VAT compliance cost for SMEs in Algeria: burden, complexity and business factors

This study investigates the cost of compliance for VAT in Algeria. Specifically, it examines the burden of VAT compliance cost by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Algeria, the complexity of the VAT law and its compliance, and the business factors affecting VAT compliance cost.This study used questionnaire survey to collect data from the respondents for the purpose of investigating the VAT compliance cost. This study focuses on the SME operators within Adrar State in Algeria.The results of the study show that majority of the respondents think that VAT compliance cost is a burden to their company and VAT law is complex and costly for them.The high cost of compliance can discourage voluntarily compliance among owners of the SMEs.This study also reveals that business location of the SMEs does not affect their compliance cost. On the other hand, business size, business type and external advisors affect the compliance cost of the SMEs.In Algeria, SMEs are the backbone of the economy.However, the high compliance cost for this sector can discourage investors to invest in SMEs. Therefore, the government needs to review the tax policy, structure and legislation, and tax administration with a view to reduce the tax compliance cost for VAT specifically for the SMEs in Algeria

Shear behaviour of permanent precast formwork beams

An experimental research was conducted to evaluate the shear capacity of permanent precast formwork beams and compared to normal cast in-situ concrete beams. The traditional approach of normal construction uses conventional timber and plywood, which requires laborious and time consumption of installation. This paper studies the shear behaviour of permanent precast concrete beams using different glass fibre volume (ranging from 0% and up to 1%) in mortar mixes to act as permanent formwork. The mechanical properties tests involved in the mortar were compressive and flexural strength tests. The optimum content of glass fibre then was determined based on several trial mixes made beforehand. Two permanent precast formwork beams, one used 0.52% of glass fibre and the other one used wire mesh were tested under av/d = 1.5 and compared with normal control beam. All beam specimens were tested to obtain the ultimate shear load. The results showed that permanent precast formwork beam with wire mesh gave better performance in terms of ultimate load. Measured shear capacities of the tested beams were then compared with the theoretical values calculated according to BSEN1992:2004

Social behavior of preschool children in relation to physical spatial definition

AbstractPrevious Western-based studies had revealed that preschool children exhibited more positive play/social behaviors within well-defined spaces. This paper investigated 5 types of play/social behaviors among 494 Malaysian preschool children, aged 5–6 years, of both genders, in 20 classrooms categorized into well defined, moderately defined, and poorly defined. The methodology involved personal natural unobtrusive observations, video recordings, behavioral mapping, and interviews. The findings revealed results similar to those of the previous Western-based studies. The implications of the findings were discussed in relation to the design of future preschool classrooms

Bank lending, macroeconomic conditions and financial uncertainty: Evidence from Malaysia

AbstractIn this paper, we examine the interrelations between bank lending, macroeconomic conditions and financial uncertainty for an emerging economy, Malaysia. Adopting time series techniques of cointegration, causality and vector autoregressions (VARs), we arrive at the following main results. We note long run positive relations between real output and both real bank credits and real stock prices. However, with slow adjustment of real output in responses to credit expansion or stock price increase and weak exogeneity of the latter two variables, both credits and stock prices can be persistently higher than their fundamental values. The phenomenon can be detrimental since it heightens market uncertainty. Our results suggest that heightened market uncertainty is negatively related to output in the long run and, on the basis of dynamics analysis, it is likely to depress real output, real credit and real stock prices. At the same time, we note significant dynamic impacts of interest rate shocks on other variables. Taken together, these results have important implications for macroeconomic performance and stability for the case of Malaysia

Effects of additives and sintering time on the microstructure of Ni-Zn ferrite and its electrical and magnetic properties

This work aims to investigate the relationship between the microstructure of Ni-Zn ferrite and its electrical and magnetic properties in the presence and absence of as small amounts as 0.12% of 0.4CaO + 0.8SiO2 over different sintering times. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed a single spinel phase formation in all the samples. The results indicate that grain growth occurred by increasing sintering time from 15 to 270 min in the two types of samples prepared in this study although it was greatly impeded by the additive oxides. Moreover, the oxides increase the resistivity of the ferrite and decrease its zinc loss. Magnetic properties such as induction magnetization (BS) and saturation magnetization (MS) decreased in the presence of the additives while its coercivity (HC) increased. Finally, the density of the samples was observed to increase with increasing sintering time in both types of the samples but with a higher value in the samples with no additives

A new mutation in the promoter region of the PAX8 gene causes true congenital hypothyroidism with thyroid hypoplasia in a girl with Down's syndrome

<b>Background:</b> Thyroid dysfunction is common in newborn infants with Down's syndrome (DS), but defects causing classic thyroid dysgenesis (TD) with permanent congenital hypothyroidism (CH) have not been described.<p></p> <b>Objective:</b> We studied a girl with DS and CH who had a mutation in the promoter sequence of the PAX8 gene.<p></p> <b>Results:</b> A female infant was found to have trisomy 21 and CH, with a venous thyrotropin (TSH) of >150 mU/L and a free thyroxine (fT4) of 15.1 pmol/L (day 12). Thyroid peroxidase antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies were elevated. Scintigraphy showed normal uptake, but ultrasound identified a small gland with heterogenous echotexture and cystic changes. Sequence analysis of the PAX8 gene revealed a new heterozygous maternally inherited mutation (−3C>T) close to the transcription initiation site. Electromobility shift assay studies of the wild type and the mutant PAX8 sequence incubated with nuclear extracts from PCCL3 cells exhibited that the sequence at position −3 is not involved in specific protein binding. However, the mutant PAX8 promoter showed a significantly reduced transcriptional activation of a luciferase reporter gene in vitro tested in HEK, PCCL3, as well as in HeLa cells, indicating that this mutation is very likely to lead to reduced PAX8 expression.<p></p> <b>Conclusions:</b> The persistent CH in this patient with DS is likely to be attributable to the diminished PAX8 expression due to a new heterozygous mutation in the PAX8 promoter sequence. Our case shows that true CH may occur in DS, as in the general population. Furthermore, it is possible that the trisomy 21 itself may have resulted in a more severe phenotypic expression of the PAX8 mutation in the child than the mother

Assessing the competitiveness of sheep production in selected states in Sudan

This paper aimed to evaluates the competitiveness of sheep production in North Kordofan and Gadarif states in Sudan. Primary data which was collected from survey questionnaire from tow states in 2010 to find cost of production, output, input price, government intervention etc. The Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) methodology was used in this study to analyze the data. The findings of this study show that government interventions on sheep’s production in terms of taxes have negative impact on the competitiveness of sheep export in the selected states. The production shows a strong competitiveness. The results of DRC indicator suggest that Sudan enjoys comparative advantage in production of sheep in selected states. North Kordofan has proven to be more effective in saving the foreign exchange, followed by Gadarif. The international value added (IVA) indicted a positive foreign exchange earnings or savings. Exported live sheep coefficient of international competitiveness (CIC) implied that sheep export is profitable and internationally competitive. The recommends of this study government should; encourage sheep production, increase the level of output, improved sheep productivity and also government should reduce the tax from the sheep production

An infrastructure master plan for developing Pulau Pangkor as a new eco-tourist destination

The vision of Perak Amanjaya Development Plan is to enhance the socio-economic status of Perak people corresponding to the Federal Government’s development philosophy. In order to achieve this vision, Institut Darul Ridzuan is committed in playing the roles whereby IDR assists the Perak State Government in formulating development policies and initiating innovative strategies and programs with the aim of driving peace, stability and progress by focusing on the delivery of “3Qs” – Quality Opportunity, Quality Income and Quality Living. Therefore, collaboration with local and International research communities, helped IDR to gain insights into the theoretical and practical problems concerning the development in Perak State. One of the projects is to study the infrastructure and public utilities in Pulau Pangkor as vibrant tourism destination. To achieve the goal, the research is conducted regarding the infrastructure master plan for developing Pulau Pangkor as a new eco-tourism tourist destination

Modification on interval symmetric single-step procedure ISS-5δ for bounding polynomial zeros simultaneously

The purpose of this paper is to establish a new modified method. This modified procedure is called the Interval Symmetric Single Step-5 Delta Procedure ISS-5δ. This research start with some disjoints intervals as the initial intervals which contain the polynomial zeros. The procedure of ISS-5δ will generate smaller bounded close intervals. The procedure is run on 5 test polynomials and the results obtained show that this procedure is more efficient than previous procedure

Influence of ethnicity in optimizing antiepileptic drug dosing : a comparison of Malay, Chinese and Indian populations in Malaysia

Reports of inter-ethnic differences in metabolism for phenytoin and carbamazepineh have raised questions concerning the importance of monitoring serum levels to the standardised population therapeutic concentrations. Although the pharmacokinetics of phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproic acid and phenobarbitone displayed both intra and inter-individual variations, the influence of ethnicity is still unclear. This thesis has thus set its objectives of investigating the impact of ethnicity on the efficacy of these therapeutic ranges and pharmacokinetics of these drugs. A total 1554 serum concentrations were randomly selected by a set of criteria from 470 Malays, 423 Chinese and 322 Indian of adult and paediatric patients. The Mantel-Haenzel method was used to estimate for inter-ethnic differences in response to the defined therapeutic ranges. The influence of ethnicity on pharmacokinetics was examined by the test of heterogeneity of the slopes estimates in the linear relationship of either serum concentration or clearance to dose. Coefficient of variation on the ratios of the above relationships was used to measure for inter individual variation. The results showed a highly variable response to treatment within the defined therapeutic ranges. Therapeutic response is not dependent on ethnicity and age although the latter was determined on carbamazepine and valproic acid treated patients only. The pharmacokinetics of carbamazepine, valproic acid and phenobarbitone showed high inter-individual variations and were unaffected by weight, age or ethnicity. Similar high inter-individual variation for phenytoin pharmacokinetic parameters (Km and Vmax) were observed. However, Km and Vmax(mg/day) of adult Chinese patients were significantly lower than Malay or Indian patients. The relationship between Km and Vmax and age or weight were insignificant. These findings demonstrate that Malaysian patients only differed in handling phenytoin therapy and support the use of ethnic specific phenytoin pharmacokinetic parameters during therapy