Neighbor Effects Research Articles

An inquiry into the regional unemployment disparities in Tunisia: a spatial Durbin model

ABSTRACT This study uses a spatial Durbin model in identifying possible causes of the overdispersion into regional unemployment in Tunisia. Data properties were identified using exploratory spatial data analysis which indicates significant neighbouring effects for several variables. Differences in socio-economic structure between regions explain in part these phenomena. Education is a key factor and also some constraints prevent married women from taking up jobs, thus exacerbating regional unemployment. Regions with important tourism activity do well than others. Tourism sector exhibit important spillover effects on regional unemployment while the impact of agricultural activity is confined to local labour market. The diversification of the industrial fabric at a regional level is not a sine qua non for differences reduction in regional unemployment rates. Developing road infrastructure helps to reduce unemployment disparities.

Neighbourhood-based evidence of tree diversity promotion by beech in an old-growth deciduousconiferous mixed forest (Eastern Carpathians)

Neighbourhood models are useful tools for understanding the role of positive and negative interactions in maintaining the tree species diversity in mixed forests. Under such a presumption, we aimed at testing several hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of autogenic species coexistence in an old-growth, beech-fir-spruce stand, which is part of the Slătioara forest reserve (Eastern Carpathians). Univariate/bivariate spatial point pattern analyses, the individual tree species-area relationship, the species mingling analysis and generalised linear mixed models of neighbour interference were applied on data concerning the position and allometry of all saplings and trees occurring within a 0.24 ha plot. The monospecific distribution of either beech or spruce saplings did not support the spatial segregation hypothesis. There was no evidence of conspecific negative distance dependence, as no spatial segregation was detected between the saplings and trees of any species. Within 4 m-neighbourhood, the beech saplings appeared as diversity accumulators, which might be indicative of indirect facilitation (e.g., herd protection hypothesis). At tree stage, none of the three species showed either accumulator or repeller patterns in their neighbourhood with respect to sapling species richness. Signals of positive and negative interspecific association were found in tree-sized beech (at scales of 10 to 20 m) and spruce (at scales of 4 to 17 m), respectively. The former, highly interspersed pattern is in accordance with the hypothesis of positive complementary effects, whereas the latter, poorly intermingled pattern is probably linked to the unexpected, positive neighbouring effect of spruce trees on the stem growth of their conspecific saplings. Such self-favouring process might be due to a facilitative below-ground mechanism. Conversely, the beech saplings were suppressed through interference from the neighbouring conspecific trees. The beech appears to be the key promoter of tree species coexistence in the study forest stand, in contrast to the low interspersion of spruce in the overstorey leading to lower local tree diversity.

Neighbourhood-based evidence of tree diversity promotion by beech in an old-growth deciduous-coniferous mixed forest (Eastern Carpathians)

Neighbourhood models are useful tools for understanding the role of positive and negative interactions in maintaining the tree species diversity in mixed forests. Under such a presumption, we aimed at testing several hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of autogenic species coexistence in an old-growth, beech-fir-spruce stand, which is part of the Slatioara forest reserve (eastern Carpathians). Univariate/bivariate spatial point pattern analyses, the individual tree species-area relationship, the species mingling analysis and generalised linear mixed models of neighbour interference were applied on data concerning the position and allometry of all saplings and trees occurring within a 0.24 ha plot. The monospecific distribution of either beech or spruce saplings did not support the spatial segregation hypothesis. There was no evidence of conspecific negative distance dependence, as no spatial segregation was detected between the saplings and trees of any species. Within 4 m-neighbourhood, the beech saplings appeared as diversity accumulators, which might be indicative of indirect facilitation (e.g., herd protection hypothesis). At tree stage, none of the three species showed either accumulator or repeller patterns in their neighbourhood with respect to sapling species richness. Signals of positive and negative interspecific association were found in tree-sized beech (at scales of 10 to 20 m) and spruce (at scales of 4 to 17 m), respectively. The former, highly interspersed pattern is in accordance with the hypothesis of positive complementary effects, whereas the latter, poorly intermingled pattern is probably linked to the unexpected, positive neighbouring effect of spruce trees on the stem growth of their conspecific saplings. Such self-favouring process might be due to a facilitative below-ground mechanism. Conversely, the beech saplings were suppressed through interference from the neighbouring conspecific trees. The beech appears to be the key promoter of tree species coexistence in the study forest stand, in contrast to the low interspersion of spruce in the overstorey leading to lower local tree diversity.

Covalent Adaptable Networks Using β-Amino Esters as Thermally Reversible Building Blocks.

In this study, β-amino esters, prepared by the aza-Michael addition of an amine to an acrylate moiety, are investigated as building blocks for the formation of dynamic covalent networks. While such amino esters are usually considered as thermally nondynamic adducts, the kinetic model studies presented here show that dynamic covalent exchange occurs via both dynamic aza-Michael reaction and catalyst-free transesterification. This knowledge is transferred to create β-amino ester-based covalent adaptable networks (CANs) with coexisting dissociative and associative covalent dynamic exchange reactions. The ease, robustness, and versatility of this chemistry are demonstrated by using a variety of readily available multifunctional acrylates and amines. The presented CANs are reprocessed via either a dynamic aza-Michael reaction or a catalyst-free transesterification in the presence of hydroxyl moieties. This results in reprocessable, densely cross-linked materials with a glass transition temperature (Tg) ranging from -60 to 90 °C. Moreover, even for the low Tg materials, a high creep resistance was demonstrated at elevated temperatures up to 80 °C. When additional β-hydroxyl group-containing building blocks are applied during the network design, an enhanced neighboring group participation effect allows reprocessing of materials up to 10 times at 150 °C within 30 min while maintaining their material properties.

A Socially Aware Huff Model for Destination Choice in Nature-based Tourism

Abstract. Identifying determinants of tourist destination choice is an important task in the study of nature-based tourism. Traditionally, the study of tourist behavior relies on survey data and travel logs, which are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Thanks to location-based social networks, more detailed data is available at a finer grained spatio-temporal scale. This allows for better insights into travel patterns and interactions between attractions, e.g., parks. Meanwhile, such data sources also bring along a novel social influence component that has not yet been widely studied in terms of travel decisions. For example, social influencers post about certain places, which tend to influence destination choices of tourists. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a socially aware Huff model to account for this social factor in the study of destination choice. Moreover, with fine-grained social media data, interactions between attractions (i.e., the neighboring effects) can be better quantified and thus integrated into models as another factor. In our experiment, we calibrate a model by using trip sequences extracted from geotagged Flickr photos within two national parks in the United States. Our results demonstrate that the socially aware Huff model better simulates tourist travel preferences. In addition, we explore the significance of each factor and summarize the spatial-temporal travel pattern for each attraction. The socially aware Huff model and the calibration method can be applied to other fields such as promotional marketing.

Competitive drivers of interspecific deviations of crown morphology from theoretical predictions measured with Terrestrial Laser Scanning

AbstractTree crown morphology is a key driver of forest dynamics, determining not only the competitiveness of an individual but also the competitive effect exerted on neighbouring trees. Multiple ecological theories, including metabolic scaling theory (MST), predict crown morphology from first principles, but typically lack consideration of competition. The accurate quantification of crown morphology to test theoretical predictions, and the canopy interactions that could alter them, has historically been limited by the simplicity and associated error of traditional crown measurements.In this study, we calculate high‐resolution two‐ and three‐dimensional crown metrics from Terrestrial Laser Scanning data for 1,441Pinus sylvestris,P.nigra,Quercus fagineaandQ. ilextrees from a water‐limited forest community in central Spain and test height‐crown metric scaling relationships. We demonstrate new TLS methods to define symmetric and asymmetric neighbourhood metrics based on tree height, crown size and neighbour projected crown area, and test the importance of neighbourhood genus diversity on crown morphology by separating competition from congeneric and heterogeneric neighbours.Competition negatively impacted all crown metrics except crown depth where onlyP.nigrashowed sensitivity. Asymmetric competition was the strongest driver of pine crown morphology, but oaks were more sensitive to symmetric competition, in line with shade tolerance expectations. Congeneric competition reducedQ.fagineacrown size and changed its shape, but we found no significant effects of heterogeneric neighbours. Most species and crown dimensions had height‐crown scaling exponents below those predicted by MST, which may be due to water limitation effects. Pines and oaks showed large differences in crown depth to height scaling, with the former shallower and the latter deeper, in contrast to theoretical predictions.Synthesis. Our study is the first to demonstrate the ability of TLS to characterise crown morphology from leaf‐wood separated clouds and competitive neighbour effects in a water‐limited forest community, and to use TLS metrics to test ecological crown scaling theory. Most crown metrics scaled below theoretical predictions. Pines were more sensitive to competition by larger neighbours and oaks to crowding from all neighbours, with competition from neighbours of the same genus having a consistent negative effect.

Intraspecific pod and seed trait variation of two herbaceous legume seeds in response to competing neighbours and nutrient resource abundance

The presence of competing neighbours can exert pressure on parent plants, forcing them to adjust their reproductive strategies to maximize recruitment success (adaptive response); however, competitive neighbour effects may be suppressed if more nutrient resources are made available (passive response). In this study, we investigated if the response of some measured seed and pods traits of Lablab purpureus and Mucuna pruriens (focal plants) were adaptively determined by the presence of competitive neighbour species (using Megathyrsus maximus as the focal neighbour) or passively determined by nutrient resource availability. We measured four pod traits (pod weight, pod length, pod filling, and no of pods/ha) and eight seed traits (no of seeds/ha, seed mass, seed yield, dry matter content, Calcium content, Phosphorus content, Nitrogen content, and seed germination percentage) of the focal plants established as mixtures (neighbour treatment) or as monocultures (no-neighbour treatment) at different levels of phosphorus fertilizer application (0, 20, and 40 kg/ha applied on treatment basis). The data were analyzed using a linear mixed-effect model. Results showed that plant identity modified competitive neighbour and nutrient resource availability effects. Competitive neighbour species facilitated increased pod length response, but suppressed pod filling and number of pods/ha which were passively improved at higher levels of nutrient abundance. The no of seeds/ha and seed yield were also passively improved at higher levels of nutrient abundance, previously suppressed by competitive neighbour effects. The presence of focal neighbours and nutrient resource levels interacted positively to increase the Phosphorus content, Nitrogen content, and seed germination %. Other measured traits were not influenced by competitive neighbour effects or nutrient resource availability. In conclusion, competitive neighbour effects on the seeds and pod traits of the focal plants depended on plant identity and nutrient resource availability. Passive trait responses may magnify competitive effects on progenies after successful recruitment.

Multi-information embedding based entity alignment

Entity alignment refers to discovering two entities in different knowledge bases that represent the same thing in reality. Existing methods generally only adopt TransE or TransE-like knowledge graph representation learning models, which usually assume that there are enough training triples for each entity, and entities appearing in few triples are easily misaligned. In this paper, we propose a multi-information embedding based entity alignment method (MEEA), which utilizes embedding methods based on multi-information, including triple embedding and neighbor information embedding, to obtain the vector representations of each entity, which are then used for aligning entities. In addition, we propose a weighted neighbor information encoding method to make the neighbor information based vector representation suitable for entity alignment, which measures the effects of different neighbors on entity alignment from three aspects (i.e., the mapping cardinality of the neighbor, the relation association of the neighbor, and the attention mechanism) and gives corresponding weights. Experiments are conducted on two cross-lingual knowledge bases, and the experimental results show that MEEA is able to yield a better performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

Apoptotic body-mediated intercellular delivery for enhanced drug penetration and whole tumor destruction.

Chemotherapeutic nanomedicines can exploit the neighboring effect to increase tumor penetration. However, the neighboring effect is limited, likely by the consumption of chemotherapeutic agents and resistance of internal hypoxic tumor cells. Here, we first propose and demonstrate that apoptotic bodies (ApoBDs) could carry the remaining drugs to neighboring tumor cells after apoptosis. To enhance the ApoBD-based neighboring effect, we fabricated disulfide-linked prodrug nanoparticles consisting of camptothecin (CPT) and hypoxia-activated prodrug PR104A. CPT kills external normoxic tumor cells to produce ApoBDs, while PR104A remains inactive. The remaining drugs could be effectively delivered into internal tumor cells via ApoBDs. Although CPT exhibits low toxicity to internal hypoxic tumor cells, PR104A could be activated to exert strong cytotoxicity, which further facilitates deep penetration of the remaining drugs. Such a synergic approach could overcome the limitations of the neighboring effect to penetrate deep into solid tumors for whole tumor destruction.

Singing in a fragmented landscape: wrens in a tropical dry forest show sex differences in the effects of neighbours, time of day, and time of year

Songbird vocalizations serve diverse functions including territory defence against neighbouring conspecific animals. In tropical and south-temperate regions, it is commonplace for both female and male songbirds to sing solo songs and coordinated vocal duets to defend their territories. The Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in Costa Rica is the site of an ambitious conservation effort to protect and regrow tropical dry forests; it consists of a mosaic of regenerating and mature forest patches, presenting a special opportunity to study the effect of different numbers of neighbours on male and female wrens living in these fragmented forests. We analyzed recordings of Rufous-and-white Wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus) over a 17-year period, focusing on vocal behaviour and variation in the number of territorial neighbours within the fragmented landscape in the conservation area, and on diel and seasonal variation in female and male song. We hypothesized that the number of conspecific neighbours would influence vocal behaviours, including female and male solo song rate, duet responsiveness rate, repertoire use, and song-switching rate. For females, we found that wrens change song-types more often in areas with more neighbours, whereas the other aspects of female vocal behaviour did not vary with the number of neighbours. For males, we found no aspect of vocal behaviour that varied with the number of neighbours. For both sexes, we found variation in vocal behaviours with time of day and time of year, in keeping with previous research. Our results underscore the idea that we must explore female and male birds independently, because the sexes may respond differently to external factors. We did not find strong links between wren vocal behaviour and variation in the number of neighbours, yet we encourage further behavioural studies on vocal behaviour of birds with varying numbers of neighbours in fragmented landscapes.

Intra‐seasonal rainfall variability and herbivory affect the interaction outcome of two dryland plant species

AbstractIncreases in drought frequency in combination with overgrazing may result in degradation of (semi‐) arid ecosystems. Facilitative interactions between plants are a key mechanism in preventing degradation, but it is poorly understood how they respond to increased stress by combined drought and herbivory. In this study, we used an ecohydrological model, to simulate the plant growth of two plant species interacting with each other under different rainfall and herbivory pressure scenarios. The functional traits of the two modeled plants were based on a prior field experiment in southeastern Spain, in which an unpalatable “nurse” species protected a palatable protégé species from herbivory. Moreover, the nurse species was more drought‐resistant; that is, it had a lower wilting point, whereas the protégé species had a higher optimal growth rate. Firstly, we investigated the coexistence of the two plant species growing under a single limiting resource, focusing on the effect of intra‐seasonal rainfall variability. We found that longer periods without rainfall within the wet season resulted in stable coexistence, whereas nearly constant rainfall led to competitive exclusion of the protégé by the nurse species. Secondly, we investigated how plant interactions varied along our studied gradients. Using the neighbor effect intensity and importance indices, we found that competitive effects increased with more constant rainfall. Moreover, higher herbivory rates resulted in increased facilitative effects of the nurse on the protégé species, but facilitative effects could only prevail over competitive effects under currently observed or higher intra‐seasonal rainfall variability. This study highlights the relevance of intra‐seasonal rainfall variability in explaining coexistence of species in dryland ecosystems and shows that increasing intra‐seasonal rainfall variability or herbivory pressure can result in more facilitative effects from a nurse species. This information is crucial to obtain a better insight into the long‐term coexistence of species, and the resulting stability of dryland ecosystems in response to future climate change.

Factors affecting survival of seedling of Afzelia africana, a threatened tropical timber species in West Africa

Understanding abiotic and biotic factors affecting the survival of seedlings of threatened species such as Afzelia africana is fundamental for restoration and sustainable management purposes. This study used seedling individual-level morphological data and plot-level data to assess the effect of abiotic (season, elevation, soil type and terrain slope) and biotic (seedling initial density, basal diameter, height and number of leaves, insect and fungal infection, insect herbivory, mammal herbivory, vegetation type, adult conspecific density and diameter, and heterospecific density and diameter) factors on the survival probability (at individual level) and survival rate (at plot level) of seedlings of A. africana in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were used for data analyses. At individual level, we found that the survival probability of A. africana seedlings increased with initial height, but decreased from wet to dry season. At plot level, the survival rate of A. africana seedlings also decreased from the wet season (0.72 ± 0.05) to the dry season (0.18 ± 0.04) and was inversely proportional to seedling basal diameter (P = 0.024) and density of conspecific adults (P = 0.016). There were also positive effects of seedling initial height (P = 0.026) and mean diameter of conspecific adults (P = 0.037) on survival rate. Among abiotic factors, only terrain slope showed significant and negative effect (P = 0.028) on the survival rate, suggesting higher survival rate on flat terrain. Our findings suggest that sustainably managing seedlings of A. africana would require accounting for conspecific neighboring effect, terrain slope and season-specific actions. Practical aspects of these factors were further discussed.

Determine neighboring region spatial effect on dengue cases using ensemble ARIMA models

The state of Selangor, in Malaysia consist of urban and peri-urban centres with good transportation system, and suitable temperature levels with high precipitations and humidity which make the state ideal for high number of dengue cases, annually. This study investigates if districts within the Selangor state do influence each other in determining pattern of dengue cases. Study compares two different models; the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Ensemble ARIMA models, using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) measurement to gauge their performance tools. ARIMA model is developed using the epidemiological data of dengue cases, whereas ensemble ARIMA incorporates the neighbouring regions’ dengue models as the exogenous variable (X), into traditional ARIMA model. Ensemble ARIMA models have better model fit compared to the basic ARIMA models by incorporating neighbuoring effects of seven districts which made of state of Selangor. The AIC and BIC values of ensemble ARIMA models to be smaller compared to traditional ARIMA counterpart models. Thus, study concludes that pattern of dengue cases for a district is subject to spatial effects of its neighbouring districts and number of dengue cases in the surrounding areas.

Early exit from business, performance and neighbours’ influence: a study of farmers in France

Abstract This article investigates the effects of economic performance and neighbours’ characteristics on farmers’ exit behaviour before retirement age. Using a unique set of social security data describing all French farmers under 50 over the years 2004–2017, we explore how these effects depend on farmers’ characteristics and how they stand relative to their neighbours. Our probit estimations reveal that younger farmers and farmers operating smaller farms are more sensitive to their own and neighbours’ performance than other farmers. Allowing for an asymmetric comparison effect between farmers and their neighbours, we uncover a nonlinear influence of own and neighbours’ profit and size.

Economic growth and club convergence: Is there a neighbour's effect?

AbstractThe study investigates economic growth and club convergence in a cross‐country framework from 1970–1971 to 2014–2015. In particular, we test the club convergence hypothesis through a non‐parametric and spatial interaction setting. The kernel density estimate shows a cyclical behaviour of per capita incomes, albeit following a common steady state. The conditional distribution is concentrated around the mean indicating a similar relative position across the heterogeneous countries. The transitional probabilities are strong enough to demonstrate a significant sign of clubbing. On testing the convergence hypothesis, we perceive strong evidence of club convergence across the countries. A persistent spatial dependence is unveiled across the proximities, therefore confirming the neighbour's effects in club formation. The study realizes a need to harmonize the interaction between the countries to improve the conditions for achieving long‐run sustained economic growth.

Exploitation of Intrinsic Confinement Effects of MOFs in Catalysis

AbstractIn catalysis research the design of bio‐inspired,'artificial enzymes‘ is a field of huge interest. These catalysts are distinguished by their high catalytic efficiency resulting from a close proximity of several active sites and secondary substrate‐catalyst interactions enabled by functional groups in the catalytic pocket. A class of materials which meets these requirements are metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs). Here, the pores confine a reaction environment where several functionalities can be incorporated and spatially positioned in a tunable fashion. Recently, a number of reports revealed the importance of such confinement effects for the control of catalytic activity and selectivity by exploiting the intrinsic properties like pore size and neighboring group effects and the alignment and distance of different active sites within one MOF pore. Thus, this concept aims to accentuate the potential of the exploitation of those effects in MOFs for the design of sophisticated catalysts.

Neighbor GWAS: incorporating neighbor genotypic identity into genome-wide association studies of field herbivory

An increasing number of field studies have shown that the phenotype of an individual plant depends not only on its genotype but also on those of neighboring plants; however, this fact is not taken into consideration in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Based on the Ising model of ferromagnetism, we incorporated neighbor genotypic identity into a regression model, named “Neighbor GWAS”. Our simulations showed that the effective range of neighbor effects could be estimated using an observed phenotype when the proportion of phenotypic variation explained (PVE) by neighbor effects peaked. The spatial scale of the first nearest neighbors gave the maximum power to detect the causal variants responsible for neighbor effects, unless their effective range was too broad. However, if the effective range of the neighbor effects was broad and minor allele frequencies were low, there was collinearity between the self and neighbor effects. To suppress the false positive detection of neighbor effects, the fixed effect and variance components involved in the neighbor effects should be tested in comparison with a standard GWAS model. We applied neighbor GWAS to field herbivory data from 199 accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana and found that neighbor effects explained 8% more of the PVE of the observed damage than standard GWAS. The neighbor GWAS method provides a novel tool that could facilitate the analysis of complex traits in spatially structured environments and is available as an R package at CRAN (https://cran.rproject.org/package=rNeighborGWAS).

Contrasting responses of different functional groups stabilize community responses to a dominant shrub under global change

Abstract Changes in precipitation regimes and nitrogen deposition levels due to global change are altering terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Most attempts at understanding how biotic interactions affect plant species and community responses to global change have focused on biotic interactions measured at the community level. However, these approaches ignore that communities include functionally dissimilar species that might respond differently to changes in the effects of dominant neighbours along environmental gradients. We test the hypothesis that plant species with differences in functional traits may exhibit contrasting interactions with a dominant shrub species within a single community, thereby stabilizing community‐level responses to the effects of global change. We manipulated water and nitrogen applications in a semi‐arid dune community in northern China, quantified the biomass of herbaceous species occurring below the dominant shrub, Artemisia ordosica, and in adjacent open patches (without the shrub), and measured herbaceous species height and leaf dry matter content. The effects of A. ordosica were quantified at the species, group and community levels using the relative interaction index (RII). Redundancy analysis was performed on species traits and the RII values to assess the relationships between functional differences in species and plant–plant interactions. Species were then grouped using a cluster analysis and the RII values were recalculated at the group level. The redundancy analysis showed that species height and leaf dry matter content were significantly correlated to the changes in species' responses to the effect of A. ordosica along treatments. The four groups of species identified by the cluster analysis showed contrasting variations in competitive or facilitative responses depending on species traits and environmental treatments. However, the interactions measured at the group level balanced the community‐level responses, as we found no significant changes in the effects of A. ordosica along treatments for community biomass, richness and functional diversity indices. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that species with different functional strategies within a community exhibit contrasting responses to a dominant shrub along environmental gradients. These contrasting changes in plant–plant interactions of functionally different species may balance the responses of community‐level metrics. This suggests that functional differences between species groups and the balance of plant–plant interactions stabilize community responses to global change.

Neighbor QTL: an interval mapping method for quantitative trait loci underlying plant neighborhood effects.

Phenotypes of sessile organisms, such as plants, rely not only on their own genotypes but also on those of neighboring individuals. Previously, we incorporated such neighbor effects into a single-marker regression using the Ising model of ferromagnetism. However, little is known regarding how neighbor effects should be incorporated in quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. In this study, we propose a new method for interval QTL mapping of neighbor effects, designated “neighbor QTL,” the algorithm of which includes: (1) obtaining conditional self-genotype probabilities with recombination fraction between flanking markers; (2) calculating conditional neighbor genotypic identity using the self-genotype probabilities; and (3) estimating additive and dominance deviations for neighbor effects. Our simulation using F2 and backcross lines showed that the power to detect neighbor effects increased as the effective range decreased. The neighbor QTL was applied to insect herbivory on Col × Kas recombinant inbred lines of Arabidopsis thaliana. Consistent with previous results, the pilot experiment detected a self-QTL effect on the herbivory at the GLABRA1 locus. Regarding neighbor QTL effects on herbivory, we observed a weak QTL on the top of chromosome 4, at which a weak self-bolting QTL was also identified. The neighbor QTL method is available as an R package (https://cran.r-project.org/package=rNeighborQTL), providing a novel tool to investigate neighbor effects in QTL studies.

Regional income disparities, distributional convergence, and spatial effects: evidence from Indonesian regions 2010–2017

Using a novel dataset constructed for this study, the spatio-temporal dynamics of income per capita across 34 provinces and 514 districts in Indonesia over the 2010–2017 period are analyzed. First, an exploratory spatial analysis suggests that spatial autocorrelation is only significant at the district level, and it appears to be robust from 2013 to 2017. Consequently, at this level, a spatial filtering model is used for decomposing income into a spatially independent component and a spatial residual. Next, through the lens of a distributional convergence framework, it was found that the spatially independent component shows less intra-mobility than the original income variable. When analyzing beta and sigma convergence, strong converging patterns are found for filtered variables and the speed is higher for the filtered data. Thus, it is argued that neighbour effects have played a significant role in slowing the pace of income convergence at the district level. In terms of provinces, beta convergence is reported and the distributional convergence framework suggests the formation of at least three clubs with high intra-distribution mobility for the upper end of the distribution. The article is concluded by relating these findings to some plausible policy interventions.