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Despite declining fish stocks, the global demand for seafood makes fish one of the most traded food products in the world, posing severe problems for local fisheries, mainly small-scale (artisanal) fisheries. Several new marketing and labelling initiatives have emerged locally to cope with increased aquaculture and imported seafood. In Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, over the last 10 years, these initiatives thrive in the interstices of traditional marketing channels based on the auction as a first-sale system. Based on face-to-face interviews and a group discussion, we analyze innovative marketing initiatives and certification systems that have emerged, either promoted by fishers’ guilds, environmental companies, individual fishers, or collectively by the artisanal fishing sector. These initiatives represent a pragmatic effort to cope with dwindling resources, to improve prices and acquire greater marketing flexibility in the face of global challenges. While some initiatives are based on ideas of sustainability, others emphasize the cultural heritage that gives added value to fish products. New data indicate that since COVID-19, this trend has proliferated in the strategies of wholesalers and retailers as an alternative to the Horeca Channel (Hotels, Restaurants, Catering) using social networks (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter) in the dissemination of the values associated with fish products. The marketing channels of seafood products are diversifying and increasing competition between the actors in the buying and selling network. We analysed these aspects through the channels of the distribution network of the cuttlefish market in Catalonia, using the methodology of social network analysis, digital ethnography, and face-to-face interviews

There have been unprecedented advances in the identification of new treatment targets for chronic hepatitis B that are being developed with the goal of achieving functional cure in patients who would otherwise require lifelong nucleoside analogue treatment. Many of the new investigational therapies either directly target the immune system or are anticipated to impact immunity indirectly through modulation of the viral lifecycle and antigen production. While new viral biomarkers (HBV RNA, HBcAg, small, middle, large HBs isoforms) are proceeding through validation steps in clinical studies, immunological biomarkers are non-existent outside of clinical assays for antibodies to HBs, HBc and HBe. To develop clinically applicable immunological biomarkers to measure mechanisms of action, inform logical combination strategies, and guide clinical management for use and discontinuation of immune-targeting drugs, immune assays must be incorporated into phase I/II clinical trials. This paper will discuss the importance of sample collection, the assays available for immunological analyses, their advantages/disadvantages and suggestions for their implementation in clinical trials. Careful consideration must be given to ensure appropriate immunological studies are included as a primary component of the trial with deeper immunological analysis provided by ancillary studies. Standardising immunological assays and data obtained from clinical trials will identify biomarkers that can be deployed in the clinic, independently of specialised immunology laboratories.

Local fisheries have often limited influence on the pricing dynamics due to their low capacity of production and because they must compete with aquaculture products or imported seafood. As a response, new marketing and labelling initiatives, such as direct sale and certification of origin schemes, have emerged. In Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, over the last 15 years, these initiatives have been thriving in the interstices of the traditional marketing channels, which start at the auction as the first sale system and largely determine the ex-vessel prices. These initiatives represent a pragmatic effort to cope with the diminishing fisheries resources while adding value to the catches and helping to improve the sale prices. They are also a way to acquire larger market flexibility to face global challenges. We investigated emerging marketing and labelling initiatives by means of one discussion session, semi-structured interviews with fishers, fishmongers and other actors involved in the production, first sale and distribution of seafood. In this paper, we draw from 4 years of fieldwork in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands to investigate the history and evolution of alternative seafood marketing arrangements and why some have succeeded and others failed. The research provides an illustrative example of how fishers adapt and resist global market forces and calls into question the monopolistic structures grounded in the existing relationships between fisheries associations and middlepersons. The results of the fieldwork also highlighted the problem of adjusting catches to demand, and the conflicts of interest between the fisheries sectors, enterprises and fisheries associations