The accident insurance as a promising direction for insurance in Russia

Статья посвящена анализу состояния рынка услуг страхования от несчастных случаев. Актуальность исследования определяется тем, что страхование является неотъемлемым атрибутом цивилизованного общества, позволяющим сохранить обеспеченность доходами при неблагоприятных ситуациях. По статистике в России уровень травматизма и непредвиденных обстоятельств весьма велик. Люди традиционно уделяют мало внимания формированию резервов на случай временной или постоянной нетрудоспособности. Цель работы: рассмотреть систему страхования от несчастных случаев. Методы исследования: метод сопоставления, необходимый для выявления главных тенденций на рынке страховых услуг; аналитический метод, позволяющий понять, какие проблемы характерны для этого вида страхования; статистический метод, выявляющий масштабы страхования от несчастных случаев. Результаты: раскрывается сущность и виды страхования от несчастных случаев.The article is devoted to analysis of service market of accident insurance. The relevant of the study is determined by the fact that insurance is an integral attribute of a civilized society that allows you to save security income in adverse situations. According to statistics, in Russia the level of injury and unforeseen circumstances is very great. People traditionally pay little attention to formation of reserves in case of temporary or permanent incapacity for work. The main aim of the study is to consider the system of the accident insurance. Methods: the matching method required to identify the main trends in the insurance market; the analytical technique which allows understanding the typical problems for this type of insurance; the statistical method allows us to identify the extent of accident insurance. Results. The paper reveals the essence and types of accident insurance and considers the model events when the insurance company indemnifies for the damage. The causes of the demand for this type of insurance in Russia are identified. Based on the statistical data the author has determined the proportion of the accident insured people

The impact of air pollution on hospital admissions: Evidence from Italy

In this paper we study the impact of air pollution on hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 103 Italian provinces, over the period from 2004 to 2009. We use information on annual mean concentrations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and ozone measured at monitoring station level to build province-level indicators of pollution. Hence, we estimate a regression model for hospital admissions, where we allow our aggregate measures of pollution to be subject to measurement error and correlated with the error term. We also adopt standard errors for estimates that are robust to serial and spatial correlation in the error term, to allow for temporal persistence and geographical concentration of unobservable risk factors.We find that higher levels of particulate matter are associated with higher levels of hospitalisation for children, while ozone plays an important role in explaining hospital admissions of the elderly. Other factors that appear to have an effect on hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are precipitation and provincial unemployment rate

Quantum transport and momentum conserving dephasing

We study numerically the influence of momentum-conserving dephasing on the transport in a disordered chain of scatterers. Loss of phase memory is caused by coupling the transport channels to dephasing reservoirs. In contrast to previously used models, the dephasing reservoirs are linked to the transport channels between the scatterers, and momentum conserving dephasing can be investigated. Our setup provides a model for nanosystems exhibiting conductance quantization at higher temperatures in spite of the presence of phononic interaction. We are able to confirm numerically some theoretical predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Imaging local diffusion in microstructures using NV-based pulsed field gradient NMR

Understanding diffusion in microstructures plays a crucial role in many scientific fields, including neuroscience, cancer or energy research. While magnetic resonance (MR) methods are the gold standard for diffusion measurements, spatial encoding in MR imaging has limitations. Here, we introduce nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a powerful tool to probe diffusion with an optical readouts. We have developed an experimental scheme combining pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) with optically detected NV-NMR spectroscopy, which allows for the local quantification of molecular diffusion and flow within microscopic sample volumes. We demonstrate correlated optical imaging with spatially resolved PGSE NV-NMR experiments probing anisotropic water diffusion within a model microstructure. Our optically detected PGSE NV-NMR technique opens up prospects for extending the current capabilities of investigating diffusion processes with the future potential of probing single cells, tissue microstructures, or ion mobility in thin film materials for battery applications.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Microbial Communities on Plastic Polymers in the Mediterranean Sea

Plastic particles in the ocean are typically covered with microbial biofilms, but it remains unclear whether distinct microbial communities colonize different polymer types. In this study, we analyzed microbial communities forming biofilms on floating microplastics in a bay of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the plastic particles mainly comprised polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) of which polyethylene and polypropylene particles were typically brittle and featured cracks. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and imaging by high-resolution microscopy revealed dense microbial biofilms on the polymer surfaces. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene showed that the bacterial communities on all plastic types consisted mainly of the orders Flavobacteriales, Rhodobacterales, Cytophagales, Rickettsiales, Alteromonadales, Chitinophagales, and Oceanospirillales. We found significant differences in the biofilm community composition on PE compared with PP and PS (on OTU and order level), which shows that different microbial communities colonize specific polymer types. Furthermore, the sequencing data also revealed a higher relative abundance of archaeal sequences on PS in comparison with PE or PP. We furthermore found a high occurrence, up to 17% of all sequences, of different hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria on all investigated plastic types. However, their functioning in the plastic-associated biofilm and potential role in plastic degradation needs further assessment

Risk management against indirect risks from disasters: A multi-model and participatory governance framework applied to flood risk in Austria

Indirect effects resulting from natural disasters, such as the follow-on consequences of initial destruction, are attracting growing attention. This is because economic losses in the aftermath of disaster events have escalated in recent years and are expected to continue to rise in the future. Despite this, the primary focus of most countries’ disaster risk management approaches remains centered on mitigating the direct effects of such events, with little attention being paid to strategies aimed explicitly at reducing indirect effects. As a result, there are limited practical solutions available for reducing these indirect damages. Most efforts remain theoretical, lacking real-world testing of frameworks specifically designed to reduce indirect risks. To address this gap, this paper aims to illuminate the issue by proposing and empirically testing how existing risk management frameworks designed for direct risks could be expanded to encompass indirect effects as well. In doing so, we create and use a framework to manage indirect risks in a collaborative process for dealing with major flood risk in Austria. We test specific challenges and explore ways to integrate the management of these indirect risks in a complex real-world scenario. Our findings suggest that linking indirect and direct risk management can be achieved with relatively modest effort. A precise systems definition proves particularly beneficial in this regard, as it can link disaster risk related dimensions with non-disaster related targets. This approach thereby opens up the possibility to explicitly include multiple dividends in the decision-making process about indirect risk management strategies

Biological measurement beyond the quantum limit

Quantum noise places a fundamental limit on the per photon sensitivity attainable in optical measurements. This limit is of particular importance in biological measurements, where the optical power must be constrained to avoid damage to the specimen. By using non-classically correlated light, we demonstrated that the quantum limit can be surpassed in biological measurements. Quantum enhanced microrheology was performed within yeast cells by tracking naturally occurring lipid granules with sensitivity 2.4 dB beyond the quantum noise limit. The viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasm could thereby be determined with a 64% improved measurement rate. This demonstration paves the way to apply quantum resources broadly in a biological context