DE WAELE J.

Raponzolo is a paleo-phreatic cave explored in 2011 in the Brenta Dolomites (Trentino, Italy), at the remarkable altitude of 2,560 m a.s.l. Differently to all other caves of the area, it hosts well-cemented fi ne to medium sands of granitic-metamorphic composition. The composition suggests a sediment source from the Adamello and Tonale Unit,...

Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within karst systems. Most of the secondary deposits in...

Quartz sandstone of the Sarisariñama massif in Venezuela hosts the world biggest collapse dolines in quartz-rich lithologies, with volumes up to some millions of cubic meters. Due to extremely complex logistics required to reach the massif, the genesis of these depressions and of the underlying caves has never been studied in detail. The lack...

Introduction: Acinetobacterbaumannii constitutes a dreadful problem in many ICUs worldwide. The very limited therapeutic options available for these organisms are a matter of great concern. No specific guidelines exist addressing the prevention and management of A. baumannii infections in the critical care setting. Methods: Clinical...

Many active and inactive hypogene sulfuric acid cave systems are known along the Apennines, Italy. The Cavallone-Bove cave system is located in the external part of the central Apennine Chain, in the Majella Massif, and opens at 1470 m asl along the Taranta Gorge (South of Chieti). The presence in these caves of peculiar geomorphological...

Unlike the spectacular speleothems that can often be found in numerous caves, vermiculations are rather unassuming formations, whose origin and evolution still subject of several heated debates. In order to provide a quantitative basis for the understanding of the nature and evolution of vermiculations in karst environments, the geochemical...

Meghalaya (NW India) is one of the regions in the world with highest recorded rainfalls. Because of these peculiar climatic conditions and intense solutional weathering, karstic caves are widely reported in the numerous lime- stone areas of this part of India. Likewise, the extremely high rainfall and the tropical monsoon climate have...

The Toirano karst system is located in the Ligurian Alps (north Italy), around 4.5 km inland from the coastline and carved in Middle Triassic dolostone. It comprises five cave levels over a 154 m altitudinal range, specifically Ulivo (340 m a.s.l.), Colombo (247 m a.s.l.), Upper Santa Lucia (215 m a.s.l.), Lower Santa Lucia (201 m a.s.l.) and...

The orthoquartzite Imawarì Yeuta cave hosts exceptional silica speleothems and represents a unique model system to study the geomicrobiology associated to silica amorphization processes under aphotic and stable physical–chemical conditions. In this study, three consecutive evolution steps in the formation of a peculiar blackish coralloid...

Background: Antimicrobial de-escalation (ADE) is a strategy of antimicrobial stewardship, aiming at preventing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by decreasing the exposure to broad-spectrum antimicrobials. There is no high-quality research on ADE and its effects on AMR. Its definition varies and there is little evidence-based...

We identified nine patients from four unrelated families harboring three biallelic variants in SCN1B (NM_001037.5: c.136C>T; p.[Arg46Cys], c.178C>T; p.[Arg60Cys], and c.472G>A; p.[Val158Met]). All subjects presented with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 52 (EIEE52), a rare, severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy featuring...