Enhanced surveillance of invasive listeriosis in the Lombardy region, Italy, in the years 2006-2010 reveals major clones and an increase in serotype 1/2a

BACKGROUND: Invasive listeriosis is a rare, life-threatening foodborne disease. Lombardy, an Italian region accounting for 16% of the total population, reported 55% of all listeriosis cases in the years 2006-2010. The aim of our study was to provide a snapshot of listeriosis epidemiology in this region after the implementation of a voluntary laboratory-based surveillance system. METHODS: We characterized by serotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing and detection of epidemic clone markers, 134 isolates from 132 listeriosis cases, including 15 pregnancy-related cases, occurring in the years 2006-2010 in Lombardy. Demographic and clinical characteristics of cases have also been described. RESULTS: The mean age of non pregnancy-associated cases was 64.7 years, with 55.9% of cases being older than 65 years. Cases having no underlying medical conditions accounted for 11.6%. The all-cause fatality rate of 83 cases with a known survival outcome was 25.3%. Serotypes 1/2a and 4b comprised 52.2% and 38.8% of isolates, respectively. Seventy-three AscI pulsotypes and 25 sequence types assigned to 23 clonal complexes were recognized. Moreover, 53 (39.5%) isolates tested positive for the epidemic clone markers. Twelve molecular subtype clusters including at least three isolates were detected, with cluster 11 (1/2a/ST38) including 31 isolates identified during the entire study period. No outbreaks were notified to public health authorities during this period. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of our study proved that epidemiology of listeriosis in Lombardy is characterized by a high prevalence of major clones and the increasing role of serotype 1/2a. Molecular subtyping is an essential tool in the epidemiology and surveillance of listeriosis. Rapid molecular cluster detection could alert about putative outbreaks, thus increasing the chance of detecting and inactivating routes of transmission

Safe Management of Pressure Equipment Contained in Wind Turbines

Renewable energies are the backbone of the energy transition. Among these energies, in recent years wind energy (together with solar) has largely established itself thanks to technological innovation and the production of increasingly performing wind turbines (for example the modern Enercon E-126 turbine can produce up to 7 MW). The wind turbines contain pressure equipment (hydraulic accumulators), the use of which can pose risks to the safety and health of the personnel assigned to supervise and maintain the wind turbines themselves, if they are not adequately managed. The hydraulic accumulators, installed in the nacelle of the wind turbine, are part of the hydraulic system (equipped with an oil tank) which regulates the pitch of the wind blades (i.e. the speed of the blades) and for the functioning of the braking system. The aforementioned accumulators can withstand a maximum operating pressure exceeding 300 bar. For such equipment, in Italy, the manager of the wind turbine, after correct installation and the relative risk analysis, must request commissioning and the first periodic check at INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work). Following the authors' experience in this field, the purpose of this article is to give wind turbine managers an organic approach for the correct management of pressure equipment, in order to prevent the risk of accidents, starting from the construction phase of the devices up to phase of their use

Risk Assessment of Lpg Release Scenarios

Accidents involving accidental release of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can cause very serious damage to people and structures. Such as, for example, the derailment of a freight train carrying LPG, which occurred in Viareggio (Italy) on 29 June 2009 or the accident involving the fixed tank installed at the end user, which occurred in Gravedona (Italy) on 11 July 2019. The danger of LPG derives from its flammability and its tendency to form a dense cloud of vapour which is dispersed in atmosphere, even at a significant distance from the release, which if ignited can explode. In the present work, authors give indications for risk assessment of LPG release scenarios. The evaluation is obtained by combining the probability of the occurrence of the scenarios with the relative class of consequences of the dangerous phenomena (effects on the human target and effects on the environment target). The combination obtained through a risk matrix has the purpose of identifying the accident scenarios with the greatest impact. From matrix scenarios, we can deduce: - Phenomena with a low frequency and/or consequence that probably have no concrete effect on the damage; - Phenomena which will certainly lead to the development of real damage (these will have to be re-analysed in order to insert additional safety systems); -Phenomena of medium effect, which will probably have real effects on the damage and will be selected for further study. These scenarios for LPG depots, which fall under the activities at risk of major accident, are the basis of correct territorial planning and internal and external emergency planning; also consider the Italian Directive of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Civil Protection Department of 7 December 2022. (Guidelines for the preparation of the external emergency plan, guidelines for informing the population and guidelines for testing external emergency plans (Italian Official Gazette no. 31 of 7 February 2023))

Salmonella bongori provides insights into the evolution of the Salmonellae.

The genus Salmonella contains two species, S. bongori and S. enterica. Compared to the well-studied S. enterica there is a marked lack of information regarding the genetic makeup and diversity of S. bongori. S. bongori has been found predominantly associated with cold-blooded animals, but it can infect humans. To define the phylogeny of this species, and compare it to S. enterica, we have sequenced 28 isolates representing most of the known diversity of S. bongori. This cross-species analysis allowed us to confidently differentiate ancestral functions from those acquired following speciation, which include both metabolic and virulence-associated capacities. We show that, although S. bongori inherited a basic set of Salmonella common virulence functions, it has subsequently elaborated on this in a different direction to S. enterica. It is an established feature of S. enterica evolution that the acquisition of the type III secretion systems (T3SS-1 and T3SS-2) has been followed by the sequential acquisition of genes encoding secreted targets, termed effectors proteins. We show that this is also true of S. bongori, which has acquired an array of novel effector proteins (sboA-L). All but two of these effectors have no significant S. enterica homologues and instead are highly similar to those found in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). Remarkably, SboH is found to be a chimeric effector protein, encoded by a fusion of the T3SS-1 effector gene sopA and a gene highly similar to the EPEC effector nleH from enteropathogenic E. coli. We demonstrate that representatives of these new effectors are translocated and that SboH, similarly to NleH, blocks intrinsic apoptotic pathways while being targeted to the mitochondria by the SopA part of the fusion. This work suggests that S. bongori has inherited the ancestral Salmonella virulence gene set, but has adapted by incorporating virulence determinants that resemble those employed by EPEC.We thank the core sequencing and informatics teams at the Sanger Institute for their assistance and The Wellcome Trust for its support of the Sanger Institute Pathogen Genomics and Biology groups and the MRC for their support of GF, KSR and GNS. MCF, GCL, TRC, HSS, GSV, MS, NKP, RAK, JP, GD and NRT were supported by Wellcome Trust grant 076964 and MICROME, an EU Framework Programme 7 Collaborative Project, Grant Agreement Number 222886-2. Work was also supported by Grant ADI-08/2006 from Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) and The World Bank, and grant 1100092 from Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT). CJB was supported by fellowships from CONICYT (21080373 and AT-24091015)

L’epigrafia del Ventennio fascista a Roma tra damnatio memoriae, restauro filologico e antecedenti classici / Epigraphy of the Twenty years of Fascism in Rome: damnatio memoriae, philological restoration and classical models.

Il vasto patrimonio epigrafico, sia in lingua italiana sia latina, prodotto in Italia durante il ventennio fascista costituisce un assai interessante campo di indagine in merito al rapporto con il periodo più controverso e sensibile della storia dell’Italia unita e alla sua rielaborazione pubblica, in virtù della natura intrinseca di scrittura esposta propria di ogni iscrizione. Si presenteranno qui alcuni esempi di iscrizioni di Roma risalenti all’epoca fascista, variamente sottoposte a operazioni di cancellazione, riscrittura o damnatio memoriae e, a volte, di seguente restauro e recupero testuale (non senza casi di travisazioni) per riflettere sulle diverse strategie e i diversi approcci nei confronti dei testi iscritti, anche in rapporto con casi simili tratti dalla storia e dall’epigrafia di Roma antica. Ne emerge una casistica complessa e diversificata, da cui risulta quanto sia spesso difficile la pura e semplice cancellazione dei testi, tanto in virtù del loro portato di testimonianza storica tout court, quanto in virtù della loro specifica natura epigrafica, a volte addirittura monumentale e artistica, oltre che per una carente riflessione collettiva sull’eredità fascista. The rich epigraphic production, both in Italian and in Latin, made in Italy during the fascist period, is an interesting research field, to study one of the most controversial periods of the Italian history after the year 1860 and its public reception, thanks to the specific nature of “displayed writing” typical of any inscription. There will be presented some examples of fascist inscriptions from Rome, that have been erased, re-written, sometimes restored (not without some misunderstandings) in different ways, with different applications of damnatio memoriae. Aim of the paper is to reflect on the different strategies and approaches towards inscribed texts, also in comparison with similar cases drawn from ancient Roman history and epigraphy. The examples are extremely diverse and complex, since it’s often not easy just removing the texts, given their role as historical witnesses and their nature of monuments and artifacts, not to quote a still imperfect collective reflection about the fascist heritage

Antimicrobial Resistance in Salmonella Enteritidis, Southern Italy, 1990-1998

During 1990 to 1998, we identified multidrug-resistant isolates of Salmonella Enteritidis in southern Italy. Plasmids containing class I integrons and codifying for synthesis of extended-spectrum ß-lactamases were detected. Active surveillance for resistance to antimicrobial agents is needed to guard against the possible spread of resistant clones