Does geographical proximity matter in determining the profitability of banks?

Despite the existence of a burgeoning literature on bank profitability, yet, none of them gave due consideration to geographical proximity. I fulfill such a gap by analyzing the effects of COVID-19 on the profitability of top-rated banks. Findings confirm the prevalence of spatial dependence at both the global and sub-global with feedback effects being systematically higher than spillover effects. My study uncovers evidence of a COVID-19 induced decline in asset utilization. Findings advocate sharing economy as a potential tool to banks in combating any future pandemic risk with regionalized approach to supervision being deemed better than its globalized counterpart.     

Modelling daily multivariate pollutant data at multiple sites

Summary. This paper considers the spatiotemporal modelling of four pollutants measured daily at eight monitoring sites in London over a 4-year period. Such multiple-pollutant data sets measured over time at multiple sites within a region of interest are typical. Here, the modelling was carried out to provide the exposure for a study investigating the health effects of air pollution. Alternative objectives include the design problem of the positioning of a new monitoring site, or for regulatory purposes to determine whether environmental standards are being met. In general, analyses are hampered by missing data due, for example, to a particular pollutant not being measured at a site, a monitor being inactive by design (e.g. a 6-day monitoring schedule) or because of an unreliable or faulty monitor. Data of this type are modelled here within a dynamic linear modelling framework, in which the dependences across time, space and pollutants are exploited. Throughout the approach is Bayesian, with implementation via Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling.     

改进灰色预测在油田多目标规划决策中的应用

建立了S油田勘探、开发、炼化、机械、公用工程等多个部门和全局的非线性多级目标优化规划模型,应用关联分析、改进灰色预测、回归分析求取规划模型的约束方程并线性化;编制了相应的计算软件,使之快速预测和优化油田各部门“九五”各年的投资和产值;并将优化结果与油田过去或计划值加以对比,给油田规划决策带来一定的参考。     

Geometric Method and Generalized Linear Models. Two Opposite Multiparametric Approaches Illustrated on a Sample of Pituitary Adenomas

We used two statistical methods to identify prognostic factors: a log-linear model (logistic and COX regression, based on the notions of linearity and multiplicative relative risk), and the CORICO method (ICOnography of CORrelations) based on the geometric significance of the correlation coefficient. We applied the methods to two different situations (a "case-control study' and a "historical cohort'). We show that the geometric exploratory tool is particularly suited to the analysis of small samples with a large number of variables. It could save time when setting up new study protocols. In this instance, the geometric approach highlighted, without preconceived ideas, the potential role of multihormonality in the course of pituitary adenoma and the unexpected influence of the date of tumour excision on the risk attached to haemorrhage.     

寻租与腐败的相关性

寻租与腐败是两个有着内在联系的不同概念。经济体制转型是寻租活动大行其道的现实基础,专制体制是腐败产生的制度性原因,而由管制形成的垄断特权促使了寻租活动的发生,即寻租可以诱发腐败。我国在制度变迁中必须采取法律手段并建立制度性约束机制才能减少腐败的产生。     

The use of GIS in informal settlement upgrading: its role and impact on the community and on local government

The Urban Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Group within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town has been coordinating a pilot informal settlement upgrading in Cape Town since 1998. The project objective has been the evolution of a model-based approach to informal settlement upgrading that is both structured and replicable. It was felt that the only way this could be achieved was through the use of a spatial data management system operated through a GIS system. The spatial database has been used for all facets of data collection and data process and forms the basis for all decision-making. Thus it covers all physical data pertaining to the site, cadastral and shack data, demographic and socio-economic data (with an in-depth review of every household) economic opportunities and physical planning and design data. The result is a comprehensive, integrated, settlement upgrading methodology that is built upon a GIS-based spatial data management framework. Such a framework is seen as the basic building block for large-scale informal settlement upgrading.     

改善全息圆锥准直线及提高准直精度的一种方法

用一张计算全息图可产生锥面波,锥面波衍射图样的中心在空间是连续的,可作为直线基准。本文提出了提高锥面波直线准直精度的一种方法即空间滤波法。实验结果与理论分析一致。     

Spatial Data Usage,Spatial Thinking and Spatial Knowledge Generation: The Case of Planning Practitioners in Arequipa,Peru

Spatial thinking and spatial knowledge generation in decision-making are still not mature fields of study in planning research, despite these being crucial elements in addressing the issues of the twenty-first-century city. This article contributes to their understanding by exploring their interrelationships with spatial data usage. Through storylines, it analyzes the arguments that planning practitioners offer in support of infrastructure-led decisions in Arequipa (Peru), before and after spatial data usage. The article concludes that spatial data usage improve spatial thinking to different extents, yet suggests aligning spatial data generation and the inclusion of GIS-based spatial analyses with the spatial knowledge needed by routine planning practice.     

On the statistical computation of the sample multiple correlation moefficient

Based on the recursive formulas of Lee (1988) and Singh and Relyea (1992) for computing the noncentral F distribution, a numerical algorithm for evaluating the distributional values of the sample squared multiple correlation coefficient is proposed. The distributional function of this statistic is usually represented as an infinite weighted sum of the iterative form of incomplete beta integral. So an effective algorithm for the incomplete beta integral is crucial to the numerical evaluation of various distribution values. Let a and b denote two shape parameters shown in the incomplete beta integral and hence formed in the sampling distribution functionn be the sample size, and p be the number of random variates. Then both 2a = p - 1 and 2b = n - p are positive integers in sampling situations so that the proposed numerical procedures in this paper are greatly simplified by recursively formulating the incomplete beta integral. By doing this, it can jointly compute the distributional values of probability dens function (pdf) and cumulative distribution function (cdf) for which the distributional value of quantile can be more efficiently obtained by Newton's method. In addition, computer codes in C are developed for demonstration and performance evaluation. For the less precision required, the implemented method can achieve the exact value with respect to the jnite significant digit desired. In general, the numerical results are apparently better than those by various approximations and interpolations of Gurland and Asiribo (1991),Gurland and Milton (1970), and Lee (1971, 1972). When b = (1/2)(n -p) is an integer in particular, the finite series formulation of Gurland (1968) is used to evaluate the pdf/cdf values without truncation errors, which are served as the pivotal one. By setting the implemented codes with double precisions, the infinite series form of derived method can achieve the pivotal values for almost all cases under study. Related comparisons and illustrations are also presented     

Population structure and correlation between auxiliary and target variables may affect precision of estimates in forest inventory

Simulations of forest inventory in several populations compared simple random with “quick probability proportional to size” (QPPS) sampling. The latter may be applied in the absence of a list sampling frame and/or prior measurement of the auxiliary variable. The correlation between the auxiliary and target variables required to render QPPS sampling more efficient than simple random sampling varied over the range 0.3–0.6 and was lower when sampling from populations that were skewed to the right. Two possible analytical estimators of the standard error of the estimate of the mean for QPPS sampling were found to be less reliable than bootstrapping.