Progress towards non-small-cell lung cancer models that represent clinical evolutionary trajectories

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although advances are being made towards earlier detection and the development of impactful targeted therapies and immunotherapies, the 5-year survival of patients with advanced disease is still below 20%. Effective cancer research relies on pre-clinical model systems that accurately reflect the evolutionary course of disease progression and mimic patient responses to therapy. Here, we review pre-clinical models, including genetically engineered mouse models and patient-derived materials, such as cell lines, primary cell cultures, explant cultures and xenografts, that are currently being used to interrogate NSCLC evolution from pre-invasive disease through locally invasive cancer to the metastatic colonization of distant organ sites

An exploratory study looking at the relationship marketing techniques used in the music festival industry

There are current issues and trends in the music festival market, which may affect the success of an event, and market saturation is at the forefront of these issues. Previous literature, maintaining the need for a marketing approach to festivals, identifi es the need for maintaining strong stakeholder relationships in order to succeed in a business environment; attention has been focused to the theory of relationship marketing (RM) because of the recognition that this practice is complementary to the marketing of festivals. The very nature of the music festival as an annual, usually, 4-day event means that effective marketing is needed to keep connections with the consumer throughout the year. This article focuses on the RM techniques utilised within the music festival industry from the viewpoint of the festival organiser in an attempt to establish how festival organisations value and monitor organisational relationships. This article explores the extent to which these relationships are valued and managed; furthermore, the variations between these intricate relationships are considered by focusing on those held with the organisation ’ s consumers and sponsors, the results of which have provided the ability to establish the importance and relevance of RM to the industry and further identify the marketing communication methods employed to establish and maintain such relationships. In-depth, convergent interviews have been conducted with a segment of music festival organisers from a range of events. The results have been integrated with the study of current literature to best exemplify these issues. It has been established that RM has a strong role in today ’ s commercial and independent music festival industry; technological advances are enabling the organiser to support online relationships further and increase consumer loyalty. There is a need to expand the research further because of the complexity of organisational relationships and the varying categories of festivals

A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) with Private Labels in Spain

Molinillo,S., Ekinci, Y., Japutra, A. (2014)'A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) with Private Labels in Spain'. in Martínez-López, Gázquez-Abad, J.C. and Sethuraman, R. J.A. (eds.) Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing. Second International Conference, 2015. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 113-125In recent years a number of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) models and measurement scales have been introduced in the branding literature. However, examinations of brand equity in Private Labels (PL) are rather limited. This study aims to compare the validity of the two prominent CBBE models those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2001) and Nam et al. (2011). In order to test the models and make this comparison, the study collected data from 236 respondents who rated private labels in Spain. A list of 30 different fashion and sportswear PL was introduced to respondents. These brands do not make any reference to the retail store in which they are sold. Research findings suggest that the extended CBBE model introduced by Nam et al. (2011) and Ciftci et al. (2014) is more reliable and valid than Yoo and Donthu’s model for assessing PL. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Education Service Systems

Part 3: Finance and Service ScienceInternational audienceThe increased complexity in education systems has given rise to a number of intersecting trends and calling for a discipline to integrate across academic silos. As the concept of service innovation advances more rapidly into education services; industry, government, and academy are awakened to the concept of embedding services innovation. This theoretical paper offers an integrated framework for education systems (IFES) covering two intersecting dimensions where service innovation and service science can take place. As an effort to contribute in the area of service innovation and service sciences, an interdisciplinary approach is applied, interconnecting an array of competences across the different stakeholders. It is hypothesized that to increase productivity in education industries, interconnecting knowledge and resources from diverse areas and across different stakeholders through the co-lineation of four dimensions: (1) information, communications and technology; (2) skills and tools; (3) people and attitudes; (4) systems, processes and management; are essential to creating service innovation. This paper contributes a perspective of interconnectivity balanced with harmony that are crucial for effective productivity and service innovation by adopting a service science approach

Black Friday rituals, customer perceived value and loyalty among young adult customers in South Africa: A Stimulus-Organism-Response perspective

Abstract: The study explores the nexus of relationship between Black Friday rituals, customer value and customer loyalty among young adult customers in South Africa. A descriptive research design was followed and data were collected from 400 young adult customers aged 18–35 in the Gauteng province of South Africa through selfadministered questionnaires. Furthermore, the measurement and structural models were assessed using Amos 23.0. Relational capital and social influence significantly and positively influence customer-perceived value, while customer-perceived value significantly and positively influences the customer loyalty of young adult customers towards Black Friday rituals. The testing of the proposed model validates the relationships that are hypothesised between the independent variables (cognitive capital, relational capital, social identification, social influence, social convenience), customer-perceived value and customer loyalty of young adult customers. The findings assist retailers in understanding how relational capital and social influence..

Cyclin D mediates tolerance of genome-doubling in cancers with functional p53

BACKGROUND: Aneuploidy and chromosomal instability (CIN) are common features of human malignancy that fuel genetic heterogeneity. Although tolerance to tetraploidization, an intermediate state that further exacerbates CIN, is frequently mediated by TP53 dysfunction, we find that some genome-doubled tumours retain wild-type TP53. We sought to understand how tetraploid cells with a functional p53/p21-axis tolerate genome-doubling events. METHOD: We performed quantitative proteomics in a diploid/tetraploid pair within a system of multiple independently derived TP53 wild-type tetraploid clones arising spontaneously from a diploid progenitor. We characterized adapted and acute tetraploidization in a variety of flow cytometry and biochemical assays and tested our findings against human tumours through bioinformatics analysis of the TCGA dataset. RESULTS: Cyclin D1 was found to be specifically overexpressed in early but not late passage tetraploid clones, and this overexpression was sufficient to promote tolerance to spontaneous and pharmacologically induced tetraploidy. We provide evidence that this role extends to D-type cyclins and their overexpression confers specific proliferative advantage to tetraploid cells. We demonstrate that tetraploid clones exhibit elevated levels of functional p53 and p21 but override the p53/p21 checkpoint by elevated expression of cyclin D1, via a stoichiometry-dependent and CDK activity-independent mechanism. Tetraploid cells do not exhibit increased sensitivity to abemaciclib, suggesting that cyclin D-overexpressing tumours might not be specifically amenable to treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that D-type cyclin overexpression is an acute event, permissive for rapid adaptation to a genome-doubled state in TP53 wild-type tumours and that its overexpression is dispensable in later stages of tumour progression

Selective inhibition of cancer cell self-renewal through a Quisinostat-histone H1.0 axis

Continuous cancer growth is driven by subsets of self-renewing malignant cells. Targeting of uncontrolled self-renewal through inhibition of stem cell-related signaling pathways has proven challenging. Here, we show that cancer cells can be selectively deprived of self-renewal ability by interfering with their epigenetic state. Re-expression of histone H1.0, a tumor-suppressive factor that inhibits cancer cell self-renewal in many cancer types, can be broadly induced by the clinically well-tolerated compound Quisinostat. Through H1.0, Quisinostat inhibits cancer cell self-renewal and halts tumor maintenance without affecting normal stem cell function. Quisinostat also hinders expansion of cells surviving targeted therapy, independently of the cancer types and the resistance mechanism, and inhibits disease relapse in mouse models of lung cancer. Our results identify H1.0 as a major mediator of Quisinostat's antitumor effect and suggest that sequential administration of targeted therapy and Quisinostat may be a broadly applicable strategy to induce a prolonged response in patients

Recommendation of an integrated index for the quality of educational services using multivariate statistics

In this work, the analysis of the surveys was carried out through a factorial analysis, which facilitates the evaluation of the validity of the selected construct for the case under study, as well as evaluating the quality of the service for each factor, with a view to determining the level of quality of the educational service, for which it integrates elements of descriptive and multivariate statistics with the management of the quality of the educational service. They are used as fundamental statistical techniques, descriptive analysis, factor analysis and analysis of variance. As a final result, it was concluded that the students of five UNITEC careers evaluated the educational service they receive as very satisfactory (4 points), highlighting the tangible elements as the most weighted factor. A significant aspect is that there are no significant differences in the perceptions of students from different careers and different sections

Designing Value-Oriented Service Systems by Value Map

In this paper, we introduce a problem structuring method (PSM) called “Value Map”. Value Map is an extension to the Supplier Adopter Relationship Diagram in the Systemic Enterprise Architecture Method (SEAM). Value Map assists in understanding, analysis and design of value creation and capture in service systems. We illustrate the applicability of the Value Map by modeling value creation and capture in the service system of a social networking company called Webdoc. To validate the usefulness of the Value Map, we conducted an empirical study in which we also compared the Value Map to Business Model Canvas, one of the most established methods in business model design. The results of the study show that the Value Map helps business practitioners in understanding and analyzing customer value, customer value creation, and the value capture processes. We conducted an empirical study in which we assessed the usefulness of Value Map and compared it with Business Model Canvas, one of the most established methods in business model design. The results of the study show that the Value Map helps business practitioners to understand and analyze customer value, customer value creation, and the value capture processes