NON-DESTRUCTIVE MONITORING STRATEGIES OF HISTORICAL CONSTRUCTIONS AND TANGIBLE CULTURALE HERITAGE BASED ON GROUND-BASED SAR INTERFEROMETRY

Tangible cultural heritage, historical buildings and bridges have an important cultural significance and economic value within the tourism industry and the identity of local communities. The preservation and the assessment of their structural health are important issues which call for multidisciplinary teams and non-invasive monitoring techniques due the uniqueness and historical values of these man-made structures.

Evaluation of rainfall forecasts combining GNSS precipitable water vapor with ground and remote sensing meteorological variables in a neural network approach

In this study, an experiment aimed to integrate Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) atmospheric data with meteorological data into a neural network system is performed. Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) estimates derived from GNSS are combined with surface pressure, surface temperature and relative humidity obtained continuously from ground-based meteorological stations. The work aims to develop a methodology to forecast short-term intense rainfall. Hence, all the data is sampled at one hour interval.

Tools for the real time visualization and analysis of Ground-based SAR data: application to the monitoring of landslides

This paper is focused on visualization of the information extracted by GBSAR data acquired in landslide areas. It describes the way Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) can be used to generate and visualize accurate GBSAR images and displacement maps in near real time. Examples of GBSAR images, as radar coordinates and rendered on Digital Surface Models (DSMs), coherence and displacement maps are shown.

Quality assessment of MIPAS ESA V8 products before full mission reprocessing

The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a limb-viewing infrared Fourier transform spectrometer that operated from 2002 to 2012 onboard the ENVISAT satellite. The maintenance and the upgrade of both L1 and L2 ESA processors are accomplished by the Quality Working Group, where a fruitful collaboration among Level 1, Level 2 and validation teams can be exploited. Recently both ESA L1 and L2 processors have been updated, as well as the spectroscopic database and some absorption cross-sections.

Brain Activity Mapping from MEG Data via a Hierarchical Bayesian Algorithm with Automatic Depth Weighting

A recently proposed iterated alternating sequential (IAS) MEG inverse solver algorithm, based on the coupling of a hierarchical Bayesian model with computationally efficient Krylov subspace linear solver, has been shown to perform well for both superficial and deep brain sources. However, a systematic study of its ability to correctly identify active brain regions is still missing. We propose novel statistical protocols to quantify the performance of MEG inverse solvers, focusing in particular on how their accuracy and precision at identifying active brain regions.

Effect of flow on ATP/ADP concentration at the endothelial cell surface: interplay between shear stress and mass transport

The nucleotides ATP and ADP regulate many aspects of endothelial cell (EC) biology, including intracellular calcium concentrations, focal adhesion activation, cytoskeletal organization, and cellular motility. In vivo, ECs are constantly under flow, and the concentration of ATP/ADP on the EC surface is determined by the combined effects of nucleotide convective and diffusive transport as well as hydrolysis by ectonucleotidases on the EC surface. In addition, experiments have demonstrated that flow induces ATP release from the cells.