Italian Tracing System for Water Buffalo Milk and Processed Milk Products.

This document describes the development of a tracing system for the buffalo supply chain, namely an online computer system in which farmers, dairies, and brokers must maintain records of the production of milk through to the production of derivatives. The system is jointly used throughout the Italian national territory by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno (IZSM) and the Sistema Informativo Agricolo Nazionale Italiano (SIAN), after being made mandatory and regulated with the publication of the Ministerial Decree of 9 September 2014. Farmers are obligated to communicate their daily production of bulk milk, the number of animals milked, the number of the delivery note of the sale, and the name of the purchaser; within the first week of the month, they must communicate the milk production of each animal milked.

Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron-star merger.

The merger of two neutron stars is predicted to give rise to three major detectable phenomena: a short burst of γ-rays, a gravitational-wave signal, and a transient optical-near-infrared source powered by the synthesis of large amounts of very heavy elements via rapid neutron capture (the r-process). Such transients, named 'macronovae' or 'kilonovae', are believed to be centres of production of rare elements such as gold and platinum. The most compelling evidence so far for a kilonova was a very faint near-infrared rebrightening in the afterglow of a short γ-ray burst at redshift z = 0.

Astronomy. ASASSN-15lh: A highly super-luminous supernova.

We report the discovery of ASASSN-15lh (SN 2015L), which we interpret as the most luminous supernova yet found. At redshift z = 0.2326, ASASSN-15lh reached an absolute magnitude of Mu ,AB = -23.

The metamorphosis of supernova SN 2008D/XRF 080109: a link between supernovae and GRBs/hypernovae.

The only supernovae (SNe) to show gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or early x-ray emission thus far are overenergetic, broad-lined type Ic SNe (hypernovae, HNe). Recently, SN 2008D has shown several unusual features: (i) weak x-ray flash (XRF), (ii) an early, narrow optical peak, (iii) disappearance of the broad lines typical of SN Ic HNe, and (iv) development of helium lines as in SNe Ib. Detailed analysis shows that SN 2008D was not a normal supernova: Its explosion energy (E approximately 6x10(51) erg) and ejected mass [ approximately 7 times the mass of the Sun (M(middle dot in circle))] are intermediate between normal SNe Ibc and HNe.

A giant outburst two years before the core-collapse of a massive star.

The death of massive stars produces a variety of supernovae, which are linked to the structure of the exploding stars. The detection of several precursor stars of type II supernovae has been reported (see, for example, ref. 3), but we do not yet have direct information on the progenitors of the hydrogen-deficient type Ib and Ic supernovae.