Performance and Early Results from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) Imaging Spectroscopy Mission

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) acquires new observations of the Earth from a state-of-the-art, optically fast F/1.8 visible to short wavelength infrared imaging spectrometer with high signal-to-noise ratio and excellent spectroscopic uniformity. EMIT was launched to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 14, 2022 local time. The EMIT instrument is the latest in a series of more than 30 imaging spectrometers and testbeds developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, beginning with the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer that first flew in 1982. EMIT's science objectives use the spectral signatures of minerals observed across the Earth's arid and semi-arid lands containing dust sources to update the soil composition of advanced Earth System Models (ESMs) to better understand and reduce uncertainties in mineral dust aerosol radiative forcing at the local, regional, and global scale, now and in the future. EMIT has begun to collect and deliver high-quality mineral composition determinations for the arid land regions of our planet. Over 1 billion high-quality mineral determinations are expected over the course of the one-year nominal science mission. Currently, detailed knowledge of the composition of the Earth's mineral dust source regions is uncertain and traced to less than 5,000 surface sample mineralogical analyses. The development of the EMIT imaging spectrometer instrumentation was completed successfully, despite the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EMIT Science Data System is complete and running with the full set of algorithms required. These tested algorithms are open source and will be made available to the broader community. These include calibration to measured radiance, atmospheric correction to surface reflectance, mineral composition determination, aggregation to ESM resolution, and ESM runs to address the science objectives. In this paper, the instrument characteristics, ground calibration, in-orbit performance, and early science results are reported. © 2023 IEEE.

Predicting pharmacist intention to contributing to COVID-19 management: A cross-sectional survey study

Background: Pharmacists have a key role to play in responding to public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have sought to evaluate their intention to contributing to the outbreak management. Purpose(s): This study used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate pharmacists' intention to practice the FIP COVID-19 recommendations and to explore possible enablers that support such practice. Method(s): A cross-sectional, self-administered survey was distributed to pharmacists in Macau in May 2020. Cronbach's alpha was used to test the reliability for the four TPB constructs (attitude, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention). Multiple linear regressions were conducted to predict intention using the other three TPB constructs Results: Pharmacists (n=110) had a positive intention to contributing to COVID-19 management (mean=4.21+/-0.60). Attitude (beta=0.547, p=0.000), SN (beta=0.177, p=0.050) and PBC (beta=0.158, p=0.027) were significant predictors of intention, accounting for 60.2% of the variance in their intention to practice. Scale reliability ranged from 0.838 to 0.948 for the four constructs. The difference between past behaviours and intentions was statistically significant (p=0.000). Important enablers to support the practice included training (mean= 4.26+/-0.57), better communication with stakeholders (mean=4.17+/-0.61) and improved pharmacy management (mean=4.18+/-0.60). Conclusion(s): Pharmacists showed favourable attitude, SN, PBC and intention to contributing to COVID19 management. Actions to enhance training, stakeholder communication and pharmacy management are important to increasing their willingness to take part in public health emergency alike in the future.

Six Feet Apart: Online Payments during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have faced unprecedented challenges when trying to remain open. Because COVID-19 spreads through aerosolized droplets, businesses were forced to distance their services;in some cases, distancing may have involved moving business services online. In this work, we explore digitization strategies used by small businesses that remained open during the pandemic, and survey/interview small businesses owners to understand preliminary challenges associated with moving online. Furthermore, we analyze payments from 400K businesses across Japan, Australia, United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Following initial government interventions, we observe (at minimum for each country) a 47% increase in digitizing businesses compared to pre-pandemic levels, with about 80% of surveyed businesses digitizing in under a week. From both our quantitative models and our surveys/interviews, we find that businesses rapidly digitized at the start of the pandemic in preparation of future uncertainty. We also conduct a case-study of initial digitization in the United States, examining finer relationships between specific government interventions, business sectors, political orientation, and resulting digitization shifts. Finally, we discuss the implications of rapid & widespread digitization for small businesses in the context of usability challenges and interpersonal interactions, while highlighting potential shifts in pre-existing social norms. © 2022 Owner/Author.