Humor and Brand Image-Shaping: A Content Analysis of America Runs on Dunkin Campaign Television Advertisements

This study examines the role of humor in television advertisements of Dunkin\u27 Donuts America Runs on Dunkin campaign to find out how humor is used to shape the brand image. Eight Dunkin\u27 Donuts coffee television advertisements were analyzed to find out the role of humor. The results showed that humor variables, such as ludicrous humor, satire, intent humor, audio and visual humor, are used in this campaign advertisements. The study also found out that the advertisements are intentionally message dominant advertisements; structurally, they have syntactic relatedness; and they are thematically related. With the findings, the study concludes that humor in the Dunkin\u27 Donuts coffee television advertisements does not shape Dunkin\u27 Donuts coffee image directly, but it does indirectly play positive roles in image shaping. Humor is used as a subordinate variable to shape the image of Dunkin\u27 Donuts coffee. Suggestions for future research were also discussed

A general paradigm to model reaction-based biogeochemical processes in batch systems

[1] This paper presents the development and illustration of a numerical model of reaction-based geochemical and biochemical processes with mixed equilibrium and kinetic reactions. The objective is to provide a general paradigm for modeling reactive chemicals in batch systems, with expectations that it is applicable to reactive chemical transport problems. The unique aspects of the paradigm are to simultaneously (1) facilitate the segregation (isolation) of linearly independent kinetic reactions and thus enable the formulation and parameterization of individual rates one reaction by one reaction when linearly dependent kinetic reactions are absent, (2) enable the inclusion of virtually any type of equilibrium expressions and kinetic rates users want to specify, (3) reduce problem stiffness by eliminating all fast reactions from the set of ordinary differential equations governing the evolution of kinetic variables, (4) perform systematic operations to remove redundant fast reactions and irrelevant kinetic reactions, (5) systematically define chemical components and explicitly enforce mass conservation, (6) accomplish automation in decoupling fast reactions from slow reactions, and (7) increase the robustness of numerical integration of the governing equations with species switching schemes. None of the existing models to our knowledge has included these scopes simultaneously. This model (BIOGEOCHEM) is a general computer code to simulate biogeochemical processes in batch systems from a reaction-based mechanistic standpoint, and is designed to be easily coupled with transport models. To make the model applicable to a wide range of problems, programmed reaction types include aqueous complexation, adsorption-desorption, ion-exchange, oxidation-reduction, precipitation-dissolution, acid-base reactions, and microbial mediated reactions. In addition, user-specified reaction types can be programmed into the model. Any reaction can be treated as fast/equilibrium or slow/kinetic reaction. An equilibrium reaction is modeled with an infinite rate governed by a mass action equilibrium equation or by a user-specified algebraic equation. Programmed kinetic reaction rates include multiple Monod kinetics, nth order empirical, and elementary formulations. In addition, user-specified rate formulations can be programmed into the model. No existing models to our knowledge offer these simultaneous features. Furthermore, most available reaction-based models assume chemical components a priori so that reactions can be written in basic (canonical) forms and implicitly assume that fast equilibrium reactions occur only for homogeneous reactions. The decoupling of fast reactions from slow reactions lessens the stiffness typical of these systems. The explicit enforcement of mass conservation overcomes the mass conservation error due to numerical integration errors. The removal of redundant fast reactions alleviates the problem of singularity. The exclusion of irrelevant slow reactions eliminates the issue of exporting their problematic rate formulations/parameter estimations to different environment conditions. Taking the advantage of the nonuniqueness of components, a dynamic basis-species switching strategy is employed to make the model numerically robust. Backward basis switching allows components to freely change in the simulation of the chemistry module, while being recovered for transport simulation. Three example problems were selected to demonstrate the versatility and robustness of the model

Melatonin modulates the effects of diethylstilbestrol (DES) on the anterior pituitary of the female Wistar rat.

We studied the anti-tumorigenic effect of melatonin in diethylstilbestrol (DES)-treated anterior pituitaries in rats. Twenty-one female Wistar rats were randomly allocated into three groups: vehicle control rats, DES-treated rats, and DES-treated rats co-administrated with melatonin beginning at week 13. At the end of 16 weeks, rats were weighed and decapitated for morphological studies, including an H+E staining-based score evaluation in regard to cell proliferation, angiogenesis, immunostaining for VEGF, MMP-9, and AQP-1, and electron microscopy. Compared with vehicle, long-term treatment of DES significantly reduced rat body weight and increased H+E score, both of which were counteracted by melatonin. Administration of melatonin also reduced the expression of VEGF and MMP-9, although no changes were detected in AQP-1 expression. In rats cotreated with melatonin, the RER loosened and accumulated more secretion granules. We thus concluded that melatonin can modulate the effects of DES on the rat anterior pituitary by downregulating expression of VEGF and MMP-9 and suppressing the release of secretion granules, suggesting a therapeutic potential in estrogen-induced pituitary malfunctions

Submission of Evidence on Online Violence Against Women to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Dr Dubravka Šimonović

Figure S1. B3GALNT2 levels determined by W.B. and ROC curve. a–c Relative mRNA expression of B3GALNT2 in HCC tumor tissues and normal liver tissues obtained from GSE76427, GSE36376, and TCGA-LIHC datasets. d Western blot analysis of B3GALNT2 levels in 24 pairs of HCC tissues. T HCC tumor tissue, N adjacent non-tumor tissue. e ROC curve analysis of the sensitivity and specificity for the predictive value of TNM model, B3GALNT2 expression, and the combination model. (TIFF 546 kb