Asymmetric relationship between green bonds and Sukuk markets: The role of global risk factors

This study investigates the asymmetric connectedness and spillover effects between two ethical fixed-income assets (Sukuk and green bonds) with regard to global risk factors using a sample of 15 Sukuk markets and green bond indices. This complex network allows us to examine the extreme risk spillover and interlinkages across green bonds and Sukuk under different market conditions, captures sudden upward changes in the total and net spillover indices and hence, serves as an alerting system for any impending crisis in relation to global risk factors. Empirical results indicate a persistency feature in the connectedness between Hong Kong and Malaysian, and UK and Nigerian Sukuk markets under different market conditions. More importantly, Sukuk and green bond markets are not largely affected by global risk factors in the middle, upper and lower quantiles. Findings from the portfolio analysis show that Sukuk is effective in hedging the risks of green bonds and global factors. These results of potential diversification characteristics and risk reduction benefits are robust and hold during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Finally, our findings are of paramount importance for investors who are interested in ethical investments as well as policymakers in order to maintain a stable and sound financial system. © 2022 The Author(s)

The extreme return connectedness between Sukuk and green bonds and their determinants and consequences for investors

This study aimed to investigate the return connectedness between Sukuk and green bonds at the middle, left and right tail using the new quantile-based connectivity methodology from Ando et al. (2018). We find that the average level of connectedness estimated at the mean/median is lower than that estimated at the left and right quantiles. Therefore, return connectedness between Sukuk and green links is higher in the left and right tails, indicating that the application of the mean-based connectivity measure is inappropriate. Next, we show that the connectedness of returns varies over time but varies less in the tails. In particular, the dynamic connectivity analysis indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the Sukuk and green bond markets. The Return connectedness driver's analysis shows the importance of macroeco-nomic conditions, particularly in the middle and lower quintiles. The US dollar bodes well positively for both bears and bulls, while uncertainty in equity markets amplifies return spillovers in the lower quintile. Moreover, the weak return spillovers between Sukuk and green bonds in-dicates that there is indeed an opportunity for optimal asset allocation. The highest hedging ef-ficiency can be achieved by taking short positions in US Green Bonds.

Leadership as the Main Driving Factor of Regional Sustainable Development Cooperation: A Case Study of ASEAN Tuna Ecolabelling (ATEL)

ASEAN Tuna Ecolabelling (ATEL) has agreed on a scheme of tuna ecolabelling after the approval at the Ministerial of ASEAN Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) meeting in 2018. It makes ATEL the first regional seafood eco-label scheme in the world. It becomes an achievement of ASEAN in supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially for tuna fisheries management. Unfortunately, after four years, its scheme has not yet been completed and takes no support from ASEAN countries, including Indonesia as the initiator. Lack of leadership in ASEAN is the leading cause of the delay in the implementation of ATEL in its region. Leadership is the primary key to encouraging sustainable development, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study aims to analyze the lack of leadership as the main factor in the low effectiveness of regional cooperation in ASEAN. This research is expected to be a solution for completing the ATEL implementation process in that region. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Analysis of the frequency dynamics of spillovers and connectedness among Islamic and conventional banks and their determinants: evidence from Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) markets

The study investigates the return spillovers across 20 Islamic and 34 conventional banks among GCC markets (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait) over the period 2005–2022 based on Dieobold and Yilmaz (2014) and Barunik and Krehlik (2018) methods. The outcomes interestingly reveal that the spillover between markets is time-varying, asymmetric, and crisis-sensitive. Moreover, short-oriented spillovers dictate the long-oriented spillovers, while long-oriented spillovers establish the major chunk of the total return spillovers. The results of the DY and BK approach show a weak connectedness between all Islamic banks rather than conventional banks of GCC. Subsample analysis of COVID-19 and GFC strengthens the total and short-oriented spillovers more than long-term spillovers. The global financial stress is exposed with the most substantial coherence, increasing the connectedness of Islamic banks in the short and long-oriented markets compared to conventional banks. The results of the study have practical implications for bankers, central banks, Islamic banks, policymakers, international economic institutions, banking investors, FIIs, DIIs, and academia. Additionally, the current findings can be guiding forces for many investors across the world to take their portfolio decision by leveraging Islamic banks’ securities. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Urologic Adverse Events of the COVID-19 Vaccination

Introduction &Objective: There have been anecdotal reports of adverse events associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, especially within media coverage of the vaccine's initial rollout. We aim to quantify and analyze urologic adverse events and symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination. Method(s): We queried the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for all reported symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination, as well as following any vaccination, for the period of December 2020 through April 1st, 2022. We identified fifteen common adverse urologic events. Using proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and reporting odds ratio (ROR), we analyzed the reporting data in the VAERS database. Result(s): A total of 6,027,972 vaccinations, including 3,666,529 COVID-19 vaccinations were identified from the queried period with 1,560,835 and 803,169 adverse events reported, respectively. Out of all adverse event reports reported following COVID-19 vaccination, the most common adverse event was urinary tract infections which only accounted for 2,263 adverse events. The median age of the patients reporting urologic symptoms was 50 years old (IQR 22-64) and 66% of the patients were female. Conclusion(s): Urologic symptoms reported after COVID-19 vaccination continue to be extremely rare in total number but furthermore, none of the adverse urologic events had positive signals. Although there have been anecdotal reports of adverse events associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, a review of the VAERS database did not find any positive signals. Our findings suggest these adverse events are not related to the COVID-19 vaccine but further evaluation and analysis are ongoing.

Analyzing The Effect of COVID-19 on Mental Health based on Bangladeshi University Students

The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on a representative sample of Bangladeshi uni- versity students. The study conducted a cross-sectional approach including HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and CAS (Coronavirus Anxiety Scale), obtaining sufficient data to evaluate the correlation between COVID- 19 Lockdown lifestyle and psychological impact on the students. The CAS (Coronavirus Anxiety Scale), Anxiety and Depression models were constructed to predict individuals' psychotic state, and an indisputable interpretation process has been consummated to assemble sufficient results. The study conducted an unequivocal evaluation to observe the crucial socio and environmental factors associated with young age, low socioeconomic position, gender, scholastic lifestyle, immobility, solitary, academic and occupational impediments. © 2022 ACM.

Covid-19 Modular Construction

Modular construction methods have been widely used in the civil engineering industry as they provide ease of assembly, convenience of design, and allowing for flexibility in terms of placement. With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, hospitals’ capacity is decreasing as more intensive care units (ICU) rooms are allocated to those cases. The limited capacity can be overcome by using modular construction to provide field hospitals, to accommodate more patients. This paper adopts transient Lagrangian computational fluid dynamics simulations to investigate the importance of having an appropriate ventilation system in place to achieve containment of contaminants within a modular construction room. The model was validated using the results from the experimental simulation of aerosol in an airconditioned space. The performance of having 10, 20, and 40 air changes per hour (ACH) was examined for a room with a geometry of 6.1 × 2.5 × 3.0 m. It was observed that the rate at which the mouth-generated aerosols were filtered towards the ventilation system (outlet) increased by 137% by increasing the ACH from 10 to 40. Aerosol particles landing on equipment decreased by 25% when the rate was increased to 40 ACH. © 2022, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

IoT Based Health Monitoring System and Its Challenges and Opportunities

With the incarnation of novel COVID-19, health care is getting more preference in each country. IoT-based health monitoring systems might be the best option to monitor infected patients and be helpful for elderly population. In this paper, analyzed different IoT-based health monitoring systems and their challenges. Searched through established journal and conference databases using specific keywords to find scholarly works to conduct the analysis. Investigated unique articles related to this analysis. The selected papers were then sifted through to understand their contributions/research focus. Then tried to find their research gap and challenges, created them into opportunities and proposed a GSM-based offline health monitoring system that will conduct with the healthcare providers through communication networks. Hopefully, this model will work as an absolute pathway for the researchers to establish a sustainable IoT-based health monitoring system for humankind. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Development of Premium Ecotourism in the Outermost Islands

The tourism sector is the economic sector hardest hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. A breakthrough is needed in line with health protocols to maintain physical and social distance. Tourism on the outermost islands is an alternative solution. As the largest archipelagic country globally, Indonesia has the potential for the outermost islands that can be used as tourist destinations. A breakthrough policy is needed in the management of ecotourism in the outermost islands related to the limited capability of the Government, such as the high costs for transportation and logistics arrangements in the outermost islands. Tourism in the outermost islands must be directed towards premium tourism. Its market share is middle to upper-class tourists who want a new atmosphere and challenges and are willing to pay quite a lot of money. This study presents a management model that divides each government agency’s duties in managing ecotourism in the outermost islands with a premium scheme and the National Border Management Agency being the operator. The model is expected to encourage the formulation of targeted policies for the management of the outermost islands, including the presence of cruise ships.

Face Mask Detection using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to reduce the spread of Covid-19

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on the world's health. The healthcare sector is in a state of disaster. Many precautionary steps have been taken to prevent the spread of this disease, including the usage of a mask, which is strongly recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this paper, we used three deep learning methods for face mask detection, including Max pooling, Average pooling, and MobileNetV2 architecture, and showed the methods detection accuracy. A dataset containing 1845 images from various sources and 120 co-author pictures taken with a webcam and a mobile phone camera is used to train a deep learning architecture. The Max pooling achieved 96.49% training accuracy and validation accuracy is 98.67%. Besides, the Average pooling achieved 95.190/0 training accuracy and validation accuracy is 96.23%. MobileNetV2 architecture gained the highest accuracy 99.72% for training and 99.82 % for validation. © 2021 IEEE.

Integration of ecolabelling and ecotourism schemes: Case study of forest honey in Indonesia

The growing level of public awareness of environmental sustainability increases understanding of environmentally friendly schemes such as ecolabeling. The community began to be moved to be involved in environmental conservation activities including the implementation of the ecolabel scheme. Likewise with Indonesia. Communities in several areas have been motivated to apply the selfdeclared forest honey ecolabel scheme. This encourages the preservation of nature around the forest area where the ecolabel scheme is implemented. However, there are still problems in implementing the ecolabel scheme, namely the welfare of the community. This requires more work from the Government. One of the things that the Government can more easily encourage to help improve the welfare of forest communities is by facilitating areas that implement an ecolabel scheme to become ecotourism destinations. In the post-Covid-19 virus pandemic like today, ecotourism is urgently needed and it is safer and more comfortable for tourists. This study reviews the model of integrating ecolabel schemes with ecotourism which will create a balance between environmental sustainability and community welfare. The research is based on a literacy study along with comparation with other countries. This is a tangible form of sustainable development. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020.