The physiological significance of insemination in programming pregnancy outcome

The cellular and molecular environment of the uterus during the pre - and peri - implantation period of early pregnancy is critical for implantation success and optimal fetal and placental development. Perturbations to this environment not only have consequences for the success of pregnancy and neonatal health and viability, but can also drive adverse health outcomes in the offspring after birth, particularly the development of metabolic disorders such as obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance. The influence of seminal plasma on the cytokine and immune uterine environment has been previously well characterised in mice, however the effects of disruption in uterine seminal plasma exposure for pregnancy outcome have not been investigated. The studies described in this thesis employed the use of surgical seminal vesicle ablation in males and embryo transfer experiments to investigate the physiological significance of uterine seminal plasma exposure on programming fetal and neonatal outcomes, and growth and metabolic status in adult offspring. We demonstrate that in the absence of seminal plasma, oocyte fertilisation and embryo implantation are reduced, showing that seminal plasma acts primarily to facilitate fertilisation, possibly by promoting sperm transport and survival in the reproductive tract. In addition we show that pregnancies initiated in the absence of seminal plasma give rise to offspring which display accelerated growth after birth and increased adiposity in adulthood, compared to those developed in a tract exposed to seminal plasma at the time of conception. Offspring conceived in the absence of seminal plasma also displayed alterations in serum leptin and adiponectin content, similar to those known to be associated with obesity in the mouse. Using embryo transfer experiments, we showed that some, but not all aspects of the perturbed postnatal development are recapitulated when embryos fertilised in the presence of what semen are transferred to a recipient tract which has not been exposed to seminal plasma. More severe perturbations were seen in 2 - cell transfer than in blastocyst transfer experiment. Additionally, there was a significant effect of the embryo transfer procedure, irrespective of seminal plasma exposure, on fetal and postnatal development that confounded interpretation of these experiments. In addition, we investigated the potential mechanisms by which the influence of seminal plasma is exerted. Mediators of pre - implantation embryo development, implantation and the modulation of the maternal immune response to pregnancy were all assessed for regulation by seminal plasma using QRT - PCR. It was demonstrated that seminal plasma exposure induces the up - regulation of key embryotrophic factors, LIF, GM - CSF and IL - 6, in the oviduct following insemination. Factors important in tissue remodelling required for implantation and angiogenesis, MMP - 2, MMP - 3 and VEGF - C, were also shown to be increased at the time of implantation after seminal plasma exposure. Additionally the generation of T - regulatory cells in uterine tissues, demonstrated by the up - regulation of the transcription factor FOXp3 was shown to be dependent on semen exposure. The influence of seminal plasma on embryonic development, implantation and modulation of the maternal immune response to pregnancy may therefore be mechanisms which contribute to the adverse outcomes seen in pregnancies initiated in the absence of seminal plasma. Together these experiments show a role for seminal plasma signalling at the time of insemination in influencing the pre - implantation embryo to program later fetal and neonatal development, thereby impacting on the metabolic health of offspring. We conclude that seminal plasma is not simply a transport medium for sperm, but acts also as a key regulator of a female tract environment providing optimal support for the developing embryo.Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, 2006

Book review: Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World

This article reviews the book: “Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World”, by Mark C. Elliott

Thinking strategically about customers: a view from the health and fitness industry

Customer retention is considered to be one of the key areas for most service providers in the UK Health and Fitness Industry. Much of the existing research and activity concerning customer retention is considered at a tactical, operational level with little emphasis being placed on the strategic considerations that an organisation needs to consider in order to move toward a customer-centred philosophy. This paper suggests that customer retention levels can be improved by thinking more strategically about the organisational purpose, its resources and customers

Book review: Environment and Empire

This article reviews the book: “Environment and Empire”, by William Beinart and Lotte Hughes, Oxford University Press, 2007

Making the case for action learning as an effective framework for strategy making.

Competitive businesses are complex and unpredictable environments. Often this forces strategy makers to adopt a trial and error approach with little time to reflect on the success or failure. Action learning may offer a solution

Power-knowledge and critique in Australian legal education : 1987-2003

While the word 'critique' appeared frequently in Australian legal education texts between 1987 and 2003, the meaning and the emphasis accorded critique varied widely. Michel Foucault's ideas about the close relationship between knowledge and power provide a theoretical framework within which this inconsistency of meaning and emphasis can be described, analysed and explained. Rather than monolithic, the discipline of legal education was by 2003 a dynamic nexus of distinct and competing discourses: doctrinalism, vocationalism, corporatism, liberalism, pedagogicalism and radicalism. Each of these six discourses was simultaneously a form of knowledge and an expression of disciplinary power within the law school. As a form of knowledge, each discourse accorded critique a different meaning and a different emphasis as a consequence of a range of historical, social and political contingencies. As an expression of power, each discourse was an attempt to achieve a set of objectives including the universalisation of a particular approach to the teaching of law and the enhancement of the status of a particular role within the law school. Critique, in a variety of forms, was a strategy employed by each discourse in order to achieve these objectives and to dominate and displace competing discourses

Book review: Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World

This article reviews the book: “Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World”, by Durba Ghosh and Dane Kennedy

Analysis of quantification methods used for cell viability, cell morphology, and synaptic formation in modeling HIV associated dementia in primary neuronal cultures.

Change is inevitable, changes in neuronal function occur in physiologic and pathologic processes. The ability to reliably analyze and quantify those changes in neuronal morphology and function has been an important part of technical developments in Neuroscience. A key innovation in the Neuroscience was the development of primary neuronal cultures. Primary neuronal cultures allow neurons to be dissociated and studied as individual components. The study of specific pathologic processes associated with neurodegeneration have benefited greatly from the development and characterization of dissociated primary neuronal cultures. Human Immunodeficiency Virus can lead to a neurodegenerative process. Establishing a consistent model for studying the effects of HIV infection in the brain has provided a unique challenge. The use of analysis of quantification of neuronal changes in dissociated primary neurons modeling HIV dementia has proven useful. As the study of this disorder continues the characterization of the model system will become increasing important. This review will focus on analysis of specific techniques used to quantify specific changes in neurons in this model system. As this field moves forward it will be important to specifically focus on techniques involved in cell viability, morphologic changes, and synaptic formatio

Climate change, forest conservation and science: A case study of New Zealand, 1860s-1920

To most of its European settlers, New Zealand was a land blessed by Providence. A temperate climate and year-round rainfall, easy availability of land and myriad work opportunities attracted many to the new colony. Climate and health figured prominently in migration considerations and many writers took delight in pointing out, as propagandist John Ward did to intending migrants in 1839, that in New Zealand: A never-failing moisture is dispersed over the country by the clouds which collect on the mountain-tops, without the occurrence of rainy seasons, beyond storms of a few days’ duration. This refreshing moisture, combined with the influence of the sea-breezes, renders the climate very favourable to the health, and development, of the human frame. And vegetation is, from the same cause, highly luxuriant, and the verdure almost perpetual

Catholic missions and missionaries in Maine, 1611-1724

Typewritten sheets in cover. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University Bibliography: p. 70-76