174 research outputs found
The Defence of Ethnic Identity in Malaysia
No full textThe changing dynamics of interstate conflict in the post-Cold War environment led scholars to debate the relevance of established security theory. While traditionalists maintained that the state-centric theory should retain its primacy, others argued for a security agenda, not only broadened or widened to include other sectors, but one deepened or extended to include the individual and larger societal groupings as referent objects of security. In the 1990s, the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute developed a reformulated and expanded security agenda which recognized five dimensions of security – political, military, economic, environmental and societal. Societal security has been defined as the defence of identity with identity accepted as the way in which communities think about themselves and the manner in which individuals identify themselves as members of a particular community. The Institute’s research on societal security was further expanded by Paul Roe in his 2005 study on ethnic conflict in the Balkan states. The determination of successive Malaysian governments to inculcate Islamic values throughout its infrastructure and society was borne from the inter-communal violence in May 1969, a civil reaction to the unexpected election results. The loss of parliamentary majority, for so long the domain of the Malays, confirmed a significant shift in political power and the increasingly influential role of the non-Malay voice in the political process. The inter-ethnic hostility resulted in a Federation-wide state of emergency and the suspension of parliamentary democracy for 20 months during which time the country was led by the National Operations Council under the leadership of Tun Abdul Razak. The National Operations Council and subsequent administrations progressively introduced policy to restore Malay political supremacy and redress societal imbalance. Despite the obvious success of Malaysia’s social transformation, research has indicated that policy introduced to lessen the economic and social inequality of the Malays has, in effect, led to a polarising of ethnicities. Political historians and analysts are mindful that increasing ethnic tension along with tacit ethnic segregation are salient reminders of the violence of the 1969 ethnic riots. With the theoretical framework on societal security provided by the CPRI, this thesis proposes to analyse the impact of the post-1969 political paradigm on Malaysian society with particular focus on inter-societal relations
Computer-aided fault analysis of digital circuit
No full textTwo test pattern generation programs are developed - bd and MoDalg. The bd implements the boolean difference method, an algebraic method that manipulates boolean equations to derive a complete test set for all possible stuck-at faults in the circuit under test.Master of Engineerin
Examining the Impacts of Dividend Payout and Share Repurchase to Future Firm Performance: Evidence from Malaysian Public Listed Firms
No full textSignaling theory is built on the premise that information asymmetry exists between managers and investors. The information content hypothesis, also known as the information signaling hypothesis, contends that corporate payout policy functions as a signaling tool to reflect an optimistic view of firm prospects to investors. Nevertheless, the action of payout has long been criticized for sending weak signals that mislead investors through price manipulation. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the information content of corporate payout policy in Malaysia by examining the impacts of dividend payout and share repurchase on future firm performance. This study is conducted within the sample period of 2000 to 2020, with the sample data comprising 355 dividend paying firms, 153 share repurchasing firms and 144 mutual payers listed on Bursa Malaysia. Panel data regression analysis is conducted to investigate the influence of the respective payout policy on future firm performance as represented by the proxies of earnings per share, earnings yield, return on assets, return on equity, operating income and operating cash flow measured in the following year of payout. The results from the fixed effect model show a positive and significant relationship between share repurchase ratio and all proxies of future firm performance, which supports the information signaling hypothesis. In addition, the predictive ability of share repurchases on future firm performance is also proven among subsamples of share repurchasing firms with small market capitalization and high payout frequency. On the other hand, the results from the fixed effect model show an insignificant relationship between dividend ratio and all proxies of future firm performance, which rejects the information content hypothesis. However, the predictive power of dividends on future firm performance is observed among subsamples of dividend paying firms with large market capitalization and regular dividend payments. Meanwhile, the total payout ratio for mutual payers is only positively and significantly related to future return on assets and future operating income. Overall, the results suggest that corporate payout policy does indeed convey valuable information about future profitability among Malaysian public listed firms. The real earnings improvement demonstrated in the current study thus resolves the issue of false market signals originating from dividends and share repurchases
Dietary supplement intake and fecundability in a Singapore preconception cohort study
No full textSubfertility is a global problem affecting millions worldwide, with declining total fertility rates. Preconception dietary supplementation may improve fecundability, but the magnitude of impact remains unclear. This prospective cohort study aimed to examine the association of preconception micronutrient supplements with fecundability, measured by time to pregnancy (TTP). The study was conducted at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore, between February 2015 and October 2017, on 908 women aged 18-45 years old, who were trying to conceive and were enrolled in the Singapore PREconception Study of long-Term maternal and child Outcomes (S-PRESTO). Baseline sociodemographic characteristics and supplement intake were collected through face-to-face interviews. The fecundability ratio (FR) was estimated using discrete-time proportional hazard modelling. Adjusting for potentially confounding variables, folic acid (FA) (FR 1.26, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.56) and iodine (1.28, 1.00–1.65) supplement users had higher fecundability compared to non-users. Conversely, evening primrose oil supplement users had lower fecundability (0.56, 0.31–0.99) than non-users. In this study, preconception FA and iodine supplementation were associated with shortened TTP, while evening primrose oil use was associated with longer TTP. Nonetheless, the association between supplement use and the magnitude of fecundability changes will need to be further confirmed with well-designed randomised controlled trials
The Implementation of Green Marketing Tools in Rural Tourism: The Readiness of Tourists?
No full textEnvironmental sustainability is the key factor for the future development of the tourism industry, particularly in sensitive rural tourism destinations. Green tourism and green marketing are alternative practices that ensure the environmental sustainability of tourism destinations. However, green marketing has received little attention in the context of rural destinations. This is the first known study undertaken with the purpose of understanding the relationship between green marketing tools (eco-brand, eco-label, and environmental advertisement) and green purchasing behavior in rural tourism destinations from the perception of tourists. A sample of 252 respondents was selected to complete the questionnaires. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS (version 3.2.6) was applied based on path modeling, followed by bootstrapping. The results revealed that the three-dimensional constructs of green marketing tools were significantly and positively correlated with green purchasing behavior of rural tourism destinations from tourists’ perspectives. Several implications, limitations, and directions for future research were further discussed. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LL
Information Content of Share Buybacks from an Earnings Perspective = (Kandungan Maklumat Pembelian Semula Saham dari Perspektif Pendapatan)
No full textThis study aims to examine the predictive ability of share buybacks from an earnings perspective. Panel data regression
analysis is conducted to determine the impact of share repurchases on future firm performance using Malaysian
publicly listed companies data over 2000-2020. This study is significant because of the importance of share buybacks
to attract investors, especially during crisis periods. The results show that the share repurchase ratio is positively
and significantly related to all the proxies for future firm performance, as represented by return on assets, return on
equity, operating income, and funds from operations that are all measured in the following year of share buyback. The
validity of the result is confirmed when tested with an alternative explanatory variable, while the sensitivity test shows that the signaling power of share repurchase is more apparent among share-repurchasing firms with small market
capitalization. Overall, the findings support the information signaling hypothesis and suggest that share buybacks in Malaysia provide useful information about a company’s earnings prospects
Pyrolysis production of fruit peel biochar for potential use in treatment of palm oil mill effluent
No full textFruit peel, an abundant waste, represents a potential bio-resource to be converted into useful materialsinstead of being dumped in landfill sites. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a harmful waste that shouldalso be treated before it ca n safely be released to the environment. In this study, pyrolysis of banana andorange peels was performed under different temperatures to produce biochar that was then examined asadsorbent in POME treatment. The pyrolysis generated 30.7e47.7 wt% yield of a dark biochar over atemperature ranging between 400 and 500C. The biochar contained no sulphur and possessed a hardtexture, low volatile content (34 wt%), and high amounts of fixed carbon (72 wt%), showing durabilityin terms of high resistance to chemical reactions such as oxidation. The biochar showed a surface area of105 m2/g and a porous structure containing mesopores, indicating its potential to provide manyadsorption sites for use as an adsorbent. The use of the biochar as adsorbent to treat the POME showed aremoval efficiency of up to 57% in reducing the concentration of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD),chemical oxygen demand COD, total suspended solid (TSS) and oil and grease (O&G) of POME to anacceptable level below the discharge standard. Our results indicate that pyrolysis shows promise as atechnique to transform banana and orange peel into value-added biochar for use as adsorbent to treatPOME. The recovery of biochar from fruit waste also shows advantage over traditional landfill approachesin disposing this waste
The Implementation of Green Marketing Tools in Rural Tourism: The Readiness of Tourists?
No full textEnvironmental sustainability is the key factor for the future development of the tourism industry, particularly in sensitive rural tourism destinations. Green tourism and green marketing are alternative practices that ensure the environmental sustainability of tourism destinations. However, green marketing has received little attention in the context of rural destinations. This is the first known study undertaken with the purpose of understanding the relationship between green marketing tools (eco-brand, eco-label, and environmental advertisement) and green purchasing behavior in rural tourism destinations from the perception of tourists. A sample of 252 respondents was selected to complete the questionnaires. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS (version 3.2.6) was applied based on path modeling, followed by bootstrapping. The results revealed that the three-dimensional constructs of green marketing tools were significantly and positively correlated with green purchasing behavior of rural tourism destinations from tourists’ perspectives. Several implications, limitations, and directions for future research were further discussed. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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