Local spatiotemporal modeling of house prices: a mixed model approach

The real estate market has long provided an active application area for spatial–temporal modeling and analysis and it is well known that house prices tend to be not only spatially but also temporally correlated. In the spatial dimension, nearby properties tend to have similar values because they share similar characteristics, but house prices tend to vary over space due to differences in these characteristics. In the temporal dimension, current house prices tend to be based on property values from previous years and in the spatial–temporal dimension, the properties on which current prices are based tend to be in close spatial proximity. To date, however, most research on house prices has adopted either a spatial perspective or a temporal one; relatively little effort has been devoted to situations where both spatial and temporal effects coexist. Using ten years of house price data in Fife, Scotland (2003–2012), this research applies a mixed model approach, semiparametric geographically weighted regression (GWR), to explore, model, and analyze the spatiotemporal variations in the relationships between house prices and associated determinants. The study demonstrates that the mixed modeling technique provides better results than standard approaches to predicting house prices by accounting for spatiotemporal relationships at both global and local scales

International medical electives in selected African countries: A phenomenological study on host experience

Objectives: To explore the host experience on international medical electives at a selection of hospitals in low- and middle-income countries in Africa. Outcomes of the study may inform and improve the preparation of global health curriculum, pre-elective training and debriefing for international medical electives. Methods: A descriptive phenomenological study was undertaken, involving semi-structured interviews with ten elective hosts at seven study sites in three African countries. Purposive convenience sampling augmented by snowballing was utilised to recruit study participants. The data were thematically analysed and interpreted with reflexivity to generate an accurate aggregate of the experience of participants in hosting international medical electives. Results: Six main themes emerged from the thematic analysis of interview data: international medical student contribution to host hospitals, host professional and personal fulfilment, barriers to student learning experience, international medical student preparedness, hope for reciprocity and barriers to cultural immersion and patient care. Conclusions: Study participants described the experience of hosting international medical elective students as overwhelmingly positive. However, they highlighted issues such as barriers to students’ learning experience and the lack of reciprocity between host and sending institutions as areas which could be addressed to optimize the experience for both hosts and international medical students. An understanding of the host experience provides stakeholders with a clearer idea of what is important in preparation, organisation and evaluation of the elective experience. This study provides the impetus for further research to examine the effectiveness of introducing appropriate pre-departure training and post-elective debriefing to students embarking on international medical electives

Dual-frequency GPS survey for validation of a regional DTM and for the generation of local DTM data for sea-level rise modelling in an estuarine salt marsh

Global average temperatures have risen by an average of 0.07°C per decade over the last 100 years, with a warming trend of 0.13°C per decade over the last 50 years. Temperatures are predicted to rise by 2°C - 4.4°C by 2100 leading to global average sealevel rise (SLR) of 2 – 6mm per year (20 – 60cms in total) up to 2100 (IPCC 2007) with impacts for protected coastal habitats in Ireland. Estuaries are predominantly sedimentary environments, and are characterised by shallow coastal slope gradients, making them sensitive to even modest changes in sea-level. The Shannon estuary is the largest river estuary in Ireland and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive (EU 1992) providing protection for listed habitats within it, including estuarine salt marsh. Trends in Shannon estuary tidal data from 1877 – 2004 suggest an average upward SLR trend of 4 - 5mm/yr over this period. A simple linear extension of this historical trend would imply that local SLR will be in the region of 40 - 45cm by 2100. However, this may underestimate actual SLR for the estuary by 2100, since it takes no account of predicted climate-driven global SLR acceleration (IPCC 2007) up to 2100

Exploring the Methodology of Getting Lost with Patti Lather

In this article I review the book Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts towards a Double(d) science (Lather, 2007) from the perspective of a feminist social worker. Lather, using herself and her previous research with women as example, explores feminist methodological issues of loss of authority and loss of innocence as a means towards the creation of new forms of knowledge. This complex book, while extraordinarily difficult, provides the reader with a rare opportunity of getting lost – in the literal sense - in the postmodern poise while simultaneously opening the reader up to new ways of knowing. For feminists and social workers with fortitude and commitment, this book, when complete, offers several golden possibilities for methodological reflection.

Tourism and imperialism in Italian East Africa: The discursive and practical functions of the Guida Dell’Africa Orientale (1938) in constructing a colony

La Guida dell’Africa Orientale Italiana fu pubblicata nel 1938 dalla Consociazione Turistica Italiana – questo il nome con cui il Touring Club Italiano era conosciuto sin dal 1937, quando fu costretto a ‘italianizzare’ il proprio nome. La guida è palesemente propagandistica nei toni e si presenta come un trionfante risultato in onore del Re e appena incoronato Imperatore Vittorio Emanuele III, del Duce, e dei soldati morti in Abissinia. Le 640 dense e dettagliate pagine della guida furono pubblicate solo due anni e quattro mesi dopo la dichiarazione della conquista dell’Abissinia da parte delle forze di Mussolini e della sua incorporazione nell’Africa Orientale Italiana: una nuova entità politica che includeva le già esistenti colonie della Somalia e dell’Eritrea. La meticolosa guida rappresenta, in effetti, un notevole risultato da parte degli autori che avevano intrapreso complesse ricerche in una regione ancora molto instabile e caratterizzata da continue ostilità tra le truppe coloniali e i combattenti della resistenza, che le forze italiane non furono mai in grado di pacificare completamente. A posteriori, data la nostra conoscenza di come la storia si è evoluta, si può essere tentati di vedere la Guida dell’Africa Orientale semplicemente come un ulteriore pezzo di tragicomica magniloquenza nel vanaglorioso arsenale di propaganda autoincensatoria dell’Italia fascista. Tuttavia, la guida rappresenta chiaramente un investimento significativo di tempo e denaro per cui le ragioni della sua produzione necessitano una più attenta indagine. In questo articolo analizzo da vicino il testo della guida attraverso l’apparato teorico degli studi postcoloniali sul turismo. Sostengo che la guida sia molto più rilevante di una semplice millanteria coloniale; e che rappresenti piuttosto il piano di un impiego del turismo come elemento essenziale dell’assoggettamento, dello sfruttamento economico e dell’insediamento coloniale nell’A.O.I. (Africa Orientale Italiana). Intendo affermare che, come emerge dal sostegno ufficiale di cui godeva, e dagli investimenti in esso, il regime italiano pianificò l’utilizzo del turismo al massimo del suo potenziale come arma per la conquista definitiva e l’assoggettamento della popolazione colonizzata.Keywords: Guida dell’Africa Orientale Italiana, Touring Club Italiano, Consociazione Turistica Italiana, Italian Colonialism, Touris

Geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR)

Both space and time are fundamental in human activities as well as in various physical processes. Spatiotemporal analysis and modeling has long been a major concern of geographical information science (GIScience), environmental science, hydrology, epidemiology, and other research areas. Although the importance of incorporating the temporal dimension into spatial analysis and modeling has been well recognized, challenges still exist given the complexity of spatiotemporal models. Of particular interest in this article is the spatiotemporal modeling of local nonstationary processes. Specifically, an extension of geographically weighted regression (GWR), geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR), is developed in order to account for local effects in both space and time. An efficient model calibration approach is proposed for this statistical technique. Using a 19-year set of house price data in London from 1980 to 1998, empirical results from the application of GTWR to hedonic house price modeling demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority to the traditional GWR approach, highlighting the importance of temporally explicit spatial modeling

A nation of narratives: Soomaalinimo and the Somali novel

It is already obvious that the 21st century will be one characterized by massive migrations which will see the growth and consolidation of diasporic communities separated by the political and linguistic borders of their adopted countries and the rise of transnational diasporic nation hoods and cultural networks. If literature is a mirror of culture, literary scholars have to adapt to changed conditions and assume a transnational perspective on their field in order for their work to remain relevant. While verbal art in the Somali language has been dominated by a rich tradition of oral poetry, the Somali novel has arisen in exile in a variety of languages most notably Italian and English. Writers of the Somali diaspora living all over the world have produced a rich literature in the form of novels that record the history of the Somali people in their native land and in exile. This article focuses on novels written in English and Italian by Somali writers such as Nuruddin Farah, Nadifa Mohamed, Ubax Ali Cristina Farah, Igiaba Scego and Shirin Ramzanali Fazel. My contention is that these writers should be read together from a comparative standpoint as a transnational and translinguistic Somali novelistic tradition. Ultimately my contention is that Somalia is a nation that continues to exist in the imagination of its sizeable global diaspora and that this imagined nation is written into existence in the novels of these exiles regardless of language they have adopted for their literary production. I enlist the concept of Soomaalinimo, or Somaliness, as a framework within which to draw together the novelistic production of these diasporic writers. I trace what I argue to be a pair of literary manifestations of Soomaalinimo common to the works of the above-mentioned Somali novelists both of which operate to record, recuperate and valorize alternative perspectives on Somalia and its culture to the one which dominates the global imaginary. These manifestations come in the form of a conscious textual indebtedness to the oral poetic traditions of Somalia which all of these writers weave into their novelistic prose and in the form of lyrical accounts of Somali landscapes and material culture

Guide to Residential Landscape Development for Logan, Utah

The \u27\u27Guide to Residential Landscape Development has been written for the Logan City Planning Department as a supplement to the City of Logan Guidelines for Development , a comprehensive planning tool adopted in 1976. The Guide is primarily intended to motivate Logan homeowners in designing, constructing and maintaining their residential properties by pointing out methods of design and construction that : reduce costs of electricity, oil and natura l gas by reducing energy needs Increase property values maximize effective use of the property improve the aesthetic qualities of the homesite The Guide also serves as a prototype of the kind of consumer advocacy tool needed in many cities to help inform private citizens. of the vital role they can play in conserving energy and improving the natural and cultural environment in which they live