Internet Coverage Research Articles

University Students’ Perceptions on The Effectiveness of Online Teaching in Malaysia During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case of the International Relations (IR) Programme, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Malaysia

Since the pandemic outbreak, most of the students of higher learning have to instantaneously adapt to online teaching as part of today’s new norms. Malaysia is also not an exception to this situation. Since March 2020, most of the higher learning students had to undergo lectures and tutorials via online platform for the entire academic year. As a result, various feelings and opinions on the effectiveness of online teaching were ubiquitously discussed particularly on the cognitive ability of the students to comprehend online lectures. Generally, it has been agreed that, the most challenging issue is the internet coverage involving students residing in the interior areas that either have poor or no internet access. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to unravel higher learning students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of online teaching and learning in Malaysia during this pandemic. To achieve this, this paper focuses on undergraduate students from the International Relations (IR) Programme at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) located in Sabah. Such a selection is due to Sabah being one of the states that is facing enormous challenges to provide internet services for academic learning. The data collection method for this study is a combination of documentary analysis and the online of survey-questionnaires distributed to 100 IR students as the main respondents. From the findings, this paper crucially identifies the students’ internet problems as well as recommends remedies to increase the effectiveness of online teaching at higher learning institutions in Malaysia.

Knowledge, attitude, and perception of monkeypox among medical/health students across media space in Nigeria

Background: Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the Monkeypox virus (MPXV). Although monkeypox existed and declined in the past, its re-emergence is simultaneous with the rise in cases recently.Methods: This study utilized a non-interventional, anonymous, self-administered web-based survey through a descriptive cross-sectional design to collect data from medical/health students (undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students). The E-questionnaire was administered from 22nd July to 5th August through social media, and the data collected and extracted through an excel spreadsheet was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0.Results: A total of 203 respondents were obtained from 22nd July to 5th August, out of which 109 (53.7%) were females, 92 (45.3%) were males with 18-25 years (63.5%), 25-30 years (26.6%), <30 years (7.4%) and <18 years (2.5%) age groups. Of the total respondents, 94.1% have heard about monkeypox before, 59.1% believed that monkeypox could be managed, 80.8% believed that monkeypox is zoonotic but can be transferred from human to human, and the majority (60.1%) are aware of the symptoms of monkeypox.Conclusions: Medical/health students across social media show a relatively high knowledge of the Monkeypox virus with significant knowledge gap regarding the evolving epidemiologic and clinical manifestations, and the variety of components implicated in monkeypox transmission. Nonetheless, the knowledge is to be sustained and reinforced through continued awareness on social media and in rural areas with a high percentage of basic internet coverage and literacy. In order to direct proper surveillance, data collecting, readiness, and response operations, public health/surveillance capacities in Nigeria must be urgently developed.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Population Growth Transition in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

At present, China has lost its demographic dividend. Meanwhile, in the face of the twin challenges of rising living costs and the uneven distribution of educational resources, the fertility intentions of ordinary people are rapidly declining. In the background, China’s latest birth incentive policy has not had the desired effect. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, these issues have become more complicated, making it more difficult to achieve policy goals. Analysis of changing characteristics and influencing mechanisms in China’s current stage of population growth is therefore significant. Such analysis can help improve China’s population structure and preserve the advantage of human resource endowment. In this paper, we use data from 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 as made available from the resources of China’s National Bureau of Statistics and National Health Commission. These included annual macro statistics, seventh census data, and COVID-19 pandemic data, allowing us to analyze the influencing mechanism of China’s population growth by using the Geographic Detector Model. The research revealed the dependency ratio as the primary factor influencing spatial differentiation of population growth in China, indicating that the dependency burden plays a role in inhibiting population growth. The secondary factor showed different changes in stages. At the same time, any two factors showed more substantial explanatory power after the interaction, meaning the spatial distribution of China’s population growth results from the joint influence of many factors. The strong interaction was mainly concentrated around the dependency ratio and were with women’s political participation and internet coverage. However, under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the explanatory power of traditional factors was diluted, leading to a decline in the strength of interaction.

Evaluation and Determinants of the Digital Inclusive Financial Support Efficiency for Marine Carbon Sink Fisheries: Evidence from China.

The development of digital inclusive finance has greatly improved the feasibility of financial inclusion. Therefore, in the context of the constrained financing of marine carbon sink fisheries, we try to investigate whether digital inclusive finance exhibits a supportive effect on marine carbon sink fisheries and thus enhances the capacity of marine carbon sinks. Specifically, this paper empirically calculates the grey correlation between the development of digital inclusive finance and marine carbon sinks based on data in nine coastal provinces of China from 2011 to 2019. The empirical results show that the grey relational coefficients between the above two in China are more than 0.5, revealing a significant positive correlation. Then, on this basis, we estimate the digital inclusive financial support efficiency (DIFSE) for marine carbon sink fisheries by applying the Super-EBM model. In addition, the determinants affecting the DIFSE for marine carbon sink fisheries selected based on the grounded theory are explored through the Tobit model. The conclusions are as follows. First, there are time-varying characteristics and regional heterogeneity in DIFSE. Generally, the effect of China's digital inclusive financial support for marine carbon sink fisheries is expanding year by year. Among them, the DIFSE in the northern marine economic circle is currently the highest, followed by that in the south and east. Second, the input of productive factors, promotion of fishery skill, development of fishery technology, and Internet coverage will significantly increase the value of DIFSE, while output structure, income level, fishery disasters, and marine pollution will have significant negative effects on DIFSE. These empirical results can help policymakers better understand the contribution of digital inclusive finance to marine carbon sink fisheries and provide them with valuable information for the formulation of supportive policies.

Effectiveness of Telemedicine and Teledentistry after the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Telemedicine has become increasingly important worldwide over the last two decades. As a new field, it became known especially during the COVID-19 pandemic; this review presents fields of activity with special attention to opportunities and risks. Numerous areas of application offer the possibility for broad use in the medical and dental care landscape in diagnostics, therapy, rehabilitation, and decision advice across a spatial distance. Technical and semantic standards are required, and profiles and guidelines are increasingly defined and organized. Medical/dental consultations have been established in various regions around the world as a response to pandemic challenges and have made video and online emergency consultations possible. Telemedicine applications are already regularly used in medical/dental emergencies, regardless of the pandemic situation, both for transport by train and by plane, from which patients benefit. However, legal hurdles are often still unresolved, but infrastructure challenges both for provider, user hard- and software also complicate deployment. Problems are particularly prevalent in the absence of necessary internet coverage or among socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups who cannot afford expensive equipment or do not know how to use the technology. Broad access must be enabled, and hardware and software interfaces and updates must be regularly checked and updated. Telemedicine might also improve access to and delivery of oral and general health care support both for rural and urban areas with low costs. Even though dentistry and many medical specialties are still performed clinically by means of practical/manual examination, there are areas of diagnostics where telemedicine applications can provide good support. Therefore, as conclusions, access, and delivery of telemedicine applications in dentistry and medicine should be expanded and improved to provide access to all population groups.

Big Data Usage in Marketing Research

In the marketing field, the use of big data in research can make us understand consumer deeply. In some areas of market research, big data is already established today. The social media analytics and the use of cookie data to measure internet coverage are two prominent examples. This essay combs through relevant literatures, discusses the big data uses in the marketing research and its contribution for decision-making. It presents a revision of main concepts about marketing research, the new possibilities of use and a reflection about limitations of big data in the marketing research.

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF ONLINE LEARNING APPLICATIONS USING THE RASCH MODEL IN PHYSICS LEARNING

SMAN 1 Tapa initially used the Zoom and Google Meet applications, but there were still many students who were late for learning due to their difficult circumstances in getting internet coverage, so the teachers decided to change the application by using Classroom and Whatsapp to minimize student delays in learning. This study aims to describe students' perceptions of the use of online learning applications using Rasch modeling in physics learning. This research method is descriptive qualitative. The results of this study indicate that students' perceptions based on absorption indicators of object stimuli from outside the individual, students prefer online learning using Classroom and Whatsapp applications. Based on the indicators of understanding or understanding of the object, students understand and understand physics learning. Based on the indicators of individual evaluation of the object, students are enthusiastic and motivated in learning physics. Thus, it can be concluded that students' perceptions of online learning using the classroom and whatsapp applications can help and facilitate students in the learning process during the pandemic in class XI IPA 1.

A Critical Review of Global Digital Divide and the Role of Technology in Healthcare.

Healthcare and technology, the fusion of these two distinct sciences can be traced back to the Vedic era. Regrettably, while it is evident that the journey of advancements in knowledge and innovation leading to the advent of technology to better the health of mankind is not a recent one, owing to inexistent means of transfer of knowledge, these contraptions stayed mostly localized to the regions of their inventors. This article seeks to review the vital role that technology has in bettering the health status of the global community and thechallengesassociated with healthcare technologies like inequity in connectivity, affordability, and accessibility. Technology and artificial intelligence are integrated to the best of the health systems across the world butthese advancements are not accessible to a considerable part of the global population. While affordability, the absence of a steady internet supply, and the lack of a device to use the technology are the major impediments causing this digital divide, cultural factors and health literacy also contribute to this scenario. Nevertheless, access to the internet has been recognized as a basic need by all governments around the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic shook the health systems of developed and developing countries alike and has made every administration feel the urgency in making healthcare more accessible. Having seamless internet coverage and setups to make telemedicine or online consultations possible, can contribute significantly in paving the path to making our societies prosperous and healthier. With the world's consensus about this goal, efforts now should be focused on research and development for making these technologies more affordable and accessible without compromising their utility.

Automated Electronic System for Census Process

Present-day censuses are generally completed in physical modes wherein the authorities need to go from door to door to gather the necessary information. All the Censuses to date have been directed similarly, and in this way require a ton of on-ground authorities for the same. Likewise, a ton of desk work is needed to have been kept up within this interaction making it a bulky interaction. There have been ongoing advancements in having an application for completing the Census, yet even that has numerous limits. Since for this situation individuals can get to the application and give the responses all alone, it can prompt off-base or deceiving information bringing about the failure of the reviews. Likewise, not all individuals can utilize portable applications with no help. Also, it has been referenced in the Lok Sabha that over 25000 villages in India still lack mobile and internet coverage. Because of this absence of web entrance in distant regions, the past conventional techniques for taking overviews are still in practice. Hence, in this paper, we introduce a new approach, an Automated survey system for the census process. The proposed system is faster and more authentic than the traditional process of pen and paper. All the data is collected digitally and stored directly into datasets, therefore data storage and retrieval are no longer cumbersome. This collected data is far easier to analyze. The authenticity is provided by Biometric sensors.

Mobile apps for oral healthcare: recommendations for navigating uncharted terrain.

The past two years have prompted significant changes with regards to how healthcare is both taught and delivered. There has been a shift towards remote healthcare interventions where appropriate. As we return towards pre-pandemic practice, we must recognise that the healthcare environment has permanently changed. It is vital that safeguards and 'pandemic proofing' are built into healthcare provision.The prevalence of personal digital devices continues to increase, along with internet coverage. This technological revolution has also brought with it a plethora of free or cheap online platforms that allow individuals with limited IT skills to make mobile applications (apps). These factors create a perfect environment for considering mobile apps as viable, widespread healthcare interventions. There is also great potential for these to contribute to tackling inequality, reducing barriers and enhancing healthcare access. However, their use must be carefully considered.This article discusses the myriad of considerations pertaining to both developing and recommending mobile apps for healthcare. Examples of contemporaneous examples will be used, in conjunction with an app developed by the authors to demonstrate the process of creating bespoke resources.

An Analysis of Digital Financial Awareness and Satisfaction of People Using Digital Banking Products

The digitalization of the financial sector has changed the ways in which services were offered to people in India. The constant escalation in the use of smartphones and growing internet coverage has made the digital accessibility of the different financial services, including banking services, easy and has paved the way to achieve the objective of inclusive growth. The present work aimed to study digital financial awareness (DFA) and its usage among people of different age groups residing in urban and rural places of Puri district in the state of Odisha, India. The data used was both reliable (Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.8) and normally distributed (p-value greater than 0.05). The analysis made by using an independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Duncan's multiple range test (DMRT) highlighted that a significant difference was observed between people of different areas (p value= .000, at 1% level of significance) and among people of different age groups (p-value = 0.002, at 1% level of significance) with respect to satisfaction in using the digital methods.

Small satellites offer hope of true world-wide broadband

Full, superfast broadband could be just round the corner for everyone on the planet, thanks to swarms of small satellites. Despite all the advances that technology has brought about, there is a digital divide around the globe: those with connectivity and those without. Space-based internet is set to resolve this problem. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space is filling up with satellite constellations that aim, when complete, to give total broadband internet coverage around the world. StarLink, which is a division of Elon Musk's SpaceX, claims that both speed and latency could be at least equivalent to those currently experienced by superfast fibre optics - around 1Gbit/s and 10ns respectively, although a signal will always have to go from Earth to the satellite constellation and back down again, so reaching this latency target is going to be a challenge for the space-based systems.

Power Hotspots in Space: Powering CubeSats via Inter-Satellite Optical Wireless Power Transfer

The desire to provide global Internet coverage is driving traditional terrestrial networks to evolve towards an integrated space and terrestrial network wherein miniaturized satellites, a.k.a CubeSats, remain at the core. Although both academia and industry are investigating the potential of CubeSats to provide global connectivity, they still fall short of the power generation capacity to enable high data rate communication in gigabits per second range. This article spotlights on alternate sources of energy that can provide the power demands needed for high data rate communication. We present the concept of power HotSpots wherein the bigger satellites in low earth orbits (LEO), having power generation capacity much larger than CubeSats, can transfer their excess energy to CubeSats in need, using optical wireless technology. This provides a business opportunity for larger enterprises having the capability of launching bigger satellites to sell their power to CubeSats. As a proof of concept, this article presents a basic simulation regarding optical wireless power transfer (OWPT) to CubeSats. In addition, we highlight future research challenges in this area to maximize OWPT.

NB-IoT Random Access for Nonterrestrial Networks: Preamble Detection and Uplink Synchronization

The satellite component is recognized as a promising solution to complement and extend the coverage of future Internet of Things (IoT) terrestrial networks (TNs). In this context, a study item to integrate satellites into narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) systems has been approved within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization body. However, as NB-IoT systems were initially conceived for TNs, their basic design principles and operation might require some key modifications when incorporating the satellite component. These changes in NB-IoT systems, therefore, need to be carefully implemented in order to guarantee a seamless integration of both TN and nonterrestrial network (NTN) for a global coverage. This article addresses this adaptation for the random access (RA) step in NB-IoT systems, which is in fact the most challenging aspect in the NTN context, for it deals with multiuser time-frequency synchronization and timing advance for data scheduling. In particular, we propose an RA technique which is robust to typical satellite channel impairments, including long delays, significant Doppler effects, and wide beams, without requiring any modification to the current NB-IoT RA waveform. Performance evaluations demonstrate the proposal’s capability of addressing different NTN configurations recently defined by 3GPP for the 5G new radio system.

Pheromone Incentivized Intelligent Multipath Traffic Scheduling Approach for LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networking has been an indispensable and promising concept for extending the Internet coverage of future space-air-ground integrated networks to oceanic and remote airspace. However, the topology dynamics of the LEO Satellite Network (LEO-SN) for network state perception (Li <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2019) and the intermittent nature of the Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) for multipath routing discovery (Wang <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2019, Jiang <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2019) both induce new complicated challenges to multipath traffic scheduling for the sake of improving the utility of the LEO-SN facility (Song <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2014, Zhang <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2018, and Yang <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> , 2020). Motivated by these challenges, this paper aims to develop an AI aided intelligent multipath traffic scheduling approach for bolstering autonomous and efficient communications of LEO-SN. To achieve this, we formulate the multipath traffic scheduling problem into a pheromone incentivized Markov Decision Process (MDP) by considering ant routing protocol and adapting pheromone to LEO-SN. Employing enhanced pheromone characterizing network state, we propose ant-inspired multipath routing discovery, which is capable of promptly discovering routing paths available in the dynamic topology. To improve the utility of these discovered routing paths, we employ deep deterministic policy gradient into the pheromone-incentivized MDP-based scheduling problem to derive an intelligent multipath traffic scheduling strategy. The experimental results are further presented to show the achievable performance improvement.

Challenges and adaptation on online learning during COVID-19 pandemic

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has impacted the continuity of learning in education aspects. This research aimed to analyze the challenges and the adaptative strategy of online learning for urban vocational school teachers and students during COVID-19. The research applied a descriptive qualitative design in supporting the data needed. The sample of the study was taken randomly from a vocational school in Indonesia consisting of seven students and four teachers in English subject teaching class. In gathering the data, observation and interview were used as research instrument and it was analyzed using Braun’s thematic analysis. The data gathered revealed that vocational school students face some challenges when learning online in English teaching subject during COVID-19 pandemic and did the adaptation dealing with the situation. The interview exposed the challenge faced by the vocational school teachers and students during online learning covering lack of lesson understanding, low creativity in using learning sources, lack of psychological bond with the teacher, internet stability, lack of face meeting exposure, and learning accessibility. The adaptive strategy implemented by the respondents mainly link with technical stuff like stabilizing internet coverage, searching the learning resource more intensive, and providing learning module.

Student Centered Post Covid Teaching Using Asynchronous Platform in Malaysia Polytechnic

This paper is focusing on the Engineering Mathematics course that was conducted on an online platform due to the Pandemic of Covid-19. Mathematics instructors are being forced to digitize their course materials, such as videos of lecture topics over the Internet, but lack a detailed survey that addresses how students interact with course content, the tools available during class, and the available equipment at home. This presence challenge has been encountered through before and after class surveys to close the gap on the abovementioned issue through online learning. Throughout this study, the needs of students of the various departments involved were taken into account for the calculation of their satisfaction feedback that was investigated. The survey results also indicate that the problem of Internet coverage over time no longer exists for most students. Only the result of audio equipment instability due to the non-standard good quality of the equipment used during the online learning course was rated 18.3% out of 100%. The engineering mathematics content was delivered as planned and no critical learning issues were identified.

Telemedicine as one of the directions of innovative technologies in Ukraine

The emergence and development of the latest innovative information technologies have affected all areas of human activity, including medicine. Unsatisfactory health care for people living in remote and rural areas, the need for emergency medical care, the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic in the acute respiratory disease COVID-19, and the impetus for war telemedicine in Ukraine. Telemedicine is becoming an alternative to direct visits to the doctor, saves time and money of the patient, while receiving timely quality medical services. Despite certain pitfalls and obstacles to its development (weak Internet coverage and imperfect technical equipment, ignorance of medical staff in this method of treatment, economic barriers, lack of proper legal support, mental barriers, etc.), the number of people who use this method of providing services, is growing every day. Ukraine, in contrast to Europe and the world, where telemedicine has long been commonplace, today is only taking the first steps to implement this method in health care, which makes this study relevant.The aim of the article is to consider telemedicine as one of the relatively new methods (ways) of providing medical services in Ukraine where distance is a critical factor. We are talking about the use of the latest innovative information and communication technologies for the purpose of providing medical care to the population, namely: diagnosis, treatment, prevention of diseases, including the exchange of experience between doctors "at a distance". The state and level of development of telemedicine in European countries and the world are considered, the positive aspects of its implementation are investigated, which are: the possibility of obtaining a wide range of medical services, spending much less time visiting a doctor; the consultant doctor has the necessary information about the patient, thanks to the digital format of medical records, which significantly speeds up his treatment and eliminates the likelihood of medical error; availability of medical services for the population living in areas where there is a shortage of doctors; the ability to receive emergency medical care, especially in pandemics, martial law and emergencies; providing assistance to medical staff by involving other specialists, creating a council; as well as obtaining a "second" opinion of a specialist to correctly diagnose or treat the patient.The current and future national legislation on the research topic is analyzed. The stages of introduction of telemedicine in health care institutions of Ukraine are determined and considered.

“Catch me if you can” on drivers of venture capital investment in Africa

AbstractThis paper investigates the determinants of venture capital investments across 25 African countries over the period 2014–2019. In particular, it considers the significance of innovation and digitalization in Africa's venture capital activity. The results show that digital infrastructure, high‐technology exports, internet coverage, market size, minority investor protection and government effectiveness are the main drivers of venture capital deals in Africa over the period examined. More generally, these findings highlight that digital infrastructure and connectivity, innovation and institutional frameworks all play an important role in shaping a favorable environment to attract venture capital funding.

Implementation of interactive voice response voting system using wireless communication

Recently, information technology has greatly impacted positively in all aspects of life, which actually with proven facts to a large extent, includes politics. The most recent method which is being adopted is the electronic voting (E-voting) system which is based on the use of mobile phone by the voters. To develop more on the electronic voting system, a secured and reliable e-voting system was put in place. This system protects the privacy of the voter, which is user friendly and can be used anywhere in the world with internet coverage during the time of election. A voice interactive voting system using the global system mobile device was developed with implementation of a dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) decoder which makes the whole system interactive. The method adopted in this research work was the use of a program written in c-language and a microcontroller to control the whole process of voting based on DTMF technology. This method was use to overcome the problem involve in the use of paper ballots. This development came about as a result of the outcome of a study of the electoral process carried out in the electoral commission of Nigeria. Two data-bases would be created by the database administrator; the first is to keep a record of the voter’s information and the second database will have information about the election parties.