Longevity Risk and Annuities in Singapore

This chapter explores the current annuity market in Singapore and discusses the pros and cons of a proposal to mandate annuitization under the Singaporean Central Provident Fund (CPF). We evaluate the pricing of various annuity policies in order to assess whether plan participants might benefit from higher annuity returns per dollar premium and lower adverse selection costs under the new annuitization mandate. Our results indicate that private annuity providers currently offer good value-for-money annuities, with money’s worth values in line with those found for other developed countries. This has implications for proposals to mandate annuitization

Hypoxia inducible factor HIF-1 promotes myeloid-derived suppressor cells accumulation through ENTPD2/CD39L1 in hepatocellular carcinoma

published_or_final_versio

Discovery of a Novel hsp65 Genotype within Mycobacterium massiliense Associated with the Rough Colony Morphology

So far, genetic diversity among strains within Mycobacterium massiliense has rarely been studied. To investigate the genetic diversity among M. massiliense, we conducted phylogenetic analysis based on hsp65 (603-bp) and rpoB (711-bp) sequences from 65 M. massiliense Korean isolates. We found that hsp65 sequence analysis could clearly differentiate them into two distinct genotypes, Type I and Type II, which were isolated from 35 (53.8%) and 30 patients (46.2%), respectively. The rpoB sequence analysis revealed a total of four genotypes (R-I to R-IV) within M. massiliense strains, three of which (R-I, R-II and R-III) correlated with hsp65 Type I, and other (R-IV), which correlated with Type II. Interestingly, genotyping by the hsp65 method agreed well with colony morphology. Despite some exceptions, Type I and II correlated with smooth and rough colonies, respectively. Also, both types were completely different from one another in terms of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry profiles of whole lipid. In addition, we developed PCR-restriction analysis (PRA) based on the Hinf I digestion of 644-bp hsp65 PCR amplicons, which enables the two genotypes within M. massiliense to be easily and reliably separated. In conclusion, two distinct hsp65 genotypes exist within M. massiliense strains, which differ from one another in terms of both morphology and lipid profile. Furthermore, our data indicates that Type II is a novel M. massiliense genotype being herein presented for the first time. The disparity in clinical traits between these two hsp65 genotypes needs to be exploited in the future study

Collective investments for pension savings: Lessons from Singapore's central provident fund scheme

opinions are solely those of the authors who acknowledge research support from the Wharton-SM

Development of Bacterial Biofilms on Artificial Corals in Comparison to Surface-Associated Microbes of Hard Corals

Numerous studies have demonstrated the differences in bacterial communities associated with corals versus those in their surrounding environment. However, these environmental samples often represent vastly different microbial micro-environments with few studies having looked at the settlement and growth of bacteria on surfaces similar to corals. As a result, it is difficult to determine which bacteria are associated specifically with coral tissue surfaces. In this study, early stages of passive settlement from the water column to artificial coral surfaces (formation of a biofilm) were assessed. Changes in bacterial diversity (16S rRNA gene), were studied on artificially created resin nubbins that were modelled from the skeleton of the reef building coral Acropora muricata. These models were dip-coated in sterile agar, mounted in situ on the reef and followed over time to monitor bacterial community succession. The bacterial community forming the biofilms remained significantly different (R = 0.864 p<0.05) from that of the water column and from the surface mucus layer (SML) of the coral at all times from 30 min to 96 h. The water column was dominated by members of the α-proteobacteria, the developed community on the biofilms dominated by γ-proteobacteria, whereas that within the SML was composed of a more diverse array of groups. Bacterial communities present within the SML do not appear to arise from passive settlement from the water column, but instead appear to have become established through a selection process. This selection process was shown to be dependent on some aspects of the physico-chemical structure of the settlement surface, since agar-coated slides showed distinct communities to coral-shaped surfaces. However, no significant differences were found between different surface coatings, including plain agar and agar enhanced with coral mucus exudates. Therefore future work should consider physico-chemical surface properties as factors governing change in microbial diversity

‘High risk’ clinical and inflammatory clusters in COPD of Chinese descent

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordIntroduction COPD is a heterogeneous disease demonstrating inter-individual variation. A high COPD prevalence in Chinese populations is described but little is known about disease clusters and prognostic outcomes in the Chinese population across South-East Asia. We aim to determine if clusters of Chinese patients with COPD exist and their association with systemic inflammation and clinical outcomes. Methods Chinese patients with stable COPD were prospectively recruited into two cohorts (derivation and validation) from six hospitals across three South-East Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong; n=1,480). Each patient was followed over two-years. Clinical data (including co-morbidities) were employed in unsupervised hierarchical clustering (followed by validation) to determine the existence of patient clusters and their prognostic outcome. Accompanying systemic cytokine assessments were performed in a subset (n=336) of COPD patients to determine if inflammatory patterns and associated networks characterised the derived clusters. Results Five patient clusters were identified including (1) Ex-tuberculosis (2) Diabetic (3) Low co-morbidity: low-risk (4) Low co-morbidity: high-risk and (5) cardiovascular. The ‘cardiovascular’ and ‘ex-tuberculosis’ clusters demonstrate highest mortality (independent of GOLD assessment) and illustrate diverse cytokine patterns with complex inflammatory networks. Conclusions We describe novel ‘clusters’ of Chinese COPD patients, two of which represent ‘high-risk’ clusters. The ‘cardiovascular’ and ‘ex-tuberculosis’ patient clusters exhibit high mortality, significant inflammation and complex cytokine networks. Clinical and inflammatory risk stratification of Chinese patients with COPD should be considered for targeted intervention to improve disease outcomes.Singapore Ministry of Health - National Medical Research CouncilSingapore Ministry of EducationNanyang Technological University, SingaporeEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012