Malaysia and Singapore in the world economy : state, capitalism, and authoritarianism

This dissertation is a comparative historical analysis between Malaysia and Singapore on the relationship between capitalist development and authoritarianism. Both Malaysia and Singapore have recorded remarkable economic growths and rapid industrial development, but both these countries have also shown to be moving toward state authoritarian rule. The rise of authoritarianism in these countries is analyzed through four interactive state development-related variables that shape the nature of politics in these countries. First is the development of institutions that have enabled the state to assume and strengthen its power over all other social forces. This in turn has empowered the state to forge alliances with both foreign and local capitalists in order to survive in the world economy. In this regard, even though so-called democratic institutions such as representative government and electoral processes are seen to exist, their effectiveness as genuine democratic institutions is limited. Second, social and political tensions entrenched in ethnonational-class inequalities have given rise to serious difficulties in the formation of cross-ethnonational popular alliances. These difficulties arise not from the multi-ethnonational character of society but rather from the domination of economic power by one group used to politically subsume other groups. The state also frequently justifies authoritarian rule as a way to suppress ethnonational tensions and enforce coexistence between the various groups. Third, the dependent nature of capitalist development itself aggravates existing wealth concentration, thereby reinforcing statecapital alliances and widening existing disparities. The more dependent the state is, the more repressive is its administration to accommodate capital investments. Fourth, peripheral state development has thrust the state into the leading role of economic planning as well as policy formulation. Thus by exploiting ideologies constructed around economic nationalism, the state often justifies its authoritarian rule as a politically legitimate means of attaining an economically prosperous end. Both Malaysia and Singapore are chosen for this comparative study due to their phenomenal economic growth, their development toward state authoritarian rule, and their unique social-political histories, that in many ways set these countries apart from many capitalist peripheral states

The Spraying Technology on Iraqi Agricultural Researches

Many of the Iraqi agricultural researches are used spraying technique to add chemical products including pesticides and growth regulators. Various studies were performed to study the effect of these substances at different concentrations to improve plant production. In order to adopt specific criteria of spraying researches and to replicate them easily, it is a necessary to mention all information related to the spraying processes and regulations for improving sprayer’s performance by increasing the amount of pesticide deposited on the target. The current study aims to survey Iraqi researches in details and analyse them randomly. Also, to highlight on the importance of information applied in spraying techniques and its relationship with improving of agricultural production. The survey showed most of these researches does not mention sufficiently the basic information, especially in the spraying or calibrating processes. These processes are important to ensure the best distribution of spraying in the field depending on type of sprayer, nozzle type, and operating pressure. Also, some of these researches do not show the application rate of pesticide and the factors affected on it, which may lead to imbalance in homogenization of the pesticide distribution. This study recommended using a power sprayer to avoid the misapplication in droplets distribution in comparison with pack back sprayers, which have a complication in the operating pressure and nozzle height regulation. Another recommendation was a necessity to select the perfect nozzle type that agrees with the global publications

Agricultural Data Mining for Crop Recommendation and Yield Prediction

This structure is considered to predict the best harvest suitable for the agronomists' area. It also suggests farming strategies for crops such as diverse farming, spacing, irrigation, sow processing, etc. along with fertilizer and pesticide proposals.  This is done on the basis of historical soil standards of the area and estimating crop and weather costs. Further, cost prediction is done based on Linear Regression to aid in ranking the crops recommended. India is defined as an agricultural country, where recommendations are given in traditional ways. In a Present-day, recommendations are based on farmers communicate between farmers, experts and various experts have a variety of recommendations. Recommendation can be provided to farmers who use past agricultural activities data. The application provides recommendations to farmers to determine the appropriate fertilizer and crop. This application can be used to increase crop yield and also recommend suitable crop

Synthesized and extending the Bidentate Schiff base complexes using multilayer feedforward neural network

Complexes of Pd(II) and Ni(II) have been synthesized with general composition ML2X2 (M =Pd(II), Ni(II); L = benzylsalicylideneimine and X = OCH3, F). All synthesized compoundshave been characterized using elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility measurements,infrared and NMR spectral studies that led to the conclusion that the ligands act as bidentatemanner to form square planar geometry for all complexes. As an extending work, the modeldevelopment of these complexes using multilayer feedforward neural network wereperformed. NiL1d, PdL1d, NiL1c and PdL1c were fed to the training network as inputs andbacteria as output. Levenberg Marquardt training algorithm was used during the networktraining with 10 nodes in hidden layer. The results of testing network showed that theregression, R is 1, indicating that the developed model is good. This is supported by the small mean square error (MSE) is 1.948x10-28 at epochs 5. The finding in this study is significant, thus contributed to the design of antibacterial agent especially to the bidentate Schiff base complexes.Keywords: Schiff base, palladium(II), nickel(II), antibacterial, regression, neural network

Validation of a paediatric thyroid phantom using different multidetector computed tomography models

The aim of this study was to compare the attenuation values of a fabricated paediatric thyroid phantom material using different MDCT models. A paediatric thyroid phantom was designed to mimic the shape and size of a paediatric patient with an age of 9 years using high-density Polyethylene as the phantom material. The fabricated phantom was scanned using two different multidetector CT scanners (16- and 128-row detectors). The CT numbers were evaluated and the mass attenuation coefficients () of the phantom material were obtained at each applied energy from each scanner. The results were compared with the tables of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CTs of 16- and 128-row detectors showed that the obtained attenuation values are very similar to the NIST’s values. However, the CT of the 128-row detectors showed a slightly much closer match to the NIST’s values. This refers to the type and quality of the electronic connections between the detectors. Furthermore, the type and number of detectors (16- and 128-detectors) could affect the details and quality of the output images. The results show that different multidetector CTs can be used to validate the phantom and determine the mass attenuation coefficients of its material

Late energy injection and cosmological constraints in axino dark matter scenarios

Taking into account effects of late energy injection, we examine big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on axino dark matter scenarios with long-lived charged sleptons. We calculate 4-body slepton decays into the axino, a lepton, and a quark–antiquark pair since they govern late hadronic energy injection and associated BBN constraints. For supersymmetric hadronic axion models, we present the obtained hadronic BBN constraints and show that they can be more restrictive than the ones associated with catalyzed BBN via slepton-bound-state formation. From the BBN constraints on hadronic and electromagnetic energy release, we find new upper limits on the Peccei–Quinn scale

Calculation of dose distribution on Rhizophora spp soy protein phantom at 6 MV photon beam energy using Monte Carlo method

Some of the commercial solid phantoms were unable to provide a good simulation to water atlow and high energy ranges. A potential phantom from Malaysian mangrove wood family,Rhizophoraspp was fabricated with addition of Soy Protein. An Electron Gamma Sho(EGSnrc) code was used to evaluate the dose distribution on Rhizophoraspp Soy Proteinphantom at 6 MV photon beam energy.  The result of the Rhizophoraspp Soy Protein phantom was then compared with the water phantom and the solid water phantom. This study showed that the uncertainty between Rhizophoraspp Soy Protein phantom and the water phantom and the solid water phantom is less than 8 % at certain depth. These comparable results have demonstrated the potential of the Rhizophoraspp Soy Protein phantom as another option for solid phantom in dosimetry purposes.Keywords: mangrove wood; solid water phantom; water equivalent phantom; EGSnrc; depth dose

KETENGIKAN HIDROLISIS TEPUNG IKAN SEBAGAI BAHAN PAKAN PADA BERBAGAI WAKTU PENYIMPANAN

The study aims to observe the effect of storage time on the hydrolytic rancidity of fish meal as source of protein in animal feed. This study used a completely randomized design with four treatments and four replications. The arrangement of the fish meal storage time treatments were T0: 0 weeks, T1: 2 weeks, T2: 4 weeks and T3: 6 weeks. Temperature and humidity were measured during storage in warehouse. Parameters measured were moisture and free fatty acid. The results showed that fish meal which has been stored at different times was significantly affecting (P<0.05) on moisture and free fatty acids. The average of temperature and humidity during storage (0 - 6 weeks) were 29-30oC and 60-76%. The highest moisture was 17.38% obtained in the T3 and the highest free fatty acid content was obtained at 4.30%