This work is an examination of the a 17th century theologian and pastor Anthony Burgess (d. 1664), and specifically his contribution to the doctrine of the assurance of faith codified for many in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Burgess’ contribution to an understanding of assurance is found in his two-volume treatise on assurance, Spiritual Refining, and is especially relevant given his status as a delegate to the Westminster Assembly. Burgess’ writings are informed by three aspects of his personal background. The first of these is his status as part of the English Puritan movement in the 17th century; the second is his status as a pastor; the third is his scholastic training, which informed his method of argumentation on the assurance of faith. After examining these three key elements, this study then looks briefly at the contemporary debate on the Reformed doctrine of assurance. This study then examines the nature of the Westminster Confession itself. It analyses how the Assembly was designed, and how it operated with respect to its consensus on assurance. After establishing this, it assesses the way in which Burgess expanded on the Westminster consensus, doing so in ways which were fundamentally different from others of his day, particularly John Owen and Thomas Goodwin. This work affirms the basic finding of Muller regarding the influence of scholasticism on 17th century English Puritanism. It also affirms Beeke and others who have drawn attention to the pastoral necessities which drove 17th century English Puritan theology. Finally, it highlights the high degree of diversity that existed among those who held to the Westminster Confession of Faith on the matter of assurance, postulating that this diversity was to be expected given the way in which the Assembly at Westminster formulated its conclusions.

M.B.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Includes bibliographical references (pages 154-163). / This thesis cont a ins a descriptive research concerning the Building Industry in South Africa and Quality Assurance. The study identifies the Building Industry and investigates the process of quality management. The thesis does not attempt to solve any problems in the industry but shows the need for the application of quality assurance to the industry. Through experience the author has identified this need, which is not confined to the Building Industry alone. The urgency of this need is what has prompted research in this area.

Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 20 novembre 2023) / Les compagnies d'assurance générale doivent estimer les paiements futurs afin d'assurer leur stabilité financière, en se basant sur les informations disponibles à une date d'évaluation spécifique. Face à l'évolution constante du domaine de l'assurance, les actuaires cherchent continuellement à améliorer leurs modèles traditionnels tels que l'algorithme Chain-Ladder et les modèles linéaires généralisés. Dans ce mémoire, on propose un modèle multi-catégoriel pour prédire le paiement ultime d'une réclamation en se basant sur les informations disponibles jusqu'à une période de développement donnée, notamment les caractéristiques du réclamant et du véhicule et le cumulatif payé à cette période. Ce modèle tient compte de la masse en zéro, des réclamations qui ferment avant l'ultime sans autre paiement, et des paiements extrêmes. Tout d'abord, on utilise la théorie des valeurs extrêmes pour déterminer le seuil au-dessus duquel un paiement à l'ultime est considéré extrême. Ensuite, on implémente un modèle XGBoost multi-classes pour estimer les probabilités qu'un paiement à l'ultime soit nul, standard, extrême ou égal au cumulatif payé actuel. L'étape suivante consiste à estimer les paiements ultimes standards à l'aide du boosting double, une implémentation du gradient boosting qui permet d'estimer deux paramètres (localisation et échelle) d'une distribution en fonction des covariables. Enfin, on utilise une distribution de Pareto généralisée pour modéliser les paiements ultimes extrêmes. La méthodologie proposée est illustrée sur un jeu de données en assurance automobile fourni par une grande compagnie d'assurance générale canadienne. On applique notre modèle sur des données tests et on remarque qu'il est performant pour projeter à l'ultime des réclamations qui sont déjà entre leur 18e et leur 24e mois de développement. Aussi, notre modèle sous-estime quand les réclamations sont peu développées et sur-estime quand la période développement est élevée. Les distributions prédictives des paiements ultimes pour quelques réclamations obtenues par simulation mettent en évidence le caractère flexible de notre modèle. / General insurance companies must estimate future payments to ensure their financial stability, based on the information available at a specific evaluation date. Faced with the constantly evolving insurance landscape, actuaries are continually seeking to improve their traditional models such as the Chain-Ladder algorithm and generalized linear models. In this thesis, a multi-category model is proposed to predict the ultimate payment of a claim based on the information available up to a given development period, including characteristics of the claimant and the vehicle, and the cumulative amount paid up to that period. This model takes into account the mass at zero, claims that close before the ultimate without further payment, and extreme payments. Firstly, extreme value theory is used to determine the threshold above which an ultimate payment is considered extreme. Next, a multi-class XGBoost model is implemented to estimate the probabilities of an ultimate payment being zero, standard, extreme, or equal to the current cumulative amount paid. The next step is to estimate the standard ultimate payments using double boosting, an implementation of gradient boosting that estimates two parameters (location and scale) of a distribution based on covariates. Finally, a generalized Pareto distribution is used to model extreme ultimate payments. The proposed methodology is illustrated on an automobile insurance dataset provided by a large Canadian general insurance company. Our model is applied to test data, and we observe that it performs well in projecting ultimate payments for claims that are already between their 18th and 24th month of development. Additionally, our model underestimates when claims are less developed and overestimates when the development period is high. The predictive distributions of ultimate payments for some claims obtained through simulation highlight the flexible nature of our model.

No description available.

The rapidly increasing complexity of safety-critical embedded systems has been the cause of difficulty in assuring the safety of safety-critical embedded systems and managing their documentation. More specifically, current approaches to safety assurance are struggling to keep up with the complex relationships be- tween the ever growing number of components and the sheer amount of code underlying safety-critical embedded systems such as road vehicles. We believe that an approach to safety assurance able to cope with this complexity must: i) have sound mathematical foundations on which safety assurance can be built; and ii) provide a formal framework with precisely defined semantics in which the assurance can be represented. In doing this, assurance can be made less ad-hoc, more precise and more repeatable. Sound mathematical foundations also facilitate the creation of tools that automate many aspects of assurance, which will be invaluable in coping with the complexity of modern-day and future embedded systems. The model-based framework that achieves this is + Workflow . This framework is rigorous, developed on proven notations from model-based methodologies, comprehensively integrates assurance within the development activities, and provides the basis for more formal assurance cases. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

L'assurance médicaments au Canada est formée d'une mosaïque de régimes publics et privés. Ce système fait l'objet de critiques depuis plusieurs décennies. En juin 2019, le Conseil consultatif sur la mise en œuvre d'un régime national d'assurance médicaments a recommandé la création d'un régime national public et universel à payeur unique pour la couverture des médicaments d'ordonnance au Canada. Parmi les problématiques invoquées : le coût des agents biologiques est disproportionnellement élevé par rapport au nombre de réclamations correspondantes. En psoriasis, les critères de remboursement basés sur des scores de sévérité et l'échec aux traitements antérieurs sont exigeants. Plusieurs études en maladies auto-immunes ont observé une association entre le régime d'assurance des patients et l'accès aux agents biologiques, plus souvent au détriment des individus assurés au public. Nous avons évalué l'accès aux agents biologiques en psoriasis entre les groupes d'assurance médicaments (public versus privé) en comparant : 1) les scores de sévérité au moment de la prescription; 2) les scores de sévérité au renouvellement; 3) la réponse au traitement; 4) le délai entre la prescription et la première dose du médicament. Cette étude de cohortes rétrospective incluait des patients avec psoriasis traités à l'aide d'un agent biologique prescrit par un dermatologue entre 01/09/2015-31/08/2019. Les données ont été collectées à partir des dossiers médicaux et les analyses réalisées avec SAS® Studio 3.8. Les patients assurés au public (n=78) versus privé (n=93) n'étaient pas différents selon les critères étudiés. Leurs caractéristiques différaient toutefois, notamment : l'âge plus élevé (p<.0001) et la plus forte prévalence d'ordonnance pour compassion (p<.0001) au public. L'étude ne révèle pas d'inégalité dans l'accès aux médicaments entre les groupes. La forte prévalence de compassion au public (42% versus 14%) et de psoriasis sur des sites particuliers (85%) pourrait occulter la présence de différence mesurée sur le PASI. / The Canadian drug insurance consists of a patchwork of public and private plans. This system has been the subject of criticism for decades. In June 2019, the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare recommended the implementation of a national public and universal single-payer plan for prescription drug coverage in Canada. The cost of prescribed biologic agents is disproportionately high compared to the number of corresponding claims. The reimbursement criteria for biological agents in psoriasis are demanding: they are based on validated severity scores and failure to previous therapies. Several studies in autoimmune diseases observed an association between patients' insurance and access to biologic agents, to the detriment of individuals publicly insured. We aimed to compare: 1) psoriasis severity scores at time of biologic prescription in public versus private groups; 2) severity scores at follow-up; 3) treatment response; 4) delay between prescription and first dose of biotherapy. This retrospective cohort study included psoriasis patients with dermatologist-prescribed biologics from 09/01/2015-08/31/2019 in Quebec City, Canada. Data were collected from medical records. Statistical analyses included univariate and multivariate analyses which were conducted using SAS® Studio 3.8. Public (n=78) and private (n=93) patients were not different in outcomes. Patients' characteristics differed between groups. Public patients were older (p<.0001), more socioeconomically deprived (p=.03), and more likely to benefit from compassion prescription (p<.0001) compared to privately insured. Prescribers of biologics can be reassured as our results did not reveal inequality in access or care. The high prevalence of compassionate programs (42% versus 14%) and psoriasis in the face/genitalia/palmoplantar areas (85.4%) observed in the public insurance group may mask differences in PASI response between groups.

Thèse de doctorat : Sciences économiques : Université Paris-Dauphine : 2008. / bibliogr. 185 ref.

Thèse de doctorat : Droit privé : Tours : 2008. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bethel Theological Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-249).