Who's In Who's Out: A Look at Access to Employer-based Retirement Plans and Participation in the States

With the aging of the nation's population, a continuing decline in the availability of traditional pensions, and concerns about the future of Social Security, many workers in the United States worry that they won't have enough money set aside for their retirements. The Employee Benefit Research Institute's 2014 annual Retirement Confidence Survey found that only 22 percent of Americans are very confident that they will have enough money for a comfortable retirement, while 36 percent are somewhat confident. Twenty-four percent are not at all confident.In addressing these concerns, policymakers have emphasized the need to expand access to what are known as employer-sponsored defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s. The ability of employees to contribute directly from their paychecks and the use of features such as automatic enrollment make the workplace an effective place to encourage saving. These employer-sponsored plans are how Americans now accumulate the vast majority of their private retirement funds, but large gaps in coverage exist.Today, only about half of workers participate in a workplace retirement plan, according to an analysis of data compiled by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Overall, 58 percent of workers have access to a plan, while 49 percent participate in one. Looking at the numbers a different way, more than 30 million full-time, full-year private-sector workers ages 18 to 64 lack access to an employer-based retirement plan.To help more people save for their later years, lawmakers in Congress have introduced retirement savings initiatives. Separately, President Barack Obama unveiled his "myRA" program in 2014 with a similar goal. As of Nov. 4, 2015, people without retirement plans can sign up to save through myRA. States are also acting to increase retirement savings. Lawmakers in more than half of the states have introduced measures to either create or study state-sponsored retirement savings plans for employees who don't have access to such a plan in the workplace. Illinois, for instance, established the Secure Choice Savings Program, which will start enrolling certain workers in new payroll-deduction retirement accounts by 2017. Washington state has created a marketplace in which small employers and the self-employed can shop for retirement plans

INFORMATION SECURITY: A STUDY ON BIOMETRIC SECURITY SOLUTIONS FOR TELECARE MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

This exploratory study provides a means for evaluating and rating Telecare medical information systems in order to provide a more effective security solution. This analysis of existing solutions was conducted via an in-depth study of Telecare security. This is a proposition for current biometric technologies as a new means for secure communication of private information over public channels. Specifically, this research was done in order to provide a means for businesses to evaluate prospective technologies from a 3 dimensional view in order to make am accurate decision on any given biometric security technology. Through identifying key aspects of what makes a security solution the most effective in minimizing risk of a patient’s confidential data being exposed we were then able to create a 3 dimensional rubric to see not only from a business view but also the users such as the patients and doctors that use Telecare medical information systems every day. Finally, we also need to understand the implications of biometric solutions from a technological standpoint

Late-successional and old-growth forests in the northeastern United States: Structure, dynamics, and prospects for restoration.

Abstract Restoration of old-growth forest structure is an emerging silvicultural goal, especially in those regions where old-growth abundance falls below the historic range of variability. However, longitudinal studies of old-growth dynamics that can inform silvicultural and policy options are few. We analyzed the change in structure, including stand density, diameter distribution, and the abundance of large live, standing dead, and downed dead trees on 58 late-successional and old-growth plots in Maine, USA, and compared these to regional data from the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Structural dynamics on the late-successional plots reflected orderly change associated with density-dependent growth and mortality, but dynamics on the old-growth plots were more variable. Some plots experienced heavy mortality associated with beech bark disease. Diameter distributions conformed poorly to a classic exponential distribution, and did not converge toward such a distribution at the plot scale. Although large live trees showed a broad trend of increasing density in regional forests, recent harvesting patterns offset a considerable fraction of those gains, while mean diameter was static and the number of large dead trees was weakly declining. Even though forests of the northeast are aging, changes in silviculture and forest policy are necessary to accelerate restoration of old-growth structure

Estimating the Capital Recovery Costs of Alternative Patch Retention Treatments in Eastern Hardwoods

We used a simulation model to estimate the economic opportunity costs and the density of large stems retained for patch retention in two temperate oak stands representative of the oak/hickory forest type in the eastern United States. Opportunity/retention costs ranged from $321.0 to$760.7/ha [$129.9 to$307.8/acre] depending on the species mix in the stand, the logging technology used, and rotation lengths. The resulting capital recovery costs ranged from $12.8 to$30.4/ha/year [$5.2 to$12.3/acre/year] depending on the degree of retention desired, the logging technology used, and the species composition of the tract. Opportunity/capital recovery costs are greatest in stands that have high-value species mix, are harvested with low-cost logging technologies, and/or managed on longer rotations. The approach described in this paper can be used to help forest landowners, managers, loggers, and other decision/policy makers understand the opportunity/capital recovery costs and ecological benefits associated with patch retention

Human gut Bacteroides capture vitamin B12 via cell surface-exposed lipoproteins.

Human gut Bacteroides use surface-exposed lipoproteins to bind and metabolize complex polysaccharides. Although vitamins and other nutrients are also essential for commensal fitness, much less is known about how commensal bacteria compete with each other or the host for these critical resources. Unlike in Escherichia coli, transport loci for vitamin B12 (cobalamin) and other corrinoids in human gut Bacteroides are replete with conserved genes encoding proteins whose functions are unknown. Here we report that one of these proteins, BtuG, is a surface-exposed lipoprotein that is essential for efficient B12 transport in B. thetaiotaomicron. BtuG binds B12 with femtomolar affinity and can remove B12 from intrinsic factor, a critical B12 transport protein in humans. Our studies suggest that Bacteroides use surface-exposed lipoproteins not only for capturing polysaccharides, but also to acquire key vitamins in the gut

Structural and mechanistic analysis of trans-3-chloroacrylic acid dehalogenase activity

The X-ray structure of a noncovalently modified trans-3-chloroacrylic acid dehalogenase with a substrate-homolog acetate bound in the active site has been determined to 1.7 Å resolution. Elucidation of catalytically important water is reported and multiple conformations of the catalytic residue αGlu52 are observed

Settlement of larvae from four families of corals in response to a crustose coralline alga and its biochemical morphogens

Healthy benthic substrates that induce coral larvae to settle are necessary for coral recovery. Yet, the biochemical cues required to induce coral settlement have not been identified for many taxa. Here we tested the ability of the crustose coralline alga (CCA) Porolithon onkodes to induce attachment and metamorphosis, collectively termed settlement, of larvae from 15 ecologically important coral species from the families Acroporidae, Merulinidae, Poritidae, and Diploastreidae. Live CCA fragments, ethanol extracts, and hot aqueous extracts of P. onkodes induced settlement (>10%) for 11, 7, and 6 coral species, respectively. Live CCA fragments were the most effective inducer, achieving over 50% settlement for nine species. The strongest settlement responses were observed in Acropora spp.; the only non-acroporid species that settled over 50% were Diploastrea heliopora, Goniastrea retiformis, and Dipsastraea pallida. Larval settlement was reduced in treatments with chemical extracts compared with live CCA, although high settlement (>50%) was reported for six acroporid species in response to ethanol extracts of CCA. All experimental treatments failed (< 10%) to induce settlement in Montipora aequituberculata, Mycedium elephantotus, and Porites cylindrica. Individual species responded heterogeneously to all treatments, suggesting that none of the cues represent a universal settlement inducer. These results challenge the commonly-held notion that CCA ubiquitously induces coral settlement, and emphasize the critical need to assess additional cues to identify natural settlement inducers for a broad range of coral taxa

Emergency braking system for autonomous golf cart: Final report

The overall purpose of Oklahoma State University's Golf Cart project is to instrument and automate a fleet of autonomous Golf Cart systems for on-demand mobility on OSU campus, while providing engineering students with a hands-on application of the concepts learned in their curricula. As of August 2015, the golf cart had a very inadequate braking system. With the current system, it can take up to 8 seconds for the cart to come to a complete start. The final cart should have human-or-better braking. Furthermore, the golf cart does not know when to hit the brakes in an emergency, for example if a pedestrian, bike or other vehicle cuts in front of the cart. This Fall 2015 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 4344 Capstone Design team has produced to following deliverables in order to solve this problem: a system that is the prime controller of accelerator and brakes, the software will receive acceleration and brake requests from Stabilis (the navigation system already developed for the golf cart); This system is be able to detect emergency brake conditions, an emergency braking condition is whenever braking will either avoid or mitigate the impact of a collision, under the assumption that external objects and/or people maintain their current velocity; The system is able to apply the brakes and bring the golf cart to a complete stop in human-or-better time. CAD Models for Analysis - the team has modeled the mechanics of the braking system in Solidworks and performed structural analysis on it. The documentation of each of deliverable is contained in the present report

Managing Polypharmacy in Older Adults with Cancer Across Different Healthcare Settings.

The care of older patients with cancer is becoming increasingly complex. Common challenges for this population include management of comorbidities, safe transitions of care, and appropriate medication use. In particular, polypharmacy-generally defined as the regular use of five or more medications-and inappropriate medication use can lead to adverse effects and poor outcomes in older adults with cancer, including falls, hospital readmissions, cognitive impairment, poor adherence to essential medications, chemotherapy toxicity, and increased mortality. Managing polypharmacy across different cancer care settings is often challenging. Providers face barriers to safe and successful medication management that may include lack of time, absence of reimbursement, underappreciation of the scale of polypharmacy-related harm, lack of ownership of deprescribing efforts, and poor communication across care settings. Existing literature on managing inappropriate medication use and polypharmacy in older adults with cancer has often focused on ideal state settings in which resources are plentiful and time is purposefully allocated for medication interventions. This paper presents a narrative, rather than a systematic review, of studies published in the past decade that provided detailed information on medication management and polypharmacy across cancer care settings. This review aims to also summarize different healthcare provider roles in taking action against inappropriate medication use and polypharmacy in older adults with cancer

Living Up to a New Role in the World:The Challenges of “Global Britain”

Theresa May promised a new role for the UK in the world, dubbed “Global Britain”. But what challenges and contradictions arise from being supposedly more open to the world while decoupling from the EU? To answer this question, it is necessary to explore how far the UK can live up to the expectations stemming from the move to celebrate a new, unabashedly global posture. An examination of the rhetoric of British foreign policy since 1945 is juxtaposed with the emerging language of global openness after Brexit to illustrate what change in expectations this move is likely to create among the UK’s partners for trade, security, and global governance. To evaluate the strategic benefits of using the rhetoric of globalism after EU withdrawal, we examine the British state’s capacity to find the combination of administrative resources, public expenditure, and elite consensus necessary to redefine the country’s position in world affairs. Overall, this approach reveals numerous challenges for establishing a new framing of Britain’s role in international politics. It also demonstrates the serious contradictions arising from the fact that the language of domestic politics during and after the EU referendum is very much at odds with the spirit of globalism. The political expediency of devising a new role cannot be faulted, but the strategic value of “Global Britain” appears limited in the light of this analysis