Poor Service Quality Research Articles

Evaluation of the reality of electronic banking services provided by banks operating in the city of Nasiriya from the users' point of view of these services.

This research aimed to identify the level and reality of electronic banking services provided by banks operating in the city of Nasiriya through a survey of the opinions of users of these services and thus to know the level of their satisfaction with the electronic banking services provided by the branches of banks operating in the city of Nasiriya, which are (Rafidain Bank, Rashid Bank and the Iraqi Trade Bank), as the study community consisted of customers of these banks and those dealing with electronic banking services. The descriptive analytical approach was used to evaluate the quality of electronic banking services provided by the banks surveyed by designing and distributing a questionnaire form to the target sample to measure the degree of quality of services, their type, and the difficulties facing electronic banking work, where the data extracted from the questionnaire form were studied and analyzed using the statistical program (SPSS). After analyzing this data, the research reached a set of results, the most important of which was the poor quality of electronic banking services provided by banks operating in the city of Nasiriya. Thus, they are below the required level compared to the electronic banking services provided by local and international banks and other competing banks. In light of these results, recommendations were made, the most important of which was for the banks in the research sample to work on raising the level of quality of services Electronic banking by developing and improving its websites and enabling customers to deal with them flexibly, as well as working to increase customers' confidence in electronic services and improve them in quantity and quality.

Assessment of the Provision of Quality Midwifery Care Service at Women’s and New Born Hospital, Lusaka Using a Modified Servqual Scale

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the quality of midwifery care service provided to women by midwives at Women and New-Born Hospital (WNBH) in Lusaka District of Zambia using a modified SERVQUAL scale questionnaire. The study intended to evaluate the quality of the service from the viewpoint of service providers and recipients of the service (Women). Methodology: The research design was a non-experimental design utilisation a quantitative cross-sectional method. Systematic sampling was used to select 385 women and 185 midwives from the various health units. Quantitative data was analysed by employing descriptive statistics using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact was conducted to test statistical significance between the independent and dependent variables. Findings: Majority of women (321, 83.4%) mentioned that midwives provide poor quality of midwifery service while majority of midwives (183, 99.5) termed their quality service level as fair. The service quality gap between the perceived and expected quality service from the SERVQUAL questionnaire ranged from 0 to -15 for all the dimensions under study showing that standards were not reached. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Utilizing the SERVQUAL (service quality) theoretical model the research sought to identify service quality gaps which could enhance customer satisfaction if addressed. Recommendation includes a targeted effort by health facility to improve service quality through in-depth look at the tangibility, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and reliability dimensions of service quality. Quality should be a concern of every health care provider in the delivery system. Health institutions in Zambia, should make it as a mandate to understand client’s quality expectations in order to meet their quality needs leading to improved patient’s satisfaction, and ultimately increased facility utilization.

Would Sales Employees’ Customer-Oriented Selling Approaches Stimulate Customer Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry?

Customer complaints and dissatisfaction have worsened nowadays because of poor quality service delivery by organizations' frontline sales personnel. However, the influence of customer-oriented salespersons’ selling approaches necessary for achieving customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry was investigated. The exact objectives were to determine the influence of consultative selling on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, to examine the influence of solution selling on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, and to explore the influence of relationship selling on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. The study comprises customers of selected fast-food restaurants in Enugu metropolis whose population is non-finite. Using Cochran’s formula, the sample size of 384 was obtained and subsequently, the survey method was adopted and copies of structured questionnaires were distributed to the 384 respondents who returned 300 properly filled copies of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was used in conducting the reliability test and 0.895 was obtained, indicating that there is internal consistency. Furthermore, analysis of data was done using simple linear regression and the findings revealed that consultative selling has a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Similarly, it was revealed that solution selling has a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Moreover, it was revealed that relationship selling has a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Consequently, salesperson's customer-oriented selling traits such as consultative selling, solution selling, and relationship selling have proven to trigger customer satisfaction, thus, managers are encouraged to recruit salespersons with customer-oriented characteristics to enhance revenue generation and profitability via improved customer acquisition, relationship, satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

Consumer Protection in TikTok Shop Sale Transactions Based on Law Number 8 of 1999

Online shopping transactions using the TikTok Shop media often experience problems and poor service quality from the business actors. It is because they commonly commit fraud in online shopping with the TikTok Shop media. It is due to the absence of a direct meeting between the seller and the buyer, the size and color of the goods purchased do not match, the dishonesty of the business actors about the goods being sold, and the consumer's lack of understanding of the details of the product ordered. For this reason, consumer rights must be protected by the provisions of laws and regulations. This study analyses consumer protection in online shopping transactions through the TikTok Shop media based on Law Number 8 of 1999 and Law Number 1 of 2024. This study used empirical jurisprudence with a sociological normative approach. The type of data used is primary data. The results of the study indicate that there are aspects of legal protection for online consumers, as shown by Consumer Protection Law Number 8 of 1999 and Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) Number 11 of 2008. The law provides fundamental rights for consumers, such as the right to security, accurate information, and compensation for non-conforming products. The results indicate the importance of implementing the principles of transparency and responsibility among online business actors to prevent consumer losses. Adequate consumer protection can increase consumer trust in e-commerce and encourage business actors to be more responsible in running their businesses.

Институциональный подход к реализации инновационного проекта «Чистая вода» в регионах России

The article examines the activities of state and municipal authorities in the implementation of the project «Clean Water». The set of organizational, managerial and economic relations for providing the population with clean drinking water is analyzed. The main reasons for bad-th position in providing the population with clean water technology from water sector and insufficient investment, required in the new water treatment technology, water treatment and sanitation, the result of which is that the poor quality of water services, widespread pollution of water sources in industrial and domestic sewage. It is proved that if in the coming years it is not possible to lay the foundations and create mechanisms for the transition of the water supply sector to an innovative development model, then we can expect a further deterioration in the situation in the field of providing clean water to the population. Innovative approaches to the implementation of the «Clean Water» project (institutional support of the project implementation process; development and application of new technologies for water treatment and water supply; use of new organizational and managerial approaches to improving the economic and social efficiency of water supply to the population) are justified. The elements of the institutional support of the Clean Water project are shown. Based on the analysis of the process of water supply and water supply in the Vologda region, the possibility of implementing the project «Clean Water» is justified. The theoretical and methodological analysis of the formation and development of program approaches to providing clean drinking water to the population is carried out, the need for an innovative approach to the implementation of the strategic directions of the State Program «Clean Water» is justified. Justified budgetary efficiency index, which is defined as the ratio of the volume of investments from the Federal budget allocated for this object to the planned target of increasing the share of the population with quality drinking water from centralized water supply systems. It is shown that the achievement of goal-setting in the field of water supply and water supply, including in the implementation of the Clean Water project, should take into account social factors, organizational, managerial and institutional influences, and factors that counteract the achievement of a synergistic effect

Revenue loss reduction in the electrical distribution networks using distributed generators: A case of Tanzania electrical distribution network

Most power losses in power systems occur within distribution networks, resulting in poor service quality, higher electricity costs for consumers, and revenue loss for utility companies. This study suggests strategies for minimizing these revenue losses by integrating distributed generators (DGs) into the distribution networks. The process involves identifying optimal locations and determining the best power output for each DG based on fluctuating power system variables, making it a complex NP-hard optimization problem. Therefore, this study proposes the use of metaheuristic algorithms to solve the DG power dispatch problem and reduce revenue losses in the electrical distribution networks. The proposed technique has been tested in the Tanzanian electrical distribution network using an hourly load profile and tariff D1, T1 and T2 users. Four metaheuristic algorithms were used, namely Golden jackal optimization (GJO), Grey wolf optimizer (GWO), Walrus optimizer (WO) and Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA). The algorithms were evaluated based on convergence profiles and computational times, with GWO performing the best. The study analyzed the impact of the number of DGs on revenue loss reduction, finding that the revenue losses decrease with the increase in the number of DGs. The analysis of the impact of the tariffs category on revenue loss reduction shows that integrating DGs reduced revenue loss by over 56% in all cases. These results demonstrate that DG integration can effectively decrease revenue losses in distribution networks.

Game Design for a Fiverr: Precarity, Regionality, and Platform-Mediation in the Gig Economy

In this article, we investigate users who sell complete design services (i.e., ostensibly creating a full, original game for a client) on the gig economy platform Fiverr. By studying the platform’s affordances and analyzing user profiles, we construct two central arguments: First, we contend that gig economy platforms facilitate, shape, and moderate labor in ways that vary from more commonly discussed models of game design. Second, we push back against Fiverr’s claims of a boundaryless workforce by analyzing local conditions that concentrate labor in particular jurisdictions. After briefly reviewing the history of gig labor, we use the walkthrough method to analyze Fiverr: reviewing registration processes, protocols between buyers and sellers, and platform governance structures. We then survey fifty seller listings to determine what services are available, how much they cost, and how they are clustered geographically. Next, we address the prevalence of Pakistani users among our sample of sellers by scrutinizing global wage inequities and regional initiatives that may push workers toward the gig economy. To close, we reflect on Fiverr’s place in the game design ecosystem, investigate how gig economy labor is framed in educational institutions, and touch upon our research limitations. While gig economy platforms are often critiqued for labor exploitation or mocked for providing poor-quality services, these are both oversimplifications of complex economic, institutional, and policy assemblages. Ideally, this article will serve as a first step in better understanding game development on gig economy platforms and their power to reshape geographies of game development.

The Influence of Work-Life Balance on Service Quality in Government Apparatus with Job Satisfaction as a Mediator Variable

In the government sector, public services are part of the duties of the state apparatus to provide services to the community and loyalty to the state. The quality of government public services is a very important factor in public satisfaction. Employees who have a good work-life balance will provide quality services to the community. Work life balance in employees is influenced by job satisfaction including relationships with colleagues and leaders. Dissatisfaction felt by employees will lead to poor service quality. However, it is not yet known how work-life balance affects service quality. This study aims to examine the effect of work-life balance on employee service quality, through the mediation of job satisfaction. This explanatory quantitative research involved 262 employees in Langkat Regency. Data analysis using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) operated through the SmartPLS program. The results show that job satisfaction mediates the effect of work life balance on employee service quality. The results of this study contribute to the problem of low employee service quality which is influenced by work life balance and mediated by job satisfaction.

Overcoming Barriers to Sustainable Green Transportation in Ho Chi Minh City: A Pathway Toward Achieving SDGs 11 and 13

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam’s largest urban center, is home to over 9 million people and faces significant challenges due to rapid urbanization and the heavy reliance on personal vehicles. Over 95% of urban passenger transport in HCMC relies on high-emission cars, contributing to severe air pollution and slowing progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Greening HCMC’s transport system is essential to reducing emissions and achieving SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Despite ongoing efforts, many barriers continue to hinder this transition. This paper aims to identify and prioritize these barriers using the fuzzy TOPSIS method. The results highlight limited infrastructure investment, a lack of charging stations, and unclear policies as the top obstacles. Other challenges include poor service quality, dependence on private vehicles, low community awareness, high fuel prices, and the cost of green vehicles. These findings offer a foundation for proposing solutions and prioritizing actions to build an eco-friendly transport system. This would directly support the SDGs related to sustainable cities, climate action, and public health. A thorough analysis of these barriers and their impact is vital to expedite and enhance the “greening” process by focusing on factors with significant and decisive influence.

Effective Coverage of Modern Contraceptive Use in Ethiopia: An Ecological Linking Analysis of Service Provision Assessment and National Health Equity Surveys.

The increase in contraceptive prevalence rate (crude coverage) in Ethiopia over the past two decades does not necessarily reflect service quality, and although the proportion of women with unmet needs has decreased, it remains unacceptably high. Hence, this study aimed to estimate the effective coverage (EC) of modern contraceptive methods in Ethiopia, considering the quality of care. We used nationally representative surveys, such as health facility surveys (Ethiopia Service Provision Assessment, 2021/22) and household surveys (National Health Equity Survey, 2022/2023). The descriptive analysis and ecological linking of the two surveys were used to assess the relationship between service quality and utilization among married/in union women in need of limiting or spacing children. In 2022, about 78% of health facilities in Ethiopia were ready to provide Family Planning (FP) services using modern contraceptive methods. Met FP need was 48%, with the quality of services assessed at 36%. After accounting for both service quality and readiness, Ethiopia's effective coverage of family planning services using modern methods was estimated at 16%, with the highest coverage in the Sidama region (21%) and the lowest in the Somali region (2%). The EC of FP services in Ethiopia was low, largely attributed to the poor overall quality of the FP services provided. It is therefore important to ameliorate the quality of FP services in the country.

Mapping priority areas for measles surveillance: stratifying reintroduction and transmission risk in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

To stratify areas at risk of measles transmission in the state of Rio de Janeiro, using the risk assessment tool developed by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with adaptations to the regional context. This ecological study used municipalities of Rio de Janeiro state as the units of analysis. The overall risk of measles transmission was evaluated based on the scores of indicators grouped into four categories: vaccination, threat assessment, quality of health care services, and living conditions. After summing and normalizing the scores for each category, weights were assigned to obtain the risk index. The 20%, 60%, and 90% centiles were used to establish cut-off points, classifying municipalities as low risk, medium risk, high risk, and very high risk. To evaluate the performance of the measles transmission risk index, a spatial overlay was performed with the cases reported in the epidemic period 2018-2020. A progressive increase in incidence rates of measles cases was observed across municipalities, corresponding to escalating transmission risk in different strata. About 97% of measles cases occurred in municipalities classified as high or very high risk, primarily located in the state's metropolitan region. Given the potential risk of measles transmission during the post-elimination period, our findings reinforce the importance of developing and implementing tools to identify priority areas for surveillance. The spatial overlay indicated the method's effectiveness in identifying vulnerabilities associated with transmission other than low vaccine coverage, such as precarious living conditions and poor quality of health care services.

Current status analysis of 5G mobile communication services industry using business model canvas in South Korea

Recently, faced with stagnating subscriber growth, operators of mobile communication services worldwide are actively seeking to revitalize the convergence industry through partnerships with other sectors. South Korea—which launched the world's first 5G service in 2019—had 32 million 5G subscribers by 2023. However, due to issues such as poor service quality, the lack of compelling services, and inadequate network infrastructure relative to initial projections, subscriber growth has been slower than expected. In this paper, we analyze the deployment of 5G and its business models in vital fields like smart factories and digital healthcare, which are expected to play crucial roles in propelling the industry forward. The business model canvas (BMC) framework is employed to identify essential factors for industry revitalization, major challenges, and future strategies. The analysis reveals that the provision of ultra-broadband and low-latency services has been hindered by delays in deploying services at 28 GHz, crucial for advancing the convergence industry. Enhancing the use of the 28 GHz wireless network would enable critical services for smart factories and digital healthcare, such as mobile edge computing, machine vision, telemedicine, and AI-driven medical applications. Furthermore, it is determined that strategies for revitalization at the government level need urgent implementation, contrasting with the current, less effective sandbox-level strategies. The empirical findings of this study allow for an assessment of why 5G subscriber growth lags behind that of 4G, and assist in the formulation of effective policies. Additionally, this data can serve as a foundation for planning strategies to stimulate the convergence industry using future B5G and 6G networks.

A hybrid uplink-downlink secure transmission scheme for UAV-aided coordinated multi-point networks

Recognized as a pivotal facet in Beyond Fifth-Generation (B5G) and the upcoming Sixth-Generation (6G) wireless networks, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communications pose challenges due to limited capabilities when serving as mobile base stations, leading to suboptimal service for edge users. To address this, the collaborative formation of Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) networks proves instrumental in alleviating the issue of the poor Quality of Service (QoS) at edge users in the network periphery. This paper introduces a groundbreaking solution, the Hybrid Uplink-Downlink Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (HUD-NOMA) scheme for UAV-aided CoMP networks. Leveraging network coding and NOMA technology, our proposed HUD-NOMA effectively enhances transmission rates for edge users, notwithstanding a minor reduction in signal reception reliability for strong signals. Importantly, the system's overall sum rate is elevated. The proposed HUD-NOMA demonstrates resilience against eavesdroppers by effectively managing intended interferences without the need for additional artificial noise injection. The study employs a stochastic geometry approach to drive the Secrecy Outage Probability (SOP) for the transmissions in the CoMP network, revealing superior performance in transmission rates and lower SOP compared to existing methods through numerical verification. Furthermore, guided by the theoretical SOP derivation, this paper proposes a power allocation strategy to further reduce the system's SOP.

Enablers and barriers of community health programs for improved equity and universal coverage of primary health care services: A scoping review

BackgroundCommunity health programs (CHPs) are integral components of primary health care (PHC) systems and support the delivery of primary care and allied health and nursing care services. CHPs are necessary platforms for delivering health services toward universal health coverage (UHC). There are limited prior studies on comprehensive evidence synthesis on how CHPs strengthen community health systems for the demand and supply of PHC services. Therefore, this scoping review synthesized existing evidence on the interlinkage between CHPs and the community health system and beyond for delivering and utilising PHC services toward UHC.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review of research articles on CHPs. We identified research articles in six databases (PubMed/Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Embase) and Google Scholar using search terms under three concepts: CHPs, PHC, and UHC. Of the 3836 records identified, 1407 duplicates were removed, and 2346 were removed based on titles and abstracts. A total of 83 articles were eligible for the full-text review; of them, 18 articles were removed with reasons, and the other 16 were included through hand search. Themes were identified and explained using Sacks and colleagues’ “Beyond the Building Block” framework.ResultsA total of 81 studies were included in the final review. Studies described CHPs as foundations for community health system readiness for PHC services, including decentralization in the health sector, community-controlled governance, resource mobilization, ensuring health commodities (e.g., through community pharmacies), and information evidence. These foundational inputs mediate the actions of CHPs by partnership with community organizations and health workforces (e.g., community health workers). CHPs contributed to improved access to health services by providing health services in public health emergencies, affordable and comprehensive care, and modifying social determinants of health.ConclusionsCHPs are platforms for implementing and delivering PHC services close to communities. They help to modify social determinants of health, promote health and wellbeing, reduce care costs, prevent disease progression, and reduce hospitalisation rates. CHPs are integral parts of community health systems and require investment to improve access to PHC services. Gaps and challenges of CHPs include inadequate funding, limited engagement of the private sector, poor quality of health services, and limited focus on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Further implementation research is needed to mitigate the burden of NCDs. Health systems efforts focus on increasing resources (e.g., financial and human) required in CHPs to ensure the quality of PHC services provided through CHPs toward better service access, and reaching the unreached and achieve equity and universality of PHC services.

Factors influencing antenatal care attendance in the eight contact era policy: a case of selected maternal health service facilities in Blantyre, Malawi

BackgroundMaternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi remains high. Effective antenatal care (ANC) services can reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. However, attendance to ANC clinics and the quality of services provided remain a challenge. Malawi adopted the 2016 WHO antenatal care model and there is a need to assess factors that influence antenatal care attendance. The main objective of this study was to assess factors influencing attendance in the era of the eight ANC contact policy in Blantyre.MethodsThis was an exploratory qualitative design in which 28 respondents participated using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions for the data collection process. The study sites included two healthcare facilities, namely Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and Bangwe Health Centre, and a rural community (William Village Bangwe Rural) in Blantyre district. The 28 study participants included 11 ANC attendees, which comprised seven women in their final trimester and four postpartum women who attended ANC during their pregnancy, five midwives running the ANC clinics, and 12 non-users of ANC. The recordings were transcribed verbatim. The data were organized using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft word and analyzed using inductive content analysis.ResultsThe factors promoting ANC attendance in the context of the eight ANC contact policy include; motivation from health workers, family, and spouses and the women’s perceptions of ANC particularly the role it plays in preventing, detecting, and treating illness, but also preventing adverse pregnancy outcomes. On the other hand, the hindering factors to ANC attendance included lack of knowledge of the new ANC visit guidelines, financial constraints, quality of health services provided, attitude of healthcare workers, inadequate availability and training of healthcare workers, perceived poor quality of ANC services and personal beliefs.ConclusionIt is essential to provide comprehensive training to healthcare workers in the antenatal department regarding the new WHO ANC recommendations. This will help improve the quality of services at the antenatal clinics, including ensuring the availability of all necessary resources to encourage attendance. Additionally, promoting comprehensive spousal support, encouraging participation in activities, and adequately planning scheduled visits can help overcome financial barriers and further support antenatal attendance.

Preferences for oral and injectable PrEP among qualitative sub-study participants in HPTN 084.

HPTN 084 compared the safety and efficacy of long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB) to daily oral TDF/FTC for prevention of HIV-1 in uninfected African women. Like a similar trial in MSM/TGW (HPTN 083), the trial was stopped early for efficacy, expediting the need to consider introduction strategies for different populations. We examine survey and qualitative data from a four-country sub-study to examine oral and injectable PrEP acceptability and considerations for CAB access among African women. Participants completed baseline and follow-up surveys on HIV risk perception, sexual behavior. product acceptability and adherence during the blinded trial. Additionally, up to two in-depth interviews each with 73 sub-study participants explored product use and trial-related experiences, during the blinded and unblinded study periods. Using survey data, we classified participants as: engaged in female sex work (FSW), having multiple non-transactional partners, or monogamous. A study statistician identified participants' assigned study arm. We followed a thematic analysis process to read transcripts, develop a codebook and apply codes in NVivo to transcripts with intermittent intercoder reliability checks; using Excel matrices to explore differences across risk categories and study arms. Participants overwhelmingly preferred injections to pills, appreciating the ease, convenience, and privacy of a long-acting formulation. Many participants described challenges with contraceptive and/or study pill adherence, impeded by late night work, unexpected travel, or heavy drinking. Women in the TDF/FTC arm were more likely to describe side effects, compared to those in the CAB arm. Pain also varied widely by study arm. When considering post-trial access to CAB, limited PrEP knowledge, cost and concerns around stigma and poor service quality were potential access barriers. Women's desire for privacy and ease of use outweighed injectable concerns, resulting in a strong preference for CAB. Cost and accessibility will need to be addressed by implementation programs.

SUBSCRIPTION FRAUD DETECTION USING AUTOENCODER IN CASE OF ETHIOTELECOM

Nowadays, telecom services are becoming an essential communication and business facilitators. However, the development of telecom services motivates fraudsters for illegal use. Hence, telecom fraud becomes a serious challenge in telecommunication sector by losing telecom revenue. It also results in poor quality of services for their customers. Telecom data, SMS and voice call are not free from security issues. Despite SMS, and USSD services becomes good options over installable mobile based or web based applications due to lesser cost and real time support, the methods provide fixed amount requirements which is not dynamic way to address the need of these services subscribers. The other challenge of these services is that; the services are not safe from frauds as such, especially in GSM switches. Subscription fraud is one type of fraud in today’s telecom business which is a common telecom fraud. The need of fraudsters is to make money illegally or getting telecom services with the intention of not to pay for the service they used. The prime objective of this study is to build a predictive model using deep auto-encoder to detect subscription fraud in case of Ethiotelecom. The performance of fraud detection model is 98.95% validation accuracy on ethiotelecom call detail record dataset using deep neural network autoencoder and CNN-LSTM autoencder algorithms at threshold of 0.0103 and 0173 respectively.

Dealing with Mental Health Problems and Work Performance Among Frontline Healthcare Workers Through the Influence of Digital Platform in Malaysian Private Hospitals: A conceptual analysis

The purpose of this study to examine mental health problems of frontline healthcare workers and their impact on work performance through exploring the influence of digital platforms in Malaysian private hospitals. This research is essential in addressing previous knowledge and theoretical gaps on the antecedents that denote to mental health problems and how digital platforms are used to improve mental health wellbeing. Basically, this study discusses the impact of four independent variables which are categorized as depression, anxiety, insomnia and distress factors whereas dependent variable is work performance. This study also will discuss problems concerning work performance of frontline healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, medical assistance, pharmacists and HR Management), specifically on poor service quality, turnover intention, work-related burnout, and exhaustion in Malaysian private hospitals. Hence, this study explores new solutions on the employees’ work performance related issues to create awareness for the Malaysian private hospitals in improving mental health issues among front-line healthcare workers to enhance their work performance through the influence of digital platforms. Private hospitals in Malaysia are experiencing critical situations related to poor employees’ performance which indirectly influence the overall productivity. Thus, private hospitals need to provide serious attention towards these related issues. A conceptual framework was formulated based on identified research gaps through the literature review. It is expected that this study will enhance the awareness for the management in Malaysian private hospitals on dealing with mental health problems which impacts work performance by exploring digital platforms as a solution.

Enabling Pandemic-Resilient Healthcare: Edge-Computing-Assisted Real-Time Elderly Caring Monitoring System

Over the past few years, life expectancy has increased significantly. However, elderly individuals living independently often require assistance due to mobility issues, symptoms of dementia, or other health-related challenges. In these situations, high-quality elderly care systems for the aging population require innovative approaches to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Traditional remote elderly care methods face several challenges, including high latency and poor service quality, which affect their transparency and stability. This paper proposes an Edge Computational Intelligence (ECI)-based haptic-driven ECI-TeleCaring system for the remote caring and monitoring of elderly people. It utilizes a Software-Defined Network (SDN) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to reduce latency and enhance responsiveness. Dual Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models are deployed at the edge to enable real-time location-aware activity prediction to ensure QoS and QoE. The results from the simulation demonstrate that the proposed system is proficient in managing the transmission of data in real time without and with an activity recognition and location-aware model by communication latency under 2.5 ms (more than 60%) and from 11∼12 ms (60∼95%) for 10 to 1000 data packets, respectively. The results also show that the proposed system ensures a trade-off between the transparency and stability of the system from the QoS and QoE perspectives. Moreover, the proposed system serves as a testbed for implementing, investigating, and managing elder telecaring services for QoS/QoE provisioning. It facilitates real-time monitoring of the deployed technological parameters along with network delay and packet loss, and it oversees data exchange between the master domain (human operator) and slave domain (telerobot).

Resource allocation scheduling scheme for task migration and offloading in 6G Cybertwin internet of vehicles based on DRL

AbstractAs vehicular technology advances, intelligent vehicles generate numerous computation‐intensive tasks, challenging the computational resources of both the vehicles and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Traditional IoV struggles with fixed network structures and limited scalability, unable to meet the growing computational demands and next‐generation mobile communication technologies. In congested areas, near‐end Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) resources are often overtaxed, while far‐end MEC servers are underused, resulting in poor service quality. A novel network framework utilizing sixth‐generation mobile communication (6G) and digital twin technologies, combined with task migration, promises to alleviate these inefficiencies. To address these challenges, a task migration and re‐offloading model based on task attribute classification is introduced, employing a hybrid deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm—Dueling Double Q Network DDPG (QDPG). This algorithm merges the strengths of the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) and the Dueling Double Deep Q‐Network (D3QN), effectively handling continuous and discrete action domains to optimize task migration and re‐offloading in IoV. The inclusion of the Mini Batch K‐Means algorithm enhances learning efficiency and optimization in the DRL algorithm. Experimental results show that QDPG significantly boosts task efficiency and computational performance, providing a robust solution for resource allocation in IoV.