Malaysian Young Consumers’ Purchase Intention Through Social Media Platform During Global Pandemic

Many accidents happened in the year 2020, such as bushfires, crashes, and the deathly pandemic of Covid 19. The year 2020 was undoubtedly going down in history as one of the worst years ever. Till now, in the year 2021, many countries are still under restriction control, and some countries are imposing a total lockdown. In June 2021, Malaysia was facing the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic triggering a nationwide lockdown and limiting interstate travel. In July 2021, Malaysia's daily Covid-19 cases had exceeded more than 10,000 and brought up a total of 1 million cases, with a population of approximately 32-33 million. Many businesses were affected badly during the pandemic. Some big corporations were forced to shut down their productions, causing huge numbers of unemployment in the country due to layoff and contract termination. Some businesses have started to implement electronic business (e-business) and utilize social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for advertisements to attract more buyers, especially young consumers. The purchasing power of youth consumers is relatively high in Malaysia, and this study aims to identify the causes of young consumer purchase intention using social media during the global pandemic. This study helps the local businesses to sustain their business adapt to the new norms. There are five main variables being tested in this study, and the variables were being validated using. The independent variables included in this study are perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, performance expectancy, interactivity, and intention to express empathy. Quantitative data analysis was done and concluded that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and interactivity have a significant relationship with young consumer purchase intention using social media. Interestingly, performance expectancy and intention to express empathy have no significant relationship with young consumer purchase intention during the pandemic. This study helps to create awareness for the local businesses to focus on more interactive types of marketing, making the social media platform easy to use and providing more useful information to their customers

Comprehensive Analysis of Acylcarnitine Species in <i>db/db</i> Mouse Using a Novel Method of High-Resolution Parallel Reaction Monitoring Reveals Widespread Metabolic Dysfunction Induced by Diabetes

Acylcarnitines are exerting a variety of biological functions depending on the differences in lengths, saturation levels, and conjugation groups, which to a great extent contribute to the challenges of acylcarnitines quantifications due to various kinds of isomers. Here, we describe a novel method by using high-resolution parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Both reversed-phase and normal-phase column were used in order to get accurate, reliable, widespread quantification of acylcarnitines, and without tedious sample preparation procedure. The method provided the most comprehensive acylcarnitine profile with high-resolution MS and MS/MS confirmation to date. A total of 117 acylcarnitines were detected from plasma and urine samples. The application of targeted profiling of acylcarnitines in <i>db/m+</i> control and <i>db/db</i> diabetic mice indicated incomplete amino acid and fatty acid oxidation on diabetic mice. Interestingly, the reduction of medium odd-numbered chain acylcarnitines in urine samples was first observed between <i>db/m+</i> and <i>db/db</i> mice. The high-resolution PRM method makes it possible to monitor the widespread metabolic changes of the acylcarnitines in response to stimuli. Besides, the accurate MS and MS/MS spectra data of the 117 acylcarnitines could be used as mass spectrometric resources for the identification of acylcarnitines

Highly efficient capture approach for the identification of diverse inherited retinal disorders.

Our study presents a 319-gene panel targeting inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD) genes. Through a multi-center retrospective cohort study, we validated the assays effectiveness and clinical utility and characterized the mutation spectrum of Taiwanese IRD patients. Between January 2018 and May 2022, 493 patients in 425 unrelated families, all initially suspected of having IRD without prior genetic diagnoses, underwent detailed ophthalmic and physical examinations (with extra-ocular features recorded) and genetic testing with our customized panel. Disease-causing variants were identified by segregation analysis and clinical interpretation, with validation via Sanger sequencing. We achieved a read depth of &gt;200× for 94.2% of the targeted 1.2 Mb region. 68.5% (291/425) of the probands received molecular diagnoses, with 53.9% (229/425) resolved cases. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the most prevalent initial clinical impression (64.2%), and 90.8% of the cohort have the five most prevalent phenotypes (RP, cone-rod syndrome, Ushers syndrome, Lebers congenital amaurosis, Bietti crystalline dystrophy). The most commonly mutated genes of probands that received molecular diagnosis are USH2A (13.7% of the cohort), EYS (11.3%), CYP4V2 (4.8%), ABCA4 (4.5%), RPGR (3.4%), and RP1 (3.1%), collectively accounted for 40.8% of diagnoses. We identify 87 unique unreported variants previously not associated with IRD and refine clinical diagnoses for 21 patients (7.22% of positive cases). We developed a customized gene panel and tested it on the largest Taiwanese cohort, showing that it provides excellent coverage for diverse IRD phenotypes