Search

This paper presents a study on the relationship between income inequality and mortality by states in Malaysia. Even though there are several persuasive evidences to support the association between income inequality and mortality, research in this field is still progressing. This study aims to develop a new mortality model that incorporates the income inequality variable and subsequently to forecast the mortality rates for Malaysia until 2024. The data used are Gini Index and mortality rates for each state of Malaysia which are extracted from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) from 2007 to 2018. Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, this study identifies the effects and significant level of income inequality on mortality for each state in Malaysia respectively. This study extends the Lee-Carter mortality model by including the new variable of income inequality factor to estimate the mortality rates. Next, ARIMA model is used to forecast the mortality rates from 2016-2024. Results show that almost all states in Malaysia experience positive relationship between income inequality and mortality. This indicates that most states in Malaysia which have higher value of the age component relative to Gini Index would positively affect the mortality experience significantly. The extended Lee-Carter model is deemed to fit the mortality rates better as compared to the original model. The forecasted results show that children and elderly are expected to have lower mortality rates as compared to adults. This study provides better understanding on the effect of income inequality on mortality and produces a reliable mortality forecasts reflecting the income inequality factor for Malaysian population. The development of new mortality model can benefit actuaries in pricing the insurance and annuity products appropriately and strengthen the social security and public health of Malaysia effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high generation rate of food waste at the household level and the slow adoption of sustainable food waste management (SFWM) are drawing the attention of stakeholders toward behavioural change at the household level rather than just relying on policy instruments. Drawing upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this study is first to examine the influence of extended TPB factors (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, environmental concern) on the intention to practice SFWM in urban households and, in turn, its influence on the actual adoption or behaviour of SFWM. Second, the mediating impact of intention between each of the variables and SFWM behaviour is assessed. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to survey 520 Malaysian households, and the Partial Least Squares (PLS) modelling technique was used to analyze the data. Overall findings showed that all four determinants have a significant impact on the intention to practice SFWM. Furthermore, intention had a significant relationship with SFWM behaviour. The results for mediation analysis showed that intention exhibited by the urban households acted as a means through which the intrinsic factors instilled at the household level can positively influence the SFWM practices in the urban residential areas. The contribution of this study sheds light for policymakers in formulating intervention strategies based on the factors and highlighting the important role of household behavioural intention to tackle the food waste management issue from the source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the evaluation of the organization's performance is depending on their behavior that is manifested by their decisions and actions that could have an impact on their society and environment. This paper is representing the literature that linked the social responsibility from the perspective of ISO 26000 and firm's performance. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to explore what has been done in the previous literature concerning the relationship between ISO 26000 and firm's performance. The researchers utilized the following keywords: ISO 26000, CSR, and firm's performance. Additionally, the three databases were utilized: The results of the present literature review paper is organized and documented using the following three themes: studies concerning the Jordanian perspective, as well as studies about corporate social responsibility (CSR), and studies about ISO 26000. It is highly recommended to shed more light about the Middle East and Arabian context. Moreover, the authors of this paper recommend the future researchers to conduct similar literature review projects containing qualitative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional technique of CaCu3Ti4O12 synthesis involved a very high sintering temperature (>1000°C) and long soaking time (>5h). The high temperature and time-consuming process caused the conventional technique to be inefficient and costly. In this study, the microwave sintering approached was carried out using an enhanced process to solve this problem and the dielectric properties and other properties are investigated. In this study, an enhanced silicon carbide (SiC)-based susceptor was utilized to optimize the microwave radiation temperature towards the CCTO sample. The CCTO samples were prepared using a solid-state reaction route. The X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the phase formation of cubic CCTO formed after the calcination process. The calcination process of CCTO powder was conducted conventionally in a furnace at 900°C for 12 hours. The CCTO cylindrical pellets were then sintered using a commercial microwave at 2.45GHz and 800W power. The sintering process was tested in five different irradiation times: 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, and 5 hours. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy conducted at 2.5V and 3V with 1Hz to 10MHz of frequency shows the dielectric behaviour performance of the sample concerning sintering time. The result reveals that the dielectric constant was best produced for 5 hours of sintering time. However, the sample can melt beyond the duration because the high heat generated at the sample's interior deteriorated the sample shape. The dielectric loss is also reasonably low between the time. It is then proven that completing the microwave sintering process in 5 hours is sufficient to improve the dielectric properties of the CCTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to streamline a novel numerical algorithm termed as spectral simple iteration method with finite difference (SIM-FD). SIM-FD basically works on two principle: (i) nonlinear terms are considered as combination of known and unknown functions at a particular iteration and (ii) In each nonlinear terms of an particular equation, the governing function with higher derivative is set to unkown. Present algorithm is exercised on a model available in literature. It has been shown that the proposed numerical method is capable of producing accurate solutions of nonlinear differential equations by combining relaxation, spectral methods and finite difference. This method seeks to avoid truncation associated with linearization while inclusion of finite difference. This makes the method robust to accommodate coarse boundaries. Solution and residual error analysis are performed to test the convergence and accuracy of the proposed method. Procured results lead to a conclusion that the proposed method is quite efficient in terms of convergence and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses a new finding for nanofiltration membrane development using phase inversion technique whereby polyethersulfone (PES) polymer was added with surfactant and additive. This research focuses on the development of a membrane that is efficient in treating oily wastewater and reducing membrane's low permeation flux issues. Five PES nanofiltration membranes were synthesized with pluronic F108 surfactant and different amounts of chitosan additive for each formulation. Subsequently, the effect of adding surfactant and additive on membrane performance was studied. Results showed that the membrane with the optimal amount of chitosan gave the highest flux and the rejection of oily wastewater with up to 90%. In addition, Fourier transform-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technique was used to characterize and analyse the membrane's properties. Hence, the developed membranes were successfully characterized and proved to be a good treatment for oily wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the ion exchange constant (KXBr) for ion-exchange process occurring between counterions X- and Br- (X= C6H5CO2-) at the cationic flexible nanoparticles surface using the semi-emperical spectrophotometric (SESp) technique is described in this paper. The method uses an anionic spectrophotometric probe molecule, N-(2-methoxyphnyl) phthalamate ion (1-), which measures the effects of varying concentrations of nanoparticles (CTABr/NaX/H2O) on absorbance, (Aob) at 310 nm of samples containing constant concentration of (1-), NaOH, CTABr and NaX. The observed data, Aob vs [NaX] fit satisfactorily to an empirical equation which gives the values of two empirical constants. These empirical constants lead to the determination of KXBr (=KX/KBr with KX and KBr representing cationic flexible nanoparticles binding constants of counterions Xand Br-, respectively). This method gives values of KXBr for moderately hydrophobic X-. The value of KXBr, obtained by using this method, is comparable with the corresponding values of KXBr, obtained by the use of semi-emperical kinetic (SEK) method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ankyrin repeat (AR) protein can be used as a versatile scaffold for protein-protein interactions. It has been found that the heterotrimeric complex between integrin-linked kinase (ILK), PINCH, and parvin is an essential signaling platform, serving as a convergence point for integrin and growth-factor signaling and regulating cell adhesion, spreading, and migration. Using ILK-AR with high affinity for the PINCH1 as our model system, we explored a structure-based computational protocol to probe and characterize binding affinity hot spots at protein-protein interfaces. In this study, the long time scale dynamics simulations with GPU accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in AMBER12 have been performed to locate the hot spots of protein-protein interaction by the analysis of the Molecular Mechanics-Poisson- Boltzmann Surface Area/Generalized Born Solvent Area (MM-PBSA/GBSA) of the MD trajectories. Our calculations suggest good binding affinity of the complex and also the residues critical in the binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In search for the important residues that might have involve in the binding interaction between the p24 caspid protein of HIV-1 fragment (MET68 - PRO90) with the single chain fragment variable (scFv) of FAB23.5, modern computational chemistry approach has been conducted and applied. The p24 fragment was initially taken out from the 1AFV protein molecule consisting of both light (VL) and heavy (VH) chains of FAB23.5 as well as the HIV-1 caspid protein. From there, the p24 (antigen) fragment was made to dock back into the protein pocket receptor (antibody) by using the CDOCKER algorithm to conduct the molecular docking process. The score calculated from the CDOCKER gave 15 possible docked poses with various docked ligand's positions, the interaction energy as well as the binding energy. The best docked pose that imitates the original antigen's position was determined and further processed to the In Situ minimization to obtain the residues interaction energy as well as to observe the hydrogen bonds interaction in the protein-peptide complex. Based on the results demonstrated, the specific residues in the complex that have shown immense lower interaction energies in the 5Å vicinity region from the peptide are from the heavy chain (VH:TYR105) and light chain (VL: ASN31, TYR32, and GLU97). Those residues play vital roles in the binding mechanism of Antibody- Antigen (Ab-Ag) complex of p24 with FAB23.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tRNA molecule takes suitable amino acids to the ribosome for the formation of peptide bonds. In starting the peptide chain, the first amino acid taken to the ribosome is methionine. We have carried out calculations on the methionine-tRNA and alanine-tRNA complexes using mixed quantum mechanics ab-initio and molecular mechanics method. The total energies and dipole moments have also been calculated. The amino acids chosen for this study, alanine and methionine have almost the same hydropath index. It is important to understand the physical properties and the environmental conditions in which the dipeptides cause the tRNA to attach to a wrong amino acid. One of the properties studied is the dielectric environment in which the bonding occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]