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From spectacle to disaster scenario: Reimaging fictional catastrophe in The Day After Tomorrow with the current physical, political and social science of Atlantic Ocean circulation collapse
Get PDFTwo decades after it was first released, the Hollywood blockbuster movie The Day After Tomorrow remains an iconic and genre-defining ‘climate disaster’ film that - apart from entertaining audiences - still functions as an illustrative anchor or prompt for imaging the catastrophic consequences for people and planet of Atlantic Ocean circulation collapse. Despite scientific inaccuracies, climate scientists still use the film informally and formally (at topical conferences, policy-engagement workshops and in higher education) to bring to life or teach the very real physical and security impacts of crossing this climate tipping point. However, advances in understanding of near-future tipping of Atlantic Ocean circulation and two further decades of social science work on climate emergencies and the political dynamics of social and world order have rendered it increasingly dated and further unmoored from reality. So, what would a more up-to-date and useful representation of the science, politics and governance of such an event look like? This essay explores plot changes that could be considered by a docudrama screenwriter, that are equally dramatic but that better consider current climate science and analysis of world politics. The suggested changes place particular focus on how security framings of climate change manifest within the film. As momentum has grown behind the idea of a link between non-linear climate change and security dynamics or ‘climate security’, The Day After Tomorrow reduces climate to an isolated cataclysmic event that is dealt with through securitisation and exceptional measures, rather than as an interlinked and chronic process of physical and societal breakdown that will permanently change the way environments and societies behave and are governed
Optimal macroeconomic policy in nonlinear models: a VSTAR perspective
Get PDFThe paper describes a method to transform vector smooth transition autoregressions in a form that is particularly suitable for policy analysis, because it is of low-dimension and retains certainty-equivalence. Optimal rules are calculated with the state dependent coefficients approach, which allows linear methods to solve nonlinear problems. The methodology is applied to revisit interest rate and quantitative easing (QE) monetary policy in the United States during 1979–2018. The actual size of QE and duration of the zero lower bound are found close to those prescribed by the optimal policy, but not the timing and composition of QE. The methodology compares favourably against alternative optimization approaches based on linearization or numerical search
Safer Parks: Fostering a Community of Active Bystanders for the UK’s Green Spaces
Get PDFThe Safer Parks Bystander Project, led by the University of Leeds with Keep Britain Tidy and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, aimed to make UK parks safer for women and girls by empowering communities through active bystander training and public awareness. Between October 2024 and September 2025, 245 participants across six regions completed Stand Up Against Street Harassment sessions based on the 5Ds model—Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct—adapted for park settings. Evaluation showed significant increases in bystander confidence and reductions in perceived barriers to action, with 99% rating the training positively and 94% feeling empowered to intervene. Qualitative feedback highlighted the value of realistic scenarios and shared responsibility for safer spaces. The national Safer Parks campaign further promoted bystander action and community engagement. The project demonstrates that evidence-based training and collaboration can foster culture change and safer, more inclusive parks
Theatre fans: A typology of serious leisure seekers
No full textAs the first to investigate the phenomenon of theatre fandom this book will become a key text within the distinct fields of performance (theatre/music/dance) and audience/fan studies scholarship, but at the same time will also show the ..
Factors influencing confidence and trust in health professionals: a cross-sectional study of English general practices
No full textBackground
Although profound changes to English general practice aim to improve access to appointments, how these might affect patients’ confidence and trust in health professionals is unknown.
Aim
To determine whether appointments that were 1. face-to-face with any type of health care professional, or 2. with general practitioners (GPs) in any mode, were associated with variations in confidence and trust in the professional last seen.
Design and Setting
Practice-level cross-sectional study of 6196 English general practices, 2023-24, using published data.
Method
In a weighted regression model, the outcome was patient-reported confidence and trust in healthcare professionals. The 2 variables of interest were the percentages of appointments with GPs or face-to-face and the 9 covariates were continuity, access, whether patients’ needs were met, the annual appointment rate, practice list size, NHS Region, deprivation, and practice populations’ age and ethnicity.
Results
In the model, higher confidence and trust was associated with higher percentages of patients seen by GPs or face-to-face, also with increased continuity, appointment rates, percentages of patients having their needs met, percentages of patients aged over 18 and percentages of White ethnicity. Confidence and trust was higher in all regions compared to London. Lower confidence and trust was associated with higher deprivation. There was no association with improved access or list size.
Conclusion
This study cannot establish causation but does suggest that strategies to improve access that lower continuity, reduce the percentage of appointments that are with GPs, and increase remote consulting may lead to lower confidence and trust
C-band InAs/InP quantum dots: alternative growth versus indium-flush for self-assembled growth
Get PDF1550 nm InAs/InP quantum dot (QD) lasers are critical for C-band optical communication. To realise narrow photo-luminescence linewidth emission in this wavelength range, the indium flush (IF) technique for self-assembled QDs and the alternative growth (AG) technique have been developed, enabling wavelength tuning and control of dot uniformity. This work investigates the stacking effect on nanostructures grown by these two methods by comparing five-stacked AG and IF nanostructures with identical spacer thickness. Structural and optical characterisations were performed using scanning transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. The IF approach produces truncated, height-controlled QDs with reduced strain accumulation across stacked layers. In contrast, AG samples display quantum well-like morphology with sharp interfaces and no observable dislocations, but fail to consistently produce distinct QD nanostructures. These results suggest that IF provides a more reliable optimisation strategy for achieving C-band QDs within the framework of self-assembled growth, whereas AG requires further optimisation for use in InP-based systems
Search for events with one displaced vertex from long-lived neutral particles decaying into hadronic jets in the ATLAS muon spectrometer in pp collisions at √s =13 TeV
Get PDFFlow Lines on the Moduli Space of Rank 2 Twisted Higgs Bundles
Get PDFThis paper studies the gradient flow lines for the L 2 norm square of the Higgs field defined on the moduli space of semistable rank 2 Higgs bundles twisted by a line bundle of positive degree over a compact Riemann surface X. The main result is that these spaces of flow lines have an algebro-geometric classification in terms of secant varieties for different embeddings of X into the projectivisation of the negative eigenspace of the Hessian at a critical point. The Morse-theoretic compactification of spaces of flow lines given by adding broken flow lines then has a natural algebraic interpretation via a projection to Bertram’s resolution of secant varietie
Heterogeneous trace element deposition from an effusive volcanic plume
Get PDFEffusive basaltic eruptions are an important source of volatile trace elements to the troposphere. Constraining the effects of background atmospheric conditions on the transport behavior and plume lifetimes of these elements is critical, both in the use of trace elements as proxies in the geological record, and in mitigating exposure to these elements in downwind communities. Through in-situ multi-element sampling of the Fagradalsfjall (Iceland) 2021-2022 eruption plumes we present the first direct comparison of element dispersion behavior under wet and dry atmospheric conditions. We demonstrate that the alkali metals (Na, K, Rb, Cs) are depleted up to an order of magnitude more under wet background conditions compared to elements such as Se, As, and Cd, which are instead lost preferentially in drier conditions. We propose that heterogeneous element deposition from the volcanic plume is driven by the interactions between element gas-phase speciation, water solubility of the resulting complexes, particulate size-distribution, and affinity for scavenging by larger ash particles. For volcanoes situated in regions with distinct seasonal weather patterns, the delivery of elements to the surface, and thus human exposure to potentially toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, and selenium, could therefore vary between wet and dry conditions
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