Mailing It In: European Union Efforts at Pension Reform

Occupational pension schemes are one pillar of the European pension system; the other pillars are public schemes and individual pension plans. Authoritative sources have noted that the dearth of specific European Union ( EU ) rules regarding occupational pension schemes and the stringent requirements upon them, such as workers losing their pension rights should they move between countries, have certain negative consequences, such as impairing labor mobility. On October 11, 2000, the EU issued a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the activities of institutions for occupational retirement provision ( Directive ). The catalyst to this Directive was to assist the efforts of occupational fund schemes in relieving the impending financial pressures on the Member States\u27 public systems. The Directive is to address various challenges to the overall pension system by strengthening one of its pillars, the occupational pension scheme. [CONT

Texas Forestry Paper No. 28

Plants following timber harvest: importance to songbirdshttps://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/texas_forestry_papers/1016/thumbnail.jp

Soil response to clearcutting and site preparation in East Texas

On an east Texas forest site, clearcutting and site preparation did not change the soil pH. Chopping and KG blading significantly reduced organic matter in the surface soil, while burning slightly increased it. Organic matter showed a positive and significant relationship to potassium, calcium and magnesium. All site treatments increased phosphorus and potassium, with the greatest increase on the burned plots. Calcium and magnesium contents also increased with burning but decreased with KG blading. Burning appeared better than the other treatments for maintaining or improving the soil nutrient regime. However, planted loblolly pine seedlings survived and grew best with mechanical treatments that controlled competing vegetation

Report of the 11th Liaison Meeting

The   11thLiaison   Meeting   between   the   Chairs   of   the   RCMs,   the   ICES   PGCCDBS,   PGMED  and  PGECON,  the  STECF  EWGs  on  the  DCF,  the  Regional  Database  Steering   Committees,  the  ICES  and  GFCM  representatives  and  the  European  Commission  was   held  at  the  DG  Maritime  Affairs  and  Fisheries,  Brussels  from  8th  to  9th  October  2014. The  11th  Liaison  meeting  was  held  in  Brussels  on  8th  and  9th  October  2014  to  address  the   following  terms  of  reference:     TOR  1.  Discussion  on  possible  follow-­‐‑up  to  the  main  outputs/recommendations  of:   • The  2014  RCMs  and  to  the   sp ecific  re commenda tions  a ddr e sse d  to  th e  Liaison   Meeting   • P G ECO N ,  PG CCDBS,  PG Med   –   ou tcome s  an d  r e commendation s  fr om  the ir   2014  meeting     • STECF  EWG  and  STEC F  Plen ary   -­‐‑   ou tcome s  a n d  r e commendation s  fr om  the ir   2014  meeting     • Data  end-­‐‑ users  (IC ES,  G F C M,  RC Ms)   TOR  2.  Compilation  of  recommendations  on  the  DCF   A  compilation  of  DCF  recommendations  will  be  established  by  the  COM  by  end  2014.   LM   needs   to   agree   on   which   recommendations   should   be   included   (i.e.   from   which   bodies)  &  covering  which  years.     TOR  3.  Regional  cooperation   • G r ants  for  str eng thene d  reg ion al  coop eration     • R e g ional  da ta b ases   o O ver view  of  use  of  the  Reg ional  Datab ases  for  R CMs  in  2014,  and  p rob lems   identified   o O ther  deve lop ments  (RDB  training s  in  2014,  RDB  Med&BS  develop ment)   o Chang es  for  the  fu tu re   –  an y  re commen da tions  from  th e  LM?   • R C M  data  calls   –  ove rview  of  h ow  MS  r esp onde d.   TOR  4.  Recommended  meetings/workshops   • P r ep a r e  a  list  of  r ecommen ded  me etin g s  for  2015  as  g u idance  for  MS   TOR  5.  Studies   • O ver view  of  p rocess   • LM  comme nts  and  p r ioritization  of  studies  p r op osed  b y  RC Ms,  PG ECO N ,  ICES,   GFCM   TOR  6.  AOB     1. The  DCF  website  has  been  revamped  by  the  JRC.  Any  comments  on  this?   2. Access  to  the  RCM  SharePoint   3. Derogations  –  List  of  derogations  by  Member  State  has  been  prepared  by  DG   MARE.  Have  any  RCMs  updated  this?     4. ICES  will  provide  an  update  on  their  plans  to  re-­‐‑evaluate  surveys.  Should  this   be  followed  by  STECF  work  on  surveys  to  be  included  in  future  EU  MAP?   5. Annual  reports  –  simplification:  presentation  of  process. 6. Data  transmission:   a. new   platform   for   information   exchanges   between   COM,   MS   and   end-­‐‑ users   b. new   tool   for   reporting   on   how   MS   complied   with   the   DG   MARE/JRC   data  calls     In   addition   to   the   above   Terms   of   Reference,   an   item   was   added   at   the   start   of   the   meeting,  regarding  the  implication  of  the  Landing  Obligation  on  data  collection  and   the  Discard  Plans.

A Small Molecule That Binds and Inhibits the ETV1 Transcription Factor Oncoprotein

Members of the ETS transcription factor family have been implicated in several cancers, where they are often dysregulated by genomic derangement. ETS variant 1 (ETV1) is an ETS factor gene that undergoes chromosomal translocation in prostate cancers and Ewing sarcomas, amplification in melanomas, and lineage dysregulation in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Pharmacologic perturbation of ETV1 would be appealing in these cancers; however, oncogenic transcription factors are often deemed “undruggable” by conventional methods. Here, we used small-molecule microarray screens to identify and characterize drug-like compounds that modulate the biologic function of ETV1. We identified the 1,3,5-triazine small molecule BRD32048 as a top candidate ETV1 perturbagen. BRD32048 binds ETV1 directly, modulating both ETV1-mediated transcriptional activity and invasion of ETV1-driven cancer cells. Moreover, BRD32048 inhibits p300-dependent acetylation of ETV1, thereby promoting its degradation. These results point to a new avenue for pharmacologic ETV1 inhibition and may inform a general means to discover small molecule perturbagens of transcription factor oncoproteins.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Initiative for Chemical Genetics Contract N01-CO-12400)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Cancer Target Discovery and Development Network RC2 CA148399

A Small Molecule that Binds and Inhibits the ETV1 Transcription Factor Oncoprotein

Members of the ETS transcription factor family have been implicated in several cancers, where they are often dysregulated by genomic derangement. ETS variant 1 (ETV1) is an ETS factor gene that undergoes chromosomal translocation in prostate cancers and Ewing\u27s sarcomas, amplification in melanomas, and lineage dysregulation in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Pharmacologic perturbation of ETV1 would be appealing in these cancers; however, oncogenic transcription factors are often deemed “undruggable” by conventional methods. Here, we used small-molecule microarray (SMM) screens to identify and characterize drug-like compounds that modulate the biological function of ETV1. We identified the 1,3,5-triazine small molecule BRD32048 as a top candidate ETV1 perturbagen. BRD32048 binds ETV1 directly, modulating both ETV1-mediated transcriptional activity and invasion of ETV1-driven cancer cells. Moreover, BRD32048 inhibits p300-dependent acetylation of ETV1, thereby promoting its degradation. These results point to a new avenue for pharmacological ETV1 inhibition and may inform a general means to discover small molecule perturbagens of transcription factor oncoproteins