Combined forest and soil management after a catastrophic event

At the end of October 2018,a storm of unprecedented strength severely damaged the forests of the eastern sector of the Italian Alps.The affected forest area covers 42,500 ha.The president of one of the damaged regions asked for help from the University of Padua.After eight months of discussion,the authors of this article wrote a consensus text.The sometimes asper debate brought to light some crucial aspects:1)even experienced specialists may have various opinions based on scientific knowledge that lead to conflicting proposals for action.For some of them there is evidence that to restore a destroyed natural environment it is more judicious to do nothing;2)the soil corresponds to a living structure and every ecosystem’s management should be based on it;3)faced with a catastrophe,people and politicians find themselves unarmed,also because they rarely have the scientific background to understand natural processes.Yet politicians are the only persons who make the key decisions that drive the economy in play and therefore determine the near future of our planet.This article is an attempt to respond directly to the governor of a region who formally and prudently asked a university department called"Land,Environment,Agriculture and Forestry"for help before taking decisions;4)the authors also propose an artistic interpretation of facts(uncontrolled storm)and conclusions(listen to the soil).Briefly,the authors identify the soil as an indispensable source for the renewal of the destroyed forest,give indications on how to prepare a map of the soils of the damaged region,and suggest to anchor on this soil map a series of silvicultural and soil management actions that will promote the soil conservation and the faster recovery of the natural dynamic stability and resilience.

Home,dirty home:effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor

The quality of a breeding site may have major fitness consequences.A fundamental step to understanding the process of nest-site selection is the identification of the information individuals use to choose high-quality nest sites.For secondary cavity-nesting bird species that do not add nest lining material,organic remains (faeces,pellets)accumulated inside nest cavities during previous breeding events may be a cue for high-quality nest-sites,as they contain information about past successful breeding and may improve thermal insulation of eggs during incubation.However,cavities in which breeding was successful might also contain more nest-dwelling ectoparasites than unoccupied cavities, offering an incentive for prospective parents to avoid them.We exposed breeding cavity-nesting lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni)to nestbox dyads consisting of a dirty (with a thick layer of organic substrate) and a clean nestbox (without organic material).Dirty nestboxes were strongly preferred,being occupied earlier and more frequently than clean ones.Hatching success in dirty nestboxes was significantly higher than in clean ones,suggesting a positive effect of organic nest material on incubation efficiency, while nestbox dirtiness did not significantly affect clutch and brood size.Nestlings from dirty nestboxes had significantly higher ectoparasite load than those from clean nestboxes soon after egg hatching,but this difference was not evident a few days later.Nest substrate did not significantly affect nestling growth.We concluded that nest substrate is a key driver of nest-site choice in lesser kestrels,although the adaptive value of such a strong preference appears elusive and may be context-dependent.

Interindividual variation and consistency of migratory behavior in the Eurasian woodcock

Diverse spatio-temporal aspects of avian migration rely on relatively rigid endogenous programs.However,flexibility in migratory behavior may allow effective coping with unpredictable variation in ecological conditions that can occur during migration.We aimed at characterizing inter-and intraindividual variation of migratory behavior in a forest-dwelling wader species,the Eurasian woodcock Scolopax rusticola,focusing on spatio-temporal consistency across repeated migration episodes.By satellite-tracking birds from their wintering sites along the Italian peninsula to their breeding areas,we disclosed a remarkable variability in migration distances,with some birds flying more than 6,000 km to Central Asian breeding grounds(up to 101°E).Prebreeding migration was faster and of shorter duration than postbreeding migration.Birds moving over longer distances migrated faster during prebreeding migration,and those breeding at northernmost latitudes left their wintering areas earlier.Moreover,birds making longer migrations departed earlier from their breeding sites.Breeding site fidelity was very high,whereas fidelity to wintering areas increased with age.Migration routes were significantly consistent,both among repeated migration episodes and between pre-and postbreeding migration.Prebreeding migration departure date was not significantly repeatable,whereas arrival date to the breeding areas was highly repeatable.Hence,interindividual variation in migratory behavior of woodcocks was mostly explained by the location of the breeding areas,and spatial consistency was relatively large through the entire annual cycle.Flexibility in prebreeding migration departure date may suggest that environmental effects have a larger influence on temporal than on spatial aspects of migratory behavior.

PLANNING OF DYNAMICALLY FEASIBLE TRAJECTORIES FOR TRANSLATIONAL,PLANAR,AND UNDERCONSTRAINED CABLE-DRIVEN ROBOTS

Extensively studied since the early nineties,cable-driven robots have attracted the growing interest of the industrial and scientific community due to their desirable and peculiar attributes.In particular,underconstrained and planar cable robots can find application in several fields,and specifically,in the packaging industry.The planning of dynamically feasible trajectories(i.e.,trajectories along which cable slackness and excessive tensions are avoided) is particularly challenging when dealing with such a topology of cable robots,which rely on gravity to maintain their cables in tension.This paper,after stressing the current relevance of cable robots,presents an extension and a generalization of a model-based method developed to translate typical cable tension bilateral bounds into intuitive limits on the velocity and acceleration of the robot end effector along a prescribed path.Such a new formulation of the method is based on a parametric expression of cable tensions.The computed kinematic limits can then be incorporated into any trajectory planning algorithm.The method is developed with reference to a hybrid multi-body cable robot topology which can be functionally advantageous but worsen the problem of keeping feasible tensions in the cables both in static and dynamic conditions.The definition of statically feasible workspace is also introduced to identify the positions where static equilibrium can be maintained with feasible tensions.Finally,some aspects related to the practical implementation of the method are discussed.

■^(−)_(b)→J/ψΛK^(−)衰变中一个J/ψΛ结构的迹象与■^(−)激发态的发现

夸克和胶子组成的粒子统称强子,其中包含4个或以上组分夸克的强子被称为奇异强子.目前实验上发现的奇异强子最多包含5个夸克,称为五夸克态.对五夸克态的深入研究可以检验对强相互作用的理解.利用质心能量为7、8和13 TeV,总积分亮度9 fb^(−1)的质子-质子对撞数据,大型强子对撞机底夸克实验(LHCb)采用全谱分析的方法,研究了■^(−)_(b)→J/ψΛK^(−)衰变过程中的共振态结构.实验发现J/ψΛ系统中存在质量约为4.46 MeV/c^(2)的共振结构存在的迹象,其显著程度为3.1倍标准偏差,性质与五夸克态相符.这是实验上首次观测到包含奇异夸克的五夸克态的存在证据,为五夸克态的理论研究和后续的实验探索提供了重要的依据.除此之外,实验还精细测量了ΛK−系统中部分共振态的共振参数,精度远高于当前世界平均值,这对加深传统重子谱学的认识有着重要的意义.

Search for the doubly heavy baryons Ω^(0)_(bc) and E^(0)_(bc) decaying to Λ^(+)_(c)π^(-) and E^(+)_(c)π^(-)

The first search for the doubly heavyΩ^(0)_(bc)baryon and a search for the E^(0)_(bc)baryon are performed using pp collision data collected via the LHCb experiment from 2016 to 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV,corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.2 fb^(-1).The baryons are reconstructed via their decays to Λ^(+)_(c)π^(-)and E^(+)_(c)π^(-).No significant excess is fbund for invariant masses between 6700 and 7300 MeV/c^(2),in a rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and a transverse momentum range from 2 to 20 MeV/c.Upper limits are set on the ratio of the Ω^(0)_(bc)and E^(0)_(bc)production cross-section times the branching fraction to Λ^(+)_(c)π^(-)(E^(+)_(c)π^(-))relative to that of the Λ^(0)_(b)(E^(0)_(b))baryon,for different lifetime hypotheses,at 95%confidence level.The upper limits range from 0.5 x 10^(-4)to 2.5 x 10^(-4)for theΩ^(0)_(bc)→Λ^(+)_(c)π^(-)(E^(0)_(bc)→Λ^(+)_(c)π^(-))decay,and from 1.4x 10^(-3)to 6.9 x 10^(-3)for theΩ^(0)_(bc)→E^(+)_(c)π^(-)(E^(0)_(bc)→E^(+)_(c)π^(-))decay,depending on the considered mass and lifetime of theΩ^(0)_(bc)(E^(0)_(bc))baryon.

Search for the rare decay B^(0)→J/ψФ

A search for the rare decay B^(0)→J/ψФis performed using Pp collision data collected with the LHCb dete-ctor at centre-of-mass energies of 7,8 and 13 TeV,corresponding to an integrated luminosity of9 fb.No significant signal of the decay is observed and an upper limitof 1.1x 10^(-7)at 90%confidence level is set on the branching fraction.