Qualified Retirement Plans: Analysis of Distribution and Rollover Activity

One potential downside when employees have the freedom to manage their own retirement accumulations is “leakage” prior to the end of their working careers, which is proxied here using age 60. Leakage occurs when employees take withdrawals prior to retirement, when they cash out distributions at job separation, or when they fail to pay back loans taken out against their accounts. Although leakage has the potential to undermine a participant-driven retirement system, trend analysis shows that aggregate pre-retirement leakage is modest and trending down relative to assets, and stable as a share of gross contributions. The probability of receiving a distribution and the fraction of gross distributions cashed out are roughly equal across income groups, but the portion cashed out represents a higher percentage of income for the lower-income groups

An analysis of the foot in turnout using a dance specific 3D multi-segment foot model

Introduction: Recent three-dimensional (3D) kinematic research has revealed foot abduction is the strongest predictor of standing functional and forced turnout postures. However, it is still unknown how the internal foot joints enable a large degree of foot abduction in turnout. The primary purpose of this study was to use a dance specific multi-segment foot model to determine the lower leg and foot contributions to turnout that female university-level ballets use to accentuate their turnout. Methods: Eighteen female dance students (mean age, 18.8 ± 1.6 years) volunteered for this study. Retro-reflective markers were attached to the dancers\u27 dominant foot. Each dancer performed three repetitions of functional turnout, forced turnout and ten consecutive sautés in first position. Repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni adjustments for the multiple comparisons were used to determine the kinematic adjustments, hindfoot eversion, midfoot and forefoot abduction, navicular drop (i.e. lowering of the medial longitudinal arch) and first metatarsophalangeal joint abduction between natural double leg up-right posture and the first position conditions. Results: Hindfoot eversion (4.6°, p \u3c 0.001) and midfoot abduction (2.8°, p \u3c 0.001) significantly increased in functional turnout compared to the natural double leg up-right posture. Thirteen dancers demonstrated increased first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) abduction in forced turnout, however no statistically significant increase was found. Navicular drop during sautés in first position significantly increased by 11 mm (p \u3c 0.001) compared to the natural double leg up-right posture. Conclusion: Our findings suggest dancers do pronate, via hindfoot eversion and midfoot abduction in both functional and forced turnout, however, no immediate association was found between forced turnout and first MTPJ abduction. Foot pronation does play a role in achieving turnout. Further prospective research on in situ measures of the lower limb in turnout and injury surveillance is required to improve our understanding of the normal and abnormal dance biomechanics. © 2019 The Author(s)

Neighborhoods of trees in circular orderings

In phylogenetics, a common strategy used to construct an evolutionary tree for a set of species X is to search in the space of all such trees for one that optimizes some given score function (such as the minimum evolution, parsimony or likelihood score). As this can be computationally intensive, it was recently proposed to restrict such searches to the set of all those trees that are compatible with some circular ordering of the set X. To inform the design of efficient algorithms to perform such searches, it is therefore of interest to find bounds for the number of trees compatible with a fixed ordering in the neighborhood of a tree that is determined by certain tree operations commonly used to search for trees: the nearest neighbor interchange (nni), the subtree prune and regraft (spr) and the tree bisection and reconnection (tbr) operations. We show that the size of such a neighborhood of a binary tree associated with the nni operation is independent of the tree’s topology, but that this is not the case for the spr and tbr operations. We also give tight upper and lower bounds for the size of the neighborhood of a binary tree for the spr and tbr operations and characterize those trees for which these bounds are attained

Use of volunteers in early years interventions for parents:A scoping review of roles and the extent of evaluation research in this area

Early years interventions, particularly those supporting parents in the first 1001 days of their infants life, support healthy development of infants and prevent adverse experiences that can have long term negative impacts. Volunteers are often used to deliver such interventions. This scoping review aimed to explore the roles and characteristics of volunteers across early years interventions and map the evaluation in this field to identify gaps in the literature. A scoping review was conducted according to the Arksey and O'Malley Framework. Academic databases and grey literature sources were searched to identify literature evaluating volunteer-based interventions for parents in the first 1001 days of their infant's life (conception to aged two). Research conducted in the UK or comparable high-income countries since the year 2000 were identified and data relating to the volunteer role, intervention design and evaluation methods were mapped. Sixty-six articles were eligible for inclusion in the review. Volunteers were commonly involved in interventions to provide peer support for a range of parenting related matters, support breastfeeding and the mental and emotional wellbeing of parents. Volunteer roles were categorised based on their background (peers or non-peer volunteers), their responsibilities (provider of peer support, educator or providers of practical support) and the delivery style of their role (in person one to one support, group leader or remote support). Research most often involved exploring the experiences of those involved in receiving or delivering the interventions and measuring outcomes in relation to breastfeeding and parent mental wellbeing. Volunteers play a large role in the provision of early years interventions. Their varied contribution is presented through a typology that will allow comparisons of roles in future research. Further research exploring the impact on the volunteers and the organisation will support decision making around choosing a volunteer led model within early years services

Criticality of plasma membrane lipids reflects activation state of macrophage cells.

Signalling is of particular importance in immune cells, and upstream in the signalling pathway many membrane receptors are functional only as complexes, co-locating with particular lipid species. Work over the last 15 years has shown that plasma membrane lipid composition is close to a critical point of phase separation, with evidence that cells adapt their composition in ways that alter the proximity to this thermodynamic point. Macrophage cells are a key component of the innate immune system, are responsive to infections and regulate the local state of inflammation. We investigate changes in the plasma membrane's proximity to the critical point as a response to stimulation by various pro- and anti-inflammatory agents. Pro-inflammatory (interferon γ, Kdo 2-Lipid A, lipopolysaccharide) perturbations induce an increase in the transition temperature of giant plasma membrane vesicles; anti-inflammatory interleukin 4 has the opposite effect. These changes recapitulate complex plasma membrane composition changes, and are consistent with lipid criticality playing a master regulatory role: being closer to critical conditions increases membrane protein activity.Research was funded by EUMarie Curie action ITN TransPol (EC), NIH-R01GM110052 and NSF10 MCB1552439 (SLV), Cambridge University Commonwealth, European and International Trust 11 (JS) ITN BioPol (PC), and Wellcome Trust Investigator grant 08045/Z/15/Z (CEB)

150,000-year palaeoclimate record from northern Ethiopia supports early, multiple dispersals of modern humans from Africa

Climatic change is widely acknowledged to have played a role in the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, but the timing is contentious. Dispersal is often linked to climatic change at ~60,000 years ago, despite increasing evidence for earlier presence of modern humans in Asia. Here we report a deep seismic and near-continuous core record of the last 150,000 years from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highlands, close to the earliest modern human fossil sites and to postulated dispersal routes. The record shows varied climate at the end of the penultimate glacial, followed by an abrupt change to relatively stable moist climate during the last interglacial. These conditions would have favored population growth and range expansion, supporting models of early, multiple dispersals of modern humans from AfricapublishersversionPeer reviewe

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Revising the Fraction of Slow Rotators in IFS Galaxy Surveys

The fraction of galaxies supported by internal rotation compared to galaxies stabilized by internal pressure provides a strong constraint on galaxy formation models. In integral field spectroscopy surveys, this fraction is biased because survey instruments typically only trace the inner parts of the most massive galaxies. We present aperture corrections for the two most widely used stellar kinematic quantities $V/\sigma$ and $\lambda_{R}$. Our demonstration involves integral field data from the SAMI Galaxy Survey and the ATLAS$^{\rm{3D}}$ Survey. We find a tight relation for both $V/\sigma$ and $\lambda_{R}$ when measured in different apertures that can be used as a linear transformation as a function of radius, i.e., a first-order aperture correction. We find that $V/\sigma$ and $\lambda_{R}$ radial growth curves are well approximated by second order polynomials. By only fitting the inner profile (0.5$R_{\rm{e}}$), we successfully recover the profile out to one $R_{\rm{e}}$ if a constraint between the linear and quadratic parameter in the fit is applied. However, the aperture corrections for $V/\sigma$ and $\lambda_{R}$ derived by extrapolating the profiles perform as well as applying a first-order correction. With our aperture-corrected $\lambda_{R}$ measurements, we find that the fraction of slow rotating galaxies increases with stellar mass. For galaxies with $\log M_{*}/M_{\odot}>$ 11, the fraction of slow rotators is $35.9\pm4.3$ percent, but is underestimated if galaxies without coverage beyond one $R_{\rm{e}}$ are not included in the sample ($24.2\pm5.3$ percent). With measurements out to the largest aperture radius the slow rotator fraction is similar as compared to using aperture corrected values ($38.3\pm4.4$ percent). Thus, aperture effects can significantly bias stellar kinematic IFS studies, but this bias can now be removed with the method outlined here.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 16 pages and 11 figures. The key figures of the paper are: 1, 4, 9, and 1

Fatal S. aureus Hemorrhagic Pneumonia: Genetic Analysis of a Unique Clinical Isolate Producing both PVL and TSST-1

In 2008, an unusual strain of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA68111), producing both Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), was isolated from a fatal case of necrotizing pneumonia. Because PVL/TSST-1 co-production in S. aureus is rare, we characterized the molecular organization of these toxin genes in strain 68111. MSSA68111 carries the PVL genes within a novel temperate prophage we call ФPVLv68111 that is most similar, though not identical, to phage ФPVL – a phage type that is relatively rare worldwide. The TSST-1 gene (tst) in MSSA68111 is carried on a unique staphylococcal pathogenicity island (SaPI) we call SaPI68111. Features of SaPI68111 suggest it likely arose through multiple major recombination events with other known SaPIs. Both ФPVLv68111 and SaPI68111 are fully mobilizable and therefore transmissible to other strains. Taken together, these findings suggest that hypervirulent S. aureus have the potential to emerge worldwide

Exercise interventions to reduce anxiety in mid-life and late-life anxiety disorders and subthreshold anxiety disorder: a systematic review

Background: Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and cause significant distress, disability, and cost. Medication adverse effects and interactions increase in mid-life and late-life, highlighting the need for effective non-pharmacological interventions. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the extent of evidence supporting exercise interventions for anxiety and subthreshold anxiety disorders in mid-life and late-life. Design: Systematic review. Data Sources and Methods: We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, Emcare, Ovid Nursing, CINAHL Plus, Cochrane Library, Health Collection, Humanities & Social Sciences Collection, and https://clinicaltrials.gov databases for trials published January 1994–May 2019. Randomised controlled trials of exercise interventions involving aerobic exercise or resistance training for adults aged 40 years and above with anxiety or subthreshold anxiety disorders in residential or health settings were identified. The primary outcome was change in anxiety. We excluded trials including participants aged below 40 years, participants with diagnosis of separation anxiety, selective mutism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, and head-to-head comparisons of interventions. Trial quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool and evidence synthesised in narrative form. Results: Four trials totalling 132 participants met inclusion criteria, although some had methodological limitations. Interventions included a home-based resistance training intervention, supervised group-based aerobic intervention, Tai Chi intervention, and supervised group-based aerobic and strength intervention. Three trials included late-life participants and the fourth mid-life. Three trials demonstrated greater reductions in anxiety in the intervention group compared with control. The fourth trial showed pre–post reductions in anxiety in both groups, with between-group difference not reaching statistical significance. Conclusion: There is limited supportive evidence suggesting that exercise interventions have potential to be effective, feasible and safe non-pharmacological interventions for anxiety and subthreshold anxiety disorders in mid-life and late-life. The heterogeneity, limited number and high risk of bias of some trials meant that we were not able to conduct a meta-analysis. Tailoring of interventions may improve uptake and reduce dropout. The paucity of research in this area with only four included trials demonstrates the urgent need for future and larger trials to provide proof of concept, data about effective types and doses of exercise interventions, and guidance to community, clinical, and public health services