Description: In this article, the authors report ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy studies of the clean nonhydrogen-terminated diamond (100)-2 X 1 surface showing single- and double-layer steps that are rebonded. The main defects observed are single, multiple, and row dimer vacancies, and antiphase boundaries. Buckling of dimers is not observed, consistent with symmetric dimers.

Description: This article discusses the autecology of the fío-fío. Abstract: As the most diverse and abundant terrestrial vertebrates in the Cape Horn Archipelago, birds potentially play key roles in the ecology of subantarctic ecosystems. However, the lack of long-term ornithological studies in southern South America has previously hindered the identification of relevant aspects of the autecology of even the most common species. One abundant species in the austral summer is the fío-fío's ecology in the CHBR by determining: a) longevity and site fidelity, b) arrival-departure dates, c) abundance of adults and juveniles, d) diet and e) morphology. A total 827 fío-fíos were banded during the study period. Of the 67 recaptures, it was possible to determine that fío-fíos may live at least up to 7 years. Fío-fíos arrived as early as 28 October and left as late as 15 April with juveniles fledging in January. In the austral archipelago, the fío-fío's diet consisted of 10 invertebrate orders and at least 5 plant species. Males had significantly longer tails and wings than females, while females were significantly heavier in the pre-fledging season (Oct-Dec). This study provides new information on the autecology of fío-fío in the world's southernmost forests.

Description: This article discusses linear response and 1/f optimal information transport. Article: Nonergodic renewal processes have recently been shown by several authors to be insensitive to periodic perturbations, thereby apparently sanctioning the death of linear response, a building block of nonequilibrium statistical physics. The authors show that it is possible to go beyond the "death of linear response" and establish a permanent correlation between an external stimulus and the response of a complex network generating nonergodic renewal processes, by taking as stimulus a similar nonergodic process. The ideal condition of 1/f noise corresponds to a singularity that is expected to be relevant in several experimental conditions.

Description: This article is a reply to a comment by Massimo Falcioni and Angelo Vulpiani. In a previous letter, the authors have discussed the linear response theory (LRT) and shown that the breakdown of this theory occurring at intermediate times, observed in an earlier paper [2] as well as in [1], disappears upon an increase of the number of degrees of freedom. In a comment to [1] Falcioni and Vulpiani [3] claim that this breakdown is rather a consequence of the lack of mixing: according to them, regardless of the number of degrees of freedom, mixing is the key ingredient behind the LRT.

Description: This article discusses biocultural ethics. Abstract: Biocultural homogenization involves three major drivers: (a) the physical barrier to everyday contact with biodiversity derived from the rapid growth of urban population, (b) the conceptual barrier derived from the omission in formal and non-formal education of native languages that contain a broad spectrum of traditional ecological knowledge and values, and (c) political barriers associated with the elimination or reduction of the teaching of ethics under the prevailing neoliberal economy governance since the 1960s. Biocultural ethics aims at overcoming these barriers by recovering the vital links between biological and cultural diversity, between the habits and the habitats of the inhabitants. These links are acknowledged by early Western philosophy. Amerindian traditional ecological knowledge, and contemporary ecological and evolutionary sciences, but have been lost in prevailing modern ethics. There is an overlooked diversity of forms of knowing and inhabiting regional ecosystems, each of them having diverse environmental and social consequences. A better understanding of the regionally diverse mosaics of ecosystems, languages, and cultures facilitates the distinction of specific causes and responsible agents of environmental problems, and the disclosure of sustainable practices, forms of ecological knowledge and values that offer already existing options to solve socio-ecological problems.