Collaboration and Design Education Through the Interconnected HIS: Immature vs. Mature CI Loops Observed Through Ethnography by Telepresence

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Revising Biomimetics: Opportunities and Ambiguities in the Bioinspired Design Approach

The paper aims to propose an overview of biomimetic design, exploring its features from a methodological and critical point of view, highlighting its potential but also its limits, ambiguities, risks, and obscurities. Critical interpretations of biomimetic design are presented through a method based on comparative literature review. This was filtered by several crucial questions aimed at highlighting the effectiveness and value of design approaches based on the observation and emulation of nature in our current historical period. Semantic choices, market impact, efficiency of methods, interdisciplinary collaboration, ethical and environmental consequences are some of the issues analysed. These themes have been selected taking into consideration open and unresolved matters within the international state of the art, in order to trace possible evolutionary strategies for the biomimetic approach, relating it to the current social, economic, political and technological scenario

[Long-term clinical and echocardiographic follow-up of the edge-to-edge technique for surgical mitral valve repair]

To evaluate the long-term clinical and echocardiographic performance of mitral valve repair with the edge-to-edge technique

Investigation and control of a Norovirus outbreak of probable waterborne transmission through a municipal groundwater system.

During March 2011 an outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred in Santo Stefano di Quisquina, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. Within two weeks 156 cases were identified among the 4,965 people living in the municipality. An epidemiological investigation was conducted to characterize the outbreak and target the control measures. A case was defined as a person developing diarrhea or vomiting during February 27-March 13, 2011. Stool specimens were collected from 12 cases. Norovirus (NoV) genotype GII.4 variant New Orleans 2009 was identified in stool samples from 11 of 12 cases tested (91.7%). Epidemiological investigations suggested a possible association with municipal drinking water consumption. Water samples from the public water system were tested for NoV and a variety of genotypes were detected during the first 3 months of surveillance, including GII.4 strains belonging to different variants from that involved in the gastroenteritis outbreak. Contamination of the well and springs supplying the public water network was eventually thought to be the source of the NoV contamination

Tracking the Selective Pressure Profile and Gene Flow of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant in Italy from April to October 2021 and Frequencies of Key Mutations from Three Representative Italian Regions

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of concern (VOC) was often associated with serious clinical course of the COVID-19 disease. Herein, we investigated the selective pressure, gene flow and evaluation on the frequencies of mutations causing amino acid substitutions in the Delta variant in three Italian regions. A total of 1500 SARS-CoV-2 Delta genomes, collected in Italy from April to October 2021 were investigated, including a subset of 596 from three Italian regions. The selective pressure and the frequency of amino acid substitutions and the prediction of their possible impact on the stability of the proteins were investigated. Delta variant dataset, in this study, identified 68 sites under positive selection: 16 in the spike (23.5%), 11 in nsp2 (16.2%) and 10 in nsp12 (14.7%) genes. Three of the positive sites in the spike were located in the receptor-binding domain (RBD). In Delta genomes from the three regions, 6 changes were identified as very common (>83.7%), 4 as common (>64.0%), 21 at low frequency (2.1%–25.0%) and 29 rare (≤2.0%). The detection of positive selection on key mutations may represent a model to identify recurrent signature mutations of the virus