13474 research outputs found
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Stock liquidity of Malaysian public listed firms / Chia Yee Ee
No full textThis thesis is motivated by the limited research on the liquidity of Malaysian public listed firms, the growing number of liquidity horseraces, the recent data commercialization by Bursa Malaysia, and liquidity-enhancing policies being spearheaded mainly by stock exchange regulators in emerging markets. By assembling information that covers 1250 public listed non-financial firms over 2000–2015, the thesis conducts three empirical analyses on the determinants of firm liquidity and the effects of higher liquidity on firm valuation, where liquidity is proxied by the “Closing Percent Quoted Spreads” (CPQS). First, the thesis revisits the standard liquidity model and advocates the inclusion of shareholder base as a regressor. While conventional wisdom predicts more shareholders are associated with higher liquidity, the first empirical chapter hypothesizes a nonlinear relationship between the number of shareholders (NSH) and liquidity (CPQS) because the latter might deteriorate when shareholder base becomes too large. Using pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), the baseline results show that the natural logarithm of NSH and its squared terms are highly significant with opposite signs. This nonlinear U-shaped relationship passes the extensive robustness checks. Further analysis reveals that liquidity declines when NSH exceeds the threshold level due to higher volatility that is induced by noise trading. Second, the thesis proceeds to show why Malaysian public listed firms should pay attention to the liquidity of their stocks. While firm value premiums have been widely reported, the second empirical chapter hypothesizes a nonlinear liquidity-firm value relationship due to the dynamic interplays of the countervailing effects. Using pooled OLS to examine the effects of liquidity on firm value (proxied by Tobin’s Q), the baseline quadratic model reveals that CPQS and CPQS2 are statistically significant but their coefficients are of opposite signs. The nonlinear relationship between CPQS and
Tobin’s Q passes subsequent robustness checks, implying that the firm value benefit can only be attained after firm liquidity surpasses the threshold level. Third, the thesis extends the liquidity-firm value literature by exploring new moderating variables. Political connections, foreign nominee ownership and local institutional ownership are three leading candidates, motivated by the entrenched culture of state patronage in Malaysian businesses, the higher efficiency of stocks with greater foreign nominee ownership and the Malaysian government’s mandate for state-backed local institutional funds to spearhead shareholder activism, respectively. The empirical results provide strong support for the moderating effects of political connections and foreign nominee ownership. However, the pooled OLS interaction variables for local institutional ownership are statistically insignificant, challenging the corporate governance channel that motivates the hypothesis of its moderating effect on liquidity-firm value relationship. In terms of policy implications, this thesis provides evidence that public listed firms in Malaysia should play a more active role in boosting their own stock liquidity since the tangible benefit of higher market valuation can only be attained when liquidity is at higher levels, especially for firms with political connections and higher foreign ownership. One effective way is through expanding the firms’ shareholder bases which at present are still far below the maximum threshold level
Single nucleotide polymorphism of prostaglandin-endoperoxide Synthase (PTGS2) and defensin Beta 1 (DEFB1) genes in Malay chronic periodontitis subjects / Jasmin Kaur Jagender Singh
No full textThe association of prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) and defensin beta 1 (DEFB1)
single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) with chronic periodontitis (CP) have been widely studied
amongst different ethnic groups such as the Chinese and European population. Thus far, no
study has been done on the Malay ethnic group. Hence, this study assessed the allele and
genotype frequencies of PTGS2 and DEFB1 variants in subjects with CP and periodontally
healthy individuals in Malaysian Malays. Samples of 78 Malay CP subjects and 62
periodontally healthy controls were obtained from Malaysian Periodontal Database and
Biobanking system (MPDBS) for this study. DNA samples were genotyped for 3 candidate
SNPs from PTGS2 (rs5275, rs20417, rs689466) and 1 from DEFB1 (rs1047031) using
TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. The rs20417 and rs689466 are SNPs in the promoter region
while rs5275 and rs1047031 are located in the 3′ untranslated region of the transcript. The
allelic and genotypic associations between the SNPs and CP were investigated. We did not
find any significant associations between these SNPs and CP risk (p>0.05) in the Malay
ethnic group. No association was found in this study and this might be due to the small sample
size and hence further study using larger sample size is required to confirm our findings.
Keywords: PTGS2, DEFB1, cytokines, Defensin, single nucleotide polymorphism, chronic
periodontitis, allele, gene, genotypin
Theoretical studies and rational design of symmetrical and unsymmetrical squarine dyes: An application for dye-sensitized solar cell / Ameerul Hazeeq Hashim
No full textDye- sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been explored in depth due to its effectiveness and low-cost conversion of photovoltaic energy. Squarine has unique properties because it has the capacity to increase light-harvesting energy as well as its low-cost conversion of photo-energy. Dyes that perform well, namely the symmetrical indolenine-based squaraine dye (SQM1a, VG1, and VG10) and the unsymmetrical indolenine-based squaraine dye (SQM1b, SQ01, MSQ, and VG13) were computationally studied and modified. Six density functionals were used to verify the accuracy of the simulation ranging from generalized gradient approximation (pure-GGA) density functional to the large Hartree-Fock exchange functional. Three methods were used to benchmark oxidation potential for all seven dyes namely, the vertical ground state oxidation potential (GSOPv), adiabatic ground state oxidation potential (GSOPa) and Koopman’s Theorem. Calculation for oxidation potential via GSOPv using M062X has provided better correlation to experimental oxidation potential energy level with mean absolute error of 0.0081 eV. Following the success in benchmarking experimental oxidation potential energy level, GSOPv was employed using M062X hybrid meta-GGA functional as part of the advanced theoretical methods to modify squarine dye structure via Dewar’s rule. SQM1a was modified by addition of either electron donating (ED) or electron-withdrawing (EW) substituent along the π-conjugated bridge. Methoxy (-OCH3) and nitrile (-CN) were chosen as the ED unit and EW unit respectively. As a consequence, the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels were altered for band gap optimization
Sentiment analysis for airline services on Twitter using deep learning with word embedding / Mawada Mohamed Nour El Daim El Khalifa
No full textThe use of social media platform in the airline industries have increased rapidly to allow analysis introduce the quality and performance of the services. The role of Sentiment Analysis (SA) is to classify people's opinions into different categories, such as positive and negative from text, using existing algorithms. However, existing approaches such as the Bag of Words (BOW) model is frequently used for text classification, where a document is mapped to a feature vector before the construction of the actual model, using machine learning techniques, like Logistical Regression and Support Vector algorithms. This problem has led to low accuracy in predicting Airline Services using Twitter data. Meanwhile, in recent years, Deep Learning algorithms for Sentiment Analysis has emerged as one of the most popular algorithms, which provides automatic feature extraction, rich representation capabilities, and better performance than most of the traditional learning algorithms. This research proposes deep learning with word embedding prediction model in order to improve the accuracy of the sentiment analysis of the airline services. The objectives of this research are as follows: to achieve the research aim, wherein firstly a taxonomy to classify different airline services models in the current literature based on sentiment classifiers is designed. Secondly, this research achieved the development of deep learning with a word embedding (DLWE) prediction model that extract features automatically through the layers in the model to classify and improve the prediction accuracy of sentiment analysis of the airline services. Thirdly, experiment to evaluate and compare the performance of the deep learning based sentiment classifier with some of the machine learning baselines has been conducted. For the experiment, the research used a public dataset that were extracted from the microblogging and airline services domain, while the training and testing process was performed using TensorFlow's library, for the evaluation process, classification accuracy and confusion matrix were employed. Regarding the results, the highest prediction accuracy achieved is 82.61% by using the word embedding model as a features extractor, and deep neural network learning as a classifier, as to when compared to the existing benchmark which used SVM and LG machine learning classifiers and word to vector model as a features extractor with 72% prediction accuracy. Thus, the result obtained from the proposed deep learning with word embedding model, can be used to help improve the sentiment analysis accuracy of airline services and other related fields of future research.
Keywords
Optical soliton perturbation with quadratic-cubic nonlinearity / Mir Asma
No full textSolitons can be defined as wave packets that can travel undistorted across long distances even transcontinental and transoceanic. They serve as modern telecommunication means through cables and optical fibers for fast Internet activities. To maintain high-fidelity and time sensitive transmission, optical pulses manage the efficient flow of data. From the last few years, Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (NLSE) has been a great attraction of research activities across the globe. The governing model is the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (NLSE). From a mathematical standpoint, NLSE is a nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) that has been studied in a variety of other areas of Physics and Mathematics. Solitons maintain subtle harmony that persists between nonlinear and dispersive effects. In order to support this theoretical concept, it is possible to simulate some nonlinearities in NLSE that depend on the light refractive index and the nature of the fiberglass. These nonlinearities are quadratic, cubic (kerr), quintic, quadratic-cubic, cubic-quintic, polynomial, logarithmic and saturable. Recently, a some new forms of nonlinear refractive index have been proposed and studied. These include anti-cubic, generalized anti-cubic and non-local types. At a most recent time, a new model is now proposed, at least analytically, with experimental evidence pending. This is Kudryashov’s equation. In the present study, quadratic-cubic (QC) nonlinearity is the focus, including the effects of perturbation terms of similar functional dependence. A wide variety of analytical methods are implemented to the perturbed NLSE to gain a complete understanding of the pulse dynamics, both analytically as well as numerically. These perturbation terms are mostly of Hamiltonian type that permits integrability of the perturbed NLSE. The spectrum of soliton solutions, that emerge from these algorithms are of bright, dark singular and combo solitons, which depends on the sign of discriminant and these findings are illustrated numerically too. The method of undetermined coefficients fortifies a particular solution of nonhomogeneous NLSE in the form of bright, dark, singular and W-shaped solitons. Semi-inverse variational principle (SVP) is used to secure bright solitons that are expressed as Gauss’ hypergeometric functions. SVP fails to retrieve dark and singular soliton solutions because of the divergence of the corresponding stationary integrals. Adomian decomposition method (ADM) cooperated to recover bright, dark, and W-shaped solitons numerically. The numerical schemes are further consolidated with the help of error plots. The collective variables (CV) approach yielded parameter dynamics of the perturbed solitons. The CV is an approach for integrating the residual field of optical Gaussons, which helps to figure out the types of soliton solutions. This study is an addendum to the previously reported results on optical solitons solely, in view of the fact that, its fundamental nature as well as its potential applications to optoelectronic communication. Analytical results open up a new horizon of experiments with optical solitons to facilitate a soliton based optical communication system
History of The Umayyad Caliphate in Andalusia: A historical study of its diplomatic relations with the European Kingdoms / Isam Milaoud
No full textThis study discusses the Umayyad caliphate in Andalusia and its diplomatic relationship with the kingdoms of Europe during the fourth century AH, tenth century AD. It is considered one of the most flourishing centuries of Islamic Arab rule in Andalusia. At that time, Europe was in its dark ages. The great Western countries sought to reconcile Cordoba and come close to its caliphs. The following research question is used to investigate the problem under this study: What is the nature of Umayyad caliphate in Andalusia and its relationship with the kings of Europe? The present study aims to track the history of the Umayyad diplomatic relationship with the kings of Europe from the start of the caliphate until its end. It also highlights the characteristics of this relationship which reached its pinnacle during the era of Abd-Ar-Rahman Ill. Besides, it goals to identify the effective factors exchanged in the social, cultural, scientific and economic relationships between the Islamic Andalusia and the Christian Europe. The research methodology adopted here is the descriptive approach which meets the nature of this study; in addition, the historical approach is used as a supporting approach. The two approaches are adapted to fit in the social sciences research. The findings establish that the local opposition of the caliphate in Andalusia allied with foreign powers which in turn negatively impact on the relationship between the Andalusia and the kings of Europe. The conflict between the Islamic Andalusia and the Christian Europe started to gradually take an ideological religious form. The conflict ended by the end of one conflict party. The kings of Europe successfully reunited and ended the Islamic caliphate in Andalusia. The researcher, therefore, recommend further studies to be carried on this topic which both negatively and positively impact on the Islamic civilization
The influence of carbon nanotubes and Mn dopant onto zinc oxide for degradation of organic pollutant model under visible light irradiation / Norfarhanah Ab Wahab
No full textGlobally untreated industrial wastewaters are contaminating soil, surface water, groundwater, and consequently, the environment. Therefore, there is a huge interest in developing efficient and effective removal methods, such as photocatalytic advanced oxidation processes (AOP) under visible light (~47% of solar irradiation). In this work, the effectiveness of Mn-doped ZnO composite decorated onto multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on photodegrading organic pollutants was studied. This composite was simultaneously synthesized by sol gel method. XRD was used to confirm the formation of ZnO/Mn nanocomposite and the crystalline phase changes as ZnO content decreases when other elements were added to form the nanocomposite. The diffractograms corresponded to JCPDS no. 01-079-0207, where the peaks are in agreement with the diffraction pattern of ZnO. Its crystal system was wurtize hexagonal, and its space group was P63mc. It was confirmed that the presence of the Mn dopant decreases the wide band gap of ZnO from 3.2 eV to 2.4 eV, and increased its lattice parameter, which was confirmed using UV-vis. Decorated MWCNTs was confirmed due to the increased BET surface area and decreased charge recombination from the improvement of the performance of absorbing layers via the enhancement of light absorption and electron transport in the nanocomposite. The combination of Mn/ZnO resulted in spherical-shaped particles surrounding the MWCNT, which was confirmed by the FESEM. The images showed uniformly-cylindrical particles, which were the MWCNTs, and the spherical particles, which were the Mn/ZnO. The particles in the images were 70-100 nm. The pleated structure of the MWCNTs prevents the nanoparticles from agglomerating, which enhances the dispersion of MWCNTs. The presence of ZnO and Mn and its respective corresponding qualities and molecular structures pre-and post-calcination were confirmed using the ATR-FTIR. The analyses were conducted within 400 - 4000 cm. The synthesized photocatalyst was subsequently used to degrade methyl orange (MO), which represents organic pollutants. Photocatalysts can be enhanced by increasing its surface area, improving the distribution of charge carriers, reducing agglomeration, and increasing both active sites and oxygen adsorption within the suspension. It can therefore be concluded that Mn-doped ZnO decorated onto MWCNTs degrades MO quicker than the undoped ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO when exposed to visible light
Memory and nostalgia in Chow Chin Chuan’s Art / Cheng Jia Wen
No full textThe bicycle as a form of wheeled transport appeared to be the main transportation that was used to carry passengers and goods during the old times, has consistently become the subject matter of Chow Chin Chuan’s artworks over 20 years. Chow is an active artist within the Chinese artist community in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang area. Currently, there was no well-written research about Chow’s bicycle themed paintings although he has been participated in numerous group art exhibition in oversea countries and also has a total of 8 solo exhibitions in Malaysia as of year 2017. Moreover, currently, there are lack of local research on the Malaysia art. Therefore, this paper can contribute to the documentation of Malaysia art for present and future generations. Apparently, the bicycle in his artworks represents the artist’s childhood memories and reminiscent of his father, however, Chow’s artworks not only just imply his childhood memories, but his paintings that combined the bicycle with street scenes, scene of local lifestyle and other elements may reflect the social and cultural environment of Malaysia. Besides, Chow’s artworks seems to embody the sentimental condition of longing for the past and therefore, nostalgia were used as a conceptual framework to guide the research on Chow’s paintings. A qualitative research will be carried out to study the bicycle as a symbol of his nostalgia and examine how his paintings could acts as a reflection of the Malaya’s cultural past through the theme of nostalgia. The research will also make use of literature review of various publications from the internet, books and newspapers, together with the host of interviews with the artist. The result of this research show that Chow’s bicycle themed paintings is not just reflect his memory and nostalgia, but also convey important ideas about the Peranakan culture and the contribution of traditional trade in Malaysia
Fusion-features and visual-dictionary image recognition methods for apple classification in smart manufacturing / Ahsiah Ismail
No full textSmart manufacturing enables an efficient manufacturing process to optimize
production. The optimization is performed through data analytics that requires reliable
and informative data as input. Therefore, in this research, two image recognition feature
extraction methods namely Curvelet Wavelet-Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (CWGLCM)
and Fuzzy-Spatial Pyramid Matching (F-SPM) are proposed to provide reliable
inputs for vision-based apple classification in smart manufacturing. Feature extraction is
one of the major steps that could influent the efficiency of the manufacturing process.
The CW-GLCM method is a feature extraction of fusion-features with Decision Tree
classifier, while the F-SPM method uses a visual-dictionary based method to extract
features of visual pattern and the output is process by Support Vector Machine (SVM)
classifier. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, they are compared with
five existing methods, which are Bag of Words (BOW), Spatial Pyramid Matching
(SPM), Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) Texture analysis, Convolutional
Neural Network (CNN) and Contrast‐Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization + GLCM
+ Extreme Learning Machine (CLAHE+GLCM+ELM). Three datasets which are NDDA,
NDDAW and DA datasets with a total of 1310 apple images are collected to test the
proposed methods. The NDDA and NDDAW datasets are both binary-class of defective
and non-defective apple dataset, with NDDAW contains more low-quality region images
compared to the NDDA. Conversely, the DA dataset comprised of five different types of
defective apples to be used in multi-class tests. The proposed methods are trained and
evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. Their classification accuracy, precision and
recall rate are then measured. Training and testing times are also recorded. From the
evaluation, the proposed F-SPM method attained 98.15% classification accuracy, 96.30% precision and 100% recall for NDDA, 91.07% for accuracy, 100% precision and 84.85%
recall for NDDAW, 86.33% for accuracy, 91.43% precision and 85.00% recall for DA
dataset. The F-SPM method outperformed the existing methods especially for NDDAW
and DA datasets. Alternatively, the CW-GLCM method able to obtain 98.15% accuracy,
96.30% precision and 100% recall for NDDA, 89.11% accuracy, 86.79% precision and
91.01% recall for NDDAW, 85.20% of accuracy, 88.33% precision and 85.00% recall for
DA dataset. The proposed CW-GLCM also shows the highest percentage (100%) for all
measurements (accuracy, precision and recall) and it even outperform others in
recognizing the Bruise defect. These results indicate that both proposed methods are
reliable and have the potential to be used for vision classification in smart manufacturing
Children’s practices and engagement in e-Reading for pleasure: A case study of a Malaysian Primary School / Seyedeh Ghazal Ghalebandi
No full textChildren nowadays have been exposed to on-screen reading or e-reading since the
development of mobile application and devices to support reading and learning
activities. The reading for pleasure declines as children grow older. Studies highlighted
the reduces children’s time and motivation for voluntary reading because of competing
interests and other leisure activities. It is believed that recent technological
advancements are also contributing to the decline in reading for pleasure. This study
employed a case study approach to understanding children’s practices and engagement
in e-reading for pleasure context. The following research questions were put forward in
the investigation: a) how do children demonstrate their e-reading experience when using
touch screen device? b) What drives children emotional engagement in e-reading
exercise when using touch screen device? c) What drives children behavioral
engagement in e-reading exercise when using touch screen device? d) How do children
demonstrate their understanding of the e-reading exercise when using touch screen
device? The study was conducted based on the engagement model of reading
development as the theoretical underpinning to guide the study as well as selfdetermination
theory. Engagement model includes three engagement components
namely emotional, behavioral, and cognitive, and self-determination theory comprises
autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Participants in the study include ten
multilingual children aged between seven to eight years old from a primary school and
their parents. The study adopted observation and interview as data collection
techniques. Data collections were conducted at the library and computer room inside the
school compound where the children were given iPad that was installed with several reading applications for e-reading sessions. Each e-reading session took around 10 to 15
minutes, a total of eight reading activities were conducted in individual and shared
settings. Thematic analysis was used as an inductive analysis through coding strategies
to generate relevant themes or concepts from the data. The findings from the study
reveal that children exhibited passive and active reading behaviors in individual and
shared settings. They experienced enthusiasm and enjoyment as well as boredom to
complete or continue the reading activities through their interaction with interface and
peer interaction. Several motivation and engagement constructs are discovered to
influence the emergent themes from the data. Children demonstrated RECEIVE
construct through attentiveness and taking an interest in the genre, topics, and context of
reading apps as well as RESPONSE through the excitement and amusement towards
interaction with the interface and peer interaction. The PHYSICAL EFFORT revolved
around applying sensory skills and touched-based gestures to operate the device or get
lost in their favorite topic to read such as navigating the app interface and manipulating
the screen. The MENTAL EFFORT corresponded with commenting about the app and
the content, asking questions, and showing more interest in visual and audition features
of reading apps. Moreover, it was evident that children's PERCEIVED VALUE of
reading was influenced by verbal information they receive from parents or guardians
highlighting the importance of reading and learning in English. Thus, not only the
reading from the iPad itself was enjoyable, but also valuable and supported. In addition,
SELF-EFFICACY was regarded to their ability to interact with iPad and read in
English; as reported by parents on children’ home literacy practices SCAFFOLDING.
Children used several cognitive strategies to engage with text such as GUESSING the
meaning of unfamiliar words, making ASSOCIATIONS between visual and verbal
information, providing SYNONYMS, and SUMMARIZING the key events in proper
sequences. However, the design of reading apps made it difficult for children to fully understand the text and recall the key events in the correct sequence. It maintains that
assisted cognitive tools should be embedded for the scaffolding and supporting
children's information retrieval process. No empirical study could be located in the form
of case study to explore children’s e-reading experiences and engagement when the
intention is reading for pleasure using storybooks and educational apps in the second
language, particularly for those who are in the stage of learning to read (grade 1 and 2).
Children’s reading motivation and engagement will encourage a satisfactory experience,
improved reading performance (comprehension), and persistent in reading habits