1. Introduction

2. Observations and archival data  
2.1. Targets and lines selection  
2.2. Mopra  
2.3. Parkes  
2.4. BLAST  

3. Results  
3.1. Morphological characteristics of spectral line maps  
3.2. Temperature and optical depth from hyperfine structure fits  
3.3. Temperature and optical depth from \( NH_3 \)  
3.4. Kinematics  
3.5. Derivation of masses  
3.6. Radial profiles of column density  

4. Discussion  
4.1. Determining molecular abundances  
4.2. Radial profiles of relative molecular abundances  
4.3. Chemical status of the cores  
4.4. Correlations between parameters  
4.5. Comments to specific sources mapped with the Mopra telescope  
4.6. Median properties of starless and proto-stellar sources and comparison with other surveys  

5. Summary and conclusions