Usability measurement of Malaysian online tourism websites

Tourism in Malaysia has huge potential as the country is rich with different kinds of attractions such as historical places, different kinds of festival to enjoy and beautiful scenery to embrace. With the advances of the Internet,many investors have begun to produce different websites to promote their product; however, the quality is still valued expeditiously. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the quality of Malaysian tourism websites in terms of usability. With this aim, five different Malaysian tourism websites were selected and evaluated based on their effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. This was done using a questionnaire based evaluation

The branding process for healthcare centers: Operational strategies from consumer’s identification to market development

Medicalcentersneedbrandingapproachtoimprovetheirpositioninpatients’minds.Thisstudy wascarriedoutusingmixedmethod.Theparticipantsincludedmainexperts,hospitalmanagers and headquarters of the Ministry of Health. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. Branding process was conceptualized in 5steps, including Market Identification, Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Development and Consolidation Strategy. All path coefficients were defined in the range. The results of the indices showed that the fit was good and the final model was valid. The activities of Medical centers should be based on the identification of the target market. Unique services with new knowledge and equipment and experienced clinical staff to meet patients’ needs with appropriate price and quality have to be provided

Evaluation of the Expression of P-Glycoprotein in Propoxur-Resistant Caco-2 Cells

There is a great concern about the effect of propoxur, as one of the more common N-methyl carbamate pesticides, on human health due to its extensive use in agricultural and non-agricultural applications. Caco-2 cells became resistant to propoxur, and the resistance was confirmed through MTT assay. Then the cell membrane integrity and P-glycoprotein expression were measured by LDH assay and western blot analysis, respectively and compared to the parent cells.  Contrary to what was expected, the expression of P-glycoprotein in propoxur resistant cells was lower than parent cells.This study indicates that the resistance to propoxur may not be related to P-glycoprotein expression directly, since P-glycoprotein expression has decreased in these cells