Agile, on-demand wastewater surveillance of virus infections to support pandemic and outbreak response in Rotterdam-Rijnmond, the Netherlands, 2020 to 2022.

BackgroundWastewater surveillance may support early and comprehensive detection of infectious diseases' community transmission, particularly in settings where other health surveillance systems provide biased or limited information. Amid the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, deploying passive samplers to monitor targeted populations gained importance. Evaluation of the added public health value of this approach in the field can support its broader adoption.

Transferable and data efficient metamodeling of storm water system nodal depths using auto-regressive graph neural networks.

Storm water systems (SWSs) are essential infrastructure providing multiple services including environmental protection and flood prevention. Typically, utility companies rely on computer simulators to properly design, operate, and manage SWSs. However, multiple applications in SWSs are highly time-consuming.

Characterisation of European Field Goat Prion Isolates in Ovine PrP Overexpressing Transgenic Mice (Tgshp IX) Reveals Distinct Prion Strains.

After the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and a zoonotic transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by the pathological prion protein (PrP) in two goats, the investigation of goat prions became of greater interest. Therefore, a broad collection of European goat TSE isolates, including atypical scrapie, CH1641 and goat BSE as reference prion strains were biochemically characterised and subsequently inoculated into seven rodent models for further analysis (already published results of this comprehensive study are reviewed here for comparative reasons). We report here the histopathological and immunohistochemical data of this goat TSE panel, obtained after the first passage in Tgshp IX (tg-shARQ) mice, which overexpress the ovine prion protein.

The TIPS family psychoeducational group work approach in first episode psychosis and related disorders: 25 years of experiences.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to present 25 years of clinical experience with family psychoeducation (FPE) work at Stavanger University Hospital in Norway, highlighting the lessons learned in overcoming implementation barriers in publicly funded specialized mental health care.

Methods: This retrospective analysis reviews the integration and sustainability of FPE work within the hospital's standard treatment protocols for psychosis, tracing its origins from the Early Treatment and Intervention in Psychosis (TIPS) study (1997-2000) to its current application. The paper examines key strategies for successful implementation, including staff training and resource allocation, as emphasized by international research.

Metrics to quantify the degree of co-location of urban water infrastructure.

Co-located infrastructure networks such as road, water, and sewer in theory offer the possibility for integrated multi-infrastructure interventions. However, how closely these networks are aligned in space and time determines the practical extent to which such coordinated interventions can be realized. This study quantifies the spatial alignment of the aforementioned infrastructure networks and demonstrates its application for integrated interventions and potential cost savings.

Flow rate influence on sediment depth estimation in sewers using temperature sensors.

Enhancing sediment accumulation monitoring techniques in sewers will enable a better understanding of the build-up processes to develop improved cleaning strategies. Thermal sensors provide a solution to sediment depth estimation by passively monitoring temperature fluctuations in the wastewater and sediment beds, which allows evaluation of the heat-transfer processes in sewer pipes. This study analyses the influence of the flow conditions on heat-transfer processes at the water-sediment interface during dry weather flow conditions.

Change in the molecular properties of CH1641 prions after transmission to wild-type mice: Evidence for a single strain.

Aim: CH1641 was discovered in 1970 as a scrapie isolate that was unlike all other classical strains of scrapie isolated so far. We performed bio-assays of CH1641 in mice in order to further characterise this specific isolate.

Methods: We inoculated the original CH1641 isolate into ovine and bovine prion protein (PrP) transgenic mice as well as wild-type mice.

A comparative study between low- and high-tech methods for the detection and mitigation of illicit connections in stormwater systems.

Illicit connections of wastewater to stormwater systems are the main drawback of separate sewer systems, as they lead to a direct discharge of untreated wastewater to the aquatic environment. Consequently, several inspection methods have been developed for detecting illicit connections. This study simultaneously applied several low- and high-tech methods for the detection of illicit connections in the same catchment (De Heuvel, the Netherlands).

Capturing the SARS-CoV-2 infection pyramid within the municipality of Rotterdam using longitudinal sewage surveillance.

Despite high vaccination rates in the Netherlands, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to circulate. Longitudinal sewage surveillance was implemented along with the notification of cases as two parts of the surveillance pyramid to validate the use of sewage for surveillance, as an early warning tool, and to measure the effect of interventions. Sewage samples were collected from nine neighborhoods between September 2020 and November 2021.

Monitoring organic micropollutants in stormwater runoff with the method of fingerprinting.

The ecological state of receiving water bodies can be significantly influenced by organic micropollutants that are emitted via stormwater runoff. Reported efforts to quantify the emission of micropollutants mainly focus on sampling at combined sewer overflows and storm sewer outfalls, which can be challenging. An alternative method, called fingerprinting, was developed and tested in this study.

A method to identify the weakest link in urban drainage systems.

Urban drainage systems are composed of subsystems. The ratio of the storage and discharge capacities of the subsystems determines the performance. The performance of the urban water system may deteriorate as a result of the change in the ratio of storage to discharge capacity due to aging, urbanisation and climate change.

Predictive heuristic control: Inferring risks from heterogeneous nowcast accuracy.

Urban Drainage Systems can cause ecological and public health issues by releasing untreated contaminated water into the environment. Real-time control (RTC), augmented with rainfall nowcast, can effectively reduce these pollution loads. This research aims to identify key dynamics in the nowcast accuracies and relate those to the performance of nowcast-informed rule-based (RB)-RTC procedures.

Rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Rotterdam: Comparison of wastewater and clinical surveillance.

Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater (WW) is a promising tool for epidemiological surveillance, correlating not only viral RNA levels with the infection dynamics within the population, but also to viral diversity. However, the complex mixture of viral lineages in WW samples makes tracking of specific variants or lineages circulating in the population a challenging task. We sequenced sewage samples of 9 WW-catchment areas within the city of Rotterdam, used specific signature mutations from individual SARS-CoV-2 lineages to estimate their relative abundances in WW and compared them against those observed in clinical genomic surveillance of infected individuals between September 2020 and December 2021.

Normalisation of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater: The use of flow, electrical conductivity and crAssphage.

Over the course of the Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020-2022, monitoring of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ribonucleic acid (SARS-CoV-2 RNA) in wastewater has rapidly evolved into a supplementary surveillance instrument for public health. Short term trends (2 weeks) are used as a basis for policy and decision making on measures for dealing with the pandemic. Normalisation is required to account for the dilution rate of the domestic wastewater that can strongly vary due to time- and location-dependent sewer inflow of runoff, industrial discharges and extraneous waters.

Population-based screening in a municipality after a primary school outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant, the Netherlands, December 2020-February 2021.

An outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant (Pango lineage B.1.1.

Identifying sources of infiltration and inflow in sanitary sewers in a northern community: comparative assessment of selected methods.

Infiltration and inflow (I/I) into sanitary sewers causes numerous negative effects on the whole wastewater management system and ultimately, on the receiving waters. Consequently, a number of methods have been developed to analyse the performance of sewer systems with respect to I/I, including: distributed temperature sensing (DTS), closed-circuit television (CCTV) inspections, flow and conductivity measurements, automatic or grab sampling of ammonium, smoke testing, and visual inspection of manholes. Such methods were compared in an application to sanitary sewers in a small community and assessed with respect to their accuracy and ability to identify locations of sources of I/I, as well as temporal and spatial resolutions of the obtained results.

Associations between symptom and neurocognitive dimensions in clinical high risk for psychosis.

Introduction: Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) is associated with mild cognitive impairments. Symptoms are clustered into positive, negative and disorganization symptoms. The association between specific symptom dimensions and cognitive functions remains unclear.

Solubilities and Transport Properties of CO, Oxalic Acid, and Formic Acid in Mixed Solvents Composed of Deep Eutectic Solvents, Methanol, and Propylene Carbonate.

Recently, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been considered as possible electrolytes for the electrochemical reduction of CO to value-added products such as formic and oxalic acids. The applicability of pure DES as electrolytes is hindered by high viscosities. Mixtures of DES with organic solvents can be a promising way of designing superior electrolytes by exploiting the advantages of each solvent type.

Towards the long term implementation of real time control of combined sewer systems: a review of performance and influencing factors.

Real Time Control (RTC) is widely accepted as a cost-effective way to operate urban drainage systems (UDS) effectively. However, what factors influence RTC efficacy and how this might change in the long term remains largely unknown. This paper reviews the literature to understand what these factors likely are, and how they can be assessed in the future.

Reduced Expression of Emotion: A Red Flag Signalling Conversion to Psychosis in Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) Populations.

: In this hypothesis-testing study, which is based on findings from a previous atheoretical machine-learning study, we test the predictive power of baseline "reduced expression of emotion" for psychosis.: Study participants (N = 96, mean age 16.55 years) were recruited from the Prevention of Psychosis Study in Rogaland, Norway.

Exploring Spatially Explicit Changes in Carbon Budgets of Global River Basins during the 20th Century.

Rivers play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle. However, it remains unknown how long-term river C fluxes change because of climate, land-use, and other environmental changes. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal variations in global freshwater C cycling in the 20th century using the mechanistic IMAGE-Dynamic Global Nutrient Model extended with the Dynamic In-Stream Chemistry Carbon module (DISC-CARBON) that couples river basin hydrology, environmental conditions, and C delivery with C flows from headwaters to mouths.

Polymorphisms of Codons 110, 146, 211 and 222 at the Goat Locus and Their Association with Scrapie in Greece.

Scrapie is considered an endemic disease in both sheep and goats in Greece. However, contrary to sheep, in goats more than one prion protein (PrP) polymorphism has been recognized as a candidate for resistance breeding against the disease. For an impression, candidates which are circulating, (i) brain samples ( 525) from scrapie-affected ( 282) and non-affected ( 243) animals within the national surveillance program, and (ii) individual blood samples ( 1708) from affected ( 241) and non-affected ( 1467) herds, in a large part of mainland Greece and its islands, were collected and assayed.

Cognitive predictors of longitudinal positive symptom course in clinical high risk for psychosis.

Background: Clinical High Risk (CHS) for psychosis is a state in which positive symptoms are predominant but do not reach a level of severity that fulfils the criteria for a psychotic episode. The aim of this study has been to investigate whether cognition in subjects with newly detected CHR affects the longitudinal development of positive symptoms.

Methods: Fifty-three CHR individuals fulfilling the criteria for attenuated positive syndrome in the Structural Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) were included.