Intra-metropolitan Office Price and Trading Volume Dynamics: Evidence from Hong Kong

Previous studies of the office market have tended to focus on either the rental market or the aggregate sales market. This paper focuses on the intra-metropolitan sales market and on office price and trading volume dynamics in Hong Kong. According to our findings, buildings trading at higher prices are not necessarily traded more often than those trading at lower prices. In addition, the price of offices in different categories does not necessarily move in tandem. The trading volumes of higher priced buildings tend to Granger cause the lower priced buildings, and this conclusion is robust to alternative classifications. The paper contrasts several existing theories. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.Commercial property; Correlation

On the Stability of the Implicit Prices of Housing Attributes: A Dynamic Theory and Some Evidence

Given the dramatic fluctuations in aggregate housing prices, this paper attempts to examine whether the implicit prices of different housing attributes are “stable.” Theoretically, this paper provides perhaps the first dynamic, general equilibrium model in which housing attributes’ implicit prices fluctuate. Empirically, this paper models the time paths of different implicit prices as auto-regressive processes by employing a hedonic pricing model on a large set of housing transaction data over a relatively long period of time. An endogenous structural break test is then performed. Except for a few attributes, structural breaks are not detected. Directions for future research are discussed.hedonic pricing; structural break; evolution of valuation; housing attributes

Shrimp Extract Exacerbates Allergic Immune Responses in Mice: Implications on Clinical Diagnosis of Shellfish Allergy.

Tropomyosin has been identified as the major cross-reactive shellfish allergen, but recent studies showed the presence of other clinically relevant allergens. This study aims at determining the allergic immune responses of mice sensitized with raw and boiled shrimp extracts in comparison to recombinant tropomyosin (rTM). Female Balb/c mice were intragastrically sensitized and challenged with raw, boiled shrimp or rTM. Systemic, cellular and humoral allergic responses were compared, while allergenicity of the extracts was also compared by skin prick test (SPT) and immunoblot on shrimp allergic subjects. We showed that rTM and shrimp extracts induced IgE- and Th2-mediated allergic responses in mice, distinguished by remarkable intestinal inflammation in small intestine across all regimens. Notably, boiled shrimp extract exhibited the highest sensitization rate (73.7% of mice developed positive TM-specific IgE response) when compared with raw extract (47.8%) and rTM (34.8%). Mice sensitized with boiled extract manifested the highest allergen-specific IgE and Th2 cytokine responses than the others. Immunoblot results indicated that tropomyosin remained the major allergen in extract-based sensitization and had stronger allergenicity in a heat-treated form comparing to untreated TM, which was in line with the SPT results that boiled extract induced larger wheal size in patients. Hemocyanin and glycogen phosphorylase were also identified as minor allergens associated with manifestation of shrimp allergy. This study shows that boiled extract enhanced sensitization and Th2 responses in agreement with the higher allergenicity of heat-treated TM. This study thus presents three shrimp allergy murine models suitable for mechanistic and intervention studies, and in vivo evidence implies higher effectiveness of boiled extract for the clinical diagnosis of shellfish allergy

What Does Economics Assume About People’s Knowledge? Who knows?

The purpose of the paper is to explore, from an assessment viewpoint, the ideas below. Economics, as a social science, has always considered sets of individuals with assumed characteristics, namely the level of knowledge, although in an implicit way in most of the cases. In this sense, an influential approach in Economics assumed that society, as a global set of individuals, was characterised by a certain level of knowledge that, indeed, could be associated with the one of its representative agent. In fact, an attentive recall of the evolution of these matters in Economics will immediately recognise that, since the very first economic models of the government, it was assumed that the level of knowledge of society, represented by a set of voters, was not the same as the one of the agent being elected, i.e. the government. The irrelevance of the difference in the level of knowledge of economic agents was soon abandoned after some seminal works of Hayek and Friedman. More recently, the viewpoint of Economics has changed by focusing on the characteristics (e.g. knowledge) of individuals, who may interact in sub-sets of society. From this point of view is clearly relevant, given the close connection with the assumed level of knowledge, to distinguish the adaptive behaviour from the rational one, as well as the full rational from the bounded rationality behaviour by people. Quite recent developments in the Economics of Knowledge, i.e. the so-called learning models, have been considered as more realistic approaches to model the process by which individuals acquire knowledge, for instance from other individuals that are, themselves, acquiring knowledge

An examination of entrance criteria for international medical graduates (IMGs) into Canadian psychiatry residency programs

Background: Although international medical graduates (IMGs) are essential in health care service delivery, a gap exists in the literature about how IMGs are selected into psychiatry residency programs in Canada. The purpose of this study was to identify the relative weight or importance that Canadian program directors (PDs) of psychiatry place on certain selection criteria when matching IMGs into residency programs.Methods: We electronically distributed a web-based questionnaire to 16 university residency program directors of psychiatry in Canada. Program Directors were asked to rate the importance of 43 selection criteria using 5-point Likert Scales. Criteria were grouped into six domains: academic criteria, extracurricular activities, supporting information, behavioural issues of concern, medical school country, and other education. Mean total values for each set of criteria were calculated and used to create rank orders within each domain.Results: Eight out of 16 program directors responded. Our analysis indicated that academics and behavioral issues of concern were the most important selection criteria.Conclusion: Our findings provide valuable insight about the perspectives of Program Directors toward IMGs who apply for psychiatry residency programs in Canada. Further studies are needed to better understand which criteria contribute to IMGs’ performances as psychiatric residents

Associations between glucocorticoid use and major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with prostate cancer receiving antiandrogen: a retrospective cohort study.

Prednisolone/prednisone coadministration with abiraterone may explain abiraterone-related increase in cardiovascular risk. We explored this postulation and glucocorticoid's association with cardiovascular risk. Patients with prostate cancer on androgen deprivation therapy and enzalutamide, or abiraterone with 5 mg (ABI + P5) or 10 mg (ABI + P10) daily total prednisolone/prednisone were followed up for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). We analyzed 933 patients. ABI + P10, but not enzalutamide, had higher risk of MACE than ABI + P5. Cumulative glucocorticoid dose before enzalutamide/abiraterone initiation was associated with MACE. Prednisolone/prednisone coadministration with abiraterone likely contributed to abiraterone-related increased cardiovascular risk. Prevalent cumulative glucocorticoid dose was associated with cardiovascular risk. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).

The Market Valuation of Interior Design and Developers strategies: a simple Theory and some Evidence

How much do the market values of housing reflect its interior design? Does the interior design interact with other housing attributes? Following the recent research based on “graph theory,” this paper confirms the importance of internal design variables in a hedonic pricing model, which is applied to a large dataset of high-rise apartment buildings in Asia. The evidence is consistent with a simple theory that developers strategically use interior design to “dilute” the effect of location, which leads to a form of endogenous multi-collinearity. Directions for future research are also discussed