The Impact of Workplace and Personal Superannuation Schemes on Net Worth: Evidence from the Household Savings Survey

The central question addressed in this paper is: does having a workplace or personal superannuation scheme result in a higher level of accumulation for retirement? The paper presents a range of information about the participation and level of holdings in workplace and personal superannuation schemes based on data from the Household Saving Survey (HSS). While the proportion of people holding a scheme is small (around 10%), the value of a scheme for those enrolled represents about one third their total net worth. There is evidence that being enrolled in a workplace scheme is associated with higher levels of total net worth, yet this is not true of personal schemes, once several personal characteristics have been controlled for. Nevertheless, it is evident that those in either workplace schemes or personal have not fully substituted this form of saving for other vehicles. In fact in all cases there appears to be complementarity, whereby higher holdings in a scheme are associated with higher holdings in other forms of savings. Typically, an additional dollar invested in a workplace scheme is associated with higher total net worth of between one and two dollars, while for personal schemes the figure typically exceeds two dollars. Two possible explanations for this arise. The first is that by enrolling in a scheme an individual acquires heightened awareness of the importance of retirement saving and saves additional amounts in other vehicles. An alternative hypothesis is that there may be some self-selection bias; those who have enrolled might be more inclined to save than the population as a whole. There is no direct way to use the data to discriminate between these two possibilities. However holding constant a wide range of other factors (including age, income, ethnicity, residence, etc) it is reasonable to suppose that the more likely sources of selection bias may have been controlled for. If this is the case then the finding that more holdings of workplace superannuation are associated with greater total retirement wealth may well have arisen from an "awareness" or "recognition" effect of belonging to a scheme. In this event, policies which foster enrolment might lead to greater retirement accumulation by those in a scheme.Superannuation; Retirement; New Zealand; Net Worth: Saving; Household Behaviour

Predicting VO2max from 1- and 1.5-Mile Runs

VO2max is the gold standard to assess cardiovascular fitness, an important factor in the longevity of health. Consequently, not everyone can perform a maximal cardiovascular test. PURPOSE: To determine the accuracy of the 1-mile or 1.5-mile run to predict VO2max. METHODS: Field runs were counterbalanced and performed on an outdoor, all-weather 400m oval track. Subjects (N=114) warmed up and stretched, then lined up single file and signaled to go in ten-second increments. At the end of the run, HR, RPE (Borg’s 6-20) and time was recorded. VO2max: subjects were fitted with a Polar heart rate monitor, a headgear to support a one-way valve mouthpiece that was connected to a ParvoMedics TrueOne 2400 metabolic cart and performed a standard Bruce protocol on a motorized treadmill until exhaustion. Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to assess the relationship between VO2max and the field runs. A two-way random (constancy) intraclass correlation coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) was used to assess reliability between the measures. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess differences between actual VO2max from the treadmill and predicted the timed runs. Simple linear regression was used to create a prediction equation for each field run. Alpha was set at .05 for all tests. RESULTS: VO2max and VO2max estimated from the 1-mile run (r(112) = .795, p = .001) as well as VO2max estimated from the 1.5-mile run (r(112) = .845, p = .001). Cronbach’s Alpha indicated high reliability between VO2max and VO2max estimated from the 1-mile run (Cronbach’s(113) = .874, p = .001) and from the 1.5-mile run (Cronbach’s(113) =. 916, p = .001). Repeated measures ANOVA show a significant difference among the three measures of VO2max (F(2, 112) = 69.9, p = .001), with pairwise comparisons indicating a significant difference between VO2max and VO2max estimated from the 1-mile run (p = .001, SEE = 5.3 ml/kg/min) as well as between VO2max and VO2max estimated from the 1.5-mile run (p = .001, SEE = 5.3 ml/kg/min). New Prediction Equations VO2max= 75.056-(3.879*1-mile (min)), p = .001, SEE= 4.8 ml/kg/min and =76.775-(2.543*1.5-mile (min)), p = .001, SEE = 4.6 ml/kg/min. CONCLUSION: While significant differences exist between actual and predicted VO2max, common field equations are quite reliable. In assessing a population similar to this sample, the new equations provide greater accuracy

Design of a distributed power system stabiliser

A new design method for a distributed power system stabiliser for interconnected power systems is introduced in this paper. The stabiliser is of a low order, dynamic and robust. To generate the required local control signals, each local stabiliser requires information about either the rotor speed or the load angle of the other subsystems. A simple MATLAB based design algorithm is given and used on a three-machine unstable power system. The resulting stabiliser is simulated and sample results are presented.<br /

Molecular dynamics of folding of secondary structures in Go-type models of proteins

We consider six different secondary structures of proteins and construct two types of Go-type off-lattice models: with the steric constraints and without. The basic aminoacid-aminoacid potential is Lennard Jones for the native contacts and a soft repulsion for the non-native contacts. The interactions are chosen to make the target secondary structure be the native state of the system. We provide a thorough equilibrium and kinetic characterization of the sequences through the molecular dynamics simulations with the Langevin noise. Models with the steric constraints are found to be better folders and to be more stable, especially in the case of the $\beta$-structures. Phononic spectra for vibrations around the native states have low frequency gaps that correlate with the thermodynamic stability. Folding of the secondary structures proceeds through a well defined sequence of events. For instance, $\alpha$-helices fold from the ends first. The closer to the native state, the faster establishment of the contacts. Increasing the system size deteriorates the folding characteristics. We study the folding times as a function of viscous friction and find a regime of moderate friction with the linear dependence. We also consider folding when one end of a structure is pinned which imitates instantaneous conditions when a protein is being synthesized. We find that, under such circumstances, folding of helices is faster and of the $\beta$-sequences slower.Comment: REVTeX, 14 pages, EPS figures included, JCP in pres

Minimal-order functional observer-based residual generators for fault detection and isolation of dynamical systems

This paper examines the design of minimal-order residual generators for the purpose of detecting and isolating actuator and/or component faults in dynamical systems. We first derive existence conditions and design residual generators using only first-order observers to detect and identify the faults. When the first-order functional observers do not exist, then based on a parametric approach to the solution of a generalized Sylvester matrix equation, we develop systematic procedures for designing residual generators utilizing minimal-order functional observers. Our design approach gives lower-order residual generators than existing results in the literature. The advantages for having such lower-order residual generators are obvious from the economical and practical points of view as cost saving and simplicity in implementation can be achieved, particularly when dealing with high-order complex systems. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed fault detection and isolation schemes. In all of the numerical examples, we design minimum-order residual generators to effectively detect and isolate actuator and/or component faults in the system