Audio Description Washes Brighter? A Study in Brand Names and Advertising

Dealing with objects in audio description, and particularly with those objects that have a clear designer imprint or branding, is a complex matter when a brand name is part of the scene in a film. Deciding whether to describe or not, and how, becomes more than a technical matter that depends on text–image synchronization: it is a complex decision-making process comparable to other forms of audiovisual translation that needs to be approached as a paradigmatic example of intersemiotic translation. Dávila-Montes and Orero address the audio description of branded objects in movies, and their intersemiotic translation from images to spoken words, a complex issue that may harbour additional insights into topics of a wider scope

An efficient algorithm for the stochastic simulation of the hybridization of DNA to microarrays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although oligonucleotide microarray technology is ubiquitous in genomic research, reproducibility and standardization of expression measurements still concern many researchers. Cross-hybridization between microarray probes and non-target ssDNA has been implicated as a primary factor in sensitivity and selectivity loss. Since hybridization is a chemical process, it may be modeled at a population-level using a combination of material balance equations and thermodynamics. However, the hybridization reaction network may be exceptionally large for commercial arrays, which often possess at least one reporter per transcript. Quantification of the kinetics and equilibrium of exceptionally large chemical systems of this type is numerically infeasible with customary approaches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we present a robust and computationally efficient algorithm for the simulation of hybridization processes underlying microarray assays. Our method may be utilized to identify the extent to which nucleic acid targets (e.g. cDNA) will cross-hybridize with probes, and by extension, characterize probe robustnessusing the information specified by MAGE-TAB. Using this algorithm, we characterize cross-hybridization in a modified commercial microarray assay.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>By integrating stochastic simulation with thermodynamic prediction tools for DNA hybridization, one may robustly and rapidly characterize of the selectivity of a proposed microarray design at the probe and "system" levels. Our code is available at <url>http://www.laurenzi.net</url>.</p

The dark side of openness for consumer response

The study presented in this chapter aims at providing the foundation for future research examining the potential negative results of open ads. In past decades there has been a shift toward ads with less guidance toward a specific interpretation. Different terms have been used to denote these ads-for instance, complex image ads, implicit ads, ambiguous ads, and undercoded ads. Open ads have the common characteristic that consumers are not manifestly directed toward a certain interpretation. We formulate five antecedents that render an ad more open: presence of a prominent visual, presence of rhetorical figures, absence of the product, absence of verbal anchoring, and a low level of brand anchoring. We distinguish four categories of open ads: riddle ads, story ads, issue ads, and aesthetic ads. Although the literature generally stresses positive outcomes of openness on consumer reactions, five experiments show preliminary support for the arguments stressing a possible dark side of openness for consumer response. We have found negative effects of openness on interpretation, attitude toward the ad and the brand, and null-effects on attention and recall

Young and Elderly Fashion Influencers

The aim of this paper is to analyse a new phenomenon that has emerged in the fashion system: the advent of female fashion influencers over 70. To outline all the novelties this brings with it, we produced a comparison between elderly and young fashion influencers along the evolution of the fashion system in the last decade. We considered both the first wave of fashion blogging (2012–15) populated by young fashion bloggers and the second wave (2015–19) in which we considered especially elderly fashion influencers. At the operational level, we selected the four fashion bloggers who were most followed on Facebook in 2011 in Italy: Chiara Ferragni (theblondesalad.com), Veronica Ferraro (thefashionfruit.com), Nicoletta Reggio (scentofobsession.com), and Irene Colzi (ireneccloset.com). Regarding old women, in 2019 we selected the top 20 elderly influencers over 70, identified using Instagram’s search feature to detect age-related trends (i.e., using hashtags such as #over70 or #advancedstyle). While the four young fashion influencers are Italian, for the older fashion influencers we needed to select English-speaking women from across the globe, as this phenomenon is still just beginning in Italy. We applied qualitative and quantitative methods to capture bloggers’ online strategies and activities for two weeks at both the discursive and visual levels. The results show that while young fashion influencers have been incorporated into the fashion system, fashion influencers over 70 are still producing an important discourse for women, the elderly, and the whole society, although the initial attempts on the part of fashion houses to colonize them are emerging