The preservation of Military Macaw Ara militaris in Mexico required the implementation of a nationwide assessment evaluating its vulnerability using IUCN criteria. With the combined effort of several institutions, the abundance, location, dispersion, habitat availability, and climatic conditions of areas occupied by the species were determined. Although the species’ extent of occurrence is extensive (263,919 km2) only 29% of this constitutes area of occupancy. Published estimates indicate a series of isolated populations containing from four macaws to 215. Macaws occurred in 35 populations in four regions of 16 states containing an estimated 1,563–3,263 macaws; lower than required for long-term viability. Within regions, neighbouring populations were separated by an average of 68 km. The extent of occurrence is heterogeneous, and macaws inhabit areas that differ in elevation, precipitation, temperature, and forest cover. Higher local abundances occur in landscapes where annual precipitation is ≥1,100 mm, and primary forest availability ≥1,800 km2. Although the existence of undetected macaw groups in Mexico is possible, these are likely to contain only small numbers of individuals, as most detected areas with macaws contain less than 40 individuals, and larger concentrations are more likely to be noticed due to their conspicuous behaviour. The species is threatened primarily by its low overall abundance, fragmented distribution, and forest loss around populations with the highest abundance. With the information generated, it is possible to design and implement specific management and conservation strategies at different geographic scales for the recovery and maintenance of the species in Mexico. It is necessary to strengthen collaborative programmes among conservation organizations, government agencies, and local communities in each region of the country to organize and finance community-based actions such as monitoring, habitat restoration, protection from poaching and the creation of a network of conservation corridors and macaw reserves focused on conservation.

We prove that if $M$ is a $\text{JBW}^{\ast }$-triple and not a Cartan factor of rank two, then $M$ satisfies the Mazur–Ulam property, that is, every surjective isometry from the unit sphere of $M$ onto the unit sphere of another real Banach space $Y$ extends to a surjective real linear isometry from $M$ onto $Y$.

We study bound states in weakly deformed and heterogeneous waveguides, and compare analytical predictions using a recently developed perturbative method with precise numerical results for three different configurations: a homogeneous asymmetric waveguide, a heterogenous asymmetric waveguide and a homogeneous broken strip. We have found excellent agreement between the analytical and numerical results in all the examples; this provides a numerical verification of the analytical approach.

The study of the Bom Santo Cave (central Portugal), a Neolithic cemetery, indicates a complex social, palaeoeconomic, and population scenario. With isotope, aDNA, and provenance analyses of raw materials coupled with stylistic variability of material culture items and palaeogeographical data, light is shed on the territory and social organization of a population dated to 3800–3400 cal BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic. Results indicate an itinerant farming, segmentary society, where exogamic practices were the norm. Its lifeway may be that of the earliest megalithic builders of the region, but further research is needed to correctly evaluate the degree of this community's participation in such a phenomenon.

Guinea-Bissau is host to the westernmost subpopulation of the common hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius, which is one of only two known populations inhabiting coastal waters. The presence of hippopotamuses causes conflict with rice farmers as a result of crop damage and the absence of effective measures to protect crops. To develop an effective method for protecting rice fields, we studied the patterns of access to flooded and rain-fed rice fields by hippopotamuses and assessed the effect of the installation of electric fences. Hippopotamuses were detected in 54% of the flooded fields (n = 100) and in 31.9% of the rain-fed fields (n = 91). They were detected more frequently in fields on offshore islands than on the mainland, in unfenced than in fenced fields, and in fields closer to running water. Hippopotamuses entered fenced flooded fields less frequently than unfenced, and were detected most frequently at the end of the rainy season and the start of the dry season, and in the period of vegetative stem growth. Electric fences were an effective deterrent and facilitated increased rice production. The maintenance and cost of the electric fencing were acceptable to farmers, and therefore the use of such fencing is recommended to resolve the conflict between hippopotamuses and farmers in Guinea-Bissau and in other areas with similar conditions.

Networks of protected areas are one of the main strategies used to address the biodiversity crisis. These should encompass as many species and ecosystems as possible, particularly in territories with high biological diversity, such as the Spanish arid zones. We produce a priority ranking of the arid zones of south-east Spain according to the rarity and richness of their characteristic flora and the level of endangerment. The resulting hierarchy shows that optimal zones for the preservation of the flora are located outside the network of protected areas. In particular, it is important to extend the network and encourage the creation of microreserves in the depression of the River Guadiana Menor (Granada), where there is least protection. This river valley is a particularly important arid site because of its unique flora and fauna, and palaeontological and archaeological findings.

The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of daily stress perception on cognitive performance and morning basal salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels in healthy children aged 9–12. Participants were classified by whether they had low daily perceived stress (LPS, n = 27) or a high daily perceived stress (HPS, n = 26) using the Children Daily Stress Inventory (CDSI). Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase were measured at awakening and 30 minutes later. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Cognitive Drug Research assessment system. The HPS group exhibited significantly poorer scores on speed of memory (p < .05) and continuity of attention (p < .05) relative to the LPS group. The HPS group also showed significantly lower morning cortisol levels at awakening and at +30 minutes measures in comparison with the LPS group (p < .05), and mean morning cortisol levels were negatively correlated with speed of memory (p < .05) in the 53 participants. No significant differences were observed between both groups in alpha-amylase levels. These findings suggest that daily perceived stress in children may impoverish cognitive performance via its modulating effects on the HPA axis activity.

New petrological and U–Pb zircon geochronological information has been obtained from intrusive plutonic rocks and migmatites from the Cap de Creus massif (Eastern Pyrenees) in order to constrain the timing of the thermal and tectonic evolution of this northeasternmost segment of Iberia during late Palaeozoic time. Zircons from a deformed syntectonic quartz diorite from the northern Cap de Creus Tudela migmatitic complex yield a mean age of 298.8±3.8 Ma. A syntectonic granodiorite from the Roses pluton in the southern area of lowest metamorphic grade of the massif has been dated at 290.8±2.9 Ma. All the analysed zircons from two samples of migmatitic rocks yield inherited ages from the Precambrian metasedimentary protolith (with two main age clusters at c. 730–542 Ma and c. 2.9–2.2 Ga). However, field structural relationships indicate that migmatization occurred synchronously with the emplacement of the quartz dioritic magmas at c. 299 Ma. Thus, the results of this study suggest that subduction-related calc-alkaline magmatic activity in the Cap de Creus was coeval and coupled with D2 dextral transpression involving NNW–SSE crustal shortening during Late Carboniferous – Early Permian time (c. 299–291 Ma). Since these age determinations are within the range of those obtained for undeformed (or slightly deformed) calc-alkaline igneous rocks from NE Iberia, it follows that the Cap de Creus massif would represent a zone of intense localization of D2 transpression and subsequent D3 ductile wrenching that extended into the Lower Permian during a transitional stage between the Variscan and Cimmerian cycles.

Hydrothermal time (HTT) is a valuable environmental synthesis to predict weed emergence. However, weed scientists face practical problems in determining the best soil depth at which to calculate it. Two different types of measures are proposed for this: moment-based indices and probability density-based indices. Due to the monitoring process, it is not possible to observe the exact emergence time of every seedling; therefore, emergence times are not observed individually, seedling by seedling, but in an aggregated way. To address these facts, some new methods to estimate the proposed indices are derived, using grouped data estimators and kernel density estimators. The proposed methods have been exemplified with an emergence data set of Bromus diandrus. The results indicate that hydrothermal timing at 50 mm is more useful than that at 10 mm.

We revise the concept of compact tripotent in the bidual space of a JB*-triple. This concept was introduced by Edwards and Rüttimann generalizing the ideas developed by Akemann for compact projections in the bidual of a C*-algebra. We also obtain some characterizations of weak compactness in the dual space of a JC*-triple, showing that a bounded subset in the dual space of a JC*-triple is relatively weakly compact if and only if its restriction to any abelian maximal subtriple $C$ is relatively weakly compact in the dual of $C$. This generalizes a very useful result by Pfitzner in the setting of C*-algebras. As a consequence we obtain a Dieudonné theorem for JC*-triples which generalizes the one obtained by Brooks, Saitô and Wright for C*-algebras.

In [19], R. Kadison proved that every surjective linear isometry $\Phi{:}\, {\C A} \to {\C B}$ between two unital C*-algebras has the form $$\Phi (x) = u T (x), \hbox{ $x\in {\C A}$,}$$ where $u$ is a unitary element in ${\C B}$ and $T$ is a Jordan *-isomorphism from${\C A}$ onto ${\C B}$. This result extends the classical Banach–Stone theorem [3, 32] obtained in the 1930s to non-abelian unital C*-algebras. A. L. Paterson and A. M. Sinclair extended Kadison's result to surjective isometries between C*-algebras by replacing the unitary element $u$ by a unitary element in the multiplier C*-algebra of the range algebra [28]. Thus, every surjective linear isometry between C*-algebras preserves the triple products as $$\J xyz \,{=}\, 2^{-1} ( x y^* z + z y^* x).$$

Peroxidation of LDL and other lipoproteins is thought to play a central role in atherogenesis. Dietary thermally oxidised oils may increase atherogenic risk in consumers by increasing their oxidative status. The present paper compares the effects of two diets containing unused sunflower-seed oil (US) or sunflower-seed oil repeatedly used in frying (FS) (both 15 g/100 g diet) on weight gain, food efficiency ratio, serum lipid levels and lipoprotein composition, and the content of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in the liver, serum, and lipoproteins in growing Wistar rats. After sixty potato fryings the FS contained 27·7 g polar material/100 g oil and 16·6 g oligomers/100 g oil. The FS-fed rats had a significantly lower weight gain and food efficiency ratio. Liver-TBARS increased due to the consumption of the highly altered oil and showed a significant linear relationship (all r<0·68; P>0·002) with the ingestion of thermally oxidised compounds. Serum-, VLDL-, LDL- and HDL-TBARS were significantly higher in the FS-fed rats (all P>0·001). Concentrations of serum total and non-esterified cholesterol and phospholipids were significantly higher in the FS-fed rats (P>0·05, P>0·05, and P>0·001, respectively). Serum triacylglycerol concentrations did not vary between the two dietary groups. Total and esterified cholesterol and phospholipid levels increased significantly in the HDL fraction (P>0·05, P>0·05, and P>0·001, respectively) of the FS-fed rats. HDL-cholesterol and HDL-phospholipids were significantly correlated with liver-TBARS (r<0·747; P>0·0001), VLDL-TBARS (r<0·642; P>0·003), LDL-TBARS (r<0·475; P>0·04), and HDL-TBARS (r<0·787; P>0·0001). The data suggest that the rat increases HDL as a protecting mechanism against the peroxidative stress induced by the consumption of a diet containing the thermally oxidised oil.

We study inclusion indices relative to an interpolation scale. Applications are given to several families of functions spaces.

In response to the interplay between variation in food quality and energetic demands, the foraging behaviour of captive green-backed firecrown hummingbirds Sephanoides sephaniodes was studied. Hummingbirds were exposed to two temperatures (25°C vs 15°C), two food qualities (0.5 vs 0.75 m sucrose solutions), and two costs of feeding (birds were provided with feeders with and without a perch). Food selection and consumption were measured, as well as time budgets and metabolic rate while feeding. We predicted that when given a choice, birds would minimize the cost of feeding by selecting feeders with a perch and with a high sugar concentration. However, rather than increasing energy consumption when energy availability was low and thermoregulatory demands were high, hummingbirds remained perched. They reduced feeding and spent most of their time perching. Our results identify a novel behavioural and physiological strategy in hummingbirds. These birds seem to shift their foraging behaviour depending on thermoregulatory and feeding costs. When these costs are high, rather than matching them with increased energy consumption, hummingbirds reduce energy costs by reducing activity. They seemed to adopt the following strategy: when food quality was high and thermoregulatory demands were low, they adopted a high-expense lifestyle. In contrast, when thermoregulatory costs were high, they adopted an energy conserving strategy even when food quality was high. We hypothesize that limitations imposed by physiological processes may explain why animals do not forage during all available time and why under some circumstances they choose foraging behaviours with lower rates of net energy gain.

In Spain, it is estimated that 60% of wetlands have disappeared in the last 50 years. The present study aimed to describe the relationships between loss of wetlands and land-use change in Azuaga County, Central-western Iberian Peninsula where during the period 1896-1996, 94% of the original wetlands disappeared. Forest, scrub, holm oak dehesas and olive groves have become fragmented or disappeared completely, having been substituted by eucalyptus plantations in areas of low productivity and by dry cultivation of herbaceous crops, mainly cereals, in more productive areas. These substitutions have resulted in a homogeneous, coarse-grained landscape with low diversity and high dominance. The type of land-use has depended on the evolution of demographic processes, with high human immigration rates toward the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, and high emigration rates during the 1960s and 1970s. The mechanization of agriculture and transition from closed to market economy in the second half of the twentieth century also played an essential role in the landscape changes described.