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The paper compares three different models that have been developed in the literature for modeling and forecasting human mortality rates over the age range. The first model is the quadratic Gompertz model where the quadratic line is fitted for age and sex. The second is the one-dimensional Spline model, which fits linear combinations of the Basis Splines. The last model is the Lee-Carter model which is used to fit each sex to a set of age-specific death rates by fitting Poisson log-bilinear regression model in generalized linear models (GLM). A time-varying index of mortality is then forecasted using a time series linear forecasting model autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). These forecasts are used to generate projected age-specific mortality rates in Kuwait for ages 55 to 90 for the period 2006-2015, based on the mortality data for years 1993-2005 for males and females separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When studying animal behaviour and ecology the recognition of individuals is very important and in the case of bottlenose dolphins this can be done via photo-identification of their dorsal fins. Here we develop a mathematical model that describes this fin shape which is then fitted to the data by a Bayesian approach implemented using MCMC methods. This project is still at a testing stage and we are currently working with simulated data. Future work includes: extracting the outline of the fin shape from the pictures; fitting the model to real data; and devising a way of using the model to discriminate between individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]