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SARS-CoV-2 surveillance by wastewater-based epidemiology is poised to provide a complementary approach to sequencing individual cases. However, robust quantification of variants and de novo detection of emerging variants remains challenging for existing strategies. We deep sequenced 3,413 wastewater samples representing 94 municipal catchments, covering >59% of the population of Austria, from December 2020 to February 2022. Our system of variant quantification in sewage pipeline designed for robustness (termed VaQuERo) enabled us to deduce the spatiotemporal abundance of predefined variants from complex wastewater samples. These results were validated against epidemiological records of >311,000 individual cases. Furthermore, we describe elevated viral genetic diversity during the Delta variant period, provide a framework to predict emerging variants and measure the reproductive advantage of variants of concern by calculating variant-specific reproduction numbers from wastewater. Together, this study demonstrates the power of national-scale WBE to support public health and promises particular value for countries without extensive individual monitoring.

This study examined eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage and rapid adaptation. Twenty-two male subjects performed 70 eccentric actions with the knee extensors. Group A (n = 11) and group B (n = 11) repeated the same exercise 4 and 13 days after the initial bout, respectively. Criterion measures included muscle soreness, muscle force generation (vertical jump height on a Kistler platform), and plasma levels of creatine kinase (CK), slow-twitch skeletal (cardiac beta-type) myosin heavy chains (MHC), and cardiac troponin I. Subjects were tested pre-exercise and up to day 4 following each bout. The initial exercise resulted in an increase in CK and MHC, a decrement in muscle force, and delayed onset muscle soreness in all participants. CK and MHC release correlated closely (rho = 0.73, p = 0.0001), both did not correlate with the decrement in muscle force generation after exercise. Because cardiac troponin I could not be detected in all samples, which excluded a protein release from the heart (cardiac beta-type MHC), this finding provides evidence for a injury of slow-twitch skeletal muscle fibers in response to eccentric contractions. Repetition of the initial eccentric exercise bout after 13 days (group B) did not cause muscle soreness, a decrement in muscle reaction force with vertical jump or significant changes in plasma MHC and CK concentrations, whereas in case of repetition after 4 days (group A) only the significant increases in CK and MHC were abolished. The decrement in reaction force with vertical jump did not differ significantly from that after the initial exercise session, but perceived muscle soreness was less pronounced.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Wastewater-based epidemiology is a recognised source of information for pandemic management. In this study, we investigated the correlation between a SARS-CoV-2 signal derived from wastewater sampling and COVID-19 incidence values monitored by means of individual testing programs. The dataset used in the study is composed of timelines (duration approx. five months) of both signals at four wastewater treatment plants across Austria, two of which drain large communities and the other two drain smaller communities. Eight regression models were investigated to predict the viral incidence under varying data inputs and pre-processing methods. It was found that population-based normalisation and smoothing as a pre-processing of the viral load data significantly influence the fitness of the regression models. Moreover, the time latency lag between the wastewater data and the incidence derived from the testing program was found to vary between 2 and 7 days depending on the time period and site. It was found to be necessary to take such a time lag into account by means of multivariate modelling to boost the performance of the regression. Comparing the models, no outstanding one could be identified as all investigated models are revealing a sufficient correlation for the task. The pre-processing of data and a multivariate model formulation is more important than the model structure.