Nuevo híbrido del género Euphorbia en la provincia de Castellón

Se describe un nuevo híbrido, Euphorbia × vilafamensis (E. segetalis × E. serrata) para la provincia de Castellón y se aportan algunos comentarios al respecto

Soil Temperature Mediated Seedling Emergence and Field Establishment in Bentgrass Species and Cultivars During Spring in the Northeastern United States

Reestablishment of damaged golf greens and fairways planted to creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera), colonial bentgrass (A. capillaris), and velvet bentgrass (A. canina) is a common practice following winter injuries. Identifying bentgrass species (Agrostis sp.) and cultivars with the potential to establish under low soil temperatures would be beneficial to achieving more mature stands earlier in the spring. Twelve bentgrass cultivars, including seven cultivars of creeping bentgrass (007, 13-M, Declaration, L-93, Memorial, Penncross, and T-1), two colonial bentgrass cultivars (Capri and Tiger II), and three velvet bentgrass cultivars (Greenwich, SR-7200, and Villa), along with \u27Barbeta\u27 perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) were evaluated for grass cover in the field during early spring. Bentgrass species and cultivars were seeded in the field at the same seed count per unit area. Soil temperatures were monitored in unneeded check plots from initial planting date on 8 Apr. to termination on 29 May 2013. Soil temperatures increased linearly during the 52-day experimental period from 4.7 to 23.5 degrees C. All species and cultivars emerged at approximate to 10 degrees C soil temperature. Bentgrass species and cultivars varied only 2 to 3 days in their initial seedling emergence, while days varied among bentgrasses from 5.5 days (to 10% cover) to 8.6 days (to 90% cover). All velvet bentgrass cultivars required higher soil temperatures (13.6 degrees C) and more time (26 days) following initial seedling emergence to establish to 90% cover in the early spring. Creeping bentgrass cultivars 007, 13-M, and Memorial, along with colonial bentgrass cultivars Capri and Tiger II, were statistically equal to \u27Barbeta\u27 perennial ryegrass in their capacity after seedling emergence to achieve faster cover at lower soil temperatures. Heavier (larger) bentgrass seed was associated with faster cover during the early stages of establishment, but seed size was uncorrelated with establishment during later stages from 50% to 90% cover

Development of a tool to support person-centred medicine-focused consultations with stroke survivors

Objective: To develop a tool to support medicine-focused person-centred consultations between community pharmacists and stroke survivors. Method: Semi-structured interviews with 15 stroke survivors and 16 community pharmacists were conducted. Thematic analysis of the data was performed and emerging themes examined to determine their relevance to the principles of delivering person-centred care. Findings were used to generate a framework from which a consultation tool was created. Face validity and the feasibility of using the tool in practice were explored with participating pharmacists. Results: Three major themes were identified; personal, process and environmental factors. A tool, in two parts, was developed, A ‘Getting to know me’ form which would help the pharmacist to appreciate the individual needs of the stroke survivor and a consultation guide to facilitate the consultation process. Pharmacists considered that both were useful and would support a person-centred medicine-focussed consultation. Conclusion: A consultation tool, reflecting the needs of stroke survivors, has been developed and is feasible for use within community pharmacy practice. Practice implications: Pharmacists must recognise the individual needs of stroke survivors to ensure that they provide consultations which are truly person-centred. The tool developed could support medicine-related consultations with patients with other long term conditions

An investigation of the bioaccumulation of chromium and uranium metals by Cynodon dactylon: A case study of abandoned New Union Gold Mine Tailings, Limpopo, South Africa

Mine waste, including tailings is generally outlined as one of the largest environmental concern which faces defunct mines in South Africa and New Union Gold Mine is no exception. These tailing contain heavy metal such as chromium (Cr) and uranium (U) which poses enormous threat to the environment even at small quantity. The study focuses mainly on bioaccumulation of Cr and U in soil by Cynodon dactylon, an indigenous grass. The grass and soil sample were collected at New Union Gold Mine and Ka-Madonsi Village at Malamulele, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The concentration of Cr and U were determined with a Thermofischer ICP MS. The research findings indicate that the range in the levels of Cr and U at mine tailings dam A were 152.60 to 196.12 mg/kg and 0.51 to 0.92 μg/gm, respectively. The ranges in the levels of Cr and U at mine tailings dam B were 151.34 to 229.67 mg/kg and 0.85 to 1.06 μg/g, respectively. The levels of Cr and U at the control site were 81.31 mg/kg and 0.73 μg/g. The pH of mine tailing dam A was 3.23 to 3.34 and for tailing dam B were, 3.25 to 3.29 making both tailing acidic while for the control site, it was slightly alkaline at 7.56. The bioconcentration and translation factors of C. dactylon were variable but were dependent on pH conditions. Thus, C. dactylon was able to bioaccumulate toxic metals Cr and U from the mine tailings making them potential phytoremediation agent for the rehabilitation of exposed mine tailings. This is important in covering the mine tailings since any exposed part of mine tailings is liable to water and wind erosion. Thus, Cr and U may be exported to external environment such as aquatic ecosystem and neighboring rural communities with negative impacts.Key words: Phytoremediation, chromium, uranium, indigenous grass, dysfunctional mine tailings

Interspecific comparisons of C\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e turfgrass for tennis use: II. Investigaion of ball friction, ball bounce, and associated factors in replicated grass courts

Tennis is played on many different surfaces including natural grass, which plays fast because of low ball bounce (i.e., coefficient of restitution [COR]) and low ball‐to‐surface friction (coefficient of friction [COF]) that increase the pace (ball speed) of tennis. Effects of various C3 turfgrasses on COF and COR have not been investigated. Our objectives were to evaluate eight cultivars of various species randomized within three official size tennis courts: (a) ‘Keeneland’ Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L., KB), (b) ‘Rubix’ KB, (c) ‘Villa’ velvet bentgrass (Agrostis canina L., VBG), (d) ‘Puritan’ colonial bentgrass (Agrostis capillaris L., CL), (e) ‘007’ creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L., CB), (f) fine fescue (Festuca sp., FF) mixture, (g) ‘Karma’ perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L, PR), and (h) ‘Wicked’ PR. Friction was measured using a weighted sled and ball bounce (BB) to derive COR was measured using a vertical drop height of 254 cm. Bounce (i.e., COR) to satisfy the International Tennis Federation (ITF) minimum of 50% BB (COR = 0.70) was not observed on any of the species evaluated. Species such as FF and PR were able to achieve BB to satisfy the ITF 80% BB minimum to that observed on smooth concrete. Linear regression indicated that 170g of surface hardness for FF and PR to as much as 200g on KB and higher on BG may be needed to achieve a COR = 0.70. Hemi‐ and lignocellulose cell wall fractions were correlated with COR and COF but exhibited significant and opposite relationships. Achieving higher COF may be a more practical means to slow court pace of notoriously fast grass courts. Future research will be needed to investigate the effects of cultural practices on COF

Borrowed alleles and convergence in serpentine adaptation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank members of the L.Y. and K.B. laboratories for helpful discussions. This work was supported through the European Research Council Grant StG CA629F04E (to L.Y.); a Harvard University Milton Fund Award (to K.B.); Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award 1 F32 GM096699 from the NIH (to L.Y.); National Science Foundation Grant IOS-1146465 (to K.B.); NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Grant 2R01GM078536 (to D.E.S.); and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Grant BB/L000113/1 (to D.E.S.)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Polymers in Curved Boxes

We apply results derived in other contexts for the spectrum of the Laplace operator in curved geometries to the study of an ideal polymer chain confined to a spherical annulus in arbitrary space dimension D and conclude that the free energy compared to its value for an uncurved box of the same thickness and volume, is lower when $D < 3$, stays the same when $D = 3$, and is higher when \mbox{$D > 3$}. Thus confining an ideal polymer chain to a cylindrical shell, lowers the effective bending elasticity of the walls, and might induce spontaneous symmetry breaking, i.e. bending. (Actually, the above mentioned results show that {\em {any}} shell in $D = 3$ induces this effect, except for a spherical shell). We compute the contribution of this effect to the bending rigidities in the Helfrich free energy expression.Comment: 20 pages RevTeX, epsf; 4 figures; submitted to Macromoledule

SmarPer: Context-Aware and Automatic Runtime-Permissions for Mobile Devices

Permission systems are the main defense that mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS, offer to users to protect their private data from prying apps. However, due to the tension between usability and control, such systems have several limitations that often force users to overshare sensitive data. In this work, we address some of these limitations with SmarPer, an advanced permission mechanism for Android. First, to address the rigidity of current permission systems and their poor matching of users' privacy preferences, SmarPer relies on contextual information and machine learning to predict permission decisions at runtime. Using our SmarPer implementation, we collected 8,521 runtime permission decisions from 41 participants in real conditions. Note that the goal of SmarPer is to mimic the users decisions, not to make privacy-preserving decisions per se. With this unique data set, we show that tting an efcient Bayesian linear regression model results in a mean correct classication rate of 80% (3%). This represents a mean relative improvement of 50% over a user-dened static permission policy, i.e., the model used in current permission systems. Second, SmarPer also focuses on the suboptimal trade-off between privacy and utility; instead of only “allow” or “deny” decisions, SmarPer also offers an “obfuscate” option where users can still obtain utility by revealing partial information to apps. We implemented obfuscation techniques in SmarPer for different data types and evaluated them during our data collection campaign. Our results show that 73% of the participants found obfuscation useful and it accounted for almost a third of the total number of decisions. In short, we are the first to show, using a large dataset of real in situ permission decisions, that it is possible to learn users’ unique decision patterns at runtime using contextual information while supporting data obfuscation; this an important step towards automating the management of permissions in smartphones