On transform orders for largest claim amounts

This paper investigates the ordering properties of largest claim amounts in heterogeneous insurance portfolios in the sense of some transform orders, including the convex transform order and the star order. It is shown that the largest claim amount from a set of independent and heterogeneous exponential claims is more skewed than that from a set of independent and homogeneous exponential claims in the sense of the convex transform order. As a result, a lower bound for the coefficient of variation of the largest claim amount is established without any restrictions on the parameters of the distributions of claim severities. Furthermore, sufficient conditions are presented to compare the skewness of the largest claim amounts from two sets of independent multiple-outlier scaled claims according to the star order. Some comparison results are also developed for the multiple-outlier proportional hazard rates claims. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate these theoretical results.

Spatial exploration strategies in childhood; exploration behaviours are predictive of successful navigation

Five- to 11-year-olds (N=91) explored virtual environments with the goal of learning where everything was within the environment (1 trial; Experiment 1) or to find and collect six stars across two conditions, a standard condition and a condition in which participants could view their location on an overhead map (5 trials/condition; Experiment 2). Four exploration behaviours were derived, and for Experiment 2, two navigation behaviours were derived. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that with increasing age, participants visited more of the environment, had longer path lengths and paused less frequently. The effect of gender broadly mirrored this pattern, with males having longer path lengths, visiting more of the environment, making more revisits, and pausing less than females. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated: within-participant learning of the environment; developmental changes; and gender differences across exploration and navigation variables. Older children and males had higher navigation success and stronger consistency in star order collection. Navigation success was stronger in the overhead map condition, and younger children showed evidence of different exploration behaviour in the overhead map condition compared to the standard condition. Group comparisons and effects of learning across trials demonstrated that optimal exploration was characterised by fewer pauses, making fewer revisits to a previously visited location, and shorter path lengths. Associations between exploration behaviours and navigation success demonstrated strong relationships between pauses, revisits, areas visited, and star order consistency, with navigation success. This study is a first step to understanding exploration behaviour in children and how this relates to navigational success.

Arne Bjerhammar- a personal summary of his academic deeds

Arne Bjerhammar is well known worldwide mainly for his research in physical geodesy but also for introducing a new matrix algebra with generalized inverses applied in geodetic adjustment. Less known are his developments in geodetic engineering and contributions to satellite and relativistic geodesy as well as studies on the relation between the Fennoscandia land uplift and the regional gravity low. Most likely part of his research has contributed to worldwide political relaxation during the cold war, which deed was honored by a certificate of achievement awarded by the Department of Research of the US army as well as the North Star Order by the King of Sweden. Arne Bjerhammar’s pioneer scientific production, in particular on a world geodetic system, towards what would become GPS, as well as relativistic geodesy, is still of great interest among the worldwide geodetic community, while the memories and spirit along his outstanding academic deeds have more or less fainted away from his home university (KTH) only a decade after he passed away.

Activities of the Theosophical Society and the Order of the Star in the East in the Czech Lands until 1939

The study shows the penetration of the Theosophical movement into Austro-Hungarian territory, highlighting this process in the Czech lands from the end of the 19th century. It also examines the development of the Theosophical movement in the territory of Czechoslovakia during the interwar period, and analyses the conflict that occurred in the Theosophical circles as the result of accepting or rejecting the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, recognised as the manifestation of Majtreja, but also as the expected Messiah. The analysis also considers the activities of the Star Order in the East, which was founded for the purpose of spreading the teachings of Krishnamurti.

Black Land

This is the first book to explore how African American writing and art engaged with visions of Ethiopia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the only African nation, with the exception of Liberia, to remain independent during the colonization of the continent, Ethiopia has long held significance for and captivated the imaginations of African Americans. The book delves into nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American artistic and journalistic depictions of Ethiopia, illuminating the increasing tensions and ironies behind cultural celebrations of an African country asserting itself as an imperial power. It navigates texts by Walt Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Pauline Hopkins, Harry Dean, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, George Schuyler, and others, alongside images and performances that show the intersection of African America with Ethiopia during historic political shifts. From a description of a notorious 1920 Star Order of Ethiopia flag-burning demonstration in Chicago to a discussion of the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1935, the book illuminates the growing complications that modern Ethiopia posed for American writers and activists. American media coverage of the African nation exposed a clear contrast between the Pan-African ideal and the modern reality of Ethiopia as an antidemocratic imperialist state: Did Ethiopia represent the black nation of the future, or one of an inert and static past? Revising current understandings of black transnationalism, the book presents a well-rounded exploration of an era when Ethiopia's presence in African American culture was at its height.