Constructing Surfaces with (1/(k-2)^2)(1,k-3) Singularities

We develop a procedure to construct complex algebraic surfaces which are stable, minimal, and of general type, possessing a T-singularity of the form (1/(k-2)2)(1,k-3)

Tokyo’s booms and busts: Placing Japan in the global financial network

Tokyo is conspicuous for its now decades-long absence in the headlines of global financial news. In this article, we revisit the evolution of Tokyo as an international financial centre through the lens of Global Financial Networks (GFN). Drawing on insights from high-level interviews, we present a chronology of Japan’s financial history between 1980 and 2020. This reveals a pattern wherein financial sector reforms and financial centre initiatives are repeatedly interrupted by crises. The GFN framework helps to demonstrate how structure and agency intertwine at the global, national, and local scales to shape this reform-boosterism- crisis cycle. Nationally and locally, we find that despite repeated attempts by coalitions of actors to elevate the status of Tokyo, engrained cultural and political economic conditions have hindered its development into a truly global financial centre. Globally, these conditions have been structured and amplified by Japan’s historical position as a rule-taker in the governance of international finance. These factors have conspired to situate Japan on the periphery of the GFN, a position aggravated by the rising financial power of China

A chromatic vanishing result for TR

In this note, we establish a vanishing result for telescopically localized $\mathrm{TR}$. More precisely, we prove that $T(k)$-local $\mathrm{TR}$ vanishes on connective $L_n^{p,f}$-acyclic $\mathbf{E}_1$-rings for every $1 \leq k \leq n$ and deduce consequences for connective Morava K-theory and the Thom spectra $y(n)$. The proof relies on the relationship between $\mathrm{TR}$ and the spectrum of curves on K-theory together with fact that algebraic K-theory preserves infinite products of additive $\infty$-categories which was recently established by C\'{o}rdova Fedeli.Comment: 8 pages. Comments very welcome

Financialisation, the brewing industry and the changing role of the pub in Britain and Germany

PhD ThesisFinancialisation has been understood in varying ways from different disciplinary perspectives. Developing a political economy approach concerned with the geographical and institutional variegation of national capitalisms, this thesis aims to provide a more finely grained, geographically sensitive understanding of financialisation which more thoroughly appreciates the constitutive roles of space and place. Taking the dramatic reductions in the number of pubs in Britain and Germany as the entry point, the empirical focus seeks to explain the roles of financialisation in the pubs business at both national and sub-national scales. The changing role and closures of pubs will be utilised to explain how the processes of financialisation are reorienting economic interests, transforming corporate forms, enrolling an increasing number and widening set of actors into the global financial system, and impacting the experience of an economically and socially significant sector of the economy. The international comparison serves to explain how while the processes of financialisation maintain certain general characteristics they are unfolding in geographically differentiated and uneven ways shaped by the institutional configurations of variegations of capitalism. Whilst exhibiting core constituents and common underlying tendencies, it will be argued that the spatially and temporally variegated phenomena of financialisation is enacted, mediated and resisted by geographically grounded actors and institutions.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the North East Doctoral Training Centre (NEDTC

The economic geographies of mergers and acquisitions (M&As)

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are on the rise. Interlocking processes of globalization and financialization have increased their attractiveness and incentivized an upward spiral of M&A activity in recent years. This rise is profoundly spatial, as M&As reshape the geographies of production, consumption, and finance, while aggravating uneven power-geometries through the concentration of corporate control. Despite this growth and inherent spatiality, economic geography research into M&As has waned. The aim this article is to demonstrate the value of M&As to economic geographers and highlight avenues for future research. This is achieved by explaining how qualitative and quantitative research into the motivations, outcomes, and geographies of M&A activity can provide fresh empirical and conceptual insights surrounding wider geographical debates

Exploring the role of study abroad in decolonising geography curricula

Studying abroad has the potential to contribute to wider processes of curriculum decolonisation. More often than not, however, it can actually serve to recolonise and reproduce multiscalar forms of privilege, with the majority of programs seeing students either move between countries in the Global North or from the Global South to the North. In particular, our research has found that while students desire geographical distance from their study abroad programs, many seek cultural proximity and with it a sense of security grounded in simplistic and essentialist imaginative geographies. There is, however, a small but growing trend of North-to-South study, which arguably has greater decolonial potential, but, as we show, can often still lead to recolonisation through enclavic forms of engagement. Drawing on longitudinal mixed methods research, we point to three crucial sites of intervention which we relate to Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning – pre-trip, the trip itself, and post-trip – highlighting practical and transferable tips for study abroad staff to increase student’s capacities for reflexivity and experiential learning, and with it maximise the decolonial potential of studying abroad

Credit rating agencies’ views on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

How do credit rating agencies (CRAs) view China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? Our analysis of 132 countries in 2000–17 demonstrates that Chinese foreign investment adversely affects sovereign ratings of recipient countries when these countries participate officially in the BRI but is otherwise insignificant. These results indicate that rather than being a generic China bias, the BRI bias is a geopolitical bias, based on CRA’s expectation that BRI recipients become more dependent economically and politically on China. The main implication of our findings in financial terms is that CRAs limit the supply of international capital to BRI recipients. In broader terms of international political economy, this indicates a feedback loop whereby BRI funding repels Western funding and increases dependence on more BRI financing. Put differently, CRAs exacerbate the structural shift in the world political economy toward a decoupling between the US and Chinese financial spheres of influence

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes