Studies on the Magneto-transport properties of perovskite based Colossal Magneto Resistance (CMR)

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Semiotic Literacy, Post-Modernity, Malaysia and Japan; How Television Advertising Reveals Political-Economic Development and Change

This paper focuses on how advertising formats can be utilized as inductive tools to assess the political, economic, intellectual and cultural "development" of a society. It does so by focusing on two essentially different countries: Japan and Malaysia. We find that while both countries utilize the same four formats identified by Leiss et al. (1990) in their historical survey of American and Canadian print ads, they do so in different measure. Specifically, in Malaysia Product Information and Product Image formats occur with greater frequency, whereas in Japan the Peronalization and Lifestyle forms are more common. Implicit in Leiss et al.\u27s work was a developmental logic. Simply put, one could hypothesize that nations at a lower level of political-economic development tend to favor the “cruder", more product-centered formats, while those countries at the higher level more often invoke the more sophisticated, entertainment-oriented communications. The comparative data here tends to confirm this. These associations are bolstered by the fact that in Japan, though not in Malaysia, we encounter a fifth presentation format-what I call the \u27Post-modern Format\u27. One further task of this paper is to explore an array of postmodern approaches. In conclusion I seek to understand why such patterns have resulted. My explanation is twofold. From the production side it involves matters of political organization and economic development-factors impinging on ad creation. From the audience side, it entails semiotics and, in particular, an ad reader\u27s sign-processing capacity. We end with questions of globalization. Advertising is one of the few "language systems" which has spread worldwide that is also understandable (at some level) to all recipients. Yet, because it is dependent on semiotic literacy and because such literacy is dependent on political and economic factors rooted in the context, the question whether Malaysian advertising will ever "develop" to the level of Japanese advertising -with a similar dominant status in society- is yet an open question

The Determinants of Dividend Payout: Evidence From the Malaysian Property Market

The paper aims to investigate the determinants of dividend payout among the Malaysian property companies. The sample size consists of 30 property listed companies on Bursa Malaysia. The data are generally obtained from the company's annual report for the period of 2012 to 2016. The study employs multiple regression analysis to examine the influence of firms specific and macroeconomic variables on dividend payout. Result of the test shows that the dividend payout has a significant negative relationship with ownership structure and positive relationship on return on equity, quick ratio and GDP. The study instigates to enrich the literature on dividend determinants especially in the context of Malaysia

The Financing Problems Facing the Agricultural Sector in Nigeria and the Prospect of Waqf-Muzaraah-Supply Chain Model (WMSCM)

Agriculture sector becomes important sector in many developing countries including in Nigeria. The contribution of agricultural sector to the development of Nigeria is considerable. This important sector was the economic backbone upon which the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria relied for its foreign exchange and revenue. A country was once a net exporter of agricultural products. However, since the discovery of oil in the early 1960, agricultural productivity has continually decreased due to many problems, especially related to financial aspect. Several programmes and policies have been adopted by various administrations to find solution to the dwindling agricultural productivity but to no avail. These solutions have mainly focused on alleviating the financial problems the farmers face. Usually financial intermediaries including banks would provide micro-financing to the farmers but with high interest rates coupled with collateral requirements. Hence, this mode of financing has not produced any significant result. This study will therefore examine problems facing agricultural sector in Nigeria with special emphasis on its financial aspect and propose a Waqf-MuzaraahSupply Chain model (WMSCM). Under this model, Waqf fund will be used for providing financial facility of the farmers. The relationship between farmers and financial institutions is based on partnership where profit and loss will be shared by both parties. This will enhance commitment by and cooperation among both parties to ensure the success of the business. Furthermore, the issues of collateral and high interest rate that constrain the financial ability of the farmers and their agricultural output are inherently solved by the model. Moreover, the model has features of investment and risk diversification for both the financial institutions and the farmers that will lead to high agricultural productivity and employment generation in the economy

Revisiting of an Islamic Options Permisibility From Shariah Perspectives

The popularity of derivative instruments especially in managing uncertainty (risk)had become popular after several financial crises that occurred since the Great EconomicDepression. There are various tools have been developed in managing risk such as the Options,Forwards, Futures and Swaps. In addition, these kinds of tools are commonly used by institutional and individual investors. Given this popularity, conventional risk management strategies is completely against from Islamic risk management as Islamic financial market arekeep on growing drastically at Cumulative Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15% on yearlybasis (Mckinsey, 2005). This is clearly shows that, Islamic finance development are in line withconventional financial development. Therefore, there is need to maintain consistency in productstructures offered by these two financial markets. The complexity is mainly contributed by thestructures and the design of the products especially on Islamic derivatives tools. Therefore, to get a significant picture of the Islamic risk management tools, this paper will only examines thecontemporary derivative instruments namely; Option and the Islamic viewpoints of thisinstrument . As we know, Islamic finance is governed by Shariah principle and guidelines whichprohibit Riba, Gharar, and Masir etc. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the validity ofoptions from Islamic and Shariah perspectives by reviewing Islamic scholars opinions on anoptions market

Arithmetic on a Distributed-Memory Quantum Multicomputer

We evaluate the performance of quantum arithmetic algorithms run on a distributed quantum computer (a quantum multicomputer). We vary the node capacity and I/O capabilities, and the network topology. The tradeoff of choosing between gates executed remotely, through ``teleported gates'' on entangled pairs of qubits (telegate), versus exchanging the relevant qubits via quantum teleportation, then executing the algorithm using local gates (teledata), is examined. We show that the teledata approach performs better, and that carry-ripple adders perform well when the teleportation block is decomposed so that the key quantum operations can be parallelized. A node size of only a few logical qubits performs adequately provided that the nodes have two transceiver qubits. A linear network topology performs acceptably for a broad range of system sizes and performance parameters. We therefore recommend pursuing small, high-I/O bandwidth nodes and a simple network. Such a machine will run Shor's algorithm for factoring large numbers efficiently.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, ACM transactions format. Extended version of Int. Symp. on Comp. Architecture (ISCA) paper; v2, correct one circuit error, numerous small changes for clarity, add reference

Asset Liability Management of Conventional and Islamic Banks in Malaysia

The objective of the paper is to investigate the effect of asset liability management on the financial performance of 6 conventional and 6 Islamic banks in Malaysia during the period of 2010 to 2013. The variables used in the study are capital adequacy, asset quality, management efficiency, earnings quality, liquidity, size of bank and degree of risk aversion in relation to asset liability management to examine the return on equity (ROE), which is the measure of profitability of the banks. The quantitative analysis using correlation and regression analysis concluded that there is a positive relationship between asset liability management and the financial performance of the banks.DOI: 10.15408/aiq.v9i1.333

Predictive validity of the HCR-20 for violent and non-violent sexual behaviour in a secure mental health service

BackgroundViolent and non-violent sexual behaviour is a fairly common problem among secure mental health service patients, but specialist sexual violence risk assessment is time-consuming and so performed infrequently.AimsWe aimed to establish whether a commonly used violence risk assessment tool, the Health Clinical Risk management 20(HCR-20), has predictive validity specifically for inappropriate sexual behaviour.MethodsA pseudo-prospective cohort design was used for a study in the adult wards of a large provider of specialist secure mental health services. Routine clinical team HCR-20 assessments were extracted from records, and incidents involving inappropriate sexual behaviour were recorded for the 3 months following assessment.ResultsOf 613 patients, 104 (17%) had engaged in at least one inappropriate sexual behaviour; in 65 (10.6%), the sexual act was violent. HCR-20 total score, clinical and risk management subscales, predicted violent and non-violent sexual behaviour. The negative predictive value of the HCR-20 for inappropriate sexual behaviour was over 90%.ConclusionsPrediction of violent sexual behaviour may be regarded as well within the scope of the HCR-20 as a structured professional judgement tool to aid violence risk prediction, but we found that it also predicts behaviours that may be of concern but fall below the violence threshold. High negative predictive values suggest that HCR-20 scores may have some utility for screening out patients who do not require more specialist assessment for inappropriate sexual behaviour

A comparative study between PGE1 and PGE2 for induction of labour in premature rupture of membrane at term

Background: Premature rupture of membranes at term can be managed expectantly with good results. However, low bishop score may lead to undue latency. It can lead to complications if no intervention done. So, timely intervention by labour induction in selected cases can improve maternal and fetal outcome. Prostaglandins has very vital role for induction of labour. This study is to compare the effectiveness between the two molecules of prostaglandins PGE1 and PGE2 for induction of labour in term premature rupture of membrane (PROM).Methods: It is a prospective interventional study performed at a tertiary hospital attached to a medical college. It was conducted upon randomly selected 100 women of term PROM from April 2011 to April 2015. They were divided into two comparable groups each containing 50 women. Both the groups were comparable in age, parity and bishop score. One group was induced with PGE1 (Tab Misoprostol) and the other with PGE2 (Dinoprostone gel).Results: Among 100 women, a good number of women were primigravida (76%). Majority of women were induced in between 6 to 12 hours after PROM (69%). Vaginal deliveries were 68% in tab. Misoprostol group while 80% in dinoprostone gel group which are comparable in both the groups. The significant difference observed was average induction delivery interval, which was 11.26 hours in tab. misoprostol group and 14.72 hours in dinoprostone gel group (P=0.004). The other women (26%) underwent cesarean section. Among them 46.15% were done for fetal distress and 43.84% for induction failure.Conclusions: Both the molecules of prostaglandins are efficient for labour induction in term PROM.  Though, PGE1 (tab. Misoprostol) is faster acting as compare to PGE2 (dinoprostone gel) even with low bishop score. But it can lead to complications like hyperstimulation, fetal distress and postpartum hemorrhage if not used properly. So, tab misoprostol is not a safe drug where continuous monitoring of women is not available