Search results

This study aims to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the Muslim-friendly homestay business in Malaysia to help identify and recommend practical strategies to capitalize on the strengths and potentials while overcoming the current shortcomings and threats.

The Muslim-friendly business owner and operators in Sabah, Malaysia, were the subject of a series of focus groups and expert opinion interviews. The data was transcribed, and then the variables were categorized into the four SWOT categories using content and thematic analysis. Meanwhile, threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths (TOWS) analysis is used to identify the best strategy alternatives.

The SWOT analysis identifies several strengths (e.g. diverse and unique Islamic culture and heritage [S1], iconic Islamic landmarks [S2], rich natural beauty [S3], well-established halal tourism industry [S4]); weaknesses (e.g. limited awareness [W1], limited infrastructure and facilities [W2], limited human resources and trained personnel [W3], lack of Islamic tourism products and experiences [W4]); opportunities (e.g. growing demand for Islamic tourism [O1], increasing disposable income [O2], potential for collaborations [O3], potential for partnerships [O4], potential for expanding Sabah’s halal tourism offerings [O5]); and threats (e.g. competition [T1], political instability [T2], economic downturns [T3] and environmental and social challenges [T4]).

This paper could serve as a guideline and supplementary information for stakeholders in the homestay industry to grasp their business environment better.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its type to blend SWOT and TOWS analysis with the sector of Muslim-friendly homestays. Hence, the findings might expand understanding of the Muslim-friendly homestays industry and aid businesses in penetrating this growing market.

This study aims to investigate the key determinants predicting users’ behavioural intention (BI) in adopting mobile payment (m-payment) in the new normal era.

The mobile technology acceptance model (MTAM) was extended through attitudes, perceived trust, perceived risk and personal innovativeness (PI) with government support (GS) functioning as a moderator. A total of 245 valid responses were gathered from Malaysian m-payment users with purposive sampling and subsequently evaluated through partial least square-structural equation modelling.

Mobile usefulness and PI significantly predicted user BI to use m-payment. Based on the moderation analysis, GS strengthened attitude-based impacts on BI towards m-payment adoption.

The empirical outcomes provide stakeholders with pivotal implications to develop holistic policies and strategies that potentially catalyse m-payment usage in the new normal era.

This research expands the current body of knowledge by assessing the factors impacting m-payment usage intention in the new normal era. The four aforementioned MTAM elements and GS (moderator) were recommended to boost model workability and offer novel evidence from a distinct viewpoint.

El objetivo de este estudio es investigar los determinantes clave que predicen la intención de comportamiento de los usuarios a la hora de adoptar el pago por móvil (m-payment) en la nueva era normal.

El modelo de aceptación de la tecnología móvil (MTAM) se amplió a través de las actitudes, la confianza percibida, el riesgo percibido y la capacidad de innovación personal, con el apoyo gubernamental como moderador. Se recogió un total de 245 respuestas válidas de usuarios malasios de pago por móvil mediante muestreo intencionado y se evaluó posteriormente mediante modelización de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM).

La utilidad del móvil y la capacidad de innovación personal predijeron significativamente la intención de los usuarios de utilizar el pago por móvil. Según el análisis de moderación, el apoyo gubernamental reforzó los efectos basados en la actitud sobre la intención conductual de adoptar el pago por móvil.

Los resultados empíricos proporcionan a las partes interesadas implicaciones fundamentales para desarrollar políticas y estrategias holísticas que catalicen potencialmente el uso del pago móvil en la nueva era de la normalidad.

Esta investigación amplía el corpus actual de conocimientos al evaluar los factores que influyen en la intención de uso del pago por móvil en la nueva era normal. Se recomiendan los cuatro elementos MTAM mencionados y el apoyo gubernamental (moderador) para impulsar la viabilidad del modelo y ofrecer pruebas novedosas desde un punto de vista distinto.

本研究旨在探讨新常态时代用户使用移动支付（m-payment）行为意向的主要决定因素。

通过态度、感知信任、感知风险和个人创新能力, 并以政府支持作为调节因素, 对移动技术接受模型（MTAM）进行了扩展。通过有目的的抽样, 从马来西亚移动支付用户中收集了 245 份有效回复, 随后通过偏最小二乘法结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）进行了评估。

移动实用性和个人创新性可显著预测用户使用移动支付的行为意向。根据调节分析, 政府支持加强了态度对采用移动支付的行为意向的影响。

实证研究的结果为利益相关者提供了重要的启示, 有助于他们制定全面的政策和战略, 在新常态时代促进移动支付的使用。

本研究通过评估新常态时代影响移动支付使用意向的因素, 拓展了现有的知识体系。研究推荐了上述四个 MTAM 要素和政府支持（调节器）, 以提高模型的可操作性, 并从一个独特的视角提供了新的证据。

The goal of this study is to test the real-world use of an emotion recognition system.

The researchers chose an existing algorithm that displayed high accuracy and speed. Four emotions: happy, sadness, anger and surprise, are used from six of the universal emotions, associated by their own mood markers. The mood-matrix interface is then coded as a web application. Four guidance counselors and 10 students participated in the testing of the mood-matrix. Guidance counselors answered the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess its usefulness, and the students answered the general comfort questionnaire (GCQ) to assess their comfort levels.

Results from TAM found that the mood-matrix has significant use for the guidance counselors and the GCQ finds that the students were comfortable during testing.

No study yet has tested an emotion recognition system applied to counseling or any mental health or psychological transactions.

This chapter discusses the impact of tourism on the Kampong Glam Islamic heritage site in Singapore. For tourism development purposes, the main artery of the district was converted into a pedestrian mall. Planners tried to connect contemporary marketing initiatives for Islamic heritage with the historic role of Kampong Glam as a pilgrim destination, and attempted to legitimize the intense interventions. Despite these efforts, the rapidly induced changes have caused alienation of parts of the local Muslim community from the district. The chapter portrays the challenge to showcase Kampong Glam as a center of Singapore's Islamic heritage for interested tourists, while retaining the district's role as a homestead for the local Muslim minority.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of ZnO on the structure and properties of micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coating on rare earth magnesium alloy under large concentration gradient.

The macroscopic and microscopic morphology, thickness, surface roughness, chemical composition and structure of the coating were characterized by different characterization methods. The corrosion resistance of the film was studied by electrochemical and scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy. The results show that the addition of ZnO can significantly improve the compactness and corrosion resistance of the MAO coating, but the high concentration of ZnO will cause microcracks, which will reduce the corrosion resistance to a certain extent.

When the concentration of zinc oxide is 8 g/L, the compactness and corrosion resistance of the coating are the best, and the thickness of the coating is positively correlated with the concentration of ZnO.

Too high concentration of ZnO reduces the performance of MAO coating.

The MAO coating prepared by adding ZnO has good corrosion resistance. Combined with organic coatings, it can be applied in corrosive marine environments, such as ship parts and hulls. To a certain extent, it can reduce the economic loss caused by corrosion.

The effect of ZnO on the corrosion resistance of MAO coating in electrolyte solution was studied systematically, and the conclusion was new to the common knowledge.

In Malaysia, Get-Rich-Quick scheme (GRQS) is one of the financial fraud activities prohibited under Malaysian law. The common facet of such schemes involves plans that promise unrealistic rates of returns, and this new scheme continues to proliferate every year as the list of illegal investment companies and websites are growing. Indeed, GRQS will remain proliferating as long as there are people who are easily lured by the promise that wealth can be generated with little skill, effort or time. This paper aims to explain the phenomenon of GRQS in light of the existing laws in Malaysia. This paper also highlights the current development of Australian law pertaining to GRQS for comparative purpose.

This paper mainly relies on statutes as its primary sources of information. As such, this paper analyses the scope and provisions of the relevant laws that regulate GRQS and compare the existing GRQS provisions that are equivalent with Australian law.

Malaysia has comprehensive laws to combat GRQS activities. However, these laws are far from perfection, and only with immediate amendments, GRQS problems can be resolved more effectively. One of the weaknesses of current Malaysian laws to tackle GRQS is the lack of more stringent punishment against the operators of GRQS as well as the participants of the scheme. A comparison with equivalent GRQS law in Australia demonstrates that Australian laws provide a wide range of punishment to the operators and prohibits participation in GRQS. More importantly, Australia regards the offense as a strict liability offense where the mens rea or guilty mind of the perpetrators is exempted. Indeed, numerous proceedings have been instituted in the Australian Court against the operators and participants of GRQS.

This paper analyses the scope of relevant laws in Malaysia to combat GRQS and examines the strengths and weaknesses of these laws. This paper also compares Malaysian law with equivalent GRQS-related laws available in Australia. This paper further suggests that Malaysia should regulate sterner punishment for operators and participants of the scheme and that the offense is categorized under a strict liability offense where the mens rea or guilty mind of the offender is exempted.

Arts participation fosters social inclusion in a way that other social and recovery programmes do not. The professional role of an artist is an appealing and socially valid role in the community. For many people with a mental illness, arts‐based programmes become a catalyst to resume and/or pursue their art practice more seriously. The focus of this paper is to uncover the complex boundaries that exist for artists who have mental health needs in contemporary culture, and to review these artists' perceptions of their opportunities to create a place for their creative expression to emerge in its own right, and not on the basis of their illness. We also comment on the specific issue of public perception of the ‘outsider artist’ and refer in parts to the apparent question of how such art is perceived and treated. This paper refers specifically to the experiences of eight visual artists with mental illnesses living in Queensland, Australia, who contributed to an exhibition titled Artist Citizen as part of a participatory action research programme. The topics of discussion by the eight artists explore familiar themes to mental health: stigma, exclusion and the integration of identity within limited membership groups. This paper details the expressed concerns of the artists around the value and connection of their creative output. It should be relevant and of interest to mental health service personnel for insight into integration and recovery for people with mental health needs into mainstream social and cultural environments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of operating room staff towards the use of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist in a tertiary hospital in Jordan.

This was a qualitative descriptive study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 21 healthcare staff employed in the operating room (nurses, residents, surgeons and anaesthesiologists). The interviews were conducted in the period from October to December 2021. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Three main themes emerged from data analysis namely compliance with the surgical safety checklist, the impact of surgical safety checklist, and barriers and facilitators to the use of the surgical safety checklist. The use of the checklist was seen as enabling staff to communicate effectively and thus to accomplish patient safety and positive outcomes. The perceived barriers to compliance included excessive workload, congestion and lack of training and awareness. Enhanced training and education were thought to improve the utilization of the surgical safety checklist, and help enhance awareness about its importance.

While steps to utilize the surgical safety checklist by the operation room personnel may seem simple, the quality of its administration is not necessarily robust. There are several challenges for consistent, complete and effective administration of the surgical safety checklist by the surgical team members. Healthcare managers must employ interventions to eliminate barriers to and offer facilitators of adherence to the application of the surgical safety checklist, therefore promoting quality healthcare and patient safety.

Bumpless Cu/SiO₂ hybrid bonding, which this paper aims to, is a key technology of three-dimensional (3D) high-density integration to promote the integrated circuits industry’s continuous development, which achieves the stacks of chips vertically connected via through-silicon via. Surface-activated bonding (SAB) and thermal-compression bonding (TCB) are used, but both have some shortcomings. The SAB method is overdemanding in the bonding environment, and the TCB method requires a high temperature to remove copper oxide from surfaces, which increases the thermal budget and grossly damages the fine-pitch device.

In this review, methods to prevent and remove copper oxidation in the whole bonding process for a lower bonding temperature, such as wet treatment, plasma surface activation, nanotwinned copper and the metal passivation layer, are investigated.

The cooperative bonding method combining wet treatment and plasma activation shows outstanding technological superiority without the high cost and additional necessity of copper passivation in manufacture. Cu/SiO₂ hybrid bonding has great potential to effectively enhance the integration density in future 3D packaging for artificial intelligence, the internet of things and other high-density chips.

To achieve heterogeneous bonding at a lower temperature, the SAB method, chemical treatment and the plasma-assisted bonding method (based on TCB) are used, and surface-enhanced measurements such as nanotwinned copper and the metal passivation layer are also applied to prevent surface copper oxide.

As the solution to improve fatigue life and mechanical reliability of packaging structure, the material selection in PCB stack-up and partitioning design on PCB to eliminate the electromagnetic interference by keeping all circuit functions separate are suggested to be optimized from the mechanical stress point of view.

The present paper investigated the effect of RO4350B and RT5880 printed circuit board (PCB) laminates on fatigue life of the QFN (quad flat no-lead) packaging structure for high-frequency applications. During accelerated thermal cycling between −50 °C and 100 °C, the mismatched coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between packaging and PCB materials, initial PCB warping deformation and locally concentrated stress states significantly affected the fatigue life of the packaging structure. The intermetallics layer and mechanical strength of solder joints were examined to ensure the satisfactorily soldering quality prior to the thermal cycling process. The failure mechanism was investigated by the metallographic observations using a scanning electron microscope.

Typical fatigue behavior was revealed by grain coarsening due to cyclic stress, while at critical locations of packaging structures, the crack propagations were confirmed to be accompanied with coarsened grains by dye penetration tests. It is confirmed that the cyclic stress induced fatigue deformation is dominant in the deformation history of both PCB laminates. Due to the greater CTE differences in the RT5880 PCB laminate with those of the packaging materials, the thermally induced strains among different layered materials were more mismatched and led to the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in solder joints subjected to more severe stress states.

In addition to the electrical insulation and thermal dissipation, electronic packaging structures play a key role in mechanical connections between IC chips and PCB.