Search results for "Nonparametric"
showing 10 items of 427 documents
Positive solutions for singular (p, 2)-equations
2019
We consider a nonlinear nonparametric Dirichlet problem driven by the sum of a p-Laplacian and of a Laplacian (a (p, 2)-equation) and a reaction which involves a singular term and a $$(p-1)$$ -superlinear perturbation. Using variational tools and suitable truncation and comparison techniques, we show that the problem has two positive smooth solutions.
In vitro activities of antimicrobial agents against Candida species
1999
Objective. Antimicrobial mouthrinses may represent a valid alternative to topical antifungal agents. However, the action of antimicrobials could be affected by the different ingredients incorporated into mouthrinse products. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the in vitro antifungal and fungicidal activities of antimicrobials alone. Study Design. A broth macrodilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of 4 antimicrobial agents against Candida species. Minimum fungicidal concentration was also determined. Results. All antimicrobials showed antifungal activity against all tested organisms, but cetylpyridinium chloride received significantly low…
Sealing capacity of a photochromatic flowable composite as protective base in nonvital dental bleaching.
2006
Aim To evaluate microleakage of a flowable composite used as a protective isolating base, applied with different adhesive systems. Methodology Seventy root-filled teeth were divided into seven groups. A flowable composite base (Tetric Flow Chroma) was used with three adhesive techniques (Syntac, Excite, Excite DCS; in the three cases with and without acid etching) and in a control group without dentine conditioning or adhesive placement. A 30% hydrogen peroxide solution was applied for 24 h in the pulp chambers, followed by the placement of a dye (silver nitrate) for 4 h. Each tooth was sectioned longitudinally, and examined under 4× magnification to assess the tooth/restoration dye leaka…
Sealing ability of five different retrograde filling materials.
1996
The sealing ability of Amalgam, Harvard-Cement, Diaket, gold-leaf, and Ketac-Endo as retrofilling materials was investigated. Paper cones were fixed with Harvard-Cement in the instrumented roots of 100 extracted human incisors. Apicectomy was performed and a 2-mm-deep retrograde cavity was prepared. Teeth were assigned to five groups (n = 20); each group received a different filling material. Surfaces of the roots were isolated with nail polish. Teeth, were stored in 1% methylene blue dye for 72 h. Roots were sectioned, and the depth of dye penetration was evaluated through a stereomicroscope. Retrofills with Ketac-Endo showed significantly less leakage compared with amalgam. There was no s…
Decomposing changes in the conditional variance of GDP over time
2017
A well established fact in the growth empirics literature is the increasing (unconditional) variation in output per capita across countries. We propose a nonparametric decomposition of the conditional variation of output per capita across countries to capture different channels over which the variation might be increasing. We find that OECD countries have experienced diminishing conditional variation while other regions have experienced increasing conditional variation. Our decomposition suggests that most of these changes in the conditional variance of output are due to unobserved factors not accounted for by the traditional growth determinants. In addition to this we show that these facto…
Residual-based block bootstrap for cointegration testing
2010
We propose a new testing procedure to determine the rank of cointegration. This new method is based on the nonparametric resampling procedure, so-called Residual-Based Block Bootstrap (RBB), which is developed by Paparoditis and Politis (2003) in the context of unit root testing. Through Monte Carlo experiments we show that, in small samples, the RBB cointegration test has good power properties in relation to the other two well-known tests for cointegration, such as the Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF), applied to the residual of a cointegrating regression, and the Johansen's maximum eigenvalue tests. Likewise, this article looks at the influence played by the correlation of the ‘X’ variables …
Productivity Polarization and Sectoral Dynamics in European Regions
2007
Abstract We show that the distribution dynamics of productivity in European regions displays polarization with a nonlinear growth path. We investigate the factors explaining this behavior focusing in particular on sectoral composition. The β -convegence analysis reveals that initial shares of Manufacturing and Other Market Services have a nonlinear impact on growth, while spatial effects are not statistically significant. By decomposing the dynamics of aggregate productivity in terms of sectoral dynamics, we show that productivity in Manufacturing, Non Market Services, and Other Market Services does not converge, for the complex interaction of technological spillovers and specialization eff…
Directional distance functions and environmental regulation
2005
Abstract In this paper we use directional technology distance functions to evaluate the impact of environmental regulations on firms’ performance. Following Fare et al. [Fare, R., Grosskopf, S., Lovell, C.A.K., Pasurka, C., 1989. Multilateral productivity comparisons when some outputs are undesirable: a nonparametric approach. The Review of Economics and Statistics 71, 90–98.], we construct an index that measures opportunity costs for individual firms arising from regulations that prevent free disposal of wastes. The methodology is applied to a sample of Spanish producers of ceramic pavements. We assume that firms maximise desirable output simultaneously reducing inputs, with no change in t…
Portfolio performance evaluation with generalized Sharpe ratios: Beyond the mean and variance
2009
The main purpose of this paper is to present a theoretically sound portfolio performance measure that takes into account higher moments of the distribution of returns. First, we perform a study of the investor's preferences to higher moments of distribution within expected utility theory and discuss the performance measurement. To illustrate the investor's preferences to higher moments and the computation of a performance measure, we provide an approximation analysis of the optimal capital allocation problem and derive a formula for the Sharpe ratio adjusted for skewness of distribution. This performance measure justifies the notion of the Generalized Sharpe Ratio (GSR) introduced by Hodges…
Space-time analysis of GDP disparities among European regions : a Markov chains approach
2004
The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of the disparities between 138 European regions over the 1980-1995 period. We characterize the regional per capita GDP cross-sectional distribution by means of nonparametric estimations of density functions and we model the growth process as a first-order stationary Markov chain. Spatial effects are then introduced within the Markov chain framework using regional conditioning (Quah, 1996b) and spatial Markov chains (Rey, 2001). The results of the analysis indicate the persistence of regional disparities, a progressive bias toward a poverty trap and the importance of geography to explain the convergence process.