Malaysia: Financial Liberalization in the Banking Industry

In this globalised era, financial liberalization is indeed crucial to support the functioning of the worldwide economies. As a developing country which is striving to achieve the developed nation status by year 2020, Malaysia too has liberalized the financial industry, particularly the banking sector. However, the liberalization strategy was more conservative and gradual, focusing primarily on building strong fundamentals in the industry before further liberalizing the sector. The Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia has stressed that financial liberalization must result in a win-win situation for the domestic banking sector and the foreign players. Advocates and opposing parties of financial liberalization had strongly debated on this issue, with both having equally strong points to support their arguments. Thus, it is clear that although financial liberalization is the way forward for the world economies, there is no firm decision on how the liberalization strategy should be. Rather financial liberalization should be carried out based on the circumstances of the various countries. In the 1990s, there were numerous controls imposed on the domestic banking institutions or more commonly termed as financial repression. Some of the controls had been beneficial such as enabling the development of the Malaysian banks which are now strong enough to expand their presence in the international arena. Nevertheless,there are other controls which are not so favorable, as should only be used under certain conditions i.e. capital control. As Malaysia is moving for further financial liberalization, there are several challenges for the country to ensure a successful liberalization. The banking industry also needs to have strong governance framework, robust risk management system as well as enhanced prudential regulatory and supervisory framework to ensure a resilient financial industry. Central banks across the globe have enhanced their collaboration to monitor any arising risks

Interplay of scripts and resistance in a participatory workshop.

The article reports on a participatory workshop in which we were faced with two different types of resistance. We employ the notion of scripts to describe how this resistance emerged. On the one hand, we explain how a weak script caused distrust of the workshop rationale, while on the other, we explain how a strong script rendered the technological materials of the workshop useless and led to termination of the activity. We suggest that structuring workshops according to the notion of scripts may prove a useful way of exercising and learning from resistance and expanding our territory of exploration

Resonating Experiences of Self and Others enabled by a Tangible Somaesthetic Design

Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with. Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an appreciation of the living body's role in all our experiences, we designed and explored mobile tangible heart beat displays, which enable rich forms of bodily experiencing oneself and others in social proximity. In this paper, we first report on the design process of tangible heart displays and then present results of a field study with 30 pairs of participants. Participants were asked to use the tangible heart displays during watching movies together and report their experience in three different heart display conditions (i.e., displaying their own heart beat, their partner's heart beat, and watching a movie without a heart display). We found, for example that participants reported significant effects in experiencing sensory immersion when they felt their own heart beats compared to the condition without any heart beat display, and that feeling their partner's heart beats resulted in significant effects on social experience. We refer to resonance theory to discuss the results, highlighting the potential of how ubiquitous technology could utilize physiological data to provide resonance in a modern society facing social acceleration.Comment: 18 page

Natural Human Infections with Plasmodium cynomolgi, P. inui, and 4 other Simian Malaria Parasites, Malaysia

We detected the simian malaria parasites Plasmodium knowlesi, P. cynomolgi, P. inui, P. coatneyi, P. inui–like, and P. simiovale among forest fringe–living indigenous communities from various locations in Malaysia. Our findings underscore the importance of using molecular tools to identify newly emergent malaria parasites in humans

Plasmodium knowlesi malaria an emerging public health problem in Hulu Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia (2009–2013) : epidemiologic and entomologic analysis.

Background: While transmission of the human Plasmodium species has declined, a significant increase in Plasmodium knowlesi/Plasmodium malariae cases was reported in Hulu Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia. Thus, a study was undertaken to determine the epidemiology and the vectors involved in the transmission of knowlesi malaria. Methods: Cases of knowlesi/malariae malaria in the Hulu Selangor district were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed from 2009 to 2013. Mosquitoes were collected from areas where cases occurred in order to determine the vectors. Leucosphyrus group of mosquitoes were genetically characterized targeting the nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO1). In addition, temporal and spatial analyses were carried out for human cases and vectors. Results: Of the 100 microscopy diagnosed P. knowlesi/P. malariae cases over the 5 year period in the Hulu Selangor district, there was predominance of P. knowlesi/P. malariae cases among the young adults (ages 20–39 years; 67 cases; 67%). The majority of the infected people were involved in occupations related to agriculture and forestry (51; 51%). No death was recorded in all these cases. Five hundred and thirty five mosquitoes belonging to 14 species were obtained during the study. Anopheles maculatus was the predominant species (49.5%) followed by Anopheles letifer (13.1%) and Anopheles introlatus (11.6%). Molecular and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the species of the Leucosphyrus group to be An. introlatus. In the present study, only An. introlatus was positive for oocysts. Kernel Density analysis showed that P. knowlesi hotspot areas overlapped with areas where the infected An. introlatus was discovered. This further strengthens the hypothesis that An. introlatusis is the vector for P. knowlesi in the Hulu Selangor district. Unless more information is obtained on the vectors as well as macaque involved in the transmission, it will be difficult to plan effective control strategies. The utilization of modern analytical tools such as GIS (Geographic Information System) is crucial in estimating hotspot areas for targeted control strategies. Conclusions: Anopheles introlatus has been incriminated as vector of P. knowlesi in Hulu Selangor. The cases of P. knowlesi are on the increase and further research using molecular techniques is needed

Gut microbiome of helminth-infected indigenous Malaysians is context dependent

Background: While microbiomes in industrialized societies are well characterized, indigenous populations with traditional lifestyles have microbiomes that are more akin to those of ancient humans. However, metagenomic data in these populations remains scarce, and the association with soil-transmitted helminth infection status is unclear. Here, we sequenced 650 metagenomes of indigenous Malaysians from fve villages with diferent prevalence of helminth infections. Results: Individuals from villages with higher prevalences of helminth infections have more unmapped reads and greater microbial diversity. Microbial community diversity and composition were most strongly associated with different villages and the efects of helminth infection status on the microbiome varies by village. Longitudinal changes in the microbiome in response to albendazole anthelmintic treatment were observed in both helminth infected and uninfected individuals. Inference of bacterial population replication rates from origin of replication analysis identifed specifc replicating taxa associated with helminth infection. Conclusions: Our results indicate that helminth efects on the microbiota were highly dependent on context, and efects of albendazole on the microbiota can be confounding for the interpretation of deworming studies. Furthermore, a substantial quantity of the microbiome remains unannotated, and this large dataset from an indigenous population associated with helminth infections is a valuable resource for future studie

FCJ-210 Falling Robots

Falling is not usually viewed as a desirable act for humanoid robots, as it can lead to damage and injury of people, things and the robot itself. This article explores how falling can be viewed as an aesthetic, creative act, through positioning it within dance. Strategies for falling safely in dance are compared with engineering approaches to controlling falling for bipedal robots, through the language of automatic reflex, righting reaction and equilibrium response patterns in relation to gravity. By playing with parameters of movement as dancers and choreographers do, the act of falling by robots can go beyond safety-oriented motivations of avoidance and damage mitigation towards expressive behaviours that can be read on multiple levels of meaning for performance, entertainment and non-verbal communication between humans and machines

Malaysia: Financial Liberalization in the Banking Industry

In this globalised era, financial liberalization is indeed crucial to support the functioning of the worldwide economies. As a developing country which is striving to achieve the developed nation status by year 2020, Malaysia too has liberalized the financial industry, particularly the banking sector. However, the liberalization strategy was more conservative and gradual, focusing primarily on building strong fundamentals in the industry before further liberalizing the sector. The Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia has stressed that financial liberalization must result in a win-win situation for the domestic banking sector and the foreign players. Advocates and opposing parties of financial liberalization had strongly debated on this issue, with both having equally strong points to support their arguments. Thus, it is clear that although financial liberalization is the way forward for the world economies, there is no firm decision on how the liberalization strategy should be. Rather financial liberalization should be carried out based on the circumstances of the various countries. In the 1990s, there were numerous controls imposed on the domestic banking institutions or more commonly termed as financial repression. Some of the controls had been beneficial such as enabling the development of the Malaysian banks which are now strong enough to expand their presence in the international arena. Nevertheless,there are other controls which are not so favorable, as should only be used under certain conditions i.e. capital control. As Malaysia is moving for further financial liberalization, there are several challenges for the country to ensure a successful liberalization. The banking industry also needs to have strong governance framework, robust risk management system as well as enhanced prudential regulatory and supervisory framework to ensure a resilient financial industry. Central banks across the globe have enhanced their collaboration to monitor any arising risks