The canicula is the reduction of rainfall during the rainy season, in July and August, which can mainly affect basic grains during the crop flowering and grain filling phases. This natural climatic event manifests from the south of Mexico to the Central American Dry Corridor and ends in the Dry Arc of Panama. It affects the Pacific zone of Nicaragua with higher frequency and intensity, followed by areas in Honduras, Panama (provinces of Los Santos and Herrera, and some areas of the Darien province) and part of the Dry Corridor of Guatemala (Chiquimula and Zacapa). The intensity and accentuation of the canicula in Central America is more correlated with the version of Modoki El Niño than with the version of Canonical El Niño. The Modoki El Niño version has increased its frequency of occurrence in the last decades, presenting favourable conditions for an increase in the frequency of occurrence of extended caniculas in the region. The objective of the index is to evaluate the reduction of rainfall during the rainy season which, in years of extreme canicula, causes considerable losses in annual crops.

In this fictionalized memoir of Laredo, Texas, canícula represents a time between childhood and a yet unknown adulthood.

Indexes the world's zoological and animal science literature, covering all research from biochemistry to veterinary medicine. The database provides a collection of references from over 4,500 international serial publications, plus books, meetings, reviews and other no- serial literature from over 100 countries. It is the oldest continuing database of animal biology, indexing literature published from 1864 to the present. Zoological Record has long been recognized as the "unofficial register" for taxonomy and systematics, but other topics in animal biology are also covered.

The brain of each animal shows specific traits that reflect its phylogenetic history and its particular lifestyle. Therefore, comparing brains is not just a mere intellectual exercise, but it helps understanding how the brain allows adaptive behavioural strategies to face an ever-changing world and how this complex organ has evolved during phylogeny, giving rise to complex mental processes in humans and other animals. These questions attracted scientists since the times of Santiago Ramon y Cajal one of the founders of comparative neurobiology. In the last decade, this discipline has undergone a true revolution due to the analysis of expression patterns of morphogenetic genes in embryos of different animals. The papers of this e-book are good examples of modern comparative neurobiology, which mainly focuses on the following four Grand Questions: a) How are different brains built during ontogeny? b) What is the anatomical organization of mature brains and how can they be compared? c) How do brains work to accomplish their function of ensuring survival and, ultimately, reproductive success? d) How have brains evolved during phylogeny? The title of this e-book, Adaptive Function and Brain Evolution, stresses the importance of comparative studies to understand brain function and, the reverse, of considering brain function to properly understand brain evolution. These issues should be taken into account when using animals in the research of mental function and dysfunction, and are fundamental to understand the origins of the human mind.

The conference was organised to identify, describe, discuss and promote actions that will assist farmers to improve water-use efficiency in rainfed agriculture and drought-proof their systems. The publication contains an analytical sumary of the conference discussions, abstracts of papers submitted during the conference and discussion papers prepared to introduce the different topics. The full document is included on the accompanying CD-ROM.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Marine Polysaccharides" that was published in Marine Drugs