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The international arbitrators' service market is diverse, with arbitrators operating out of different structures, varying from multinational law firms to small arbitral boutiques. Yet, despite this heterogeneity, this market is dominated by individuals in the sense that legal persons are rarely, if ever, selected to act as arbitrators directly. Albeit the idea that an arbitrator must be a natural person appears to be deeply ingrained in the dominant understandings of arbitration, this is, in fact, an exception to the way knowledge-intensive services are usually provided. This brings to the forefront a largely unexplored topic: why legal entities are not selected as arbitrators. Through a survey of 60 jurisdictions, we explore to what extent may legal persons be appointed to act as arbitrators and conclude that stand-alone legal reasons do not fully explicate this state of affairs. Against this background, we advance a further set of explanations for relating to conflict of interest rules, insulation from civil liability, as well as the peculiar price formation and power competition dynamics within the arbitration market. Culturally and socially shaped expectations on how arbitrations should be managed play a role too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterized the natural diet and feeding dynamics of Aegla castro Schmitt, 1942 (Aeglidae), an endemic freshwater crab. Research was undertaken on the trophic spectrum of the species by analyzing the stomach contents of individuals collected in a stream in southeastern Brazil, and evaluating the diet through the index of relative importance (IRI). Seasonal and circadian variations in diet composition were analyzed, and the feeding dynamics investigated through repletion index (RI) analysis. We analyzed a total of 240 stomachs and identified 20 main food categories of the diet, which were studied throughout the seasons. Aegla castro maintained a constant RI throughout the year, with a peak of food activity between midnight (00) and 0600. The species was characterized as an omnivorous generalist and opportunist. The high overlay in the diet composition of adults of both sexes and juveniles indicates that they share the same food resources, even though they seem to exploit them in different quantities and frequencies. Future research should focus on the species of Aegla whose diets have not yet been described, and use available data to inform trophic network analyses and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence has been noted as a period of increased risk taking. The literature on normative neurodevelopment implicates aberrant activation of affective and regulatory regions as key to inhibitory failures. However, many of these studies have not included adolescents engaging in high rates of risky behavior, making generalizations to the most at-risk populations potentially problematic. We conducted a comparative study of nondelinquent community (n  = 24, mean age = 15.8 years, 12 female) and delinquent adolescents (n  = 24, mean age = 16.2 years, 12 female) who completed a cognitive control task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, where behavioral inhibition was assessed in the presence of appetitive and aversive socioaffective cues. Community adolescents showed poorer behavioral regulation to appetitive relative to aversive cues, whereas the delinquent sample showed the opposite pattern. Recruitment of the inferior frontal gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, and tempoparietal junction differentiated community and high-risk adolescents, as delinquent adolescents showed significantly greater recruitment when inhibiting their responses in the presence of aversive cues, while the community sample showed greater recruitment when inhibiting their responses in the presence of appetitive cues. Accounting for behavioral history may be key in understanding when adolescents will have regulatory difficulties, highlighting a need for comparative research into normative and nonnormative risk-taking trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social groups aid human beings in several ways, ranging from the fulfillment of complex social and personal needs to the promotion of survival. Despite the importance of group affiliation to humans, there remains considerable variation in group preferences across development. In the current study, children and adolescents completed an explicit evaluation task of ingroup and out-group members during functional neuroimaging. We found that participants displayed age-related increases in bilateral amygdala, fusiformgyrus and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activation when viewing in-group relative to out-group faces. Moreover, we found an indirect effect of age on in-group favoritism via brain activation in the amygdala, fusiform and OFC. Finally, with age, youth showed greater functional coupling between the amygdala and several neural regions when viewing in-group relative to out-group peers, suggesting a role of the amygdala in directing attention to motivationally relevant cues. Our findings suggest that the motivational significance and processing of group membership undergoes important changes across development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A third specimen of Susisuchus anatoceps is described. The new material comprises postcranial remains, including an almost complete sequence of cervical vertebrae, prothoracic and posterior dorsal vertebrae, and osteoderms from dorsal and ventral shield, scapula, coracoid and the forelimb. The new specimen (MPSC-R1136) was recovered from the Crato Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the Santana Group, near Nova Olinda municipality, Ceará State, Brazil. Some cervical vertebrae show slightly procoelous centra and at least one of these vertebrae is platycoelic, a feature reported for the first time in Susisuchus. Nevertheless, dorsals have amphicoelic centra. The sagittal segmented dorsal shield comprises two paravertebral rows of square osteoderms and two accessory rows of ellipsoidal osteoderms on each side of the trunk. Three diagnostic characters are present in the new Susisuchus specimen: the proximal and distal articulations of the ulna have about the same width and are thicker with respect to the shaft; the scapular blade has posterior concave and anterior straight margins; and the ungual phalanges are present only on first and second digits of the manus. A phylogenetic analysis of Susisuchus anatoceps based on new characters of MPSC-R1136 in addition to the holotype, and employing a previous data set of Jouve, placed this taxon as a basal member of the advanced neosuchian clade. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 163, S273-S288. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Tegumentary leishmaniasis and leprosy display similar spectra of disease phenotypes, which are dependent on cell-mediated immunity to specific antigens. Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and lepromatous leprosy represent the anergic end of the spectrum, whereas mucocutaneous leishmaniasis and tuberculoid leprosy are associated with marked antigen-specific cellular immune response. Methods. We characterized and compared the cell-mediated response to Leish mania and Mycobacterium leprae antigens in a patient with an intriguing association of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis with lepromatous leprosy, which are at opposite ends of the immunopathological spectra of these diseases. This was done by performance of skin tests and by assessment of the cell proliferation and cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Results. Strong skin-test reactions and PBMC proliferation were observed in response to Leish mania antigens but not to M. leprae antigens. The stimulation of PBMCs with Leish mania and M. leprae antigens induced comparable levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-5, and interleukin-10. However, the interferon-γ response to Leishmanici antigens was remarkably high, and that to M. leprae antigens was almost nil. Conclusions. We found that concomitant leprosy and tegumentary leishmaniasis can produce opposite polar forms associated, respectively, with absent or exaggerated cell-mediated immune responses to each pathogen. This suggests that independent mechanisms influence the clinical outcome of each infection. Moreover, interferon-γ appears to play a major role in the clinical expression of these intracellular infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]