The impact of social norms on voluntary tax compliance in Malaysia

Tax compliance has always been a major issue for governments worldwide. This emphasizes the need to understand the factors that contributing to individual taxpayer’s compliance decisions that go beyond the standard economics-of-crime approach to include the role of social norms. This study explores the impacts of social norms on taxpayers’ attitudes towards voluntary tax compliance. Findings show that personal norms and subjective norms give a significant impact on the willingness of taxpayers to comply with tax laws. The tax authority is suggested to understand taxpayers’ attitudes in developing appropriate strategy to ensure positive tax attitudes are instilled in Malaysia to easily increase voluntary tax compliance in Malaysia

Effectiveness of internal audit: ensuring public sector accountability and integrity / Nor Raihana Asmar Mohd Noor ...[et al.]

Good governance in public administration does have the positive impacts to the public. Government practices and implements good service delivery because they want to uphold the status of public servant as it is the main obligation of government to serve the best to the public. These activities are monitored by the internal audit to achieve accountability and integrity, to improve the implementation of government programs and to develop confidence among citizens and stakeholders as well as to cater to any risk of mismanagement of public fund. This paper focuses on reviewing the previous literatures in determining the determinants in assessing the effectiveness of internal auditing process in the public sector. Therefore, this paper uses secondary data in gathering the information relating to the internal audit to accomplish the objectives of this study. This paper further expands and develops the literature on the role and effectiveness of internal auditing to enhance public sector accountability and integrity. Eventhough the paper is conceptual, but it also concludes the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of internal audit. Therefore, this study finds that the effectiveness of internal audit in public sector can be measured through several factors such as auditors’ competency, independence of internal auditor and management support to the role of the internal auditor

Novel Approaches for Detection Fluorescent-Labeled by Cellvizio Lab System on Hippocampal CA1 Region

Neurosteroids have been identified in the 1981. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) is one of the vital neurosteroids that de novo synthesized in the nervous system from cholesterol precursor (Baulieu & Robel, 1998). The aim of the study is to develop a method for fluorescence labelling. Alexa Fluor 488 dye with DHEAS antibody can binds the DHEAS antibody in the rat brain monitored by Cellvizio Lab System. DHEAS antibody (IgG isotype antibodies) was fluorescently conjugated by an amine-reactive compound, Alexa Fluor 5-SDP ester 488 dye. The resultant Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated antibodies were collected and analyzed by UV-Vis spectrophotometer instrument. The absorbance of the protein-dye conjugate at 280 nm and 494 nm were measured. Then, the degree of labeling (DOL) was calculated to achieve the desired results. Fluorescence labelling were carried out into the CA1 region of hippocampus Sprague-Dawley rat. We reported that the conjugation was successful. Optimal labeling depending on degree of labeling (DOL) needs some necessity to achieve and effective binding to the target neurosteroid, DHEAS. Cellvizio Lab system connected with Fiber Fluorescence Microscopy (FFM) probe is presented as a new approach in real-time imaging of DHEAS. In conclusion, we have developed a new method of DHEAS-Alexa Fluor fluorescence labelling to visualize and evaluate the changes of DHEAS fluorescence level in the rat hippocampus. This novel approach as a diagnostic tool and can be used to better understand the mechanisms and functions of DHEAS and other neurosteroids in future research

Interspecies In Vitro Evaluation of Stereoselective Protein Binding for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Abuse of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is becomingmore common worldwide. To date, there is no information available on stereoselectivity of MDMA protein binding in humans, rats, and mice. Since stereoselectivity plays an important role in MDMA’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, in this study we investigated its stereoselectivity in protein binding. The stereoselective protein binding of rac-MDMA was nvestigated using two different concentrations (20 and 200 ng/mL) in human plasma and mouse and rat sera using an ultrafiltration technique. No significant stereoselectivity in protein binding was observed in both human plasma and rat serum; however, a significant stereoselective binding

Interspecies In Vitro Evaluation of Stereoselective Protein Binding for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Abuse of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is becomingmore common worldwide. To date, there is no information available on stereoselectivity of MDMA protein binding in humans, rats, and mice. Since stereoselectivity plays an important role in MDMA’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, in this study we investigated its stereoselectivity in protein binding. The stereoselective protein binding of rac-MDMA was nvestigated using two different concentrations (20 and 200 ng/mL) in human plasma and mouse and rat sera using an ultrafiltration technique. No significant stereoselectivity in protein binding was observed in both human plasma and rat serum; however, a significant stereoselective binding

Is Current Formative Assessment Still Relevant in Turning Students into Deep Learners?

Universities should design the assessment activities that could induce students to be deep learners instead of surface learners, and at the same time equip them with relevant soft skills. This paper aims to gain insight on students’ perception on the appropriateness of the assessment activities in developing soft skills of a management accounting subject at a public university in Malaysia. 420 usable questionnaires were collected out of 686 distributed to fourth semester students taking the said subject. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U test were conducted to achieve the objective. Results revealed that students did not benefit much from test or quiz implying that such assessment does not turn students into deep learners as expected. On the other hand, group work and presentation do contribute to the development of soft skills. However, findings should not be generalized to other subjects

Mapping breast cancer research in Malaysia: a scientometric analysis

The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of breast cancer researches in Malaysia. Besides, this study aimed to identify the trends of breast cancer research in Malaysia. This study retrieved 343 related publications from the Scopus database. After removing one duplicated publication and another two publications that did not meet the study criteria, the remaining 340 publications were analysed using a bibliometric analysis and trending keywords analysis. This study found that the annual growth rate of publications was 7.4%. The majority of the publications were research articles and multi-author. The most productive author was Yip CH with 69 publications, and the University of Malaya was the top institution in Malaysia related to this research area. For the last five years, there were no dominant themes in this research area. However, this study found two emerging clusters of breast cancer research in Malaysia, which related to medical data analytics and precision medicine in genomic breast cancer. Overall, breast cancer research in Malaysia is progressing towards a positive side, though a few improvements are needed. As the funding in this research area is scarce, proper allocation of the resources is needed

The Impact Of The Bank Regulation And Supervision On The Efficiency Of Islamic Banks

This study investigates the impact of bank regulation and supervision on the efficiency of banking sectors on 108 Islamic banks from 26 countries offering Islamic banking and finance products and services. The technical efficiencies of individual Islamic banks have been analyzed using the data envelopment analysis method (DEA). The ordinary least square estimation method is employed to examine the impact of country supervision and regulation on the technical efficiency of Islamic banks. The empirical findings suggest that supervisory power, activity restrictions and private monitoring positively influence the efficiency of Islamic banks. The study revealed that Islamic banks that are operating in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and middle-income countries are more technically efficient given the less stringent rules on capital requirement and we found that there is statistically significant evidence that higher capital requirements are negatively associated with the efficiency of Islamic banks. The empirical findings of this study are expected to help policy-makers and government officials to better understand how their decisions affect the performance

The Determinants Of Bank Regulations And Supervision On The Efficiency Of Islamic Banks In Mena Regions*

This study investigates the impact of the country’s governance on the revenue efficiency in the banking sectors of 42 Islamic banks in 15 countries offering Islamic banking and financial services. Technical efficiencies of individual Islamic banks were analyzed using the Data Envelopment Analysis method. The Ordinary Least Square estimation method is employed to examine the impact of country supervision and regulation on the technical efficiency of Islamic banks. With robustness check, the study assesses the impact of bank regulations and supervision on the efficiency of Islamic banks operating in different regions. The empirical findings suggest that supervisory power, activity restrictions, and private monitoring positively influence the efficiency of Islamic banks. On the other hand, we observe a negative impact of capital requirement on Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The findings indicate that supervisory power, activity restrictions, and private monitoring positively influence the efficiency of Islamic banks in Asia, but vice versa on capital requirement in MENA countries. This study will contribute to the body of knowledge by assessing the types of reforms in bank regulations and supervision that work best for Islamic banks in order to increase the level of efficiency and the level of regulations and supervision of Islamic banks

The Determinants Of The Bank Regulation And Supervision On The Efficiency Of Islamic Banks In Different Country’s Income Level

This study investigates the impact of the country's governance on the revenue efficiency of 108 Islamic banks from 26 countries offering‎Islamic banking and finance products services. The technical efficiencies of individual Islamic banks have been analyzed using the Data‎Envelopment Analysis method. The data will be pooled across the selected countries and utilize the intermediation approach. The Ordinary‎Least Square estimation method is employed to examine the impact of country supervision and regulation on the technical efficiency of‎Islamic banks. As robustness check, the study examines the impact of the level of bank regulations and supervision on the efficiency of‎Islamic banks operating in different income-level countries. The results found that the stricter the supervisory power, the less strict capital‎requirement, the tighter the restrictions on non-banking activities, and the stricter the private monitoring enhance statistically significantly‎the level of efficiency of Islamic banks. In upgrading the regulations and supervision of the Islamic banks, the existing regulatory framework‎based on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) must be complemented with the prescriptions on Islamic banking or Shariah‎compliance diligently, so that the Islamic banks could be regulated accurately and further improve the technical efficiency of their operations