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Larvae of rice leaffolder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis attack rice crop at all three phases (from tillering until maturity stages). Their population throughout season was influenced by abiotic and biotic factors. Study on population fluctuation is important to understand the population dynamic and its factors in natural field condition. Thus, a study of population fluctuation of C. medinalis was conducted at rice field in Semanggol, Perak. Larvae were collected from 10 rice hills per plot in three 15 m x 4 m plots started on April 5, 2015 until June 7, 2015 (off season) and from October 25, 2015 until December 27, 2015 (main season). Abiotic data namely temperature, relative humidity (RH) and rainfall were obtained from Department of Meteorology Malaysia. Comparison of C. medinalis population between two seasons at different weeks was analysed using two-way ANOVA. The relationship of C. medinalis population with abiotic factors was analysed using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression. There was a significant interaction effect between season and week (F9,40=2.19; p

The premium is a deterministic function to compensate for losses due to random events and it is an essential part of an insurance company operation. Numerous issues are faced by the Takaful operator in the practice of insurance, one of them is “validity of life insurance” which is still under discussion among Islamic scholars. Their conversation leads to the issue of approach which are utilised by the Takaful operator to create a sales illustration product. Based on their current discussion, there are still some hidden elements and some missing points related to the concept of loss and surplus sharing utilised by Takaful operator. Therefore, this paper focuses on the practice of Family Takaful for producing the sale illustration product which Shariah compliant. The study develops a new model of the premium for an equity-linked policy (Unit-linked product) by considering the properties of Takaful contracts namely Tabarru and Mudarabah. It aims to ensure that a new model developed can comprehensively demonstrate Shariah compliance. The model adapted and derived from the current Takaful Business Model. We add several assumptions to implicate the approach in a real problem associated with the ratio of profit-sharing (Mudarabah) and loss-sharing (Tabarru). Secondary data are used to test and produce a sales illustration product by utilising a new integrated model of the premium developed. Based on the empirical results, a new model of premium is used to create a sales illustration product that comprehensively complies with Shariah and also more profitable and beneficial when compared with a standard approach used by Takaful operator.

The aim of this study is to develop basic artificial neural network models in forecasting the in-sample gross domestic product (GDP) of Malaysia. GDP is one of the main indicators in presenting the macro economic condition of a country as set by the world authority bodies such as the World Bank. Hence, this study uses an artificial neural network-based approach to make predictions concerning the economic growth of Malaysia. This method has been proposed due to its ability to overcome multicollinearity among variables, as well as the ability to cope with non-linear problems in Malaysia’s growth data. The selected inputs and outputs are based on the previous literatures as well as the economic growth theory. Therefore, the selected inputs are exports, imports, private consumption, government expenditure, consumer price index (CPI), inflation rate, foreign direct investment (FDI) and money supply, which includes M1 and M2. Whilst, the output is real gross domestic product growth rate. The results of this study showed that the neural network method gives the smallest value of mean error which is 0.81 percent with a total difference of 0.70 percent. This implies that the neural network model is appropriate and is a relevant method in forecasting the economic growth of Malaysia.

The aim of this study is to find out the time-series nexus of public debt and economic growth in Malaysia. For an upper-middle income country, Malaysia had experienced over 50% ratio of debt to GDP since 2009 until now. The question arises is whether this trend is healthy to the economy. With a focus into the debt-to-GDP ratio from 1970-2015, this study investigates the short-run and long-run relationship between public debt and economic growth in Malaysia. This study used secondary data by collecting time-series data (1970-2015) from the World Bank Data and Bank Negara Malaysia. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is applied in this study to examine the relationship between debt and economic growth. Based on ARDL framework, it shows that there is a long-run effect between the debt and economic growth in Malaysia. While the significance value of Error Correction Term shows that there is a long-run adjustment in the short run. Generally, this study found government expenditures, in the long run, strongly influence the GDP per capita. Through the findings, the government expenditures could increase the GDP per capita. The study also reveals that any increment of the debt ratio will result in reduction of the GDP per capita.

There is the need to reexamine the nexus between industry forces and investment behavior due to mixed and ambiguous results in most previous studies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how...

We presented here the development of an immunosensor based on graphene nanoplatelets-modified screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) with incorporated rabbit IgG on the amino functionalized surface area. In order to improve sensitivity of working electrode, graphene-nanoplatelets solution was fabricated onto surface carbon working electrode. The effect of different (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) concentrations (0.125, 0.5, 2 and 8% (v/v)) and incubation time of silanization (30, 60 and 90 min) were studied and compared. An electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to characterize our immunosensor based. It is showed that the optimum APTES concentration which provides higher surface coverage and electron transfer rate was 2% concentration (v/v) at 60 min of incubation time. The modified surface was then evaluated by measuring immobilized rabbit IgG via indirect assay using horseradish peroxidase labelled secondary antibody. The optimum detection immobilized IgG was 0.05 mg/mL. These results indicate the potential for amino functionalized graphene nanoplatelets-modified SPCE in detecting protein biomarkers.

Indigenous peoples are groups with different cultural and social characteristics that share inherited ties to their homeland and natural resources. They have their own understanding and cultural experience that amounts to traditional ecological knowledge. The aim of this study is to identify the impacts of traditional ecological knowledge on indigenous people. Two main databases, namely Web of Science and Scopus, were used to conduct a systematic literature review. From the findings and analysis, two themes and eleven sub-themes were identified. The first theme is economic activities, including six sub-themes: sources of income, employment opportunities, offering products to vendors or buyers, providing market value, providing low treatment cost, and providing opportunities to develop micro-enterprises. The second theme is health, with five sub-themes: supporting food security, harvesting country food, food or plant benefits, perceived health or medicinal purposes, and livelihoods of the indigenous people. In conclusion, traditional knowledge can play an important role in contributing to the livelihoods of indigenous people. In general, traditional knowledge can help indigenous people to improve their quality of life, especially those who rely on natural resources to survive, by offering secure and supplemented food, for instance, as well as a source of earnings, crucial for food security during hard times. Additionally, traditional knowledge of wild edible and medicinal plants can play a significant role in a community’s capacity to remain resilient and be preserved for future generations.

Invadopodia are finger-like protrusions located at subcellular membrane which can lead to cancer cell invasion. The formation of invadopodia involves several steps such as actin polymerizations, degradation of extracellular matrix which produce ligand and signal stimulation that is occurred from the binding of ligand with epidermal growth factor receptor. In this paper, a mathematical model of signal transduction is investigated. Both signal and ligand are represented by Laplace equation with Dirichlet boundary condition for each region. The cell membrane is treated as free boundary surface to separate any activity that occurred in intracellular and extracellular regions. The motion of the interface is taken as gradient of nterior signal and the cell membrane is set as zero level set function. The problem is solved numerically using finite difference scheme of upwind, interpolation and extrapolation methods. The results showed that the formation of invadopodia is formed when protrusions exist on the cell membrane.

The aims of this study is to look at the effect of Devidend Payout Ratio, Devidend Yield, Company Size, Trading Volume, Exchange Rate, Inflation, Interest Rate Against Stock Price Volatility. With a purposive sampling technique, this study took 7 companies as samples of 153 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2012-2016. Data analysis was performed using Multiple Regression. The results of the study show that the Devidend Payout Ratio has an effect on Stock Price Volatility, while the Devidend Yield, Company Size, Trading Volume, Exchange Rate, Inflation and Interest Rate do not affect the Stock Price Volatility. While simultaneously all the independent variables tested showed a significant effect on Stock Price Volatility in Manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2012-2016.

Mango peel comprises of 7-25% of mango fruit that contributes to the environmental pollution. Mango peel contains nutraceutical compounds that are useful as a functional ingredient to increase nutritional properties in Asian staple food, which in our case was yellow alkaline noodle. The objective of this research was to study the effect of mango peel powder at different levels (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) on the cooking, physicochemical and sensory properties of yellow alkaline noodles (YAN). Substitution of wheat flour with mango peel powder significantly increased 2 to 15 times fibre content in the YAN compared to control. Additionally, fat and carbohydrate were reduced by 8-45% and 6-25%, respectively. The lowest cooking quality was observed in YAN incorporated with 30% mango peel powder, which showed the highest cooking lost (20.45%) and the lowest cooking yield (163.7%). YAN with mango peel powder had decreased lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*). All of the texture profile was negatively affected by an increment of mango peel powder in YAN but showed no significant differences. Sensory attributes of YAN with the incorporation of mango peel powder up to 20% showed similar acceptance with the control. The YAN with 30% mango peel powder had significantly lower sensory acceptance of panelists than other YAN samples. The study suggests that mango peel powder substitution up to 20% is suitable to increase nutritional properties of YAN with minimal adverse effects on the cooking quality, textural properties and sensory attributes.

Graphene and its derivatives are popular material nowadays among researchers due to its interesting mechanical, electronic and structural properties. Although pristine graphene have high electrical conductivity, some biosensor application require modified form of graphene such as graphene oxide or reduced graphene oxide because easier attachment of linker due to their oxide layer availability. Common functionalization method is using APTES as a linker that attach to working electrode of screen printed electrode. Certain percentage of APTES will then bind with targeted biomarker. Here, silanization of 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% APTES were conducted on the surface of reduced graphene oxide screen printed electrode to study the effect of APTES percentage towards reduced graphene oxide surface for stable biosensor platform. The 2% APTES shows stable current result of 0.111µA and potential of 0.18V at 100mV/s. This result significant for concentration to surface area ratio whereby low concentration produced higher surface area and lower resistance for electron transfer.

We present a new model to identify and prioritize factors affecting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) investment intentions by integrating existing models. Structured questionnaire is used to sample respondents from the Ghanaian SMEs between 2017 and 2018. Data analyses have been conducted using variance-based Smart Partial Least Square (SmartPLS) technique. The major findings of the study are that macro environment factors, resource competitive strategies and oil and gas policy-specific factors are the significant determinants of SMEs investment intentions. Again, the study revealed that the resource competitive strategies significantly mediate the relationship between macro environment factors, industry force, oil and gas policy support and investment intentions. These results are robust and consistent with resource-based view, theory of constraint and theory of strategic positioning. Moreover, these results contribute new knowledge towards developing investment strategy for the downstream oil and gas industry. Besides, these findings have managerial implications needed by policy makers to renew commitment and provide the needed framework to investors to enhance indigenous participation in the industry.

Malaysia is targeting to becoming a develop nation by 2020. However, income disparity between the developed and less developed states in Malaysia has persisted for more than 50 years without any sign of narrowing the gap in the future. Despite the various Malaysia Development Plans for the past several decades, regional disparity between states remains. Thus, the objective of the present paper is to address the question whether the less developed states, namely; Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu are catching-up with the more richer state of Selangor. Using annual data for the period 1970 to 2013, by employing the error-correction model our results suggests that there is cointegration and thus, imply convergence between less developed states and Selangor. Our catch-up analyses suggest that there is narrowing of disparity between Selangor and the less developed states. In this respect, the state government has an important role to play in enhancing growth by continuously providing stable economic environment for investment and other productive economic activities. This will ensure full convergence can take place at a faster rate in the future.

The current study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and insecticidal activity of Artemisia herba-alba essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation and solvent extraction against papaya mealybug Paracoccus marginatus. The essential oil was analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the insecticidal activity was recorded for different times and concentrations under laboratory conditions. According to GC-MS results, the chemical components detected of essential oil isolated by ‎hydrodistillation and solvent extraction were 52 and 62 compounds of both extraction methods, the main components of essential oil of hydrodistillation method were eucalyptol (32.81%), &alpha-pinene (28.62%) and linalol (10.18%) while the major components of essential oil isolated by solvent extract were pentadecanoic acid (16.69%) and dihomo-‎‎.gamma.-linolenic acid (15.2%). The essential oil of hydrodistillation method exhibited more insecticidal ‎activity than solvent extract method against P. marginatus, 1000 mg/L of essential oil isolated by ‎hydrodistillation achieved 100% ‎mortality of papaya mealybugs after 120, ‎‎168 h of treatment with LC50 values which ‎was‎‎ 65.362 mg/L after 168 h from treatment and LT50 value which was ‎22.386 h‎‏‎‎ at 1000 mg/L.‎ The findings reveal and propose that the essential oil of A. herba-albais a rich by bioactive components and it is a prospective source of botanical insecticides.

Policy environment particularly local content legislatures in most emerging economies where oil and gas are produced have become major development agenda of host countries and stakeholders alike. Apparently, efforts are made to enact local content legislature as a means of optimizing oil and gas benefits. Per contra, mixed results had been ascertained with regards to outcome of these policies. This study was conducted to determine how dimensions of policy environment impact on SMEs investment in the Ghanaian Oil and Gas Sector. This study relied on primary data and structured questionnaire to elicit data from 497 Ghanaian SMEs across different industries. Using explanatory research design and binominal regression model we found that Skills and expertise development policy, local workforce education policy, employment policy and macro-economic environment policy significantly increase the odd of SMEs investment in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. However, technology transfer, research and development policies exert insignificant influence on SMEs investment decisions. This study has implications on oil and gas policy reforms, investment decisions and future research. Particularly we recommend replication of this study within other emerging economies.Keywords: Ghanaian SMEs, Logit Model, Oil and Gas, Local Content Policy, Willingness to InvestJEL Classifications: D02, O17, P31

The study examines the cointegration and causal relationship between credit default swap spreads, stock prices, VIX, interest rate and slope of the yield curve for the 10 industries in the USA over the period 14 December 2007 to 30 September 2015. Due to the presence of cross-sectional dependence in the panel, we employ the Pesaran (2007, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 22(2), 265–312) CIPS test to ascertain unit root properties. The cointegration test underscores the presence of a long-run association between the variables. The long-run heterogeneous panel elasticities are estimated via Dynamic OLS (DOLS) and the causality is examined by using the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012, Economic Modelling, 29(4), 1450–1460) Granger causality tests. The empirical results reveal that stock prices (volatility), interest rate and slope of the yield curve decrease (increase) the CDS premia; and stock prices, VIX and interest rate Granger-cause the CDS spreads for most of the industries.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the arbitrage opportunities between US industry-level credit and stock markets with a focus on dynamic lead-lag relationships given that these markets involve heterogeneous agents operating over various time horizons.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use daily data of 11 US industries stock markets and their credit counterparts to model the dynamic dependence and casual nexuses using time-frequency approach, namely, wavelet squared coherence (WTC).FindingsThe WTC estimation results show that credit and stock markets are out of phase (counter cyclical) and stock markets lead their credit counterparts. The coherence between two markets increases during financial crises. The banks (utilities) industry credit and stock markets have relatively high (low) dependence.Research limitations/implicationsThe casual nexuses between stock and credit markets have multilateral dimensions. Greater interest in examining the relationship between stock markets and credit default swap (CDS) spreads emerged as an important albeit a complex area of research, and gained prominence especially at the onset and following the global financial crises of 2007-2008 which clearly showed that the positive views of CDSs contribution in creating a resilient and efficient financial sector was nothing further from the truth.Practical implicationsThe arbitrage and hedging opportunities between stock and credit markets are industry dependent and vary over investment time horizons. The utilities industry seems attractive for the investment with the objective to exploit arbitrage, but not for hedging.Originality/valueThe paper, for the first time, employs time-frequency approach to assess the arbitrage opportunities between US industry-level credit and stock markets.

The study of exchange rate behavior is important to identify the currency either experiencing an overvaluation or undervaluation. The traditional theory to estimate exchange rates behavior is the Law of One Price (henceforth LOP). This theory suggests that the price levels would be the same between two countries after converting their price into a common currency. However, the LOP does not take into account the real macroeconomic fundamentals factors. Hence, this model is seen missing to explain the possible a particular exchange rate is influenced by macroeconomics fundamentals. Therefore, this study is aim to investigates the behavior of exchange rate movement and identify the determinants of macroeconomics fundamentals on the exchange rates in Malaysia. By using fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEER) model, this study adopts the bound testing popularized by Pesaran et al., and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to examine the long run relationships (or cointegration) among the variables and the dynamic effect within variables in the short run.