The Columbellidae (Gastropoda, Buccinoidea) in the Miocene Paratethys Sea—striking diversity of a negelected group

We document 37 Columbellidae species, placed in 15 genera, from the middle Miocene of the Paratethys Sea, adding about 20% of new species to the previously known Columbellidae fauna of the Paratethys. This distinct increase is based on a careful revision of museum material that was collected during the 19th century. A detailed revision revealed numerous misidentifications of published material, which greatly distorted the understanding of many species in the literature. The revised fauna reveals only minimal affinities with coeval faunas from the Proto-Mediterranean Sea and suggests a palaeogeographic subdivision within the Central Paratethys between northern and southern basins. A major drop in columbellid diversity occurred at the Langhian/Serravallian boundary, coinciding with the Miocene Climatic Transition. This event led to a severe diversity decline from a high Langhian level of 32 species, which was comparable in the number of columbellid species to that of the modern Red Sea and tropical West Africa (~23 species), down to a diversity level of nine species, equalling that of the modern Mediterranean Sea. Auingeria nov. gen., Bellacolumbella nov. gen., Martaia nov. gen. and Defensina nov. gen. are introduced as new genera. Mitrella dacica nov. sp., Mitrella demaintenonae nov. sp., Mitrella elongatissima nov. sp., Mitrella viennensis nov. sp. and Zafrona sphaerocorrugata nov. sp. are described as new species. Costoanachis venzoi is proposed as replacement name for Anachis (Costoanachis) subcorrugata Venzo & Pelosio, 1963 non Columbella (Anachis) subcorrugata Boettger, 1906. Lectotypes are designated for Columbella (Anachis) guembeli Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella januskiewiczi Friedberg, 1938, Columbella (Mitrella) fallax Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Atilia (Macrurella) hilberi Cossmann, 1901, Columbella petersi Hilber, 1879, Columbella (Mitrella) complanata Sacco, 1890, Columbella (Mitrella) bittneri Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Orthurella) elongata var. convexula Sacco, 1890, Columbella (Anachis) moravica Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Mitrella) bucciniformis Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Anachis) haueri Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Anachis) austriaca Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Pyrene (Anachis) bellardii grussbachensis Csepreghy-Meznerics, 1969, Columbella (Anachis) dujardini Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Anachis) zitteli Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, Columbella (Nitidella) karreri Hoernes & Auinger, 1880, and Columbella (Nitidella) katharinae Hoernes & Auinger, 1880. Scabrellana is introduced as replacement name for the trilobite genus Scabrella Wenndorf (1990) non Scabrella Sacco, 1890.

Treatment-induced diabetes neuropathy: reminder of an important clinical lesson

Treatment-induced neuropathy of diabetes (TIND) is an acute, painful and rare complication of intensive glycaemic control in diabetes. We present a case of a 32-year-old man with sudden onset of severe lower limb pain. It worsened progressively and was refractory to analgesic and muscle relaxant therapies. It became so severe that the patient was impossible to stand, causing a marked impact on his daily life. He had a history of type 1 diabetes, diagnosed 3 years ago, and an episode of deep vein thrombosis of the left leg, 4 years ago. While completing an extensive workup, various analgesic adjustments were made, with no improvement. After careful revision of his medical data, a significant reduction of his A1C 6 months before the appearance of symptoms was noticed. A diagnosis of TIND was made. The patient was treated with amitriptyline and showed noticeable improvement after the first month.

A comprehensive bibliography, updated checklist, and distribution patterns of Rhodophyta from the Barents Sea (the Arctic Ocean)

A lot of data on the flora of the Barents Sea are scattered in Russian publications and thus are largely inaccessible to many researchers. The study aims to compile a checklist and to verify the species composition of the Rhodophyta of the Barents Sea. The checklist is based on a comprehensive bibliographic study referring to a wide range of data on the species distribution, from the oldest to the most recent, indispensable for analyzing the temporal variability of the Barents Sea flora. A careful revision allows the report of 82 species of Rhodophyta, whereas 36 species have been excluded as belonging to doubtful records or misidentifications. The distribution of seven species in the Barents Sea is clarified. Seventeen species are widespread in the Barents Sea; 11 species are distributed locally. An extensive bibliography and data on the presence of the specimens in the herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences are provided.

The Power of Gossip from Mary Robinson’s Tabitha Bramble to Lyrical Tales

This essay focuses on the often overlooked, if not derided, comic tales of Mary Robinson, arguing their centrality to the poetic and political project of Lyrical Tales (1800). It does so in two ways: first, by repositioning Robinson’s use of the pseudonym Tabitha Bramble, not as an off-key performance of Tobias Smollett’s original character, but as an empowered voice authoring her own tale, and, second, by correcting the commonplace critical assumption that the revised poems in Lyrical Tales remain Tabitha Bramble poems. Attending to Robinson’s careful revision process enlarges a critical understanding of Robinson’s relationship to female voice, from her reimagined Tabitha Bramble in newspaper verse to her reclamation of gossip in Lyrical Tales.

SARS-CoV-2 INFECTED PATIENTS: FROM A HEMATOLOGIST PERSPECTIVE

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 has become a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Understanding the hematologic findings of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential to promote their care and improve outcomes. Objective:In this review, we aim at summarizing changes in the hematopoietic system and hemostasis that occur in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. Findings: COVID-19 infection is often associated with laboratory hematologic findings that can have important clinical implications. Careful revision of baseline hematologic findings at diagnosis can predict severity of illness and help clinicians tailor their management and approach to patients whose condition can be guarded or critical.This can be of therapeutic and prognostic value in severely ill patients and can reduce the mortality rate from COVID-19. Such markers include D-dimer, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, viral load, cytokine storm, and lymphopenia.Studies have also shown an association between these markers and severe COVID-19 infection requiring admission to the intensive care unit or complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). According to the American Society of Hematology (ASH), all hospitalized patients with COVID-19 should receive pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis with LMWH. Conclusion:Until more data arises, the summary we provide can be used by hematologists to better understand hemostasis in COVID-19 infected patients.We are in need for more studies to define appropriate management plans in the setting of hematologic findings.

Delirium in COVID-19: epidemiology and clinical correlations in a large group of patients admitted to an academic hospital

Background Delirium incidence and clinical correlates in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pneumonia are still poorly investigated. Aim To describe the epidemiology of delirium in patients hospitalized for suspect COVID-19 pneumonia during the pandemic peak in an academic hospital of Northern Italy, identify its clinical correlations and evaluate the association with mortality. Methods The clinical records of 852 patients admitted for suspect COVID-19 pneumonia, defined as respiratory symptoms or fever or certain history of contact with COVID-19 patients, plus chest CT imaging compatible with alveolar-interstitial pneumonia, were retrospectively analyzed. Delirium was defined after careful revision of daily clinical reports in accordance with the Confusion Assessment Method criteria. Data on age, clinical presentation, comorbidities, drugs, baseline lab tests and outcome were collected. The factors associated with delirium, and the association of delirium with mortality, were evaluated through binary logistic regression models. Results Ninety-four patients (11%) developed delirium during stay. They were older (median age 82, interquartile range, IQR 78–89, vs 75, IQR 63–84, p < 0.001), had more neuropsychiatric comorbidities and worse respiratory exchanges at baseline. At multivariate models, delirium was independently and positively associated with age [odds ratio (OR) 1.093, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.046–1.143, p < 0.001], use of antipsychotic drugs (OR 4.529, 95% CI 1.204–17.027, p = 0.025), serum urea and lactate-dehydrogenase at admission. Despite a higher mortality in patients with delirium (57% vs 30%), this association was not independent of age and respiratory parameters. Conclusions Delirium represents a common complication of COVID-19 and a marker of severe disease course, especially in older patients with neuropsychiatric comorbidity.

The Quality of Practice Guidelines for Melanoma: A Methodologic Appraisal with the AGREE II and AGREE-REX Instruments

Multiple guidelines on cutaneous melanoma (CM) are available from several consortia and countries. To provide up-to-date guidance in the rapidly changing field of melanoma treatment, guideline developers have to provide regular updates without compromises of quality. We performed a systematic search in guideline databases, Medline and Embase to identify guidelines on CM. The methodological quality of the identified guidelines was independently assessed by five reviewers using the instruments “Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation” (AGREE II) and “Recommendation EXcellence” (AGREE-REX). We performed descriptive analysis, explored subgroup differences using the Kruskal–Wallis (H) test and examined the relationship between distinct domains and items of the instruments with Spearman’s correlation. Six guidelines by consortia from Australia, France, Germany, Scotland, Spain and the United States of America were included. The German guideline fulfilled 71%–98% of criteria in AGREE II and 78%–96% for AGREE-REX, obtaining the highest scores. Deficiencies in the domains of “applicability” and “values and preferences” were observed in all guidelines. The German and Spanish guidelines significantly differed from each other in most of the domains. The domains “applicability” and “values and preferences” were identified as methodological weaknesses requiring careful revision and improvement in the future.

Extended X-ray emission from the classic nova DQ Her – on the possible presence of a magnetized jet

ABSTRACT We present an analysis of archival Chandra and XMM–Newton observations of the magnetically active cataclysmic variable DQ Her and the shell around it ejected in a nova event in 1934. A careful revision of the Chandra observations confirms previous claims on the presence of extended X-ray emission around DQ Her and reveals that it actually corresponds to a bipolar jet-like structure extending ≃32 arcsec along a direction from north-east to south-west. Therefore, this X-ray emission extends beyond the optical nova shell and is perpendicular to its major axis. The XMM–Newton observations confirm the presence of the extended X-ray emission detected by Chandra, suggesting the additional presence of a diffuse X-ray emission from a hot bubble filling the nova shell. This hot bubble was very likely produced by the explosion that created the nebular shell detected in optical images. The bipolar feature can be modelled by the combination of an optically thin plasma emission component with temperature T ≈ 2 × 106 K and a power-law component with a photon index of Γ = 1.1 ± 0.9. Its X-ray luminosity in the 0.3–5 keV energy range is LX = (2.1 ± 1.3) × 1029 erg s−1, for an electron density ne ≈ 2 cm−3 and a mass mX ≈ 3 × 10−6 M⊙. We suggest that the X-ray bipolar structure in DQ Her is a jet and interpret its non-thermal X-ray emission in terms of a magnetized jet.

Description of the tadpole of Dendropsophus haraldschultzi (Bokermann, 1962) (Anura: Hylidae), with comments on reproductive biology

The genus Dendropsophus Fitzinger contains 108 recognized species (Frost 2020) distributed in nine species groups according to Faivovich et al. (2005). However, recent phylogenetic analysis recognized the presence of nonmonophyletic groups (e.g., Wiens et al. 2010; Fouquet et al. 2011; Motta et al. 2012; Jansen et al. 2019) suggesting that the relationships among species of Dendropsophus require careful revision. Species of this genus are distributed in the tropical and subtropical South America, including Trinidad, southward to northern Argentina and Uruguay and northward to Central America and tropical southern Mexico (Duellman et al. 2016; Frost 2020). Dendropsophus haraldschultzi (Bokermann) was described in the area of Santa Rita do Weill, municipality of São Paulo de Olivença, Amazonas State, Brazil. Adult individuals of D. haraldschultzi are small sized frogs (males 18–22 mm and females 22–25 mm; Rodríguez & Duellman 1994) with tuberculate skin on dorsal surfaces, denser on the head. They are found near open ponds and permanent large streams or in floating meadows along the Amazon river (Bokermann 1962; Rodríguez & Duellman 1994; Böning et al. 2017) and have been also found along the Amazon River Valley in the Brazilian states of Pará and Amapá (Missassi et al. 2017), and in Peru and Colombia. Bokermann (1962) and later authors (e.g., Lutz 1973) considered this species without evident taxonomic affinities. Currently, D. haraldschulzi is not assigned to any species group within the genus (Faivovich et al. 2005).

Das ukrainische Wirtschaftsgesetzbuch im Lichte der Zivilrechtsreform

The coexistence of the Civil Code and the Economic Code is a speciality of the Ukrainian legal system which distinguishes it from the most other jurisdictions in the post-Soviet area. The Economic Code is controversially discussed among legal scholars, whereby the most discussed points are the legislative technique of combining public law and private law issues, as well as the fact that some provisions of the Economic Code contradict provisions of the Civil Code. Having its roots in the Soviet legal system and the academic discourse of the Soviet era, the Economic Code to a certain extent conserves Soviet legal thinking in contemporary Ukrainian law. Thus, the reform of economic law should be one of the priorities of legal reforms in Ukraine. A careful revision of the individual provisions and general principles of Ukrainian commercial law with regard to the question whether they are still functional under the current economic and social conditions would be much more important than a general discussion about the Economic Code as such.