An Introduction To Cost-Of-Living Adjustments In Public Retirement Plans: Details Matter

While financial planning students are expected to be able to understand client retirement plans, subtle differences in cost-of-living adjustments can have major impact on the success of client retirement plans. This teaching note compares the cost-of-living adjustments in the largest government sponsored retirement systems and a hypothetical traditional privately sponsored plan.  Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we estimate the impact on retirement experience from the different COLAs.  These differences are large, with differing protection from future inflation and differing risk for running out of money during retirement. This teaching note will help instructors address Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board Learning Outcome G.52 “Retirement Needs Analysis”.   The material may also be used in economics, human resources, public administration, and other classes addressing policy aspects of retirement plans

High temperature reliability of power module substrates

The thermal cycling reliability of candidate copper and aluminium power substrates has been assessed for use at temperatures exceeding 300°C peak using a combination of thermal cycling, nanoindentation and finite element modelling to understand the relative stresses and evolution of the mechanical properties. The results include the relative cycling lifetimes up to 350°C, demonstrating almost an order of magnitude higher lifetime for active metal brazed Al / AlN substrates over Cu / Si3N4, but four times more severe roughening and cracking of the Ni-P plating's on the Al / AlN (DBA) substrates. The nonlinear finite element modelling illustrated that the yield strength of the metal and the thickness of the ceramic are the main stress controlling factors, but comparisons with the cycling lifetime results demonstrated that the fracture toughness (resistance) of the ceramic is the over-riding controlling factor for the overall passive thermal cycling lifetimes. In order to achieve the highest substrate lifetime for the highly stressed high temperature thermal cycled applications, the optimum solution appears to be annealed copper, brazed on to a thicker than normal or higher fracture toughness Si3N4 ceramic

Hybrid Vigor: Securing Venture Capital by Spanning Categories in Nanotechnology

This study develops and tests a set of novel theoretical predictions about the conditions under which category spanning is rewarded by external audiences. To do this, we revisit the assumption that comprehensible organizational identities are associated with individual categories. Drawing on insights from cognitive psychology, we suggest that category spanning does not necessarily lead to confusion, but, rather, to interpretations that rely on a “header–modifier” structure where one category anchors cognition but is modified by features of the other. Audiences may have clear understandings about how categories fit together and cognate schema for evaluating firms that hybridize by spanning between them. An empirical examination of venture capital in the carbon nanotechnology industry supports our approach: start-ups were rewarded or punished for hybridization contingent on how they mixed “science” and “technology” in their patents, top management team, and collaborations. As such, we show that the category a firm starts in, how it hybridizes, and the degree to which this affects core versus peripheral identity markers may all affect how it is perceived

Finding The Beta For A Portfolio Isn't Obvious: An Educational Example

When a portfolio is not actively managed to maintain a fixed investment percentage in each asset but rather maintains a fixed number of shares for each asset, the portfolio weights will change over time because the market returns of the different assets will not be the same.  Consequently, portfolio betas computed as a linear combination of asset betas, which is the usual practice, will be different from betas computed using regression techniques on portfolio returns as is done when evaluating individual assets and mutual funds.  The alternative approaches can result in quite different beta statistics and, consequently, inconsistent decisions depending on which method is used.&nbsp

Why Downside Beta Is Better: An Educational Example

An educational example is presented that is an effective teaching illustration to help students understand the difference between traditional CAPM beta and downside (or down-market) beta and why downside beta is a superior measure for use in personal financial planning investment policy statements

Asset Attribution Stability And Portfolio Construction: An Educational Example

This paper illustrates how a third statistic from asset pricing models, the R-squared statistic, may have information that can help in portfolio construction. Using a traditional CAPM model in comparison to an 18-factor Arbitrage Pricing Style Model, a portfolio separation test is conducted. Portfolio returns and risk metrics are compared using data from the Dow Jones 30 stocks over the period January 2007 through October 2013. Various teaching points are discussed and illustrated

Plasmid-encoded Tet B tetracycline resistance in Haemophilus parasuis

The complete sequence of two plasmids, pHS-Tet (5.1 kb) and pHS-Rec (9.5 kb), isolated from Haemophilus parasuis strain HS1543 has been obtained. Plasmid pHS-Tet contains four open reading frames including a tet(B) tetracycline resistance gene which unusually did not have an associated tetR repressor gene. From a total of 45 H. parasuis isolates surveyed (15 international reference strains, 15 field isolates selected for their genetic diversity, and 15 recent Australian field isolates), 2 tetracycline-resistant field isolates (HS226 and HS1859) were identified. Analysis of three additional isolates from the same disease outbreak as strain HS1859 revealed a further tetracycline-resistant H. parasuis strain (HS1857, serovar 8) and a tetracycline-resistant Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae strain (HS1861). An approximately 10.6-kb plasmid was identified in field isolate HS226 and outbreak strains HS1857, HS1859, and HS1861. Southern hybridization analysis of these plasmids showed that the Tet B determinant was present, and restriction digest comparisons suggest that these plasmids are related. This is believed to be the first report of native H. parasuis plasmids and Tet B-mediated tetracycline resistance in this microorganism

Impact of vibration on the surface film of lithium-ion cells

Cylindrical 18650-type lithium-ion cells are being utilized more often for automotive applications. This introduces error in calculating expected lifetime due to varied usage conditions accelerating or reducing material damage. One such usage condition is vibration, which has been shown to impact the electrical performance over extended periods. Within this study X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been performed on nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells subjected to vibration. This study found that vibration causes the removal of the selectively-formed surface film created during a cell’s first cycles and replaces it with the surface film from electrolyte decomposition. The surface films formed by vibration are composed of much higher concentrations of organic electrolyte decomposition products than the film from the control cell. The impact of this chemical mechanism is an increased level of cell degradation. This is exhibited in increased capacity fade and cell impedance. This is the first study presented within the academic literature which has identified an electro-mechanical mechanism responsible for the performance degradation in lithium-ion cells from vibration