PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the most prominent barriers to public sector innovation, but also display what an innovation hub can do to help bypass such barriers.Design/methodology/approachThis is an embedded case study with a deductive approach investigating innovation barriers in the public sector after a model of 8 different barriers which are all examined through a theoretical thematic analysis.FindingsLimited resources, poor leadership as well as limiting laws and regulations were revealed to be the greatest barriers to public sector innovation. A lack of incentives and rewards and resistant users and suppliers were deemed not to hinder innovation especially. Innovation hubs can help bypass these barriers by bringing in external resources as money and substitutes, but also by offering public sector employees a platform to meet between organizational units, thereby allowing them to circumvent risk-avoiding cultures and ill-fitting structures to innovation that tend to exist in the public sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to innovational projects of one hub, situated in a relatively small town in Sweden. The results might not be fully transferable to other countries or contexts.Practical implicationsThe results of the study could give an indication to public sectors what use an innovation hub can have in bypassing barriers to innovation.Originality/valueFew studies have addressed the role of innovation hubs in the public sector, especially in combination with innovation barriers.

This work is focused on designing a hub-and-spoke in-bound supply chain networks for coal plants. Biomass and coal are coired to produce electricity. One of the main reasons for focusing this study on biomass supply to coal plants is that biomass, in the form of forest and agricultural waste, is cleaner to burn as compared to coal. The user, most likely a supply chain manager or production control engineer, would input their supplier locations, costs and biomass availability. The mathematical model which supports this DSS is a mixed-integer program. The model uses this input to identify optimal order quantities which optimize costs. This DSS helps address the logistical issues of determining the in-bound supply chain network to transport biomass to coal plants.

Arbetet består av bilder och ritningar som utgör förslag till ett lärocenter på Slakthusområdet, en byggnad med studierum, matsal och aula m.m. åt elever från ett antal gymnasieskolor. Ingången till projektet var att välja ut befintliga arkitektoniska element i det gamla industriområdet och applicera dess kvaliteter på den tilltänkta arkitekturen. Ett val föll exempelvis på stadsdelens skarpa möten mellan fasad och gata, vilket gör det möjligt för människor, lastbilar och gaffeltruckar att röra sig obehindrat mellan husen. Campushuset gavs ett likadant gränssnitt och även en förlängning av markbeläggningen in i byggnaden, vilket vill markera gymnasieelevernas fria rörlighet mellan sina respektive skolor och Campushuset. Greppet - inspirerat av bricolagets metod - redovisas i tre skisser och tre diagram. Utöver det vilar gestaltningen av projektet på funktion och rumsupplevelse. Den sistnämnda tar hjälp av varierade rumsstorlekar såväl som riktade vyer och ljusinsläpp. Det slutgiltiga förslaget kan liknas vid en stor villa, karaktäriserad av stora fönsteröppningar, smala trappor, nischer och balkonger, vars bärande stomme i lättbetong och tegel utgör det rumsskapande elementet. / The work consists of images and drawings which represent a proposal for a learning center on Slakthusområdet. A building with study rooms, canteen, auditorium etc. for pupils from a number of senior high schools. The initial take on the project was to select existing architectonic elements in the industrial area and apply their qualities on the intended architecture. For example one choice fell on the sharp meetings between facades and streets in the neighbourhood, which allows people, trucks and forklifts to move unobstructed between the houses. The learning center was given a similar interface and also an extension of the paved surface into the building, which wants to mark the students free movement between their respective schools and the campus house. The take - inspired by the bricolage method - is presented in three sketches and three diagrams. Apart from that the formation of the project relies on functionality and spacial experience. The last mentioned is performed through varied room sizes as well as directed views and natural light. The final proposal kan be compared with a villa, characterized with large window openings, narrow stairs, niches and balconies, whose loadbearing structure in lightweight concrete and brick make up the space-creating element.

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Yes / The COSMOS Database (DB) was originally established to provide reliable data for cosmetics-related chemicals within the COSMOS Project funded as part of the SEURAT-1 Research Initiative. The database has subsequently been maintained and developed further into COSMOS Next Generation (NG), a combination of database and in silico tools, essential components of a knowledge base. COSMOS DB provided a cosmetics inventory as well as other regulatory inventories, accompanied by assessment results and in vitro and in vivo toxicity data. In addition to data content curation, much effort was dedicated to data governance - data authorisation, characterisation of quality, documentation of meta information, and control of data use. Through this effort, COSMOS DB was able to merge and fuse data of various types from different sources. Building on the previous effort, the COSMOS Minimum Inclusion (MINIS) criteria for a toxicity database were further expanded to quantify the reliability of studies. COSMOS NG features multiple fingerprints for analysing structure similarity, and new tools to calculate molecular properties and screen chemicals with endpoint-related public profilers, such as DNA and protein binders, liver alerts and genotoxic alerts. The publicly available COSMOS NG enables users to compile information and execute analyses such as category formation and read-across. This paper provides a step-by-step guided workflow for a simple read-across case, starting from a target structure and culminating in an estimation of a NOAEL confidence interval. Given its strong technical foundation, inclusion of quality-reviewed data, and provision of tools designed to facilitate communication between users, COSMOS NG is a first step towards building a toxicological knowledge hub leveraging many public data systems for chemical safety evaluation. We continue to monitor the feedback from the user community at support@mn-am.com.

The project is for the central building of a community center used by the communities of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The building is a space configured as a hub that uses axes to determine entering, exiting and vertical movement. The hub configuration of the building is in concentric rings around the atrium in both space and materials. As materials were brought into the building, they enhanced the strong axial configuration and emphasized the layers surrounding the central hub space of the atrium. There are two pairs of axes in the building. The entrance axes are perpendicular to the faces of the building and provide lines of sight through it. They also establish the paths of entering and exiting the building. The diagonal axes regulate the vertical movement throughout the building. / Master of Architecture

ABSTRACT A GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR p-HUB CENTER PROBLEM WITH STOCHASTIC SERVICE LEVEL CONSTRAINTS Eraslan Demirci, S&uuml / kran M.Sc., Department of Industrial Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Sedef Meral December 2010, 170 pages The emphasis on minimizing the costs and travel times in a network of origins and destinations has led the researchers to widely study the hub location problems in the area of location theory in which locating the hub facilities and designing the hub networks are the issues. The p-hub center problem considering these issues is the subject of this study. p-hub center problem with stochastic service level constraints and a limitation on the travel times between the nodes and hubs is addressed, which is an uncapacitated, single allocation problem with a complete hub network. Both a mathematical model and a genetic algorithm are proposed for the problem. We discuss the general framework of the genetic algorithm as well as the problem-specific components of algorithm. The computational studies of the proposed algorithm are realized on a number of problem instances from Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) data set and Turkish network data set. The computational results indicate that the proposed genetic algorithm gives satisfactory results when compared with the optimum solutions and solutions obtained with other heuristic methods.

Society is facing a great sustainability challenge, where the design of its social systems has made it increasingly difficult for the planet to support humanity. Given the complexity of the sustainability challenge, the planet requires a shift in the way society is organised and a commitment to sustainability from individuals and communities. This thesis explores how neighbourhood hubs can serve as a platform to engage individuals to take an active participatory role in their community. Neighbourhood hubs are defined as: a fixed physical gathering place which intentionally brings people together to carry out services, activities, programs and events that serve the local community. This research sought to uncover the dynamic and engaging characteristics of neighbourhood hubs that attract participants as well as the benefits of hubs to the local community in the form of community capitals. By combining the approach of Strategic Sustainable Development with the engaging characteristics of hubs, this thesis provides a planning tool to help hubs work towards their vision and move society towards sustainability. Neighbourhood hubs are found to be an effective and inspiring way for communities to move towards a vibrant and sustainable future. / <p>carlygurr@gmail.com; adrienne.mccurdy@gmail.com; sarahrose.robert@gmail.com</p>

Neuartige Materialien spielen eine entscheidende Rolle in Innovationsprozessen und sind die Voraussetzung für eine Vielzahl neuer Produkte. Der Standort Dresden stellt mit der Exzellenz-Universität TU Dresden und einer Vielzahl an außeruniversitären Einrichtungen ein bedeutendes europäisches Zentrum auf dem Gebiet der Materialforschung dar. Das breite wissenschaftliche und technologische Spektrum sowie die enorme Forschungsdichte in Kombination mit einer hohen fachlichen Vernetzung führen einerseits zu Synergieeffekten unter den Wissenschaftlern und verschaffen andererseits der Wirtschaft einen enormen Standortvorteil. Sollen diese Vorteile voll ausgenutzt werden, bedarf es eines vereinheitlichten, intuitiven Informationszugangs. Aktuell werden Materialdaten jedoch typischerweise auf einer Vielzahl separierter, teilweise eingeschränkt zugänglicher Datenbestände gehalten und sind nach heterogenen Schemas und in variierendem Detailgrad beschrieben. Zwar existieren bereits Rechercheportale, diese sind jedoch domänenspezifisch, kostenpflichtig oder bieten nur auf spezielle Zielgruppen zugeschnittene Bedienoberflächen, die für andere Nutzer kaum bedienbar sind. Verteilte Recherchen über mehrere Datenquellen und Portale sind zeitaufwändig und mühsam. Abhilfe soll die hier vorgestellte integrierte Material-Recherche-Plattform Material Hub schaffen. Sie muss den Anforderungen von Herstellern und Zulieferern, deren Daten sie enthält ebenso entsprechen wie den Anforderungen der Anwender aus Forschung, Industrie und Handwerk. Diese den Wissenschaftsraum Dresden integrierende Plattform soll weitere erstklassige Forschungs- und Innovationsleistungen stimulieren, Kooperationen begünstigen und die Vermarktung innovativer Ideen und Lösungen wesentlich erleichtern. Außerdem soll Material Hub die Sichtbarkeit und Reichweite der Dresdner Materialforschung erhöhen und so die bereits vorhandene Leistungsfähigkeit signifikant stärken. Gegenstand dieses Artikels ist das technische Grundkonzept des Material Hub. Ein wesentlicher Aspekt besteht dabei in der Zusammenführung verschiedener Datenquellen in einem zentralen Rechercheportal. Integriert werden Forschungsdaten, Herstellerinformationen und Anwendungsbeispiele, die sowohl hinsichtlich Domäne als auch hinsichtlich Detailgrad und 1 gefördert aus Mitteln der Europäischen Union und des Europäischen Fonds für regionale Entwicklung zugrundeliegendem Schema heterogen sind. Dazu wird in Abstimmung mit Werkstoffwissenschaftlern ein Schema zur Materialbeschreibung sowie eine semantische Wissensbasis konzipiert, die z. B. Synonyme und inhaltliche Zusammenhänge modelliert. Basierend darauf werden die Datenbestände indexiert und für die Recherche zugänglich gemacht. Die Benutzeroberfläche unterstützt mehrere Suchmasken, von der klassischen Stichwortsuche über die facettierte Suche bis hin zu stärker geführten Ansätzen, um zielgruppenspezifischen Anwendungsfällen durch geeignete UI-Konzepte gerecht zu werden. Neben konzeptionellen Ansätzen behandelt dieser Artikel erste Implementierungs- und Evaluationsergebnisse.