A health insurance pricing model based on prevalence rates: Application to critical illness insurance

The Italian health insurance market is currently undersized. The paucity of assured data and the discontinuous statistical surveys carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) represent one of the main obstacles to the insurance market development. The paper sets forth a parametric model to estimate technical basis for health insurance policies when data are limited and only aggregated information on mortality and morbidity is available. The probabilistic framework is based on a multiple state continuous and time inhomogeneous Markov model. We provide an estimate of transition intensities from the healthy state to the sickness state when only prevalence rates of sickness are available, according to an extension and modification of the methodology proposed in Olivieri (1996) for Long Term Care insurance. We assume that mortality intensity of both healthy and sick lives is modelled by two independent Gompertz–Makeham models.     

Precise measurement and control of the pressure-driven flows for microfluidic systems

The pressure-driven device is designed and the flow rates of the microfluidic systems can be supplied by the pressure-driven flows, which can significantly reduce the flow-rate fluctuations coming from the pump source. For pressure-driven flows, the flow rates of the fluids can be predicted by measuring the pressure drop along a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tubing. Especially, by varying the geometrical parameters of the PTFE tubing, the predicted flow rates of the fluids are compared with the experimental measurements, and the testing precision of the pressure-driven flows can be obtained. Meanwhile, the dynamic characteristics of the open-loop and closed-loop control pressure-driven device are comparatively studied. Particularly, a proportional and integral (PI) controller is integrated with the closed-loop control pressure-driven device, and the effects of the parameters of the PI controller on the dynamic characteristics of the pressure-driven devices are mainly discussed. Most importantly, by improving the dynamic characteristics of the pressure-driven devices, precise measurement and control of the pressure-driven flows can be achieved for microfluidic systems.     

Projection Method for Moment Bounds on Order Statistics from Restricted Families: II. Independent Case

The method of projection, proposed in Part I, is applied to derive sharp moment bounds for the expectations of order statistics based onindependentsamples from restricted families of distributions. Three families are considered: life distributions with decreasing failure density, decreasing failure rate, and symmetric unimodal ones. The respective bounds are also numerically compared with those for general populations in both the dependent and independent cases.     

OPTIMAL DECAY RATE OF THE COMPRESSIBLE QUANTUM NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS

For quantum fluids governed by the compressible quantum Navier-Stokes equations in $\Bbb R^3$ with viscosity and heat conduction, we prove the optimal $L^p-L^q$ decay rates for the classical solutions near constant states. The proof is based on the detailed linearized decay estimates by Fourier analysis of the operators, which is drastically different from the case when quantum effects are absent.     

Stabilization of active fault‐tolerant control systems by uncertain nonhomogeneous markovian jump models

This article investigates the stabilization and control problems for a general active fault‐tolerant control system (AFTCS) in a stochastic framework. The novelty of the research lies in utilizing uncertain nonhomogeneous Markovian structures to take account for the imperfect fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) algorithms of the AFTCS. The underlying AFTCS is supposed to be modeled by two random processes of Markov type; one characterizing the system fault process and the other describing the FDD process. It is assumed that the FDD algorithm is imperfect and provides inaccurate Markovian parameters for the FDD process. Specifically, it provides uncertain transition rates (TRs); the TRs that lie in an interval without any particular structures. This framework is more consistent with real‐world applications to accommodate different types of faults. It is more general than the previously developed AFTCSs because of eliminating the need for an accurate estimation of the fault process. To solve the stabilizability and the controller design problems of this AFTCS, the whole system is viewed as an uncertain nonhomogeneous Markovian jump linear system (NHMJLS) with time‐varying and uncertain specifications. Based on the multiple and stochastic Lyapunov function for the NHMJLS, first a sufficient condition is obtained to analyze the system stabilizability and then, the controller gains are synthesized. Unlike the previous fault‐tolerant controllers, the proposed robust controller only needs to access the FDD process, besides it is easily obtainable through the existing optimization techniques. It is successfully tested on a practical inverted pendulum controlled by a fault‐prone DC motor. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 318–329, 2016     

基于光谱分析的CO_2激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊峰值状态激光能量传输研究

在激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊接过程中,焊丝端部金属熔化产生大量的金属蒸汽,导致等离子体中电子、粒子的扩散现象加剧,使得激光的传输模式和工件对激光能量的吸收率和吸收模式发生变化。基于光谱分析的方法得到了复合焊接峰值状态的电子密度和温度分布,通过高速摄影分析了不同焊接模式下等离子体形态的变化,结合Beer-Lambert吸收定律计算了不同焊接模式下激光的吸收率。结果表明,在复合焊过程中,由于焊丝端部金属被熔化,焊丝的金属蒸汽进入激光等离子体内部,导致激光匙孔上方电子密度进一步提高,等离子体吸收激光能量能力增强,使得激光的传输效率从纯激光焊的94.16%降低到了CO_2激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊的85.84%。     

A convenient guideline to determine if two Y‐STR profiles are from the same lineage

Y chromosome STR loci are used in forensics primarily for identification purposes by determining the male lineages. The Henan province in China has established a large Y‐STR (>200 000 profiles) database for criminal investigations. A large proportion of the Y‐STR profiles in the database were generated using either the Applied Biosystems Yfiler^? or Yfiler^? Plus PCR Amplification kits. The additional loci in the Yfiler Plus kit as compared to the Yfiler kit results in a concomitant cumulative mutation rate increase across the loci. Therefore, in those cases when two profiles have one to a few mismatched loci, it is difficult to determine if they are from the same lineage. In this study, 7405 unrelated male profiles were manually selected from the database. Analysis showed higher power of discrimination than the corresponding Yfiler haplotypes. Further, the distributions of the number of mismatched loci and the mismatched steps were generated for father‐son, grandfather‐grandson, uncle‐nephew, and cousins (i.e. one, two, three, and four meioses, respectively) by exhaustive pairwise comparison of the unrelated profiles using a dynamic programming approach. The same distributions were generated for unrelated pairs with mutation rates of the loci. With the distributions, the false negative and false positive rates were determined. Two Yfiler profiles with ≤2 mismatched loci or ≤2 steps are more likely from the same lineage than unrelated lineages, and two Yfiler Plus profiles with ≤4 mismatched loci or ≤5 mismatched steps are more likely from the same lineage.     

Rheological properties of wood polymer composites at high shear rates

This paper presents the rheological properties of wood-polymer composites (WPC) with a polypropylene (PP) matrix in the corrected shear rate range from approx. 20 s⁻¹ to 150 000 s⁻¹. Tests were conducted using a capillary rheometer and a rheological head of the author's construction, for which the working element is a thermoplastic injection moulding machine. The constructed tool was found to be very useful, especially for the determination of the processing characteristics of WPC composites containing a large particle-size filler. It was observed that the rheological properties of wood-polymer composites in the shear rate range of up to several thousand s⁻¹ significantly depended on the filler content of the polymer matrix; at the same time, at higher shear rate, a clear decrease in the effect of the wood filler content on the viscosity of the composites and on the flow behaviour, as described by the power law, took place.     

Size‐Dependent Surface Migration of Au Alloys on Si Nanowires at Different Cooling Rates

Understanding metal alloy migration in metal‐catalyzed nanowires growth is a prerequisite for improving its potential applications in the field of nanodevices. Here, we explored the surface migration of Au alloys in vertically aligned Si nanowires with different cooling rates. We varied the diameter of Au alloys by controlling the thickness of Au film as a catalyst for SiNW growth, and found that the behavior of Au alloys migration is dependent on size of Au alloys. In addition, the size‐dependent migration mechanism of Au alloys was investigated at different cooling rates, which is related to different Au‐Si eutectics.