Determinants of foreign direct investment in Asia

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a widely discuss topic in recent years. Countries rely on FDI to stimulate the economic growth, reduce unemployment rate, develop quality infrastructure and stimulate transfer of advance technology and knowledge from developed countries. Hence, this dissertation tends to examine the determinants of FDI in Asia. This study consists of four objectives. First and foremost, author would like to identify the determinants of FDI in Asia. A panel regression analysis is conducted on 52 Asian countries over the 12 year period from 2007 to 2018. The second objective is to investigates the impact of taxation on FDI during crisis (2007 to 2009) and post-crisis (2010 to 2018) period. Next, author compares the determinants of FDI for developing and developed. The last objective focuses on the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) by distinguishing the determinants of FDI in One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries during Pre-BRI and Post-BRI. The findings show that infrastructure, trade openness, interest rate, belt road initiative and economic condition play a significant role in affecting the FDI inflow in Asia. Furthermore, the impact of taxation is only significant during post-crisis period as the government wants to stimulate the foreign investment by reducing the corporate tax rate after a drastic decline of FDI during crisis period. FDI is motivated by trade openness in developed Asia whereas economic condition and trade openness are equally important for developing Asia. Moreover, corruption and interest rate found to be significant to OBOR countries during Pre-BRI whereas trade openness, exchange rate, inflation and corruption are important factors affecting the FDI inflows for OBOR countries during post-BRI. Lastly, this study provides some useful suggestions for the policymakers to undertake in order to attract more foreign investment in Asia

Economic Analysis Of Transfusion Dependent Thalassaemia (Tdt) And Deferasirox Fct Efficiency In Malaysia

Thalassaemia is a common genetic disorder in Malaysia where the mainstay of supportive treatment is regular blood transfusion accompanied with iron-chelating therapy (ICT). Transfusion dependent thalassaemia (TDT) is defines as patient who requires blood transfusion >100mL/Kg annually. There are about 4500 patients in Malaysia who are suffering from TDT, however limited data is available on economic burden of this disease and also the efficiency of new formulated Deferasirox (Exjade FCT). Therefore, this study is designed to determine the economic burden of disease, cost effectiveness and budget impact of Exjade FCT in Malaysian context. Substudy one is to estimate the total lifetime cost of a TDT patient. Lifetime healthcare cost (TC2) was simulated using Markov model. Lifetime patient and family healthcare expenditure (TC3) was estimated through cross-sectional health survey approach. Survey was conducted using two-stage sampling method in 13 thalassaemia centers covering all regions in Malaysia. Total lifetime TDT cost (TC1) = TC2 + TC3. Substudy two to evaluate the cost effectiveness of Exjade FCT over the long standing gold standard treatment in TDT – Desferrioxamine. Costs and health outcome (quality adjusted life years) was estimated using Markov model. Costs data was extracted from local database and quality of life data was collected using EQ-5D-3L questionnaire among local thalassaemia patient. Lastly, substudy three, budget impact of converting the current oral ICT- Deferasirox dispersible tablet (Exjade DT) to Exjade FCT was evaluated using budget impact model

Persekitaran sosial dan strategi untuk mengekalkan kesihatan dalam kalangan pekerja asing sepanjang pandemik Covid-19

Pekerja asing di Malaysia bersifat rentan terhadap COVID-19 atas faktor persekitaran sosial yang meningkatkan risiko jangkitan. Namun begitu, perspektif mereka yang mampu kekal bebas COVID-19 sepanjang pandemik kurang diketahui. Oleh itu, kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti faktor persekitaran sosial yang menyebabkan impak pandemik dan strategi sokongan sosial yang diterima untuk mengekalkan kesihatan dalam kalangan pekerja Nepal di Selangor dan Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Pendekatan kualitatif telah digunakan dengan temu bual separa berstruktur bersama lapan orang pekerja asing warga Nepal bebas COVID-19, serta dua orang pemimpin agama sebagai informan utama di mana kaedah pensampelan bertujuan telah digunakan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa impak psikososial berpunca daripada faktor undang-undang, iaitu Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) yang mewujudkan norma baru. Sokongan informasional dan instrumental telah membantu mereka memahami dan mempraktikkan Prosedur Kendalian Standard (SOP). Sokongan emosional dan sokongan agama juga membantu mereka menangani masalah kesihatan mental. Tuntasnya, penentu sosial kesihatan utama, iaitu konteks sosial dan komuniti yang mewujudkan kestabilan ekonomi dan penjagaan kesihatan berkualiti telah menjamin kesihatan mereka semasa pandemik. Faktor sosial perlu lebih dititikberatkan dalam kerja menangani impak pandemik demi menjaga kesihatan awam secara lestari

Temperature-dependent cross sections for meson-meson nonresonant reactions in hadronic matter

We present a potential of which the short-distance part is given by one gluon exchange plus perturbative one- and two-loop corrections and of which the large-distance part exhibits a temperature-dependent constant value. The Schrodinger equation with this temperature-dependent potential yields a temperature dependence of the mesonic quark-antiquark relative-motion wave function and of meson masses. The temperature dependence of the potential, the wave function and the meson masses brings about temperature dependence of cross sections for the nonresonant reactions pi pi -> rho rho for I=2, KK -> K* K* for I=1, KK* -> K* K* for I=1, pi K -> rho K* for I=3/2, pi K* -> rho K* for I=3/2, rho K -> rho K* for I=3/2 and pi K* -> rho K for I=3/2. As the temperature increases, the rise or fall of peak cross sections is determined by the increased radii of initial mesons, the loosened bound states of final mesons, and the total-mass difference of the initial and final mesons. The temperature-dependent cross sections and meson masses are parametrized.Comment: 42 pages with 10 figure

Simple and sensitive method development and validation of Econazole in human plasma by RP-HPLC

A simple and accurate method was developed for the validation of the Econazole using Fluconazole as internal standard with short time of 10 minutes .Optimization of chromatography technique was used during the preparation of this analysis.  The method carried out using reversed phase of HPLC. Chromatography using Phenomenex Luna C18 Column (250mm x 4.6mm i.d, 5µm) as the stationary phase and mobile phase of solvent A and B of 0.5% Triethylamine at pH 6.5 and Acetonitrile at pH 3.5. Wavelength was fixed at 260nm and flow rate at 0.6mL/min. Validation studies was achieved by using the fundamental parameters, including accuracy, precision, selectivity, sensitivity, linearity and range, stability studies, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ). Retention time obtained for Econazole and Fluconazole are 7.7 minutes and 5.18 minutes. It shows recovery at 93.5% which is more precise and accurate compared to the other Econazole method. Hence, a simple and accurate method of validation of Econazole in drug free plasma was developed and validated

Simple and sensitive method development and validation of Econazole in human plasma by RP-HPLC

A simple and accurate method was developed for the validation of the Econazole using Fluconazole as internal standard with short time of 10 minutes .Optimization of chromatography technique was used during the preparation of this analysis.  The method carried out using reversed phase of HPLC. Chromatography using Phenomenex Luna C18 Column (250mm x 4.6mm i.d, 5µm) as the stationary phase and mobile phase of solvent A and B of 0.5% Triethylamine at pH 6.5 and Acetonitrile at pH 3.5. Wavelength was fixed at 260nm and flow rate at 0.6mL/min. Validation studies was achieved by using the fundamental parameters, including accuracy, precision, selectivity, sensitivity, linearity and range, stability studies, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ). Retention time obtained for Econazole and Fluconazole are 7.7 minutes and 5.18 minutes. It shows recovery at 93.5% which is more precise and accurate compared to the other Econazole method. Hence, a simple and accurate method of validation of Econazole in drug free plasma was developed and validated

Screening of endophytic fungi for biofuel feedstock production using palm oil mill effluent as a carbon source

Edwin Sia Sien Aun1, Joanne Yeo Suan Hui1, Julie Wong Wei Ming1, Jenny Choo Cheng Yi1, Changi Wong1, Aazani Mujahid2, Moritz Müller1

Biphasic Effect of Curcumin on Morphine Tolerance: A Preliminary Evidence from Cytokine/Chemokine Protein Array Analysis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of curcumin on morphine tolerance and the corresponding cytokine/chemokine changes. Male ICR mice were made tolerant to morphine by daily subcutaneous injection for 7 days. Intraperitoneal injections of vehicle, low-dose or high-dose curcumin were administered 15 min after morphine injection, either acutely or chronically for 7 days to test the effect of curcumin on morphine-induced antinociception and development of morphine tolerance. On day 8, cumulative dose-response curves were generated and the 50% of maximal analgesic dose values were calculated and compared among groups. Corresponding set of mice were used for analyzing the cytokine responses by antibody-based cytokine protein array. Acute, high-dose curcumin enhanced morphine-induced antinociception. While morphine tolerance was attenuated by administration of low-dose curcumin following morphine injections for 7 days, it was aggravated by chronic high-dose curcumin following morphine injection, suggesting a biphasic effect of curcumin on morphine-induced tolerance. Of the 96 cytokine/chemokines analyzed by mouse cytokine protein array, 14 cytokines exhibited significant changes after the different 7-day treatments. Mechanisms for the modulatory effects of low-dose and high-dose curcumin on morphine tolerance were discussed. Even though curcumin itself is a neuroprotectant and low doses of the compound serve to attenuate morphine tolerance, high-doses of curcumin might cause neurotoxicity and aggravate morphine tolerance by inhibiting the expression of antiapoptotic cytokines and neuroprotective factors. Our results indicate that the effect of curcumin on morphine tolerance may be biphasic, and therefore curcumin should be used cautiously