Environmental assessment of trade: origins and critiques of effectiveness

Environmental assessment (EA) of trade negotiations was born of political and public unrest about the unaccounted-for environmental impact of trade. As a legally mandated policy tool, EA offered the promise of innovating environmental governance which would contribute towards environmental protection efforts. This dissertation reviews EA of trade models in the United States and the European Union. It reveals that the assessment model has not realized its full potential as an asset in the fight against environmental harms and has, at times, been relegated to the role of a box-ticking exercise. It argues that many of the observed shortcomings in principle could be addressed and that EA of trade can deliver on its potential and serve as a medium to engender participatory and collaborative efforts to encourage cohesion and steer environmental decision making in trade. In a world where the threat of environmental crises, such as climate change, is becoming increasingly real, EA of trade must be reclaimed and used as the innovative tool that was promised when it was created

Student Satisfaction with University Admissions and Financial Aid Services within Selected Organizational Structures

107 leaves. Advisor: Donald Adams.The problem. This study was conducted to determine if the organizational structure of an institution's admissions and financial aid offices is related to student satisfaction with the quality of services provided by these offices. Procedure. Three institutions were identified as having different organizational structures of admissions and financial aid operations. A random sample of undergraduate students from these three institutions participated in a telephone survey, responding to questions concerning their satisfaction with admissions and financial aid services. Responses were then analyzed using an analysis of variance to determine the extent of difference between student populations. Findinqs. The results of this research indicated no statistically significant differences in student satisfaction with admissions and financial aid services of different organizational structures. The findings did, however, indicate that freshmen were significantly more satisfied than continuing students on certain questions regarding admissions and financial aid services. Conclusion. Freshmen proved to be significantly more satisfied with admissions and financial aid services than continuing students. The least amount of difference between freshmen and continuing students' satisfaction appeared within an institution operating with an enrollment management concept. Recommendations. Further study examining the relationship between the organizational structure of admissions and financial aid operations and the extent of satisfaction felt by freshmen and continuing students would contribute more to the literature on admissions, financial aid and student retention. Additional research assessing satisfaction levels of parents, graduate students and nontraditional students could further impact the way in which institutions of higher education organize to best meet the needs of a changing student population

Discussing epigenetics in Southern California: A report from the International Symposium on Epigenetic Control and Cellular Plasticity, UCI, December 15–16, 2011

With the goal of discussing how epigenetic control and chromatin remodeling contribute to the various processes that lead to cellular plasticity and disease, this symposium marks the collaboration between the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in France and the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Organized by Paolo Sassone-Corsi (UCI) and held at the Beckman Center of the National Academy of Sciences at the UCI campus December 15–16, 2011, this was the first of a series of international conferences on epigenetics dedicated to the scientific community in Southern California. The meeting also served as the official kick off for the newly formed Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at the School of Medicine, UCI (http://cem.igb.uci.edu)

A phosphatase cascade by which rewarding stimuli control nucleosomal response

ArticleInternational audienceDopamine orchestrates motor behaviour and reward-driven learning. Perturbations of dopamine signalling have been implicated in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, and in drug addiction. The actions of dopamine are mediated in part by the regulation of gene expression in the striatum, through mechanisms that are not fully understood. Here we show that drugs of abuse, as well as food reinforcement learning, promote the nuclear accumulation of 32-kDa dopamine-regulated and cyclic-AMP-regulated phosphoprotein (DARPP-32). This accumulation is mediated through a signalling cascade involving dopamine D1 receptors, cAMP-dependent activation of protein phosphatase-2A, dephosphorylation of DARPP-32 at Ser 97 and inhibition of its nuclear export. The nuclear accumulation of DARPP-32, a potent inhibitor of protein phosphatase-1, increases the phosphorylation of histone H3, an important component of nucleosomal response. Mutation of Ser 97 profoundly alters behavioural effects of drugs of abuse and decreases motivation for food, underlining the functional importance of this signalling cascad