Adoption as a means of child protection: the law and practice in Malaysia

Adoption in Malaysia is of two kinds; firstly, taking the child of another as a person's own child, where as a result, the adopted child will stand in equal footing with the natural children of the adoptive parents; and secondly, taking a child of another into a person's custody without affecting the biological status of the adopted child. This article wishes to discuss the law and practice of adoption in Malaysia as one of the means of child protection. The article will also examine as to whether the law is adequate to protect children who are the subjects of adoption.     

Women on boards and bank efficiency in ASEAN-5: the moderating role of the independent directors

Corporate governance codes around the world promote women’s presence in corporate board. The extant literature suggests women directors contribute to improve monitoring and advisory role of the board. This study aims to examine the role of independent women directors in improving banks’ efficiency. Using 102 commercial banks from ASEAN-5 countries for a period of 1999–2012, we run generalized method of moments models to test the relationship between the variables. Our results show that banks with independent women directors on board contribute significantly to the bank’s efficiency level. Contrary to the literature, we found that the appointment of women directors or independent directors alone does not significantly enhance banks’ efficiency. The result suggests that women directors are more effective on boards if they are also appointed as independent directors. This finding implies that a combination of corporate governance mechanism is more powerful than relying on a single element of corporate governance.     

International students' experiences of living temporarily abroad: Sense of belonging toward community well-being

This article unveils the voices of the international students of the Universiti Sains Malaysia by exploring their belongingness and community well-being in Malaysia. This study was conducted with 14 international students (seven males and seven females) studying at the Universiti Sains Malaysia for at least a year. A qualitative approach was employed using in-depth case interviews to examine the socio-cultural challenges they experienced while studying abroad. The specific challenges reported among the international students are their well-being in distinct aspects such as physical, mental, and emotional. This study seeks to explore the international students' reliability on conational communities for social support. When achieving belongingness with their conational friends, international students can flourish well in their current community in Malaysia, thus achieving social community well-being although they are far away. Besides maintaining established close friendships, the international students develop a sense of comfort and familiarity by forming new friendships with conational and other international students. Sharing similar backgrounds and nationalities, as well as experiences and struggles, are significant for international students in maintaining close friendships and situational harmony. This study highlighted the meaning behind physical and emotional distance, as well as the situation of “being temporarily abroad” and its relations to intimacy practices and belongingness in close friendships. The results presented in this article contribute to an increasing understanding of international students' challenges and the future of social harmony and community well-being while temporarily living in Malaysia. Correspondingly, as a result of this study, students will be more deferential of cultural differences and cross-cultural sensitivity, which will also help to decrease prejudice and discrimination.     

The Economic Effect of Refugee Crises on Neighbouring Host Countries: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

There is a considerable debate in terms of opportunities and challenges about the presence of refugees in the neighbouring host countries. Most of the existing discourse has focused only on their humanitarian and security implications. This article, on the other hand, seeks to uncover this issue through a purely economic lens, focusing on the economic impact of more than three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Utilizing data for the period 1979–2014 and the ARDL bounds testing approach, we arrive at few important conclusions. The empirical results indicate that Afghan refugees have a strong negative impact on economic growth in Pakistan. The effect holds in both the short run and the long run, suggesting that the influx of refugees lowers real economic activity in the country. Ultimately, the study implies that hosting refugees can never be a boon to Pakistan's economy.     

Multi-objective multi-verse optimiser for integrated two-sided assembly sequence planning and line balancing

Research in assembly optimisation is presently inclined towards integrative measures. Several benefits of simultaneously optimised Assembly Sequence Planning (ASP) and Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) have been highlighted by researchers to have better solution quality, shorter time-to-market, and minimalised error during planning. Recently, several efforts have been made to realise integrated assembly optimisation. However, none of the published research considered the two-sided assembly line problem. This paper presents an integrated ASP and ALB optimisation in a two-sided assembly environment (2S-ASPLB), which is mainly adopted in automotive assembly process. In this study, the 2S-ASPLB problem was formulated and optimised using Multi-Objective Multi-Verse Optimiser (MOMVO) by considering line efficiency, reorientation penalty, and tool change as the optimisation objectives. The computational experiments were conducted in a few stages, beginning with the identification of the best decoding approach for 2S-ASPLB. Next, the best MOMVO coefficient was studied, followed by comparing MOMVO performance with well-established multi-objective optimisation algorithms. Finally, a case study problem was presented to demonstrate applicability of the proposed model and algorithm in real-life problem. The results indicated that the priority factor (PF) decoding approach had better performance compared with others. Meanwhile, in comparison with well-established algorithms, MOMVO performed better in convergence and solution distribution. The case study results indicated the applicability of proposed 2S-ASPLB model and algorithm to improve line efficiency in assembly line. The main contribution of the research is a new 2S-ASPLB model and optimisation scheme, which can assist manufacturer in designing better assembly layout.

     

Sustaining Small Entrepreneurs Through a Microcredit Program in Penang,Malaysia: A Case Study

Microcredit has been recognized as one of the most efficient tools for alleviating poverty by the United Nations considering its significant contribution in terms of job creation and revenue generation for governments. Microcredit programs can change the lives of people and revitalize communities in the world’s poorest as well as the richest countries. This study looks at 350 entrepreneurs who joined the scheme of various microcredit programs in Penang, Malaysia. In this study, findings have been obtained that show that microcredit loans have successfully increased entrepreneur income, have positive impacts on business, and fulfill basic needs of entrepreneurs.     

Postnatal breastfeeding education at one week after childbirth: What are the effects?

Background

The first week after childbirth is a crucial period for exclusive breastfeeding initiation.

Mixed probability models for dry and wet spells

When identifying the best model for representing the behavior of rainfall distribution based on a sequence of dry (wet) days, focus is usually given on the fitted model with the least number of estimated parameters. If the model with lesser number of parameters is found not adequate for describing a particular data distribution, the model with a higher number of parameters is recommended. Based on several probability models developed by previous researchers in this field, we propose five types of mixed probability models as the alternative to describe the distribution of dry (wet) spells for daily rainfall events. The mixed probability models comprise of the combination of log series distribution with three other types of models, which are Poisson distribution (MLPD), truncated Poisson distribution (MLTPD), and geometric distribution (MLGD). In addition, the combination of the two log series distributions (MLSD) and the mixed geometric with the truncated Poisson distribution (MGTPD) are also introduced as the alternative models. Daily rainfall data from 14 selected rainfall stations in Peninsular Malaysia for the periods of 1975 to 2004 were used in this present study. When selecting the best probability model to describe the observed distribution of dry (wet) spells, the Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) was considered. The results revealed that MLGD was the best probability model to represent the distribution of dry spells over the Peninsular.     

The relationship between circulating testosterone and inflammatory cytokines in men

Testosterone is the predominant gonadal androgen in men. Low testosterone levels are found to be associated with an increased in metabolic risk and systematic inflammation. Since adipose tissue is a source of inflammatory cytokines, testosterone may regulate inflammation by acting on adipose tissue. This review aimed to explore the role of testosterone in inflammation and its mechanism of action. Both animal studies and human studies showed that (1) testosterone deficiency was associated with an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines; (2) testosterone substitution reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines. The suppression of inflammation by testosterone were observed in patients with coronary artery disease, prostate cancer and diabetes mellitus through the increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10) and the decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α). Despite these, some studies also reported a non-significant relationship. In conclusion, testosterone may possess anti-inflammatory properties but its magnitude is debatable. More evidence is needed to validate the use of testosterone as a marker and in the management of chronic inflammatory diseases.