Esta dissertação almeja contemporizar o estudo da arbitragem com as novidades tecnológicas advindas dos avanços constantes da informática. A dissertação é dividida em oito capítulos, sendo cada um excetuados o introdutório e o conclusivo dedicado a enfrentar uma questão relativa ao campo de estudo selecionado. Os temas abordados são: (i) Convenção arbitral eletrônica; (ii) Sede da arbitragem virtual; (iii) Questões jurídicas advindas de um procedimento informatizado; (iv) O documento eletrônico como fonte de prova; (v) O computador como perito ou expert witness; e (vi) A sentença arbitral eletrônica. Na conclusão final é salientada a compatibilidade das novas tecnologias com a arbitragem, recomendando-se, no entanto, uma adaptação cultural dos usuários da arbitragem e das normas que regem esse meio de solução de controvérsias. / This dissertation seeks to bring the study of arbitration up to speed with the constant innovations that take place in the realm of computer technology. The dissertation is split into eight chapters with each chapter, short of the first and last, dedicated to handling a question related to the field of study. The topics analyzed herein are: (i) Electronic arbitral clause; (ii) Seat of the virtual arbitration; (iii) Judicial quandaries resulting from high-tech procedures; (iv) The e-document as a source of evidence; (v) The computer as a judicial assistant or expert witness; and (vi) The electronic arbitral award. In the final conclusion emphasis is given to the compatibility between these novel technologies and arbitration, despite an adaptation of both the cultural and legal background that permeate this method of dispute resolution being recommendable.

Esta dissertação almeja contemporizar o estudo da arbitragem com as novidades tecnológicas advindas dos avanços constantes da informática. A dissertação é dividida em oito capítulos, sendo cada um excetuados o introdutório e o conclusivo dedicado a enfrentar uma questão relativa ao campo de estudo selecionado. Os temas abordados são: (i) Convenção arbitral eletrônica; (ii) Sede da arbitragem virtual; (iii) Questões jurídicas advindas de um procedimento informatizado; (iv) O documento eletrônico como fonte de prova; (v) O computador como perito ou expert witness; e (vi) A sentença arbitral eletrônica. Na conclusão final é salientada a compatibilidade das novas tecnologias com a arbitragem, recomendando-se, no entanto, uma adaptação cultural dos usuários da arbitragem e das normas que regem esse meio de solução de controvérsias. / This dissertation seeks to bring the study of arbitration up to speed with the constant innovations that take place in the realm of computer technology. The dissertation is split into eight chapters with each chapter, short of the first and last, dedicated to handling a question related to the field of study. The topics analyzed herein are: (i) Electronic arbitral clause; (ii) Seat of the virtual arbitration; (iii) Judicial quandaries resulting from high-tech procedures; (iv) The e-document as a source of evidence; (v) The computer as a judicial assistant or expert witness; and (vi) The electronic arbitral award. In the final conclusion emphasis is given to the compatibility between these novel technologies and arbitration, despite an adaptation of both the cultural and legal background that permeate this method of dispute resolution being recommendable.

Sistemas de climatização de bancos de veículos vêm sendo desenvolvidos e disponibilizados como solução de microclima em resposta à crescente demanda por conforto personalizado. A influência desses sistemas na ampliação do conforto térmico dos passageiros é comprovada, sejam eles de aquecimento ou de remoção de calor. No presente trabalho foram estudadas características da troca de calor, e sua relação com aspectos ergonômicos, de um passageiro com um banco de aeronave, com e sem ativação de sistema de aquecimento. Um manequim térmico do passageiro sentado, sem produção de suor, foi desenvolvido e calibrado térmica e ergonomicamente. Em relação às características da troca de calor entre o passageiro e o banco a partir dos testes realizados neste trabalho pode-se concluir que: o fluxo de calor local depende diretamente da pressão de contato na interface do passageiro com o banco; as alterações no fluxo de calor, por aumento do nível metabólico do passageiro (MET), tem relação inversamente proporcional à resistência térmica global do assento, ou seja, para maior nível de MET a resistência térmica diminui; e ainda que alterações na distribuição de pressão do assento por aumento ou redução de massa têm relação diretamente proporcional com a resistência térmica global do assento, ou seja, se a massa distribuída no assento diminui a resistência térmica global do assento também diminui. A partir dos resultados pode-se concluir que a metodologia utilizada e o manequim térmico desenvolvido permitem caracterizar adequadamente as oportunidades de otimização do banco e de seus sistemas de climatização para o conforto térmico do passageiro. / Vehicles seats acclimatization systems have been lately developed and delivered as microclimate solutions in response to the personal comfort increasing demand. The influence of such systems use on the improvement of passengers satisfaction with the ambient thermal comfort is well recognized, either heating or cooling the seat. In the present work the heat transfer characteristics at a passenger-to-seat interface were studied as well as its relation with other ergonomics aspects, in two different seat configurations, heated and not heated. A thermal manikin of the seated passenger was developed and calibrated thermal and ergonomically to simulate its sensible heat transfer. The heat transfer tests showed that: the local heat flow directly depends on the contact pressure at the passenger seat interface; changes on the heat flow caused by passenger metabolism (MET) modifications are inversely proportional to the seat global thermal resistance, i.e., the higher the MET the lower the thermal resistance; and modifications on the seat pressure distribution due to weight increase or decrease are directly proportional to the seat global thermal resistance, i.e., the lower the weight of the passenger the lower the seat global thermal resistance. Based on the results it may be concluded that the testing methodology and the developed thermal manikin adequately explore the opportunities for optimizing the seat and its systems toward the thermal comfort of the passenger.

The airline industry is facing unprecedented challenges in generating sufficient revenues to stay in business. Airlines must capture the greatest revenue yield from every flight by leaving no seats unsold and not over filling the cabin with discount fares. To succeed in doing the above airlines must be able to accurately forecast each of their market segments, manage product andprice availability to maximize revenue and react quickly to competitive changes in the market place. Thus seat inventory control and ticket pricing form the two major tools of revenue management. The focus of this paper is to consolidate the ideas of seats inventory control and pricing in order to maximize the revenues generated by an airline network. A continuous time yield management model for a network with multiple legs, multiple fare classes and dynamic price changes for all fare classes is considered. Each fare class has a set of fares from which the optimal fare is chosen based upon the Minimum Acceptable Fare (MAF) which performs the critical role in the decision process. A machine Learning based algorithm, EMSRa based and EMSRb based algorithm for obtaining dynamic policies for combined pricing and allocation. The algorithms are implemented for a sample network with eight cities, eleven logs, thirty origin-destinations(ODs), three fare classes, three levels of fares in each class and ninety itineraries.

A music and movement program that incorporated vocal, gestural and rhythmical movement activities was devised with the aim of promoting first-time mothers’ interactions with their infants from the age 2 to 6 months. For first-time mothers as primary caregivers, the early post-partum months of the transition to parenthood can be a stressful period, affecting communicative interactions with their infants and the early development of the dyadic relationship. Furthermore, if mothers are lacking a repertoire of activities that promote communicative interactions via the use of vocal, gestural and rhythmical movement activities the development of the mother-infant relationship may be inhibited.Considering factors that affect the early development of the mother in her role as primary caregiver and the developing relationship with her infant, the investigation of two studies are reported. Study 1 was aimed at investigating the effects music and movement and face-to-face social contact on the frequency of mothers’ interactions with their infants and maternal well-being. Face-to-face social contact was investigated as a factor (both independent of music and movement, and its interaction effect with music and movement) that could influence mothers’ communicative interactions with their infants and maternal well-being. Study 2 investigated behavioural outcomes within the mother-infant relationship in response to the communicative effects of music and movement as measured by change in the characteristics of mothers’ Infant-Directed Speech and dyadic reciprocity Results indicated that up-tempo play songs and rhymes which incorporated rhythmical movement were preferred by the mothers to engage with their infants. As an effect of the their use of the music and movement activities, mothers’ interactions with their infants increased together with their perceived mother-to-infant attachment, characteristics associated with their Infant-Directed Speech and the dyadic reciprocity. Without music and movement, mothers decreased their music and movement interactions with their infants together with their perceived mother-to infant attachment, characteristics associated with their Infant-Directed Speech and the dyadic reciprocity. It was concluded that mothers’ use of the music and movement program with their infants in the early post-partum months was a valuable stimulus that can enhance the mother-infant relationship. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this study, perceived comfort and discomfort regarding school busses is assessed with the main focus on students. A total of 149 students and 38 drivers from a private school in Ankara was chosen participated in the study. Two different surveys were conducted on students and drivers separately, in order to assess perceived comfort and discomfort and suitability of the seat design features. Using SPSS Software to analyze the data, factors contributing to safety, driver distraction, perceived discomfort and perceived comfort were investigated. Bus seat comfort is found to be the most influential factor on the general assessment of bus comfort. Although no evidence of significant discomfort related to specific body parts such as neck, shoulders, back, thigh or legs is found, in-depth analysis revealed that seat features such as seat pan cushion firmness or armrest height are in correlation with seat comfort.

Rapporten beskriver förslag på framtidens ”Rear Seat Entertainment” som baseras på användning av pekskärm, istället för de DVD-baserade TV-skärmar som finns i t ex Volvo S80 i dagsläget. Projektet utfördes som ett examensarbete inom integrerad produktutveckling vid Högskolan i Skövde. Syftet med arbetet var att hitta lösningar som möjliggör användning av ”touchteknik” som kräver armavstånd till displayen. Arbetet delades upp i tre delar där val av pekskärmsenhet (inbyggd eller mobil), positionering av pekskärmen i bilen enligt ergonomiska rekommendationer, samt anpassning för olika stora personer inkluderade barn och utformning av infästningselement har utvecklats.  Arbete inleddes med litteraturstudier om interaktion av pekbaserade interface, målgruppsundersökningar, sammanställning av marknadsundersökningar, trendanalyser samt ergonomiska förutsättningar och miljöutvärderingar.  För idégenereringen användes kreativa och systematiserade metoder. Urval av idéer skedde i samråd med Volvo och med hjälp av en konceptvalsmatris. Det  slutliga  konceptet  baseras  på  användningen  av  mobila  pekskärmsenheter.  Dessa  motsvarar  bäst  de  i dagsläget ställda kriterierna på användning, ekonomi, miljö och flexibilitet. Dessutom erhålls en enklare mjuk- och hårdvaruuppdatering.   Positionering  av  pekskärmar  i  bilens  baksäte  gjordes  med  hjälp  av  ergonomiska  rekommendationer  samt databaserade beräkningar och simuleringar.    Utformning av infästningselementen anpassades till kravspecifikationen och resulterade i ett fäste som håller fast enheten med hjälp av  permanentmagneter  som byggs in i  ett infästningselement  på stolens baksida och ett i fodralet för surfplattan. Arbetet har lett till skärmar som enkelt kan fästas med magnetkrafter.

The visual domain design constitutes the general designers communication basis for communicating messages of product attributes. In the design of an automobile seat where mainly the accommodating functions remain constant, an automobile seat&rsquo / s &ldquo / style&rdquo / affords the ability to provide certain meanings with affective connotations. Treating style aesthetics as a source of information, the communication of &ldquo / comfort&rdquo / can be provided via forms and other attributes. The literature provides strong evidence that comfort is related with aesthetics of any object in use, especially creating expectations towards the product. The &ldquo / Aesthetics of comfort&rdquo / can be explained as a variable intensity &ldquo / feeling&rdquo / or &ldquo / attitude&rdquo / regarding an entity of factors or characteristics of a multidimensional construct. Implemented by different layouts and cues, the consumer should be assisted in understanding the qualities of an automobile seat, such as comfort. As a result of the field study conducted, significant difference was found to exist in between the perception of visual comfort three production seat designs. A positive attitude about comfort towards an automobile seat was found to be influential in positively effecting the perception of seated comfort.

In vehicles one of the most important components which affect comfort of the driver and the purchasing decision is the driver&rsquo / s seat. In order to improve design of a driver seat in a leader company of automotive sector, a comprehensive analysis of customer expectations from the driver seat is performed with a cross functional team formed by representatives of design, marketing, production, quality and services departments. In this study, collection of customer voice data and development of an exceptional &ldquo / customer satisfaction estimation model&rdquo / using these data are presented. Data are modeled by the help of Logistic Regression. This model is able to estimate how much a given customer is likely to be satisfied with the driver seat at a certain confidence level. It is also explained how this model can be used to identify design improvement opportunities that help increase the probability that a customer likes the driver seat. The modeling and analysis approach used for the particular case is applicable in general to many other cases of product improvement or development.

In this study, the seat inventory control problem is considered for airline networks from the perspective of a risk-averse decision maker. In the revenue management literature, it is generally assumed that the decision makers are risk-neutral. Therefore, the expected revenue is maximized without taking the variability or any other risk factor into account. On the other hand, risk-sensitive approach provides us with more information about the behavior of the revenue. The risk measure we consider in this study is the probability that revenue is less than a predetermined threshold level. In the risk-neutral cases, while the expected revenue is maximized, the probability of revenue being less than such a predetermined level might be high. We propose three mathematical models to incorporate the risk measure under consideration. The optimal allocations obtained by these models are numerically evaluated in simulation studies for example problems. Expected revenue, coefficient of variation, load factor and probability of the poor performance are the performance measures in the simulation studies. According to the results of these simulations, it shown that the proposed models can decrease the variability of the revenue considerably. In other words, the probability of revenue being less than the threshold level is decreased. Moreover, expected revenue can be increased in some scenarios by using the proposed models. The approach considered in this thesis is especially proposed for small scale airlines because risk of obtaining revenue less than the threshold level is more for this type of airlines as compared to large scale airlines.