My thesis theme from the branch of insurance industry has been chosen for a reason of my long-term experience. The particular theme of "accident insurance" has been then chosen and based on the fact that in general it belongs to one of the most important types of insurance and everybody should arrange for it. In the part of theory I would like to clarify basic terms of the field of accident insurance as well as those of insurance industry as a whole. At the same time I would like to illustrate how and where an insurance contract can be concluded and what one should be aware of before and in the course of concluding such an insurance contract. An integral part of the theory will also be legislation dealing with the insurance industry and its development. The practical part will be focused on looking for different insurance amounts people should be insured for. In addition there will be given a particular example of effecting an accident insurance of more people as well as of a person and various insurance companies' offers in my place of living will be analysed. In conclusion let me make basic calculations concerning the insurance clear and analyse the data that will be at my disposal.

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Bootstrap and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods have received much attention in recent years. We study computer intensive methods that can be used in complex situations where it is not possible to express the likelihood estimates or the posterior analytically. The work is inspired by a set of car crash data from real traffic. We formulate and develop a model for car crash data that aims to estimate and compare the relative collision safety among different car models. This model works sufficiently well, although complications arise due to a growing vector of incidental parameters. The bootstrap is shown to be a useful tool for studying uncertainties of the estimates of the structural parameters. This model is further extended to include driver characteristics. In a Poisson model with similar, but simpler structure, estimates of the structural parameter in the presence of incidental parameters are studied. The profile likelihood, bootstrap and the delta method are compared for deterministic and random incidental parameters. The same asymptotic properties, up to first order, are seen for deterministic as well as random incidental parameters. The search for suitable methods that work in complex model structures leads us to consider Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. In the area of MCMC, we consider particularly the question of how and when to claim convergence of the MCMC run in situations where it is only possible to analyse the output values of the run and also how to compare different MCMC modellings. In Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, different proposal functions lead to different realisations. We develop a new convergence diagnostic, based on the Kullback-Leibler distance, which is shown to be particularly useful when comparing different runs. Comparisons with established methods turn out favourably for the KL. In both models, a Bayesian analysis is made where the posterior distribution is obtained by MCMC methods. The credible intervals are compared to the corresponding confidence intervals from the bootstrap analysis and are shown to give the same qualitative conclusions.

La recherche proposée s'intéresse à l'autoroute 55 située au sud du Québec entre la frontière américaine (Rock Island) et l'autoroute 20 (Drummondville) et totalisant 128 kilomètres. Ce segment d'autoroute a la particularité d'avoir une section (66,5 km) possédant deux voies de circulation non séparées et une seconde section (61,5 km) possédant quatre voies de circulation séparées. Les objectifs de cette recherche sont: 1) caractériser les accidents survenus sur ces deux sections pour la période de 1982-1992 en brossant un portrait général de la situation de l'insécurité routière et 2) vérifier les relations existant entre les caractéristiques physiques de l'environnement routier et les caractéristiques des accidents en comparant les deux sections. Les caractéristiques physiques de l'environnement routier comprennent les composantes de géométrie de la route (largeurs des voies et d'accotements, inclinaison) et les caractéristiques de la circulation (débits journalier annuel et estival, pourcentage de camion). Les caractéristiques des accidents comprennent les variables relatives aux circonstances des accidents (lieu, moment, genre, conditions climatiques), celles relatives aux conducteurs (sexe, âge, expérience) et aux véhicules impliqués (nombre, type, âge) et celles relatives aux victimes (âge, sexe, résidence, gravité des blessures). La méthodologie utilisée repose sur deux types d'analyses: descriptives et multivariées. Les premières vont permettre de dresser un portrait de l'insécurité routière de l'autoroute 55 pour chaque section étudiée. Les secondes vont identifier et mesurer les liens entre les caractéristiques environnementales et les accidents. Les résultats démontrent que la section à deux voies contiguës présentent les indices de gravité d'accidents et de victimes les plus forts. Les variables d'environnement qui jouent un rôle dans l'explication des taux d'accidents et des indices de gravité sont la largeur des voies (nombre de voies) et le pourcentage de camions qui circulent sur les segments. D'autres variables de l'environnement ont de très bons liens avec certaines variables explicatives mais ne ressortent pas directement dans les modèles de régression.

Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy (HBOT) has a successive history for treating very specific groups of physical conditions. Research by Neubauer and colleagues states that HBOT's ability to increase cerebral metabolism in the brain regenerates dormant neural tissue (Neubauer, Gottlieb, & Pevsner 1994). According to this research, the increase of cerebral metabolism levels restores mental capacity from the neurological insult. Despite promise, uncertainty exists as to whether this is a viable treatment option for people suffering from neural damage. The research results for this experiment will examine the effect of HBOT on cerebral metabolism levels in adults and pediatrics with chronic neurological problems. Fifty individuals diagnosed as having a neurological impairment whom met criteria for the study were analyzed from an archival data set. Criterion required chronic impairment, baseline SPECT, followed by HBOT exposures, and a post SPECT scan. Statistical analyses consisted of a Pearson correlation that examined pre-metabolism rates with total change, a Pearson correlation that examined total change and number of treatments, and a one way ANOVA analysis that examined cerebral metabolism change in patients under 18 and over 18. Results indicated change

The Health and Safety Executive estimated the annual cost to British employers and other duty holders failing to comply with health and safety requirements to be up to £18 billion. It is estimated that the construction industry contributed £2billion of these appalling statistics. To date, health and safety management is still perceived as being costly and counterproductive in the construction industry. This research investigated the net benefit of accident prevention and explored the relationship between preventative costs and these benefits, with a view to drawing attention to the economic consequences of effective/ineffective management of health and safety by contractors in the UK construction industry. The need to investigate the cost of accident prevention in relation to overall benefits of accident prevention is therefore deemed necessary. A quantitative research methodology was employed in investigating these costs and benefits within the UK construction industry. From the ratio analysis small contractors spend relatively higher proportions of their turnover in total on accident prevention than medium and large contractors, and medium contractors spend a higher proportion of their turnover in total on accident prevention than large contractors. The results also show that medium and small contractors gain relatively higher proportions of their turnover in total as benefits of accident prevention than large contractors. The benefits of accident prevention far outweigh the costs of accident prevention by a ratio approximately 3:1. The relationships between these costs and benefits were examined. The costs of accident prevention were found to be positively and significantly (P < 0.005) associated with benefits of accident prevention. These associations were modelled using simple linear regression, and from these models it can be inferred from the results that the more contractors spend on accident prevention the more they derive benefits of accident prevention, which would improve health and safety performance on construction sites. ii The developed model was subsequently validated using experts and practitioners opinion from the UK construction industry. This developed model should provide good guidance to assist contractors in developing effective and efficient health and safety management for UK construction industry.

Local government, as government at grassroot, has, probably undergone transformation more than any institution in post-1994 South Africa. State-of the- art legislation have been passed that have restructured municipalities, and, especially, in the areas of performance and conduct of councillors and officials. Prominent in the areas of transformation are the roles of the Executive Mayor, which are no longer ceremonial as well as the radical changes which have been legislated in municipal financial management. This study was undertaken to determine the challenges that confront the Executive Mayor in financial management in selected local municipalities in the Free State. The hypothesis was formulated that “despite the state-of-the art legislation to regulate municipal finance, Executive Mayors in municipalities face the challenge of poor service delivery as a result of noncompliance to financial statutes due to human resource incapacity”. To test the hypothesis, use was made by empirical research that comprised questionnaires completed by sample of managers and officials in the selected local municipalities of Mafube, Metsimaholo, Moqhaka and Ngwathe.The findings, amongst others, were that: • Human capital in the 4 selected local municipalities are in their prime age. 69 present of managers are in the aged between 30 years to 50 years; • 57 present of the managers responded that they have adequate qualifications and training to pursue the challenges in municipal finance; • All 4 municipalities normally get their budgets approved as required by compliance. • The hypothesis was consequently, invalidated. The study ends with recommendations to help improve standards and quality of financial management practice in the 4 municipalities. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

As world transport has grown in complexity, so has public pressure for safe flight. The scheduled airline industry has a consistently good safety record. Unfortunately, the business jet industry has not kept pace with the airline safety statistics and lags far behind. During safety surveys and reports over the past 5 years there has been increasing comment and concern over the perceived safety standards of business jets operations compared with normal scheduled airline services. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has reported that based on flight hours flown, the fatal accident rate for smaller jet aircraft below 15 tonnes was twice that for large passenger aircraft (CAA 2006a). The CAA also identified that the majority of the accidents occur during the approach and landing phase of the flight. There is however, a lack of research concerning business jet operations. Due to the unique and varied style of operations, business jet flights have many factors that differentiate it from normal scheduled airline operations. Business jet accidents have been reported but they have not been further investigated for any overall causes. The study described in this thesis, a Grounded Theory analysis of accident data was conducted to develop a model of the factors that contributed to the accidents. The model that was developed demonstrated that Pilot skills, Command and Crew Resource management are the key central elements, with the ground organisations such as engineering and ground operations personnel as a contributory influence. As piloting skills were determined as a key factor in the accident statistics and the accident model, a simulator trial was also conducted to assess the manual flying skill levels of business jet pilots. The trial was both a challenging manual flying task and a profile that is included as part of the Pilot Skill test prior to the issue of a commercial pilot’s licence. The simulator trial confirmed that although all the pilots were correctly tested and certified commercial pilots, a significant proportion did not fly an accurate airspeed on approach within the CAA examination tolerances. The simulator trial data and the grounded theory model found that there are concerns for the piloting skills of business jet pilots in their ability to fly an accurate airspeed on approach. The results from this investigation yield findings concerning the piloting skill and accuracy of the business jet pilots that had not previously been identified. The results also emphasise the need to include adequate testing and supervision during business jet operations. It is recommended that further research be conducted to evaluate actual piloting skill and accuracy during the licence skill test.

Investigation of nitride fuels and their properties has, for decades, been propelled on the basis of their desirable high metal densities and high thermal conductivities, both of which oer intrinsic advantages to performance, economy, and safety in fast and light water reactor systems. In this time several key obstacles have been identied as impeding the implementation of these fuels for commercial applications; namely chemical interactions with air and steam, the noted diculty in sintering of the material, and the high costs associated with the enrichment of 15N. The combination of these limitations, historically, led to the well founded conclusion that the most appropriate use of nitride fuels was in the fast reactor fuel cycle, where the cost burdens associated with them is substantially less. Indeed, it is within this context that the vast majority of work on nitrides has been and continues to be done. Nevertheless, following the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, a concerted governmental-industrial eort was embarked upon to explore the alternatives of so-called \accident tolerant" and \high performance" fuels. These fuels would, at the same time, improve the response of the fuel-clad system to severe accidents and improve the economy of operation for light water reactor systems. Among the various candidates proposed are uranium nitride, uranium silicide, and a third \uranium nitride-silicide" composite featuring a mixture of the former. In this thesis a method has been established for the synthesis, fabrication, and characterization of high purity uranium nitride, and uranium nitride-silicide composites, prepared by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. A specic result has been to isolate the impact of the processing parameters on the microstructure of representative fuel pellets, essentially permitting any conceivable microstructure of interest to be fabricated. This has enabled the development of a highly reproducible technique for the production of pellets with microstructures tailored towards any desired porosity between 88-99.9%TD, any grain size between 6-24 μm, and, in the case of  the uranium nitride-silicide composite, a silicide-coated UN matrix. This has permitted the evaluation of these microstructural characteristics on the performance of these materials, specically with respect to their role as accident tolerant fuels. This has generated results which have tightly coupled nitride performance with pellet microstructure, with important implications for the use of nitrides in water-cooled reactors. / Under artionden har forskning om nitridbranseln och dess egenskaper bedrivits pa grundval av nitridbransletsatravarda egenskaper avseende dess hoga metall tathet och hog varmeledningsformaga. Dessa egenskaper besitter vasentliga fordelar avseende prestanda, ekonomi och sakerhet for metallkylda som lattvatten reaktorer. Genom forskning har aven centrala begr ansningar identierats for implementering av nitridbranslen for kommersiellt bruk. Begransningar avser den kemiska interaktionen med luft och vattenanga, en uppmarksammad svarighet att sintring av materialet samt hoga kostnader forknippade med den nodvandiga anrikningen av 15-N. Kombinationen av dessa begransningar resulterade, tidigare, i en valgrundad slutsats att nitridbranslet mest andamalsenliga anvandningsomrade var i karnbranslecykeln for snabba reaktorer. Detta da kostnaderna forenade med implementeringen av branslet ar avsevart lagre. Inom detta sammanhang har majoriteten av forskning avseende nitrider bedrivits och fortskrider an idag. Dock, efter karnkraftsolyckan i Fukushima-Daiichi 2011, inleddes en samlad industriell och statlig anstrangning for att undersoka alternativ till sa kallade \olyckstoleranta" och \hogpresterande" branslen. Dessa branslen skulle samtidigt forbattra reaktionstiden for bransleinkapsling systemet mot allvarliga olyckor samt forbattra driftsekonomin av lattvattenreaktorer. Foreslagna kandidater ar urannitrid, uransilicid och en tredje \uran nitrid-silicid", komposit bestaende av en blandning av de foregaende. Genom denna avhandling har en metod faststallts for syntes, tillverkning och karaktarisering av uran nitrid av hog renhet samt uran nitrid-silicid kompositer, forberedda med tekniken SPS (Spark Plasma Sintering). Ett specikt resultat har varit att isolera eekten av processparametrar pa mikrostrukturen pa representativa branslekutsar. Detta mojliggor, i princip, framstallningen av alla tankbara mikrostrukturer utav intresse for tillverkning. Vidare har detta mojliggjort utvecklingen av en hogeligen reproducerbar  teknik for framstallningen av branslekutsar med mikrostrukturer skraddarsydda for onskad porositet mellan 88 och 99.9 % TD, och kornstorlek mellan 6 och 24 μm. Dartill har en metod for att belagga en matris av uran nitrid-silicid framarbetats. Detta har mojliggjort utvarderingen av dessa mikrostrukturella parametrars paverkan pa materialens prestanda, sarskilt avseende dess roll som olyckstoleranta branslen. Detta har genererat resultat som ar tatt sammanlankat nitridbranslets prestanda till kutsens mikrostruktur, med viktiga konsekvenser for den potentiella anvandningen av nitrider i lattvatten reaktorer. / <p>QC 20170210</p>

Title The Safety of a Cyclist passed by car Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to identify by field research whether drivers abide by the distance of at least 1 m when passing cyclists or not. Furthermore to find out from the results of a survey whether previous experience of the drivers as a cyclist influences their behavior. Methods: As for the methods used in this study, field research and public survey had been conducted. Results: Drivers are respecting the passing distance at least 1 meter. The average passing distance, which was foundet out from the results of the survey, was 153 centimeters by the speed of 50 km/h. In conclusion of this thesis is that cyclists and non-cyclists have the same opinion of the passing distance between the cyclist and the passing car. Keywords: Cyclist, passing, safety, accident.