• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.310-320
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• 2022

This study aimed to identify the change in the public perception of "bats" after the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. Text mining and network analysis were conducted for blog posts, the largest social network in Korea. We collected 9,241 Naver blog posts from 2019 to 2020 just before the outbreak of COVID-19 in Korea. The data were analyzed with Python and NetMiner 4.3.2, and the public's perception of bats was examined through the relationship of keywords by period. Findings indicated that the frequency of bat keywords in 2020 increased more than 25 times compared to 2019, and the centrality value increased more than three times. The perception of bats changed before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, bats were highly recognized as a species of wildlife while in the first half of 2020, they were strongly considered as a threat to human society in relation to infectious diseases and health. In the second half of 2020, it was confirmed that the area of interest in bats expanded as the proportion of ecological and cultural types ofresearch increased. This study seeks to contribute to the expansion and direction of future research in bats by understanding the public's interest in the potential impact of the species as disease hosts post the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.337-344
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• 2020

Stability and sustainability of the biggest banks in any country are extremely important. When big banks become unstable and vulnerable, they typically stop lending. The resulting credit squeeze pushes the economy into recession or a slow growth path. The present study examines the financial stability and sustainability of the 30 large banks operating in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. These banks represent 70% of the GCC banking market. Monte Carlo simulation was attempted assuming that key drivers can vary randomly by twenty percent on either side of the current values. The conclusions are drawn based on 300 simulation trails of the five-year forecast balance and income statement of each bank. Year 2020 is not favorable for the GCC countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices, though the future years may be better. The study identifies several banks, which may become financially unsustainable because the simulations indicate the possibility of negative profitability, unacceptably low capital ratios and potential for heavy credit losses during periods of economic turbulence, which is the current situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through simulation the paper is able to throw light on which factors lead to bank instability and weakness.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.302-306
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• 2020

Objectives: In this paper, we aimed to investigate the evolving debate over border closure in Korea during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, to address the main themes associated with border closure, and to discuss the factors that need to be considered when making such decisions. Methods: We collated and reviewed previously conducted review studies on border closures during infectious disease outbreaks to derive relevant themes and factors. Results: According to our systematic review on border closures and travel restrictions, the effects of such containment efforts are limited. We suggest considering the following factors when determining whether to impose border closure measures: (1) disease characteristics, (2) timeliness of implementation, (3) transmission delay and the basic reproduction number, (4) globalization and pandemics, and (5) social and economic costs. Conclusions: Our assessment indicates that the effects of border closures are at best temporary and limited. Alternative measures must be contemplated and implemented to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in particular and infectious diseases more broadly.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.443-450
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• 2020

This study aims to add insight into the effectiveness of e-training, e-leadership, work-life balance, and work motivation on millennial generation employees' performance in today's work life amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that requires to work more online. Unlike previous generations, millennials are technology-literate, intent on succeeding quickly, give up easily, and seek instantaneous gratification. The population in this study are millennial generation employees at one of Honda motorcycle dealers in Jakarta, Indonesia. The number of samples collected was 200. The sampling technique used is the side probability method, with proportional random sampling technique. The research method used is an associative quantitative approach through survey methods and Structural Equation Modeling. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to millennial generation employees, with results then processed through the Lisrel 8.5 program. The results of this study show, first, that e-training, e-leadership, and work-life balance have positive effect on work motivation. Second, e-training, e-leadership, work-life balance, and work motivation have positive effect on employees' performance. The findings indicate that companies must pay attention to the factors of e-training, e-leadership, and work-life balance to keep employees motivated and to maintain optimal employee performance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic through working online.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.223-231
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• 2021

The study aimed to investigate the impact of social networks safety (SNS) on the marketing information quality (MIQ) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The study examines the statistical differences in social networks safety SNS and marketing information quality MIQ according to the demographics such as age, sex, income, and education. For this study purpose, information security and privacy are two components of social networks safety. The research materials are website resources, regular books, journals, and articles. The population includes all Saudi users of social networks. The figures show that active users of the social network reached 25 Million in 2020. The snowball method was used and sample size is 500 respondents and the questionnaire is the tool for the data collection. The Structural Equation Modelling SEM technique is used. Convergent Validity, Discriminate Validity, and Multicollinearity are the main assumptions of structural equation modeling SEM. The findings show the high positive impact of SNS networks safety on MIQ and the statistical differences in such variables refer to education. Finally, the study presents a set of future suggestions to enhance the safety of social networks in Saudi Arabia.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.308-316
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• 2021

During the past two years, the education systems in the world witnessed unprecedented turmoil due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as most schools and universities in the world closed their doors to more than 1.5 billion students, or more than 90% of the total learners, according to recent figures issued by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Education experts have agreed that post- coronavirus education will not be the same as before, especially with the increasing use of modern technology in education. One of the most important new patterns with a structure digital in education is distance education, this style has been used, in many countries of the world, as an alternative to traditional education, since the beginning of the pandemic. In Saudi Arabia, this type of education has been used in all educational institutions, starting from kindergarten until the postgraduate level, as an alternative to face-to-face education to preserve the health and safety of students and workers in educational institutions. This study aimed to explore the level of satisfaction of preparatory year students on distance learning in their first year of study at Umm Al-Qura University. The findings of this study showed that students in the preparatory year were satisfied with their online learning experience. In addition, the results revealed that there was no effect for gender and location of study on students' level of satisfaction. Saudi universities should continue to work to create a suitable learning environment for students at the e-learning level.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.515-521
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• 2021

The popularity of Islamic financial instruments among Muslims is not surprising. The Islamic capital market is where sharia-compliant financial assets are transacted. It works parallel to the conventional market and helps investors find sharia-compliant investment opportunities. At a time of collective confusion when the COVID-19 epidemic is contributing to unprecedented change, this paper is keen to understand how attractive conventional and Islamic stock markets have been to investors recently. Second, this paper takes advantage of the time-scale decomposition property of the wavelet to simultaneously capture risk exposure and distinguish the risks faced by short- and long-term investors. To this end, this research conducted a two-step investigation of the daily closing equity market price indices for three Islamic stock markets and their conventional counterparts. Given that different financial decisions occur with greater or less frequency, the paper examines the connectedness of stock markets operating at heterogeneous rates and identifies the timescales using wavelet-DCC-GARCH analysis to take account of both the time and the frequency domains of stock market connectedness. The paper findings highlight the strong evidence of contagion that can be seen in nearly all conventional stock markets in the COVID-19 pandemic; they reach a high level of dependency in such health crises. Furthermore, Islamic stock markets prove to be a rich ground for global diversification.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.201-210
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• 2021

COVID-19 presented the world with a severe loss of life and impact, which has no geographical bounds or expected time to when its effects will subside. It has affected countries across the globe, disrupting economic levels and businesses in every industry while also altering individuals' everyday lives. The current research aims to examine the impact of coronavirus pandemic on entrepreneur's business activities and their perceptions on the difference in consumer behavior during this time. The findings reveal the pandemic negatively impacted business productivity and profits, forcing many businesses to physically close permanently. Surprisingly, female entrepreneurs do not perceive a change in consumer behavior compared to pre-COVID-19 times. Interestingly, the results indicate there is a negative impact on employees' efficiency to conduct work in which almost no research has conveyed such a finding. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 445 responses from male and female entrepreneurs in the capital city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using a simple random sample over the period of four months. Ultimately, this research will help entrepreneurs gain more knowledge and a deeper understanding of this new environment necessary to undertaking certain measures and adaptability in order to sustain their businesses during unprecedented times.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.67-82
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• 2021

Both universities and professors are eagerly seeking effective communication method for e-learning under the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the differences in requirements according to the characteristics of students. In this study, the relationship between the demographic characteristics of learners and important/preferred types and methods of communication in terms of learning or expression of opinion was analyzed through chi-square tests. The results showed that communication importances/preferences vary significantly based on learner's characteristics.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.123-130
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• 2021

A novel approach for the detection of cheating during e-Exams is presented here using convolutional neural networks (CNN) based systems. This system will help the proctors to identify any kind of uncertain event at the time of online exams, for which most of the government's across the globe are recommending due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the institutions and students across the globe are badly affected by their academic programs and it is a challenging task for universities to conduct examinations using the traditional methods. Therefore, the students are attending most of their classes using different types of third party applications that are available online. However, to conduct online exams the universities cannot rely on these service providers for a long time. Therefore, in this work, a complete setup of the software tools is provided for the students, which can be used by students at their respective laptops/personal computers with strict guidelines from the university. The proposed approach helps most of the universities in Saudi Arabia to maintain their database of different events/activities of students at the time of E-Exams. This method proved to be more accurate and CNN based detection proved to be more sensitive with an accuracy of 97% to detect any kind of uncertain activity of the students at the time of e-Exam.