Challenges facing Brazilian economy in the emerging market: Future trade opportunities for Malaysia

This paper presents the literature on international trade theory and practice with the intention of analyzing the trade opportunities between Malaysia and Brazil given the economic situation in Brazil and Malaysia. The literature relates to the discussions on the trade relationship and patterns between Brazil as one of the BRICs countries, and Malaysia as one of the developing countries. This paper also reviews expectations for the Brazilian economy in the next few years and what challenges awaits Brazil ahead. The aim of this paper is to explore the Brazilian economic situation and identify the trade opportunities for a country developing country like Malaysia. The literature review was supplemented by an interview done with the Malaysian Consul and Trade Commissioner of MATRADE in Brazil. The findings include some guidelines and suggestions for different categories of trade possibilities targets for Malaysian enterprises to tap the Brazilian market. Participating in Trade Fair and exposing the Brazilian to ‘Made in Malaysia’ products are among the recommendations concluded for this research.Keywords: Brazil’s Economy; Malaysian Trade; International Trade; International Busines

Optical Studies of Er-doped Yttrium Aluminium Garnet Phosphor Materials

The need for materials application in solid-state lasers, medical devices, and optoelectronic devices has made the investigation of ceramic materials of increasing importance. A detail study of the optical properties of rare earth element typically from luminescent materials when intentionally doped inside the host materials and in particular crystal (such as YAG) is reported for the photoluminescence, power and lifetime measurement. The rare-earth dopants usually form trivalent lanthanide ions and the energy transfer and optical transitions involved originate from 4f-4f transitions of the ions and between these states and the host material. In order to understand the energy transfer processes in more detail we need to better understand the accompanying optical processes that give rise to the emission they display and it is this that forms the focus of the work presented. Following this second (and higher) order processes are considered that lead to upconversion in erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG) materials