Retirement Research Using the Health and Retirement Survey

This paper highlights unanswered research questions in the economics of retirement, and shows how these issues can be addressed using the new Health and Retirement Survey (HRS). Unique features of the survey are described including administrative records on earnings and social security benefits, and employer provided data on pensions and health insurance. Also collected are indicators of retirement plans, health status, family structure, income, wealth and employer policies affecting job opportunities and constraints. Data from the first wave of the HRS are used to analyze retirement outcomes and constraints shaping retirement behavior.

Effect of aluminium sheet surface conditions on feasibility and quality of resistance spot welding

A study investigating the effect of sheet surface condition on resistance spot welding (RSW) of aluminium has been carried out. This concentrates on two automotive aluminium alloys; AA5754 and AA6111, used for structural and closure applications respectively. The results show the marked effect that surface condition can have on the RSW process. For AA5754 sheet incomplete removal of a ‘disrupted surface layer’ prior to surface pretreatment is shown to have a detrimental effect on the RSW process. The solid wax lubricant used to assist metal forming leads to unpredictable changes in contact resistance, and consequently affects the process stability. For AA6111 closures the final surface topography can influence the RSW process. Standard ‘mill’ and electro-discharge textured (EDT) finish sheet surfaces were examined and preliminary results suggest that both are suitable for welding. The successful application of RSW of aluminium sheet requires careful consideration of the sheet surface condition. This requires close collaboration between material suppliers and automotive manufacturers

Studies of Driver Behaviors and Traffic Flow Characteristics at Roadway Intersections

The performances of intersections and driveway access points are crucial to a road network in terms of efficiency and safety. Driver behavior and traffic flow characteristics at these locations are relatively complex. To better understand these issues and potentially provide guidance to engineers in their designs, a series of studies were performed on the driver behavior and traffic characteristics at intersections and driveway access points based on field experiments or observations. First, a countdown timers study was performed in China about their influences on driver behavior. It was found that the presence of countdown timers may encourage yellow running behavior and late entry into intersections in China. Second, a phase gradient method was proposed for the general application purpose to the studies of driver behavior and traffic characteristics at signalized intersections. A case study on red-light cameras was performed at Knoxville, TN. Third, a study was performed to learn the legal issues and arguments about the usage of red-light cameras for the purpose of generating profits. A variety of engineering measures, mainly dealing with the setting of the traffic signal, which could be potentially used by municipalities or camera vendors to trap red-light runners and thus generating more revenues from the camera system are discussed. Finally, an experiment was conducted to simulate the right-turn issues, which impact the safety and operation efficiency at intersections or driveway access points. Two turn lane geometric parameters, angle-of-turn and tangent, and their influences on driver behavior and traffic flow characteristics were studied

Analyzing safety and fault tolerance using time Petri nets

The application of time Petri net modelling and analysis techniques to safety-critical real-time systems is explored and procedures described which allow analysis of safety, recoverability, and fault tolerance. These procedures can be used to help determine software requirements, to guide the use of fault detection and recovery procedures, to determine conditions which require immediate miti gating action to prevent accidents, etc. Thus it is possible to establish important properties duing the synthesis of the system and software design instead of using guesswork and costly a posteriori analysis

Assessing the sustainability of pension reforms in Europe

Spurred by the ageing transition, many governments have made wide-ranging reforms, dramatically changing Europe's pensions landscape. Nevertheless there remain concerns about future costs, while unease about adequacy is growing. This study develops a comprehensive framework to assess pension system sustainability. It captures the effects of reforms on the ability of systems to alleviate poverty and maintain living standards, while setting out how reforms change future costs and relative entitlements for different generations. This framework differs from others, which just look at generosity at the point of retirement, as it uses pension wealth - the value of all transfers during retirement. This captures the impact of both longevity and changes in the value of pensions during retirement. Moreover, rather than focusing only on average earners with full careers, this framework examines individuals at different wage levels, taking account of actual labour market participation. The countries analysed cover 70% of the EU’s population and include examples of all system types. Our estimates indicate that while reforms have decreased generosity significantly, in most, but not all, countries the poverty alleviation function remains strong, particularly where minimum pensions have improved. However, moves to link benefits to contributions have made some systems less progressive, raising adequacy concerns for women and those on low incomes. The consumption smoothing function of state pensions has declined noticeably, suggesting the need for longer working lives or additional private saving for individuals to maintain pre-reform living standards. Despite the reforms, the size of entitlements of future generations should remain similar to that of current generations, in most cases, as the effect of lower annual benefits should be offset by longer retirement. Though reforms have helped address the financial challenge faced by pension systems, in many countries pressures remain strong and further reforms are likely.Social Security and Public Pensions; Retirement; Poverty; Retirement Policies

Distortions of Subjective Time Perception Within and Across Senses

Background: The ability to estimate the passage of time is of fundamental importance for perceptual and cognitive processes. One experience of time is the perception of duration, which is not isomorphic to physical duration and can be distorted by a number of factors. Yet, the critical features generating these perceptual shifts in subjective duration are not understood. Methodology/Findings: We used prospective duration judgments within and across sensory modalities to examine the effect of stimulus predictability and feature change on the perception of duration. First, we found robust distortions of perceived duration in auditory, visual and auditory-visual presentations despite the predictability of the feature changes in the stimuli. For example, a looming disc embedded in a series of steady discs led to time dilation, whereas a steady disc embedded in a series of looming discs led to time compression. Second, we addressed whether visual (auditory) inputs could alter the perception of duration of auditory (visual) inputs. When participants were presented with incongruent audio-visual stimuli, the perceived duration of auditory events could be shortened or lengthened by the presence of conflicting visual information; however, the perceived duration of visual events was seldom distorted by the presence of auditory information and was never perceived shorter than their actual durations. Conclusions/Significance: These results support the existence of multisensory interactions in the perception of duration and, importantly, suggest that vision can modify auditory temporal perception in a pure timing task. Insofar as distortions in subjective duration can neither be accounted for by the unpredictability of an auditory, visual or auditory-visual event, we propose that it is the intrinsic features of the stimulus that critically affect subjective time distortions

Implementation and evaluation of the sensornet protocol for Contiki

Sensornet Protocol (SP) is a link abstraction layer between the network layer and the link layer for sensor networks. SP was proposed as the core of a future-oriented sensor node architecture that allows flexible and optimized combination between multiple coexisting protocols. This thesis implements the SP sensornet protocol on the Contiki operating system in order to: evaluate the effectiveness of the original SP services; explore further requirements and implementation trade-offs uncovered by the original proposal. We analyze the original SP design and the TinyOS implementation of SP to design the Contiki port. We implement the data sending and receiving part of SP using Contiki processes, and the neighbor management part as a group of global routines. The evaluation consists of a single-hop traffic throughput test and a multihop convergecast test. Both tests are conducted using both simulation and experimentation. We conclude from the evaluation results that SP's link-level abstraction effectively improves modularity in protocol construction without sacrificing performance, and our SP implementation on Contiki lays a good foundation for future protocol innovations in wireless sensor networks

Equity and debt market timing, cost of capital and value and performance : evidence from listed firms in Thailand

Market timing is an infant theory of capital structure used to explain concealed motivation of managers. Equity market timing refers to equity issuance when the stock market is favourable to reduce the cost of capital, while debt market timing refers to debt financing when the interest rate is particularly low to minimize the cost of capital. However, there is no consensus in the literature as to whether firms can take such advantages in real markets, especially in Thailand. Furthermore, it is far from settled as to what the determining factors of market timing are. Additionally, the success of the decrease in cost of capital remains ambiguous. This study investigates market timing theory through three empirical studies.The first study examines the presence of equity market timing in Thailand with 285 IPO firms and 1,038 SEO issuances from 2000 to 2014. The results reveal that IPO and SEO firms tend to take advantage in the stock market when the market is in a good condition, such as a hot period, economic expansion, and bullish time. In addition, the study finds that timers obtain higher proceeds and maintain these proceeds as cash after offering. Moreover, this is the first study to explore how the corporate governance dimension is the potential determinants of equity market timing.The second study looks at the existence of debt market timing in Thailand with 189 corporate bond’s issuances from 2001 to 2014. The results indicate that the firms tend to time the debt market when the market is hot and there is a low interest rate. Likewise, we find that timers gain more proceeds and pay lower interest rates. Moreover, this is the first study to reveal that timers retain the proceeds as cash after issuance and that the corporate governance and board structure are significant determinants of debt market timing.The third study investigates the influence of market timing on cost of capital and firm performance. We find that market timing policy can lead to both success and failure of cost reduction and performance increment, depending on the types of issued securities, the strategy of market timing, and the method of cost of capital and firm performance estimation.Furthermore, this study provides some suggestions for managers, shareholders, investors, regulators and other stakeholders to comprehend the cause and effect of market timing and to prepare in order to protect their benefits. Also, this study informs regulators and policy makers to improve the efficiency of stock and bond markets in Thailand

Backscatter from the Data Plane --- Threats to Stability and Security in Information-Centric Networking

Information-centric networking proposals attract much attention in the ongoing search for a future communication paradigm of the Internet. Replacing the host-to-host connectivity by a data-oriented publish/subscribe service eases content distribution and authentication by concept, while eliminating threats from unwanted traffic at an end host as are common in today's Internet. However, current approaches to content routing heavily rely on data-driven protocol events and thereby introduce a strong coupling of the control to the data plane in the underlying routing infrastructure. In this paper, threats to the stability and security of the content distribution system are analyzed in theory and practical experiments. We derive relations between state resources and the performance of routers and demonstrate how this coupling can be misused in practice. We discuss new attack vectors present in its current state of development, as well as possibilities and limitations to mitigate them.Comment: 15 page