Are Panel Unit Root Tests Useful for Real-Time Data?

With the development of real-time databases, N vintages are available for T observations instead of a single realization of the time series process. Although the use of panel unit root tests with the aim to gain in efficiency seems obvious, empirical and simulation results shown in this paper heavily mitigate the intuitive perspective.macroeconomics ;

COVID-19 and fear processing

The world faces a global crisis that encompasses health, financial, and psychological aspects as a result of the coronavirus disease. While the health crisis is significant, it is important to recognize that the human and social crises that have emerged are equally impactful. These crises have resulted in various negative outcomes, such as social rejection, economic disparity, unemployment, and mental distress. Fear is a significant psychological barrier that can impede recovery from any disease process, and thus, it plays a critical role in determining the mortality and morbidity of any given disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a pervasive fear of infection that has further exacerbated the situation. This study explored the mechanisms by which humans may have elicited conditional fear, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a specific case study. Our goal was to examine the process of fear in humans by exploring our knowledge of neuroanatomy and the systemic response regulated by the autonomic nervous system

COMPARISON OF SUPERVISED CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES WITH ALOS PALSAR SENSOR FOR ROORKEE REGION OF UTTARAKHAND, INDIA

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) is developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) which was launched in the year 2006 for the Earth observation and exploration purpose. The ALOS was carrying PRISM, AVNIR-2 and PALSAR sensors for this purpose. PALSAR is L-Band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The PALSAR sensor is designed in a way that it can work in all weather conditions with a resolution of 10 meters. In this research work we have made an investigation on the accuracy obtained from the various supervised classification techniques. We have compared the accuracy obtained by classifying the ALOS PALSAR data of the Roorkee region of Uttarakhand, India. The training ROI’S (Region of Interest) are created manually with the assistance of ArcGIS Earth and for the testing purpose, we have used the Global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the region. Supervised classification techniques included in this comparison are Parallelepiped classification (PC), Minimum distance classification (MDC), Mahalanobis distance classification (MaDC), Maximum likelihood classification (MLC), Spectral angle mapper (SAM), Spectral information divergence (SID) and Support vector machine (SVM). Later, through the post classification confusion matrix accuracy assessment test is performed and the corresponding value of the kappa coefficient is obtained. In the result, we have concluded MDC as best in term of overall accuracy with 82.3634% and MLC with a kappa value of 0.7591. Finally, a peculiar relationship is developed in between classification accuracy and kappa coefficient

Population weighted raster maps can communicate findings of social audits: examples from three continents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Maps can portray trends, patterns, and spatial differences that might be overlooked in tabular data and are now widely used in health research. Little has been reported about the process of using maps to communicate epidemiological findings.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Population weighted raster maps show colour changes over the study area. Similar to the rasters of barometric pressure in a weather map, data are the health occurrence – a peak on the map represents a higher value of the indicator in question. The population relevance of each sentinel site, as determined in the stratified last stage random sample, combines with geography (inverse-distance weighting) to provide a population-weighted extension of each colour. This transforms the map to show population space rather than simply geographic space.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Maps allowed discussion of strategies to reduce violence against women in a context of political <it>sensitivity</it> about quoting summary indicator figures. <it>Time-series maps</it> showed planners how experiences of health services had deteriorated despite a reform programme; where in a country HIV risk behaviours were improving; and how knowledge of an economic development programme quickly fell off across a region. <it>Change maps</it> highlighted where indicators were improving and where they were deteriorating. Maps of <it>potential impact of interventions</it>, based on multivariate modelling, displayed how partial and full implementation of programmes could improve outcomes across a country. <it>Scale</it> depends on context. To support local planning, district maps or local government authority maps of health indicators were more useful than national maps; but multinational maps of outcomes were more useful for regional institutions. Mapping was useful to illustrate in which districts enrolment in religious schools – a <it>rare occurrence</it> - was more prevalent.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Population weighted raster maps can present social audit findings in an accessible and compelling way, increasing the use of evidence by planners with limited numeracy skills or little time to look at evidence. Maps complement epidemiological analysis, but they are not a substitute. Much less do they substitute for rigorous epidemiological designs, like randomised controlled trials.</p

Whole Genome Characterization of a Few EMS-Induced Mutants of Upland Rice Variety Nagina 22 Reveals a Staggeringly High Frequency of SNPs Which Show High Phenotypic Plasticity Towards the Wild-Type

The Indian initiative, in creating mutant resources for the functional genomics in rice, has been instrumental in the development of 87,000 ethylmethanesulfonate (EMS)-induced mutants, of which 7,000 are in advanced generations. The mutants have been created in the background of Nagina 22, a popular drought- and heat-tolerant upland cultivar. As it is a pregreen revolution cultivar, as many as 573 dwarf mutants identified from this resource could be useful as an alternate source of dwarfing. A total of 541 mutants, including the macromutants and the trait-specific ones, obtained after appropriate screening, are being maintained in the mutant garden. Here, we report on the detailed characterizations of the 541 mutants based on the distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS) descriptors at two different locations. About 90% of the mutants were found to be similar to the wild type (WT) with high similarity index (&gt;0.6) at both the locations. All 541 mutants were characterized for chlorophyll and epicuticular wax contents, while a subset of 84 mutants were characterized for their ionomes, namely, phosphorous, silicon, and chloride contents. Genotyping of these mutants with 54 genomewide simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers revealed 93% of the mutants to be either completely identical to WT or nearly identical with just one polymorphic locus. Whole genome resequencing (WGS) of four mutants, which have minimal differences in the SSR fingerprint pattern and DUS characters from the WT, revealed a staggeringly high number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on an average (16,453 per mutant) in the genic sequences. Of these, nearly 50% of the SNPs led to non-synonymous codons, while 30% resulted in synonymous codons. The number of insertions and deletions (InDels) varied from 898 to 2,595, with more than 80% of them being 1–2 bp long. Such a high number of SNPs could pose a serious challenge in identifying gene(s) governing the mutant phenotype by next generation sequencing-based mapping approaches such as Mutmap. From the WGS data of the WT and the mutants, we developed a genic resource of the WT with a novel analysis pipeline. The entire information about this resource along with the panicle architecture of the 493 mutants is made available in a mutant database EMSgardeN22 (http://14.139.229.201/EMSgardeN22)

Dual Band Gap Coupled Antenna Design with DGS for Wireless Communications

A novel gap coupled dual band multiple ring antenna with a defected ground structure (DGS) has been successfully implemented. A different technique is used in this communication where both gap coupling and defected ground are applied to obtain better results for wireless applications. The designed antenna operates in two different frequency bands. The antenna shows a wideband in C-band and also resonates in the X-band. The main parameters like return loss, impedance bandwidth, radiation pattern and gain are presented and discussed. The gain is increased and the side lobe level is considerably reduced to a good extent. Designed antenna is tested and the results show that the simulation and experimental results are in good agreement with each other

Computer-Aided Tuning of Highly Lossy Microwave Filters Using Complex Coupling Matrix Decomposition and Extraction

Lossy filters have broad applications in satellite communication systems. This paper proposes an efficient tuning method, based on complex coupling matrix decomposition and extraction, for highly lossy filters. Interestingly, it shows that the proposed decomposition technique preserves the scattering parameters of the original coupling matrix. A simple and efficient tuning algorithm is provided and illustrated with a four-pole lossy Chebyshev filter example. The experimental demonstration is finally presented to validate the proposed tuning technique

Land surface temperature variation in relation to vegetation type using MODIS satellite data in Gujarat state of India

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has provided an improved capability for moderate resolution land surface monitoring and for studying surface temperature variations. Surface temperature is a key variable in the surface energy balance. To investigate the temporal variation of surface temperature in relation to different vegetation types, MODIS data from 2000-04 were used, especially in the reproductive phase of crops (September-October). The vegetation types used for this study were agriculture in desert areas, rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, and forest. We found that among the different vegetation types, the desert-based agriculture showed the highest surface temperature followed by rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, and forest. The variation in surface temperature indicates that the climatic variation is mostly determined by the different types of vegetation cover on the Earth's surface rather than rapid climate change attributable to climatic sources. The mean land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature (T a) were plotted for each vegetation type from September to October during 2000 and 2004. Higher temperatures were observed for each vegetation type in 2000 as compared to 2004 and lower total rainfall was observed in 2000. The relationship between MODIS LST and T a measurements from meteorological stations was established and illustrated that years 2000 and 2004 had a distinct climatic variability within the time-frame in the study area. In all test sites, the study found that there was a high correlation (r = 0.80-0.98) between LST and