How investments analysts frame information matters to their careers

Analysts rank higher when they use language that reflects investors’ needs and offer moderate novelty, writes Simona Giorg

How audiences come to embrace and support new products, ideas or politicians

Resonance only occurs when people reach an emotional or rational identification with what (or who) is being sold, writes Simona Giorgi. During the U.S. presidential campaign of 2016, the media greatly downplayed the chances of Donald Trump's electoral success, because many of this candidate's proposals seemed unfeasible, or improbable. What political pundits had overlooked, however, was the power of emotions. ..

POLISHING THE GILT EDGE:ELITE CATEGORY ENDURANCE AND SYMBOLIC BOUNDARIES IN U.S. LUXURY HOTELS, 1790-2015

We conducted an inductive study of discourse associated with the U.S. luxury hotel category, from its beginnings in 1790 through 2015, to explain how cultural processes contribute to elite category endurance. Analyzing data from historical archives, interviews, and observations, we use both qualitative and quantitative methods to reveal how the endurance of an elite category is an ongoing cultural accomplishment that occurs via periodic redefinition of its “symbolic boundary”-that is, the set of meanings and practices that distinguish the elite from nonelite. Modeling the boundary in terms of semiotic codes of opposition, we find that the encoding of the symbolic boundary serves as a temporary settlement that conveys both the category's elite exclusivity and its cultural consonance with broader societal beliefs, tastes, and practices. Over time, however, with industry and societal changes, tensions erupt in the balance between the needs for exclusivity and consonance, propelling a redefinition of what it means to be elite. Our research extends current theorizations of elite category endurance by revealing how the elite symbolic boundary is neither permanent nor unassailable; rather, we show how it changes to enable long-term elite category endurance.</p

Multidisciplinary analysis of Italian Alpine wildflower honey reveals criticalities, diversity and value

Wildflower honeys produced in mountain grasslands are an expression of the biodiversity of these fragile habitats. Despite its importance, the botanical origin of honey is often defined without performing formal analysis. The aim of the study was to characterize six wildflower mountain honeys produced in the Italian Alps with different analytic techniques (SPME–GC–MS, HPLC-Orbitrap, cicatrizing and antioxidant activity) alongside melissopalynological analysis and botanical definition of the production area. Even though the apiaries were in mountain grasslands rich in Alpine herbaceous species, the honey could be defined as rhododendron/raspberry unifloral or raspberry and rhododendron bifloral while the honey produced at the lowest altitude differed due to the presence of linden, heather and chestnut. The non-compliance of the honey could be due to habitat (meadows and pastures) fragmentation, but also to specific compounds involved in the plant–insect relationship, such as kynurenic acid, present in a high quantity in the sample rich in chestnut pollen. 255 volatile compounds were detected as well as some well-known markers of specific botanic essences, in particular chestnut, linden and heather, also responsible for most of the differences in aroma profiling. A high correlation between nicotinaldehyde content and percentage of raspberry pollen (r = 0.853, p < 0.05) was found. Phenolic acid and hydroxy-fatty acid were predominant in the chestnut pollen dominant honey, which presented the highest antioxidant activity and the lowest cicatrizing activity, while the flavonoid fraction was accentuated in one sample (rhododendron pollen prevalent), that was also the one with the highest effect on wound closure, although all samples had similar cicatrizing effects apart from the chestnut pollen dominant honey (lowest cicatrizing activity). Our study highlighted the difficulty of producing mountain wildflower honey and the importance of a thorough characterization of this product, also to encourage its production and valorisation.Fil: Leoni, Valeria. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Giupponi, Luca. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Pavlovic, Radmila. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Gianoncelli, Carla. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Cecati, Francisco Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química; ArgentinaFil: Ranzato, Elia. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Martinotti, Simona. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Pedrali, Davide. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Giorgi, Annamaria. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Panseri, Sara. Università degli Studi di Milano; Itali

Mitogen-activated kinase kinase kinase 1 inhibits hedgehog signaling and medulloblastoma growth through GLI1 phosphorylation

The aberrant activation of hedgehog (HH) signaling is a leading cause of the development of medulloblastoma, a pediatric tumor of the cerebellum. The FDA‑approved HH inhibitor, Vismodegib, which targets the transmembrane transducer SMO, has shown limited efficacy in patients with medulloblastoma, due to compensatory mechanisms that maintain an active HH‑GLI signaling status. Thus, the identification of novel actionable mechanisms, directly affecting the activity of the HH‑regulated GLI transcription factors is an important goal for these malignancies. In this study, using gene expression and reporter assays, combined with biochemical and cellular analyses, we demonstrate that mitogen‑activated kinase kinase kinase&nbsp;1&nbsp;(MEKK1), the most upstream kinase of the mitogen‑activated protein kinase&nbsp;(MAPK) phosphorylation modules, suppresses HH signaling by associating and phosphorylating GLI1, the most potent HH‑regulated transcription factor. Phosphorylation occurred at multiple residues in the C‑terminal region of GLI1 and was followed by an increased association with the cytoplasmic proteins&nbsp;14‑3‑3. Of note, the enforced expression of MEKK1 or the exposure of medulloblastoma cells to the MEKK1 activator, Nocodazole, resulted in a marked inhibitory effect on GLI1 activity and tumor cell proliferation and viability. Taken together, the results of this study shed light on a novel regulatory mechanism of HH signaling, with potentially relevant implications in cancer therapy

CdSe/CdS/ZnS Double Shell Nanorods with High Photoluminescence Efficiency and Their Exploitation As Biolabeling Probes

We report the synthesis, the structural and optical characterization of CdSe/CdS/ZnS "double shell" nanorods and their exploitation in cell labeling experiments. To synthesize such nanorods, first "dot-in-a-rod" CdSe(dot)/CdS(rod) core/shell nanocrystals were prepared. Then a ZnS shell was grown epitaxially over these CdSe/CdS nanorods, which led to a fluorescence quantum yield of the final core-shell-shell nanorods that could be as high as 75%. The quantum efficiency was correlated with the aspect ratio of the nanorods and with the thickness of the ZnS shell around the starting CdSe/CdS rods, which varied from 1 to 4 monolayers (as supported by a combination of X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis). Pump-probe and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements confirmed the reduction of trapping at CdS surface due to the presence of the ZnS shell, which resulted in more efficient photoluminescence. These double shell nanorods have potential applications as fluorescent biological labels, as we found that they are brighter in cell imaging as compared to the starting CdSe/CdS nanorods and to the CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, therefore a lower amount of material is required to label the cells. Concerning their cytotoxicity, according to the MTT assay, the double shell nanorods were less toxic than the starting core/shell nanorods and than the CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, although the latter still exhibited a lower intracellular toxicity than both nanorod samples