Fiscal Considerations for Sustainable Public Funding of Urban Old-Age Pensions in the People’s Republic of China

China has well-established Old-age Pensions policies for the different segments of its population, both as part of the current welfare policies framework as well as continuing a long established tradition of care for the elderly. Urban Old-Age Pensions policies play an increasingly important role in the increasingly urbanised economy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC government continued with tradition in the policies that led to the enactment of the Social Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China[1], and promised to fully fund Urban Old-Age Pensions. A common theme reported in the prevailing literature is that the PRC government does not have the ability to sustainably fund Urban Old-Age Pensions, citing both substantive and administrative causes of the short fall, and calling for changes to the Social Insurance Contributions policies to make the Urban Old-age Pension schemes more sustainable. The prevailing literature, however, neglected the Chinese tradition that includes government policies to look after the elderly, and misconstrued the Social Insurance Contributions as insurance premiums. This thesis investigated whether changes to funding policies are needed in order to meet the stated obligation of fully funding Urban Old-Age Pensions. The thesis investigated the sources of funding by collating all sources of fiscal revenue and then calculating whether this sum collected would successfully fund the required level of disbursed Urban Old-Age Pensions. This thesis concludes that at current Urban Old-age Pension replacement rates[2], the PRC’s fiscal structure can adequately fund Urban Old-Age Pensions at present benefit levels. Current studies on the sustainability of funding need to consider the data gathered and arguments made in this thesis and to incorporate all sources of funding before stating that short falls in funding and lack of funding sustainability exist, or suggesting reform proposals. [1] Above note 2. [2] The Old-age Pension replacement rate is taken to be the rate Old-age Pensions is paid at as a percentage of National Average Wages Levels

Probing subtle fluorescence dynamics in cellular proteins by streak camera based Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy

We report the cell biological applications of a recently developed multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy system using a streak camera (StreakFLIM). The system was calibrated with standard fluorophore specimens and was shown to have high accuracy and reproducibility. We demonstrate the applicability of this instrument in living cells for measuring the effects of protein targeting and point mutations in the protein sequence which are not obtainable in conventional intensity based fluorescence microscopy methods. We discuss the relevance of such time resolved information in quantitative energy transfer microscopy and in measurement of the parameters characterizing intracellular physiology

Identification of gene pathways implicated in Alzheimer's disease using longitudinal imaging phenotypes with sparse regression

We present a new method for the detection of gene pathways associated with a multivariate quantitative trait, and use it to identify causal pathways associated with an imaging endophenotype characteristic of longitudinal structural change in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our method, known as pathways sparse reduced-rank regression (PsRRR), uses group lasso penalised regression to jointly model the effects of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), grouped into functional pathways using prior knowledge of gene-gene interactions. Pathways are ranked in order of importance using a resampling strategy that exploits finite sample variability. Our application study uses whole genome scans and MR images from 464 subjects in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. 66,182 SNPs are mapped to 185 gene pathways from the KEGG pathways database. Voxel-wise imaging signatures characteristic of AD are obtained by analysing 3D patterns of structural change at 6, 12 and 24 months relative to baseline. High-ranking, AD endophenotype-associated pathways in our study include those describing chemokine, Jak-stat and insulin signalling pathways, and tight junction interactions. All of these have been previously implicated in AD biology. In a secondary analysis, we investigate SNPs and genes that may be driving pathway selection, and identify a number of previously validated AD genes including CR1, APOE and TOMM40

Inter-database data quality management : a relational-model based approach

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44).by Eva Y. Tsai.M.Eng

Role of Activator Protein-1 in the Down-Regulation of the Human \u3ci\u3eCYP2J2\u3c/i\u3e Gene in Hypoxia

The cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2J2 arachidonic acid epoxygenase gene was down-regulated at a pre-translational level in human hepatoma-derived HepG2 cells incubated in a hypoxic environment; under these conditions, the expression of c-Jun and c-Fos mRNA and protein was increased. The 5′-upstream region of the CYP2J2 gene was isolated by amplification of a 2341 bp fragment and putative regulatory elements that resembled activator protein-1 (AP-1)-like sequences were identified. From transient transfection analysis, c-Jun was found to strongly activate a CYP2J2–luciferase reporter construct, but co-transfection with plasmids encoding c-Fos or c-Fos-related antigens, Fra-1 and -2, abrogated reporter activity. Using a series of deletion-reporter constructs, a c-Jun-responsive module was identified between bp −152 and −50 in CYP2J2: this region contained an AP-1-like element be-tween bp −56 and −63. The capacity of this element to interact directly with c-Jun, but not c-Fos, was confirmed by electromobility-shift assay analysis. Mutagenesis of the −56/−63 element abolished most, but not all, of the activation of CYP2J2 by c-Jun, thus implicating an additional site within the c- Jun-responsive region. The present results establish an important role for c-Jun in the control of CYP2J2 expression in liver cells. Activation of c-Fos expression by hypoxia promotes the formation of c-Jun/c-Fos heterodimers, which decrease the binding of c-Jun to the CYP2J2 upstream region, leading to gene down-regulation

The Herschel Planetary Nebula Survey (HerPlaNS) - a comprehensive dusty photoionization model of NGC6781

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the planetary nebula (PN) NGC6781 to investigate the physical conditions of each of its ionized, atomic, and molecular gas and dust components and the object's evolution, based on panchromatic observational data ranging from UV to radio. Empirical nebular elemental abundances, compared with theoretical predictions via nucleosynthesis models of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, indicate that the progenitor is a solar-metallicity, 2.25-3.0 Msun initial-mass star. We derive the best-fit distance of 0.46 kpc by fitting the stellar luminosity (as a function of the distance and effective temperature of the central star) with the adopted post-AGB evolutionary tracks. Our excitation energy diagram analysis indicate high excitation temperatures in the photodissociation region (PDR) beyond the ionized part of the nebula, suggesting extra heating by shock interactions between the slow AGB wind and the fast PN wind. Through iterative fitting using the Cloudy code with empirically-derived constraints, we find the best-fit dusty photoionization model of the object that would inclusively reproduce all of the adopted panchromatic observational data. The estimated total gas mass (0.41 Msun) corresponds to the mass ejected during the last AGB thermal pulse event predicted for a 2.5 Msun initial-mass star. A significant fraction of the total mass (about 70 percent) is found to exist in the PDR, demonstrating the critical importance of the PDR in PNe that are generally recognized as the hallmark of ionized/H+ regions.Comment: 34 pages, 13 Figures and 16 Tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

NGC 346 in The Small Magellanic Cloud. IV. Triggered Star Formation in the HII Region N66

Stellar feedback, expanding HII regions, wind-blown bubbles, and supernovae are thought to be important triggering mechanisms of star formation. Stellar associations, being hosts of significant numbers of early-type stars, are the loci where these mechanisms act. In this part of our photometric study of the star-forming region NGC346/N66 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, we present evidence based on previous and recent detailed studies, that it hosts at least two different events of triggered star formation and we reveal the complexity of its recent star formation history. In our earlier studies of this region (Papers I, III) we find that besides the central part of N66, where the bright OB stellar content of the association NGC346 is concentrated, an arc-like nebular feature, north of the association, hosts recent star formation. This feature is characterized by a high concentration of emission-line stars and Young Stellar Objects, as well as embedded sources seen as IR-emission peaks that coincide with young compact clusters of low-mass pre-main sequence stars. All these objects indicate that the northern arc of N66 encompasses the most current star formation event in the region. We present evidence that this star formation is the product of a different mechanism than that in the general area of the association, and that it is triggered by a wind-driven expanding HII region (or bubble) blown by a massive supernova progenitor, and possibly other bright stars, a few Myr ago. We propose a scenario according to which this mechanism triggered star formation away from the bar of N66, while in the bar of N66 star formation is introduced by the photo-ionizing OB stars of the association itself.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, In Press. 10 pages, 4 figures, emulateapj LaTeX style. Figures with Scaled-down resolution. Related Press Releases: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20081008.html and http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-34-08.htm