CASE STUDY: Innovation in teaching delivery or learning technology Distant learning challenges and solutions: Incorporation of 3D protein visualisation in an undergraduate pharmacy medicinal chemistry course

The COVID-19 pandemic made distance learning an essential medium for teaching worldwide. The use of three-dimensional protein visualisation in teaching undergraduate medicinal chemistry courses was shown to be highly effective in increasing the students' understanding and interest in the topic. The course was designed to use the visualisation tools in lectures, and students would then use them to study drug-target interactions and present their work as a part of the course assessment. With the pandemic induced-lockdown imposed early in the term, the faculty were faced with many challenges to keep the use of tools as part of the course. The lack of direct contact, differences in students' computer literacy and availability of internet connections, in addition to the need for appropriate mediums for assignment presentations and assessment, were major concerns. In this case study the author presents the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences at the University of Petra's approaches to overcome the challenges faced in the course delivery and assessment. Copyright © 2020 FIP.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Inpatient Falls

Introduction: Inpatient falls are common and can lead to injuries and prolonged hospitalisation. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the operations in the hospital with a deficiency in nursing care and new ward protocols. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on inpatient falls and to identify the circumstances relating to the falls. Methods: This retrospective exploratory study was conducted in a 2,300-bedded urban public hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The data of falls incidences was obtained from the standardised hospital fall reporting system. The analysis compares the falls occurring from January to December 2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and falls during the Covid-19 pandemic in January to December 2020. Results: There was a slight increase in the absolute number of patients who had a fall in the Covid-19 wards from March to December 2020 compared to the same wards (functioned as medical wards) prior to the Covid-19 pandemic from March to December 2019 (198 versus 235, respectively). The peak number of falls occurred in the 61 to 70 years old age group for the year 2020 (30.3%) whereas for the year 2019, majority of the falls occurred in patients aged above 70 years old (31.5%). Approximately 60% of the patients who had a fall were males during both periods. More falls occurred at the bedside (60%) for both years. During both periods, the majority of the falls occurred during the nurses' night shift from 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM (43.6% in 2020 and 44.8% in 2019), during which the nurse to patient ratio is the lowest. In 2020, the top 3 causes of falls were loss of balance (26.5%), getting out of bed (17.5%) and wet floor(10.7%). In 2019, fall from bed (22.1%) was the most common cause, followed by wet floor (20.8%) and loss of balance (11.4%). During both periods, most of the falls did not cause any injury. Conclusion: Falls during the Covid-19 pandemic were mostly caused by loss of balance and getting out of bed, probably relating to the acute weakness due to the Covid-19 illness.

ParcelRestBox: IoT-Based Parcel Receiving Box System Design for Smart City in Malaysia

Online shopping in Malaysia recorded a significant increase annually. The number of online shopping rocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and movement control order (MCO) enforced by the Malaysian government. The current situation contributes to the volume of the parcel that needs to be delivered by delivery companies in Malaysia. The case of unattended parcel delivery, parcel lost, and failed delivery attempts had caused a lot of trouble to the household and the delivery company. It costs time and money because the household lost their valuable parcel, and the delivery company needs to reschedule the delivery. ParcelRestBox aims to overcome these issues by accepting parcels delivered without requiring the recipient to be present and send a delivery notification to the household to alert parcel delivered. This paper discusses on the design and the development of the ParcelRestBox prototype towards the actual development of this system. The ParcelRestBox development is significant to households or recipients, delivery companies, and property developers. ParcelRestBox consists of a ParcelRestBox device with NodeMCU V3 ESP8266 microcontroller, infrared sensor, and Android mobile application. The Mobile Application Development Life Cycle (MADLC) methodology is adopted as a guideline in the project development. The ParcelRestBox mobile application works as an interface for the recipient to interact with the ParcelRestBox device. Every parcel delivery will be detected by the ParcelRestBox device, and the notification will be sent to ParcelRestBox mobile application to alert the user. Thus, this ParcelRestBox system is beneficial if it can be used by the household or adopted by property developer to equip newly developed property in smart city area in Malaysia. © 2021 IEEE.

Agricultural commodity supply chain during the covid-19 pandemic

This study aims to analyze the agricultural commodity supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data used in this paper is secondary data and analyzed descriptively. The effects of Covid-19 pandemic on agricultural supply chains are discussed, including transportation barriers during the pandemic and government programs to find a way out. Finally, this study showed the policy formula from government to maintain the national food security chain especially agricultural commodity such as guarantee transportation and distribution of food from surplus provinces to deficit provinces to achieve adequate food availability in each province, innovation strategies in the distribution of agricultural products, and create an intelligent and accurate information system.

Minimising operational costs during COVID-19 pandemic: Leveraging crowdsourcing business model for enhancing SMEs' performance

Uncertain business environment particularly during COVID 19 outbreak forced many enterprises including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need to change the business model. This rampant situation creates 'rubbing salt into the wound' for many enterprises in order to survival and sustain in the market. Enterprises should alter the business strategy from the traditional way of running the business to the new phenomenon of business strategy i.e. crowdsourcing practices. In view of the above, the aim of this study is to investigate how the SMEs could minimise the operating costs in order to boost business performance mainly COVID 19 pandemic. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to examine the impacts of crowdsourcing practices, crowdsourcing cost reduction towards business performance for SMEs in Malaysia. The findings revealed that, the crowdsourcing practices and crowdsourcing cost reduction positively significantly to the SMEs in Malaysia in order to enhance the business performance. This study also highlights practical and theoretical contributions, significant of study;limitations and future study as well as conclude the entire study. © 2021 Author(s).