The emigrational function of valley and mountain-laid villages in the west of Mashhad province

People living in the villages located in the west of the city of Mashhad 1,400–1,900 m above sea level immigrate to cities much more than other villages because they are located in valleys and mountainous regions. The research done on 200 families from seven villages shows that these villages are faced with a shortage of flat land suitable for farming and other activities and as a result the villagers, specially the youth, having no job as a source of income, have to emigrate to cities. With the young force leaving the villages and shortage of means of production, the villages are now faced with a population decrease. In some cases, the villages have been totally abandoned in spite of the fact that they have the potential for economic activities specially tourism. By planning and actualizing the potential of these villages, it is possible to create jobs and return the villagers or to prevent further emigration.     

The use of storm water to enhance a coastal swamp

The purpose of this study was to quantify the potential of available storm water to mitigate the adverse impacts of impounded saline water within a 1,336-ha, forested coastal ecosystem. A site-specific hydrodynamic model was constructed to predict the spatial influence of reduced salinity resulting from the continuous discharge of storm water, at a volume of 2.83 cubic meters per second (cms), directly and indirectly into the study area. These results were then incorporated into the Wetlands Value Assessment (WVA) model to quantify wetland benefits to specific habitats.The results show that the discharge of 2.83 cms of storm water can significantly enhance wetland functions within the 1,336-ha coastal ecosystem. The most benefit occurs when the storm water is discharged directly into the swamp via dedicated channel or pipeline, in contrast to discharging into an existing bayou within the subbasin and directing flow into the adjacent wetlands. Utilizing the WVA methodology, direct discharge is predicted to result in a net wetland benefit of 725.97 Average Annual Habitat Units (AAHUs). This benefit is largely attributed to reductions in salinity and an improved water regime (mixing) within the declining baldcypress swamp.     

Structural adjustment and family policy in Africa: Lessons from Sudan

The economic strategy pursued by a country profoundly influences the well-being of families. This article uses a social accounting model of the Sudanese economy to compare the effects of two alternative development strategies on growth, employment, and income distribution. The first strategy considered is a conventional growth-oriented strategy emphasizing irrigated, export-oriented agriculture and modern, capital-intensive industry; the second one is a traditional agriculture-led development (TALD) strategy focused on enhancing equity and improving family nutrition by expanding food production. The study's findings for Sudan demonstrate that there is no necessary trade-off between growth and equity. The TALD strategy fosters income growth for the most vulnerable families while simultaneously maximizing aggregate growth. It also holds the prospect of enhancing family equity and increasing access to traditional institutions that provide support to families.World BankHer research interests encompass issues related to poverty and inequality in developing countries. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University.Before joining the World Bank, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut and acting head of the Department of Econometrics, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan. His research interests span development economics (growth, poverty, and equity), public finance, and economic transition in Eastern Europe. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.     

Multidimensional Life Table Estimation of the Total Fertility Rate and Its Components

Using discrete-time survival models of parity progression and illustrative data from the Philippines, this article develops a multivariate multidimensional life table of nuptiality and fertility, the dimensions of which are age, parity, and duration in parity. The measures calculated from this life table include total fertility rate (TRF), total marital fertility rate (TMFR), parity progression ratios (PPR), age-specific fertility rates, mean and median ages at first marriage, mean and median closed birth intervals, and mean and median ages at childbearing by child’s birth order and for all birth orders combined. These measures are referred to collectively as “TFR and its components.” Because the multidimensional life table is multivariate, all measures derived from it are also multivariate in the sense that they can be tabulated by categories or selected values of one socioeconomic variable while controlling for other socioeconomic variables. The methodology is applied to birth history data, in the form of actual birth histories from a fertility survey or reconstructed birth histories derived from a census or household survey. The methodology yields period estimates as well as cohort estimates of the aforementioned measures.     

THE EFFECT OF MATERNAL DRUG USE ON BIRTH WEIGHT: MEASUREMENT ERROR IN BINARY VARIABLES

We develop a method to correct for non-random measurement error in a binary indicator of illicit drugs. Our results suggest that estimates of the effect of self-reported prenatal drug use on birth weight are biased upwards by measurement error—a finding contrary to predictions of a model of random measurement error. More accurate estimates of the true effect of drug use on birth weight can be obtained by using the predicted probability of falsely reporting drug use. Thus out-of-sample information on drug use may improve estimates of the effect of reported drug use in other settings.     

Virtual Governance Networking Policies: A Comparative Analysis

Networks have become an increasingly important mode of public governance. ICT mechanisms, especially virtual systems will potentially establish this idea. This paper is based on a comparative analysis of three cases which are chosen to be particularly illustrative of the three virtual governance networking policies. In light of case study results, we have demonstrated that it is possible to devise a theoretically acceptable prospect of world countries concerning virtual governance networking policies.     

A distribution free test to detect general dependence between a response variable and a covariate in the presence of heteroscedastic treatment effects

In this paper, we present a test of independence between the response variable, which can be discrete or continuous, and a continuous covariate after adjusting for heteroscedastic treatment effects. The method involves first augmenting each pair of the data for all treatments with a fixed number of nearest neighbours as pseudo‐replicates. Then a test statistic is constructed by taking the difference of two quadratic forms. The statistic is equivalent to the average lagged correlations between the response and nearest neighbour local estimates of the conditional mean of response given the covariate for each treatment group. This approach effectively eliminates the need to estimate the nonlinear regression function. The asymptotic distribution of the proposed test statistic is obtained under the null and local alternatives. Although using a fixed number of nearest neighbours pose significant difficulty in the inference compared to that allowing the number of nearest neighbours to go to infinity, the parametric standardizing rate for our test statistics is obtained. Numerical studies show that the new test procedure has robust power to detect nonlinear dependency in the presence of outliers that might result from highly skewed distributions. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 38: 408–433; 2010 © 2010 Statistical Society of Canada