A study of inputs and their influence on technological innovative activity

Technological innovation has been widely studied: however surprisingly little is known about the experience of managing the process. Most reports tend to be generalistic and/or prescriptive whereas it is argued that multiple sources of variation in the process limit the value of these. A description of the innovation process is given together with a presentation of what is knovrn from existing studies. Gaps identified in this area suggest that a variety of organisational influences are important and an attempt is made to identify some of these at individual, group and organisational level. A simple system model of the innovation management process is developed. Further investigation of the influence of these factors was made possible through an extended on-site case study. Methodology for this based upon participant observation coupled wth a wide and flexible range of techniques is described. Evidence is presented about many aspects of the innovation process from a number of different levels and perspectives: the attempt is to demonstrate the extent to which variation due to contingent influences takes place. It is argued that problems identified all relate to the issue of integration. This theme is also developed from an analytical viewoint and it is suggested that organisational response to increases in complexity in the external environment will be to match them with internal complexity. Differentiation of this kind will require extensive and flexible integration, especially in those inherently uncertain areas associated with innovation. Whilst traditionally a function of management, it is argued that integration needs have increased to the point where a new specialism is required. The concept of integration specialist is developed from this analysis and attempts at simple integrative change during the research are described. Finally a strategy for integration - or rather for building in integrative capability - ln the organisation studied is described.

The tribology of laminated magnetic recording heads

This thesis investigates the mechanisms that lead to pole tip recession (PTR) in laminated magnetic recording heads (also known as "sandwich heads"). These heads provide a platform for the utilisation of advanced soft magnetic thin films in practical recording heads suitable for high frequency helical scan tape recording systems. PTR results from a differential wear of the magnetic pole piece from the tape-bearing surface of the head. It results in a spacing loss of the playback or read signal of 54.6dB per recording wavelength separation of the poles from the tape. PTR depends on the material combination used in the head, on the tape type and the climate - temperature and relative humidity (r.h.). Five head materials were studied: two non-magnetic substrate materials- sintered multi granular CaTi03 and composite CaTi03/ZrTi04/Ti02 and three soft magnetic materials- amorphous CoNbZr, and nanocrystalline FeNbSiN and FeTaN. Single material dummy heads were constructed and their wear rates measured when cycling them in a Hi-8 camcorder against commercially available metal particulate (MP) and metal evaporated (ME) tapes in three different climates: 25°C/20%r.h., 25°C/80%r.h. and 40°C/80%r.h. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to examine changes the head surface chemistry. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to examine changes in head and tape surface topography. PTR versus cycling time of laminated heads of CaTi03/ZrTiO4/Ti02 and FeTaN construction was measured using AFM. The principal wear mechanism observed for all head materials was microabrasion caused by the mating body - the tape surface. The variation in wear rate with climate and tape type was due to a variation in severity in this mechanism, except for tape cycling at 40°C in which gross damage was observed to be occurring to the head surface. Two subsidiary wear mechanisms were found: third body scratching (all materials) and grain pullout (both ceramics and FeNbSiN). No chemical wear was observed, though tribochemical reactions were observed on the metal head surfaces. PTR was found to be caused by two mechanisms - the first differential microabrasion of the metal and substrate materials and which was characterised by a low (~10nm) equilibrium value. The second was by deep ploughing by third body debris particles, thought mainly to be grain pullout particles. This level of PTR caused by this mechanism was often more severe, and of a non-equilibrium nature. It was observed more for ME tape, especially at 40°C/80%r.h. and 25°c/20%r.h. Two other phenomena on the laminated head pole piece were observed and commented upon: staining and ripple texturing.

A theoretical and experimental analysis of the no-load air gap magnetic field in squirrel cage induction machines

In induction machines the tooth frequency losses due to permeance variation constitute a signif'icant, portion of the total loss. In order to predict and estimate these losses it, is essential to obtain a clear understanding of the no-load distribution of the air gap magnetic field and the magnitude of flux pulsation in both stator and rotor teeth. The existing theories and methods by which the air gap permeance variation in a doubly slotted structure is calculated are either empirical or restricted. The main objective of this thesis is to obtain a detailed analysis of the no-load air gap magnetic field distribution and the effect of air gap geometry on the magnitude and waveform of the tooth flux pulsation. In this thesis a detaiiled theoretical and experimental analysis of flux distribution not only leads to a better understanding of the distribution of no-load losses but also provides theoretical analysis for calculating the losses with greater accuracy

Creep and fatigue of a single crystal nickel base superalloy

The introduction of single crystal casting techniques has led to the development of existing nickel-base superalloys to produce materials with optimum mechanical properties in the single crystal condition. As single crystals are known to be anisotropic, a study is needed to determine the general mechanical properties of these materials, and determine the effects of crystal orientation upon them. A study has been carried out to identify the effect of orientation and temperature on the creep and fatigue properties of a development single crystal superalloy, SRR 99. Creep testing and crystal rotation experiments have been made on SRR 99 and an earlier development alloy, SRR 9. Fatigue experiments at elevated temperatures have been carried out on both notched and un-notched specimens of alloy SRR 99. To aid in this analysis, several analytical techniques have been employed including Laue x-ray orientation analysis, measurement of strain by photographic methods and microstructural examination. Crystal rotation experiments have indicated that shear of 1 precipitates by lbrace111rbrace< 112> slip systems is operative during primary creep deformation at temperatures of 750oC and 850oC. The effect of orientation variation obtained by standard casting practices was not found to be significant. Creep rupture was found to be associated with multiple crack initiation from micropores. Fatigue crack initiation in un-notched specimens was found to be related to microporosity and microstructural defects. Failure was predominantly by crystallographic crack growth on lbrace111rbrace planes. The use of linear elastic fracture mechanics to describe fatigue crack propagation in alloy SRR 99 was found to be acceptable at temperatures up to 850oC. Variation of temperature, frequency and crystal orientation was found to have only moderate effect upon crack propagation rates.

Individual differences in the sensory perception of fats

Excessive consumption of dietary fat is acknowledged to be a widespread problem linked to a range of medical conditions. Despite this, little is known about the specific sensory appeal held by fats and no previous published research exists concerning human perception of non-textural taste qualities in fats. This research aimed to address whether a taste component can be found in sensory perception of pure fats. It also examined whether individual differences existed in human taste responses to fat, using both aggregated data analysis methods and multidimensional scaling. Results indicated that individuals were able to detect both the primary taste qualities of sweet, salty, sour and bitter in pure processed oils and reliably ascribe their own individually-generated taste labels, suggested that a taste component may be present in human responses to fat. Individual variation appeared to exist, both in the perception of given taste qualities and in perceived intensity and preferences. A number of factors were examined in relation to such individual differences in taste perception, including age, gender, genetic sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil, body mass, dietary preferences and intake, dieting behaviours and restraint. Results revealed that, to varying extents, gender, age, sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil, dietary preferences, habitual dietary intake and restraint all appeared to be related to individual variation in taste responses to fat. However, in general, these differences appeared to exist in the form of differing preferences and levels of intensity with which taste qualities detected in fat were perceived, as opposed to the perception of specific taste qualities being associated with given traits or states. Equally, each of these factors appeared to exert only a limited influence upon variation in sensory responses and thus the potential for using taste responses to fats as a marker for issues such as over-consumption, obesity or eating disorder is at present limited.

Experimental and theoretical studies on a distributed temperature sensor based on Brillouin scattering

Results are reported from recent research on the use of the Brillouin gain/loss mechanism for distributed sensing. A theoretical model of the interaction of the pulsed and CW beams is described and compared with experiments. Results from a system with a 51 km sensing length are presented. We finally investigate issues related to the variation within the sensing fiber of the polarizations of the two beams.

A structural investigation of the alkali metal site distribution within bioactive glass using neutron diffraction and multinuclear solid state NMR

The atomic-scale structure of Bioglass and the effect of substituting lithium for sodium within these glasses have been investigated using neutron diffraction and solid state magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR. Applying an effective isomorphic substitution difference function to the neutron diffraction data has enabled the Na-O and Li-O nearest-neighbour correlations to be isolated from the overlapping Ca-O, O-(P)-O and O-(Si)-O correlations. These results reveal that Na and Li behave in a similar manner within the glassy matrix and do not disrupt the short range order of the network former. Residual differences are attributed solely to the variation in ionic radius between the two species. Successful simplification of the 2

Investigation of EDFA power transients in circuit-switched and packet-switched optical networks

Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers (EDFA’s) are a key technology for the design of all optical communication systems and networks. The superiority of EDFAs lies in their negligible intermodulation distortion across high speed multichannel signals, low intrinsic losses, slow gain dynamics, and gain in a wide range of optical wavelengths. Due to long lifetime in excited states, EDFAs do not oppose the effect of cross-gain saturation. The time characteristics of the gain saturation and recovery effects are between a few hundred microseconds and 10 milliseconds. However, in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks with EDFAs, the number of channels traversing an EDFA can change due to the faulty link of the network or the system reconfiguration. It has been found that, due to the variation in channel number in the EDFAs chain, the output system powers of surviving channels can change in a very short time. Thus, the power transient is one of the problems deteriorating system performance. In this thesis, the transient phenomenon in wavelength routed WDM optical networks with EDFA chains was investigated. The task was performed using different input signal powers for circuit switched networks. A simulator for the EDFA gain dynamicmodel was developed to compute the magnitude and speed of the power transients in the non-self-saturated EDFA both single and chained. The dynamic model of the self-saturated EDFAs chain and its simulator were also developed to compute the magnitude and speed of the power transients and the Optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). We found that the OSNR transient magnitude and speed are a function of both the output power transient and the number of EDFAs in the chain. The OSNR value predicts the level of the quality of service in the related network. It was found that the power transients for both self-saturated and non-self-saturated EDFAs are close in magnitude in the case of gain saturated EDFAs networks. Moreover, the cross-gain saturation also degrades the performance of the packet switching networks due to varying traffic characteristics. The magnitude and the speed of output power transients increase along the EDFAs chain. An investigation was done on the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or the WDM Internet protocol (WDM-IP) traffic networks using different traffic patterns based on the Pareto and Poisson distribution. The simulator is used to examine the amount and speed of the power transients in Pareto and Poisson distributed traffic at different bit rates, with specific focus on 2.5 Gb/s. It was found from numerical and statistical analysis that the power swing increases if the time interval of theburst-ON/burst-OFF is long in the packet bursts. This is because the gain dynamics is fast during strong signal pulse or with long duration pulses, which is due to the stimulatedemission avalanche depletion of the excited ions. Thus, an increase in output power levelcould lead to error burst which affects the system performance.

Executive remuneration, financial performance and corporate governance in UK and Spanish listed firms

This study examines the relationship between executive directors’ remuneration and the financial performance and corporate governance arrangements of the UK and Spanish listed firms. These countries’ corporate governance framework has been shaped by differences in legal origin, culture and backgrounds. For example, the UK legal arrangements can be defined as to be constituted in common-law, whereas for Spanish firms, the legal arrangement is based on civil law. We estimate both static and dynamic regression models to test our hypotheses and we estimate our regression using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). Estimated results for both countries show that directors’ remuneration levels are positively related with measures of firm value and financial performance. This means that remuneration levels do not lead to a point whereby firm value is reduced due to excessive remuneration. These results hold for our long-run estimates. That is, estimates based on panel cointegration and panel error correction. Measures of corporate governance also impacts on the level of executive pay. Our results have important implications for existing corporate governance arrangements and how the interests of stakeholders are protected. For example, long-run results suggest that directors’ remuneration adjusts in a way to capture variation in financial performance

Albumin in tears

Albumin is not endogenous to the tear film and is present as a product of plasma leakage. It is used as a diagnostic marker of ocular insult and inflammation. Tear albumin is, however, poorly understood, with large variations in reported concentrations between studies. There is also no authoritative information on whether its presence in tears is responsive or part of an adaptive reaction.The presented research aimed to resolve the disparities in published tear albumin concentrations and investigate the role of albumin in the tear film. Collation and evaluation of the available literature identified collection method, stimulus, assay technique, and disease state as factors able to influence quoted tear albumin to different extents. Difference in sampling technique exhibited the largest variations in mean tear albumin concentrations. Review of the literature also highlighted that little systematic investigations of the daily cycle of tear albumin levels, and subject-to-subject-variation, had been carried out. In order to remedy this shortcoming, variations in tear albumin concentration were investigated in 13 subjects throughout the waking day. Results identified a time period where albumin levels are relatively stable (2-6 hours post-waking). This was designated a suitable baseline for the determinations of tear albumin concentrations and subject-to-subject comparisons. Significantly, a previously unrecognised progressive increase in albumin concentration during the latter part of the day was also identified in the population. This increase suggests that albumin may play a more active and dynamic role in the ocular environment than is commonly perceived. To facilitate the collection of additional tear albumin data, tear sampling and point-of-care analysis in contact lens clinics were investigated. Two instruments were evaluated and were found to be suitable for the analysis of tear albumin in commercial institutions. Collectively, the described research has provided new insight into tear albumin and a strong foundation for further studies.

Editorial:knowledge flows, learning and development in an international context

In the editorial of this special issue we argue that knowledge flows, learning and development are becoming increasingly important in all organisations operating in an international context. The possession of capabilities relating to acquisition, configuration and transfer of relevant knowledge effectively within and across different organisational units, teams, and countries is integrally related to superior organisational performance. In mastering such capabilities, internationalised organisations need to grapple with the inherent challenges relating to contextual variation and different work modes between subsidiaries, partners or team members. The papers in this special issue cast light on crucial aspects of knowledge flows, learning and development in internationalised organisations. Their contribution varies from the provision of frameworks to systematise investigation of these issues, to empirical evidence about effective mechanisms, as well as enabling and constraining forces, in facilitating knowledge transfer, learning and human capital development. © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The impact of the Val158Met catechol-O-methyltransferase genotype on neural correlates of sad facial affect processing in patients with bipolar disorder and their relatives

Background - The Met allele of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) valine-to-methionine (Val158Met) polymorphism is known to affect dopamine-dependent affective regulation within amygdala-prefrontal cortical (PFC) networks. It is also thought to increase the risk of a number of disorders characterized by affective morbidity including bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders. The disease risk conferred is small, suggesting that this polymorphism represents a modifier locus. Therefore our aim was to investigate how the COMT Val158Met may contribute to phenotypic variation in clinical diagnosis using sad facial affect processing as a probe for its neural action. Method - We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure activation in the amygdala, ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) and ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC) during sad facial affect processing in family members with BD (n=40), MDD and anxiety disorders (n=22) or no psychiatric diagnosis (n=25) and 50 healthy controls. Results - Irrespective of clinical phenotype, the Val158 allele was associated with greater amygdala activation and the Met allele with greater signal change in the vmPFC and vlPFC. Signal changes in the amygdala and vmPFC were not associated with disease expression. However, in the right vlPFC the Met158 allele was associated with greater activation in all family members with affective morbidity compared with relatives without a psychiatric diagnosis and healthy controls. Conclusions - Our results suggest that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism has a pleiotropic effect within the neural networks subserving emotional processing. Furthermore the Met158 allele further reduces cortical efficiency in the vlPFC in individuals with affective morbidity. © 2010 Cambridge University Press.

Modelling the human accommodation system using finite element analysis

The human accommodation system has been extensively examined for over a century, with a particular focus on trying to understand the mechanisms that lead to the loss of accommodative ability with age (Presbyopia). The accommodative process, along with the potential causes of presbyopia, are disputed; hindering efforts to develop methods of restoring accommodation in the presbyopic eye. One method that can be used to provide insight into this complex area is Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The effectiveness of FEA in modelling the accommodative process has been illustrated by a number of accommodative FEA models developed to date. However, there have been limitations to these previous models; principally due to the variation in data on the geometry of the accommodative components, combined with sparse measurements of their material properties. Despite advances in available data, continued oversimplification has occurred in the modelling of the crystalline lens structure and the zonular fibres that surround the lens. A new accommodation model was proposed by the author that aims to eliminate these limitations. A novel representation of the zonular structure was developed, combined with updated lens and capsule modelling methods. The model has been designed to be adaptable so that a range of different age accommodation systems can be modelled, allowing the age related changes that occur to be simulated. The new modelling methods were validated by comparing the changes induced within the model to available in vivo data, leading to the definition of three different age models. These were used in an extended sensitivity study on age related changes, where individual parameters were altered to investigate their effect on the accommodative process. The material properties were found to have the largest impact on the decline in accommodative ability, in particular compared to changes in ciliary body movement or zonular structure. Novel data on the importance of the capsule stiffness and thickness was also established. The new model detailed within this thesis provides further insight into the accommodation mechanism, as well as a foundation for future, more detailed investigations into accommodation, presbyopia and accommodative restoration techniques.

Experimental and theoretical studies on a distributed temperature sensor based on Brillouin scattering

Results are reported from recent research on the use of the Brillouin gain/loss mechanism for distributed sensing. A theoretical model of the interaction of the pulsed and CW beams is described and compared with experiments. Results from a system with a 51 km sensing length are presented. We finally investigate issues related to the variation within the sensing fiber of the polarizations of the two beams.

An analysis of research on the future of purchasing and supply management

Business organisations are going through rapid external environmental and internal organisational changes due to increasing globalisation, E-business, and outsourcing. As a result, the future of purchasing and supply management—as a function within organisations, as a process that spans organisation boundaries and as a profession—raises important concerns for both organisations and the purchasing professional. This paper considers a broad and rather fragmented body of empirical evidence and analyses 42 relevant empirical studies on the future of purchasing and supply management. The major findings are reported in terms of changes in business contexts, purchasing strategy, structure, role and responsibility, system development and skills. Cross-sectional comparative analyses were also conducted to examine variation by sector, firm type, people's roles in purchasing, and country. A number of major implications for the purchasing function, process and professional bodies are presented together with suggestions for future research to address significant gaps in the current body of knowledge.