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Breast metastasis originating from a primary lung tumor is exceedingly rare and can present challenges in distinguishing it from primary breast cancer. This case report discusses the management of a 64-year-old woman who initially presented with a nodule in her left breast. A biopsy revealed an infiltrating ductal carcinoma. Despite negative BRCA genetic testing, her significant family history of cancer and the presence of a newly detected right breast lesion led to a bilateral mastectomy. Post-operative imaging identified multiple hypodense nodules and a spiculated pulmonary nodule, necessitating further investigation. An endoscopic lung biopsy confirmed a primary pulmonary carcinoma with histological features similar to the breast carcinoma, suggesting the lung as the primary source. This case highlights the complexity of differentiating breast metastasis originating from a lung tumor and primary breast cancer. It underscores the importance of comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and the consideration of extramammary origins in metastatic cases. The findings emphasize the role of multidisciplinary teams in managing such rare and challenging cases and highlight the necessity for thorough and repeated assessments in atypical breast cancer presentations.

River inlets, deltas, and estuaries represent delicate ecosystems highly susceptible to climate change impacts. While significant progress has been made in understanding the morphodynamics of these environments in recent decades, the development of models still requires thorough testing and data integration. In this context, remote sensing emerges as a potent tool, providing crucial data and the ability to monitor temporal changes. In this paper, an integrated approach combining remote sensing and morphodynamic modeling is proposed to assess river systems comprehensively. By utilizing multispectral or RGB optical imagery from satellites or UAVs for river classification and remotely derived bathymetry, echo sounder data for ground truth, and photogrammetric modeling of emerged areas, we outline a procedure to create an integrated and continuous digital terrain model (DTM) of a riverbed, paying particular attention to the wet–dry interface. This method enables us to identify the river centerline, its width, and its slope variations. Additionally, by applying a linear morphodynamic model that considers the spatial variability of river morphology commonly found in estuarine environments, it is possible to predict the wavelength and migration rate of sediment bars. This approach has been successfully applied to recreate the DTM and monitor the morphodynamics of the seaward reach of the Roya River (Italy).

Monitoring slow-moving landslides is a crucial task for socioeconomic risk prevention and/or mitigation. Persistent scatterer interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PS-InSAR) is an advanced remote sensing method for monitoring ground deformation. In this research, PS-InSAR time series derived from COSMO-SkyMed (descending orbit) and Sentinel-1 (ascending orbit) are analyzed for a region in Central Apennines in Italy. The sequential turning point detection method (STPD) is implemented to detect the trend turning dates and their directions in the PS-InSAR time series within areas of interest susceptible to landslides. The monthly maps of significant turning points and their directions for years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 are produced and classified for four Italian administrative regions, namely, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo, and Lazio. Monthly global precipitation measurement (GPM) images at 0.1∘×0.1∘ spatial resolution and four local precipitation time series are also analyzed by STPD to investigate when the precipitation rate has changed and how they might have reactivated slow-moving landslides. Generally, a strong correlation (r≥0.7) is observed between GPM (satellite-based) and local precipitation (station-based) with similar STPD results. Marche and Abruzzo (the coastal regions) have an insignificant precipitation rate while Umbria and Lazio have a significant increase in precipitation from 2017 to 2023. The coastal regions also exhibit relatively lower precipitation amounts. The results indicate a strong correlation between the trend turning dates of the accumulated precipitation and displacement time series, especially for Lazio during summer and fall 2020, where relatively more significant precipitation rate of change is observed. The findings of this study may guide stakeholders and responsible authorities for risk management and mitigating damage to infrastructures.

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important climate factor for understanding the relationship between the land surface and atmosphere. Furthermore, LST is linked to soil moisture and evapotranspiration, which can potentially alter the severity and regime of wildfires, landslide-triggering precipitation thresholds, and others. In this paper, the monthly daytime and nighttime LST products of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are employed for the period 2000–2023 in order to find areas that have been cooling or warming in a region of great interest in Central Italy, due to its complex geological and geomorphological settings and its recent seismic sequences and landslide events. The annual MODIS land cover images for 2001–2022 are also utilized to investigate the interconnection between LST and land cover change. The results of the non-parametric Mann–Kendall trend test and its associated Sen’s slope reveal a significant nighttime warming trend in the region, particularly in July, linked to forest and woodland expansion. Grasslands toward the coastline with low elevation (less than 500 m a.s.l.) have experienced significant heat waves during the summer, with an LST of more than 35 °C. A significant negative correlation between the elevation and LST is observed for each calendar month. In particular, the daytime and nighttime LST have more than 80% correlation with elevation during winter and summer, respectively. In addition, nighttime warming and gradual drainage are noticed in Lake Campotosto. The results of this study could be useful for wildfire and landslide susceptibility analyses and hazard management.

The availability of digital copies of historical artifacts modeling the territory through the so-called “plan-reliefs” is important for many reasons: the preservation of the artifact if the physical object is damaged or destroyed, the possibility of creating virtual showrooms and providing researchers a tool to study the object combining information from different sources. For these reasons, a set of plan-reliefs created during World War I on the Italian front and kept by the Italian Historical War Museum of Rovereto (Italy) was surveyed to create digital models of the surfaces, which were georeferenced in the ETRS89 datum. A set of historical military maps of the same period was georeferenced to overlay the sets to the surface in the digital representation and to try to infer clues about the cartographic sources used in the historical artifact creation. The best transformation for georeferencing the maps is different depending on the map scale, map origin, conservation status and number of Ground Control Points. The georeferencing process precision and accuracy were evaluated. The digital models created in this study were compared to the official Digital Terrain Model (DTM) provided by the Regions or the autonomous provinces. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, and the combination of the models with the georeferenced maps is used by historians to describe the process used in the creation of plan-reliefs.

To address the recent needs for extended spatial and temporal in situ ocean data, new research is being implemented worldwide to develop and apply cost-effective subsea in situ sensors suitable for large-scale production [...]

In Italy, most of the destructive landslides are triggered by rainfall, particularly in central Italy. Therefore, effective monitoring of rainfall is crucial in hazard management and ecosystem assessment. Global precipitation measurement (GPM) is the next-generation satellite mission, which provides the precipitation measurements worldwide. In this research, we employed the available monthly GPM data to estimate the monthly precipitation for the twenty administrative regions of Italy from June 2000 to June 2021. For each region, we applied the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test and its associated Sen’s slope to estimate the precipitation trend for each calendar month. In addition, for each region, we estimated a linear trend and the seasonal cycles of precipitation with the antileakage least-squares spectral analysis (ALLSSA) and showed the annual precipitation variations using box plots. Lastly, we compared machine-learning models based on the auto-regressive moving average for monthly precipitation forecasting and showed that ALLSSA outperformed them. The findings of this research provide a significant insight into processing climate data, both in terms of trend-season estimates and forecasting, and can potentially be used in landslide susceptibility analysis.

The growing attention regarding a more sustainable future, and thus into energy recovery and waste reduction technologies, has intensified the interest towards processes which allow to exploit waste and biomasses to generate energy, such as the anaerobic digestion. Improving the efficiency of this industrial application is crucial to increase methane production, and is essential from the economic, environmental and safety point of view. This study focuses on the thermodynamic modelling of a steady-state reactor as a flash unit, in order to determine the best operating conditions to produce the maximum amount of pure bio-methane. To this purpose, a new hybrid approach based on the Peng–Robinson cubic equation of state and on the Multi-Parameter Helmholtz-Energy EoS has been proposed. The simulations, performed using the developed algorithm at temperatures between 20 and 55 °C and at pressure values between 0.3 atm and 1.5 atm, point out that the fugacity of the mixture evaluated with the proposed technique is much more accurate and reliable than the one calculated with the PR EoS. In addition, this research has shown not only that the purity and the production of the biogas can be optimised by working at mesophilic conditions and at pressure between 1 atm and 1.5 atm, but also that it is not convenient to operate in a temperature range of 42 °C–45 °C, since about 20 % more H2S goes into the exiting biogas, reducing the CH4 amount and raising the post-treatment costs. Lastly, it has been seen that there is a significant water content in the vapour phase (∼5 %wt.), and this is a factor to be taken into account in order to improve the process.

Echo-sounders and Vessel-Mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (VM-ADCP) are widely operating onboard research vessels with the aim of providing real-time backscatter and ocean current profiles along the route, while the vessel is moving. Backscatter data are exploited to infer important information about zooplankton presence and distribution. Nevertheless, as these organisms daily vertically migrate even below the depth of the instrument range, the combination of space and time variability make their mapping from a moving vessel quite complex. The objective of this work is to describe a GIS application developed for the management and analysis of these data. The GIS capability as a tool to facilitate zooplankton investigations is assessed by means of a test-case in the area of the Ligurian Sea (Western Mediterranean) by using VM-ADCP backscatter data made available during oceanographic campaigns. The system, which includes a high-resolution bathymetry, environmental parameters, ephemeris, allows to select and visualize data sorted according to all the possible layer combinations. Moreover, different backscatter profiles, characterizing the identified migration phases can be enlightened by means of false color scale representation.

Structural health monitoring is a crucial issue in areas with different hazard sources, such as Italy. Among non-invasive monitoring techniques, remote sensing provides useful information in supporting the management process and safety evaluations, reducing the impact of disturbances on the functionality of construction systems. The ground displacement time-series based on the analysis of Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) measurements, as well as the information about the geology of the area and the geometry of the construction under monitoring, provides useful data for the built environment’s structural assessment. This paper focuses on the structural monitoring and damage assessment of constructions based on the GIS integration of DInSAR measurements, geological investigation, historical surveys and 3D modeling. The methodology is applied to the residential area of Valco San Paolo in the city of Rome (Italy). Once the geological interpretation has confirmed the results of the DInSAR measurements, a quick damage assessment that considers all the possible conditions of the pre-existing damage at the time zero of the monitoring is shown for a damaged manufact in the area. The presented results highlight how the strategy to correlate the DInSAR-monitored ground settlements with the damage scales allows potentially to monitor continuous construction systems.

The growing need for interoperability among the different oceanic monitoring systems to deliver services able to answer the requirements of stakeholders and end-users led to the development of a low-cost machine-to-machine communication system able to guarantee data reliability over marine paths. In this framework, an experimental evaluation of the performance of long-range (LoRa) technology in a fully operational marine scenario has been proposed. In-situ tests were carried out exploiting the availability of (i) a passenger vessel and (ii) a research vessel operating in the Ligurian basin (North-Western Mediterranean Sea) both hosting end-nodes, and (iii) gateways positioned on mountains and hills in the inland areas. Packet loss ratio, packet reception rate, received signal strength indicator, signal to noise, and expected signal power ratio were chosen as metrics in line of sight and not the line of sight conditions. The reliability of Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) transmission over the sea has been demonstrated up to more than 110 km in a free space scenario and for more than 20 km in a coastal urban environment.

The paper explores the potential of the satellite advanced differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry (A-DInSAR) technique for the identification of impending slope failure. The advantages and limitations of satellite InSAR in monitoring pre-failure landslide behaviour are addressed in five different case histories back-analysed using data acquired by different satellite missions: Montescaglioso landslide (2013, Italy), Scillato landslide (2015, Italy), Bingham Canyon Mine landslide (2013, UT, USA), Big Sur landslide (2017, CA, USA) and Xinmo landslide (2017, China). This paper aimed at providing a contribution to improve the knowledge within the subject area of landslide forecasting using monitoring data, in particular exploring the suitability of satellite InSAR for spatial and temporal prediction of large landslides. The study confirmed that satellite InSAR can be successful in the early detection of slopes prone to collapse; its limitations due to phase aliasing and low sampling frequency are also underlined. According to the results, we propose a novel landslide predictability classification discerning five different levels of predictability by satellite InSAR. Finally, the big step forward made for landslide forecasting applications since the beginning of the first SAR systems (ERS and Envisat) is shown, highlighting that future perspectives are encouraging thanks to the expected improvement of upcoming satellite missions that could highly increase the capability to monitor landslides’ pre-failure behaviour.

Marine in situ gamma-ray spectrometry was utilized for a rainfall study at the W1M3A observing system in Ligurian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Italy. From 7 June to 10 October 2016, underwater total gamma-ray counting rate (TCR) and the activity concentration of radon daughters 214Pb, 214Bi and potassium 40K were continuously monitored along with ambient noise and meteorological parameters. TCR was proven as a good rainfall indicator as radon daughters’ fallout resulted in increased levels of marine radioactivity during and 2–3 h after the rainfall events. Cloud origin significantly affects TCR and radon progenies variations, as aerial mass trajectories, which extend upon terrestrial areas, result in higher increments. TCR and radon progenies concentrations revealed an increasing non-linear trend with rainfall height and intensity. 40K was proven to be an additional radio-tracer as its dilution was associated with rainfall height. 40K variations combined with 214Bi measurements can be used to investigate the mixing of rain- and seawater. In comparison with measurements in the atmosphere, the application of marine in situ gamma-ray spectrometry for precipitation investigation provided important advantages: allows quantitative measurement of the radionuclides; 40K can be used, along with radon daughters, as a radio-tracer; the mixing of rain- and seawater can be associated with meteorological parameters.

This work presents the first results obtained by applying in situ and remote-sensing methodologies to monitor the Ponte della Musica-Armando Trovajoli located in Rome, within the activities of the WP6 “Structural Health Monitoring and Satellite Data” 2019-21 Reluis Project. In particular, the use of remote-sensing Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry (DInSAR) measurements provided a spatial map of the displacement of the investigated infrastructure and the corresponding time-series, with the aim of monitoring deformation phenomena, focusing on the local scale analysis, which produces suitable results for urban monitoring and damage assessment. The DInSAR results have been integrated with the identification of the dynamic characteristics of the bridge, performed through an experimental campaign of ambient vibration measurements carried out in October 2020 and with the local-scale definition of the engineering geological setting of the foundation soil. The subsoil of the bridge is constituted by more than 50 m of recent alluvial deposits resting on Pliocene stiff clay acting as a geological bedrock. A substantially stable behavior of the bridge structural elements has been observed based on the analysis of both satellite and velocimetric data. This case represents a good example about how the integration of in situ sensors with remotely sensed data and the exploitation of a detailed knowledge regarding the on-site conditions represent a key factor for a sustainable structural and infrastructural monitoring and can support the planning both of maintenance and safety management.

Mining exploitation leads to slow or rapid ground subsidence resulting from deformation until the collapse of underground post-mining voids following excavation activities. Satellite SAR interferometry capabilities for the evaluation of ground movements allows the monitoring of intensive surface mine subsidence and can provide new knowledge about the risks in the mining industry. This work integrates both conventional and advanced Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) to study the ground subsidence in the Legnica Glogow Copper District (LGCD, Poland) by processing about 400 Sentinel-1 images from October 2014 to April 2019. Even without field data and information on past and ongoing excavation activities, the DInSAR approach allowed us to identify 30 troughs of subsidence, ranging from 500 m to 2.5 km in diameter, which in some cases, took place several times during the analyzed time span. The cumulative subsidence in 4 years and 7 months exceeds 70 cm in several zones of the LGCD. The sub-centimetric precision achieved by advanced analysis (A-DInSAR), allowed us to monitor the real extent of the mining influence area on the surface, with deformation velocities of up to 50 mm/year. The ground deformation detected at LGCD can be due to both mining-induced tremors and roof subsidence above the underground excavation rooms. As deformations do not occur concurrently with tremors, this can be related to excavation activities or to degradation of abandoned mines.

The failures of tailings dams have a major negative impact on the economy, surrounding properties, and people’s lives, and therefore the monitoring of these facilities is crucial to mitigate the risk of failure, but this can be challenging due to their size and inaccessibility. In this work, the deformation processes at Żelazny Most tailings dam (Poland) were analyzed using satellite Ad-vanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) from October 2014 to April 2019, showing that the dam is affected by both settlements (with a maximum rate of 30 mm/yr), and horizontal sliding in radial direction with respect to the ponds. The load of the tailings is pushing the dam forward along the glacio-tectonic shear planes located at depth, in the Pliocene clays, causing horizontal displacements at a rate up to 30 mm/yr, which could lead to a passive failure of the dam. The measured displacements have been compared with the ones observed by in situ data from the 90s to 2013, available in the literature. The outcomes indicate that intense localized deformations occur in the eastern and northern sectors of the dam, while the western sector is deforming evenly. Moreover, although the horizontal deformation had a slowdown from 2010 until 2013, it continued in 2014 to 2019 with recovered intensity. The upper and the recent embankments are affected by major settlements, possibly due to a lower consolidation degree of the most recent tailings and a larger thickness of compressible materials.

Current measurements in the open sea are generally acquired by Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs). In the case of ADCPs mounted on spar buoy, current profiles require to be post-processed, to properly take into account the buoy influence: in fact, ADCP compass may reflect alterations induced by the metal structure of the buoy and apparent currents can occur due to the large displacement of the platform. Uncertainty analysis is finally required to properly consider both these effects and to compute robust velocity estimates. A new methodology is tested for a measurement station in the Ligurian Sea, where an ADCP was mounted on the surface buoy of the W1-M3A (Western 1 Mediterranean Moored Multisensor Array) oceanographic observatory, facing upwards at the depth of about 40 m. Marine current numerical models and historical data in the area have been used as a basis for comparison to test the consistency of the proposed method. A very good agreement is obtained. Only minor discrepancies are reported (e.g., monthly averages from the reference model slightly underestimate the west-east current component along the entire profile), but, in general, the application of the proposed methodology ensures that the spar buoy-mounted ADCP system is able to provide reliable measurements for oceanographic studies and validation of 3D hydrodynamic models.

This paper aims to describe the seismic-driven multi-hazard scenario of the Lake Campotosto artificial basin (Abruzzo Region, Central Italy), and it can represent a preparatory study for a quantitative multi-hazard analysis. A comprehensive multi-hazard scenario considers all the effects that can occur following the base ground shaking, providing a holistic approach to assessing the real hazard potential and helping to improve management of disaster mitigation. The study area might be affected by a complex earthquake-induced chain of geologic hazards, such as the seismic shaking, the surface faulting of the Gorzano Mt. Fault, which is very close to one of the three dams that form the Lake Campotosto, and by the earthquake-triggered landslides of different sizes and typologies. These hazards were individually and qualitatively analyzed, using data from an engineering-geological survey and a geomechanical classification of the rock mass. With regard to the seismic shaking, a quantitative evaluation of the seismic response of the Poggio Cancelli valley, in the northern part of Lake Campotosto, was performed, highlighting different seismic amplification phenomena due to morphologic and stratigraphic features. Some insights about the possible multi-hazard approaches are also discussed.

This paper deals with monitoring systems to manage the risk due to fast slope failures that involve rock masses, in which important elements (such as infrastructures or cultural heritages, among the others) are exposed. Three different approaches for data analysis were here compared to evaluate their suitability for detecting mutual relations among destabilising factors, acting on different time windows, and induced strain effects on rock masses: (i) an observation-based approach (OBA), (ii) a statistics-based approach (SBA) and (iii) a semi-empirical approach (SEA). For these purposes, a test-site has been realised in an abandoned quarry in Central Italy by installing a multi-parametric monitoring sensor network on a rock wall able to record strain effects induced by natural and anthropic forcing actions (like as temperature, rainfall, wind and anthropic vibrations). The comparison points out that the considered approaches allow one to identify forcing actions, responsible for the strain effects on the rock mass over several time windows, regarding a specific size (i.e., rock block dimensional scale). The OBA was more suitable for computing the relations over short- to medium time windows, as well as the role of impulsive actions (i.e., hourly to seasonal and/or instantaneous). The SBA was suitable for computing the relations over medium- to long time windows (i.e., daily to seasonal), also returning the time lag between forcing actions and induced strains using the cross-correlation statistical function. Last, the SEA was highly suitable for detecting irreversible strain effects over long- to very long-time windows (i.e., plurennial).

On February 14th, 2018, in the North-Western sector of the Municipality of Rome (Central Italy), in the framework of an excavation for building construction, a portion of a piling wall piling wall collapsed in an already densely urbanized area. Soil behind the collapsed piling wall slipped inside the excavation site dragging seven cars parked on one side of the road running parallel to the piling wall and affecting some residential buildings located on the opposite side of the road. Fortunately, no injuries were counted but the 22 families living in the buildings next to the damaged wall were evacuated. Following the piling wall collapse, the Civil Protection of Rome, thanks to the technical support of the Research Centre on Geological Risks (CERI) of the Sapienza University of Rome, started a continuous monitoring of the affected area through remote sensing techniques. In the first hours following the collapse, a Terrestrial Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometer (TInSAR) and a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) were installed with the aim to control the evolution of the process, to support the local authority to manage the associated residual risk, and to ensure the safety of workers during emergency operations. In this paper we discuss some of the results obtained by the monitoring of the involved area. Thanks to the comparisons between different surveys and the reconstruction of the pre-event geometries, the total volume involved in the failure was estimated around 850 m3. In addition, through the analysis of data acquired by the 18 multi-temporal TLS scans and the three and a half months of continuous TInSAR monitoring, the movement involving a portion of the filling material used for stabilization works was observed and described. Such movement, reaching a total displacement of about 270–300 mm, was monitored and reported in real time.

In the context of the Copernicus Program, EUMETSAT prioritizes the creation of an ocean color infrastructure for system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC). This work aims to reply to this need by proposing the European Radiometry Buoy and Infrastructure (EURYBIA). EURYBIA is designed as an autonomous European infrastructure operating within the Marine Optical Network (MarONet) established by University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA) based on the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) experience and NASA support. MarONet addresses SVC requirements in different sites, consistently and in a traceable way. The selected EURYBIA installation is close to the Lampedusa Island in the central Mediterranean Sea. This area is widely studied and hosts an Atmospheric and Oceanographic Observatory for long-term climate monitoring. The EURYBIA field segment comprises off-shore and on-shore infrastructures to manage the observation system and perform routine sensors calibrations. The ground segment includes the telemetry center for data communication and the processing center to compute data products and uncertainty budgets. The study shows that the overall uncertainty of EURYBIA SVC gains computed for the Sentinel-3 OLCI mission under EUMETSAT protocols is of about 0.05% in the blue-green wavelengths after a decade of measurements, similar to that of the reference site in Hawaii and in compliance with requirements for climate studies.

This work focuses on the capabilities and limitations of the Advanced Satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Interferometry (A-DInSAR) in wooded and mountainous regions, with the aim to get insights on the performances for studying slow-moving landslides. The considered critical issues are related to the SAR acquisition geometries (angle of incidence of the satellite line of sight, ascending and descending geometries) and to the physical and morphological features of the slopes (land use, aspect and slope angles), which influence the measuring points coverage. 26 areas in Lombardy Region (Italy), affected by known slope instability phenomena, have been analyzed through A-DInSAR technique, using COSMO-SkyMed images. The results allowed to outline general considerations about the effectiveness of A-DInSAR analysis of a single dataset (descending or ascending dataset), selected accordingly to the aspect of the slopes. Moreover, we aimed to quantitatively describe the capability to update the state of activity of several previously mapped landslides using satellite SAR Interferometry results. Although in a wooded and mountainous region, where the chances of retrieving radar targets for satellite SAR analysis are generally low, the A-DInSAR results have allowed to detect landslides’ reactivations or new landslides and to update the inventory for about 70% of the investigated areas.

A long-term time series of high-frequency sampled sea-level data collected in the port of Genoa were analyzed to detect the occurrence of meteotsunami events and to characterize them. Time-frequency analysis showed well-developed energy peaks on a 26−30 minute band, which are an almost permanent feature in the analyzed signal. The amplitude of these waves is generally few centimeters but, in some cases, they can reach values comparable or even greater than the local tidal elevation. In the perspective of sea-level rise, their assessment can be relevant for sound coastal work planning and port management. Events having the highest energy were selected for detailed analysis and the main features were identified and characterized by means of wavelet transform. The most important one occurred on 14 October 2016, when the oscillations, generated by an abrupt jump in the atmospheric pressure, achieved a maximum wave height of 50 cm and lasted for about three hours.

The Djibouti Ville Drift is part of a contourite depositional system located on the southern side of the Djibouti Ville Seamount in the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean). The sedimentary record of a core located in the drift deposits has been characterized to achieve the possible sediment sources for the Saharan dust supply and the paleocurrent variability related to Mediterranean intermediate waters for the last 133 kyr. Three end-member grain-size distributions characterize the sediment record transported by the bottom current to address the different aeolian populations, i.e., coarse EM1, silty EM2, and fine EM3. For these particles, the most likely source areas are the Saharan sedimentary basins and deserts, as well as the cratonic basins of the Sahara-Sahel Dust Corridor. The prevalence of these main source areas is shown in the core record, where a noticeable change occurs during the MIS 5 to MIS 4 transition. Some punctual sediment inputs from the seamount have been recognized during sea-level lowstand, but there is no evidence of fluvial supply in the drift deposits. The paleocurrent reconstruction allows the characterizing of the stadial and cold periods by large increases in the mean sortable silt fraction and UP10, which point to an enhanced bottom current strength related to intermediate water masses. Conversely, interglacial periods are characterized by weaker bottom current activity, which is associated with denser deep water masses. These proxies also recorded the intensified Saharan wind transport that occurred during interstadial/stadial transitions. All these results point to the importance of combining sediment source areas with major climatic oscillations and paleocurrent variability in palaeoceanographic sedimentary archives, which may help to develop future climate prediction models.

Image correlation remote sensing monitoring techniques are becoming key tools for providing effective qualitative and quantitative information suitable for natural hazard assessments, specifically for landslide investigation and monitoring. In recent years, these techniques have been successfully integrated and shown to be complementary and competitive with more standard remote sensing techniques, such as satellite or terrestrial Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry. The objective of this article is to apply the proposed in-depth calibration and validation analysis, referred to as the Digital Image Correlation technique, to measure landslide displacement. The availability of a multi-dataset for the 3 December 2013 Montescaglioso landslide, characterized by different types of imagery, such as LANDSAT 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor), high-resolution airborne optical orthophotos, Digital Terrain Models and COSMO-SkyMed Synthetic Aperture Radar, allows for the retrieval of the actual landslide displacement field at values ranging from a few meters (2–3 m in the north-eastern sector of the landslide) to 20–21 m (local peaks on the central body of the landslide). Furthermore, comprehensive sensitivity analyses and statistics-based processing approaches are used to identify the role of the background noise that affects the whole dataset. This noise has a directly proportional relationship to the different geometric and temporal resolutions of the processed imagery. Moreover, the accuracy of the environmental-instrumental background noise evaluation allowed the actual displacement measurements to be correctly calibrated and validated, thereby leading to a better definition of the threshold values of the maximum Digital Image Correlation sub-pixel accuracy and reliability (ranging from 1/10 to 8/10 pixel) for each processed dataset.

This work deals with the installation of two smart in-situ sensors (for underwater radioactivity and underwater sound monitoring) on the Western 1-Mediterranean Moored Multisensor Array (W1-M3A) ocean observing system that is equipped with all appropriate modules for continuous, long-term and real-time operation. All necessary tasks for their integration are described such as, the upgrade of the sensors for interoperable and power-efficient operation, the conversion of data in homogeneous and standard format, the automated pre-process of the raw data, the real-time integration of data and metadata (related to data processing and calibration procedure) into the controller of the observing system, the test and debugging of the developed algorithms in the laboratory, and the obtained quality-controlled data. The integration allowed the transmission of the acquired data in near-real time along with a complete set of typical ocean and atmospheric parameters. Preliminary analysis of the data is presented, providing qualitative information during rainfall periods, and combine gamma-ray detection rates with passive acoustic data. The analysis exhibits a satisfactory identification of rainfall events by both sensors according to the estimates obtained by the rain gauge operating on the observatory and the remote observations collected by meteorological radars.

This paper focuses on the application of Advanced Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (A-DInSAR) to subsidence-related issues, with particular reference to ground settlements due to external loads. Beyond the stratigraphic setting and the geotechnical properties of the subsoil, other relevant boundary conditions strongly influence the reliability of remotely sensed data for quantitative analyses and risk mitigation purposes. Because most of the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) measurement points (Persistent Scatterers, PSs) lie on structures and infrastructures, the foundation type and the age of a construction are key factors for a proper interpretation of the time series of ground displacements. To exemplify a methodological approach to evaluate these issues, this paper refers to an analysis carried out in the coastal/deltaic plain west of Rome (Rome and Fiumicino municipalities) affected by subsidence and related damages to structures. This region is characterized by a complex geological setting (alternation of recent deposits with low and high compressibilities) and has been subjected to different urbanisation phases starting in the late 1800s, with a strong acceleration in the last few decades. The results of A-DInSAR analyses conducted from 1992 to 2015 have been interpreted in light of high-resolution geological/geotechnical models, the age of the construction, and the types of foundations of the buildings on which the PSs are located. Collection, interpretation, and processing of geo-thematic data were fundamental to obtain high-resolution models; change detection analyses of the land cover allowed us to classify structures/infrastructures in terms of the construction period. Additional information was collected to define the types of foundations, i.e., shallow versus deep foundations. As a result, we found that only by filtering and partitioning the A-DInSAR datasets on the basis of the above-mentioned boundary conditions can the related time series be considered a proxy of the consolidation process governing the subsidence related to external loads as confirmed by a comparison with results from a physically based back analysis based on Terzaghi’s theory. Therefore, if properly managed, the A-DInSAR data represents a powerful tool for capturing the evolutionary stage of the process for a single building and has potential for forecasting the behaviour of the terrain–foundation–structure combination.

An extensive investigation of more than 90 landslides affecting a small river basin in Central Italy was performed by combining field surveys and remote sensing techniques. We thus defined the geomorphological setting of slope instability processes. Basic information, such as landslides mapping and landslides type definition, have been acquired thanks to geomorphological field investigations and multi-temporal aerial photos interpretation, while satellite SAR archive data (acquired by ERS and Envisat from 1992 to 2010) have been analyzed by means of A-DInSAR (Advanced Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) techniques to evaluate landslides past displacements patterns. Multi-temporal assessment of landslides state of activity has been performed basing on geomorphological evidence criteria and past ground displacement measurements obtained by A-DInSAR. This step has been performed by means of an activity matrix derived from information achieved thanks to double orbital geometry. Thanks to this approach we also achieved more detailed knowledge about the landslides kinematics in time and space.

The purpose of this study was to explore a series of Passerini reactions on a biocatalytically derived enantiopure azetidine-2-carboxyaldehyde in order to obtain, in a diastereoselective manner, polyfunctionalised derivatives having the potential to be cyclized to chiral bridged bicyclic nitrogen heterocycles. While diastereoselectivity was poor under classical Passerini conditions, a significant increase of diastereoselectivity (up to 76:24) was gained by the use of zinc bromide as promoter. The methodology has a broad scope and yields are always good.

In European seas, ocean monitoring strategies in terms of key parameters, space and time scale vary widely for a range of technical and economic reasons. Nonetheless, the growing interest in the ocean interior promotes the investigation of processes such as oxygen consumption, primary productivity and ocean acidity requiring that close attention is paid to the instruments in terms of measurement setup, configuration, calibration, maintenance procedures and quality assessment. To this aim, two separate hardware and software tools were developed in order to test and simultaneously intercompare several oxygen probes and fluorometers/turbidimeters, respectively in the same environmental conditions, with a configuration as close as possible to real in-situ deployment. The chamber designed to perform chlorophyll-a and turbidity tests allowed for the simultaneous acquisition of analogue and digital signals of several sensors at the same time, so it was sufficiently compact to be used in both laboratory and onboard vessels. Methodologies and best practice committed to the intercomparison of dissolved oxygen sensors and fluorometers/turbidimeters have been used, which aid in the promotion of interoperability to access key infrastructures, such as ocean observatories and calibration facilities. Results from laboratory tests as well as field tests in the Mediterranean Sea are presented.