Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave (Sicily, Italy) [Preprint - bioRxiv, December 2021]

Title:

Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave (Sicily, Italy) 

 

Authors:

Gabriele Scorrano, Sofie Holtsmark Nielsen, Domenico Lo Vetro, Meaghan Mackie, Ashot Margaryan, Anna K. Fotakis, Cristina Martínez-Labarga, Pier Francesco Fabbri, Morten E. Allentoft, Marialetizia Carra, Fabio Martini, Olga Rickards, Jesper V. Olsen, Enrico Cappellini & Martin Sikora

 

Published:

bioRxiv, 8 December 2021

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.08.471745v1

This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review

 

Abstract:

Recent improvements in the analysis of ancient biomolecules from human remains and associated dental calculus have provided new insights into the prehistoric diet and past genetic diversity of our species. Here we present a “multi-omics” study, integrating genomic and proteomic analyses of two post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) individuals from San Teodoro cave (Italy), to reconstruct their lifestyle and the post-LGM resettlement of Europe. Our analyses show genetic homogeneity in Sicily during the Palaeolithic, representing a hitherto unknown Italian genetic lineage within the previously identified “Villabruna cluster”. We argue that this lineage took refuge in Italy during the LGM, followed by a subsequent spread to central-western Europe. Multi-omics analysis of dental calculus showed a diet rich of animal proteins which is also reflected on the oral microbiome composition. Our results demonstrate the power of using a multi-omics approach in the study of prehistoric human populations.

 

New digital tool helps caseworkers navigate complex legislation [IT University of Copenhagen, October 2021]

Title:

New digital tool helps caseworkers navigate complex legislation

 

Author:

Jari Kickbusch

 

Published:

IT University of Copenhagen, 4 October 2021

https://en.itu.dk/About-ITU/Press/News-from-ITU/2021/Ecoknow-afslutning-UK

From the article:

Caseworkers and clients in the Danish municipalities struggle with IT systems that cannot take individual needs into account and are difficult to adapt to the ever-changing legislation. The inflexible systems are expensive to maintain and make it difficult for the caseworkers to meet the legal requirements.  

 

A four-year project 

In 2017, Innovation Fund Denmark invested DKK 16 million in the four-year project Ecoknow, which aimed to investigate ways to make digital casework processes more intelligent, flexible, and transparent. The project, anchored at the IT University of Copenhagen, has just been completed and Principal Investigator, Professor and head of the software, data, people and society research section at Department of Computer Science at Copenhagen University, Thomas Hildebrandt, is proud of the achievement.

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection 1 Year After Primary Infection in a Population in Lombardy, Italy [Scholarly Article - JAMA Intern Med, 2021]

Title:

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection 1 Year After Primary Infection in a Population in Lombardy, Italy 

 

Authors:

Josè Vitale, MD1; Nicola Mumoli, MD1; Pierangelo Clerici, MD2; Massimo De Paschale, MD2; Isabella Evangelista, MD1; Marco Cei, MD1; Antonino Mazzone, MD2 

 

1. Magenta Hospital, ASST Ovest Milanese, Magenta, Italy 

2. Legnano Hospital, ASST Ovest Milanese, Legnano, Italy

 

Published:

JAMA Intern Med, 28 May 2021

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2780557

 

From the article:

Despite more than 150 million people becoming infected worldwide, SARS-CoV-2 reinfections are uncommon. The risk of a second infection in the population who has recovered from COVID-19 is crucial to improve quarantine management and optimize the ongoing vaccination campaign. The rate of reinfection among health care workers has been reported, but the rate of reinfection in the general population is less clear.

 

Geology of Marseilles to Italy high‐speed TGV railway line compared to HS2 in Britain (Scholarly Article by David A.G. Nowell)

Title: 

Geology of Marseilles to Italy high‐speed TGV railway line compared to HS2 in Britain 

 

Author:

David A.G. Nowell

 

Published:

GeologyToday, 26 January 2021

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gto.12338

 

Abstract:

In a radical departure, SNCF, the French state railway company, launched a public consultation in 2016 about the route for the first of a series of piecemeal extensions to the proposed French high‐speed railway (ligne à grande vitesse) LGV network in Provence‐Alpes‐Côte d'Azur. A cheaper proposal to build an inland line, bypassing Marseilles and Toulon, met strong opposition as it would have traversed landscapes made famous by Cézanne's nineteenth century paintings. This alternative offered options for tunnelling under Marseilles, including an underground TGV station due for completion in 2033. Eventually heading eastwards, a line about 35 km long with a lengthy tunnel into the port city of Toulon will be built by around 2040 from Aubagne. Unlike Britain and problems building HS2 bypassing the West Coast railway mainline into London, France has well‐established relatively generous compensation procedures for anybody losing property due to new infrastructure schemes. Also, this SNCF budget is split into many portions, while HS2 has been hampered by poor geological knowledge of likely ground conditions along parts of the route resulting in massive cost overruns. Even after the Oakervee review into how to bring these cost overruns under control gave the green light for construction of HS2 to continue in February 2020, these underlying factors were hardly considered in this technical and economic report.

The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook [Scholarly Article - South European Society and Politics, February 2021]

Title:

The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook 

 

Authors:

Elisabetta De Giorgi 

Assistant Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS) of the University of Trieste

&

José Santana-Pereira

Assistant Professor at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute’s Department of Political Science and Public Policy, and Researcher at CIES-Lisbon University Institute

 

Published:

South European Society and Politics, 3 February 2021

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2021.1872152

 

Abstract:

The analysis explores government, party system and political attitudes as dimensions revealing Portugal’s exceptionalism during its post-bailout period (2015–19) vis-á-vis three other South European countries, Greece, Italy and Spain. It shows that government stability was greater in Portugal, no party system revolution took place and political trust recovered more quickly than in the other countries. In contrast, Portugal is not dissimilar from the other cases regarding the prevalence of populist attitudes, even though populist actors did not achieve electoral success before 2019. The article includes an update on political attitudes and government-opposition relations during the covid-19 pandemic and introduces the other articles in this collection.

No evidence of association between schools and SARS-CoV-2 second wave in Italy [Preprint - medRxiv, 18 December 2020]

Title:

No evidence of association between schools and SARS-CoV-2 second wave in Italy

 

Authors:

Sara Gandini, Maurizio Rainisio, Maria Luisa Iannuzzo,  Federica Bellerba,  Francesco Cecconi & Luca Scorrano

 

Published:

medRxiv, 18 December 2020

[Keep in mind that this is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review.]

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.16.20248134v1

 

Abstract:

During Covid-19 pandemic, school closure has been mandated in analogy to its known effect against influenza, but it is unclear whether schools are early amplifiers of Covid19 cases. By analyzing the case scenario of school reopening across the twenty-one Italian regions, we did not find evidence that schools drove the second SARS-CoV-2 wave. Indeed, from September 12 to November 7 2020, SARS-CoV-2 incidence among students was lower than that in the general population of all but two Italian regions. From August 28 to October 25 in Veneto where school reopened on September 14, the growth of SARS-CoV-2 incidence measured across all age groups was lower in school age individuals, maximal in 20-29 and 45-49 years old individuals. Moreover, the increase in Covid19 reproduction number Rt was not associated with the different school opening dates. Reciprocally, school closures in two regions where they were implemented before other measures did not affect the rate of Rt decline. In schools, despite the high frequency of tests per week, secondary infections were <1%, and clusters in a representative November week infrequent. Thus, our prospective analysis does not support a role for school reopening as a driver of the second wave of SARS-CoV-2 epidemics in Italy.

Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in an Oropharyngeal Swab Specimen, Milan, Italy, Early December 2019 [Scholarly Article - Emerging Infectious Diseases, 8 December 2020]

 Title:

 Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in an Oropharyngeal Swab Specimen, Milan, Italy, Early December 2019

 

Authors:

Antonella Amendola1, Silvia Bianchi1, Maria Gori, Daniela Colzani, Marta Canuti, Elisa Borghi, Mario C. Raviglione, Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti, & Elisabetta Tanzi

 

Comments to Author  Author affiliations: University of Milan, Milan, Italy (A. Amendola, S. Bianchi, M. Gori, D. Colzani, E. Borghi, M.C. Raviglione, G.V. Zuccotti, E. Tanzi); Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada (M. Canuti) 

 

Published:

Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 27, Number 2 (8 December 2020)

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-4632_article

 

Abstract:

We identified severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in an oropharyngeal swab specimen collected from a child with suspected measles in early December 2019, ≈3 months before the first identified coronavirus disease case in Italy. This finding expands our knowledge on timing and mapping of novel coronavirus transmission pathways.

 

Tracce di coronavirus nelle acque di Torino, Milano e Bologna già a dicembre: il Covid-19 circolava molto prima degli allarmi [Traces of coronavirus in the waters of Turin, Milan and Bologna as early as December: the Covid-19 circulated long before the alarms]

Title:
Tracce di coronavirus nelle acque di Torino, Milano e Bologna già a dicembre: il Covid-19 circolava molto prima degli allarmi
[Traces of coronavirus in the waters of Turin, Milan and Bologna as early as December: the Covid-19 circulated long before the alarms]
 
Author:
Sara Strippoli

Published:
Torino, 18 June 2020
https://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/06/18/news/tracce_d_covid_nelle_acque_di_torino_gia_a_dicembre_il_virus_circolava_molto_prima_degli_allarmi-259573895/?ref=RHPPTP-BH-I259601180-C12-P3-S2.4-T1
 
From the article:
Studio dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità basato su analisi dell'Rna. Ma un mese fa Arpa Piemonte aveva detto il contrario: "Nessuna traccia di virus"

Il coronavirus circolava anche a Torino molto prima che all'ospedale per malattie infettive Amedeo di Savoia arrivasse, il 22 febbraio scorso, il paziente 1 torinese. Parecchi casi di polmonite interstiziale, con caratteristiche compatibili, a posteriori, con la sintomatologia del Covid-19 erano tuttavia stati riscontrati negli ospedali torinesi e milanesi. I campioni prelevati nei depuratori di centri urbani del nord Italia, sono stati utilizzati come 'spià della circolazione del virus nella popolazione.

Scholarly Article (13 May 2020) - An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study

Title:
An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study

Authors:
Lucio Verdoni, MD; Angelo Mazza, MD; Annalisa Gervasoni, MD; Laura Martelli, MD; Maurizio Ruggeri, MD; Matteo Ciuffreda, MD; Ezio Bonanomi, MD & Lorenzo D'Antiga, MD 

Published:
Lancet, 13 May 2020
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31103-X/fulltext

Background:
"The Bergamo province, which is extensively affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic, is a natural observatory of virus manifestations in the general population. In the past month we recorded an outbreak of Kawasaki disease; we aimed to evaluate incidence and features of patients with Kawasaki-like disease diagnosed during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic."

ITALY - Coronavirus lockdown forces tough choices on Italian scientists

Title:
Coronavirus lockdown forces tough choices on Italian scientists

Author:
David Matthews

Published:
World University Rankings, 17 March 2020

From the article:
"As labs shut, researchers in Milan fear losing months of work – and urge colleagues abroad to prepare now for similar restrictions."

To read this article:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/coronavirus-lockdown-forces-tough-choices-italian-scientists

Short article - 'Really stressful': Italians struggle to cope with education closures

Title:
'Really stressful': Italians struggle to cope with education closures

Author:
Lorenzo Tondo

Published:
The Guardian, 5 March 2020

From the article:
"Students, parents and teachers are struggling to cope with the Italian government’s decision to close all schools and universities nationwide until 15 March as it grapples to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus."

To read this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/05/really-stressful-italians-struggle-to-cope-with-education-closures