ICTs and Regional Economic Integration: An Anticipatory Scenario for the Horn of Africa

Development experts are telling increasingly fascinating stories about how human development indices (HDI) among the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been buoyed by the diffusion of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) over the last two decades. According to data compiled by the World Economic Forum, ICTs have facilitated faster and more reliable communication with regard to almost all important spheres of life including healthcare, education, agriculture, commerce, e-banking, the environment, etc. Perhaps the greatest impact of ICTs has been in their democratizing effect and their role in promoting gender equity, especially with regard to access to information that affects basic facets of life which has been beyond reach before either because of geographic distance or because of a lack of facilities such as libraries and clinics. This paper employs the anticipatory scenario-building approach in offering an analysis of potential development implications of ICTs for the Horn of Africa region

Early neutral evaluation in industrial court

This chapter discusses the early evaluation process with reference to the Industrial Court’s Practice Note No. 3 of 2010

Mediation: court annexed

This chapter discusses on the application of mediation in the ordinary courts of law in Malaysia with reference to civil matters

Construct validation of supply chain management in cooperative

This study attempts to analyze construct in supply chain and to determine which construct contribute to performance of agricultural cooperatives in Malaysia. The primary data is collected via questionnaire from top level management of agricultural cooperatives using 5-item Likert scale. Factor analysis and structural equations modeling were used to analyze the data. Findings show that cooperatives places importance on quality and technology, logistic, supplier and governance. As a whole, supply chain is significance in determining performance. However, governance alone is not significant in determining performance. The empirical result could be used to improve further studies in supply chain management.Agricultural cooperatives; supply chain management model

Testing the criticality of HR-TQM factors in the Malaysian higher education context.

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the degree of criticality and reliability tests for human resource (HR) related critical success factors (CSFs) in TQM implementation. This involves identifying and defining the HR-related CSFs from an exhaustive source of literature reviews on quality initiatives. In higher education (HE) contexts, the CSFs in TQM programmes emphasise more management commitment, HR management and quality working attitudes for customer satisfaction. Therefore, the ‘soft’ or HR aspects in the literature review stand as the fundamental issue of concern for organizational management in quality planning and creating a quality working climate to ensure successful expected performance. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), the HR-related CSFs that have high mean scores and reliability coefficients, are teamwork spirit, competent staff, customer-focus orientation and visionary leadership. Other factors have reasonably high scores and are recommended to be included in similar research in contexts other than simply the HE context

HRM issues in quality initiatives for Malaysian universities

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the importance of human resource (HR) related factors in total quality management (TQM) implementation. This involves identifying and defining HR-related critical success factors (CSFs) from an exhaustive source of literature reviews on quality initiatives. The ‘soft’ or HR-related CSFs in the literature review stand as the fundamental issue in building a theoretical framework. Non-scheduled-structured interviews were conducted on seven Malaysian universities involved in IS09000 certification processes. Results from the qualitative survey suggest the importance of effective communication, visionary leadership, congruent objectives and recognition and motivation as the four most critical HR factors in TQM implementation in the HE context. Practically, quality HRM as suggested in this study is not only the listing of human resource management (HRM) factors, but also to recommend that H-R-related CSFs are the crucial factors that must go right to ensure successful quality initiatives. Quality HRM demands that the management of an organisation consider the factors required to produce excellent performance. The ‘soft’ aspect is always suggested theoretically to be important to ensure successful TQM implementation. The findings on HR-related CSFs put forward in this research serve as building blocks for the development of a comprehensive conceptual theory in TQM. This study suggests and validates those HR-related CSFs that play crucial roles in successful quality initiatives

The Impact of Financial Risks on the Firms’ Performance

Firms are exposed to a variety of risks including credit risk, liquidity risk, foreign exchange risk, market risk and interest rate risk. An efficient risk management system is needed in time in order to control these risks. Managing risk is one of the basic tasks to be done, once it has been identified and known. The risk and return are directly related to each other, which means that increasing one will subsequently increase the other and vice versa. Financial risks have a great impact on firm’s performance. The study also assessed the current risk management practices of the firms and linked them with the firms’ financial performance. The findings confirm whether financial risks can be contained or managed in order for firms to achieve profit maximization for its shareholders. Keywords: Financial Risk; Firm’s Performance; Interest rate parity; Liquidity gap; Liquidity risk; Risk Management

Clinical and echocardiographic features of children with rheumatic heart disease and their serum cytokine profile

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) constitute important public health problems in developing countries. Children with ARF and RHD seen at Children’s Hospital-Sudan from May 2008-2009 were examined clinically and by echocardiography. Blood cytokines (interleukin 10 (IL10), Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- alpha) and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) were done. Thirty six children were enrolled; 63% had established RHD, and 37% ARF. Mitral regurgitation (MR) was the most common lesion (94%).Ninety five percent of the valve lesions were severe. The serum interleukin IL10 level ranged between 3-6 pg/ml. TNF alpha levels were 9- 100 pg/ml in 12 patients (40%), 101-1000 pg/ml in 10 patients (33%) , more than 1000 in 8 patients (26%). The level of IFN gamma ranged between 2-7 pg/m in all patients except 2 (84 and 135 pg/ml). RHD is manifested with severe valvular lesions and a high TNF alpha indicating and ongoing inflammation.Pan African Medical Journal 2012; 13:3

Finite element analysis of material removal rate for Si wafer using heat-assisted µEDM

Micro-electrical discharge machining (µEDM) has been proved to produce high surface quality results in Si machining. In previous studies, the researchers reported the Si machining using the µEDM with several strategies such as plating, doping and temporary coating process to be machined by the µEDM. This paper reports a numerical simulation of MRR performance results using COMSOL Multiphysics. The effects of the machining temperature in Si machining using heat-assisted µEDM on achieving the optimum MRR results is studied. The simulation results showed the highest MRR is 1.48666 × 10-5 mm3/seconds achieved at 250 °C