Presence Of Convergence Research Articles

The Structural Convergence of New Members of the European Union: An Input-Output Perspective

This paper aims to approach the topic of structural convergence for new member states from the perspective of input-output analysis. Using a set of input-output measures, based on the OECD RStan database, and a number of unit-root tests, both for individual time series and panel data, this paper tests whether there is convergence relative to the production structure of the German economy. Although the individual tests are somewhat mixed, the panel unit-root tests indicate the presence of convergence. The results highlight the importance of assessing structural convergence based on panel tests. They also highlight that as nominal and real convergence are gradually achieved, structural convergence should also become more prioritized.

Testing Convergence of Fiscal Policies in Regions of Turkey

The presence of convergence in the fiscal policies implemented at the national level in order to eliminate regional inequalities is an indication that the resources are rationally distributed among the regions and the differences are decreasing. From this point of view, in this study, it is aimed to investigate the convergence of the fiscal policy implemented in the period of 2004:01-2020:12 in Turkey within the scope of the fiscal purpose of taxes. In the study, nonlinear convergence analysis was performed, but linear convergence analysis was used because the linearity hypothesis could not be rejected. According to the findings, there is an absolute convergence between the regions in the fiscal policy implemented in Turkey. However, in terms of regions, the first region is differentiated from other five regions, while the other regions are very close to each other. Regarding this, it may be possible to bring the first region and the other five regions closer to each other by reducing the difference with the arrangements to be made in taxation policies. The obtained findings offer important implications for policy makers.

Dynamics of the carbon intensity of the economy by macro-regions using the intensity index of energy intensity reduction

The paper studies the dynamics of the energy intensity of the economies of the countries of the world. It is shown that by 1980 the process of reducing the energy intensity of the economy began only in the developed countries of North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in China. The intensity index of energy intensity reduction was calculated, which made it possible to identify the features of the dynamics of GDP energy intensity in developed and developing countries. The presence of convergence in the time series of energy intensity and carbon intensity of the economy of all macroregions, with the exception of the Middle East, where divergence is observed, is determined.

Prevalence of trigeminocervical convergence mechanisms in episodic and chronic migraine.

Migraine pain location and trigeminocervical convergence have limited diagnostic value and have usually been assessed using non-standard verbal descriptors in a small number of centers. To use non-verbal descriptors of migraine pain location to determine the prevalence of trigeminocervical convergence mechanisms in patients with episodic and chronic migraine. In addition, we explored the factors associated with the presence of convergence. A multicenter study was carried out. The explicit pain location was explored by asking subjects to indicate, on an electronic form, three points on the anterolateral side and three points on the posterolateral side of the head and neck that represented the common locations of their migraine pain. We evaluated associations of the pain pattern with demographic and psychological features, comorbidities, lifestyle and other headache characteristics. 97 episodic and 113 chronic migraine patients were included. Convergence was present in 116 migraineurs (55%) who indicated dominance of pain in the posterior cervical region. This site was more often involved in the chronic migraine group (21 vs. 33%; p=0.034). The number of migrainous/altered sensitivity symptoms (OR=1.39; 95%CI 1.14-1.71) was associated with convergence independently of the chronification status. In this symptom group, there were statistical associations between convergence and vomiting (p=0.045), tactile allodynia (p<0.001), nuchal rigidity (p<0.001) and movement allodynia (p=0.031). Trigeminocervical convergence is common in migraineurs and, in practice, it might be found frequently in chronic migraineurs. Some features commonly found in this group, such as altered sensitivity symptoms, are associated with this phenomenon.

THE EXISTENCE OF FOREIGN TRADE BALANCE CONVERGENCE IN EU MEMBER AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The foreign trade deficit is an important problematic area for all countries, and it is the main cause of the current account deficit and the economic crises. It is useful to frequently analyze the level of these deficits. In this study, the presence of convergence among the EU member and candidate countries in terms of the foreign trade balance was analyzed with second-generation panel data analysis methods, operating under cross-sectional dependence, by using data from the 2000-2019 period. In the study, firstly the existence of cross-sectional dependence among the countries was analyzed and it was found that there was cross-sectional dependence among the countries included in the panel. In this study, firstly, CADF and HK panel unit root tests were carried out in order to test the existence of each country group's convergence to their group average; then in the country groups other than EU candidate countries, i.e., in the 36-country panel, in the EU28, EU15, and EU13 countries, it was determined that there was a convergence towards their own group means in terms of the foreign trade balance. Furthermore, the convergence of the country groups to the group average of the EU15 was tested by CADF and HK methods; and it was determined that the 36-country panel, the EU28, EU13 countries, and the EU candidate countries tend to converge towards the foreign trade balance of the EU15. Finally, the convergence of EU candidate countries to the EU13's foreign trade balance average was tested by CADF and HK methods, and according to the CADF tests, the EU candidate countries were unable to converge to the EU15 countries were also not able to converge to the EU13 countries. However, according to the HK test results, it was determined that the foreign trade balance of the 8 EU candidate countries converged to the foreign trade balance of the 13 countries that became members of the EU later. The robustness check was performed by using Fisher ADF, Fisher PP, LLC, and IPS panel unit root tests, and the results obtained were found to be consistent.

Radiologic Features of Resected Lung Adenocarcinoma With Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition plays a crucial role in cancer progression and is a significant prognosticator for postoperative survival in patients with lung cancer. Predicting epithelial-mesenchymal transition preoperatively using computed tomography may help to determine the optimal surgical strategy. We performed an immunohistochemical analysis of E-cadherin and vimentin expressions using tumor specimens from resected primary lung adenocarcinoma and classified the results into 3 subgroups according to the expressions: epithelial, intermediate, and mesenchymal. The intermediate and mesenchymal groups were classified as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition conversion group. We analyzed the association between epithelial-mesenchymal transition and radiologic characteristics, especially computed tomographic features. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition conversion group comprised 162 patients (49.1%). Computed tomography revealed that tumors with epithelial-mesenchymal transition conversion showed a high consolidation/tumor ratio compared with those without conversion. Univariate analysis demonstrated that tumors with epithelial-mesenchymal transition were significantly associated with bronchial and/or vascular convergence (P< .001) and notching (P= .028). When the cutoff value for the consolidation/tumor ratio was set by the receiver operating characteristic curve, independent predictive factors for epithelial-mesenchymal transition by multivariate analysis were high ratio (>0.7946; P< .001) and the presence of convergence (P= .05). Tumors with a high consolidation/tumor ratio and convergence had a 4-fold higher odds ratio for epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and patients had significantly poorer survival. Convergence and a high consolidation/tumor ratio were independently associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition conversion. These preoperative radiologic results will help to predict epithelial-mesenchymal transition conversion in lung adenocarcinoma.

Club convergence of labour productivity in agriculture: Evidence from EU countries

This paper studies club convergence in relation to labour productivity in the agriculture industry of 28 European Union countries for the period 2005 to 2018. The countries were divided into three groups which were homogeneous in terms of level of development in the agricultural sector. The presence of convergence in the groups of countries was verified by using a panel-data model of conditional β-convergence. Then, convergence processes were investigated within clubs of countries. Convergence processes took place in the groups of countries with low and medium levels of labour productivity. In the club of countries where labour productivity was high, opposite processes (i.e. divergence) were observed.

СПЕЦИФИКА КОНСТРУИРОВАНИЯ ИМИДЖА ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ПАРТИЙ В СОВРЕМЕННЫХ МЕДИАДИСКУРСИВНЫХ ПРАКТИКАХ

The purpose of the study is to analyze the specifics of constructing the image of political parties in modern world media discourse practices. Achievement of this goal by the authors of this article determines the formulation of a number of important tasks, for the solution of which, first of all, the study of the image-making of political organizations is carried out, which is of interest to representatives of various worldview and social groups. The article examines the algorithm for constructing the image of parties and party coalitions, identifies the factors influencing their modifications. The authors determine the most effective strategies and tactics that influence the formation of a positive image during the electoral process, conduct a detailed analysis of the communication tools that generate a highly effective image of political parties using both traditional media practitioners and modern Internet agrigers. The work analyzes the main and auxiliary resources that have a multifaceted impact on the collaboration of party forces and their leaders with the media in the process of creating the given images, and broadcasting information to the target audience. As a result, a conclusion is made about the discursiveness of the image-making technologies existing in the media space, the presence of convergences and antinomies in them.

Are future enlargement candidate countries converging with the EU?

The paper addresses the issue of convergence with the EU for nine countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Montenegro and Ukraine. All that are at different stages of EU candidacy that could eventually lead to full membership. Some are officially recognized as candidate countries while others are at the stage of an association agreement. The presence of convergence is examined in terms of two macroeconomic indices: GDP per capita and GDP per person employed. Panel unit root tests as well as univariate unit root tests are estimated for the period 1997–2016. In broad terms, the empirical findings reported herein indicate a lack of convergence with the EU irrespective of the metric used. However, they indicate a process of in-group convergence mostly in terms of GDP per person employed.

Intersection of economic and environmental goals of sustainable development initiatives

Abstract There is growing interest in integration of sustainability into business planning decisions under a sustainable development framework. Environmental accounting methodologies for collection, measurement, and disclosure of financial and environmental impacts of strategic and operational managerial decisions are developed and utilized by business entities worldwide for effective management of both organizational and operational environmental protection policies. At the operational level, while extant literature has primarily focused on managerial decision making under different voluntary and regulatory emission pricing schemes, the intersection of economic (monetary) and environmental impact (non-monetary/physical) dimensions of sustainable development goals has received scant attention. This paper examines the intersection of the environmental and economic goals of sustainable development initiatives of a focal firm, which is engaged in the primary activities of production and/or transportation and storage of a single product within a forward supply chain. This paper assumes the presence of a responsive “green market ” through modeling of consumer awareness and response induced by the firms' environmental footprint disclosures. Through quantitative modeling approach, normative conclusions are derived on the compatibility of economic and environmental goals of sustainable development initiative. The results indicate the presence of convergence, divergence, and avoidance decision zones in balancing the environmental and economical goals of the firm's sustainable development for production and storage efficiency. The paper explicitly establishes the boundaries of the operational zones within the domain of the firm's environmental reduction and operational efficiency efforts. The results demonstrate that the efficacy of voluntary or regulated emission reduction targets depends on the firm's existing environmental and operational cost structures, and hence emission reduction targets must be well planned to avoid adverse environmental impact or operational inefficiencies. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that in a green responsive market, there may exist critical emission reduction thresholds below which the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable development initiatives diverge.

Computed Tomography Features of Lung Adenocarcinomas With Programmed Death Ligand 1 Expression

IntroductionThe development of immune checkpoint inhibitors against programmed death 1 has paved the way for a new era of treatment of lung cancer. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is expected to predict the response of immune checkpoint inhibitors in lung cancer. Predicting PD-L1 expression using a noninvasive method before immunotherapy would, therefore, help identify patients for whom immunotherapy can be successful. Patients and MethodsA total of 394 patients with resected lung adenocarcinoma who had undergone preoperative thin-section computed tomography (CT) were analyzed for PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry and evaluated to determine the association between PD-L1 expression and CT characteristics, including convergence, surrounding ground glass opacity (GGO), air bronchogram, notching, pleural indentation, spiculation, and cavitation. ResultsOf the 394 patients, 78 (19.8%) were positive and 316 (80.2%) were negative for PD-L1 expression. Univariate analysis demonstrated that PD-L1+ adenocarcinoma was significantly associated with the presence of convergence (P < .01), notching (P < .01), spiculation (P < .01), and cavitation (P < .01) and the absence of surrounding GGO (P < .01) compared with PD-L1− cases. On multivariate analysis, the presence of convergence (P < .01) and cavitation (P < .01) and the absence of surrounding GGO (P = .02) and air bronchogram (P = .03) were significantly associated with PD-L1 expression. ConclusionPD-L1+ adenocarcinoma cases showed convergence and cavitation more frequently than did PD-L1− cases. In contrast, surrounding GGO and air bronchogram were observed less frequently in PD-L1+ cases than in PD-L1− cases. These results will prove helpful in identifying PD-L1–expressing adenocarcinoma by CT before immunotherapy.

Size, sounds and sex: interactions between body size and harmonic convergence signals determine mating success in Aedes aegypti.

BackgroundSeveral new mosquito control strategies will involve the release of laboratory reared males which will be required to compete with wild males for mates. Currently, the determinants of male mating success remain unclear. The presence of convergence between male and female harmonic flight tone frequencies during a mating attempt have been found to increase male mating success in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Size has also been implicated as a factor in male mating success. Here, we investigated the relationships among body size, harmonic convergence signalling, and mating success. We predicted that harmonic convergence would be an important determinant of mating success and that large individuals would be more likely to converge.MethodsWe used diet to manipulate male and female body size and then measured acoustic interactions during mating attempts between pairs of different body sizes. Additionally, we used playback experiments to measure the direct effect of size on signalling performance.ResultsIn live pair interactions, harmonic convergence was found to be a significant predictor of copula formation. However, we also found interactions between harmonic convergence behaviour and body size. The probability that a given male successfully formed a copula was a consequence of his size, the size of the female encountered, and whether or not they converged. While convergence appears to be predictive of mating success regardless of size, the positive effect of convergence was modulated by size combinations. In playbacks, adult body size did not affect the probability of harmonic convergence responses.ConclusionsBoth body size and harmonic convergence signalling were found to be determinants of male mating success. Our results suggest that in addition to measuring convergence ability of mass release lines that the size distribution of released males may need to be adjusted to complement the size distribution of females. We also found that diet amount alone cannot be used to increase male mating success or convergence probability. A clearer understanding of convergence behaviours, their relationship to mating success, and factors influencing convergence ability would provide the groundwork for improving the mating performance of laboratory reared lines.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1914-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

India’s Export Potential to Other SAARC Countries: A Gravity Model Analysis

India’s export potential to other SAARC nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) was calculated with the help of gravity model of exports using panel data methodology (pooled model, fixed effect model and random effect model) by taking the time period 1981-2005. To find out the convergence and divergence of India’s exports to SAARC members, speed of convergence was used. Moreover, study has also tried to find whether there is convergence of the actual data towards the estimated equilibrium. The study reveals that there was presence of convergence in India exports with SAARC countries and in the other words, actual India’s exports to SAARC countries converged towards the estimated export potential. Among SAARC countries, India’s export potential exists for Maldives, Bhutan, Pakistan and Nepal. India is the only SAARC member that shares land border with four members and sea border with two. No other SAARC country shares a common border with each other. In terms of trade, commerce, investments etc., India is a source of potential investment and technology and a major market for products from all other SAARC members. Therefore, it is essentially in India’s interest to put her weight behind SAARC.  Â

Economic Integration in Europe and Income Divergence Over EU Regions (1995-2006)

This paper tests the question whether the integration process in the EU has contributed to the often-observed growing dispersion of income over the regions of the EU, in the presence of convergence between the member states. We do this by introducing price convergence as an indicator of integration and controlling for the concentration of skilled labour and allowing for path dependency. Our main findings are in line with the expectations of the New Economic Geography School in that integration does contribute to the growing regional inequality in the EU. Price convergence is a significant explanatory variable even after the introduction of a time lag in the dependent variable.

Agricultural productivity convergence across Europe and the United States of America

This paper applies time series techniques to test for convergence in agricultural total factor productivity among the USA and a sample of nine European countries for the period 1973–1993. The data set used in this paper obtained from Ball et al. (2001). The wide spectrum of unit root test results obtained in the present study support the presence of convergence among the sample countries.

Labour's reward across regions of the EU: a distributional dynamic approach

A large number of empirical studies have tested for the presence of convergence for a variety of economic variables. This paper examines the evolution of labour's reward across regions of the EU to identify whether factor price convergence has occurred. Density diagrams are used to illustrate static distributions while transitional matrices are employed to identify movements of the distribution over time. The results presented suggest that the evolutionary paths of average regional pay are fairly stable with stratification and persistence identified as important characteristics. There was uninterrupted convergence of average regional pay between 1980–1992. However, between 1992–1994 this process reversed.

Dispersal of Tritium in Southern Ocean Waters

Depth-distribution of tritium in Southern Ocean waters is reported. Decrease of tritium in surface waters from c 2 TU at 38° S. to 40°S. latitude, to 1.3TU and 1.1 TU at 45°S., 55°S., 60°S. and 64°S. latitudes, are very likely to be associated with the presence of convergence and divergence areas at subtropical and subantarctic latitudes in the Southern Ocean. A tritium-free layer has been found to exist at intermediate depths. Significant increase of tritium in waters at and below 4 km. strongly suggests a younger age, a minimum of the order of 25 years for the bottom waters circulating in the entire region to the south of South Australia.