The inflation experience of older households

Recent increases in inflation have been accompanied by concerns over the extent to which official figures match the 'true' household experience of inflation. Rapid increases in the prices of household fuel, petrol and diesel and, more recently, of food have brought considerable attention to the fact that inflation will be different for different households according to their expenditure patterns. Any measure of inflation, such as the Retail Prices Index (RPI) or Consumer Prices Index (CPI), is necessarily only an average of the experience of different households and may not be especially representative of what is happening for any household in particular. Using data from the Expenditure and Food Survey, this Commentary looks at the inflation experience (based on the RPI) for different groups of households, examining how the average inflation rate they face has varied over time and making comparisons across the groups, focusing in particular on pensioner households

The expenditure experience of older households

This commentary examines detailed trends in expenditure patterns between 1995 and 2007, with a particular focus on the pensioner population. Pensioners are not a homogeneous group, but differ widely in both their levels and patterns of spending, and so we look not just at pensioners as a whole but also at pensioners according to age, income, household composition and so on. Spending may tell us something about household welfare that other, often-used measures like incomes do not. In particular, it may be that spending is informative about long-run well-being whereas income is more about current, short-run living standards. Using data from the Family Expenditure Survey/Expenditure and Food Survey, an annual, cross-sectional study of the spending patterns of 6,000-7,000 households, we look in depth at changes in the level of real expenditures and how spending patterns have changed over time. Then, using data from two waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we examine household fuel expenditures in detail. Fuel is clearly of great current policy concern given recent large increases in the price of domestic fuel that may impact particularly severely on poorer and older households

A survey of the UK benefit system

This paper describes all the main benefits in the UK system, giving details of rates and allowances, as well as numbers and types of claimants and levels of expenditure

Optical spectroscopy of faint gigahertz peaked spectrum sources

We present spectroscopic observations of a sample of faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio sources drawn from the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS). Redshifts have been determined for 19 (40%) of the objects. The optical spectra of the GPS sources identified with low redshift galaxies show deep stellar absorption features. This confirms previous suggestions that their optical light is not significantly contaminated by AGN-related emission, but is dominated by a population of old (>9 Gyr) and metal-rich (>0.2 [Fe/H]) stars, justifying the use of these (probably) young radio sources as probes of galaxy evolution. The optical spectra of GPS sources identified with quasars are indistinguishable from those of flat spectrum quasars, and clearly different from the spectra of Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) quasars. The redshift distribution of the GPS quasars in our radio-faint sample is comparable to that of the bright samples presented in the literature, peaking at z ~ 2-3. It is unlikely that a significant population of low redshift GPS quasars is missed due to selection effects in our sample. We therefore claim that there is a genuine difference between the redshift distributions of GPS galaxies and quasars, which, because it is present in both the radio-faint and bright samples, can not be due to a redshift-luminosity degeneracy. It is therefore unlikely that the GPS quasars and galaxies are unified by orientation, unless the quasar opening angle is a strong function of redshift. We suggest that the GPS quasars and galaxies are unrelated populations and just happen to have identical observed radio-spectral properties, and hypothesise that GPS quasars are a sub-class of flat spectrum quasars.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages. Accepted by MNRAS. For related papers see http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~snelle

The Relationship Between Beam Power and Radio Power for Classical Double Radio Sources

Beam power is a fundamental parameter that describes, in part, the state of a supermassive black hole system. Determining the beam powers of powerful classical double radio sources requires substantial observing time, so it would be useful to determine the relationship between beam power and radio power so that radio power could be used as a proxy for beam power. A sample of 31 powerful classical double radio sources with previously determined beam and radio powers are studied; the sources have redshifts between about 0.056 and 1.8. It is found that the relationship between beam power, Lj, and radio power, P, is well described by Log(Lj) = 0.84 Log(P) + 2.15, where both L_j and P are in units of 10^(44) erg/s. This indicates that beam power is converted to radio power with an efficiency of about 0.7%. The ratio of beam power to radio power is studied as a function of redshift; there is no significant evidence for redshift evolution of this ratio over the redshift range studied. The relationship is consistent with empirical results obtained by Cavagnolo et al. (2010) for radio sources in gas rich environments, which are primarily FRI sources, and with the theoretical predictions of Willott et al. (1999).Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Tracing jet--ISM interaction in young AGN: correlations between [OIII] 5007 and 5-GHz emission

*AIMS: To study the interaction between young AGN and their host galaxies based on their ionized gas and radio emission, and to analyze possible implications for the radio galaxy evolution. *METHODS: The [OIII] 5007 line and 5-GHz radio properties are compared and studied on a large, representative sample of GPS and CSS (i.e., young) quasars and radio galaxies as well as large-scale sources using [OIII] 5007 line and 5-GHz radio data from literature and our observations. *RESULTS: Several correlations between the [OIII] 5007 line and 5-GHz radio emission have been found. The main result is that the [OIII] 5007 emission is strongly related to the GPS/CSS source size indicating that the [OIII] 5007 emission is clearly enhanced by the jet expansion through the host galaxy ISM. Shocks are the most likely enhancing mechanism, although jet-induced star formation could also be, partly, responsible for the [OIII] 5007 emission. The data also suggests a possible deceleration of the jet as it grows. In this case, however, the correlation is weak.Comment: Accepted by A&

Perceived and desired weight, weight related eating and exercising behaviours, and advice received from parents among thin, overweight, obese or normal weight Australian children and adolescents

BACKGROUND: Thin children are less muscular, weaker, less active, and have lower performance in measures of physical fitness than their normal weight peers. Thin children are also more frequently subjected to teasing and stigmatization. Little is known about thin children's weight perceptions, desired weight and attitudes and behaviours towards food and exercise. The study aimed to compare perceived weight status, desired weight, eating and exercise behaviours and advice received from parents among thin, overweight, obese or normal weight Australian children and adolescents. METHODS: The sample included 8550 school children aged 6 to 18 years selected from every state and territory of Australia. The children were weighed, measured and classified as thin, normal, overweight or obese using international standards. The main outcome measures were perceived and desired weight, weight related eating and exercising behaviours, and advice received from parents. RESULTS: The distribution of weight status was - thin 4.4%; normal weight 70.7%; overweight 18.3%; and obese 6.6%. Thin children were significantly shorter than normal weight, overweight or obese children and they were also more likely to report regularly consuming meals and snacks. 57.4% of thin children, 83.1% of normal weight children, 63.7% of overweight and 38.3% of obese children perceived their weight as "about right". Of the thin children, 53.9% wanted to be heavier, 36.2% wanted to stay the same weight, and 9.8% wanted to weigh less. Thin children were significantly less likely than obese children to respond positively to statements such as "I am trying to get fitter" or "I need to get more exercise." Parents were significantly less likely to recommend exercise for thin children compared with other weight groups. CONCLUSIONS: Thin children, as well as those who are overweight or obese, are less likely than normal weight children to consider their weight "about right'. Thin children differ from children of other weights in that thin children are less likely to desire to get fitter or be encouraged to exercise. Both extremes of the spectrum of weight, from underweight to obese, may have serious health consequences for the individuals, as well as for public health policy. Health and wellness programs that promote positive social experiences and encourage exercise should include children of all sizes