The social, cultural and economic influences on retirement saving for young adults in the UK

How young adults in the UK save for their retirement has become more complex due to recent changes to the pension policy, which necessitate greater and continuous private saving (through workplace pension schemes and other savings vehicles). As the importance of active saving during working life grows, it becomes essential to understand young adults’ retirement saving behaviour. In this chapter, we focus on the younger half of the working age population in the UK (adults aged up to 50, hereafter young adults) to fully capture the experiences of becoming an adult in the first part of t working life and how this shapes financial behaviours, acknowledging that patterns of ageing vary across different groups (Baars et al., 2013; Mortimer & Moen, 2016). Our work suggests that young British adults’ approach to retirement saving is not simply a function of income (or the lack of it), or present bias/myopia, but instead concerns how social and economic circumstances coalesce. By combining the findings from two studies on the young adults’ retirement saving, using quantitative and qualitative data, we provide a nuanced picture of how young adults’ social, cultural and economic factors inform retirement saving. Drawing on a social ageing perspective, meaning the ways in which individuals perceive their life-course progression, we demonstrate that young people’s retirement saving is contingent on feeling financially resilient and established in their adult lives, guided by economic, social and cultural norms. We argue that this social ageing perspective is essential to understanding retirement saving activity amongst young adults, and highlight theoretical, methodological and policy implications

3D Printed Adjustable Glasses: A New Model of Corrective Lens Delivery for Pediatric Refractive Error in Underserved Communities

Purpose: Uncorrected refractive error (URE) remains a major cause of preventable vision impairment in the pediatric population with large inequities in disease burden. The present study aims to elucidate the global burden of pediatric URE and explore the current lens delivery systems which address this problem. Within this framework, we introduce a new model of corrective lens delivery that may improve upon existing models. Methods: The present study involved an extensive literature review of epidemiological data to determine the global prevalence of URE. Prevalence data was then compared against WHO data on refractionist coverage gaps divided by region. Four current models for corrective lens delivery, plus our newly proposed model, were compared across five general categories (Fit, Appearance, Pathologies Corrected, Cost to Patient, Distribution System). Results: In children, the estimated pooled prevalence (EPP) of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism was 11.7% (95% CI: 10.5–13.0), 4.6% (95% CI: 3.9–5.2), and 14.9% (95% CI: 12.7–17.1), respectively. The highest prevalence of astigmatism and hyperopia occurs in The Americas at double and triple the global average respectively. The regions with the poorest coverage of URE were Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and The Americas. Existing solutions delivering coverage to these areas often lacks the ability to correct for astigmatism. Our modular glasses design provides a one-size-fits-all frame with circular lens mounts to accommodate any axis of astigmatism. 3D printed materials allow these frames to be constructed at a fraction of the cost of conventional frames. Discussion: While corrective lenses are made available through a variety of distribution models, the infrastructure to fit and deliver these glasses to remote and resource poor areas remains a major challenge leading to inequities in URE treatment. The flexibility of our glasses design allows for these glasses to be distributed in rural and urban environments alike, with minimal training required to fit and assemble, at a low cost to patients.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/chri_forum/1015/thumbnail.jp

Gust-Load Alleviation of a Flexible Aircraft using a Disturbance Observer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143016/1/6.2017-1718.pd