Social Security and Pension Reform: International Perspectives

Countries around the world are reforming their social security and pension systems. International studies often focus on social security reforms in Europe and North America, and may include Latin America. Reforms, however, are also occurring in Asia and Africa, and include reforms of voluntary and employer-provided pensions as well as social security programs. This book discusses both social security and employer-provided pension reforms, as well as reforms in most regions of the world.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1243/thumbnail.jp

Parabolic groups acting on one-dimensional compact spaces

Given a class of compact spaces, we ask which groups can be maximal parabolic subgroups of a relatively hyperbolic group whose boundary is in the class. We investigate the class of 1-dimensional connected boundaries. We get that any non-torsion infinite f.g. group is a maximal parabolic subgroup of some relatively hyperbolic group with connected one-dimensional boundary without global cut point. For boundaries homeomorphic to a Sierpinski carpet or a 2-sphere, the only maximal parabolic subgroups allowed are virtual surface groups (hyperbolic, or virtually $\mathbb{Z} + \mathbb{Z}$).Comment: 10 pages. Added a precision on local connectedness for Lemma 2.3, thanks to B. Bowditc

Two types of vascularisation of intramural uterine leiomyomata revealed by corrosion casting and immunohistochemical study

The blood supply of myomatous uteri collected upon autopsy was examined. The uterine vascular beds were perfused via afferent vessels with fixative followed by Mercox resin and corroded after polymerisation of the resin. The vascular casts thus obtained were examined using scanning electron microscopy. The vascular system of the uterine fibroids was also examined using immunohistochemical analysis (FVIII, factor VIII-related antigen)

Eta invariants for flat manifolds

Using H. Donnelly result from the article "Eta Invariants for G-Spaces" we calculate the eta invariants of the signature operator for almost all 7-dimensional flat manifolds with cyclic holonomy group. In all cases this eta invariants are an integer numbers. The article was motivated by D. D. Long and A. Reid article "On the geometric boundaries of hyperbolic 4-manifolds, Geom. Topology 4, 2000, 171-178Comment: 18 pages, a new version with referees comment

Application of acrylic emulsion Liquitex R (Binney and Smith) for the preparation of injection specimens and immunohistochemical studies - an observation

Application of acrylic emulsion Liquitex R for injection studies of the vascular system of human myomatous uteri was analysed. It was found that this injection mass does not penetrate the capillary bed of human organs, but it is useful in studies carried out on the blood supply of the human organs removed from cadavers. The results were compared with the studies performed with the help of immunohistochemical tests for von Willebrandt's factor

Ig heavy chain gene rearrangements in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia exhibit predominant DH6-19 and DH7-27 gene usage, can result in complete V-D-J rearrangements, and are rare in T-cell receptor αβ lineage

Rearranged IGH genes were detected by Southern blotting in 22% of 118 cases of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and involved monoallelic and biallelic rearrangements in 69% (18/26) and 31% (8/26) of these cases, respectively. IGH gene rearrangements were found in 19% (13/69) of CD3- T- ALL and in 50% of TCRγδ+ T-ALL (12/24), whereas only a single TCRαβ+ T- ALL (1/25) displayed a monoallelic IGH gene rearrangement. The association with the T-cell receptor (TCR) phenotype was further supported by the striking relationship between IGH and TCR delta (TCRD) gene rearrangements, ie, 32% of T-ALL (23/72) with monoallelic or biallelic TCRD gene rearrangements had IGH gene rearrangements, whereas only 1 of 26 T-ALL with biallelic TCRD gene deletions contained a monoallelic IGH gene rearrangement. Heteroduplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis with VH and DH family- specific primers in combination with a JH consensus primer showed a total of 39 clonal products, representing 7 (18%) VH-(DH-)JH joinings and 32 (82%) DH- JH rearrangements. Whereas the usage of VH gene segments was seemingly random, preferential usage of DH6-19 (45%) and DH7-27 (21%) gene segments was observed. Although the JH4 and JH6 gene segments were used most frequently (33% and 21%, respectively), a significant proportion of joinings (28%) used the most upstream JH1 and JH2 gene segments, which are rarely used in precursor-B-ALL and normal B cells (1% to 4%). In conclusion, the high frequency of incomplete DH-JH rearrangements, the frequent usage of the more downstream DH6-19 and DH7-27 gene segments, and the most upstream JH1 and JH2 gene segments suggests a predominance of immature IGH rearrangements in immature (non-TCRαβ+) T-ALL as a result of continuing V(D)J recombinase activity. More mature αβ-lineage T-ALL with biallelic TCRD gene deletions apparently have switched off their recombination machinery and are less prone to cross-lineage IGH gene rearrangements. The combined results indicate that IGH gene rearrangements in T-ALL are postoncogenic processes, which are absent in T-ALL with deleted TCRD genes and completed TCR alpha (TCRA) gene rearrangements.</p