This article focuses on the impact of morality politics and issue framing on attitudes toward same-sex marriage.  The comparative data come from California surveys by the Public Policy Institute of California and national surveys by the Pew Research Center and the National Opinion Research Center between 2005 and 2013.

Issue framing has played a critical role in the debate on same-sex marriage.  Same-sex marriage appears driven by issue framing about morality politics, which, unlike other policy arenas characterized by high information costs and limited access, features conflict over fundamental values. Much of the debate has turned on a conflict between traditional morality and equality.  The rise of competitive issue frames suggests that political conflict and public attitudes toward same-sex marriage should reflect, at least in part, the factors noted by Haider and Markel: ideology, party competitiveness, and partisanship.

Support for same-sex marriage has increased in both the U.S. and California, although support is stronger in California by about five percent.  Using logistic regression, the strongest direct explanatory factors were similar to those at the U.S. level: partisanship, ideology, Protestant religious affiliation, and whether the respondent classified him or herself as born again.  A range of demographic, political, social, regional, and time factors has also had a significant effect on support.  The relevant influence of the factors was virtually identical in both California and at the national level with the correlation between the changes in odds ratios for the two analyses reaching 0.97.

Overall, increased support for same-sex marriage appears to be a permanent shift in the political landscape and reflects a shift in the dominant issue frame of the policy debate.

Unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), when fed to dogs improves cognitive and neurological development. Supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has also been associated with lipid peroxidation, which in turn has been implicated in reduced body weight and altered bone formation. To assess the impact of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on skeletal growth, diets containing three levels of DHA and EPA (0.01 and 0.01%, 0.14 and 0.12%, and 0.21 and 0.18%, respectively) were fed to bitches during gestation and lactation with puppies also supplemented through weaning. Thus, the subjects studied were the puppies supplemented with DHA and EPA through gestation and early postnatal life. The hip joint conformation of the puppies (n = 676) was recorded at adulthood using two radiographic, non-invasive evaluations. In this population, females had higher hip distraction indices (DI) than males. Males from the lower two levels of DHA and EPA supplementation had significantly smaller hip DI than all females and males from the highest DHA and EPA supplementation. In contrast, there were no diet effects on anatomical indicators of hip joint conformation and no visible arthritic changes. These data suggest that dietary supplementation of DHA and EPA during gestation and the perinatal period to weaning does not adversely influence hip joint formation of dogs.

p21-activated kinases (PAKs) are serine/threonine kinases that have been identified as targets for the small GTPases Rac and Cdc42. PAKs have been implicated in cytoskeletal regulation, stimulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades, and in control of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase. Membrane targeting of PAK1 induced increased kinase activity in a GTPase-independent manner, suggesting that other mechanisms for PAK regulation exist. We observed concentration- and time-dependent activation of PAK1 by sphingosine and several related long chain sphingoid bases but not by ceramides or a variety of other lipids. Although phospholipids were generally ineffective, phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylinositol also had stimulatory effects on PAK1. Lipid stimulation induced a similar level of PAK1 activity as did stimulation by GTPases, and the patterns of PAK1 autophosphorylation determined after partial tryptic digestion and two-dimensional peptide analysis were similar with each class of activator. Lipid stimulation of PAK1 activity was dependent upon intact PAK kinase activity, as indicated by studies with a kinase-dead PAK1 mutant. Treatment of COS-7 cells expressing wild type PAK1 with sphingosine, fumonisin B, or sphingomyelinase, all of which are able to elevate the levels of free sphingosine, induced increased activity of PAK1 as determined using a p47(phox) peptide substrate. Studies using PAK1 mutants suggest that lipids act at a site overlapping or identical to the GTPase-binding domain on PAK. The inactive sphingosine derivative N,N-dimethylsphingosine was an effective inhibitor of PAK1 activation in response to either sphingosine or Cdc42. Our results demonstrate a novel GTPase-independent mechanism of PAK activation and, additionally, suggest that PAK(s) may be important mediators of the biological effects of sphingolipids.