Essays on Spatial Econometrics Application in Study of Conflict and Economic Activity

Spatial interaction and the locational structure between observations as well as availability of satellite derived data has meant a richer and more exhaustive exploration of topics relevant in development topics, particularly in areas of subnational economic activity and conflict. This research leverages thus spatial econometric techniques to dynamically decompose impacts from socio-economic determinants on conflict incidence (with setting in Sub-Saharan Africa). Later I also present a statistical framework (based on extension of Henderson’s approach (2012)) to augment official income figures at district / county level with multiple satellite derived signals, with specific context given to developing countries. In the first chapter, I look at the relationship and interplay between conflict intensity, foreign aid (in the form of geocoded World Bank Aid allocations) and economic activity (proxied by Sum of Lights, SOL, as gathered from satellite night lights sources), at the sub-national (provincial) level in Sub-Saharan Africa over 2000-13, using a Panel Vector Autoregression approach based on a multi-stage Continuous Updated Estimator GMM estimation strategy, and incorporating spatial effects amongst the concerned variables as well as in the model disturbances. I then decompose the derived impulse responses from this system into spatial direct and indirect responses. As per the findings, conflict intensity reacts (largely) positively to negative shocks in economic activity and World Bank Aid, with evidence of persistent spillover effects stemming from these aforementioned shocks. In the second chapter, following on from the first chapter, I specifically look at the impact of income inequality, derived from the spatial distribution of night lights raster and population raster data, on conflict incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa, using a Spatial Exponential Feedback Model approach (as opposed to the more standard Linear Feedback Model in the literature), based on Empirical Likelihood estimation. I also derive spatial direct and indirect impacts from changes in inequality, with direct responses fully dying away within 5 years while indirect response has an extent of in-built persistence. Thus, this chapter adds to the existing literature on conflict and income inequality by exploring the spatial dimension of the dynamics at play. Lastly, in the third chapter, a modified statistical method is presented, based on Henderson et al. (2012) where he looked at augmenting official national income growth measures by using satellite data on night lights. In the approach as presented here, a Method of Moments approach is introduced so as use multiple satellite signals, in addition to night lights, to augment income growth data at sub-national level. The two other signals are spread of non-vegetative cover and urban land cover data (derived from European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Land Cover raster products). Three countries were studied with this approach: India, Indonesia and the U.S

Studies of cartilage degradation in vivo

PhDA new method has been established to study cartilage breakdown in vivo. Cartilage was implanted into air pouches on the backs of mice or rats and loss of proteoglycan measured biochemically. Using the air pouch it was possible to produce various inflammatory environments either immune or non immune and examine the effects of these upon proteoglycan loss. It was found that the various type of inflammation failed to accelerate proteoglycan loss from implanted cartilage. Subsequently a variety of drugs used in the treatment of the arthropathies were examined for their effect on both inflammation and cartilage breakdown. Using xiphisternum a difference could be shown between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and d-penicillamine in that, NSAID failed to protect the cartilage whereas d-penicillamine prevented proteoglycan loss. This type of cartilage was not examined further, as it was not characteristic of articular cartilage - being surrounded by perichondrium. Later articular cartilage was implanted once again into different inflammatory situations and drug effects evaluated. It was found using this cartilage that all the drug 0 used protected from loss of proteoglycan and whereas some inhibited inflammation (indoniethacin and dexamethasohe), 2a levamisole had no effect in contrast, d-penicillamine potentiated the inflammatory response. Finally the mode of action of the drugs in this method is discussed

Road Networks Management in the Federal Cities (Entrance and Exits in Ajman)

The aim of this thesis is to discuss the management of infrastructure in the federal union specially the road entrances between neighboring states. To understand how important is it on the social and economic development, to measure how easy to reach the deferent part of city within reasonable period. The hierarchy of the road networks in the city. Second chapter describe the Arab Emirates before the union and the different scenarios till it\u27s become United Arab Emirates, the relations between different emirates within union, political systems within emirate itself and In the federal level, social and economic systems. The care was taken in deferent level to build best road network ever cause the governor know very well the benefit of having modern roads, the federal authorities responsible for highways and the border roads between emirates while the local authorities responsible for internal roads within emirate border. Third chapter compare the road network management in two of the best federal countries in this field. United State of America had one of the tallest road network in the world which managed by local and federal authorities in harmony. Federal Republic of Germany is one of the greatest industrial countries in Europe that is gives the road network high importance to link factories with ports easily. Both of Germany and USA have a great experience in road network management, which should be understood from United Arab Emirates road authorities to solve the current problems and to avoid any future miss coordination. Forth chapter is about field study of the entrances to roads border between two neighboring through personal interviews with specialists and officials from relevant departments and a questionnaire contains several questions was distributed to the residents of those areas on both sides of the entrance under consideration and passing specializes in problems affecting the border crossing in terms of traffic congestion and the interest of the party responsible for maintenance and increase efficiency and what about managing such crossing by central department under federal umbrella

Optimization of Vehicle-to-Grid Scheduling in Constrained Parking Lots

An automatic Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology can contribute to the utility grid. V2G technology has drawn great interest in the recent years. Success of the sophisticated automatic V2G research depends on efficient scheduling of gridable vehicles in constrained parking lots. Parking lots have constraints of space and current limits for V2G. However, V2G can reduce dependencies on small expensive units in the existing power systems as energy storage that can decrease running costs. It can efficiently manage load fluctuation, peak load; however, it increases spinning reserves and reliability. As number of gridable vehicles in V2G is much higher than small units of existing systems, unit commitment (UC) with V2G is more complex than basic UC for only thermal units. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to solve the V2G, as PSO has been demonstrated to reliably and accurately solve complex constrained optimization problems easily and quickly without any dimension limitation and physical computer memory limit. In the proposed model, binary PSO optimizes the on/off states of power generating units easily. Vehicles are presented by signed integer number instead of 0/1 to reduce the dimension of the problem. Typical discrete version of PSO has less balance between local and global searching abilities to optimize the number of charging/discharging gridable vehicles in the constrained system. In the same model, balanced PSO is proposed to optimize the V2G part in the constrained parking lots. Finally, results show a considerable amount of profit for using proper scheduling of gridable vehicles in constrained parking lots

Economic Load Dispatch Using Bacterial Foraging Technique with Particle Swarm Optimization Biased Evolution

This paper presents a novel modified bacterial foraging technique (BFT) to solve economic load dispatch (ELD) problems. BFT is already used for optimization problems, and performance of basic BFT for small problems with moderate dimension and searching space is satisfactory. Search space and complexity grow exponentially in scalable ELD problems, and the basic BFT is not suitable to solve the high dimensional ELD problems, as cells move randomly in basic BFT, and swarming is not sufficiently achieved by cell-to-cell attraction and repelling effects for ELD. However, chemotaxis, swimming, reproduction and elimination-dispersal steps of BFT are very promising. On the other hand, particles move toward promising locations depending on best values from memory and knowledge in particle swarm optimization (PSO). Therefore, best cell (or particle) biased velocity (vector) is added to the random velocity of BFT to reduce randomness in movement (evolution) and to increase swarming in the proposed method to solve ELD. Finally, a data set from a benchmark system is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method and the results are compared with other methods

CT CBV Perfusion Mapping As A Sign of Futility In Acute Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic strokes constitute 80% of all strokes nationwide, but an imaging technique for predicting patient outcome is yet to be determined. This study effectively tests whether the Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV) imaging modality is a parameter of perfusion calculated from multiple CT images following contrast injection. 13,000 CT perfusion scans performed on identical scanners and paradigms from 2000 to 2010 were reviewed. A total of 451 showed measurable changes of perfusion/ischemia. CBV values were calculated and compared with final infarct size, calculated from CT (217) and MRI (234) scans performed 24+ hours after the initial infarct. Patient outcomes were divided into three categories based on hospital discharge: hospice/death, discharge to rehabilitation facility, or healthy discharge to home. Strokes represent a significant social and economic burden. Understanding the viability of tissue in acute ischemic strokes can allow physicians to better plan treatment paradigms and predict outcome. Time, effort, and money can be allocated more efficiently, as medical resources and procedures can be used on the patients who need them most.Our multi-site study shows that CBV can be used as an effective predictor of completed stroke (futility) and that the value of CBV is an excellent predictor of patient clinical outcome.Biochemistr

Design and Simulation of Solar Car

This work, focused on an idea about solar car technology which solves the major problem of fuel and pollution in present days. Determine how feasible widespread change to solar car’s would be in future with all information taken into account, concluded that solar cars have several advantages as energy efficient, low pollution. In the present work a complete drawing and drafting of solar car have been prepared using Solid works software. After complete analysis of this drawing by using ANSYS 13.0 it is find out bear capability of load, stress, an d strain of front & rear collision of car frame. A completed data are analyzed to examine the technical aspects of the solar car technology. Overall, solar technology has a lot of potential in the distant future, but as for right now they are not a signif icant applied over today’s internal combustion engine

Interactions of neuropathogenic Escherichia coli K1 (RS218) and its derivatives lacking genomic islands with phagocytic Acanthamoeba castellanii and nonphagocytic brain endothelial cells

Here we determined the role of various genomic islands in E. coli K1 interactions with phagocytic A. castellanii and nonphagocytic brain microvascular endothelial cells. The findings revealed that the genomic islands deletion mutants of RS218 related to toxins (peptide toxin, alpha -hemolysin), adhesins (P fimbriae, F17-like fimbriae, nonfimbrial adhesins, Hek, and hemagglutinin), protein secretion system (T1SS for hemolysin), invasins (IbeA, CNF1), metabolism (D-serine catabolism, dihydroxyacetone, glycerol, and glyoxylate metabolism) showed reduced interactions with both A. castellanii and brain microvascular endothelial cells. Interestingly, the deletion of RS218-derived genomic island 21 containing adhesins (P fimbriae, F17-like fimbriae, nonfimbrial adhesins, Hek, and hemagglutinin), protein secretion system (T1SS for hemolysin), invasins (CNF1), metabolism (D-serine catabolism) abolished E. coli K1-mediated HBMEC cytotoxicity in a CNF1-independent manner. Therefore, the characterization of these genomic islands should reveal mechanisms of evolutionary gain for E. coli K1 pathogenicity