Michael Lai
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Articles by Michael Lai
Enhancing Travel Experiences for Tourists With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Insights From the Constraint-Effects-Mitigation Model
M. T. H., K.Vafadari, and M.Oribe. 2026. “Enhancing Travel Experiences for Tourists With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Insights From the Constraint-Effects-Mitigation Model.” International Journal of Tourism Research28, no. 2: e70292. Lai, https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.70292. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. References , , , , and .
ASRS 2025: Underfunding of Good Days program affect on patients and practices
Michael Lai, MD, PhD, presented at the 2025 annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS). This meeting was held in Long Beach, California. At the meeting, Lai spoke with Modern Retina about the study of PER-001, a novel therapeutic targeting the endothelin-1 receptor, a potent vasoconstrictor in the human body. This innovative treatment aims to address challenges in diabetic retinopathy and potentially improve retinal function.
How to Balance Neutrality and Transparency in an Election Year
Many retail marketers debate the utility of taking a political stance as a brand or remaining neutral, especially during contentious times like an election year. But is this hot-button issue as important as it seems? According to recent data from a Sitejabber survey, the answer may be “no.” While some brands feel compelled to engage in political discourse, most consumers prefer companies to avoid political involvement.
Postoperative Electroacupuncture Boosts Cognitive Function Recovery after Laparotomy in Mice
All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.
Regulatory Role of PKR in Systemic Inflammation-Triggered Neuroinflammation and its Modulation of Glucose Metabolism and Cognitive Functions in Cholinergic Neurons
Abstract Systemic inflammation may promote neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. The double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) is a key signaling molecule that regulates immune responses. This study aims to examine the role of PKR in regulating systemic inflammation-induced neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunctions using a laparotomy mouse model.
Complexity parameter is essentially the kappa value
The complexity parameter (cp) in decision tree models is not as complex as it seems. Many people who are relatively new to data science might have been baffled by the complexity parameter (cp). This is an important controlling factor when growing a classification or decision tree (CART) for the first time before pruning. In summary, it dictates by how much in accuracy the splitting of tree nodes must at least improve for the splits to be performed.
Taiwan — the island on the faultlines of the future — Michael Lai
In May, I had an unexpectedly amazing time visiting Taiwan for the first time, including meeting long lost family for the first time in 25 years (post about it here). I couldn't wait to return. Two weeks ago, I flew back to Taipei. I landed and was immediately picked up by my relatives and enjoyed a delicious shrimp pot meal. In the days to come I found a rhythm not just visiting, but living here.
UX should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler
Does the title of this article sounds like something that ChatGPT would come up with if you asked it for a quote that Einstein might have said about UX? I guess I probably should have checked with ChatGPT or Google Bard first and pasted some screen shot here. But I really just wanted to know if Einstein would agree that everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler ( and who I should attribute the quote to).
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: ChatGPT and the consumer
ChatGPT is an open-source generative artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model by OpenAI. If you go to the website, you can ask this AI model questions and get a response generated from all the data on the internet. ChatGPT is currently in its fourth iteration, with processing power in the trillions of parameters. ChatGPT has been trained using publicly available data on the internet.
Gene editing to prevent ventricular arrhythmias associated with cardiomyocyte cell therapy
Highlights • Ion channel gene expression changes extensively as hPSC-CM grafts mature in vivo • Targeting individual ion channels was insufficient to prevent engraftment arrhythmia • Automaticity of hPSC-CMs relies on calcium and voltage clocks • Graft automaticity is a major contributor to arrhythmias post-hPSC-CM engraftment Summary Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) offer a promising cell-based therapy for myocardial infarction.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Fed funds rate hits 4.75% ceiling amid tailwind from China’s reopening
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on - March 05, 2023. On Feb 1, the US Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by 25 basis points (bps) to a range of 4.50% to 4.75%. The decision of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was unanimous. FOMC chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that inflation was moving in the right direction and that price pressures had likely peaked.
Novel Virtual Vision Screening Program: Give Kids Sight Day 2020
1.. Vision—Its Development in Infant and Child. Aslan Press; 2013. > Google Scholar 2.. A Problem We Don't See: The Status of Children's Vision Health in Philadelphia. Published 2008. Accessed January 15, 2022. https://www.childrenfirstpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/PCCYAProblemWeDontSee2008.pdf > Google Scholar 3.Give Kids Sight Day. Children First (Formerly Public Citizens for Children and Youth). Published 2021. Accessed January 15, 2022.
Recession signals and green shoots
Picking up from my last piece on the forthcoming US earnings recession, data released in January continues to point to the same conclusion. Economic data for both manufacturing and services in the US has been getting worse. US companies announce further staff cuts. And US Fed meeting minutes released suggest that interest rates will be rising to more restrictive levels in the next few months in 2023. The one thing that continues to defy the odds is unemployment, which continues to stay low.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: A recession or a new hope in 2023?
Amazon was the darling of the stock market in 2020 and 2021. The online e-commerce giant was riding on the Covid-19 stimulus cheques that the US government sent to locked-down Americans. Many of them were sitting around without much to do but shop online. As the cheques were cashed, Amazon’s share price rose more than two times from the low in March 2020 to the high of the summer of 2021. The strong demand clogged the supply chains of many factories. Dearer goods followed.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Elections galore
The Malaysian national election has come and gone. On the other side of the globe, at the time of writing, the much talked about “red wave” that was expected to sweep across the US did not happen during the midterm elections. The “red wave” is more of a “red ripple”. This time around, with investors having to grapple with so much, the midterm elections have been getting a lot less attention than expected.
Reflection of the Just Stop Oil civil disobedient actions
Just Stop Oil created public outcry by blocking the M25 highway to demand the UK government to stop granting new licences to oil and gas companies Over the past few weeks, UK climate group Just Stop Oil (JSO below) made themselves international headlines by engaging in some high-profile disruptive actions, including throwing soup over famous paintings and blocking one of the busiest highway - the M25.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Parliament dissolved, GE15 is on
WITH the dissolution of Parliament, GE15 is set to be announced over the next 60 days, notwithstanding floods and festivities. The usual excitement is in the air, political parties’ flags are set to fly across the peninsular and East Malaysia.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Climate action tops governments’ spending agenda
The recent financial struggles faced by businesses and households worldwide due to soaring energy prices highlight that the low-carbon transition will not be smooth. Still, the passing of the US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) and its climate and clean-energy-related incentives recently do indicate that the longer-term policy trajectory is clear — the world is heading inexorably towards a climate-friendly economy.
Dopo minimi non sostenibili, è in vista un rimbalzo per le azioni cinesi? « LMF Lamiafinanza
Michael Lai - Nella nostra analisi, il sentiment degli investitori e le valutazioni delle azioni cinesi sono scesi a minimi attualmente non sostenibili. Avviandoci a entrare nell’ultima parte di quest’anno, siamo pertanto positivi in merito alle prospettive per il mercato azionario cinese. Nonostante sia ragionevole attenderci un certo rallentamento della crescita, sono disponibili strumenti politici che possano sostenere l’economia, impedendo un deragliamento definitivo.
what is it all about?
Despite quite a few articles on this subject have been published, either on Medium or other online platforms, HSP is still a novel concept alien to the majority - well, at least in this writer's cultural and georaphical environment (Hong Kong Chinese community). But if you think otherwise, try asking your circle of family and friends then let me know your observation. Perhaps this concept is quickly picking up momentum that in a few years' time most educated people would have heard about it.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: The Great Energy Transition
The European Union recently announced details of its REPowerEU plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels and strengthen its overall energy security. First proposed in March, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the plan builds on the EU’s much broader “Fit for 55” package of policies announced in July 2021 to deliver the European Green Deal — a massive, system-wide transformation of the EU economy to cut greenhouse gas emissions across all 27 member states to net zero by 2050.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Hurricane of hunger
Food security has become a key concern for consumers, and the government has had its hands full in dealing with the issue. Food price inflation has hit consumers across the globe, and the effects have crept into most countries’ consumer price indices (CPIs). The reasons for the soaring global food prices are probably plain enough to see and include the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and unfavourable weather conditions.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: The case for China and the wider Asia region
The past month has seen extreme volatility in the China and Hong Kong equity markets on renewed tensions between the US and China, concerns about the spillover effects from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the impact of rolling lockdowns to fight the resurgence of Covid-19 across China. Financial markets fear China’s 2022 GDP growth target of around 5.5% will be challenged by these events.
The wider impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised global geopolitical volatility to levels not seen since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The impact on energy and commodity prices has been huge, and escalation of tension between Ukraine’s allies and Russia has sent oil and commodity prices soaring. This has raised investors’ concerns that high prices may linger for longer than the geopolitical event itself and have an outsized impact on global growth for 2022.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: What is the metaverse?
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 31, 2022 - February 06, 2022. Investors globally have begun to pay more attention to the metaverse. This stems from companies having started to actively consider their position and ability to capitalise on opportunities in this space. Many readers will recall that Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta to reflect the company’s focus on the development of the metaverse.
Chinese Equities: Conviction Amid Change In The Year Of The Tiger
Igor Kutyaev/iStock via Getty Images By Michael Lai, CFA, Portfolio Manager, China Equities, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity The upcoming Chinese New Year will usher in the Year of the Tiger, an animal in the Chinese zodiac widely associated with strength and courage. Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity’s Michael Lai discusses his constructive outlook for China and the investment opportunities he sees.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: What’s instrumental in building a sustainable future
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on November 29, 2021 - December 05, 2021. Sir David Attenborough opened the COP26 conference in Glasgow six years after the groundbreaking COP21, where the Paris Agreement 2015 was signed. It was attended by several noteworthy individuals, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who brought his star power to this edition of the conference of parties.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Traffic is back in KL!
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 25, 2021 - October 31, 2021. Rush-hour traffic in Kuala Lumpur is back; restaurants are fully booked for dinner. Across the Klang Valley, folks are braving the Covid-19 virus, donning masks and washing hands while they go about their business with renewed vigour and some sense of hope. Interstate travel is now good for those who have been fully vaccinated.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Better prospects, steeper yields
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on March 29, 2021 - April 04, 2021. In recent weeks, we have heard so much about the rising US Treasury bond yields and growing inflation expectations that have led to concerns about market volatility. This has been compounded by worries that US President Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion (RM7.8 trillion) stimulus package may spur inflationary pressure, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Fads versus fundamentals
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on February 22, 2021 - February 28, 2021. This Chinese New Year is much quieter than previous ones where the staple was the hustle and bustle at malls, traffic jams on the way back to hometowns and the joyous frenzy of visiting friends and relatives from house to house. Thankfully, technology helps us somewhat to have virtual reunion dinners and connect with loved ones despite the lockdown this year.
Pitfalls & Pitch Calls: Do not be deterred by turbulence
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021. A new year comes with new hope, especially with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines globally. Yet, we must bear in mind that it will take time for complete inoculation to be done globally. And this could well drag on to next year and perhaps beyond. Many major economies have been struggling, extending their lockdowns and tightening social measures again with the resurgence in Covid-19 cases.
Six Myths about Data-Driven Design
There is a lot of buzz about data-driven design, but very little agreement about what data-driven design really means. Even deciding how to define data is difficult for teams with spotty access to data within their organizations, uneven understanding, and little shared language. For any site or app, it's standard practice to have analytics, A/B tests, surveys, intercepts, benchmarks, scores of usability tests, ethnographic studies, and interviews. So what counts as data?
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Greener pastures in 2021
This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 28, 2020 - January 10, 2021. It is finally the last month of 2020, a year that will go down in history! The Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Lockdown that came with it have changed the world, to say the least. The global economy has emerged from the sharpest slump seen in many years and synchronised monetary and fiscal policy support has helped to head off some of the worst economic effects of the pandemic.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: A decade on - a note to my younger self
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 5, 2020 - October 11, 2020. Hey you. Yes, you. The young fella standing there and smiling smugly. You are doing great. And generating a steady source of income, diligently following the Warren Buffett mantra to “not save what is left after spending but spend what is left after saving”. You have been saving 15% of your salary consistently each month. Nice work.
My Entrepreneurial Journey and Why I’m Now Pursuing an MBA
I often get asked how I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. To be frank, for most of my life I didn’t. I began college as an aspiring physician, a student in Hofstra University’s dual-degree BS/MD program that would allow me to graduate in eight years with a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Medicine.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Is the worst over for Malaysia?
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on September 7, 2020 - September 13, 2020. Malaysia’s second quarter GDP data shows the scale of destruction that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the economy. At a -17.1% contraction, it is the deepest fall in any quarter, even worse than the -11.2% that Malaysia experienced during the height of the Asian financial crisis.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Retirement in a low interest rate environment
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on August 3, 2020 - August 09, 2020. Retirees in Malaysia tend to rely on fixed deposits (FDs), regarding these as the safest asset class to generate returns. The downside risk, of course, is inflation. It has the power to eat into potential returns and drastically reduce the growth of money needed to meet your needs and life goals.
Emerging ESG Trends in China
Written by: Michael Lai, CFA | Franklin Templeton As China’s equity markets gradually open up to foreign investors, Chinese companies could face greater scrutiny. Awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has increased in China, and government initiatives and increased foreign investor participation in China’s markets are largely driving it. Over the years, China has slowly opened up its equity markets to foreign investors.
ESG Gains Traction In China As Investor Base Expands
By Michael Lai, CFA, Portfolio Manager, China Equities, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity As China's equity markets gradually open up to foreign investors, Chinese companies could face greater scrutiny, according to Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity's Michael Lai. He weighs in on some emerging trends he's seen in regard to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues there.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Safe harbour amid turbulent times
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on July 6, 2020 - July 12, 2020. Despite the equity markets plunging 30% in March alone, amid fears over the outbreak of Covid-19, investors have overlooked the possibility of a second wave of infections even as the number of cases continue to rise daily. The world seems to have returned to normal and we are just about to pop the champagne to celebrate having won the battle against the coronavirus.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Stop panicking, start planning
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 8, 2020 - June 14, 2020. With the chaotic situation globally arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, many people are feeling the pinch from the restrictions on trade, investment, consumption and travel. We see this evolving into a “self-induced” global recession. Employees fear for their jobs and potential pay cuts, and we see spending habits shifting to only buying essential goods.
US-China trade tensions resurface as lockdowns lift
By Michael Lai 16m ago INTERNATIONAL – It has been about two years since China and the United States became embattled in a trade war which has since expanded into conflicts over a range of areas, including technology, finance, and most recently – the Covid-19 pandemic. Optimism surrounding the “Phase One” trade agreement between the United States and China earlier in the year and expectations of continued negotiations proved short-lived as focus shifted to the Covid-19 pandemic.
U.S.-China Trade Tensions Resurface As Lockdowns Lift
By Michael Lai, CFA, Portfolio Manager, China Equities, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity As China's economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 lockdown, other issues - such as trade tensions - have started to resurface. Portfolio Manager Michael Lai offers his perspective from an investment lens on trade and other issues impacting China today.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Poking the bear
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 11, 2020 - May 17, 2020. You would probably have heard; we are in a bear market. Months of prophesising that risk assets would continue their steady ascension in 2020 were washed away by the sudden appearance of Covid-19. As containment measures are ramped up, markets have become disenfranchised with the idea of holding on to risk assets, moving instead to cash.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: Buy, sell or hold? An investor’s conundrum in these times
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on April 6, 2020 - April 12, 2020. Malaysia has been hit by the formidable Covid-19 and the number of cases has increased exponentially in the past few weeks. This was so alarming that the government announced a movement control order to prevent a further spread of the virus. This, among other things, sparked a wave of panic buying of daily necessities.
China Uses The Appropriate Tools In Its Kit - What's Next For Chinese Equities
By Michael Lai, CFA, Portfolio Manager, China Equities, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity As markets grapple with the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak, our Michael Lai, Portfolio Manager, China Equities, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity, considers what a recovery could look like, and how that might affect Chinese equities.
FDA Approves Enfortumab Vedotin to Treat Urothelial Cancer
The FDA has approved enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have received prior treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor and platinum-containing chemotherapy.1 The approval is based on results from the first cohort of patients in the phase II EV-201 trial, which showed that enfortumab vedotin elicited an overall response rate (ORR) of 44% in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer,...
FDA Grants Pembrolizumab Priority Review for High-Risk Bladder Cancer
The FDA has granted a priority review designation to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)–unresponsive, high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in-situ (CIS) with or without papillary tumors who are ineligible for or chose to not undergo cystectomy.1 The decision is based on findings from the phase II KEYNOTE-057 trial (NCT02625961), which were initially presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
Pitfalls & Pitch calls: We have support
This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on November 11, 2019 - November 17, 2019. With Budget 2020 and Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 being announced over the past month, some of us must have been kept on edge. If you missed the show, Malaysia has widened its budget deficit target for next year, giving the government space to support growth in the face of weakening revenue, slowing global growth and a trade war between two of the country’s main trading partners.
FDA Grants Breakthrough Designation to Niraparib for BRCA+ mCRPC
The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to the PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula) for the treatment of patients withBRCA1/2–mutant metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have previously received taxane-based chemotherapy and an androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor.
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