Search

This single-center study aimed to explore the factors associated with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission in a hospital. All laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among health care workers (HCWs) in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia were analyzed cross-sectionally from January 25, 2020, to September 10, 2021. A total of 897 HCWs in the hospital had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection during the study period. Around 37.4% of HCWs were suspected to acquire COVID-19 infection from the hospital workplace. Factors associated with lower odds of workplace COVID-19 transmission were being females, ≥30 years old, fully vaccinated, and working as clinical support staff. Involvement in COVID-19 patient care was significantly associated with higher odds (adjusted odds ratio = 3.53) of workplace COVID-19 transmission as compared with non-workplace transmission. Most HCWs in the tertiary hospital acquired COVID-19 infection from non-workplace settings. During a pandemic, it is important to communicate with HCWs about the risk of both workplace and non-workplace COVID-19 transmission and to implement measures to reduce both workplace and non-workplace COVID-19 transmission.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the many associated socio-economic changes constitute a stressful event that required adaptation to new, dynamic, and often threatening conditions. According to the literature, coping strategies are one of the factors that determine a person's degree of adaptation to stressful situations. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed on the relationship between religious coping and selected indicators of mental health. Due to the large amount of data, this work has been divided into two parts: this first part discusses positive mental health indicators, while the second discusses negative mental health indicators (Pankowski & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, 2023). A systematic review of PubMed, Science Direct, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and Google Scholar databases was carried out. In addition to the synthesis of information obtained from the research, a meta-analysis of correlation was also performed to determine the strengths of the relationships between the analysed variables, and selected moderators were assessed using meta-regression. Quality of life, well-being, satisfaction with life, happiness, and post-traumatic growth were the positive mental health indicators considered. Meta-analyses indicated a statistically significant relationship between positive religious coping and flourishing (well-being) with overall correlation values of 0.35 [0.30; 0.40]. Further calculations also indicated a relationship between negative religious coping and flourishing - 0.25 [- 0.34; - 0.15]. Data synthesis shows associations between religious coping and such indicators as satisfaction with life and post-traumatic growth, but these issues require further investigation., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

An increase in number of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases will lead to more cluster discovery in Malaysia. Furthermore, with the increasing population, city growth, workplace income needs, high-risk groups, and other relevant factors can contribute to the formation of the new clusters. The cluster distribution of the disease could be seen by mapping and spatial analysis to understand their spatial phenomena of the disease dynamics. The purpose of the study is to analyse the spatial distribution of COVID-19 cluster cases in Selangor for year 2020. Two objectives of the study are i) to determine the hotspot location of the COVID- 19 cluster, and ii)to examine the spatial distribution of the factors affecting the COVID-19 cluster. The data processing was conducted using hotspot analysis and ordinary least squares (OLS) in ArcGIS Pro and Microsoft Excel to explore the local disease phenomena. TheCOVID-19 cases was most prevalent in the Petaling district, followed by Hulu Langat and Klang. The virus had the least impact in Sabak Bernam, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Sepang, Kuala Langat, and Gombak. Three environmental factors of population density, the effects of urbanisation, and workplace cases were influential variables at the local clusters. These findings could help the local agencies to facilitate and control the spread mode of the virus in a spatial human environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to share our experience in reorganising our general radiography service during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic from the viewpoint of a large tertiary referral medical centre. Re-organization of the radiography workforce, patient segregation, and modification of routine radiographic practices are key measures to help radiographic services deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific emphasis on deploying more mobile radiographic units, segregating equipment, developing consistent image acquisition workflows, and strict adherence to infection control protocols are paramount to minimize the possibility of in-hospital transmission and ensure a safe environment for both patients and staff. Streamlining communication channels between leadership and ground staff allows quick dissemination of information to ultimately facilitate safe provision of services. COVID-19 has drastically altered the way general radiography teams provide services. The institution of several key measures will allow hospitals to safely and sustainably provide radiographic services. To date, there have been zero incidences of radiographer healthcare worker transmission within our institution during the course of work. Radiographers are facing the challenge of providing high-quality services while simultaneously minimizing pathogen exposure to staff and patients. Our experience may lend support to other radiographic services responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and serve as a blueprint for future infectious disease outbreak contingency plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 affects the respiratory system and causes severe acute respiratory infections. Several cultures have influenced the use of home remedies to ease mild symptoms of COVID-19 sometimes alongside conventional medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the usage of COVID-19 home remedies among the adult population in Brunei. Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional study using an online survey and distributed nationwide. The statistical analysis of the data included descriptive statistics describing the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, their experience with COVID-19 infection, consumption of general home remedies and COVID-19 home remedy, their practice of COVID-19 home remedy use, and their attitude towards the general use of home remedy. Sub-group analysis including Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test was computed for the variables in relation to the COVID-19 home remedy use and the perceived effectiveness of the types of home remedy. Multivariate analysis including Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to determine the correlations between the factors and outcomes measured. P-value less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: There was a total of 864 eligible responses included in the study. The primary findings showed COVID-19 home remedy was used by 72.2% of the study participants. Most frequently used types of COVID-19 home remedy were cloves (37%), lemon (37%), and honey (23%). There was an infrequent usage of coconut (4.6%), eucalyptus oil (3.7%), habbatussauda (3.5%), traditional/ herbal cough syrup (2.4%), and turmeric (2.2%). The PLS-SEM demonstrated that 'Experience' appears to be a central endogenous variable that affects the decision on the use of COVID-19 home remedy. This relationship is mediated by 'Safety', 'Source', and 'Opinion' which have significant contributions to the outcome, accounting for 98.2% of the variance explained (R-square = 0.982). Conclusions: The outcome of this study establishes the baseline prevalence of COVID-19 home remedy consumption among Bruneian residents and compared the previous study on Brunei's general use of traditional medicine. The present findings could help nurses and other healthcare professionals in Brunei understand the practice of Bruneian adults on the consumption of home remedies for COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of social media offered a possible way to address the difficulties of social relationships for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as a way to ease the problems of their caregivers. To gather information on the feasibility of this solution, we conducted an online questionnaire about the first lockdown period in Italy (March–May 2020) with 29 caregivers of ASD individuals. The questionnaire investigated their living conditions, the way time was spent during isolation, the availability of technological equipment, the perceived level of anxiety and the perceived utility of social media. The results showed that the difficulties of using social media had not been overcome, even at this time of greatest need. However, caregivers who take care of ASD people with high levels of anxiety perceived social media as more useful. This result invites further reflection on how to implement social media effectively for people with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to review the role of green training and green work life balance (GWLB) on sustainable organizational performance (SOP) with a moderating variable "Emotional Intelligence" (EI). Design/methodology/approach: For the development of the construct of the present study, a Scopus database was selected and research papers published in indexed journals were considered. Relevant keywords were selected and literature was searched on green training, EI, SOP, GWLB. The literature was reviewed to find out the linkage and possibility of development of integrated model. The main focus was on highlighting the relevance of green training on GWLB and its influence on SOP. Findings: SOP can be achieved with the intervention of EI and GWLB; further green training is one of the influential practices of human resource development (HRD) which helps to develop the green behavior. Research limitations/implications: It can give new insight to the organization for application of green human resource practices for SOP. Development and designing the cohesive environmental work culture and willingness to protect environment through green training can be implemented by HRD. Perhaps, the application of green training encourages GWLB. Practical implications: Quantitative research and cross sectional study is required to find out the intervening role of EI and work–life balance between green training and SOP across a broader range of sectors. Originality/value: This research extends the literature review and developed a new integrated model which shows the link between green training and SOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present paper aims at exploring effective business model adaptations in response to unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The authors test the effect of two major business model adaptations, namely changes in the value proposition and changes in the target market, on a sample of 96 family SMEs. Findings: Results show that only changes in the value proposition had a positive and significant impact on performance, helping family SMEs to better confront COVID-19. However, this effect is reduced in the case of target market change. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how business model adaptations in family SMEs affect performance in crisis situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives. As many industries face a complete stand-still, it also highlights the need to maintain family satisfaction (FS) during this challenging time, empirical research on achieving this remains scant. This study elucidates how marital status influences employees' religiosity, work-family enrichment (WFE) and FS. Data from 295 employees was examined using the analyzed using the partial least squares method structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) multigroup analysis. Results suggest that religiosity has a positive significant relationship on the bidirectionality of WFE. The multigroup analysis indicates a significant difference in how single and married employees interpret work-family experience. We extend family-work interfaces by incorporating both the construct of marital status and religiosity. It advances the body of knowledge in understanding work-family interfaces, especially in times of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a growing country and tops the list of nations with the highest rates of educated unemployment, which is a matter of concern. For our constantly expanding and changing economy, skilled workers and entrepreneurs are needed. Additionally, it was seen that the global economy had gone through a turbulent phase during the COVID 19 Pandemic crisis, forcing many individuals to leave their jobs. Due to their lack of practical experience in the various industries, it was quite harder for them to make ends meet in this situation. The emergence of pandemic has caused a very devastating impact on the lives of people. Since future is uncertain and we need to be open to it and ready to face. Witnessing such pandemic like situation and keeping in mind the emerging needs, the present paper focussed on what kind of educational environment must be created by the institutions to develop future ready learners, in order to confront the changing time and realities context? It is thus acclaimed that entrepreneurship can be the best option to prepare future ready learners. Moreover, UNESCO, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Education 2030 Framework for Action, has also developed a TVET Strategy to strengthen Member States' technical education related systems and policies to promote employment, respectable work, entrepreneurship, and chances for life skills in certain national contexts. So, in present paper researchers studied the perception of the students towards entrepreneurship education with respect to gender, locale and stream. The study while adopting a descriptive method surveyed 100 students studying in Central University of Jammu. Data was collected online and analysed by using t-test. The findings revealed there was no significant difference in the perception of university students towards entrepreneurship with respect to gender, locale and stream and further strategic plan was suggested to incorporate entrepreneurship education along with mainstream to make youth self-reliant while leading towards a sustainable Indian market and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak--as a typical emergency event--significantly has impacted employees' psychological status and thus has negatively a ected their performance. Hence, along with focusing on the mechanisms and solutions to alleviate the impact of work stress on employee performance, we also examine the relationship between work stress, mental health, and employee performance. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating role of servant leadership in the relationship between work stress and mental health, but the result was not significant. The results contribute to providing practical guidance for enterprises to improve employee performance in the context of major emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, Malaysia has been heavily dependent on unskilled and temporarily contracted migrant workers to fulfil labour gaps in the country. While Malaysia's economy continues to rely on migrant workers, the COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated their precarious working and living conditions. In-depth interviews with Nepali migrant workers and community leaders in Malaysia and Nepal in 2021 revealed the incidence of labour rights violations, compounded by the lack of access to justice and effective remedies. Besides, workers are allegedly no longer benefiting from the competitive wages, subsequently limiting the value of their remittance to Nepal. We argue that these incidents serve as the drivers of the changing views of mobility, eventually influencing the emigration environment in which the social construction of migration exists in Nepal. This study examines the migratory realities in the Nepal–Malaysia migration corridor during the pandemic, subsequently contributing to current debate on the aspiration–ability model as a class of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world goes through the fourth wave and the continued emergence of new COVID‐19 variants, the general and work‐related risks of healthcare professionals are expected to rise. This has the capacity to adversely affect productivity and efficiency in the healthcare delivery system, particularly in this era of global shortage of trained healthcare professionals. We aimed to develop and validate a new instrument known as the COVID‐19 Responses Impact Questionnaire (COVRiQ) to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare professionals managing the COVID‐19 pandemic. This methodological study involved three steps: the formulation of the COVRiQ draft, content and face validation, and construct validity. A total of 61 questions were drafted with 3‐point Likert scale answers. From the list, 39 were rated valid by a panel of experts and subsequently tested on 301 participants. The results were analyzed and validated using exploratory factor analysis on SPSS. Components were extracted and questions with low factor loading were removed. The internal consistency was measured with Cronbach's alpha. Following analysis, three components were extracted and named as behavioral, social, and economic impacts. In general, 29 items were deleted leaving 32 out of 61 questions retained as the final validated COVRiQ. Internal consistency showed high reliability with Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. Participants scored a total cumulative mean of 118.74 marks. A subanalysis by occupation showed that medical assistants scored the lowest in the group with a score of 22.3% whereas medical specialists scored the highest at 77.7%. Higher score indicates higher impact of COVID‐19 responses among healthcare professionals. The new COVRiQ consisting of 32 items demonstrated to be user friendly with good psychometric properties and valid for assessing the impacts of COVID‐19 responses among healthcare professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid change in the conditions of health care centers following the sudden onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic led to work challenges and role changes and the transfer of staff to new and unfamiliar workplaces. This study aimed to develop policy interventions to adapt health care providers to the new situation in the workplace during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A systematic literature review was carried out using international databases to identify English‐language studies to identify policy interventions. The viewpoints resulting from the observations of the research team and seven health system experts were used to categorize the interventions. Three main policy interventions were identified: creating a flexible and efficient system through modifying personnel roles, adequate training of health care personnel about work conditions when treating COVID‐19 patients, and creating a supportive and motivating work environment. Key points: The rapid change in health care centers following the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis due to changing procedures and policies by the government and other health institutions and the immediate formulation of new policy decisions has created significant challenges for health care providers to adapt to unfamiliar and stressful workplaces.Due to the lack of comprehensive and consistent policy interventions to adapt health care providers to the problematic conditions of the new work environment during the COVID‐19 pandemic, the current policy document was developed with three policy options.Three main policy interventions were identified: (1) creating a flexible and efficient system through modifying personnel roles, (2) adequate training of health care personnel about work conditions when treating COVID‐19 patients, (3) creating a supportive and motivating work environment.While highlighting each intervention's potential benefits and challenges, the identified interventions in our study provide key policy directions for adapting health care providers to the new workplace conditions during the COVID‐19 pandemic and other future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected more than 50 million people in more than 100 countries, resulting in a major global impact. Many studies on the potential roles of environmental factors in the transmission of the novel COVID-19 have been published. However, the impact of environmental factors on COVID-19 remains controversial. Machine learning techniques have been used effectively in combating the COVID-19 epidemic. However, researches related to machine learning on weather conditions in spreading COVID-19 is generally lacking. Therefore, in this study, three machine learning models (Convolution Neural Network (CNN), ADtree Classifier and BayesNet) based on the confirmed cases and weather variables such as temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation are developed. This study aims to identify the best classification model to classify COVID-19 by using significant weather features chosen by Principle Component Analysis (PCA) feature selection method. The DS4C COVID-19 dataset is used to train and validate each machine learning model. Several data preprocessing tasks such as data cleaning and feature selection have been conducted on the raw dataset to ensure the quality of the training data. The performance of these machine learning algorithms is further rectified based on the selected features set by PCA. Each classifier is then optimized using different tuning parameters to achieve optimum values before comparing the output of the three classifiers against each other. The observational results have shown that the optimized CNN classifier with seven weather variables selected by PCA achieved the highest performance among all the techniques. The experimental results obtained show that the weather variables are more relevant in predicting the confirmed cases as compared to the other variables. Thus, from this result, it is evident that temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation are important features for predicting COVID-19 confirmed cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take stock of what The International Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) has achieved in the past 30 years since its inception in 1990. By analyzing the publication trends indicated by keywords, we find that research published in IJHRM has shifted from a collective focus with institutional implications towards more individual concerns with organizational implications with relevance to HRM practices. We present research theme and approaches that distinguish IJHRM from other HRM journals, and offer suggestions of what we see as some of the important issues for future research that will take us beyond the current trajectory of HRM studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: neuroradiology; radiology; tele-radiology; personal protective equipment; COVID-19 EN neuroradiology radiology tele-radiology personal protective equipment COVID-19 N.PAG N.PAG 4 12/04/20 20201130 NES 201130 Introduction Since the first case of infection was reported in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, SARS CoV 2 has spread all over the world, and was declared as a pandemia on the 11th of March by the WHO. ([17]) interesting, which related the radiology volume recovery after the pandemia to different variants, such as regional pandemic severity, the lifting of government restrictions, patient Covid-19 infection concern, management during the pandemic peak, impact of the economic recession and Radiology practice profile. Available online at: https://www.rsna.org/-/media/Files/RSNA/Covid-19/RSNA-COVID-19-bestpractices.ashx?la=en&hash=58700DDDEDB3E5A9C8EDE80BE534B4ABB10291B7 5 Mossa-Basha, M, Linnau, KF, Sahani, DV, Radiology Department preparedness in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) postshutdown environment. Neuroradiology, radiology, tele-radiology, personal protective equipment, COVID-19. [Extracted from the article]

Essential oils (EOs) and their compounds have attracted particular attention for their reported beneficial properties, especially their antiviral potential. However, data regarding their anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential are scarce in the literature. Thus, this study aimed to identify the most promising EO compounds against SARS-CoV-2 based on their physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, and toxicity properties. A systematic literature search retrieved 1669 articles; 40 met the eligibility criteria, and 35 were eligible for analysis. These studies resulted in 465 EO compounds evaluated against 11 human and/or SARS-CoV-2 target proteins. Ninety-four EO compounds and seven reference drugs were clustered by the highest predicted binding affinity. Furthermore, 41 EO compounds showed suitable drug-likeness and bioactivity score indices (≥0.67). Among these EO compounds, 15 were considered the most promising against SARS-CoV-2 with the ADME/T index ranging from 0.86 to 0.81. Some plant species were identified as EO potential sources with anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity, such as Melissa officinalis Arcang, Zataria multiflora Boiss, Eugenia brasiliensis Cambess, Zingiber zerumbet Triboun & K.Larsen, Cedrus libani A.Rich, and Vetiveria zizanoides Nash. Our work can help fill the gap in the literature and guide further in vitro and in vivo studies, intending to optimize the finding of effective EOs against COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the travel and tourism industry, economies, livelihoods, public services, and opportunities globally. This is also observed in the small country of Brunei. As one of the few countries that have successfully mitigated COVID-19 transmissions, Brunei is slowly rebuilding its tourism industry through its community-based tourism (CBT). Following Sharma et al.'s resilience-based framework for reviving the tourism industry post-COVID-19 established in 2021, this study incorporates responses from semi-structured interviews with 16 local CBT owners on the challenges, the management, and the CBT initiatives during the height of the pandemic until today. These initiatives include diversifying more tour packages and utilising local resources and products. Despite the lockdown imposed by the government, which suspended businesses and restricted all travelling, local CBT operations flourished, generated more income for the owners, and created job opportunities for the community. Such efforts have caused the public to appreciate local cultures, the environment, and ultimately increase CBT experiences in the country. While shedding light on Brunei's unique management of its tourism industry during the pandemic, this paper also demonstrates theoretical and conceptual contributions to the recent literature of resilient and transformational tourism and provide suggestions on how to manage CBT operations during these challenging times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]