From Fertilisation to Implantation in Mammalian Pregnancy-Modulation of Early Human Reproduction by the Endocannabinoid System.

There is an increasing recognition that the endocannabinoid system is the crucial cytokine-hormone system regulating early human pregnancy. The synchronous development of the fertilized embryo and the endometrium to ensure timely implantation has been shown to be one of the pivotal steps to successful implantation. This development is thought to be regulated by a finely balanced relationship between various components of the endocannabinoid system in the endometrium, the embryo and the Fallopian tube. In addition, this system has also been shown to be involved in the regulation of the development and maturation of the gametes prior to fertilization. In this review, we will examine the evidence from animal and human studies to support the role of the endocannabinoid system in gametogenesis, fertilization, implantation, early pregnancy maintenance, and in immunomodulation of pregnancy. We will discuss the role of the cannabinoid receptors and the enzymes involved in the synthesis and degradation of the key endocannabinoid ligands (e.g., anandamide and 2-arachinoylglycerol) in early reproduction

The political economy of marine conservation

Beginning in the mid-2000s, governments increasingly began relying on marine protected areas (MPAs) larger than 200,000 km2 to help combat declining ocean health. This research asks two questions about this new phenomenon: why have large MPAs emerged as a part of the solution to ocean decline despite uncertain and disputed conservation potential, and what explains variance in how governments locate and manage large MPAs? To answer these questions, I propose a novel framework of environmental norm diffusion that divides the process into two stages: an international norm adoption stage, followed by a domestic norm localization stage. My argument is twofold. First, large MPAs have emerged as a part of a new global norm of large MPAs, with a select few transnational environmental NGOs (ENGOs) strategically targeting prospective sites in the absence of a cohesive multilateral civil society coalition. And second, governments make decisions about where to locate and how to manage a large MPA based on the salience of extractive and non-extractive industry interests within it. These interests are a function of an industry’s intensity of activity, factor specificity, asset specificity, and exogenous stressors. The configuration of industry interests based on these indicators determines the type of stakeholder coalition that forms in a large MPA negotiation process. States then make decisions about large MPA location and management based on which stakeholder group they have aligned their interests with. I explore these arguments through three case studies: the 2014 expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the US, the 2012 Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve in Australia, and the 2015 Palau National Marine Sanctuary in Palau. These case studies reflect state coalitions with ENGOs, the commercial fishing sector, and the ecotourism sector, respectively. This research uses a process tracing methodology that draws from 74 semi-structured fieldwork interviews in Australia, Palau, and the US. Interviewees include ENGO representatives, business owners and managers, industry association representatives, government officials, and marine scientists.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat

Parent Expectations of Collegiate Teaching and Caring and its Relationship to their Financial Profile

Parents have been referred to in the popular media as being over-involved and expressing this over-involvement by allegedly boasting they pay the costs of their student’s higher education. Literature regarding parent expectations and its relationship to the mechanics of how parents pay for college has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the expectations parents have of higher education institution and its relationship with their financial profile. This quantitative study merged the Parent Expectations of Collegiate Teaching and Caring (PECTAC) instrument with the COFHE 2007 Parent Survey. This web-based survey explored the expectations of parents of residential, first-year students at a large, public, research university in the north. The web-based merged survey was utilized to collect data from 351 parents at the beginning of the Spring 2011 semester. Parents were asked to rate their expectations using PECTAC teaching and caring item concept and then asked their expectations regarding financial profile concepts. Expectations were analyzed using a one-way MANOVA examination. Findings suggest parental expectations and financial profile were statistically related for the PECTAC Teaching concept of Technology Resources Provided in Support of Learning. Additionally, the study found similar parent expectation scores from the PECTAC Teaching and Caring constructs as the two other applications of the instrument. Finally, this study discussed recommendations for future research including further study of the mechanics of how parents are paying for college, maintenance and further use of the PECTAC, and identifying other independent variables to determine their relationship to Parent Expectations of Collegiate Teaching and Caring

Comparative analysis of 1152 African-American and European-American men with prostate cancer identifies distinct genomic and immunological differences.

Racial disparities in prostate cancer have not been well characterized on a genomic level. Here we show the results of a multi-institutional retrospective analysis of 1,152 patients (596 African-American men (AAM) and 556 European-American men (EAM)) who underwent radical prostatectomy. Comparative analyses between the race groups were conducted at the clinical, genomic, pathway, molecular subtype, and prognostic levels. The EAM group had increased ERG (P \u3c 0.001) and ETS (P = 0.02) expression, decreased SPINK1 expression (P \u3c 0.001), and basal-like (P \u3c 0.001) molecular subtypes. After adjusting for confounders, the AAM group was associated with higher expression of CRYBB2, GSTM3, and inflammation genes (IL33, IFNG, CCL4, CD3, ICOSLG), and lower expression of mismatch repair genes (MSH2, MSH6) (p \u3c 0.001 for all). At the pathway level, the AAM group had higher expression of genes sets related to the immune response, apoptosis, hypoxia, and reactive oxygen species. EAM group was associated with higher levels of fatty acid metabolism, DNA repair, and WNT/beta-catenin signaling. Based on cell lines data, AAM were predicted to have higher potential response to DNA damage. In conclusion, biological characteristics of prostate tumor were substantially different in AAM when compared to EAM

WTO must complete an ambitious fisheries subsidies agreement

Acknowledgements: U.R.S. and W.W.L.C. thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding the Solving FCB Research Partnership. U.R.S. acknowledges the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts. U.R.S. and L.A. are grateful to the Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy for support. M.B., W.W.L.C. and U.R.S. acknowledge support from the Canada Research Chairs program. S.V. gratefully acknowledges the financial support from EQUALSEA (Transformative adaptation towards ocean equity) project, under the European Horizon 2020 Program, ERC Consolidator (Grant Agreement # 101002784) funded by the European Research Council. Finally, we want to thank the Pew Charitable Trusts for their support of our (UBC’s Fisheries Economics Research Unit) research on the impacts of harmful fisheries subsidies