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.

In May of 2018, PulseNet, the national molecular subtyping network for enteric pathogens, detected a multistate cluster of illnesses caused by an uncommon molecular subtype of Salmonella serovar Mbandaka. A case was defined as an illness in a person infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Mbandaka with illness onset on or after 3 March 2018 and before 1 September 2018. One-hundred thirty-six cases from 36 states were identified; 35 hospitalisations and no deaths were reported. Ill people ranged in age from <1 year to 95 years (median: 57 years). When standardised questionnaires did not generate a strong hypothesis, opened-ended interviews were performed. Sixty-three of 84 (75%) ultimately reported consuming or possibly consuming a specific sweetened puffed wheat cereal in the week before illness onset. Environmental sampling performed at the cereal manufacturing facility yielded the outbreak strain. The outbreak strain was also isolated from open cereal samples from ill people's homes and from a sealed retail sample. Due to these findings, the brand owner of the product issued a voluntary recall of the cereal on 14 June 2018. Additional investigation of the manufacturing facility identified persistent environmental contamination with Salmonella Mbandaka that was closely genetically related to other isolates in the outbreak. This investigation highlights the ability of Salmonella to survive in low-moisture environments, and the potential for prolonged outbreaks linked to products with long shelf lives and large distribution areas.

The direct carbonate procedure for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating of submilligram samples of biogenic carbonate without graphitization is becoming widely used in a variety of studies. We compare the results of 153 paired direct carbonate and standard graphite 14C determinations on single specimens of an assortment of biogenic carbonates. A reduced major axis regression shows a strong relationship between direct carbonate and graphite percent Modern Carbon (pMC) values (m = 0.996; 95% CI [0.991–1.001]). An analysis of differences and a 95% confidence interval on pMC values reveals that there is no significant difference between direct carbonate and graphite pMC values for 76% of analyzed specimens, although variation in direct carbonate pMC is underestimated. The difference between the two methods is typically within 2 pMC, with 61% of direct carbonate pMC measurements being higher than their paired graphite counterpart. Of the 36 specimens that did yield significant differences, all but three missed the 95% significance threshold by 1.2 pMC or less. These results show that direct carbonate 14C dating of biogenic carbonates is a cost-effective and efficient complement to standard graphite 14C dating.

Bipolar disorder is for most patients a life-long illness, associated with a recurrent, chronic course, and functional disability. Primary treatment goals are to stabilize the patient and prevent recurrence of episodes and suicide.

Although bipolar disorder has traditionally been regarded as an illness with good prognosis and most patients returning to normal functioning when a mood episode is over, several longitudinal studies suggest that the long-term outcome is less favorable than previously thought. Combinations of drugs are frequently used in clinical practice for mood stabilization, especially for those who have not responded to monotherapy. Although combination treatments are commonly administered, full interepisode recovery is not achieved in all patients, and as a consequence, bipolar disorder is one of the leading causes of disability.

Among clinicians and in international guidelines, lithium is widely considered as the ‘gold standard’ for long-term treatment. The choice of treatments is undergoing considerable change as new treatments are available, anticonvulsants and atypical antipsychotics are taking a more prominent position. However, the evidence available for the newer treatment options including the various combination treatments varies greatly.

The episodic nature of bipolar disorder requires prophylactic long-term treatment. Many previous worthwhile treatment effects of available mood stabilizing agents and psychotherapeutic interventions on major outcomes in bipolar disorder are only of moderate size and therefore require large-scale studies. Such trials to investigate longer-term outcomes are logistically challenging and expensive, and therefore only feasible within a multisite and multinational approach based on a common documentation system of the illness course.

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.

Since its “depenalization” in 1993, the U.S. dollar has become possibly a more significant component of Cuba's money supply than the old peso. What are the alternatives? The euro seems inappropriate, given the inevitability of eventual normalization of relations with the United States. More advantageous would be to restore the Cuban peso, though this would involve unifying the bifurcated economic structure and the dual monetary and exchange rate systems. The Cuban government has yet to announce its plans. This study argues that an appropriate mix of exchange rate, monetary, fiscal, and income or wage and salary policies should support a rehabilitation of the Cuban peso.

In field experiments in 1981, 36 g ai/ha of chlorsulfuron {2-chloro-N-[[(4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)amino] carbonyl] benzenesulfonamide} applied to winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ‘Arthur’) in early spring reduced seed yield in conventional and no-till plantings of double-cropped soybeans [Glycine max (L.) ‘Essex’]. From 1982 to 1984, three rates of chlorsulfuron (9, 18, and 36 g/ha) were applied at three different times (preemergence, early winter, and early spring) to study their residual effects on double-cropped soybeans. Chlorsulfuron at 36 g/ha applied preemergence or early spring reduced soybean seed yields when averaged over the 3-yr period. Metsulfuron {2-[[[[(4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazine-2-yl)amino] carbonyl] amino] sulfonyl] benzoic acid} was tested at three rates (4.5, 9, and 18 g/ha) applied at three times (same as chlorsulfuron) in field studies in 1983 and 1984. Metsulfuron did not injure subsequently planted no-till soybeans.

The influence of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) interference on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ‘Ransom’] yield was studied in the field utilizing naturally occurring weed populations. The damage-threshold population for a full-season, in-row common ragweed infestation was four weeds/10 m of row, which resulted in an 8% yield loss. Soybeans kept weed-free for 2 weeks or longer after emergence in a dry year produced normal yields, but 4 weeks of weed-free maintenance was required when adequate moisture was available early in the growing season. Soybean yield was not reduced by a natural population of common ragweed if the period of interference was limited to 6 weeks or less after crop emergence. By 8 weeks after emergence, common ragweed height averaged 25 cm taller than soybeans, and the weed canopy intercepted 24% of the photosynthetically active radiation.