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Food plays a significant role in the environmental impacts of human activities. However, many agro-industrial processes are multi-product systems and their impacts need to be distributed between the different co-products in order to properly address two major issues: (1) prevention of food spoilage and food losses and (2) the eco-design of food systems, from processing up to recommendations for changes in Western diets. As a culturally and nutritionally central component of most human diets, milk is critical because processing is a preservation issue and most dairy products follow from separations, thereby generating co-products. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a reference and standard method that allows quantification of the potential environmental impacts of a manufactured product throughout its life cycle. Application of the method requires foreground information on the system considered, as well as input and output flows that feed and exit the system. This data paper provides data related to the fractionation of milk into cream, casein, lactose and two whey protein ingredients at industrial scale, using up-to-date technologies used in French dairy factories in years 2000–2010s. Cleaning is included. Transcription of these input and output flows into a selection of processes in the Agribalyse 3.0.1 and Ecoinvent 3.8 databases is also provided. Application of the LCA method in its attributional approach leaves methodological choices up to the practitioner, such as subdivision of the system, allocation of the environmental burden where subdivision is not applied or not possible, and aggregation of the impacts. Therefore, this data paper also provides the allocation factors that are necessary to apply mass, dry matter, protein or economic allocation at every separation operation throughout the processing itinerary. Using the characterization method EF 3.0, this data paper provides the potential environmental impacts of the 5 co-products obtained with an initial input of 600 tons of raw milk, i.e., 63 tons of cream, 183 tons of wet casein, 90 tons of lactose, 1.7 ton of dried β-lactoglobulin and 0.3 ton of dried α-lactalbumin. The respective shares of the 5 co-products are calculated for each allocation rule. Finally, this data paper provides the potential environmental impacts for the manufacture of 1 kg of α-lactalbumin enriched ingredient, as the co-product with the longest process itinerary, with details of all intermediate input contributions as well as two possible aggregation rules: by step or by input type. The dataset participates in providing often confidential industrial-scale LCI data to the public. It will be helpful for the eco-design of future itineraries. In particular, it contributes to taking the fate of the co-products into account when using LCA for such eco-design.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the burden of COVID-19 in Swiss long-term care facilities in 2020, to identify its influencing factors, and to assess vaccination rates among residents and healthcare workers at the end of the vaccine campaign in Switzerland in May 2021. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Long-term care facilities from two Swiss cantons (St. Gallen / Eastern Switzerland and Vaud / Western Switzerland). METHODS: We collected numbers of COVID-19 cases and related deaths and all-cause mortality for 2020, potential risk factors at the institutional level (e.g. size, infection prevention and control measures, and resident characteristics), and vaccination rates among residents and healthcare workers. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify factors associated with resident mortality in 2020. RESULTS: We enrolled 59 long-term care facilities with a median of 46 (interquartile range [IQR]: 33–69) occupied beds. In 2020, the median COVID-19 incidence was 40.2 (IQR: 0–108.6) per 100 occupied beds, with higher rates in VD (49.9%) than in SG (32.5%; p = 0.037). Overall, 22.7% of COVID-19 cases died, of which 24.8% were COVID-19-related deaths. In the univariate analysis, higher resident mortality was associated with COVID-19 rates among residents (p < 0.001) and healthcare workers (p = 0.002) and age (p = 0.013). Lower resident mortality was associated with the proportion of single rooms (p = 0.012), isolation of residents with COVID-19 in single rooms (p = 0.003), symptom screening of healthcare workers (p = 0.031), limiting the number of visits per day (p = 0.004), and pre-scheduling visits (p = 0.037). In the multivariate analysis, higher resident mortality was only associated with age (p = 0.03) and the COVID-19 rate among residents (p = 0.013). Among 2936 residents, 2042 (69.9%) received ≥1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before 31 May 2021. Vaccine uptake among healthcare workers was 33.8%. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: COVID-19 burden was high but also highly variable in Swiss long-term care facilities. severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers was a modifiable factor associated with increased resident mortality. Symptom screening of healthcare workers appeared to be an effective preventive strategy and should be included in routine infection prevention and control measures. Promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake among healthcare workers should be a priority in Swiss long-term care facilities.

Objective To evaluate the impact of catch-up human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination on conization rates in France in a large population-based study. Methods We conducted a retrospective real-life cohort study on data collected prospectively by French National Health Insurance. Echantillon généralistes des bénéficiaires (EGB) is a database composed of demographic and health care utilization data for a 1/97th sample of the French population. We extracted data about all women born between 1983 and 1991, corresponding to the catch-up population (vaccination after 14 years old) at the time of implementation of HPV vaccination. The primary outcome was the occurrence of conization (all types of procedures) compared between vaccinated and non-vaccinated women. Results The cohort consisted of 42,452 women. Vaccination coverage (at least one dose) was low (9.8%, n = 4,129), but increased with time from vaccine implementation, from 0% in the 1983 cohort to 31% in the 1991 cohort. The conization rate was 1% for the overall population. The risk of conization for women between the ages of 19 and 30 years was reduced in the vaccinated group with a Hazard Ratio (HR) of 0.59 (95% CI[0.39–0.90]; p = 0.043). Conclusions With a 10-year follow-up, catch-up HPV vaccination is associated with risk reduction of conization between the ages of 19 and 30.

As attention to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) grows, a systematic strategy for assessing IEQ in schools needs to be developed. For this purpose, this paper presents a summary of parameters measured in school classrooms to characterize the quality of thermal, acoustic, and visual environments and indoor air quality (IAQ). The summary is based on a review of published literature reporting measurements in schools in Europe and North America in the past ten years. It also summarizes the measurement protocols and measured concentrations. Eighty-eight papers describing measurements in schools were identified and analyzed. No unique standardized measuring method was used in the reviewed studies and different parameters were measured. The most often measured parameters were those describing the thermal environment and IAQ. The former mainly comprised air temperature and relative humidity. The latter mainly comprised concentrations of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, radon, formaldehyde, and some volatile organic compounds. The measured parameters describing acoustic and visual environments mainly comprised noise level, reverberation time, and illuminance. A few studies reported additional measurements of radiant temperature, operative temperature, and speech intelligibility. Measurement protocols from different studies show inconsistency in sampling duration and location and expressed results. Measured concentrations also show high variation between studies, with some pollutants exceeding the threshold values proposed by local and/or international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). This review provides the reference for developing a rating scheme and protocols for uniform characterization of classroom IEQ.

Apple scab is an important disease conventionally controlled by chemical fungicides, which should be replaced by more environmentally friendly alternatives. One of these alternatives could be the use of lipopeptides produced by Bacillus subtilis. The objective of this work is to study the action of the three families of lipopeptides and different mixtures of them in vitro and in vivo against Venturia inaequalis. Firstly, the antifungal activity of mycosubtilin/surfactin and fengycin/surfactin mixtures was determined in vitro by measuring the median inhibitory concentration. Then, the best lipopeptide mixture ratio was produced using Design of Experiment (DoE) to optimize the composition of the culture medium. Finally, the lipopeptides mixtures efficiency against V. inaequalis was assessed in orchards as well as the evaluation of the persistence of lipopeptides on apple. In vitro tests show that the use of fengycin or mycosubtilin alone is as effective as a mixture, with the 50–50% fengycin/surfactin mixture being the most effective. Optimization of culture medium for the production of fengycin/surfactin mixture shows that the best composition is glycerol coupled with glutamic acid. Finally, lipopeptides showed in vivo antifungal efficiency against V. inaequalis regardless of the mixture used with a 70% reduction in the incidence of scab for both mixtures (fengycin/surfactin or mycosubtilin/surfactin). The reproducibility of the results over the two trial campaigns was significantly better with the mycosubtilin/surfactin mixture. The use of B. subtilis lipopeptides to control this disease is very promising.

Abstract Background We evaluated data from isolates of nursing home (NH) patients sent to the Swiss centre for antibiotic resistance (ANRESIS). We focussed on carbapenem-resistance (CR) among Gram-negative pathogens, extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant (ESC-R) Escherichia coli/Klebsiella pneumoniae, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (GRE). Methods NH patient isolates from 01/2007 to 10/2017 were extracted. Temporal trends in resistance were described and risk factors associated with ESC-R and MRSA were assessed. For every administrative subdivision in Switzerland (i.e. canton), we calculated a coverage rate, defined as number of beds of governmentally-supported nursing homes, which sent ≥1 isolate in each 2014, 2015, and 2016, divided by the total number of supported beds. Results We identified 16′804 samples from 9′940 patients. A majority of samples (12′040; 71.6%) originated from the French/Italian speaking part of Switzerland. ESC-R E. coli increased from 5% (16/299) in 2007 to 22% (191/884) in 2017 (P