Suchergebnisse

Ever since the European Court of Justice delivered its Laval judgment on 18 December 2007, the name of this small Latvian company has become notorious. The sole mention of 'Viking and Laval' has become short-hand for those critical of a certain idea of Europe giving primacy to economic considerations to the detriment of 'social Europe'. This article intends to go back to the original Laval judgment to reconstruct its history and deconstruct its myth. The Viking and Laval judgments have been criticized for using freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services respectively as 'trumps' against the fundamental right of freedom of association and collective action . What protection for the right to strike after what the Court decided, one was inclined to ask? Were we going to see social dumping become the norm, a race to the bottom that would see Eastern European workers compete against their Western counterparts by offering their low labour cost as their best asset? These are crucial questions and they have justly been discussed extensively elsewhere. This article considers the Laval judgment, and explores a different angle, by taking as its starting point Habermas' theory of discursive practices as guarantees for a democratic outcome and offering the Swedish system of collective agreements as a substantiation of such practices. In this context, the article argues, the comprehensive dismissal by the Court of the carefully constructed and balanced system of social dialogue between management and labour is truly the most disturbing aspect of this controversial judgment. For all the supposed importance placed on discursive practices and social dialogue for the European social model, when confronted with a successful example of such model, the Court retreated in the familiar territory of hard law and statutory obligations. In doing so, it willfully misunderstood the function of collective bargaining, by effectively decoupling its process from its function, and leaving social dialogue with the hollow role of a deliberative practice devoid of any finality, the very openness of which both signifies and nullifies its democratic credentials.

$\textit{Drosophila}$ phototransduction is mediated by phospholipase C leading to activation of cation channels (TRP and TRPL) in the 30000 microvilli forming the light-absorbing rhabdomere. The channels mediate massive Ca$^{2+}$ influx in response to light, but whether Ca$^{2+}$ is released from internal stores remains controversial. We generated flies expressing GCaMP6f in their photoreceptors and measured Ca$^{2+}$ signals from dissociated cells, as well as $\textit{in vivo}$ by imaging rhabdomeres in intact flies. In response to brief flashes, GCaMP6f signals had latencies of 10–25 ms, reached 50% $\textit{F}$max with $\sim$ 1200 effectively absorbed photons and saturated ($\textit{ΔF/F}$$_{0}$ $\sim$ 10–20) with 10000–30000 photons. In Ca$^{2+}$ free bath, smaller ($\textit{ΔF/F}$$_{0}$ $\sim$ 4), long latency ($\sim$ 200 ms) light-induced Ca$^{2+}$ rises were still detectable. These were unaffected in InsP$_{3}$ receptor mutants, but virtually eliminated when Na+ was also omitted from the bath, or in trpl;trp mutants lacking light-sensitive channels. Ca$^{2+}$ free rises were also eliminated in Na+/Ca$^{2+}$ exchanger mutants, but greatly accelerated in flies over-expressing the exchanger. These results show that Ca$^{2+}$ free rises are strictly dependent on Na+ influx and activity of the exchanger, suggesting they reflect re-equilibration of Na+/Ca$^{2+}$ exchange across plasma or intracellular membranes following massive Na+ influx. Any tiny Ca$^{2+}$ free rise remaining without exchanger activity was equivalent to <10 nM ($\textit{ΔF/F}$$_{0}$ $\sim$ 0.1), and unlikely to play any role in phototransduction. ; The authors thank Dr Marten Postma for comments on the MS. This project received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M00706/1 and BB/J009253/1; RCH, C-HL) and Horizon 2020 "European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No (658818-FLYghtCaRe RCH, SA).

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$\textit{Drosophila}$ phototransduction is mediated by phospholipase C, leading to activation of transient receptor potential (TRP) and TRP-like (TRPL) channels by mechanisms that are unresolved. A role for InsP$_3$ receptors (IP$_3$Rs) had been excluded because IP$_3$R mutants ($\textit{itpr}$) appeared to have normal light responses; however, this was recently challenged by Kohn et al. ("Functional cooperation between the IP3 receptor and phospholipase C secures the high sensitivity to light of $\textit{Drosophila}$ photoreceptors in vivo," Journal of Neuroscience 35:2530), who reported defects in phototransduction after IP$_3$R-RNAi knockdown. They concluded that InsP$_3$-induced Ca$^{2+}$ release plays a critical role in facilitating channel activation, and that previous failure to detect IP$_3$R phenotypes resulted from trace Ca$^{2+}$ in electrodes substituting for InsP$_3$-induced Ca$^{2+}$ release. In an attempt to confirm this, we performed electroretinograms, whole-cell recordings, and GCaMP6f Ca$^{2+}$ imaging from both IP$_3$R-RNAi flies and $\textit{itpr}$-null mutants. Like Kohn et al., we used GMRGal4 to drive expression of UAS-IP$_3$R-RNAi, but we also used controls expressing GMRGal4 alone. We describe several GMRGal4 phenotypes suggestive of compromised development, including reductions in sensitivity, dark noise, potassium currents, and cell size and capacitance, as well as extreme variations in sensitivity between cells. However, we found no effect of IP$_3$R RNAi or mutation on photoreceptor responses or Ca$^{2+}$ signals, indicating that the IP$_3$R plays little or no role in $\textit{Drosophila}$ phototransduction. ; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council: 501100000268, BB/G0092531/1, BB/M007006/1 (RCH, MKB, C-HL) European Union's Horizon 2020 (EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation), 501100007601 (RCH, SA: EU Grant 658818), and the Erasmus program (MEK).