Displaced peoples and the continued legacy of the Pacific War: Korean repatriation and the danger element

The battles of the Pacific War formally ended between mid-August and early September, 1945. However, the declarations of peace and surrender ceremonies that occurred during this time did not end informal battles across the Asian continent. Renegade Japanese military personnel refused to lay down their arms and repatriate quietly to their country. Some combed the waters between Japan and Korea in search of returnees attempting to repatriate with financial and material means in excess of that which the United States military governments allowed. Others sought to disrupt the occupation process by patrolling the streets of Korean cities and engaging in illegal and often violent activities. Koreans also caused problems by joining the Japanese in their postwar adventures or by harassing Japanese preparing to return to Japan and the Korean sympathizers who attempted to help them. Reportage of such actions appeared in the G-2 Periodic Report, which kept a daily record of such actions. These documents today open windows into the chaotic situation that the postwar era brought to Japanese and Koreans. Primarily through these reports, this paper sees the postwar belligerence that continued beyond official declarations of cease fire and peace in 1945 as kindling that sparked the broader conflicts of the late 1940s, and evolved to all-out war from the summer of 1950.

A Novel Example-Dependent Cost-Sensitive Stacking Classifier to Identify Tax Return Defaulters

Tax evasion refers to an entity indulging in illegal activities to avoid paying their actual tax liability. A tax return statement is a periodic report comprising information about income, expenditure, etc. One of the most basic tax evasion methods is failing to file tax returns or delay filing tax return statements. The taxpayers who do not file their returns, or fail to do so within the stipulated period are called tax return defaulters. As a result, the Government has to bear the financial losses due to a taxpayer defaulting, which varies for each taxpayer. Therefore, while designing any statistical model to predict potential return defaulters, we have to consider the real financial loss associated with the misclassification of each individual. This paper proposes a framework for an example-dependent cost-sensitive stacking classifier that uses cost-insensitive classifiers as base generalizers to make predictions on the input space. These predictions are used to train an example-dependent cost-sensitive meta generalizer. Based on the meta-generalizer choice, we propose four variant models used to predict potential return defaulters for the upcoming tax-filing period. These models have been developed for the Commercial Taxes Department, Government of Telangana, India. Applying our proposed variant models to GST data, we observe a significant increase in savings compared to conventional classifiers. Additionally, we develop an empirical study showing that our approach is more adept at identifying potential tax return defaulters than existing example-dependent cost-sensitive classification algorithms.

The Evaluation of Countercyclical Policy Implementation in Facing the Impact of the Spread of COVID-19 (Study on Central Kalimantan Bank Pension Fund)

This research is a qualitative descriptive study that aims to determine the implementation of countercyclical policies that have been implemented by the Central Kalimantan Bank Pension Fund in dealing with the impact of the spread of COVID-19. The data processed in this study were obtained using interview techniques and supplemented with secondary data which was accessed from various sources. The results of this study indicate that the Bank Kalteng Pension Fund has implemented the provisions of the countercyclical policy as in the Financial Services Authority Circular Letter Number S-10 / D.05 / 2020. In implementing the countercyclical policy, the Bank Kalteng Pension Fund implements the Relaxation of Periodic Report Submission, Implementation of Fit and Proper Tests through Video Converence and Investment Shift to Low Risk Investments.

Design and implementation of faculty class attendance monitoring system using BLE beacons

Objectives: To create a hardware and software tool that can be used for monitoring the faculty attendance and to generate customized reports. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The Bluetooth Low Level Energy (BLE) beacons would be set as stationary device that has proximity unique identifier. Once the smartphone of the faculty is within the range of the beacon, it can then record the faculty’s attendance. Calibrated beacon range makes the proposed design unique in terms of addressing common attendance tracking issues. Also, an automated attendance monitoring tailored based on the periodic report the Human Resource (HR) of the university. The researchers conducted a testing in the laboratory classrooms to check the functionality and reliability of the automated attendance monitoring. Findings: Based on the testing conducted, the system is capable to detect the faculty once he/she is inside the classroom, records his/her attendance and generates reports. The mean percentage error is 8.02% which means that the BLE beacon is acceptable in detecting the faculty’s smartphone prior entering to his/her class.

Safeguards Assessment—2019 Update

Safeguards assessments are a key pillar of the risk management arrangements for IMF lending. Safeguards assessments aim to mitigate the risks of misuse of Fund resources and misreporting of program monetary data under Fund arrangements. Safeguards assessment reports are confidential and therefore the IMF Executive Board is provided with a periodic report on safeguards activities on a biennial basis, in addition to high-level summaries in member country staff reports on key findings and recommendations. This update on safeguards activity covers the period May 2017 to end-April 2019 (the period).