Advancing the Monitoring Capabilities of Mountain Snowpack Fluctuations at Various Spatial and Temporal Scales

Snow is a critical water resource for the western US and many regions across the globe. However, our ability to accurately monitor changes in snow mass from satellite remote sensing, specifically its water equivalent, remains a challenge in mountain regions. No single sensor currently has the ability to directly measure snow water equivalent (SWE) from space at a spatial scale suitable for water supply forecasting in mountain environments. This knowledge gap calls for the innovative use of remote sensing techniques, computational tools, and data science methods to advance our ability to estimate mountain snowpacks across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The goal of this dissertation is to advance our capabilities for understanding snowpack across watershed-relevant spatial and temporal scales. Two research approaches were used to accomplish this goal: quantifying the physiographic controls and sensitivities of hydrologically important snow metrics and progressing our ability to use L-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to measure SWE changes. First, we quantify the physiographic controls and various snowpack metrics in the Sierra Nevada using a novel gridded SWE reanalysis dataset. Such work demonstrates the complexity of snowpack processes and the need for fine-resolution snowpack information. Next, using L-band Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from the NASA SnowEx campaign, both snow ablation and accumulation are estimated in the Jemez Mountains, NM. The radar-derived retrievals are evaluated utilizing a combination of optical snow-cover data, snow pits, meteorological station data, in situ snow depth sensors, and ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Lastly, we compare multisensor optical-radar approaches for SWE retrievals and find that moderate-resolution legacy satellite products provide sufficient results. The results of this work show that L-band InSAR is a suitable technique for global SWE monitoring when used synergistically with optical SCA data and snowpack modeling. While two distinctive methods are present in this research, they both work towards advancing our ability to understand the dynamics of mountain snowpack

La congiunzione «e» come elemento introduttore nei titoli giornalistici

The purpose of this paper is to describe and in some ways to justify the very frequent use of the conjunction «e» at the beginning of italian newspaper headlines. Our observations are based on the analysis of four widely known contemporary Italian newspapers (using a corpus composed of 30 issues for each newspaper). An attempt is made to sketch a typology of the functions of this conjunction. The «e» can operate as a relational connector. The interpretation of its function depends on the analysis of cotext (in this case the established link is «endophotic») or of extralinguistic context (in this case the link is «exophoric»). On the other hand, the «e» can emphasize a particular element in the syntactic structure of the headline. Our study is oriented towards a didactic application in intermediate and advanced Italian language lessons. For this reason, in the final section of our paper we propose some examples of exercises

Does emotional intelligence affect successful teamwork?

There is a growing emphasis in tertiary education that students should develop professional skills as part of their education. Skills such as problem solving, communication, collaboration, interpersonal skills, social skills and time management are actively being targeted by prospective employers as essential requirements for employability especially in team environments. Of these, employment authorities consistently mention collaboration and teamwork as being a critical skill, essential in almost all working environments. How then can students successfully practice teamwork skills in tertiary institutions in order to develop these skills? In this study, a group of final year multimedia students were investigated while completing a project-based unit, in which teamwork was an essential ingredient, couched in an authentic context. Student teams were required to develop web sites for “real” clients; with teamwork processes supported with on-line tools to monitor progress and contributions. At the end of the semester, successful and unsuccessful teams (in terms of collaboration and teamwork) were interviewed and surveyed to determine essential factors that promoted success. A framework was developed from the literature based on students’ Emotional Intelligence, and propensity to engage in collaborative teamwork. It was found that there was a strong correspondence between students’ Emotional Intelligence and team harmony

Successful teamwork: A case study

Why are some teams successful and others unsuccessful? What criteria or attributes are needed for success? Contemporary teaching and learning practice over the past few years in higher education institutions has seen a proliferation of open-ended constructivist learning designs that incorporate collaboration. This has promoted the need for identifying essential attributes needed for successful teamwork. This study reviews the literature with a view of identifying a framework that educators can use to help promote effective teamwork in their classes. A case study is used to investigate two teams of final year multimedia students completing a project-based unit, in which teamwork was an essential ingredient and immersed in an authentic context. Attributes gleaned from the literature for successful teamwork was used to compare the two diverse teams

Recursion Relation for Toeplitz Determinants and the Discrete Painlev\'e II Hierarchy

Solutions of the discrete Painlev\'e II hierarchy are shown to be in relation with a family of Toeplitz determinants describing certain quantities in multicritical random partitions models, for which the limiting behavior has been recently considered in the literature. Our proof is based on the Riemann-Hilbert approach for the orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle related to the Toeplitz determinants of interest. This technique allows us to construct a new Lax pair for the discrete Painlev\'e II hierarchy that is then mapped to the one introduced by Cresswell and Joshi

Music, Films and Celebrity Environmental Activism to Educate Students to Take Actions

The main purpo se of this article is to contribute to improving environmental education in school in order to encourage the achievement of 2030 sustainable development goals Agenda This s tudy has an exploratory nature since it involves bibliographical research aimed at highlighting how music films and celebrity activism can be used as educational resources to unlocks the potential for interdisciplinary and multisensory learning in order to evoke emotions raise awareness about environmental issues and inspire students to take action In particular it will be highlighted how teachers can use CLIL approach and thoughtfully selected music videos films and documentaries to facilitates not only the acquisition of linguistic and specific knowledge but also broader skills that are essential in today s interconnected worl