Predicting the Future: Parental Progeny Investment in Response to Environmental Stress Cues

Environmental stressors can severely limit the ability of an organism to reproduce as lifespan is decreased and resources are shifted away from reproduction to survival. Although this is often detrimental to the organism’s reproductive fitness, certain other reproductive stress responses may mitigate this effect by increasing the likelihood of progeny survival in the F1 and subsequent generations. Here we review three means by which these progeny may be conferred a competitive edge as a result of stress encountered in the parental generation: heritable epigenetic modifications to nucleotides and histones, simple maternal investments of cytosolic components, and the partially overlapping phenomenon of terminal investment, which can entail extreme parental investment strategies in either cytosolic components or gamete production. We examine instances of these categories and their ability to subsequently impact offspring fitness and reproduction. Ultimately, without impacting nucleotide sequence, these more labile alterations may shape development, evolution, ecology and even human health, necessitating further understanding and research into the specific mechanisms by which environmental stressors are sensed and elicit a corresponding response in the parental germline

Pancreatic adaptive responses in alcohol abuse: Role of the unfolded protein response.

The majority of those who drink excessive amounts of alcohol do not develop pancreatic disease. One overarching hypothesis is that alcohol abuse requires additional risk factors, either environmental or genetic, for disease to occur. However, another reason be a result of alcohol-induced activation of adaptive systems that protect the pancreas from the toxic effects of alcohol. We show that mechanisms within the unfolded protein response (UPR) of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that can lead to protection of the pancreas from pancreatic diseases with alcohol abuse. The remarkable ability of the pancreas to adapt its machinery to alcohol abuse using UPR systems and continue functioning is the likely reason that pancreatitis from alcohol abuse does not occur in the majority of heavy drinkers. These findings indicate that methods to enhance the protective responses of the UPR can provide opportunities for prevention and treatment of pancreatic diseases

Launching the Grand Challenges for Ocean Conservation

The ten most pressing Grand Challenges in Oceans Conservation were identified at the Oceans Big Think and described in a detailed working document:A Blue Revolution for Oceans: Reengineering Aquaculture for SustainabilityEnding and Recovering from Marine DebrisTransparency and Traceability from Sea to Shore:  Ending OverfishingProtecting Critical Ocean Habitats: New Tools for Marine ProtectionEngineering Ecological Resilience in Near Shore and Coastal AreasReducing the Ecological Footprint of Fishing through Smarter GearArresting the Alien Invasion: Combating Invasive SpeciesCombatting the Effects of Ocean AcidificationEnding Marine Wildlife TraffickingReviving Dead Zones: Combating Ocean Deoxygenation and Nutrient Runof

Foundation to Promote Scholarship and Teaching 2013-2014 Awards

Proposal abstracts of 2013-2014 award recipients in a wide range of disciplinary areas

Understanding the Relationship Between Sex Trafficking and Opioid Use in Central Ohio: An Application of Sociological Deviance Theories

Central Ohio is, unfortunately, a hub for both sex trafficking and the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this study is to better understand how the opioid epidemic has affected the prevalence of sex trafficking in Central Ohio. The objectives are to explore the experiences of anti-trafficking service providers in handling sex trafficking and opioid use cases in Central Ohio, to understand the relationship between sex trafficking and opioid use in Central Ohio, and to compile next steps in tackling both issues based on perceived barriers according to service providers. Phone interviews were conducted with eight anti-trafficking service providers from Central Ohio and overarching themes were identified. Findings suggest that opioids are used by traffickers to exploit vulnerabilities and lead women into trafficking and then used to maintain control over the victims once they are trafficked. Then, victims may start using opioids in order to cope with traumas they face. Some people also end up getting caught in the cycle of trafficking after selling their bodies to receive money for drugs to fuel a previously existing addiction. Additionally, it appears that personal drug use has increased among individual victims who are trafficked and that the drug of choice has shifted from crack cocaine to heroin, an opioid. Lastly, victims of sex trafficking and people who abuse opioids face similar barriers that prevent them from seeking out or obtaining professional help, like such as shame, stigma, lack of education, and lack of availability of resources. By applying sociological theory, furthermore, Howard Becker's Labeling Theory is deduced to have more support in the context of trafficking and opioid use over Emile Durkheim's Anomie Theory. In addition, providing more resources and education about addiction and mental health care, and approaching trafficking from an intersectional and sociological lens may be a critical way to help prevent trafficking from occurring in the future.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Intensifying Insecurities: The impact of climate change on vulnerability to human trafficking in the Indian Sundarbans

Despite an enormous amount of attention paid to the factors that shape vulnerability to human trafficking, such as poverty and a lack of economic opportunity, the debate of evidence for what enables these factors to exist in the first place is relatively less explored. Presently, discussions of the relationship between climate change and human insecurity have been marginal to broader debates about vulnerability to trafficking. This paper argues that this signifies a gap in our understanding of the underlying drivers that push individuals and communities into situations where vulnerability to trafficking amplifies, but also that increase the pull of risky migration pathways and exploitative work situations. This paper proceeds by examining and problematising dominant conceptualisations of vulnerability in human trafficking and climate change discourses. Next, it presents a case study of the Sundarbans region of India to highlight how climate change impacts compound and exacerbate the same factors that shape vulnerability to human trafficking—including environmental degradation, loss of livelihood, destitution, and forced migration. Lastly, it argues for enhanced attention to climate change-related insecurity as evidence of vulnerability to trafficking and outlines what such insights can bring to anti-trafficking efforts

Resiliency in survivors of human trafficking : An exploratory study of clinicians\u27 perspectives of protective factors

This qualitative study explores the salutogenic question as it relates to female survivors of human trafficking, Why, when women are exposed to the same trauma which causes some to become ill, do some remain healthy? Using a standardized open-ended interview format, this author gathered the perspectives of twelve health and social services providers, including executive directors, case management workers, mental health counselors, and advocates. This data was compiled and analyzed, alongside the existing literature on resiliency and within the framework of Salutogenic Theory. All participants identified protective factors that contribute to resiliency based on their professional work with female survivors in: Belgium, Colombia, France, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Saipan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States. This study specifically highlights protective factors that are consistent cross culturally and can be used by providers of clinical treatment to develop more informed prevention and treatment programs for survivors of human trafficking. The findings are consistent with protective factors identified in current research and have been categorized into the themes of Relationships, Disposition, Education, and Environmental Factors. Participants emphasized factors that related to survivors\u27 sense of belonging, including the protective nature of being a caregiver, as well as family of origin support, strong community relationships, and connection to religion. This study underscores the complexity and variation among these protective factors as they relate to survivors of human trafficking cross culturally

Forced Migration in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian countries host significant numbers of forcibly displaced populations, both within countries and across borders. This brief review paper provides a basic overview on recent forced migration research in Southeast Asia for the period 2013 to 2018. To this end, a keyword search with two predefined sets of search terms was carried out in the Web of Science database in September 2018. The identified research literature corpus was then analyzed regarding persons of concern, study site(s) (country/ies) as well as main drivers of migration. The results show that the major part of studies focuses on refugees and asylum seekers in the region’s main host countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This correspondence between current research trends and the distribution of refugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia could, however, not be identified for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Although Southeast Asian countries account for a substantial share of worldwide IDPs, only a very limited number of identified studies focus on this group of persons of concern