Canada’s Looming Retirement Challenge: Will Future Retirees Be Able to Maintain Their Living Standards upon Retirement?

A key question in Canada’s pensions debate is whether Canadians will be able to maintain their living standards in retirement, and if policy needs to respond to the risk that some will experience painful declines.To date, it has been very difficult to estimate how current trends might affect various members of the population in the long run. In this study, we used LifePaths – a sophisticated simulation tool developed at Statistics Canada which integrates a large amount of data on the socio-economic experience of Canadians – to project consumption before and after retirement for Canadians who have not yet reached retirement age. Consistent with other research, the study finds that Canada’s retirement system has supported post-retirement consumption relatively well, especially for lower-income individuals and those who reached retirement age in the last twenty years. If ongoing behavior and economic circumstances were to persist indefinitely, however, more Canadians may find maintaining their working-life consumption in retirement more difficult.Pension Papers, Canada, pensions, retirement income, LifePaths, Statistics Canada, registered pension plans (RPPs), registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs)

Large Faraday Rotation in Optical-Quality Phthalocyanine and Porphyrin Thin Films

The magneto-optical phenomenon known as Faraday rotation involves the rotation of plane-polarized light as it passes through an optical medium in the presence of an external magnetic field oriented parallel to the direction of light propagation. Faraday rotators find applications in optical isolators and magnetic-field imaging technologies. In recent years, organic thin films comprised of polymeric and small-molecule chromophores have demonstrated Verdet constants, which measure the magnitude of rotation at a given magnetic field strength and material thickness, that exceed those found in conventional inorganic crystals. We report herein the thin-film magnetic circular birefringence (MCB) spectra and maximum Verdet constants of several commercially available and newly synthesized phthalocyanine and porphyrin derivatives. Five of these species achieved maximum Verdet constant magnitudes greater than 105 deg T–1 m–1 at wavelengths between 530 and 800 nm. Notably, a newly reported zinc(II) phthalocyanine derivative (ZnPc-OT) reached a Verdet constant of −33 × 104 deg T–1 m–1 at 800 nm, which is among the largest reported for an organic material, especially for an optical-quality thin film. The MCB spectra are consistent with resonance-enhanced Faraday rotation in the region of the Q-band electronic transition common to porphyrin and phthalocyanine derivatives, and the Faraday A-term describes the electronic origin of the magneto-optical activity. Overall, we demonstrate that phthalocyanines and porphyrins are a class of rationally designed magneto-optical materials suitable for applications demanding large Verdet constants and high optical quality

Early mapping of industrial tomato in Central and Southern Italy with Sentinel 2, aerial and RapidEye additional data

Timely crop information, i.e. well before harvesting time and at first stages of crop development, can benefit farmers and producer organizations. The current case study documents the procedure to deliver early data on planted tomato to users, showing the potential of Sentinel 2 to map tomato at the very beginning of the crop season, which is a challenging task. Using satellite data, integrated with ground and aerial data, an initial estimate of area planted with tomato and early tomato maps were generated in seven main production areas in Italy. Estimates of the amount of area planted with tomato provided similar results either when derived from field surveys or from remote sensing-based classification. Tomato early maps showed a producer accuracy > 80% in seven cases out of nine, and a user accuracy > 80% in five cases out of nine, with differences attributed to the varying agricultural characteristics and environmental heterogeneity of the study areas. The additional use of aerial data improved producer accuracy moderately. The ability to identify abrupt growth changes, such as those caused by natural hazards, was also analysed: Sentinel 2 detected significant changes in tomato growth between a hailstorm-affected area and a control area. The study suggests that Sentinel 2, with enhanced spectral capabilities and open data policy, represents very valuable data, allowing crop monitoring at an early development stage

Comparison of spray-dried blood meal and fish by-products in the phase II starter pig diet

A total of 311 weanling pigs (initially 10.9 lb and 17 d of age) was used to compare fish by-products, spray-dried blood meal and combinations of spray-dried blood meal and fish by-products in the phase II (d 7 to 25) diet. Pigs were allotted by weight to one of five experimental treatments with 8 to 11 pigs/pen and seven replications. Pigs were placed on a common phase I diet (d 0 to 7 postweaning) that contained 7.5%spray-dried porcine plasma, 1.75% spray-dried blood meal, and 20% dried whey. The phase I diet was formulated to contain 1.5% lysine, .9% Ca, and .8% P. Pigs were then randomly assigned to one of five dietary treatments. All phase II diets (d 7 to 25 postweaning) contained 10% dried whey and were formulated to contain 1.25% lysine and .36% methionine. The control diet contained 2.5% spray-dried blood meal (SDBM) and 10% dried whey. Select menhaden fish meal (SMFM) and spray-dried fish hydrolysate (SDFH) replaced SDBM on an equal lysine basis at 5% and 4.8%, respectively, and 2.5% SMFM + 1.25% SDBM and 2.0% SDFH + 1.25% SDBM were used in combinations to form the other four dietary treatments. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed efficiency (F/G) were improved with the addition of SDBM in the fIrst week (d 7 to 14) of phase II. No differences were observed in ADG and ADFI for the overall phase II period. Pigs fed SDBM had poorer FIG (d 7 to 25) compared to pigs fed either SMFM or SDFH. However, SDBM was the most cost effective protein source in this experiment.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 199

A combination of spray-dided porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal optimizes starter pig performance

A total of 298 weanling pigs (initially 12.11b and 19 d of age) was used in a 25-\u3c1 growth trial to examine the influence of various combinations of spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) and spray-dried blood meal (SDBM) in a high nutrient density diet on starter pig performance. Pigs were allotted by weight to eight replicates of five treatments with seven to eight pigs per pen. Pigs were assigned to one of five dietary treatments with 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100% of the SDPP replaced with SDBM on an equal lysine basis. Therefore, diets contained 10, 7.5,5.0, 2.5, or 0% SDPP combined with 0, 1.63, 3.25, 4.8, or 6.5% SDBM, respectively. All phase I diets were formulated to contain 20% dried whey, 1.50% lysine, .81% isoleucine, and .37% methionine. These diets were fed from d 0 to 14 postweaning. On d 14, all pigs were switched to a common phase II diet containing 10% dried whey and 2.5% SDBM and was formulated to 1.25% lysine. Pigs were fed this diet for the remainder of the trial (d 14 to 25 postweaning). A quadratic response occurred for average daily gain and feed efficiency during phase I, with pigs fed a combination of spray-dried porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal having superior performance compared to pigs fed diets containing only spray-dried plasma or spray-dried blood. Maximum performance was seen with the combination of 7.5% spray-dried porcine plasma and 1.63% spray-dried blood meal. Therefore, the results of this trial show that phase I diet cost can be reduced and performance improved by formulating the diet with a combination of spray-dried porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal rather than spray-dried plasma alone.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 199

COSMO-SkyMed potential to detect and monitor Mediterranean maquis fires and regrowth: a pilot study in Capo Figari, Sardinia, Italy

Mediterranean maquis is a complex and widespread ecosystem in the region, intrinsically prone to fire. Many species have developed specific adaptation traits to cope with fire, ensuring resistance and resilience. Due to the recent changes in socio-economy and land uses, fires are more and more frequent in the urban-rural fringe and in the coastlines, both now densely populated. The detection of fires and the monitoring of vegetation regrowth is thus of primary interest for local management and for understanding the ecosystem dynamics and processes, also in the light of the recurrent droughts induced by climate change. Among the main objectives of the COSMO-SkyMed radar constellation mission there is the monitoring of environmental hazards; the very high revisiting time of this mission is optimal for post-hazard response activities. However, very few studies exploited such data for fire and vegetation monitoring. In this research, Cosmo-SkyMed is used in a Mediterranean protected area covered by maquis to detect the burnt area extension and to conduct a mid-term assessment of vegetation regrowth. The positive results obtained in this research highlight the importance of the very high-resolution continuous acquisitions and the multi-polarization information provided by COSMO-SkyMed for monitoring fire impacts on vegetation

Aboveground forest biomass estimation with Landsat and LiDAR data and uncertainty analysis of the estimates.

Landsat Thematic mapper (TM) image has long been the dominate data source, and recently LiDAR has offered an important new structural data stream for forest biomass estimations. On the other hand, forest biomass uncertainty analysis research has only recently obtained sufficient attention due to the difficulty in collecting reference data. This paper provides a brief overview of current forest biomass estimation methods using both TM and LiDAR data. A case study is then presented that demonstrates the forest biomass estimation methods and uncertainty analysis. Results indicate that Landsat TM data can provide adequate biomass estimates for secondary succession but are not suitable for mature forest biomass estimates due to data saturation problems. LiDAR can overcome TM?s shortcoming providing better biomass estimation performance but has not been extensively applied in practice due to data availability constraints. The uncertainty analysis indicates that various sources affect the performance of forest biomass/carbon estimation. With that said, the clear dominate sources of uncertainty are the variation of input sample plot data and data saturation problem related to optical sensors. A possible solution to increasing the confidence in forest biomass estimates is to integrate the strengths of multisensor data

Was Mesosaurus an aquatic animal? How do we know If an ancient species was aquatic or terrestrial?

Mesosaurs are lizard-like reptiles that lived at the beginning of the Permian Period (280–290 million years ago) or even earlier. Mesosaurs are known from thousands of skeletons recovered in Uruguay, Brazil, and Southern Africa, including young and adult individuals and even an embryo and a pregnant female. For years, mesosaurs have been considered aquatic (water-living) animals, because they have several characteristics of species that are adapted to an aquatic life, like webbed hands and feet and the presence of thickened and compact bones. However, mesosaurs also share several features with terrestrial (land-living) species, such as the structure of the hips, the limbs, and the heels. To figure out whether mesosaurs are actually aquatic or terrestrial, we studied vertebral columns (backbones) of Mesosaurus and compared them to those of other aquatic and terrestrial animals. Studying the variations in the length of the vertebrae can reveal how the animals moved and whether they were adapted to terrestrial or aquatic environments. Surprisingly, we found that Mesosaurus is more similar to terrestrial animals, which changes our ideas about their lifestyle