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Despite the world’s effort in grappling with the coronavirus disease that has affected many sectors globally, knowledge and research on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as on the halal food and beverage industry remain limited, particularly in Brunei Darussalam. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the halal food processing industry face amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the sultanate.

A qualitative approach based on four semi-structured interviews was employed using a purposive sampling of managers and business owners of the manufacturing SMEs. Several government agencies were also interviewed to further supplement the findings. This paper also uses the support from a review of relevant academic journal articles, and other secondary data including newspapers and websites, to uncover the hindering factors surrounding the phenomenon.

Four themes emerged, covering four overarching and inter-related challenges including limited production; closure of retail stores; delay in exporting; and less sales to cover overheads.

This study positively contributes to the understanding of the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into the country as well as adds and enriches the halal research sphere. Several implications for the SMEs, policymakers, as well as academic scholars, and limitations are also discussed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to investigate the halal food processing industry in Brunei Darussalam especially, during the time of uncertainties such as the COVID-19 era. The paper’s value also lies in addressing the gap that there is a need to study on the impact of this outbreak on SMEs in the developing countries, inclusive of Brunei Darussalam.

The purpose of this study is to examine the acute toxicity and antidiabetic activity of Asystacia gangetica leaf ethanol extract.

The study was designed as completely randomized in vivo experimental model. Where acute toxicity study was carried out using 30 albino mice, randomly assigned into six groups of five mice each. Toxicity signs and mortality were observed in the rats within a period of 24 h. The acute and sub-acute antidiabetic study was carried out using 50 rats, randomly assigned into five groups of 10 rats each. The rats’ blood glucose levels were determined and used to assess the acute and sub-acute antidiabetic activity of the extract.

Results obtained from the acute toxicity study indicated no death in any of the study groups, even at 5,000 mg/kg body weight and showed no signs of toxicity. The acute antidiabetic study showed that treatment with 400 mg/kg of the extract significantly (p = 0.01) lowered glucose level in the diabetic rats from 430.6 to 177.4 mg/dl while 800 mg/kg brought down glucose level from 370 to 144.2 mg/dl by the end of 6 h following administration when compared with the diabetic control group. It was observed that the effect of the extract mostly at 800 mg/kg also compared favorably with that of the standard drug (glibenclamide), which lowered glucose level in diabetic rats from 374.2 to 176.4 mg/dl. Furthermore, the significant reduction was evident from 4, 2 and 2 h for 400 mg/kg extract, 800 mg/kg extract and 5 mg/kg glibenclamide, respectively. At sub-acute level the blood glucose was lowered from 155.6 to 127.2 mg/dl, 137 to 124.4 mg/dl and 151.8 to 121.8 mg/dl for diabetic rats treated with 400 mg/kg, 800 mg/kg and 5 mg/kg glibenclamide, respectively, when compared to the diabetic untreated rats, which ranged from 417.6 to 358.6 mg/dl. The biochemical profile, lipid profile and hematological examination were all positively restored near to normal with the herbal treatment at the different doses. At histopathology level, the liver of the rats treated with 400 mg/kg had moderate portal inflammation without interface or lobular hepatitis while that of 800 mg/kg showed severe portal inflammation with the interface and lobular hepatitis with extensive confluents necrosis. The pancreatic cells of the treated rat showed no significant difference in the β-cells of the islets of Langerhans with hyperplasia of the acinar cell when compared to the diabetic untreated.

The record of no death and signs of toxicity implies that the extract is safe for consumption even at a high dosage of 5,000 mg/kg body weight. The significant (p = 0.01) reduction in the plasma glucose level of the treated rats as compared to the control is an indication of blood glucose-lowering potential of the extract at two different doses. The significant reduction evident of the extract at different hours and days for the two doses implies that the extract rate of lowering potentials is dose-dependent. The evidence of moderate-severe portal inflammation with the interface and lobular hepatitis at 800 mg/kg treatment is an indication that the intake of this herb at high dosage for long period is not safe for the liver tissue.

The outcome of this study suggested that the Asystacia gangetica should also be used as a vegetable in-home food preparation and food processing to use its antidiabetic effect. The herbal extract could also be incorporated into a food product and processed into herbal tea bag for convenient. The subjection of this herbal plant to heat treatment during processing could be a possible avenue to make it safe.

The economic burden and complications of diabetes mellitus management will be reduced if the practical implication of this research finding is implemented in foods as vegetable and in functional food production.

This study revealed that Asystacia gangetica leaf extract may be safe and effective for use at a low dose for acute management of diabetes mellitus. This research may be of value to those living with diabetes mellitus.

Introduction – Bologna’s summit guidelines regarding the Bachelor/Master structure, which is currently used in most Colleges and Universities, were mostly aimed at standardising the educational system in European higher education. Educational institutions use these guidelines as a basis for setting up their educational model.

Aim – This chapter aims to review models of learning management systems (LMSs), the stage of activity of every method applied at Universities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of these prototypes. The literature review in question identifies and classifies strategic methods of LMS, differentiates method type and categorises common activities.

Results – The results show that higher education institutions are in the preparatory phase regarding the application of e-learning, whereas private institutions have applied this system since their foundation and use it on a daily basis across all services.

Conclusion – However, different educational institutions in our country are at different stages in implementing new learning models. A strategic plan for developing knowledge management systems can be determined by using some of the information system strategic methods.

Originality/Value – This chapter contributes to the literature by providing additional evidence for existing studies in LMS in the Universities of the Republic of Kosovo. Studies suggest the implementation of different models and highlight the impact of technology especially during this pandemic whereby we should mainly focus and implement curricula using these kinds of technology. Also, this study identifies a major weakness in existing Kosovar studies, which have identified concepts but they are not implemented at all.

In today's competitive retail industry maintaining relationships with suppliers has become very important to modern day retailers. To develop and maintain long‐term relationships with their suppliers, retailers need to identify and understand the key antecedents enhancing the quality of their relationships. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the cost related factors on relationship quality in the retail industry.

This study is exploratory in nature and involved factor and multiple regression analysis. Data were cross sectional in nature and the unit of analysis was individual retail companies in Bangladesh.

Results derived from the exploratory factor analysis revealed a new factor named operational cost. The results of the regression analysis showed that termination cost became the strongest predictor influencing the quality of a retailer's relationship with its suppliers.

The characteristics of the three cost related factors from the study indicated that future research should focus on and incorporate other factors influencing relationship quality in retail settings.

The results from the study identified a few key cost factors, based upon which the retailers can take necessary steps to develop effective relationship marketing strategies with their suppliers.

The findings from this research can guide retailers to enhance their relationship with their suppliers, thus contributing toward a more harmonious working environment within the B2B domain.

The research is based on primary data collected from Bangladesh's retail industry.

This study aims to empirically examine the factors that are likely to affect tourists’ attitudes to revisit, which, in turn, influence their revisit intentions towards beach destinations.

Data were collected through a personal-administered survey of 601 tourists from three leading beach destinations in Bangladesh.

The empirical results indicate that perceived destination risks affect neither tourists’ attitudes to revisit nor their revisit intentions. However, tourists’ satisfaction and destination image directly affect both their attitudes to revisit and their revisit intentions.

The findings of this study contribute to the extension of the body of knowledge, especially in beach tourism settings where the proposed relationships have yet to be studied.

Coastal-based beach tourism is one of the least researched areas in tourism literature. The relationship between tourist attitude to revisit and revisit intention is exclusive in tourism literature.

This study aims to examine the information acquired and shared by floods victims in Sarawak, Malaysia, and the individuals’ perception of social media information quality and awareness of social media emergency services.

The research data were gathered from 118 victims in two flood-ravaged villages with a researcher-administered questionnaire survey. Meanwhile, the research instrument was adopted from Reuter and Spielhofer (2017).

Resultantly, 93% of the respondents employed social media for information-seeking and sharing during floods. For example, Facebook was the most extensively employed digital platform. The most highly sought and exchanged information involved eyewitness pictures or videos, road or traffic conditions and weather conditions or warnings. Although social media information quality reflected faster obtainability, higher accessibility and enriched content, respondents’ viewpoints of social media information quality regarding accuracy and reliability proved negative. Notably, over half of the respondents were unaware of the two social media emergency services: Twitter Alerts and Facebook Safety Check.

This study denoted one of the rare empirical works that explored social media usage for information-seeking and sharing by the flood victims in Sarawak based on the boundary object perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and develop an integrated theoretical relationship by including destination image and attitudes into the quality-value-satisfaction-loyalty paradigm in the context of beach tourism.

A personal-administered survey was conducted using a convenient sampling technique to collect data from 601 tourists who had visited popular beach destinations in Bangladesh. Then, the structural relationships between the factors likely to affect tourist attitudes and loyalty were examined.

The findings reveal that both service quality and perceived values have a direct effect on destination image, tourist attitudes and satisfaction. Additionally, destination image and satisfaction significantly affect tourist attitudes and loyalty.

The direct relationship of perceived service quality and perceived value with tourist loyalty was ignored in the model due to reporting consecutive indirect relationship between them in prior studies.

These findings contribute to the extension of theoretical and managerial knowledge, especially in a beach tourism setting, where little research has been done to investigate the proposed relationships.

The originality of this study lies in providing theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the effect of service quality and perceived value, especially on destination image and tourist attitude to behaviour in the loyalty model, which has been scarcely examined in the prior tourism literature.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of different post-annealing cooling conditions, i.e. furnace cooling (heat treatment (HT) 1 – slow cooling) and air cooling (HT 2 – fast cooling), on the microstructure and mechanical properties of selective laser melting (SLM) built austenitic 316L stainless steel (SS).

Three sets of 316L SS samples were fabricated using a machine standard scanning strategy. Each set consists of three tensile samples and a cubic sample for microstructural investigations. Two sets were subsequently subjected to annealing HT with different cooling conditions, i.e. HT 1 and HT 2, whereas one set was used in the as-built (AB) condition. The standard metallographic techniques of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and electron back-scattered diffraction were used to investigate the microstructural variations induced by different cooling conditions. The resultant changes in mechanical properties were also investigated.

The phase change of SLM fabricated 316L was observed to be independent of the investigated cooling conditions and all samples consist of austenite phase only. Both HT 1 and HT 2 lead to dissolved characteristic melt pools of SLM. Noticeable increase in grain size of HT 1 and HT 2 samples was also observed. Compared with AB samples, the grain size of HT 1 and HT 2 was increased by 12.5% and 50%, respectively. A decreased hardness and strength, along with an increased ductility was also observed for HT 2 samples compared with HT 1 and AB samples.

From previous studies, it has been noticed that most investigations on HT of SLM fabricated 316L were mainly focused on the HT temperature or holding time. However, the post-HT cooling rate is also an equally important factor in deciding the microstructure and mechanical properties of heat-treated components. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of different post-annealing cooling conditions on microstructure and mechanical properties of SLM fabricated 316L components. This study provides a foundation for considering the post-HT cooling rate as an influential parameter that controls the properties of heat-treated SLM components.

The effect of processing parameters on the microstructure of steel produced by laser-based powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a recognized opportunity for property design through microstructure control. Because the LPBF generates a textured microstructure associated with high anisotropy, it is of interest to determine the fabrication plane that would generate the desired property distribution within a component.

The microstructure of 316 L produced by LPBF was characterized experimentally (optical, scanning electron microscopy, glow discharge emission spectrometry and X-ray diffraction), and a finite element method was used to study the microstructure features of grain diameter, grain orientation and thermal parameters of cooling rate, thermal gradient and molten pool dimensions.

The computational tool of Ansys Additive was found efficient in reproducing the experimental effect of varying laser power, scanning speed and hatch spacing on the microstructure. In particular, the conditions for obtaining maximum densification and minimum fusion defects were consistent with the experiment, and the features of higher microhardness near the component’s surface and distribution of surface roughness were also reproduced.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is believed to be the first systematic attempt to use Ansys Additive to investigate the anisotropy of the 316 L SS produced by LPBF.

This qualitative study was to understand the factors affecting successful adoptive breastfeeding among women who underwent induced lactation process.

This study conducted in-depth interviews among induced lactation women in five states based on five regions [South (Johor), Central (Selangor), North (Penang), East (Kelantan) and East Malaysia (Sabah)]. The interviews have been consented, audio-recorded then transcribed verbatim, followed by identification of emerging themes.

Data saturation was achieved after interviewing a total of 23 induced lactation women. There were six main themes that emerged to describe factors affecting successful induced lactation process: (1) support and encouragement, (2) diet supplementation, (3) breastfeeding devices support, (4) incorporating treatment plan in the daily schedule, (5) high determination and pleasant attitude and (6) being informed on induced lactation process.

There can be recall bias among the respondents since the information was collected retrospectively, one to two years after the induced lactation practice completed. Due to that, we cannot rule out recall bias in the responses given in the interviews. In this study, induced lactation women barely were ethnic Malay Muslims. Thus, comparisons to other ethnic groups were not possible. This was due to the difficulty to get participation from induced lactation mother of other ethnic groups in the study. Even though the success is demonstrated, a significant limitation is that the ratio between Muslims and non-Muslims cannot be performed for the reason that the respondents only consists of Muslims alone.

The benefits of breastfeeding by an adoptive woman are numerous for both the mother and baby. There are multifactors involved in successful induced lactation process. After experiencing induced lactation, all respondents agreed that it has prepared them to be real mothers and breastfeeding is a pleasurable experience. All respondents corresponded to breastfeeding have a positive influence in the aspect of affection and touch. A mother who feels confident in her ability to lactate and is reassured by those around her will be most likely to feel successful in this great attempt.