Jellyfishes have ecological and societal value, but our understanding of taxonomic identity of many jellyfish species remains limited. Here, an approach integrating morphological and molecular (16S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome oxidase I) data enables taxonomic assessment of the blubber jellyfish found in the Philippines. In this study, we aimed to resolve doubt on the taxonomy of Acromitoides purpurus, a valid binomen at the time of our research. Our morphological findings confirm that this jellyfish belongs to the genus Catostylus, and is distinct from known species of the genus inhabiting the Western Pacific, such as Catostylus ouwensi, Catostylus townsendi, and Catostylus mosaicus. Detailed morphological and molecular analyses of the type specimens from the Philippines with the other Catostylus species revive the binomen Catostylus purpurus and invalidate A. purpurus. Genetic analysis also distinguishes this Philippine jellyfish from C. townsendi and C. mosaicus. Through this study, we arranged several Catostylidae taxa into species inquirendae (Catostylus tripterus, Catostylus turgescens, and Acromitoides stiphropterus) and one genus inquirenda (Acromitoides) and provided an identification key for species of Catostylus. This comprehensive study confirms the blubber jellyfish as C. purpurus, enriching our understanding of jellyfish biodiversity. The integration of morphological and genetic analyses proves vital in resolving taxonomic ambiguities within the Catostylidae family and in the accurate identification of scyphozoan jellyfishes.

The transformation of sodium and potassium smectite into mixed-layer clay was followed in hydrothermal kinetic experiments. Glasses of beidellite composition and the Wyoming bentonite were used as starting materials. Temperatures ranged between 260 and 490°C at 2 kbar pressure, and run times ranged between 6 hr and 266 days.

The course of the reactions was found to be strongly affected by interlayer chemistry. When potassium was the interlayer cation, increasing reaction produced the series: randomly interstratified illite/smectite-ordered interstratified illite/smectite-illite. This sequence is equivalent to that formed in shales during burial diagenesis. With interlayer sodium and temperatures above 300°C, an aluminous beidellite (Black Jack analog)-rectorite-paragonite series was realized. The difference between these two diagenetic families is discussed. Below 300°C, sodium beidellite formed randomly interstratified mixed-layer clay much like potassium beidellite, except that a higher layer charge was required to produce sodium mica-like layers. The higher charge resulted from sodium's higher hydration energy. The difference in hydration energy between potassium and sodium may account for the fixation of potassium rather than sodium in illite during burial diagenesis.

The appearance of ordered interlayering in mixed-layer phases is also related to interlayer chemistry. Ordering formed in sodium clays at high expandabilities, whereas it never appeared in the potassium clays above approximately 35% expandable. The appearance of ordering may be partly related to the polarizing power of the mica-like layers.

Phase diagrams, constructed from the kinetic experiments and from the composition and occurrence of natural clays, are presented for the systems paragonite and muscovite-2 quartz-kaolinite-excess water. This study also reports the first synthesis of a Kalkberg-type mixed-layer clay.

The Si/Al ratio of an hydrothermal system plays an important role in kaolinite synthesis. If the atomic Si/Al ratio of a system is greater than 2-0, kaolinite will disappear at 345 + 5°C and 2 kbars water pressure according to the reaction kaolinite + 2 quartz → pyrophyllite + H2O. If the atomic Si/Al ratio is less than 2-0, however, kaolinite will persist until 405°C where it will react according to the equation 2 kaolinite → pyrophyllite + 2 boehmite + 2 H2O. The Si/Al ratio of the system and temperature are also factors in determining whether b-axis ordered or disordered kaolinite will crystallize. The ordered variety is favored by a lower Si/Al ratio and a higher temperature than is the disordered form.

Hydrothermal experiments also show that kaolinite can be synthesized at 150°C and 5 bars pressure in distilled water from amorphous starting materials. Previous investigators were unsuccessful in forming kaolinite under these conditions because their systems were contaminated with alkalis.

Attempts to synthesize halloysite and dickite failed, but halloysite was converted to kaolinite at 150°C, suggesting that halloysite can be synthesized only at low temperatures.

Shewanella putrefaciens CN32 reduces Fe(III) within two illites which have different properties: the Fithian bulk fraction and the <0.2 µm fraction of Muloorina. The Fithian illite contained 4.6% (w/w) total Fe, 81% of which was Fe(III). It was dominated by illite with some jarosite (∼32% of the total Fe(III)) and goethite (11% of the total Fe(III)). The Muloorina illite was pure and contained 9.2% Fe, 93% of which was Fe(III). Illite suspensions were buffered at pH 7 and were inoculated with CN32 cells with lactate as the electron donor. Select treatments included anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) as an electron shuttle. Bioproduction of Fe(II) was determined by ferrozine analysis. The unreduced and bioreduced solids were characterized by Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The extent of Fe(III) reduction in the bulk Fithian illite was enhanced by the presence of AQDS (73%) with complete reduction of jarosite and goethite and partial reduction of illite. Mössbauer spectroscopy and chemical extraction determined that 21–25% of illite-associated Fe(III) was bioreduced. The extent of bioreduction was less in the absence of AQDS (63%) and only jarosite was completely reduced with partial reduction of goethite and illite. The XRD and TEM data revealed no significant illite dissolution or biogenic minerals, suggesting that illite was reduced in the solid state and biogenic Fe(II) from jarosite and goethite was either released to aqueous solution or adsorbed onto residual solid surfaces. In contrast, only 1% of the structural Fe(III) in Muloorina illite was bioreduced. The difference in the extent and rate of bioreduction between the two illites was probably due to the difference in layer charge and the total structural Fe content between the Fithian illite (0.56 per formula) and Muloorina illite (0.87). There may be other factors contributing to the observed differences, such as expandability, surface area and the arrangements of Fe in the octahedral sheets. The results of this study have important implications for predicting microbe-induced physical and chemical changes of clay minerals in soils and sediments.

Healthcare personnel who deal with COVID-19 experience stigma. There is a lack of national-level representative qualitative data to study COVID-19-related stigma among healthcare workers in India. The present study explores factors associated with stigma and manifestations experienced by Indian healthcare workers involved in COVID-19 management. We conducted in-depth interviews across 10 centres in India, which were analysed using NVivo software version 12. Thematic and sentiment analysis was performed to gain deep insights into the complex phenomenon by categorising the qualitative data into meaningful and related categories. Healthcare workers (HCW) usually addressed the stigma they encountered when doing their COVID duties under the superordinate theme of stigma. Among them, 77.42% said they had been stigmatised in some way. Analyses revealed seven interrelated themes surrounding stigma among healthcare workers. It can be seen that the majority of the stigma and coping sentiments fall into the mixed category, followed by the negative sentiment category. This study contributes to our understanding of stigma and discrimination in low- and middle-income settings. Our data show that the emergence of fear of the virus has quickly turned into a stigma against healthcare workers.

In a recent study, visual signals were recorded for the first time in starburst amacrine cells of the macaque retina, and, as for mouse and rabbit, a directional bias observed in calcium signals was recorded from near the dendritic tips. Stimulus motion from the soma toward the tip generated a larger calcium signal than motion from the tip toward the soma. Two mechanisms affecting the spatiotemporal summation of excitatory postsynaptic currents have been proposed to contribute to directional signaling at the dendritic tips of starbursts: (1) a “morphological” mechanism in which electrotonic propagation of excitatory synaptic currents along a dendrite sums bipolar cell inputs at the dendritic tip preferentially for stimulus motion in the centrifugal direction; (2) a “space–time” mechanism that relies on differences in the time-courses of proximal and distal bipolar cell inputs to favor centrifugal stimulus motion. To explore the contributions of these two mechanisms in the primate, we developed a realistic computational model based on connectomic reconstruction of a macaque starburst cell and the distribution of its synaptic inputs from sustained and transient bipolar cell types. Our model suggests that both mechanisms can initiate direction selectivity in starburst dendrites, but their contributions differ depending on the spatiotemporal properties of the stimulus. Specifically, the morphological mechanism dominates when small visual objects are moving at high velocities, and the space–time mechanism contributes most for large visual objects moving at low velocities.