Clutter and rainfall discrimination by means of doppler-polarimetric measurements and vertical reflectivity profile analysis

International audienceThe estimation of rainfall rate and other parameters from radar scattering volume is heavily affected by the presence of intense sea and ground clutter and echoes which appears in anomalous propagation condition. To deal with these non meteorological echoes we present a new clutter removal algorithm which combines the results of previous works. The algorithm fully exploits both the Doppler and polarimetric capabilities of the radar used and the analysis of vertical reflectivity profile in order to achieve the better identification of the meteorological and non-meteorological targets. The algorithm has been applied to the C-band radar of Monte Settepani (Savona, Italy), which runs in a high-topography environment. Preliminary results are presented

SERUM REFERENCE VALUES FOR LEPTIN IN HEALTHY INFANTS.

OBJECTIVE: Reports on leptin concentrations in pediatric populations lack reference values for infants in the first months of life. Our study was conducted on healthy full-term infants between 2002 and 2012 to determine serum leptin reference values in subjects less than 18 months old. METHODS: Routine outpatient blood tests for serum leptin were performed on 317 infants using a radioimmunoassay method. The median and 10th-90th percentiles were calculated to obtain reference values using quantile regression. Values established in this study were compared with another independent cohort of 110 infants. RESULTS: The median (IQR) serum leptin concentration in the infants was 2.37 (3.26) ng/ml (n = 317). The median leptin concentration was 2.81 (3.49) ng/ml (n = 202) in infants younger than 6 months of age, 1.44 (2.27) ng/ml (n = 59) in infants between 6-12 months of age and 1.77 (2.05) ng/ml (n = 56) in infants between 12-18 months of age. We obtained leptin reference values based on age by estimating the lower and upper percentiles. In the entire cohort, the median (IQR) leptin concentration was 2.22 (3.11) ng/ml in males (n = 168) and 2.60 (3.32) ng/ml in females (n = 149). According to the type of feeding median serum leptin concentration was higher in breast-fed infants (n = 188) than in formula-fed infants (n = 129) (2.63 (3.34) ng/ml vs. 2.12 (2.77) ng/ml; p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data revealed no gender difference in leptin concentration in early infancy. After 6 months of life, leptin concentrations decreased slightly. We used a large cohort to confirm that breast-fed infants had significantly higher serum leptin levels than formula-fed infants during the first 6 months of life, although this difference disappeared later in life. In this study, we defined the leptin reference range in healthy infants in the first 18 months of life according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)

Clutter and rainfall discrimination by means of doppler-polarimetric measurements and vertical reflectivity profile analysis

The estimation of rainfall rate and other parameters from radar scattering volume is heavily affected by the presence of intense sea and ground clutter and echoes which appears in anomalous propagation condition. To deal with these non meteorological echoes we present a new clutter removal algorithm which combines the results of previous works. The algorithm fully exploits both the Doppler and polarimetric capabilities of the radar used and the analysis of vertical reflectivity profile in order to achieve the better identification of the meteorological and non-meteorological targets. The algorithm has been applied to the C-band radar of Monte Settepani (Savona, Italy), which runs in a high-topography environment. Preliminary results are presented

Occurrence and distribution of soil Fusarium species under wheat crop in zero tillage

The presence of Fusarium species in cultivated soils is commonly associated with plant debris and plant roots. Fusarium species are also soil saprophytes. The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence and distribution of soil Fusarium spp. at different soil depths in a zero tillage system after the wheat was harvested. Soil samples were obtained at three depths (0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and 10-20 cm) from five crop rotations: I, conservationist agriculture (wheatsorghum- soybean); II, mixed agriculture/livestock with pastures, without using winter or summer forages (wheatsorghum- soybean-canola-pastures); III, winter agriculture in depth limited soils (wheat-canola-barley-late soybean); IV, mixed with annual forage (wheat-oat/Vicia-sunflower); V, intensive agriculture (wheat-barley-canola, with alternation of soybean or late soybean). One hundred twenty two isolates of Fusarium were obtained and identified as F. equiseti, F. merismoides, F. oxysporum, F. scirpi and F. solani. The most prevalent species was F. oxysporum, which was observed in all sequences and depths. The Tukey's test showed that the relative frequency of F. oxysporum under intensive agricultural management was higher than in mixed traditional ones. The first 5 cm of soil showed statistically significant differences (p = 0.05) with respect to 5-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths. The ANOVA test for the relative frequency of the other species as F. equiseti, F. merismoides, F. scirpi and F. solani, did not show statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05). We did not find significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in the effect of crop rotations and depth on Shannon, Simpson indexes and species richness. Therefore we conclude that the different sequences and the sampling depth did not affect the alpha diversity of Fusarium community in this system.Instituto de Botánica "Dr. Carlos Spegazzini

A 450 million years long latitudinal gradient in age-dependent extinction.

Leigh Van Valen famously stated that under constant conditions extinction probability is independent of species age. To test this 'law of constant extinction', we developed a new method using deep learning to infer age-dependent extinction and analysed 450 myr of marine life across 21 invertebrate clades. We show that extinction rate significantly decreases with age in > 90% of the cases, indicating that most species died out soon after their appearance while those which survived experienced ever decreasing extinction risk. This age-dependent extinction pattern is stronger towards the Equator and holds true when the potential effects of mass extinctions and taxonomic inflation are accounted for. These results suggest that the effect of biological interactions on age-dependent extinction rate is more intense towards the tropics. We propose that the latitudinal diversity gradient and selection at the species level account for this exceptional, yet little recognised, macroevolutionary and macroecological pattern

A 450 million years long latitudinal gradient in age-dependent extinction

Leigh Van Valen famously stated that under constant conditions extinction probability is independent of species age. To test this 'law of constant extinction', we developed a new method using deep learning to infer age-dependent extinction and analysed 450&nbsp;myr of marine life across 21 invertebrate clades. We show that extinction rate significantly decreases with age in &gt;&nbsp;90% of the cases, indicating that most species died out soon after their appearance while those which survived experienced ever decreasing extinction risk. This age-dependent extinction pattern is stronger towards the Equator and holds true when the potential effects of mass extinctions and taxonomic inflation are accounted for. These results suggest that the effect of biological interactions on age-dependent extinction rate is more intense towards the tropics. We propose that the latitudinal diversity gradient and selection at the species level account for this exceptional, yet little recognised, macroevolutionary and macroecological pattern

A Complete Meteo/Hydro/Hydraulic Chain Application to Support Early Warning and Monitoring Systems: The Apollo Medicane Use Case

Because of the ongoing changing climate, extreme rainfall events’ frequency at the global scale is expected to increase, thus resulting in high social and economic impacts. A Meteo/Hydro/Hydraulic forecasting chain combining heterogeneous observational data sources is a crucial component for an Early Warning System and is a fundamental asset for Civil Protection Authorities to correctly predict these events, their effects, and put in place anticipatory actions. During the last week of October 2021 an intense Mediterranean hurricane (Apollo) affected many Mediterranean countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Malta, and Italy) with a death toll of seven people. The CIMA Meteo/Hydro/Hydraulic forecasting chain, including the WRF model, the hydrological model Continuum, the automatic system for water detection (AUTOWADE), and the hydraulic model TELEMAC-2D, was operated in real-time to predict the Apollo weather evolution as well as its hydrological and hydraulic impacts, in support of the early warning activities of the Italian Civil Protection Department. The WRF model assimilating radar data and in situ weather stations showed very good predictive capability for rainfall timing and location over eastern Sicily, thus supporting accurate river flow peak forecasting with the hydrological model Continuum. Based on WRF predictions, the daily automatic system for water detection (AUTOWADE) run using Sentinel 1 data was anticipated with respect to the scheduled timing to quickly produce a flood monitoring map. Ad hoc tasking of the COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation was also performed to overcome the S1 data latency in eastern Sicily. The resulting automated operational mapping of floods and inland waters was integrated with the subsequent execution of the hydraulic model TELEMAC-2D to have a complete representation of the flooded area with water depth and water velocity

Polylactic acid and Polyamide 11 with controlled macromolecular architecture : synthesis and characterization

Authors present a poster dealing with the synthesis and characterization of Polylactic acid and Polyamide 11 with controlled macromolecular architecture