We present results from a recent study of the spin rate properties of a sample of more than 400 Galactic O-type stars surveyed by the IACOB and OWN projects. We combine vsini, Teff, and logg estimates with information about the spectroscopic binarity status for 285 of the stars in the sample, and provide a renewed overview about how the empirical distribution of projected rotational velocities in the O-star domain depends on mass, evolutionary and binary status. The obtained distributions are then compared with predictions of state-of-the-art population synthesis simulations including binary interaction, and used to provide hints about the initial velocity distribution of stars with masses in the range 15-80 M⊙.

Introdution: Attitudes and opinions of people about schizophrenia is very important in order to understand the true situation of the disease. It is necessary to maneging the disease and developing good and realistic social and health politics addressed to fighing against the stigma and discrimination of people ho suffer this disease.

A 1.1-m reflectarray antenna has been designed, manufactured, and tested to fulfill the requirements of a satellite antenna in Ku-band that provides South-American coverage in Tx and Rx. The reflectarray cells consist of four dipoles for each polarization in two dielectric layers, selected because of their simplicity and high performance. The dipole dimensions are optimized in all the reflectarray cells to accomplish the prescribed radiation patterns, by iteratively calling an analysis routine based on method of moments in spectral domain and local periodicity. The measured radiation patterns of the manufactured antenna have been satisfactorily compared with simulations and with a three-layer reflectarray previously designed, manufactured, and tested for the same mission.

Renewed excavations at FLK Zinj and its surrounding landscape have yielded valuable information regarding its paleoecological situation and the prehistoric behavioral function of the site. The density of materials at the main cluster of the site excavated by Leakey contrasts with the bone and lithic scatters surrounding the site. The location of FLK Zinj, situated a few hundred meters away from a freshwater spring, would have enabled hominins access to water, plants and game. The appeal of the spot for hominins (also explained by the presence of a wooded habitat) is confirmed by inferences of its redundant use prior and during the formation of the FLK Zinj paleosol, as witnessed by materials accumulated both under and on the waxy clay deposit that constitutes the FLK Zinj stratum. The single-cluster nature of the site indicates central-place behavior and evidence is provided that hominins occupied the site at a time of very low predation hazards in the area.

Recent work at FLK North (FLK N) has unearthed a new archaeological assemblage recovered with precise control of its stratigraphic position. In the present work, the technological study of the new lithic sample is described. The results show the co-occurrence in the same site of different technological behaviors. At FLK N, hominins were involved in both percussion/battering activities and through freehand and bipolar knapping, in core reduction. However, the reconstruction of the operational sequences shows that core reduction was probably a marginal behavior, while percussion/battering activities occurred more regularly throughout the sequence. If hominins were not involved in regular carcass processing, as recent taphonomic studies suggest, then hominins' sporadic and low-impact visits to the site over a long period of time must have been driven by other activities probably linked to the exploitation of alternative resources. Plant processing could have been a plausible explanation for hominin presence at FLK N.

From excavation at FLK North levels 1–2 in 1960–1962, Mary Leakey reported approximately 1200 Oldowan artifacts and 3300 large mammal fossils as a hominin “living floor”. Preliminary taphonomic analysis by Bunn seemed supportive, based on the presence of some cut-marked bones, the concentration of several dozen bovid individuals, and the relative abundance of limbs and mandibles over other axial elements. Recent taphonomic analysis of Leakey's entire fossil assemblage by Domínguez-Rodrigo and Barba, however, documents a minor hominin role at the site, contrasted to the dominant role of carnivores. Felids brought prey animals; hyenas scavenged from abandoned felid meals. At different times, hominins butchered several bovids and discarded artifacts at this dynamic location. Since 2006, renewed excavations at FLK North and other sites by the Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) have expanded artifact and fossil samples and implemented new analytical approaches to clarify taphonomic histories of the Olduvai paleolandscape. At FLK North, > 1000 new large mammal fossils from levels 1 to 2 show minimal butchery evidence amid abundant evidence of carnivore gnawing/fracture, rodent gnawing, and sediment abrasion. To help guide future excavation and analyses, we have developed several alternative working hypotheses of site formation.

FLK North is one of the densest concentrations of fossils found in Olduvai Gorge. A recent taphonomic re-evaluation of the collection excavated by Leakey at the site suggests that it was a palimpsest in which most of the animals were accumulated and modified by carnivores. The lithic tools therefore seem to have an independent depositional history from most of the fauna. The present study, based on new excavations, expands the evidence supporting this interpretation and demonstrates a thicker deposit than was reported by Leakey, including new archaeological levels. It also shows that in the few instances where hominins butchered carcasses, meat, not marrow, was their main target. This argues against passive scavenging hypotheses, which emphasize the dietary role of marrow, and instead underscores the importance of meat in the diet of early Pleistocene hominins.

The B fields in OB stars (BOB) survey is an ESO large programme collecting spectropolarimetric observations for a large number of early-type stars in order to study the occurrence rate, properties, and ultimately the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. As of July 2014, a total of 98 objects were observed over 20 nights with FORS2 and HARPSpol. Our preliminary results indicate that the fraction of magnetic OB stars with an organised, detectable field is low. This conclusion, now independently reached by two different surveys, has profound implications for any theoretical model attempting to explain the field formation in these objects. We discuss in this contribution some important issues addressed by our observations (e.g., the lower bound of the field strength) and the discovery of some remarkable objects.

We are using five different surveys to compile the largest sample of diffuse interstellar band (DIB) measurements ever collected. GOSSS is obtaining intermediate-resolution blue-violet spectroscopy of ~2500 OB stars, of which 60% have already been observed and processed. The other four surveys have already collected multi-epoch high-resolution optical spectroscopy of 700 OB stars with different telescopes, including the 9 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope in McDonald Observatory. Some of our stars are highly-extinguished targets for which no good-quality optical spectra have ever been published. For all of the targets in our sample we have obtained accurate spectral types, measured non-DIB ISM lines, and compiled information from the literature to calculate the extinction. Here we present the first results of the project, the properties of twenty DIBs in the 4100-5500 Å range. We clearly detect a couple of previously elusive DIBs at 4170 Å and 4591 Å; the latter could have coronene and ovalene cations as carriers.

The first case of abnormal cephalic horns in the California bat ray, Myliobatis californica was found in one male juvenile specimen caught in a gillnet by artisanal elasmobranch fishermen on the west coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The specimen had three cephalic horns, two in the cephalic lobes zone and one in the rostral middle zone which could be indicative of a morphogenetic plasticity in these taxa that may have facilitated the evolution of rhinopterid and mobulid species from a common myliobatid ancestor with a similar role of feeding in Mobulidae and Rhinopteridae subfamilies.

The Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri Kuwayama is a destructive insect pest in citriculture, because it is an efficient vector of the proteobacteria ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (Las), ‘Ca. L. africanus’ (Laf) and ‘Ca. L. americanus’ (Lam). These bacteria cause the ‘huanglongbing’ disease or ‘greening’ or ‘yellow dragon’ disease. The disease kills the plant and reduces fruit production. This insect pest is susceptible to entomopathogenic fungi, and we report the use of different strains of Metarhizium anisopliae, Cordyceps bassiana and Isaria fumosorosea against the nymphs and adults of D. citri under field conditions. The fungi were applied four times using a concentration of 2 × 1013 conidia/ha with a time interval of 15 days between applications. The percentage of control of Cb 108, Ma 65, Ma 14 and Ifr 4 was 60, 50, 40 and 35% in nymphs, and 50, 50, 42 and 22% in adults, respectively. Metarhizium anisopliae, C. bassiana and I. fumosorosea applied on Persian lime groves are more effective in reducing higher density of nymphs than adults of D. citri.

The giant Hii region NGC 604 constitutes a complex and rich population to study in detail many aspects of massive star formation, such as their environments and physical conditions, the evolutionary processes involved, the initial mass function for massive stars and star-formation rates, among many others. Here, we present our first results of a near-infrared study of NGC 604 performed with NIRI images obtained with Gemini North. Based on deep JHK photometry, 164 sources showing infrared excess were detected, pointing to the places where we should look for star-formation processes currently taking place. In addition, the color–color diagram reveals a great number of objects that could be giant/supergiant stars or unresolved, small, tight clusters. An extinction map obtained based on narrow-band images is also shown.

To investigate the interaction of the massive stars with the gas and dust in the active star forming region NGC 6357, located in the Sagittarius spiral arm at a distance of 1.7-2.6 kpc (Massey et al. 2001), we analyzed the distribution of the neutral and ionized gas, and that of the dust, based on Hα, [OIII] and [SII] images obtained with the Curtis-Schmidt telescope at CTIO, radio continuum observations at 1.465 MHz obtained with the Very Large Array (NRAO) in the DnC configuration (synthesized beam = 38″), Hi data from the Parkes survey (angular resolution = 15′), CO(1-0) observations obtained with the Nanten radiotelescope at Las Campanas Observatory (angular resolution = 2.7′), and IR images in the four MSX bands (angular resolution = 18.3″).

We present a five-field, six-color WFPC2 mosaic of 30 Doradus which constitutes the most detailed ever optical image of a starburst region. With the aid of NICMOS, STIS, and CO data we discuss the most recent star formation history in the region and its relationship with the original and present structure of the parent molecular cloud.

When the Spaniards discovered and conquered the Canary Islands in the 15th Century, they found a type of hair sheep, a breed described by the colonists as “white in colour, large in size and with horns in the males”. This discovery provokes the question: from where did these sheep originate? All other breeds of wool-less sheep in the world in that period were located in the sub-Saharan regions, far away from the Canary Islands and with no possible connection.

Archaeologists claim that Northwest Africa was populated by wool sheep from 4000–3000 BC. Northwest Africa is the nearest geographical point of the African continent to the Canary Archipelago. It was also there that the native pre-Hispanic human population is thought to have originated. Did the wool-less sheep breed arrive with these people? The answer is probably yes. It is likely that the population of hair sheep arrived between 3000–2000 BC in a northern expansion of these animals, accompanying the first inhabitants of the islands.

After the Spanish conquest, the Canary Islands provided a necessary stop for the explorers of the New World. Various testimonies exist describing the arrival of the first sheep to the Caribbean Islands. This process of animal introduction started with Columbus′ second voyage, after which domestic animals formed a usual part of the shipment arrangements. This raises a third question: what role did the Canary Island sheep play in the origin and evolution of the present Caribbean and Latin-American hair breeds? The majority of researchers working with these animals in America and the Caribbean think that the origin of their wool-less sheep breeds is related to the traffic of black slaves during the 17th and 18th centuries. It may be claimed that this influence of sub-Saharan animals exists as an additional influence of other wool-less sheep breeds, which arrived in the Caribbean from the Canary Islands two centuries earlier. Today, the ancient native hair sheep breed is extinct in the Canary Islands although some wool-less sheep have recently been introduced from Venezuela.

All these questions and ideas are investigated in this paper, through historical references and current research.