Due to their role as a centre of knowledge and character development,public higher education institutions serve as the best platform for emphasisinghealth communication messages and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Highereducational institutions’ employees should have good physical and mentalhealth to enable them to demonstrate good values to the students. Thus,the social cognitive theory was specifically selected to take a closelook at how a conducive environment and knowledge influence employees’intention towards the tobacco-free policy. This study used the partial leastsquares and structural equation (...) modelling software to examinefactors influencing the adoption of tobacco-free policy among employeesin a Malaysian higher education institution. It also measured the impact ofworkplace health promotion on employees’ intention to comply with tobaccocessation regulations. Statistical results confirmed that all three constructsof employees’ environment, self-efficacy, and knowledge have a significant influence on employees’ intention to adopt the tobacco-free policy. The resultsof the study contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of highereducation institutions’ tobacco-free policy in Malaysia. The findings are usefulfor policymakers, higher education institutions, and practitioners in enhancingtobacco cessation policy in Malaysia. Limitations and suggestions for futureresearch are also included in this paper. (shrink)

In this Article we examine Israel’s ongoing process of bank privatization to explore the link between privatization programs and the ownership structure of public companies. Our thesis is that concentrated ownership provides regulators with a platform for exerting informal influence over corporate decision-making. This platform serves regulators as a safety valve when all else fails, especially when they would like firms to terminate senior executives or board members. Communicating with controlling shareholders increases the likelihood that both the regulatory intervention and (...) the reasons underlying it will remain confidential. Moreover, controlling shareholders can make swift decisions and implement them quickly, with no need for formal group deliberation. When informal influence is important — as in the case of banks — the government may prefer firms with controlling shareholders to widely held firms. It may therefore prefer to sell a control block in the firm undergoing privatization rather than distribute its shares through the stock market. (shrink)

Malaysia had its first four patients with COVID-19 on 25 January 2020. In the same week, the World Health Organization declared it as a public health emergency of international concern. The pandemic has since challenged the ethics and practice of medicine. There is palpable tension from the conflict of interest between public health initiatives and individual’s rights. Ensuring equitable care and distribution of health resources for patients with and without COVID-19 is a recurring ethical challenge for clinicians. Palliative care aims (...) to mitigate suffering caused by a life-limiting illness, and this crisis has led to the awareness and urgency to ensure it reaches all who needs it. We share here the palliative care perspectives and ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. (shrink)

The Doctor Strange offers a unique opportunity to explore the question: how can people say that something exists if it can't be detected in the physical world. As a physician and a man of science, Doctor Stephen Strange has a strictly materialist worldview. Before Kamar‐Taj, Strange sought his cure through the only means he could understand: medicine and science. Medicine and science always push the boundaries of what people can know about the human body and the universe, constantly discovering (...) new methods and drugs through research and experimentation. The Doctor Strange provides an opportunity to consider the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard writes that “it is also the ultimate passion of the understanding to will the collision” with the unknown. Kierkegaard describes two different kinds of teachers in the Philosophical Fragments: Socratic teacher and the god as teacher. The Ancient One seems to be a combination of the Socratic teacher and the god as teacher. (shrink)

Doctor Stephen Strange was a renowned neurosurgeon in his “previous life”, but after his time in Kamar‐Taj he is mostly associated with his mastery of the mystic arts. In Doctor Strange people learn that mastery of physical skills is critical for mastery as a mystic. In addition to the physical skills of martial arts, the portrayal of Doctor Strange is reminiscent of many aspects of Eastern philosophical traditions. Ironically, the reason that Strange originally gave for seeking the elixir is (...) that he swore the Hippocratic Oath, which requires him to prescribe medical treatments for the good of his patients. One problem with applying the Hippocratic Oath to Strange's choice is that it's meant to apply to the doctor‐patient relationship. Perhaps Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the creators of Doctor Strange, meant to show that, by losing his skill as a surgeon, Strange finally learned what it means to be a good physician. (shrink)