Linking Water Access and Education in the Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite the growing literature on water access, little is known about the effect of water access on education, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by assessing how water access affects education in 23 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000-2018. To carry out our investigation, we used the Generalized Moments Methods (GMM). The results show that there is a negative relationship between water access and education. Furthermore, parliament women and government effectiveness play an important role in mitigating the negative impact of water access on education. Finally, the positive association between water access and education in sub-Saharan Africa is conditioned by the achievement of a certain threshold of parliament women and government effectiveness.

Moderator Effect of Innovation on the Relationship between Internationalization and Performance in Brazilian and European Companies

Objective: To analyzes the moderating effect of innovation on the relationship between internationalization and financial performance. Method: The sample gathers 1,840 companies listed on Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3) and NYSE Euronext during the period of 2014-2018. Tests for difference of means were performed and linear regression models with panel data via systemic generalized moments method (GMM-Sys) were estimated. Results: Estimates indicate that the degree of internationalization alone does not assure high financial performance in Brazilian companies, while in European companies it influences return on assets (ROA) negatively. Moreover, in both contexts, the individual moderating effect of the two variables of innovation, exploration (R&D) and exploitation (Capex), could not be identified. However, a positive and significant effect of ambidextrous innovation activities in the relationship between internationalization and financial performance was verified. Evidence of the effect of internationalization on financial performance in both Brazilian and European companies is confirmed when enhanced by the simultaneous engagement of innovation activities. Contributions: This study contributes to a recent investigative line, which verifies the effect of intervening variables in the internationalization-performance relationship. It contributes to the analysis of this relationship in companies from emerging markets, a much and still needed research focus as a way of gaining a better understanding of business opportunities in adverse institutional conditions and how to seize them.

Viscoelasticity and Noise Properties Reveal the Formation of Biomemory in Cells

Living cells are neither perfectly elastic nor liquid and return a viscoelastic response to external stimuli. Nanoindentation provides force distance curves allowing the investigation of cell mechanical properties, and yet, these curves can differ from point to point on cell surface revealing its inhomogeneous character. In the present work, we propose a mathematical method to estimate both viscoelastic and noise properties of cells, as these are depicted on the values of the scaling exponents of relaxation function and power spectral density respectively. The method uses as input the time derivative of the response force in a nanoindentation experiment. Generalized moments method and/or rescaled range analysis are used to study the resulting time series depending on their non-stationary or stationary nature. We conducted experiments in living Ulocladium Chartarum spores. We found that spores, in the approaching phase present a viscoelastic behavior with the corresponding scaling exponent in the range 0.25-0.52, and in the retracting phase present a liquid-like behavior with exponents in the range 0.67-0.85. This substantial difference of the scaling exponents in the two phases suggests the formation of biomemory as response of the spores to the indenting AFM mechanical stimulus. The retracting phase may be described as a process driven by bluish noises, while the approaching one is driven by persistent noise.

The impact of aid for trade on horizontal and vertical export diversification

This work aims to identify the existing relationship between aid-for-trade flows and export diversification in sub-Saharan Africa and to develop Asia countries. The results of the estimate, conducted by the Generalized Moments Method (GMM) over the period 1995-2019, show a positive impact of Aid for Trade on horizontal and vertical diversification of exports for the entire sample, including positive and significant effects on per capita GDP growth, gross capital formation, commercial freedom, human capital, and population growth. In the sub-Saharan African sub-sample, Aid for Trade positively impacts vertical and horizontal diversification and the other variables, such as GDP by habitat, FDI, gross capital formation, and human capital; on the other hand, in the sub-sample of Asian countries, aid has a negative impact on horizontal and vertical diversification; moreover, GDP, FDI, gross capital formation, human capital, population growth, and inflation have a positive influence. Our study compared to previous studies mainly dealt with the “impact of aid on export diversification” aggregated forms, but this study fills the gaps in the literature by examining the impact of trade aid on diversification. from its vertical and horizontal dimensions and contribute to the improvement of knowledge in this field.

ϕ-Informational Measures: Some Results and Interrelations

In this paper, we focus on extended informational measures based on a convex function ϕ: entropies, extended Fisher information, and generalized moments. Both the generalization of the Fisher information and the moments rely on the definition of an escort distribution linked to the (entropic) functional ϕ. We revisit the usual maximum entropy principle—more precisely its inverse problem, starting from the distribution and constraints, which leads to the introduction of state-dependent ϕ-entropies. Then, we examine interrelations between the extended informational measures and generalize relationships such the Cramér–Rao inequality and the de Bruijn identity in this broader context. In this particular framework, the maximum entropy distributions play a central role. Of course, all the results derived in the paper include the usual ones as special cases.

The Hydrothermal Vent Field at the Eastern Edge of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc: The Avyssos Caldera (Nisyros)

Almost three-quarters of known volcanic activity on Earth occurs in underwater locations. The presence of active hydrothermal vent fields in such environments is a potential natural hazard for the environment, society, and economy. Despite its importance for risk assessment and risk mitigation, the monitoring of volcanic activity is impeded by the remoteness and the extreme conditions of many underwater volcanoes. The morphology and the activity of the submarine caldera, Avyssos, at the northern part of Nisyros volcano in the South Aegean Sea (Greece), were studied using a remotely operated underwater vehicle. The recorded time series of temperature and conductivity over the submarine volcano have been analyzed in terms of the Generalized Moments Method. This type of analysis can be used as an indicator for the state of activity of a submarine volcano. Here, we expand the work conducted for the first time in 2018. We present the findings of the geological exploration and the mathematical analysis, obtained from the data collected in October 2010. The temperature and conductivity time series show minor fluctuations in a rather stable environment. Based on these results, the impact of developing appropriate mechanisms and policies to avoid the associated natural hazard is expected to be important.

A Review of Software for Spatial Econometrics in R

The software for spatial econometrics available in the R system for statistical computing is reviewed. The methods are illustrated in a historical perspective, highlighting the main lines of development and employing historically relevant datasets in the examples. Estimators and tests for spatial cross-sectional and panel models based either on maximum likelihood or on generalized moments methods are presented. The paper is concluded reviewing some current active lines of research in spatial econometric software methods.

The Occurrence of Conflicts and the Social Divide Do They Affect the Economic Growth of Sub-Saharan African Fragile Countries?

The article is an empirical analysis of the relationship between social divide, the occurrence of conflict and economic growth. By examining the impact of the social divide and conflict on the economic growth of six countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as the effects of predicted variables conflict and economic growth on the social divide, we use ARDL models from the econometric perspective to study the link between conflicts and growth then the Generalized Moments Method (GMM) to solve the endogeneity problem of our main variables and, this from dynamic panel data relating to the period 1980- 2008. The results reveal that conflict destroys economic growth and conversely, economic growth creates new social divides that increase the opportunity for conflict and depress activity. The intensity of the conflicts in these countries seems to be able to project fragile economies more quickly on trajectories which lead them less towards their level of long-term equilibrium growth. Indeed, conflict assessment should be a central concern of development economists for the sake of economic recovery. Finally, the poor performance in terms of growth cannot be blamed on the conflicts whose exacerbation is the cause, but must lead decision-makers to reflect on the structural causes.

Intelligent LED Certification System in Mass Production

It is impossible to effectively use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in medicine and telecommunication systems without knowing their main characteristics, the most important of them being efficiency. Reliable measurement of LED efficiency holds particular significance for mass production automation. The method for measuring LED efficiency consists in comparing two cooling curves of the LED crystal obtained after exposure to short current pulses of positive and negative polarities. The measurement results are adversely affected by noise in the electrical measuring circuit. The widely used instrumental noise suppression filters, as well as classical digital infinite impulse response (IIR), finite impulse response (FIR) filters, and adaptive filters fail to yield satisfactory results. Unlike adaptive filters, blind methods do not require a special reference signal, which makes them more promising for removing noise and reconstructing the waveform when measuring the efficiency of LEDs. The article suggests a method for sequential blind signal extraction based on a cascading neural network. Statistical analysis of signal and noise values has revealed that the signal and the noise have different forms of the probability density function (PDF). Therefore, it is preferable to use high-order statistical moments characterizing the shape of the PDF for signal extraction. Generalized statistical moments were used as an objective function for optimization of neural network parameters, namely, generalized skewness and generalized kurtosis. The order of the generalized moments was chosen according to the criterion of the maximum Mahalanobis distance. The proposed method has made it possible to implement a multi-temporal comparison of the crystal cooling curves for measuring LED efficiency.