Transaction based indices for the UK commercial property market : exploration and evaluation using IPD data

Publisher PD

Master of Arts

thesisA crisis for colleges and universities in America today is that of meeting the educational needs of various ethnic minorities. The University of Utah has recognized the need to implement educational programs and to reassess admissions procedures in regard to minority students. In the summer of 1970, the University of Utah, through the support of the Ford Foundation, sponsored a special eight week summer program designed to prepare 40 Mexican American and 20 American Indian students for successful endeavors at the University. This study attempted to (1) evaluate the effects of the 1970 Ford Foundation Program; and, (2) Test the predictive validity of various admissions procedures in relation to the Mexican American and the American Indian student at the University of Utah. os involved in this study were broken down into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group consisted of those Mexican American and American Indian students who participated in the 1970 summer quarter Ford Foundation program as first quarter freshmen and who returned to the University of Utah during the academic school year following the experimental program. Control Ss consisted of those Mexican American and American Indian students who entered the University of Utah during the fall quarter which preceded the summer program without any special treatment as first quarter freshmen. An analysis of covariance design implementing AGPA as the dependent variable and repeated measures-tests using intellective and nonintellective measures related to academic success were implemented in an attempt to evaluate the experimental program. Results suggested that the control groups performed significantly better than the experimental groups while the Mexican American groups performed significantly better than the American Indian groups. No significant interaction effects were obtained. Results of the repeated measures t-tests suggested that those experimental Ss who participated in the treatment program and prepost testing had shown positive differences on intellective measures while displaying negative differences on non-intellective measures. Intercorrelation and stepwise multiple regression equations were implemented to test the predictive validity of various admissions procedures in relation to the Mexican American and the American Indian student. These procedures were conducted separately for each ethnic group and separately for control and experimental groups. Results of these procedures question the predictive validity of the ACT, HSGPA and PGPA in relation to the Mexican American student. Further investigation in the use of non-intellective variables in attempting to predict academic success for this ethnic group was suggested. Results of these procedures for the American Indian experimental group suggest further investigation of the predictive validity of the ACT, PGPA and SCAT in that significant correlations were found between these predictors and the criterion. Results further suggest the need to evaluate and implement educational programs for the American Indian student at the pre-college and college level

Transaction based indices for the UK commercial real estate market: an exploration using IPD transaction data

The nature of private commercial real estate markets presents difficulties for monitoring market performance. Assets are heterogeneous and spatially dispersed, trading is infrequent and there is no central marketplace in which prices and cash flows of properties can be easily observed. Appraisal based indices represent one response to these issues. However, these have been criticised on a number of grounds: that they may understate volatility, lag turning points and be affected by client influence issues. Thus, this paper reports econometrically derived transaction based indices of the UK commercial real estate market using Investment Property Databank (IPD) data, comparing them with published appraisal based indices. The method is similar to that presented by Fisher, Geltner, and Pollakowski (2007) and used by Massachusett, Institute of Technology (MIT) on National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) data, although it employs value rather than equal weighting. The results show stronger growth from the transaction based indices in the run up to the peak in the UK market in 2007. They also show that returns from these series are more volatile and less autocorrelated than their appraisal based counterparts, but, surprisingly, differences in turning points were not found. The conclusion then debates the applications and limitations these series have as measures of market performance

Determining how and why consumer purchasing of grocery and household products varies

In order to broaden the research on household consumption patterns, this paper aims to determine how and why consumer purchasing of grocery and household products varies. Several variables, such as shopping frequency, overall satisfaction with the stores and demographic characteristics of the household and the buyer have been examined. An ad-hoc survey has been used to test the influence of these variables on variety-seeking behaviour. The results support the existence of a direct relationship between the aforementioned variables and variety-seeking behaviour

Case Study: Understanding Solar Power Adoption in the United States

Solar energy use has grown substantially in recent years both in the United States and globally. The first solar battery was developed in 1954 by Bell Labs, and large scale solar plants began popping up in the 1980s and 1990s, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that solar technology gained significantly in popularity. Two factors made this possible: a) new financial models that made solar technology more affordable and b) government subsidies for solar energy

Using Environmental Clean-Up Funds to Replace the Tappan Zee Bridge

The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), a public benefit corporation that provides low-cost capital and technical assistance for environmental projects around the state, approved a $511 million loan to the state Thruway Authority for bridge-related projects, specifically the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River. The Corporation approved the loan – half with no interest, and half with an interest rate of less than 4 percent – in late June 2014. The loan decision then went to the Public Authorities Control Board, which approved half of that amount –$256 million – in July 2014. However, a number of environmental organizations opposed the decision because funds were coming primarily from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federally backed fund typically utilized to finance local sewer projects. Critics warned that the decision to use funds intended for water quality for another purpose could set a bad precedent, potentially nationally if copied by lawmakers in other states. Then in September 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected most of the state’s request for this loan. This case study examines the challenges of funding infrastructure projects, and looks at the controversy surrounding the funding of the New NY Bridge – the single largest infrastructure contract in the history of New York State, and a project that New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo cites as a major accomplishment of his administration

Diabatic Representation of Exotic Hadrons in the Dynamical Diquark Model

We apply the diabatic formalism, an extension of the adiabatic approximation inherent to the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approach of atomic physics, to the problem of mixing between exotic multiquark hadrons and their nearby di-hadron thresholds. The unperturbed BO eigenstates are obtained using the dynamical diquark model, while the diabatic calculation introduces a mixing potential between these states and the threshold states. We solve the resulting coupled Schr\"{o}dinger equations numerically for hidden-charm tetraquarks of both open and closed strangeness to obtain physical mass eigenvalues, and explore the di-hadron state content and spatial extent of the eigenstates. As an explicit example, $X(3872)$ emerges with a dominant $D^0 \bar D^{*0}$ component, but also contains a considerable diquark-antidiquark component that can contribute significantly to its radiative decay widths, and this component also generates a full multiplet of other diquark-based exotic hadrons to be compared with experiment.Comment: 9 pages - Version accepted to Physical Review

Factors associated with increased survival after surgical resection of glioblastoma in octogenarians.

Elderly patients with glioblastoma represent a clinical challenge for neurosurgeons and oncologists. The data available on outcomes of patients greater than 80 undergoing resection is limited. In this study, factors linked to increased survival in patients over the age of 80 were analyzed. A retrospective chart review of all patients over the age of 80 with a new diagnosis of glioblastoma and who underwent surgical resection with intent for maximal resection were examined. Patients who had only stereotactic biopsies were excluded. Immunohistochemical expression of oncogenic drivers (p53, EGFR, IDH-1) and a marker of cell proliferation (Ki-67 index) performed upon routine neuropathological examination were recorded. Stepwise logistic regression and Kaplan Meier survival curves were plotted to determine correlations to overall survival. Fifty-eight patients fit inclusion criteria with a mean age of 83 (range 80-93 years). The overall median survival was 4.2 months. There was a statistically significant correlation between Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and overall survival (P < 0.05). There was a significantly longer survival among patients undergoing either radiation alone or radiation and chemotherapy compared to those who underwent no postoperative adjuvant therapy (p < 0.05). There was also an association between overall survival and lack of p53 expression (p < 0.001) and lack of EGFR expression (p <0.05). In this very elderly population, overall survival advantage was conferred to those with higher preoperative KPS, postoperative adjuvant therapy, and lack of protein expression of EGFR and p53. These findings may be useful in clinical decision analysis for management of patients with glioblastoma who are octogenarians, and also validate the critical role of EGFR and p53 expression in oncogenesis, particularly with advancing age