Retirement Saving in the UK: a Life-Cycle Analysis

This paper studies long term savings accumulation in the UK. We use cross-sectional information from the extensive dataset of the Family Resources Survey to compare long term saving amongst different ethnic groups with our control group, the native population. We reflect on whether different groups are more likely to suffer poverty in retirement. In our analysis we apply the life cycle framework to explain saving profiles. This theoretical model has been used extensively in the field of economics and can be applied to empirical studies to examine changes in income and saving patterns over the life-course. The framework contends that individuals make savings decisions to smooth consumption over different phases of their life-cycle. Our findings indicate that socio-economic factors are key elements in determining whether individuals plan for retirement, if factors are controlled for the differences in saving behaviours between ethnic minorities and the control population decrease considerably. Asian women, with good education and social standing display greater saving rates than the control group, while the socio-economic disadvantage suffered especially by Pakistani and Bangladeshi women is key to their inability to save long-term. High levels of poverty in retirement are more likely to be caused by the interaction of low levels of education, part-time work and long spells of unemployment than by ethnicity. Our important contribution to the debate on savings by ethnic minorities is the extension of the life-cycle model to specific sections of the population, to proffer new insights into their saving / dis-saving patterns, and ultimately their welfare in retirement

High Himalayan Discontinuity: a key structure driving the earlier exhumation of the Greater Himalayan Sequence in Central Himalayas

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Morphology of a new blister beetle (Coleoptera, Meloidae) larval type challenges the evolutionary trends of phoresy-related characters in the genus Meloe

The discovery of some specimens of a new first instar larval type in blister beetles, collected in Iran on Anthophora bees, confirms the existence of repetitive and parallel trends in morphological specialization to phoresy in distinct lineages of Meloidae and in particular in the subfamily Meloinae. The new Iranian larva, herein described and illustrated, shows several characters and a peculiar phoretic strategy that closely parallel that of the Meloe subgenus Lampromeloe, with similar modifications of the fronto-clypeal setae into strong lanceolate spines used to pierce the intersegmental membranes of the bees. Both parallel and shared derived evolution of these characters seem possible. The coexistence in this larva of characters in both primitive and derived state is of particular interest in order to analyse the different rates and trends of evolution of phoretic adaptations. A morphological comparison (SEM) of this new meloine larva (incertae sedis), tentatively assignable to Meloe, with the M. (Lampromeloe) larvae is carried out in order to discuss the evolutionary implications of its placement in Lampromeloe, and the relative characters that would support it, vs other possible alternative scenarios

Axions and the Strong CP Problem

Current upper bounds of the neutron electric dipole moment constrain the physically observable quantum chromodynamic (QCD) vacuum angle $|\bar\theta| \lesssim 10^{-11}$. Since QCD explains vast experimental data from the 100 MeV scale to the TeV scale, it is better to explain this smallness of $|\bar\theta|$ in the QCD framework, which is the strong \Ca\Pa problem. Now, there exist two plausible solutions to this problem, one of which leads to the existence of the very light axion. The axion decay constant window, $10^9\ {\gev}\lesssim F_a\lesssim 10^{12} \gev$for a${\cal O}(1)$initial misalignment angle$\theta_1$, has been obtained by astrophysical and cosmological data. For$F_a\gtrsim 10^{12}$GeV with$\theta_1<{\cal O}(1)$, axions may constitute a significant fraction of dark matter of the universe. The supersymmetrized axion solution of the strong \Ca\Pa problem introduces its superpartner the axino which might have affected the universe evolution significantly. Here, we review the very light axion (theory, supersymmetrization, and models) with the most recent particle, astrophysical and cosmological data, and present prospects for its discovery.Comment: 47 pages with 32 figure

P-T-t evolution of the Himalayan metamorphic core in the Mugu Karnali transect (Central Himalaya): preliminary data based on calculations of pseudosections

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Vacuum Polarization and the Electric Charge of the Positron

We show that higher-order vacuum polarization would contribute a measureable net charge to atoms, if the charges of electrons and positrons do not balance precisely. We obtain the limit $|Q_e+Q_{\bar e}| < 10^{-18} e$ for the sum of the charges of electron and positron. This also constitutes a new bound on certain violations of PCT invariance.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure attached as PostScript file, DUKE-TH-92-38. Revised versio

Quark mass uncertainties revive KSVZ axion dark matter

The Kaplan-Manohar ambiguity in light quark masses allows for a larger uncertainty in the ratio of up to down quark masses than naive estimates from the chiral Lagrangian would indicate. We show that it allows for a relaxation of experimental bounds on the QCD axion, specifically KSVZ axions in the $2-3 \mu$eV mass range composing 100% of the galactic dark matter halo can evade the experimental limits placed by the ADMX collaboration.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure