Alien Registration- Coslovsky, Alexander (Brownville, Piscataquis County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/10040/thumbnail.jp

Asymmetry in Orb-Webs: An Adaptation to Web Building Costs?

Orb-web spiders build vertically asymmetric webs, in which the lower part is larger than the upper part. One hypothesis explaining this asymmetry suggests that the spider's mass imposes higher building costs in the upper part of the web, causing the spider to reduce this part of the web. We tested this hypothesis by assessing building costs of different parts of the web. We found that the specific time-cost of building (i.e. the time required to build a certain length of silk) differed between the two parts of the web and that the difference in time-costs influenced web asymmetry. Contrary to predictions, however, building costs were larger in the lower part of the web, suggesting that additional factors affect the spider's decisions while building the web, which are likely to be prey-capture consideration

Coupling between internal spin dynamics and external degrees of freedom in the presence of colored noise

We observe asymmetric transition rates between Zeeman levels (spin-flips) of magnetically trapped atoms. The asymmetry strongly depends on the spectral shape of an applied noise. This effect follows from the interplay between the internal states of the atoms and their external degrees of freedom, where different trapped levels experience different potentials. Such insight may prove useful for controlling atomic states by the introduction of noise, as well as provide a better understanding of the effect of noise on the coherent operation of quantum systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted to PR

Parasite- and predator-induced maternal effects in the great tit (Parus major)

Organisms often face the simultaneous risk of predation and parasitism and a trade-off among the responses is predicted. Concurrent exposure of great tit mothers before reproduction to both of these stressors showed no interactive effect on growth and phenotype of offspring via maternal responses conveyed through eggs. Parasites, both via maternal effects and via direct exposure of nestlings, negatively influenced offspring phenotype, while risk of predation had no significant effec

How prosecutors enforce labor and environmental laws and promote economic development in Brazil

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-187).This dissertation bridges the fields of international development, legal sociology, and organizational behavior to examine how Brazilian prosecutors enforce labor and environmental laws. Typically, the enforcement of protective regulations produces a range of outcomes. In some cases enforcers create major hurdles for business growth. In others, they overlook blatant violations and fail those interests they were supposed to protect. Yet, in some instances, enforcement agents find ways to reconcile compliance with competitiveness. What explains this variation? Why do these agents sometimes deepen existing conflicts and grant (temporary) victories to one of the parties, but in other occasions they engineer positive-sum outcomes? To answer this question I spent 18 months in the field and immersed myself in the life of the Brazilian procuracy. I interviewed more than 50 prosecutors, attended internal proceedings, and accompanied them as they attempted to enforce protective regulations. I also interviewed more than 100 representatives from government agencies, NGOs, industry associations, private firms, and labor unions from a cross-section of sectors in which actors struggled over the enforcement of labor and environmental laws. Eventually, I discovered that outcomes depended on prosecutors realizing that compliance requires costly and risky changes in business practices. Rather than prosecute, which they anticipate will eliminate jobs and undermine business profitability, or clarify the law, which they fear will be futile, these prosecutors reach out and assemble a network of institutions willing to cover some of the costs and insure some of the risks associated with compliance.(cont.) They lead an effort of inter-institutional root-cause analysis and joint-problem solving, and through this method they strive to make compliance the easiest choice for all involved. This study goes beyond showing that compliance can be reconciled with competitiveness. Rather, it hopes to redirect the attention of development experts away from pre-set ingredients, recipes, and best-practices and towards the organizational behavior of those front-line regulators who are out in the field, using their discretion to reshape businesses practices along more equitable and sustainable lines. These agents are the long arm of the state and their aggregate action can constitute the industrial policy of the 21 st century.by Salo Vinocur Coslovsky.Ph.D

Thyroid dysfunction and anaemia in a large population-based study.

OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: Anaemia and thyroid dysfunction are common and often co-occur. Current guidelines recommend the assessment of thyroid function in the work-up of anaemia, although evidence on this association is scarce. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the 'European Prospective Investigation of Cancer' (EPIC)-Norfolk population-based cohort, we aimed to examine the prevalence and type of anaemia (defined as haemoglobin <13 g/dl for men and <12 g/dl for women) according to different thyroid function groups. RESULTS: The mean age of the 8791 participants was 59·4 (SD 9·1) years and 55·2% were women. Thyroid dysfunction was present in 437 (5·0%) and anaemia in 517 (5·9%) participants. After excluding 121 participants with three most common causes of anaemia (chronic kidney disease, inflammation, iron deficiency), anaemia was found in 4·7% of euthyroid participants. Compared with the euthyroid group, the prevalence of anaemia was significantly higher in overt hyperthyroidism (14·6%, P < 0·01), higher with borderline significance in overt hypothyroidism (7·7%, P = 0·05) and not increased in subclinical thyroid dysfunction (5·0% in subclinical hypothyroidism, 3·3% in subclinical hyperthyroidism). Anaemia associated with thyroid dysfunction was mainly normocytic (94·0%), and rarely macrocytic (6·0%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of anaemia was higher in overt hyperthyroidism, but not increased in subclinical thyroid dysfunction. Systematic measurement of thyroid-stimulating hormone in anaemic patients is likely to be useful only after excluding common causes of anaemia