How could a natural catastrophe impact the ecology of a species? The Nicobar megapode and tsunami

This study on the impact of the 2004 tsunami on the Nicobar megapode Megapodius nicobariensis, endemic coastal living bird species in the Nicobar group of islands showed a significant decline (nearly 70%) in the number of individuals when compared to before tsunami populations (Paired sample test, t=2.061, df=14, p<0.05). The tsunami has also adversely influenced the nest-site selection of the megapodes. The post tsunami impact on this species is also expected to be severe, pushing the species into the category of "critically endangered"

PPP: The Right Marriage between Local Government and the Private Sector in Malaysia?

Public-Private Partnership has been employed in some local governments in Malaysia for some time in real estate development making local authorities a key player in the economic development of cities. However, little research exists on both the implementation of such projects and the evaluation of the governance procedures. This paper seeks to fill this gap by examining the working arrangement between selected local authorities and developers in striking a win-win situation. Towards this end, the paper examines the working arrangements between two local authorities and developers in Batu Pahat and Kuantan, as well as the subsequent postproject developments. The two cases in Kuantan exemplify successful partnerships that still exist while the third in Batu Pahat illustrates a failed partnership.- local government, public-private partnership, privatization

Morpes: A Model for Personalized Rendering of Web Content on Mobile Devices

With the tremendous growth in the information communication sector, the mobile phones have become the prime information communication devices. The convergence of traditional telephony with the modern web enabled communication in the mobile devices has made the communication much effective and simpler. As mobile phones are becoming the crucial source of accessing the contents of the World Wide Web which was originally designed for personal computers, has opened up a new challenge of accommodating the web contents in to the smaller mobile devices. This paper proposes an approach towards building a model for rendering the web pages in mobile devices. The proposed model is based on a multi-dimensional web page segment evaluation model. The incorporation of personalization in the proposed model makes the rendering user-centric. The proposed model is validated with a prototype implementation.Comment: 10 Pages, 2 Figure

A Model for Personalized Keyword Extraction from Web Pages using Segmentation

The World Wide Web caters to the needs of billions of users in heterogeneous groups. Each user accessing the World Wide Web might have his / her own specific interest and would expect the web to respond to the specific requirements. The process of making the web to react in a customized manner is achieved through personalization. This paper proposes a novel model for extracting keywords from a web page with personalization being incorporated into it. The keyword extraction problem is approached with the help of web page segmentation which facilitates in making the problem simpler and solving it effectively. The proposed model is implemented as a prototype and the experiments conducted on it empirically validate the model's efficiency.Comment: 6 Pages, 2 Figure

A Model for Remote Access and Protection of Smartphones using Short Message Service

The smartphone usage among people is increasing rapidly. With the phenomenal growth of smartphone use, smartphone theft is also increasing. This paper proposes a model to secure smartphones from theft as well as provides options to access a smartphone through other smartphone or a normal mobile via Short Message Service. This model provides option to track and secure the mobile by locking it. It also provides facilities to receive the incoming call and sms information to the remotely connected device and enables the remote user to control the mobile through SMS. The proposed model is validated by the prototype implementation in Android platform. Various tests are conducted in the implementation and the results are discussed.Comment: 10 Pages, 11 Figure

Measuring Performance of Local Authorities Using Composite Performance Index and Perceived Performance Score

Local governments are public agencies that provide urban services to communities. Unlike the private sectors, the performances of local governments are difficult to measure. Furthermore, a good indicator for one local government may not apply to another within the same country and is more complex when examined across countries. In spite of all difficulties, performance of local governments must be measured and made known to various stakeholders. There must be attempts to identify indicators that apply for all local authorities and subsequently consolidated into one that explains the general performance of the local authority. This research intends to identify a set of output indicators to establish a composite performance index (CPI) and perceived performance score (PPS) for each local government in Peninsular Malaysia, and subsequently identify factors that influence CPI and PPS. This empirical study uses five sets of questionnaires to gather information from: (i) customers served at the local authority counters, (ii) employees, (iii) leaders (the management), (iv) residents and (v) the local authority output indicators from the local authorities. Data have been collected from 34 local authorities in the states of Kedah, Selangor, Pahang and Johor covering more than 4,400 respondents. The CPI is computed fiom: (i) a weighted combination of 14 output indicators, (ii) response fiom counter customers, and (iii) residents. Likewise, the PPS results from the evaluation on 12 aspects of urban services from the customers met at the counters and residents. The CPI and PPS form the major interest in this study. Apart from using bivariate correlation, the study uses multiple regressions to determine factors that influence CPI and PPS. Among the findings are that the CPI and PPS are not correlated to one another, and CPI is strongly influenced by the proportion of grants to total local authority revenue. In other words, the extent of financial autonomy of local authorities plays a key role in determining the performance of the local authority. City and municipal councils tend to perform better than district councils in CPI as the latter has the least autonomy in finance. Indirectly, the level of financial autonomy also relates to the population size and leadership of the local authority. The study finds that ~ PiSs not correlated to any of the organisational attributes, except for a weak correlation with leadership. This suggests that PPS is only influenced by personal characteristics of the customers and a more accurate evaluation of the performance of the local authority is only through CPI

The Technological Progress of Malaysian Banks: An Empirical Investigation.

It is customary to argue that technological innovations result in productivity enhancement. This paper explores this issue in the context of the Malaysian banking sector which has been subject to enormous restructuring and technological innovations, inclusive of the introduction of e-banking. The provision of banking services through electronic delivery channels can be equated with the e-government initiatives. This study attempts to identify the contribution of e-banking and technological progress of Malaysian commercial banks by employing the Malmquist productivity index (MPI), whereby productivity growth amongst the banks is broken down into technical efficiency change, scale change and technological change. The sample includes all 10 domestic commercial banks in Malaysia over the period of 1997 to 2002. The principle findings indicate an overall rise in total productivity, driven by technological progress rather than scale change or technical efficiency change. Extending to e-government, the employment of high-end, state of the art information and communication technologies can facilitate efficient and effective delivery of government services through electronic delivery channels. The results, which detail the improvements achieved by the best practice bank, may provide useful insights for government regulators and management for policy formulation.Malmquist productivity index; technological progress; e-banking; productivity changes