Oral History Interview with Hwang Soo Chiat: Conceptualising SMU

This is an abridged version of the original interview. Please contact the Library at [email protected] for access to the full version of the transcript and/or audio recording.</p

Body Positivity Movement: Influence of Beauty Standards on Body Image

Throughout history, there has always been an idealized depiction of beauty. In each culture the ideal varies but the concept of exclusion is universal. The westernized portrayal of beauty is prevalent throughout and has become ingrained into the fabric of American society. In adolescence, the development of an individual’s body influences their sense of self. With the growing prevalence of social media usage young adults are being introduced to a barrage of images celebrating westernized ideals of beauty. Currently, three out of every four young adults ages 18-24, use at least one social media platform (Perrin & Anderson, 2019). Recently, group of “influencers” noticed the single illustration of beauty, began to rally for change, and the body positivity movement was formed. The movement “hopes to remove the abundance of these images and replace them with images of real-life women of different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, ages, etc.” (Convertino, et. al, 2016)

The RMSM-S+P : a minimal poverty module for the RMSM-X

The authors present a new tool, the RMSM-X+P, which essentially consists of a RMSM-X model with an additional module for poverty and social indicators. This linkage facilitates the analysis of the impact of various macroeconomic shocks on a selected set of key social indicators. Poverty analysis is performed by the use of a poverty equation (which is estimated using pooled data for a group of low-income countries) that links the incidence of poverty to inflation, the literacy rate, real GDP per capita, the degree of trade openness, and income inequality. Similarly, the authors analyze the effects of various macroeconomic shocks on education and health with the aid of equations for education and health. This new tool allows the user to address a limited number of policy issues. However, it does possess several merits, perhaps the most substantial being that it permits the users to move beyond approaches that focus on the partial correlation between growth and poverty in discussions of poverty reduction.Health Systems Development&Reform,Public Health Promotion,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Achieving Shared Growth,Governance Indicators,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance

A case study of the audience at three art music concert in Malaysia

The development of art music and the construction of acoustically designed concert halls in Malaysia have provided more opportunities for live performances of various genres of art music. Generally, full attention is given to performers and their performances at a live concert, however it should be noted and emphasized that a live concert will not take place without the existence of its spectators. Unlike pop concerts, the size of audience at art music concerts is often small and this has become a key concern among organizers. The present study was carried out to identify the characteristics of the Malaysian audience at eight performances of three selected art music concerts: a concert version opera, a symphony concert, and a musical. A survey was used and interviewers intercepted potential respondents after each concert. Respondents were either interviewed or requested to complete the same survey questions themselves. A total of 660 samples were gathered. Based on the analysis on the respondents’ occupations, it was found that they were mostly students and were generally below 30 years old. There was a balance between those with and without music background among the respondents. Musical was found to be the most preferred genre among the seven music genres given to the respondents. The results of this survey could function as a preliminary examination for future research to trace the changing characteristic of audience over time

Modelling wall-flow diesel particulate filter regeneration processes

This research was aimed at providing a better understanding of regeneration processes in wall-flow diesel particulate filters (DPFs), with emphasis on the combustion of particulate matter (PM). A 1-D model was used to investigate the effects of inherent PM properties on DPF regeneration behaviour. These properties were mean particulate diameter, porosity and bulk density of the PM, as well as the kinetic parameters of PM oxidation, i.e. frequency factor and activation energy. A parametric study showed that the activation energy of the PM oxidation reaction was the most important parameter and this was followed by the associated frequency factor, bulk density and porosity and mean particulate diameter. Due to the importance of the kinetic parameters of the PM oxidation reactions, a new 1-D model with a multi-step reaction scheme that required no tuneable kinetic parameters for the PM oxidation reactions was developed. [Continues.

"Volatility Models of Currency Futures in Developed and Emerging Markets"

This paper examines volatility models of currency futures contracts for three developed markets and two emerging markets. For each contract, standard models of the Unbiased Expectations Hypothesis (UEH) and Cost-of-Carry hypothesis (COC) are extended to derive volatility models corresponding to each of the two standard approaches. Each volatility model is formulated as a system of individual equations for the conditional variances of futures returns, spot returns and the domestic risk-free interest rate. The empirical results suggest that the conditional volatility of futures return for emerging markets is significant in explaining the conditional volatility of returns in the underlying spot market. For developed markets, however, the conditional volatility of the spot returns is significant in explaining the conditional volatility of futures returns. Moreover, it is found that the domestic risk-free interest rate has little impact on the conditional variances of the futures, spot and domestic risk-free interest rates.

Compensation valuation for the resettlement of the indigenous communities in Bakun Hydroelectric Dam, Sarawak, Malaysia

Compensation for indigenous communities as a result of development projects has been a controversial subject. The elements of rights, entitlements, freedom and justice are often difficult to value and left out in the compensation processes. Most of the compensation packages given to the indigenous communities are in-use values and non-use values are often ignored. The non-use values which include environmental, social and cultural values are very difficult to determine and often not compensated by government. These non-use values are more important compared with use values to the indigenous communities. In this study, a sample of 379 settlers in Sungai Asap Resettlement Scheme relocated as a result of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project in Malaysia is surveyed to estimate the satisfaction with compensation as perceived by the settlers. The data was collected from September 2012 to December 2012. Logistic regressions models were used to identify the components of valuation of displacement cost that affect the settlers' satisfaction with compensation. The study of compensation valuation can result in better policies for compensating people affected by large projects. These policies will incorporate aspects of welfare more effectively thus increasing legitimacy for agencies involved in the relocation of communities. The findings showed that gaps in land compensation (differences in expected compensation and actual compensation paid out by state authorities) can result in dissatisfaction towards compensation. Besides that, environmental value (non-use value) perceived by the settlers is found to be significant in affecting probability of dissatisfaction towards compensation. The most important finding is that the lack of freedom and rights of settlers to participate in resettlement processesbring about dissatisfaction towards compensation. This has policy implication for government initiatives on compensation. An institutional avenue to consult and discuss the compensation figures with the settlers should be present to ensure agreeable compensatio

Relationship Between Job Satisfaction with Intention to Turnover: A Study on Malaysia France Institute

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between job satisfaction with turnover intentions of Malaysia France Institute employees. The instrument employed was the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) (Weiss et al., 1967) to measure job satisfaction, and a four-items adapted from Hunt, Osborn and Martin ( 198 1) was used to measure intention to turnover. The Pearson correlation, T -test, and ANOVA test were used to determine the relationships and differences between variables. A total of 130 self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all MFI employees and 72 (55. 38%) responses were collected. The results showed that more than half (55. 6%) of MFI employees were either satisfied or very satisfied with their current job and only 5. 6% have low job satisfaction. The main job satisfiers in MFI were the job activity and relationship among co-workers. Meanwhile the main job dissatisfiers were company policy and practices, and job advancement. Though it was found that job satisfaction has a moderate negative relationship (r=-0.397, p<0.0 1) with overall intention to turnover, the intention to turnover in MFI was high too. Only 8.3% respondents have low turnover intention, while 30.6% have high turnover intention and the other 6 1. 1 % have moderate turnover intention level. Other findings obtained like age, salary and working tenure did not have any significant relationship with both job satisfaction and turnover intention. Job satisfaction and intention to turnover also did not differ by gender and academic qualification. The analysis confirms that the measures of job satisfaction exert an inverse relationship with intention to turnover. That is, the higher levels of job satisfaction are associated with lower levels of intention to turnover. However, the situation in MFI was a little different, where high level of job satisfaction does not guarantee low intention to turnover. The probable reason behind the finding was that though the MFI employees are satisfied with their current job, they perceive that there are better job opportunities available elsewhere