Online Businesses Tax Morale in Supply Chain Relationships

The number of e-commerce (online) businesses is increasing in Malaysia, providing opportunities for digital business platforms to generate billions of ringgit in revenue. However, the businesses do not pay tax due to the absence of an efficient tax structure for this kind of supply chain management. The government will be looking at ways to tax individuals engaged in e-commerce (online) businesses to address its lost opportunity for revenue from a fast-growing segment of the economy. In addition, clearer guidelines are needed when there is a mixed supply chain operating within a holding company structure when it involves online business transactions. To combat such tax non-compliance by online businesses, it is essential to understand the levels of tax morale of these online businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to unveil the level of tax morale of online businesses and to generate a tax morale framework for online businesses. Using a qualitative research methodology, the result of this study found four major levels of tax morale that are ‘input’, ‘process’, ‘output’ and ‘outcome’. The ‘input’ level consists of tax knowledge, tax obligations and self-awareness. The ‘process’ level consists of the necessity to follow the business law and tax law, as well as the tax enforcement implemented by the tax authority. The ‘output’ level consists of the online business owners’ trust towards the tax authority and government. Efficient correlation among the ‘input’, ‘process’ and ‘output’ levels of their tax morale will provide an effective ‘outcome’ in terms of voluntary tax payment to the tax authority that will bring benefit to the community in general. Based on the results obtained regarding the levels of tax morale of the online businesses, this research has developed the tax morale framework for online businesses

Performance comparison of distributed generation installation arrangement in transmission system for loss control

Placing Distributed Generation (DG) into a power network should be planned wisely. In this paper, the comparison of having different installation arrangement of real-power DGs in transmission system for loss control is presented. Immune-brainstorm-evolutionary programme (IBSEP) was chosen as the optimization technique. It is found that optimizing fixed-size DGs locations gives the highest loss reduction percentage. Apart from that, scattered small-sized DGs throughout a network minimizes transmission loss more than allocating one biger-sized DG at a location

Unaccompanied & Denied: Regional Legal Framework for Unaccompanied Minors Asylum Seekers (UMAS)

Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers are vulnerable and thus, provided special International law protections. However, in reality, they are being mistreated as illegal immigrants and on thereceiving end of ethnic violence, discrimination, restrictions in enjoyment of their rights duly recognised by International human rights law. This article identifies legislative, policy and supportmechanisms which encompass the minimum UMAS guardianship standards at International law and which are evidence-based from best practice models for the provision of guardians for UMASinternationally. It presents situation of UMAS in relation to human rights violations with emphasis on the legal framework and practices in Australia and five ASEAN State Members. This article also highlights the various stands taken by various countries providing better legal framework and practices regarding the terms for protection and enforcement of human rights for UMAS. Finally, this article provides recommendations for Australia and ASEAN Member States to adopt in order to realise the International human rights of UMAS with respect to guardianship

The opportunity of magnetic induction tomography modality in breast cancer detection

The needs for non-invasive technique in breast cancer detection could enhance and preserve the future of medical field in Malaysia as well as countries around the world. Breast cancer has become the main concern nowadays not only for women but for man as well. In overall, the risk of women getting breast cancer is higher than man due to the denser tissue of breast in women compare to man. Beside the unawareness for the disease, the reason which contributes to this increasing number of breast cancer reported is also due to the limitations arising from modalities such as MRI, Mammography, ultrasound and other modalities. An alternative to current technologies should be improved for early detection and treatment which causes no physical harm to patients if possible. Thus, non-invasive and better technology in detecting breast cancer is very much needed in the current market. This paper will be discussing the insights of Magnetic Induction Tomography techniques in breast cancer detection

Robust efficiency and output elasticity of broiler production in Peninsular Malaysia

This study investigates issues on efficiency and elasticity of broiler production in Peninsular Malaysia. Data from 296 broiler farms were subjected to SFA, DEA and bootstrap methods for technical efficiency; Translog and Tobit regression analyses to estimate elasticity of production and determinants of efficiency respectively in broiler production. We found that farmers produce mean efficiency of 94, 95 and 97% with robust for small, medium and large scale farms respectively. Apart from inefficiency, we also found evidence that minimal bias/noise exists in broiler production. Relative to output elasticity, we observed an inelastic relationship in feeds but an elastic relationship in DOC, medications and utilities. Most of the socio-economic attributes (experience, age, education, business status and number of farms) show highly significant statistical relationship with efficiency and with appropriate signs. To ensure production at higher marginal returns and lower marginal costs, farms operating under increasing returns to scale should scale-up production while those producing at decreasing returns to scale need to scale-down production. The study also advocates to farmers to embrace adequate training/better education, contract farming and ownership of fewer number of farms in order to enhance efficiency, productivity and sustainability of the broiler industry

Population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of intramuscular quinine in Tanzanian children with severe Falciparum malaria.

Although artesunate is clearly superior, parenteral quinine is still used widely for the treatment of severe malaria. A loading-dose regimen has been recommended for 30 years but is still often not used. A population pharmacokinetic study was conducted with 75 Tanzanian children aged 4 months to 8 years with severe malaria who received quinine intramuscularly; 69 patients received a loading dose of 20 mg quinine dihydrochloride (salt)/kg of body weight. Twenty-one patients had plasma quinine concentrations detectable at baseline. A zero-order absorption model with one-compartment disposition pharmacokinetics described the data adequately. Body weight was the only significant covariate and was implemented as an allometric function on clearance and volume parameters. Population pharmacokinetic parameter estimates (and percent relative standard errors [%RSE]) of elimination clearance, central volume of distribution, and duration of zero-order absorption were 0.977 liters/h (6.50%), 16.7 liters (6.39%), and 1.42 h (21.5%), respectively, for a typical patient weighing 11 kg. Quinine exposure was reduced at lower body weights after standard weight-based dosing; there was 18% less exposure over 24 h in patients weighing 5 kg than in those weighing 25 kg. Maximum plasma concentrations after the loading dose were unaffected by body weight. There was no evidence of dose-related drug toxicity with the loading dosing regimen. Intramuscular quinine is rapidly and reliably absorbed in children with severe falciparum malaria. Based on these pharmacokinetic data, a loading dose of 20 mg salt/kg is recommended, provided that no loading dose was administered within 24 h and no routine dose was administered within 12 h of admission. (This study has been registered with Current Controlled Trials under registration number ISRCTN 50258054.)

The role of exploratory data analysis (EDA) in electricity forecasting

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is an approach introduced by Tukey.The aim is to obtain an in depth understanding of data using graphics.This contradicts the classical approach which uses statistical summaries such as mean and standard deviation among others.Skipping EDA in investigating data can jeopardise the validity and reliability of the results.In this study, we highlight the crucial role of EDA in electricity forecasting via line chart to understand the existence of the four-time series components i.e. trend, seasonal,irregular and cyclical.Daily electricity load for financial year 2002 to 2006 are used.The EDA showed irregular patterns identified in the line chart are not irregular components but moving seasonal components which require different techniques of forecasting

Fabrication and characterization of printed zinc batteries

Zinc batteries are a more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to its components being highly recyclable. With the improvements in the screen printing technology, high quality devices can be printed with at high throughput and precision at a lower cost compared to those manufactured using lithographic techniques. In this paper we describe the fabrication and characterization of printed zinc batteries. Different binder materials such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB), were used to fabricate the electrodes. The electrodes were first evaluated using three-electrode cyclic voltammetry, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy before being fully assembled and tested using charge-discharge test and two-electrode cyclic voltammetry. The results show that the printed ZnO electrode with PVB as binder performed better than PVP-based ZnO. The XRD data prove that the electro-active materials were successfully transferred to the sample. However, based on the evaluation, the results show that the cathode electrode was dominated by the silver instead of Ni(OH)2, which leads the sample to behave like a silver-zinc battery instead of a nickel-zinc battery. Nevertheless, the printed zinc battery electrodes were successfully evaluated, and more current collector materials for cathode should be explored for printed nickel-zinc batteries

Assessing the technical efficiency of maize production in northern ghana: the data envelopment analysis approach

Maize is a major source of food and cash for smallholder farmers. However, average yield in Ghana is less than a third of the achievable yield and thus the need to close this gap by improving the technical efficiency of farming households through employing the right combination of productive resources to achieve food sustainability. This study used the input-oriented data envelopment analysis to examine the technical efficiency of maize production in northern Ghana1 using cross-sectional data for the 2011/2012 cropping season. The mean technical efficiency was 77%, giving credence to the existence of production inefficiency. Technically, efficient farmers used an average of 395.80 kg of chemical fertilizer, 27.04 kg of seed, 4.04 l of weedicides and hired labour of three persons to produce a yield of 2.34 tons/ha of maize. Largely, maize production exhibited increasing returns to scale. Agricultural mechanization and level of formal education did not have positive effects on technical efficiency, whereas agricultural extension had a positive effect on technical efficiency. Technical efficiency in maize production could be improved through informal and non-formal educational platforms where farmers without formal education learn improved cultivation practices. The agricultural extension department should be strengthened to provide effective extension services to farmers to improve on their technical efficiency. Animal and other non-mechanized power sources are complementary technologies and as such should be allowed to co-exist in Ghanaian agriculture