Integrating Regional Economic Indicators with the Real Estate Cycle

Previous literature has followed an evolutionary path in the examination of office market volatility. Where initial models were designed to show the close relationship between economic fundamentals and volatility at the national level, more recent models have focused on metro-level volatility. This study quantifies the volatility associated with metropolitan markets in terms of vacancy rates and identifies those economic factors that underlie this risk. The analysis suggests that movements in vacancy rates are likely to be affected by different factors at different stages of the cycle. In the long run, this analysis shows that the availability of capital had the strongest effect on the volatility of office vacancy rates. In periods that follow excess construction, market-specific, demand-side factors appear to be the dominant influence.

ISNAR’s Transition Process from AGM03 to March 2004

This paper has been prepared at the request of the ISNAR Board of Trustees, and addresses readers who are familiar with the CGIAR and its evolution. It has two objectives:(1) to document, as part of the center's historical record, the process that led up to the closure of ISNAR as an independent organization and its transformation into a distinct Program of IFPRI. This will be done by providing an overview of the last years of ISNAR's life and by analyzing the progression of events from early 2002 to the closing of the doors of ISNAR as an independent center on 31 March 2004(2) to attempt to draw the first lessons from the process, and to make a few suggestions for the future of the ISNAR Program within IFPRI.The paper has four main sections. The first section reviews the key facts of the transition presented in a detailed time line, and divided into three periods: events before AGM03, what happened at AGM03, and events afterwards until the closure of the center. An analysis of the costs of the transition completes this section. The second section briefly places the ISNAR transition in the context of the planned realignment of the current CGIAR structure. The third section analyzes the transition process from ISNAR's perspective, distinguishing between positive outcomes and difficulties experienced. The fourth and last section attempts to discuss lessons learned and makes a few suggestions for the future ISNAR Program

Hidden housing production--residential conversion activity in the City of Boston

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies, 1987.M.I.T. copy lacks leaf 223. Title as it appeared in M.I.T. Graduate List June 1987: Hidden housing production : conversion activity in the city of Boston.Bibliography: v. 2, leaves 257-263.by Jacques Nicholas Gordon.Ph.D

Corticospinal tract integrity and motor function following neonatal stroke: a case study

Background: New MRI techniques enable visualisation of corticospinal tracts and cortical motor activity. The objective of this case study was to describe the magnetic resonance evidence of corticospinal pathway reorganisation following neonatal stroke. Case presentation: An 11 year old boy with a neonatal right middle cerebral artery territory ischaemic stroke was studied. Functional MRI was undertaken with a whole hand squeezing task, comparing areas of cortical activation between hands. White matter tracts, seeded from the area of peak activation in the cortex, were visualised using a diffusion weighted imaging probabilistic tractography method. Standardised evaluations of unilateral and bilateral motor function were undertaken. Clinically, the child presented with a left hemiparesis. Functional MRI demonstrated that movement of the hemiparetic hand resulted in activation in the ipsi-lesional (right) hemisphere only. Diffusion tractography revealed pathways in the right (lesioned) hemisphere tracked perilesionally to the cortical area identified by functional MRI. Conclusion: Our case demonstrates that neonatal stroke is associated with maintenance of organization of corticospinal pathways sufficient to maintain some degree of hand function in the affected hemisphere. Functional MRI and diffusion weighted imaging tractography may inform our understanding of recovery, organisation and reorganisation and have the potential to monitor responses to intervention following neonatal stroke

Effects of vegetation's degradation on carbon stock, morphological, physical and chemical characteristics of soils within the mangrove forest of the Rio del Rey Estuary: Case study – Bamusso (South-West Cameroon)

This study was conducted to assess the capacity of mangroves soils to stock carbon and how degradation can influence its various properties. Transect method was performed. So, two transects of 100 m length and 10 m wide were established according to the degradation level. Total of 18 Soil samples were taken to be described and analysed. The degraded transect (T1) shows a mean carbon stock value of 2102.06 ± 405 Mg.ha-1 while natural (T2) accumulate 2476.6 ± 409 Mg.ha-1. Colour are more light inside the degraded transect (Brown to grayish) than the natural transect (brown to blackish) while spots are more colored in natural transect (gray and yellow) than degraded one (yellow). pH mean value showed that soils of degraded transect was more acidic than those of natural one. Organic matter amount was very high and proves that these soils can be valorized to agricultural activities without previous enrichment. Total Nitrogen was low in the two transects while the available phosphorus values showed that natural transect has more available phosphorus that can be used by the plants than degraded transect. So, degradation would take along reduction of available phosphorus rate in the soils. According to this result showing important different values of carbon stock and soils properties between natural and degraded transect, it is necessary to implement conservation methods in order to stop degradation and enhance capacity of mangroves soils properties.Keywords: Bamusso, degraded transect, natural transect, soils, value

Experimental constraints on gluino masses and supersymmetric theories

We extend the analyses of Fayet, and Fayet and Farrar, of experimental searches for gluinos, the supersymmetric partners of gluons. Because of their large production cross sections, present data appears to exclude gluino masses below 3.5-6 GeV/c2 and may be more restrictive. Lifetime considerations give an upper limit on scalar quark masses and on the scale of supersymmetry breaking, and experiments sensitive to missing energy will provide interesting limits on the latter. Since gluinos remain very light in many models, they will either be detected soon or many supersymmetric theories will be excluded.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23982/1/0000231.pd

Stability of the human faecal microbiome in a cohort of adult men

Characterizing the stability of the gut microbiome is important to exploit it as a therapeutic target and diagnostic biomarker. We metagenomically and metatranscriptomically sequenced the faecal microbiomes of 308 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Participants provided four stool samples—one pair collected 24–72 h apart and a second pair ~6 months later. Within-person taxonomic and functional variation was consistently lower than between-person variation over time. In contrast, metatranscriptomic profiles were comparably variable within and between subjects due to higher within-subject longitudinal variation. Metagenomic instability accounted for ~74% of corresponding metatranscriptomic instability. The rest was probably attributable to sources such as regulation. Among the pathways that were differentially regulated, most were consistently over- or under-transcribed at each time point. Together, these results suggest that a single measurement of the faecal microbiome can provide long-term information regarding organismal composition and functional potential, but repeated or short-term measures may be necessary for dynamic features identified by metatranscriptomics

Coding cells of digital spaces: a framework to write generic digital topology algorithms

This paper proposes a concise coding of the cells of n-dimensional finite regular grids. It induces a simple, generic and efficient framework for implementing classical digital topology data structures and algorithms. Discrete subsets of multidimensional images (e.g. regions, digital surfaces, cubical cell complexes) have then a common and compact representation. Moreover, algorithms have a straightforward and efficient implementation, which is independent from the dimension or sizes of digital images. We illustrate that point with generic hypersurface boundary extraction algorithms by scanning or tracking. This framework has been implemented and basic operations as well as the presented applications have been benchmarked

Testing various polarized parton distributions at RHIC

A very promising spin physics programme will be soon on the way at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). By studying the spin asymmetries for various processes (single photon, single-jet and $W^{\pm}$ production), we will compare the different predictions obtained using some sets of polarized parton distributions, available in the recent literature. We will put some emphasize on the analysis of the anticipated errors, given the event rates expected from this high luminosity new machine and the current acceptance for the detector systems at RHIC.Comment: Latex file, 12 pages and 14 ps fig. One footnote and one reference adde