Innovations and Trends in Pension Plan Coverage, Pension Type and Plan Design

In this paper, we outline recent trends in employer pension pIan structure in the United States, focusing on plan coverage, plan type and pension plan design. We then identify the key factors that we believe will shape company-sponsored pension design in the future, drawing conclusions from a review of recent research and practice. Finally, we offer a cautious prognosis about the future of pension pIan coverage, pIan type and pIan design, focusing on the role of labor force aging, as well as anticipated developments in the business environment and anticipated changes in public policy

The effects on health of a publicly funded domestic heating programme: a prospective controlled study

<b>Objective</b>: To assess the effect of a publicly funded domestic heating programme on self-reported health. <b>Design, setting and participants</b>: A prospective controlled study of 1281 households in Scotland receiving new central heating under a publicly funded initiative, and 1084 comparison households not receiving new heating. The main outcome measures were self-reported diagnosis of asthma, bronchitis, eczema, nasal allergy, heart disease, circulatory problems or high blood pressure; number of primary care encounters and hospital contacts in the past year; and SF-36 Health Survey scores. <b>Results</b>: Usable data were obtained from 61.4% of 3849 respondents originally recruited. Heating recipients reported higher scores on the SF-36 Physical Functioning scale (difference 2.51; 95% CI 0.67 to 4.37) and General Health scale (difference 2.57; 95% CI 0.90 to 4.34). They were less likely to report having received a first diagnosis of heart disease (OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.52 to 0.91) or high blood pressure (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.61 to 0.97), but the groups did not differ significantly in use of primary care or hospital services. <b>Conclusions</b>: Provision of central heating was associated with significant positive effects on general health and physical functioning; however, effect sizes were small. Evidence of a reduced risk of first diagnosis with heart disease or high blood pressure must be interpreted with caution, due to the self-reported nature of the outcomes, the limited time period and the failure to detect any difference in health service use

The Impact of Health Status and Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenditures on Annuity Valuation

This paper describes how differences in health status at retirement can influence the decision to purchase a life annuity. We extend previous research on annuitization decisions by incorporating the effect of health differentials via differences in survival throughout the latter portion of life. Next, we consider how precautionary savings motivated by uncertain out-of-pocket medical expenses influence annuitization decisions. Our results show that annuities become less attractive to people facing uncertain medical expenses. While full annuitization would still be optimal if annuity markets were truly complete and both life- and health-contingent, lacking this, annuity equivalent wealth values are much lower for those in poor health, as compared to persons in good health.

Entangled photon apparatus for the undergraduate laboratory

We present detailed instructions for constructing and operating an apparatus to produce and detect polarization-entangled photons. The source operates by type-I spontaneous parametric downconversion in a two-crystal geometry. Photons are detected in coincidence by single-photon counting modules and show strong angular and polarization correlations. We observe more than 100 entangled photon pairs per second. A test of a Bell inequality can be performed in an afternoon.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure

Theology at the coal-face of hospitalisation - the development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy

Healthcare chaplaincy is working towards recognition as a registered health profession. An accredited programme of professional education is part of that process. The University of Glasgow supported by NHS Education for Scotland have developed a programme of professional education for healthcare chaplains that is integrated into an MSc. (MedSci) in healthcare. This article outlines the commissioning, development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in healthcare chaplaincy by students, clinical mentors and experienced healthcare chaplains. It also highlights an innovative approach to practice development in spiritual and religious care in healthcare

The conduciveness of CA-rule graphs

Given two subsets A and B of nodes in a directed graph, the conduciveness of the graph from A to B is the ratio representing how many of the edges outgoing from nodes in A are incoming to nodes in B. When the graph's nodes stand for the possible solutions to certain problems of combinatorial optimization, choosing its edges appropriately has been shown to lead to conduciveness properties that provide useful insight into the performance of algorithms to solve those problems. Here we study the conduciveness of CA-rule graphs, that is, graphs whose node set is the set of all CA rules given a cell's number of possible states and neighborhood size. We consider several different edge sets interconnecting these nodes, both deterministic and random ones, and derive analytical expressions for the resulting graph's conduciveness toward rules having a fixed number of non-quiescent entries. We demonstrate that one of the random edge sets, characterized by allowing nodes to be sparsely interconnected across any Hamming distance between the corresponding rules, has the potential of providing reasonable conduciveness toward the desired rules. We conjecture that this may lie at the bottom of the best strategies known to date for discovering complex rules to solve specific problems, all of an evolutionary nature

Intent inferencing with a model-based operator's associate

A portion of the Operator Function Model Expert System (OFMspert) research project is described. OFMspert is an architecture for an intelligent operator's associate or assistant that can aid the human operator of a complex, dynamic system. Intelligent aiding requires both understanding and control. The understanding (i.e., intent inferencing) ability of the operator's associate is discussed. Understanding or intent inferencing requires a model of the human operator; the usefulness of an intelligent aid depends directly on the fidelity and completeness of its underlying model. The model chosen for this research is the operator function model (OFM). The OFM represents operator functions, subfunctions, tasks, and actions as a heterarchic-hierarchic network of finite state automata, where the arcs in the network are system triggering events. The OFM provides the structure for intent inferencing in that operator functions and subfunctions correspond to likely operator goals and plans. A blackboard system similar to that of Human Associative Processor (HASP) is proposed as the implementation of intent inferencing function. This system postulates operator intentions based on current system state and attempts to interpret observed operator actions in light of these hypothesized intentions

Perceived characteristics of the environment associated with active travel: development and testing of a new scale

Background Environmental characteristics may be associated with patterns of physical activity. However, the development of instruments to measure perceived characteristics of the local environment is still at a comparatively early stage, and published instruments are not necessarily suitable for application in all settings. We therefore developed and established the test-retest reliability of a new scale for use in a study of the correlates of active travel and overall physical activity in deprived urban neighbourhoods in Glasgow, Scotland. Methods We developed and piloted a 14-item scale based on seven constructs identified from the literature (aesthetics, green space, access to amenities, convenience of routes, traffic, road safety and personal safety). We administered the scale to all participants in a random postal survey (n = 1322) and readministered the scale to a subset of original respondents (n = 125) six months later. We used principal components analysis and Varimax rotation to identify three principal components (factors) and derived summary scores for subscales based on these factors. We examined the internal consistency of these subscales using Cronbach's alpha and examined the test-retest reliability of the individual items, the subscale summary scores and an overall summary neighbourhood score using a combination of correlation coefficients and Cohen's kappa with and without weighting. Results Public transport and proximity to shops were the items most likely to be rated positively, whereas traffic volume, traffic noise and road safety for cyclists were most likely to be rated negatively. Three principal components – 'safe and pleasant surroundings', 'low traffic' and 'convenience for walking' – together explained 45% of the total variance. The test-retest reliability of individual items was comparable with that of items in other published scales (intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) 0.34–0.70; weighted Cohen's kappa 0.24–0.59). The overall summary neighbourhood score had acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.72) and test-retest reliability (ICC 0.73). Conclusion This new scale contributes to the development of a growing set of tools for investigating the role of perceived environmental characteristics in explaining or mediating patterns of active travel and physical activity

Lipid changes within the epidermis of living skin equivalents observed across a time-course by MALDI-MS imaging and profiling

© 2015 Mitchell et al. Abstract Background: Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful tool for the study of intact tissue sections. Here, its application to the study of the distribution of lipids in sections of reconstructed living skin equivalents during their development and maturation is described. Methods: Living skin equivalent (LSE) samples were obtained at 14 days development, re-suspended in maintenance medium and incubated for 24 h after delivery. The medium was then changed, the LSE re-incubated and samples taken at 4, 6 and 24 h time points. Mass spectra and mass spectral images were recorded from 12 μm sections of the LSE taken at each time point for comparison using matrix assisted laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry. Results: A large number of lipid species were identified in the LSE via accurate mass-measurement MS and MSMS experiments carried out directly on the tissue sections. MS images acquired at a spatial resolution of 50 μm × 50 μm showed the distribution of identified lipids within the developing LSE and changes in their distribution with time. In particular development of an epidermal layer was observable as a compaction of the distribution of phosphatidylcholine species. Conclusions: MSI can be used to study changes in lipid composition in LSE. Determination of the changes in lipid distribution during the maturation of the LSE will assist in the identification of treatment responses in future investigations