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With support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Jobs for the Future (JFF) formed the Greenforce Initiative--a two-year venture that will work with community colleges across the nation to strengthen their capacity to implement or refine quality pathways that lead to careers in the green sector. Building on the combined experience of NWF and JFF in environmental sustainability and workforce development, respectively, the Greenforce Initiative will provide high-impact assistance to community colleges in targeted regions across the United States. The Greenforce Initiative created "Learning and Action Networks" in six regions across the country, including Northern Virginia, South Texas, Metro Chicago, Michigan, North Carolina, and Seattle. (Contains 1 endnote.)

Sea turtle fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor promoting disease that is one of several threats globally to endangered sea turtle populations. The prevalence of FP is highest in green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) populations, and historically has shown considerable temporal growth. FP tumors can significantly affect the ability of turtles to forage for food and avoid predation and can grow to debilitating sizes. In the current study, based in South Texas, we have applied transcriptome sequencing to FP tumors and healthy control tissue to study the gene expression profiles of FP. By identifying differentially expressed turtle genes in FP, and matching these genes to their closest human ortholog we draw on the wealth of human based knowledge, specifically human cancer, to identify new insights into the biology of sea turtle FP. We show that several genes aberrantly expressed in FP tumors have known tumor promoting biology in humans, including CTHRC1 and NLRC5 , and provide support that disruption of the Wnt signaling pathway is a feature of FP. Further, we profiled the expression of current targets of immune checkpoint inhibitors from human oncology in FP tumors and identified potential candidates for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]