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Rolling-time-dummy (RTD) is a hedonic method used by a number of countries to compute their official house price indexes (HPIs). The RTD method requires less data and is more adaptable than other hedonic methods, which makes it well suited for computing higher frequency HPIs (e.g., monthly or weekly). In this article, we address three key issues relating to RTD. First, we develop a method for determining the optimal length of the rolling window. Second, we consider variants on the standard way of linking the current period with earlier periods, and show how the optimal linking method can be determined. Third, we propose three ways of modifying the RTD method to make it more robust to periods of low transaction volume. These modifications could prove useful for countries using the RTD method in their official HPIs.

Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) based on Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are widely used for predicting house prices. While there is consensus in the literature that cross-validation (CV) should...

Commercial property price indices (CPPIs) are needed to monitor financial stability, guide investment decisions by firms, and improve national accounts. Due to a lack of suitable data, however, reliable CPPIs are often hard to construct. Here we survey the current state of the CPPI literature and assess the contribution of the recently published Eurostat CPPI report.

The hedonic imputation method allows characteristic shadow prices to evolve over time. These shadow prices are used to construct matched samples of predicted prices, which are inserted into standard price index formulas. We use a spatio-temporal model to improve the method’s effectiveness on housing data at higher frequencies. The problem is that at higher frequencies, there may not be enough observations per period to reliably estimate the characteristic shadow prices. In such cases, the reliability of the hedonic imputation method is improved by using a state-space formulation which yields estimates of the shadow prices that are weighted sums of previous periods’ information. In addition, the state-space representation of the model includes a geospatial spline surface which significantly reduces the number of parameters to be estimated when compared to the standard practice of including postcode dummies in the model. Empirically, using a novel criterion, we show that in higher frequency comparisons, our hedonic method outperforms competing alternatives.

The shear signal required for weak lensing analyses is small, so any detector-level effects which distort astronomical images can contaminate the inferred shear. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will fly a focal plane with 18 Teledyne H4RG-10 near infrared (IR) detector arrays; these have never been used for weak lensing and they present unique instrument calibration challenges. A pair of previous investigations (Hirata & Choi 2020; Choi & Hirata 2020) demonstrated that spatiotemporal correlations of flat fields can effectively separate the brighter-fatter effect (BFE) and interpixel capacitance (IPC). Later work (Freudenburg et al. 2020) introduced a Fourier-space treatment of these correlations which allowed the authors to expand to higher orders in BFE, IPC, and classical nonlinearity (CNL). This work expands the previous formalism to include quantum yield and charge diffusion. We test the updated formalism on simulations and show that we can recover input characterization values. We then apply the formalism to visible and IR flat field data from three Roman flight candidate detectors. We fit a 2D Gaussian model to the charge diffusion at 0.5 $��$m wavelength, and find variances of $C_{11} = 0.1066\pm 0.0011$ pix$^2$ in the horizontal direction, $C_{22} = 0.1136\pm 0.0012$ pix$^2$ in the vertical direction, and a covariance of $C_{12} = 0.0001\pm 0.0007$ pix$^2$ (stat) for SCA 20829. Last, we convert the asymmetry of the charge diffusion into an equivalent shear signal, and find a contamination of the shear correlation function to be $��_+ \sim 10^{-6}$ for each detector. This exceeds Roman's allotted error budget for the measurement by a factor of $\mathcal{O}(10)$ in power (amplitude squared) but can likely be mitigated through standard methods for fitting the point spread function (PSF) since charge diffusion can be treated as a contribution to the PSF., 26 pages, 9 figures

Morphine and other mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists remain the mainstay treatment of acute and prolonged pain states worldwide. The major limiting factor for continued use of these current opioids is the high incidence of side effects that result in loss of life and loss of quality of life. The development of novel opioids bereft, or much less potent, at inducing these side effects remains an intensive area of research, with multiple pharmacological strategies being explored. However, as with many G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), translation of promising candidates from in vitro characterisation to successful clinical candidates still represents a major challenge and attrition point. This review summarises the preclinical animal models used to evaluate the key opioid-induced behaviours of antinociception, respiratory depression, constipation and opioid-induced hyperalgesia and tolerance. We highlight the influence of distinct variables in the experimental protocols, as well as the potential implications for differences in receptor reserve in each system. Finally, we discuss how methods to assess opioid action in vivo and in vitro relate to each other in the context of bridging the translational gap in opioid drug discovery.

Background and purpose G protein-biased μ opioid receptor agonists have the potential to induce less receptor desensitisation and tolerance than balanced opioids. Here, we investigated if the cyclic endomorphin analogue Tyr-c[D-Lys-Phe-Tyr-Gly] (Compound 1) is a G protein-biased μ agonist and characterised its ability to induce rapid receptor desensitisation in mammalian neurones. Experimental approach The signalling and trafficking properties of opioids were characterised using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer assays, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and phosphosite-specific immunoblotting in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Desensitisation of opioid-induced currents were studied in rat locus coeruleus neurones using whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology. The mechanism of Compound 1-induced μ receptor desensitisation was probed using kinase inhibitors. Key results Compound 1 has similar intrinsic activity for G protein signalling as morphine. As predicted for a G protein-biased μ agonist, Compound 1 induced minimal agonist-induced internalisation and phosphorylation at intracellular μ receptor serine/threonine residues known to be involved in G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)-mediated desensitisation. However, Compound 1 induced robust rapid μ receptor desensitisation in locus coeruleus neurons, to a greater degree than morphine. The extent of Compound 1-induced desensitisation was unaffected by activation or inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) but was significantly reduced by inhibition of GRK. Conclusion and implications Compound 1 is a novel G protein-biased μ agonist that induces substantial rapid receptor desensitisation in mammalian neurons. Surprisingly, Compound 1-induced desensitisation was demonstrated to be GRK dependent despite its G protein bias. Our findings refute the assumption that G protein-biased agonists will evade receptor desensitisation and tolerance.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) formerly known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope will answer fundamental questions about the evolution of dark energy over time and expand the catalog of known exoplanets into new regions of parameter space. Using a Hubble-sized mirror and 18 newly developed HgCdTe 4K × 4K photodiode arrays (H4RG-10), the Roman Space Telescope will measure the positions and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies, the light curves of thousands of supernovae, and the microlensing signals of over a thousand exoplanets toward the bulge of the Galaxy. These measurements require unprecedented sensitivity and characterization of the Wide Field Instrument, particularly its detectors. The Roman project undertook an extensive detector development program to create focal plane arrays that meet these science requirements. These prototype detectors have been characterized and their performance demonstrated in a relevant space-like environment (thermal vacuum, vibration, acoustic, and radiation testing), advancing the H4RG-10’s technology readiness level (TRL) to TRL-6. We present the performance characteristics of these TRL-6 demonstration devices.

Weak gravitational lensing has emerged as a leading probe of the growth of cosmic structure. However, the shear signal is very small and accurate measurement depends critically on our ability to understand how non-ideal instrumental effects affect astronomical images. WFIRST will fly a focal plane containing 18 Teledyne H4RG-10 near infrared detector arrays, which present different instrument calibration challenges from previous weak lensing observations. Previous work has shown that correlation functions of flat field images are effective tools for disentangling linear and non-linear inter-pixel capacitance (IPC) and the brighter-fatter effect (BFE). Here we present a Fourier-domain treatment of the flat field correlations, which allows us to expand the previous formalism to all orders in IPC, BFE, and classical non-linearity. We show that biases in simulated flat field analyses in Paper I are greatly reduced through the use of this formalism. We then apply this updated formalism to flat field data from three WFIRST flight candidate detectors, and explore the robustness to variations in the analysis. We find that the BFE is present in all three detectors, and that its contribution to the flat field correlations dominates over the non-linear IPC. The magnitude of the BFE is such that the effective area of a pixel is increased by $(3.54\pm0.03)\times 10^{-7}$ for every electron deposited in a neighboring pixel. We compare IPC maps from flat field autocorrelation measurements to those obtained from the single pixel reset method and find a median difference of 0.113%. After further diagnosis of this difference, we ascribe it largely to an additional source of cross-talk, the vertical trailing pixel effect, and recommend further work to develop a model for this effect. These results represent a significant step toward calibration of the non-ideal effects in WFIRST detectors.

Few studies exist on job duration in developing labour markets?an important omission both in our understanding of such markets and for the job duration literature, which is mainly based on developed-country case studies, which differ in structural ways. The main reason for this is likely data constraints in developing countries, since job duration analysis has intensive data requirements. Recently, two data sets meeting these requirements became publicly available in South Africa, covering the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

We show that simple median price-rent ratios in Shanghai are distorted by quality differences between sold and rented properties. Correcting for these quality differences using hedonic methods reduces the price-rent ratio by 14%. Even so, the price-rent ratio in Shanghai (at about 67) is still extremely high by international standards. From a user cost perspective, such a large price-rent ratio is driven mainly by the very high rate of expected capital gains on housing. If households form their expectations by simply extrapolating past price trends, we find that the user cost of owner-occupying in Shanghai is negative (implying that everyone except short-term residents wants to owner occupy rather than rent). While for many years the user cost was probably negative, such a situation is not sustainable going forward. By international standards, house prices in Shanghai are already high, which limits the potential for further growth. Expected capital gains, therefore, need to start falling soon to prevent the emergence of a housing bubble.

This paper outlines and applies a methodology for estimating and examining the variation in risk and return for individual homes. This is important because most households own individual properties and the risk and return profile of each of these may differ. We use large data sets of home prices and rents for Sydney, Australia, from 2002-16, and estimate flexible smoothing spline hedonic models. These models are used to construct total returns—the sum of capital gains and the rental yield net of costs—for the homes in our data. We find that Sydney homes had, on average, both higher returns than shares and much lower risk. This gave them a far superior Sharpe ratio. Moreover, while we find that shares benefit to a greater extent from diversification than homes, the Sharpe ratio of a large portfolio of shares was still well below that of the average single home. Interestingly, we find that much of the variation in risk and return across properties can be explained by observable home characteristics. In particular houses had stronger returns than did apartments.

Determining how and when to use geospatial data (i.e. longitudes and latitudes for each house) is probably the most pressing open question in the house price index literature. This issue is particularly timely for national statistical institutes (NSIs) in the European Union, which are now required by Eurostat to produce official house price indexes. Our solution combines the hedonic imputation method with a flexible hedonic model that captures geospatial data using a non-parametric spline surface. For Sydney, Australia, we find that the extra precision provided by geospatial data as compared with postcode dummies has only a marginal impact on the resulting hedonic price index. This is good news for resource-stretched NSIs. At least for Sydney, postcodes seem to be sufficient to control for locational effects in a hedonic house price index.

PurposeThis study aims to show how hedonic methods can be used to compare the performance of the public and private sector housing markets in Costa Rica.Design/methodology/approachHedonic price indexes are computed using the adjacent-period method. Average housing quality is measured by comparing hedonic and median price indexes. The relative performance of the public and private sector residential construction is compared by estimating separate hedonic models for each sector. A private sector price is then imputed for each house built in the public sector, and a public sector price is imputed for each house built in the private sector.FindingsThe real quality-adjusted price of private housing rose by 12 per cent between 2000 and 2013, whereas the price of private housing rose by 9 per cent. The average quality of private housing rose by 45 per cent, whereas that of public housing fell by 18 per cent. Nevertheless, the hedonic imputation analysis reveals that public housing could not be produced more cheaply in the private sector.Social implicationsThe quality of public housing has declined over time. The hedonic analysis shows that the decline is not because of a lack of competition between construction firms in the public sector. An alternative demand side explanation is provided.Originality/valueThis study applies hedonic methods in novel ways to compare the relative performance of the public and private housing sectors in Costa Rica. The results shed new light on the effectiveness of public sector housing programs.

Snowballs are transient events observed in HgCdTe detectors with a sudden increase of charge in a few pixels. They appear between consecutive reads of the detector, after which the affected pixels return to their normal behavior. The origin of the snowballs is unknown, but it was speculated that they could be the result of alpha decay of naturally radioactive contaminants in the detectors, but a cosmic ray origin cannot be ruled out. Even though previous studies predicted a low rate of occurrence of these events, and consequently, a minimal impact on science, it is interesting to investigate the cause or causes that may generate snowballs and their impact in detectors designed for future missions. We searched for the presence of snowballs in the dark current data in Euclid and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) detectors tested in the Detector Characterization Laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center. Our investigation shows that for Euclid and WFIRST detectors, there are snowballs that appear only one time, and others that repeat in the same spatial localization. For Euclid detectors, there is a correlation between the snowballs that repeat and bad pixels in the operational masks (pixels that do not fulfill the requirements to pass spectroscopy noise, photometry noise, quantum efficiency, and/or linearity). The rate of occurrence for a snowball event is about 0.9 snowballs/hr. in Euclid detectors (for the ones that do not have associated bad pixels in the mask), and about 0.7 snowballs/hr. in PV3 Full Array Lot WFIRST detectors.

Since 2012, Eurostat requires the national statistical institutes (NSIs) in all European Union (EU) countries to compute official House Price Indices (HPIs) at a quarterly frequency. Eurostat recommends computing the HPI using a hedonic method. Most NSIs have followed this advice, although they differ in their choice of method. Some NSIs use stratified medians instead of hedonic methods. We evaluate the theoretical and empirical properties of both hedonic and stratified median methods. Of particular concern is the comparability of the HPIs across countries when computed using different methods. Our empirical comparisons use detailed micro-level data sets for Sydney and Tokyo, containing about 867,000 actual housing transactions. All the hedonic methods perform better than stratified medians. The hedonic methods generate quite similar results, except when applied to new dwellings in Tokyo. This finding shows that the choice of hedonic method can be important for smaller countries with less data. Also, the widely used hedonic repricing method becomes unreliable when the reference shadow prices are not updated frequently., Hill Robert J., Scholz Michael, Shimizu Chihiro, Steurer Miriam. An evaluation of the methods used by European countries to compute their official house price indices. In: Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, n°500-502, 2018. Housing and housing markets. pp. 221-238.

The treatment of owner-occupied housing (OOH) is probably the most important unresolved issue in inflation measurement. The European Union has been grappling with this problem for over a decade. We argue for measuring OOH costs using a particular version of the user cost method. We then compare the impact of eight different treatments of OOH on the consumer price index (CPI), using quantile hedonic regression. The impact on the CPI is large, and the treatment of OOH emerges as an essential prerequisite to discussions over how an inflation targeting central bank should respond to housing booms and busts.

Using data for 113 countries covering the period 1980–2005 we show how international comparisons of income inequality and the way it changes over time are inherently sensitive to (i) the choice of multilateral price index formula used to convert per capita incomes into units of the same currency, (ii) the approach (if any) used for reconciling spatial benchmarks with national growth rates, and (iii) the way inequality is measured. We then consider how best to deal with these issues and highlight some distortions that can arise in such comparisons. Based on our preferred methods we observe convergence when countries are population weighted and divergence when they are not.

In laser spectroscopy, high photon flux can perturb the sample away from thermal equilibrium, altering its spectroscopic properties. Here, we describe an optical beam scanning apparatus that minimizes repetitive sample excitation while providing shot-to-shot sample exchange for samples such as cryostats, films, and air-tight cuvettes. In this apparatus, the beam crossing point is moved within the focal plane inside the sample by scanning both tilt angles of a flat mirror. A space-filling spiral scan pattern was designed that efficiently utilizes the sample area and mirror scanning bandwidth. Scanning beams along a spiral path is shown to increase the average number of laser shots that can be sampled before a spot on the sample cell is resampled by the laser to ∼1700 (out of the maximum possible 2500 for the sample area and laser spot size) while ensuring minimal shot-to-shot spatial overlap. Both an all-refractive version and an all-reflective version of the apparatus are demonstrated. The beam scanning apparatus does not measurably alter the time delay (less than the 0.4 fs measurement uncertainty), the laser focal spot size (less than the 2 μm measurement uncertainty), or the beam overlap (less than the 3.3% measurement uncertainty), leading to pump-probe and autocorrelation signal transients that accurately characterize the equilibrium sample.

In experiments with high photon flux, it is necessary to rapidly remove the sample from the beam and to delay re-excitation until the sample has returned to equilibrium. Rapid and complete sample exchange has been a challenge for air-sensitive samples and for vibration-sensitive experiments. Here, a compact spinning sample cell for air and moisture sensitive liquid and thin film samples is described. The principal parts of the cell are a copper gasket sealed enclosure, a 2.5 in. hard disk drive motor, and a reusable, chemically inert glass sandwich cell. The enclosure provides an oxygen and water free environment at the 1 ppm level, as demonstrated by multi-day tests with sodium benzophenone ketyl radical. Inside the enclosure, the glass sandwich cell spins at ≈70 Hz to generate tangential speeds of 7-12 m/s that enable complete sample exchange at 100 kHz repetition rates. The spinning cell is acoustically silent and compatible with a ±1 nm rms displacement stability interferometer. In order to enable the use of the spinning cell, we discuss centrifugation and how to prevent it, introduce the cycle-averaged resampling rate to characterize repetitive excitation, and develop a figure of merit for a long-lived photoproduct buildup.

The International Comparisons Program (ICP) run by the World Bank compares prices and real incomes across countries, and plays a pivotal role in the Penn World Table. Using a unique dataset consisting of over 600,000 price quotes from nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region, we consider ways of improving the basic heading price indexes that form the building blocks of ICP. Current ICP methodology computes these price indexes using the country–product–dummy (CPD) method applied to the country average prices. We contrast this approach with: (i) a weighted version of CPD; (ii) CPD applied directly to the individual price quotes; and (iii) extended versions of CPD that include adjustments for unrepresentative products, urban–rural price differences, and different outlet-types. Also considered are new CPD-based methods for measuring urban–rural price differences, and the implications of our findings for the downward revision in China's GDP in ICP 2005.

We describe the "overlight" test that was done for JWST's Teledyne H2RG HgCdTe near-infrared detector arrays. We projected many very bright λ = 632.8 nm spots onto one flight representative, substrate-removed, HgCdTe 5 μm cutoff detector array. We allowed individual spots to "burn in" for as long as ≈1000 s before turning off the laser. We did not detect any permanent change in detector performance for extreme over illuminations as bright as 320 μW pixel-1 (≤ 1 μW μm-2) after the array had been returned to ambient laboratory temperature and pressure. The brightest individual spot contained roughly 4 mW of power spread over a 100 μm diameter circular area. This is brighter than the brightest lasers that are planned for use during JWST integration and testing. It is also ≈103× brighter than any 632.8 nm astronomical source in the night sky.

We construct new measures of fund style, performance and activity from linear combinations of off-the-shelf stock-market indices. A fund's benchmark portfolio is a linear combination of two or more reference portfolios that in a least-squares sense most closely approximates the fund's portfolio. The resulting linear combination scalar is itself a measure of fund style and the distance between a fund and its benchmark is a measure of fund activity. Our approach has a number of advantages over existing characteristic-matching methods. We illustrate our approach using a data set of US institutional funds.

This chapter considers Theme 6 of the Hamburg Declaration: Adult learning in relation to environment, health and population.

The absolute femtosecond pump-probe signal strength of deprotonated fluorescein in basic methanol is measured. Calculations of the absolute pump-probe signal based on the steady-state absorption and emission spectrum that use only independently measured experimental parameters are carried out. The calculation of the pump-probe signal strength assumes the pump and probe fields are both weak and includes the following factors: the transverse spatial profile of the laser beams; the pulse spectra; attenuation of the propagating pulses with depth in the sample; the anisotropic transition probability for polarized light; and time-dependent electronic population relaxation. After vibrational and solvent relaxation are complete, the calculation matches the measurement to within 10% error without any adjustable parameters. This demonstrates quantitative measurement of absolute excited state population.

The body of literature on adult learning and education for and about the environment has grown over the decades since 1970, the year of the first Earth Day. However, more than 40 years later, the question must be posed: "Are we really making the momentous progress that is essential for an eco-sustainable future?" Getting Green(er): Adult Education and Green Progress? At least a partial answer may lie in an announcement on January 10, 2012, by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, that the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic timepiece whose sweep toward midnight signals global environmental disaster, is moving closer to the bewitching hour; it is now 11:55 p.m. (Doomsday Clock, 2012). Significant causes of the Doomsday scenario, not mentioned in this announcement, are economic, that is, global nations' fiscal reforms, expenditure cuts, deregulation including elimination of rules that hinder the market, neoliberal market freedoms, and loan restructuring and debit owed to the Global North. These are often a result of fiscal policies in the major industrial countries. If environmental adult education and the greening of global economies are some of the solutions, critically examining the role of economics and critiquing the current state of economic discourse must be part of adult educators' agendas. Solutions to pressing environmental issues require an informed and active citizenry and a strong civil society that can help shape government, market, and personal environmental behaviors. Finger and Asun (2000) point out the current ecological crises are due to turbo-capitalism, predatory financing, and corporate cannibalism that are widening the gap between the few haves and the rising number of have nots. Unless adult education in the Green Jobs Movement recognizes and confronts this, it will offer little aid in redressing environmental problems or in lifting national economies. Doing so will require adult education to become not just green but Deep Green--reflecting Deep Ecology principles. The deep movement centers on concentrated questioning, critical analysis, and exploring fundamental root causes of problems (Foundation for Deep Ecology, 2012). It interrogates basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. Adult education for a Deep Green Jobs Movement must be built on more than reform in these three areas--rather, it must fundamentally transform them! Not Just Green--But Deep Green The Green Jobs Movement is premised on the notion that conservation and environmental enhancement can occur simultaneously with economic development. It is about creating jobs through energy efficiency and investments in behaviors that improve the environment while concurrently generating revenue. It is built on a number of national and international policies and some industry standards. The National Council for Workforce Education and the Academy for Educational Development's report, Going Green (Feldbaum & States, n.d.), demonstrates the role of workforce education in building a green labor force. The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Green Economy (n.d.) initiative works at the global level. It is premised on the notion that a green economy is one that improves human well-being and social equity, while reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. These and other initiatives naively look to build a green economy where public and private investments are the engines that drive jobs and wealth while reducing the carbon footprint, diminishing pollution, and protecting ecosystems. Although these are admirable, the question is whether they will be linked to actions and the willingness necessary to accomplish them. Behind these are the hope that there will be adequate public and private expenditures, innovative and thoughtful policies, and protective regulations. It is a mystery how these will happen when greed-inspired capitalism drives the economy, we are in the worst global recession since the Great Depression, the grade level of congressional discourse is that of a sophomore in high school, and state and federal regulators are beholden to industry. …

Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS) has been developing high performance low background VisSWIR focal plane arrays suitable for the NASA WFIRST mission. These near infrared sensor chip assemblies (SCAs) are manufactured using HgCdTe on CdZnTe substrates with a 10 micron pixel pitch. WFIRST requirements are for a 4k x 4K format 4-side buttable package to populate a large scale 6 x 3 mosaic focal plane array of 18 SCAs. RVS devices will be compatible with the NASA developed FPA 4-side buttable package, and flight interface electronics. Initial development efforts at RVS have focused on a 2k x 2k format 10 micron pixel design based on an existing readout integrated circuit (ROIC) to demonstrate desired detector material performance at a relevant scale. This paper will provide performance results on the RVS efforts. RVS has successfully developed multiple 4k x 4k 10 micron pixel ROICs and we plan to demonstrate readiness to scale our design efforts to the desired 4k x 4k format for WFIRST in 2016.

Hot electronic dynamics in lead sulfide nanocrystals is interrogated by degenerate pump-probe spectroscopy with 20-25 fs pulses over a broad frequency range around three times the nanocrystal band gap. For each nanocrystal diameter, an initial reduction in absorption is seen only at the peak of the quantum confined E1 transition, while increased absorption is seen at all other wavelengths. The signals from the nanocrystals are approximately 300 times weaker than expected for a two-level system with the same absorbance and molar extinction coefficient and are weaker near time zero. These results appear to be inconsistent with quantum confinement of the initially excited high energy states. Arguments based on carrier scattering length, the wave packet size supported by the band structure, and effective mass are advanced to support the hypothesis that, for many direct-gap semiconductor quantum dots, the carrier dynamics at three times the band gap is localized on the 1-2 nm length scale and essentially bulklike except for frequent collisions with the surface.

Three important current areas of research in the field of international comparisons are the construction of price indexes at the basic heading level, price indexes at higher levels of aggregation, and the linking of comparisons across regions. We consider recent innovations in each of these areas. These innovations have largely arisen out of International Comparisons Program (ICP) 2005, and hence we discuss them in this context. We give particular emphasis to the construction of price indexes at the basic heading level, because we believe it is here that the biggest problems lie. For example, the apparently anomalous results obtained for China and India in ICP 2005 can be traced back to problems at the basic heading level. We also highlight some inconsistencies in current ICP methodology and some promising areas for future research that warrant closer scrutiny in the next round of ICP.

The Sydney housing market peaked in 2003. The period 2001–2006 is, therefore, of particular interest since it captures a boom and bust in the housing market. We compute hedonic, repeat-sales and median price indexes for five regions in Sydney over this period. While the three approaches are in broad agreement regarding the timing of the turning point in the housing market, some important differences also emerge. In particular, we find evidence of sample selection bias in our hedonic and repeat-sales data sets (with the former focusing more on better quality dwellings and the latter more on lower quality dwellings). These sample selection biases could in turn cause bias (in opposite directions) in our hedonic and repeat-sales indexes. Median indexes may likewise be biased as a result of an apparent decline in the average quality of dwellings sold in the latter part of the sample. We also find evidence of convergence in prices across regions during the boom and divergence in the subsequent bust.

We draw a distinction between the concepts of purchase affordability (whether a household is able to borrow enough funds to purchase a house) and repayment affordability (the burden imposed on a household of repaying the mortgage). We operationalize this distinction in the context of a new methodology for constructing affordability measures that draws on the value-at-risk concept and takes account of the whole distribution of household income and house prices rather than just the median. Empirically we find that the distinction between purchase and repayment affordability can be pronounced. In the Sydney prime mortgage market over the period 1996–2006, repayment affordability deteriorated very significantly while purchase affordability remained quite stable. This difference can be attributed to the loosening of credit constraints in the mortgage market which it seems has carried through primarily into higher house prices rather than an improvement in purchase affordability. We also show how median house-price-to-income ratio measures of affordability can be extended to take account of the whole distribution of income and house prices, and how as a result of differential skewness in the house price and income distributions the housing affordability problem may be significantly worse for lower income households than suggested by standard median measures.

The problem and the solution. The Academy of Human Resource Development's Standards on Ethics and Integrity states that,“HRD professionals accord appropriate respect to the fundamental rights, dignity, and worth of all people.” This article offers insights into the resistance encountered when organizations acknowledge the worth of sexual minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and self-identified Queer (LGBTQ) individuals occupy complex and contradictory worlds in organizations, including the workplace. Causes of backlash, also known as blowback, to diversity change in the context of LGBTQ rights and dignity are presented. It lays out evidence-based practices that may help human resource development professionals to avoid resistance that can result from their attempts to transform organizations into fully inclusive places.

This chapter raises the prospect of a newly emerging epistemological ecotone where adult learning has characteristics of both foundational (modern) and postmodern ways of knowing.

Various multilateral methods for computing price indexes use bilateral comparisons as their basic building blocks. Some give greater weight to those bilateral comparisons deemed more reliable. However, none of the existing reliability measures adjusts for gaps in the data. We show how the standard errors on bilateral price indexes derived using weighted least squares provide reliability measures that solve this problem. We then apply our methodology to a dataset on agricultural production in 103 countries. Our results demonstrate the appeal of weighted methods and the importance of using weights based on a comprehensive measure of reliability.

It is generally believed that chaining reduces the Paasche–Laspeyres spread if prices and quantities are monotonic over time. I consider three alternative definitions of monotonicity and show that none provide either necessary or sufficient conditions for chaining to reduce the Paasche–Laspeyres spread. What matters is the interaction between prices and quantities both in the same period and lagged one period. Sufficient conditions are derived, and the implications of these conditions for the measurement of inflation are considered. The paper concludes with an empirical illustration using scanner data.

This chapter highlights the major themes presented in this volume. It also offers a glimpse into LGBTQ issues in organizational settings that remain underrepresented in adult, continuing, and higher education.

This chapter looks at what it is like to be queer in organizations, with an emphasis on adult and continuing education providers.