A comparison of different methods for decomposition of changes in expectation of life at birth and differentials in life expectancy at birth

Several methods were proposed to decompose the difference between two life expectancies at birth into the contribution by different age groups. In this study an attempt has been made to compare different methods with that of Chandra Sekar (1949) method. The methodologies suggested by Arriaga, Lopez and Ruzicka and Pollard have been extended. It is shown that all the three methods and also Chandra Sekar method in their modified (symmetrical) form will be seen to produce the same result as that of United Nations, Pollard, Andreev and Pressat. Finally it is suggested to use symmetric formulae of the above methods because the percent contribution of total of the interaction terms to the difference in the life expectancy at birth is observed to be very negligible.decomposition, direct effect, indirect effect, interaction effect, life expectancy, life expectancy at birth, main effect, symmetrical, total effect

Analysis of the Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Recycled ABS

With the increasing 3D printing user domain, the demand for the 3D printable materials has escalated. Since the development of this technology, several materials have been used to experiment with the printing process. The feasible materials for printing, range from various polymers to organic tissues. According to a study conducted by Forbes in 2018, plastics are the highest consumed 3D printing materials, accounting for about 88% of all the materials used at a global level. This is because plastics are economically cheap and are readily available. The processability of plastics is relatively higher than other 3D printing materials. The thermoplastic nature of ABS makes it suitable for 3D printing. Because of its composition, ABS has distinguished mechanical properties like good toughness, impact resistance, rigidity, and strength. This makes ABS find its applications ranging from common household items to automotive parts and intricate medical devices. This increase in demand and usage of the material resulted in the question of its recycling and disposal. Any improper disposal of ABS can be a very serious threat to the environment. Thus, this creates an increased scope for research on the recycling trends of ABS. In this thesis, a system was designed to recycle ABS into a filament, so that it can be used as a 3D printing feedstock. In addition to that, a study on the recyclability of ABS to be reused as a feedstock for 3D printing has been conducted. To achieve this, commercially available virgin ABS polymer is reprocessed multiple times, until the material is degraded and can be no longer used as a feedstock for 3D printing. The behavior of mechanical properties and the printability of recycled ABS polymer were investigated at each reprocessing cycle. This recyclate is then blended with virgin ABS at various percentages and the mechanical properties were investigated. The virgin ABS-recyclate blends were then processed a multiple number of times. The printability and tensile properties were studied at every recycling cycle. Based on the testing of recycled specimens, we observed aging effects that resulted in more brittle filaments. While some losses could be mitigated with the re-introduction of virgin materials in a blended material, aging effects continued to degrade the printed material

Indirect Estimation of Selected Measures of Fertility and Marital Fertility from Information on CWR (0-9): An Application to India /States /Districts

Fertility is one of the important components of population change, the other two being mortality and migration. When vital statistical data on number of births is readily available it is estimated directly using various direct measures of fertility such as the crude birth rate (CBR). When the information on number of births is not directly available, fertility is measured using the census information on child woman ratios (CWR) of various types. CWR has several limitations, but gained importance with the attempts made by Rele in 1963, and followed by several other researchers such as Hauer and his co-authors in 2013 deriving TFR from it. In the present study yet another attempt is made to use CWRs to derive not only TFR but also other summary indicators such as the TMFR. A set of simple mathematical formula have been used to estimate the fertility and marital fertility using the CWR of the ages 0-9. The 2011 census age-sex data of districts in India was used to derive a set of fertility estimates for total, rural and urban areas of all districts. Further, these estimates of 2011 have been compared with the estimates of 2011 earlier made by Guilmoto and Rajan to analyse the robustness of the estimates.Keywords: Fertility, Child Women Ratio, Indirect Estimation, Age-sex data, TFR, TMFR, India

Implicit Formulations of Bounded-Impulse Trajectory Models for Preliminary Interplanetary Low-Thrust Analysis

The bounded-impulse approach to low-thrust interplanetary trajectory optimization is widely used. In an effort to efficiently implement this approach using NASAs OpenMDAO optimization software, the authors have implemented implicit formulations of the forward shooting/backwards-shooting methods commonly used in bounded-impulse models. These implicit approaches allow for vectorization of the underlying calculations which can significantly reduce runtime in interpreted languages. An implicit approach may be either converged by using an underlying nonlinear solver to converge the state propagation, or as a constraint in an optimizer-driven multiple-shooting approach. Significant computational efficiency gains are realized through the utilization of the modular approach to unified derivatives. Further computational efficiency is achieved by capitalizing on the sparsity of the constraint Jacobian matrix. This work demonstrates that a vectorized multiple-shooting approach for propagating a state-time history is superior in terms of computational efficiency as the number of segments in the state-propagation is increased

Regression Estimation of Bongaart Indices from the Childbearing Indices: A Study of India/States/Districts

In a series of research articles El-khorazaty, Horne and Suchindran have showed how one can derive for any given population indirectly various childbearing and Bongaart fertility-inhibiting indices using only given information on the ASFRs, and the mathematical and regression models suggested by them. Very recently Bongaart revised his old model and suggested a set of new revised formulae to estimate various fertility-inhibiting indices. Following El-Khorazaty and Horne it is aimed to show in the present paper how one can derive various Bongaart revised fertility-inhibiting indices from the given information on various childbearing indices which were further seen derived from the only given information on TFR and a set of regression models that were earlier suggested by the first author and it is shown that the present study succeed in giving meaningful estimates for India its States, UTs, and Districts. Various regression models referring to estimation of childbearing indices used in this study were developed earlier by Ponnapalli using the state level time series of ASFRs overtime of the SRS of India and Horne et al., mathematical model. The regression models used in indirect estimation of the fertility-inhibiting indices from the TFR and also from the childbearing indices were developed by Ponnapalli using the Bongart indices of the DHS surveys earlier given by Bongaart in his revised recent study.Keywords: Fertility; Childbearing indices; Indirect Estimation; Bongaart Indices; ASFRs; TFR; TF; Indi

Regression Estimation of Childbearing Indices from TFR: A Study of India, States, and Its Districts

In the absense of direct estimates of fertility indicators such as total fertility rate (TFR) and childbearing indices, it is customory in the field of demography/Population studies to derive the same using some suitable indirect procedure. In this paper an attempt has been made at first to introduce a new regression methodology for estimating indirectly the maternal childbearing indices from the only given information on TFR. Secondly, using the regression models provided here and using an indirect estimate of TFR of districts in India a set of childbearing indices for disricts in India are derived and they are further used in understanding the fertility transition in India by districts during the time period of 1997 to 2011. Finally, it is shown successfully in this paper by an analysis of the findings that the regression models as well as the estimates of childbearing indices of the district in India are found to be very useful in understanding the fertility transition in India during the study period of 1997 to 2011

Towards Software-Defined Data Protection: GDPR Compliance at the Storage Layer is Within Reach

Enforcing data protection and privacy rules within large data processing applications is becoming increasingly important, especially in the light of GDPR and similar regulatory frameworks. Most modern data processing happens on top of a distributed storage layer, and securing this layer against accidental or malicious misuse is crucial to ensuring global privacy guarantees. However, the performance overhead and the additional complexity for this is often assumed to be significant -- in this work we describe a path forward that tackles both challenges. We propose "Software-Defined Data Protection" (SDP), an adoption of the "Software-Defined Storage" approach to non-performance aspects: a trusted controller translates company and application-specific policies to a set of rules deployed on the storage nodes. These, in turn, apply the rules at line-rate but do not take any decisions on their own. Such an approach decouples often changing policies from request-level enforcement and allows storage nodes to implement the latter more efficiently. Even though in-storage processing brings challenges, mainly because it can jeopardize line-rate processing, we argue that today's Smart Storage solutions can already implement the required functionality, thanks to the separation of concerns introduced by SDP. We highlight the challenges that remain, especially that of trusting the storage nodes. These need to be tackled before we can reach widespread adoption in cloud environments

The unitary group approach to nuclear magnetic resonance of higher spin nuclei.

Dept. of Physics. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1984 .P655. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1984

Software-Defined Data Protection: Low Overhead Policy Compliance at the Storage Layer is Within Reach!

Most modern data processing pipelines run on top of a distributed storage layer, and securing the whole system, and the storage layer in particular, against accidental or malicious misuse is crucial to ensuring compliance to rules and regulations. Enforcing data protection and privacy rules, however, stands at odds with the requirement to achieve higher and higher access bandwidths and processing rates in large data processing pipelines. In this work we describe our proposal for the path forward that reconciles the two goals. We call our approach "Software-Defined Data Protection" (SDP). Its premise is simple, yet powerful: decoupling often changing policies from request-level enforcement allows distributed smart storage nodes to implement the latter at line-rate. Existing and future data protection frameworks can be translated to the same hardware interface which allows storage nodes to offload enforcement efficiently both for company-specific rules and regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA. While SDP is a promising approach, there are several remaining challenges to making this vision reality. As we explain in the paper, overcoming these will require collaboration across several domains, including security, databases and specialized hardware design