Statistical Methodologies of Functional Data Analysis for Industrial Applications

This thesis stands as one of the first attempt to connect the statistical object oriented data analysis (OODA) methodologies with the industry field. Indeed, the aim of this thesis is to develop statistical methods to tackle industrial problems through the paradigm of the OODA. The new framework of Industry 4.0 requires factories that are equipped with sensor and advanced acquisition systems that acquire data with a high degree of complexity. OODA can be particularly suitable to deal with this increasing complexity as it considers each statistical unit as an atom or a data object assumed to be a point in a well-defined mathematical space. This idea allows one to deal with complex data structure by changing the resolution of the analysis. Indeed, from standard methods where the atom is represented by vector of numbers, the focus now is on methodologies where the objects of the analysis are whole complex objects. In particular, this thesis focuses on functional data analysis (FDA), a branch of OODA that considers as the atom of the analysis functions defined on compact domains. The cross-fertilization of FDA methods to industrial applications is developed into three parts in this dissertation. The first part presents methodologies developed to solve specific applicative problems. In particular, a first consistent portion of this part is focused on \textit{profile monitoring} methods applied to ship CO\textsubscript{2} emissions. A second portion deals with the problem of predicting the mechanical properties of an additively manufactured artifact given the particle size distribution of the powder used for its production. And, a third portion copes with the cluster analysis for the quality assessment of metal sheet spot welds in the automotive industry based on observations of dynamic resistance curve. Stimulated by these challenges, the second part of this dissertation turns towards a more methodological line that addresses the notion of \textit{interpretability} for functional data. In particular, two new interpretable estimators of the coefficient function of the function-on-function linear regression model are proposed, which are named S-LASSO and AdaSS, respectively. Moreover, a new method, referred to as SaS-Funclust, is presented for sparse clustering of functional data that aims to classify a sample of curves into homogeneous groups while jointly detecting the most informative portions of domain. In the last part, two ongoing researches on FDA methods for industrial application are presented. In particular, the first one regards the definition of a new robust nonparametric functional ANOVA method (Ro-FANOVA) to test differences among group functional means by being robust against the presence of outliers with an application to additive manufacturing. The second one sketches a new methodological framework for the real-time profile monitoring

Attitudes towards old age and age of retirement across the world: findings from the future of retirement survey

The 21st century has been described as the first era in human history when the world will no longer be young and there will be drastic changes in many aspects of our lives including socio-demographics, financial and attitudes towards the old age and retirement. This talk will introduce briefly about the Global Ageing Survey (GLAS) 2004 and 2005 which is also popularly known as “The Future of Retirement”. These surveys provide us a unique data source collected in 21 countries and territories that allow researchers for better understanding the individual as well as societal changes as we age with regard to savings, retirement and healthcare. In 2004, approximately 10,000 people aged 18+ were surveyed in nine counties and one territory (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, UK and USA). In 2005, the number was increased to twenty-one by adding Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey and South Korea). Moreover, an additional 6320 private sector employers was surveyed in 2005, some 300 in each country with a view to elucidating the attitudes of employers to issues relating to older workers. The paper aims to examine the attitudes towards the old age and retirement across the world and will indicate some policy implications

Attitudes towards old age and age of retirement across the world: findings from the future of retirement survey

The 21st century has been described as the first era in human history when the world will no longer be young and there will be drastic changes in many aspects of our lives including socio-demographics, financial and attitudes towards the old age and retirement. This talk will introduce briefly about the Global Ageing Survey (GLAS) 2004 and 2005 which is also popularly known as “The Future of Retirement”. These surveys provide us a unique data source collected in 21 countries and territories that allow researchers for better understanding the individual as well as societal changes as we age with regard to savings, retirement and healthcare. In 2004, approximately 10,000 people aged 18+ were surveyed in nine counties and one territory (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, UK and USA). In 2005, the number was increased to twenty-one by adding Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey and South Korea). Moreover, an additional 6320 private sector employers was surveyed in 2005, some 300 in each country with a view to elucidating the attitudes of employers to issues relating to older workers. The paper aims to examine the attitudes towards the old age and retirement across the world and will indicate some policy implications