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This article presents a general equilibrium model capable of assessing the impact of foreign price shocks on the real side of the oil‐based developing economies. The theoretical model departs from previous work in this area at least in that (1) the model takes into account endogenous income and price responses in all sectors of the economy; (2) it has two traded goods (exports and imports) and a non‐traded good; (3) it explicitly addresses the inherent open and small economic nature of developing countries; and (4) besides adjustments in the endogenous domestic prices, the model also allows for other structural adjustments. As such, the model combines the neoclassical macro theory with the structural micro approach. Empirical evidence deduced from an important oil‐based developing economy (Saudi Arabia) appears quite consistent with the model theoretical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pathological, biochemical and redox state parameters of liver tissue in Wistar rats treated from birth to adulthood (119 days) with cafeteria diet.

During the lactation, 6 liters of Wistar rats (dam + 8 pups each) were fed one of two diets: control (CTRL; n = 3) or cafeteria (CAF; n = 3) diets and water ad libitum. After weaning, the males were placed in individual cages, receiving the same diet offered to their respective dams (CTRL or CAF; n = 18) until adulthood. The following parameters were evaluated: absolute and relative liver weight; blood, liver and feces biochemistry; liver histology; and redox state of the liver.

When assessing the relative and absolute organ weight, no significant differences were found between the groups. The Cafeteria group exhibited higher values of serum LDL-c (p = 0.008), VLDL-c (p = 0.03) and triglycerides (p = 0.01), as well as several micro and macrovacuoles of fat accumulation, higher hepatic lipid (p = 0.03) and cholesterol (p = 0.0001) levels regarding Control group. Cafeteria group showed greater expression of glutathione-s-transferase (p = 0.03) and superoxide dismutase (p = 0.005) enzymes compared to the control group. In the case of the markers of oxidative stress, there was no difference between the groups.

A simple and standardized cafeteria diet caused an accumulation of fatty acids in liver tissue, inducing a state of hepatic steatosis besides an increased expression of antioxidant enzymes.

The onset of interest‐free capital markets in the last two decades has aroused worries about the ability of the new system to mobilize sufficient supply of loanable funds and maintain a sustainable, stable economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which a flexible exchange rate system is able to function given a least developed economy where financial markets are inactive and economic growth is low.

A theoretical general equilibrium model is developed to examine the determinacy of a flexible exchange rate system on a small open market economy on the verge of subsistence. Using data from Sudan, an empirical analysis is conducted to find support for the theoretical results.

The theoretical analysis finds that in economies on the verge of subsistence with inactive financial markets, a flexible exchange rate system is indeterminate and thus will not work. In support of the theoretical results, the empirical analysis indicates that the financial deepening of an economy has a significant positive impact on the determinacy of the exchange rate.

The robustness of the empirical results would be strengthened by examining the significance of financial deepening on exchange rates for additional economies with a large subsistence sector beyond Sudan.

A policy recommendation for economies on the verge of subsistence such as Sudan is to develop their financial institutions in order to increase their competitiveness in the exchange rate market. Moreover, future empirical studies on the impact of exchange rate changes should include monetary variables in order to reflect the degree of an economy's financial market advancement.

The paper illustrates that under conditions of subsistence, general equilibrium models of devaluation are determinant only when supply functions are based on absolute prices and not relative prices.

This study seeks to investigate how a more lateral style of working, such as the Swedish model of management that reflects a more linear manner of managing organizational knowledge, is carried over and transferred to Swedish managed organizations in Singapore.

A total of 33 top‐level managers (23 Scandinavians and ten Asians) who worked in Swedish managed organizations in Singapore were interviewed for this study. It was necessary that the respondents were in top‐level management positions, the assumption being that it was their decisions and actions that steered the organization to its goals. The respondents were selected randomly and came from a variety of industry backgrounds.

The Swedish style of handling information and knowledge within the organization has proven more open, flexible and accessible than Singaporeans might initially expect or understand. This cultural difference of who gains access to timely information and who should use that information to make decisions, for example, first met with a lack of understanding and even inaction on the part of the Singaporeans and active measures are needed such as re‐structuring the organization or a constant communicative strategy by the Swedes to first make a change in direction in organization behaviour. This means that the organizations in this study, in keeping a high standard of employee satisfaction, get to retain, harvest and profit from their organization's knowledge base while enjoying a low turnover rate in human capital.

This study aims to take a complementary approach of exploring the Swedish management style via discourse analysis, with the transcribed long interview data sorted with the coding procedures adapted from grounded theory.

The integration between production scheduling and maintenance planning is attracting the attention of planners in the manufacturing sector with the increase in global competitiveness. Researchers have developed various methodologies to optimize integrated decisions in planning and scheduling, including mathematical modeling under different conditions. This paper considers the simultaneous scheduling of production and maintenance activities with the objective of minimizing the expected total tardiness cost on a single machine (production line).

Scheduling in these two types of activities, production and maintenance, are traditionally done independently, causing conflicts between the two functional areas. To eliminate or at least reduce conflicts, the scheduling of both activities can be done simultaneously with the objective of meeting due dates and maintaining maximum machine availability. In this paper, a mathematical model for an integrated problem is developed and demonstrated by an example.

The proposed integrated model shows a high potential for significant improvements in performance with respect to the cost of tardiness in delivery and machine availability. This is demonstrated by an example showing an average savings of approximately 40%.

This substantial saving is owed to the integration of two important decision-making processes in manufacturing systems. Although the integrated problem is complex and difficult to solve, the fact that it is savings driven makes the problem of interest to researchers and practitioners in manufacturing.

The purpose of this article was to investigate the employee perceptions of diversity management and employee performance. To achieve this, employee respondents’ perceptions and perspectives have been tested, and findings are discussed.

To address this study's purpose, survey data were collected from 250 employees of two organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data were analyzed by age, gender and nationality for two variables: diversity management and employee performance.

Results showed that respondents perceived an improvement in employee performance when diversity was managed for employees of different age groups, females/males working together and a workplace composed of employees from various nationalities.

The implication of this limited study is that further studies on the perception of diversity management for employee performance in the Middle East region needs to be conducted. The social implication is that organizational leaders can initiate diversity management to improve employee performance. The research is limited by the geographical context and access to the collection of data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The implication of this limited study is that further studies on the perception of diversity management for employee performance in the Middle East region needs to be conducted. The social implication is that organizational leaders can initiate diversity management to improve employee performance.

The contribution to academic knowledge from this research is two-fold: findings from a novel study conducted in the Middle East evidenced diversity management improved perceptions of employee performance. The value of the study for praxis is to incorporate employees' belief in diversity management for its potential to improve employee performance.

The study aims to investigate the measurement model of four constructs, namely, spirituality at the workplace (SP), Islamic spirituality (ISP), organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB). The study aims to contribute new knowledge to the existing literature whereby performance determinants comprising these constructs, serve to improve employee well-being which ultimately improves organizational performance.

Using disproportionate stratified random sampling, the survey data used for this empirical research were drawn from 482 employees working in takaful agencies in Malaysia. After yielding an instrument to measure SP, ISP, OCB and OC, principal component analysis (PCA) using SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS were carried out.

Good fit indices from CFA revealed that OC is explained by three variables, namely, normative, continuance and affective; SP is also explained by three variables comprising alignment with organizational values (AWOV), sense of community (SC) and meaningful work (MW); ISP is explained by three variables comprising belief, forgiveness and remembrance of Allah; and finally, OCB is explained by civic virtue, conscientiousness and altruism. The findings of this study will enable Islamic insurance companies to understand the importance of spirituality and Islamic spirituality on well-being and will further improve their function and performance by way of enhancing employees’ spirituality in the workplace. Moreover, Human Resource development professionals, organizational managers and government authorities may use the findings of this study to justify their efforts in designing appropriate learning and performance improvement interventions so that OC, OCB, IS and ISP among non-Muslim and Muslim employees can be monitored and further enhanced.

This study raises awareness on the importance of four critical constructs that can be used by corporate organizations, NGOs and other institutions, to justify their efforts in performance improvement interventions.

Within the framework of the valorization of natural resources, a characterization of the biochemical composition of the edible parts of Adansonia Digitata is applied. The antibacterial effect against bacteria is also realized and compared to some synthetic antibiotics.

The biochemical characterization is carried out according to the norms of the French Association of Normalization, methods of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC International) and gas chromatography (GC). The antibacterial activity is tested by disk diffusion on a solid medium. Parametric tests are used to compare the differences between groups and heat maps to show the expression of the mean inhibitions according to the studied parameters. Multivariate logistic modeling is applied to study the effect of extracts and antibiotics on bacteria.

Biochemical characterization showed a variable importance of proteins, fibers and total sugars, with the presence of highly desired fatty acids such as palmitic, oleic, stearic, linoleic and a-linolenic acids. This gives the tested parts important energy values, especially in the seeds very rich in fatty acids. Methanol proved to be a better extraction solvent than dichloromethane. Antibacterial activity showed that pulp and leaves extracted with methanol had quite similar inhibitory activities against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC29212 and that this effect was better than some antibiotics. Multivariate analysis showed that the leaves had a similar effect to antibiotics, and a significant effect against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29213.

This important activity and the attractive nutritional value of this plant could justify its extensive use in the traditional pharmacopoeia.