The Legal Saga of Exclusion Clauses in Malaysia

One of the issues that could affect the success or the sustainability of a business organisation is its ability to manage the legal risk of liability that it faces in running its business. One common tool utilised by businesses is to insert an exclusion or limitation clause in their contracts. This would allow them to predict and apportion the possible amount of liability that could arise from breach of contract or negligence. The courts usually exercise caution in allowing such clauses to be enforced in order to prevent unfairness especially to the weaker party. Malaysia is of no exception. The Malaysian courts have display willingness to strike down the validity of an exclusion clause to ensure that a business organisation does not escape liability arising from its own fault. The Federal Court and the Court of Appeal decision in Bourke v CIMB Bank Bhd (2018) are good examples of such an approach. However, the legal reasoning adopted by the courts in this case has led to numerous confusions on the legal principles of contract law in Malaysia. It is therefore necessary to examine the legal position of exclusion clauses in Malaysia today and to determine what is the most appropriate way forward. This research found that there are difficulties with the legal coherency and application of Bourke in future cases

Impulse buying in live stream based on the stimulus-organism-response framework

Live stream commerce is the most effective method for online marketing and sales. The Malaysian government implementation of movement control order (MCO) and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on consumer purchasing behaviour and ways of conducting business. Hence, this research aims to examine the factors which influence Malaysian consumers’ impulse buying in live stream commerce. The Stimulus Organism Response Framework (SOR) is used to assess stimuli (live streamer attractiveness, expertise, scarcity, and promotion) that impact reactions (perceived enjoyment, urge to buy, and arousal) and subsequently influence response behaviour (live stream impulse buying). The total of 385 questionnaires were disseminated during the implementation of MCO 2.0 in 2021. The findings demonstrated that all hypotheses were significant. Perceived enjoyment, arousal, and urge to buy are associated with impulse buying in live stream. This study provides a deeper insight and identifies the key variables that influence live stream impulse buying in Malaysia. The findings would help businesses and marketers to formulate effective marketing strategies and to fill research gaps relating to live stream commerce

PREDICTING CONTINUANCE INTENTION AND USE OF MOBILE SHOPPING APPS WITH PLS-SEM AND NECESSARY CONDITION ANALYSIS IN TANDEM

The adoption of multi-channel strategies by retailers, encompassing both online and offline modalities, has fundamentally transformed consumer shopping behaviors, resulting in a significant increase in mobile shopping. Nonetheless, the long-term success of mobile shopping apps is heavily dependent on consumers’ continuous use. Regrettably, the existing studies on this area remain vague and require further exploration. This study aims to close this gap by examining Malaysian consumers’ continuance intention and continuance use of mobile shopping through the lens of ISSM in the context of mobile shopping apps. We utilised a quantitative approach and successfully collected 369 responses from Klang Valley, using purposive sampling techniques. The predictive hypotheses developed were validated using Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and were further supplemented with Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to determine must-have factors based on necessary logic. The PLS-SEM results confirmed the association between continuance intention and continuance use. The findings revealed that service quality and system quality are associated with satisfaction, but not information quality. Additionally, service quality, system quality, and information quality, together with satisfaction, trust and incentive have a positive significant influence on Malaysians’ mobile shopping app continuance intention. However, the NCA results indicated that system quality is the sole must-have factor that contributes to satisfaction. Meanwhile, service quality, system quality, information quality, satisfaction, trust, and incentive are the must-have predictors for mobile shopping app continuance intention. The study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects namely, continuance intention and continuance use, within the framework of the ISSM in the context of mobile shopping. By doing so, it offers more refined and actionable insights to improve consumer experience and foster sustained engagement with mobile shopping apps. Simultaneously, it contributes to the advancement of knowledge regarding the foundational constructs and their interconnectedness, thereby enhancing theoretical development in this domain

Process optimization and thermodynamic property analysis of brown rice cooking quality improvement by low temperature plasma technology

In order to solve the problems of long cooking time and rough taste of brown rice, a new technology based on low temperature plasma treatment was put forward. Taking brown rice as raw material, the effects of glow intensity, treatment time and moisture content in low-temperature plasma processing on cooking time and solid loss rate of brown rice were studied, and the thermodynamic properties of white rice, brown rice and low-temperature plasma treated brown rice were analyzed by DSC. On the basis of single factor experiment, orthogonal experiment parameters of optimizing the low-temperature plasma process was glow intensity 1.8a, treatment time 2 min, moisture content 9.33%, then cooking time was about 25.31 min under this condition, solid loss rate was 19.18 mg/g. Thermodynamic analysis shows that low temperature plasma treatment can reduce the thermal phase transition temperature, termination temperature and enthalpy of brown rice. The results can be used as reference for low temperature plasma in brown rice production

The Presence of EGFR T790M in TKI-Naïve Lung Cancer Samples of Patients Who Developed a T790M-Positive Relapse on First or Second Generation TKI Is Rare

EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients can be effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) but frequently present with an EGFR T790M resistance mutation at relapse. We aimed to screen for T790M in pre-treatment formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples of patients with a confirmed T790M mutation at progression. We analyzed 33 pre-treatment DNA samples of NSCLC patients who progressed upon TKI between 2013 to 2019. To establish storage-time dependent formalin fixation-induced background levels for C>T mutations, we analyzed DNA isolated from archival (stored >1 year, n = 22) and recently generated (stored <1 month, n = 11) FFPE samples and included DNA isolated from white blood cells (WBC) (n = 24) as controls. DNA samples were analyzed by droplet digital (dd)PCR, and positivity was defined by outlier detection according to Grubb's criterion. The T790M background allele frequency levels were 0.160% in DNA isolated from archival-FFPE, 0.100% in fresh FFPE, and 0.035% in WBC. Progression-free survival (PFS) time of the single T790M positive patient was 9 months, while T790M negative patients had a median PFS of 10 months (range 2-27). Proper storage time matched FFPE control samples are essential for reliable detection of T790M mutation at low VAF. The presence of EGFR T790M mutations in pre-TKI samples is rare, even in patients who progressed with EGFR T790M mutations

A conditional neural fields model for protein threading

Motivation: Alignment errors are still the main bottleneck for current template-based protein modeling (TM) methods, including protein threading and homology modeling, especially when the sequence identity between two proteins under consideration is low (<30%)

Microbial exposure during early human development primes fetal immune cells

Human fetal immune system begins to develop early during gestation, however factors responsible for fetal immune-priming remain elusive. We explored potential exposure to microbial agents in-utero and their contribution towards activation of memory T cells in fetal tissues. We profiled microbes across fetal organs using 16S-rRNA gene sequencing and detected low but consistent microbial signal in fetal gut, skin, placenta and lungs, in 2nd trimester of gestation. We identified several live bacterial strains including Staphylococcus and Lactobacillus in fetal tissues, which induced in vitro activation of memory T cells in fetal mesenteric lymph-node, supporting the role of microbial exposure in fetal immune-priming. Finally, using SEM and RNA-ISH, we visualised discrete localisation of bacteria-like structures and eubacterial-RNA within 14th week fetal gut lumen. These findings indicate selective presence of live-microbes in fetal organs during 2nd trimester of gestation and have broader implications towards establishment of immune competency and priming before birt

Organ-specific metastatic landscape dissects PD-(L)1 blockade efficacy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: applicability from clinical trials to real-world practice

Background Organ-specific metastatic context has not been incorporated into the clinical practice of guiding programmed death-(ligand) 1 [PD-(L)1] blockade, due to a lack of understanding of its predictive versus prognostic value. We aim at delineating and then incorporating both the predictive and prognostic effects of the metastatic-organ landscape to dissect PD-(L)1 blockade efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods A total of 2062 NSCLC patients from a double-arm randomized trial (OAK), two immunotherapy trials (FIR, BIRCH), and a real-world cohort (NFyy) were included. The metastatic organs were stratified into two categories based on their treatment-dependent predictive significance versus treatment-independent prognosis. A metastasis-based scoring system (METscore) was developed and validated for guiding PD-(L)1 blockade in clinical trials and real-world practice. Results Patients harboring various organ-specific metastases presented significantly different responses to immunotherapy, and those with brain and adrenal gland metastases survived longer than others [overall survival (OS), p = 0.0105; progression-free survival (PFS), p = 0.0167]. In contrast, survival outcomes were similar in chemotherapy-treated patients regardless of metastatic sites (OS, p = 0.3742; PFS, p = 0.8242). Intriguingly, the immunotherapeutic predictive significance of the metastatic-organ landscape was specifically presented in PD-L1-positive populations (PD-L1 > 1%). Among them, a paradoxical coexistence of a favorable predictive effect coupled with an unfavorable prognostic effect was observed in metastases to adrenal glands, brain, and liver (category I organs), whereas metastases to bone, pleura, pleural effusion, and mediastinum yielded consistent unfavorable predictive and prognostic effects (category II organs). METscore was capable of integrating both predictive and prognostic effects of the entire landscape and dissected OS outcome of NSCLC patients received PD-(L)1 blockade (p < 0.0001) but not chemotherapy (p = 0.0805) in the OAK training cohort. Meanwhile, general performance of METscore was first validated in FIR (p = 0.0350) and BIRCH (p < 0.0001), and then in the real-world NFyy cohort (p = 0.0181). Notably, METscore was also applicable to patients received PD-(L)1 blockade as first-line treatment both in the clinical trials (OS, p = 0.0087; PFS, p = 0.0290) and in the real-world practice (OS, p = 0.0182; PFS, p = 0.0045). Conclusions Organ-specific metastatic landscape served as a potential predictor of immunotherapy, and METscore might enable noninvasive forecast of PD-(L)1 blockade efficacy using baseline radiologic assessments in advanced NSCLC