本篇論文主要討論在死亡率改善不確定性之下的避險策略。當保險公司負債面的人壽保單是比年金商品來得多的時候，公司會處於死亡率的風險之下。我們假設死亡率和利率都是隨機的情況，部分的死亡率風險可以經由自然避險而消除，而剩下的死亡率風險和利率風險則由零息債券和保單貼現商品來達到最適避險效果。我們考慮mean variance、VaR和CTE當成目標函數時的避險策略，其中在mean variance的最適避險策略可以導出公式解。由數值結果我們可以得知保單貼現的確是死亡率風險的有效避險工具。 / This paper proposes hedging strategies to deal with the uncertainty of mortality improvement. When insurance company has more life insurance contracts than annuities in the liability, it will be under the exposure of mortality risk. We assume both mortality and interest rate risk are stochastic. Part of mortality risk is eliminated by natural hedging and the remaining mortality risk and interest rate risk will be optimally hedged by zero coupon bond and life settlement contract. We consider the hedging strategies with objective functions of mean variance, value at risk and conditional tail expectation. The closed-form optimal hedging formula for mean variance assumption is derived, and the numerical result show the life settlement is indeed a effective hedging instrument against mortality risk.

台灣觀光外匯的成長力度高，外國旅客來台灣包車旅遊的需求漸增，因應而生的包車平台興起，本研究期望針對既有個案探討包車平台如何去設定付費方與被捕貼方，並且提供其他同質性平台商業模式設計更多元的思考方式。 透過黃勇及周學春提出之平台商業模式研究之框架及陳威如及余卓軒提出的平台補貼策略之考慮因素，以質性研究方式，選取UTAXI、台灣小旅行、DingTAXI叮叮包車三個包車平台個案進行訪談與分析。 UTAXI媒合“旅客-司機”，致力“您的專屬司機”，選擇司機作為付費方，自由行旅客為被補貼方，定價較市場平均價格高；台灣小旅行媒合“旅客-司機”，致力“體驗台灣在地感動，訴說土地故事”，選擇自由行旅客作為付費方，計程車學院協會司機為被補貼方，定價為市場平均價格；DingTAXI叮叮包車媒合“旅客-車隊“，致力”解決自由行旅客交通困擾“，選擇自由行旅客作為付費方，合作車行、車隊為被補貼方。 本研究得知個案其各自商業模式之創建、如何選擇付費方與被補貼方以及包車平台之定價策略，也可從個案中得知，思考角度與立場不同，運用補貼模式的準則得出之結果也截然不同，提供未來同質性平台於發展時多元的思考方式及依據。 / From 2007 to 2015, visitors to Taiwan increased from 3.71 million to more than 10 million. As a result, foreign exchange earnings from tourism surged by 2.6 times, from NT$17.12 billion (US$521.95 million) to an estimated NT$44.50 billion (US$1.36 billion). These results and reviews demonstrate that Taiwan is becoming a major destination for travelers worldwide. Car carter service become a popular way for visitors to explore Taiwan on their own, therefore more and more online car carter service platforms are being set up. Platform pricing model is not set up by user charge alone, how users interact on the platform is also considered. Platform controller attract users who can cause positive cross-side network effect by offering them better price so that they can attract users who are willing to pay the fee. This research depends on two-side market theory to explain how online car carter platforms attract users to enter their platforms, design interaction mechanism and set rules to allow users to use platforms easily. Depending on different point of views, every online car carter service platform has its own design. Therefore, this research also depends on the business model and the eco-system on platform theory to analyze car carter service platform. After understanding how platforms design interaction mechanism, platform pricing model is then discussed. Every platform has its own pricing model, because of different design. This research analyzes platform pricing model by subsidy rules from previous studies. By analyzing three online car carter service platform cases, this research concludes that platforms have different interacting mechanisms because of website design purpose and user dating purpose. This research demonstrates which subsidy rules are used on online dating platform and how these platform create their own eco-system to maintain the platform.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mortality information is very important for national planning and health of a country. Mortality rate forecasting is a basic contribution for the projection of financial improvement of pension plans, well-being and social strategy planning. In the first part of the thesis, we fit the selected mortality rate models, namely the Power-exponential function based model, the ModifiedPerks model and the Heligman and Pollard (HP4) model to the data obtained from the HumanMortality Database [22] for the male population ages 1–70 of the USA, Japan and Australia. We observe that the Heligman and Pollard (HP4) model performs well and better fit the data as compared to the Power-exponential function based model and the Modified Perks model. The second part is to systematically compare the quality of the mortality rate forecasting using the second order Lee–Carter method with the selected mortality rate models. The results indicate that Power-exponential function based model and the Heligman and Pollard (HP4) model gives a more reliable forecast depending on individual countries.

Despite his own conservative values, D.H. Lawrence writes sexually liberated female characters. The most subversive female characters in Lawrence’s oeuvre are the Brangwens of The Rainbow. The Brangwens are prototypical models of a form of femininity that connects women to Nature while distancing them from society; his women are cast as monsters, but are strengthened from their link with Nature. They represent what I am calling the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman has proven influential for contemporary British authors. I examine the Lawrentian-Woman’s adoption by later writers and her evolution from modernist frame to postmodern appropriation. First, I look at the Brangwens. They establish the tropes of the Lawrentian-Woman and provide the base from which to compare the model’s subsequent mutations. Next, I examine modern British writers and their appropriation of the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman’s attributes remain intact, but are deconstructed in ways that explore women’s continued liminality in patriarchal society.

Le rendement des turboréacteurs peut être amélioré en minimisant le jeu aube-carter, réduisant ainsi les pertes aérodynamiques. Ces jeux réduits occasionnent des risques de contact entre les aubes en rotation à grande vitesse et le carter moteur. Des matériaux sacrificiels, appelés matériaux abradables, sont alors déposés sur le carter pour limiter les endommagements induits par ces contact. Ces interactions font intervenir un grand nombre de mécanismes d’endommagement bénéfiques ou néfastes au bon fonctionnement du joint abradable et à la fiabilité du moteur. L’objectif de cette thèse est alors de comprendre, prédire et quantifier les différents endommagements et les efforts d’interaction associés pour des matériaux abradables obtenus à l’aide de paramètres procédés différents. Un dynamomètre triaxial a été développé afin de reproduire l’interaction locale entre l’extrémité de l’aube et le matériau abradable à très grande vitesse (50 – 300 m/s) lors de phases transitoires. La mesure d’efforts d’interaction lors de contacts de très courte durée (300 µs – 1 ms) nécessite une bande passante importante. Une méthode de correction basée sur l’analyse modale expérimentale a été mise en œuvre afin d’étendre la bande passante naturelle du dynamomètre et d’atténuer les couplages entre les différentes voies de mesure. Les mécanismes d’endommagements des abradables ont été étudiés à partir d’analyses post-mortem et corrélés aux efforts et vitesse d’interactions / The turbofan efficiency can be improved by minimizing the blade-casing gap, thus reducing the aerodynamic loss. The reduced gap conduces to contact risk between the high-speed rotating blades and the engine case. Sacrificial materials, called abradable materials, are deposited on the casing to limit the damage caused by these contacts. These interactions involve a lot of damage mechanisms, which can be adverse or beneficial to the proper performance of the abradable seal and to the reliability of the engine. The aim of this thesis is to understand, predict and quantify the different damages and the interaction forces associated for abradable materials obtained with different process parameters. A triaxial dynamometer was developed to reproduce the local high-speed interactions (50 – 300 m/s) between the blade tip and the abradable material during transitional phases. The interaction forces measurement during short-lived contacts (300 µs – 1 ms) requires a large bandwidth. A correction method based on experimental modal analysis was implemented to extend the natural bandwidth of the device and attenuate the crosstalk between the different measurement channels. The damage mechanisms of abradable materials were studied by post-mortem analysis and correlated to the interaction forces and velocity

This paper seeks to determine under what conditions a U.S. president can implement a grand strategy given the nature of domestic and international opportunities and constraints. It will examine three comparative case studies: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, with the goal of determining what conditions are necessary at the individual, domestic, and systemic levels of analysis for grand strategy implementation. At the individual level, it will apply operational code analysis, as well as an examination of personal characteristics for each case study. At the domestic level, it will apply a five-prong test for examining factors that are key to grand strategy implementation: (1) unity of foreign policy team; (2) strength of presidency; (3) party alignment between Congress and the president; (4) public opinion; and (5) strength of domestic economy. At the systemic level, it will examine significant events faced by each president that tested whether his grand strategy could respond effectively to international imperatives. Ultimately, it will assess the success of each president's attempt at grand strategy implementation based on: (1) how closely U.S. policies aligned with his grand strategy; and (2) whether policies put in place that aligned with his grand strategy improved the global standing of the U.S. Through this analysis, it will assess the larger implications of having a grand strategy on U.S. foreign policy.

The word revise means to reconsider or modify as with text. If we think of the suburban landscape as a text, the culture of each era left documentation of their values, policies and way of life in the form of transportation networks and other infrastructure, such as Main Streets, squares and public buildings. While evidence of most of the everyday life of individuals of every era gets erased by the following era, infrastructure investments of each era are adaptively reused and remain to tell the story. This thesis documents the adaptive reuse of these suburban frameworks and develops a proposition for the appropriate next layer to accommodate a new culture of inhabitants. Focusing on second generation suburbs, using Gwinnett County as a case study, this analysis identifies three problems of the current suburban situation: the problem of abandoned strips, a demographic shift, and the need for place. As new strip highways develop, old strips decline leaving abandoned shopping centers and declining property values. New development continues to move north and out of the county, and middle class residents, for which existing auto-oriented suburbs were created, move as well. A new, poorer, and more ethnically diverse population inherits the auto-oriented landscape left behind. This phenomenon is particularly concentrated along the southern portion of the Buford Highway corridor. Those with more money move closer to new development, while those with less money have less choice and are found near declining strips with fewer services, poorer quality housing and lower quality of life. Finally, county officials have expressed a desire for defining "the epicenter of Gwinnett." I believe that there is no one "center" of Gwinnett, but a series of places defined by memory, design or events. I propose to improve the situation of these three problems with a light rail line that connects existing places and creates new walkable, livable places to improve quality of life. This connective piece will serve as a social condenser in lieu of a center, provide links between polar populations, and reactivate declining strips while creating a sustainable infrastructural spine for future growth in the region.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2009-07-09. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed March 5, 2010). Advisor: Jon Wakelyn. Keywords: education; Civil War; leadership; antebellum. Includes bibliographical references (p. 262-276).

This study highlights the stereotypical depictions of journalists in film using a narrative analysis of four major Hollywood productions, starting with All the President’s Men from 1976 through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from 2011. Its purpose is to highlight traits given to journalists in the movies and re-occuring themes in the portrayal of the media and the journalistic occupation. Differences and commonalities between the films are concluded in a discussion of ethics, personalities and the media’s self image. The paper can be seen as a contribution to the paradigm in which journalism in the movies is perceived at the moment. It offers a wide explanation to how the image of the journalist is conveyed to the public, an image that differs from how real life journalists go about in daily work life. This is essential, since most people never get to experience journalistic work in reality – but solely from popular culture – which distorts the perception of the media as the fourth estate.