The future of industries : how personalization of insurance policies using artificial intelligence will disrupt the insurance status-quo

In the future, the concept of insurance will change and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already disrupting the state of this industry. Insurers worldwide are using AI to automatize processes and tasks, such as fraud detention, underwriting and claims processing. Additionally, there has been a rise of new competitors in the market, such as InsurTechs, that are bringing innovative solutions for insurance, responding to the new trends in customers’ lifestyles and behaviours, that are more demanding for services directed for their needs. This study aims to understand how personalization of insurance policies, created with Artificial Intelligence, will disrupt this industry in the future and what will be the impact in the European market. Personalization of an insurance policy with AI would encompass the definition of the coverages and premiums more appropriate for an individual customer and do the risk evaluation, in a market of one strategy. This innovation would take advantage of the accrual of Big Data from customers, as people are each time more connected and information about them is constantly being shared, allowing companies to use it to know consumers better. Some limitations that might arise are related to the regulation applied to the insurance industry in Europe regarding customer’s data privacy, with the GDPR and regulation against discrimination in insurance.No futuro, o conceito dos seguros irá alterar-se e a Inteligência Artificial (IA) já está a causar disrupção no estado desta indústria. Seguradoras por todo o mundo já utilizam IA para automatizar processos e tarefas, como detetar fraudes, na subscrição de seguros ou no processamento de sinistros. Adicionalmente, tem-se assistido a um aumento de concorrentes no mercado, como as InsurTechs, que trazem soluções de seguro inovadoras como resposta às novas tendências nos estilos de vida e comportamentos dos consumidores, que são cada vez mais exigentes e procuram serviços mais direcionados às suas necessidades. A presente dissertação visa estudar como a personalização de apólices de seguro, criadas a partir de Inteligência Artificial, irá disruptar a indústria no futuro, e qual será o impacto no mercado europeu. A personalização de apólices inclui a definição das coberturas e prémio mais apropriados para o consumidor individual, assim como a avaliação do risco, numa estratégia de market of one. Esta inovação tiraria partido da acumulação de Big Data dos clientes, uma vez que os consumidores estão cada vez mais conectados e informação acerca deles está constantemente a ser partilhada, permitindo às empresas conhecê-los melhor. Algumas limitações que poderão surgir estão relacionadas à regulamentação da indústria dos seguros na Europa, relativa à proteção de dados, com o RGPD e com a regulamentação contra a discriminação nos seguros

Vascularization in bone tissue engineering : physiology, current strategies, major hurdles and future challenges

The lack of a functional vascular supply has, to a large extent, hampered the whole range of clinical applications of ‘successful’ laboratory-based bone tissue engineering strategies. To the present, grafts have been dependent on post-implant vascularization, which jeopardizes graft integration and often leads to its failure. For this reason, the development of strategies that could effectively induce the establishment of a microcirculation in the engineered constructs has become a major goal for the tissue engineering research community. This review addresses the role and importance of the development of a vascular network in bone tissue engineering and provides an overview of the most up to date research efforts to develop such a network.M. I. Santos would like to acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for her Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/13428/2003). This work was partially supported by FCT through funds from POCTI and/or FEDER programs and by the European Union funded STREP Project HIPPOCRATES (NMP3-CT-2003-505758). This work was carried out under the scope of the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283). The authors also acknowledge Gabriela A. Silva for critically reading the manuscript

Pourquoi les activités à l'extérieur ?: réponse selon la pédagogie par la nature et Maria Montessori

Ce travail de recherche a été centré sur le thème des activités à l’extérieur dans les structures d’accueil. La problématique soulevée est l’accompagnement des enfants lors de sorties afin que cela devienne des activités à l’extérieur. Pour cela, ma recherche a été tout d’abord théorique. Des recherches ont été effectuées sur la pédagogie par la nature et Maria Montessori (pédagogue) afin de savoir quelles étaient leurs valeurs en ce qui concerne les activités extérieures. Une comparaison a été faite afin d’aboutir cette recherche théorique. La suite logique de mon travail a été d’identifier les freins et difficultés à mettre en place ces activités et de trouver des solutions. Pour conclure ce travail, je me suis intéressée à quelques projets en lien avec mon thème, effectués en Suisse et en Europe

SP-Sephadex equilibrium chromatography of bradykinin and related peptides: Application to trypsin-treated human plasma

An analytical method is deseribed for the separation of bradykinin, Lys-bradykinin, and Met-Lys-bradykinin by equilibrium chromatography on SP-Sephadex C-25 eluted in 0.02 Tris-HCl buffer, pH 8.10, 0.12 NaCl. A second elution buffer, 0.02 Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.70, 0.06 NaCl, serves as a second parameter for the identification of bradykinin and also separates the hormone from plasma bradykinin-potentiating peptides. Ten to one-hundred nanomoles of each peptide can be recovered in high yields, identified by elution position, and measured by bioassay with the isolated guinea pig ileum. The identification of bradykinin as the peptide released by trypsin acting on acid-denatured plasma is documented as an illustration of the method

Enthalpies of solution of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate in 15 solvents at 298.15 k

Enthalpies of solution of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetra fluoroborate, [BMIm]BF4, are reported at 298.15 K in a set of 15 hydrogen bond donor and hydrogen bond acceptor solvents, chosen by their diversity, namely, water, methanol, ethanol, 1,2-ethanediol, 2-choroethanol, 2-methoxyethanol, formamide, propylene carbonate, nitromethane, acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetone, N,N-dimethylformamide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, and aniline. These values are shown to be largely independent of [BMIm]BF4 concentration. The obtained enthalpies of solution vary from very endothermic to quite exothermic, thus showing a very high sensitivity of the enthalpies of solution of [BMIm]BF4 to solvent properties. Solvent effects on the solution process of this IL are analyzed by a quantitative structure-property relationship methodology, using the TAKA equation and a modified equation, which significantly improves the model's predictive ability. The observed differences in the enthalpies of solution are rationalized in terms of the solvent properties found to be relevant, that is, pi* and E-T(N)

A MUSICOTERAPIA SOB UM OLHAR POLÍTICO: Reflexões a partir de entrevistas

O fazer polí­tico de uma população está diretamente relacionado ao contexto no qual a polí­tica está inserida e as suas definições. Neste trabalho, conceituamos e refletimos sobre polí­ticas - como chamaremos o conjunto que inclui polí­tica, o fazer polí­tico, organização de classe, representação de classe e polí­ticas públicas - para discutir questões da profissão de Musicoterapia. Esta pesquisa surge por um sentimento de falta de pesquisas sobre essas questões, e tem como objetivo avaliar como musicoterapeutas e estudantes de Musicoterapia se relacionam com polí­tica e classe. Para isso, o presente trabalho utiliza de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, realizadas com 10 estudantes e profissionais de Musicoterapia, gravadas em áudio, transcritas e analisadas individualmente, fundamentando-se na pesquisa qualitativa. As análises foram realizadas com uma divisão pelos temas: (a) Polí­tica; (b) Organização e Discussão de Classe e Polí­tica em Musicoterapia; (c) Polí­ticas Públicas e Musicoterapia; (d) Regulamentação da Musicoterapia; (e) Órgãos de representação de Classe em Musicoterapia. As respostas são discutidas sob a ótica dos conceitos de polí­ticas que fundamentam o trabalho e, ao longo das análises, foi observado pouco conhecimento sobre os temas citados e pouco diálogo entre a classe. Isso demonstrou que a Musicoterapia ainda tem um longo caminho polí­tico no que diz respeito a temas sobre a profissão, necessitando de mais estudos nessa área

Application of the second law of thermodynamics in brazilian residential appliances towards a rational use of energy

This article proposes the utilization of the concepts of destroyed exergy and exergy efficiency for equipment and process performance indicators that are related to the current energy planning scenario in Brazil, more specifically with energy-efficiency labelling. Several indicators associated with these concepts are discussed, including one national program that is based on labeling the energy efficiency of several residential, commercial and industrial appliances. The grades are indicated in the equipment using values from A to G. This labeling system is useful for discriminating similar technologies used for the same function; nevertheless produced by different enterprises. For this complementary analysis, two types of refrigeration methods were compared, absorption and vapor compression; however, these energy indexes alone are not sufficient parameters to select among these two technologies, because their performance indexes definition are different. To address this, our research considers the second law of thermodynamics through exergy analysis as a proper sub-index to obtain a systematic comparison between these various indicators. It is significant to highlight that seldom research studies addressed to this problem so explicitly, in an actual governmental working solution, aiming at discussing to the society the advantage of the usage of the “quality of the energy” as a complementary index to governmental and personal choices. Results indicate that it is possible to use the destroyed exergy and exergy efficiency to help select the technology that better utilizes natural resources, considering the energy matrix of the country. Appliances for water heating and air conditioning were compared from energy and exergy viewpoint, where the last gave additional information about the quality of energy conversion process, giving a completely different trend from the energy analysis alone, without the necessity to think about the energy matrix. Later this issue is addressed from both points of view. Future studies may suggest an exergy based index. The energy efficiency suggests that electrical shower (values higher than 95%) are better than gas water heaters (83% ) in using natural resources, whereas the exergy efficiency shares similar magnitudes (about 3%). A related pattern is shown for the theoretical air conditioning systems. The vapor compression systems have an energy index higher than 3, and absorption systems lower than 1. For these circumstances, the exergy efficiency shows figures nearby 30%226616CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP400401/2016-92015/22883-