Survivor Funds

This Article explains how to create “survivor funds”—short-term investment funds that would pay more to those investors who live until the end of the fund’s term than to those who die before then. For example, instead of just investing in a ten-year bond and dividing the proceeds among the investors at the end of the bond term, a survivor fund would invest in that ten-year bond but divide the proceeds only among those who survived the full ten years. These survivor funds would be attractive investments because the survivors would get a greater return on their investments, while the decedents, for obvious reasons, would not care. Survivor funds would work like short-term tontines. Basically, a tontine is a financial product that combines features of an annuity and a lottery. In a simple tontine, a group of investors pools their money together to buy a portfolio of investments, and, as investors die, their shares are forfeited, often with the entire fund going to the last survivor. For example, imagine that ten 65-year-old men each contribute $1000 to a fund that buys a large diamond for$10,000 and that the men agree that the last “survivor will get the diamond. Accordingly, after the ninth man dies, the tenth man gets the diamond, and he can keep it or sell it. Of course, the survivor principle—that the share of each, at death, is enjoyed by the survivors—can be used to design financial products that would benefit multiple survivors, not just the last survivor. For example, elsewhere, we showed how tontines could be used to create so-called “tontine annuities” and “tontine pensions” that would benefit lots of retirees. In this Article, we show how the survivor principle can be used to create survivor funds that would only make payments to those who survive for a specified number of years

Bottomonium suppression at RHIC and LHC in an open quantum system approach

We present potential non-relativistic quantum chromodynamics (pNRQCD) predictions for bottomonium suppression in sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV, 2.76 TeV, and 5.02 TeV heavy-ion collisions using an open quantum systems (OQS) description of the reduced heavy-quark anti-quark density matrix. Compared to prior OQS+pNRQCD studies we include the rapidity dependence of bottomonium production and evolution, allowing for a fully 3-dimensional description of bottomonium trajectories in the quark-gluon plasma. The underlying formalism used to compute the ground and excited state survival probabilities is based on a Lindblad equation that is accurate to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the binding energy over temperature. For the background evolution, we make use of a 3+1D viscous hydrodynamics code which reproduces soft hadron observables at all three collision energies. We find good agreement between NLO OQS+pNRQCD predictions and data taken at LHC energies, however, at RHIC energies, there is tension with recent bottomonium suppression measurements by the STAR collaboration.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

Insights on the kinematics of the India-Eurasia collision from global geodynamic models

The Eocene India-Eurasia collision is a first order tectonic event whose nature and chronology remains controversial. We test two end-member collision scenarios using coupled global plate motion-subduction models. The first, conventional model, invokes a continental collision soon after ∼60 Ma between a maximum extent Greater India and an Andean-style Eurasian margin. The alternative scenario involves a collision between a minimum extent Greater India and a NeoTethyan back-arc at ∼60 Ma that is subsequently subducted along southern Lhasa at an Andean-style margin, culminating with continent-continent contact at ∼40 Ma. Our numerical models suggest the conventional scenario does not adequately reproduce mantle structure related to Tethyan convergence. The alternative scenario better reproduces the discrete slab volumes and their lateral and vertical distribution in the mantle, and is also supported by the distribution of ophiolites indicative of Tethyan intraoceanic subduction, magmatic gaps along southern Lhasa and a two-stage slowdown of India. Our models show a strong component of southward mantle return flow for the Tethyan region, suggesting that the common assumption of near-vertical slab sinking is an oversimplification with significant consequences for interpretations of seismic tomography in the context of subduction reference frames

Mantle-induced subsidence and compression in SE Asia since the early Miocene

Rift basins developed extensively across Sundaland, the continental core of Southeast Asia, since the Eocene. Beginning in the early Miocene, basins in southern Sundaland experienced widespread synchronous compression (inversion) and marine inundation, despite a large drop in long-term global sea level. The mechanism for this large-scale synchronous regional sea level rise, basin inversion, and subsidence is not well understood and contrary to expectations from traditional basin models and eustatic sea level trends. We present geodynamic models of mantle convection with both deformable and rigid plate reconstructions to investigate this enigma. Models suggest that a slab stagnates within the transition zone beneath Southeast Asia before the Miocene. The stagnant slab penetrated through the 660 km mantle discontinuity during the early Miocene and formed a slab avalanche event, due to continuous subduction and accumulation of negatively buoyant slabs. This avalanche may have induced large-scale marine inundation, regional compression, and basin inversion across southern Sundaland. We argue mantle convection induced large-scale basin compression, in contrast to conventional plate margin-induced compression; this suggests mantle convection may exert a much stronger control on surface processes than previously recognized

Transverse momentum dependent feed-down fractions for bottomonium production

We extract transverse momentum dependent feed-down fractions for bottomonium production using a data-driven approach. We use data published by the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb collaborations for sqrt(s) = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions. Based on this collected data, we produce fits to the differential cross sections for the production of both S- and P-wave bottomonium states. Combining these fits with branching ratios for excited state decays from the Particle Data Group, we compute the feed-down fractions for both the Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) as a function of transverse momentum. Our results indicate a strong dependence on transverse momentum, which is consistent with prior extractions of the feed-down fractions. When evaluated at the average momentum of the states, we find that approximately 75% of Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) states are produced directly. Our results for the transverse momentum dependent feed-down fractions are provided in tabulated form so that they can be used by other research groups.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, and associated data file

Concluding Athletic Careers: Post-Athletic Transitions in the Atlantic Coast Conference

Due to the pervasiveness of athletic role engulfment and a salient athletic identity, collegiate athletes often experience difficulties upon conclusion of their competitive athletic career. Such engulfment and fixed athletic identity are detrimental to an athlete’s post-athletic transition. Given the role of athletic department institutional members (e.g., administrators, coaches, staff) in the formative development of collegiate athletes’ lives, athletic departments occupy an integral position to assist athletes in their post-athletic transition. To examine the practices currently implemented among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic departments relative to holistic athlete development, semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutional members at nine (n = 9) Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) athletic departments. Findings reveal thematic emphases on athletic department specific programming and intra-institutional collaboration to ensure a variety of resources and educational opportunities are consistently available to collegiate athletes during their college experience. Implications and actionable items are discussed in detail. Disclosure: This research was funded by the Atlantic Coast Conference – Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics (ACC-CRIA) Innovation Initiative Grant Program

Proletarianization and gateways to precarization in the context of land-based investments for agricultural commercialization in Lao PDR

Labor is central to the debates on global land-based investment. Proponents purport that these investments are an avenue for rural transformation from resource- to wage-based livelihoods through the generation of employment and contribution to poverty reduction. Drawing on a recent, unique national dataset on land concessions in Lao PDR, this paper uses an agrarian political economy lens to investigate how land-based investments live up to this expectation. The paper analyzes potential determinants of the degree to which different social groups engage in wage-labor within land-based investments. Results show that while land-based investments create a significant absolute number of jobs, former land users were offered predominantly low-skilled and seasonal jobs. The effects of these investments on rural employment are uneven depending on degrees of land and resource dispossession, the extent of job creation, and the availability of alternative opportunities in the region. In the majority of cases, former land users, especially women were pushed into precarious conditions through three processes: dispossession without proletarianization; limited proletarianization; and adverse proletarianization. We argue that the promotion of land-based investments as an approach for rural development, particularly along the gradient of transforming resource- to wage-labor based livelihoods, is ineffective without concurrent opportunities within and beyond the agricultural sector to absorb the labor reallocated from traditional livelihoods. Enforcing labor regulations, including restrictions on hiring of foreign labor, compliance with minimum wages, and relevant skills transfer are essential to minimize precarization and increase benefits for local people. Further, protecting peasants’ individual and common land-use rights is imperative to minimize the concurrence of precarization and increasing traditional vulnerability