Chinese investors investment strategies in the Australian residential property market

Active participation by foreign investors in Australian residential property market is common subsequent to the Global Financial Crisis 2008. Many residential properties in the Australian capital cities were purchased by overseas buyers. An estimated 18% of new dwellings in Sydney and 14% in Melbourne were purchased by foreigners in 2014. Simultaneously, house prices rose by 6.0% in 2014 and 5.0% in 2015 in the Australian capital cities. The focus of this research is to uncover the emerging determinants for the Australian residential property market. Cross border semi-structured interviews were conducted in Shanghai (China), the first such undertaken in Australia. Some unique investment strategies of the private investors from China emphasised on non-capitalist factors, such as early education and residential tourism, were identified along with some insights on the Chinese government policies that have incentivised the cross border investments from China. It is believed that understanding these investment strategies will assist policy makers to effectively manage the overheated Australian residential property market without compromising the steady flow of Foreign Real Estate Investmen

Offsite construction supply chain strategies for matching affordable rental housing demand: A system dynamics approach

Australian housing affordability is influenced by both housing supply and demand factors. These factors include lengthy construction and planning process. The affordability crisis affects the housing rental sector, which accommodates more than 20% of Australian household. This research developed a system dynamics model to simulate demography-linked affordable rental housing demand and supply in South East Queensland (SEQ). A Prefabricated Offsite Construction (OSC) housing supply strategy is compared with a traditional building approach (BAU) to investigate the effectiveness of OSC techniques to reduce informational asymmetries during development planning stages to deliver better affordable rental housing is linked to housing needs in SEQ. The model focuses on demographic groups housing demand of one, two- and three-bedroom apartment units and examines how reductions in the development process, through OSC methods, influence the efficiency of Government supported affordable rental housing supply schemes. Overall, the study finds that reduced planning and construction timeframes through OSC methods may improve demography-linked rental housing supply by approximately 6.6% overall compared to BAU in SEQ. For 1,2- and 3-bedroom apartment demand, OSC strategies are expected to improve supply efficiency by 8.7%, 8.4% and 9.2%, respectively. Optimal OSC strategies were assessed and found that flexibility in development sizes have an outsized positive effect. The study has implications for Government supported affordable rental housing strategies, including the build to rent sector.Full Tex

Postnatal lung and metabolic development in two marsupial and four eutherian species

Two marsupial species (Monodelphis domestica, Macropus eugenii) and four eutherian species (Mesocricetus auratus, Suncus murinus, Tupaia belangeri and Cavia aperea) were examined to compare and contrast the timing of lung and metabolic development during the postnatal maturation of the mammalian respiratory apparatus. Using light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, the lung structural changes were correlated with indirect calorimetry to track the metabolic development. Marsupial and eutherian species followed the same pattern of mammalian lung development, but differed in the developmental pace. In the two newborn marsupial species, the lung parenchyma was at the early terminal sac stage, with large terminal air sacs, and the lung developed slowly. In contrast, the newborn eutherian species had more advanced lungs at the late terminal sac stage in altricial species (M. auratus, S. murinus) and at the alveolar stage in precocial species (T. belangeri, C. aperea). Postnatal lung development proceeded rapidly in eutherian species. The marsupial species had a low metabolic rate at birth and achieved adult metabolism late in postnatal development. In contrast, newborn eutherian species had high metabolic rates and reached adult metabolism during the first week of life. The time course of the metabolic development is thus tightly linked to the structural differentiation of the lungs and the timing of postnatal lung development. These differences in the neonatal lung structure and the timing of postnatal lung maturation between marsupial and eutherian species reflect their differing reproductive strategies

II. Conflictos entre felinos y humanos en América Latina.

Este libro contó con el liderazgo del Instituto Humboldt y de las Fundaciones Herencia Ambiental Caribe y Panthera. En 32 capítulos se recoge el esfuerzo de 77 instituciones y 110 autores que representan 18 países y abordan el conflicto entre humanos y felinos en América Latina. Es la compilación más completa que se ha elaborado acerca del tema en Latinoamérica, involucrando el análisis, la planificación, el manejo y la resolución de los conflictos entre humanos y felinos.BogotáCiencias de la Biodiversida