ABSTRACT
Peer-teaching has been rapidly adopted throughout higher education institutions, including medical schools, to provide students with a diverse learning environment and to enhance academic development. Peer assisted study session (PASS) is a peer-teaching program implemented in Monash University Malaysia and was conducted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perspectives from the viewpoint of peer tutors during the pandemic period are presented in this paper. Throughout the year, peer tutors were confronted with the unique challenges of teaching virtually. Various factors which contribute to changes in the dynamics of group-based discussions in online classes are discussed. On online platforms, students are graced with more privacy and freedom, a double-edged sword that can translate into reduced student engagement. Nonetheless, the practical skills acquired by adapting to the abrupt switch from on-campus to online peer-teaching can be employed in our future practice as health professionals. Copyright © 2021 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic most certainly impacted the mental health of healthcare professionals in Malaysia. Aim: The aim of our research is to assess the mental health of house officers in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare this with the pre-pandemic times. Method: 122 house officers from 28 hospitals in Malaysia were recruited into the study and completed an online questionnaire of their demographics, including the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 items (DASS-21), Satisfaction with Life Scale and Brief Resilience Scale. Results: Results showed that depression (36.1%), anxiety (33.7%) and stress (23.8%) were all prevalent among house officers with depression being the most prevalent among the three. Majority of the house officers were slightly satisfied with life (30.3%) and most of them had normal resilience (71.3%). Discussion: We compared our study with 5 other studies from 2010 to 2017 and found similar prevalence in depression, anxiety and stress except for the study in 2017 which showed overall prevalence in depression, anxiety and stress. 8.2% of our subjects recorded extremely severe depression, which is almost twice as much as the two studies we have for comparison. Conclusion: Housemanship training in Malaysia is indeed a stressful period for junior doctors especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. More support systems should be made.
ABSTRACT
The companies’ financial distress is a popular issue nowadays due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic recently. The Covid-19 pandemic has been greatly deteriorated and jeopardized the financial health of the companies from all sectors, including the construction sector. The analysis on the financial performance of the companies is a good indicator to determine the financial distress level of the companies. This study aims to measure the financial health of listed construction companies in Malaysia with Altman Z-score model. Altman Z-score model comprises five important and significant financial ratios that are utilized to analyze the financial distress level of the companies. The power of the Z-score model is able to categorize the financial performance of the companies into three zones, namely safe zone, grey zone or distress zone. This study is significant because it helps to identify the financial distress level of the company. Hence, the companies can take remedial actions in order to improve themselves in terms of financial health. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Property development industry is sensitive to the economic condition. Due to land scarcity and population migration, there has been an imbalance in the supply and demand of properties in Malaysia. Covid-19 has also negatively affected customer confidence in the property development market. Given that the property development industry is capital intensive, proper financial management by these property companies have to be performed consistently to ensure the companies are financially viable. To facilitate these companies in decision making by evaluating the effectiveness of their strategies and to provide insights to the current and potential investors, this paper intends to propose a research framework to analyze the financial performance of property companies in Malaysia using Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model. The result shows that SIME, IOIPG and MAHSING are the top three performers in financial performance among the companies studied. This paper is significant as it helps to analyze the financial performance of property companies using TOPSIS model while distances with the ideal solutions also serve as the guidelines for further improvements. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 Recession, which also refers to the Great Lockdown, has caused the fall of many industries in 2020. Even though this recession has somehow encouraged the booming of online business, logistics organizations still suffer from various business risks including route closure, default risk, high parcel volume, risk of the highly contagious Covid-19 virus and technological risk. The logistics industry is very prominent in moving the national economy of a country and is also the key to transport necessities and medical supplies during the Great Lockdown. Therefore, to assist logistics players in identifying their strengths and shortcomings while improving their weaknesses, this research aims to propose a research framework to optimize and compare the financial performance of listed logistics companies in Malaysia with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. This research found that 41.18% of logistics companies are efficient, namely COMPLET, GDEX, LITRAK. MISC, MMCCORP, SURIA and XINHWA. This research has also successfully found the benchmarks for inefficient logistics companies for their financial and operational enhancements. Future studies can apply this research framework with DEA model on other industries. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
A lot of educational institutions are facing the problem in conducting the physical classes due to COVID-19 pandemic recently. Therefore, most of the medium of teaching has been changed from a face-to-face method to online teaching. These changes may create some challenges to the students as well as the teachers or lecturers. In fact, different learning methods have their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the preference of E-learning method among the undergraduate students based on multiple criteria. This study determines the priority of decision criteria in the selection of learning methods among the undergraduate students using Analytic Hierarchy Process-VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (AHP-VIKOR) model. The decision criteria that considered in this study are quality management system, information quality, flexibility, learning and teaching as well as attractiveness. Besides, blended learning, distance learning, and e-learning are identified as the alternatives of the learning methods as well as the most preferred learning method is determined in this study. The results of this study show that the most preferred learning method among undergraduate students is E-learning, followed by distance learning, and finally blended learning. Flexibility, information quality, and quality management system are ranked as the top three influential decision criteria. The significance of this study is to determine the most preferred learning method as well as the most influential decision criteria in the selection of learning methods among undergraduate students with AHP-VIKOR model. © 2021 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has now become a pandemic with no approved therapeutic agent. At the moment, the genomic structure, characteristics, and pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported. Based upon this information, several drugs including the directly acting antivirals have been proposed to treat people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This rapid review aims to describe the directly acting antivirals that have been examined for use in the management of COVID-19. Searches were conducted in three electronic databases, supplemented with a search on arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, ChinaXiv, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry for studies examining the use of antivirals in COVID-19 to identify for case reports, case series, observational studies, and randomized controlled studies describing the use of antivirals in COVID-19. Data were extracted independently and presented narratively. A total of 98 studies were included, comprising of 38 published studies and 60 registered clinical trials. These drugs include the broad spectrum antivirals such as umifenovir, protease inhibitors such as lopinavir/ritonavir as well as the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitors, remdesivir, and favipiravir. Other drugs that have been used include the nucleosidase inhibitors and polymerase acidic endonuclease inhibitors which are currently approved for prevention of influenza infections. While some of the drugs appear promising in small case series and reports, more clinical trials currently in progress are required to provide higher quality evidence.