Prospects and status of quark mass renormalization in three-flavour QCD

We present the current status of a revised strategy to compute the running of renormalized quark masses in QCD with three flavours of massless O(a) improved Wilson quarks. The strategy employed uses the standard finite-size scaling method in the Schr\"odinger functional and accommodates for the non-perturbative scheme-switch which becomes necessary at intermediate renormalized couplings as discussed in [arXiv:1411.7648].Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; Proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 14-18 July 2015, Kobe, Japa

Suitability of soil bioengineering techniques in Central America: a case study in Nicaragua

International audienceIn the last few years "D. I. A. F." (Department of Agriculture and Forestry Engineering of Florence University), has been testing the effectiveness of Soil Bio-Engineering techniques in Central America. The focus of the present study was to find out which native plants were most suited for soil bio-engineering purposes, particularly in the realization of riverbank protection. Furthermore, we have also been aiming at economic efficiency. In the context of sustainable watershed management, these techniques seem to be appropriate, especially in underdeveloped countries. Concerning the plants to be used, we considered three native species, Gliricidia Sepium, Cordia dentata and Jatropha curcas, to be appropriate for this type of work. Economically speaking, the low cost of such interventions in underdeveloped countries, has been shown by the construction of riverbank protection using vegetated crib-walls in Nicaragua