With this study we aim to create an understanding about motivational effect of using centralized goal-setting in multiunit organizations. Multiunit organizations are often decentralized in their structure, allowing units and their employees to have control over their day-to-day activities and decisions. At the same time, the organization requires control in order to create uniformity. A way to impose control is by using performance targets for the units and its employees. The employees are used to being self-directed in their work, and we have researched how this central form of control will affect their motivation.   In order to illustrate this, we have conducted a qualitative case study at different units in a banking and insurance company in Sweden. Goal-setting has increased in this industry, and at the same time, employees have the mandate to make decisions about their daily work at a local level. We therefore argue that using a multiunit company in this industry will illustrate the motivational effect of centrally assigned goals. We have conducted ten semi-structured interviews with sales employees and with two managers of Organization X. Our research approach to this study is of an abductive character, as our process has been back and forth between existing theory and findings from our research.             The mainly intrinsically motivated employees in this case expressed an understanding of the assigned goals. However, they had difficulties being committed to the goals because they felt that the goals were set too far away from their local market. Sales employees in this type of organizational structure are used to have the mandate to control their day-to-day work activities, and therefore it becomes frustrating for them to partly be controlled in terms of sales targets. Centralized assigned goals have a negative effect on motivation for most of the employees, who have trouble accepting and feeling committed to the goals. However, the assigned goals can temporarily trigger motivation to sell certain products, for example through a competition. We argue that the distribution of the centrally assigned goals have to be well communicated and explained to the employees, and that organizations give room for local adjustment of the centrally assigned goals.

Past empirical analysis show that in contrast to the theory predictions; prices tend to decline in some sequential auctions, a puzzle known as the declining price anomaly. Several theoretical explanations were proposed demonstrating the possibility of a declining price pattern under certain assumptions. In this paper, we demonstrate that when bidders have private values and multi-unit demand, expected selling price can be increasing, constant, decreasing or even non-monotonic. In our model, price pattern depends on the distributions from which bidder valuations are drawn (including the size of the bidders demand reduction), and the number of bidders.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第21422号 / 人健博第63号 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 稲富 宏之, 教授 澤本 伸克, 教授 伊佐 正 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

The rhythmic activity of locomotion is most frequently modeled as a periodic oscillation coordinated by a spinal Central Pattern Generator (CPG) controlling reciprocal activation of flexor and extensor muscles. Expression of locomotion errors in the form of spontaneous deletions in the motor output has been critical in formulating models of CPG network structure governing locomotion in mammals (Lafreniere-Roula et al 2005, Duysens 2006). Deletions are defined as the disappearance of either antagonist or agonist muscles’ activity along with the simultaneous tonic/rhythmic activity of the corresponding agonist or antagonist muscles. The formulation of a two-layer model of the CPG (Rhythm Generator (RG) layer & Pattern Formation (PF) layer) by Rybak et al (2006) stems from observations of such deletions in the fictive locomotion of the decerebrated cat. The RG functions as a clock controlling the temporal activity of the PF layer which controls the firing pattern of motor neuron pools that activate muscles. The deletion episodes are said to be “resetting” if the EMG activity after the deletion does not return after an integer value of the pre-deletion average period. If the motoneuron activity returns in phase with the pre-deletion “clock”, the deletion period is considered to be “non-resetting”. Multiunit Activity (MUA) recorded from a spinalised air-stepping cat was analyzed against its corresponding EMG activity to investigate the role of MUA in rhythmogenicity, specifically whether or not MUA activity may represent the RG layer of the Central Pattern Generator (CPG) model. This hypothesis would predict that MUA activity should be disrupted in phase or amplitude when and only when deletions episodes are re-setting.. Alternatively, MUA activity may reflect PF layer activity. In this case MUA activity should be disrupted in phase or amplitude during each of the deletions episodes. MUA’s spatio-temporal characteristics were compared to that of the EMG activity during the deletion periods for analysis. From the analysis performed, there was a significant proportion (average more than 25%) of the MUA (collected from the lumbar region of the spinal cord of spinalized cat) that were disrupted in phase or amplitude during non-resetting deletions or undisrupted during resetting episodes, indicating that MUA activity is unlikely to represent the RG layer activity during . In addition, MUA oscillation during the period of deletions was unchanged (amplitude or phase) for more than 25% of the deletion episodes, ruling out the possibility that MUA represents the activity of the PF layer. So although MUA has been found to be highly synchronized throughout the lumbar extent during locomotor activity, it does not appear to act as a “clocking” mechanism for the locomotor rhythm. / Bioengineering

Submitted by Daniella Santos (daniella.santos@fgv.br) on 2008-11-18T13:41:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Paulo_Braulio.pdf: 392367 bytes, checksum: 067e84b7d5a8fd9dee8613e456989efc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Antoanne Pontes(antoanne.pontes@fgv.br) on 2008-11-18T13:56:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Paulo_Braulio.pdf: 392367 bytes, checksum: 067e84b7d5a8fd9dee8613e456989efc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2008-11-18T13:56:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Paulo_Braulio.pdf: 392367 bytes, checksum: 067e84b7d5a8fd9dee8613e456989efc (MD5) / O presente estudo é dividido em três partes: a primeira é um resumo dos principais resultados teóricos encontrados na literatura de Leilões Multiunidade que são úteis em leilões de geração de energia. Dentre eles, foram analisadas as características dos leilões Discriminatório, Uniforme, de Vickrey, Ascendente e Híbrido levando em consideração os critérios de eficiência e pagamento esperado. A segunda parte é uma tentativa de extensão de um modelo de leilão híbrido para o caso de uma unidade para o de multiunidade. Finalmente, a terceira parte explica como é feito o leilão de geração de energia no Brasil.

This thesis covers the design of an automated multiunit composting system (AMUCS) that was constructed to meet the experimental apparatus requirements of the ASTM D5338 standard. The design of the AMUCS is discussed in full detail and validated with two experiments. The first experiment was used to validate the operation of the AMUCS with a 15 day experiment. During this experiment visual observations were made to visually observe degradation. Thermal properties and stability tests were performed to quantify the effects of degradation on the polymer samples, and the carbon metabolized from the degradation of samples was measured. The second experiment used the AMUCS to determine the effect of synthetic clay nanofiller on the aerobic biodegradability behavior of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate).

Dans notre environnement, nous sommes constamment exposés à de multiples stimuli sensoriels que notre cerveau doit analyser. Afin d'interagir avec le monde qui nous entoure, nous devons intégrer ces différentes sources d'informations sensorielles. L'étude des processus d'intégration multisensorielle est essentielle pour comprendre comment le cerveau intègre les éléments séparés d'un objet défini par plusieurs composantes sensorielles pour former un percept unifié. Il est maintenant couramment admis que la présentation conjointe de plusieurs informations sensorielles de modalités différentes d'un même stimulus peut faciliter la perception. Cette facilitation multisensorielle semble être soumise à des règles particulières puisque certains facteurs l'influencent. Parmi eux, nous avons étudié, dans notre première étude, l'impact de trois facteurs que sont la saillance, la congruence sémantique et le changement de modalité sur les performances de détection de stimuli naturels chez l'homme et le singe. L'utilisation de stimuli naturels nous a permis de mettre en lumière l'influence des paramètres physiques des stimuli sur l'intégration multisensorielle. De plus, nous avons montré que les effets de ces facteurs sur des stimuli naturels diffèrent de ceux retrouvés avec des stimuli simples. Ces résultats convergent vers des effets multifactoriels sur la facilitation multisensorielle dont la force, les interdépendances et l'ordre varieraient en fonction de la tâche comportementale et de ce fait, de la charge cognitive. D'un point de vue anatomique et plus précisément au niveau cortical, les processus d'intégration multisensorielle paraissaient être jusqu'à récemment une caractéristique que seules possédaient les aires associatives situées au sommet de la hiérarchie du traitement de l'information. On sait maintenant que des aires corticales de bas niveau, pensées jusque-là comme étant unisensorielles, sont impliquées dans les processus multisensoriels, soulevant ainsi la question des aires sous-corticales. Des études anatomiques ont mis en évidence l'existence de noyaux thalamiques qui, par leurs connexions, pourraient permettre un transfert rapide et même une intégration des informations sensorielles. Cette nouvelle littérature témoigne de la grande complexité des réseaux cérébraux de la multisensorialité. Dans deux études électrophysiologiques chez le singe, nous avons examiné les propriétés multisensorielles de deux structures, le gyrus cingulaire postérieur et le pulvinar médian, qui n'avaient jamais été explorées auparavant dans un contexte multisensoriel. Nous avons montré que ces structures sont non seulement multisensorielles mais également intégratives et qu'elles pourraient appartenir à un même système fonctionnel. Ces travaux de thèse ont apporté des éléments supplémentaires quant à notre compréhension des processus d'intégration multisensorielle au niveau comportemental et des réseaux cérébraux sous-jacents et particulièrement ceux liés à l'intégration de stimuli naturels. / In our environment, we are constantly exposed to multiple sensory stimuli that our brain has to analyze. To interact with the surrounding world, we have to integrate these different sources of sensory information. The study of the processes of multisensory integration are essential in understanding how our brain integrates the individual parts of an object defined by several sensory components to arrive at a unified percept. It is now widely accepted that the concurrent presentation of several sensory information about the same stimulus in different modalities can facilitate its perception. This multisensory facilitation seems to be subjected to specific rules since some factors influence it. Amongst them, we have studied, in our first experiment, the impact of three factors, namely saliency, semantic congruency and modality switch, on the detection of natural stimuli in humans and monkeys. Using natural stimuli enabled us to highlight the influence of the physical parameters of stimuli on multisensory integration. Moreover, we showed that the effect of these factors on natural stimuli are different from those found with simple stimuli. These results point toward multifactorial effects on multisensory facilitation, of which the force, the interdependency and the order would vary as a function of the behavioral task, and, thus as a function of the cognitive load. From an anatomical point of view and more specifically at the cortical level, the integration mechanism appeared to be, until recently, a characteristic possessed only by associative areas at the top of the hierarchy of information processing. We now know that low level cortical areas, thought up to then to be only unisensory, are implicated in multisensory processes, thus raising the question about subcortical areas. Anatomical studies have shown the existence of thalamic nuclei which, through their connectivity, could allow for a rapid transfer and even an integration of sensory information. This new literature demonstrates the high complexity of the multisensory cerebral networks. In two electrophysiological studies in the monkey, we examined the multisensory properties of two structures, the posterior cingulate gyrus and the median pulvinar, which had never been explored before in a multisensory context. We not only showed that these structures are multisensory, but also integrative and that they could be part of the same functional network. This thesis has brought additional elements towards a better understanding of multisensory integration processes at the behavioral level and about the underlying brain networks, in particular those linked with the integration of natural stimuli.

在臺灣經濟發展的過程中，中小企業的蓬勃發展，對臺灣經濟的成長有著實的貢獻。但是，中小企業的規模和資源有限，如何在維繫企業生存之後，妥善協調和分配現有資源和組織內外未充分利用的寬裕資源，追求企業成長發展，將是企業經營者必須面臨的重大挑戰課題。 本研究採用質化研究方法，經由實證型（Positivist）的個案分析，深入地探討「組織寬裕資源的組合」與「事業成長發展的績效」之間複雜的關係。研究對象是以「多店組織企業」（Multiunit Enterprise）為研究標的，從企業集團和新餐飲品牌事業部的研究視角，將每開展一家新分店視為一個新事業的成長擴張，觀察其新分店的「組織寬裕資源的組合」過程。 本研究挑選具有代表性的成長企業，臺灣本土餐飲業龍頭「王品餐飲集團」進行分析，觀察其「財產權設計」對「組織寬裕資源組合」的影響，並且對照另一個臺灣餐飲公司「展圓國際」作為比較，驗證理論架構和進一步歸納推論提出研究假說。 本研究發現，「組織寬裕資源」無法客觀衡量，必須透過組織資源「潛在效能」的再利用，才能顯示出「寬裕」資源的概念和使用價值。在新事業的資源組合過程中，「組織寬裕資源」經由「財產權設計」，提供資源擁有者適當的報酬誘因，將資源由「支出的費用」轉變為「投入的資本」，可以改變不同資源類型的「資源屬性」和「交易屬性」，有效率地組合組織內外未充分利用的寬裕資源，降低事業成長擴張所需資源的取得和建構成本。然而，新事業的資源組合方式千變萬化，若「財產權的設計」可以同時考量「資源財產權的劃分」和「組織財產權的界定」，使得構成組織統治權的正當性來源之三種資源（實體和金融資源、人力資源和知識資源）愈容易「相結合」於組織成員，達成共同統治組織資源的形式，將有利於驅動事業的成長發展。 本研究的理論貢獻在於整合「資源基礎理論」和「交易成本理論」的觀點，提出「財產權理論」的整合性架構，並且連結「資源財產權的劃分」和「組織財產權的界定」，這兩個財產權分析層次的研究缺口，說明「財產權設計」對「組織寬裕資源組合」和「事業成長發展」的影響。本研究的實務貢獻在於，提出「財產權設計」的原則，可以應用到企業的資源締約和組織治理結構的安排。

Les neurones du cortex visuel primaire (aire 17) du chat adulte répondent de manière sélective à différentes propriétés d’une image comme l’orientation, le contraste ou la fréquence spatiale. Cette sélectivité se manifeste par une réponse sous forme de potentiels d’action dans les neurones visuels lors de la présentation d’une barre lumineuse de forme allongée dans les champs récepteurs de ces neurones. La fréquence spatiale (FS) se mesure en cycles par degré (cyc./deg.) et se définit par la quantité de barres lumineuses claires et sombres présentées à une distance précise des yeux. Par ailleurs, jusqu’à récemment, l’organisation corticale chez l’adulte était considérée immuable suite à la période critique post-natale. Or, lors de l'imposition d'un stimulus non préféré, nous avons observé un phénomène d'entrainement sous forme d'un déplacement de la courbe de sélectivité à la suite de l'imposition d'une FS non-préférée différente de la fréquence spatiale optimale du neurone. Une deuxième adaptation à la même FS non-préférée induit une réponse neuronale différente par rapport à la première imposition. Ce phénomène de "gain cortical" avait déjà été observé dans le cortex visuel primaire pour ce qui est de la sélectivité à l'orientation des barres lumineuses, mais non pour la fréquence spatiale. Une telle plasticité à court terme pourrait être le corrélat neuronal d'une modulation de la pondération relative du poids des afférences synaptiques. / Primary visual cortex neurons in adult cat are selective to different image properties as orientation, contrast and spatial frequency. This selectivity is characterized by action potentials as electrical activity from the visual neurons. This response occurs during the presentation of a luminous bar in the receptive fields of the neurons. Spatial frequency is the amount of luminous bars in a grating presented from a precise distance from the eyes and is measured in cycles per degree. Furthermore, it was establish until recently that cortical organisation in the adult remains inflexible following the critical period after birth. However, our results have revealed that spatial frequency selectivity is able to change after an imposition of a non-preferred spatial frequency, also called adapter. Following cortical activity recordings, there is a shift of the spatial frequency tuning curves in the direction of the adapter. A second adaptation at the same non-preferred spatial frequency produced a different neural response from the first adaptation. This “short-term plasticity” was already observed in the primary visual cortex for orientation selective neurons but not yet for spatial frequency. The results presented in this study suggest that such plasticity is possible and that visual neurons regulate their electrical responses through modulation of the weights of their synaptic afferences.

Les neurones du cortex visuel primaire (aire 17) du chat adulte répondent de manière sélective à différentes propriétés d’une image comme l’orientation, le contraste ou la fréquence spatiale. Cette sélectivité se manifeste par une réponse sous forme de potentiels d’action dans les neurones visuels lors de la présentation d’une barre lumineuse de forme allongée dans les champs récepteurs de ces neurones. La fréquence spatiale (FS) se mesure en cycles par degré (cyc./deg.) et se définit par la quantité de barres lumineuses claires et sombres présentées à une distance précise des yeux. Par ailleurs, jusqu’à récemment, l’organisation corticale chez l’adulte était considérée immuable suite à la période critique post-natale. Or, lors de l'imposition d'un stimulus non préféré, nous avons observé un phénomène d'entrainement sous forme d'un déplacement de la courbe de sélectivité à la suite de l'imposition d'une FS non-préférée différente de la fréquence spatiale optimale du neurone. Une deuxième adaptation à la même FS non-préférée induit une réponse neuronale différente par rapport à la première imposition. Ce phénomène de "gain cortical" avait déjà été observé dans le cortex visuel primaire pour ce qui est de la sélectivité à l'orientation des barres lumineuses, mais non pour la fréquence spatiale. Une telle plasticité à court terme pourrait être le corrélat neuronal d'une modulation de la pondération relative du poids des afférences synaptiques. / Primary visual cortex neurons in adult cat are selective to different image properties as orientation, contrast and spatial frequency. This selectivity is characterized by action potentials as electrical activity from the visual neurons. This response occurs during the presentation of a luminous bar in the receptive fields of the neurons. Spatial frequency is the amount of luminous bars in a grating presented from a precise distance from the eyes and is measured in cycles per degree. Furthermore, it was establish until recently that cortical organisation in the adult remains inflexible following the critical period after birth. However, our results have revealed that spatial frequency selectivity is able to change after an imposition of a non-preferred spatial frequency, also called adapter. Following cortical activity recordings, there is a shift of the spatial frequency tuning curves in the direction of the adapter. A second adaptation at the same non-preferred spatial frequency produced a different neural response from the first adaptation. This “short-term plasticity” was already observed in the primary visual cortex for orientation selective neurons but not yet for spatial frequency. The results presented in this study suggest that such plasticity is possible and that visual neurons regulate their electrical responses through modulation of the weights of their synaptic afferences.