Ostreid herpesvirus (OsHV) can cause mass mortality events in Pacific oyster aquaculture. While various factors impact on the severity of outbreaks, it is clear that genetic resistance of the host is an important determinant of mortality levels. This raises the possibility of selective breeding strategies to improve the genetic resistance of farmed oyster stocks, thereby contributing to disease control. Traditional selective breeding can be augmented by use of genetic markers, either via marker-assisted or genomic selection. The aim of the current study was to investigate the genetic architecture of resistance to OsHV in Pacific oyster, to identify genomic regions containing putative resistance genes, and to inform the use of genomics to enhance efforts to breed for resistance. To achieve this, a population of approximate to 1,000 juvenile oysters were experimentally challenged with a virulent form of OsHV, with samples taken from mortalities and survivors for genotyping and qPCR measurement of viral load. The samples were genotyped using a recently-developed SNP array, and the genotype data were used to reconstruct the pedigree. Using these pedigree and genotype data, the first high density linkage map was constructed for Pacific oyster, containing 20,353 SNPs mapped to the ten pairs of chromosomes. Genetic parameters for resistance to OsHV were estimated, indicating a significant but low heritability for the binary trait of survival and also for viral load measures (h2 0.12 - 0.25). A genome-wide association study highlighted a region of linkage group 6 containing a significant QTL affecting host resistance. These results are an important step toward identification of genes underlying resistance to OsHV in oyster, and a step toward applying genomic data to enhance selective breeding for disease resistance in oyster aquaculture.

Purpose of Review: This systematic literature review evaluates the potential of gambling monopolies to affect gambling harms. It compares the occurrence of gambling harms in jurisdictions with gambling monopolies to jurisdictions with license-based regimes. Recent Findings: The review identified 21 publications concerning three gambling-related harm indicators: problem gambling prevalence, total consumption, and the appearance of conflicts of interest. Due to the dearth of literature, concept papers and older publications were also included. Summary: Results show that there is a paucity of empirical research on the effectiveness of different regulatory regimes in affecting gambling harms. Available research demonstrates that monopolistic regimes appear to perform somewhat better in terms of problem gambling prevalence and total consumption but may also be more prone to conflicts of interest than license-based regimes. Monopolistic configurations also differ between themselves, and issues such as availability, accessibility, product range, scope of preventive work, monitoring, as well as the recognition of the public health approach may better predict the levels of harm in society than the existence of a monopoly.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) has opened up a new global discussion on forest monitoring and carbon accounting in developing countries. We analyze and compare the extent to which the concept of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) for REDD+ has become institutionalized in terms of new policy discourses, actors, resources, and rules in Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania. To do so, we draw on discursive institutionalism and the policy arrangement approach. A qualitative scale that distinguishes between "shallow" institutionalization on the one end, and "deep" institutionalization on the other, is developed to structure the analysis and comparison. Results show that in all countries MRV has become institutionalized in new or revised aims, scope, and strategies for forest monitoring, and development of new agencies and mobilization of new actors and resources. New legislations to anchor forest monitoring in law and procedures to institutionalize the roles of the various agencies are being developed. Nevertheless, the extent to which MRV has been institutionalized varies across countries, with Indonesia experiencing "deep" institutionalization, Peru "shallow-intermediate" institutionalization, and Tanzania "intermediate-deep" institutionalization. We explore possible reasons for and consequences of differences in extent of institutionalization of MRV across countries.

Background Helping consumers make healthier food choices is a key issue for the prevention of cancer and other diseases. In many countries, political authorities are considering the implementation of a simplified labelling system to reflect the nutritional quality of food products. The Nutri-Score, a five-colour nutrition label, is derived from the Nutrient Profiling System of the British Food Standards Agency (modified version) (FSAm-NPS). How the consumption of foods with high/low FSAm-NPS relates to cancer risk has been studied in national/regional cohorts but has not been characterized in diverse European populations. Methods and findings This prospective analysis included 471,495 adults from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC, 1992-2014, median follow-up: 15.3 y), among whom there were 49,794 incident cancer cases (main locations: breast, n = 12,063; prostate, n = 6,745; colon-rectum, n = 5,806). Usual food intakes were assessed with standardized country-specific diet assessment methods. The FSAm-NPS was calculated for each food/beverage using their 100-g content in energy, sugar, saturated fatty acid, sodium, fibres, proteins, and fruits/vegetables/legumes/nuts. The FSAm-NPS scores of all food items usually consumed by a participant were averaged to obtain the individual FSAm-NPS Dietary Index (DI) scores. Multi-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were computed. A higher FSAm-NPS DI score, reflecting a lower nutritional quality of the food consumed, was associated with a higher risk of total cancer (HRQ5 versus (Q1) = 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.10, P-trend <0.001). Absolute cancer rates in those with high and low (quintiles 5 and 1) FSAm-NPS DI scores were 81.4 and 69.5 cases/10,000 person-years, respectively. Higher FSAm-NPS DI scores were specifically associated with higher risks of cancers of the colon-rectum, upper aerodigestive tract and stomach, lung for men, and liver and postmenopausal breast for women (all P <0.05). The main study limitation is that it was based on an observational cohort using self-reported dietary data obtained through a single baseline food frequency questionnaire; thus, exposure misclassification and residual confounding cannot be ruled out. Conclusions In this large multinational European cohort, the consumption of food products with a higher FSAm-NPS score (lower nutritional quality) was associated with a higher risk of cancer. This supports the relevance of the FSAm-NPS as underlying nutrient profiling system for front-of-pack nutrition labels, as well as for other public health nutritional measures.

Activation policies form the core of employment policies in most OECD countries. They are part of 'active' welfare states and associated neoliberal forms of governance that seek to govern through freedom by producing self-governing and responsible subjectivities. Ethnographies of governmentalities have been used in the research reported in this article to examine if and how such subjectivities are put in practice in street-level encounters in local welfare delivery. Based on an ethnographic research of youth services in the Public Employment Services (PES) in Helsinki, Finland, it is shown that despite the policy focus on active citizenship the street-level practice entails not only liberal ideas of self-governing individuals but also authoritarian measures. What is governed in the meetings is not the young people's selves but their time and behaviour. In the process, the notion of active citizenship is emptied and transformed to mean participation in supervised activities offered by the PES. Such practice also reworks the temporal structures and creates insecure and eventful experience of time for PES clients. In contrast to governing through freedom, the localized interpretation of activation policies represents the authoritarian and paternalistic side of neoliberal governance.

The most common rodent control method worldwide is anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs), which cause death by internal bleeding. ARs can transfer to non-target predators via secondary exposure, i.e. by consuming contaminated rodents. Here we quantify the prevalence of seven AR substances in the liver tissues of altogether 17 mammalian or avian predator or scavenger species in Finland. In addition, we identify the environmental and biological factors potentially linked to secondary AR poisoning. No previous AR screenings have been conducted in the country, despite the widespread use of ARs and their potential impacts on the high levels of the ecosystem food chain. ARs were detected (>= 0.3 mu g/kg) in 82% of the 131 samples. The most prevalent and the AR with highest concentrations was bromadiolone (65% of samples). In 77% of the positive samples more than one (2-5) different ARs were detected. Of the environmental variables, we only found a weakly positive relationship between the coumatetralyl concentration and the livestock farm density. Conversely, overall AR concentration and number, as well as the concentration of three separate ARs (cournatetralyl, difenacoum and bromadiolone) differed among the three species groups tested, with the group "other mammals" (largely represented by red fox and raccoon dog) having higher values than the groups presented by mustelids or by birds. ARs are authorized only as biocides in Finland and a national strategy on risk management (e.g. for minimising secondary poisoning of non-target species) of ARs was adopted in 2011. Based on these results it appears that the risk mitigation measures (RMMs) either have not been followed or have not been effective in preventing wide scale secondary exposure. Continued monitoring of AR residues in non-target species is needed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of current RMMs and a need for new ones to reduce the risk of secondary poisoning. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.