Malaysia will be an ageing population by 2030 as the number of those aged 60 years and above has increased drastically from 6.2 percent in 2000 and is expected to reach 13.6 percent by 2030. There are many challenges that will be faced due to the ageing population, one of which is the increasing cost of pensions in the future. In view of that, it is necessary to investigate the effect of actuarial assumptions on pension liabilities under the perspective of ageing. To estimate the pension liabilities, the Projected Unit Credit method is used in the study and commutation functions are employed in the process. Demographic risk and salary risk have been identified as major risks in analyzing pension liabilities in this study. The sensitivity analyses will be conducted in the study to investigate how the pension liabilities will be affected when these major risks changes. This study analyzes nine scenarios under assumptions in the actuarial model, namely age of retirement, rate of mortality and rate of salary growth. The result of this study indicates that the implied mortality experience and salary growth rate assumptions have a significant impact on pension liabilities.
Background: The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significantly influenced Education, demonstrating substantial potential to transform traditional teaching and learning methods. AI reshapes teacher-student interactions and the relationship with knowledge. Objective: To analyze the potential benefits, ethical challenges, and limitations of AI in Education based on recent scientific literature, emphasizing the balance between technology and human interaction. Methods: A documentary research approach with a descriptive focus was employed, following the PRISMA protocol for systematic reviews. The search strategy involved analyzing evidence from 18 scientific articles published within the last six years. Results:AI o
... Show MoreBackground: Insulin resistance is present in 50% or more of patients with primary hypothyroidism. Metformin can decrease TSH levels in these patients by a complex matter, this can be of great help in clinical practice.
Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of metformin in reducing TSH levels in patients with primary hypothyroidism.
Methods: Hundred patients with primary hypothyroidism, 82 females, 18 males were included in this study, everyone was followed up for two months after adding metformin 850 mg twice daily in addition to thyroxin.
Results: 36 patients (36%) have a normal baseline TSH and no change after 2 months, 64 pa
... Show MoreMany studies have recommended implying the skills and strategies of creative thinking, critical thinking, and reflective thinking in EFLT curriculum to overcome EFL teaching-learning process difficulties. It is really necessary to make EFL teachers aware of the importance of cultural thinking and have a high perception of its forces. Culture of thinking consists of eight cultural forces in every learning situation; it helps to shape the group's cultural dynamic. These forces are expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment. This study aims to investigate EFL student-teachers’ perceptions of cultural thinking. The participants are selected randomly from the fourth-stage students at
... Show MoreThe research addresses smart city concept as it is the latest urban design trends, by the investment of the capabilities of human, and artificial intelligence for the sake of the advancement of the city. The concept of a smart city is described as one of the most important manifestations of the information revolution, with the end of the twentieth, and the beginning of twenty – first century, The research attributes the emergence of the concept to: deficiencies of means, and traditional methods in building and development of cities, as well as The significant increase in the number of city and global metropolises dwellers. So, smart city approach has been adopted, along with innovative principles and methods which cons
... Show MoreThe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are heterogenous chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. The most widely accepted etiopathogenic hypothesis for these disorders suggests an immune mediated process.
Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the role of interleukine-33 in pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease and to correlate their levels with the disease activity and/or severity.
Methods: Fifty five subjects with inflammatory bowel disease (41 ulcerative colitis patients and 14 Crohn’s disease patients) their ages range from 16-65 years and 25 apparently healthy volunteers their ages and sexes were matched with the patients were participated i
Background: Determination of sex and estimation of stature from the skeleton is vital to medicolegal investigations. Skull is composed of hard tissue and is the best preserved part of skeleton after death, hence, in many cases it is the only available part for forensic examination. Lateral cephalogram is ideal for the skull examination as it gives details of various anatomical points in a single radiograph. This study was undertaken to evaluate the accuracy of digital cephalometric system as quick, easy and reproducible supplement tool in sex determination in Iraqi samples in different age range using certain linear and angular craniofacial measurements in predicting sex. Materials and Method The sample consisted of 113of true lateral cepha
... Show MoreOne of the artificial lightweight aggregates with a wide range of applications is Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate. Clay is utilized in the production of light aggregates. Using leftover clay from significant infrastructure development projects to manufacture lightweight aggregates has a favorable environmental impact. This research examines the expanded clay aggregate production process and the impact of processing parameters on its physical and mechanical qualities. It also looks at secondary components that can be used to improve the qualities of concrete with expanded clay aggregates. The effect of the quantity of expanded clay aggregate on the fresh, hardened, and durability qualities of concrete is also studied.
... Show MoreVideo copyright protection is the most generally acknowledged method of preventing data piracy. This paper proposes a blind video copyright protection technique based on the Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Arnold Map. The proposed method chooses only frames with maximum and minimum energy features to host the watermark. It also exploits the advantages of both the fast Walsh Hadamard transform (FWHT) and discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) for watermark embedding. The Arnold map encrypts watermarks before the embedding process and decrypts watermarks after extraction. The results show that the proposed method can achieve a fast embedding time, good transparency, and robustness against various
... Show MoreScrophularia. striata from Scrophulariacea family has been used in Iranian folk medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases. In this study we evaluated the synergistic effect of S. striata hydroalcoholic extract (SSE) and commercially available antibiotics against P. aeroginosa and Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The resazurin-based microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of plan extract and standard antibiotics. The interaction between standard antibiotics and SSE was evaluated by using checkerboard method. The results of this study revealed that SSE enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. The combin
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