Determinant of Adoption Pattern of New Product/Services in Hotel Industry in Awka, Nigeria

In light of the intense competition facing the providers of hotel services/product, some managers are constantly engaged in the creation of new products that would hopefully win consumers acceptance. However, against a backdrop of changing technology and sophisticated consumer wants, inventing a successful innovation is an uphill task. The main aim of this research was to shed some light on the adoption pattern of consumers in relation to new hotel consumer innovations. In this study, the researcher chose hotel services to represent the various innovations in the consumer hospitality market. With the use of focus group discussions, interview followed by a survey in order to get an insight of consumers with regard to their adoption behaviour, the research finds factors that influenced adoption pattern of a consumer. High degree of confidence on the part of hotel staff, staff‟s good knowledge of product/service, new addition of service/product to company portfolio, influence of age, Boss influence, occupational influence, gift influence, product/service pricing, introductory marketing communication, continuing marketing communication, time effect of marketing communication. With the crunch in the consumer hospitality industry, managers are under tremendous pressure to create new products. The consumer hospitality industry has been a wave of innovation sweeping the industry, with companies experimenting with a wide range of products from lodging to atomic services. Given the advent of new technologies and shorter product development cycles, new products are constantly being introduced

Islamic Banking in Nigeria: Perceived Relative Advantage among Religious Groups in Anambra State

We studied Islamic banking customers’ segment using the religious groups in Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria to determine if there are significant  differences in their mean perception of the relative advantage of Islamic banking concept. Crosstab was used to study the relationship between the demographic factors that made up the participants of this study. ANOVA was used in order to show the mean significant difference of the groups that were hypothesized and T-Test was computed to know how the  categories rated the relative advantage of Islamic banking. The religious groups in Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria showed significant difference  among their perceptions of relative advantage of Islamic banking at .00 significant levels. T-Test shows that Islam respondents in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria rated the perceived relative advantage of Islamic bankinghigh, looking at their mean of 3.04, while Christian respondents rated the perceived relative advantage low, looking at their mean of 2.51.Key words: Islamic banking, perceived relative advantage, religious group

Islamic Banking in Nigeria: Perception of its Relative Advantage by Consumer Segments in Anambra State

We studied Islamic banking customers’ segment using antecedents of Rogers andShoemaker’s paradigm in Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria. We equally measure theperceived relative advantage of Islamic banking concept by those consumer groups inAwka, capital city of Anambra state, Nigeria. ANOVA was used in order to show themean significant difference of the groups that were hypothesized and to know howthe categories rated the relative advantage of Islamic banking concept. There aresignificant differences among all the categories that emerged from the Rogers andShoemaker antecedent variables. Some categories equally rated the perceived relativeadvantage of Islamic banking concept low while others rated it high.Key words: Islamic banking, perception, relative advantage, consumer segment

Gene expression profiles in human HepG2 cells treated with extracts of the Tamarindus indica fruit pulp

Tamarindus indicaL. (T. indica) or locally known as asam jawa belongs to the family of Leguminosae. The fruit pulp had been reported to have antioxidant activities and possess hypolipidaemic effects. In this study, we attempted to investigate the gene expression patterns in human hepatoma HepG2 cell line in response to treatment with low concentration of the fruit pulp extracts. Microarray analysis using Affymetrix Human Genome 1.0 S.T arrays was used in the study. Microarray data were validated using semi-quantitative RT–PCR and real-time RT–PCR. Amongst the significantly up-regulated genes were those that code for the metallothioneins (MT1M, MT1F, MT1X) and glutathione S-transferases (GSTA1, GSTA2, GST02) that are involved in stress response. APOA4, APOA5, ABCG5 and MTTP genes were also significantly regulated that could be linked to hypolipidaemic activities of the T. indica fruit pulp

Frequency, prognostic impact, and subtype association of 8p12, 8q24, 11q13, 12p13, 17q12, and 20q13 amplifications in breast cancers

BACKGROUND: Oncogene amplification and overexpression occur in tumor cells. Amplification status may provide diagnostic and prognostic information and may lead to new treatment strategies. Chromosomal regions 8p12, 8q24, 11q13, 17q12 and 20q13 are recurrently amplified in breast cancers. METHODS: To assess the frequencies and clinical impact of amplifications, we analyzed 547 invasive breast tumors organized in a tissue microarray (TMA) by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and calculated correlations with histoclinical features and prognosis. BAC probes were designed for: (i) two 8p12 subregions centered on RAB11FIP1 and FGFR1 loci, respectively; (ii) 11q13 region centered on CCND1; (iii) 12p13 region spanning NOL1; and (iv) three 20q13 subregions centered on MYBL2, ZNF217 and AURKA, respectively. Regions 8q24 and 17q12 were analyzed with MYC and ERBB2 commercial probes, respectively. RESULTS: We observed amplification of 8p12 (amplified at RAB11FIP1 and/or FGFR1) in 22.8%, 8q24 in 6.1%, 11q13 in 19.6%, 12p13 in 4.1%, 17q12 in 9.9%, 20q13(Z )(amplified at ZNF217 only) in 9.9%, and 20q13(Co )(co-amplification of two or three 20q13 loci) in 8.5% of cases. The 8q24, 12p13, and 17q12 amplifications were correlated with high grade. The most frequent single amplifications were 8p12 (9.8%), 8q24 (3.3%) and 12p13 (3.3%), 20q13(Z )and 20q13(Co )(1.6%) regions. The 17q12 and 11q13 regions were never found amplified alone. The most frequent co-amplification was 8p12/11q13. Amplifications of 8p12 and 17q12 were associated with poor outcome. Amplification of 12p13 was associated with basal molecular subtype. CONCLUSION: Our results establish the frequencies, prognostic impacts and subtype associations of various amplifications and co-amplifications in breast cancers