Awareness towards Chikungunya virus infection risk by general practitioners in Rome: a questionnaire based survey before the 2017 outbreak

Autochthonous cases of Chikungunya (CHIKV) have been recently detected in Rome. A survey was conduct- ed prior to the 2017 outbreak to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices towards CHIKV infections on 103 randomly selected general practitioners (GPs), practicing in the centre of Rome. Only 24.3% were aware of CHIKV and completed the interview. Among completers, the knowledge of basic elements of CHIKV in- fection was insufficient. Only two thirds of them were able to identify possible CHIKV cases in hypothetical clinical scenarios presented by the interviewer. Our study highlights the need to improve GP knowledge to- wards CHIKV, as a necessary step to establish an efficacious epidemic surveillance

WISER Deliverable D3.3-2: The importance of invertebrate spatial and temporal variation for ecological status classification for European lakes

European lakes are affected by many human induced disturbances. In principle, ecological theories predict that the structure and functioning of benthic invertebrate assemblage (one of the Biological Quality Elements following the Water Framework Directive, WFD terminology) change in response to the level of disturbances, making this biological element suitable for assessing the status and management of lake ecosystems. In practice, to set up assessment systems based on invertebrates, we need to distiguish community changes that are related to human pressures from those that are inherent natural variability. This task is complicated by the fact that invertebrate communities inhabiting the littoral and the profundal zones of lakes are constrained by different factors and respond unevenly to distinct human disturbances. For example it is not clear yet how the invertebrates assemblages respond to watershed and shoreline alterations, nor the relative importance of spatial and temporal factors on assemblage dynamics and relative bioindicator values of taxa, the habitat constraints on species traits and other taxonomic and methodological limitations. The current lack of knowledge of basic features of invertebrate temporal and spatial variations is limiting the fulfillment of the EU-wide intercalibration of lake ecological quality assessment systems in Europe, and thus compromising the basis for setting the environmental objectives as required by the WFD. The aim of this deliverable is to provide a contribution towards the understanding of basic sources of spatial and temporal variation of lake invertebrate assemblages. The report is structured around selected case studies, manly involving the analysis of existing datasets collated within WISER. The case studies come from different European lake types in the Northern, Central, Alpine and Mediterranean regions. All chapters have an obvious applied objective and our aim is to provide to those dealing with WFD implementation at various levels useful information to consider when designing monitoring programs and / or invertebrate-based classification systems

Spatial modes for transmission of chikungunya virus during a large chikungunya outbreak in Italy: a modeling analysis

14openInternationalBothBackground The spatial spread of many mosquito-borne diseases occurs by focal spread at the scale of a few hundred meters and over longer distances due to human mobility. The relative contributions of different spatial scales for transmission of chikungunya virus require definition to improve outbreak vector control recommendations. Methods We analyzed data from a large chikungunya outbreak mediated by the mosquito Aedes albopictus in the Lazio region, Italy, consisting of 414 reported human cases between June and November 2017. Using dates of symptom onset, geographic coordinates of residence, and information from epidemiological questionnaires, we reconstructed transmission chains related to that outbreak. Results Focal spread (within 1 km) accounted for 54.9% of all cases, 15.8% were transmitted at a local scale (1–15 km) and the remaining 29.3% were exported from the main areas of chikungunya circulation in Lazio to longer distances such as Rome and other geographical areas. Seventy percent of focal infections (corresponding to 38% of the total 414 cases) were transmitted within a distance of 200 m (the buffer distance adopted by the national guidelines for insecticide spraying). Two main epidemic clusters were identified, with a radius expanding at a rate of 300–600 m per month. The majority of exported cases resulted in either sporadic or no further transmission in the region. Conclusions Evidence suggest that human mobility contributes to seeding a relevant number of secondary cases and new foci of transmission over several kilometers. Reactive vector control based on current guidelines might allow a significant number of secondary clusters in untreated areas, especially if the outbreak is not detected early. Existing policies and guidelines for control during outbreaks should recommend the prioritization of preventive measures in neighboring territories with known mobility flows to the main areas of transmission.openGuzzetta, Giorgio; Vairo, Francesco; Mammone, Alessia; Lanini, Simone; Poletti, Piero; Manica, Mattia; Rosa, Roberto; Caputo, Beniamino; Solimini, Angelo; Torre, Alessandra Della; Scognamiglio, Paola; Zumla, Alimuddin; Ippolito, Giuseppe; Merler, StefanoGuzzetta, G.; Vairo, F.; Mammone, A.; Lanini, S.; Poletti, P.; Manica, M.; Rosa, R.; Caputo, B.; Solimini, A.; Torre, A.D.; Scognamiglio, P.; Zumla, A.; Ippolito, G.; Merler, S

Spatial modes for transmission of chikungunya virus during a large chikungunya outbreak in Italy. A modeling analysis

Background The spatial spread of many mosquito-borne diseases occurs by focal spread at the scale of a few hundred meters and over longer distances due to human mobility. The relative contributions of different spatial scales for transmission of chikungunya virus require definition to improve outbreak vector control recommendations. Methods We analyzed data from a large chikungunya outbreak mediated by the mosquito Aedes albopictus in the Lazio region, Italy, consisting of 414 reported human cases between June and November 2017. Using dates of symptom onset, geographic coordinates of residence, and information from epidemiological questionnaires, we reconstructed transmission chains related to that outbreak. Results Focal spread (within 1 km) accounted for 54.9% of all cases, 15.8% were transmitted at a local scale (1–15 km) and the remaining 29.3% were exported from the main areas of chikungunya circulation in Lazio to longer distances such as Rome and other geographical areas. Seventy percent of focal infections (corresponding to 38% of the total 414 cases) were transmitted within a distance of 200 m (the buffer distance adopted by the national guidelines for insecticide spraying). Two main epidemic clusters were identified, with a radius expanding at a rate of 300–600 m per month. The majority of exported cases resulted in either sporadic or no further transmission in the region. Conclusions Evidence suggest that human mobility contributes to seeding a relevant number of secondary cases and new foci of transmission over several kilometers. Reactive vector control based on current guidelines might allow a significant number of secondary clusters in untreated areas, especially if the outbreak is not detected early. Existing policies and guidelines for control during outbreaks should recommend the prioritization of preventive measures in neighboring territories with known mobility flows to the main areas of transmission

A general wavelet-based profile decomposition in the critical embedding of function spaces

We characterize the lack of compactness in the critical embedding of functions spaces $X\subset Y$ having similar scaling properties in the following terms : a sequence $(u_n)_{n\geq 0}$ bounded in $X$ has a subsequence that can be expressed as a finite sum of translations and dilations of functions $(\phi_l)_{l>0}$ such that the remainder converges to zero in $Y$ as the number of functions in the sum and $n$ tend to $+\infty$. Such a decomposition was established by G\'erard for the embedding of the homogeneous Sobolev space $X=\dot H^s$ into the $Y=L^p$ in $d$ dimensions with $0<s=d/2-d/p$, and then generalized by Jaffard to the case where $X$ is a Riesz potential space, using wavelet expansions. In this paper, we revisit the wavelet-based profile decomposition, in order to treat a larger range of examples of critical embedding in a hopefully simplified way. In particular we identify two generic properties on the spaces $X$ and $Y$ that are of key use in building the profile decomposition. These properties may then easily be checked for typical choices of $X$ and $Y$ satisfying critical embedding properties. These includes Sobolev, Besov, Triebel-Lizorkin, Lorentz, H\"older and BMO spaces.Comment: 24 page

Macroinvertebrate community traits and nitrate removal in stream sediments

1. In-stream nitrate removal capacity may be used as a proxy for the ecosystem service of water quality regulation. It is well known that this natural function is driven by abiotic and biotic factors in running water environments. With regard to biotic drivers, most of the literature focuses on the microbial community influences, but there has been very little emphasis on the relationship with the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Since this community feeds on microbial assemblages (autotrophic and/or heterotrophic biofilms) that live on the streambed and in the hyporheic zone of the river, macroinvertebrates also have the potential to influence nitrate removal via its influences on microbiological processes.2. The objective of this study was to examine the potential relationship between the macroinvertebrate communities and nitrate removal. A dataset of in-stream nitrate removal rates measured in nine-third-order streams was analysed. The simultaneous influences of abiotic (hydromorphological, physical and chemical characteristics) and biotic (biofilm and macroinvertebrate) drivers were examined and together explained 56% of the in-stream nitrate removal variance. An analysis of the independent contributions of each driver showed that abiotic drivers (e.g. ammonium, dissolved organic carbon, temperature and transient zone) contributed 40% of this nitrate removal variance, whereas the macroinvertebrate community contributed 39%.3. The potential relationship between macroinvertebrates and nitrate removal was subsequently explored using trait-based approaches of the macroinvertebrate community. This method allows for the selection of trait modalities assuming a top-down control of microbial communities by macroinvertebrates, with in-stream abiotic conditions correlated with nitrate removal (assuming that environmental conditions affect macroinvertebrate community composition).4. The main trait modalities positively correlated with nitrate removal were scraper (feeding habit), flagstones/boulders/cobbles/pebbles (substrate preference), crawler and interstitial (locomotion) and detritus (food). The main modalities negatively correlated with nitrate removal were silt and mud with microphytes (as substrate preference), and with fine sediment with microorganisms, and dead animals (as food sources). These results agreed with the hypothesis of top-down control and enhanced understanding of the influence of hydromorphological factors on nitrate removal.5. This study highlights the involvement of the macroinvertebrate community in in-stream nitrate processing, and demonstrates the usefulness of applying a functional approach to explain relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem function

EO-ALERT: A Novel Architecture for the Next Generation of Earth Observation Satellites Supporting Rapid Civil Alerts

The EO-ALERT project proposes the definition and development of the next-generation Earth Observation (EO) data processing chain, based on a novel flight segment architecture that moves opti-mised key EO data processing elements from the ground segment to on-board the satellite, with the aim of delivering EO products to the end user with very low latency. EO-ALERT achieves, globally, latencies below five minutes for EO products delivery, and below 1 minute in some scenarios. The proposed archi-tecture combines innovations in the on-board elements of the data chain and the communications, namely: on-board reconfigurable data handling, on-board image generation and processing for the generation of alerts (EO products) using Artificial Intelligence (AI), on-board AI-based data compression and encryption, high-speed on-board avionics, and reconfigurable high data rate communication links to ground, including a separate chain for alerts with minimum latency and global coverage. This paper pre-sents the proposed architecture, its performance and hardware, considering two different user scenarios: ship detection and extreme weather nowcasting. The results show that, when implemented using COTS components and available communication links, the proposed architecture can deliver alerts to ground with latency below five minutes, for both SAR and Optical missions, demonstrating the viability of the EO-ALERT concept

A Novel Satellite Architecture for the Next Generation of Earth Observation Satellites Supporting Rapid Alerts

The EO-ALERT European Commission H2020 project proposes the definition, development, and verification and validation through ground hardware testing, of a next-generation Earth Observation (EO) data processing chain. The proposed data processing chain is based on a novel flight segment architecture that moves EO data processing elements traditionally executed in the ground segment to on-board the satellite, with the aim of delivering EO products to the end user with very low latency. EO-ALERT achieves, globally, latencies below five minutes for EO products delivery, and below one minute in realistic scenarios. The proposed EO-ALERT architecture is enabled by on-board processing, recent improvements in processing hardware using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, and persistent space-to-ground communications links. EO-ALERT combines innovations in the on-board elements of the data chain and the communications, namely: on-board reconfigurable data handling, on-board image generation and processing for the generation of alerts (EO products) using Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), on-board AI-based data compression and encryption, high-speed on-board avionics, and reconfigurable high data rate communication links to ground, including a separate chain for alerts with minimum latency and global coverage. This paper presents the proposed architecture, its hardware realization for the ground testing in a representative environment and its performance. The architecture’s performance is evaluated considering two different user scenarios where very low latency (almost-real-time) EO product delivery is required: ship detection and extreme weather monitoring/nowcasting. The hardware testing results show that, when implemented using COTS components and available communication links, the proposed architecture can deliver alerts to the end user with a latency below five minutes, for both SAR and Optical missions, demonstrating the viability of the EO-ALERT architecture. In particular, in several test scenarios, for both the TerraSAR-X SAR and DEIMOS-2 Optical Very High Resolution (VHR) missions, hardware testing of the proposed architecture has shown it can deliver EO products and alerts to the end user globally, with latency lower than one-point-five minutes