Nine-year nationwide environmental surveillance of hepatitis E virus in urban wastewaters in Italy (2011–2019)

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging causative agent of acute hepatitis worldwide. To provide insights into the epidemiology of HEV in Italy, a large-scale investigation was conducted into urban sewage over nine years (2011–2019), collecting 1374 sewage samples from 48 wastewater treatment plants located in all the 20 regions of Italy. Broadly reactive primers targeting the ORF1 and ORF2 regions were used for the detection and typing of HEV, followed by Sanger and next generation sequencing (NGS). Real-time RT-qPCR was also used to attempt quantification of positive samples. HEV RNA detection occurred in 74 urban sewage samples (5.4%), with a statistically significant higher frequency (7.1%) in central Italy. Fifty-six samples were characterized as G3 strains and 18 as G1. While the detection of G3 strains occurred in all the surveillance period, G1 strains were mainly detected in 2011–2012, and never in 2017–2019. Typing was achieved in 2 samples (3f subtype). Viral concentrations in quantifiable samples ranged from 1.2 × 103 g.c./L to 2.8 × 104 g.c./L. Our results suggest the considerable circulation of the virus in the Italian population, despite a relatively small number of notified cases, a higher occurrence in central Italy, and a noteworthy predominance of G3 strains

3D Airway changes using cone beam computed tomography in patients following mandibular advancement surgery with and without constriction

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149306/1/ocr12292.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149306/2/ocr12292_am.pd

The rapid spread of SARS-COV-2 Omicron variant in Italy reflected early through wastewater surveillance

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged in South Africa in November 2021, and has later been identified worldwide, raising serious concerns. A real-time RT-PCR assay was designed for the rapid screening of the Omicron variant, targeting characteristic mutations of the spike gene. The assay was used to test 737 sewage samples collected throughout Italy (19/21 Regions) between 11 November and 25 December 2021, with the aim of assessing the spread of the Omicron variant in the country. Positive samples were also tested with a real-time RT-PCR developed by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), and through nested RT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing. Overall, 115 samples tested positive for Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. The first occurrence was detected on 7 December, in Veneto, North Italy. Later on, the variant spread extremely fast in three weeks, with prevalence of positive wastewater samples rising from 1.0% (1/104 samples) in the week 5–11 December, to 17.5% (25/143 samples) in the week 12–18, to 65.9% (89/135 samples) in the week 19–25, in line with the increase in cases of infection with the Omicron variant observed during December in Italy. Similarly, the number of Regions/Autonomous Provinces in which the variant was detected increased from one in the first week, to 11 in the second, and to 17 in the last one. The presence of the Omicron variant was confirmed by the JRC real-time RT-PCR in 79.1% (91/115) of the positive samples, and by Sanger sequencing in 66% (64/97) of PCR amplicons. In conclusion, we designed an RT-qPCR assay capable to detect the Omicron variant, which can be successfully used for the purpose of wastewater-based epidemiology. We also described the history of the introduction and diffusion of the Omicron variant in the Italian population and territory, confirming the effectiveness of sewage monitoring as a powerful surveillance tool

When bureaucracy meets the crowd:Studying ‘Open Government’ in the Vienna city administration

International audienceOpen Government is en vogue, yet vague: while practitioners, policy-makers, and others praise its virtues, little is known about how Open Government relates to bureaucratic organization. This paper presents insights from a qualitative investigation into the City of Vienna, Austria. It demonstrates how the encounter between the city administration and “the open” juxtaposes the decentralizing principles of the crowd, such as transparency, participation, and distributed cognition, with the centralizing principles of bureaucracy, such as secrecy, expert knowledge, written files, and rules. The paper explores how this theoretical conundrum is played out and how senior city managers perceive Open Government in relation to the bureaucratic nature of their administration. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically trace the complexities of the encounter between bureaucracy and Open Government; and second, to critically theorize the ongoing rationalization of public administration in spite of constant challenges to its bureaucratic principles. In so doing, the paper advances our understanding of modern bureaucratic organizations under the condition of increased openness, transparency, and interaction with their environments.<br/

Survey in West Orissa (November-December 2000)

An Indo-German research team took up the first season on the archaeological component of the Orissa Research Project (SPP1066, "Contested Centres: Construction and Change of Sociocultural Identities in the Indian Region Orissa"), funded by the DFG. We tested the hypothesis that from the iron age into the early medieval period that politically and culturally, Western Orissa was pre-eminent and superior to the coast, as is the case in recent times

Encapsulated cells to focus the metabolic activation of anticancer drugs

Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics124450-460CUOT

Key sars-cov-2 mutations of alpha, gamma, and eta variants detected in urban wastewaters in italy by long-read amplicon sequencing based on nanopore technology

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) and variants of interest (VOIs) poses an increased risk to global public health and underlines the need to prioritise monitoring and research to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wastewater monitoring can be used to monitor SARS-CoV-2 spread and to track SARS-CoV-2 variants. A long read amplicon sequencing approach based on the Oxford Nanopore technology, targeting the spike protein, was applied to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants in sewage samples collected in central Italy on April 2021. Next-generation sequencing was performed on three pooled samples. For variant identification, two approaches–clustering (unsupervised) and classification (supervised)–were implemented, resulting in the detection of two VOCs and one VOI. Key mutations of the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) were detected in all of the pools, accounting for the vast majority of NGS reads. In two different pools, mutations of the Gamma (P.1) and Eta (B.1.525) variants were also detected, accounting for 22.4%, and 1.3% of total NGS reads of the sample, respectively. Results were in agreement with data on variant circulation in Italy at the time of wastewater sample collection. For each variant, in addition to the signature key spike mutations, other less common mutations were detected, including the amino acid substitutions S98F and E484K in the Alpha cluster (alone and combined), and S151I in the Eta cluster. Results of the present study show that the long-read sequencing nanopore technology can be successfully used to explore SARS-CoV-2 diversity in sewage samples, where multiple variants can be present, and that the approach is sensitive enough to detect variants present at low abundance in wastewater samples. In conclusion, wastewater monitoring can help one discover the spread of variants in a community and early detect the emerging of clinically relevant mutations or variants