Suchergebnisse

This paper considers an often forgotten relationship, the time delay between a cause and its effect in economies and finance. We treat the case of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and economic growth, - measured through a country Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The pertinent data refers to 43 countries, over 1970-2015, - for a total of 4278 observations. When countries are grouped according to the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), it is found that a time lag dependence effect exists in FDI-GDP correlations. This is established through a time-dependent Pearson 's product-moment correlation coefficient matrix. Moreover, such a Pearson correlation coefficient is observed to evolve 1 from positive to negative values depending on the IHDI, from low to high. It is "politically and policy "relevant" that the correlation is statistically significant providing the time lag is less than 3 years. A "rank-size" law is demonstrated. It is recommended to reconsider such a time lag effect when discussing previous analyses whence conclusions on international business, and thereafter on forecasting

In Italy, the elections occur often, indeed almost every year the citizens are involved in a democratic choice for deciding leaders of different administrative entities. Sometimes the citizens are called to vote for filling more than one office in more than one administrative body. This phenomenon has occurred 35 times after 1948; it creates the peculiar condition of having the same sample of people expressing decisions on political bases at the same time. Therefore, the Italian contemporaneous ballots constitute the occasion to measure coherence and chaos in the way of expressing political opinion. In this paper, we address all the Italian elections that occurred between 1948 and 2018. We collect the number of votes per party at each administrative level and we treat each election as a manifestation of a complex system. Then, we use the Shannon entropy and the Gini Index to study the degree of disorder manifested during different types of elections at the municipality level. A particular focus is devoted to the contemporaneous elections. Such cases implicate different disorder dynamics in the contemporaneous ballots, when different administrative level are involved. Furthermore, some features that characterize different entropic regimes have emerged.

ABSTRACTA high microbiological quality of drinking water must be ensured to protect public health. The filtration techniques that are used in treating drinking water play an important role; however, a biofilm can form on granular‐media filters and the accumulated bacteria can slough off and enter the filtered water.The aim of this research was to examine (a) the potential for biofilm formation and detachment from filter sand, and (b) the effect of different backwash regimes on biofilm removal. During the operation of the filter, bacteria became attached to the sand media, particularly in the top 30 mm of the filter bed. A water‐only backwash at 20% and 40% bed expansion demonstrated poor removal of biofilm throughout the depth of the bed. Collapse‐pulsing is a more efficient method and results in a reduction in the number of bacteria in the filtered water.