Packaging is a critical process in the food industry because it is used to prevent spoilage, extend shelf-life, and provide an attractive presentation of the food product. Plastic packaging is used all over the world, and its production is increasing year after year. It comes in a variety of colours and designs. However, it has caused serious environmental problems, particularly to the ocean that has become a place for discarded plastic packaging. To address this issue, biodegradable packaging was developed to replace the use of plastic packaging because it helps to reduce environmental impact and waste management costs. Biodegradable packaging is also known as environmentally friendly packaging because it can be degraded into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass by microorganisms, algae, fungi, as well as enzyme catalysts. Biodegradable biocomposite film such as starch, cellulose, chitosan, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is required to produce biodegradable packaging. Therefore, this paper aims to characterize PVA as a biocomposite film in biodegradable packaging. PVA has excellent properties to form films, as well as biodegradable, abundant in the environment, and cost-effective. However, it has some limitations in terms of thickness and mechanical properties; thus, the incorporation of PVA with essential oils and fiber is required to improve its mechanical properties, thickness, and provide antimicrobial properties to the packaging.

The study investigates the effect of the Covid-19 on the volatility of the technology and healthcare sector stock index in Malaysia. The two sectors pose considerable attention during the pandemic due to the increase in demand for healthcare products and digital services. The volatilities are estimated using the GARCH model for the period before and after the implementation of the nationwide movement order control using daily data from September 2019 to September 2020. The finding shows that the Covid-19 pandemic caused a volatility jump for the technology sector index in March 2020 but subsided afterward with estimated conditional volatility revert to normal in the middle of April 2020. However, during the high uncertainty period, the healthcare sector shows a steady increase in volatility beginning in March 2020 till the end of September 2020. The study confirms that there is a significant difference in the volatility of healthcare and technology sectors before and during the Covid-19 outbreak. The outbreak has a significant impact on increasing the volatilities for both sectors but is impacted in different magnitude.

At the beginning of March 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic was acknowledged as a great confrontation that shook the travel organisations’ core. Indeed, it provides such a profound disturbance to the industry. It gives a preview of Malaysian travellers’ discernments in a distinctive point of time - the times of the COVID-19 linked to the worldwide lockdown and restriction movement order. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between perceived risks and Malaysian travel behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies the risk factors that influenced Malaysian travel behaviour. This study was focused on a random sampling among Malaysians who had experienced the pleasure of travelling. The questionnaire was designed to measure travel behaviour and several perceived risks, including travel, psychological, safety, security, financial, and health. Ordered Probit regression and test statistic scores disclosed that perceived psychological risk, perceived financial risk, and perceived health risk significantly impacted and positively correlated to Malaysian travelling behaviours due to COVID-19. The perceived risk factors further showed that anxious feelings existed to enjoy travelling during the pandemic. It shows that Malaysians travel behavioural had shifted due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The emergence of COVID-19 has affected people worldwide from all angles, from the aspects of health, wealth, emotional and also human interactions. This study aimed to look at the attributes such as positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships among Malaysians during the implementation of movement control order (MCO), and the predictors of preparedness in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted online involving 317 respondents above the age of 18 years old. A self-administered questionnaire was developed in both Malay and English languages to assess the level of positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships, as well as their main source of information retrieval regarding COVID-19. Overall, the measured attributes in this study showed the highest level in behaviour (84.2%), followed by awareness (73.5%), preparedness (62.5%) and relationships (60.6%). Multiple regression on preparedness revealed that all variables (behaviour, awareness, and relationships) are significant (p<0.05), while gender is not. The top two sources of information the respondents refer to during the MCO are social and broadcast media. This marks the influence of social and broadcast media in an Industrial Revolution 4.0 era. Despite having good awareness and positive behaviour, the MCO may also have caused relationship issues as well as lower preparation levels in facing a deadly pandemic. It is suggested that future research to look into whether this would have any association with the mental health of Malaysians facing the pandemic. By understanding the attributes related to the MCO during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would help the government in the implementation of policies and procedures in any future pandemic.

As COVID-19 hits the world shockingly, most nations worldwide have agreed to put educational institutions temporarily close. However, education has not stopped, but to go fully online as schools and universities could provide remote education. In this case, teachers have been struggling to adapt to the new norm to stop disease transmission. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the impact of Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) on teachers during COVID-19. The questionnaire was distributed randomly online among 320 teachers in Malaysia. SPSS has been used to analyse the completed questionnaire to obtain descriptive and inferential statistics. Three variables that have been used in this study were effectiveness, challenges, and school reopening using Cronbach’s alpha, hypothesis testing, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. This study has shown that most teachers were affected by using online as a new method of teaching. A negative correlation between effectiveness and challenges has implied that increasing challenges would decrease online teaching effectiveness. Besides, many of the components show a significant difference in the variables in terms of socio-demographic profiles. The findings obtained would help the higher administration tackle challenges the teachers face and know the effectiveness of online teaching and learning.

Covid-19 that emerged in Wuhan, China and spread to Malaysia starting from 25th January 2020 has changed people’s lives and impacted the world’s economy, including the stock markets. The study investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the stock returns in Malaysia by using a sample of thirty (30) constituents of FBM KLCI. The study utilises Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 new cases, death cases, cumulative cases, and cumulative death cases, as well as Singapore new cases and death cases. The impact is observed from 31st December 2019 until 9th June 2020 using the panel regression model. The results show a significant positive but small impact of Covid-19 variables on the stocks’ returns except for Singapore daily cases and death cases, which were negative. The study also identifies that the Malaysian stock market is more sensitive to Covid-19 local death cases during the pandemic.

To increase energy demand, reliability, and increasing efficiency, thin-film solar cells get the main focus. Various types of solar cell like (Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS), Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) based absorber compound now eliminated by CTS (Cu2SnS3) for different reason like toxicity, shortage and structural complexity. Focus on CTS is increasing because it is nontoxic and it is environmentally friendly. CTS-based solar cell's power conversation efficiency increases and 30% theoretical efficiency indicates it's developing sign. For analyzing the synthesis property, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques are used. For the synthesis of thin-film solar cells like CTS, different physical methods are used among all sputtering methods. The electron beam evaporation vacuum evaporation method has exposed better efficiency and high product quality and reliability. Additionally, the composition, variation of thickness, structural defects, and elemental composition make the absorber layer's quality affect the performance. This paper has discussed the annealing treatment of CTS-based solar cell synthesis, and it's essential to improve the thin film properties of thin films. This paper describes the reason for efficiency reduction also the scope for future research.

This study stresses the global impact of Microsoft teams’ app in enhancing teaching-learning English during the Coronavirus (COVID-19). As one of the preventive steps for transmitting coronavirus infection, the introduction of lockdown and social distancing has been implemented, resulting in complete paralysis of global activities. There exists a shift from the usual learning practice to online learning, especially the complete shutdown of the education system to comply with the academic curriculum. This can be cited with more online courses, workshops, meetings, etc. It should be remembered that, during this crisis, the world is fully dependent on information technology. The present research offers, therefore, an insight into the impact of Microsoft teams’ app in enhancing teaching-learning English during Coronavirus (COVID-19). Thus, the sample was chosen conveniently from the population of English language teachers and included (25) teachers, 56% of them were females, 52% ageing 31 to 40 years old, with 48% indicating a teaching experience over ten years questionnaire consisted of (15) items of one dimension developed by the researchers based on their experiences and the available literature, In addition, the teachers indicated that the most significant feature of Ms. Teams is that it enables students to share files and share content and that it includes screen sharing options that allow teachers the freedom to display what they choose during a class, indicating that it creates an interactive atmosphere between students, teachers and the community inside and outside the classroom. Furthermore, the researchers recommended using Microsoft teams’ app and giving the English language teachers, students, and parents online workshops on how to use the app, also for the ministry of education to adopt the app.

This research discusses an application of Couple-Charge Device (CCD) linear sensor and laser diode in an optical tomography (OPT) system. Tomography is a system that could capture a cross-sectional image based on sensor data scattered across the periphery of the examining device in the non-invasive and non-intrusive framework. This project focuses on quantifying the level of object transparency based on CCD and mathematical modelling assessment. The objective of this project is to investigate the light refraction, reflection and absorption effect on object transparency. The study will include a discussion on the light parameters and its mathematical expression. The voltage output measured by CCD defines the degree of intensity of light obtained after penetrating through different object transparency. In conclusion, this research has successfully proved the potential of CCD in OPT configuration to detect different size diameters of a targeted transparent object, which is an air bubble in non-flowing crystal-clear liquid.

Affordable housing is a significant issue that has been a concern among Malaysians nowadays, especially in the middle-income group. The demand for housing has been increasing, and thus, the preferences of this group must be taken into consideration. The focus of this study is to identify the factors influencing house buyers in purchasing affordable housing among middle-income groups. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey distributed among school teachers in Malaysia. Two hundred twenty-five respondents returned the questionnaire, which was used for data analysis. Descriptive and statistical analysis was performed to analyze the data collected using Minitab software, Microsoft Excel, and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). It revealed that house prices, location, and structure of housing had a significant relationship with the purchase decision of affordable housing among the middle-income group. In contrast, the neighbourhood factor had an insignificant relationship. It is also found that middle-income groups are aware of Malaysia’s affordable housing scheme and have a chance to be exposed to the scheme. Thus, this research will help the developers in developing housing schemes based on consumer’s orientation for future demand in Malaysia.