Variable annuities are investment products offered by Insurance Companies. They allow investors to place assets in mutual funds under the umbrella of a tax-deferred account. The account value of variable annuities fluctuates based on the performance of the selected mutual funds and therefore some risks are involved. Recently there has been a growing interest in using fuzzy numbers to deal with financial uncertainty.

In document image analysis the task of segmenting images of ancient printed documents in distinct elements is known to be a very complex problem. In general, these documents are of low quality and can present skew and degradations because of old printing or ink stains. To face these problems we will show and discuss the validity of the Mumford and Shah variational method, based on the ? convergence theory, along with its numerical handling.

We describe a solution for fast indexing and searching within large heterogeneous data sets whose main purpose is to support investigators that need to analyze forensic disk images originated by seizures or created from bodies of evidence. Our approach is based on a combination of techniques aimed at improving efficiency and reliability of the indexing process.We do not rely on existing frameworks like Hadoop but borrow concepts from different contexts including High Performance Computing and Database management.

We analyze the dynamics of a two-dimensional system of interacting active dumbbells. We characterize the mean-square displacement, linear response function, and deviation from the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem as a function of activity strength, packing fraction, and temperature for parameters such that the system is in its homogeneous phase.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the performance of a portfolio of participating life annuities, focusing on the minimum acceptable income level throughout the quantiles of the return distribution. The model, in addition to the necessary consideration of the volatility of financial markets, gives a central role to the impact of the longevity phenomenon.

We present and compare the performances of two many-core architectures: the Nvidia Kepler and the Intel MIC both in a single system and in cluster configuration for the simulation of spin systems. As a benchmark we consider the time required to update a single spin of the 3D Heisenberg spin glass model by using the Over-relaxation algorithm. We present data also for a traditional high-end multi-core architecture: the Intel Sandy Bridge.