PRIN Project 2010-11 “Active and recent geodynamics of Calabrian Arc and accretionary complex in the Ionian Sea”: new constraints from geological, geodetic and seismological data

This contribution illustrates the preliminary results of our Research Unit in the PRIN Project 2010-11, which focuses on active and recent geodynamics of Calabrian Arc. The integration of the new geological, geodetic and seismological data supports the inferred recent plate boundary reorganization in the central-southern Mediterranean, where the regional GNNS velocity fields point to a deceleration or cessation of Calabrian Arc migration, and to extension along the axis of the Calabrian Arc, accommodated by normal faulting (e.g. Capo Vaticano and Messina Straits (Aloisi et al., 2012; Pepe et al., 2014; Spampinato et al., 2014). The study of the lateral borders of the Arc revealed that oblique strike-slip displacement has occurred during its southeastwards migration. Active dextral transtension is occurring along the NNW-striking Aeolian-Tindari Letojanni fault system, forming the southern boundary of the Arc. It joins to the north other two boundaries characterized by different tectonic regimes, a contractional belt in the southern Tyrrhenian sea, where a tectonic inversion has occurred since the middle Pleistocene, and the extensional one in northeastern Sicily and western Calabria (Palano et al., 2012; Barreca et al., 2014a). Along the northern boundary of the Arc, the so-called Pollino line (onshore) and Sibari Line (offshore), active deformation has been documented on folds growing above blind oblique thrust ramps extending offshore, controlling the present morphobathymetric pattern (Santoro et al., 2013). Although external to the Calabrian Arc, we also devoted attention to the front of the Maghrebian thrust belt in western Sicily where we presented the first evidence of historical co-seismic deformation on a thrust array running from the Belice area to the Sicily Channel (Barreca et al., 2014b). Morphotectonic analysis and fault numeric modeling of uplifted Pleistocene marine terraces and Holocene paleo-shorelines has documented that most of the uplift along the Calabrian Arc is related to regional processes and the residual to coseismic displacement on major faults, both transpressional and transtensional, at the borders, and extensional along the chain axis

Rhizobial characterization in revegetated areas after bauxite mining.

Little is known regarding how the increased diversity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria contributesto the productivity and diversity of plants in complex communities. However, some authorshave shown that the presence of a diverse group of nodulating bacteria is required for dif-ferent plant species to coexist. A better understanding of the plant symbiotic organismdiversity role in natural ecosystems can be extremely useful to define recovery strategies ofenvironments that were degraded by human activities. This study used ARDRA, BOX-PCRfingerprinting and sequencing of the 16S rDNA gene to assess the diversity of root nodulenitrogen-fixing bacteria in former bauxite mining areas that were replanted in 1981, 1985,1993, 1998, 2004 and 2006 and in a native forest. Among the 12 isolates for which the 16SrDNA gene was partially sequenced, eight, three and one isolate(s) presented similarity withsequences of the genera Bradyrhizobium, Rhizobium and Mesorhizobium, respectively. The rich-ness, Shannon and evenness indices were the highest in the area that was replanted theearliest (1981) and the lowest in the area that was replanted most recently (2006)

Prevalence, Etiology, and Outcome of Sepsis among Critically Ill Patients in Malawi

There are scarce data describing the etiology and clinical sequelae of sepsis in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study describes the prevalence and etiology of sepsis among critically ill patients at a referral hospital in Malawi. We conducted an observational prospective cohort study of adults admitted to the intensive care unit or high-dependency unit (HDU) from January 29, 2018 to March 15, 2018. We stratified the cohort based on the prevalence of sepsis as defined in the following three ways: quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score ≥ 2, clinical suspicion of systemic infection, and qSOFA score ≥ 2 plus suspected systemic infection. We measured clinical characteristics and blood and urine cultures for all patients; antimicrobial sensitivities were assessed for positive cultures. During the study period, 103 patients were admitted and 76 patients were analyzed. The cohort comprised 39% male, and the median age was 30 (interquartile range: 23-40) years. Eighteen (24%), 50 (66%), and 12 patients (16%) had sepsis based on the three definitions, respectively. Four blood cultures (5%) were positive, two from patients with sepsis by all three definitions and two from patients with clinically suspected infection only. All blood bacterial isolates were multidrug resistant. Of five patients with urinary tract infection, three had sepsis secondary to multidrug-resistant bacteria. Hospital mortality for patients with sepsis based on the three definitions ranged from 42% to 75% versus 12% to 26% for non-septic patients. In summary, mortality associated with sepsis at this Malawi hospital is high. Bacteremia was infrequently detected, but isolated pathogens were multidrug resistant

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in revegetated areas after bauxite mining.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligatory biotrophs that have a symbiotic evolutionary relationship with about 80% of all terrestrial plant species. The fungus mainly supplies water and nutrients to the plant and receives photoassimilates. The AMF diversity affects both the competition among species and floristic composition of an area. Fluctuations in the population of this group of microorganisms can cause fluctuations in plant populations above ground. In this work, the AMF community profile in areas with different ages of revegetation was evaluated by morphological identification of spores and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) techniques. We found 12 AMF species and dominance of the species Glomus macrocarpum determined by spore density. Since the richness level observed in each plot was low and there was predominance of one species of AMF, it can be concluded that these areas still present a high degree of disturbance. It was possible to detect complex band profiles by DGGE analyses for the two plant species studied, Visnia latifolia and Cecropia hololeuca. No relationship between AMF diversity and revegetation time was observed in these areas

Serological proteome analysis reveals new specific biases in the IgM and IgG autoantibody repertoires in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1

Objective: Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS 1) is caused by mutations in the AIRE gene that induce intrathymic T-cell tolerance breakdown, which results in tissue-specific autoimmune diseases. Design: To evaluate the effect of a well-defined T-cell repertoire impairment on humoral self-reactive fingerprints, comparative serum self-IgG and self-IgM reactivities were analyzed using both one- and two-dimensional western blotting approaches against a broad spectrum of peripheral tissue antigens. Methods: Autoantibody patterns of APS 1 patients were compared with those of subjects affected by other autoimmune endocrinopathies (OAE) and healthy controls. Results: Using a Chi-square test, significant changes in the Ab repertoire were found when intergroup patterns were compared. A singular distortion of both serum self-IgG and self-IgM repertoires was noted in APS 1 patients. The molecular characterization of these antigenic targets was conducted using a proteomic approach. In this context, autoantibodies recognized more significantly either tissue-specific antigens, such as pancreatic amylase, pancreatic triacylglycerol lipase and pancreatic regenerating protein 1α, or widely distributed antigens, such as peroxiredoxin-2, heat shock cognate 71-kDa protein and aldose reductase. As expected, a well-defined self-reactive T-cell repertoire impairment, as described in APS 1 patients, affected the tissue-specific self-IgG repertoire. Interestingly, discriminant IgM reactivities targeting both tissue-specific and more widely expressed antigens were also specifically observed in APS 1 patients. Using recombinant targets, we observed that post translational modifications of these specific antigens impacted upon their recognition. Conclusions: The data suggest that T-cell-dependent but also T-cell-independent mechanisms are involved in the dynamic evolution of autoimmunity in APS 1

Power Test of the First Two HL-LHC Insertion Quadrupole Magnets Built at CERN

The High-Luminosity project (HL-LHC) of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), requires low β* quadrupole magnets in Nb$_3$Sn technology that will be installed on each side of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. After a successful shortmodel magnet manufacture and test campaign, the project has advanced with the production, assembly, and test of full-size 7.15- m-long magnets. In the last two years, two CERN-built prototypes (MQXFBP1 and MQXFBP2) have been tested and magnetically measured at the CERN SM18 test facility. These are the longest accelerator magnets based on Nb$_3$Sn technology built and tested to date. In this paper, we present the test and analysis results of these two magnets, with emphasis on quenches and training, voltage-current measurements and the quench localization with voltage taps and a new quench antenna

Insertion Magnets

Chapter 3 in High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) : Preliminary Design Report. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the largest scientific instruments ever built. Since opening up a new energy frontier for exploration in 2010, it has gathered a global user community of about 7,000 scientists working in fundamental particle physics and the physics of hadronic matter at extreme temperature and density. To sustain and extend its discovery potential, the LHC will need a major upgrade in the 2020s. This will increase its luminosity (rate of collisions) by a factor of five beyond the original design value and the integrated luminosity (total collisions created) by a factor ten. The LHC is already a highly complex and exquisitely optimised machine so this upgrade must be carefully conceived and will require about ten years to implement. The new configuration, known as High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), will rely on a number of key innovations that push accelerator technology beyond its present limits. Among these are cutting-edge 11-12 tesla superconducting magnets, compact superconducting cavities for beam rotation with ultra-precise phase control, new technology and physical processes for beam collimation and 300 metre-long high-power superconducting links with negligible energy dissipation. The present document describes the technologies and components that will be used to realise the project and is intended to serve as the basis for the detailed engineering design of HL-LHC.Comment: 19 pages, Chapter 3 in High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) : Preliminary Design Repor

Managing Mediterranean nurse plants-mediated effects on soil microbial functions to improve rock phosphate solubilization processes and early growth of Cupressus atlantica G

a b s t r a c t The main objective was to evaluate the impact of nurse plant species commonly found in Mediterranean areas (Lavandula dentata and Thymus satureoides) on microbial soil functions, on the native inoculum potential of AM fungi involved in the rock phosphate weathering and to measure the potential benefits to the growth of Atlas Cypress (Cupressus atlantica G.), an endemic Cupressacea of Morocco. Soils collected from an old C. atlantica forest and pre-cultivated with each of the target plant species (L. dentata and T. satureoides). After 5 months of cultivation, they were uprooted and the treated substrate was amended or not with Khouribga Rock Phosphate (KRP). Then pots were filled with the soil mixtures and planted with one pre-germinated seed of C. atlantica. The results show that pre-cultivation step with native mycotrophic plant species improves the mycorrhizal soil infectivity, modifies soil microbial functionalities and increases the impact of rock phosphate amendment on the C. atlantica growth. This low cost cultivation practice by improving forest plant development and cultural soil quality constitutes a promising ecological engineering tool to improve the performances of ecosystem restoration

Conceptual Design of the LHC Interaction Region Upgrade: Phase-I

The LHC is starting operation with beam. The primary goal of CERN and the LHC community is to ensure that the collider is operated efficiently and that it achieves nominal performance in the shortest term. Since several years the community has been discussing the directions for maximizing the physics reach of the LHC by upgrading the experiments, in particular ATLAS and CMS, the LHC machine and the CERN proton injector complex, in a phased approach. The first phase of the LHC interaction region upgrade was approved by Council in December 2007. This phase relies on the mature Nb-Ti superconducting magnet technology with the target of increasing the LHC luminosity to 2 to 3 10^34 cm^-2s^-1, while maximising the use of the existing infrastructure. In this report, we present the goals and the proposed conceptual solutions for the LHC IR Upgrade Phase-I which include the recommendations of the conceptual design review

Hepatotoxicity induced by horse ATG and reversed by rabbit ATG: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of antilymphocyte agents has improved patient and graft survival in hematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation but has been associated with the development of short-term toxicities as well as long-term complications.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a young female with Fanconi anemia who received antithymocyte globulin as part of the conditioning regimen prior to her planned allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh. She developed sudden and severe hepatotoxicity after receiving the first dose of horse antithymocyte globulin, manifested by marked elevation of serum transaminases and mild elevation of serum bilirubin level. Immediately after withdrawal of the offending agent and shifting to the rabbit form of antithymocyte globulin, the gross liver dysfunction started to subside and the hepatic profile results returned to the pre-transplant levels few weeks later. The patient had her allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant as planned without any further hepatic complications. After having a successful allograft, she was discharged from the stem cell transplant unit. During her follow up at the outpatient clinic, the patient remained very well and no major complication was encountered.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Hepatotoxicity related to the utilization of antithymocyte globulin varies considerably in severity and may be transient or long standing. There may be individual or population based susceptibilities to the development of side effects and these adverse reactions may also vary with the choice of the agent used. Encountering adverse effects with one type of antithymocyte agents should not discourage clinicians from shifting to another type in situations where continuation of the drug is vital.</p