Islamic worldview-based corporate governance framework in providing guidance on Executive Directors’ remuneration in an Islamic financial institution

This chapter addresses how corporate governance supports shareholder-director conflicts and company success. Islamic financial institution (IFI) governance and performance have not been studied, yet corporate governance has affected previous financial crises. This examines IFI board size, ownership, CEO duality, and pay committee independent directors. Also studied is how Islamic corporate governance influences executive director pay. Thus, IFIs require an IWBCGF to handle current and future corporate governance issues. Qualitative corporate governance metrics research and qualitative Islamic principle evaluation helped exploratory studies attain these goals. The research shows that corporate governance strongly impacts IFI executive pay. These results show that executive directors require an Islamic-based comprehensive governance framework to navigate corporate governance issues. The study makes literary contributions. It tackles the lack of religious research on Islam and IFI corporate governance. It highlights IFIs’ corporate governance and CEO remuneration

Interaction of palmitic acid with losartan potassium at the binding sites of bovine serum albumin

The binding of losartan potassium, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, to bovine serum albumin was studied by equilibrium dialysis method (ED) in presence or absence of palmitic acid. The study was carried out using ranitidine and diazepam as site-1 and site-2 specific probe, respectively. Different analysis of binding of losartan to bovine serum albumin suggested two sets of association constants: high affinity association constant (k1 = 11.2 x 105 M-1) with low capacity (n1 = 2) and low affinity association (k2 = 2. 63 x 105 M-1) constant with high capacity (n2 = 10) at pH 7.4 and 27°C. During concurrent administration of palmitic acid and losartan potassium in presence or absence of ranitidine or diazepam, it was that found that palmitic acid causes the release of losartan potassium from its binding site on BSA resulting reduced binding of losartan potassium to BSA. The increment in free fraction of losartan potassium was from 13.1% to 47.2 % upon the addition of increased concentration of only palmitic acid at a concentration of 0 x 10-5 M to 16 x 10-5 M. In presence of ranitidine or diazepam as site specific probes, palmitic acid further increases the free fraction of losartan potassium were from 22.8% to 53.4% and 35.3 to 65.5%, respectively. This data provided the evidence of interaction of higher concentration of palmitic acid at the binding sites on BSA changing the pharmacokinetics properties of losartan potassium

Efficacy of postural awareness by booklet on back pain among the sweet makers

Background: The purpose of the study was to identify the efficacy of postural awareness by a booklet on back pain among sweet makers. Objective was to explore socio-demographic (age, gender, educational status, occupation) characteristics of sweet-makers with back pain. To compare the rating of pain intensity before and after postural awareness by a booklet with the back pain of sweet-makers. Methods: This study was conducted by pre-test post-test experimental study in which a total of 25 sweet-makers were selected with back pain from January 2021 to December 2022. Data were collected by using the functional rating index questionnaire to evaluate the activity of daily living and pain measured by the visual analogue scale questionnaire. Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Results: In this study, the results showed significant improvement in the reduction of back pain and increase functional activities of daily living by postural awareness with an educational booklet among sweet-makers. The NPRS score in pair sample t-test before and after 15 days of postural awareness by booklet was the level of significant 0.000123, the mean of 0.640±0.700. The pattern of pain before and after 15 days of postural awareness by booklet was the level significant 0.042896 when the mean difference was -0.160±0.374. The referred pain before and after 15 days of postural awareness by booklet was 0.000032 level significant where the mean difference was -0.520±0.510. Conclusions: The result of this study suggests that postural awareness through a booklet on back pain was effective and it also improves activities of daily living among sweet-makers.

Carbon−Phosphorus Bond Activation of Tri(2-thienyl)phosphine at Dirhenium and Dimanganese Centers

Reaction of [Re2(CO)9(NCMe)] with tri(2-thienyl)phosphine (PTh3) in refluxing cyclohexane affords three substituted dirhenium complexes: [Re2(CO)9(PTh3)] (1), [Re2(CO)8(NCMe)(PTh3)] (2), and [Re2(CO)8(PTh3)2] (3). Complex 2 was also obtained from the room-temperature reaction of [Re2(CO)8(NCMe)2] with PTh3 and is an unusual example in which the acetonitrile and phosphine ligands are coordinated to the same rhenium atom. Thermolysis of 1 and 3 in refluxing xylene affords [Re2(CO)8(μ-PTh2)(μ-η1:κ1-C4H3S)] (4) and [Re2(CO)7(PTh3)(μ-PTh2)(μ-H)] (5), respectively, both resulting from carbon−phosphorus bond cleavage of a coordinated PTh3 ligand. Reaction of [Re2(CO)10] and PTh3 in refluxing xylene gives a complex mixture of products. These products include 3−5, two further binuclear products, [Re2(CO)7(PTh3)(μ-PTh2)(μ-η1:κ1-C4H3S)] (6) and [Re2(CO)7(μ-κ1:κ2-Th2PC4H2SPTh)(μ-η1:κ1-C4H3S)] (7), and the mononuclear hydrides [ReH(CO)4(PTh3)] (8) and trans-[ReH(CO)3(PTh3)2] (9). Binuclear 6 is structurally similar to 4 and can be obtained from reaction of the latter with 1 equiv of PTh3. Formation of 7 involves a series of rearrangements resulting in the formation of a unique new diphosphine ligand, Th2PC4H2SPTh. Reaction of [Mn2(CO)10] with PTh3 in refluxing toluene affords the phosphine-substituted product [Mn2(CO)9(PTh3)] (10) and two carbon−phosphorus bond cleavage products, [Mn2(CO)6(μ-PTh2)(μ-η1:η5-C4H3S)] (11) and [Mn2(CO)5(PTh3)(μ-PTh2)(μ-η1:η5-C4H3S)] (12). Both 11 and 12 contain a bridging thienyl ligand that is bonded to one manganese atom in a η5-fashion. The molecular structures of eight of these new complexes were established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies, allowing a detailed analysis of the disposition of the coordinated ligands

Organic System Based Evaluation Of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) For Participatory Plant Breeding In Bangladesh

For Participatory breeding program FGD and online survey was conducted with atakeholders to identify key plant traits and a total 32 diverse set of tomato germplasm was evaluated under organic management using Augmented design to better understand horticultural constraints and identify adapted germplasm for further development. Stakeholders rated more number of fruits per plant, nutrition color (lycopene, β carotene), flavor, virus resistances, stronger root, storability as their top breeding priority, safety was the prior quality characters of tomato. The ANOVA indicated significance difference among genotypes, the result indicated the existence of high morphological variation in tomato genotypes grown in organic system based condition. Yield per plant showed significant variation with the quality parameter like lycopene and β-carotene. To screen out suitable cultivars through multivariate analysis and genetic diversity in tomato genotypes based on 17 characters was estimated using Mahalanobis’s D2statistics. Eight different homozygous divergent genotypes were selected from five different clusters using variance ranking among genotypes within cluster

Usnic acid as potential inhibitors of BCL2 and P13K protein through network pharmacology-based analysis, molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation

Usnic acid (UA) lately piqued the interest of researchers for its extraordinary biological characteristics, including anticancer activity. Here, the mechanism was clarified through network pharmacology,molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation. Sixteen proteins were selected through network pharmacology study as they are probable to interact with UA. Out of these proteins, 13 were filtered from PPI network analysis based on their significance of interactions (p < 0.05). KEGG pathway analysis has also aided us in determining the three most significant protein targets for UA, which are BCL2, PI3KCA and PI3KCG. Therefore molecular docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations throughout 100 ns were performed for usnic acid onto the three proteins mentioned. However, UA's docking score in all proteins is lower than their co-crystalised ligand, especially for BCL2 (−36.5158 kcal/mol) and PI3KCA (−44.5995 kcal/mol) proteins. The only exception is PI3KCG which has comparable results with the co-crystallised ligand with (−41.9351 kcal/mol). Furthermore, MD simulation has also revealed that usnic acid does not stay fit in the protein throughout the simulation trajectory for PI3KCA protein evident from RMSF and RMSD plots. Nevertheless, it still poses good ability in inhibiting BCL2 and PI3KCG protein in MD simulation. In the end, usnic acid has exhibited good potential in the inhibition of PI3KCG proteins, rather than the other proteins mentioned. Thus further study on structural modification of usnic acid could enhance the ability of usnic acid in the inhibition of PI3KCG as anti-colorectal and anti-small cell lung cancer drug candidate

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Assessment of Islamic microfinance on poverty reduction in Bangladesh

The main objective of Islamic microfinance institutions (IsMFIs) is to uplift the socio-economic status of the poor. This is essential to evaluate the effects on the Islamic microfinance (IsMFs) program and its participants. This research attempts to analyse the multilevel effect of IsMFIs at the enterprise level and social level in Bangladesh. Rural development schemes (RDS) are considered as baseline tools for measuring the effects on the social and enterprise levels. Primary data have been collected from the program’s participants, which are the two leading IsMFIs in Bangladesh, by employing cross-sectional design with the stratified random sampling method. IsMFIs appear to spur the social and enterprise of the program’s participants. The analysis indicated a powerful and positive effect of system participation on financial efficiency and enterprise resource foundation. This study proposed a model that has the potential of being applied for poverty alleviation programmes in Bangladesh