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OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic infection to an inflammatory cytokine storm with multi-organ failure and fatal outcomes. The identification of high-risk patients for severe disease is crucial to plan an early treatment and intensive follow-up. We aimed to investigate negative prognostic factors in a group of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 181 patients (90 men and 91 women, mean age 66.56 ± 13.53 years) were enrolled. Each patient received a work-up including medical history, clinical examination, arterial blood gas analysis, laboratory blood tests, feasible ventilatory support required during hospital stay, intensive care setting required, duration of illness and length of hospital stay (>or<25 days). For the assessment of the severity of COVID-19, three main indicators were considered: 1) the intensive care unit (ICU) admission 2) the hospitalization length >25 days; 3) the need of non-invasive ventilation (NIV). RESULTS: The independent risk factor associated with the ICU admission were lactic dehydrogenase elevation (p=0.046), C reactive protein elevation (p=0.014) at hospital admission and direct oral anticoagulant home therapy (p=0.048); for hospital length >25 days: early corticosteroid therapy (p=0.035); for NIV treatment: ferritin elevation at hospital admission (p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of the above factors may be useful to identify patients at high risk of developing a severe COVID-19 that need an early treatment and intensive follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work presents the results of a comprehensive modelling study of surface and groundwater resources in the Muzza--Bassa Lodigiana irrigation district, in Northern Italy. It assesses the impact of changes in land use and irrigation water availability on the distribution of crop water consumption in space and time, as well as on the groundwater resources. A distributed, integrated surface water-groundwater simulation system was implemented and applied to the study area. The system is based on the coupling of a conceptual vadose zone model with the groundwater model MODFLOW. To assess the impact of land use and irrigation water availability on water deficit for crops as well as on groundwater system in the area, a number of management scenarios were identified and compared with a base scenario, reflecting the present conditions. Changes in land use may alter significantly both total crop water requirement and aquifer recharge. Water supply is sufficient to meet demand under present conditions and, from the crop water use viewpoint, a reduction of water availability has a positive effect on the overall irrigation system efficiency; however, evapotranspiration deficit increases, concentrated in July and August, when it may be critical for maize crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We investigated whether supplementation of the active form of vitamin D (calcitriol) in recent-onset type 1 diabetes can protect beta-cell function evaluated by C-peptide and improve glycemic control assessed by A1C and insulin requirement.Research Design and Methods: Thirty-four subjects (aged 11-35 years, median 18 years) with recent-onset type 1 diabetes and high basal C-peptide >0.25 nmol/l were randomized in a double-blind trial to 0.25 microg/day calcitriol or placebo and followed-up for 2 years.Results: At 6, 12, and 24 months follow-up, A1C and insulin requirement in the calcitriol group did not differ from the placebo group. C-peptide dropped significantly (P < 0.001) but similarly in both groups, with no significant differences at each time point.Conclusions: At the doses used, calcitriol is ineffective in protecting beta-cell function in subjects (including children) with recent-onset type 1 diabetes and high C-peptide at diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding the interaction between soil, vegetation and atmosphere processes and groundwater dynamics is of paramount importance in water resources planning and management in many practical applications. Hydrological models of complex water resource systems need to include a number of components and should therefore seek a balance between capturing all relevant processes and maintaining data requirement and computing time at an affordable level. Water transfer through the unsaturated zone is a key hydrological process connecting atmosphere, surface water and groundwater. The paper focuses on the analysis of the modelling approaches that are generally used to describe vertical water transfer through unsaturated soil in hydrological models of water resource systems: a physically based approach, using numerical solutions of Richards'' equation, and two conceptual models, based on reservoir cascade schemes, are compared. The analysis focuses on the soil water content in the top soil (first meter) and on the outflow from the profile (i.e. recharge to the aquifer). Results show that the water contents simulated by the mechanistic and conceptual models are in good agreement, unless the capillary fringe reaches the top soil (i.e. groundwater table very close to the soil surface). The ability of conceptual models to capture the daily recharge dynamics is generally rather poor, especially when fine textured soils and thick profiles are considered; a better agreement is found when recharge is accumulated over longer time periods (e.g. months). Improvements can be achieved by allowing the number of reservoirs in cascade to vary with changing profile depth, although scientifically sound rules for fixing the number of reservoirs need to be established. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) regulates both insulin like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) and integrin β1 function. However, the role of Cav-1 in IGF-IR/integrin β1 cross talk remains to be established. In this study, we observed that IGF-I did not induce integrin β1 internalization but its plasma membrane reorganization. In particular, we found a rapid and transient association between integrin β1 and Cav-1 followed by the enrichment of integrin β1 in lipid rafts. To determine the role of Cav-1 in this process, we transfected Hacat cells with small interfering RNA specific for Cav-1 (siRNA-Cav-1) and with a scrambled siRNA as control (siRNA-Ctr). Cav-1 down regulated Hacat cells were then stimulated with IGF-I and analyzed by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. We found that Cav-1 silencing abolished the recruitment of integrin β1 to lipid rafts in the presence of IGF-I. These data demonstrate that IGF-IR/integrin β1 cross talk is followed by integrin β1 lipid raft compartmentalization and that Cav-1 is required for this process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The KATP channels play a pivotal role in the complex mechanism of insulin secretion. KATP channels represent the target of sulphonylureas, a class of drugs widely used in type 2 diabetes to stimulate insulin secretion. We previously showed that caveolin-1 depletion impairs action of the sulphonylurea glimepiride in human endothelial cells. The aim of this work was to investigate the possible role of caveolin-1 in glimepiride-induced insulin secretion. Caveolin-1 was depleted using siRNA method in the pancreatic βTC-6 cell line. Then stimulation of insulin secretion was performed with different secretagogues (glucose, KCl, and glimepiride). Here, we show that βTC-6 caveolin-1 depleted cells maintained high rate of insulin secretion after KCl, but not after glucose and glimepiride stimulation. Moreover, we find a direct interaction between caveolin-1 and Kir6.2, one of the KATP channel subunit. These results demonstrate that Cav-1 plays a critical role for glucose and sulfonylurea-stimulated insulin secretion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]