Linking Audiences to News: A Network Analysis of Chicago Websites

The mass media model, which sustained news and information in communities like Chicago for decades, is being replaced by a "new news ecosystem" consisting of hundreds of websites, podcasts, video streams and mobile applications. In 2009, The Chicago Community Trust set out to understand this ecosystem, assess its health and make investments in improving the flow of news and information in Chicagoland. The report you are reading is one of the products of the Trust's local information initiative, Community News Matters. "Linking Audiences to News: A Network Analysis of Chicago Websites" is one of the first -- perhaps the first -- research projects seeking to understand a local

Solar prediction and intelligent machines

The solar prediction program is aimed at reducing or eliminating the need to throughly understand the process previously developed and to still be able to produce a prediction. Substantial progress was made in identifying the procedures to be coded as well as testing some of the presently coded work. Another project involves work on developing ideas and software that should result in a machine capable of learning as well as carrying on an intelligent conversation over a wide range of topics. The underlying idea is to use primitive ideas and construct higher order ideas from these, which can then be easily related one to another

Some vision algorithms

The ability to determine the contents of a scene by a machine has obvious applications. There are reasons for seeking horizontal, vertical and diagonal line segments of varying lengths in order to interpret the content of a scene. Such line segments aid in determining edges that determine the boundaries of objects within the scene. Algorithms for each of the above as well as for data compacting are presented

How Do Disabilities Affect Future Retirement Benefits?

One-quarter of workers ages 51 to 55 develop work disabilities before age 62. Disabilities often force people to curtail their work hours, derailing retirement preparations. However, protections built into Social Security, including disability and spouse benefits and the system's tilt toward workers with low lifetime earnings, cushion the impact of midlife health problems. After other factors are controlled for, the onset of health-related work limitations between ages 51 and 61 reduces Social Security retirement benefits at ages 63 to 67 by only about 2 percent, much less than the impact on other retirement savings

Dynamic pattern matcher using incomplete data

This invention relates generally to pattern matching systems, and more particularly to a method for dynamically adapting the system to enhance the effectiveness of a pattern match. Apparatus and methods for calculating the similarity between patterns are known. There is considerable interest, however, in the storage and retrieval of data, particularly, when the search is called or initiated by incomplete information. For many search algorithms, a query initiating a data search requires exact information, and the data file is searched for an exact match. Inability to find an exact match thus results in a failure of the system or method

Health Problems and Job Layoffs Crack Retirement Nest Eggs

As people prepare for retirement, even the best-laid plans can go awry. Health fails. Spouses or other family members become ill. Marriages end in widowhood or divorce. Investments sour. People lose their jobs. Health, employment, and marital shocks can have serious financial consequences -- out-of-pocket health bills, reduced earnings, disrupted retirement saving -- forcing people as young as 50 or 60 to dip into their nest eggs

How Secure Are Retirement Nest Eggs?

Life's uncertainties can upend the best-laid retirement plans. Health can fail as people grow older, or their spouses can become ill. Older people can lose their jobs, and often have trouble finding new ones. Marriages can end in widowhood or divorce. Health, employment, and marital shocks near retirement can have serious financial repercussions, raising out-of-pocket medical spending, reducing earnings, disrupting retirement saving, and forcing people to dip prematurely into their nest eggs. This brief examines different types of negative events that can strike near retirement. It reports the incidence of widowhood, divorce, job layoffs, disability, and various medical conditions over a 10-year period, and estimates their impact on household wealth. Data come from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative survey of older Americans conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Aging. The survey interviewed a large sample of non-institutionalized adults ages 51 to 61 in 1992 and re-interviewed them every other year. The analysis uses data through 2002, the most recent year available. The results show that many people in their 50s and 60s experience negative shocks that threaten retirement security. Job layoffs, divorce, and the onset of work disabilities near retirement substantially erode retirement savings. The findings highlight the limitations of the safety net when things go wrong in late midlife. This Brief was written for the Center for Retirement Research based at Boston College

The Impact of Late-Career Health and Employment Shocks on Social Security and Other Wealth

About one-quarter of workers age 51 to 55 in 1992 developed health-related work limitations and about one-fifth were laid off from their jobs before age 62. Although late-career health and employment shocks often derail retirement savings plans, Social Security's disability insurance, spouse and survivor benefits, and progressive benefit formula provide important protections. In fact, health shocks increase Social Security's lifetime value, primarily because the system's disability insurance allows some disabled workers to collect benefits before age 62. However, if the system's disability insurance program did not exist, the onset of health-related work limitations would substantially reduce Social Security wealth

Will Employers Want Aging Boomers?

Explores the status quo of older workers; why baby boomers are likely to work longer; and how changes in needed skills, the characteristics of older workers, and labor force growth will affect demand for older workers. Includes policy recommendations

Difficult to Show Properties and Utility Maximizing Brokers

This article is the winner of the Real Estate and the Internet manuscript prize (sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers) presented at the American Real Estate Society Annual Meeting. Brokers have long believed that difficult to show properties sell at lower prices and take longer to sell. Where difficult to show properties are defined as those properties that present extraordinary difficulties for a broker in arranging or showing the listing to a particular buyer. Buyers’ recent access to online real estate applications may make the cost of avoiding these properties prohibitive to brokers. Employing a hedonic pricing model and duration modeling techniques, this study finds that property price and marketing time are not significantly affected for these properties. The results suggest that brokers possess limited market power.