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COVID 19 disease has spread worldwide, disrupting the economy, society, education, and health. It became crucial to understand the transmission curve and identify the best action in combating this highly transmissible epidemic. Epidemiological parameters of the deterministic Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model are widely used in explaining the characteristics and behavior of the disease spreading. Disease like COVID-19 is highly influenced by the uncontrolled factors of randomness, hence in this paper, the deterministic susceptible-infected-recovered-death (SIRD) model is extended to the stochastic SIRD (SSIRD) model. SSIRD model takes into consideration the noisy behavior of the process which explains the uncontrolled effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. The epidemiological parameter of the model changes throughout the epidemic due to external factors such as enforcement and public obedience to the control measures as well as the changes in healthcare facilities. These parameters need to be estimated. This paper estimates the epidemiological parameters of the SSIRD model using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method of the Metropolis Hasting algorithm. The COVID-19 data from Malaysia and Indonesia are used and the dynamical behavior of the COVID-19 outbreak in both countries is simulated. The results show the parameter changing due to the uncontrolled factors influencing the trend of the pandemic curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic uncertainties due to Covid-19 pandemic has forced businesses to survive, maintain their long-term profitability and remain competitive through the unexpected market upsets. As businesses have to shut down, jobs are lost, people will suffer and economy will be shrinking. Thus, understanding the purchasing behavior of customer is a vital step not only in building but also in maintaining a business. Good customer management comes from good customer measurement. With the latest advent of customer analytics, businesses nowadays can thoroughly comprehend their consumers at all phases of the purchasing process, recognizing patterns in customer data, forecasting the actions that their customers will do, and then making decisions about how to enhance their business in order to attract new customers and retain existing ones. The objective of this paper is to perform customer profiling and customer segmentation of Starbucks Malaysia during the hit of Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia. Dataset are collected during the second Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO 2.0). Customer profiling tries to gain a deeper understanding of customers and describe their personalities types or personas, while customer segmentation is a powerful technique to understand the patterns that differentiate a customer. A customer segment is a grouping of customers that share certain characteristics. In this paper, k-means clustering algorithm is used to segment the customers of Starbucks Malaysia according to their income and spend data. From the clustering analysis, one can determine the optimal number of clusters and comprehend the underlying customer segments to identify the statistical patterns of Starbucks customers. This research will contribute both theoretically where this research can uplift the theoretical foundation of customer analytics and practically towards Starbucks Malaysia and other organization and marketing teams where they can understand their customers better and can increase their revenue with the improved marketing campaigns especially during this long-run Covid-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the disruption factor of practising WFH towards productivity that affected higher education in Malaysia during the outbreak of COVID 19. There is a disagreement with the WFH itself, but this impact can be mitigated or even reversed when people prefer integration. This research analyzed, reviewed and clarified in depth the technology readiness factor from previous studies. For the sake of a lack of understanding, this paper acknowledges and discusses the conceptual practice of working from home that contributes to productivity in higher education in a single setting in developing countries. This research examined the factor of the technology readiness of WFH that affect the productivity of Malaysia's higher education learning. The analysis findings will shed some light on our perception of the problematic technology readiness element in WFH practice. It also offers the current information corpus to researchers and a pledge to extend the study stream on WFH processes. It also provides researchers with the existing corpus of knowledge and promises to expand the research stream on WFH practices. The empirical findings will suggest the challenge of technology readiness during working from home and how to face it by the academician in possible ways to obtain considerable potential for improving productivity a higher education institution in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Malaysia, sustainable development is getting momentum within organizations, businesses, and even communities. In Higher Education, we can observe that green initiatives have been taken on campus, although community awareness is still at an average level. As a result, the emphasis of this study was on UTMSPACE community's green environmental awareness, which included their study location at the UTM Kuala Lumpur campus. The introduction to this study and the concerns that arise will be the first section of this paper's structure. The literature review on green awareness, initiatives, and motivation will be covered in the second half of this study. A preliminary investigation was conducted among Diploma students in SPACE UTM Kuala Lumpur. The goal of the first inquiry is to determine the green awareness among the students. According to the poll, 132 students took part in the short online survey. We quizzed them on their thoughts of green awareness implementation, and the results of the analysis were presented in a descriptive manner. We suggest student involvement activity based on preliminary research to improve environmental awareness among the UTMSPACE community by engaging in green environment initiatives. However, because to the Covid-19 pandemic, a variety of green environmental actions can be undertaken or implemented. As a result, in the methodology section of this study, we propose a mobile application design to ensure that green awareness activities are practicable and at a constant pace, in order to ensure social distancing and activities can be done by individuals. As a result, in order to achieve this goal, we created a mobile application to raise green awareness among the campus community, which we will demonstrate at the end of this paper. The content of the mobile apps will be structured using aspects from the UI World Universities Ranking Based on Green Metric and UTM Sustainable Campus's sustainability project area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has been living with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for more than two years and it has altered humanity in numerous ways, by the implementation of lockdowns, border closures, other movements, and social restrictions. The pandemic has also led to the deferral or termination of all events including sports, religion gathering, political elections, and social events. Industries, in particular oil and gas, entail to react within a short span of time to productively manage the stakeholders. As workforces began to work from home, business meetings, discussions, and engagements were swapped by video calls, and businesses around the globe began their contingency planning. The stakeholder management becomes critical when there is no standard procedure available under the circumstances, thus this paper aims to propose procedures on improving the stakeholder management in petrochemical projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper assesses the impacts of the pandemic on stakeholder engagement in petrochemicals projects, examines current coping strategies in different projects, and recommends several practical actions to promote and maintain meaningful exchange with stakeholders in times of social distancing and lockdowns. The outcome of the paper enlists various improvement levers for a petrochemical company to adapt to ensure project stakeholders are satisfied and well-informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability of the Internet of Things (IoT) to electronically meter, path and monitor objects in the physical world has encouraged a flow of innovation and interest from many industries. It's probable to driving, chaotic changes across many sector offerings a myriad of potential services and applications. Smart home service, one of the symbolic developing technologies in the IoT era, has changed house equipment into being more intelligent, remote controllable, and interconnected. This paper is division of current the author's research on the adoption of IoT application for home building in Malaysia. The data and information presented in this paper were gathered from the reviews of the available relevant literature related to IoT and smart home in Malaysia. This paper addresses the major concern and challenges in IoT and smart home in Malaysia. Based on the analysis, it was found that three main challenges cited in the literature are perception of usefulness, confidentiality and privacy of consumer data, and absence of enterprise IoT applications in the country. As for Iot and smart home technology improvement in the near future, suggested tackling the current issues on home online education and working from home (WFH) especially because of the problematic pandemic Covid-19 worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused severe repercussions that has affected many lives in Malaysia especially university or college students who still struggle with studying in the ongoing pandemic which physical distancing and quarantine are in place. Most of the educational institutions in the world were closed and the teaching and learning activities were placed online. Students have been severely impacted both physically and mentally, as some students are unable to manage their time for academic work due to a lack of motivation caused by online learning and other factors. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media and time management during the pandemic for students and to develop a mobile app to assist students who are facing time management issues or social isolation during this pandemic. This paper presents the architecture and the tools being used to develop the mobile app. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of COVID-19 on the capital structure of publicly listed firms in Malaysia. Using panel data regressions and total debt as proxy for capital structure, we study the relation between the leverage and asset tangibility, firm size, market to book value, liquidity, profitability, growth opportunity together with crisis dummies where it is built based on a sample of 478 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia within industrial products & services, consumer products & services, property, construction, energy, health care, plantation, technology, telecommunications & media, and transportation & logistics industries before and during COVID-19 pandemic for the period of 2016-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the impact of COVID-19 on SME. We study the impact of COVID-19 in terms of demand, supply, employment, long term financing and short-term financing. Survival strategies for SME during COVID-19 are also incorporated in this study. To study the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs empirically, primary data will be collected using questionnaires and will be analysed by quantitative approach. The sample size of research is targeted to achieve 384 respondents. Methods used for data collection of this research are mainly adapted questionnaires which are sourced from the public documents of the US Bureau of Labour Statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia's standard operating procedure forbids the provision of Muslimah prayer outfits in public prayer facilities to minimize the risk of the COVID-19 virus spread among the shared-outfits users. The reuse of personal prayer outfits, overcrowding and spending longer in public prayer facilities can also increase the risk of fomite and airborne transmission by people with the virus. Thus, a Muslimah prayer outfit that forbids the spread of infectious diseases is crucially important. This paper presents a prayer gown that is made of disposable materials. Making efficient use of material, the gown is designed to be a single piece, comfortable and low cost. Besides the shari'ah-compliance features (reasonably thick fabric, black colour, elastic sleeves cuff and face opening), the prayer outfit provides a feasible solution to curb the transmission of contagious diseases amongst the prayers. It also serves as a gateway toward safe and easy travel for Muslim women. Introducing the disposable prayer gown helps achieve the perfect balance of the health, economic and social challenges of COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency in the stock market is an essential component of the capital allocation system and is crucial in promoting economic growth. In recent years, there has been a growing number of publications focusing on the effect of Covid-19 on human norms. Although there are many studies on the impact of Covid-19 on human norms, the empirical implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on financial markets are still poorly understood. This paper adds to the literature by discussing the effects of a pandemic by studying the stock market efficiency before and after the first case of Covid-19 hit Malaysia. Several robust techniques are utilised to validate the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), namely Ljung-box, Hurst exponent, Chow-denning, and Variance ratio tests. Results indicate a strong influence of Covid-19 on the stock movement. The returns are efficient for the overall sample period. However inefficient after the global pandemic. The findings reported here suggest an increasing chance for market predictability in the Malaysian stock market during the global Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of universities in Malaysia commonly implement the teaching and learning practices on physical face to face basis. However, the pandemic had drastically changed the norm of the teaching and learning practices into online teaching and learning as one of the measures to curb the spread of the virus among the community. The drastic move had greatly affected the academic communities particularly the students. Some of the possible factors influencing online learning difficulties faced by the students include poor internet accessibility, lack of self-motivation, lack of active interaction with lecturers and peers, lack of conducive learning environment and poor time management. In this paper, the technique of Fuzzy DEMATEL is employed in analyzing the level of influence and relationships of the aforementioned factors in contributing to learning difficulties particularly among fifty mathematic students at a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. The cause-and-effect analysis that take into consideration the interactions or interrelationships between factors discovered that poor internet accessibility was classified in the cause group whereas the remaining factors which are lack of self-motivation, lack of active interaction with lecturers and peers, lack of conducive learning environment and poor time management were in the effect group. The results indicate that poor internet accessibility has the highest degree of relation in terms of influencing other factors. Based on the prominence value, the lack of self-motivation turns out to be the leading factor contributing to online learning difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of March 2022, there have been 3,116,564 infections and 32,827 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began on 1st March 2022. This drastic increase in numbers has been alarming everyone. Malaysia has successfully handled the first and second waves of the COVID-19 cases. However, the recent wave of omicron variants in Malaysia sees a massive increase in COVID-19 infections. Therefore, forecasting plays a vital role in determining preparedness for the current pandemic. This study aims to understand the behaviour of the current infection trend and provide valuable information to the authority to prevent future spikes of active cases. In this paper, the SIR model (Susceptible - Infected Recovered) was used to estimate the active cases in Malaysia. This forecast is essential to prepare for the current wave outbreak. Besides that, the number of susceptible can be reduced via vaccinations to reduce future outbreaks. Therefore, with proper planning and execution, the inoculation rates in Malaysia proved to be successful, and the impact of mass vaccination would be seen in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission model using the fractional-order differential equation defined by Caputo. This model is developed based on the susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model, commonly known as the SEIR model. The basic reproduction number, denoted by R0, is computed using the next-generation matrix method. The disease-free equilibrium point is evaluated, and local stability analysis is performed. The analysis shows that the disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable when R0<1 and unstable when R0>1. In other words, the COVID-19 disease can be eliminated when R0< 1. Finally, numerical results are presented based on the real data of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, changed how we live in this world, from how we socialize to how we work, ushering in a new normal with new SOPs to which we must adhere. The unpredictability of COVID-19 forced us to maintain social distance while surviving multiple MCOs in Malaysia. People had no idea that MCOs had a drawback that harmed most of us, particularly those prone to mental health problems. This paper identifies the users' and psychological features and maladaptive coping for the development of mental health applications. An online questionnaire with demographic and psychological information was distributed randomly via social media. The information gathered was counted on an average basis. Respondents who are students or unemployed are more likely to have mental health issues, making them potential users of the proposed application. Unemployed respondents show few signs of mental health problems. This research will benefit application developers who are thinking about creating a mental health application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is among the highest consumers in terms of energy consumption and intensity per capita in Asia. In 2020, per capita energy consumption in Malaysia will be 2.7 toe. Where it turns out to be higher than the neighboring country. Per capita electricity consumption has increased from 3 900 kWh per capita in 2010 to 4 600 kWh in 2020. The objective of this paper is to study the energy scenario in Malaysia, especially after going through the Covid 19 pandemic phase which has crippled almost the entire economic sector of the country and see how the potential for renewable energyin Malaysia after going through the pandemic phase. Where Malaysia is focusing on sustainable and prudent energy use and efficient resource management under the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016–2020) through introduction of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) (2016–2025). NEEAP provide instruments for the successful implementation ofenergy efficiency strategies in country through well-coordinated and cost-effective energy implementation efficiency measures in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors. Realize need to improve energy efficiency and conservationinitiatives, Malaysia is developing a comprehensive new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) in an effort to reach its country aspirations, as well as the effective use of energy across key sectors. EECA will outline the comprehensive measures necessary to promote the efficient use of energy, including goal setting, communication, and education. It will also initiate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a regulatory approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenging factors of practising work from home (WFH) towards productivity that affected Malaysia's higher education during the COVID 19 outbreak. The practising WFH itself has its conflict, but this effect can be mitigated or even reversed when people have an integration preference. This study analyzed, reviewed, and explained each factor in detail from previous literature's different perspectives. Due to a lack of knowledge, this paper is one to recognize and address the practice of work conceptually from home that leads to higher education productivity in a single environment in a developing country. This research examined the daunting factors of WFH practising that affecting the productivity in Malaysia's higher education learning. The study results will shed some light on our understanding of the challenging factors WFH practices. It also provides researchers with the existing corpus of knowledge and a promise to expand the research stream on WFH practices. The empirical findings will suggest the challenges of working from home and how to face it by the academician in possible ways to obtain considerable potential for improving productivity a higher education institution in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass gathering has been identified as one of the causes of fast-spreading of COVID-19. Physical distancing practices and large gathering control in Malaysia and all over the world are likely to be continued until the end of the year, even after Movement Control Order (MCO) has been lifted. This has imposed event organizers to redesign their events into virtual events where attendees are to stay at their houses and meet with the host and other attendees virtually. However, certain types of educational events or activities such as practical and hands-on classes are not to be virtually conducted as it by nature carries a competency for the students. This paper evaluates the standard classroom layout by comparing with optimal layout based on circle packing problem (CPP) solution. CPP solution is used to optimize the physical distancing-constrained for the student seat layout as in it happens in real life. The findings can provide an effective exit strategy for Malaysia to deal with this COVID-19 pandemic or other pandemics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic of COVID-19 hit hard on the year 2020. Countries around the world, including Malaysia, introduced various measures in controlling the spread of the pandemic. One such action placed by the Malaysian government was the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to help in reducing the massive spread of the virus. The MCO halted almost all businesses, universities, and activities that involve massive gatherings, with the exception of essential businesses. One of the key elements of the MCO is the inter-state travel restriction, which reduce people movements, hence the reduction in traffic exposure, mobility trends and subsequently, translated into a reduction in road deaths. This paper highlights the effect of the inter-state travel restriction on the number of road deaths, with focus on motorcyclist deaths and other road users' deaths. Time series intervention model is used to determine the effect of the interstate travel restriction. Results showed there is a sudden-temporary reduction in the monthly overall number of road deaths, motorcyclist, and other road users' deaths. As the inter-state travel restriction is lifted, all the three series showed a gradual increment in the monthly statistics, as people resume their normal travel activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the development of a system dynamics model to predict the sustainability of small medium enterprises (SMEs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic did impact the country's economy, especially on SMEs on both the supply and demand perspectives. SMEs struggled to maintain their business operation during this pandemic era. To survive in the new norm, SMEs must be adaptable and innovative. Thus, this study utilizes system dynamics modelling to analyze the sustainability of SMEs' business activity in Malaysia. The causal loop diagram (CLD) is developed to represent the dynamic hypothesis of the system behavior. Next the CLD is transformed to a stock and flow diagram (SFD) with model equations to simulate the system behavior. Later, few interventions are conducted to improve the sustainability of SMEs. The research finding shows that by utilizing online business platform, and financial aid provided by the government will improve the sustainability of SMEs in Malaysia. The SD-based analysis provides unique and valuable insights on how to better identify and make strategic choices when responding to future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores and evaluates QR code technology in Malaysia businesses, particularly small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the COVID-19 pandemic and endemic phase. However, the understanding of using QR code technology among SMEs in Malaysia is still limited. This study was derived with the objective to enhance the awareness and acceptance of businesspeople and SMEs in Malaysia of the importance of QR code technology in their business operations. In this study, it emphasizes on the digital adoption of QR code technology for SMEs in Malaysia, the basis of QR code technology, and QR code benefits to all small and medium businesses. The data in this study was obtained from the articles related to SMEs in Malaysia in analyzing this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2019, the outbreak of Covid-19 does cause a lot of serious issues, fatality, economic crisis, the rise of the unemployment rate, air pollution, and so on. This paper focuses on the impact of Covid-19 that relates to the long-lasting issue of air quality. The scope of this study is focused on the changing of air quality that occurred within the Movement Control Order (MCO) which was launched by the Malaysian government against Covid-19 spreading in Malaysia. Multiple reports suggest during the MCO period, the overall air quality in Malaysia was improved. However, when we just look into the history of air quality index (AQI) value without doing any further analysis, we can see there is no significant difference between the AQI value since the MCO was executed. Therefore, we need to understand how AQI value is obtained and compare available data before MCO is launched to the first three phases of MCO. This paper estimates the impact of MCO towards reduction of moving vehicles which can give impact to air quality in terms of 24-hours PM2.5 concentrations. Air quality index data have been analyzed by developed code using MATLAB. From the investigating and analyzing the data conducted, we found out the impact of MCO on the air quality in Malaysia is positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is annunciated by the World Health Organization (WHO) officially as a pandemic in January 2020. The pandemic has reset all human associations globally. In this paper, we investigate the impact of festivity on the spread of COVID-19 before and after the Eid al-Fitr celebration in Malaysia. In order to determine the relationship between the studied variables (confirmed, recovered and death cases), the Pearson correlation method was applied. This study aims to determine the relationship between the variables studies before and after Eid al-Fitr in Malaysia. The data set was collected during Movement Control Order (MCO) for 30 days before and after Eid al-Fitr for 2020 and 2021, respectively. The data was obtained from the Malaysian Info Center specifically for COVID-19 under the Malaysia Ministry of Health (MOH). This study is restricted to the period under review and to infer whether COVID-19 spread faster during the festival period or otherwise. The results showed that the confirmed cases were positively associated with recovered cases (r = 0.165) before Eid in 2020, meanwhile, there is a negative relationship between the mentioned variables (r = -0.196) after Eid in 2020. Additionally, there is a positive relationship between confirmed and death cases before Eid in 2020 with r = 0.149. The results also revealed that for new confirmed and death cases after Eid in 2020 is r = -0.170. However, the correlation value of the mentioned variables before Eid in 2021 is 0.871, while the correlation value after Eid in 2021 is 0.233, respectively. Moreover, for confirmed and death cases before Eid is r = 0.790 and after Eid is r = 0.603 in 2021. This study concludes that in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia, the strict Movement Control Order (MCO) during the festive (Eid al-Fitr) period gives a positive impact for the period under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports thought-about united of the foremost vital components in national development. Since independence in 1957, Malaysian government has place such a lot efforts and measures on sports development. Asian nation sporadically goes through periods of distress associated with sport performance. Asian nation spends plenty of cash and experience on its high performance athletes. Programs facilitate high athletes perform higher in coaching, endure injury, train the mental facet of performance, and aid athletes and coaches in alternative areas similarly. this can be cash that's well spent. Indeed, if the govt. goes to pay cash supporting sport this can be wherever these funds belong. The Malaysian tourism sector has widened its scope by venturing into extreme sports tourism. With this new development, tourism opportunities square measure created and boosting the Malaysian tourism business growth. the aim of this paper is to see the predictors of sports tourism involvement in Asian nation from the economics perspective. The recent shocks in provide and demand within the world aren't because of sudden economic reasons. Indeed, associated with Covid-19 that causes speedily spreading world health issues and life threats round the world coping with the social issues created by Covid-19 pandemic, they ought to not neglect the economic changes created by this pandemic. The government-ordered lockdowns have discontinuous life for billions and within the same time creates economic collapse situation. The foremost vital of those economic changes in developing countries with high fragility is exchange rates caused by sports and tourism industry, as a result of exchange rates will directly have an effect on several economics variables, from inflation to foreign trade, from the balance of payments to interests. Therefore, this analysis calculates the result of COVID-19 to sports and tourism business for affected countries within the worldwide. This study evaluated the impact using supply and demand curve to detect the economic changes in tourism industry. Lastly, tourism and sports sector became an intermingled strategy for several nations to get important value. Malaysia, for instance, in its National Key Economic space (NKEA) under the tourism sector indicates international sports events as a serious economic activity to push. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses return volatility for Malaysia and China's stock markets during the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics. Stock return volatility is estimated using GARCH family models (GARCH (1,1), TGARCH and EGARCH). Generally, GARCH (1,1) estimates symmetric conditions, whereas TGARCH and EGARCH estimate the asymmetric condition or leverage effect of return volatility. Stock return volatility in China and Malaysia are then compared to assess the severity of pandemic cases during the study period. Post pandemic, Malaysia is seen to experience higher decrements in leverage effect when using the TGARCH model. Conversely, the effect is higher for China when using the EGARCH model for the SARS pandemic. To aid in predicting future return volatility after the COVID-19 pandemic, return volatility after the SARS pandemic is forecast, with the forecast value serving as the basis for evaluating the error using the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and Theil inequality coefficient (TIC) approaches. The forecast error performance is ranked to identify outperforming GARCH family models for the pandemic period: the TGARCH model for China's stock market but the GARCH model for Malaysia's stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivery services in Malaysia has become a new norm. Malaysian are now comfortable with delivery services during the global pandemic of covid-19. This study had been conducted because there are to many issues about delivery services in Malaysia, some people using delivery services and some may not. Some companies have bad management of delivery services. Some delivery services companies have technical issues such as slow delivery, damaged goods, and so on. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis between the satisfaction level of Malaysian citizen and the perception of Malaysian citizen towards delivery services during the Movement Control Order (MCO). To do so, researchers uses the quantitative method to collect data among Malaysian citizen. The total amount of respondents that answered the questionnaire are 1310. From the findings, Malaysian are satisfied with delivery services (M=3.17). Plus, Malaysian have a positive perception towards delivery services (M=3.17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced Covid-19 disease outbreak was a pandemic and drastically increased in cases around the world including Malaysia which had caused a high mortality rate, rapid spread of Covid-19 infection and economic losses. All sectors are struggling to maintain their security and business continuity. Unfortunately, cases of cyber-attack significantly increase during the movement control order (MCO) and it's caused a negative impact on society and business. This review research aims to investigate the factors to change the cyber landscape and cyber threats occur in Malaysia. Explained that the preventive measures planned by the Government to curb cyber crime and the impact of Covid-19 on society in particular and the country, in general can be implemented. The searching method is using the free electronic database to search for peer-reviewed cyber security literature and relevant literature of mass media. The review considers the number of articles published in 2020. Finally, identifying cyber security threats during the Covid-19 crisis that has changed the cyber security landscape in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meter reading system which is used by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), a Malaysia electricity provider company is taken once a month and manually taken from meter reading on-site of the premises. This has led to unexpected bill costs to customers because of poor energy usage management. On-site meter reading also facing a few difficulties such as unable to do meter reading due to cannot reach a meter in premises area or facing obstacles such as flood, dog and etc. Furthermore, the current system used especially in the restriction movement control order situation because of Covid-19 pandemic had leads to the statistical error in monthly electricity bills when meter reading activity was unable to be conducted as usual. This project aims to develop an IoT-based meter reading that can improve the current domestic meter reading system in Malaysia. This system is using ACS-712 as the current sensor, ESP8266 Node MCU as WiFi module, Arduino Uno and IoT server. IoT-based meter reading is a system that can be used to monitor real-time electricity usage and cost. The daily power usage will be updated on mobile from time to time through Blynk and ThingSpeak. This IoT based meter reading can display the total power usage and total cost of power usage on the Blynk application. This system will also send notification alerts in the Blynk application through the WiFi module when the power usage is reached the threshold value. Lastly, the power usage can be monitored on mobile applications through Thingspeak in terms of graphs and users can monitor the current bill from time to time to achieve good management on power usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, Malaysia began to face Covid-19 pandemic that slowing down the economy from the beginning of March, and at the same time, environmental issues have been a source of pollutant. It has been perceived as the twenty-first century's greatest threat to nature and civilization and has also been one of the foremost environmental problems globally, especially in Malaysia. Environmental issues like global warming, climate change and sustainability has been impacting to the economy, infrastructure and society today. Climate change resulted from a rise in the persistence and the severity of adverse meteorological conditions such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes. Primarily carbon dioxide from automobiles, manufacturing area, construction site, power station, and logging all contribute to climate change by emitting heat-trapping pollutants. Besides, global warming has been primary environment issue in Malaysia. When gases like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and fluorinated gases clump together, they act as a dense shield, warming the world, changing the climate, and jeopardizing human health, economics, and natural ecosystems. Meanwhile, sustainability has become an issue as the community are not very aware with the sustainability. Community required fresh air, sources of nature, and a clean environment in order to shape good healthy communities. In this research, a closed based Likert-type scale questionnaire were built to determine the community perspectives on the environmental issues as mentioned above. There were 153 respondent's data gathered and then analyzed by statistics method. IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software was used to performed a simple frequency distribution, mean and relative important index (RII) in order to obtain the highest RII, mean score and the ranking of the aspects. The importance aspect which is climate change condition has been ranked 1 with the highest RII (0.946) value and mean score (4.73). This proven that community are very particular with the climate change and in order to overcome with the issue, community are advisable to practices sustainability activities such as recycling to sustain the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslexia refers to an impairment in reading, writing, and phonological aspects and is usually associated with language. Without proper screening, students may end up facing difficulties in their studies near the future. Currently, schools in Malaysia use an instrument called Instrumen Senarai Semak Diskleksia (ISD) which assesses either the student is a high probabilistic dyslexic student or not and whether the student needs further medical investigation. The manual nature of this instrument presents challenges for the teachers performing the assessment. Due to the large number of students being assessed it takes time and effort to tabulate the results. Also, it is difficult to store and retrieve efficiently. Further, the teachers face challenges in identifying the students' suitable learning styles. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which restricts face-to-face assessments exacerbates these challenges and highlights the need for an online assessment system. To overcome these problems, a web-based system to screen students with dyslexia and assess their learning style preferences has been developed using the VARK Model of Learning Styles. This system was developed using the waterfall model, encompassing requirements gathering, system design and system development. Future work may include an enhanced analysis of the generated results and email generation capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Malaysia, biodiesel was firstly introduced as a policy in National Biofuel Policy 2006 with 5 short term targets, 4 medium terms targets and 2 long term targets. The specific objective of the policy was to increase the use of biodiesel in all sectors in three different phases, which were B5, B7 and B20. The B20 phase supposedly implemented by year 2020. Therefore, the focus of this review is to revisit the biodiesel issues and to delineate the status of biodiesel production and uses specifically in Malaysia based on the information gathered from different sources, namely the journals, the governmental databases as well as the communication with the personnel involved in the industry. Currently, there are 22 biodiesel plants existed in Malaysia, with the sum production capacity 2,762,000 tonnes/year capacity. However, only 19 plants are currently in operation with total annual production at 906,153 tonnes per year. A few factors contributed to this below-capacity output from the plants. The main factor is the delayed of the B20 mandate, which supposedly executed in 2020. The failure of supposedly increment of 13% blend of biodiesel, from 7% mandate in 2016, to 20% in 2020 effected the production, since the excess production will not be able to enter the market. The start of Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic in early 2020, make the situation worst, because the demand of the fuel plummeted, due to the lockdown strategy introduced by the Malaysia government to stop the spreading of the disease. At the same time, the bloc of palm oil derivatives from European Union (EU) also effected the biodiesel, as 80% of biodiesel is exported to EU. The combination of internal, external, and unexpected factors like has contributed to the growth of biodiesel industry in Malaysia, despite the available of abundance raw materials and mature technology. However, with the correct strategy, this industry has a potential to take a positive step in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different of homebuying factors has induce the real estate developers to offer more attractive residential property to meet the needs and requirement of homebuyers. In this study of research, the focus as identified the financial homebuying factors that could influence on homebuyer's purchase decision amid Covid-19 pandemic in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. This research intends to collect data through questionnaire. The result had been composed and analyses the feedback and opinion from the residents who are the house owners in Pasir Gudang area. The data will be used to analyze the correlation between demographic characteristics and financial homebuying factors. Most of the demographic characteristics, except Gender and Family Size, have significant influence on financial attributes when it comes to house purchase decision amid period of Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) due to the spread of COVID-19 outbreak has affected business continuity, especially Muslimpreneurs involved in small-scale business. The restrictions have forced business activities to adapt and change, entrepreneurs have turned to online and digital business methods specifically for marketing, supplying, and delivering goods sold. As a Muslim, Muslimpreneurs should not compromise with any unethical element in their entrepreneurial activities. Thus, the marketing and promotion activities of their business conducted digitally should be in line with Islamic law and the basic principles of ethics in Islamic business. This qualitative study seeks to elaborate on the impact of Covid-19 and MCO towards small-scale Muslimpreneurs and how the digitalization of business activities will help businesses of Muslimpreneurs survive and thrive. The data in this study were collected from previous studies suited with the aim of this study. This study will help in developing a standard of Islamic Marketing Ethics in advertising as Islamic advertising concept stands contrary to the contemporary practices. With a growing concern for business ethics, this study is an attempt to bring Islamic ethics into advertising practice. This will not only eradicate the ill-effects of contemporary advertising but also provide sound evidence for revising advertising policies. This study also adds to the developing field of Islamic marketing, by being the first attempt of its kind in paving the way for Islamic advertising. This study concludes that Islamic Marketing Ethics which derived from Islam teaching framework (Iman, Islam & Ihsan) taken for granted of people to live in conducive, peace and joy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning is a new trend in Education 4.0. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities to adopt e-learning. As such, entrepreneurship course has turned to use online learning platform in many learning institutions. Student engagement remains as an issue in online learning because the setting in online learning is different from traditional classroom learning. However, online student engagement (OSE) is still considered a relatively new concept and studies are scarcely available. As such, this study aimed to analyze the level of OSE in terms of skills, emotion and participation in entrepreneurship course. It carried out a questionnaire survey to collect the desired information. A total of 290 students from a public university in Malaysia have participated in the survey. Analysis revealed that students demonstrated high level of skill in listening and reading carefully, high level of emotion in putting forth effort in learning and high level of participation in helping fellow students. Overall, participation was rated as the top component in OSE. It can be concluded that student participation played a crucial role in ensuring student engagement in online learning environment. Therefore, building a good rapport and getting to know each other among learners and, designing enjoyable course outline are important in online learning environment. This study enriches the knowledge of important component of OSE and provides suggestions to enhance learners OSE in university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 pandemic has caused havoc worldwide. Malaysia is also going through a challenging situation, as the number of infected/positive cases is increasing day by day. The Government of Malaysia enforced a Movement Control Order starting on March 18, 2020 to break the chain of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching effects on the psychological well-being of individuals in society. This article uses secondary data such as journals, newspapers, websites, and government records. The objective of this article mainly focused on the psychology effects among Malaysian society during the COVID-19 outbreak. This discovery shows that pandemic COVID-19 leads to several psychological effects on Malaysian society, such as anxiety, stress, depression and others. This article also shows the efforts of the government to ensure the psychological well-being of Malaysian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning is a platform that can be used for synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication during lessons has nowadays takes place over the Internet around the world. Distance learning has become an established method used globally in education sector to ensure continuity of teaching and learning ever since the Covid-19 pandemic in the year 2020. In order for online learning to be effective, students have to blends in with the new norms and adjust accordingly including balancing their self-learning skills and behaviour, which is crucial. Thus, this quantitative study demonstrates how the sociodemographic factors and socioeconomic status of a student could influence the students' self-learning necessity and effectiveness as well as their learning habits during Covid-19. The data for this study was collected through online questionnaires distributed via an online platform to a public university community in Malaysia across different faculties, whose learning was disrupted due to the crisis. From the survey, 668 respondents have consented to join the survey. As a result, this study reported that there is a slight increase of 3.2% of students' self-learning hours before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Besides, the study also found that there is a weak association between the five (5) sociodemographic independent variables consist of gender, current year of study, level of study, area of residence, and total family income per month in student's self-learning necessity and student's self-learning effectiveness during COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning promotes new educational process, albeit the results of this study, it still has significantly given an impact on the student's learning habits during Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading worldwide at an accelerated rate, with estimate reproductive number of 2–2.5, indicating that two or three individuals may be infected with index patient cases. It is totally risky for vulnerable groups and communities where there are insufficient healthcare facilities to treat the infection, causing severe public health emergency. This study further highlights the review of COVID-19 in reopening Malaysia's borders and bringing together the latest options about drafting to reopen the country. Malaysia's border controls have been tightened to deter imported cases, mitigate locally transmitted cases, and increase the capacity of Malaysian health care facilities. There is not a sample size of this study. The purpose of this writing is to examine the possible outbreak of COVID-19 Malaysia in the event of reopening the national border and the safety and security issue related to COVID-19. The literature search was conducted via google scholar in order to find out the suitable articles for reference. The aim of the study is to express an opinion that can be viewed by tertiary maternity units capable of treating those affected by the pandemic while ensuring the protection of the people at its core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enforcement of Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia due to COVID-19 pandemic has affected the education sector where the teaching and learning process is instructed to practice open and online distance learning (ODL). The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the English language lecturers in one Malaysian public university describe their self-efficacy beliefs in ODL practice. Purposive sampling method was used to recruit prospective participants. Semi-structured interviews were used as the primary data collection method. The data gathered were then analysed using thematic data analysis. The results indicate that despite having the compulsory implementation of ODL within a short notice, the participants disclosed that their sense of self-efficacy beliefs varied depending on context-specific nature based on several domains including self-assurance, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), teaching preparation, intrinsic motivation and administration support. The present study also reveals that participants utilised emotion-driven self-efficacy beliefs to overcome ODL challenges and eventually developed social-emotional rewards for staying positive in ODL practices. It was also found that self-efficacy beliefs contributed to students' positive performance, and this has become a factor in heightening participants' self-efficacy beliefs. The results have provided enlightenment on participants' self-efficacy beliefs in ODL practices and offer recommendations for improvement in tertiary educational practices to bring positive impacts on teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and despite drastic measures by the Chinese authority in enforcing a "lockdown" in Wuhan, the virus had since spread to a growing number of countries worldwide - including Malaysia. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The Malaysian Government announced the restricted activities order known as the Movement Control Order (MCO) nationwide under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Amendment) Regulation 2020 from 18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020. With the pandemic still spreading at an alarming rate, hospitals and healthcare workers were overburdened to cope with the sudden influx of large numbers of COVID-19 patients. It was reported that the healthcare workers were ill-equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators to treat the COVIC-19 patients, thus exposing and putting them at risk of infection or losing their lives. The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the current situation of the ERP for Healthcare Workers. Fortifying a framework for addressing the six stages of ERP will prepare and protect the healthcare workers in performing their duties systematically and address issues and concerns faced by the healthcare workers on the lack of PPE and medical support for COVID-19 treatment. As there is a lack of studies on the improvement of ERP for hospitals, this proposed framework can lead to further research on strengthening the existing ERP for healthcare workers in public hospitals to counter future influenza outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]