Pembangunan ekonomi dalam hubungan Etnik

Konsep pembangunan membawa maksud yang amat luas sama ada dari segi pengertiannya mahupun pelaksanaannya. Ini berikutan dengan pengertian pembangunan itu sendiri mengikut bidang-bidang yang diperbincangkan. Ada yang membincangkannya dari perspektif politik dan ada yang membincangkannya mengikut perspektif ekonomi dan sosial. Oleh itu kepelbagaian bidang ini telah menghasilkan pelbagai bentuk pengertian yang amat luas dan kompleks. Bab ini menbincangkan pembangunan ekonomi negara dalam konteks hubungan etnik di Malaysia. Antara perkara yang dibincangkan ialah sejarah perkembangan ekonomi Malaysia yang telah melalui beberapa perubahan bermula daripada era pra-penjajah sehingga kini. Penumpuan diberikan kepada dasar-dasar pembangunan ekonomi negara seperti Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB), Dasar Pembangunan Nasional (DPN) dan Dasar Wawasan Negara (DWN). Dasar-dasar ekonomi tersebut bukanlah hanya tertumpu kepada pembangunan ekonomi semata-mata tetapi juga penekanan diberikan pada aspek keadilan sosial bagi semua kaum di Malaysi

Synthesis of Chitosan/Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Stabilized by Chitosan via Microwave Heating

Nowadays, zinc oxide (ZnO) has attracted attention in research and development because of its remarkable antibacterial properties. Chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via microwave heating. The objectives of this work were to investigate the effect of stabilizer, power heating and time heating on size of chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles and to determine antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria, where chitosan was used as a stabilizing agent. Chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles were analyzed  by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Zetasizer instrument. The power heating and time heating were varied from 400 to 800 Watt and 4 to 8 minutes, respectively. The presence of chitosan has role on preventing the nanoparticles from agglomeration by producing a milky solution of chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles without any suspensions. The increase of power  and time heating improved the size of nanoparticles. The peak in FTIR spectrum at around 427 cm-1 was confirmed the existence of the ZnO phase. XRD patterns showed that the chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles materials were pure phase with average crystalline size is 130 nm. FESEM revealed that chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles were uniformly distributed with the mean value of size is 70 nm and spherical shaped. Further impact of power and time heating on the size of the chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles can be shown by a nanoparticles size distribution with the average of 30 to 90 nm. The results showed that chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles have displayed an antibacterial inhibition zone against Gram-positive S. aureus and Gram-negative E. coli which 16.0 and 13.3 mm, respectively. Chitosan/ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized in this work presented have potential application to prevent bacterial infections.

Revisiting relationship between Malaysian Stock Market Index and selected macroeconomic variables using asymmetric cointegration

This article re-examines the relationship of several macroeconomics variables with Malaysia Stock Market Index, KLCI. The paper applies Johansen (1988) procedure and vector error correction model (VECM) for symmetric cointegration, while threshold cointegration test proposed by Enders and Siklos (2001) is used for asymmetric cointegration. Using quarterly time series data set spanning from 1990 to 2015, the findings show the presence of the long-run relationship between KLCI and the macroeconomics variable i.e., industrial production index, inflation rate, exchange rate and money supply. We also found evidence for asymmetric adjustment of the stock price index towards its long-run values. These results have particularly important policy implications, concerning the formulation of macroeconomic policy to achieve financial stability and thus contribute to the further development of Malaysian Stock Market Index

Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles with chitosan as stabilizing agent and their antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Antibacterial activity of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have received significant interest, particularly by the implementation of nanotechnology to synthesize particles in nanometer region. ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized through microwave heating by using chitosan as a stabilizing agent and characterized by UV–vis, FTIR, XRD and FESEM-EDX. The aim of the present study is to determine the antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles against Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli). The antibacterial effect of ZnO nanoparticles was investigated for the inhibition zone and inactivation of cell growth. The absorption of ZnO nanoparticles was found to be around 360 nm. FTIR results showed the stretching mode of ZnO nanoparticles at 475 cm−1 of the absorption band. EDX results indicated that ZnO nanoparticles have been successfully formed with an atomic percentage of zinc and oxygen at 23.61 and 46.57% respectively. X-ray diffraction result was confirmed the single-phase formation of ZnO nanoparticles and the particle sizes were observed to be around 50 to 130 nm. The results showed that ZnO nanoparticles have displayed inhibition zone of 16 and 13 mm against S. aureus and E. coli respectively. Gram-negative bacteria seemed to be more resistant to ZnO nanoparticles than Gram-positive bacteria

Microwave-assisted Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles Stabilized with Gum Arabic: Effect of Microwave Irradiation Time on ZnO Nanoparticles Size and Morphology

The conventional heating methods of nanoparticle synthesis regularly depend on the energy inputs from outer heat sources that resulted high energy intake and low reaction competences. In this paper ZnO nanoparticles stabilized with gum arabic are synthesized using precipitating method assisted by simple and cost effective microwave heating technique. The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of microwave irradiation time towards ZnO nanoparticles morphology and size. The effect of microwave irradiation time has been investigated at 2, 4, 6, and 10 minutes. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) was employed to measure the size of ZnO nanoparticles. Ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were used for the characterization of the ZnO nanoparticles. UV-vis absorption spectrum was found in the range of 350 nm indicating the absorption peak of ZnO nanoparticles. FTIR spectra showed peaks range from 424 to 475 cm–1 which indicating standard of Zn–O stretching. The presence of (100), (002), and (101) planes were apparent in the XRD result, indicating the crystalline phase of ZnO nanoparticles. The increase in the microwave irradiation time affected the processes of nucleation and crystal growth promoted larger ZnO nanoparticles size. Microwave irradiation time at 2 minutes was selected as the best microwave irradiation time for smallest ZnO nanoparticles averaging about 168 nm sizes based on DLS analysis. Copyright © 2019 BCREC Group. All rights reserve

Institutional quality, income level, and debt sustainability: new evidence using dynamic panel threshold regression

Most countries have suffered from prolonged budget deficits over the past two decades. This situation has made researchers and policymakers aware of the challenges to debt sustainability. This study investigates the threshold effect of institutional quality on debt sustainability in a panel of 82 countries, focussing on various threshold effects at different income levels. All the countries selected for this study fell under the categories of high income (HI), upper middle income (UMI), and lower-middle and low income (LMLI) based on the World Bank classifications. The dynamic threshold panel regression results indicate the presence of a threshold effect of institutional quality on the fiscal reaction function (including debt sustainability and cyclical fiscal policy) in all the countries with different income levels. In HI countries, fiscal adjustment weakens if institutional quality surpasses the threshold value of institutional quality. The fiscal adjustment in UMI countries is similar to that in HI countries but statistically insignificant. By contrast, governments in LMLI countries can promote sustainable debt if their institutional quality exceeds the threshold value. Thus, policymakers in LMLI countries need to prioritise their efforts to raise the level of institutional quality to promote debt sustainability

Crude palm oil price forecasting in Malaysia : an econometric approach

This paper aims to forecast the performance of crude palm oil price (CPO) in Malaysia by comparing several econometric forecasting techniques, namely Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with exogenous inputs (ARIMAX). Using monthly time series data spanning from 2008 to 2017, the main results revealed that ARIMAX model is the most accurate and the most efficient model as compared to ARDL and ARIMA in forecasting the crude palm oil price. The results also show that the spot price of palm oil is highly influenced by stock of palm oil, crude petroleum oil price and soybean oil price. The empirical findings provide some insights for decision making and policy implementations, including the formulation of strategies to help the industry in dealing with the price changes and thus enable the Malaysian palm oil industry to continue dominating the international market

Inactivation of mucose on bread by using plasma jet

This paper presents the application of cold plasma technology on bread. Plasma is a fourth state of matter apart from solid liquid and gas states. It possesses the same amount of negative and positive ions that are produced from the gas molecule that goes through the electrical breakdown process. Plasma can be produced by injecting high voltage through an electrode. This project aims to develop a plasma jet system that will be able to produce cold plasma with the help of argon as the working gas. Due to its multifunction purpose, cold plasma can be used in many different fields such as biomedical, textile manufacturing, surface modification, food packaging, and many more. In this study, plasma generated with higher voltage may reduce the occupation of mucose on the bread as compares to the control

Pembangunan sosial dalam hubungan etnik

Pembangunan sosial merupakan suatu proses pembangunan yang memberi penekanan kepada pembangunan manusia dan sistem sosialnya. Ia berhubung kait dengan dasar, program dan aktiviti yang menjurus kepada pengisian nilai dan pembangunan budaya yang dapat mempertingkatkan kualiti hidup dan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Dalam konteks Malaysia, pembangunan bukan sahaja diukur berdasarkan pencapaian ekonomi dan pembangunan fizikal, tetapi ia mesti diintegrasikan dengan usaha-usaha dan program untuk mewujudkan perpaduan dan integrasi nasional. Dengan itu, pembangunan sosial menjadi suatu dasar yang amat kritikal dalam usaha membangunkan negara keseluruhannya. Pembangunan negara tidak dapat dinikmati dengan sepenuhnya jika terdapat ketidakseimbangan antara pembangunan ekonomi dengan pembangunan sosial. Di samping itu, tahap kemajuan sesebuah negara tidak boleh diukur hanya berdasarkan pembangunan fizikal dan kejayaan material semata-mata. Sebaliknya aspek kualitatif seperti kemantapan sosial, nilai-nilai moral, kekuatan intelektual dan keutuhan budaya perlu juga diambilkira dan diberi perhatian yang wajar. Dengan itu, walaupun kerajaan bermatlamat untuk meningkatkan taraf ekonomi dan pembangunan Malaysia supaya seiring dengan negara maju yang lain, namun kerajaan tetap mewujudkan pembangunan yang mapan, bersepadu dan holistik

The potential of gallic acid and ascorbic acid as green reducing agent in ZnO nanoparticle synthesis

In this study, method for the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles for biomedical applications ideally involve the use of nontoxic, less hazardous reducing and capping agent as well as the selection of environmentally benign solvents. In this study, we had investigated the potential of gallic acid and ascorbic acid as both reducing and capping agent in a green approach using microwave heating method. Two parameters including microwave power (400W and 800W) and time of heating (4 and 8 min) were investigated. UV-Vis absorption spectrum showed a typical spectrum for ZnO nanoparticles around 300nm wavelength. This microwave heating method with green reducing and capping agent successfully been advocated as a possible environmentally friendly alternative to chemical methods in synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles. ZnO nanoparticles synthesis from gallic acid and ascorbic acid were both found to exhibit antibacterial activity against a Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis and a Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli