Evaluating the Success of Malaysia’s Exchange Controls (1998-99)

The paper evaluates in depth, the exchange control measures imposed by Malaysia in September-1998. Controls are evaluated using three alternative benchmarks—Malaysia vs. itself (pre-controls), vs. ex-ante forecasts of Malaysia for the year-1999, and Malaysia vs. the other affected East Asian economies. The comparisons suggest that controls were effective in turning some key variables around, especially the stock market index, and also enabled Malaysia to incur fewer social costs vis-à-vis the other crisis-economies. Finally, a GARCH measure of Malaysia’s interest-rate and stock-market volatility is obtained and the impact of controls on volatility studied. Evidence was found of volatility responding differentially to the Russian crisis (before controls) and the Brazilian crisis (after controls), indicating that controls helped insulate Malaysia from developments in global financial markets. Overall the paper confirms the necessity of LDCs retaining the capital controls option in the absence of material efforts to reform the international financial architecture and the inadequacy of conventional policy tools to effectively deal with present-day capital flows.

Foreseeing another HIPC: The response of a post-HIPC economy

A perfect foresight OLG model is set up to study the dynamic response of a small open economy to a temporary fiscal impetus (bond-financed government deficit) anticipated to be closed by a mix of taxes, money finance and grant aid. The model is solved for the general mixed tax-money-aid finance case with a focus on the conclusions for the full-grant finance case in the hope to inform the ongoing debate on debt sustainability in post-HIPC Africa and to some extent crisis-prone emerging markets like Turkey and Argentina. The conclusions emanating from the model are that anticipated aid (or debt forgiveness) works like a ?proborrowing policy? inducing the economy to consume more, save less and hence run bigger current account deficits; the size of the immediate responses to the impetus as well as the long-term trajectory of the economy depends critically on whether domestic agents start off as net debtors or net creditors, outcomes being much less desirable in the former case; if future aid expects to replace taxes, consumption and the current account jump more when the real interest rate is low, consumption less important in the utility function relative to real balances, the instantaneous probability of death higher, and the bond-financed deficit regime of longer duration. To the extent that these conditions hold in the current HIPC context, and given the earlier results, the paper reinforces existing doubts over about the prospects of attaining longterm debt sustainability in Africa

Geometrical Phase Transition on WO3_3 Surface

A topographical study on an ensemble of height profiles obtained from atomic force microscopy techniques on various independently grown samples of tungsten oxide WO$_3$ is presented by using ideas from percolation theory. We find that a continuous 'geometrical' phase transition occurs at a certain critical level-height $\delta_c$ below which an infinite island appears. By using the finite-size scaling analysis of three independent percolation observables i.e., percolation probability, percolation strength and the mean island-size, we compute some critical exponents which characterize the transition. Our results are compatible with those of long-range correlated percolation. This method can be generalized to a topographical classification of rough surface models.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Applied Physics Letters (2010

Resource Management Techniques in Cloud-Fog for IoT and Mobile Crowdsensing Environments

The unpredictable and huge data generation nowadays by smart devices from IoT and mobile Crowd Sensing applications like (Sensors, smartphones, Wi-Fi routers) need processing power and storage. Cloud provides these capabilities to serve organizations and customers, but when using cloud appear some limitations, the most important of these limitations are Resource Allocation and Task Scheduling. The resource allocation process is a mechanism that ensures allocation virtual machine when there are multiple applications that require various resources such as CPU and I/O memory. Whereas scheduling is the process of determining the sequence in which these tasks come and depart the resources in order to maximize efficiency. In this paper we tried to highlight the most relevant difficulties that cloud computing is now facing. We presented a comprehensive review of resource allocation and scheduling techniques to overcome these limitations. Finally, the previous techniques and strategies for allocation and scheduling have been compared in a table with their drawbacks

Resource Management Techniques in Cloud-Fog for IoT and Mobile Crowdsensing Environments

The unpredictable and huge data generation nowadays by smart devices from IoT and mobile Crowd Sensing applications like (Sensors, smartphones, Wi-Fi routers) need processing power and storage. Cloud provides these capabilities to serve organizations and customers, but when using cloud appear some limitations, the most important of these limitations are Resource Allocation and Task Scheduling. The resource allocation process is a mechanism that ensures allocation virtual machine when there are multiple applications that require various resources such as CPU and I/O memory. Whereas scheduling is the process of determining the sequence in which these tasks come and depart the resources in order to maximize efficiency. In this paper we tried to highlight the most relevant difficulties that cloud computing is now facing. We presented a comprehensive review of resource allocation and scheduling techniques to overcome these limitations. Finally, the previous techniques and strategies for allocation and scheduling have been compared in a table with their drawbacks

Synthesis and Cyclopolymerzation of N-Aryl Di ‎AllylAmins As Antioxidants for Lubricant's Oil

في هذا البحث حضرت العديد من مونومرات N-أريل ثنائي أليل امين المعوضة [A1-A2] والتي تم بلمرتها بالجذور الحرة باستخدام الأمونيوم بير سلفات كباديء في 70درجة مئوية، شخصت البوليمرات الحلقية الأمينية المعوضة   و المعوقة الجديدة  بواسطة طيف الاشعة تحت الحمراء وطيف الرنين النووي المغناطيسي ، تم قياس الخواص الفيزيائية والكيميائية. وقد درست .TGA و DSC حيث درس الاستقرار الحراري للبوليمرات المحضرة. تم استخدام هذه البوليمرات[A3 - A4] كمضادات أكسدة لزيوت التشحيم. والتي أعطت الاستقرار الحراري العالي  بالمقارنة مع مضادات الأكسدة القياسية. تم فحص ثبات الأكسدة للزيت الاساس المضاف ب (1٪) وفقا لطريقة الاختبار للمنشآت النفطية IP280In this research many new N-aryl substituted di allylAmins were  synthesized [ A1-A2 ] which were Polymerized by free radically mechanism by using Ammonium per sulfate  as an initiator at 700C .The new hindered   amines   as  cyclo  polymers  were  characterized  by FTIR  and  H-NMR Spectroscopies ,Physical   and   chemical properties were measured  using TGA and DSC to   study   the thermal stability  of   prepared  cyclopolymers  . These   prepared  N-aromatic  substituted di allylamins cyclopolymers [ A3 - A4 ]  were  used  as  antioxidants  for  lubricant  oil  .   which   give    high stability   when  comparing  with standard  antioxidant . The oxidation stability of base  oil with (1% ) additive  were  examined according to Institute of Petroleum testing method IP280&nbsp

Efektivitas Pemberdayaan Kegiatan Ekonomi Islam dalam Mengembangkan Pondok Pesantren di Makassar (Studi Pondok Pesantren Tahfizhul Qur’an Al-Imam ‘Ashim)

Berdasarkan judul penelitian di atas, maka yang menjadi permasalahan dalam penelitian ini adalah “apakah pemberdayaan kegiatan ekonomi Islam di PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim Makassar berjalan efektif dan sesuai dengan pandangan ekonomi Islam”. Dari permasalahan inilah kemudian lahir beberapa rumusan masalah yang meliputi (1) pemberdayaan kegiatan ekonomi Islam pesantren di PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim Makassar, dan (2) Perspektif Islam terhadap efektivitas pemberdayaan ekonomi di PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim Makassar.Untuk menelusuri dan memperoleh data-data terkait pokok masalah di atas, maka peneliti menggunakan metodologi penelitian yakni mulai dari teknik pengumpulan data yang diawali dengan kegiatan observasi, inerviu, dan dokumentasi. Data yang dikumpul ini bersumber dari data primer dan sekunder yang kemudian dianalisis dengan menggunakan reduksi data setelah data terkumpul, lalu disajikan dan menarik kesimpulan.Adapun hasil penelitian yang ditemukan adalah pemberdayaan ekonomi santri di PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim Makassar secara keseluruhannya telah berjalan dengan baik dan berkembang dengan melibatkan santri sebagai upaya membina dan mendidik santri untuk berwirausaha setelah mereka kembali ke masyarakat. Indikator perkembangannya dapat dilihat pada kemajuan usaha yang dimiliki PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim yang awalnya berupa Butik lalu ditambah lagi dengan Koperasi Santri (Kampus I), sedangkan Kampus II Antang telah dibangun sebuah Kanting, Halal Mart, dan Elektronik Media. Adapun indikasi alumninya antara lain ada alumni yang telah membuka wirausaha seperti “usaha warkop, usaha air mineral Air Santrita’, usaha peternakan seperti ayam potong dan ayam petelur, dan Cafe”. Pengelolaan dan pemberdayaan ekonomi di PPTQ al-Imam ‘Ashim Makassar dapat dikatakan pengelolaan dan pemberdayaannya sesuai dengan perspektif Islam yakni pengelolaan berdasarkan nilai-nilai syari’at Islam (ekonomi Islam) sehingga pemberdayaannya semakin hari semakin baik walaupun pengembangannya yang paling signifikan terlihat pada kampus II Jalan Inspeksi Kanal Tamangapa Kecamatan Manggala Makassar.Implikasi penelitian ini diharapkan agar hasil penelitian yang telah disusun sebagai sebuah karya ilmiah walaupun dalam bentuk sederhana agar dapat memberikan kontribusinya pada peneliti berikutnya minimal sebagai bahan komparasi dengan hasil temuan peneliti lainnya. Selain itu, hasil penelitian inipula diharapkan berimplikasi pada kegiatan ekonomi yang mengarah pada pembangunan dan pengembangan ekonomi masyaraka

Estimating the natural and artificial radioactivity in soil samples from some oil sites in Kirkuk-Iraq using high resolution gamma rays spectrometry

The natural and artificial radioactivity in soil samples from some oil sites of Kirkuk-Iraq have been estimated using a gamma spectrometry based on a high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. For this reason, soil samples have been collected from four sites; Henjera, Jabel Boor, Jambor and Qutan. It was found that the specific activity ranged from 7.31 to 63.33 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, from 3.54 to 42.95 Bq kg−1 for 232Th, from 103.21 to 798.52 Bq kg−1 for 40K and from 0.7 to 9.53 Bq kg−1 for 137Cs. The results have been compared with the worldwide average values. The radium equivalent activity (Raeq), the absorbed gamma dose rate (D), the annual effective dose rate (AEDE), the external hazard (Hex), the internal hazard (Hin) and Gamma radiation representative level Index (Iγ) have also been calculated. The Raeq was 92.173 Bq kg−1, the D was 45.53 nGyh-1, the AEDE outdoor and indoor were 0.0959 and 0.224, respectively, the Hex was 0.242, the Hin was 0.329, and Iγ was 0.680. It has been concluded that no harmful radiation effects have posed to the population who live in the study area. Although, there are some areas where radiation effects have resulted higher than that of the international allowable radiation values

Stretching a Surface Having a Layer of Porous Medium in a Viscous Fluid

The present analysis deals with the steady, incompressible flow of a viscous fluid over a stretching sheet having a layer of porous medium of uniform thickness. The two-dimensional flow equations are derived in a Cartesian coordinate system. The semi-infinite region filled with a viscous fluid is divided into two regions namely, a clear fluid region and a region having a uniform pores. Darcy\u27s law has been used for the flow of fluid in the porous medium region. An exact similar solution of the problem is obtained. The obtained solution is constrained by a relation between the porosity parameter and the parameter representing the viscosity ratios between the two regions. Our interest lies in determining the influence of porosity parameter, viscosities ratio parameter and thickness of the porous layer on the fluid velocity and the skin friction coefficient. The results for the Crane\u27s problem in a complete clear and a complete porous region are retrieved as special cases of the present solution