Employer-Sponsored Pensions: A Primer

The shifting pension landscape raises questions about the financial security of future retirees. About one-half of private-sector workers are not covered by employer-sponsored pension plans on their current job. Many private-sector employers have replaced traditional pensions with 401(k)-type plans, which protect benefits for workers who change jobs frequently but expose participants to investment risks. This primer describes pensions, workers with coverage, and related policy issues

State policy, liberalisation and the development of the Indian software industry

This thesis investigates the relationship between industrial development and industrial policy in a developing country. The chosen industry - software - is of recent origin and of growing importance in many developing countries, for which it can present one of the best entry points into the information technology production complex. Yet this industry and, particularly, the role of state policy in its development have been relatively neglected within the literature. The key policy issue of recent years has been policy liberalisation, and the thesis takes as its central theme the role that policy liberalisation plays in software industry development. A specific case study is made of the Indian software industry and Indian software policy because these have been long-standing, and because they combine high growth with liberalisation. The conclusion reached is that certain policy liberalisations may have a role to play in software industry development but that liberalisation cannot be seen as a 'panacea' for such development. The impacts of some liberalisations run counter to some long-term development objectives while state intervention is seen to have played a positive and necessary role in assisting software industry growth. At the same time, certain liberalisations are found to be either politically or financially unfeasible. Software policy makers face a major decision on whether to orient their industry towards the domestic or export markets. It is argued that the Indian industry has shown an export bias which should be reduced by greater orientation to the domestic market. Other developing countries may need to focus even more on domestic-oriented production rather than exports. Policy is not the only determinant of software industry development because technology, market entry barriers, input supply constraints, and producer-consumer relations also play a part. Nevertheless, policy has a very important role to play and should be applied in a non-dogmatic way that is responsive to the specific and changing circumstances of individual nations and industries

Adolescent Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs toward Vaccination

Vaccination, one of public health’s greatest disease prevention tools, is broadening to focus on adolescents. Now that there are more vaccines targeted specifically for adolescents, it is time to give more focus to vaccine delivery in this population. This research will increase the knowledge base to support informed changes in adolescent vaccine delivery by identifying knowledge and attitudes of adolescents toward vaccination within the context of barriers and solutions. Perceived susceptibility to disease, benefits and barriers to vaccination and other constructs were collected through a survey to 1368 high school students. In this population, a scheduled adolescent healthcare visit is feasible, vaccine education can diminishes health misconceptions, and vaccination mandates are ways to reach some students

Whose Shared Destiny?

THE ‘COMMUNITY OF SHARED DESTINY’ is not a completely new concept in Chinese foreign policy — the Communist Party first used the term in 2007 in relation to cross Strait relations. But it is one that has gained greater prominence over the past year. A key development during this period was Xi Jinping’s October 2013 keynote speech at the ‘Workshop on Diplomatic Work with Neighbouring Countries’ 周边国家外交工作座谈会, during which he elaborated on the ‘shared destiny’ theme (sometimes translated into English as ‘common destiny’): it was then that the term officially entered the Chinese foreign policy lexicon

The Addict in Us all.

In this paper, we contend that the psychology of addiction is similar to the psychology of ordinary, non-addictive temptation in important respects, and explore the ways in which these parallels can illuminate both addiction and ordinary action. The incentive salience account of addiction proposed by Robinson and Berridge (1-3) entails that addictive desires are not in their nature different from many of the desires had by non-addicts; what is different is rather the way that addictive desires are acquired, which in turn affects their strength. We examine these "incentive salience" desires, both in addicts and non-addicts, contrasting them with more cognitive desires. On this account, the self-control challenge faced by addicted agents is not different in kind from that faced by non-addicted agents - though the two may, of course, differ greatly in degree of difficulty. We explore a general model of self-control for both the addict and the non-addict, stressing that self-control may be employed at three different stages, and examining the ways in which it might be strengthened. This helps elucidate a general model of intentional action.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00139/abstract

The employability strengths American Millennials contribute to the health administration workforce: A workplace readiness study at two California public universities

This qualitative study examined employability, also referred to as workplace readiness strengths in this article, for American Millennial health administration baccalaureates. The primary researcher used data collected from focus groups and interviews conducted at two certified Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) programs in California, USA. Participants (n = 71) belonged to one of 4 distinct groups: (a) health administration faculty, (b) internship preceptors, (c) alumni, and (d) undergraduate students (interns) enrolled in their internship program. Thematic content analysis was used to evaluate the collected qualitative data, after which descriptive statistics was applied to calculate the frequencies of emergent themes. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies, an employer and university validated list of Career Readiness Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce, was used as a comparative framework for the workplace readiness strengths provided in the qualitative data. Six strength-based themes emerged, two of which comparatively aligned with two of the NACE Career Readiness Competencies. However, respondents indicated that the rest of the NACE Career Competencies were not overtly expressed by Millennials as workplace strengths and should be embedded into the health administration curriculum. This invaluable information can be used to update the AUPHA health administration curriculum and help their undergraduate students increase their employability index scores