THE NAFTA PACKAGE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: A GREEN ANALYSIS OF ITS ORIGINS AND EFFECTS

When the presidential candidate Clinton announced that he would not support NAFTA without environmental and labor side agreements, and during the period before NAFTA\u27s ratification by the American Congress, Mexicans lived in most tense suspense. Even though, the idea of an environmental side agreement seemed to please most environmentalists in Mexico who hoped that this would lead to creating a major environmental conscience in the Mexican government. The purpose of this thesis is to elaborate a critical analysis of the North American Free Trade Agreement, its related documents and their effects concerning the environment, specifically its legal protection. We will start with a brief resume of the relations of trade and environment, then continuing with an overview of the document\u27s history and provisions, analyzing the document\u27s effects in Mexico, the nation that should be mainly concerned with the environmental effects of NAFTA, and, finally, conducting a brief comparison with what is happening with the European Union, concerning trade-environmental issues, before we reach the proper conclusions

Ammonia observations of the nearby molecular cloud MBM 12

We present NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) observations of MBM 12, the closest known molecular cloud (65 pc distance), aimed to find evidence for on-going star formation processes. No local temperature (with a T_rot upper limit of 12 K) nor linewidth enhancement is found, which suggests that the area of the cloud we mapped (~ 15' size) is not currently forming stars. Therefore, this close ``starless'' molecular gas region is an ideal laboratory to study the physical conditions preceding new star formation. A radio continuum source was found in Very Large Array archive data, close but outside the NH3 emission. This source is likely to be a background object.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRA

Instantons on Quivers and Orientifolds

We compute the prepotential for gauge theories descending from ${\cal N}=4$ SYM via quiver projections and mass deformations. This accounts for gauge theories with product gauge groups and bifundamental matter. The case of massive orientifold gauge theories with gauge group SO/Sp is also described. In the case with no gravitational corrections the results are shown to be in agreement with Seiberg-Witten analysis and previous results in the literature.Comment: 28 pages, revised version, references added, some typos correcte

Biomimetic Citrate-Coated Luminescent Apatite Nanoplatforms for Diclofenac Delivery in Inflammatory Environments

Luminescent nanoparticles are innovative tools for medicine, allowing the imaging of cells and tissues, and, at the same time, carrying and releasing different types of molecules. We explored and compared the loading/release ability of diclofenac (COX-2 antagonist), in both undoped-and luminescent Terbium3+ (Tb3+)-doped citrate-coated carbonated apatite nanoparticles at different temperatures (25, 37, 40 °C) and pHs (7.4, 5.2). The cytocompatibility was evaluated on two osteosarcoma cell lines and primary human osteoblasts. Biological effects of diclofenac-loadednanoparticles were monitored in an in vitro osteoblast’s cytokine–induced inflammation model by evaluating COX-2 mRNA expression and production of PGE2. Adsorption isotherms fitted the multilayer Langmuir-Freundlich model. The maximum adsorbed amounts at 37 °C were higher than at 25 °C, and particularly when using the Tb3+-doped particles. Diclofenac-release efficiencies were higher at pH 5.2, a condition simulating a local inflammation. The luminescence properties of diclofenac-loaded Tb3+-doped particles were affected by pH, being the relative luminescence intensity higher at pH 5.2 and the luminescence lifetime higher at pH 7.4, but not influenced either by the temperature or by the diclofenac-loaded amount. Both undoped and Tb3+-doped nanoparticles were cytocompatible. In addition, diclofenac release increased COX-2 expression and decreased PGE2 production in an in vitro inflammation model. These findings evidence the potential of these nanoparticles for osteo-localized delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs and the possibility to localize the inflammation, characterized by a decrease in pH, by changes in luminescence

Mancha3D code: Multi-purpose Advanced Non-ideal MHD Code for High resolution simulations in Astrophysics

The Mancha3D code is a versatile tool for numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic processes in solar/stellar atmospheres. The code includes non-ideal physics derived from plasma partial ionization, a realistic equation of state and radiative transfer, which allows performing high quality realistic simulations of magneto-convection, as well as idealized simulations of particular processes, such as wave propagation, instabilities or energetic events. The paper summarizes the equations and methods used in the Mancha3D code. It also describes its numerical stability and parallel performance and efficiency. The code is based on a finite difference discretization and memory-saving Runge-Kutta (RK) scheme. It handles non-ideal effects through super-time stepping and Hall diffusion schemes, and takes into account thermal conduction by solving an additional hyperbolic equation for the heat flux. The code is easily configurable to perform different kinds of simulations. Several examples of the code usage are given. It is demonstrated that splitting variables into equilibrium and perturbation parts is essential for simulations of wave propagation in a static background. A perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition built into the code greatly facilitates a non-reflective open boundary implementation. Spatial filtering is an important numerical remedy to eliminate grid-size perturbations enhancing the code stability. Parallel performance analysis reveals that the code is strongly memory bound, which is a natural consequence of the numerical techniques used, such as split variables and PML boundary conditions. Both strong and weak scalings show adequate performance up till several thousands of CPUs

Far Ultraviolet Absolute Flux of alpha Virginis

We present the far ultraviolet spectrum of alpha Virginis taken with EURD spectrograph on-board MINISAT-01. The spectral range covered is from ~900 to 1080 A with 5 A spectral resolution. We have fitted Kurucz models to IUE spectra of alpha Vir and compared the extension of the model to our wavelengths with EURD data. This comparison shows that EURD fluxes are consistent with the prediction of the model within 20-30%, depending on the reddening assumed. EURD fluxes are consistent with Voyager observations but are ~60% higher than most previous rocket observations of alpha Vir.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to The Astrophysical Journa

EMPLEO DE LA ESPECTROSCOPIA INFRARROJA Y LA DIFRACCION DE RAYOS-X EN LA CARACTERIZACION DE CATALIZADOR DE CRAQUEO FCC SOMETIDO A PROCESO DE DESACTIVACION HIDROTERMICA

Se empleb In espectroscopia infrarroja, la difraccibn de rayos-X y el analisis de microactividad en el seguimiento del proceso de desactivación hidrotermica -a nivel de laboratorio- de un catalizador de craqueo cataiitice FCC dcl tipo REY. En la evaluaci n del proceso de desactivacibn mediante difraccibn dc rayos-X se emplcaron Ins analisis de por ciento de eristalinidad-asociado a la concentración de zeolita taujasita, fase activa del catalizador- y la determinación del parametro de la celda unidad as de la mencionada zeolita. Se observó que el parámetro cristalográfico y disminuye a medida que avanza el proceso de desactivación, lo cual indica que esta ocurriendo la contracción de la celda de la zeolita producto del efecto de desaluminación. en este trabajo se demuestra que el procedimiento analítico utilizado para la determinación del por ciento de cristanilidad por difracciónde rayos-X conduce a una sobrevaloración de este índice cuando en el proceso de desactivación esta presente de manera apreciable la desaluminacibn de la zeolita. En este estudio se propone el empleo de la espectroscopia infrarroja como método alternative para el seguimiento de procesos de desactivación, especificamente, la variación de intensidad de Ias zonas de bandas de absorción presentes entre 400-700 cm-1 que están asociadas a vibraciones de deformación de enlaces- individuales del tetraedro AI,SiO4 y enlaces AI,SiO4  en su conjunto. La mediciones de microactividad reflejan el comportamiento de la desactivación hidrotérmica en función del tiempo de tratamiento y corroboraron los resultados obtenidos por difracción de rayos-X y espectroscopia infrarroja

Post common envelope binaries from the SDSS VI. SDSS J120615.73+510047.0 : a new low accretion rate magnetic binary

We report the discovery of the ninth pre-polar consisting of a late-type ZAMS secondary and a magnetic white dwarf. The white dwarf accretes at an extreme low rate, \dot{M} \sim 10^ $M_\odot$ yr-1, from the wind of the companion donor star. The source was found in our systematic search for WD/MS binaries within SDSS/SEGUE. Based on seven Sloan spectra we estimate a binary period of ~200, 230, or 270 min. The UV to IR spectral energy distribution was decomposed into a dM3-dM4 ZAMS secondary and a cool white dwarf, ~9000 K, which consistently imply a distance between 360 and 420 pc. The optical spectrum displays one pronounced cyclotron hump, likely originating from a low-temperature plasma, ~1 keV, in a field of 108 MG. We comment on the evolutionary link between polars and pre-polars

Far Ultraviolet Spectra of B Stars near the Ecliptic

Spectra of B stars in the wavelength range of 911-1100 A have been obtained with the EURD spectrograph onboard the Spanish satellite MINISAT-01 with ~5 A spectral resolution. IUE spectra of the same stars have been used to normalize Kurucz models to the distance, reddening and spectral type of the corresponding star. The comparison of 8 main-sequence stars studied in detail (alpha Vir, epsilon Tau, lambda Tau, tau Tau, alpha Leo, zeta Lib, theta Oph, and sigma Sgr) shows agreement with Kurucz models, but observed fluxes are 10-40% higher than the models in most cases. The difference in flux between observations and models is higher in the wavelength range between Lyman alpha and Lyman beta. We suggest that Kurucz models underestimate the FUV flux of main-sequence B stars between these two Lyman lines. Computation of flux distributions of line-blanketed model atmospheres including non-LTE effects suggests that this flux underestimate could be due to departures from LTE, although other causes cannot be ruled out. We found the common assumption of solar metallicity for young disk stars should be made with care, since small deviations can have a significant impact on FUV model fluxes. Two peculiar stars (rho Leo and epsilon Aqr), and two emission line stars (epsilon Cap and pi Aqr) were also studied. Of these, only epsilon Aqr has a flux in agreement with the models. The rest have strong variability in the IUE range and/or uncertain reddening, which makes the comparison with models difficult.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, to be published in The Astrophysical Journa