Augmented reality adoption intention among travel and tour operators in Malaysia: mediation effect of value alignment

PurposeThis study evaluated the determinants of augmented reality (AR) adoption in Malaysia's travel and tour operator sectors through an integrated technology-organization-environmental (TOE) and diffusion of innovation (DOI) model.Design/methodology/approachThe TOE and DOI were considered the primary theoretical models but are combined and extended by including few additional variables. Data were collected from 220 respondents of travel and tour operating businesses in Malaysia and analyzed by applying PLS structural equation model technique.FindingsThe empirical results established that perceived cost, relative advantages, complexity and compatibility, observability, competitor pressure, value alignment, customer pressure, and trialability are positively connected with the behavioral intention except for external support. The results reveal that value alignment partially mediates the association between relative advantages and behavioral intention, complexity and behavioral intention, compatibility and behavioral intention, perceived cost and behavioral intention except in between trialability and observability.Originality/valueThis research is unique as the value alignment construct is included in the model, and thus it fulfills the literature gap by adding the mediation construct. This study contributes to enhancing AR's understanding of the Malaysian travel and tour operator industry through the lenses of owners or managers. It offers an integrated model that combines the TOE and DOI models, rare in this sector, and can be replicated or extended with validated scales.

Models for Assessing Strategies for Improving Hospital Capacity for Handling Patients during a Pandemic

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of key hospital units associated with emergency care of both routine emergency and pandemic (COVID-19) patients under capacity enhancing strategies. Methods: This investigation was conducted using whole-hospital, resource-constrained, patient-based, stochastic, discrete-event simulation models of a generic 200-bed urban U.S. tertiary hospital serving routine emergency and COVID-19 patients. Systematically designed numerical experiments were conducted to provide generalizable insights into how hospital functionality may be affected by the care of COVID-19 pandemic patients along specially designated care paths under changing pandemic situations from getting ready to turning all of its resources to pandemic care. Results: Several insights are presented. For example, each day of reduction in average ICU length of stay increases intensive care unit patient throughput by up to 24% for high COVID-19 daily patient arrival levels. The potential of five specific interventions and two critical shifts in care strategies to significantly increase hospital capacity is described. Conclusions: These estimates enable hospitals to repurpose space, modify operations, implement crisis standards of care, prepare to collaborate with other health care facilities, or request external support, increasing the likelihood that arriving patients will find an open staffed bed when one is needed.

Space Industry in China: Stages of Development, Current State, Problems and Prospects

The article analyzes the development of China’s space industry from its inception to the present. It is shown that the PRC has consistently implemented a policy of development of this strategic industry and has made tremendous progress in this area to date. Having gone through a number of stages, first with the help of external support (the USSR), then relying mainly on its own forces, China has made a breakthrough in space and today represents one of the world’s largest space powers. At the same time, the problems that persist in the industry need to be solved.

Listening to Caregivers’ Voices: The Informal Family Caregiver Burden of Caring for Chronically Ill Bedridden Elderly Patients

The informal family caregiver burden (IFCB) for chronically ill bedridden elderly patients (CIBEPs) is a major issue worldwide. It is a significant challenge due to the ongoing increased palliative care in the family setting; therefore, we explored the IFCB of caring for CIBEPs in Thailand. This article utilized a qualitative method, the total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach, with purposive sampling of thirty respondents between September and December 2020. The data were analyzed using cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) to determine the relationship between the driving and dependence power of the enabling factors. The IFCB of the palliative care of CIBEPs was associated with primary care, nursing, extrinsic monitoring and complication prevention. The results showed that the IFCB involves taking responsibility, daily workload, follow-up caring, caring tasks, caregiving strain, financial distress, patient support, external support and caregiving strategy; thus, assistance with taking responsibility, extrinsic monitoring and follow-up care daily tasks may reduce the caregiver burden.

Universitas Negeri Semarang’s readiness in carrying out vocational education

This study aims to analyse (1) the support system in carrying out vocational education, (2) the readiness of faculties and departments to administer vocational education and (3) the suitable implementation model of vocational education for UNNES. The research data were collected through interviews, observations and focus group discussions. The data analysis was obtained in a qualitative interactive manner using data reduction methods, data presentation and drawing conclusions, as well as verification. The results showed that the implementation of vocational education has an internal support system, namely the leadership commitment of UNNES, faculties and departments, the availability of learning facilities and infrastructure, the availability of curriculum, the availability of lecturers and educational staffs and the availability of budget. The external support systems are the link and match policy, for example, opening 100 polytechnics and accepting civil servants from the diploma programme, Universitas Negeri Semarang faculties and departments are quite ready to administer vocational education. Keywords: Education, diploma, UNNES, vocational

Peran Kader Koordinator Jumantik dalam Sosialisasi Program Gerakan Satu Rumah Satu Jumantik (G1R1J) di Kelurahan Patih Galung, Kota Prabumulih, Sumatera Selatan

The One House One Jumantik Movement Program (G1R1J) involves the family as the smallest social unit in society in controlling dengue fever. G1R1J socialization in Prabumulih City was carried out in 2019, namely in Patih Galung Village. The role of the jumantik coordinator cadre in implementing a program is very important, especially in socialization in the community. This study aims to determine the perception of the jumantik coordinator cadre on the G1R1J and DHF programs that can affect the behavior of the community in implementing the G1R1J program in their environment. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The informants of this research are jumantik coordinator cadres in Patih Galung Village. The data is processed based on thematic analysis with the Health Belief Model (HBM) approach. The results of this study describe the role of the jumantik coordinator in disseminating G1R1J to the community, which is strongly influenced by the presence of community leaders who also act as jumantik coordinators, coupled with the jumantik coordinator's understanding of the concepts of DHF and G1R1J and the benefits of the G1R1J program itself. Lack of response or rejection from some communities can have an impact on the motivation of cadres to carry out their roles. For this reason, external support is needed in the form of assistance either by health workers as a reference source of health information, as well as from regional stakeholders, such as the head of the RT, Lurah or Camat to the jumantik coordinator to maintain the motivation and confidence that has been formed.

International Aspects of Separatism in Contemporary Biafra

In the 21st century, the world at large and Africa in particular have encountered the rise of separatism, which has become one of the major challenges to stability. In Africa, over 20 countries face separatist movements, some of which demand full secession, while the rest - greater autonomy within the existing state. Most of Africas secessionist projects remain insignificant in scope and ineffectual, largely due to the absence or weakness of external support for separatists and to the commitment of the international community to preserve, with rare exceptions, the territorial integrity of states. The paper analyzes the reasons for the revival of the movement for the secession of Biafra decades after the end of the civil war between the central government of Nigeria and the separatists and looks into the international aspects that could fuel the conflict and exacerbate the military-political situation in West Africa, which is already turbulent due to the activities of Boko Haram terrorist group, other Islamist groupings in the Sahel, Cameroonian separatists of Ambazonia, etc. The present paper attempts to fill the gap in Russian Africanist literature on the current situation in Biafra, which is especially urgent due to the growing threat of separatism in Africa. Employing the historical approach, the authors analyze the nature of external involvement in the 1967-1970 Nigerian conflict, as well as methods of contemporary Biafran separatists, who seek international support. The paper concludes that due to various internal circumstances, as well as the practical lack of external material assistance, the establishment of a new Republic of Biafra will remain a utopian project for at least a decade, although separatist sentiments is likely to spread and hinder the achievement of internal political stability in West Africa, which is ridden with an increasing number of hot spots.

COSSACK IDEA IN ACTIVITIES OF LEADER OF THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT IVAN LUTSENKO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

The purpose of this article is to study the activities of Ivan Mitrofanovich Lutsenko (1863–1919) about his activities, which were aimed at popularizing the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks, the struggle for the spread of the Cossack worldview and spiritual values. I seek to deepen the study of this issue, based on previous research. The corresponding image of I. Lutsenko was reflected in the first essays-memoirs about him, the authors of which were his friends. G. Zlenko, T. Vintskovsky, V. Lobodaev and others wrote about I. Lutsenko as an adherent of the Cossack idea. I. Lutsenko was born in Poltava region in a family that probably had Cossack roots. In 1908, the first Cossack text by I. Lutsenko was published in the Kyiv newspaper Rada, which had not yet been taken into account by his biographers, including us. The Odessa doctor's note was devoted to the issue of P. Polubotko's treasures, which was relevant in Ukraine in the early twentieth century and then in the 1990s. The thesis about the purpose of these treasures caused doubts in I. Lutsenko, but instead he denied the opinion of D. Yavornytsky that this story is a fabrication. The apogee of the realization of these ideas precisely because of the idea of the revival of the Cossack ethos fell on the period of the Great War and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921. Many sources and memoirs reflect the contribution of I. Lutsenko during the Ukrainian revolution in the formation of detachments of free Cossacks. I. Lutsenko zealously undertook to implement the decision of the General Cossack Council on the organization of free Cossacks, especially in the regions that still "breathed" the Cossack history and traditions: Katerynoslav, Poltava, Kherson. I. Lutsenko founded and headed the section of free Cossacks at the Odesa Ukrainian Military Council. I. Lutsenko's efforts aimed at forming the neo-Cossack idea and movement were also embodied in his writing of a number of articles on relevant topics, which were published in the Odesa editions of 1917–1918. The basis of the conceptual vision of the doctor of the Ukrainian Cossacks was antiquity and longevity, confidence that historical traditions are the foundation of modernity. He traces the origins of the Cossacks to the times of Russia, the prince's wife and the viche tradition. I. Lutsenko portrayed the social system of the Zaporizhzhya Sich in absolutely ideal tones as the embodiment of the socialist and democratic ideals that humanity dreams of. I. Lutsenko's belief in the success of the revival of the Cossacks was based on his belief in the organic nature of this idea for the Ukrainian people and its immortality. I. Lutsenko considered the hope of external support instead of belief in the strength of his own people to be a tragic historical mistake of Ukrainians. Thus, we can conclude that in general I. Lutsenko's activity was the development of populist traditions of perception of the Cossacks, but in the extreme conditions of the revolution he was one of the few people in the south of Ukraine who modernized this tradition, laid the foundation for the future state vision of the Cossack phenomenon.

International Legitimacy

Wight defined international legitimacy as ‘the collective judgment of international society about rightful membership of the family of nations’. International legitimacy derived mainly from prescription and dynasticism, the customary rule of hereditary monarchs, until the American and French Revolutions instituted the popular and democratic principle of the consent of the governed. The increasing reliance on popular politics led to the triumph of national self-determination in the 1919 peace settlement, with certain exceptions, notably the decision not to conduct a plebiscite in Alsace-Lorraine. New principles, such as territorial contiguity and integrity, influenced decisions about the legitimacy of the frontiers of the states formed from the breakup of European colonial empires after the Second World War. India, for example, referred to the principle of territorial integrity to justify the acquisition of Hyderabad and Goa. Critics of colonial arrangements have regarded them as illegitimate and unacceptable by definition. A state seeking independence via secession can succeed in its bid for self-determination only if it can gain sufficient external support. Therefore Biafra’s bid failed while that of Bangladesh succeeded. Communist principles of legitimacy emphasize the self-determination of the proletariat under the guidance of the Communist party. Legitimacy principles are subject to pragmatic constraints, and in practice governments generally recognize whoever controls state power.