Five areas to advance branding theory and practice

The paper suggests five areas to advance branding theory and practice based on the authors’ recent work in brand management. In this commentary, we aim to put forward suggestions and ideas for further research in brand management; ideas, which we believe will have an impact on the way branding is researched and practiced by both academics and practitioners alike. We will focus on the future of branding in the following areas, inspired by our own work in the field: (1) branding in higher education, (2) branding in Asia Pacific, (3) brand ambidexterity, (4) brand innovation on social media, and (5) brand likeability

Conducting Experiments in Public Management Research: A Practical Guide

This article provides advice on how to meet the practical challenges of experimental methods within public management research. We focus on lab, field, and survey experiments. For each of these types of experiments we outline the major challenges and limitations encountered when implementing experiments in practice and discuss tips, standards, and common mistakes to avoid. The article is multi-authored in order to benefit from the practical lessons drawn by a number of experimental researchers

Phenotypic and transcriptomic characterization of canine myeloid-derived suppressor cells

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are key players in immune evasion, tumor progression and metastasis. MDSCs accumulate under various pathological states and fall into two functionally and phenotypically distinct subsets that have been identified in humans and mice: polymorphonuclear (PMN)-MDSCs and monocytic (M)-MDSCs. As dogs are an excellent model for human tumor development and progression, we set out to identify PMN-MDSCs and M-MDSCs in clinical canine oncology patients. Canine hypodense MHC class II-CD5-CD21-CD11b+ cells can be subdivided into polymorphonuclear (CADO48A+CD14-) and monocytic (CADO48A-CD14+) MDSC subsets. The transcriptomic signatures of PMN-MDSCs and M-MDSCs are distinct, and moreover reveal a statistically significant similarity between canine and previously published human PMN-MDSC gene expression patterns. As in humans, peripheral blood frequencies of canine PMN-MDSCs and M-MDSCs are significantly higher in dogs with cancer compared to healthy control dogs (PMN-MDSCs: p < 0.001; M-MDSCs: p < 0.01). By leveraging the power of evolution, we also identified additional conserved genes in PMN-MDSCs of multiple species that may play a role in MDSC function. Our findings therefore validate the dog as a model for studying MDSCs in the context of cancer

Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity

ISSN:1752-0908ISSN:1752-089

SCHLAFEN 5 expression correlates with intestinal metaplasia that progresses to gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Intestinal metaplasia (IM) is a gastric cancer precursor lesion (GCPL), with the highest risk to progress to gastric cancer (GC). Clinical guidelines recommend gastroscopy every 3 years for extensive IM. Unfortunately, studies on protein biomarkers indicating a transition from IM to GC are lacking. We have recently found that the IFNα-responsive gene Schlafen 4 (Slfn4) present in immune cells correlates with metaplastic changes in Helicobacter-infected mice. Therefore we tested the hypothesis that a human homolog of Slfn4, which is Schlafen 5 (SLFN5) correlates with progression of GCPL to GC. METHODS: Jurkat T-lymphoid and HL-60 myeloid cell lines were treated with IFNα and SLFN5 mRNA was quantified by qPCR. SLFN5 protein expression in the inflamed gastric mucosa was co-localized to specific immune cell types by immunohistochemistry using CD20, CD2 and MAC2 antibodies. SLFN5 expression was also determined by immunohistochemistry in FFPE samples from individuals with non-atrophic, atrophic gastritis, complete and incomplete IM as well as GC. RESULTS: We demonstrated that IFNα treatment of Jurkat and HL-60 cells induced SLFN5 mRNA. SLFN5 protein was expressed mainly by T lymphocytes in inflamed gastric mucosa. The highest level of SLFN5 expression was observed in subjects with IM that progressed to GC. ROC curves demonstrated that combining SLFN5 expression with the histological diagnosis of IM significantly increased the probability of identifying patients that might progress to GC. CONCLUSION: Elevated SLFN5 protein expression in subjects with IM correlated with progression to gastric cancer