Bidding for Land Development

This paper is concerned with applying an optimum bidding procedure, originally proposed by Friedman, to the purchase of development land. It is assumed that the vendor sells the land to the highest bidder in a sealed bid auction without any consideration of the design of the proposed development. Friedman's model for optimal bidding is introduced, and a case study is presented to demonstrate its applicability. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Who Am I Now? The doctorate as a process of transformative learning

The doctoral journey necessarily engenders change. To produce a qualifying thesis, a student must build advanced thinking skills, subject matter expertise and communication competencies. Yet, the challenge of the process also spurs growth in creativity, something less often noted. Significant alterations in cognitive and creative capabilities do not transpire in isolation; restructuring thinking also shifts emotional and social aspects of meaning making. Indeed, the doctoral journey can stimulate a profound shift in understanding of self—one’s very identity might be transformed through it. This chapter explores how a post-doctoral individual might understand their journey as a transformative one; recognise their possibilities as a creative individual; and consider the advantages of their distinctive capacities for thriving in a state that can be described as ‘liquid modernity’

The CTPase activity of ParB determines the size and dynamics of prokaryotic DNA partition complexes

ParB-like CTPases mediate the segregation of bacterial chromosomes and low-copy number plasmids. They act as DNA-sliding clamps that are loaded at parS motifs in the centromere of target DNA molecules and spread laterally to form large nucleoprotein complexes serving as docking points for the DNA segregation machinery. Here, we solve crystal structures of ParB in the pre- and post-hydrolysis state and illuminate the catalytic mechanism of nucleotide hydrolysis. Moreover, we identify conformational changes that underlie the CTP- and parS-dependent closure of ParB clamps. The study of CTPase-deficient ParB variants reveals that CTP hydrolysis serves to limit the sliding time of ParB clamps and thus drives the establishment of a well-defined ParB diffusion gradient across the centromere whose dynamics are critical for DNA segregation. These findings clarify the role of the ParB CTPase cycle in partition complex assembly and function and thus advance our understanding of this prototypic CTP-dependent molecular switch