Biological reference points for Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) in warming seas

Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) are a large, commercially important shellfish in the United States faced with several important management challenges. Compared to many harvested fish and shellfish, their life history is relatively unknown. They are undergoing contraction in the southern and inshore parts of their range, as well as expansion into deeper water. Atlantic surfclam are thermally sensitive, and the changes in their distribution track changes in maximum bottom temperature. Sessile species cannot emigrate and are limited to recruitment and mortality as mechanisms for redistribution in response to changing climate. Management of Atlantic surf clam should account for these challenges. We describe a simulation designed to calculate biological reference points that will work well for Atlantic surfclam relative to biological and fishery goals, over a range of life history parameters, assessment uncertainties, and increases in temperature. Simulations of the trade-off between somatic growth and mortality under increased temperature led to target fishing mortality rates higher than the status quo, but also to increased variability in yield. Results suggest that increasing temperature may adversely affect the Atlantic surfclam industry, which prefers stable catches to short term increases in yield, due to market limitations. The results of this analysis are specific to Atlantic surfclam, but the methods described here could be used to enhance management for other harvested species facing similar challenges

Local 1199 at Clinch Valley: Justice Unionism in a Right-to-Work State, 1972-1974

By 1969 Local 1199, a union representing health care workers, had begun to organize beyond its base in New York City. The union, represented by West Virginia-born organizer Larry Harless, won a few victories in small private hospitals in West Virginia in the early 1970s. Local 1199 commanded wide attention in Appalachia in 1973 with a campaign at the Clinch Valley Clinic Hospital, a private facility in Richlands, Virginia, owned by Bluefield Sanitarium, Inc. Pro-union Clinch Valley service and maintenance workers faced heavy odds. Virginia had been a Right-to-Work state since 1947, meaning that “union security” agreements such as automatic dues checkoffs from workers covered by a union contract were illegal. Moreover, there was a possibility that the workers would be chastised for pushing traditional gendered boundaries of women working in “helping” occupations. Failing for five months to secure voluntary recognition from the hospital, over 85% of Clinch Valley employees struck early in 1973. In February 140 workers, mostly women, were arrested for violating a picketing injunction. Their jailing mobilized public opinion in their favor and prompted five thousand local UMWA miners to stage a one-day sympathy walkout. Unable to control the public’s perception of the strike, the hospital finally signed a one-year contract recognizing 1199. Hospital management immediately began a new campaign to undermine the contract, and successfully “decertified” the union (by one vote) when the contract expired in 1974. This paper addresses three themes: the expansion of the civil rights and social justice foundations of an urban-based service workers\u27 union into an Appalachian context; the mobilization of union and anti-union sentiment in Tazewell County; and American labor law since 1970. The paper will rely on Tazewell County Circuit Court documents, contemporary newspaper and periodical reporting, oral history, and secondary works on working-class issues in the 1970s. The presentation will include a few slides. Topics: Appalachian labor history; labor law; democratic unionis

Regulatorische Einflüsse probiotischer Bakterien auf allergische Immunantworten

Unter Allergie wird eine Dysregulation des Immunsystems verstanden, bei der es zu pathologischen immunologischen Reaktionen, wie z.B. Rhinokonjunktiviten, Pruritus oder gar Asthma bronchiale, gegen normalerweise harmlose Antigene kommt. Allergien zählen heute zu den häufigsten und volkswirtschaftlich wichtigsten Erkrankungen Europas, insbesondere auch deshalb, da gerade Kinder und Jugendliche häufig betroffen sind. Es ist also auch von größtem sozioökonomischem Interesse, nach neuen Möglichkeiten zur Prävention und Therapie dieser Erkrankungen zu suchen. Die Forschung beschäftigt sich aktuell unter anderem mit den prä- und frühen postnatalen Einflüssen auf die Entstehung von Allergien. So sollte die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchen, wie eine gezielte Ernährung mit Zellkulturüberständen von Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGGM) während der Schwangerschaft die Toleranzmechanismen gegenüber Allergenen in den Nachkommen beeinflussen kann. Im Mausmodell konnte dabei gezeigt werden, dass bei den Nachkommen der perinatal mit LGGM behandelten Muttertiere einige für allergische Reaktionen in der Lunge typische Charakteristika signifikant vermindert wurden. So wurde im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe eine geringere peribronchiale Infiltration durch eosinophile Granulozyten beobachtet. Auch konnte eine Abschwächung einer TH2- zugunsten einer stärker TH1 gewichteten Immunantwort aufgezeigt werden. Keine Unterschiede wurden aber bei den Konzentrationen an OVA-spezifischen Immunglobulinen gemessen, sodass insgesamt festzuhalten bleibt, dass eine Therapie mit LGGM zwar die Manifestation einer Allergie abschwächt, die Sensibilisierung als Grundstein in der Pathogenese aber hierdurch nicht verhindert wird. In vitro-Untersuchungen zur Differenzierung therapeutisch wirksamer Bestandteile des LGGM mit einer Makrophagenzelllinie zeigten, dass nicht DNA-Bestandteile, sondern Proteinase-sensible Moleküle für die immunregulatorischen Effekte verantwortlich zu sein scheinen. Im Hinblick auf die Möglichkeit, ein natürliches Pharmakon als Nahrungsergänzung für Schwangere herzustellen, das weitgehend befreit von potentiell pathogen wirksamen Bestandteilen des gesamten Bakteriums sein sollte, bleibt es das Ziel weiterführender Studien zu klären, welche Substanz(en) des LGGM genau für die immunmodulatorisch wirksamen Effekte verantwortlich ist/sind

Autocrine selection of a GLP-1R G-protein biased agonist with potent antidiabetic effects

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor (GLP-1R) agonists have emerged as treatment options for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). GLP-1R signals through G-protein-dependent, and G-protein-independent pathways by engaging the scaffold protein b-arrestin; preferential signalling of ligands through one or the other of these branches is known as ‘ligand bias’. Here we report the discovery of the potent and selective GLP-1R G-protein-biased agonist, P5. We identified P5 in a high-throughput autocrine-based screening of large combinatorial peptide libraries, and show that P5 promotes G-protein signalling comparable to GLP-1 and Exendin-4, but exhibited a significantly reduced b-arrestin response. Preclinical studies using different mouse models of T2DM demonstrate that P5 is a weak insulin secretagogue. Nevertheless, chronic treatment of diabetic mice with P5 increased adipogenesis, reduced adipose tissue inflammation as well as hepatic steatosis and was more effective at correcting hypergly-caemia and lowering haemoglobin A1c levels than Exendin-4, suggesting that GLP-1