Damage survey of a historic town and comparison with past events after the 2016 central Italy earthquake

Central Italy is an active seismic area and many earthquakes struck the historic centre of Campi Alto di Norcia (Perugia) since its foundation in the 13th Cent. Nevertheless, every time, Campi has been restored without losing its identity, until the shocks occurred in 2016 caused the definitive collapse of a large part of it. Residential buildings have been restored introducing modern techniques and materials, as injections, jacketing and substitution of structural parts, which showed, already in the 1997 Umbria-Marche earthquake, their inefficiency and incompatibility with historic masonry. Therefore, today we can observe again the effects of the recent interventions and evaluate them on large scale. A first damage evolution is here reported, by mapping the damage levels to evaluate the causes of such a severe scenario. Surveys and studies after the 1997 earthquake provided the first correlation between structural interventions and damage, but major efforts were put in the definition of collapse mechanisms and in tools which could apply the new approach. Other earthquakes (L’Aquila 2009, Emilia 2012) confirmed the aetiology of certain seismic damages to specific interventions, but only qualitative relations were established. In addition, a description of seismic effects interpreted also as a result of specific interventions is still missing, especially on quantitative basis. The paper presents a systematic damage survey supported by a GIS system and a specific form, both aimed at defining, if possible, a relation between the damage on each intervention and the damage of a building as a whole

Precision medicine and public health: New challenges for effective and sustainable health

The development of high-throughput omics technologies represents an unmissable opportunity for evidence-based prevention of adverse effects on human health. However, the applicability and access to multi-omics tests are limited. In Italy, this is due to the rapid increase of knowledge and the high levels of skill and economic investment initially necessary. The fields of human genetics and public health have highlighted the relevance of an implementation strategy at a national level in Italy, including integration in sanitary regulations and governance instruments. In this review, the emerging field of public health genomics is discussed, including the polygenic scores approach, epigenetic modulation, nutrigenomics, and microbiomes implications. Moreover, the Italian state of implementation is presented. The omics sciences have important implications for the prevention of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, especially because they can be used to assess the health status during the whole course of life. An effective population health gain is possible if omics tools are implemented for each person after a preliminary assessment of effectiveness in the medium to long term

Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Vaccine Strains Expressing a Nontoxic Shiga-Like Toxin 2 Derivative Induce Partial Protective Immunity to the Toxin Expressed by Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli▿

Shiga-like toxin 2 (Stx2)-producing enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (referred to as EHEC or STEC) strains are the primary etiologic agents of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which leads to renal failure and high mortality rates. Expression of Stx2 is the most relevant virulence-associated factor of EHEC strains, and toxin neutralization by antigen-specific serum antibodies represents the main target for both preventive and therapeutic anti-HUS approaches. In the present report, we describe two Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium aroA vaccine strains expressing a nontoxic plasmid-encoded derivative of Stx2 (Stx2ΔAB) containing the complete nontoxic A2 subunit and the receptor binding B subunit. The two S. Typhimurium strains differ in the expression of flagellin, the structural subunit of the flagellar shaft, which exerts strong adjuvant effects. The vaccine strains expressed Stx2ΔAB, either cell bound or secreted into the extracellular environment, and showed enhanced mouse gut colonization and high plasmid stability under both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Oral immunization of mice with three doses of the S. Typhimurium vaccine strains elicited serum anti-Stx2B (IgG) antibodies that neutralized the toxic effects of the native toxin under in vitro conditions (Vero cells) and conferred partial protection under in vivo conditions. No significant differences with respect to gut colonization or the induction of antigen-specific antibody responses were detected in mice vaccinated with flagellated versus nonflagellated bacterial strains. The present results indicate that expression of Stx2ΔAB by attenuated S. Typhimurium strains is an alternative vaccine approach for HUS control, but additional improvements in the immunogenicity of Stx2 toxoids are still required