Differential Mortality and Retirement Benefits in the Health and Retirement Study

This analysis uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the sources of variation in mortality for individuals of varying socio-economic status (SES). The use of the HRS allows a distinction between education and a measure of career earnings as primary determinants of socio-economic status for men and women separately. We use those predictions of mortality to estimate the distribution of annual and lifetime OASDI benefits for different birth cohorts spanning the birth years from 1900 to 1950. We find differential rates of mortality have had substantial effects in altering the distribution lifetime benefits in favor of higher income individuals

Economic Growth in East Asia: Accumulation versus Assimilation

macroeconomics, Economic Growth, East Asia, Accumulation, Assimilation

Structural geology of the Fort Miller, Schuylerville and portions of the Schaghticoke 7½\u27 quadrangles, eastern New York, and its implications in Taconic geology; and experimental and theoretical studies of solution transfer in deforming heterogeneous systems

Stratigraphies previously proposed for the Taconic sequence of southern Washington County, eastern New York, have incorrectly defined and positioned lower Cambrian black slate units. The proper sequence of Cambrian (?) through Cambrian lithologies is (terminology from Jacobi, 1977): Bomoseen green wacke, Truthville green slate, Browns Pond black slate, Mettawee purple and green slate, and West Castleton and Hatch Hill black slates. This and the entire Taconic sequence is conformable within the western Giddings Brook slice. The detailed lithostratigraphy reported by Jacobi (1977) and Rowley (1980) in northern Washington County can be followed at least some 45 kilometers to the south (Fort Miller, Schuylerville, Cossayuna and Cambridge 7½\u27 quadrangles) in the westernmost portions of the allochthon. Within some units, variations between sub-domains can be recognized. Lithologic characteristics suggest that each sub-domain records deposition at slightly different positions (distal/proximal) on the Cambro-Ordovician North American continental rise. These stratigraphic sub-domains correspond with areas of internally coherent structure (fold and cleavage orientation, sense of structural facing). Together these define an assemblage of imbricate thrust sheets within the western Giddings Brook slice. The basal Taconic thrust and thrusts internal to the allochthon cut obliquely across fold axes, hinge lines and cleavage in the allochthon and the underlying Hudson flysch. Allochthon emplacement clearly post-dates the earliest regional slaty cleavage development and two generations of large-scale tectonic folding. Tectonic slivers and fault rocks (Bald Mountain Terrane) present along the basal Taconic thrust initially formed as the allochthon ramped over the Cambro-Ordovician North American continental shelf. The fold-thrust mode of deformation continues in the underlying flysch sequence of the Hudson River lowlands. The progressive development of structures observed within these units is analogous to the formation of structures within the leading edge of a subduction-accretion assemblage. Halite single crystals loaded dry and then placed in brine are preferentially dissolved at surfaces adjacent to regions of high plastic strain. Riecke\u27s Principle satisfactorily accounts for the observed distribution of dissolution rates in these and the circular hole experiments performed by Sprunt and Nur (1977), but plastic strain probably dominates over elastic strain in the free energy calculations. Faster dissolution of crystalline material with high defect concentrations is the mechanism suggested to be responsible for this phenomenon. Although pressure gradients may dominate over strain energy terms in chemical potential calculations along grain-to-grain contacts, the role of permanent strain should be considered in the total physicochemical process of diffusive mass transfer (pressure solution). Of particular importance is knowledge of the rate limiting step in the transfer sequence, which may occur at grain boundary-pore fluid junctions. There the kinetics of dissolution/precipitation may play a significant role. The thermodynamic and kinetic criteria for equilibrium between states are not truly equivalent. This becomes an important consideration when forward and reverse reactions of a given change of state occur by different reaction pathways, as may be the case for dissolution/precipitation at a strained solid-fluid interface. The possibility then arises that solution transfer mechanisms exist which are driven by kinetic rate differentials rather than the energy change between solid and solution state. A complete theoretical analysis of any model designed to represent solid-fluid interactions during deformation will require a knowledge of state energy levels, reaction mechanisms and their associated activation energies, and the various parameters of diffusion within each state and along phase interfaces. Not only must the effects of deformation through fluid-assisted diffusive mass transfer be considered, but also the role of fluid phases in the plasticity of crystalline material. These two general processes may be easily confused in both experimental analogues of geologic systems and the naturally occurring rocks themselves

Recent Labour Market Trends in the Visegrad Group Countries

The large declines in the Slovak and Czech employment appeared because the countries' GDPs grew smaller while real wages grew bigger. Shorter working hours and limitations on labour productivity that the two countries introduced could not reverse the unfavourable employment trends that occurred during economic downturn.Duże spadki zatrudnienia w Słowacji i Czechach były związane ze słabym wzrostem PKB i silnym wzrostem płac realnych. Redukcje czasu pracy i wydajności pracy nie były w stanie odwrócić niekorzystnych tendencji w zatrudnieniu

Taxes and the Investment Recovery

macroeconomics, investment, recovery, taxes

Can Montana Shrews be Identified using Morphology of Dorsal Guard Hairs?

Several species of shrews present in Montana are considered species of concern by state and federal agencies, primarily due to a lack of information. Current methods for identifying shrew species can be costly, potentially inaccurate, and logistically challenging. We sought to validate a novel methodology developed in the United Kingdom that uses morphological characteristics of dorsal guard hairs for identification of shrew species. Utilizing museum collections at Montana State University and the University of Montana, we sampled dorsal guard hairs from specimens of Montana shrews with known identities. We measured four length and width characteristics for each hair sample and used a discriminate function analysis to calculate the probability of correctly identify a specimen to species. We achieved >80% confidence identifying the pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi), which is a species of concern in Montana, and >70% confidence identifying the Northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda). To increase our ability to discriminate between species we analyzed subsets of species found within discrete ecoregions and habitats. Within these subsets we achieved >80%confidence identifying the masked shrew (S. cinereus), and >60% confidence identifying the dwarf shrew (S. nanus). These findings suggest that this new methodology is viable for some species and can provide a simple, affordable research tool for the targeted study of shrews in Montana

Visual attention for linguistic and non-linguistic body actions in non-signing and native signing children

Evidence from adult studies of deaf signers supports the dissociation between neural systems involved in processing visual linguistic and non-linguistic body actions. The question of how and when this specialization arises is poorly understood. Visual attention to these forms is likely to change with age and be affected by prior language experience. The present study used eye-tracking methodology with infants and children as they freely viewed alternating video sequences of lexical American sign language (ASL) signs and non-linguistic body actions (self-directed grooming action and objectdirected pantomime). In Experiment 1, we quantified fixation patterns using an area of interest (AOI) approach and calculated face preference index (FPI) values to assess the developmental differences between 6 and 11-month-old hearing infants. Both groups were from monolingual English-speaking homes with no prior exposure to sign language. Six-month-olds attended the signer’s face for grooming; but for mimes and signs, they were drawn to attend to the “articulatory space” where the hands and arms primarily fall. Eleven-montholds, on the other hand, showed a similar attention to the face for all body action types. We interpret this to reflect an early visual language sensitivity that diminishes with age, just before the child’s first birthday. In Experiment 2, we contrasted 18 hearing monolingual English-speaking children (mean age of 4.8 years) vs. 13 hearing children of deaf adults (CODAs; mean age of 5.7 years) whose primary language at home was ASL. Native signing children had a significantly greater face attentional bias than non-signing children for ASL signs, but not for grooming and mimes. The differences in the visual attention patterns that are contingent on age (in infants) and language experience (in children) may be related to both linguistic specialization over time and the emerging awareness of communicative gestural acts

Translating climate risk assessments into more effective adaptation decision-making: the importance of social and political aspects of place-based climate risk

Climate risk continues to be framed ostensibly in terms of physical, socio-economic and/or ecological risks, as evidenced in the 2012 and 2017 UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) evidence reports. This article argues that framing climate risk in this way remains problematic for the science-policy process, particularly in ensuring adequate climate risk assessment information translates into more effective adaptation decision-making. We argue how climate risk assessments need to further consider the social and political aspects of place-based climate risk to ensure more effective adaptation policy outcomes. Using a discourse analysis of the CCRA3 Technical Report methods chapter published in June 2021, we discuss three critical themes around how climate risk is currently framed within the Technical Report methods chapter. These are (i) the over-reliance on reductive methodological framing of assessing climate risk through ‘urgency scores’; (ii) the idea of what constitutes ‘opportunity’; and (iii) the framing of transformational adaptation discourses through the lens of climate risk. To conclude, we suggest that to move beyond assessing risk solely in terms of biophysical and socio-economic risk, a greater emphasis on the social and political contexts of ‘place-based’ risk needs to be central to climate change risk assessments