How the Internet of Things (IoT) is Adding Proactivity to Insurance

20 pagesIn recent years, the insurance industry has seen a major shift in how data is used, specifically in the realm of risk prevention. Advancements in technology within the Internet of Things (IoT) have enabled more comprehensive data analysis, changing the way the industry views risk. This has led to an increased emphasis on solutions that are proactive, preventing risk as opposed to merely mitigating losses. Despite the industry being historically slow-moving and focused on response to risk, new offerings are now promoting prediction and prevention of risk. This report will explore the implementation of the Internet of Things into the insurance industry. First, the concepts of IoT and proactivity will be described. The state of the insurance industry will then be examined, followed by the culture of innovation within insurance companies and how it holds a significant role in driving the industry forward. A select overview of insurtech solutions that contribute to the theme of proactivity within IoT will be detailed. To follow, looming adoption issues will be addressed. Finally, the report will outline up-and-coming strategies in the industry, including the rising trends of integration and gamification

Sinomenine Suppresses Development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via Inhibiting MARCH1 and AMPK/STAT3 Signaling Pathway

Promotion of apoptosis and suppression of proliferation in tumor cells are popular strategies for developing anticancer drugs. Sinomenine (SIN), a plant-derived alkaloid, displays antitumor activity. However, the mechanism of action of SIN against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. Herein, several molecular technologies, such as Western Blotting, qRT-PCR, flow cytometry, and gene knockdown were applied to explore the role and mechanism of action of SIN in the treatment of HCC. It was found that SIN arrests HCC cell cycle at G0/G1 phase, induces apoptosis, and suppresses proliferation of HCC cells via down-regulating the expression of membrane-associated RING-CH finger protein 1 (MARCH1). Moreover, SIN induces cell death and growth inhibition through AMPK/STAT3 signaling pathway. MARCH1 expression was silenced by siRNA to explore its involvement in the regulation of AMPK/STAT3 signaling pathway. Silencing MARCH1 caused down-regulation of phosphorylation of AMPK, STAT3 and decreased cell viability and function. Our results suggested that SIN inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of HCC cells by MARCH1-mediated AMPK/STAT3 signaling pathway. This study provides new support for SIN as a clinical anticancer drug and illustrates that targeting MARCH1 could be a novel treatment strategy in developing anticancer therapeutics

Fast Trajectory Optimization for the Time Delay Effect on Supercavitating Flight

Utilizing supercavitation to achieve drag reduction, a supercavitating vehicle (SV) could travel 3~5 times faster than conventional underwater vehicles. Aiming at pursuing high stability and better performance for the SV, research on trajectory optimization for the SV in vertical plane was carried out. The principle of independence of cavity section expansion was applied for modelling of the time delay supercavity. Dynamic equations incorporated with complex force models of SVs were analyzed in detail, on the basis of which a mathematical model of the optimal diving trajectory was established. Subsequently, the Time Delay Gauss Pseudospectral Method (TDGPM) was developed to achieve fast optimization. The solving process was signifi cantly accelerated by converting the optimal control problem into nonlinear programming (NLP) problem. The time delay effect of supercavitating fl ight was taken into account by interpolation of variables on all discretized nodes. Numerical solutions for different optimal diving trajectories and corresponding manoeuvres were obtained based on the proposed method using 20 Gauss-Legendre discretization nodes. Results of rapid optimization of the supercavitating trajectories indicate the feasibility and fast convergence of TDGPM

Research of cooperative multi-stability composite energy collection with multi-frequency and broadband oscillation

Vibration energy, as a sustainable energy source, has been widely studied. However, due to the low-frequency and randomness of vibration energy, it is difficult to collect vibration energy. Therefore, how to efficiently collect vibration energy is a very challenging task. In order to expand the working bandwidth of vibration energy collection under low frequency vibration excitation, improve the energy collection efficiency with random vibration excitation, this paper studies a piezoelectric-magnetic liquid composite energy collector problem by constructing a multi-frequency cantilever structure. First, we give some theoretical analysis for the designed novel composite energy collection, and then, by several experiment results, the paper further shows the validity and advantage of the collection. Different from existing literature on the issue, combining the advantages of piezoelectric materials (piezoelectric film) and magnetic liquid, the method of the present paper not only greatly expands the working bandwidth of the vibration energy collection, but also significantly improves the energy collection efficiency. The experimental results show that the device possesses the capability of resonant energy collection in the low-frequency range (5Hz–25 Hz), and can also operate effectively across the entire frequency band. Within the frequency sweep range of 5Hz–25Hz, the highest open-circuit voltage of the energy collection device can reach 21.7V, the highest instantaneous power can reach 171.61 μW. Moreover, it can charge the capacitance energy of a 470 μF electrolytic capacitor to 92.39 μJ within 100 s. In some practical application scenarios, comparative experiments between the device and a existing cooperative multi-stable energy collector conducted show that the operating bandwidth increase by 296.43%, the power increase by 1,012%, and the electricity generation raised to 239%, which implies that the novel composite energy collection device significantly enhances the efficiency of low-bandwidth energy collection of vibration energy