Opposing prognostic relevance of junction plakoglobin in distinct prostate cancer patient subsets

Both oncogenic and tumor suppressor functions have been described for junction plakoglobin (JUP), also known as γ-catenin. To clarify the role of JUP in prostate cancer, JUP protein expression was immunohistochemically detected in a tissue microarray containing 11 267 individual prostatectomy specimens. Considering all patients, high JUP expression was associated with adverse tumor stage (P = 0.0002), high Gleason grade (P < 0.0001), and lymph node metastases (P = 0.011). These associations were driven mainly by the subset without TMPRSS2:ERG fusion, in which high JUP expression was an independent predictor of poor prognosis (multivariate analyses, P = 0.0054) and early biochemical recurrence (P = 0.0003). High JUP expression was further linked to strong androgen receptor expression (P < 0.0001), high cell proliferation, and PTEN and FOXP1 deletion (P < 0.0001). In the ERG-negative subset, high JUP expression was additionally linked to MAP3K7 (P = 0.0007) and CHD1 deletion (P = 0.0021). Contrasting the overall prognostic effect of JUP, low JUP expression indicated poor prognosis in the fraction of CHD1-deleted patients (P = 0.039). In this subset, the association of high JUP and high cell proliferation was specifically absent. In conclusion, the controversial biological roles of JUP are reflected by antagonistic prognostic effects in distinct prostate cancer patient subsets

Biofilm structures (EPS and bacterial communities) in drinking water distribution systems are conditioned by hydraulics and influence discolouration

High-quality drinking water from treatment works is degraded during transport to customer taps through the Drinking Water Distribution System (DWDS). Interactions occurring at the pipe wall-water interface are central to this degradation and are often dominated by complex microbial biofilms that are not well understood. This study uses novel application of confocal microscopy techniques to quantify the composition of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and cells of DWDS biofilms together with concurrent evaluation of the bacterial community. An internationally unique, full-scale, experimental DWDS facility was used to investigate the impact of three different hydraulic patterns upon biofilms and subsequently assess their response to increases in shear stress, linking biofilms to water quality impacts such as discolouration. Greater flow variation during growth was associated with increased cell quantity but was inversely related to EPS-to-cell volume ratios and bacterial diversity. Discolouration was caused and EPS was mobilised during flushing of all conditions. Ultimately, biofilms developed under low-varied flow conditions had lowest amounts of biomass, the greatest EPS volumes per cell and the lowest discolouration response. This research shows that the interactions between hydraulics and biofilm physical and community structures are complex but critical to managing biofilms within ageing DWDS infrastructure to limit water quality degradation and protect public health

Managerial power in the German model: the case of Bertelsmann and the antecedents of neoliberalism

Our article extends the research on authoritarian neoliberalism to Germany, through a history of the Bertelsmann media corporation – sponsor and namesake of Germany’s most influential neoliberal think-tank. Our article makes three conceptual moves. Firstly, we argue that conceptualizing German neoliberalism in terms of an ‘ordoliberal paradigm’ is of limited use in explaining the rise and fall of Germany’s distinctive socio-economic model (Modell Deutschland). Instead, we locate the origins of authoritarian tendencies in the corporate power exercised by managers rather than in the power of state-backed markets imagined by ordoliberals. Secondly, we focus on the managerial innovations of Bertelsmann as a key actor enmeshed with Modell Deutschland. We show that the adaptation of business management practices of an endogenous ‘Cologne School’ empowered Bertelsmann’s postwar managers to overcome existential crises and financial constraints despite being excluded from Germany’s corporate support network. Thirdly, we argue that their further development in the 1970s also enabled Bertelsmann to curtail and circumvent the forms of labour representation associated with Modell Deutschland. Inspired by cybernetic management theories that it used to limit and control rather than revive market competition among its workforce, Bertelsmann began to act and think outside the postwar settlement between capital and labour before the settlement’s hotly-debated demise since the 1990s

Spatial and temporal variability in the potential of river water biofilms to degrade p-nitrophenol

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd In order to predict the fate of chemicals in the environment, a range of regulatory tests are performed with microbial inocula collected from environmental compartments to investigate the potential for biodegradation. The abundance and distribution of microbes in the environment is affected by a range of variables, hence diversity and biomass of inocula used in biodegradation tests can be highly variable in space and time. The use of artificial or natural biofilms in regulatory tests could enable more consistent microbial communities be used as inocula, in order to increase test consistency. We investigated spatial and temporal variation in composition, biomass and chemical biodegradation potential of bacterial biofilms formed in river water. Sampling time and sampling location impacted the capacity of biofilms to degrade p-nitrophenol (PNP). Biofilm bacterial community structure varied across sampling times, but was not affected by sampling location. Degradation of PNP was associated with increased relative abundance of Pseudomonas syringae. Partitioning of the bacterial metacommunity into core and satellite taxa revealed that the P. syringae could be either a satellite or core member of the community across sampling times, but this had no impact on PNP degradation. Quantitative PCR analysis of the pnpA gene showed that it was present in all samples irrespective of their ability to degrade PNP. River biofilms showed seasonal variation in biomass, microbial community composition and PNP biodegradation potential, which resulted in inconsistent biodegradation test results. We discuss the results in the context of the mechanisms underlying variation in regulatory chemical degradation tests