Selectivity of the photosensitiser Tookad® for photodynamic therapy evaluated in the Syrian golden hamster cheek pouch tumour model

The response to photodynamic therapy (PDT) with the photosensitiser (PS) Tookad was measured in the Syrian hamster cheek pouch model on normal mucosae and chemically induced squamous cell carcinoma. This PS is a palladium-bacteriopheophorbide presenting absorption peaks at 538 and 762 nm. The light dose, drug dose and drug injection-light irradiation times (DLI), ranging between 100 and 300 J cm(-2), 1-5 mg kg(-1) and 10-240 min respectively, were varied and the response to PDT was analysed by staging the macroscopic response and by the histological examination of the sections of the irradiated cheek pouch. A fast time decay of the tissular response with drug dose of 1-5 mg kg(-1) was observed for DLI ranging from 10 to 240 min and for light doses of 100-300 J cm(-2) delivered at a light dose rate of 150 mW cm(-2). A significantly higher level of tissular response was observed for squamous cell carcinoma compared to normal tissue. Nevertheless, the threshold level of the drug-light dose for a detectable response was not significantly different in the tumoral vs normal tissue. The highest response at the shortest DLIs and the absence of measurable response at DLI larger than 240 min at light dose of 300 J cm(-2) and drug dose of 5 mg kg(-1) reveals the predominantly vascular effect of Tookad. This observation suggests that Tookad could be effective in PDT of vascularised lesions

Little angels: The mediation of parenting

This Article does not have an abstract

Uptake and localisation of mTHPC (Foscan®) and its14C-labelled form in normal and tumour tissues of the hamster squamous cell carcinoma model: a comparative study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of meta(tetrahydroxyphenyl)chlorin (mTHPC) on different tissues of interest in a hamster tumour model and to confirm our earlier animal studies on semi-quantitative fluorescence microscopy. The results obtained by three different evaluation methods were compared: in vivo spectrofluorometry, ex vivo fluorescence microscopy and chemical extraction of 14C-labelled mTHPC. Following intracardiac injection of 0.5 mg kg−1 mTHPC, groups of five tumour-bearing animals were used for in situ light-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Afterwards, the biopsies were taken and snap frozen for fluorescence microscopy. The presence of radioactivity in serum and tissues was determined after chemical digestion in scintillation fluid using a scintillation counter. For each analysed tissue, a good correlation was observed between the three evaluation methods. The highest fluorescence intensity and quantities of mTHPC were observed between 12 and 24 h in liver, kidney, serum, vascular endothelium and advanced neoplasia. The majority of mTHPC was found at around 48 h in smooth muscle and at 96 h in healthy cheek pouch mucosa and early malignant lesions. The lowest level of mTHPC was noted in striated muscle at all times. No selectivity in dye localisation was observed between early squamous cell carcinoma and healthy mucosa. Soon after the injection, a significant selectivity was noted for advanced squamous cell carcinoma as compared to healthy cheek pouch mucosa or striated muscle. A significant difference in mTHPC localisation and quantity was also observed between striated and smooth muscle during the first 48 h following the injection. Finally, this study demonstrated the usefulness of non-invasive in situ spectroscopic measurements to be performed systematically prior to photodynamic therapy as a real-time monitoring for each treated patient in order to individualise and adapt the light dosimetry and avoid over or under treatments

A song and dance: branded entertainment and mobile promotion

This article considers the rise of branded entertainment within the contemporary marketing and media environment. Specifically, it examines how mobile phone marketing in the UK has sought to engage consumers and perform the social use of mobile technology through multimedia ad campaigns with an inscribed entertainment value. Focusing on brand campaigns for 3G mobile services that borrow explicitly from reality television (T-Mobile) and Hollywood film (Orange), the article explores the concept of branded entertainment in relation to the ‘popular imagination’ of mobile communication in the late 2000s. In doing so, it examines the particular relation of flash mobs to the production of brand community

Cloaked Facebook pages: Exploring fake Islamist propaganda in social media

This research analyses cloaked Facebook pages that are created to spread political propaganda by cloaking a user profile and imitating the identity of a political opponent in order to spark hateful and aggressive reactions. This inquiry is pursued through a multi-sited online ethnographic case study of Danish Facebook pages disguised as radical Islamist pages, which provoked racist and anti-Muslim reactions as well as negative sentiments towards refugees and immigrants in Denmark in general. Drawing on Jessie Daniels’ critical insights into cloaked websites, this research furthermore analyses the epistemological, methodological and conceptual challenges of online propaganda. It enhances our understanding of disinformation and propaganda in an increasingly interactive social media environment and contributes to a critical inquiry into social media and subversive politics

Does the Supreme Court Follow the Economic Returns? A Response to A Macrotheory of the Court

Today, there is a widespread idea that parents need to learn how to carry out their roles as parents. Practices of parental learning operate throughout society. This article deals with one particular practice of parental learning, namely nanny TV, and the way in which ideal parents are constructed through such programmes. The point of departure is SOS family, a series broadcast on Swedish television in 2008. Proceeding from the theorising of governmentality developed in the wake of the work of Michel Foucault, we analyse the parental ideals conveyed in the series, as an example of the way parents are constituted as subjects in the ‘advanced liberal society’ of today. The ideal parent is a subject who, guided by the coach, is constantly endeavouring to achieve a makeover. The objective of this endeavour, however, is self-control, whereby the parents will in the end become their own coaches.

Gaming-playing on social media: using the psychoanalytic concept of ‘playing’ to theorize user labour on Facebook

Political economists have argued that user activity on corporate social media is regarded as labour that appears playful and fun but is exploited and sold to advertisers for profit maximization. This article begins with the working assumption that such user labour on social media constitutes a form of playing. It is theorized through a psychoanalytic perspective on the term as developed by D. W. Winnicott and André Green. The notion of gaming–playing is put forward to account for set interface structures on Facebook that resemble a game as well as free-flowing dimensions more akin to playing. Some user discourses on Facebook are analysed through this prism. A psychoanalytic conceptualization of user labour as playing allows one to analyse both positive discourses that emphasize Facebook as a space for creativity, exploration and the unknown, as well as negative discourses that critique the platform with regard to lacking privacy controls or data ownership. Both discourses are conducted in a playful manner that creatively utilize a sense of user agency in relation to others and Facebook itself, but often remain without consequences

Mobile, wearable and ingestible health technologies : towards a critical research agenda

In this article, we review critical research on mobile and wearable health technologies focused on the promotion of ‘healthy lifestyles’. We begin by discussing key governmental and policy interests which indicate a shift towards greater digital integration in health care. Subsequently, we review relevant research literature, which highlights concerns about inclusion, social justice, and ownership of mobile health data, which we argue, provoke a series of key sociological questions that are in need of additional investigation. We examine the expansion of what counts as health data, as a basis for advocating the need for greater research into this area. Finally, we consider how digital devices raise questions about the reconfiguration of relationships, behaviours, and concepts of individuality

Beauty surveillance: the digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism

This paper argues that ‘beauty apps’ are transforming the arena of appearance politics and foregrounds a theoretical architecture for critically understanding them. Informed by a feminist-Foucaultian framework, it argues that beauty apps offer a technology of gender which brings together digital self-monitoring and postfeminist modalities of subjecthood to produce an hitherto unprecedented regulatory gaze upon women that is marked by the intensification, extensification and psychologization of surveillance. The paper is divided into four sections. First it introduces the literature on digital self-tracking. Secondly it sets out our understanding of neoliberalism and postfeminism. Thirdly it looks at beauty and surveillance, before offering, in the final section, a typology of appearance apps. This is followed by a discussion of the modes of address/authority deployed in these apps – especially what we call ‘surveillant sisterhood’ - and the kinds of entrepreneurial subjectivity they constitute. The paper seeks to make a contribution to feminist surveillance studies and argues that much more detailed research is needed to critically examine beauty apps