The Role of Economic Freedoms on the Road to the EU: The Case of Balkan Countries

Measurement of economic freedoms and cross-country comparisons based oneconomic freedom performance has become increasingly popular in recent years.There seems to be a strong positive correlation between economic freedom and themajor welfare indicators. Many Balkan nations are either on the way to, or planning tojoin the EU in a foreseeable future. Economic freedom indices may play a crucial rolein shaping the future plans of the Balkans in the context of preparation efforts. Thispaper looks briefly at the history of EU-Balkan relations and the performance of theBalkan countries in terms of economic freedoms

An Experimental Study on Cross-Shore Sediment Transport

The cross-shore sediment transport in a coastal region causes the important changes in beach morphological properties. The accurate estimation of the cross-shore sediment transport is important for the designing of the marine structures such as seawalls, jetties, breakwaters etc, and the preventing coastal erosion and accretion due to on-off shore sediment transportation. In this study, the experiments on cross- shore sediment transport carried out in a laboratory wave channel for initial beach slopes of 1/8, 1/10 and 1/15. Using the regular waves with different deep-water wave steepness generated by a pedal-type wave generator, the geometrical characteristics of beach profiles under storm conditions and the parameters affecting on-off shore sediment transport are investigated for the beach materials having medium diameters of d50=0.25, 0.32, 0.45, 0.62 and 0.80 mm. The experimental results obtained from this study compared with previous experimental work and found to be of the same magnitude as the experimental measurements and followed the expected basic trend

Simulation of Density Flow in Dam Reservoirs Using Two Dimensional Mathematical Models

Density inflow is modeled in two dimensions through a reservoir with sloping bottom. If an in flow of higher density enters ambient dam reservoir water, then it plunges below theambient water and then becomes density underflow. In the present model, nonlinear andunsteady continuity, momentum, energy and turbulence model equations are formulated in theCartesian coordinates. For the turbulence viscosity, k-ε turbulence model is used with anextension to include production or destruction of turbulent kinetic energy. In order toinvestigate the Coriolis force effect on the density flow in a dam reservoir, Coriolis forceparameter is included in the governing equations. The equations of the model are solved basedon the initial and boundary conditions of the dam reservoir flow for a range of bottom slopes.The results of the present model are compared with the previous experimental work and themathematical model. Present mode

Determination of Nearshore Sandbar Crest Depth Using Neural Network Approach

For the coastal structure designs, nearshore sandbars are crucial since they are affected highly from various parameters like beach slope, the height and period of the wave and the properties of the material forming the bed. In this study, it was investigated the sediment movements in nearshore by using various bar crest depths and a physical model. Erosion profile output is used for determination of the bar crest depths. Linear and non-linear regression methods are used for obtaining the non-dimensional equations with the experimental data. These equations are then compared with the ones found in the literature. Transportation of on-off shore sediments is affected by bar crest depth which has been examined with the materials forming the beach by using various diameter of the medium as d50=0.25, 0.32, 0.45, 0.62 and 0.80 mm. In order to estimate nearshore sandbar crest depth, we have developed an approach by using neural network (ANN). For proposing the efficiency of the study, ANN and multi-nonlinear regression models are compared with each other

Flexural strength and microhardness of anterior composites after accelerated aging

This study aimed to evaluate the flexural strength and microhardness of three different anterior composites after 10 000 thermocycles. The mechanical properties of a nano-fill composite (Filtek Ultimate Universal Restorative (FUR) (Enamel)), a nano-hybrid composite (Clearfil Majesty ES2 (ES2) (Enamel)), and a micro-hybrid composite (G Aenial Anterior (GAA)) were investigated in this study. For the microhardness test, 8-mm diameter and 2-mm thickness composite discs were used (n = 10), and for the flexural strength test, 25x2x2 mm bar-shaped specimens were prepared (n = 13). The specimens were tested at 24 h and after 10 000 thermocycles. Data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance and the post-hoc Tukey test (p .05). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that there was a negative relationship between the mean hardness and flexural strength values (correlation coefficient = -0.367, p = .043). After 10 000 thermocycles, microhardness values of each material and flexural strength of ES2 and GAA decreased significantly according to 24 h. The nano-fill composite FUR displayed significantly higher microhardness values. However, each resin composite was statistically similar for flexural strength values. Ten thousand thermocycles significantly affected microhardness and flexural strength

Numerical Investigation of Dam-Break Flow over a Bottom Obstacle Using Eulerian Finite Element Method

Dam-break flows can cause major destructions in case settlements located atthe downstream area. Since many people live in the settlements, investigations regarding the dam-break flow have great importance.Dam break flow characteristics can become variousbased on different downstream conditions. In this study, an investigation was made relating tothe dam break flow in a channel with symmetrical triangular-shaped bottom obstacle using Finite Element Method (FEM) formulation. Numerical results of the present study were compared with experimental results. It was concluded that numerical and experimental results are in good agreement

A fejlődő európai piacok tőzsdei hozama, külföldi befektetők kereskedése és makrogazdasági teljesítménye = Foreign Investors' Trading, Stock Market Returns and Macroeconomic Activity in European Emerging Markets

Despite project duration shortened from 22 to 9 months and problems in accessing data, we finalized the project in full content as in proposal, obtaining all desired outcomes. In addition, we submitted 4 other papers, byproduct of project work. 3-4 more papers, the output of main project work, are to follow. We covered 11 European markets in Part I (Interaction between Foreign Investors’ Trading and Stock Market Returns) and 5 in Part II (Interaction between Foreign Equity Portfolio Flows and Macroeconomic Activity). Our findings, new to the world literature, include: 1) Foreign investors do positive (negative) feedback trade at the daily (monthly) frequency. 2) Monthly negative feedback trading is asymmetric in large-external-deficit economies: foreigners sell following rises, but not buy following falls. 3) Foreigners’ trading is positively correlated with information, which implies local investors’ trading is negatively correlated with information. 4) Foreigners are more likely to follow than lead returns. Developing a new methodology, we found that even the contemporaneous association of foreign flows with returns is more likely to reflect returns’ effect on flows. 5) Both world returns and net foreign flows are positively associated with current and future economic activity. 6) Net foreign flows mainly forecast rather than cause economic activity. Where credit availability is a bottleneck, they may cause (foreign flows lead credit volume). | A kutatási idő 22 hónapról 9-re történő lerövidítése és az adatokhoz való nehézkes hozzáférés ellenére sikerült a kutatást a kívánt eredményekkel időben lezárni. A kutatás mellékes folyományaként 4 tanulmányt nyújtottunk be, amelyet a fő kutatási munka eredményeként további 3-4 tanulmány fog követni. Az első részben 11 európai részvénypiacot követtünk nyomon (Külföldi befektetők kereskedései és a részvénypiaci hozamok kölcsönhatásai), a másodikban 5-re fókuszáltunk (A külföldi tőkeportfólió áramlások és a makroökonómiai folyamatok kölcsönhatásai). Fő, a mai szakirodalom számára új következtetéseink: 1. a külföldi befektetők napi (havi) rendszerességgel pozitív (negatív) feedback kereskedési stratégiát követnek 2. a jelentős külső deficittel küzdő gazdaságokban a havi negatív feedback kereskedés aszimmetrikus: áremelkedés esetén eladnak, csökkenés esetén viszont nem vásárolnak 3. a külföldi kereskedés pozitívan korrelál az információval, ebből következik, hogy a belföldi kereskedés negatívan korrelál az információval 4. a külföldiek nagyobb valószínűséggel követik, mint vezetik a hozamok alakulását 5. mind a világpiaci részvény hozamok mind a nettó külföldi tőkeáramlás (ha figyelembe vesszük az előbbit) együtt mozog a múltbeli és jövőbeli makroökonómiai folyamatokkal 6. a nettó külföldi tőkeáramlás elsősorban előrejelzi mintsem okozza a makroökonómiai folyamatok alakulását; ha a hitelfelvétel szűk keresztmetszetnek bizonyul, a külföldi tőkeáramlás okozóvá is válhat

Aggregation operators on partially ordered sets and their categorical foundations

summary:In spite of increasing studies and investigations in the field of aggregation operators, there are two fundamental problems remaining unsolved: aggregation of $L$-fuzzy set-theoretic notions and their justification. In order to solve these problems, we will formulate aggregation operators and their special types on partially ordered sets with universal bounds, and introduce their categories. Furthermore, we will show that there exists a strong connection between the category of aggregation operators on partially ordered sets with universal bounds (Agop) and the category of partially ordered groupoids with universal bounds (Pogpu). Moreover, the subcategories of Agop consisting of associative aggregation operators, symmetric and associative aggregation operators and associative aggregation operators with neutral elements are, respectively, isomorphic to the subcategories of Pogpu formed by partially ordered semigroups, commutative partially ordered semigroups and partially ordered monoids in the sense of Birkhoff. As a justification of the present notions and results, some relevant examples for aggregations operators on partially ordered sets are given. Particularly, aggregation process in probabilistic metric spaces is also considered

Forecasting of Suspended Sediment in Rivers Using Artificial Neural Networks Approach

Suspended sediment estimation is important to the water resources management and water quality problem. In this article, artificial neural networks (ANN), M5tree (M5T) approaches and statistical approaches such as Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Sediment Rating Curves (SRC) are used for estimation daily suspended sediment concentration from daily temperature of water and streamflow in river. These daily datas were measured at Iowa station in US. These prediction aproaches are compared to each other according to three statistical criteria, namely, mean square errors (MSE), mean absolute relative error (MAE) and correlation coefficient (R). When the results are compared ANN approach have better forecasts suspended sediment than the other estimation methods