Social Security Reform: Legal Analysis of Social Security Benefit Entitlement Issues

[Excerpt] Calculations indicating that the current Social Security program will not be financially sustainable in the long run under the present statutory scheme have fueled the current debate regarding Social Security reform. This report addresses selected legal issues that may be raised regarding entitlement to Social Security benefits as Congress considers possible changes to the Social Security program in view of projected long-range shortfalls in the Social Security Trust Funds. Social Security benefits are administered pursuant to Title II of the Social Security Act, known as the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. Title II is part of a larger social insurance program in which Congress uses its power to tax and spend for the general welfare to promote the social goals of aiding the aged, survivors of workers, disabled persons, and persons of limited means. Beneficiaries under Title II have a legal entitlement to receive Social Security benefits as set forth by the Social Security Act and as administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), an independent agency in the executive branch. An individual’s right to Social Security benefits is in a sense “earned,” since there is a general relationship between OASDI benefits and wages earned and the tax paid thereon. However, benefits are not directly measured by the amount of payments made through the years into the system. Thus, the fact that Social Security benefits are financed by taxes on an employee’s wages does not provide a limit on Congress’s power to fix the levels of benefits under the Social Security Act, or the conditions upon which they may be paid

Femtosecond photoelectron and photoion spectrometer with vacuum ultraviolet probe pulses

We describe a setup to study ultrafast dynamics in gas-phase molecules using time-resolved photoelectron and photoion spectroscopy. The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) probe pulses are generated via strong field high-order harmonic generation from infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The band pass characteristic in transmission of thin indium (In) metal foil is exploited to isolate the $9^{\text{th}}$ harmonic of the 800 nm fundamental (H9, 14 eV, 89 nm) from all other high harmonics. The $9^{\text{th}}$ harmonic is obtained with high conversion efficiencies and has sufficient photon energy to access the complete set of valence electron levels in most molecules. The setup also allows for direct comparison of VUV single-photon probe with 800 nm multi-photon probe without influencing the delay of excitation and probe pulse or the beam geometry. We use a magnetic bottle spectrometer with high collection efficiency for electrons, serving at the same time as a time of flight spectrometer for ions. Characterization measurements on Xe reveal the spectral width of H9 to be $190\pm60$ meV and a photon flux of $\sim1\cdot10^{7}$ photons/pulse after spectral filtering. As a first application, we investigate the S$_1$ excitation of perylene using time-resolved ion spectra obtained with multi-photon probing and time-resolved electron spectra from VUV single-photon probing. The time resolution extracted from cross-correlation measurements is $65\pm10$ fs for both probing schemes and the pulse duration of H9 is found to be $35\pm8$ fs

Prototype laser-diode-pumped solid state laser transmitters

Monolithic, diode-pumped Nd:YAG ring lasers can provide diffraction-limited, single-frequency, narrow-linewidth, tunable output which is adequate for use as a local oscillator in a coherent communication system. A laser was built which had a linewidth of about 2 kHz, a power of 5 milliwatts, and which was tunable over a range of 30 MHz in a few microseconds. This laser was phase-locked to a second, similar laser. This demonstrates that the powerful technique of heterodyne detection is possible with a diode-pumped laser used as the local oscillator. Laser diode pumping of monolithic Nd:YAG rings can lead to output powers of hundreds of milliwatts from a single laser. A laser was built with a single-mode output of 310 mW. Several lasers can be chained together to sum their power, while maintaining diffraction-limited, single frequency operation. This technique was demonstrated with two lasers, with a total output of 340 mW, and is expected to be practical for up to about ten lasers. Thus with lasers of 310 mW, output of up to 3 W is possible. The chaining technique, if properly engineered, results in redundancy. The technique of resonant external modulation and doubling is designed to efficiently convert the continuous wave, infrared output of our lasers into low duty-cycle pulsed green output. This technique was verified through both computer modeling and experimentation. Further work would be necessary to develop a deliverable system using this technique

Mediation as a Catalyst for Judicial Reform in Latin America

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Promoting Partnerships for Student Success: Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative

The Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative aimed to increase the success of young, low-income, and academically underprepared California community college students by helping colleges strengthen their support services and better integrate these services with academic instruction. This report describes what the nine participating community colleges did to meet the goals of SSPIRE and offers lessons for other institutions drawn from MDRC's research on the initiative

Chronic Inflammatory Placental Disorders Associated With Recurrent Adverse Pregnancy Outcome

Chronic inflammatory placental disorders are a group of rare but devastating gestational syndromes associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. This review focuses on three related conditions: villitis of unknown etiology (VUE), chronic histiocytic intervillositis (CHI) and massive perivillous fibrin deposition (MPFD). The hallmark of these disorders is infiltration of the placental architecture by maternal immune cells and disruption of the intervillous space, where gas exchange between the mother and fetus occurs. Currently, they can only be detected through histopathological examination of the placenta after a pregnancy has ended. All three are associated with a significant risk of recurrence in subsequent pregnancies. Villitis of unknown etiology is characterised by a destructive infiltrate of maternal CD8+ T lymphocytes invading into the chorionic villi, combined with activation of fetal villous macrophages. The diagnosis can only be made when an infectious aetiology has been excluded. VUE becomes more common as pregnancy progresses and is frequently seen with normal pregnancy outcome. However, severe early-onset villitis is usually associated with fetal growth restriction and recurrent pregnancy loss. Chronic histiocytic intervillositis is characterised by excessive accumulation of maternal CD68+ histiocytes in the intervillous space. It is associated with a wide spectrum of adverse pregnancy outcomes including high rates of first-trimester miscarriage, severe fetal growth restriction and late intrauterine fetal death. Intervillous histiocytes can also accumulate due to infection, including SARS-CoV-2, although this infection-induced intervillositis does not appear to recur. As with VUE, the diagnosis of CHI requires exclusion of an infectious cause. Women with recurrent CHI and their families are predisposed to autoimmune diseases, suggesting CHI may have an alloimmune pathology. This observation has driven attempts to prevent CHI with a wide range of maternal immunosuppression. Massive perivillous fibrin deposition is diagnosed when >25% of the intervillous space is occupied by fibrin, and is associated with fetal growth restriction and late intrauterine fetal death. Although not an inflammatory disorder per se, MPFD is frequently seen in association with both VUE and CHI. This review summarises current understanding of the prevalence, diagnostic features, clinical consequences, immune pathology and potential prophylaxis against recurrence in these three chronic inflammatory placental syndromes