Finance And Other Services Sectors In Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak : Testing for Stochastic Convergence

Abstract - In the last four decades, the financial services sector has becoming more important for the Malaysian economy. Despite gaining importance for enhancing economic growth, the contribution of the finance sector to the total services real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been ranked second in Peninsular Malaysia, third in Sabah and fourth in Sarawak. The purpose of the present paper is to determine whether the contribution of the financial services sector in the three regions in Malaysia, namely Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak show any distinct pattern. In the jargon of economic development literature, we seek to determine whether there is “convergence” or similarity in the patterns of the performance of the financial services sector among the three regions. Generally, our results suggest divergence of the finance sector and other sub-sector of the services among the three regions

Safety and Fatigue Risk Factors among Online Motorcycle Drivers in Depok City, Indonesia

In Indonesia, the motorcycle is often the first choice for transportation, and has been especially popular as a taxi service since the creation of an online request system, known as Ojek Online. Unfortunately, this online employment has less engagement than traditional taxi companies and other public transportation companies in research area that can give guarantee for ensuring their drivers’ safety and health. Many drivers are exposed to uncontrolled risks. Our research concerns drivers’ health and safety factors. The goal is to determine which factors most affect a drivers’ actions and safety. This study utilises both qualitative and quantitative research. Our qualitative research gathers in-depth health complaints made by drivers, especially in regard to their musculoskeletal symptoms. Our quantitative research focuses on other aspects that affect their ability to drive safely, such as their durations of rest, bad driving habits and work hours. The sampling method used in this research could be used to represent the entirety of the drivers’ health and safety factors. The respondentsin this research come from Depok, Bekasi, Bogor and Tangerang. The randomly sampled respondents agreed to answer the questions by themselves. The number of our respondents is 70. Our study found that the most influential factor affecting safe driving ability is fatigue. The results show that 62.85 percent of respondentsexperience fatigue while driving. Further, the data shows an imbalance among drivers in regard to age, work hours, total distance driven and rest time. Drivers’ bad habits also negatively impact the safety of the rider. The most reported health effect was musculoskeletal symptoms in the lower part of the drivers’ back. The second most reported health effect was in regard to the drivers’ buttocks and wrists. The results of this research show that musculoskeletal disorders and fatigue affect the drivers’ condition, which can negatively impact drivers’ and customers’ safety. Keywords: fatigue, musculoskeletal symptoms, safety, online motorcycle driver

Shadow Economy and Financial Sector Development in Malaysia

This paper explores the link between the shadow economy and financial sector development in Malaysia for the period 1971-2013.We calculate the size of the shadow economy by using the modified-cash-deposits-ratio approach recently developed by Pickhardt and Sardia (2011).We investigate the contention made by Blackburn et al.(2012) that financial sector development can mitigate shadow economy – higher level of financial sector development lead to lower level of shadow economy. Our results show that there is a non-linear long-run relationship between shadow economy and financial sector development in Malaysia, an inverted-U shape curve, suggesting that at lower (higher) level of financial sector development commensurate with higher (lower) level of the shadow economy.One policy implication from this study is that the financial sector can play an important role in reducing shadow economy by improving the accessibility to financing and to the credit market

Antimicrobial activities of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde against the human gastric pathogen <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>

Background: Eradication of Helicobacter pylori is an important objective in overcoming gastric diseases. Many regimens are currently available but none of them could achieve 100% success in eradication. Eugenol and cinnamaldehyde that are commonly used in various food preparations are known to possess antimicrobial activity against a wide spectrum of bacteria. Aim: The present study was performed to assess the in vitro effects of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde against indigenous and standard H. pylori strains, their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and time course lethal effects at various pH. Methods: A total of 31 strains (29 indigenous and one standard strain of H. pylori ATCC 26695, one strain of E. coli NCIM 2089) were screened. Agar dilution method was used for the determination of drug sensitivity patterns of isolates to the commonly used antibiotics and broth dilution method for the test compounds. Results: Eugenol and cinnamaldehyde inhibited the growth of all the 30 H. pylori strains tested, at a concentration of 2 μg/ml, in the 9th and 12th hours of incubation respectively. At acidic pH, increased activity was observed for both the compounds. Furthermore, the organism did not develop any resistance towards these compounds even after 10 passages grown at sub-inhibitory concentrations. Conclusion: These results indicate that the two bioactive compounds we tested may prevent H. pylori growth in vitro, without acquiring any resistance

Shadow Economy and Financial Sector Development in Malaysia

This paper explores the link between the shadow economy and financial sector development in Malaysia for the period 1971-2013. We calculate the size of the shadow economy by using the modified-cash-deposits-ratio (MCDR) approach recently developed by Pickhardt and Sardia (2011). We investigate the contention made by Blackburn et al. (2012) that financial sector development can mitigate shadow economy – higher level of financial sector development lead to lower level of shadow economy. Our results show that there is a non-linear long-run relationship between shadow economy and financial sector development in Malaysia, an inverted-U shape curve, suggesting that at lower (higher) level of financial sector development commensurate with higher (lower) level of the shadow economy. One policy implication from this study is that the financial sector can play an important role in reducing shadow economy by improving the accessibility to financing and to the credit market. Keywords: Modified-Cash-Deposit-Ratio, Shadow Economy, Financial Sector Development, Malaysia JEL Classifications: E26, H26, O1

Dynamics of social capital among irrigation water users in rural Sindh province of Pakistan

Social capital resides in interactions and refers to social resources and network structure. It develops trust, reciprocity and functions as bonding material to provide long term and sustainable results, however, fluctuates spatially and culturally. In connection with, the article attempted to reveal the various levels of social capital between farmers in participatory irrigation management, via a trust, solidarity and networks, and also supported by the theoretical perceptive. Consequently, quantified data were gathered from 457 irrigation water users of rural Sindh province, using multi-stage cluster sampling, and analyzed through SPSS (Software Package for Social Sciences) and AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) software. This paper reports the significant results regarding social capital in the area, which reflects in the form of reciprocity of irrigation water by the respondents. In contrast, the majority of the farmers were lacking linking social capital which must be reviewed by the policymakers for the sake of rural development

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum