Lessons from Post-colonial Malaysian Economic Development

Malaysian economic development has been shaped by public policy in response to changing national and external conditions. Public investments peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s, until the policy reversals driven by sovereign debt concerns and new policy ideology fads. Foreign investments continued to be favoured after independence for ethnic political reasons. Thus, foreign investments continued to be very significant in financial services as well as manufacturing growth, both for import substitution from the 1960s and for export from the 1970s. Private investments were attracted by government provision of infrastructure, cheap but schooled labour, tax incentives, lax environmental regulations and an undervalued currency. Poverty reduction and ownership redistribution by ethnicity were most successful during the 1970s and early 1980s, although it is unclear how much these improved inter-ethnic relations. Economic liberalization and the growing influence of business interests and political elites have undermined the government’s developmental role, culminating in the 1997–8 financial crisis and lacklustre growth since. Malaysian industrialization could only have been achieved with appropriate incentives for investments and technical progress through key policy interventions.Malaysia, development strategies, liberalization, intervention

Design of serrate-semi-circular riblets with application to skin friction reduction on engineering surface

Drag reduction in wall-bounded flows can be achieved by the passive flow control technique through the application of bio-inspired riblet surfaces. This paper presents the innovative design of Serrate-Semi-Circular riblet surfaces particularly focusing on the intrinsic relationship between the riblet features and the turbulent boundary layer structure resulting from these surfaces in engineering applications. The available experimental facilities, instrumentation (i.e. hotwire) and measurement techniques (i.e. velocity spectra) have been employed to investigate the boundary layer velocity profiles and skin friction for flat plate and Serrate-Semi-Circular riblet surfaces. Both the simulation and experimental wind tunnel testing results show that the Serrate-Semi-Circular riblet surface can provide 7% drag reduction, which is better than other riblet configurations, such as V and U shaped ones

SiO and H2O Maser Observations of Red Supergiants in Star Clusters Embedded in the Galactic Disk

We present the result of radio observations of red supergiants in the star cluster, Stephenson's #2, and candidates for red supergiants in the star clusters, Mercer et al. (2005)'s #4, #8, and #13, in the SiO and H$_2$O maser lines.The Stephenson's #2 cluster and nearby aggregation at the South-West contain more than 15 red supergiants. We detected one at the center of Stephenson's #2 and three in the south-west aggregation in the SiO maser line, and three of these 4 were also detected in the H2O maser line. The average radial velocity of the 4 detected objects is 96 km s^{-1}, giving a kinematic distance of 5.5 kpc, which locates this cluster near the base of the Scutum-Crux spiral arm. We also detected 6 SiO emitting objects associated with the other star clusters. In addition, mapping observations in the CO J=1--0 line toward these clusters revealed that an appreciable amount of molecular gas still remains around Stephenson's #2 cluster in contrast to the prototypical red-supergiant cluster, Bica et al.'s #122. It indicates that a time scale of gas expulsion differs considerably in individual clusters.Comment: high res. figures available at http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~lib_pub/report/data/no674.pdf. PASJ 62, No.2 (2010, April 25 issue) in pres

The Y-box factor ZONAB/DbpA associates with GEF-H1/Lfc and mediates Rho-stimulated transcription

Epithelial tight junctions recruit different types of signalling proteins that regulate cell proliferation and differentiation. Little is known about how such proteins interact functionally and biochemically with each other. Here, we focus on the Y-box transcription factor ZONAB (zonula occludens 1-associated nucleic-acid-binding protein)/DbpA (DNA-binding protein A) and the Rho GTPase activator guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF)-H1/Lbc's first cousin, which are two tight-junction-associated signalling proteins that regulate proliferation. Our data show that the two proteins interact and that ZONAB activity is Rho-dependent. Overexpression of GEF-H1 induces accumulation of ZONAB in the nucleus and activates transcription. Microtubule-affinity regulating kinase/partition-defective-1, another type of GEF-H1-associated signalling protein, remains in the cytoplasm and partially co-localizes with the exchange factor. GEF-H1 and ZONAB are required for expression of endogenous cyclin D1, a crucial RhoA signalling target gene, and GEF-H1-stimulated cyclin D1 promoter activity requires ZONAB. Our data thus indicate that GEF-H1 and ZONAB form a signalling module that mediates Rho-regulated cyclin D1 promoter activation and expression

Food Safety Knowledge and Practice Among Community in Sg. Pelek, Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan

Food safety is a basic requirement of food quality. It is an increasingly important public health issue to prevent and control food borne illnesses. A cross-sectional study was designed to determine level of knowledge and practice on food safety, to determine the association between knowledge and practice, and also to identify the association between socio-demographic factors and practice score of the population studied. This study was conducted among adult population in Taman Bahagia, Sungai Pelek, Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Data were collected using an interviewed structured questionnaire. A stratified random sampling was performed to obtain houses, followed by simple random sampling to select sample in the house. A total of 115 data sets were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Analysis showed that 35% of respondents have poor level of knowledge on food safety, whereas 27% of the respondents have poor level of practices on food safety. Multiple linear regression revealed that there are a significant association between education level (p<0.001), Adj b=2.57 (95% CI: 1.15, 3.99) and gender (p=0.048), Adj b=1.15 (95% CI: 0.01, 2.29) with practice score on food safety. Therefore, health promotion and education on the importance of practicing food safety at home should be focused to prevent further unwanted health effects

The moderating influence of user characteristics on the relationship between user involvement and perceived usefulness of information systems

This study examines the moderating effect of user characteristics on the relationship between user involvement and perceived usefulness of ISs. Thirty-two organi2:ations with 127 users have participated in this study. Results indicate that among user characteristics, feelings about the existence of procedures to handle conflicts between users and the IS staff, years with the company, and years of IS experience produce moderating effects in the planning and design stage, or in the implementation stage of IS development

Structural relaxation in a system of dumbbell molecules

The interaction-site-density-fluctuation correlators, the dipole-relaxation functions, and the mean-squared displacements of a system of symmetric dumbbells of fused hard spheres are calculated for two representative elongations of the molecules within the mode-coupling theory for the evolution of glassy dynamics. For large elongations, universal relaxation laws for states near the glass transition are valid for parameters and time intervals similar to the ones found for the hard-sphere system. Rotation-translation coupling leads to an enlarged crossover interval for the mean-squared displacement of the constituent atoms between the end of the von Schweidler regime and the beginning of the diffusion process. For small elongations, the superposition principle for the reorientational $\alpha$-process is violated for parameters and time intervals of interest for data analysis, and there is a strong breaking of the coupling of the $\alpha$-relaxation scale for the diffusion process with that for representative density fluctuations and for dipole reorientations.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, Phys. Rev. E in pres

Emergent particle-hole symmetry in spinful bosonic quantum Hall systems

When a fermionic quantum Hall system is projected into the lowest Landau level, there is an exact particle-hole symmetry between filling fractions $\nu$ and $1-\nu$. We investigate whether a similar symmetry can emerge in bosonic quantum Hall states, where it would connect states at filling fractions $\nu$ and $2-\nu$. We begin by showing that the particle-hole conjugate to a composite fermion `Jain state' is another Jain state, obtained by reverse flux attachment. We show how information such as the shift and the edge theory can be obtained for states which are particle-hole conjugates. Using the techniques of exact diagonalization and infinite density matrix renormalization group, we study a system of two-component (i.e., spinful) bosons, interacting via a $\delta$-function potential. We first obtain real-space entanglement spectra for the bosonic integer quantum Hall effect at $\nu=2$, which plays the role of a filled Landau level for the bosonic system. We then show that at $\nu=4/3$ the system is described by a Jain state which is the particle-hole conjugate of the Halperin (221) state at $\nu=2/3$. We show a similar relationship between non-singlet states at $\nu=1/2$ and $\nu=3/2$. We also study the case of $\nu=1$, providing unambiguous evidence that the ground state is a composite Fermi liquid. Taken together our results demonstrate that there is indeed an emergent particle-hole symmetry in bosonic quantum Hall systems.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 4 appendice