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Fish stocking constitutes a common management practice in freshwaters all over the world, to enhance fisheries or to support threatened fish populations. Pervasive detrimental effects may affect the real effectiveness of stocking programs. However, studies assessing the real impacts and relative contribution of stocked trout in wild populations are surprisingly few. The marble trout, Salmo marmoratus (Cuvier 1829), is a critically endangered sub-endemic salmonid in Northern Italy, and an iconic species for recreational fishing and conservation, also representing an emblematic case of species negatively affected by restocking. For instance, marble trout inhabiting the Toce River, the second largest tributary of Lake Maggiore, has been stocked with different hatchery congener trout belonging to the Salmo trutta complex (putative marble trout, Atlantic trout Salmo trutta Linnaeus 1758 and putative Mediterranean trout Salmo ghigii Pomini 1941) over the last decades. Using mitochondrial (D-loop) and nuclear (12 microsatellites and LDH-C1*) markers, we characterised the genetic variability and gene flow among the wild and hatchery individuals of marble trout of this basin, to investigate the effectiveness of stocking activities on the native residual population. Despite extensive hybridization of marble trout with non-native brown trout stocks was shown, the presence of individuals belonging to pure native stock has been detected as well. However, concerns could be advanced regarding its future persistence, due to climatic and hydraulic instabilities or loss of environmental heterogeneity. Moreover, despite ongoing yearly massive stocking activities, a negligible contribution of reared putative marble trout in the wild sample has been documented, suggesting that natural recruitment represents the greatest source of this wild population sustainment. Important adaptive differences between wild and domestic trout are present, likely due to the deleterious long-term effects of the close breeding system of hatcheries. Finally, possible implications for stocking management improvement have been discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To evaluate the incidence of postoperative complications arising within 30 days of minimally invasive esophagectomy in the prone position with total lung ventilation and their relationship with 30-day and 1-year mortality. Secondary outcomes included possible anesthesia-related factors linked to the development of complications., Methods: The study is a retrospective single-center observational study at the Anesthesia and Surgical Department of a tertiary care center in the northeast of Italy. Patients underwent cancer resection through esophagectomy in the prone position without one-lung ventilation., Results: We included 110 patients from January 2010 to December 2017. A total of 54% of patients developed postoperative complications that increased mortality risk at 1 year of follow-up. Complications postponed first oral intake and delayed patient discharge to home. Positive intraoperative fluid balance was related to increased mortality and the risk to develop postoperative complications. C-reactive protein at third postoperative day may help detect complication onset., Conclusions: Complication onset has a great impact on mortality after esophagectomy. Some anesthesia-related factors, mainly fluid balance, may be associated with postoperative mortality and morbidity. These factors should be carefully taken into account to obtain better outcomes after esophagectomy in the prone position without one-lung ventilation.

Background: Convalescent plasma (CP) has been used in the past in various pandemics, in particular in H1N1, SARS and MERS infections. In Spring 2020, when ongoing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemics, the Veneto Region (V-R) has proposed setting-up an anti-SARS-CoV-2 CP (CCP) Bank, with the aim of preparing a supply of CCP immediately available in case of subsequest epidemic waves., Materials and Methods: Key-points to be developed for a quick set-up of the V-R CCP Bank have been recruitment of donors recovered from COVID-19 infection, laboratory analysis for the biological qualification of the CCP units, including titre of neutralizing antibodies and reduction of pathogens, according to National Blood Centre (CNS) Directives, adaptation of the V-R Information Technology systems and cost analysis. Some activities, including diagnostic and viral inactivation processes, have been centralized in 2 or 3 sites. Laboratory analysis upon preliminary admission of the donor included all tests required by the Italian laws and the CNS directives., Results: From April to August 2020, 3,298 people have contacted the V-R Blood Transfusion Services: of these, 1,632 have been evaluated and examined as first time donors and those found to be suitable have carried out 955 donations, from which 2,626 therapeutic fractions have been obtained, at a cost around 215,00 Euro. Since October 2020, the number of COVID-19 inpatients has had a surge with a heavy hospital overload. Moreover, the high request of CCP therapy by clinicians has been just as unexpected, showing a wide therapeutic use., Conclusions: The organizational model here presented, which has allowed the rapid collection of a large amount of CCP, could be useful when facing new pandemic outbreaks, especially in low and middle income countries, with generally acceptable costs., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in raw wastewaters has been demonstrated in many countries affected by this pandemic. Nevertheless, virus presence and infectivity in treated wastewaters, but also in the receiving water bodies are still poorly investigated. In this study, raw and treated samples from three wastewater treatment plants, and three river samples within the Milano Metropolitan Area, Italy, were surveyed for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection by means of real time RT-PCR and infectivity test on culture cells. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in raw, but not in treated wastewaters (four and two samples, respectively, sampled in two dates). The isolated virus genome was sequenced, and belonged to the strain most spread in Europe and similar to another found in the same region. RNA presence in raw wastewater samples decreased after eight days, probably following the epidemiological trend estimated for the area. Virus infectivity was always null, indicating the natural decay of viral pathogenicity in time from emission. Samples from receiving rivers (three sites, sampled in the same dates as wastewaters) showed in some cases a positivity to real time RT-PCR, probably due to non-treated, or inefficiently treated discharges, or to the combined sewage overflows. Nevertheless, also for rivers infectivity was null. Risks for public health should be limited, although a precautionary approach to risk assessment is here advocated, giving the preliminary nature of the presented data., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Freshwater fish communities are impacted by multiple pressures, determining loss of functional diversity and redundancy. Our aim was to disentangle the roles and relevancies of different pressures in shaping fish communities in small streams of the Po plain (North Italy). Long term trend (1998-2018) of functional diversity of 31 fish communities was assessed and modeled in respect to three potential pressures: temperature increase, intensity of exotic fish invasion, and habitat quality degradation. Ecological traits mostly influenced by the pressures were also identified. Reduction of functional richness mostly due to local extinction or contraction of cold adapted predators, such as salmonids, was linked to increasing temperatures. Warming probably also led to a shift of generalist and dominant species, which became more abundant in streams hosting mixed communities of salmonids and cyprinids, and determined the increase of functional dispersion and uniqueness. Reduction of functional redundancy and increasing functional dispersion were both also related to the introduction of new ecological traits brought by expanding exotic species. Low functional overlap was found among native and exotic species, indicating that the invasion process was mainly controlled by competitive interactions and/or resource opportunism. Functional response to habitat quality was not clearly evident. In conclusion, the impact of temperature increase and exotic species on fish functional diversity was effective, idiosyncratic and mediated by the scale of analysis and by the intensity of pressures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

. The nurses' tasks performed by aids in hospital settings: a mixed-methods study., Introduction: The role of Nurses' aides (NAs) in the clinical practice has been widely debated to date., Aims: To describe the activities/tasks performed by NAs and the dedicated time; to identify the activities/tasks shifted from nurses to NAs and to investigate the motivations., Methods: A multi-center mixed-methods study was conducted. Fifty-six NAs working in 17 hospitals in the North-Italy were observed during daily practice and then interviewed about the motivations associated with task shifting., Results: NAs mainly performed direct care tasks (67.7% of the observed time), such as helping with personal hygiene, feeding and mobilization. Larger hospitals (p = 0.034), surgical units (p = 0.001), a skill mix> 40% (p = 0.044) and a reduced nurse to patient ratio (p = 0.041), were significantly associated with a higher amount of indirect care activities/tasks performed by NAs. The tasks shifted most frequently from nurses to NAs were: mobilization (22; 39.3%) and personal hygiene (21; 37.5%) of unstable patients, feeding patients with dysphagia (19; 34%), intra-venous set replacement (16; 28.6%) and pressure ulcers' dressing (11; 19.6%). NAs reported that they chose to act autonomously because of their experience and the trust-based relationship with nurses, in order to promptly respond to patients needs and to reduce nurse workload., Conclusions: It is necessary to further assess the development of the NAs role in the hospital setting to understand their inclusion in the nursing care.

Two distinct lineages of Rana temporaria are known in the Palaearctic region, but it is uncertain whether this species persisted in one or more Pleistocene refugia. We resolved the phylogeographic history and genetic variability of R. temporaria in the Italian peninsula, a 'traditional' Pleistocene refugium, and related our findings to patterns described for other European populations. We sequenced the mitochondrial markers Cox I and cytochrome b. Phylogenetic reconstruction only indicated the presence of haplotypes belonging to the Western lineage in the Italian peninsula. Overall, the genetic variability of Italian populations was higher than other European populations, which shared haplotypes with the Alpine populations. We demonstrated subdivision into five main Italian sublineages, which was associated with a geographical structure of populations in two divergent groups. In particular, one Apennine group might have resulted from bottlenecks during the last interglacials ages. In contrast, Alpine populations were recently diverged and showed incomplete lineage sorting. Our data indicate that the Italian peninsula served as refugium for the Western lineage of R. temporaria. Dispersion towards Central Europe probably started only from the western slope of the Alps via a rapid leading edge expansion. The identified structure is partially congruent with traditional peripheral refugia identified for plants. This evolutionary scenario does not support any taxonomic distinction at the subspecific level for R. temporaria., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A 22-month study (2008-2009) was carried out on 273 patients (average age 40 months), admitted with gastroenteritis to the Pediatric Unit of L. Sacco University Hospital in Milan, Italy. Fecal samples were investigated for rotavirus (HRV), norovirus (NoV), adenovirus (AdV), sapovirus (SaV), enterovirus, astrovirus and bocavirus (HBoV). A 38.3% incidence of infection was observed for HRV, followed by NoV (16.2%), HBoV (13.6%), AdV (2.6%) and SaV (0.6%). Clinical evaluation of 109 gastroenteritis patients with confirmed diagnosis was graded by the Ruska-Vesikari scoring system, showing vomiting (78%), diarrhea (96%) and fever (80%). A total of 25 NoV-positive samples were selected for nucleotide sequence analysis. The severity of AdV-associated infection was lower than for NoV, HRV and HBoV. These latter viruses caused similar symptoms that were indistinguishable using clinical information. NoV, HRV and HBoV were often present as mixed infections (13.1%). Sequencing of NoV-positive samples allowed identification of GII.2, GII.3 and GII.4 2006 variants.

Unlabelled: Pain in intensive care units is a frequent and often undermanaged problem, mainly because appropriate pain assessment tools for non communicative patients are still missing. The Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (C-POT) is currently considered one of the best scales, both for psychometric properties and clinical feasibility., Aim: To preliminarily analyze the reliability and validity of the C-POT in a hospital setting, and its clinical feasibility., Methods: 50 nursing staff members from three different critical care settings of Vicenza Hospital administered the C-POT to 121 in patients, at rest and after usual nursing care activities. In addition, NOPPAIN forms were completed during care activities and communicative patients were asked to rate their pain using numerical rating scale 0-10. Reliability, with Cronbach's alfa and inter-rater agreement (Spearman's non parametric rank correlation), as well as criterion, concurrent and discriminant validity were determined., Results: A good internal consistency and good levels of agreement between independent raters were observed (ρSpearman 0.55 at rest and 0.66 during activity). Moderate correlations between C-POT and numerical rating scale 0-10, and between C-POT and NOPPAIN were found. Moreover, C-POT scores varied from rest to activities, and from non painful to painful procedures., Discussion: C-POT showed good psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity; these results, added to positive nurses evaluations, support its utility and use in the clinical setting.

The first geographical records of five alien monogeneans for Italy is reported. Four species have been detected from Lepomis gibbosus (Linnaeus, 1758): Actinocleidus recurvatus Mizelle et Donahue, 1944, Actinocleidus oculatus (Mueller, 1934), Urocleidus similis (Mueller, 1936) and Urocleidus dispar (Mueller, 1936); one species from Silurus glanis Linnaeus, 1758: Thaparocleidus vistulensis (Siwak, 1932) n. comb.

Sixteen Monogenean species were found on the skin and gills of 10 different fish species collected from north Italian water bodies. Cleidodiscus pricei from Ictalurus melas; Dactylogyrus alatus from Alburnus alburnus; D. anchoratus, D. formosus and D. vastator from Carassius carassius; D. difformis from Scardinius erythrophthalmus; D. rutili from Rutilus aula; D. tincae and Gyrodactylus gasterostei from Tinca tinca; D. ergensi from Leuciscus cephalus and Telestes muticellus; D. vistulae and Paradiplozoon rutili from Leuciscus cephalus; D. extensus and G. katharineri from Cyprinus carpio; G. lucii and Tetraonchus monenteron from Esox lucius. All species are new records for Italy with the exception of D. difformis, D. ergensi, D. vistulae and T. monenteron.