University of Wollongong Malaysia

Alhamdulillah, segala puji dan syukur penulis panjatkan kehadirat Allah Swt. karena buku ini telah selesai disusun. Buku ini disusun agar dapat membantu para mahasiswa dalam mempelajari seluk beluk tentang ilmu kesehatan masyarakat khususnya mahasiswa keperawatan beserta mempermudah mempelajari materi ilmu kesehatan masyarakat terutama bagi kaum awam yang belum mengenal ilmu kesehatan masyarakat itu sendiri.Penulis pun menyadari jika di dalam penyusunan buku ini mempunyai kekurangan, namun penulis meyakini sepenuhnya bahwa sekecil apapun buku ini tetap akan memberikan sebuah manfaat bagi pembaca. Akhir kata untuk penyempurnaan buku ini, maka kritik dan saran dari pembaca sangatlah berguna untuk penulis ke depannya.

Economic value has moved beyond delivering quality services to include distinctive brand experiences. Brand experiences are vital in developing brand loyalty and achieving business sustainability. Business performance, in particular, is influenced by customer loyalty directly through purchase behavior, as well as indirectly through attitude towards a brand. Customers may encounter different types of experience with a brand through sensation, affection, behavior, and intellect. Hence, this paper seeks to determine the relationships between each component of brand experience and customers’ true brand loyalties. Customers revisiting successful SMEs in the restaurant industry provided 228 units of feedback for this study. Findings revealed that different types of brand experience influence each customer’s true brand loyalty differently. Managerial implications are addressed in the discussion section.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of service recovery dimensions on customer satisfaction and, subsequently, on customer loyalty in the context of the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 500 respondents who had the experiences of staying in the hotels in Malaysia. The structural equation modelling technique was used to study the relationship between the model and the developed hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that service recovery dimensions are significantly related to customer satisfaction and have a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Practical implications As the main sector in the hospitality business, hotels play a vital role in the tourism industry. Therefore, the developments in tourism and hotels go hand in hand, as they are mutually dependent on each other. With significant yearly developments in the tourism industry and at a constant rate, hotel operators should reconsider their business strategies to achieve customer loyalty and sustain their businesses. In view of that, the findings of this study not only benchmarks better hotel services but also provides an improved understanding of service recovery that will effectively aid hotel operators in handling service failures; otherwise, customer dissatisfaction may occur if poor service recovery strategies are implemented. Originality/value The intense competition in the service industry has driven companies to place extra attention on service recovery so as to ensure continuous success. With a yearly significant development in the tourism industry at a constant rate, hotel providers (one of the major beneficiaries) are driven to reconsider their business strategies to achieve customer loyalty and sustain their business.

LoRa is the new communication technology under the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). It emphasizes on the long-range communication with the high receiving sensitivity ability which allows it to work under the noise interference or noise floor effectively. The range of communication has become the critical part on most of the IoT system, especially in Wi- Fi and Bluetooth-based IoT system. With the emergence of LoRa technology, further improvements to applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) can be realized. By using a single receiver in the LoRa network, it is able to handle many nodes at multiple locations within the area, unlike Wi-Fi-based system which needs to have many access points to increase the coverage area. The combination of LoRa and Wi-Fi technology reduces the cost of deployment of the IoT system. In this paper, the actual deployment of IoT system using LoRa technology with the combination of Wi-Fi technology. Besides, this paper presents the performance and the actual coverage area of the LoRa network in both the indoor and outdoor condition. For the indoor condition, a different set of LoRa parameter including Spreading Factor and Bandwidth is tested at different locations. As a result, the quality of the LoRa network does not only depend on the distance from the gateway but also the effect of path loss due to the structural element. Moreover, a single LoRa gateway located at the middle floor of the building is able to handle the LoRa end-devices at any location within the campus with Spreading Factor of 9. A better indoor coverage can be improved by adding an additional LoRa gateway in the campus. While for the outdoor condition, the maximum coverage area in the LoRa network for Spreading Factor of 12 is 330 meters with an indoor gateway deployment.

In recent years, the tribology field has expanded with the advent of nanolubrication. Nanolubricants are the name given to the dispersion of nanoparticles in a base oil, and has attracted researchers due to its potential application. In addition to being used in the tribology field, nanoparticles are also used for medical, space, and composites purposes. The addition of nanoparticles in base oils is promising because it enhances specific tribological characteristics including wear-resistance and friction, and the most important reason is that the majority of them are environmentally friendly. This paper reviews the tribological effect of various nanoparticles as lubricant additives. Parameters of nanoparticles that affect tribological performance, the technique to enhance stability, and lubrication mechanism that is currently believed to function will be delineated in detail. Moreover, this review facilitates an understanding of the role of various nanoparticles, which helps in developing and designing suitable nanolubricants for various applications.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) kill about 20.5 million people every year. Early prediction can help people to change their lifestyles and to ensure proper medical treatment if necessary. In this research, ten machine learning (ML) classifiers from different categories, such as Bayes, functions, lazy, meta, rules, and trees, were trained for efficient heart disease risk prediction using the full set of attributes of the Cleveland heart dataset and the optimal attribute sets obtained from three attribute evaluators. The performance of the algorithms was appraised using a 10-fold cross-validation testing option. Finally, we performed tuning of the hyperparameter number of nearest neighbors, namely, ‘k’ in the instance-based (IBk) classifier. The sequential minimal optimization (SMO) achieved an accuracy of 85.148% using the full set of attributes and 86.468% was the highest accuracy value using the optimal attribute set obtained from the chi-squared attribute evaluator. Meanwhile, the meta classifier bagging with logistic regression (LR) provided the highest ROC area of 0.91 using both the full and optimal attribute sets obtained from the ReliefF attribute evaluator. Overall, the SMO classifier stood as the best prediction method compared to other techniques, and IBk achieved an 8.25% accuracy improvement by tuning the hyperparameter ‘k’ to 9 with the chi-squared attribute set.

As the number of tourists continues to grow globally, the hospitality industry players inevitably face more challenges. High competition among the competitors and the emergence of new technologies such as online booking platforms make the competition more intense among players in the hospitality sector. The quality of services provided is undoubtedly crucial to the success of the hotel. Hence, any service failure has to be addressed appropriately in order to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and to keep the image of the hotel intact. It is therefore vital that service recovery programs are carefully planned to meet various types of service failures which may inevitably occur. In this study, questionnaires were distributed to customers who had experienced service failures. The aim was to investigate the influence of service quality and service recovery on satisfaction and, ultimately, the effect on customer loyalty. The research also tested the mediating effect of corporate image between the relationship of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The findings showed that both service recovery and service quality had a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Similarly, it was found that customer satisfaction induced customer loyalty towards the hotel operator. The result also showed that corporate image mediated partially between the relationship of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of transformational leadership, entrepreneurial competence and technical competence on firm performance via innovativeness in owner-managed small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from 178 owner-managers of SMEs operating in Malaysia using a self-report questionnaire. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The results show that, except in the link between transformational leadership and process innovativeness, all relationships linking transformational leadership, entrepreneurial and technical competence with innovativeness, and linking innovativeness with firm performance are significant. Research limitations/implications The self-report questionnaires that were administered to owner-managers of SMEs constitute a limitation for this research, as they may not always produce reliable and valid responses due to single informant response and common method bias. Practical implications The study findings have strong theoretical and managerial implications for owner-managed SMEs seeking to adopt the four core metrics, namely, transformational leadership, entrepreneurial competence, technical competence and innovativeness, as the management core, all of which are necessary for meaningful, sustainable, disruptive transformation to do well in business, even with limited resources. Originality/value The value of this study lies in its effort to focus on the core competence of owner-managed SMEs, which remains relatively underexplored in the context of developing countries. Moreover, little is yet known about their combined effects on firm performance.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing passenger adoption and behaviour of self-service technology (SST) in airports. This study adopted the Theory Acceptance Model (TAM) and extended the model by including the need for human interaction (NI) construct in the study framework. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The research framework is based on the theoretical concepts of SST usage from the inter-disciplinary field. Four hundred two questionnaires were collected from passengers who used the self-check-in kiosks in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA and KLIA2). The collected data were analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. FINDINGS: Different factors determine passengers' willingness and adoption of SSTs. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness significantly affect passenger adoption and behaviour of SSTs in airports. However, the passenger was much comfortable with the SST as the moderating effect of need for human interaction shows a negative result. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings contribute to an understanding of how and why passengers use SSTs, which is critical from a customer relationship management (CRM) perspective. Better strategies can be developed to manage and coordinate SSTs delivery in the airport by understanding the passengers' experience from the self-check-in kiosks. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This paper goes beyond the basic SSTs usage and intentions study by highlighting the nonimportance of human interaction in SSTs usage specifically by airport passengers.

As one of the fastest-growing additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, fused deposition modelling (FDM) shows great potential in printing natural fibre-reinforced composites (NFRC). However, several challenges, such as low mechanical properties and difficulty in printing, need to be overcome. Therefore, the effort to improve the NFRC for use in AM has been accelerating in recent years. This review attempts to summarise the current approaches of using NFRC as a feeder for AM. The effects of fibre treatments, composite preparation methods and addition of compatibilizer agents were analysed and discussed. Additionally, current methods of producing feeders from NFRCs were reviewed and discussed. Mechanical property of printed part was also dependent on the printing parameters, and thus the effects of printing temperature, layer height, infill and raster angle were discussed, and the best parameters reported by other researchers were identified. Following that, an overview of the mechanical properties of these composites as reported by various researchers was provided. Next, the use of optimisation techniques for NFRCs was discussed and analysed. Lastly, the review provided a critical discussion on the overall topic, identified all research gaps present in the use of NFRC for AM processes, and to overcome future challenges.

Purpose The technological advances in the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 era escalate the advancement of the healthcare industry, including the health tourism phenomenon. Based on the current trend in connected health care (e.g. mobile healthcare technology; digital health, etc.), this paper aims to propose that the distance between healthcare providers around the globe and its potential patients can be vastly reduced to almost on a real time basis. Design/methodology/approach A secondary literature review is conducted to identify the key development of IR 4.0 technologies in the healthcare industry and its possible trend leading the health tourism sector. Findings The adoption of IR 4.0 technologies is expected to make seeking treatments overseas more affordable, accessible and health records readily available on a real-time and secured basis. However, it is worth to note that the growth of health tourism raises the eyebrows of society from the security, social and economic perspectives. Originality/value This paper contributes to our understanding that the emergence of IR 4.0 technologies changes the landscape of the health care and health tourism industry. Continuous technology advancement is expected to further shape the future trend and escalate the commercialization aspect of the health tourism industry.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of core competencies, namely, transformational leadership (TFL), entrepreneurial competence and technical competence on financial performance through the mediation effect of innovativeness, among owner-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach A research model was developed to test nine research hypotheses. Self-report questionnaires designed for this study were sent to SME owner-managers in Malaysia. A total of 178 completed questionnaires were successfully collected. SPSS and SmartPLS were used to perform the data analysis to test the measurement model and structural model. Findings This paper provides empirical evidence that behavioural innovativeness mediates the relationship between TFL and financial performance, product innovativeness mediates the relationships among entrepreneurial competence, technical competence and financial performance and process innovativeness mediates the relationship between technical competence and financial performance. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are potentially limited by perceptual measures, cross-sectional data and the risk of response bias from a single informant. Practical implications Owner-managed SMEs can focus on developing the core competencies to achieve financial performance through innovative products, processes and behaviours. Policymakers and practitioners can gain fresh insights into the complexity of sustaining the business activities and financial performance of SMEs through the core competencies and innovativeness. Originality/value The extant literature has revealed that entrepreneurship, leadership, expertise and innovativeness are considered key factors in promoting financial performance, yet little is known about the combined effects of the core competencies on financial performance through innovativeness for owner-managed SMEs in the context of a developing country. The study makes an important contribution to filling this research gap.

Gamification is not a newly emerging concept. Perhaps, it is a new term to some people. Gamification is a powerful new strategy to influence and motivate groups of people. It applies game mechanics to non-game activities to change the user's behavior of an application. It improves the engagement of user by keeping score of points earned through various activities on the application. The recent gamified websites or a related service such as Foursquare is a location-based application that pinpoints where you are and your activities. Users of the Foursquare can “check in” to various locations on their mobile phones and gain incentives like badges or deals. Gamification is utilised as a mean to build up user loyalty, and not so much to gain their long-term engagement. This article discusses how the gamification can help to drive the sustainability after a mobile application has been delivered and is in use. It is important to make mobile application continuously visible and sustainable if the concept of gamification has been used correctly. The more users can gain from the virtual and tangible rewards of using our application, the more we can be rewarded from our users. It also discusses how adding a “game layer” has improved the basic functions in society like educating people to become more responsible and helpful and use badges as virtual reward to users who contribute photos. Interactive mobile application designed to change the way of people report road accident cases with applying a simplicity and convenience principles. For instance, user just needs to snap photo and touch on screen to report a road accident case.

An effective analytical technique for biomass characterisation is inevitable for biomass utilisation in energy production. To improve biomass processing, various thermal conversion methods such as torrefaction, pyrolysis, combustion, hydrothermal liquefaction, and gasification have been widely used to improve biomass processing. Thermogravimetric analysers (TG) and gas chromatography (GC) are among the most fundamental analytical techniques utilised in biomass thermal analysis. Thus, GC and TG, in combination with MS, FTIR, or two-dimensional analysis, were used to examine the key parameters of biomass feedstock and increase the productivity of energy crops. We can also determine the optimal ratio for combining two separate biomass or coals during co-pyrolysis and co-gasification to achieve the best synergetic relationship. This review discusses thermochemical conversion processes such as torrefaction, combustion, hydrothermal liquefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification. Then, the thermochemical conversion of biomass using TG and GC is discussed in detail. The usual emphasis on the various applications of biomass or bacteria is also discussed in the comparison of the TG and GC. Finally, this study investigates the application of technologies for analysing the composition and developed gas from the thermochemical processing of biomass feedstocks.

The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate how the computer game could apply as a tool for teaching and learning object-oriented programming in higher education institution. Nowadays, computer games have widely applied in learning process due to the burgeoning computer use in the market. Therefore it is necessary to conduct a study on these matters to propose an efficient and effective educational computer game for higher institution learning and teaching process.

Unclear and shifting climate policy can discourage firms from investing in greener operations, yet some unpredictability may instead push them toward innovation; where the turning point lies, and how the institutional environment reshapes it, is still debated. Leveraging a decade-long panel of Chinese A-share firms, this study links climate-policy uncertainty (CPU) extracted from provincial news sentiment to corporate green performance captured by green total factor productivity (GTFP). Fixed-effects estimations reveal a distinct inverted-U pattern: moderate CPU aligns with higher GTFP, whereas greater volatility reverses the gain. Causal robustness is verified through an instrumental-variable strategy that exploits U.S. CPU shocks and a propensity-score-matched subsample. Two oversight moderators: government environmental attention (GOV) and public environmental attention (PUB), broaden the zone in which uncertainty is beneficial and ease the decline beyond it, underscoring the stabilising roles of accountable bureaucratic routines and societal scrutiny. Heterogeneity analysis shows that non-state and low-pollution firms follow the benchmark concave curve, while state-owned and heavy-polluting enterprises exhibit a U-shape, recovering only when strengthened oversight and fiscal support accompany rising CPU; firm size has little independent effect once governance mandate and pollution exposure are considered. These findings refine real-options and Porter perspectives by demonstrating that the payoff to “waiting” hinges on credible policy signals reinforced by multilayer governance, suggesting that policymakers can transform uncertainty from a barrier into a catalyst for sustained corporate green performance by cultivating consistent administrative guidance and an engaged public sphere.

We aim to investigate the effect of large-scale human movement restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdown on both the dengue transmission and vector occurrences. This study compared the weekly dengue incidences during the period of lockdown to the previous years (2015 to 2019) and a Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model that expected no movement restrictions. We found that the trend of dengue incidence during the first two weeks (stage 1) of lockdown decreased significantly with the incidences lower than the lower confidence level (LCL) of SARIMA. By comparing the magnitude of the gradient of decrease, the trend is 319% steeper than the trend observed in previous years and 650% steeper than the simulated model, indicating that the control of population movement did reduce dengue transmission. However, starting from stage 2 of lockdown, the dengue incidences demonstrated an elevation and earlier rebound by four weeks and grew with an exponential pattern. We revealed that Aedes albopictus is the predominant species and demonstrated a strong correlation with the locally reported dengue incidences, and therefore we proposed the possible diffusive effect of the vector that led to a higher acceleration of incidence rate.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the housing preference and housing affordability in Malaysian housing markets. There is a lack of research on the gap between supply and demand of houses in this market. Urbanization has increased the demand of houses in urban areas. However, the high demand in residential units increases the housing price which causes the affordability level dropped. Besides, the residences that provided by developers do not meet the expectation of the home buyers. There are three attributes that examined in this research to understand the home buyers’ preference. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides quantitative analysis on the housing affordability and the home buyers’ preference. This paper presents the results on the home buyers’ housing affordability and buying preference on houses. In addition, the study further confirmed the significant relationship between monthly income and type of preferred house, as well as monthly income and range of housing affordability using cross-tabulation analysis. Findings The findings indicated that the housing price in the current market is not affordable by most of the homebuyers and there are certain attributes that important to home buyers which should not be neglected. Research limitations/implications This paper helps to shed light on the planning of Malaysian housing policy especially on the issue of providing affordable housing in urban areas. Practical implications Policymakers shall consider the elements of economics, social acceptance and feasibility of Malaysian housing policies to achieve sustainability in Malaysian housing markets. With the current government’s move to promote housing affordability amongst B40 income groups, local government and housing developers should work together in addressing housing demand in accordance to states and ensure that there is a more targeted housing policy. Social implications With the detailed analysis on the home buyers’ preference, it helps to promote sustainable housing developments in meeting basic housing needs and preference. Originality/value This is the first study to examine relationship between Malaysian housing affordability with monthly income and type of preferred house. In the meantime, the housing affordability is compared with mean housing price and type of perceived affordable house. The paper presented homebuyer’s preference in housing for the consideration of government and housing developers in providing affordable housing.

In order to explore the novel application of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), we investigate reactivities of pristine and silicon-doped (Si-doped) (8,0) single-walled BNNTs towards the CO molecule by performing density functional theory calculations. Compared with weak physisorption on the pristine BNNT, the CO molecule presents strong chemical interaction with the Si-doped BNNT, as indicated by the calculated geometrical structures and electronic properties for these systems. It is suggested that doping BNNTs with silicon is expected to be a suitable strategy for adjusting the properties of BNNTs, and that Si-doped BNNTs are expected to find novel applications in nanotechnology.

Current waste management is not able to handle the disposal rates due to the growing global population and economic expansion are increasing in Malaysia. The waste is expected to rise to 41,035 tonnes per day by the year 2026. The responsibility for the separating waste is critically lacking. The solid waste composition of Malaysia is made up of 45% of food waste, 24% of plastic, 7% of paper, 6% of iron and glass. This garbage condition is wet and mixed. The moisture content of MSW is about 55.01%. Current practices for municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal such as landfill and incineration poses a serious problem on the environment and health. Leachate generated from landfill is polluted liquid and consisted high nitrogen compounds, salts, heavy metal. Incineration generates dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2, together known as NOx). Malaysia has more than 900 rivers have been polluting due to the improper solid waste management. The implementation of the thermal treatment plant (incinerator) in Malaysia was failed due the high cost of the operation. The high moisture content of the waste and a poor technical expertise in maintaining the incinerators caused the failure of the incineration operation. Thus, moisture reduction is needed prior before goes for incineration. Therefore, the current waste management system adopted by incinerator to be made improvement based on Torrefaction for effective energy recovery system. The moisture contents must be decrease to 75% before subjecting to pyrolysis or incineration. The high heating value (HHV) of the MSW is a main impact on the cost of the operation. The implementation of the pyrolysis system can be reduced the total amount of MSW before buried in landfill. The MSW pyrolysis is one of the ideas that has become increasingly in recent years. It can prevent the formation acidic substances and reduce the amount of garbage before sending over to the landfill and save the transportation fuel.