Development of offshore outsourcing industry and its influences on training and development- exploring China and Malaysia's experience

It cannot be denied that for the past 3 years since China made its first foray to invite FDI in 1979, the country?s economy has been progressing at a rapid pace. Technical and education advancement have contributed to the nation?s ability to position itself as an important offshore outsourcing destination for the world. At the same time, this industry also contributes to the nation?s economic growth. As at June 2009, China has close to 7000 enterprises focusing on offshore industry. Data shows that this particular sector has provided employment to at least 1.2 million Chinese people. This seems to be similar in Malaysia?s situation where Malaysia too, has begun to offer and further develop this service as it is a key contributor to the country?s GDP. In fact, according to the A. T. Kearney Global Services Location Index of March 2011, China and Malaysia were ranked in the top three offshoring? outsourcing countries in the world. Despite China?s success in the outsourcing industry, many global companies are still experiencing challenges to attract and retain talent in China. The paper examines the skill shortage in China?s offshoring and outsourcing industry and provides insight into Malaysia?s experience with the Human Resources Development Fund on developing its workforce. The paper will also provide some suggestions on the various institutional and policies levers that could address the skills shortage challenges in China

Palliative brachytherapy to axilla and hypopharynx in elderly patient with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma — case report

Brachytherapy (BT) is an important local treatment of tumor and it can be applied to different anatomical sites either in a curative or palliative setting. BT can deliver large dose of radiation to the tumor while sparing the surrounding normal tissue which translates into a better therapeutic ratio compared to external beam radiotherapy. However, the evidence for the use of brachytherapy in the palliative setting is lacking in the literature. In this case report, we describe the brachytherapy technique and outcome of a patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx who underwent palliative brachytherapy to the hypopharynx and metastatic tumor at the right axilla.

Industrial nickel wastewater rejection by polyimide membrane

Membrane distillation (MD) is one of the emerging thermal driven membrane separation processes in wastewater treatment attributed to its lower energy requirement and able to couple with waste heat relative to pressure driven process. In this study, polyimide was used as the polymeric materials in hollow fiber membrane fabrication whereas 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was use as solvent for synthesize industrial wastewater in nickel removal. The properties of the fabricated membrane were found to possesses the optimum characteristic in terms of LEP, porosity, inner diameter and morphology as reported in literature forthe application of DCMD. The permeate flux performance in the range of 67 to 79 kg/m2h with the rejectionrate of more than 98.80 % suggested that the PI membrane possesses the potential to be applied in the industrial wastewater treatment in nickel removal

Impact of Personal Characteristics on Intrapreneurs' Behaviours

The purpose of this research is to study the impact of personal characteristics on the intrapreneurs’ behaviour. This is to investigate the impact of personal competency, innovativeness, learning competency and previous experience on the formation of the intrapreneur behaviour. A total of 146 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents who meet the requirements through a standard self-administered online structured questionnaire. The data were analysed through the PLS-SEM approach. The findings have revealed the direct effect of personal characteristics on the intrapreneurs’ behaviour. The results of finding show a positive and significant impact of innovativeness and previous experience on the formation of intrapreneurs’ behaviour. However, the results also show that the personal competency and learning competency gives a negative impact on the formation of intrapreneurs’ behaviour however it results a high performance. The innovativeness and previous experience may influence the formation of intrapreneur’s behaviour however personal competency and learning competency will not affect the formation of intrapreneur’

Design of combustor for micro gas turbine test rig and its performance prediction

Stringent emission rules, air pollution, fluctuation of fuel price and depletion of fossil fuel resources are driving the industry to seek for better alternative of power generation. Micro gas turbine (MGT) provides a promising potential to solve the facing problems. MGT could be used in many applications such as in range extender vehicle, auxiliary power generator, power backup system, combine heat and power system, etc. Combustor plays a very crucial role in MGT system as its performance directly affects the emission quality, power output and fuel consumption of the entire system. This paper demonstrates the literature review, design methodology and performance prediction of the combustor designed for a 14.5kW MGT test rig

Nox4-dependent ROS modulation by amino endoperoxides to induce apoptosis in cancer cells

Tumor metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients. Anoikis resistance is one critical malefactor of metastatic cancer cells to resist current clinical chemotherapeutic treatments. Although endoperoxide-containing compounds have long been suggested as anticancer drugs, few have been clinically employed due to their instability, complex synthesis procedure or low tumor cell selectivity. Herein, we describe a one-pot strategy to synthesize novel amino endoperoxides and their derivatives with good yields and stabilities. In vitro cell-based assays revealed that 4 out of the 14 amino endoperoxides selectively induce metastatic breast carcinoma cells but not normal breast cells to undergo apoptosis, in a dose-dependent manner. Mechanistic studies showed that the most potent amino endoperoxide, 4-Me, is selective for cancer cells expressing a high level of Nox4. The anticancer effects are further shown to be associated with reduced O2−:H2O2 ratio and increased ·OH level in the cancerous cells. Animal study showed that 4-Me impairs orthotopic breast tumor growth as well as tumor cell metastasis to lymph nodes. Altogether, our study suggests that anticancer strategies that focus on redox-based apoptosis induction in tumors are clinically viable.Published versio

Early controlled release of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β/δ agonist GW501516 improves diabetic wound healing through redox modulation of wound microenvironment

Diabetic wounds are imbued with an early excessive and protracted reactive oxygen species production. Despite the studies supporting PPARβ/δ as a valuable pharmacologic wound-healing target, the therapeutic potential of PPARβ/δ agonist GW501516 (GW) as a wound healing drug was never investigated. Using topical application of polymer-encapsulated GW, we revealed that different drug release profiles can significantly influence the therapeutic efficacy of GW and consequently diabetic wound closure. We showed that double-layer encapsulated GW microparticles (PLLA:PLGA:GW) provided an earlier and sustained dose of GW to the wound and reduced the oxidative wound microenvironment to accelerate healing, in contrast to single-layered PLLA:GW microparticles. The underlying mechanism involved an early GW-mediated activation of PPARβ/δ that stimulated GPx1 and catalase expression in fibroblasts. GPx1 and catalase scavenged excessive H2O2 accumulation in diabetic wound beds, prevented H2O2-induced ECM modification and facilitated keratinocyte migration. The microparticles with early and sustained rate of GW release had better therapeutic wound healing activity. The present study underscores the importance of drug release kinetics on the therapeutic efficacy of the drug and warrants investigations to better appreciate the full potential of controlled drug release.Accepted versio

Integration of antiangiogenic therapy with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-1727Clin Cancer Resclincanres.1727.2020-clincanres.1727.202