An Unobserved Components Approach to Separating Land from Structure in Property Prices: A Case Study for the City of Brisbane

The study develops a spatio-temporal model of hedonic pricing that explicitly separates the land and the structure components of property prices. This is illustrated with a dataset for Brisbane, Australia, constructed by combining commercial real estate, local government databases and GIS-based spatial analyzes. The land component of prices has increased from 42% in 2000 to 66% in 2010. This has implications for a broad range of planning and policy issues, including property tax rates, town planning, and options for climate adaptations.

Seasonal Distribution and Abundance of Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Tampa Bay Estuary

Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun)) are commercially important and are an integral part of the estuarine ecosystem as both predators and prey. Although adult blue crabs have been the focus of many studies, there is little published information on immature blue crab abundances, especially on the west Florida coast. The objectives of this study were to analyze the distributions and abundances of immature and adult blue crabs in the Tampa Bay estuary, specifically as they relate to 1) monthly and yearly trends in abundance and size, 2) timing of recruitment to the estuary, 3) sex- and size-determined distribution patterns, and 4) the influence of environmental factors, such as freshwater input. Catch rates, length frequencies, and indices of abundance were calculated for recruiting [≤20-mm carapace widths (CW)], juvenile (21–80-mm CW), and adult (\u3e80-mm CW) blue crabs caught during 1996 and 1997. Abundances of all size classes of blue crabs differed by region and month; juvenile and adult abundances were also significantly related to salinity. Immature crabs were collected in all months, confirming an extended spawning season, but there were elevated catches of recruiting blue crabs in February and September. Adults were caught year-round, with males generally being more abundant than females. Geographical regions close to the mouth of the bay had the highest densities of recruits, perhaps because of the supply of larvae being delivered to that area from offshore. With the use of monthly seine and river trawl data from an extended time period (1996–2004), annual variations in the abundance of immature and adult blue crabs were examined. A decline in the abundance of immature crabs collected in 21.3-m seines began after 1998, with a significant low occurring in 2002. A similar pattern was observed for adults collected in river trawls and by commercial fisheries. Unfavorable salinity regimes during this time period may have contributed to these abundance trends

Can Democracies Cooperate with China on AI Research? Rebalancing AI Research Networks

China looms large in the global landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) research, development, and policymaking. Its talent, growing technological skill and innovation, and national investment in science and technology have made it a leader in AI.This working paper considers whether and to what extent international collaboration with China on AI can endure. In Part I, it presents the history of China's AI development and extraordinarily successful engagement with international research and development (R&D) and explains how this history has helped China become a global leader in the field. Part II shows how China has become embedded in international AI R&D networks, with China and the United States becoming each other's largest collaborator and China also a major collaborator with each of the other six countries participating in FCAI. Part III then provides an overview of the economic, ethical, and strategic issues that call into question whether such levels of collaboration on AI can continue, as well as the challenges and disadvantages of disconnecting the channels of collaboration. The analysis then looks at how engagement with China on AI R&D might evolve

Biofabrication: an overview of the approaches used for printing of living cells

The development of cell printing is vital for establishing biofabrication approaches as clinically relevant tools. Achieving this requires bio-inks which must not only be easily printable, but also allow controllable and reproducible printing of cells. This review outlines the general principles and current progress and compares the advantages and challenges for the most widely used biofabrication techniques for printing cells: extrusion, laser, microvalve, inkjet and tissue fragment printing. It is expected that significant advances in cell printing will result from synergistic combinations of these techniques and lead to optimised resolution, throughput and the overall complexity of printed constructs

A review of consumer awareness, understanding and use of food-based dietary guidelines

Copyright @ 2011 Cambridge University PressFood-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) have primarily been designed for the consumer to encourage healthy, habitual food choices, decrease chronic disease risk and improve public health. However, minimal research has been conducted to evaluate whether FBDG are utilised by the public. The present review used a framework of three concepts, awareness, understanding and use, to summarise consumer evidence related to national FBDG and food guides. Searches of nine electronic databases, reference lists and Internet grey literature elicited 939 articles. Predetermined exclusion criteria selected twenty-eight studies for review. These consisted of qualitative, quantitative and mixed study designs, non-clinical participants, related to official FBDG for the general public, and involved measures of consumer awareness, understanding or use of FBDG. The three concepts of awareness, understanding and use were often discussed interchangeably. Nevertheless, a greater amount of evidence for consumer awareness and understanding was reported than consumer use of FBDG. The twenty-eight studies varied in terms of aim, design and method. Study quality also varied with raw qualitative data, and quantitative method details were often omitted. Thus, the reliability and validity of these review findings may be limited. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of FBDG as a public health promotion tool. If the purpose of FBDG is to evoke consumer behaviour change, then the framework of consumer awareness, understanding and use of FBDG may be useful to categorise consumer behaviour studies and complement the dietary survey and health outcome data in the process of FBDG evaluation and revision.This study is funded by the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme (contract no. 036196)