System/360 Computer Assisted Network Scheduling (CANS) System

Computer assisted scheduling techniques that produce conflict-free and efficient schedules have been developed and implemented to meet needs of the Manned Space Flight Network. CANS system provides effective management of resources in complex scheduling environment. System is automated resource scheduling, controlling, planning, information storage and retrieval tool

Has Labour made work pay?

A review of the Labour Government's success in improving the financial reward to work for low-income families. Since 1997, the Labour Government has instigate a series of reforms aimed at helping to make work pay more than not working, and to make work pay enough to help families avoid poverty. This report is the first to provide an overview of all such policies since 1997, and to provide an impartial analysis of the evidence of the Government's success to date. The report examines the key outcomes targeted by 'make work pay' policies, showing trends in the proportion of parents in employment, and the number of children in households where no adult is in paid work. It reviews studies which estimate the contribution that government policies made to these changes. And it provides new evidence on the impact of changes to personal taxes, tax credits and benefits on measures of financial work incentives. The authors also anticipate where this policy agenda might take the Government in the future

Employment and the labour market

Since 1997, there have been changes in rates of employment, unemployment and inactivity. These changes have coincided with the Labour government's "Making Work Pay" agenda, which has seen the introduction of in-work tax credits, the national minimum wage and various New Deal programmes. Section 2 gives details of how the rates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity have changed under the Labour government. Section 3 begins by detailing the national minimum wage and presents evidence on its impact, and continues in a somewhat similar vein, analysing the New Deal programmes and in-work tax credits. In Section 4, we show how financial work incentives have changed since 1997, and we briefly analyse the employment proposals of the main parties in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 concludes

How has child poverty changed since 1998-99? An update

An additional 100,000 children were lifted out of poverty on the most commonly cited of the government's relative poverty measures between 2000-01 and 2001-02. The most recent figures show 3.8 million children (roughly 30 per cent of all children) in Britain in households with income below 60 per cent of the median income after housing costs. Although this means that almost one in three children in Britain live in poverty on this definition, this is the lowest level recorded since 1991. Since the Labour government came to power, the total drop in the numbers in child poverty has been around 500,000. In 1998-99, the government set a target for child poverty in 2004-05. If the rate of decline in child poverty observed since 1998-99 continues for three more years, then the government will miss this target. Indeed, it is now further behind schedule than it was based on figures from 2000-01. The rather slow decline in recorded child poverty is due, in large part, to the fact that the government is targeting relative, rather than absolute, poverty. Income growth has been particularly strong across society since 1998-99, and this means that the poverty line has risen significantly over this time. Although the government is continuing to increase the living standards of low-income households with children, the gap with the rest of society is not closing as fast as the government would like. Rectifying this may require additional resources to be directed to families with children in the forthcoming Budget, on top of measures already announced

Evidence to Suggest that Copulatory Vocalizations in Women Are Not a Reflexive Consequence of Orgasm

The current studies were conducted in order to investigate the phenomenon of copulatory vocalizations and their relationship to orgasm in women. Data were collected from 71 sexually active heterosexual women (M age = 21.68 years ± .52) recruited from the local community through opportunity sampling. The studies revealed that orgasm was most frequently reported by women following self-manipulation of the clitoris, manipulation by the partner, oral sex delivered to the woman by a man, and least frequently during vaginal penetration. More detailed examination of responses during intercourse revealed that, while female orgasms were most commonly experienced during foreplay, copulatory vocalizations were reported to be made most often before and simultaneously with male ejaculation. These data together clearly demonstrate a dissociation of the timing of women experiencing orgasm and making copulatory vocalizations and indicate that there is at least an element of these responses that are under conscious control, providing women with an opportunity to manipulate male behavior to their advantage

Does welfare reform affect fertility? Evidence from the UK

In 1999 the UK government made major reforms to the system of child-contingent benefits, including the introduction of Working Families’ Tax Credit and an increase in means-tested Income Support for families with children. Between 1999-2003 government spending per-child on these benefits rose by 50 per cent in real terms, a change that was unprecedented over a thirty year period. This paper examines whether there was a response in childbearing. To identify the effect of the reforms, we exploit the fact that the spending increases were targeted at low-income households and we use the (exogenously determined) education of the woman and her partner to define treatment and control groups. We argue that the reforms are most likely to have a positive fertility effect for women in couples and show that this is the case. We find that there was an increase in births (by around 15 per cent) among the group affected by the reforms

Did working families' tax credit work? The final evaluation of the impact of in-work support on parents' labour supply and take-up behaviour in the UK

With micro-data from before and after a major reform in 1999 to the structure and form of in-work transfers in the UK, this paper uses a structural model of labour supply and programme participation to evaluate the labour market impact of Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC). Estimates suggest that by 2002, WFTC had increased labour supply of lone mothers by around 5.11 percentage points, slightly reduced labour supply of mothers in couples by 0.57 percentage points, and increased the labour supply of fathers in couples by 0.75 percentage points, compared with the benefit that preceded it, called Family Credit. In aggregate, these changes are equivalent to a fall of 99,000 in the number of workless families with children, and a net increase in labour market participation of 81,000 workers. However, contemporaneous tax and benefit reforms acted to reduce the labour supply of parents, and so the overall impact of tax and benefit changes introduced since 1999 is lower than stated above. Participating in Family Credit, the UK's in-work programme before October 1999, conferred a utility loss as well as a utility gain from the extra income, but we find this utility cost of participation to be lower in the final year of WFTC than it was in the last year of Family Credit for lone mothers, and no different for individuals in couples: this in itself induced more lone mothers to work

The impact of tax and benefit changes between April 2000 and April 2003 on parents' labour supply

This Briefing Note provides the first published estimates of the labour market impact of the new tax credits, and the tax and benefit reforms that preceded them, on families with children. Specifically, this note examines all personal tax and benefit reforms introduced between April 2000 and April 2003. We use a structural model of labour supply to examine how these changes affect both the participation rate (the proportion of parents who would like to work at a given hourly wage) and the average weekly hours of work. We examine how the impact varies between lone mothers and adults in couples with children, and how it varies with both the number of children and the age of the youngest child in the family

Financial work incentives in Britain: comparisons over time and between family types

This paper reviews various techniques for quantifying financial incentives to work, shows how financial work incentives have changed across the population since 1979, and estimates how much of these changes are due to changes in the tax and benefit system