Information dissemination and fairness perceptions: The case of Inland Revenue Board Malaysia

This paper highlights how information dissemination or information sharing between the authority (in this case, is the Inland Revenue Board Malaysia-IRBM) and the community at large would to certain extent influence their perceptions on the fairness of the income tax system.Specifically, this paper investigates perceptions of individual taxpayers on the fairness of the income tax system in Malaysia and how such perceptions were formed, by applying a mixed method (through survey and interview).The survey involved 852 respondents while the interview sessions were conducted on 30 participants. The descriptive analysis and thematic analysis were carried out on survey data and interview data, respectively. Survey results indicate that taxpayers generally perceive the income tax system as fair.The interviews, on the other hand, showed that taxpayers were not happy with government spending of tax revenue.Such view was actually resulted from the lack of information disclosed by the IRBM on how they have used the taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers believed if such dissemination of information has taken place, their views on IRBM’s credibility may have been improved

Characterization of a short microchannel device for surface cooling

The development of microchannel devices is expanded widely due to the demand for small scale electronic devices. In order to increase the capability of the electronic devices, high heat transfer performance with low energy consumption cooler is required. This study is focusing on the characterization of new short microchannel for surface cooling purposes with the channel dimension of 800 µm wide, 200 µm length, 100 µm depth and total area of one cm2. Deionized water is used as the transport medium. A map of microchannel characteristics is plotted in term of average thermal resistance, pumping power, power supplied and mass flow rate of the fluid. From this mapping, it is shown that the thermal resistance decreased as the pumping power decreased. The results also show that the heat flux has not affected the value of pumping power. The different for each heat flux value is ranged between 3 to 4 %. The mapping presented in this study provides potential characteristics information and conditions to apply this particular microchannel for surface cooling

Perceived service orientation, economic factors, psychological factors and tax compliance: evidence from Nigerian SMEs

This study examined the influence of economic and, psychological factors, as well as the moderating role of perceived service orientation on the tax compliance of Nigerian SMEs owners / managers. Three hundred and twenty one SME owners /managers participated in the survey.The Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling was employed to analyze the data.The results showed that the probability of detection, incentives, and the public governance quality had significant positive effects on tax compliance, while tax complexity had a significant negative effect on tax compliance.On the contrary, the results showed that tax rates and tax knowledge had no significant effect on tax compliance. Furthermore, the findings of the moderating effect revealed that perceived service orientation only moderated tax rates and incentives, while in moderating effect was discovered on the relationship between the probability of detection, tax complexity, tax knowledge and public governance quality.The implications for tax revenue authorities and other policy-makers were also discussed

Simulating of the influence of fiscal regime adjustment on marginal oil field’s investment climate in Malaysia

The need for improved governance of oil and gas sector and sustainability of production coupled with increasing number of stranded marginal oil fields mandated Malaysian authorities to adjust the fields’ fiscal regime.The new regime came with special incentives, and changed the fiscal arrangement from production sharing contract to risk service contract.The influence of the new regime in comparison to the old one on marginal oil fields’ investment climate was simulated under nine different scenarios relating to oil prices and reserves levels.Using internal rate of return, it was found that the fiscal regime under risk service contract has more favorable investment climate in majority of the scenarios- with exception to those relating to high oil prices, which fiscal regime under production sharing contract is more favorable.As implication for policy, to make the new fiscal regime more attractive under the risk service contract, contractors’ remuneration fee should be attached not only to performance but also to high oil price. In essence, incentives given to contractors should be higher during soared oil prices. Concern should be made for the assumptions employed while applying the results for a decision

Persona development: Analyzing varying characteristics of slow learner context in relation to reading abilities

Designing personalized interface for reading purpose to fulfill the needs of children with reading disabilities, especially the slow learner, is not an easy task.requires in depth knowledge of the children and their ability to read as well. Realizing that the basis for user-centered design is the knowledge of users and task, this study take an initial step by developing slow learner persona.Better understanding of the slow learner persona and reading scenario enable the designer to develop suitable personalized solution that can cater slow learner reading difficulties. This paper presents the development of slow learner persona in accordance with the principles of human-centered design (HCD).Data collected through interviews and observation of slow learner reading activity are analyzed and transformed into slow learner persona to be used as a reference in developing personalized reading application for slow learner children with reading difficulties. In particular, the slow learner persona presents as context templates to derive information needs of users in relation to reading ability to be used as vital elements for developing personalized reading application

The influence of work family conflict and fuel subsidy removal on tax compliance: A proposed framework for small and medium enterprises

Several factors have been suggested to influence tax compliance behaviour.To date, some of the factors that have been considered include economic and noneconomic.Despite these studies, however, few studies have attempted to consider the influence of work family conflict and fuel subsidy removal on tax compliance behaviour.This paper proposes work family conflict and fuel subsidy removal to influence the compliance behaviour of the SMEs taxpayers.The proposed model will have several critical implications for understanding the factors that may influence the behaviour of the SMEs taxpayers

Disruption of bacterial cell-to-cell communication by marine organisms and its relevance to aquaculture.

Bacterial disease is one of the most critical problems in commercial aquaculture. Although various methods and treatments have been developed to curb the problem, yet they still have significant drawbacks. A novel and environmental-friendly approach in solving this problem is through the disruption of bacterial communication or quorum sensing (QS). In this communication scheme, bacteria regulate their own gene expression by producing, releasing, and sensing chemical signals from the environment. There seems to be a link between QS and diseases through the regulation of certain phenotypes and the induction of virulence factors responsible for pathogen-host association. Several findings have reported that numerous aquatic organisms such as micro-algae, macro-algae, invertebrates, or even other bacteria have the potential to disrupt QS. The mechanism of action varies from degradation of signals through enzymatic or chemical inactivation to antagonistic as well as agonistic activities. This review focuses on the existing marine organisms that are able to interfere with QS with potential application for aquaculture as bacterial control

Effect of taxation and fiscal arrangement on marginal oil field investment climate: A theoretical framework

The paper proposes a model to examine the effect of the 2010 fiscal regime changes on investment climate of Malaysia’s marginal oil fields.It proposes the use of investment appraisal tools, such as Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Profitability Index, Saving Index and Access to Gross Revenue, for the study.Two scenarios would be considered using the fiscal terms of Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and Risk Service Contract (RSC), respectively.Each scenario would be of a fifteen-year simulation. Sensitivity analysis will also be conducted for both the scenarios under different prices and reserves levels. The study, when undertaken, will be beneficial to both industry and the government

Effects of fiscal regime changes on investment climate of Malaysia's marginal oil fields: Proposed model

The paper proposes a model to examine the effect of the 2010 fiscal regime changes on investment climate of Malaysia's marginal oil fields.It proposes the use of investment appraisal tools, such as Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Profitability Index, Saving Index and Access to Gross Revenue, for the study.Two scenarios would be considered using the fiscal terms of Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and Risk Service Contract (RSC), respectively.Each scenario would be of a fifteen-year simulation. Sensitivity analysis will also be conducted for both the scenarios under different prices and reserves levels. The study, when undertaken, will be beneficial to both industry and the government

Effects of stocking density on growth performance and survival of three male morphotypes in all-male culture of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man)

A study was conducted to appraise the effect of different stocking densities on three male morphotypes named blue claw (BC), orange claw (OC) and small male (SM) at harvest in all-male culture and to assess the growth performance of BC, OC and SM in each isolated culture. Trials involving three stocking densities of all-male prawn viz., 20, 30 and 40 juvenile m-2 were carried out in replicates. After 4 months of culture, BC, OC and SM were sorted from all tanks and restocked at 5 m-2 in treatments BC, OC and SM respectively for 80 days. A difference in prawn density significantly (p<0.05) affected adversely on morphotypes. The highest survival rate combined with good yield performance was from 20 juvenile m-2 stocking density with 21% BC, 62.5% OC and 16.5% SM, respectively. In isolation culture, the average specific growth rate of the SM population (1.22) was significantly higher than that of the OC (1.01) and the BC (0.43) population. The survival of the SM population was 100% while for others it was 72%. Absolute weight of prawn was significantly greater in the male OC (23.87 g) than the SM (19.57 g) and the BC males (6.31 g). Impacts of isolated culture on population structure were much more pronounced in the SM population than others