Quranic motivation toward modern approach for e-Da'wah

The world today need to know Islam correctly. In our days there are more than five billion people who do not believe in Islam all over the world

The Comparative Economics of Catch-Up in Output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in Sub-Saharan Africa

After investigating the effect of external financial flows on total factor productivity and technological gain, we use the beta catch-up and sigma convergence to compare dispersions in output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the years 1980-2010. The comparative evidence is articulated with income levels, years of schooling, and health factors. We find; first, a positive association between foreign direct investment, trade openness, foreign aid, remittances and total factor productivity. However, when foreign direct investment is interacted with schooling, it is direct effect becomes negative on total factor productivity. Second, beta catch-up is between19.22% and 19.70% per annum with corresponding time to full catch-up of 25.38 years and 26.01 years respectively. Third, we find sigma-convergence among low-income nations and upper-middle income nations separately, but not for the entire sample together. Fourth, schooling in SSA is not yet a significant source of technology, but it can make external financial inflows more effective. Policies to induce external financial flows are not enough for development if absorptive capacity is low. More policy implications are discussed

Cardiovascular involvement in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with COVID-19

In children, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections typically result in a less severe coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) presentation than in adults. However, a subset of children presents with severe multisystem inflammation associated with recent SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 exposure in the previous weeks. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has termed this condition a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). MIS-C causes significant cardiovascular involvement, which can be a determinant of clinical course and outcomes. A subset of MIS-C patients presents with hypotension and shock either from acute myocardial dysfunction or systemic vasodilation, with at least of third of patients developing cardiac manifestations from the illness. In addition, myocarditis, pericarditis, valvular regurgitation, coronary artery involvement, and arrhythmias have been reported, with a smaller subset of patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Here, we report our institutional experience of MIS-C over the last year and present a narrative review of cases reported in the literature. In addition, we discuss the clinical protocol of diagnosis and acute and follow-up management of these patients with MIS-C

Fibrosis progression under maintenance interferon in hepatitis C is better detected by blood test than liver morphometry.

International audienceWe evaluated whether quantitative measurements of liver fibrosis with recently developed diagnostics outperform histological staging in detecting natural or interferon-induced changes. We compared Metavir staging, morphometry (area and fractal dimension) and six blood tests in 157 patients with chronic hepatitis C from two trials testing maintenance interferon for 96 weeks. Paired liver biopsies and blood tests were available for 101 patients, and there was a significant improvement in Metavir activity and a significant increase in blood tests reflecting fibrosis quantity in patients treated with interferon when compared with controls - all per cent changes in histological fibrosis measures were significantly increased in F1 vs F2-4 stages only in the interferon group. For the whole population studied between weeks 0 and 96, there was significant progression only in the area of fibrosis (AOF) (P = 0.026), FibroMeter (P = 0.020) and CirrhoMeter (P = 0.003). With regards to dynamic reproducibility, agreement was good (r(ic) ≥ 0.72) only for Metavir fibrosis score, FibroMeter and CirrhoMeter. The per cent change in AOF was significantly higher than that of fractal dimension (P = 0.003) or Metavir fibrosis score (P = 0.015). CirrhoMeter was the only blood test with a change significantly higher than that of AOF (P = 0.039). AOF and two blood tests, reflecting fibrosis quantity, have high sensitivity and/or reproducibility permitting the detection of a small progression in liver fibrosis over two years. A blood test reflecting fibrosis quantity is more sensitive and reproducible than morphometry. The study also shows that maintenance interferon does not improve fibrosis, whatever its stage