2,084 research outputs found
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? An Analysis of Pension Structure and Retirement Timing
Over the last two decades, twenty-two states have moved away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pension systems and toward pension plan structures like the defined contribution (DC) plans now prevalent in the private sector. Others are considering such a reform as it is seen as a means of limiting future pension funding risk. It is important to understand the implications of such reforms for end-of-career exit patterns and workforce composition. Empirical evidence on the relationship between pension plan structure and retirement timing is currently limited, primarily because, most state pension reforms are so new that few employees enrolled in those alternative plans have reached retirement age. An exception, and the subject of our analysis, is the teacher retirement system in Washington State, which introduced a hybrid DB-DC plan in 1996 and allowed employees in its traditional DB plan to transfer into the new plan. Our analysis focuses on a years-of-service threshold, the crossing of which grants employees early retirement eligibility and, in many cases, a large upward shift in retirement wealth. The financial implications of crossing this threshold are far greater under the state’s traditional DB plan than under the hybrid plan. We find that employees are responsive to crossing the years-of-service threshold, but we fail to find significant evidence that the propensity to exit the workforce varies according to plan enrollment
Recommended from our members
Cryopreservation of winter-dormant apple buds: II - tissue water status after desiccation at -4°c and before further cooling
Abstract
The established protocol for the cryopreservation of winter-dormant Malus buds requires
that stem explants, containing a single, dormant bud are desiccated at -4°C, for up to 14 days,
to reduce their water content to 25-30% of fresh weight. Using three apple cultivars, with
known differences in response to cryopreservation, the pattern of evaporative water loss has
been characterised, including early freezing events in the bud and cortical tissues that allow
further desiccation by water migration to extracellular ice. There were no significant
differences between cultivars in this respect or in the proportions of tissue water lost during
the desiccation process. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (to -90°C) of intact buds indicated
that bud tissues of the cultivar with the poorest response to cryopreservation had the highest
residual water content at the end of the desiccation process and froze at the highest
temperature
Keywords: Malus, cryopreservation, dormant bud, dehydratio
Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry
emiT: an apparatus to test time reversal invariance in polarized neutron decay
We describe an apparatus used to measure the triple-correlation term (\D
\hat{\sigma}_n\cdot p_e\times p_\nu) in the beta-decay of polarized neutrons.
The \D-coefficient is sensitive to possible violations of time reversal
invariance. The detector has an octagonal symmetry that optimizes
electron-proton coincidence rates and reduces systematic effects. A beam of
longitudinally polarized cold neutrons passes through the detector chamber,
where a small fraction beta-decay. The final-state protons are accelerated and
focused onto arrays of cooled semiconductor diodes, while the coincident
electrons are detected using panels of plastic scintillator. Details regarding
the design and performance of the proton detectors, beta detectors and the
electronics used in the data collection system are presented. The neutron beam
characteristics, the spin-transport magnetic fields, and polarization
measurements are also described.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
Affordances, constraints and information flows as ‘leverage points’ in design for sustainable behaviour
Copyright @ 2012 Social Science Electronic PublishingTwo of Donella Meadows' 'leverage points' for intervening in systems (1999) seem particularly pertinent to design for sustainable behaviour, in the sense that designers may have the scope to implement them in (re-)designing everyday products and services. The 'rules of the system' -- interpreted here to refer to affordances and constraints -- and the structure of information flows both offer a range of opportunities for design interventions to in fluence behaviour change, and in this paper, some of the implications and possibilities are discussed with reference to parallel concepts from within design, HCI and relevant areas of psychology
Role of Mutant CFTR in Hypersusceptibility of Cystic Fibrosis Patients to Lung Infections
Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are hypersusceptible to chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infections. Cultured human airway epithelial cells expressing the ΔF508 allele of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) were defective in uptake of P. aeruginosa compared with cells expressing the wild-type allele. Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–core oligosaccharide was identified as the bacterial ligand for epithelial cell ingestion; exogenous oligosaccharide inhibited bacterial ingestion in a neonatal mouse model, resulting in increased amounts of bacteria in the lungs. CFTR may contribute to a host-defense mechanism that is important for clearance of P. aeruginosa from the respiratory tract
- …