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This study applies the first three levels of analysis outlined in the recent Italian Bridge Guidelines to a stock of prestressed concrete bridges located along the highways connecting the cities of Palermo, Messina and Catania in Sicily, south of Italy. The examined levels of analysis include census, visual inspection and determination of the structural–foundational and seismic Classes of Attention of bridges and viaducts. Data of the census and visual inspection activities were gathered using a custom-made web application. The details, the methodologies and all the features implemented in the web platform were illustrated and discussed. Furthermore, the collected data were described and critically analyzed, offering insights into the strength and limitations of each of the three examined levels of analysis of the Italian Bridge Guidelines. Finally, based on the detected defects and their numerousness with respect to the total number of assessed bridges, the authors proposed a straightforward and practical methodology for prioritizing any subsequent repairing intervention on specific groups of bridges.

Pasteurellosis, a disease caused by Pasteurella multocida, is responsible for economic losses in rabbit industrial farms due to rhinitis, conjunctivitis, pneumonia, metritis, mastitis, orchitis, subcutaneous abscesses, otitis, encephalitis, and septicaemic forms. Although the occurrence of the disease is conditioned by predisposing factors that affect the rabbit immune response, the strains of P. multocida involved in the infection may have a different pathogenic ability. Therefore, typing of strains spread among the rabbits is important to assess their pathogenic potential. The aim of this study is to investigate the P. multocida strains responsible for disease in rabbit industrial farms. A total of 114 strains identified from different lesions were serotyped. Additionally, the presence of virulence-associated genes was investigated using three PCR (polymerase chain reaction) protocols. Capsular type A was prevalently found in strains from respiratory lesions while types D and F in those from metritis, mastitis, and other lesions. Different associations between some virulence-associated genes and both capsular type and lesions found in rabbits were detected. The presence of 8 virulence-associated genes seems to increase the occurrence of metritis. In addition, strains belonging to capsular type A and responsible for respiratory disorders especially, were found equipped with 10 and 11 virulence-associated genes. Nevertheless, the presence of strains responsible only for rhinitis was also detected among the latter, suggesting that the pathogenic ability of the bacteria depends on the expression rather than the presence of a gene.

PICO question In dogs with snakebites does the use of antimicrobials compared to no antimicrobials reduce incidence of wound infection? Clinical bottom line Category of research Treatment. Number and type of study designs reviewed Seven case series. Strength of evidence Weak. Outcomes reported Three studies looked at the incidence of wound infection in envenomated dogs, three compared antimicrobial use to mortality and one compared other outcomes, such as time in hospital. The incidence of wound infection was low in the studies and overall antimicrobials seemed to have no significant effect on outcomes such as survival or wound infection. Therefore, the routine use of antimicrobials for snakebite treatment is not supported by the results, however further studies are required to provide conclusive evidence. Conclusion There is currently insufficient evidence from literature to either support or reject the use of antimicrobials in the treatment of snakebites. How to apply this evidence in practice The application of evidence into practice should take into account multiple factors, not limited to: individual clinical expertise, patient’s circumstances and owners’ values, country, location or clinic where you work, the individual case in front of you, the availability of therapies and resources. Knowledge Summaries are a resource to help reinforce or inform decision making. They do not override the responsibility or judgement of the practitioner to do what is best for the animal in their care.

Background: Human, animal, and environmental health are increasingly threatened by the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. Inappropriate use of antibiotic treatments commonly contributes to this threat, but it is also becoming apparent that multiple, interconnected environmental factors can play a significant role. Thus, a One Health approach is required for a comprehensive understanding of the environmental dimensions of antibiotic resistance and inform science-based decisions and actions. The broad and multidisciplinary nature of the problem poses several open questions drawing upon a wide heterogeneous range of studies. Objective: This study seeks to collect and catalogue the evidence of the potential effects of environmental factors on the abundance or detection of antibiotic resistance determinants in the outdoor environment, i.e., antibiotic resistant bacteria and mobile genetic elements carrying antibiotic resistance genes, and the effect on those caused by local environmental conditions of either natural or anthropogenic origin. Methods: Here, we describe the protocol for a systematic evidence map to address this, which will be performed in adherence to best practice guidelines. We will search the literature from 1990 to present, using the following electronic databases: MEDLINE, Embase, and the Web of Science Core Collection as well as the grey literature. We shall include full-text, scientific articles published in English. Reviewers will work in pairs to screen title, abstract and keywords first and then full-text documents. Data extraction will adhere to a code book purposely designed. Risk of bias assessment will not be conducted as part of this SEM.We will combine tables, graphs, and other suitable visualisation techniques to compile a database i) of studies investigating the factors associated with the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the environment and ii) map the distribution, network, cross-disciplinarity, impact and trends in the literature.

Background: Estimates of the association between COVID-19 vaccines and myo-/pericarditis risk vary widely across studies due to scarcity of events, especially in age- and sex-stratified analyses.Methods: Population-based cohort study with nested self-controlled risk interval (SCRI) using healthcare data from five European databases. Individuals were followed from 01/01/2020 until end of data availability (31/12/2021 latest). Outcome was first myo-/pericarditis diagnosis. Exposures were first and second dose of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines. Baseline incidence rates (IRs), and vaccine- and dose-specific IRs and rate differences were calculated from the cohort The SCRI calculated calendar time-adjusted IR ratios (IRR), using a 60-day pre-vaccination control period and dose-specific 28-day risk windows. IRRs were pooled using random effects meta-analysis.Findings: Over 35 million individuals (49·2% women, median age 39–49 years) were included, of which 57·4% received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Baseline incidence of myocarditis was low. Myocarditis IRRs were elevated after vaccination in those aged < 30 years, after both Pfizer vaccine doses (IRR = 3·3, 95%CI 1·2-9.4; 7·8, 95%CI 2·6-23·5, respectively) and Moderna vaccine dose 2 (IRR = 6·1, 95%CI 1·1-33·5). An effect of AstraZeneca vaccine dose 2 could not be excluded (IRR = 2·42, 95%CI 0·96-6·07). Pericarditis was not associated with vaccination.Interpretation: mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines and potentially AstraZeneca are associated with increased myocarditis risk in younger individuals, although absolute incidence remains low. More data on children (≤ 11 years) are needed.

This essay develops a comprehensive approach to the study of parallax effects in early modern images, with critical emphasis on painting. Parallax is the apparent displacement of an object relative to a given background, as caused by the movement of the observer. In the cosmological debate that accompanied the Copernican revolution, the apparent absence of stellar parallax was taken as decisive evidence against the hypothesis of the motion of the Earth. Surprisingly, the emergence of a parallax view in the early modern arts has not been considered in relation to this crucial scientific debate, and it is still largely understudied. In this context, this essay puts forward a twofold argument: first, it contends that the debate on stellar parallax informs, integrates, and transforms the theory of perspective in the late Renaissance; second, it argues that the parallax view sheds new light on the representation of movement in the Baroque visual culture. The semiotic model of uttered enunciation provides a methodological framework to study the inscription of a moving observer in images, and the question of the semiotic nature of mirrors finds here a new pertinence. This framework is developed with a focus on Giordano Bruno’s art of memory, where the parallax view enables a semiotic embrace of the movement of images. In painting, analysis focuses on Caravaggio’s Narcissus, where the observer is displaced to reflect the point of view of an image that appears motionless but sees itself as a moving image.

Toxoplasma gondii is a major foodborne pathogen capable of infecting all warm-blooded animals, including humans. Although oocyst-associated toxoplasmosis outbreaks have been documented, the relevance of the environmental transmission route remains poorly investigated. Thus, we carried out an extensive systematic review on T. gondii oocyst contamination of soil, water, fresh produce, and mollusk bivalves, following the PRISMA guidelines. Studies published up to the end of 2020 were searched for in public databases and screened. The reference sections of the selected articles were examined to identify additional studies. A total of 102 out of 3201 articles were selected: 34 articles focused on soil, 40 focused on water, 23 focused on fresh produce (vegetables/fruits), and 21 focused on bivalve mollusks. Toxoplasma gondii oocysts were found in all matrices worldwide, with detection rates ranging from 0.09% (1/1109) to 100% (8/8) using bioassay or PCR-based detection methods. There was a high heterogeneity (I2 = 98.9%), which was influenced by both the sampling strategy (e.g., sampling site and sample type, sample composition, sample origin, season, number of samples, cat presence) and methodology (recovery and detection methods). Harmonized approaches are needed for the detection of T. gondii in different environmental matrices in order to obtain robust and comparable results.

While the historical novel is a product of European Romanticism, the first Italian historical novel expresses the critical awareness of its origin against the dark background of the Seicento. For the historical and political imagination of the Italian Romanticism, the Seicento represents the Middle Age of modernity, namely the obscurity of the contemporary. From the dark background of the Seicento the Italian historical novel draws stories that reflect on the obscurity of its own time. In particular, my essay examines a selection of contemporary texts that show the continued and critical presence of the Seicento in the Italian historical novel.