New public management in Malaysia: In search of an efficient and effective service delivery

The Malaysian public sector has undergone various transformations since the Independence. From its custodial role in the newly independent country, the public sector had changed and taken an active role in the country’s economic development. However, since 1980s onwards, the philosophy and techniques of New Public Management (NPM) have been implemented in Malaysia.This again transformed the public sector from being an engine of economic growth to become a facilitator to the private sector and service provider to the public. In line with NPM’s underlying belief of the superiority of business like practices, various contemporary management practices and philosophy were implemented in the Malaysian public sector. The implantation of private sector practices in the public sector was enhanced with the introduction a performance measurement system which utilises the use of key performance indicators in 2005. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the current improvement programme within the wider public sector reform programmes in Malaysia. The issues and consequences of using key performance indicators in the public sector are discussed. To understand further the reasons and the push for reform, contextual descriptions of the various phases of public sector reform in Malaysia are also discussed in this paper

Microfinancing Influence on Micro-Entrepreneurs Business Growth: Mediating Role of Psychological and Social Capital

This paper is set out to uncover the phenomena of micro-enterprises business growth by hypothesizing microfinancing, social and psychological capital as factors. This research is important due to the fact that the paucity of information on how microfinancing, social and psychological capital relate to micro-enterprises business growth would obscure the ways in which they survive. In Malaysia, microfinance is used as one of the tools to alleviate poverty, as well as to improve the livelihood and standards of living of the poor and those who are financially excluded.  However, almost three decades after the introduction of microfinancing programmes, the performance of microfinancing recipients’ i.e. micro-enterprises in Malaysia is not satisfactory. Besides providing loans to these micro-entrepreneurs, other aspects of facilitation, including the inculcation of the entrepreneur’s intangible resources, need to be addressed. Therefore, this research examines the mediating effect of micro-entrepreneurs’ psychological and social capital on the relationship between microfinance provisions and the business growth of micro-enterprises. The samples are identified from two microfinance providers, i.e., Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) and the National Entrepreneur Group Economic Fund (TEKUN) micro credit financing scheme recipients’ databases. A total of 250 useable survey questionnaires was collected and analysed to test the hypothesised relationship. The data was analysed using Partial Least Square-SEM and the structural model was examined to test the hypotheses. The findings show that micro-entrepreneurs’ psychological and social capital have a significant mediating effects on the relationship between provision of microfinance and the business growth of micro-enterprises in Kelantan. This research offers the practical implication that the effects of micro finance provision on the business growth of micro-enterprises are better exerted through micro-entrepreneurs’ psychological and social capital. This theoretically supports the applicability of the Resource-based View (RBV) theory to explain the mediating effect of psychological and social capital on the relationship between microfinance provisions and business growth. Research paper Keywords: Micro-enterprise, Business growth, Psychological capital, Social capital, Mediation, Microfinance institutions Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Nordin, N., Siti-Nabiha, A.K., & Kamalia, Z. (2019). Microfinancing Influence on Micro-Entrepreneurs Business Growth: Mediating Role of Psychological and Social Capital, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, 7(2), 130–161

Dog Whistles and Discriminatory Intent: Proving Intent Through Campaign Speech in Voting Rights Litigation

Politicians are increasingly employing dog whistles in campaign speech to appeal to a divided electorate. Simultaneously, states continue to pass legislation restricting minority access to the ballot box. Litigants attempting to challenge new vote denial laws are left with only one tool—Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act—which requires the difficult task of demonstrating that the jurisdiction violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite the frequency of dog whistles, courts have declined to use campaign rhetoric as evidence of discriminatory intent in Fourteenth Amendment challenges. This Note argues that, to ease the nearly insurmountable burden of proving discriminatory intent in voting rights challenges, courts should consider dog whistles in campaign speech as evidence of discriminatory intent. It is particularly important for voters to prove discriminatory intent in voting rights cases because they face the unique difficulty of distinguishing between closely aligned racial-discrimination motivations and political-party motivations; Section 3 of the VRA allows for preclearance systems once discriminatory intent is proven; and broader, less tailored remedies become available when litigants can successfully prove intent. The right to vote is a right “preservative of [all] other basic civil and political rights.” Considering dog whistles as evidence of discriminatory intent gives litigants a necessary tool to protect this fundamental right

Deep Active Learning for Dialogue Generation

We propose an online, end-to-end, neural generative conversational model for open-domain dialogue. It is trained using a unique combination of offline two-phase supervised learning and online human-in-the-loop active learning. While most existing research proposes offline supervision or hand-crafted reward functions for online reinforcement, we devise a novel interactive learning mechanism based on hamming-diverse beam search for response generation and one-character user-feedback at each step. Experiments show that our model inherently promotes the generation of semantically relevant and interesting responses, and can be used to train agents with customized personas, moods and conversational styles.Comment: Accepted at 6th Joint Conference on Lexical and Computational Semantics (*SEM) 2017 (Previously titled "Online Sequence-to-Sequence Active Learning for Open-Domain Dialogue Generation" on ArXiv

Contribution of the subthalamic nucleus to visually guided locomotion

Les ganglions de la base (GB) jouent un rôle important dans le contrôle locomoteur. Ceci est illustré par les troubles locomoteurs dont souffrent les patients atteints de maladies dégénératives qui affectent les GB, telles que la maladie de Parkinson, caractérisées par de petits pas lents et traînants, ainsi qu’un gel de la marche (freezing of gait). Une structure centrale dans les GB est le noyau sous-thalamique (NST), de par son rôle de structure d’entrée et ses projections vers le globus pallidus. Cependant, la nature de la contribution du NST au contrôle de la locomotion, ainsi que les caractéristiques de son activité cellulaire durant la marche, sont peu connues. Afin de mieux comprendre cette contribution, nous avons examiné les propriétés de l’activité neuronale du NST lors de la locomotion non-obstruée et celle sous guidage visuel. Ainsi, nous avons effectué des enregistrements neuronaux chez un chat intact, entraîné à marcher régulièrement sur un tapis roulant et à franchir des obstacles se déplaçant à la même vitesse. Nous avons enregistré 40 cellules montrant une activité reliée au movement du membre antérieur, dont 30 ont montré une activité phasique au cours de la locomotion non obstruée liée aux différentes phases du cycle de la marche, principalement la phase de balancement. Au cours de la modification volontaire de la marche, un groupe de 37/40 cellules, incluant certaines qui étaient modulées pendant la locomotion non-obstruée, ont changé leur fréquence de décharge par rapport à l’obstacle. Ces changement étaient principalement des augmentations de fréquence, mais parfois des diminutions ou une diminution suivie d’une augmentation. Ces modifications se produisaient soit avant l’enjambement de l’obstacle (step-advanced), soit lors de l’enjambement de l’obstacle (step-related). L’activité des cellules step-advanced était indépendante des membres (limb-independent), tandis que celle des cellules step-related était spécifique aux membres (limb-dependent). Cette étude est la première à examiner les caractéristiques de décharge du NST lors de la marche et montre que cette structure contribue au contrôle de la locomotion non obstruée ainsi que la modification volontaire de la marche, en jouant un rôle dans la planification et l’exécution de cette dernière.The Basal ganglia (BG) plays an important role in locomotor control. This is emphasized by the impaired walking of patients with neurodegenerative disorders that affect the BG such as Parkinson’s disease. One important structure in the BG is the subthalamic nucleus (STN), which acts as an input structure for the BG and projects to its output structures. Although the STN has been shown to display movement-related activity during reaching, the nature of its contribution to the control of locomotion, together with the characteristics of its neural activity during locomotion, is poorly known. In order to better understand this contribution, we examined the properties of the neural activity in the STN during unobstructed and visually guided locomotion. To do so, we recorded single neurons in an intact cat trained to walk steadily on a treadmill and to step over obstacles attached to the treadmill belt and moving at the same speed. We recorded 40 neurons which activity was related to the movement of the forelimb during the task. We found that during unobstructed locomotion, many of these cells (30/40) showed phasic step-by-step modulation of their activity pattern, mostly during the swing phase. Most of these swing-related cells discharged throughout the swing phase with no relationship to changes in the pattern of different muscle groups. During voluntary modifications of gait, 37/40 cells, including both cells that were and were not modulated during unobstructed locomotion, changed their firing rate in relationship to the step over the obstacle. The changes observed were mostly increases of activity, but a few cells showed decreases of activity and some showed a decrease followed by an increase of activity. These changes occurred either before the modified step and were classified as step-advanced activity, or they occurred during the modified step and were classified as step-related activity. Step advanced cells mostly showed limb-independent activity, while step related cells showed limb-specific activity. This is the first detailed account of the contribution of the STN to the control of locomotion and our results indicate that the STN is involved in the control of both unobstructed and visually guided locomotion. The results suggest that during unobstructed locomotion, the STN contributes to the general control of the limb trajectory and to both the planning and execution of voluntary changes of gait

Strategi Promosi di Jogja Library Center: Penelitian Kualitatif Manajemen Strategi Promosi Perpustakaan di Jogja Library Center

Tujuan dari penelitian pada Jogja Library Center adalah untuk mengetahui proses kegiatan manajemen strategi yang meliputi analisis dan identifikasi lingkungan, penyusunan strategi, implementasi strategi, dan evaluasi serta pengendalian strategi oleh perpustakaan. Dalam penelitian ini peneliti akan berfokus pada proses manajemen strategi promosi, serta menganalisa pelaksanaan dan masalah yang muncul selama pelaksanaan kegiatan promosi di perpustakaan. Dari penelitian ini peneliti menemukan bahwa Jogja Library Center melaksanakan proses penyusunan strategi melalui 4 langkah, yaitu menganalisa dan mengidentifikasi lingkungan, menyusun strategi promosi, mengimplementasi strategi promosi, serta mengevaluasi dan mengendalikan strategi promosi di perpustakaan. Adapun masalah yang muncul selama kegiatan promosi berkaitan dengan belum ditentukannya target dan segmentasi pasar, belum adanya kegiatan yang bersifat terbuka di halaman perpustakaan, dan kurangnya intensitas dalam mengunggah konten di media sosial. Dengan munculnya masalah ini maka peneliti memberikan saran terkait penentuan target dan pelaksanaan segmentasi pasar, pengadaan kegiatan yang dapat menarik perhatian wisatawan di jalan Malioboro, dan penambahan intensitas dalam pembuatan konten khusus Jogja Library Center di media sosial Balai Layanan Perpustakaan DIY

STUDI EPIDEMIOLOGI DESKRIPTIF KEJADIAN DEMAM BERDARAH DENGUE (DBD) DI KOTA SEMARANG TAHUN 2010 - 2015

Penyakit Demam Berdarah Dengue (DBD) merupakan salah satu masalah kesehatan yang belum teratasi di Indonesia. Semarang menjadi kota dengan angka kejadian DBD tertinggi di Jawa Tengah pada tahun 2014. Epidemiologi DBD dan faktor lingkungan yang terkait perlu dianalisis untuk memberi gambara pengendalian yang lebih efektif di masa mendatang. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menggambarkan distribusi kejadian DBD berdasarkan variabel orang, tempat dan waktu beserta faktor lingkungan yang terkait dengan kejadian DBD di Kota Semarang selama tahun 2010 - 2015. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif dengan metode observasional melalui pendekatan spasial menggunakan sistem informasi geografis. Sampel penelitian berjumlah 277 dari total 985 penderita DBD dan DSS pada bulan Januari-Maret 2015. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan proporsi jenis kelamin penderita DBD hampir sama antara lakilaki dan perempuan dengan kelompok umur 5-9 tahun sebagai keompok penderita terbanyak. Kecamatan Tembalang menjadi kecamatan dengan jumlah kasus DBD tertingg selama tahun 2010-2015. Ada hubungan antara suhu udara dengan kasus DBD(p=0,029), kelembaban dengan kasus DBD (p= <0,001), curah hujan dengan kasus DBD (p= <0,001) dan ABJ dengan kasus DBD (p= <0,001). Karakteristik lingkungan yang paling banyak ditemukan disekitar rumah penderita DBD kasus bulan Januari-Maret 2015 antara lain; lahan dan kebun kosong bersemak, kandang unggas, pot tanaman hias dan rumah kosong. Kesimpulan dari hasil penelitian ini epidemiologi DBD di Semarang banyak diderita oleh anak-anak berusia 5-9 tahun dengan kecenderungan penderita laki-laki lebih banyak. Faktor lingkungan seperti iklim dan keberadaan breeding place atau resting place nyamuk cenderung terkait dengan kasus DBD. Kata Kunci: Epidemiologi, DBD, Cuaca, Lingkungan, Semaran