The relationship between the macroeconomic and demographic factors and the demand for and lapsation of life insurance in Malaysia and the United States

Economic environments have an effect on both the growth and lapsation of life insurance business. This thesis is undertaken in order to seek evidence of the significance of and relationship between specific macroeconomic and demographic factors and the demand for and lapsation of life insurance in the context of Malaysia and the United States (US). A dynamic, general-to-specific (Gets) approach is adopted in order to analyse the data. The general model (GUM) is formulated as an ADL(l,l) model to be subject to simplification. PcGets, a computer automated software for econometric model selection, which is capable of implementing the reduction subject to retaining congruence, is used to facilitate the analysis. The major findings show that, for Malaysia, the demographic factor, the change in total fertility rate in the previous period (i.e. positive and significant), is a vitally important factor in connection with life insurance demand (measured by number, by amount and by premium). Income and stock market return are important factors affecting the consumers' ability to purchase life insurance (in terms of amount and premium). The savings deposit rate is found to be related significantly to new life insurance business (by amount and by premium) but savings deposits seem not to be a competing savings instrument to life insurance. The inflation rate appears not to be an important factor affecting new life insurance business (by amount and by premium) but a high insurance cost tends to discourage the purchasing of life insurance (by number, by amount and by premium). Meanwhile, for lapsation of life insurance, both the forfeiture and surrender rates appear to be affected by the emergency fund effect with respect to the performance of the stock market in the previous period. Only fixed deposit rate is found to have the intended (positive) interest rate effect on surrender rate. The policyholders tend to surrender their life policies in favour of other investments that promise a better value for money in order to preserve their purchasing power in an environment of rising inflation rate. When the costs of obtaining insurance protection become more expensive, the forfeiture rate tends to be lower. The demographic factors tend to have a lagged influence on both the forfeiture and surrender rates. On the other hand, for the comparative study of Malaysia and the US, broadly speaking, the inflation rate, crude death rate and total fertility rate are the three factors that appear to be associated significantly with life insurance business in force (measured by number and by amount) in both Malaysia and the US. The surrender rates in Malaysia and the US are affected by a completely different set of factors. The theSiS concludes with some suggestions for useful areas for future research

Molecular analysis of CHX10 and MFRP in Chinese subjects with primary angle closure glaucoma and short axial length eyes

Molecular Vision141313-131

Amyloid-Related memory decline in preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease is dependent on APOE ε4 and is detectable over 18-Months

High levels of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain and carriage of the APOE ε4 allele have each been linked to cognitive impairment in cognitively normal (CN) older adults. However, the relationship between these two biomarkers and cognitive decline is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cerebral Aβ level, APOE ε4 carrier status, and cognitive decline over 18 months, in 317 cognitively healthy (CN) older adults (47.6% males, 52.4% females) aged between 60 and 89 years (Mean = 69.9, SD = 6.8). Cognition was assessed using the Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) and the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLT-II). Planned comparisons indicated that CN older adults with high Aβ who were also APOE ε4 carriers demonstrated the most pronounced decline in learning and working memory. In CN older adults who were APOE ε4 non-carriers, high Aβ was unrelated to cognitive decline in learning and working memory. Carriage of APOE ε4 in CN older adults with low Aβ was associated with a significantly increased rate of decline in learning and unexpectedly, improved cognitive performance on measures of verbal episodic memory over 18 months. These results suggest that Aβ and APOE ε4 interact to increase the rate of cognitive decline in CN older adults and provide further support for the use of Aβ and APOE ε4 as biomarkers of early Alzheimer’s disease

Intrusion Response Systems for the 5G Networks and Beyond: A New Joint Security-vs-QoS Optimization Approach

Network connectivity exposes the network infrastructure and assets to vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. Protecting network assets against attacks requires the application of security countermeasures. Nevertheless, employing countermeasures incurs costs, such as monetary costs, along with time and energy to prepare and deploy the countermeasures. Thus, an Intrusion Response System (IRS) shall consider security and QoS costs when dynamically selecting the countermeasures to address the detected attacks. This has motivated us to formulate a joint Security-vs-QoS optimization problem to select the best countermeasures in an IRS. The problem is then transformed into a matching game-theoretical model. Considering the monetary costs and attack coverage constraints, we first derive the theoretical upper bound for the problem and later propose stable matching-based solutions to address the trade-off. The performance of the proposed solution, considering different settings, is validated over a series of simulations

Follow-up plasma apolipoprotein E levels in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL) cohort

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing socioeconomic problem worldwide. Early diagnosis and prevention of this devastating disease have become a research priority. Consequently, the identification of clinically significant and sensitive blood biomarkers for its early detection is very important. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is a well-known and established genetic risk factor for late-onset AD; however, the impact of the protein level on AD risk is unclear. We assessed the utility of plasma ApoE protein as a potential biomarker of AD in the large, well-characterised Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing (AIBL) cohort. Methods: Total plasma ApoE levels were measured at 18-month follow-up using a commercial bead-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay: the Luminex xMAP human apolipoprotein kit. ApoE levels were then analysed between clinical classifications (healthy controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD) and correlated with the data available from the AIBL cohort, including but not limited to APOE genotype and cerebral amyloid burden. Results: A significant decrease in ApoE levels was found in the AD group compared with the healthy controls. These results validate previously published ApoE protein levels at baseline obtained using different methodology. ApoE protein levels were also significantly affected, depending on APOE genotypes, with ε2/ε2 having the highest protein levels and ε4/ε4 having the lowest. Plasma ApoE levels were significantly negatively correlated with cerebral amyloid burden as measured by neuroimaging. Conclusions: ApoE is decreased in individuals with AD compared with healthy controls at 18-month follow-up, and this trend is consistent with our results published at baseline. The influence of APOE genotype and sex on the protein levels are also explored. It is clear that ApoE is a strong player in the aetiology of this disease at both the protein and genetic levels

Field Effectiveness of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) against Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus) in Ornamental Ceramic Containers with Common Aquatic Plants

This study was undertaken to determine the impact of larvaciding using a Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) formulation (VectoBac WG) against Aedes aegypti larvae in earthen jars containing aquatic plants. Aquatic plants commonly used for landscaping, Pistia stratiotes (L.) (Liliopsida: Araceae) and Sagittaria sp. (Liliopsida: Alismataceae) were placed inside earthen jars filled with 50 L tap water. All earthen jars were treated with Bti formulation at 8g/1000L. Untreated jars with and without aquatic plants were also set up as controls. Fifty laboratory-bred 2nd instar larvae were introduced into each earthen jar. All earthen jars were observed daily. Number of adults emerged was recorded and the larval mortality was calculated. The indicators of effectiveness of Bti for these studies were (i) residual activities of Bti, and (ii) larval mortality in earthen jars with or without aquatic plants. The treated earthen jars containing P. stratiotes and Sagittaria sp. showed significant residual larvicidal effect up to 7 weeks, in comparison to untreated control (p < 0.05). The larval mortality ranged from 77.34-100 for jars with aquatic plants vs 80.66-100 for jars without aquatic plant. Earthen jars treated with Bti without aquatic plants also exhibited significantly longer residual larvicidal activity of up to 10 weeks (p < 0.05). The larval mortality ranged from 12.66-100 for jars with aquatic plants vs 59.34 — 100 for jars without aquatic plant. Thus, earthen jars without aquatic plants exhibited longer residual larvicidal effect compared to those with aquatic plants. This study suggested that containers with aquatic plants for landscaping should be treated more frequently with Bti in view of the shortened residual activity

Vasorelaxant effect of a phenylethylamine analogue based on schwarzinicine A an alkaloid isolated from the leaves of Ficus schwarzii

N-Phenethyl-1-phenyl-pentan-3-amine (1) is a new compound synthesised as a simplified analogue of schwarzinicine A (2), a natural compound extracted from Ficus schwarzii. Compound 1 differs from compound 2 due to its structural simplification, featuring two phenyl rings without methoxy substitution, as opposed to compound 2, which possesses three 3,4-dimethoxy aromatic rings. Our previous research findings highlighted the calcium-inhibitory effects of compound 2, but the mechanism of action for compound 1 remains unexplored, serving as the primary focus of this study. Building upon our earlier research, this study aimed to elucidate compound 1's calcium-modulating potential by using rat-isolated aortae in an organ bath set-up and HEK cells expressing hTRPC channels with the fluorometric assay to measure calcium influx. Compound 1 elicited a vasorelaxation response (Emax 111.4%) similar to its parent compound 2 (Emax 123.1%), and inhibited hTRPC3-, hTRPC4-, hTRPC5-, and hTRPC6-mediated calcium influx into HEK cells with IC50 values of 6, 2, 2, 5 µM, respectively. Compound 1 has a similar pharmacological profile as its parent compound 2, whereby it exerts a vasorelaxant effect by attenuating calcium influx and inhibits multiple TRPC channels

Scaling limit of virtual states of triatomic systems

For a system with three identical atoms, the dependence of the $s-$wave virtual state energy on the weakly bound dimer and trimer binding energies is calculated in a form of a universal scaling function. The scaling function is obtained from a renormalizable three-body model with a pairwise Dirac-delta interaction. It was also discussed the threshold condition for the appearance of the trimer virtual state.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Systemic perturbations of the kynurenine pathway precede progression to dementia independently of amyloid-β

Increasing evidence suggests that kynurenine pathway (KP) dyshomeostasis may promote disease progression in dementia. Studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients confirm KP dyshomeostasis in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which correlates with amyloid-β and tau pathology. Herein, we performed the first comprehensive study assessing baseline levels of KP metabolites in participants enrolling in the Australian Imaging Biomarkers Flagship Study of Aging. Our purpose was to test the hypothesis that changes in KP metabolites may be biomarkers of dementia processes that are largely silent. We used a cross-sectional analytical approach to assess non-progressors (N = 73); cognitively normal (CN) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) participants at baseline and throughout the study, and progressors (N = 166); CN or MCI at baseline but progressing to either MCI or AD during the study. Significant KP changes in progressors included increased 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3-HAA) and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid/anthranilic acid (3-HAA/AA) ratio, the latter having the largest effect on the odds of an individual being a progressor (OR 35.3; 95% CI between 14 and 104). 3-HAA levels were hence surprisingly bi-phasic, high in progressors but low in non-progressors or participants who had already transitioned to MCI or dementia. This is a new, unexpected and interesting result, as most studies of the KP in neurodegenerative disease show reduced 3-HAA/AA ratio after diagnosis. The neuroprotective metabolite picolinic acid was also significantly decreased while the neurotoxic metabolite 3-hydroxykynurenine increased in progressors. These results were significant even after adjustment for confounders. Considering the magnitude of the OR to predict change in cognition, it is important that these findings are replicated in other populations. Independent validation of our findings may confirm the utility of 3-HAA/AA ratio to predict change in cognition leading to dementia in clinical settings