Objective: Previous studies have shown that meteorological factors may increase COVID-19 mortality, likely due to the increased transmission of the virus. However, this could also be related to an increased infection fatality rate (IFR). We investigated the association between meteorological factors (temperature, humidity, solar irradiance, pressure, wind, precipitation, cloud coverage) and IFR across Spanish provinces ( = 52) during the first wave of the pandemic (weeks 10-16 of 2020).
Methods: We estimated IFR as excess deaths (the gap between observed and expected deaths, considering COVID-19-unrelated deaths prevented by lockdown measures) divided by the number of infections (SARS-CoV-2 seropositive individuals plus excess deaths) and conducted Spearman correlations between meteorological factors and IFR across the provinces.
Results: We estimated 2,418,250 infections and 43,237 deaths. The IFR was 0.03% in < 50-year-old, 0.22% in 50-59-year-old, 0.9% in 60-69-year-old, 3.3% in 70-79-year-old, 12.6% in 80-89-year-old, and 26.5% in ≥ 90-year-old. We did not find statistically significant relationships between meteorological factors and adjusted IFR. However, we found strong relationships between low temperature and unadjusted IFR, likely due to Spain's colder provinces' aging population.
Conclusion: The association between meteorological factors and adjusted COVID-19 IFR is unclear. Neglecting age differences or ignoring COVID-19-unrelated deaths may severely bias COVID-19 epidemiological analyses.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8690129 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3967/bes2021.120 | DOI Listing |
BMC Plant Biol
January 2025
Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, 42310, Türkiye.
Background: Innovation in crop establishment is crucial for wheat productivity in drought-prone climates. Seedling establishment, the first stage of crop productivity, relies heavily on root and coleoptile system architecture for effective soil water and nutrient acquisition, particularly in regions practicing deep planting. Root phenotyping methods that quickly determine coleoptile lengths are vital for breeding studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Genomics
January 2025
Henan Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Biological Breeding, College of Agronomy, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453003, China.
Background: The Sec14 domain is an ancient lipid-binding domain that evolved from yeast Sec14p and performs complex lipid-mediated regulatory functions in subcellular organelles and intracellular traffic. The Sec14 family is characterized by a highly conserved Sec14 domain, and is ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotic cells and has diverse functions. However, the number and characteristics of Sec14 homologous genes in soybean, as well as their potential roles, remain understudied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
The evolutionary history underlying gradients in species richness is still subject to discussions and understanding the past niche evolution might be crucial in estimating the potential of taxa to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In this study we intend to contribute to elucidation of the evolutionary history of liverwort species richness distributions along elevational gradients at a global scale. For this purpose, we linked a comprehensive data set of genus occurrences on mountains worldwide with a time-calibrated phylogeny of liverworts and estimated mean diversification rates (DivElev) and mean ages (AgeElev) of the respective genera per elevational band.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
During cold acclimation in high-latitude and high-altitude regions, japonica rice develops enhanced cold tolerance, but the underlying genetic basis remains unclear. Here, we identify CTB5, a homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factor that confers cold tolerance at the booting stage in japonica rice. Four natural variations in the promoter and coding regions enhance cold response and transcriptional regulatory activity, enabling the favorable CTB5 allele to improve cold tolerance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Death Dis
January 2025
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Skin Diseases and STIs, Hospital for Skin Diseases, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, 210042, Jiangsu, China.
UVB irradiation induces diverse modalities of regulatory cell death in keratinocytes. Recently, the pattern of coexistence of pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis has been termed PANoptosis; however, whether PANoptosis occurs in keratinocytes in UVB-induced skin injury remains unclear. We observed that the key molecules of GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis, which are N-terminal GSDMD, cleaved caspase-3/PARP, and phosphorylated MLKL, respectively, were elevated in keratinocytes of UVB-challenged mice and human skin tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!