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The article presents information on the history of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA was aware that water and sewer services are essential for neighborhood livability and understood the significant costs associated with their upkeep and development. Yet, despite recognizing that its grant program had major implications for racial segregation in land use, the EPA treated civil rights as optional rather than mandatory. The author states that this approach mirrored the evasion of responsibility seen in other federal agencies, as highlighted by Christopher Bonastia, who noted that civil rights often lack meaningful enforcement when they become politically or economically costly. The EPA’s inaction, despite knowing the harm caused by its grants, underscores the deep connections between environmental protection and structural racism.

Almost a decade after Sweden first declared that it would follow a feminist foreign policy (FFP), a further eleven countries from across Europe, North and South America, and North and West Africa have adopted, or have signaled an interest in potentially adopting, an FFP in the future. These developments have been accompanied by a growing body of feminist scholarship. Although still in its infancy, this literature can generally be divided between more normative accounts and those that are empirically focused, with particular attention paid to the FFPs of Sweden and Canada. Yet, few studies compare FFPs' uptake across different countries and regions, examine its connections to longer histories of ideas around women and gender, or unpack the policy intersections FFP (tentatively) engages. Contributing to these different areas, Part I provides an overview of the history of FFP, interrogates FFP in the context of Foreign Policy Analysis, and explores what FFP can achieve in the current (liberal) global system. Part II turns to consider policy intersections in relation to the climate crisis, migration, militarism, and bodies. Thinking through its origins, policy intersections, and potential future(s), the contributors to this Forum explore FFP's multiple and contested future(s). Ultimately, the Forum takes stock of this feminist turn in foreign policy at a critical point in its development and considers what future possibilities it may hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on study on comparative approach to refine molecular mechanism impacting carcass characteristics and meat quality. Topics discussed include way to raise livestock and produce product for food chain, differences in differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and accepted genomes utilized by Novogene.

Indicator traits associated with disease resiliency would be useful to improve the health and welfare of feedlot cattle. A post hoc analysis of data collected previously (Kayser et al., 2019a) was conducted to investigate differences in immunologic, physiologic, and behavioral responses of steers (N = 36, initial BW = 386 ± 24 kg) that had differential haptoglobin (HPT) responses to an experimentally induced challenge with Mannheimia haemolytica (MH). Rumen temperature, DMI, and feeding behavior data were collected continuously, and serial blood samples were collected following the MH challenge. Retrospectively, it was determined that 9 of the 18 MH-challenged steers mounted a minimal HPT response, despite having similar leukocyte and temperature responses to other MH-challenged steers with a greater HPT response. Our objective was to examine differences in behavioral and physiological responses between MH-challenged HPT responsive (RES; n = 9), MH-challenged HPT nonresponsive (NON; n = 9), and phosphate-buffered saline-inoculated controls (CON; n = 18). Additionally, 1H NMR analysis was conducted to determine whether the HPT responsive phenotype affected serum metabolite profiles. The RES steers had lesser (P < 0.05) cortisol concentrations than NON and CON steers. The magnitude of the increases in neutrophil concentrations and rumen temperature, and the reduction in DMI following the MH challenge were greatest (P < 0.05) in RES steers. Univariate analysis of serum metabolites indicated differences between RES, NON, and CON steers following the MH challenge; however, multivariate analysis revealed no difference between HPT-responsive phenotypes. Prior to the MH challenge, RES steers had longer (P < 0.05) head down and bunk visit durations, slower eating rates (P < 0.01) and greater (P < 0.05) daily variances in bunk visit frequency and head down duration compared with NON steers, suggesting that feeding behavior patterns were associated with the HPT-responsive phenotype. During the 28-d post challenge period, RES steers had decreased (P < 0.05) final BW, tended (P = 0.06) to have lesser DMI, and had greater (P < 0.05) daily variances in head down and bunk visit durations compared with NON steers, which may have been attributed to their greater acute-phase protein response to the MH challenge. These results indicate that the HPT-responsive phenotype affected feeding behavior patterns and may be associated with disease resiliency in beef cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article estimates the phenotypic differences, variance components of and among traits and the genetic and inbreeding trends in divergently selected Rambouillet lines for over 50 years. Topics discussed include selection of ram and ewe replacements, number of live or dead lambs at birth per ewe lambing, and dam age effects on prolificacy.

Across politics and public discourse, feminism is experiencing a global renaissance. Yet feminist academic work is divided over the burgeoning use of the term, particularly in reference to economic and international development policy. For some, feminism has been co-opted for neoliberal economic ends; for others, it remains a critical force across the globe. This article explores the nascent feminist foreign policies of Sweden and Canada. Employing a discourse analysis of both states' policy documents, it asks what the term "feminist" meant in preliminary attempts at constructing a feminist foreign policy. It argues that although both use the term "feminist," they understand the term very differently, with Sweden centering it in domestic and international commitments to change, while Canada places greater emphasis on the private sector. This suggests that this policy agenda is still developing its central concepts, and is thus ripe for intervention on the part of policymakers and civil society organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) in 2000, feminist academia has been closely interested in the developing women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda in international affairs. The majority of this work has emerged from within feminist international relations (Mcleod 2015 ; Shepherd 2008) and feminist legal studies. Less attention has been paid to the WPS agenda by feminist political science. As a result, less consideration has been given to political institutions within the WPS framework. This paper argues that the design and implementation of postconflict political institutions is an important component of the WPS agenda and one which deserves greater attention. It demonstrates that using certain tenets of feminist political science, and feminist institutionalism in particular, can offer key insights into greater understanding of the importance of political institutions within postconflict societies. The article illustrates how political institutions have been underconsidered within academic work on the WPS agenda. It then argues that political institutions are an important part of the puzzle when it comes to implementing the WPS agenda. It shows how feminist institutional theory can help to provide key insights into the nature of postconflict institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in beef cattle temperament has increased due to growing consumer awareness of animal welfare and increased concern for handler safety. Temperament measures are based on behavioral responses to a perceived stressor. Subjective chute scoring has been used to give a numeric value to temperament; however, the subjectivity and variability among observers have been questioned. To deal with the perceived subjectivity and variability, other researchers have used exit velocity. Researchers have related faster exit velocities to increased cortisol and plasma lactate. The objectives of this study were to compare temperament between feedlot steers and heifers and to confirm chute side measures of temperament relationship to physiological responses to stress. Body temperature, blood and plasma lactate, serum glucose, salivary and serum cortisol concentrations were measured on Bos taurus commercial crossbred feedlot cattle (n = 197). Fast, medium, and slow classifications were developed from exit velocities. Plasma lactate was significantly different between all exit velocity classes. Exit velocity and physiological measures indicated that heifers were more excitable (faster exit velocities (P = 0.003), higher plasma lactate concentrations (P = 0.03), and cortisol concentrations (P = 0.001)). Simple correlations among these variables indicated body temperature (heifers r = 0.44, P < 0.0001; steers r = 0.45, P <.0001), plasma lactate (heifers r = 0.52, P < 0.0001; steers r = 0.63, P < 0.0001), blood lactate (heifers r = 0.53, P < 0.001; steers r = 0.59, P < 0.001), and glucose (heifers r = 0.54, P < 0.001; steers r = 0.32, P <0.003) were all related to exit velocity. Cortisol measures were not correlated to exit velocity in steers but were in heifers. Linear models constructed and evaluated using the Akaike information criterion indicated that blood lactate in combination with rectal temperature were strong candidates to predict exit velocity. Using the discriminate function analysis, the model correctly categorized fast and slow classifications 69.23% and 61.54%, respectively, indicating that in combination measures of body temperature and blood lactate can potentially increase accuracy of temperament identification or replace exit velocity as a measure of temperament. The plasma lactate and rectal temperature have the potential to become strong objective measures to augment or replace exit velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic selection for efficiency traits is essential to improve the profitability and sustainability of livestock operations. Inefficient metabolism and energy production in animal physiology leads to excess feed consumption, resulting in higher feed costs. The objective of this study was to investigate hepatic gene expression in mature Angus-influenced cows that were classified as low or high RFI as heifers and had either a low or high ratio of calf weaning weight to mature body weight at weaning. Eleven cows were selected from the Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) research herd. Cows were ranked as efficient (n = 5) or inefficient (n = 6) based on their low or high residual feed intake (RFI) measured as a growing heifer and then by the ratio of calf weaning weight by mature body weight. Animals were partitioned from the bottom quartile with low RFI as a heifer and weaned with a higher proportion of the calf were classified as efficient, and animals from the top quartile with a high RFI as a heifer and a lower ratio of the calf to body weight were classified as inefficient. Liver samples were collected by needle biopsy approximately one week after weaning and snap frozen. The liver gene expression profile was measured using RNAseq. Two cows' data were not reported, one from each group, as RNA quality prevented sequencing (Efficient n = 4 and Inefficient n = 5). Over 5 million reads were mapped for each sample and were aligned to BTau 4.6.1 reference sequence using HISAT2. Differentially expressed genes were determined using the DEseq2 R package using a model based on the negative binomial distribution, and p-values were adjusted using the Benjamini- Hochberg approach. A corrected P-value of less than 0.05 defined a differentially expressed gene. Gene lists were used for gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment using clusterProfiler software. One novel gene was significantly differentially expressed with higher expression in the efficient group. However, no annotation currently exists for this gene. Additionally, the KEGG pathway biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids was significantly enriched (P < 0.05) with the following differentially expressed genes SCD, FADS1/2, ELOVL6, and HACD2, all being down-regulated in inefficient cows. The enrichment of this pathway is most functionally relevant, as it indicates that local liver changes could directly affect the efficient metabolism and biosynthesis of fatty acids. With encouraging, but limited results, this study provides the groundwork for future study of the heritable mechanisms contributing to the generation of more energy-efficient cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the relationship between American political culture and grassroots environmentalism in the 1970s. To do so, it examines how the white working class residents of Love Canal, New York, claimed health and a healthy environment as rights of citizenship. To date, the Canal has remained a sore spot for environmental scholarship; this article demonstrates how the analytic difficulties posed by the Canal stem from the crosscurrents of American political culture in the late 1970s. Canal residents put their local experience into several larger frames of reference: the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, the plight of Cuban and Vietnamese refugees, and a culture of skepticism toward government and medical authority. Residents' use of these frameworks illustrates two broader points about American political culture in the late 1970s. First, the claim to health as a right rather than a privilege, articulated by health radicals throughout the 1960s, had by the late 1970s been decoupled from its origins in left-liberal struggles. Second, the crosscurrents of localism, nativism, racism, and anti-authoritarianism characteristic of the reactionary populism of urban working-class whites could, quite logically for their proponents, co-exist with rights-based claims to health and a healthy environment. Love Canal demands that we embed our narratives about the development of environmental politics--environmental justice in particular--within a broader story about deregulation, the rise of the New Right, and the political and economic marginalization of the working class in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backfat and carcass fatness is an important quality attribute in meat animals. A substantial economic gain in the livestock industry may result from the discovery of metabolites, which can improve methods for predicting desirable livestock traits before harvest. Complex phenotypes can be identified for genetic selection or precision management using metabolic and genetic biomarkers. An analysis of ovine samples collected before harvest from wethers with different degrees of back fat was conducted using serum samples obtained from 15 sheep (5 from each back fat class), 60 d, 30 d, and just before harvest. This study quantified 55 serum metabolites that play important roles in ovine metabolism by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. An RNAseq dataset was generated from each sheep's muscle and adipose tissue at harvest. A statistical analysis of the data was performed using MetaboAnalyst Version 5.0 software in R. The results of multiple analyses showed that three metabolites, betaine, choline, and dimethylamine, are associated with sheep's fat class at a significance of (P < 0.01). Integration with gene expression datasets is still underway due to the limitations of annotating sheep genes. In addition, these metabolites are novel and have never been shown to modulate fat class in sheep. To elucidate methods of predicting which livestock produce ideal carcasses, further research is needed to investigate how betaine and choline impact fatness in sheep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to identify small molecule metabolites in a serum sample taken at entry into the feedlot that can predict performance, and animal health. One-hundred and thirty-one Angus x Simmental steers from a single ranch were sampled at a commercial feedlot in Chappell, NE. Blood samples for metabolite analysis, chute score, exit velocity, and blood lactate concentration for temperament classification were collected in addition to feedlot performance data and carcass quality measurements. The GLM and LSM procedures of SAS (SAS 9.4, 2014) were used to evaluate differences between temperament classifications. Steers were divided into three exit velocity classifications one standard deviation from the mean were classified as fast and exit velocities lower than one standard deviation from the mean were slow. Forty metabolites were quantified using 1H NMR Spectroscopy from serum. Metaboloanalyst was used to analyze serum metabolites and phenotypic values using one way-ANOVA, PCA, PLS-DA, and a permutation test to cross validate. Data were normalized and scaled. No metabolites were predictive of any of the animal health metrics collected. Five metabolites were different in exit velocity class at (P < 0.01; Methanol, Isopropanol, Lactate, Isobutyrate, and Pyruvate). Similarly, seven metabolites were different in chute score classes at (P < 0.01) (Methanol, Isobutyrate, Creatinine, Dimethly Sulfone, Hippurate, Isopropanol, and Succinate). Furthermore, several metabolites in serum at entry in the feedlot were related to carcass quality metrics; Back Fat (Urea and 2-Hydroxyisobutyrate at (P < 0.01), a trend for prediction of quality grade at (P = 0.068), carcass value (P = 0.085). The relationship between serum metabolites identified on entry into the feedlot, feedlot performance traits, and eventual carcass quality warrants further research to elucidate the roles these metabolites play during the feedlot period and in predicting carcass merit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in water-soluble carbohydrates were examined in the leaves of the resurrection plant Xerophyta viscosa under conditions of water deficit. Sucrose and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs), particularly raffinose, increased under these conditions, with the highest concentrations evident at 5% relative water content [RWC; 23.5 mg g−1 dry weight (DW) and 17.7 mg g−1 DW, respectively]. Importantly, these effects were reversible, with concentrations returning to levels comparable with that of the full turgor state 7 d after water deficit conditions were alleviated, providing evidence that both sucrose and RFOs may play a protective role in desiccated leaf tissue of X. viscosa. Further, because the sucrose-to-raffinose mass ratio of 1.3:1 observed in the dehydrated state was very low, compared with published data for other resurrection plants (always >5), it is suggested that, in X. viscosa leaves, RFOs serve the dual purpose of stress protection and carbon storage. XvGolS, a gene encoding a galactinol synthase enzyme responsible for the first catalytic step in RFO biosynthesis, was cloned and functionally expressed. In leaf tissue exposed to water deficit, XvGolS transcript levels were shown to increase at 19% RWC. GolS activity in planta could not be correlated with RFO accumulation, but a negative correlation was observed between RFO accumulation and myo-inositol depletion, during water deficit stress. This correlation was reversed after rehydration, suggesting that during water deficit myo-inositol is channelled into RFO synthesis, but during the rehydration process it is channelled to metabolic pathways related to the repair of desiccation-induced damage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The strategy of ‘complementation by functional sufficiency’ was used to isolate a cDNA designated XVSAP1 from a cDNA library constructed from dehydrated Xerophyta viscosa Baker leaves. Analysis of the cDNA sequence indicated a highly hydrophobic protein with six transmembrane regions. Southern blot analysis revealed that there are at least two copies of XVSAP1 in X. viscosa. The deduced amino acid sequence showed 49% identity to WCOR413, a low‐temperature‐regulated protein from wheat. The protein also showed between 25% to 56% identity to WCOR413‐like proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana. Expression of XVSAP1 in Escherichia coli (srl::Tn10) conferred osmotic stress tolerance when the cells were grown in 1 M sorbitol. Analysis of gene expression using semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR indicated that XVSAP1 is induced by dehydration, salt stress (100 mM), both low (4 °C) and high temperature (42 °C) and high light treatment (1500 µmol m–2 s–1). These results suggest that XVSAP1 may have a significant role to play in the response of X. viscosa to abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gender dysphoria ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition ) is characterized by a marked discrepancy between one’s birth-assigned sex and one’s gender identity and is sometimes addressed by gender-affirming surgery. As public visibility and institutional support for the transgender and gender non-conforming population continue to increase, the demand for competent multidisciplinary teams of medical professionals equipped to care for this population is expected to rise—including plastic surgeons, urologists, gynecologists, endocrinologists, and breast surgeons, among others. Genital reconstruction procedures for the male-to-female and female-to-male transgender patient present unique surgical challenges that continue to evolve from their respective origins in the 19th and 20th centuries. A historical review of surgical techniques and standards of care attendant to gender-affirming medicine is presented, with foremost emphasis placed on how techniques for genital reconstruction in particular continue to evolve and advance. In addition, the current status of transition-related health care in the United States, including research gaps and contemporary clinical challenges, is reviewed. Frey JD, Poudrier G, Thomson JE, Hazen A. A Historical Review of Gender-Affirming Medicine: Focus on Genital Reconstruction Surgery. J Sex Med 2017;14:991–1002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]