Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does issuing government debt needed as a Ponzi scheme in Islamic finance: A general equilibrium model

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to theoretically describe the role of Zakah as a vital tool of fiscal policy in achieving Pareto optimality. Design/methodology/approach - The paper sets a general equilibrium model that describes the long-run convergence to a Pareto optimal allocation in a theoretical Islamic economy. The model is based on Diamond criteria where the social planner maximizes the utility of all generations subject to the output of the economy. Findings - While the government in the capitalist economy issues debt like T-bills and government bonds to insure Pareto optimality, the paper shows, theoretically, that constructing a Zakah fund can take the role of issuing debt in financial markets. Furthermore, the paper shows that Islamic economy converges to Pareto optimality by its nature without issuing debt in the financial market. Research implications - This result is very important in describing the strength of the theoretical Islamic economics in achieving dynamic efficiency with least possible interventions. More importantly, the results would help the government in setting an optimal tax rate that insures Pareto efficiency without issuing debt. Originality/value - This paper attempts to model the actual effects of Zakah as a fiscal policy tool in wealth redistribution in an Islamic economy. In addition, the paper opens a wide channel for future research in conducting monetary and fiscal policy in a government's debt tools economies.
Percentile ranks and benchmark estimates of change for the Health Education Impact Questionnaire: Normative data from an Australian sample

Objective: Participant self-report data play an essential role in the evaluation of health education activities, programmes and policies. When questionnaire items do not have a clear mapping to a performance-based continuum, percentile norms are useful for communicating individual test results to users. Similarly, when assessing programme impact, the comparison of effect sizes for group differences or baseline to follow-up change with effect sizes observed in relevant normative data provides more directly useful information compared with statistical tests of mean differences and the evaluation of effect sizes for substantive significance using universal rule-of-thumb such as those for Cohen’s ‘d’. This article aims to assist managers, programme staff and clinicians of healthcare organisations who use the Health Education Impact Questionnaire interpret their results using percentile norms for individual baseline and follow-up scores together with group effect sizes for change across the duration of typical chronic disease self-management and support programme. Methods: Percentile norms for individual Health Education Impact Questionnaire scale scores and effect sizes for group change were calculated using freely available software for each of the eight Health Education Impact Questionnaire scales. Data used were archived responses of 2157 participants of chronic disease self-management programmes conducted by a wide range of organisations in Australia between July 2007 and March 2013. Results: Tables of percentile norms and three possible effect size benchmarks for baseline to follow-up change are provided together with two worked examples to assist interpretation. Conclusion: While the norms and benchmarks presented will be particularly relevant for Australian organisations and others using the English-language version of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire, they will also be useful for translated versions as a guide to the sensitivity of the scales and the extent of the changes that might be anticipated from attendance at a typical chronic disease self-management or health education programme.
‘Some more reliable than others’: Image management, donor perceptions and the Global War on Terror in East African diplomacy*

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of perceptions in donor-African relations and the extent to which donor ‘images’ of African governments can be managed by these same governments to their advantage. The article focuses on donor views of ‘reliability’ in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and compares differing international perceptions of Kenya and Uganda through this lens. Arguing that donors have an exaggerated sense of Ugandan ‘compliance’ or reliability and Kenyan unreliability in fighting terrorism, it explains this by examining the two governments’ international ‘image management’ strategies, or lack thereof. The analysis contends that Uganda's success at promoting itself as a major donor ally in the GWOT, compared with Kenya's general reluctance to do the same, has played a significant role in building and bolstering these differing donor perceptions. This, the article suggests, raises important questions about the nature of African agency in the international system.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: Controversies Surrounding the Diagnosis

There is little difference between LLPDD and PMDD. The names are different, and the criteria for PMDD include one more symptom (a subjective sense of being overwhelmed or out of control) than do those for LLPDD. Both diagnoses pertain to women with premenstrual complaints who suffer primarily from affective symptoms severe enough to interfere seriously with their lives. Recent controversies surrounding PMDD concern what meaning should be attributed to the clinical and research information that is now available on the condition. Some believe that there is abundant evidence to indicate that PMDD is a mood disorder; others argue that the meaning of the data is unclear. (See Gold and Severino for a comprehensive summary of the issues surrounding this diagnosis.) The nosological shift to categorize PMDD as a depression not otherwise specified implies that "enough information is available to indicate the class of disorder that is present. " The validity of this assumption is questioned by some. Coding PMDD as a depression will encourage clinicians to view women with PMDD as depressed, will encourage women with the condition to view themselves as depressed, and will influence researchers' conceptualization of study designs in very complex and subtle ways that may go unquestioned.
Common Advisors in Mergers and Acquisitions: Determinants and Consequences

We examine the determinants of merging firms' choice of a common or separate mergers and acquisitions adviser and the consequences of this choice on several deal outcomes. In a large sample of acquisitions, common advisers appear to be chosen in economically sensible ways. After controlling for other variables and accounting for endogeneity, we find that deals with common advisers take longer to complete and provide lower premiums to targets. We find some evidence of lower target valuations and higher bidder returns in such deals. While there is no significant difference in deals' overall quality, our evidence showing that deals with common advisers are somewhat better for acquirers than for targets favors the conflict-of-interest hypothesis over the deal improvement hypothesis. We find no evidence that merging firms avoided sharing advisers during the 1980s but strong and growing evidence of such avoidance over the following 2 decades.
INTER-COUNTER LINKAGE IN KUALA LUMPUR STOCK EXCHANGE RETURNS

This paper investigates the linkages among daily returns of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) counters over the period 7 July 1995 to10 August 1999. It examines the dynamic causal linkages among nine counters and then quantifies the extent of their dynamic interdependencies through the application of time series econometric technique of Granger causality tests. The counters selected are mining, consumer product, finance, industrials, industrial product, properties, construction, plantations, and trading/services. The findings successfully establish the existence of inter-linkages among the nine selected counters.
The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series

Abstract. To assess the history of greenhouse gas emissions and individual countries' contributions to emissions and climate change, detailed historical data are needed. We combine several published datasets to create a comprehensive set of emissions pathways for each country and Kyoto gas, covering the years 1850 to 2014 with yearly values, for all UNFCCC member states and most non-UNFCCC territories. The sectoral resolution is that of the main IPCC 1996 categories. Additional time series of CO2 are available for energy and industry subsectors. Country-resolved data are combined from different sources and supplemented using year-to-year growth rates from regionally resolved sources and numerical extrapolations to complete the dataset. Regional deforestation emissions are downscaled to country level using estimates of the deforested area obtained from potential vegetation and simulations of agricultural land. In this paper, we discuss the data sources and methods used and present the resulting dataset, including its limitations and uncertainties. The dataset is available from doi:10.5880/PIK.2016. 003 and can be viewed on the website accompanying this paper ( http://www.pik-potsdam.de/primap-live/primap-hist/ ).
Sharecropping efficiency in Ethiopia: threats of eviction and kinship

We tested a theoretical model with the Marshallian inefficiency (H1) and threat of eviction (H2) hypotheses having opposite effects on land productivity on sharecropped plots. The model also assumes that kinship contracts may eliminate or reduce the Marshallian inefficiency (H3) and threat of eviction (H4) effects on land productivity. Our empirical findings were consistent with H2 and H4 being true. We found higher land productivity on sharecropped plots than on share tenants' own plots and higher land productivity on sharecropped plots of nonkin than of kin tenants. The nature of the data allowed controlling for unobservable household characteristics through household fixed effects and for observable plot characteristics. Analyses with and without plot characteristics revealed that these findings were stronger with plot characteristics than without them. Based on the plausible assumption that observable plot characteristics are positively correlated with unobservable plot characteristics this strengthens our conclusion. The results are also supported by first-order stochastic dominance analysis. Sharecropped plots' output value distribution unambiguously dominated the output value distribution from share tenants' own plots. Nonkin sharecropped plots' output value distribution also first-order stochastically dominated the output value distribution from kin sharecrop plots. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Price relationships between qualitatively differentiated agricultural products: organic and conventional wheat in Germany

Organic agriculture, which produces commodities that can be qualitatively differentiated from conventional food products, has grown into an important market in many countries. The dynamics of commodity prices in both sectors are partly interdependent, but are also shaped by independent determinants and have rarely been studied. We analyze organic food markets and their interdependencies with conventional markets in the context of wheat markets in Germany, which have been subject to a number of fundamental changes during the last two decades. Based on institutional market characteristics, we suggest a flexible Markov-switching asymmetric time series model. We find a pronounced temporal sequence of market phases that differ in their asymmetric dynamics and the extent to which the organic price is influenced by the conventional price. Organic wheat prices tend to be increasingly connected to prices of conventional wheat.
Sarcoidosis presenting with granulomatous uveitis induced by pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy for hepatitis C

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease that is triggered by an autoimmune process, and is now a well recognized but uncommon complication of antiviral therapy for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, likely related to its immunomodulatory effects. The clinical presentation of HCV related sarcoidosis is as varied as systemic sarcoidosis, but ocular presentation alone has not been reported previously. We present a 23 year‐old female who developed visual disturbances due to ocular sarcoidosis during the course of antiviral therapy for chronic HCV infection. Our case presentation is then followed by a review of the literature on the topic. We aim to stress the importance of screening for eye problems in following HCV patients undergoing antiviral therapy, and raise clinicians’ awareness of sarcoidosis as a possible cause for eye problems even in the absence of respiratory complaints.
US inflation and the dollar exchange rate: a vector error correction model

Many studies investigating the relation between inflation and exchange rates have found that exchange rates influenced inflation, while other studies have failed to do so or reported mixed results. These findings, however, might be spurious as the majority of the earlier investigations suffered from misspecifications of one kind or another. The current paper addresses the problem by employing an up-to-date and powerful cointegration method developed by Johansen (1988). In a system of five-equation vector error correction model, this paper finds that the US inflation, exchange rate, money supply, income, and interest rate are cointegrated. The cointegration analysis of the data covering the 1973-95 period reveals that the dollar exchange rate has a significant negative impact on the inflation measured by the producer price index. It is further established that the exchange rate Granger causes the inflation.
Small Molecule Modulators of Histone Acetyltransferase p300*

Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) are a group of enzymes that play a significant role in the regulation of gene expression. These enzymes covalently modify the N-terminal lysine residues of histones by the addition of acetyl groups from acetyl-CoA. Dysfunction of these enzymes is often associated with the manifestation of several diseases, predominantly cancer. Here we report that anacardic acid from cashew nut shell liquid is a potent inhibitor of p300 and p300/CBP-associated factor histone acetyltranferase activities. Although it does not affect DNA transcription, HAT-dependent transcription from a chromatin template was strongly inhibited by anacardic acid. Furthermore, we describe the design and synthesis of an amide derivative N-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-ethoxy-6-pentadecyl-benzamide (CTPB) using anacardic acid as a synthon, which remarkably activates p300 HAT activity but not that of p300/CBP-associated factor. Although CTPB does not affect DNA transcription, it enhances the p300 HAT-dependent transcriptional activation from in vitro assembled chromatin template. However, it has no effect on histone deacetylase activity. These compounds would be useful as biological switching molecules for probing into the role of p300 in transcriptional studies and may also be useful as new chemical entities for the development of anticancer drugs.
Mitochondrial function, apoptosis and cell cycle delay in the WEHI‐3B leukaemia cell line and its variant Ciprofloxacin‐resistant WEHI‐3B/CPX

Abstract. Objective: The susceptibility of two cell lines, WEHI‐3B myelomonocytic leukaemia and its variant Ciprofloxacin‐resistant WEHI‐3B/CPX to undergo apoptosis induced by Ciprofloxacin was studied and compared. Materials and methods: Apoptosis was checked by measuring the DNA fragmentation and determining the ratio of apoptotic/necrotic cells. The relationship between the induction of apoptosis and G1, S or G2 block in the cell cycle has also been investigated and cytogenetical evaluation of chromosomal aberrations in both cell lines has been carried out. The regulation of expression of Bax and Bcl‐2 was also checked by western blotting after Ciprofloxacin treatment. Results: We observed that the resistance of the subline was caused by a small percentage of cells that underwent apoptosis during continuous exposure to Ciprofloxacin in comparison with the parental cell line, whereas the percentage of necrotic cells remained unchanged. The WEHI‐3B cells showed a G2 block and a higher degree of cytogenetic damage after drug exposure. The two cell lines expressed the same level of Bax and Bcl‐2 following stimulation by Ciprofloxacin. Only in the resistant subclone, the ratio Bcl‐2/Bax reversed in the anti‐apoptotic gene expression. Conclusion: The resistance to ciprofloxacin observed is not related to mitochondrial function and although Bcl‐2/Bax ratio behaviour does not fully explain the resistance of the WEHI3B/CPX subclone it is consistent with phenotypic character of resistance to CPX. The toxic effect on sensitive cells could be mediated by the cell cycle arrest whereas in the resistant clone, the prolonged G2 phase could play a key role to favour cell cycle progression and proliferation.
Management Approaches to Stomal and Peristomal Complications: A Narrative Descriptive Study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify optimal interventions for selected complications based on WOC nurse experts' judgment/expertise. METHODS: A cross-sectional quantitative descriptive design with qualitative, narrative-type components was used for this study. Following validation rating of appropriateness of interventions and quantitative rankings of first-, second-, and third-line approaches, participants provided substantive handwritten narrative comments about listed interventions. Comments were organized and prioritized using frequency count. RESULTS: Narrative comments reflected the quantitative rankings of efficacy of approaches. Clinicians offered further specific suggestions regarding product use and progression of care for selected complications. CONCLUSIONS: Narrative analysis using descriptive quantitative frequency count supported the rankings of most preferred treatments of selected stomal and peristomal complications. Findings add to the previous research on prioritized approaches and evidence-based practice in ostomy care.
Spatial Analysis of the Causes of Fertility Decline in Prussia

type="main"> This article contributes to the geographic analysis of fertility decline in the demographic transition in Europe. We reanalyze Galloway, Hammel, and Lee's (1994) Prussian data with spatial analysis methods. Our multivariate analysis provides evidence of the predictive effect of both economic and cultural variables. Furthermore, even after all of the observable economic, social, and cultural variables have been controlled for, our findings show that a significant unexplained geographic clustering of fertility decline remains. We then specify spatial econometric models, which show that in addition to economic and cultural factors, socio-geographic factors such as being adjacent to areas of sharp fertility decline are also needed to understand the pattern of fertility decline. These results provide new support for the role of social diffusion in the process, while allowing for the direct structural effects of economic change.
Order acceptance under uncertainty: a reinforcement learning approach

In this thesis, we study Order Acceptance (OA) problems under uncertainty and their solutions using Reinforcement Learning (RL). OA is an essential business problem that has not been extensively studied in this respect. Orders with different characteristics arrive stochastically at a processing facility; based on expected total profit a decision has to be made whether or not to accept an incoming order. Unaccepted orders are lost forever. RL is a promising approach that combines the ideas of modeling uncertainty and solving the problem of incomplete information (using learning methods). The idea of modeling uncertainty is based on modeling semi-Markov decision problems (SMDP).
Coping with health stresses and remission from late‐life depression in primary care: a two‐year prospective study

Identifying the predictors of late‐life depression that are amenable to change may lead to interventions that result in better and faster remission. Thus, the authors investigated the impact of two different strategies for coping with physical illness on depression in older, primary care patients. Health‐oriented goal engagement strategies involve the investment of cognitive and behavioral resources to achieve health goals. Conversely, disengagement strategies involve the withdrawal of these resources from obsolete or unattainable health goals, combined with goal restructuring.
The Capital Asset Pricing Model, Inflation, and the Investment Horizon: The Israeli Experience

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), an equilibrium model for the price determination of risky assets, was developed by Sharpe [16], Lintner [9, 10] and Treynor [21], following the pioneering work of Markowitz [12, 13] and Tobin [20]. In spite of the tremendous impact of this model on the profession, the CAPM still raises many questions, and is inconsistent with a considerable body of empirical evidence.
Le pouvoir d'achat des actions, des obligations et de l'or

[fre] L'evolution de la valeur d'un portefeuille representatif des titres cotes en bourse permet le calcul du taux d'interet d'un placement a long terme. Si l'on suppose la capitalisation annuelle des dividendes, le pouvoir d'achat d'un capital forme de valeurs a revenu variable demeure superieur a celui de la monnaie, pendant la plus grande partie des periodes 1938 a 1969 et 1949 a 1969, meme compte tenu d'un prelevement fiscal. C'est seulement depuis 1949 — et grâce aux effets conjuges d'indexations fortes et de taux de rendement eleves — que le pouvoir d'achat des rentes et obligations a pu se maintenir et meme croitre jusqu'a 1969. Enfin, compte tenu de la hausse ininterrompue des prix, il est tout a fait exceptionnel que l'or constitue un « bon placement » a moyen ou a long terme. [eng] The yield on a long term investment can be calculated from the trend in the value of a representative portfolio of securities quoted on the Stock Exchange. Assuming the annual capitalisation of dividends, the purchasing power of capital in the form of equities has been greater than that of cash over the greater part of the periods 1938-1969 and 1949-1969, even allowing for a tax levy. It is only since 1949 — and by virtue of the combined effects of strong indexation and high yields — that the purchasing power of rentes and bonds has been maintained and has even grown up to 1969. Finally, in the light of the inunterrupted rise in prices, it is quite exceptional for gold to be a « good investment » in the medium or long term.