• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2021

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a lot of efforts have been made in the field of data science to help combat against this disease. Among them, forecasting the number of cases of infection is a crucial problem to predict the development of the pandemic. Many deep learning-based models can be applied to solve this type of time series problem. In this research, we would like to take a step forward to incorporate spatial data (geography) with time series data to forecast the cases of region-level infection simultaneously. Specifically, we model a single spatio-temporal graph, in which nodes represent the geographic regions, spatial edges represent the distance between each pair of regions, and temporal edges indicate the node features through time. We evaluate this approach in COVID-19 in a Korean dataset, and we show a decrease of approximately 10% in both RMSE and MAE, and a significant boost to the training speed compared to the baseline models. Moreover, the training efficiency allows this approach to be extended for a large-scale spatio-temporal dataset.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.225-233
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• 2022

The recent outbreak of corona virus (COVID-19) infectious disease had made its forecasting critical cornerstones in most scientific studies. This study adopts a machine learning based time series model - Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to forecast COVID-19 confirmed cases in Botswana over 60 days period. Findings of the study show that COVID-19 confirmed cases in Botswana are steadily rising in a steep upward trend with random fluctuations. This trend can also be described effectively using an additive model when scrutinized in Seasonal Trend Decomposition method by Loess. In selecting the best fit ARIMA model, a Grid Search Algorithm was developed with python language and was used to optimize an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) metric. The best fit ARIMA model was determined at ARIMA (5, 1, 1), which depicted the least AIC score of 3885.091. Results of the study proved that ARIMA model can be useful in generating reliable and volatile forecasts that can used to guide on understanding of the future spread of infectious diseases or pandemics. Most significantly, findings of the study are expected to raise social awareness to disease monitoring institutions and government regulatory bodies where it can be used to support strategic health decisions and initiate policy improvement for better management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.187-206
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• 2020

Under the on-going evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, estimating the economic impact of the pandemic is highly uncertain and challenging. This situation makes it difficult for policymakers, governors, and economic entities to formulate appropriate responses and decision makings. To provide useful information about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Korean economy, this study examined macroeconomic impact analysis stemming from the pandemic shocks with different scenarios for the Korean economy. Based on three scenarios using the growth rate of 2020 GDP and consumer expenditure patterns, the 2021 GDP by industry sector was forecast with two new approaches. First, the recovering process of the Korean economy from the shock was analyzed by applying a Flex-IO method. Second, a new forecasting approach combined with an IO coefficient matrix was applied to forecast the future GDP changes. The findings of this study are summarized as follows: First, the total GDP growth rate under the Pessimistic Scenario demonstrates less rebound from the shock than that of the Base Scenario. Second, agriculture, culture, and tourism-related sectors that are suffering from the severe losses of COVID-19 showed lower resilience than other different industries. Third, information and communications technology (ICT) industry maintains a stable growth trend and is expected to take the leading role for the Korean economy in the post-COVID-19 and the Industry 4.0 eras. The findings deliver that it needs to analyze how government expenditure responding the shock into the forecasting model, which can be more useful and reliable to simulate the resilience from the pandemic.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.239-254
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• 2021

This paper studies time series analysis with estimation and forecasting for Korean COVID-19 confirmed cases, based on the approach of a heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) model with two-piece t (TP-T) distributed errors. We consider HAR-TP-T time series models and suggest a step-by-step method to estimate HAR coefficients as well as TP-T distribution parameters. In our proposed step-by-step estimation, the ordinary least squares method is utilized to estimate the HAR coefficients while the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method is adopted to estimate the TP-T error parameters. A simulation study on the step-by-step method is conducted and it shows a good performance. For the empirical analysis on the Korean COVID-19 confirmed cases, estimates in the HAR-TP-T models of order p = 2, 3, 4 are computed along with a couple of selected lags, which include the optimal lags chosen by minimizing the mean squares errors of the models. The estimation results by our proposed method and the solely MLE are compared with some criteria rules. Our proposed step-by-step method outperforms the MLE in two aspects: mean squares error of the HAR model and mean squares difference between the TP-T residuals and their densities. Moreover, forecasting for the Korean COVID-19 confirmed cases is discussed with the optimally selected HAR-TP-T model. Mean absolute percentage error of one-step ahead out-of-sample forecasts is evaluated as 0.0953% in the proposed model. We conclude that our proposed HAR-TP-T time series model with optimally selected lags and its step-by-step estimation provide an accurate forecasting performance for the Korean COVID-19 confirmed cases.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.145-163
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• 2020

The COVID-19 is a pandemic that affects all facets of our life and will change many patterns in science technology and innovation. A qualitative study was conducted using Focus Group Interview involving ten industry-academia-research experts with the objective of identifying changes in Korea's national innovation system and science & technology policy after the COVID-19. Eight questions were designed, based on the major components of the national innovation system, such as companies, universities, and research institutes, to discuss the changes in the national innovation system and science & technology policy. Also, keyword analysis and cluster analysis were performed using the network analysis program VOSviewer. It is predicted that, in the wake of the COVID-19, Korea's national innovation system will shift to a new paradigm that is more decentralized, responsive, and autonomous. Furthermore, several policy agendas that can turn these changes into positive momentum of change in science & technology policy are presented.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11.1-11.8
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• 2021

For the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), predictive modeling, in the literature, uses broadly susceptible exposed infected recoverd (SEIR)/SIR, agent-based, curve-fitting models. Governments and legislative bodies rely on insights from prediction models to suggest new policies and to assess the effectiveness of enforced policies. Therefore, access to accurate outbreak prediction models is essential to obtain insights into the likely spread and consequences of infectious diseases. The objective of this study is to predict the future COVID-19 situation of Korea. Here, we employed 5 models for this analysis; SEIR, local linear regression (LLR), negative binomial (NB) regression, segment Poisson, deep-learning based long short-term memory models (LSTM) and tree based gradient boosting machine (GBM). After prediction, model performance comparison was evelauated using relative mean squared errors (RMSE) for two sets of train (January 20, 2020-December 31, 2020 and January 20, 2020-January 31, 2021) and testing data (January 1, 2021-February 28, 2021 and February 1, 2021-February 28, 2021) . Except for segmented Poisson model, the other models predicted a decline in the daily confirmed cases in the country for the coming future. RMSE values' comparison showed that LLR, GBM, SEIR, NB, and LSTM respectively, performed well in the forecasting of the pandemic situation of the country. A good understanding of the epidemic dynamics would greatly enhance the control and prevention of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Therefore, with increasing daily confirmed cases since this year, these results could help in the pandemic response by informing decisions about planning, resource allocation, and decision concerning social distancing policies.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.255-263
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• 2024

GDP represents the total market value of goods and services produced by all economic entities, including households, businesses, and governments in a country, during a specific time period. It is a representative economic indicator that helps identify the size of a country's economy and influences government policies, so various studies are being conducted on it. This paper presents a GDP growth rate forecasting model based on a dynamic factor model using key macroeconomic indicators of G20 countries. The extracted factors are combined with various regression analysis methodologies to compare results. Additionally, traditional time series forecasting methods such as the ARIMA model and forecasting using common components are also evaluated. Considering the significant volatility of indicators following the COVID-19 pandemic, the forecast period is divided into pre-COVID and post-COVID periods. The findings reveal that the dynamic factor model, incorporating ridge regression and lasso regression, demonstrates the best performance both before and after COVID.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.158-163
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• 2020

Objectives: In the current early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Bali needs to prepare to face the escalation of cases, with a particular focus on the readiness of healthcare services. We simulated the future trajectory of the epidemic under current conditions, projected the impact of policy interventions, and analyzed the implications for healthcare capacity. Methods: Our study was based on the first month of publicly accessible data on new confirmed daily cases. A susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered (SEIR) model for COVID-19 was employed to compare the current dynamics of the disease with those predicted under various scenarios. Results: The fitted model for the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Bali indicated an effective reproduction number of 1.4. Interventions have decreased the possible maximum number of cases from 71 125 on day 86 to 22 340 on day 119, and have prolonged the doubling time from about 9 days to 21 days. This corresponds to an approximately 30% reduction in transmissions from cases of mild infections. There will be 2780 available hospital beds, and at the peak (on day 132), the number of severe cases is estimated to be roughly 6105. Of these cases, 1831 will need intensive care unit (ICU) beds, whereas the number of currently available ICU beds is roughly 446. Conclusions: The healthcare system in Bali is in danger of collapse; thus, serious efforts are needed to improve COVID-19 interventions and to prepare the healthcare system in Bali to the greatest extent possible.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.221-229
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• 2021

This study aims to forecast the exchange rate of the Chinese Yuan against the US Dollar by a combination of different models as proposed by Poon and Granger (2003) during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, we include three uni-variate time series models, i.e., ARIMA, Naïve, Exponential smoothing, and one multivariate model, i.e., NARDL. This is the first of its kind endeavor to combine univariate models along with NARDL to the best of our knowledge. Utilizing monthly data from January 2011 to December 2020, we predict the Chinese Yuan against the US dollar by two combination criteria i.e. var-cor and equal weightage. After finding out the individual accuracy, the models are then assessed through equal weightage and var-cor methods. Our results suggest that Naïve outperforms all individual & combination of time series models. Similarly, the combination of NARDL and Naïve model again outperformed all of the individual as well as combined models except the Naïve model, with the lowest MAPE value of 0764. The results suggesting that the Chinese Yuan exchange rate against the US Dollar is dependent upon the recent observations of the time series. Further evidence shows that the combination of models plays a vital role in forecasting which commensurate with the literature.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.50.1-50.9
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• 2023

Vaccine development is one of the key efforts to control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, it has become apparent that the immunity acquired through vaccination is not permanent, known as the waning effect. Therefore, monitoring the proportion of the population with immunity is essential to improve the forecasting of future waves of the pandemic. Despite this, the impact of the waning effect on forecasting accuracies has not been extensively studied. We proposed a method for the estimation of the effective immunity (EI) rate which represents the waning effect by integrating the second and booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The EI rate, with different periods to the onset of the waning effect, was incorporated into three statistical models and two machine learning models. Stringency Index, omicron variant BA.5 rate (BA.5 rate), booster shot rate (BSR), and the EI rate were used as covariates and the best covariate combination was selected using prediction error. Among the prediction results, Generalized Additive Model showed the best improvement (decreasing 86% test error) with the EI rate. Furthermore, we confirmed that South Korea's decision to recommend booster shots after 90 days is reasonable since the waning effect onsets 90 days after the last dose of vaccine which improves the prediction of confirmed cases and deaths. Substituting BSR with EI rate in statistical models not only results in better predictions but also makes it possible to forecast a potential wave and help the local community react proactively to a rapid increase in confirmed cases.