Wastewater-based monitoring of the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 virus, also referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), has been suggested as a tool to support epidemiology. An extensive sampling campaign, including nine municipal wastewater treatment plants, has been conducted in different cities of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) on the same day in April 2020, close to the first peak of the corona crisis. Samples were processed and analysed for a set of SARS-CoV-2-specific genes, as well as pan-genotypic gene sequences also covering other coronavirus types, using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Additionally, a comprehensive set of chemical reference parameters and bioindicators was analysed to characterize the wastewater quality and composition. Results of the RT-qPCR based gene analysis indicate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic traces in different raw wastewaters. Furthermore, selected samples have been sequenced using Sanger technology to confirm the specificity of the RT-qPCR and the origin of the coronavirus. A comparison of the particle-bound and the dissolved portion of SARS-CoV-2 virus genes shows that quantifications must not neglect the solid-phase reservoir. The infectivity of the raw wastewater has also been assessed by viral outgrowth assay with a potential SARS-CoV-2 host cell line in vitro, which were not infected when exposed to the samples. This first evidence suggests that wastewater might be no major route for transmission to humans. Our findings draw attention to the need for further methodological and molecular assay validation for enveloped viruses in wastewater.

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The tree-based languages XQuery and XSLT for XML are widely supported. Many tools do not yet support the new RDF graph query language SPARQL. We propose to embed SPARQL subqueries into XQuery/XSLT, such that XQuery and XSLT benefit from the graph query language constructs of SPARQL, and SPARQL benefits from features of XQuery/XSLT, which SPARQL does not support. The embedding enables XQuery/XSLT tools to handle at the same time XML queries and SPARQL subqueries, and XML and RDF data.

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Continuous Queries (CQ) can be used to keep track of relevant information in the WorldWide Web and Sensor Networks over a period of time. However, result sets may become unbounded and notifications can be delayed. A special form of CQ are Bounded Continuous Search Queries (BCSQ), where results are processed immediately and a bounding condition for the number of user notifications may be defined to limit the result set. Based on a theoretical background for answering BCSQ we present smartCQ, a web application for processing BCSQ and evaluating the query results. Based on a transparent search engine a user may execute and evaluate new strategies and methods for continuous search queries. Furthermore because of the positive results of BCSQ we encourage its use for querying Wireless Sensor Networks to reduce the communication demand and hence reduce the energy consumption to enhance the lifetime of a sensor network.

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