Even though the orchids of the genus Sobralia Ruiz. & Pav. represent a common element in both pristine and disturbed landscapes in the tropical region of the Americas, they are still poorly understood as to their diversity and biology. With near 200 species, the genus is widely distributed in the Neotropics with the notable exception of the West Indies, but the ephemeral and gregarious flowering of most species, and the particular delicacy of the flower tissues, make Sobralia a difficult candidate for collection and study. In the last ten years, scientists at the Lankester Garden Botanical Garden, University of Costa Rica, focused in the diversity of Sobralia, building up a large ex-situ collection with literally hundreds of specimens from Costa Rica and abroad, to circumvent the inherent difficulties of studying Sobralia with the traditional technique of pressing and drying fertile field specimens (Dressler). Thanks to this effort, the flora of Costa Rica presents today a somewhat artificial peak in Sobralia diversity, with nearly 40 recorded species, a hundred times greater than Brazil and eight times greater than orchid-rich Ecuador in terms of diversity index. Still, new species of Sobralia frequently appear among cultivated plants, and we took this opportunity to describe one here. There seem to be more plants of this puzzling species in gardens than in nature. The plants vary a good deal in both size and flower color, yet it is a very distinctive species and we feel that it must be recognized as such. The species was first brought to our attention a couple of years ago by one of the authors (MA), who was trying to give a name to a Sobralia that he could not match with any documented species. When he sent us a photograph of the flower, we had to admit that it looked quite different from any other Sobralia that we already knew. The plant had been cultivated in a garden in the town of Turrialba, and even though the owner did not remember where it came from, he was kind enough to give a part of the plant to MA, who brought it to the Lankester Botanical Garden. The plant flowered again at Lankester Garden in September 2015, and having then the opportunity to study a living flower, we could confirm that it was really distinct from the other species of Sobralia that we knew from Costa Rica. Instead of the shades of purple or bright pink, which are so common in Central American Sobralia species, the flowers of this particular specimen were of a somewhat dusty, dull rose, while at the same time having a depth reminiscent of nacre. On the same ground color, the lip presented a deep chestnut brown gorge, the color breaking down toward the apex into dense lines becoming fine rose-purple stripes on the ruffled edge of the midlobe. Surely, this was quite a novel and showy color combination. We carefully documented the plant and prepared vouchers, both dry and in alcohol, storing them under Dressler's number 7341. We were reluctant, however, to describe a new species from a plant coming from an unknown locality. In the following months, MA verified that plants of this species were indeed quite common in cultivation in the gardens of Turrialba, and he strongly suspected that the species was a native of that region. If this was the case, we hoped that, Abstract. Sobralia turrialbina is described and illustrated from Costa Rica. The new species is compared with the morphologically similar S. chrysostoma, from which can be distinguished by the leaves restricted to the terminal third of the stem, the floral bracts twice longer, the flowers dusty pink or pale rose, and the lip with no keels, provided with a hazelnut-brown gorge and the apical margin finely striped with rose-purple. Notes on species distribution, habitat and ecology, and etymology are provided. Resumen. Se describe y se ilustra Sobralia turrialbina de Costa Rica. Se compara la nueva especie con S. chrysostoma, morfológica-mente similar, de la cual puede distinguirse por las hojas distribuidas solamente en el tercio apical del tallo, la brácteas florales el doble de largo, las flores de color rosa grisáceo o rosado pálido y el labelo sin quillas, con la garganta color café-avellana y el margen apical finamente estriado de rosado-purpúreo. Se provén notas sobre la distribución, hábitat, ecología y etimología de la especie. We greatly thank Hugo Mata Díaz of Turrialba, and Alicia Arias Arias, of Venecia, who generously shared with us plants from their private gardens. All the wild plants studied and preserved for this study were obtained through scientific collection permits No. 36891 and subsequents, and the Scientific Passports No. 1281 and 1285, issued to the senior authors by the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), whose cooperation is deeply acknowledged.

We present a range extension for Sobralia amabilis, previously recorded from the southeastern border of Guatemala to Panama and Ecuador. Here, we detail its taxonomic history, description, and geographical distribution, along with photographs of the plants in vivo, habitat notes and recommendations for collecting and preparing herbarium specimens. Key words: cloud forest, Northern Central America, occurrence, orchid, Sobralieae

Multiproxy researches as new trends in palaeoclimatic research of the Holocene methodology background The paper reviews how we can learn from the past about climate-human-environment interactions at the present time, and in the future. Actual the main trends of paleoclimatic investigations of the Holocene are represented by two mainstreams classical and multiproxy stream This paper is the first methodolological presentation of the role multiproxy investigations in the geosciences. The prediction in paleoclimatology actual is based on modeling There is now a need to develop long-term simulation models that can help anticipate complex ecosystem behavior and environmental processes in the face of global environmental change – and resolving our past is an essential element in that endeavour. Implementations of multiproxy investigations in Poland

In this work a preliminary study of the state space method applied to the electromagnetic cloaking problem is presented. A dielectric coated circular cylinder cloaked with a metasurface based on a sinusoidally modulated unit cell is considered. The state space method is used to examine the object’s scattered field and to analyze its composition in terms of specular, trapped and creeping wave modes around the cloaking working frequency.

Extract of grape Vitis vinifera has been reported to exhibit antioxidant and antimutagenic activities and the phenolic compounds play a vital role in determining these activities. Therefore; the objective of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-mutagenic activities as well as the phenolic composition of different grape cultivar extracts collected from Taif region. The grape cultivars namely; Italian, American, Lebanese, Taifyb and Taifye were collected at maturity stage to represent Taif region cultivars. The total concentrations of phenoles were determined for the five cultivar extracts and results indicated that the concentrations ranged from 115-960 mg L−1 Gallic Acid Equivalent (GAE). Also, HPLC analysis included was carried out of nine important phenolic compounds namely; Cyanidine chloride, Myricetin, Chrysin, Quercetin, Delphinidine chloride, Malvidine chloride, Naringenin, Galangin and Caffeic acid. Significant differences among cultivars were obtained ...