902 research outputs found
Tips For Maximizing The Value Of Your Retirement Investment Portfolio
Recent studies suggest that many retired and near-retirement age individuals do not understand basic investment strategy. One study concludes that “Boomers are in a state of financial paralysis” (Guardian Life, 2004). This article provides tips about which types of securities to include in various retirement accounts to maximize the value of the retirement portfolio. The article also considers social security and its possible effect on retirement investment strategy
Practical Guidance For Including A Roth 401 (K) In Your Retirement Investment Portfolio
This paper discusses details of the Roth 401 (k) and provides practical guidance for making the appropriate decisions about including this relatively new investment opportunity in your retirement portfolio
Social Security Benefits Taxation: Issues And Present Status
Taxation of Social Security benefits was introduced in 1983 as part of a general restructuring of Social Security. As part of the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, taxation of benefits was revised and expanded. Inclusion of social security benefits as part of taxable income is determined by comparing a modification of adjusted gross income and half of social security benefits to threshold amounts established in each tax law. Unlike most amounts used to determine tax, the thresholds were not subject to indexation or revision. This paper examines the current state of social security taxation in light of personal income changes, social security benefit revisions and federal income tax rate and bracket modifications that have taken place over the fourteen years since the last revision in taxation of benefits
Nonzero and Neutrino Masses from Modified Neutrino Mixing Matrix
The nonzero and relatively large have been reported by Daya
Bay, T2K, MINOS, and Double Chooz Collaborations. In order to accommodate the
nonzero , we modified the tribimaximal (TB), bimaxima (BM), and
democratic (DC) neutrino mixing matrices. From three modified neutrino mixing
matrices, two of them (the modified BM and DC mixing matrices) can give nonzero
which is compatible with the result of the Daya Bay and T2K
experiments. The modified TB neutrino mixing matrix predicts the value of
greater than the upper bound value of the latest experimental
results. By using the modified neutrino mixing matrices and impose an
additional assumption that neutrino mass matrices have two zeros texture, we
then obtain the neutrino mass in normal hierarchy when
for the neutrino mass matrix from the
modified TB neutrino mixing matrix and for
the neutrino mass matrix from the modified DC neutrino mixing matrix. For these
two patterns of neutrino mass matrices, either the atmospheric mass squared
difference or the solar mass squared difference can be obtained, but not both
of them simultaneously. From four patterns of two zeros texture to be
considered on the obtained neutrino mass matrix from the modified BM neutrino
mixing matrix, none of them can predict correctly neutrino mass spectrum
(normal or inverted hierarchy).Comment: 13 pages, no figure, some references added, and slight revision due
to reviewer(s) comments, to be published in IJMP
Long-Distance Three-Color Neuronal Tracing in Fixed Tissue Using NeuroVue Dyes
Dissecting development of neuronal connections is critical for understanding neuronal function in both normal and diseased states. Charting the development of the multitude of connections is a monumental task, since a given neuron typically receives hundreds of convergent inputs from other neurons and provides divergent outputs for hundreds of other neurons. Although progress is being made utilizing various mutants and/or genetic constructs expressing fluorescent proteins like GFP, substantial work remains before a database documenting the development and final location of the neuronal pathways in an adult animal is completed. The vast majority of developing neurons cannot be specifically labeled with antibodies and making specific GFP-expressing constructs to tag each of them is an overwhelming task. Fortunately, fluorescent lipophilic dyes have emerged as very useful tools to systematically compare changes in neuronal networks between wild-type and mutant mice. These dyes diffuse laterally along nerve cell membranes in fixed preparations, allowing tracing of the position of a given neuron within the neuronal network in murine mutants fixed at various stages of development. Until recently, however, most evaluations have been limited to one, or at most, two color analyses. We have previously reported three color neuronal profiling using the novel lipophilic dyes NeuroVue (NV) Green, Red and Maroon (Fritzsch et al., Brain. Res. Bull. 66:249–258, 2005). Unfortunately such three color experiments have been limited by the fact that NV Green and its brighter successor, NV Emerald, both exhibit substantially decreased signal intensities when times greater than 48 hours at 37°C are required to achieve neuronal profile filling (unpublished observations). Here we describe a standardized test system developed to allow comparison of candidate dyes and its use to evaluate a series of 488 nm-excited green-emitting lipophilic dyes. The best of these, NV Jade, has spectral properties well matched to NV Red and NV Maroon, better solubility in DMF than DiO or DiA, improved thermostability compared with NV Emerald, and the ability to fill neuronal profiles at rates of 1 mm per day for periods of at least 5 days. Use of NV Jade in combination with NV Red and NV Maroon substantially improves the efficiency of connectional analysis in complex mutants and transgenic models where limited numbers of specimens are available
The coupling with relativistic heavy quarks
We report on a calculation of the coupling in lattice QCD. The
strong matrix element is directly related to the
leading order low-energy constant in heavy meson chiral perturbation theory
(HMPT) for -mesons. We carry out our calculation directly at the
-quark mass using a non-perturbatively tuned clover action that controls
discretisation effects of order and for all . Our
analysis is performed on RBC/UKQCD gauge configurations using domain wall
fermions and the Iwasaki gauge action at two lattice spacings of
GeV, GeV, and unitary pion masses down to 290
MeV. We achieve good statistical precision and control all systematic
uncertainties, giving a final result for the HMPT coupling in the continuum and at the physical light-quark
masses. This is the first calculation performed directly at the physical
-quark mass and lies in the region one would expect from carrying out an
interpolation between previous results at the charm mass and at the static
point.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, presented at the 31st International Symposium on
Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2013), 29 July - 3 August 2013, Mainz, German
Hierarchical Quark Mass Matrices
I define a set of conditions that the most general hierarchical Yukawa mass
matrices have to satisfy so that the leading rotations in the diagonalization
matrix are a pair of (2,3) and (1,2) rotations. In addition to Fritzsch
structures, examples of such hierarchical structures include also matrices with
(1,3) elements of the same order or even much larger than the (1,2) elements.
Such matrices can be obtained in the framework of a flavor theory. To leading
order, the values of the angle in the (2,3) plane (s_{23}) and the angle in the
(1,2) plane (s_{12}) do not depend on the order in which they are taken when
diagonalizing. We find that any of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix
parametrizations that consists of at least one (1,2) and one (2,3) rotation may
be suitable. In the particular case when the s_{13} diagonalization angles are
sufficiently small compared to the product s_{12}s_{23}, two special CKM
parametrizations emerge: the R_{12}R_{23}R_{12} parametrization follows with
s_{23} taken before the s_{12} rotation, and vice versa for the
R_{23}R_{12}R_{23} parametrization.Comment: LaTeX, 19 pages. References added, minor changes in text. Version
published in Phys. Rev.
Non-Universal Correction To And Flavor Changing Neutral Current Couplings
A non-universal interaction associated with top quark induces flavor changing
neutral currents (FCNC) among light fermions. The size of the FCNC effect
depends crucially on the dynamics of the fermion mass generation. In this
paper, we study the effect of a non-universal interaction on ,
{\it etc}, by using an effective lagrangian technique and assuming the quark
mass matrices in the form of a generalized Fritzsch ansatz. We point out that
if fitting to the LEP data within , the induced FCNC couplings
are very close to the experimental limits.Comment: 9 pages, Te
B-physics with Wilson fermions
We report the final results of the ALPHA collaboration for some B-physics
observables: , and . We employ CLS configurations with 2
flavors of improved Wilson fermions in the sea and pion masses ranging
down to 190 MeV. The b-quark is treated in HQET to order . The
renormalization, the matching and the improvement were performed
non-perturbatively, and three lattice spacings reaching fm are used
in the continuum extrapolation
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