Exploring biodiversity mental constructs of urban residents in an emerging South-East Asian country

Biodiversity loss is occurring at unprecedented rate. Understanding the mental constructs of the public can help implement more effective programs and regulations for decelerating the loss. Although many studies have been conducted to study the biodiversity mental constructs of the public, little is known about those of urban residents in an Asian emerging country, like Vietnam. Employing the Grounded Theory and semi-conducting interview, the current study attempts to explore three biodiversity perceptions of urban residents in two Vietnamese largest cities: i) biodiversity and biodiversity loss, ii) impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on human, and iii) human’s reaction towards biodiversity and biodiversity loss. Besides identifying important conceptual dimensions, we also find the influence of cultural value, the awareness of multistakeholders’ participation, and some misunderstandings in the urban residents’s perceptions. Thus, we recommend policymakers to promote education and public communication of biodiversity-related knowledge, as well as multistakeholders’ cooperation for achieving the 11th cultural progressive value – the environmental-healing element.

Postdigital education in a biotech future

This paper explores a possible future of postdigital education in 2050 using the means of social science fiction. The first part of the paper introduces the shift from 20th century primacy of physics to 21st century primacy of biology with an accent to new postdigital–biodigital reconfigurations and challenges in and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The second part of the paper presents a fictional speech at the graduation ceremony of a fictional military academy in a fictional East Asian country in 2050. This fictional world is marked by global warfare and militarization, and addressed graduates are the first generation of artificially evolved graduates in human history. The third part of the paper interprets the fictional narrative, contextualizes it into educational challenges of today, and argues for a dialogical, humanistic conception of new postdigital education in a biotech future.

Physical activity in patients with axial spondyloarthritis in a multi-ethnic south-east Asian country

Background Patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) may experience spinal stiffness and pain, leading to reduced physical function and quality of life. Despite the benefits of physical activity (PA) and exercise, previous studies have demonstrated lower levels of PA among patients with axSpA. This study aims to examine the patterns of PA among patients with axSpA compared to the general population in a multi-ethnic Asian country. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted between May 2016 and Jan 2017. Consecutive patients with axSpA were recruited at an outpatient rheumatology clinic at Singapore General Hospital, the largest tertiary hospital in Singapore. Controls were based on a previous cross-sectional study. PA was assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). Results Seventy-four patients with axSpA were recruited and compared with 2679 controls. Lower proportion of patients with axSpA met the WHO recommendations for PA (axSpA = 77.0%, controls = 89.7%, p < 0.001). More patients with axSpA had high level of sedentary activity compared to controls (axSpA = 56.8%, controls = 36.1%, p < 0.001). Levels of PA did not differ between patients with inactive versus active axSpA disease (p = 0.91). Conclusions Proportion of patients with axSpA meeting the WHO recommendations for PA differed significantly from the general population, and level of PA did not differ between patients with active and inactive axSpA disease. Higher levels of sedentary activity were seen in patient with axSpA compared to the general population, highlighting the need for interventions to promote PA among patients with axSpA.

Leading schools through the COVID-19 crisis in a South-East Asian country

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis and today's school principals are faced with more challenging circumstances than in any other time in our known history. The purpose of this paper is to explore school principals’ management practices, their leadership styles, and the challenges they encounter in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. A research instrument of open-ended questions was administered to 32 school principals from government-funded secondary schools, to establish how school principals are dealing with the current situation and the challenges that arise from it. Findings rendered a contextualisation of school management practices. School leaders specified instructional and distributed leadership that were vital in this time of crisis and disclosed the challenges and uncertainties of their school communities. Hence, this paper contributes to the scarce evidence based on school leadership practices during a pandemic.

Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country

Theory of Change (ToC) and Social Return of Investment (SROI) are planning tools that help projects craft strategic approaches in order to create the most impact. In 2018, the Management &amp; Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) carried out planning exercises using these tools to develop an Asian elephant conservation project with agriculture communities. First, a problem tree was constructed together with stakeholders, with issues arranged along a cause-and-effect continuum. There were 17 main issues identified, ranging from habitat connectivity and fragmentation, to the lack of tolerance toward wild elephants. All issues ultimately stemmed from a human mindset that favors human-centric development. The stakeholders recognize the need to extend conservation efforts beyond protected areas and move toward coexistence with agriculture communities for the survival of the wild elephants. We mapped previous Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) management methods and other governmental policies in Malaysia against the problem tree, and provided an overview of the different groups of stakeholders. The ToC was developed and adapted for each entity, while including Asian elephants as a stakeholder in the project. From the SROI estimation, we extrapolated the intrinsic value of the wild Asian elephant population in Johor, Malaysia, to be conservatively worth at least MYR 7.3 million (USD 1.8 million) per year. From the overall calculations, the potential SROI value of the project is 18.96 within 5 years, meaning for every ringgit invested in the project, it generates MYR 18.96 (USD 4.74) worth of social return value. There are caveats with using these value estimations outside of the SROI context, which was thoroughly discussed. The SROI provides projects with the ability to justify to funders the social return values of its activities, which we have adapted to include the intrinsic value of an endangered megafauna. Moreover, SROI encourages projects to consider unintended impacts (i.e., replacement, displacement, and deadweight), and acknowledge contributions from stakeholders. The development of the problem tree and ToC via SROI approach, can help in clarifying priorities and encourage thinking out of the box. For this case study, we presented the thinking process, full framework and provided evidences to support the Theory of Change.

Cross-cultural adaptation and measurement properties of Youth Quality of Life Instrument-Short Form (YQOL-SF) in a developing South-East Asian country

This study was performed to evaluate the measurement properties of Youth Quality of Life–Short Form (YQOL-SF) in assessing the quality of life (QOL) among general youths in Vietnam. An online cross-sectional study was conducted to validate the YQOL-SF. Factor analysis (including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to determine the factorial structure of this tool. The psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the new factorial model were assessed. The factor analysis revealed the two-factor model of YQOL-SF including factor 1 “Belief in self and family”, and factor 2 “Environment and relationships”. Cronbach’s alpha value showed excellent internal consistency in both factors (0.911 and 0.910, respectively). Results also indicated good convergent, divergent, concurrent, and know-group validity of the two-factor model. Our study provided a promising model with different domains that were proved to be essential for the assessment of quality of life among Vietnamese youth aged 16–24. Our two-factor model affirmed that a balance between detail and length of the assessment is important to consider when selecting YQOL-SF for youths’ QOL assessment. It helped reduce the risk of redundancy and encourages high survey completion rates among participants.

Konstruksi Sosial Buruh Migran Perempuan Bercadar Asal Indramayu Jawa Barat

Abstrak Indonesia merupakan negara berkembang yang mengirimkan banyak tenaga kerjanya ke negara maju. Indramayu adalah salah satu daerah pengirim tenaga kerja terbanyak dan didominasi oleh wanita atau yang disebut dengan buruh migran perempuan. Pascamoratorium, banyak buruh migran asal Indramayu yang dikirim untuk bekerja di negara-negara Asia Timur, seperti Taiwan, Hongkong, Jepang, dan Korea. Terdapat fenomena menarik yang muncul pada masyarakat Indramayu, yakni buruh migran perempuan yang menggunakan cadar pascakepulanganya bekerja di negara-negara tersebut. Buruh migran perempuan tersebut mendapatkan nilai-nilai Islam setelah bekerja di negara Asia Timur, yang penganut agama Islam di sana sebagai minoritas. Melihat fenomena tersebut penulis tertarik untuk meneliti lebih mendalam mengenai buruh migran perempuan bercadar. Penelitian ini merupakan sebuah penelitian yang menggunakan analisis sosiologis untuk mengungkapkan kehidupan buruh migran perempuan bercadar dengan menggambarkan suatu konstruksi sosial buruh migran perempuan bercadar asal Indramayu. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian lapangan dengan menggunakan analisis data kualitatif. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan yakni melalui observasi dan wawancara. Dengan dikaji lebih mendalam melalui teori konstruksi sosial Petter. L. Berger yang terdiri dari proses eksternalisasi, objektifikasi, dan internalisasi. Dari penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa proses konstruksi sosial buruh migran perempuan bercadar di Indramayu melalui tiga proses yakni pertama, proses eksternalisasi melalui media sosial, kajian, serta teman sejawat. Kedua, proses objektifikasi ditandai dengan adanya anggapan bahwa cadar sebagai bentuk kesalihan seorang muslimah, munculnya penyesalan di masa lalu sebelum mengenakan cadar, serta signifikasi. Dan yang ketiga, proses internalisasi yakni ditunjukkan dengan penggunaan cadar sebagai pakaian sehari-hari, semangat berdakwah baik di media sosial maupun di organisasi untuk mengajak orang lain mengenakan cadar. Abstract Indonesia is a developing country that sends a lot of its workers to developed countries. Indramayu is one of the most labor-sending areas and is dominated by women or what are known as female migrant workers. After the moratorium, many migrant workers from Indramayu were sent to work in East Asian countries, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There is an interesting phenomenon that arises in Indramayu society, namely female migrant workers who wear a veil after returning to work in these countries. These female migrant workers get Islamic values ​​after working in an East Asian country, where Muslims are a minority. Seeing this phenomenon, the authors are interested in investigating more deeply the veiled female migrant workers. This research is a study that uses sociological analysis to reveal the life of veiled female migrant workers by describing a social construction of veiled female migrant workers from Indramayu. This research is a field research using qualitative data analysis. The data collection method that the writer uses is through observation and interviews. With a deeper examination through Petter's social construction theory. L. Berger, which consists of the process of externalization, objectification and internalization. From this research, it was found that the social construction process of veiled female migrant workers in Indramayu went through three processes: first, the process of externalization through social media, studies, and peers. Second, the process of objectification is marked by the assumption that the veil is a form of distraction for a Muslim woman, the emergence of regret in the past before wearing the veil, and its significance. And third, the internalization process, which is shown by the use of the veil as daily clothing, the spirit of preaching both on social media and in organizations to invite others to wear the veil.

Clinical Management of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Pregnancy and Outcome- Case Reports

Bangladesh is a South East Asian country; the first case of COVID-19 was detected in early March 2020. In a land where 2.11% of the total world population resides; a devastating surge of the Pandemic of COVID-19 was anticipated to overwhelm the health sectors [1]. Specific high risk groups were identified and possible efforts to minimize both morbidity and mortality have been ensured. Pilot health projects launched with mass campaigns on preventive measures from COVID-19 and to educate people about mode of transmission, home treatment and isolations in mild cases. Apart from general cases, the obstetric cases became a delicate challenge for health professionals. Here both mother and babies requires standard treatment protocol, care along with unprecedented psychological support system for the mothers in all three antepartam, intrapartam and postpartam periods. A well designed care protocol introduced for neonatal care. A national guideline on clinical management of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been developed on 30th March 2020 by Disease Control Division in combination with Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh [2]. The guidelines have been updated time to time to incorporate latest evidence and recommendations of WHO. New COVID-19 units reconstructed both in Government and Private sectors with adequate logistics, ICU support and trained stuffs with proper mother and baby isolation centers. A comprehensive infection prevention and control (IPC) is strictly maintained in every aspects of case management from community to hospital ICU. Severe and critical cases are treated in designated COVID-19 hospitals or units. Laboratory for patient screening tests and triage became a huge challenge for health facilities required constant supervision. Proper early diagnosis and case detection became the success tool of the disease. Two obstetric cases COVID-19 (SARS CoV2 virus) treatment and outcome have been discussed in this topic to highlight the management issue and to adopting national protocol.

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP UNTUK MENYONGSONG REVOLUSI INDUSTRI 4.0

<p align="justify"><em>The demand of labour scarcity problem had been surge while the availability of labour market outpacing the available job. The data from BPS (2020) shows people graduated from higher school had a largest contribution compared from the other. Looking at this situation Indonesia ministry of industry (Kemenperin) recall an action to give an outlook of Industrial Revolution as an opportunity to drive more entrepreneur in Indonesia. It believes, Indonesia have a prolific people to compete the other South East Asian Country. However, the novelty of COVID-19 pandemic hardly hit many sector business, some of business also furlough or even to rid off their employee. As a result, negative growth is unavoidable, in April- June accounted to decreased -5,32% at least to be compared economic performance in year-to-year period. In order to cope the foresee situation, this community services had an initiative to emerged entrepreneurial leadership in industrial revolution era for higher education student. The aim of this services are to creating a young entrepreneur in future. Furthermore, two communication seminar was held in online media via (google meet) in Monday, mei 4</em><em>^th</em><em> 2020 at 11.00pm until 13.00 pm. As a result, a positive feedback given by the student and they suggested to recall again with the specific issue in entrepreneurship area.</em><em></em></p>

Starting the Stereotactic Radiosurgery Facility in Bangladesh: An Initial Experience

Radiotherapy is an integral part of a well-defined cancer management program. Bangladesh is a fast-growing East Asian country with 161 million population, and approximately 2 lakh cancer patients are diagnosed newly ever year. Though there are several modern treatment facilities to deliver radiotherapy, only limited facilities were available to deliver stereotactic radiotherapy (SRS) programs for needy patients. Evercare Hospitals Dhaka has recently started SRS and stereotactic therapy (SRT) with a dedicated team of trained people. The hospital is equipped with modern linear accelerator capable of delivering high dose rate mode and micro multileaf collimators with 2.45-mm thickness at isocenter to deliver larger doses of radiation precisely. This paper summarizes patient selection criteria and workflow for the SRS/SRT treatment established, including patient preparation, image data acquisition, target and organ at risk delineation on CT (computed tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images, treatment planning process, and quality assurance. Each stage of the process is explained in detail, with specific emphasis on certain areas to achieve a higher degree of accuracy. This article also highlights the need for dedicated timeout procedures to be followed to avoid drastic errors in treatment delivery. We also summarized demographics data of patients treated in the first 6 months, including diagnosis, sizes of lesions, and dose fraction. The dosimetric and setup uncertainties encountered during SRS/SRT treatment delivery are also described. Though, initially, we faced challenges, SRS/SRT treatment was successfully implemented and more than 35 patients were treated, with appreciable clinical outcomes.