Performance of Islamic and conventional exchange traded funds in Malaysia

ETFs have attracted many investors as one of the most innovative products of financial engineering. By virtue of the nascent nature of MyETF-DJIM Titan 25 and FBM 30ETF in Malaysia, comparative performance studies are essential during a financial crisis. MyETF is different from FBM 30ETF in terms of investment scope and ShariÑah governance structure. While MyETF has achieved its objective in tracking its index, FBM 30ETF has failed in this respect. Despite its higher total risk, MyETF performed better than its index. The same applies in the case of FBM 30ETF. Although MyETF has bigger net assets, economies of scale, and better diversification, the performances of the two funds are lacklustre and similar, with FBM 30ETF performing somewhat better. Notwithstanding their success to outperform their respective benchmarks, both ETFs had comparable negative performance, with decline in prices and NAV. The negative returns have caused abnormality in their measurements.Islamic Capital market, Islamic ETF, MyETF, FBM 30ETF, Trading, Performance

Management of cystic lymphangioma: experience of two referral centers

Introduction/aim Cystic lymphangioma is a benign rare malformation of the lymphatic system consisting of masses of abnormal lymphatic channels, occurring in one out of 2000–4000 live births. Conventional surgical excision remains the most popular method of treatment in many developing countries. Recent advances in sclerotherapy have expanded contemporary management options, particularly when complete surgical resection is difficult because of the presence of multiple loculi and extensive lesions. This study aims to present our experience in the management of these cases.Material and methods Records of all cases of lymphangioma seen at the Pediatric Surgical Unit from Mansoura and Tanta University hospitals in the period from January 2007 to November 2010 were reviewed. Special charts were designed to retrieve the following data from records: age at presentation, sex, site of the pathology, clinical presentation, investigations, management modality, and outcome of treatment.Results There were 93 children; 40 (43%) were males and 53 (57%) were females. Surgery was the line of treatment in 89 cases (one stage in 56 cases and two stages in 33 cases). Four patients underwent injection sclerotherapy as the primary treatment. Recurrence occurred in 16 cases. Other complications included a disfiguring scar in nine patients, seroma in seven patients, skin disruption, hematoma, and hypoglossal nerve palsy in two patients, facial nerve palsy in one patient, and cellulitis following a sclerosant injection in one case.Conclusion A staged operative procedure may be necessary in order to reduce mortality, and sclerotherapy has almost the same efficacy as the first line of management as surgery, although it is not widely practiced in developing countries. There is a high postoperative complication associated with surgical excision, especially with head and neck cystic lymphangiomas. Anesthesia in these patients requires careful monitoring. Long-term follow-up is desirable after excision because of the possibility of recurrence. Keywords: cystic lymphangioma, management, sclerotherap

Superhydrophobic dyeing of orange fruit pigment on cotton knitted textile application

The pigment is the substance that changes the colour of light based on the result of selective colour absorption. Pigments are used for colouring paint, fabric, ink, food, cosmetic and other materials. The materials that chosen and developed by human for use as pigment must have special properties that make them ideal for make them colouring other materials. The pigment must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures [1]. Pigments can be divided into two groups which is organic pigment and inorganic pigment. For inorganic pigments, the colour is comparatively less bright and these pigments are also seemed to be less rich than the organic pigments. Large amount of inorganic pigments are required to generate desired effects since these pigments have low tinting strength. The most important thing is inorganic pigment contains toxic substances that may be harm to our health and environment. The researchers are started to investigate and use organic pigment into textile application nowadays [2]

Marketing strategy and product performance: a study of selected firms in Nigeria

This study was conducted to investigate the nature of relationship between marketing strategy and product performance with a special focus on the food and beverage industry in Nigeria. The study used primary data gathered from 284 randomly selected staff of ten selected companies. These companies are quoted on the Nigerian stock exchange. To do this, a questionnaire was adopted as research instrument. The data gathered was subjected to factor analysis and regression analysis.  The results show that indeed marketing strategy impacts product performance of the observed firms. More so, of all the factors considered (promotion strategy, Product strategy, Distribution strategy, General marketing strategy and Pricing Strategy) promotional factors were found to be most important, then product strategy while pricing mix account for the least variation. This paper therefore recommends that business organisations should accord necessary attention to the element of marketing strategy by designing  market strategies driven by a sound marketing management, targeting and strategic positioning.         Key Words: Marketing Strategies, Product performance, Marketing mix, Marketing management, Consumer patronage, Advertising, Marketing, Market Shar

Assessment of Pancreatic and Hepatic Histological Changes in Streptozotocin Induced Diabetic Rats Fed with Morizella Juice

Background: Hibiscus sabdariffa and Moringa oleifera has been reported to have ant diabetic effect on hyperglycemic animals. However, there are no reports on its histological and physiological changes in diabetic animals. Objective: To assess the pancreatic and hepatic histological changes in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats fed with Morizella juice. Methods: A Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) was used for this study, 40 adult male Wistar rats, 9 to 10 weeks with a bodyweight 190g – 250g were selected for the study. The animals were divided into four main groups (A, B, C, and D), each group was further subdivided into two groups with 5 rats. The experiments were divided into acute and sub-acute tests of 10 animals per group. At the end of the experiment, animals were sacrificed, pancreatic and liver tissues were harvested and histologically processed. Sections were examined and photographed using a light microscope (Leica® DM 750) with an in-built camera ((Icc50 HD-47142065) and the number of Islet cells was measured in 40 high-power fields. Results: Microscopic structures of the pancreas revealed that the number of Islets of Langerhans was significantly higher in the Morizella treated groups at the dosages of 50mg/kg and 100 mg/kg body weight. The microscopic structure of the liver in both treated groups presented with normal histological architecture when compared with both control groups Conclusion: There was a dose-dependent increase of islets of Langerhans cells in the acute and sub-acute group treated with Morizella extracts compared to the control group. Additionally, the liver architecture was reversed back to the normal in Morizella-treated group

The effect of transportation in logistics operation on an entrepreneurial performance

The need for transportation in logistic operation cannot be undermined if a business is to stay competitive in a globalised economy. Improvements in customer awareness have made industries to use logistics as an important tool to increase returns, improve operational efficiency and performance. This study examined the effect of transportation in logistics operation on an entrepreneurial performance. The research employed a survey research with a self-structured questionnaire using a multistage sampling techniques and a simple random selection. A sample of 150 staff from 10 selected entrepreneurial firms in Lagos and Ogun state distributing 15 questionnaires each to them to form the basis of the data. The data gathered for the study after being hypothesized were analysed using descriptive statistic, T-test and regression analysis. The result of the findings showed that there is a strong and significant relationship (r = 0.784) between transportation in logistics operation and entrepreneur performance and also that transportation in logistics operation has significant effect on entrepreneurial performance with a T-test value of value 0.00. Thus, it is concluded that transportation in logistics operation is an effective tool entrepreneurs can employ in the quest to remain competitive and effective in their operations.Keywords: Transportation, Logistics Operation, Entrepreneur, Performanc

Pyloric atresia epidermolysis bullosa aplasia cutis syndrome: a case report and literature review

The association between epidermolysis bullosa and congenital pyloric atresia is rare, but is a known distinct clinical entity with autosomal recessive inheritance. We report on a case of a baby girl born by cesarean section at 37 weeks’ gestation to a G7 P7 mother and weighed 2.84 kg. At birth, there was denuded skin over the right leg from the knee joint up to the middle of the right foot. Abdominal radiograph was thus performed and indicated absent gas in the small bowel and single bubble appearance of the stomach. Pyloric atresia was surgically corrected. Electron microscopy of skin biopsies showed junctional epidermolysis bullosa. There was typical nail dystrophy and no corneal lesions; ultrasonography for the renal system was normal. At 4 months of age, the baby required gastrostomy and fundoplication for severe failure to thrive. Six weeks after her second surgical procedure, the patient presented to the emergency room dead; the parents provided a typical scenario of sudden infant death syndrome at home. Examination indicated no signs of child abuse; the parents refused an autopsy exam for the child.Keywords: aplasia cutis syndrome, epidermolysis bullosa, pyloric atresi

Lung cancer medical images classification using hybrid CNN-SVM

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Early detection of this disease increases the chances of survival. Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) has been used to process CT images of the lung to determine whether an image has traces of cancer. This paper presents an image classification method based on the hybrid Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm and Support Vector Machine (SVM). This algorithm is capable of automatically classifying and analyzing each lung image to check if there is any presence of cancer cells or not. CNN is easier to train and has fewer parameters compared to a fully connected network with the same number of hidden units. Moreover, SVM has been utilized to eliminate useless information that affects accuracy negatively. In recent years, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have achieved excellent performance in many computer visions tasks. In this study, the performance of this algorithm is evaluated, and the results indicated that our proposed CNN-SVM algorithm has been succeed in classifying lung images with 97.91% accuracy. This has shown the method's merit and its ability to classify lung cancer in CT images accurately

Physical enrichment of transposon mutants from saturation mutant libraries using the TraDISort approach

Transposon-insertion sequencing methods are finding their way into the molecular toolbox of many fields of microbiology. These methods can identify the genomic locations and density of transposon insertions in saturated transposon mutant libraries and can be used to make inferences on gene function. For example, where no insertions or very few insertions are identified within a gene in a mutant library grown under permissive conditions, the gene may be essential. Furthermore, where mutations are enriched or lost in a gene after passaging the library through a selective process, the gene is likely to be involved in the process. Typically, a fitness based selection such as a stress condition is used in these experiments and the processed sequencing data is used to identify genes required for fitness under the selection. Our research team recently expanded the utility of the transposon directed insertion sequencing (TraDIS) method by applying a physical separation of a transposon mutant library mediated by fluorescence activated cell sorting, rather than a fitness-based selection. This approach, which we have named “TraDISort” is significant because it allows the study of phenotypes that are not linked to cell survival. The TraDISort approach has a broad range of future applications, in drug development, metabolic engineering and in studies of basic bacterial cell physiology

Outbreak of Aeromonas hydrophila wound infections association with mud football

On 16 February 2002, a total of 26 people presented to the emergency department of the local hospital in the rural town of Collie in southwest Western Australia with many infected scratches and pustules distributed over their bodies. All of the patients had participated in a “mud football” competition the previous day, in which there had been 100 participants. One patient required removal of an infected thumbnail, and another required surgical debridement of an infected toe. Aeromonas hydrophila was isolated from all 3 patients from whom swab specimens were obtained. To prepare the mud football fields, a paddock was irrigated with water that was pumped from an adjacent river during the 1-month period before the competition. A. hydrophila was subsequently isolated from a water sample obtained from the river. This is the first published report of an outbreak of A. hydrophila wound infections associated with exposure to mud.Hassan Vally, Amanda Whittle, Scott Cameron, Gary K. Dowse and Tony Watso