Preserve a Voucher Specimen! The Critical Need for Integrating Natural History Collections in Infectious Disease Studies.

Despite being nearly 10 months into the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, the definitive animal host for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the causal agent of COVID-19, remains unknown. Unfortunately, similar problems exist for other betacoronaviruses, and no vouchered specimens exist to corroborate host species identification for most of these pathogens. This most basic information is critical to the full understanding and mitigation of emerging zoonotic diseases. To overcome this hurdle, we recommend that host-pathogen researchers adopt vouchering practices and collaborate with natural history collections to permanently archive microbiological samples and host specimens. Vouchered specimens and associated samples provide both repeatability and extension to host-pathogen studies, and using them mobilizes a large workforce (i.e., biodiversity scientists) to assist in pandemic preparedness. We review several well-known examples that successfully integrate host-pathogen research with natural history collections (e.g., yellow fever, hantaviruses, helminths). However, vouchering remains an underutilized practice in such studies. Using an online survey, we assessed vouchering practices used by microbiologists (e.g., bacteriologists, parasitologists, virologists) in host-pathogen research. A much greater number of respondents permanently archive microbiological samples than archive host specimens, and less than half of respondents voucher host specimens from which microbiological samples were lethally collected. To foster collaborations between microbiologists and natural history collections, we provide recommendations for integrating vouchering techniques and archiving of microbiological samples into host-pathogen studies. This integrative approach exemplifies the premise underlying One Health initiatives, providing critical infrastructure for addressing related issues ranging from public health to global climate change and the biodiversity crisis.

Cluster analysis of microclimate data to optimize the number of sensors for the assessment of indoor environment within museums.

For the first time, the cluster analysis (k-means) has been applied on long time series of temperature and relative humidity measurements to identify the thermo-hygrometric features in a museum. Based on ASHRAE (2011) classification, 84% of time all rooms in the Napoleonic Museum in Rome (case study) were found in the class of control B. This result was obtained by analyzing all recorded data in 10 rooms of the museum as well as using the cluster aggregation. The use of objective-oriented methodology allows to achieve an acceptable knowledge of the microclimate in case of multi-room buildings, reducing computations with large amounts of collected data and time-consuming in redundant elaborations. The cluster analysis enables to reduce the number of the sensors in microclimate monitoring programs within museums, provided that the representativeness of the instrument location is known, and professional conservators have assessed that the artifacts are well preserved.

El museo de patología como nexo integrador de la actividad docente universitaria y la extensión / The patology museum as an integrating nexus between teaching university activity and extension

El Museo de Patología de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, se caracteriza por ser un Museo científico-técnico con orientación histórica-educativa que desde sus inicios en el año 1887 intenta cumplir con tres objetivos fundamentales: docencia, extensión e investigación. La labor de divulgación científica y extensión es llevada a cabo con el objetivo de propagar de una forma fidedigna y atractiva los saberes, adaptando los contenidos científicos a un público naturalmente heterogéneo. De esta manera, el Museo cumple una de las funciones claves que es la educativa. El gran desafío se constituye en establecer un nexo dinámico entre el patrimonio museístico que data de hace 130 años con las problemáticas actuales. Planteado el escenario, el Museo de Patología deja de ser un espacio estático, un espacio de mera exposición de objetos para convertirse en un gran laboratorio de prácticas educativas en todos los niveles.

The Museum of Pathology to the School of Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, is characterized as being a Scientific and Technical Museum – historically and educationally oriented that from its beginnings in 1887 tries to fulfill three fundamental objectives: teaching, extension and research. The work of scientific dissemination and extension is carried out with the aim of propagating in a reliable and attractive way the knowledge, adapting the scientific contents to a naturally heterogeneous public. In this way, the Museum fulfills one of the key functions, which is the educational one. The great challenge is to establish a dynamic nexus between the museum heritage dating from 130 years ago with the current problems. Raised the stage, the Museum of Pathology stops being a static space, a space of mere exhibition of objects to become a great laboratory of educational practices at all levels.