Fuel prices at petrol stations in touristic cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Ordóñez-de-Haro ◽  
Jordi Perdiguero ◽  
Juan-Luis Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
National Park ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Unleaded Gasoline ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Fuel Prices ◽  
Area Of Influence ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The City

While it may seem obvious from common sense that retail fuel prices should be higher in touristic rather than in nontouristic cities, the related empirical literature has failed either to clearly support this assumption or to qualify and quantify the effect of tourism on retail fuel prices. Using a self-created data set that includes prices across a large sample of petrol stations located in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, we seek to evaluate the effects of tourism on local destination retail petrol prices. The estimations prove three main effects: Petrol prices are higher in cities with high levels of tourism, nearby beaches, and/or with the socioeconomic influence of a national park. In fact, petrol stations add a margin of around 6.6% and 6.4% for unleaded gasoline 95 and diesel, respectively, in touristic cities. Second, the more touristic the city, the higher these prices. Third, in the case of touristic municipalities, the percentage of travelers from abroad and being within the area of influence of a national park are two of the main drivers that explain this overpricing.

Assessing the Differential Impact of Vacancy on Criminal Violence in the City of St. Louis, MO

2021 ◽  
pp. 073401682199679
Author(s):  
Branson Fox ◽  
Anne Trolard ◽  
Mason Simmons ◽  
Jessica E. Meyers ◽  
Matt Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Terrain Modeling ◽  
Criminal Violence ◽  
Aggravated Assault ◽  
Environmental Correlates ◽  
Risk Terrain Modeling ◽  
The City ◽  
North And South

This study employs risk terrain modeling to identify the spatial correlates of aggravated assault and homicide in St. Louis, MO. We build upon the empirical literature by (1) replicating recent research examining the role of vacancy in the concentration of criminal violence and (2) examining whether the environmental correlates of violence vary between north and south St. Louis, a boundary that has long divided the city along racial and socioeconomic lines. Our results indicate that vacancy presents a strong, consistent risk for both homicide and aggravated assault and that this pattern emerges most clearly in the northern part of the city which is majority African American and has suffered chronic disinvestment. The concentration of criminal violence in South City is driven primarily by public hubs including housing, transportation, and schools. Our results underscore the importance of vacancy as a driver of the spatial concentration of violent crime and point to potential heterogeneity in risk terrain modeling results when applied to large metropolitan areas. Situational crime prevention strategies would be well served to consider such spatial contingencies as the risk factors driving violent crime are neither uniformly distributed across space nor uniform in their impact on criminal violence.

scholarly journals Total Factor Productivity of Major Crops in Southern Ethiopia: A Dis-Aggregated Analysis of the Growth Components

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3388
Author(s):  
Merihun Fikru Meja ◽  
Bamlaku Alamirew Alemu ◽  
Maru Shete
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Parametric Estimation ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Available Technology

(1) Background: Even though agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, the improvements made regarding crop productivity appeared insufficient and had slow progress. Several studies suggest possible ways to identify the challenges in the productivity of the crop sub-sector. Nevertheless, there are gaps in the empirical literature in both knowledge and methods. The current study intends to identify the factors that affect growth in the productivity of teff, maize, barley, wheat, and sorghum crops. (2) Methods: Cobb-Douglass stochastic production function is estimated using a panel data set of the Living Standard Measurement Survey. To address the objectives of the study, a parametric estimation with a time-varying decay model with deterministic and stochastic components was adopted. (3) Results and Discussion: The effect of inputs on aggregate output was positive and significant at the 1% significance level, implying the presence of economies of scale. Variation in the inefficiency term explained 46.4% of the total variance in the composed error term. The average productivity of major crops was 6.19 per year. This study implied that technical change in the production of major crops increased by 22% with better use of available technology. (4) Conclusions and Policy Implication: The findings pinpoint that farmers should focus on technical change and intensification of improved agricultural inputs.

scholarly journals Perspectives of wild medicine harvesters from Cape Town, South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 113 (9/10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Petersen ◽  
Andrew M. Reid ◽  
Eugene J. Moll ◽  
Marc T. Hockings
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Cape Floristic Region ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Economic Survival ◽  
Wild Resources ◽  
The City

Cape Town is a fast-growing cityscape in the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa with 24 formally protected conservation areas including the World Heritage Table Mountain National Park. These sites have been protected and managed as critical sites for local biodiversity, representing potentially one-third of all Cape Floristic Region flora species and 18% of South Africa’s plant diversity. Cape Town is also inhabited by a rapidly growing culturally and economically diverse citizenry with distinct and potentially conflicting perspectives on access to, and management of, local natural resources. In a qualitative study of 58 locally resident traditional healers of distinct cultural groups, we examined motivations underlying the generally illicit activity of harvesting of wild resources from Cape Town protected areas. Resource harvester motivations primarily link to local economic survival, health care and cultural links to particular resources and practices, ‘access for all’ outlooks, and wholesale profit-seeking perspectives. We describe these motivations, contrast them with the current formal, legal and institutional perspectives for biodiversity protection in the city, and propose managerial interventions that may improve sustainability of ongoing harvest activities.

scholarly journals Groundwater stable isotope profile of the Etosha National Park, Namibia

Koedoe ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward S. Riddell ◽  
Werner Kilian ◽  
Wilferd Versfeld ◽  
Martin Kosoana
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
National Park ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Isotope Profile ◽  
Rainfall Recharge ◽  
Large Protected Area

The Etosha National Park (ENP) is a large protected area in northern Namibia. While the ENP has received a lot of research attention in terms of terrestrial ecosystem process understanding in recent decades, aquatic and hydrological research has to date been limited to a descriptive form. This study provides a baseline hydrological data set of the spatial representation of Oand H-isotope ratios in the groundwater at a park scale, with a focus on three water point types utilised by game, namely natural artesian and contact springs as well as artificial boreholes. The data are used to infer broad-scale hydrological process from groundwater recharge mechanisms dominated by direct rainfall recharge in the west of the ENP to evaporative controls on surface water recharge pathways in the east of the ENP close to Fishers Pan. The findings are used to recommend further targeted research and monitoring to aid management of water resources in the ENP.Conservation implications: The terrestrial ecosystem, particularly large game, are tightly coupled to the distribution of available surface water in the ENP, notably contact and artesian springs. Within the ENP there is a perceived desiccation of these springs. This study provides a baseline upon which more comprehensive studies should be undertaken to differentiate natural from anthropogenic causes for this phenomenon.

Debt holdings and investment cash flow sensitivity of listed firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 943-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnson Worlanyo Ahiadorme ◽  
Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako ◽  
Joshua Yindenaba Abor
Keyword(s):  
Cash Flow ◽  
Empirical Modeling ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Flow Sensitivity ◽  
Cash Flow Sensitivity ◽  
Cash Flow Sensitivities ◽  
Internal Funds

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of debt holdings on the sensitivity of firms’ investment to availability of internal funds. Design/methodology/approach For a panel data set of 27 Ghanaian listed firms for the period 2007–2013, the paper applies the Euler equation approach to the empirical modeling of investment. Findings The study finds support for the assertion that listed firms face less severe corporate control problems and lower financing constraints, and thus, have lower investment cash flow sensitivities. The study also finds that a significant positive sensitivity of investment to internal funds is associated with firms that have high debt holdings. Practical implications An implication of this study is that firms with high debt holdings face greater challenges in accessing external finance. These firms are likely to experience under-investment which at a macro level would translate into lower investments and economic growth for the country. Originality/value Empirical literature document that in the presence of market imperfections, investments of financially constrained firms become sensitive to the availability of internal finance. There are also contradictory evidences regarding the pattern of the observed investment cash flow sensitivity. This study examines the effect of debt holdings on the sensitivity of firms’ investment to availability of cash flow. This is yet to be empirically tested despite some theoretical explanations.

scholarly journals Economic and ecological space “Kuyalnitskiy”: organizational and investment support for development

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-79
Author(s):  
Oleg Rubel
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Park ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
Business Activity ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Service Market ◽  
Protected Object ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
The City

Introduction. Kuyalnyk estuary has a remarkable medical and health potential of national importance, its unique properties are of international value, which predetermines recognition of respective areas as protected areas. In addition, proximity of Kuyalnyk estuary to the city of Odesa causes expansion of not only cooperation vectors with representatives of business groups in Odesa region, as  well as creating demand in service market at this area. However, presently, economiс-ecological potential of Kuyalnyk estuary area is not used properly, which significantly affects social and infrastructural level of this area, and decreases investment attraction of this resort. Aim and tasks. In this paper it is proposed to consider theoretical and methodological principles of developing ecologically oriented business activity at the stage of planning protected object: Natural National Park (NNP) “Kuyalnitskiy”; to analyze tools for cooperation with economic private sector representatives, which will ensure protected areas development as a multifunctional space. Results. This paper substantiates ways to develop regional program of targeted economiс-ecological support for entrepreneurial activity development in the areas of Ukrainian nature reserve fund; it is suggested implementing public-private policy that allows developing future Natural National Park “Kuyalnitskiy” as innovative area – “space” aimed at streamlining processes of nature management, creating new formats of business activity, improving ecological-economic situation in the region, creating conditions for sustainable development. Conclusions. Taking into account dual economic and regulatory status of Kuyalnyk estuary, it is necessary to plan such vectors of business activity that can simultaneously meet the needs of sanatoriums and have environmentally friendly format that will consider reasonable level of anthropogenic load at this area. The proximity to the city of Odesa will ensure development and market demand for various types of economic-ecological business activities, as well as appropriate level of “neighbourhood urban planning”.

scholarly journals ASSESSING OPENSTREETMAP URBAN NETWORK OF ORAN CITY

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-3/W8 ◽  
pp. 249-252
Author(s):  
B. Meguenni ◽  
M. A. Hafid
Keyword(s):  
Road Network ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Spatial Accuracy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Urban Network ◽  
Urban Networks ◽  
Spatial Quality ◽  
Gis Environment ◽  
The City

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> OpenStreetMap (OSM) uses the Open Database License, it is a collaborative project that collects a rich set of vector data provided by volunteers. It is a global collection of mapping data that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Many third-party online maps are based on OpenStreetMap data. Currently, more and more large organizations are choosing OSM for their maps.</p> <p>In addition, the analysis of the spatial quality of the OSM data shows that particular care must be taken. However, there are several methods for assessing the quality of the OSM data by comparing the OSM to an authoritative dataset. In this context, it is essential to develop an automatic procedure to improve its spatial quality.</p> <p>This work proposes a quantitative method for comparing the quality of the OSM and an authoritative data set on urban networks in the city of Oran (Algeria). The procedure is based on python modules in a GIS environment and provides measurements of the spatial accuracy and completeness of the OSM road network. The method is applied to assess the quality of the Oran OSM road network data set through a comparison with the official Algerian dataset. The results show that the OSM's Algerian road network is very complete, but with low spatial accuracy.</p>

scholarly journals Analyze COVID-19 CT images based on evolutionary algorithm with dynamic searching space

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunhong Gong ◽  
Yanan Sun ◽  
Dezhong Peng ◽  
Peng Chen ◽  
Zhongtai Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Past ◽  
Computed Tomography Images ◽  
Intensive Use ◽  
Hospital Resources ◽  
The Common ◽  
Ct Data

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global alarm. With the advances in artificial intelligence, the COVID-19 testing capabilities have been greatly expanded, and hospital resources are significantly alleviated. Over the past years, computer vision researches have focused on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which can significantly improve image analysis ability. However, CNN architectures are usually manually designed with rich expertise that is scarce in practice. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can automatically search for the proper CNN architectures and voluntarily optimize the related hyperparameters. The networks searched by EAs can be used to effectively process COVID-19 computed tomography images without expert knowledge and manual setup. In this paper, we propose a novel EA-based algorithm with a dynamic searching space to design the optimal CNN architectures for diagnosing COVID-19 before the pathogenic test. The experiments are performed on the COVID-CT data set against a series of state-of-the-art CNN models. The experiments demonstrate that the architecture searched by the proposed EA-based algorithm achieves the best performance yet without any preprocessing operations. Furthermore, we found through experimentation that the intensive use of batch normalization may deteriorate the performance. This contrasts with the common sense approach of manually designing CNN architectures and will help the related experts in handcrafting CNN models to achieve the best performance without any preprocessing operations

scholarly journals AUTOMATIC BLOCKED ROADS ASSESSMENT AFTER EARTHQUAKE USING HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGERY

2015 ◽  
Vol XL-1-W5 ◽  
pp. 601-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Rastiveis ◽  
E. Hosseini-Zirdoo ◽  
F. Eslamizade
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
World View ◽  
Satellite Image ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Road ◽  
Vector Map ◽  
Processing Step ◽  
Image Quality Improvement ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Imagery ◽  
The City

In 2010, an earthquake in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, happened quite by chance an accident and killed over 300000 people. According to historical data such an earthquake has not occurred in the area. Unpredictability of earthquakes has necessitated the need for comprehensive mitigation efforts to minimize deaths and injuries. Blocked roads, caused by debris of destroyed buildings, may increase the difficulty of rescue activities. In this case, a damage map, which specifies blocked and unblocked roads, can be definitely helpful for a rescue team. <br><br> In this paper, a novel method for providing destruction map based on pre-event vector map and high resolution world view II satellite images after earthquake, is presented. For this purpose, firstly in pre-processing step, image quality improvement and co-coordination of image and map are performed. Then, after extraction of texture descriptor from the image after quake and SVM classification, different terrains are detected in the image. Finally, considering the classification results, specifically objects belong to “debris” class, damage analysis are performed to estimate the damage percentage. In this case, in addition to the area objects in the “debris” class their shape should also be counted. The aforementioned process are performed on all the roads in the road layer.In this research, pre-event digital vector map and post-event high resolution satellite image, acquired by Worldview-2, of the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, were used to evaluate the proposed method. The algorithm was executed on 1200×800 m2 of the data set, including 60 roads, and all the roads were labelled correctly. The visual examination have authenticated the abilities of this method for damage assessment of urban roads network after an earthquake.

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