The World After Covid-19: How We Can Prepare For The Next Pandemic

The Covid-19 outbreak was an unexpected pandemic that first appeared in Wuhan, China. This virus has spread rapidly to over 150 countries causing tens and thousands of deaths. In addition to the human lives lost, the Coronavirus pandemic cost the global economy $9 Trillion of economic losses as a result of diminished business activity. This paper will review several secondary resources to try to identify the key failures of the public health warning systems here in the US and address their shortcomings. It will also examine the proactive measures some countries like Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have put in place early on which helped them bring down the spread of the disease to a manageable level. This is critical because if the countries healthcare system is overwhelmed, then the mortality rate begins to rise drastically as patients who would normally overcome the disease with proper medical care end up dying due to lack of it

The Power of Positivity: How Images Affect Intention to Purchase Green Hotel Accommodation

Developing persuasive advertising messages is crucial in ensuring the success of the hotel’s green practices. With the objective of getting further insights into marketing tactics that promote pro-environmental behaviour in Australia, this research aims to examine the pictorial representations impact on consumers’ purchase intention in the green hotel setting. By using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study employed an online survey to collect data from Australian lodging customers. Moreover, the study used contrasting advertising images focusing on either the positive or negative environmental impacts of green hotels. The results indicated that positively framed images related to the hotels’ environmental preservation actions induced consumers’ purchase intention, rather than negatively framed images that reflect the environmental pollution of these hotels. Additionally, the TPB could well predict Australians’ purchase intentions. The research broadens the knowledge about consumer behaviour in the green hotel context, which may possibly benefit hotel management in planning and practice

Cyclospora cayetanensis and other intestinal parasites associated with diarrhea in a rural area of Jordan

Cryptosporidium spp. and Cyclospora cayetanensis have emerged as important causes of epidemic and endemic diarrhea in immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. The exact modes of transmission in certain rural areas are still unclear. Reports of waterborne and food-borne outbreaks suggest that fecally contaminated water or food acts as a vehicle of transmission. Two hundred stool samples of patients with gastroenteritis from four health centers in a rural area of Jordan were examined using formalin-ethyl acetate concentration, wet preparation, and modified acid-fast staining methods. Oocysts of C. cayetanensis and Cryptosporidium spp. were found in6% and 8%of the samples respectively, mainly those of children. Parasites such as Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, and other enteropathogens were also observed. The results reflect the seasonality of natural cyclosporiasis and cryptosporidiosis, being higher in the spring. The risk factors that were found by the Fisher test to be significant and might be associated with illness are the source of drinking water, contact with animals, and eating unwashed vegetables (p < 0.028, p < 0.0005, p < 0.00005 respectively)

Anticipated Knowledge in Consumers’ Intentions to Visit Green Hotels: Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

This study explores a knowledge-related framework based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to more comprehensively explain the formation of customers’ intention to visit a green hotel. In particular, the extended TPB incorporates green hotel knowledge into the original TPB model. Results of structural equation modelling revealed that the proposed model provides a better fit with the data, and explains significantly greater amounts of variance in consumers’ visit intention. The results suggest that decision-making models such as the TPB incorporate knowledge. In this study, all relationships appeared to be significant as conceptualized according to the TPB. The findings provide further insight into the consumers’ decision-making processes which is essential for the development of green marketing strategies in the hotel context

Development Of An Improved Microwave Ocean Surface Emissivity Radiative Transfer Model

An electromagnetic model is developed for predicting the microwave blackbody emission from the ocean surface over a wide range of frequencies, incidence angles, and wind vector (speed and direction) for both horizontal and vertical polarizations. This ocean surface emissivity model is intended to be incorporated into an oceanic radiative transfer model to be used for microwave radiometric applications including geophysical retrievals over oceans. The model development is based on a collection of published ocean emissivity measurements obtained from satellites, aircraft, field experiments, and laboratory measurements. This dissertation presents the details of methods used in the ocean surface emissivity model development and comparisons with current emissivity models and aircraft radiometric measurements in hurricanes. Especially, this empirically derived ocean emissivity model relates changes in vertical and horizontal polarized ocean microwave brightness temperature measurements over a wide range of observation frequencies and incidence angles to physical roughness changes in the ocean surface, which are the result of the air/sea interaction with surface winds. Of primary importance are the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) brightness temperature measurements from hurricane flights and independent measurements of surface wind speed that are used to define empirical relationships between C-band (4 - 7 GHz) microwave brightness temperature and surface wind speed. By employing statistical regression techniques, we develop a physical-based ocean emissivity model with empirical coefficients that depends on geophysical parameters, such as wind speed, wind direction, sea surface temperature, and observational parameters, such as electromagnetic frequency, electromagnetic polarization, and incidence angle

Antecedents of Consumers’ Behavior towards Halal Food among Jordanian Customers: A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Approach

The Halal concept has been a major element among consumers living in an Islamic country like Jordan. This study aimed to examine the relationships between the antecedents of consumers’ intention and consumers’ behavior towards Halal Food in Jordan, and the mediating effect of consumers’ intention (INT) in the relationship between perceived behavior control (PBC) and actual consumer behavior (ACT) towards Halal Food. A total of 250 consumers completed a survey that was conducted at middle locations in the capital of Jordan (Amman). The study used the structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques (Amos 20.0) to evaluate the casual model and the confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement. Results of the study demonstrated the strong predictive power and explained the consumers’ behavior in Jordan. These result demonstrated the ability of the original Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model to explain consumer’s behavior towards Halal Food in Jordan. The findings highlighted that the relationship between consumers’ attitude and subjective norm were significant and positive on consumers’ intention, and consumers’ intention on consumers’ behavior was found to be significant with a positive relationship. And one hypothesis resulted in an insignificant relationship namely; perceived behavior control and consumers’ intention. Moreover, intention was found to have no mediating effect. Keywords: Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) consumers’ attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control, intention and consumers’ behavior, Jordan. Field: Marketin

Leishmania species and zymodemes isolated from endemic areas of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jordan

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in the Middle Eastern countries. New cases are emerging in areas previously free of the disease. In Jordan, the diagnosis of cases during the 1960s and 1970s was mainly reported in military hospitals in Amman. Endemicity of the disease was ascertained after reporting a total of 524 cases during 1973–1978. RESULTS: Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica were isolated from seventy-six autochthonous and imported cases of CL, during eight-year period. The highest infection rates recorded were in the central part of Jordan (60.5%), in males (72.4%) and in the age group 21–30 years (30.5%). Lesions were on the exposed sites of the body, mainly on the face (40%). Both Leishmania spp. were isolated from all parts of the country, although L. major was the predominant species (75% of cases) in all areas except in the north part of Jordan. Isoenzyme characterization of the isolates identified four previously undescribed zymodemes (Z). Four Leishmania major zymodemes were found, one of which was a new zymodeme (ZMON-103 variant in GLUD(220)); L. major ZMON-103 was the most common zymodeme. Four Leishmania tropica zymodemes were identified, of which three were previously unreported. Of these, ZMON-54 var PGD(96–97 )was isolated from autochthonous cases, whereas ZMON-59 var MDH(100 )and ZMON-75 var FH(110 )were obtained from both autochthonous and imported cases, or from an imported CL case, respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate the emergence of the CL disease in new areas. New foci are reported, where the sporadic nature of the cases indicates recent spread of the disease to these areas and the urge for the implementation of control measures

Understanding the Impact of Adopting Intellectual Capital Components on Achieving the Competitive Advantage (Case of Jordanian Insurance Companies)

In this paper we examine the level and determinants of competitive advantage in Jordanian insurance companies because of its importance in giving a unique position to companies in the market to be superior to its competitors. However, this study concludes that the relationship between intellectual capitals measured by “Structural Capital” has a significant positive influence on competitive advantage. While the other variables “Human capital and structural capital” have no statistical significant impact on competitive advantage. Despite the importance of this study, it holds some limitations. First, the current research may show other relationships among variable at different points of testing. Second, this research was conducted in small country (Jordan) that is considered to be a developing country. The results may not generalize to other developed countries. Third, despite the fact that the current study has sufficient sample size, the appropriate sampling of the research impedes the generalization of findings. Keywords: Intellectual Capital, Human Capital, Structural Capital, Relational Capital, Competitive Advantage, Jordanian Insurance Sector. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-23-08 Publication date:August 31st 2020

Strategic Fit and its Impact on Business Continuity Management: The Mediating Role of Strategic Agility in Jordanian Commercial Banks

This study aimed to identify the impact of f strategic fit on business continuity management in Jordanian commercial banks with the mediating role of strategic agility, the study used sampling strategy by selecting an appropriate sample from the study population; the descriptive analytical approach was used, through the development of (a questionnaire) as a main tool for data collection. This study was applied to a sample of (254) managers, and multiple regression analysis and simple regression analysis were adopted. The study results indicated that there is a statistically significant impact of strategic fit with its dimensions in business continuity management in its all dimensions collectively in Jordanian commercial banks, the presence of a statistically significant effect of strategic fit in terms of its dimensions collectively in business continuity management in terms of its dimensions collectively through strategic agility as a mediating variable in Jordanian commercial banks, a number of recommendations were formulated to enhance the strategic alignment in the management of business continuity, which will be positively reflected on the strategic agility of Jordanian commercial banks. One of the most important of these is to focus on developing products and services provided to customers on a continuous and participatory basis in line with their changing needs and desires, while reducing costs as much as possible, and in proportion to the internal and external fields through research and development processes