Some Reflections on Consumer Protection and the Requirement of Anticipating Behaviour of A Prudent Insurer

__Abstract__ Insurers are increasingly reminded of the fact that they are the professionals in situations where the insured risks becoming the victim of the fact that he is a layperson, and may lose his insurance coverage unless the insurer takes positive action. This paper sets out some instances in which such positive action should be required from a prudent insurer, such as duty to warn or inform the policyholder/insured, and the consequences for the insurer if he does not fulfill these duties

EAM Modulated DBR Laser Array for TWDM-PON Applications

4 Channel DBR laser arrays are fabricated for use in optical line terminals of TWDM-PON systems. These combine 1.4Q InGaAsP material in the DBR with EAMs using the identical active layer design. A tuning range ~10 nm and extinction ratio of >27 dB are measured

Examining The Role of Information Technology in Cultivating Firms’ Dynamic Marketing Capabilities

Dynamic capabilities enable firms to reconfigure limited resources or relative strengths to respond to rapid changes in market conditions. This study considers the central role of IT in creating and enhancing dynamic capabilities by analyzing the essential determinants of dynamic marketing capabilities and proposing a model that includes market orientation, IT infrastructure capabilities, and use of IT to support CRM. Tests using a large-scale survey support the model and most of its hypotheses. The results reveal significant effects of a firm’s market orientation and use of IT to support CRM and the functionality of IT infrastructure capabilities on dynamic marketing capabilities

Computational fluid dynamic analysis of underwater rubble mound leveling equipment against tidal current loading

Underwater rubble mound leveling works usually have been carried out as a preliminary process prior to\ud the installation of caissons and blocks onto the seabed in a harbor and wave energy structures. So far, underwater\ud construction works are mostly depended on divers. These divers are confronted with many difficulties, such as working\ud time limitation due to depth, poor visibility in a working field and so on. These problems can be overcome using\ud machineries in the underwater construction. The practical unmanned underwater equipment for port constructions was\ud newly developed. The equipment can be applicable in underwater leveling works of rubble mound by using its blade\ud and bucket with automatic arms. Also, it can monitor the working environment using sonars and optical devices. The\ud safety analysis considering harsh circumstances such as strong currents is necessary because the equipment is usually\ud mobilized on the seabed. In this paper, the effect of tidal current forces on the behavior of the equipment was\ud investigated by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which is mainly used in investigating the relative\ud movements of fluid and structure. The numerical results reveal that the possibility of overturning and sliding of the\ud equipment can be negligible and the structural stability can be assured under a given current velocity of 1m/s

Alteration patterns of trabecular bone microarchitectural characteristics induced by osteoarthritis over time

10.2147/CIA.S32513Clinical Interventions in Aging7303-31

Surface reconstruction of wear in carpets by using a wavelet edge detector

Carpet manufacturers have wear labels assigned to their products by human experts who evaluate carpet samples subjected to accelerated wear in a test device. There is considerable industrial and academic interest in going from human to automated evaluation, which should be less cumbersome and more objective. In this paper, we present image analysis research on videos of carpet surfaces scanned with a 3D laser. The purpose is obtaining good depth Images for an automated system that should have a high percentage of correct assessments for a wide variety of carpets. The innovation is the use of a wavelet edge detector to obtain a more continuously defined surface shape. The evaluation is based on how well the algorithms allow a good linear ranking and a good discriminance of consecutive wear labels. The results show an improved linear ranking for most carpet types, for two carpet types the results are quite significant

Features and design intent in engineering sketches

We investigate the problem of determining design intent from engineering sketches: what did the designer have in mind when sketching a component? Specifically, we consider the unidirectional reverse mapping from form features, as determined from an input sketch, to design features, representing the design intent present in the designer’s mind. We introduce a list of com- mon engineering form features. For each, we list which geometrical cues may be helpful in identifying these features in design sketches, and we list the design features which such form features commonly imply. We show that a reductionist approach which decomposes a diagram into form features can be used to deduce the design intent of the object portrayed in a drawing. We supply experimental results in support of this idea

Gravitational dipole radiations from binary systems

We investigate the possibility of generating sizeable dipole radiations in relativistic theories of gravity. Optimal parameters to observe their effects through the orbital period decay of binary star systems are discussed. Constraints on gravitational couplings beyond general relativity are derived.Comment: One comment added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.