The growth of consumer credit in Asia

Consumer credit has shown strong growth in emerging and newly industrialised Asian economies in recent years. While credit card lending has helped smooth consumer spending and improved the profitability of financial institutions, it also represents a new source of risk. Preventing financial and macroeconomic instability associated with consumer lending requires policy makers to be confident that lenders have proper risk management systems in place and consumers have sustainable debt burdens. Public policy also needs to ensure that essential infrastructure for consumer credit is available and set up properly, such as credit information bureaux and personal debt workout systems.Asia; Consumer credit; financial services industry

Species Abundance Distribution and Species Accumulation Curve: A General Framework and Results

We build a general framework which establishes a one-to-one correspondence between species abundance distribution (SAD) and species accumulation curve (SAC). The appearance rates of the species and the appearance times of individuals in each species are modeled as Poisson processes. The number of species can be finite or infinite. We introduce a linear derivative ratio family of models, $\mathrm{LDR}_1$, of which the ratio of the first and the second derivatives of the expected SAC is a linear function. A D1/D2 plot is proposed to detect this linear pattern in the data. The SAD of $\mathrm{LDR}_1$ is the Engen's extended negative binomial distribution, and the SAC encompasses several popular parametric forms including the power law. Family $\mathrm{LDR}_1$ is extended in two ways: $\mathrm{LDR}_2$ which allows species with zero detection probability, and $\mathrm{RDR}_1$ where the derivative ratio is a rational function. We also consider the scenario where we record only a few leading appearance times of each species. We show how maximum likelihood inference can be performed when only the empirical SAC is observed, and elucidate its advantages over the traditional curve-fitting method.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figure

Crystal structure of archaeal RNase HII: a homologue of human major RNase H

AbstractBackground: RNases H are present in all organisms and cleave RNAs in RNA/DNA hybrids. There are two major types of RNases H that have little similarity in sequence, size and specificity. The structure of RNase HI, the smaller enzyme and most abundant in bacteria, has been extensively studied. However, no structural information is available for the larger RNase H, which is most abundant in eukaryotes and archaea. Mammalian RNase H participates in DNA replication, removal of the Okazaki fragments and possibly DNA repair.Results: The crystal structure of RNase HII from the hypothermophile Methanococcus jannaschii, which is homologous to mammalian RNase H, was solved using a multiwavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) phasing method at 2 Å resolution. The structure contains two compact domains. Despite the absence of sequence similarity, the large N-terminal domain shares a similar fold with the RNase HI of bacteria. The active site of RNase HII contains three aspartates: Asp7, Asp112 and Asp149. The nucleotide-binding site is located in the cleft between the N-terminal and C-terminal domains.Conclusions: Despite a lack of any detectable similarity in primary structure, RNase HII shares a similar structural domain with RNase HI, suggesting that the two classes of RNases H have a common catalytic mechanism and possibly a common evolutionary origin. The involvement of the unique C-terminal domain in substrate recognition explains the different reaction specificity observed between the two classes of RNase H

A Comparative Study of Female Retirement Awareness and Readiness in Malaysia and China

A phenomenon has emerged whereby the life expectancy of women is 74.2 years, and men's is 69.8 years. Hence, it is crucial to encourage early retirement planning among women. This study explores the factors influencing retirement planning awareness and readiness among women in Malaysia and China. 100 Malaysians and 200 Chinese completed a self-administered online questionnaire. Using IBM SPSS and SmartPLS, the determinants examined the moderating effect of self-efficacy toward retirement readiness. This study will provide valuable insights for policymakers to adopt better strategies to address women's issues and improve their quality of life. Keywords: Female Retirement Planning; Comparing Malaysia and China; Gender Equality; Quality of Life eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2023. The Authors. Published for AMER & cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DO

The growth of consumer credit in Asia

Consumer credit has shown strong growth in emerging and newly industrialised Asian economies in recent years. While credit card lending has helped smooth consumer spending and improved the profitability of financial institutions, it also represents a new source of risk. Preventing financial and macroeconomic instability associated with consumer lending requires policy makers to be confident that lenders have proper risk management systems in place and consumers have sustainable debt burdens. Public policy also needs to ensure that essential infrastructure for consumer credit is available and set up properly, such as credit information bureaux and personal debt workout systems

The growth of consumer credit in Asia

Consumer credit has shown strong growth in emerging and newly industrialised Asian economies in recent years. While credit card lending has helped smooth consumer spending and improved the profitability of financial institutions, it also represents a new source of risk. Preventing financial and macroeconomic instability associated with consumer lending requires policy makers to be confident that lenders have proper risk management systems in place and consumers have sustainable debt burdens. Public policy also needs to ensure that essential infrastructure for consumer credit is available and set up properly, such as credit information bureaux and personal debt workout systems

Word juncture characteristics in world Englishes: a research report

The subtle juncture cues in older varieties of English such as Received Pronunciation can be difficult for speakers of new English varieties to perceive. This study looks at the perception of word juncture characteristics in three varieties of English (British, Hong Kong and Singapore) among British, Hong Kong and Singaporean listeners in order to widen our understanding of English juncture characteristics in general. We find that, even though reaction time data indicates that listeners perform quickest in the variety they are most familiar with, not only are juncture differences in British English difficult for Hong Kong and Singaporean listeners to perceive, they are also the most difficult for British listeners. Juncture characteristics in Hong Kong English are the easiest to distinguish among the three varieties