Language maintenance and competing priorities at the Portuguese Settlement, Malacca

Papia Kristang or Malacca Creole Portuguese, is the „language‟ of the descendents of the Portuguese who conquered Malacca in 1511 and it has been spoken by the Kristang speech community at the Portuguese Settlement, Malacca for at least five centuries. However, in 1984 the creole is listed on the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages. A community‟s awareness of and its response to its endangered language situation is a fundamental factor that will determine the future of its language. While the quest for socio-economic development and economic mobility over language preservation are reasons often cited for the lack of focus to reverse the language shift taking place, often there are other issues from a minority community‟s perspective that influence its priorities. Data from interviews and an attitude and subjective vitality (ASV) questionnaire indicate that the belief systems of the community and the socio-political context of inter-group relations in the country are interlinking factors that determine language maintenance and competing priorities at the Portuguese Settlement. In conclusion, the lack of urgency for language maintenance is best analyzed and understood by taking into consideration the context of its minority status and intergroup relations in the country

To Hell, with Shakespeare

In the teaching of Shakespearean plays to ESL students, deciphering Shakespeare‟s language has often been cited as the main obstacle to comprehending his work. While this may hold true to a large extent, there are other „aspects‟/‟areas‟ in Shakespeare‟s plays such as the concept of Hell and black comedy, which may prove equally demanding to comprehend in the ESL classroom. Humor is not only relative but it is also time and culture-bound; in the case of the Malaysian classroom, getting students from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to comprehend the black humor in the Porter‟s scene in Macbeth is no laughing matter. This paper reports on how the researcher tapped on the diverse religious beliefs of the students and used Taoist, Muslim, and Hindu concepts of the afterlife as a prelude to teach and read the Porter‟s scene. Following this, the ESL students engaged in communicative, language-based activities such as interviews with the Porter or characters in the afterlife to suspend disbelief and transcend the text. As a result of the creative methodology used in the class, the ESL students were able to discuss and comprehend Shakespeare‟s treatment of Hell and grasp the concept of black comedy in the play. In conclusion, the methodology advocated in the study celebrated creativity and diversity in the Malaysian classroom

Corporate Governance and Internationalization of Malaysia Public Listed Companies

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the corporate governance on Internationalization for a sample 46 listed companies from 2008 to 2011 which have the reported international operations abroad. The study proposes that corporate governance mechanisms such as directors’ compensation and characteristics of the board could influence firms' decision to internationalization. The measurement for internationalization is foreign sales (FS) and foreign assets (FA). The empirical results indicate that Internationalization by measuring FS is negative and significant related to board size. While measuring by FA indicate the negative and insignificant result. On the other hand, FA and FS are positive and significant related to executive compensation. However, it also found insignificantly related to CEO duality and board independent. According to MCCG requirement, the role of CEO and chairman should remain as non-duality to avoid CEO overpower and board to consist of 1/3 of independent board directors. As result, corporate governance characteristics especially board size and director remuneration does influence firm internationalization

Modelling flan wear of carbide tool insert in metal cutting

In this paper theoretical and experimental studies are carried out to investigate the intrinsic relationship between tool flank wear and operational conditions in metal cutting processes using carbide cutting inserts.Anewflank wear rate model, which combines cutting mechanics simulation and an empirical model, is developed to predict tool flank wear land width. A set of tool wear cutting tests using hard metal coated carbide cutting inserts are performed under different operational conditions. The wear of the cutting inset is evaluated and recorded using Zygo New View 5000 microscope. The results of the experimental studies indicate that cutting speed has a more dramatic effect on tool life than feed rate. The wear constants in the proposed wear rate model are determined based on the machining data and simulation results. A good agreements between the predicted and measured tool flank wear land width show that the developed tool wear model can accurately predict tool flank wear to some extent

Correlators of Vertex Operators for Circular Strings with Winding Numbers in AdS5xS5

We compute semiclassically the two-point correlator of the marginal vertex operators describing the rigid circular spinning string state with one large spin and one windining number in AdS_5 and three large spins and three winding numbers in S^5. The marginality condition and the conformal invariant expression for the two-point correlator obtained by using an appropriate vertex operator are shown to be associated with the diagonal and off-diagonal Virasoro constraints respectively. We evaluate semiclassically the three-point correlator of two heavy circular string vertex operators and one zero-momentum dilaton vertex operator and discuss its relation with the derivative of the dimension of the heavy circular string state with respect to the string tension.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Quality control/quality assurance testing for longitudinal joint density and segregation of asphalt mixtures

AbstractLongitudinal joint quality control/assurance is essential to the successful performance of asphalt pavement and it has received considerable amount of attention in recent years. Five paving projects were selected for sampling and evaluation in Iowa. For each project, joint quality is compared with regard to the “center” of the pavement mat (6′ right of joint). Field densities and permeability test were made. Cores were obtained for subsequent lab permeability, density and indirect tensile (IDT) strength testing. Asphalt content and gradations were also obtained to determine the joint segregation.In general, this study found that methods providing the most reliable measurements of joint quality are the AASHTO T166, AASHTO T331 (CoreLok) density tests and the permeability test by Karol-Warner Permeameter. The minimum required joint density for quality control should be around 90.0% and 88.5% of theoretical maximum density based on the AASHTO T166 and AASHTO T331 method respectively. Based on various mix design and longitudinal joint construction methods, the joints show differences in asphalt content and level of segregation. Results of this study indicate that poor quality of longitudinal joint should be a combination of segregation, asphalt content variation and insufficient density

Three-point correlators for giant magnons

Three-point correlation functions in the strong-coupling regime of the AdS/CFT correspondence can be analyzed within a semiclassical approximation when two of the vertex operators correspond to heavy string states having large quantum numbers while the third vertex corresponds to a light state with fixed charges. We consider the case where the heavy string states are chosen to be giant magnon solitons with either a single or two different angular momenta, for various different choices of light string states.Comment: 15 pages. Latex. v2: Misprints corrected. Published versio