A Pivotal Moment: Assessing Houston's Plan for Pension Reform

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) released "A Pivotal Moment: Assessing Houston's Plan for Pension Reform," a report that provides an in-depth analysis of the City of Houston's pension reform proposal currently pending in the Texas Legislature. The report finds that the proposal includes important changes that would help protect workers and taxpayers. The reform plan was developed following discussions between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston Police Officers' Pension System, the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System, and the Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund.LJAF Vice President Josh McGee and LJAF Sustainable Public Finance Analyst Paulina S. Diaz Aguirre co-authored the report after analyzing the city's proposal and conducting independent pension modeling. They say that it is incumbent on local leaders and state legislators to work together. "There are just a few weeks left in the 2017 session—and without the ability to make changes to the pension systems on its own—the city is running out of time," the report states. "Without changes, the debt could spiral into a full-scale financial crisis. The city cannot allow that to happen. Its financial future hangs in the balance and will be decided in large part in the next month."Houston currently owes $8.2 billion in pension debt—more than any other city in Texas. It does not have enough money to pay for nearly half of the retirement benefits workers have already earned. This unfunded liability threatens workers' retirement security and has a direct impact on city finances. During the past 10 years, the city has cut public safety positions even as spending on public safety has grown by hundreds of millions of dollars due to a 55 percent increase in pension costs.The proposal seeks to address critical flaws in the city's funding practices. Under the proposal, the city would lower its assumed rate of return on investments for all plans from 8 percent or more to 7 percent; reduce benefits for public workers; and implement a financial corridor provision that would cap the city's contributions to the pension plans.The financial corridor provision is a key element of the proposal. The provision would set a minimum and maximum city contribution rate for each plan. If the city were to hit or surpass the maximum, workers would be required to make additional benefit concessions to bring costs back under the cap. LJAF's analysis shows that this mechanism would provide substantial new protections for taxpayers but would also significantly increase workers' exposure to risk.The report states that the proposal's long-term impact on workers would depend on demographic trends and the plans' investment performance, two factors that would influence how often the city would hit the cap. For example, LJAF's modeling shows that there is a two in five (40 percent) chance that the city's contribution rate would hit the maximum for the police fund at least once by 2027. If the police plan were to earn less than 7 percent on its investments in the short or long term, contribution rates would hit the cap even sooner.If investment returns match the city's assumptions, there is roughly a one in three (33 percent) chance that contribution rates for members of the police plan would increase by five percentage points or more in the next decade. Given that members of the police plan—as well as members of the other plans—have already agreed to billions of dollars in concessions, McGee and Diaz Aguirre explain that the city has an obligation to uphold its end of the bargain. They state that the city should make payments on time and in full and should take steps—such as limiting investments in risky assets including real estate, private equity, and hedge funds—to protect workers.In addition, if the proposal is implemented, the report states that the city should also make good on its promise to provide a lump-sum payment to the two plans with the largest deficits—the police and municipal employees plans. The city has proposed issuing$1 billion in pension obligation bonds to cover the payments. To benefit financially, Houston would need to earn more in the market than it costs to borrow the money. Given the current market conditions, the spread between expected bond interest rates and expected returns is relatively small. Despite the fact that the bonds pose some risk, the report argues that they are a good-faith measure that reflects the city's commitment to upholding funding promises.The report concludes that, "In the short term, the proposal would place the pension plans—and the city—on firmer financial footing. The long-term impact would depend on how the changes are implemented." It also states that Houston should make further changes to establish a comprehensive, permanent solution to its pension problems. This would include creating retirement systems for new workers that are simpler and easier to manage such as a Defined Contribution plan or a Cash Balance plan

Coupled channel study of K+ΛK^+\Lambda photoproduction

A coupled channel model with $\gamma N$, $KY$ and $\pi N$ channels has been used to analyze the recent data of $\gamma p \to K^+ \Lambda$. The non-resonant interactions within the subspace $KY \oplus \pi N$ are derived from effective Lagrangians using a unitary transformation method. The direct photoproduction reaction is obtained from a chiral constituent quark model with $SU(6)\otimes O(3)$ breaking. Missing baryon resonances issues are briefly discussed.Comment: Part of the proceedings of the International Workshop on the Physics of Excited Baryons NSTAR05, 12-15 October 2005, Tallahassee, Florida, US

Search for missing baryon resonances via associated strangeness photoproduction

Differential cross-section and single polarization observables in the process gamma p --> K^+ Lambda are investigated within a constituent quark model and a dynamical coupled-channel formalism. The effects of two new nucleon resonances and of the K*(892)- and K1(1270)-exchanges are briefly presented.Comment: Contributed paper to the IVth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics, Madrid June 5-10, 200

No temperature fluctuations in the giant HII region H 1013

While collisionally excited lines in HII regions allow one to easily probe the chemical composition of the interstellar medium in galaxies, the possible presence of important temperature fluctuations casts some doubt on the derived abundances. To provide new insights into this question, we have carried out a detailed study of a giant HII region, H 1013, located in the galaxy M101, for which many observational data exist and which has been claimed to harbour temperature fluctuations at a level of t^2 = 0.03-0.06. We have first complemented the already available optical observational datasets with a mid-infrared spectrum obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Combined with optical data, this spectrum provides unprecedented information on the temperature structure of this giant HII region. A preliminary analysis based on empirical temperature diagnostics suggests that temperature fluctuations should be quite weak. We have then performed a detailed modelling using the pyCloudy package based on the photoionization code Cloudy. We have been able to produce photoionization models constrained by the observed Hb surface brightness distribution and by the known properties of the ionizing stellar population than can account for most of the line ratios within their uncertainties. Since the observational constraints are both strong and numerous, this argues against the presence of significant temperature fluctuations in H 1013. The oxygen abundance of our best model is 12 + log O/H = 8.57, as opposed to the values of 8.73 and 8.93 advocated by Esteban et al. (2009) and Bresolin (2007), respectively, based on the significant temperature fluctuations they derived. However, our model is not able to reproduce the intensities of the oxygen recombination lines . This cannot be attributed to observational uncertainties and requires an explanation other than temperature fluctuations.Comment: accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Dynamical Coupled-Channels Effects on Pion Photoproduction

The electromagnetic pion production reactions are investigated within the dynamical coupled-channels model developed in {\bf Physics Reports, 439, 193 (2007)}. The meson-baryon channels included in this study are $\gamma N$, $\pi N$, $\eta N$, and the $\pi\Delta$, $\rho N$ and $\sigma N$ resonant components of the $\pi\pi N$ channel. With the hadronic parameters of the model determined in a recent study of $\pi N$ scattering, we show that the pion photoproduction data up to the second resonance region can be described to a very large extent by only adjusting the bare $\gamma N \to N^*$ helicity amplitudes, while the non-resonant electromagnetic couplings are taken from previous works. It is found that the coupled-channels effects can contribute about 10 - 20 % of the production cross sections in the $\Delta$ (1232) resonance region, and can drastically change the magnitude and shape of the cross sections in the second resonance region. The importance of the off-shell effects in a dynamical approach is also demonstrated. The meson cloud effects as well as the coupled-channels contributions to the $\gamma N \to N^*$ form factors are found to be mainly in the low $Q^2$ region. For the magnetic M1 $\gamma N \to \Delta$ (1232) form factor, the results are close to that of the Sato-Lee Model. Necessary improvements to the model and future developments are discussed.Comment: Corrected version. 14 pages, 10 figure

Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography of extended colloidal networks in food emulsions

As a main structural level in colloidal food materials, extended colloidal networks are important for texture and rheology. By obtaining the 3D microstructure of the network, macroscopic mechanical properties of the material can be inferred. However, this approach is hampered by the lack of suitable non-destructive 3D imaging techniques with submicron resolution. We present results of quantitative ptychographic X-ray computed tomography applied to a palm kernel oil based oil-in-water emulsion. The measurements were carried out at ambient pressure and temperature. The 3D structure of the extended colloidal network of fat globules was obtained with a resolution of around 300 nm. Through image analysis of the network structure, the fat globule size distribution was computed and compared to previous findings. In further support, the reconstructed electron density values were within 4% of reference values.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Food Structur

Disentangling the dynamical origin of P11 Nucleon Resonances

We show that two almost degenerate poles near the $\pi\Delta$ threshold and the next higher mass pole in the $P_{11}$ partial wave of $\pi N$ scattering evolve from a single bare state through its coupling with $\pi N$, $\eta N$ and $\pi\pi N$ reaction channels. This finding provides new information on understanding the dynamical origins of the Roper $N^*(1440)$ and $N^*(1710)$ resonances listed by Particle Data Group. Our results for the resonance poles in other $\pi N$ partial waves are also presented.Comment: Improved version, accepted Phys. Rev. Let

Genome sequence of Rhizobium sullae HCNT1 isolated from Hedysarum coronarium nodules and featuring peculiar denitrification phenotypes

The genome sequence of Rhizobium sullae strain HCNT1, isolated from root nodules of the legume Hedysarum coronarium growing in wild stands in Tuscany, Italy, is described here. Unlike other R. sullae strains, this isolate features a truncated denitrification pathway lacking NO/N2O reductase activity and displaying high sensitivity to nitrite under anaerobic conditions