A Structural Analysis of the Relationship between TQM Practices and Product Innovation

Voon-Hsien Lee,Keng-Boon Ooi,Boon-In Tan,Alain Yee-Loong Chong 기술경영경제학회 2010 ASIAN JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Vol.18 No.1

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices and product innovation performance as perceived by managers in electrical and electronics (E&E) organizations in Malaysia. This study is based on empirical data collected from a survey of 125 managers of E&E firms. Structural equation modeling analysis is conducted to test the research questions presented in this paper. Results reveal that leadership, strategic planning,customer focus, information and analysis, human resource management, and process management are positively associated with product innovation performance. Information and analysis is perceived as a dominant TQM practice in improving firm’s performance on product innovation. This analysis is especially vital for senior managers of E&E companies who want to establish innovation capability. Senior managers can focus their efforts on TQM practices as means of maximizing organizational gains via product innovation in the context of a competitive environment.

The Chinese Diaspora and the Economic Performance of Southeast Asian Countries

VOON Phin Keon 전남대학교 글로벌디아스포라연구소 2010 전남대학교 세계한상문화연구단 국제학술회의 Vol.2010 No.2

The Chinese diaspora has a long historical association with countries in Southeast Asia (SE Asia). Their presence was promoted by the rise of Wesetern colonial rule in the region and it in turn stimulated the process of economic development in territories where their numbers were substantial. This process has produced economies that vary widely in degree of achivements in differen territories. this paper argues that the economic performance of the modern SE Asian nation is to a significant degree reflective of the “weight” of the relative presence of the Chinese in its poupulation. The paper shows the correlation between the weight of Chinese presence and the per capital income of SE Asian countries and the states of Malaysia. The possible reasons behind this phenomenon are discussed with reference to the culture of the Chinese diaspora. The last section will mention briefly the likely implications that may arise from this phenomenon.

Collective Interaction Filtering Approach for Detection of Group in Diverse Crowded Scenes

( Pei Voon Wong ),( Norwati Mustapha ),( Lilly Suriani Affendey ),( Fatimah Khalid ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2019 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.13 No.2

Crowd behavior analysis research has revealed a central role in helping people to find safety hazards or crime optimistic forecast. Thus, it is significant in the future video surveillance systems. Recently, the growing demand for safety monitoring has changed the awareness of video surveillance studies from analysis of individuals behavior to group behavior. Group detection is the process before crowd behavior analysis, which separates scene of individuals in a crowd into respective groups by understanding their complex relations. Most existing studies on group detection are scene-specific. Crowds with various densities, structures, and occlusion of each other are the challenges for group detection in diverse crowded scenes. Therefore, we propose a group detection approach called Collective Interaction Filtering to discover people motion interaction from trajectories. This approach is able to deduce people interaction with the Expectation-Maximization algorithm. The Collective Interaction Filtering approach accurately identifies groups by clustering trajectories in crowds with various densities, structures and occlusion of each other. It also tackles grouping consistency between frames. Experiments on the CUHK Crowd Dataset demonstrate that approach used in this study achieves better than previous methods which leads to latest results.

Real Exchange Rate Dynamics in the Asian Economies: Can Regime Shifts Explain Purchasing Power Parity Puzzles?

Siew-Voon Soon,Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah,Sung K. Ahn 연세대학교 동서문제연구원 2015 Global economic review Vol.44 No.2

We show that the strong version of the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis holds in most of the US dollar real exchange rates using cointegration method that accounts for breaks in the models. The break dates in seven of the Asian currencies coincide with the two rounds of currency depreciation recorded during the 1997–1998 financial crises. We obtain a mean half-life estimate of about 10 months for PPP to converge to its long-run equilibrium level. Our confidence intervals based on persistence profile approach for the half-lives is much narrower than previous evidence might indicate. Taken together, these results show that mean reversion is stronger than commonly thought.

Carboplatin/5-fluorouracil as an Alternative to Cisplatin/5-Fluorouracil for Metastatic and Recurrent Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Kua, Voon Fong,Ismail, Fuad,Phua, Vincent Chee Ee,Aslan, Nik Muhd Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.2

Background: Palliative chemotherapy with cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (5FU) is the commonest regimen employed for metastatic and recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCCHN) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, this regimen is cumbersome requiring 5 days of admission to hospital. Carboplatin/5FU may be an alternative regimen without compromising survival and response rates. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and toxicity of carboplatin/5FU regimen with the cisplatin/5FU regimen. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study looked at patients who had palliative chemotherapy with either cisplatin/5FU or carboplatin/5FU for metastatic and recurrent SCCHN and NPC. It included patients who were treated at UKMMC from $1^{st}$ January 2004 to $31^{st}$ December 2009 with either palliative IV cispaltin 75 $mg/m^2$ D1 only plus IV 5FU 750 $mg/m^2$ D1-5 infusion or IV Carboplatin AUC 5 D1 only plus IV 5FU 500 $mg/m^2$ D1-2 infusion plus IV 5FU 500 $mg/m^2$ D1-2 bolus. The specific objectives were to determine the efficacy of palliative chemotherapy in terms of overall response rate (ORR), median progression free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) and to evaluate the toxicities of both regimens. Results: A total of 41 patients were eligible for this study. There were 17 in the cisplatin/5FU arm and 24 in the carboplatin/5FU arm. The ORR was 17.7 % for cisplatin/5FU arm and 37.5 % for carboplatin/5FU arm (p-value=0.304). The median PFS was 7 months for cisplatin/5FU and 9 months for carboplatin/5FU (p-value=1.015). The median OS was 10 months for cisplatin/5FU arm and 12 months for carboplatin/5FU arm (p-value=0.110). There were 6 treatment-related deaths (6/41=14.6%), four in the carboplatin/5FU arm (4/24=16.7%) and 2 in the cisplatin/5FU arm (2/17=11.8%). Grade 3 and 4 hematologic toxicity was also more common with carboplatin/5FU group, this difference being predominantly due to grade 3-4 granulocytopenia (41.6% vs. 0), grade 3-4 anemia (37.5% vs. 0) and grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia (16.6% vs. 0). Conclusions: Carboplatin/5FU is not inferior to cisplatin/5FU with regard to its efficacy. However, there was a high rate of treatment-related deaths with both regimens. A better alternative needs to be considered.

Dynamic Load Positioning for Subsea Installation via Adaptive Neural Control

How, Bernard Voon Ee,Ge, Shuzhi Sam,Yoo Sang Choo IEEE 2010 IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING - Vol.35 No.2

<P>In this paper, positioning control is investigated for the installation of subsea systems, with attached thrusters, under time-varying irrotational ocean current. Backstepping in combination with adaptive feedback approximation techniques is employed in the design of the control, with the option of high-gain observer for output feedback control. The stability of the design is demonstrated through Lyapunov analysis where semiglobal uniform boundedness of the closed-loop signals is guaranteed. The proposed adaptive neural control is able to capture the dominant dynamic behaviors without exact information on the hydrodynamic coefficients of the structure and current measurements. Comparative simulations with linear proportional derivative (PD), PD with adaptive term, and model-based controls are carried out. The proposed technique is found to be effective and robust and reduces tracking error of the subsea module.</P>

Hemorrhagic extrahepatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma

Gilbert Peh Voon Yeow,David Gan Eng Yeow,Padmaan Sankaran,Thanesh Maiyauen,Mohd Sharifudin Sharif 한국간담췌외과학회 2019 Annals of hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery Vol.23 No.1

Principled practical knowledge in bridging practical and reflective experiential learning: case studies of teachers’ professional development

Xin Pei Voon,Lung-Hsiang Wong,Wenli Chen,Chee-Kit LOOI 서울대학교 교육연구소 2019 Asia Pacific Education Review Vol.20 No.4

“Heuristic approach” is a teachers’ professional development (TPD) method supported by principled practical knowledge (PPK) which focuses on principled practical guidance that develops teachers’ capacity in innovative learning designs. This study reports the key features of the design and implementation of a TPD programme aimed at facilitating teachers’ experiential learning in designing and implementing seamless inquiry science learning (SISL). The TPD is based on the notion of fast and frugal heuristics which are supported by PPK and lead to actual classroom action. Two teacher case studies were analysed to investigate the teachers’ learning trajectory underpinned by an experiential learning framework throughout the TPD programme. As learners of innovative pedagogy, the teachers explored the design and implementation of SISL with their students. The findings indicate that the TPD programme had a positive impact on three aspects of teachers’ experiential learning: (a) acquiring new pedagogy; (b) improving knowledge and skills in the seamless inquiry science lesson (SISL) design and implementation; (c) nurturing reflective practices in teachers concerning the designing and implementation of SISL lessons. The teachers’ professional reflection and growth through experiential learning processes demonstrate how heuristic-based TPD engaged them as creative and professional lesson designers, resulting in meaningful changes in classroom practices. Our data analysis concluded that the heuristic-based TPD should be designed in such a way that it is authentic, reflective, practice-based and focused on meaningful tasks for the teachers.

Interleukin 1 Up-regulates MicroRNA 135b to Promote Inflammation-Associated Gastric Carcinogenesis in Mice

Han, Tae-Su,Voon, Dominic Chih-Cheng,Oshima, Hiroko,Nakayama, Mizuho,Echizen, Kanae,Sakai, Eri,Yong, Zachary Wei Ern,Murakami, Kazuhiro,Yu, Liang,Minamoto, Toshinari,Ock, Chan-Young,Jenkins, Brendan J Elsevier 2019 Gastroenterology Vol.156 No.4

<P><B>Background & Aims</B></P> <P>Gastritis is associated with development of stomach cancer, but little is known about changes in microRNA expression patterns during gastric inflammation. Specific changes in gene expression in epithelial cells are difficult to monitor because of the heterogeneity of the tissue. We investigated epithelial cell-specific changes in microRNA expression during gastric inflammation and gastritis-associated carcinogenesis in mice.</P> <P><B>Methods</B></P> <P>We used laser microdissection to enrich epithelial cells from K19-C2mE transgenic mice, which spontaneously develop gastritis-associated hyperplasia, and Gan mice, which express activated prostaglandin E2 and Wnt in the gastric mucosa and develop gastric tumors. We measured expression of epithelial cell-enriched microRNAs and used bioinformatics analyses to integrate data from different systems to identify inflammation-associated microRNAs. We validated our findings in gastric tissues from mice and evaluated protein functions in gastric cell lines (SNU-719, SNU-601, SNU-638, AGS, and GIF-14) and knockout mice. Organoids were cultured from gastric corpus tissues of wild-type and miR-135b–knockout C57BL/6 mice. We measured levels of microRNAs in pairs of gastric tumors and nontumor mucosa from 28 patients in Japan.</P> <P><B>Results</B></P> <P>We found microRNA 135b (miR-135B) to be the most overexpressed microRNA in gastric tissues from K19-C2mE and Gan mice: levels increased during the early stages of gastritis-associated carcinogenesis. Levels of miR-135B were also increased in gastric tumor tissues from <I>gp130</I> <SUP> <I>F/F</I> </SUP> mice and patients compared with nontumor tissues. In gastric organoids and immortalized cell lines, expression of miR-135B was induced by interleukin 1 signaling. K19-C2mE mice with disruption of <I>Mir-135b</I> developed hyperplastic lesions that were 50% smaller than mice without <I>Mir-135b</I> disruption and had significant reductions in cell proliferation. Expression of miR-135B in gastric cancer cell lines increased their colony formation, migration, and sphere formation. We identified <I>FOXN3</I> and <I>RECK</I> messenger RNAs (mRNAs) as targets of miR-135B; their knockdown reduced migration of gastric cancer cell lines. Levels of <I>FOXN3</I> and <I>RECK</I> mRNAs correlated inversely with levels of miR-135B in human gastric tumors and in inflamed mucosa from K19-C2mE mice.</P> <P><B>Conclusions</B></P> <P>We found expression of miR-135B to be up-regulated by interleukin L1 signaling in gastric cancer cells and organoids. miR-135B promotes invasiveness and stem-cell features of gastric cancer cells in culture by reducing <I>FOXN3</I> and <I>RECK</I> messenger RNAs. Levels of these messenger RNA targets, which encode tumor suppressor, are reduced in human gastric tumors.</P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Survey of American food trends and the growing obesity epidemic

Qin Shao,Khew-Voon Chin 한국영양학회 2011 Nutrition Research and Practice Vol.5 No.3

The rapid rise in the incidence of obesity has emerged as one of the most pressing global public health issues in recent years. The underlying etiological causes of obesity, whether behavioral, environmental, genetic, or a combination of several of them, have not been completely elucidated. The obesity epidemic has been attributed to the ready availability, abundance, and overconsumption of high-energy content food. We determined here by Pearson’s correlation the relationship between food type consumption and rising obesity using the loss-adjusted food availability data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Services (ERS) as well as the obesity prevalence data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our analysis showed that total calorie intake and consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) did not correlate with rising obesity trends. Intake of other major food types, including chicken, dairy fats, salad and cooking oils, and cheese also did not correlate with obesity trends. However, our results surprisingly revealed that consumption of corn products correlated with rising obesity and was independent of gender and race/ethnicity among population dynamics in the U.S. Therefore, we were able to demonstrate a novel link between the consumption of corn products and rising obesity trends that has not been previously attributed to the obesity epidemic. This correlation coincides with the introduction of bioengineered corns into the human food chain, thus raising a new hypothesis that should be tested in molecular and animal models of obesity.