BRIDGING THE GAP: MALE AGING, CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, AND STRATEGIC MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

This study explores the psychological perceptions of aging traits in men and their impact on consumer behavior and marketing strategies, addressing a gap in prior research predominantly focused on women. This research adopts a qualitative approach through one-on-one in-depth interviews, involving 30 participants from diverse age groups. Findings indicate that key aging traits in men include gray hair, baldness, wrinkles and spots, changes in body shape (e.g., beer belly), psychological and behavioral aging, and odor associated with aging. These traits not only signify physical and behavioral aging but also influence men's self-confidence and perceptions of their social roles. Unlike women, men’s anxiety about aging is more centered on fears of declining social value and health, profoundly affecting their professional capabilities and image management needs. This research bridges the gap in understanding men’s aging psychology and consumer behavior, offering theoretical and practical insights for developing precise marketing strategies targeting male audiences. It also promotes dual benefits of commercial and social value by aligning with gender equality and aesthetic diversity, providing a reference for future cross-cultural studies on men’s aging

Transcriptional activation of the Axl and PDGFR-α by c-Met through a ras- and Src-independent mechanism in human bladder cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A cross-talk between different receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of human cancers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Both NIH-Met5 and T24-Met3 cell lines harboring an inducible human c-Met gene were established. C-Met-related RTKs were screened by RTK microarray analysis. The cross-talk of RTKs was demonstrated by Western blotting and confirmed by small interfering RNA (siRNA) silencing, followed by elucidation of the underlying mechanism. The impact of this cross-talk on biological function was demonstrated by Trans-well migration assay. Finally, the potential clinical importance was examined in a cohort of 65 cases of locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A positive association of Axl or platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha (PDGFR-α) with c-Met expression was demonstrated at translational level, and confirmed by specific siRNA knock-down. The transactivation of c-Met on Axl or PDGFR-α <it>in vitro </it>was through a <it>ras</it>- and Src-independent activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK/ERK) pathway. In human bladder cancer, co-expression of these RTKs was associated with poor patient survival (<it>p </it>< 0.05), and overexpression of c-Met/Axl/PDGFR-α or c-Met alone showed the most significant correlation with poor survival (<it>p </it>< 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In addition to c-Met, the cross-talk with Axl and/or PDGFR-α also contributes to the progression of human bladder cancer. Evaluation of Axl and PDGFR-α expression status may identify a subset of c-Met-positive bladder cancer patients who may require co-targeting therapy.</p

A Conflict-free Multi-Symbol Arithmetic Encoder for H.264/AVC

This paper proposed a conflict-free multi-symbol arithmetic encoder (AE) for H.264/AVC. The throughput of a multi-symbol AE is usually limited by concurrent access of context memory which degrades the performance of the whole H.264/AVC encoder. With proposed Hybrid Context Memory architectures (HCM), about 1/10 contexts under critical conflict are implemented by Critical Register Array to solve the insufficient ports bottleneck. The number of encoding symbol per cycle is improved by 15% and 55.5% in 2-symbol and 4-symbol version, respectively. The implementation results also show that the hardware design can achieve a high encoding rate and throughput comparing to the previous works.APSIPA ASC 2009: Asia-Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association, 2009 Annual Summit and Conference. 4-7 October 2009. Sapporo, Japan. Poster session: Advanced Circuits and Systems/VLSI (5 October 2009)