Acceptance and safety of the intradermal influenza vaccine among the elderly in Italy: An on-field national study

Introduction: An observational multicenter study was carried out in Italy, to evaluate the acceptability and safety of the new intradermal (ID) influenza vaccine (IntanzaR, Sanofi Pasteur SA, Lyon, France) among subjects aged 65 60 years, compared with that of other intramuscular (IM) influenza vaccines. Compliance with the use of the ID vaccine by healthcare professionals was also assessed. Methods: A previously validated and self-administered questionnaire, Vaccinees' Perception of Injection (VAPI\ua9), consisting of 21 questions, mainly focused on four dimensions (bother, arm movements, sleep, and acceptability), was administered to > 1,600 individuals with spontaneous access to outpatient clinics, located in Northern, Central, and Southern Italy, to evaluate the acceptance of the vaccines. Occurrence of solicited and unsolicited side effects and of serious adverse events was assessed in a subset of subjects (n = 500), using a clinical diary filled in by vaccinees following immunization. Compliance with the new ID vaccine by healthcare professionals was investigated using an ad-hoc questionnaire. Results: A very favorable opinion concerning the acceptability of both the vaccines under survey, with the most positive answers ranging between 75.5% and 94.9%, was registered within the study population. Also the compliance by healthcare professionals (n = 130) with the novel ID vaccine was favorable. No serious adverse event occurred during the 6-month follow-up period. The frequency of solicited systemic reactions was comparable between the two study groups, while solicited local reactions were significantly higher in the ID-vaccine group than in the IM-vaccine group, even if at values lower than those reported in phase 3 clinical trials (ranges = 18.5-32.6% vs. 29.5-70.9%). These local events were mild and transient, thus without any clinical relevance. Conclusion: The novel ID influenza vaccine can be widely recommended in clinical practice, representing a useful tool to improve immunization coverage rates, and thus the control of influenza. \ua9 Springer Healthcare 2012

Virgo and the worldwide search for gravitational waves

Large interferometric detectors of gravitational waves are approaching their design sensitivities and the plans for second generation detectors, expected to start the gravitational wave astronomy, are already under way. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of the status and perspectives of gravitational wave research with ground‐based interferometric detectors in the world, with special attention to the French‐Italian detector Virgo. The main design features and the status of largest detectors are reviewed, the main upgrades to the first generation detectors foreseen in the next years are outlined

Measurement of the seismic attenuation performance of the Virgo superattenuator

The gravitational wave detector VIRGO aims at extending the detection band down to a few Hertz by isolating the mirrors of the interferometer from seismic noise. This result is achieved by hanging each mirror through an elastic suspension (Superattenuator), designed to filter mechanical vibrations in all the degrees of freedom. An experimental upper limit of the mirror residual seismic noise at a few Hertz is provided in this paper. This is lower than the thermal noise floor, expected to limit the antenna sensitivity in the low frequency range

The Virgo Detector

The Virgo Experiment is a gravitational wave interferometric detector. It consists in a Michelson interferometer with two 3 km long Fabry‐Perot cavities as orthogonal arms. The installation of the detector has been completed in September 2003 and presently the apparatus is under commissioning. In this article an overview of the detector status is presented

Status of Virgo

The gravitational wave interferometer Virgo is presently in its commissioning phase. The status of the detector will be presented, focusing attention on the results obtained during this last year of commissioning activity, running the interferometer in the recombined configuration (a Michelson interferometer with Fabry–Perot cavities in both the arms) and finally recycling the light beam into the interferometer

The Virgo automatic alignment system

The automatic alignment system of the Virgo interferometer differs substantially from those used in similar experiments, since it uses a variant of the Anderson technique. This implies a completely different control topology with respect to other detectors, and the main feature is a strong coupling of different degrees of freedom in the optical signals. It also provides two extra output ports in which differential wave-front sensors can be placed, namely the light transmitted by the Fabry–Perot arm cavities. We report on the first experimental demonstration of this technique on a large scale recycled interferometer, and on the present status of the automatic alignment system

Virgo upgrade investigations

While the current interferometric gravitational wave detectors are approaching their nominal sensitivity, the new generation of detectors is in an advanced design phase. The Virgo collaboration is defining now the path to arrive to a complete design of the advanced version of the detector within about two years. The upgrades needed to obtain a detector with improved sensitivity in a relatively short time are here discussed

Environmental noise studies in Virgo

The study of the external influences from environmental disturbances is a fundamental issue in interferometric detection of gravitational wave, both in locking and in normal operation. Virgo is continuously monitored by a large number of environmental sensors, ranging from seismometers to microphones to electromagnetic probes, up to a weather station. Using data collected during the engineering runs, we have studied the features of the main external noise sources, and the way they interfere with Virgo operation and expected sensitivity. In this paper we present the preliminary results obtained

Normal/independent noise in VIRGO data

The analysis of data taken during the C7 VIRGO commissioning run showed strong deviations from Gaussian noise. In this work, we explore a family of distributions, derived from the hypothesis that heavy tails are an effect of a particular kind of nonstationarity, heterocedasticity (i.e. nonuniform variance), that appear to fit VIRGO noise better than a model based on the assumption of Gaussian noise. To estimate the parameters of the noise process (including the heterogeneous variance) we derived an expectation-maximization algorithm. We show the consequences of non-Gaussianity on the fitting of autoregressive filters and on the derivation of test statistics for matched filter operation. Finally, we apply the new noise model to the fitting of an autoregressive filter for whitening of data