The Last Glaciation in Valchiavenna (Italian Alps): maximum ice elevation data and recessional glacial deposits and landforms

This work presents the first extensive, 1:10,000-scale field survey data concerning glacial deposits and glacigenic landforms in the Valchiavenna territory, which has an area of 578 km². Valchiavenna is an inner Alpine valley in Northern Italy between the Lepontine and Western Rhaetian Alps. A comprehensive 1:25,000 map of deposits and landforms from the last glaciation to the present is provided, describing i) glacial trimline evidence and associated features, such as moraine ridges, erratic boulders, ice-moulded bedrock surfaces and kame terraces; ii) glacial, ice-contact, lacustrine/peat and gravity-reworked till deposits; iii) other supraglacial, marginoglacial and subglacial landforms; and iv) erratics in glacial deposits. Establishing an absolute chronology of glacier dynamics was not the objective of this work. However, a relative chronology was inferred from sedimentological and geomorphological evidence: this allowed the description of the general behaviour of glaciers in the area during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The palaeogeography at the LGM and the palaeo-ice-flow pattern were reconstructed on the basis of field data; this data confirmed that the valleys were almost completely filled by glacier ice, covering about 88% of the study area, with only the most elevated ridges and a few nunataks emerging above the ice surface, and allowed the identification of different source areas for the erratics found on opposite sides of the main valley. The observation of stratigraphical and geomorphological relationships between glacial deposits and landforms made it possible to propose a relative chronology of glacial advances and to outline the general glacial dynamics of the area. Both at the LGM and during the deglaciation after the LGM, the valley glacier inserted offshoots in tributary valleys, thus generally blocking the advance of local glaciers. With the gradual melting of the valley glacier during the deglaciation after the LGM, tributary glaciers could deposit tills on areas previously covered by valley glacier ice and at lower altitudes than the older lateral moraines. The main outcome of this work is a rich and homogeneous database of glacial deposits and glacigenic landforms that will be useful for further local and regional studies. It can guide the planning of geochronological dating and represents a fundamental step in the identification of glacial stadials and ice mass modelling. It can also support biogeography studies and the evaluation of the effects of climate change, slope dynamics modelling and hazard prediction

GIPAW Pseudopotentials of d Elements for Solid-State NMR

Computational methods are increasingly used to support interpreting, assigning and predicting the solid-state nuclear resonance magnetic spectra of materials. Currently, density functional theory is seen to achieve a good balance between efficiency and accuracy in solid-state chemistry. To be specific, density functional theory allows the assignment of signals in nuclear resonance magnetic spectra to specific sites and can help identify overlapped or missing signals from experimental nuclear resonance magnetic spectra. To avoid the difficulties correlated to all-electron calculations, a gauge including the projected augmented wave method was introduced to calculate nuclear resonance magnetic parameters with great success in organic crystals in the last decades. Thus, we developed a gauge including projected augmented pseudopotentials of 21 d elements and tested them on, respectively, oxides or nitrides (semiconductors), calculating chemical shift and quadrupolar coupling constant. This work can be considered the first step to improving the ab initio prediction of nuclear magnetic resonance parameters, and leaves open the possibility for inorganic compounds to constitute an alternative standard compound, with respect to tetramethylsilane, to calculate the chemical shift. Furthermore, this work represents the possibility to obtain results from first-principles calculations, to train a machine-learning model to solve or refine structures using predicted nuclear magnetic resonance spectra

glacier dynamics in san giacomo valley (central alps, sondio,italy)

San Giacomo Valley is located in the Central Alps, and cross-cuts the alpine chain from N to S. Geologically, it is dominated by the Tamb\uf2 and Suretta alpine nappes, which influence the valley morphology: its southern part has regular slopes, whereas its northern part shows flat topographies correponding to the thrust surfaces of the Tamb\uf2 nappe. Structural and geomorphological analysis highlighted the tectonic-structural origin of the valley. Although the alpine valleys network changed during orogenesis, the morphology of San Giacomo Valley was only little modified at least since the Miocene. The glacial erosion had negligible influence in shaping the valley forms. The large dimension of the glacial erosional morphologies in San Giacomo valley can not be related with certainty to the last glaciation, but to glaciations in general, whereas small erosional morphologies and the depositional morphologies are most probably the result of the last glaciation. The observations carried out on glacial morphologies and the sedimentological study of tills indicate that San Giacomo Valley, at the last glacial maximum, was the accumulation zone of San Giacomo glacier. From the trimline evidences, both the ice extension in the valley at the LGM and the longitudinal profile of the glacier were reconstructed. The valley at the glacial maximum hosted a single glacial tongue, with the exception of the Truzzo-Lendine glacier, which was suspended on the main glacier. The relationship between the San Giacomo and the Engadina-Bregaglia glaciers is here also reconstructed. At the junction of the two glaciers, in Chiavenna Valley, the Engadina-Bregaglia glacier had higher elevation and larger mass than the San Giacomo glacier. South of San Giacomo Valley, in Chiavenna Valley and in what is today upper Lake of Como, the San Giacomo glacier was squeezed against the right valley slope, but then continued southward for some kilometers as a distinct glacier tongue. This inference is supported by the distribution of tills, which contain lithotypes sourced from the San Giacomo Valley. Only during advanced stages of melting the San Giacomo glacier tongue disappeared. The morphologies of the glacial melting phases were here used to reconstruct the evolution of the glacier tongues of the main and lateral glaciers, as well as to reconstruct their relationships. Through the deglaciation, the accumulation zone gradually shrank and the ablation zone expanded, with contemporaneous upstream shifting. Through the deglaciation, lateral glaciers parted from the major glacier and expanded, reaching their maximum extensions during the retreat of the main valley glacier. The recognizable retreat phases do not identify all the steps of glacial phases occurred, but only those whose sedimentological and morphological evidence has remained. The building of lateral moraines or the deposition of erratics occurred during minor glacial advances, which may have not had the same morphologic evidence throughout the valley

Quale performance? : indicatori e sistemi di misurazione in uso nei Ministeri di sette Paesi OCSE : proposte per le amministrazioni centrali italiane

La misurazione e la valutazione della performance della pubblica amministrazione costituiscono elementi indispensabili nel processo di modernizzazione del settore pubblico. La sfida di progettare e implementare sistemi di misurazione e valutazione della performance organizzativa, che operino anche come elemento complementare ai più tradizionali strumenti di valutazione delle politiche pubbliche, è stato uno degli elementi che più hanno caratterizzato gli ultimi vent’anni di riforme in molti Paesi del mondo. Il presente White Paper analizza i sistemi di misurazione e valutazione della performance di una selezione di Ministeri in un campione di sette Paesi rappresentativo delle tradizioni amministrative occidentali identificando un modello di misurazione e valutazione della performance per le amministrazioni centrali italian

Safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in patients on dialysis: a multicentre cohort study in Italy

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in patients undergoing haemodialysis in Italy compared to the general population.Methods In this cohort study, 118 dialysis centres from 18 Italian Regions participated. Individuals older than 16 years on dialysis treatment for at least 3 months, who provided informed consent were included. We collected demographic and clinical information, as well as data on vaccination status, hospitalisations, access to intensive care units and adverse events. We calculated the incidence, hospitalisation, mortality, and fatality rates in the vaccinated dialysis cohort, adjusted for several covariates. The incidence rates of infection in the dialysis cohort and the general population were compared through Standardised Incidence Rate Ratio.Results The study included 6555 patients vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 infection according to the schedule recommended in Italy. Between March 2021 and May 2022, there were 1096 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, with an incidence rate after completion of the three-dose vaccination cycle of 37.7 cases per 100 person-years. Compared to the general population, we observed a 14% reduction in the risk of infection for patients who received three vaccine doses (Standardised Incidence Rate Ratio: 0.86; 95% Confidence Interval: 0.81-0.91), whereas no statistically significant differences were found for COVID-19-related hospitalisations, intensive care unit admissions or death. No safety signals emerged from the reported adverse events.Conclusions The vaccination program against SARS-CoV-2 in the haemodialysis population showed an effectiveness and safety profile comparable to that seen in the general population