Pension Provision and Retirement Saving: Lessons from the United Kingdom

We describe the trajectory of pension reform in the United Kingdom, which has focussed on keeping the cost of public pension programmes down during a period of steady population ageing whilst attempting to maintain an adequate minimum level of income security for low income households in retirement. Instruments for achieving these aims have been to target public benefits on low income households, permitting individuals to opt out of the second tier of the public programme into private retirement accounts, and the use of tax incentives to encourage additional private retirement saving. Frequent reforms to the pension programme raise the question of whether households can make reasonable private retirement saving provision in the light of growing complexity and potential shortcomings in individual decision-making. This paper sheds some light on these issues.

Pension Provision and Retirement Saving: Lessons from the United Kingdom

We describe the trajectory of pension reform in the United Kingdom, which has focussed on keeping the cost of public pension programmes down during a period of steady population ageing whilst attempting to maintain an adequate minimum level of income security for low income households in retirement. Instruments for achieving these aims have been to target public benefits on low income households, permitting individuals to opt out of the second tier of the public programme into private retirement accounts, and the use of tax incentives to encourage additional private retirement saving. Frequent reforms to the pension programme raise the question of whether households can make reasonable private retirement saving provision in the light of growing complexity and potential shortcomings in individual decision-making. This paper sheds some light on these issues.pensions, social security, retirement saving

Tax reform and retirement saving incentives: evidence from the introduction of stakeholder pensions in the UK

Faced with ageing populations, OECD governments are seeking policies to increase individual retirement saving. In April 2001, the UK government introduced Stakeholder Pensions - a low cost retirement saving vehicle. The reform also changed the structure of tax-relieved contribution ceilings, increasing their generosity for lower earning individuals. We examine the impact of these changes on private pension coverage and on contributions to personal pension accounts using individual level micro data.

Ill health and retirement in Britain: a panel data based analysis

We examine the role of ill-health in retirement decisions in Britain, using the first eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey (1991-98). As self-reported health status is likely to be endogenous to the retirement decision, we instrument self-reported health by a constructed Ѩealth stock' measure using a set of health indicator variables and personal characteristics, as suggested by Bound et al (1999). Using both linear and non-linear fixed effects estimators, we show that adverse individual health shocks are an important predictor of individual retirement behaviour. We compare the impact of our constructed health measure on economic activity with that arising from the use of other health variables in the data set. We also examine the impact of the 1995 reform of disability benefits on the retirement decision.

Public policy and retirement saving incentives in the UK

With ageing populations, OECD governments are searching for policies to increase retirement incomes. The UK government has introduced a series of policies, including the introduction of Personal Pensions from April 1988, of Stakeholder Pensions from April 2001, and the planned introduction of a National Pensions Saving Scheme (NPSS), designed to encourage individuals to save in retirement accounts rather than relying on state provision of social security in old age. These changes have been accompanied by changes in the tax treatment of private pensions. Arguably, the frequency and complexity of these reforms heightens the difficulties that households face in implementing consistent lifetime saving strategies. We examine some of these reform episodes in order to discover how households responded given the micro-incentives implied by this sequence of reforms – in particular those arising from the introduction of Personal and Stakeholder Pensions.Retirement saving pensions.

Methods for Identifying Ligands that Target Nucleic Acid Molecules and Nucleic Acid Structural Motifs

Disclosed are methods for identifying a nucleic acid (e.g., RNA, DNA, etc.) motif which interacts with a ligand. The method includes providing a plurality of ligands immobilized on a support, wherein each particular ligand is immobilized at a discrete location on the support; contacting the plurality of immobilized ligands with a nucleic acid motif library under conditions effective for one or more members of the nucleic acid motif library to bind with the immobilized ligands; and identifying members of the nucleic acid motif library that are bound to a particular immobilized ligand. Also disclosed are methods for selecting, from a plurality of candidate ligands, one or more ligands that have increased likelihood of binding to a nucleic acid molecule comprising a particular nucleic acid motif, as well as methods for identifying a nucleic acid which interacts with a ligand

Exploring patterns for scalability of network administration with topology constraints

This thesis considers the impact of distributed network communication patterns on the scalability of dynamic systems configuration and monitoring using the software cfengine. Decentralized patterns are partially implemented as cfengine policy on topologies with node degree constraints. Experiments investigate total processing latency of patterns. Results show they provide a balanced approach to parallelization and scalability. The study of patterns on a chain topology reveals the challenge of phasing delay in deep tree structures. A time buffering method for reducing total processing latency is tested and found to be effective. Included are suggestions on new cfengine functionality and syntax to support patterns integration. As a whole, this thesis offers new perspectives in on-going patterns research as well as identifying challenges and solutions for bringing patterns to cfengine.Master i nettverks- og systemadministrasjo

Computational investigation of RNA CUG repeats responsible for myotonic dystrophy 1.

Despite the importance of the knowledge of molecular hydration entropy (ΔShyd) in chemical and biological processes, the exact calculation of ΔShyd is very difficult, because of the complexity in solute–water interactions. Although free-energy perturbation (FEP) methods have been employed quite widely in the literature, the poor convergent behavior of the van der Waals interaction term in the potential function limited the accuracy and robustness. In this study, we propose a new method for estimating ΔShyd by means of combining the FEP approach and the scaled particle theory (or information theory) to separately calculate the electrostatic solute–water interaction term (ΔSelec) and the hydrophobic contribution approximated by the cavity formation entropy (ΔScav), respectively. Decomposition of ΔShyd into ΔScav and ΔSelec terms is found to be very effective with a substantial accuracy enhancement in ΔShyd estimation, when compared to the conventional full FEP calculations. ΔScav appears to dominate over ΔSelec in magnitude, even in the case of polar solutes, implying that the major contribution to the entropic cost for hydration comes from the formation of a solvent-excluded volume. Our hybrid scaled particle theory and FEP method is thus found to enhance the accuracy of ΔShyd prediction by effectively complementing the conventional full FEP method.Computations were done in Advanced Research Computing (QUEST) at the Northwestern University, and Theory Group Computing Clusters at the University of Cambridge. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant CHE-1147335) (GCS), PS-OC Center of the NIH/NCI Grant 1U54CA143869-01 (GCS), NIH Grant R01GM097455 (MDD), Muscular Dystrophy Association Grant 254929 (MDD), and the EPSRC Grant EP/I001352/1 (DJW), and the ERC Grant RG59508 (DJW). DC acknowledges financial support from the Cambridge Commonwealth European and International Trust.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from ACS Publications via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.5b0072

Community-Based Participatory Research at Jacksonville, Florida Superfund Ash Site: Toxicology Training to Improve the Knowledge of the Lay Community

Until the late 1960’s, Jacksonville, Florida incinerated its solid waste with the resultant ash deposited in landfills or used to fill flood-prone areas. These filled areas were later developed into parks, school sites and residential areas. Lead in soil at these sites was the major toxicant of concern and driver of clean-up actions. During the period of assessment of lead-levels in soil, there were no established lines of communication between the City and residents of affected neighborhoods resulting in mistrust in the community. To address communication issues, a community-based, culturally sensitive Community Environmental Toxicology Curriculum (CETC) and a short video were developed for community stakeholders to inform them of risks, health effects, remediation processes and preventive measures. Pre-and post-tests were developed to measure knowledge gained from the toxicology training. Learning gains averaged 47% and 24% for the community leaders and residents respectively. Most participants strongly agreed that the community toxicology curriculum was a useful tool for promoting awareness of environmental risks in their community and addressing the gap in trust between residents and agencies involved in site remediation

Two-dimensional combinatorial screening and the RNA Privileged Space Predictor program efficiently identify aminoglycoside–RNA hairpin loop interactions

Herein, we report the identification of RNA hairpin loops that bind derivatives of kanamycin A, tobramycin, neamine, and neomycin B via two-dimensional combinatorial screening, a method that screens chemical and RNA spaces simultaneously. An arrayed aminoglycoside library was probed for binding to a 6-nucleotide RNA hairpin loop library (4096 members). Members of the loop library that bound each aminoglycoside were excised from the array, amplified and sequenced. Sequences were analyzed with our newly developed RNA Privileged Space Predictor (RNA-PSP) program, which analyzes selected sequences to identify statistically significant trends. RNA-PSP identified the following unique trends: 5′UNNNC3′ loops for the kanamycin A derivative (where N is any nucleotide); 5′UNNC3′ loops for the tobramycin derivative; 5′UNC3′ loops for the neamine derivative; and 5′UNNG3′ loops for the neomycin B derivative. The affinities and selectivities of a subset of the ligand–hairpin loop interactions were determined. The selected interactions have Kd values ranging from 10 nM to 605 nM. Selectivities ranged from 0.4 to >200-fold. Interestingly, the results from RNA-PSP are able to qualitatively predict specificity based on overlap between the RNA sequences selected for the ligands. These studies expand the information available on small molecule–RNA motif interactions, which could be useful to design ligands targeting RNA