Doing Occidentalism in Contemporary Japan: Nation Anthropomorphism and Sexualized Parody in Axis Power Hetalia,

Axis Powers Hetalia (2006–present), a Japanese gag comic and animation series, depicts relations between nations personified as cute boys against a background of World War I and World War II. The stereotypical rendering of national characteristics as well as the reduction of historically charged issues into amusing quarrels between nice-looking but incompetent boys was immensely popular, especially among female audiences in Japan and Asia, and among Euro-American manga, anime, and cosplay fans, but it also met with vehement criticism. Netizens from South Korea, for example, considered the Korean character insulting and in early 2009 mounted a protest campaign that was discussed in the Korean national assembly. Hetalia's controversial success relies to a great extent on the inventive conflation of male-oriented otaku fantasies about nations, weapons, and concepts represented as cute little girls, and of female-oriented yaoi parodies of male-male intimacy between powerful "white" characters and more passive Japanese ones. This investigation of the original Hetalia by male author Hidekaz Himaruya (b. 1985) and its many adaptations in female-oriented dōjinshi (fanzine) texts and conventions (between 2009 and 2011, Hetalia was by far the most adapted work) refers to notions of interrelationality, intersectionality, and positionality in order to address hegemonic representations of "the West," the orientalized "Rest" of the world, and "Japan" in the cross-gendered and sexually parodied mediascape of Japanese transnational subcultures

Preparation and preclinical evaluation of humanised A33 immunoconjugates for radioimmunotherapy.

A humanised IgG1/k version of A33 (hA33) has been constructed and expressed with yields up to 700 mg l-1 in mouse myeloma NS0 cells in suspension culture. The equilibrium dissociation constant of hA33 (KD = 1.3 nM) was shown to be equivalent to that of the murine antibody in a cell-binding assay. hA33 labelled with yttrium-90 using the macrocyclic chelator 12N4 (DOTA) was shown to localise very effectively to human colon tumour xenografts in nude mice, with tumour levels increasing as blood concentration fell up to 144 h. A Fab' variant of hA33 with a single hinge thiol group to facilitate chemical cross-linking has also been constructed and expressed with yields of 500 mg l-1. Trimaleimide cross-linkers have been used to produce a trivalent Fab fragment (hA33 TFM) that binds antigen on tumour cells with greater avidity than hA33 IgG. Cross-linkers incorporating 12N4 or 9N3 macrocycles have been used to produce hA33 TFM labelled stably and site specifically with yttrium-90 or indium-111 respectively. These molecules have been used to demonstrate that hA33 TFM is cleared more rapidly than hA33 IgG from the circulation of animals but does not lead to accumulation of these metallic radionuclides in the kidney. 90Y-labelled hA33 TFM therefore appears to be the optimal form of the antibody for radioimmunotherapy of colorectal carcinoma

Finished genome of the fungal wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola Reveals dispensome structure, chromosome plasticity, and stealth pathogenesis.

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The Predicted Secretome of the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Fusarium graminearum: A Refined Comparative Analysis

The fungus Fusarium graminearum forms an intimate association with the host species wheat whilst infecting the floral tissues at anthesis. During the prolonged latent period of infection, extracellular communication between live pathogen and host cells must occur, implying a role for secreted fungal proteins. The wheat cells in contact with fungal hyphae subsequently die and intracellular hyphal colonisation results in the development of visible disease symptoms. Since the original genome annotation analysis was done in 2007, which predicted the secretome using TargetP, the F. graminearum gene call has changed considerably through the combined efforts of the BROAD and MIPS institutes. As a result of the modifications to the genome and the recent findings that suggested a role for secreted proteins in virulence, the F. graminearum secretome was revisited. In the current study, a refined F. graminearum secretome was predicted by combining several bioinformatic approaches. This strategy increased the probability of identifying truly secreted proteins. A secretome of 574 proteins was predicted of which 99% was supported by transcriptional evidence. The function of the annotated and unannotated secreted proteins was explored. The potential role(s) of the annotated proteins including, putative enzymes, phytotoxins and antifungals are discussed. Characterisation of the unannotated proteins included the analysis of Pfam domains and features associated with known fungal effectors, for example, small size, cysteine-rich and containing internal amino acid repeats. A comprehensive comparative genomic analysis involving 57 fungal and oomycete genomes revealed that only a small number of the predicted F. graminearum secreted proteins can be considered to be either species or sequenced strain specific

Dosimetric evaluation and radioimmunotherapy of anti-tumour multivalent Fab́ fragments

We have been investigating the use of cross-linked divalent (DFM) and trivalent (TFM) versions of the anti-carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) monoclonal antibody A5B7 as possible alternatives to the parent forms (IgG and F(ab́)2) which have been used previously in clinical radioimmunotherapy (RIT) studies in colorectal carcinoma. Comparative biodistribution studies of similar sized DFM and F(ab́)2 and TFM and IgG, radiolabelled with both 131I and 90Y have been described previously using the human colorectal tumour LS174T nude mouse xenograft model (Casey et al (1996) Br J Cancer 74: 1397–1405). In this study quantitative estimates of radiation distribution and RIT in the xenograft model provided more insight into selecting the most suitable combination for future RIT. Radiation doses were significantly higher in all tissues when antibodies were labelled with 90Y. Major contributing organs were the kidneys, liver and spleen. The extremely high absorbed dose to the kidneys on injection of 90Y-labelled DFM and F(ab́)2 as a result of accumulation of the radiometal would result in extremely high toxicity. These combinations are clearly unsuitable for RIT. Cumulative dose of 90Y-TFM to the kidney was 3 times lower than the divalent forms but still twice as high as for 90Y-IgG. TFM clears faster from the blood than IgG, producing higher tumour to blood ratios. Therefore when considering only the tumour to blood ratios of the total absorbed dose, the data suggests that TFM would be the most suitable candidate. However, when corrected for equitoxic blood levels, doses to normal tissues for TFM were approximately twice the level of IgG, producing a two-fold increase in the overall tumour to normal tissue ratio. In addition RIT revealed that for a similar level of toxicity and half the administered activity, 90Y-IgG produced a greater therapeutic response. This suggests that the most promising A5B7 antibody form with the radionuclide 90Y may be IgG. Dosimetry analysis revealed that the tumour to normal tissue ratios were greater for all 131I-labelled antibodies. This suggests that 131I may be a more suitable radionuclide for RIT, in terms of lower toxicity to normal tissues. The highest tumour to blood dose and tumour to normal tissue ratio at equitoxic blood levels was 131I-labelled DFM, suggesting that 131I-DFM may be best combination of antibody and radionuclide for A5B7. The dosimetry estimates were in agreement with RIT results in that twice the activity of 131I-DFM must be administered to produce a similar therapeutic effect as 131I-TFM. The toxicity in this therapy experiment was minimal and further experiments at higher doses are required to observe if there would be any advantage of a higher initial dose rate for 131I-DFM. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig