Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Okun’s Law in SAARC Countries: An ARDL Approach

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to test the applicability of Okun’s law in SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) counties. It also intends to find the long-run association between unemployment rate and growth rate and investigate the impact of growth rate on unemployment in the South Asian Region.Design/methodology/approach: The study uses annual time series data for eight SAARC countries, from 1991 to 2015. To meet the objectives of the research, the graphical illustration of trend with descriptive statistics are followed by econometric analysis. Based on the stationarity of the variables, an autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model has been estimated to test the long-run relationship between unemployment and growth.Findings: The results indicate that per capita GDP negatively influences the unemployment rate in the long run only in three member countries of SAARC, namely- Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka and in the South Asian Region in aggregate. This paper also finds a negative relationship between the growth rate and unemployment rate in Bangladesh, but this association is not statistically significant. The study doesn’t find any negative relationship between the two variables in Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan. The study discovers the validity of Okun’s law, but the attained Okun coefficient is less than that of the actual Okun coefficient, documented by Arthur Okun. Another substantial evidence is that the significance of the connection between the growth rate and unemployment rate varies among the SAARC countries.Research limitations: The main limitation of this paper is the unavailability of data for Afghanistan compared to other SAARC countries. Originality/value: This paper is unique as it tests the validity of Okun’s law in every member country of SAARC and as a region of South Asia. To date, no such study like this has been found in the body of literature which finds long-run relationship in all SAARC countries.JEL Classification: E24, J64, O11, O40.
EFFECT OF TREATED SEWAGE SLUDGE ON THE QUALITY OF OKRA FRUIT

Treated sewage sludge (Defective) has been identified to increase heavy metals in the soil which are in turn transferred to plants. In view of this, the study is aimed at assessing the effects of treated sewage sludge on the quality parameters of okra fruits. The randomized block design was employed in raising okra plants with three treatments (0t/ha, 10t/ha, and 20t/ha sewage sludge amendment) over a land area of 56.3m 2 . Soil analysis was used to determine the level of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil. After 2months, the okra fruits were harvested by cutting the pods off, slicing, oven drying, milling, and labeled correctly prior to laboratory analysis. The heavy metal content in the okra fruit were analysed using atomic absorption spectrometer. The parameters analyzed were Cd, Pb, Cu, Fe, and Zn. The concentration of the selected heavy metals was subjected to descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The transfer factor was also determined. Most soils in the okra field was sand. Study found out that the soil was deficient in phosphorus and potassium. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals were not found in the okra fruit since Cu, Zn and Fe have transfer factors of less than 1. In addition, transfer factor order in okra fruit were Zn>Cu>Fe>Cd>Pb. The study revealed that the application of sewage sludge at 10t/ha and 20t/ha resulted in high uptake of Zn and Fe whereas cadmium and lead were not detected. The study concluded that consumption of the okra fruit grown on 10t/ha and 20t/ha were very safe since Cu, Fe, and Zn in the okra fruit were less than desirable limit as recommended by FAO and WHO. There is need to determine hazard quotient, the health risk index, morbidity status the enrichment factor and degree of contamination in okra fruit. Effect of sewage sludge at different application rates between 25t/ha and 60t/ha be seriously investigated so as to determine the optimal level of heavy metal in the okra fruit
Do Individual Factors, Religiosity Factors, and Demographic Factors Predict Intention to Pay Zakat?

Indonesia has a promising zakat potential; however, the amount of zakat payments is low. The primary objective of this study is to examine what factors influence an individuals intention to pay zakat. This research integrates individual factors, religiosity factors, and demographics factors. About 300 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in a Muslim-majority area (i.e. Surakarta City), and 223 cases were deemed usable. The data have been analysed using structural equation modelling. This paper finds that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behaviour control positively affect the intention to pay zakat. Furthermore, religiosity factors and demographic factors also positively affect the intention to pay zakat except for the Islamic education background variable. Theoretically, this study offers a new research model to explain the behaviour of Muzakki in paying zakat. Practically, this study contributes to providing valuable insights for zakat institutions to establish a policy to collect zakat based on individual perspectives.
Are you inclined into agribusiness? Perspectives from Graduating Students

This study examines the level of graduating students' inclination to venture into agribusiness. The study also tries to examine and measure the relationships between knowledge, attitude, social environment, and level of graduating students' inclination to venture into agribusiness. In this study, 158 students of Bachelor of Science Technology and Plantation Management (AT220) at UiTM Cawangan Melaka, Kampus Jasin, Melaka were selected as respondents from the population of Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology. This study used the quantitative method as the best way to address the issue of the new generation's intention towards the agribusiness sector in Malaysia. In the quantitative method, stratified and convenience sampling techniques were employed as a data collection method. The first finding indicated that the students had a high level of inclination to venture into agribusiness. The second findings reported that there were positive significant relationships between knowledge, attitude, social environment, and agribusiness intention. These findings provide insight to the government officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries to resolve unemployment issues and achieve successful economic growth through the agriculture sector. The results obtained offer several key implications for increasing our understanding of factors related to students’ intention to venture into agribusiness. It may able to overcome the issue of the unemployment rate by creating more job opportunities for the new generations in Malaysia. Thus, universities play an important role in creating young agricultural entrepreneurs which is a crucial issue in this country. Implications and conclusions are also discussed.
Role of ormeloxifene in AUB/HMB

Introduction: Heavy menstrual blood loss is defined as >80 ml of blood loss during menstruation. Abnormal uterine bleeding is abnormal menstruation as regards volume, regularity, frequency and duration of bleeding. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 patients of age group 25-45 years were included in this study. Patients were thoroughly investigated before inclusion. Exclusion criteria were any women with fibroid, adenomyosis, endometrial hyperplasia, breast cancer and coagulopathy. Patients were thoroughly investigated before therapy. Ormeloxifene was administered orally 60mg twice a week for 3 months followed by 60mg once a week for a month. Results: Amenorrhoea was 33% at 3 months follow up which is increased further to 42% at 4 months follow up. Similarly 44% women had scanty flow at the end of 4 months treatment. Comparison of clinical characteristics shows reduction in duration of menstrual blood loss and rise in haemoglobin (from 7.2 to 9 gm/dl, which is along with oral iron supplementation). Passage of blood also reduced considerably, although 7 (7.4%) women did not show good response. Conclusion: The study concluded that ormeloxifene is a good option as it is cheap, has twice weekly schedule, few side effects and efficacious in reducing the menstrual blood loss. Keywords: Heavy menstrual blood loss, Abnormal uterine bleeding, Fibroid, Adenomyosis, Ormeloxifene.
Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Cancer Mortality in a Federative Unit of the Brazilian Legal Amazon Between 2000 and 2015

Background: About 41 million deaths were due to chronic noncommunicable diseases and of these, 9 million (22%) had cancer as a basic cause of death. In Brazil, 2,023,038 deaths from cancer occurred between 1996 and 2010. Methods: Ecological design study, in which mortality from neoplasia was analyzed, from 2000 to 2015, for the municipalities of the Mato Grosso state. Mortality rates due to cancer were calculated by the ratio of the sum of deaths by cancer in each quadrennium, divided by the average of the population in the two central years of the period, multiplied by 10,000 inhabitants. An annual percentage change was calculated by the ratio of the linear regression coefficient to the cancer mortality rates in the Mato Grosso state at the beginning of the analyzed period (2000 to 2003). Thematic maps were constructed for each quadrennium using intervals of equal classes. Results: Cancer caused 31,097 deaths in the Mato Grosso state in the period, 13,058 in women and 18,039 in men, with a male to female ratio of 1.38. The top five causes of cancer death in the period were lung (12.2%), prostate (8.7%), stomach (7.7%), breast (6.0%) and liver (4.7%). There is an increase in the number of municipalities with rates greater than 23.67 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in the period. Conclusion: The description of cancer mortality can bring important contributions to epidemiological studies. These studies are necessary, especially in Mato Grosso, since studies on this topic are scarce, and can potentially contribute to the identification of priority regions for intervention aiming to reduce mortality rates.
Multidimensional Assessment of Food Provisioning Ecosystem Services Using Remote Sensing and Agricultural Statistics

With the increasing global population, human demands for natural resources continue to grow. There is a critical need for the sustainable use and development of natural resources. In this context, ecosystem services have attracted more and more attention, and ecosystem services assessment has proven to be useful for guiding research, policy formulation, and management implementation. In this paper, we attempted to assess ecosystem services more comprehensively from various perspectives. We used food provisioning ecosystem services in Minnesota as a case study and proposed two new concepts for assessing ecosystem services: efficiency and trend. We designed a multidimensional assessment framework, analyzed the total output, efficiency, and trend temporally based on both area and space with Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). We also identified major influencing factors based on remote sensing images in Google Earth Engine and explored the quantitative influence on each assessment dimension. We found that: (1) Food provisioning ecosystem service in Minnesota has generally been improving from 1998 to 2018. (2) We identified food provisioning ecosystem services in Minnesota as superior zones, mixed zones, and inferior zones with a ‘sandwich geo-configuration’. (3) The total output tends to be stable while the efficiency is disturbed by some natural disasters. Simultaneously, the trend index has been improving with slight fluctuations. (4) Agricultural disaster financial support has a stronger impact on stabilizing the total output of food provisioning than the other two dimensions. (5) Soil moisture, diurnal temperature difference, and crop growth are the three main influencing aspects of food provisioning ecosystem services, and the order of the influential density is: the Perpendicular Drought Index (PDI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Rainfall (RF), Daytime Temperature (DT), and Diurnal Temperature Difference (DIF).
Kinetic and reactor performance of a Ni-based catalyst during the production of ethene

ABSTRACT Steam cracking of diverse hydrocarbon sources is nowadays the main technology used to produce ethene worldwide, however, it presents energetic and environmental limitations related to the large consumption of energy and production of carbon oxides. To overcome this, industry and academy have aimed their research at developing a new technology based on the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethane. Main challenges for its industrial implementation are yet catalyst and industrial reactor design. In this sense, Ni based catalysts have been promising materials for the production of ethene out of ethane at laboratory scale, however there is a scarce amount of researching on engineering aspects related to the evaluation of their performance at industrial scale. This work is aimed at giving insights on the performance of a Ni-loaded Y zeolite catalyst (Ni/KY) during the ethene production via ODH of ethane in an industrial-scale wall-cooled fixed bed catalytic reactor with a low dt/dp. To achieve this, an industrial reactor model that couples reaction kinetics to heat and mass transport phenomena is developed following reactor engineering fundamentals. To assess the kinetics of the ODH of ethane over the aforementioned catalyst, a detailed kinetic model is developed using published experiments [J. Catal. 265 (2009) 54–62]. Then, this kinetics is coupled to the industrial-scale reactor model, a 2D heterogeneous model accounting for heat and mass transport. The kinetic model following a Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson mechanism allows an accurate description of laboratory data. Activation energy, related to the formation of ethene, and enthalpy adsorption of ethene indicate that the production ethene is favored at larger reaction temperatures, however, once it is produced, this olefin is more strongly adsorbed on the catalyst surface than the other byproducts. However, from the parametric sensitivity study applied to the industrial reactor, a larger coolant temperature brings out a significant but positive effect on the yield of ethene whereas a lower concentration of ethane in the feedstock favors the oxydehydrogenation reaction rather than total oxidation reactions. To this end, the proposed industrial reactor technology, along with the Ni/KY material, overcomes the hot spot formation and enables operations at larger temperatures, hence, favoring the production of ethene rather than carbon oxides.
Adoption of branchless banking system as part of inclusive financial services: extension of Technology acceptance model

The present study has extended the original technology acceptance model by adding sociocultural factors, facilitating conditions (FC), and trust constructs. The result confirmed that FC (the existence of local agents and government guaranty on banking transaction) directly affects an individual’s trust in BBS that leads to system adoption. The study also found that the effect of sociocultural factors on perceived usefulness is more substantial than its effect on perceived ease of use. Thus, the present study suggested that any elegant branchless banking system has no acceptance if it is not designed to align with the socio-cultural values of the users, specifically to their religion.
The role of social factors in facilitating pro-social behavior among Arsi Negelle Preparatory school students, Ethiopia

The main aim of this study was to investigate the role of social factors in facilitating pro-social behavior among Arsi Negelle Preparatory school students. The research employed crosssectional research design of quantitative method. Out of 1170 grade eleven and twelve students, 299 students were selected were selected using stratified systematic random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were computed to summarize the participants’ demographic characteristics and the most observed pro-social behavior type. Independent t -test was also used to test the significance mean difference between gender while one way ANOVA was employed to quantify the family income and parental education in facilitating pro-social behavior among students. The findings showed that among domain of pro-social behavior, complaint was the most observed pro-social behavior while altruism was the least observed pro-social behavior among students. There was a significant mean difference in score of overall pro-social behavior between male and female students. There was also statistically significant difference among respondents in their overall pro-social behavior and all types of pro-social behaviors score facilitated by their mother’s and father’s level of education. On the other hand, there was statistically insignificant difference among respondents in their overall pro-social behavior scores that can be facilitated by their family/guardian’s level of income. As a result, students were mostly involved in helping others in response to a verbal or nonverbal request. Moreover, being male or female and mother’s level of education has had an influence in involving pro-social behavior. However, family/guardian’s level of income difference has no influence in facilitating overall pro-social behavior. Based on the aforementioned implications, parents, teachers, neighbors, religious leaders, government and non-government bodies are recommended to play a role in promoting pro-social behavior among the students.
Investigating the Role of Environmental Transmission in COVID-19 Dynamics: A Mathematical Model Based Study

A mathematical model with environmental transmission has been proposed and analyzed to investigate its role in the transmission dynamics of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Two expressions for the basic reproduction number R0 have been analytically derived using the next generation matrix method. The two expressions composed of a combination of two terms related to human to human and environment to human transmissions. The value of R0 has been calculated using estimated parameters corresponding to two datasets. Sensitivity analysis of the reproduction number to the corresponding model parameters has been carried out. Existence and stability analysis of disease free and endemic equilibrium points have been presented in relation with the obtained expressions of R0. Numerical simulations to demonstrate the effect of some model parameters related to environmental transmission on the disease transmission dynamics have been carried out and the results have been demonstrated graphically.
Nitric Oxide as a Savior Molecule Against Stress Induced by Chromium and Cadmium

Heavy metals (HMs) pollution is one of soil problems imposing great agronomic challenges leading to obstacles in ascertaining food safety. The deposition of HMs beyond permissible limits due to their uses in various agricultural, industrial and household purposes, greatly affect the soil fertility and physio-biochemical activities of plants growing in such soils. Among HMs, cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr) are very toxic, non-essential heavy metals whose concentrations have built-up recently in our environment due to several manmade activities. These elements enter into living organisms either by absorption through plants or are directly consumed by animals or microbes. They induce various morphological and physio-biochemical changes in plants ranging from seed germination, growth, nutrient uptake, photosynthesis to hormonal interactions. Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) generation are two important markers of nitro-oxidative stress during heavy metal stress. Plants counteract by activating defence responses by inducing expression of antioxidant enzymes like (CAT, SOD, APX) and antioxidant compounds like Vitamin C and GSH. Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the active gaseous molecules generated during nitro-oxidative stress induced by HMs like Cd and Cr. NO is generated in the plants by diverse enzymatic and non-enzymatic systems. The specific and dedicated enzyme system for NO generation is not yet identified in the plants. NO helps to counteract the effects of HMs by activating various biochemical machineries such as induction of antioxidant defence systems, protein nitrosylation, programmed cell death. It is the molecule that has very promising roles and need to be explored much in relation to heavy metals.
DNA barcoding of Euphorbiaceae in Korea

Euphorbiaceae is one of the largest groups in the all Malpighiales families, consisting of approximately 6,500 species of four subfamilies (subfm. Euphorbioideae, subfm. Acalyphoideae Beilschm., Cheilosoideae K. Wurdack & Petra Hoffmann, and Crotonoideae Burmeist.) (Govaerts et al., 2000; APG IV, 2016). Members of Euphorbieae are monoecious or dioecious trees, shrubs, or herbs with milky latex, highly specialized inflorescence (cyanthium), superior and tri-locular ovary, and axile placentation (Park and Backlund, 2002; Thakur and Patil, 2011). The plants of this family are mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions with some of native and naturalized species in the temperate regions including Asia, Australia, and North America (Heywood, 1985; Webster, 1986; 1994; Savolainen et al., 2000; Li et al., 2008; APG IV, 2016). A number of Euphorbiaceae species are economically and commercially important as food, ornamental, timber, or raw materials of wax, rubber, and dye (Salatino et al., 2007; Bennett, 2010; Kumar et al., 2010; Elhassan et al., 2015). In particular, many species in the genus Euphorbia are used as medicinal plants, although most of the plants in the genus contain toxic chemicals called diterpenoids (Hohmann and Molnár, 2004; Ernst et al., 2015). Since ancient times, various indigenous species are utilized as medicines for curing skin diseases, intestinal parasites gonorrhea, warts, and migraines on the basis of traditional folk recipes (Singla and Kamla, 1990; Salatino et al., 2007; Bennett, 2010; Kumar et al., 2010; Elhassan et al., 2015). For sustainable utilization of Euphorbiaceae as plant resources, accurate species identification and understanding of their phylogenetic relationships are essential steps (Pang et al., 2010; Aubriot et al., 2013). Although many previous phylogenetic studies were carried on with chloroplast (cp) DNA (atpB, matK, ndhF, rbcL, trnL-F) and/or nuclear (nr) DNA (ITS) loci (Wurdack et al., 2004; 2005; Tokuoka, 2007; Thakur and Patil, 2011; Yang et al., 2012; Aubriot et al., 2013; Riina et al., 2013), these studies only attempted to resolve higher level (family, genus or subgenus) relationships in Euphorbiaceae. Meanwhile, Pang et al. (2009) largely collected DNA sequences of two cpDNA (rbcL, matK) and two nrDNA (ITS1, ITS2) loci of the family Euphorbiaceae from GenBank and evaluated the species identification ability of four barcode loci. Among the four loci, Pang et al. (2009) reported the efficiency of the ITS1 and ITS2 loci for discrimination of species in the Euphorbiaceae famJournal of Species Research 9(4):413-426, 2020