Sabino Maggi

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute for Atmospheric Pollution IIA

The Caribbean coast is characterized by the presence of mud volcanoes, a secondary phenomenon of volcanism similar to mud diapirs for its development and evolution, but different in terms of geological features and forms. These mud volcanoes are often located close to tectonic faults and oil and gas deposits. Their geological context is dominated b...

When I read about the Ten Years Challenge, it was a matter of seconds to decide to participate in the contest with the replication of a work on the numerical simulation of a Josephson junction driven by a train of microwave pulses. The experience has been exceptionally instructive and all considered much easier than I initially thought. The paper d...

Bioclimatic indices combine atmospheric parameters to provide analytical indication of climatic features and their evolution in space and time that can directly relate with natural resource availability, distribution, and related bio-physical processes. The availability of bioclimatic information can provide natural resource managers with analytica...

This paper presents a software package for the automatic processing of bioclimatic data in the space and time domains whose final goal is to provide land and water management authorities with reliable information about the moisture/dryness level of a region and its water requirements. The current state of development of package is reported, present...

Monitoring networks are essential tools for the effective management of vulnerable or limited environmental resources. Cost and logistics constraints often suggest to reduce the number of monitoring sites while minimizing the loss of information determined by these changes. The problem can be rigorously addressed through the optimization of one or...

Mud volcanoes in northwestern Colombia are used by local people as inexpensive recreation and wellness centres, especially for pelotherapy. However, the potential therapeutic value of the muds and thermal waters released by these volcanoes has not been fully investigated. The main objective of this research is to determine the potential therapeutic...

The risk of wildfires has risen significantly in recent years, not just in Europe but around the world. In Italy alone, hundreds of thousands of hectares are burned each year, resulting in deaths, the destruction of forests and loss of biodiversity, and damage to infrastructure and farms. One way to address this issue is through satellite remote se...

Since the development of the original specifications in the '90s the PDF document format has become the de-facto standard for the distribution and archival of documents in electronic form because of its ability to preserve the original layout of the documents, independently of the hardware, operating system and application software used to visualiz...

Xylella fastidiosa subsp. pauca (Xfp), has attacked the olive trees in Southern Italy with severe impacts on the olive agro-ecosystem. To reduce both the Xfp cell concentration and the disease symptom, a bio-fertilizer restoration technique has been used. Our study applied multi-resolution satellite data to evaluate the effectiveness of such techni...

The presence of heavy metals in the superficial sediments of the Sinú River in Colombia was studied by analyzing soil samples taken along the course of the river at two different depths. Significant concentrations of several heavy metals were found in the samples as a function of the sample location and depth which may be related to the presence of...

In environmental sciences, the risk assessment methods focus on the most reliable techniques to quantify vulnerability and hazard, being the former defined as functionally related to the latter independent variables. With regard to groundwater systems, this chapter explores the possibility of assessing directly the environmental risk as a probabili...

Flow slow-down in rivers and artificial canals is a basic aspect to be monitored and kept strictly under control. Flow slow-downs can become a major concern in the event of extreme phenomena. The paper illustrates an advanced image processing method that uses particle tracking velocimetry in conjunction with a monadic approach to better characteriz...

The efficient and reliable monitoring of the flow of water in open channels provides useful information for preventing water slow-downs due to the deposition of materials within the bed of the channel, which might lead to critical floods. A reliable monitoring system can thus help to protect properties and, in the most critical cases, save lives. A...

Waves propagating on the water surface can be considered as propagating in a dispersive medium, where gravity and surface tension at the air–water interface act as restoring forces. The velocity at which energy is transported in water waves is defined by the group velocity. The paper reports the use of video-camera observations to study the impact...

Environmental measurements need high accuracy and precision for delivering results necessary for authorities for making decisions. In particular, for water characterization, it is necessary to perform fast analysis in order to delivery immediate results, especially in online conditions. To do that, in some circumstances it is compulsory to accept d...

This paper presents a general methodology for processing bioclimatic data in the spatial domain whose main goal is to derive indications related to the moisture/dryness level of a region and provide water management authori- ties with information about its irrigation requirements. The methodology uses point-scale measurements of weather related dat...

This paper presents a general methodology for processing bioclimatic data in the temporal domain. Two different methods are used to assess the presence of temporal trends in the time-series of bioclimatic indices at each measurement station. A preliminary stage checks for the statistical homogeneity in the data set and for the presence of serial au...

Particulate matters and ozone are often neglected as pollutant elements when people deal with widespread pollution. Particulate matters PM 10 , PM 2.5 , are produced by human activities namely industries and car traffic but also by natural activities like blowing wind from desert, volcanoes, etc... Ozone, instead, has a double consideration: it is...

The water retention curve has a key role for the hydraulic characterization of porous media. A new method, based on the differential evolution algorithm, for the determination of the characteristic parameters of several water retention models from the experimental data is proposed. We present the details of the method and its application to the cal...

The effective protection of the coastal ecosystem requires a detailed knowledge of the morphological evolution of the coastal environment. Several probabilistic models have been developed in the last decades to implement a reliable statistical forecasting of coastline dynamics. In this work, the non-linear Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) m...

The effective protection of the coastal ecosystem requires a detailed knowledge of the morphological evolution of the coastal environment. Several probabilistic models have been developed in the last decades to implement a reliable statistical forecasting of coastline dynamics. In this work, the non-linear Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) m...

The measurement of ultra-weak magnetic fields with nanometer-scale spatial resolution is a powerful tool for investigating several biological, chemical and physical systems. Among the available detectors, SQUIDs are the most sensitive magnetic field and flux detectors and are rapidly approaching the quantum sensitivity limit. To reach such sensing...

Atmospheric deposition of pollutants is a major challenge for the environmental governance and management of cities. Different depositions could be harmful especially on ground and roads. In particular, in areas were industrial activities are located and/or significant car traffics occur, depositions on roads are harmful for all people especially f...

Major concerns arise about marine pollution due to human and industrial activities. The quality of sensing system response depends upon the materials used to realize sensors. There are different techniques used for the purposes of this kind of research that makes easier to reveal main parameters such as: temperature, salinity, waiving, wind, chloro...

The variogram incorporates the basic information for the geostatistical analysis of spatial data, making it one of the most popular and widespread approaches for the evaluation and assessment of environmental data. Fitting an experimental variogram with a proper model, capable of catching the main characteristics of the sampled data, is a critical...

The redesign of environmental monitoring networks is a field rich of practical applications, in particular in light of recent EU environmental directives. When dealing with an existing monitoring network reduction, the easiest approach is to search for redundancies among the monitoring locations (clusters of locations) and to remove the most useles...

The redesign of environmental monitoring networks is a field rich of practical applications, in particular in light of recent EU environmental directives. When dealing with an existing monitoring network reduction, the easiest approach is to search for redundancies among the monitoring locations (clusters of locations) and to remove the most useles...

The variogram incorporates the basic information for the geostatistical analysis of spatial data, making it one of the most popular and widespread approaches for the evaluation and assessment of environmental data. Fitting an experimental variogram with a proper model, capable of catching the main characteristics of the sampled data, is a critical...

We have fabricated microstrips of Nb thin films by dc magnetron sputtering and lift-off. Focused ion beam (FIB) has been used to mill the surface of the films in a nanometer-sized region across the width of the strip. FIB has the side effect of implanting Ga+ ions on the exposed surface of Nb, damaging the film and modifying its superconducting pro...

A new ytterbium diphosphate HYbP2O7·5H2O has been synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound belongs to the monoclinic P21/c space group, and its unit cell dimensions are: a = 6.845(1), b = 8.739(2), c = 17.342(4) Å, β = 90.61(2)°, V = 1037.3(4) Å3, Z = 4. The framework of this compound consists of layers, paral...

We have fabricated microstrips of Nb thin films by DC magnetron sputtering and lif-off. Focused Ion Beam (FIB) has been used to mill the surface of the films in a nanometer-sized region across the width of the strip. The resulting nano-constrictions behave as overdamped SNS-like Josephson junctions. FIB has the side effect of implanting Ga+ ions on...

FUFXIP : (2.2.2-cryptand)-potassium (isothiocyanato)-(5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin-21,23-diyl)-cadmium(ii) chlorobenzene solvate Space Group: P21/c, Cell: a 13.0124(4)Å b 19.3160(6)Å c 27.3261(8)Å, α 90.00° β 94.530(3)° γ 90.00°

L’incontro organizzato dalla Confesercenti di Napoli è stata una ottima occasione per far comunicare due mondi, quello della ricerca e quello dell’impresa, che sono stati sempre separati e molto lontani fra loro. Nei Paesi più sviluppati – USA, Giappone e Germania su tutti – la ricerca viene considerata un settore strategico per lo sviluppo del Pae...

The water retention curve has a key role for the hydraulic characterization of porous media. Its experimental determination requires the accurate and detailed measurement of the matric potential and water content from saturation to oven dryness. The experimental data are fitted with a parametric model to calculate the analytic curve describing the...

C27H36ClN2O9PS, monoclinic, C12/c1 (no. 15), a = 36.495(3) Å, b = 8.5574(4) Å, c = 20.487(4) Å, b = 101.18(2)°, V = 6276.8 Å3, Z = 8, Rgt(F) = 0.052, wRref(F2) = 0.125, T = 295 K.

Supplementary file containing the original awk script and a few input/output test data files.

This file is the pdf printout of the script. The original awk source file can be found in the supplementary zip file, together with a few input/output test data files. The script should run without modifications under Linux and OS X.

Water retention curves (WRC) have a key role for the hydraulic characterization of soils and rocks. The behaviour of the medium is defined by relating the unsaturated water content to the matric potential. The experimental determination of WRCs requires an accurate and detailed measurement of the dependence of matric potential on water content, a t...

CIF file of the syn-3f diastereomer compound

X-ray Crystallographic Data Copy of 1H and 13C NMR spectra References

Several different parametric models have been developed to describe fluid flow and mass transport in unsaturated media. The experimental data can be fitted to the models obtaining a water retention curve (WRC) which best describes the hydraulic properties of the soil or rock under investigation. However, all these models need a complete data set an...

As part of planned geophysical activities within the “VIGOR Project”, aimed at assessing regional and local scale geothermal potential of four southern Italian Regions, Airborne EM survey has been carried out in Sicily, in late 2011, on two test sites (Termini and Western Sicily). After acquisition, data have been processed and modeled, providing 3...

Several different parametric models have been developed to describe fluid flow and mass transport in unsaturated media. The experimental data can be fitted to the models obtaining a water retention curve (WRC) which best describes the hydraulic properties of the soil or rock under investigation. However, all these models need a complete data set an...

Understanding hydraulic properties is essential in the modeling of flow and solute transport through the vadose zone, to which problems of soil and groundwater pollution are related. The vadose zone, in fact, is of great importance in controlling groundwater recharge and transport of contaminants into and through the subsoil. The aim of this work i...

Within the " VIGOR " project, aimed at assessing the geothermal potential of four regions in southern Italy, helicopter geophysical electromagnetic (SkyTEM) data have been acquired, modeled and interpreted. The SkyTEM system provides, after data acquisition, analysis, processing and modeling, a distribution volume of electrical resistivity, spannin...

As part of planned geophysical activities within the " VIGOR Project " , aimed at assessing regional and local scale geothermal potential of four southern Italian Regions, Airborne EM survey has been carried out in Sicily, in late 2011, on two test sites (Termini and Western Sicily). After acquisition, data have been processed and modeled, providin...

Presentazione degli aspetti teorici ed applicazioni della geofisica elitrasportata per applicazioni in ambito geotermico

A novel and convenient approach to functionalized pyrroles is presented, based on Pd-catalyzed oxidative heterocyclization-alkoxycarbonylation of readily available N-Boc-1-amino-3-yn-2-ols. Reactions were carried out in alcoholic solvents at 80-100 °C and under 20 atm (at 25 °C) of a 4:1 mixture of CO-air, in the presence of the PdI(2)-KI catalytic...

CIF file of N-(2-{[(2E)-3-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-propenyl]-(methyl)ammonio}methylphenyl)-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)- 4-methoxybenzenesulfonamide dihydrogen phosphate — methanol (1:1), [C26H30ClN2SO4][H2PO4] · CH4O

We report recent results on the development of two different kinds of SNS Josephson junctions which can be used as quantum D/A converters. We have fabricated these devices using as a barrier either a thick 50-100 aluminum layer or a not-stabilized tantalum oxide layer. For both technologies we have determined the dependence of the main electrical p...

Single and multijunctions thermal converters are devices widely utilized for AC measurements at room temperature. However, low sensitivity and high noise of these devices limits their applications at voltage level above 10 mV. A cryogenic thermal transfer sensor has been developed to realise AC measurements at 1 mV voltage level. This device consis...

We have fabricated superconducting Nb/Al microstrip detectors. The low sensitivity to radiation damage and aging and the high energy resolution make these devices very attractive. The samples are fabricated by superposing a 2 mm × 2 mm Al area on a 5 μm wide, 100 μm long Nb strip. The thickness of each film is between 50 and 200 nm. We present the...

We report here the status of development of our Nb/Al/Nb SNS Josephson junctions to be used as superconducting D/A converters. The electrical behaviour and the morphology of these Nb/Al/Nb junctions are strongly dependent on the deposition rate of the Al barrier. Junctions fabricated at a high rate of 5 nm/s have stable and reproducible properties....

We report here the synthesis of (Z)-5-(4-nitrobenzyliden)-3-N(2-ethoxyphenyl)-2-thioxo-thiazolidin-4-one (ARNO) compound. The crystal structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic system with space group $$ P\bar{1} $$ and cell parameters: a = 9.1289(19), b = 9.3717(7), c = 12.136(3) Å, α = 102.133(1...

Sviluppo di tecniche cristallografiche per la definizione della firma spettrale degli alimenti

Analisi strutturale di sistemi catalitici eterogenei mediante tecnologie avanzate di diffrazione a raggi X: problemi di determinazione della configurazione strutturale assoluta mediante cristallografia a raggi X.

Analisi strutturale di sistemi catalitici eterogenei mediante tecnologie avanzate di diffrazione a raggi X: problemi di determinazione della configurazione strutturale assoluta mediante cristallografia a raggi X.

Calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHAp) was prepared in the presence of two alkylphosphonates, the tert-butyl phosphonic acid TBPOH and the 2-carboxyletylphosphonic acid 2-CEPA, by hydrothermal method at 120°C for 15h. The modification of hydroxyapatite by grafting organic moieties is confirmed by IR and NMR MAS (1H and 31P) spectroscopy and chemical analys...

NbCl(5) x (N,N'-dicyclohexylurea) 1a owns a distorted octahedral structure due to intramolecular NH...Cl bonding. The unit cell contains four units which are intermolecularly NH...Cl and NH...N bonded. An extended intramolecular network of H-bonding (N-H...Cl, CH...Cl, CH...N) causes the 3D self assembling of the units. Upon addition of base, the H...

Metodologie cristallografieche applicate all’ingegnerizzazione e allo sviluppo di catalizzatori molecolari o nano-strutturati e di strategie sintetiche sostenibili (alta conversione e selettività) ed eco- compatibili per la produzione di sistemi molecolari multifunzionali di alto interesse applicativo mediante assemblaggio in sequenza ordinata di u...

Fourier syntheses providing electron density maps always show series-termination errors due to the limited experimental resolution. The worse the resolution, the worse the quality of the map: peaks are misplaced with respect to the true positions, positive and negative peaks occur, the peak profile is deformed. Two new algorithms have been develope...

Fourier syntheses are always affected by series-termination errors, which generate sets of positive and negative ripples around each main peak in the map. The interaction among the ripples distorts the profile of the map and moves peaks away from their correct positions. In a previous paper [Altomare et al. (2008). Acta Cryst. A64, 326-336] an algo...

Optimization of the performance of Nb-based overdamped Josephson junctions for applications to superconducting electronics is a major issue today. The use of cryocoolers, thus avoiding liquid helium refrigeration, with junctions working at temperatures higher than 4.2 K, could greatly increase the use of these devices in applications such as fundam...

The temperature dependence of the quantized voltage steps near the superconducting transition temperature of Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb overdamped Josephson junctions irradiated at 75 GHz has been studied. These junctions can switch between the hysteretic and nonhysteretic regime either by varying a fabrication parameter or, as shown in the present paper, by ch...

Overdamped Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions are an intermediate state between the SIS and SNS Josephson junctions. With a proper choice of the fabrication parameters, stable and reproducible nonhysteretic current-voltage characteristics have been obtained Featuring critical current densities up to 70 kA/cm² and characteristic voltages u...

The temperature stability is one of the most important factors determining the successful application of the Josephson effect to the ac voltage standard or to analog and digital electronics. Whereas SIS hysteretic junctions with an Ambegaokar-Baratoff (A&B) I_C(T) behavior exhibit a reduced drift around the working temperature of the liqu...

We have developed a fabrication process for Nb-based STJ detectors which allows to fabricate junctions with subgap currents close to 20 pA at 300 mK, more than six orders of magnitude less than the subgap current at 4.2 K. The junctions are diamond-shaped devices, with areas between 20×20 and 100×100 µm2. We report the details of the fabrication pr...

Superconducting tunnel junctions (STJ) are promising high-resolution radiation detectors because of their larger energy resolution with respect to conventional Si-based detectors. We have developed a fabrication process for Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb STJ devices which produces junctions with subgap currents below 50 pA at 300 mK, a factor of 10−6 less than the...

Overdamped Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions are an intermediate state between the SIS and SNS Josephson junctions. Stable and reproducible non-hysteretic current–voltage characteristics have been obtained with a proper choice of the fabrication parameters, featuring critical current densities Jc up to 25kA/cm2 and characteristic voltages up to 450...

A new type of nonhysteretic Josephson junction suitable for applications in voltage metrology has been developed. These junctions derive from the Nb/Al-AlO_x/Nb SIS junctions using a relatively thick Al layer oxidized at a low value of oxygen exposure. This produces junctions with reproducible and spatially homogeneous I-V characteristics...

We report the fabrication and characterization of overdamped Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb superconductor–insulator–superconductor Josephson junction whose fabrication process derives from that of the well-known hysteretic junctions. These junctions are an intermediate state between the superconductor–normal metal–superconductor and the superconductor–insulator–su...

Realizzazione di giunzioni superconduttive ad effetto Josephson e applicazione allo sviluppo di rivelatori in regime di conteggio di fotoni nell’ambito del progetto ASI Tecnologie Elettro-Ottiche

ASI STJ Project: Status report of the development of the fabrication technology and of the electrical and structural characterization of STJ Josephson tunnel junctions

Netlogo code for the Josephson Cooperative model

Josephson devices for superconducting electronic applications, such as RSFQ logic circuits and programmable voltage standards, require nonhysteretic junctions with a high speed or a high voltage resolution and hence with characteristic voltages spanning over several orders of magnitude. We present here our recent results on Nb/Al/Nb junctions where...

Overdamped Josephson junctions are gaining interest in many fields of superconducting electronics. The characteristic voltage ICRN is the parameter limiting the highest possible speed and voltage resolution of the junctions. Nb/Al/Nb technology is a good candidate for these devices because of its wide range of characteristic voltages. In our labora...

Superconductor–normal metal–superconductor (SNS) Josephson junctions are gaining interest in many fields, related to superconducting electronics. Their main advantages are the high critical current density and non-hysteretic I–V characteristic. We have studied Nb/Al/Nb SNS junctions, where the combined effects of the thickness and deposition rate o...

Etching of MgB2 films: techniques, problems, process reliability

We will describe a system of three heterodyne receivers. Its mixers are based on SIS tunnel junctions which allow a very sensible downconversion of the detectable signal from 94 GHz, 225 GHz and 345 GHz to 1.5 GHz. This will allow the detection of molecular rotational transition lines from diffuse molecular clouds. Current status of a 94 GHz receiv...

A progress report of the MASTER project is presented here. MASTER is a system of three heterodyne receivers based on SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) tunnel junction mixers. In our instrument these mixers will allow direct down-conversion from 94, 225, and 345 to 1.5GHz, the IF where the signal will be detected. This instrument, couple...

We have developed superconducting Nb/Al microstrip detectors. These devices appear to be very attractive due to their low sensitivity to radiation damage and aging, and to their high energy resolution. The samples are fabricated by superposing a 2 mm×2 mm Al area on a 5 μm wide, 100 μm long Nb strip. The thickness of each film is between 50 and 200...

We report the current status of our SNS technology aimed at the development of programmable voltage standard devices. Using the simple Nb/Al/Nb trilayer process, with an Al barrier thickness of the order of 100 nm, we have fabricated SNS Josephson junctions whose electrical properties can be changed by varying the morphology of the Al film. The maj...

We studied electron localization effects in superconducting Nb/Al bilayers. These effects are characterized by a decrease in resistivity with increasing temperature typical of a semiconductor and by an enhancement of the critical temperature Tc. The samples, made by superposition of Nb and Al films, each 50–200 nm thick, show a sharp superconductin...

We report here our results on the development of Nb/Al/Nb Josephson junctions for a programmable voltage standard. The Al barrier is 5–120 nm thick. Its properties are quite different with respect to the single Al films because of diffusion between Al and the Nb counter-electrode. The resistivity of the Al barrier ranges from hundreds of microhm ce...

We measured, at liquid-helium temperature and in a weak magnetic field, the electrical properties of a thin-film superconducting and ferromagnetic structure. The structure is composed of a narrow (5 μm wide, 100 μm long and 100 nm thick) Nb strip, crossed by a Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) (30 μm wide, 1 mm long and 140 nm thick) bridge, produced by sputter...

We studied electron localization effects in superconducting Nb/Al bilayers. These effects are characterized by a decrease in resistivity with increasing temperature typical of a semiconductor and by an enhancement of the critical temperature Tc. The samples, made by superposition of Nb and Al films, each 50- 200nm thick, show a sharp superconductin...

We report here our results on the development of Nb/Al/Nb Josephson junctions for a programmable voltage standard. The Al barrier is 5-120nm thick. Its properties are quite different with respect to the single Al films because of diffusion between Al and the Nb counter-electrode. The resistivity of the Al barrier ranges from hundreds of microhm cen...

Superconducting thin film particle detectors can be very attractive due to the low sensitivity to radiation damage. We describe the fabrication procedure and the characterization of Nb/Al bilayers as particle detectors. First steady and dynamical results are reported from tests of 5MeV alpha-particle detection.

We have measured the temperature dependence of resistivity in relatively thick Nb/Al bilayers fabricated at room temperature, observing the decrease of for increasing T typical of Anderson localization in disordered systems. We report the experimental conditions which determine this behavior and compare it to theoretical models for localization in...