Tail-event driven NETwork dependence in emerging markets

This paper employs the Tail Event NETwork (TENET) to identify financial markets with greater potential risk, and simultaneously investigate the interdependence between them. We find strong time-varying connectedness across 23 emerging markets during the main crisis episodes, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, using data from January 1995 to May 2021. The network analysis revealed that emerging European markets are top risk transmitters, whereas emerging Asian markets are top risk receivers. China showed disconnection from the network, reflecting its diversification potential for investors. Our findings offer several policy and regulatory implications. • We investigated the tail-event network dependence of 23 emerging markets;• Tail-Event NETwork (TENET) technique has been employed;• We show that European emerging markets are top risk transmitters, while Asian economies are top risk receivers;• Chinese market is decoupled from the rest of markets analysed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Emerging Markets Review is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Return and volatility spillovers among global assets: Comparing health crisis with geopolitical crisis

This study investigates the dynamic mechanism across equity, cryptocurrency, and commodity markets before and during health and geopolitical crisis (Covid-19 and the Ukrainian war). We apply the (TVP-VAR) based extended joint connectedness methodology, to understand return and volatility connectedness of financial markets for 2010–2023 period. The empirical results indicate that spillovers were particularly high during the Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war. First, health and geopolitical risks considerably impact the return and volatility system. Second, the value of total joint connectedness during the COVID-19 period was greater than during Russia-Ukraine war crisis. Also, evidence suggests that Commodity markets, received the highest shocks from other markets after Russia-Ukraine war and wheat was the main commodity receiving chocks from both health and geopolitical crisis. Our findings indicate that spillover channels differ depending on the type of crisis. Specifically, low-frequency components are the main transmission channels during the health crisis, whereas high-frequency components are the main transmission channels during the geopolitical crisis. Finally, results indicate that, cryptocurrency markets played some minor role in transmitting risks between markets. Our results are important in understanding how assets affect return and volatility spillover during geopolitical and health crises and are of particular importance to policymakers, market regulators, investors, and portfolio managers.

Lack of Benefit of High Flow Nasal Oxygen Therapy as Ceiling of Treatment for Severe COVID-19 Pneumonitis in Elderly Frail Patients: A Single Centre Observational Study.

Background: Severe COVID-19 pneumonitis in elderly frail patients is associated with poor outcomes, and therefore invasive mechanical ventilation is often deemed an inappropriate course of action. Some evidence suggests high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) may prevent the need for invasive ventilation in other groups of patients, but whether it is an appropriate ceiling of care for older frail patients is unknown. Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonitis requiring FiO2>60% who were deemed inappropriate for invasive ventilation or non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure ventilation (CPAP). Our local protocol based on national guidance suggested these patients should be considered for HFNO. We observed whether the patients received HFNO or standard oxygen therapy (SOT) and compared mortality and survival time in these groups. Results: We identified 81 patients meeting the inclusion criteria. From this group, 24 received HFNO and 57 received SOT. The HFNO group was similar in age, BMI and co-morbidities to the SOT group but less frail, as determined by the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). All 24 patients that received HFNO died in comparison to 46 patients (80.7%) in the SOT group. Mortality in the HFNO group was significantly higher than in the SOT group. Conclusion: Elderly frail patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonitis deemed inappropriate for invasive ventilation and did not benefit from HFNO. Further, HFNO may have been associated with harm in this group.

From forests to faucets to fuel: Investigating the domino effect of extreme risk in timber, water, and energy markets

This study explores the interdependence between timber, water, and energy markets and investigates the potential domino effect of extreme risk across these markets. Specifically, using CAViaR-TVP-VAR, we examine the role of water and timber investments as safe-havens and hedges for traditional energy markets, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate that water and timber markets can serve as reliable safe-haven options for energy investors. Moreover, our findings suggest a weak link between natural gas and its counterparts, underscoring the need for energy portfolios to diversify. This study provides valuable insights for investors seeking to navigate extreme risk.

Nuclear medicine practices during the COVID-19 pandemic—review of some recently published protocols

BackgroundWith the global surge in COVID-19 pandemic, it has become inevitable for everyone, inclusive of nuclear medicine personnel, to play their role in combating and containing its transmission. During fall 2019, China encountered a novel coronavirus in Wuhan city which was later on termed as COVID-19. The pneumonia caused by COVID-19 is characterized by dry cough, fever, fatigue, and shortness of breathing (dyspnea). Until now, this virus has spread worldwide and continues to cause exponential causalities.Main bodyThis global catastrophic scenario calls for stringent measures to control COVID-19 infection. Thus herein, the respective authors have endeavored to review precautionary measures for nuclear medicine department, encompassing its personnel as well as the patients so that intradepartmental transmission can be prevented. This requires development and execution of a robust and dynamic plan elaborating the healthcare guidelines. Hence, our review paper covers the arena of nuclear medicine services in particular.ConclusionNuclear medicine can play its role in mitigating COVID-19 transmission to personnel and patients if provided with ample PPEs and guidelines are strictly followed. With implementing SOPs (standard operating procedures) based on these guidelines, nuclear medicine facilities will be better prepared for impromptu actions in case of any future outbreak while retaining the smooth flow of obligatory healthcare services.

COVID-induced sentiment and the intraday volatility spillovers between energy and other ETFs.

Did Covid19 induce market turmoil impact the intraday volatility spillovers between energy and other ETFs?. To examine this, we first estimate the realized volatility of ETFs using the 5-min high-frequency data. Next, we employ time-varying parameter vector autoregressions (TVP-VAR). Finally, we utilize the wavelet coherence measure to test the time-frequency impact of COVID-induced sentiment on the spillovers by employing investors' psychological and behavioural factors. We find that oil and stock markets are net transmitters while currency, bonds, and silver markets are net receivers. The wavelet analysis embarked significant impact of media coverage and fake news index towards shaping investors' pessimism for their investments. We proposed useful implications for policymakers, governments, investors, and portfolio managers.

Systemic risk contagion of green and Islamic markets with conventional markets.

Financial markets are exposed to extreme uncertain circumstances escalating their tail risk. Sustainable, religious, and conventional markets represent three different markets with various characteristics. Motivated with this, the current study measures the tail connectedness between sustainable, religious, and conventional investments by employing a neural network quantile regression approach from December 1, 2008 to May 10, 2021. The neural network recognized religious and conventional investments with maximum exposure to tail risk following the crisis periods reflecting strong diversification benefits of sustainable assets. The Systematic Network Risk Index spots Global Financial Crisis, European Debt Crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic as intensive events yielding high tail risk. The Systematic Fragility Index ranks the stock market in the pre-COVID period and Islamic stocks during the COVID sample as the most susceptible markets. Conversely, the Systematic Hazard Index nominates Islamic stocks as the chief risk contributor in the system. Given these, we portray various implications for policymakers, regulatory bodies, investors, financial market participants, and portfolio managers to diversify their risk using sustainable/green investments.

Information transmission in regional energy stock markets.

Since markets are undergoing severe turbulent economic periods, this study investigates the information transmission of energy stock markets of five regions including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Pacific where we differentiated the regional energy markets based on their developing and developed state of economy. We employed time-frequency domain from Jan 1995 to May 2021 and found that energy stocks of developed regions are highly connected. The energy markets of North America, South America, and Europe are the net transmitters of spillovers, whereas the Asian and Pacific energy markets are the net receivers of spillovers. The results also reveal that the connectedness of regional energy markets is time and frequency dependent. Regional energy stocks were highly connected following the Asian financial crisis (AFC), global financial crisis (GFC), European debt crisis (EDC), shale oil revolution (SOR), and COVID-19 pandemic. Time-dependent results reveal that high spillovers formed during stress periods and frequency domain show the higher connectedness of regional energy stock markets in the short run followed by an extreme economic condition. These results have significant implications for policymakers, regulators, investors, and regional controlling bodies to adopt effective strategies during short run to avoid economic downturns and information distortions.

Co-movement between dirty and clean energy: A time-frequency perspective

In the backdrop of the recent covid-19 pandemic there is a renewed interest to understand the interlinkages between dirty and clean energies. In this regard, the study examines the co-movement structure between clean energy stocks and dirty energies before and during the covid-19 outbreak. The study analyses the interlinkages between the underlying markets by utilizing a vast sample of dirty energies namely crude oil, heating oil, gas oil, gasoline and natural gas, whereas clean energy sector is proxied by S&P Global clean energy index and Wilder Hill clean energy index. We make use of rolling window wavelet approach and wavelet coherence analysis to identify interdependencies between the clean energy stocks and dirty energies. The results exhibit weak linkages between clean energy equities and dirty energies in the short-run, while;we also record few occasions of high co-movements among dirty and clean energy markets in the long-run. Noticeably, a distinct decoupling effect persisted between dirty and clean energy markets. In addition, the findings also illustrate that clean energy market is relatively isolated from dirty energies during the recent pandemic crisis, amplifying portfolio diversification benefits across clean and dirty energy markets. The findings of the study hold meaningful insights for investors, policy makers and other market participants in energy financial markets.

Understanding the process of meanings, materials, and competencies in adoption of mobile banking.

COVID-19 has changed the way people live, bank, shop, and work by moving them toward digitalization. It has also driven the trend toward a cashless society, and this change has taken place in an increasingly uncertain and fearful environment. This study explores the social practice of mobile banking (MB) adoption during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from banking customers and managers using online customer reviews, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to develop an in-depth understanding of the subjective realities of their use of MB. This approach also ensured that social distancing practices were maintained during interviews conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak. Analysis of the data suggests that social media, social circles, family members, and teams of customer service agents play an important role in developing the social practice of MB. This study culminates in the presentation of the social practice of MB adoption (SPOTA) framework. This framework is based on extended social practice theory in the context of MB adoption. The study discusses the practical implications of the findings for systems developers. The many expectations of people with or without disabilities of MB are discussed and the findings could be used to improve the accessibility and habitual practice of MB adoption.

Lung cancer recovery focus post pandemic: an income-deprived area paradigm.

'Stage shift' has been proposed as a marker of impact of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in lung cancer services; however, there are no data available specifically from income-deprived areas. Thus, this study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lung cancer care in our area (Corby; among the most income deprived in England) and identified focus recovery areas. The study was a retrospective observational study of 668 consecutive patients with lung cancer at a district general hospital, pre-, during and after the COVID peak. Outcomes were the overall number of cases, presenting staging and treatment pathway. Overall, 32 fewer patients were diagnosed during the pandemic, with more inpatient diagnoses (p=0.01) and fewer primary care referrals (p<0.0001). There were no differences observed in treatment intent or 'stage shift'. Our results suggest that COVID-19 negatively affected the whole lung cancer pathway in our area. However, 'stage shift' might not be ideal to assess the impact of COVID-19 in income-deprived areas. Further studies will help the strategic rollout of a screening programme to identify patients with lung cancer earlier on in such areas.

Decision Support System Based on Complex Fractional Orthotriple Fuzzy 2-Tuple Linguistic Aggregation Operator

In this research, we provide tools to overcome the information loss limitation resulting from the requirement to estimate the results in the discrete initial expression domain. Through the use of 2-tuples, which are made up of a linguistic term and a numerical value calculated between [0.5,0.5), the linguistic information will be expressed. This model supports continuous representation of the linguistic data within its scope, permitting it to express any information counting received through an aggregation procedure. This study provides a novel approach to develop a linguistic multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) approach with complex fractional orthotriple fuzzy 2-tuple linguistic (CFOF2TL) assessment details. Initially, the concept of a complex fractional orthotriple fuzzy 2-tuple linguistic set (CFO2TLS) is proposed to convey uncertain and fuzzy information. In the meantime, simple aggregation operators, such as CFOF2TL weighted average and geometric operators, are defined. In addition, the CFOF2TL Maclaurin's symmetric mean (CFOF2TLMSM) operators and their weighted shapes are presented, and their attractive characteristics are also discussed. A new MAGDM approach is built using the developed aggregation operators to address managing economic crises under COVID-19 with the CFOF2TL information. As a result, the effectiveness and robustness of the developed method are accompanied by an empirical example, and a comparative study is carried out by contrasting it with previous approaches.

Temperature and particulate matter as environmental factors associated with seasonality of influenza incidence - an approach using Earth observation-based modeling in a health insurance cohort study from Baden-Württemberg (Germany).

BACKGROUND: Influenza seasonality has been frequently studied, but its mechanisms are not clear. Urban in-situ studies have linked influenza to meteorological or pollutant stressors. Few studies have investigated rural and less polluted areas in temperate climate zones. OBJECTIVES: We examined influences of medium-term residential exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), NO2, SO2, air temperature and precipitation on influenza incidence. METHODS: To obtain complete spatial coverage of Baden-Württemberg, we modeled environmental exposure from data of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. We computed spatiotemporal aggregates to reflect quarterly mean values at post-code level. Moreover, we prepared health insurance data to yield influenza incidence between January 2010 and December 2018. We used generalized additive models, with Gaussian Markov random field smoothers for spatial input, whilst using or not using quarter as temporal input. RESULTS: In the 3.85 million cohort, 513,404 influenza cases occurred over the 9-year period, with 53.6% occurring in quarter 1 (January to March), and 10.2%, 9.4% and 26.8% in quarters 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Statistical modeling yielded highly significant effects of air temperature, precipitation, PM2.5 and NO2. Computation of stressor-specific gains revealed up to 3499 infections per 100,000 AOK clients per year that are attributable to lowering ambient mean air temperature from 18.71 °C to 2.01 °C. Stressor specific gains were also substantial for fine particulate matter, yielding up to 502 attributable infections per 100,000 clients per year for an increase from 7.49 µg/m3 to 15.98 µg/m3. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst strong statistical association of temperature with other stressors makes it difficult to distinguish between direct and mediated temperature effects, results confirm genuine effects by fine particulate matter on influenza infections for both rural and urban areas in a temperate climate. Future studies should attempt to further establish the mediating mechanisms to inform public health policies.

COVID-19 and time-frequency connectedness between green and conventional financial markets

Against the backdrop of the exponentially growing trend in green finance investments and the calls for green recovery in the post-COVID world, this study presents the time-frequency connectedness between green and conventional financial markets by using the spillover models of Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) and Baruník and Křehlík (2018). Covering a sample period from January 01, 2008, to July 31, 2020, we aim to explore the dynamics of connectedness between conventional and green investments in fixed income, equity, and energy markets. Additionally, we determine the role of market-wide uncertainty in altering the connectedness structure by performing a subsample analysis for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis period. Our results show that competing energy investments are not connected, and there is only one-way spillovers from the conventional bonds in the fixed-income investments. Additionally, we observe a low (high) intergroup connectedness for conventional (green) investments. Moreover, the frequency-based analysis shows that connectedness between these competing markets is more pronounced during the short-run. The subsample analysis for the pandemic crisis period shows similar results except for the disconnection between bond markets in the short-run frequency. Our time-varying analysis shows peaks and troughs in the connectedness between climate-friendly and conventional investments that suggest different global events such as the Eurozone Debt Crisis and Shale Oil Revolution drives the association between alternate investments. Similarly, we observe an enhanced connectedness during the recent COVID-19 period, suggesting that financial stability would be a significant factor in determining the smooth transition to green investments.

Pathogenetic Mechanisms of Liver-Associated Injuries, Management, and Current Challenges in COVID-19 Patients.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 possesses serious challenges and adverse impacts for patients with progression of chronic liver disease and has become a major threat to public health. COVID-19 patients have a high risk of lung injury and multiorgan dysfunction that remains a major challenge to hepatology. COVID-19 patients and those with liver injury exhibit clinical manifestations, including elevation in ALT, AST, GGT, bilirubin, TNF-α, and IL-6 and reduction in the levels of CD4 and CD8. Liver injury in COVID-19 patients is induced through multiple factors, including a direct attack of SARS-CoV-2 on liver hepatocytes, hypoxia reperfusion dysfunction, cytokine release syndrome, drug-induced hepatotoxicity caused by lopinavir and ritonavir, immune-mediated inflammation, renin-angiotensin system, and coagulopathy. Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying liver dysfunction are not fully understood in severe COVID-19 attacks. High mortality and the development of chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma are also associated with patients with liver damage. COVID-19 patients with preexisting or developing liver disease should be managed. They often need hospitalization and medication, especially in conjunction with liver transplants. In the present review, we highlight the attack of SARS-CoV-2 on liver hepatocytes by exploring the cellular and molecular events underlying the pathophysiological mechanisms in COVID-19 patients with liver injury. We also discuss the development of chronic liver diseases during the progression of SARS-CoV-2 replication. Lastly, we explore management principles in COVID-19 patients with liver injury and liver transplantation.

Turning Crisis into a Sustainable Opportunity Regarding Demand for Training and New Skills in Labor Market: An Empirical Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic and Skills Upgradation

TheCOVID-19 pandemic has brought rampant changes in skill needed in the labor market. It has accentuated technological disruption leaving millions in dire need of reskilling and upskilling. In this paper, we empirically analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic related lockdown on the thrust of skills upgradation among people. By analyzing the Google trends data of 13 countries, we test the effect of the lockdown implementations on the urge to upgrade the skills through online searches for skills enhancement. Using difference-in-difference estimation approach, we found a substantial hike in the frequency of search terms related to skills upgradation. Our results suggest that people are utilizing the excess time, made available due to lockdowns, by exploring avenues to enhance their skills to accumulate human capital. The online educational platforms have been proven vital. The findings of this study establish the causal link between use of online education platforms and human capital development.

Fermatean Cubic Fuzzy Aggregation Operators and Their Application in Multiattribute Decision-Making Problems

The purpose of aggregation methods is to convert a list of objects of a set into a single object of the same set usually by an n-arry function, so-called aggregation operator. The key features of this work are the aggregation operators, because they are based on a novel set called Fermatean cubic fuzzy set (F-CFS). F-CFS has greater spatial scope and can deal with more ambiguous situations where other fuzzy set extensions fail to support them. For this purpose, the notion of F-CFS is defined. F-CFS is the transformation of intuitionistic cubic fuzzy set (I-CFS), Pythagorean cubic fuzzy set (P-CFS), interval-valued cubic fuzzy set, and basic orthopair fuzzy set and is grounded on the constraint that "the cube of the supremum of membership plus nonmembership degree is ≤1”. We have analyzed some properties of Fermatean cubic fuzzy numbers (F-CFNs) as they are the alteration of basic properties of I-CFS and P-CFS. We also have defined the score and deviation degrees of F-CFNs. Moreover, the distance measuring function between two F-CFNs is defined which shows the space between two F-CFNs. Based on this notion, the aggregation operators namely Fermatean cubic fuzzy-weighted averaging operator (F-CFWA), Fermatean cubic fuzzy-weighted geometric operator (F-CFWG), Fermatean cubic fuzzy-ordered-weighted averaging operator (F-CFOWA), and Fermatean cubic fuzzy-ordered-weighted geometric operator (F-CFOWG) are developed. Furthermore, the notion is applied to multiattribute decision-making (MADM) problem in which we presented our objectives in the form of F-CFNs to show the effectiveness of the newly developed strategy.

Understanding the process of meanings, materials, and competencies in adoption of mobile banking

COVID-19 has changed the way people live, bank, shop, and work by moving them toward digitalization. It has also driven the trend toward a cashless society, and this change has taken place in an increasingly uncertain and fearful environment. This study explores the social practice of mobile banking (MB) adoption during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from banking customers and managers using online customer reviews, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to develop an in-depth understanding of the subjective realities of their use of MB. This approach also ensured that social distancing practices were maintained during interviews conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak. Analysis of the data suggests that social media, social circles, family members, and teams of customer service agents play an important role in developing the social practice of MB. This study culminates in the presentation of the social practice of MB adoption (SPOTA) framework. This framework is based on extended social practice theory in the context of MB adoption. The study discusses the practical implications of the findings for systems developers. The many expectations of people with or without disabilities of MB are discussed and the findings could be used to improve the accessibility and habitual practice of MB adoption.

Impact of Education and Income Inequality on Per Capita Income Amid COVID-19 pandemic

The present research study is an attempt to analyse the effects of various levels of education and income inequality on real GDP per capita, in the COVID-19 pandemic era, including 70 countries. We found empirical evidence that the relationship of various levels of education with growth of real income per capita remained the same in 2020 as it was in 2010, except for the slight difference in the magnitudes of the coefficients. The primary school enrolment of the two decades earlier has revealed as the increasing factor to the income per person. However, when we took a decade early or so values the relationship became converse indicating primary school enrolment as the decreasing factor to the income per capita. The empirics indicated that the secondary school enrolment remained contributing factor to the growth of income per capita, and it is the most effective level of education to increase the real GDP per capita. Moreover, there is no empirical evidence in the favour of relationship between tertiary education and the income per person. The income inequality has also provided insignificant results in our analysis.

Are sustainable investments interdependent? The international evidence.

The rising concerns about climate change and environmental degradation have urged various stakeholder to focus on sustainable investments that are facing a drag from the Covid-19 pandemic. Since environmental and Covid-19 challenges are global, it is critical to assess the interlinkages of sustainable investments. In this research, we employ the dependence, centrality, and dynamic network approach to examine the interdependence and its determinants across multiple countries between January 2009 and March 2021. The findings indicate France as the lead risk transmitter while Japan and Taiwan show risk reception among international markets. We observe an increase in dependence during economic turmoil notably in Covid-19 episode. The centrality network revealed the prominent significance of sustainable investments in the European countries that can be attributed to their exceptional efforts to combat the climate change. Finally, our results suggest that the volatility in gold prices is the key driver of interdependence of sustainable investments.