• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.19-27
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• 2022

The size of the government is one of the most fundamental debates of open economies. In any economy, government plays an important role, but a pertinent level of economic prosperity has never been obtained in history without government. Therefore, the objective of this paper investigates the association of government size, economic volatility, and institutional quality for 182 economies from the time period 1996-2016 is collected from the World Bank database. GE is defined as the General government's final consumption expenditure. Health expenditure is represented by HE. Government expenditure on education is denoted by EDUEXP. The economic volatility is measured by the rolling standard deviation of GDP per capita growth rate, Population growth, Trade openness, GINI represented Gini index which measures the degree to which the income distributed or consumption expenses among citizens deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. The results proposed that economic volatility has a significant effect on government size and institutional qualities. Moreover, the paper extends the investigation by finding the link between economic volatility with government health and education expenditure separately. The policy implication drawn from this analysis is that controlling economic volatility may reduce the size of government and also significantly affect health and education expenditures.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.216-223
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• 2022

Objectives: Oxidative stress plays a key role in chronic and acute brain disorders and neuronal damage associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) and other neurodegeneration symptoms. The neuroprotective effects of berberine and Berberis vulgaris (barberry) root extract against apoptosis induced by hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in the human SH-SY5Y cell line were studied. Methods: The methanolic extraction of barberry root was performed using a maceration procedure. Oxidative stress was induced in SH-SY5Y cells by H₂O₂, and an MTT assay was applied to evaluate the neuroprotective effects of berberine and barberry root extract. The cells were pretreated with the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of each compound (including berberine, barberry root extract, and H₂O₂), and the anti-apoptotic effects of all components were investigated using RT-PCR. Results: The SH-SY5Y cell viability increased in both groups exposed to 75 and 150 ppm barberry extract compared with that in the H₂O₂-treated group. The data showed that exposing SH-SY5Y cells to 30 ppm berberine significantly increased the cell viability compared with the H₂O₂-treated group; treatment with 150 and 300 ppm berberine and H₂O₂ significantly decreased the SH-SY5Y cell viability and was associated with berberine cytotoxicity. The mRNA levels of Bax decreased significantly under treatment with berberine at 30 ppm compared with the control group. A significant increase in Bcl-2 expression was observed only after treatment with the IC₅₀ of berberine. The expression level of Bcl-2 in cells exposed to both berberine and barberry extracts was also significantly higher than that in cells exposed to H₂O₂. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study suggest that treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with barberry extract and berberine could suppress apoptosis by regulating the actions of Bcl-2 family members.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1547-1554
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• 2016

To assess genetic diversity and maternal origin of Turkish and Iranian native chicken breeds, we analyzed the mtDNA D-loop sequences of 222 chickens from 2 Turkish (Denizli and Gerze) and 7 Iranian (White Marandi, Black Marandi, Naked Neck, Common Breed, Lari, West Azarbaijan, and New Hampshire) native chicken breeds, together with the available reference sequences of G. gallus gallus in GenBank. The haplotype diversity was estimated as $0.24{\pm}0.01$ and $0.36{\pm}0.02$ for Turkish and Iranian populations, respectively. In total, 19 haplotypes were observed from 24 polymorphic sites in Turkish and Iranian native chicken populations. Two different clades or haplogroups (A and E) were found in Turkish and Iranian chickens. Clade A haplotypes were found only in White Marandi, Common Breed and New Hampshire populations. Clade E haplotypes, which are quite common, were observed in Turkish and Iranian populations with 18 different haplotypes, of which Turkish and Iranian chickens, Clade E, haplotype 1 (TRIRE1) was a major haplotype with the frequency of 81.5% (181/222) across all breeds. Compared to red jungle fowl, Turkish and Iranian chicken breeds are closely related to each other. These results suggest that Turkish and Iranian chickens originated from the same region, the Indian subcontinent. Our results will provide reliable basic information for mtDNA haplotypes of Turkish and Iranian chickens and for studying the origin of domestic chickens.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.893-904
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• 2020

The study examines the relationship between credit risk and operational risk (understanding of risk management, risk identification, risk assessment and control, and risk monitoring) on risk management practices followed by private and public sector commercial banks. The cross-sectional data method was used to check the impact of risk management practices. Data was collected from the bank employees and a total of 284 respondents were finally selected for further analysis. Measurement Invariance of Composite Models analysis is used to test the quality of the measurement model for sub-samples, and multi-group analysis is used for path analysis in sub-sample through PLS-SEM. The findings of the study as the total sample show that both types of banks are managing adequate and significant risk management practices. On the other hand, sub-groups' results show private sector banks are more momentous than public sector banks. Risk identification is significantly different at the sub-group level, which shows public sector banks are more concentrating on this type of risk. Understanding of risk management has no significant effect on both types of banks and risk assessment & control for public sector banks, and there is a difference in the risk management practices among private and public sector commercial banks.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.3-43
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• 2018

The emergence of a multi-door courthouse is related with a couple of reasons as follows: First, a multi-door courthouse was originally initiated by the United States government that increasingly became impatient with the pace and cost of protracted litigation clogging the courts. Second, dockets of courts are overcrowded with legal suits, making it difficult for judges to handle those legal suits in time and causing delays in responding to citizens' complaints. Third, litigation is not suitable for the disputant that has an ongoing relationship with the other party. In this case, even if winning is achieved in the short run, it may not be all that was hoped for in the long run. Fourth, international organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, and Asia Development Bank urge to provide an increased access to women, residents, and the poor in local communities. The generic model of a multi-door courthouse consists of three stages: The first stage includes a center offering intake services, along with an array of dispute resolution services under one roof. At the second stage, the screening unit at the center would diagnose citizen disputes, then refer the disputants to the appropriate door for handling the case. At the third stage, the multi-door courthouse provides diverse kinds of dispute resolution programs such as mediation, arbitration, mediation-arbitration (med-arb), litigation, and early neutral evaluation. This study suggests the extended model of multi-door courthouse comprised of five layers: intake process, diagnosis and door-selection process, neutral-selection process, implementation process of dispute resolution, and process of training and education. One of the major characteristics of extended multi-door courthouse model is the detailed specification of individual department corresponding to each process within a multi-door courthouse. The intake department takes care of the intake process. The screening department plays the role of screening disputes, diagnosing the nature of disputes, and determining a suitable door to handle disputes. The human resources department manages experts through the construction and management of the data base of mediators, arbitrators, and judges. The administration bureau manages the implementation of each process of dispute resolution. The education and training department builds long-term planning to procure neutrals and experts dealing with various kinds of disputes within a multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish networks among courts, law schools, and associations of scholars in order to facilitate the supply of manpower in ADR neutrals, as well as judges in the long run. This study also provides six case studies of multi-door courthouses across continents in order to grasp the worldwide picture and wide spread phenomena of multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, the United States and Latin American countries including Argentina and Brazil, Middle Eastern countries, and Southeast Asian countries (such as Malaysia and Myanmar), Australia, and Nigeria were chosen. It was found that three kinds of patterns are discernible during the evolution of a multi-door courthouse model. First, the federal courts of the United States, land and environment court in Australia, and Lagos multi-door courthouse in Nigeria may maintain the prototype of a multi-door courthouse model. Second, the judicial systems in Latin American countries tend to show heterogenous patterns in terms of the adaptation of a multi-door courthouse model to their own environments. Some court systems of Latin American countries including those of Argentina and Brazil resemble the generic model of a multi-door courthouse, while other countries show their distinctive pattern of judicial system and ADR systems. Third, it was found that legal pluralism is prevalent in Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asian countries. For example, Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia have developed various kinds of dispute resolution methods, such as sulh (mediation), tahkim (arbitration), and med-arb for many centuries, since they have been situated at the state of tribe or clan instead of nation. Accordingly, they have no unified code within the territory. In case of Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Malaysia, they have preserved a strong tradition of customary laws such as Dhammthat in Burma, and Shriah and the Islamic law in Malaysia for a long time. On the other hand, they incorporated a common law system into a secular judicial system in Myanmar and Malaysia during the colonial period. Finally, this article proposes a couple of factors to strengthen or weaken a multi-door courthouse model. The first factor to strengthen a multi-door courthouse model is the maintenance of flexibility and core value of alternative dispute resolution. We also find that fund raising is important to build and maintain the multi-door courthouse model, reflecting the fact that there has been a competition surrounding the allocation of funds within the judicial system.