Would the reputation and behaviour of the Chinese stock exchange be a disincentive to investors considering a Chinese REIT?

China has drawn the world’s attention with the emergence, rapid growth and increasing maturity of its real estate market in the past twenty years. Currently the world’s third largest economy, China was the second largest Asian country for commercial property transaction capital flows in 2006 (JLL, 2007). International investors have recently shown considerable interest regarding property investment in China, via both direct and indirect property and changes to the rules governing internal funds are likely to initiate high levels of effective demand from domestic institutions too. China is yet to develop a Real Estate Investment trust (REIT) market; despite this investment demand encouragement for development of pilot REITs by the PRC government has waxed and waned with political imperatives to manage market and economic volatility. Chinese REITs would theoretically provide the opportunity for investors to access Chinese “property” returns with liquidity and flexibility and might further play a significant role in stabilising the Chinese capital market in the medium and long term. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the reputation and behaviour of the Chinese stock exchanges is a disincentive to investors considering a Chinese REIT. This is addressed firstly by assessing Chinese stock market volatility compared to that of the Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges. Secondly, a survey was used to explore Chinese domestic investors’ attitudes to investment in Chinese property REITs and their preferences amongst the three main Asian stock exchanges where Chinese REITs might potentially be available

PROSPECTS FOR CHINA'S AGRICULTURAL FDI INFLOWS: A GRAVITY MODEL APPROACH

This paper attempts to provide insights into the prospects for China's agricultural FDI inflows through a gravity model approach. A panel data over 1994-2001 is used. Determinants of China's agricultural FDI inflows are identified and future levels of China's agricultural FDI inflows from major source countries are evaluated.Financial Economics,

Exploring The Impact Of Psychedelic Art And Its Implication In The Field Of Medicine And Health: A Pilot Trial

Objectives: Psychedelic art is a form of art that emerged in the 1960s during the psychedelic era, which was then characterized by visuals induced by psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The art form now is known for its bright colors, distorted forms, and intricate patterns, often inspired by the visual experiences people have while under the influence of psychedelic drugs, the creation of which does not necessarily involve any ingestion of psychedelic drugs. This study examines how the viewing of digitally rendered psychedelic art (experimental group) affects people’s emotional, mental, and physical states in comparison to imagery of natural scenery (control group). Method: Adopting a randomized control trial design, the present study explores the impact of psychedelic art on young adults (18-35 years old). Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental psychedelic art video group (n=50) or the control scenery video group (n=52). A convergent mixed methods design was used to evaluate whether psychedelic art would affect participants’ emotional, mental, and physical states. Quantitative biometric data, including heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, and eye fixation points, were collected as participants viewed their respective video. A post-video survey was distributed to collect quantitative data on how participants rated the impact of psychedelic art or scenery imagery, the visual appeal of the imagery and associated memory retention and retrieval, as well as qualitative data from open-ended questions on participants’ embodied experiences during the experiment. Results: One-hundred-and-two individuals were randomly assigned to either the experimental psychedelic art video group (n=50) or the control scenery video group (n=52). Two-sample t-tests indicated inter-group comparability at baseline on all demographic characteristics. Regarding emotional impacts, paired sample t-test showed on galvanic skin conductance at baseline, midpoint and endpoint showed a significant emotional arousal by imageries of both psychedelic art and natural scenery. Regarding overall physical-psychological responses, means of numeric ratings of the impact of psychedelic art and scenery imagery revealed that the former had an overall more calming effect than the latter, but the average sensations of relaxation and reduced stress were lower in the psychedelic art group. Qualitative analysis revealed a greater intensity and diversity of emotional, mental, and physical sensations induced by psychedelic art compared to natural scenery, including sensations of relaxation and peace, anxiety and stress alleviation, sensations of joy, thrill, excitement, and euphoria, sensations of awe and wonder, hypnotizing effect, holistic meditative effect, provocation of wandering and creative thoughts, induced hyperawareness of bodily states, and transitions from induced overstimulation or anxious thoughts to feelings of calmness. Conclusion: The preliminary findings of this study suggest that psychedelic art is a rich and complex form of visual art that has the potential to facilitate healing and promote well-being and mental health. Psychedelic art presents promising avenues for integration into mental healthcare, therapeutic practices, digital health, healthcare environment, and medical research

Defining the chromatin signature of inducible genes in T cells

BACKGROUND Specific chromatin characteristics, especially the modification status of the core histone proteins, are associated with active and inactive genes. There is growing evidence that genes that respond to environmental or developmental signals may possess distinct chromatin marks. Using a T cell model and both genome-wide and gene-focused approaches, we examined the chromatin characteristics of genes that respond to T cell activation. RESULTS To facilitate comparison of genes with similar basal expression levels, we used expression-profiling data to bin genes according to their basal expression levels. We found that inducible genes in the lower basal expression bins, especially rapidly induced primary response genes, were more likely than their non-responsive counterparts to display the histone modifications of active genes, have RNA polymerase II (Pol II) at their promoters and show evidence of ongoing basal elongation. There was little or no evidence for the presence of active chromatin marks in the absence of promoter Pol II on these inducible genes. In addition, we identified a subgroup of genes with active promoter chromatin marks and promoter Pol II but no evidence of elongation. Following T cell activation, we find little evidence for a major shift in the active chromatin signature around inducible gene promoters but many genes recruit more Pol II and show increased evidence of elongation. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the majority of inducible genes are primed for activation by having an active chromatin signature and promoter Pol II with or without ongoing elongation

Intangible training capital and productivity in Europe

This paper employs industry data, derived from linking the EU LFS to productivity accounts from EU KLEMS, to examine workforce training and productivity in European Union original members states. Training activities are modelled as intangible investments by firms and cumulated to stocks so their impact can be evaluated within a production function framework, including links to the use of information and communications technology (ICT). The results suggest significantly positive effects of training on productivity, both direct and interacted with ICT, with different impacts in services than in production industries. These results are robust to the use of instrumental variables methods, both lagged instruments and a set of variables that capture features of the operation of labour markets

Light quark distributions in the proton sea

We use the meson cloud model to calculate $\bar{d}(x) - \bar{u}(x)$ and $\bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x)$ in the proton. We show that a modification of the symmetric, perturbative part of the light quark sea provides better agreement with the ratio $ \bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. Talk presented at PANIC 9

Skill bias, age and organizational change

This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for different types of workers, focusing in particular on the age dimension. It first examines data from EUKLEMS using regressions standard in the literature and suggests ICT may have adversely affected older workers, in particular high skilled males aged 50 and over. The paper then uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey, linked to EUKLEMS, to examine whether the observed differences by worker type could be due to variations in on the job training. It shows that training linked to ICT use can explain some of the wage variation and that reluctance by older men to undertake training has a role as well as lower offers of training by firms

Skill bias, age and organizational change

This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for different types of workers, focusing in particular on the age dimension. It first examines data from EUKLEMS using regressions standard in the literature and suggests ICT may have adversely affected older workers, in particular high skilled males aged 50 and over. The paper then uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey, linked to EUKLEMS, to examine whether the observed differences by worker type could be due to variations in on the job training. It shows that training linked to ICT use can explain some of the wage variation and that reluctance by older men to undertake training has a role as well as lower offers of training by firms

Parton distributions in the proton and pion

We use detailed balance for a hadron composed of quark and gluon Fock states to obtain parton distributions in the proton and pion on the basis of a simple statistical model.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure