Credit card debt management: a profile study of young professionals / Rashidah Ahmad and Normah Omar.

As at 30th June 2012, the total amount of credit cards outstanding bills stood at RM 29.9 billion. The 2010 statistics issued by the Department of Solvency Malaysia, showed a worrying trend of young Malaysians who were below the age of 30 being declared bankrupt due to credit card debts. Some 209 or 46.04% out of a total of 454 Malaysians who were declared bankrupt in 2010 are among those aged “30 years and below. This study distributed questionnaire to participants of “debt-ridden” young professionals in managing their financial situation under the Central Bank of Malaysia. The aim of this study is to explore the demographic profiles of these respondents, to identify spending habits as well as to examine participants’ affordability to pay their credit card bills. This study also hopes to explore viable strategies to curb the respondents’ dependence and possible misuse of their credit cards for their day-to-day transactions. The findings implicate some very challenging trends. First, the increasing use of credit cards on entertainment and online shopping among young professionals. Secondly, is the respondents’ inclination to make “minimum payments” on their outstanding credit card bills. Thirdly, many respondents “own” more than three credit cards during the data collection period. The fourth finding highlights the “trend” that respondents owe high amount of outstanding accumulated credit card debts when the due date expires. Finally, it is also observed that the respondents have the habit of borrowing from others. Onsite observations further implicate that some of these participants desperately need help to kick out their habit of credit card dependence and misuse. Furthermore, some of these young professionals are not even aware of the negative impact of possible insolvency and bankruptcy status on their future undertakings

An analysis on a strategic asset allocation: a case study on CIMB Wealth Advisors (CWA) conventional fund / Nurull Rashidah Ahmad Abzan

This study explores the relationship between asset allocations of Local Equity versus Regional Equity (CPECPAE), Local Equity versus Global Equity (CPECPGG), Local Equity versus Fixed Income (CPECPSB), Regional Equity versus Global Equity (CPAECPGG), and Regional Equity versus Fixed Income (CPAECPSB) with the return of portfolio. Asset allocation is based on the idea that in different years a different asset is the best performing one. Therefore, this study is important to investigate whether different asset allocation can produce different return of portfolio and with combination of assets can maximizes return of portfolio with suitable risk. The data used are from secondary data and have been calculated into monthly return of each fund. Then, the collected data is being run using SPSS. Once the results have been derived from the program, then the results is interpreted by a number of statistical. In this study, the results are interpreted by using Multiple Linear Regressions, Coefficient of Determination (R2), T-statistic and F-statistic. In conclusion, based on the result interpreted using Multiple Linear Regressions, Coefficient of Determination (R₂), T-statistic and F-statistic, asset allocations of CPECPAE and CPECPGG have significant (positive) relationship with return on portfolio, while the asset allocations of CPECPSB, CPAECPGG and CPAECPSB show insignificant (negative) relationship with return of portfolio. In the end of this research, the researcher has made some recommendations for the investors and for the further researcher

Demand of Fertilizer in Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

This study is attempt to examine the factors affecting demand of fertilizer in three selected least developed countries (LDCs); Myanmar, Lesotho and Tanzania by using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. The theory of demand function has been applied to the analysis and the model has been transformed to log form for estimation purposes. Several tests have been conducted to detect multicollinearity, autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. The finding reveals that cereal yield is statistically significant for all countries while price is only statistically significant for Lesotho. It is expected more robust result could be evidenced using larger data set, adding more variables and using other proxies for the variables

Nilai perpaduan dalam kenegaraan Malaysia: Mencari titik persamaan dari kepelbagaian komuniti pasca modenisme

Sejarah telah membuktikan bahawa tidak banyak negara di dunia hari ini yang bersifat seragam iaitu mempunyai SATU dalam serba-serbinya: bangsa, bahasa, agama, dan budaya. Dunia Melayu juga tidak terkecuali daripada menghadapi situasi ini. Melalui proses sejarah, kawasan lingkungan kepulauan Melayu yang masyarakatnya dikenali sebagai masyarakat satu bangsa telah bertukar menjadi negara milik bersama pelbagai bangsa setelah tertubuhnya Malaysia. Kertas kerja ini secara asasnya berpaksi pada pengalaman pengajaran dan pembelajaran kursus Kenegaraan Malaysia (KM) di Universiti Utara Malaysia. KM diajar bagi mendedahkan kepada pelajar perihal negara ini yang asalnya milik satu bangsa telah menjadi sebuah negara yang dimiliki bersama oleh banyak kaum. Kaum-kaum ini pula melalui dasar kerajaan (pemerintah) sedang berusaha untuk membentuk sebuah masyarakat yang mempunyai satu rupa bangsa atau lebih dikenali sebagai bangsa Malaysia. Persoalan yang sering ditanya; sudahkah terbina sebuah negara bangsa yang menjadi idaman seluruh rakyat? Jawapan kepada soalan ini menjadi begitu rumit apabila penduduk Malaysia kini mula berdepan bukan sahaja dengan pelbagai masalah sosioekonomi, tetapi juga dengan satu aliran pemikiran baru yang berpengaruh iaitu pascamodenisme yang secara teori mempersoal negara bangsa. Bagi kita di Malaysia, perpaduan dapat dihasilkan melalui proses penyeragaman penduduk yang pelbagai suku kaum kepada satu persamaan yang boleh diterima bersama. Persamaan ini pula dapat diterjemahkan berdasarkan nilai-nilai murni sejagat yang berteraskan nilai murni orang Melayu. Nilai-nilai sejagat yang sepunya ini ada kepada semua bangsa di dunia. Lantaran itu, satu titik persamaan harus dicari dalam komuniti pasca modenisme ini untuk membina sebuah bangsa yang memakai gelar Bangsa Malaysia

Contemplation of tone mapping operators in high dynamic range imaging

The technique of tone mapping has found widespread popularity in the modern era owing to its applications in the digital world. There are a considerable number of tone mapping techniques that have been developed so far. One method may be better than the other in some cases which is determined by the requirement of the user. In this paper, some of the techniques for tone mapping/tone reproduction of high dynamic range images have been contemplated. The classification of tone mapping operators has also been given. However, it has been found that these techniques lack in providing quality of service visualization of high dynamic range images. This paper has tried to highlight the drawbacks in the existing traditional methods so that the tone-mapped techniques can be enhanced

Risk Management Disclosure In Malaysian Islamic Financial Institutions: Pre- And Post-Financial Crisis

The East Asian financial crisis in 1997 and later the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 had a big impact on the corporate world as many companies and financial institutions collapsed during that period. Poor governance systems and lack of transparency in reporting including lack of risk reporting and disclosure were blamed as the roots of the problem. Conventional financial institutions have widely practiced risk management within their organization, but it is still under-developed in Islamic financial institutions due to new emerging market and unique business structures which are based on Shariah or Islamic law. Therefore, this study examined the risk management disclosure by all 17 Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia from 2006 to 2009, covering the period before, during, and after the global financial crisis. A disclosure checklist consists of mandatory and voluntary items developed to measure the level of risk disclosure. The descriptive result shows the risk management disclosure among the Islamic Financial Institutions was satisfactory. Analysis for a four year period revealed that the risk disclosure has greatly improved before and after crisis indicating that Islamic Financial Institutions have taken the necessary steps to improve their disclosure

Gaya Pengurusan Konflik di Kalangan Pensyarah Maktab Perguruan Teknik

Secara umumnya, kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti gaya pensyarah Maktab Perguruan Teknik mengendalikan konflik interpersonal yang dihadapi oleh mereka. Kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk men genal pasti perbezaan gaya pengurusan konflik mengikut faktor demografi serta hubungan antara pengurusan konflik dengan jenis personaliti dan stail komunikasi. Reka bentuk kajian adalah deskriptif-korelasi. Kajian dijalankan dikalangan pensyarah Maktab Perguruan Teknik, Jalan Yacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. saiz sampel adalah 122 responden. Alat kajian yang digunakan adalah soal selidik yang mengandungi empat bahagian, iaitu: faktor demografi, jenis personaliti, stail komunikasi dan gaya peng urusan konflik. Frekuensi, peratus, min dan sisihan piawai digunakan untuk menganalisa statistik deskriptif. Ujian-t dan Analisa Varian Sehala digunakan untuk menentukan perbezaan yang signifikan antara pembolehubah. Pearson Product Moment Coefficient digunakan untuk menentukan hubungan yang signifikan antara pembolehubah. Kajian ini mendapati gaya pengurusan konflik yang paling digemari adalah gaya Akomodasi. Manakala personaliti yang paling diminati adalah Perasaan. Seterusnya, stail komunikasi yang kerap digunakan adalah Prihatin. Dapatan inferensi memaparkan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan pada gaya pengurusan konflik yang tertentu mengikut umur, tempoh perkhidmatan, kelayakan akademik dan jabatan. Dapatan kajian juga mendapati terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara gaya pengurusan konflik yang tertentu dengan jenis personaliti dan stail komunikasi yang tertentu

Social loafing and loan repayment accountability in group-based microbusiness financing / Farah Aida Ahmad Nadzri, Normah Omar and Rashidah Abdul Rahman.

Although individual lending is not unusual in microfinance, group lending, however, is considered as more common in this field. Through group lending, all group members are made responsible for the repayment of their loans. The group-based model financing is also viewed as effective in transferring the risk from the providers to the borrowers by imposing the social cost on the borrowers. Despite the high repayment rate recorded by the group-based microfinance institutions, there are arguments that this method of financing may lead to “social loafing”, a concept related to a reduction of an individual’s effort when working in a group. As there is limited research in this area, this study aims to explore the existence of such scenario in the largest and oldest microfinance institution in Malaysia, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. Based on the observation and interviews with the members of the organization, this study found that to some extent “social loafing” does exist in Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. Although the situation is not common, “social loafing” is a serious issue that needs to be controlled in the organization as it is believed that it is contagious and may affect the whole organization in a long run

Social loafing and loan repayment accountability in group-based microbusiness financing / Farah Aida Ahmad Nadzri, Normah Omar and Rashidah Abdul Rahman.

Although individual lending is not unusual in microfinance, group lending, however, is considered as more common in this field. Through group lending, all group members are made responsible for the repayment of their loans. The group-based model financing is also viewed as effective in transferring the risk from the providers to the borrowers by imposing the social cost on the borrowers. Despite the high repayment rate recorded by the group-based microfinance institutions, there are arguments that this method of financing may lead to “social loafing”, a concept related to a reduction of an individual’s effort when working in a group. As there is limited research in this area, this study aims to explore the existence of such scenario in the largest and oldest microfinance institution in Malaysia, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. Based on the observation and interviews with the members of the organization, this study found that to some extent “social loafing” does exist in Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. Although the situation is not common, “social loafing” is a serious issue that needs to be controlled in the organization as it is believed that it is contagious and may affect the whole organization in a long run

Optimal control of vector-borne disease with direct transmission

This paper introduces the usage of three controls as a way to reduce the occurrence of vector-borne disease. The governing equation of the dynamical system used in this paper describes both direct and indirect transmission mode of vector-borne disease. This means that the disease can be transmitted in two different ways. First, it can be transmitted through mosquito bites and the other is through human blood transfusion. The three controls that are incorporated in the dynamical system include a measurement of basic practice for blood donation procedure, self-prevention effort and vector control strategy by health authority. The optimality system of the three controls is characterized using optimal control theory and the existence and uniqueness of the optimal control are established. Then, the effect of the incorporation of the three controls is investigated by performing numerical simulation