Ecological Intensification: Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice Kleijn, David; Bommarco, Riccardo; Fijen, Thijs P. M.; Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro; Potts, Simon G.; Van Der Putten, Wim H. There is worldwide concern about the environmental costs of conventional intensification of agriculture. Growing evidence suggests that ecological intensification of mainstream farming can safeguard food production, with accompanying environmental benefits; however, the approach is rarely adopted by farmers. Our review of the evidence for replacing external inputs with ecosystem services shows that scientists tend to focus on processes (e.g., pollination) rather than outcomes (e.g., profits), and express benefits at spatio-temporal scales that are not always relevant to farmers. This results in mismatches in perceived benefits of ecological intensification between scientists and farmers, which hinders its uptake. We provide recommendations for overcoming these mismatches and highlight important additional factors driving uptake of nature-based management practices, such as social acceptability of farming.

¿Cómo se cuenta una vida? Apuntes de lectura Giordano, Hector Alberto Los apuntes de lectura reunidos en este trabajo remiten a un conjunto de obras literarias identificadas con distintas formas de escribir la vida: diarios, biografías, perfiles biográficos, memorias, confesiones. Fueron tomados durante el curso de una investigación grupal cuyo tema quedó definido en los siguientes términos: “Cómo se cuenta una vida. Escritura e intimidad en la literatura latinoamericana contemporánea”. Cada apunte envuelve –señala o entredice– posibles desarrollos argumentativos que se pondrán a prueba próximamente en la composición de ensayos críticos...

Luminescent features in double-track type II waveguides made in Er/Yb:LiNbO3 by Ultrafast Laser Inscription Biasetti, Demian Arístide; Torchia, Gustavo Adrian; Cantelar, Eugenio This work reports the first double-track type II waveguides fabricated by Ultrafast Laser Inscription (ULI) in a z-cut crystal of Er0.5% Yb0.5%LiNbO3. The light-guiding properties were explored and it was found that both polarization modes, TE and TM, are supported at a wavelength of 1550nm. Also, a thorough spectroscopic characterization of these structures was performed. All luminescence bands of active ions and their corresponding lifetimes were measured and scanning confocal µ-photoluminescence maps were developed. Slight shifts and broadening were found, relative to the bulk, for some specific emission peaks in waveguides. Particularly, Yb3+ ions luminescence within a region up to 2 µm from to where the laser struck during ULI processing, exhibited changes of their positions, heights and widths.The contribution of ULI to the ion environment distortions could be detected by confocal microscopy and could be decoupled from multi-site effects. This procedure can be taken as a quality control tracking of waveguides fabricated by ULI, if one considers variations in micromachining parameters (energy per pulse, speed of writing, repetition rate or pulse duration) as well as in concentration ratios of Er/Y b , or even annealing treatments. Although spectral modifications were resolved, the bulk spectra of these ions are essentially preserved in the waveguide core and surroundings. Therefore, this gives rise to explore these Er/Y b co-doped waveguides as active photonics devices, considering the rich spectra of Er3+ ions: green, red and NIR (1550nm) emissions and the doping with Yb3+ ions to improve its effiency.

Human occupation strategies and related environmental-climate during the middle and late Holocene in central Pampas of Argentina Messineo, Pablo Geronimo; Tonello, Marcela Sandra; Stutz, Silvina Maria; Tripaldi, Alfonsina; Scheifler, Nahuel Alberto; Pal, Nélida Marcela; Sánchez Vuichard, Guillermina; Navarro, Diego The main objective of this work is to generate and integrate interpretations of human occupation strategies and inferences of the environmental-climatic conditions in the central Pampas during the middle and late Holocene. We present a novel archeological-geological-paleoecological analysis in the area of the Cabeza de Buey lake, placed in an aeolian landscape. During the middle Holocene, two events of human occupations were recognized at Laguna Cabeza de Buey 2 archeological site. Both events present a small amount of lithic materials, a low diversity of tools and activities developed with them (principally hard material), and the hunting and primary processing of artiodactyls. These evidences suggest a locus of specific activity associated with an ephemeral human settlement under climate conditions drier than present and the presence of small, brackish, and shallow water bodies. For the late late Holocene, the hunter-gatherer occupation has a higher depositional rate of lithic assemblage, stones with diverse origins, presence of pottery fragments, a great lithic tool diversity, knapping techniques, and activities developed with these tools (processing wood, bone, hide, non-woody plant, and soft material). These evidences reveal an occupation with a higher degree of recurrence represented by a locus of multiple activities associated with a more stable landscape, such as an environment of dunes fixed by grass vegetation, and the establishment of a permanent water body. The different environmental characteristics for the middle and late Holocene in this area promoted that human groups develop two different patterns of mobility, settlement and use of space.

Sol-gel synthesis and electrical characterization of doped-carbon decorated mixed conductor ceramics Terny, Cintia Soledad; Vega Castillo, Jesus Eduardo; de la Rubia, María Ángeles; de Frutos, José; Frechero, Marisa Alejandra New mixed composite conductors of compositions: Li3V2−x [Cu]x (PO4)3/C and Li3V2−x [Nb]x(PO4)3/C (x = 0.1; 0.2 and 0.3) have been synthesized by the sol-gel method using Citric and Oxalic acids as a primary carbon source and Carbon Black or Carbon Nano-Fibers as secondary carbon sources. The combination of these carbon forms with the Nb doped-polyanion material boosts their electrical behavior up to 10−3 S.m−1 that is two orders of magnitude higher than the Li3V2(PO4)3/C at a room temperature. SEM, TEM and Micro-Raman Spectroscopy evidence that Carbon Nano-Fiber blend is better conductor than Carbon Black blend, which is also revealed by complex conductivity spectra. The conductivity behavior of Nb-doped ceramic is better than the Cudoped one. The obtained niobium composites have a much more stable structure compared to the copper ones because the niobium atoms fit well in the vanadium position, whereas copper atoms are expelled from the structured.

A piezoelectric energy harvester for rotating environment using a linked E-shape multi-beam Ramirez, Jose Miguel; Gatti, Claudio David; Machado, Sebastián Pablo; Febbo, Mariano This paper analyzes the effects of rotational motion on the performance of an innovative piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) operating in a very low rotation speed (0.5 to 3 Hz) environment. The rotational energy harvester (REH) consists of two E-shape multiple beams system joined with a rigid beam. The harvester has masses attached and a MFC (Macro Fiber Composite) 2814 P2 piezoelectric sheet mounted on one of the multiple beams. The REH is mounted on a rigid plate that rotates at constant angular speed and has the possibility to adjust the hub distance with respect to the axis of rotation. One of the key points of the design is to have very low natural frequencies and the lowest possible physical volume. For the evaluation of the electro-mechanical response, a nonlinear one-dimensional finite element formulation is used. The proposed numerical approach is validated through Abaqus commercial software models and experimental tests. The performance assessment is done investigating the influence of the hub distance, the rotation speed, the centrifugal force, the softening effect and the electrical resistance over the output voltage and the power generation. Regarding harvester performance, promising results are obtained since the maximum output electric power is 200 μW in a very low frequency interval at R = +0.03 m, for a physical volume of 140 cm 3 . In this sense, our proposal provides a prototype to power wireless autonomous monitoring systems of wind turbines of 30 kW.

"Un cóndor de fuego marchando hacia los cielos infinitos". Cuatro proposiciones sobre el viaje reformista Bergel, Martin Este ensayo recorta analíticamente una zona de la praxis intelectual y cultural del reformismo universitario del período 1918-1930 a la que se denomina viaje reformista. Con el propósito de reconstruirla, se abordan cuatro dimensiones: su rol como dispositivo activador de procesos de movilización estudiantil en ambientes distantes; la secuencia de desplazamientos y actuaciones en conferencias y actos públicos de los líderes del movimiento reformista, y las dimensiones rituales y performáticas que se ponían en escena en esas ocasiones; el lugar del americanismo como ingrediente imaginario que obraba impulsando este tipo de travesías, y sus solapamientos y posteriores deslindes con el horizonte internacionalista y universalista más vasto que tenía importante presencia en el período; y, finalmente, el carácter polémico y agonal de este tipo de viajes en relación a otras tentativas de fraternidad americana del período, en especial las impulsadas por diplomáticos y políticos.; This essay analytically dissects an area of University Reformism’s intellectual and cultural praxis during 1918-1930 here termed Reformist Journey. In order to reconstruct it, four dimensions are approached: its role as activating device of student mobilization processes in distant environments; the sequence of displacements and performances in conferences and public events of the leaders of the reformist movement, and the ritual and performative dimensions staged at those times; the function of Americanism as an imaginary ingredient promoting these journeys, and its links to the wider internationalist and universalist horizon, whose presence was significant then; and, finally, the controversial and agonal character of this sort of traveling in relation to other attempts of American fraternity of the period, especially those encouraged by diplomats and politicians.

Uptake and release of Dexamethasone using pH-responsive poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-2-(diisopropylamino) ethyl methacrylate) hydrogels for potential use in ocular drug delivery Faccia, Paula Andrea; Pardini, Francisco Martín; Amalvy, Javier pH-responsive hydrogels prepared by copolymerization between 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and 2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DPA) appear to be a promising system for controlling Dexamethasone 21-disodium phosphate (DXP) release behaviors for ophthalmological treatments. The incorporation and subsequent release of DXP by HEMA-DPA copolymers have been evaluated in different pH mediums and in vitro conditions. Optical and morphological characteristics, as well as wettability, drug-matrix interactions and drug-release properties, were assessed. Drug incorporation was maximum at pH 6.5 and at an initial drug concentration of 200 mg/L. Additionally, increasing the DPA content and cross-linker ratio increased the amount of loaded DXP. The amount of DXP released was approximately 70%, and the entire release process took 20–40 h. Moreover, the copolymers showed changes in the release rate in response to small pH variations (between 7.0 and 7.8). Additionally, DXP release by the copolymers far exceeded the estimated concentration of the drug absorbed in the eyes by drop administration.

Acid hydrogel matrixes as reducing/stabilizing agent for the in-situ synthesis of Ag-nanocomposites by UV irradiation: PH effect Broglia, Martin Federico; Balmaceda, Ivana; Carrizo, Florencia; Barbero, César Alfredo; Rivarola, Claudia Rosana Synthetic methods to obtain Ag-nanocomposites are widely studied in order to produce antimicrobialmaterials without using harmful agents for possible applications in biologic systems. In this way, thenanocomposites could be able to apply in biomedicine area avoiding going through exhaustiveprocesses of purification. Biocompatible hydrogel based on N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM)copolymerized with different proportions of methacrylic acid (MAA) and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), were proposed as matrixes of Ag-nanocomposites. A comprehensive studyof the physicochemical behavior, reducing and stabilizing character of the matrixes were carried out atpH 2 and 7. Hydrogel nanopores were used as photoreducing of Ag+ ions and stabilizing of Agnanoparticles(Ag-NPs) at the same time. Most of the matrixes showed high reducing character atpH 7 while at pH 2 it was significantly reduced. Photoreducer character at pH 7 increased with MAAco-monomer concentration and Ag-NPs sizes of 4?5 nm were obtained. In addition, it wasdemonstrated that acidic co-monomers favor the stabilization of Ag-NPs avoiding agglomerations. Itwas possible to conclude that the photoreduction reaction takes mainly place at pH 7 when nonbonding electron pairs from carboxylic and amide groups of the matrix are available. Therefore,biocompatible and antimicrobial nanocomposites can be easily synthesized without using damagingadditives(reducer, solvent) and be applied in biomedicine.

La mujer natural: la influencia de Charles Baudelaire en "L'automne à Pekin" de Boris Vian; The natural woman: the influence of charles baudelaire in boris vian's l'automne à Pékin de Cabo, Mariana; Montecchio, Estefanía Silvia En un epígrafe de L’automne à Pekin (1947), Vian cita un fragmento de Fusées de Baudelaire: «Aimer une femme intelligente est un plaisir de pédéraste». En la cosmovisión de Baudelaire, la mujer, ser puramente natural, conduce al hombre a sus más bajos instintos y, en consecuencia, al mal. Por eso, la relación amorosa con el sexo femenino representa un acto sádico y primitivo entre una víctima y un victimario. Nos proponemos analizar, a partir del estudio de la concepción baudelairiana de la mujer, por qué Vian cita al escritor del siglo XIX y en qué medida este intertexto le permite moldear en su novela una presunta visión estereotipada del género femenino.; In an epigraph from L’automne à Pékin (1947), Vian quotes a passage from Baudelaire's Fusées: «Aimer une femme intelligente est un plaisir de pédéraste». In Baudelaire's world view, the woman, a purely natural being, guides the man to his lowest instincts and, therefore, to evil. For that reason, the loving relationship with female represents a sadistic and primitive act between a victim and a killer. Our aim is to analyze, based on the baudelairean conception of women, the motive why Vian quotes the XIXth century writer and how much this intertext allows Vian to shape in his novel a presumed stereotyped vision of the feminine gender.

Role and management of soil biodiversity for food security and nutrition; where do we stand? El Mujtar, Verónica Andrea; Muñoz, Nacira Belén; Prack Mc Cormick, Bárbara Patricia; Pulleman, Mirjam; Tittonell, Pablo Soils host diverse communities that support and regulate ecosystem functions, thereby affecting plant production and resource use efficiencies. There is increasing evidence that agricultural intensification affects soil biodiversity (SBD) and such changes may impact on current and future food security. Here, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art on the relations between agricultural management, SBD and food production. The potential of applying such knowledge to improve food security and nutrition is discussed. Biotechnological methods to describe impacts of agricultural practices on taxonomic and functional diversity of soil organisms are advancing rapidly. At the same time new understanding of soil-plant interactions has provided novel insights into the mechanisms by which soil organisms and plants co-regulate plant growth and defences, or affect food nutritional quality and safety. Yet, empirical studies on SBD – plant productivity relations often lead to results and applications that are crop and context specific. Translating knowledge on SBD into universally applicable soil management recommendations to enhance food production, and ultimately food security, remains challenging. Instead, we propose a holistic approach to SBD management that strengthens multiple ecosystem functions and provides ecological insurance.

Dynamic capabilities in the software and information services industry. A case-study analysis in Argentina from a business model perspective Obaya, Martín; Robert, Veronica; Lerena, Octavio; Yoguel, Gabriel Leopoldo This study explores the relation between the strategies and business models (BM) configurations and the capability-augmenting efforts pursued software and information services (SIS). Through a multiple case-study research design, examining four SIS firms operating in Argentina, it seeks to understand, in particular, the nature of the dynamic capabilities (DC) developed by these firms, i.e. their ability to integrate, reconfigure and enlarge their base of strategic resources and ordinary capabilities. The findings of the study shed light on the two-way relation between the components of the BM and the nature DC. In the case of standardized product-oriented strategies, firms privilege integrating ‘sense’ DC to grasp market’s needs and demands with ‘seize’ DC to develop products able to exploit commercialization opportunities. In service-oriented strategies, ‘sense’ DC are focused on the identification of the features among the wide variety of customers’ demands which are scalable. Whereas ‘seize’ DC are rather focused on project management skills to integrate the architectures and accumulated reusable pieces of codes with capabilities to continuous improvement processes.

Bodies in the tip: Deaths and politicised deaths in Buenos Aires's refuse Perelman, Mariano Daniel The appearance of corpses in rubbish tips is not a recent phenomenon. In Argentina, tips have served not only as sites for the disposal of bodies but also as murder scenes. Many of these other bodies found in such places belong to individuals who have suered violent deaths, which go on to become public issues, or else are ‘politicised deaths’. Focusing on two cases that have received diering degrees of social, political and media attention – Diego Duarte, a 15-year-old boy from a poor background who went waste-picking on an open dump and never came back, and Ángeles Rawson, a girl of 16 murdered in the middle-class neighbourhood of Colegiales, whose body was found in the same tip – this article deals with the social meanings of bodies that appear in landlls. In each case, there followed a series of events that placed a certain construction on the death – and, more importantly, the life – of the victim. Corpses, once recognised, become people, and through this process they are given new life. It is my contention that bodies in rubbish tips express – and congure – not only the limits of the social but also, in some cases, the limits of the human itse

Entre la educación estatal y la privada: el dilema ideológico del judeo-progresismo argentino (1955-1995); Between State and Private Education: the Ideological Dilemma of Argentine Progressive Jews (1955-1995) Visacovsky, Saba Nerina El presente artículo reconstruye un dilema político-educativo que atravesó a los judíos progresistas argentinos adheridos al Idisher Cultur Farband o ICUF (Federación de Entidades Culturales Judías), entre 1955 y 1995. Los «icufistas» (de ahora en más), cercanos al Partido Comunista, defendieron con vehemencia los principios de la educación laica, gratuita y obligatoria plasmada en la Ley 1420 (1884), y los postulados de autonomía, co-gobierno y libertad de cátedra de la Reforma Universitaria (1918). En 1958, frente al conflicto «laica o libre», que polarizó a la ciudadanía entre quienes defendían una educación privada-confesional y quienes abogaban por la exclusividad de un estado laico educador, los icufistas se manifestaron activamente junto a estos últimos. Paralelamente a ello, sostenían una red de escuelas idiomáticas en ídish (shules) fundadas por los inmigrantes, que cumplían un rol «complementario» y fueron declinando hacia la década del sesenta. Para salvarlas había que convertirlas en escuelas integrales privadas de tiempo completo, pero aquello iba en contra de sus principios a favor de una educación pública e igualitaria. En el IX° Congreso del ICUF, en 1968, los delegados de todo el país votaron a favor de seguir con los shules hasta donde se pudiera, pero no competir con la escuela estatal. Sin embargo, en los noventa, dos décadas más tarde, el ICUF acompañó la apertura de una escuela laica privada en una de sus instituciones; ¿qué transformaciones sociales y políticas generaron este cambio?, ¿cómo lograron compatibilizar un discurso a favor de la educación estatal y el desarrollo de una escuela privada? Basado en un extenso trabajo de investigación, este artículo analiza, a la luz del contexto nacional e internacional, los dilemas educativos de ese colectivo judeo-progresista, identificado con los sectores medios argentinos.; This article reconstructs a political-educational dilemma that plagued the progressive Argentine Jews of the Yiddisher Kultur Farband (YKUF), or Federation of Jewish Cultural Entities (from now on, «the Ykufists»), between 1955 and 1995. Ideologically close to the Communists, they defended the secular, gratuitous and compulsory education principles embodied in Law 1420 (1884), and the postulates of autonomy, co-government and freedom of University Reform (1918). In 1958, faced with the «secular or free» conflict, which polarized the citizenship between those who defended a private-confessional education and those who advocated the exclusiveness of a secular state education, the Ykufists actively demonstrated their affinity with the latter. Parallel to this, they supported a network of idiomatic schools in Yiddish (shules), founded by immigrants, which played a «complementary» role. These shules declined towards the 1960s. To save them, they had to be turned into full-time private schools, but that would go against their principles in favour of a public and egalitarian education. At the 9th YKUF Congress in 1968, delegates from all over the country voted to continue with the shules for as long as possible, but not to compete with the state school. However, two decades later, in the nineties, YKUF was happy for a private secular school to be opened in one of its institutions; what social and political transformations generated this change? How did they manage to reconcile a discourse in favour of state education and then green light a private school? Based on extensive research, this article analyses, in light of the national and international context, the educational dilemmas of this progressive Jewish group, which identified with the Argentine middle classes.

Acacia caven gum studies of hydrodynamic parameters Tonelli, Franco; Masuelli, Martin Alberto The acacia caven gum (ACG) is an exudate from Acacia caven tree, this gum is dissolved in water and purified by precipitation with ethanol. In this paper the intrinsic viscosity, [η], is calculated by dissimilar equations, as Huggins, Kramer, Arrhenius-Rother-Hoffmann, Staudinger & Heuer, Square (S), Square root (SR), S-SR average plot, average values of S-SR, and being Kraemer is taken as standard. The different methods are evaluated and compared. From [η] measurements are determined the molecular weight (MV) and hydrodynamic radius (RH), with values of 1060 Kg/mol and 24 nm, respectively. This polysaccharide acquires a random coil conformation with Mark-Houwink parameters of a=0.5507 and k=0.0225 cm3/g. This polysaccharide is applied as thickener, coemulsifier and gelling in different industry.

"Para no estar sin hacer nada": formación para la inserción laboral de personas inmigrantes en Barcelona; “To not be doing nothing”: labour market training for immigrants in Barcelona Yufra, Laura Cristina; Santamaría Lorenzo, Enrique En este artículo nos hemos propuesto analizar las políticas de formación que se dirigen a la inserción laboral de las personas inmigrantes en la ciudad de Barcelona. Sirviéndonos de la propuesta de Chris Shore y Susan Wright (1997) de llevar a cabo una antropología de las políticas, hemos podido reconocer la explicitación de las características ideales que se espera que presenten las personas inmigrantes. Es decir, hemos podido identificar la recurrente solicitud de atenuación o de eliminación de las particularidades culturales, que supuestamente inciden de manera negativa en su inserción laboral, así como también, la recomendación de que se muestren siempre activos en la búsqueda de empleo. De igual modo, hemos podido reconocer los procesos de descalificación de los saberes de las personas inmigrantes y su consecuente “inclusión diferencial” en el segmentado mercado de trabajo; In this article we have proposed to analyse the training policies aimed at labour market integration for immigrants in the city of Barcelona. Making use of the proposal by Chris Shore and Susan Wright (1997) to develop an anthropology of policy, we have identified the specifications of the ideal characteristics that immigrants are expected to display. In other words, we have identified recurring requests for attenuation or elimination of cultural particularities, which supposedly have a negative impact on labour market integration, as well as the recommendation that immigrants always show themselves to be actively seeking work. We have also recognised processes involving downgrading of the knowledge that immigrants have and their consequent “differential inclusion” in the segmented labour market.

Non-monetary indicators to monitor SDG targets 1.2 and 1.4: standards, availability, comparability and quality Santos, Maria Emma This report offers a review of 14 non-monetary indicators of poverty to monitor progress towards the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. The reviewed indicators are housing materials, overcrowding, housing tenure, durable goods, access to safe water and improved sanitation, access to clean sources of energy, garbage collection and nearby sources of contamination, (public) transportation, child attendance to school and adult schooling, employment, social security and access to health care. For each of these indicators the study offers (a) short motivation about the capacity to “capture the essence” of some dimension of poverty, (b) a review of the indicator’s most prevalent specification/s and an indication of the minimum international standard – if there is one – for a satisfactory achievement, (c) a general assessment of current data availability, considering the most prominent standardised household surveys across the world, and (d) discussion and recommendations on each indicator’s specification and standard to be used homogeneously across countries. Two overarching messages from this report are: (1) that it is important to continue building international consensus regarding the desirable minimum thresholds and (2) that there is still room and need for significant improvements in data collection.

A new species of Eptesicus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) from Argentina Sánchez, Rocío Tatiana; Montani, María Eugenia; Tomasco Introini, Ivanna Haydée; Díaz, María Mónica; Barquez, Ruben Marcos En Sudamérica se distribuyen ocho especies de murciélagos del género Eptesicus de las cuales cuatro están presentes en Argentina. Aquí describimos una nueva especie de este género sobre la base de ejemplares procedentes de la provincia de La Rioja y un ejemplar de la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, depositado en una colección de museo. Esta nueva especie se distingue de las otras especies del género Eptesicus por su coloración dorada a marrón amarillenta, por el fuerte contraste entre la coloración dorsal y la ventral, el antebrazo grande (> 41 mm) y el pelaje dorsal relativamente corto (~6 mm). Se incluye una descripción detallada de la morfología externa y craneal de la nueva especie y se compara con especies de tamaño similar y presentes en el área de distribución. Se realizó una prueba de Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney y un Análisis de Función Lineal Discriminante, con el objetivo de evaluar las diferencias morfométricas entre las especies de Eptesicus. Las filogenias obtenidas por diferentes criterios y con el uso de diferentes genes son coincidentes en cuanto a las relaciones de la nueva especie.; Eight species of the bat genus Eptesicus are distributed in South America of which four are known from Argentina. Here, we describe a new species, based on specimens collected from La Rioja Province, and one specimen from Mendoza Province, Argentina, deposited in a museum collection. This new species of Eptesicus can be distinguished from other congeners by its golden to yellowish-brown coloration, strong contrast between dorsal and ventral fur color, long forearm (> 41 mm), and by the relatively short (~ 6 mm) dorsal fur. A detailed description of the external and cranial morphology of the new species, as well as comparisons with other species of similar size, and present in the same distributional area, are included. A Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test and a discriminant linear function analysis were performed to assess the morphometric differences among species of Eptesicus. The phylogenies obtained by different criteria, as well as those obtained independently from different genes, are in agreement with regard to the relationships of the new species.

Fossils reveal long-term continuous and parallel innovation in the sacro-caudo-pelvic complex of the highly aquatic pipid frogs Gomez, Raul Orencio; Pérez Ben, Celeste Marina Within the already peculiar Bauplan of anurans, pipid frogs have evolved an array of bizarre features that are commonly linked to their highly aquatic lifestyle. Among the latter, there are several distinctive sacro-caudo-pelvic features shared by extant pipids, which have been regarded as evolutionary novelties taking part of a specialized fore-aft-sliding ilio-sacral joint. Pipids and their kin (pipimorphs) have a rich fossil record documenting 130 million years of uninterrupted evolution in aquatic environments, which, along with our current understanding of their phylogeny and recently available musculoskeletal data, allows us to inquire on the patterns and processes that have led to their distinctive sacro-caudo-pelvic system with a deep-time perspective. Here, we take a phylomorphospace approach based on discrete character matrices and a scaffold tree derived from recent studies, making comparisons of morphospace occupation between pipids and other anurans, and morphospace occupation, disparity, levels of homoplasy, and shared evolving characters between different groups and/or over time across pipimorphs. In doing so, we focus on trends of morphological diversification and discuss the potential role that ecological and developmental constraints might have had in driving the evolution of the sacro-caudo-pelvic complex of pipid frogs. Our main findings reveal a pattern of continuous and parallel innovation early in the history of pipids, followed by arrested evolution of novel morphologies toward the Recent. The latter, in turn, is mirrored by rampant homoplasy in the ilio-sacral sliding joint among extant pipid frogs. This study highlights the importance of fossils in revealing macroevolutionary patterns that will be otherwise veiled based on neontological data alone.

Physiological maturity as a function of seed and pod water concentration in spring rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Menendez, Yesica Cristina; Botto, Javier Francisco; Gomez, Nora V.; Miralles, Daniel Julio; Rondanini, Deborah Paola Determining the optimum time for rapeseed harvest is challenging due to non-uniform seed maturity resulting from asynchronous flowering and pod dehiscence from sequential racemes. Identifying physiological maturity (PM) by visual methods is subjective and results can be affected by environmental conditions. PM can be determined using a quantitative model based on seed water concentration (SWC) as previously demonstrated for several other crops, although not yet developed for rapeseed crop. The objective of this work was to study the relationship between the dynamics of seed dry weight and water concentration in seven spring rapeseed cultivars grown at two contrasting densities (15 and 60 pl m−2) in three experiments at one location in Buenos Aires (Argentina). We evaluated the timing of PM on the basis of SWC in seeds located in the main raceme, second and fourth floral branches. The evolution of seed fresh and dry weight was followed bi-weekly from the beginning of flowering to harvest maturity. In Exp. 1, the grain-filling duration ranged from 39 to 57 days (700–1100 °C d) and the growth of seeds from floral branches finished 3–8 days later than those from the main raceme. Seed dry weight at PM ranged from 2.4 to 2.7 and from 3.0 to 3.2 mg for Lynx and Monty cultivars, respectively, without significant effects of floral position or plant density. Bi-linear functions were used to fit the relationship between relative seed dry weight (RSDW) and SWC relationships (R2 from 0.85 to 0.95). Across cultivars and floral positions, PM was attained when seeds exhibited 46.3 ± 0.7% SWC (R2 = 0.90, P < 0.001, n = 441). This model was validated against independent data from Exps. 2 and 3, successfully simulating the dynamics of relative seed dry weight based on fruit WC (r = 0.88; P < 0.001, n = 275). At PM, the water content (WC) of whole pod was about 70% and the pod shattering began after this point, when the WC of the pod dropped drastically. We conclude that under non-stressful conditions, PM in rapeseed occurs at 46% SWC. Swathing can be conducted from SWC < 46%, instead of the currently recommended 35%, advancing the harvest and leaving the land available for sowing the next crop, which would represent an advantage for double cropping in intensified agricultural systems.