Loyalty Card Membership Challenge: A Study on Membership Churn and their Spending Behaviour

Understand member spending behaviour and their loyalty is important in all industries. By gaining loyalty from customers and understand how they spend, companies are able to retain their customers, increase their revenue and plan their marketing strategy to continue grow their business in a competitive business ecosystem. This research investigates member spending behaviour and membership churn for a loyalty card company in Malaysia. This research conducts exploratory analysis on three key partners registered with the company to understand their outlets’ spending activities and patterns. Meanwhile, this research also model membership churn based on the last 24 months membership data to identify factors that influence membership churn so that effective strategy can be formulated to retain active members in the company

Occupational exposure to saw dust: a case study

ABSTRACT: Occupational exposure to saw dust is associated with the development of oncological diseases, namely nasopharyngeal cancers (about 44% are from nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancers), in the wood and furniture industries, about 55.000, according to the (Associação das Indústrias de Madeira e Mobiliário de Portugal) AIMMP. It should be noted that since 1995 these dusts have been classified as carcinogenic, by The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the exposure to saw dust, quantifying its concentration, comparing with values stipulated by existing legislation and standardization. In order to reach the objectives described above, total dust sampling was performed following the NIOSH0500 methodology, in several jobs, in three different carpentries. From the samplings performed, an average value of saw dust concentration was obtained in each workstation. After analyzing the values obtained in the measurements, performed in the real work context, it was verified there was legal non-compliance in the Garlopa workstation and values of the order of magnitude of the NP 1796 exposure limit values ELV, in the Manual Polishing workstation, in some of the Carpentry Workshops. However, if we consider the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limit (SCOEL) ELV we can state that only the Trimmer complies with the established ELV. Thus, corrective and/or preventive measures should be implemented by employers and preventive measures should be receptive by workers by implementing/complying to ensure the health and well-being of all, will be proposed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influenza Excess Mortality from 1950–2000 in Tropical Singapore

10.1371/journal.pone.0008096PLoS ONE412

Exploring Access and Equity in Malaysia’s Private Higher Education

Private higher education institutions (PrHEIs) are utilized to complement public provision due to financial constraints faced in public provision. However, increasing private provision has raised interesting questions as to who gets educated in these PrHEIs. Is increasing private supply enlarging the circle of opportunity to reach those who might otherwise have been unable to enter university or college? In other words, has the explosion in private supply translated into greater inclusion or increased exclusion? This paper explores the access and equity issues in Malaysia's private higher education system. Malaysia is an interesting case study due to the significant presence of PrHEIs in the country and their contribution toward student enrolment. The findings show that the Malaysian government has provided considerable financial support for the development of PrHEIs, through the provision of incentives, subsidized loans, and scholarships. Quality assurance efforts further enhance the development of private provision, as student loans and scholarships are only provided for students on accredited programs. Therefore, PrHEIs have widened access and equity, with the help of government support. Despite this, Malaysia's model of providing access and equity through private provision may be unsustainable, due to the poor repayment record of student loans and the economic need to reduce the fiscal deficit of the government

Minimal SUSY SO(10) model and predictions for neutrino mixings and leptonic CP violation

We discuss a minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) model where B-L symmetry is broken by a {\bf 126} dimensional Higgs multiplet which also contributes to fermion masses in conjunction with a {\bf 10} dimensional superfield. This minimal Higgs choice provides a partial unification of neutrino flavor structure with that of quarks and has been shown to predict all three neutrino mixing angles and the solar mass splitting in agreement with observations, provided one uses the type II seesaw formula for neutrino masses. In this paper we generalize this analysis to include arbitrary CP phases in couplings and vevs. We find that (i) the predictions for neutrino mixings are similar with $U_{e3}\simeq 0.18$ as before and other parameters in a somewhat bigger range and (ii) that to first order in the quark mixing parameter $\lambda$ (the Cabibbo angle), the leptonic mixing matrix is CP conserving. We also find that in the absence of any higher dimensional contributions to fermion masses, the CKM phase is different from that of the standard model implying that there must be new contributions to quark CP violation from the supersymmetry breaking sector. Inclusion of higher dimensional terms however allows the standard model CKM phase to be maintained.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Acute kidney disease and renal recovery : consensus report of the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) 16 Workgroup

Consensus definitions have been reached for both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and these definitions are now routinely used in research and clinical practice. The KDIGO guideline defines AKI as an abrupt decrease in kidney function occurring over 7 days or less, whereas CKD is defined by the persistence of kidney disease for a period of > 90 days. AKI and CKD are increasingly recognized as related entities and in some instances probably represent a continuum of the disease process. For patients in whom pathophysiologic processes are ongoing, the term acute kidney disease (AKD) has been proposed to define the course of disease after AKI; however, definitions of AKD and strategies for the management of patients with AKD are not currently available. In this consensus statement, the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) proposes definitions, staging criteria for AKD, and strategies for the management of affected patients. We also make recommendations for areas of future research, which aim to improve understanding of the underlying processes and improve outcomes for patients with AKD

Transcriptome Analysis of Zebrafish Embryogenesis Using Microarrays

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a well-recognized model for the study of vertebrate developmental genetics, yet at the same time little is known about the transcriptional events that underlie zebrafish embryogenesis. Here we have employed microarray analysis to study the temporal activity of developmentally regulated genes during zebrafish embryogenesis. Transcriptome analysis at 12 different embryonic time points covering five different developmental stages (maternal, blastula, gastrula, segmentation, and pharyngula) revealed a highly dynamic transcriptional profile. Hierarchical clustering, stage-specific clustering, and algorithms to detect onset and peak of gene expression revealed clearly demarcated transcript clusters with maximum gene activity at distinct developmental stages as well as co-regulated expression of gene groups involved in dedicated functions such as organogenesis. Our study also revealed a previously unidentified cohort of genes that are transcribed prior to the mid-blastula transition, a time point earlier than when the zygotic genome was traditionally thought to become active. Here we provide, for the first time to our knowledge, a comprehensive list of developmentally regulated zebrafish genes and their expression profiles during embryogenesis, including novel information on the temporal expression of several thousand previously uncharacterized genes. The expression data generated from this study are accessible to all interested scientists from our institute resource database (http://giscompute.gis.a-star.edu.sg/~govind/zebrafish/data_download.html)

Mutation signatures implicate aristolochic acid in bladder cancer development

10.1186/s13073-015-0161-3Genome Medicine71Article number 3

Cost of Dry Eye Treatment in an Asian Clinic Setting

10.1371/journal.pone.0037711PLoS ONE76

The Crux of the Medicine Prices' Controversy in Pakistan

no abstract available