The Relationship between Movement Control Order Impact Factors and Construction Project Performance

The Malaysian government's pursuit of the Movement Control Order (MCO) had a severe impact on the performance of the construction project, which was hampered as a result of their actions. It becomes even more difficult when the region around construction projects is defined as a "red zone". This situation affects the performance of construction projects, which is related to project delays, increase in construction costs, waste of construction materials, labourers who have not received any salary, lack of labour, and etc. This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between MCO impact factors and the performance of construction projects in Malaysia. The quantitative technique was applied in this study. The contractors registered under the Construction Development Board (CIDB) in the state of Selangor were chosen as the respondents. In total, 100 respondents participated and gave full support for this study. This relationship was investigated using a correlation analysis technique. The highest impact is the construction cost. The construction costs increased due to the increase in the prices of construction materials and machinery, lack of labours, and additional expenses for COVID-19 precautions. The findings found that the larger the negative impact of MCO's actions during the COVID-19 outbreak on time, cost, and resources, the worse the performance of Malaysian projects will be in general. These factors should be considered by the government before a decision is made. For future research, it is suggested to look at how the regulation can assist the construction stakeholders to ensure the MCO does not have a big impact on the construction projects.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AS STRATEGIC CRISIS RESPONSE MECHANISM: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

Most companies have been severely affected by various business risks due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Their limited resources during this adverse period have forced them to be more concerned with their companies' survival than making sustainability initiatives that incur extra costs. Consequently, companies have faced a challenge in reporting imposed-sustainability statements. According to Wenzel et al. (2020) and Zharfpeykan and Ng (2021), companies can innovatively improvise the regular sustainability reporting to become a strategic tool to portray to stakeholders how companies respond to and address sustainable matters during a crisis period. Thus, this paper presents the concept of sustainability reporting as a strategic crisis response mechanism and proposes a model and matrix that maps the stakeholder engagement disclosure strategy with quality disclosure. Moreover, the paper discusses how this reporting can be influenced by internal governance mechanisms. The paper further suggests the moderating role of enterprise risk management (ERM) in this relationship. This concept can potentially guide managerial decisions on ideal sustainability practices that may not impair companies' capacity to survive during future crises. It may act as an effective instrument in meeting stakeholders' expectations of companies to perform their roles as good corporate citizens during a crisis. © 2023 The Authors.

The preschool teachers' perspective of digital technology use in classrooms: A case study of North Maluku province, Indonesia

The significance of information and communication technologies in the educational sector in the last few decades has tremendously increased. The current study aims to examine the significance of various individual factors such as teachers' self-concept, self-efficacy and ICT-related subjective self in predicting their perceptions of ICT usability leading to enhance preschool children's learning outcomes. To achieve the study objectives, the authors applied a quantitative research methodology. After surveying 386 preschool teachers in 55 preschools, the data were analyzed using SmartPLS software. Most educational institutions have transformed their traditional modes of education into virtual classrooms. Technological intrusion in the educational sector has increased during COVID-19 and is persistent in the post-COVID era. Similarly, in universities and colleges, the inclusion of digital technologies in preschools has remarkably increased. The current study adds value to the existing body of literature by extending the existing TAM3 to TAM3+ by adding a new domain of subjective self and predicting preschool teachers' ICT usage in the classrooms and the interaction of this usage with technical support to enhance the preschool children's learning outcomes. © 2023 by the author;licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group.

A study of quadratic Diophantine fuzzy sets with structural properties and their application in face mask detection during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying face masks with artificial intelligence was a crucial challenge for decision support systems. To address this challenge, we propose a quadratic Diophantine fuzzy decision-making model to rank artificial intelligence techniques for detecting masks, aiming to prevent the global spread of the disease. Our paper introduces the innovative concept of quadratic Diophantine fuzzy sets (QDFSs), which are advanced tools for modeling the uncertainty inherent in a given phenomenon. We investigate the structural properties of QDFSs and demonstrate that they generalize various fuzzy sets. In addition, we introduce essential algebraic operations, set-theoretical operations, and aggregation operators. Finally, we present a numerical case study that applies our proposed algorithms to select a unique face mask detection method and evaluate the effectiveness of our techniques. Our findings demonstrate the viability of our mask identification methodology during the COVID-19 outbreak. © 2023 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press.

The Combination of Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling and Ontology Matching for Building Domain Ontologies: E-Government Case Study

During the last decade, ontology engineering has undoubtedly participated in a lot of beneficial applications in different domains. Nevertheless, ontology development still faces several significant challenges that need to be addressed. This study proposes an enhanced architecture for the ontology development lifecycle. With the help of this architecture, users can complete ontology development tasks since it provides guidance for all key activities, from requirement specification to ontology evaluation. Ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM) and ontology matching serve as the foundation of this architecture. ODCM is defined as the application of ontological ideas from various fields to build engineering objects that improve conceptual modeling. Ontology matching is a promising approach to overcome the semantic heterogeneity challenge between different ontologies. The proposed architecture is applied to e-governance domain, which is one of the online services that gains a great attention worldwide, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. However, residents of Arab countries face numerous obstacles and do not receive the full benefits of e-governance. For these reasons, Egyptian e-government is selected as the suggested case study. The results are encouraging when the produced ontology is compared with 20 existing ontologies from the same domain. On the basis of OntoMetrics, the average values of metrics correlated to accuracy, understandability, cohesion and conciseness lie in the 95th, 95th, 95th and 57th percentiles respectively. The results can be further enhanced by defining more non-inheritance relations and distributing the instances across all classes. © 2022. ISCA

Call home gardening for enhancing food in the urban area

Food is a basic need and essential for human beings. The COVID-19 pandemic challeng-es us with food and nutrition security, and thus resilient food system is necessary. Home gardening may improve our self-sufficiency and have a sustainable food system to cope with the challenging situation. There is no denying home gardening brings many benefits to human health, including physical, mental, and social. Nevertheless, the most significant challenges of home gardening, especially in urban areas, are the substrate properties, light intensity, and temperature. Therefore, further investigation should investigate the impact of food crop yield on a household level, especially in urban areas in different countries.

Sustainable corporate governance and gender diversity on corporate boards: evidence from COVID-19

The unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a need to re-examine sustainable corporate governance practices. Within this context, the current study investigates the moderated effect of gender-diverse corporate boards on sustainable corporate governance practices in Malaysian financial and non-financial firms during the period 2011-2020, employing the dynamic estimator (S-GMM). During the COVID-19 pandemic, a negative relationship between ownership constructs and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators is observed in non-financial firms, whereas the opposite is reported for financial firms. Moreover, the moderated effect of gender-diverse boards is only substantiated in financial firms. The findings reveal that sustainable corporate governance is practised in financial firms but not in non-financial firms. Particularly, we draw significant implications for policymakers and regulatory bodies of Malaysia to carefully monitor the implementation of sustainable corporate governance given uncertain circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic. Further, our study is beneficial for academics, practitioners, and research scholars for their future research endeavours.

Performance Analysis of 4-DOF RPRR Robot Manipulator Actuation Strategy for Pick and Place Application in Healthcare Environment

Direct and indirect physical contact of humans and objects become the main medium of transmissible diseases such as COVID-19. Some strategies have been proposed to mitigate the risks of infections by minimizing physical contact, such as using robotics technology. Tele-robotics is one of the sub-fields in robotics that aims to implement physical surrogates for monitoring and controlling robots from remote distances, either autonomous, semi-autonomous, or manually guided. This paper discusses experimental research for evaluating the performance of a 4-DOF robot manipulator for pick and place tasks on small medical objects, such as test tubes in table-top scenarios. The robot manipulator is designed as an RPRR manipulator and is equipped with a gripper attached to its endeffector. Inverse kinematics and trajectory planning methods have been successfully implemented in real-time. The inverse kinematic method utilizes a pseudo-inverse Jacobian solver, and the trajectory generation utilizes a sigmoid function. The performance analysis results show that pick and place missions have been demonstrated with minimum tolerable position error, which is not more than 3.5 mm. The robot manipulator can satisfy high precision during repetitive experiments and maintain its accuracy in picking and placing standard test tubes from one rack to another within its working space. The smooth trajectories of the end-effector are achieved by implementing the sigmoid function. Thus, it satisfies the requirement for handling objects with minimum vibrations even during the actuation process with maximum speed. © IJASEIT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Call home gardening for enhancing the resilience of household food security post-pandemic COVID-19

Food is a basic need and essential in human beings. COVID-19 pandemic challenges us from food and nutrient security, and thus resilient food system is necessary. Home gardening may improve our self-sufficiency level and have a sustainable food system to cope with the challenging situation. Between, home gardening brings many benefits to human health, including physical, mental, and social. Nevertheless, the most significant challenges of home gardening, especially in urban areas, are the substrate properties, light intensity, and temperature. Therefore, further investigation should investigate the impact on food crop yield on a household level, especially in urban areas in different countries.

Evaluating User Experience (UX) Factors and Emotions of Open Distance Learning (ODL) during the Pandemic Covid-19 among Secondary School Students

Throughout the covid-19 pandemic, technology in education has been important. This is a new norm in learning patterns. The study first investigates how user experience factors (useful, desire, accessible, usable) influence secondary school students' open distance learning (ODL). The second aim is to measure the emotion associated with their profiles. The method used is a questionnaire involving 161 respondents aged 13 to 17 years old. Findings show that user experience factors are significant to ODL, and the emotions associated with the likelihood ratio of gender and type of school are pleasant and unpleasant. Future work expands different target respondents, expands other user experience factors such as findable and credible, and expands different types of emotions. © 2022 by the authors.

User Acceptance of Google Classroom-Assisted Learning: The Case of Malaysian Form Six Economics Students

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, educators in Malaysia have resorted to the use of the learning medium Google Classroom as an alternative to existing online teaching methods. Past studies have focused on direct and indirect factors towards the intention to use and the use of Google Classroom in public institutes of higher learning. This study therefore aimed to identify the level and tendency of acceptance items of Google Classroom-assisted learning among Form Six economics students based on demographic factors. A questionnaire was distributed to 206 students in the state of Melaka, Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to measure the level of user acceptance of Google Classroom, and the Rasch measurement model of differential item functioning (DIF) was used to identify the tendency of items based on demographic factors. From the findings of the study, the overall analysis of student acceptance of Google Classroom showed that it was at a moderately high level. DIF analysis proved that there were differences in the propensity to adopt Google Classroom based on gender, ethnicity, experience, and frequency of internet usage. The findings of this study will help policymakers to issue guidelines, and assist school management and teachers to plan for technological literacy training to educate students in schools. © 2022 Society for Research and Knowledge Management. All rights reserved.

Association between Administration of Systemic Corticosteroids and the Recovery of Olfactory and/or Gustatory Functions in Patients with COVID-19: A Prospective Cohort Study

AIM: This study is a prospective cohort study aimed to assess the effect of systemic corticosteroids administration time in the recovery of gustatory and olfactory sensations dysfunction (ageusia and anosmia) in COVID-19 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-seven COVID-19 patients with symptoms of ageusia and anosmia were recruited (that their COVID infection was confirmed using polymerase chain reaction). Daily 10 mg of systemic corticosteroids were prescribed in the 1st week and then reduced to 5 mg in the 2nd week to all the patients to observe taste and smell sensation recovery. All data were recorded and then analyzed. Patients were then grouped into two groups (early and late groups) according to the duration of their taste and smell dysfunction. RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that early corticosteroid administration resulted in a significant decrease in recovery time of ageusia and anosmia (0.27 [0.2–0.35], p < 0.001). Patients in the early administration group (<1 week) showed faster improvement in regaining taste and smell functions than in the late administration group (>1 week) with significant difference (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The use of systemic corticosteroids in early phases of covid-19 infection help in faster recovery of ageusia and anosmia.

Factors associated with hospital admission and adverse outcome for COVID-19: Role of social factors and medical care.

BACKGROUND: Beyond sex, age, and various comorbidities, geographical origin and socioeconomic deprivation are associated with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) morbidity and mortality in the general population. We aimed to assess factors associated with severe forms of COVID-19 after a hospital emergency department visit, focusing on socioeconomic factors. METHODS: Patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 attending the emergency department of Béclère Hospital (France) in March-April 2020 were included. Postal addresses were used to obtain two geographical deprivation indices at the neighborhood level. Factors associated with hospitalization and factors associated with adverse outcomes, i.e. mechanical ventilation or death, were studied using logistic and Cox analyses, respectively. RESULTS: Among 399 included patients, 321 were hospitalized. Neither geographical origin nor socioeconomic deprivation was associated with any of the outcomes. Being male, older, overweight or obese, diabetic, or having a neuropsychiatric disorder were independent risk factors for hospitalization. Among 296 patients hospitalized at Béclère Hospital, 91 experienced an adverse outcome. Older age, being overweight or obese, desaturation and extent of chest CT scan lesions>25% at admission (aHR: 2.2 [95% CI: 1.3-3.5]) and higher peak CRP levels and acute kidney failure (aHR: 2.0 [1.2-3.3]) during follow-up were independently associated with adverse outcomes, whereas treatment with hydrocortisone reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation or death by half (aHR: 0.5 [0.3-0.8]). CONCLUSION: No association between geographical origin or socioeconomic deprivation and the occurrence of a severe form of COVID-19 was observed in our population after arrival to the emergency department. Empirical corticosteroid use with hydrocortisone had a strong protective impact.

Detection of sars-cov-2 from surface of patients’ leftover food packages at a covid-19 quarantine centre

In healthcare facilities, food waste and its packaging are mostly managed as non-infectious general waste. However, waste from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients, are treated as medical waste as they may be contaminated by the virus. We investigated the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 contamination from positive COVID-19 patients to their leftover food packages at a quarantine centre. Food packages surface was swabbed using prewetted cellular foam, placed into viral transport media and analysed using real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in two samples (4.5%) from asymptomatic patients who were at day-2 positive SARS-CoV-2 with cycle threshold (Ct) value (RdRp/E), 34.96/35.72 and 37.1/36.48 respectively. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 supports that there is contamination to the waste. These poses risk of exposure as SAR-COV-2 survive on the surfaces, thus, safe handling and disposal of food waste should be maintained. However, further study involving viral culture should be explored to determine the viability of the SARS-CoV-2 from leftover food packages. © 2021, Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine. All rights reserved.

Spiritual care in Southeast Asia: A systematic review of the evidence for spiritual care models, interventions, and outcomes

Background: The pandemic of COVID-19 has expanded the importance of spiritual care to the patients suffering and dying from this virus, as well as to their families and communities. Sincerely, there is a need for spiritual care specialists to address spiritual disorders caused by this crisis. This study aims to systematically review the status of spiritual care among nurses and patients in Southeast Asia. Methodology: An online search conducted in the Scopus database from 2000 to 2020 on spiritual care in Southeast Asia. The main keywords, "spiritual care", "nursing", "patients" and "Southeast Asia" were used. A total of 94 articles were primarily determined;however, based on the criteria, only seven articles were appropriate to review. Results: The seven articles identified in this study were from Indonesia (n = 3), Thailand (n = 3), and Singapore (n = 1), with nothing from other Southeast Asia countries. The review of articles highlighted five essential topics on spiritual care: Introduction and history of spiritual care, communication therapy and the relationship of nurses with patients and their fami-lies, spiritual care competence, knowing when to refer to spiritual care professional, and the nursing process as a guideline for nurses to provide spiritual care. Conclusion: Without adequate educational or training intervention, the provision of appropriate spiritual care is likely not to happen;the requirement for an excellent and validated model is essential to implement spiritual care in the region need for it.

The Role of Online Psychotherapy in COVID-19: An Evidence Based Clinical Review

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is an infectious disease that is easily widespread and has clinical manifestations as mild, moderate, or severe disease. COVID-19 patients are required to be isolated during treatment to reduce transmission. This can cause anxiety and depression, which in turn worsens the patient's illness. Providing supportive psychotherapy can help provide a feeling of safety, comfort and calm for patients. The choice of method in providing supportive psychotherapy can be done online/teleconsultation or internet-based. This clinical review aims to determine the effect of online teleconsultation or internet-based psychotherapy on COVID-19 patients. METHODS: A systematic search was performed using online databases, such as PubMed, Cochrane, EBSCO/CINAHL and ProQuest. The identified articles were screened using eligibility criteria. There were 2 studies (Zhou et al, and Wei et al) which were analyzed critically using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale. RESULTS: Both studies showed that management of psychotherapy through teleconsultation or internet-based on COVID-19 patients can help relieve the patient's psychological symptoms. Zhou et al studied 63 suspected COVID-19 with 23.8% (n = 15) having a Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) score of 8 or more. There was a significant decrease in HADS-A nxiety (HADS-A) scores (p <0.01) and HADS-Depression (HADS-D) scores (p <0.01) in 15 patients, and from the overall HADS scores (p < 0.01). Wei et al. Showed 17-HAMD and HAMA scores in the online psychological intervention group also showed a significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to controls. CONCLUSION: Psychotherapy through online teleconsultation or internet-based on COVID-19 patients can help relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression and teleconsultation and also effective in dealing with psychological complications in patients with COVID-19.

Depression, Anxiety And Stress Level Among Low-Income Family During Covid-19 Pandemic In Malaysia

In January 2020, a new coronavirus epidemic began in Wuhan, China, and now is spreading globally as a pandemic in March 2020. To date, about 123,498 million cases have been reported worldwide and about 2.71 million deaths were reported. This newly discovered pandemic has majorly impacted many things such as tourism, the economy, and others. Because of this, low-income households (also known as B40) seem to be affected. Through a survey conducted online in the state of Pahang, Malaysia, this study aims to examine the level of depression, anxiety, and stress faced by B40 households. The study extracted data from 128 respondents (N=128) from B40 households around the state by using the DASS-21 online form. The result of the study showed that 31% respondents had moderate depression, 40% had severe depression, and 22% had extremely severe depression. Moreover, 15% respondents had moderate anxiety, 16% had severe anxiety, and 68% had extremely severe anxiety. The result also showed that 31% respondents had moderate stress, 36% had severe stress, and 18% had extremely severe stress. All scores were tabulated from the administration of the Depression, Stress, and Anxiety Scale (DASS-21) inventory. The result showed that the government sector and self-employed groups differed slightly at p<0.051. Regardless of the employment sector within B40 respondents, this study showed that they are prone to have mental health issues especially depression, anxiety, and stress. The limitation of this study is the sample size. So, it is advisable for future studies to increase the sample size so that the data will have a significant value © 2021, Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues. All Rights Reserved.

Hyperglycaemia to the extremes and the complex challenges

A 28-year- old Afro-Caribbean gentlemen with a body mass index of 28.5 kg/m2 presented with a 2-week history of osmotic symptoms and was found to have a glucose of > 122 mmol/L. His medical history includes a SARS-CoV- 2 infection 6 months prior. On presentation, plasma ketones were >7 mmol/L, sodium 126 mmol/L, potassium 4.3 mmol/L, pH 7.09 with an osmolality of 450 mOsmol. In the emergency department, he was treated initially with intravenous sodium chloride and intravenous insulin following diabetic ketoacidosis protocol. Insulin dosing was reduced to a requirement of 1-2 units per hour alongside a dextrose infusion to maintain a glucose level around 40 mmol/L. This was done for the first forty eight hours to avoid the over-rapid correction of glucose and subsequent over rapid correction of osmolality. Ketones were deescalated to <1 mmol/L within eight hours. Following initial treatment, severe hypokalaemia occurred requiring significant potassium replacement up to 400 mmols over seven hours. Treatment dose low molecular weight heparin was used to prevent thrombotic complications. The clinical course was complicated by rhabdomyolysis (creatine kinase 81,573 IU/L), hypocalcaemia (1.94 mmol/L) which was cautiously replaced, pancreatitis (amylase 776 IU/L), acute kidney injury requiring haemoflitration for seven days and stress-induced duodenal ulceration causing malaena. This case was particularly challenging due to the extremely high blood glucose levels coexisting with very high ketones, resulting in acid base and electrolyte abnormalities;the normal potassium in the context of significant acidosis can disguise the true potassium levels. The patient made a full recovery.

Food and beverage in covid-19, shopee in online shop brooklyn.Store

The E-Commerce marketplace is booming, providing a new shopping experience for customers where they can engage in global transactions. E-commerce has been performing the biggest role in most distant reaches of the economics business. In the favoured sense, E-commerce is a business deal such as selling the internet or electronic networks. The article explains the theoretical basis for developing worldwide e-commerce in the era of globalization. The study investigated the main trends that have developed in the e-commerce market. Covid-19 cases are increasing significantly internationally, with profound effects on global food staple markets and food shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 4.3 million confirmed cases and over 290,000 deaths globally (Nicola et al., 2020). This study investigates the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, on the food and beverage industry. It examines both the short-term and medium-to long-term implications of the disease outbreak and highlights strategies for reducing the possible consequences of the pandemic. Other than that, this test plans to break down SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and define display technologies through Shopee at Brooklyn.store's online store. The impact of this exploration is the Online Shop Brooklyn.store in the fourth quarter case that the store is in poor official standing and faces significant testing in order to implement a precautionary method. He faces a major challenge in implementing a defensive strategy. © 2021, Annals of R.S.C.B. All rights reserved.