Is there a "heat or eat" trade-off in the UK?

In this research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, we merge detailed household level expenditure data from older households with historical local weather information. We then test for a heat or eat trade off: do households cut back on food spending to finance the additional cost of keeping warm during cold shocks? We find evidence that the poorest of older households are unable to smooth spending over the worst temperature shocks. Statistically significant reductions in food spending are observed in response to temperatures two or more standard deviations colder than expected (which occur about one winter month in forty) and reductions in food expenditure are considerably larger in poorer households.

KELT-23Ab: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a Near-solar Twin Close to the TESS and JWST Continuous Viewing Zones

We announce the discovery of KELT-23Ab, a hot Jupiter transiting the relatively bright (V = 10.3) star BD+66 911 (TYC 4187-996-1), and characterize the system using follow-up photometry and spectroscopy. A global fit to the system yields host-star properties of T-eff = 5900 +/- 49 K, M* = 0.945(-0.054)(+0.060) M-circle dot, R* = 0.995 +/- 0.015 R-circle dot, L* = 1.082(-0.048)(+0.051) L-circle dot, log g* = 4.418(-0.025)(+0.026). (cgs), and [Fe/H] = -0.105 +/- 0.077. KELT-23Ab is a hot Jupiter with a mass of M-p = 0.938(-0.042)(+0.045). M-J, radius of R-p = 1.322 0.025 R-J, and density of rho(p) = 0.504(0.035)(+0.038) g cm(-3). Intense insolation flux from the star has likely caused KELT-23Ab to become inflated. The time of inferior conjunction is T-0 = 2458149.40776 +/- 0.00091 BJD(TDB) and the orbital period is P = 2.255353(-0.000030)(+0.000031) ON days. There is strong evidence that KELT-23A is a member of a long-period binary star system with a less luminous companion, and due to tidal interactions, the planet is likely to spiral into its host within roughly a gigayear. This system has one of the highest positive ecliptic latitudes of all transiting planet hosts known to date, placing it near the Transiting Planet Survey Satellite and James Webb Space Telescope continuous viewing zones. Thus we expect it to be an excellent candidate for long-term monitoring and follow up with these facilities.Ohio State University; Vanderbilt University; Lehigh University; Harvard Future Faculty Leaders Postdoctoral fellowship; NSF CAREER Grant [AST-1056524]; National Science Foundation [DGE-1343012, 1559487]; Space Telescope Science Institute [HST-HF2-51402.001-A]; NASA [NAS 5-26555, 80NSSC18K1009, NNX17AB94G]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; FAPESP [2017/23731-1]; Carol and Ray Neag Undergraduate Research Fund; KELT follow-up collaborationThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act: Legality and Necessity the U.S. Perspective

In June of 1980, the President of the United States signed into law the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, a piece of national legislation that will most definitely have international repercussions. The developing nations of the world are strongly opposed to unilateralism on the part of any nation, contending the minerals of the deep seabed belong to all nations and, therefore, the benefit from the exploitation of those minerals should likewise be shared by all nations. Why then, against such firm opposition from the less developed countries of the world, did the United States opt for unilateralism instead of waiting for an international agreement to regulate the resources of the deep seabed? This paper proposes to examine whether unilateral exploitation by the United States of the deep seabed beyond the limits of its national jurisdiction is authorized by existing international law, and secondly, is such legislation actually necessary? Are the vital interests of the United Stntes served by such legislation or will the international reaction be detrimental to U.S.interests abroad

The relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and pupil control ideology in urban middle schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher sense of efficacy and its relationship to pupil control ideology in urban middle schools. The following questions were investigated: (1) Among urban middle school teachers, what is the relationship between their level of self-efficacy for teaching and their pupil control ideology? (2) Are female middle school teachers more or less efficacious than male middle school teachers? (3) Are female middle school teachers more or less humanistic than male middle school teachers?;The study included middle school teachers from 4 urban school divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Teachers from 13 middle schools from the 4 school divisions participated in this study which yielded a total of 161 teachers.;A Pearson r correlation was run to investigate the relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and pupil control ideology. T-tests were run to determine if statistically significant difference existed between the pupil control ideology and teacher sense of efficacy scores of urban male and female middle school teachers. The results of the Pearson r correlation indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between teachers\u27 sense of efficacy and their pupil control ideology. The t-test results indicated that urban female middle school teachers were more efficacious than urban male middle school teachers. There was no statistically significant difference between the pupil control ideology mean scores of urban middle school teachers.;This study has implications for schools to provide staff development for urban male teachers to increase their sense of efficacy. A replication of this study using a larger sample and a different measure of pupil control ideology may yield different results

Is There a Heat or Eat Trade-off in the UK?

We merge detailed household level expenditure data from older households with historical local weather information. We then test for a heat or eat trade off: do households cut back on food spending to finance the additional cost of keeping warm during cold shocks? For households who cannot smooth consumption over time, cold weather shocks are equivalent to income shocks. We find evidence that the poorest of older households are unable to smooth spending over the worst temperature shocks. Statistically significant reductions in food spending are observed in response to winter temperatures two or more standard deviations colder than expected (which occur about one winter month in forty) and reductions in food expenditure are considerably larger in poorer households.

Cash by any other name? Evidence on labelling from the UK Winter Fuel Payment

Standard economic theory implies that the labelling of cash transfers or cash-equivalents (e.g. child benefits, food stamps) should have no effect on spending patterns. The empirical literature to date does not contradict this proposition. We study the UK Winter Fuel Payment (WFP), a cash transfer to older households. Exploiting sharp eligibility criteria in a regression discontinuity design, we find robust evidence of a behavioural effect of the labelling. On average households spend 41% of the WFP on fuel. If the payment was treated as cash, we would expect households to spend approximately 3% of the payment on fuel.

Meningeal Hemangiopericytoma with Intracranial Metastases in an HIV-Positive Male: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Background: Meningeal hemangiopericytoma is a rare, aggressive CNS tumor that tends to invade locally, metastasize, and has a high rate of recurrence. HIV classically increases the risk of 3 AIDS-defining malignancies: Kaposi’s sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and invasive cervical cancer. More recently, considerable interest has been paid to the link between HIV and a wider range of non-AIDS-defining cancers. An HIV-positive patient with meningeal hemangiopericytoma is described. Case Description: A 36-year-old HIV-positive male presented with worsening headache and ataxia. The patient had experienced similar neurologic symptoms 4 months prior and MRI at that time had showed an extra-axial left cerebellar mass most consistent with benign meningioma. Repeat MRI showed the tumor had increased in size by a factor of greater than 20 in this 4-month period, with 4 small additional foci of similar enhancement. Subtotal resection was performed on the mass and final pathological diagnosis was meningeal hemangiopericytoma. Conclusions: This represents the first reported case of meningeal hemangiopericytoma in an HIV-positive patient. This is also the shortest time to intracranial metastasis ever reported for a meningeal hemangiopericytoma. Although the increased risk in the HIV-positive population of non-AIDS-defining cancers that has been observed in recent years can largely be attributed to cancers with a known viral pathogenesis, it is speculated that HIV infection in this patient may have contributed to the occurrence or unique behavior of this rare tumor

KELT-2Ab: A Hot Jupiter Transiting the Bright (V = 8.77) Primary Star of a Binary System

We report the discovery of KELT-2Ab, a hot Jupiter transiting the bright (V = 8.77) primary star of the HD 42176 binary system. The host is a slightly evolved late F-star likely in the very short-lived "blue-hook" stage of evolution, with T_(eff) = 6148 ± 48 K, log g = 4.030^(+0.015)_(–0.026) and [Fe/H] = 0.034 ± 0.78. The inferred stellar mass is M* = 1.314^(+0.063)_(–0.060) M☉ and the star has a relatively large radius of R* = 1.836^(+0.066)_(–0.046) R☉. The planet is a typical hot Jupiter with period 4.1137913 ± 0.00001 days and a mass of M_P = 1.524 ± 0.088 M J and radius of R_P = 1.290^(+0.064)_(–0.050) R_J. This is mildly inflated as compared to models of irradiated giant planets at the ~4 Gyr age of the system. KELT-2A is the third brightest star with a transiting planet identified by ground-based transit surveys, and the ninth brightest star overall with a transiting planet. KELT-2Ab's mass and radius are unique among the subset of planets with V < 9 host stars, and therefore increases the diversity of bright benchmark systems. We also measure the relative motion of KELT-2A and -2B over a baseline of 38 years, robustly demonstrating for the first time that the stars are bound. This allows us to infer that KELT-2B is an early K dwarf. We hypothesize that through the eccentric Kozai mechanism KELT-2B may have emplaced KELT-2Ab in its current orbit. This scenario is potentially testable with Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements, which should have an amplitude of ~44 m s^(–1)

The evolution of warning signals as reliable indicators of prey defense

It is widely argued that defended prey have tended to evolve conspicuous traits because predators more readily learn to avoid defended prey when they are conspicuous. However, a rival theory proposes that defended prey have evolved such characters because it allows them to be distinguished from undefended prey. Here we investigated how the attributes of defended (unprofitable) and undefended (profitable) computer-generated prey species tended to evolve when they were subject to selection by foraging humans. When cryptic forms of defended and undefended species were similar in appearance but their conspicuous forms were not, defended prey became conspicuous while undefended prey remained cryptic. Indeed, in all of our experiments, defended prey invariably evolved any trait that enabled them to be distinguished from undefended prey, even if such traits were cryptic. When conspicuous mutants of defended prey were extremely rare, they frequently overcame their initial disadvantage by chance. When Batesian mimicry of defended species was possible, defended prey evolved unique traits or characteristics that would make undefended prey vulnerable. Overall, our work supports the contention that warning signals are selected for their reliability as indicators of defense rather than to capitalize on any inherent educational biases of predators