Will the exploratory behavior of lobsters decrease as they become familiar with their environment?

Previous studies have shown that most lobsters have a home range in which they reside on a daily basis. The tendency for lobsters to reside in a particular area suggests that they have the ability to learn the characteristics of an area using exploratory behavior. We hypothesize that the exploratory behavior of juvenile lobsters will decrease as time spent in a novel environment increases; specifically exploratory behavior will decrease as the lobsters continuously learn the environment. Exploratory activity of juvenile lobsters was monitored in six lobsters using two separate maze complexities. Lobsters were video recorded and activity was measured based on the distance traveled each day. Lobsters were kept in the maze for ten days; three lobsters were tested in the simple maze and three were tested in the complex maze. A lobster tested in the simple maze followed our hypothesis and showed a continuous decline in activity for several days (activity decreased from 260.55 cms/day to 45.8 cms/day by Day 7) before reaching a constant baseline level. Another lobster tested in the simple maze was only active during the night and showed a steady decline in nighttime activity. Only one of the lobsters tested in the complex maze showed any decline in activity. Overall, these results suggest that lobsters are able to learn at least some features of a simple maze within seven days and that lobsters need far more than ten days to learn the environment of a more complex maze environment

Power Suit

The focus of this project began in utilizing hair as a vehicle to investigate rituals associated with mourning, grief, and the liminal space that exists between life and death. After an in depth search into the cultural, physical, spiritual, and material aspects of hair, I enacted process and labor to create a sculptural form that performs in response to grief. I chose to work with acrylic hair, as it exists in a space between the real and unreal, and visually is absorbed as the uncanny representation of the separated body. I wanted to discuss the body, while emphasizing its absence. What covers and shelters our skin? Clothing, our clothing outlast our bodies, our hair outlasts our bodies. I made a gown of hair, seven feet in length, standing five feet tall. I wove this gown of hair, and rendered it inaccessible, or rather impenetrable. The collar tight to the neck, doubling as a source of protection and suffocation. The dress, a queen’s gown. As little girls, women dream to become queens, not because of the beautiful clothing, but because of the absolute positions of power, control, authority, and respect. This piece “Power Suit” is an attempt to take back the power and control that grief inflicts over the bodies that are left living in the wake of loss

Combining Plant Pathogenic Fungi and the Leaf-Mining Fly, Hydrellia pakistanae, Increases Damage to Hydrilla

Four fungal species, F71PJ Acremonium sp., F531 Cylindrocarpon sp., F542, Botrytis sp., and F964 Fusarium culmorum [Wm. G. Sm.] Sacc. were recovered from hydrilla [ Hydrilla verticillata (L. f.) Royle] shoots or from soil and water surrounding hydrilla growing in ponds and lakes in Florida and shown to be capable of killing hydrilla in a bioassay. The isolates were tested singly and in combination with the leaf-mining fly, Hydrellia pakistanae (Diptera: Ephydridae), for their capability to kill or severely damage hydrilla in a bioassay

I progressi nello studio della glicoproteina-P: dalle relazioni struttura attività alla rilevanza clinica.

La P-gp è nota per espellere una vasta gamma di xenobiotici (es. composti citotossici) in particolare agenti idrofobici, con un'ampia specificità di substrato, nel tratto gastrointestinale, bile e urine. Una delle caratteristiche più interessanti della P-gp è quella di riuscire a trasportare un gran numero di composti molto diversi tra loro per funzione e struttura, ma accomunati da alcune caratteristiche quali un alto grado di idrofobicità, un basso peso molecolare (tra 250 Da e 900 Da), la tendenza ad essere carichi positivamente a pH neutro e la capacità di attraversare la membrana cellulare per diffusione passiva. Tra le diverse classi di substrati trasportati si trovano cationi organici, carboidrati, aminoacidi e alcuni antibiotici di macromolecole quali polisaccaridi e proteine. Fra i subtrati della P-gp troviamo farmaci appartenenti a molte categorie terapeutiche, come antineoplastici quali gli alcaloidi della vinca (vinblastina, vincristina), le antracicline (doxorubicina, daunorubicina, epirubicina), i taxani (paclitaxel, docetaxel) ed anche antiaritmici, antistaminici, immunosoppressori, antivirali e farmaci utilizzati nella terapia del Parkinson, dell’Alzheimer, e di altre malattie

Land-Lodging-Labor: The Aesthetic, Ethic, and Political Causes of Homelessness in Latin America

It is impossible to talk about the homeless, understood as a lack of decent housing, without at the same time talking about the lack of work and the concentration of land ownership in one sector of society. “Homeless” in Latin America, and for the Argentine Pope, is the lack of land-lodging-labor. The problem of the three “T’s” in the Spanish Tierra, Techo, Trabajo is the question I will develop from aesthetic-ethical-theological foundations, according to the theological method of the Latin American teaching: See-Judge Act

A Qualitative Study of the Self in New Age Spirituality Culture

How does a modern person express spirituality? This study, which includes participant observations and semi-structured interviews of representative groups and individuals, examines a particular concept of self in the practice of an alternative quest (alternative to organized religion) for a culture of spirituality. My analysis will explain how participation in the alternative culture known as “New Age” aligns with an individual concept of self in the context of differing global traditions, religions, and beliefs. The central issue that I will address will be the dynamic of the concept of self in the context of the group in the alternative culture. I will also address the questions of discontent with mainstream society among the subjects of this study, and the forms of spirituality that participation in New Age practices provides