Many variable annuities provide money-back guarantees and market guarantees on invested principal. Embedded in some of these guarantees are stochastic maturity put options with adjustable strike prices. These variable annuities can be surrendered or lapsed at any time. The lapse option when exercised rationally represents an American style sell-back option that is exercised by the policyholder ...

We present a method for recovering time-lapse velocity changes using full waveform inversion (FWI). In a preprocessing step we invert for a single intermediate model by simultaneously minimizing the data misfit in the baseline and the monitor surveys. We record the individual FWI gradients corresponding to the baseline and the monitor datasets at each iteration of the inversion. Regions where t...

Marie Arnaud discusses how underground time-lapse photography can be used to measure root dynamics in coastal wetlands.

SUMMARY In the northern part of The Netherlands the magnesium salts carnalite and bischofite are mined in a deep solution mine. For optimal production and also for environmental impact such as subsidence, it is vital to understand the process of salt production. To this aim, it is studied whether seismic in time-lapse mode may help to visualize and quantify the changes due to the salt productio...

The early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo is an attractive model to investigate evolutionarily conserved cellular mechanisms. However, there is a paucity of automated methods to gather quantitative information with subcellular precision in this system. We developed ASSET (Algorithm for the Segmentation and the Standardization of C. elegans Time-lapse recordings) to fill this need. ASSET automatic...

We studied time-lapse gravity surveys applied to the monitoring of an artificial aquifer storage and recovery ASR system in Leyden, Colorado. An abandoned underground coal mine has been developed into a subsurface water reservoir. Water from surface sources is injected into the artificial aquifer during winter for retrieval and use in summer. As a key component in the geophysical monitoring of ...

Time-lapse video microscopic observation is useful for analysis of cell biology, especially in rapid response of immune cells. Dendritic cells (DCs) have multiple functions in the immune system, and DCs in peripheral blood play an especially important role at the front line of infection. We have developed a time-lapse video microscopic method for the evaluation of single myeloid DCs (MDC-1) fro...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the effects of an ovulation triggering agent, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), versus a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) on early embryo development in vitro using a time-lapse system. METHODS Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database. A total of 739 embryos from 152 infertile couples undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles...

We report the dynamic anatomical sequence of human cortical gray matter development between the age of 4-21 years using quantitative four-dimensional maps and time-lapse sequences. Thirteen healthy children for whom anatomic brain MRI scans were obtained every 2 years, for 8-10 years, were studied. By using models of the cortical surface and sulcal landmarks and a statistical model for gray mat...

How patients used Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (A-CHESS)1, a mobile health intervention, while quitting drinking is worthy exploring. This study is to explore A-CHESS use patterns prior to the initial lapse reported after discharge from inpatient detoxification programs. 142 patients with alcohol addiction from two treatment agencies in the U.S. were included. A com...