A New Malaysian Quality of Life Index Based on Fuzzy Sets and Hierarchical Needs

The Malaysian Quality of Life Index (MQLI) released by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), has led authors to search for alternative method of expressing this index. One of the limitations in MQLI computations is the failure to recognise unequal weights for each accounted component. This paper offers a new way of expressing the quality of life index using a mathematical modelling based on fuzzy sets theory and the proposed weights based on Maslow’s theory of hierarchical human needs. The indices of 11 components that were used to compute MQLI, again be gathered as a basis in expressing a new Malaysian Fuzzy Quality of Life Index (MFQLI). The new indices for each component yielded through a normalisation process prior weighting and aggregation to compose a new MFQLI. It was found that a fuzzy sets approach with the inclusion of weights based on human needs yielded a better index of quality of life than the MQLI.     

The relationality of law and culture: Dominant approaches and new directions for cultural sociologists

Much of the cultural sociological research in law and culture falls into one of the following approaches: (1) law as a structure that enables and constrains culture; (2) culture as a structure that enables and constrains law; and (3) law as a cultural toolkit or repertoire upon which actors draw to orient strategies for action. This article briefly reviews these approaches, then, drawing from the generative socio‐legal tradition in law as culture, highlights a fourth approach. While law and culture are often analyzed as autonomous forces in ongoing contention, negotiation, and reconciliation, the socio‐legal approach conceptualizes the relationality of law and culture as constituted by ongoing contention. I argue that this relational approach may offer cultural sociologists who do not study law a framework for better analyzing how power undergirds, enables and constrains cultural meaning. I offer examples to illustrate the utility of this research agenda through three areas of interest for cultural sociologists: (1) embodiment; (2) emotions; and (3) political culture. Such an approach encourages a two‐way bridge between cultural sociology and socio‐legal studies conceptualizing culture as a dynamic system of power relations.     

Debt–Growth Nexus: A Spatial Econometrics Approach for Developing Countries

The objective of this paper is to examine the role of external debt in a country’s economic growth. With 31 developing countries divided into four regions, this paper employs the recent technique of spatial econometrics to incorporate the neighbouring effect in the debt–growth model. The empirical results reveal that the East Asia and Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean and the Sub-Saharan Africa regions provide convincing evidence to support a negative relationship between the external debt and economic growth. In addition, there is evidence to support the existence of spillover growth among neighbouring countries. This suggests that the role of spatial correlation is important and should be considered for any analysis of the growth model.     

New Folded Models for the Log-Transformed Norwegian Fire Claim Data

Folded distributions are useful models in statistics. However, not much is known beyond the folded normal distribution introduced in the 1960s. Here, we introduce several new folded distributions. Statistical properties of each distribution are derived. Applications are provided to the Norwegian fire claim data.     

Soil organic carbon stock in different urban land uses: high stock evidence in urban parks

Urban Ecosystems - Urban areas are major producers of atmospheric CO2 emissions, but at the same time they can offset some of the associated C losses by retaining stable organic carbon in their...     

Implementation of Child Rights in the Children's Homes in Malaysia

The objective of this study was to examine the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the Children Homes under the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Malaysia. Data was collected from 402 registered children who were staying in six Children Homes across the country. This study employed self‐report surveys where multiple data collection methods, such as face‐to‐face structured interviews, key informant interviews (KIIs), and documentation survey, were used. The study found that the SWD failed to comply with most of the commitments of CRC in Children Homes at its implementation level, and it is still needs based. The findings of this study present important guidelines for government and policy makers in improving child welfare services in the Children Homes in Malaysia.     

“It's Really a Roller Coaster”: Experience of Parenting Children with Developmental Disabilities

The aim of this research was to explore the experience of parenting a child diagnosed with a developmental disability. The in-depth interviews were semistructured and open-ended, covering topics such as positive and negative experiences and time demand in raising a child with a developmental disability, their effects on family relationship and on physical and mental health of the parents, and the strategies for managing the negative experiences. Overall, the participants indicated that parenting a child with a developmental disability is both challenging and rewarding, depending on the circumstances facing parents in a particular day. The findings are interpreted in five thematic structures: (1) negotiating joys and sorrows, (2) physical and mental exhaustion, (3) negotiating with family matters, (4) social stigma, and (5) hope in the midst of despair, each of which comprised several subthemes/categories. The discussion includes implications of the findings.     

Coping Strategies Among Mothers of Chronically Ill Children: A Case Study in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

 The purpose of this study is to identify the stresses and coping strategies of five mothers in caring for their chronically ill and disabled children. These mothers were receiving services from a nonprofit hospital in Malaysia. Through an in-depth case study design, the findings indicated that emotional stress caused high levels of depression, which decreased life satisfaction that led to poorer physical health. Issues explored included employment, noncooperation of family members, as well as factors related to the mother's individual abilities and how these factors might affect maternal caregiving. Recommendations for future research include identifying probable psychosocial stresses and other associated factors while emphasizing the importance of community-based programs that minimize these stresses.     

Risk measure estimation under two component mixture models with trimmed data

Several two component mixture models from the transformed gamma and transformed beta families are developed to assess risk performance. Their common statistical properties are given and applications to real insurance loss data are shown. A new data trimming approach for parameter estimation is proposed using the maximum likelihood estimation method. Assessment with respect to Value-at-Risk and Conditional Tail Expectation risk measures are presented. Of all the models examined, the mixture of inverse transformed gamma-Burr distributions consistently provides good results in terms of goodness-of-fit and risk estimation in the context of the Danish fire loss data.