Preliminary re-adjusting local ecotourists’ perception on outdoor recreation service quality instrumentation / Mohd Noorazlan Ab Aziz … [et al.]

This study aimed was to re - adjusting the validity and reliability dimensions of ECOSERV towards outdoor recreation service quality especially at Sungai Itek, Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. ECOSERV instrument was developed by Khan in 2003 and it was used to measure ecotourists’ expectation and perceptions on service quality of localization. This instrument consists of 30 items and grouped into six (6) service dimensions. All the six (6) dimensions are Ecotangible, Assurance, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, and Tangible. Each dimension had a different aspect of criteria that has been measured. Ecotangibles referring to physical facilities and equipment that were safe and appropriate to the environment. Hundred (n = 100) of respondents were involved in this study. Content validity and face validity were employed to measure the appropriateness and meaningfulness of each item in every dimension regarding the contents and constructs. Hence, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values used to determine the internal consistency. Based on findings, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values was questionable where there are three items out of 30 items in the 3 dimensions were obtained an alpha value < .7. The items and dimensions as followed; “materials reflect local influence” which in the dimension of Tangible, “provide local entertainment” which in the Assurance, and “facilities reflect local influence” in the dimension of Empathy were α =.66, α =.57 and α = .67. Therefore, the study advised to delete one or two items in each of these 3 dimensions to ensure the higher reliability of each dimension concerned in actual measuring construct. Hence, as these 3 items from suggested in each dimension were deleted, the alpha values showed higher internal consistency for Tangible, Assurance and Empathy dimension. Results of alpha values for the both perception of expectation scores α=.89, α=.80, α=.83 and perception of performance, α=.93, α=.94, α=.93. These indicated that each item that was fit by this re-justifying ECOSERV of this study and available to be used locally or abroad

A modified failure criterion for transversely isotropic rocks

A modified failure criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely isotropic rocks. Mechanical properties of some metamorphic and sedimentary rocks including gneiss, slate, marble, schist, shale, sandstone and limestone, which show transversely isotropic behavior, were taken into consideration. Afterward, introduced triaxial rock strength criterion was modified for transversely isotropic rocks. Through modification process an index was obtained that can be considered as a strength reduction parameter due to rock strength anisotropy. Comparison of the parameter with previous anisotropy indexes in literature showed reasonable results for the studied rock samples. The modified criterion was compared to modified Hoek-Brown and Ramamurthy criteria for different transversely isotropic rocks. It can be concluded that the modified failure criterion proposed in this study can be used for predicting the strength of transversely isotropic rocks

A modified empirical criterion for strength of transversely anisotropic rocks with metamorphic origin

A modified empirical criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely anisotropic rocks. In this regard, mechanical properties of intact anisotropic slate obtained from three different districts of Iran were taken into consideration. Afterward, triaxial rock strength criterion introduced by Rafiai was modified for transversely anisotropic rocks. The criterion was modified by adding a new parameter α for taking the influence of strength anisotropy into consideration. The results obtained have shown that the parameter α can be considered as the strength reduction parameter due to rock anisotropy. The modified criterion was compared to the modified Hoek–Brown (Saroglou and Tsiambaos) and Ramamurthy criteria for different anisotropic rocks. It was concluded that the criterion proposed in this paper is a more accurate and precise criterion in predicting the strength of anisotropic rocks

Covid-19 infodemiology: association between google search and vaccination in Malaysian population

Background In light of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, vaccination is one of the most important defensive strategies in combating the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2). Vaccine hesitancy or anti-vaccination attitude has become a barrier to the nationwide vaccination program, potentially sabotaging the effectiveness of vaccination. Thus far, Google Trends (GT) has been used extensively for monitoring information-seeking behavior during the pandemic. We aimed to investigate the association between Google search, the vaccination rate, the number of vaccinated and infected cases among the Malaysian population. Material and method GT’s customizable geographic and temporal filters were applied to include results for predetermined keywords from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021. Both Malay and English languages were used to reflect the multi-racial and multi-lingual community in Malaysia. The search volume index (SVI) derived was compared with the numbers of vaccinated and infected cases which were extracted from the open-access database (COVIDNOW in Malaysia) within the same period. Both analyses were performed independently by two authors to ensure accuracy of the data extraction process. A descriptive analysis was used to compare GT analyses and the number of daily vaccinations and positive COVID-19 cases. Results The information-seeking behavior in the public fluctuated from time to time. The interest surged during the initiation of vaccination program and upon the outbreak of COVID-19 in Malaysia. The surge in interest prior to the peak of vaccination rate also indicated that the public tended to get information online prior to getting the vaccines. Conclusion This observational study illustrates the ability of GT to monitor the interest of vaccination among the Malaysian population during the pandemic. By monitoring the dynamic changes in Google Trends, healthcare authorities can get a glimpse of public perceptions such as attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine, hence potentially identify and stymie any dangerous online anti-vaccination rhetoric swiftly

Malaysian public interest in common medical problem: a 10-year Google Trends analysis

Background An analysis of internet search has been performed to evaluate the public interest in health problems. Google Trends (GT) serves as a free platform to analyse the search traffic for specific terms in the Google search engine. This observational study aims to investigate the trend of Malaysian population in using the Google search engine on common medical problems and explore the geographical influence on the language used. Material and method Fifteen pairs of keywords, in Malay and English language, were chosen after going through forward and backward translation and vetting by a panel of experts. GT data for the selected keywords from 1st of January 2011 to 31st of December 2020 was extracted. Trend analysis was performed using paired t-test between the first half of the decade and the second half of the decade. The different languages used were analysed based on geographical variation using paired t-test. Results The public interest on those keywords was markedly increased in the second half of the decade with 29 out of 30 keywords showing statistically significant difference. Majority of the states preferred to use Malay keywords, especially those residing at the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Conclusion This observational study illustrates the ability of GT to track healthcare interest among Malaysian population. GT provides a good platform to analyse specific healthcare interest in Malaysian population, but investigators have to bear in mind the geographical influence on the language used