One of the most important contributions to a successful retirement is advance planning well ahead of the actual date of retirement. Where you will live, and what your continuing activities will be are questions that should be considered. A location convenient to your children can be a great asset both to them and to you. Many retirees seek a year-round warm climate, while others prefer to remain where their roots are established.In developing financial plans for retirement, it is helpful to outline personal needs and preferences. Although individual circumstances and goals may differ, the following are general guidelines:
1. An income payable each month of retirement during your lifetime sufficient to enable you to maintain the same standard of living you and your spouse enjoyed before you retired. Because of tax reductions and a different pattern of expenses in retirement, the gross income needed may be only 80 percent or less of your preretirement income. However, it will be necessary to build protection against the ravages of inflation that decrease the value of the dollar.
2. Continuing income payable to your spouse after your death sufficient to maintain your customary standard of living.
3. Hospital-Medical-Surgical coverage which, combined with Medicare, will enable you to meet the major share of medical expenses.
4. As large a nest egg as possible for special needs, such as travel or unforeseen expenses. The nest egg may include a savings account, investments in money-market type mutual funds, bonds, or stocks, the equity in your home, and the L cash values of your life insurance contracts.
Careful advance financial planning can also reduce later retirement expenses, for example, completing the mortgage payments on your home before you retire. Plan to enter retirement with a new car or one of recent vintage in good condition. Consider putting your life insurance on a paid-up basis at retirement to avoid further payment of premiums. Plan to purchase desired high-cost items before retirement.
Because it is not possible to predict how long you will live in retirement, you should prepare for a wide range of possibilities: a long life, a short one, or something in between.
The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), which provides pensions to the' majority of college professors, reported in 1979 that 778 of its annuitants were over 90 years old and 17 were over 100. Its oldest pensioner was 107 years old.
Clearly, long life is possible and it is well to avoid outliving your income. Social Security, annuities, and your company pension will continue until your death, and, in some cases, will continue after that in whole or in part to your named beneficiaries. But if savings are drained too rapidly, you may outlive them.
The following table shows the number of additional years people live on the average after reaching a given age. However, these are only, averages not a basis for firm planning. Many will not live as long as indicated; others will live much longer. As medical knowledge advances, these average expectancies may increase.
Average Additional Years of Life
Age Male Female
55 23 28
60 19 23
65 15 19
70 12 16
75 9 12
80 7 10
85 5 7
90 4 6
95 3 4
100 2 3
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Biotin
The term "biotin" should now replace several old names, to wit: coenzyme R, protective factor X, the protective factor against egg white injury, the vitamin H and a part of the Bios II b or the adsorbable factor of the yeast growth promoting substance. It was isolated and from the Bios II b factor of yeast as a methyl ester of the empirical composition C 11 H 18 O 3 N 2 S and having a melting point of 166°-167° when highly purified. Saponification with cold alkali gives free biotin of the empirical composition C 10 H 16 O 3 N 2 S and melting at 230°-232°. Biotin is a simple monocarboxylic acid, a derivative of valeric acid. The nitrogen atoms form a urea structure which can be opened up with a loss of one carbon to form a diaminocarboxylic acid, from which in turn one can reform biotin by reaction with phosgene. The sulfur is functioning in a thioether structure, since a sulfone can be formed by oxidation. The most probable structure is that of 2′-keto-3,4-imidazolido-2-tetrahydrothiophene-n-valeric acid.
Looked upon as an active principle of yeast growth biotin is active even at a concentration of one part in 500,000,000,000. As the active substance stimulating several species of the root-nodule bacterium Rhizobium and obtained from concentrated cultures of Azotobacter, and previously known as coenzyme R (R=respiration) it shows effects in concentration of I part in 100 billion. As Vitamin H (H for "Haut" or skin) it counteracts the effects of avidin of both raw and dried egg white to the extent of 10,000 units per milligram by a rat assay method (i.e. 0.1 gamma of biotin per rat per day for 30 days protects against egg-white injury).
The biotin may be extracted from liver, dried eggs, potato starch, fresh eggs, dried yeast, autolyzed yeast.Inactivation of biotin has been accomplished both under acid and alkaline conditions. Aeration is not effective but stronger oxidizing agents destroy activity quickly and completely. Nitrous acid inactivates without a loss of nitrogen.Biological effects of biotin other than those used in assay of the foregoing effects concern the fatty infiltration of the livers of rats on a low fat diet with high biotin. The fermentation of yeast is increased as well as its respiration and growth both aerobically and anaerobically, in the presence of plentiful nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Butter-yellow tumor formation brought on by avidin-containing diets should be counteracted by biotin.
Looked upon as an active principle of yeast growth biotin is active even at a concentration of one part in 500,000,000,000. As the active substance stimulating several species of the root-nodule bacterium Rhizobium and obtained from concentrated cultures of Azotobacter, and previously known as coenzyme R (R=respiration) it shows effects in concentration of I part in 100 billion. As Vitamin H (H for "Haut" or skin) it counteracts the effects of avidin of both raw and dried egg white to the extent of 10,000 units per milligram by a rat assay method (i.e. 0.1 gamma of biotin per rat per day for 30 days protects against egg-white injury).
The biotin may be extracted from liver, dried eggs, potato starch, fresh eggs, dried yeast, autolyzed yeast.Inactivation of biotin has been accomplished both under acid and alkaline conditions. Aeration is not effective but stronger oxidizing agents destroy activity quickly and completely. Nitrous acid inactivates without a loss of nitrogen.Biological effects of biotin other than those used in assay of the foregoing effects concern the fatty infiltration of the livers of rats on a low fat diet with high biotin. The fermentation of yeast is increased as well as its respiration and growth both aerobically and anaerobically, in the presence of plentiful nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Butter-yellow tumor formation brought on by avidin-containing diets should be counteracted by biotin.
Biophysics scope principles methods
The domain of discussion may be indicated by defining biophysics as the application to biological research of the methods and content of the physico-mathematical sciences. "Method" is advisedly placed first. It has become clear that the experimental and theoretical procedures usually associated with physics are not the exclusive property of that science, but represent rather adequately the developed and mature form of the scientific method itself. Biophysics is the adaptation of this methodology to the problems of biology.
It appears from this that the word "biophysics" is in part a misnomer. Biophysical research is biological research with a particular emphasis--concern for the logical ordering and quantification of biological theory, for the more intimate unification of theory and experiment, for the introduction into experimental biology of techniques and measuring devices which have been developed in the so-called physical sciences, and for the reduction-when it is possible and useful, and only then-of biological problems and concepts to already existent laws and concepts of the physical sciences.
That physics--the science of matter--has in fact preoccupied itself with those objects which used to be termed "non-living" is logically accidental, not intrinsic. Taken in this sense, the "physicalizing" of biology merely means the attempt to analyze certain complex phenomenal patterns in terms of somewhat simpler patterns which have already been the object of intensive study. In this sense it is neither novelty nor heresy, but an inevitable extension of the classical biological procedure of analyzing organisms into organs, organs into tissues, tissues into cells, and cells finally into their discernible parts.
It is only fair to add that "biophysics" is usually used in a sense which contrasts it with biochemistry--that is, as a study of the physical as distinct from the chemical aspects of biological systems. This viewpoint would see viscosity, osmotic pressure, surface tension, the electrical and mechanical properties of biological systems as physical, while the composition and metabolic activities of such systems are the concern of chemistry.
This criterion has been serviceable in the past, of course; but it is so narrow as to be both cramping to research and rather difficult rigidly to maintain. Thus, the study of bioluminescence must in this view separate sharply into two parts: the analysis of the luciferinluciferase system is biochemistry, while the emission of a photon by the reduced enzyme is biophysics. It is valid to say, "For the moment, let us consider only the physical aspects of this phenomenon, and ignore the chemical and purely biological." But the moment passes quickly, and the essential inseparability of the different aspects demands the broader interpretation.
It remains to consider the best way of subdividing biophysical activity into its branches according to some specified criterion of classification. From the preceding discussion it is clear that one apparently natural division-into theoretical and experimental--is not a desirable one. The nature of biophysics, as here defined, demands the same close interweaving, mutual support, and mutual stimulus of theorizing and experimenting as is now practised so successfully in physics.
To adopt the existing fundamentum divisionis of biology is no more desirable; for the fences around bacteriology, embryology, histology, physiology, botany, and the like, in view of their haphazard historical origin, exhibit small regard either for practical utility or for logical consistency. Some of these fields are organized around a particular function, some around a particular set of structures, some around a particular class of organisms, and some are mere catch-alls for topics which do not fit handily into the remaining cells.
If we accept the cell as fundamental concept in biology, a useful though by no means perfect mode of classification suggests itself--the hierarchy: cell-parts, cells, cell-aggregates. These further subdivide in a fairly natural way, principally according to functions and activities. Thus, under Cell-parts, we think of: Protoplasmic Structure; Enzyme Systems of the Cell; Nucleus and Chromosomes; Cell Membranes and Permeability; Golgi Bodies and Mitochondria.
Under Cells would come: Growth; Form; Motion; Division; Differentiation; Metabolism; Senescence; Stimulus-Response.
Under Cell-aggregates there are similar categories: Organic Form and Differentiation; Growth; Metabolism; Senescence; StimulusResponse. These would intersect with the triple classification: Tissues; Organs; Organisms. Thus, for example, we would find Secretion under Metabolism, Organs (perhaps also under Cells, Metabolism); special senses under Stimulus-response, Organs; and the nervous and endocrine systems under Stimulus-response, Organisms. Another category under Cell-aggregates would be Populations, which would cover the material of biometrics, ecology, and much of bacteriology.
Such a topic as The Virus is not an insuperable obstacle to this arrangement; there are many good reasons for placing it under CellParts. But it is obvious from the topics named that a better method than either equal-ranking classes or a hierarchy would be a multidimensional network, in which topics may be different distances apart, but in which each topic is linked to many others directly, and to all others indirectly. Protoplasmic Structure would be close to if not precisely at the centre of such network. With the further development of biophysics, the appropriate ordering will doubtless become more evident.
Applied biophysics is exceedingly scanty. There are a few scattered medical applications, such as the gold number or its modern equivalents in the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, the use of X-rays and radium in the treatment of cancer. But biophysics is yet too young to show applications on any large scale.
There are many fields of biology in which the rather young biophysical method has not been active, so that a sufficient amount of representative material is not available for presentation. Some topics of biophysical interest, e.g., metabolism, are still referred to biochemistry for the same reason.
It appears from this that the word "biophysics" is in part a misnomer. Biophysical research is biological research with a particular emphasis--concern for the logical ordering and quantification of biological theory, for the more intimate unification of theory and experiment, for the introduction into experimental biology of techniques and measuring devices which have been developed in the so-called physical sciences, and for the reduction-when it is possible and useful, and only then-of biological problems and concepts to already existent laws and concepts of the physical sciences.
That physics--the science of matter--has in fact preoccupied itself with those objects which used to be termed "non-living" is logically accidental, not intrinsic. Taken in this sense, the "physicalizing" of biology merely means the attempt to analyze certain complex phenomenal patterns in terms of somewhat simpler patterns which have already been the object of intensive study. In this sense it is neither novelty nor heresy, but an inevitable extension of the classical biological procedure of analyzing organisms into organs, organs into tissues, tissues into cells, and cells finally into their discernible parts.
It is only fair to add that "biophysics" is usually used in a sense which contrasts it with biochemistry--that is, as a study of the physical as distinct from the chemical aspects of biological systems. This viewpoint would see viscosity, osmotic pressure, surface tension, the electrical and mechanical properties of biological systems as physical, while the composition and metabolic activities of such systems are the concern of chemistry.
This criterion has been serviceable in the past, of course; but it is so narrow as to be both cramping to research and rather difficult rigidly to maintain. Thus, the study of bioluminescence must in this view separate sharply into two parts: the analysis of the luciferinluciferase system is biochemistry, while the emission of a photon by the reduced enzyme is biophysics. It is valid to say, "For the moment, let us consider only the physical aspects of this phenomenon, and ignore the chemical and purely biological." But the moment passes quickly, and the essential inseparability of the different aspects demands the broader interpretation.
It remains to consider the best way of subdividing biophysical activity into its branches according to some specified criterion of classification. From the preceding discussion it is clear that one apparently natural division-into theoretical and experimental--is not a desirable one. The nature of biophysics, as here defined, demands the same close interweaving, mutual support, and mutual stimulus of theorizing and experimenting as is now practised so successfully in physics.
To adopt the existing fundamentum divisionis of biology is no more desirable; for the fences around bacteriology, embryology, histology, physiology, botany, and the like, in view of their haphazard historical origin, exhibit small regard either for practical utility or for logical consistency. Some of these fields are organized around a particular function, some around a particular set of structures, some around a particular class of organisms, and some are mere catch-alls for topics which do not fit handily into the remaining cells.
If we accept the cell as fundamental concept in biology, a useful though by no means perfect mode of classification suggests itself--the hierarchy: cell-parts, cells, cell-aggregates. These further subdivide in a fairly natural way, principally according to functions and activities. Thus, under Cell-parts, we think of: Protoplasmic Structure; Enzyme Systems of the Cell; Nucleus and Chromosomes; Cell Membranes and Permeability; Golgi Bodies and Mitochondria.
Under Cells would come: Growth; Form; Motion; Division; Differentiation; Metabolism; Senescence; Stimulus-Response.
Under Cell-aggregates there are similar categories: Organic Form and Differentiation; Growth; Metabolism; Senescence; StimulusResponse. These would intersect with the triple classification: Tissues; Organs; Organisms. Thus, for example, we would find Secretion under Metabolism, Organs (perhaps also under Cells, Metabolism); special senses under Stimulus-response, Organs; and the nervous and endocrine systems under Stimulus-response, Organisms. Another category under Cell-aggregates would be Populations, which would cover the material of biometrics, ecology, and much of bacteriology.
Such a topic as The Virus is not an insuperable obstacle to this arrangement; there are many good reasons for placing it under CellParts. But it is obvious from the topics named that a better method than either equal-ranking classes or a hierarchy would be a multidimensional network, in which topics may be different distances apart, but in which each topic is linked to many others directly, and to all others indirectly. Protoplasmic Structure would be close to if not precisely at the centre of such network. With the further development of biophysics, the appropriate ordering will doubtless become more evident.
Applied biophysics is exceedingly scanty. There are a few scattered medical applications, such as the gold number or its modern equivalents in the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, the use of X-rays and radium in the treatment of cancer. But biophysics is yet too young to show applications on any large scale.
There are many fields of biology in which the rather young biophysical method has not been active, so that a sufficient amount of representative material is not available for presentation. Some topics of biophysical interest, e.g., metabolism, are still referred to biochemistry for the same reason.
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