Are foreign multinationals more efficient? A stochastic production frontier analysis of Malaysia's automobile industry

This paper compares the sources of total factor productivity (TFP) growth of foreign (establishments with 51% and above foreign equity ownership) and local establishments in Malaysia’s automotive sector by applying a stochastic production frontier to a panel of 510 plants for the period 2000-2004. The results showed that TFP growth for local automobile plants was minimal at 0.63% and minimally negative at -0.27% for foreign plants. On average,over the study period, technical efficiency changes contributed positively toward TFP growth but scale efficiency changes were negative for both local and foreign establishments. Technical progress was minimally positive for local establishments and minimally negative for foreign establishments.The small size of plants and the lower share of white-collar workers were significant in explaining plant inefficiency in Malaysia’s automobile sector. A higher capital-labour ratio was positively related to plant inefficiency and this may be due to excess capacity in the automobile sector as a result of a small domestic market. Finally, foreign multinationals are significantly more efficient than locally owned plants

TRANSFORMING MALAYSIA TOWARDS AN INNOVATION-LED ECONOMY BY LEVERAGING ON INNOVATIVE HUMAN CAPITAL

Fostering “pioneering minds” is extremely important especially in the effort to shift Malaysia towards an innovation-led economy. The Malaysian government is confident of achieving this transformation agenda provided that the human capital is leveraged in ensuring innovation at the highest level. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the predictors that could nurture the “pioneering minds” by exploring the innovative performance of human capital from the perspective of social embedment and pro-innovativeness organisational architecture which could subsequently lead to excellent organisational performance. This research contributes to the existing literature on human capital and innovation by having better understanding on the specific factors that nurture the “pioneering minds” which are crucial for innovative performance

Understanding Malaysian State Governments Fiscal Behavior: The Role of Intergovernmental Transfers

As of late, several state governments in Malaysia have been identified as having serious difficulty in meeting their financial needs, to the extent of the government being qualified as on the verge of bankruptcy. One of the explanations put forward is that state governments have been acting irresponsibly in managing finances. Thus, the question that ensues is: why do state governments behave in such irresponsible manner fiscally and financially in the first place? In this paper, we relate the financial difficulties faced by these governments within the confines of the institutional and political environment currently in place within the country. We will examine one of the institutional features of the intergovernmental system in Malaysia – the intergovernmental grants systems. More precisely, there are two hypotheses that will be tested in this research.. First, federal transfers may stimulate more spending by state governments which leads them to increase spending beyond the means available to them. Second, financial problems may be the consequence of a state governments’ incapacity to utilize tax capacities to the fullest, which in turn may be explained by the disincentives effects that are embedded (whether intended or not) within the transfer system.State Governments, Fiscal Behavior, Intergovernmental Relations

Experiences of psychosis and hearing voices in the UK from an ethnic minority perspective

Section A: This review aimed to evaluate qualitative reports of BAME individuals’ and their families’ experience of psychosis in the UK. Six databases were searched, identifying eleven studies which were critically reviewed. A thematic synthesis of the findings highlighted six themes: experiences of psychosis that did not conform to the western medical model, the rigidity of the medical model used within MH services, medication vs. psychological therapy, lack of autonomy, choice and individuality,stigma within services and society, and support and resources required for recovery. The review also outlined various clinical and research implications. Section B: This study aimed to explore ethnic minority voice-hearers’ experiences of being immersed within and navigating Western society and explanations of hearing voices in the UK. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the data (four interview and eight published stories). Six themes were developed: navigating hearing voices explanations, navigating cultural identities is stressful, hearing voices within current society, labels – forceful and powerful, real choice vs. illusion of choice, and recovery is a continuous process. The findings are discussed in conjunction with existing literature. The limitations of the study, research recommendations, and clinical implications are also highlighted

Self-access learning programme: analysing students' language learning needs and evaluating learning metarials

Today's job market does not only demand for graduates who are knowledgeable but who are also skilful and versatile. To help students to be equipped with the necessary skills, the Department of Modern Languages has incorporated Self-Access Learning(SAL) programme into its English proficiency courses. Since the Self-Access Learning programme is still quite new to the Malaysian student, a research was carried out to: i) to investigate and gauge students attitude towards Self-Access learning programme, materials used and Self-Access Learning laboratories, including the ways in which it affects students learning, and ii) to identify areas where the programmes’ design and execution can be improved. About 1200 participants who took part in the programme were asked to fill up the questionnaires, needs analysis and learning contract for the self-access learning programme that they went through. Analysis on the feedbacks received from the students showed that the self-access programme was beneficial and have helped them developed interests in learning English and encouraged them to be active learners. The feedback also revealed several areas which need further improvement. With regard to the self-access learning materials, the feedback given was not very positive as they suggested that the materials should be more attractive and interesting with more attractive designs for the future. These feedbacks were essential because they provide useful information that reflect i) the overall quality of the programme, ii) the effectiveness of the Self-Access Learning, and iii) the areas that need improvement as well as loopholes or weaknesses. Besides that, it also proved the students readiness for autonomous learning and this readiness can be optimised for the benefit of both the students and lecturers

Survey on awareness and understanding on goods and services tax

The purpose of this study is to determine the level of public awareness on the implementation of good and services tax (GST) and public understanding on issues of GST. The data was collected from citizens in Parit Raja, Batu Pahat. The methods applied for this study are descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, Cramer’s Contingency Coefficient test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The results from this study show that majority of the respondents, aware about the GST but their understanding about GST is low

The utilization of coffee waste into fired clay brick

The rapid growth of coffee industry is accompanied by a staggering increase in the amount of agriculture waste produced. In coffee producing countries, coffee wastes constitute a source of severe contamination and a serious environmental problem. In this study, the investigation on the possibility to utilize the coffee waste (CW) incorporated into the fired clay brick was carried out. The main purpose of this study is to determine the physical, mechanical properties and leach ability test of bricks incorporated with different percentages of CW. In this methodology, control brick (CB) and three different percentages of coffee waste brick (CWB) (1%, 3% and 5%) were manufactured and fired at 1050 °C. Physical and mechanical properties including shrinkage, density and compressive strength were reported and discussed. Additionally, leaching of heavy metals from manufactured clay brick was tested by using Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP). The results reported that with the incorporation of CW, the shrinkage increased linearly but still comply with minimum standard below 8% and good quality of brick was manufactured. Meanwhile, the results showed that density value decreased up to 30% from the normal brick with increased percentages of CW. The decreased compressive strength value of all the manufactured brick is still complies with minimum standard. On the other hand, heavy metals concentration leach out from different percentages of coffee waste brick is not exceeding the limit of 5 mg/L allowed by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). As a conclusion, the incorporation of CW into fired clay brick gives some advantages to the brick properties and also provides alternative solution on disposing the CW. In addition, the CW could also be a potential of low cost waste additive for the production of a brick

Performance analysis of turbocharger effect on engine in local cars

The performance of a gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines can be increased with the use of a turbocharger. However, the amount of performance increment for a particular engine should be studied so that the advantages and drawbacks of turbocharging will be clarified. This study is mainly concerned on the suitable turbocharger unit selection, engine conversions required and guidelines for testing a Proton 4G92 SOHC 1.6-litre naturally aspirated gasoline engine. The engine is tested under its stock naturally aspirated condition and after been converted to turbocharged condition. The effect of inter cooled turbocharged condition is also been tested. Boost pressure is the main parameter in comparing the performance in different conditions as it influences the engine torque, power, efficiency and exhaust emissions. The use of a turbocharger on this test engine has clearly increased its performance compared to its stock naturally aspirated form. The incorporation of an intercooler to the turbocharger system increases the performance even further. With the worldwide effort towards environmental-friendly engines and fossil fuel shortage, the turbocharger can help to create engines with enhanced performance,minimum exhaust emissions and maximum fuel economy

Unsupervised Anomaly Detection with Unlabeled Data Using Clustering

Intrusions pose a serious security risk in a network environment. New intrusion types, of which detection systems are unaware, are the most difficult to detect. The amount of available network audit data instances is usually large; human labeling is tedious, time-consuming, and expensive. Traditional anomaly detection algorithms require a set of purely normal data from which they train their model. We present a clustering-based intrusion detection algorithm, unsupervised anomaly detection, which trains on unlabeled data in order to detect new intrusions. Our method is able to detect many different types of intrusions, while maintaining a low false positive rate as verified over the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining - KDD CUP 1999 dataset

Fuzzy C-Mean And Genetic Algorithms Based Scheduling For Independent Jobs In Computational Grid

The concept of Grid computing is becoming the most important research area in the high performance computing. Under this concept, the jobs scheduling in Grid computing has more complicated problems to discover a diversity of available resources, select the appropriate applications and map to suitable resources. However, the major problem is the optimal job scheduling, which Grid nodes need to allocate the appropriate resources for each job. In this paper, we combine Fuzzy C-Mean and Genetic Algorithms which are popular algorithms, the Grid can be used for scheduling. Our model presents the method of the jobs classifications based mainly on Fuzzy C-Mean algorithm and mapping the jobs to the appropriate resources based mainly on Genetic algorithm. In the experiments, we used the workload historical information and put it into our simulator. We get the better result when compared to the traditional algorithms for scheduling policies. Finally, the paper also discusses approach of the jobs classifications and the optimization engine in Grid scheduling