Investment Performance Comparison Between Roth and Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts

With the recent introduction of the Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) along with a significantly improved Traditional IRA, there has been considerable interest in comparing the performance of these investment vehicles. Some confusion regarding these comparisons has evolved. In this paper we show that this confusion may be attributed to scale and tax differences between the two investment vehicles. We adjust for these differences by focusing on the after-tax rate-of-return on investment for each IRA vehicle. We find that performance depends crucially on the relationship between an individual\u27s tax rates at the time of investment and at the time of withdrawal

Hazardous materials emergency response mobile robot

A simple or unsophisticated robot incapable of effecting straight-line motion at the end of its arm inserts a key held in its end effector or hand into a door lock with nearly straight-line motion by gently thrusting its back heels downwardly so that it pivots forwardly on its front toes while holding its arm stationary. The relatively slight arc traveled by the robot's hand is compensated by a complaint tool with which the robot hand grips the door key. A visible beam is projected through the axis of the hand or gripper on the robot arm end at an angle to the general direction in which the robot thrusts the gripper forward. As the robot hand approaches a target surface, a video camera on the robot wrist watches the beam spot on the target surface fall from a height proportional to the distance between the robot hand and the target surface until the beam spot is nearly aligned with the top of the robot hand. Holes in the front face of the hand are connected through internal passages inside the arm to an on-board chemical sensor. Full rotation of the hand or gripper about the robot arm's wrist is made possible by slip rings in the wrist which permit passage of the gases taken in through the nose holes in the front of the hand through the wrist regardless of the rotational orientation of the wrist

ICTs for whose development? A critical analysis of the discourses surrounding an ICT for Development Initiative for a group of microenterprise entrepreneurs operating in the Jamaican tourism industry: Towards the development of methodologies and analytical tools for understanding and explaining the ICT for Development Phenomenon

This is an interdiscliplinary qualitative study which uses an exploratory research design and builds on Fariclough's Critical Discourse Analysis methodology to analyze the discourses surrounding an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for livelihood development project in Jamaica, introduced by the United Nations Development Programme - the Jamaica Sustainable Development Networking Programme (JSDNP). The primary objective of this project is to provide the poor in Jamaican communities with access to, and training in ICTs. In this research, I specifically focus on the discourses surrounding the JSDNP Cybercentre Project for a group of microenterprise entrepreneurs in the Jamaican tourism industry to access the epistemological assumptions of this project. From the data collected it was found that at one level, the JSDNP Cybercentre Project encouraged specific ways of acting and organizing congruent with the configurations, processes and structures of corporate firms of industrialized countries, by representing the achievement of livelihood expansion through the use of specific ICTs in a particular way which excluded other discourses. The particular ways of acting and organizing promoted by the Cybercentre encouraged the use of non-indigenous technologies, undervalued indigenous technologies and excluded the indigenization of non-indigenous technologies. These discourses were incompatible with the operational and structural configurations of trans-temporal poor entrepretrepreneurs interviewed and were more favourable to the non-poor and spatio-temporal ones. One of the wider implications of the discourse therefore was that they play a fundamental role in perpetuating entrenched inequalities through the preservation of social practices, along with their associated systems and structures. It was also found that these modalities limited the operational processes of all microenterprise entrepreneurs who were exposed to the Cybercentre Project. These entrepreneurs have limited control over the configuration of non-indigenous technologies; their technological and creative capabilities are restricted; their ability to indigenize non-indigenous technologies impaired; and they are highly dependent on non-indigenous technologies (which themselves have a number of limitations)

The Diversity Landscape of <i>Plasmodium falciparum var</i> Genes

Plasmodium falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein 1 (PfEMP1) is an important group of cytoadhesive multi-domain Plasmodium falciparum surface antigens that are inserted onto the surface of infected erythrocytes and are encoded by the var multi-gene family. PfEMP1 antigens are thought to be important targets of naturally acquired immunity to malaria. This thesis describes nucleotide variation in DBLα sequence tags, a semi-conserved region within the DBLα domain that can be PCR amplified using universal primers. PfEMP1 can be classified using a number of approaches some of which are associated with particular expression patterns in severe, non-severe and asymptomatic malaria. This work compared the classification approaches with an aim of understanding the extent of overlap or discordance between them. To explore non-random distribution of variation in respect to var’s functional specialization, a clustering approach was developed and applied in exploring patterns of nucleotide variation among var subsets from different geographical locations in addition to distribution of predicted B and T-cell epitopes among the var subsets. In summary the sequences showed distinct patterns of nucleotide substitution that suggests that var sequences are under both diversifying and purifying selection

Molecular Genetics of S. thermonitrificans ISP5579

The majority of commercially important antibiotic producing Streptomyces are mesophiles, grown at 25-3