Product Service System Innovation in the Smart City

Product service systems (PSS) may usefully form part of the mix of innovations necessary to move society toward more sustainable futures. However, despite such potential, PSS implementation is highly uneven and limited. Drawing on an alternate socio-technical perspective of innovation, this paper provides fresh insights, on among other things the role of context in PSS innovation, to address this issue. Case study research is presented focusing on a use orientated PSS in an urban environment: the Copenhagen city bike scheme. The paper shows that PSS innovation is a situated complex process, shaped by actors and knowledge from other locales. It argues that further research is needed to investigate how actors interests shape PSS innovation. It recommends that institutional spaces should be provided in governance landscapes associated with urban environments to enable legitimate PSS concepts to co-evolve in light of locally articulated sustainability principles and priorities

Modeling the impact of COVID-19 nonpharmaceutical interventions on respiratory syncytial virus transmission in South Africa

Background: The South African government employed various nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Surveillance data from South Africa indicates reduced circulation of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) throughout the 2020–2021 seasons. Here, we use a mechanistic transmission model to project the rebound of RSV in the two subsequent seasons. Methods: We fit an age-structured epidemiological model to hospitalization data from national RSV surveillance in South Africa, allowing for time-varying reduction in RSV transmission during periods of COVID-19 circulation. We apply the model to project the rebound of RSV in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Results: We projected an early and intense outbreak of RSV in April 2022, with an age shift to older infants (6–23 months old) experiencing a larger portion of severe disease burden than typical. In March 2022, government alerts were issued to prepare the hospital system for this potentially intense outbreak. We then assess the 2022 predictions and project the 2023 season. Model predictions for 2023 indicate that RSV activity has not fully returned to normal, with a projected early and moderately intense wave. We estimate that NPIs reduced RSV transmission between 15% and 50% during periods of COVID-19 circulation. Conclusions: A wide range of NPIs impacted the dynamics of the RSV outbreaks throughout 2020–2023 in regard to timing, magnitude, and age structure, with important implications in a low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) setting where RSV interventions remain limited. More efforts should focus on adapting RSV models to LMIC data to project the impact of upcoming medical interventions for this disease.</p

Pneumococcal carriage in sub-Saharan Africa--a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Pneumococcal epidemiology varies geographically and few data are available from the African continent. We assess pneumococcal carriage from studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) before and after the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) era. METHODS: A search for pneumococcal carriage studies published before 2012 was conducted to describe carriage in sSA. The review also describes pneumococcal serotypes and assesses the impact of vaccination on carriage in this region. RESULTS: Fifty-seven studies were included in this review with the majority (40.3%) from South Africa. There was considerable variability in the prevalence of carriage between studies (I-squared statistic = 99%). Carriage was higher in children and decreased with increasing age, 63.2% (95% CI: 55.6-70.8) in children less than 5 years, 42.6% (95% CI: 29.9-55.4) in children 5-15 years and 28.0% (95% CI: 19.0-37.0) in adults older than 15 years. There was no difference in the prevalence of carriage between males and females in 9/11 studies. Serotypes 19F, 6B, 6A, 14 and 23F were the five most common isolates. A meta-analysis of four randomized trials of PCV vaccination in children aged 9-24 months showed that carriage of vaccine type (VT) serotypes decreased with PCV vaccination; however, overall carriage remained the same because of a concomitant increase in non-vaccine type (NVT) serotypes. CONCLUSION: Pneumococcal carriage is generally high in the African continent, particularly in young children. The five most common serotypes in sSA are among the top seven serotypes that cause invasive pneumococcal disease in children globally. These serotypes are covered by the two PCVs recommended for routine childhood immunization by the WHO. The distribution of serotypes found in the nasopharynx is altered by PCV vaccination

11Be(beta-p), a quasi-free neutron decay?

We have observed beta-delayed proton emission from the neutron-rich nucleus 11Be by analysing a sample collected at the ISOLDE facility at CERN with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). With a branching ratio of (8.4 +- 0.6) 10^{-6} the strength of this decay mode, as measured by the B(GT)-value, is unexpectedly high. The result is discussed within a simple single-particle model and could be interpreted as a quasi-free decay of the 11Be halo neutron into a single-proton state.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Disease, Europe, 1996–2006

Incidence and case-fatality ratios are higher for non–type b than for type b infection

A mosaic tetracycline resistance gene tet(S/M) detected in an MDR pneumococcal CC230 lineage that underwent capsular switching in South Africa

Objectives: We reported tet(S/M) in Streptococcus pneumoniae and investigated its temporal spread in relation to nationwide clinical interventions. Methods: We whole-genome sequenced 12 254 pneumococcal isolates from 29 countries on an Illumina HiSeq sequencer. Serotype, multilocus ST and antibiotic resistance were inferred from genomes. An SNP tree was built using Gubbins. Temporal spread was reconstructed using a birth–death model. Results: We identified tet(S/M) in 131 pneumococcal isolates and none carried other known tet genes. Tetracycline susceptibility testing results were available for 121 tet(S/M)-positive isolates and all were resistant. A majority (74%) of tet(S/M)-positive isolates were from South Africa and caused invasive diseases among young children (59% HIV positive, where HIV status was available). All but two tet(S/M)-positive isolates belonged to clonal complex (CC) 230. A global phylogeny of CC230 (n=389) revealed that tet(S/M)-positive isolates formed a sublineage predicted to exhibit resistance to penicillin, co-trimoxazole, erythromycin and tetracycline. The birth–death model detected an unrecognized outbreak of this sublineage in South Africa between 2000 and 2004 with expected secondary infections (effective reproductive number, R) of ∼2.5. R declined to ∼1.0 in 2005 and <1.0 in 2012. The declining epidemic could be related to improved access to ART in 2004 and introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in 2009. Capsular switching from vaccine serotype 14 to non-vaccine serotype 23A was observed within the sublineage. Conclusions: The prevalence of tet(S/M) in pneumococci was low and its dissemination was due to an unrecognized outbreak of CC230 in South Africa. Capsular switching in this MDR sublineage highlighted its potential to continue to cause disease in the post-PCV13 era

Rapid assessment of Hib disease burden in Vietnam

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several countries have applied the <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>type b (Hib) rapid assessment tool (RAT) to estimate the burden of Hib disease where resources for hospital- or population-based surveillance are limited. In Vietnam, we used the Hib RAT to estimate the burden of Hib pneumonia and meningitis prior to Hib vaccine introduction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Laboratory, hospitalization and mortality data were collected for the period January 2004 through December 2005 from five representative hospitals. Based on the WHO Hib RAT protocol, standardized MS Excel spreadsheets were completed to generate meningitis and pneumonia case and death figures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found 35 to 77 Hib meningitis deaths and 441 to 957 Hib pneumonia deaths among children < 5 years of age annually in Vietnam. Overall, the incidence of Hib meningitis was estimated at 18/100,000 (95% confidence interval, CI, 15.1-21.6). The estimated Hib meningitis incidence in children < 5 years age was higher in Ho Chi Minh City (22.5/100,000 [95% CI, 18.4-27.5]) compared to Hanoi (9.8/100,000 [95% CI, 6.5-14.8]). The Hib RAT suggests that there are a total of 883 to 1,915 cases of Hib meningitis and 4,414 to 9,574 cases of Hib pneumonia per year in Vietnam.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In Hanoi, the estimated incidence of Hib meningitis for children < 5 years of age was similar to that described in previous population-based studies of Hib meningitis conducted from 1999 through 2002. Results from the Hib RAT suggest that there is a substantial, yet unmeasured, disease burden associated with Hib pneumonia in Vietnamese children.</p

The global distribution and diversity of protein vaccine candidate antigens in the highly virulent Streptococcus pnuemoniae serotype 1

Serotype 1 is one of the most common causes of pneumococcal disease worldwide. Pneumococcal protein vaccines are currently being developed as an alternate intervention strategy to pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Pre-requisites for an efficacious pneumococcal protein vaccine are universal presence and minimal variation of the target antigen in the pneumococcal population, and the capability to induce a robust human immune response. We used in silico analysis to assess the prevalence of seven protein vaccine candidates (CbpA, PcpA, PhtD, PspA, SP0148, SP1912, SP2108) among 445 serotype 1 pneumococci from 26 different countries, across four continents. CbpA (76%), PspA (68%), PhtD (28%), PcpA (11%) were not universally encoded in the study population, and would not provide full coverage against serotype 1. PcpA was widely present in the European (82%), but not in the African (2%) population. A multi-valent vaccine incorporating CbpA, PcpA, PhtD and PspA was predicted to provide coverage against 86% of the global population. SP0148, SP1912 and SP2108 were universally encoded and we further assessed their predicted amino acid, antigenic and structural variation. Multiple allelic variants of these proteins were identified, different allelic variants dominated in different continents; the observed variation was predicted to impact the antigenicity and structure of two SP0148 variants, one SP1912 variant and four SP2108 variants, however these variants were each only present in a small fraction of the global population (<2%). The vast majority of the observed variation was predicted to have no impact on the efficaciousness of a protein vaccine incorporating a single variant of SP0148, SP1912 and/or SP2108 from S. pneumoniae TIGR4. Our findings emphasise the importance of taking geographic differences into account when designing global vaccine interventions and support the continued development of SP0148, SP1912 and SP2108 as protein vaccine candidates against this important pneumococcal serotype