GARCH Diagnosis with Portmanteau Bicorrelation Test: An Application on the Malaysia's Stock Market

This study employed the Hinich portmanteau bicorrelation test (Hinich and Patterson, 1995; Hinich, 1996) as a diagnostic tool to determine the adequacy of the GARCH model in describing the returns generating process of Malaysia’s stock market, specifically the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index (KLSE CI). The bicorrelation results demonstrated that, while GARCH model is commonly applied to financial time series, this model cannot provide an adequate characterization for the underlying process of KLSE CI. Further investigation using the windowed test procedure revealed that this was due to the presence of episodic non- stationarity in the data, which could not be captured by any kind of ARCH or GARCH model, even after modifications to the specifications of the GARCH model. Thus, this study points to the need to continue the search for a parsimonious and congruent model capable of capturing the episodic features presence in the returns series of KLSE CI.GARCH; Non-linearity; Non-stationarity; Data generating process; Bicorrelation; Malaysian stock market.

Prevalence of hearing loss and hearing impairment among small and medium enterprise workers in Selangor, Malaysia

Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989 has always demanded employer to protect workers from noise exposure ≥85 dB. However, noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) has been the highest notifiable occupational health issue among Malaysian workers in 2014. A cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence of hearing loss (HL) among 146 adult manufacturing workers with noise exposure ≥85 dB was carried out in Selangor. Pure tone audiometry and a validated questionnaire were used to determine the hearing status and information of the respondents. The results showed that the prevalence of HL was 73.3% and the prevalence of hearing impairment was 23.3%. Male workers (63.0%) had higher prevalence of HL than female workers (36.4%). Mean hearing threshold levels of HL respondents were significantly higher than respondents with normal hearing. It was discovered that among workers with employment of more than 10 years, > 80% of them suffered from HL. Association between employment years and hearing condition (normal, non-bilateral and bilateral HL) was statistically significant, χ(4)= 10.51, p=0.033, with Kendall tau-c correlation showing positive and weak (p=0.18) association. Highest HL cases were found at 4 and 6 kHz. World Health Organisation and Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulation 1989 classification on degree of hearing impairment showed slight to moderate hearing impairment among the respondents and both standards did not differ much (8.9% vs 6.9%, respectively). As a conclusion, prevalence of hearing loss and hearing impairment among manufacturing workers were high. Age, male sex, monthly salary and employment years were possible influencing factors

Scale-Up Effect on Heat Transfer in a Fluidized Bed Near the Onset of Turbulent Fluidization

Heat transfer coefficients were measured in 0.29 m ID and 1.56 m ID fluidization columns with the same heater tube, identical alumina particles and geometrically scaled distributors. The maximum coefficients occurred in the turbulent fluidization flow regime. The Froude number based on superficial velocity and column diameter captures the scale-up effect well, so long as the heater is located in a region of similar flow structure

A study on simulation analysis for laser-welded I-core sandwich plate with different material properties and T-joint weld characteristic

Stiffness and strength of sandwich plate vary depending on similar (SI) or dissimilar (DSI) material element (faceplate or core) and laser weld geometry. The issues of I-core sandwich plate characteristics are essential to attain practical sandwich plate application. Hence, research on different material properties and T-joint weld characteristics of I-core sandwich steel plate presents a positive understanding of various character factors that affect sandwich plate bending performance. In this paper, the I-core sandwich steel plate characteristic was investigated using finite element analysis (FEA). The 3-point bending with a fine meshing, interaction of elements, and load applied was kept constant. The partition size at the laser weld geometry is smaller, and the partition size continuously grows when further away from the weld geometry. The result shows that a combination of weak and strong material on either element will reduce I-core sandwich's stiffness and strength unless strong material is assigned at the faceplate and core. Moreover, there is a significant change when rootgap is present. This influencing the centric and eccentric of the weld. The weld width produces a perfect bending as wholesome T-joint, yet to achieve such traits is impossible in reality but possible when the weld length is closer to the length of the core. The exploration of these characteristics in response to I-core sandwich steel plate holds a good response in engaging for the multiple variables that affect the plate's stiffness and strength

Homoserine and quorum-sensing acyl homoserine lactones as alternative sources of threonine:A potential role for homoserine kinase in insect-stage Trypanosoma brucei

10.1111/mmi.12853Molecular Microbiology951143-15

Time and Amplitude of Afterpulse Measured with a Large Size Photomultiplier Tube

We have studied the afterpulse of a hemispherical photomultiplier tube for an upcoming reactor neutrino experiment. The timing, the amplitude, and the rate of the afterpulse for a 10 inch photomultiplier tube were measured with a 400 MHz FADC up to 16 \ms time window after the initial signal generated by an LED light pulse. The time and amplitude correlation of the afterpulse shows several distinctive groups. We describe the dependencies of the afterpulse on the applied high voltage and the amplitude of the main light pulse. The present data could shed light upon the general mechanism of the afterpulse.Comment: 11 figure

On Delays in Management Frameworks: Metrics, Models and Analysis

Management performance evaluation means assessment of scalability, complexity, accuracy, throughput, delays and resources consumptions. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of management frameworks delays through a set of specific metrics. We investigate the statistical properties of these metrics when the number of management nodes increases. We show that management delays measured at the application level are statistically modeled by distributions with heavy tails, especially the Weibull distribution. Given that delays can substantially degrade the capacity of management algorithms to react and resolve problems it is useful to get a finer model to describe them.We suggest theWeibull distribution as a model of delays for the analysis and simulations of such algorithms

Role of ABCB1 C3435T variant in response to antiepileptic drugs in epilepsy: a review

Over-expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the encoded product of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC), sub-family B, member 1 (ABCB1/MDR1) gene, plays an important role in mediating multidrug resistance to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in about 30 of patients with epilepsy. Genetic variation may in part explain inter-individual differences in phenotype-genotype relationships in the pharmacological response of epilepsy patients to AEDs. The synonymous C3435T polymorphism is one of the most common allelic variants in the ABCB1/MDR1 gene, proposed in the causation of refractory epilepsy. Many studies have shown the relationship between C3435T polymorphism and refractoriness to AEDs in epilepsy. However, there is controversy between the findings of various studies, that is, whether ABCB1/MDR1 C3435T gene polymorphism is associated with response to AEDs in epilepsy patients. This review provides a background and discusses the results of investigations on possible confounding factors affecting the interpretation and implementation of association studies in this area

Solar Neutrinos: What We Have Learned

The four operating solar neutrino experiments confirm the hypothesis that the energy source for solar luminosity is hydrogen fusion. However, the measured rate for each of the four solar neutrino experiments differs significantly (by factors of 2.0 to 3.5) from the corresponding theoretical prediction that is based upon the standard solar model and the simplest version of the standard electroweak theory. If standard electroweak theory is correct, the energy spectrum for \b8 neutrinos created in the solar interior must be the same (to one part in $10^5$) as the known laboratory \b8 neutrino energy spectrum. Direct comparison of the chlorine and the Kamiokande experiments, both sensitive to \b8 neutrinos, suggests that the discrepancy between theory and observations depends upon neutrino energy, in conflict with standard expectations. Monte Carlo studies with 1000 implementations of the standard solar model confirm that the chlorine and the Kamiokande experiments cannot be reconciled unless new weak interaction physics changes the shape of the \b8 neutrino energy spectrum. The results of the two gallium solar neutrino experiments strengthen the conclusion that new physics is required and help determine a relatively small allowed region for the MSW neutrino parameters.Comment: LaTeX file, 19 pages. For hardcopy with figures contact [email protected]. Institute for Advanced Study number AST 93/6