An Italian Multicenter Study on the Epidemiology of Respiratory Syncytial Virus During SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Hospitalized Children

Since the beginning of 2020, a remarkably low incidence of respiratory virus hospitalizations has been reported worldwide. We prospectively evaluated 587 children, aged <12 years, admitted for respiratory tract infections from 1 September 2021 to 15 March 2022 in four Italian pediatric hospitals to assess the burden of respiratory viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. At admission, a Clinical Respiratory Score was assigned and nasopharyngeal or nasal washing samples were collected and tested for respiratory viruses. Total admissions increased from the second half of October 2021 to the first half of December 2021 with a peak in early November 2021. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) incidence curve coincided with the total hospitalizations curve, occurred earlier than in the pre-pandemic years, and showed an opposite trend with respect to the incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2. Our results demonstrated an early peak in pediatric hospitalizations for RSV. SARS-CoV-2 may exhibit a competitive pressure on other respiratory viruses, most notably RSV

Acute Delta Hepatitis in Italy spanning three decades (1991–2019): Evidence for the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination campaign

Updated incidence data of acute Delta virus hepatitis (HDV) are lacking worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate incidence of and risk factors for acute HDV in Italy after the introduction of the compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 1991. Data were obtained from the National Surveillance System of acute viral hepatitis (SEIEVA). Independent predictors of HDV were assessed by logistic-regression analysis. The incidence of acute HDV per 1-million population declined from 3.2 cases in 1987 to 0.04 in 2019, parallel to that of acute HBV per 100,000 from 10.0 to 0.39 cases during the same period. The median age of cases increased from 27 years in the decade 1991-1999 to 44 years in the decade 2010-2019 (p < .001). Over the same period, the male/female ratio decreased from 3.8 to 2.1, the proportion of coinfections increased from 55% to 75% (p = .003) and that of HBsAg positive acute hepatitis tested for by IgM anti-HDV linearly decreased from 50.1% to 34.1% (p < .001). People born abroad accounted for 24.6% of cases in 2004-2010 and 32.1% in 2011-2019. In the period 2010-2019, risky sexual behaviour (O.R. 4.2; 95%CI: 1.4-12.8) was the sole independent predictor of acute HDV; conversely intravenous drug use was no longer associated (O.R. 1.25; 95%CI: 0.15-10.22) with this. In conclusion, HBV vaccination was an effective measure to control acute HDV. Intravenous drug use is no longer an efficient mode of HDV spread. Testing for IgM-anti HDV is a grey area requiring alert. Acute HDV in foreigners should be monitored in the years to come

Characterization of an innovative device controlling gaseous exchange in packages for food products

The work describes both the characterization carried out and the experimental results from an innovative device allowing the gas exchange across a sealed package. The device is especially suitable for fresh fruit and vegetable preservation during cold storage, as it allows for the management of the headspace atmosphere inside sealed packages containing food products presenting metabolic activity. Characterization results confirm the device's suitability for managing the bidirectional gas flow. For each tested device, the hydro-dynamical parameter and the diffusion parameter have been measured to define its steady-state behaviour. The steady-state gas concentrations reached in the package show the aptness of the devices for use with specific products; these equilibrium gas concentrations depend on the device type and on the mass of product contained in the package.The results of simulated storage demonstrate that some products (pomegranate arils and table grapes) require preconditioning of the package free volume to reach the optimal gas concentrations in a short time. Other products (black truffle) with very high metabolic activity could reach the optimal condition without package preconditioning depending on the free volume

An Innovative Smart Device to Control Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) of Fruit and Vegetables

This paper describes an innovative smart device (BLOW®) for controlling gaseous exchanges between the inside and outside atmosphere of a sealed container during storage of solid or liquid food produce. The smart device has been tested in preliminary trials carried out on rocket leaves (Eruca sativa), under two modified atmospheres (MAP) (5% O2 and 5% CO2 for MAP A and 5% O2 and 10% CO2 for MAP B) and stored at low temperature (4°C +/- 1°C), in order to evaluate the shelf-life. Results show that not significant differences were found among treatments for both mass loss and colour (except L for MAP B treatment using BLOW®). After 12 days of cold storage vitamin C content resulted higher and significantly different in all the treatments with respect to control, resulting also in a better "appearance" and "odour" score (on a scale from 1 to 5) for MAP treatments. The tested smart device shows interesting capabilities to improve the quality of fruit and vegetables. The use the smart device, even without MAP, allowed to obtain an effective shelf-life increase of the packed rocket leaves stored at 4°C

Effects on Must Quality Produced from Sangiovese and Cabernet Grape Frozen/Withered Using a Forced Air Plant

Worldwide the wine production is increasing in order to satisfy the expanding consumers demand. The improvement of post harvest and processing technologies for wine grape is considered essential to obtain high quality standards wines. In particular, the cooling soon after harvest represents one of the possible way to preserve the berries original quality especially for white wines rich of taste and flavour while withering is a natural process operation to increase the must soluble solid content for red wine if required. In this paper, the effect of different freezing/withering treatments on chemical-physical parameters of Sangiovese and Cabernet grapes must were investigated, in order to define the relation between the processing conditions of the freezing/withering plant and the final quality of must produced. The freezing system reduced the average product temperature of about 35°C in 220 min, and the energy requirement of the system resulted strictly related to the grape variety and lower to -18°C due to the faster process. Overall, experimental data could be used to design the process protocol and the industrial scale plant for the post harvest wine grapes processing. The withering process after 9 days produces an average grapes weight loss of 9.98% and 7.5% for the must of Sangiovese and Cabernet cv. respectively. No significant pH reduction has been detected, demonstrating the maintained quality of the original grape. Furthermore, the higher the fan power used, the higher soluble solid content, suggest that the implementation of a computerized controlled system could be useful to optimize the process parameters during the withering of grapes for producing must with higher sugar content i.e. wine with higher alcohol content