Innovation is what makes a business sustainable. For an organization to progress in their realization of innovations, a vital aspect is the process from where innovations transfer from ideas to valuable realities. Recent studies have addressed the capabilities required in order for an organization to innovate. This paper aims to investigate what key elements that are missing through the different phases of the innovation process, in terms of different capabilities and personas within an organization. Not many studies have previously done this connection to each phase of the process. We would like to address this fact and as such contribute to the scientific research by directing all missing elements to the phase in which they are of importance. This is done by quantitative measures through data supplied by the company Innovation360, combined with qualitative interviews of organizations within the manufacturing industry. The main findings suggest that organizations struggle with customer insights in the ideation phase, and a structured selection phase before conducting almost functional prototypes. Mostly, this is a result of too close relationships and collaborations with current customers and a short term focus on innovation to reassure return on investment. / Innovation är det som gör en verksamhet hållbar. För att en organisation ska kunna utvecklas i arbetet med innovation är det av hög vikt att ha en fungerande process på plats som stödjer transformationen av en idé till värdefulla realiteter. Tidigare forskning har kommit fram till ett antal viktiga förmågor som är nödvändiga för att en organisation ska lyckas med innovation. Den här studien syftar till att undersöka vilka nyckelfaktorer som saknas i de olika stegen av innovationsprocessen, både vad gäller olika förmågor och personas representerade i en organisation. Det finns inte många studier som har gjort kopplingen till varje steg i innovationsprocessen tidigare. Därför vill vi adressera det och därmed bidra till forskningen genom att härleda de saknade faktorerna till den fas där de är viktiga. Studien är utförd med kvantitativa mätningen genom data tillhandahållen av företaget Innovation360, kombinerat med kvalitativa intervjuer av företag inom tillverkningsindustrin. Vårt huvudresultat indikerat att organisationer kämpar med att erhålla kundinsikter i den första idégenereringsfasen, samt att det generellt råder en avsaknad av en strukturerad urvalsprocess innan man utvecklar nästan helt fungerande prototyper. Detta går mestadels att knyta an till för nära relationer och samarbeten med befintliga kunder och ett kortsiktigt fokus på innovation för att säkra upp för avkastningen.

Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte emotionale Reaktionen im Experimentaldesign einer aversiven, differentiellen klassischen Konditionierung (CS = zwei männliche, neutral valente Gesichter; olfaktorischer UCS = vergorene Hefe) bei je vierzehn männlichen generalisierten Sozialphobikern (DSM-VI) und gesunden Kontrollpersonen. In Erwartung einer erhöhten Konditionierbarkeit, einer Extinktionsresistenz sowie einer Generalisierung auf störungsrelevante Fazialreize bei den Sozialphobikern wurden die konditionierten Reaktionen über subjektiv-verbale Urteile (Valenz, Erregung, Kontingenz), den Schreckreflex (M. orbicularis oculi links, Indikator subcorticaler Reizverarbeitung der Angst), die bilateral erhobene Aktivität des M. corrugator supercilii (Indikator für den negativ emotionalen Fazialausdruck) sowie die Herzrate (Indikator der allgemeinen psychophysiologischen Aktivierung) gemessen. Die Konditionierung verlief in beiden Experimentalgruppen erfolgreich (Valenz, Erregung, Kontingenz) und hypothesenkonform. Im Gegensatz zu den Gesunden resultierten für die Sozialphobiker eine erhöhte Konditionierbarkeit (Schreckreflexlatenz und -amplitude, Herzratendezeleration), eine Extinktionsresistenz (Erregung, Schreckreflexnullreaktionen, Corrugator) sowie eine Reizgeneralisierung (Erregung, Kontingenz, Schreckreflexlatenz, Corrugator, Herzratendezeleration). Die Befunde sprechen außerdem für eine unterschiedliche emotionale Reizverarbeitung über den Experimentalverlauf. Die Sozialphobiker reagierten in der Akquisition vorrangig in den Parametern Erregung, Kontingenz, Schreckreflex und Herzrate (Gesunde: Corrugator) sowie in der Extinktion hinsichtlich Erregung, Schreckreflex und Corrugator (Gesunde: Kontingenz). Das Valenzurteil ergab hingegen keine Gruppenspezifik. / The present study investigated the emotional responses of aversive differential Pavlovian conditioning with two male neutral faces as conditioned stimuli (CS) and a foul odor (fermented yeast) as unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in fourteen male generalized social phobics (DSM-VI) and healthy controls. The aim of this investigation was to examine the hypotheses of enhanced acquisition, delayed extinction and generalization of faces, as they represented socially relevant stimuli, concerning social phobics. Subjective indicators of conditioned response were valence, arousal and awareness. The startle reflex (recorded from left m. orbicularis oculi) was used as a measure of subcortical emotional processing. Bilaterally corrugator muscle activity (as an indicator of negative emotional facial response) and heart rate (as an indicator of general physiological activation) served as psychophysiological assessment of conditioning. Both groups were successfully conditioned as reflected by differential responses of all three subjective parameters. The results were consistent with the hypotheses. Compared to controls, social phobics showed an increased acquisition (startle latency and magnitude, heart rate deceleration), an extinction resistance (arousal, startle zero reactions, corrugator) as well as a generalization of CS types (arousal, awareness, startle latency, corrugator, heart rate deceleration). In addition the findings suggested that the emotional stimuli processing in participants are distinct. The social phobics in particular reacted to arousal, contingency awareness, startle and heart rate in acquisition (controls: corrugator) and to arousal, startle and corrugator in extinction (controls: awareness). There was no difference between groups regarding valence judgement.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation and aspects of family functioning (cohesion and adaptability) and family leisure involvement from Mexican-American parent, youth, and family perspectives. Acculturation of parents, youth, and families was measured using the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (BAS). Family leisure involvement was measured using the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP). Aspects of family functioning were measured using the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES II). Sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, generation, family size, income, and education were also used to help predict levels of acculturation for family perspectives. The sample was obtained from communities in Texas and Utah and consisted of 74 Mexican-American families, including a parent and child from each family. Differences were found in measures of family leisure involvement and family functioning between Mexican-Americans and normative samples of Anglo-Americans. Findings suggest that family leisure involvement, aspects of family functioning, and sociodemographic variables helped to predict parent, youth, and family perspectives of acculturation. The independent and sociodemographic variables also helped to discriminate levels of acculturation for parents, youth, and families. Recommendations are given for commercial and community recreation programs targeting Mexican-American families, in addition to implication for further research.

Facial Ageing (FA) is a very fundamental issue, as ageing in general, is part of our daily life process. FA is used in security, finding missing children and other applications. It is also a form of Facial Recognition (FR) that helps identifying suspects. FA affects several parts of the human face under the influence of different biological and environmental factors. One of the major facial feature changes that occur as a result of ageing is the appearance and development of wrinkles. Facial wrinkles are skin folds; their shapes and numbers differ from one person to another, therefore, an advantage can be taken over these characteristics if a system is implemented to extract the facial wrinkles in a form of maps. This thesis is presenting a new technique for three-dimensional facial wrinkle pattern information that can also be utilised for biometric applications, which will back up the system for further increase of security. The procedural approaches adopted for investigating this new technique are the extraction of two-dimensional wrinkle maps of frontal human faces for digital images and the design of three-dimensional wrinkle pattern formation system that utilises the generated wrinkle maps. The first approach is carried out using image processing tools so that for any given individual, two wrinkle maps are produced; the first map is in a binary form that shows the positions of the wrinkles on the face while the other map is a coloured version that indicates the different intensities of the wrinkles. The second approach of the 3D system development involves the alignment of the binary wrinkle maps on the corresponding 3D face models, followed by the projection of 3D curves in order to acquire 3D representations of the wrinkles. With the aid of the coloured wrinkle maps as well as some ageing parameters, simulations and predictions for the 3D wrinkles are performed.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-10-01T15:06:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MATHEUS BEZERRA ESTRELA RODRIGUES - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2012..pdf: 7068761 bytes, checksum: 4b1283a1da5ca466fcf0357c33091a30 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-01T15:06:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MATHEUS BEZERRA ESTRELA RODRIGUES - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2012..pdf: 7068761 bytes, checksum: 4b1283a1da5ca466fcf0357c33091a30 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-29 / Impulsionado pelo crescimento no uso de vigilância eletrônica, essa pesquisa introduz o uso de uma técnica que demonstra eficiência no reconhecimento de faces em imagens, alterando o objeto de busca para pneus de veículos, visando o reconhecimento da presença do veículo na cena. A técnica aplicada para o reconhecimento é o algoritmo Viola-Jones. Essa técnica é dividida em dois momentos: o treinamento e a detecção. Na primeira etapa, vários treinamentos são executados, usando aproximadamente 7000 imagens diferentes. Para a etapa final, um detector de faces foi adaptado para reconhecer pneus, utilizando o treinamento da etapa anterior, e sua eficiência em reconhecer os pneus foi comparável à eficiência do detector de faces que usa treinamento de referência da biblioteca em software que é referência nesta área, OpenCV. O detector desenvolvido apresentou taxa de reconhecimento de 77%, quando o reconhecimento de faces obteve 80%. A taxa de falsos negativos também foi próxima, apresentando o detector de pneus 2% e o de faces 1%. / Motivated by the growing use of electronic surveillance, this research introduces the use of the Viola-Jones algorithm, which is known to be efficient in recognition of human faces in images, changing the object to be recognized to vehicle tires, aiming to detect vehicles in a scene. This approach divides the process in two steps: training and detection. Training was done using around 7000 different images of vehicles. For the detection step, work was done to adapt a face detector to detect vehicles tires. The tire detector was compared to a face detector that used a reference training for faces from OpenCV library. The tire detector showed 77% efficiency, whereas the face detector showed 80%. False negative numbers also showed similar closeness, as 2% for the tire detector and 1% for the reference face detector.

Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan har för en tid sedan anordnat så kallade ”workshops” för att hjälpa studenter med sina studier. Dessa workshops ger studenterna tillfälle att få hjälp av assistenter. Syftet med detta projekt är därför att göra administrationen för workshopstillfällena så effektiv och smidig som möjligt.För att uppnå detta syfte har en webbapplikation konstruerats i utvecklingsmiljön Netbeans och är baserad på en treskiktsarkitektur. Detta har genomförts med hjälp av utvecklingsmetoden Scrum och programmeringsspråket Java. Stor vikt har lagts på att skapa en modulär applikation med fokus på hållbar utveckling.Resultatet har blivit en webbapplikation som kan nås via mobila enheter, surfplattor och stationära enheter. Den har prestandatestats och är därmed redo för att testas för en utvärdering av dess effektivitet och inverkan på workshopverksamheten. / The Royal Institute of Technology has recently arranged so-called "workshops" to help students with their studies. These workshops give students the opportunity to receive help from assistants. The purpose of this project is to make the administration of the workshop sessions as efficient and seamless as possible.To achieve this purpose, a web application has been designed in Netbeans the development environment and is based on three-layer architecture. This has been implemented using the Scrum development methodology and the Java programming language. Great emphasis was placed on creating a modular application with focus on sustainable development.The result is a web application that can be accessed via mobile devices, tablets, and stationary units. Its performance has been tested and the web application is thus ready to be tested in order to evaluate its effectiveness and impact on the workshop activities.

In economic games the facial attributes of counterparts bias decisions to trust and decisions to enter play. We report research supporting hypotheses that trust and reciprocation decisions in trust games are biased by mechanisms of sexual selection. Hypotheses that trust game behaviour is modulated by inter-sexual competition were supported. 1) Attractive individuals elicit more cooperation. 2) Male participants display trust and reciprocation toward attractive female counterparts in excess of perceived trustworthiness (and this display is modulated by male self-reported physical dominance). 3) Female participants appear to respond to male trust as a signal of sexual interest and are therefore more likely to exploit the trust of attractive males. 4) In explicitly dating contexts females are more likely to prefer attractive males to pay for the meal. These results indicate that participants are biased by mate choice and mating display considerations while playing economic games in the lab. Hypotheses that trust game behaviour is modulated by intra-sexual competition for resources were also somewhat supported. 1) Male participants reporting an ability to win fights with same-sex peers are more exploitative of other males. 2) Cues to current circulating testosterone level in counterpart’s faces are less trusted but elicit more reciprocation. 3) The male sexually dimorphic trait facial width-to-height ratio (a trait which is related to both aggression and dominance) is related to an increased proportion of decisions to exploit others in the trust game while also being used by others as a cue to untrustworthiness. We conclude that trusting and trustworthy behaviour in both sexes is biased by mating market considerations predicted by intra- and inter-sexual selection.

O crescimento da utilização de sistemas de reconhecimento no mundo contemporâneo exige processos de detecção cada vez mais robustos e ágeis. Aplicáveis desde sistemas de teleconferência empresarial até mecanismos de segurança e vigilância, a detecção e o reconhecimento de pessoas tornaram-se uma constante. Na tentativa de buscar caminhos alternativos, tanto para os problemas de detecção, quanto para os de reconhecimento, este trabalho propõe a utilização de medidas biométricas, mensuradas em imagens digitalizadas de faces humanas. A partir do estudo de tais medidas, torna-se possível a verificação de proporções existentes na face, especialmente a proporção divina, podendo constituir, no futuro, a base para algoritmos de detecção e/ou reconhecimento que usufruam das informações trazidas por tais proporções. Diante de uma reduzida quantidade de publicações no meio científico que utilizam a proporção divina como meio de detecção e/ou reconhecimento em processamento de imagens, esta investigação vem contribuir com alguns passos nessa direção / The increase of recognition systems in the contemporary world has demanded robust and agile detection processes. From teleconference systems to security and monitoring mechanisms, the detection and recognition of people have became constantly used and applied. In attempt to search for alternative ways to solve both detection and recognition problems, this work proposes the utilization of biometric measures, taken in digital image of human faces. From the study of such measures, it’s possible to verify face proportions, especially the divine proportion, which could allows, in the future, to implement the detection and/or recognition algorithms that utilize such proportions. Due to small amount of scientific publications that use the divine proportion as a way of detection and/or recognition in image processing, this investigation contributes with some steps in this direction

La mémoire de reconnaissance visuelle (MRV) est atteinte précocement dans la maladie d'Alzheimer (MA). Or, elle reposerait sur deux processus : la familiarité (simple sentiment d'avoir déjà rencontré un item) et la recollection (récupération de détails associés à l'item lors de son encodage). Si la recollection est clairement atteinte au début de la MA, les résultats concernant la familiarité sont à ce jour contradictoires. Supposée plus rapide que la recollection, la familiarité devrait pouvoir être évaluée directement par une approche temporelle. Son atteinte dans la MA pourrait alors être mieux comprise.Pour tester ces hypthèses, la procédure comportementale SAB (Speed and Accuracy Boosting) a été créée. Permettant d'étudier les propriétés de la MRV (sa vitesse-limite, Articles 1 et 2, ou sa nature « bottom-up », Article 3), ainsi que l'hypothèse que la familiarité est plus rapide que la recollection, cette méthode s'est montrée évaluer majoritairement la familiarité (Article 1). Chez des patients à risque de MA, une dissociation inattendue au sein de la familiarité a alors pu être révélée, avec une atteinte des signaux tardifs de familiarité (utilisés lors d'un jugement classique), mais une préservation des premiers signaux (supportant la détection rapide évaluée en SAB) (Article 4).En outre, la segmentation manuelle d'images IRM du lobe temporal interne (premières régions cérébrales touchées dans la MA, et clées pour la MRV) a été appliquée à la problématique connexe de l'effet de l'âge au début de la MA (Article 5).Indépendamment, ces méthodes ont permis de mieux comprendre la MRV et son atteinte au début de la MA ; leur combinaison s'annonce très prometteuse. / Visual recognition memory (VRM) is impaired early in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), but would rely on two processes : familiarity (mere feeling that an item has been seen previously) and recollection (retrieval of details associated to the item at encoding). If recollection is clearly impaired in early AD, results concerning familiarity remain contradictory. Supposed to be faster than recollection, familiarity should be better understood using a temporal approach. Its possible impairment in AD could then be better understood.In order to test this, a behavioural procedure was designed: the SAB (Speed and Accuracy Boosting). Revealing different properties of VRM (its speed-limit, Articles 1 and 2; its « bottom-up » nature, Article 3) and some of its processes (familiarity appeares indeed faster than recollection, Article 1), results showed that the SAB procedure was mainly assessing familiarity (Article 1). In patients at risk of AD, an unexpected dissociation within familiarity processes was evidenced, with an impairment of late signals of familiarity (as used for classical judgements), but a preservation of the first signals (supporting fast detection assessed with the SAB) (Article 4).Last, manual segmentation of MRI images of the medial temporal lobe (first cerebral regions affected in AD, known for their key role in VRM) was also used to assess age effect at the early stage of AD (Article 5).Independently, both methods allowed understanding better the VRM and its impairment in early AD; their combination appears very promising.

Zusammenhänge zwischen neurokognitiven Indikatoren und Verhaltensindikatoren der Gesichterkognition können Gehirnsysteme und neuronale Subprozesse identifizieren, die individuellen Unterschieden im Verhalten zugrunde liegen. Diese Dissertation zeigt, dass Ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale (EKPs) als neurokognitive Indikatoren für die Erforschung individueller Unterschiede eingesetzt werden können, denn sie weisen die gleichen hohen psychometrischen Qualitäten wie andere Fähigkeitsindikatoren auf und messen daher individuelle Unterschiede in der neuronalen Verarbeitung zuverlässig und stabil über die Zeit. Auf der Verhaltensebene wurden drei Teilfähigkeiten der Gesichterkognition etabliert: Gesichterwahrnehmung, Gesichtergedächtnis und Gesichtergeschwindigkeit. EKPs wurden in Strukturgleichungsmodellen verwendet, um den Beitrag neurokognitiver Indikatoren an individuellen Unterschieden dieser Gesichterkognitionsfähigkeiten zu schätzen. Für 85 Probanden wurden Beziehungen zwischen den Gesichterkognitionsfähigkeiten und der P100, N170, der sogenannten Differenz aufgrund des Gedächtnisses (Dm) und dem frühen sowie späten Wiederholungseffekt (ERE und LRE) etabliert. Spezifische Anteile individueller Unterschiede in der Gesichterkognition auf der Verhaltensebene wurden durch individuelle Unterschiede im Zeitverlauf der strukturellen Gesichteranalyse (N170 Latenz) sowie in der Reaktivierung von Repräsentationen gespeicherter Gesichtsstrukturen (ERE) als auch personen-spezifischen Wissens (LRE) erklärt. Keinen Anteil an individuellen Unterschieden erklärten hingegen frühe Wahrnehmungsprozesse (P100), die neuronale Aktivierung während der strukturellen Gesichteranalyse (N170 Amplitude) und Prozesse der Gedächtnisenkodierung von Gesichtern (Dm). Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass individuelle Unterschiede in der Gesichterkognition von der strukturellen Gesichteranalyse sowie von der Effizienz und Geschwindigkeit des Zugriffs auf Gedächtnisinhalte zu Gesichtern und Personen abhängt. / Individual differences in perceiving, learning, and recognizing faces were shown on the behavioral and neural level but were rarely related to one another. By determining relationships between behavioral and neurocognitive indicators of face cognition, brain systems and neural sub-processes can be identified that underlie individual variations on the behavioral level. The present dissertation laid the foundation for using event-related potentials (ERPs) as neurocognitive indicators in individual differences research. ERP components were shown to possess the same high psychometric qualities as behavioral ability measures and thus to measure individual differences of neural processing reliably and stably across time. On the behavioral level, three component abilities of face cognition were established: face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition. ERP components were used in structural equation models that estimated contributions of neurocognitive indicators to the individual differences in these face cognition abilities. Regression analysis was used to determine the contributions of P100, N170, the so called difference due to memory (Dm), as well as early and late repetition effects (ERE and LRE) to face cognition abilities in 85 participants. Certain amounts of variance in face cognition as seen on the behavioral level were accounted for by individual differences in the temporal dimension of structural encoding of a face (N170 latency) and in the re-activation of both stored facial structures (ERE) and person-identity information (LRE). In contrast, processes of early vision (P100), the neural activation of structural face encoding (N170 amplitude), and memory encoding of new faces (Dm) did not show any contribution to individual differences in face cognition. These findings show that individual differences in face cognition depend on the speed of structurally encoding faces and on the efficiency and speed of accessing face and person memory.