The Oswald hypothesis is that home ownership reduces mobility and through that channel results in poorer labor market outcomes. There has been only limited previous evidence on the Australian case. Here we use data from the first four Australian censuses of the twenty-first century, aggregated at the smallest geographical areas for which statistics are released. We propose testing the Oswald hypothesis by estimating the effect of home ownership on the full-time employment rate. Modelling the unemployment rate, as is often done in testing the hypothesis, produces implausible results with respect to the control variables, most likely due to the limitations of the official definition of unemployment. We find that, in modelling the full-time employment rate, the control variables for educational and demographic factors have the theoretically plausible effects, while variables capturing rates for both outright home ownership and with mortgage home ownership are positively related to full-time employment rates, with the effect of the former stronger than the latter. Our findings strongly contradict the Oswald hypothesis.

Cancer, a pervasive threat to human health, presents formidable challenges to traditional treatment approaches. Tumor immunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy for combating malignancies by bolstering the body's immune response to thwart tumor metastasis and recurrence. Nonetheless, the intricacies of tumors, patient heterogeneity, and the presence of tumor-immunosuppressive microenvironments have limited the overall efficacy of immunotherapy, achieving only approximately a 20% success rate. In recent years, nanomaterials have garnered increasing attention in the realm of tumor immunotherapy due to their inherent advantages, such as excellent biocompatibility, precise targeting, and controlled drug release. Nanomaterials empower immunostimulatory molecules and therapeutic agents with the ability to specifically target tumors, amplify drug accumulation at tumor sites, facilitate local immune modulation, alleviate immunosuppressive microenvironments, and thereby enhance the effectiveness of tumor immunotherapy. This review provides an overview of the current state of immunotherapy and offers insights into the ongoing research progress surrounding various nanomaterials aimed at augmenting the efficacy of immunotherapy.

Cancer chemotherapy is generally associated with many severe adverse effects. Many cancer studies are currently focused on repurposing conventional non-toxic anti-parasite drugs for cancer treatment. Since cancer cells and parasites have many features in common, some anti-parasite drugs such as benzimidazoles have been recently found to possess the anti-cancer activity. Benzimidazoles act against cancer by inhibiting tubulin polymerization, inducing cancer cell apoptosis, arresting cell cycle and over-generating reactive oxygen specimen. In this review, we summarize the anticancer features of these drugs in recent investigations, lead to reconsideration of benzimidazoles as a family of anti-cancer chemotherapeutics with non-toxicity or low toxicity to the normal cells and tissues. We particularly highlight the recent progresses using nanoformulations for enhanced cancer therapy and provide our prospects in the future research.

This paper evaluates the use of macro-level insurance to finance post-disaster recovery and reinstatement by investigating the case of the National Disaster Insurance policy implemented by Sri Lanka. The national scheme provided cover for all properties in the country against hazards such as flooding and provided compensation for those affected. Analysis of secondary data obtained from the organisations that managed the scheme showed that the scheme has delivered a much higher return compared to the total insurance premium paid, suggesting that the scheme has delivered a net positive benefit compared to the cost of the premium and can be considered a viable option. However, the existing secondary data did not reveal the values of other costs and indirect benefits associated with the scheme to compute a meaningful benefit-to-cost ratio. Further rigorous, evidence-based cost-benefit analysis is required to assess the cost-effectiveness of a scheme of this nature. A cost-benefit analysis approach based on an analytical hierarchy process is proposed as a possible solution to assess the cost-effectiveness of the scheme, which could be used by government organisations as an alternative, where analytical and research resources may be limited, to evaluate a range of disaster recovery financing options using stakeholder opinion.

Educational equity is the foundation of social equity, and education equalization is one of the serious issues to be solved by the government. This work considers one education equalization reform conducted by Suzhou Industrial Park of China, namely, the comprehensive "five to nine" (CFTN) housing purchase admission qualification adjustment policy, as an example and uses the resold housing transaction data to identify the effect of the equalization policy by the difference-in-differences (DID) method. Based on this natural experiment, the quantitative assessment results show that (1) the CFTN policy has a significantly positive effect on housing prices in nine-year consistent (NYC) school districts that belong to high-quality school districts; (2) the CFTN policy has no significant effect on housing prices in non-NYC consistent school districts that belong to ordinary school districts. These results uncover that the one-size-fits-all CFTN policy can only obtain significant housing price equilibrium effects in school districts above a certain level of education quality. For regions with backward education levels, the policy is ineffective. For these regions, continuously increasing high-quality educational resources and increasing educational service levels are essential solutions to reduce educational inequality.

In this work we aim to identify potential determinants and seek to predict terrorism attack. Thus, to eliminate uncertainty linked to explanatory variables we used the BMA method. We show that, contrary to expectations terrorism in MENA region is no longer purely of economic origin but mainly due to political problems, education, financial development and countries’ demographic characteristics. Likewise, we find that national, international and global terrorism are not of same origins even they present many common roots. In the end, we show that it is possible to predict majority of attacks based on a small number of indicators measuring political risk, financial development and income inequalities.

Despite the advantages of nanoscale drug delivery systems, traditional nanoparticles often encounter challenges such as detection and elimination by the immune system. To circumvent these limitations, scientists have created biomimetic nanoparticles that extend circulation time, decrease clearance rates, and optimize drug delivery. The integration of cell membranes onto nanoparticle surfaces yields Cell Membrane-coated Nanoparticles (CMNPs) that exhibit behavior akin to actual cells while offering superior structural robustness and stability. A variety of cell membranes, including those of red blood cells, white blood cells, and cancer cells, lend unique properties and targeting capabilities to CMNPs. This review outlines the diagnostic and therapeutic roles of CMNP-based drug delivery systems in oncology and contemplates their possible clinical impact.

The goal of this paper is to provide an overall presentation of corruption as occupational fraud building on the findings of an empirical study conducted in Greece. As uncertainty leads to increased levels of corruption, Greece was chosen due to the prolonged period of uncertainty the country faces, caused by the 2010 financial crisis and followed by the Covid pandemic crisis. 400 questionnaires reviewing corruption perception were gathered and analyzed by gender, age, marital status, education level, position, occupation, and monthly income, as well as urban vs rural area of residence. The findings of the study were compared with and critically evaluated against those of the previous studies for Greece. Respondents in age group 36-49 believe that if appropriate measures are taken it is possible to tackle corruption in the public sector, in contrast to people aged 18-35 who disagree completely. Residents of rural areas do not consider corruption to be a serious problem and are more willing to whistleblowing (in contrast to residents of urban areas). The study findings have important practical implications in the context of designing effective corruption reduction policies.

It's critical for environmental governance to understand the effectiveness of policy interventions as well as their working mechanisms. This paper focuses on the vehicle license plate-based management, a sort of policy intervention understudied in environmental governance literature. Specifically, we study the automobile purchase restriction (APR), a major method of license management to address urban air pollution and traffic congestion recently launched by the authorities of China. However, limited studies have quantified the environmental impact of such purchase restriction. Based on the panel data of PM2.5 concentration in 330 cities in China during 1998-2016, this study aims to explore the causal impact of Beijing automobile purchase restriction on air quality, using the regression control method and high-dimensional data regression of machine learning. The average PM2.5 concentration did not decrease but increased because of the purchase restriction. Over time, the deterioration effect on urban air quality will not alleviate. Besides, the restriction cannot enhance urban air quality by decreasing the increase of PM2.5. Despite excluding the impact of driving restriction, the purchase restriction markedly aggravate urban air quality. This paper has some policy implications for policymakers on the impact of urban vehicle license management with caution. Hence, it is essential to promote urban economy, production, and lifestyle to attain the win-win goal of air pollution control and urban development.

Non-compliance with tax obligations, particularly by wealthy taxpayers and large corporations, continues to represent a source of social injustice that fuels social instability, especially in developing countries. Understanding the strategies of tax evasion and avoidance is of critical importance. This article highlights five main strategies used by large corporations and wealthy taxpayers to avoid taxes, including tax havens, the underground economy, aggressive tax optimization, alternative financial markets, and crypto currencies. We also propose several actions to tackle global tax non-compliance, including prevention, peer reporting, active monitoring of compliance indicators and inter- national cooperation. These actions can be combined to achieve optimal results in reducing tax evasion and avoidance.

Public diplomacy is a significant factor in promoting policy communication, people-to-people bonds, and the protection of foreign assets between two nations, but there is little research on the economic worth of public diplomacy. Python was used to crawl the daily search frequency of "China", "African countries", and related terms to construct the heat index of China-Africa public diplomacy during 2011-2019, and a two-way fixed effect model was developed to examine the impact of public diplomacy on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa. The empirical results show that public diplomacy has a considerable favorable effect on China’s OFDI in Africa, and after a series of robustness tests, the basic conclusion still holds. Heterogeneity tests show the investment promotion effect of public diplomacy is more pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa and that the promotion mechanism exhibits the characteristics of poverty alleviation and risk aversion. In addition, the promotion effect of public diplomacy on China’s OFDI becomes greater as time goes on. In terms of impact mechanisms, public diplomacy may promote OFDI by enhancing financing capacity and improving national governance. The research conclusion has policy implications for promoting China-Africa public diplomacy and investment cooperation in the new era.

In light of the events of 2020 and 2022, this study aims to examine the co-movements between the capital markets of the Netherlands (AEX), France (CAC 40), Germany (DAX 30), the United Kingdom (FTSE 100), Italy (FTSE MIB), Spain (IBEX 35), Russia (IMOEX), and spot prices of crude oil (WTI), silver (XAG), gold (XAU), and platinum (XPT) from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022. The purpose of this analysis is to answer the following research question: (i) Did the events of 2020 and 2022 increase the shocks between stock markets and WTI, XAG, XAU, and XPT prices? The findings indicate that time series do not follow a normal distribution and are stationary. In response to the question of investigation, we found that during the Tranquil period, it was possible to verify the existence of 28 causal relationships (out of 110 possibilities). During the stress period, there was a very significant increase in the number of causal relationships between the market pairs under analysis (62 causal relationships out of 110 possibilities), including a relative increase in the influence of commodities on capital markets and capital markets on commodities. These findings show that during the events of 2020 and 2022, capital markets and commodities significantly accentuated their co-movements among themselves, indicating that alternative markets such as WTI, XAG, XAU, and XPT do not provide safe-haven properties. These results have implications for portfolio diversification during times of global economic uncertainty.

Gravity Energy Storage (GES) systems are recently being considered as a viable solution for storing intermittent renewable energy power, specifically in high curtailment zones. While a few studies have analyzed the material costs of GES systems, there is a paucity of literature on analyzing the socioeconomic costs of GES systems. This study analyzes the location-dependent costs of GES plants using a multi-factor spatial parameterization model for evaluating the existence of a point of minimum cost in a suburban mountainous geography. A case study of 500x500 points in a 50x50km2 area in the suburban area of Fukuoka city in Japan is performed. It is found that the cost of material transportation and transmission is more dominant in determining the position of an optimal cost location than factors of excavation and land costs. The position of the minima is also related to the principal urban area in that the line connecting the Center Business District (CBD) and suburban flat areas (line 1) is where the potential minima lie. The intersection point of an orthogonal to the line connecting the CBD with a substation nearest to the flat area with line 1, is the potential zone of minima location. The findings of this study are critical for urban energy planners and reveals how socioeconomic cost factors can aid in geolocation a suitable GES installation site.

Trust beneficiary protection constitutes an important legal system in the trust industry. This paper, based upon the study approach of the “Theory of Law and Finance”, establishes the trust beneficiary protection index of China. We also test the influence of trust beneficiary protection on the performance of trust companies. As indicated by our study’s results, an “inverted U-shaped” relationship exists between the degree of trust beneficiary protection and the performance of trust companies. In a period when the trust law system has not yet been well established, strengthening trust beneficiary protection could help facilitate the growth of trust company performance. However, this facilitation effect gradually diminishes as the trust law system becomes more perfect. This in turn means that, after reaching a certain peak, conferring the beneficiary with more rights of supervision and participation would cause the performance of trust companies to decline. Improving regional legal environments could also help facilitate the growth of trust company performance. In addition, this facilitation effect is subject to the influence of the nature of trust company controllers. In trust companies controlled by local state-owned capitals, we find that the facilitation effect of the improvement of regional legal environments on trust company performance is inhibited. In trust companies controlled by non-state-owned capitals, however, the facilitation effect of the improvement of regional legal environments on trust company performance is enhanced.

On the basis of the background of the global green development wave, this paper studies the mechanism between ecological value transformation and urban-rural common prosperity as well as selects 24 data indicators in relation to ecological value transformation, i.e., green development level from 2008 to 2017, calculate the comprehensive score of China's green development level by entropy method, measures the gap between the rich and the poor between urban and rural areas by urban-rural income ratio, and using correlation analysis, she examines the relationship between green development level and the urban-rural income ratio. Moreover, through empirical analysis, there is a significant negative correlation between the level of green development and the ratio of urban to rural income, according to the findings. The improvement of the level of green development will assist narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents as well as achieve common prosperity.

In reality firms most often face negatively sloped demand curves. Then, for a given level of consumers’ surplus, levies on prices yield higher fiscal revenues than specific duties. Therefore, according to the prevailing view, the switch from unit to ad valorem taxation is supposed to generate more welfare; some even speak of an associated Pareto-improvement. However, this is not true because taxing prices merely transfers profits to the Treasury, while total rent remains unaffected. Since excise duties diminish the welfare gain in comparison with untaxed trade, an appropriately designed income tax allows all parties to benefit. Sales should be taxed only exceptionally.

 In the past, researchers investigated the immune response acting against mycobacterial antigens in tuberculosis (TB). Several ELISA tests have been conducted for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Other researchers manipulated 16 kDa antigen from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis to develop a tuberculosis diagnostic test while some others studied the subspecies of M. tuberculosis. In the present study, we explored the possibilities of detecting 16 kDa protein derived from M. tuberculosis, on an interdigitated electrode (IDE). Measurements with Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and current-volt systems were demonstrated using antibody as the probe.  Further, the involvement of gold nanoparticle for the signal-enhancement and high-performance are evidenced. The specificity in the serum containing samples is used to show the clinical relevancy. 16 kDa antigen used in this experiment is highly reliable for TB diagnosis as it largely expresses and can be implemented in other sensing system.

Previous literature shows that the price-discovery ability of options market varies substantially over time. Using data of Shanghai Stock Exchange 50 exchange-traded fund options, this paper shows that options prices contribute relatively less to price discovery during low-sentiment periods, but the price-discovery ability of options market remains unchanged during high-sentiment periods. These results suggest that change in aggregate investor sentiment is an important source of the time variation in options’ price discovery ability. Moreover, the options market experiences greater bid-ask spreads when investor sentiment is lower, supporting a “transaction costs mechanism.” This paper fulfills related literature on the time variation in options’ price-discovery ability.

Access to electricity, a fundamental element of contemporary life, is essential for economic success. Its impact extends to the fundamental foundations of industrial development and has the power to improve a wide range of industries, including healthcare, transportation, utilities, and education. This article aims to analyse the effect of electricity access on primary education in Central Africa over the period 1997-2019. To this effect, we employ data mainly from the World Development indicator on 9 countries of Central Africa. Using the pooled ordinary least squares estimation technique, the results indicate that access to electricity contributes positively and significantly to primary educational attainment in Central Africa during the study period. The results are Robust to the use of alternative estimation strategy and eventual endogeneity problems in the results are account through the two stage least square estimation techniques which confirm our baseline results as well as the nature of the relationship between access to electricity and primary education in Central Africa. These results have important implications for policies in overcoming barriers to electricity access.

This study examined the determinants of the exchange rate in a mono-resource economy, during the period of currency and oil price fall in Nigeria. The aim of the study is to ascertain the potentiality of economic diversification (non-oil export) in saving the falling value of the domestic currency, as well as, its stability. The study employed the use of monthly data from the Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation from January 2008 to December 2020 using the ARDL and NARDL models to achieve the stated objectives. In the literature, several empirical studies analyzed the relationship between exchange rates, oil price, and oil export and came to the logical conclusion that a rise in the price of oil would bring about a rise in the exchange rate, all things being equal while the reverse is the case. To add to the existing body of knowledge this study did not only look at the relationship between the variables but also examined the determinants of the exchange rate in a mono-resource economy and ascertained the potentiality of economic diversification in bringing succor to the falling exchange rate in the midst of falling oil price. The NARDL result corroborates the findings of previous studies on the relationship between exchange rate, oil price, and the performance of non-oil export. It maintains that positive changes in oil prices would lead to the appreciation of domestic currency while negative changes in oil prices would lead to the depreciation of the domestic currency. With this analysis, the study recommends the diversification of the economy and revitalization of the non-oil sector. Since import proves to have a negative impact on the exchange rate, the revitalization of the non-oil sector stimulates domestic consumption and thus reduces import bills which raise the demand for the dollar and weakens the naira.