Assessment on state’s duty to protect human rights violations by business enterprises within oil & gas industry (O&G)

To date, transnational corporations (TNCs), including oil and gas (O&G) companies, have had no direct human rights obligations under international law. International law and human rights law have principally focused on protecting individuals from violations by the government. In view of the recent development, it is timely to have a look into O&G laws in Malaysia. This article presents a brief summary of basic picture of O&G industry in Malaysia. In the first part, it gives a brief introduction of historical development of O&G industry and introduction of United Nations Guiding Principle (UNGP). It also discusses on the role of PETRONAS as the appointed main regulators of O&G industry in Malaysia. It then attempts to lay down the relationship between existing legal frameworks governing the activities in the value chain of the O&G industry in Malaysia and State responsibility to protect under UNGP principle

Effect of Photometric Redshift Uncertainties on Weak Lensing Tomography

We perform a systematic analysis of the effects of photometric redshift uncertainties on weak lensing tomography. We describe the photo-z distribution with a bias and Gaussian scatter that are allowed to vary arbitrarily between intervals of dz = 0.1 in redshift.While the mere presence of bias and scatter does not substantially degrade dark energy information, uncertainties in both parameters do. For a fiducial next-generation survey each would need to be known to better than about 0.003-0.01 in redshift for each interval in order to lead to less than a factor of 1.5 increase in the dark energy parameter errors. The more stringent requirement corresponds to a larger dark energy parameter space, when redshift variation in the equation of state of dark energy is allowed.Of order 10^4-10^5 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts fairly sampled from the source galaxy distribution will be needed to achieve this level of calibration. If the sample is composed of multiple galaxy types, a fair sample would be required for each. These requirements increase in stringency for more ambitious surveys; we quantify such scalings with a convenient fitting formula. No single aspect of a photometrically binned selection of galaxies such as their mean or median suffices, indicating that dark energy parameter determinations are sensitive to the shape and nature of outliers in the photo-z redshift distribution.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Ap

THE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES IN MALAYSIA: MALAYSIA AS A TRANSIT COUNTRY IN PROTECTING REFUGEES’ RIGHTS

The role of UNHCR and respective transit countries is to help refugees find lasting solutions that will allow them to rebuild their lives in dignity and peace, via local integration, voluntary repatriation or resettlement in a third country. Awaiting resettlement, the refugees are always mistakenly believed to be economic migrants or illegal immigrants. Due to the absence of legal or administrative regulations governing refugees, they are exposed to detention with the possibility of refoulement. These refugees are not legally permitted to work, which leads them to work discreetly and are willing to perform low-paying jobs in order to earn a living. Children are denied proper education and healthcare, which are considered as luxuries they could not afford. All these are common and enduring plights that still haunt refugees in Malaysia. This article reviews the plight of refugees in Malaysia during the transitional period before resettlement, discusses the roles of Malaysia as a transit country, and proposes lasting solutions for refugees in Malaysia. It is hoped that this article will provide a better understanding of the roles of transit countries particularly Malaysia for protection of refugees’ rights especially on their resettlement. In addition, assistance from UNHCR and other NGOs are also important to solve this problem.   Keywords: Malaysia, refugee, resettlement, transit country, UNHCR.   Cite as: Sahak, S., Nordin, R., & Ishak, M. K. (2020). The plight of refugees in Malaysia: Malaysia as a transit country in protecting refugees’ rights.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 378-394. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp378-39

Development of Guidelines for Collecting Transit Ridership Data

Transit ridership is a critical determinant for many transit applications such as operation optimizations and project prioritization under performance-based funding mechanisms. As a result, the quality of ridership data is of utmost importance to both transit administrative agencies and transit operators. Many transit operators in Virginia report their ridership data to the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) and the National Transit Database (NTD). However, with no specific guidelines available to transit agencies in Virginia for collecting ridership data, the heterogeneous mixture of diverse data collection methods and technologies has often raised concerns about the consistency and quality of the reported data. This study investigated the ridership data collection practices adopted by transit agencies in Virginia and developed high-level guidelines to facilitate data collection with improved quality. Specifically, it examined the data collection practices discussed in the literature and those adopted by local transit agencies in Virginia. The research team surveyed 39 transit agencies to obtain a clear understanding of their current practices in data collection scope, technological solutions, sampling and estimation techniques, and data storage and reporting, among others. To evaluate the potential estimation errors based on sampled data, the researchers requested and obtained actual data from five transit agencies of different sizes in Virginia. Comparisons between selected data collection solutions were conducted, and the estimation errors were tested based on different sample data from these agencies. Based on the findings from literature review, surveys, and analysis of actual data, a set of high-level data collection guidelines was proposed. This study recommends that DRPT distribute the developed guidelines among transit agencies in Virginia to help facilitate improved data collection practices across Virginia. It is also recommended that DRPT require the submission of each agency’s ridership data collection methods and correction (adjustment) procedures, in addition to the agency’s reported ridership data

Optimal Surveys for Weak Lensing Tomography

Weak lensing surveys provide a powerful probe of dark energy through the measurement of the mass distribution of the local Universe. A number of ground-based and space-based surveys are being planned for this purpose. Here, we study the optimal strategy for these future surveys using the joint constraints on the equation of state parameter wn and its evolution wa as a figure of merit by considering power spectrum tomography. For this purpose, we first consider an `ideal' survey which is both wide and deep and exempt from systematics. We find that such a survey has great potential for dark energy studies, reaching one sigma precisions of 1% and 10% on the two parameters respectively. We then study the relative impact of various limitations by degrading this ideal survey. In particular, we consider the effect of sky coverage, survey depth, shape measurements systematics, photometric redshifts systematics and uncertainties in the non-linear power spectrum predictions. We find that, for a given observing time, it is always advantageous to choose a wide rather than a deep survey geometry. We also find that the dark energy constraints from power spectrum tomography are robust to photometric redshift errors and catastrophic failures, if a spectroscopic calibration sample of 10^4-10^5 galaxies is available. The impact of these systematics is small compared to the limitations that come from potential uncertainties in the power spectrum, due to shear measurement and theoretical errors. To help the planning of future surveys, we summarize our results with comprehensive scaling relations which avoid the need for full Fisher matrix calculations.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. 10 pages, including 13 figures and 2 table

Redshift and Shear Calibration: Impact on Cosmic Shear Studies and Survey Design

The cosmological interpretation of weak lensing by large-scale structures requires knowledge of the redshift distribution of the source galaxies. Current lensing surveys are often calibrated using external redshift samples which span a significantly smaller sky area in comparison to the lensing survey, and are thus subject to sample variance. Some future lensing surveys are expected to be calibrated in the same way, in particular the fainter galaxy populations where the entire color coverage, and hence photometric redshift estimate, could be challenging to obtain. Using N-body simulations, we study the impact of this sample variance on cosmic shear analysis and show that, to first approximation, it behaves like a shear calibration error 1+/-epsilon. Using the Hubble Deep Field as a redshift calibration survey could therefore be a problem for current lensing surveys. We discuss the impact of the redshift distribution sampling error and a shear calibration error on the design of future lensing surveys, and find that a lensing survey of area Theta square degrees and limiting magnitude m_lim}, has a minimum shear and redshift calibration accuracy requirements given by epsilon = epsilon_0 10^{beta(m_lim-24.5)} / sqrt(Theta/ 200). Above that limit, lensing surveys would not reach their full potential. Using the galaxy number counts from the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, we find (epsilon_0,beta)=(0.015,-0.18) and (epsilon_0,beta)=(0.011,-0.23) for ground and space based surveys respectively. Lensing surveys with no or limited redshift information and/or poor shear calibration accuracy will loose their potential to analyse the cosmic shear signal in the sub-degree angular scales, and therefore complete photometric redshift coverage should be a top priority for future lensing surveys.Comment: Accepted version to Astroparticle Physic

Analisis Faktor Risiko Ketidaklengkapan Imunisasi Dasar pada Bayi Dl Kecamatan Suka Makmur Kabupaten Aceh Besar

In Indonesia the immunization program is resolved to achieve the universal child immunization (UCI). In 1990 the International agreement was made to give the complete immunization to all children. The children with incomplete immmunization status could increase the KLB PD31 opportunities. The purpose of the research was to achieve the illustration of incomplete baby immunization and to determine factors related to the incomplete child immunization in Sub district Suka Makmur, Aceh Besar District. It was an analytic study using a cross sectional design. The respondents were 96 mothers who had 12-23 month babies. The risk factors were age, education, occupation, income, knowledge on immunization, age at the first time contact. Data were collected by structured interview and analized by Odds Ratio (OR). Results showed the prevalence of incomplete immunization child status was about 38.6%. The age of first time contact, the mother's knowledge about immunization and the distance between the house and the immunization service centre were associated with the child immunization status

Optimising cosmic shear surveys to measure modifications to gravity on cosmic scales

We consider how upcoming photometric large scale structure surveys can be optimized to measure the properties of dark energy and possible cosmic scale modifications to General Relativity in light of realistic astrophysical and instrumental systematic uncertainities. In particular we include flexible descriptions of intrinsic alignments, galaxy bias and photometric redshift uncertainties in a Fisher Matrix analysis of shear, position and position-shear correlations, including complementary cosmological constraints from the CMB. We study the impact of survey tradeoffs in depth versus breadth, and redshift quality. We parameterise the results in terms of the Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit, and deviations from General Relativity through an analagous Modified Gravity figure of merit. We find that intrinsic alignments weaken the dependence of figure of merit on area and that, for a fixed observing time, a fiducial Stage IV survey plateaus above roughly 10,000deg2 for DE and peaks at about 5,000deg2 as the relative importance of IAs at low redshift penalises wide, shallow surveys. While reducing photometric redshift scatter improves constraining power, the dependence is shallow. The variation in constraining power is stronger once IAs are included and is slightly more pronounced for MG constraints than for DE. The inclusion of intrinsic alignments and galaxy position information reduces the required prior on photometric redshift accuracy by an order of magnitude for both the fiducial Stage III and IV surveys, equivalent to a factor of 100 reduction in the number of spectroscopic galaxies required to calibrate the photometric sample.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Fixed an error in equation 19 which changes the right hand panels of figures 1 and 2, and modifies conclusions on the results for fixed observing tim

Work from home and SME digitalisation in Malaysia: Legal challenges

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse challenges in implementing work from home for SMEs in Malaysia in the legal viewpoint. Apart from discussing relevant provisions, several court cases are also examined to identify the problems which arise in the implementation of work from home. Design/methodology/approach: This paper mainly relies on primary sources of information in form of statutes and court cases. The analysis conducted in this research is supported by secondary data. Additionally, this paper also uses an analytical descriptive approach to analyse relevant provisions from statutes and to examine current court cases regarding the implementation of work from home in SME. Findings: It is submitted that the current Malaysian legal framework on employment and safety and health at workplace is silent on the status for worker under work from home arrangement. Therefore, similar obligations and rules under the Employment Act 1955 and Occupational Safety and Occupational Safety and Health (Safety and Health Committee) Regulations 1996 is applicable to worker under work from home arrangement. Research limitations: The employer’s view must be taken into consideration into future studies. Future research should examine the employer’s perception in dealing legal issues arises in WFH arrangement. Practical implications: The study suggests that SMEs need to review their working policy with regards to WFH arrangement and ensure it is adhering to the provisions under the EA 1955. Therefore, understanding the legal issues arising in the work from home arrangement will help employer to review their company policy when dealing with workers under work from home. Originality/value: This paper provides an analysis of the legal issues arising in the work from home arrangement in particular for Malaysian SME. It is hoped that the content of this paper can provide some insight into this particular area for digitalisation regulatory framework not only in Malaysia but also elsewhere. Paper type: Conceptual paper