Consumption trends in the UK, 1975-99

How and why has the way in which the average British family spends its money changed over the past 25 years? Those are the key questions examined in this report, using data from the UK FES between 1975 and 1999. It looks not only at broad changes in total spending, but also at how the division of expenditure between basics and non-basics and between durable goods, non-durable goods and services has altered over time

London's congestion charge

On 17 February 2003, one of the world's largest and most ambitious plans to tackle urban congestion began, with the introduction of a congestion charge for central London. It is hoped that this £5 daily charge for many vehicles entering the Inner Ring Road charging zone will significantly reduce the level of congestion faced by those travelling into and out of central London both by private and by public transport. In 2001, almost 1.1 million people entered central London during the morning peak hours of 7.00a.m.-10.00a.m.,1 of whom around 150,000 (13.7%) used private transport. Whilst the total number of people entering during the morning rush hour has scarcely changed since 1991, there has been a small shift towards public transport: in 1991, 16.8% of people used private transport. Nevertheless, average traffic speeds in central London have fallen slightly over the last decade, with the average morning peak-period traffic speed for 2000-03 just 9.9 mph, compared with a peak of 14.2 mph in 1974-76. During the evening rush hour, average speeds are even slower, at just 9.6 mph. In evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee,3 David Begg of the Commission for Integrated Transport argues that around 40% of the total national level of congestion occurs in Greater London. Transport for London suggests that "there are now no longer any "peaks" or "off-peaks" of traffic volume between 7am - 6.30pm" and states that there are now on average three minutes of delay for every mile that a vehicle travels inside the charging zone. This Briefing Note aims to provide a guide to the workings of the London congestion charge. We begin in Section 2 by describing the economic case for congestion charging, showing why congestion can be thought of as an urban example of the well-known overuse of common resources to which there is free access (the so-called "tragedy of the commons"). In Section 3, we move on to look at the details of the proposed charge for London, examining how it fits in with the economic framework we develop and discussing some of the work that has already been carried out to try to predict the likely effects of the charge. Section 4 looks briefly at the issue of what may happen with the projected net revenues from the charge, which are legally bound for the first 10 years to be spent on transport within Greater London. In Section 5, we discuss some of the empirical evidence regarding transport in London and present evidence on the potential distributional effects of the congestion charge, since one of the oft-cited criticisms of charging is that it will impact upon the poorest most severely. Section 6 goes on to look at the experience of congestion charging elsewhere around the world

Parental income and children’s smoking behaviour: evidence from the british household panel survey

Does money matter? When investigating health behaviour, research often finds a strong positive association between income and healthy behaviour. This could however be due to individual characteristics that determine both income and health investment and is not necessarily due to the role of money per se. In this study we look at this relationship over the generations by studying the association between parental income and children’s prevalence to smoke in Britain using data from the British Household Panel Survey and British Youth Survey. We find an inverse relation between parental income and children’s smoking prevalence, but when looking at within household changes by comparing sibling’s smoking status differences at the same age, we find instead a positive effect. This indicates that within household increases in income lead to an increased probability of smoking of a younger child

Booms and busts: consumption, house prices and expectations

Over much of the past 25 years, the cycles of house price and consumption growth have been closely synchronised. Three main hypotheses for this co-movement have been proposed in the literature. First, that an increase in house prices raises households’ wealth, particularly for those in a position to trade down the housing ladder, which increases their desired level of expenditure. Second, that house price growth increases the collateral available to homeowners, reducing credit constraints and thereby facilitating higher consumption. And third, that house prices and consumption have tended to be influenced by common factors. This paper finds that the relationship between house prices and consumption is stronger for younger than older households, which appears to contradict the wealth channel. These findings therefore suggest that common causality has been the most important factor behind the link between house price and consumption

Evaluation of a postgraduate examination for primary care: perceptions and performance of general practitioner trainers in the multiple choice paper of the Membership Examination of the Royal College of General Practitioners

This study aimed to investigate the performance of a sample of general practitioner (GP) trainers in the multiple choice paper (MCP) of the Membership Examination of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) and to obtain their views of the content of the paper and its relevance to general practice using a written knowledge test and self-administered questionnaire. The participants were volunteer GP trainers in the Northern, Wessex, Kent, Education for Primary Care (2007) 18: 165–72 # 2007 Radcliffe Publishing Limited WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN IN THIS AREA . Feedback from GP registrar candidates sitting the multiple choice paper (MCP) suggests that the paper has good face and content validity, although pressure of time is a problem. . Candidates find the questions in the paper challenging but most believe they assess common or important problems in general practice. WHAT THIS WORK ADDS . Most trainers in this study believed that the paper assessed knowledge of common or important topics relevant to general practice, that the majority of questions were appropriate, clear and unambiguous and that time pressure was not a problem. . Trainers in this study performed significantly better overall compared to registrars and did so without making prior preparation. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH . Repeating the study with non-trainer GPs could provide further information on the validity of the MCP as an applied knowledge test appropriate for established GPs taking the MRCGP as well as those nearing completion of training Keywords: attitudes, examination, general practice trainers, MRCGP, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) and Northwest deaneries of the UK. The trainers completed a shortened version of an MRCGP MCP paper under examination conditions and provided feedback immediately afterwards. Of 191 trainers invited to participate, 86 (45%) sat the paper and of these, 81 completed the questionnaire. Most trainers believed that the paper assessed knowledge of common or important topics relevant to general practice, that the majority of questions were appropriate, clear and unambiguous and that time pressure was not a problem. Trainers performed significantly better compared to registrars overall, and in questions on medicine related to general practice and practice administration but not research methodology or critical appraisal. They did so without making prior preparation. The findings from this group of trainers lend support to the face validity and content validity of the MRCGP MCP examination as an assessment of applied knowledge of general practice

Functional genomics of a symbiotic community : shared traits in the olive fruit fly gut microbiota

The olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae is a major pest of olives worldwide and houses a specialized gut microbiota dominated by the obligate symbiont “Candidatus Erwinia dacicola”. Ca. E. dacicola is thought to supplement dietary nitrogen to the host, with only indirect evidence for this hypothesis so far. Here, we sought to investigate the contribution of the symbiosis to insect fitness and explore the ecology of the insect gut. For this purpose, we examined the composition of bacterial communities associated with Cretan olive fruit fly populations, and inspected several genomes and one transcriptome assembly. We identified, and reconstructed the genome of, a novel component of the gut microbiota, Tatumella sp. TA1, which is stably associated with Mediterranean olive fruit fly populations. We also reconstructed a number of pathways related to nitrogen assimilation and interactions with the host. The results show that, despite variation in taxa composition of the gut microbial community, core functions related to the symbiosis are maintained. Functional redundancy between different microbial taxa was observed for genes involved in urea hydrolysis. The latter is encoded in the obligate symbiont genome by a conserved urease operon, likely acquired by horizontal gene transfer, based on phylogenetic evidence. A potential underlying mechanism is the action of mobile elements, especially abundant in the Ca. E. dacicola genome. This finding, along with the identification, in the studied genomes, of extracellular surface structure components that may mediate interactions within the gut community, suggest that ongoing and past genetic exchanges between microbes may have shaped the symbiosis

<i>Xenopus</i> cell-free extracts and their contribution to the study of DNA replication and other complex biological processes

Here we discuss the important contributions that cell-free extracts have made to the study of complex biological processes. We provide a brief history of how cell-free extracts of frog eggs were developed to avoid many of the problems that can arise from the dilution and mixing of cellular components that typically occur when cell-free extracts are prepared. We briefly describe how Xenopus egg extracts have been fundamental to the study of many important cellular processes including DNA replication, cell cycle progression, nuclear protein import, nuclear assembly and chromosome organisation. We describe how, in particular, Xenopus egg extracts have made a major contributions to the study of DNA replication, by permitting the direct manipulation of proteins in a system that is extraordinarily faithful to the way that DNA replication occurs in the living embryo. Finally we consider how results obtained using Xenopus egg extracts are being translated to produce diagnostic reagents for cancer screening and diagnosis

Demonstration and characterisation of a non-inverting all-optical read/write regenerative memory

An all-optical regenerative memory device using a single loop mirror and a semiconductor optical amplifier is experimentally demonstrated. This configuration has potential for a low power all-optical stable memory device with non-inverting characteristics where packets are stored by continuously injecting the regenerated data back into the loop

Assuring the quality of an applied knowledge assessment for licensing purposes (Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, MRCGP) in UK general practice

Background The Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) forms part of the tripos of the MRCGP exam. It is a computer-delivered licensing assessment of applied knowledge. This presentation demonstrates how the test quality is reviewed. Summary of work From the RCGP curriculum blueprint, the construction of test items is referenced to high quality evidence, peer reviewed and critically appraised before addition to the question bank. A standard process for question selection, proof reading and feedback to candidates supports its validity. New question formats include free text answers which enhance discrimination. Standard setting follows the modified Angoff process. Summary of results The test shows a high Cronbach’s alpha (0.88-0.92). Pre-trialling of questions, common to many postgraduate medical examinations, is deemed unnecessary with an alpha-coefficient for new questions in the most recent test > 0.8 (0.91 when adjusted for the test length). Computer delivered testing enables detailed analysis of patterns of timing and omission of items by candidates. Conclusions Systematic processes in test construction and computer delivery has enhanced continuous quality assurance of the AKT. Take-home messages Test performance relies on meticulous attention to detail in item writing and test construction. Use of un-trialled new questions enables reliable testing of emerging and changing knowledge

Chromosome replication: from ORC to fork

A report on the 2001 Eukaryotic DNA Replication meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 5-9 September 2001