Antibiotic-resistant genes and bacteria as evolving contaminants of emerging concerns (e-CEC): is it time to include evolution in risk assessment?

The pressing issue of the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and resistant bacteria in the environment (ARGs and ARB, respectively) requires procedures for assessing the risk to health. The chemo-centric environmental risk assessment models identify hazard(s) in a dose–response manner, obtaining exposure, toxicity, risk, impact and policy. However, this risk assessment approach based on ARGs/ARB evaluation from a quantitative viewpoint shows high unpredictability because ARGs/ARB cannot be considered as standard hazardous molecules: ARB duplicate and ARGs evolve within a biological host. ARGs/ARB are currently listed as Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC). In light of such characteristics, we propose to define ARGs/ARB within a new category of evolving CEC (or e-CEC). ARGs/ARB, like any other evolving determinants (e.g., viruses, bacteria, genes), escape environmental controls. When they do so, just one molecule left remaining at a control point can form the origin of a new dangerous and selection-responsive population. As a consequence, perhaps it is time to acknowledge this trait and to include evolutionary concepts within modern risk assessment of e-CEC. In this perspective we analyze the evolutionary responses most likely to influence risk assessment, and we speculate on the means by which current methods could measure evolution. Further work is required to implement and exploit such experimental procedures in future risk assessment protocols

The bacterial urban resistome: recent advances

Cities that are densely populated are reservoirs of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs). The overall presence of all resistance genes in a specific environment is defined as a resistome. Spatial proximity of surfaces and different hygienic conditions leads to the transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) within urban environments. Built environments, public transportation, green spaces, and citizens’ behaviors all support persistence and transfer of antimicrobial resistances (AMR). Various unique aspects of urban settings that promote spread and resilience of ARGs/ARB are discussed: (i) the role of hospitals and recreational parks as reservoirs; (ii) private and public transportation as carriers of ARGs/ARB; (iii) the role of built environments as a hub for horizontal gene transfer even though they support lower microbial biodiversity than outdoor environments; (iv) the need to employ ecological and evolutionary concepts, such as modeling the fate of a specific ARG/ARB, to gain enhanced health risk assessments. Our understanding and our ability to control the rise of AMR in an urban setting is linked to our knowledge of the network connecting urban reservoirs and the environment

Educational activities for students and citizens supporting the One-Health approach on antimicrobial resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. Urgent action is needed at all levels of society to reduce the impact and spread of antibiotic resistance. For a more sustaining approach, education in children, college students, citizens and caregivers are essential. The One-Heath approach is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary strategy in which, no single organizations or sector can address the issue of antimicrobial resistance at the human–environment interface alone. Within this strategy, education plays a central role. In this scoping review, we highlighted a range of learning activities on antibiotic resistance as part of the One-Health approach. In particular, those applications that can be introduced to a wide audience to help arrest the current crisis for the next generation. The review identifies a high number of teaching opportunities: board and role-play games, round tables, musicals, e-learning and environmental experiments to couple with more curricula and formal education to inform a diverse group of audiences

From social infrastructure to civic center. The school as laboratory of collaborative governance models / Du service public au centre civique. À Turin, les écoles deviennent des condensateurs sociaux d’expérimentations urbaines

In the second half of the last century, after World War II, the Italian government defined an important period of public policies and projects to build a national welfare system in order to bridge the social and cultural gaps of a country with many different territorial situations. Half a century later, the complexification of the social and economic organization, which has transformed mass society into a plural society, has brought with it a multiplication and fragmentation of spatial and social needs for which the universal welfare system appears ineffective. The role of the public administration and its relationship to communities and the third sector have changed: increasingly often, alliances are defined to build projects that are closer to different social and cultural demands. This paper will focus on processes in which public service is enriched and regenerated by the care of reference communities: we seem to recognize the premises for a new way of administering public services, in which the public and the private collaborate on an equal level. We will adopt this perspective in observing what happens inside schools, which seems particularly interesting for at least two reasons. First of all, as the symbol of a public welfare service in crisis, it is simultaneously possible to recognize a certain habit of school communities taking part in the redevelopment of this service, through actions to care for the school building and its pertinent spaces. Secondly, the school also plays the role of a territorial actor, coming out of its own enclosures to take over urban space (that is, public gardens, parks, libraries, museums, cycle workshops, etc.) with educational projects at various levels. Turin represents an interesting case study, as a city where both public policies and social practices have integrated themselves, from education to urban regeneration, through institutional actors and local communities

A mobile application for assessment of air pollution exposure

In this paper the architecture of a mobile air quality monitoring system is introduced. A mobile application will act as a personal assistant, monitoring and giving advices about gas pollutants daily exposure. Currently in development stage as part of a larger air quality monitoring system project, the application will enable users to monitor their daily exposure to gas pollutants by combining user location data and urban air quality information provided by the network of fixed monitoring stations of the city of Palermo

The Bacterial Urban Resistome: Recent Advances

Cities that are densely populated are reservoirs of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs). The overall presence of all resistance genes in a specific environment is defined as a resistome. Spatial proximity of surfaces and different hygienic conditions leads to the transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) within urban environments. Built environments, public transportation, green spaces, and citizens’ behaviors all support persistence and transfer of antimicrobial resistances (AMR). Various unique aspects of urban settings that promote spread and resilience of ARGs/ARB are discussed: (i) the role of hospitals and recreational parks as reservoirs; (ii) private and public transportation as carriers of ARGs/ARB; (iii) the role of built environments as a hub for horizontal gene transfer even though they support lower microbial biodiversity than outdoor environments; (iv) the need to employ ecological and evolutionary concepts, such as modeling the fate of a specific ARG/ARB, to gain enhanced health risk assessments. Our understanding and our ability to control the rise of AMR in an urban setting is linked to our knowledge of the network connecting urban reservoirs and the environment

Educational activities for students and citizens supporting the one-health approach on antimicrobial resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. Urgent action is needed at all levels of society to reduce the impact and spread of antibiotic resistance. For a more sustaining approach, education in children, college students, citizens and caregivers are essential. The One-Heath approach is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary strategy in which, no single organizations or sector can address the issue of antimicrobial resistance at the human–environment interface alone. Within this strategy, education plays a central role. In this scoping review, we highlighted a range of learning activities on antibiotic resistance as part of the One-Health approach. In particular, those applications that can be introduced to a wide audience to help arrest the current crisis for the next generation. The review identifies a high number of teaching opportunities: board and role-play games, round tables, musicals, e-learning and environmental experiments to couple with more curricula and formal education to inform a diverse group of audiences

Circular dielectric cavity and its deformations

The construction of perturbation series for slightly deformed dielectric circular cavity is discussed in details. The obtained formulae are checked on the example of cut disks. A good agreement is found with direct numerical simulations and far-field experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

Electromagnetic Form Factors and the Hypercentral CQM

New results about the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon are obtained with a semirelativistic version of the hypercentral constituent quark model (hCQM) and a relativistic current. The complex structure of the constituent quarks is taken into account implicitly by means of phenomenological constituent quark form factors. We obtain a detailed reproduction of the experimental data up to $5 GeV^2$, moreover our findings about constituent quark root mean square radii are of the same order than the recent ones obtained analyzing the proton structure functions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure