U.S. Agricultural Export Credits after the WTO Cotton Ruling: The Law of Unintended Consequences

The recent WTO cotton ruling has led to a paradoxical result for the United States, a result that seems a textbook illustration of the "law of unintended consequences". Indeed, during the Uruguay Round negotiations of the present WTO agreements, the United States refused to put agricultural export credits in the category of agricultural export subsidies, where they would then have been subject only to reduction commitments. Paradoxically, the United States finds itself now in a position where these same agricultural export credits that it did not condescend to reduce during the Uruguay Round are openly considered as prohibited export subsidies. This article analyses and criticizes the tortuous legal path followed by the cotton panel before arriving at such a radical conclusion.Agreement on Agriculture, Brazil, cotton, Doha Round, export credits, export subsidies, SCM, United States, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

Softwood Lumber: Exact Significance of the Recent Canadian Victory before the WTO and Prospects in the Context of the Pending Second Lumber Case

Recently, the WTO Panel in charge of the softwood lumber case brought by Canada against the United States ruled in favor of Canada. The “benefit conferred” criterion played a critical role in the ruling, which concluded that the United States used a flawed cross-border methodology to demonstrate the existence of such a benefit. However, the Canadian victory would have been more decisive if the WTO panel had found the absence of a governmental financial contribution. The cross-border methodology will be once again at the heart of the pending second lumber case before the WTO. This article evaluates the prospects for the case in this context.Canada, cross-border methodology, dispute, financial contribution, softwood lumber, stumpage, United States, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

Circadian Regulation of Adult Stem Cell Homeostasis and Aging

The circadian clock temporally organizes cellular physiology throughout the day, allowing daily environmental changes to be anticipated and potentially harmful physiologic processes to be temporally separated. By synchronizing all cells at the tissue level, the circadian clock ensures coherent temporal organismal physiology. Recent advances in our understanding of adult stem cell physiology suggest that aging and perturbations in circadian rhythmicity in stem cells are tightly intertwined. Here we discuss how circadian rhythms regulate and synchronize adult stem cell functions and how alterations in clock function during aging modulate the extrinsic and intrinsic mechanisms that determine adult stem cell homeostasis

Bivariate lifetime distributions

A thorough investigation of a bivariate Gompertz hazard function for failure time (x,y) and its joint survival distribution

Characterizing putative sexually dimorphic effects of a propionic acid induced autism spectrum disorder phenotype in adult male and female rats

Research suggests that certain gut and dietary factors may worsen symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies have shown that treatment with the bacterial product, propionic acid (PPA), elicits neuroinflammatory and behavioral responses in rats that are characteristic of ASD in humans. A consistent male bias in ASD prevalence has been observed, and several sex-differential genetic and hormonal factors have been suggested to contribute. However, most studies of ASD, including those involving PPA, focus on males. The present study explored putative sex differences in the effects of PPA (500mg/kg) on a rat behavioral ASD phenotype and the influence of the estrous cycle and fluctuations in estradiol and progesterone. This was accompanied by examinations of the effects of ovariectomy and hormone replacement therapy with estradiol and progesterone. PPA produced no sex-differential effects, and elevated hormonal levels did not seem to play a protective role against the adverse effects of PPA

Metastatic-initiating cells and lipid metabolism

The identity of the cells responsible for initiating and promoting metastasis has been historically elusive. Consequently, this has hampered our ability to develop specific anti-metastatic treatments, resulting in the majority of metastatic cancers remaining clinically untreatable. Furthermore, advances in genome sequencing indicate that the acquisition of metastatic competency does not seem to involve the accumulation of de novo mutations, making it difficult to understand why some tumours become metastatic while others do not. We have recently identified metastatic-initiating cells, and described how they specifically rely on fatty acid uptake and lipid metabolism to promote metastasis. This intriguing finding indicates that external influences, such as those derived from our diet, exert a strong influence on tumour progression, and that such dietary factors could be therapeutically modulated if understood. In this News and Thoughts, I will comment on recent findings regarding how and why lipid metabolism modulates the behaviour of metastatic cells, and how this knowledge can be harnessed to devise new and specific anti-metastatic therapies

The RNA–Methyltransferase Misu (NSun2) Poises Epidermal Stem Cells to Differentiate

Homeostasis of most adult tissues is maintained by balancing stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, but whether post-transcriptional mechanisms can regulate this process is unknown. Here, we identify that an RNA methyltransferase (Misu/Nsun2) is required to balance stem cell self-renewal and differentiation in skin. In the epidermis, this methyltransferase is found in a defined sub-population of hair follicle stem cells poised to undergo lineage commitment, and its depletion results in enhanced quiescence and aberrant stem cell differentiation. Our results reveal that post-transcriptional RNA methylation can play a previously unappreciated role in controlling stem cell fate