SEAT S.A.ren analisi ekonomiko-finantzarioa

Lan honetan lehenik eta behin automobilgintza sektorearen analisi orokor bat burutzen da,eta ondoren, SEAT S.A enpresaren analisi ekonomiko-finantzariora joko da, enpresaren hazkundea, egonkortasun finantzarioa, likidezia, errentagarritasuna eta arriskua analizatuko dira, batik bat.

An analysis of human behaviour during aircraft evacuation situations using the AASK v3.0 database

The Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge (AASK) database is a repository of survivor accounts from aviation accidents. Its main purpose is to store observational and anecdotal data from the actual interviews of the occupants involved in aircraft accidents. The database has wide application to aviation safety analysis, being a source of factual data regarding the evacuation process. It is also key to the development of aircraft evacuation models such as airEXODUS, where insight into how people actually behave during evacuation from survivable aircraft crashes is required. This paper describes recent developments with the database leading to the development of AASK v3.0. These include significantly increasing the number of passenger accounts in the database, the introduction of cabin crew accounts, the introduction of fatality information, improved functionality through the seat plan viewer utility and improved ease of access to the database via the internet. In addition, the paper demonstrates the use of the database by investigating a number of important issues associated with aircraft evacuation. These include issues associated with social bonding and evacuation, the relationship between the number of crew and evacuation efficiency, frequency of exit/slide failures in accidents and exploring possible relationships between seating location and chances of survival. Finally, the passenger behavioural trends described in analysis undertaken with the earlier database are confirmed with the wider data set.

The AASK Database V3.0: a database of human experience during aircraft evacuation incidents

This paper describes recent developments with the Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge (AASK) database. The AASK database is a repository of survivor accounts from aviation accidents developed by the Fire Safety Engineering Group of the University of Greenwich with support from the UK CAA. Its main purpose is to store observational and anecdotal data from the actual interviews of the occupants involved in aircraft accidents. Access to the latest version of the database (AASK V3.0) is available over the Internet. AASK consists of information derived from both passenger and cabin crew interviews, information concerning fatalities and basic accident details. Also provided with AASK is the Seat Plan Viewer that graphically displays the starting locations of all the passengers - both survivors and fatalities - as well as the exits used by the survivors. Data entered into the AASK database is extracted from the transcripts supplied by the National Transportation Safety Board in the US and the Air Accident Investigation Branch in the UK. The quality and quantity of the data was very variable ranging from short summary reports of the accidents to boxes of individual accounts from passengers, crew and investigators. Data imported into AASK V3.0 includes information from 55 accidents and individual accounts from 1295 passengers and 110 crew.

CAA paper 2006/01: a database to record human experience of evacuation in aviation accidents: the aircraft accident statistics and knowledge database (AASK)

This report concerns the development of the AASK V4.0 database (CAA Project 560/SRG/R+AD). AASK is the Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge database, which is a repository of survivor accounts from aviation accidents. Its main purpose is to store observational and anecdotal data from interviews of the occupants involved in aircraft accidents. The AASK database has wide application to aviation safety analysis, being a source of factual data regarding the evacuation process. It is also key to the development of aircraft evacuation models such as airEXODUS, where insight into how people actually behave during evacuation from survivable aircraft crashes is required. With support from the UK CAA (Project 277/SRG/R&AD), AASK V3.0 was developed. This was an on-line prototype system available over the internet to selected users and included a significantly increased number of passenger accounts compared with earlier versions, the introduction of cabin crew accounts, the introduction of fatality information and improved functionality through the seat plan viewer utility. The most recently completed AASK project (Project 560/SRG/R+AD) involved four main components: a) analysis of the data collected in V3.0; b) continued collection and entry of data into AASK; c) maintenance and functional development of the AASK database; and d) user feedback survey. All four components have been pursued and completed in this two-year project. The current version developed in the last year of the project is referred to as AASK V4.0. This report provides summaries of the work done and the results obtained in relation to the project deliverables.

Simulating the interaction of occupants with signage systems

This paper describes the introduction of chained signage systems into evacuation simulation models. Signage systems are widely used in buildings to provide information for wayfinding, thereby providing exiting information during emergencies and assisting in navigation during normal circulation of pedestrians. Recently a system was developed to introduce simple signs into egress models. The system, known as Visibility Catchment Area or VCA, allowed similated agents to interact with signs which point directly to an exit and signs which are located directly above the exit. However, this approach was not able to represent the more general situation of a sign netwokr within an arbitrarily complex building. In this paper we extend the method to include chained signage systems which provides simulated agents that are unfamiliar with the structure a means by which to navigate to an emergency exit. The model includes the associated navigation behaviours exhibited by occupants that rely on a signage system for navigation including: Searching behaviours, Backtracking behaviours, Lost behaviours and Communication behaviours. The new features are demonstrated through a series of demonstration cases and are shown to produce plausible results.

Unique genetic variation at a species' rear edge is under threat from global climate change

Global climate change is having a significant effect on the distributions of a wide variety of species, causing both range shifts and population extinctions. To date, however, no consensus has emerged on how these processes will affect the range-wide genetic diversity of impacted species. It has been suggested that species that recolonized from low-latitude refugia might harbour high levels of genetic variation in rear-edge populations, and that loss of these populations could cause a disproportionately large reduction in overall genetic diversity in such taxa. In the present study, we have examined the distribution of genetic diversity across the range of the seaweed Chondrus crispus, a species that has exhibited a northward shift in its southern limit in Europe over the last 40 years. Analysis of 19 populations from both sides of the North Atlantic using mitochondrial single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), sequence data from two singlecopy nuclear regions and allelic variation at eight microsatellite loci revealed unique genetic variation for all marker classes in the rear-edge populations in Iberia, but not in the rear-edge populations in North America. Palaeodistribution modelling and statistical testing of alternative phylogeographic scenarios indicate that the unique genetic diversity in Iberian populations is a result not only of persistence in the region during the last glacial maximum, but also because this refugium did not contribute substantially to the recolonization of Europe after the retreat of the ice. Consequently, loss of these rear-edge populations as a result of ongoing climate change will have a major effect on the overall genetic diversity of the species, particularly in Europe, and this could compromise the adaptive potential of the species as a whole in the face of future global warming.

Micron-scale fast electron filaments and recirculation determined from rear-side optical emission in high-intensity laser-solid interactions

The transport of relativistic electrons generated in the interaction of petawatt class lasers with solid targets has been studied through measurements of the second harmonic optical emission from their rear surface. The high degree of polarization of the emission indicates that it is predominantly optical transition radiation (TR). A halo that surrounds the main region of emission is also polarized and is attributed to the effect of electron recirculation. The variation of the polarization state and intensity of radiation with the angle of observation indicates that the emission of TR is highly directional and provides evidence for the presence of mu m-size filaments. A brief discussion on the possible causes of such a fine electron beam structure is given.

A static test method to assess swivel seat strength in frontal impact

Mechanical swivel seat adaptations are a key aftermarket disability modification to any small-to medium-sized passenger vehicle. However, the crashworthiness of these devices is currently unregulated and the existing 20g dynamic sled testing approach is prohibitively expensive for prototype assessment purposes. In this paper, an alternative quasi-static test method for swivel seat assessment is presented, and two different approaches (free-body diagram and multibody modelling) validated through published experimental data are developed to determine the appropriate loading conditions to apply in the quasi-static testing.Results show the two theoretical approaches can give similar results for estimating the quasi-static loading conditions, and this depends on the seatbelt configuration. Application of the approach to quasi-static testing of both conventional seats and those with integrated seat belts showed the approach to be successful and easy to apply. It is proposed that this method be used by swivel seat designers to assess new prototypes prior to final validation via the traditional 20g sled test.

The Effect of Seat Location in Lecture Theatres on Academic Performance

The purpose of this research study was to investigate and identify possible patterns relating to academic performance on the effects of university students self-selecting where to sit in a lecture theatre.
The key research questions are:
1. Does seating position affect student performance?
2. Do the most academically able and engaged students regularly sit at the front of lecture theatres?
Academic achievement
Preliminary results suggest significant assessment score differences between those that sit at the front and those that sit further the back. Of those that received a grade of 75%+ (Grade A) 6.67% regularly sat at the back. With the same group 46.67% regularly sat at the front. Of the group that scored less than 50% (Grade D) 0% of students regularly sat at the front. 12.50% regularly sat in the middle zones with 37.50% sitting at the back. It was also observed that the remaining numbers did not consistently sit in the same zone.

Temporal movement
There is little evidence of movement between seating zones of the Grade A group throughout the 24 week period. However there was considerable movement with the Grade D group. Although still under analysis there appears be a pattern of students in this group graduating towards the back seating positions over the course of the programme.

Engagement
The frequency of completed entries on PinPoint was also used as an indicator of engagement. With the Grade A group 75% of them regularly completed an entry whereas in the Grade D group this drops to less than 50%.
Further analysis on the attitudinal factors in relational to seating position and performance are ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that those students that scored highly in attitude tended to sit at the front and middle sections.
It would indeed appear that the more highly engaged and academically capable students voluntarily sit at the front for most lectures. Interestingly as the course progresses those who had lesser engagement and below average midterm results tend to began to sit progressively toward the back. If this is a repeatable pattern then a linear regression analysis of the seating positions and midterm results could help predict students in danger of failing.

Women in the driving seat Eastern European immigrant women s citizenship participation and educational inclusion in Portugal

This paper is a case study of Eastern European immigrant women’s social inclusion in Portugal through civic participation. An analysis of interviews conducted with women leaders and members of two ethnic associations provides a unique insight into their migrant pathways as highly educated women and the ways in which these women are constructing their citizenship in new contexts in Northern Portugal. These women’s accounts of their immigrant experience embrace both the public realm, in using their own education and their children’s as a means of integration but also spill over into ‘non-public’ familial relationships at home in contradictory ways. These include the sometimes traditional, gender-defined division of labour within the associations and at home and the new ways that they negotiate their relative autonomies to escape forms of violence and subordination that they face as women and immigrants.