Community resilience frameworks for building disaster resilient community in Malaysia

Disasters cannot be prevented fully but their impacts and severity can be lessened through the application of certain frameworks. However, there is currently a lack of a robust framework in building the disaster resilient and sustainable communities in Malaysia. Malaysians are increasingly finding themselves not being spared from disasters especially flood events. In order to keep pace with these occurring disasters in Malaysia, Community Resilience Frameworks are the backbone strategies among various stakeholders and can assure non-futile efforts for building safer and more resilient communities. Community Resilience Framework sets out the drivers, existing good practices, scopes, aims and work streams respectively for a long-term programme designed to increase the disaster resilience of communities. This paper has attempted to review the existence of disaster resilient communities in detail. Some Community Resilience Frameworks in the context of natural disasters in Malaysia will also be discussed. In this paper, literature is used as a foundation for a new insight contribution. A document analysis method on relevant policies and literatures also been adopted. It is envisaged that the findings of this study could be clinically useful for building a disaster resilient community and also closing the gaps in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Malaysi

Applying Social Return on Investment (SROI) to Build a Sustainable Flood Recovery Project

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important agenda for governments, organisations and academic institutions due to the environmental and social challenges in the world today. Sustainability is no longer all about the environmental aspects but also the social and economic aspects, which can only be achieved by attaining an effective balance between these three aspects. In this regard, a study of Social Return on Investment (SROI) is critical in fostering the means to manifest the importance of these goals and it urges a new approach to define a full value of sustainability. A review of the social impact sectors identifies that SROI is the most effective approach with a solid implementation framework. Therefore, the concept of SROI is reviewed in this paper, as well as its application to government investment in flood recovery projects. This paper is prepared by conducting a series of literature reviews in order to establish a foundation for a new insight for contribution to knowledge. The researchers provides a step-by-step account of SROI implementation on a flood recovery project named “New Permanent Housing†(Rumah Kekal Baharu) RKB project in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. Applying the SROI methodology to the flood recovery project was feasible and provided guidance and interpretation into the project’s impact. Thus, the SROI framework can be a valuable tool for stakeholders to assess the sustainability of social investments in a sustainable environment.   Keywords: SROI, sustainability, sustainable flood recovery project, social impact

Multi-agency collaboration in flood disaster management in sarawak Malaysia

In reducing the impact of current and future disasters so as to form a resilient future, disaster management deserves highest priority and plays a vital role in managing the risk of disaster. However, it cannot be addressed or undertaken by the government alone. It requires a strong supporting multi-agency collaboration to undertake various types of tasks at various stages of the disaster management cycle which has been mentioned as a key point of professionalism in disaster management activities. To accomplish a successful multi-agency coordination in Sarawak flood disaster management, collaboration among the relevant agencies plays a vital role for aim to reduce or avoid the potential losses from hazards, assure speedy and appropriate assistance to the victims of disaster as well as achieve rapid and effective recovery. Therefore, this paper reviews the concept of collaboration and collaboration of relevant agencies in disaster management through a case study in Sarawak, Malaysia. This paper is prepared by conducting a series of literature review in order to establish a foundation for a new insight of contribution to knowledge. Content analysis, a pure qualitative method is used to identify related agencies with disaster management in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. The content analysis was conducted by reviewing content of 39 related agencies from Sarawak. It is envisaged that the findings of this study could be clinically useful for building a successful multi-agency coordination in Sarawak, Malaysia disaster management

Social return on investment (SROI) for “New Permanent Housing” (RKB) project in Kuala Krai, Kelantan

In December 2014, Malaysia was hit by a massive flood that brought long-term social, economic, and environmental impacts to both individuals and communities. These impacts therefore lead to a decision being made by the Malaysian government to establish a flood recovery project named “New Permanent Housing” (RKB). Indeed, almost everyone agrees that RKB project enhances people‟s lives and generates social benefits. However, there is insufficient evidence to support this, and there is no consensus on what that return is or how it might be measured. In this regard, social return on investment (SROI) can give a clear and succinct message about the project‟s impacts by assessing social, economic and environmental values. This study uses analyses of specific case studies as a guiding thread to demonstrate how the application of SROI can help identify the project‟s social added value and the changes experienced by key stakeholders. The four (4) objectives of this study are to identify the key stakeholders in the RKB project; define relevant data for demonstrating the impact map for the RKB project; evaluate the SROI on the implemented RKB project in Kuala Krai, Kelantan; and propose the use of the SROI method by the Malaysian government to assess the social benefits of investing in flood management projects. Research instruments such as key informants interview (KII), survey questionnaire (SQ), library search, and evidence from existing literature or projects were used. A total of 162 household units from four RKB projects in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, and three representatives from the Malaysian Federal Government (NADMA and JKR) were selected as the respondents. The qualitative and quantitative data were analysed by using SROI analysis. The results of this research show that investing in RKB projects generates an SROI of more than 1.0 in social value for the beneficiaries and provides a range of opportunities to support the sustainable development of communities. Therefore, it was concluded that SROI is applicable to government flood recovery projects in Malaysia, which will help to reveal the hidden sustainable value of changes in social investment

AIRBNB a new marketing strategy for real estate entrepreneurs

Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted and reliable online community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world either online or from a mobile phone. Online tools offered by platforms like Airbnb represent an effective virtual place for real estate marketing. Airbnb helps real estate entrepreneurs to monetise their latent spaces by making it easy for them to list and earn rental income. This study aimed at hosts’ perceptions towards Airbnb in Malaysia as a real estate marketing strategy. Objectives of this research are, namely: to study the benefits of using Airbnb and present results to Airbnb hosts in Malaysia, to identify challenges faced by Airbnb hosts in Malaysia and to suggest strategies in optimizing the function of Airbnb as a new real estate marketing strategy in Malaysia. The research methodology that has been used is online interview in order to collect information towards the host perception on Airbnb via email responses. Airbnb has only recently been launched in Malaysia and hence is not yet popular. Therefore, in this study, the establishment of new knowledge in this research area is very important in order to enhance the popularity and growth of Airbnb in Malaysia. It is hoped that this study will promote a new marketing strategy which can be adopted among the real estate entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Structural Mimicry of the Dengue Virus Envelope Glycoprotein Revealed by the Crystallographic Study of an Idiotype-Anti-idiotype Fab Complex

10.1128/JVI.00406-17JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY911

Structural mimicry of the dengue virus envelope glycoprotein revealed by the crystallographic study of an idiotype–anti-idiotype Fab complex

A detailed understanding of the fine specificity of serotype-specific human antibodies is vital for the development and evaluation of new vaccines for pathogenic flaviviruses such as dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus. In this study, we thoroughly characterize the structural footprint of an anti-idiotype antibody (E1) specific for a potent, fully human DENV serotype 1-specific antibody, termed HM14c10, derived from a recovered patient. The crystal structure at a resolution of 2.5 Å of a complex between the Fab fragments of E1 and HM14c10 provides the first detailed molecular comparison of an anti-idiotype paratope specific for a human antibody with its analogous epitope, a discontinuous quaternary structure located at the surface of the viral particle that spans adjacent envelope (E) proteins. This comparison reveals that the footprints left by E1 and E on HM14c10 largely overlap, explaining why the formation of binary complexes is mutually exclusive. Structural mimicry of the DENV E epitope by the E1 combining site is achieved via the formation of numerous interactions with heavy chain complementarity domain regions (CDRs) of HM14c10, while fewer interactions are observed with its light chain than for the E protein. We show that E1 can be utilized to detect HM14c10-like antibodies in sera from patients who recovered from DENV-1, infection suggesting that this is a public (common) idiotype. These data demonstrate the utility of employing an anti-idiotype antibody to monitor a patient's specific immune responses and suggest routes for the improvement of E “mimicry” by E1 by increasing its recognition of the Fab HM14c10 light chain CDRs.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore)NMRC (Natl Medical Research Council, S’pore)Published versio