Relationship Marketing and Switching Behavioural Intention Among the Customers of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Service rendering, including banking services, in the world over is becoming competitive, because customers expect higher service delivery, tailored towards meeting their individual needs. Thus, Deposit Money Banks are developing strategies to keep customer from defecting to other competitors so as to remain in the business. This precarious situation of banks led to re-thinking of corporates management to developing long lasting relationship with customers that will enhance sustainability. This was when relationship marketing, (RM) came into prominence in the banking industry, thereby attracting attention from researchers and marketing practitioners. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the influence of relationship marketing dimensions (communication, commitment, trust and conflict handling) on customers’ switching behavioural intention amongst selected Deposit Money Banks in Warri, Nigeria. A sample of 324 banks’ customers were selected using judgement sampling technique from a total of 61branches of 16 different Deposit Money Banks in Warri and its environs, and their responses were processed using the descriptive and inferential statistics of Ordinary Least Square regression technique. The study found out that there exists significant relationship between the dimensions of RM (commitment, communication, conflict handling and trust) and switching intentions of Deposit Money Banks’ customers in Warri and its environs in developing a good relationship. Based on the findings, we recommended that management of Deposit Money Banks should increase their commitment strategies (like ensuring flexibility in serving customers and personalising service to suit customers’ needs), communication strategies (like credit or debit alert messages, service failure and recovery messages), and intensify effort to improve conflict handling (like refraining from improper comments and never too-busy attitude of employees). All these strategies if adopted may lead to reduction of customer defection to other competitors’. Keywords: Relationship Marketing, Commitment, Communication, Trust, Conflict Handling Behavioural Switching Intention, Deposit Money Banks, Nigeria. DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/72-03 Publication date:October 31st 202

Diversity in the US Infectious Diseases Workforce: Challenges for Women and Underrepresented Minorities

Research documents significant gender-based salary inequities among physicians and ongoing inadequacies in recruitment and promotion of physicians from underrepresented minority groups. Given the complexity of the social forces that promote these disparities, their elimination will likely require quantitative and qualitative research to understand the pathways that lead to them and to develop effective solutions. Interventions to combat implicit bias will be required, and structural interventions that hold medical school leadership accountable are needed to achieve and maintain salary equity and racial and gender diversity at all levels

Africa Meets America: The Impact of Collectivism and Individualism on Attitude towards Shopping

The adoption of marketing strategy does not occur in cultural vacuums. Instead, marketing strategies unfold within social contexts that encode values, beliefs, and patterns of behavior. The increasingly inter-dependent global economy results in the acculturation of tensions between global and local consumer cultures. This dynamism however offers new opportunities for international firms to redefine and reevaluate their glocal (global/local) marketing strategies. Relying on Triandis cultural dimensions, this research contributes to international marketing literature by answering two key research questions, namely, what are the differences between African (Ghanaian) and American consumers’ cultural characteristics? and how do the cultural differences explain attitude towards shopping behavior? The results of the study demonstrate, contrary to the literature, that Ghanaians, unlike Americans, exhibit a fusion of collectivism and individualism. Further, while both individualism and collectivism cultural traits positively and significantly impact attitude towards shopping, the extent to which culture impacts attitude towards shopping is higher in the American consumer sample than in the Ghanaian consumer sample. The authors discuss implications for international marketing practice

Viral suppression of multiple escape mutants by de novo CD8+ T cell responses in a human immunodeficiency virus-1 Infected elite suppressor

Elite suppressors or controllers (ES) are HIV-1 infected patients who maintain undetectable viral loads without treatment. While HLA-B*57-positive ES are usually infected with virus that is unmutated at CTL epitopes, a single, dominant variant containing CTL escape mutations is typically seen in plasma during chronic infection. We describe an ES who developed seven distinct and rare escape variants at an HLA-B*57-restricted Gag epitope over a five year period. Interestingly, he developed proliferative, de novo CTL responses that suppressed replication of each of these variants. These responses, in combination with low viral fitness of each variant, may contribute to sustained elite control in this ES

Shyness and Vocabulary: The Roles of Executive Functioning and Home Environmental Stimulation

Although shyness has often been found to be negatively related to vocabulary, few studies have examined the processes that produce or modify this relation. The present study examined executive functioning skills and home environmental stimulation as potential mediating and moderating mechanisms. A sample of 3½-year-old children (N = 254) was administered executive functioning tasks and a vocabulary test during a laboratory visit. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing child shyness and home environmental stimulation. Our primary hypothesis was that executive functioning mediates the association between shyness and vocabulary, and home environmental stimulation moderates the relation between executive functioning and vocabulary. Alternative hypotheses were also tested. Results indicated that children with better executive functioning skills developed stronger vocabularies when reared in more, versus less, stimulating environments. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the role of shyness, executive functioning, and home environmental stimulation in early vocabulary development

Evolution of the HIV-1 nef gene in HLA-B*57 Positive Elite Suppressors

Elite controllers or suppressors (ES) are HIV-1 infected patients who maintain viral loads of < 50 copies/ml without antiretroviral therapy. CD8+ T cells are thought to play a key role in the control of viral replication and exert selective pressure on gag and nef in HLA-B*57 positive ES. We previously showed evolution in the gag gene of ES which surprisingly was mostly due to synonymous mutations rather than non-synonymous mutation in targeted CTL epitopes. This finding could be the result of structural constraints on Gag, and we therefore examined the less conserved nef gene. We found slow evolution of nef in plasma virus in some ES. This evolution is mostly due to synonymous mutations and occurs at a rate similar to that seen in the gag gene in the same patients. The results provide further evidence of ongoing viral replication in ES and suggest that the nef and gag genes in these patients respond similarly to selective pressure from the host

COVID-19 pandemic and dental practice in Ghana

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems and their provision of care has globally been challenged, including the delivery of Oral healthcare. In Ghana, it has become imperative that healthcare delivery including the practice of Dentistry and its sub-specialties be re-oriented in our peculiar setting to ensure minimal risk of spread of the infection. This article discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the practice of Dentistry in the country

A quantitative approach for measuring the reservoir of latent HIV-1 proviruses.

A stable latent reservoir for HIV-1 in resting CD4+ T cells is the principal barrier to a cure1-3. Curative strategies that target the reservoir are being tested4,5 and require accurate, scalable reservoir assays. The reservoir was defined with quantitative viral outgrowth assays for cells that release infectious virus after one round of T cell activation1. However, these quantitative outgrowth assays and newer assays for cells that produce viral RNA after activation6 may underestimate the reservoir size because one round of activation does not induce all proviruses7. Many studies rely on simple assays based on polymerase chain reaction to detect proviral DNA regardless of transcriptional status, but the clinical relevance of these assays is unclear, as the vast majority of proviruses are defective7-9. Here we describe a more accurate method of measuring the HIV-1 reservoir that separately quantifies intact and defective proviruses. We show that the dynamics of cells that carry intact and defective proviruses are different in vitro and in vivo. These findings have implications for targeting the intact proviruses that are a barrier to curing HIV infection

Novel structurally related compounds reactivate latent HIV-1 in a bcl-2-transduced primary CD4+ T cell model without inducing global T cell activation

Background: The latent reservoir of HIV-1 in resting memory CD4+ T cells is a major barrier to curing HIV-1 infection. Eradication strategies involve reactivation of this latent reservoir; however, agents that reactivate latent HIV-1 through non-specific T cell activation are toxic. Methods: Using latently infected Bcl-2-transduced primary CD4+ T cells, we screened the MicroSource Spectrum library for compounds that reactivate latent HIV-1 without global T cell activation. Based on the structures of the initial hits, we assembled 50 derivatives from commercial sources and mostly by synthesis. The doseresponse relationships of these derivatives were established in a primary cell model. Activities were confirmed with another model of latency (J-Lat). Cellular toxicity and cytokine secretion were tested using freshly isolated human CD4+ T cells. Results: We identified two classes of quinolines that reactivate latent HIV-1. Class I compounds are the Mannich adducts of 5-chloroquinolin-8-ol. Class II compounds are quinolin-8-yl carbamates. Most EC 50 values were in the 0.5 -10 mM range. HIV-1 reactivation ranged from 25% to 70% for anti-CD3+ anti-CD28 co-stimulation. All quinolin-8-ol derivatives that reactivate latent HIV-1 follow Lipinski&apos;s Rule of Five, and most follow the stricter rule of three for leads. After 48 h of treatment, none of the analogues induced detectable cytokine secretion in primary resting CD4+ T cells. Conclusions: We discovered a group of quinolin-8-ol derivatives that can induce latent HIV-1 in a primary cell model without causing global T cell activation. This work expands the number of latency-reversing agents and provides new possible scaffolds for further drug development research