Should the basic state pension be a contributory benefit?

The basic state retirement pension is payable irrespective of means but it is a contributory benefit, not a universal benefit. Individuals who do not have enough National Insurance contributions when they reach state pension age are not entitled to a full state pension. They may receive a proportion of the pension or just the dependant’s addition to a spouse’s pension. This reflects the fact that the pension system in the UK, and the system of unemployment and sickness benefits, were designed around the contributory principle. As Dilnot, Kay and Morris (1984) pointed out in their comprehensive review of social security policy, ‘The Beveridge report took the contributory principle extremely seriously. Contributions were to be levied on an actuarially calculated basis to reflect the benefits received’. But ‘the retreat from this principle has been comprehensive ... The National Insurance fund was reduced to meaningless accounting and the actuarial link between contributions and benefits abandoned’. In this strong sense, we have never operated a contributory principle.

Asset wealth and asset decumulation among households in the Retirement Survey

This paper examines the asset positions of households at and around retirement in Britain using the Retirement Survey ‘waves’ of 1988-89 and 1994. The data provide the first panel evidence on retirement behaviour and asset evolution for a sample of older households in Britain. The analysis in this paper shows the importance of housing and private pension wealth for this age-group in Britain, and also the differential wealth holdings between surviving respondents and those who died or failed to respond for other reasons in 1994. It provides some preliminary evidence as to whether households decumulate assets after retirement in accordance with the ‘textbook’ version of the Life-Cycle Hypothesis of consumption.

The dynamics of incomes and occupational pensions after retirement

This paper uses two waves of the UK Retirement Survey to look at how incomes change during retirement. We concentrate on men aged 65-69 and women aged 60-69 in 1988-89 and look at how their incomes change over the following five years. Overall, we find a considerable degree of stability in real incomes. We use the panel data to look at the incomes of widows before and after they are widowed and find that, for this group of relatively young widows, their low incomes are in large part determined by the fact that it tends to be the relatively poorer husbands who die among this age-group. Finally, we consider the most important component of private income — occupational pensions — separately. We find a strong relationship between pension level and the probability of indexation — pensions that start low are less likely than higher pensions to keep up with inflation.

Pensioner income inequality

One-and-a-half million pensioners are dependent on the minimum means-tested benefit, income support. But the numbers on income support have barely changed in two decades despite substantial increases in its value and that of its precursor, supplementary benefit. At least another 2 million receive means-tested housing benefit or council tax benefit. At the same time, in 1992-93, 3 million pensioners paid over £5 billion in income tax, a small minority at the higher rate of income tax. Pensioners are poorer than the working population, and some are on very low incomes, but they are not uniformly poor.

The metabolic syndrome- associated small G protein ARL15 plays a role in adipocyte differentiation and adiponectin secretion.

Common genetic variants at the ARL15 locus are associated with plasma adiponectin, insulin and HDL cholesterol concentrations, obesity, and coronary atherosclerosis. The ARL15 gene encodes a small GTP-binding protein whose function is currently unknown. In this study adipocyte-autonomous roles for ARL15 were investigated using conditional knockdown of Arl15 in murine 3T3-L1 (pre)adipocytes. Arl15 knockdown in differentiated adipocytes impaired adiponectin secretion but not adipsin secretion or insulin action, while in preadipocytes it impaired adipogenesis. In differentiated adipocytes GFP-tagged ARL15 localized predominantly to the Golgi with lower levels detected at the plasma membrane and intracellular vesicles, suggesting involvement in intracellular trafficking. Sequencing of ARL15 in 375 severely insulin resistant patients identified four rare heterozygous variants, including an early nonsense mutation in a proband with femorogluteal lipodystrophy and non classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and an essential splice site mutation in a proband with partial lipodystrophy and a history of childhood yolk sac tumour. No nonsense or essential splice site mutations were found in 2,479 controls, while five such variants were found in the ExAC database. These findings provide evidence that ARL15 plays a role in adipocyte differentiation and adiponectin secretion, and raise the possibility that human ARL15 haploinsufficiency predisposes to lipodystrophy

A shieldless method for cryogenic cold±vapor supply usage: Theory and practice

We have proven by numerical analysis and experiment that with the use of the SRDB developed shieldless method for cryogenic vapor usage maximum vapor-cold usage is achieved. It is shown that evaporation is decreased in cryovessels and cryostats by using this method equal to 45 times for helium, 5 times for hydrogen and 1.7 times for nitrogen

Diagnosis of insulin autoimmune syndrome using polyethylene glycol precipitation and gel filtration chromatography with ex vivo insulin exchange.

CONTEXT: Insulin-binding antibodies may produce severe dysglycaemia in insulin-naïve patients ('insulin autoimmune syndrome' (IAS) or Hirata disease), while rendering routine insulin assays unreliable. OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of clinically used insulin assays and an optimal analytical approach in the context of IAS. DESIGN: Observational biochemical study of selected patients with hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. PATIENTS: Three patients without diabetes with recurrent spontaneous hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and 'positive' insulin antibodies. MEASUREMENTS: A panel of clinically used insulin assays (Siemens ADVIA® Centaur, Siemens Immulite® 2000, DiaSorin LIAISON® XL, PE AutoDELFIA® and the Beckman Coulter Access® 2) were used before and after plasma dilution or polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation. Anti-insulin IgG antibodies were measured by Isletest™ -IAA ELISA. Gel filtration chromatography (GFC) was undertaken with and without preincubation of plasma with exogenous insulin. RESULTS: Dilution of IAS plasma with assay-specific buffer increased insulin recovery, supporting negative immunoassay interference by antibodies. PEG precipitation of IAS plasma decreased insulin recovery using all assays except the Immulite® 2000. GFC discriminated high molecular weight and monomeric insulin, while ex vivo addition of exogenous insulin to plasma increased insulin bound to antibody, thereby improving the sensitivity of detection of insulin immunocomplexes. CONCLUSIONS: Immunoprecipitation with PEG must be used with caution in screening for insulin-antibody complexes as results are assay dependent. GFC with addition of exogenous insulin can identify significant insulin immunocomplexes with enhanced sensitivity, with attendant greater clinical utility and avoidance of radiolabelled reagents.Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation Sutherland-Earl Clinical Fellowship (Grant ID: RG68554), Wellcome Trust (Grant ID: WT098498), Medical Research Council (Grant ID: MRC_MC_UU_12012/5), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Cambridge Biomedical Research CentreThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cen.1317

Viewpoint: Fieldwork in Ecology as a Form of Experiential Learning- First-year university students’ experiences of a short experiential learning intervention

The small-scale research study reported on in this Viewpoint paper was conducted to determine the extent to which experiential learning in the form of fieldwork contributes to learning in Biology. The participants in the study were 36 first-year students registered for a module on Ecology. The conceptual framework that framed the study is experiential learning, which proposes that students learn more effectively through firsthand experience. The methodological approach to this study was interpretive as it attempted to interpret students’ responses to a survey as well as interview. It also attempted to determine whether students believed the fieldwork experience benefited them. The findings suggest that students who have very little prior experience of fieldwork do not benefit significantly with regard to understanding of scientific concepts, as is evident from students’ performance in the module. While a substantial number of students indicated in the questionnaire that they benefited from experiential learning, the benefits appear to be largely in the affective domain, rather than in the cognitive domain. The findings have implications for the expectations we have of experiential learning in first-year Biology courses. The paper is published as a Viewpoint paper, as the views developed through this small-scale study can be further analysed and tested through further research. It was a useful ‘first step’ in exploring a complex topic, that if it is to be fully understood would require further research into the issues raised by this small-scale study

Spin injection and spin accumulation in all-metal mesoscopic spin valves

We study the electrical injection and detection of spin accumulation in lateral ferromagnetic metal-nonmagnetic metal-ferromagnetic metal (F/N/F) spin valve devices with transparent interfaces. Different ferromagnetic metals, permalloy (Py), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni), are used as electrical spin injectors and detectors. For the nonmagnetic metal both aluminium (Al) and copper (Cu) are used. Our multi-terminal geometry allows us to experimentally separate the spin valve effect from other magneto resistance signals such as the anomalous magneto resistance (AMR) and Hall effects. We find that the AMR contribution of the ferromagnetic contacts can dominate the amplitude of the spin valve effect, making it impossible to observe the spin valve effect in a 'conventional' measurement geometry. In a 'non local' spin valve measurement we are able to completely isolate the spin valve signal and observe clear spin accumulation signals at T=4.2 K as well as at room temperature (RT). For aluminum we obtain spin relaxation lengths (lambda_{sf}) of 1.2 mu m and 600 nm at T=4.2 K and RT respectively, whereas for copper we obtain 1.0 mu m and 350 nm. The spin relaxation times tau_{sf} in Al and Cu are compared with theory and results obtained from giant magneto resistance (GMR), conduction electron spin resonance (CESR), anti-weak localization and superconducting tunneling experiments. The spin valve signals generated by the Py electrodes (alpha_F lambda_F=0.5 [1.2] nm at RT [T=4.2 K]) are larger than the Co electrodes (alpha_F lambda_F=0.3 [0.7] nm at RT [T=4.2 K]), whereas for Ni (alpha_F lambda_F<0.3 nm at RT and T=4.2 K) no spin signal is observed. These values are compared to the results obtained from GMR experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR