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The digital economy (DE) is emerging as a crucial driver of economic growth and an effective tool for alleviating resource and environmental pressures, thereby evolving into a significant force in facilitating green transformation. This study elaborates on the theoretical mechanism of the impact of DE on green total factor productivity (GTFP), and conducts multidimensional empirical tests using panel data from 284 cities in China. The main findings are as follows: (1) DE exerts significant positive direct, indirect, and spatial spillover effects on GTFP, signifying its growing role as a robust driver of GTFP. Notably, technological innovation emerges as a key mediator of DE’s impact on GTFP. (2) The impact of DE on GTFP exhibits a distinct pattern: initially pronounced, gradually diminishing, and then rebounding as DE progresses. (3) DE tends to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, the development divide and resource curse, especially in underdeveloped and resource-rich cities where its benefits are constrained. (4) Government behavior is pivotal in influencing DE’s impact on GTFP. Supportive policies and strict environmental regulations are critical in harnessing DE’s positive contributions to GTFP. This study lays a scientific foundation for leveraging the “green attributes” of DE and offers insights into bridging the developmental disparities among cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lakshadweep Islands are well-known for their abundant fishery resources. Present study primarily focused on the systematic representation of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red Listed marine finfish landings of Chetlat Island of Lakshadweep archipelago (India). Monthly collections were carried out from September 2019 to February 2020 from the study area. A list of finfishes along with their scientific name, common name, family, and present conservation status was prepared. As per the IUCN Red List, out of 41 fish species identified, one species is ‘Endangered’ (EN), two species are ‘Near Threatened’ (NT), four species are ‘Vulnerable’ (VU), one species ‘Data Deficient’ (DD), 29 species ‘Least Concern’ (LC), and four species are ‘Not Evaluated’ (NE) categories. Information on the conservation status of fishes plays a significant role in fisheries science since it forms the basis for managing marine fishery resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the long run and short run relationship between intermediate imports and domestic final demand among ASEAN-4. By adopting a new measure of final demand (IAD) and disaggregated final demand (IAD) components, the relationship was analyzed using ARDL Bound test, covering the period of 1970-2015. A positive relationship was found between Malaysia's and Singapore's final demand and intermediates imports and also from other ASEAN-4. There are three implications of this finding. Firstly, it is important to analyze the intermediate imports at the disaggregated level to gauge the different magnitude of influence of each final demand component on the intermediate imports. Secondly, the co-integrated relationship between domestic demand of ASEAN-4 and intermediate imports implies the importance of intra-regional trade cooperation and opportunities. Thirdly, relative import price seems to be less significant in determining the import of intermediates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing crisis in the coastal environment is the presence of pollutants and other anthropogenic activities which ultimately results in deterioration of coastal biodiversity and ecosystem. Present study reports based on the research conducted during November 2019 provide the initial findings regarding the threats faced by the insular ecosystem of Kadmat Island. Transect line with equal intervals and quadrate method were used for the survey of marine debris. Field observations and photographs were taken to record the impact of coastal modifications by unscientific constructions. Sandy beaches are the highly vulnerable marine ecosystem and a number of persistent drivers are negatively impacting and undermining their ability to provide these services. Marine debris contributed mainly by plastic is considered as one of the principle reason for concern in the coastal environment. The uncontrolled developmental activities and unscientific coastal protection measures are another leading cause deteriorating the health of the beaches. This study forms a baseline data for efficient management of coastal environments based on field survey at Kadmat Island of Laskhadweep, southwest coast of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of regime durability in moderating the economic growtheffect of FDI inflows in 67 developing countries over the 1984-2016 period. The results based on the generalized method-of-moments panel estimation technique reveal that countries with durable regime benefit more from FDI inflows. The empirical results are robust to two alternative indicators of regime durability and FDI. The finding is consistent with the growing view that FDI spillovers depends on the capacity of host countries to absorb and internalize new technology associated with FDI inflows. In this respect, policymakers should weigh the cost of policies aimed at attracting FDI versus those that seek to improve regime durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the stability of money demand function for China, using an innovation ARDL framework for co-integration test for the time period 1986-2018. Specifically, this study used narrow money (M1) and broad money (M2) as a measurement of money. To consider currency wealth and substitution effects, the estimated money demand model includes the real effective exchange rate in addition to income and interest rate. By incorporating the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests for stability in conjunction with co-integration analysis, the results confirm that there exists a stable long-run relationship for narrow money demand function. Importantly, the finding also discovers that real effective exchange rate appears to have a significant substitution effect on narrow money demand, which its omission can lead to biased result and misspecifications in the money demand function. This further corroborates that narrow money, (M1) act as a better measurement, which may have systematic influence on the trend of monetary aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is posited that Islamic Banking is meant to be socially responsible. Relating to this social responsibility, this paper undertakes two objectives. One is to develop an illustration of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) measurement index by allocating differential weights to process-based and outcome-oriented CSR measures. The illustrative index contains nine (9) process-based measurement items, which fall under three (3) dimensions: investment, research and development, and human resources. Outcome-oriented measurement items are eight (8), which represent three (3) dimensions: Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB), social activities and sharing, and environment. The way of deciding different weights for these two categories of measures is explained, and a possible method for validation of assigned weights is proposed. Another objective is to explain why CSR measures relating to core business processes should be given more weight than outcomeoriented CSR measures for Islamic banks. In order to develop this explanation, the paper draws upon Quranic and Hadith texts, maqasid literature and published works on CSR of Islamic banks. The basic argument underlying this explanation is that purity of the process of earning is a precondition for the earning-based beneficial acts to be acceptable as good deeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the role of institutional quality in influencing foreign direct investment. It employs two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis to minimise the risk of bias due to endogeneity issue. Institutional quality is proxied by its ratio and gap to capture simultaneous changes in institutional quality of two countries under study. The results show that institutional quality matters for foreign direct investment. More importantly, although ratio of institutional quality is statistically significant, the actual improvement in host country's institutional quality still depends on the changes in the competing country's institutional quality. In other words, changes in the country's institutional quality must be significantly greater than that of the competing country to assure that host country's changes can be attractive for foreign direct investment. It should be cautioned that institutional quality is a necessary but not a sufficient precondition to attract FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the contingency effects of economic freedom on the growth effect of the exchange rate in a panel of 83 emerging markets and developing countries over the period 1976-2010. Based on the generalized method of moments system estimators (SGMM) that control for the weakness and proliferation of instruments, we uncover positive and significant contingency effects of economic freedom on the growth effect of the real exchange rate undervaluation. The marginal growth effects of the real exchange rate undervaluation are enhanced as countries improve the qualities of their economic institutions. The findings are robust with the exclusion of outliers and oil-exporting countries, alternative measures of real exchange rate undervaluation, additional control variables, subcomponents of economic freedom, and multicollinearity between the interaction term and the original variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: The present experimental study was designed to investigate the toxic changes in the testes of cadmium (CdCl2) treated rats and evaluate the protection provided by cinnamon bark oil (CBO). Methods: Thirty male albino rats were randomly divided into three groups A, B and C. Group A served as control and received 1ml/100gm/day of distilled water and 0.5ml/100gm/day of olive oil for 14 days by oral gavage. Group B received 1.5mg/100gm/day of CdCl2 dissolved in distilled water and 0.5ml/ 100gm/day of olive oil for 14 days. Group C received CdCl2, 1.5mg/100gm/day in distilled water and 100mg/kg/day of CBO in 0.5ml/100gm of olive oil for 14 days by oral gavage. Animals were sacrificed on day 15 and testes were removed. Results: Examination of gross parameters between the control and experimental groups did not show any difference which was statistically significant. Histological sections, stained with H&E were examined under light microscope. The administration of cadmium caused a significant decrease in germinal epithelium thickness and Johnson's score. However, significant improvements were observed in these parameters after the concurrent administration of CdCl2 with CBO. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that CBO has protective effect against the toxic effects in rat testes induced by cadmium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to investigate the technical efficiency (TE)of domestic and foreign Islamic banks and its determinants for three neighborhood countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei that spans over the period from 2006 to 2014.This study employs a two stage procedure involving data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure banks' efficiency while the parametric (t-test) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney [Wilcoxon] and Kruskall-Wallis) to guage the difference in the efficiency between the domestic and foreign Islamic banks. Then, ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions is utilized to analyzed the determinants of technical efficiency. The results show that domestic Islamic bank for all countries exhibit significantly higher technical efficiency than foreign Islamic banks, which is consistent with home field advantage theory. The regressions on determinants results indicate that bank size and management quality have a negative and significant relationship with technical efficiency of Islamic banks, whereas market power and liquidity indicate a significantly positive relationship with technical efficiency of Islamic banks. The findings of this study give the banks' stakeholders, regulators, banks' managers and investors an important insight about the technical efficiency of Islamic banks and its significant determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Women diagnosed with the foremost common cancer are the breast carcinoma. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/neu status has become an important part of immunohistochemical evaluation of breast carcinoma. Hence, the main aim of our study was to correlate the HER2/neu expression in breast carcinoma patients with certain clinicopathological parameters to ensure the better prognosis of the disease. Materials and Methods: The present study included 56 breast carcinoma patients. The surgically dissected breast carcinoma specimens were subjected to immunohistochemistry staining and were evaluated for certain clinicopathological prognostic parameters that included tumor size, Nottingham modification of the Scarff Bloom-Richardson (NSBR) grading, necrosis, lymph vascular invasion, fibrosis, stromal reaction, and lymph node metastasis. Statistical analysis by the Chi-square and Student's t-test was performed. Results: Most patients belonged to the postmenopausal age group (62.5%). Only 19 (33.9%) out of 56 patients showed positive for HER2/neu expression with maximum HER2/neu expression noted in the 40–60 years' (44.83%) age group. A greater proportion of cases (66.07%) had tumor size ranging from 2 to 5 cm with a majority of HER2/neu-positive (40.5%) cases among them. Majority of patients (96.24%) were of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. With respect to NSBR grading, 50% patients in Grade 3 showed positive HER2/neu expression (P = 0.048). It was also observed that 17 patients showed positive HER2/neu expression at the varying stages of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.022). Conclusion: The evaluation of HER2/neu expression indicates it to be a stronger prediction of poor prognosis due to its association with prognostic parameters.

Editorial, Volume 4, Issue 2, November 2021.