A mass-extended 't Hooft-Nobbenhuis complex transformations and their consequences

We have extended the 't Hooft-Nobbenhuis complex transformations to include mass. Under these new transformations, Schrodinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and Einstein general relativity equations are invariant. The non invariance of the cosmological constant in Einstein field equations dictates it to vanish thus solving the longstanding cosmological constant problem.Comment: 6 LateX pages, no figure

Simbolisme dalam filem Melayu: analisis terhadap hubungan watak dan simbol

Esei ini cuba memahami hubungan simbolisme visual dengan watak dalam filem atau video naratif. Kekuatan imej membentuk satu cerita kurang dititik beratkan dalam filem tempatan. Apa yang jelas hanyalah aspek verbal sebagai pencerita dan bukannya fotografi sebagai pencerita. Kekuatan sesebuah filem adalah bergantung kepada aspek sinematografi yang luas. Simbolisme visual yang cuba dikupas ini adalah tertumpu kepada aspek visual di dalam sesebuah filem. Hubungannya dengan watak menerusi ruang komposisi adalah amat berkaitan dalam menyampaikan sebarang makna. Dalam bidang sinematografi keindahan sesebuah filem bergantung kepada bagaimana pembikin filem itu mencorakkan watak dalam ruang komposisi visual tanpa penerangan dari watak lain. Pembikin filem perlu peka isi dalaman sesebuah naratif supaya hanya imej dan visual yang simbolik sahaja akan berbicara kepada audien. Dalam filem, kandungan sesuatu yang simbolik itu adalah sebagai daya penarik kepada audien untuk membandingkan resonant shots dan imej yang berkaitan. (Bruce F. Kawin, 1987, 232

Data delivery in fragmented wireless sensor networks using mobile agents

In the past few years, research in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has grown at an unprecented rate. This is due to the large number of potential applications and environments WSNs can be used in. Nodes in WSNs communicate in multihop fashion to deliver the sensory information to a central processing unit, such as a base station or a sink node. This form of communication requires a degree of network connectivity which might not be always achievable, either due to the sensor deployment strategy, or due to sensor node failure, which can be malicious, or otherwise. In this thesis, we study the problem of data delivery in disconnected WSNs. A special class of disconnected sensor networks called Fragmented wireless sensor networks (FWSN) is considered. A FWSN consists of several groups of connected sensor nodes that we call fragments . We propose a mobility based approach that exploits resource rich, in terms of power and buffer size, mobile agents that move in the network and operate as data relays between fragments to eventually deliver data to the base station. The movement of the mobile nodes and their role as relay stations is modeled using a closed queueing network approach, which is used to obtain steady state results. Building on these results, we derive the distributions of the fragment-to-fragment and fragment-to-sink delays. The results show that this model accurately captures the system behavior. Using the same model, the effect of the movement policy, the number and speed of mobile relays, and the service time at each fragment on the end-to-end delay has also been studied. The proposed queueing model can also be used to model other roles of the mobile nodes, including their roles as either data collectors or data sinks. We also study some practical issues, including mobility control in large networks and engineering the service time, i.e., the time that an MR spend in relaying data between fragments

Feasibility of recruitment to an oral dysplasia trial in the United Kingdom

Background: Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) has a malignant potential. Therapeutic options for OED remain both limited and without good evidence. Despite surgery being the most common method of treating OED, recurrence and potentially significant morbidity remain problematic. Consequently, there has been much interest in non-surgical treatments for OED. Cyclo-oxygenase (COX) up-regulation is known to occur in the dysplasia-carcinoma sequence and evidence now exists that COX-2 is a prognostic marker of malignant transformation in OED. COX-inhibitors are therefore considered a potential therapeutic strategy for treating this condition. We aimed to provide both proof of principal evidence supporting the effect of topical COX inhibition, and determine the feasibility of recruitment to an OED chemoprevention trial in the UK. Methods: Recruitment of 40 patients with oral leukoplakia to 4 study arms was planned. The total daily dose of Aspirin would increase in each group and be used in the period between initial diagnostic and follow-up biopsies. Results: During the 15-month recruitment period, 15/50 screened patients were eligible for recruitment, and 13 (87%) consented. Only 1 had OED diagnosed on biopsy. 16 patients were intolerant of, or already taking Aspirin and 16 patients required no biopsy. Initial recruitment was slow, as detection relied on clinicians identifying potentially eligible patients. Pre-screening new patient letters and directly contacting patients listed for biopsies improved screening of potentially eligible patients. However, as the incidence of OED was so low, it had little impact on trial recruitment. The trial was terminated, as recruitment was unlikely to be achieved in a single centre. Conclusion: This feasibility trial has demonstrated the low incidence of OED in the UK and the difficulties in conducting a study because of this. With an incidence of around 1.5/100,000/year and a high proportion of those patients already taking or intolerant of Aspirin, a large multi-centred trial would be required to fulfil the recruitment for this study. The ability of topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to modify COX and prostaglandin expression remains an important but unanswered question. Collaboration with centres in other parts of the world with higher incidences of the disease may be required to ensure adequate recruitment. ISRCTN: 31503555

Audit Committee Effectiveness and Voluntary Disclosure in Malaysia: PRE and Post Introduction of the Revisd Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2007

Global economic crisis in 2008 has increased the focus on the role of audit committee in ensuring integrity and transparency in corporate reporting. Audit committee characteristics are crucial in determining the ability of audit committee in carrying out its responsibilities effectively. Hence, this study aims to investigate the contribution of audit committee characteristics to audit committee effectiveness over corporate voluntary disclosure by Malaysian listed firms. This study also examines the effect of board of directors’ characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure. In addition, this study investigates the moderating effect of corporate board governance and concentrated ownership with audit committee effectiveness and corporate voluntary disclosure. Based on annual reports of 2006 and 2009, the study used 292 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia. The empirical results reveal that higher proportion of independent directors on audit committee, and totally independent audit committee members can lead to significantly a higher level of voluntary disclosure. Further, members with accounting expertise and multiple directorships, and also the size of audit committee are significantly associated with corporate voluntary disclosure. Surprisingly, results on board of directors indicate that none of the board attributes appear to determine corporate voluntary disclosure. The results further reveal that neither board governance nor concentrated ownership moderate the association between audit committee effectiveness and the level of voluntary disclosure. The findings of this study show that audit committee characteristics enhance the effectiveness of audit committee as a monitoring role, and hence mitigating the agency problems associated with corporate disclosure practices. Policy makers and regulatory bodies should interpret this evidence as motivation for them to strengthen corporate boards’ practices to effectively deal with the unique features of corporate governance in emerging economies such as Malaysia

The Role of Awqaf in the 21st Century: An Update on the Development of Islamic Foundations

Awqaf is an important economic sector. Its importance is gleaned from the massive assets it controls, its substantial social expenditure, the large number of people it employs, and its significant contribution to the economy which adds between 10 to 14 per cent to the GDP of some countries.1 With such a significant economic output, and growth in the number, size and diversity of organisations entrusted with awqaf properties, awqaf as a faith-based charitable institution has generated interest beyond philanthropists and Shariah scholars, and the sector is no longer seen as exclusively religious. With a broader business focus, it became clear that the sector is in fact an industry and is being subjected to increased scrutiny by governments and regulatory authorities.The size of the sector and its growing economic importance qualify it for serious attention by legislators and standards setters of the Islamic financial industry. In order to rejuvenate the institution of waqf and reverse the trend of neglect and to enhance its role in social and economic development, a number of issues must be addressed: How should the regulatory framework operate? Would the regulations help or hinder the development of awqaf and the creation of new waqfs? Is uniformity needed? And how will this help? What is an ideal model for corporate governance? Is that model workable within the parameters imposed by other features of the business and political environment? What about sustainability and profitability and shouldn't awqaf be profitable in order to be sustainable? Do we see a conflict between awqaf as a not-for profit sector and the pursuit of growth and profitability? Is it acceptable to combine awqaf and business? Is this ethical, and how would it affect stakeholders? The awqaf sector and its management often remain not well understood. While a full answer to these questions is beyond the scope of this paper, there are a number of issues that appear important for our concern. The paper will focus on issues that are relevant for the integration of awqaf into the mainstream of the Islamic financial industry. It will also address matters that are of concern to regulatory authorities, awqaf foundations and to all awqaf stakeholders. For other publications in English and German, see www.maecenata.eu

Design of Observer-Based Robust Power System Stabilizers

Power systems are subject to undesirable small oscillations that might grow to cause system shutdown and consequently great loss of national economy. The present manuscript  proposes two  designs for observer-based robust power system stabilizer (PSS) using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) approach to damp such oscillations. A model to describe power system dynamics for different loads is derived in the norm-bounded form. The first controller design is based on the derived model to achieve  robust stability against load variation. The design is based on a new Bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) condition. The BMI optimization  is solved interatively in terms of Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) framework. The condition contains a symmetric positive definite full matrix to be obtained, rather than the commonly used block diagonal form. The difficulty in finding a feasible solution is thus alleviated. The resulting LMI is of small size, easy to solve. The second PSS design shifts the closed loop poles in a desired region so as to achieve a favorite  settling time and damping ratio via a non-iterative solution to a set of LMIs.  The approach provides a systematic way to design a robust output feedback PSS which  guarantees good dynamic performance for different loads. Simulation results based on single-machine and multi-machine power system models verify the ability of the proposed PSS to satisfy control objectives for a wide range of load conditions