Evaluation and validation of laboratory procedures for the surveillance of ESBL-, AmpC-, and carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli from fresh meat and caecal samples

IntroductionExtended-spectrum β-lactamase- (ESBL) and AmpC- β-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales are widely distributed and emerging in both human and animal reservoirs worldwide. A growing concern has emerged in Europe following the appearance of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the primary production of food animals. In 2013, the European Commission (EC) issued the Implementing Decision on the monitoring and reporting of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal bacteria. The European Union Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance (EURL-AR) was tasked with providing two laboratory protocols for samples derived from meat and caecal content, respectively, for the isolation of ESBL- and AmpC-producing E. coli (part 1) and carbapenemase-producing (CP) E. coli (part 2). In this study, we describe the current protocols, including the preparatory work for the development.MethodsUp to nine laboratory procedures were tested using minced meat as the matrix from beef, pork, and chicken as well as six procedures for the caecal content of cattle, pigs, and chicken. Variables included sample volume, pre-enrichment volume, pre-enrichment broth with and without antimicrobial supplementation, and incubation time/temperature. The procedures were evaluated against up to nine E. coli strains harboring different AMR genes and belonging to the three β-lactamase groups.Results and discussionThe laboratory procedures tested revealed that the most sensitive and specific methodologies were based on a Buffered Peptone Water pre-enrichment of 225 ml to 25 g or 9 ml to 1 g for minced meat and caecal content, respectively, incubated at 37°C overnight, followed by inoculation onto MacConkey agar supplemented with 1 mg/L cefotaxime for detecting ESBL- and AmpC-producing E. coli and Chrom ID SMART (Chrom ID CARBA and OXA) for CP E. coli, incubated overnight at 37 and 44°C, respectively. We provided two isolation protocols for the EU-specific monitoring of ESBL- and AmpC- producing E. coli (part 1) and CP E. coli (part 2) from fresh meat (protocol 1) and caecal (protocol 2) samples, which have been successfully implemented by all EU Member States for the monitoring period 2014–2027 (EU 2020/1729)

Daytime motorcycle headlight and taillight operation. Final report.

National Highway Safety Bureau, Washington, D.C.Mode of access: Internet.Author corporate affiliation: Franklin Institute Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pa.Subject code: DEBSubject code: DVGCSubject code: DVGDSubject code: LC

Smart City Governance in the Geo-resources Planning Paradigm in the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (Italy)

The purpose of this paper is to identify environmental issues related to the geo-resources demand, which arises by the new context of the metropolitan city of Cagliari, in the framework of the existing environmental and place-based policies. This is achieved through the correlation of the main planning tools (the Regional Plan of Extractive Activities [RPEA] for geo-resources planning sector, and the urban masterplan [UMP] for urban planning sector), in order to identify environmental indicators, useful for monitoring and for decision support systems. This comparison defined a new integrated methodological approach between urban, place-based and environmental policies, referring to geo-resources planning, in line with the newest paradigm of smart region and of the panarchy process. This approach allowed to evaluate the delayed impacts of UMPs, and its environmental impacts, resulting from the quarry activities of geo-resources (such as natural aggregates). In fact, quarry activity is the leading effect in UMPs (because the materials of construction are obtained principally by it), and it simultaneously decreases the environmental sustainability, increasing the environmental debt

Evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems from data streams (eTS+).

It is a well known fact that nowadays we are faced with not only large data sets that we need to process quickly, but with huge data streams (Domingos and Hulten, 2001). Special requirements are also placed by the fast growing sector of autonomous systems where systems that can re-train and adapt ‘on-fly’ are required (Patchett and Sastri, 2007). Similar requirements are enforced by the advanced process industries for self-developing and self-maintaining sensors (Qin et al., 1997). Now they even talk about self-learning industries (EC, 2007). All of these requirements cannot be met by using off-line methods and systems that can only adjust their parameters and/or are linear (Astroem and Wittenmark, 1989). These requirements call for a new type of systems that assumes the structure of non-linear, non-stationary systems to be adaptive and flexible. The author of this chapter started research work in this direction around the turn of the century (Angelov and Buswell, 2001; Angelov, 2002) and this research culminated in proposing with Dr. D. Filev the so called evolving Takagi-Sugeno (eTS) fuzzy system (Angelov and Filev, 2003). Since then a number of improvements of the original algorithm has been done, which require a systematic description in one publication. In this chapter an enhanced version of the eTS algorithm will be described which is called eTS+. It has been tested on a data stream from real engine test bench (data provided courtesy of Dr. E. Lughofer, Linz, Austria). The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed enhanced approach for modeling real data stream in precision, simplicity and interpretability, and computational resources used. (c) IEEE Press and John Wiley and Son

Stratégies pour le développement urbain durable et liens entre l'urbain et le rural

International audienceAn important driving force behind urban expansion is the growth of the urban population. But for Europe, this is not a sufficient explanation. The major trend is that European cities have become much less compact. Since the mid-1950s European cities have expanded on average by 78%, whereas the population has grown by only 33%. In the PLUREL project - an integrated project within the EU's 6th Research Framework Programme - more than 100 researchers from 15 countries analysed the impacts of urban land consumption at a pan-European level and, through six European and one Chinese case studies, identified how land use conflicts and the pressure towards peri-urban areas can be strategically managed in different development and regulatory contexts. To summarise, the following strategies were identified as important steps towards more sustainable urban-rural futures: (i) better coordination of transport, land use and open space planning; (ii) urban containment and densification - development of a green compact city; (iii) preservation of blue and green infrastructure; and (iv) preservation of agricultural land and the promotion of local production. The need also remains to strengthen governance at the regional level while at the pan-European level there is clearly a need for more policy attention to be given to urban-rural linkages