Can the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Be Restored to Financial Health?

In 2003, the Bush administration made a proposal for reform to strengthen pension plan funding and the financial condition of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Various bills with the goal of reforming the PBGC were proposed in the 108th Congress but none were enacted into law. The doubling of the PBGC deficit from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2004, has heightened awareness about the PBGC deficit situation. Congressional leaders from both parties have announced their intention to move aggressively on legislative solutions in the 109th Congress

Mussel production and economics at Ratnagiri

Mussels as a world food resource have been indicated by Davies (1970), because of their great potential for culture and world wide distribution. In countries like India with high population and protein malnutrition anything that could be produced in large quantities at a cheaper cost giving annual protein is welcomed

Asymptotic correctability of Bell-diagonal qudit states and lower bounds on tolerable error probabilities in quantum cryptography

The concept of asymptotic correctability of Bell-diagonal quantum states is generalised to elementary quantum systems of higher dimensions. Based on these results basic properties of quantum state purification protocols are investigated which are capable of purifying tensor products of Bell-diagonal states and which are based on $B$-steps of the Gottesman-Lo-type with the subsequent application of a Calderbank-Shor-Steane quantum code. Consequences for maximum tolerable error rates of quantum cryptographic protocols are discussed

Computation of In-bore Velocity-time and Travel-time profiles from Breech Pressure Measurements

The paper describes breech pressure measurement and also discusses the computation of velocity-time and travel-time profiles in the barrel from the instantaneous breech pressure values. The computed value of velocity at the shot out instant is obtained as the muzzle velocity. A close correlation is observed between the muzzle velocities measured by a radar and those computed from pressure-time data by this method

Feasibility of Producing Electricity, Hydrogen, and Chlorine via Reverse Electrodialysis

Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a technology to generate electricity from two streams with different salinities. While RED systems have been conventionally used for electricity generation, recent works explored combining RED for production of valuable gases. This work investigates the feasibility of producing hydrogen and chlorine in addition to electricity in an RED stack and identifies potential levers for improvement. A simplified one-dimensional model is adopted to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the process. We notice a strong disparity in typical current densities of RED fed with seawater and river water and that in typical water (or chlor-alkali) electrolysis. This can be partly mitigated by using brine and seawater as RED feeds. Considering such an RED system, we estimate a hydrogen production of 1.37 mol/(m2h) and an electrical power density of 1.19 W/m2. Although this exceeds previously reported hydrogen production rates in combination with RED, the levelized costs of products are 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the current market prices at the current state. The levelized costs of products are very sensitive to the membrane price and performance. Hence, going forward, manufacturing thinner and highly selective membranes is required to make the system competitive against the consolidated technologies

Instrumentation System for Thermal analysis of Electro-Explosive Devices.

A constant current pulser, with adjustable pulse width and current, is designed to evaluate thermal characteristics of electro-explosive devices (EED). The thermal response in voltage/time profile is digitised and recorded on a PC. A software for the analysis of this data has been developed. It computes the heat loss coefficient (Lambda), thermal capacity (Co) and thermal time constant (of the system. These parameters are used for the prediction of the performance EEDs during development stage and also in quality control. A computerised system developed for this purpose is also described in detail

Defined Benefit Pension Reform for Single-Employer Plans

This report includes quantitative analysis based on regulatory filings by pension plans for 2001 and 2002 to provide an assessment of the number of plans that might be affected by certain elements of the Administration proposal. It also summarizes the reaction to the Administration proposal by business and labor. The report also includes an illustration of the effect on a hypothetical plan sponsor’s plan contribution and funded ratio of the credit balance approach used in current law versus the Administration proposal. This report focuses on single-employer plans

Studies on the pupation of Musca Domestica Nebulo Fabr. (Diptera-Cyclorrhapha-Muscidae)

This article does not have an abstract

Comparative Analysis of Lossless Image Compression Based On Row By Row Classifier and Various Encoding Schemes on Color Images

ABSTRACT Lossless image compression is needed in many fields like medical imaging, telemetry, geophysics, remote sensing and other applications, which require exact replica of original image and loss of information is not tolerable. In this paper, a near lossless image compression algorithm based on row by row classifier with encoding schemes like Lempel Ziv Welch (LZW), Huffman and Run Length Encoding (RLE) on color images is proposed. The algorithm divides the image into three parts R, G and B, apply row by row classification on each part and result of this classification is records in the mask image. After classification the image data is decomposed into two sequences each for R, G and B and mask image is hidden in them. These sequences are encoded using different encoding schemes like LZW, Huffman and RLE. An exhaustive comparative analysis is performed to evaluate these techniques, which reveals that the proposed algorithm have smaller bits per pixel (bpp) than simple LZW, Huffman and RLE encoding techniques

Temperature-dependent device properties of gamma-CuI and beta-Ga2O3 heterojunctions

Temperature-dependent studies of Ga2O3-based heterojunction devices are important in understanding its carrier transport mechanism, junction barrier potential, and stability at higher temperatures. In this study, we investigated the temperature-dependent device characteristics of the p-type gamma-copper iodide (gamma-CuI)/n-type beta-gallium oxide (beta-Ga2O3) heterojunctions, thereby revealing their interface properties. The fabricated gamma-CuI/beta-Ga2O3 heterojunction showed excellent diode characteristics with a high rectification ratio and low reverse saturation current at 298 K in the presence of a large barrier height (0.632 eV). The temperature-dependent device characteristics were studied in the temperature range 273-473 K to investigate the heterojunction interface. With an increase in temperature, a gradual decrease in the ideality factor and an increase in the barrier height were observed, indicating barrier inhomogeneity at the heterojunction interface. Furthermore, the current-voltage measurement showed electrical hysteresis for the reverse saturation current, although it was not observed for the forward bias current. The presence of electrical hysteresis for the reverse saturation current and of the barrier inhomogeneity in the temperature-dependent characteristics indicates the presence of some level of interface states for the gamma-CuI/beta-Ga2O3 heterojunction device. Thus, our study showed that the electrical hysteresis can be correlated with temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of the beta-Ga2O3-based heterojunction device, which signifies the presence of surface defects and interface states