Inland thinning of the Amundsen Sea sector, West Antarctica

[1] Together with the Pine Island glacier (PIG), the Thwaites (TG) and Smith (SG) glaciers are the principal drainage systems of the Amundsen Sea (AS) sector of Western Antarctica. Here we use satellite radar altimetry and interferometry to show that a rapid thinning of ice has occurred within the fastest flowing sections of all AS outlet glaciers. The pattern of thinning extends to distances greater than 150 km inland. Between 1991 and 2001, the TG and SG thinned by more than 25 and 45 m at their grounding lines, and a total of 154 +/- 16 km(3) of ice (or 0.43 mm of eustatic sea level rise) was lost from the AS sector glaciers to the ocean. We show that the thickness changes may have caused the PIG, TG, and SG to retreat inland by over 8, 4, and 7 km respectively, in line with independent estimates of grounding line migration

Determinants of participation in cardiac rehabilitation phase IV

Reducing the wide spread incidences of coronary heart disease (CHD) is a clinical challenge for the public sectors within the NHS in the UK. The current study aimed to highlight the key barriers that affected participation within exercise based provisions of cardiac rehabilitation (CR). The study concentrated on the two exercise based phase (CR phase III and phase IV) and targeted those who had completed CR phase III. Information on patients who had completed the CR phase III within the previous year were sent a questionnaire to collect information on the patients’ actions after completing the CR phase III exercise based class. 35 (64.8%) males and 19 (35.2%) females returned questionnaires indicating their activity levels following a cardiac event and/or procedure. The results showed that from the patients that responded, 11 (20.4%) were currently attending the CR phase IV exercise based class, 7 (13.0%) has previously attended the Cr phase IV class and 36 (66.7%)had not attended the Cr phase IV exercise based class. The results were analysed using SPSS (version-16.0) for frequencies between the answers given. The results showed that despite the barriers expressed by the participants who did not participate in the community based phase IV exercise class, the service could be enhanced to encourage more to utilise the services provisions. As CHD is becoming more prevalent in younger adults, many of the participants who responded to the questionnaire stated that they had resumed employment and no longer had the time to participate in CR services. Despite this finding many acknowledged the importance of remaining active and living a healthier lifestyle in the aim of reducing further risk factors associated with CHD

Global challenges for sustainable food production

No abstract available

Long Lease Real Estate – A Revised Role for Real Estate in Pension Fund Portfolios

Purpose: Long lease real estate funds (over £15bn in Q3 2020) have emerged as an increasingly important part of UK pension fund real estate portfolios. This paper explores the reasons for their dramatic growth, their characteristics and performance. Design: This study uses data for the period 2004-2020 collected directly from fund managers and from AREF/MSCI and empirical analysis to explore their characteristics and performance. Findings: Pension fund de-risking and regulatory guidance have supported the dramatic growth of long lease real estate funds. Long lease real estate funds have delivered strong risk-adjusted returns relative to both balanced property funds (with shorter lease terms) and the wider property market. This relative performance has been particularly strong when wider property market performance has been weak. Long lease funds have objectives aligned with liability matching and their performance suggests they are lower risk (more bond-like) investments. In addition, our analysis highlights they are far less responsive to the wider property market than balanced funds. However, they are not significantly different from balanced property funds in terms of their short-term relationship with gilt yield movements. Practical Implications: For pension funds and other investors the paper highlights that long lease real estate funds offer a different exposure than balanced property funds. Long lease funds have objectives more closely aligned to the overall objectives for pension fund investment but are not significantly more reliable than balanced property funds in the short-term as a liability hedge. For real estate fund managers, occupiers, developers and others active in the real estate market, the paper highlights why these funds have been (and are likely to remain) attractive to investors leading to substantial demand for long lease real estate investments. Originality: This is the first study to review this increasingly important part of the UK real estate fund universe

Space matters : geographic variability of electoral turnout determinants in the 2012 London mayoral election

Electoral participation is an important measure of the health of a liberal democracy. The determinants of voter turnout have been examined across a range of elections, but geographical approaches are relatively rare and are mostly performed at large scale aggregations and for national elections. This paper addresses this gap by exploring geographic variability in relationships between the turnout at a local election and socio-demographic variables at a detailed spatial level. Specifically, we focus on the London mayoral election, an important element of the 21st century local government reform in Britain, which, until now, has seldom been analysed from a geographical perspective. By linking the turnout from the 2012 mayoral election to socio-demographic data from the 2011 Census and doing this at the level of London’s 625 wards, for the first time a more detailed picture of the spatially uneven nature of turnout is evidenced than in previous studies which have focused on larger aggregations, typically constituencies. Analysis is approached through spatial analysis using geographically weighted regression (GWR), which enables the investigation of local variations in voting patterns. The results demonstrate that electoral processes do vary over geographic space and that some of the variables that are traditionally assumed to affect the turnout in a specific way, do not do so uniformly over space or even change the direction to the opposite of the traditionally assumed affect in certain locations. Our findings present a starting point for a more detailed investigation as to why this heterogeneity exists and which social processes it relates to.PostprintPeer reviewe

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness, The New Press, 2012, 304 p., ISBN 978-1595586438.

Among social historians of law there is currently a keen interest in popular legalism, i.e. in the active role that ordinary people played in the judiciary and how these people experienced the law. These new strands of research takes the view that ordinary people were not necessarily the victims of legal regimes imposed upon them from above. Instead, historians increasingly highlight the ways in which ordinary people shaped the judiciary. This historiographical shift includes growing attentio..

Does default risk matter for investors in REITs

We investigate the relationship between default risk and REIT stock returns. A default risk long-short investment strategy generates a return of 15% per annum. We also evaluate a large number of potential explanations for the negative relationship between default risk and subsequent stock returns. We do not find robust evidence that the default risk premium can be explained by firm size, book-to-market equity, asset growth and idiosyncratic volatility. However, CAPM beta shows some promise in explaining the default risk premium. Our results shed further light on the role of default risk in investment in REITs. First published online 23 September 202