Keeping Social Media Influencers Influential: Preserving Perceptions of Authenticity While Brand Dropping

Marketers’ use of social media influencers (SMIs)—individuals who use various social media channels to discuss a particular topic (e.g., fashion, health) or offer entertainment (e.g., comedy) and, in doing so, attract followers—to promote products, known as “influencer marketing,” is a widely employed and effective strategic tool (Linqia 2018). In fact, SMIs, who can be conceptualized as human brands (Thompson 2006), have a greater audience reach and dialogue generation compared to that of celebrities (Crimson Hexagon 2015). Further, consumers perceive SMIs’ content as trustworthy (Scott 2015), which is likely due to them being perceived as highly authentic. According to Audrezet, de Kerviler and Moulard (2018) SMIs use strategies to remain passionately authentic and transparently authentic. Despite their popularity and perceived trustworthiness, SMIs face a challenge when they mention, recommend, or endorse brands within their digital content. Doing so may lead to perceptions that the influencer is passionately inauthentic, as consumers may presume these acts to be commercially driven. Thus, by incorporating influencer marketing, SMIs may compromise their perceived passionate authenticity. When SMIs mention brands within their digital content, they sometimes choose to infer whether or not they have a business relationship with the brand via a disclosure. SMIs’ means of, or choice of wording for disclosures varies. Therefore, consumers will likely perceive SMIs as more transparently authentic when SMIs disclose unambiguously, since doing so implies complete forthrightness. SMIs are now required to disclose, or explicitly mention when they were paid to promote a brand (Johnson 2017). However, the FTC’s rules are somewhat ambiguous and perhaps unfair. Therefore, SMIs may or may not be explicitly disclosing their true relationship with brands they post about due to the sheer uncertainty and/or unfairness inherent in the FTC’s endorsement guidance (FTC 2015). SMIs who explicitly disclose are presumably perceived as possessing high transparent authenticity; however, such explicit disclosures presumably result in consumer perceptions of low passionate authenticity. This brings about a challenge to SMIs who partner with brands. This dissertation will answer the following question: How can social media influencers manage consumers’ perceptions of their human brand authenticity while engaging in influencer marketing

Von der Kulturraumforschung zur Sozialgeschichte: Landes- und Regionalgeschichte in Westfalen in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts

La contribution établit que pendant la première moitié du XXe siècle l’historiographie de la Westphalie s’est déployée d’une part comme historiographie politique, avec un objet clairement défini, la province prussienne de Westphalie, de l’autre comme une historiographie anthropologique des « aires culturelles populaires » avec un objet fixe mais évoluant dans le temps : l’espace de civilisation westphalien, ou l’organisme géographique « Westphalie ». Jusque dans les années 1960, pour des raisons qui tiennent à la défense de la spécificité westphalienne et à la longévité de ses « maîtres » Aubin et Petri, l’historiographie westphalienne s’accrocha à ces méthodes et estima superflue toute révision de ses approches. Les changements ne se produisent que dans les années 1960, à partir des institutions nationales que sont les universités nouvelles et les orientations qu’apporte la recherche universitaire appliquant les méthodes de la recherche en histoire sociale au cadre « régional » et mettant au point « la Regionalgeschichte » renouvellent la « Landesgeschichte ».This contribution demonstrates that during the first half of the 20th century historiography in Westfalen concentrated on both political aspects with a clearly defined target, the Prussian province of Westfalen and on anthropological considerations concerning «cultural popular areas» with one specific but changing object, Westfalen as a cultural space or a geographic entity. Up to the 1960s, because of campaigns advocating the specificity of Westfalen and the long lasting influence of its “masters”, Aubin and Petri, people in charge of historiography kept standing by their methods and considered it unnecessary to revise any of their approaches. Changes came up later in the 1960s only thanks to the new universities, at the national level, and to the orientations of academic researchers implementing the methods of social history at a regional level and thus giving “Landesgeschichte” a new turn, to become “Regionalgeschichte”

Clonagem de genes ureG putativos de Glomus intraradices e atividades de urease em raízes micorrízicas arbusculares de tabaco

Even though the major benefit of arbuscular mycorrhizae is the increased uptake of phosphate from the soil solution and translocation to the plant, changes in the activity of enzymes involved in nitrogen (N) metabolism have been detected in mycorrhizal roots. Using differential display of reverse-transcripts of tobacco roots not-inoculated or inoculated with Glomus intraradices (Gi), we have cloned two partial cDNAs (NtGi2 and NtGi3). The presence of a conserved CobW/HypB/UreG domain and phylogenetic analyses suggest that NtGi2 and NtGi3 encode isoforms of urease accessory protein G (ureG) highly similar to ureG from fungi. The steady state levels of the putative ureG transcripts were shown to be higher in roots colonized by Gi, as compared to non-mycorrhizal controls. Urease activities were also determined in tobacco roots inoculated with Glomus clarum (Gc) or Gi and grown in substrate containing 50, 100 or 150 mg N kg-1 in the form of ammonium sulfate (N-AMS) or urea (N-URE). Urease activities were shown to be induced in mycorrhizal roots fertilized with 100 mg N-AMS kg-1. In Gc-colonized roots fertilized with N-URE, induction of urease activities was observed at the lowest N concentration. In contrast, at the highest N-URE concentration, suppression of urease activities was observed in Gc and Gi-colonized roots, as compared to non-mycorrhizal controls. Urease activities in roots were modulated by soil N availability and source, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation.Muito embora o maior benefício de micorrizas arbusculares seja o incremento na absorção de fosfato da solução do solo e translocação para a planta, alterações nas atividades de enzimas envolvidas no metabolismo de nitrogênio (N) têm sido detectadas em raízes micorrizadas. Usando differential display of reverse-transcripts de raízes de tabaco não-inoculadas ou inoculadas com Glomus intraradices (Gi), dois cDNAs parciais (NtGi2 e NtGi3) foram clonados. A presença de um domínio CobW/HypB/UreG conservado e a análise filogenética sugerem que NtGi2 e NtGi3 codificam isoformas de proteínas acessórias da urease G (ureG) altamente similares a ureG de fungos. Os níveis de transcritos dos genes ureG putativos foram mais elevados em raízes colonizadas por Gi, em relação ao controle não-micorrizado. As atividades de urease foram determinadas em raízes de tabaco inoculadas com Glomus clarum (Gc) ou Gi e cultivadas em substrato contendo 50, 100 ou 150 mg N kg-¹, na forma de sulfato de amônio (N-AMS) ou uréia (N-URE). As atividades de ureases foram induzidas em raízes micorrizadas cultivadas com 100 mg N-AMS kg-¹. Em raízes colonizadas por Gc e cultivadas com N-URE, a indução das atividades de urease foi observada na concentração mais baixa de N. Em contraste, na concentração mais elevada de N-URE, supressão das atividades de urease em raízes colonizadas por Gc e Gi, em relação aos controles não-micorrizados, foi observada. As atividades de urease nas raízes foram moduladas pela disponibilidade e fonte de N no solo, e pela inoculação com fungos micorrízicos arbusculares.FAPESPCNPqCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES

Detection of Large Vessel Occlusions using Deep Learning by Deforming Vessel Tree Segmentations

Computed Tomography Angiography is a key modality providing insights into the cerebrovascular vessel tree that are crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of ischemic strokes, in particular in cases of large vessel occlusions (LVO). Thus, the clinical workflow greatly benefits from an automated detection of patients suffering from LVOs. This work uses convolutional neural networks for case-level classification trained with elastic deformation of the vessel tree segmentation masks to artificially augment training data. Using only masks as the input to our model uniquely allows us to apply such deformations much more aggressively than one could with conventional image volumes while retaining sample realism. The neural network classifies the presence of an LVO and the affected hemisphere. In a 5-fold cross validated ablation study, we demonstrate that the use of the suggested augmentation enables us to train robust models even from few data sets. Training the EfficientNetB1 architecture on 100 data sets, the proposed augmentation scheme was able to raise the ROC AUC to 0.85 from a baseline value of 0.56 using no augmentation. The best performance was achieved using a 3D-DenseNet yielding an AUC of 0.87. The augmentation had positive impact in classification of the affected hemisphere as well, where the 3D-DenseNet reached an AUC of 0.93 on both sides.Comment: 7 pages. Accepted at BVM-Workshop 2022, Springe

Etablierung von Zellkultur und Tiermodellen zum Studium neu identifizierter Atemwegspathogene (hMPV, hCoV-NL63 und SARS-CoV)

Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden das humane Metapneumovirus (hMPV) und das respiratorische Synzitial Virus (hRSV) in vitro und in vivo untersucht. Beide Viren entstammen der Familie der Paramyxoviridae, verursachen milde bis schwerwiegende Atemwegsinfektionen und sind anhand der Krankheitssymptome nicht voneinander unterscheidbar. Davon betroffen sind vor allem Kleinkinder, immunsupprimierte und ältere Menschen. Es wurde eine humane Zelllinie neu für die Replikation beider Viren identifiziert, die im Vergleich zu bisher verwendeten, nicht-humanen Zelllinien sowohl eine hochtitrige Replikation beider Viren erlaubt, als auch eine in vitro Charakterisierung molekularer Mechanismen vor humanem Hintergrund ermöglicht. Dabei zeigte sich, dass eine hMPV-Infektion andere zellmorphologische Strukturen induziert sowie unterschiedliche Zellsignalwege aktiviert als eine hRSV-Infektion. An einem optimierten BALB/c-Mausmodell wurde weiterhin gezeigt, dass hMPV und hRSV als Einzel- und als Doppelinfektion auch in vivo Unterschiede auf zellulärer Ebene hervorrufen. Da bekannt ist, dass auch ältere Individuen trotz der Anwesenheit neutralisierender Antikörper schwerwiegend an hMPV und hRSV erkranken, wurden ebenfalls altersbedingte Unterschiede untersucht. Es zeigten sich gegensätzliche immunologische Reaktionen auf zellulärer Ebene abhängig vom Alter des Tieres und dem Virus, der zur Infektion verwendet wurde: beispielsweise war der NF-kB-Spiegel in hMPV- und doppelinfizierten jungen Tieren deutlich erhöht, verblieb jedoch niedrig bei hRSV-infizierten Tieren, während bei alten Tieren das gegensätzliche Resultat beobachtet wurde. Bei keiner der infizierten Tiergruppen wurde eine Veränderung der Aktivität, des Gewichts und der Futteraufnahme im Vergleich zu Mock- oder Negativkontrolltiergruppen beobachtet, obwohl eine Replikation des jeweilig eingesetzten Virus zweifelsfrei nachgewiesen wurde. Die produktive Infektion in Zusammenhang mit den unterschiedlichen zellulären Reaktionen führt zu der Annahme, dass junge und alte Individuen jeweils unterschiedliche Mechanismen zur Bekämpfung viraler Pathogene anwenden. Der letzte Teil dieser Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Implementierung einer Tierversuchsplattform für das Severe acute respiratory syndrome- assoziierte Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) und das humane Coronavirus NL63 (hCoV-NL63). Untersucht wurde die Suszeptibilität syrischer Goldhamster und alter C57BL/6-Mäuse für hCoV-NL63 und verschiedene wt-Stämme von SARS-CoV

Reverse genetic characterization of the natural genomic deletion in SARS-Coronavirus strain Frankfurt-1 open reading frame 7b reveals an attenuating function of the 7b protein in-vitro and in-vivo

During the outbreak of SARS in 2002/3, a prototype virus was isolated from a patient in Frankfurt/Germany (strain Frankfurt-1). As opposed to all other SARS-Coronavirus strains, Frankfurt-1 has a 45-nucleotide deletion in the transmembrane domain of its ORF 7b protein. When over-expressed in HEK 293 cells, the full-length protein but not the variant with the deletion caused interferon beta induction and cleavage of procaspase 3. To study the role of ORF 7b in the context of virus replication, we cloned a full genome cDNA copy of Frankfurt-1 in a bacterial artificial chromosome downstream of a T7 RNA polymerase promoter. Transfection of capped RNA transcribed from this construct yielded infectious virus that was indistinguishable from the original virus isolate. The presumed Frankfurt-1 ancestor with an intact ORF 7b was reconstructed. In CaCo-2 and HUH7 cells, but not in Vero cells, the variant carrying the ORF 7b deletion had a replicative advantage against the parental virus (4- and 6-fold increase of virus RNA in supernatant, respectively). This effect was neither associated with changes in the induction or secretion of type I interferon, nor with altered induction of apoptosis in cell culture. However, pretreatment of cells with interferon beta caused the deleted virus to replicate to higher titers than the parental strain (3.4-fold in Vero cells, 7.9-fold in CaCo-2 cells)

Hypericum perforatum plant cells reduce Agrobacterium viability during co-cultivation

Plant recalcitrance is the major barrier in developing Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocols for several important plant species. Despite the substantial knowledge of T-DNA transfer process, very little is known about the factors leading to the plant recalcitrance. Here, we analyzed the basis of Hypericum perforatum L. (HP) recalcitrance to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using cell suspension culture. When challenged with Agrobacterium, HP cells swiftly produced an intense oxidative burst, a typical reaction of plant defense. Agrobacterium viability started to decline and reached 99% mortality within 12 h, while the plant cells did not suffer apoptotic process. This is the first evidence showing that the reduction of Agrobacterium viability during co-cultivation with recalcitrant plant cells can affect transformation

The SARS-coronavirus-host interactome

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are important human and animal pathogens that induce fatal respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological disease. The outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002/2003 has demonstrated human vulnerability to (Coronavirus) CoV epidemics. Neither vaccines nor therapeutics are available against human and animal CoVs. Knowledge of host cell proteins that take part in pivotal virus-host interactions could define broad-spectrum antiviral targets. In this study, we used a systems biology approach employing a genome-wide yeast-two hybrid interaction screen to identify immunopilins (PPIA, PPIB, PPIH, PPIG, FKBP1A, FKBP1B) as interaction partners of the CoV non-structural protein 1 (Nsp1). These molecules modulate the Calcineurin/NFAT pathway that plays an important role in immune cell activation. Overexpression of NSP1 and infection with live SARS-CoV strongly increased signalling through the Calcineurin/NFAT pathway and enhanced the induction of interleukin 2, compatible with late-stage immunopathogenicity and long-term cytokine dysregulation as observed in severe SARS cases. Conversely, inhibition of cyclophilins by cyclosporine A (CspA) blocked the replication of CoVs of all genera, including SARS-CoV, human CoV-229E and -NL-63, feline CoV, as well as avian infectious bronchitis virus. Non-immunosuppressive derivatives of CspA might serve as broad-range CoV inhibitors applicable against emerging CoVs as well as ubiquitous pathogens of humans and livestock