Bubbles or cycles? Housing price dynamics in China’s major cities

Based on the monthly data of 35 cities during the period 2006−2017, this study adopts a recursive forward looking method to detect the presence of housing bubbles and investigate their potential cyclical patterns in China’s large and medium sized cities. Empirical results show that the number of cities reporting housing bubbles has been increasing since 2013, before it declined in 2017. Regarding regional disparities of housing bubbles, 1st-tier and 1.5-tier cities have higher probability than 2nd-tier cities for housing bubbles. In general, eastern region cities have more housing bubbles than central and western region cities, which may indicate the problem of shrinking cities China is facing nowadays. Bubble signals for market correction in major cities and municipalities seemed alarming in particular for the period 2013−2016, however it is difficult to conclude if the market adjustment in 2017 indicates a cyclical pattern. First published online 19 December 201

The eruption characteristics of the Tarim flood basalt

Integration of field investigation, regional stratigraphic comparison, remote sensing and image interpretation allow us to divide the Tarim Permian flood basalt province into three eruptive cycles listed by decreasing age; Kupukuziman flood basalt (KP), Felsic pyroclastic rocks (FP), Kaipaizileike flood basalt (KZ). KP features flood basalt and tuff; in the outcrop in Keping and Yingmaili areas, it can be differentiated into two units containing three thick layers of basaltic lava flows. These three layers decrease to one layer of basaltic lava flow in the Halahatang area; however, felsic pyroclastic rocks and lava layer thicknesses increase in the Halahatang area. FP in the outcrop in Keping area consists of ash fall tuff, ignimbrite, resedimented pyroclastic rocks, and the tuff layer interbedded with the normal elastic rocks section from top to bottom. This section is comparable to the tuff layer in the Yingmaili and Halahatang area, thus reveals one layer of lava flow covering an extensive area clue to a unit of the eruption of the FP. KZ mainly features flood basalt in its Kaipaizileike section, identifications of 4 eruptive units, 8 layers of flood basalt, and I layer of andesitic basalt were made. Traces of elastic rocks were found between eruption units, but no FP interlayers were found. This characteristic is different from Yingmaili and Halahatang volcanic se.quences, but similar to the flood basalt in Tazhong area. The differentiation between these three volcanic cycles reveals that Tarim flood basalt underwent a "flood basalt-felsic pyroclastic rocks-flood basalt " transformation, and is similar to Afro-Arabian large igneous province; thus, a comparative study between these two regions is merited

Thermal Properties of Liquid Iron at Conditions of Planetary Cores

Thermal properties of iron at high pressures (P) and temperatures (T) are essential for determining the internal structure and evolution of planetary cores. Compared to its solid counterpart, the liquid phase of iron is less studied and existing results exhibit large discrepancies, hindering a proper understanding of planetary cores. Here we use the formally exact urn:x-wiley:21699097:media:jgre21861:jgre21861-math-0019 thermodynamic integration approach to calculate thermal properties of liquid iron up to 3.0 TPa and 25000 K. Uncertainties associated with theory are compensated by introducing a T-independent pressure shift based on experimental data. The resulting thermal equation of state agrees well with the diamond anvil cell (DAC) data in the P-T range of measurements. At higher P-T it matches the reduced shock wave data yet deviates considerably from the extrapolations of DAC measurements, indicating the latter may require further examinations. Moreover, the calculated heat capacity and thermal expansivity are substantially lower than some recent reports, which have important ramifications for understanding thermal evolutions of planetary cores. Using Kepler-36b as a prototype, we examine how a completely molten core may affect the P-T profiles of massive exoplanets. By comparing the melting slope and the adiabatic slope along the iron melting line, we propose that crystallization of the cores of massive planets proceeds from the bottom-up rather than the top-down

Impacts of the World Heritage List inscription: a case study of Kaiping Diaolou and Villages in China

This study aims to investigate the overall impacts of the World Heritage List (WHL) inscription in China from different socioeconomic aspects. Kaiping Diaolou and Villages was chosen as the case study because the long period of preparation for WHL inscription led to residents’ deep understanding of its heritage values. Results are as follows. (1) Cultural cognition, sense of belonging, community cohesion and infrastructure were positively improved by the WHL inscription, whereas damage to the community cultural environment slightly increased. (2) In the economic domain, the WHL inscription had generated positive (increase in tourism development and villagers’ income and employment and solution to the Diaolou property rights problem) and negative impacts (worse tourism development, unequal income and unsolved property rights problems). (3) The WHL inscription improved the ecological environment and people’s attention to environmental protection. Although it also caused environmental damage due to an increase in tourists. (4) The positive impacts on the political domain were reflected by government leadership, community participation and plan and legislation, whereas the negative impacts included limited community participation and insufficient planning. Innovations of this study include constructing a theoretical framework to evaluate the impacts of WHL inscription, analysing the present factors of WHL inscription’s impacts and providing development suggestions. First published online 22 October 201

The effects of monetary policy on real estate investment in China: a regional perspective

Monetary policy on real estate investment in China has had varying impacts across the country due to regional differences. A supply-determined model is used to measure the policy effects on property investment volume based on a set of regional data from 2003 to 2010. This research yields several important findings contributing to an understanding of uneven policy effects on the unbalanced regional markets. Firstly, it is revealed that the eastern coastal provinces in China have a higher dependence on bank loans for housing investment than that of the other inland provinces. Secondly, this research has disentangled the specific transmission channels of monetary policy in the property market. Bank loan supply, instead of interest rates, would be a potentially effective policy tool for the government in making property market adjustment. Thirdly, the eastern coastal provinces are more sensitive in their responses to the changes of monetary stances than the other non-coastal central and western provinces. Therefore, the government must take note of the significant heterogeneity arising from the regional differences in estimating the policy impacts, although monetary policy is uniformly employed in the nation most of the time

Shoot Organogenesis and Plant Regeneration from Leaf Explants of Lysionotus serratus

The gesneriaceous perennial plant, Lysionotus serratus, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine. It also has a great development potential as an ornamental plant with its attractive foliage and beautiful flowers. An efficient propagation and regeneration system via direct shoot organogenesis from leaf explant was established in this study. High active cytokinin (6-benzyladenine (BA) or thidiazuron (TDZ)) was effective for direct organogenesis of initial induction. Murashige and Skoog (MS) growth media containing 0.5 mg L−1 BA alone or with combination of 0.1 mg L−1  α-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) were the most effective for shoot proliferation. High BA concentration (1.0 mg L−1) in the media caused high percentage of vitrified shoots though they introduced high shoot proliferation rate. Histological observation indicated that adventitious shoot regeneration on the medium containing 0.5 mg L−1 BA alone occurred directly from leaf epidermal cells without callus formation. Regenerated shoots rooted well on medium containing half-strength MS medium with 0.5 mg L−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and the plantlets successfully acclimatized and grew vigorously in the greenhouse with a 94.2% and 92.1% survival rate