Distortion product otoacoustic emissions in the bullfrog

Recovery of distortion product otoacoustic emissions in the bullfrog after noise exposure does not correlate with hair cell damage noted on the amphibian papilla

VOLUNTARY ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISK TRADEOFFS IN CROP PROTECTION DECISIONS

An indirect utility model is employed for measuring farmers willingness to voluntarily accept yield losses for a reduction in environmental risk by decreasing pesticide use. Results support the hypothesis that farmers have self-described risk perceptions that enable them to make assessments of risk-yield tradeoffs. Policies designed to encourage and assist farmers making voluntary pesticide reductions can result in environmental risk reduction.pesticides. regulation, environmental policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Limits on Investigative Power of State Legislative Committees

Defendant appeared before the New Hampshire attorney general, who was authorized by statute to investigate violations of the state subversive activities law and to determine if subversive persons, as defined therein, were present within the state. Defendant refused to answer certain questions about the contents of a university class lecture delivered by him and about his knowledge of other persons\u27 activities in the Progressive Party, contending that such questions infringed an area protected by the First Amendment. The state superior court conceded the infringement of defendant\u27s rights, but found this to be justified by state interest in self-protection, and convicted defendant for contempt. The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed, two justices dissenting. The investigation invaded defendant\u27s rights of academic freedom and political expression protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because of the breadth of the resolution authorizing the investigation, no state interest was validly expressed, thus obviating any balancing of state and individual interests. Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234 (1957)

Labor Law - Union Internal Affairs - Right of Union Members to Inspect Union Books and Exhaustion of Internal Remedies as a Prerequisite to Judicial Enforcement of that Right

Plaintiff, a member of defendant labor union, requested permission to examine all defendant\u27s financial records for a specified period. The request was refused. The constitution of the international union required members to exhaust internal remedies before resorting to the courts. Without exhausting these remedies plaintiff applied for, and received from the trial court, a writ of mandate directing that he be permitted to inspect all the defendant\u27s records and books of account. On appeal, held, affirmed. A member of an unincorporated labor union has a right to inspect its financial records, and it would serve no useful purpose to delay judicial enforcement of that right until all remedies within the union have been exhausted. Mooney v. Bartenders Union Local No. 284, (Calif. 1957) 313 P. (2d) 857

One, two, or three stars? An investigation of an unusual eclipsing binary candidate undergoing dramatic period changes

We report our investigation of 1SWASP J234401.81-212229.1, a variable with a 18 461.6 s period. After identification in a 2011 search of the SuperWASP archive for main-sequence eclipsing binary candidates near the distribution's short-period limit of ~0.20 d, it was measured to be undergoing rapid period decrease in our earlier work, though later observations supported a cyclic variation in period length. Spectroscopic data obtained in 2012 with the Southern African Large Telescope did not, however, support the interpretation of the object as a normal eclipsing binary. Here, we consider three possible explanations consistent with the data: a single-star oblique rotator model in which variability results from stable cool spots on opposite magnetic poles; a two-star model in which the secondary is a brown dwarf; and a three-star model involving a low-mass eclipsing binary in a hierarchical triple system. We conclude that the latter is the most likely model

The Arches cluster revisited: I. Data presentation and stellar census

Context. Located within the central region of the Galaxy, the Arches cluster appears to be one of the youngest, densest and most massive stellar aggregates within the Milky Way. As such it has the potential to be a uniquely instructive laboratory for the study of star formation in extreme environments and the physics of very massive stars. Aims. To realise this possibility, the fundamental physical properties of both cluster and constituent stars need to be robustly determined; tasks we attempt here. Methods. In order to accomplish these goals we provide and analyse new multi-epoch near-IR spectroscopic data obtained with the VLT/SINFONI and photometry from the HST/WFC3. We are able to stack multiple epochs of spectroscopy for individual stars in order to obtain the deepest view of the cluster members ever obtained. Results. We present spectral classifications for 88 cluster members, all of which are WNLh or O stars: a factor of three increase over previous studies. We find no further examples of Wolf-Rayet stars within the cluster; importantly no H-free examples were identified. The smooth and continuous progression in spectral morphologies from O super-/hypergiants through to the WNLh cohort implies a direct evolutionary connection. We identify candidate giant and main sequence O stars spectroscopically for the first time. No products of binary evolution may be unambiguously identified despite the presence of massive binaries within the Arches. Conclusions. Notwithstanding difficulties imposed by the highly uncertain (differential) reddening to the Arches, we infer a main sequence/luminosity class V turn-off mass of ∼ 30 − 38M⊙ via the distribution of spectral types. Analysis of the eclipsing binary F2 suggests current masses of ∼ 80M⊙ and ∼ 60M⊙ for the WNLh and O hypergiant cohorts, respectively; we conclude that all classified stars have masses > 20M⊙. An age of ∼ 2.0 − 3.3Myr is suggested by the turn-off between ∼O4-5 V; constraints imposed by the supergiant population and the lack of H-free WRs are consistent with this estimate. While the absence of highly evolved WC stars strongly argues against the prior occurrence of SNe within the Arches, the derived age does accommodate such events for exceptionally massive stars. Further progress will require quantitative analysis of multiple individual cluster members in addition to further spectroscopic observations to better constrain the binary and main sequence populations; nevertheless it is abundantly clear that the Arches offers an unprecedented insight into the formation, evolution and death of the most massive stars Nature allows to form