ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has been widely examined to be both an economic crisis and health with updates of increasing the mental health and well-being of university students. This study examines the relationships between physical health, social support, and mental health literacy with the mental well-being of Malaysian university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study population comprised 199 students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with self-administered questionnaires that used the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support instrument, and the Mental Health Literacy Scale. The survey also included items from the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). The results of this study showed that physical health had a positive and strong relationship with mental well-being. Similarly, the results indicated that social support had a significant and positive relationship with mental well-being. However, mental health literacy was not significantly associated with mental well-being. The results of this research might provide policymakers, practitioners, and university management with useful insights that foster the positive outcome of conducting intervention programs to improve the mental well-being of students.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has impacted the lives and wellbeing of many people. This globally widespread disease poses a significant public health concern that urges to discover an effective treatment. This review paper discusses the effectiveness of repurposed drugs used to treat COVID-19 and potential novel therapies for COVID-19. Among the various repurposed drugs, remdesivir is the only agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat COVID-19. On the other hand, several drugs have been listed in the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA to treat COVID-19, including casirivimab and imdevimab, baricitinib (in combination with remdesivir), bamlanivimab, tocilizumab, and IL-6 inhibitors. In addition, in vitro and clinical studies have suggested cepharanthine, sotrovimab, and XAV-19 as potential treatments to manage COVID-19. Due to inadequate understanding of COVID- 19 and the rapid mutation of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 remains a threat to global public health, with vaccination considered the most effective method to decrease COVID-19 transmission currently. Nevertheless, with the intense efforts of clinical researchers globally, more promising treatments for COVID-19 will be established in the future.
ABSTRACT
The volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world and IR4.0 developments forces drastic changes to sustain and provide quality education. When schools were shut down abruptly due to COVID-19, teachers were forced into emergency remote teaching, mostly by utilizing technologies but with little to no specific structure. In Malaysia, studies found that teachers struggled with technology ability especially in mastering technology applications. Due to limited experience in preparing electronic materials and using online platforms, teachers took the time to deliberate on the ways to teach online, causing delays in learning. Delays can be mitigated if teachers are agile. Agile teachers are capable to deal with new experience flexibly and rapidly by trying new behaviors and making quick adjustments so that new learning can be realized even when they do not know exactly what to do when they face unexpected challenges. This quality in teachers is important to curb learning loss especially when education was threatened by COVID-19. Reciprocally, technology plays an important role to promote Learning Agility among teachers, ensure sustainability and quality of learning, and forge learners' engagement. With the exponential use of technologies, teachers need to be an agile classroom leader. This study aims at identifying the dimensions that shape teachers' Digital Learning Agility. We hoped that this proposed research can shed insights on digital learning agility and can improve teachers' performance especially in the age of exponential technology use. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Virtual reality (VR) is an innovation that is increasingly applied in many fields of study. Although VR is adapted in most of simulation works like aviation, cargo movement, surgery, and phobia therapy, the application in tourism has different intention compared to other contexts, which is for promotion purpose. Therefore, this study provides a systematic literature review of how VR has been applied to help promoting tourism industry during the pandemic of COVID-19, when most people in the world are restricted from traveling, and ordered to stay at home. A research question that would address application of VR in tourism is identified. A comprehensive literature search has been carried out resulting 87 journals and proceeding papers are filtered. Data extraction and synthesize is performed on the selected studies based on the research question. From the SLR process, we have found that VR is utilised in tourism for promotion purposes, and to evaluate the attitude and emotion of users towards the application of VR in virtual tourism during the pandemic. Our result suggests that tourism industry players need to pay more attention and widen the intention in utilizing VR in the future to confirm the sustainability of tourism industry. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Lateral luxation injuries are common during childhood and in young adolescence. These injuries involve the surrounding tissues that could lead to extensive clinical treatment problems with a risk of pulpal complications such as pulp necrosis. A case of a healthy 4-year-old Malay boy visiting the paediatric dental clinic after seven months of laterally luxated injury on the lower right lateral incisor (tooth 82) was reported. The traumatic tooth was splinted by a private practitioner three days after the trauma, however, the splint dislodged less than 24-hour after placement. In view of the mother's fear of bringing her child to the dentist due to the COVID-19, no follow-up and further treatment were carried out. This has resulted in the development of discolouration and pulpal necrosis to the injured tooth. Lesion sterilization and tissue repair technique (LSTR) was performed. This report highlights the rare occurrence of lateral luxation injury on tooth 82 and the management of pulp necrosis as a complication via lesion sterilization and tissue repair technique due to the uncooperative behaviour of the child.Copyright © 2022, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: There is a need for rapid detection of COVID-19 status in patients attending the Emergency Department (ED) to urgently assign appropriate care pathways and reduce overcrowding. Rapid Test Kit Antigen (RTK-Ag) was thought to be the most convenient bedside test in ED for this purpose. We aim to compare the RTK-Ag results with the gold standard Reverse- Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) results and determine its effectiveness as entrance and pre-admission screening test. Material(s) and Method(s): 465 patients with unknown COVID-19 status presenting to ED Hospital Sungai Buloh from 13/10/2021 - 12/1/2022 underwent both RTK-Ag and RT-PCR prior to admission. Five patients were excluded due to incomplete documentations. Results from both tests were extracted and compared. Result(s): Eleven patients had true positive results, and none had false positive. 17 had false negative and 432 were true negative. All false negative patient had CT value > 30. Therefore, the sensitivity of RTK-Ag is 39.2% with specificity of 100%. The Positive Predictive Value (PPV) is 100% with Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of 96%. Conclusion(s): From a clinical perspective, patients with CT value > 30 were not treated as having active COVID-19 infection, thus did not require isolation. The sensitivity and NPV of RTK-Ag was 100% in detecting active COVID-19 versus no infection or non-active state. Therefore, bedside RTK-Ag is as effective as RT-PCR and can be used in ED to expedite admission. This has greatly helped in reducing the long-waiting time in ED for RT-PCR and is cost effective.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Acute febrile illness (AFI) is a common presentation to the Emergency and Trauma Department (ETD). The recent COVID-19 endemic and the existing dengue fever endemic in Malaysia are the biggest concern for AFI posing greater mortality and morbidity. The aim of the study is to investigate the need for a routine dengue and COVID-19 screening for patients with AFI in post pandemic era. Material(s) and Method(s): This is a prospective observational study for all non critical emergency patients with AFI who were seen at our Fever Centre in April 2022. These patients were routinely screened with dengue combo kit and COVID-19 RTK test prior to consultation with doctor. Data of included patients were extracted from the hospital intergrated computerised system. Result(s): A total of 214 out of 315 patients were screened with dengue combo kit and COVID- 19 RTK and 38 patients (17.8%) had positive dengue test while 26 patients (12.1%) had positive COVID-19 RTK result. 26 patients (68.4%) required admission or prolonged observation and 10 patients (26.3%) were uptriaged for dengue fever. 10 patients (38.4%) required admission for COVID-19 infection however none of the patient was diagnosed with concomittant dengue and COVID-19 infection. Conclusion(s): The screening tool has moderate pick up rate for both dengue and COVID-19 patient while majority of the dengue patients will require admission or prolonged observation. We suggest that dengue combo kit should be done routinely for patients with AFI however routine COVID-19 RTK should be tailored and individualised.
ABSTRACT
This study analyses return volatility for Malaysia and China's stock markets during the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics. Stock return volatility is estimated using GARCH family models (GARCH (1,1), TGARCH and EGARCH). Generally, GARCH (1,1) estimates symmetric conditions, whereas TGARCH and EGARCH estimate the asymmetric condition or leverage effect of return volatility. Stock return volatility in China and Malaysia are then compared to assess the severity of pandemic cases during the study period. Post pandemic, Malaysia is seen to experience higher decrements in leverage effect when using the TGARCH model. Conversely, the effect is higher for China when using the EGARCH model for the SARS pandemic. To aid in predicting future return volatility after the COVID-19 pandemic, return volatility after the SARS pandemic is forecast, with the forecast value serving as the basis for evaluating the error using the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and Theil inequality coefficient (TIC) approaches. The forecast error performance is ranked to identify outperforming GARCH family models for the pandemic period: the TGARCH model for China's stock market but the GARCH model for Malaysia's stock market. © 2022 Author(s).
ABSTRACT
The emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has created a tremendous global strain due to the rising number of infected cases. The pandemic has been regarded as a global vertical conflict due to the interrelated impacts of the pandemic on numerous sectors. The ultimate goal of the governments is to safeguard citizens from this pandemic, and almost the whole nation is locked down to avoid the spread of this disease. This lockdown or called as Movement Control Order (MCO) has had a huge effect both on the global and the local economy, with business cannot operate normally. This pandemic impacts the health sector the most, followed by the economic sector. Equally important, the food and beverage (F&B) industry as the sub-sector of the economy is also deeply affected by the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic due to several underlying factors. This study which was done as a combination of case study and observation from food operator's perspective to recognize potential impacts and challenges faced by the F&B sectors in Malaysia during and after an MCO, as well as the potential food technology as a solution to solve the issues caused by this pandemic. The pandemic has generated significant impacts on the F&B industry including loss of revenue, additional expenses, and poor economic outlook. All sectors in the F&B industry are struggling financially to sustain their business operations during and even after the pandemic of COVID-19. Challenges such as rising food costs, labor, and logistics issues, and adaption to digitization have been faced by the F&B industry due to the coupled impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). Experts said that economic revival would be a major challenge to the F&B sector but the advancement of food technologies can be a light of hope for the F&B industry to be adaptive to the new norm caused by the pandemic and be ready to rise again. © 2022 Author(s).