ABSTRACT
Penang Hill, one of Malaysia's most well-known natural and cultural tourist sites, is a popular destination for both domestic and foreign visitors. The study's objective was to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders regarding ecotourism sustainability and stakeholder management. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with three key stakeholders, and content analysis was done to explore the key findings. It was observed that PHC engages stakeholders through meetings, workshops, and seminars and tries to understand their interests for better management. Keen interests of stakeholders were observed towards activities that generate monetary rewards. It was also noted that all stakeholders showed great interest in the environmental conservation of the destination. The study concludes by stating that even though Penang Hill management is on the right path and trying hard to achieve ecotourism sustainability, stakeholders still need more support from the management authority to work towards the destination's sustainability, especially in this Covid-19 pandemic. The findings have ramifications for stakeholder management to implement long-term ecotourism in the destination © 2022, e-Review of Tourism Research.All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The construction sector is known as a major contributor to the overall development and expansion of the country's economy and any delay in a project may cause a cascading effect on the country's economy. In 2020, most countries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that had a significant impact on construction projects resulting in project delays and project cost overruns. This paper identifies factors that influence the project cost escalation due COVID-19 pandemic and studies the escalation of main construction materials. Questionnaires were conducted online to the target respondents who were involved in the construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research area covers the Klang Valley which is centered in Kuala Lumpur and includes its adjoining cities and towns in the state of Selangor. The findings of this study reveal that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) imposed by the government has significantly increased the project cost, such as hand sanitizer, face masks and Rapid Test Kit (RTK) provided to the workers. As a result, the contractor companies have suffered in maintaining their finances as they have to continue to pay their workers in full even when the companies are still surviving the epidemic of COVID-19. The findings of this study may assist construction parties as well as government bodies in strategically planning the finances in dealing with a similar pandemic situation in the future. © 2022 ISEC Press.
ABSTRACT
Background: Each decade since 2000, the French College of General Hospital Pulmonologists (CPHG) conducts a real-life nationwide prospective epidemiological, observational, multicenter study on lung cancer (LC). In 2020, the CPHG constituted the third cohort, KBP-2020-CPHG. We reported here the data on one-month and three-month mortality among general population of this cohort and compared them with 2010 cohort. Methods: Collection of all consecutive LC histologically or cytologically confirmed between 01/01 and 12/31/2020 in non-academic public hospital pulmonology or oncology units in France. A Scientific Committee controlled inclusion exhaustivity and quality in each center. Results: 82 centers collected 8,999 patients in 2020. One-month mortality was 8.8% (734/8,999) and 9.7% (680/7,051) in 2010. Three-month mortality was 21.5% (1,771/8,999) in 2020 and 23.3% (1,624/7,051) in 2010 (Table 1). According to sex, mortality at one and three months mainly affected men (525/734;71.5% and 1,259/1,771;71.1% respectively). Mean age at diagnosis was older than in the cohort population (67.8 y-o);respectively 69.9 and 69.8 at one and three months. At diagnosis, patients were in poorer ECOG mainly grade 2 (211/697;30.3%) or 3 (194/697;27.8%) for one-month and mainly grade 1 (549/1,703;32.2%) or 2 (547/1,703;32.1%) for three-month mortality. Among ECOG grade 3 and 4, 34.8% (194/557) and 57.1% (93/163) were dead at one month respectively;63.5% (350/551) and 83.4% (136/163) respectively were dead at three months. According to histology, adenocarcinoma was the most common (308/734;42%), followed by small cell lung cancer (170/734;23.2%) at one-month;adenocarcinoma was also the most common (822/ 1,771;46.4%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (380/1771;21.5%) at three-month mortality. Most patients who died early were stage 4, metastatic/disseminated (respectively 625/702;89% and 1,488/1,715;86.8% for one- and three-month mortality). In patients with COVID19 infection (n=547), mortality at one and three months was respectively 36.4% (174/478) and 46.7% (228/ 488). Conclusions: Early mortality has not improved over the two decades and remains high. KBP- 2020-CPHG study was performed during COVID-19 pandemic, which may have generated delays in diagnosis and limited access to care and hospital. Early mortality at one and three months concerned mostly men, mean age nearly 70 y-o, adenocarcinoma, metastatic disease and frail patients. This confirms the potential value of LC screening program in a targeted population.
ABSTRACT
The unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic brought upon us a constant barrage of misinformation with deleterious consequences. This short communication describes the role of the Malaysia National Poison Centre (NPC) in creating awareness and clarifying misinformation surrounding ‘viral’ Covid-19 issues in Malaysia. Facebook posts were periodically published, and the number of followers increased drastically in 2020, especially at the beginning of the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO)’s implementation, which was between March and April 2020. Among various key issues posted in Facebook, the highest numbers of reach and user activity were recorded for the following topics;health tag product (reached 1,471,936 people with 257,645 users’ activity), hand sanitizer poisoning (reached 134,600 people with 23,400 users’ activity), bleach ingestion (reached 50,000 people with 8,100 users’ activity) and disinfection tunnel (reached 27,000 people with 2,708 users’ activity). These posts were written to disseminate accurate information, caution against misuse of products, and provide appropriate recommendations for Covid-19 protection, in the NPC’s steadfast action to fight Covid-19 ‘infodemic’. © 2022, Prince of Songkla University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the economic impacts of the current coronavirus disease, which is globally known as (COVID-19) pandemic, on small businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry, including food and beverages (F&B) industries in Malaysia during and after the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and conditional (CMCO) with the emergence of new business models. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the implemented methodology involved a secondary qualitative research design based mainly on the existing literature, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports, the government’s documents, in addition to online sources and observations regarding local business experiences. Findings: The findings revealed that implementing effective strategies of recovery, shaping resilience solutions and supporting policies such as the National Recovery Plan, which is backed by the government played a pivotal role in avoiding the turndown of small businesses. Originality/value: This critical review is submitted as an original research paper, which aims to provide important perspectives regarding the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the tourism and hospitality industry in Malaysia. This paper serves as a scholarly platform for further in-depth studies on various resilience solutions of small businesses. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has caused difficulty to emergency-HCW (EHCW) in resuscitating high-risk patients. We set out to explore EHCW's perception after undergoing COVID-ACLS resuscitation training and address their anxiety of working in this pandemic. A qualitative case study using focused group discussion was conducted among EHCW who have undergone COVID-ACLS training. Five semi-structured questions exploring respondent's confidence level, anxiety factors, areas of improvement for COVID-ACLS and if this COUD-ACES training is sufficient. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis approach was done to analyse the result. 20 EHCW participated in this study. Out of 4 themes, 11 subthemes were identified based on the respondents. They were acquired new knowledge, self-precaution, method of delivery, concerns of self and family members, stigmatisation, insufficient protective methods, underappreciation, regular training sessions, other modalities for learning, course duration;and unsatisfactory reading material. New knowledge and self-precaution were noted to be an important aspect that boosts confidence among EHCW. The main factor that increased anxiety was safety issues and disease spreading to family members, colleagues, and society. In conclusion, COVID-ACLS training is able to boost EHCW confidence in resuscitating high-risk patients. Factors leading to anxiety among EHCW should also be addressed during this pandemic to ensure psychological welfare and mental health are not affected Regular training and utilisation of other teaching modalities such as video are perceived as a helpful adjunct in boosting their confidence. The utilisation of new training approach should be explored in enhancing EHCW's knowledge and confidence.
ABSTRACT
We briefly review the literature on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chain decisions. We first review virus diffusion models to be able to understand COVID-19 virus behavior. Then, we review the related literature on modeling supply disruptions, emphasizing those related to pandemics such as COVID-19. We pay special attention to reviewing inventory management models, especially those based on the economic order quantity models, as they seem to offer a good starting point. Finally, we present ideas for future research. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Covid-19 is an infectious disease that was first discovered in Malaysia on 24 January 2020. It has become the main issues globally and infected many people around the world. Physical-distancing is a practice that is suggested by the World Health Organization to limit the spread of Covid-19 by keeping distance of at least 1 meter from each other. There are many seats installed in public places such as schools and hospitals as well as public transport like buses and flights. It is very useful and good if the seats able to give alarm so that the users always practicing physical distance. This study presents a development of miniature prototype that will give alarm to public chair user if the physical distancing is not followed. The system is built using STM32F446RE ARM microcontroller to control the operation of alert device, push-buttons as the weight sensors, 7-segment displays to inform the status of the device and a buzzer to give alarm sound. Findings show that the system is working accordingly and able to remind its users to keep physical distancing thus helping against the spread of Covid-19. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
A greater size of government spending, may be less efficient. This is contradicting with Malaysian practice because the current Malaysian fiscal policy has allocated a huge budget from the lowest income of individuals to the highest international trade with the aims of reducing the economic implications caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. This paper embarks on three objectives. First, to provide an overview of fiscal policy. Second, to investigate the impacts of COVID-19;and third, reveals the actions taken by the Malaysian Government to implement the recovery policy. This paper adopts an integrative literature review and published reports relating to fiscal policy and COVID-19. The findings show the consolidated efforts of Malaysian Government towards the current fiscal policy in stabilizing the economic impact after the Movement Control Order. This paper could be a prudent guideline for other countries to strategize their fiscal policies in steering the macro and socioeconomic development. © 2021, Iranian Association of Geopolitics. All rights reserved.