The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of factors that enable innovation teams to conduct agile innovation work in an industrial context. The background and reason for this research are not only that innovation is necessary for companies that want to stay in business, but also that these companies need to increase the speed of their innovation work to stay competitive. Research has demonstrated that cross-functional (X-functional) innovation teams are fast and agile, and are therefore assumed to be suitable for these activities. Still, there is much knowledge to be gained. Prior research has identified factors that are seen as important from an organizational, team, and individual perspective to enable teams to work with potentially innovative outcomes. However, in cases where teams have been created with the purpose of conducting innovation work, i.e. innovation teams, problems related to e.g. performance and learning have occurred, and the innovation work has stopped shortly after conducted research projects due to the high level of complexity. The research question (RQ) that this thesis explores is the following: “Which innovation enablers are important for innovation teams when conducting agile innovation work in an industrial context?” Based on the RQ, two sub-questions are formulated and operationalized to answer the RQ. Qualitative data have been collected from five innovation teams in two phases. Two innovation teams in two small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were studied in the first phase to clarify the situation for innovation teams before innovation work is begun. In the second phase, which built on the first one, three innovation teams in a large industrial company were studied as they conducted three separate innovation projects. This research revealed five main findings: first, knowledge about important innovation enablers (Enablers) revealed from a literature study; second, the Innovation Team Model (ITM), demonstrating innovation teams before innovation work is begun in relation to the individuals and organization in a holistic way; third, the innovation team creation process (CIT-process), a stepwise process in how to create an innovation team; fourth, the innovation facilitator, who supports and facilitates the innovation team throughout the CIT-process and the innovation projects; and fifth, the Extended Innovation Process (EIP), an extension of the traditional innovation process by a pre-phase, i.e. a Preparation-phase, to gather and prepare the innovation teams for forthcoming work. The findings regarding the importance of the CIT-process, the EIP, and the innovation facilitator were unexpected. The findings formed the Innovation Team Framework (ITF), which represents all of the findings in relation to each other. The EIP is used as the basis for which the other innovation enablers are provided to the innovation teams through an innovation facilitator’s competence throughout the innovation project. The ITF is multidimensional: it could serve as a tool to describe both the simplicity and the complexity when creating an innovation team and forthcoming work and activities. All separate findings within this research contribute to prior research in individual ways, however, the ITF is the main scientific contribution of this study to Innovation management. Practitioners can use the ITF as a complement to already established methodologies for product development or similar; however one should be aware of the limited nature of the data set that served as the basis for analysis and development of the ITF. Further studies regarding the ITF and its detailed models and processes are suggested.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第22885号 / 医博第4679号 / 新制||医||1048(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 伊佐 正, 教授 古川 壽亮, 教授 高橋 淳 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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<p>[missing page:45]</p> / <p>BACKGROUND: Creatine monohydrate (CrM) supplementation during resistance exercise results in a greater increase in fat free mass (FFM), total body mass (TBM), and strength in young men and women. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the interactive effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on body composition, strength, and intramuscular total creatine concentration in older men and women.</p> <p>METHODS: Twenty-eight older men and women were randomly allocated, in a double blind fashion, to receive either CrM (n=14; CrM: 5g + 2g dextrose) or placebo (n=14; PL: 7g dextrose). Subjects participated in a 14 wk progressive, whole-body resistance training program. Pre-and post-training measurements included: 1 RM strength, isometric strength, body composition (TBM, FFM, %BF), muscle fiber area, and muscle total creatine and phosphocreatine.</p> <p>RESULTS: Training resulted in an increase in 1 RM strength for each of the 4 exercises (range = 26 - 60%) (p < 0.001), an increase in knee and dorsiflexion isometric strength (p < 0.001) and an improvement of performance on functional tasks (p < 0.001). Knee isometric strength was increased more for CrM (46.2%) as compared to PL (22.5%) (p < 0.05). Total body mass and lean body mass increased more for CrM (TBM: +1.2 kg; LBM: +1.7 kg) as compared to PL (TBM: -0.2 kg; LBM: 0.4 kg) (p < 0.05)</p> <p>CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that erM supplementation results in a greater increase in isometric knee extensor strength, total body mass and lean body mass during resistance training in older adults.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Une des grandes problématiques en écologie est d’identifier les liens qui existent entre ce qui se passe au niveau de la physiologie et du comportement des individus et les propriétés émergentes qui apparaissent au niveau de la population et des écosystèmes dans leur globalité.Dans cette thèse, nous avons abordé cette problématique à travers la modélisation du phénomène de prédation, en nous intéressant plus particulièrement à la représentation mathématique de la réponse fonctionnelle. Cette fonction représente la quantité de proies consommées par prédateur et par unité de temps. Elle synthétiseau niveau de la population un ensemble de processus survenant à différentes échelles d’organisation. La modélisation du phénomène de prédation rencontre diverses limitations liées à la complexité de ce processus biologique, et il existe donc une forte incertitude sur la nature de la réponse fonctionnelle à utiliser.A travers l’étude d’un modèle prédateur-proie en chemostat d’une part, et l’utilisation de méthodes de changement d’échelle sur un modèle prédateur-proie en patchs d’autre part, nous avons cherché à déterminer les sources de variations dans la représentation de cette réponse.Tout d’abord, nous avons mis en évidence l’influence de la variabilité des données sur la paramétrisation de la réponse fonctionnelle ainsi que sur la robustesse des sorties du modèle. Une étude de sensibilité a également permis de montrer la forte sensibilité structurelle du modèle face à cette formulation, qui peut-être plus importante que face à des changements de paramètres.De plus, il apparait que la représentation mathématique de la réponse fonctionnelle dépend fortement de l’échelle d’observation considérée. En effet, la nature de la réponse peut être modifiée lorsque l’on passe de l’échelle d’une population à celle de la communauté. / One of the major issues in ecology is to identify the links between what happens in terms of physiology and behavior of individuals and the emergent properties that appear at the population and ecosystems level. In this thesis, we addressed this problem through modeling of the phenomenon of predation, especially by focusing on the mathematical functional response representation. This function represents the amount of prey consumed by predator per unit time. It synthesizes at the population level a set processes occurring at different scales of organization. Modeling of the phenomenon of predation encounters various limitations related to the complexity of this biological process, and there is, therefore, considerable uncertainty aboutthe nature of the functional response to use.Through the study of a predator-prey model in chemostat on the one hand, and use of scaling methods in a patches predator-prey model on the other hand, we seek to determine sources of variations in therepresentation of that response.First, we demonstrated the influence of data variability on the parameterization of the functional response as well as the robustness of the model outputs. A sensitivity study has also demonstrated the high structural sensitivity of the model to the formulation of this response, which may be more important than to parameterchanges.In addition, it appears that the mathematical representation of the functional response depends strongly on the scale of observation considered. The nature of the response can, indeed, be modified when changing the scale from the population to the community level.

This paper demonstrates the properties of a Hilbert structure. In order to have a Hilbert structure it is necessary to satisfy certain properties or axioms. The main body of the paper is centered on six questions that develop these ideas.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird dargestellt, wie sich mit Methoden der nuklearen Festkörperphysik Defekte und Deformationen selbst in kristallographisch komplexen Materialien wie den MAX-Phasen, einer Klasse von Komplexcarbiden bzw. -nitriden, in-situ nachweisen lassen. Die sensitive Messgröße bildet dabei der elektrische Feldgradient (EFG), der ein Maß für die Asymmetrie der den jeweiligen Sondenkern umgebenden Ladungsverteilung darstellt. Es werden zwei Wechselwirkungsmechanismen zwischen Defekt und EFG diskutiert: Einerseits die langreichweitigen Auswirkungen elastischer Verzerrungen, andererseits der direkte Einfluss eines Defektes auf seine lokale elektronische Umgebung. Die Bestimmung der elastischen Antwort des Feldgradienten erfolgt mittels Ab-initio-Methoden im Rahmen der Dichtefunktionaltheorie. Der dabei vorgestellte Ansatz erlaubt es, die Ursachen der Dehnungsabhängigkeit zu klären und andere, speziellere Dehnungsabhängigkeiten wie die Volumenabhängigkeit oder die Strukturabhängigkeit des Feldgradienten zu bestimmen. Die in der Umgebung bestimmter Defekte oder Deformationen auftretenden EFG-Verteilungen werden anhand der allgemeinen Dehnungsabhängigkeit mittels Monte-Carlo-Simulationen bestimmt. Die so vorhergesagten Verteilungen werden durch ein Experiment im Rahmen der gestörten $\gamma$-$\gamma$-Winkelkorrelation (PAC) sichtbar gemacht, indem polykristalline MAX-Phasen unter uniaxialer Last verformt werden. Eine quantitative Auswertung erlaubt es schließlich, Defektdichten in-situ abzuschätzen. Die lokalen Auswirkungen auf den EFG werden anhand verschiedener MAX-Phasen-Mischkristalle systematisch untersucht. Im Zuge dessen wird die Synthese eines bisher unbekannten MAX-Phasen-Mischkristalls, Ti$_2$(Al$_{0,5}$,In$_{0,5}$)C, beschrieben. Die Zugehörigen Gitterkonstanten werden mittels Röntgendiffraktometrie im Rahmen der Rietveld-Methode bestimmt.

Agile methods for software development have become popular, especially since the agile manifesto was written in 2001. Many positive effects have been found in organizations using agile methods, but also several dangers. Communication and collaboration in teams is often mentioned as something that works well with the methods, but interactions between teams are often lacking. Since agile teams are cross-functional and focused on products rather than specializations, knowledge becomes spread out in the organization. Within teams, different members often have different deep knowledge, but instead have a lot of knowledge about their products in common. This allows them to discuss knowledge related to the product well, but limits their possibility to discuss advanced topics and experiences regarding their deep knowledge or specialization within their team. These issues are important to consider when applying agile methods in organizations, and the research about the issues is quite thin.   In this research, I have taken an interpretive approach and carried out a case study at the development department of a medium-sized IT company providing large software systems for the healthcare industry, for which I have used the pseudonym MedTech. Three different teams have been studied through interviews with all members as well as observations of agile practices like daily meetings. Further, I have studied three different knowledge practices that MedTech uses to complement the creation and sharing of knowledge that happens in teams. These three complementary knowledge practices had different forms and handled knowledge in different ways. One was closely related to what literature often calls communities of practice, which are groups where members share an interest and interact to deepen their knowledge. In this practice at MedTech, meetings were used to discuss experiences and knowledge about topics within specific areas. Another was more focused on one-way communication through presentations and reading tips, spreading more basic knowledge to a wider audience. The third complementary knowledge practice let employees use 12 work hours every sixth week to do whatever they wanted that related to their knowledge, allowing them to e.g. explore new technologies and be creative or simply read up on some interesting topic.   My results show that agile teams support some sharing and creation of knowledge, especially through having members work closely to each other and share experiences, and through practising their skills in daily work, with help from each other when necessary. Like other research has shown, there was however a lack of practices for interactions between teams in the agile methods. Such interactions were crucial since I found teams to be comparable to theories about communities of knowing, where teams create strong perspectives, the sharing of which is important for utilization and creation of knowledge. The complementary knowledge practice that related to communities of practice was shown to be good for connecting employees with similar specializations, who would normally be separated in different teams. This allowed for creation and sharing of knowledge as individuals needed to explain their experiences and could combine knowledge from different members of the community. The other two complementary knowledge practices were shown to be good for increasing motivation to create and share knowledge, and showing that the organization valued the knowledge of individuals.

While the digital market, especially the music streaming market, has rapidly grown in recent years, however the physical music segment still remains relevant in the Thai market. The Thai music market has inimitable characteristics within the market in terms of the physical music record offers, recorded musical works, and a growth trend in physical sales. Moreover, the behaviour in physical music consumption is opposite to that in world markets. Music consumption practices in the Thai market and why physical music, and CDs in particular, remain relevant to the Thai music industry are an enigma. The music industry itself has suggested that the physical music market needs to be revamped and its physical products redeveloped. In addition, the major record companies have also refocused into developing physical markets. However, precisely how this is to be achieved has not been specified. The twin aims of this study are to more fully comprehend Thai music consumption practices in today’s market and to examine how the concepts of product development could be effective in responding to consumer needs and desires. Consumer-led product development is the main concept of this study used to create ideas to enhance music CDs. This study combined many perspectives related to consumer-led product development and then applied them to construct the conceptual framework named “The Seminal Framework for CD Development”. The framework is a roadmap to create a new set of features for a new form of music CD based on the input of the music industry’s representatives and consumers. A new form of music CD which includes a new set of features is named in this study as the “prototype CD”. Also, the framework is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype CD; how the prototype CD is responsive to consumer needs as far as functional and psychological perspectives are concerned. Bearing in mind the aim of this research, the researcher considered the interpretive paradigm to be the most appropriate approach for capturing consumers’ experiences in music consumption practices and for studying the opinions, points of view and ideas derived from the consumers, and the experts in music CD development. In the data collection process, this study employed the technique of purposive sampling for selecting from the population. The purposive sampling technique allows the researcher to judge and select people or prospective participants who: 1) are available to participate I in conducting the research, 2) are knowledgeable about the industry, 3) have experience related to the context of the study, and 4) can provide the reliable and detailed information required to understand the focal themes of the study. This study conducted nine interviews with the music industry’s experts, 60 one-on-one interviews and four group interviews with consumers. For the data analysis, this study adopted the manual coding analysis. The Seminal Framework determined the coding structure, and sets of data could be organised into distinct themes, such as the new features of music CDs or future positive possibilities for music consumption. This enabled, at the end of the process, an easier and more efficient identification of the experiential values derived from prototype music CDs. In addition, in more fully understanding the needs and expectations inherent in music consumption practices, such careful coding analysis helps to re-define the typology of music consumers. The typology and the concepts also facilitated the identification of music consumption behaviour in today’s environment. This study contributes a wider concept in consumer-led product development that has been applied to the context of music consumption practices and music product (CD) development.