This thesis examines innovation and design processes in small established companies. There is a great interest in this area yet paradoxically the area is under-researched, since most innovation research is done on large companies. The research questions are: How do small established companies carry out their innovation and design processes? and How does the context and novelty of the process and product affect the same processes? The thesis is built on three research papers that used the research method of multiple case studies of different small established companies. The innovation and design processes found were highly context dependent and were facilitated by committed resources, a creative climate, vision, low family involvement, delegated power and authority, and linkages to external actors such as customers and users. Both experimental cyclical and linear structured design processes were found. The choice of structure is explained by the relative product and process novelty experienced by those developing the product innovation. Linear design processes worked within a low relative novelty situation and cyclical design processes worked no matter the relative novelty. The innovation and design processes found were informal, with a low usage of formal systematic design methods, except in the case of design processes for software. The use of formal systematic methods in small companies seems not always to be efficient, because many of the problems the methods are designed to solve are not present. Customers and users were found to play a large and important role in the innovation and design processes found and gave continuous feedback during the design processes. Innovation processes were found to be intertwined, yielding synergy effects, but it was common that resources were taken from the innovation processes for acute problems that threatened the cash flow. In sum, small established companies have the natural prerequisites to take advantage of lead-user inventions and cyclical design processes. Scarce resources were found to be the main factor hindering innovation, but the examined companies practiced several approaches to increase their resources or use existing scarce resources more efficiently in their innovation and design processes. Examples of these approaches include adopting lead-user inventions and reducing formality in the innovation and design processes.

This diploma thesis examines the linkage between -141C Ins/Del polymorphism in dopamine receptor D2 gene and novelty seeking behavior (NSB). Novelty seeking is a personality trait characterized as a tendency to seek out various, complex and intense sensations and experiences at the cost of physical, social, legal, and financial risk. It also appears to be related to the onset of young drug use and aggressive behavior. It has been suggested that there is a relatively high occupancy of dopamine receptors in the brain of individuals with this characteristic feature. Generally, dopamine receptors are extensively studied in relation to many psychiatric diseases or personality disorders. Although there are studies focusing on personality traits such as novelty seeking, subjects of their research are mainly dopamine receptors D1, D3 or D4. Very little is known about dopamine receptor D2 and its relation to NSB despite the fact, that DRD2 is the key negative regulator of dopamine action. Currently, determination of occupancy of dopamine D2 receptors in the brain is possible with positron emission tomography (PET). However, using PET in neuropsychological research is not always financially viable. To date, only few studies associated with PET and NSB vs D2 receptors occupancy have appeared in published...

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In light of collated research linking temperament traits and executive performance, the aim of this study is to explore, in a large non-clinical sample, the differences in executive performance profiles among participants with different intensities of the trait Novelty Seeking (NS). A further aim is to establish which facets of NS contribute to these differences. The NS temperament dimension and its subscales were operationalised as scores on the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), which is based on the psychobiological theory of personality. The University of Pennsylvania Computerised Neuropsychological Test Battery (PennCNP) of executive functioning (EF) and abstract reasoning was used to measure participants’ neuropsychological EF. The total sample of participants (n= 461) was divided into high NS (n= 216) and low NS (n= 245) groups to investigate any significant differences between them. Further analysis was then conducted in order to analyse the relationship between the NS scale, the four subscales (Exploratory Excitability, Impulsiveness, Extravagance, and Disorderliness), and performance in executive tasks. The findings of this study indicated significant differences between groups with different intensities of NS, with the high NS group functioning notably better in performance and reaction time. Furthermore, this study showed that facets of NS, such as impulsiveness was a significant contributor to EF performance outcomes. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted

The development of species-typical perceptual preferences has been shown to depend on a variety of socially and ecologically derived sensory stimulation during both the pre- and postnatal periods. The prominent mechanism behind the development of these seemingly innate tendencies in young organisms has been hypothesized to be a domain-general pan-sensory selectivity process referred to as perceptual narrowing, whereby regularly experienced sensory stimuli are honed in upon, while simultaneously losing the ability to effectively discriminate between atypical or unfamiliar sensory stimulation. Previous work with precocial birds has been successful in preventing the development of species-typical perceptual preferences by denying the organism typical levels of social and/or self-produced stimulation. The current series of experiments explored the mechanism of perceptual narrowing to assess the malleability of a species-typical auditory preference in avian embryos. By providing a variety of different unimodal and bimodal presentations of a mixed-species vocalizations at the onset of prenatal auditory function, the following project aimed to 1) keep the perceptual window from narrowing, thereby interfering with the development of a species-typical auditory preference, 2) investigate how long differential prenatal stimulation can keep the perceptual window open postnatally, 3) explore how prenatal auditory enrichment effected preferences for novelty, and 4) assess whether prenatal auditory perceptual narrowing is affected by modality specific or amodal stimulus properties during early development. Results indicated that prenatal auditory enrichment significantly interferes with the emergence of a species-typical auditory preference and increases openness to novelty, at least temporarily. After accruing postnatal experience in an environment rich with species-typical auditory and multisensory cues, the effect of prenatal auditory enrichment rapidly was found to rapidly fade. Prenatal auditory enrichment with extraneous non-synchronous light exposure was shown to both keep the perceptual narrowing window open and impede learning in the postnatal environment, following hatching. Results are discussed in light of the role experience plays in perceptual narrowing during the perinatal period.

Anthropogenic environmental changes are occurring globally and are having dramatic effects on wildlife. Successful urban animals can alter behaviours to adjust to these conditions, but it is not well understood how these modifications arise. In particular, exploratory personality and behavioural plasticity are predicted to facilitate colonization in urban areas. The link between exploratory personality, cognition, and plasticity has received little attention, and has never been examined in urban animals. The first objective of this thesis was to examine the relationship between exploratory personality and habituation in a novel environment, and determine whether variation at the individual-level is predicted by urbanization. The second objective was to explore the association between exploratory personality and spatial cognition within scatter hoarders, and assess spatial memory along an urban gradient. At the individual-level, I report significant inter-individual differences in exploratory personality and habituation. I found evidence that fast initial explorers tend to habituate in a novel environment over time while slow explorers do not. There was no significant relationship between exploratory personality and spatial cognition within individuals. At the population level, urbanization did not significantly predict habituation or spatial cognition. I do report a significant positive relationship between urbanization and exploration. Overall, I conclude that urban individuals are significantly faster explorers, but are not more behaviourally plastic and do not show differences in spatial memory. Further work examining personality, cognition, and plasticity within individuals is needed to determine whether these traits have implications for populations under different environmental conditions.

Neste trabalho a detecção de novidade é tratada como o problema de identificação de conceitos emergentes em dados que podem ser apresentados em um fluxo contínuo. Considerando a relação intrínseca entre tempo e novidade e os desafios impostos por fluxos de dados, uma nova abordagem é proposta. OLINDDA (OnLIne Novelty and Drift Detection Algorithm) vai além da classficação com uma classe e concentra-se no aprendizado contínuo não-supervisionado de novos conceitos. Tendo aprendido uma descrição inicial de um conceito normal, prossegue à análise de novos dados, tratando-os como um fluxo contínuo em que novos conceitos podem aparecer a qualquer momento. Com o uso de técnicas de agrupamento, OLINDDA pode empregar diversos critérios de validação para avaliar grupos em termos de sua coesão e representatividade. Grupos considerados válidos produzem conceitos que podem sofrer fusão, e cujo conhecimento é continuamente incorporado. A técnica é avaliada experimentalmente com dados artificiais e reais. O módulo de classificação com uma classe é comparado a outras técnicas de detecção de novidade, e a abordagem como um todo é analisada sob vários aspectos por meio da evolução temporal de diversas métricas. Os resultados reforçam a importância da detecção contínua de novos conceitos, assim como as dificuldades e desafios do aprendizado não-supervisionado de novos conceitos em fluxos de dados / In this work novelty detection is treated as the problem of identifying emerging concepts in data that may be presented in a continuous ow. Considering the intrinsic relationship between time and novelty and the challenges imposed by data streams, a novel approach is proposed. OLINDDA, an OnLIne Novelty and Drift Detection Algorithm, goes beyond one-class classification and focuses on the unsupervised continuous learning of novel concepts. Having learned an initial description of a normal concept, it proceeds to the analysis of new data, treating them as a continuous ow where novel concepts may appear at any time. By the use of clustering techniques, OLINDDA may employ several validation criteria to evaluate clusters in terms of their cohesiveness and representativeness. Clusters considered valid produce concepts that may be merged, and whose knowledge is continuously incorporated. The technique is experimentally evaluated with artificial and real data. The one-class classification module is compared to other novelty detection techniques, and the whole approach is analyzed from various aspects through the temporal evolution of several metrics. Results reinforce the importance of continuous detection of novel concepts, as well as the dificulties and challenges of the unsupervised learning of novel concepts in data streams

Condition monitoring is very important for critical assets such as gearboxes used in the power and mining industries. Fluctuating operating conditions are inevitable for wind turbines and mining machines such as bucket wheel excavators and draglines due to the continuous uctuating wind speeds and variations in ground properties, respectively. Many of the classical condition monitoring techniques have proven to be ine ective under uctuating operating conditions and therefore more sophisticated techniques have to be developed. However, many of the signal processing tools that are appropriate for uctuating operating conditions can be di cult to interpret, with the presence of incipient damage easily being overlooked. In this study, a cost-e ective diagnostic methodology is developed, using machine learning techniques, to diagnose the condition of the machine in the presence of uctuating operating conditions when only an acceleration signal, generated from a gearbox during normal operation, is available. The measured vibration signal is order tracked to preserve the angle-cyclostationary properties of the data. A robust tacholess order tracking methodology is proposed in this study using probabilistic approaches. The measured vibration signal is order tracked with the tacholess order tracking method (as opposed to computed order tracking), since this reduces the implementation and the running cost of the diagnostic methodology. Machine condition features, which are sensitive to changes in machine condition, are extracted from the order tracked vibration signal and processed. The machine condition features can be sensitive to operating condition changes as well. This makes it difficult to ascertain whether the changes in the machine condition features are due to changes in machine condition (i.e. a developing fault) or changes in operating conditions. This necessitates incorporating operating condition information into the diagnostic methodology to ensure that the inferred condition of the machine is not adversely a ected by the uctuating operating conditions. The operating conditions are not measured and therefore representative features are extracted and modelled with a hidden Markov model. The operating condition machine learning model aims to infer the operating condition state that was present during data acquisition from the operating condition features at each angle increment. The operating condition state information is used to optimise robust machine condition machine learning models, in the form of hidden Markov models. The information from the operating condition and machine condition models are combined using a probabilistic approach to generate a discrepancy signal. This discrepancy signal represents the deviation of the current features from the expected behaviour of the features of a gearbox in a healthy condition. A second synchronous averaging process, an automatic alarm threshold for fault detection, a gear-pinion discrepancy distribution and a healthy-damaged decomposition of the discrepancy signal are proposed to provide an intuitive and robust representation of the condition of the gearbox under uctuating operating conditions. This allows fault detection, localisation as well as trending to be performed on a gearbox during uctuating operation conditions. The proposed tacholess order tracking method is validated on seven datasets and the fault diagnostic methodology is validated on experimental as well as numerical data. Very promising results are obtained by the proposed tacholess order tracking method and by the diagnostic methodology. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

Evidence suggests that certain genotypic variants associated with novelty-seeking and aggressiveness, such as the 7-repeat dopamine D4 receptor variant (DRD4-7R), short (s) allele of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT), and the low-activity variant of the MAOa promoter (MAOa-L), are more prevalent in human groups that radiated out of Africa than human groups that remained in Africa. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), like humans, are a widespread species of primates that needed to adapt to different regional environments with one group, Indian-derived rhesus macaques, largely occupying predictable and resource-rich environments, while the other group, the Chinese-derived rhesus macaques, has come to occupy less predictable and resource-abundant environments. Rhesus macaques possess orthologues of these trait-related genes, making it possible to compare the frequency of genotypes associated with these traits between members of two strains. DNA was obtained from N=212 rhesus macaques (n=54 Chinese-derived, n=158 Indian-derived) and genotyped for DRD4 (n=98), 5-HTT (n=190), and MAOA (n=97). Analyses showed that Chinese-derived subjects exhibited higher frequencies of the DRD4-7R and 5-HTT-s-allele when compared to Indian-derived subjects. There were no strain differences in MAOA-L genotype groupings, but the Chinese-derived subjects exhibited a more frequent high-activity (MAOA-H-6R) allele when compared to the Indian-derived subjects. The results suggest that the Chinese-derived rhesus macaques possess a higher frequency of alleles associated with novelty-seeking, impulsivity, and aggressiveness compared to their Indian-derived peers and that those genotypically-mediated traits may have beneficial to both humans and rhesus macaques as they spread into novel and unfamiliar environments.

Evidence suggests that certain genotypic variants associated with novelty-seeking and aggressiveness, such as the 7-repeat dopamine D4 receptor variant (DRD4-7R), short (s) allele of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT), and the low-activity variant of the MAOa promoter (MAOa-L), are more prevalent in human groups that radiated out of Africa than human groups that remained in Africa. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), like humans, are a widespread species of primates that needed to adapt to different regional environments with one group, Indian-derived rhesus macaques, largely occupying predictable and resource-rich environments, while the other group, the Chinese-derived rhesus macaques, has come to occupy less predictable and resource-abundant environments. Rhesus macaques possess orthologues of these trait-related genes, making it possible to compare the frequency of genotypes associated with these traits between members of two strains. DNA was obtained from N=212 rhesus macaques (n=54 Chinese-derived, n=158 Indian-derived) and genotyped for DRD4 (n=98), 5-HTT (n=190), and MAOA (n=97). Analyses showed that Chinese-derived subjects exhibited higher frequencies of the DRD4-7R and 5-HTT-s-allele when compared to Indian-derived subjects. There were no strain differences in MAOA-L genotype groupings, but the Chinese-derived subjects exhibited a more frequent high-activity (MAOA-H-6R) allele when compared to the Indian-derived subjects. The results suggest that the Chinese-derived rhesus macaques possess a higher frequency of alleles associated with novelty-seeking, impulsivity, and aggressiveness compared to their Indian-derived peers and that those genotypically-mediated traits may have beneficial to both humans and rhesus macaques as they spread into novel and unfamiliar environments.