bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modeling long‐term changes in tundra carbon balance following wildfire, climate change, and potential nutrient addition
Authors: Jiang Yueyang , Rastetter Edward B. , Shaver Gaius R. , Rocha Adrian V. , Zhuang Qianlai , Kwiatkowski Bonnie L.
Published: August 2016

To investigate the underlying mechanisms that control long‐term recovery of tundra carbon (C) and nutrients after fire, we employed the Multiple Element Limitation (MEL) model to simulate 200‐yr post‐fire changes in the biogeochemistry of three sites along a burn severity gradient in response to increases in air temperature, CO2 concentration, nitrogen (N) deposition, and phosphorus (P) weathering rates. The simulations were conducted for severely burned, moderately burned, and unburned arctic tundra. Our simulations indicated that recovery of C balance after fire was mainly determined by the internal redistribution of nutrients among ecosystem components (controlled by air temperature), rather than the supply of nutrients from external sources (e.g., nitrogen deposition and fixation, phosphorus weathering). Increases in air temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration resulted in (1) a net transfer of nutrient from soil organic matter to vegetation and (2) higher C : nutrient ratios in vegetation and soil organic matter. These changes led to gains in vegetation biomass C but net losses in soil organic C stocks. Under a warming climate, nutrients lost in wildfire were difficult to recover because the warming‐induced acceleration in nutrient cycles caused further net nutrient loss from the system through leaching. In both burned and unburned tundra, the warming‐caused acceleration in nutrient cycles and increases in ecosystem C stocks were eventually constrained by increases in soil C : nutrient ratios, which increased microbial retention of plant‐available nutrients in the soil. Accelerated nutrient turnover, loss of C, and increasing soil temperatures will likely result in vegetation changes, which further regulate the long‐term biogeochemical succession. Our analysis should help in the assessment of tundra C budgets and of the recovery of biogeochemical function following fire, which is in turn necessary for the maintenance of wildlife habitat and tundra vegetation.
Assessment of USDA‐NRCS rangeland conservation programs: recommendation for an evidence‐based conservation platform
Authors: Briske D. D. , Bestelmeyer B. T. , Brown J. R. , Brunson M. W. , Thurow T. L. , Tanaka J. A.
Published: August 2016

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was created in response to a request from the Office of Management and Budget that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA‐NRCS) document the societal benefits anticipated to accrue from a major increase in conservation funding authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill. A comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of rangeland conservation practices cost‐shared with private landowners was unable to evaluate conservation benefits because outcomes were seldom documented. Four interrelated suppositions are presented to examine the causes underlying minimal documentation of conservations outcomes. These suppositions are (1) the benefits of conservation practices are considered a certainty so that documentation in not required, (2) there is minimal knowledge exchange between the USDA‐NRCS and research organizations, (3) and a paucity of conservation‐relevant science, as well as (4) inadequate technical support for land owners following implementation of conservation practices. We then follow with recommendations to overcome potential barriers to documentation of conservation outcomes identified for each supposition. Collectively, this assessment indicates that the existing conservation practice standards are insufficient to effectively administer large conservation investments on rangelands and that modification of these standards alone will not achieve the goals explicitly stated by CEAP. We recommend that USDA‐NRCS modify its conservation programs around a more comprehensive and integrative platform that is capable of implementing evidence‐based conservation. Collaborative monitoring organized around landowner–agency–scientist partnerships would represent the focal point of a Conservation Program Assessment Network (CPAN). The primary network objective would be to establish missing information feedback loops between conservation practices and their agricultural and environmental outcomes to promote learning, adaptive management, and innovation. Network information would be archived and made available to guide other, related conservation programs in relevant ecoregions. Restructuring conservation programs as we recommend would (1) provide site specific information, learning, and accountability that has been requested by CEAP and (2) further advance balanced delivery of agricultural production and environmental quality goals.
Sustainability policy considerations for ecosystem management in central and eastern europe
Authors: Berkes Fikret
Published: August 2016

Here I discuss Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as a region undergoing rapid change, resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union and admission of some of the states into the European Union. These events brought changes in governance and ecosystem management, triggering impacts on land use and biodiversity. What are some of the policy options toward sustainability in the face of these political, governance, and socioeconomic changes? Some policy considerations for ecosystem management and sustainability include taking a social–ecological systems approach to integrate biophysical subsystems and social subsystems; paying attention to institutions relevant to shared resources (commons) management; and using resilience theory to study change and guidance for governance. Documented experience in CEE seems to indicate shortcomings for both the centralized state management option and the purely market‐driven option for ecosystem management. If so, a “smart mix” of state regulations, market incentives, and self‐governance using local commons institutions may be the most promising policy option to foster ecosystem stewardship at multiple levels from local to international.
Reversible Formation of a Cerium‐Bound Terminal Hydride: Ce(C5Me4SiMe3)2(H)(thf)
Authors: Summerscales Owen T. , Batista Enrique R. , Scott Brian L. , Wilkerson Marianne P. , Sutton Andrew D.
Published: August 2016

The use of the bulky cyclopentadienyl ligand Cp′ (Cp′ = C5Me4SiMe3) to stabilize cerium hydrides has resulted in the preparation of two novel tuck‐in complexes with C–H activated SiMe3 groups. Subsequent reaction of these with H2 in thf gives a lanthanide terminal hydride species Ce(Cp′)2(H)(thf) which reversibly regenerates the tuck‐in complex under sustained vacuum. This compound is only the second structurally characterized terminal cerium hydride. This new hydride is a catalyst in H/D exchange reactions between with both sp3‐CH and sp2‐CH bonds, and for the hydrogenation of unsaturated alkene bonds.
An assessment of a massively parallel sequencing approach for the identification of individuals from mass graves of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
Authors: Calafell Francesc , Anglada Roger , Bonet Núria , González‐Ruiz Mercedes , Prats‐Muñoz Gemma , Rasal Raquel , Lalueza‐Fox Carles , Bertranpetit Jaume , Malgosa Assumpció , Casals Ferran
Published: August 2016

Next‐generation sequencing technologies have opened new opportunities in forensic genetics. Here, we assess the applicability and performance of the MiSeq FGx™ & ForenSeq™ DNA Signature Prep Kit (Illumina) for the identification of individuals from the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The main limitations for individual identification are the low number of possible first‐degree living relatives and the high levels of DNA degradation reported in previous studies. Massively parallel sequencing technologies enabling the analysis of hundreds of regions and prioritizing short length amplicons constitute a promising tool for this kind of approaches. In this study, we first explore the power of this new technology to detect first‐ and second‐degree kinship given different scenarios of DNA degradation. Second, we specifically assess its performance in a set of low DNA input samples previously analyzed with CE technologies. We conclude that this methodology will allow identification of up to second‐degree relatives, even in situations with low sequencing performance and important levels of allele drop‐out; it is thus a technology that resolves previous drawbacks and that will allow a successful approximation to the identification of remains.
Influence of room fragrance on attention, anxiety and mood
Authors: Haehner Antje , Maass Henriette , Croy Ilona , Hummel Thomas
Published: August 2016

With a special focus on the potential benefits of widely used room scents, the aim of the present blinded study was to investigate attention, anxiety and mood in a large group of healthy people during exposure to various pleasant odours compared with the same situation in a non‐odourous environment. A psychological test battery (d2 test of attention, State‐Trait‐Anxiety‐Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire) was applied to 200 normosmic subjects, placed in rooms with four different room fragrance conditions (rose odour; grapefruit odour; a combination of orange, lime and lemon odour; and a odourless control). After exposure, subjects were asked to rate occurrence and severity of heart problems (tachycardia/palpitations), headaches or breathing problems. Results revealed no significant effects of room fragrance on attention, anxiety and mood. Exposure to odours seemed to affect men and women differentially with men presenting unfavourable results in rose‐fragranced rooms whereas they seemed positively affected by the smell of grapefruit. However, these effects could only be observed when no corrections for multiple comparisons were applied. Exposure to the fragrances was not associated with a higher incidence of physical symptoms. These results suggest that the grapefruit odour may be a more suitable room fragrance for mixed‐gender groups than rose odour to reduce anxiety and to improve attention and mood. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lentiviral HSV‐Tk.007‐mediated suicide gene therapy is not toxic for normal brain cells
Authors: Hossain Jubayer A. , Ystaas Lars Rømo , Mrdalj Jelena , Välk Kristjan , Riecken Kristoffer , Fehse Boris , Bjerkvig Rolf , Grønli Janne , Miletic Hrvoje
Published: August 2016

Background

Gene therapeutic strategies with suicide genes are currently investigated in clinical trials for brain tumors. Previously, we have shown that lentiviral vectors delivering the suicide gene HSV‐Tk to experimental brain tumors promote a highly significant treatment effect and thus are promising vectors for clinical translation.

Methods

In the present study, we tested lentiviral vectors delivering the suicide gene HSV‐Tk.007, a highly active mutant of HSV‐Tk, to rat brains as a preclinical toxicity study. We injected 106 vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV‐G) pseudotyped functional lentiviral particles harboring the suicide gene HSV‐Tk.007 into the brain of healthy, immunocompetent rats. During prodrug treatment with ganciclovir (GCV), we measured weight and assessed the behavior of the rats in an open field test. After 14 days of GCV treatment, we analyzed HSV‐Tk.007 expression in different brain cell populations, as well as inflammatory responses and apoptosis.

Results

During prodrug treatment with GCV, behavior experiments did not reveal differences between the treated rats and the control groups. Analysis of HSV‐Tk expression in different brain cell populations showed that transduced normal brain cells survived GCV treatment. There were no statistically significant differences in the number of transduced cells between treatment and control groups. Furthermore, inflammatory responses and apoptosis of brain cells were not observed.

Conclusions

We show that HSV‐Tk.007‐mediated suicide gene therapy is not toxic to normal brain cells. This observation is of high relevance for the translation of lentivirus‐mediated suicide gene therapies into the clinic for the treatment of brain tumor patients. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The bile acid chenodeoxycholic acid directly modulates metabolic pathways in white adipose tissue in vitro: insight into how bile acids decrease obesity
Authors: Teodoro João Soeiro , Rolo Anabela Pinto , Jarak Ivana , Palmeira Carlos Marques , Carvalho Rui Albuquerque
Published: August 2016

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic, and associated pathologies, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular alterations, are increasingly escalating morbidity and mortality. Despite intensive study, no effective simple treatment for these conditions exists. As such, the need for go‐to drugs is serious. Bile acids (BAs) present the possibility of reversing these problems, as various in vivo studies and clinical trials have shown significant effects with regard to weight and obesity reduction, insulin sensitivity restoration and cardiovascular improvements. However, the mechanism of action of BA‐induced metabolic improvement has yet to be fully established. The currently most accepted model involves non‐shivering thermogenesis for energy waste, but this is disputed. As such, we propose to determine whether the BA chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) can exert anti‐obesogenic effects in vitro, independent of thermogenic brown adipose tissue activation. By exposing differentiated 3 T3‐L1 adipocytes to high glucose and CDCA, we demonstrate that this BA has anti‐obesity effects in vitro. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis of metabolic pathways clearly indicates an improvement in metabolic status, as these cells become more oxidative rather than glycolytic, which may be associated with an increase in fatty acid oxidation. Our work demonstrates that CDCA‐induced metabolic alterations occur in white and brown adipocytes and are not totally dependent on endocrine/nervous system signaling, as thought until now. Furthermore, future exploration of the mechanisms behind these effects will undoubtedly reveal interesting targets for clinical modulation.
The driver assignment vehicle routing problem
Authors: Spliet Remy , Dekker Rommert
Published: August 2016

We introduce the driver assignment vehicle routing problem, DAVRP. In this problem, drivers are assigned to customers before demand is known, and after demand is known a routing schedule has to be made such that every driver visits at least a fraction α of its assigned customers. We present a solution procedure to investigate how much transportation costs increase by adhering to the driver assignments. Furthermore, we distinguish between the case in which customers that are not visited by their assigned driver are visited by backup drivers only, and the case in which slack capacity of regular drivers is utilized to visit these customers. We use randomly generated instances of the DAVRP to provide examples where the difference in transportation costs is substantial. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 68(3), 212–223 2016
Multiobjective optimization of injection molding using a calibrated predictor based on physical and simulated data
Authors: Villarreal‐Marroquín María G. , Chen Po‐Hsu , Mulyana Rachmat , Santner Thomas J. , Dean Angela M. , Castro José M.
Published: August 2016

This paper presents a method for improving injection molding processes having competing performance measures using multiobjective optimization. The procedure uses calibrated predictors that combine physical and simulated data to estimate the values of the performance measures. After the predictors are built, the values of the selected performance measures are estimated at a grid of process control variables, and a set of predicted Pareto solutions is identified using nondominance criteria. A refinement of the original Pareto solutions is obtained by predicting the performance measures at a finer grid of the process variables near the original Pareto set. Finally, as validation, a subset of these solutions is evaluated on the physical process. A case study with three performance measures is presented to show how the calibrated predictors allow the injection molding manufacturer to identify the processing conditions that optimize a process having competing objectives. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:248–257, 2017. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers
Modification of human serum albumin by the nerve agent VX: microbore liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization high‐resolution time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry method for detection of phosphonylated tyrosine and novel cysteine containing disulfide adducts
Authors: Kranawetvogl Andreas , Worek Franz , Thiermann Horst , John Harald
Published: August 2016

Rationale

Organophosphorus nerve agents still constitute a considerable threat to the health of military personnel and the civilian population. Long‐term biomarkers are crucial for reliable verification of exposure to banned substances. Therefore, current research focuses on identification of endogenous protein targets showing covalent modifications by organophosphorus nerve agents (adducts).

Methods

Purified human serum albumin and human plasma were incubated with the nerve agent VX followed by enzymatic proteolysis with pronase. Resulting peptide cleavage products were separated by microbore liquid chromatography (μLC) online coupled to positive electrospray ionization (ESI) with subsequent high‐resolution time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry (HR MS/MS) allowing identification of known and novel adducts.

Results

In addition to known phosphonylation of various tyrosine residues, albumin was found to be modified at diverse cysteine residues by covalent attachment of the leaving group of VX. These novel disulfide adducts were cleaved from at least two regions of the intact protein as dipeptides containing cysteine and proline either as CP or PC. A rapid and sensitive method was developed for simultaneous detection of the diverse covalent modifications of human albumin by VX.

Conclusions

Identification of the novel leaving group adducts with human albumin expands the basic knowledge on molecular toxicology of the nerve agent VX. Furthermore, the presented μLC/ESI HR MS/MS method might be of relevance for verification of VX poisoning. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
New results on the Earth insolation and their correlation with the Late Pleistocene paleoclimate of West Siberia
Authors: Smulsky J.J.
Published: August 2016

The three problems composing the astronomical theory of paleoclimate have been solved in a new way. Two of them (changes in the orbital motion of the Earth and its insolation) have confirmed the results of previous research. In the third problem (a change in the rotational motion of the Earth), the obtained oscillations of the Earth’s rotation axis have an amplitude seven–eight times higher than the earlier estimated one. They lead to changes in insolation, which explain the paleoclimatic fluctuation. The changes in insolation and its structure for 200 kyr are considered. It is shown that the Late Pleistocene key events in West Siberia, for example, the last glaciations and warming between them, coincide with the extremes of insolation. The insolation periods of paleoclimatic changes and their characteristics are given.
High-frequency induction logging in deviated and horizontal wells: Geosteering and inversion
Authors: Gorbatenko A.A. , Sukhorukova K.V.
Published: August 2016

The study focuses on processing methods for high-frequency induction data from deviated and horizontal wells. Simulation of electromagnetic fields with analytical algorithms is used to study how the resistivity of rocks above and below the well influences the acquired data. The simulations show that the contribution of under- and overlying layers into the recorded responses is considerable and depends on resistivity contrasts between the layers and on the position of logging arrays relative to the layer boundaries. This fact has to be taken into account when estimating true resistivity of reservoirs and when inverting induction logs from horizontal wells for reservoir characterization. The method is applied to oil- and water-saturated reservoirs in West Siberia, which contain high-resistivity impermeable layers leading to overestimation of apparent resistivity. Due regard for the effect of these layers in inversion of induction logs provides high-quality resistivity estimates.
Poor cerebrovascular function is an early marker of cognitive decline in healthy postmenopausal women
Authors: Wong Rachel H.X. , Evans Hamish M. , Howe Peter R.C.
Published: August 2016

Introduction

Impairment of cerebrovascular function becomes evident after menopause. No study has yet explored relationships between deficits in cerebrovascular function, cognitive performance, and mood in postmenopausal women.

Method

Cerebrovascular function was assessed in 80 healthy postmenopausal women by monitoring blood flow velocity (BFV) in the middle and posterior cerebral arteries using transcranial Doppler ultrasound at rest, following a hypercapnic challenge, and during performance of a cognitive test battery; the latter assessed domains of memory and executive functions. Various measures of mood (i.e., Profile of Mood States and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) were also assessed.

Results

Cerebral artery elasticity and BFV responsiveness to cognitive tests (neurovascular coupling) correlated with cognitive performance but not with depressive symptoms or mood states. Mood deficits were related to poor cognitive performance.

Conclusion

These results highlight the importance of adequate cerebral perfusion for optimized cognitive function in healthy postmenopausal women. Preventative strategies to attenuate accelerated cognitive decline should also consider restoring cerebrovascular function.
Crafting Counterrevolution: How Reactionaries Learned to Combat Change in 1848
Authors: WEYLAND KURT
Published: August 2016

This article examines a neglected topic, the imposition of counterrevolution. Whereas revolution can sweep across whole regions like a tsunami, reaction tends to advance gradually, country by country. As these differences suggest, counterrevolution unfolds in a more deliberate and systematic fashion than revolution, which is fueled by the rash, ill-considered belief that the tsunami's trigger—the striking overthrow of a longstanding ruler by mass protest—is widely replicable. While reactionaries share this facile inference during the revolutionary upsurge, they engage in learning thereafter, rely less on problematic inferences, and resume more rational decision-making. Longstanding experience and practices of open debate and collective deliberation enable them to process information more thoroughly and calibrate their counterrevolutionary plans to domestic opportunities. Consequently, they succeed in reestablishing autocratic control step by step. By demonstrating how reactionaries recuperated their grasp of political reality during the upheavals of 1848, the article elucidates the differential patterns of rationality in politics.
Variant Versions of Jose Bonifácio’s “Plan for the Civilization of the Brazilian Indians”
Authors: Boehrer George C. A.
Published: August 2016

The leaders of the independence movements in the several Ibero-American areas frequently turned their attention to the problems of the aborigine. Usually the liberators’ concern was restricted to the pious hope that the Indian would be incorporated into creole society. Detailed programs to this end were not presented. The chief exception was José Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva’s Apontamentos para a civilização dos índios bravos do Império do Brasil. Mostly a drawing upon the experience of the past with a blending of the new ideas of the Enlightenment, the Apontamentos present little new. They are today important because, along with José Bonifácio’s more celebrated treatise on the Negro slave, they show an interest in social problems to which few of his contemporaries gave more than a passing glance. In the present century, they have become the guidepost for Brazil’s Indian program. As such they have frequently been hailed by Brazilians when the Indian problem is discussed.
“In a War Against the Spanish”: Andean Protection and African Resistance on the Northern Peruvian Coast
Authors: O’Toole Rachel Sarah
Published: August 2016

In 1641, the rural guard of colonial Trujillio on the northern Peruvian coast, accompanied by “many Indians,” attacked acimarrón(fugitive slave) encampment led by twocongos,Gabriel and Domingo. Indigenous men wished to end the fugitives’ raids on their fields and families. Towards this end, they guided the Spanish lieutenant magistrate and his company to thecimarrónsettlement hidden in the hills above the Santa Catalina valley. Indigenous leaders and commoners of the Mansichereducción—or colonial indigenous village—who maintained lands in the Santa Catalina valley, testified that“negroscimarrones” (fugitive “blacks”) had been assaulting local inhabitants and stealing from valley since 1633. Yet, Mansiche reducción had not registered a previous complaint indicating that fugitive slaves and indigenous people in Santa Catalina had not to this point been antagonistic.
Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico (continued)
Authors: Steck Francis Borgia
Published: August 2016

It remains, in the study we are pursuing, to cite those Catholic Mexicans whose literary contributions during the Díaz era were made almost exclusively in prose. Among these, too, several survived the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz and continued to write and publish during the turbulent years that followed. But in keeping with the time-limit set for our study only such works of theirs will be considered as were written and published before the year 1910.
Discounted Bonus Policies
Authors: Hustwitt W. E.
Published: August 2016

The principle underlying all Discounted Bonus Schemes is that the ordinary full profit premium is reduced by anticipating future bonuses. These reduced premium policies are then usually allowed to participate in future bonuses but only in so far as the bonus declared exceeds that anticipated.

This class of business was first introduced in 1854, and eventually became popular with a section of the assuring public to whom the benefit of a with-profit policy at a minimum cost made a strong appeal. In the first instance the Discounted Bonus policy made its appearance in connection with a compound reversionary bonus system, but as it grew in popularity it was adopted by other offices and combined with the various methods of bonus distribution.
Mortality Tables; the Tabulation of the Data
Authors: Oakley H. J. P.
Published: August 2016

This Lecture was given with the object of explaining the preliminary steps to be taken in ascertaining the mortality experienced by a body of lives, commencing with the extraction of particulars from the records of individual cases and leading up to the point where the rates of mortality are calculated from the raw material (usually referred to as the unadjusted rates of mortality) before any smoothing process is adopted for the purpose of preparing monetary Tables based on the experience. The lecture was given with particular reference to the Mortality of Annuitants 1900–1920, the first report on which had just been published.
A Checking Process for Life Assurance Reserves
Authors: Olifiers E.
Published: August 2016

The object of this paper is to draw attention to a process of checking the accuracy of the valuation results of any financial year from the preceding year's valuation results (the attained ages as at valuation date increasing by one year) by means of the elements which connect both valuations. These elements are the interest required to maintain the reserves, the net premiums, the reserves of the policies coming in and going out during the financial year, and the expected death strain. In the appendix to this paper the checking process has been applied to the revenue account for the year ending 31st December, 1921, given in Appendix B of Mr. C. Carpmael's paper in J.S.S. Vol. II, No. 2. The determination of the profit or loss from each source has been made on two different assumptions—namely, the one adopted by Mr. Carpmael, that the income and outgo are uniformly distributed over the year allowing half-a-year's interest at valuation rate and the other adopted in the North American gain and loss exhibit of the convention edition by which no allowance is made for half-a-year's interest for the two cases in which the policies are assumed to come in and go out at the beginning of the valuation year as done by Mr. Carpmael in his paper, and in the middle of the valuation year.
I. An approximation to the yield on a redeemable security, allowing for income tax
Authors: Worger H. O.
Published: August 2016

Redemption yields on redeemable securities may conveniently be found with the aid of tables of Bond Values. These tables make no allowance for the fact that income tax is payable on the full dividend payments with no adjustment for profit or loss on redemption.

Those investors who are taxed on the full dividends require to know the net yield after allowing for tax, or, more usually, the gross equivalent of this net yield, commonly known as the “equivalent gross yield”. It is often inconvenient to deduct tax from the dividend rate and find the net yield direct, as the net dividend frequently does not coincide with the rates for which tables are available. There is, however, a very convenient and extremely accurate approximation to the required equivalent gross yield which is as follows:

To find the equivalent gross yield, reduce the unexpired term in proportion to the rate of tax payable and enter the table for the full nominal dividend rate.
Group life and pension schemes, including valuation problems
Authors: Polman M. C.
Published: August 2016

A Group Life and Pension Scheme is an employer's scheme instituted for the benefit of his employees. The real position of the life office, which is usually responsible for arranging the scheme, is that of underwriter. From the life office's point of view, with which this paper is solely concerned, the guaranteeing of these schemes on a group basis, as opposed to issuing an individual policy on the life of each employee, is a special class of business with certain definite characteristics which have not changed very much since N. C. Turner presented his paper to the Students' Society in 1930 on the subject of Group Insurance and Group Pension Schemes.
The force of mortality at Infantile ages
Authors: Lander Max
Published: August 2016

1. Recent investigation has brought to light the fact that the usual formulae are not necessarily practicable for the calculation of the force of mortality at very young ages. The problem is not only of considerable theoretical interest, but is also of practical importance to the Industrial Assurance Companies, which transact a very considerable volume of business at these ages. These companies use continuous functions for their various calculations, andμbeing large at these very young ages, variations in the method of calculation are of such importance as to justify a detailed examination of the matter.
On the application of compound interest functions to certain manpower problems
Authors: Solomon Leon
Published: August 2016

The statistical fate of a group of individuals who are subject to a process of ‘wastage’ forms the theme of an important class of actuarial problems. Usually the rates of the several individual sources of wastage are relatively complicated functions of such variables as age, duration, or rank, and the full apparatus of the service table must be employed. In other cases, however—including some of practical importance—these functions degenerate, in fact or in supposition, into constants, and a simpler approach accordingly becomes possible. By considering the operation of wastage—which includes such events as death, breakdown of health, resignation, and discharge—as equivalent to the financial operation of discounting, a formal identity can be created between certain ‘manpower’ problems and corresponding problems involving compound interest; and numerical work on the former is much simplified by the use of tables of common compound interest functions.
Disability benefits in conjunction with life assurance policies
Authors: Purchase H. F.
Published: August 2016

Disability Insurance is a subject which has at various times found a place in the proceedings of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries, but only on rare occasions at our own proceedings. The present paper does not present anything new on the subject but has been written with the object of providing an opportunity of considering and discussing a form of insurance which, in some form or other, is transacted by most Life Offices in this country. Most Life Offices will only issue a somewhat mild form of the insurance, that is, the Waiver of Premium benefit, but even if we are not usually concerned with more than this form of the insurance, it is felt that a discussion of the principles involved would be of value.

Considering the number of eminent actuaries who have, at various times, stated that they would like to see an extension of the writing of Disability Insurance, it is somewhat surprising that more of the business has not been written in this country. The reasons for the neglect are not far to seek. First, there are very real administrative difficulties involved including the difficulty of obtaining suitable statistics on the subject. A large part of the present paper is taken up with a discussion of these difficulties. Secondly, there is the unfortunate experience of our American colleagues who have in the past lost considerable sums of money in their Disability Accounts. This experience has led a large number of American Offices to cease to transact the more liberal forms of benefit.
The apportionment of a trust fund by mutual consent of all the beneficiaries
Authors: Goodchild W. P.
Published: August 2016

In advising on the apportionment of a fund, an actuary is faced with practical problems of admitted difficulty. The following notes are an attempt to discover exactly what these problems are, and to determine the methods of approach most likely to lead to a satisfactory solution.

Trustees looking after a settled fund have a different attitude to investment from that of persons controlling the investments of a life assurance fund. The funds of a life office are normally increasing; in such a case it is easy to see that the object of investment policy is to secure accumulation at as rapid a rate as is consistent with safety. Changes in the portfolio can be considered which do not necessarily result in an immediate increase in current income. The securing of a capital profit or the avoidance of a prospective capital loss by a sale and reinvestment may be a valuable source of strength. Trustees, on the other hand, cannot ignore the importance of a high level of current income, for a trust fund is normally invested to produce income for disbursement, and there is a vital distinction between trust ‘capital’ and ‘income’.
On the determination of the critical duration in certain actuarial problems
Authors: Nagler H.
Published: August 2016

Students of the subjects of compound interest and life contingencies are usually baffled by the type of problem in which the value of a premium, say P, can only be ascertained when one knows the number of years, say n, after which there is some definite change in the conditions of the problem. Such is, for example, the valuation of a variable annuity-certain subject to different remunerative and reproductive rates of interest when, in the beginning, the payments under the annuity are too small to meet requisite interest payments. In Chapter IV, article 16, of Todhunter, the student is advised that in such cases the value must in general be sought by trial and error. Similar exhortations perplex the student's mind when he turns to the subject of life contingencies, in which he is frequently required to evaluate the premium for a complicated assurance in which the death benefit is defined by different expressions before and after a period of time which is itself unknown.
‘Regional’ valuation of joint life and survivorship annuities
Authors: Thomas E. M.
Published: August 2016

From time to time members of actuarial staffs are faced with the valuation of some class of business which, when carried out in full, is very tedious or which represents such a limited liability that a detailed valuation is somewhat out of place. Many methods of approximate valuation have been devised and remain hidden in the records of individual offices—amongst them those relating to Joint Life and Survivorship Annuities. The method described in the following pages was devised to enable an accurate valuation of that business to be carried out in about two hours each year, instead of having to rely on interpolated values for the years between full individual valuation at quinquennial intervals.
Consistent Extra Premiums and Equivalent Decreasing Debts for Endowment Assurances.
Authors: Sandom K.
Published: August 2016

This article attempts to develop a practical system for dealing with extra-risks whilst retaining consistency in the terms offered to proposers. The extra premiums derived vary according to the view taken of the incidence of the extra-risk, and tables are produced to enable the underwriter to deduce quickly the required special terms.

W. Perks' paper, ‘The Treatment of Sub-Standard Lives in Practice’ (J.I.A.78, 205), describes a system whereby the special terms are fixed according to uniform percentage increases in mortality throughout the term. This approach does not make a broad assessment of the incidence of the extra-risk. The present writer feels that some allowance for incidence should be made, and the process that follows attempts to adhere to the narrow theoretical path. The scope of this article does not include the interesting fields of underwriting practice and experience which were admirably discussed in W. Perks' paper.
A Method of Determining the Future Trend of a Pension Fund by Means of a Series of Notional Valuations
Authors: Merriman P. E.
Published: August 2016

In a recent paper to the Students' Society (J.S.S.15, 43), D. F. Gilley and D. Funnell pointed out that it would be theoretically possible, though normally impracticable, to make a valuation of a pension fund by projecting the fund membership year by year, in order to obtain a series of notional revenue accounts for each future year of the Fund's existence, and that the algebraic sum of the discounted values of the expected future current surpluses and/or deficits would be equal to the surplus or deficiency revealed by a valuation made in the normal way.

It is frequently possible, when an estimate of the future trend of the fund is required, to reverse this process. Instead of directly estimating the future income and outgo of the fund, and so building up the expected amount of the fund year by year, we may extend the normal valuation technique, and use a series of notional valuations to determine the future trend of the Fund. In other words, the growth or decline of a pension fund between two future dates may be expressed as the difference between the net liabilities of the fund, as revealed by notional valuations, on these two dates.
Friendly Societies and the Actuary.
Authors: Lane R. C. B.
Published: August 2016

On being asked to prepare something on Friendly Societies for the Students' Society it seemed reasonable to attempt two things—one, to put them more into perspective in modern conditions, the other, to see what they might be able to teach the actuary professionally. The following notes are the result: it is hoped that, besides forming a useful basis for the discussion, they will themselves have something worth while to contribute to the subject.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of a Friendly Society is its registration under the Friendly Societies Acts (the relatively rare occurrence of an unregistered society is ignored); the restrictions of these acts have therefore to be accepted for the sake of their advantages. The constitution is a book of rules and the government is in the hands of the trustees—in whose names the assets are registered—and a committee appointed by the members at a general meeting. The rules cover all such matters as objects, eligibility, benefits, contributions, duties of officers, changes of rules, of name, nominations, dissolutions, investments and so on as required by good sense and the Acts.
Management Development
Authors: Ryder D.
Published: August 2016

I am delighted to be able to speak to you tonight. In view of the pressures on my programme at the moment, you may feel that my delight is a bit shallow but I can assure you that it is not. It is a most refreshing and agreeable change to be talking to members of a profession that I do not cross swords with! In fact, I do have the very greatest respect for your profession and I am sure that what I have to say this evening,shouldbe relevant. I intend to talk about Management Development and I am sure that you will agree that Actuaries are themselves managers: they are managers of money in one form or another and I become particularly interested when it ismymoney that they are managing. So any help that I may be able to give you most certainlyisgiven with a personal and ulterior motive.

I want what I say tonight to be as practically based as possible, and for this reason I shall be talking mainly about Reed International. I want to tell you some of the ways in which managers should be—and are being—developed in Reed.
Life Insurance in Fifteenth-Century Barcelona
Authors: Smith Robert Sidney
Published: August 2016

Italian sources have so far furnished the principal materials for the study of medieval business history in the Mediterranean area. Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, it seems fair to say, were the cradles of important commercial institutions. For their merchant guilds, sea loan contracts, and various forms of business organization, other Mediterranean towns were largely in debt to the Italian cities. In Catalonia, a region that experienced a remarkable expansion of overseas trade during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the borrowing and adaptation of Italian institutions were continuous. But in Barcelona, the presumptive birthplace of the Llibre del consolat de mar, the early development of deposit banking and marine insurance law was a product of Catalan initiative. It is highly possible that the rich historical archives of Barcelona will also yield important data for the study of early life-insurance and annuity practices.
Land Policy and Tenancy in the Prairie States
Authors: Gates Paul Wallace
Published: August 2016

Thomas Jefferson believed that political democracy could be maintained in the United States only if it were made to rest on the firm foundation of economic democracy. “The small landowners are the most precious part of the State,” he said, contrasting this ideal economy with a congested population in urban centers which would, he feared, threaten democracy because it would be subject to control by agitators and demagogues. He urged the adoption of a policy of cheap land that would attract laborers from abroad and from the eastern cities to the newly developing areas of the West and the South. Thus he proposed to create a nation of farm owners who would be the very warp and woof of democracy.
The Tasks of Economic History
Authors: Gay Edwin F.
Published: August 2016

It is a great honor, deeply appreciated, to be chosen first president of the Economic History Association. I cannot pretend to act as spokesman for this newly organized scientific group. I assume that I owe my present honor and responsibility partly to the number of years I have imperfectly taught economic history—and, I hope, stimulated some interest in it—and partly to your recognition of the principle of historical continuity. For I was a student under Schmoller at Berlin; he in turn was a pupil of Roscher (whose last lectures at Leipsic I heard); and Roscher, almost a century ago, was one of the first historical economists and the original formulator of a program for the new “school” of economics. I wish to recall to your attention these beginnings of our discipline in order to emphasize how the subsequent shift in its development has made us economic historians instead of historical economists.
Laissez-faire Theory in Presidential Messages during the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Havens R. M.
Published: August 2016

During the past decade the rapid spread of governmental activities into new fields and their extension within the fields that had previously been entered have increased the attention always given to the question of the legitimate sphere of activity for the Federal Government. There has been a widespread assumption that throughout the nineteenth century with only insignificant exceptions this country followed a policy of laissez-faire. From this assumption many people have proceeded to argue that in the past decade the American people have suddenly turned from the tradition which made this the greatest industrial nation of the world and have adopted a course which leads away from the “American way of life.”
An Ancient Chinese Stock of Gold
Authors: Dubs Homer H.
Published: August 2016

The elaborate Chinese standard histories, which, if all translated, would fill several hundred thick volumes, provide illuminating information about many aspects of economic history. In this paper, I shall present a passage that enables us to estimate the gold stock of the Chinese at the beginning of the Christian era, a type of information rarely available.

In his History of the Former Han Dynasty, Ban Gu (writing about A.D. 80) has occasion to illustrate the stinginess of a usurping emperor, Wang Mang, and enumerates his wealth as follows:

At this time [A.D. 23], in the inner apartments of the Wei-yang Palace, ten thousand catties of actual gold were put into one chest and there still remained sixty chests. In each office for storage of the Yellow Gate and of the Intendant of Palace Parks and in the workshops of the Master of Recipes, there were also several chests. The Imperial Treasury at the Ch'ang-lo Palace and the Bureau of Equalization and Standards in the capital in addition stored very much cash, silk, pearls, jade, and valuables.
Discussion of the Paper by John U. Nef: What Is Economic History?
Authors: Shryock Richard Harrison
Published: August 2016

I am in entire sympathy with Mr. Nef's emphasis on historical synthesis or over-all interpretations, which is certainly in order after a period in which analytical fragmentation has been so stressed. We are also in agreement concerning the need for a study of the interrelationships between various aspects of history that are now usually treated as specialties.