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Social housing projects often face the “not-in-my-back-yard” (NIMBY) backlash from the local community who oppose and reject their construction. Considering the prevalence of NIMBY, this study examines the factors that influence the attitude of the public towards social housing construction under high home ownership rates. We conduct an ordered logistic regression analysis by using 14,275 responses from the 2015 Residential Status Survey in Taiwan. The results show some interesting findings. First, home ownership and families with a child under 18 are two of the most influential variables that have significantly negative influences on the approval of social housing construction. Renters and people with physical and mental disabilities are however more supportive of social housing. Secondly, residents in buildings with high development intensity are very supportive of the construction of social housing. Thirdly, satisfaction with neighborhood environment has a positive impact on social housing approval. Finally, residents who live in dense cities tend to support the construction of social housing. However, residents who live in satellite cities of a metropolitan region are less supportive. The results of this study reveal a regional difference in the approval of residents for social housing construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most existing studies on the behavior of real estate appraisers focus on the issues around the independence of the appraiser. This study uses a questionnaire to measure the objectivity of real estate appraisers which involves six indicators related to the appraisal process, and divides the factors that affect the objectivity of real estate appraisers in Taiwan into four categories, namely, the opinion of the appraiser regarding the future development of the real estate appraisal industry, current real estate appraisal approaches and behavior of other appraisers, and the characteristics of real estate appraisers and their firms. The empirical results reveal that the income of appraisers relative to other professionals and public opinion in relation to the fairness of real estate appraisers are the two most important factors that affect the objectivity of real estate appraisers. Furthermore, the work experience of the appraiser, total revenue of the real estate appraisal firm, and independence of the final appraisal result all significantly and positively affect the objectivity of the real estate appraisers, and the awareness of a lack of appraisers in the market significantly and negatively affects their objectivity. These findings are helpful to the healthy development of real estate appraisal and its related industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the escalation in housing prices and categories of Taiwan's domestic consumption. While disposable income remains constant, a rapid escalation in housing prices should have a negative impact on unaffordability within society. However, under the hypothesis of the housing wealth effect, an increase in housing values should compensate the macro-economy by increasing consumption in the GDP calculation. Taiwanese data from 2007Q1 to 2018Q1 were adopted as the sample. From the vector error correction model results, it was found that over the course of the long-run equilibrium relationship, there was a statistically significant positive relationship that the society consumes more on durable goods of communication-related nature, as well as on non-durable goods such as personal clothing and accessories and leisure/cultural tourism. As for the short-run dynamic adjustment, there was a statistically significant positive relationship that the society consumes more in the durable goods component categories. It was identified that transportationrelated consumption accounted for the major part of the durable goods component. Therefore, with the rapid escalation in housing prices, it was observed that these consumption would compensate the consumption figures in the GDP calculation in Taiwan, thereby providing evidence that housing prices were related to macroeconomic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathogenicity of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) causing bacterial spot disease on tomato (Lycopersicon spp.) and pepper (Capsicum spp.) requires the type III secretion system (T3SS) and T3SS effectors. In this study, we employed the AFLP technique to investigate the diversity of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria isolated in Taiwan, and consequently a XopE2 homologue was identified in all fourteen Xcv strains that have been classified into two groups. Phylogenic analysis of XopE2 amino acid sequences indicated that XopE2 of Xcv Xvt122 (group A) has a closer genetic distance to XopE2 of Xcv 85-10 than to that of Xcv Xvt45 (group B). Interestingly, although it was suggested that Xvt45 contains duplicated xopE2 genes, one being located on the genome and the other located on a large plasmid, a single copy deletion of xopE2 within the genome caused a substantial reduction in virulence, but no effect of xopE2 mutation on virulence of Xcv 85-10 and Xvt122 was observed. Furthermore, our results revealed that XopE2 of Xcv Xvt122 or Xcv Xvt45 was able to suppress HR in a T3SS-dependent manner and the heterologously-expressed XopE2 was sufficient to modulate the virulence on susceptible tomato plants. Their biological functions are not dependent on the consensus catalytic triad (159th cysteine) and thiol-protease His residue (47th histidine) of XopE2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The subtropical island of Taiwan is an area of high endemism and a complex topographic environment. Phylogeographic studies indicate that vicariance caused by Taiwan's mountains has subdivided many taxa into genetic phylogroups. We used mitochondrial DNA sequences and nuclear microsatellites to test whether the evolutionary history of an endemic montane bird, Steere's Liocichla (Liocichla steerii), fit the general vicariant paradigm for a montane organism. Results: We found that while mountains appear to channel gene flow they are not a significant barrier for Steere's Liocichla. Recent demographic expansion was evident, and genetic diversity was relatively high across the island, suggesting expansion from multiple areas rather than a few isolated refugia. Ecological niche modeling corroborated the molecular results and suggested that populations of Steere's Liocichla are connected by climatically suitable habitat and that there was less suitable habitat during the Last Glacial Maximum. Conclusions: Genetic and ecological niche modeling data corroborate a single history-Steere's Liocichla was at lower density during the Last Glacial Maximum and has subsequently expanded in population density. We suggest that such a range-wide density expansion might be an overlooked cause for the genetic patterns of demographic expansion that are regularly reported. We find significant differences among some populations in FST indices and an admixture analysis. Though both of these results are often used to suggest conservation action, we affirm that statistically significant results are not necessarily biologically meaningful and we urge caution when interpreting highly polymorphic data such as microsatellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I attempt to deepen feminists' understanding of the power dynamics in the practice of client-prostitute relations by exploring how clients (in Mandarin, Piao-ke) make sense of their relationships with prostitutes. On the basis of tens of online and in-person interviews with Taiwanese Piao-ke, I explore the diverse and subtle details that surface in the clients' narratives and that might otherwise have been neglected. Instead of totalizing Piao-ke as problematic, I suggest a postmodernist feminist understanding of the practice, namely, one founded on a distinction between acceptable from dominant practices and discourses that should be targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the prediction of wind power generation has served as a prerequisite problem for determining the objective of the reliability and low–cost power system performance. The difference between conventional deterministic prediction and probabilistic prediction is that the first types ignore the uncertainty of the wind speeds. In this paper, a novel probabilistic prediction method as improved lower–upper bound approximation is applied for building the reliable prediction intervals, which is based on the system that uses the mathematical models of the environment to prognosticate the weather based on existing meteorology (Numeral Weather Prediction System). To verify the worth of the proposed method, forecasting modes in this study are divided as hourly and daily predictions, which are applied to seven wind farms of Taiwan. In addition, adapting parameters in improved lower–upper bound approximation method is performed by resorting to the charged search system algorithm. Also, to increase the prediction speed, the probability density function of wind speed is used, and to decrease the estimation model volume, the kernel density estimation model is applied into the proposed method. The simulation results in comparison with other methods indicate that the prediction intervals produced by the proposed method outperformed and its indices are better. The average error between prediction and real data in the proposed method obtained as about 11%, while other methods error is more than 15%. In addition, three prediction interval indices are used in order to evaluate the different studied manners as: prediction interval overlay probability, normalized average of prediction interval length, and overlay width scale. As the results shown, the best performance is related to the proposed method. Image 1 • Using of the developed LUBA for forecasting the wind power in both daily and hourly modes. • Using of the CSSA for optimization of the model parameters in the ILUBA. • Applying the KDE method to decrease the NWPs data dimension. • Using of the PDF to create the wind speed ensemble model for increasing the prediction speed at the all processing states. • Verify the proposed model by applying it in the real–wind farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]