Pension reform in the UK : re-casting the public/private mix in pension provision 1997-2000

The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that is not facing a serious pension crisis. The reasons for this are straight forward: state pensions (both in terms of replacement ratio and as a proportion of average earnings) are among the lowest in Europe, the UK has a long-standing funded private pension sector ... and its governments have, since the beginning of the 1980s, taken measures to prevent a pension crisis developing. These measures have involved making systematic cuts in unfunded state pension provisions and increasingly transferring the burden of providing pensions to the funded private sector, principally on a defined contribution basis

Robust Classification for Imprecise Environments

In real-world environments it usually is difficult to specify target operating conditions precisely, for example, target misclassification costs. This uncertainty makes building robust classification systems problematic. We show that it is possible to build a hybrid classifier that will perform at least as well as the best available classifier for any target conditions. In some cases, the performance of the hybrid actually can surpass that of the best known classifier. This robust performance extends across a wide variety of comparison frameworks, including the optimization of metrics such as accuracy, expected cost, lift, precision, recall, and workforce utilization. The hybrid also is efficient to build, to store, and to update. The hybrid is based on a method for the comparison of classifier performance that is robust to imprecise class distributions and misclassification costs. The ROC convex hull (ROCCH) method combines techniques from ROC analysis, decision analysis and computational geometry, and adapts them to the particulars of analyzing learned classifiers. The method is efficient and incremental, minimizes the management of classifier performance data, and allows for clear visual comparisons and sensitivity analyses. Finally, we point to empirical evidence that a robust hybrid classifier indeed is needed for many real-world problems.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures. To be published in Machine Learning Journal. For related papers, see http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Tom_Fawcett/ROCCH

Can LHCb Study Three Body Decays with Neutrals?

We present the first attempt to use a new method to measure CP violation in Dalitz plots. This method is unbinned, model independent and has a greater sensitivity to CP violating effects than binned methods. Preliminary studies have been made using the three-body decays $D^0 \rightarrow K_\mathrm{S}^0 h^+ h^-$ and $D^0 \rightarrow h^+ h^- \pi^0$, which are especially challenging since there is one neutral particle in each of the final states. An attempt to visualise where CP violation occurs in Dalitz plots is also presented.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of The 6th International Workshop on Charm Physics (CHARM 2013

Britain and Latin America: 'Hope in a Time of Change?'

In the first section we propose briefly to look at the history of British-Latin American relations since the 1930s to emphasise what is perhaps common knowledge: the steady decline in the relationship, which reached its lowest point during the war in the South Atlantic in 1982. Although this story has already been told elsewhere, we summarise it here both to provide a backdrop and to illustrate the contrasts with the later period. We will then turn to an examination of the recent signs of revival. Using parliamentary records, some official unpublished documents, newspaper publications, and other secondary material, we will look at the evidence that points to a relative renewal of Anglo-Latin American relationship in the past decade. The last section of the paper will consider the limitations of this revival before speculating about the prospects for the long-term strengthening of British ties with Latin America

Ontogenic patterns of scent marking in red foxes, Vulpes vulpes (Carnivora: Canidae)

Scent marking is widely recognised to have a crucial function in many species. Most research has focussed on adults and very little is known about scent marking patterns during juvenile development. Using video records of juvenile red fox Vulpes vulpes across 6 years, we tested whether scent marking rates varied with age or sex, or whether juveniles remaining on the natal territory (philopatry) marked more frequently than those that disappeared. Our data show that male juvenile red foxes scent marked more than females during early development, but rates rapidly declined as they aged. In contrast, females showed a significantly later and slower rate of decline. Within females, individuals that remained in the natal area had higher scent marking rates than those that disappeared, suggesting that scent marking has a role in social group affiliation within litters. These results demonstrate that scent marking plays an important role in juveniles, including their intra-litter social interactions