Rotavirus symptomatic infection among unvaccinated and vaccinated children in Valencia, Spain

BACKGROUND: Human group A rotavirus is the leading cause of severe acute gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. Immunization programs have reduced the disease burden in many countries. Vaccination coverage in the Autonomous Region of Valencia, Spain, is around 40%, as the rotavirus vaccine is not funded by the National Health System. Despite this low-medium vaccine coverage, rotavirus vaccination has substantially reduced hospitalizations due to rotavirus infection and hospital-related costs. However, there are very few studies evaluating symptomatic rotavirus infections not requiring hospitalization in vaccinated children. The objective of this study was to investigate symptomatic rotavirus infections among vaccinated children in the health area served by the Hospital Clínico Universitario of Valencia, Spain, from 2013 to 2015. METHODS: A total of 133 children younger than 5 years of age with rotavirus infection were studied. Demographic and epidemiological data were collected and informed consent from their caretakers obtained. Rotavirus infection was detected by immunological methods and G/P rotavirus genotypes were determined by RT-PCR, following standard procedures from the EuroRotaNet network. RESULTS: Forty infants (30.1%; 95% CI: 22.3-37.9) out of 133 were diagnosed with symptomatic rotavirus infection despite having been previously vaccinated, either with RotaTeq (85%) or with Rotarix (15%). Children fully vaccinated against rotavirus (24.8%), partially vaccinated (5.3%) and unvaccinated (69.9%) were found. The infecting genotypes showed high G-type diversity, although no significant differences were found between the G/P genotypes infecting vaccinated and unvaccinated children during the same time period. G9P[8], G12P[8] and G1P[8] were the most prevalent genotypes. Severity of gastroenteritis symptoms required 28 (66.6%) vaccinated and 67 (73.6%) unvaccinated children to be attended at the Emergency Room. CONCLUSION: Rotavirus vaccine efficacy in reducing the incidence of severe rotavirus infection has been well documented, but symptomatic rotavirus infection can sometimes occur in vaccinees

Analisi delle prestazioni energetiche stagionali di impianti di riscaldamento a pompa di calore ad aria: il ruolo dell\u2019accumulo termico

In questo articolo viene presentato un metodo di calcolo per valutare le prestazioni stagionali di sistemi di generazione bivalenti (pompa di calore + sistema di back-up) in presenza di un sistema di accumulo termico. Il metodo permette di valutare il volume ottimale dell\u2019accumulo termico al fine di massimizzare il valore del COP stagionale del sistema bivalente. Viene dimostrato il ruolo che svolge l\u2019accumulo termico nei sistemi a pompa di calore nel ridurre l\u2019intervento del sistema di back-up e nel favorire il funzionamento della pompa di calore a potenza nominale anche per una temperatura dell\u2019aria esterna superiore alla temperatura associata al balance-point del sistema. Nell\u2019articolo vengono analizzate le prestazioni energetiche di sistemi bivalenti a pompa di calore ad aria e resistenze elettriche adibiti alla produzione di calore per il solo riscaldamento, per la produzione di acqua calda sanitaria e per la produzione combinata acqua calda-riscaldamento. Nel caso di sistemi bivalenti per la produzione di acqua calda sanitaria, il metodo di calcolo ha permesso di valutare il valore da assegnare al volume di accumulo da accoppiare alla pompa di calore al fine di ottimizzare il valore medio stagionale SCOPtot del sistema

EPBD independent control system for energy performance certification: The Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) pioneering experience

Directive 2010/31/EU introduces the obligation of “independent control systems”. The Member States have implemented this obligation with different methods and levels of accuracy. Based on these motivations, in Italy, the Emilia-Romagna Region (ERR) has activated its own Energy Performance Certificate Control System. We describes the Control System in Europe, compared to existing works, the procedure adopted in the ERR, and the results of the control campaigns in 2016 and 2017. The methodology provides for control over both the EPC Drafts and EPCs Issued, carried out on two levels: checks and on-site inspection. The results show the impact of the EPC control on the technicians, EPC quality and they highlight the recurring mistake during EPC compilation: which should be divided in two categories: technicians who have misunderstood the laws and standards and other technicians whose work entails negligence or illicit activity. Moreover, the results show the effectiveness of such solutions and the extent of the independent control system to verify the work of the independent experts and the contents of the EPCs. We report a customer satisfaction survey about the EPC control and validation. Advantages of this work that it is possible to carry out widespread EPC control, and it reports an improvement in the quality of the EPCs, moreover it is first study about independent control in Italy

ACOUSTIC AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF ITALIAN MASONRY WALLS

The need to reduce the energy demand for indoor building climatization requires a more accurate design and choice of structures and materials also to assure high sound insulation levels as required from national standards. In this work sound and thermal insulation performances of some typical Italian structures for masonry walls are analyzed, in order to evaluate common physical behavior and possible correlation related to physical properties of materials, like density or surface mass. Moreover high levels of sound and thermal insulation needs special care to constructions details in order to minimize heat transmission and flanking transmission for the fa\ue7ade insulation and also between internal rooms

Experimental analysis of the summer thermal performances of a naturally ventilated rainscreen fa\ue7ade building

In this paper the thermal behaviour of rainscreen ventilated fa\ue7ades under typical Mediterranean summer weather conditions has been investigated experimentally by using a large-scale test building located at San Mauro Pascoli (Italy). The main goal of this work was to quantify the reduction of the heat flux across the inner wall due to the enthalpy discharge linked to the airflow established within the cavity of the ventilated wall during a typical summer day. The experimental results highlight that the heat flux reduction is strongly correlated to the exterior finish of the rainscreen, to the presence of open joints and ventilation grills and to the air cavity thickness of the fa\ue7ade. In order to study the impact of these different aspects on the thermal performances of the ventilated walls, ten different configurations for the ventilated fa\ue7ade have been investigated. The experimental results highlight that the feature of the ventilated wall to reduce the summer loads depends on the capacity of the system to limit the value of the temperature within the cavity and this can be obtained by reducing the pressure losses along the cavity in order to increase the air flow rate and by minimizing the long-wave radiative contribution within the cavity