Description of the spider Verita williamsi, a new genus and species from Santa Fe, Argentina (Araneae, Gnaphosidae)

Verita williamsi, nuevo género y especie (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) se describe a partir de especímenes colectados recientemente en el norte de la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina. Estas arañas muestran una peculiar combinación de caracteres, solamente dos fúsulas de glándulas piriformes, setas alineadas en la escópula de las patas y las hileras anteriores no muy apartadas entre ellas, que sugieren que la especie está cercanamente emparentada a Micaria y a algunos de los representantes pequeños del grupo de géneros Anzacia. Se distingue de todos ellos por tener tres dientes en el retromargen queliceral y por carecer de setas escamosas iridiscentes en el abdomen.Verita williamsi, nuevo género y especie (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) se describe a partir de especímenes colectados recientemente en el norte de la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina. Estas arañas muestran una peculiar combinación de caracteres, solamente dos fúsulas de glándulas piriformes, setas alineadas en la escópula de las patas y las hileras anteriores no muy apartadas entre ellas, que sugieren que la especie está cercanamente emparentada a Micaria y a algunos de los representantes pequeños del grupo de géneros Anzacia. Se distingue de todos ellos por tener tres dientes en el retromargen queliceral y por carecer de setas escamosas iridiscentes en el abdomen.Fil: Ramirez, Martin Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Grismado, Cristian José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Nafta and industrial efficiency in Baja California

The figures before and after the North America Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico and United States, suggest the intensification of the North region economic dynamics, particularly in the sates of Baja California. This paper attempts to determine whether the state’s extraordinary growth has been led by efficiency improvement or just by factor growth as a consequence of Free Trade and Foreign Direct Investment. The paper finds empirical evidence in both ways.Economic efficiency; productivity; and free trade

Observational evidence for a broken Li Spite plateau and mass-dependent Li depletion

We present NLTE Li abundances for 88 stars in the metallicity range -3.5 < [Fe/H] < -1.0. The effective temperatures are based on the infrared flux method with improved E(B-V) values obtained mostly from interstellar NaI D lines. The Li abundances were derived through MARCS models and high-quality UVES+VLT, HIRES+Keck and FIES+NOT spectra, and complemented with reliable equivalent widths from the literature. The less-depleted stars with [Fe/H] < -2.5 and [Fe/H] > -2.5 fall into two well-defined plateaus of A_{Li} = 2.18 (sigma = 0.04) and A_{Li} = 2.27 (sigma = 0.05), respectively. We show that the two plateaus are flat, unlike previous claims for a steep monotonic decrease in Li abundances with decreasing metallicities. At all metallicities we uncover a fine-structure in the Li abundances of Spite plateau stars, which we trace to Li depletion that depends on both metallicity and mass. Models including atomic diffusion and turbulent mixing seem to reproduce the observed Li depletion assuming a primordial Li abundance A_{Li} = 2.64, which agrees well with current predictions (A_{Li} = 2.72) from standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Adopting the Kurucz overshooting model atmospheres increases the Li abundance by +0.08 dex to A_{Li} = 2.72, which perfectly agrees with BBN+WMAP.Comment: A&A Letters, in pres

Hormones and aggression in childhood and adolescence

This review is a survey on recent psychobiosocial studies on association between hormones and aggression/violence in children and adolescents, with a special focus on puberty, given the rapid changes in both hormones and behavior occurring during that developmental period. Since it cannot be assumed that all readers have much background knowledge, it inevitably begins with some comments about the concept and multifaceted nature of aggression, as well as with a brief reminding about hormone candidates to be linked to aggression during human development. Then, we finish off with the status of its knowledge in today’s science, tackling in a systematic way with the main data published, hormone by hormone. The origin of the gender-based differences in aggression must lie in neuroendocrinological events occurring during prenatal life or early in postnatal life. A complex and indirect effect of testosterone on aggression is proposed. A low HPA axis activity seems associated with chronic aggressive and antisocial behaviors. It is also suggested that early adrenal androgens contribute to the onset and maintenance of persistent violent and antisocial behavior, and that it begins early in life and persists into adulthood, at least in young boys. There are also some studies suggesting an association between aggression and some pituitary hormones in children, even if present data are still far from being consistent. The hormone-aggression link during development thus is not consistently reported. There can be an indirect relation in three ways: hormones can be involved in the development of aggression as a cause, as a consequence, or even as a mediator. Psychosocial factors may influence the causation and progression of violence in children through hormonal action

Terrorism and Aggression: Towards Increased Freedom and Security

Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del ComportamientoFac. de PsicologíaFALSEpu

The usefulness of distinguishing types of aggression by function

Far from being a universally defined notion, aggression is a changing and multifaceted phenomenon encompassing various concepts. There is no consensus as to how different types of aggression should be classified: multiple ways of doing so using a variety of criteria exist in the scientific literature. Some scientists categorise aggressive acts according to how they are expressed, while others prefer to look at motive, function, purpose and objective. Despite the claim of some authors that distinguishing between different types of aggressive acts is not always productive, categorising these according to different purposes and objectives can be very useful, both for developing theory and because such an approach serves forensic practice as well as preventive and therapeutic interventions, as these focus on the propensities and personality of the individual. Furthermore, given that the main functional classifications analysed show a common tendency to dichotomise, it would seem appropriate for their terminology and some of their measurement instruments to be standardised

The Usefulness of Categorizing Aggression according its Function

Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del ComportamientoFac. de PsicologíaTRUEpu

Peace and Development in Africa

Africa faces three simultaneous problems that must be addressed; economic development, disease, and peace. Drawing on the work of Jeffrey Sachs and others, this article explains the nature of each of these problems and possible solutions. A comprehensive program of action is advocated with sustained commitment to support those nations that are truly using that support to free themselves from the vicious cycles of war, disease, and poverty that currently plague much of Africa

Zeta functions over finite fields- An exposition of Dwork's methods

The paper reviews Dwork's p-adic analytic methods used in the Weil Conjectures. The first two chapters review a version of his proof of the rationality conjecture. The rest of the paper is devoted to Dwork's original cohomological methods, along with some p-adic functional analysis. The last chapter applies what is developed to an example of Dwork's family of hypersurfaces.Comment: This essay was written as part of my degree at the University of Oxfor