Articles

Proposed Marketing Strategy for Pt. Kereta API Indonesia (Persero) to Increase the Number of Passengers

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PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or known as KAI is a State-Owned Enterprise in Indonesia with the obligation of organizing transportation that prioritizes passenger comfort, safety, and security. KAI is the only train transportation service in Indonesia, so it has a strong advantage over other modes of transportation. However, the Covid 19 pandemic has a great impact on KAI which resulted in a significant decrease in the number of passengers in KAI operating areas in Bandung in 2020-2022.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze internally and externally what factors influence the decline in passengers on KAI, and what strategies are appropriate for KAI to implement in order to increase the number of passengers in the future. The internal analysis uses 3 tools, namely STP analysis, 7P analysis, and VRIO analysis, which is intended to determine the strengths and weaknesses of KAI. External analysis is carried out using 4 tools, namely PESTEL, Porter’s 5 Forces, competitor analysis, and customer analysis aimed at knowing the external opportunities and threats being faced by KAI. The findings from the internal and external analysis are used to analyze the SWOT. In the SWOT analysis, it was found that KAI has 3 weaknesses and 4 threats being faced. Then the TOWS Matrix is used to formulate the right proposed strategy for KAI in overcoming existing weaknesses and threats. There are 12 alternative strategies from the results of the TOWS analysis which are then grouped into 4 categories, namely ST strategy, WT strategy, SO strategy, and WO strategy. In these 4 categories, QSPM analysis is used to calculate the greatest weight value for each strategy based on the expert judgment from the KAI. The chosen strategy is the ST strategy which has 3 strategies, namely Implementing Social Marketing that shows the benefits of using KAI for the society & environment, Improving the quality of the services to increase value, and Attractive promotions only available for new members. It is hoped that the selected recommendation strategy can be implemented properly by KAI so that it can reach a wider range of consumers in order to increase the number of passengers

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Impact of Online Teaching on Perception of Parents among School Going Students in Education and Health During Covid-19

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Introduction: Online teaching has widely promoted during COVID-19 pandemic to continue education among students. The study explores the Parents perception that the critical implication of e-learning in improving the nature of students “learning is making them synchronized or lined up with present day students. The aim of the study was to evaluate the parents perception of online teaching among school going students in education and health during COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods: cross sectional study was carried out with 75 samples that met the inclusion criteria were selected using convenience sampling technique. Questionnaires was used to collect the data among participants which contains demographic variables, education and health regarding online teaching during COVID-19.

Result: The findings of the study reveals that there is significantly association with the level of parents perception on online teaching among school going students in education during COVID-19 at p<0.05 with selected demographic variables, and there is no significant association with the level of parents perception on online teaching among school going students in health during COVID-19.

Conclusion: findings of the present study reveals that, the parents perception had a moderately favorable attitude towards online teaching among school going students. The result of this study may be utilized as a baseline for planning awareness campaigns in the future.

Detection of COVID-19 using Modified VGG Architectures

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COVID-19 has created havoc in the world. This paper aims to study and understand the performance of modified VGG-16 and VGG-19 architectures in detecting COVID-19 using the concept of transfer learning. The algorithm has been validated using a private dataset with normal and COVID-19 positive chest X-ray images.

COVID-19 has created havoc in the world. This paper aims to study and understand the performance of modified VGG-16 and VGG-19 architectures in detecting COVID-19 using the concept of transfer learning. The algorithm has been validated using a private dataset with normal and COVID-19 positive chest X-ray images.

The Participation Model of Kampung KB in Prevention of COVID-19 in Banyumas Regency, Indonesia

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Family Panning Village, known as “Kampung KB”, is a social institution at the Neighborhood Council level in villages formed by the Government in 2017. The purpose of this institution is to improve the quality of families living in those areas, including the health aspect. The managers were social workers in those areas. This research aims to investigate the participation of this institution in preventing the COVID-19 pandemic in Banyumas Regency, which cases are pretty high. The research informants included 82 participants from family planning village core administrators in 8 villages and one subdistrict in 4 districts of Banyumas Regency, Indonesia.  The data were collected using online interviews through WhatsApp groups belonging to informants in each village/subdistrict, followed by in-depth interviews conducted in those groups. The qualitative data were then analyzed using an interactive model.  Results of this study show that some villagers in three family planning villages identified with positive COVID-19, yet not all village core administrators knew about those cases. Most family planning villages had no special preventive programs. However, in those family planning villages and the surrounding areas with some villagers identified with positive COVID-19, the core village administrators will perform some preventive efforts more intensively in the forms of news socialization related to COVID-19 through Whatsapp groups of family welfare empowerment, neighborhood association, and neighborhood council groups. In addition, some family planning village core administrators organized the local villagers to help one elderly whose child was intensively treated at a hospital because of identified with positive COVID-19. It shows that the family planning villages may be optimized to improve the local family conditions and strengthen social solidarity.

 

Histological Changes in the Lung Tissue in Association with COVID-19: Review Article

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Background: It has been shown that SARS-CoV-2 is a multi-systemic virus and can affect number of body systems including the respiratory tract, the gastro-intestinal tract, the liver, the kidney and the nervous system. Despite the high mortality rate, there is little literature on postmortem findings of this unique virus, perhaps due to its highly contagious nature, inadequate information on prevention, and a lack of robust infrastructure for appropriate management of infected cases at various centers throughout the world.

Aim of the study: The aim of the current study was to review and list the main histological changes seen in patients died because of COVID-19.

Methods: A systemic search was carried out including Google Scholar, PubMed, and MEDLINE and the Google search Engine in order to scan all available published articles dealing with histological changes affection the lung in patients with documented COVID-19. The following key words were used to accomplish the search mission: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Lung Histology, Pulmonary Histology, Histopathology. The search was limited to articles written in English language. Any article published between the end of 2019 and the time of initiating the current work was reviewed. The information in the current review is totally based on reviewed articles that are mentioned in the section of references.

Results: The main sources of lung tissues were Whole lung biopsy, Postmortem study, Core needle biopsy and Ultrasound based samples from autopsy. The exudative changes include injury to pneumocytes, congestion of capillaries, giant cell formations, dilation of alveolar ducts, thickening of capillaries, edema of interstitium and formation of hyaline membrane. The proliferative changes include hyperplasia of Type-2 pneumocytes with some reactive atypia with proliferation of myofibroblastic cells leading to granulation tissue formation, thickening of alveolar wall accumulation of alveolar macrophages, interstitial thickening which harbors collections of proliferating fibroblasts together with foci of hemorrhage and lymphocytic infiltration.

Conclusion: The main histopathological changes in lung of patients with COVID-19 can be grouped into three main phases, exudative, proliferative and fibrotic phases in addition to changes involving vascular tissues, bronchi and bronchioles and the main changes are the diffuse alveolar damage seen in exudative and proliferative phases.

Diagnosis and Laboratory Measures of Covid-19 as Compared to Tropical Diseases in Pakistan

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Introduction: The new pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly across the globe since first described four months ago after an epidemic of pneumonia and deaths.

Objectives: The main objective of the study is to find the diagnosis of COVID-19 versus tropical diseases in Pakistan.

Material and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in BHU Shikar Pur,District Rajan pur during June 2021 to January 2022. The data was collected from 50 patients who attending the ICU and OPD of the hospital. History of high fever, chills, dry cough, myalgias, and diarrhea were noted in all patients.

Results: The data was collected from 100 patients. Initial laboratory tests were mostly unremarkable but showed mild elevation of liver function tests in all patients. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 by reverse transcriptase–Polymerase chain reaction, and both tests were negative.

Conclusion: It is concluded that COVID-19 is emerging as a pressing threat worldwide, this case underscores the need for clinicians practicing in Pakistan and other tropical regions to consider the possibility of common tropical diseases in all suspected patients.

The Role of Profitability in Moderating the Influence of Liquidity and Leverage on Audit Opinion

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The auditor issued an audit opinion to determine the risk of uncertainty regarding the condition of the company to continue operating where COVID-19 is spreading rapidly. This research aims to look at the influence of liquidity and leverage on audit opinion in the consumer goods sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2020, with profitability as a moderation variable. The research model uses a causal-comparative design and binary logistic regression analysis with secondary data types. 188 consumer goods sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, in 2020, met the criteria for being the research sample. The results of the study showed that liquidity and leverage simultaneously affect audit opinion. Partially, liquidity has no influence on audit opinion, while leverage partially affects audit opinion. Profitability as moderation is able to strengthen the influence of liquidity on opinions but is not able to moderate the influence of leverage on audit opinions. The limitation in this study is that it only selects the company’s internal factors. Further researchers are expected to consider other free variables such as auditor turnover, and opinions submitted by auditors in the previous period, as well as using other sectors such as the real estate property sector. The leverage factor can be used as reference data for auditors to see how the company is able to maintain the condition of the company to avoid bankruptcy in the pandemic.

The Effect of Nanogold-Nanosilver Injection on Increasing the Immunity of Community Affected by Covid-19

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This study aims to determine the best concentration of Nanogold and the effect of Nanogold-Nanosilver injection on increasing the immune system of people affected by Covid-19. The method used is quantitative and quantitative descriptive by observing the progress of giving injections once a month (May – November 2021) regarding the complaints experienced. The best concentration of Nanogold for injection observed on the antioxidant activity and λ maximum stability of Nanogold solution 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 ppm after synthesis and after being stored for 7 days using UV-Vis Spectrophotometry instruments. Produce antioxidant activity 44,21%; 47,88%; 51,37%; 52,32%; 56,16%; 61,57%, with an IC50 of 14 ppm and a λ maximum stability of 5 – 20 ppm is stable; 25 – 30 ppm shifted by 0,50 nm. So, the best concentration of Nanogold was 20 ppm which was then characterized using the TEM instrument, resulting in an average size of 22,67 nm. A mixture of Nanogold-Nanosilver was injected into the respondents and obtained interview data after each injection. Respondents acknowledged that there was a significant difference, as evidenced by the percentage of development of body condition getting better. Thus, Nanogold and Nanosilver materials can increase immunity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Risk Factor and Clinical Outcomes of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID -19) Patients in TAK Province, Thailand

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Objective: To describe the association of clinical characteristics, clinical progression, and outcome of COVID-19 patients in TAK province, Thailand
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Tak province, Thailand from June 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.
Results: The statistical analysis was done on the records of 15,442 patients who underwent RT-PCR of SARS-CoV-2 detection at Tak province during the fourth wave of the outbreak. 53.9% of patients were diagnosed asymptomatic. The overall mortality rate among patients with COVID-19 in this study was 1.81%. Patients with ages over 60 years was associated with increased risk of pneumonia (aOR 5.16, 95% CI 4.52-5.89; P < 0.001) and death (aOR 22.09, 95% CI 12.66-38.53, P < 0.001). Myanmar were also significantly associated with pneumonia (aOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.00-1.33, P < 0.001) and death (aOR 1.99, 95% CI 1.44-2.78, P < 0.001). Chronic Kidney Disease (aOR 3.84, 95% CI 2.31-6.38, P < 0.001) and dyspnea (aOR 4.54, 95% CI 3.27-6.31, P < 0.001) were associated with increased odds of death as well as the presence of more than one comorbidity (aOR 2.87, 95% CI 1.99-4.14, P < 0.001). The previous receipt of vaccination regardless of partially (aOR 0.14, 95% CI 0.08-0 .27; P < 0.001) or fully vaccination (aOR 0.08, 95% CI 0.03-0.19; P < 0.001) was associated with lower odds of mortality. Conclusions: Determining high-risk COVID-19 infected patients can help in the design of appropriate measures and proper management strategies. Ongoing mass vaccination efforts is still an absolutely priority for Thai and non-Thai citizens as a human right to health.

Performance Analysis of Dental and Oral Therapists in Efforts to Manage Dental Services during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Garut Regency

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Based on Garut Regency staffing information in 2020 that the performance target of dental and oral therapist employees during the Covid-19 pandemic was almost 53% in the moderate category so that the performance of dental and oral therapist employees decreased in the performance category compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. Objective: To determine the performance of dental and oral therapists in the management of dental services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Research Methods: Using descriptive analytic design with qualitative methods with spearman rho test on dental and oral therapists in the work area of ​​Garut Regency by using data collection by questionnaire with the help of google forms. Results: The results showed that the performance of dental and oral therapists during Covid-19 in the Garut Regency area was still classified as having moderate criteria of 71.23% and efforts to manage dental services during the Covid-19 period showed good criteria of 86.30%. Conclusion: The performance of dental and oral therapists during the Covid-19 period in Garut Regency was classified as moderate, while in the management of dental services the criteria were good with p value = 0.652 > 0.05, so it can be concluded that this study is not significant.