Effects of variations in water quantity and quality in the structure and functions of invertebrates’ community of a Mediterranean urban stream

Urban Ecosystems - Urban streams provide important ecosystem services to cities’ population, from the maintenance of urban biodiversity, temperature, humidity and air quality to improving...     

Contagion of Anxiety Symptoms Among Adolescent Siblings: A Twin Study

This study examined whether social contagion of anxiety symptoms is present between siblings during early adolescence and whether this process is moderated by sex, relationship quality, and zygosity. Based on 634 monozygotic and dizygotic twins (336 females) assessed in Grades 6 and 7, anxiety symptoms and sibling relationship quality were measured with self‐report questionnaires. The predictive association of the co‐twin's level of anxiety with adolescents' own increased anxiety 1 year later was only observed in same‐sex twin dyads (monozygotic and dizygotic) and was higher for those who perceived a higher level of relationship quality with their co‐twin. Raising awareness of a possible sibling contagion of anxiety may be useful for preventing the development of anxiety symptoms in youth.     

Decision-making: from neuroscience to neuroeconomics—an overview

Theory and Decision -     

Las políticas de igualdad en el ‘welfare mix’: opiniones y percepciones sobre el papel de las ONGs

This paper has been structured in three areas. In the first one, the author shows the relevance that words and conversations among individuals have on social research, both terms being very important to the well-known sociologist and writer Franco Ferrarotti. In the second part, the author explains the necessary qualitative methodology to be used when analysing a main topic. In the third one, the author analyses the reality of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the gender perspective to detect if they are or not a reflection of that Spanish reality regarding sex discrimination. Finally, this paper states the challenge the Spanish society needs to face to outweigh sex inequality without excluding the NGOs or any other form of association. This paper calls for the involvement of society, which along with the state and market, has an important task to accomplish.     

Ergonomic assessment of porridge roaming sale system

This paper makes suggestions for the realization of an ergonomic intervention, guided by the method of Moraes and Mont'Alv?o (2009), in the system of street vending of porridge, to improve the working conditions of this sales segment. Specifics are given about this practice and its problems, from ergonomic analysis comes to suggestions for improvements to be applied to a new system.     

AIDS victims and heterosexual attitudes

This study reports on the development of a Likert scale that measures attitudes toward AIDS victims (ATAV) in five phases. A total of 582 undergraduate (means age = 24.2) completed the survey forms, 249 males and 333 females. The results for Phase 1 yielded a scale with high part-whole correlations (.62-.90, p less than .001), corrected split-half reliability (.87, p less than .001), and alpha coefficients (.91, p less than .001). The following phases yielded significant correlations between the ATAV scale and attitudes toward homosexuals (.60, p less than .001), homosexual parenting (.64, p less than .001), other minority groups (.33, .37, p less than .001), capital punishment (-.27 p less than .001), and sexually liberal attitudes (.22, .37, .23, p, less than .025). Attitudes toward homosexuals are the central component in attitudes toward AIDS victims. A varimax rotated factor analysis of the ATAV yielded one primary factor accounting for 85.9% of the variance.     

Does country-risk influence electricity production worldwide?

This paper investigates the relationship between country-risks (or conflicts) within countries and electricity production. The determinants of electricity production have been neglected in the literature that favours the relationship between energy consumption, growth and development, and despite of the major challenges on electricity supply systems. We empirically establish that weighted conflict index, as well as sub-items as anti-government demonstrations, government crises and riots negatively influence electricity production per capita, after controlling for income per capita. Country conflicts affect electricity production mostly in the long-run. Our results imply that conflicts may affect electricity production substantially and consequently the economy as a whole. Policy should emphasize the institutional framework to avoid conflicts within countries in order to secure electricity production.     

LYING ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW OR ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

We compare communication about private information to communication about actions in a one‐shot 2‐person public good game with private information. The informed player, who knows the exact return from contributing and whose contribution is unobserved, can send a message about the return or her contribution. Theoretically, messages can elicit the uninformed player's contribution, and allow the informed player to free‐ride. The exact language used is not expected to matter. Experimentally, however, we find that free‐ride depends on the language: the informed player free‐rides less—and thereby lies less frequently—when she talks about her contribution than when she talks about the return. Further experimental evidence indicates that it is the promise component in messages about the contribution that leads to less free‐ride and less lying.