Endangered Species Act Reform Proposals: An Environmentalist’s Perspective

11 pages

Endangered Species Act Reform Proposals: An Environmentalist’s Perspective

11 pages

The Flipper Phenomenon: Perspectives On The Panama Declaration And The Dolphin Safe Label

During the past twenty years, few marine conservation issues have aroused as much public interest as the drowning of dolphins in purse seine nets. For a generation that grew up watching the playful antics of Flipper on television, graphic video footage of dolphins hauled to their deaths in tuna nets was simply too much to stomach. Led by American school children and their baby-boomer parents, consumer boycotts of tuna spurred tuna harvesters and Congress to adopt measures requiring dolphin safe labeling and prohibiting the importation of non-dolphin-safe tuna into the United States. Since the adoption of these measures, the number of dolphins killed in the ETP tuna fishery has dramatically declined. Curiously, however, encirclement of dolphins by tuna fishers occurs as frequently today as it did before the adoption of dolphin safe restrictions. In a remarkable display of innovation and commitment to solving an environmental problem and a public-relations nightmare, ETP tuna fishers have perfected fishing methods that allow the encirclement and safe release of dolphins while tuna are caught. Despite this progress, however, tuna caught in this manner are still not considered dolphin safe. Moreover, tuna from other nations which allow encirclement and safe release are still embargoed under U.S. law. Faced with this situation, on October 4, 1995, twelve nations adopted the Panama Declaration. This blueprint for developing a legally binding and enforceable agreement within the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) is intended to further reduce and eventually eliminate dolphin deaths caused by tuna fishing operations. The Panama Declaration forms the basis for an international agreement that will provide protection for individual dolphin stocks and species to ensure their continued growth and recovery. It will also help reduce the incidental capture of other marine life, such as sea turtles, sharks, and billfish. Finally, the Panama Declaration adopts measures designed to guarantee the sustained health of the tuna fishery and the marine ecosystem of the ETP. Impeding implementation of the Panama Declaration, however, is the definition of dolphin safe. The implementation of the Panama Declaration calls for dolphin safe to be re-defined from its current meaning of no encirclement of dolphins to a more meaningful definition of no dolphin mortality. Legislation introduced in Congress to implement the Panama Declaration, which proposes to change the definition of dolphin safe, has resulted in a heated debate-one which pits the Clinton Administration, the fishing industry, several national environmental groups, and a bipartisan coalition in Congress against an array of animal welfare and environmental organizations, Hollywood stars, and their congressional allies. Consequently, quick passage of this pivotal legislation has been hampered.. This Article explores the history of efforts under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA or the Act ), to reduce dolphin mortality, including the development and implementation of the dolphin safe label, international efforts to reduce dolphin mortality, and the genesis of the Panama Declaration. This Article concludes by examining the impact that implementation of the Panama Declaration would most likely have on dolphins and other marine life in the ETP

The Flipper Phenomenon: Perspectives On The Panama Declaration And The Dolphin Safe Label

During the past twenty years, few marine conservation issues have aroused as much public interest as the drowning of dolphins in purse seine nets. For a generation that grew up watching the playful antics of Flipper on television, graphic video footage of dolphins hauled to their deaths in tuna nets was simply too much to stomach. Led by American school children and their baby-boomer parents, consumer boycotts of tuna spurred tuna harvesters and Congress to adopt measures requiring dolphin safe labeling and prohibiting the importation of non-dolphin-safe tuna into the United States. Since the adoption of these measures, the number of dolphins killed in the ETP tuna fishery has dramatically declined. Curiously, however, encirclement of dolphins by tuna fishers occurs as frequently today as it did before the adoption of dolphin safe restrictions. In a remarkable display of innovation and commitment to solving an environmental problem and a public-relations nightmare, ETP tuna fishers have perfected fishing methods that allow the encirclement and safe release of dolphins while tuna are caught. Despite this progress, however, tuna caught in this manner are still not considered dolphin safe. Moreover, tuna from other nations which allow encirclement and safe release are still embargoed under U.S. law. Faced with this situation, on October 4, 1995, twelve nations adopted the Panama Declaration. This blueprint for developing a legally binding and enforceable agreement within the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) is intended to further reduce and eventually eliminate dolphin deaths caused by tuna fishing operations. The Panama Declaration forms the basis for an international agreement that will provide protection for individual dolphin stocks and species to ensure their continued growth and recovery. It will also help reduce the incidental capture of other marine life, such as sea turtles, sharks, and billfish. Finally, the Panama Declaration adopts measures designed to guarantee the sustained health of the tuna fishery and the marine ecosystem of the ETP. Impeding implementation of the Panama Declaration, however, is the definition of dolphin safe. The implementation of the Panama Declaration calls for dolphin safe to be re-defined from its current meaning of no encirclement of dolphins to a more meaningful definition of no dolphin mortality. Legislation introduced in Congress to implement the Panama Declaration, which proposes to change the definition of dolphin safe, has resulted in a heated debate-one which pits the Clinton Administration, the fishing industry, several national environmental groups, and a bipartisan coalition in Congress against an array of animal welfare and environmental organizations, Hollywood stars, and their congressional allies. Consequently, quick passage of this pivotal legislation has been hampered.. This Article explores the history of efforts under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA or the Act ), to reduce dolphin mortality, including the development and implementation of the dolphin safe label, international efforts to reduce dolphin mortality, and the genesis of the Panama Declaration. This Article concludes by examining the impact that implementation of the Panama Declaration would most likely have on dolphins and other marine life in the ETP

Sexual harassment in Dentistry: prevalence in dental school

OBJECTIVE: Sexual harassment is unlawful in all work and educational environments in most nations of the world. The goals of this study were to describe the sexual harassment prevalence and to evaluate the experiences and attitudes of undergraduate students in one dental school in Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An 18-item questionnaire was administered to 254 dental students with a completion rate of 82% (208). Students were requested to respond to questions about their background and academic level in dental school, their personal experiences with sexual harassment and their observation of someone else being sexually harassed. Bivariate statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS: Fifteen percent of the students reported being sexually harassed by a patient, by a relative of a patient or by a professor. Male students had 3 times higher probability of being sexually harassed than female student [OR=2.910 (1.113-7.611)]. Additionally, 25.4% of the students reported witnessing sexual harassment at the school environment. The majority of students did not feel professionally prepared to respond to unwanted sexual behaviors. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that sexual harassment can occur in a dental school setting. There is a need for ongoing sexual harassment education programs for students and university staff. Increased knowledge of sexual harassment during graduation can better prepare dental professionals to respond to sexual harassment during their practice

Prognostic value of Dicer expression in human breast cancers and association with the mesenchymal phenotype

Background: Dicer, a ribonuclease, is the key enzyme required for the biogenesis of microRNAs and small interfering RNAs and is essential for both mammalian development and cell differentiation. Recent evidence indicates that Dicer may also be involved in tumourigenesis. However, no studies have examined the clinical significance of Dicer at both the RNA and the protein levels in breast cancer.Methods: In this study, the biological and prognostic value of Dicer expression was assessed in breast cancer cell lines, breast cancer progression cellular models, and in two well-characterised sets of breast carcinoma samples obtained from patients with long-term follow-up using tissue microarrays and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR.Results: We have found that Dicer protein expression is significantly associated with hormone receptor status and cancer subtype in breast tumours (ER P=0.008; PR P=0.019; cancer subtype P=0.023, luminal A P=0.0174). Dicer mRNA expression appeared to have an independent prognostic impact in metastatic disease (hazard ratio=3.36, P=0.0032). In the breast cancer cell lines, lower Dicer expression was found in cells harbouring a mesenchymal phenotype and in metastatic bone derivatives of a breast cancer cell line. These findings suggest that the downregulation of Dicer expression may be related to the metastatic spread of tumours.Conclusion: Assessment of Dicer expression may facilitate prediction of distant metastases for patients suffering from breast cancer

Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke - the second leading cause of death worldwide - were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry(1,2). Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis(3), and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach(4), we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry(5). Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries.</p