Endocannabinoid contributions to alcohol habits and motivation: Relevance to treatment

Individuals with alcohol use disorder exhibit compulsive habitual behaviors that are thought to be, in part, a consequence of chronic and persistent use of alcohol. The endocannabinoid system plays a critical role in habit learning and in ethanol self-administration, but the role of this neuromodulatory system in the expression of habitual alcohol seeking is unknown. Here, we investigated the role of the endocannabinoid system in established alcohol habits using contingency degradation in male C57BL/6 mice. We found that administration of the novel diacyl glycerol lipase inhibitor DO34, which decreases the biosynthesis of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), reduced habitual responding for ethanol and ethanol approach behaviors. Moreover, administration of the endocannabinoid transport inhibitor AM404 or the cannabinoid receptor type 1 antagonist AM251 produced similar reductions in habitual responding for ethanol and ethanol approach behaviors. Notably, AM404 was also able to reduce ethanol seeking and consumption in mice that were insensitive to lithium chloride-induced devaluation of ethanol. Conversely, administration of JZL184, a monoacyl glycerol lipase inhibitor that increases levels of 2-AG, increased motivation to respond for ethanol on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. These results demonstrate an important role for endocannabinoid signaling in the motivation to seek ethanol, in ethanol-motivated habits, and suggest that pharmacological manipulations of endocannabinoid signaling could be effective therapeutics for treating alcohol use disorder.Molecular Physiolog

Real-time data assimilative modeling on Georges bank

Real-time oceanic forecasts were constructed at sea on Georges Bank during Spring 1999. Ship- and shore-based computations were combined to deliver daily 3-day forecasts to shipboard scientists for interpreting observations and planning operations. Data assimilated included acoustic Doppler current profiler velocities, drifter trajectories, and taxa-specific plankton observations from a Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) system. Services provided included basic 3-D circulation forecasts, forecast positions of drifters, dye and zoo-plankton, and the advective adjustment of observations to produce synoptic maps. The results indicate that real-time, at-sea data assimilative modeling can provide valuable information services and can be deployed routinely, provided that networking among ships, instruments, and shore continues to improve. This paper summarizes the real-time modeling experience. Results of the larger effort including scientific data interpretation are being reported separately

Diseases of eels in an international perspective: Workshop on Eel Diseases at the 15th International Conference on Diseases of Fish and Shellfish, Split, Croatia, 2011

In recent years, significant attention has been assigned to the decline in the wild freshwater eel stocks worldwide. Possible causative factors include fisheries (overfishing), habitat loss, migration barriers, and chemical pollution, and/or a combination of these factors. Infectious diseases however, as associated causal factors, have received little attention to date. In eel farming systems, diseases are lethal under certain stressful conditions and high stocking densities. Similar environmental or infectious disease conditions may also negatively affectwild eel populations. Eel stocks also declined in Japan, where eel culture began in 1879 in Fukagawa, Tokyo. Farmed eel gradually decreased from 40, 000 to 20, 000 tons in 1999 to 2008, whereas eel imports increased year by year from 1995. Following traditional Japanese eel culture, where open ponds were frequently used, from 1972 pond culture inside a green house was introduced, at a water temperature of about 28°C . This change has been considered a main trigger to the appearance of new diseases. To address these issues of concern, a workshop on “Eel Diseases” was organized at the 2011 EAFP Conference, at Split, Croatia. In this workshop, with approximately 40 participants from various countries, field observations and research findings on eel pathogens and diseases were presented, with the aim to summarize the information on the status of known and emerging pathogens and novel techniques in diagnostics and therapy, and build a network on eel disease experts