Interim evaluation of saving gateway 2

The Saving Gateway is a government initiative aimed at encouraging savings behaviour among people who do not usually save. Each pound placed into a Saving Gateway account is matched by the government at a certain rate and up to a monthly contribution limit. Matching provides a transparent and understandable incentive for eligible individuals to place funds in an account. An initial pilot of the Saving Gateway - SG1 - has already been conducted and evaluated. In the December 2004 Pre-Budget Report, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a new, larger scale, pilot of the Saving Gateway - SG2. Almost 21,500 individuals have opened SG2 accounts across six areas of England. The design of these accounts - in terms of the match rate and monthly contribution limit - varies across these areas. Alongside the financial incentive to place funds in a SG2 account, the pilots also offer financial education

Pension and saving policy

This Election Briefing Note aims to describe the key differences between the three main UK political parties on policies that might affect the ways in which individuals save and provide for the future, including the ways in which resources might be provided for retirement. Our main focus will be on policies that might affect future pensioners; IFS Election Briefing Note no. 11 explains how the different tax and benefit reform packages proposed by the different parties will affect people in the population in the short term, including current pensioners. We will also focus on areas in which the different parties have different policies

Orbital payload delivery using hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuelled scramjet engines

This paper compares the performance of two different launch systems; one with a hydrogen fuelled scramjet stage and one with a hydrocarbon fuelled scramjet stage. The two launch systems are optimized with respect to payload delivery capability and then compared, assuming a fixed launch mass. A rocket powered booster is used to achieve the required scramjet ignition conditions and a rocket powered orbital stage is used to accelerate the payload from scramjet shut-down to low earth orbit. The trajectory simulator includes a full spheroidal, rotating earth model, a fourth order gravitation model and an MSISE93 atmosphere model. A gradient projection optimization routine is used to achieve an optimal solution using a set of time referenced vertical accelerations as optimization parameters. Hypersonic engine performance is determined using a quasi-one-dimensional scramjet model. Results show that a hydrogen powered scramjet launch system outperforms a hydrocarbon powered system due to its higher specific impulse and peak Mach number. While payload mass fractions are shown to be favorable, the high structural requirements of the scramjet imply that reusability is a key characteristic to make them financially viable. Trajectories were found to be dominated by their lift requirements, which outweighed any performance advantage for hydrocarbon fuels in terms of their better storage capability.M.R. Tetlow and C.J. Doola

Pensioner poverty over the next decade: what role for tax and benefit reform?

Recent falls in poverty amongst those aged 65 and over are unlikely to continue after 2007-08, even after the implementation of the proposals outlined in the Government's Pensions White Paper. This report looks at the prospects for pensioner poverty in England over the next decade. The authors find that that the proportion of those aged 65 and over living in poverty is set to remain at its current level - around one-in-five - between 2007-08 and 2017-18. This is despite the overall increase in the generosity of state pensions arising from the Pensions White Paper, and the fact that younger cohorts are expected to have more private pension income and higher employment rates at older ages than those preceding them

Final evaluation of the saving gateway 2 pilot: main report

The Saving Gateway is a government initiative aimed at encouraging savings behaviour among people who do not usually save. Each pound placed into a Saving Gateway account is matched by the government at a certain rate and up to a monthly contribution limit. Matching provides a transparent and understandable incentive for eligible individuals to place funds in an account

Simple prompts reduce inadvertent energy consumption from lighting in office buildings

Building designs regularly fail to achieve the anticipated levels of in-use energy consumption. The interaction of occupants with building controls is often cited as a key factor behind this discrepancy. This paper examines whether one factor in inadvertent energy consumption might be the appearance of post-completion errors (when an intended action is not taken because a primary goal has already been accomplished) in occupants’ interactions with building controls. Post-completion errors have been widely studied in human-computer interaction but the concept has not previously been applied to the interaction of occupants with building controls. Two experiments were carried out to examine the effect of incorporating two different types of simple prompt to reduce post-completion error in the use of light switches in office meeting rooms. Results showed that the prompts were effective and that occupants switched off lights when leaving the room more often when presented with a normative prompt than with a standard injunction. Additionally, an over reliance on PIR sensors to turn off lights after meetings was observed, which reduced their intended energy savings. We conclude that achieving low carbon buildings in practice is not solely a technological issue and that application of user-models from human-computer interaction will encourage appropriate occupant interaction with building controls and help reduce inadvertent energy consumption

Heart Rate Recovery Assessed by Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: Relationship with Prognosis

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Background: The use of exercise testing has expanded in recent decades and there is a wealth of information examining the prognostic significance of exercise variables, such as peak oxygen consumption or ventilatory measures whilst exercising. However, a paucity of research has investigated the use of recovery-derived parameters after exercise cessation. Heart rate recovery (HRR) has been considered a measure of the function of the autonomic nervous system and its dysfunction is associated with cardiovascular risk. Objectives: We aim to provide an overview of the literature surrounding HRR and its prognostic significance in patients with cardiovascular disease undertaking an exercise test. Data Sources: In December 2020, searches of PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were performed using key search terms and Boolean operators. Study Selection: Articles were manually screened and selected as per the inclusion criteria. Results: Nineteen articles met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Disagreement exists in methodologies used for measuring and assessing HRR. However, HRR provides prognostic mortality information for use in clinical practice. Conclusions: HRR is a simple, non-invasive measure which independently predicts mortality in patients with heart failure and coronary artery disease; HRR should be routinely incorporated into clinical exercise testing.Peer reviewe

Expectations and Experiences: Service User and Carer perspectives on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act

Mae’r ddogfen yma hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg. This document is also available in Welsh. © Crown Copyright Digital ISBN 978-1-80391-736-8The report provides findings from 170 people living in Wales who receive care and support or who are carers and is part of a wider evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act., known as the IMPACT study.Welsh Governmen

A system design for distributed energy generation in low temperature district heating (LTDH) networks

Project SCENIC (Smart Controlled Energy Networks Integrated in Communities) involves connecting properties at the University of Nottingham’s Creative Energy Homes test site in a community scale, integrated heat and power network. Controls will be developed to allow for the most effective heat load allocation and power distribution scenarios. Furthermore, the system will develop the prosumer concept, where consumers are both buyers and sellers of energy in both heat and power systems. This paper describes the initial phase of project SCENIC, achieving truly distributed generation within a heat network. The first of its kind, the system has a four pipe network configuration, consisting of a network flow loop to supply heat to homes, and a generation loop to collect energy from residential heating systems and supply it to a centralised thermal store. To achieve the design, IES-VE steady state heat load and dynamic building modelling have been used. A pre-insulated Rehau Rauthermex piping diameter was sized using flow rate calculations. Pipe diameter is reduced in line with distance from the central pump and associated pressure losses. The diameter ranges from 40 to 25mm, with a heat loss as low as 7.0 W/m. In addition, flow rates will fluctuate below a maximum of 1.99 l/s. Danfoss – 7 Series BS flatstations have been selected as the network-building heat interface units (HIU), to satisfy a calculated peak design heating loads of between 36.74 and 44.06 kW. Furthermore, to enable the prosumer concept and associated business models an adapted Danfoss Flatstations – 3 Series BS was selected to interface the distributed heat sources with the network. This paper gives details of the novel system configuration and concept, energy flows, as well as calculation and modelling results for the heat network. A premise is given to maintaining low temperatures in the network to ensure system efficiency in line with the latest research thinking