Evaluation on the application of life cycle matrix (LCM) in forecasting housing needs and housing demand in developed and developing countries

The accuracy of forecasting of housing needs and demand is crucial to the preparation of development plan because residential land constitutes a greater share of the developed area of cities. Presently, many common methods are based on aggregate method, headship rates, household size, backlog and other accounting methods. Many of these methods have their strengths and weaknesses contributed by the assumptions and ‘intelligent guesses’ used in the calculations. This paper aims to explore alternative method of forecasting housing needs and demand by using Life Cycle Matrix. As a household undergoes change of stages in family life cycle, one’s housing needs and demand are experiencing gradual change. Therefore, it is essential to consider the life cycle change of a household in the analysis and forecasting of housing needs and demands. Life Cycle Matrix was initiated in Japan in 1980s to estimate housing needs based on population cohort and household distribution pattern. Comparative analysis using LCM is also being carried out in developed countries (Japan and United Kingdom) and developing countries (Philippines and Malaysia)

Purchase intention of Consumers from Melaka towards Mobile Advertising

Acceleration growth in the telecommunication technology especially in mobile devices has resulted to greater new opportunities to the marketing strategies. It thus has led to the current study on the purchase intention of consumers from Melaka towards mobile advertising. A survey was conducted with a set of self-administered questionnaire. A total of 250 respondents was recruited using convenience sampling. The results show that three out of five independent variables examined, namely credibility, irritation and incentive are significant. Informativeness and entertainment were found to have no impact on purchase intention. The regression model is able to explain 73.6% of the variation in consumers purchase intention. This study is able to provide information in relation to factors influencing purchase intention of consumer which has laid a basis in helping the mobile advertisers to develop better strategy of their advertisement

Understanding Customer Satisfaction of Internet Banking: A Case Study In Malacca

AbstractThe banking industry has been rapidly developing the use of Internet banking as an efficient and viable tool to create customer value. It is one of the popular services offered by the traditional banks to provide speedier and reliable services to online users. With the rapid development of computer technology as a commercial too Internet banking can be used to attract more customers to perform banking transactions in related banks. However, the main problem of Internet banking faced by the providers is that a large number of the banks’ customers are not willing to use the Internet banking services offered. This happened due to the services offered through Internet banking have yet to satisfy their customers. Customer satisfaction is an important factor to help banks to sustain competitive advantages. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to search and examine the factors which influence customer satisfaction towards Internet banking. The five factors which can influence customer satisfaction toward Internet banking include service quality, web design and content, security and privacy, convenience and speed. With the use of a questionnaire survey, 200 working adults participated in this study have provided valuable feedback and responses pertaining to the above factors that influence customers’ decision to do Internet Banking. The results of this research showed that web design and content, convenience and speed are closely linked to customer satisfaction toward Internet banking. Or … The results of this research showed that web design and content, convenience and speed are the top three factors that influence customer satisfaction toward Internet Banking

Thioflavin dye degradation by using magnetic nanoparticles augmented PolyvinylideneFlouride (PVDF) microcapsules / Mohamed Syazwan Osman ... [et al.]

Microcapsule has remarkable advantages in engineering application for pollutants removal and biomedical field for transportation. It has obviously drawn attention from the research community. Undeniably, it does have shortages but the key is to balance both the advantages and limitations to enhance microcapsule benefits. In environmental engineering applications, microcapsules could serve as encapsulation agents of nanoparticles (NPs) to drastically reduce the risk associated to nano-toxicity when it is indirect contact with surroundings. In addition, this technique could improve the physical contact and promote catalytic degradations of pollutants while exhibit better recyclability without loss of activity after multiple catalytic degradation cycles. Even though magnetic responsiveness of capsules can be used for ease of separation, one of the constraints is that the encapsulated particles will restrict the performance of capsules materials in pollutants removal. However, encapsulated magnetite particles interact with polymeric matrix chains and thus tying up the chains as knot which can restrict the expansions of whole capsules. Some-times, capsules shell is designated to remove certain target contaminants and so does for encapsulated particles. This may possibly reduce or increase the removal performance of integrated capsules which depends on the target contaminants and the underlying mechanism involved in pollutant removal. Hence, this work primarily focuses on the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles augmented microcapsule with dual functionalities namely adsorptive and catalytic activities using membrane material, PolyvinylideneFlouride (PVDF). Feasibility study using Thioflavin dye as the representable model system for degradation will be explored

Klotho-beta overexpression as a novel target for suppressing proliferation and fibroblast growth factor receptor-4 signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We had previously demonstrated overexpression of fibroblast growth factor receptor-4 (FGFR4) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, additional molecular mechanisms resulting in amplified FGFR4 signaling in HCC remain under-studied. Here, we studied the mechanistic role of its co-receptor klotho-beta (KLB) in driving elevated FGFR4 activity in HCC progression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Quantitative real-time PCR analysis identified frequent elevation of KLB gene expression in HCC tumors relative to matched non-tumor tissue, with a more than two-fold increase correlating with development of multiple tumors in patients. KLB-silencing in Huh7 cells decreased cell proliferation and suppressed FGFR4 downstream signaling. While transient repression of KLB-FGFR4 signaling decreased protein expression of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), a HCC diagnostic marker, prolonged inhibition enriched for resistant HCC cells exhibiting increased liver stemness.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Elevated KLB expression in HCC tissues provides further credence to the oncogenic role of increased FGFR4 signaling in HCC progression and represents a novel biomarker to identify additional patients amenable to anti-FGFR4 therapy. The restricted tissue expression profile of KLB, together with the anti-proliferative effect observed with KLB-silencing, also qualifies it as a specific and potent therapeutic target for HCC patients. The enrichment of a liver stem cell-like population in response to extended KLB-FGFR4 repression necessitates further investigation to target the development of drug resistance.</p

Protein Kinase C α Is a Central Signaling Node and Therapeutic Target for Breast Cancer Stem Cells

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition program becomes activated during malignant progression and can enrich for cancer stem cells (CSCs). We report that inhibition of protein kinase C α (PKCα) specifically targets CSCs but has little effect on non-CSCs. The formation of CSCs from non-stem cells involves a shift from EGFR to PDGFR signaling and results in the PKCα-dependent activation of FRA1. We identified an AP-1 molecular switch in which c-FOS and FRA1 are preferentially utilized in non-CSCs and CSCs, respectively. PKCα and FRA1 expression is associated with the aggressive triple-negative breast cancers, and the depletion of FRA1 results in a mesenchymal-epithelial transition. Hence, identifying molecular features that shift between cell states can be exploited to target signaling components critical to CSCs.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Grant P01-CA080111)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-CA078461

Ethnic and gender specific life expectancies of the Singapore population, 1965 to 2009 - Converging, or diverging?

10.1186/1471-2458-13-1012BMC Public Health131