Nuovi dati sulla presenza e distribuzione della fauna ittica d'acqua dolce in Italia

Grazie al contributo di alcune importanti ricerche, si sono recentemente aggiunte nuove informazioni che hanno permesso di aggiornare lo stato delle conoscenze sulla fauna ittica d’acqua dolce italiana. Ciò ha consentito di dirimere alcune importanti questioni ancora non del tutto chiarite, sia per quanto riguarda gli aspetti zoogeografici sia per quanto riguarda il punto di vista tassonomico e nomenclaturale. Sono state ampliate le conoscenze di base attraverso l'acquisizione di nuovi dati riportati sia in recenti pubblicazioni su riviste peer rewieved, sia dalla "letteratura grigia". Molto lavoro rimane ancora da fare, perché ampie sono le lacune conoscitive ancora esistenti. L’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di aggiornare l’elenco delle specie introdotte, migliorare le informazioni sulle specie presenti in Italia e individuare gli aspetti relativi alla fauna ittica d’acqua dolce italiana allo stato attuale ancora controversi, sui quali occorre concentrare gli sforzi di future ricerche. Attraverso tale lavoro di revisione e il dibattito che ne conseguirà, internamente ed esternamente al Gruppo di Lavoro sulla Sistematica e nomenclatura dell’A.I.I.A.D., sarà possibile proporre una nuova versione della Checklist dell’ittiofauna italiana che migliori quella attuale (ver. 3.0

A systematic method to develop three dimensional geometry models of buildings for urban building energy modeling

Three dimensional (3D) geometric models of buildings are foundational for urban building energy modeling. A complete 3D geometric model contains building-relevant information like building footprint, height and Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR). Existing methods creating these models have certain limitations, such as unavailability of Geographic Information System (GIS) databases and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for many cities, and restricted flying space for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). To tackle these issues, this study has developed a systematic method developing 3D geometric models, with 1) building footprint acquired from combination of two internet maps, namely Baidu Map and OpenStreetMap; 2) building height estimated from the number of storeys for residential buildings and determined using the building vertical edge method for non-residential buildings, and 3) building WWR calculated from buildings’ elevation images using an Artificial Intelligence (AI). The validation work revealed that more than 85 % of acquired building footprints had absolute relative errors less than 10 %, and this percentage was 87 %, 74 % and 75 %, for height of residential buildings, height of non-residential buildings and WWR, respectively. To demonstrate the application of the method, a newly developed urban district in Nanjing, China was used as a case study

Recent invasion by a non-native cyprinid (common bream Abramis brama) is followed by major changes in the ecological quality of a shallow lake in southern Europe

We present an example of how an invasion by a non-native cyprinid (common bream, Abramis brama (Pisces: Cyprinidae), hereafter bream) in a natural shallow lake in southern Europe (Lake Montorfano, northern Italy) may have adversely affected the state of the lake’s ecosystem. In less than two decades, bream became the most abundant species and characterized by a stunted population with asymptotic length 33.5 cm, an estimated mean length at first maturity of 19.6 cm, a total mortality rate of 0.64 year−1 and a diet overwhelmingly dominated by microcrustaceans. Following bream establishment, nutrients and phytoplankton biomass rose, the proportion of Cyanobacteria by numbers increased markedly and water transparency decreased. Total zooplankton abundance increased with a marked increase in small cladocerans and copepods, whereas the abundance of large herbivorous cladocerans did not change. The coverage of submerged macrophytes declined, as did the abundance of native pelagic zooplanktivorous fish. The composition of the fish community shifted towards a higher proportion of zoobenthivorous species, such as bream and pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus). Our results indicate that bream affected water quality through bottom-up mechanisms, while top-down effects were comparatively weak. Selective removal of bream and perhaps stocking of native piscivores might improve the ecological status of the lake

A study of the material in the ATLAS inner detector using secondary hadronic interactions

"The ATLAS inner detector is used to reconstruct secondary vertices due to hadronic interactions of primary collision products, so probing the location and amount of material in the inner region of ATLAS. Data collected in 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC, with a minimum bias trigger, are used for comparisons with simulated events. The reconstructed secondary vertices have spatial resolutions ranging from similar to 200 mu m to 1 mm. The overall material description in the simulation is validated to within an experimental uncertainty of about 7%. This will lead to a better understanding of the reconstruction of various objects such as tracks, leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum.