A causal relationship between trade efficiency and economic efficiency: Evidence from dynamic simultaneous equations models

The objective of this study is to examine the causal relationship between economic efficiency and trade efficiency using dynamic panel data in simultaneous equations models for global panel of 50 countries over the period 2000–2014. The study also implements this interrelationship for two groups of countries based on their level of development. Two models applying different factors reflecting countries’ economic and trade policies are proposed to measure the targeted efficiencies using data envelopment analysis method. Evidence from the simultaneous equations models to identify a relationship between economic efficiency and trade efficiency supports the bidirectional causality between them in all three categories of countries. It has been also found that both economic and institutional factors have a significant positive influence on trade and growth performance, with the effect of political factors being especially pronounced for developing countries that suffer from weak institutional capacity. These empirical findings are of particular interest to policy-makers as they help to build sound policies in order to maximize trade performance as well as economic efficiency.     

Cost Analysis of Water Quality Assessment Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

In modern competitive markets, cost and quality parameters are the two main factors. So, it is essential to study their relationship, especially in leading industries such as urban public service companies. Consequently, manufacturers always try to reduce production costs and improve product quality and services to consumer expectations. Also, the concerns of the new century in the field of fresh water and the reduction of its resources related to global warming have increased the costs of quality and supply of freshwater. Therefore, in this research, in order to estimate the quality costs in the field of water resources and wastewater management and identify the option that creates the most cost, in the first step, the “Prevention, Assessment, and Failure (PAF)” model was used to select cost-imposing options in organizational quality analysis. After determining the main options, appropriate criteria and sub-criteria were selected under the main study area (water and wastewater resources management). In the next step, a “Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) “ method based on the “Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP)” and “Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)” method was used to identify the option that creates the most cost. The results show that The highest cost of quality in the water and wastewater industry and its management are related to “Assessment Costs” and account for 36.55% of total costs. Also, The lowest cost of quality in the water and wastewater industry is related to “Preventive Costs” and accounts for only 12.18% of the total cost. In addition, the expert’s opinion shows that the effect of increasing credit with 34.01% has the greatest weight, and this criterion is the most essential in water and wastewater resources management.

     

A Rigorous Wavelet-Packet Transform to Retrieve Snow Depth from SSMIS Data and Evaluation of its Reliability by Uncertainty Parameters

Water Resources Management - This study demonstrates the application of wavelet transform comprising discrete wavelet transform, maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT), and...     

Performance Assessment of a Water Delivery Canal to Improve Agricultural Water Distribution

The performance of an irrigation water delivery canal located in northern Iran, which supplies water to 5,514 ha of paddy fields through ten secondary canals, was investigated. Throughout the rice growing season in the region, two performance measures, the measure of adequacy (P_A) and the measure of equity (P_E), were calculated for the system. It was observed that the canal, in its current physical and operational condition, is unable to distribute available water among all upstream and downstream users adequately. While 46.7?% of the total area is experiencing significant water scarcity, the amount of water received by 51.4?% of the area is approximately three times more than required. To improve the performance of the canal, structural and non-structural modifications were proposed and assessed using the SOBEK hydrodynamic model. The results showed that implementing the proposed modifications would decrease the measure of equity by 71.7?%, meaning that the overall performance of the canal could be reasonably improved.

     

Comparative prioritization of sub-watersheds based on Flood Generation potential using physical,hydrological and co-managerial approaches

Water Resources Management - One of the important tools for watershed management and optimal decision making is the prioritization of sub-watersheds which can be effective in soil and water...     

Correction to: A Novel Idea for Groundwater Resource Management during Megadrought Events

Water Resources Management - The original version of this article unfortunately contains an oversight in the spelling of name of one of the cited authors.     

The impact of trade openness on labour force participation rate

In this article, we investigate the impact of trade openness on labour force participation rate. We use tariff rate as the main indicator of trade openness and we employ the number of regional trade agreements and the average tariff rate in the neighbours’ countries as instrumental variables to diminish the endogeneity problem of the tariff rate. We find that trade openness increases the participation rate which is economically and statistically significant. The results show that this correlation is robust under controlling for different variables and using various specifications. We find that 10 percentage point increase in tariff rate lowers the participation rate by 4–6 percentage point and this relationship is more severe in the long run. Finally, we show that changes in labour force population accounts for about 27% of changes in the unemployment rate following a trade liberalization.     

An analytical approach with a reliable logic and a ranking policy for post-mining land-use determination

Because it is the post-mining land-use that prescribes the methods, the measures and the costs of mine reclamation, a major implicit goal of mine reclamation is to determine an after-use option. Therefore, there should be an analytical approach to optimize the determination of post-mining land-use. A Mined Land Suitability Analysis (MLSA) framework, which had been previously derived from reclamation practice reports of mines and other disturbed lands, is used in combination with two Multi-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) techniques to provide the required analytical approach. In the proposed approach the decision makers consist of the most related experts and the identified stakeholders. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to determine global weights of MLSA framework attributes via pair-wise comparison matrixes composed by each individual expert. Once the global weight vector of the attributes is calculated using AHP, they are incorporated into the decision matrices composed by stakeholders and passed to the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), which is a distance-based MADM technique and is used to determine preference order of post-mining land uses.     

Development of Nonlinear Model Based on Wavelet-ANFIS for Rainfall Forecasting at Klang Gates Dam

Rainfall is one of the most complicated effective hydrologic processes in runoff prediction and water management. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been found efficient, particularly in problems where characteristics of the processes are stochastic and difficult to describe using explicit mathematical models. However, time series prediction based on ANN algorithms is fundamentally difficult and faces some other problems. For this purpose, one method that has been identified as a possible alternative for ANN in hydrology and water resources problems is the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Nevertheless, the data arising from the monitoring stations and experiment might be corrupted by noise signals owing to systematic and non-systematic errors. This noisy data often made the prediction task relatively difficult. Thus, in order to compensate for this augmented noise, the primary objective of this paper is to develop a technique that could enhance the accuracy of rainfall prediction. Therefore, the wavelet decomposition method is proposed to link to ANFIS and ANN models. In this paper, two scenarios are employed; in the first scenario, monthly rainfall value is imposed solely as an input in different time delays from the time (t) to the time (t-4) into ANN and ANFIS, second scenario uses the wavelet transform to eliminate the error and prepares sub-series as inputs in different time delays to the ANN and ANFIS. The four criteria as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Correlation Coefficient (R ²), Gamma coefficient (G), and Spearman Correlation Coefficient (ρ) are used to evaluate the proposed models. The results showed that the model based on wavelet decomposition conjoined with ANFIS could perform better than the ANN and ANFIS models individually.     

Photodegradation of reactive blue 19 dye using magnetic nanophotocatalyst α-Fe_2O_3/WO_3:A comparison study of α-Fe_2O_3/WO_3 and WO_3/NaOH

The photocatalytic degradation of reactive blue 19(RB19) dye was investigated in a slurry system using ultraviolet(UV) and light-emitting diode(LED) lamps as light sources and using magnetic tungsten trioxide nanophotocatalysts(α-Fe_2O_3/WO_3 and WO_3/NaOH) as photocatalysts.The effects of different parameters including irradiation time,initial concentration of RB19,nanophotocatalyst dosage,and pH were examined.The magnetic nanophotocatalysts were also characterized with different methods including scanning electron microscopy(SEM),energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD),photoluminescence(PL),differential reflectance spectroscopy(DRS),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),and vibrating sample magnetometry(VSM).The XRD and FTIR analyses confirmed the presence of tungsten trioxide on the iron oxide nanoparticles.The VSM analysis confirmed the magnetic ability of the new synthesized nanophotocatalyst Ω-Fe_2O_3/WO_3 with 39.6 emu/g of saturation magnetization.The reactor performance showed considerable improvement in the α-Fe_2O_3-modified nanophotocatalyst.The impact of visible light was specifically investigated,and it was compared with UV-C light under the same experimental conditions.The reusability of the magnetic nanophotocatalyst α-Fe_2O_3/WO_3 was tested during six cycles,and the magnetic materials showed an excellent removal efficiency after six cycles,with just a 7% decline.