The Impacts of COVID-19 Crisis upon the Consumer Behaviours in Mueang Khon Kaen District, Thailand

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is widely spread across the world. The COVID-19 lockdown policy has forced dine-in restaurants and cafes to close. Consequently, there is a plunge in the global economy into severe recession due to less economic activities. On the other hand, the demand for online food delivery services has increased during this period. As a result, the changes in consumer behaviours during the COVID-19 crisis are taken into consideration. Are the COVID-19 crisis and the changes in consumer behaviours related? Due to the new model of consumption, our study aims to observe and discern the relationship between COVID-19 crisis and changes in consumer behaviours. Data were collected by a questionnaire asking about participants’ general information, the impacts of COVID-19 on other relevant aspects, and the changes in consumer behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey samples, including the population in Mueang Khon Kaen District, Thailand, were randomly selected through a random sampling method with a total of 634 respondents (241 males, 380 females, and 13 others). Our results revealed that the respondents have been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and their consumer behaviours have been changed significantly compared to the pre-pandemic period. Additionally, statistical analyses showed that there is a significant correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in consumer behaviours. This study could serve as a guideline of further studies about the COVID-19 pandemic and consumer behaviours, which can be appropriately adopted in the era for the new normal.

Graduate Tracer Study of the Faculty of Nursing University of Tripoli, Libya: An Evidenced-Based Information for Curriculum Update and its Implications in Quality Assurance

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The Faculty of Nursing ensures the quality of education it provides is suitable to the health needs to meet the demands and challenges of health care in the country. Deemed to produce future nursing leaders and educators, the faculty has undertaken its first graduate tracer study.
Graduate tracer studies obtain both intrinsic and extrinsic results and benefits. Intrinsic results can be used to point at areas for improvement in study programs and service delivery at universities. The study, based on the Commission on Higher Education-adapted survey questionnaire filled in by the Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates batch 2011-2017. With descriptive-normative research design and snowball sampling technique, smoothed the way for 126 respondents out of 189 graduates. Data showed a predominance of females over males, single over married, mostly within 2528 years of age. Majority were employed as full time in a government health facility, as well as with satisfaction in their work as a nurse ascribable to monetary remuneration. The job placement rate of the graduates is 65%, filling in the shortage of nurses in Libya. The competency-based curriculum is consistent, aligned and relevant to the nursing job requirements in Libya. Accorded well to the World Health Organization’s patient safety curriculum, ‘Safe and Quality Nursing Care’ competency appraised as the most used in their area of nurse work. Followed by ‘communication’, ‘human relations’, ‘research’, ‘problem solving’, and ‘leadership’. ‘Critical thinking’ however deemed as least used competency in the care of patients.
The study recommends regular graduates tracking, further curriculum development and policy on educational achievement as one of the criteria for remuneration. Furthermore, researches on topics related to extent of knowledge and application of the learned competencies in nursing education, employability and the employers’ preferences on employability of the graduates, job satisfaction and its factors among graduates and competencies used by nurse-employed and non-nurse employed nursing graduates. Lastly, an assessment of the faculty’s program and learning is essential for teaching innovations’ upgrade and development not to disregard strategies to improve critical thinking abilities and use among nurses in their area of practice. This is to achieve the end goal of this present study, to entrench quality assurance within the faculty from the evidenced-information in distinction to the voice of its graduates.

Agents of Deterioration of Organic Museum Objects and Their Management: A Review

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Museums stored a number of objects which shows our cultural and natural heritage. These heritage materials are rich source of educative materials and are organic in nature. After a passage of time these collection become deteriorate due to some agencies.
Organic objects are of immense importance, that’s why their protection and preservation are very necessary. In this article the author summarizes different agencies of deterioration and their preventive conservation treatment.

The Tourism Management in the Participatory Organic Farming Way at Bankamkhonta Village, Yasothon Province, Thailand

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The objectives of this research were to study the potential of Bankamkhonta community in organizing community-based tourism on the organic farming way and to find a way to develop Bankamkhonta community as a community-based tourism destination in the organic farming way by using the participatory action research process. Conducting this research used group discussions, field visits, workshops, and learning exchanges from successful communities in tourism management. Content analysis is a method of analyzing research data. The results showed that Bankamkhonta community is a community with potential for community-based tourism management on the organic farming way because it is an area that already has organic farming and is a community where people gather to do social activities about continuous and concrete organic farming. The community is able to organize tourism that focuses on activities that tourists experience and understand the value of organic farming or organic agro-tourism and may upgrade such tourism to health and wellness tourism in the future.

Cannabis as an Alternative Treatment for 11 Medical Conditions: a Literature Review

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Over the past years, the use of medical cannabis is becoming of interest in the medical world. It has been recognized as an alternative treatment and has been legalized in many countries for medical purposes. Although there have been numerous claims of what cannabis can do, conclusive findings regarding its properties remain elusive. While access to cannabis is high, information accessible to consumers is still limited. Countless past studies have been done on cannabis’ effect on health issues. Hence, the purpose of this literature review was to conclude and summarize the past findings on the therapeutic effect of cannabis, focusing on the Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD), on the following medical conditions; chronic pain, opioid use disorder (OUD), obesity, sleep disorders, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Alzheimer’s disease. The risks of cannabis consumption for these issues were also identified. The results suggested that cannabis has the ability to assist in chronic pain, OUD, sleeping disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease. Regarding PTSD, psychosis, and TBI, there have been findings only about CBD which showed a beneficial effect on the diseases. It could not be concluded that cannabis can be used to treat obesity, cancer, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease due to limited evidence. The majority of the studies also demonstrated that high doses of CBD and low doses of THC should be used to maximize benefits. More clinical trials and research need to be conducted as there are research gaps and insufficient information in various subjects.

Estimation and Investigation of Geopotential and Scale heights over Iseyin, Nigeria

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In this study, the monthly averaged daily mean temperature, relative humidity and surface pressure data obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) during the period of thirty eight (1979 – 2016) years were used to estimate the monthly variation of geopotential and scale heights for Iseyin located in the South Western region of Nigeria. The variations of geopotential and scale heights with the meteorological parameters were investigated. The results revealed that the highest and lowest values of geopotential height were found in the months of March and July with 194.2424 m and 157.3922 m respectively while the highest and lowest values of scale height were found in the months of March and August with 8.8946×〖10〗^3 m and 8.7825×〖10〗^3 m respectively. Furthermore, it is obvious that high values of geopotential height were recorded during the dry season and low values during the rainy season; the scale height shows almost close observation. The variation of geopotential and scale heights with mean temperature depicts a direct relationship while the variation of geopotential and scale heights with atmospheric pressure depicts an inverse relationship. In addition, the variation of geopotential and scale heights with relative humidity shows that an almost opposite pattern of variation was observed in the months from May to October.