsP6 pathway are reduced in the lpa1(280-10) mutant as well as the inositol and raffinosaccharide content. PvMrp2, a very similar paralogue of PvMrp1 was also mapped and sequenced. The lpa1 mutation in beans is likely the result of a defective Mrp1 gene (orthologous to the lpa genes AtMRP5 and ZmMRP4), while its Mrp2 paralog is not able to complement the mutant phenotype in the seed. This mutation appears to down-regulate the InsP6 pathway at the transcriptional level, as well as altering inositol-related metabolism and affecting ABA sensitivity

Quickest Detection and Forecast of Pandemic Outbreaks: Analysis of COVID-19 Waves

The COVID-19 pandemic has, worldwide and up to December 2020, caused over 1.7 million deaths, and put the world's most advanced healthcare systems under heavy stress. In many countries, drastic restriction measures adopted by political authorities, such as national lockdowns, have not prevented the outbreak of new pandemic's waves. In this article, we propose an integrated detection-estimation-forecasting framework that, using publicly available data published by the national authorities, is designed to: (i) learn relevant features of the epidemic (e.g., the infection rate); (ii) detect as quickly as possible the onset (or the termination) of an exponential growth of the contagion; and (iii) reliably forecast the epidemic evolution. The proposed solution is validated by analyzing the COVID-19 second and third waves in the USA.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Magazine, feature topic "Networking Technologies to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic