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

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

Standardization of leaf age for radical scavenging activity in Terminalia arjuna

Terminalia arjuna is one of the many such plant that used in indigenous system of medicine for curing different diseases. For effective formulation of herbal drug selection of proper age of the plant is imperative. In the present study, the T. arjuna plant (leaves) was collected from the Botanical garden of Saurashtra University. The leaves were grouped in to various size and growth analysis was performed. Each extract homogenized in methanol and was used for chlorophyll estimation and antioxidant activities. Radical scavenging activity of the methanol extract of different stages leaves were determined using a stable free radical 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH), using Micro plate assay. Further the phenolic compounds were separated by Reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography analysis (RP-HPLC). At the leaf stage when maximum antioxidant activity was observed, phenol like Gallic acid showed distinct peak. The role of phenolic compounds in antioxidant activities is discussed