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Introduction: In 2021, the European Medicines Agency supported the "Covid Vaccine Monitor (CVM)," an active surveillance project spanning 13 European countries aimed at monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in general and special populations (i.e., pregnant/breastfeeding women, children/adolescents, immunocompromised people, and people with a history of allergies or previous SARS-CoV-2 infection). Italy participated in this project as a large multidisciplinary network called the "ilmiovaccinoCOVID19 collaborating group." Methods: The study aimed to describe the experience of the Italian network "ilmiovaccinoCOVID19 collaborating group" in the CVM context from June 2021 to February 2023. Comprising about 30 partners, the network aimed to facilitate vaccinee recruitment. Participants completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires within 48 h from vaccination over a 6-month period. Analyses focused on those who completed both the baseline and the first follow-up questionnaire (Q1), exploring temporal trends, vaccination campaign correlation, and loss to follow-up. Characteristics of recruited vaccinees and vaccineereported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were compared with passive surveillance data in Italy. Results: From June 2021 to November 2022, 22,384,663 first doses and 38,207,452 booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Italy. Simultaneously, the study enrolled 1,229 and 2,707 participants for the first and booster doses, respectively. Of these, 829 and 1,879 vaccinees, respectively, completed both baseline and at least Q1 and were included in the analyses, with a significant proportion of them (57.8%/34.3%) belonging to special cohorts. Most vaccinees included in the analyses were women. Comirnaty® (69%) and Spikevax® (29%) were the most frequently administered vaccines. ADR rates following Comirnaty® and Spikevax® were higher after the second dose, particularly following Spikevax®. Serious ADRs were infrequent. Differences were observed in ADR characteristics between CVM and Italian passive surveillance. Conclusion: This study confirmed the favorable safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines, with findings consistent with pivotal clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines, although different proportions of serious ADRs compared to spontaneous reporting were observed. Continuous evaluation through cohort event monitoring studies provides real-time insights crucial for regulatory responses. Strengthening infrastructure and implementing early monitoring strategies are essential to enhance vaccine safety assessment and prepare for future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a powerful non‐destructive investigation tool widely used in archaeology. Its capabilities are greatly enhanced when it is operated in combination with a terrestrial laser scanner. This article reports on the radar investigation of the floor of Palazzo Vecchio's Great Hall. This monumental hall has been decorated by the most prominent artists of Italian Renaissance and it has radically changed at least twice since the 15th century. The aim of this investigation is to find features inside and under the floor that can contribute to a better reconstruction of the history of this monument. The main findings of this prospection have been the detection of a transversal girder not known on the south side of the Great Hall and a hemicycle structure under the floor. Both are probably remains of the works for adapting the hall to be used as the National Parliament of Italy between 1865 and 1870. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does law affect the resilience of commonpool resources? To answer this question this paper adopts an institutionalist perspective on law, arguing that this shares many similarities with the approach of some legal pluralist scholars, i.e., the recognition that a social-ecological system is influenced by a plurality of legal orders having-to borrow Santos terminology-porous qualities. Studying the production and types of relationships between these legal orders can help us in determining whether a system is or is not likely to be resilient. More precisely, if the legal orders interact in a harmonious and dynamic way thanks to bottom-up as well as top-down forces, the system is likely to be resilient. This theoretical hypothesis is tested in a case study, i.e., an alpine common property in northern Italy called Regole d'Ampezzo. It becomes clear that its resilience to various shocks is due to the harmonic integration and adjustments of customary, property, and environmental laws. However, the completeness of this type of analysis is put under discussion when we move from the macro-institutional level to the micro-political one, i.e., to an analysis of intra-community power relations. Drawing on the work of Foucault on the power- subject nexus, the paper attempts to show that in the specific context of the Regole, the harmonic legal pluralist orders operate as a technique of government, perpetuating certain relationships of power between the actors of the common pool resource. At the same time, the relationships of power also contain the possibility of their reversal since, following Foucault, exercising power means acting on the actions of free subjects. The general conclusion is that a legal study of the resilience of common pool resources can benefit from a politicized version of legal pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A microwave interferometer has been employed to remotely detect the oscillations induced by vehicular traffic on the dome of the Baptistery of S. Giovanni in Firenze (Italy). The measurement has been carried out to assess the structure oscillations reduction after the ordinance issued by the Major of Florence forbidding all kind of vehicular traffic in the square around the Baptistery starting from October 25, 2009. A simplified preliminary finite element model of the structure, using average literature mechanical parameters, has been used to determine the best instrument installation position and the structure area to be surveyed. Subsequently, the dome oscillations have been recorded for two consecutive weeks starting one week before the traffic block. A spectral analysis on the acquired data has been then performed and a more complex FEM model has been built to interpret the physical meaning of the acquired data. The material mechanical parameters have been finely tuned to reproduce the lowest spectral component found which was very close to the main mode oscillation frequency predicted by the simplified model. The obtained values of mechanical parameters are reasonable for the monument materials and slightly different from average. Measurement results indicate that the traffic block caused a reduction of the daytime maximum oscillations power of around 50÷60% and a decrease by approximately 33% has been observed in the peak component particle velocity. The residual measured oscillations are attributable to human activities around the square. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Radar equipment based on microwave interferometry has been employed to remotely survey the dynamic behaviour of the celebrated and historical towers of Florence, Italy. The measurement technique demonstrated in this paper results both as sensitive and accurate as the conventional technique, which is based on contact accelerometers, plus allows simple and rapid monitoring of structures even at great distances. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction. The aim of this study is to investigate quality of life (QoL) and clinical characteristics of generalized (GSAD) and performance-focused social anxiety disorder (PFSAD). Method. Our sample includes 41 outpatients with social anxiety disorder and 100 control subjects. QoL was assessed using the Quality of Life and Enjoyment questionnaire. Assessments included the MINI Neuropsychiatric Interview, the Symptom Checklist, the Work and Social Adjustment Scale and the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI). Using the Liebowitz social anxiety scale, patients were divided into GSAD and PFSAD. Results. QoL of subjects with GSAD was lower than in controls in most areas, while only the areas of physical health and leisure time were impaired in patients with PFSAD. Patients with GSAD were more likely to be depressed, to meet criteria for substance abuse, to have higher severity scores on the CGI and the SCL-90 compared to PFSAD. Conclusions. GSAD is associated with widespread worsening of QoL, while patients with PFSAD had a poorer QoL than controls only in the areas of physical health and leisure time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) allow the acquisition of data on an observed surface with high spatial sampling rate. The data provided by TLS observation of a landslide ground surface can be used to generate a very detailed digital model of this surface, and multitemporal observations with TLS or continuous or multitemporal observation with InSAR can provide a reliable displacement map. In order to acquire useful information about the analogies, differences, and capabilities, as well as limitations of these techniques, a joint experimentation of TLS and InSAR was performed over two years in various sites in the Italian Alps. The results have indicated that these techniques can provide high-quality data, can be very useful in the monitoring intended for the mitigation of hydrogeological risk in a wide range of cases, and must be supported by a topographical georeferenced network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A Ground-Based SAR (GB-SAR) interferometer was employed to measure the surface displacements of a landslide occurring in the Carnian Alps, north-eastern Italy, which has affected a national road and seriously damaged a road tunnel still under construction. Moreover, since the landslide is located on the left bank of the Tagliamento River Valley, it is feared that this mass movement might dam the river, creating a basin that would increase natural hazard for the valley inhabitants. The data collected from December 2002 to July 2005 by a conventional monitoring system, consisting of a GPS network and boreholes equipped with inclinometric tubes, showed that the landslide was moving at a quasi-constant rate of about 3 cm per year. Due to the slow deformation rate of the landslide, a recently developed GB-SAR technique based on the analysis of a restricted ensemble of coherent points was used. Two surveys, each lasting two days, were planned in December 2004 and July 2005, in order to map and measure the surface displacements that occurred over time. The results from the radar were compared with the ones derived from the GPS monitoring network. An agreement was achieved among the data collected, showing the capability of the GB-SAR technique to measure displacements even within a time span of several months between the surveys. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The alpine village of Lamosano, Belluno, Italy, located near a wide and active landslide, has been seriously threatened by ground instabilities since 1960. In this paper, the results obtained by two different remote-monitoring techniques, synthetic aperature radar interferometry and three-dimensional laser-scanner imaging, planned for Lamosano hazard assessment, are presented. Both techniques compare images taken at different times to map and classify changes that occurred on the imaged scenario. The radar and laser data are gathered at the same dates with about ten-month temporal separation. The displacements measured separately by each of the two techniques highlight a similar sliding motion on the Lamosano village area, providing a good validation to each other and contributing to the definition of the village instability hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ground‐based synthetic aperture radar (GB SAR) interferometer was employed to detect small terrain movements which occurred over long periods of time on a landslide hazard zone in the Citrin Valley in northern Italy. Three measurement campaigns were carried out from September 2003 to September 2004. The radar instrumentation was carefully re‐installed at each campaign on the same observation point in order to avoid geometric decorrelation. Because of the global loss of coherence due to the long temporal separation between the observations, the retrieved displacements are limited to a number of very coherent points throughout the surveyed scenario. Radar data are locally compared with data provided by a global positioning system (GPS) network installed on the area interested by the landslide. Digital elevation model, photographic images, interferometric and GPS data are integrated within GIS environment providing a very effective geophysical knowledge tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with different processing techniques applied to data gathered by a novel step-frequency penetrating radar in a measurement survey of the walls of the historical room “Salone dei 500” in Palazzo Vecchio (Firenze, Italy). The aim of the investigation was to detect discontinuities in the masonry walls, possibly corresponding to a cavity containing fragments of the lost fresco of the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci. Data have been processed by means of two different techniques. The first one is a time domain analysis compensating for dielectric losses inside the medium, and the second one is based on a one-dimensional inverse scattering approach. Even if based on different principles, both techniques reveal the presence of a discontinuity in the eastern wall of the room at a depth between 10 and 20 cm, whereas no discontinuity traces are observed in the other walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to evaluate airborne glutaraldehyde exposure and so to organise efficiently the prevention of risks due to the manipulation of this substance in endoscope units in the medical facilities. Personal sampling in the breathing zone of the workers were taken for 2min in sixteen endoscope units in a hospital during the replacement of glutaraldehyde in basins, tubes and automatic endoscope washing machines (lavaendoscopes). Sampling was performed by solid phase microextraction (SPME); the analysis of the glutaraldehyde-derivative was by gas chromatography. The highest levels of glutaraldehyde were observed in rooms without ventilation and where local aspiration systems were used during filling of basins, tubes and lavaendoscopes with 2% glutaraldehyde solution. The results obtained during this campaign of measurements allowed us to point out the operations which have the highest degree of risk for employees and to suggest suitable measures for prevention and individual protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Quality of Life, Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) is increasingly used in psychiatry because it gives emphasis to the subjective perspective of patients on physical, psychological and social domains. This paper reports on the validation of the Italian version of the Q-LES-Q in a large multicenter study (EQUIP) conducted at five Italian sites on outpatients in treatment for anxiety disorders. Study participants underwent a broad assessment of psychopathology including the MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI). Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the Q-LES-Q areas and Pearson's r was used to analyze the correlation between the areas of Q-LES-Q and those of the other instruments. The internal consistency of the Q-LES-Q proved to be substantial (>0.80 in each of the areas) as well as the test-retest reliability. The convergent validity of the Q-LES-Q vs. the Work and Social Adjustment Scale was examined. High correlations were found between scales measuring similar constructs in the two instruments and lower correlation between scales measuring different constructs. In conclusion, the Italian version of the Q-LES-Q proved to be as valid and reliable as the original English version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of ground-based radar iterferometry for landslide monitoring is here analyzed: a case study based on an experimental campaign carried out in Italy in the year 2002 is discussed. Interferometric data obtained from coherent synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired by means of C-band ground-based equipment are analyzed. The campaign was aimed at retrieving potential terrain movements of a small landslide observed hundreds of meters away. Critical aspects related to spatial and temporal decorrelation are discussed: the use of optical photogrammetry as a technique for evaluating mechanical stability and correcting geometric distortion is presented. Results also confirmed that the application of ground-based radar interferometry can be attractive and effective if the acquired SAR images maintain an adequate coherence on different dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ground-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) was installed to monitor a landslide in Valdarno (Italy). The aim was to field-test an innovative remote sensing instrument able to provide distributed information over sliding slopes with a rate of several images a day. Radar images and interferometric displacement maps projected on the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the test site are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) hyperspectral instrument is an advanced hyperspectral sensor including a panchromatic camera at medium resolution. The instrument is the focus of the new Earth observation mission that a consortium of Italian companies has started developing under contract of Italian Space Agency. Key features of the instrument are the very high requirement for signal-to-noise and the high quality of data that have to be provided. To meet these demanding figures the optical system has been based on a high transmittance optical system, including a single mirror telescope and two prism spectrometers based on an innovative concept to minimize number of optical elements, while high performance detectors have been chosen for the photon detection. To provide the required data quality for the entire mission lifetime an accurate calibration unit (radiometric and spectral) will be included in the instrument optomechanical assembly. The thermo-mechanical design of the instrument is based on innovative concepts, considering that the use of prism spectrometers implies a tight control of temperature variations to guarantee the stability of all instrument features once in orbit. The presented paper describes the concepts and design principle of the optomechanical assembly of the instrument, at the present status of development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]