Improvement of open innovation processes: case Nokia

Open innovation is becoming increasingly popular in academic literature and in business life, but even if people heard about it, they might not understand what it really is, they may over-estimate it thinking that it is savior or underestimate it, concentrating on limitations and risks. Current work sheds light on most important concepts of open innovation theory. Goal of current research is to offer business processes improvement for both inbound and outbound modes in case company. It is relevant as open innovation proved to affect firms‘ performance in general case and in case company, and Nokia planned to develop open innovation implementation since 2008 but still competitors succeed in it more, therefore analysis of current situation with open innovation in Nokia and recommendations how to improve it are topical. Case study method was used to answer the question ―How open innovation processes can be improved?‖. 11 in-depth interviews with Nokia senior managers and independent consultants were used to reach the goal of the thesis, as well as secondary sources. Results of current work are as-is and to-be models (process models of today and best practices models) of several open innovation modes, and recommendation for case company, which will be presented to company representatives and checked for practical applicability.

Uso de língua bovina na prática de técnicas de sutura

The authors present a method of teaching of suture techniques being used instrumental surgical and bovine tongue used in the evaluation of the graduation students' learning. The evaluation of the technique, used since January 2000, considering students' motivation, learning curve, practical applicability, quality of the biological material used and similarity to the human tegument. The acceptance for the students was very good and the bovine tongue was shown material of easy acquisition and extremely useful in the teaching of suture techniques. The presented method is simple, easily reproductible and interesting. The bovine tongue is similar to the skin and the subcutaneous tissue, providing more enlightening and stimulants practical lessons.

Kriteeristö energiatehokkuuden toteutumiseksi kaupungin julkisissa rakennushankkeissa

Työssä esitetään kriteeristö tehostamaan energiatehokkuuden toteutumista kaupungin julkisissa rakennushankkeissa. Kriteeristön tarkoituksena on edistää julkisen uudisrakennushankkeen energiatehokkuutta, ottaen huomioon hankkeen kokonaistaloudellisuus. Energiatehokkuutta ja kokonaistaloudellisuutta kunnallisessa rakentamisessa stimuloivat mm. kansainvälisten ja kansallisten sopimusten energiansäästötavoitteet, sekä kuntien tiukka budjettitilanne. Jotta kokonaistaloudellisuustavoitteet täyttyisivät, työssä käytettiin hyväksi elinkaariajattelutapaa. Työssä selvitettiin kirjallisuuden ja ammattilaisten haastattelujen tarjoaman tiedon pohjalta, mitkä näkökohdat vaikuttavat julkisen palvelurakennuksen energiatehokkuuteen sen elinkaaren eri vaiheissa. Hankitun tiedon avulla luotiin kaupungin rakennusinvestointien hankinnasta vastaavien tahojen käyttöön tarkoitettu kriteeristö, joka auttaa tunnistamaan ja valitsemaan energiatehokkuuden ja kokonaistaloudellisuuden kannalta parhaimmat hankkeen toteutustavat. Jatkotoimenpiteenä työssä laadittua kriteeristöä tullaan kehittämään edelleen case-kohteista saatavien kokemusten perusteella. Tutkimus osoitti, että uudisrakentamisen energiataloudellisuuden lisäksi on panostettava energiataloudelliseen korjausrakentamiseen, koska olemassa oleva rakennuskanta muodostaa merkittävän osan kaupungin energiankulutuksesta.

Artificial reflecting structures based on metamaterials

This thesis studies metamaterial-inspired mirrors which provide the most general control over the amplitude and phase of the reflected wavefront. The goal is to explore practical possibilities in designing fully reflective electromagnetic structures with full control over reflection phase. The first part of the thesis describes a planar focusing metamirror with the focal distance less than the operating wavelength. Its practical applicability from the viewpoint of aberrations when the incident angle deviates from the normal one is verified numerically and experimentally. The results indicate that the proposed focusing metamirror can be efficiently employed in many different applications due to its advantages over other conventional mirrors. In the second part of the thesis a new theoretical concept of reflecting metasurface operation is introduced based on Huygens’ principle. This concept in contrast to known approaches takes into account all the requirements of perfect metamirror operation. The theory shows a route to improve the previously proposed metamirrors through tilting the individual inclusions of the structure at a chosen angle from normal. It is numerically tested and the results demonstrate improvements over the previous design.

Determination of myocardial infarction size in rats by echocardiography and tetrazolium staining: correlation, agreements, and simplifications

Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and echocardiography (ECHO) are methods used to determine experimental myocardial infarction (MI) size, whose practical applicability should be expanded. Our objectives were to analyze the accuracy of ECHO in determining infarction size in rats during the first days following coronary occlusion and to test whether a simplified single measurement by TTC correctly indicates MI size, as determined by the average value for multiple slices. Infarction was induced in female Wistar rats by coronary artery occlusion and MI size analysis was performed after the acute (7th day) and chronic periods (after 4 weeks) by ECHO matched with TTC. ECHO and TTC showed similar values of MI size (% of left ventricle perimeter) in acute (ECHO: 33 ± 11, TTC: 35 ± 14) and chronic (ECHO: 38 ± 14, TTC: 39 ± 13 periods), and also presented an excellent correlation (r = 0.92, P < 0.001). Although measurements from different heart planes showed discrepancies, a single measurement acquired from the mid-ventricular level by TTC was a good estimate of MI size calculated by the average of multiple planes, with minimal disagreement (Bland-Altman test with mean ratio bias of 0.99 ± 0.07) and close to an ideal correlation (r = 0.99, P < 0.001). In the present study, ECHO was confirmed as a useful method for the determination of MI size even in the acute phase. Also, the single measure of a mid-ventricular section proposed as a simplification of the TTC method is a satisfactory prediction of average MI extension.

Converter-Fed Induction Motor Losses: Determination With IEC Methods

Energy efficiency is an important topic when considering electric motor drives market. Although more efficient electric motor types are available, the induction motor remains as the most common industrial motor type. IEC methods for determining losses and efficiency of converter-fed induction motors were introduced recently with the release of technical specification IEC/TS 60034-2-3. Determining the induction motor losses with IEC/TS 60034-2-3 method 2-3-A and assessing the practical applicability of the method are the main interests of this study. The method 2-3-A introduces a specific test converter waveform to be used in the measurements. Differences between the induction motor losses with a test converter supply, and with a DTC converter supply are investigated. In the IEC methods, the tests are run at motor rated fundamental voltage, which, in practice, requires the frequency converter to be fed with a risen input voltage. In this study, the tests are run on both frequency converters with artificially risen converter input voltage, resulting in rated motor fundamental input voltage as required by IEC. For comparison, the tests are run with both converters on normal grid input voltage supply, which results in lower motor fundamental voltage and reduced flux level, but should be more relevant from practical point of view. According to IEC method 2-3-A, tests are run at rated motor load, and to ensure comparability of the results, the rated load is used in the grid-fed converter measurements, although motor is overloaded while producing the rated torque at reduced flux level. The IEC 2-3-A method requires also sinusoidal supply test results with IEC method 2-1-1B. Therefore, the induction motor losses with the recently updated IEC 60034-2-1 method 2-1-1B are determined at the motor rated voltage, but also at two lower motor voltages, which are according to the output fundamental voltages of the two network-supplied converters. The method 2-3-A was found to be complex to apply but the results were stable. According to the results, the method 2-3-A and the test converter supply are usable for comparing losses and efficiency of different induction motors at the operating point of rated voltage, rated frequency and rated load, but the measurements do not give any prediction of the motor losses at final application. One might therefore strongly criticize the method’s main principles. It seems, that the release of IEC 60034-2-3 as a technical specification instead of a final standard for now was justified, since the practical relevance of the main method is questionable.

Strategies for Inverse Profiling of Two Dimensional Dielectric Scatterers Using Electromagnetic Illumination

Electromagnetic tomography has been applied to problems in nondestructive evolution, ground-penetrating radar, synthetic aperture radar, target identification, electrical well logging, medical imaging etc. The problem of electromagnetic tomography involves the estimation of cross sectional distribution dielectric permittivity, conductivity etc based on measurement of the scattered fields. The inverse scattering problem of electromagnetic imaging is highly non linear and ill posed, and is liable to get trapped in local minima. The iterative solution techniques employed for computing the inverse scattering problem of electromagnetic imaging are highly computation intensive. Thus the solution to electromagnetic imaging problem is beset with convergence and computational issues. The attempt of this thesis is to develop methods suitable for improving the convergence and reduce the total computations for tomographic imaging of two dimensional dielectric cylinders illuminated by TM polarized waves, where the scattering problem is defmed using scalar equations. A multi resolution frequency hopping approach was proposed as opposed to the conventional frequency hopping approach employed to image large inhomogeneous scatterers. The strategy was tested on both synthetic and experimental data and gave results that were better localized and also accelerated the iterative procedure employed for the imaging. A Degree of Symmetry formulation was introduced to locate the scatterer in the investigation domain when the scatterer cross section was circular. The investigation domain could thus be reduced which reduced the degrees of freedom of the inverse scattering process. Thus the entire measured scattered data was available for the optimization of fewer numbers of pixels. This resulted in better and more robust reconstructions of the scatterer cross sectional profile. The Degree of Symmetry formulation could also be applied to the practical problem of limited angle tomography, as in the case of a buried pipeline, where the ill posedness is much larger. The formulation was also tested using experimental data generated from an experimental setup that was designed. The experimental results confirmed the practical applicability of the formulation.

Modellbasiertes Service Level Management verteilter Anwendungssysteme

Zur Senkung von Kosten werden in vielen Unternehmen Dienstleistungen, die nicht zur Kernkompetenz gehören, an externe Dienstleister ausgelagert. Dieser Prozess wird auch als Outsourcing bezeichnet. Die dadurch entstehenden Abhängigkeiten zu den externen Dienstleistern werden mit Hilfe von Service Level Agreements (SLAs) vertraglich geregelt. Die Aufgabe des Service Level Managements (SLM) ist es, die Einhaltung der vertraglich fixierten Dienstgüteparameter zu überwachen bzw. sicherzustellen. Für eine automatische Bearbeitung ist daher eine formale Spezifikation von SLAs notwendig. Da der Markt eine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen SLM-Werkzeugen hervorgebracht hat, entstehen in der Praxis Probleme durch proprietäre SLA-Formate und fehlende Spezifikationsmethoden. Daraus resultiert eine Werkzeugabhängigkeit und eine limitierte Wiederverwendbarkeit bereits spezifizierter SLAs. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Ansatz für ein plattformunabhängiges Service Level Management entwickelt. Ziel ist eine Vereinheitlichung der Modellierung, so dass unterschiedliche Managementansätze integriert und eine Trennung zwischen Problem- und Technologiedomäne erreicht wird. Zudem wird durch die Plattformunabhängigkeit eine hohe zeitliche Stabilität erstellter Modelle erreicht. Weiteres Ziel der Arbeit ist, die Wiederverwendbarkeit modellierter SLAs zu gewährleisten und eine prozessorientierte Modellierungsmethodik bereitzustellen. Eine automatisierte Etablierung modellierter SLAs ist für eine praktische Nutzung von entscheidender Relevanz. Zur Erreichung dieser Ziele werden die Prinzipien der Model Driven Architecture (MDA) auf die Problemdomäne des Service Level Managements angewandt. Zentrale Idee der Arbeit ist die Definition von SLA-Mustern, die konfigurationsunabhängige Abstraktionen von Service Level Agreements darstellen. Diese SLA-Muster entsprechen dem Plattformunabhängigen Modell (PIM) der MDA. Durch eine geeignete Modelltransformation wird aus einem SLA-Muster eine SLA-Instanz generiert, die alle notwendigen Konfigurationsinformationen beinhaltet und bereits im Format der Zielplattform vorliegt. Eine SLA-Instanz entspricht damit dem Plattformspezifischen Modell (PSM) der MDA. Die Etablierung der SLA-Instanzen und die daraus resultierende Konfiguration des Managementsystems entspricht dem Plattformspezifischen Code (PSC) der MDA. Nach diesem Schritt ist das Managementsystem in der Lage, die im SLA vereinbarten Dienstgüteparameter eigenständig zu überwachen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde eine UML-Erweiterung definiert, die eine Modellierung von SLA-Mustern mit Hilfe eines UML-Werkzeugs ermöglicht. Hierbei kann die Modellierung rein graphisch als auch unter Einbeziehung der Object Constraint Language (OCL) erfolgen. Für die praktische Realisierung des Ansatzes wurde eine Managementarchitektur entwickelt, die im Rahmen eines Prototypen realisiert wurde. Der Gesamtansatz wurde anhand einer Fallstudie evaluiert.

Antike und moderne Strategien der Texterschließung

Lateinische Schriftsteller im Original zu lesen, fällt vielen Schülerinnen und Schülern in der Lektürephase des Lateinunterrichts schwer. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird untersucht, inwiefern gezielter Einsatz von Lernstrategien das Textverständnis verbessern kann. Strategisches Arbeiten mit Texten kann bereits zu einem sehr frühen Zeitpunkt in schriftbasierten Kulturen nachgewiesen werden. In dieser Arbeit werden Quellentexte aus der griechisch-römischen Antike und dem Mittelalter hinsichtlich texterschließender Strategien untersucht, systematisiert, kommentiert und im modernen Lateinunterricht eingesetzt. Dabei arbeiten die Schülerinnen und Schüler selbstgesteuert und forschend-entdeckend mit Reproduktionen antiker Papyri und Pergamente. Im Laufe des Unterrichtsprojektes, das ich CLAVIS, lat. für „Schlüssel“, nenne, lernen die Schüler im Zusammenhang mit Fachinhalten des Lateinunterrichts sechs antike Strategien der Texterschließung kennen. Diese Strategien werden heute noch genauso verwendet wie vor 2000 Jahren. Unter Berücksichtigung der Erkenntnisse der modernen Lernstrategieforschung wurden die Strategien ausgewählt, die als besonders effektive Maßnahmen zur Förderung von Textverständnis beurteilt werden, nämlich CONIUGATIO: Vorwissen aktivieren, LEGERE: mehrfaches und möglichst lautes Lesen, ACCIPERE: Hilfen annehmen, VERTERE: Übersetzen mit System, INTERROGARE: Fragen zulassen, SUMMA: Zusammenfassung erstellen. Ziel von CLAVIS ist es, Schülern ein Werkzeug zur systematischen Texterschließung an die Hand zu geben, das leicht zu merken ist und flexibel auf Texte jeder Art und jeder Sprache angewendet werden kann. Um die Effektivität des Unterrichtsprojektes CLAVIS zu überprüfen, wurde mit zwei parallel geführten 10. Klassen am Johann-Schöner-Gymnasium in Karlstadt im Schuljahr 2009/10 eine Vortest-Nachtest-Studie durchgeführt. Eine der Klassen wurde als Experimentalgruppe mit Intervention in Form von CLAVIS unterrichtet, die andere Klasse, die die Kontrollgruppe bildete, erhielt kein strategisches Training. Ein Fragebogen lieferte Informationen zur Vorgehensweise der Schüler bei der Textbearbeitung in Vortest und Nachtest (jeweils eine Übersetzung eines lateinischen Textes in identischem Schwierigkeitsgrad). Die Auswertung der Daten zeigte deutlich, dass Textverständnis und Übersetzungsfähigkeit sich bei denjenigen Schülern verbesserten, die die CLAVIS-Strategien im Nachtest angewendet hatten. Im Zusammenhang mit der Neugestaltung der Lehrpläne auf dem Hintergrund der Kompetenzorientierung ergeben sich für das Fach Latein neue Chancen, nicht nur inhaltlich wertvolle Zeugnisse der Antike zur allgemeinen, zweckfreien Persönlichkeitsbildung von Schülerinnen und Schülern einzusetzen, sondern gezielt Strategien zu vermitteln, die im Hinblick auf die in einer Informationsgesellschaft unverzichtbare Sprach- und Textkompetenz einen konkreten Nutzen haben.

La cláusula general antiabuso tributario en Colombia

En la Ley 1607 de 2012 se introdujo a nuestra legislación una cláusula general antiabuso en materia tributaria. Este trabajo busca analizar y determinar su aplicabilidad práctica, considerando sus elementos descriptivos y las circunstancias de realización de conductas abusivas, que concluyen en la elusión o reducción de un tributo.

The School of Museology Celje: regular, continuous, topical, quality form of education

At the School of Museology, a project with ten years of tradition, we carry out module-based programmes to educate and qualify different target audiences working in the filed of cultural heritage. Our development and realization of educational programmes and training courses directed at practical applicability, including life-long learning of adults, topic complementarity with related professional and scientific fields, connection with universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate studies of heritages, promotion of theoretical museological discourses raising awareness of the meaning of cultural heritage, firm placement in an international network of related institutions and promotion of international relations with special emphasis on neighbouring countries. We encourage project partnership and cooperate with different domestic and foreign associates in forming and carrying out programmes.

A transversalidade do tema meio ambiente na prática pedagógica

A educação é notadamente uma das ações mais importantes de mobilização socioambiental e cada vez mais se reconhece o papel transformador da escola frente às problemáticas ambientais. No ano de 1997 o Brasil publicou os PCNs (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais) que traziam os Temas Transversais, dentre eles o Meio Ambiente, para serem inseridos no cotidiano escolar. Esse contexto serviu de base para nossa investigação que teve por objetivo verificar como se dá a abordagem do tema Meio Ambiente, no que se refere à sua transversalidade, na prática pedagógica entre professores e alunos do ensino fundamental. Para tanto foi utilizada uma abordagem quanti-qualitativa, utilizando-se de técnicas como questionário e entrevistas, envolvendo 12 professores e 357 alunos de escolas públicas estaduais e municipais de dois municípios vizinhos, localizados no estado de Pernambuco, Brasil. A investigação esteve apoiada no pensamento de diversos autores, dentre os quais destacamos Carvalho, I. (2004, 2006, 2007); Gadotti, M. (2005, 2008, 2010); Gavidia, V. (2002); Guimarães, M. (2003, 2004, 2009); Leff, E. (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010); Loureiro, C. (2004, 2005, 2006); Reigotta, M. (2007, 2008, 2009) e Yus, R. (1998, 2002). Com a análise dos dados obtidos concluímos que o trabalho docente envolvendo o tema Meio Ambiente ainda não atingiu o patamar transversal, embora utilizando abordagens significativas, como projetos pedagógicos, a prática interdisciplinar que a transversalidade requer ainda não foi consolidada, indicando a necessidade de aperfeiçoamento profissional - teórico e prático - sobre a aplicabilidade do tema.

Thermoelectric transport properties through a T-shaped single quantum dot

We study the thermopower, thermal conductance, electric conductance and the thermoelectric figure of merit for a gate-defined T-shaped single quantum dot (QD). The QD is solved in the limit of strong Coulombian repulsion U -> infinity, inside the dot, and the quantum wire is modeled on a tight-binding linear chain. We employ the X-boson approach for the Anderson impurity model to describe the localized level within the quantum dot. Our results are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental reports and other theoretical researches for the case of a quantum dot embedded into a conduction channel, employing analogies between the two systems. The results for the thermopower sign as a function of the gate voltage (associated with the quantum dot energy) are in agreement with a recent experimental result obtained for a suspended quantum dot. The thermoelectric figure of merit times temperature results indicates that, at low temperatures and in the crossover between the intermediate valence and Kondo regimes, the system might have practical applicability in the development of thermoelectric devices. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A RIEMANN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO FEYNMANS PATH-INTEGRAL

It is a well known result that the Feynman's path integral (FPI) approach to quantum mechanics is equivalent to Schrodinger's equation when we use as integration measure the Wiener-Lebesgue measure. This results in little practical applicability due to the great algebraic complexibity involved, and the fact is that almost all applications of (FPI) - ''practical calculations'' - are done using a Riemann measure. In this paper we present an expansion to all orders in time of FPI in a quest for a representation of the latter solely in terms of differentiable trajetories and Riemann measure. We show that this expansion agrees with a similar expansion obtained from Schrodinger's equation only up to first order in a Riemann integral context, although by chance both expansions referred to above agree for the free. particle and harmonic oscillator cases. Our results permit, from the mathematical point of view, to estimate the many errors done in ''practical'' calculations of the FPI appearing in the literature and, from the physical point of view, our results supports the stochastic approach to the problem.

Science and technology policy and the National Innovation System in Argentina

Includes bibliography