Efficient Partnership Dissolution under Buy/Sell Clauses

When a partnership comes to an end partners have to determine the terms of the dissolution. A well known way to do so is by enforcing a buy/sell option. Under its rules one partner has to offer a price for the partnership and the other agent can choose whether she wants to sell her share or buy her partner's share at this price. It is well known that in a model with private valuations this dissolution rule may generate inefficient allocations. However, we here show that if partners negotiate for the advantage of being chooser, then this buy/ sell provision results in an ex-post efficient outcome. This result helps to explain why such provisions are so widely introduced in partnership contractsmechanism design, partnerships

Preserving Liveness Guarantees from Synchronous Communication to Asynchronous Unstructured Low-Level Languages

In the implementation of abstract synchronous communication in asynchronous unstructured low-level languages, e.g. using shared variables, the preservation of safety and especially liveness properties is a hitherto open problem due to inherently different abstraction levels. Our approach to overcome this problem is threefold: First, we present our notion of handshake refinement with which we formally prove the correctness of the implementation relation of a handshake protocol. Second, we verify the soundness of our handshake refinement, i.e., all safety and liveness properties are preserved to the lower level. Third, we apply our handshake refinement to show the correctness of all implementations that realize the abstract synchronous communication with the handshake protocol. To this end, we employ an exemplary language with asynchronous shared variable communication. Our approach is scalable and closes the verification gap between different abstraction levels of communication

On the Unification of Process Semantics: Logical Semantics

We continue with the task of obtaining a unifying view of process semantics by considering in this case the logical characterization of the semantics. We start by considering the classic linear time-branching time spectrum developed by R.J. van Glabbeek. He provided a logical characterization of most of the semantics in his spectrum but, without following a unique pattern. In this paper, we present a uniform logical characterization of all the semantics in the enlarged spectrum. The common structure of the formulas that constitute all the corresponding logics gives us a much clearer picture of the spectrum, clarifying the relations between the different semantics, and allows us to develop generic proofs of some general properties of the semantics.Comment: In Proceedings SOS 2011, arXiv:1108.279

Modelling landscape management scenarios for equitable and sustainable futures in rural areas based on ecosystem services

Scenario analysis is a useful technique to inform landscape planning of social-ecological systems by modelling future trends in ecosystem service supply and distribution. This is especially critical in floodplain agroecosystems of rural areas, which are at risk of losing riparian forest corridors due to increasing land use conversion for agricultural production and other ecosystem services due to rural abandonment. However, few studies investigating the effects of land management combine social and ecological modelling in scenario analyses. We estimated the supply of 16 ecosystem services under five alternative scenarios along two gradients: agricultural intensification of the floodplain and active ecological restoration of the riparian forest. We used redundancy analyses to detect ecosystem service bundles and interviews to identify societal gains and losses associated with each management scenario. Our results show how land management influences both the supply and distribution of ecosystem services. Scenarios promoting active ecological restoration supplied more services and benefited a larger range of societal sectors than scenarios focused on provisioning services. We also found two consistent bundles across scenarios, one related to less intensive food supply and another one related to outdoor activities. Interestingly, additional services were included in these bundles in the different scenarios, reflecting land management effects. Landscape scale management promoting both the conservation of ecosystem functioning and the sustainable use of provisioning services could supply a more balanced set of ecosystem services and benefit a larger number of societal sectors, contributing to more equitable and sustainable futures in rural areas

Oral pathology in the Iberian Neanderthals

In 1994, a series of human bones was found at the Sidrón cave in Borines (Concejo de Piloña, Asturias), Spain. Since the investigators suspected that they were dealing with human remains from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the bones were collected by the Civil Guard, but were not subjected to archeological scrutiny. The finding was reported then to the corresponding authorities, who had them sent to the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology of the Forensic Institute of Madrid (Spain), where an anthropological study was undertaken. This revealed the extraordinary palaeoanthropological and palaeopathological interest of the remains. The specimen studied herein, a mandible catalogued as SDR 7-8 (SIDRON 7-8) by the Forensic Laboratory in Madrid (Spain) and belonging to Homo neanderthalensis, with an age of 90,000 to 40,000 years BCE, showed special characteristics of oral pathology, making it a specimen of great palaeodontological interest.Key words: Mandible, Neanderthal, oral pathology, Sidrón, Asturias

Los genes del desarrollo embrionario en distintas patologías: la necesidad de un abordaje pluridisciplinar.

EditorialN

Structure and electrical behavior relationship of a magnesium–tellurite glass using Raman and impedance spectroscopy

In this paperwe present the study of the glassy systems of formula: xMgO(1−x)(0.5V2O5·0.5MoO3)2TeO2,with (0 b x b 1). The aim of the work is to understand the relationship between in the induced changes in the glassy matrix by the incorporation of MgO in a vanadium–tellurite glass and the electrical response of the material. It has been found that the incorporation of MgO in the glassy matrix raises the glass transition temperature. The whole system's electrical behavior is explained by the small polaron hopping, in good agreement with the variable range polaron hopping model. In this matrix, an ionic transport by Mg2+ is not allowed. The study gives an opportunity to understand how to tune in the middle-range glassy structural order and, as a direct implication, how to control the electrical conduction process.Instituto de Física La Plat