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Since the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, global sequencing efforts have led in the field of inborn errors of immunity, and inspired particularly by previous research on life-threatening influenza, they have revealed that known and novel inborn errors affecting type I interferon immunity underlie critical COVID-19 in up to 5% of cases. In addition, neutralizing autoantibodies against type I interferons have been identified in up to 20% of patients with critical COVID-19 who are older than 80 years and 20% of fatal cases, with a higher prevalence in men and individuals older than 70 years. Also, inborn errors impairing regulation of type I interferon responses and RNA degradation have been found as causes of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a life-threatening hyperinflammatory condition complicating otherwise mild initial SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and young adults. Better understanding of these immunologic mechanisms can aid in designing treatments for severe COVID-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, long COVID, and neuro-COVID.

The most important river of the European Union, the Danube, large sediment and nutrient influxes in the last millennium ultimately led to drastic morphological and ecological changes at the oceanic end of this system, the Black Sea. We suggested that these transformations are the result of the Ottoman Empire expansion into the Balkans between 1350 and 1450 A.D. Adoption of the Islamic cultural package in the region may have led to rapid deforestation of highlands for sheep farming at the expense of traditional small-scale cattle and pig farming. Alternative theories to explain this cascade of system-scale sedimentary changes are either agricultural - (a) the adoption of corn as the main staple from the Columbian exchange after 1500 AD, or climatic - (b) climate cooling during the Little Ice Age (LIA) after 1400 AD. In the case of Danube, such interdependencies between Nature and Culture are many. Searching for historical lessons, we review them starting from Homo sapiens’ and Neolithic agriculture expansions into Europe, ancient Greek and Roman engineering interventions long the river, the avant-la-lettre ecological management of the lower floodplain under Grigore Antipa, the catastrophic communist abuse of the combined natural-human system and explore their expression in the sedimentary architecture of the floodplain.

We present a case of environmental transformation, in the Romanian Danube Delta, driven by the interplay of state power, technological intervention, geomorphological processes, and local practices. Through the presentation of a cartographic archive (1856–2017), together with participant observation and historical research, we detail the various stages of transformation in the deltaic environment and show the relative interplay of driving forces. We show that each transformation of the Delta is at the same time an imposition from without and an adaptation from within, a move of consolidation of state power and a resistance to being fully incorporated. We show how in the history of this particular environment, the main drivers of change pass from being of a geomorphological nature to being related to the use of state power. We detail three stages in the transformation of the delta, through which the conceptualization of, and interventions in, the environment, go from a borderland to be secured, to a rich exploitation ground, to an ecological marvel to be protected. We argue that this kind of analysis can be particularly relevant for the governance of protected areas.

The Ayeyawady delta is the last Asian megadelta whose evolution has remained essentially unexplored so far. Unlike most other deltas across the world, the Ayeyawady has not yet been affected by dam construction providing a unique view on largely natural deltaic processes benefiting from abundant sediment loads affected by tectonics and monsoon hydroclimate. To alleviate the information gap and provide a baseline for future work, here we provide a first model for the Holocene development of this megadelta based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence-dated trench and drill core sediments collected in 2016 and 2017, together with a re-evaluation of published maps, charts and scientific literature. Altogether, this data indicates that Ayeyawady is a mud-dominated delta with tidal and wave influences that has been constructed within a vertically stable Pleistocene incised valley. The sediment-rich Ayeyawady River built meander belt alluvial ridges with avulsive characters. A more advanced coast in the western half of delta (i.e., the Pathein lobe) was probably favored by the more western location of the early course of the river. Radiogenic fingerprinting of the sediment suggest that the Pathein lobe has been built with Ayeyawady sediments alone. However, the eastern region of the delta (i.e., Yangon lobe) is offset inland and extends east into the mudflats of the Sittaung estuary. Wave-built beach ridge construction during the late Holocene, similar to other several deltas across the Indian monsoon domain, suggests a common climatic control on monsoonal delta morphodynamics through variability in discharge, changes in wave climate, or both. Correlation of the delta morphological and stratigraphic architecture information onland to the shelf bathymetry as well as its tectonic, sedimentary and hydrodynamic characteristics provide insight on the peculiar growth style of the Ayeyawady delta. The offset between the western Pathein lobe and the eastern deltaic coast appears to be driven by tectonic-hydrodynamic feedbacks as the extensionally lowered shelf block of the Gulf of Mottama amplifies tidal currents relative to the western part of the shelf. This situation probably activates a perennial shear front between the two regions that acts as a leaky energy fence helping to trap part of the sediment within the Pathein shore-attached subaquoeus clinoform. Just as importantly, the strong currents in the Gulf of Mottama act as an offshore-directed tidal pump that help build the deep mid-shelf Mottama clinoform with mixed sediments from Ayeyawady, Sittaung, and Thanlwin rivers. The highly energetic tidal, wind and wave regime of the northern Andaman Sea thus exports most sediment offshore despite the large load of the Ayeyawady river. The expected sediment deficit if dams are constructed on the river and tributaries may significantly impact the Ayeyawady delta fragile sedimentary equilibrium making it more vulnerable to the accelerating sea level rise and changes in frequency and intensity of cyclones hitting the coast.

A B S T R A C T Over the last half century, while the total sediment load of the Danube dramatically decreased due to dam construction on tributaries and its main stem, a grand experiment was inadvertently run in the Danube delta: the construction of a dense network of canals, which almost tripled the water discharge toward the interior of the delta plain. We use core-based and chart-based sedimentation rates and patterns to explore the delta transition from the natural to an anthropogenic regime, to understand the effects of far-field damming and near-field channelization, and to construct a conceptual model for delta development as a function sediment partition between the delta plain and the delta coastal fringe. We show that sediment fluxes increased to the delta plain due to channelization counteracting sea level rise. In turn, the delta coastal fringe was most impacted by the Danube’s sediment load collapse. Furthermore, we suggest that morphodynamic feedbacks at the river mouth are crucial in trapping sediment near the coast and constructing wave-dominated deltas or lobes. Finally, we suggest that increased channelization that mimics and enhances natural processes may provide a simple solution for keeping other delta plains above sea level and that abandonment of wave-dominated lobes may be the most long term efficient solution for protecting the internal fluvial regions of deltas and provide new coastal growth downcoast.

Flooding remains the most widely distributed natural hazard in Europe, leading to significant economic and social impact. Earth observation data is presently capable of making fundamental contributions towards reducing the detrimental effects of extreme floods. Technological advance makes development of online services able to process high volumes of satellite data without the need of dedicated desktop software licenses possible. The main objective of the case study is to present and evaluate a methodology for mapping of flooded areas based on MODIS satellite images derived indices and using state-of-the-art geospatial web services. The methodology and the developed platform were tested with data for the historical flood event that affected the Danube floodplain in 2006 in Romania. The results proved that, despite the relative coarse resolution, MODIS data is very useful for mapping the development flooded area in large plain floods. Moreover it was shown, that the possibility to adapt and combine the existing global algorithms for flood detection to fit the local conditions is extremely important to obtain accurate results.

Romania is one of a number of states that experienced a rapid shift to representative democracy after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In a well-known model of electoral developments in newly emerging democracies, Flint and Taylor have identified a characteristic volatility of support for political parties between elections because of their failure to meet popular expectations, which is accompanied by a volatile electoral geography. The experience of Romania over its first six elections since its 1989/90 transition to democracy fits the first part of that model: no party elected to power won the subsequent election and there has been considerable change in the structure of the party system. This has not been parallelled by comparable volatility in the country's electoral geography, however, which remained remarkably stable over the first five of the six elections: the last election in the sequence so far—in 2008—saw the geography change somewhat, however, consequent on the decline of strident...

Old cartographic documents represent a valuable resource in reconstructing the natural and built environment evolution. In order to integrate such maps with recent geospatial datasets, in GIS environment, some preparatory actions need to be done. This includes scanning, color enhancement, georeferencing and reprojection. From our experience, when it comes to collections with a large number of map sheets, georeferencing is the most meticulous and time consuming process. Traditionally, this is done manually, by carefully selecting points with known coordinates. To overcome this disadvantage and to increase the rectification precision an automated procedure was created. The whole process of map sheet georeferencing is done by a specially developed tool, called “findlines”, which relays on radon transform to extract, even in degraded and noisy conditions, all the straight lines from the map graticule network. Then, by knowing the distance between the graticule lines and the relation between the map name and lower-left corner coordinates, it is possible to automatically associate real coordinates to each intersection points in the graticule. Finally, the points are used along with GDAL to rapidly georeference each map sheet. The method was first successfully tested with modern topographic maps. To evaluate the procedure with old cartographic documents we select the 1:20 000 Romanian maps collection, under Lambert-Cholesky (1916–1959) projection system, as test data. The basic map, called “Plan Director de Tragere” was drafted under 1:20 000 scale in 2 118 drawings, covering all the Romanian territory. Each map sheet is 75 cm wide and 50 cm high and has a direct relation between the name and the lower-left corner coordinates. The maps were also successfully georeferenced using the findlines utility. Depending on the selected resample method, the time needed to georeference each map sheet, using 150 control points, ranged between 3 and 15 minutes on a normal computer. That proved the method efficiency and flexibility. Any map series with a regulated graticule grid and a logical relation between the name and the spatial position can be georeferenced using this approach, without any human intervention.

In natural conditions, the Indus River had one of the largest sediment loads in the world, building an extensive delta on the high-energy coast of the Arabian Sea. However, water and sediment discharge have been drastically altered in the Indus since the early 1960s, when several barrages were built along the river to feed the world's largest irrigation system. A digital terrain model based on detailed 19th century surveys has been constructed to assess the morphology of the Indus shelf. Comparison of the digital terrain model to a 1950s Pakistani bathymetric survey allowed an estimation of the natural sedimentation regime before extensive human-induced changes. Digital analysis of the Indus delta coastline based on satellite imagery was used to explore the effects of the drastic decrease in sediment delivery following extensive dam building. The Indus Canyon is a dominant feature of the region dissecting the shelf to within 20 m water depth and 3.5 km of the coast. Theoretical considerations based on estimates of the relative importance of wave energy vs. fluvial sediment delivery suggest that the Indus delta should develop a mid-shelf subaqueous clinoform. Instead, the Indus shelf exhibits a compound clinoform morphology. A shallow delta front clinoform extends along the entire delta coast from the shoreline to the 10–25 m water depth. A mid-shelf clinoform developed probably as a prodelta clinoform between ∼30 and 90 m water depth. The advanced position of the mid-shelf clinoform east of the Indus Canyon might reflect either a prolonged sediment delivery from the Indus River in that area compared to the shelf west of the canyon or the presence of a relict pre-Holocene mid-shelf delta. A distinct lobe of the mid-shelf clinoform developed along the Kutch (Kachchh) coast probably as sediment advected alongshore was redeposited on the mid-shelf by strong offshore-directed tidal currents at the Gulf of Kutch mouth. Accumulation and erosion between 1895/96 and 1952/54 occurred primarily on the delta front clinoform, but also on the prodelta clinoform sector covered by both the surveys. During that time period, at the active Indus mouths, the delta front clinoform has built directly into the Indus Canyon, where sedimentation rates exceeded 50 cm/year. A sediment budget for the shelf for the 1895/96–1952/54 period suggests that the previous estimate of an Indus sediment discharge rate of 250 million tons per year in natural conditions is probably a minimum estimate. For the same time interval, the shoreline advanced along most of the delta coast. The progradation rate at the active mouths along the central delta coast surpassed 100 m/year. Following the 80% reduction in sediment discharge after the late 1950s, the deltaic shoreline along the central delta coast started to recede at average rates of ∼50 m/year. The abandoned delta shore (southeastern and northwestern sectors of the delta coast) remained largely progradational over the same period, with the southeastern sector prograding at an even greater rate than before. This differential behavior of the delta shoreline suggests a significant role for delta front sediment transfer processes in the evolution of abandoned deltaic coast.

Anthropogenic intervention along the Danube floodplain has occurred in various degrees since ancient times. Early in this history, small and localized changes were linked to fishing as floodplain lakes and channels constituted a permanent and trusted source of fish. Large-scale, intense changes occurred primarily during the communist period when most of the floodplain was used for agriculture. As a result of this phase, 3250 km of artificial levee were constructed on the main course of the Danube, of which more than 1100 km are located in Romania. By the end of the 1980s, the area affected by anthropogenic intervention in the floodplain amounted to 433,957 ha, represented by 56 embanked enclosures. Only a small part (79,943 ha) remained under natural conditions, primarily the mouths of tributaries and the “Small Islet of Braila”. In time, the narrowing of the streambed by anthropogenic levees led to an increase in current velocity and significant erosion of the riverbed. The damming of Danube at the Iron Gates Gorge and of its major tributaries led to the creation of 340 artificial lakes along their courses and lowered drastically Danube’s sediment discharge that feeds the current floodplain. In addition, fertilizer-aided intensive agriculture on the floodplain has fundamentally changed its soil regime.

The collapse of the Bronze Age Harappan, one of the earliest urban civilizations, remains an enigma. Urbanism flourished in the western region of the Indo-Gangetic Plain for approximately 600 y, but since approximately 3,900 y ago, the total settled area and settlement sizes declined, many sites were abandoned, and a significant shift in site numbers and density towards the east is recorded. We report morphologic and chronologic evidence indicating that fluvial landscapes in Harappan territory became remarkably stable during the late Holocene as aridification intensified in the region after approximately 5,000 BP. Upstream on the alluvial plain, the large Himalayan rivers in Punjab stopped incising, while downstream, sedimentation slowed on the distinctive mega-fluvial ridge, which the Indus built in Sindh. This fluvial quiescence suggests a gradual decrease in flood intensity that probably stimulated intensive agriculture initially and encouraged urbanization around 4,500 BP. However, further decline in monsoon precipitation led to conditions adverse to both inundation- and rain-based farming. Contrary to earlier assumptions that a large glacier-fed Himalayan river, identified by some with the mythical Sarasvati, watered the Harappan heartland on the interfluve between the Indus and Ganges basins, we show that only monsoonal-fed rivers were active there during the Holocene. As the monsoon weakened, monsoonal rivers gradually dried or became seasonal, affecting habitability along their courses. Hydroclimatic stress increased the vulnerability of agricultural production supporting Harappan urbanism, leading to settlement downsizing, diversification of crops, and a drastic increase in settlements in the moister monsoon regions of the upper Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

IL (interleukin)-22 is an IL-10-related cytokine; its main biological activity known thus far is the induction of acute phase reactants in liver and pancreas. IL-22 signals through a receptor that is composed of two chains from the class II cytokine receptor family: IL-22R (also called ZcytoR11/CRF2-9) and IL-10Rbeta (CRF2-4), which is also involved in IL-10 signaling. In this report, we analyzed the signal transduction pathways activated in response to IL-22 in a rat hepatoma cell line, H4IIE. We found that IL-22 induces activation of JAK1 and Tyk2 but not JAK2, as well as phosphorylation of STAT1, STAT3, and STAT5 on tyrosine residues, extending the similarities between IL-22 and IL-10. However our results unraveled some differences between IL-22 and IL-10 signaling. Using antibodies specific for the phosphorylated form of MEK1/2, ERK1/2, p90RSK, JNK, and p38 kinase, we showed that IL-22 activates the three major MAPK pathways. IL-22 also induced serine phosphorylation of STAT3 on Ser(727). This effect, which is not shared with IL-10, was only marginally affected by MEK1/2 inhibitors, indicating that other pathways might be involved. Finally, by overexpressing a STAT3 S727A mutant, we showed that serine phosphorylation is required to achieve maximum transactivation of a STAT responsive promoter upon IL-22 stimulation.

New radiocarbon and optical dates show that the Holocene Danube delta started to build out of a Black Sea embayment 5200 yr ago. Delta lobe development phases differ by as much as 5 k.y. from previously proposed ages. The new chronology allows for a better understanding of the Danube delta paleogeography, includ- ing the demise of Istria, the main ancient Greek-Roman city in the region. Prior reconstructions of sea level in the Black Sea inferred fluctuations to 15 m in range; however, stratigraphy of beach ridg- es in the delta shows that the relative Black Sea level for the past 5 k.y. was stable in the Danube delta region within 2 m and 1.5 of the current level. Hydroisostatic effects related to a proposed catastrophic reconnection of the Black Sea to the World Ocean in the early Holocene may have been responsible for the sea level reaching the highstand earlier than estimated by models. The new sea-level data suggest that submergence at several ancient settle- ments around the Black Sea may be better explained by local fac- tors such as subsidence rather than by basin-wide sea-level fluctuations.

Lucrarea de fata reprezinta rodul activitatii intreprinse in ultimii 10 ani, in cadrul Statiunii de Cercetari Marine si Fluviale din Sf. Gheorghe. O buna parte din materiale au fost publicate pe web si au facut obiectul orelor de curs, sau de lucrari practice (Insule mitice, Hartile de navigatie.). Alte capitole constituie noutati: Elemente de toponimie specifice litoralului românesc si Toponimie deltaica comparata. Problemele de teledetectie au fost atinse in cadrul unor proiecte de cercetare, dar s-au dovedit extrem de utile si sub aspect educational. Identificarea fenomenelor de upwelling pe baza imaginilor satelitare Modis sau Efectele inundatiilor asupra apelor costiere sunt subiecte de un real interes, dezvoltate ulterior, in cadrul unor lucrari de diploma sau de disertatie.