Formation, evolution and multiplicity of brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets

This proceeding summarises the talk of the awardee of the Spanish Astronomical Society award to the the best Spanish thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the two-year period 2006-2007. The thesis required a tremendous observational effort and covered many different topics related to brown dwarfs and exoplanets, such as the study of the mass function in the substellar domain of the young sigma Orionis cluster down to a few Jupiter masses, the relation between the cluster stellar and substellar populations, the accretion discs in cluster brown dwarfs, the frequency of very low-mass companions to nearby young stars at intermediate and wide separations, or the detectability of Earth-like planets in habitable zones around ultracool (L- and T-type) dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood.Comment: "Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics V", Proceedings of the VIII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA) held in Santander, 7-11 July, 2008. Edited by J. Gorgas, L. J. Goicoechea, J. I. Gonzalez-Serrano, J. M. Diego. Invited oral contribution to plenary sessio

Is Psychology Really `the Study of Behavior'?

In this paper, we examine the concept `behavior' within the context of the development of American psychology. After explicating the term's meaning within ordinary usage, we argue that `behavior' is a theoretical construct within behavior analysis, and that its privileged status in psychology outside behavior analysis is really just a residuum from the days of the hegemony of behaviorism. The claim `psychology is the study of behavior' falters within psychology more generally on the grounds that `behavior' is simply too confused and ambiguous a construct on which to found psychology. On the other hand, within behaviorism itself, it is still possible to vindicate the claim that psychology is the study of behavior, since `behavior' has a technical sense within behavior analysis. However, to establish that psychology is the study of behavior in this technical sense would require that behaviorism succeed in explaining all of the phenomena of interest to psychologists, since otherwise some psychological phenomena would be left outside this domain.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68888/2/10.1177_0959354394044006.pd

Morfogênese do capim-tanzânia submetido a adubações e intensidades de corte Morphogenesis of tanzaniagrass submitted to fertilization and cut intensities

Este trabalho foi realizado com o intuito de avaliar a influência de diferentes combinações de adubação e intensidades de corte nas características morfogênicas do capim-tanzânia cultivado em vasos. A taxa de aparecimento foliar (TApF) e o filocrono não foram afetados pelas intensidades de corte. No entanto, as adubações com nitrogênio proporcionaram maior TApF e filocrono, sendo observados 0,21; 0,20 e 0,19 folhas/dia; 4,67; 5,03 e 5,43 dias/folha para as combinações de nitrogênio e potássio (NK), nitrogênio e fósforo (NP) e nitrogênio, fósforo e potássio (NPK), respectivamente. Houve efeito da interação adubação <FONT FACE=Symbol>&acute;</FONT> intensidade de corte sobre a taxa de alongamento foliar, o comprimento final da folha e o comprimento do pseudocolmo, de modo que os maiores alongamentos e comprimentos foram obtidos nas combinações contendo nitrogênio. Apenas a adubação influenciou o número de folhas verdes, de folhas em senescência e de folhas mortas, portanto, as combinações contendo nitrogênio promoveram maiores incrementos em compraração àquelas sem adubo e com potássio e fósforo (KP). O número de perfilhos foi influenciado apenas pela adubação, observando-se que, nas combinações com fósforo associado a nitrogênio, sua resposta foi mais expressiva. Todas as variáveis estudadas foram influenciadas pelas combinações de adubação contendo nitrogênio, o que comprova a importância da adubação nitrogenada para o acúmulo de biomassa da forragem.<br>This experiment was carried out to evaluate the influence of different fertilization and cutting intensity combinations on morphogenic and productive characteristics of Panicum maximum Jaccq., cv. Tanzania in pots. Leaf appearance rate (LAR) and phyllochron were not influenced by cutting intensities. Plants fertilized with N, however, produced greater LAR and phyllochron, with 0.21, 0.20, and 0.19 leaf/day and 4.67, 5.03, and 5.43 day/leaf for N and K (NK), N and P (NP), and N, P and K (NPK) combinations, respectively. There was a significant interaction between fertilization and cutting intensity for leaf elongation rate, leaf final length, and pseudostem length, with higher elongation and lengths observed in fertilizer combinations that contained nitrogen. Only fertilization influenced the number of green leaves, senescent leaves, and dead leaves; nitrogen fertilizer combinations provided greater increase when compared to treatments without potassium e phosphorus (KP) fertilization. Tiller number was only influenced by fertilization, with greater response observed for N+P combination compared to other treatments. All the studied variables were influenced by fertilizer combinations that contained nitrogen, corroborating the relevance of N fertilization to forage biomass accumulation