Estimating elasticities of main consumption groups for Egypt : using cross sectional data

The paper analyzes the demand of main consumption groups in Egypt to extraction parameter estimates of these groups. The consumer demand studies in Egypt are limited especially in addressing the demand groups. This paper considers elasticities of main consumption groups by estimating the linear approximation almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) using cross-sectional data from the Egyptian 2012/2013 household income and expenditure and consumption survey (HIECS). The estimated model was done by the Iterated Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (ISUR) estimator with the homogeneity and symmetry constraints imposed. The principal findings indicated that the Marshallian own-price elasticities were negative for main groups except for health, transport, and restaurants and hotels while the signs of expenditure elasticities were positive that meaning all groups are normal or luxury groups.

Image Feature Extraction of Moment of Inertia Based on Otsu Threshold Segmentation

In order to better extract image feature and recognition, a novel feature extraction algorithm of the binary image processing using Otsu combined with normalized moment of inertia (NMI) is put forward. Firstly, the image is processed into binary image and the target area is effectively segmented utilizing Otsu algorithm based on the criteria of maximal variance between-class , secondly, the NMI feature of the binary image is extracted, and finally, the extraction NMI feature is used in image recognition. Experimental results show that NMI feature of the binary image have the ability of anti-geometric distortions (translation, rotation and scaling, TRS), and anti-brightness distortions, the novel method have characteristics of simple extraction approach, little extraction parameter, easy implementation, and strong robustness.