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- Aaboen, Lise, 1978-
(författare)
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Incubators and new technology-based firms - A resource-based view of development
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- New technology-based firms (NTBFs) are based upon the exploitation of a new technology. This often means that there are few other than the founder who understands the technology, and in addition the firm often aims at serving a market in a new way or operating on a presently non-existent one. Therefore, it can be hard to determine the future potential of NTBFs, and this causes growth constraints on the firm. However, the NTBFs that do survive contribute to industrial and regional growth on a long-term perspective through, for example, knowledge spillovers as well as finding and developing product concepts. The incubator on the other hand can be seen as a provider or mediator accelerating the development of promising NTBFs. As a provider the incubator mobilizes resources and adjusts them to the needs of the particular NTBF. The mediator role can instead be seen when the incubator connects the NTBF to members of the incubators external network. The basis of the resource-based view is that a competitive advantage comes from the heterogeneity in terms of resources between firms. Imitability of valuable resources makes the competitive advantage sustainable. The newness of the NTBFs implies that they are in the process of trying to obtain or develop their resources. These resources include capabilities that determine how well the organization is able to perform a certain task. Furthermore, resources like funding, patenting, human resources and intangible resources are needed. Similarly, the incubator benefits from knowledge workers, funding and continuous improvements of the knowledge base in order to serve the NTBFs and maintain fruitful external relations. Consequently, this thesis has the purpose of exploring how the obtaining of resources link incubators and NTBFs. This exploration includes three papers in which the first two are devoted to the incubator, and the NTBFs respectively, in order to understand the resource needs of these two types of organizations. However, the third paper focuses on the links between the incubator and the NTBF in terms of providing links to external actors. Further, the exploration includes empirical findings from both qualitative and quantitative data that have been gathered within the Swedish incubator program during 1999 and 2005. The concluding discussion suggests that the human and knowledge resources of the incubator increase the external resources and the capabilities of the NTBFs. A successful NTBF in turn improves the human and knowledge resources of the incubator through knowledge sharing and an increased reputation. An increased survival rate of NTBFs will also positively affect the public funding of the incubator. It is in this way that a positive spiral is created where the resources of the incubator accumulate as more and more successful NTBFs are generated. Failing NTBFs will, on the other hand, also make it more difficult for the incubator to obtain and maintain resources. Seeing the connections between incubators and NTBFs in this way further emphasizes the element of path dependency in the development of these organizations. Subsequently, there is also a long-term aspect of the expected results on regions and industries from public investments made in them.
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| 5. |
- Aarno, Daniel, 1979-
(författare)
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Intention recognition in human machine collaborative systems
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Robotsystem har använts flitigt under de senaste årtiondena för att skapa automationslösningar i ett flertal områden. De flesta nuvarande automationslösningarna är begränsade av att uppgifterna de kan lösa måste vara repetitiva och förutsägbara. En av anledningarna till detta är att dagens robotsystem saknar förmåga att förstå och resonera om omvärlden. På grund av detta har forskare inom robotik och artificiell intelligens försökt att skapa intelligentare maskiner. Trots att stora framsteg har gjorts då det gäller att skapa robotar som kan fungera och interagera i en mänsklig miljö så finns det för nuvarande inget system som kommer i närheten av den mänskliga förmågan att resonera om omvärlden.För att förenkla problemet har vissa forskare föreslagit en alternativ lösning till helt självständiga robotar som verkar i mänskliga miljöer. Alternativet är att kombinera människors och maskiners förmågor. Exempelvis så kan en person verka på en avlägsen plats, som kanske inte är tillgänglig för personen i fråga på grund av olika orsaker, genom att använda fjärrstyrning. Vid fjärrstyrning skickar operatören kommandon till en robot som verkar som en förlängning av operatörens egen kropp.Segmentering och identifiering av rörelser skapade av en operatör kan användas för att tillhandahålla korrekt assistans vid fjärrstyrning eller samarbete mellan människa och maskin. Assistansen sker ofta inom ramen för virtuella fixturer där eftergivenheten hos fixturen kan justeras under exekveringen för att tillhandahålla ökad prestanda i form av ökad precision och minskad tid för att utföra uppgiften.Den här avhandlingen fokuserar på två aspekter av samarbete mellan människa och maskin. Klassificering av en operatörs rörelser till ett på förhand specificerat tillstånd under en manipuleringsuppgift och assistans under manipuleringsuppgiften baserat på virtuella fixturer. Den specifika tillämpningen som behandlas är manipuleringsuppgifter där en mänsklig operatör styr en robotmanipulator i ett fjärrstyrt eller samarbetande system.En metod för att följa förloppet av en uppgift medan den utförs genom att använda virtuella fixturer presenteras. Istället för att följa en på förhand specificerad plan så har operatören möjlighet att undvika oväntade hinder och avvika från modellen. För att möjliggöra detta estimeras kontinuerligt sannolikheten att operatören följer en viss trajektorie (deluppgift). Estimatet används sedan för att justera eftergivenheten hos den virtuella fixturen så att ett beslut om hur rörelsen ska fixeras kan tas medan uppgiften utförs.En flerlagers dold Markovmodell (eng. layered hidden Markov model) används för att modellera mänskliga färdigheter. En gestemklassificerare som klassificerar en operatörs rörelser till olika grundläggande handlingsprimitiver, eller gestemer, evalueras. Gestemklassificerarna används sedan i en flerlagers dold Markovmodell för att modellera en simulerad fjärrstyrd manipuleringsuppgift. Klassificeringsprestandan utvärderas med avseende på brus, antalet gestemer, typen på den dolda Markovmodellen och antalet tillgängliga träningssekvenser. Den flerlagers dolda Markovmodellen tillämpas sedan på data från en trajektorieföljningsuppgift i 2D och 3D med en robotmanipulator för att ge både kvalitativa och kvantitativa resultat. Resultaten tyder på att den flerlagers dolda Markovmodellen är väl lämpad för att modellera trajektorieföljningsuppgifter och att den flerlagers dolda Markovmodellen är robust med avseende på felklassificeringar i de underliggande gestemklassificerarna.
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- Aas, Gro Hanne
(författare)
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Kvinneforskningspolitiske (pr)øvelser
- 1999
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Målsettingen for licentiatuppsatsen er å analysere nordisk kvinneforsknings formuleringer av forskningspolitiske felter, problemstillinger og utfordringer, og gjennom kontakt og diskusjon bidra til samarbeid, diskusjoner og offentlighet om forskingspolitikk i kvinneforskning. Arbeidet har tatt utgangspunkt i relativt nytt materiale fra Danmark, Norge og Sverige. I kap. 1 presenteres prosjektet, problemstillinger og materiale. Kapitlene 2-6 består av innledninger og artikler holdt eller skrevet i løpet av de to senaste åren. Diskusjoner om kjønn og akademia står i fokus i kap. 2 - "Universities have politics". I kap. 3, artikkelen "Gamle og nye drømmer", diskuteres et kvinneforskningspolitiske intervensjonsprosjekt som blev utført for en del år tilbake, og det antydes noen nye omdreiningspunkter for et slikt arbeid. Enkelte perspektiver utdypes i kap. 4, "Kvinneforskningens samfunnskontrakt", hvor termen "kvinneperspektiv" som forskningspolitisk term granskas krtitiskt. De to siste kapitlene tar utgangspunkt i den norske forskningsmeldingen som kom våren 1999. Ut fra tre lesestrategier forsøkes det leses muligheter for kvinneforskningspolitiske strategier. Det ses også på innholdet i regjeringens forskningspolitiske verdidebatt, og det diskuteres mulige intervensjoner i denne ut fra feministiske vitenskaps- og teknologistudier.
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- Abaravicius, Juozas
(författare)
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Load Management in Residential Buildings: Considering Techno-Economical and Environmental Aspects
- 2004
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Load problems in electricity markets occur both on the supply and demand side and can have technical, economic and even political causes. Commonly, such problems have been solved by expanding production and/or distribution capacity, importing electricity or by load management. Load management is a techno-economic measure for harmonizing the relations between supply and demand sides, optimizing power generation and transmission and increasing security of supply. Interest in load management differs depending on the perspective of the actors involved: from customer, utility, or producer to state policymaker. The problem of load demand and load management in residential sector is in this thesis approached from different perspectives, i.e. technical, economic, and environmental. The study does not go deep into detailed analyses of each perspective, but rather aims to establish and analyze the links between them. This trans-disciplinary approach is the key methodological moment used in the research work performed by the research group for load management in buildings at the Lund Institute of Technology. The key objective of this study is to analyze load demand variation and load management possibilities in residential sector, particularly detached and semi-detached houses, to experimentally test and analyze the conditions and potential of direct load management from customer and utility viewpoint. Techno-economic and environmental aspects are investigated. The study was performed in collaboration with one electric utility in Southern Sweden. Ten electric-heated houses were equipped with extra meters, enabling hourly load measurements for heating, hot water and total electricity use. Household heating and hot water systems were controlled by the utility using an existing remote reading and monitoring system. The residents noticed some of the control periods, although they didn’t express any larger discomfort. The experiments proved that direct load management might be a possible solution for the utility to solve their peak demand problems. Another solution, considered by the utility and analyzed in this study is a construction of diesel peak power plant. This alternative has negative environmental consequences compared to load management. The analysis of environmental aspects was extended to national level. To include an environmental perspective is a novel approach, since traditionally, load management evaluation is limited the economic and technical viewpoints. It identifies and discusses the possible environmental benefits of load management and evaluates their significance, primary focusing on CO2 emissions reduction. The results show the importance of considering the influence of site-specific or level-specific conditions on the environmental effects of load management. On the national level, load management measures can hardly provide significant environmental benefits, since hydropower is used as the demand following production source in Sweden. Emission reductions will rather be the result of energy efficiency measures, which will cut the load demand as well as the energy demand.
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| 8. |
- Abas, Riad Abdul
(författare)
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Property measurements towards understanding process phenomena
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- The main objective of this industrially important work was to gain an increasing understanding of the properties of materials such as CMSX-4 nickel base super alloy, mould powder used in continuous casting of steel and coke used in blast furnace, with special reference to the thermal diffusivities. The measurements were carried out in a wide temperature range, solid, liquid, glassy and crystalline states.For CMSX-4 alloy, the thermal conductivities were calculated from the experimental thermal diffusivities. Both the diffusivities and conductivities were found to increase with increasing temperature. Microscopic analysis showed the presence of intermetallic phases such as NiTi and NiTi2 below 1253 K. In this region, the mean free path of the phonons is likely to be limited by scattering against lattice defects. Between 1253 K and solidus temperature, these phases dissolved in the alloy adding to the impurities in the matrix, which, in turn, caused a decrease in the thermal diffusivity. This effect was confirmed by annealing the samples at 1573 K. The thermal diffusivities of the annealed samples measured at 1277, 1403 and 1531 K were found to be lower than the thermal diffusivities of non-annealed samples and the values did not show any noticeable change with time. It could be related to the attainment of equilibrium with the completion of the dissolution of γ and γ´ phases during the annealing process.Liquid CMSX-4 does not show any change of thermal diffusivity with temperature. It may be attributed to the decreasing the mean free path being shorter than characteristic distance between two neighbouring atoms.On the other hand thermal diffusivities of mould powder having glassy and crystalline states decrease with increasing temperature at lower temperature and are constant at higher temperature except for one glassy sample.Analogously, the thermal diffusivity measurements of mould powder did not show any significant change with temperature in liquid state. It is likely to be due to the silicate network being largely broken down.The thermal diffusivity is increased with increasing crystallisation degree of mould powder, which is expected from theoretical considerations.The coke sample, taken from deeper level of the blast furnace, is found to have larger thermal diffusivity. This could be correlated to the average crystallite size along the structural c-axis, Lc, which is indicative of the higher degree of graphitisation. This was also confirmed by XRD measurements of the different coke samples. The degree of graphitisation was found to increase with increasing temperature. Further, XRD measurements of coke samples taken from different levels in the shaft of the blast furnace show that the graphitisation of coke was instantaneous between room temperature and 1473 K.
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| 10. |
- Abbasi, Maisam
(författare)
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Themes and challenges in developing sustainable supply chains
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Sustainable development is one of the greatest global challenges facing human beings in the 21st century. In order to tackle sustainability related problems, several global, European, and national targets for 2050 have been set. The transition of supply chains activities towards sustainability targets calls for designing new strategies and continuously identifying and tackling the challenges that can hinder the operationalization of such strategies. The purpose of this research was to explore and classify themes and challenges in developing sustainable supply chains activities in general, and freight transport and urban distribution in particular. Three research questions were defined followed by defining the scientific assumptions and research strategies. Three research studies were then designed and carried out to find trustworthy and authentic answers to the corresponding research questions. However, research design, data collection, and data analysis were mixed and overlapping as they were not completely sequentially carried out. Data were collected by triangulation of different research methods, namely, literature review, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data was guided by principles of content analysis, discourse analysis, analytic induction, and grounded theory. Synthesis of the analyzed data resulted in the emergence of categories of themes and challenges, the development of hypotheses, and further discussion. In total, five categories of themes were identified for making supply chains environmentally sustainable, fifteen for making freight transport sustainable, and eight for making urban freight distribution sustainable. Five categories of challenges were identified for making supply chains environmentally sustainable, five for making freight transport sustainable, and seven for making urban freight distribution sustainable. All the themes and challenges were then synthesized to determine the patterns of their association. Five major themes in developing sustainable supply chains emerged, namely, increasing sustainability awareness, closing the loop of supply chains, making supply chains energy-efficient, making supply chains environmentally responsible, and managerial issues. Five major challenges in developing sustainable supply chains emerged, namely, change of behavior, costs, implementation, corporate governance, and antagonistic effects and paradoxical conflicts. As the nature of supply chains and the challenges identified in developing them sustainably is complex, a complexity theory perspective was considered beneficial for dealing with them. Such a perspective can enable us to: take a more holistic view of available sustainability-oriented strategies and activities; analyze the antagonistic effects of strategies and activities on each other; recognize conflicts of a paradoxical character that exist in supply chains; analyze the changes influencing and influenced by the strategies and activities; appreciate enough diversity and freedom among the sub-systems rather than too much simplification of them; design and redesign the transition paths for different types of supply chains. A complexity theory perspective can also be beneficial when governing a transformative transition of supply chains towards sustainability targets. Lessons are suggested in the discussion chapter that may help policy and decision makers in designing the future strategies and in tackling the challenges. The themes identified can be beneficial for increasing the absorptive capacity of industries, practitioners, and policy makers while they design innovative strategies for transitions towards sustainability targets. The identified challenges can also be beneficial for reducing the inertia and uncertainties against operationalization of sustainable development in practice.
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