Up to now, no individual study on Kuwait with respect to the underground economy and tax evasion has been conducted using the recent adjusted form of currency demand function model (CDFM) before. This paper estimates the size of underground economy behind tax evasion from 1991: Q1 to 2010: Q4. It applies the Zivot-Andrews (ZA) procedure for the stationarity analysis, and Gregory-Hansen (GH) long run cointegrating technique for estimating the underground economy based on the adjusted currency demand function approach. While the general-to-specific technique is used to estimate the short-run error correction model. Toda-Yamamoto test is also used to explore the causal relationship between the underground economy and the non-oil tax revenues' variable. It finds that the averaged sizes of the underground economy and the tax evasion to the official gross domestic product (GDP) in Kuwait constituted about 24.95%, and 2.83% respectively.    ..

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Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is an illustration of effective partnering and collaboration practices between upstream and downstream points in a supply chain. VMI policy is an integrating decision between a supplier and the customers in which the supplier takes the accountability of sustaining the customers’ inventory while confirming that no stock-out. The supplier indicates when each delivery time takes place, so that the customers are no longer responses to the customers' orders. Under the VMI system, the planning is proactive as it is based on the available information rather than reactive to customers' orders. Consequently, in this paper, we expected that the demand at the construction sites are constant and stationary, and the construction consolidation centre (CCC) is implementing a VMI system. The concentration of this paper is to minimize the transportation and inventory holding costs of the customers for a two-stage supply chain system in the construction industry. The pro.....

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Mushrooms are considered as an environmentally-friendly crops by using agricultural waste as substrate, while spent mushroom substrate (SMS) is reusable. However, mushroom cultivation waste (MCW) to be managed in environmentally-friendly is not much practiced by agripreneurs that led impact to the environment. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the level of agripreneurs' readiness on environmentallyfriendly management in post-harvest stage. It also evaluated the method of obtaining information regarding MCW management. Survey and interview were conducted involving 40 agripreneurs who were participants of the Young Mushroom Agripreneur Project Package Course. The results showed that agripreneurs knew and aware of caring the environmental quality when dealing with MCW, but most of them did not manage in a proper way, despite received advices from agency. Expanding agripreneurs awareness, skills capabilities in post-harvest techniques, and building-up networking with agencies and .....

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The present study is aimed to profile the prevalence and determine the risk of aeroallergen sensitization including fungi on gender, ethnicity, and age groups. 225 of the university community population were interviewed using a standard questionnaire by allergists to collect information on demographic including gender, ethnicity, and age. To confirm the prevalence of the aeroallergens sensitization, the gold standard procedure, i.e. skin prick testing was performed using commercial aeroallergens. Of the subjects, 93 (41.3%) were categorised as atopic. The most prevalent positive SPT among the general and the atopic population were house dust mites, (32.4%; 78.5%), followed by German cockroach (20%; 48.3%), fungal (7.55%; 18.2%), and cat dander (4.8%; 11.8%) respectively. The prevalence of fungi sensitization among the atopic population is doubled to the general population and considerably high compared to the World Allergy report. Among the 17 fungal sensitized subjects, 9 (52.9%) were.....

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This article is related to Adult Education among the Malays in Johor in the days before independence, which is around 1950 to 1956. The British colonial upbringing the pattern of education in Johor changed the structure of education that was initially traditional and more religious based. However, this cycle began to change slowly in the consciousness of the Malays towards education in the form of socialization in order to achieve better social mobility, not only to individuals but also to the entire community. Adult Education was first introduced in Johor as the community began to take the concept of wide and global education. The production of this article is to see the development of Adult Education in Johor and the impact of the community socialization among adults in Johor. This study uses qualitative methods by analyzing data and sources based on references in archives and libraries. This study was prepared and evaluated based on references to the primary and secondary sources fr.....

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Here, we report high output piezoelectric voltage generation from oxidized ZnO nanowires (100nm). Periodic high output voltage peaks were observed during series of oxygen exposure experiments. Gradual rise in piezoelectric potential from oxidized ZnO nanowires is being evidenced for the very first time. Sharp voltagepeaks 464mV, 803mV, 1.354 V, 1.795V and 2.44V are observed for an exposure of oxygen for 1h, 2h, 3h, 4h and 5h respectively in a sealed chamber at 50ppm. Ithas been observed maximum output value has been saturated after 5h of O exposure. Enhanced piezoelectric potential appearing at output stages is due to the adsorption of oxygen molecules on long ZnO nanowires, giving rise to “Edge Effects” and consequently reducing reverse leakage current through nanowires and enhancing output voltage. SEM images revealed the surface morphology ZnO nanowires, diameter range was found around 100nm. XRD pattern verified vertical growth orientation of ZnO nanowires on ITO (indium Tin o.....

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Here, we report the adsorption effect of NO2 on ZnO (100 nm) nanowires. We have studied the effect of adsorbed NO2 molecules on ZnO nanowire-based energy harvester for an exposure time of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 h in a sealed chamber at 50 ppm which yielded piezoelectric voltage of 543.6 mV, 834.6 mV, 1.071 V, 1.78 V, 1.969 V and 2.835 V, respectively. We have thoroughly investigated the behaviour of ZnO nanowires in the presence of NO2 and observed a maximum output piezoelectric voltage of 2.835 V with a power density 158.2 mW cm-2. This is the first time that ZnObased piezoelectric energy harvester is being used for the voltage enhancement in the presence of NO2. We have used vertically integrated nanowire generator (VING) structure. X-ray diffraction pattern revealed the growth orientation of ZnO nanowires were along the c-axis from the substrate. ZnO nanowires were grown on indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate substrates via a hydrothermal route. Surface morphology has be.....

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This article aims to delve into the process of designing the Learning and Facilitation (PdPC) module of the Nationhood Studies course in the 21st Century Learning concept. This course aims to foster the spirit of patriotism and self-esteem among students. Literature studies show that 21st Century education has a positive impact on student attitude, motivation, and mastery of knowledge and is not solely focused on facts and theory. In addition, this educational transformation involving the 21st Century learning process has received parental support. It is arguable that 21st Century learning is a transformation that is being made to renew existing education standards to make the education system more flexible, creative, challenging and more complex. Therefore, the development of this module is essential to achieve that aspiration. To develop a systematic module, this study uses the ADDIE model introduced by Dick & Carry (1996). The process of designing this module is described in detail .....

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This study aims to investigate the impact of active learning in the economics subject in Perak secondary school on students’ achievement, motivation, interest, and social interaction. This study applies a quasi-experimental research design, which involves the control and the treatment groups with thirty and thirty-four participants, respectively. The active learning materials for the treatment group were based on active learning methods provided by the Ministry of Education with support from structured lesson plans namely: simulations, discussions, brainstorming, case studies, and visits in the school’s compound. A questionnaire is also used to measure students’ motivation, interest and social interaction before and after the intervention. The results showed that students who had experienced active learning activities score higher than their counterparts significantly for topic 1 and 2. Besides, findings show that they were motivated and interested in learning economics through a.....

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The main aim of this article is to present recent results concerning diagonal implicitmultistage integration methods (DIMSIMs) with extrapolation in solving stiff problems. Implicit methods with extrapolation have been proven to be very useful in solving problems with stiff components. There are many articles written on extrapolation of Runge-Kutta methods however fewer articles on extrapolation were written for general linear methods. Passive extrapolation is more stable than active extrapolation as proven in many literature when solving stiff problems by the Runge-Kutta methods. This article takes the first step by investigating the performance of passive extrapolation for DIMSIMs type-2 methods. In the variable stepsize and order codes, order-2 and order-3 DIMSIMs with extrapolation are investigated for Van der Pol and HIRES problems. Comparisons are made with ode23 solver and the numerical experiments showed that implicit DIMSIMs with extrapolation has greater accuracy than the met.....

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