Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Budget and Trust Fund Issues

[Excerpt] Pensions for civilian federal employees are provided through two programs, the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). CSRS was authorized by the Civil Service Retirement Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-215) and FERS was established by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-335). Under both CSRS and FERS, employees and their employing agencies make contributions to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF), from which pension benefits are paid to retirees and their surviving dependents. Retirement and disability benefits under FERS are fully funded by employee and employer contributions and interest earned by the bonds in which the contributions are invested. The cost of the retirement and disability benefits earned by employees covered by CSRS, on the other hand, are not fully funded by agency and employee contributions and interest income. The federal government therefore makes supplemental payments each year into the civil service trust fund on behalf of employees covered by CSRS. Even with these additional payments into the trust fund, however, CSRS pensions are not fully pre-funded. Prior to 1984, federal employees did not pay Social Security payroll taxes and did not earn Social Security benefits. The Social Security Amendments of 1983 (P.L. 98-21) mandated Social Security coverage for civilian federal employees hired on or after January 1, 1984. This change was made in part because the Social Security system needed additional cash contributions to remain solvent. Enrolling federal workers in both CSRS and Social Security, however, would have resulted in duplication of some benefits and would have required employee contributions equal to more than 13% of workers’ salaries. Consequently, Congress directed the development of the FERS, with Social Security as the cornerstone. The FERS is composed of three elements: (1) Social Security, (2) the FERS basic retirement annuity and the FERS supplement, and (3) the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Most permanent federal employees initially hired on or after January 1, 1984, are enrolled in the FERS, as are employees who voluntarily switched from CSRS to FERS during “open seasons” held in 1987 and 1998

Validation of respiratory questionnaire for lung function assessment among an occupational group of textile workers in Pakistan

Objective: To determine the association of spirometric lung pattern with respiratory symptoms and to validate the American Thoracic Society respiratory questionnaire for lung function assessment among textile workers.Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted from August to December 2009 among adult textile workers of Karachi. Data was collected through the American Thoracic Society Division of Lung Disease respiratory questionnaire and the lung function was assessed by using a spirometer. Results of three acceptable readings of spirogram were recorded and the best of the three readings was used for analysis. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis.Results: There were 372 participants in the study with an overall mean age of 27±8.5 years. In linear regression analysis, forced expiratory volume in one second for workers who had chronic cough was -829.1 (confidence interval: -1273.1, -385.2), chronic wheeze -168.8 (confidence interval: -319.3, -18.2) and shortness of breath grade 2 -215.6 (confidence interval: -387.8, -43.4). In logistic regression model, after adjusting for covariates, odds of reduced percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in one second for workers who had chronic cough was 3.09 (confidence interval: 1.26, 7.56), chronic wheeze 1.98 (confidence interval: 1.05, 3.71) and shortness of breath grade 2 2.07 (confidence interval: 1.05, 4.07), while odds of reduced percentage predicted forced vital capacity for shortness of breath grade 2 was 2.35 (confidence interval: 1.05, 5.21). In logistic regression model 2, for assessing the effect of different combinations of chronic respiratory symptoms, the odds of reduced percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in one second for the combination of cough and wheeze was 2.08 (confidence interval: 1.05, 4.10), cough and shortness of breath grade 2 2.47 (confidence interval: 1.18, 5.18), phlegm and shortness of breath grade 2 2.59 (confidence interval: 1.23, 5.43), cough, wheeze and shortness of breath grade 2 4.64 (confidence interval: 1.97, 10.93)and cough, phlegm, wheeze and shortness of breath grade 2 4.18 (confidence interval: 1.68, 10.37).Conclusions: A combination of chronic respiratory symptoms was best associated with decrements in lung function

A case report of liver transplantation following a biliopancreatic diversion: A friendly cohabitation?

Abstract Today, bariatric surgery has become the main therapeutic means to fight against the escalating increase in obesity, worldwide. Besides that, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis has inflated its indication for liver transplantation. Liver transplant surgeons are prone to face more and more patients with such background. Here, we described the first case of liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with previous history of biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch is nowadays an uncommon bariatric surgery but use to be a second stage surgery following sleeve gastrectomy. Liver transplantation can be challenging as such bariatric procedure reshape the digestive anatomy and can also be responsible for malnutrition. Without such complication and in a center specialized in bariatric surgery and liver transplantation, such cases can be successful and should not alarm liver transplant surgeons. In our case, the bariatric anatomy was conserved, and the liver transplantation was successful, without difficulty of the post-operative immunosuppressive treatment. However, long term follow-up showed an exacerbation of the sarcopenia level and establish even more the need for an association of a well-planned physical and nutritional rehabilitation in the peri-operative period in such candidate

2022 Specialty Pepper Cultivar Trial

A specialty pepper cultivar trial was planted at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center (42.081985, -86.354087, Benton Harbor, Michigan). Bejo (BJ), Johnny’s Seeds (JO), Seminis (SE), Tozer (TZ), and US Agriseeds (UA) seed companies donated six jalapeno cultivars, nine lunchbox cultivars, and two tapered 5-inch cultivars for plastic-mulch bedded and trellised hand harvest. Trial quality was excellent

Chemistry of pyrrolizines; reactions with cyanogen bromide and trifluoroacetic anhydride

Interaction of the pyrrolizine 3 with cyanogen bromide in a tetrahydrofuran/water mixture affords addition to the enamine double bond with formation of 5 which can be aromatized to 6 by silica gel. Reaction of 6 with cyanogen bromide in the same solvent mixture yields the indoline 8a which structure is proved in a chemical way by conversion of the product into the aldehyde 8d. The different reaction pathway is discussed in terms of steric hindrance by the ester groups. Treatment of 6 with trifluoroacetic anhydride gives the trifluoroacetylated compound 11. Removal of the sterically hindered ester groups in 6, with acetic acid in quinoline at 200°, is accompanied by the simultaneous decarboxylation to yield the pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole 1

Statistical approaches to the surveillance of infectious diseases for veterinary public health

This technical report covers the aspect of using statistical methodology for the monitoring of routinely collected surveillance data in veterinary public health. An account of the Farrington algorithm and Poisson cumulative sum schemes for the detection of aberrations is given with special attention devoted to the occurrence of seasonality and spatial aggregation of the time series. Modelling approaches for retrospective analysis of surveillance counts are described. To illustrate the applicability of the methodology in veterinary public health, data from the surveillance of rabies among fox in Hesse, Germany, are analysed

Statistics of galaxy warps in the HDF North and South

We present a statistical study of the presence of galaxy warps in the Hubble deep fields. Among a complete sample of 45 edge-on galaxies above a diameter of 1.''3, we find 5 galaxies to be certainly warped and 6 galaxies as good candidates. In addition, 4 galaxies reveal a characteristic U-warp. Compared to statistical studies of local warps, and taking into account the strong bias against observing the outer parts of galaxies at high redshift, these numbers point towards a very high frequency of warps at z \sim 1: almost all galaxy discs might be warped. Furthermore, the amplitude of warps are stronger than for local warps. This is easily interpreted in terms of higher galaxy interactions and matter accretion in the past. This result supports these two mechanisms as the best candidates for the origin of early warps. The mean observed axis ratio of our sample of edge-on galaxies is significantly larger in the high-z sample than is found for samples of local spiral galaxies. This might be due to disk thickening due to more frequent galaxy interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted in A and