19672 research outputs found
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Handling default risks in microfinance: the case of Bangladesh
No full textPurpose: This paper aims to identify incidences of default risks in microfinance. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individual borrowers in Grameen Bank. Upon completing the interview session from 40 respondents, the results of the interviews are interpreted by a comprehensive content analysis. Findings: This study identifies the incidences of defaults in microfinance, which are post-disbursement monitoring, technical assistance, inexperienced field workers, weekly payment, accessible database, family member illness, hiding business, lack of motivation and over-stretched financial commitments. Among these incidences, the findings indicate that post-disbursement supervision is highly relevant in ensuring the success of microfinance because 80 per cent of the recipients of microfinance are illiterate women. Originality/value: This study would be helpful for the investment companies, financial institutions, creditors and borrowers of microfinance. The financial institutions and investment companies need to identify borrower capacity and any obligation that may impede with repayment. It may help them to maximize returns on profit and minimize the risk of losses which contribute to economic growth
Determination of factors affecting safety practices in Malaysian radiation facilities
No full textA substantial amount of research has delved into the nature of safety climate, and subsequently its importance as a leading indicator of safety performance. However, they have mostly been conducted in Western countries via high risk operations. Therefore, this study is focused on the exploratory factors of safety culture practice in the industrial context of Malaysian radiation facilities, specifically by determining the influencing factors, their dependency and significant difference in mean level. This is attempted by adopting and adapting the six-factor Malaysian Safety Tool Kit (MSTK) and the components of safety culture practice as suggested by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety series as the Malaysian nuclear and radiation safety tool kit (MRSTK). The exploratory factor analysis representing the MSTK model is therefore partially replicated and applied in the Malaysian nuclear and radiation sector. An alternative nine-factor model has been developed, which consisted of 32 items encompassing these elements accordingly: questioning attitude, communicative information, work environment, management commitment, communication, safety priority, personal view, involvement and prudent approach. The resulting outcomes have displayed statistically significant mean difference among these factors and consequently remained consistent with common safety climate themes. Nevertheless, they have also demonstrated the need to factor in individual response and organization cultural factors in the development of safety climate models intended for usage in Malaysian radiation sector. Furthermore, these findings have also revealed implications regarding the transferability of safety climate models and the type of safety interventions in implementing Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management strategies more efficiently
Guidance on home blood pressure monitoring: A statement of the HOPE Asia Network
No full textHypertension is an important modifiable cardiovascular risk factor and a leading cause of death throughout Asia. Effective prevention and control of hypertension in the region remain a significant challenge despite the availability of several regional and international guidelines. Out-of-office measurement of blood pressure (BP), including home BP monitoring (HBPM), is an important hypertension management tool. Home BP is better than office BP for predicting cardiovascular risk and HBPM should be considered for all patients with office BP ≥ 130/85 mm Hg. It is important that HBPM is undertaken using a validated device and patients are educated about how to perform HBPM correctly. During antihypertensive therapy, monitoring of home BP control and variability is essential, especially in the morning. This is because HBPM can facilitate the choice of individualized optimal therapy. The evidence and practice points in this document are based on the Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence (HOPE) Asia Network expert panel consensus recommendations for HBPM in Asia
Energy Revolution for Our Common Future: An Evaluation of the Emerging International Renewable Energy Law
No full textClimate change poses profound threats to the Earth and its people. Its mitigation, therefore, demands common but differentiated actions with comprehensive and coordinated approach. The global community has pledged to mitigate various greenhouse gases in some international soft law instruments. Exploitation of renewables to generate energy and produce electricity is simultaneously suggested for the last couple of decades as a viable alternative in mitigating climate change. This gets momentum with the adoption of the historical and universally ratified Paris Agreement in 2016 where energy is placed at the heart of the Agreement. Energy, where renewable energy is a branch, is generally regulated and governed domestically and so, international legal regime is still evolving in this regard. In the absence of any specific and direct international instrument on energy and renewable energy, published literatures have considered this topic from different directions ranging from climate change to the principle of national sovereignty, economic, trade and investment issues. In this backdrop, this paper aims to introduce various renewable sources, prospects and challenges in their promotion that may help to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Relevant international law provisions have been evaluated, performances of the relevant regional and international organizations active in this sector are highlighted and some of the disputes in this area considered in international forums are duly addressed. It is revealed that strong political will of the global community in fulfilling their commitments made so far in different international forums is the key to transforming the world into a better one for the future generation
High rate treatment of hospital wastewater using activated sludge process induced by high-frequency ultrasound
No full textThe biomass concentration of conventional activated sludge (CAS) process due to low sludge sedimentation in clarifiers is limited to 3000 mg/L. In this study, high-frequency ultrasound wave (1.8 MHz) was applied to enhance the CAS process performance using high Mixed Liquor Suspended Solid (MLSS) concentration. The study conducted using a pilot scale CAS bioreactor (with and without ultrasound) and their performance for treating a hospital wastewater were compared. Experimental conditions were designed based on a Central Composite Design (CCD). The sets of data analyzed, modeled and optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The effect of MLSS concentration 3000–8000 mg/L and hydraulic retention time (HRT) 2–8 h are considered as operating variables to investigate on process responses. The obtained results showed that high-frequency ultrasound was significantly decreased the sludge volume index (SVI) 50% and effluent turbidity about 88.5% at high MLSS. Also, observed that COD removal of both systems was nearly similar, as the maximum COD removal for sonicated and non-sonicated systems were 92 and 92.5% respectively. However, this study demonstrates that the ultrasound irradiation has not had any negative effect on the microbial activity
Correlates of recent HIV testing among transgender women in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
No full textPurpose: In Malaysia, an estimated 9.7%-12.4% of transgender women (TW) are HIV positive, with higher estimates among those engaged in sex work. According to the 90-90-90 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS strategy, HIV testing is the first crucial step in curbing the HIV epidemic. This study examines correlates of recent HIV testing among TW in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Methods: TW (N = 199) in Greater Kuala Lumpur completed a survey on healthcare access and utilization, including HIV testing history. Bivariate logistic regression and penalized multivariate logistic regression were used to explore correlates of HIV testing in the last 12 months. Results: Overall, 41.7% of TW reported having ever been tested for HIV. Among participants who were HIV negative or not sure of their HIV status (n = 187), only 18.7% (n = 35) had been tested for HIV in the last 12 months. The multivariate analysis indicated that having a primary care provider (PCP), being 26-40 years of age, and having higher mental health functioning were positively associated with recent HIV testing. Active amphetamine use and previous depression diagnosis were also associated with recent HIV testing. Conclusion: HIV testing is the first step in linking individuals to prevention and treatment interventions. Our findings suggest that having a PCP can improve engagement in HIV testing. Moreover, PCPs can serve as a valuable link to HIV treatment and prevention services. Current interventions that target social and behavioral risk factors for HIV, on their own, may be insufficient at engaging all HIV-vulnerable TW
Rough-fuzzy based scene categorization for text detection and recognition in video
No full textScene image or video understanding is a challenging task especially when number of video types increases drastically with high variations in background and foreground. This paper proposes a new method for categorizing scene videos into different classes, namely, Animation, Outlet, Sports, e-Learning, Medical, Weather, Defense, Economics, Animal Planet and Technology, for the performance improvement of text detection and recognition, which is an effective approach for scene image or video understanding. For this purpose, at first, we present a new combination of rough and fuzzy concept to study irregular shapes of edge components in input scene videos, which helps to classify edge components into several groups. Next, the proposed method explores gradient direction information of each pixel in each edge component group to extract stroke based features by dividing each group into several intra and inter planes. We further extract correlation and covariance features to encode semantic features located inside planes or between planes. Features of intra and inter planes of groups are then concatenated to get a feature matrix. Finally, the feature matrix is verified with temporal frames and fed to a neural network for categorization. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods, at the same time, the performances of text detection and recognition methods are also improved significantly due to categorization
Mitigating Internet bottleneck with fractional temporal evolution of optical solitons having quadratic–cubic nonlinearity
No full textThis paper studies fractional temporal evolution of optical solitons with quadratic–cubic nonlinearity that comes with a few perturbation terms. Khalil's conformable fractional derivative as well as Liu's extended trial function scheme are applied to retrieve these soliton solutions. The results are applicable to mitigate Internet bottleneck that is a growing problem in telecommunications industry
Solid-phase diffusion controlled growth of nickel silicide nanowires for supercapacitor electrode
No full textThis work reports on the influence of nickel (Ni) thickness on the growth of nickel silicide nanowires (NiSi NWs) using a solid-phase diffusion controlled growth treatment. The NiSi NWs were grown on two different substrates (i.e. crystal silicon (c-Si) and Ni foil) which were coated with Ni film with different thicknesses; 110 ± 5 and 220 ± 5 nm. FESEM images revealed that the shape, the size and the density of NiSi on both substrates were strongly dependent on the thickness of Ni film. These NWs exhibited morphology of straight NWs with diameter and length of between 16 to 23 nm and 2.9 to 3.9 µm, respectively. The NWs showed a single-crystalline Ni 3 Si 2 phase with a preferred orientation in the (1 0 0) plane. XRD diffractogram proved that the formation of Ni-rich NiSi NWs is strongly dependent on the Ni film's thickness rather than on the types of substrates. NiSi NF220 demonstrated the highest specific capacity with a maximum value of 313.3 C/g. This is attributed from the high density of NWs which endows more redox reaction and the high conductivity of Ni foil substrate that facilitated the high charge transfer kinetics. The fabricated NiSi NWs//activated carbon-based asymmetric supercapacitor exhibited the maximum energy density of 13.37 W h/kg at 200 W/kg and good cyclic stability with 79% capacity retention after 3000 cycles
Low nocturnal diastolic ocular perfusion pressure as a risk factor for NTG progression: a 5-year prospective study
No full textObjective: To assess the relationship between baseline intraocular pressure (IOP), blood pressure (BP) and ocular perfusion pressure (OPP), and the 5-year visual field progression in normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) patients. Design: Prospective, longitudinal study. Methods: Sixty-five NTG patients who were followed up for 5 years are included in this study. All the enrolled patients underwent baseline 24-h IOP and BP monitoring via 2-hourly measurements in their habitual position and were followed up for over 5 years with reliable VF tests. Modified Anderson criteria were used to assess VF progression. Univariable and multivariable analyses using Cox's proportional hazards model were used to identify the systemic and clinical risk factors that predict progression. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were used to compare the time elapsed to confirmed VF progression in the presence or absence of each potential risk factor. Results: At 5-year follow-up, 35.4% of the enrolled patients demonstrated visual field progression. There were statistically significant differences in the mean diastolic blood pressure (p 43.7 mmHg (log rank = 0.018). Conclusion: Diastolic parameters of BP and OPP were significantly lower in the NTG patients who progressed after 5 years. Low nocturnal DOPP is an independent predictor of glaucomatous visual field progression in NTG patients