Aircraft seating comfort: the influence of seat pitch on passengers' well-being

One of the most important factors influencing aircraft seating comfort in economy class, is legroom. In an airline interior mock up, with the ability to adjust the seat pitch in a range of 28 inches to 43 inches, a study to investigate the influence of seat pitch on passengers' well-being was conducted. In a pre-study, aspects of subjective postural sensations and spatial perception were identified, and a questionnaire was developed. In the main study, 30 subjects rated at different seat pitch settings the spatial perception and the ability of adopting and changing sitting postures. As a result a functional relationship between overall well-being, the subjects' anthropometry and seat pitch was developed. Furthermore it was identified, that there is a maximum overall well-being at a seat pitch of 34 inches to 40 inches, depending on the passengers' anthropometry. A further enlargement of seat pitch, led to a reduction of well-being.     

Majority rip-off in referendum voting

Many democracies complement a parliamentarian system with elements of direct democracy, where the electorate decides on single issues by majority voting. A well-known paradox states that in a sequence of referenda one can get from an arbitrary original income distribution to one in which one player gets almost all the cake. In this paper we design a three-player game modelling the sequential modification mechanism. The strategic analysis reveals that the paradox survives even with rational strategic voters and though the right to propose is allocated to each player once: the last player receives almost the entire cake. The result can be extended to the three-party n-voter case and is for some cases similar when we consider a random rather than fixed sequence of proposers.

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Kirche coacht F��hrungskr?fte

In the paper we investigate whether coaching, which is carried out by qualified coaches of the Church, can provide the customers with added value. The survey results are based on interviews with managers of small and medium-sized organizations. It turns out that the interviewed persons have a very strong interest in coaching, which is carried out by representatives of the church. The customers point out, that coaches can talk with a Christian background new perspectives such as ethics, morals and values. It is also clear that coaching should not be intended by religious instruction, but must attach to problems that result from the marketing economic environment of the customers. It is shown in conclusion to note that variables with a possible implementation of coaching as a business area within the study area ??Church and economy??.     

Loss prediction in a linear model under a linear constraint

Loss reserving is an important subject of actuarial mathematics. It aims at the prediction of future losses caused by claims which have incurred in the past but have not yet been closed. The problem of predicting such losses is particularly important in liability insurance. In the present paper we study conjoint prediction of paid and incurred losses in a linear model with a linear constraint which is intended to reduce the gap between the predictors of ultimate paid and incurred losses. We thus present an application to actuarial mathematics of the general result established by Kloberdanz and Schmidt (AStA Adv. Stat. Anal. 92:207–215, 2008).     

Marginal-sum and maximum-likelihood estimation in a multiplicative tariff

It is well known that, for a multiplicative tariff with independent Poisson distributed claim numbers in the different tariff cells, the maximum-likelihood estimators of the parameters satisfy the marginal-sum equations. In the present paper we show that this is also true under the more general assumption that the claim numbers of the different cells arise from the decomposition of a collective model for the whole portfolio of risks. In this general setting, the claim numbers of the different cells need not be independent and need not be Poisson distributed.     

Das dicke Ende — Wenn Abschlüsse von Gruppen „misslingen“

The starting phase of groups has received a lot of attention, in theory as well as in practice of group dynamics. The end, however, symbolizing death of a group, seems to be sort of a methodological stepchild. This is no longer true for evaluation, but evaluation is something quite different from the phenomena meant here: they appear, mostly quite unexpected, at the very end of a course or training. Four difficult final situations in group dynamic laboratories are the material for analyzing the psycho- and sociodynamics of critical final situations. Help is offered for dealing with such situations. “Failure” in ending up a training group, often has to do with narcicisstic dynamics in that group with its up and down of idealizing and discounting. It also has to do with getting hooked in one of those phases that has been described as going “towards death and farewell”. It may be that these dynamics touch upon a taboo.     

Pflegebedürftigkeit im Lebensverlauf

The paper investigates levels of functional health in old age as an outcome determined by support from family members and the individual’s financial assets. It addresses the question to what extent these risk factors for functional health also apply to the risk of long-term care (LTC) as defined by German Law SGB XI and may thus be transferable. Three hypotheses are presented, relating the individual’s economic resources and social integration to functional health limitations and to the onset of LTC. Results are stratified by levels of care, taking into account changes in levels of care over time as well as the location of care (at home or in a nursing home). The analysis is based the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). For males it was shown that presence of close relative or spouse reduces the utilization of care (according to the LTC- definition by German Law (SGB XI). For males, long-term care was mostly provided by the spouse. The need of care depends not only on functional health status but also on the type of (family-)network. Substitution could not be found in the lower income groups. The utilization of LTC even increases for less affluent males living with a spouse due to financial incentives provided by LTC insurance. Substitutability of care services may thus vary by income group.