The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) becomes the trustee for private defined benefit plans that have defaulted. The PBGC pays retirement benefits as provided by the plan and that are consistent with federal guidelines concerning the type and amounts of distributions. In response to a Freedom of Information Request, the PBGC provided us with relevant information on all individuals who received retirement benefits from the PBGC in the last 10 years, over 250,000 retirees. Individuals requesting payouts from PBGC managed plans have the option of selecting either a single-life annuity or a joint-and-survivor (J&S) annuity. We examine the PBGC distributions chosen over the last decade and how they vary by age at retirement, sex, months of service, and other relevant variables. Key findings indicate that men are much more likely to choose a joint and survivor annuity compared to female claimants, and the difference increases with age. Conditional on selecting a J&S annuity, men are more likely to select a 100 percent survivor's annuity, while women tend to choose a 50 percent survivor's benefit.

Functional decline following hospitalization remains an important problem in health care, especially for frail older adults. Modifiable factors related to reduction in harms of hospitalization are not well described. One particularly pervasive factor is emergency department (ED) boarding time; time waiting from decision to admit, until transfer to an in-patient medical unit. We sought to investigate how the functional status of frail older adults correlated with the length of time spent boarded in the ED. We found that patients who waited for 24 hours or more exhibited functional decline in both the Barthel Index and Hierarchical Assessment of Balance and Mobility and an increase in the Clinical Frailty Scale from discharge to 6 months post discharge. In conclusion, there is a need for additional investigation into ED focused interventions to reduce ED boarding time for this population or to improve access to specialized geriatric services within the ED.

We recently reported on the radio-frequency attenuation length of cold polar ice at Summit Station, Greenland, based on bi-static radar measurements of radio-frequency bedrock echo strengths taken during the summer of 2021. Those data also allow studies of (a) the relative contributions of coherent (such as discrete internal conducting layers with sub-centimeter transverse scale) vs incoherent (e.g. bulk volumetric) scattering, (b) the magnitude of internal layer reflection coefficients, (c) limits on signal propagation velocity asymmetries (‘birefringence’) and (d) limits on signal dispersion in-ice over a bandwidth of ~100 MHz. We find that (1) attenuation lengths approach 1 km in our band, (2) after averaging 10 000 echo triggers, reflected signals observable over the thermal floor (to depths of ~1500 m) are consistent with being entirely coherent, (3) internal layer reflectivities are ≈–60$\to$–70 dB, (4) birefringent effects for vertically propagating signals are smaller by an order of magnitude relative to South Pole and (5) within our experimental limits, glacial ice is non-dispersive over the frequency band relevant for neutrino detection experiments.

While there have been numerous studies illustrating the rather low level of financial knowledge of Americans, there have been only a few efforts to examine the effectiveness of employer-provided programs in enhancing financial literacy and the ability of these programs to modify worker retirement and saving decisions. In this paper, I summarize the findings from a series of studies conducted over the past 20 years. All of the studies were done in conjunction with employers. The primary objectives of this research have been to evaluate the effectiveness of onboarding and retirement planning programs and the financial education provided in these programs. In addition, employer nudges to mid-career employees are examined. I describe the impact of financial planning programs on worker knowledge of key financial concepts and their ability to make better decisions concerning saving decisions and the timing of retirement. I also provide recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of workplace financial education programs.

Pleistocene periglacial activity in eastern Australia was widespread and has been predicted to have extended along much of the east coast. This paper describes block deposits in the New England Tablelands, Australia, as far north as 30°S. These deposits are characterized by openwork blocks on slopes below the angle of repose. The deposits are positioned where frost cracking was significant and range in area up to 8 ha. Surface exposure dating using the cosmogenic nuclide 36Cl from four block deposits indicate all sites were active late during the last glacial cycle, with a concentration of activity between 15–30 ka. Modern temperature measurements from block deposits highlight the importance of local topography for promoting freezing. Periglacial deposits are likely to have been more extensive than previously recognized at these northern limits, and mean annual temperature more than 8°C colder than today.

One of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions we fielded in the Understanding American Study. Results show significant differences in distribution choices based on the type of retirement plan, with individuals covered by DB plans significantly more likely to select annuities compared to similar employees covered by DC plans. We also find differences in how higher annual income affects annuity choices based on coverage by DB plans. Individuals with lower levels of financial literacy and lower annual income have less knowledge of basic pension characteristics.

The papers in this volume examine a series of important questions that influence the transition from full time employment to complete retirement. Retirement is shown to be a process as individuals move from career jobs to bridge jobs to being out of the labor force. The articles examine the characteristics of bridge jobs and the employment conditions that older workers prefer. Analysis provided by the authors show the importance of saving throughout work life and how pension plans and retirement saving plans influence the timing of retirement.

This study examines the impact of the adoption of automatic enrollment provisions by the state of South Dakota for its supplemental retirement saving plan (SRP). In South Dakota, state and local government employees, including teachers, are covered by a defined benefit pension plan and by Social Security. Prior to the introduction of automatic enrollment, the proportion of newly hired employees who were contributing to the SRP was less than 5% in their first year of employment. After the introduction of automatic enrollment, over 90% of newly hired workers who were auto-enrolled were participating in the plan. Using a difference-in-difference approach we find that automatic enrollment changes differences in the participation rate by age, sex, and income. We also find that prior to the adoption of auto-enrollment, agencies that ultimately chose to implement this policy had higher participation rates compared to those that did not adopt auto-enrollment.

Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

Previous research in clinical, community, and school settings has demonstrated positive outcomes for the Secret Agent Society (SAS) social skills training program. This is designed to help children on the autism spectrum become more aware of emotions in themselves and others and to ‘problem-solve’ complex social scenarios. Parents play a key role in the implementation of the SAS program, attending information and support sessions with other parents and providing supervision, rewards, and feedback as their children complete weekly ‘home mission’ assignments. Drawing on data from a school-based evaluation of the SAS program, we examined whether parents’ engagement with these elements of the intervention was linked to the quality of their children’s participation and performance. Sixty-eight 8–14-year-olds (M age = 10.7) with a diagnosis of autism participated in the program. The findings indicated that ratings of parental engagement were positively correlated with children’s competence in completing home missions and with the quality of their contribution during group teaching sessions. However, there was a less consistent relationship between parental engagement and measures of children’s social and emotional skill gains over the course of the program.

Engaging in paid employment after claiming retirement benefits may be an important avenue for individuals to work longer as life expectancies rise. After separating from one's career employer, individuals may engage in paid work to stay active or to supplement their current level of retirement savings or both. Individuals who choose not to work after claiming may be expressing their preference to stay retired, perhaps because their retirement income is sufficient. However, the decision to work after claiming may be driven by the lack of retirement planning and insufficient savings, while the lack of post-claiming work may reflect the inability to find adequate employment opportunities. We use administrative records merged with panel data from several surveys of public employees in North Carolina to study the decision to engage in paid work after claiming retirement benefits. More than 60% of active workers plan to work after claiming benefits, while only around 42% of the same sample of individuals have engaged in post-claiming paid work in the first few years after leaving public sector employment. Despite this gap, stated work plans are strongly predictive of actual post-claiming work behavior. Our final analysis uses self-reported measures to gauge the financial well-being of our sample in the early years after leaving career employment.

This study examines the distribution options of 85 large public retirement plans covering general state employees, teachers, and local government employees. The interest rates used to price annuities vary considerably across the plans. As a result, retirees with the same monthly benefit if a single life benefit is chosen will have substantially different monthly benefits if they select a joint and survivor annuity. We examine the impact of variation in the pricing of annuity options using both cross-plan differences in interest rates and the change in the choice of annuity options in one plan after the price of options changes due to new assumed interest rates and mortality rates.

To detect modest associations of dietary intake with disease risk, observational studies need to be large and control for moderate measurement errors. The reproducibility of dietary intakes of macronutrients, food groups and dietary patterns (vegetarian and Mediterranean) was assessed in adults in the UK Biobank study on up to five occasions using a web-based 24-h dietary assessment (n 211 050), and using short FFQ recorded at baseline (n 502 655) and after 4 years (n 20 346). When the means of two 24-h assessments were used, the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for macronutrients varied from 0·63 for alcohol to 0·36 for polyunsaturated fat. The ICC for food groups also varied from 0·68 for fruit to 0·18 for fish. The ICC for the FFQ varied from 0·66 for meat and fruit to 0·48 for bread and cereals. The reproducibility was higher for vegetarian status (κ > 0·80) than for the Mediterranean dietary pattern (ICC = 0·45). Overall, the reproducibility of pairs of 24-h dietary assessments and single FFQ used in the UK Biobank were comparable with results of previous prospective studies using conventional methods. Analyses of diet–disease relationships need to correct for both measurement error and within-person variability in dietary intake in order to reliably assess any such associations with disease in the UK Biobank.

Choices regarding the disposition of wealth at retirement can have substantial implications for retirement income security. We analyze the factors determining annuity payout option choices within the context of a public sector defined pension plan with no default annuity option. Using combined administrative records and survey data, we explore the role of individual and household characteristics as well as risk preferences, time preferences, and financial literacy. We also document retiree well-being and satisfaction with retirement decision making. The evidence is consistent with predictions over which households might benefit most from each annuity option. Comparing retirees who chose different types of annuities, we find that these groups of retirees report very different levels of well-being in retirement. All retirees report lower levels of retirement income security over time, with strong differences among those who chose different types of annuities.

The persistence of alachlor [2-chloro-2′,6′-diethyl-N-(methoxymethyl) acetanilide], metolachlor [2-chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methylphenyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methylethyl)acetamide], and propachlor (2-chloro-N-isopropylacetanilide) in soil was examined under laboratory and field conditions using sorghum (Sorghum vulgare Pers. ‘NB280S′) or annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) as bioassay species. In laboratory studies, degradation rate of alachlor and propachlor was greater at 50 and 80% than at 20% field capacity at 20 C. Degradation of metolachlor was greater at 80 than at 20% field capacity. Degradation rate of alachlor and metolachlor at 50% field capacity was greater at higher temperatures. Propachlor degradation rate varied with temperature. Under irrigated, cropped field conditions, the order of persistence was metolachlor > alachlor > > propachlor.