Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) program: Study of geological structure of Sicily and other Italian areas

The usefulness of thermal inertia mapping in discriminating geolithological units was investigated using Sardinia and the Gulf of Orosei as test sites. Software designed for LANDSAT data were modified and improved for HCMM tapes. A first attempt was made to compare the geological cross section, the topography, the IR radiance, and the thermal inertia along selected profiles of the test site. Thermal inertia profiles appear smoothed in comparison with the thermal radiance. The lowest apparent thermal inertia (ATI) was found on granitic and basaltic outcrops where their image is of sufficient extent, while ATI is higher on carbonatic and dolomitic or moist deposits. Almost every fault is marked by a jump of ATI, the interval being sometimes of the order of one pixel. This seems to demonstrate the ability of ATI to detect contacts or tectonically disturbed zones with a good resolution. It seems more difficult to measure the differences in ATI between homogeneous materials having different lithology. Ground surveys conducted and a simulation model of diurnal temperatures of rocks having different thermal inertia are discussed

Charge redistribution in the formation of one-dimensional lithium wires on Cu(001)

We describe the formation of one-dimensional lithium wires on a Cu(001) substrate, providing an atomic-scale description of the onset of metallization in this prototypical adsorption system. A combination of helium atom scattering and density-functional theory reveals pronounced changes in the electronic charge distribution on the formation of the c(5√2×√2)R45° Li/Cu(001) structure, as in-plane bonds are created. Charge donation from Li-substrate bonds is found to facilitate the formation of stable, bonded, and depolarized chains of Li adatoms that coexist with an interleaved phase of independent adatoms. The resultant overlayer has a commensurate charge distribution and lattice modulations but differs fundamentally from structurally similar charge-density wave systems

The contribution of hyperspectral remote sensing to identify vegetation characteristics necessary to assess the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment

During recent years hyperspectral remote sensing data were successfully used to characterise the state and properties of vegetation. The information on vegetation cover and status is useful for a range of environmental modelling studies. Recent works devoted to the understanding of the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment showed that forests and vegetation in general act as a «sponge» for chemicals present in air and the intensity of this «capture» effect depends on some vegetation parameters such as surface area, leaf composition, turnover etc. In the framework of the DARFEM experiment conducted in late June 2001, different airborne hyperspectral images were acquired and analysed to derive some vegetation parameters of relevance for multimedia models, such as the spatial distribution of plant species and their relative foliage biomass. The study area, south west of Milan, encompasses a range of land cover types typical of Northern Italy, including intensive poplar plantations and natural broad-leaf forest. An intensive field campaign was accomplished during the aerial survey to collect vegetation parameters and radiometric measurements. Results obtained from the analysis of hyperspectral images, map of vegetation species, Leaf Area Index (LAI) and foliage biomass are presented and discussed

Resonant Lifetime of Core-Excited Organic Adsorbates from First Principles

We investigate by first-principles simulations the resonant electron-transfer lifetime from the excited state of an organic adsorbate to a semiconductor surface, namely isonicotinic acid on rutile TiO$_2$(110). The molecule-substrate interaction is described using density functional theory, while the effect of a truly semi-infinite substrate is taken into account by Green's function techniques. Excitonic effects due to the presence of core-excited atoms in the molecule are shown to be instrumental to understand the electron-transfer times measured using the so-called core-hole-clock technique. In particular, for the isonicotinic acid on TiO$_2$(110), we find that the charge injection from the LUMO is quenched since this state lies within the substrate band gap. We compute the resonant charge-transfer times from LUMO+1 and LUMO+2, and systematically investigate the dependence of the elastic lifetimes of these states on the alignment among adsorbate and substrate states.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Journal of Physical Chemistry

Comparison of global inventories of CO emissions from biomass burning derived from remotely sensed data

We compare five global inventories of monthly CO emissions named VGT, ATSR, MODIS, GFED3 and MOPITT based on remotely sensed active fires and/or burned area products for the year 2003. The objective is to highlight similarities and differences by focusing on the geographical and temporal distribution and on the emissions for three broad land cover classes (forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture). Globally, CO emissions for the year 2003 range between 365 Tg CO (GFED3) and 1422 Tg CO (VGT). Despite the large uncertainty in the total amounts, some common spatial patterns typical of biomass burning can be identified in the boreal forests of Siberia, in agricultural areas of Eastern Europe and Russia and in savanna ecosystems of South America, Africa and Australia. Regionally, the largest difference in terms of total amounts (CV > 100%) and seasonality is observed at the northernmost latitudes, especially in North America and Siberia where VGT appears to overestimate the area affected by fires. On the contrary, Africa shows the best agreement both in terms of total annual amounts (CV = 31%) and of seasonality despite some overestimation of emissions from forest and agriculture observed in the MODIS inventory. In Africa VGT provides the most reliable seasonality. Looking at the broad land cover types, the range of contribution to the global emissions of CO is 64–74%, 23–32% and 3–4% for forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture, respectively. These results suggest that there is still large uncertainty in global estimates of emissions and it increases if the comparison is carried by out taking into account the temporal (month) and spatial (0.5° × 0.5° cell) dimensions. Besides the area affected by fires, also vegetation characteristics and conditions at the time of burning should also be accurately parameterized since they can greatly influence the global estimates of CO emissions

Delphi poll to assess consensus on issues influencing long-term adherence to treatments in cystic fibrosis among italian health care professionals

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the level of consensus among Italian health care professionals (HCPs) regarding factors that influence adherence to cystic fibrosis (CF) treatments. Methods: A Delphi questionnaire with 94 statements of potential factors influencing adherence was developed based on a literature review and in consultation with a board of experts (n=4). This was distributed to a multidisciplinary expert panel of HCPs (n=110) from Italian CF centers. A Likert scale was used to indicate the level of agreement (1= no agreement to 9= maximum agreement) with each statement. Three rounds were distributed to establish a consensus ( 6580% of participant ratings within one 3-point region) and, at the third round, assign a ranking to each statement with a high level of agreement (consensus in the 7\u20139 range) only. Results: Of 110 HCPs (from 31 Italian CF centers who were surveyed), responses were obtained from 85 (77%) in the first, 78 (71%) in the second, and 72 (65%) in the third round. The highest degree of agreement (95.8%) was reached with the statement that the HCP needs to build a relationship with the patient to influence adherence. A high level of agreement was not reached for statements that morbidity and mortality are influenced by the level of adherence to therapy, and no consensus was reached on the statement that age of the patient influences adherence to treatment. Conclusion: We found that Italian HCPs endorsed a strong relationship with the patient as being a key driver in improving adherence. There were several areas, such as the influence of adherence on morbidity and mortality, where the consensus of Italian HCPs differed from the published literature. These areas require investigation to determine why these discrepancies exist

Moduli of Abelian varieties, Vinberg theta-groups, and free resolutions

We present a systematic approach to studying the geometric aspects of Vinberg theta-representations. The main idea is to use the Borel-Weil construction for representations of reductive groups as sections of homogeneous bundles on homogeneous spaces, and then to study degeneracy loci of these vector bundles. Our main technical tool is to use free resolutions as an "enhanced" version of degeneracy loci formulas. We illustrate our approach on several examples and show how they are connected to moduli spaces of Abelian varieties. To make the article accessible to both algebraists and geometers, we also include background material on free resolutions and representation theory.Comment: 41 pages, uses tabmac.sty, Dedicated to David Eisenbud on the occasion of his 65th birthday; v2: fixed some typos and added reference