Intraday Price And Volume Relations In The Stock And Warrant Markets

This research paper examines the causal structure of price and volume in the warrant and stock markets within the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) of Malaysia. We investigate the intraday relations between price and trading volume of the top 25 most active warrants and their underlying stocks during the period from 24th September to 16th December 2003. The data were grouped into 5-minute intervals for this study. Unit root, cointegration, vector error correction (VEC) and Granger causality tests were used to analyse the lead-lag between price and volume of the warrant and stock markets

STAFF ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LEARNING (ARL) TO ENHANCE STUDENT MANAGEMENT

The Staff Active Reflective Learning (ARL) is a new scheme designed to enhance student management though regular get-togethers of a group of teaching staff. It provides a platform for staff to share issues related to teaching, and seek solutions. This addresses current and future challenges faced in classroom management. The implementation of the Staff ARL is one of the recent initiatives taken under a new approach to shared learning within the School of Electronic and Info-Comm Technology. It provides a platform for mentors to facilitate in developing fellow staff members through the provision of professional support, helping existing staff to learn and grow professionally. Insights into classroom management techniques are provided for new staff to apply while waiting to attend the formal Pedagogic Certification in Technical Education (a compulsory component for all staff). The Staff ARL fosters good working relationships, as staff can ‘chill out’ and be rewarded through the enrichment of knowledge, sharpening of capabilities, building of confidence, and growth of mutual support. The scheme received good feedback as it resulted in the creation of a range of purposeful learning tools and strategies for thedevelopment of problem solving skills, reflective thinking skills and awareness of upto-date classroom situations

An AI Approach to Tasking and Control of an Industrial Laser System

Effective use of lasers for materials processing applications requires a thorough knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms governing the interaction of radiation with matter. A discussion of the highly non-linear laser-material interaction is thus presented. The research then focusses on alternative approaches to the non-linear analysis of laser material processing through the application of genetic algorithms and chaos theory. A genetic algorithm is developed which predicts the laser cutting rate with good accuracy. The theory of deterministic chaos was exploited to investigate laser cutting of stainless steel; a new fundamental understanding of the interaction via the energy phase portrait was established. The construction of the phase portrait is illustrated. The work then focusses on the actual design and implementation of a hybrid intelligent system for the tasking and control of a gas laser for materials processing. Existing artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies are reviewed. A new AI topological technique is developed to facilitate the design of a Proportional-Integral- Differential Knowledge Based Management System (PID-KBMS). The final intelligent system comprises of the PID-KBMS and a Cone Decision Support System (CDSS). The CDSS provides on-line image acquisition and analysis of the laser cutting process. The architecture of the hybrid intelligent system is illustrated. The intelligent system source code was implemented in a Microsoft Windows and UNIX XWindows environment using Borland C. The intelligent system is hosted by a Viglen 486 PC and a SUN-SPARC 4. A virtual graphical user interface is presented on the Viglen 486 via the network. A final evaluation of the investigations into: the non-linear characteristics of laser-material interactions and prediction schemes, the AI topological technique for the design of AI control engines, the design and implementation of the PID-KBMS and CDSS are presented in the concluding chapter. The algorithms and methods applied herein have general applicability to any non-linear control problem. Finally, recommendations for future research are given

A Study On Various Single Variable Control Charts

Teknik carta kawalan telah digunakan dengan luasnya di industri untuk mengawal proses bagi peningkatan kualiti. Kebiasaannya, dua carta kawalan diperlukan untuk mengawal min proses dan varians proses secara berasingan. Banyak usaha telah dilakukan untuk menghasilkan sejenis carta kawalan tunggal yang mampu mengawal min proses dan varians proses secara serentak. Control chart techniques have been widely used in industries to monitor a process for quality improvement. Usually, two control charts are required to monitor both the process mean and variability. Efforts have been made to use a single control chart to monitor both the process mean and variability at the same time

Investigating the Effects of High Amylose Wheat on Metabolic, Gastrointestinal and Reproductive Outcomes Using A Mouse Model

High amylose wheat (HAW) is a novel wheat variety with markedly higher levels of amylose, resistant starch and nutrients and a lower glycaemic index compared to commercial standard amylose wheat (SAW) and therefore may confer additional health benefits. While a few studies have indicated that HAW can improve some aspects of metabolic and gastrointestinal health, there was a limited understanding of whether and to what extent these effects varied according to the level of HAW consumed. Furthermore, no studies had determined whether these effects differed between males and females. While improved dietary quality, including increased whole grain intake, has been associated with improved reproductive parameters, the potential impact of HAW on reproductive health had also not been determined. Therefore, the central aim of this thesis was to determine the effects of HAW on metabolic, gastrointestinal and reproductive health outcomes in healthy lean male and female mice. In Chapter 2, consumption of HAW (35-65% w/w) for eight weeks was associated with a sex-specific effect on several metabolic parameters, including food intake, respiratory quotient (RQ), growth and fat mass. Importantly, these effects were appeared to be dependent on the level of HAW consumed. Specifically, consumption of the lowest level of HAW (35% w/w) was associated with a higher food intake and RQ in female mice whereas consumption of the highest level of HAW (65% w/w) reduced fat mass, particularly abdominal fat mass, in male mice. There was no clear evidence that HAW improved blood glucose or lipid control. The results presented in Chapter 3 indicated that increased consumption of HAW had effects on several gastrointestinal measures, and these effects were more pronounced in female mice compared to their age-matched male counterparts. The effects observed included increased gastrointestinal weights, enhanced gastric motility and increased mRNA expression of the intestinal barrier marker Ocln and the gut hormone Pyy. In both sexes, consumption of higher levels of HAW (50-65% w/w) was associated with increased faecal bacteria load and diversity and a shift in the gut microbiota composition in a manner consistent with improved gastrointestinal health, including increased relative abundance of Bacteroidetes phylum and decreased relative abundance of Firmicutes phylum. In Chapters 2 and 4, consumption of HAW was associated with positive effects on reproductive health in both male and female mice, including increased testicular weights and an altered pattern of vaginal cytology parameters towards a longer time in estrus/metestrus and less time in diestrus. The positive effects of HAW for female reproductive health were further confirmed by the findings in Chapter 4 where the intake of HAW before and during pregnancy was associated with significantly improved pregnancy rates compared to those consuming SAW diet (94% vs 61%). Overall, this thesis has provided evidence that consumption of HAW may have benefits on metabolic and gastrointestinal health with dose-dependent and sex-specific effects, and consumption of HAW may improve reproductive function in both males and females. While further studies are required, these results support the potential application of HAW as a functional food to improve health in human consumers.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, 202

Nutritional compositions and antioxidant activities of non-polar and polar extracts of germinated brown rice

The objective of this study was to investigate the nutritional compositions and antioxidant activities (AA) of non-polar and polar extracts of germinated brown rice (GBR). Nutritional compositions such as moisture, ash, carbohydrate, fat, protein and fibre were determined. Energy and minerals content were determined by using bomb calorimetry and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), respectively. Total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of the extracts were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu method and aluminium chloride colorimetric method. The AA was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and [2,2′-Azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] diammonium salt (ABTS) radical scavenging capacity assay, ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay, and β-carotene bleaching assay. Total energy content of GBR sample was 390.95±11.31 kcal/100g and carbohydrate (54.30±1.04 g/100 g) was the most abundant nutrient. The predominant minerals in the GBR sample were sodium, potassium and magnesium. The polar extract showed significantly higher (p0.90, p<0.001) existed between antioxidants (TPC and TFC) and AA. Therefore, polar extract was better than non-polar extract. The nutritional composition of GBR also provided an update for food composition database

The Interactions between the Business Strategies and Financial Strategies among the MNCs in Singapore

MNCs have been playing an overwhelming role in Singapore's economic development. Large Singapore MNCs tend to be more westernized. Although cultural differences exist, Singapore is open and pragmatic, and therefore permits Western practices to be introduced and become the preferred management style. As the economic activities in Asia become more competitive, MNCs in Singapore have also been redefining the role of their operations in Singapore � from pure manufacturing to regional headquarters services. As Singapore's economic success is mostly attributed to MNC' FDI inflow, it would require the identification, consideration, and analysis of many risk factors, tangibles as well as intangibles. Nevertheless, the MNCs must strategize to match corporate capabilities and at the same time grant some form of competitive advantage, thereby increasing the value of the company. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the critical factors of corporate strategies that can affect the long-term performance of 18 MNCs in Singapore, so as to provide guidance for their survival and growth. The research examines the interactions between business and financial strategies, and discusses important propositions on growth and risk management based on relevant empirical and analytical findings from two business aspects: internationalization and product/service diversification and two financial aspects: asset liquidity and capital structure. The research also provide an analysis of the impact of internationalization strategy on asset liquidity and capital structure, the relationships between diversification strategy, asset liquidity and capital structure, as well as present the implications that are derived from these two analyses

Development of knowledge management measurement framework and its application in China ship building industry

Knowledge Management (KM) in this research refers to a process that dives deep into an organization and analyzes operational metrics to understand and help the enterprise make use of knowledge both explicit and tacit, facilitate a state of knowledge awareness and sustain the knowledge managing and learning process. This novelty of the research is its first attempt to combine China's KM implementation issues statistics, literature review on KM model and KM CSFs, integrating with research objectives findings to develop a KM framework for China SME shipyards. This framework interlinks the knowledge cycle of knowledge acquisition, application and improvement continuously within organization by 3 KM domains of organization entity, people interaction and organization memory, formulated by 12 KM CSFs derived. The uniqueness of this framework is it emphasis on people. Organization entity involves people support of top management to motivate and drive organizational culture to embrace KM. Continuous organization knowledge improvement involve people interaction to facilitate knowledge processes through socialization programs, training and building of trustworthy team. People are the one who contribute to organization memory by retain and update organization knowledge for effective reprocessing and retrieval via information technology. The survey took the form of structured interview in five stages of field study with eight sets of survey questionnaires. AHP method is applied to quantify practices and translate it into measurable absolute numbers. Result showed that one third of China SME shipyards are NOT Ready for KM implementation. Among the deficiencies, knowledge structure is the first limitation, followed by the knowledge content and training. The value of this research is to highlight and illustrate to enterprises the opportunity of the application of KM Framework could continuously improve their organization knowledge from operating processes through systematic knowledge acquisition and application, to gain their competitiveness and sustainability in long term. In short term, this KM framework by application could answer to the question that all China SME shipyards unanimously asked “Do you think my shipyard is Ready to implement Knowledge Management ?

CO2 Emissions, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth In Malaysia : A Cointegration Approach

This paper investigates the short run and long run relationships between energy consumption, economic growth and carbon emission in Malaysia using annual data from 1982 to 2011. For better understanding of the dynamism, the study first examines the dynamics between energy consumption, economic growth and capital formation. The results indicate that unidirectional causality runs from economic growth to capital formation in the short run. The result also shows that Malaysia is an energy dependent country as evident from the bidirectional causality between economic growth and energy consumption in both the short and long run. The study continues to study the dynamics between energy consumption, economic growth and carbon emissions. With carbon emissions added into the framework, there is evidence of a bidirectional relationship between GDP and EC and EC with CO2. One interesting result to note the existence of a unidirectional relationship running from CO2 and GDP in the long run. With the country’s goal to reduce carbon emissions, reduction in CO2 emission will have an adverse impact on the country’s economic growth. However, the study found that the current recommended policies might mitigated the problem

Structure-based and ligand-based virtual screening of novel methyltransferase inhibitors of the dengue virus.

The dengue virus is the most significant arthropod-borne human pathogen, and an increasing number of cases have been reported over the last few decades. Currently neither vaccines nor drugs against the dengue virus are available. NS5 methyltransferase (MTase), which is located on the surface of the dengue virus and assists in viral attachment to the host cell, is a promising antiviral target. In order to search for novel inhibitors of NS5 MTase, we performed a computer-aided virtual screening of more than 5 million commercially available chemical compounds using two approaches: i) structure-based screening using the crystal structure of NS5 MTase and ii) ligand-based screening using active ligands of NS5 MTase. Structure-based screening was performed using the LIDAEUS (LIgand Discovery At Edinburgh UniverSity) program. The ligand-based screening was carried out using the EDULISS (EDinburgh University LIgand Selection System) program. The selection of potential inhibitors of dengue NS5 MTase was based on two criteria: the compounds must bind to NS5 MTase with a higher affinity than that of active NS5 MTase ligands, such as ribavirin triphosphate (RTP) and S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH); and the compounds must interact with residues that are catalytically important for the function of NS5 MTase. We found several compounds that bind strongly to the RNA cap site and the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) binding site of NS5 MTase with better binding affinities than that of RTP and SAH. We analyzed the mode of binding for each compound to its binding site, and our results suggest that all compounds bind to their respective binding sites by interacting with, and thus blocking, residues that are vital for maintaining the catalytic activity of NS5 MTase. We discovered several potential compounds that are active against dengue virus NS5 MTase through virtual screening using structure-based and ligand-based methods. These compounds were predicted to bind into the SAM binding site and the RNA cap site with higher affinities than SAH and RTP. These compounds are commercially available and can be purchased for further biological activity tests