Mobile banking in Asia

Technology has transformed the banking industry with the introduction of mobile banking services that offer unprecedented convenience and accessibility to customers. This Asia Focus report describes the various approaches to mobile banking in Asia, and examines how particular countries have addressed regulatory issues.Payment systems ; Electronic funds transfers

Prudential liquidity standards in Asia

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, regulators have increased their focus on the ability of banks to measure and manage liquidity risk. In December 2009, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the Basel Committee) identified ineffective liquidity management as a key characteristic of the crisis and highlighted the lack of attention that liquidity risk received relative to other risks prior to the crisis. Recognizing the key role of illiquidity in the crisis, the Basel Committee included two global minimum liquidity standards as part of the recently announced Basel III supervisory framework to be implemented over the next seven years. Notably, regulators in a number of Asian economies have had prudential liquidity standards in place for many years. This Asia Focus report defines liquidity and liquidity risk, examines some common prudential liquidity standards in key Asian economies, and briefly considers the potential impact of the proposed Basel III standards on global liquidity risk management.Liquidity (Economics) - Asia ; Bank supervision

Banking reform in Vietnam

Vietnam’s banking sector is expected to have one of the highest growth rates in Asia during the next few years due to the country’s continued economic expansion, rising household incomes, and relatively low penetration of existing banking services. Over the past two decades, the Vietnamese government has undertaken a series of reforms to strengthen and modernize the sector as part of the country’s move towards a more open and marketoriented economy. Many of these reforms have also been motivated by Vietnam’s growing participation in international agreements and ongoing efforts to adopt international standards such as the Basel capital framework. Key reforms include a restructuring of the banking system, a gradual opening to foreign investment, the partial privatization of state-owned banking institutions, and measures to strengthen the capitalization of Vietnamese banks. This Asia Focus report provides an overview of Vietnam’s banking sector, reviews significant developments since the mid 1980s, and highlights key challenges to reform implementation.Banks and banking - Vietnam

An O(n^5) algorithm for MFE prediction of kissing hairpins and 4-chains in nucleic acids

Efficient methods for prediction of minimum free energy (MFE) nucleic secondary structures are widely used, both to better understand structure and function of biological RNAs and to design novel nano-structures. Here, we present a new algorithm for MFE secondary structure prediction, which significantly expands the class of structures that can be handled in O(n^5) time. Our algorithm can handle H-type pseudoknotted structures, kissing hairpins, and chains of four overlapping stems, as well as nested substructures of these types

The role of family social, human and financial capital in family business sustainability - A Malaysian case study

This paper aims to explore the nature of family capital in the form of family social, human and financial capital in the family business. It looks at the contribution of these three forms of family capital as inputs into the business over the stages of the business life-cycle and how they operate to build and sustain the business in that time

Incidence and prevalence of falls in adults living with an intellectual disability living in the community: A systematic review

Review question/objective: The objective of this review is to synthesize the best available evidence to determine the incidence and prevalence of falls in adults with intellectual disability living in the community

Dust continuum and Polarization from Envelope to Cores in Star Formation: A Case Study in the W51 North region

We present the first high-angular resolution (up to 0.7", ~5000 AU) polarization and thermal dust continuum images toward the massive star-forming region W51 North. The observations were carried out with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) in both the subcompact (SMA-SubC) and extended (SMA-Ext) configurations at a wavelength of 870 micron. W51 North is resolved into four cores (SMA1 to SMA4) in the 870 micron continuum image. The associated dust polarization exhibits more complex structures than seen at lower angular resolution. We analyze the inferred morphologies of the plane-of-sky magnetic field (B_bot) in the SMA1 to SMA4 cores and in the envelope using the SMA-Ext and SMA-SubC data. These results are compared with the B_bot archive images obtained from the CSO and JCMT. A correlation between dust intensity gradient position angles (phi_{nabla I}) and magnetic field position angles (phi_B) is found in the CSO, JCMT and both SMA data sets. This correlation is further analyzed quantitatively. A systematically tighter correlation between phi_{nabla I} and phi_B is found in the cores, whereas the correlation decreases in outside-core regions. Magnetic field-to-gravity force ratio (Sigma_B) maps are derived using the newly developed polarization - intensity gradient method by Koch, Tang & Ho 2012. We find that the force ratios tend to be small (Sigma_B <= 0.5) in the cores in all 4 data sets. In regions outside of the cores, the ratios increase or the field is even dominating gravity (Sigma_B > 1). This possibly provides a physical explanation of the tightening correlation between phi_{nabla I} and phi_B in the cores: the more the B field lines are dragged and aligned by gravity, the tighter the correlation is. Finally, we propose a schematic scenario for the magnetic field in W51 North to interpret the four polarization observations at different physical scales.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 10 pages. 7 figure

IFU observations of luminous type II AGN - I. Evidence for ubiquitous winds

We present observations of 17 luminous (log(L[O III]/L_Sun) > 8.7) local (z < 0.11) type II AGN. Our aim is to investigate the prevalence and nature of AGN driven outflows in these galaxies by combining kinematic and ionization diagnostic information. We use non-parametric methods (e.g. W80, the width containing 80% of the line flux) to assess the line widths in the central regions of our targets. The maximum values of W80 in each galaxy are in the range 400 - 1600 km/s, with a mean of 790 +- 90 km/s. Such high velocities are strongly suggestive that these AGN are driving ionized outflows. Multi-Gaussian fitting is used to decompose the velocity structure in our galaxies. 14/17 of our targets require 3 separate kinematic components in the ionized gas in their central regions. The broadest components of these fits have FWHM = 530 - 2520 km/s, with a mean value of 920 +- 50 km/s. By simultaneously fitting both the H{\beta}/[O III] and H{\alpha}/[N II] complexes we construct ionization diagnostic diagrams for each component. 13/17 of our galaxies show a significant (> 95 %) correlation between the [N II]/H{\alpha} ratio and the velocity dispersion of the gas. Such a correlation is the natural consequence of a contribution to the ionization from shock excitation and we argue that this demonstrates that the outflows from these AGN are directly impacting the surrounding ISM within the galaxies.Comment: 37 pages, 30 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The circumstellar disk of AB Aurigae: evidence for envelope accretion at late stages of star formation?

The circumstellar disk of AB Aurigae has garnered strong attention owing to the apparent existence of spirals at a relatively young stage and also the asymmetric disk traced in thermal dust emission. However, the physical conditions of the spirals are still not well understood. The origin of the asymmetric thermal emission is unclear. We observed the disk at 230 GHz (1.3 mm) in both the continuum and the spectral line ^12CO J=2-1 with IRAM 30-m, the Plateau de Bure interferometer, and the Submillimeter Array to sample all spatial scales from 0.37" to about 50". To combine the data obtained from these telescopes, several methods and calibration issues were checked and discussed. The 1.3 mm continuum (dust) emission is resolved into inner disk and outer ring. Molecular gas at high velocities traced by the CO line is detected next to the stellar location. The inclination angle of the disk is found to decrease toward the center. On a larger scale, based on the intensity weighted dispersion and the integrated intensity map of ^12CO J=2-1, four spirals are identified, where two of them are also detected in the near infrared. The total gas mass of the 4 spirals (M_spiral) is 10^-7 < M_spiral < 10^-5 M_sun, which is 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the mass of the gas ring. Surprisingly, the CO gas inside the spiral is apparently counter-rotating with respect to the CO disk, and it only exhibits small radial motion. The wide gap, the warped disk, and the asymmetric dust ring suggest that there is an undetected companion with a mass of 0.03 M_sun at a radius of 45 AU. Although an hypothetical fly-by cannot be ruled out, the most likely explanation of the AB Aurigae system may be inhomogeneous accretion well above or below the main disk plane from the remnant envelope, which can explain both the rotation and large-scale motions detected with the 30-m image.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&A journal. Typos are correcte