Prediction of daily COVID-19 cases in European countries using automatic ARIMA model

The recent pandemic (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan city of China and after causing a lot of destruction there recently changed its epicenter to Europe. There are countless people affected and reported cases are increasing day by day. Predictive models need to consider previous reported cases and forecast the upcoming number of cases. Automatic ARIMA, one of the predictive models used for forecasting contagions, was used in this study to predict the number of confirmed cases for next 10 days in four top European countries through R package “forecast”. The study finds that Auto ARIMA applied on the sample satisfactorily forecasts the confirmed cases of coronavirus for next ten days. The confirmed cases for the four countries show an increasing trend for the next ten days with Spain with a highest number of expected new confirmed cases, followed by Germany and France. Italy is expected to have lowest number of new confirmed cases among the four countries

Firm Positionality and Strategic Communication:Analyzing the Value of Informativeness for Managers

This study explored the moderating effects of price informativeness on the relationship between brand value and firm positionality. We argued that major effects for price informativeness are not confined to its direct effects on a firm’s market position or value, but in its moderating effects on brand-firm relationship. At the same time, the analysis confirmed that price informativeness can negatively moderate brand value’s influence on firm positionality. This study has significant implications for firms to strategically position and implement their communication strategies in a better way as to rapidly respond to fluctuations in the firm’s positionality

Factors affecting employee-based brand equity: Evidence from China

Employee-based brand equity (EBBE) has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. However, most studies focus on the construct definition and scale development, as well as the effects that EBBE may have on corporate performance.Few studies try to identify the source of EBBE, or in other words, the antecedents of EBBE. The major study of the antecedents of EBBE is King and Grace’s model (2010), which is restricted to the service industry.As this research is cultural context-dependent, it is necessary to test the framework of King and Grace’s model (2010) in other regions or industries. Replication studies are important for the generalizability of strategic management theories as reputed journals such as the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) and the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ) have proposed.Therefore, this study was designed to test King and Grace’s model (2010) in an eastern cultural context (China) and covers several non-service sector industries.The results confirmed King and Grace’s model to a high extent, which has significant implications for firms in developing countries

Accelerators and Restrictors of Made-in-China COVID-19 vaccine acceptancy

Objectives This study is aimed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine acceptancy among public, along with measuring the underlining role played by the made-in-china perception and vaccination effectiveness towards vaccination acceptance. Material and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted that relied upon convenient and purposive sampling. Data was collected through online survey method predominantly in top-tier cities of Pakistan during the initial vaccination phase. The data was analyzed through 2-stage approach by employing Structural Equation Modeling in smart PLS 3.0. Results The results confirm the validity and reliability of data that was evaluated through VIF scores, HTMT ratio, CR, Cronbach’s alpha, and AVE. The outcomes indicate that vaccine effectiveness and made in china perception significantly affect the vaccination acceptance whereas, corona fear accelerates vaccination acceptance. Conclusions This study stabs to figure out the role of a stereotypical belief about made-in-china vaccination and its acceptance in country. The study proves that negative perception about country of origin negatively influence the vaccination acceptance. This negative perception should be focused on vaccination campaign. Moreover, study results revealed that perceived vaccination effectiveness significantly influence the acceptance. Therefore, it is important to build appositive perception of vaccination through campaign, a clear and source full communication is needed from government about vaccination effectiveness and need to discuss the level of its effectiveness, success rate to minimize the negative influence of made in china perception

Sentiments and emotions evoked by news headlines of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak

Abstract The chronic nature of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and lack of success in treatment and cure is creating an environment that is crucial for mental wellbeing. Presently, we extracted and classified sentiments and emotions from 141,208 headlines of global English news sources regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The headlines considered were those carrying keyword coronavirus between the time frame 15 Janaury, 2020 to 3 June, 2020 from top rated 25 English news sources. The headlines were classified into positive, negative and neutral sentiments after the calculation of text unbounded polarity at the sentence level score and incorporating the valence shifters. In addition, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) Word-Emotion Lexicon was used to calculate the presence of eight emotions at their emotional weight. The results reveal that the news headlines had high emotional scores with a negative polarity. More precisely, around 52% of the news headlines evoked negative sentiments and only 30% evoked positive sentiments while 18% were neutral. Fear, trust, anticipation, sadness, and anger were the main emotions evoked by the news headlines. Overall, the findings of this study can be weaved together into important implications for emotional wellbeing and economic perspective

MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY PERCEPTIONS OF THE CUSTOMERS OF RESTAURANTS IN PAKISTAN

This study aims to descriptively analyze different service quality attributes and ranking of services in renowned and successful restaurants. A sample of 407 customers of 10 reputed restaurants was gathered, operating in vicinity of twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi of Pakistan, using abilingual survey instrument to measure service quality perceptions of customers.Five service quality attributes of restaurant staff, tips, tangibles, convenience, and food quality were used and their relationship with overall satisfaction was measured. Besides, key reasons to visit a restaurant were also inquired. Majority of the participants was comprised of private sector employees and students. Results of current study will be beneficial for the restaurants' managers in knowing customers evaluations and formulating future strategies accordingly

Repercussions of stressors on employee work-life balance:analysing the banking industry of Pakistan

This research paper focuses on identifying a correlation between job stressors and employee work-life balance, whether the stress factors affect an employees' job- and personal-life. The population for the research is the banking sector of Pakistan including cities such as Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore. The respondents are middle and lower level executives from these banks who have rated their preference on a stress vs. work-life balance questionnaire covering the most common stressors identified by Robbins. The respondent sample size from the said population is approximately (n = 200). The results yielded that the independent variables (task demands, role demands, organisational structure, organisational leadership, interpersonal demand and job security) have a valid impact on the dependent variable that is work-life balance. This research will be beneficial for banks to rectify and improve their organisational system for internal consistency and implement stress management programmes by focusing on key areas in the research identified

Prediction of COVID-19 Confirmed Cases in Indo-Pak Sub-Continent

INTRODUCTION: The global COVID-19 pandemic originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan and gradually reached every end of the world. It has adversely affected economies of developed as well as underdeveloped countries, the subcontinent has been hit badly by the negative consequences of deadliest coronavirus. People are getting affected by the virus in large numbers and cases in growing on daily bases. METHODOLOGY: The present study employs Automatic ARIMA through R package “forecast”, to predict the growing number of cases for upcoming 14 days starting on 1st July 2020 and ending on 14 July 2020. Using 107 daily observations of the confirmed cases of COVID-19, it seems an important concern to predict the cases to help governments of the region plan accordingly. RESULTS: The outcomes of the study indicate that ARIMA applied on the sample rationally predicts the confirmed cases of coronavirus for next 14 days in the subcontinent. An increased trend is observed for Pakistan and India with constant cases for Bangladesh in the coming 14 days. CONCLUSIONS: Pakistan is having the highest predicted growth rate in terms of cases followed by India. Therefore, the governments need to build adequate policies in order to contain the spread of the virus

Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis in Sheep and Goats in Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, results in congenital disorders and miscarriages among livestock and humans worldwide. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to determine the prevalence of T. gondii infection in sheep and goats in Pakistan from 2000 to 2020. We searched the PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases and selected 17 publications that fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Eight studies were conducted in Southern Punjab, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two in Northern Punjab, and one in Central Punjab. The diagnostic tests used in the included articles to confirm toxoplasmosis were the latex agglutination test in 56% of the studies, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 38%, and the indirect hemagglutination assay in 6%. The infection rates were substantially higher among sheep > 1 year of age (37%) than among sheep ≤ 1 year old (19%). Statistically significant differences in infection rates were found between male and female sheep and goats. The overall infection rate by age was also significant among sheep and goats. Sex and age variability between sheep investigations were significant, and sex heterogeneity and age homogeneity were significant among goats. Hence, robust infection control protocols should be implemented to prevent infection in animals and humans