Pension systems in East Asia and the Pacific : challenges and opportunities

With the recovery from the recent crisis, countries of the East Asia and Pacific region are rethinking their financial, and social policy, including old-age protection. Population aging, in combination with ongoing urbanization, and economic transformation, will place increasing pressure on traditional family care arrangements. Coverage under formal pension systems is generally low, and the absence of social safety nets for the needy elderly, poses risks in the face of breaks in the economic growth path. In addition to common systemic challenges, formal old-age income support systems confront issues specific to their design type: 1) The national provident fund, and social security systems with reserve funds, have demonstrated problems with investment policy, and performance, governance and management. 2) In the established market economies, social security systems are fiscally unsustainable in the long run, and often have a weak benefit-contribution link. 3) These types of systems encounter additional problems in transition economies, including low contribution collection from previously socialized enterprises. Options addressed by the paper involve the adoption of an integrated view on retirement income provision, averting fiscal un-sustainability, and, integrating public, and private sector pensions. Additionally, moving toward a multi-pillar structure with prudent coverage extension, and, fostering financial markets, to allow decentralized pension funds management, are also suggested.Health Economics&Finance,Public Sector Economics,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Understanding Spatial and Spectral Morphologies of Ultracompact H II Regions

The spatial morphology, spectral characteristics, and time variability of ultracompact H II regions provide strong constraints on the process of massive star formation. We have performed simulations of the gravitational collapse of rotating molecular cloud cores, including treatments of the propagation of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. We here present synthetic radio continuum observations of H II regions from our collapse simulations, to investigate how well they agree with observation, and what we can learn about how massive star formation proceeds. We find that intermittent shielding by dense filaments in the gravitationally unstable accretion flow around the massive star leads to highly variable H II regions that do not grow monotonically, but rather flicker, growing and shrinking repeatedly. This behavior appears able to resolve the well-known lifetime problem. We find that multiple ionizing sources generally form, resulting in groups of ultracompact H II regions, consistent with observations. We confirm that our model reproduces the qualitative H II region morphologies found in surveys, with generally consistent relative frequencies. We also find that simulated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from our model are consistent with the range of observed H II region SEDs, including both regions showing a normal transition from optically thick to optically thin emission, and those with intermediate spectral slopes. In our models, anomalous slopes are solely produced by inhomogeneities in the H II region, with no contribution from dust emission at millimeter or submillimeter wavelengths. We conclude that many observed characteristics of ultracompact H II regions appear consistent with massive star formation in fast, gravitationally unstable, accretion flows.Comment: ApJ in pres

The effects of childbirth on the pelvic-floor

Basically, vaginal delivery is associated with the risk of pelvic floor damage. The pelvic floor sequelae of childbirth includes anal incontinence, urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. Pathophysiology, incidence and risk factors for the development of the respective problems are reviewed. Where possible, recommendations for reducing the risk of pelvic floor damage are given

Time Variability in Simulated Ultracompact and Hypercompact HII Regions

Ultracompact and hypercompact HII regions appear when a star with a mass larger than about 15 solar masses starts to ionize its own environment. Recent observations of time variability in these objects are one of the pieces of evidence that suggest that at least some of them harbor stars that are still accreting from an infalling neutral accretion flow that becomes ionized in its innermost part. We present an analysis of the properties of the HII regions formed in the 3D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations presented by Peters et al. as a function of time. Flickering of the HII regions is a natural outcome of this model. The radio-continuum fluxes of the simulated HII regions, as well as their flux and size variations are in agreement with the available observations. From the simulations, we estimate that a small but non-negligible fraction (~ 10 %) of observed HII regions should have detectable flux variations (larger than 10 %) on timescales of ~ 10 years, with positive variations being more likely to happen than negative variations. A novel result of these simulations is that negative flux changes do happen, in contrast to the simple expectation of ever growing HII regions. We also explore the temporal correlations between properties that are directly observed (flux and size) and other quantities like density and ionization rates.Comment: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in press. The movie of free-free optical depth can be found at http://www.ita.uni-heidelberg.de/~tpeters/tau.av

The formation of broad emission line regions in supernova-QSO wind interactions: II. 2D calculations

One aspect of supernova remnant evolution that is relatively unstudied is the influence of an AGN environment. A high density ambient medium and a nearby powerful continuum source will assist the cooling of shocked ejecta and swept-up gas. Motion of the surrounding medium relative to the remnant will also affect the remnant morphology. In an extension to previous work we have performed 2D hydrodynamical calculations of SNR evolution in an AGN environment, and have determined the evolutionary behaviour of cold gas in the remnant. The cold gas will contribute to the observed broad line emission in AGNs, and we present preliminary theoretical line profiles from our calculations. A more detailed comparison with observations will be performed in future work. The SNR-AGN interaction may be also useful as a diagnostic of AGN winds

Dispersal of molecular clouds by ionising radiation

The role of feedback from massive stars is believed to be a key element in the evolution of molecular clouds. We use high-resolution 3D SPH simulations to explore the dynamical effects of a single O7 star located at the centre of a molecular cloud with mass 10^4M_sun and radius 6.4pc. The initial internal structure of the cloud is characterised by its fractal dimension, D=2.0 - 2.8, and its log-normal density PDF. (i) As regards star formation, in the short term ionising feedback is positive, in the sense that star formation occurs much more quickly in gas that is compressed by the high pressure of the ionised gas. However, in the long term ionising feedback is negative, in the sense that most of the cloud is dispersed with an outflow rate of up to ~0.01M_sun/yr, on a timescale comparable with the sound-crossing time for the ionised gas (~1-2Myr), and triggered star formation is therefore limited to a few percent of the cloud's mass. (ii) As regards the morphology of the ionisation fronts (IFs) bounding the HII region and the systematics of outflowing gas, we distinguish two regimes. For low D<=2.2, the initial cloud is dominated by large-scale structures, so the neutral gas tends to be swept up into a few extended coherent shells, and the ionised gas blows out through a few large holes between these shells; we term these HII regions "shell-dominated". Conversely, for high D>=2.6, the initial cloud is dominated by small-scale structures, and these are quickly overrun by the advancing IF, thereby producing neutral pillars whilst the ionised gas blows out through a large number of small holes between the pillars; we term these HII regions "pillar-dominated". (iii) As regards the injection of bulk kinetic energy, by ~1Myr, the expansion of the HII region has delivered a rms velocity of ~6km/s; this represents less than 0.1% of the total energy radiated by the O7 star.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; submitted to MNRA

Numerical heat conduction in hydrodynamical models of colliding hypersonic flows

Hydrodynamical models of colliding hypersonic flows are presented which explore the dependence of the resulting dynamics and the characteristics of the derived X-ray emission on numerical conduction and viscosity. For the purpose of our investigation we present models of colliding flow with plane-parallel and cylindrical divergence. Numerical conduction causes erroneous heating of gas across the contact discontinuity which has implications for the rate at which the gas cools. We find that the dynamics of the shocked gas and the resulting X-ray emission are strongly dependent on the contrast in the density and temperature either side of the contact discontinuity, these effects being strongest where the postshock gas of one flow behaves quasi-adiabatically while the postshock gas of the other flow is strongly radiative. Introducing additional numerical viscosity into the simulations has the effect of damping the growth of instabilities, which in some cases act to increase the volume of shocked gas and can re-heat gas via sub-shocks as it flows downstream. The resulting reduction in the surface area between adjacent flows, and therefore of the amount of numerical conduction, leads to a commensurate reduction in spurious X-ray emission, though the dynamics of the collision are compromised. The simulation resolution also affects the degree of numerical conduction. A finer resolution better resolves the interfaces of high density and temperature contrast and although numerical conduction still exists the volume of affected gas is considerably reduced. However, since it is not always practical to increase the resolution, it is imperative that the degree of numerical conduction is understood so that inaccurate interpretations can be avoided. This work has implications for the dynamics and emission from astrophysical phenomena which involve high Mach number shocks.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

App Law Within:Rights and Regulation in the Smartphone Age

This article assesses the regulation of smartphone ‘app stores’. At the outset, the significance of smartphones and apps to the debate on Internet regulation is considered, and places in the context of the adoption of smartphones and apps. The importance (commercially and as a study in governance and control) of the iOS App Store (Apple) is highlighted, as is the need to explore forms of regulation that are not linked with a violation of competition law. Section ‘Developer-focused issues’ deals with the relationship between Apple and app developers; three themes of Apple’s Guidelines are identified (content, development and payments), and the ways in which control can be challenged (through jailbreaking, ‘web apps’ and regulatory intervention) are scrutinized. Section ‘Citizen- and consumer-focused issues’ considers three ways in which apps are already regulated by law. The focus is on the protection of consumers (particularly through the UK system for ‘premium rate services’), but a discussion of user privacy and the regulation of video games and video-on-demand services in Europe is also included. Finally, in the section ‘Conclusion’, the tension between comparatively ‘open’ and ‘closed’ app stores is highlighted; the problems of applying general provisions to emerging formats are emphasized. It is concluded that the emerging status of non-carrier app stores as neither retailer nor platform means that it is not yet possible to identify the form of regulation that is in operation, but that some steps are available to legislators that could shift the balance between closed and open model

Star Formation from DLA Gas in the Outskirts of Lyman Break Galaxies at z~3

We present evidence for spatially extended low surface brightness emission around Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) in the V band image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, corresponding to the z~3 rest-frame FUV light, which is a sensitive measure of star formation rates (SFRs). We find that the covering fraction of molecular gas at z~3 is not adequate to explain the emission in the outskirts of LBGs, while the covering fraction of neutral atomic-dominated hydrogen gas at high redshift is sufficient. We develop a theoretical framework to connect this emission around LBGs to the expected emission from neutral H I gas i.e., damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs), using the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation. Working under the hypothesis that the observed FUV emission in the outskirts of LBGs is from in situ star formation in atomic-dominated hydrogen gas, the results suggest that the SFR efficiency in such gas at z~3 is between factors of 10 and 50 lower than predictions based on the local KS relation. The total SFR density in atomic-dominated gas at z~3 is constrained to be ~10% of that observed from the inner regions of LBGs. In addition, the metals produced by in situ star formation in the outskirts of LBGs yield metallicities comparable to those of DLAs, which is a possible solution to the "Missing Metals" problem for DLAs. Finally, the atomic-dominated gas in the outskirts of galaxies at both high and low redshifts has similar reduced SFR efficiencies and is consistent with the same power law.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables, appendix, accepted by ApJ, proof corrections include