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This study adopts Marxian land rent theory as a framework to understand the structure of house prices with explicit attention to labour reproduction in an urban context. It attempts to correct the misunderstandings in Marxian land rent theory and develop it for an urban context. The four categories of land rent of differential rent, differential rent 2, absolute rent, and monopoly rent are critically re-examined. Subsequently, the combination of absolute rent and differential rent is suggested as a general structure for land rents in an urban context. The dynamic mechanism of changes in land rents is explained with the concepts of emulation, differentiation and shift between groups of houses based on the structure of land rents. The process of the formation of housing submarkets has been examined for a practical preparation for empirical analysis and a theoretical basis for the subdivision of the housing market. Spatial submarkets are identified by focusing on the interactive relationship between residential spheres (a unit consisting of a centre of employment and the surrounding residential area). Sectoral submarkets are defined based on social and environmental features as well as the structural features of dwellings. For empirical analysis, three metropolitan cities were chosen: London as monocentric, Seoul as tri-centric and Los Angeles as polycentric. Empirical analysis has used commuting patterns and the contours of house prices as the criteria to identify spatial submarkets with the help of network analysis and GIS. Simple OLS regression analysis of house prices on the accessibility to centre was conducted in each identified submarket. The results were used to explore the structure of and the dynamic changes in land rents. A consistent structure of land rents was observed in each housing submarket across all three cities. The implication on the condition of labour reproduction was drawn out by interpreting the changes in land rents over a period of 10 years in each city. The analysis of London revealed a monocentric housing market structure and the suitability of commuting time over physical distance as an accessibility variable. In Seoul"s case, the transition from tri-centric to monocentric housing market was observed and a comparative approach with rent and price data enriched the interpretation of the changes in the structure of the housing market. The impact of social and environmental features of the neighbourhood, such as class, ethnic concentration and negative externality, on house prices was highlighted in the analysis of Los Angeles.

WHETHER OR NOT THE WTO MEETING IN SEATTLE IS THE HARBINGER OF WHAT GLOBAL GOVERNANCE MAY LOOK LIKE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MAY DEPEND ON HOW SUCCESSFULLY U.S. POLICYMAKERS CULTIVATE AMERICA'S SOFT POWER. SOFT POWER IS THE ABILITY OF A COUNTRY TO GET WHAT IT WANTS THROUGH COOPERATION RATHER THAN COERCION. ONE WAY TO CULTIVATE SOFT POWER IS FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY TO INCLUDE NONSTATE ACTORS IN FUTURE INTERNATIONAL POLICY NEGOTIATIONS. ANOTHER WAY TO ENSURE AMERICA'S SOFT POWER IS FOR LABOR UNIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS TO UNDERSTAND THAT DEMONIZING THE WTO AS A GROUP OF FACELESS INTERNATIONAL BUREAUCRATS IS NOT ONLY WRONG, BUT ALSO COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

Intro -- Title Page -- Preface -- Contents -- Controlled Environment Agriculture: Using Intelligent Systems on the Next Level -- Intelligent Environmental Biomonitoring Systems: A Promising Arena for Future -- A Novel Design and Implementation of Data Acquisition and Preprocessing System for Precision Agriculture -- Prediction of Uptake of Carbamazepine and Diclofenac in Reclaimed Water-Irrigated Lettuces by Machine Learning Techniques -- Minimum Temperature Prediction Models in Plots to Forecast Frost in Crops -- Subject Index -- Author Index.

E-government offers unprecedented opportunities for innovating and transforming the way public service is delivered. To ensure successful e-government, it is necessary to understand how citizens accept new technology and receive services from e-government. In the context of e-government acceptance, this paper introduces and tests three well-known theoretical models-SERVQUAL, the American Customer Service Index, and the technology acceptance model-adapted from the service quality and technology acceptance literature. In addition, a new process model of e-government acceptance is synthesized and proposed. Using structural equation modeling methods, empirical fittests are carried out to evaluate the potential and explanation power of four theoretical e-government acceptance models. The results show that each model has a high potential for explaining e-government acceptance processes by citizen. Fitted theoretical models imply that the key ingrediencts for successful e-government are service quality, ease of use, and usefulness, which strongly suggests that for successful e-government, citizen focused e-government is crucial. E-government is a moving target, and the results hint at strategic directions for e-government development.