Measuring Western Australian House Prices: Methods and Implications

This paper investigates models of house price measurement with a particular focus on the hybrid hedonic repeat-sales model. It examines different ways to model house price changes and outlines a method of estimating the hybrid measure. After describing the models, the paper applies Western Australian house sales data to the outlined models and draws some conclusions as to the relative attractiveness of the hybrid measure.

Two Essays on Demographic Change and the Australian Economy

Environmental efficiency, environmental regulation, the Chinese economy.

Return to wine: A comparison of the hedonic, repeat sales, and hybrid approaches

Comparisons between the return to wine and standard financial assets are complicated in that the return to wine must be estimated from infrequent sales of heterogeneous wine brands. Wine returns can be estimated using several different approaches, and here the performance of the hedonic approach, repeat sales approach, and hybrid approach are compared using 14,102 auction sale observations for Australian wine over the period 1988 to 2000. For the data set considered the results show that the hybrid approach provides the most efficient estimates, and that the repeat sales approach provides significantly higher total return estimates than the other two approaches. The portfolio diversification benefit attributed to holding wine is then shown to vary with estimation method.Return to wine, Price index, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C33, G12,

Soft Bootstrap and Supersymmetry

The soft bootstrap is an on-shell method to constrain the landscape of effective field theories (EFTs) of massless particles via the consistency of the low-energy S-matrix. Given assumptions on the on-shell data (particle spectra, linear symmetries, and low-energy theorems), the soft bootstrap is an efficient algorithm for determining the possible consistency of an EFT with those properties. The implementation of the soft bootstrap uses the recently discovered method of soft subtracted recursion. We derive a precise criterion for the validity of these recursion relations and show that they fail exactly when the assumed symmetries can be trivially realized by independent operators in the effective action. We use this to show that the possible pure (real and complex) scalar, fermion, and vector exceptional EFTs are highly constrained. Next, we prove how the soft behavior of states in a supermultiplet must be related and illustrate the results in extended supergravity. We demonstrate the power of the soft bootstrap in two applications. First, for the N= 1 and N=2 CP^1 nonlinear sigma models, we show that on-shell constructibility establishes the emergence of accidental IR symmetries. This includes a new on-shell perspective on the interplay between N=2 supersymmetry, low-energy theorems, and electromagnetic duality. We also show that N=2 supersymmetry requires 3-point interactions with the photon that make the soft behavior of the scalar O(1) instead of vanishing, despite the underlying symmetric coset. Second, we study Galileon theories, including aspects of supersymmetrization, the possibility of a vector-scalar Galileon EFT, and the existence of higher-derivative corrections preserving the enhanced special Galileon symmetry. This is addressed by soft bootstrap and by application of double-copy/KLT relations applied to higher-derivative corrections of chiral perturbation theory.Comment: 71 pages, no figures. v2: significant new material about the N=2 CP^1 NLSM; typos correcte

Efficient and Open-Source Tool for the Prediction of Thermowell Structural Response

Thermowells are widely used in the aid of the measurement of temperature in high velocity or corrosive flow in large industrial installations. They are susceptible to vortex induced vibration which can be a cause of two types of damage; fatigue failure and resonance failure. Hence it is important to understand the mechanisms that may avoid vortex induced vibration as failure of a thermowell can cause a leak in the pipe or vessel it is installed on. An industry standard for the sizing and installation of a thermowell in order to avoid failure due to vortex induced vibration, hydrostatic pressure or static bending already exists. The standard is thorough and has been amended as recently as 2016 in order to increase safety in working with thermowells. However, it has its shortcomings with some assumptions it makes and when considering unique designs. A unique design of particular interest from industry is that of a cylindrical well with helical strakes attached. This affects the boundary layer of the fluid on the thermowell.In this work, a novel tool is developed for computing the structural response of a thermowell depending on the flow environment in which it is placed in. The tool exploits one-way coupling requiring the physics of fluid flow and solid dynamics. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with a RANS turbulence model and a structural modal superposition method are used to solve for the fluid and the solid. An experimental setup was also proposed with the purpose of benchmarking the numerical approach, however, experimental testing was not pursued.The numerical model showed a significant reduction in time dynamic oscillatory force being applied to the thermowell when helical strakes are introduced but an increase in steady state force. Therefore, with the presence of helical strakes, the dynamics stress levels that the thermowell experiences is reduced making the thermowell less susceptible to failure

Classical Dynamics of Vortex Solitons from Perturbative Scattering Amplitudes

We introduce a novel point-particle effective description of ANO vortex solitons in the critical Abelian Higgs Model (AHM) in $d=2+1$ based on the small winding expansion. Identifying the effective vortices with the elementary quanta of a complex scalar field, relativistic vortex-vortex scattering amplitudes are calculated as a diagrammatic, perturbative expansion in the winding number $N$. Making use of powerful techniques recently developed for analyzing the post-Minkowskian two-body problem in general relativity, we efficiently extract the contribution to the loop integrals from the classical potential region, with the resulting velocity expansion subsequently resummed to all orders. The main result of this paper is an analytic expression for the classical, vortex-vortex potential at $\mathcal{O}\left(N^2\right)$, or one-loop, with exact velocity dependence. By truncating the resulting effective Hamiltonian at $\mathcal{O}\left(p^2\right)$ we derive an analytic, perturbative expression for the metric on the 2-vortex moduli space. Finally, the emergence of the critical AHM from the classical limit of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric AHM, and the resulting constraints on the point-particle EFT is described in detail using an on-shell superspace construction for BPS states in $d=2+1$.Comment: 40 pages, 8 figure

‘How do I become blue pilled?’:Masculine ontological insecurity on 4chan’s advice board

Through an analysis of 4chan’s /adv/ or ‘advice’ board – in which predominately male users seek advice on life matters – here we examine masculine ontological insecurity and its implications for understanding how ‘toxic’ masculine identities emerge, and how young men more generally struggle to make sense of their lives. Advancing extant scholarship, our findings uncover an ‘on the cusp’ masculine identity – subject to the anxieties and self-perceived failures which act as preconditions of toxic ideologies and outcomes, but also seemingly yet to practice such (il)logics. Responses from the community suggest three ways of addressing, or making sense of, the problems users faced. Finally, and of relevance to both the theorising of contemporary masculinities and related socio-positive interventions, we highlight the (seemingly) odd paradox of vulnerable male users being drawn to express their vulnerabilities on a platform notorious for its insensitivities

Scattering Amplitudes and N-Body Post-Minkowskian Hamiltonians in General Relativity and Beyond

We present a general framework for calculating post-Minskowskian, classical, conservative Hamiltonians for $N$ non-spinning bodies in general relativity from relativistic scattering amplitudes. Novel features for $N>2$ are described including the subtraction of tree-like iteration contributions and the calculation of non-trivial many-body Fourier transform integrals needed to construct position space potentials. A new approach to calculating these integrals as an expansion in the hierarchical limit is described based on the method of regions. As an explicit example, we present the $\mathcal{O}\left(G^2\right)$ 3-body momentum space potential in general relativity as well as for charged bodies in Einstein-Maxwell. The result is shown to be in perfect agreement with previous post-Newtonian calculations in general relativity up to $\mathcal{O}\left(G^2 v^4\right)$. Furthermore, in appropriate limits the result is shown to agree perfectly with relativistic probe scattering in multi-center extremal black hole backgrounds and with the scattering of slowly-moving extremal black holes in the moduli space approximation.Comment: 41 pages, 5 figure

“I Can Choose to be a Good Man Even if I Got a Raw Deal”:Neoliberal Heteromasculinity as Manosphere Counter Narrative in r/Stoicism

This article provides findings from our dual-computational/qualitative analysis of r/Stoicism, a large subreddit in which self-presenting boys and men seek Stoic philosophical advice on various life matters. In choosing to investigate this decidedly (hetero)masculinized online space in which users share their anxieties and grievances, we expected to find substantial evidence of “toxic” manosphere-style discourse, while also hoping to uncover counter patterns which, like Maloney et al.’s study of 4chan, complicate assumptions around the discursive practices of boys and men in online spaces such as these. Rather, what we found was a complete absence of toxic discourse, and instead the presence of patterns which complicate the logics underpinning efforts at deradicalization and wider socio-positive masculinity agendas. Thorburn’s work has been important in foregrounding how the “neoliberal emphasis on individualism and a capitalist ‘hustle-culture’” underpin manosphere logics. Here, we see similar, albeit more palatable (to mainstream sensibilities), neoliberal tenets at work across counter logics, and reflect on why economic-structural explanations for boys’ and men’s anxieties are sidelined in such mainstream responses to the manosphere