Booms, Busts and Ripples in British Regional Housing Markets

We present and discuss an annual econometric model of regional house prices in Britain estimated over the period 1972 to 2003. The model, which consists of a system of inverted housing demand equations, is data consistent, incorporates spatial lags and errors, has some spatial coefficient heterogeneity, has a plausible long run solution and includes a full range of explanatory variables. We use our results to explain the periods of boom and bust and the ripple effect from London house prices to house prices elsewhere. We also address the issue of whether there has been a bubble in the British housing marketHouse Prices; Ripple Effect; Bubble

A stellar census of the nearby, young 32 Orionis group

The 32 Orionis group was discovered almost a decade ago and despite the fact that it represents the first northern, young (age ~ 25 Myr) stellar aggregate within 100 pc of the Sun ($d \simeq 93$ pc), a comprehensive survey for members and detailed characterisation of the group has yet to be performed. We present the first large-scale spectroscopic survey for new (predominantly M-type) members of the group after combining kinematic and photometric data to select candidates with Galactic space motion and positions in colour-magnitude space consistent with membership. We identify 30 new members, increasing the number of known 32 Ori group members by a factor of three and bringing the total number of identified members to 46, spanning spectral types B5 to L1. We also identify the lithium depletion boundary (LDB) of the group, i.e. the luminosity at which lithium remains unburnt in a coeval population. We estimate the age of the 32 Ori group independently using both isochronal fitting and LDB analyses and find it is essentially coeval with the {\beta} Pictoris moving group, with an age of $24\pm4$ Myr. Finally, we have also searched for circumstellar disc hosts utilising the AllWISE catalogue. Although we find no evidence for warm, dusty discs, we identify several stars with excess emission in the WISE W4-band at 22 {\mu}m. Based on the limited number of W4 detections we estimate a debris disc fraction of $32^{+12}_{-8}$ per cent for the 32 Ori group.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 24 pages, 17 figures and 10 table

Access to Justice and the Evolution of Class Action Litigation in Australia

The federal and Victorian class action regimes are intended to facilitate aggregation of multiple claims. Aggregation can improve efficiency by combining similar claims and can enhance access to justice by providing a mechanism to litigate small claims. This article considers whether these efficiency and access aims are being achieved. The authors argue that whilst some developments in class action jurisprudence have been consistent with these legislative aims, other have not. Several features of Australian class action jurisprudence and practice have hampered the healthy development of the legislative regimes, including adverse costs orders, unclear threshold requirements, evasive posturing and unresolved class communication issues. Finally, having identified these difficulties, the authors propose reform possibilities and priorities

Resilient and Sustainable Water Infrastructure

Background: Lifeline critical infrastructures are pivotal for the uninterrupted flow of goods and services that are crucial to the functioning of society (Singh, 2021). This review will be the second in a series of four systematic literature reviews examining the resilience and sustainability of critical lifeline infrastructures in Australia, with a focus on the state of Tasmania. The first SLR examined energy infrastructure. The recent passing of the 2021 Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill in Australia, coupled with the lack of a governing document at the state level in Tasmania, necessitates a review to uncover the governance settings, which will aide in increasing the resilience and sustainability of water infrastructures, contributing to broader critical lifeline infrastructure resilience, in Tasmania. Methods/Design: Following the 2015 PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols), the review focuses on scholarly sources that address the governance of water infrastructures. In addition to governance settings, secondary evidence is sought regarding interruptions to water infrastructures; policy problems and solutions; and resilience and sustainability definitions. Discussion: Findings from this review will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how the resilience and sustainability of water infrastructures may be enhanced via deeper knowledge of their governance settings. This research is directed at Tasmanian policy-makers, practitioners, industry specialists, and researchers to inform and enhance their decision-making on this important topic

Resilient and Sustainable Energy Infrastructure

Background: Critical infrastructure resilience and sustainability are key components of both the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (Panda & Ramos, 2020). The recent passing of the 2021 Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill in Australia, coupled with the lack of a governing document at the state level in Tasmania, necessitates a review to uncover the governance settings, which will aide in increasing the resilience and sustainability of energy infrastructures in Tasmania. Methods/Design: Following the 2015 PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols), the review will focus on scholarly sources that address the governance of energy infrastructures. An initial deductive data extraction template has been created to help structure data extraction from included studies. In addition to governance settings, secondary evidence will be sought regarding interruptions to energy infrastructures; policy problems and solutions; and resilience and sustainability definitions. Should other themes emerge, the data extraction template will be updated. Discussion: Findings from this review will contribute to a more complete understanding of how the resilience and sustainability of energy infrastructures may be increased via deeper knowledge of their governance settings. Tasmanian policy-makers, practitioners, industry specialists, and researchers may use this research to inform and enhance their decision-making on this important topic

Predicting the reducing power of organic super electron donors

The utilization of computational methods to predict reactivity is an increasingly useful tool for chemists to save time and materials by screening compounds for desirable reactivity prior to testing in the laboratory. In the field of electron transfer reactions, screening can be performed through the application of Marcus Hush theory to calculate the activation free energy of any potential reaction. This work describes the most accurate and efficient approach for modelling the electron transfer process. In particular, the importance of using an electron transfer complex to model these reactions rather than considering donor and acceptor molecules as separate entities is highlighted. The use of the complex model is found to produce more accurate calculation of the electron transfer energy when the donor and acceptor spin densities are adequately localised

Career Concerns, Inaction and Market Inefficiency: Evidence From Utility Regulation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/92047/1/joie478.pd

Scaffolds for 3D in vitro culture of neural lineage cells.

Understanding how neurodegenerative disorders develop is not only a key challenge for researchers but also for the wider society, given the rapidly aging populations in developed countries. Advances in this field require new tools with which to recreate neural tissue in vitro and produce realistic disease models. This in turn requires robust and reliable systems for performing 3D in vitro culture of neural lineage cells. This review provides a state of the art update on three-dimensional culture systems for in vitro development of neural tissue, employing a wide range of scaffold types including hydrogels, solid porous polymers, fibrous materials and decellularised tissues as well as microfluidic devices and lab-on-a-chip systems. To provide some context with in vivo development of the central nervous system (CNS), we also provide a brief overview of the neural stem cell niche, neural development and neural differentiation in vitro. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for this exciting and important field of biomaterials research