Spatio-temporal diffusion of residential land prices across Taipei regions

ABSTRACT: Past studies have shown that changes in the house price of a region may transmit to its neighbouring regions. The transmission mechanism may follow spatial and temporal diffusion processes. This paper investigates such regional housing market dynamics and interactions among local housing sub-markets in Taipei. The analysis is based on a panel data framework and spatial panel models using annual data on median residential land prices from 41 Taipei sub-markets over the period from 1992 to 2010. The empirical analysis suggests that spatial dependence plays a significant role in interactions among regional housing markets. The results are strongly robust across several model specifications and regions controlling for time fixed effects and space-time covariance. These findings have significant implications for urban spatial planning and efficient use of public resources in mega-urban areas. JEL CLASSIFICATIONS: C21; C23; R12; H5

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale

Serglycin in functional assays.

<p>(A) Proliferative capacity of serglycin knockdown cells (siSRGN) compared to scrambled controls (siCtr), n = 5. (B) HUVEC were subjected to 10% cyclic stretch for 4 and 24 hours respectively, and the response in serglycin expression was determined by qRT-PCR (FlexCell) and compared to controls (Ctr), n = 3–11. (C) Serglycin mRNA expression (qRT-PCR) and protein (ICC) in serglycin knockdown (siSRGN) in HUVEC was compared to scrambled controls (siCtr), n = 6. (D) Control and serglycin knockdown cells were subjected to an in vitro angiogenesis assay. Left panel show the quantification of tube length and loop numbers by Wimasis Image Analysis. The right panels show a representative picture of in vitro angiogenesis assay showing tube formation capacity on BME gel in siSRGN HUVEC and siCtr, n = 4. (E) Gene expression of SRGN (left) and ANG2 (right) in hypoxia compared to normoxia in triplicates from each of two cell donors. (F) Closure of scratch wound in control cells compared to siSRGN cells. Left panel show percent wound closure after 6 hours, and right panel show representative phase-contrast images of scratch wound at 0 and 6 hours after wounding, n = 3. Results are presented as mean with SEM denoted by vertical bars, and <i>p</i>-values < 0.05 were taken as a significant difference using the Students paired <i>t</i>-test. * <i>p</i><0.05, ** <i>p</i><0.01, *** <i>p</i><0.001, ns: not significant.</p

CCL2 secretion from polarized cells.

<p>HUVEC from three different donors were polarized on semipermeable filters. Confluent monolayers were untreated (Ctr) or incubated with IL-1β for 24 hours. CCL2 content in apical (AP) and basolateral (BL) conditioned media was compared.</p