Is Pension Inequality Growing?

Employer-sponsored pensions are an important source of retirement income and often make the difference between having a comfortable retirement and just scraping by. Over the past two decades, pension sponsorship and participation have remained relatively constant. At any given point in time, roughly half of private sector workers age 25-64 are covered by pension plans. This constancy, however, masks a growing inequality in pension participation by income that has become more pronounced with the shift from traditional defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. This brief documents and explores trends in pension participation by income. The first section discusses the relative importance of private pensions as a source of retirement income. The second section examines trends in pension sponsorship and participation rates. The third section explores why some individuals choose not to participate. The final section concludes that the shift to defined contribution plans has been a significant factor in the drop in coverage for low earners.

Celery Growing

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Growing cities

Towns and cities existed throughout Africa’s past. However since the late twentieth century Africans are witnessing a historically unprecedented transition from living mainly in rural areas to residing in cities. What are the driving-forces behind African urbanization? And what are the welfare consequences of rapid urban growth without sufficient economic growth in Africa

Growing Greener Initiative

Using funds from this grant, the City of Dover Open Lands Committee worked in conjunction with the Planning Department and Conservation Commission to plan, promote and present a series of workshops. These workshops were designed to educate decision- makers and residents about the economic, aesthetic, and environmental benefits of open space. In addition, the Dover Open Lands Committee developed two brochures and a display to publicize the Open Lands Committee and to encourage further citizen participation

Phase feeding for growing and finishing pigs (OK-Net Ecofeed Practice Abstract)

Benefits Phase feeding will more closely match the pig’s nutrient requirements and minimise the over- and underfeeding of nutrients. The feed will be better utilised by the pigs, in favour of both production economy and reduced N-emissions. Practical recommendation • To get the maximum benefit from phase feeding, diets and feeding should be established based on actual animal performance and profitability/performance goals for each stage of production. It is easier to develop with a small number of pigs per batch (to manage heterogeneity) • Diets should be formulated on a digestible amino acid basis rather than on a total amino acid or crude protein basis, crude protein should preferably be kept at a low level and ingredients should be analysed for their nutrient contents. • A phase feeding system is complex and factors such as the availability of high-quality protein feed ingredients, the managing and ordering of feed as well as the need for additional feed bins on the farm must be considered. • Consult with an advisor or nutritionist to adjust the feeding plan accordingly to meet the production goals

Growing an island: Okinotori

The UN Law of Sea defines an island as “a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide.” However, according to the same international law, not every kind of island engenders the same legal effects: “rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone.” In the Pacific Ocean, some 1750 kilometers south of Tokyo, the governor of Tokyo raised the Japanese flag, and placed an address plaque “1 Okinotori Island, Ogasawara Village, Tokyo” on a rock, or actually two rocks. The first one is roughly the size of a small room, the second one that of a twin bed. The smallest pokes some 7 centimeters out of the ocean, the bigger one arrives at double this altitude. In order to continue claiming territorial rights and assert exclusive economic control and fishing rights in a two hundred nautical mile zone around the rocks — i.e. in a part of the ocean larger than the surface of Japan’s mainland — these rocks need to be protected against the effects of global warming and typhoons. What is more: they need to naturally grow, in order to change status from mere rock into “a naturally formed area of land”. According to the New York Times the Japanese government has already spent over 600 million dollars to keep the barren islets above water. It encased the tiny protrusions in 25 meter thick concrete, at a cost of 280 million dollars, then made slits across the concrete, so it would comply with the UN law that an island be surrounded by water. Since then, Japanese scientists are developing genetically modified species of coral with the aim to grow the rocks into a small but internationally recognized archipelago: the Okinotori Islands

Hierarchical growing neural gas

“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright Springer.This paper describes TreeGNG, a top-down unsupervised learning method that produces hierarchical classification schemes. TreeGNG is an extension to the Growing Neural Gas algorithm that maintains a time history of the learned topological mapping. TreeGNG is able to correct poor decisions made during the early phases of the construction of the tree, and provides the novel ability to influence the general shape and form of the learned hierarchy

Growing Pears in Ohio

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Grape Growing in Ohio

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