CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE PROGRESS TOWARDS MALAYSIA’S DEVELOPMENT: WHERE ARE WE HEADING AFTER THE FIRST DECADE?

Malaysia-China cooperation since normalization in 1974 has proceeded relatively well for the benefit of both countries. The prior role of Malaysia in offering the “hand of friendship” to China has reflected diplomatic co-existence in mutual trade, regional development and people-to-people relations. However, the close relationship between Malaysia and China has also impacted the position of Malaysia in joining China in the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR), which then changed to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The agenda through the BRI, launched in 2013 under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has mapped out new promising relations in various dimensions (economic, financial, technical, etc.) with Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia through the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road or commonly known as the Maritime Silk Road (MSR). The BRI in Malaysia has created different patterns of mutual trust on the developmental scape although there has been little discussion since it was introduced. Therefore, this article intends to fill the gap by providing an analysis on its ongoing cooperation with China since Malaysia signed on to the BRI in 2013. This analysis is placed within the context of the Malaysia-China cooperation before and ongoing projects in BRI, the people-to-people and government-to-government relations in managing the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitics of China’s manoeuvres in the South China Sea. Much needs to be done to strengthen cooperation through the BRI between China and Malaysia particularly as 2023 marks the first decade of this mega project, given the emerging trust deficit in the ASEAN region with regard to China’s strategic goals in her competition with the US for power and influence. © 2022,Journal of International Studies(Malaysia). All Rights Reserved.

Development of Smart Healthcare Tracker through Internet of Things

According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 17.9 million people in the world who will die under the cause of Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in 2019. Heart and Brain are both related to Cardiovascular diseases. Even if the patients do not pass away due to the disease, the post-effect of this illness burdens the patients and their families. Also, the outbreak of COVID-19 makes the patients take a risk of undergoing rehabilitation in the hospital. Thus, a smart healthcare solution which is a Smart Healthcare Tracker through the Internet of Things is designed. The system consists of an EMG sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and heart rate/pulse oximeter connected to ESP 32 with an interface of NodeMCU to study the patients' health condition for arms and legs strength by sending the data to the caregivers or physicians. The project aimed to obtain a consistent and accurate reading for each of the features for arms and legs strength analysis and sleeping disturbance analysis. The BLYNK app is also applied to the project design as a platform to display the analysis result to the caregivers/physicians on the gadgets at any time and anywhere. The prototype has been constructed and the data collection is built successfully. The prototype is trusted to obtain accurate and consistent results and can provide a sustainable way for the rehabilitation to indicate the health condition and the recovery stage of the patients. © 2021 IEEE.

Social Media and New Norms impact: "Oh! My Grandparents (OMG)!" As an Administrator in Family WhatsApp Group

WhatsApp has become a major necessity in modern communication both individually and as a group. During an unprecedented time like COVID-19 pandemic, it increased the utilization of social media among society and has developed new norms among its users, especially grandparents. This study emphasises the various real-life activities undertaken by grandparents in social media and detailed research regarding the various WhatsApp administrators in a group chat. A qualitative research approach consisting of in-depth interviews have been carried out among family members in order to gather all the information-involving informants. In addition, it aims to gain a broader perspective of the informants' view regarding their grandparents becoming the administrator of a family WhatsApp group. Results of this study revealed that family relationships became strengthened between grandparents and other family members, especially with their grandchildren. Secondly, grandparents started being obsessed with WhatsApp, they are keen to learn more and are even able to keep up with the latest technology. Finally, the topics discussed in the family WhatsApp group covers current issues such as politics, religious advice, and sometimes entertainment. Generally, this study is expected to contribute to the communication studies and social media field, specifically understanding the use of social media between two different generations that are keen to keep up to date with the current technology especially during the unprecedented time.

Detection of Novel Coronavirus from Chest X-Ray Radiograph Images via Automated Machine Learning and CAD4COVID

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been considered as a valuable tool to detect early COVID-19 (Cov-19) infections and to monitor the condition of the infected patients. Machine learning and deep learning is a subset of AI that uses neural network algorithms. Hence, this study aimed to explore the sensitivity of CoV-19 detection by using CAD4COVID program (Delft Imaging, Netherland), and to evaluate the accuracy of the classifier performance using Automated Machine Learning (Auto ML) algorithm. 70 chest X-ray (CXR) images were assessed and of that, 39, 20 and 11 patients receive low range (0-35), medium range (36-65) and high range (66-100) probability score, respectively. The sensitivity of AutoML detection was 0.99, with an accuracy of 0.83. In summary, the AutoML with the best optimizer may comparable to CAD4COVID in detection of Cov-19 in term of its accuracy and sensitivity. © 2021 IEEE.