Exploring intraspecific life history patterns in sharks

Marine ecosystems compose the major source (85%) of world fisheries production (Garcia and Newton, 1997). Although only a few fish species tend to dominate fishery catches (Jennings et al., 2001), a large diversity of fishes representing varied taxonomic levels, ecological guilds, and life histories is commonly taken. Recently, 66% of global marine resources were determined to be either fully, heavily, or over-exploited (Botsford et al., 1997). Considering the current state of many fisheries, the large diversity of species taken globally, and the general lack of resources to adequately assess many stocks, it has become important to develop shortcuts that may provide methods fisheries scientists can use to determine which stocks are in danger of overexploitation and which recovery plans are appropriate when biological data are limited (Stobutzki et al., 2001)

A Measure of Control for Secondary Cytokine-Induced Injury of Articular Cartilage: A Computational Study

In previous works, the author and collaborators establish a mathematical model for injury response in articular cartilage. In this paper we use mathematical software and computational techniques, applied to an existing model to explore in more detail how the behavior of cartilage cells is influenced by several of, what are believed to be, the most significant mechanisms underlying cartilage injury response at the cellular level. We introduce a control parameter, the radius of attenuation, and present some new simulations that shed light on how inflammation associated with cartilage injuries impacts the metabolic activity of cartilage cells. The details presented in the work can help to elucidate targets for more effective therapies in the preventative treatment of post-traumatic osteoarthritis

Minority Shareholders and Direct Suits in Closely Held Corporations Where Derivative Suits Are Impractical: Durham v. Durham

[Excerpt] “Suppose A, B, and C are the sole shareholders and directors of a corporation. A and B have used corporate funds for their own personal use and such use has depleted the corporation’s assets. C now wishes to commence a legal proceeding to recover the damages. Should C be forced to recover through a derivative suit brought on behalf of the corporation just because the depletion of the corporate assets affected all of the shareholders and not just C? Not necessarily. In Durham v. Durham, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire permitted a minority shareholder, in a closely held corporation, to bring a direct suit against a corporation’s officers, even though the injury suffered was incurred by the entire corporation. Prior to this decision, New Hampshire had only addressed the requirements for bringing a direct suit in a regular, or widely held, corporation. In allowing the direct suit, the Durham court followed a minority view and adopted a standard provided by the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Principles of Corporate Governance. Many jurisdictions have declined to take this step. Rather, those jurisdictions insist that shareholders meet derivative pleading requirements set forth by their respective state laws, reasoning that such requirements create uniformity and predictability essential to corporate decision making. In addition, many of the states that refuse to allow direct suits by a shareholder against a closely held corporation expressly reject the standard provided by the ALI. This Note examines both the minority and majority views and justifies New Hampshire’s decision to allow minority shareholders to bypass derivative pleading requirements and bring a direct action allowing them to recover personally. This Note further suggests that in the context of closely held corporations, direct actions may provide minority shareholders their only chance to receive adequate compensation for injuries they have suffered. The remainder of this Section explains the differences between derivative and direct suits, as well as differences between widely held and closely held corporations. Part II will set forth the facts, arguments, and holding from Durham and explain why that decision was warranted. Part III will discuss cases from jurisdictions which decline to adopt the ALI standard and refuse to allow direct actions in closely held corporations. Part IV will provide an analysis of the two conflicting views and suggest that those jurisdictions that have rejected the ALI’s proposal should reconsider. Finally, Part V will briefly conclude.

A New Battleground for Free Speech: The Impact of Snyder v. Phelps

[Excerpt] “On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States put forth a set of constitutional amendments, ten of which would later become the Bill of Rights. The first of these amendments states, ―Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech . . . . In subsequent caselaw, the U.S. Supreme Court has applied this prohibition to the federal government, as well as state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. Although this appears to be a simple standard to follow, history has proven otherwise, and the deviations taken have been the subject of much debate.

Dynamical SUSY Breaking in Intersecting Brane Models

We present a simple mechanism by which supersymmetry can be dynamically broken in intersecting brane models, naturally generating an exponentially small scale. Rather than utilize either non-Abelian gauge dynamics or D-instantons, our mechanism uses worldsheet instantons to generate the small scale in a hidden sector.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, References adde

Estimates of Stellar Weak Interaction Rates for Nuclei in the Mass Range A=65-80

We estimate lepton capture and emission rates, as well as neutrino energy loss rates, for nuclei in the mass range A=65-80. These rates are calculated on a temperature/density grid appropriate for a wide range of astrophysical applications including simulations of late time stellar evolution and x-ray bursts. The basic inputs in our single particle and empirically inspired model are i) experimentally measured level and weak decay information, ii) estimates of matrix elements for allowed experimentally-unmeasured transitions based on the systematics of experimentally observed allowed transitions, and iii) estimates of the centroids of the GT resonances motivated by shell model calculations in the fp shell as well as by (n,p) and (p,n) experiments. Transitions involving Fermi resonances (isobaric analog states) are also included and dominate the rates for many interesting proton rich nuclei for which an experimentally-determined ground state lifetime is unavailable. To compare our results with more detailed shell model based calculations we also calculate weak rates for nuclei in the mass range A=60-65 for which Langanke and Martinez-Pinedo have provided rates. The typical deviation in the electron capture and B- decay rates for these ~30 nuclei is less than a factor of two or three for a wide range of temperature and density appropriate for pre-supernova stellar evolution. We also discuss some subtleties associated with the partition functions used in calculations of stellar weak rates and show that the proper treatment of the partition functions is essential for estimating high temperature beta decay rates. Partition functions based on un-converged Lanczos calculations can result in estimates of high temperature beta decay rates that are systematically low.Comment: Tables of rates for nuclei in the mass range A=66-110 are available from J. Prue

Parental Job Loss and Infant Health

Although there exists a large literature documenting various consequences of job loss, this paper is the first to explore the extent to which the health effects of job displacement extend to the children of displaced workers and also the first to consider whether there are any harmful effects for children who are not yet born when the separation occurs. I use detailed work and fertility histories from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the effect of parents' job displacements on children's birth weights. These data allow for an identification strategy that essentially compares the outcomes of children born after a displacement to the outcomes of their siblings born before using mother fixed effects. I find that husbands’ job losses have significant negative effects on infant health. They reduce birth weights by approximately four and a half percent with suggestive evidence that the effect is concentrated on the lower half of the birth weight distribution.children, infant health, job loss, displacement