A Symposium on Cash Balance Pensions: Background and Introduction

Here we provide an overview to a set of papers that analyze various facets of the shift to cash balance and other hybrid pension forms that has become controversial and widely discussed phenomenon in the evolution of private, employer-sponsored pensions in the United States. These new plans take on the characteristics of defined contribution plans from the perspective of workers but continue to be funded and operated as defined benefit plans from the perspective of plan sponsors. The shift to this new style of plans began in the mid 1980s but then took off and accelerated toward the end of the 1990s. This paper describes the context in which this shift in plan types being offered by employers took place because it helps to explain various features of these plans addressed in the remaining papers and the underlying reasons that employers have adopted the new plans. The latter part of this paper provides a very brief summary of the conclusions drawn from the remaining papers in the set

The Shift to Hybrid Pensions by U.S. Employers: An Empirical Analysis of Actual Plan Conversions

For nearly two decades, employers have been restructuring traditional defined benefit pension plans to look and operate more like defined contribution plans from participants’ perspectives while retaining defined benefit funding characteristics. This shift to cash balance and pension equity plans has become controversial because some participants and outside analysts have concluded the shift to these new plan styles has been primarily motivated by the desire to cut pension costs and reduce benefits. This paper empirically documents the shift from traditional pension forms to these new hybrid forms for a sample of actual plan conversions. The analysis investigates the implications of the plan conversions on plan costs and the levels and distribution of benefits. If finds that some employers did indeed modify their plans to reduce costs but that, on average, cost savings from the shift to hybrid plans have been negligible. The paper documents that some workers will receive smaller benefits under the new plans than they would under the old but shows that most plan sponsors implemented substantial grandfathering or other transition protection to eliminate or limit the effect of the transitions on workers with substantial tenure or age at the time of conversion. The controversial “wear-away” is evaluated against provisions in the prior plans that provided subsidized benefits to early retirees and then reduced them if workers extended their career beyond early retirement eligibility. It finds that wear-away has actually been ameliorated in the shift to hybrid plans although shifted forward in the career in most cases. The paper shows that it is largely the elimination of these early retirement incentives that is at the heart of the shift to hybrid plans. This shift is resulting in new incentives to work beyond early retirement ages and is redistributing benefits more equitably across the total workforce than traditional pensions have done

Geochemical characterisation of northern Norwegian fjord surface sediments: a baseline for further paleo-environmental investigations

Norwegian fjord sediments are promising archives for very high resolution records of past environmental changes. Recent investigations of the modern depositional environment within fjords revealed that the accurate quantification of the inputs, sources, and sedimentary preservation of organic and inorganic material is crucial to decipher long term past climate signals in the sedimentary record of a certain fjord. Here, we investigate the elemental composition, bulk mineral assemblage and grain size distribution of forty-one surface sediment samples from a northern Norwegian fjord system. We reveal modern geochemical and sedimentological processes that occur within the Vestfjord, Ofotfjord and Tysfjord. Our results indicate a very heterogeneous sediment supply and intricate sedimentation processes. We propose that this is related to the complex fjord bathymetry, a low hydrodynamic energy environment, differences in the hinterland bedrock composition and a relatively small drainage area causing a rather diffuse freshwater inflow. Moreover, we show that marine carbonate productivity is the main calcite and Ca source in all three fjords

Episodic and long-lasting Paleozoic felsic magmatism in the pre-Alpine basement of the Suretta nappe (eastern Swiss Alps)

The Suretta nappe of eastern Switzerland contains a series of meta-igneous rocks, with the Rofna Porphyry Complex (RPC) being the most prominent member. We present LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon data from 12 samples representing a broad spectrum of meta-igneous rocks within the Suretta nappe, in order to unravel the pre-Alpine magmatic history of this basement unit. Fine-grained porphyries and coarse-grained augengneisses from the RPC give crystallization ages between 284 and 271Ma, which either represent distinct magma pulses or long-lasting magmatic activity in a complex magma chamber. There is also evidence for an earlier Variscan magmatic event at ~320-310Ma. Mylonites at the base of the Suretta nappe are probably derived from either the RPC augengneisses or another unknown Carboniferous-Permian magmatic protolith with a crystallization age between 320 and 290Ma. Two polymetamorphic orthogneisses from the southern Suretta nappe yield crystallization ages of ~490Ma. Inherited zircon cores are mainly of late Neoproterozoic age, with minor Neo- to Paleoproterozoic sources. We interpret the Suretta nappe as mainly representing a Gondwana-derived crustal unit, which was subsequently intruded by minor Cambrian-Ordovician and major Carboniferous-Permian magmatic rocks. Finally, the Suretta nappe was thrust into its present position during the Alpine orogeny, which hardly affected the U-Pb system in zirco

Should All Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension Undergoing Non-Cardiac Surgery Be Managed by Cardiothoracic Fellowship-Trained Anesthesiologists?

Objectives To identify differences in practice patterns and outcomes related to the induction of general anesthesia for patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) performed by anesthesiologists who have completed a cardiothoracic fellowship (CTA group) vs those who have not (non-CTA group). Design Retrospective study with propensity score matching. Setting Operating room. Participants All adult patients with PH undergoing general anesthesia requiring intubation at a single academic center over 5 years. Interventions Patient baseline characteristics, peri-induction management variables, post-induction mean arterial pressure (MAP), and other outcomes were compared between CTA and non-CTA groups. Methods and main results: Following propensity scoring matching, 402 patients were included in the final model, 100 in the CTA group and 302 in the non-CTA group. Also following matching, only cases of mild to moderate PH without right ventricular dysfunction remained in the analysis. Matched groups were overall statistically similar with respect to baseline characteristics; however, there was a greater incidence of higher ASA class (P = .025) and cardiology and thoracic procedures (P < .001) being managed by the CTA group. No statistical differences were identified in practice patterns or outcomes related to the induction of anesthesia between groups, except for longer hospital length of stay in the CTA group (P = .008). Conclusions These results provide early evidence to suggest the induction of general anesthesia of patients with non-severe PH disease can be comparably managed by either anesthesiologists with or without a cardiothoracic fellowship. However, these findings should be confirmed in a prospective study

High-level production of animal-free recombinant transferrin from saccharomyces cerevisiae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Animal-free recombinant proteins provide a safe and effective alternative to tissue or serum-derived products for both therapeutic and biomanufacturing applications. While recombinant insulin and albumin already exist to replace their human counterparts in cell culture media, until recently there has been no equivalent for serum transferrin.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The first microbial system for the high-level secretion of a recombinant transferrin (rTf) has been developed from <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>strains originally engineered for the commercial production of recombinant human albumin (Novozymes' Recombumin^®USP-NF) and albumin fusion proteins (Novozymes' albufuse^®). A full-length non-N-linked glycosylated rTf was secreted at levels around ten-fold higher than from commonly used laboratory strains. Modification of the yeast 2 μm-based expression vector to allow overexpression of the ER chaperone, protein disulphide isomerase, further increased the secretion of rTf approximately twelve-fold in high cell density fermentation. The rTf produced was functionally equivalent to plasma-derived transferrin.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>expression system has enabled the cGMP manufacture of an animal-free rTf for industrial cell culture application without the risk of prion and viral contamination, and provides a high-quality platform for the development of transferrin-based therapeutics.</p

Pressure Dependence of Born Effective Charges, Dielectric Constant and Lattice Dynamics in SiC

The pressure dependence of the Born effective charge, dielectric constant and zone-center LO and TO phonons have been determined for $3C$-SiC by a linear response method based on the linearized augmented plane wave calculations within the local density approximation. The Born effective charges are found to increase nearly linearly with decreasing volume down to the smallest volume studied, $V/V_0=0.78$, corresponding to a pressure of about 0.8 Mbar. This seems to be in contradiction with the conclusion of the turnover behavior recently reported by Liu and Vohra [Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\ {\bf 72}, 4105 (1994)] for $6H$-SiC. Reanalyzing their procedure to extract the pressure dependence of the Born effective charges, we suggest that the turnover behavior they obtained is due to approximations in the assumed pressure dependence of the dielectric constant $\varepsilon_\infty$, the use of a singular set of experimental data for the equation of state, and the uncertainty in measured phonon frequencies, especially at high pressure.Comment: 25 pages, revtex, 5 postscript figures appended, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Heart Rate during Conflicts Predicts Post-Conflict Stress-Related Behavior in Greylag Geese

Background: Social stressors are known to be among the most potent stressors in group-living animals. This is not only manifested in individual physiology (heart rate, glucocorticoids), but also in how individuals behave directly after a conflict. Certain ‘stress-related behaviors ’ such as autopreening, body shaking, scratching and vigilance have been suggested to indicate an individual’s emotional state. Such behaviors may also alleviate stress, but the behavioral context and physiological basis of those behaviors is still poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: We recorded beat-to-beat heart rates (HR) of 22 greylag geese in response to agonistic encounters using fully implanted sensor-transmitter packages. Additionally, for 143 major events we analyzed the behavior shown by our focal animals in the first two minutes after an interaction. Our results show that the HR during encounters and characteristics of the interaction predicted the frequency and duration of behaviors shown after a conflict. Conclusions/Significance: To our knowledge this is the first study to quantify the physiological and behavioral responses to single agonistic encounters and to link this to post conflict behavior. Our results demonstrate that ‘stress-related behaviors’ are flexibly modulated by the characteristics of the preceding aggressive interaction and reflect the individual’s emotional strain, which is linked to autonomic arousal. We found no support for the stress-alleviating hypothesis, but we propose tha

Juvenile Greylag Geese (Anser anser) Discriminate between Individual Siblings

Social species that maintain individualised relationships with certain others despite continuous changes in age, reproductive status and dominance rank between group members ought to be capable of individual recognition. Tests of “true” individual recognition, where an individual recognises unique features of another, are rare, however. Often kinship and/or familiarity suffice to explain dyadic interactions. The complex relationships within a greylag goose flock suggest that they should be able to recognise individuals irrespective of familiarity or kinship. We tested whether six-week-old hand-raised greylags can discriminate between two of their siblings. We developed a new experimental protocol, in which geese were trained to associate social siblings with geometrical symbols. Subsequently, focals were presented with two geometrical symbols in the presence of a sibling associated with one of the symbols. Significant choice of the geometrical symbol associated with the target present indicated that focals were able to distinguish between individual targets. Greylag goslings successfully learned this association-discrimination task, regardless of genetic relatedness or sex of the sibling targets. Social relationships within a goose flock thus may indeed be based on recognition of unique features of individual conspecifics