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Radar-based rainfall estimation represents an effective tool for hydrological modelling. Nevertheless, this data type is subject to systemic and natural perturbations that need to be considered before to use it. Because of that and to improve data quality, corrections based on raingauge observations are frequently adopted. Here, we compared the efficacy of different radar-raingauge merging procedures over a regional raingauge-radar network focusing on a selected number of rainfalls events.We adopted the methods: 1) Kriging with External Drift (KED) interpolation (Wackernagel 1998), 2) Probability-Matching-Method (PMM, Rosenfeld et al., 1994), and 3) a kriging mixed method exploiting the Conditional Merging (CM) process (Sinclair-Pegram, 2005) based on elaborations available at DPCN (Italian National Civil Protection Department). These methods have been applied on the Tuscany Regional Territory using raingauge recorded rainfalls at 15’ time-step and CAPPI (Constant altitude plan position indicator) reflectivity data at 2000/3000/5000 m at 5’ and 10’.Relationships describing precipitation VS radar reflectivity were integrated and elaborated as part of the development of the merging procedures, while the comparison involved the analysis of variance and diversity coefficients. Kriging-based elaborations showed different spatial patterns depending on the applied procedure, with patterns closer to radar variability when using DPCN, and more reflecting the gauge data structure when adopting KED. The probabilistic method (PMM), instead, had the advantage of integrating the gauge data while preserving the spatial radar patterns, confirming interesting perspectives.

Study Objective: The aim of the project was to compare the efficacy and safety of intranasal and intravenous dexmedetomidine (DEX) in procedural sedation for electroencephalogram (EEG) in patients with behavioural disorders. Design: observational monocentric comparative study Setting: Tertiary care centre Emergency Department Patients: all consecutive patients < 18 years old affected by behavioural disorders, who needed sedation for EEG recording. From 2018 to 2020 a group of children received intravenous administration of DEX, the following year a second group of children received intranasal administration of the same drug. Target of sedation was level 2, according to the Paediatric Sedation State Scale (PSSS) in both groups. Heart rate (HR), pulse oxygen saturation and blood pressure (BP) were registered. EEG recording quality and caregivers’ satisfaction were collected. Results: Twenty-four patients were sedated with intravenous and other twenty-four with intranasal DEX. Sedation success rate was 97.9%. Intranasal administration showed longer onset (p Conclusions: Considering our data dexmedetomidine is an effective and safe drug in patients with behavioural disorders. Intranasal administration could be useful as it is less invasive and with shorter offset. Clinical Trial registration: ID NCT 03799783; date registered: 10/01/2019

The Aha! experience, demarcating the sudden comprehension of a perplexing problem, has fascinated scientists and laypeople alike. This peculiar phenomenon of insight entails a different problem-solving experience than solving a problem using a multistep, analytical approach (i.e., non-insight). Although extant theories agree that a profound reinterpretation of the problem (i.e., restructuring) is crucial for the occurrence of insight, the (un)conscious nature of the processes leading to restructuring remains debated. We addressed insight's (un)conscious nature by exposing the metacognitive trajectories that lead to insight and non-insight. Participants (N = 65) jointly solved word puzzles from the compound remote associates test while continuously indicating their proximity to the solution on a nearness-to-solution rating scale. After solving each puzzle, participants reported whether a solution was found with insight or non-insight. Our results showed that the nearness-to-solution ratings of insight mainly displayed a discontinuous, all-or-none trajectory, whereas, for non-insight, the ratings showed an incremental trajectory. This shows that the main path to insight was dissimilar to non-insight and more reminiscent of an unconscious process. However, insight and non-insight trajectories were occasionally similar, with an incremental pattern preceding it. This implies that insight is sometimes achieved via a more conscious process. Overall, multiple paths seem to lead to insight. Using a data-driven approach, we also mapped participants' self-reported insight/non-insight classifications on the naturally occurring clusters in the data as derived with unsupervised machine learning algorithms. Results revealed strong correspondence between the self-reports and the naturally occurring clusters, supporting the validity of the insight/non-insight self-report measure.

Interpersonal touch is intrinsically reciprocal since it entails a person promoting and another receiving the touch. While several studies have investigated the beneficial effects of receiving an affective touch, the affective experience of caressing another individual remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the hedonic and autonomic responses (skin conductance and heart rate) of people when they promote an affective touch. We also examined whether interpersonal relationship, gender, and eye contact modulate these responses. As expected, caressing the partner was perceived more pleasant then caressing a stranger, especially if the affective touch occurred together with mutual eye contact. Promoting an affective touch to the partner also resulted in a decrease of both autonomic responses and anxiety levels, suggesting the occurrence of a calming effect. Additionally, these effects were more pronounced in females compared to males, indicating that hedonic and autonomic aspects of affective touch are modulated by social relationships as well as by gender. These findings show for the first time that caressing a beloved one is not only pleasant, but also reduces autonomic responses and anxiety in the person promoting the touch. This might suggest that affective touch has an instrumental role for romantic partners in promoting and reinforcing their affective bonding.

Rainfall precipitation maps are usually derived based on the measurements collected by classical weather devices, such as rain gauges and weather stations. This article aims to show the benefits obtained by opportunistic rainfall measurements based on signal strength measurements provided by commercial-grade satellite terminals (e.g., used in TV broadcasting). To assess not only the feasibility of this approach, with significant advantages in terms of capital and operational expenditure, but also improvements in terms of accuracy, we focus on a case study for agricultural applications using a Gaussian-modeled synthetic rain over a specific, real-world test area., Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures

The compound nature of creativity entails the interplay of multiple cognitive processes, making it difficult to attribute creativity to a single neural signature. Divergent thinking paradigms, widely adopted to investigate creative production, have highlighted the key role of specific mental operations subserving creativity, such as inhibition of external stimuli, loose semantic associations, and mental imagery. Neurophysiological studies have typically shown a high alpha rhythm synchronization when individuals are engaged in creative ideation. Also, oculomotor activity and pupil diameter have been proposed as useful indicators of mental operations involved in such a thinking process. The goal of this study was to investigate whether beyond alpha-band activity other higher frequency bands, such as beta and gamma, may subserve divergent and convergent thinking and whether those could be associated with a different gaze bias and pupil response during ideas generation. Implementing a within-subjects design we collected behavioral measures, neural activity, gaze patterns, and pupil dilation while participants performed a revised version of the Alternative Uses Task, in which divergent thinking is contrasted to convergent thinking. As expected, participants took longer to generate creative ideas as compared to common ones. Interestingly, during divergent thinking participants displayed alpha synchronization along with beta and gamma desynchronization, more pronounced leftward gaze shift, and greater pupil dilation. During convergent thinking, an opposite pattern was observed: desynchronization in alpha and an increase in beta and gamma rhythm, along with a reduction of leftward gaze shift and greater pupil constriction. The present study uncovered specific neural dynamics and physiological patterns during idea generation, providing novel insight into the complex physiological signature of creative production.

BackgroundIntravenous (IV) peripheral access is often a difficult procedure in the paediatric ED, causing pain and significant distress. Clinical prediction tools including reproducible variables have been developed to help clinicians identify children at risk of difficult IV access, likely to need additional resources/interventions to maximise success at first attempt. We aimed to externally validate the Difficult IntraVenous Access (DIVA) and DIVA3 scores developed for this purpose.MethodsCross-sectional study of children undergoing IV cannulation by nurses in a tertiary-care paediatric ED. Data were collected at the time of the procedure in a clinical report form.ResultsOf 440 children included (56.8% males; median age 4.7 years (IQR 1.5–9.5)), 23.4% had a difficult IV access (defined as requiring >1 attempt). Diagnostic accuracy measures for a DIVA cut-off ≥4 and their 95% CIs were sensitivity 24.3% (16.4% to 33.7%), specificity 92.6% (89.2% to 95.1%), positive and negative predictive value 50.0% (35.3% to 64.5%) and 80.0% (75.7% to 83.9%), respectively. The same measures for the DIVA3 were 22.3% (14.7% to 31.6%), 93.5% (90.3% to 95.9%), 51.1% (35.8% to 66.3%) and 79.8% (75.4% to 83.6%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.652 (95% CI 0.591 to 0.712) for the DIVA and 0.649 (95% CI 0.589 to 0.709) for the DIVA3 score. In patients with DIVA and DIVA3 ConclusionWe externally validated the DIVA and DIVA3 showing a similar accuracy compared with the DIVA derivation cohort and between DIVA and DIVA3. We identified factors that can help refine further the risk of difficult IV access and support decision making on the best strategy to maximise the chances of cannulation success on first attempt.

Modern ways to measure rainfall provide a variety of different solutions, direct and indirect, with respect to the standard approach that is the raingauge method. Retrieving the actual rain fallen on a target domain is not in fact as easy task due to its temporal and spatial variability, but its importance is paramount for meteorology and for the effects on human lives and the environment. Rainfall regimes are changing almost at every latitude with dramatic effects, with a complex connection to climate change in large part to be still understood.Among the emerging new methods for rainfall estimation, a specific interest is in the so-called ‘opportunistic’ measurements, because they provide a chance to augment information without adding new infrastructures, also with clear cost advantages. These data are of course less precise than those from dedicated instruments. Therefore some smart efforts in devising proper processing are needed to extract all the geophysical information that they can provide. Use of microwave links in cellular phone networks is among these methods, bringing information on rainfall rates along their path through signal attenuation caused by raindrops. Following a similar principle also broadcast telecommunication satellite signals can be used, with additional problems related to the definition of the intercepted precipitation volumes and the effects of the melting layer, but additional advantages related to the worldwide availability of the signal and the easiness of data acquisition, that can be natively centralised when using two ways communication receivers. NEFOCAST, a research project funded by the regional administration of Tuscany (Italy), exploited this feature through new two-way (transmit-receive) devices named SmartLNB (Smart Low-Noise Block converter), that are going to constitute networks of sensors of opportunity, densely distributed especially in urbanised areas. Two-way receivers allow both to estimate and relying attenuation data that can be centralized to be processed for real-time rainfall estimation, every minute.An experimental network of SmartLNBs has been deployed in Italy (namely Florence, Pisa and Rome), including co-located raingauges and radar measurements for cal/val objectives. SmartLNBs provide average measurements along quasi-parallel non-nadir paths, so that information on the structure of the intercepted rainfall system is needed in order to retrieve ground precipitation. The high rate of measurements provided by the SmartLNBs suggested to approach the rainfall retrieval problem similarly to a trajectory assessment in a phase space, using an ensemble Kalman filter to produce the rainfall field over a given domain. MSG satellite precipitation products can be used for the purpose and also as initial and boundary conditions, while atmospheric motion vectors from the same data source are used in the propagation model of the Kalman filter.In this work, we present the measurement concept, the signal processing algorithm and the method to retrieve the rainfall fields, through some significant synthetic and real case studies, for events with different intensity, dynamics and morphology and for various sensor distributions.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sedation with dexmedetomidine, a highly selective α2-agonist with sedative effect, for EEG recording in children with behavioral disorders. Material and methods Prospective observational study on children with behavioral disorders undergoing EEG at the Pediatric Hospital in Padova, Italy. A 2 mcg/kg intravenous bolus of dexmedetomidine was administered, followed by a 1-2 mcg/kg/h infusion. If necessary, bolus was repeated up to 3 times to reach the target level of sedation, assessed by Pediatric Sedation State Scale. Patients were fully monitored before, during and after the procedure until complete recovery. EEG recording quality, and caregivers' satisfaction were collected. Any adverse effect was registered using SIVA score. Results For this preliminary study, 19 patients were enrolled. EEG was successfully completed in all of them. Mean total dose of dexmedetomidine was 3.7 ± 1.7 mcg/kg. Adequate sedation was achieved within 11.9 ± 8 minutes. Mean time to first awakening was 30.9 ± 36.9 minutes and time to complete recovery 113.3 ± 92.7 minutes. Adverse effects (hypotension, bradycardia) were reported in 10 patients, all classified as "minor." EEG recording quality was good or excellent. Parents' satisfaction was high in all the interviewed families. Conclusions Intravenous dexmedetomidine as a single drug showed an excellent efficacy and good safety profile for EEG recording in children with behavioral disorders.

Accurate measurement and monitoring of precipitation is crucial for many applications, such as flood and drought risk assessment and management. Conventional meteorological devices for estimating precipitation (i.e., rain gauges, disdrometers, active and passive remote sensors, be they ground-based, spaceborne, or airborne) have their own strengths and weaknesses. The latter are often related to time and space resolution, coverage, and cost. In the last two decades, several studies have been carried out to exploit opportunistic signals of terrestrial microwave communication links to improve precipitation estimation capability. This study describes and evaluates a method to retrieve rainfall rate from the signal-to-noise ratio obtained from commercial interactive digital video broadcasting (DVB) receivers [referred as to smart low-noise blocks (smartLNBs)]. During a 1-year measurement campaign carried out in Tuscany (Italy) with purposely deployed instruments, the precipitation values estimated from a set of SmartLNBs were compared with measurements from co-located rain gauges and disdrometer. The normalized mean absolute error (NMAE) and root-mean-square error (RMSE) obtained comparing the total cumulative precipitation from a SmartLNB and a disdrometer are 48.8% and 7.46 mm, respectively. Encouraging results also come from comparing the total precipitation amounts as measured by the SmartLNBs and by the rain gauges, with values of NMAE (respectively, RMSE) ranging between 44% and 82% (respectively, 5.2 and 11.5 mm).

Ahstract- In the NEFOCAST project we aim at estimating rainfall by the opportunistic use of the signal attenuation due to the propagation channel in satellite communications. The estimation is performed by reverse engineering the effects of the various propagation phenomena on the satellite signal. However, the accuracy of the estimation is affected by several factors: in first place the rapid fluctuations in signal amplitude caused by small-scale irregularities in the tropospheric refractive index; secondly, the perturbations of the orbit of GEO satellites, such as the gravitational effects of the moon and the sun, which, even if periodically counteracted by correction maneuvers, nevertheless cause residual orbit inclinations. The problem with all these factors is that they can cause large deviations in the clear-sky measurements that can be misinterpreted as rain events. In this paper we address these problems by employing two Kalman filters designed to track slow and fast changes of the received signal energy, so that the rain events can be reliably estimated.

NAdirosietalURSIATRASC2018summarypaperV4. The system does not require the set-up of specific precipitation measuring instruments, but uses telecommunication links. An algorithm that converts the SmartLNB raw data into attenuation values, and infers rainfall rate from the total signal attenuation provided by the devices and from the knowledge of the link geometry, has been developed. An experimental campaign will take place in 2018 in Tuscany with the purpose of validating the NEFOCAST estimates, obtained through a dense population of smartLNBs and an X-band dual-polarization weather radar, purposely installed. During a preliminary test phase, performance of the algorithm has been assessed tested by comparing data from individual smartLNBs with tipping bucket rain gauge and a co-located laser disdrometer. This study presents and discusses results obtained during the test phase, focusing on disdrometer evaluation.

Background We assessed whether a short training, effective in a high resource country, was able to improve the quality of face-mask ventilation (FMV) in a low resource setting. Methods Local healthcare providers at the Centre Médico-Social, Kouvè, Togo were asked to ventilate a neonatal leak-free manikin before (time—t1) and after (t2) a two-minute training session. Immediately after this section, a further two-minute training with participants aware of the data monitor was offered. Finally, a third 1-minute FMV round (t3) was performed by each participant. Ventilatory parameters were recorded using a computerized system. Primary outcome was the percentage of breaths with relevant mask leak (>25%). Secondary outcomes were percentages of breaths with a low peak inspiratory pressure (PIP35 cm H2O). Results Twenty-six subjects participated in the study. The percentage of relevant mask leak significantly decreased (p35 cm H2O was 19.5% (SD 32.8%) at t1 and 39.2% (SD 37.7%) at t2 (padj = 0.27; β = +0.61, SE = 0.36) and significantly decreased (padj = 0.01; β = -1.61, SE = 0.55) to 6.0% (SD 15.4%) at t3. Conclusions A 2-minute training on FMV, effective in a high resource country, had a positive effect also in a low resource setting. FMV performance further improved after an extra 2-minute verbal recall plus real time feedback. Although the training was extended, it still does not cost much time and effort. Further studies are needed to establish if these basic skills are transferred in real patients and if they are maintained over time.

Precipitation during the period 2001-2016 over the northern and central part of Tuscany was studied in order to characterize the rainfall regime. The dataset consisted of hourly cumulative rainfall series recorded by a network of 801 rain gauges. The territory was divided into 30 × 30 km2 square areas where the annual and seasonal Average Cumulative Rainfall (ACR) and its uncertainty were estimated using the Non-Parametric Ordinary Block Kriging (NPOBK) technique. The choice of area size was a compromise that allows a satisfactory spatial resolution and an acceptable uncertainty of ACR estimates. The daily ACR was estimated using a less computationally expensive technique, averaging the cumulative rainfall measurements in the area. The trend analysis of annual and seasonal ACR time series was performed by means of the Mann-Kendall test. Four climatic zones were identified: the north-western was the rainiest, followed by the north-eastern, northcentral and south-central. An overall increase in precipitation was identified, more intense in the north-west, and determined mostly by the increase in winter precipitation. On the entire territory, the number of rainy days, mean precipitation intensity and sum of daily ACR in four intensity groups were evaluated at annual and seasonal scale. The main result was a magnitude of the ACR trend evaluated as 35 mm/year, due mainly to an increase in light and extreme precipitations. This result is in contrast with the decreasing rainfall detected in the past decades.

Precipitation during the period 2001–2016 over the northern and central part of Tuscany was studied in order to characterize the rainfall regime. The dataset consisted of hourly cumulative rainfall series recorded by a network of 801 rain gauges. The territory was divided into 30 × 30 km2 square areas where the annual and seasonal Average Cumulative Rainfall (ACR) and its uncertainty were estimated using the Non-Parametric Ordinary Block Kriging (NPOBK) technique. The choice of area size was a compromise that allows a satisfactory spatial resolution and an acceptable uncertainty of ACR estimates. The daily ACR was estimated using a less computationally expensive technique, averaging the cumulative rainfall measurements in the area. The trend analysis of annual and seasonal ACR time series was performed by means of the Mann–Kendall test. Four climatic zones were identified: the north-western was the rainiest, followed by the north-eastern, northcentral and south-central. An overall increase in precipitation was identified, more intense in the north-west, and determined mostly by the increase in winter precipitation. On the entire territory, the number of rainy days, mean precipitation intensity and sum of daily ACR in four intensity groups were evaluated at annual and seasonal scale. The main result was a magnitude of the ACR trend evaluated as 35 mm/year, due mainly to an increase in light and extreme precipitations. This result is in contrast with the decreasing rainfall detected in the past decades.

Background Despite the current obesity epidemic, maternal underweight remains a common occurrence with potential adverse perinatal outcomes. Methods We aimed to investigate the relationship between weight gain during pregnancy, and fetal growth in underweight women with low and late fertility. Women body mass index (BMI), defined according to the World Health Organization’s definition, gestational weight gain (GWG), defined by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council and neonatal birth weight were prospectively collected at maternity ward of Policlinico Abano Terme (Italy) in 793 consecutive at term, uncomplicated deliveries. Results Among those, 96 (12.1 %) were categorized as underweight (BMI

We describe a case of a paediatric patient affected by mandibular fibrous dysplasia (FD) with severe and chronic pain who was successfully treated with zoledronic acid (ZOL): a third-generation bisphosphonate. Further research is needed to assess its safety and efficacy as a treatment option for FD in the paediatric population.

Osservatorio Nazionale Specializzandi Pediatria (ONSP) is an Italian association of residents in paediatrics, and one of its interests is to support paediatric training in developing countries. In 2014, for this purpose, ONSP performed a survey with the aim of describing interest, participation, resources, and obstacles of residents who are involved in global health training within paediatric residency programs. Once the final data were known, an informative brochure was produced for publicizing the results of this survey and the projects that Italian Pediatric Schools have activated in developing countries. 35 of 38 paediatric residency schools (92%) participated in the survey. 67% of them offer an elective training program in global health and 42% have a formal program that is part of the curriculum of trainees. 47% of the paediatric residency schools have a collaborative program with developing country or non-governmental organization (NGO) and 17% had a program in the past years but not still ongoing. In most cases, 3rd, 4th and 5th year paediatric trainees were involved in “global health” training. The duration of training was less than 1 month in 13% of cases, 1-3 months in 39%, 3-6 months in 43%, and more than six months in 4%. Only 22% of residents who were involved in training in developing countries were evaluated before departure, and only 35% received training in global health before leaving; 39% participated in post elective debriefing meetings. 74% had the supervision of a local tutor (66% pediatricians, 34% other doctors) and 61% also had an Italian tutor for the whole project. Almost all of the collaborative programs were in Central or Southern Africa; only two of them were in Central America (Nicaragua). The training in global health provided child care (in 62% of cases), neonatal care (45%), malnutrition support (58%), HIV prevention and AIDS care (20%) and local staff training (42%). All residents were satisfied after their training in developing countries and only a few of them suffered for some minor reasons during that period. In conclusion, more than 50% of Italian paediatric residency programs actually offer an elective program of global health program and most of the trainees consider it a great opportunity for professional growth.

In this work we propose a technique for 15-minutes cumulative rainfall mapping, applied over Tuscany, using Italian weather radar networks together with the regional rain gauge network. In order to assess the accuracy of the radar-based rainfall estimates, we have compared them with spatial coincident rain gauge measurements. Precipitation at ground is our target observable: rain gauge measurements of such parameter have a so small error that we consider it negligible (especially if compared from what retrievable from radars). In order to make comparable the observations given from these two types of sensors, we have collected cumulative rainfall over areas a few tens of kilometres wide. The method used to spatialise rain gauges data has been the Ordinary Block Kriging. In this case the comparison results have shown a good correlation between the cumulative rainfall obtained from the rain gauges and those obtained by the radar measurements. Such results are encouraging in the perspective of using the radar observations for near real time cumulative rainfall nowcasting purposes. In addition the joint use of satellite instruments as SEVIRI sensors on board of MSG-3 satellite can add relevant information on the nature, spatial distribution and temporal evolution of cloudiness over the area under study. For this issue we will analyse several MSG-3 channel images, which are related to cloud physical characteristics or ground features in case of clear sky.

A theoretical picture is established which sheds light on the apparent conflict between the arguments used by Zwanzig to derive the Pauli master equation, and the localization process generated by the random distribution of site energies on a one-dimensional tight-binding Hamiltonian. The possible theoretical consequences are discussed. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

In this paper we propose a nowcasting technique for the prediction of cumulative rainfall every fifteen minutes on an area of 50 x 50 km2 pixels. The nowcasting technique is based on the estimation of the cumulative rainfall obtained by radar measurements, and on the nature of cloudiness determined by means of the SEVIRI in strument aboard MSG - 3 satellite. For a given initial instant, we predict the cumulative rainfall estimated by radar for the next fifteen minutes, using the cumulative rainfall relative to the previous 15 minutes together with the degree of cloudiness for the same initial instant. The radars provide the refl ectivity measure every fifteen minutes for pixels of about 1 km on each side. To estimate the cumulative rainfall we have applied the Marshall Palmer relation for two consecutive measurements of radar reflectivity and then we have averaged the instantaneous rainrate value. To verify the reliability of this method, we co mpared the radar results with the measurements of cumulative rainfall measured by raingauges on the covered area by these instruments. The raingauge measure of cumulative rainfall is punctual as it collects the rain on an area of a few square decimeters. To obtain comparable results with the radar measures we spatialized the rai ngauges measurement results. Our results show a good correlation between the cumulative rainfall data obtained from the raingauges and those obtained by the radar measurements for an area of 50 x 50 km2 pixels. To determine the nature of the cloudiness we use the MSG - 3 measurement channel at 10.8 mm, which provides the thermody namic temperature of the cloud top or of the ground in case of clear sky.

In the framework of the Operational Maritime Program (Italy - France), the activities of some related projects have led to the definition and implementation of a "cross - border" weather radar network, currently undergoing expansion. This work presents the processes constituting the realisation of this shared system for observing weather phenomena over the Tyrrhenian area within the Tu scany, Liguria, Sardinia and Corse regions. Different radar systems are involved in this network, with different operating frequencies, some of them having doppler and polarimetric measurement characteristics. Currently, this radar network consists of the C - band Monte Rasu (Sardinia) radar, the S - band Aleria (Corse) radar and the two X - ban d Livorno and Elba (Tuscany) radars. Within some months a third X - band radar will be installed in Monte Marcello (Liguria) thanks to the activities of the ongoing Proterina - 2 project which is based on an integrated multirisk approach, spacing from the hydrogeological to the fire - risk assessment. This multi - sys tems architecture has needed and still needs some technical and scientific activities for the optimisation of its operation. Using different type of radars, with different operating frequencies, a training period is mandatory for the intercomparison and intercalibration of the different measurements. One of the advantage of such multi - system approach is u ndoubtedly the observation redundancy, giving guarantees also in case of failure of one or more observing system. The integration of the different radars has been realised by considering the observing geometries together with the terrain morphology (DTM), in order to analyse the visibility and occultation due to the orography. An un conventional georeferentiation method has been also adopted to retain the 3D information of the different observations. As most of the systems are directly observing open sea scenarios, the observations are affected by sea clutter. A suited sea clutter removing algorithm has been applied taking advantage of both horizontal and vertical distribu tion of voxels.

There is interest from environmental organizations and regulating agencies to eliminate lead and reduce pollutants emitted into the atmosphere from general aviation aircraft using 100LL aviation gasoline (Avgas). 100SF (Swift Fuel) is under development by Swift Enterprises as a lead free general aviation alternative fuel product. The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of time required for engines to be free of lead emissions when first introduced to operation using 100SF. This study also investigated the lead cleansing decay profiles of the aircraft engines under 100SF initial operations. Results of this study revealed that a mean engine run time of 21minutes and 20 seconds was needed before aircraft engines were free of measurable lead at a 15ppm limit of detection. Results lend support for 100SF as a lead free alternative fuel source that also acts as a lead cleanser for general aviation aircraft engines.

The real-time measurement of rainfall is a primary information source for many purposes, such as weather forecasting, flood risk assessment, and landslide prediction and prevention. In this perspective, remote sensing techniques to monitor rainfall fields by means of radar measurements are very useful. In this work, a technique is proposed for the estimation of cumulative rainfall fields averaged over a large area, applied on the Tuscany region using the Italian weather radar network. In order to assess the accuracy of radar-based rainfall estimates, they are compared with coincident spatial rain gauge measurements. Observations are compared with average rainfall over areas as large as a few tens of kilometers. An ordinary block kriging method is applied for rain gauge data spatialization. The comparison between the two types of estimates is used for recalibrating the radar measurements. As a main result, this paper proposes a recalibrated relationship for retrieving precipitation from radar data. The accuracy of the estimate increases when considering larger areas: an area of 900 km2 has a standard deviation of less than few millimeters. This is of interest in particular for extending recalibrated radar relationships over areas where rain gauges are not available. Many applications could benefit from it, from nowcasting for civil protection activities, to hydrogeological risk mitigation or agriculture.