Whatever happened to the Child Trust Fund? The abandonment of universal savings for UK children

Child development accounts (CDAs) provide subsidised savings accounts for children to help meet life course needs. While now largely forgotten, the Child Trust Fund was an innovative savings scheme for UK children that sought to generate a capital sum when they turned 18. The first children to receive these funds reached this point in late 2020 so it is timely to review the impact of this national scheme, which by 2022 had £10 bn saved in it. We consider how far the Child Trust Fund led to higher levels of savings for those children who were eligible for it and whether there is any evidence it created a savings habit in young people and their parents. We use six waves of longitudinal ONS Wealth and Assets Survey data. While we find a small effect on savings, with children from better‐off families benefiting the most, there is little evidence of a meaningful effect on savings habits. Nonetheless, the policy's impact on generating even small amounts of savings could be important, especially as most children in the UK have no savings. The study offers policy recommendations to support children's savings in the UK, based on the significant example of asset‐based welfare policy that the CTF provides

Improving Tax Literacy and Tax Morale in Young People

This research considers socio-demographic influences and the impact enhancements to financial and tax literacy may have on young adults’ tax morale. It also considers the subjects’ perceptions of tax compliance and tax administration. The results show that gender, tax tuition, and employment experience influence tax morale. Most of the 377 students surveyed thought the UK tax system is fair, but complex with personal tax rates that are too high. The majority also believe that a significant number of taxpayers cheat by paying less than they legally owe. The research shows the positive impact of focused tax tuition on university students in raising financial and tax literacy as well as an appreciation for public finance. While the researchers were unable to conclude enhanced literacy resulted in enhanced tax morale in this study, the results nevertheless demonstrated marginal improvements in this regard, thus warranting further research into causation. The researchers make several recommendations for further initiatives and enhancements to existing programmes in taxpayer education focused on young people before they leave school and enter the job market

Reply to Bada: Acidity and fluid composition on the Tagish Lake parent body

A comment from Bada (1) attempts to flag multiple issues with our recent study (2). We appreciate the opportunity to respond, as Bada raises some interesting points, but many of his comments appear to overinterpret our results in a manner well beyond the scope of our original study. We believe Bada’s comments (1) can be broadly grouped into two key points for discussion: 1) the calculation used to yield the racemization timeline and 2) issues with our final conclusion

Relationships between brain and body temperature, clinical and imaging outcomes after ischemic stroke

Pyrexia soon after stroke is associated with severe stroke and poor functional outcome. Few studies have assessed brain temperature after stroke in patients, so little is known of its associations with body temperature, stroke severity, or outcome. We measured temperatures in ischemic and normal-appearing brain using (1)H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy and its correlations with body (tympanic) temperature measured four-hourly, infarct growth by 5 days, early neurologic (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, NIHSS) and late functional outcome (death or dependency). Among 40 patients (mean age 73 years, median NIHSS 7, imaged at median 17 hours), temperature in ischemic brain was higher than in normal-appearing brain on admission (38.6°C-core, 37.9°C-contralateral hemisphere, P=0.03) but both were equally elevated by 5 days; both were higher than tympanic temperature. Ischemic lesion temperature was not associated with NIHSS or 3-month functional outcome; in contrast, higher contralateral normal-appearing brain temperature was associated with worse NIHSS, infarct expansion and poor functional outcome, similar to associations for tympanic temperature. We conclude that brain temperature is higher than body temperature; that elevated temperature in ischemic brain reflects a local tissue response to ischemia, whereas pyrexia reflects the systemic response to stroke, occurs later, and is associated with adverse outcomes

Reply to Bada: Acidity and fluid composition on the Tagish Lake parent body

A comment from Bada (1) attempts to flag multiple issues with our recent study (2). We appreciate the opportunity to respond, as Bada raises some interesting points, but many of his comments appear to overinterpret our results in a manner well beyond the scope of our original study. We believe Bada’s comments (1) can be broadly grouped into two key points for discussion: 1) the calculation used to yield the racemization timeline and 2) issues with our final conclusion

Resolving the fine-scale velocity structure of continental hyperextension at the Deep Galicia Margin using full-waveform inversion

Continental hyperextension during magma-poor rifting at the Deep Galicia Margin is characterised by a complex pattern of faulting, thin continental fault blocks, and the serpentinisation, with local exhumation, of mantle peridotites along the S-reflector, interpreted as a detachment surface. In order to understand fully the evolution of these features, it is important to image seismically the structure and to model the velocity structure to the greatest resolution possible. Travel-time tomography models have revealed the long-wavelength velocity structure of this hyperextended domain, but are often insufficient to match accurately the short-wavelength structure observed in reflection seismic imaging. Here we demonstrate the application of two-dimensional (2D) time-domain acoustic full-waveform inversion to deep water seismic data collected at the Deep Galicia Margin, in order to attain a high resolution velocity model of continental hyperextension. We have used several quality assurance procedures to assess the velocity model, including comparison of the observed and modelled waveforms, checkerboard tests, testing of parameter and inversion strategy, and comparison with the migrated reflection image. Our final model exhibits an increase in the resolution of subsurface velocities, with particular improvement observed in the westernmost continental fault blocks, with a clear rotation of the velocity field to match steeply dipping reflectors. Across the S-reflector there is a sharpening in the velocity contrast, with lower velocities beneath S indicative of preferential mantle serpentinisation. This study supports the hypothesis that normal faulting acts to hydrate the upper mantle peridotite, observed as a systematic decrease in seismic velocities, consistent with increased serpentinisation. Our results confirm the feasibility of applying the full-waveform inversion method to sparse, deep water crustal datasets

Evidence for Sodium-Rich Alkaline Water in the Tagish Lake Parent Body and Implications for Amino Acid Synthesis and Racemization

Understanding the timing and mechanisms of amino acid synthesis and racemization on asteroidal parent bodies is key to demonstrating how amino acids evolved to be mostly left-handed in living organisms on Earth. It has been postulated that racemization can occur rapidly dependent on several factors, including the pH of the aqueous solution. Here, we conduct nanoscale geochemical analysis of a framboidal magnetite grain within the Tagish Lake carbonaceous chondrite to demonstrate that the interlocking crystal arrangement formed within a sodium-rich, alkaline fluid environment. Notably, we report on the discovery of Na-enriched subgrain boundaries and nanometer-scale Ca and Mg layers surrounding individual framboids. These interstitial coatings would yield a surface charge state of zero in more-alkaline fluids and prevent assimilation of the individual framboids into a single grain. This basic solution would support rapid synthesis and racemization rates on the order of years, suggesting that the low abundances of amino acids in Tagish Lake cannot be ascribed to fluid chemistry

Key lessons and impact of the growing healthy mHealth program on milk feeding, timing of introduction of solids, and infant growth: quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: The first year of life is an important window to initiate healthy infant feeding practices to promote healthy growth. Interventions delivered by mobile phone (mHealth) provide a novel approach for reaching parents; however, little is known about the effectiveness of mHealth for child obesity prevention. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of an mHealth obesity prevention intervention in terms of reach, acceptability, and impact on key infant feeding outcomes. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with an mHealth intervention group (Growing healthy) and a nonrandomized comparison group (Baby\u27s First Food). The intervention group received access to a free app and website containing information on infant feeding, sleep and settling, and general support for parents with infants aged 0 to 9 months. App-generated notifications directed parents to age-and feeding-specific content within the app. Both groups completed Web-based surveys when infants were less than 3 months old (T1), at 6 months of age (T2), and 9 months of age (T3). Survival analysis was used to examine the duration of any breastfeeding and formula introduction, and cox proportional hazard regression was performed to examine the hazard ratio for ceasing breast feeding between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression with adjustment for a range of child and parental factors was used to compare the exclusive breastfeeding, formula feeding behaviors, and timing of solid introduction between the 2 groups. Mixed effect polynomial regression models were performed to examine the group differences in growth trajectory from birth to T3. RESULTS: A total of 909 parents initiated the enrollment process, and a final sample of 645 parents (Growing healthy=301, Baby\u27s First Food=344) met the eligibility criteria. Most mothers were Australian born and just under half had completed a university education. Retention of participants was high (80.3%, 518/645) in both groups. Most parents (226/260, 86.9%) downloaded and used the app; however, usage declined over time. There was a high level of satisfaction with the program, with 86.1% (143/166) reporting that they trusted the information in the app and 84.6% (170/201) claiming that they would recommend it to a friend. However, some technical problems were encountered with just over a quarter of parents reporting that the app failed to work at times. There were no significant differences between groups in any of the target behaviors. Growth trajectories also did not differ between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: An mHealth intervention using a smartphone app to promote healthy infant feeding behaviors is a feasible and acceptable mode for delivering obesity prevention intervention to parents; however, app usage declined over time. Learnings from this study will be used to further enhance the program so as to improve its potential for changing infant feeding behaviors