Brand Identity and Brand Image in Film Brands: A case study of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World

This study explores brand identity, brand image and their relationship within the modern film brand of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World (JKRWW). The research builds upon literature into media and film brands (e.g. O'Reilly and Kerrigan 2013; Andreea 2013; Farhana 2014) as well as applying the body of academia around the relationship of brand identity and brand image (e.g. Aaker 1991; Kapferer 2004; de Chernatony 1999; Nandan 2005) to the area of film brands. A qualitative methodology is adopted consisting of ten in-depth interviews, three with film managers to understand brand identity, and seven with film consumers to understand brand image. Findings reveal the importance of the writer in the creation of JKRWW’s film brand identity and highlight how consumers relate to the brand’s characters regarding the brand image. There is a strong relationship between identity and image within the JKRWW brand which is to be recommended within film branding

Caveolin-1 is a risk factor for postsurgery metastasis in preclinical melanoma models

Melanomas are highly lethal skin tumours that are frequently treated by surgical resection. However, the efficacy of such procedures is often limited by tumour recurrence and metastasis. Caveolin-1 (CAV1) has been attributed roles as a tumour suppressor, although in late-stage tumours, its presence is associated with enhanced metastasis. The expression of this protein in human melanoma development and particularly how the presence of CAV1 affects metastasis after surgery has not been defined. CAV1 expression in human melanocytes and melanomas increases with disease progression and is highest in metastatic melanomas. The effect of increased CAV1 expression can then be evaluated using B16F10 murine melanoma cells injected into syngenic immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice or human A375 melanoma cells injected into immunodeficient B6Rag1−/− mice. Augmented CAV1 expression suppresses tumour formation upon a subcutaneous injection, but enhances lung metastasis of cells injected into the tail vein in both models. A procedure was initially developed using B16F10 melanoma cells in C57BL/6 mice to mimic better the situation in patients undergoing surgery. Subcutaneous tumours of a defined size were removed surgically and local tumour recurrence and lung metastasis were evaluated after another 14 days. In this postsurgery setting, CAV1 presence in B16F10 melanomas favoured metastasis to the lung, although tumour suppression at the initial site was still evident. Similar results were obtained when evaluating A375 cells in B6Rag1−/− mice. These results implicate CAV1 expression in melanomas as a marker of poor prognosis for patients undergoing surgery as CAV1 expression promotes experimental lung metastasis in two different preclinical models

Encapsulation of gold nanostructures and oil-in-water nanocarriers in microgels with biomedical potential

Indexación: Scopus.Funding: This research was funded by FONDECYT 1161450, 1150744, 11130494 and 1170929, FONDEQUIP EQM160157, EQM170111, CONICYT-FONDAP 15130011, and CONICYT PhD Scholarship 21141137.Here we report the incorporation of gold nanostructures (nanospheres or nanorods, functionalized with carboxylate-end PEG) and curcumin oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions (CurNem) into alginate microgels using the dripping technique. While gold nanostructures are promising nanomaterials for photothermal therapy applications, CurNem possess important pharmacological activities as reported here. In this sense, we evaluated the effect of CurNem on cell viability of both cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines (AGS and HEK293T, respectively), demonstrating preferential toxicity in cancer cells and safety for the non-cancerous cells. After incorporating gold nanostructures and CurNem together into the microgels, microstructures with diameters of 220 and 540 µm were obtained. When stimulating microgels with a laser, the plasmon effect promoted a significant rise in the temperature of the medium; the temperature increase was higher for those containing gold nanorods (11–12 ◦ C) than nanospheres (1–2 ◦ C). Interestingly, the incorporation of both nanosystems in the microgels maintains the photothermal properties of the gold nanostructures unmodified and retains with high efficiency the curcumin nanocarriers. We conclude that these results will be of interest to design hydrogel formulations with therapeutic applications. © 2018 by the authors.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/5/120

The Caveolin-1 Connection to Cell Death and Survival

Nunez, S (Nunez, S.)[ 1,4 ] 1. Fac Med, CEMC, Lab Comunicac Celulares, Santiago, Chile. 4. Univ Talca, Fac Hlth Sci, Talca, ChileCaveolins are a family of membrane proteins required for the formation of small plasma membrane invaginations called caveolae that are implicated in cellular trafficking processes. In addition to this structural role, these scaffolding proteins modulate numerous intracellular signaling pathways; often via direct interaction with specific binding partners. Caveolin-1 is particularly well-studied in this respect and has been attributed a large variety of functions. Thus, Caveolin-1 also represents the best-characterized isoform of this family with respect to its participation in cancer. Rather strikingly, available evidence indicates that Caveolin-1 belongs to a select group of proteins that function, depending on the cellular settings, both as tumor suppressor and promoter of cellular traits commonly associated with enhanced malignant behavior, such as metastasis and multi-drug resistance. The mechanisms underlying such ambiguity in Caveolin-1 function constitute an area of great interest. Here, we will focus on discussing how Caveolin-1 modulates cell death and survival pathways and how this may contribute to a better understanding of the ambiguous role this protein plays in cancer

A multicentre comparison of quantitative 90Y PET/CT for dosimetric purposes after radioembolization with resin microspheres

Purpose: To investigate and compare the quantitative accuracy of Y-90 imaging across different generation PET/CT scanners, for the purpose of dosimetry after radioembolization with resin microspheres. Methods: A strict experimental and imaging protocol was followed by 47 international sites using the NEMA 2007/IEC 2008 PET body phantom with an 8-to-1 sphere-to-background ratio of Y-90 solution. The phantom was imaged over a 7-day period (activity ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 GBq) and all reconstructed data were analysed at a core laboratory for consistent processing. Quantitative accuracy was assessed through measures of total phantom activity, activity concentration in background and hot spheres, misplaced counts in a nonradioactive insert, and background variability. Results: Of the 69 scanners assessed, 37 had both time-of-flight (ToF) and resolution recovery (RR) capability. These current generation scanners from GE, Philips and Siemens could reconstruct background concentration measures to within 10 % of true values over the evaluated range, with greater deviations on the Philips systems at low count rates, and demonstrated typical partial volume effects on hot sphere recovery, which dominated spheres of diameter 20 mm in diameter, activity concentrations were consistently underestimated by about 20 %. Non-ToF scanners from GE Healthcare and Siemens were capable of producing accurate measures, but with inferior quantitative recovery compared with ToF systems. Conclusion: Current generation ToF scanners can consistently reconstruct Y-90 activity concentrations, but they underestimate activity concentrations in small structures (a parts per thousand currency sign37 mm diameter) within a warm background due to partial volume effects and constraints of the reconstruction algorithm. At the highest count rates investigated, measures of background concentration (about 300 kBq/ml) could be estimated on average to within 1 %, 5 % and 2 % for GE Healthcare (all-pass filter, RR + ToF), Philips (4i8s ToF) and Siemens (2i21s all-pass filter, RR + ToF) ToF systems, respectively. Over the range of activities investigated, comparable performance between GE Healthcare and Siemens ToF systems suggests suitability for quantitative analysis in a scenario analogous to that of postradioembolization imaging for treatment of liver cancer

Integrin-mediated transactivation of P2X7R via hemichannel-dependent ATP release stimulates astrocyte migration.

Our previous reports indicate that ligand-induced αVβ3 integrin and Syndecan-4 engagement increases focal adhesion formation and migration of astrocytes. Additionally, ligated integrins trigger ATP release through unknown mechanisms, activating P2X7 receptors (P2X7R), and the uptake of Ca(2+) to promote cell adhesion. However, whether the activation of P2X7R and ATP release are required for astrocyte migration and whether αVβ3 integrin and Syndecan-4 receptors communicate with P2X7R via ATP remains unknown. Here, cells were stimulated with Thy-1, a reported αVβ3 integrin and Syndecan-4 ligand. Results obtained indicate that ATP was released by Thy-1 upon integrin engagement and required the participation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), phospholipase-C gamma (PLCγ) and inositol trisphosphate (IP3) receptors (IP3R). IP3R activation leads to increased intracellular Ca(2+), hemichannel (Connexin-43 and Pannexin-1) opening, and ATP release. Moreover, silencing of the P2X7R or addition of hemichannel blockers precluded Thy-1-induced astrocyte migration. Finally, Thy-1 lacking the integrin-binding site did not stimulate ATP release, whereas Thy-1 mutated in the Syndecan-4-binding domain increased ATP release, albeit to a lesser extent and with delayed kinetics compared to wild-type Thy-1. Thus, hemichannels activated downstream of an αVβ3 integrin-PI3K-PLCγ-IP3R pathway are responsible for Thy-1-induced, hemichannel-mediated and Syndecan-4-modulated ATP release that transactivates P2X7Rs to induce Ca(2+) entry. These findings uncover a hitherto unrecognized role for hemichannels in the regulation of astrocyte migration via P2X7R transactivation induced by integrin-mediated ATP release

Efficiency of Nonlinear Particle Acceleration at Cosmic Structure Shocks

We have calculated the evolution of cosmic ray (CR) modified astrophysical shocks for a wide range of shock Mach numbers and shock speeds through numerical simulations of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in 1D quasi- parallel plane shocks. The simulations include thermal leakage injection of seed CRs, as well as pre-existing, upstream CR populations. Bohm-like diffusion is assumed. We model shocks similar to those expected around cosmic structure pancakes as well as other accretion shocks driven by flows with upstream gas temperatures in the range $T_0=10^4-10^{7.6}$K and shock Mach numbers spanning $M_s=2.4-133$. We show that CR modified shocks evolve to time-asymptotic states by the time injected particles are accelerated to moderately relativistic energies (p/mc \gsim 1), and that two shocks with the same Mach number, but with different shock speeds, evolve qualitatively similarly when the results are presented in terms of a characteristic diffusion length and diffusion time. For these models the time asymptotic value for the CR acceleration efficiency is controlled mainly by shock Mach number. The modeled high Mach number shocks all evolve towards efficiencies $\sim 50$%, regardless of the upstream CR pressure. On the other hand, the upstream CR pressure increases the overall CR energy in moderate strength shocks ($M_s \sim {\rm a few}$). (abridged)Comment: 23 pages, 12 ps figures, accepted for Astrophysical Journal (Feb. 10, 2005

Thy-1 (CD90)-Induced Metastatic Cancer Cell Migration and Invasion Are β3 Integrin-Dependent and Involve a Ca²⁺/P2X7 Receptor Signaling Axis.

Cancer cell adhesion to the vascular endothelium is an important step in tumor metastasis. Thy-1 (CD90), a cell adhesion molecule expressed in activated endothelial cells, has been implicated in melanoma metastasis by binding to integrins present in cancer cells. However, the signaling pathway(s) triggered by this Thy-1-Integrin interaction in cancer cells remains to be defined. Our previously reported data indicate that Ca <sup>2+</sup> -dependent hemichannel opening, as well as the P2X7 receptor, are key players in Thy-1-α <sub>V</sub> β <sub>3</sub> Integrin-induced migration of reactive astrocytes. Thus, we investigated whether this signaling pathway is activated in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and in B16F10 melanoma cells when stimulated with Thy-1. In both cancer cell types, Thy-1 induced a rapid increase in intracellular Ca <sup>2+</sup> , ATP release, as well as cell migration and invasion. Connexin and Pannexin inhibitors decreased cell migration, implicating a requirement for hemichannel opening in Thy-1-induced cell migration. In addition, cell migration and invasion were precluded when the P2X7 receptor was pharmacologically blocked. Moreover, the ability of breast cancer and melanoma cells to transmigrate through an activated endothelial monolayer was significantly decreased when the β <sub>3</sub> Integrin was silenced in these cancer cells. Importantly, melanoma cells with silenced β <sub>3</sub> Integrin were unable to metastasize to the lung in a preclinical mouse model. Thus, our results suggest that the Ca <sup>2+</sup> /hemichannel/ATP/P2X7 receptor-signaling axis triggered by the Thy-1-α <sub>V</sub> β <sub>3</sub> Integrin interaction is important for cancer cell migration, invasion and transvasation. These findings open up the possibility of therapeutically targeting the Thy-1-Integrin signaling pathway to prevent metastasis

Analytic solution for nonlinear shock acceleration in the Bohm limit

The selfconsistent steady state solution for a strong shock, significantly modified by accelerated particles is obtained on the level of a kinetic description, assuming Bohm-type diffusion. The original problem that is commonly formulated in terms of the diffusion-convection equation for the distribution function of energetic particles, coupled with the thermal plasma through the momentum flux continuity equation, is reduced to a nonlinear integral equation in one variable. Its solution provides selfconsistently both the particle spectrum and the structure of the hydrodynamic flow. A critical system parameter governing the acceleration process is found to be $\Lambda = M^{-3/4}\Lambda_1$, where $\Lambda_1 =\eta p_1/mc$, with a suitably normalized injection rate $\eta$, the Mach number M >> 1, and the cut-off momentum $p_1$. We particularly focus on an efficient solution, in which almost all the energy of the flow is converted into a few energetic particles. It was found that (i) for this efficient solution (or, equivalently, for multiple solutions) to exist, the parameter $\zeta =\eta\sqrt{p_0 p_1}/mc$ must exceed a critical value $\zeta_{cr} \sim 1$ ($p_0$ is the injection momentum), (ii) the total shock compression ratio r increases with M and saturates at a level that scales as $ r \propto \Lambda_1 (iii) the downstream power-law spectrum has the universal index q=3.5 over a broad momentum range. (iv) completely smooth shock transitions do not appear in the steady state kinetic description.Comment: 39 pages, 3 PostScript figures, uses aasms4.sty, to appear in Aug. 20, 1997 issue ApJ, vol. 48