Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea of transplanting the institution of homeowner associations or similar to existing urban neighbourhoods in order to correct imbalances in patterns of incentives and responsibilities that threaten the liveability and sustainability of cities. Design/methodology/approach -The paper compares a recent published proposal for privatising existing neighbourhoods with the current Taiwan Government's attempt to assist shops on retail streets to create their own micro-governance associations. The paper takes a strongly normative approach, using propositions from economic theory. Findings -The paper identifies several crucial factors in designing an institution for privatising existing commercial neighbourhoods; notably the usage of coercive power and the efficient alignment of property rights.Research limitations/implications -The discussion in the paper rests on a small number of case studies in Taiwan and on qualitative information collected by interviews with key informants. This information is sufficient to illustrate our normative theoretical arguments about institutional design. Practical implications -The paper offers some useful insights for public officials and private entrepreneurs seeking solutions to the problem of regeneration using voluntary urban neighbourhoods management. Originality/value -The paper is the first published work to explore the adoption of homeowner associations in commercial neighbourhoods. It is one of the few papers to analyse the issues arising, using an institutional framework based on the new institutional economics.

L-glutamate oxidase was immobilized in a photo-cross-linkable polymer membrane on a palladium strip electrode for the amperometric measurement of aspartate aminotransferas eactivity. The sample, serum for example, was injected into a buffered L-aspartate and a-ketoglutarate solution. L-aspartate is the essential substrate and can transfer to L-glutamate via the aspartate aminotransferase catalyzing reaction. Aspartate aminotransferase activity can be measured by determining the increasing rate of L-glutamate. Under the optimal condition, the current increasing rate was proportional to the aspartate aminotransferase activity of the sample in the range of 8 -200 U/L. The data are in good correlation (R 2 ¼ 0.998) with data from 933 a commercial aspartate aminotransferase assay kit. Good reproducibility (relative standard deviation ¼ 3.03%, n ¼ 8) was obtained from a sample with 50 U/L aspartate aminotransferase activity. The sensor is expectable to be applied in a clinical point-of-care diagnosis.

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Communicated by J. BanasiakThis paper presents a k-ary Montgomery modular inverse algorithm over nonbinary computers by using Sedjelmaci's right shift k-ary greatest common divisor scheme. Over traditional binary computers, Kaliski's scheme can output Montgomery modular inverse Q 1 2 n mod P, where P is coprime to Q and n is the bit length of P. Over k-ary computers, our algorithm can discover the k-ary Montgomery inverse Q 1 k m mod P, where P, Q, and k are pairwise relatively prime positive integers and m D log k P. In the worst case, the computational cost of our algorithm is O.m 2 /k-ary digit operations.