MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE:New Business Models Applying Wireless Technology as a Source of Competitive Edge

The diffusion of mobile telephony began in 1971 in Finland, when the first car phones, called ARP1 were taken to use. Technologies changed from ARP to NMT and later to GSM. The main application of the technology, however, was voice transfer. The birth of the Internet created an open public data network and easy access to other types of computer-based services over networks. Telephones had been used as modems, but the development of the cellular technologies enabled automatic access from mobile phones to Internet. Also other wireless technologies, for instance Wireless LANs, were also introduced. Telephony had developed from analog to digital in fixed networks and allowed easy integration of fixed and mobile networks. This development opened a completely new functionality to computers and mobile phones. It also initiated the merger of the information technology (IT) and telecommunication (TC) industries. Despite the arising opportunity for firms' new competition the applications based on the new functionality were rare. Furthermore, technology development combined with innovation can be disruptive to industries. This research focuses on the new technology's impact on competition in the ICT industry through understanding the strategic needs and alternative futures of the industry's customers. The change speed inthe ICT industry is high and therefore it was valuable to integrate the DynamicCapability view of the firm in this research. Dynamic capabilities are an application of the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm. As is stated in the literature, strategic positioning complements RBV. This theoretical framework leads theresearch to focus on three areas: customer strategic innovation and business model development, external future analysis, and process development combining these two. The theoretical contribution of the research is in the development of methodology integrating theories of the RBV, dynamic capabilities and strategic positioning. The research approach has been constructive due to the actual managerial problems initiating the study. The requirement for iterative and innovative progress in the research supported the chosen research approach. The study applies known methods in product development, for instance, innovation process in theGroup Decision Support Systems (GDSS) laboratory and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and combines them with known strategy analysis tools like industry analysis and scenario method. As the main result, the thesis presents the strategic innovation process, where new business concepts are used to describe the alternative resource configurations and scenarios as alternative competitive environments, which can be a new way for firms to achieve competitive advantage in high-velocity markets. In addition to the strategic innovation process as a result, thestudy has also resulted in approximately 250 new innovations for the participating firms, reduced technology uncertainty and helped strategic infrastructural decisions in the firms, and produced a knowledge-bank including data from 43 ICT and 19 paper industry firms between the years 1999 - 2004. The methods presentedin this research are also applicable to other industries.

Welding time models for cost calculations in the early stages of the design process

It is generally accepted that between 70 and 80% of manufacturing costs can be attributed to design. Nevertheless, it is difficult for the designer to estimate manufacturing costs accurately, especially when alternative constructions are compared at the conceptual design phase, because of the lack of cost information and appropriate tools. In general, previous reports concerning optimisation of a welded structure have used the mass of the product as the basis for the cost comparison. However, it can easily be shown using a simple example that the use of product mass as the sole manufacturing cost estimator is unsatisfactory. This study describes a method of formulating welding time models for cost calculation, and presents the results of the models for particular sections, based on typical costs in Finland. This was achieved by collecting information concerning welded products from different companies. The data included 71 different welded assemblies taken from the mechanical engineering and construction industries. The welded assemblies contained in total 1 589 welded parts, 4 257 separate welds, and a total welded length of 3 188 metres. The data were modelled for statistical calculations, and models of welding time were derived by using linear regression analysis. Themodels were tested by using appropriate statistical methods, and were found to be accurate. General welding time models have been developed, valid for welding in Finland, as well as specific, more accurate models for particular companies. The models are presented in such a form that they can be used easily by a designer, enabling the cost calculation to be automated.

Applying the principles of life cycle assessment and costing in process modeling to examine profit-making capability

Static process simulation has traditionally been used to model complex processes for various purposes. However, the use of static processsimulators for the preparation of holistic examinations aiming at improving profit-making capability requires a lot of work because the production of results requires the assessment of the applicability of detailed data which may be irrelevant to the objective. The relevant data for the total assessment gets buried byirrelevant data. Furthermore, the models do not include an examination of the maintenance or risk management, and economic examination is often an extra property added to them which can be performed with a spreadsheet program. A process model applicable to holistic economic examinations has been developed in this work. The model is based on the life cycle profit philosophy developed by Hagberg and Henriksson in 1996. The construction of the model has utilized life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methodologies with a view to developing, above all, a model which would be applicable to the economic examinations of complete wholes and which would require the need for information focusing on aspects essential to the objectives. Life cycle assessment and costing differ from each other in terms of the modeling principles, but the features of bothmethodologies can be used in the development of economic process modeling. Methods applicable to the modeling of complex processes can be examined from the viewpoint of life cycle methodologies, because they involve the collection and management of large corpuses of information and the production of information for the needs of decision-makers as well. The results of the study shows that on the basis of the principles of life cycle modeling, a process model can be created which may be used to produce holistic efficiency examinations on the profit-making capability of the production line, with fewer resources thanwith traditional methods. The calculations of the model are based to the maximum extent on the information system of the factory, which means that the accuracyof the results can be improved by developing information systems so that they can provide the best information for this kind of examinations.

Studies on coordination of systems development process

This thesis examines coordination of systems development process in a contemporary software producing organization. The thesis consists of a series of empirical studies in which the actions, conceptions and artifacts of practitioners are analyzed using a theory-building case study research approach. The three phases of the thesis provide empirical observations on different aspects of systemsdevelopment. In the first phase is examined the role of architecture in coordination and cost estimation in multi-site environment. The second phase involves two studies on the evolving requirement understanding process and how to measure this process. The third phase summarizes the first two phases and concentrates on the role of methods and how practitioners work with them. All the phases provide evidence that current systems development method approaches are too naïve in looking at the complexity of the real world. In practice, development is influenced by opportunity and other contingent factors. The systems development processis not coordinated using phases and tasks defined in methods providing universal mechanism for managing this process like most of the method approaches assume.Instead, the studies suggest that managing systems development process happens through coordinating development activities using methods as tools. These studies contribute to the systems development methods by emphasizing the support of communication and collaboration between systems development participants. Methods should not describe the development activities and phases in a detail level, butshould include the higher level guidance for practitioners on how to act in different systems development environments.

Studies on the characterization of dental whitening process by using both hyperspectral imaging and colorimeter techniques

A beautiful smile is directly related with white teeth. Nowadays oral care has increased and developed processes for beautiful smiles. Dental bleaching is frequently used in odontology, not just for health care also for aesthetic treatment. With the possibility of teeth bleaching, now the importance is in, how white the tooth is? Because color is relate to an individual perception. In order to assets teeth correct color identification has been developed many color guides, models, spaces and analytical methods. Spite all of these useful tools the color interpretation depends on environmental factors, position of the sample in the data acquisition and most importantly the instrument sensitivity. The commons methods have proved to be useful. They are easy to handle, some are portable but they do not have a high sensitivity. The present work is based on the integration of a new analytical technique for color acquisition. High spectral Image (HSI) is able to performed image analysis with high quality and efficiency. HSI is used in many fields and we used it for color image analysis within the bleaching process. The main comparison was done with the HSI and the colorimeter through the processes of two different bleaching protocols. The results showed that HSI has higher sensitivity than the colorimeter. During the analysis the dental surface with the HSI we were able to notice surface changes. These changes were analyzed by roughness studies.

Indol-butyric acid levels on cashew cloning by air-layering process

A study was conducted to determine the possibility of cashew (Anacardium occidentale) cloning by air-layering and influence of IBA (indol-butyric acid) on this process. It was adopted a completely randomized design with 4 treatments, 10 air layers each and 4 replications, reaching 160 air layers. The IBA levels on the treatments were, as follow: 0, 1000, 3000 and 5000 mg.kg-1. It was evaluated: survival, callus and rooting percentage, average number and length of roots. The highest survival rate (67.5%) was registered with no growth regulator and IBA at 1000 mg.kg-1, while the best rooting percentage (82%) referred to 1000 mg.kg-1. In spite of average number and length of roots, the highest results were observed with IBA at 5000 mg.kg-1. IBA concentrations had no influence on cashew air-layering formation.

The biological basis of the aging process

El procés biològic bàsic subjacent de l’envelliment va ésser avançat per la teoria de l’envelliment basada en els radicals lliures l’any 1954: la reacció dels radicals lliures actius, produïts fisiològicament en l’organisme, amb els constituents cel·lulars inicia els canvis associats a l’envelliment. La implicació dels radicals lliures en l’envelliment està relacionada amb el seu paper clau en l’origen i l’evolució de la vida. La informació disponible avui en dia ens mostra que la composició específica de les macromolècules cel·lulars (proteïnes, àcids nucleics, lípids i carbohidrats) en les espècies animals longeves tenen intrínsicament una resistència elevada a la modificació oxidativa, la qual cosa probablement contribueix a la longevitat superior d’aquestes espècies. Les espècies longeves també mostren unes taxes reduïdes de producció de radicals lliures i de lesió oxidativa. D’altra banda, la restricció dietària disminueix la producció de radicals lliures i la lesió molecular oxidativa. Aquests canvis estan directament associats a la reducció de la ingesta de proteïnes dels animals sotmesos a restricció, que alhora sembla que són deguts específicament a la reducció de la ingesta de metionina. En aquesta revisió s’emfatitza que una taxa baixa de generació de lesió endògena i una resistència intrínsecament elevada a la modificació de les macromolècules cel·lulars són trets clau de la longevitat de les espècies animals.

Integrating defeasible argumentation with fuzzy ART neural networks for pattern classification

Many classification systems rely on clustering techniques in which a collection of training examples is provided as an input, and a number of clusters c1,...cm modelling some concept C results as an output, such that every cluster ci is labelled as positive or negative. Given a new, unlabelled instance enew, the above classification is used to determine to which particular cluster ci this new instance belongs. In such a setting clusters can overlap, and a new unlabelled instance can be assigned to more than one cluster with conflicting labels. In the literature, such a case is usually solved non-deterministically by making a random choice. This paper presents a novel, hybrid approach to solve this situation by combining a neural network for classification along with a defeasible argumentation framework which models preference criteria for performing clustering.

Breaking up the writing process: how wikis can support understanding the composition and revision strategies of young writers

Understanding how best to support immature writers in the development of their understanding of the writing process is an important concern for researchers and teachers. Social technologies have become key features of leisure and work place writing, yet knowledge about how to design educational settings that take full advantage of the affordances of web 2.0 technologies to support early writing is scarce. This paper presents a small scale study that investigated how writing in a wiki environment might facilitate and support students’ use of composition and revision strategies. Our findings show that wiki can enlarge young writers’ experience of the process of composition and revision both through their own efforts and by observing the process in others. In this study students employed a wide range of types of revisions both surface and text based changes. These revisions took place during the process of composition as well as at the end. It is argued here that writing in a wiki not only provides young writers with experience of a mode of composition prevalent in the contemporary work environment, but breaks up the process of writing in a way that may support students’ understanding of the processes of composition and revision.

Translation as a Process and Translation as a Product in Teaching Translation

L'ensenyament de la traducció s'ha utilitzat tradicionalment en algunes titulacions de filologia com a eina d'aprenentatge d'habilitats de la llengua. Aquesta circumstància, però, no ha d'estar renyida amb la producció d'una traducció acceptable. En aquest article es pretén analitzar si pot aconseguir-se aquest objectiu mitjançant la incorporació d'informació extratextual en l'enunciat de l'exercici de traducció. Els resultats obtinguts amb un grup d'estudiants de filologia mostren que en les seves decisions lingüístiques va tenir un pes important el tipus d'informació extratextual adjunta als textes originals anglesos. Si bé caldria fer un esforç investigador més sistemàtic per poder afirmar-ho categòricament, aquest estudi intenta esbossar la qüestió tan discutida de fins on l'aprenentatge d'una llengua s'ha de realitzar junt amb l'aprenentatge de la traducció. Aquest estudi, també, planteja la necessitat d'incorporar informació extratextual en l'aprenentatge de la traducció, independentment de la titulació que en aquests estudis s'insereixen.

A survey on the inverse integrating factor

The relation between limit cycles of planar differential systems and the inverse integrating factor was first shown in an article of Giacomini, Llibre and Viano appeared in 1996. From that moment on, many research articles are devoted to the study of the properties of the inverse integrating factor and its relationwith limit cycles and their bifurcations. This paper is a summary of all the results about this topic. We include a list of references together with the corresponding related results aiming at being as much exhaustive as possible. The paper is, nonetheless, self-contained in such a way that all the main results on the inverse integrating factor are stated and a complete overview of the subject is given. Each section contains a different issue to which the inverse integrating factor plays a role: the integrability problem, relation with Lie symmetries, the center problem, vanishing set of an inverse integrating factor, bifurcation of limit cycles from either a period annulus or from a monodromic ω-limit set and some generalizations.

Optimizing the Testing Process in Module Testing – Functional Testing Interface

Today's business environment has become increasingly unexpected and fast changing because of the global competition. This new environment requires the companies to organize their control differently, e.g. by logistic process thinking. Logistic process thinking in software engineering applies the principles of production process to immaterial products. Processes must be optimized, so that every phase adds value to the customer, and the lead times can be cut shorter to meet the new customer requirements. The purpose of this thesis is to examine and optimize the testing processes of software engineering concentrating on module testing, functional testing and their interface. The concept of logistic process thinking is introduced through production process, value added model and process management. Also theory of testing based on literature is presented, concentrating on module testing and functional testing. The testing processes of the Case Company are presented together with the project models in which they are implemented. The real life practices in module testing and functional testing and their interface are examined through interviews. These practices are analyzed against the processes and the testing theory, through which ideas for optimizing the testing process are introduced. The project world of the Case Company is also introduced together with two example testing projects in different life cycle phases. The examples give a view of how much effort of the project is put in different types of testing.

An ethanol-based process to simultaneously extract and fractionate carotenoids from Mauritia flexuosa L. Pulp

Mauritia vinifera (buriti) is a palm tree that grows wild in different areas of Brazil, particularly in the Amazonian region. The buriti oil is rich in carotenoids, especially in β-carotene. The growing interest in other natural sources of β-carotene has stimulated the industrial use of buriti as a raw material for pulp oil extraction. Most processes are based on the conventional technologies, involving drying and pressing the pulp for oil recovery and further separation of carotenoids in a liquid phase using organics solvents. In the present work, the ethanol-based process was evaluated for simultaneous carotenoids recovering and fractionating from buriti pulp. The raw material and ethanol, 1:4 ratio, were placed in an erlenmeyer flask and maintained at 30rpm for 1 hour in a temperature-controlled bath at 65ºC. The mixture was filtered under vacuum and cooling at 10ºC to allow for the separation of the solvent in two phases. Carotenoids composition, determined by HPLC, has indicated a β-carotene concentration about 12 times greater in the lower phase than in the upper phase. The profile of the carotenoids in the denser phase is quite similar to that of raw buriti oil, and the concentration of total carotenoids is 40% higher than that of the original raw oil, making the ethanol-based process particularly attractive for industrial applications.