Computer Crimes: A Case Study of What Malaysia Can Learn from Others?

Rapid development of information technology (IT) has brought with it many new applications such as e-commerce and global business. The past few years have seen activities in the legislative arena covering issues such as digital signatures, the international recognition of electronic documents and privacy and data protection. Both the developed and developing countries have exhibited keenness to embrace the IT environment. Securing this electronic environment from intrusion, however, continues to be problematic. A particular favorite form of computer crime would be ‘hacking’. As more computer systems move on to on-line processing and improved telecommunications, computer hackers are now a real threat. Legislation criminalizing intrusion and destruction activities directed at computers are needed. Malaysia joined the list of countries with computer-specific legislation with the enactment of its Computer Crime Act 1997 (CCA). This paper focuses on hacking as a criminal act, and compares the Malaysian CCA with legislation from other countries. The current computer crime situation in Malaysia is looked at and exposes the difficulties and obstacles Malaysia faces in enforcing the Act. The paper concludes with recommendations for Malaysia in terms of policy, practices and penalties

Development Of Hybrid Renewable Energy Based Electrical Power Generation System

Due to the global warming and other effects on Earth, the world is moving towards utilizing renewable energy. Malaysia is situated near to the equator where the ambient temperature remains uniformly high throughout the year, between 27 and 33°C, with an average daily solar radiation of 4500 kWh per square meter and an average daily sunshine duration of about 6-7 hours. Most locations have a relative humidity of 80- 88%, rising to nearly 90% in the highland areas

A new record of a rare species Masturus lanceolatus (Point-tail sunfish) from Chennai coastal waters, India

297-301A single individual point tailed sunfish Masturus lanceolatus was landed at Kasimedu fishing harbour, Chennai coast by gill netter, for the first time. In the present study, morphometrics and meristic measurements of the sunfish were made, which was found to be 120 cm long and weighed approximately 44 kg. The specimen has been compared with earlier reports

Scheuthauer-Marie-Sainton syndrome: a case report

The term Scheuthauer-Marie-Sainton syndrome is also known as cleidocranial dysplasia or cleidocranial dystosis and is derived from ancient greek words cleido (collar bone), knanion (head) and dysplasia (abnormal formation). It is an uncommon but well known genetic skeletal condition and an autosomal dominant malformation affecting bones and teeth. The most common skeletal and dental abnormalities in affected individuals are hypoplastic/ aplastic clavicles, open frontanelles, short stature, retention of primary teeth, delayed eruption of permanent teeth, supernumerary teeth and multiple impacted teeth. Affected person have a characteristic facial appearance with a bulky forehead, hypertelorism and midfacial hypoplasia. General health is usually good and the intellect is unimpaired. This article describes clinical and radiographic features of Scheuthauer-Marie-Sainton syndrome in a 29 years old male patien

Fully-dynamic Approximation of Betweenness Centrality

Betweenness is a well-known centrality measure that ranks the nodes of a network according to their participation in shortest paths. Since an exact computation is prohibitive in large networks, several approximation algorithms have been proposed. Besides that, recent years have seen the publication of dynamic algorithms for efficient recomputation of betweenness in evolving networks. In previous work we proposed the first semi-dynamic algorithms that recompute an approximation of betweenness in connected graphs after batches of edge insertions. In this paper we propose the first fully-dynamic approximation algorithms (for weighted and unweighted undirected graphs that need not to be connected) with a provable guarantee on the maximum approximation error. The transfer to fully-dynamic and disconnected graphs implies additional algorithmic problems that could be of independent interest. In particular, we propose a new upper bound on the vertex diameter for weighted undirected graphs. For both weighted and unweighted graphs, we also propose the first fully-dynamic algorithms that keep track of such upper bound. In addition, we extend our former algorithm for semi-dynamic BFS to batches of both edge insertions and deletions. Using approximation, our algorithms are the first to make in-memory computation of betweenness in fully-dynamic networks with millions of edges feasible. Our experiments show that they can achieve substantial speedups compared to recomputation, up to several orders of magnitude

Governance and Capacity to Manage Resilience of Health Systems: Towards a New Conceptual Framework.

The term resilience has dominated the discourse among health systems researchers since 2014 and the onset of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. There is wide consensus that the global community has to help build more resilient health systems. But do we really know what resilience means, and do we all have the same vision of resilience? The present paper presents a new conceptual framework on governance of resilience based on systems thinking and complexity theories. In this paper, we see resilience of a health system as its capacity to absorb, adapt and transform when exposed to a shock such as a pandemic, natural disaster or armed conflict and still retain the same control over its structure and functions

SVtL: System Verification through Logic: tool support for verifying sliced hierarchical statecharts

SVtL is the core of a slicing-based verification environment for UML statechart models. We present an overview of the SVtL software architecture. Special attention is paid to the slicing approach. Slicing reduces the complexity of the verification approach, based on removing pieces of the model that are not of interest during verification. In [18] a slicing algorithm has been proposed for statecharts, but it was not able to handle orthogonal regions efficiently. We optimize this algorithm by removing false dependencies, relying on the broadcasting mechanism between different parts of the statechart model

Depolarization of sperm membrane potential is a common feature of men with subfertility and is associated with low fertilization rate at IVF

STUDY QUESTION. Are significant abnormalities in outward (K+) conductance and resting membrane potential (Vm) present in the spermatozoa of patients undertaking IVF and ICSI and if so, what is their functional effect on fertilization success? SUMMARY ANSWER. Negligible outward conductance (≈5% of patients) or an enhanced inward conductance (≈4% of patients), both of which caused depolarization of Vm, were associated with a low rate of fertilization following IVF. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY. Sperm-specific potassium channel knockout mice are infertile with defects in sperm function, suggesting that these channels are essential for fertility. These observations suggest that malfunction of K+ channels in human spermatozoa might contribute significantly to the occurrence of subfertility in men. However, remarkably little is known of the nature of K+ channels in human spermatozoa or the incidence and functional consequences of K+ channel defects. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE AND DURATION. Spermatozoa were obtained from healthy volunteer research donors and subfertile IVF and ICSI patients attending a hospital assisted reproductive techniques clinic between May 2013 and December 2015. In total, 40 IVF patients, 41 ICSI patients and 26 normozoospermic donors took part in the study. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS. Samples were examined using electrophysiology (whole-cell patch clamping). Where abnormal electrophysiological characteristics were identified, spermatozoa were further examined for Ca2+ influx induced by progesterone and penetration into viscous media if sufficient sample was available. Full exome sequencing was performed to specifically evaluate potassium calcium-activated channel subfamily M α 1 (KCNMA1), potassium calcium-activated channel subfamily U member 1 (KCNU1) and leucine-rich repeat containing 52 (LRRC52) genes and others associated with K+ signalling. In IVF patients, comparison with fertilization rates was done to assess the functional significance of the electrophysiological abnormalities. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE. Patch clamp electrophysiology was used to assess outward (K+) conductance and resting membrane potential (Vm) and signalling/motility assays were used to assess functional characteristics of sperm from IVF and ICSI patient samples. The mean Vm and outward membrane conductance in sperm from IVF and ICSI patients were not significantly different from those of control (donor) sperm prepared under the same conditions, but variation between individuals was significantly greater (P< 0.02) with a large number of outliers (>25%). In particular, in ≈10% of patients (7/81), we observed either a negligible outward conductance (4 patients) or an enhanced inward current (3 patients), both of which caused depolarization of Vm. Analysis of clinical data from the IVF patients showed significant association of depolarized Vm (≥0 mV) with low fertilization rate (P= 0.012). Spermatozoa with electrophysiological abnormities (conductance and Vm) responded normally to progesterone with elevation of [Ca2+]i and penetration of viscous medium, indicating retention of cation channel of sperm (CatSper) channel function. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION. For practical, technical, ethical and logistical reasons, we could not obtain sufficient additional semen samples from men with conductance abnormalities to establish the cause of the conductance defects. Full exome sequencing was only available in two men with conductance defects. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS. These data add significantly to the understanding of the role of ion channels in human sperm function and its impact on male fertility. Impaired potassium channel conductance (Gm) and/or Vm regulation is both common and complex in human spermatozoa and importantly is associated with impaired fertilization capacity when the Vm of cells is completely depolarized

Population genetics of Drosophila nasuta nasuta, Drosophila nasuta albomicana and their hybrids. I. Karyotypic mosaicism in the hybrid populations

D. n. nasuta and D. n. albomicana constitute a pair of chromosomal races with 2n=8 and 2n=6, respectively. The F1 of these has 2n=7 and it is fertile. There exists a state of karyotypic mosaicism as evidenced by the presence of 26 types of chromosome combinations in F2, F3 and F10 populations. In the midst of this karyotypic noise, the karyotype similar to that of F1 reached 51% of the population. Implications of these findings are discussed

Fresh and Mechanical Properties of Lightweight Aggregate Concrete with Scrap Steel Fiber Reinforcement and Bagasse Ash

A sustainable concrete solution was developed by partially replacing aggregates and cement with lightweight plastic aggregates (LWPA) and bagasse ash, respectively. Three types of mixes were studied: (i) concrete with 10-30% cement replaced by bagasse ash (BA), (ii) Bagasse ash concrete mix with scrap steel fiber, and (iii) Bagasse ash concrete with scrap fiber and 10-50% lightweight aggregate. The addition of bagasse ash positively influenced the fresh properties of concrete. However, workability decreased by 56% with the incorporation of scrap fibers and lightweight aggregate compared to the control mix. Slump values reduced in concrete mixes containing plastic aggregate (PA) due to mortar accumulation in voids within the hollow aggregate, significantly diminishing workability. The density of concrete decreased with bagasse ash and lightweight aggregate inclusion, aiding in reducing structural dead weight. However, the strength decreased notably with 30% replacement using hollow lightweight plastic aggregate. Voids in concrete specimens increased with LWPA percentage. Observations from fresh and hardened concrete tests suggest that plastic aggregate, bagasse ash, and scrap fiber can effectively replace up to 20% of gravel aggregate