Influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients: systematic review and meta-analysis from a public health policy perspective.

Immunocompromised patients are vulnerable to severe or complicated influenza infection. Vaccination is widely recommended for this group. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients in terms of preventing influenza-like illness and laboratory confirmed influenza, serological response and adverse events

Calculation of stresses on shallow penetrometers and footings.

A short review is made of the types of analyses available for cone penetration tests. The assumptions involved in analyses using the method of characteristics (slip line methods) are discussed, and some analyses of problems of shallow cone penetration and bearing capacity are presented. Graphical results are presented for the variation of the cone factor, Nc, with the angle and roughness of a shallowly penetrating cone. The second example of the application of the method is to problems of bearing capacity on soils with strength increasing with depth, and is relevant to the design of very large concrete gravity oil-production platforms. Numerical values of bearing capacity factors for smooth and rough circular footings on non-homogeneous soils are presented and compared with the equivalent values for strip footings.-from Author

Influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients: summary of a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Vaccination of immunocompromised patients is recommended in many national guidelines to protect against severe or complicated influenza infection. However, due to uncertainties over the evidence base, implementation is frequently patchy and dependent on individual clinical discretion. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the evidence for influenza vaccination in this patient group. Healthcare databases and grey literature were searched and screened for eligibility. Data extraction and assessments of risk of bias were undertaken in duplicate, and results were synthesised narratively and using meta-analysis where possible. Our data show that whilst the serological response following vaccination of immunocompromised patients is less vigorous than in healthy controls, clinical protection is still meaningful, with only mild variation in adverse events between aetiological groups. Although we encountered significant clinical and statistical heterogeneity in many of our meta-analyses, we advocate that immunocompromised patients should be targeted for influenza vaccination