Residential Property Prices in a Sub-Market of South Africa: Separating Real Growth from Attribute Growth

This paper analyses the South African residential housing market using hedonic price theory. It builds and tests pooled OLS, fixed effects OLS, pseudo-panel and quantile regression models. The main findings are in agreement with most modern related literature. This paper highlights how house price growth rates have been calculated incorrectly due to the changing aggregate house sold every year. It calculates more accurate growth rates for the property market, yielding surprisingly different growth patterns from those originally thought. It illustrates that much of the recent house price growth was caused by attribute inflation rather than pure price inflation. It also shows that most of the pure inflation occurred at the bottom end of the market while most of the attribute inflation occurred at the top end of the market. Furthermore, it shows that house price determinants change across the house price distribution The data used was sourced from the Residential Property Price Ranger and covers 1930 house sales measured half yearly over three years; from 1 September 2004 to 31 August 2007. These sales were recorded in the towns of Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Strand and Gordon’s Bay.Hedonic pricing, Housing market, Growth rates

The Dutch language version of the Toronto structured interview for Alexithymia: reliability, concurrent validity, and factor structure

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) in a clinical sample. The TSIA and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were administered to 85 psychiatric inpatients and to 76 medical outpatients with the symptom of tinnitus. Both internal and inter-rater reliability were acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the hierarchical, 4-factor structure with 4 lower-order factors nested within 2 higher-order latent factors, previously obtained with English, German, and Italian versions. Concurrent validity was supported by significant correlations between the TSIA and the TAS-20 total scores although there were some differences between the psychiatric subsample and the medical subsample. While further studies are needed to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the TSIA, the results support its use as a measure of alexithymia

Developing a new understanding of enabling health and wellbeing in Europe: harmonising health and social care delivery and informatics support to ensure holistic care

Europe faces significant challenges to its health and care services due to demographic change, being at the beginning of a large and continuing rise in the number and proportion of older citizens, while advances in healthcare mean that an increasing number of these and other adults will have enduring chronic health conditions. But for all citizens with actual or potential health problems, the maintenance of optimal health depends not just on healthcare services, but on support for nutrition, hygiene, mobility and shopping, socialisation, warm dry housing and other aspects of daily living, as without these health will be compromised and deteriorate. This demand surge is happening at a time when Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly being used in other service sectors to enable consumer customisation and better resource management. An objective for all health systems, and for patients, is to minimise hospital stays and maximise care at home, but hitherto the practical need to observe the patient's state of health has extended hospital stays. Similarly there is a drive to minimise for quality of life and economic reasons admission to long-term institutional care and instead extend support to enable living at home. Traditionally any support needed by an individual has normally been provided by family members, often assisted by the local community, while social services have been the fall back provider when the family cannot support, either by direct provision or by mobilising specific services such as delivered hot meals. Housing agencies and other bodies have also had an important role. However, other demographic changes are significantly reducing the capacity of families to provide daily ongoing support. This means that health services are increasingly providing long-term monitoring and support to those living with chronic disease and frailty, while social services are increasingly needed to provide ongoing support. Many individual citizens are necessarily in receipt of both health and social care support, yet in all but a very few European countries these services are provided quite independently one from another, with minimal day to day liaison. A number of drivers for change are now necessitating significant change, and the social sciences have a key role to play in enabling successful progress. At a macro level, across Europe the combination of the economic downturn and the demographic-led increase in demand means that health and social care services are under ever increasing pressures, while constant growth of services is not affordable nor will the labour market support ever continuing expansion. This paper presents the case for systematic research activity in the social sciences, at European and national levels, to further the interlinked citizen- focused objectives of:close integration at delivery level of health care and social care support of individual's health, personalisation of care delivery including reasonable accommodation of individual choice, ensuring effective use of ICT applications based on user acceptability, bringing processes of consent, delegation, representation, coordination and privacy into the electronic era, ensuring respect for and teamwork with formal carers and the informal care team, ensuring equity in an electronic era regardless of digital literacy, assets and connectivity, examining stable and sustainable models of trusted infrastructure provision, establishing governance, authentication, management, and sustainability principles

Accuracy of coverage survey recall following an integrated mass drug administration for lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis

Achieving target coverage levels for mass drug administration (MDA) is essential to elimination and control efforts for several neglected tropical diseases (NTD). To ensure program goals are met, coverage reported by drug distributors may be validated through household coverage surveys that rely on respondent recall. This is the first study to assess accuracy in such surveys.Recall accuracy was tested in a series of coverage surveys conducted at 1, 6, and 12 months after an integrated MDA in Togo during which three drugs (albendazole, ivermectin, and praziquantel) were distributed. Drug distribution was observed during the MDA to ensure accurate recording of persons treated during the MDA. Information was obtained for 506, 1131, and 947 persons surveyed at 1, 6, and 12 months, respectively. Coverage (defined as the percentage of persons taking at least one of the MDA medications) within these groups was respectively 88.3%, 87.4%, and 80.0%, according to the treatment registers; it was 87.9%, 91.4% and 89.4%, according to survey responses. Concordance between respondents and registers on swallowing at least one pill was >95% at 1 month and >86% at 12 months; the lower concordance at 12 months was more likely due to difficulty matching survey respondents with the year-old treatment register rather than inaccurate responses. Respondents generally distinguished between pills similar in appearance; concordance for recall of which pills were taken was over 80% in each survey.In this population, coverage surveys provided remarkably consistent coverage estimates for up to one year following an integrated MDA. It is not clear if similar consistency will be seen in other settings, however, these data suggest that in some settings coverage surveys might be conducted as much as one year following an MDA without compromising results. This might enable integration of post-MDA coverage measurement into large, multipurpose, periodic surveys, thereby conserving resources

Evidence for a Long-period Planet Orbiting Epsilon Eridani

High precision radial velocity (RV) measurements spanning the years 1980.8--2000.0 are presented for the nearby (3.22 pc) K2 V star $\epsilon$ Eri. These data, which represent a combination of six independent data sets taken with four different telescopes, show convincing variations with a period of $\approx$ 7 yrs. A least squares orbital solution using robust estimation yields orbital parameters of period, $P$ = 6.9 yrs, velocity $K$-amplitude $=$ 19 {\ms}, eccentricity $e$ $=$ 0.6, projected companion mass $M$ sin $i$ = 0.86 $M_{Jupiter}$, and semi-major axis $a_2$ $=$ 3.3 AU. Ca II H&K S-index measurements spanning the same time interval show significant variations with periods of 3 and 20 yrs, yet none at the RV period. If magnetic activity were responsible for the RV variations then it produces a significantly different period than is seen in the Ca II data. Given the lack of Ca II variation with the same period as that found in the RV measurements, the long-lived and coherent nature of these variations, and the high eccentricity of the implied orbit, Keplerian motion due to a planetary companion seems to be the most likely explanation for the observed RV variations. The wide angular separation of the planet from the star (approximately 1 arc-second) and the long orbital period make this planet a prime candidate for both direct imaging and space-based astrometric measurements.Comment: To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters. 9 pages, 2 figure

Protein Kinase A-induced tamoxifen resistance is mediated by anchoring protein AKAP13

Univariate analysis for different AKAP13 probes. Table S2. Univariate analysis. Table S3. Multivariate analysis. (PDF 64 kb

The Extrasolar Planet epsilon Eridani b - Orbit and Mass

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the nearby (3.22 pc), K2 V star epsilon Eridani have been combined with ground-based astrometric and radial velocity data to determine the mass of its known companion. We model the astrometric and radial velocity measurements simultaneously to obtain the parallax, proper motion, perturbation period, perturbation inclination, and perturbation size. Because of the long period of the companion, \eps b, we extend our astrometric coverage to a total of 14.94 years (including the three year span of the \HST data) by including lower-precision ground-based astrometry from the Allegheny Multichannel Astrometric Photometer. Radial velocities now span 1980.8 -- 2006.3. We obtain a perturbation period, P = 6.85 +/- 0.03 yr, semi-major axis, alpha =1.88 +/- 0.20 mas, and inclination i = 30.1 +/- 3.8 degrees. This inclination is consistent with a previously measured dust disk inclination, suggesting coplanarity. Assuming a primary mass M_* = 0.83 M_{\sun}, we obtain a companion mass M = 1.55 +/- 0.24 M_{Jup}. Given the relatively young age of epsilon Eri (~800 Myr), this accurate exoplanet mass and orbit can usefully inform future direct imaging attempts. We predict the next periastron at 2007.3 with a total separation, rho = 0.3 arcsec at position angle, p.a. = -27 degrees. Orbit orientation and geometry dictate that epsilon Eri b will appear brightest in reflected light very nearly at periastron. Radial velocities spanning over 25 years indicate an acceleration consistent with a Jupiter-mass object with a period in excess of 50 years, possibly responsible for one feature of the dust morphology, the inner cavity

CD20 and CD19 targeted vectors induce minimal activation of resting B lymphocytes

B lymphocytes are an important cell population of the immune system. However, until recently it was not possible to transduce resting B lymphocytes with retro- or lentiviral vectors, making them unsusceptible for genetic manipulations by these vectors. Lately, we demonstrated that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with modified measles virus (MV) glycoproteins hemagglutinin, responsible for receptor recognition, and fusion protein were able to overcome this transduction block. They use either the natural MV receptors, CD46 and signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM), for cell entry (MV-LV) or the vector particles were further modified to selectively enter via the CD20 molecule, which is exclusively expressed on B lymphocytes (CD20-LV). It has been shown previously that transduction by MV-LV does not induce B lymphocyte activation. However, if this is also true for CD20-LV is still unknown. Here, we generated a vector specific for another B lymphocyte marker, CD19, and compared its ability to transduce resting B lymphocytes with CD20-LV. The vector (CD19ds-LV) was able to stably transduce unstimulated B lymphocytes, albeit with a reduced efficiency of about 10% compared to CD20-LV, which transduced about 30% of the cells. Since CD20 as well as CD19 are closely linked to the B lymphocyte activation pathway, we investigated if engagement of CD20 or CD19 molecules by the vector particles induces activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes. Although, activation of B lymphocytes often involves calcium influx, we did not detect elevated calcium levels. However, the activation marker CD71 was substantially up-regulated upon CD20-LV transduction and most importantly, B lymphocytes transduced with CD20-LV or CD19ds-LV entered the G1b phase of cell cycle, whereas untransduced or MV-LV transduced B lymphocytes remained in G0. Hence, CD20 and CD19 targeting vectors induce activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes, which most likely renders them susceptible for lentiviral vector transduction

The Predictive Effectiveness of Previous Offensive Play Selections on Future Play Selections in College Football

The popularity of college football is indisputable. In 1987, over 350 million people attended NCAA football contests which pushed the three year attendance figure from 1985 to 1987 to over one billion. Because of this popularity, however, intense pressure to win has been placed on players, coaches and administrators. To confound the problem, offenses have grown in complexity since the early years of college football. To assist teams in preparing for upcoming opponents, coaching staffs view films of the opponent\u27s previous games. The coaches gather information from the films and develop tendencies in hopes that the upcoming opponent will repeat these tendencies. This study analyzed the effectiveness of these previous tendencies toward future play selections. Eight opponents of the University of Northern Iowa were tested using the chi-square statistical method for goodness of fit. The study tested goodness of fit between previous and current run/pass proportions given four situational factors: opponent; down and distance; field position; and hash mark. If offenses followed previous tendencies, scouting would be a worthwhile endeavor for coaching staffs. If not, scouting and tendency development is an inefficient way for coaches to spend their limited time. The results of the study overwhelmingly support the use of tendency development. All four situational factors provided a better than 50-50 chance of repeated run/pass proportions. Specifically, the best predictors include the right hash mark, the down and distances of second and long and second and medium, and the field positions of the -26 to the -49 yard lines, the SO to the +30 yard lines, the +29 to the +6 yard lines, and the +S to the +1 yard lines