The Malaysian Homestay Program and the Japanese Minshuku: A comparative study

This paper discusses the characteristics of rural tourism in Malaysia and Japan by comparing the Malaysia Homestay Program and the minshuku. Japan has been chosen as a comparative case study since Japanese tourists are the second-highest number of foreign tourists visited the Malaysian Homestay Program until 2018. Findings have shown that the Malaysia Homestay Program was derived from the English bed-and-breakfast, while the minshuku has been influenced by the European farm-stay. Although they differ in concepts, organizations, regulations, and community participation, both have contributed to the development of the tourism sectors in both countries. Keywords; Malaysia Homestay Program; minshuku; lifestyle experience; urban-rural interchange eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI2.2525

A Strong Inductive Bias: Gzip for binary image classification

Deep learning networks have become the de-facto standard in Computer Vision for industry and research. However, recent developments in their cousin, Natural Language Processing (NLP), have shown that there are areas where parameter-less models with strong inductive biases can serve as computationally cheaper and simpler alternatives. We propose such a model for binary image classification: a nearest neighbor classifier combined with a general purpose compressor like Gzip. We test and compare it against popular deep learning networks like Resnet, EfficientNet and Mobilenet and show that it achieves better accuracy and utilizes significantly less space, more than two order of magnitude, within a few-shot setting. As a result, we believe that this underlines the untapped potential of models with stronger inductive biases in few-shot scenarios

The Potential of Public Parks for Business Activity in An Urban Community

Apart from offering a positive impact on general well-being, public parks play critical roles in community and social. The previous study has always focused on the parks' effect on property values, which is quantifiable, but little is known about the profit-able value of public parks on the urban community, particularly in the context of business activity. This research aim is to discover the potential of public parks for a business activity for the community in Kuala Lumpur as a case study. Therefore, the research objectives are: i) To identify the attributes factors of business activity in public park, ii) To determine the types of business activity. The research employed a quantitative approach by distributing online questionnaires to the random urban community. Significantly, 170 respondents have responded to the questions based on the sampling method applied for the random size of the population. The findings show that park attributes are derived from the aspects of attracting the urban community to public parks and influencing business activity through community participation. The urban community prefers to have added program value as part of the park's business activity while also recognizing the value of preserving passive activities by not over-commercializing the park. The findings also show that repurposing a public park as a business district can be innovative, but it takes preparation and a suitable system from the park's management

Study on alteration of traditional Malay house in Kampung Banda Kaba, Melaka / Rohaslinda Ramele @ Ramli, Zarina Isnin (Ithnin) and Izatul Lailijabar

Recently, conservation has become an important agenda in heritage cities like Malacca and Penang, since they have been gazetted as Historic Cities at the Straits of Malacca in the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 2008. Government, private and charitable organizations are taking part in conserving and preserving the heritages. However, in Malacca Historical City, related legislations are not strictly being enforced in some areas of Buffer Zone, bringing issues to the historical environment and negligence to kampung areas; the traditional housing groups, in the city. Due to modernization and urbanization of the surrounding area of Malacca City, the traditional Malay houses in the kampung areas are exposed to alteration whether on their materials, structure, spatial usage and design. Efforts to protect the houses by the residents are limited to their financial, ages and skills to maintain, reuse, rebuilt or repair the houses. Selling and moving out has been the final solution due to incapability of owners to afford maintenance cost, and needs for instant cash. Alteration also occurs in terms of use, as in the case of traditional space which no longer use as residential usage. Rebuilding demands traditional building techniques and craft skills which have long been declining. The repair often uses affordable new materials such as zinc plate and laminated-wood panel. This study illustrates the present situation of urban conservation in Malacca along with the urban morphology, focusing on Buffer Zone areas. Kampung Banda Kaba is chosen as a study field representing kampung areas in Buffer Zone; which contains 56 houses that can still be identified as Malacca long-roofed houses. The objectives of this study are to reveal the characteristics of Malacca long-roofed houses, to investigate the alteration problems on Malacca long-roofed houses in Kampung Banda Kaba and to propose solutions and new conservation guidelines for Malacca long-roofed houses in Buffer Zone area. The findings of this research offered a better environment of Kampung Banda Kaba as a 'Traditional Malay Kampung' in Malacca Historical City, revision of the existing conservation guidelines for Buffer Zone towards redevelopment and integration of traditional houses and promotion of tourism development in Kampung Banda Kaba and the whole Buffer Zone areas

Conservation approaches on historic government buildings in Malaysia / Izatul Laili Jabar, Rohaslinda Ramele @ Ramli and Hasnizan Aksah

The historic building is one that gives us a sense of wonder and makes us want to know more about the people and culture that produced it. It has architectural, aesthetic, history, documentary, archaeological, economic, social and even political and spiritual or symbolic values. The first impact is always emotional, for it is a symbol of our cultural identity and continuity (Feilden B.M; 1994). The historic buildings in Malaysia are unique and valuable assets to this country for their historical values and tourism potential. Historic buildings in Malaysia may possibly classified into six(6) categories, namely shop houses, commercial buildings, religious buildings, private houses, palaces, and institutional buildings (Kuala Lumpur City Council ; 1996).The term conservation has become familiar to almost everybody. People often raise issues of conservation in regard historic buildings. The term of conservation defined as guardianship providing for maintenance, preservation or protection of what presently exists, from being destroyed or changed in an inappropriate manner. It is a process which leads to the prolongation of the life of cultural property and for its utilization now and in the future (Ahmad, A.G; 2008). All elements of historic buildings tend to deteriorate at a lesser or greater rate depending upon various factors such as aging, location and function. Buildings that were built in the early period of British occupation, for instance, often face problems in building materials. Therefore, proper treatment of building repair and maintenance should be given full consideration. The conservation must preserve and if possible enhance the messages and values of cultural property

The assessment of Royal Belum State Park as a World Heritage Site

This research aims to reveal the history of the Royal Belum State Park from its inception to pre-war times, the evolution of the area's status from a forest reserve to its nomination as a World Heritage Site, the conservation and tourism measures that the Perak State Government has implemented through the Perak State Parks Corporation, tourist arrivals and income generated, the uniqueness and potential which has been selected as having the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) for a World Heritage Site, and issues at the Royal Belum State Park. Previous studies on the Royal Belum State Park, the official portals of the UNESCO's Tentative Lists, the Perak State Parks Corporation (PTNP), the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM), the Friends of the Earth Malaysia (FOE), and the Gerik District Council (MDG) were reviewed, field observation focusing on tourism activities at the houseboat parking area and Pulau Banding Jetty was carried out, and interviews with a houseboat owner/operator/tour boat driver, a restaurant owner, and a representative from Perak State Parks Corporation were conducted. This research found that the Royal Belum State Park has a unique and intriguing history linked to the entrance of the Patani or Siamese government in Thailand, the exploits of the Perak Malay Sultanate, British control, and communist guerilla hideouts, and cultural heritage values, such as the Orang Asli community engagement in their traditional villages and the RPS Sungei Banun, that should be highlighted as a form of exclusive tourism

Community Participation and Performance of Waste Segregation Program in Malacca: Towards Sustainable Waste Management

This paper reviews the current practice and challenges of community participation on waste segregation program in Jasin Malacca since 2015-2017. The Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing (Act 672) which came into force on 1st September 2011, is Governments’ effort to provide a systematic, coordinated, effective and efficient solid waste management system in Malaysia including Malacca.. Since then, there has been significance increase on the amount recycle waste collected. However, the community participation on solid waste segregation and recycling program still at low level due to lack of awareness, attitude and exposure on the advantages of recycling in the long term. Thirty preliminary questionnaires were distributed randomly at resident’s housing area in Jasin and analysed through Average Index (AI) method. The result obtained shows the current challenges of the community in performing the waste segregation at source. From the result, further study will be conducted to discover new approach on promoting waste segregation which could provide the basis for success of 3R program in Malacca

One-week sleep hygiene education improves episodic memory in young but not in older adults during social isolation

Memory formation is a dynamic process that comprises different phases, such as encoding, consolidation and retrieval. It could be altered by several factors such as sleep quality, anxiety, and depression levels. In the last years, due to COVID-19 pandemic, there was a reduction in sleep quality, an increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as an impairment in emotional episodic memory encoding, especially in young adults. Taking into account the profound impact of sleep quality in daily life a series of rules has been developed that are conducive to consistently achieving good sleep, known as sleep hygiene education. These interventions have been shown to be effective in improving sleep quality and duration and reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms. Here we propose the implementation of a brief sleep hygiene education to improve sleep quality and memory performance as well as to diminish anxiety and depressive scores. For that, participants were divided into two groups: Sleep hygiene education and control group. After that, they were evaluated for anxiety, depression, and sleep quality levels and trained on an episodic memory task. They were tested immediately after (short-term test) and also 1 week later (long-term test). This procedure was also performed before the sleep hygiene education and was taken as baseline level. We found that episodic memory performance for young adults improved for the SHE group after intervention but not for older adults, and no improvements in emotional variables were observed. Despite not observing a significant effect of the intervention for young and older adults regarding the sleep quality scores, we consider that there may be an improvement in sleep physiology that is not subjectively perceived, but would also have a positive impact on memory processes. These results show that even a sleep hygiene education of 1 week could improve cognition in young adults when acute memory and sleep impairment occurs, in this case, due to the isolation by COVID-19 pandemic. However, we suggest that longer interventions should be implemented for older adults who already experience a natural decline in cognitive processes such as episodic memory formation

Neuromarketing in Haute Cuisine Gastronomic Experiences

[EN] Gastronomic experiences offer a set of stimuli that affect the customer's perception of chef-designed food. This empirical study aims to analyze the influence on the consumer, at a cerebral level, of the stimuli characteristic of a high-level gastronomic experience, in a Michelin starred restaurant. The presentation by the waiter or chef, the plate design, the dish served, the taste of food, interaction or moment in which the food is served are the variables analyzed. Through the use of neuromarketing techniques - galvanic skin response to register emotional arousal, eye tracking to identify where consumers look, and electroencephalography to interpret emotional reactions - combined with qualitative research technique (In-depth interviews with all consumers), in order to know the natural and suggested memories, the objective of this research is to determine the emotional impact of the variables analyzed against the actual taste of food, obtaining conclusions about each variable in overall experience and allowing the authors to propose a model of order design of dishes, designed by the chef, based on emotions and thereby achieving greater efficiency in results of the experience and the memory of it. Results indicate a favorable influence on emotions when the chef presents the food. Likewise, dishes with special presentation have a greater influence at the level of interest than conventional dishes. 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