Demand elasticities in international trade : are they really low?

The authors analyze the U.S. demandfor Bangladeshi imports for products restricted under the Multifiber Arrangement. Because Bangladesh is only a small supplier of these products and Latin American and Asian countries can supply close substitutes, the authors expected a high elasticity of demand for Bangladeshi imports, and they found consistently high estimates based on statistically significant coefficients. Their finding accords with trade theorists'prejudice that small countries can essentially behave as price takers, but conflicts with the empirical literature view that demand elasticities are low, rarely exceeding 3 and generally between 1 and 2. The authors'analysis differs from the existing literature in three ways: they derive a set of estimation equations from an explicit, utility-maximization model and use the estimated parameters of the utility function to obtain the Marshallian own-price and cross-price elasticities as well as the income elasticity of demand; they take explicit account of U.S. imports from competitors of Bangladesh, relying directly on competitors'prices; and they use highly disaggregated data that make the unit value of exports a better proxy for price than using aggregated export data commonly used in this literature. The authors outline their theoretical model for deriving their estimated equations in Section 1; preliminarily determine who Bangladesh's competitors are in Section 2; and estimate the demand equation derived in Section 1, and derive the price and income elasticities facing Bangladesh in Section 3.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Consumption,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access,Consumption

Automated drug dispenser based on pressure ejection of medications

Various types of automated drug dispensers exist in the market. However, they usually involve extraction of medications from their packaging and their temporary storage in internal bins. In this paper, we propose a different approach which can bypass this step through pressure ejection of medications (especially capsules) from their packaging strips. Further, it is proposed that a relevant consensus between various pharmaceutical manufacturers for standardization of the size and packaging of medications can allow for increased automation in the dispensation of medications to patients without altering the logistics of the existing manual dispensation of medications

High Frequency Rule Synthesis in a Large Scale Multiple Database with MapReduce

Increasing development in information and communication technology leads to the generation of large amount of data from various sources. These collected data from multiple sources grows exponentially and may not be structurally uniform. In general, these are heterogeneous and distributed in multiple databases. Because of large volume, high velocity and variety of data mining knowledge in this environment becomes a big data challenge. Distributed Association Rule Mining(DARM) in these circumstances becomes a tedious task for an effective global Decision Support System(DSS). The DARM algorithms generate a large number of association rules and frequent itemset in the big data environment. In this situation synthesizing high-frequency rules from the big database becomes more challenging. Many  algorithms for synthesizing association rule have been proposed in multiple database mining environments. These are facing enormous challenges in terms of high availability, scalability, efficiency, high cost for the storage and processing of large intermediate results and multiple redundant rules. In this paper, we have proposed a model to collect data from multiple sources into a big data storage framework based on HDFS. Secondly, a weighted multi-partitioned method for synthesizing high-frequency rules using MapReduce programming paradigm has been proposed. Experiments have been conducted in a parallel and distributed environment by using commodity hardware. We ensure the efficiency, scalability, high availability and cost-effectiveness of our proposed method

Measuring Quality of Service in Retail Outlets Using Fuzzy Numbers

The measurement of quality of service in any service providing organisation has been a very complex process to deal with. Most of the attributes here are intangible; largely depend upon customers’ expectations and perceptions. The quality of service may be poor, average, good, and so on depending upon the performance of the service provider. The linguistic terms like poor, average and good could be vague (fuzzy) unless various attributes of a particular service are understood precisely. In order to avoid the ambiguity of the concept associated with customers’ expectations and perceptions of service quality fuzzy numbers are widely used in many complex management issues. In this paper we focus on quantifying the quality of service in retail outlets based on some specific characteristics using fuzzy numbers. Key words: Quality of service; Retail outlets; linguistic terms; fuzzy number

Nairobi Eye: A Clinico-epidemiological Study from A Tertiary Care Center of Central Nepal

Introduction: Periocular paederus dermatitis (Nairobi eye) is characterized by erythematous vesiculobullouslinear plaque with stinging sensation. It commonly occurs during rainy season. It has been describedin people living near agricultural fields due to the potential toxin pederin. This study aims to evaluate thedemographic profile and clinical presentation of patients with periocular paederus dermatitis in a tertiary carecenter. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study evaluating patients attending dermatologyand/or ophthalmology department with features consistent with paederus dermatitis involving perioculararea from June to August, 2019. Relevant demographic and clinical data were obtained; clinical photographswere taken and histopathology performed among selected patients. Results: A total of 24 (14.8%) patients hadfeatures of Nairobi eye among 162 patients of paederus dermatitis. Majority of the patients were males (1.4:1)with mean age 29.08±13.38 years. The peak time of presentation was the first week of July (37.5%). Meantime period between onset of symptoms and presentation was 3.41±2.01 days. The lesions were unilateral inall cases, with predominant involvement of the right eye (62%). Burning sensation (80%) and itching (60%)were the predominant symptoms while conjunctival hyperemia (41.6%), seropurulent discharge (20.8%)and chemosis (16.6%) were the ocular findings. Most of the patients (n=17, 70.8%) noticed the lesion whilewaking up in the morning. Conclusion: The finding of the present study has shown that Nairobi eye isa common presentation during rainy season. Periocular findings with significant intraocular signs weredocumented to be presenting features among patients with periocular paederus dermatitis

Dynamic linkages between tourism, transportation, growth and carbon emission in the USA: evidence from partial and multiple wavelet coherence

The present paper endeavors to analyze and provide fresh insights from the dynamic association between tourism, transportation, economic growth and carbon emission in the United States. The analysis employs a novel Morlet’s Wavelet Approach. Precisely, the paper implements Partial and Multiple Wavelet Coherence techniques to the monthly data spanning from 2001-2017. From the frequency domain point of view, the study discovers remarkable wavelet coherence and robust lead and lag linkages. The analysis discovers significant progress in variables over frequency and time. The variables display strong but inconsistent associations between them. There exist a strong co-movement among the variables considered, which is not equal across the time scales. The study may help the policymakers and regulars to devise strategies and formulate policies pertaining to tourism development, which can contribute towards environmentally sustainable economic growth

Dynamic linkages between tourism, transportation, growth and carbon emission in the USA: evidence from partial and multiple wavelet coherence

The present paper endeavors to analyze and provide fresh insights from the dynamic association between tourism, transportation, economic growth and carbon emission in the United States. The analysis employs a novel Morlet’s Wavelet Approach. Precisely, the paper implements Partial and Multiple Wavelet Coherence techniques to the monthly data spanning from 2001-2017. From the frequency domain point of view, the study discovers remarkable wavelet coherence and robust lead and lag linkages. The analysis discovers significant progress in variables over frequency and time. The variables display strong but inconsistent associations between them. There exist a strong co-movement among the variables considered, which is not equal across the time scales. The study may help the policymakers and regulars to devise strategies and formulate policies pertaining to tourism development, which can contribute towards environmentally sustainable economic growth

The Renewable Energy Consumption-Environmental Degradation Nexus in Top-10 Polluted Countries: Fresh Insights from Quantile-on-Quantile Regression Approach

This empirical examination explored the link between renewable energy utilization and environmental degradation in top-10 polluted countries by using monthly data from 1990-2017. The Quantile-on-Quantile regression (QQ) proposed by Sim and Zhou (2015) and Granger causality in quantiles developed by Troster (2018) are applied. In particular, we examine in what manners, quantiles of renewable energy consumption affect the quantiles of environmental degradation. Our empirical findings unfold overall dependence between renewable energy consumption and ecological deterioration. The findings recommend the presence of a significant negative association between renewable energy consumption and environmental degradation in China, USA, Japan, Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Germany, predominantly in high and low tails but results are totally contrasting in the case of India, Russia and Indonesia. Furthermore, the outcomes of Granger-causality in quantiles conclude a bidirectional causal link between renewable energy consumption and environmental degradation. The empirical findings suggest that governments should need to subsidize green energy in declining ecological degradation