5,669 research outputs found

    The influence of the technical dimension, functional dimension, and tenant satisfaction on tenant loyalty: an analysis based on the theory of planned behavior

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    This study primarily explored the influence of the technical dimension, functional dimension, and tenant satisfaction on tenant loyalty. The theory of planned behavior served as the basis of this study, and the three aforementioned factors (the technical dimension, the functional dimension, and tenant satisfaction) were incorporated into a conceptual framework for tenant loyalty. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for parameter estimation. The participants consisted of tenants residing in eight administrative districts in Kaohsiung City. 315 questionnaires were administered, all of which were returned. After removing 15 invalid responses, there were 300 valid responses, which indicated an effective recovery rate of 95.2%. The results showed that the technical dimension, the functional dimension, and attitude significantly and positively influenced tenant satisfaction. Tenant satisfaction, perceived behavioral control, and social norms significantly and positively influenced tenant loyalty. Tenant satisfaction mediated the influence of the technical dimension and the functional dimension on tenant loyalty; the mediating effect of the functional dimension on tenant loyalty was greater than that of the technical dimension. The findings of this study highlight the measures rental companies should adopt in order to enhance the technical dimension, functional dimension, and tenant satisfaction, as this is crucial to maintaining sustainable operations

    SNP-RFLPing: restriction enzyme mining for SNPs in genomes

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    BACKGROUND: The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) is a common laboratory method for the genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Here, we describe a web-based software, named SNP-RFLPing, which provides the restriction enzyme for RFLP assays on a batch of SNPs and genes from the human, rat, and mouse genomes. RESULTS: Three user-friendly inputs are included: 1) NCBI dbSNP "rs" or "ss" IDs; 2) NCBI Entrez gene ID and HUGO gene name; 3) any formats of SNP-in-sequence, are allowed to perform the SNP-RFLPing assay. These inputs are auto-programmed to SNP-containing sequences and their complementary sequences for the selection of restriction enzymes. All SNPs with available RFLP restriction enzymes of each input genes are provided even if many SNPs exist. The SNP-RFLPing analysis provides the SNP contig position, heterozygosity, function, protein residue, and amino acid position for cSNPs, as well as commercial and non-commercial restriction enzymes. CONCLUSION: This web-based software solves the input format problems in similar softwares and greatly simplifies the procedure for providing the RFLP enzyme. Mixed free forms of input data are friendly to users who perform the SNP-RFLPing assay. SNP-RFLPing offers a time-saving application for association studies in personalized medicine and is freely available at

    Drosophila eyes absent is a Novel mRNA Target of the Tristetraprolin (TTP) Protein DTIS11

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    The Tristetraprolin (TTP) protein family includes four mammalian members (TTP, TIS11b, TIS11d, and ZFP36L3), but only one in Drosophila melanogaster (DTIS11). These proteins bind target mRNAs with AU-rich elements (AREs) via two C3H zinc finger domains and destabilize the mRNAs. We found that overexpression of mouse TIS11b or DTIS11 in the Drosophila retina dramatically reduced eye size, similar to the phenotype of eyes absent (eya) mutants. The eya transcript is one of many ARE-containing mRNAs in Drosophila. We showed that TIS11b reduced levels of eya mRNA in vivo. In addition, overexpression of Eya rescued the TIS11b overexpression phenotype. RNA pull-down and luciferase reporter analyses demonstrated that the DTIS11 RNA-binding domain is required for DTIS11 to bind the eya 3′ UTR and reduce levels of eya mRNA. Moreover, ectopic expression of DTIS11 in Drosophila S2 cells decreased levels of eya mRNA and reduced cell viability. Consistent with these results, TTP proteins overexpressed in MCF7 human breast cancer cells were associated with eya homologue 2 (EYA2) mRNA, and caused a decrease in EYA2 mRNA stability and cell viability. Our results suggest that eya mRNA is a target of TTP proteins, and that downregulation of EYA by TTP may lead to reduced cell viability in Drosophila and human cells

    Changes in endotracheal tube cuff pressure during laparoscopic surgery in head-up or head-down position

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    BACKGROUND: The abdominal insufflation and surgical positioning in the laparoscopic surgery have been reported to result in an increase of airway pressure. However, associated effects on changes of endotracheal tube cuff pressure are not well established. METHODS: 70 patients undergoing elective laparoscopic colorectal tumor resection (head-down position, n = 38) and laparoscopic cholecystecomy (head-up position, n = 32) were enrolled and were compared to 15 patients undergoing elective open abdominal surgery. Changes of cuff and airway pressures before and after abdominal insufflation in supine position and after head-down or head-up positioning were analysed and compared. RESULTS: There was no significant cuff and airway pressure changes during the first fifteen minutes in open abdominal surgery. After insufflation, the cuff pressure increased from 26 ± 3 to 32 ± 6 and 27 ± 3 to 33 ± 5 cmH(2)O in patients receiving laparoscopic cholecystecomy and laparoscopic colorectal tumor resection respectively (both p < 0.001). The head-down tilt further increased cuff pressure from 33 ± 5 to 35 ± 5 cmH(2)O (p < 0.001). There six patients undergoing colorectal tumor resection (18.8%) and eight patients undergoing cholecystecomy (21.1%) had a total increase of cuff pressure more than 10 cm H(2)O (18.8%). There was no significant correlation between increase of cuff pressure and either the patient's body mass index or the common range of intra-abdominal pressure (10-15 mmHg) used in laparoscopic surgery. CONCLUSIONS: An increase of endotracheal tube cuff pressure may occur during laparoscopic surgery especially in the head-down position

    SNP-RFLPing 2: an updated and integrated PCR-RFLP tool for SNP genotyping

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay is a cost-effective method for SNP genotyping and mutation detection, but the manual mining for restriction enzyme sites is challenging and cumbersome. Three years after we constructed SNP-RFLPing, a freely accessible database and analysis tool for restriction enzyme mining of SNPs, significant improvements over the 2006 version have been made and incorporated into the latest version, SNP-RFLPing 2.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The primary aim of SNP-RFLPing 2 is to provide comprehensive PCR-RFLP information with multiple functionality about SNPs, such as SNP retrieval to multiple species, different polymorphism types (bi-allelic, tri-allelic, tetra-allelic or indels), gene-centric searching, HapMap tagSNPs, gene ontology-based searching, miRNAs, and SNP500Cancer. The RFLP restriction enzymes and the corresponding PCR primers for the natural and mutagenic types of each SNP are simultaneously analyzed. All the RFLP restriction enzyme prices are also provided to aid selection. Furthermore, the previously encountered updating problems for most SNP related databases are resolved by an on-line retrieval system.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The user interfaces for functional SNP analyses have been substantially improved and integrated. SNP-RFLPing 2 offers a new and user-friendly interface for RFLP genotyping that can be used in association studies and is freely available at <url>http://bio.kuas.edu.tw/snp-rflping2</url>.</p
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