La Collezione erpetologica del Museo per la Storia dell'Università di Pavia: origine, recupero e valorizzazione di un prezioso patrimonio storico.scientifico.

Il Museo per la Storia dell’Università di Pavia conserva una piccola collezione erpetologica di grande interesse storico-scientifico, i cui preparati di anatomia comparata, conservati in parte a secco e in parte in liquido, sono stati per la maggior parte realizzati dall’anatomista Bartolomeo Panizza. La collezione è stata oggetto di operazioni di restauro conservativo che hanno permesso di arrestarne il degrado e di rendere i singoli pezzi più adeguati alla loro ostensione al pubblico. È stato inoltre possibile approfondire gli studi circa le tecniche di realizzazione impiegate e identificare, attraverso l’analisi della cartellinatura storica, le collezioni originarie di appartenenza

A new species of Hemidactylus from Lake Turkana, Northern Kenya (Squamata: Gekkonidae)

A new species of the genus Hemidactylus is described on the basis of two specimens (an adult male and an adult female) collected in 2005 in rocky and sandy habitat of the semiarid climatic region on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana (Kenya). It is a medium-sized Hemidactylus (SVL from 40 to 50 mm) distinguished from all other species by a unique combination of characters. The back is covered by large, trihedral, strongly keeled tubercles, intermixed with a few small, irregular shaped granules, forming 14 quite regular transverse rows from axilla to groin; nostrils contact the rostral, first supralabial, 1 enlarged internasal and 2-3 postnasals; the dorsal half of the rostral scale is divided longitudinally; there are 6 lamellae under the first toe and 10 under the 4th toe; male with 8 precloacal pores; female without pores. The dorsal colour pattern is very distinctive, consisting of four transverse bands, bordered with dark margins. The types are housed in the Herpetological Collections of the Museo di Storia Naturale of the University of Pavia and in the National Museums of Kenya (Nairobi)

Intra-field crop yield variability by assimilating cubesat lai in the apsim crop model

Predicting within-field crop yield early in the season can help address crop production challenges to improve farmers' economic return. While yield prediction with remote sensing has been a research aim for years, it is only recently that observations with the suited spatial and temporal resolutions have become accessible to improve crop yield predictions. Here we developed a yield prediction framework that integrates daily high-resolution (3 m) CubeSat imagery into the APSIM crop model. The approach trains a regression model that correlates simulated yield to simulated leaf area index (LAI) from APSIM. That relationship is then employed to determine the optimum date at which the regression best predicts yield from the LAI. Additionally, our approach can forecast crop yield by utilizing a particle filter to assimilate CubeSat-based LAI in the model APSIM to generate yield maps at 3 m several weeks before the optimum regression date. Our method was evaluated for a rainfed site located in the US Corn belt, using a collection of spatially varying yield data. The proposed approach does not need in situ data to rain the regression, with outcomes reporting that even with a single assimilation step, accurate yield predictions were provided up to 21 days before the optimum regression date. The spatial variability of crop yield was reproduced fairly well, with a good correlation against in situ measurements (R2 Combining double low line 0.73 and RMSE Combining double low line 1.69), demonstrating that high-resolution yield predictions early in the season have great potential to meet and improve upon digital agricultural goals

GRIDSA: femtosecond lifetime measurements with germanium detector arrays

We demonstrate the possibility to extract nuclear state femtosecond lifetimes from two-step $$\gamma$$ ray cascades measured with a Ge-detector array. The technique is based on measuring the Doppler shift of a $$\gamma$$ ray, caused by the recoil of a preceding $$\gamma$$ ray emission. Since the two $$\gamma$$ rays are populating/de-populating the same state they form a start/stop signal, the delay of which is compared to the slowing down motion of the nucleus within the target material. A multi-detector array combined with digital acquisition electronics in list mode, allows to measure several angular combinations and two-step cascades efficiently and simultaneously within one single experiment. The concept was demonstrated with the FIPPS array for the $$^{35}\hbox {Cl(n,}\gamma \hbox {)}^{36}\hbox {Cl}$$ reaction, where we obtained good agreement with literature values showing the validity of the method