Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „Nordic Stock markets“

Purpose – This study aims to link the financial cooperation in the Nordic region and the interdependence between the stock markets in this area. The main emphasis is placed on the evolution of this interdependence as the financial integration was proceeding. Design/methodology/approach – Johansen’s cointegration technique and the exponential generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic model are applied to test the long-run and short-run interdependences, respectively, among Nordic stock markets. In particular, the recursive estimation approach is used to reveal the evolution of the interdependence between those markets. Findings – The existence of two cointegrations over the sample period indicates that the markets depend on each other to some extent. The recursive estimation of Johansen’s model further reveals that the interdependence had been greatly improving until late 2008. The interdependence between those markets is also confirmed convincingly by the short-term dynamics, noting that the spillover effects between most pairs of stock volatilities are witnessed in the empirical results. Practical implications – The findings show the dynamics of the long-run correlations between the Nordic stock markets, which imply the intrinsic response to the process of financial market reforms, the 2008 global financial crisis and the period after the crisis. The evidenced information about determinants of the interdependence between Nordic stock markets is sending strong signals to investors to enhance their investment strategies. Originality/value – Most of the existing studies have been restricted to the static long-run and/or short-run interdependence among those markets. However, this study contributes to the literature by investigating the dynamics of interdependence among the Nordic stock markets over time; moreover, the evolution of the market interdependence is sketched closely to the process of the regional financial market reforms.

Public financial markets are crucial in the access to the funding and as a platform for investments to the investors in today’s world. Nordic European Union countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark are considered to have advanced and well-developed stock markets, while neighboring three Baltic States have rather small stock market. Backbone of the stock market are there listed companies. In this analysis authors attempt to analyze 510 Nordic countries listed companies’ absolute value indicators using factor and cluster analysis and to compare results with similar analysis of the Baltic States. Factor and cluster analysis revealed the homogeneity of Nordic countries stock market listed companies’ absolute values, authors obtained three complex factors, explaining 89% of dispersion within the indicators, which in turn resulted in being able to obtain the portrait of Nordic States stock market listed company. Similar results were obtained for Baltic States listed companies, though on different scale. Authors have not seen as detailed analysis of Nordic Stock market on the level of listed companies financial statement analysis. Time period covered in this research of the financials are from 2004 to 2018. The analysis could be beneficial for other researchers focusing on the Nordic region stock market companies and also to the policy makers in the Baltic States, how the neighboring well-developed countries indicators could be interpreted and obtained results used for the enhancement of Baltic States stock market. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2020-01244 Full Text: PDF

This study investigates whether the merger of NASDAQ and OMX could reduce the portfolio diversification possibilities for stock market investors and whether it is necessary to implement national policies and international treaties for the sustainable development of financial markets. Our study is very important because some players in the stock markets have not yet realized that stock exchanges, during the last decades, have moved from government-owned or mutually-owned organizations to private companies, and, with several mergers having occurred, the market is tending gradually to behave like a monopoly. From our analysis, we conclude that increased volatility and reduced diversification opportunities are the results of an increase in the long-run comovement between each pair of indices in Nordic and Baltic stock markets (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and NASDAQ after the merger. We also find that the merger tends to improve the error-correction mechanism for NASDAQ so that it Granger-causes OMX, but OMX loses predictive power on NASDAQ after the merger. We conclude that the merger of NASDAQ and OMX reduces the diversification possibilities for stock market investors and our findings provide evidence to support the argument that it is important to implement national policies and international treaties for the sustainable development of financial markets.

We investigate the role of currency risk on stock markets in two interlinked Nordic countries exhibiting a gradual move from fixed to floating exchange rate regime. Tests are conducted for a conditional asset pricing model using the Ding and Engle (2001) specification which allows estimation of multivariate GARCH-in mean models. Using a sample period from 1970 to 2009, we find that the currency risk is priced in both stock markets, and that the price and the risk premium are lower after the flotation of the currencies. We also find some evidence of crosscountry exchange rate effects. Our model has many practical applications and can easily be applied to study other countries, different asset classes, or industries that are closely connected.

This study examines empirically the efficiency of private collaborative dialogues between Nordic institutional investors and companies included in the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) World stock market index. It contributes to an understanding of the conditions that allow active institutional investors to elect to work with more receptive and progressive companies and improve the efficiency of private engagement and dialogue. Stakeholder silence theory and Gond et al.’s model of company perceptions of enablers and barriers to the success of engagement are introduced to analyse the efficiency of private dialogue. The study investigates a proprietary dataset covering the characteristics of 109 complete dialogue processes related to material environmental, social, and corruption issues. The dialogues are led by a professional engagement agent in collaboration with its Nordic clients. The multivariate regression analysis shows that sustainability risk, bureaucracy, and experience are the specific conditions under which the target company can become more receptive to activism by making more progress to address institutional investors’ requests during the hidden dialogue process.

Background:Collagen type IV and laminin are the main constituents of basement membranes (BMs). Epitopes on these molecules are targeted in various autoimmune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in particular. Accelerated large vessel disease is a well-recognized cause of premature cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in SLE. Novel tools for quantification of soluble MMP-derived fragments of collagen type IV (C4M) and laminin (LG1M) have emerged as promising biomarkers for BM remodeling in atherosclerosis.Objectives:To study serum levels of collagen type IV and laminin metabolites in patients with SLE and in healthy controls. And to search for associations with disease activity, organ damage and cardiovascular comorbidity.Methods:One hundred and six SLE patients without and 20 with previous CVD events were included (1). One hundred and twenty male and female blood donors aged 20-65 years served as healthy reference. Disease activity (SLEDAI) and damage (SLICC) scores were calculated. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) was studied by CT scan and expressed as Agatston score. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was measured by ultrasound (LOGIQ E9, GE Healthcare). In either subgroup atherosclerosis was defined as Agatston > 99 U and/or IMT>1 mm and/or presence of plaque. C4M and LG1M were measured by competitive ELISAs (2).Results:Patient characteristics are presented in Table 1. Overall, C4M and LG1M were significantly increased in the entire SLE cohort vs. healthy controls (35.7 ± 17.5 vs. 22.3 ± 9.4 ng/mL, p<0.0001 and 20.9 ± 21.1 vs. 9.7 ± 8.0 ng/mL, p<0.0001, respectively) (Fig 1). Highly significant positive correlations were detected between C4M and LG1M in the entire SLE cohort and in the healthy control group (Fig 2).In terms of CVD and atherosclerosis LG1M was significantly higher in SLE patients with manifest CVD vs. those without (34.47 ± 41.22 vs. 18.34 ± 13.55, p=0.0015) and in those with atherosclerosis by imaging (25.53 ± 28.12 vs 17.53 ± 13.35, p=0.036). There were no associations between C4M and CVD or atherosclerosis. There was a weak association between LG1M and SLICC (r=0.22, p=0.01), but not with SLEDAI. Details on associations with other CVD risk factors and specific organ involvement will be presented.Table 1Characteristics for SLE patients with and without CVDPatients characteristicsAll (126)SLE + CVD (20)SLE without CVD (106)pFemales, no. (%)113 (89)18 (90)95 (89)0.95Age, yrs., mean ± SD50.6± 14.454.8 ± 15.346.8± 14.10.15Disease duration, yrs., mean ± SD13.9 ± 9.319.0± 11.313.0± 11.30.007SLEDAI, median, range4 (0-14)4 (0-10)4 (0-14)0.717SLICC, median, range1 (0-11)3 (1-11)1 (0-10)0.0001Atherosclerosis, no. (%)53 (42)14 (70)39 (37)0.0006LG1M (ng/ml), mean ± SD20.9± 21.234.5± 41.218.3 ± 13.60.0015C4M (ng/ml), mean ± SD35.7 ± 17.538.1± 20.635.3± 16.90.518Conclusion:Serological levels of collagen type IV and laminin biomarkers were elevated and interrelated in an unstratified SLE population. Moreover, LG1M but not C4M was significantly elevated in SLE patients with previous CVD events and in those with atherosclerosis by imaging. These findings indicate that LG1M may serve as a serological marker for SLE-related large vessel disease. However, additional extravascular sites of increased basement membrane remodeling may contribute to the abnormal biomarker pattern.References:[1]Kay SD, Poulsen MK, Diederichsen AC, Voss A. J Rheumatol 2016;43:315–22[2]Sand JM, Larsen L, Hogaboam C et al. PLoS One 2013;8:e84934Kay SD and Genovese F contributed equally to this work.Figure 1.Levels of C4M and LG1M in serum of patients with SLE and healthy controls; graphs are presented as box and whiskers plot (in the style of Tukey). Statistical significance: ****p<0.0001.Figure 2.Correlation plots (Spearman r) of C4M and LG1M in SLE patients and healthy controls.Disclosure of Interests:Susan Due Kay: None declared, Federica Genovese Shareholder of: Own Nordic Bioscience stocks, Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Anne Sofie Siebuhr Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Morten Karsdal Shareholder of: Nordic Bioscience A/S., Employee of: Full time employee at Nordic Bioscience A/S., Anne Voss: None declared, Peter Junker: None declared

In 2015, the European Union passed the PSD2 regulation, with the aim of transferring ownership of bank accounts to the private person. As a result, Open Banking has become an emerging concept, which provides third-party financial service providers open access to bank APIs, including consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data. However, such openness may also incur many security issues, especially when the data can be exposed by an API to a third party. Focused on this challenge, the primary goal of this work is to develop one innovative web solution to the market. We advocate that the solution should be able to trigger transactions based on goals and actions, allowing users to save up money while encouraging positive habits. In particular, we propose a solution with an architectural model that ensures clear separation of concern and easy integration with Nordea’s (the largest bank in the Nordics) Open Banking APIs (sandbox version), and a technological stack with the microframework Flask, the cloud application platform Heroku, and persistent data storage layer using Postgres. We analyze and map the web application’s security threats and determine whether or not the technological frame can provide suitable security level, based on the OWASP Top 10 threats and threat modelling methodology. The results indicate that many of these security measures are either handled automatically by the components offered by the technical stack or are easily preventable through included packages of the Flask Framework. Our findings can support future developers and industries working with web applications for Open Banking towards improving security by choosing the right frameworks and considering the most important vulnerabilities.

The importance of social trust has become widely accepted in the social sciences. A number of explanations have been put forward for the stark variation in social trust among countries. Among these, participation in voluntary associations received most attention. Yet there is scant evidence that participation can lead to trust. In this article, the authors examine a variable that has not gotten the attention it deserves in the discussion about the sources of generalized trust, namely, equality. They conceptualize equality along two dimensions: economic equality and equality of opportunity. The omission of both these dimensions of equality in the social capital literature is peculiar for several reasons. First, it is obvious that the countries that score highest on social trust also rank highest on economic equality, namely, the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and Canada. Second, these countries have put a lot of effort in creating equality of opportunity, not least in regard to their policies for public education, health care, labor market opportunities, and (more recently) gender equality. The argument for increasing social trust by reducing inequality has largely been ignored in the policy debates about social trust. Social capital research has to a large extent been used by several governments and policy organizations to send a message to people that the bad things in their society are caused by too little volunteering. The policy implications that follow from the authors' research is that the low levels of trust and social capital that plague many countries are caused by too little government action to reduce inequality. However, many countries with low levels of social trust and social capital may be stuck in what is known as a social trap. The logic of such a situation is the following. Social trust will not increase because massive social inequality prevails, but the public policies that could remedy this situation cannot be established precisely because there is a genuine lack of trust. This lack of trust concerns both “other people” and the government institutions that are needed to implement universal policies.

I welcome you with most significant pleasure and honour to the Volume 1 Issue 4 of Indian-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance. In this Issue 4, the emphasis is placed on accounting, taxation, business administration, corporate governance and risk management, accounting regulation and financial reporting, and accounting. In the first paper entitled “Board Characteristics, Corporate Performance and CEO Turnover Decisions: An empirical study of listed Non-financial Companies”, Mr Yahya Uthman Abdullahi (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia), Dr. Rokiah Ishak (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) and Dr. Norfaiezah Sawandi (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) examine the influence of board characteristics and corporate performance on CEO turnover decisions using a sample of 144 firms from non-financial companies listed on the Nigerian Stock exchange between the periods of 2011 to 2015. The study adopts agency and resource dependency theories to support its objectives and applies a logistic regression statistical technique to analyse the results. The results show that board nominating committee has a significant positive relationship with CEO turnover and board gender diversity has a negative influence on CEO turnover. Also, the study also finds that poor corporate performance leads to CEO turnover. In concurring with the findings, the study suggests to the government to enact legislation on gender quota for more women appointment on the board of the corporation to better the performance of the firm, and as well to enhance the monitoring role of the board. In the second paper with the caption “Factors affecting the productivity of IRBM Field Tax Auditor: A Case Study in Malaysia”, Mr Sabin Samitah (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia), Prof Dr Kamil Md Idris (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) and Dr Saliza Abdul Aziz (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) explore the idea of factors affecting the productivity of field tax auditors in the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM). This study is significant because IRBM has not yet implemented a systematic method of deploying officers to the field tax audit unit throughout Malaysia. The factors identified could be used as a reference in designing future human development programme in IRBM with particular emphasis on field tax auditors. Several variables have been defined, which broadly classified into individual characteristics and external factors. Data for the analysis are sourced from IRBM’s internal database, unpublished records and direct questionnaire of all respondents engaged in the field audit in Klang Valley. The proposed idea would analyse the relationship between auditors’ productivity and various variables based on the initial assumption that all variables are influencing the productivity through direct impact. This is, however, merely an initial expectation and subject to further data analysis once the data collection is implemented and completed. In the third paper with the title “Knowledge sharing and barriers in Organisations: A conceptual paper on Knowledge-Management Strategy”, Mr Saravanan Nadason (School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia), Associate Prof Dr Ram Al-Jaffri Saad (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) and Dr Aidi Ahmi (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia) investigates the barriers that give impact towards the knowledge sharing among individuals in organisations. Knowledge sharing becomes the significant part of many organisations’ knowledge-management strategy. Even though the knowledge sharing is signifying practice for organisations’ competitiveness directly and market performance indirectly, several barriers make it difficult for knowledge management to achieve the goals and deliver a positive return on investment (ROI). The barriers were identified through literature reviews. The findings of previous studies revealed that several factors affect the knowledge sharing in organisations. This paper provides the analysis of significant factors that influence knowledge sharing in organisations, which comprise the individuals, culture, technology and organisation. In the fourth paper entitled “Ownership Structure and Earnings Management of listed Conglomerates in Nigeria”, Dr Musa Adeiza Farouk (Department of Accounting, Ahmadu Bello University) and Dr Nafiu Muhammad Bashir (Department of Business Administration, Ahmadu Bello University) examine the effect of ownership structure on earnings management of listed conglomerates in Nigeria. Ownership structure is represented with managerial ownership, institutional ownership, block ownership and foreign ownership, while earnings management is measured using modified Jones model by Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney (1995). Data were obtained from the six listed conglomerates on the Nigerian Stock Exchange covering the period 2008-2014 through their annual reports and accounts. The findings show that managerial ownership and ownership concentration have a significant and adverse effect on earnings management of listed conglomerates in Nigeria, while foreign ownership recorded positive and significant impact on earnings management of firms, institutional ownership was however reported to have an insignificant but negative influence on earnings management. The study, therefore, recommends that management should be encouraged to have more interest through shares in the organisation as it enables them to have more sense of belonging, which in turn will help mitigate their opportunistic tendencies. Also, the institutional ownership should be improved upon through allotment of more shares as these categories of investors are well informed and could be more vigilant over their stake in the organisation thereby performing monitoring role to mitigate earnings management. In the fifth paper with the title “Corporate Governance Structure and Firm Performance: A Case Study of Malaysian University Holdings Companies”, Prof Dr Wan Nordin Wan Hussina (Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia), Dr. Norfaiezah Sawandi (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia), and Dr Hasnah Shaari (Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia) analyse the corporate governance structure and performance of Malaysian public university holding companies from 2010 to 2014. The sample comprises eight public university holding companies. Data were obtained by using three methods, namely: survey, semi-structured interview, and documentation review. The board structure and board sub-committees practices of these case organisations were evaluated against the best practice recommendation of (i) the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) 2012, (ii) the Green Book 2006, and (iii) other relevant acts. The firm performance is measured using four indicators which are sales, profit before tax, net profit margin and return on equity. Overall, their study finds that the practice and structure of corporate governance of the holding companies are excellent. However, their study reveals non-compliance by companies about certain aspects of the recommendations of Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2012 (MCCG) and the Green Book. The study also observed that the practice of governance between the university companies is not uniform. The findings provide an insight into the competence of the ministry of higher education as the shareholder to improve the monitoring of the public university holding companies. As you read through this Vol. 1 Issue 4 of IPJAF, I would like to reiterate that the success of the journal depends on your active participation and those of your colleagues and friends through submission of high-quality articles within the journal scope for review and publication. I acknowledge your support as we endeavour to make IPJAF the most authoritative journal on accounting and finance for the community of academic, professional, industry, society and government.

Background: In the phase 2 JULIET trial, tisagenlecleucel, an anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy, demonstrated durable responses and manageable safety in adult patients (pts) with r/r DLBCL. Here, we examine the impact of key product cellular attributes of tisagenlecleucel on clinical outcomes. Methods: JULIET is a single-arm, global, phase 2 trial of tisagenlecleucel in adult pts with r/r DLBCL. Samples from 115 tisagenlecleucel individual products were examined at the end of manufacturing at the batch release testing for various product attributes (Table). Additional detailed immunophenotyping for 66 attributes was conducted on previously frozen product samples via flow cytometry (FC). For each cell population of CAR+ T cells, the percentage and absolute number of the subpopulation were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate effects of product attributes and CAR+ T-cell phenotypes on efficacy (Month 3 response [M3R], duration of response [DOR], progression-free survival [PFS], overall survival [OS]) and safety (cytokine release syndrome [CRS] and neurological events [NE], grade 0-2 [low] vs 3-4 [severe]). Several exploratory approaches, including machine learning methods (eg, elastic net and random forest), were pursued in conjunction with logistic regression to identify a set of variables associated with clinical outcomes. We included clinically relevant characteristics evaluated at baseline per protocol (LDH, CRP, and tumor volume) with the product attributes in multivariate modeling. Logistic regression was used to model M3R, CRS, and NE. Cox regression was used to model DOR, PFS, and OS. Results: As of December 11, 2018, 115 pts were infused and evaluable. The median T-cell transduction efficiency by FC was 28% (range, 5.3-63.2%); no relationship of these attributes with efficacy (M3R, DOR, PFS, or OS) or safety (severe CRS or NE) was observed. The percentage of viable cells had no impact on efficacy or safety outcomes; this was anticipated since tisagenlecleucel dose is formulated based on the number of viable CAR+ T cells. Tisagenlecleucel demonstrated in vitro functional activity upon CD19-specific stimulation, as evidenced by IFNγ release, with a wide range among different batches (range, 23.7-938 fg/CAR+ cell). Durable responses were observed across the entire range of IFNγ release; high IFNγ release was not associated with severe CRS or NE. The median ratio of CAR+ CD4+ to CD8+ cells was 3.70 (range, 0.26-65.3); no relationship with clinical outcomes was observed (Figure). CAR+ T cells showed variability in T-cell phenotypes, with central memory (CM) cells as the predominant subpopulation of both CD4+ and CD8+ CAR+ T cells (Figure). The majority of CAR+ T cells were highly activated (co-expressing HLA-DR and CD38), as measured by FC. Relative and absolute number of less mature T cells (naive and CM T cells) in the product did not correlate with efficacy. There was no significant correlation between cell populations and efficacy on multivariate analyses. For CRS, the total number of certain CD4+ T cells expressing activation markers (HLA-DR+, CD25+, or HLA-DR+CD38+) and CM cells showed trends of correlation with more severe CRS, but none of these were significant after p-value adjustment; in a multivariate regression model adjusted for LDH and other clinically relevant factors, HLA-DR+ CD38+CD4+ T cells showed a correlation with severe CRS. Correlation analyses did not reveal product attributes significantly related to severe NE. Conclusions: In JULIET, tisagenlecleucel CAR-T cell product attributes had no significant impact on efficacy or NE; the total number of activated CD4+ cells infused positively correlated with higher-grade CRS. There is great variability in the product attributes, especially with respect to T-cell phenotypes, though this variability appears to play a minor role on efficacy. Additional analyses with larger data sets are required to confirm these findings. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02445248. Disclosures Bachanova: Novartis: Research Funding; Gamida Cell: Research Funding; GT Biopharma: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kite: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding. Tam:BeiGene: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Roche: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding. Jaeger:Novartis, Roche, Sandoz: Consultancy; AbbVie, Celgene, Gilead, Novartis, Roche, Takeda Millennium: Research Funding; Amgen, AbbVie, Celgene, Eisai, Gilead, Janssen, Novartis, Roche, Takeda Millennium, MSD, BMS, Sanofi: Honoraria; Celgene, Roche, Janssen, Gilead, Novartis, MSD, AbbVie, Sanofi: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. McGuirk:Novartis: Research Funding; Fresenius Biotech: Research Funding; Astellas: Research Funding; Bellicum Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Gamida Cell: Research Funding; Pluristem Ltd: Research Funding; ArticulateScience LLC: Other: Assistance with manuscript preparation; Juno Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Holte:Novartis: Honoraria, Other: Advisory board. Waller:Amgen: Consultancy; Kalytera: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Other: Travel expenses, Research Funding; Cerus Corporation: Other: Stock, Patents & Royalties; Chimerix: Other: Stock; Cambium Oncology: Patents & Royalties: Patents, royalties or other intellectual property . Jaglowski:Juno: Consultancy, Other: advisory board; Kite: Consultancy, Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Unum Therapeutics Inc.: Research Funding. Bishop:CRISPR Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kite: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Juno: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Andreadis:Celgene: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Roche: Equity Ownership; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy; Kite: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy, Employment; Juno: Research Funding. Foley:Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Speakers Bureau. Westin:Unum: Research Funding; Genentech: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Novartis: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Janssen: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Juno: Other: Advisory Board; Kite: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; 47 Inc: Research Funding; Curis: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; MorphoSys: Other: Advisory Board; Celgene: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding. Fleury:Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria; AstraZeneca: Consultancy. Ho:Janssen: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; Celgene: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; La Jolla: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; Novartis: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs. Mielke:Miltenyi: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and speakers fee (via institution), Speakers Bureau; DGHO: Other: Travel support; Jazz Pharma: Honoraria, Other: Travel support, Speakers Bureau; EBMT/EHA: Other: Travel support; Celgene: Honoraria, Other: Travel support (via institution), Speakers Bureau; ISCT: Other: Travel support; Bellicum: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel (via institution); GILEAD: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: travel (via institution), Speakers Bureau; Kiadis Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel support (via institution), Speakers Bureau; IACH: Other: Travel support. Teshima:Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding. Salles:Roche, Janssen, Gilead, Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Amgen: Honoraria, Other: Educational events; BMS: Honoraria; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis, Servier, AbbVie, Karyopharm, Kite, MorphoSys: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Autolus: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria. Schuster:Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Acerta: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Loxo Oncology: Consultancy, Honoraria; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Nordic Nanovector: Consultancy, Honoraria; Genentech: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Patents & Royalties: Combination CAR-T and PD-1 Inhibitors, Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Maziarz:Kite: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene/Juno: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Van Besien:Miltenyi Biotec: Research Funding. Izutsu:Eisai, Chugai, Zenyaku: Honoraria; Chugai, Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Astra Zeneca, Eisai, Symbio, Ono, Bayer, Solasia, Zenyaku, Incyte, Novartis, Sanofi, HUYA Bioscience, MSD, Astellas Amgen, Abbvie, ARIAD, Takeda, Pfizer: Research Funding; Eisai, Symbio, Chugai, Zenyaku: Research Funding; Kyowa Kirin, Eisai, Takeda, MSD, Chugai, Nihon Medi-physics, Janssen, Ono, Abbvie, Dainihon Sumitomo, Bayer, Astra Zeneca, HUYA Japan, Novartis, Bristol-Byers Squibb, Mundi, Otsuka, Daiichi Sankyo, Astellas, Asahi Kasei: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy. Kersten:Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy, Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Janssen/Cilag: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Gilead: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Amgen: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Roche: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Celgene: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Roche: Consultancy, Research Funding, Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; MSD: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Bristol Myers Squibb: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards. Wagner-Johnston:ADC Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bayer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jannsen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Corradini:Celgene: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Jazz Pharmaceutics: Honoraria; KiowaKirin: Honoraria; Kite: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Roche: Honoraria; Sanofi: Honoraria; Servier: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; BMS: Other: Travel Costs; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Amgen: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Gilead: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria. Chu:Novartis: Employment. Gershgorin:Novartis: Employment. Choquette:Novartis: Employment. Bubuteishvili Pacaud:Novartis: Employment. Jeschke:Novartis: Employment.

Background: Tisagenlecleucel, an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, has demonstrated durable responses and a manageable safety profile in adult patients (pts) with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (r/r DLBCL). We report the correlation of pre- and post-infusion factors and biomarkers with efficacy in tisagenlecleucel-treated pts with r/r DLBCL. Methods: Results from JULIET, a global, single-arm, pivotal, phase 2 trial of tisagenlecleucel in adult pts with r/r DLBCL, were analyzed to identify baseline disease and pt characteristics and serum biomarkers that may correlate with efficacy. The relationships between markers such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), baseline tumor volume (TV, within 30 days prior to infusion) using positron emission tomography/computed tomography, pre-treatment C-reactive protein (CRP) and thrombocytopenia, as well as cytokine release syndrome (CRS; Penn scale)/neurological events (NE; CTCAE v4.03) severity, and month 3 response (complete or partial response [CR, PR]), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were assessed. Results: As of December 11, 2018, 115 pts were infused with tisagenlecleucel and evaluable for efficacy. Baseline TV did not correlate with month 3 response; we then examined additional pre-treatment candidate factors. Median LDH levels at enrollment, pre-lymphodepleting chemotherapy (LDC), and pre-infusion were higher in nonresponders (NRs) compared with pts achieving CR/PR. 15/16 pts with pre-infusion grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia (<50 x 109/L) were NRs. Pre-infusion CRP levels did not associate with month 3 response. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that high pre-infusion LDH levels (defined as higher than 2-fold the upper limit of normal [ULN]) were independently associated with NRs. Compared with pts with normal levels of LDH at pre-infusion, pts with LDH 1-2-fold above the ULN and >2-fold above the ULN had poorer PFS and OS (Figure 1). Similar separations of PFS and OS were observed with LDH levels at enrollment and pre-LDC. Pts with pre-infusion platelet levels <50 x 109/L also had significantly worse PFS and OS compared with pts with platelet levels ≥50 x 109/L. Pre-infusion high TV, high CRP, high ferritin, and low serum albumin associated with worse OS, but not PFS. Additional analyses including factors at enrollment and pre-LDC will be presented. Post-infusion, correlations between severe (grade 3/4) CRS/NE and efficacy were examined. All 13 pts with severe NE were NRs. 9/17 pts with grade 3 CRS and all 9 pts with grade 4 CRS were also NRs. In addition, pts with severe CRS had worse PFS and OS compared with pts with grade 0-2 CRS. Similarly, pts with severe NE had worse PFS and OS compared with pts with grade 0-2 NE. High pre-infusion LDH and pre-infusion grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia and severe NE were independently associated with poorer PFS in Cox regression analyses. Severe CRS did not correlate with PFS in a multivariate Cox model. Pts with severe CRS who were also NRs had higher median baseline TV compared with other pts. Notably, the highest levels of serum biomarkers (eg, ferritin, IL4, IL8, IL10), highest LDH, and lowest platelet counts within 1 month post-infusion were observed in pts with severe CRS who were also NRs, compared with pts with severe CRS who achieved CR/PR and pts with grade 0-2 CRS. Analyses of the impact of tocilizumab and steroids usage are ongoing. Conclusions: Multivariate analyses identified that high levels of pre-infusion LDH, a known marker of tumor burden, metabolic activity, and disease aggressiveness, was associated with NRs at month 3 as well as worse PFS and OS. Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia at pre-infusion and grade 3/4 NE were also associated with poor efficacy outcomes. Furthermore, the highest serum biomarker profiles post-infusion appeared to associate with pts with severe CRS who were also NRs. Overall, these analyses suggest that a subset of pts with aggressive disease at infusion and/or pts with severe CRS/NE had poorer outcomes in the JULIET trial. These analyses may reinforce the rationale for current and future directions of using CAR-T cell therapy in an earlier line of therapy (during less aggressive/less advanced disease), optimizing pt care, and developing interventions to prevent severe CRS and/or NE. Clinical trial information: NCT02445248. Disclosures Westin: Genentech: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Novartis: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Curis: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Celgene: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; 47 Inc: Research Funding; Juno: Other: Advisory Board; MorphoSys: Other: Advisory Board; Unum: Research Funding; Janssen: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Kite: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding. Tam:Roche: Honoraria; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; BeiGene: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Jaeger:Novartis, Roche, Sandoz: Consultancy; Celgene, Roche, Janssen, Gilead, Novartis, MSD, AbbVie, Sanofi: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen, AbbVie, Celgene, Eisai, Gilead, Janssen, Novartis, Roche, Takeda Millennium, MSD, BMS, Sanofi: Honoraria; AbbVie, Celgene, Gilead, Novartis, Roche, Takeda Millennium: Research Funding. McGuirk:Bellicum Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Gamida Cell: Research Funding; Pluristem Ltd: Research Funding; ArticulateScience LLC: Other: Assistance with manuscript preparation; Juno Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Astellas: Research Funding; Fresenius Biotech: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding. Holte:Novartis: Honoraria, Other: Advisory board. Waller:Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Other: Travel expenses, Research Funding; Cerus Corporation: Other: Stock, Patents & Royalties; Chimerix: Other: Stock; Cambium Oncology: Patents & Royalties: Patents, royalties or other intellectual property ; Amgen: Consultancy; Kalytera: Consultancy. Jaglowski:Juno: Consultancy, Other: advisory board; Unum Therapeutics Inc.: Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy, Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: advisory board, Research Funding. Bishop:Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Juno: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; CRISPR Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Kite: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Andreadis:Celgene: Research Funding; Juno: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Employment; Kite: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Roche: Equity Ownership. Foley:Janssen: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau. Fleury:Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria; AstraZeneca: Consultancy. Ho:Janssen: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; Celgene: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; La Jolla: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs; Novartis: Other: Trial Investigator meeting travel costs. Mielke:EBMT/EHA: Other: Travel support; IACH: Other: Travel support; Celgene: Honoraria, Other: Travel support (via institution), Speakers Bureau; Kiadis Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel support (via institution), Speakers Bureau; GILEAD: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: travel (via institution), Speakers Bureau; Miltenyi: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel and speakers fee (via institution), Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharma: Honoraria, Other: Travel support, Speakers Bureau; DGHO: Other: Travel support; Bellicum: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel (via institution); ISCT: Other: Travel support. Teshima:Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding. Schuster:AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Patents & Royalties: Combination CAR-T and PD-1 Inhibitors, Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Loxo Oncology: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Nordic Nanovector: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Acerta: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Bachanova:Seattle Genetics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; GT Biopharma: Research Funding; Kite: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gamida Cell: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. Maziarz:Kite: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene/Juno: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Van Besien:Miltenyi Biotec: Research Funding. Izutsu:Eisai, Symbio, Chugai, Zenyaku: Research Funding; Eisai, Chugai, Zenyaku: Honoraria; Chugai, Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Astra Zeneca, Eisai, Symbio, Ono, Bayer, Solasia, Zenyaku, Incyte, Novartis, Sanofi, HUYA Bioscience, MSD, Astellas Amgen, Abbvie, ARIAD, Takeda, Pfizer: Research Funding; Kyowa Kirin, Eisai, Takeda, MSD, Chugai, Nihon Medi-physics, Janssen, Ono, Abbvie, Dainihon Sumitomo, Bayer, Astra Zeneca, HUYA Japan, Novartis, Bristol-Byers Squibb, Mundi, Otsuka, Daiichi Sankyo, Astellas, Asahi Kasei: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy. Kersten:Bristol Myers Squibb: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Gilead: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Roche: Consultancy, Research Funding, Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Amgen: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Roche: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Celgene: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Kite: Consultancy, Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Janssen/Cilag: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; MSD: Other: Travel grants, honorarium, or advisory boards; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding. Wagner-Johnston:Bayer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ADC Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jannsen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Corradini:Jazz Pharmaceutics: Honoraria; KiowaKirin: Honoraria; Kite: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Roche: Honoraria; Sanofi: Honoraria; Servier: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; BMS: Other: Travel Costs; Celgene: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Janssen: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Gilead: Honoraria, Other: Travel Costs; Amgen: Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria. Han:Novartis: Employment. Tiwari:Novartis: Employment. Agoulnik:Novartis: Employment. Eldjerou:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Employment. Bubuteishvili Pacaud:Novartis: Employment. Salles:Autolus: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Honoraria, Other: Educational events; BMS: Honoraria; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis, Servier, AbbVie, Karyopharm, Kite, MorphoSys: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Roche, Janssen, Gilead, Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Educational events; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria.

This article presents the first description and analysis of the exchange-traded notes (ETNs) and certificates tracking the Nordic power futures market that enable retail investors to hedge and trade on the Oslo and Stockholm Nordic stock exchanges. We investigate the impacts of the underlying front-quarter futures contract, its daily change, the roll cost, the EUR/NOK and EUR/SEK exchange rates, and the interest rate level and fees on the ETNs and certificates. An analysis of the ETNs and certificates on the Nordic stock exchanges from December 2010 to February 2015 shows continual investment activity, even though prices were in a consistent downtrend during the period. We conclude with a description of some strategies which retail investors can use.

This article investigates the performance of the stock market and its volatility in the travel and leisure industry for three Nordic countries using daily data from June 2018 to June 2020, a period that includes the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic. The methodology is based on the Markov regime switching model that allows unobservable regime shifts in the stock return relationship between the travel and leisure industry and the overall market in the period before the outbreak of Covid-19 crisis and during the recovery period at the end of the first wave. The results provide strong evidence of regime switching behaviour in the form of idiosyncratic risk as measured by volatility. The period before Covid-19 corresponds to a low/medium idiosyncratic risk, while the period of the pandemic is characterized by a regime with high idiosyncratic risk. Overall, the timing, likelihood and duration of this crisis regime depend on the composition of the travel and leisure firms. Those with a large proportion of online gambling firms perform better, while those consisting of international transportation firms, hotels and restaurants perform negatively. This study shows that the high-frequency data and the model chosen here can provide timely information on the impact of the pandemic on various tourism and leisure businesses that could be useful for policymaking.

Before the covid-19 pandemic, significant advances have been made in the advanced industrialized economies toward greater gender equality in the workplace, especially since the 1990s. However, the first year of the pandemic has led to dramatic backsliding in gender equality even among countries that have adopted sizeable relief packages to combat the devastating economic effects of the pandemic. This commentary argues that the pandemic has reinforced existing vulnerabilities in IPE. The essay takes stock of government economic support measures in selected OECD economies. It then compares the government responses in two representative cases with very different welfare state legacies—Denmark as a case representative of the Nordic welfare state model and the USA as a case representative of the liberal welfare state model. The main finding is that the Nordic welfare state model has been more successful in protecting vulnerable social groups, such as women, in times of severe crisis. The contrast is especially visible if we compare the performance of Denmark in terms of maintaining female labor force participation during the pandemic with that of the USA, where women as a social group have been set back decades in terms of exit from the formal labor market as well as loss of job and career opportunities.

Special Care Notice This article contains images of deceased people that might cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers. Introduction Like many cities, Perth was founded on wetlands that have been integral to its history and culture (Seddon 226–32). However, in order to promote a settlement agenda, early mapmakers sought to erase the city’s wetlands from cartographic depictions (Giblett, Cities). Since the colonial era, inner-Perth’s swamps and lakes have been drained, filled, significantly reduced in size, or otherwise reclaimed for urban expansion (Bekle). Not only have the swamps and lakes physically disappeared, the memories of their presence and influence on the city’s development over time are also largely forgotten. What was the site of Perth, specifically its wetlands, like before British settlement? In 2014, an interdisciplinary team at Edith Cowan University developed a digital visualisation process to re-imagine Perth prior to colonisation. This was based on early maps of the Swan River Colony and a range of archival information. The images depicted the city’s topography, hydrology, and vegetation and became the centerpiece of a physical exhibition entitled Re-imagining Perth’s Lost Wetlands and a virtual exhibition hosted by the Western Australian Museum. Alongside historic maps, paintings, photographs, and writings, the visual reconstruction of Perth aimed to foster appreciation of the pre-settlement environment—the homeland of the Whadjuck Nyoongar, or Bibbulmun, people (Carter and Nutter). The exhibition included the narrative of Fanny Balbuk, a Nyoongar woman who voiced her indignation over the “usurping of her beloved home ground” (Bates, The Passing 69) by flouting property lines and walking through private residences to reach places of cultural significance. Beginning with Balbuk’s story and the digital tracing of her walking route through colonial Perth, this article discusses the project in the context of contemporary pressures on the city’s extant wetlands. The re-imagining of Perth through historically, culturally, and geographically-grounded digital visualisation approaches can inspire the conservation of its wetlands heritage. Balbuk’s Walk through the City For many who grew up in Perth, Fanny Balbuk’s perambulations have achieved legendary status in the collective cultural imagination. In his memoir, David Whish-Wilson mentions Balbuk’s defiant walks and the lighting up of the city for astronaut John Glenn in 1962 as the two stories that had the most impact on his Perth childhood. From Gordon Stephenson House, Whish-Wilson visualises her journey in his mind’s eye, past Government House on St Georges Terrace (the main thoroughfare through the city centre), then north on Barrack Street towards the railway station, the site of Lake Kingsford where Balbuk once gathered bush tucker (4). He considers the footpaths “beneath the geometric frame of the modern city […] worn smooth over millennia that snake up through the sheoak and marri woodland and into the city’s heart” (Whish-Wilson 4). Balbuk’s story embodies the intertwined culture and nature of Perth—a city of wetlands. Born in 1840 on Heirisson Island, Balbuk (also known as Yooreel) (Figure 1) had ancestral bonds to the urban landscape. According to Daisy Bates, writing in the early 1900s, the Nyoongar term Matagarup, or “leg deep,” denotes the passage of shallow water near Heirisson Island where Balbuk would have forded the Swan River (“Oldest” 16). Yoonderup was recorded as the Nyoongar name for Heirisson Island (Bates, “Oldest” 16) and the birthplace of Balbuk’s mother (Bates, “Aboriginal”). In the suburb of Shenton Park near present-day Lake Jualbup, her father bequeathed to her a red ochre (or wilgi) pit that she guarded fervently throughout her life (Bates, “Aboriginal”).Figure 1. Group of Aboriginal Women at Perth, including Fanny Balbuk (far right) (c. 1900). Image Credit: State Library of Western Australia (Image Number: 44c). Balbuk’s grandparents were culturally linked to the site. At his favourite camp beside the freshwater spring near Kings Park on Mounts Bay Road, her grandfather witnessed the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Irwin, cousin of James Stirling (Bates, “Fanny”). In 1879, colonial entrepreneurs established the Swan Brewery at this significant locale (Welborn). Her grandmother’s gravesite later became Government House (Bates, “Fanny”) and she protested vociferously outside “the stone gates guarded by a sentry [that] enclosed her grandmother’s burial ground” (Bates, The Passing 70). Balbuk’s other grandmother was buried beneath Bishop’s Grove, the residence of the city’s first archibishop, now Terrace Hotel (Bates, “Aboriginal”). Historian Bob Reece observes that Balbuk was “the last full-descent woman of Kar’gatta (Karrakatta), the Bibbulmun name for the Mount Eliza [Kings Park] area of Perth” (134). According to accounts drawn from Bates, her home ground traversed the area between Heirisson Island and Perth’s north-western limits. In Kings Park, one of her relatives was buried near a large, hollow tree used by Nyoongar people like a cistern to capture water and which later became the site of the Queen Victoria Statue (Bates, “Aboriginal”). On the slopes of Mount Eliza, the highest point of Kings Park, at the western end of St Georges Terrace, she harvested plant foods, including zamia fruits (Macrozamia riedlei) (Bates, “Fanny”). Fanny Balbuk’s knowledge contributed to the native title claim lodged by Nyoongar people in 2006 as Bennell v. State of Western Australia—the first of its kind to acknowledge Aboriginal land rights in a capital city and part of the larger Single Nyoongar Claim (South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council et al.). Perth’s colonial administration perceived the city’s wetlands as impediments to progress and as insalubrious environments to be eradicated through reclamation practices. For Balbuk and other Nyoongar people, however, wetlands were “nourishing terrains” (Rose) that afforded sustenance seasonally and meaning perpetually (O’Connor, Quartermaine, and Bodney). Mary Graham, a Kombu-merri elder from Queensland, articulates the connection between land and culture, “because land is sacred and must be looked after, the relation between people and land becomes the template for society and social relations. Therefore all meaning comes from land.” Traditional, embodied reliance on Perth’s wetlands is evident in Bates’ documentation. For instance, Boojoormeup was a “big swamp full of all kinds of food, now turned into Palmerston and Lake streets” (Bates, “Aboriginal”). Considering her cultural values, Balbuk’s determination to maintain pathways through the increasingly colonial Perth environment is unsurprising (Figure 2). From Heirisson Island: a straight track had led to the place where once she had gathered jilgies [crayfish] and vegetable food with the women, in the swamp where Perth railway station now stands. Through fences and over them, Balbuk took the straight track to the end. When a house was built in the way, she broke its fence-palings with her digging stick and charged up the steps and through the rooms. (Bates, The Passing 70) One obstacle was Hooper’s Fence, which Balbuk broke repeatedly on her trips to areas between Kings Park and the railway station (Bates, “Hooper’s”). Her tenacious commitment to walking ancestral routes signifies the friction between settlement infrastructure and traditional Nyoongar livelihood during an era of rapid change. Figure 2. Determination of Fanny Balbuk’s Journey between Yoonderup (Heirisson Island) and Lake Kingsford, traversing what is now the central business district of Perth on the Swan River (2014). Image background prepared by Dimitri Fotev. Track interpolation by Jeff Murray. Project Background and Approach Inspired by Fanny Balbuk’s story, Re-imagining Perth’s Lost Wetlands began as an Australian response to the Mannahatta Project. Founded in 1999, that project used spatial analysis techniques and mapping software to visualise New York’s urbanised Manhattan Island—or Mannahatta as it was called by indigenous people—in the early 1600s (Sanderson). Based on research into the island’s original biogeography and the ecological practices of Native Americans, Mannahatta enabled the public to “peel back” the city’s strata, revealing the original composition of the New York site. The layers of visuals included rich details about the island’s landforms, water systems, and vegetation. Mannahatta compelled Rod Giblett, a cultural researcher at Edith Cowan University, to develop an analogous model for visualising Perth circa 1829. The idea attracted support from the City of Perth, Landgate, and the University. Using stories, artefacts, and maps, the team—comprising a cartographer, designer, three-dimensional modelling expert, and historical researchers—set out to generate visualisations of the landscape at the time of British colonisation. Nyoongar elder Noel Nannup approved culturally sensitive material and contributed his perspective on Aboriginal content to include in the exhibition. The initiative’s context remains pressing. In many ways, Perth has become a template for development in the metropolitan area (Weller). While not unusual for a capital, the rate of transformation is perhaps unexpected in a city less than 200 years old (Forster). There also remains a persistent view of existing wetlands as obstructions to progress that, once removed, are soon forgotten (Urban Bushland Council). Digital visualisation can contribute to appreciating environments prior to colonisation but also to re-imagining possibilities for future human interactions with land, water, and space. Despite the rapid pace of change, many Perth area residents have memories of wetlands lost during their lifetimes (for example, Giblett, Forrestdale). However, as the clearing and drainage of the inner city occurred early in settlement, recollections of urban wetlands exist exclusively in historical records. In 1935, a local correspondent using the name “Sandgroper” reminisced about swamps, connecting them to Perth’s colonial heritage: But the Swamps were very real in fact, and in name in the [eighteen-] Nineties, and the Perth of my youth cannot be visualised without them. They were, of course, drying up apace, but they were swamps for all that, and they linked us directly with the earliest days of the Colony when our great-grandparents had founded this City of Perth on a sort of hog's-back, of which Hay-street was the ridge, and from which a succession of streamlets ran down its southern slope to the river, while land locked to the north of it lay a series of lakes which have long since been filled to and built over so that the only evidence that they have ever existed lies in the original street plans of Perth prepared by Roe and Hillman in the early eighteen-thirties. A salient consequence of the loss of ecological memory is the tendency to repeat the miscues of the past, especially the blatant disregard for natural and cultural heritage, as suburbanisation engulfs the area. While the swamps of inner Perth remain only in the names of streets, existing wetlands in the metropolitan area are still being threatened, as the Roe Highway (Roe 8) Campaign demonstrates. To re-imagine Perth’s lost landscape, we used several colonial survey maps to plot the location of the original lakes and swamps. At this time, a series of interconnecting waterbodies, known as the Perth Great Lakes, spread across the north of the city (Bekle and Gentilli). This phase required the earliest cartographic sources (Figure 3) because, by 1855, city maps no longer depicted wetlands. We synthesised contextual information, such as well depths, geological and botanical maps, settlers’ accounts, Nyoongar oral histories, and colonial-era artists’ impressions, to produce renderings of Perth. This diverse collection of primary and secondary materials served as the basis for creating new images of the city. Team member Jeff Murray interpolated Balbuk’s route using historical mappings and accounts, topographical data, court records, and cartographic common sense. He determined that Balbuk would have camped on the high ground of the southern part of Lake Kingsford rather than the more inundated northern part (Figure 2). Furthermore, she would have followed a reasonably direct course north of St Georges Terrace (contrary to David Whish-Wilson’s imaginings) because she was barred from Government House for protesting. This easier route would have also avoided the springs and gullies that appear on early maps of Perth. Figure 3. Townsite of Perth in Western Australia by Colonial Draftsman A. Hillman and John Septimus Roe (1838). This map of Perth depicts the wetlands that existed overlaid by the geomentric grid of the new city. Image Credit: State Library of Western Australia (Image Number: BA1961/14). Additionally, we produced an animated display based on aerial photographs to show the historical extent of change. Prompted by the build up to World War II, the earliest aerial photography of Perth dates from the late 1930s (Dixon 148–54). As “Sandgroper” noted, by this time, most of the urban wetlands had been drained or substantially modified. The animation revealed considerable alterations to the formerly swampy Swan River shoreline. Most prominent was the transformation of the Matagarup shallows across the Swan River, originally consisting of small islands. Now traversed by a causeway, this area was transformed into a single island, Heirisson—the general site of Balbuk’s birth. The animation and accompanying materials (maps, images, and writings) enabled viewers to apprehend the changes in real time and to imagine what the city was once like. Re-imagining Perth’s Urban Heart The physical environment of inner Perth includes virtually no trace of its wetland origins. Consequently, we considered whether a representation of Perth, as it existed previously, could enhance public understanding of natural heritage and thereby increase its value. For this reason, interpretive materials were exhibited centrally at Perth Town Hall. Built partly by convicts between 1867 and 1870, the venue is close to the site of the 1829 Foundation of Perth, depicted in George Pitt Morrison’s painting. Balbuk’s grandfather “camped somewhere in the city of Perth, not far from the Town Hall” (Bates, “Fanny”). The building lies one block from the site of the railway station on the site of Lake Kingsford, the subsistence grounds of Balbuk and her forebears: The old swamp which is now the Perth railway yards had been a favourite jilgi ground; a spring near the Town Hall had been a camping place of Maiago […] and others of her fathers' folk; and all around and about city and suburbs she had gathered roots and fished for crayfish in the days gone by. (Bates, “Derelicts” 55) Beginning in 1848, the draining of Lake Kingsford reached completion during the construction of the Town Hall. While the swamps of the city were not appreciated by many residents, some organisations, such as the Perth Town Trust, vigorously opposed the reclamation of the lake, alluding to its hydrological role: That, the soil being sand, it is not to be supposed that Lake Kingsford has in itself any material effect on the wells of Perth; but that, from this same reason of the sandy soil, it would be impossible to keep the lake dry without, by so doing, withdrawing the water from at least the adjacent parts of the townsite to the same depth. (Independent Journal of Politics and News 3) At the time of our exhibition, the Lake Kingsford site was again being reworked to sink the railway line and build Yagan Square, a public space named after a colonial-era Nyoongar leader. The project required specialised construction techniques due to the high water table—the remnants of the lake. People travelling to the exhibition by train in October 2014 could have seen the lake reasserting itself in partly-filled depressions, flush with winter rain (Figure 4).Figure 4. Rise of the Repressed (2014). Water Rising in the former site of Lake Kingsford/Irwin during construction, corner of Roe and Fitzgerald Streets, Northbridge, WA. Image Credit: Nandi Chinna (2014). The exhibition was situated in the Town Hall’s enclosed undercroft designed for markets and more recently for shops. While some visited after peering curiously through the glass walls of the undercroft, others hailed from local and state government organisations. Guest comments applauded the alternative view of Perth we presented. The content invited the public to re-imagine Perth as a city of wetlands that were both environmentally and culturally important. A display panel described how the city’s infrastructure presented a hindrance for Balbuk as she attempted to negotiate the once-familiar route between Yoonderup and Lake Kingsford (Figure 2). Perth’s growth “restricted Balbuk’s wanderings; towns, trains, and farms came through her ‘line of march’; old landmarks were thus swept away, and year after year saw her less confident of the locality of one-time familiar spots” (Bates, “Fanny”). Conserving Wetlands: From Re-Claiming to Re-Valuing? Imagination, for philosopher Roger Scruton, involves “thinking of, and attending to, a present object (by thinking of it, or perceiving it, in terms of something absent)” (155). According to Scruton, the feelings aroused through imagination can prompt creative, transformative experiences. While environmental conservation tends to rely on data-driven empirical approaches, it appeals to imagination less commonly. We have found, however, that attending to the present object (the city) in terms of something absent (its wetlands) through evocative visual material can complement traditional conservation agendas focused on habitats and species. The actual extent of wetlands loss in the Swan Coastal Plain—the flat and sandy region extending from Jurien Bay south to Cape Naturaliste, including Perth—is contested. However, estimates suggest that 80 per cent of wetlands have been lost, with remaining habitats threatened by climate change, suburban development, agriculture, and industry (Department of Environment and Conservation). As with the swamps and lakes of the inner city, many regional wetlands were cleared, drained, or filled before they could be properly documented. Additionally, the seasonal fluctuations of swampy places have never been easily translatable to two-dimensional records. As Giblett notes, the creation of cartographic representations and the assignment of English names were attempts to fix the dynamic boundaries of wetlands, at least in the minds of settlers and administrators (Postmodern 72–73). Moreover, European colonists found the Western Australian landscape, including its wetlands, generally discomfiting. In a letter from 1833, metaphors failed George Fletcher Moore, the effusive colonial commentator, “I cannot compare these swamps to any marshes with which you are familiar” (220). The intermediate nature of wetlands—as neither land nor lake—is perhaps one reason for their cultural marginalisation (Giblett, Postmodern 39). The conviction that unsanitary, miasmic wetlands should be converted to more useful purposes largely prevailed (Giblett, Black 105–22). Felicity Morel-EdnieBrown’s research into land ownership records in colonial Perth demonstrated that town lots on swampland were often preferred. By layering records using geographic information systems (GIS), she revealed modifications to town plans to accommodate swampland frontages. The decline of wetlands in the region appears to have been driven initially by their exploitation for water and later for fertile soil. Northern market gardens supplied the needs of the early city. It is likely that the depletion of Nyoongar bush foods predated the flourishing of these gardens (Carter and Nutter). Engaging with the history of Perth’s swamps raises questions about the appreciation of wetlands today. In an era where numerous conservation strategies and alternatives have been developed (for example, Bobbink et al. 93–220), the exploitation of wetlands in service to population growth persists. On Perth’s north side, wetlands have long been subdued by controlling their water levels and landscaping their boundaries, as the suburban examples of Lake Monger and Hyde Park (formerly Third Swamp Reserve) reveal. Largely unmodified wetlands, such as Forrestdale Lake, exist south of Perth, but they too are in danger (Giblett, Black Swan). The Beeliar Wetlands near the suburb of Bibra Lake comprise an interconnected series of lakes and swamps that are vulnerable to a highway extension project first proposed in the 1950s. Just as the Perth Town Trust debated Lake Kingsford’s draining, local councils and the public are fiercely contesting the construction of the Roe Highway, which will bisect Beeliar Wetlands, destroying Roe Swamp (Chinna). The conservation value of wetlands still struggles to compete with traffic planning underpinned by a modernist ideology that associates cars and freeways with progress (Gregory). Outside of archives, the debate about Lake Kingsford is almost entirely forgotten and its physical presence has been erased. Despite the magnitude of loss, re-imagining the city’s swamplands, in the way that we have, calls attention to past indiscretions while invigorating future possibilities. We hope that the re-imagining of Perth’s wetlands stimulates public respect for ancestral tracks and songlines like Balbuk’s. Despite the accretions of settler history and colonial discourse, songlines endure as a fundamental cultural heritage. Nyoongar elder Noel Nannup states, “as people, if we can get out there on our songlines, even though there may be farms or roads overlaying them, fences, whatever it is that might impede us from travelling directly upon them, if we can get close proximity, we can still keep our culture alive. That is why it is so important for us to have our songlines.” Just as Fanny Balbuk plied her songlines between Yoonderup and Lake Kingsford, the traditional custodians of Beeliar and other wetlands around Perth walk the landscape as an act of resistance and solidarity, keeping the stories of place alive. Acknowledgments The authors wish to acknowledge Rod Giblett (ECU), Nandi Chinna (ECU), Susanna Iuliano (ECU), Jeff Murray (Kareff Consulting), Dimitri Fotev (City of Perth), and Brendan McAtee (Landgate) for their contributions to this project. The authors also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands upon which this paper was researched and written. 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