In California, Companies Struggle to Combat Human Trafficking, Slavery In Compliance With Transparency in Supply Chains Act: Report

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.CLW_2015_Report_China_in_california.pdf: 106 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Proposal for detection of magnetic fields through magnetostrictive perturbation of optical fibers

The possibility of detecting magnetic fields by a magnetostrictive straining of optical fibers is investigated. The effect of shot noise and the limiting sensitivity are considered

Central pattern generator for swimming in Melibe

The nudibranch mollusc Melibe leonina swims by bending from side to side. We have identified a network of neurons that appears to constitute the central pattern generator (CPG) for this locomotor behavior, one of only a few such networks to be described in cellular detail. The network consists of two pairs of interneurons, termed `swim interneuron 1\u27 (sint1) and `swim interneuron 2\u27 (sint2), arranged around a plane of bilateral symmetry. Interneurons on one side of the brain, which includes the paired cerebral, pleural and pedal ganglia, coordinate bending movements toward the same side and communicate via non-rectifying electrical synapses. Interneurons on opposite sides of the brain coordinate antagonistic movements and communicate over mutually inhibitory synaptic pathways. Several criteria were used to identify members of the swim CPG, the most important being the ability to shift the phase of swimming behavior in a quantitative fashion by briefly altering the firing pattern of an individual neuron. Strong depolarization of any of the interneurons produces an ipsilateral swimming movement during which the several components of the motor act occur in sequence. Strong hyperpolarization causes swimming to stop and leaves the animal contracted to the opposite side for the duration of the hyperpolarization. The four swim interneurons make appropriate synaptic connections with motoneurons, exciting synergists and inhibiting antagonists. Finally, these are the only neurons that were found to have this set of properties in spite of concerted efforts to sample widely in the Melibe CNS. This led us to conclude that these four cells constitute the CPG for swimming. While sint1 and sint2 work together during swimming, they play different roles in the generation of other behaviors. Sint1 is normally silent when the animal is crawling on a surface but it depolarizes and begins to fire in strong bursts once the foot is dislodged and the animal begins to swim. Sint2 also fires in bursts during swimming, but it is not silent in non-swimming animals. Instead activity in sint2 is correlated with turning movements as the animal crawls on a surface. This suggests that the Melibe motor system is organized in a hierarchy and that the alternating movements characteristic of swimming emerge when activity in sint1 and sint2 is bound together

Children at risk : their phonemic awareness development in holistic instruction

Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-19

The Ability of Horseshoe Crabs (Limulus polyphemus) To Detect Changes in Temperature

Previous studies have suggested that horseshoe crabs prefer warm water, suggesting that they may be able to detect changes in water temperature. The overall goal of this study was to test this hypothesis. Our specific objectives were to: 1) find out if horseshoe crabs can detect temperature changes; 2) determine the magnitude of temperature change they can detect, and; 3) determine whether their temperature receptors are located internally or externally. Animals were placed in a light-tight chamber that received a constant flow of cooled seawater. Their heart rates were continuously recorded and a change in heart rate following the addition of warmer water was used as an indicator that they sensed the change in temperature. The results showed that 50% of horseshoe crabs responded to a temperature change of 1°C, while 100% responded to a temperature change of 2.6°C. Over half of the horseshoe crabs also responded to a rate of temperature change of less than 1.5°C. Both of these results indicate that horseshoe crabs can, indeed, sense temperature changes. Also, the horseshoe crabs typically showed a response before their internal temperature changed, indicating that their temperature receptors are most likely located externally

Rhetoric or reality? A critical investigation of the market model for community care

In the 1950s the term community care was associated with the movement of people with mental health problems from longstay institutions into the community. More recently, however, the term has applied to services to a much wider range of groups including older people. The thesis is concerned with community care services for this group and in particular, domiciliary care. It seeks to evaluate claims made in the White Paper: 'Caring for People' that its preferred model of community care can provide both increased service effectiveness for consumers and cost control. The thesis argues that community care policy was shaped by 'managerialist' assumptions and that improved performance could be delivered by organisational change, in particular the quasi-market and the use of managerialist techniques. Thus, the two phenomena of 'managerialism' and 'quasi markets' are conjoined, the latter offering to the former the possibility of competition between providers, which in turn is seen to provide greater user choice and value for money. Two key reports from the Audit Commission are analysed as exemplars of managerialism and community care. The connection between the reports and government policy is discussed and the evidence presented in them for community care, as a cost containment policy, is scrutinised. The consumer effectiveness argument for community care is examined by considering, in particular, the relationship between consumer choice and the market model of community care advocated in the Griffiths report: 'Community Care: Agenda for Action' (1988) and the White Paper: Caring for People (1989). It is argued that both the government proposals and much of the critical academic commentary fail to examine various underlying premises, in particular, the salience of 'choice' as a universally desirable objective. The themes outlined above are explored in empirical work undertaken in the case study local authority. The consumer effectiveness issue is analysed with reference to a survey of users of domiciliary care services. The survey is used to examine how far the assumptions made by both government and many academic commentators, with regard to user satisfaction, correspond to those of users. The analysis questions these assumptions showing that 'consumerist' notions of choice of service are much less significant than personal aspects of the service such as 'caring manner' and continuity of relation with carer. Cost control issues are examined by considering an example of 'value for money' auditing in the authority. Analysis of this project suggests the difficulties which such exercises have in generating appropriate norms for service provision in domiciliary care. The thesis concludes by relating the themes explored to current problems in community care policy, in particular the increasing significance of rationing and eligibility criteria

Modulation of swimming in the gastropod Melibe leonina by nitric oxide

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous intercellular messenger produced by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase. It has been implicated as a neuromodulator in several groups of animals, including gastropods, crustaceans and mammals. In this study, we investigated the effects of NO on the swim motor program produced by isolated brains and by semi-intact preparations of the nudibranch Melibe leonina. The NO donors sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 1 mmol l–1) and S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP, 1 mmol l–1) both had a marked effect on the swim motor program expressed in isolated brains, causing an increase in the period of the swim cycle and a more erratic swim rhythm. In semi-intact preparations, the effect of NO donors was manifested as a significant decrease in the rate of actual swimming. An NO scavenger, reduced oxyhemoglobin, eliminated the effects of NO donors on isolated brains, supporting the assumption that the changes in swimming induced by donors were actually due to NO. The cGMP analogue 8-bromoguanosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (1 mmol l–1) produced effects that mimicked those of NO donors, suggesting that NO is working via a cGMP-dependent mechanism. These results, in combination with previous histological studies indicating the endogenous presence of nitric oxide synthase, suggest that NO is used in the central nervous system of Melibe leonina to modulate swimming

Skewed sex ratio in an estuarine lobster (Homarus americanus) population

A total of 19,485 lobsters were caught sites in the estuarine and coastal waters of New Hampshire from 1989 to 1992, and their size and sex were determined. The sex ratio of lobsters caught farthest from the coast, in Great Bay, was heavily skewed in favor in males. Sex ratios in other estuarine and river sites were also skewed toward males, and there was a tendency for the number of males per female to decline as one moved down the estuary toward the coast, where the sex ratio was nearly 1:1. The single offshore site was dominated by females, with about 0.6 males for each female. There were also seasonal trends in the sex ratios in the upper estuarine sties, where the number of males per female tended to decline from summer through autumn. In general, differences in the sex ratios between sites were those of primarily adult lobsters larger than 80 mm carapace length (CL). At all sites, the sex ratio of lobsters smaller than this size was close to 1:1, whereas in the upper estuary the mean sex ratio of lobsters greater than 80 mm CL was more than 14:1. These data, in conjunction with seasonal variations of sex ratios, suggest that differential movements of adult male and female lobsters is the primary cause of skewed sex ratios in the Great Bay Estuary

Gills as Possible Accessory Circulatory Pumps in Limulus polyphemus

Heart electrical activity (ECGs), gill closer muscle potentials (EMGs), and blood pressures in the heart and the branchiocardiac canals, were measured in adult horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) during various activities. During ventilation, hyperventilation, and swimming, large transient increases in pressures (10-35 cm H2O) occur in the branchiocardiac canals, which carry blood from the gills to the heart. These pulses of positive pressure are related to, and apparently caused by, gill plate closing. During quiescent periods, with no ventilatory activity, there are no pressure pulses in the canals, but the pressure is still greater than zero. We found covariation of heart and ventilation rates during intermittent ventilation, hyperventilation, gill cleaning, and swimming, as well as evidence of transient periods of phasic coordination. The heart appears to be weakly entrained to the gill rhythm by phasic cardioregulatory nerve input. The preferred phase of heartbeats, with respect to gill rhythm, was 0.5, or 180 degrees out of phase. In some animals, intra-cardiac pressures were enhanced when the heart and gill rhythms were entrained. We suggest that rhythmic movements of the gill plates enhance the flow of low pressure blood returning from the body to the heart. Thus, ventilatory appendage movements may constitute an accessory blood pumping mechanism in Limulus