Exchange rate misalignments in ASEAN-5 countries

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the exchange rate misalignments for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand before the currency crisis. By employing the sticky-price monetary exchange rate model in the environment of vector error-correction, the results indicate that the Indonesia rupiah, Malaysian ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were overvalued before the currency crisis while Thai baht was undervalued on the eve of the crisis. However, they suffered modest misalignment. Therefore, little evidence of exchange misalignment is found to exist in 1997:2. In particular, Indonesia rupiah, Malaysia ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were only overvalued about 1 to 4 percent against US dollar while the Thai baht was only 2 percent undervalued against US dollar

Quality issues facing Malaysian higher learning institutions: a case study of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

This chapter analyses the extent to which Malaysian universities have responded to the pressing call for enhancing institutional quality and advocating academic excellence. Malaysian universities have been challenged by both internal and external assessments that suggest that they are not on a par with their international competitors. As a result there have been great demands for an urgent remedy. This chapter explores the progress that has been made in responding to those demands and the limitations that have been encountered. In so doing it provides a case study that focuses on engineering programmes in particular. The chapter is intended to answer the question: can institutional quality improvement deliver the human capital that Malaysia needs in order to remain globally competitive

On the variability of trend test results

Trend tests are used to investigate statistical significance of trends. The popular Mann–Kendall (MK) trend test was originally proposed for random data. It was later modified to handle correlated data. After the scaling hypothesis was introduced, the MK test was further modified to accommodate it. The results from these three versions of the MK test can be very different. The objective of the present paper is to illustrate these variations in the MK trend test results. Not considering these variations would lead to spurious conclusions about statistical significance of trends in data with associated erroneous deductions. Monthly temperature data from Malaysia are used for illustration

Analysis of AC-DC Converter Circuit Performance With Difference Piezoelectric Transducer Array Connection

This research presents a simulation analysis for the AC-DC converter circuit with a different configurations of the array connection of the piezoelectric sensor. The selection of AC-DC converter circuits is full wave bridge rectifier (FWBR), parallel SSHI (P-SSHI) and parallel voltage multiplier (PVM) with array configuration variation in series (S), parallel (P), series-parallel (SP) and parallel-series (PS). The system optimizes with different load configurations ranging from 10 kΩ to 1 MΩ. The best configuration of AC-DC converter with an appropriate array piezoelectric connection producing the optimum output of harvested power is presented. According to the simulation results, the harvested power produced by using P-SSHI converter connected with 3 parallel piezoelectric transducer array was 85.9% higher than for PVM and 15.88% higher than FWBR

Classification of Machine Fault using Principle Component Analysis, General Regression Neural Network and Probabilistic Neural Network

As a major industry prime mover, induction motor plays an important role in manufacturing. In fact, production can cease its operation if there is some error or fault in the induction motor. In the industry, bearing, stator and rotor fault are the highest among other faults. Thus, this paper is to compare the accuracy of bearing, stator and rotor fault classification between General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) with the previous work using Principle Component Analysis (PCA). The accuracy of fault classification for each method is improved by the selection of features extraction and number of classification. The features extraction used are mean, root mean square, skewness, kurtosis and crest factor. The sample data has been taken from Machinery Fault Simulator using accelerometer sensor, logged to text file using Labview software and analysed by using Matlab software. The accuracy of fault classification using GRNN method is higher than PNN because the sample data is classified through the regression of data as long as the sample data is redundant and lies on the regression distribution

Integrated control of electrical discharge machining (EDM) using PSoC

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the earliest non-conventional machining in order to manufacture very accurate 3-D complex components on any electrically conductive materials. In die-sinking EDM, a pulse discharge occurs in a small spark gap between electrically conductive workpiece and electrode in dielectric medium. This paper proposed a new integrated control system using Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) for Die-sinking EDM in order to enhance Material Removal Rate (MRR). The MRR result of EDM-PSoC system is higher than EDM-Ben Fleming system due to the effect off high speed processing data analysis using PID algorithm in PSoC microcontroller and leads to improving system efficiency 41%

A study on competitiveness rivalry and services of technology development in Port Klang: Case study in Westport, Malaysia

Government usually plays an important role in the environment of business competition. One perspective might be the government regulations have governed the rules of game as an environment for business to follow and fairness and efficiency are two guiding principles to establish certain appropriate rules and games.This study is aim to identify the main competitor and services of technology development that were influencing the competitiveness at Westport, Malaysia. The response from the respondents from the Westport will gain to verify the main objective of this research.Beside that, this research will identify the political, social and economic factors that caused the competitiveness among rivalry and the services of technology development. The first method is by obtaining data from secondary sources such as books, articles from journals, internet, magazines and newspapers.The second method is by using survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire will be distributed to employees, which had interactions with maritime organization at Westport. The survey research will be conducted to gain the outcome of overall the objective from respondents.Furthermore, this research will provide some recommendation to upgrade the quality of competitiveness and the services of technology development at Westport