Development and application of actuarial accounting formulae

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

Examining Recreation Potential of the Little Androscoggin River through the FERC Relicensing of the Lower Barker Dam in Auburn, Maine

Non

Encircling the land: photographic visualisations of the experience of a landscape

This project documents my process of visual and hermeneutic enquiry centred on the Tswaing meteorite impact crater, north of Pretoria. In my visual investigation I attempt to apprehend the landscape through a cyclical process which involves walking within it, photographing it in 360° ‘visualisations’, editing the imagery and returning, often frustrated, to repeat both encounter and process. The cycle of reflection leads me to consider my circular process itself as a dialogical mode of interpretation and response to the primeval, circular landscape of the impact crater. Informed by Gadamer’s (1975) notion of a hermeneutic circle which extends interpretation and understanding, the reflexive process is extended and enriched through dialogue with the work of pertinent scientists, artists, poets and writers. Landscape is considered as an artefact of deep time, challenging entrenched traditions and notions while considering significant contemporary responses. The dissertation attempts to demonstrate the layered accretion of concept and meaning contained within the visual and theoretical components of the investigatio

Iterative Processes Related to Riordan Arrays: The Reciprocation and the Inversion of Power Series

We point out how Banach Fixed Point Theorem, and the Picard successive approximation methods induced by it, allows us to treat some mathematical methods in Combinatorics. In particular we get, by this way, a proof and an iterative algorithm for the Lagrange Inversion Formula.Comment: 17 pages. We extend the results in the previuous version proving finally the Lagrange Inversion Formula via Banach Fixed Point Theore

Continuous k-to-1 functions between complete graphs of even order

A function between graphs is k-to-1 if each point in the co-domain has precisely k pre-images in the domain. Given two graphs, G and H, and an integer k ≥ 1, and considering G and H as subsets of R 3, there may or may not be a k-to-1 continuous function (i.e. a k-to-1 map in the usual topological sense) from G onto H. In this paper we review and complete the determination of whether there are finitely discontinuous, or just infinitely discontinuous k-to-1 functions between two intervals, each of which is one of the following: ]0, 1[, [0, 1[and [0, 1]. We also show that for k even and 1 ≤ r < 2s, (r, s) 6= (1, 1) and (r, s) 6= (3, 2), there is a k-to-1 map from K2r onto K2s if and only if k ≥ 2s.peer-reviewe

Scale Invariance and Nonlinear Patterns of Human Activity

We investigate if known extrinsic and intrinsic factors fully account for the complex features observed in recordings of human activity as measured from forearm motion in subjects undergoing their regular daily routine. We demonstrate that the apparently random forearm motion possesses previously unrecognized dynamic patterns characterized by fractal and nonlinear dynamics. These patterns are unaffected by changes in the average activity level, and persist when the same subjects undergo time-isolation laboratory experiments designed to account for the circadian phase and to control the known extrinsic factors. We attribute these patterns to a novel intrinsic multi-scale dynamic regulation of human activity.Comment: 4 pages, three figure

Finite Approximations to Quantum Physics: Quantum Points and their Bundles

There exists a physically well motivated method for approximating manifolds by certain topological spaces with a finite or a countable set of points. These spaces, which are partially ordered sets (posets) have the power to effectively reproduce important topological features of continuum physics like winding numbers and fractional statistics, and that too often with just a few points. In this work, we develop the essential tools for doing quantum physics on posets. The poset approach to covering space quantization, soliton physics, gauge theories and the Dirac equation are discussed with emphasis on physically important topological aspects. These ideas are illustrated by simple examples like the covering space quantization of a particle on a circle, and the sine-Gordon solitons.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures on a uuencoded postscript file, DSF-T-29/93, INFN-NA-IV-29/93 and SU-4240-55

A circular order on edge-coloured trees and RNA m-diagrams

We study a circular order on labelled, m-edge-coloured trees with k vertices, and show that the set of such trees with a fixed circular order is in bijection with the set of RNA m-diagrams of degree k, combinatorial objects which can be regarded as RNA secondary structures of a certain kind. We enumerate these sets and show that the set of trees with a fixed circular order can be characterized as an equivalence class for the transitive closure of an operation which, in the case m=3, arises as an induction in the context of interval exchange transformations.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. New title. Shortened version, presenting the results more efficientl

Opportunities for improving irrigation efficiency with quantitative models, soil water sensors and wireless technology

Increasingly serious shortages of water make it imperative to improve the efficiency of irrigation in agriculture, horticulture and in the maintenance of urban landscapes. The main aim of the current review is to identify ways of meeting this objective. After reviewing current irrigation practices, discussion is centred on the sensitivity of crops to water deficit, the finding that growth of many crops is unaffected by considerable lowering of soil water content and, on this basis, the creation of improved means of irrigation scheduling. Subsequently, attention is focused on irrigation problems associated with spatial variability in soil water and the often slow infiltration of water into soil, especially the subsoil. As monitoring of soil water is important for estimating irrigation requirements, the attributes of the two main types of soil water sensors and their most appropriate uses are described. Attention is also drawn to the contribution of wireless technology to the transmission of sensor outputs. Rapid progress is being made in transmitting sensor data, obtained from different depths down the soil profile across irrigated areas, to a PC that processes the data and on this basis automatically commands irrigation equipment to deliver amounts of water, according to need, across the field. To help interpret sensor outputs, and for many other reasons, principles of water processes in the soil–plant system are incorporated into simulation models that are calibrated and tested in field experiments. Finally, it is emphasized that the relative importance of the factors discussed in this review to any particular situation varies enormously

Gaps in detailed knowledge of human papillomavirus (HPV) and the HPV vaccine among medical students in Scotland

&lt;p&gt;Background: A vaccination programme targeted against human papillomavirus (HPV) types16 and 18 was introduced in the UK in 2008, with the aim of decreasing incidence of cervical disease. Vaccine roll out to 12–13 year old girls with a catch-up programme for girls aged up to 17 years and 364 days was accompanied by a very comprehensive public health information (PHI) campaign which described the role of HPV in the development of cervical cancer.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods: A brief questionnaire, designed to assess acquisition of knowledge of HPV infection and its association to cervical cancer, was administered to two different cohorts of male and female 1st year medical students (school leavers: 83% in age range 17–20) at a UK university. The study was timed so that the first survey in 2008 immediately followed a summer's intensive PHI campaign and very shortly after vaccine roll-out (150 students). The second survey was exactly one year later over which time there was a sustained PHI campaign (213 students).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results: We addressed three research questions: knowledge about three specific details of HPV infection that could be acquired from PHI, whether length of the PHI campaign and/or vaccination of females had any bearing on HPV knowledge, and knowledge differences between men and women regarding HPV. No female student in the 2008 cohort had completed the three-dose vaccine schedule compared to 58.4% of female students in 2009. Overall, participants’ knowledge regarding the sexually transmitted nature of HPV and its association with cervical cancer was high in both year groups. However, in both years, less than 50% of students correctly identified that HPV causes over 90% of cases of cervical cancer. Males gave fewer correct answers for these two details in 2009. In 2008 only around 50% of students recognised that the current vaccine protects against a limited subset of cervical cancer-causing HPV sub-types, although there was a significant increase in correct response among female students in the 2009 cohort compared to the 2008 cohort.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;onclusions: This study highlights a lack of understanding regarding the extent of protection against cervical cancer conferred by the HPV vaccine, even among an educated population in the UK who could have a vested interest in acquiring such knowledge. The intensive PHI campaign accompanying the first year of HPV vaccination seemed to have little effect on knowledge over time. This is one of the first studies to assess detailed knowledge of HPV in both males and females. There is scope for continued improvements to PHI regarding the link between HPV infection and cervical cancer.&lt;/p&gt